Chinese Envoy Angered Over Australia Virus Probe Call

Australia betrayed China with calls for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, a Beijing envoy said Wednesday, likening the moves to Brutus plotting against Julius Caesar.

Wang Xining, the Chinese embassy's deputy head of mission, made the remarks in a rare public address as he spoke of the "indignation, anger and frustration" felt by China at Australia's push for a global inquiry.

"It is approximately identical to Julius Caesar in his final days when he saw Brutus approaching him," Wang said.

The virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, and has gone on to kill more than 800,000 people around the world.

China insists the source of the virus remains unknown, a position Wang repeated on Wednesday.

But China reacted with fury when Australia led calls in April for the independent probe into the virus.

Beijing subsequently imposed tariffs on Australian goods and warned Chinese tourists and students against visiting the country, citing alleged racial harassment against Asians.

Expanding on Beijing's reaction, Wang said Australia had "singled out" China in its call for an inquiry and had not given any notice of its plans.

"All of a sudden, they (the world) heard this shocking news of a proposal coming from Australia, which is supposed to be a good friend of China," he said.

https://www.ibtimes.com/chinese-envoy-angered-over-australia-virus-probe-call-3035048

DOJ Requests COVID-19 Data From Four Democrat Governors who Issued Orders to Send Sick Patients to Nursing Homes

A recent study revealed 45% of all US coronavirus deaths occurred in nursing homes.

That comes out to over 75,000 Deaths in US Nursing Homes!

That is a bloodbath!!

Only 0.6% of the US population lives in nursing homes but over 45% of the coronavirus deaths were in these centers.

On Wednesday the Department of Justice requested data from four Democrat governors on their orders to send sick COVID-19 patients to nursing homes.

The Hill reported:

The Justice Department (DOJ) on Wednesday requested data from four governors on their orders requiring nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients.

“Protecting the rights of some of society’s most vulnerable members, including elderly nursing home residents, is one of our country’s most important obligations,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband said in a statement.

“We must ensure they are adequately cared for with dignity and respect and not unnecessarily put at risk.”

The department requested data from Govs. Andrew Cuomo (D) of New York, Phil Murphy (D) of New Jersey, Tom Wolf (D) of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer (D) of Michigan.

New York, which has more deaths from the virus than any other state and became coronavirus hotspot at the start of the pandemic, issued its order on March 25.

As we reported previously — Five Democrat governors sent COVID-19 patients into nursing homes.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/huge-doj-requests-covid-19-data-four-democrat-governors-issued-orders-send-sick-patients-nursing-homes/

Greece Rescues 96 From Sinking Yacht Smuggling Illegal Migrants to Europe

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece’s coast guard said Wednesday it was continuing a broad search and rescue operation after a yacht smuggling migrants partially sank in the eastern Aegean.

A total of 96 people were rescued from the sea 21 nautical miles (31 kilometers, 24 miles) west of the small island of Halki, near Rhodes, the coast guard said. As the total number of people who had been on board was not known, the search and rescue operation continued into Wednesday afternoon.

The coast guard described the effort as “one of the largest and most successful search and rescue operations to have taken place in the Aegean Sea,” noting that it took place mainly at night and that many of those rescued, including many children, had not been wearing life jackets.

Of those rescued, 72 were transported to Rhodes, five to the island of Karpathos and 19 were picked up from a cargo ship by the Turkish coast guard. Those taken to the Greek islands were being given coronavirus tests and were being housed in quarantine hotels.

Three of those rescued were arrested as suspected migrant smugglers, the coast guard said.

Authorities were alerted after a passenger on board the yacht made an emergency call late Tuesday.

They scrambled helicopters, naval and coast guard vessels, and several passing merchant ships also participated in the operation.

But Greece’s coast guard said its rescue efforts were hampered by the Turkish coast guard. The incident comes during a crisis in Greek-Turkish relations, with the two neighbors in an acrimonious dispute over maritime exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean.

The coast guard said in a statement that two Turkish patrol vessels arrived in the search and rescue area during the overnight operation, after a “large number” of people had already been rescued.

The statement said the Turkish vessels did not notify the rescue operation coordinator about their presence and made no essential contribution to the effort. “Also, they were constantly calling on the nearby ships in the area to depart,” it said.

The Greek coast guard statement added that the Turkish patrol boats took 19 of the rescued migrants off a Maltese-flagged, Turkish-owned cargo ship that had picked them up, thereby hampering efforts to account for the number of rescued and determine whether there were people missing.

The Turkish coast guard issued its own statement Wednesday regarding a distress call 45 miles southwest of the Turkish coastal town of Datca. The statement said the coast guard sent three vessels to the area and rescued 18 migrants from a commercial ship, as well as one Turkish national who it said had been trying to leave Turkey. They were transferred to the Turkish port of Bodrum.

The Turkish coast guard statement did not mention the island of Halki or the Greek coast guard allegations, but the area it refers to suggests the incident described was the same one reported by Greece.

Thousands of people continue to make their way clandestinely to the Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast, paying smugglers to ferry them in often unseaworthy, overcrowded inflatable dinghies or other vessels.

The Greek coast guard said smuggling gangs have recently begun using larger vessels, mainly sailboats and yachts, to ferry migrants from the Turkish coast directly to southern Italy. Such a route would mean the migrants would bypass Greece, where thousands languish in overcrowded camps instead of being able to head to their intended destination, usually more prosperous European countries further north.

At least 25 such incidents have occurred in the last three months, the coast guard said, adding that they had been handled by the Greek and the Italian coast guards.

“Turkish authorities have been repeatedly informed about this particular phenomenon, without any response,” it said.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/26/greece-rescues-96-from-sinking-yacht-smuggling-illegal-migrants-to-europe/

Female Los Zetas Cartel Commander Faces Murder Charges for Dead Prosecutor

A top faction leader of Los Zetas faces murder charges following her arrest earlier this month. She stands accused of killing a Nuevo Laredo area prosecutor and several aides.

This week, a state judge in Tamaulipas formally charged Guadalupe “La Teniente” Gomez Villarreal with one count of murder and ordered that she be held without bond. Gomez Villarreal, a former Tamaulipas police officer, is one of the top leaders within the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas. The charges are tied to the January 2017 ambush murder of Ricardo Martinez Chavez, the regional head for the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office. Martinez Chavez and four of his assistants died. Authorities found a stack of cash next to the body, suggesting a bribe or statement made by the cartel.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/08/26/female-los-zetas-cartel-commander-faces-murder-charges-for-dead-prosecutor/

Mexican Cartel Deploys Explosive Drones on Civilian Self-Defense Militia

In September 2019, residents of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán, once again took up arms as a self-defense militia to protect their city and families as they faced attacks from Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG). Since that time, war has raged.

Breitbart Texas recently obtained an intelligence report detailing how, in April 2020, the cartel used small airplanes to drop explosives on the civilian militias. Mexican authorities deployed aerial surveillance as a deterrent. The CJNG then transitioned to small drones able to fly undetected on conventional radar.

Recently, two drones were seized inside a CJNG armored vehicle located in Tepalcatepec. They were found abandoned after a failed attack. The drones were loaded with C-4 explosives and ball bearings capable of remote detonation.

The report also cites a Mexican Attorney General report of a previous seizure of three armed drones in Puebla, Guanajuato, where the CJNG planned to use their use on the Santa Rosa Del Lima Cartel.

Drones in cartel wars are nothing new. They first came to the battlefields by the Gulf Cartel first for surveillance tasks in 2013. More advanced capabilities later emerged with long-range flights and aftermarket optics. Today, all significant cartels are using some form of drones in defensive and offensive capabilities.

Drone use is referred to as third-dimension tactics. In this context, gunmen are learning a new craft as a precision weapon system.

More concerning are the cartels’ use of third-dimension tactics that go unnoticed by too many government agencies. Cartels have large budgets to cover the costs of drone technology advancements and have a proven track record of being early adopters of new battlefield tactics.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2020/08/26/exclusive-mexican-cartel-deploys-explosive-drones-on-civilian-self-defense-militia/

UN Security Council Rejects U.S. Request to 'Snap Back' Iran Sanctions

A little more than five years ago, President Barack Obama addressed students and faculty at American University in Washington, D.C., about the Iran nuclear deal that had been recently agreed to.

Before getting sanctions relief, Iran has to take significant, concrete steps like removing centrifuges and getting rid of its stockpile. If Iran violates the agreement over the next decade, all of the sanctions can snap back into place. We won’t need the support of other members of the U.N. Security Council; America can trigger snapback on our own.

That was a lie. There never was an ironclad “snapback” provision, despite Obama’s promises. The so-called “snapback” sanctions provision in the agreement was “reinterpreted” by the UN Security Council so that America had to get the world’s permission for sanctions to be reimposed.

Of course, by the time the UN had taken up the agreement, the rest of the world had jumped at the chance to fund Iran’s economic recovery. Billions of dollars were invested in Iran by Germany, France, and Great Britain, who now had a commercial stake in seeing that the sanctions never “snapped back.”

Donald Trump decided to test Obama’s “snapback” provision at the UN this week. It didn’t go well.

Fox News:

Dian Triansyah Djani, who as Indonesia’s ambassador holds the rotating presidency for August, said that the Council would not be taking up the U.S. request, after objections from Russia, China and other members.

“Having contacted the members and received letters from many member countries it is clear to me that there is one member which has a particular position on the issues, while there are significant numbers of members who have contesting views.”

Because there is no consensus on the council, he would not be taking further action, Djani said.

The reason Obama’s lie was so damaging was that many in Congress who were wavering in their support for the deal relied on the “snapback” sanctions provision to sell the deal to the voters. It gave them political cover — exactly what the president and his advisors were hoping.

There is so much in the Iran deal that Obama solemnly told the American people was included, that wasn’t. Even before Trump took America out of the Iran nuclear deal, Russia was shipping enriched uranium back to Iran. The Iranians had their own interpretation of the agreement on installing advanced centrifuges. Yes, they removed most of the older models and replaced them with machines that were three times more efficient at enriching uranium.

The U.S. was angered at the UN response and vowed to keep the pressure on Iran.

“The Trump Administration has no fear in standing in limited company on this matter, in light of the unmistakable truth guiding our actions,” she said. “I only regret that other members of this Council have lost their way and now find themselves standing in the company of terrorists.”

She also said that groups like Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Maduro regime in Venezuela will benefit.

The nuclear deal with Iran was the biggest U.S. foreign policy blunder of the last 75 years. And if Iran becomes a nuclear power, it could become the most tragic mistake in history.

https://pjmedia.com/uncategorized/rick-moran/2020/08/26/un-security-council-rejects-u-s-request-to-snapback-iran-sanctions-n847988