Taiwan Grounds F-16 Fleet After Two Accidents Amid Heightened Tensions With China

Taiwan's US-built F-16A fighter is thought to have crashed into the sea after the island’s air force said on Tuesday that the jet had disappeared from radar screen two minutes after taking off from an airbase in Hualien on the east coast of the island. The incident was the second loss of an F-16 fighter jet in less than a month.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen told reporters on Wednesday that the island's air force has grounded its US-made F-16 fleet for checks after losing an F-16A warplane on a training mission.

She said that she had asked the island's Defence Ministry "not to relax a bit on combat readiness to ensure national security".

The Defence Ministry, in turn, warned against speculations on why the F-16 disappeared from radar screens two minutes after lift-off, the second such incident in less than a month, adding that training missions should continue given the current threat from China.

"In response to the increasingly severe situation in the Taiwan Strait, the military has continued to strengthen combat readiness training to ensure national security", the ministry pointed out.

The statement came after the ministry said in October that almost $900 million had already been spent this year on scrambling Taiwan's Air Force against Chinese incursions, describing the pressure the military is facing as "great".

In a separate development last month, China conducted military exercises near the Taiwan Strait, which Beijing said were aimed at protecting the country's territorial integrity following US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and Environment Keith Krach's visit to Taiwan on 17 September.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the visit violated the One-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques on developing a bilateral dialogue.

This followed the US Department of Defence releasing a copy of a contract this summer that showed defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin being awarded $62 billion for the production of 90 F-16 aircraft, 66 of which will be purchased by Taiwan.

When the planned sale was announced in August 2019, Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, told reporters that "US arms sales to Taiwan severely violate the One-China principle".

Hua also noted that the Chinese government was urging the US to refrain from selling the "fighter jets to Taiwan and stop arms sales to, and military contact with" the island.

"Otherwise, the Chinese side will surely make strong reactions, and the US will have to bear all the consequences", she added.

Although officially the US follows the One-China policy, which does not recognise Taiwan as an independent entity, Washington continues to maintain trade and business ties with the island, also supplying weapons to it.

Beijing, for its part, sees Taiwan as a Chinese territory that will eventually have to reunify with mainland China.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/202011181081198820-taiwan-grounds-f-16-fleet-after-two-accidents-amid-heightened-tensions-with-china/

Kissinger and the US Acting Secretary of Defense spoke one after another, showing that the US-China military confrontation is on the line

On Nov. 16, Bloomberg reported that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Alfred Kissinger said at the opening of the Bloomberg New Economic Forum, “Unless there is some basis for some cooperative action, the world will slide into a catastrophe comparable to World War I.” He said military technologies available today would make such a crisis “even more difficult to control” than those of earlier eras.

“America and China are now drifting increasingly toward confrontation, and they’re conducting their diplomacy in a confrontational way,” the 97-year-old Kissinger said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. “The danger is that some crisis will occur that will go beyond rhetoric into actual military conflict.”

Two days before Kissinger’s interview, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller warned the Chinese Communist Party that the U.S. military would be able to destroy all Chinese warships, armed fishing boats disguised as merchant vessels, and submarines known to the Chinese Communist Party as the Great Wall within 72 hours.

For decades, the Chinese Communist Party has penetrated deeply into countries around the world by means of BGY, taking advantage of the evil of human nature to form a gigantic group of thieves. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese Communist Party has indiscriminately spread biochemical weapons and viruses, which have harmed human health and undermined the world economy and stability. In the recent U.S. election, it was a jaw-dropping, multi-faceted, and full-scale intervention to influence the outcome of the election. It has brought the world into a dark hour.

Whether it is the dropping of a viral weapon or the disruption of an American election, it is tantamount to a declaration of war. This is no longer a competition between nations, but a contest between good and evil. Kissinger represents the pro-communist forces on the American left, while Christopher Miller is a hawkish representative of President Trump’s trust. Although based on different intentions and positions, the fact that these two men issued war warnings almost simultaneously indicates that they both realized that the U.S. and China were not ordinary disputes that could be resolved peacefully and that war might be inevitable.

References: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-16/kissinger-warns-biden-of-u-s-china-catastrophe-on-scale-of-wwi

https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/11/16/n12553600.htm

https://gnews.org/568605/

Fuck that dirty little Rothschild bitch

Man wanted in $35M Ponzi scheme tries to flee FBI on underwater sea scooter

He’s more “swim risk” than flight risk.

A California man wanted in an alleged $35 million Ponzi scheme tried to flee FBI agents — by hopping on an underwater “sea scooter” and taking it into a frigid lake, authorities said.

First, 44-year-old Matthew Piercey jumped into a pickup truck when agents went to arrest him on Monday, leading them on a wild chase before eventually abandoning the vehicle on the shores of Lake Shasta, according to federal prosecutors in California.

He then grabbed a Yamaha sea scooter — a motorized submersible device that pulls users at about 4 mph — and took it into the cold waters, staying there for about 25 minutes, the Sacramento Bee reported.

“Piercey spent some time out of sight underwater where law enforcement could only see bubbles,” prosecutors wrote in court documents, describing him as a flight risk.

He was taken away in handcuffs after resurfacing.

Piercey was indicted by a grand jury last week for allegedly bilking his investors into giving $35 million to his companies Family Wealth Legacy and Zolla.

Some of his alleged victims were fellow parishioners of the Bethel megachurch in Redding, a source told the Bee.

His arraignment on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and witness tampering was scheduled for Tuesday. If convicted, Piercey faces 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/17/35m-ponzi-scheme-suspect-tries-to-flee-fbi-on-underwater-sea-scooter/

Michigan Secretary of State: Suggestions of Irregularities and Wide Fraud Are Misinformation, We’ll ‘Look Into’ Wayne Co. Audit Request

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Cuomo Primetime,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) reacted to the Wayne County Board of Canvassers reversing its earlier decision to not certify election results in the county by praising the decision and saying she will “look into” the board’s request to audit precincts in the county that didn’t match, but said that there hasn’t been any evidence “of any irregularities, any widespread fraud, and any suggestion that there was is an effort to misinform the public and falsely erode the public’s confidence” in the election.

Benson said of the audit request, “We’re certainly going to look into that. I mean, look, we want everything to be valid. We want everything to be clear, and we want voters to have confidence in the process, and we’re going to continue to do everything we can within my authority to ensure that’s the case, and also prepare our clerks at every jurisdiction to ensure they have the tools and resources they need to move forward into the next set of elections and assure the public that these elections were indeed accurate and a real reflection of the will of the people.”

She added that her office and the Board of Canvassers today haven’t received any evidence “of any irregularities, any widespread fraud, and any suggestion that there was is an effort to misinform the public and falsely erode the public’s confidence in, again, what was a very well-run election, which I’m gratified that the Board of Canvassers in Wayne County ultimately saw, ultimately was convinced of, and now we can move forward with the full statewide certification in the days ahead.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/11/17/michigan-secretary-of-state-suggestions-of-irregularities-and-wide-fraud-are-misinformation-well-look-into-wayne-co-audit-request/

GOP observers describe Georgia recount as ‘THEATER’ voice concerns about irregularities & why thousands of discovered ballots went missing

Marci McCarthy spent her weekend volunteering as a GOP observer in one of the most contested general elections in U.S. history and in her home state of Georgia, the recount is at the eye of the political storm.

She volunteered to observe the recount in Georgia’s DeKalb County. It was her duty as an American and she wanted to ensure that the GOP was being thoroughly represented, she said. According to Georgia election officials it took two days for DeKalb County workers to finish the recount. Reports noted that roughly 300 people recounted more than 370,000 ballots over two 8-hour shifts Saturday and Sunday.

You’re there as recount theater, we were the props that these actors were aware of so that they essentially wouldn’t cheat. But I had no way of knowing what the counters were doing with those ballots.

Marci Mccarthy

McCarthy and other GOP observers added to the long shifts that seemed to never end, as political divisions became more apparent and appeared to rip at the seams of the American electorate.

It was a struggle from the moment she walked into the massive Sam’s warehouse used to count the votes, she told me on Sunday. Everyone inside was divided into teams – she was the red team, for Republicans, and the Democrats, were marked in blue. McCarthy said, right from the get-go “walking into the warehouse was like stepping into enemy territory.”

McCarthy said she immediately realized that it would be impossible to see the ballots as a volunteer health official took her temperature. She was warned to stay six feet away from the counters at the tables and not to ask questions.

“We got yelled at if we were too close to anyone by the health department,” she recalled. “The department was very quick to act upon us if we were closer than six feet but not anyone else.”

In fact, the print wasn’t legible at the six feet of distance mandated to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak but not for the ballot counters, who she noted were sitting right next to each other. She realized at that point, her presence alone would have to serve as a deterrent from someone who may be planning to commit fraud in her section.

“I literally couldn’t see anything,” McCarthy, as she shuffled through her meticulous notes. “It was a waste of tax payer dollars. You’re there as recount theater, we were the props that these actors were aware of so that they essentially wouldn’t cheat. But I had no way of knowing what the counters were doing with those ballots.”

American’s Losing Faith In The Election

McCarthy, like many Americans, says she has lost faith in the election process. In fact, on Tuesday evening various counties in Georgia discovered either ballots that hadn’t been counted and in one instance a memory card with ballots that had never been uploaded.

David Shafer, former State senator and chairman of the Republican GOP, announced a new discovery Tuesday night of missing ballots, saying on Twitter “our monitors tell us that Walton County election officials have found a memory card that was apparently not uploaded….The number of uncounted votes is not as large as in Floyd or Fayette but the President will pick up votes.”

https://saraacarter.com/gop-observers-in-georgia-describe-recount-as-theater-say-they-concerned-about-irregularities-why-thousands-of-discovered-ballots-went-missing/

Georgia Elections Officials Have No Answer as to What Caused 2,755 Votes to Go Uncounted – Dominion Techs Say They Cannot Comment

As reported earlier, a new batch of votes was found in Georgia Tuesday during the statewide recount in Fayette County, cutting Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump in the state by a reported 449 votes to just under 13,000. The issue today was reported to be a memory card that was not uploaded.

“Gabriel Sterling with the GA Sec. of State’s office says 2,755 votes discovered in Fayette County. Unlike in Floyd County, these were scanned votes that were in the system. 1,577 for Donald Trump 1,128 for Joe Biden. This makes a net gain of over 400 for Trump,” one local reporter said today.

Georgia elections officials were confronted about the 2,755 votes that were found today and they still didn’t have an answer to what caused the ‘error.’

The Dominion techs are the two gentlemen in the background sitting in front of computers and they said they were not allowed to comment.

The Georgia recount is a total joke.

Governor Brian Kemp needs to step in and demand a full audit, including checking signatures and a hand recount with GOP observers present at every table of ballot counters.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/georgia-elections-officials-no-answer-caused-2755-votes-go-uncounted-dominion-techs-say-cannot-comment-video/

Crown's Barangaroo casino blocked from opening over money laundering concerns

The NSW gambling regulator has blocked Crown Resorts from opening its new $2.2 billion Sydney casino next month after a stunning 11th hour admission that criminals likely laundered dirty cash through the group's bank accounts.

The chairman of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, Philip Crawford, said on Wednesday he was "not comfortable" with Crown opening gaming operations until the Bergin inquiry into its licence is completed next year.

The James Packer-backed group planned to open the Barangaroo casino in the middle of December, but ILGA held an emergency meeting on Wednesday in light of the damning evidence about Crown's operations presented to the NSW inquiry.

Mr Crawford said it was disappointing that Crown was "not picking up the vibe" and had not delayed the opening itself, with revelations about money laundering at Crown's Melbourne and Perth casinos ILGA's greatest concern. He said ILGA would not consider giving Crown the green light to open until it had Commissioner Bergin's report, which she must deliver by February 1.

Crown put its ASX-listed shares into a trading halt before ILGA's announcement. The authority's decision came after Crown's legal team performed a remarkable about-face and conceded to the Bergin inquiry that two Crown bank accounts had likely been used to launder the proceeds of crime.

'We’re talking about - potentially - drugs, we’re talking about child sexual exploitation, we’re talking about people trafficking and we’re talking about financing terrorism.'

ILGA chairman Phillip Crawford

Crown tendered new statements to the inquiry at 11pm on Tuesday, which enraged Commissioner Bergin and was a major factor in ILGA delaying the casino's opening.

"It’s come at the 11th hour - literally. That gives us great concern because we’re talking about money laundering," Mr Crawford said at a press conference.

"We’re talking about - potentially - drugs, we’re talking about child sexual exploitation, we’re talking about people trafficking and we’re talking about financing terrorism."

Crown's lawyers had previously urged Commissioner Bergin against finding that its bank accounts had, more probably than not, been used for money laundering despite being riddled with suspicious transactions. But Crown said in its submissions on Tuesday night that is likely what had occurred through accounts it opened through two shell companies called Southbank and Riverbank.

The use of the accounts to bank criminal funds was first exposed by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald last year as part of a series of reports that triggered the ILGA inquiry.

"Crown accepts that there were funds deposited into the Riverbank and Southbank accounts that Initialism has found to be indicative of 'cuckoo smurfing' - it is indicative of a form of money laundering," Crown's counsel Robert Craig, SC, said.

"Crown accepts that an inference can be drawn that at some point in time deposits into the Southbank and riverbank accounts were more probable than not part of cuckoo smurfing."

Counsel assisting the inquiry have argued that Crown's failure to stop money laundering at its Melbourne and Perth casinos is one reason why it is unfit to keep the licence for its new $2.2 billion Sydney casino.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/crown-admits-criminals-likely-laundered-cash-through-casino-accounts-20201118-p56fm6.html

How an international bribes scandal, a cover-up and a trove of leaked emails ended in a suburban Brisbane arrest

The arrest on Wednesday of a former high-flying Australian executive can be traced to a fateful decision made in 2012 on the public holiday to pay tribute to Monaco's Prince Albert.

On Tuesday evening, two federal police agents boarded a flight from Sydney to Brisbane bearing an arrest warrant. Their trip had been a long time coming – it was the last leg of a nine-year investigative journey in the most exhaustive and important corporate bribery probe in the history of the Australian Federal Police.

Operation Trigg has been overseen by three police chief commissioners, outlasted four superintendents, been scrutinised by multiple parliamentary committees and prompted reforms to corporate crime laws. But until this week, nobody in Australia had actually been charged with bribery.

On the contrary, over the years, Operation Trigg had come to symbolise the federal police’s seeming inability to catch alleged criminals at the top of Australia’s corporate tree.

The flight to Brisbane was designed to change all this – to remedy a history of weak laws and police inaction on corporate crime. The arrest warrant contained allegations about a stunning international corporate criminal conspiracy inside listed Australian firm Leighton Holdings between March 2010 and mid 2012.

The warrant's message for corporate Australia was this: if the AFP found evidence of alleged business corruption, it was prepared to spend millions and take years to hunt down the well-resourced, suit-wearing corporate kings allegedly responsible.

The oilmen

Leighton (renamed CIMIC in 2015) was responsible for some of Australia’s biggest infrastructure projects under the stewardship of veteran chief executive Wal King. Very few large Australian infrastructure projects were let without at least a bid by a Leighton firm. Before King resigned that position in January 2011, he and his key executives David Savage and Russell Waugh had also driven the firm’s bold global expansion through its subsidiary, Leighton Offshore.

By early 2010, Savage and Waugh had singled out Iraq as a country that could help Leighton realise a vision to be as big abroad as it was in Australia. Iraq’s revitalisation of its oil industry created huge business opportunities, but came with great and obvious risk: it was a country with endemic bribery and corruption.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/how-an-international-bribes-scandal-a-cover-up-and-a-trove-of-leaked-emails-ended-in-a-suburban-brisbane-arrest-20200913-p55v69.html

NAB closes all bank branches due to alleged bomb threat

The National Australia Bank has been forced to close all bank branches due to a "physical security threat".

In a short statement the bank did not clarify what the threat was, only that all bricks and mortar branches would be closed temporarily.

The bank said it was working with police to ensure the safety of staff and customers.

ATMs located within physical branches have been taken offline.

9News understands it was a bomb threat that prompted the closure of the bank's branches.

NAB said it was "progressively sweeping" branches for threats.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/nab-closes-all-branches-due-to-security-threat/4ca7c358-1465-4584-9420-41bad7263a7e

2 Charged With Voter Fraud, Allegedly Submitted 8,000 Fraudulent Registration Applications

Two men were arrested and charged in Southern California on voter fraud charges after they allegedly submitted thousands of fraudulent voter registration applications on behalf of homeless people, said the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office on Tuesday.

Carlos Antonio De Bourbon Montenegro, 53, and Marcos Raul Arevalo, 34, were charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit voter fraud, eight counts of voter fraud, four counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, and other charges, said the DA’s office in a news release.

The office said Montenegro allegedly submitted more than “8,000 fraudulent voter registration applications between July and October 2020.” He’s also accused of falsifying names, signatures, and addresses on nomination papers “under penalty of perjury to run for mayor in the city of Hawthorne.”

Montenegro also faces another 10 counts of voter fraud, seven counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, two counts of perjury, and five misdemeanor counts of interference with a prompt transfer of a completed affidavit, the office said.

If convicted, Montenegro can face as many as 15 years and eight months in prison, while Arevalo could face seven years in prison, officials noted.

The FBI, District Attorney’s office, the Los Angeles Public Integrity Division, and other agencies are investigating the case.

Other details about the case are not clear. It’s also not clear if their alleged voter fraud scheme affected the presidential election in some way.

It’s not clear if either Montenegro or Arevalo have lawyers.

According to local news outlet The Daily Breeze in a report in August, Montenegro, who was running for mayor in Hawthorne, had “turned in paperwork to run for mayor but failed to meet the required 20 signatures by Hawthorne residents.”

Over the past two weeks, since the Nov. 3 election, President Donald Trump’s campaign and other Republicans have raised questions about voter fraud and irregularities that may have tipped the presidential race to Democratic candidate Joe Biden. The president’s team has filed several lawsuits in key states including Pennsylvania, Georgia, and other places, while citing sworn statements made by hundreds of witnesses.

The Department of Homeland Security’s cyber-security division, in a statement last week, said the past election was the “most secure” in history. Meanwhile, secretaries of state have disputed Trump’s claims of fraud.

However, the chairman of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), Trey Trainor told Newsmax several days ago that he believes “that there is voter fraud taking place in these places.” Trainor, in a tweet, said a recent claim from Trump lawyer Sidney Powell about his team being able to overturn the election with their cases should be taken seriously.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/2-charged-with-voter-fraud-allegedly-submitted-8000-fraudulent-registration-applications_3583016.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2020-11-17-4