Dr. Lawrence Sellin on India’s CNN News 18: “We Are on the Cusp of a Major Geo-Strategic Shift – Facing an Alliance of China, Pakistan and the Taliban”

Dr. Lawrence Sellin is a frequent Gateway Pundit contributor, a COVID-19 subject matter expert, a retired Colonel of the US Army Reserve and Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran.

Earlier this week Dr. Sellin went on with India’s CNN News 18 to discuss the crisis today in south Asia.

Dr. Sellin described the major geo-strategic shift we are facing.

Due to a power vacuum created by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, South Asia is on the cusp of a major geopolitical shift due to the alliance of China, Pakistan and the Taliban.

China seeks to replace the United States as the global superpower for which economic and military domination of South Asia is an essential step.

China aims is to dominate South Asia, first economically based on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and then militarily using its alliance with Pakistan to establish military bases in Balochistan province on Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast.

Those bases would provide a critical link between China’s military facilities in the South China Sea and its naval base in Djibouti, a choke point at the entrance of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

Chinese naval and air bases in Balochistan would control the vital sea lanes of the Arabian Sea and threaten another strategic chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

The Taliban have already announced that China will be its main financial backer, its principal exploiter of Afghanistan mineral resources and the vehicle by which Afghan products can reach global markets, presumably via CPEC.

To counter attempts by China to achieve regional economic and military hegemony and prevent the use of Islamic terrorism as an instrument of Pakistan’s foreign policy, the Quad nations of India, the United States, Japan and Australia must provide the core of a multi-national effort to strategically disrupt the plans of the China-Pakistan Axis.

Such a policy would combine traditional containment and other active measures including economic sanctions, support for anti-Taliban forces or ethnic self-determination movements, as in Balochistan to disrupt CPEC and China’s plans for military bases there. We must also retain the option of surgical military strikes as part of a counter-terrorism program.

The efforts should be directed primarily against Pakistan because it is both the epicenter of regional terrorism and the weak link in the China-Pakistan Axis.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/dr-lawrence-sellin-indias-cnn-news-18-cusp-major-geo-strategic-shift-facing-alliance-china-pakistan-taliban/

Biden Admin Losing Unwinnable War On COVID, Scapegoats 'Unvaccinated' Americans

“There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away. The British people can face peril or misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived or finding that those responsible for their affairs are themselves dwelling in a fool's paradise.”

-Winston Churchill

On Thursday, our newfound Dear Leader, Joe Biden, gave one of the most tyrannical speeches in American history. For 30 minutes, he declared that the federal government would be imposing one totalitarian action after another, entirely dismissing our Constitutional system in the process of announcing his edicts.

Sure, the outrage is being felt in every fiber of my being. I’m ashamed that this White House is in charge right now. I am utterly disgusted by each and every word that was uttered by our ruthlessly unqualified cadaver-in-chief. This is the most authoritarian U.S. administration of my lifetime, and there is no close second. America is in a bad place right now, constantly flirting with a more advanced form of tyranny, and it’s genuinely difficult to humbly recognize the very unexceptional standing of our once-great Republic.

However.

More than anything, I sense a panicked regime, very unsure of its legitimacy with the people, and one that is desperately searching for a more permissible excuse for their failures.

Policymakers within the Biden Administration have clearly seen the COVID-19 data out of Israel, the first country that went all in on population-wide mRNA shots. It shows that mRNA injection efficacy is waning, which is why Israel went full steam ahead with the 3rd booster shot. It’s too early to tell exactly how that will pan out, but in the meantime, the Biden Administration needs to find a way to shimmy their way out of declaring victory over COVID just a couple months ago, given its clear resurgence throughout our nation among both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

Instead of owning up to the reality that we cannot eliminate a submicroscopic infectious particle from existence, and perhaps admitting that government officials wildly oversold an innovative “cure” to the disease, they’re continuing with the dictatorial insanity.

With respiratory season just around the corner, the “unvaccinated” are going to be scapegoated for when our government has once again failed to achieve the impossible task of stopping an endemic virus from circulating among a massive population.

At first, they took a somewhat more diplomatic approach, blaming the “Delta variant” for their failures to deliver. But now, they’ve shifted their wrath onto fellow Americans, specifically, the 25% of “unvaccinated” individuals in America who refuse to submit to the “health” demands of the regime. None of it makes scientific sense, but it doesn’t have to, because it’s no longer about health or science, but in protecting the reputation of the White House.

The Biden Administration is losing its unwinnable “War on COVID,” and as its ratings go down in flames, it has backed itself into a corner. Instead of being honest about their failures with the American people, Biden officials are choosing to triple and quadruple down on these broken policy measures. They’re purposely pitting Americans against each other, and labeling the “unvaccinated” as the ultimate scapegoat for their failures. Time will tell if they succeed, or if Americans decide to find the courage to reject the latest series of unconstitutional edicts.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-admin-losing-unwinnable-war-covid-scapegoats-unvaccinated-americans

Chinese Foreign Ministry Posts Video Mocking US "War Machines" Turned Into Taliban Playground

A well-known Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman has mocked US failures in Afghanistan over the course of the twenty-year long war by posting images of the Taliban enjoying the spoils of what American forces left behind.

Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian captioned a video showing Taliban militants using the wing of an abandoned aircraft to build a makeshift swing with the words "graveyard of EMPIRES and their WAR MACHINES."

The aircraft appears to have been previously in use by the US-backed Afghan national government. Hundreds have since the US departure on Aug.30 been documented sitting on runways across the country - many of them unusable, but others - especially helicopters - still appearing operational.

It's believed the Taliban is seeking out former Afghan national army pilots in order to fly them. Recent social media videos suggests they've had some limited success in this, particularly after a couple of clips showing US black hawks in operation over Taliban convoy processions emerged.

China has of late taken every opportunity to add insult to injury in the wake of the humiliating US botched evacuation and troop withdrawal, which the Biden administration has been reeling politically from.

For example, one social media video produced by state-run Xinhua News sarcastically observed that US regime change in the region took the world from the Taliban to… the Taliban:

Mocking the US, Xinhua News, in a three-minute-long video shared on social media, said "When you feel life is going nowhere, just think", adding that the regime of Afghanistan "changes from Taliban to… Taliban".

"When you feel life is going nowhere, just think: with 4 U.S. presidents, 20 years, 2 trillion dollars, 2,300 soldiers' lives… the regime of Afghanistan changes from Taliban to… Taliban," Xinhua News captioned the video on Twitter.

China has positioned itself to be a prime investor in Afghanistan infrastructure projects as part of President Xi's 'Belt and Road' initiative. Taliban leaders have positively welcomed this, saying Chinese help will be crucial in the country's rebuilding.

Recently there's even been rumors that Chinese forces could eventually take over the sprawling Bagram Airbase outside of Kabul, previously America's most important base in central Asia; however, China has vehemently denied there are plans in place for this.

https://youtu.be/5j3HJJQVPbA

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/chinese-foreign-ministry-posts-video-mocking-us-war-machines-turned-taliban-playground

Lebanon announces new government, ending 13 months of political deadlock

Lebanese leaders have formed a new government led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, finally putting to an end 13 months of political deadlock that worsened Beirut’s crippling economic situation.

On Friday, Mikati, who was designated prime minister in July, alongside President Michel Aoun, agreed on the formation of the new cabinet and signed it into a decree. Mikati remarked that “the situation is very difficult” in Beirut and stressed that the members of the government are “all going to work together, united with hope and determination.”

The formation of the new government concludes a political stalemate which has lasted for over a year and paves the way for restarting negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, which Mikati had promised to do once a new cabinet was formed. Previous attempts to create a new cabinet had proved fruitless following the resignation of then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab in August 2020 in the wake of the fatal Beirut port explosion, which killed over 200 and wounded around 7,500 others.

Mikati, a businessman and two-time former prime minister, previously had corruption charges filed against him in 2019, alleging he had profited from a subsidized housing loan scheme.

Lebanon’s lack of concrete leadership, combined with the deadly blast, exacerbated the country's economic instability. The World Bank Lebanon Economic Monitor said in June that the nation’s financial depression was one of the most severe since the mid-nineteenth century, while a UN study in August found that almost 80% of Lebanon’s population lives in poverty.

In the past few months, problems with financing fuel imports have plagued Lebanon. In July, two of the country’s main power plants, which provide around 40% of the country’s electricity, were shut down as foreign banks had not yet signed off on transactions allowing Electricite Du Liban to unload two fuel shipments waiting in port.

https://www.rt.com/news/534498-lebanon-announces-new-government/

‘There will be more pandemics’: Immunologist behind mRNA technology working on vaccine against ALL coronaviruses

University of Pennsylvania scientists are working to create a vaccine that would protect not just against Covid-19, but all coronaviruses, saying they hope it will be “ready to go” when the next pandemic hits.

The effort to create a ‘pan-coronavirus’ jab is being spearheaded by US immunologist Drew Weissman, whose research paved the way for the current mRNA Covid-19 vaccines.

“You have to assume there’s going to be more [pandemics],” Weissman told the AFP news agency on Friday, saying there was no justification in waiting for the next crisis before beginning work on the next vaccine.

“Our idea was that we could wait for the next coronavirus epidemic or pandemic, and then spend a year and a half making a vaccine. Or we could make one now and have it either ready to go, or use it now,” he said.

On Thursday, Weissman shared the $3 million 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences with co-researcher Katalin Karikó.

The scientists shared the award for their work in modifying messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) molecules to help the human body fight viruses by instructing cells to produce certain proteins and evoke antibodies.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, currently being used to fight Covid-1, are based on that research.

Covid-19 is just one of the epidemics that have impacted the world in recent years, along with the original SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) viral infections.

Weissman’s team have already begun work on the project, and he said their new aim was to train the immune system to detect and respond to parts of the virus called ‘conserved regions,’ as, unlike the spike, those do not mutate fast.

Weissman said he was shocked there was any controversy over the efficacy and safety of mRNA vaccines.

“The conservative anti-science, anti-government people completely surprised us. I just didn’t expect that group to come out against vaccines,” he said.

Earlier this year, as the Delta variant took hold, the immunologist warned that coronavirus variants would keep getting “scarier and scarier.”

According to Weissman, between 75% and 85% of the world’s population must be vaccinated “to get the pandemic under control.”

https://www.rt.com/news/534507-mrna-scientist-all-coronaviruses-vaccine/

France bans unvaccinated travelers from US & Israel, removes countries from ‘green’ list

The French government has taken the US and Israel off its list of ‘safe’ countries in terms of Covid-19 risk, imposing restrictions on the arrival of unvaccinated tourists from both places.

The US and Israel were bumped from France’s so-called ‘green’ list of safe countries to the list of ‘orange’ states where there is substantial circulation of the virus. The move means that, starting from Saturday, France will effectively be closed for tourists from either country.

If they want to visit France, unvaccinated Americans and Israelis will have to provide an ‘essential’ reason for the trip, submit a negative Covid-19 test taken less than 72 hours before departure, and quarantine themselves for seven days on arrival.

The EU advised member states to restrict non-essential travel from the US and Israel late last month, and removed them both from its ‘white list’ of safe countries. Just like European nations, both have been hit by the more contagious and deadly Delta variant of the virus.

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden rolled out a plan to impose vaccination mandates for several categories of worker, including those working in companies with 100 or more employees, in an effort to push 80 million unvaccinated Americans toward getting the shot.

Israel, meanwhile, expanded its vaccine booster-shot campaign to everyone aged 12 and older late last month in order to curb the spike in infections.

Once they are in France, vaccinated travelers will also need to register to get the controversial French ‘health pass’ that grants access to venues such as bars, restaurants, and some tourist sites.

https://www.rt.com/news/534496-france-travel-us-israel/

Biden's Vaccine Fiat Forges A Fascist Pharma Corporate State

About six months ago, I wrote an article here explaining that state preemptions of local government are a bad thing — even when Ron DeSantis does it. I vehemently stand by these principles. However, it is now time for Ron DeSantis to take that principle of decentralized control and run with it—against the Biden administration. Just as it is acceptable to see local government’s passing laws in defiance of their state, it is now time for the states to pass laws in defiance of the federal government. This is because on September 9, 2021, President Joe Biden announced that all employers with 100+ employees will be required to mandate vaccines or weekly negative covid tests.

Never in my lifetime has something occurred that was so egregiously opposed to Misesian concepts of liberalism and freedom. In fact, this is directly in line with perhaps the most opposite ideology to liberalism: fascism. Benito Mussolini said himself that “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” In today’s political discourse, people abuse the word fascism and sometimes even cite this definition of corporatism while stretching it somewhat from the truth.

However, the state requiring that businesses require the vaccine from one of three large corporations that were propped up by the state is undoubtedly the merger of state and corporate power that Mussolini dreamed of.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bidens-vaccine-fiat-forges-fascist-pharma-corporate-state

Biden Calls Xi In Attempt To Reset Strained Bilateral Relations

Since the start of his administration, President Biden has tried to use "diplomacy" to try and smooth things over with the Chinese (an attempt to coax Beijing to make good on its "commitments" on climate change, cybersecurity and a host of other issues) while simultaneously pursuing some of the same aggressive policies pioneered by President Biden's predecessor (which have proven popular with the American people).

But after several rounds of high-level talks involving Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden's climate envoy John Kerry (a veteran of the Obama Administration's talks with Beijing), the two sides remained at an impasse.

So, at President Biden's urging, President Xi and his American counterpart held their second call since Biden's inauguration on Thursday night. Unsurprisingly. The timing isn't exactly a surprise: With China and Russia closing in after America's embarrassing withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Biden needs to try and court Chinese cooperation now more than ever.

The "broad, strategic discussion" lasted 90 minutes, with the two leaders discussing "the responsibility of both nations to ensure competition does not veer into conflict," according to Bloomberg, which cited details published in the Chinese press.

"The two leaders had a broad, strategic discussion in which they discussed areas where our interests converge, and areas where our interests, values, and perspectives diverge," the White House said in an account of the conversation. "They agreed to engage on both sets of issues openly and straightforwardly,” it added, saying they “discussed the responsibility of both nations to ensure competition does not veer into conflict."

Per the FT, several senior-level administration officials explained that direct contact with President Xi is necessary to further any diplomatic discussion since the Chinese leader has centralized power to such an unprecedented (since Mao) extent.

Chinese diplomats seemed "unwilling to engage in serious or substantive conversations" during prior high-level talks. “What we’ve gotten is the usual talking points, which are more designed for propaganda purposes,” the official said. “Xi has really centralized power in some pretty marked ways…engagement at the leader level is really what’s needed to move the ball forward.”

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan met Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat, and foreign minister Wang Yi in Alaska in March for talks that included an extraordinary public spat. Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state, held a meeting with Wang in Tianjin last month. And just last week, Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

During the call, President Xi lamented that the relationship between China and the US had been "difficult" for some time. And that while he's certainly ready to cooperate on issues of mutual concern, the US needs to "respect" some of China's "core concerns".

"China policy adopted by the United States for some time has caused serious difficulties" in relations, according to state broadcaster China Central Television. He said China was ready to cooperate on issues ranging from the global economy to climate change, but that it needed to be done “on the basis of respecting each other’s core concerns."

Xi emphasized it was necessary for the two countries to bring relations "back on the right track," saying that building good ties wasn’t a "multiple choice question" but a "mandatory question." China said the two sides agreed regular communication between heads of state is important to boosting ties, while U.S. officials were noncommital on future exchanges.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-calls-xi-attempt-reset-strained-bilateral-relations

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-calls-xi-attempt-reset-strained-bilateral-relations

Queen Elizabeth II supports BLM, royals ‘passionately care’ about removing racial barriers, top aide says

The UK’s Queen Elizabeth II supports the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and is committed to improving race relations in the UK, a senior Buckingham Palace representative has said.

Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London Ken Olisa, who is the Queen’s liaison in the British capital, told Channel 4 News that the royals “care passionately” about removing racial barriers in society.

According to the news channel’s press release, which was quoted by the UK media, when Olisa was asked if the royal family supported BLM, he said: “The answer is easily yes.”

“I have discussed with the royal household this whole issue of race particularly in the last 12 months since the George Floyd incident,” the lord-lieutenant said. He added that race was a “hot conversation topic.”

The British monarch is known for not sharing her opinion on political matters in public. The full interview with Olisa is scheduled to air Friday evening.

Floyd, an African American man, died during a botched arrest attempt in May 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Former police officer Derek Chauvin was later sentenced to more than 22 years for Floyd’s murder, while three of his colleagues will stand trial next year.

Floyd’s death sparked a wave of large-scale protests against police brutality and for broader racial justice across the US and overseas. Some demonstrations and marches were followed by massive rioting and looting.

https://www.rt.com/uk/534475-queen-supports-blm-uk/