28 Jul, 2022 20:59

US capital requests National Guard

The city’s “overwhelmed” mayor asked for help after Texas started busing migrants to Washington, DC

Washington, DC mayor Muriel Bowser appealed to the Pentagon and the White House for National Guard aid to deal with thousands of illegal migrants being bused in from Texas and Arizona, but did not receive a response, a local outlet reported on Thursday. Bowser complained the capital’s resources were “overwhelmed” by the arrivals.

Bowser first asked for National Guard assistance on July 19 in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The second letter was dated July 22 and addressed to the White House, according to NBC affiliate WRC-TV, which posted the text of both. The mayor has yet to receive a response to either letter, according to the station.

In the first letter, Bowser notes that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Texas Governor Greg Abbott followed through with their threat to start sending migrants caught crossing the US border illegally to the nation’s capital. Pointing out that over 4,000 migrants had arrived in the district as of mid-July, Bowser complained that “the pace of arriving buses and the volume of arrivals have reached tipping points.”

“Our collective response and service efforts have now become overwhelmed: the regional welcome center we helped establish in Montgomery County, Maryland is at capacity; our homeless services system is already under great strain; and tragically, many families arrive in Washington, DC with nowhere to go, or they remain in limbo seeking onward destinations across the United States,” she wrote.

Bowser’s office asked for 150 DC National Guard personnel per day, “utilizing shift schedules to cover a 24/7 operation,” as well as transportation to shuttle migrants to the DC Armory “or another suitable federal location in the National Capital Region,” such as Fort McNair or Joint Base Bolling. Their mission “would begin as soon as possible and continue indefinitely until the city relieves them.”

The governors of Texas and Arizona “are making a political statement to the federal government, and instead, their actions are having direct impacts on city and regional resources in ways that are unsustainable,” the mayor added.

In her second letter, dated July 22, Bowser demanded that “cruel political gamesmanship from the Governors of Texas and Arizona must be dealt with at the federal level,” and again asked for National Guard help. She also said the district would use $1 million in federal emergency grants to help “migrants seeking asylum in our country.”

Texas and Arizona both border Mexico and are run by Republican governors. Both states have complained about a rising tide of migrants crossing from Mexico illegally ever since Joe Biden was inaugurated as president. At the beginning of July, a judge in charge of one county in Texas declared an “invasion,” saying that over 3.2 million illegal aliens have been caught at the border since January 2021 while another 800,000 avoided capture.

Kek, Kek, Kek

https://www.rt.com/news/559801-washington-troops-illegal-migrants/

28 Jul, 2022 19:28

North Korea issues nuclear warning

Kim Jong-un said that Pyongyang’s nuclear forces were ready for “any crisis”

DPRK leader Kim Jong-un announced on Thursday that Pyongyang’s “nuclear war deterrent” was “fully ready” to respond to threats. Such saber-rattling is nothing new from Kim, but it does come after a slew of artillery and missile tests.

In a speech marking the 69th anniversary of the armistice that halted the 1950-1953 Korean War, Kim accused South Korea of pursuing “suicidal” confrontation against North Korea in a bid to deepen ties with “the US imperialists,” according to a transcript from the Korean Central News Agency.

“Our armed forces are now fully prepared to cope with any sort of crisis, and our state's nuclear war deterrent is also fully ready to demonstrate its absolute power accurately and promptly true to its mission,” Kim declared.

The North Korean leader also accused Washington and Seoul of planning on stationing nuclear missiles in South Korea. While South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said last year that he would ask the US to deploy tactical nukes in his country, the Biden administration has ruled out the idea for now.

North Korea is estimated to have between 40 and 50 nuclear warheads, with the capability of producing six or seven more every year, according to the Arms Control Association. The US officially removed its nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991.

Successive members of the Kim family have threatened for decades to step up development or deployment of these weapons in order to demand relief from international sanctions, or to get Western powers to the negotiating table. This scenario played out during the tenure of US President Donald Trump, with Kim and Trump threatening each other with nuclear annihilation throughout 2017, before meeting in person for two historic summits in 2018 and 2019.

While Trump’s overtures to Kim failed to achieve his goal of “denuclearization” on the Korean peninsula, they calmed the nuclear threats from Pyongyang for the remainder of his term in office. However, the North Korean military has stepped up its activity in recent months.

The South Korean military claimed earlier this month to have detected “trajectories” consistent with artillery shelling, and said in June that the north had fired projectiles from multiple rocket launchers and test-fired eight short-range ballistic missiles eastward.

The north is ready to conduct its seventh nuclear test “at any time,” Sung Kim, the US special representative to North Korea, claimed in June, after a lull in testing since an underground detonation in 2017.

On the other side, the US and South Korea are preparing for military drills in August. Pyongyang considers such exercises “provocations” or rehearsals for an invasion. Earlier this month, the US sent six F-35 stealth fighter jets to South Korea for a series of exercises, which Seoul said were aimed at “demonstrating the strong deterrence” of the US-South Korea alliance.

https://www.rt.com/news/559799-north-korea-nuclear-threat/

MIC wants a war anywhere it can get one

28 Jul, 2022 18:08

South Korea’s biggest ever arms buyer revealed

Poland will receive over 1,600 tanks and artillery pieces and nearly 50 jets

Poland and South Korea signed a framework agreement on Wednesday for what is being hailed as Seoul’s largest ever arms deal. South Korean manufacturers will supply almost 1,000 tanks, over 600 artillery pieces, and nearly 50 fighter jets to the Eastern European nation.

The multi-billion-dollar deal will be among the largest and most significant Polish defense orders in recent years and will substantially strengthen the country's armed forces, Poland’s Defense Ministry announced in a press release.

The orders are divided into two stages, according to the press release. The first stage covers 180 K2 tanks and 48 K9 howitzers, the first deliveries of which are expected this year. Stage two will include over 800 enhanced K2PL tanks and 600 K9 howitzers and will involve technology transfers: both weapons will be produced in Poland starting in 2026.

Under a separate contract, Poland will also acquire 48 FA-50 jets that can be used for both training and combat. According to the Polish Defense Ministry, the first aircraft will be delivered next year. The FA-50 will enable Warsaw to scrap its post-Soviet planes and intensify the training of Polish pilots, the ministry’s press release says.

The arms deal will be a key part of Poland’s effort to rearm in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said. “We learn lessons from what is happening in Ukraine. (…) We can see that armored forces and artillery are of great importance on the battlefield nowadays, hence the decision to strengthen this type of armed forces,” the minister told reporters after approving the contracts.

When asked if its cooperation with Poland meant Seoul was ready to provide more aid to Kiev, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin stressed that the deal was strictly a bilateral matter, Reuters reported.

While the pricing of the purchase has not been made public, it is widely expected to exceed the $7 billion total value of all arms sold by South Korea to global customers last year. With the fighter jets alone priced at $3 billion, the overall amount is estimated to be in the $14-15 billion range, potentially surpassing Poland’s entire current-year defense allocation of $14.1 billion.

https://www.rt.com/news/559796-warsaw-seoul-arms-framework-agreement/

28 Jul, 2022 16:14

EU heading for ‘war economy’ – Orban

The Hungarian leader said his citizens want Brussels to stay out of the country’s energy policy

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has lambasted an EU plan to reduce gas consumption by 15%.Unless the bloc pushes for peace in Ukraine, he warned that Europe will face an energy crisis, a recession, and political turmoil.

Speaking following a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Vienna on Thursday, Orban said that Hungary determines its own energy policy, and any attempt by Brussels to interfere with this “will not find favor with the Hungarians.”

Earlier this week, in anticipation of a cutoff in supply from Russia the EU’s member states agreed on a range of measures to cut their gas consumption by 15% over the winter. The voluntary measures – including a switch to alternative fuels and rationing for household consumers – could become mandatory should the EU declare a state of emergency.

Hungary was the only one of the EU’s 27 members to oppose the plan. Declaring it “simply impossible” to go without Russian energy, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto traveled to Moscow last Thursday to negotiate the purchase of an extra 700 million cubic meters of Russian gas.

“Our people don’t like that kind of thing,”Orban said on Thursday, referring to the EU plan. "If Brussels has a say in what to do with our own energy, regardless of Brussels' good intentions or bad intentions, it will not find favor with the Hungarians.”

Orban, who has heavily criticized the EU’s sanctions on Russia, said that he would attempt to “convince Brussels to create a strategy that is good for the Ukrainians, the EU, and EU households.”

The fact that Brussels is already implementing energy rationing suggests that Europe is moving toward a “wartime economy,” Orban said, adding that unless peace is reached in Ukraine, "we will not be able to solve any problems, there will be no energy, and the entire European Union will be pushed into an economic situation of war.”

The Hungarian premier noted that an energy crisis would also lead to a recession and political instability across Europe.

Hungary has refused to send weapons to Ukraine or allow Western arms to enter Ukraine from its territory. In a speech last week, Orban declared that the rest of the world is “demonstratively not with” the West on sanctioning Moscow, and insisted that the conflict in Ukraine “will end when the Americans and the Russians come to an agreement.”

https://www.rt.com/news/559785-orban-eu-gas-war-economy/

28 Jul, 2022 17:35

FBI manipulating domestic terror stats – whistleblowers

Agents are reportedly being pressured by their superiors to juice the data

The FBI is instructing its agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’, Republican Representative Jim Jordan has claimed, citing agency whistleblowers. Jordan argued that the FBI may be inflating the statistics to satisfy the Biden administration’s crackdown on the supposed threat of homegrown terror.

“From recent protected disclosures, we have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification,” Jordan wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday.

“Given the narrative pushed by the Biden administration that domestic violent extremism is the ‘greatest threat’ facing our country, the revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous,” Jordan continued.

In the days after he took office in January 2021, Biden repeatedly talked up the threat of “domestic terrorism” in the US, describing the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill earlier that month as a prime example of this threat. He followed this rhetoric with a domestic terrorism strategy that increased funding to the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department, while the former agency issued a memo classifying a broad range of dissidents and criminals – from racial extremists to animal rights activists and all others with “personal grievances and beliefs with political bias” – as domestic violent extremists.

This crackdown was necessary, Wray told Congress last summer, stating in June that the FBI had a “very, very active domestic terrorism investigation program,” and that it had “doubled the amount of domestic terrorism investigations.” Attorney General Merrick Garland cited this apparent doubling of investigations as proof that domestic extremism, particularly that involving white supremacists, was the “most lethal” threat facing the US at the time.

However, whistleblower testimony indicates “that the Biden administration’s narrative may be misleading,” Jordan, who is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to Wray.

“One whistleblower explained that because agents are not finding enough DVE [domestic violent extremism] cases, they are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify cases as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification,” Jordan continued, adding that the agent in charge of one field office offered awards and promotions to subordinates who could reclassify the most cases as domestic extremism.

“This information … reinforces our concerns regarding the FBI’s politicization under your leadership,” Jordan told Wray. Citing an alleged “purge” of FBI employees with conservative views, the Ohio Republican argued that the FBI seems “more focused on classifying investigations to meet a woke left-wing agenda” than addressing his committee’s concerns.

As of Thursday afternoon, the FBI has not publicly addressed Jordan’s allegations.

https://www.rt.com/news/559794-fbi-domestic-extremism-stats/

28 Jul, 2022 16:10

US plunges into recession

President Biden has responded by saying, “We are on the right path”

The US economy has shrunk for two consecutive quarters, meeting one of the criteria for a recession, official figures released on Thursday suggest.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.9% in the second quarter of 2022, following a decline of 1.6% in the first quarter, according to a release published on the US government’s website. It notes that the data for the second quarter represents an advance estimate, and more complete data will be released in August.

The drop in GDP reflects decreases in government spending, retail trade, and other sectors, the release states.

A recession is a prolonged downturn in economic activity, most often defined as two consecutive quarters of decline in a country’s GDP. It usually produces declines in economic output, consumer demand, and leads to unemployment.

It’s no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation,” US President Joe Biden said on Thursday, commenting on the figures.

“But even as we face historic global challenges, we are on the right path,” he added.

This comes after the US Federal Reserve delivered another 75 basis-point interest-rate hike on Wednesday and suggested more may be necessary in the coming months.

“We’re not trying to have a recession – and we don’t think we have to,” said chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell.

Inflation in the US rose to 9.1% last month, the fastest rate since 1981, driven mainly by higher prices for fuel and food.

https://www.rt.com/business/559790-us-enters-recession/

The DC picture is perfect, the Storm is coming or here

28 Jul, 2022 21:30

Play with fire – get burned, China warns US

President Xi sent a blunt message on Taiwan in “candid” phone call with Biden

Taiwan is a part of China and the 1.4 billion Chinese will not tolerate any challenges to the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart, Joe Biden, in a phone call on Thursday. Xi’s warning comes amid reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is preparing to visit the island next month, something Beijing has warned her against.

Xi “highlighted that the historical ins and outs of the Taiwan question are crystal clear, and so are the fact and status quo that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China,” according to Beijing’s readout of Thursday’s call, also noting that Biden was the one who initiated it.

China is firmly opposed to Taiwanese separatism and will not tolerate “independence” for the island “in whatever form,” Xi told Biden, in the first direct call between the two leaders since March 18.

Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this.

According to the readout, Xi also told Biden that the US approach to China as the primary rival, strategic competitor, and a security challenge “would be misperceiving China-US relations and misreading China’s development,” adding that US attempts at “decoupling or severing supply chains in defiance of underlying laws” would not help its economy, but “only make the world economy more vulnerable.”

China and the US need to “uphold the international system centering on the UN and the international order underpinned by international law,” said Xi, who also “reiterated China’s principled position” on the crisis in Ukraine.

The much shorter White House readoutof the call did not mention Ukraine or the specifics of economic discussions, instead singling out the issues of “climate change and health security.”It did, however, say that the call was “part of the Biden Administration’s efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between the United States and the PRC and responsibly manage our differences and work together where our interests align.”

When it comes to Taiwan, Biden “underscored that the US policy has not changed and that the US strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,”according to the White House.

Tensions between China and the US have escalated in recent weeks, after reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) intended to take a congressional delegation to Taiwan in August.

Pelosi has neither confirmed nor denied the trip. Asked about it earlier this month, Biden said the US military thought it was “not a good idea right now.”

Since then, however, the Pentagon has reportedly developed a “contingency plan” to send additional ships and fighter jets to the region. Meanwhile, Chinese officials threatened the US with “unbearable consequences” should Pelosi go forward with her visit, and some pundits even advocated attacking Taiwan in response to such a “provocation.”

House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited Taiwan in 1997, but as government officials in Beijing have noted, he was opposition leader at the time, while Pelosi is from the same party as Biden.

Taiwan has been ruled by the nationalist Kuomintang, who found refuge on the island after losing the civil war to the Communists in 1949 and leaving the mainland with US help.

https://www.rt.com/news/559802-xi-warning-biden-taiwan/