Kremlin Blames US For Crashed Drone: 'Flying With Transponders Off Towards Russian Border'

Update(1510ET): After nearly two hours since the story first broke in international press, the Kremlin has issued its version of events concerning the US drone crash in the Black Sea Tuesday. The Russian Defense Ministry said nothing about the Pentagon's allegations that a Russian Su-27 aircraft dumped fuel on the MQ-9 drone, but instead blamed the pair of Russian jets' erratic maneuvering for the collision.

"US drone MQ-9 fell into the Black Sea on Tuesday morning due to its own sharp maneuvering, Russian fighters did not come into contact with it and did not use weapons, the Russian Defense Ministry said," according to Russian media. The statement is as follows [emphasis ours]:

"As a result of sharp maneuvering around 09:30 Moscow time [06:30 GMT], unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 went into an uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface. The Russian fighters did not use airborne weapons, did not come into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle and returned safely to their home airfield" the ministry said.

The Russian fighters had been scrambled in response to the drone being picked up on radar: "The ministry clarified that on the morning of March 14, the airspace control of the Russian Aerospace Forces had recorded the flight of US unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 over the Black Sea in the region of the Crimean peninsula in the direction of the Russian state border." However, the ministry further noted that the UAV had been flying with its transponders turned off while headed towards Russia's border.

Interestingly, the Kremlin is accusing the Pentagon of ignoring military-to-military protocols related to the war in Ukraine, established in order to avoid inadvertent NATO-Russia clashes:

The flight of the drone "was carried out with transponders turned off, violating the boundaries of the area of the temporary regime for the use of airspace, established for the purpose of conducting a special military operation, communicated to all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international standards," the MoD said.

So given the Russian side has confirmed there was no shootdown, both sides can collectively breath a sigh of relief for now, given this was a highly dangerous incident that had the potential to unleash a shooting war as the two superpower rivals continue crisscrossing airspace over the Black Sea, not far from frontline fighting in Ukraine.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-reaper-drone-downed-over-black-sea-incident-russian-jet

The AUKUS submarine deal requires Australia to dispose of the nuclear waste. Where will it be dumped and will it break any treaties?

Australia's newly secured nuclear-powered submarines capability, part of the AUKUS deal with the UK and US, will put the country in a very exclusive club of only seven nations.

Key points:

Australia must manage all radioactive waste generated by the submarines on Australian soil

Spent fuel described as "small amounts of low-level radioactive waste" will be stored at Defence sites

The defence minister says Australia has been working very closely with the International Atomic energy Agency

Defence personnel have been quick to promote the advantages nuclear-powered submarines offer over their diesel-powered counterparts, which Australia currently owns.

Sealed nuclear reactors like the ones Australian submarines will operate do not need to be refuelled as they typically last for 30 years.

The submarines can also dive for months at a time without the need to resurface, since their engines does not require air.

However, they also come with their own complications.

Nuclear waste

Nuclear waste is hazardous to human health and can last decades before it decays completely. This is why it needs to be carefully stored and managed.

There are two types of nuclear waste from a submarine. The first is operational waste, which is continuously produced throughout the life cycle of a vessel.

The government describes this kind of spent fuel as "small amounts of low-level radioactive waste".

This type of waste will be stored at "defence sites" in Australia.

Part of the AUKUS deal is that Australia must manage all radioactive waste generated by the submarines on Australian soil.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said it was a pre-condition for the whole program.

"We are making a commitment that we will dispose of the nuclear reactor," he said.

"That is a significant commitment to make."

Developing Australia's workforce and know-how to manage radioactive waste from nuclear-powered submarines is an important part of the plan.

The Defence Department believes the rotation of the UK and US nuclear-powered submarines at the HMAS Stirling base in Western Australia will provide learning opportunities for the Australian Navy on low-level radioactive waste management.

Disposing of the second type of nuclear waste is the "most complex aspect of the submarine's life cycle", according to the government.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-15/aukus-nuclear-submarines-reactor-disposal/102092146

BIDEN: "I am determined, once again, to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines."

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1635747380120174595

McCarthy, Senior Aides Implicated in Silicon Valley Bank Failure

Two ex-senior aides for Kevin McCarthy lobbied for Silicon Valley Bank.

GOP Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and two of his senior aides have been implicated in the collapse of the left-wing Silicon Valley Bank that’s kicked off fears of a renewed financial crisis.

The two former high-ranking aides to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are among Silicon Valley Bank’s top registered lobbyists and campaigned in Washington for bank-friendly, bipartisanly-supported rollbacks of Dodd-Frank that have been credited with helping to egg on the bank’s meltdown.

The two staffers, Brian Worth and Wes McClelland, each spent multiple years working for Kevin McCarthy, whose long been tied to various Big Tech industries in and around Silicon Valley, in his native state of California.

Worth served as McCarthy’s coalition director from January 2011 to May 2014 and, since 2017, has been lobbying for Silicon Valley Bank.

McClelland worked as both a policy advisor and a senior policy advisor for McCarthy from April 2011 to September 2015, before joining up with the lobbying group promoting Silicon Valley Bank last year.

At the time of its official collapse on March 10th, Silicon Valley Bank was the sixteenth largest banking operation in the United States and its collapse marks the second-largest in American history. It was also one of the most openly left-wing banks in the country, taking on a leading role in the “woke capital” ESG movement.

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse has kicked off fears of a renewed financial crisis, akin to that of 2008 which saw the US federal government use taxpayer money to provide failed banks with unprecedented bailouts. Much of that taxpayer money was then routed straight into the pockets of the bankers which caused their institutions to collapse in the first place, in the form of “bonuses.”

The revelation that Kevin McCarthy is tied to Silicon Valley Bank comes on the heels of National File’s reporting in 2022, which tied Kevin McCarthy to the corrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange and its GOP bagman, Ryan Salame.

McCarthy, along with his Congressional Leadership Fund political machine, used millions of dollars worth of FTX donations to attack America First candidates for Congress and promote the campaigns of his establishment allies. Among those most notably attacked by Kevin McCarthy’s FTX cash were Laura Loomer, Jarome Bell, and Joe Kent.

https://nationalfile.com/mccarthy-senior-aides-implicated-in-silicon-valley-bank-failure/

Google and Microsoft Rushing to Widely Implement Generative AI

The explosive interest in OpenAI’s ChatGPT has tech giants scrambling to capitalize on generative AI in the wider market.

On March 14, Google announced that it will begin packing virtually all of its Workspace products with generative AI—an artificial intelligence chatbot that is capable of generating creative output from simple user prompts.

According to Google’s announcement, the new AI will be able to “draft, reply, summarize, and prioritize” your emails and “brainstorm, proofread, write, and rewrite” your documents. Additionally, it will be able to produce “auto-generated images, audio, and video,” as well as intelligently analyze corporate data.

The new features will become accessible to US users by the end of the month.

“From there, we’ll iterate and refine the experiences before making them available more broadly to consumers, small businesses, enterprises, and educational institutions in more countries and languages,” Google announced. “We’re just getting started.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft—a longtime investor in OpenAI’s ChatGPT project—announced that it will host a customer event on March 16 titled “The Future of Work With AI,” where it is expected to unveil ChatGPT implementation in its widely-used Office tools Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

At the beginning of February, the software giant rolled out an AI-enhanced version of its Teams groupware, integrating ChatGPT-based tools for summarizing meeting notes, organizing tasks, and translating text.

“We’re bringing the power of large language models, including OpenAI’s GPT, to Teams Premium, as we make meetings more intelligent, personalized, and protected,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated on Twitter.

Both Microsoft and Google explained that their AI technology will initially be made available to a few select customers, with whom they will collaborate closely to identify bugs and improve features.

However, the sudden acceleration of widespread AI implementation has critics worried.

https://www.ntd.com/google-and-microsoft-rushing-to-widely-implement-regenerative-ai_907294.html