17 Mar, 2023 14:26

EU states using Ukraine to dispose of old weapons – Kremlin

Moscow says the planes Poland and Slovakia are sending will be destroyed

Plans by Poland and Slovakia to send Soviet warplanes to Ukraine look like attempts to dispose of antiquated equipment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during his Friday press briefing.

"This is another example of how a number ofNATO member states, including Poland, are raising their direct involvement in the conflict,"he announced, reacting to the recent announcements that Warsaw and Bratislava would send Soviet-designed MiG-29 warplanes to Kiev. Peskov added that it would not affect the outcome of Russia’s military operation but instead "may lead to additional suffering for Ukraine itself and its people."

"It seems like these countries [Poland and Slovakia] are justdisposing of old equipmentthey no longer need," Peskov said. The MiG-29 was designed in the 1970s and entered service in the 1980s.

Warsaw’s plan to transfer four of the MiG-29 fighters to Kiev "in the next few days" was announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki earlier this week. This makes Poland the first NATO country to pledge warplanes to Ukraine. The country has 28 MiG-29s, but it is unclear how many of them are in working condition, as the country has sought to update its air force with US- and South Korean-made fighters.

Slovakia, also a NATO member, similarly announced on Friday that it would send 13 of its MiGs to Kiev. However, the jets were retired last year, and several reports suggested that they weremostly not in operational condition.

Ukraine has been requesting warplanes, specifically American-made F-16s for its military, but US President Joe Biden said in January that they were not planning to send any over. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz similarly stated the same month that Berlin was not even discussing transferring its own F-16s.

French President Emmanuel Macron has sounded more vague, saying in January that he would not rule out sending fighter jets to Ukraine. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced in February that London would be training Ukrainian pilots, adding that there was still no decision on actually sending Western-made fighter jets to Kiev.

https://www.rt.com/russia/573140-dispose-old-jets-ukraine/

17 Mar, 2023 15:31

Pentagon pays internet censors – media

At least two private companies received large grants from the military to develop online surveillance tools, The Federalist has reported

The US Department of Defense funds private internet monitoring firmsNewsGuard and PeakMetrics, which then trawl the web for “misinformation” to censor and demonetize, conservative news site The Federalist reported on Friday.

NewsGuard is a private company that rates news outlets by their “reliability” and reputation for sharing “falsehoods and misinformation narratives.” Before a Congressional hearing last week, journalist Matt Taibbi labeled the company apart of the “censorship-industrial complex,” publishing an image of a$750,000 grant awardfrom the Pentagon to the firm. During the hearing, reporter Michael Shellenberger explained that NewsGuard uses its ratings system to drive advertiser revenue away from conservative sires or other“disfavored publications.”

In an email to Taibbi, Newsguard's CEO Gordon Crovitz denied receiving government funding, stating instead that the government pays for access to its data. The Pentagon, he wrote, is specifically looking for evidence of“Russian and Chinese disinformation.”

However, NewsGuard received a $25,000 award from the Pentagon in 2020, after winning the military’s ‘Countering Covid-19 Disinformation’ challenge, The Federalist, a conservative news outlet, reported on Friday. A year later, Newsguard wasgiven $750,000 to develop an AI-powered databaseof “misinformation networks” alongside the Department of Defense.

NewsGuard is one of several such businesses funded by the Pentagon. PeakMetrics was another winner of the Covid-19 challenge, earning a $25,000 grant to develop “social listening” technology for the military. It received a further$1.5 million from the federal government in 2021, but even before that the company had been singled out as potentially useful to the Pentagon.

In early 2020, PeakMetrics took part in the ‘Air Force Accelerator’ program, under which it developed “measuring tools to detect misinformation campaigns.” According to The Federalist, it put these tools to use during the2020 and 2022 electionsin the US. At that point, PeakMetrics solely worked for the US State Department and Pentagon, before later offering its services to the private sector.

It is unclear what the Pentagon aimed to achieve during these election monitoring campaigns. PeakMetrics did not respond to a request for comment by The Federalist.

Aside from paying private companies to developweb surveillance tools, the Pentagon, along with anumber of other government agencies and departments, directly engaged in social media censorship in recent years. Internal communications from Twitter published by Taibbi, Shellenberger, and other journalists, showed that the social media giant “directly assisted” the US military’s online influence campaigns and censored “anti-Ukraine narratives” on behalf of multiple intelligence agencies. The platform also received extensive lists of accounts to ban from theUS State Department and associated NGOs.

https://www.rt.com/news/573145-pentagon-censor-misinformation-newsguard/

17 Mar, 2023 12:21

Russian pilots to be awarded after US drone incidentkek

The service members prevented the UAV from violating a restricted flight area, the Defense Ministry has said

The pilots of the Russian jets that scrambled to identify an American drone that was conducting a reconnaissance mission over the Black Sea have been nominated for decoration, the Defense Ministry announced on Friday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu “has put forward for state awards the pilots of the Su-27 aircraft who prevented the US MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle from violating” the restricted flight zone established by Moscow amid the Ukraine conflict, the ministry’s statement read.

It added that the borders of the area in question had been made known to all users of international airspace.

The ministry, however, did not provide any personal information about the pilots, nor did it reveal what awards they might receive.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon claimed that two Russian jets dumped fuel on a MQ-9 Reaper drone, with one later colliding with the aircraft and damaging its propeller, while accusing Moscow of “unsafe and unprofessional”actions.

The Russian Defense Ministry, however, dismissed this accusation, saying that theSu-27s never came in contact with the Reaper, nor did it fire a weapon. It explained that the US drone was flying with itstransponders turned off, violated the restricted area, and crashed after “going into uncontrolled flight” as a result of “sharp maneuvers.”

In the aftermath of the incident, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Shoigu to discuss the matter. Austin reiterated that the drone was “conducting routine operations in international airspace,” adding that Washington would “continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows.”

Shoigu insisted that the incident occurred due to US refusal to comply with the restricted flight zone and its efforts “to ramp up reconnaissance activities against the interests of the Russian Federation.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/573126-russian-pilots-awards-us-drone/

17 Mar, 2023 15:11

Notre Dame cathedral fire leads to new discovery

Restoration work in Paris has revealed it was the first building to employ iron reinforcements in construction

The devastating 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral has led to a new discovery about the methods used to construct the iconic landmark, after experts leading the cathedral’s restoration efforts investigated previously concealed parts of the building.

The findings were published in the PLOS ONE journal on Wednesday by University Paris 8’s Maxime L'Heritier and his team. They found that Notre-Dame de Paris may be thefirst known Gothic cathedralto predominantly use iron to bind stones during its construction.

The cathedral was built in the mid-12th century, and was the tallest building ever erected at the time, with vaults peaking at 32 meters (104 feet) in height. Although previous research suggested that this record was achieved by combining a number of architectural innovations, until now, experts still didn’t have a full understanding of the materials used in the construction or how much of a role iron played in the endeavor.

The 2019 fire, however, has allowed archeologists to access previously unseen parts of Notre-Dame. L’Heritier and his team were able to obtain samples of material from 12iron staples used to bind stonestogether in different parts of the building, including the tribunes, nave aisles and upper walls.

The researchers used a number of analysis methods, including radiocarbon dating as well as microscopic, chemical and metallurgical analysis. The team found that iron staples were used in the earliest phases of construction in the 1160s, making it the first such building to use iron staples throughout its entire structure.

The analysis has led not only to a better understanding of how the Parisian master masons constructed the cathedral, but has also shed details on the iron supply of the building yard and the iron circulation, trade and forging in 12th- and 13th-century Paris.

The reconstruction of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral after the April 15, 2019 fire is still ongoing and is expected to take sometwenty years to complete. However, the restoration efforts have led to some important discoveries. Previously, archeologists hadfound several tombsand a 14th-century sarcophagus – both “of remarkable scientific quality,” as well as pieces of painted sculptures that are thought to be part of the original decorations.

https://www.rt.com/pop-culture/573142-notre-dame-paris-discovery/

17 Mar, 2023 13:31

US pushes to integrate LGBTQ rights into UN Security Council

Washington has called for a meeting to focus on how sexual orientation and gender identity figure into the context of armed conflict

The US has called for an informal meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to discuss the integration of the human rights of LGBTQ and intersex individuals (also known as ‘LGBTI’) into the organization’s efforts to maintain “international peace and security.”

According to a concept note released by the United States Mission to the UN, the US, along with co-sponsors from Albania, Brazil, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Japan, Malta, Switzerland, and the UK, intend to hold the meeting next week on Monday, March 20. The talks will also be joined by the LGBTI Core Group to “consider how to better integrate consideration of the human rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex persons into the UNSC’s work.”

In the note, the US stated that the UNSC has improved its ability to tackle the root causes of conflict and mitigate the effects of war by recognizing how abuses against members of marginalized groups serve to destabilize fragile societies. The US brought up the issue of protecting LGBTQ rights before the council in 2015 amid Islamic State’s (IS, formerly ISIS) crimes in Iraq and Syria.

However, “despite this increased awareness,”the repression of individuals based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and sex characteristics continues, the US said.

Washington is calling on Security Council members to propose ways that the international body can “ensure better protection of LGBTI rights in situations of conflict” and “incorporate LGBTI perspectives in peacekeeping/peacebuilding.”

The US says it hopes the meeting will result in “really specific steps” that the UNSC can take, such as considering “the special requirements of refugees who are transgender or gender non-conforming” and how the council should approach accountability for war crimes targeting LGBTQ people.

Washington says it will commit to ask questions of UN officials regarding rights violations and raise the issues of abuse and other concerns of the LGBTQ community at UNSC meetings. “And, when appropriate, we’ll propose language in Security Council resolutions where there are egregious violations,” a senior administration official said in a background briefing on Thursday.

https://www.rt.com/news/573130-us-unsc-lgbt-rights/