2 Apr, 2023 15:29

Iran warns off US spy plane – media

The electronic surveillance aircraft was turned back after it violated Iranian airspace, state media reported

The Iranian navy turned back an American surveillance plane after it entered the country’s airspace on Sunday, the IRNA news agency reported.Iran has previously shot down American spy aircraft.

A US EP-3E reconnaissance plane was identified by the Iranian navy over the Sea of Oman on Sunday afternoon, the state-owned news outlet reported.Following a warning from the navy, the plane returned to international airspace, the report continued.

Citing navy officials, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said thatthe plane did not actually enter Iranian airspace, and was turned around before it could do so. “Iranian naval forces gave the plane a warning and blocked its unauthorized entry into the Iranian airspace,”the agency’s version of events read.

At the time of writing, the US has not commented on the alleged incident.

The Lockheed EP-3E is an electronic signals reconnaissance variant of the P-3 Orion and is designed to patrol at low speedoff enemy shores and intercept communications. In 2001, an EP-3E operated by the US navy collided with a Chinese J-8 interceptor jet over the South China Sea. After dismantling the EP-3E, China eventually returned the plane and its 24-man crew to the US, but only after billing Washington for shipping costs and the 11 days of food and lodging it provided the crew.

The US often uses both manned and unmanned aircraft to surveil Iran. In 2019, Iranian air defense forces shot down an American RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran said the craft had violated its airspace, whileWashington insisted it had stayed in international skies.

US President Donald Trump responded to the shootdown by ordering a retaliatory missile strike,before calling off the attack out of a reluctance to inflict human casualtiesafter the loss of an unmanned drone. Trump instead imposed sanctions on Iranian military officials and authorized cyber attacks on Iranian military computer systems, which Tehran said it thwarted. (That was only reported as a warning to Iran)

https://www.rt.com/news/574032-iran-us-spy-plane/

2 Apr, 2023 18:58

China investigates US chipmaker over ‘security risks’

(Tit for Tik Tok, better tiltle)

The probe into Micron Technology comes as Beijing battles the US and its allies for semiconductor supremacy

China has opened an investigation into Micron Technology, an Idaho-based semiconductor firm. The probe comes as the US seeks to curtail Beijing’s access to these vital electronic components amid a deepening tech war.

In a statement on Friday, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said that it opened its investigation in order to “safeguard key information infrastructure supply chain security” and “prevent cyberspace security risks due to problematic products.”

While the Chinese government has not commented further on the investigation, several factors could have influenced the CAC’s decision to probe an American chipmaker, and Micron in particular.

Theprobe mirrors US investigations into Chinese technology firms like Huawei, which was placed on a US trade blacklist in 2019 and accused by Washington of enabling espionage by Beijing, which both Huawei and the Chinese government deny. Huawei suffered two straight years of declining profits in 2021 and 2022, and the Biden administration is reportedly planning to hammer Huawei with export controls to hasten the Chinese firm’s “demise,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

Aninvestigation into Micron would seriously harm the company’s bottom line, as China accounts for 10% of its sales, the South China Morning Post reported. Furthermore, Micron’s Chinese-made products directly compete with those of domestic firms, meaning the probe stands to benefit indigenous industry.

Semiconductors are used in a host of modern devices, from smartphones to washing machines to guided missiles. The majority of these microchips are made in East Asia, with Taiwan producing more than 60%, and much of the remainder split between South Korea, Japan, the US, and China.

The US has recently moved to extend its control over the industry, offering $52 billion in federal funding to domestic manufacturers last August and imposing export controls last October to block the sale to China of the hardware and software used to produce chips. Furthermore, the US is currently in talks with Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan to formalize the so-called ‘Chip 4 Alliance,’ which Beijing sees as an attempt to exclude China from semiconductor supply chains.

Micron allegedly lobbied the Biden administration to pass the manufacturing funding bill, andclosed a chip design center in Shanghai months before it became law, the South China Morning Post reported.

In a statement on Friday, the company said that it is “cooperating fully” with the CAC, and that it “stand[s] by the security of our products.”

https://www.rt.com/news/574039-china-micron-semiconductor-investigation/

PN>>18626555 OPEC+ Makes Surprise 1 Million-Barrel Oil Production Cut

I wonder if someone is asking them to do this so they open up drilling in the US again?

Bidan Admin trying to save face or

Another interested party

2 Apr, 2023 20:29

Who was Vladlen Tatarsky, the blogger killed in St. Petersburg

The Russian war reporter died as a result of a blast in the city center

Russian war correspondent Maxim Fomin – better known under the pen name Vladlen Tatarsky – was killed in a suspected IED explosion in a café in downtown St. Petersburg on Sunday afternoon. More than 20 other people were injured in the blast in the ‘Street Bar,’ according to Russian officials.

Tatarsky rose to prominence as a military blogger after Russia launched its operation in Ukraine last February.He had over 560,000 followers on Telegram alone, where he provided daily reports and in-depth analysis of the latest battlefield developments.

He was born on April 25, 1982 in the city of Makeevka in Donetsk Region of the Soviet Union. In 1999, he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and began working at a mine. Later, he started his own business and took several bank loans to expand it, according to the Russian media. However, hiscompany went bankrupt, and in 2011 he along with several friendsdecided to rob a bank. He was convicted and sent to a jail in Gorlovka in then-Ukrainian Donetsk Region.

In 2014, in the wake of the Western-backed Maidan coup in Ukraine, his prison came under fire. Tatarsky managed to escape andjoined up with a Donetsk militia, which had opposed the coup in Kiev, serving at various times in two units of the militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). He also served in theintelligence service of the LuganskPeople’s Republic (LPR).

In 2020, Tatarsky reportedly moved to Moscow but returned to Donbass soon after the beginning of the Russian military campaign andrejoined one of the battalionsin which he had previously served to fight against Kiev’s forces.

Tatarskyauthored three books, including the autobiographical novel ‘Running’, which was published in 2021.

On Sunday, Tatarsky, who over the course of the conflict had managed to become one ofRussia’s most popular military bloggers, was hosting a live event for his supporters at the St. Petersburg café. Kirill Makarov, the youth policy minister of the DRP, told Russian media that Tatarskymay have been killed by an improvised explosive device disguised as a statuette.

According to several Russian media outlets, ayoung woman had presented a figurineto the war correspondent during the event.

https://www.rt.com/russia/574043-who-was-vladlen-tatarsky/

2 Apr, 2023 17:39

Russian official ridicules Ukrainian plan to rename iconic Crimean city

Statements from “sick people” can’t be taken seriously, the governor of Sevastopol has stated

The idea of renaming Sevastopol as part of Kiev’s plan to retake Crimea from Russia should not be taken seriously, the governor of the port city, Mikhail Razvozhaev told TASS news agency on Sunday.

Earlier in the day, Aleksey Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, took to Facebook to post what he called “12 steps for the de-occupation of Crimea.”

One of the proposed steps was torename Sevastopol – first simply to “Installation No.6“ and then to Akhtiar, after a small settlement that used to exist in the area. The re-branding would be necessary to “break the historic perception [of Sevastopol] as a city of Russian military glory,” the Kiev official stated.

Danilov also suggested that if the peninsula became Ukrainian again theCrimean Bridge connecting it to mainland Russia would be destroyed, while the local population would undergo so-called “lustration,” or a vetting process to determinewho would lose their political rightsover ties to the Russian state.

Reacting to Danilov’s plan, Razvozhaev said that “the news from Ukrainian politicians ismore like entries in the medical record from Ward No.6.”He was likely referring to the 1892 short story ‘Ward No. 6’ by iconic Russian author Anton Chekhov, whichdepicts events at a provincial mental asylum.

“One can’t take statements and comments of sick people seriously. They need to be treated, which is what our military is doing right now,”the Sevastopol governor pointed out as cited by TASS news agency.

Sevastopol, in the south of the Crimean peninsula, serves as the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It is one of three federal cities under Russian law, together with Moscow and St Petersburg.

The name Sevastopol, which was given to thecity when it was founded by the Russian Empire in 1783, is composed of Greek words “sebastos,” which means “venerable,” and “polis,” which means “city.”

For months, Ukraine has been mulling a major counteroffensive aimed at restoring control over all territories lost to Russia, including Crimea.

Former Russian president and current deputy head of the country’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said earlier this week that the claims by Ukrainian officials were just “propaganda” and shouldn’t be treated seriously.

However, Medvedev warned that if the peninsula, which reunited with Russia as a result of a referendum in 2014, is actually attacked, itcould become “the basis for the use of all means of protection, including those provided for by the fundamentals of the Doctrine of Nuclear Deterrence.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/574033-crimea-sevastopol-ukraine-danilov/

(As far as I can tell, US and EU are losing interest quickly in Ukraine, these people are like gnats, buzzing around trying to get attention.)