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Monday, July 31, 2023
John Kerry to Humanity: Drop Dead | Power Line
John Kerry to Humanity: Drop Dead | Power Line
John Kerry to Humanity: Drop Dead
Here is our “climate envoy” John Kerry, explaining that since agriculture—food production in general—is responsible for as much as 33 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture “has to change.”
Energy Industry Fears White House Will Declare COVID-Like 'Climate Emergency' | The Epoch Times
Energy Industry Fears White House Will Declare COVID-Like 'Climate Emergency' | The Epoch Times: Some energy industry groups are expressing concern that the White House will declare a COVID-19-like ...
The Covid Lab-Leak Deception - WSJ
The Covid Lab-Leak Deception - WSJ
Scientists who signed a paper claiming a natural origin turn out not to have believed it themselves.
Shifting Sands: Report III by Stanley Young | Report | NAS
Shifting Sands: Report III by Stanley Young | Report | NAS
Shifting Sands: Confounded Errors focuses on failures by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to consider empirical evidence available in the public domain early in the pandemic. The report finds compelling circumstantial evidence that lockdowns and masking mandates imposed during the pandemic had no proven benefit to public health outcomes.
Sunday, July 30, 2023
The Profiteers of Armageddon - TomDispatch.com
The Profiteers of Armageddon - TomDispatch.com: Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months, you're undoubtedly aware that award-winning director Christopher Nolan has released a new film about Robert Oppenheimer, known as the “father of the atomic
William Hartung, Cashing in on a Perpetual Nuclear Arms Race
July 30, 2023
Yes, the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, would kill staggering numbers of people and be an eerily (if all too grimly) appropriate ending to the war that started with the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and, by August 1945, had resulted in the saturation bombing of 64 Japanese cities.
The scientist who led the team responsible for creating the bombs that destroyed those two cities (and for the initial nuclear test in New Mexico that, as we only recently learned, spread fallout over 46 states, Canada, and Mexico), the 41-year-old J. Robert Oppenheimer, would later borrow a line from the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu scriptures, to describe his mood at the time: "Now, I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." And eerily enough, the use of the weapon that would prove to be the second way humanity found to destroy our planet -- the first, climate change, was already in effect but not yet known -- would find all too few in the U.S. government hesitant to use it at that time. As historian John Dower would put it in his memorable book Cultures of War,
"The policy makers, scientists, and military officers who had committed themselves to becoming death... never seriously considered not using their devastating new weapon. They did not talk about turning mothers into cinders or irradiating even the unborn. They brushed aside discussion of alternative targets, despite the urging of many lower-echelon scientists that they consider this. They gave little if any serious consideration to whether there should be ample pause after using the first nuclear weapon to give Japan's frazzled leaders time to respond before a second bomb was dropped."
They just did it, twice, and the world changed radically. Almost 80 years later, at a moment when a global leader is once again evidently considering the possible use of what are now called "tactical nuclear weapons" (but can be several times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki), Oppenheimer is having his moment in the sun (or is it a blaze of atomic light?) in a film that, to the surprise of many, has hit the big time in an almost nuclear fashion. And as TomDispatch regular and Pentagon expert William Hartung reminds us while considering that three-hour odyssey of a film, what "Oppie" began then has by now become a full-scale nuclear-industrial complex on a planet where ultimate destruction, it often seems, always lurks just around the corner. Tom
Australia Agrees To Build US Missiles; US Dismisses Australian Concerns About Assange – Caitlin Johnstone
Australia Agrees To Build US Missiles; US Dismisses Australian Concerns About Assange – Caitlin Johnstone
In reality, Assange is being persecuted by the United States for no other reason than the crime of good journalism. His reporting exposed US war crimes, and the US wishes to set a legal precedent that allows for anyone who reveals such criminality to be imprisoned in the United States — not just the whistleblowers who bring forth that information, but publishers who circulate it. This is why even mainstream press outlets and human rights organizations unequivocally oppose his extradition; because it would be a devastating blow to worldwide press freedoms on what is arguably the single most important issue that journalists can possibly report on.
So here is Australia signing up to become the Pentagon’s weapons supplier to the south — on top of already functioning as a total US military/intelligence asset which is preparing to back Washington in a war with China, and on top of being so fully prostrated before the empire that we’re not even allowed to know if American nuclear weapons are in our own country — being publicly hand-waved away by Washington’s top diplomat for expressing concern about a historic legal case in which an Australian citizen is being persecuted by the world’s most powerful government for being a good journalist.
Sleepwalking through War Crimes and Genocides
Sleepwalking through War Crimes and Genocides
The globalization of indifference and empty political posturing prevents America from having a strategic debate about the role of moral values in U.S. foreign policy.
Why the Press Failed on Iraq | Foreign Affairs
Why the Press Failed on Iraq | Foreign Affairs
Twenty years ago, the George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and eliminate the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) officials said he had. Getting the American public to support a war against a country that had not attacked the United States required the administration to tell a convincing story of why the war was necessary. For that, it needed the press.
Cherry picking: How Western media covered the Russia-Africa summit | Al Mayadeen English
Cherry picking: How Western media covered the Russia-Africa summit | Al Mayadeen English
As important as the Russia-Africa summit is regarding regional issues and cooperation, UK and US-based media decided to focus on matters that served almost no importance, such as the number of presidents who attended, why Wagner was in Africa, and why Russia is to blame for the end of the Black Sea Grain Deal.
Officials and delegates from 49 African countries attended the two-day summit from July 27 to 28, resulting in a 74-point joint declaration pledging cooperation in an effort to develop a multipolar world order.
However, Western media decided to focus on headlining Kenyan diplomat Korir Sing’Oei's tweet last week that withdrawing from the grain deal was “a stab on the back at global food security prices.”
Colorado River Basin megadrought caused by massive 86% decline in snowpack runoff
Colorado River Basin megadrought caused by massive 86% decline in snowpack runoffThe Colorado River Basin provides freshwater to more than 40 million people within the semi-arid southwestern United States, including major cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles. However, between 2000 and 2021 the basin experienced a megadrought (a severe drought lasting multiple decades), which researchers have suggested likely would not have occurred if it were not for anthropogenic climate change. In particular, during 2020 and 2021, the river basin recorded the driest 20-month period since 1895 and the lowest river flow since 1906.
Dr. Benjamin Bass and colleagues at the University of California aimed to identify how precipitation and runoff within the basin have changed since the 1880s, in line with a 1.5°C increase in temperature over the same period. New research, published in Water Resources Research, identified a 10.3% decrease in runoff within the basin as a direct result of anthropogenic warming and vegetation changes in the landscape, meaning available water resources to support the local population have declined 2.1 km3.
Furthermore, the scientists found that snowpack regions were significantly impacted by aridification, exacerbating the decline in runoff to twice that of neighboring areas. Though snowpack regions constitute only 30% of the Colorado River drainage basin, the aridification has led to an 86% decrease in runoff (losing 1.2 km3 of water per °C of warming).
This is likely to worsen due to albedo feedback, whereby the declining snow reduces the lighter "white" snow surface to reflect heat from solar insolation, instead exposing more of the land to absorb heat and ultimately increasing temperature further which causes more snow to melt and so the feedback loop continues.
An Exceptional Nation: American Double Standards - CounterPunch.org
An Exceptional Nation: American Double Standards - CounterPunch.org
Since the foundation of the USA about 250 years ago, Americans have seen themselves as the savior of mankind and as the unchallenged leader of the “free world”. Since 1798 the USA has undertaken 469 military interventions. 251 of these interventions alone were undertaken over a 30 year period since 1991[i]. Common to almost all of those interventions is that they were carried out from a high moral position, often with altruistic undertones. The USA perceives itself as a force of good directed by God himself against the evils of the world. The US armed forces intervene from principles of a freedom agenda. Most recently we have seen this during the “liberation” of the Iraqi people from the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein. In the name of freedom the US armed forces aimed at introducing the first democratic state in the middle east, according to deputy secretary of Defense, Wolfowitz. However, actions taken by the USA are often in direct contradiction to what it dictates others to do. The USA urges nations to adhere to the Universal Human Rights Principles, while the CIA snatches terror suspects in foreign countries and submits them to torture in secret places or as they did in the prison in Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where the US military and CIA hired mercenaries from such countries as South Africa and Serbia to carry out their dirty work.
Normally such outright conflict between declared policies, built on humanitarian and democratic values on one hand and on the other hand actions which violate these very same values would be met with disrespect and criticism. However, this is not the case when the offender is the USA. Europeans and allies usually meet such American behavior with silence and at best with understanding and support. There is a general acceptance among Western allies that the USA is in its good right to do whatever, it considers best for the USA, even when the implication is that the behavior in question conflicts with internationally agreed-upon conventions. This is referred to as American Exceptionalism. Why does shifting American governments believe that it is not be obliged to follow international conventions, sometimes even ratified by its government, as in the case of the International Human Rights Convention and the Geneva Convention? Why does the US government believe that international commitments are less relevant to it than to other countries? Curiously, and to mislead the public, the official USA has invented a particular vocabulary to conceal its crimes. The bigotry practiced by the Americans in international diplomacy, is also obvious in the use of new terms for old misdeeds. Thus torture is referred to as ‘enhanced interrogation’, and preventive wars are called ‘anticipatory self-defense’.
Saturday, July 29, 2023
(1) The Power of the Israeli Lobby | A Conversation with Ambassador Chas Freeman - YouTube
(1) The Power of the Israeli Lobby | A Conversation with Ambassador Chas Freeman - YouTube: Charles "Chas" W. Freeman Jr. is an American retired diplomat and writer. He served in the United States Foreign Service, the State and Defense Departments i...
Treasure Trove of Damning Evidence Surrounding COVID Origin
Treasure Trove of Damning Evidence Surrounding COVID Origin: Treasure Trove of Damning Evidence Surrounding COVID Origin
Story at-a-glance
U.S. House Republicans investigating the origin of COVID-19 inadvertently released a trove of new documents that shed light on deliberations among the scientists in the earliest days of the pandemic
July 11, 2023, the subcommittee on the origin of COVID-19 held a hearing on the “Proximal Origin” paper, in which they questioned Dr. Robert Garry of Tulane University and Dr. Kristian Andersen of Scripps, two of the paper’s authors
February 1, 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci convened a conference call with nearly a dozen scientists. Their scientific consensus was that SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be genetically engineered and that the pandemic was likely the result of a lab escape
Later that day, several of the authors drafted a paper that drew the opposite conclusion. “The Proximal Origin of Sars-Cov-2,” a letter to the editor, was published in Nature Medicine, March 17, 2020. It ended up being widely cited by media as evidence of a scientific consensus that the virus emerged naturally and jumped species
Why Americans Who Want to Preserve Traditional Values Move to Russia
Why Americans Who Want to Preserve Traditional Values Move to Russia
The aggressive promotion of so-called “diversity” and “inclusivity” in the United States nowadays has apparently led some Americans to move to countries such as Russia, where traditional values are respected and protected by the government and society.
An unspecified number of Americans, all of them “accomplished people of traditional values,” have ended up moving from the United States to Russia and settling near the city of Serpukhov in the Moscow Region, said Evgeny Primakov, head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation.
According to Primakov, all of these “settlers” have or had their own businesses back in the US, which they are willing to sell or which they have already sold in order to relocate to Russia.
“They are mostly people with traditional values, faithful but not necessarily Orthodox Christian,” he said, adding that these Americans also do not necessarily have any Russian ancestry.
Gloomy climate calculation: Scientists predict a collapse of the Atlantic ocean current to happen mid-century – Niels Bohr Institute - University of Copenhagen
Gloomy climate calculation: Scientists predict a collapse of the Atlantic ocean current to happen mid-century – Niels Bohr Institute - University of Copenhagen
Ocean Currents
Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist. This is the conclusion based on new calculations from the University of Copenhagen that contradict the latest report from the IPCC.
Contrary to what we may imagine about the impact of climate change in Europe, a colder future may be in store. In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute and Department of Mathematical Sciences predict that the system of ocean currents which currently distributes cold and heat between the North Atlantic region and tropics will completely stop if we continue to emit the same levels of greenhouse gases as we do today.
Using advanced statistical tools and ocean temperature data from the last 150 years, the researchers calculated that the ocean current, known as the Thermohaline Circulation or the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), will collapse – with 95 percent certainty – between 2025 and 2095. This will most likely occur in 34 years, in 2057, and could result in major challenges, particularly warming in the tropics and increased storminess in the North Atlantic region.
"Shutting down the AMOC can have very serious consequences for Earth's climate, for example, by changing how heat and precipitation are distributed globally. While a cooling of Europe may seem less severe as the globe as a whole becomes warmer and heat waves occur more frequently, this shutdown will contribute to an increased warming of the tropics, where rising temperatures have already given rise to challenging living conditions," says Professor Peter Ditlevsen from the Niels Bohr Institute.
"Our result underscores the importance of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible," says the researcher.
The New "Facebook Files" Show Everything the First Amendment Was Designed to Prevent
The New "Facebook Files" Show Everything the First Amendment Was Designed to Prevent
The New "Facebook Files" Show Everything the First Amendment Was Designed to Prevent
A House Subcommittee releases internal Facebook correspondence showing how a White House that was itself spreading disinformation tried to ban criticism
Friday, July 28, 2023
(1) The World Doesn’t Buy The West's Stupid Narrative. Ukraine Will Be Neutral | Chas Freeman - YouTube
(1) The World Doesn’t Buy The West's Stupid Narrative. Ukraine Will Be Neutral | Chas Freeman - YouTube: In the third part of the interview, former US Ambassador Chas Freeman is talking about why Ukraine will end up being neutralized as a buffer state between NA...
Netanyahu lost control of Israel to Levin, Ben-Gvir - Israel Politics - The Jerusalem Post
Netanyahu lost control of Israel to Levin, Ben-Gvir - Israel Politics - The Jerusalem Post: INSIDE POLITICS: Even if Levin and Ben-Gvir are the de facto prime ministers, the overwhelming responsibility for the deep abyss into which Israeli society is plunging rests with Netanyahu alone.
Emails show the NYT got played by COVID ‘experts’ - Based Politics
Emails show the NYT got played by COVID ‘experts’ - Based Politics: Emails show the NYT got played by COVID ‘experts’
'It’s not some fringe theory.'
Modi pitches India as 'reliable' base for chipmaking - Nikkei Asia
Modi pitches India as 'reliable' base for chipmaking - Nikkei Asia: GANDHINAGAR, India -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday vowed to make the country a "reliable" base for the semiconductor industry, as the
When facts cut through the fog of war - Responsible Statecraft
When facts cut through the fog of war - Responsible Statecraft
Kelley writes:
'Morning all! Katrina and James have a bold new piece on RS, calling out the US govt for spinning the counteroffensive to the point where there seems to be no "Plan B" now that conditions on the ground are showing at best a stalemate, worst, failure for Ukraine to achieve its goals. They ask: Is it time to talk? Is it time to consider a "Europeanization" of the conflict?
Fr. Mike Schmitz Reviews "Sound of Freedom" Movie - Ascension Press Media
Fr. Mike Schmitz Reviews "Sound of Freedom" Movie - Ascension Press Media: Fr. Mike shares his honest review of the film, "Sound of Freedom," currently in theaters, and offers a word of encouragement for how each of us can confront this terrible reality head-on and proactively do something about it.
Thursday, July 27, 2023
That Other War - TomDispatch.com
That Other War - TomDispatch.com
Cox, The War You're Not Reading About
July 27, 2023
Let me just express my embarrassment that, while I certainly noticed when war broke out in Sudan in April, I simply forgot about it thereafter. You might wonder how I could do that, but it's all too true. I quite literally let it drop out of my brain. How, I'm not sure, since I do read fairly widely in the news. Yet, in these last couple of months, little or nothing caught my eye about Sudan to remind me that it had, in fact, become an almost unimaginable horror.
And the mainstream media places that I normally look to, even as they highlighted the ongoing catastrophe in Ukraine, were essentially no help, not when it came to obvious headline stories anyway. It was as if the ongoing nightmare in Sudan didn't exist in a moment when (yes!) thousands were dying there and (catch this!) at least 3.1 million human beings were being displaced -- a truly polite word for such a nightmare -- thanks to an internal conflict between two Sudanese generals and their forces. So, all I can say is, thank heavens for TomDispatch regulars Priti Gulati and Stan Cox, some of whose relatives were, horrifyingly enough, swept up in that still ongoing nightmare.
Let them explain what I, in my ignorance, couldn't and remind us that, while this planet of ours is now officially broiling in a climate made in hell (or rather in the hellish worlds of the big fossil-fuel companies), we humans still have a remarkable ability to ignore so much that truly should matter on this planet of ours. Tom
Japan enacts chip export controls at US behest - Asia Times
Japan enacts chip export controls at US behest - Asia Times: Japan’s new restrictions on exports of advanced semiconductor production equipment went into effect on Sunday. Drawn up at the instigation of the United
China hits back against Western sanctions
China hits back against Western sanctions: The Communist Party is becoming less timid in its retaliation against American economic warfare | Business
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Why US is lagging behind China in AI race - Asia Times
Why US is lagging behind China in AI race - Asia Times: China is rapidly closing in on the United States' lead in artificial intelligence, with US underfunding and reluctance to incorporate civilian AI firms
The Ambivalent Destroyer - Tablet Magazine
The Ambivalent Destroyer - Tablet Magazine: Christopher Nolan’s new biopic shows J. Robert Oppenheimer as he really was—an American Prometheus divided at his core
Oppie—“A very mysterious and delphic character.” Interview with Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Oppie—“A very mysterious and delphic character.” Interview with Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Kai Bird, one of the co-authors of "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"—which 25 years to complete—explains why he once described biography as: “The hardest form of history. And the most expensive.”
Oppenheimer’s Frown - Word on Fire
Oppenheimer’s Frown - Word on Fire: Oppenheimer is a good film, and Oppenheimer himself a compelling character. But what I take away most from the film is his nervous frown.
[Salon] The Political Hysteria Over China Is Dangerous! Time To Deescalate! -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5K0KLGPaUA
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGtwMcJsTMJsTRCMfBfjWKxJXfq?projector=1
0:00 / 1:26:21
The Political Hysteria Over China Is Dangerous! Time To Deescalate! | Chas Freeman
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
‘Oppenheimer’
‘Oppenheimer’: Jim DiEugenio reviews the new blockbuster film "Oppenheimer."
By James DiEugenio
Special to Consortium News
If Robert Oppenheimer had never existed, playwrights, journalists, authors and filmmakers of the world would have had to invent him. And for good reason.
No figure involved with
Judicial Chaos in Israel: Settler Plows into Protesters, as Police Arrests Netanyahu's Opponents - Palestine Chronicle
Judicial Chaos in Israel: Settler Plows into Protesters, as Police Arrests Netanyahu's Opponents - Palestine Chronicle: The Ayalon freeway near Tel Aviv was obstructed with crowds, fires, and barricades for several hours before law enforcement intervened.
Monday, July 24, 2023
[Salon] U.S. and China in the World -
[Salon] U.S. and China in the World - micheletkearney@gmail.com - Gmail: Google's approach to email
Chinese Money Flees the Western World - WSJ
Chinese Money Flees the Western World - WSJ: Chinese investors who once bought New York City hotels and other Western assets are placing their money elsewhere, including Indonesia’s nickel industry.
The climate witch trials - spiked
The climate witch trials - spiked: Questioning the climate-change narrative is now the ultimate form of heresy.
Sunday, July 23, 2023
Daniel Ellsberg Tribute - YouTube
Daniel Ellsberg Tribute - YouTube
> "Daniel Ellsberg explains why the First Amendment Right to Free Speech and Free Press must be as zealously protected today as he did by releasing the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Beginning with freeing publisher Julian Assange as a political prisoner from the illegal false imprisonment he is in. And explains why charges brought by the Trump administration under the totalitarian U.S. Espionage Act must be dropped to protect all journalists.
"Henry K. in Beijing." - by Patrick Lawrence - The Scrum
"Henry K. in Beijing." - by Patrick Lawrence - The Scrum: China finally finds someone to talk to.
Florida Becomes Nation’s Inflation Hot Spot, Housing a Major Contributor
Florida Becomes Nation’s Inflation Hot Spot, Housing a Major Contributor: Florida has become the nation's inflation hot spot. Data released on July 12 by the Bureau of Labor ...
Sharing in God’s Patience - The Catholic Thing
Sharing in God’s Patience - The Catholic Thing
Perhaps one of the most difficult teachings of the Church is about herself – that the Church is holy. How can that be? We know her history well enough to know about all kinds of unholiness in the Church. More importantly and most immediately, we know that we ourselves – members of the Church – are beset by sin. Still, in our Creeds we confess that the Church is holy. Today’s parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-43) might shed some light on this doctrine.
The parable describes something that happened often enough in the ancient world that there were specific laws against it. A man would sow tares or cockle in his enemy’s wheat field. That weed would grow along with the wheat and would look exactly like it. If not filtered out, it would be harvested with the wheat, make its way into the bread, and poison the consumers, sometimes fatally.
As our Lord makes clear, the Church – the children of the kingdom – is the good seed that the Father has sown in the world. Thus, the Church is holy. She is no mere human creation but the foundation and household of God, planted by his hand, established as the Body of Christ. The Church is a tree growing upside down, with her roots in heaven and her branches here on earth.
But the Church exists in a fallen world, and the enemy is active. As the parable makes clear, he sows bad seed among the children of the kingdom. There is poison, in effect, even within the Church. The problem is the bad seed looks a lot like the good. So, the householder instructs his servants to wait: Let them grow together until harvest. At that point, he will be able to discern and to judge.
‘Serious Doubt’ About COVID-19 Vaccine Safety After Forced Release of 15,000 Pages of Clinical Trial Data: Legal NGO
‘Serious Doubt’ About COVID-19 Vaccine Safety After Forced Release of 15,000 Pages of Clinical Trial Data: Legal NGO
Conservative public interest advocacy group Defending the Republic (DTR) has obtained almost 15,000 pages of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial data, claiming the data show an “utter lack of thoroughness” of the trials and calls the vaccine’s safety into “serious doubt.”
As a result of successful Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the group recently announced it had obtained—and is releasing—nearly 15,000 pages of documents relating to testing and adverse events associated with “Spikevax,” Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Since 2022, the group has been involved in litigation against the FDA relating to the production of data submitted by Moderna in support of its application to federal regulators for approval of its vaccine.
As a result, the FDA agreed to produce around 24,000 pages of the Moderna records by the end of this year, with the 15,000 pages being the first instalment.
The records, some of which relate to adverse events related to the vaccine, include important information related to the safety profile of Spikevax, which was first authorized for emergency use in the United States in December 2020 and in January 2022 received full approval for adults.
“The public can be assured that Spikevax meets the FDA’s high standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality required of any vaccine approved for use in the United States,” Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement earlier this year.
But the new data call this view into question. The advocacy group says that the tens of thousands of pages of clinical trial data released by the FDA supports the conclusion that there is “serious doubt” about both the safety of Spikevax and the FDA’s standards for approval.
Neither Moderna nor the FDA immediately responded to a request for comment.
Russia 'buying back' arms parts exported to Myanmar and India - Nikkei Asia
Russia 'buying back' arms parts exported to Myanmar and India - Nikkei Asia: TOKYO -- Russia is suspected of buying back military supplies previously shipped to Myanmar and India, according to a Nikkei analysis of customs clear
Japan-made semiconductors skirt sanctions to enter Russia - Nikkei Asia
Japan-made semiconductors skirt sanctions to enter Russia - Nikkei Asia: TOKYO -- Semiconductors made by Japanese manufacturers are still entering Russia, even after its invasion of Ukraine, according to an investigation by
HP to move production of millions of PCs to Thailand, Mexico - Nikkei Asia
HP to move production of millions of PCs to Thailand, Mexico - Nikkei Asia: TAIPEI -- HP is working with suppliers to shift production of millions of consumer and commercial laptops to Thailand and Mexico this year, in the top
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Neocons Want War With China, by Pepe Escobar - The Unz Review
Neocons Want War With China, by Pepe Escobar - The Unz Review: https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e7/07/15/1112042465_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_500ed8814b7a58308db7116674fd3873.jpg.webp It was a photo op for the ages: a visibly well-disposed President Xi Jinping receiving centenarian 'old friend of China' Henry Kissinger in Beijing. Mirroring meticulous Chinese attention to protocol, they met at Villa 5 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse – exactly where Kissinger first met in person with Zhou Enlai in 1971, preparing Nixon’s 1972 visit to China. The Mr. Kissinger Goes to Beijing saga was an 'unofficial', individual attempt to try to mend increasingly fractious Sino-American relations. He was not representing the current American administration. There’s the rub. Everyone involved in geopolitics is aware of the legendary Kissinger
Keine Alternative - GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com
Keine Alternative - GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com
https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/news/detail/9304
No alternative
Habeck is pushing ahead with the conclusion of a free trade agreement with the EU during a visit to India. Business representatives clearly reject the plan to replace the China business with the India business.
21
July
2023
Soon the fourth largest economy in the world
Economists basically see some potential for the expansion of economic relations with India, which Germany and the EU are striving for. The Indian economy is growing rapidly, expected to be around six percent this year; India has recently become the country with the fifth largest economic output in the world before the former colonial power Great Britain and will probably displace Germany from the place of the fourth largest economy in the world in just a few years. According to forecasts from the financial industry, for example from Goldman Sachs, India could have risen in absolute dollar values to the second largest economic power in the world behind China and ahead of the USA in 2075; if the economic output is calculated according to purchasing power parity, this would probably be the case much earlier. 1] Its market volume alone makes the country interesting for German companies in principle. German-Indian trade has recently risen from 23.3 billion euros in 2021 to almost 30 billion euros in 2022. Investments are also increasing again; most recently, SAP 55 million euros and Siemens Healthineers 160 million euros invested in the expansion of their locations in the southern Indian Bengaluru, an eleven-million-inhabited metropolis that is considered India's Silicon Valley because of its booming IT industry.
Foreign economic on the sidelines
In order to give trade with India a boost, the federal government is pushing vigorously for a free trade agreement between the EU and the country. Negotiations on this were already started in 2007, but then dragged on and were provisionally discontinued in 2013. They were resumed last year. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck held talks about this yesterday Thursday in New Delhi. In February, the Berlin Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP) pointed out that India belongs neither to the Asian free trade zone RCEP nor to the trans-Pacific free trade alliance CPTPP, i.e. is "outside down in Asia - a disadvantage "in the location competition for new industrial settlements." 2] As a result, under pressure, it has now increased its efforts to conclude new free trade agreements. In 2021, one was concluded with Mauritius, in 2022 one with the United Arab Emirates; others with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC, association of the Arab Gulf States), Israel, Great Britain and Canada are in the works. This also opens up new opportunities for the EU. Of course, the SWP warns that one can be "with good reason skeptical" whether the divergent interests of both sides regarding "market opening, liberalization and sustainability could be reconciled".
The problems of the India business
Even beyond the debate on the free trade agreement, the German economy has always heard quite skeptical assessments of the prospects of the India business. Although German politicians regularly drummed for moving investments from China to India or at least making new investments there instead of in the People's Republic, it is said that this would be opposed to problems that have been known for decades but have not been eliminated to this day. 3] This applies, for example, to the "bureaucracy and a complex regulatory environment" in the country, stated a few days ago by the Vice President of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) Kirsten Schoder-Steinmüller.[ 4] Among the "biggest challenges for German companies in India" were also rampant corruption and "deficiencies in the infrastructure", Wolfgang Niedermark is quoted by the general management of the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI). 5] Just recently, the Foxconn group from Taiwan broke off the attempt to build a chip factory in India together with the Indian conglomerate Vedanta for almost 20 billion US dollars, frustrated. The economist Ashoka Mody from Princeton University judges: "The claim that India is booming is completely false." 6] In reality, the country "cannot keep up with China's productivity."
Opportunities in solar energy
Nevertheless, Berlin is doing everything in its best to vigorously boost the India business. "India is a counterweight to China," said Minister of Economic Affairs Habeck before his current trip; it is therefore essential to strengthen economic ties. 7] Chances of success are currently emerging in solar energy. In India or especially in its northwestern state of Gujarat, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi served as head of government before taking office in New Delhi from 2001 to 2014, a booming solar industry has emerged in recent years, which has so far successfully produces solar modules on a large scale. Although their production costs are still noticeably above those achieved in China. But the Indian government subsidizes the industry with funds in the amount of 80 percent of the additional costs incurred in Gujarat compared to the cheapest manufacturers in China. 8] Habeck will be accompanied on his trip to India by the managing director of the start-up Enpal, which sells solar systems on a large scale; it is to be checked whether Enpal can switch to Indian solar modules. However, India's capacities are limited. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates, the Chinese world market share will fall with successful production in India and the USA, but only from - depending on the market segment - today 80 to 95 percent to 75 to 90 percent in 2027. 9]
Arms exports
The Federal Government is looking to expand not least the arms exports to India, which have repeatedly reached low three-digit million amounts in recent years. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced during a visit to New Delhi at the beginning of June that he wanted to work to ensure that arms exports to India are equated with those to Australia or Japan; this would greatly facilitate the approval procedures. 10] On the sidelines of Pistorius' visit, representatives of the German shipyard ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and the Indian Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders from Mumbai signed a memorandum of intent that provides for the joint development of new submarines for the Indian Navy. If the two companies come into play, then the submarines are to be built together in India. Both companies had already cooperated in the construction of four submarines in the 1980s; two of them were built at the time at the TKMS predecessor HDW, two at Mazagon. 11] Berlin also supports the German offer with the aim of breaking the hitherto close Indian-Russian arms cooperation. Of course, it may be doubted that this will succeed: A few days ago, New Delhi offered Moscow to deliver BrahMos missiles to the Russian armed forces after the end of the Ukraine war. These were developed in Indian-Russian cooperation; they are manufactured in India. 12]
[1] How India could rise to the world's second-biggest economy. goldmansachs.com 06.07.2023.
[2] Hanns Günther Hilpert, Bettina Rudloff, Christian Wagner: Negotiations on a free trade agreement between India and the EU. SWP-Current 2023/A 11. Berlin, 10.02.2023.
[3] See "Involving India".
[4] Three-day trip to India: Robert Habeck wants to expand cooperation. rnd.de 19.07.2023.
[5] Why India is becoming more important for Germany. rnd.de 19.07.2023.
[6] Mathias Peer, Klaus Stratmann: Why India will not become the new China. handelsblatt.com 19.07.2023.
[7] "Time to put your heads in the water and cool them down." n-tv.de 19.07.2023.
[8], [9] International Energy Agency: Renewables 2022. Analysis and forecast to 2027. Paris, December 2022.
[10] Pistorius wants easier arms deals with India. tagesschau.de 06.06.2023.
[11] TKMS And MDL Join Forces To Build Submarines For And In India. navalnews.com 08.06.2023.
[12] Navya Beri: India considers selling BrahMos missiles to Russia. wionews.com 16.07.2023.
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