RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19436/iran-arms-exporter

In the next phase of Iran’s dangerous development, export and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is attempting to set up drone assembly lines abroad, likely to expedite the process of weapons delivery to its allies.

“Moscow and Tehran are moving ahead with plans to build a new factory in Russia that could make at least 6,000 Iranian-designed drones for the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of deepening cooperation between the two nations….” — Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2023.

Iran’s regime has also been focusing on the proliferation and export of long- and short-range precision-guided ballistic missiles.

While ballistic missiles can be used for either offensive or defensive purposes, the sophisticated ones are mainly developed as delivery vehicles for nuclear weapons.

Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19406/turkey-earthquake-ugly-faces

The worst disaster in modern Turkey’s history, the earthquake killed, as of February 15, more than 35,000 people and injured 100,000. The death toll will likely reach 40,000 or more. According to one estimate, the quake will result in $84 billion in economic losses to Turkey, more than 10% of gross domestic product.

It was not the quake that killed tens of thousands, but politics and suicidal profit-maximization behavior on individual level.

[I]n the aftermath of the 1999 quake, Erdoğan said: “What broke here is not the fault line … It is [the state’s] sense of shame. This is [the result of] poor building planning and stealing from construction materials.” Now that he is in power, Erdoğan explains that the loss of life in this month’s earthquake was (God’s) fate.

As part of his election campaign in 2018, Erdoğan granted “amnesty” to 7.4 million applications for unregulated buildings in return for fees, of which his government collected more than $13 billion.

More than 10,000 buildings were destroyed in the latest earthquake.

With the amnesty, contractors were allowed to skip crucial safety regulations, increasing their profits but putting residents at risk. Few buyers and tenants could guess that those permits would be their death certificates.

One of the buildings that collapsed in Hatay, one of the worst-hit provinces, was a government hospital. In 2012, experts wrote a report that the building was not earthquake-resistant. The authorities did not mind. Ironically, a bridge in the same region, built 18 centuries ago during the Roman Empire, survived unscathed.

An Israeli relief team from United Hatzalah, after having rescued 19 people under the rubble, was forced to cut short their work in Turkey and leave the country “in the face of growing security threat to the team.” Yeni Akit claimed that “the Israeli team consisting of intelligence agents disguised as relief workers left Turkey in the face of threats and local people’s cries of ‘go home.'”

At 4:17 am on February 6, an earthquake of 7.8-magnitude hit 10 provinces in Turkey’s east, which account for a sixth of the country’s total population. The worst disaster in modern Turkey’s history, the earthquake killed, as of February 15, more than 35,000 people and injured 100,000. The death toll will likely reach 40,000 or more. According to one estimate, the quake will result in $84 billion in economic losses to Turkey, more than 10% of gross domestic product.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19429/rehabilitating-war-criminal-assad

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s offer to ease border restrictions to allow aid agencies better access to areas of northern Syria that were devastated by the recent earthquake is nothing more than a calculated ploy to have the punitive sanctions regime against Damascus eased.

The same pattern of double-dealing is now evident with the Assad regime’s blatant attempt to exploit the humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake on the Turkey-Syrian border for its own ends.

Instead of easing sanctions against Assad, the Biden administration should be supporting efforts to establish an international war crimes tribunal that will ensure Assad and his henchmen stand trial for their despicable crimes.

Nor is Syria the only rogue Middle Eastern state seeking to exploit the earthquake.

Reports have also emerged that Iran, Syria’s main regional ally, is similarly seeking to take advantage of the humanitarian disaster to expand its military presence in Syria, a policy that is designed to intensify its efforts to threaten neighbouring Israel.

It is reported that Iran is using the earthquake to smuggle convoys of weapons disguised as humanitarian aid for earthquake victims in Syria.

The Biden Administration should not be encouraging them in their duplicity.

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s offer to ease border restrictions to allow aid agencies better access to areas of northern Syria that were devastated by the recent earthquake is nothing more than a calculated ploy to have the punitive sanctions regime against Damascus eased.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19429/rehabilitating-war-criminal-assad

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s offer to ease border restrictions to allow aid agencies better access to areas of northern Syria that were devastated by the recent earthquake is nothing more than a calculated ploy to have the punitive sanctions regime against Damascus eased.

The same pattern of double-dealing is now evident with the Assad regime’s blatant attempt to exploit the humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake on the Turkey-Syrian border for its own ends.

Instead of easing sanctions against Assad, the Biden administration should be supporting efforts to establish an international war crimes tribunal that will ensure Assad and his henchmen stand trial for their despicable crimes.

Nor is Syria the only rogue Middle Eastern state seeking to exploit the earthquake.

Reports have also emerged that Iran, Syria’s main regional ally, is similarly seeking to take advantage of the humanitarian disaster to expand its military presence in Syria, a policy that is designed to intensify its efforts to threaten neighbouring Israel.

It is reported that Iran is using the earthquake to smuggle convoys of weapons disguised as humanitarian aid for earthquake victims in Syria.

The Biden Administration should not be encouraging them in their duplicity.

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s offer to ease border restrictions to allow aid agencies better access to areas of northern Syria that were devastated by the recent earthquake is nothing more than a calculated ploy to have the punitive sanctions regime against Damascus eased.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19428/shamima-begum

ISIS brides were complicit in ISIS’s genocide and crimes against humanity. Never mind that hostages were hung upside down and then burned alive, or locked in cages then lowered into water to drown, or crucified for hours “like Jesus;” or that children were crucified or sold as sex slaves; or that countless others were tortured, raped or lined up to have their throats slit.

The Free Yezidi Foundation recently wrote of ISIS and Begum: “Not only terror death cult, but mass-rape genocidal organization. The decision to join was hers. Her actions contributed to unspeakable acts of brutality, which she would have continued had ISIS, Daesh not been militarily defeated.”

“Ms. Begum, for example, claimed that she was only a housewife and did not participate in any heinous crimes or violation of human rights as an ISIS member. Some portrayed her as an innocent schoolgirl who was brainwashed, uninformed, and simply wanted to return home to Britain…. evidence now suggests that she was in fact a member of the ISIS ‘morality police, a group of ISIS women which was an integral part of ISIS’ terror and atrocity apparatus, and was armed with an automatic weapon on her patrols. The crimes allegedly committed by the morality police include major human rights offenses, including support to ISIS’ slave trade of Yezidis.” — Free Yezidi Foundation, September 19, 2019.

“‘Why are the BBC giving Shamima Begum more airtime?’: ‘Sickened’ viewers slam broadcaster for airing 90-minute documentary that ‘parades ISIS bride as a celebrity’ just weeks after it launched 10-part podcast ‘retracing her steps’. — The Daily Mail, February 18, 2023.

“What we Yazidis expect from the international community is support and solidarity, not digging into our wounds. ISIS criminals must face justice for what they have done and practiced. We expect the West to hold ISIS accountable in court rather than putting them on the cover of their magazine. Such stories are particularly difficult for us as Yazidis because these ISIS women tortured and abused Yazidi women while they were in ISIS’s captivity.” — Activist for Yazidi rights who lives in Iraq, to Gatestone, February 2023.

The question is: Why are some big Western media corporations obviously siding with a genocidal terror group and not with its innocent victims?

“I think this is a slap in the face of all those who suffered in the hands of terrorism, not just ISIS but other death cults such as Boko Haram. This is a spit in the face of all those whose loved ones were murdered, and I do not mean only Yazidis, Assyrians or Nigerians, but all the innocent Westerners who perished to Islamic terrorism such as in France, the UK, the US and elsewhere. Media has utterly lost its moral values.” — Juliana Taimoorazy, founding president, Iraqi Christian Relief Council, to Gatestone, February 2023.

While around 3,000 Yazidi children and women are still being held captive at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, many in the Western media are portraying a former “ISIS bride” not only as a victim but as a celebrity.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19405/china-lasers-hawaii

This [spy balloon’s eight-day flight] path certainly suggests China is gathering intelligence for either a first or second strike on America’s nukes.

Combined with the green lasers collecting atmospheric data useful for a strike by a hypersonic glide vehicle on Hawaii, American defense planners should be alarmed.

The real story is that the Pentagon was caught off-guard by the recent intrusions. Only after the Chinese spy balloon penetrated U.S. airspace did the Pentagon go back over previously collected radar data and realize that there had been intrusions in previous years.

Deterrence is being eroded as China’s Communist Party is fast mobilizing all society for war.

[T]he laser shower is another warning that war is on the way.

On January 28, the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera, which livestreams images from the Subaru Telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, caught images of a shower of green laser beams lasting just seconds.

The beams were not, as originally thought, from a NASA satellite. They could have come from only one source: China’s Daqi-1/AEMS satellite.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-has-deployed-97-of-army-in-ukraine-but-is-struggling-to-advance-u-k-says-91086284?mod=trending_now_news_1

The U.K. said Russia has deployed nearly its entire army in Ukraine, increasing pressure along the front line in the east of the country but falling short of a breakthrough.

Ukrainian officials have warned of a renewed Russian onslaught to coincide with the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion next week. But some Western officials say the offensive is unlikely to be one single event. Russian forces have redoubled attacks along the front lines in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, eking out gains after a series of reversals last year.

“We now estimate 97% of the whole Russian army is in Ukraine,” U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the British Broadcasting Corp.’s “Today” show on Wednesday.

Russian forces were trying to advance on all fronts, he said, adding: “We haven’t actually seen this massing of a single force to punch through in a big offensive. We’ve just seen an effort to advance, and that has come at a huge cost to the Russian army.”

Ukraine is seeking to absorb the attacks, buying time to build up its own forces for an offensive to retake territories occupied by Russia. Western officials expect Ukraine to launch a counteroffensive in the spring.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said Russian forces were rushing to gain ground before Kyiv amassed sufficient combat power for its own offensive. “The Russians understand that the continuation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive and operations to liberate our territories are inevitable,” he said. “That’s why the enemy is in a hurry.”

Fighting has been particularly fierce in the eastern city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian forces are resisting Russian moves to encircle the city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said grueling battles in the east were depleting Russia’s capacity to mount a broader offensive. In his nightly address, Mr. Zelensky said the situation in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk remains extremely difficult.

“We must understand the significance of these battles,” Mr. Zelensky said. “That is where the unprecedented destruction of Russian potential is taking place now.”

https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/15/klaus-schwab-whoever-masters-4th-industrial-revolution-technologies-will-be-the-master-of-the-world/

Klaus Schwab, founder and chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), said this week that technologies emerging from the so-called fourth industrial revolution (4IR) are advancing exponentially and could “escape” the globalists’ “power to master” them.

In his keynote speech to the World Government Summit on Monday, Schwab said shared global policies will be needed to mitigate this issue so globalists can be the “master of the world.”

The 2023 World Government Summit is taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Feb. 13-15.

Schwab said: “A few years ago, we considered some technologies a science fiction that was difficult to implement, but today it has become a reality that we live through artificial intelligence, new space technology, and industrial biology, which heralds a major change coming during the next ten years, and requires governments to be ambitious in their decisions.”

“Our life in 10 years from now will be completely different, very much affected,” Schwab explained, “and who masters those technologies, in some way, will be the master of the world.”

“My deep concern is that those technologies, if we don’t work together on a global scale, if we do not formulate, shape together the necessary policies, they will escape our power to master those technologies,” Schwab said.

Schwab and his WEF sidekick Yuval Noah Harari have spoken and written extensively in recent years on what they call “the fourth industrial revolution,” which is defined as “a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), Web3, blockchain, 3D printing,  genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19400/eu-global-getaway-china

The Global Gateway project was launched in December 2021. Meanwhile, China’s BRI was launched in 2012 and has spread all over the globe, especially to Africa, Latin America and Asia, where it has gained China vast influence. The Communist Party newspaper China Daily recently claimed that in 2022 alone, China had signed new contracts with BRI countries worth nearly $100 billion.

As of March 2022, the number of countries around the world that have joined the BRI by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with China was 147, according to the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University in Shanghai. Forty-three of those countries were in sub-Saharan Africa and another 18 countries were in North Africa and the Middle East.

The US Center for Global Development has criticized the Global Gateway program as a “mere packaging exercise of things that have already been programmed,” and saying that the €300 billion promised in new investments is not new at all.

The Global Gateway project is “a strategy to put together what was already going to happen and present it as something new, and if our partners are tricked by this then more fool them”. — Barry Andrews, an Irish member of the European Parliament, December 15, 2022.

“While China has roads, bridges and dams to show for its 20-year-engagement with Africa… the EU brings red tape and a lecture.” — African view of Global Gateway, Euractiv, December 20, 2021.

Since 1991, China’s foreign ministers have made it a tradition always to travel to Africa on their first trip abroad in the New Year. This year, China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang visited Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt in a week-long tour.

“Who listens and understands the context in which African countries are operating is going to be the better development partner… The EU is the one that doesn’t listen…. Was there consultation with African partners leading up to the global gateway? Zero.” — Ovigwe Eguegu, Nigerian policy adviser at consultancy Development Reimagined, Euractiv, December 20, 2021.

“Beijing has long viewed African countries as occupying a central position in its efforts to increase China’s global influence and revise the international order…” — US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 2020 Report to Congress.

It has been just over a year since the European Union launched its Global Gateway infrastructure project to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).