World Powers Including Russia & China Pledge “Nuclear War Must Never Be Fought”
A major declaration on the avoidance of nuclear war was issued Monday by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in the form of a joint statement. Importantly, it included both the United States and Russia, as well as China. This as the question of nuclear reduction has been source of icy tensions between all three large powers of late.
“We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented,” said permanent UNSC members China, France, Russia, the UK and United States. It added: “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
Further it contained a pledged among members for each to “strengthen our national measures to prevent unauthorized or unintended use of nuclear weapons.” Crucially the statement comes after the collapse of key Cold War-era arms control treaties, especially the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed between the Soviet Union and the US.
It also comes as China has lately been resistant to Biden administration efforts at initiating bilateral nuclear arms control and reduction talks. Beijing has just this week issued a call for the superpowers of the US and Russia to reduce their own massive stockpiles first, as a sign they are serious about entering such talks involving China, which currently doesn’t have more than a few hundred, compared to Washington and Moscow’s thousands.
“As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons — for as long as they continue to exist — should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war,” the statement reads. It also asserted that the “spread of such weapons must be prevented” and reaffirmed UNSC members’ obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
As Beijing likes to point out on this issue of “defensive purposes” – it’s only China and India that currently have a ‘no-first-use’ nuclear policy. UN Secretary-General António Guterres in making the announcement of the joint statement emphasized it was precisely toward preventing a nuclear arms race among rival powers.
In a joint statement, China, France, Russia, the UK and the USA “affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”.@UN chief @antonioguterres is encouraged by the nuclear-weapon States’ commitment to pursue measures to prevent nuclear war https://t.co/gJkI51rxrH
In November, following the Biden-Xi remote summit, where nuclear proliferation was discussed, national security advisor Jake Sullivan had described that Biden “did raise with President Xi the need for a strategic stability set of conversations around the sorts of issues you just described… that needs to be guided by the leaders and led by senior empowered teams on both sides that cut across security, technology and diplomacy,” according to FT.
Among the list of nuclear-related issues that is perhaps keeping Pentagon generals up at night remains both China and Russia’s rapidly advancing hypersonic missile capabilities. While Russia has appeared to be most advanced in this area, how far China’s program is along remains a bit of a mystery, with reports alleging last summer a groundbreaking successful China hypersonics flight and test.
Facebook on Monday allowed a children’s book publisher access to its account after claiming it was permanently blocked from the social media platform.
Facebook told Heroes of Liberty, the publishing company, that because of the “disruptive content” they posted, the account was locked for good.
But Andy Stone, a communications officer for Facebook parent company Meta, said Monday night the ban was done in error.
“This should not have happened. It was an error and the ad account’s been restored,” Stone wrote on Twitter.
Heroes of Liberty focuses on books about historical and current figures who embody American values, including late President Ronald Reagan and Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Bethany Mandel, who founded the company, said it invested considerably in Facebook even before officially launching.
“When Facebook shut down our account, we lost all the data that we carefully gathered for the last six months. We can’t communicate with the audience that we built. Our ad account is permanently disabled. The consequences to our business could be devastating,” Mandel said on social media before the account was restored.
The ban was decried by a number of conservatives, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Fox News analyst Brit Hume, who drew the response from Stone.
“The books were about Ronald Reagan, Amy Coney Barrett, and Thomas Sowell. Facebook blocked ads for them claiming they violate a policy against ‘low-quality or disruptive’ content. What [expletive],” Hume wrote.
Mandel said Tuesday that Facebook only told others that the account had been restored.
“Facebook informed several people and several members of Congress that we’ve been reinstated. They never actually told *us.* But our account looks restored, for now. We’d like to be reassured it was a mistake and that we can safely invest there,” she wrote on social media.
Move Over Amazon: CBRE Just Bought A Nearly $5 Billion Logistics Property Portfolio
Move over, Amazon…
As the world of e-commerce and the associated shipping and logistics necessary to run such businesses expands, warehousing and shipping have become important commodities.
Perhaps that’s why one of the largest sales of industrial properties used for these types of businesses has just taken place. CBRE Investment Management has reportedly agreed to buy a “a global portfolio of logistics properties” valued at nearly $5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, in a major bet that such properties will stay in demand.
The portfolio includes “more than 28 million square feet of warehouses, distribution centers and other logistics facilities in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Poland,” the report says. The properties are being built or developed by Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood Investment Properties, the report notes.
The portfolio was built in markets with large labor forces that are close to consumers.
Chuck Leitner, chief executive of CBRE Investment, said of the impact of Covid on e-commerce: “It’s made the price of real estate close to the consumer to be more worth it.”
He continued, pointing out the portfolio’s advantages for e-commerce: “It’s a portfolio that was built and designed to be very responsive” to online retailers.
As of now, about 66% of the portfolio is leased and built. The remaining portion is still being developed or leased.
CBRE’s strong balance sheet “allowed us to move quickly,” Leitner said of the purchase. In 2021, industrial property was one of the best performing types of property.
According to a report from Haaretz, Israel has pledged to inform the US of any major deals it reaches with China and would reconsider such deals if Washington raised opposition.
The US has become increasingly concerned over China’s infrastructure projects in Israel, and Biden administration officials have warned Israel against doing business with Beijing. Chinese investments were also a rare point of contention between Israel and the Trump administration.
The Haaretz report said Israeli officials have been discussing how to approach China and are considering whether to stand by the US or stay “under the radar” so Israel doesn’t lose business with China.
Sources familiar with the matter said that Israel is taking a “business as usual” approach with China. Lapid recently met with the Chinese Science and Technology Minister Wang Zhigang as preparations for a mutual conference are underway.
While the US is discouraging Israel from doing business with China, it is not offering any alternatives. Israel has inquired about potential infrastructure investments from US companies but has not received any offers.
“Israel has asked the US about alternatives to Chinese companies in the infrastructure sector, a move that yielded no results so far,”Haaretz writes. “A similar request was made to the U.K., and Israel hopes to advance mutual initiatives in the infrastructure sector with India and the United Arab Emirates as well.”
The irony of Washington pressuring Israel and other allies not to do business with Beijing is the fact that China is the US’s top trading partner. Despite the robust economic relationship, the Pentagon and other US government agencies have declared China as the US’s top adversary.
US Launches Preemptive Strike On “Rocket Sites” Near Occupied Syrian Oil Fields
Late in the day Tuesday (local time) the US military carried out what’s being described as a “preemptive strike” against rocket sites in eastern Syria that“posed a threat” – according to a US coalition official statement.
“The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the coalition saw several launch sites near the Green Village in Syria,” Reuters reports, referencing an American base in Deir Ezzor province. “The official did not specify from which country the coalition carried out the strike.”
The base that was being “threatened” is in Syria oil-rich eastern region, which for years American forces have occupied in support of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In the same area lies the country’s largest oil facility, al-Omar oil field, as well as Conoco gas field – both under US-SDF control, something Damascus and Moscow have long condemned as an illegal occupation presence intent on blocking Syria from its own vital energy resources.
Over the past year the US base has seen occasional attacks, which is typically blamed by the Pentagon on “pro-Iran” militias, or also possibly Syrian national forces.
In this case too, at least one regional correspondent has been told by a coalition official that “Iranian militias” were targeted in the new strikes.
Most recently, in the past few months, the Pentagon has more often had to worry about its outposts near the Syria-Iraq border, with al-Tanf base in particular coming under recent drone and mortar attack.
Such border region incidents are suspected as originating from either side of the border – with the Iraqi side seeing Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces recently stepping up small drone attacks.
On Monday in Iraq, US forces came under drone attack at Camp Victory near the Baghdad airport. US forces in the region are on edge this week as large anti-American demonstrations are being held in major cities to mark the second anniversary of the killing of IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani.
And then on Tuesday drones threatened Ain al-Assad airbase in Iraq, where US troops are stationed – the same base hit by Iranian cruise missiles two years ago, days after the Jan.3, 2020 assassination by drone of Soleimani.
Footage from Ain Al-Assad Airbase, #Iraq from the CRAM engagement of the two suspected Samad drones downed during the early hours of this morning. pic.twitter.com/8xGo7BYVO3
These days the Democratic Party is like a sad addict whose life has fallen apart, with too much to resolve and repair all at once. Sure, the aching hip and broken relationships can be put off for another day, but the lost job, wrecked car, and empty bank account require immediate attention. President Biden and the Democrats are — simultaneously — working to stave off the failure of his economic agenda, control a once-again rampaging pandemic, mitigate the effects of the worst inflation since 1982, and rescue democracy from new laws that permit the GOP to nullify the next election, all before they likely lose both chambers of Congress next year.
There are too many liabilities to count. But there is one new and glaring problem that has nothing to do with bickering factions in Congress, and cannot be explained away by global trends or the potency of election conspiracies and propaganda. A distinct group of their supporters is leaving them. Many Hispanic voters, long a reliable part of the Democratic coalition, have walked away. It is not — yet — a majority of them, but the numbers are dramatic. Biden won 750,000 fewer Hispanic voters in 2020 than Hillary Clinton did in 2016 — in an Electoral College victory he nearly lost by fewer than 45,000 votes in three states. Donald Trump improved his margin with these voters by eight percentage points in four years, according to an analysis by the Democratic firm Catalist — a larger swing than any among white, black or Asian voters.
It gets worse. Biden’s approval ratings are awful across the board, but his support has eroded more among Hispanic voters than with any other racial group. A Pew/Marist poll from December showed his approve/disapprove numbers with Hispanic voters were 33/65, a net -32, while they were 40/56 with whites, a net of -16.
A recent Wall Street Journal poll showed Hispanic voters splitting their support between both parties, with just 37% of them backing Democrats in the House of Representatives if the midterm elections were held today, compared to the 60% they gave Democrats last November. Republicans would also garner 37% if the election were today. While Biden won 63% of Hispanic voters in 2020, this poll showed they would split their support in a 2024 rematch, with 44% for Biden and 43% for Trump.
Hispanic men are more supportive of Republicans than Hispanic women, and following the 2020 election some Democrats dismissed this as a temporary loss, an attraction to Trump’s strongman persona. But Democrats are wrong to delude themselves with such a fiction. The data shows Hispanic voters not only rejected the left’s embrace of socialism, but that they prioritized the issue of jobs and the economy over all else, even if they were critical of Trump’s stand on immigration and the border wall. Their focus remained the same a year later — Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin won the Hispanic vote when he defeated Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, and Hispanic voters strongly disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy. The WSJ poll findings showed that a negative outlook on the economy was seven points higher among Hispanic voters than it was for voters overall.
So it isn’t surprising that, like most other voters, Hispanics do not see the American Rescue Plan as good policy, let alone the boon Democrats thought Americans would now be thanking them for. And like many voters, Hispanics too blame rising inflation on the Democrats’ spending bills.
Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report, recently quoted an older Latina swing voter from a focus group she attended in November who said that while “there were people who need the stimulus, like those who were unemployed,” Democrats “gave money to everyone, including those who didn’t need it. And now we are all paying for it because everything is going up.”
Layered on those differences, and the fact that many Hispanics are pro-life Catholics, is that the Democrats’ culture-war messaging is turning these voters off. Ruy Teixeira, a political scientist who has studied emerging trends in the Hispanic electorate, wrote in “The Liberal Patriot” that these voters do “not harbor particularly radical views on the nature of American society and its supposed intrinsic racism and white supremacy. They are instead a patriotic, upwardly mobile, working class group with quite practical and down to earth concerns.”
Have Democrats managed to miss all of this, or do they not care? Is it possible Republicans figured out Hispanic Americans are not woke, and many do not consider themselves non-white, but Democrats did not?
Democrats traditionally focus much of their election-time messaging on black voters, but in the first year of the Biden administration the party has sought to continue that outreach. Officials from the president on down have repeatedly highlighted the disenfranchisement of blacks by new Republican voting restrictions, especially in places like Georgia, calling those efforts a new era of Jim Crow, and Vice President Kamala Harris recently held an event on maternal morbidity rates, at which the White House issued a presidential proclamation marking “Black Maternal Health Week.”
There is not an explicit message or agenda that speaks to Hispanics, despite the math. While the black vote is expected to stay stable, the Hispanic vote will increase as their population grows, and was 30% larger in 2020 than it was in 2016.
It turns out that while Democrats were ignoring this demographic reality, even as Trump bellowed about the wall or Mexican rapists, Republicans deployed a strategy to address the growth of this voting bloc.
The swing against Democrats last year — though it amounted to an eight-point gain for Republicans nationally — was much larger in some places like the Rio Grande Valley in Texas (12 points) and Miami-Dade County in Florida (20 points), according to EquisLabs in an analysis of the 2020 Latino electorate.
In both of those places, Democrats, it turns out, were asleep at the wheel. Passed out actually.
The Equis assessment described a unilateral disarmament by Democrats that bolstered Republicans with Hispanic voters in Florida and Texas. In those states, on the issues of socialism and control of the border, Republicans were communicating their message to these voters clearly and repeatedly while Democrats were absent.
“Both are seemingly cases of neglect — where one side completely owns a highly salient issue without meaningful competition. We aren’t talking about ad spending in the last months of the election; we mean multiple years of attention — appearances, photo ops, press conferences, policy rollouts … boosted by local media that echo it,” stated an Equis Research report on the findings posted on Medium in December.
Unless Democrats want to cede the Hispanic vote to Republicans, it’s high time they sober up.
A.B. Stoddard is associate editor of RealClearPolitics and a columnist.
CDC Director Walensky Flip-Flops On PCR Testing Guidance
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky appeared to majorly waffle on her agency’s controversial guidance to eliminate PCR testing at the end of Covid-19 isolation because the tests can remain positive for up to 12 weeks, long after a person is no longer contagious.
“The big CDC news,” said Late Show host Stephen Colbert, is that “y’all have now gone from recommending a 10-day isolation to a five-day isolation. Why the change?”
To which Walensky replied that “probably about 80 to 90 percent of your transmissibility has happened in those first five days,” right before and after symptoms appear, “and we really want people to be sure if they’re gonna be home, they’re going to be home for the right period of time, when they’re maximally transmissible.”
Colbert then hinted at discord within the Biden administration after Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested the CDC guidance may shift yet again.
“In the UK they went from ten to seven days, but they are also recommending a negative test before considering yourself out of quarantine. Are we going to do that here? Because Dr. Fauci on CNN and ABC suggested that that’s under consideration. Is he talkin’ out both sides of his mouth over there, and you guys are telling him ‘put a cork in it, Tony!‘”
Walensky’s answer, while confusing, appeared to contradict her agency’s new guidelines.
“Deepest respect for Dr. Fauci,” Walensky replied. “Obviously, yes. Really important question. The FDA has authorized these tests, and they’re terrific tests for what they’re authorized for. So the FDA has authorized them for diagnosis, and what they said about these tests is they are best for diagnosis earlier in the disease course.
“Are these the rapid antigen test?” asked Colbert.
“Yes. So if you have access to a test. And you want to do a test at day five. And your symptoms are gone and you’re feeling well, then go ahead and do that test. But here’s how I would interpret that test. If it’s positive, stay home for another five days. If it’s negative, I would stay you still really need to wear a mask. You still may have some transmissibility ahead of you. You still should try not to visit grandma. You shouldn’t get on an airplane. You should still be pretty careful when you’re with other people – by wearing a mask all the time. “
This entire response completely ignores the CDC’s justification for eliminating the tests – namely the potential 12 week positive result despite no ability to transmit to others.
For those of us who value liberty, these past two years have been a bad dream. It seems like we fell asleep in early 2020 and woke up in 1984! They said that if we just put on a mask and stayed home for two weeks, we’d be able to return to normal. The two weeks came and went and instead of going back to normal they added more restrictions. These past two years have been a story of moving goalposts and “experts” like Anthony Fauci constantly contradicting themselves.
Early on, in April 2020, I warned in an article titled “Next in Coronavirus Tyranny: Forced Vaccinations and ‘Digital Certificates,’” that the ultimate goal of the “two weeks” crowd was to force vaccines and a “vaccine passport” on Americans.
My concerns were at the time written off as just another conspiracy theory. But less than a year later that “conspiracy theory” became conspiracy fact. I am not happy about being right on this. The introduction of vaccine passports was from the beginning my worst nightmare. The idea that you must “show your papers” to participate in society is a concept that is totally opposed to a free society. It is inhuman.
The history of these past two years is that the worst ideas have been adopted by force and anyone questioning those ideas has been suppressed by force. We learned recently that Dr. Fauci and the director of the National Institutes of Health conspired to deliver a “quick and devastating take-down” of the esteemed scientists behind the Great Barrington Declaration. Were the Great Barrington scientists horribly wrong? Fauci and his boss could not have cared less. They were not interested in a debate. Their only goal was to shut down any opposing views. That’s not science. It’s ideology, politics, and probably self-interest.
As my son Rand said on a recent Liberty Report, thousands of people died because Fauci refused to consider the proven effectiveness of natural immunity against Covid. He and his colleagues were determined to deny any outpatient treatments and insisted on vaccines as the only way out. Now, as we see the vaccines performing so poorly versus natural immunity, their whole strategy lies in tatters. Will anyone apologize to the relatives of all those who died?
When we look back at these two years, hopefully one thing that will be remembered is how the institutions of state power have all lost their credibility. They have been exposed as frauds and worse.
In a recent massively popular Joe Rogan interview with Dr. Robert Malone – inventor of the mRNA technology that is the backbone of the “vaccines” – Malone discusses the disturbing concept of mass formation psychosis, where fear and manipulation are used to drive a society mad in the service of a group of elites with an agenda. We saw it in Germany in the 1930s.
As Charles Mackay wrote in the 19th century about the madness of crowds, humans go insane in groups but recover one at a time.
What is to be done to defeat tyranny in 2022? We must continue to tell the truth. The truth is winning and the liars are losing. One by one their lies are being exposed. But it is not an easy task. Each of us in 2022 can do a little something to promote truth. Do what you can. The rewards are great!
Biden Disapproval Hits All-Time High As Agenda Faces Major Headwinds: CNBC
President Biden’s disapproval rating hit a new high in December, with 60% of voters disapproving his handling of the economy, 55% on his handling of the pandemic, and 56% disapproving of his overall job as Commander-in-Chief, according to a new CBS/Change poll.
Biden’s disapproval rating sat at 54% in early September, up from 49% in April.
His approval rating currently stands at 44%, down from 46% in September and 51% in April, according to the report, which notes that this is the latest sign of trouble as the Biden admin looks to tackle a wide range of economic and political problems as midterm elections loom. In addition to scrambling to quell fears over inflation, Biden needs to resurrect his Build Back Better legislation, and beef up the country’s public health response as the omicron Covid-19 variant rapidly spreads.
Frustrations over the economy are the main culprit behind Biden’s flagging popularity as nearly every demographic declared it their No. 1 issue.
The economy was the top priority for men and women, every age cohort, Latino and white voters, and those with and without college educations. Black respondents, who named racism their chief priority, said the economy takes second place.
Sixty percent of the survey’s 1,895 respondents said they disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy, marking a six-point decline in approval from September.
On personal economic issues, voters are even more likely to criticize the president. Some 72% disapprove of his handling of the price of everyday goods, while 66% disapprove of his efforts to help their wallets. –CNBC
And as we noted on Sunday, Biden’s 2022 is shaping up to be a political disaster.
For starters, Covid – the virus he vowed to ‘shut down’ the moment he entered office – is out of control. Just weeks ago, he warned the unvaccinated that they face a “winter of severe illness and death.”
Next, Biden and Congressional Democrats will attempt to revive the corpse of their $2 trillion Build Back Better agenda – while still facing opposition from moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Without their buy-in, the best Biden and crew can hope for is to salvage components of it into smaller chunks that the two moderates may or may not agree to.
“To face this many genuine political fires, from a pandemic raging again to major legislation that might be finished, is the worst way to start a new year,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.” Just to add to the challenge, the midterm season will get fully underway, and it will be harder to persuade any politician to do something that poses electoral risk.“
The White House will also grapple with supply chain issues and inflation in 2022, after repeatedly insisting it was ‘transitory’ throughout the second half of 2021.
While the president’s party typically loses seats in Congress during a first-term election, present polling about Biden and Democrats suggest they could face a rout in November.
That may be because members of both parties are growing more frustrated with inflation.
Some 84% of those surveyed said the prices they see for everyday goods are higher than they were a year ago, while just 19% report earning more income over the same period. And only 23% say they believe inflation is starting to come down or will begin to decline soon. -CNBC
“In addition to COVID, this is where Biden and his team fumbled the ball,” according to one Democratic strategist. “They denied there was a problem, and then they looked silly when they had to backpedal. They can’t do that kind of thing again. It looks bad.“
A third former scientist at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets to benefit pharmaceutical company Renopharma, which was backed by Chinese regime funding, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.
Lucy Xi, 44, formerly a resident of Malvern, Pennsylvania, is the third person to plead guilty in the scheme that involves three co-defendants, Yu Xue, Tao Li, and Yan Mei, to whom Lucy Xi was married.
According to the DOJ, Xi and her co-defendants created Renopharma in Nanjing, China, to research and develop anti-cancer drugs.
However, the three were also employed at British drug manufacturer GSK’s facility in Upper Merion, Pennsylvania, where they developed biopharmaceutical products.
Prosecutors said they used their positions at the company to steal trade secrets from their employer to benefit Renopharma, which received financial support and subsidies from the Chinese regime.
These products typically cost in excess of $1 billion to research and develop, United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in announcing Xi’s guilty plea.
As per the DOJ, in 2015, Xi sent her husband a GSK document containing confidential and trade secret data and information, including a summary of GSK research into monoclonal antibodies—laboratory-made proteins that imitate the immune system’s ability to fight off infections, such as viruses—at that time.
Xi allegedly wrote in the email: “You need to understand it very well. It will help you in your future business [RENOPHARMA].”
Xi’s case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Robert J. Livermore and J. Jeanette Kang.
“This defendant illegally stole trade secrets to benefit her husband’s company, which was financed by the Chinese government,” said U.S. Attorney Williams. “The lifeblood of companies like GSK is its intellectual property, and when that property is stolen and transferred to a foreign country, it threatens thousands of American jobs and jeopardizes the strategic benefits brought about through research and development. Such criminal behavior must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Yu Xue, a doctor, her sister, Tian Xue, and Tao Li have all pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme. Yan Mei, who is considered a fugitive by the U.S. government, currently resides in China.
According to a 2018 press release by the DOJ, Yu Xue pleaded guilty to her charges of conspiring to steal trade secrets from GlaxoSmithKline at a U.S. district court in Pennsylvania in August 2018.
Tao Li pleaded guilty to similar charges in September 2018.
FBI agent Jacqueline Maguire noted that pharmaceutical companies like GSK invest a huge amount of time and money into developing new drugs and bringing them to the market.
“When individuals steal valuable trade secrets concerning one of these drugs, it’s a threat both to that firm and beyond. After all, innovation like this propels the U.S. economy,” said Maguire, a special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division. “The FBI is committed to enforcing laws that protect the nation’s businesses from such theft. We will not permit American research and development to be scavenged for the benefit of other companies or countries.”
