RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16043/iran-anti-israel-agenda

Recently, Iran’s parliament, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, unanimously approved an “urgent bill” directed against Israel. We are therefore to assume, it would seem, that passing a bill against the State of Israel was more “urgent” for the Iranian regime than concentrating on protecting the lives of the Iranian population during this public health crisis.

Although the traditional anti-Israel marches are cancelled this year due to the spread of coronavirus, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated that people will be able instead to march by cars, join a motorized phalanx or join an online event organized by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Not only have Iran’s ruling clerics failed to rein in their rogue behavior amid the coronavirus; they seem instead to be exploiting the “distraction” to boost their expansion.

Iran has further entrenched itself in Syria and Lebanon, including that included building a new underground weapons-storage facility at Iran’s Imam Ali military base in eastern Syria. They have boosted their support for Shia Iraqi militias and the Houthis in Yemen. They have rolled out a new missile on the way to developing intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons to Israel and any capital in Europe. And they have ratcheted up their anti-Israeli and anti-American agenda.

Iran has been the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East. Iran’s regime has been accused of both covering up the scope of the virus in the country and spreading the disease across the Middle East. While many of the 186 countries that China has afflicted with the virus are focused on addressing the immediate problem, the ruling mullahs of Iran instead appear mostly busy furthering their anti-Israel agenda.

Recently, Iran’s parliament, the Islamic Consultative Assembly, unanimously approved an “urgent bill” directed against Israel. We are therefore to assume, it would seem, that passing a bill against the State of Israel was more “urgent” for the Iranian regime than concentrating on protecting the lives of the Iranian population during this public health crisis.

https://amgreatness.com/2020/05/20/how-to-hold-china-accountable-build-our-own-stuff/

It’s starting to happen.”

That’s what Brad Parscale said around 8 p.m. to the family and inner circle on the 14th floor of Trump Tower on November 8, 2016, as we were watching election returns trickle in from North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Parscale’s words came back to me with the news this week the Trump Administration awarded a $354 million contract to a private company to manufacture generic medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients in Richmond, Virginia.

It’s starting to happen—global supply chains are coming back to America.

The company, Phlow Corporation, will be making drugs used to treat COVID-19. They will be stored in a strategic stockpile of pharmaceutical ingredients to be used in the event of drug shortages or an emergency.

Those drugs, like so many others, are now made overseas, mostly in China and India. China is the world’s main supplier of the active ingredients used in many common drugs from vitamin C to aspirin.

China produces 90 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for essential medicines used in serious coronavirus infections, according to Rosemary Gibson, author of China Rx. Sedatives, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and medicines to raise blood pressure are among the medications.

The administration killed two birds with one stone by awarding the contract to this upstart company.

The first is ending America’s dangerous dependency on Communist China for essential medicines. The second is breaking up the pharmaceutical oligarchy whose single-minded pursuit of profits led us to our foreign drug dependency in the first place.

The trade association of generic drugmakers attacked White House trade and manufacturing czar Peter Navarro when he first advanced a plan for bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the United States.

They clutched their precious global supply chains like pearls, falsely claiming that rearranging those chains would spike drug prices, forcing Americans to eat cat food in order to afford their meds.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/20/a-new-cold-war-has-begun-calling-china-to-account-for-covid-19-plague-is-just-a-start/

China’s communist regime has shown a shocking proclivity for lying and deceptive behavior in handling the Wuhan virus pandemic. Now, Australia, already backed by 113 countries, wants a full accounting of China’s unacceptable behavior. China’s answer? Punish Australia.

It’s arguable whether China ever intended to live by the same rules as the rest of the world when it first gained membership in the World Trade Organization in 2001, backed strongly by the U.S. That move, more than anything, cemented China’s accession to world power status, with its economy soaring from just $80 billion in GDP in 1980 to $12 trillion in 2019.

But, as we’re always reminded, with great power comes great responsibility.

And China, under the increasingly totalitarian control of President-without-end Xi Jinping, has flunked that test, as we now plainly see during the COVID-19 disaster. In addition to putting Uighurs in concentration camps and disappearing dissidents, China’s communist regime has all but crushed Hong Kong’s brave freedom movement by arresting its boldest leaders.

That’s just how the Chinese communists deal with things. Smile outwardly, plot inwardly.

When Australia took the lead this week in calling for an independent investigation into the origins and spread of the coronavirus, China didn’t argue or remonstrate or debate. It slapped 80% tariffs on Australia’s exports of barley, a key crop.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-quietly-lowers-the-temperature-with-u-s/ar-BB14kvKf

BAGHDAD — After years of increasing tensions that nearly led to war, Iran has moderated its approach to the West, shifting from a policy of provocation to one of limited cooperation. The change reflects an effort to avoid direct confrontation with the United States that the Iranians say could benefit President Trump in the November election.

After months of attacks on American forces in Iraq, Iran has called off its proxy militias, one of several de-escalation steps.

Nowhere is the shift more evident than in Iraq, where Iran has backed a pro-American prime minister and ordered its proxy militias to cease their rocket attacks on American forces.

The Americans, while publicly dismissive of any change in Iranian posture, have quietly reciprocated in modest and indirect ways.

Taken together, the openings represent an incipient détente that, even if it does not last or lead to the end of hostilities between Iran and the United States, has already lowered the temperature of the relationship, reducing the risk of open conflict.

“A war is less likely to happen, but there is still the risk of a confrontation,” said Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “But it’s less likely because the intent of the primary actors has shifted. Both Iran and the U.S. definitely do not want a war six months before the U.S. elections.”

Iran’s shift, which has not been announced or explained publicly, appears to be tactical, analysts said, noting that the country still vehemently opposes the Trump administration’s demand that it renegotiate its nuclear agreement with the West and that it has not backed off its goal of ousting the United States military from the Middle East. Publicly, both countries remain engaged in verbal warfare.

http://www.settimananews.it/informazione-internazionale/slippery-world-without-brakes/

Is the world sleepwalking into a new war, be it hot or cold? And is the virus the oil to lubricate and fuel the clash that is centered on China and the US but impacts the world? Are countries playing a bizarre game of chicken where neither wants to step back for fear of losing domestic support? It is hard to miss this trend and most importantly, this is all happening without checks and stops. There is no international organization apparently able to pull the brakes, mediate in this predicament.

The slippery slope

On May 18 Chinese president Xi Jinping addressed the World Health Organization (WHO) defending Chinese actions during the Coronavirus epidemic. He underlined his support for the organization from which the US, which accused the organization of having covered and abetted Beijing’s murky behavior during the crisis, had withdrawn funds.

«In China, after making painstaking efforts and enormous sacrifice, we have turned the tide on the virus and protected the life and health of our people. All along, we have acted with openness, transparency and responsibility. We have provided information to WHO and relevant countries in a most timely fashion. We have released the genome sequence at the earliest possible time. We have shared control and treatment experience with the world without reservation. We have done everything in our power to support and assist countries in need»,[1] said Xi.

He also announced a US$ 2 billion extra support package for the WHO and the establishment of a supply center to distribute health care equipment worldwide. Xi didn’t mention the US. From the US point of view, it looks like China is stepping in globally, and in the WHO, whose role is objectively important during this crisis, replacing and pushing away the US.

https://spectator.us/take-stand-against-chinese-bullying-hong-kong/

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned how the Chinese Communist party has been trying to bully our allies and friends in Australia. The government of that country had the audacity to demand an independent and international inquiry into the origins of the Wuhan virus. Since then, the CCP has been upping its game, and not just with words, but by imposing huge tariffs on Australian products. Which I suppose means that the rest of us are going to have to make up for over a billion Chinese consumers and guzzle as much Australian shiraz as we can in the coming months. Can we do it? Possibly.

In the meantime, over in Hong Kong, a rather more brazen attack on democracy and the rule of law occurred yesterday when pro-democracy lawmakers were carried out of the chamber during a debate on a bill that would criminalize anyone who ‘disrespected’ the Chinese Communist party’s anthem. You can see the resulting footage on the excellent ‘Things China Doesn’t Want You To Know’ Twitter feed, which I much recommend.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/25/the-twilight-of-the-iranian-revolution

For decades, Ayatollah Khamenei has professed enmity with America. Now his regime is threatened from within the country.

One night last December, the chief resident physician at a hospital in the Iranian city of Gorgan was asked to consult on a baffling case: a patient was racked with a mysterious virus, which was advancing rapidly through his body. The doctor, who asked to be identified only as Azad, for fear of retribution by authorities, performed a CT scan and a series of chest X-rays, but the virus overwhelmed the patient before he could decide on a treatment. After reading reports from China, Azad determined that the cause of death was the coronavirus. “I’d never seen anything like it before,” he told me.

More patients started coming in, first a few at a time, then in droves, many of them dying. When Azad and his colleagues alerted hospital officials that they were treating cases of the coronavirus, they were told to keep quiet. “We were given special instructions not to release any statistics on infection and death rates,” a second doctor told me. The medical staff was ordered not to wear masks or protective clothing. “The aim was to prevent fear in the society, even if it meant high casualties among the medical staff,” Azad said.

As the weeks went on, and the epidemic exploded in China, the Iranian media remained nearly silent. Two reporters who work at a news outlet in Tehran told me that they could see accounts of the virus on social media, but their editors made it clear they should not pursue them; nationwide parliamentary elections were scheduled for February 21st, and news about the virus could discourage voters. “Everyone knows what stories can get you in trouble,” one reporter told me. “It was understood that anything that helped to lower turnout would be helping the counter-revolutionaries, and no one wanted to be accused of supporting foreign-based opposition groups.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/frances-macron-loses-absolute-majority-as-lawmakers-defect-11589882166?mod=world_major_1_pos5

PARIS—A group of lawmakers broke away from French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist political party on Tuesday, depriving the leader of an absolute majority in the National Assembly at a critical juncture in his efforts to steer France out of the coronavirus crisis.

The defections leave Mr. Macron’s party, Republic On the Move, with 288 of the 577 seats in France’s National Assembly, down from 308 when he was elected. To pass legislation, Mr. Macron will now have to rely more heavily on his political alliance with Modem, a smaller centrist party that has moved in lockstep with the president in the past.

The lawmakers announced the move in a videoconference Tuesday, saying they planned to caucus in the National Assembly as a new group called “Ecology democracy solidarity.” The group, which totals 17 members, also includes lawmakers that defected from Mr. Macron earlier in his term.

“We are at a historical tipping point, and the decisions that will be taken in the next weeks, months will shape the future of France, of our planet” said Paula Forteza, co-president of the new political group, adding that the government should focus on social justice and the protection of the environment rather than short-term economic policies.

A spokeswoman for Republic on the Move declined to comment. Earlier this month, Republic on the Move’s parliamentary whip Gilles Le Gendre wrote to party lawmakers over the encrypted messaging app Telegram, saying that any defections would represent a breach of trust with Mr. Macron and voters.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-nears-settlement-with-sudan-over-1998-terror-bombings-11589922441

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is nearing a deal with Sudan to resolve claims over al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa, helping clear the way to remove Khartoum’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The plan is part of U.S. efforts to support the civilian-led transitional government in Sudan, whose armed forces last year ousted President Omar al-Bashir, a military dictator who seized power in 1989. Earlier this year, Sudan settled terrorism-related claims from the 2000 al Qaeda suicide bombing of the USS Cole during its call at Aden, Yemen, which the Bashir regime allegedly had assisted.

“Following extensive negotiations, we believe that we have reached a common understanding with Sudan on the contours of a future bilateral claims agreement” over the embassy bombings, a State Department official said Tuesday. Victims would receive more than $300 million altogether, a congressional aide said.

The 1998 attacks in Kenya and Tanzania killed hundreds and injured thousands, and various groups of victims are represented by different legal teams. Twelve Americans were killed.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16042/china-cyber-war

Beijing’s cyber offensive against the Free World is only part of what appears China’s effort to achieve global leadership in critical future technologies such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy systems, robotics, rare earth element exploitation, biotechnologies, as well as medical and agricultural advances.

These attacks will likely continue, as past attempts by U.S. administrations to reach cessation agreements with Beijing seem to have been futile. China clearly views cyber attacks as a weapon of warfare with little risk of eliciting an aggressive U.S. response. In fact, PLA leaders in China’s Guangzhou Military Region have publicly called for Chinese operators to continue the “People’s War,” win the cyber war, and prepare for attacks on satellites in space.

China’s Cyber War on America has been ceaseless, comprehensive and longstanding. In the past 15 years, China has hacked official government departments, defense contractors, utility companies, and U.S. and allied intelligence agencies. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has, it appears, integrated China’s cyber attack capabilities into its apparent overall plan to surpass the U.S. as the world’s leading power.

As part of its efforts, the CCP has for years built up a sophisticated infrastructure within the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to steal critical technical data from U.S. public and private targets. The PLA units in the Second and Third Departments of the General Staff are the principal engineers of China’s vast assault to collect U.S. intellectual property.[1] Another unit, probably in the PLA’s General Staff’s Fourth Department, concentrates its electronic warfare systems to seed malware into U.S. computer networks.[2]

Beijing’s cyber offensive against the Free World, however, is only part of what appears China’s effort to achieve global leadership in critical future technologies such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy systems, robotics, rare earth element exploitation, biotechnologies, as well as medical and agricultural advances. The Chinese government also exploits bilateral commerce with the U.S. and investment by U.S. companies in the Chinese economy to steal trade secrets.