News of the World

[kyonides]

Blinken: Iran Envoy Reportedly Under Investigation
for Mishandling Classified Documents
Has ‘Admirably’ Served Country

During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that all he can say about Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley ... is that Malley has “dedicated his life, his career to serving our country, and he’s done so admirably.”

Host Andrea Mitchell asked, “And speaking of Iran, the Special Envoy, Rob Malley, has had his security clearance suspended. He’s being investigated by the FBI and diplomatic security for mishandling classified documents. Is this a huge setback in any hopes of getting back on track?”

Blinken responded, “Well, first, this is a personnel matter. There’s only so much I can say about a personnel matter. What I can say is I’ve known Rob Malley for many, many years. And he’s someone who’s dedicated his life, his career to serving our country, and he’s done so admirably. The work that we’re doing on Iran, making sure that it doesn’t acquire a nuclear weapon, bringing home those unjustly detained, pushing back in coordination with allies and partners against its behavior in other areas, that continues.”

Zelensky Hails ‘Significant Security Victory’
as NATO Says Ukraine an ‘Equal’

NATO is “more united than ever”, Ukraine is on a path to membership, and is now treated as an equal to NATO, it is said as the annual meeting of the alliance concludes in Vilnius.

In a brief speech which will probably be best remembered for his accidentally misnaming President Zelensky as “Vladimir” — the forename of the sworn enemy of the Ukrainian people, Russian President Putin — President Biden said the alliance had now created “a path to NATO membership” for Ukraine.

We just concluded the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, and all our allies agreed Ukraine’s future lies in NATO… we’re gonna provide security to Ukraine for its needs and against any aggression that may occur… this starts a process by which each of our nations, and any other nation that wishes to participate will negotiate long term bilateral security agreements with Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is now closer to NATO membership than ever before, and that “Today we meet as equals; I look forward to the day we meet as Allies.” The long-serving alliance boss said NATO is “more united than ever”, presumably papering over some cracks on exactly how quickly Ukraine is to be admitted, a matter on which some members appear to disagree.
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As the summit ended, Zelensky spoke to journalists and answered questions. Speaking about the end of the war, the Ukrainian President rejected a Korea-style solution where the war would end with a truce, saying there must be accountability for the Russians, and that all Ukrainian land must be returned. A “frozen conflict is not a victory”, he said, and said even a village with a population of “one old man” would need to be taken back.

I don't think that posture is reasonable but typical of a warmonger.  On the other hand, Russia would get a "prize" that could motivate them to invade other neighboring countries...
Is it the right timing for this?  Not really. War is still ongoing and anything may happen. Either Ukraine could do something stupid that provokes Russia to fully invade the whole country. Or Russia or even Belarus (aka Wagner Group) could launch missiles, nuclear ones, to Kiev and other main cities.  

No End To War Until ‘West Abandons Plans
to Maintain Dominance’, Says Russia

The war in Ukraine will not end until the West stops trying to defeat Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Indonesian media on Wednesday.

His comments came ahead of Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s symbolic talks with NATO leaders at their summit in Lithuania on Wednesday.

In an interview with the Indonesian newspaper Kompas ahead of meetings with his Southeast Asian counterparts in Jakarta this week, Lavrov lambasted the United States and its allies for supporting Ukraine.
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“It will continue until the West abandons its plans to maintain dominance and its obsession with inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia through the hands of its puppet, Kyiv,” he said of the Ukraine conflict.
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Lavrov is due to attend the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum foreign ministers’ meetings on Friday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The pair last met briefly in March at a G20 meeting in India.
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Turning to Indonesia, Lavrov praised what he called Jakarta’s independent foreign policy on the conflict.

President Joko Widodo was the first Asian leader to visit both Moscow and Kyiv after the invasion began.

Scratch what I said before, either Putin or Lavrov seems to be far worse than Zelensky and Biden together.  Plus, Blinken got to have no dignity by meeting with Chinese and now also Russian officials.

Xi Jinping: Beijing Preparing for Vladimir Putin Visit in October

Genocidal Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, a key ally of Russia’s reportedly confirmed the visit himself while meeting with the head of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko in the Chinese capital this week. Putin will reportedly visit China to attend the Belt and Road Forum, an event meant to promote China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The BRI is a global project in which communist China offers predatory loans to poor countries to be used to fund the construction of state-of-the-art infrastructure, mostly roadways, ports, and railways. The loan money typically goes to Chinese companies, prompting massive ways of Chinese immigration into the target countries and depriving locals of job opportunities. The high interest and other detrimental features in BRI contracts often result in the countries being unable to pay their debts back – and the Chinese government seizing the projects involved.

Russia has publicly supported the BRI and designated some joint infrastructure deals as BRI projects, but no public information exists on Moscow formally signing an agreement to join the BRI. Ukraine is an official BRI member.
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The Kremlin appeared to confirm the report on Wednesday. Top Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin’s office was already working on “main agenda items” to discuss with Xi in October.
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“During my state visit to Russia in March this year, President Putin and I reached new and important consensus on deepening bilateral comprehensive strategic coordination and practical cooperation in various fields,” the Chinese government news outlet Xinhua quoted Xi as saying. Xi also reportedly promised that China would “continue to work with Russia to develop a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era.”

“New era” is a Chinese government term typically used to mean the overthrow of America as the major world power, replaced by communist China.

Air Force General Who Will Replace Mark Milley
Downplays Memo He Signed Calling for Race-Based Applicant Pools

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. “CQ” Brown, Jr. — whom President Joe Biden has selected to replace Gen. Mark Milley as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his top military adviser — on Tuesday downplayed a memo he signed in August 2022 that set officer applicant pool goals by race.

During his confirmation hearing on Tuesday with the Senate Armed Services Committee, Brown was asked repeatedly by Republican senators about the August 2022 memo, which called for the Air Force to set “applicant pool goals” for officers according to percentages of race.

The memo, dated August 9, 2022, called for the Air Force’s applicant pool goals to be 67.5% White, 15% Hispanic/Latino, 13% Black/African American, 10% Asian, 1.5% American Indian/Native Alaskan, and 1% Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander.

The goals were then broken down into gender, calling for about a third of the recruits to be women.
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The memo added the caveat: “These goals are aspirational, aligning resources to invest in our long-term objectives and will not be used in any manner that undermines our merit-based processes.”

However, it instructed the service’s Air Education and Training Command and Air Force Academy leaders to “develop a diversity and inclusion outreach plan aimed at achieving these goals no later than 30 September 2022.”

And I always thought that the Army or the Air Force cared about finding recruits fit and healthy enough as to perform tasks in a timely manner while being highly effective.

Honduran Drug Dealers Praise
San Francisco’s Sanctuary City Policy:
‘You Go to Jail and You Come Out’

Illegal alien drug dealers from Honduras are praising San Francisco, California’s, sanctuary city policy for shielding them from deportation when they are arrested, telling local media the policy is one of the reasons they seek out the Democrat-controlled city to sell drugs to Americans.
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While some of the drug dealers told the Chronicle that they had initially arrived in San Francisco with the intention of working legal jobs, others said they fully intended to sell drugs upon their arrival.

An enticing component of drug dealing in San Francisco for the Hondurans is its severe sanctuary city policy that made worldwide headlines when 32-year-old Kate Steinle was killed in 2015 by a stray bullet set off by a seven-time convicted felon and five-time deported illegal alien.

For the drug dealers, their arrests on drug charges does not mean they will be deported from the United States. In the overwhelming majority of cases, they are released from jail without bail and only a fraction are swiftly convicted.
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In a number of cases, the Chronicle reported that illegal aliens from Hondurans who had been convicted of selling drugs in San Fransisco were merely deported to their native country before illegally crossing the southern border to start dealing drugs in the sanctuary city again.

One drug dealer in particular, noted by the Chronicle, has returned to San Francisco for the ninth time after having been deported to Honduras.

Getting swift convictions for drug dealers in San Francisco are also increasingly few and far between. From 2018 to 2022, only six percent of those charged with drug crimes had been convicted. Of those charged last year, 75 percent have yet to be convicted, take a plea deal, have their charges dropped, or be found not guilty.

In few words, San Francisco's policies makes it a huge revolving door for criminals.