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President Biden lashed out Thursday at a reporter for what he called a “stupid question” about Russia potentially invading Ukraine — as the White House scrambled to clean up Biden’s Wednesday gaffe that Russia may face less blowback for a “minor incursion.” As reporters were escorted out of a science-focused meeting next door to the White House, Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich shouted, “Why are you waiting on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to make the first move, sir?” Biden’s answer was not captured on the official video livestream, but press audio engineers recorded him saying, “What a stupid question,” according...

REPORT: Peter Daszak Worked For CIA, EcoHealth Alliance Is A 'CIA Front Organization'EcoHealth Alliance Associate Vice President Dr. Andrew Huff recently claimed that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak, who conducted gain of function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, told him he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Andrew Huff, PhD, MS, publicly stated on January 12 that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak confessed to him that he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency, and further stated his belief that EcoHealth Alliance was a “CIA front organization.” Huff received his Ph.D. in Environmental Health...

The U.S. has given approval for three Baltic NATO members to send American-made weapons to Ukraine, U.S. officials said. The decision will enable Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to send Javelin antitank weapons and Stinger air-defense systems for Ukraine’s forces. The Biden administration has also notified Congress that it intends to provide Ukraine with five Mi-17 transport helicopters, U.S. officials said. The Russian-made helicopters had been intended for Afghanistan’s military and were being repaired in Ukraine.

"The purpose of this drill is to strengthen security and its foundations in the region, and to expand multilateral cooperation between the three countries to jointly support world peace, maritime security and create a maritime community with a common future," the Iranian official told ISNA. Both navies from Iran's armed forces and Revolutionary Guards will take part in the drills, which include various tactical exercises such as rescuing a burning vessel, releasing a hijacked vessel, and shooting at air targets at night.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A domestic assault suspect was freed from jail after testing positive for COVID-19, despite being deemed dangerous enough that prosecutors wanted him held without a chance of bail, the attorney for the St. Louis Police Officers Association said. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the 36-year-old man was released on Jan. 4 and has not been re-arrested. Police association lawyer Jane Dueker said the release was part of a recent policy by the administration of Mayor Tishaura Jones to limit the spread of COVID-19 in the downtown jail by not admitting people with the virus. Messages...

At some of the world’s most sensitive spots, authorities have installed security screening devices made by a single Chinese company with deep ties to China’s military and the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party. The World Economic Forum in Davos. Europe’s largest ports. Airports from Amsterdam to Athens. NATO’s borders with Russia. All depend on equipment manufactured by Nuctech, which has quickly become the world’s leading company, by revenue, for cargo and vehicle scanners. Nuctech has been frozen out of the U.S. for years due to national security concerns, but it has made deep inroads across Europe, installing its...

San Francisco children make up just 13% of its population, the smallest share of kids among the 100 most populous cities in the United States. Yet for the past 22 months and counting, an outsized burden of COVID-19 mitigation has been placed on them. As a parent, I have become increasingly concerned by the lack of cost-benefit analysis and rigor over which policies are the most effective or even necessary, and which policies may be causing long-term damage. Early and consistent evidence that children are at very little risk of serious COVID-19 complications has been largely ignored, while paranoia and...

France's parliament on Thursday denounced a "genocide" by China against its Uyghur Muslim population, in a resolution that risks straining ties between Paris and Beijing two weeks before the Winter Olympics. The non-binding resolution, adopted with 169 votes in favour and just one against, was proposed by the opposition Socialists in the lower house of parliament but also backed by President Emmanuel Macron's Republic on the Move (LREM) party. It reads that the National Assembly "officially recognises the violence perpetrated by the People's Republic of China against the Uyghurs as constituting crimes against humanity and genocide". It also calls on...

A unit of China’s Sinopec Group will hold a LNG auction on the Shanghai Petroleum and Gas Exchange (SHPGX) on Nov. 14, the exchange said on Friday, without revealing the volume on offer. Potential buyers are invited to submit bids to Sinopec’s Guangxi gas sales subsidiary from 0900–1130 Beijing time (0100–0330 GMT) and 1330–1500 (0530–0700 GMT) on that day, the SHPGX said in a statement on its website. The auction comes on the eve of China’s peak winter heating season, which gets under way in mid-November, and amid warnings of severe gas shortages in the coming months. This winter, millions...

A rare moment of truth from billionaire National Basketball villain Chamath Palihapitiya the other day when he frankly suggested in an interview that “nobody cares” about the persecution, internment and extermination of the Uyghur minority in China. The “nobody” that he refers to are the elites who he hobnobs with and who often own or play for NBA teams. China can do no wrong because it is a source of vast capital. You don’t criticize a mountain of money like that. You don’t even suggest there is anything worth assessing. You just remain silent. Of course, China is poised to...

For years now, the U.S. Export-Import Bank -- an under-the-radar agency that provides subsidized loans to foreign firms willing to buy American products -- has tried to remain relevant. After a semi-hiatus alongside criticism for functioning as the "Bank of Boeing," Ex-Im convinced the Trump and Biden administrations that it may be a tremendous weapon to fight Chinese influence. While it can do no such thing, Ex-Im is now moving on to something else: extending its domestic influence. Ex-Im's grandiose claims shouldn't distract us from its mediocrity. In 2019, Congress handed the agency a seven-year reauthorization and restored a quorum...

It was the statement that caused all the pearls to be clutched – when Chamath Palihapitiya, part owner of the Golden State Warriors, said he didn’t really care about the genocide the Chinese communists are committing against its Uyghur Muslim population. The Pavlovian virtue signaling reflex kicked in, from almost everyone, about how outrageous such a statement was. Then everyone who made it went right back to not giving a damn about the Uyghurs, just without saying it. First, what did Palihapitiya say? “Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, okay. You bring it up because you care and...

<p>By Richard Bitzinger, an independent international security analyst. He was previously a senior fellow with the Military Transformations Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.</p><p>How good is China’s most advanced fighter jet, the J-20? The J-20 is a “fifth-generation” combat aircraft, which ostensibly puts it in the same league as the U.S. F-22 and F-35.</p>

Reflecting the Pentagon’s new focus on China, US aircraft carrier strike groups almost doubled deployments to the South China Sea in 2021 compared to the year before. According to the Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI), US carrier strike groups entered the South China Sea 10 times in 2021, compared with six times in 2020, and five in 2019. “The US military have drastically reinforced their military deployment in the South China Sea since last year, in terms of training scales, sorties and scenarios,” SCSPI director Hu Bo said Friday, according to The South China Morning Post. Hu said...

Whether or not Vladimir Putin moves his troops into Ukraine, he has once again confronted Europe with a most painful reality: while being too weak to defend itself, it can no longer rely on the United States to come to its rescue. We are facing a reality in which Russia, despite its economy only having the size of Italy's, can bully and intimidate a continent thanks to its energy reserves and its readiness to project vast military power. Sure, any Russian invasion of Ukraine would cost Russia a fortune and likely degrade into a grinding war of attrition. Invasion is...

Paul Craig RobertsThe Russians called a security conference with Washington and NATO. The Russians explained that security is a joint undertaking and that security only exists if every country feels secure. The CIA responded with accusations against Russia handed to the CIA-puppet Biden regime and the CIA-puppet US media. The national security advisor read the script to us peons: Russia intends a false flag attack on its own troops so that it will have an excuse to invade Ukraine. The national security advisor is so stupid that it does not occur to him that if Russia wants to invade Ukraine...

The dramatic exit last Friday by Rep. John Katko (R-NY), who announced he would not run for reelection, may have shocked liberals but was no surprise to Trump supporters. One by one, the Republicans who voted for the second impeachment or who publicly blamed Trump for the Jan. 6th rally at the Capitol are leaving public office. Katko was the third to prematurely retire among the impeachers, and the most significant due to his seniority and otherwise bright future. He was in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee after the predicted takeover of the House by...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a gathering of America’s mayors on Wednesday that the Biden administration’s coronavirus relief bill was like a vaccine preventing catastrophic economic damage that could have returned the nation to the financial woes seen at the beginning of the pandemic. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “acted like a vaccine for the American economy, protecting our recovery from the possibility of new variants,” Yellen said at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 90th winter meeting in downtown Washington. “The protection wasn’t complete, but it was very strong,” Yellen said. “It prevented communities...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A smartphone app that’s expected to be widely used by athletes and others attending next month’s Winter Games in Beijing has glaring security problems that could expose sensitive data to interception, according to a report published Tuesday. Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog group, said in its report the MY2022 app has seriously flawed encryption that would make users’ sensitive data — and any other data communicated through it — vulnerable to being hacked. Other important user data on the app wasn’t encrypted at all, the report found. That means the data could be read by Chinese...

The Biden administration on Tuesday quietly launched its website for Americans to request free at-home COVID-19 tests, a day before the site was scheduled to officially go online. The website, COVIDTests.gov, now includes a link for "every home in the U.S." to access an order form run by the U.S. Postal Service. People can order four at-home tests per residential address, to be delivered by the Postal Service. It marks the latest step by President Joe Biden to address criticism of low inventory and long lines for testing during a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases due to the omicron variant....