In Taiwan, as in Ukraine, the west is flirting with disaster
By Simon Jenkins

Arguments in the foothills of war are always the same. Those for war shout loudest and beat their chests, eager for tanks to rumble and jets to roar. Those against are dismissed as wimps, appeasers and defeatists. When the trumpets sound and the drums beat, reason runs for cover.

The visit to Taiwan of the US congressional speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has been so blatantly provocative it seems little more than a midterm election stunt. She declares it “essential that America and her allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats”. China’s gross overreaction is a classic example of precipitate escalation. Yet when Joe Biden asserted that the US would defend Taiwan militarily, the president’s office instantly backtracked, reasserting a policy of “strategic ambiguity”. It remains the case that no one quite believes the US will go to war over Taiwan – so far.

A similar ambiguity infuses the west’s attitude towards Russia over Ukraine. The US and Britain reiterate that Russia “must fail and be seen to fail”. But can Russia really be relied on to tolerate ever greater destruction of its armaments without escalation? The west seems set on holding Ukraine to a drawn game, hoping to postpone some horrific penalty shootout. All Russia can do is perpetrate ever more atrocities to keep its team in play. Suppose it escalates something else?

These are the same uncertainties that overwhelmed European diplomacy in 1914. Rulers dithered while generals strutted and rattled sabres. Flags flew and newspapers filled with tallies of weaponry. Negotiations slithered into ultimatums. As the frontline pleaded for help, woe betide anyone who preached compromise.

During the two east-west nuclear crises of the cold war, in 1962 over Cuba and 1983 over a false missile alarm, disaster was averted by informal lines of communication between Washington and Moscow. They worked. Those lines reportedly do not exist today.

(read more in the source)

The International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected the recognition of the Russian Special Military Operation as "aggression against Ukraine".

"Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kuleba said that the International Criminal Court cannot apply the article "aggression" specifically to the case of Ukraine and the Russian Federation," - Ukrainian media.

- Bank of England predicts new recession, which will be as long but not as deep at the one in 2008 and 2009
- Governor Andrew Bailey today blamed 'the actions of Russia' overwhelmingly for the economic crisis*
- The energy price will push the economy into a five-quarter recession from end of 2022 and through 2023
- BofE predicting that GDP will fall as much as 2.1% while inflation will reach 13% next year in Britain
- Forecasts predict that inflation rates will remain throughout next year - bumping up food, fuel and other bills
- And in more bad news interest rates are rising - adding £1,000-a-year to the average non-fixed mortgage

* He should blame himself and his government incompetence, as well as acting in the interest of a foreign state instead of their own people (and that foreign state is not Russia).
#TransFormator

​​▫️Work continues on the study of biological samples from Ukrainian soldiers who have voluntarily laid down their arms. As we noted earlier, high concentrations of antibiotics were found in their blood, as well as immunological markers indicative of exposure to the renal syndrome and West Nile pathogens, which were being studied by the Pentagon as part of the Ukrainian UP-4 and UP-8 projects.

▫️Particular attention should be paid to the discovery of narcotic drugs, including opioids such as methadone, codepsin, codeterp, as well as ephedrine-type substances: t-phedrine and tri-phedrine, at positions abandoned by Ukrainian military personnel.

▫️The synthetic drug methadone is used in the treatment of drug addiction as a substitute therapy.

As a reminder, in Nazi Germany during World War II, especially between 1943 and 1945, pervitin tablets, an amphetamine derivative, were given to soldiers in order to reduce the psycho-emotional burden, primarily to SS troops.

▫️The drug was also used en masse by US troops in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

▫️A side effect of such addictive drugs is primarily excessive aggression, which explains the extreme cruelty towards civilians displayed by some Ukrainian servicemen, as well as the shelling of towns in Donbass.

▫️In view of the available information on the use of potent stimulants by AFU servicemen, we are studying incoming samples for the presence of this class of compounds. Their traces persist in human organs and tissues for a long time (e.g., in hair - up to six months). The results will be handed over to the Investigative Committee and used as evidence in investigations into war crimes committed by the Kiev regime.

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@mod_russia_en

​​▫️A few weeks ago, during the special military operation, Rubezhnoye in Lugansk People's Republic was liberated. Documents have been found in the laboratory of the Pharmbiotest medical centre located at 9 Pochaivska Street, confirming that research had been carried out in Ukraine for several years on behalf of the so-called Big Pharma. Clinical trials of unregistered drugs with potentially serious side-effects have been carried out on local residents.

▫️We examined the premises of the centre responsible for clinical trials of medicinal products on volunteers. Evidence was found in them that Western customers regularly visited Pharmbiotest and were allowed access to all stages of the research process. For the convenience of their work, the inscriptions on equipment, room names and working documentation have been duplicated in English.

▫️To avoid reputational risks and legal costs in case of failed trials of new drugs, US and European companies conducted clinical trials on Ukrainian citizens. Volunteer pay was minimal and fatalities could easily be concealed. Neither have there been any serious inspections or oversight by the local authorities.

▫️This is in line with the Western concept of delocalising the most internationally controversial research. In Ukraine, military personnel, low-income citizens and one of the most vulnerable categories of the population, patients in psychiatric hospitals, have been used for this purpose.

▫️We continue to analyse the documentary material uncovered in Rubezhnoye settlement laboratory.

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​​▫️We have already informed that more than 16,000 biological samples, including blood and serum samples, were taken from Ukraine to the US, Georgia and European countries.

▫️Against the background of the US administration's assurances that the genetic information obtained from Ukrainian citizens will be used "...exclusively for peaceful purposes...", I would like to quote a statement by Jason Crowof the US House Intelligence Committee at the North American Security Conference in July.

▫️Crow warned Americans about the dangers of giving their DNA to private companies for testing because: "...there is a possibility that test results will be sold to third parties... and the information obtained could be used to develop biological weapons targeting specific groups... or individuals."

▫️Given the US administration's interest in the study of "narrowly targeted" biological agents, such statements force a fresh look at the causes of the new coronavirus pandemic and the role of US military biologists in the emergence and spread of the COVID-19 pathogen.

▫️In May 2022, Jeffrey Sachs - a leading expert in the respected medical journal The Lancet and professor at Columbia University, the leading academic institution for global biosecurity, told a conference in Spain that "...the coronavirus was artificially created and is very likely to have been created using American advances in biotechnology...".

▫️According to our experts, this is evidenced by the uncharacteristic variability of the genovariants that cause different peaks in the incidence of coronaviruses, significant differences in lethality and contagiousness, uneven geographical distribution, and the unpredictable nature of the epidemic process as a whole. It appears that despite efforts to contain and isolate the disease, the pandemic is being artificially fuelled by the introduction of new variants of the virus in a particular region.

▫️We are considering the possibility that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was involved in the emergence of the new coronavirus. Since 2009, the agency has funded the Predict programme, which has investigated new species of coronaviruses by capturing bats that carry the viruses. One of the contractors for the project was Metabiota, a company known for its military-biological activities in Ukraine.

▫️Characteristically, in 2019 - before the first COVID-19 cases appeared - the US Johns Hopkins Institute hosted an exercise called 'Event-201', which practised dealing with an epidemic of a previously unknown coronavirus, which, according to the legend of the exercise, was transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediate host, pigs. This is how the 'Spanish flu' virus, which has killed tens of millions of people, became pandemic.

▫️The implementation of the COVID-19 scenario and USAID's emergency wind-down of the Predict programme in 2019 suggest the deliberate nature of the pandemic and US involvement in its emergence.

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​​▫️During the special military operation, documents were seized indicating that USAID and its main contractor, Labyrinth Ukraine, have been participating in the US military bioweapons programme since 2019.

▫️Note the letter from the head of the AFU Sanitary and Epidemiological Department to the director of Labyrinth Ukraine, Karen Saylors. In it, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command declares its readiness to cooperate with USAID on administering vaccines to military personnel and on collecting, processing and transmitting information of interest to the US side.

▫️The choice of the US Agency for International Development to coordinate the work may have been prompted by increasing Russian concern over the activities of Ukrainian bio-laboratories, an attempt to "take the US defence agency out of the loop" and avoid accusations of developing biological weapons.

▫️It has been established that Labyrinth Ukraine is a division of the US company Labyrinth Global Health, and its founders are former employees of Metabiota, a key Pentagon contractor in the military-biological field. Labyrinth Ukraine took part in UP-9 and UP-10 projects, which studied the spread of African swine fever in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

▫️I would like to point out that as part of the US Department of Defense's biological threat reduction programme, one of Labyrinth Global Health's research areas has been the study of coronaviruses and monkeypox virus.

▫️On July 23, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak of monkeypox an international health emergency, and to date the disease has been reported in 76 countries, with over 26,000 cases.

▫️Thus we see a clear trend: infectious disease agents that reach the Pentagon's zone of interest are subsequently pandemic, with US pharmaceutical companies and their patrons, the leaders of the US Democratic Party, as the beneficiaries.

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Amnesty International stated that the Ukrainian Armed Forces use the practice of establishing bases and deploying weapons in residential areas, including schools and hospitals. This is stated in the published report of the human rights organization.

In particular, according to Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, such tactics violate international humanitarian law, as they turn civilian objects into military targets and endanger the civilian population:

"The Ukrainian government must immediately ensure that its forces are deployed away from populated areas or evacuate civilians from areas where the military operates."

‘They call it ‘petal’ and it is made of plastic. That is, metal detectors do not detect it.’

Military correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny spoke about these anti-infantry mines, which are abbreviated as PFM-1. Ukraine has been spreading these lethal devices throughout Donetsk for several days via rockets, and despite the fact that in 1997, the international community adopted the Antipersonnel Mine Ban Convention.

​Consequences of Western “lambs” silence

With the silent consent of the West, by violating its obligations, the criminal Kiev regime not only buried international law, but also crossed the point of no return to a civilized state.

⚠️ It is worth reminding that “Lepestok” mines PFM-1 and PFM-1C being weapons of indiscriminate action are prohibited by the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction as of December 03, 1997.

According to its provisions:

1. Each State Party undertakes never under any circumstances:
(a) To use anti-personnel mines;
(b) To develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, anti-personnel mines;
(c) To assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.

2. Each State Party undertakes to destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel mines in accordance with the provisions of this Convention.

⚠️ Ukraine ratified this treaty on December 27, 2005, and it entered into force on June 1, 2006.

The first use by the criminal Kiev regime of prohibited "Lepestok" mines on the DPR territory appeared on March 6, 2022, during the battles for Mariupol.

Then, since May 18, the AFU has been firing these mines into settlements not only of the DPR, but also into the liberated territory of the Kharkov region.

Since July 27, Ukrainian war criminals have been launching similar missiles equipped with prohibited “Lepestok” mines on the most densely populated neighborhoods of Donetsk.

As of August 2, locations in Voroshilovsky, Kievsky, Kuibyshevsky, Kirovsky, Petrovsky, Kalininsky districts of Donetsk are mined. On July 29, prohibited “Lepestok” mines were found in the village of Panteleimonovka, as well as in Makeevka.

According to the expert assessment of the DPR Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ukrainian criminals scattered several thousand prohibited mines in Donetsk alone. This assessment is based on the main method of mining with the help of the MLRS “Uragan”, the rocket of which contains 12 mine distribution canisters with 320 anti-personnel mines of the “Lepestok” PFM, the use of which has been repeatedly recorded by the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC.

🆘 Despite the mine action measures carried out as quickly as possible by the DPR Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and the DPR People's Militia, unfortunately, there are already 11 victims, including a child (August 2).

In total. International law is completely discredited: international organizations are very excited about the shelling of the colony with «Azov» prisoners, who with special cynicism killed thousands of innocent women, children and the elderly, against the background of stoic silence on the gross violation by the terrorist country Ukraine of the Ottawa Convention - in the case of prohibited anti–personnel mines use against civilians and the "Convention on the Prohibition or restriction of the use of specific types of weapons that may be considered to cause excessive damage or have indiscriminate effects" of October 10, 1980 – in the case of use of prohibited cluster munitions (Tochka-U, Uragan MLRS, Smerch MLRS).

❗️In particular, the UN is ready to send its experts to investigate circumstances of the shelling of the colony in Elenovka, as a result of which Ukrainian murderers were killed, just as it is absolutely NOT ready to conduct similar investigations into the tragic consequences of the use by the criminal Kiev regime of weapons prohibited by international conventions against the Donbass civilian population.

@DNR_SCKK

This is what a cassette of "Petal" mines looks like in a Uragan missile. When the missile ejects the cassettes, the wind catches the top and peels it back and tumbles the container and spilling/spreading the mines. This one did not function properly. (NOTE - This cassette is probably NOT from Donetsk.)

Russia-Turkey talks.
Vladimir Putin's main statements:

🔸In the first months of 2022, the trade between the two countries doubled.

🔸The Turkish Stream has become one of the most important routes for supplying Europe with Russian gas. It works well, smoothly, without failure for consumers in both Turkey and Europe.

🔸European partners should be grateful to Turkey for the continuous transit of gas to their markets.

🔸With the participation of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the UN Secretariat, the issue of the supply of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports has been resolved. In addition, a package decision was made on the supply of Russian food and fertilisers to global markets.

🔸Russia and Turkey have made a great contribution to normalising the situation in Syria.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine once again fired at the territory of the Zaporizhzhya NPP, as a result, a fire broke out. Due to the shelling, power lines were cut off.

In Energodar, the light was partially lost. The circumstances are being clarified.

At the same time Ukrainian sources are claiming that the strike is carried out by Russian forces. My limited English is not sufficient to fully express what I think about it.

Rogov, a member of the main council of the Zaporozhye region, told RIA Novosti that Ukrainian forces "purposefully attacked power lines in order to disrupt the reactor cooling system and cause a man-made disaster".

Japanese Defense Minister Kishi said that for the first time in history, Chinese ballistic missiles splashed down in Japan's exclusive economic zone.

Full statement by Serbian President Vučić on the situation in Kosovo.

"Yesterday we had talks with representatives of the Serbian people from Kosovo and Metohija. Let's try to keep the peace at any cost. Let's try to ask everyone again. I ask the Albanians to understand, I ask the Serbs not to succumb to provocations and not to do anything that could lead to But I also ask the representatives of the powerful and big countries that have recognized the independence of Kosovo to take a little care of international law, be careful with reality and not allow today's wards to cause conflict - this is my request, this is my big request. "I can say that we will pray for peace and seek peace. But I will tell you right away that there will be no surrender, and Serbia will win. If they try to start persecuting Serbs, mocking Serbs, killing Serbs, Serbia will win. That's all." what I want to say."