U.S. Admiral Warns of ‘Real Possibility’ of Nuclear War

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The admiral who heads the US Strategic Command — which is responsible for nuclear deterrence — is calling on the nation’s military and civilian leaders to seek new ways to face threats by Russia and China, including the “real possibility” of nuclear conflict.

Adm. Charles Richard warned that Moscow and Beijing have “begun to aggressively challenge international norms” in “ways not seen since the height of the Cold War.”

“There is a real possibility that a regional crisis with Russia or China could escalate quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons, if they perceived a conventional loss would threaten the regime or state,” he wrote in the February issue of Proceedings, the US Naval Institute’s monthly magazine.

“Consequently, the U.S. military must shift its principal assumption from ‘nuclear employment is not possible’ to ‘nuclear employment is a very real possibility,’ and act to meet and deter that reality.”

He added: “We cannot approach nuclear deterrence the same way. It must be tailored and evolved for the dynamic environment we face.” (Read more from “U.S. Admiral Warns of ‘Real Possibility’ of Nuclear War” HERE)

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UN: 27,000 Children Stranded in Refugee Camps ‘at Risk of Radicalization’ by ISIS

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Around 27,000 children, many with parents who are affiliated with ISIS, remain in a refugee camp in northeastern Syria, the United Nations counterterrorism chief said, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The thousands of children “remain stranded, abandoned to their fate” where they are exposed to ISIS and are “at risk of radicalization within the camp,” said Vladimir Voronkov, the undersecretary general for counter terrorism at the U.N., during an informal meeting on Friday, the AP reported. He added that there are children from 60 countries at the camps who need to be repatriated. . .

Al Hol is the largest refugee camp in Syria with around 62,000 occupants, the AP reported. Over 80% of the people there are women and children who escaped to the camp after ISIS lost their last stronghold in the country in 2019.

Several countries, including Russia and Kazakhstan, have already repatriated around 1,000 children and their family members, Voronkov said, the AP reported. A U.N. official added that children under the age of 14 should be approached as victims and not detained or prosecuted. (Read more from “UN: 27,000 Children Stranded in Refugee Camps ‘at Risk of Radicalization’ by ISIS” HERE)

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Pope Francis Struggles to Stand While Addressing Vatican Tribunal

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Pope Francis apologized to his faithful flock after his sciatica forced him to remain seated while addressing a Vatican City Catholic Church tribunal.

The 84-year-old Argentinian has been forced to cancel a number of recent events due to the nerve pain condition.

“I would like to speak to you standing up but sciatica is a troublesome guest,” the pontiff told members of the Roman Rota on Friday, according to Agence France-Presse.

“So I apologize and will speak sitting down,” he told members of the tribunal as he marked the start of the Holy See’s judicial year.

Francis skipped New Year’s Masses at St. Peter’s Basilica and two Masses earlier in the week due to a bout with the chronic condition that causes pain in his hip. (Read more from “Pope Francis Struggles to Stand While Addressing Vatican Tribunal” HERE)

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China Explores Anuses for COVID-19 Testing

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Chinese authorities have used coronavirus tests that rely on anal swabs as the country reports an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

The tests are typically reserved by health care professionals for high-risk cases, such as those in quarantine sites, according to multiple reports citing state-run channel CCTV.

However, the method was also used in a group of schoolchildren and teachers in Beijing last week, according to multiple reports. Throat and nose swabs were also used in the group.

Nose and anal swabs were also taken from a group of passengers on a flight from Changchun, China, to Beijing on Monday.

Others travelers arriving in Beijing have also been asked to use anal swabs. One woman, who was not identified by name, was asked to use an anal swab in a mandatory hotel quarantine in Beijing alongside several nose and throat tests and a blood test, Bloomberg News reported. (Read more from “China Explores Anuses for COVID-19 Testing” HERE)

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Report: Biden Suspends Arms Sales to Key Arab Allies in the Middle East

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The Biden Administration is suspending arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia — two key Gulf allies that President Donald Trump cultivated as a counter to Iran and as part of building support for peace with Israel.

Axios reported Wednesday (original emphasis):

The Biden administration has put on hold two big arms deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates which were approved in the final weeks of the Trump administration, a State Department official tells Axios.

Why it matters: The sales of F-35 jets and attack drones to the UAE and a large supply of munitions to Saudi Arabia will be paused pending a review. That signals a major policy shift from the Trump era, and may herald sharp tensions with both Gulf countries.

…

The big picture: The F-35 deal came in the context of the U.S.-brokered normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel.

(Read more from “Report: Biden Suspends Arms Sales to Key Arab Allies in the Middle East” HERE)

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China Is Rehearsing for When It Overtakes America; More Evidence of ‘Suspicious Activity’ at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Emerges

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By CNN. China wants to lead the global recovery from the pandemic and become more influential on the world stage than ever before. It might just have the momentum — and the confidence — to pull that plan off.

The world’s second largest economy shrugged off much of the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic last year, and its ability to keep growing while the world crashed into recession could mean its GDP exceeds that of the United States later this decade, years earlier than expected.

“China emerged from the Covid-19 shock earlier than the rest of the world and authorities are already planning for the long term,” wrote Françoise Huang, senior economist for Asia-Pacific at Euler Hermes, in a report last week titled, “The world is moving East, fast.”

China just outpaced the United States in attracting foreign direct investment for the first time. And as 2020 was drawing to a close, it signed a trade agreement with the European Union with the aim of boosting growth and giving European companies greater access to its 1.4 billion consumers. Now, Beijing is starting the new year without one of its most aggressive political adversaries, former US President Donald Trump, breathing down its neck. (Read more from “China Is Rehearsing for When It Overtakes America” HERE)

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More Evidence of ‘Suspicious Activity’ at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Emerges

By Sky News. “More and more evidence” is emerging that there was “suspicious activity” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the pandemic outbreak, according to Sky News host Sharri Markson.

“Some of this evidence points to the fact that this laboratory had workers who fell ill … around August of 2019”.

Ms Markson said the US State Department has released a fact sheet which says for more than a year, the Chinese Communist Party has systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the origin of the pandemic.

Instead choosing to devote enormous resources to deceit and disinformation, while nearly two million people have died, Ms Markson said.

The fact sheet was released by the US State Department on January 16. (Read more from “More Evidence of ‘Suspicious Activity’ at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Emerges” HERE)

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Former Head of Vatican Bank Found Guilty of Embezzlement

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A former head of the Vatican bank, Angelo Caloia, has been found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering and sentenced to eight years and 11 months in prison, making him the highest-ranking Vatican official to be convicted of a financial crime.

The Vatican court on Thursday also convicted Gabriele Liuzzo, 97, and his son Lamberto Liuzzo, 55, both Italian lawyers who were consultants to the bank.

Caloia led the bank, officially known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), from 1989 to 2009. The 81-year-old Italian was tried over corrupt real estate deals.

He was accused of conspiring with others to make millions from the below-market sale of more than 20 IOR properties in Italy and laundering the proceeds in Switzerland. (Read more from “Former Head of Vatican Bank Found Guilty of Embezzlement” HERE)

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China’s Gift for the Biden Inauguration Is a Conspiracy Theory About COVID-19’s U.S. Origins

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A conspiracy theory that links the origins of Covid-19 to a US military lab is trending on Chinese social media on Wednesday (Jan. 20), after a spokesperson from the country’s foreign ministry redirected the public’s focus to the lab this week.

The fresh attention being drawn by a Chinese official to the theory just ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden today (Jan. 20) as president, could indicate that the new administration will face an uphill battle when it comes to US-China relationship, and a continuation of the blame game between the two countries over the pandemic.

Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said on Monday (Jan. 18) at a press conference that the US should open Fort Detrick, a military medical research base in Maryland, for further investigation as a possible origin of Covid-19. “I’d like to stress that if the United States truly respects facts, it should open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite WHO [the World Health Organization] experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States, and respond to the concerns from the international community with real actions,” she said. (Read more from “China’s Gift for the Biden Inauguration Is a Conspiracy Theory About COVID-19’s U.S. Origins” HERE)

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China Slaps Trump Administration Officials With Sanctions

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China showed its disdain for the Trump administration — which adopted a tough stance against the communist country over the last four years — by imposing sanctions on more than two dozen former Trump officials just minutes after they left office Wednesday.

Beijing issued a statement shortly after President Joe Biden had been sworn into office announcing sanctions against several former officials such as Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, and his national security adviser, Robert O’Brien.

Others hit with sanctions were Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, his top diplomat for Asia, David Stilwell, his Health and Human Services secretary, Alex Azar, former national security adviser, John Bolton, and former political strategist, Steve Bannon.

While the sanctions are largely symbolic, the Associated Press noted that they “underscore Beijing’s antipathy toward a U.S. administration it regarded as hostile.”

In the statement, the Chinese foreign ministry said: “Over the past few years, some anti-China politicians in the United States, out of their selfish political interests and prejudice and hatred against China and showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people, have planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves which have gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations.” (Read more from “China Slaps Trump Administration Officials With Sanctions” HERE)

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Report: Indian Christians ‘Persecuted in All Areas of Life’

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Christians in India face persecution “in all areas of public and private life,” according to a study by the Christian Aid group Open Doors.

In majority Hindu India, “Christians are persecuted in all areas of public and private life, and anti-conversion laws (currently in nine states, with more considering adoption) are abused to harass and intimidate Christians,” according to the organization. Although few people are actually convicted under the anti-conversion laws, related cases “can drag on for years.”

According to the U.S.-based Open Doors, “Hindu extremists” in India “believe that all Indians should be Hindus, and that the country should be rid of Christianity and Islam. They use extensive violence to achieve this goal, particularly targeting Christians from a Hindu background.”

Indian Christians are often accused of adopting a “foreign faith” and may be blamed for perceived “bad luck” within their majority Hindu communities. The tension has lead to Christians suffering physical attacks and being killed by fellow community members in extreme instances. Hindu converts to Christianity are “under constant pressure from their family and community to return to Hinduism,” according to the study. “If they do not ‘re-convert,’ they may be boycotted by their community, with a devastating effect on their ability to earn income.”

The ongoing Chinese coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the economic and social blacklisting of Christians in India. (Read more from “Report: Indian Christians ‘Persecuted in All Areas of Life’” HERE)

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