North Korea Reportedly Has up to 60 Nuclear Bombs in Massive Weapons Stockpile

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North Korea is believed to have between 20 and 60 nuclear bombs — as well as a 2,500- to 5,000-ton stockpile of 20 types of chemical weapons, the world’s third-largest, according to reports.

The US Department of the Army headquarters made the assessment in its recent report, titled “North Korean tactics,” saying Pyongyang is unlikely to give up the weapons in its bid to prevent a regime change, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

“Estimates for North Korean nuclear weapons range from 20-60 bombs, with the capability to produce 6 new devices each year,” the US Army said, noting that some reports state that the rogue regime could obtain as many as 100 by the end of 2020.

“North Korea sought nuclear weapons because its leaders thought the threat of a nuclear attack would prevent other countries from contemplating a regime change,” the US military said. (Read more from “North Korea Reportedly Has up to 60 Nuclear Bombs in Massive Weapons Stockpile” HERE)

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Chinese Communist Party Insider: ‘Xi Is the Enemy of the World, Has Killed the Country and the Party’

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A former professor at China’s elite Central Party School has issued an unprecedented rebuke of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, accusing him of “killing a country” and claiming that many more want out of the ruling Chinese Communist party.

Cai Xia, a prominent professor who taught at the school, a higher education institution for top officials, was expelled from the party on Monday after an audio recording of remarks she made that were critical of Xi was leaked online in June. She is no longer in China. The school said in a notice that Cai, a professor at the party school since 1992, had made comments that “damaged the country’s reputation” and were full of “serious political problems”. . . .

“Under the regime of Xi, the Chinese Communist party is not a force for progress for China. In fact, it is an obstacle to China’s progress,” she said. “I believe I am not the only one who wants to leave this party. More people would like to withdraw or quit this party,” she said. “I had intended to quit the party years ago when there was no more room to speak and my voice was completely blocked.” . . .

Cai initially spoke to the Guardian in June after the recording was first released. On that occasion she went further in her denunciation of Xi, blaming him for making China “an enemy” of the world, in comments that will reverberate across the party and the country, where such public criticism from within the party establishment is extremely rare.

On Tuesday, Cai, who initially asked that her June interview not be published because of threats she and her family received, said she was now willing to speak out. “I have much more freedom now. My speech is free from any constraints. I am responsible only for my own conscience and principles,” she said. (Read more from “Chinese Communist Party Insider: ‘Xi Is the Enemy of the World, Has Killed the Country and the Party'” HERE)

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Amid Food Shortages, North Koreans Ordered to Hand Over Pet Dogs

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North Korean dictator Kim Kong-un has ordered citizens to hand over their pet dogs — so they can be killed for food.

The hermit state says pet dogs are now considered a “decadent” luxury and “a ‘tainted’ trend by bourgeois ideology,” and must be surrendered, according to a report by South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo media outlet. . .

According to the Daily Mail, a recent report by the UN said up to 60 percent of North Koreans face “widespread food shortages.” In recent weeks, heavy rain and flooding have sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country.

North Korea’s national Red Cross Society is the only organization with access to all nine provinces, and more than 43,000 volunteers have been working alongside health teams on COVID-19 prevention efforts as well as helping flood-related work, said Antony Balmain of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

“Hundreds of homes have been damaged and large areas of rice fields have been submerged due to heavy rain and some flash flooding,” Balmain said, according to Reuters. (Read more from “Amid Food Shortages, North Koreans Ordered to Hand Over Pet Dogs” HERE)

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‘Maximum Pressure Campaign’: U.S. Confiscates Iranian Fuel From Four Tankers

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The Trump administration has successfully seized Iranian fuel from four tankers sailing to Venezuela, increasing their “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran, a senior U.S. official confirmed for Fox News on Thursday evening.

Iran and Venezuela have tried to outmaneuver sanctions that the U.S. has placed on both countries by forming an oil partnership.

The confiscated cargo, first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, was a direct violation of U.S. sanctions. A senior official clarified that the tankers were not seized but the oil is now in U.S. possession.

Federal prosecutors reportedly filed a forfeiture complaint and warrant in Washington, D.C. alleging that all “petroleum products” aboard the four vessels referred to as the Bella, the Bering, the Pandi and the Luna were a “source of influence” for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch in the Iranian armed forces.

The U.S. has designated the Guard a terrorist organization and therefore claimed that the sale of oil from Iran to Venezuela financially sponsors the The Guard and their militant actions. (Read more from “‘Maximum Pressure Campaign’: U.S. Confiscates Iranian Fuel From Four Tankers” HERE)

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Cuba’s Communist Government Suffers Another Blow From the Trump Administration

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The United States will stop private flights from the United States to Cuba, striking another blow against the communist Cuban government.

“Today, I requested that the Department of Transportation suspend private charter flights to all Cuban airports, including Havana. This action will suspend all charter flights between the United States and Cuba over which the Department of Transportation exercises jurisdiction, except for authorized public charter flights to and from Havana and other authorized private charter flights for emergency medical purposes, search and rescue, and other travel deemed in the interest of the United States. This Administration will continue to target and cut the revenue the Cuban government earns from landing fees, stays in regime-owned hotels, and other travel-related income,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released in a statement Thursday. “The Cuban military and intelligence services own and operate the great majority of hotels and tourism infrastructure in Cuba. We urge travelers of all nationalities to consider this and to make responsible decisions regarding travel to Cuba. The suspension of private charter flights will deny economic resources to the Castro regime and inhibit its capacity to carry out abuses.”

(Read more from “Cuba’s Communist Government Suffers Another Blow From the Trump Administration” HERE)

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Israel Establishes Formal Relations With UAE in U.S.-Brokered Peace Deal

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In a big win for Middle Eastern relations and a major victory for the Trump administration, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) officially established diplomatic ties Thursday in a peace agreement brokered by the United States.

The treaty comes as Israel agrees to forgo plans to annex parts of the West Bank and marks the first Gulf Arab country to open relations with the Jewish nation.

“This historic diplomatic breakthrough will advance peace in the Middle East region and is a testament to the bold diplomacy and vision of the three leaders and the courage of the United Arab Emirates and Israel to chart a new path that will unlock the great potential of the region,” the White House released in a joint statement with Israel and the UAE. “As a result of this diplomatic breakthrough and at the request of President Trump with the support of the United Arab Emirates, Israel will suspend declaring sovereignty over areas outlined in the President’s Vision for Peace and focus its efforts now on expanding ties with other countries in the Arab and Muslim world.”

Israel’s prime minister celebrated President Donald Trump’s announcement of the agreement on Twitterm writing back “Historic Day” in Hebrew. (Read more from “Israel Establishes Formal Relations With Uae in U.S.-Brokered Peace Deal” HERE)

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South China Sea: Chinese Military Told Not to Fire First Shot in Stand-Off With U.S. Forces

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China has told its service personnel “not to fire the first shot” as Beijing looks to de-escalate tensions with the United States in the South China Sea, sources familiar with the situation told the South China Morning Post.

Both sides have stepped up their operations in the disputed waters, increasing the risk of incidents that spiral out of control, but Beijing does not want to give American hawks the opportunity to escalate things further.

The sources said Beijing had ordered pilots and naval officers to exercise restraint in the increasingly frequent stand-offs with US planes and warships.

Meanwhile, further details have emerged about a phone conversation between the two countries’ defence ministers last week.

The call was first suggested by the US side about “a month earlier” but was initially given a frosty reception in Beijing. But a source said the Chinese leadership later had a change of heart and decided to reach out as tensions escalated in the South and East China seas. (Read more from “South China Sea: Chinese Military Told Not to Fire First Shot in Stand-Off With U.S. Forces” HERE)

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Russia: Putin Approves Coronavirus Vaccine, Claims Daughter Took It

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President Vladimir Putin claimed on Tuesday that he approved Russia’s experimental Chinese coronavirus vaccine and the nation was readying mass distribution, alleging that his daughter was one of the test subjects and is feeling well since taking it.

An official claimed that the vaccine still needed to clear Phase Three testing, however, which would place its development behind the leading American-made vaccine. . .

Russia is one of a number of rogue states — including China itself, Iran, and North Korea — claiming to be developing a vaccine against the Chinese coronavirus. No vaccine currently exists for any known coronavirus, including those responsible for the SARS and MERS outbreaks in the past two decades.

“As far as I know, this morning for the first time in the world a vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection was registered,” Putin proclaimed on Tuesday, according to the Russian news agency TASS. Putin claimed that some who have taken the vaccine “do not have any symptoms at all” and that his daughter was among the experimental patients.

“I know this very well, because one of my daughters got vaccinated, so in this sense, she took part in testing,” he claimed, stating that she developed a fever after both doses of the vaccine, but “after the second shot, she had a slight fever again, and then everything was fine, she is feeling well and has a high [antibody] count.” (Read more from “Russia: Putin Approves Coronavirus Vaccine, Claims Daughter Took It” HERE)

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China Stands Accused of Manufacturing the COVID-19 Virus

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From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus identified as the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, has been consistently described as “novel” because of its unique structural features.

Also since the onset of the pandemic, the conventional wisdom concerning the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has been that it was a naturally-occurring outbreak, acquired by humans after exposure to infected animals, a conclusion aggressively promoted by the Chinese Communist Party, supported by some Western scientists and endlessly regurgitated by the left-leaning global media.

That narrative is not only unproven, but much of the scientific data being used to buttress it are faulty, perhaps even fabricated.

China has claimed that a bat coronavirus named RaTG13 is the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2 and upon which the global search for the natural origin of the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely based.

According to China’s narrative, in 2013, Zheng-Li Shi, the “bat woman,” and her team from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were asked to investigate the virus profile of a mine shaft in Yunnan Province after six miners contracted pneumonia with symptoms similar to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), although it was subsequently shown to have been a fungus infection.

After sampling the mine shaft for a year, the researchers identified a diverse group of bat coronaviruses from bat fecal samples, one of which was designated RaBtCoV/4991 (GenBank KP876546) and partially sequenced.

Despite being unique enough to be considered a new strain and associated with a human SARS-like outbreak as a Potential Pandemic Pathogen, thereafter, RaBtCoV/4991, de facto, disappeared from the scientific literature.

That is, until 2020.

In the February 3, 2020 Nature article, scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, led by Zheng-Li Shi, stated that the coronavirus RaTG13, known previously as RaBtCoV/4991, showed a 96.2% sequence identity with SARS-CoV-2 and, therefore, “RaTG13 is the closest relative” forming a distinct lineage from other coronaviruses and supporting China’s claim that SARS-CoV-2 is naturally-occurring.

As a result, the conventional wisdom that the COVID-19 was a naturally-occurring outbreak arose, nearly all of it based on a single scientific publication, one of whose authors had earlier received a medal from the Chinese government in January, 2020.

Unfortunately, RaTG13 is not actually a virus because no biological samples exist, but a sequence of a virus for which there are now serious questions about its accuracy, based on the collection methods and sequence gaps, identified in an August 8, 2020 study, and RaTG13’s structure in comparison to SARS-CoV-2, published already on March 15, 2020.

As Dr. Li-Meng Yan, a Chinese virologist and whistleblower, implies in a detailed interview, RaTG13 may have been used to divert the world’s attention away from the true source of the COVID-19 pandemic, a novel coronavirus that originated in military laboratories overseen by China’s People’s Liberation Army.

SARS-CoV-2 has two unique features contained in the S1 section of the spike glycoprotein:

(1) a receptor-binding domain (RBD), which appears “pre-adapted” for human infection, but is structurally similar to the RBD of pangolins (scaly anteaters) and

(2) a furin polybasic cleavage site (amino acid sequence proline-arginine-arginine-alanine or PRRA), a distinctive feature that facilitates membrane fusion between the virus and the human cell and widely known for its ability to enhance pathogenicity and transmissibility, but not present in any closely related bat or pangolin coronaviruses.

A scientific study published on July 1, 2020 states that, while SARS-CoV-2 sequences share the greatest overall genetic similarity with bat coronaviruses, it is not the case for the RBD, which is “nearly identical” to that of two pangolin coronaviruses.

Those authors suggest that a cross-species recombination event between bat and pangolin coronaviruses had occurred.

Yet, there is no evidence supporting a natural viral recombination between bat and pangolin coronaviruses resulting in such an outcome.

When asked about that possibility of pangolins being the SARS-CoV-2 host, Dr. Ralph Baric, a coronavirus expert from the University of North Carolina, in a March 15, 2020 interview, stated that pangolins could not be the source:

“Pangolins have over 3,000 nucleotide changes – no way they are the reservoir species [for SARS-CoV-2], absolutely no chance.”

A scientific article published on August 5, 2020, “COVID-19: Time to exonerate the pangolin from the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans,” totally dismisses the notion that pangolins could have acted as a natural intermediate host for a human infection.

Given the overwhelming scientific evidence, the only recombination event possible for the appearance of a pangolin-like RBD in SARS-CoV-2 would be one occurring artificially in a laboratory.

Much has been made in the media about a newly reported bat coronavirus, RmYN02, also found in Yunnan Province by China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, which shares 93.3% nucleotide identity with SARS-CoV-2.

RmYN02 also has a proline-alanine-alanine (PAA) sequence, which has been used as evidence that the unique PRRA sequence found in SARS-CoCV-2 could have evolved naturally.

What is not highlighted is that the RBD of RmYN02 showed only a 61.3% sequence identity with SARS-CoV-2, meaning that RmYN02 could not bind to human cells.

In addition, the probably out-of-alignment amino acid sequence PAA is chemically neutral, totally unlike SARS-CoV-2’s polybasic PRRA cleavage site, giving PAA no ability to cleave anything.

What can be linked to SARS-CoV-2’s PRRA furin polybasic cleavage site is the extensive research being conducted on such cleavage sites and their pathological effects on humans by the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai, China, examples found here and here.

The science is unequivocal. As hard as China and the other proponents of the naturally-occurring narrative have tried, SARS-CoV-2 has features that cannot be explained by a natural evolutionary process. (For more from the author of “China Stands Accused of Manufacturing the COVID-19 Virus” please click HERE)

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Lawrence Sellin, PhD is a retired US Army Reserve colonel. He has previously worked at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and conducted basic and clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry. His email address is [email protected].

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Hong Kong Media Tycoon Arrested Under New Security Law

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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested Monday on suspicion of collusion with foreign powers, his aide said, in the highest-profile use yet of the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. . .

Lai, who owns popular tabloid Apple Daily, is an outspoken pro-democracy figure in Hong Kong and regularly criticizes China’s authoritarian rule.

The national security law came into effect June 30 and is widely seen as a means to curb dissent after anti-government protests rocked Hong Kong last year. . .

The security law outlaws secessionist, subversive and terrorist acts, as well as collusion with foreign forces in the city’s internal affairs. The maximum punishment for serious offenders is life imprisonment. (Read more from “Hong Kong Media Tycoon Arrested Under New Security Law” HERE)

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