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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/10/2019 7:11:41 PM

World War 3 WARNING: Russia, US and France launch nuclear-capable missiles HOURS APART


PUTIN

The US recently abandoned the INF Treaty sparking fears of a Cold-War era arms race (Image: GETTY)

RUSSIA, the United States and France have test-launched nuclear-capable missiles within hours of one another as fears rise of a return to a Cold War-era arms race amid the abandonment of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.



The French military announced Tuesday its air force conducted a rare test Monday of the nuclear-capable medium-range air-to-surface missile (ASMP). The US then followed with firing a nuclear-capable Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday night. Shortly after, Russian armed forces fired a nuclear-capable RS-24 Yars ICBM.

None of the tests were thought to be equipped with nuclear warheads and were likely scheduled ahead of the INF treaty breakdown.

In a press release the French Ministry of Defense said the demonstration of the ASMP was "successful".

The weapon was fired at a testing centre of the DGA Essays de missiles located near Biscarrosse, southwestern France.

The ministry said the 11-hour mission was “planned for a long time” and demonstrated “the reliability of the airborne weapons system over time”.

The Trump administration has accused Russia has acted unlawfully under the terms of the treaty (Image: GETTY)

The US Air Force described the launching as a “developmental test” of the Minuteman III at approximately 11.01pm on Tuesday.

In a statement sent to the local NBC affiliate KSBY, Global Strike Command said their representatives “assert that missile tests are scheduled months or years in advance, this test comes just four short days after the Trump administration suspended the INF-treaty. A crucial landmark treaty between the US and Russia that eliminated entire categories of nuclear weapons.”

The Russian Defence Ministry said their weapon launched was “equipped with multiple warheads” and the “purpose of the launch was to confirm the tactical, technical and flight characteristics of the advanced missile system.”

It is believed Russia owns the largest number of nuclear weapons in the world with an estimated 6,800 warheads.

The US is thought to possess approximately 6,000 warheads.

Tensions are high following President Donald Trump's announcement to abandon the INF treaty with Russia.

The INF treaty has been suspended following accusations from the US that Moscow violated the deal with the new Novato 9M729 missile.

The purpose of the treaty was to avoid a potential nuclear war as it prohibited the US and Soviet Union from stationing short and intermediate-range land missiles in Europe.


The INF treaty was signed in 1988 (Image: GETTY)


Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said the abandonment of the INF-treaty could bring nuclear war “much closer”.

A member of the German Parliament Manfred Weber tweeted: "The announced suspension of the INF-treaty by the United States is an urgent wakeup call for Europe.

"The consequences of scrapping this agreement could put us back decades. Russia’s noncompliance is a serious threat to security in Europe.”

Members of the Trump administration have said Russia’s noncompliance with the treaty was their reason for abandoning the deal.


When abandoning the INF treaty Trump said Russia had acted unlawfully under its terms.

The President said: “The United States will suspend its obligations under the INF Treaty and begin the process of withdrawal, which will be completed in six months unless Russia comes back into compliance by destroying all of its violating missiles, launchers and associated equipment."

He added: “We will move forward with developing our own military response options and will work with NATO and our other allies and partners to deny Russia any military advantage from its unlawful conduct.”


(express.co.uk)



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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/11/2019 11:23:11 AM

Bright fireball over Venezuela caught on video, prompts 'meteor' suggestions


Footage of a bright light in the night skies of Venezuela has appeared on various social media accounts, apparently shot from different locations of the country. Some people suggested the flash might be a meteor.

The first videos of a mysterious bright object appeared on social media on Saturday night. Most eyewitnesses captured the fireball while out filming at random.

One video has festive music in the background, while another showed people dancing in the street.

Встроенное видео

@ActualidadRT @teleSURtv otro vídeo grabado en valencia,cae meteorito que surco cielo del centro del país,cae en la localidad de flor amarillo,valencia,Venezuela estado carabobo. atentos! video de Venezuela



Встроенное видео

Mientras un recreador animaba una fiesta infantil se pudo registrar el paso del supuesto meteorito al caer la tarde de este sábado


But all the recordings had something in common: the light from the fireball was so bright that nothing else would immediately come into focus for the authors of the various pieces of footage.

Встроенное видео

Usuarios en las redes sociales reportan una gran luz en el cielo de Caracas. Me hacen llegar este video


All videos show that the object crossed the sky at an extremely high speed and had a fire-tail, like meteors usually have when they cut Earth's atmosphere. However, it's still not clear whether it was a real meteor or not. Officials have not commented yet on the sightings, reports and videos.


(RT)



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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/11/2019 6:07:29 PM

‘We are like the living dead’: Citizens of Mosul in despair 1.5 years after liberation from ISIS


Chaos and misery – that’s what life in Mosul is like more than 1.5 years after Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition staged one of the deadliest battles in decades to liberate the city from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).

A year and a half since its “liberation” by the US-backed Iraqi forces, the city still lies in ruins. Nine hospitals out of 13 in Mosul are still damaged or destroyed and are unable to lend any kind of medical assistance, while 4 million tons of rubble scattered around the city still need to be cleared, Tom Peyre-Costa, a Norwegian refugee center media coordinator, who saw the situation on the ground firsthand, told RT.


What was once Iraq’s second-largest city and home to millions was reduced to ash in July 2017, when the US-led coalition dropped bombs and recaptured it from IS. More than 10,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed in the battle. Thousands of dead bodies are still buried under the rubble amid the lack of recovery crews and equipment.

“Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are still displaced… and are unable to return to their homes for the simple reason that they do not have a home to go back to,” TPeyre-Costa said. His words were confirmed by locals, who complained about the lack of basic infrastructure.

“You can’t even imagine how difficult it is – no hospitals, no schools, no teachers. We are like the living dead. We have a cemetery over there, but here it’s a cemetery for the living. Pot holes are everywhere, there are still corpses everywhere and if anyone brings humanitarian aid here, the local officials just steal it, they are all corrupt,” a Mosul resident told RT.

"There’s no reconstruction here, all their reconstruction efforts are just ink on paper."


The Iraqi authorities are “clearly” not doing enough to help the city – locals have to rebuild their houses “with their bare hands” while being exposed to various unexploded ordnance, according to Peyre-Costa. The resources that have been allocated by the authorities to the reconstruction of the city amount to less than one-third of what is really needed for just one year, he said.

Locals say fraud and corruption are halting the process. Peyre-Costa could not confirm these allegations but said that “the government has allocated too little money” and that “Iraqis – both the displaced and the returnees – do not get enough support both from the international community and the Iraqi authorities.”

Another problem plaguing many Mosul residents is that they have to endure harsh winter conditions in temporary camps, which “were not designed to be permanent structures.”

“The life expectancy of a tent is not supposed to exceed 6 months. In some camps, they have not been replaced for more than 2 years now,” Peyre-Costa said, adding that many people fell victim to the low winter temperatures and severe flooding. However, the authorities seem to be in no rush to resettle them to safer places.

Встроенное видео

musician who defied ISIS describes life in ‘destroyed city’ https://on.rt.com/8yi7

There are fears that IS could return to the city and use the corruption and chaos to re-emerge. The US-led coalition spent billions of dollars when it bombed Mosul, but when it was done, it didn’t cash out on rebuilding.

“There are no basic services in the city, no jobs – it’s terrible,” one local resident said. “We’re here battling all the hardships. We now regret that we ever came back.”

Meanwhile, nearly 2 million Iraqis remain displaced, according to UN estimates. Nearly 700,000 of them are from Mosul.


(RT)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/11/2019 6:33:55 PM

US accuses China of preparing for WWIII: What you’re not being told

Darius Shahtahmasebi
Darius Shahtahmasebi is a New Zealand-based legal and political analyst, currently specializing in immigration, refugee and humanitarian law.

A Republican senator has accused China of preparing for World War III. Like most of Washington’s statements concerning China, the lawmaker has completely ignored the US’ role in creating such a scenario in the first place.

Just last week, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma made the allegation that China’s military was preparing for World War III.

It’s like you’re preparing for World War III,” he said during a Senate hearing focused on the so-called challenges presented by Russia and China. “You’re talking to our allies over there and you wonder whose side they’re going to be on.

According to Inhofe, the US has sat back and watched as China has built its military presence in the South China Sea, turning artificial islands into potential launch pads for its military.

The idea that the US has sat back and watched anything, ever, in the history of the world, is somewhat laughable. Even under the Obama administration, the president had an explicit containment strategy which was supposed to enclose and encircle China from all angles. The so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) was alsodesigned for this purpose (yet for some reason Donald Trump, who is overtly anti-Chinese, thought the agreement was a bad idea).

Inhofe also said he was “
concerned” that “our message” was “not getting across.”

China getting the “message” loud and clear

I don’t mean to be base, but perhaps the problem in the China-US relationship is that the message is getting across – loud and clear. The US has pushed the expansion of NATO up to and around Russia’s borders. It has invaded and bombed Iraq, Syria (miraculously occupying one-third of Syrian territory, including its most oil-rich region), Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and even the Philippines.

On top of it, this superpower has also threatened war with Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, all of whom share a cosy relationship with China. Washington supplies lethal arms to and backs known neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine; and a leaked phone call even saw then-secretary of state Victoria Nuland discuss who she proposed putting inside Ukraine’s government after Viktor Yanukovych was successfully ousted from power.

Under Trump, the US has started a potentially disastrous trade war with China and has openly flirted with the idea of dropping its support for the One-China policy (not to mention weighing up substantive support for Taiwan).

READ MORE: Chinese & Taiwanese militaries exchange saber-rattling VIDEOS on Lunar New Year

Come on, the message is getting across. If you are a lesser nation without a nuclear supply or the backing of a major nuclear power, you will find the US military right on your doorstep. If you are more of a handful and require a less upfront approach, you will find the US military right next door, peering in the window, all the while American sanctions wreak havoc on your economy.

In that context, if China was indeed preparing for World War III, we really shouldn’t be all that surprised. There has to be a reason that, at the beginning of the year, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first order to his country’s military was to prepare for battle (aka a “comprehensive military struggle from a new starting point”), stating further that “all military units must correctly understand major national security and development trends, and strengthen their sense of unexpected hardship, crisis and battle.”

Furthermore, joining Inhofe at the Senate hearing was the director of studies at the think-tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Ely Ratner. Approximately a year ago, our good friend Victoria Nuland (mentioned above regarding regime change and support for neo-nazism archives) was named as the new CEO of the CNAS. It also has the support of the drone-king himself, General David Petraeus, and its experts have helped contribute their opinions to foreign policy, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fox News, CNN, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and NPR. It openly warns against the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, for example, because such a move would embolden Iran.

I think it’s fair to say then, that when it comes to a discussion on China, CNAS must be a top-notch source. The company that Inhofe keeps is evidently therefore a reliable one.

China as the scapegoat for US failures

In all fairness, the US has been sounding the alarm on China for some time now.

In November last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave China a direct and clear warning that it must behavelike a “normal nation” (on commerce) and “with respect to the rules of international law.”

If the charges against China are that it does not act like a normal nation and is acting in contravention of international law, it sounds like the US and China would have a lot in common. This would be true even under the Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations, but the US under Trump is openly disregarding international law anderoding confidence in any of the existing UN institutions that are left, making even the slightest mention of international law hypocritical and nonsensical.

Just days ago, US intelligence agencies were warning that China was using student spies to steal secrets from the US. At the end of last year, a bipartisan group of 12 senators wrote a letter to senior members of the Trump administration, urging them to counter covert Chinese interference in “democracies” around the world.

In October last year, retired Lt. General Ben Hodges warned that an all-out war between the United States and China was highly likely within the next 15 years. While the warning is one that should be heeded, the blame again, according to mainstream pundits, seems to wholly lay at China’s feet, with the retired general stating that the US “does not have the capacity to do everything it has to do in Europe and in the Pacific to deal with the ‘Chinese threat.’”

Even if Washington’s and its allies’ fear of China were justified, it pays to remind that, officially, Beijing has one overseas military base which is located in Djibouti in the horn of Africa. The corporate media is now even catching on to the fact that, when it comes to Africa, the US has its troops scattered across the entire continent. In total, the US hasabout 800 bases located all over the planet, and it shows no signs of downsizing its military or its nuclear supply.

You would have to have an immense insecurity complex to preside over 800 military bases, yet fear a nation that only boasts one.

Furthermore, last month, Donald Trump revealed a revised US missile-defense strategy which was more-or-less obsessed with China. The man is basically preparing for a space war with China and Russia, developing space-based sensors to detect incoming enemy missiles, as well as exploring space-based weapons to shoot down missiles fired at the American homeland (again, from Russia and/or China).

Perhaps China really is preparing for World War III in the South China Sea, but at the end of the day, the body of water is just that – the South China Sea. If the US refuses to accept Beijing’s claim to its island-building project in the sea and fear the potential for China to project its military prowess into the ocean, then it must equally reject its own claim over the waterways of most of the planet and send its military bases packing back to where they came from.

Everything else is just blatant hypocrisy (something we are all starting to get used to).


(RT)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
2/12/2019 11:30:53 AM

SLAUGHTERBOTS China is unleashing killer robots and stealth drones that carry out targeted airstrikes without a human pressing the fire button

The killer weaponised drones and pilotless aircraft fitted with AK-47 rifles are being exported to Asia, Africa and combat zones in the Middle East

Updated: 11th February 2019,



CHINA is aggressively unleashing lethal fully autonomous drones that can carry out targeted military strikes, a think tank has warned.

The killer drones and pilotless aircraft fitted with AK-47 rifles are being exported to Asia, Africa and combat zones in the Middle East.

 China is unleashing lethal fully autonomous drones that can carry out targeted military strikes

China is unleashing lethal fully autonomous drones that can carry out targeted military strikes
 China's CH-7 stealth aircraft is expected to have its first flight in late 2019
3
China's CH-7 stealth aircraft is expected to have its first flight in late 2019

US national security think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS) said in a report that Chinese officials see this AI ‘arms race’ as a threat to global peace.

Gregory C Allen, the author of the report, said China is rushing to integrate ever more sophisticated artificial intelligence into weapons and military equipment.

He pointed out that drones, both large and small, are a particular example of a type of weaponry that is increasingly becoming automated.

In the US, drones are capable of basic autopilot, performing simple tasks like flying in a circle around a target.

But China is being “more aggressive about introducing greater levels of autonomy closer to lethal use of force,” he says.

One example is the Blowfish A2 drone, which China exports internationally and which Mr Allen says is advertised as being capable of “full autonomy all the way up to targeted strikes.”

'TARGETED PRECISION STRIKES'

The Blowfish A2 “autonomously performs complex combat missions, including fixed-point timing detection and fixed-range reconnaissance, and targeted precision strikes.”

Depending on customer preferences, Chinese military drone manufacturer Ziyan offers to equip Blowfish A2 with either missiles or machine guns.

Mr Allen wrote: “Though many current generation drones are primarily remotely operated, Chinese officials generally expect drones and military robotics to feature ever more extensive AI and autonomous capabilities in the future.

“Chinese weapons manufacturers already are selling armed drones with significant amounts of combat autonomy.”

China is also interested in using AI for military command decision-making.

FUTURE OF WARFARE

According to the report, Zeng Yi, a senior executive at China’s third largest defense company, said AI will be at the core of future warfare.

“Mechanized equipment is just like the hand of the human body. In future intelligent wars, AI systems will be just like the brain of the human body,” Zeng said, according to the report.

He added that “AI may completely change the current command structure, which is dominated by humans” to one that is dominated by an “AI cluster.”

This opinion is consistent with broader thinking in Chinese military circles.

Mr Allen said that until globally-recognised definitions for autonomous robot warfare are drawn up, there’s an increased risk of inadvertent escalation.

In August of last year, experts from dozens of countries met at the UN to discuss how to deal with these kinds of weapon systems.

Some top advocacy groups say governments and military forces should be prevented from developing such systems.

 The deadly weapons are being exported to countries across the world

The deadly weapons are being exported to countries across the world


(thesun.co.uk)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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