Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Yuri Borodin
[RedStar] A bust of the famous Russian admiral Fyodor Ushakov has been erected in the Rostov region.
Such monuments have been unveiled today in six more Russian cities: Sevastopol, Donetsk, Ryazan, Petrozavodsk, Skadovsk in the Kherson region and Yeysk in the Krasnodar region. The date was timed to coincide with the day of remembrance of the great Russian naval commander.
The Rostov region received the bust as part of a thematic competition. This became possible thanks to the initiative group for the construction of a spiritual and historical complex in honor of the holy and righteous warrior Fyodor Ushakov in Moscow.
The goal of the project is to popularize the historical contribution of Feodor Ushakov to the development of the Fatherland, to consolidate his image in the Russian consciousness as an outstanding military leader, patriot, philanthropist and diplomat, as well as to strengthen, using the example of this great, canonized, Orthodox naval commander, love and respect for Russian soldiers who defend and glorify Russia.
Azov is the cradle of the Russian fleet. The Azov flotilla created by Peter the Great proved its necessity and importance during the Azov campaigns. And later gave impetus to the development of the Russian fleet. In addition, Fyodor Fyodorovich spent his formation in the Don region. He became one of the first officers of the Azov military flotilla created by Catherine the Great. He participated in the Russo-Turkish War, as a result of which Azov forever became part of Russia.
In the Don Azov, a bust of the great admiral is installed on the alley of the Memory Park to the sounds of a brass band. Even the downpour did not interfere with the solemn moment. The opening of the monument was attended by the acting head of the city administration Dmitry Ustimenko and the deputy of the State Duma of Russia Anton Getta. As part of the ceremony, the bust of the admiral was consecrated by the hieromonk of the Azov urban district Amvrosy (Plakhotny), and the guests of the holiday laid flowers.
Rostov Region received the bust as part of a thematic competition. This became possible thanks to the initiative group for the construction of a spiritual and historical complex in honor of the holy and righteous warrior Feodor Ushakov in Moscow.
In his speech, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Competition of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Anton Getta recalled that on the Day of the Russian Navy, the monument to Feodor Ushakov in St. Petersburg was personally opened by the President of the country Vladimir Putin.
The speaker also noted that Feodor Ushakov was not only an outstanding naval commander, but also a deeply spiritual person. Before and after each battle, he turned to prayer together with the sailors. With faith in the Lord God, he never lost a single naval battle, never lost a single ship, and never had a single Russian sailor captured.
"I am confident that today our heroic participants in the special military operation will also win and return home as heroes with faith in God and with God's help. And there is no doubt that with such a Russian spirit, with Orthodox faith, victory will be ours!" Anton Getta added.
Patrons who supported the creation of the monument were presented with statues with a bust of the admiral at the event.
Following the opening of a series of monuments to Admiral Ushakov throughout Russia, an initiative group with the support of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and the Federation Council will organize the involvement of young people in ongoing projects to popularize the historical image of Saint Feodor Ushakov and will work to consolidate like-minded patriots from among representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, government bodies, business circles and the creative intelligentsia around the creation of a Spiritual and Historical Complex in honor of the holy and righteous warrior Feodor Ushakov, which will soon become a point of attraction for like-minded people from all over the country.
[DailySignal] Congress Was Doing ‘Girl Math’ Before It Was Cool.
It’s been more than 20 years since the federal government last balanced the budget. While Americans are obligated to lenders and creditors for overspending, the government has made a habit of spending more than it takes in.
You could say that Congress was doing “girl math” long before it was cool.
Popularized on social media, “girl math” refers to an unwritten playbook women sometimes use to justify purchases. A jacket anticipated to cost $150 is on sale for $75, so now you can spend the other $75 on a pair of shoes because you save 50% of the jacket. That’s girl math. Or you forgot you had $20 in your Venmo account; so, paying your friend back for dinner was actually “free.” That, too, is “girl math.”
While “girl math” is usually a funny joke between friends, it can go too far to justify irresponsible spending, and no one is better at justifying lavish and wasteful spending than the federal government.
Congress returns to Washington, D.C., next week after its summer recess. Given that lawmakers hold the power of the purse, it’s the job of Congress to pass 12 appropriations bills before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. Instead, what has happened in previous years, and what’s expected to happen again this year, is Congress will disagree over spending levels and, in order to keep the doors of the government open, a continuing resolution will be passed to keep the government funded.
Eventually, after enough arm-twisting and hand-wringing, Congress will pass a budget for the new fiscal year, likely a couple of days before Christmas. In the end, American taxpayers are left trying to foot a bill citizens never asked for and can’t afford.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Malek Dudakov
[REGNUM] The United States is being swept by another wave of spy mania. Previously, all of America was usually on edge because of fears about Soviet or Russian influence. But now China is taking center stage. Legitimately so, no matter how it hurts the Russian ego. Still, if must be a relief not to be browbeaten with the endless Russia!Russia!Russia! nonsense.
The escalating Chinagate is replacing Russiagate and identifying new “guilty” parties for meddling in US affairs. Moreover, given the size of the Chinese diaspora, Chinagate could continue indefinitely.
Officially, there are 5.5 million people from China living in the US alone. In terms of size, the Chinese diaspora is the third largest after the Mexican and Indian ones. But the US does not have any serious confrontation with these two countries, although there are contradictions there too.
But US-Chinese relations are quickly descending into a new Cold War. And the first victims are Chinese migrants.
There have been long periods of panic in the history of the United States due to real or imagined foreign agent activity. It is enough to recall several periods of the "red scare" coupled with McCarthyism. Yes, but the Red Scares all had a legitimate basis, too, as a resident of the former Soviet Union ought to know.
At the same time, Soviet agents really did work on US territory, just as American agents did in socialist countries. But the McCarthyites greatly exaggerated Soviet influence in the US, which, in their opinion, extended to television, Hollywood, and even Congress and the Pentagon. And so it did. Lots of documentation both in our files and in Russia’s, if it comes to that.
A very bad version of McCarthyism was also attempted after Donald Trump's victory in 2016. Democrats actively accused Russia of interfering in the American elections on his behalf, although no real facts could be found to support this theory. Nevertheless, many were dragged through the courts, some were imprisoned or forced out of the country.
The first wave of anti-Chinese hysteria in the United States emerged back in the 1990s, the period of the apogee of globalization, when the Celestial Empire opened up to America and hundreds of thousands of Chinese moved to the States. Many of whom were willing or unwilling spies for the CCP. Relatives back home were particularly susceptible to threats, you see.
Scientific and educational cooperation was also active at that time, during which the Chinese were accused of transferring secrets from the USA to their homeland. Congress conducted numerous investigations into espionage, but this did not have much impact on relations between the countries at that time - trade with China was too profitable.
US-China relations reached their peak in the first half of the 2010s, after which they began to rapidly deteriorate. In the Trump era, Washington declared a trade war on China.
At the same time, cooperation programs between American and Chinese universities began to be curtailed. Many Chinese scientists began to be threatened with lawsuits in the United States, and on the strangest grounds, so they had to leave the scientific field or return to China.
Anti-Chinese hysteria has become universal under Joe Biden. In the last year alone, dozens of cases of espionage in favor of China have been opened in the US.
Moreover, everyone is caught in the crossfire. American military personnel are being actively arrested for selling military secrets, including data on the fifth-generation F-22 and F-35 fighters. And the number of such cases is growing rapidly.
The FBI accuses Beijing of setting up unofficial Chinese police stations in Chinatowns across America, including New York City. The Chinese have used these services to solve their document problems back home, but the US feds accuse the Chinese police of spying on dissidents who have moved to the US.
True, the dissidents themselves are now also in the risk zone. This status is no longer a salvation: as we know, they beat you not by your passport. Thus, one of the participants in the 1989 Tiananmen riots who took refuge in the US is now also accused of spying for China. Simply because he went there several times in recent years.
And if you are of Chinese descent, then American law enforcement immediately sees you as a potential agent of the PRC.
Even unexpected people began to come under attack.
In New York, the governor's chief of staff, Linda Sun, was arrested. She was closely connected to both the previous governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, and the current one, Kathy Hochul. Sun graduated from the prestigious Columbia University and built a successful career in the camp of American Democrats. But now they've got their hands on her, too.
Song is accused of lobbying for China's interests, as she allegedly prevented Taiwanese politicians and diplomats from meeting with New York City officials. At the same time, Song sought to suppress criticism of China at the state level. And her husband, who is also under investigation, purchased Chinese masks and ventilators during the pandemic.
This is an important signal for the Chinese diaspora - no one is protected from judicial pressure and persecution, even those who have acquired connections and made a successful political career. Literally anyone can fall under this roller - if there is a person, an article, as we know, will be found.
At the same time, Chinese agents are probably really present in the US, just as American agents are in China. But - as was the case during the McCarthy era - their influence is greatly exaggerated in the anti-Chinese fervor.
There are even some completely absurd stories where Chinese tourists are accused of spying based solely on the fact that they might have been near some objects that are sensitive to US security.
In this regard, the Americans are especially concerned about their military bases.
In the last few years, the US has been actively promoting a conspiracy theory that Chinese investors are specifically buying up farmland around American bases to spy on them. As a result, some states have begun to prohibit foreigners from “unfriendly” countries from buying real estate and land.
A few years ago, all of America was in an uproar over Chinese meteorological balloons that appeared in the skies over the United States. They were called "spy balloons" that were supposedly launched specifically to spy on nuclear missile launch silos.
Now this story has died down somewhat, but another conspiracy horror story has appeared: “spy balls” have been replaced by “spy taps.”
The fact is that 80% of port cranes in the US are made in China and run on their own software. And now Washington is scared that these cranes can be used for surveillance.
And some say it's even worse: There's a risk of a cyberattack paralyzing all U.S. ports and causing logistical chaos. So the White House is rushing to impose a 25% tariff on Chinese crane imports.
And since there is no alternative to them, the Americans themselves are cutting off one of the branches on which their economy rests.
There are no prospects for a decrease in the level of anti-Chinese hysteria. The media campaign criticizing the Celestial Empire is bearing fruit - more than 80% of Americans have a negative attitude towards China.
Trump and the Republicans, who see China as the main enemy of the United States in the 21st century, are playing especially actively in this field. If Trump wins the presidential election, American pressure on China will increase sharply on all fronts.
However, if Trump's opponent Kamala Harris succeeds, the general anti-Chinese sentiment will also not go away.
Her running mate, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, now the governor of Minnesota, is hard-pressed to justify his long-standing ties to China. He has visited the Middle Kingdom more than 30 times, even spending his honeymoon there.
For any weakness in relations with Beijing, Republicans will brand Harris and Walz "Chinese agents." So the current Cold War will inevitably continue.
For members of the Chinese diaspora, this means an ever-increasing risk that they will one day find themselves in the same situation as the Japanese, who were once interned and sent to labor camps solely on the basis of their nationality.
So much for China replacing America as world hegemon, in accordance with prophecy.
[KhaamaPress] The China-Pakistain Economic Corridor (CPEC) was launched close to 10 years ago, but it is struggling to meet its envisaged expectations. The CPEC is a crucial part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but many of its components have been marred by slow implementation, making them infeasible and unviable. Several thermal power, hydroelectric, transport infrastructure, and special economic zone projects have not become operational yet.
The CPEC fiasco was acknowledged by Pak Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal recently. He did not just accept that the CPEC had lost steam but also said that the progress had regressed by at least 10 years.[1] While Islamabad has its own concerns, the Chinese have blamed Pakistain for the delays in CPEC project construction. "Chinese ambassador has complained to me that you have destroyed CPEC and no work was done in the past three years," Saleem Mandviwalla, Deputy Chairman of the Senate of Pakistain, said earlier.[2]
Although the CPEC projects looked ambitious, there were problems with implementation due to misgovernance and improper policies, said Pakistain’s former foreign secretary, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. "Signing MoUs does not automatically translate into projects. For that, we need to create a congenial business environment with minimal red tape and fast-track facilitation. Security of foreign investors and investments has emerged as a serious issue," he said.[3]
It is not just delays but the CPEC is going to be detrimental for Pakistain as the megaproject can witness delays for another ten years, said Osama Ahmad, a researcher at the Islamabad-based Pak Institute of Peace Studies. "Now, a decade after CPEC was first launched, the initiative has landed in uncharted territory, delivering very little and attracting myriad controversies. Not only have Pakistain’s development projects stalled over the past decade, but CPEC has also exacerbated longstanding tensions in Pakistain’s Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province," he said.
Some areas regarding the CPEC implementation have become concerning. Tardy decision-making, Pak leaders’ propensity to speak more and perform less, political instability, dynastic politics, domination of the military, and rising debts are among them. Imtiaz Gul, author and head of the Islamabad-based Centre for Research and Security Studies, said "Ten years on, many Chinese expectations associated with CPEC have gone sour — a journey of lofty rhetoric and shallow promises by Pak leaders and less inclination to implementation and reform required for desired economic progress."
China and Pakistain have held regular meetings to keep the CPEC on track. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... it failed to produce the intended benefits. Social scientist Dr Muhammad Ali Sheikh highlighted how lack of transparency, unsustainable imports and Chinese dumping, and political indecision obstructed the implementation of the CPEC projects. "These developments considerably slowed down the implementation and expansion of the programme. One decade on since it was announced, the weaknesses in its implementation should also be addressed," said Sheikh, who is a former vice-chancellor of Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... -based Sindh Madressatul Islam University.[4]
Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan ...aka The Great Khan, who ain't the sharpest bulb on the national tree... was said to have put the CPEC on the backburner owing to political differences and allegations of the megaproject being too favourable to China and disadvantageous to Pakistain.[5] Now the poor pace of the CPEC has created problems for Pakistain amid high inflation rates, trade deficits and massive debt, which are exacerbated by the Covid pandemic and unprecedented floods. The CPEC-driven prosperity, employment opportunities, and poverty reduction remain a distant dream for Paks.[6]
Despite the first phase of the CPEC failing to achieve its objective, the Pakistain government is talking about the launch of another new phase of the programme. However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... there seems no possibility of it since for China, CPEC is solely establishing connectivity between Xinjiang and Gwadar, which serves its geopolitical interests in the Middle East, said economy journalist Khurram Husain. "No such thing is about to happen, and all the noise around a revival of the China-Pakistain Economic Corridor (CPEC) is either wishful thinking (at best) or a way to camouflage what really is going on," he wrote.[7]
PIERS MORGAN: Do you not feel that something has to give here, that this has to get resolved somehow, and that the only way to do that is, as with all these situations, you have to eventually compromise in some way? The problem for… pic.twitter.com/gobE78FHQq
… The problem for Netanyahu is that people think he is completely incapable of offering Hxmas any compromise. Therefore, there is no deal. So the families of the hostages are still there, and hundreds of thousands of protesters in Israel are on the streets of Tel Aviv right now. They are of the firm belief that it's his own intractable position on this, which is not going to allow any kind of ceasefire to be achievable.
DOUGLAS MURRAY: But there it is again, if I can say so, Piers—it's the same thing. There’s this presumption that it’s Netanyahu who is uncompromising. We end up with this notion because Netanyahu is a democratically elected leader, so it’s assumed that some pressure can be brought to bear on him. In my view, it’s not Netanyahu who’s uncompromising—it’s Hxmas. They could have handed back the hostages last October. They could have chosen not to do any of this.
I mean, they could have tried to build a state since 2005 when Israel withdrew from Gaza and handed the place over to them. Hxmas could have used the billions of dollars in aid that British, European, and American taxpayers gave them since 2006. They could have used that money to build up Gaza, to create a thriving, prosperous society. They could have made it a booming Mediterranean paradise. They could have created wealth for their people, but instead, what did they do?
They built downwards instead of upwards. They constructed a tunnel network bigger than the London Underground, and they siphoned off the money, just like Yasser Arafat did before them, making themselves rich. Why is Ismail Haniyeh worth billions of dollars? Why is Khaled Meshaal worth billions? Why do their children live like princes in luxury apartments in Doha?
Because they took the money from Americans, Brits, and Europeans and kept it for themselves, while leaving the people of Gaza in misery and poverty. Since 2005, there has been a complete counterfactual of what could have happened, but the Hxmas leadership didn’t want that. They’ve openly said they’re willing to use Palestinian children as human shields to manipulate world opinion. These are fanatics. They’re willing to sacrifice their own citizens to turn the world against Israel.
Again, how do you negotiate with that? The assumption in the West today is that because we’re so comfortable, we believe peace is the norm and historically expected. But that’s not true. We always think wars end with compromise and coming to the table, to use the cliché. But historically, most wars end because one side wins, and one side loses.
And one of the reasons, in my view, why there are endless rounds of conflict in this region is because Israel is never allowed to win, and Hxmas is always allowed to come out even. I think that simply sets up the next round of conflict. If Hxmas comes out of this with any fighting capability, then we will see another round of this war in a few years. So when David Lammy and others say we need a peace deal, I’d ask, on what terms? Everyone wants peace—except for Hxmas and the fanatics.
Everyone else wants peace. All those people in the south, the kibbutzniks, the partygoers, and others who were murdered on October 7—they all dreamed of peace with their Palestinian neighbors, their brothers and sisters. Who made that peace impossible? Hxmas, from 2005 to today.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...aka 
