Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Whole Foods To Roll Out Biometric Palm Scanning Payment Technology



Whole Foods to roll out  biometric palm scanning payment technology across its U.S. stores




The first “Amazon Fresh” grocery store equipped with “Just Walk Out” technology has opened, allowing customers to purchase groceries without having to wait in a long checkout line.


The catch is that all customers will be surveilled and tracked using an advanced system of cameras and artificial intelligence (AI). And the eventual goal is to also get them microchipped so they can pay using their wrist rather than having to carry around a chip-equipped credit or debit card.

According to a company announcement, the Amazon Fresh store incorporates a combination of “computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning” to extract cash from customers without them having to do anything other than just walk out of the store.

“Anything [customers] take off the shelf is automatically added to their virtual cart, and anything they put back on the shelf comes out of their virtual cart,” the company says.


Once a customer walks inside the store, he or she “can scan the QR code in their Amazon app, use Amazon One to scan their palm, or insert a credit or debit card linked to their Amazon account,” the company further revealed, explaining that waving one’s hand to pay is already an option.

After leaving the store, funds are taken from the card or hand and put into Amazon’s account, eliminating the need for human checkers. It is full dystopia manifesting before our very eyes.

Amazon has been talking about this new system for quite some time now, indicating that Whole Foods Market stores, which it now owns, will also be getting it in the coming weeks and months.

Amazon wants to make it easy for customers to avoid having to carry around cash or cards, and instead be able to pay for food with their bodies. This is exactly what was foretold in the biblical book of Revelation, by the way.





Earth Signs:






Police in the Vancouver area have responded to more than 230 sudden deaths within 4 days (Friday-Monday), about 100 more than the average for a four-day period. As of 1:45 p.m. Tuesday, officers had responded to 20 sudden death calls that day alone. Most were elderly or had underlying health conditions, with heat often a contributing factor.

Canada broke its temperature record for a third straight day on Tuesday – 49.6°C (121.3°F) in Lytton, British Columbia.

The US north-west has also seen record highs – and a number of fatalities.

The heat over western parts of Canada and the US has been caused by a dome of static high-pressure hot air stretching from California to the Arctic territories. Temperatures have been easing in coastal areas but there is not much respite for inland regions.

The number of heat-related fatalities is likely to rise as some areas say they have responded to sudden death incidents but have yet to collate the numbers.

In Vancouver alone, heat is believed to have been a contributing factor in the unexpected deaths of 65 people since Friday.

I’ve been a police officer for 15 years and I’ve never experienced the volume of sudden deaths that have come in in such a short period of time,” police sergeant Steve Addison said. Three or four a day is the normal number.



Radioactive wild boar-pig hybrid in Fukushima nuclear wasteland



















The Gathering Up Harpazo



Jonathan C. Brentner




The word “rapture” comes from a Latin translation of the Bible from about AD 400 called The Vulgate. The Vulgate uses the Latin word rapturo to translate the Greek word harpazo in 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

Starting sometime in the late 1800’s, Bible teachers began using the word “rapture” to describe the event Paul wrote about in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 as well as in 1 Corinthians 15:50-56 and Philippians 3:20-21. These students of Scripture chose a word, based on the ancient Latin translation of the Bible, to describe the event that the apostle wrote about in these texts and referred to in many other passages.


The rapture is the “blessed hope” of Titus 2:11-14; it’s the means of our deliverance from the day of the Lord wrath as the Lord promises us in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 and 5:1-10.

Jesus’ appearing to take us home to glory is the substance of our hope in a troubled world. It’s critical that we understand it and not dismiss it as though it’s not essential to our Gospel hope or cast it aside as something not essential to our faith as we journey through a dark and dangerous world.

Let’s dig a bit deeper into this hope that the Lord tells us to use in encouraging “one another” (1 Thess. 4:18, 5:11).

The rapture is our “blessed hope” it’s the hope into which Jesus saves us. I say this based on the words of Romans 8:23-25:

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.


In the above passage, Paul connects the “redemption of our bodies,” which as we saw happens at the time of the rapture, with the “hope” of the Gospel. The resurrection event for all New Testament saints happens at Jesus’ return for His church, the rapture. It’s at time He will redeem our bodies by giving us immortal ones that will never perish or grow old (1 Cor. 15:51-55).


Original Article



Putin: Ukraine Has Surrendered Itself To Control From The West - No Point In Meeting With Zelensky


Putin: Ukraine has surrendered itself to control from West, no point in meeting Zelensky when decisions are made in Washington
RT



Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is unlikely to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, because the country’s policies are set not by lawmakers in Kiev, but overseas in America and the European Union.

Speaking as part of his traditional televised ‘Direct Line’ question-and-answer session with the public on Wednesday, Putin dismissed the idea of a summit.

“Why should I meet Zelensky?” the Russian leader asked. “If he has given up his country to full external control, the key issues about life in Ukraine are resolved not in Kiev but in Washington, and, to some extent, in Berlin and Paris. What then would we talk about?"

He added that he would not “refuse a meeting of this kind,” but said he would have to first “understand what we could talk about.”

In April this year, Zelensky invited Putin to meet for negotiations “anywhere in the Ukrainian Donbass, where a war is taking place.” He later said such a summit would be “inevitable.”

Putin replied at the time that he would host Zelensky in Moscow to work on repairing bilateral relations. However, he added, Russia would not discuss the war-torn Donbass region without the participation of the leaders of the two self-proclaimed breakaway People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose forces have been fighting pitched battles with Kiev’s own troops.

Earlier this year, the leader of Ukraine’s largest parliamentary opposition bloc, Viktor Medvedchuk, used an exclusive interview with RT to accuse Zelensky of turning the country into an American “colony” with “external governance” having been imposed. Medvedchuk is now facing high-treason charges linked to supposed business interests in Crimea.


WEF Makes Censorship Pledge To 'Tackle Harmful Content And Conduct Online'

World Economic Forum makes censorship pledge to “tackle harmful content and conduct online”





The World Economic Forum, an international group that works to “shape global, regional and industry agendas,” has formed a new “Global Coalition for Digital Safety” that’s made up of Big Tech executives and government officials and intends to come up with new “innovations” to police “harmful content and conduct online.”

The scope of so-called “harmful” content that will be targeted by this Global Coalition for Digital Safety is far-reaching and encompasses both legal content (such as “health misinformation” and “anti-vaccine content”) and illegal content (such as child exploitation and abuse and violent extremism).

Big Tech companies already censor millions of posts under their far-reaching rules that prohibit harmful content and misinformation. They also publish detailed quarterly reports about this censorship.

But according to the World Economic Forum, Big Tech’s current metrics, recommendation systems, and complaints systems are “deficient” which is why “more deliberate coordination between the public and private sector is needed.”

The World Economic Forum intends to deliver this “more deliberate coordination” through its Global Coalition for Digital Safety which will work to tackle what it deems to be harmful content through a series of measures.


These measures include exchanging “best practices for new online safety regulations,” taking “coordinated action to reduce the risk of online harm,” and creating global definitions of harmful content “to enable standardized enforcement, reporting, and measurement across regions.”

The members of this Global Coalition for Digital Safety include officials from the governments or government regulators in Australia, the UK, Indonesia, Ukraine, Bangladesh, and Singapore, an executive from the tech giant Microsoft, and the founder of the artificial intelligence (AI) powered content moderation and profanity filter platform Two Hat Security.

“Global online safety is a collective goal that must be addressed by working across borders as well as by individual nations,” Ofcom Chief Executive Dame Melanie Daws said. “We look forward to collaborating with international Coalition members to reduce the risk of online harms and build a safer life online for everyone.”

Microsoft’s Chief Digital Safety Officer, Courtney Gregoire, added: “The World Economic Forum is uniquely positioned to accelerate the public-private collaboration needed to advance digital safety globally, Microsoft is eager to participate and help build whole-of-society solutions to this whole-of-society problem.”

The formation of this global coalition is reflective of tech companies’ increased willingness to collaborate with global governments to censor legal content that they deem to be harmful and to push these governments to introduce more expansive speech regulations.

Just a few months before this coalition was announced, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki called for global coalitions to address content that’s “legal but could be harmful” at the World Economic Forum Global Technology Governance Summit 2021.

And last year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pushed for “more guidance and regulation” from world leaders on what people are allowed to say online.

Similar global coalitions that have attempted to create global censorship standards, such as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), have resulted in the automated censorship of satire, media reports, and other types of legal content.



Putin: U.S. Aircraft Involved In Black Sea Incident


Putin: US aircraft involved in Black Sea UK incident

 DARIA LITVINOVA and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV


Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with a British destroyer during last week's Black Sea incident in what he described as a "provocation" to test Moscow's response.

Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender on June 23 to force it out of an area near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Britain denied that account, insisted its ship wasn't fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters.

Asked if the incident could have triggered World War III, Putin said that it was hardly possible even if Russia had sunk the British warship because Western powers knew they couldn't emerge as winners in a global conflict.

Speaking during a live call-in show, Putin said that the U.S. aircraft's apparent mission was to monitor the Russian military's response to the British destroyer. He added that Moscow was aware of the U.S. intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.

In Wednesday's incident, Britain insisted the Defender had been making a routine journey through an internationally recognized travel lane and remained in Ukrainian waters near Crimea. The U.K., like most of the world, recognizes Crimea as part of Ukraine despite the peninsula's 2014 annexation by Russia.


Russia denounced the Defender's move as a provocation and warned that next time it could fire to hit intruding warships if they again try to test Russian military resolve.

Responding to a question about Russia's tug-of-war with Ukraine, Putin emphasized his long-held claim of close kinship between the Russian and Ukrainian peoples, but accused the Ukrainian leadership of maintaining a hostile course toward Russia.


Heartbreaking: 12-Year-Old Wheelchair Bound Following Vaccine


Twelve year-old girl in wheelchair after Pfizer Vaccine Trial… Mother in tears…


Twelve year-old Maddie was enrolled in the Pfizer vaccine clinical trial. She’s now in a wheelchair, has an NG tube, and is suffering from severe memory loss, along with many other issues.Full video is here…

[Sadly, there are thousands of these stories around the world] 

Reality vs Fear


"Panic Porn Dressed Up As Science"

TYLER DURDEN

[Key quote: In other words, Delta is literally the flu with a CFR identical to it. This is exactly what every respiratory pandemic has done through history: morphed into more transmissible and less virulent form that forces the other mutations out since you get that one. ]





Equity futures are in the red Wednesday morning as Dr. Anthony Fauci's warnings about the supposedly "dire threat" posed by the Delta variant continue to be dramatically amplified by the American media.


Yesterday, we delved into the issue of the Delta variant as daily COVID cases reported in the US ticked higher after touching their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. The data set off another round of warnings about the relatively large swath of Americans who refuse to get the vaccine.



In a recent piece published by the Blaze, writer Daniel Horowitz explains that the existing data suggests Delta isn't any deadlier or more infectious than other strains. Horowitz described the warnings from epidemiologists and public health bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci as "panic porn dressed up as science."


The implication from these headlines is that somehow this variant is truly more transmissible and deadly (as the previous variants were falsely portrayed to be), they escape natural immunity and possibly the vaccine — and therefore, paradoxically, you must get vaccinated and continue doing all the things that failed to work for the other variants!

After each city and country began getting ascribed its own "variant," I think the panic merchants realized that the masses would catch on to the variant scam, so they decided to rename them Alpha (British), Beta (South African), Gamma (Brazilian), and Delta (Indian), which sounds more like a hierarchy of progression and severity rather than each region simply getting hit when it's in season until the area reaches herd immunity.


However, if people would actually look at the data, they'd realize that the Delta variant is actually less deadly. These headlines are able to gain momentum only because of the absurd public perception that somehow India got hit worse than the rest of the world. In reality, India has one-seventh the death rate per capita of the U.S.; it's just that India got the major winter wave later, when the Western countries were largely done with it, thereby giving the illusion that India somehow suffered worse. Now, the public health Nazis are transferring their first big lie about what happened in India back to the Western world.


Fortunately, the U.K. government has already exposed these headlines as a lie, for those willing to take notice. On June 18, Public Health England published its 16th report on "SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England," this time grouping the variants by Greek letters.

As you can see, the Delta variant has a 0.1% case fatality rate (CFR) out of 31,132 Delta sequence infections confirmed by investigators. That is the same rate as the flu and is much lower than the CFR for the ancestral strain or any of the other variants. And as we know, the CFR is always higher than the infection fatality rate (IFR), because many of the mildest and asymptomatic infections go undocumented, while the confirmed cases tend to have a bias toward those who are more evidently symptomatic.


In other words, Delta is literally the flu with a CFR identical to it. This is exactly what every respiratory pandemic has done through history: morphed into more transmissible and less virulent form that forces the other mutations out since you get that one. Nothing about masks, lockdowns, or experimental shots did this. To the extent this really is more transmissible, it's going to be less deadly, as is the case with the common cold. To the extent that there are areas below the herd immunity threshold (for example, in Scotland and the northwestern parts of the U.K.) they will likely get the Delta variant (until something else supplants it), but fatalities will continue to go down.

According to the above-mentioned report, the Delta variant represented more than 75% of all cases in the U.K. since mid-May. If it really was that deadly, it should have been wreaking havoc over the past few weeks.


You can see almost a perfect inverse relationship between hospitalization rates throughout April and May plummeting as the Delta variant became the dominant strain of the virus in England. Some areas might see a slight oscillation from time to time as herd immunity fills in, regardless of which variant is floating around. However, the death burden is well below that of a flu season and is no longer an epidemic.

As for vaccines, there is no evidence that somehow they provide better protection than prior infection from any other strain of the virus, nor does the Delta variant justify further use of these experimental shots. If anything, the U.K. data show that, to the extent there were deaths due to the Delta variant, there were more fatalities among those already vaccinated relative to the number of confirmed cases by vaccination status.

Thus, the good news is that now that most countries have reached a large degree of herd immunity, there is zero threat of hospitals being overrun by any seasonal increase in various areas, no matter the variant. The bad news is that after Delta, there are Epsilon and 19 other letters of the Greek alphabet, which will enable the circuitous cycle of misinformation, fear, panic, and control to continue. And remember, as there is already a "Delta+," the options are endless until our society finally achieves immunity to COVID panic porn.

That being said, the US isn't the only country falling victim to the Delta variant hysteria. Reports published Wednesday morning claimed EU leaders including Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Emmanuel Macron were planning to hold a call to discuss more potential travel restrictions. It's increasingly looking like anybody with international travel plans might see them dashed due to Delta paranoia. But there's a reason why British PM Boris Johnson plans to lift the last remaining restrictions in England on July 19, when the recent extension is set to expire.

But not everybody has been fooled. As we pointed out yesterday, Sen. Rand Paul has been one of the most vocal critics of the "Delta" variant hysteria. In a tweet sent yesterday morning, he urged the public not to let the fearmongers win.

Though judging by the sea of red on Wall Street Wednesday morning, it looks like most haven't taken his advice.

And don't forget - like Horowitz pointed out - if this wave of fearmongering fizzles, there are still plenty of other letters in the Greek alphabet that can be used to provoke paranoia.





Marching Towards The Tribulation:


By 2030 You’ll Own Nothing And You’ll Be Happy




The title of this article projects an ominous future where the masses are controlled by a few. Over the years I have written several articles covering the elite gathering in Davos. The global elites see the World Economic Forum (WEF) as an opportunity to promote their views and various causes.

These people often fail to see that many of us have come to view Davos, as a notorious rendezvous for the world’s elite that grant us the honor of paying for their schemes in some way or form.


Such gatherings are not for our sake but more for the benefit of plutocrats like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. The Global Reset they are pushing often reeks of their desire to “break the world” with their ruthless corporate agendas that continue to move political power into the hands of the globalist elite. To counter this attitude reassuring words are cast out over the airwaves to us, the minions of the world, to encourage faith in their wisdom. Oh, what a tangled web those in charge of our fate have woven for us as they rush to sell and bargain away our freedom for power and wealth.


The Covid-19 pandemic has been used as confirmation that no institution or individual alone can address the economic, environmental, social, and technological challenges of our complex, interdependent world. It is also being touted as a reason to support the “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” One hundred and ninety-three UN member states adopted this 15-year global framework and its ambitious set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015.

A great deal of attention has been given to some of the ideas and vision the WEF has floated. A powerful one became visible when WEF public relations released a videoentitled: “8 Predictions for the World in 2030. Its 2030 agenda offers a telling glimpse into what the technocratic elite has in store for the rest of us. It promotes the idea that  by 2030 “You will own nothing. And you’ll be happy. The UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a comprehensive plan that outlines how we can abolish poverty and transform the world into a peacefulsustainable environment for all.

Not all of what the world economic forum predicts will happen but events are being shaped to unfold in that way. Examining what is being called for, sheds a bit of light on how we might expect our future to look. The ideas and predictions of the WEF do not seem so farfetched when you consider,


The agenda to change the world includes things such as controlling people through things such as social credit scores. Expect these to be linked to those you associate with including family members you seldom agree with. Sadly, the people that drew up this plan forgot that what they are proposing is the abolition of private property or communism a theory that has failed to ever bring prosperity to any country.

Another key part of this plan focuses on controlling the masses, this is also problematic and reeks of totalitarianism




National Guard Conducts Training For Cyberattack That Shuts Down Electricity, Water And Gas


Exercise: National Guard Is Preparing For A Major Cyberattack To Shut Down Utilities Across The United States



After the hacking of the Colonial Pipeline shook the country’s fuel supply, the National Guard is preparing for a major cyberattack that shuts down utilities across the United States.

In this month’s two-week training exercise, troops across the New England region practiced tackling large-scale simulated violations across critical infrastructure sectors such as electricity, water, and gas.

In this exercise, a large-scale cyberattack targeted utilities on the west coast and then moved eastward across the country.

As in the actual scenario, the National Guard works with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity and infrastructure security agencies, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, government agencies such as the US Cybercommand, and utility partners in the private sector. And respond to the crisis.

This crisis was a simulation, but such attacks are becoming more and more possible.

A recent series of catastrophic attacks has sent warning signs about the risks that cybersecurity breaches can pose to the country’s infrastructure.

When the Colonial Pipeline was targeted by hackers in May, it had to shut down its entire network, which carries 45% of all fuel to the East Coast, causing a nationwide fuel crisis with rising gas prices.

A few weeks later, the food supply chain was hit when hackers led to a four-day closure of a factory belonging to America’s largest beef supplier, JBS.

After the hacking of the Colonial Pipeline shook the country’s fuel supply, the National Guard is preparing for a major cyberattack that shuts down utilities across the United States.



Theater: Videos Tell The Story

(VIDEO) Hilarious Illustration Of The Propaganda Of Mask Mandates...Camera ON – Mask On, Camera Off – Mask Off, The Covid Deception Continues




In the videos featured below, when the cameras are rolling, everyone appears to be mask compliant. When the cameras are (believed to be) off, it becomes obvious that the masks are nothing more than theater for public consumption. Can’t let the unwashed masses know the truth; that a room full of strangers feel safe at close proximity to one another, without (gasp) masks!

Alas, the French are not the only ones caught with their masks down. Back in June of 2020, Phony Fauci, Godfather of the mask mafia, removes his to the chin position when he thinks cameras are no longer rolling:

As  conservative podcaster Wayne Dupree questioned on his political site, “If it’s important enough to keep the mask on when cameras are rolling, why would that “urgency” change suddenly when the cameras are off?”

The answer to Mr. Dupree’s question is, of course, optics




Pastor Artur Pawlowski Gives Warnings Of What Is To Come:


More Power to Pastor Artur Pawlowski




A video of Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s dramatic ordering of several police officers out of his church on April 3 of this year went viral all over the civilized world. He was preparing for the Passover service that Sunday, as a Public Health Inspector and several police officers came right into   his church without being invited and without a warrant. He shouted that the Gestapo and Nazis were not welcome in his church. He succeeded in defending the house of worship in that time. However, on May 11, on the drive home from church, several Calgary Police cars pulled over the automobile he was riding in on a busy highway and he was summarily arrested. The video of that incident went viral too, and it made headlines throughout the world.


The heinous crime that would require multiple police vehicles with an entire troop of officers: Pastor Pawlowski and his brother, Dawid Pawlowski, run the Fortress (Cave) of Adullam Street Church, and they dared to defy Alberta’s Public Health Act and the draconian COVID-19 health orders. Apparently, violating the Canadian lockdown orders is a very serious offense in which a real serious criminal like Pastor Pawlowski would be so dramatically confronted, incarcerated,  put in handcuffs and literally dragged off to jail. The video reveals a very bizarre scene. This Monday, the brothers were found guilty of violating Alberta’s lockdown orders, and thus they were found in contempt of the court order by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Adam Germain. The atheists and statists in the Canadian government do not seem to be able to tolerate defiance of the lockdown laws. Sentencing is scheduled for July.

The opportunity to hear Pastor Pawlowski speak in California on Sunday materialized, so it was not to be ignored. Pastor Pawlowski is currently on a whirlwind speaking tour across the United States in order to awaken this nation, especially Christians to the creeping dangers of those in positions of power in government that are outright anti-religious. Pastor Pawlowski spoke at the Calvary Chapel in San Jose. Calvary Chapel’s ministers were also targeted by the California lockdown mandates of Governor Gavin Newsom. In January, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Peter Kirwan ruled that Calvary Chapel Pastor Mike McClure and Youth Pastor Carson Atherley were in contempt of court, and Calvary Chapel San Jose was charged $5,000 a day for each day they did not require the wearing of masks or insist on social distancing. Total fees charged to the church amounted to $1.6 million.






Tuesday, June 29, 2021

NATO's Largest-Ever Naval Drills Begin In Black Sea


NATO’s Largest-Ever ‘Sea Breeze’ Naval Drills Begin in Black Sea Amid HMS Defender Fracas





The US and its allies have begun using “freedom of navigation operations” to provoke incidents at sea with Russia, China, and other nations by deliberately sailing their warships through those nations’ claimed territorial waters. The US claims to be enforcing the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea, but it’s never ratified the document itself.

The US and 31 allies and partners inaugurated the 21st Sea Breeze exercises in Odessa, Ukraine, on Monday. The drills, positioned immediately off Russia’s Crimean coast, are the largest yet and come as Kiev is increasing pressure on NATO to be admitted to the alliance.

A ceremony in the Ukrainian port city on Monday declared the opening of the massive drills, which will run until July 10 and feature a variety of nautical exercises, from amphibious warfare and anti-submarine warfare to diving, maritime interdiction operations, air defense, and search and rescue, according to the US Navy.

In addition to the US and Ukraine, 30 other nations are participating, including Albania, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, France, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. They have collectively contributed 5,000 troops, 32 ships, 40 aircraft and 18 special operations and dive teams.

Last week, Russian aircraft and warships acted to deter two different NATO warships in the Black Sea for the Sea Breeze drills from violating Russian territorial waters near Crimea. 


One incident on June 23 saw the British destroyer HMS Defender sail within 10 nautical miles of the Crimean coast, violating both Russian territorial integrity and sea closures associated with Russian military drills. Sukhoi Su-24 naval strike aircraft dropped bombs in front of the Defender to get her attention and an Okhotnik-class patrol boat fired warning shots near Defender, as well.

The Defender claimed to be sailing through Ukrainian waters and to have done nothing wrong because, according to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “we don’t recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea, this is part of a sovereign Ukrainian territory.”

With all of the NATO-friendly aircraft in the area, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet saw fit to test out its S-400 Triumf air defense systems, a surface-to-air missile battery that has served as an effective deterrent to Western aircraft in Syria. The Defense Ministry has also said it is keeping a very close eye on the activities of Sea Breeze participants before, during, and after the drills.