Monday, October 31, 2022

Food Crisis Worsens Due To Attack On Russia's Black Sea Fleet And Subsequent Blockade Of Ukrainian Ports

The Global Food Crisis Just Got A Whole Lot Worse


It appears that the global food crisis that started in 2022 is going to go to an entirely new level in 2023.  As I have been documenting on my websites, worldwide supplies of food have been getting tighter and tighter for months.  Historic droughts have been crippling food production all over the northern hemisphere, much less fertilizer is being used in poorer countries because of how insanely expensive it has become, and the war in Ukraine has restricted the flow of agricultural exports out of one of the most important breadbaskets on the entire planet.  

Thankfully, a deal that was signed in July had allowed hundreds of ships loaded with precious grain to travel through the war zone successfully.  But now that deal is completely dead and the Russians have resumed their blockade of Ukrainian ports

Russia resumed its blockade of Ukrainian ports on Sunday, cutting off urgently needed grain exports to hungry parts of the world in what President Biden called a “really outrageous” act.

Biden — speaking in Wilmington, Del. — warned that global hunger could increase because of Russia’s suspension of a U.N.-brokered deal to allow safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets.

“It’s really outrageous,” Biden said Saturday. “There’s no merit to what they’re doing. The U.N. negotiated that deal and that should be the end of it.”

So why did the Russians do this?

Is it just because they decided to be mean?

No, it is because the Ukrainians (with help from their western allies) stupidly decided to attack Russia’s Black Sea fleet with a bunch of drones

Hours later, a statement by the foreign ministry in Moscow said: “The Russian side cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the ‘Black Sea Initiative’, and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period.”

It said the move was “in connection with the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces, which were led by British specialists” and that these actions “were directed… against Russian ships that ensured the functioning of the said humanitarian corridor”.

Moscow claimed 16 aerial and maritime drones were destroyed, and that only a minesweeper had sustained damage.

What did they think was going to happen?

Did they actually believe that the Russians were just going to stand aside and allow the Ukrainians to sell their grain to the rest of the world after their ships had been attacked?

That is not how the real world works.

Since the deal was originally signed in July, over 9 million tons of grain had safely left Ukrainian ports.

Now that deal is dead, and this is going to make our rapidly growing food crisis even worse.

Even now, there are tens of millions of people in poor countries around the world that are on the brink of starvation…

Indeed, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that the ongoing war in Ukraine has brought 70 million people to the brink of starvation. In addition, the war also affected the food supply of another 345 million people. The Executive Director of the UN World Food Program, David Beasley, recently said, “It is incredibly troubling that 50 million of those people in 45 countries are suffering from very acute malnutrition…” Since Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24, Beasley said, soaring food, fuel, and fertilizer costs have driven 70 million people closer to starvation.


Yuval Harari Calls For Mass Extinction To Bring In The Great Reset" 'We Just Don't Need The Vast Majority Of You'

Klaus Schwab’s right-hand man calls for “mass extinction event” to usher in Great Reset



Another leaked video has emerged to show that the World Economic Forum (WEF), led by the infamous globalist kingpin Klaus Schwab, is planning to unleash mass genocide as the catalyst for its promised “Great Reset.”


Yuval Noah Harari, who is described as Schwab’s “right-hand man,” is on a promotional tour right now shilling a new book he allegedly wrote. That manuscript asks questions like: What do we need so many humans for?

Now that the globalists have attained near-total control over pretty much everything, they appear ready to cull the herd of human slaves. It began in this latest installment with the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) plandemic, followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

There is also skyrocketing inflation, supply chain failures, food shortages, crop destruction and other economic instability – all things that are swirling into a perfect storm of global shock and awe.

Referring to non-globalists as “common people” who are fully disposable, Harari’s latest leaked statements reveal a profound attitude of self-perceived superiority and globalist supremacy.

Harari says the common folk below him are right to be fearful about the future because their lives could end at any moment. And it would not be any great loss, he says, because non-globalists are “redundant.”

In a future run by “smart people,” Harari went on to state, common people will naturally face increased feelings of anxiety and fear about being left behind. And he is technically right: those who refuse to board the ark of Christ will, in fact, be left behind in Harari’s globalist dystopia.

“We just don’t need the vast majority of you,” Harari stated out loud without shame, believing himself to be invincible.


As we previously reported, Harari, an Israeli historian and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, openly admitted that he and the rest of his globalist cabal are unleashing transhumanism as their own personal “technological Noah’s Ark” – meaning they believe the lie that tampering with their DNA and genetic blueprints will somehow grant them eternal life while the rest of us are either eliminated or turned into their permanent slaves.

Talking about this kind of thing used to be scoffed at and labeled conspiracy theorism, but now we have the plan coming straight from the mouths of the globalist cabal itself – right out in the open with no shame.

Rockefeller Foundation official Alan Gregg is another outspoken globalist who recently declared that the world has cancer and that cancer is mankind – excluding himself, of course.

Prince Phillip, the late Queen Elizabeth’s husband, likewise believed that humanity is a cancer that he wished he could eradicate by dying and coming back to life as a killer virus


The now-destroyed Georgia Guidestones revealed that the globalist plan for their envisioned “New World Order” involves reducing the current population of the world from roughly eight billion, the current number, to just 500 million.

Former President Bill Clinton, unbeknownst to many, signed a so-called “biodiversity” treat during his tenure that contains an explicitly stated goal of reducing the world’s population to one billion, at least as a start.

At the “grassroots” level, the globalists have done an exceptional job programming millions of Westerners into supporting mass genocide through abortion and even infanticide, the latter constituting the murder of a child after he or she has already left the womb.

“George Orwell warned us about these times,” writes Baxter Dmitry for Newspunch. “He said they would convince us that war is peace. How right he was.”



U.S. Launches A Full-Blown Economic War On China, It Will Backfire

The US thinks it can block microchip technology from China. It won't and blowbacks are everywhere...



Turning the Screws 

  • Financial Times: How the US chip export controls have turned the screws on China

  • The Conversation: Clampdown on chip exports is the most consequential US move against China yet

  • The Atlantic: Why Biden’s Block on Chips to China Is a Big Deal



    How Companies Are Dealing with US Restrictions on Chip Exports to China

    Please consider How Companies Are Dealing with US Restrictions on Chip Exports to China

    The U.S. Commerce Department announced a series of new trade restrictions earlier this month that banned the export of some computer processing chips to China.

    The restrictions affect not only U.S. businesses selling to China, but also any company whose products contain American chip technology. The U.S. government action has many companies considering how to move forward under the new rules.

    Numerous American technology companies doing major business with China are facing possible severe damage to their profits. Other companies that manufacture technology products in China are having to withdraw U.S. employees because the ban also bars "U.S. persons" from supporting technology covered by the ban.

    James Lewis is a senior vice president and director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. He told VOA the new restrictions seem to be "reshaping the market."

    "The Koreans, the Taiwanese and some American companies are really nervous about it,” Lewis said. “I mean, everyone's asking, 'What can I still sell to China?' And in some cases, the answer is 'nothing,'" he added.

    In Britain’s Financial Times newspaper, U.S. national editor and columnist Edward Luce wrote that "Joe Biden this month launched a full-blown economic war on China."

    So far, chip companies have reacted carefully to the ban. While recognizing the government's concerns, they have noted they were not given a chance to discuss the policy with U.S. officials before it was announced.


    More....


Kiev Without Power And Water After New Russian Airstrikes

Much Of Ukrainian Capital Without Power & Water After New Russian Airstrikes
TYLER DURDEN


Much of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev is without electricity or water, after the latest round of major Russian airstrikes on Monday. The Russian military announced 'successful' strikes on multiple of the country's vital infrastructure facilities. 

"The Russian Armed Forces continued to launch strikes with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons against Ukrainian military and energy facilities," the Defense Ministry said. "The goals of the strikes were successful. All assigned objects were hit." Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed direct hits on 18 sites - most of which were connected to the nation's energy supply. These ramped up attacks have created a growing sense of panic with temperatures plunging and winter approaching.

"Missiles and drones hit 10 regions, where 18 sites were damaged, most of them energy-related," Shmyhal stated on Telegram. "Hundreds of settlements in seven regions of Ukraine were cut off." Facilities in Cherkasy and Kirovohrad also came under attack. Ukraine's military said it intercepted projectiles over the Lviv region, which spared this western part of the country from damage.

The Washington Post noted there are "power outages continuing in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions," and others. The Post listed some of the below regions impacted by large-scale power outages and water supply disruptions



  • Kyiv region: Russian strikes damaged buildings, and rescuers are searching for victims, the regional police said. Attacks left 80 percent of the capital without water and are likely to cause sustained power outages, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
  • Kharkiv: Two strikes hit critical infrastructure facilities in the eastern city, causing problems with the water supply and affecting the public transit network, the mayor said.
  • Zaporizhzhia region: An infrastructure facility was struck by rockets, the local governor said, prompting warnings from officials in the southern region that energy supplies there could also be affected.
  • Cherkasy region: Some of the region lost power after air attacks on infrastructure facilities, the military administrator said.

  • Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned the attacks as more war crimes: "Another batch of Russian missiles hits Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Instead of fighting on the battlefield, Russia fights civilians," he tweeted.

    Additionally Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on Telegram that these fresh strikes left 80% of residents in the capital without water and some 350,000 homes with no electricity

    "Just in case, we ask you to stock up on water from the nearest pumps and points of sale," he advised. The mayor's office vowed that water supply to the effected parts of the city would be restored in three to four hours, with emergency utility crews working urgently on it.

    Rescue teams in the capital are reportedly searching for possible casualties under the rubble of buildings destroyed or damaged from the new salvo of Russian strikes; however, at this point casualty numbers are unclear. 

    The US ambassador said she and her staff had to take shelter in this latest attack on the capital:



    Already before Monday's attacks, Ukrainian officials estimated that 40% of the nation's electrical power systems had been severely damaged, and urged households to limit their usage, especially with non-essential large appliances. Ukrainians are further being warned to prepare for long-term power outages as a frigid winter is just around the corner




    Russia Accuses British Navy Of Blowing Up Nord Stream Pipeline

    Russia accuses British navy of blowing up Nord Stream gas pipelines in Baltic Sea


    Russia has accused British navy personnel of being involved in a “terrorist attack” on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

    The major Baltic Sea supply route from Russia to Europe was severely damaged in “powerful explosions” last month, in what is being investigated by Germany, Sweden and Denmark as an act of sabotage.

    Moscow has repeatedly claimed that allegations it was behind the blasts on 26 September are “stupid”, and has sought to blame the West.

    Now Vladimir Putin’s regime has directly accused the UK – a Nato member – of being involved in an attack on critical Russian infrastructure.

    “According to available information, representatives of this unit of the British navy took part in the planning, provision and implementation of a terrorist attack in the Baltic Sea on September 26 this year – blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines,” Russia’s defence ministry said.

    The ministry did not provide evidence for its claims, also alleging that the same British military specialists – supposedly located in the city of Ochakiv, in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region – helped Kyiv’s forces to plan a drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet on Saturday morning.

    Moscow said it had destroyed all of the drones involved in the alleged attack in Crimea’s Sevastopol Bay, and that its sea minesweeper Ivan Golubetshad sustained minor damage.


    More...


    Russia Halts Grain Deliveries After Ukraine Drone Attack In Crimea

    Russia Halts World Grain Deliveries After Ukraine Drone Attack In Crimea (Worthy News Radio)

    Stefan J. Bos


    In a move impacting world food supplies, says it halts cooperating in a grain corridor deal after  carried out a “massive” drone attack on its Black Sea Fleet. Moscow’s latest announcement could undermine deliveries from one of the breadbaskets of the world.

    Moscow recently agreed to lift a grain blockade that had undermined food supplies to millions of starving people. Russia’s grain threats come after video footage emerged purportedly showing stunned locals watching a Ukrainian drone attack Saturday on the occupied Crimean port city of Sevastopol, which Moscow said damaged one warship. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.

    The alleged attack comes as fighting escalates in Europe’s most significant armed conflict since World War Two.

    Local people appeared disturbed watching Ukrainian drones being destroyed by at least one Russian military helicopter, video footage purportedly showed.

    But not all drones miss their targets. Russia’s military said at least one warship was damaged in Ukrainian air strikes hitting the port city of Sevastopol in the occupied Crimea peninsula. Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move condemned by Kyiv and its Western allies.

    Russian officials claimed the early Saturday attack involved nine Ukrainian aerial and seven marine drones. However, Ukraine has not confirmed it was responsible.

    However, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has made clear he wants to recapture Crimea and four other territories that Russia recently annexed from Ukraine. The attack came amid an ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive in which troops successfully retook territory occupied by Russian forces.

    Moscow has responded with a relentless barrage of missiles and increasingly Iranian-made drones that killed and injured at least scores of people in recent weeks.

    Kyiv says they hit civilian targets and critical infrastructures, including the energy grid, leaving four million people across Ukraine without reliable power supplies.

    And as the battle continued, Russia’s defense minister said 82,000 conscripts had already been sent to Ukraine.

    Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian President Vladimir  in televised remarks that a further 218,000 mobilized men were being trained in barracks. But he stressed that the “partial mobilization” of 300,000 forces had concluded.

    It was not possible to verify the figures. However, the West views the move as a desperate effort to halt Kyiv’s counter-offensive with poorly trained troops.

    Western military observers believe tens of thousands of Russian soldiers were severely injured or killed, though Moscow has given lower figures.

    Overall, tens of thousands of people, including troops and civilians, were killed on both sides in what is rapidly becoming Europe’s bloodiest armed conflict since the Second World War.



    U.S. Is Driest In A Decade As Drought Moves East

    U.S. IS DRIEST IN A DECADE, AS DROUGHT MOVES EASTWARD


    More than six of every 10 acres in the continental United States is in drought, with arid conditions stretching from the Appalachians to the Pacific Coast, said the weekly Drought Monitor on Thursday. Conditions worsened in the Ohio Valley, as warm weather combined with below-normal precipitation to dry the Midwest.

    “The extent of dry conditions is on par with 2012, as drought expanded this week across more than half of the U.S. states, particularly in the Midwest and Southeast,” said the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska on social media. The Drought Center produces the Drought Monitor in partnership with the USDA and NOAA.


    In total, 62.95% of the contiguous states were affected by drought ranging from moderate to exceptional, an increase of 20 percentage points since Labor Day, said the Drought Monitor. Drought crossed the Missouri and moved through the Midwest during a dry September and October.

    At this point in October 2012, drought covered 61.8% of the country, down slightly from 63.55% at the start of the month, said a Drought Monitor database.

    “Given that much of the [Midwest] region experienced above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation again this week, it warranted another round of 1-category degradations, particularly across the Ohio Valley,” said the weekly report.

    Drought also deepened in the central Plains. “Stock ponds for cattle remain low to nonexistent, and pastures are providing marginal feed, with supplemental feed required for many.”

    The growing season is over for most field crops, but drought affects pasture conditions for livestock as well as the winter wheat crop, which accounts for the lion’s share of U.S. wheat production. A dry winter would leave 2023 crops short of moisture as the new season begins.


    Russia Pounds Ukraine With Missiles, Wide-Spread Power Outages

    Russia Hits Ukraine with ~50 Missiles; Kiev Takes ~10 Hits, no electric/water
    H Turner



    Russia began this week with a large barrage of missiles against Nazi Ukraine; with upwards of ten missiles striking the Nazi Capital Kiev and many other cities.  The map above shows the missile target areas.

    Russian Strategic aviation is very active this morning.   10 TU-95 planes with cruise missiles targeted the regions of Vinnytsia, Odessa, Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Kiev, Khmelnytsia, Zaporozhye, Dnieper, Kremenchug.


    The following regions and cities hit:

    - Kiev
    - Dnepropetrovsk
    - Vinnitsa
    - Zaporozhye
    - Poltava
    - Kharkiv
    - Kirovograd


    Attacks on Electrical or Water infrastructure:


    - CHPP-5 (Kiev)
    - CHPP-6 (Kiev)
    - Lviv CHP (Lviv)
    - Kremenchug HPP
    - Dneproges
    - Novodnestrovskaya HPP


    At least 10 missile explosions were heard in Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed power outages in parts of the capital and water supply restrictions in some areas.

    Blackouts began in the Kiev-controlled city of Zaporozhye, Anatoly Kurtev, secretary of the City Council, said.

    Ukraine has lost 20 percent of its landmass to Russia. 15 percent of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homeland.

    Only a large supply of candles from Poland will permit Ukrainians any light for the coming winter, yet this IS the main-stream-media's idea of "winning."

    Social media and the foreign Press are lighting-up with the story:

    The president of the Kiev regional administration, urged residents to prepare for a long absence of electricity.

    The Dniester hydroelectric power plant-1 in the west of Kiev-controlled territory was struck.  It is  the most powerful power plant in the Dniester Region, 702 MW.


    Kiev and region reported interruptions in mobile communications.

    At the moment, 36 energy facilities of Ukraine have been hit.  In Kyiv, an explosion at only one power facility led to a power outage in 350,000 apartments.

    While you are reading this, it is important to point out Russia asked for peace talks with the US about 10 days ago, and the US refused.

    Two "Incidents" so far today:

    A missile shot down by the Ukrainian air defense landed on the territory of Moldova, according to the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs. 

    The same ministry urgently called Kiev for clarification.

    And . . .  a much more worrisome "incident:"

    In Pskov, Russia - near the border with Estonia, on a Russian Air Base, 2 attack helicopters were blown up.

    Estonia is a member of NATO.   Questions now arising if Estonia bombed the Russian base ?

    UPDATE 7:45 AM EDT --

    80% of Kiev residents without water AND part of the city without electricity - Kiev mayor Klitschko.

    (Note: That's how Donetsk lived already for almost 9 years due to Ukrainian attacks.  Strange how no one in the West complained then.)

    Also: Moldova says it will treat the Russian missile debris as an accident.



    WHO To Control And Censor Health Content On YouTube

    WHO to control Health content on YouTube & censor everything disputing Official Narrative so it can manipulate Public Opinion



    The World Health Organisation (“WHO”) is now taking control of the content that is promoted on YouTube through a partnership with Google.  The aim of the partnership is to “address the spread of misinformation and disinformation.”

    “WHO and partners recognise that misinformation online has the potential to travel further, faster and sometimes deeper than the truth – on some social media platforms, falsehoods are 70% more likely to get shared than accurate news. 

    To counter this, WHO has taken a number of actions with tech companies to remain one step ahead,” WHO states on its website.

    As has been proved throughout the Covid era, the propaganda machine of governments, public health bodies and international organisations such as WHO are inverting the truth.  It is they that are spreading misinformation and disinformation while at the same time censoring the truth.  Thus, it is not misinformation and falsehoods that WHO is attempting to counteract. Rather, WHO and its partners are attempting to suppress the truth while promoting a false narrative. A more truthful statement would read:

    “WHO and partners recognise that facts and truthfulness online have the potential to travel further, faster and sometimes deeper than the official narrative – on some social media platforms, truth is 70% more likely to get shared than our narrative. To counter this, WHO has taken a number of actions with tech companies to remain one step ahead.”

    Bear this inversion of the truth in mind when reading any of WHO or its partners’ documents or articles.

    Last week in a blog post on the platform’s website, its global head of YouTube Health Dr. Garth Graham said: “YouTube Health has been working on additional ways to help doctors, nurses, mental health professionals and healthcare information providers to bring high-quality health information into the spaces that people visit throughout their day – like their favourite video-sharing app.”

    To apply to be labelled as “reliable,” users have to submit their license and adhere to the “best practices” for sharing health information set by the World Health Organisation (“WHO”), the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (“CMSS”), and the National Academy of Medicine (“NAM”).

    YouTube gives “authoritative” sources a boost in the algorithm and non-authoritative sources are suppressed.

    “In the coming months, eligible channels that have applied through this process will be given a health source information panel that identifies them as a licensed healthcare professional and their videos will appear in relevant search results in health content shelves,” the blog post says.

    YouTube has been censoring medical information that contradicts the narrative of local health authorities and the WHO – even when the information provided by the WHO turned out to be false.


    More...




    New Details Emerge On Drone Attack In Crimea

    New details on drone attack in Crimea emerge
    RT


    Those behind a major drone attack on the Russian naval base in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol made active use of a UN-brokered Black Sea grain corridor, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement after studying the wreckage of the unmanned combat vehicles.

    The ministry’s specialists retrieved the navigational modules of the drones destroyed by the Russian warships and naval aviation, the statement said, adding that the Canadian-made devices stored data on the vehicles’ path to their target.

    Most of them were launched from the Ukrainian Black Sea coast, not far from the port city of Odessa, the Russian military said. “The naval drones were then moving within the security zone of the grain corridor before changing course and heading towards the Russian naval base in Sevastopol,” the statement said.

    Navigational data from at least one naval drone shows that it was launched from a sea location within the grain corridor security zone, the ministry added. According to Russian specialists, it might have been launched from a civilian vessel chartered by Ukraine or its “western backers” to transport Ukrainian agricultural produce.

    Saturday’s assault, which involved nine aerial and seven naval drones, targeted vessels of the Russian Black Sea Fleet docked in Sevastopol. It was repelled, with just one ship suffering minor damage, according to the ministry.

    According to Moscow, the Russian ships that were targeted by the Ukrainian drones had been involved in providing security for the “grain corridor,” which was set up to allow exports of Ukrainian food products through the Black Sea as part of a deal negotiated in Istanbul between Moscow and Kiev with UN and Turkish mediation this summer.

    The attack prompted Russia to indefinitely suspend its participation in the deal, a move that has sparked an angry reaction from the US. Russia blamed Kiev for the attack, which it claimed was “carried out under the supervision of British experts.” 

    Kiev has been reluctant to claim responsibility for the assault. Andrey Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s office, took to Telegram to accuse Russia of “making up terrorist acts at its facilities.” On Sunday, the New York Times reported that it was Ukrainian forces that launched Saturday’s attack, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official.


    Lavrov: U.S. Is Seeking To Weaken The EU

    Washington seeking to weaken EU – Moscow
    RT



    The United States is aiming to weaken the EU, both militarily and economically, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed. 

    Europeans are already suffering from anti-Russia sanctions “many times more than the US,” he said in an interview published on Sunday. 

    “There is a growing number of economists, not only in our country, but also in the West, who come to a conclusion that the US goal is to completely ‘bleed’ and deindustrialize the European economy,” he said.

    “It is also in Washington’s interests to weaken Europe militarily. To constantly keep it under pressure, to force it to pump weapons into Ukraine, and in return fill the EU countries’ arms depots with American supplies,” Lavrov said. 

    In pursuing such a policy, Washington has been guided by “economic, purely selfish calculations, as well as by ideological complexes of superiority,” he suggested. 

    Earlier this month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Americans were making “crazy money” by selling gas to European states at exorbitant prices against a backdrop of EU sanctions on Russian energy supplies.

    He said this would inevitably lead to the “deindustrialization” of the EU which, in turn, will  have “very, very deplorable consequences” for the bloc “over the next 10 to 20 years.”


    Sunday, October 30, 2022

    U.S. To Deploy Nuclear-Capable B-52 Bombers To Australia - Message To China

    US Air Force to deploy nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Australia as tensions with China grow
    Angus Grigg, Lesley Robinson and Meghna Bali


    The United States is preparing to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to northern Australia, a provocative move experts say is aimed squarely at China.

    An investigation by Four Corners can reveal Washington is planning to build dedicated facilities for the giant aircraft at Tindal air base, south of Darwin.

    The US has drawn up detailed plans for what it calls a "squadron operations facility" for use during the Northern Territory dry season, an adjoining maintenance centre and a parking area for "six B-52s".

    Becca Wasser from the Centre for New American Security says putting B-52s in northern Australia is a warning to China, as fears grow Beijing is preparing for an assault on Taiwan.

    "Having bombers that could range and potentially attack mainland China could be very important in sending a signal to China that any of its actions over Taiwan could also expand further," she says.

    The bombers are part of a much larger upgrade of defence assets across northern Australia, including a major expansion of the Pine Gap intelligence base, which would play a vital role in any conflict with Beijing.

    The B-52s have been the backbone of the US Air Force for more than 60 years, with the capability to deliver long-range strikes of both nuclear and conventional weapons. The US documents say the facilities will be used for "deployed B-52 squadrons".

    "The ability to deploy US Air Force bombers to Australia sends a strong message to adversaries about our ability to project lethal air power," the US Air Force told Four Corners.

    Asked when the B-52s would begin their deployment at Tindal, Australia's Department of Defence declined to comment.

    Some worry having B-52s rotating through Tindal each year locks Australia into joining the US in any conflict against China.

    "It's a great expansion of Australian commitment to the United States' war plan with China," says Richard Tanter, a senior research associate at the Nautilus Institute and a long-time, anti-nuclear activist.

    "It's a sign to the Chinese that we are willing to be the tip of the spear."

    Mr Tanter sees the planned deployment of the bombers as more significant than the rotation of US Marines through Darwin each year.


    China Prepares For War

    Top China Watcher: Why Is U.S. Not Reacting As Beijing Prepares For War?
     ART MOORE



    Chinese President Xi Jinping's securing of an unprecedented third term as the Communist Party's general secretary, his packing of the Politburo with with loyalists and dramatic removal of his predecessor, Hu Jintao, during the National People's Congress are ominous signs, warns China scholar Gordon Chang.

    "The Chinese despot is pushing the region - and the world - toward war, and we are now far closer to conflict than many once thought," he wrote in a column for The Hill,

    Another China watcher, Jacob Helberg, pointed out Wednesday on Twitter that the New York Times is reporting a Chinese spy chief has joined the Chinese Communist Party's top ranks for the first time.

    "Is it me, or does this new Politburo look a lot like a wartime team?" wrote Helberg, a senior adviser at the Stanford University Center on Geopolitics and Technology. "Or maybe it's just Xi bringing up 'security' 89 times in his speech."

    Commenting on the tweet, Chang affirmed Xi is "assembling a team to go to war."

    "Why are we not making defensive preparations?" he asked of the United States.

    In his column for The Hill, Chang said Xi's report opening the party's 20th National Congress on Oct. 16 "revealed his dark vision of the future."

    Noting Xi warned of "dangerous storms" ahead, Chang pointed out that back in March, the Chinese central government declared in its report to the National People's Congress that it is committed to "resolving the Taiwan question in the new era."

    The "new era" is language Xi began using last November, and it followed his declaration in 2019 that the Taiwan "problem" should not be allowed "to be passed down from one generation to the next," observed Chang.

    "New era," therefore, he said, appears to mean the period of Xi's rule.

    "He has, unfortunately, made the destruction of the island's democracy a test of his legitimacy," wrote Chang.