Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the 100-year-old who was at the heart of the United States’ rapprochement with China half a century ago, has made a surprise visit to Beijing.
Henry Kissinger makes surprise visit to China, meets defense minister
Video via Activist News Network
Related:
At 100, Kissinger still razor-sharp on China-US relations
Senior Chinese diplomat meets with Henry Kissinger
Chinese defense minister meets with Henry Kissinger in Beijing
The FTC has proposed new rules that clarify what is and isn’t a deceptive online review — and would give it the power to fine $50,000 for each fake.
Those 10,000 5-star reviews are fake. Now they’ll also be illegal.
H/T: Steve Lehto
The latest iteration of the U.S. military’s Ridge Runner drills include Russian SAMs and apparent enemy suicide drone launch teams.
Guerrilla Warfare Exercise In West Virginia Looks Heavily Influenced By Ukraine War
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In addition to allies and partners previously mentioned, Ridge Runner will host observers from Taiwan, Georgia, Moldova, Hungary, Qatar, Romanian, and Canada during the event.
Big Tech is rushing ahead of any legal framework for artificial intelligence, or AI, in the quest for big profits, while pushing for self-regulation instead of the constraints imposed by the rule of law.
DOD Developing AI Weapons? Beware the Frankenstein Chatbots
Putin Shows African Leaders Draft Treaty on Ukrainian Neutrality from March 2022
Putin’s claim reflects an article published in Foreign Affairs last year that cited multiple former senior US officials who said Russia and Ukraine tentatively agreed on a peace deal in April 2022. They said the agreement would have involved a Ukrainian promise not to join NATO in exchange for a Russian withdrawal to the pre-invasion lines, and Ukraine would have received security guarantees from several countries.
Russian and Ukrainian officials met face-to-face in Istanbul on March 29, 2022, which was followed up with virtual consultations. After the meeting, Russia’s lead negotiator described the talks as “constructive,” and the Russian Defense Ministry announced it would “drastically” reduce military activity near the northern cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, which led to a full Russian withdrawal from the north.
Putin said after the Russian withdrawal, Ukraine abandoned the treaty. “After we pulled our troops away from Kiev — as we had promised to do — the Kiev authorities … tossed [their commitments] into the dustbin of history,” he said. “They abandoned everything.”
Ukraine accused Russian troops of intentionally killing civilians in the northern areas it withdrew from, most notably in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. But if Putin’s account is true, Western pressure could have also led to Ukraine scuttling the treaty.
Then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kyiv on April 9, 2022, a few days after Russia completed its withdrawal from the north. According to a report from Ukrainska Pravda, Johnson urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to negotiate with Russia and that even if Ukraine was ready to sign a deal with Putin, Kyiv’s Western backers were not.
The Ukrainska Pravda report said at the time, Russia was ready for a Putin-Zelensky meeting, but two factors stopped it from happening: the discovery of dead Ukrainian civilians* and Johnson’s visit.
Then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet was trying to mediate between Putin and Zelensky in March 2022 and gave a similar account of the West’s position. He said the US and its allies “blocked” his mediation effort and that he thought there was a “legitimate decision by the West to keep striking Putin” and not negotiate.
After peace talks were scuttled in April 2022, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he expected the conflict to end after the Istanbul talks but then realized some countries in NATO wanted to prolong the war to “weaken” Russia. A few days after Cavusoglu’s comments, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin admitted that one of the US’s goals in supporting Ukraine is to see Russia “weakened.”
As the war has dragged on, the Biden administration has come out explicitly against a ceasefire. Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined the position earlier this month and said the US would continue building up Ukraine’s military rather than push for peace.
Related:
President Putin reveals details of draft treaty on Ukraine’s neutrality
*Bucha, Kramatorsk & Kremenchuk
Bucha was staged to sabotage the peace talks!
In an interview before his death, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower urged the media and the government to be more honest about America’s bombing of civilians.
Daniel Ellsberg Wanted Americans to See the Truth About War
Related:
Ken Klippenstein, an investigative journalist at The Intercept, has exposed how the Pentagon very quietly launched a new internal division, dubbed the “Influence and Perception Management Office” (IPMO), in March.
Exposed: Disturbing Details of New Pentagon ‘Perception Management Office’
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U.S. MILITARY CREATES SECRET UNITS FOR USE IN SENSITIVE TASKS ABROAD
Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History
2013 – The NDAA Legalized The Use Of Propaganda On The US Public
Deeply disturbed by the accounting of American deceit in Vietnam, he approached The New York Times. The disclosures that followed rocked the nation.
Daniel Ellsberg, Who Leaked the Pentagon Papers, Is Dead at 92
Previously:
by Michael Tracey
On June 4, a group referring to itself as the “Polish Volunteer Corps” issued a boastful announcement confirming its participation in a series of cross-border ground offensives into Russia. News of these audacious raids was jarring enough, given the many prior assurances of U.S. and Ukrainian war planners, who insisted no attacks would be carried out inside Russian territory. It was all the more conspicuous that the incursion units were apparently comprised of Polish soldiers
The Government Keeps Lying to Us About Ukraine. Where Is the Outrage?
Are We Back to Nuclear Brinkmanship for Good?
In his speech last week, Sullivan said the world was at an “inflection point” that demanded “new strategies for achieving the same goal we’ve held since the Cold War: Reduce the risk of nuclear conflict.” Instead, we seem to be inching inexorably back toward a time when, as Kennedy commented 60 years ago, any “two men, sitting on opposite sides of the world, [can] decide to bring an end to civilization.”
*Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Ms. Cat’s Chronicles.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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