Ukraine can’t retake Crimea soon, Pentagon tells lawmakers in classified briefing

Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, four senior Defense Department officials told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing. The assessment is sure to frustrate leaders in Kyiv who consider taking the peninsula back one of their signature goals.

Ukraine can’t retake Crimea soon, Pentagon tells lawmakers in classified briefing

Why India did not allow Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine

Why India did not allow Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine

In Latin America pharmaceutical bullying went a notch higher. In addition to legal indemnity, Pfizer demanded protection against their own negligence and mistakes. Argentina amended its vaccine law, three times, yet Pfizer was not happy. Pfizer wanted Argentina’s bank reserves and military bases as “guarantees”.

In the era of neo-colonialism, Pharma industry was the new East India Company.

Despite such pressure, India did not succumb. Eventually, Pfizer withdrew its application in 2021 We continued our vaccine programme with drugs that complied with our legal requirements.

CIA director holds secret meeting with Zelensky on Russia’s next steps

CIA Director William J. Burns traveled in secret to Ukraine’s capital at the end of last week to brief President Volodymyr Zelensky on his expectations for what Russia is planning militarily in the coming weeks and months, said a U.S. official and other people familiar with the visit.

CIA director holds secret meeting with Zelensky on Russia’s next steps

Related:

Nyet means Nyet

Ukraine and Georgia’s NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests. Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a
major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.

Archived Links Inside WaPo Article:

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Steve Bannon Called Bolsonaristas, ‘Freedom Fighters’ 🧐💭

Steve Bannon has spent months falsely saying the Brazilian election was stolen

“It’s the Brazilian Spring,” Bannon added. [Like the US-backed Arab Spring?!]

Then on January 8, as the pro-Bolsonaro riot was commencing in Brazil’s capital, Bannon repeatedly posted on Gettr that “Lula stole the election” and referred to the insurrectionists as “Brazilian Freedom Fighters.” [Like the US-backed Afghan Freedom Fighters or the Syrian Freedom Fighters?!]

If pics prove that someone is WEF-controlled than I guess Bolsonaro is?!

Related:

Twitter Thread: “The US right is backing an attempt at a color revolution in Brazil, & while the government isn’t fully endorsing it, the questioning of Brazil’s elections came from former gov officials & the west first not Brazil, which points to US Intel at play underneath the facade

YouTube: How Brazil’s Coup Attempt Was US Backed But Not J6 w/ Addy Adds

Steve Bannon:

He is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News and previously served on the board of the now-defunct data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

While serving in the navy, he earned a master’s degree in national security studies in 1983 from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Bannon was an officer in the United States Navy for seven years in the late 1970s and early 1980s; he served on the destroyer USS Paul F. Foster as a surface warfare officer in the Pacific Fleet, and afterwards as a special assistant to the chief of naval operations at the Pentagon.

Cambridge Analytica and the Right-Wing Populist Movements

WikiSpooks: Georgetown University

Spies Like Us: The Spooks of Georgetown

Avoiding a climate lockdown 🧐💭

As the world faces three major threats, namely the COVID-19 induced public health and economic crises as well as the ongoing climate emergency, the business world is in a position to make real positive change.

Avoiding a climate lockdown (original)

H/T: Kim Iversen—The Next Agenda

Related:

A green economic renewal after the COVID-19 crisis (PDF)

WEF: Paris Is Planning To Become A ’15-minute City’

15-minute city:

A 15-minute city is a residential urban concept in which most daily necessities can be accomplished by either walking or cycling from residents’ homes. The concept (see also the New Urbanism of the 1980s) is present, among many, in D’Acci’s Isobenefit Urbanism since 2013 (“The Isobenefit Urbanism approach aims to create cities in which each dweller can do her/his usual main daily activities by walking or at maximum biking”) was popularized by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and inspired by French-Colombian scientist Carlos Moreno who in 2016 coined the term. 15-minute cities are built from a series of 5-minute neighborhoods, also known as complete communities or walkable neighborhoods. The concept has been described as a “return to a local way of life”.

Inside the Trilateral Commission: Power elites grapple with China’s rise

Inside the Trilateral Commission: Power elites grapple with China’s rise (original)

Each new candidate for Commission membership is carefully scrutinized before being allowed entry. As a rule, members who take up positions in their national governments — which is uncannily common — give up their Trilateral Commission membership while in public service. Those include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

This revolving door between the commission and senior government ranks has always been fodder for conspiracy theorists. Its first director in 1973, Zbigniew Brzezinski, later became U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. The very existence of the commission, meanwhile, seems predicated on the question of whether governing should be left to the people. It is a question the commission itself has tackled head-on since 1975: Is democracy functioning? Or does someone need to guide it?

That year, three scholars — Michel Crozier, Samuel Huntington and Joji Watanuki — wrote a report for The Trilateral Commission titled “The Crisis of Democracy.” In it, Huntington wrote that some of the problems of governance in the U.S. stem from an “excess of democracy.”

Related:

The Crisis of Democracy – Trilateral Commission – 1975