ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO EXIST

While many protests in major cities condemn the recent Palestinian attack on Israel.  And in Paris, London, Manchester, Edinburgh, New York City, and elsewhere others praise the Palestinians, argue that the Israelis got what they deserved during the kidnappings, stabbings, shootings, etc.  I was shocked to learn that the Sydney, Australia Opera House recently hosted a "Gas the Jews" rally, and some of the protestors, when interviewed, openly declare, that if they hear someone express certain views about the Middle East or the Koran, "they will kill them,"  A few days ago a teacher in northern France was murdered by a Muslim terrorist, and Saturday, a main train station was closed as was the Louvre.  Needless to say, Jewish schools and synagogues are increasing vigilence, as Hamas called for a day of Jihad to begin.

The protests in American cities include Muslims, and also anti-war leftists, some left Democrats or Democratic Socialists.  Below, I include ar article from a recent issue of the Militant, a Trotskyist newspaper in the US about an interview with Cuba's Fidel Castro by Jeffrey Goldberg, whom I assume is the same writer who today is often on America's National Public Radio to "balance" its pro-Democratic Party spins.  Goldberg is a Never Trumper type Republican.  The interview is not from last week, obviously, but the message is important.

 

Fidel Castro: ‘Without doubt, Israel has right to exist’

BY SETH GALINSKY

Vol. 87/No. 39

October 23, 2023

ESTUDIOS REVOLUCIÓN“Nothing compares to the Holocaust,” Fidel Castro told Jeffrey Goldberg in 2010 interview. Castro, left, with Goldberg, right, and Jewish community leader Adela Dworin in Havana, August 2010.

Since the pogrom by Hamas and its allies, Stalinists and middle-class radicals have been organizing actions under the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free” — a call for the destruction of Israel and slaughter of the Jews. That’s the exact opposite of what Fidel Castro, the central leader of the Cuban Revolution, had to say about Israel and Jew-hatred.

Castro often strongly disagreed with the Israeli government. At the same time he openly expressed his support for the right of Israel to exist as a refuge for the Jews.

In 2010, after then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had proclaimed the Holocaust — the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis — was an “unprovable and mythical claim,” Castro invited Atlantic magazine writer Jeffrey Goldberg to come to Cuba and interview him.

Fidel told him the Iranian government would better serve the cause of peace by acknowledging the “unique” history of antisemitism and trying to understand why Israelis fear for their existence.

“I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims,” Castro told Goldberg. “They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything.”

“Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms,” Castro said. “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.”

“Let’s imagine that I were [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Castro said, “I would remember the 6 million Jewish men and women, of all ages who were exterminated in the concentration camps” when making decisions.

Goldberg asked Castro, “Do you think the State of Israel, as a Jewish State, has a right to exist?”

“Yes, without a doubt,” Castro replied.

“True revolutionaries never threaten to exterminate a whole country,” Castro had told Le Monde in September 1967, in response to Arab governments and others calling for Israel’s destruction.

THE MOST IMPORTANT DEED IN MY LIFE?? A LETTER TO THE EDITOR??

      HUGH MURRAY

     On a personal note, I admit, sometimes I do the unusual.  For example, some years ago I worked at the World Trade Center in New York, #2 WTC, on the 38th floor.  On wintry days near closing time, it was a joy to look out the window down NY harbor atthe Statue of Liberty as the sun began to set.  A beautiful scene.

 

     I was a minor bureaucrat working for a government agency.  One day. probably in 1982; our department decided to have a fire drill.  We walked down the steps from the 38th to the 33rd floor (these were the floors rented by our agency).  There we all gathered and asked what next.  We were told, in case of emergency, someone would give us further directions at that time.  We were told one most important fact - as this was a new building, new improvements in the elevator had been added.  For example, in most elevators, you must press a button once inside the cabin to direct the devise to the floor to which you wish to go.  With the updated device, you no longer had to press the button, just place your finger on the desired number floor, and the heat of your digit was sufficient to tell the elevator which floor you wanted to go to.  No need to push the buttons, just place your finger over the number.  There was a drawback, however; he informed us..  In case of a fire, the heat of the fire would heat the buttons too and call the elevators to the burning floor.  In case of a fire, we were urged not to use the elevators.

 

     Some time later in 1983, I was then living in nearby Brooklyn, and if I woke early and the weather was nice, instead of the packed subway, I would walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  The tall WTC in the foreground had sufficient glass to reflect the sky and it sometimes appeared a light purple.  At the end of the bridge, I could go north to China Town, or south toward the Wall St. area.  I walked to the WTC, but when I reached the lobby of #2, it was packed.  The elevators were not working. and ever more people were coming up from the subway below to join the crowd.  Unlike most, I had an alternative.  Sometimes, I would walk up to work, the 38 flights.  The stairways were well hidden, but I knew where they were. Should I wait for an elevator - none were then running, or walk.  My walk was no fast run.  I might be late for work.  I chose to walk up.

 

     All went well until the 9th floor, for I looked up and it was dark.  I kept going, but slower.  By the 11th floor, I placed my hand in front of my face and could see nothing.  That is dark.  I went very slowly, because from past experience I knew some would eat lunch on the stairs, and leave trash and even bottles.  I did not want to fall in this perpendicular cave of night.  There was an eerie sound in this "cave" however - a metalic one.  The building was constructed to sway with the wind.  The 110 stories moved.  One did not notice this when working in the outer sections where folks worked.  But in the stairwells, you could hear the metal crunch of the wind's power on the massive building.  Now and then I would open a door to check the floor I had reached, then back to the cave.  At 38 I opened the door and was shocked.  The lights were on, the early shift was working as usual; all was normal.  But now I was convinced something important was wrong.  The lights in the stairwell were out at the same time the elevators were not working.

 

     I informed my union representative that we should write the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about this problem.  I was about to leave the job, and wrote the agency 23 May 1983.  I do not know it the union representative also wrote the agency.

 

     A decade later, 26 February 1993, I was living in Milwaukee, watching the national news on tv, and learned that terrorists had attempted to blow up the WTC.  A bomb had been planted in a vehicle in the WTC parking garage below the building.  It damaged the buildings.  Workers tried to escape, but there were no lights in the stairs.  It took some 6 hours to get people out of the building that day.

 

     I decided I would write to urge changes in the stairwells.  I wrote the same letter to the then big 4 newspapers in NYC - the New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News, and Long Island Newsday.  Three of the four published my letter, the Post, Daily News, and Newsday.  I quote below from my letter of 18 March 1993 in the Daily News:

 

     Let there be . . . .

     When I was working  [at the WTC] . . . I wrote to the Occupational Safety and Health agency to complain that the lights in the stairways of the WTC had been out during a minor emergency. . . .Watching CNN [the other night], it seems the lights were still out on some of the stairways.  The managers of the buildings have had 10 years to rectify a dangerous situation.  Did they do so?  No one could predict that fanatics might place a bomb in the garage.  But everyone could have predicted that at some point there might be an emergency.  And during an emergency, the stairways, the only highways out of the citylike buildings, should be lit.

 

     The New York Post published a slightly longer version of the same letter, earlier on 8 March 1993.  Newsday also published it, though I no longer have a copy of that, and the date was about the same as the other two.  The circulation of these 3 newspapers was then about 2.5 million.  Did my letters have any effect?

 

    Shortly after 9/11/2001 Investor's Business Daily commented on changes in the building AFTER the 1993 bombing.  "After the [earlier garage] bombing, however, batteries were added to every other light fixture in stairwells in case power went out.  Handrails were painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, which also was used to mark a continuous stripe down the middle of the staircases.  A public address system was added."  Did this make a difference?  The same paper notes - "In 1993, it took six hours to evacuate most of the Trade Center after terrorists detonated a bomb in an underground garage, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.  This time [9/11] despite missteps, evacuation was cut by several hours."  In 2001 they did not have 6 hours, but many did escape in the 2 hours before the crumbling.

 

     I do not think that my letter alone caused the changes.  But it surely put pressure to make changes.  3 NY papers with 2-3 million circulation meant the issue could not be hidden under a rug.

 

     I think that my letter may well have helped to force the changes that saved lives on 9/11.  It may well be the most important act in my life.  A letter of complaint!  And yet, a justification for everyone who complains when they observe something wrong.  My most important deed.

      If you wish to see a few more of my writings, and some old photos, a friend, Tony Flood made a portal for me on one of his sites.  http://anthonyflood.com/murray.htm

IS SOMETHING HAPPENING IN HONG KONG???

 I am not Chinese, I do not speak the language, and I have never been to Hong Kong.  But something unexpected may be occurring. Beginning in 2019 there were protests about a proposed law that would return mainlanders to the mainland to face trial.  After the Opium War in the 19th century, the British took Hong Kong and under the British it flourished into a major financial center, and a prosperous city state.  In the 1990s, the treaty that provided separation for HK, came to an end, and Britain and the People's Republic of China (PRC) negotiated a turn-over of the colony to the PRC; however, for 50 more years the city would be under the PRC, but maintain most of the rights that they had obtained under the British, like free speech, a free press, alternative radio, etc.  For about 2 decades, things went well.  Hong Kong, and Macao (formerly Portuguese) continued under the umbrela: one country, two systems.

The opposition to the new law in HK increased, with increased demands for even more democratic control in the city.  Some demos grew larger, AND MORE VIOLENT.  Meanwhile, the opposition now had new demands complaining about the violence of the police and the authorities.  Supporters of the mainland alleged that the CIA and MI6 were behind the protests.  On one video I saw a protestor pour gas (petrol) on to a pro-Beijing counter protestor and set the man ablaze.  Major damage was done to business whose homes offices were on the mainland.  The HK government cracked down hard, and with Covid virus madness sweeping the world, protests were harder to maintain.  By the end of 2020, it seemed that anti-Beijing newspapers, bookstores, organizations were closed by the new, hard-nose policy of HK.  Was there any significant difference between HK and the mainland any more?  One country, 2 systems, had seemed to evolve into one country, one system.

Then I noticed that the 2023 Gay Games (a sports event begun in San Francisco in 1982)  will hold there competitive events in 2 cities - Guadalajara. Mexico, and Hong Kong.  It will be the first split games event, and the first time the games are scheduled in Asia or in Central America,  The Games are usually held every 4 years, with track and field, football (soccer), volley ball, swimming, etc.  I notice that 2 events scheduled for HK are new - dragon boat racing and ma jong.  The HK GG are set for 3 November 2023.

I doubt if this kind of event could be held in Beijing or on the mainland of the PRC.  Does this NK schedule indicate a softening of HK policies toward minority voices???  If there is a last-minute cancellation of the HK games, we will know the answer.  On the other hand, it might be a first step toward restoring a freer society.     Hugh Murray

I should add something on a personal note.  In spring 1980 a small ad appeared in the NYC Village Voice about forming a gay soccer team.  A small number of us met for the first time and began the effort to form such a club.  I was a charter member.  We played in an area of New York's Central Park, the Rambles, and we voted to become the Ramblers.  I was not among the best players, but I did ok.  I also pushed to allow straights in our group, and then I pushed to have women too.  A few did not like opening up, and there were never many women because they had women's teams where they might accomplish more.  Overall, the open policy worked well.

  Meanwhile in San Francisco, former Olympic athletes who were gay were starting the Gay Olympic Games.  The US Olympic sued, so they could not use the word Olympic, and thus became the Gay Games.  I suspect most of the original Olympic Games, especially those that were all male, nude, and pagan, may have been the original Gay Games.  But when the Christians took over the Roman Empire, they eventually closed the ancient Olympics.

For GG I in summer 1982, the Ramblers were too new to organize, and I was the only NY soccer player to attend GG I. and fewer than a dozen from NYC in the other sports.  I was lucky to be allowed to play for about 15 minutes with the Denver team in the huge Keezar Stadium, to about 20 spectators.  For GG II in 1986 SF, the NY Ramblers had about 20 of us, and more than 100 from NY to participate.  The SF Strikers defeated NY Ramblers and the other football teams to win gold.  We won silver. For the closing ceremony, Tina Turner performed.  A great time.  From 1982 to 2023, about every 4 years, the GG will be 41 years old.  I am proud to have been among the first, in the creation of the Ramblers and partaking in Gay Games.

s

RT ON US DELAYS IN HYPERSONIC WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT

 More bad news re US development of the hypersonic weapons.  About 2 years ago China sent such a weapon on a long mission and it landed near the target.  The Soviets have used some in Ukraine, but they have certainly not proven to be decisive.  Amazingly, drones appear to be the surprise weapon of the Ukrainian conflict.  Below is the RT story.  Hugh Murray

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7 Sep, 2023 10:47

US cancels hypersonic missile test – Pentagon

The missile couldn’t pass pre-flight checks, the US Department of Defense claimed

A Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) system deployed to Cape Canaveral for testing. ©  US Army

A test flight on Wednesday of the US hypersonic weapon Dark Eagle, expected to become the first such missile in the country’s arsenal, was aborted at the last moment, the Pentagon has announced.

The launch of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) was scheduled to take place at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, in order “to inform our hypersonic technology development,” the US Department of Defense said, in a statement released to media outlets.

“But as a result of pre-flight checks the test did not occur,” it confirmed, without revealing the exact reasons for the cancellation of the LRHW firing.

The Pentagon is also claiming that, despite the setback, it “was able to successfully collect data on the performance of the ground hardware and software that will inform the continued progress toward fielding offensive hypersonic weapons.”

However, Bloomberg has pointed out that the last-minute halting of the missile test casts doubt on whether the US military will be able to meet its goal of declaring the Dark Eagle initially combat capable by September 30.

Read more

 Russia now ‘mass producing’ hypersonic missiles – Rostec 

A previous test of a LRHW surface-to-surface hypersonic weapon was canceled in March, also “a result of pre-flight checks.” Navy Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe told Congress later that month that the problem was that “a battery did not activate” in the system.

Dark Eagle, which the army is developing jointly with the navy, is expected to become the first hypersonic system fielded by the US.

In March, the Pentagon canceled its ARRW (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon) hypersonic air-to-ground missile program after a series of failed tests.

Analysts, including some in the West, have noted America is lagging behind Russia and China when it comes to hypersonic weapons, which are believed to be beyond the reach of existing air defense systems due to their extreme speed and high maneuverability.

In recent years, Russia has developed several hypersonic systems, including the Avangard glider, which is fitted on silo-based ICBMs, the Zircon missile for use by the Navy, and the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

READ MORE: Iran claims hypersonic breakthrough

Moscow has deployed Kinzhals on a number of occasions during the conflict in Ukraine. In May, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that the hypersonic missile was used to deliver significant damage to a US-supplied Patriot air defense system stationed in Kiev.

RT OP ED ON CHINA, VIETNAM, USA RELATIONS, AND MY ADDITIONS

 To the reader, I shall present my criticism of the OpEd from RT below that editorial.  Hugh Murray

18 Aug, 2023 02:04

China risks losing a crucial Asian comrade

If Beijing doesn’t play its cards right, Vietnam may soon turn into a partner of the US, despite bloody war in their recent history

By Timur Fomenko, a political analyst

Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong ©  Hoang Thong Nhat / Vietnam News Agency / AFP

In the coming month, US President Joe Biden will visit the Southeast Asian nation of Vietnam. Vietnam, populated by 97 million people, is Asia’s second largest communist state, and its history is marred by a bloody conflict with the US, whereby Washington unleashed untold horrors upon the population in a bid to prop up a puppet state in South Vietnam.

Yet it speaks volumes about the world we live in today that this historical memory has little influence on how the two countries now view each other. Washington sees Hanoi as a critical strategic partner in its vision for the ‘Indo-Pacific’ to contain the rise of China. The US has never been above allying itself with communist states when it suits its agenda, even if it always turns on them in the long run. Be it the USSR, Deng Xiaoping’s China, or Tito’s Yugoslavia, Washington always focuses on the bigger, prevailing perceived threat first.

And now, it’s China’s turn. Despite both being communist countries, and despite the shared revolutionary history of Mao having supported Ho Chi Minh’s quest to reunify the country, Vietnam (as a general rule) does not like China. The reasons are not ideological, but nationalistic and historical. Long ago, northern Vietnam was under the rule of Chinese dynasties, and the Vietnamese interpret their own history as part of a long struggle to stay independent of China, even as the two countries held many close cultural and economic ties.

In that sense, the world hasn’t changed much. Vietnam and China have an extensive economic and trade relationship, but Vietnam’s historical enmity towards the Chinese remains, not least because the two countries have competing and overlapping claims in the South China Sea. Hanoi, of course, names it the East Sea instead. This has led to nationalist unrest against Beijing and extreme sensitivities. Take, for example, the fact that the woke, smash hit ‘Barbie’ was banned in Vietnam just because for several seconds it shows a cartoonish, inaccurate world map which appears to reflect the ‘Nine-dash line’ of China’s claims in the disputed sea. That’s where things are at.

Read more

 Biden claims former US enemy seeks 'partnership'

And who wants to exploit that rift the most? The US, of course. America not only sees Vietnam as a potential military counterweight to China, but also a potential economic partner that can replace Beijing as a manufacturing base. Vietnam, after all, is way behind China on the development ladder and has a burgeoning population of 97 million with a younger and cheaper labor force. This is why the US has gone all out to expand its diplomatic presence in Vietnam, including the construction of a $1 billion new embassy compound. Washington is sure going to great lengths to present itself as a friend to a nation it once despised and bombed into oblivion – and it’s doing so without ever having offered any sort of formal apology in the intervening years.

For the Vietnamese, this is not shameful because, from their point of view, history is on their side. That is, they effectively defeated the US in 1973, despite the great cost, and got the Americans to leave. In their relationship with the US, they may know the true nature of the country they’re dealing with, but see it as the ‘loser’ reconciling with them, and you aren’t going to feel threatened by a country you know you can defeat, are you? Of course, that doesn’t excuse the bombing, but it has allowed Vietnam’s relationship with the US to be politically justified without any lasting resentment. The US is groveling somewhat, they could say.

China has a dilemma on its hands now. Beijing must do all it can to stop Hanoi from getting closer to Washington and aspire to keep the country on a path of non-alignment and good neighborliness. China does not want Vietnam to become a strategic threat. While Vietnam, owing to the historical political correctness, will never become a formal ally of the US, there are fears it could soon upgrade the relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, which would see the two countries share common goals and interests. Biden wants to bring Vietnam into the anti-China coalition and has been ramping up partnerships and alliances against Beijing across the board.

If China is to stop this, the only answer is that Beijing must stop ramping up tensions in the South China Sea and allowing the US-controlled media to spin a narrative against it that legitimizes greater security ties between Vietnam and America. In other words, China has to start treating Vietnam like a comrade and not a subordinate neighbor, which is exactly the way Hanoi interprets their centuries-old relationship history. The battle for hearts and minds in Vietnam is on. China should theoretically have ideological and cultural advantages, as opposed to the country that dropped millions of bombs and Agent Orange on it, but geopolitics is rarely that simple.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

My comment - Yes, there was a Vietnam-American war, costly to Americans in lives and resources; much more costly in lives to the Vietnamese, and the Agent Orange and other chemicals we used had horrible results, even for mothers after the end of the war.  However, after the US left in defeat, Vietnam had a war with China of a border dispute in the north between the 2 nations.  Vietnam was forcesdto cede a small amount of territory to the PR China.  Then the Khmer Rouge, a communist group, came to power in Cambodia.  It was supported by China and indirectly by the US. (This was in the era of Kissinger and his hopes to further split Beijing from Moscow, so the US might well support China in its opposition to Vietnam).  The Khmer Rouge was also murderous on a vast scale, ultimately killing about 25% of its population.  (A film, The Killing Fields) might jog memories of Pol Pot's leadership.)  It was also killing many Vietnamese who lived there, and the Vietnamese Communists intervened, in part to save its compatriots, but finally to overthrow the Khmer Rouge.  In ending the Pol Pot 'experiment,' the Vietnamese did the world a favor.  Now, in the South China Sea (or the East Sea) China is the bully of the area, harassing VN fishing boats, and those of the Philippines, trying to impose its claims for any oil or other valuables that may be found beneath these seas.  And China also harasses US ships and planes.  Whatever claims China might have had to the Seas were lost around 1450 when an Emperor ordered the destruction of the massive Chinese fleet that had brought many animals back from Africa.  The emperor even ordered the destruction of any plans for ocean going vessels.  China seems quite willing to make a vassal state of Vietnam, the Philippines. or any other state that gets in its way.  Vietnam was right to ban Barbie with its Chinese inspired map of the area.  America should ban the film too until it makes a change in the map inside that film.  Now word comes that China is building an airstrip on the most southern of the Paracel Island, Triton.  It is claimed by both China and Vietnam and Taiwan.  The air base will place more pressure on Vietnam to cave into Beijing's demands.  Will Pres. Biden, who has received millions of dollars from Chinese military "businesses" stand up against China?  Has America ever had a President so corrupt to be paid off my our major enemy?------Hugh Murray

RT - ROB KENNEDY JR ON DR. FAUCI, VICTORIA NULAND, BIOLABS IN WUHAN AND UKRAINE

Of course, RT has its prejudices.  But surely in this case, those prejudices allow it to expose important facts that America's major media prefer to hide.  First, it is most likely that the Covid virus that killed so many thousands world wide was developed as part of a gain-of-function research in a Wuhan lab funded by America's Dr. Fauci.  We know  less about the dozen or so biolabs in Ukraine sponsored by the US ept. of Defense.  Below, Robert Kennedy Jr on the topic.    Hugh Murray   

15 Aug, 2023 19:35

Kennedy comments on US biolabs in Ukraine

The Pentagon used other countries for bioweapons research, RFK Jr. told Tucker Carlson

Screenshot ©  Twitter / @TuckerCarlson

The US military outsourced some of its biological weapons research to the government installed by the 2014 coup in Kiev, Democrat presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Junior has claimed in an interview.

“We have biolabs in Ukraine because we’re developing bioweapons,” RFK Jr. told independent journalist Tucker Carlson in a lengthy conversation posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday evening. Though the US signed the ban on bioweapons in the 1970s, he explained, the Patriot Act adopted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 allowed the Pentagon to resume research.

According to Kennedy, the bioweapons program has operated under the guise of “life sciences” research, such as gain-of-function experiments on viruses and other pathogens, ultimately overseen by Dr. Anthony Fauci, who headed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases between 1984 and 2022.

Modern bioweapons are “frightening stuff,” made with genetic engineering tools such as CRISPR, Kennedy said. When some of these “bugs” escaped from laboratories in the US, back in 2014, the Obama administration banned gain-of-function research, Kennedy added, so Fauci outsourced it overseas. 

“A lot of them went to Ukraine,” Kennedy told Carlson, while some of the research was moved to the Wuhan, China laboratory, the suspected origination point for the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the research was funded by the Pentagon, or by USAID, which Kennedy described as “a CIA cutout.”

The US has long dismissed claims about the biological research laboratories in Ukraine as “Russian propaganda,” until senior State Department official Victoria Nuland confirmed their existence at a 2022 Senate hearing. The Pentagon continues to insist the research is neither illegal nor intended for military purposes.

The Russian military has discovered evidence that the US was creating “biological weapons components” at facilities in Ukraine, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov testified to lawmakers in Moscow earlier this year.

Read more

 Kennedy shares opinion on key US mistake with Russia

Kennedy also told Carlson that the American public has been “lied to” about the Ukraine conflict, pointing out Nuland’s role in the 2014 coup in Kiev and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) vision of NATO expansion to argue that war with Moscow has been Washington’s plan all along.

Ukraine “is a proxy in, essentially, a struggle between two superpowers, between Russia and the US,” Kennedy said. He accused the US of sabotaging the March 2022 peace talks by having then-British PM Boris Johnson visit Kiev and tell Vladimir Zelensky’s government the West would not support them. 

As a result, Kennedy said, “350,000 Ukrainian kids are now dead, and 40-50,000 Russians.”

RFK Jr. is the nephew of the 35th president, John F. Kennedy, and the son of Robert Kennedy, JFK’s attorney general who went on to become a senator. Both brothers would end up being assassinated – JFK in 1963, and RFK in 1968 during the presidential primaries. RFK Jr. is challenging fellow Democrat and incumbent president Joe Biden for the party’s presidential nomination. 

RT ARTIC;E ON CHINESE WEAPONS IMPROVEMENT - LASER COOLING

This article comes from RT. 

12 Aug, 2023 21:14

China makes weapons ‘breakthrough’

Beijing’s military scientists have claimed success in enabling high-energy lasers to operate “indefinitely” without overheating

©  National University of Defense Technology

Chinese military scientists have reported a research breakthrough that could make it possible for Beijing to develop high-energy laser weapons that can shoot for as long as their operators desire, without interruption and without any degradation in performance.

Scientists at the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, China, published the results of their research earlier this month in Acta Optica Sinica, a peer-reviewed Chinese journal. They claim to have developed a new cooling system that makes it possible to operate high-energy lasers “indefinitely,” without any effects from overheating.

“This is a huge breakthrough in improving the performance of high-energy laser systems,” the team said in its research paper. “High-quality beams can be produced not only in the first second, but also maintained indefinitely.”

Read more

 Germany tests laser weapon

The cooling system controls gas flows to remove heat from inside a laser weapon, preventing vibration and disruptions in performance. It can enable longer operation, increased range and greater firepower, the scientists said. They noted that 60 years on from the invention of the first ruby laser, weapons developers haven’t been able to create “death rays that can instantly kill targets.”

Some of the most high-profile US laser weapons projects have been canceled, despite shooting down targets in testing. “The true reason for the cancellation of these projects was that their destructive power did not meet expectations,” the Chinese scientists said. Longer, continuous operation times are needed to extend the range of laser weapons beyond a few kilometers, they said.

Such weapons generate high-energy beams that heat up the gas in their path as they pass through the air, creating turbulence. This effect can distort the beam, diminishing its accuracy and strength. The heated gases can also contaminate the mirrors in a laser weapon, reducing performance and potentially damaging a system.

The Chinese researchers said they developed a system that blows gas through the weapon to remove waste heat and keep the mirrors clear. Their technology is already being used in a number of laser weapons that the Chinese military has under development.

READ MORE: China accuses US of militarizing space

Beijing reportedly intends to use such weapons against drones, missiles and aircraft. They also could be used to target satellites, disrupting enemy communications, navigation and surveillance capabilities.