Moscow and Washington are tiptoeing on the precipice of a hot war, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said, adding that the last similar crisis in relations dates back to the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s.
Writing on Telegram on Friday, Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, weighed in on what he called US President Joe Biden’s “primitive blackmail” of Congress. He was referring to the American leader’s recent plea to lawmakers to approve a $111 billion security package, which included funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
To convince Republicans – who have been reluctant to support the measure due to a dispute over border security – Biden warned that Russia might not stop at Ukraine and go on to attack NATO countries, leading to a direct clash involving the US. His plea, however, failed to impress the Senate Republicans, who blocked the funding.
Medvedev said the Biden administration’s ploy “is nothing new.” According to the official, many US presidents in the past have said, “Give the money to our guy (fill in the name), or you will have to fight the Russians.”
The difference, Medvedev added, is that no American president has ever “extorted so much money for a minor country that is in the process of collapsing,” which is also connected to a corruption controversy involving both the sitting US president and his family members – in reference to allegations that both Biden and his son Hunter accepted bribes from a Ukrainian gas executive.
The former Russian president went on: “Never since the Cuban Missile Crisis has the threat of a direct clash between Russia and NATO leading to World War III been so real.”
The 1962 crisis brought the US and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war after Moscow responded to Washington’s deployment of missiles in Türkiye by placing its own atomic assets in allied Cuba. The two superpowers narrowly managed to defuse the tensions by withdrawing their missiles from both countries.
Medvedev predicted that despite the gridlock in Congress, both the administration and its “cowering fosterling” in Kiev would get the money sooner or later, allowing all parties involved to continue profiting off the conflict.
Russia has repeatedly warned the West against sending arms to Kiev, arguing that doing so will only prolong the conflict while making it a direct participant in the hostilities.
Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops have spent nearly two years now shedding light on the extent of US military-biological activities in Ukraine, from the deliberate infection of Ukrainian servicemen with deadly viruses to gauge response to work on deadly new pathogens designed specifically to target certain genotypes.
Resistance to antimicrobial medicines which prevent and treat infectious diseases has experienced an explosive rise in Ukraine.
That’s according to a new report by the US Centers for Disease Control released Friday, which indicated that “in Ukraine, the confluence of high prewar rates of antimicrobial resistance, an increase in the prevalence of traumatic wounds, and the war-related strain on health care facilities is leading to increased detection of multidrug-resistant organisms with spread into Europe.”
The report, made possible through collaboration between the CDC, the Center for Public Health of Ukraine (UPHC) and other local health authority and “international partners” including the World Health Organization and the US State Department, used data collected in hospitals in the western and central Ukrainian regions of Ternopol, Khmelnitskiy and Vinnitsa.
The study found that in the period between November and December 2022, some 14 percent (50 out of 353) sampled patients suffered from health care-associated infections, with 30 of the 50 infected with a carbapenem-resistant organism – a type of bacteria that can produce chemicals that destroy antibiotics.
Among 19 patients infected with kebsiella, a bacteria known to cause respiratory, urinary and wound infections, a whopping 100 percent showed resistance to antibiotic agents. Meanwhile, among 20 sampled patients with klebsiella pneumoniae (a genus of kebsiella typically associated with pneumonia among patients suffering from diabetes and alcohol abuse), 100 percent once again showed resistance to cephalosporin, a third-generation beta-lactam antimicrobial.
“These rates are substantially higher than those reported from a 2016-2017 European Union-wide point prevalence survey, which included more than 300,000 acute care hospital patients and 100,000 long-term care facility residents,” the CDC said, noting that “among these respondents, the study found a health care-associated infection rate of 5.5 percent.”
The CDC blamed “inadequacies in surveillance of health care-associated infections, implementation of infection prevention and control measures such as recommended hand hygiene, and monitoring, evaluation and feedback to the hospital staff members” for the alarming spike in antibiotic resistance in Ukraine.
“The laboratory assessments identified multiple challenges, especially inadequate quantities of automated microbiology equipment, and suboptimal laboratory quality and information management systems, biosafety practices, and staffing, as well as inconsistent availability of essential antibiotic susceptibility testing consumables,” the report said.
The CDC called for “urgent capacity building…to prevent, detect, and respond to antimicrobial resistance…to save lives within Ukraine and limit international spread,” and pointed to efforts by Ukraine’s health authorities to improve laboratory-based detection and surveillance, “upgrading [of] laboratory equipment and workflows, increasing availability and use of hand-hygiene disinfectants, and providing technical training for staff members.”
The UPHC, meanwhile, has reportedly “issued clinical guidance on indications for bacteriology testing, including to military hospitals,” while its partners have worked “to provide additional laboratory supplies to meet the increased wartime demands, to capacitate laboratories to test for bacterial susceptibility to newer-generation antibiotics, and to improve reliable hospital access to these antibiotics.”
What Did the CDC Report Leave Out?
Per the dozens of presentations by Russian Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops chief Igor Kirillov on American military-biological activities in Ukraine, the CDC is one of a host of US government agencies including the US Department of Agriculture, the US Agency for International Development, plus Ivy League universities and Western pharmaceutical giants involved in shady, risky and potentially illegal research at biological facilities across Ukraine.
The RCBD Troops’ presentations, accompanied by hundreds of documents seized and publicized over the course of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, have revealed the presence of at least 46 biolabs in the Eastern European country engaged in research into an array of deadly pathogens.
To date, the RCBD Troops have revealed US military biological activities in Ukraine including:
Research into diseases designed to target flora, fauna and agriculture as a form of economic warfare against US adversaries.
The deliberate infection of Ukrainian servicemen with deadly pathogens to measure response and possible experimental treatments.
The deliberate infection of residents of Ukraine and the Donbass with viruses, including a multi-drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, and experiments involving Ukrainian nationals at a psychiatric hospital in Kharkov region.
The collection of blood serum samples from across Ukraine and its shipment abroad (to Germany and the US), and alleged work to create viruses which can target the Slavic genotype.
The Russian military has sounded the alarm about Ukraine’s growing antiviral resistance problem specifically on multiple occasions.
“A lack of therapeutic effect was revealed during the administration of antibacterial drugs. High concentrations of antibiotics, including sulfonamides and fluoroquinolones, were detected in the blood of Ukrainian military personnel,” RCBD Troops chief Kirillov said in a briefing in 2022.
“This fact may indicate the prophylactic use of antibiotics and the personnel’s preparation to perform tasks in conditions of biological infection,” he said. “For example, preparation for the causative agent of cholera, which indirectly confirms the Russian Defense Ministry’s information about plans to use biological agents by Ukrainian special forces.”
Now, as the problem of drug-resistant infections in Ukraine appears to be reaching critical mass and threatening America’s European allies, the CDC’s report could very well constitute an attempt to cover up its activities and blame Ukraine’s underfunded and “war-strained” health care system for a potentially explosive regional health crisis to come.
Arsip Foto - Gunung Merapi di perbatasan Provinsi Jawa Tengah dan Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta meluncurkan awan panas guguran pada Jumat malam (1/12/2023). (Dokumentasi BPPTKG)
Balai Penyelidikan dan Pengembangan Teknologi Kebencanaan Geologi (BPPTKG) melaporkan bahwa Gunung Merapi di perbatasan Provinsi Jawa Tengah dan Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta pada Jumat tujuh kali meluncurkan awan panas guguran dengan jarak luncur maksimum 3,5 kilometer ke arah Kali Krasak.
Menurut laporan BPPTKG, Gunung Merapi meluncurkan awan panas guguran selama 360 detik pada pukul 14.49 WIB, lalu kembali meluncurkan awan panas masing-masing selama 120 detik pada pukul 14.56 WIB dan pukul 14.59 WIB.
Gunung berapi itu selanjutnya meluncurkan awan panas guguran masing-masing selama 137 detik pada pukul 15.06 WIB dan pukul 15.09 WIB, lalu kembali meluncurkan awan panas pada pukul 15.32 WIB selama 106 detik dan pada pukul 15.32 WIB selama 123 detik.
"Masyarakat diimbau untuk menjauhi daerah bahaya yang direkomendasikan," kata Kepala BPPTKG Agus Budi Santoso dalam laporannya.
INFO BPPTKG: Terjadi Awanpanas Guguran di Gunung #Merapi tanggal 8 Desember 2023 Pukul 14.49, durasi 360 detik, amak 73 mm Pukul 14.56, durasi 120 detik, amak 75 mm Pukul 14.59, durasi 120 detik, amak 78 mm Pukul 15.06, durasi 137 detik, amak 69 mm pic.twitter.com/xd5x8d0gw4
Menurut laporan BPPTKG, Gunung Merapi selama periode pengamatan Jumat pukul 12.00 hingga 18.00 WIB juga mengalami delapan kali gempa awan panas guguran, 27 kali gempa guguran, tujuh kali gempa fase banyak, dan empat kali gempa vulkanik dangkal.
Agus menyampaikan adanya potensi bahaya berupa guguran lava dan awan panas dari Gunung Merapi di sektor selatan-barat daya yang meliputi Sungai Boyong (sejauh maksimal lima kilometer) serta Sungai Bedog, Krasak, dan Bebeng (sejauh maksimal tujuh kilometer).
INFO BPPTKG : Terjadi awanpanas guguran #Merapi tanggal 8 Desember 2023 pukul 14:46 WIB. Arah angin ke utara. Masyarakat untuk tidak beraktivitas di daerah potensi bahaya serta mengantisipasi gangguan akibat abu vulkanik. #merapisiaga#aktivitasmerapipic.twitter.com/vrwhgMXZW2
Potensi bahaya berupa guguran lava dan awan panas Gunung Merapi juga meliputi sektor tenggara yang mencakup Sungai Woro (sejauh maksimal tiga kilometer) dan Sungai Gendol (sejauh maksimal lima kilometer).
Menurut BPPTKG, apabila terjadi letusan eksplosif maka lontaran material vulkanik dari Gunung Merapi dapat menjangkau area dalam radius tiga kilometer dari puncak gunung.
BPPTKG mengimbau warga untuk mewaspadai gangguan akibat abu vulkanik Gunung Merapi serta bahaya lahar di daerah sekitar gunung api tersebut saat hujan turun.
Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Thursday said that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin threatened Congressmen that he would send 'your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia' if Ukraine aid is not approved. This revelation comes days after White House official John Kirby had said that 'American blood' will be the cost of supporting Volodymyr Zelenskyy if no money is sent to Kyiv.
Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Thursday said that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin threatened Congressmen that he would send ' your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia' if Ukraine aid is not approved. This revelation comes days after White House official John Kirby had said that 'American blood' will be the cost of supporting Volodymyr Zelenskyy if no money is sent to Kyiv.
"The Biden administration is openly threatening Americans over Ukraine. In a classified briefing in the House yesterday, defense secretary Lloyd Austin informed members that if they don’t appropriate more money for Zelensky, “we’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight Russia.” Pay the oligarchs or we’ll kill your kids," Carlson tweeted. However, his statement cannot be verified. Neither Austin, nor the Defense Department have reacted to the statement.
“He really said this?” X owner Elon Musk asked.
“He really did. Confirmed,” Carlson replied.
The Biden administration is openly threatening Americans over Ukraine. In a classified briefing in the House yesterday, defense secretary Lloyd Austin informed members that if they don’t appropriate more money for Zelensky, “we’ll send your uncles, cousins and sons to fight… pic.twitter.com/BPKMEBW8TK
Carlson once hosted the most popular evening talk show on cable TV when Fox News mysteriously chose to part ways with him in April. He has since speculated that its corporate owners “really didn’t like” some of his coverage that challenged official narratives. In May, he launched his own show on Musk’s platform in a format similar to his long-form interviews for Fox.
On Tuesday, his guest was Congressman Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican opposed to sending any more money to Ukraine – on account of the US being too heavily in debt.
“How could Washington possibly send tens of billions more to sleazy oligarchs in Ukraine now that the whole enterprise has been revealed as a fruitless, corrupt and incredibly destructive disaster?” Carlson wondered in the introduction to that interview.
The US Congress has approved over $120 billion worth of aid to Kiev since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022, in the form of weapons and ammunition coming from the Pentagon’s stockpiles as well as cash payments to the Ukrainian government.
That money has mostly run out at this point, and the White House has asked for $60 billion more – choosing to bundle it with aid for Israel, weapons for Taiwan and “border security.” Some Republicans in both the House and the Senate have refused to go along, however. GOP senators stormed out of their briefing on Wednesday and later voted against advancing the aid package.
Meanwhile, Republican chairs of the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Intelligence Committees in the House of Representatives have embraced the White House talking points in a memo aiming to persuade their party members to back the Ukraine funding bill, according to Axios.
Harvard, M.I.T. and the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday faced threats from donors, demands that their presidents resign and a congressional investigation as repercussions mounted over the universities’ responses to antisemitism on campus.
At Penn, university trustees discussed the future of Elizabeth Magill, its president, whose congressional testimony on Tuesday set off a furor when she dodged the question of whether she would discipline students for calling for the genocide of Jews.
Her answers and similar comments by Claudine Gay of Harvard and Sally Kornbluth of M.I.T. at a House committee meeting set off accusations that they were doing little to protect their own students. All three said they had taken action against antisemitism, but critics argued they had not done enough or were even fostering antisemitism on their campuses.
In response, a House committee opened an investigation into the three institutions as its chairwoman criticized the schools for failing to tackle the “rampant antisemitism” on their campuses after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Representative Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who leads the Committee on Education and the Workforce, said the inquiry would examine “the learning environments” at Harvard, M.I.T. and Penn, as well as disciplinary procedures. She warned that the panel would “not hesitate” to issue subpoenas.
“The disgusting targeting and harassment of Jewish students is not limited to these institutions, and other universities should expect investigations as well, as their litany of similar failures has not gone unnoticed,” Ms. Foxx said in a statement.
Tensions at America’s Colleges Over Israel-Hamas War
U.S. campuses have been roiled by confrontations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Under Investigation: The U.S. government has opened investigations into several schools, including Columbia, Cornell and Harvard, following complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
A Debate Over Speech: After a spate of antisemitic attacks, there seems to be little agreement over what kind of language is out of bounds on campus, which may help explain why schools are having difficulty tempering the anger.
Students for Justice in Palestine: The campus group, which champions the Palestinian cause, has fueled activism and protests across the country. But critics accuse the organization of intimidation and antisemitism.
Beyond Higher Education: Some public school educators in Oakland, Calif., presented pro-Palestinian lessons as part of an unauthorized teach-in. The school district opposed the event, and some Jewish groups condemned it.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said all three presidents should leave their posts. “You cannot call for the genocide of Jews, the genocide of any group of people, and not say that that’s harassment,” she told Fox News.
And Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, denounced the university leaders at the National Menorah Lighting in Washington.
“Seeing the presidents of some of our most elite universities literally unable to denounce calling for the genocide of Jews as antisemitic — that lack of moral clarity is simply unacceptable,” said Mr. Emhoff, who is Jewish.
For Ms. Magill, pressure has been building within Penn’s community, too. The advisory board at Wharton, Penn’s business school, told Ms. Magill in a letter this week that “the university requires new leadership with immediate effect.”
And the hedge fund manager Ross L. Stevens said that he would pull back a donation, worth approximately $100 million, to fund the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance.
“Absent a change in leadership and values at Penn in the very near future,” he plans to rescind shares in Stone Ridge Holdings Group, he said in an email to his staff on Thursday.
“Mr. Stevens and Stone Ridge are appalled by the university’s stance on antisemitism on campus,” lawyers for Mr. Stevens wrote in a separate letter to the university’s general counsel informing her of his decision.
Representative Elise Stefanik, Republican of New York, questioned the presidents at Tuesday’s hearing. Credit... Ken Cedeno/Reuters
During an emergency meeting by telephone on Thursday, Penn’s board of trustees did not take a vote on whether to remove Ms. Magill, who had apologized earlier for her testimony. Instead, they pressed Ms. Magill and other leaders to express the university’s values with greater clarity. University officials did not respond to requests for interviews.
Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, a nonvoting member of Penn’s board, said on Thursday evening that he had urged the board to decide whether Ms. Magill’s testimony reflected the university’s values.
“I expect they’ll be meeting again in the coming days, and I expect them to carefully weigh that question,” he said, speaking to reporters after a visit to Penn Hillel, a Jewish campus group. “That’s a question for them to answer, not me.”
He said that Jewish students at Hillel told him that they did not feel support from the administration. Some of them said they did not feel supported by their professors, either, he said.
At M.I.T., the governing board issued a strong endorsement of Dr. Kornbluth’s leadership.
“She has done excellent work in leading our community, including in addressing antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate,” the board said in a statement sent to all the university’s students, faculty and staff. “She has our full and unreserved support.”
Dr. Gay of Harvard issued a clarification on Wednesday: “Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”
But David Wolpe, a prominent rabbi, said the problems at Harvard ran deep and he resigned on Thursday from Harvard’s antisemitism advisory committee, formed after the Oct. 7 attack.
Rabbi Wolpe praised Dr. Gay as a “kind and thoughtful person,” in a social media post, and said most students were not prosecuting an ideological agenda. But he said that antisemitism was so entrenched that he did not think he could make the kind of difference he had hoped for.
“Part of the problem is a simple herd mentality — people screaming slogans whose meaning and implication they know nothing of, or not wishing to be disliked by taking an unpopular position,” he wrote.
Reporting was contributed by Annie Karni, Lauren Hirsch and Joel Wolfram. Kitty Bennett contributed research.
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The health ministry of Palestine said at least six Palestinians have been killed and many wounded in Israeli raids across occupied West Bank on Thursday night and Friday morning.
The Palestinian health ministry said the six people were killed in the deadly Israeli raid on the Far’a refugee camp.
Eyewitnesses told WAFA news agency that Israeli soldiers obstructed ambulances and prevented them from rescuing injured people for some time.
A reporter with the news agency said that Israeli soldiers infiltrated the camp early morning with snipers taking positions on rooftops of several buildings. Fighting between residents and Israeli soldiers followed, Al Jazeera reported.
The Israeli regime continues intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as health facilities and humanitarian aid efforts are crumbling due to intense fighting.
The UN Security Council is expected to discuss situation in Gaza on Friday as countries press for a ceasefire amid continued opposition from veto-holding US.
At least 17,177 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7.
A view of the street as the clash breaks out between Palestinians and Israeli forces following the raid, conducted by Israeli army, on Jenin refugee camp in Jenin, West Bank on December 5, 2023. (Photo by Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, says it thwarted a rescue attempt by Israeli forces this morning, which led to the death of a captured soldier.
The Qassam Brigades said it discovered Israeli forces trying to free one of its hostages, but it “clashed” with them, which led to the death of the captured soldier, Sa’ar Baruch.
“The military aircraft intervened and bombed the place with a series of raids to cover up the attack,” the brigade said.
They added that the attack led to the obtaining of an Israeli rifle and the special forces communication device.
Israeli military claim to have hit targets in Syria
The Israeli military announced that they had, overnight, struck what they described as an “armed terrorist cell” in the vicinity of the occupied Golan Heights.
They said they had also hit several targets in Syria in response to attacks on the occupied Golan Heights yesterday.
The Golan Heights is a 1,200 square kilometre (463 square miles) plateau in Syrian territory that was occupied by Israel in 1967 after capturing the area in the Six-Day War. It was annexed by Israel in 1981.
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Gaza death toll soars as Israeli offensive intensifies
A flare falls over Gaza as seen from southern Israel, December 7. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
A Palestinian boy carrying a baby stands at a site of Israeli strikes, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 4. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians wounded in Israeli strikes are rushed into Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip December 7. REUTERS/Bassam Massoud
A woman sits with children outside, as displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strike, shelter in a camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 6. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
An Israeli soldier looks on from a Merkava tank while operating in a location given as Gaza, in this image picture released December 7. via Israel Defense Forces
A Palestinian man carries the body of a child killed in Israeli strikes on houses, at Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 7. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
A Palestinian woman kneels near the body of a Palestinian person who was killed during Israeli strikes on Ma'an school east of Khan Younis, at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, December 5. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Palestinians inspect the damage in the house destroyed at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Rafah, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 7. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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