U.S. Sends Aircraft Carriers as China Makes Waves in the Pacific.
11 June 2020
USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz deployed under a new ‘bubble of health’ plan to prevent coronavirus outbreaks…………...
The U.S. deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Pacific under new health procedures to guard against another coronavirus outbreak, as China’s military steps up its activity in the region.
The deployments of the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz boost the U.S. naval presence in an area marked by tension with China over territory.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said Tuesday that several Chinese jet fighters briefly crossed into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, an area adjacent to coastlines considered sensitive for national security.
Japan reported a return-trip by a Chinese aircraft carrier and its strike group of smaller military vessels through Japan’s southern island string for the first time in April, and tensions have also risen in the South China Sea.
The U.S. carrier deployments come after the USS Theodore Roosevelt was forced into port in Guam in late March after several crew members tested positive for the coronavirus, raising questions about U.S. military preparedness in the Pacific.
The outbreak eventually infected nearly 1,200 and killed one.
Rear Admiral George M. Wikoff, commander of the strike group led by USS Ronald Reagan, which departed from its home port of Yokosuka in Japan on Monday, said the Navy had learned to create a “bubble of health” from the experience of the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Crew members on the flotillas led by the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz, which left San Diego on Monday, were all tested twice for the coronavirus over a two-week quarantine period before embarkation.
The process identified some asymptomatic coronavirus carriers who were kept off the ships, according to a Navy official.
Among new procedures, crew who come down with a fever can call for medical staff without having to walk to the sick bay and potentially spread the virus, and can be isolated in designated areas on board.
Video messages on ships relay the importance of use of personal protective equipment, hygiene and encourage social distancing when possible.
“The bottom line is that the mission endures and doesn’t take a break for the virus,” Rear Admiral Wikoff said from the USS Ronald Reagan on a call with reporters.
“We continue to promote regional security with our partners and maintain a very high state of readiness,” he said, while declining to discuss specific areas of operation.
The outbreak on the USS Theodore Roosevelt spiralled into a crisis in the Navy after then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly fired the carrier’s commander, Captain Brett Crozier, after Captain Crozier wrote and distributed a memo calling for more decisive action by the Navy to evacuate the crew.
Mr. Modly resigned shortly afterward.
A study released Tuesday showed that more than a third of a sample of crew members from the USS Theodore Roosevelt had antibodies that could neutralise the new coronavirus, data that researchers said was a promising indicator of at least short-term immunity after infection.
Iran builds new mock-up of USS Nimitz for live-fire drills.
June 11, 2020
The fake US carrier [pictured above] built by Iran was seen by satellite at the port city of Bandar Abbas the site of Revolutionary Guards bases, not far from the area where the Guards unveiled 100 new speedboats in May.
The mock-up carrier carries 16 fake US fighter jets on its deck.
The Guards are clearly practising a confrontation with the largest vessel in the US Gulf fleet to be spearheaded by explosive speedboats.
Iran Close to Nuclear Weapons Breakout.
June 10, 2020
The Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in Iran.
Importantly, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has failed on several occasions accurately to detect Iran's nuclear activities.
For instance, in a November 2018 speech to the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke a story stating that Iran had a "secret atomic warehouse for storing massive amounts of equipment and material from Iran's secret nuclear weapons program."
Although Iranian leaders insisted that the nuclear warehouse was a carpet cleaning facility, traces of radioactive uranium were detected at the site; Israel's warning and other reports have proved accurate.
The Iranian regime is now comfortably violating all the restrictions of the nuclear deal it never signed, according to the latest report by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The ruling mullahs have increased their total stockpile of low-enriched uranium from 1,020.9 kilograms (1.1 tons) to 1,571.6 kilograms (1.73 tons), as of May 20, 2020.
This is approximately eight times more than what the regime was allowed to maintain under the misbegotten nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Tehran had been permitted to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds) according to the terms of the JCPOA, and enrich uranium up to 3.67%.
Iran is now enriching uranium up to the purity of 4.5% and possesses more heavy water than would have been permitted under the nuclear agreement.
Additionally, the mullahs still are not allowing the IAEA to inspect its sites, a long-term problem which, according to the recent report, has reportedly now raised "serious concerns" for the internationalinspectors.
In addition, despite the fact that Iran is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which it did sign, it has refused to allow the IAEA fully to inspect its sites, particularly to monitor Iran's military sites, where nuclear activities are most likely being carried out.
Are the US and the UN happy to keep sitting idly by while the ruling mullahs of Iran inch dangerously closer to a nuclear weapons breakout?
Shtayyeh: We Will Declare State on 1967 Lines if Israel Annexes West Bank…..
10 June 2020
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh [pictured above] said, "annexation is an existential threat to our future.”…….
If Israel annexes part of the West Bank on July 1, the Palestinian Authority will declare a Palestinian state based on the armistice lines from before the 1967 Six Day War and call on the international community to recognise it, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned on Tuesday.
Speaking to members of the foreign press from the prime minister’s office in Ramallah, he also said that he would expect the international front to impose sanctions on Israel if such a move was made.
“We are facing the moment of truth: nowhere on earth can we live with this annexation,” he threatened. “If Israel goes to annexation, it is a different day for us... Annexation is an existential threat to our future.”
There are four pillars of a Palestinian state: Gaza, Jerusalem, Areas A, B and C of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, Shtayyeh said.
Therefore, “annexation is the erosion of a future Palestinian state,” he said, “and the world has to choose between international law and annexation. I am sure the international community will choose international law.”
He described annexation as having a number of dimensions, and efforts to combat the move as broken down into two phases.
The first dimension of annexation was taken on April 20, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz signed an agreement that states the country has a right to annex West Bank land.
The agreement was based on support by the United States and its “Deal of the Century” peace plan, which US President Donald Trump rolled out at the end of January and allows for Israel to annex some 30% of the West Bank.
“When they were sworn into the Knesset, they announced they were going to annex, and at the first cabinet meeting they announced they were going to annex the Jordan Valley, specifically,” he recalled.
Shtayyeh claimed that already some small steps have been taken on the ground by Israelis in the Jordan Valley to prepare for annexation:
Israel started sending utility bills to residents in Arab villages in the Jordan Valley. In addition, the signage that used to indicate “Beyond this point is Palestinian” has been removed.
Developing – and soon!
Don Stewart's BREAKING NEWS 10 June 2020
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