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☆ U.S. intel on China considering lethal aid for Putin's war was gleaned from Russian officials
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Courtney Kube | Carol E. Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Initial U.S. intelligence suggesting that China is considering supplying lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine was gleaned from Russian government officials, according to one current and one former U.S. official familiar with the intelligence. The multiple threads of intelligence suggesting that China is considering giving lethal aid to Russia, including ammunition and artillery, raised alarm among Biden administration officials, particularly given how such a move by Beijing could shift the dynamic of the war in Moscow's favor. Top administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Director Williams Burns, have publicly expressed confidence in the intelligence and warned China against providing Russia with lethal military aid. China has denied it is considering sending lethal aid to Russia, calling the U.S. accusation "disinformation." U.S. officials note that they have not seen any evidence of movement or a decision from China to take that step.

☆ A wave of suspected mass poisonings of schoolgirls in Iran remains shrouded in mystery
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Up to 900 Iranian school girls have been victims of suspected mass poisoning in recent months. Iran's president blamed the unexplained bouts of respiratory distress on the Islamic state's "enemies." Dozens more girls have been admitted to hospital with respiratory distress in the last few days, according to The Guardian. On Friday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi blamed the unexplained suspected school poisonings, which have happened in multiple locations, on the Islamic state's "enemies" but did not clarify who that was. The health minister has previously said that the culprits could be religious groups opposed to girls receiving an education, according to Reuters.

Ukraine recaptured swathes of territory in the second half of 2022 but its forces have been on the defensive for three months. It says the city has little strategic value but that the huge losses there could determine the course of the war. "Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Both sides say they have inflicted devastating losses in Bakhmut. The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible.

[1/4] Ukrainian service members prepare to shoot from a howitzer at a front line, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine March 2, 2023. It says it would be a stepping stone to capturing the surrounding Donbas region, a major war aim. "Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Both sides say they have inflicted devastating losses in Bakhmut. The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible.

In the past 24 hours Ukrainian forces have repelled more than 170 attacks in the five principal sectors of the front line, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said on YouTube on Thursday night. Ukraine says the city has limited strategic value but wants to exhaust Russian forces. In nearby towns and villages, new trenches had been dug on the roadside 20-40 metres (65-130 feet) apart, a sign that Ukrainian forces were strengthening defensive positions. Russia says its "special military operation" aims to degrade the Ukrainian military and remove what it says is a threat to its own security. The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov and Blinken spoke "on the move" for less than 10 minutes.

[1/4] A Ukrainian service member prepares to shoot from a howitzer at a front line, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine March 2, 2023. Russian forces have been attacking Bakhmut in Donetsk province for months, sometimes in waves and the site has become one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Ukraine says the city has limited strategic value but wants to exhaust Russian forces. Russian shelling hit Bakhmut and several nearby towns - including Chasiv Yar, the biggest town to the west - and two towns south of Bakhmut, it said. In central Zaporizhzhia region and in Kherson region on the southern front, Russian forces shelled more than 40 towns and villages, the Ukrainian military statement said.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said Russia had been hit by what he called a terrorist attack in its southern Bryansk region bordering Ukraine. Near the front lines west of Bakhmut, in the Ukrainian-held town of Chasiv Yar, the thump of outgoing artillery fire could be heard on Thursday morning. Ukraine says the city has limited strategic value but it is exhausting Russia's invasion force in what has become the bloodiest battle of the war. [1/5] Ukrainian service members ride a self-propelled howitzer, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukraine February 27, 2023. In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, Russian missiles crashed into a five-story apartment block overnight, collapsing upper floors.

☆ FBI director says China lab leak likely caused COVID pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday the agency has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, likely caused the COVID-19 pandemic. "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News. His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department has assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported. China's foreign ministry, asked to comment on the Wall Street Journal report, which was confirmed by other U.S. media, referred to a WHO-China report that pointed toward a natural origin for the pandemic, rather than a lab leak.

☆ China scoffs at FBI claim that Wuhan lab leak likely caused COVID pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - The FBI has assessed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic, director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday, a claim China said had "no credibility whatsoever". "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," Wray told Fox News. His comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had assessed with low confidence the pandemic resulted from an unintended lab leak in China. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that the pandemic was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided, the Journal reported. The virus was first identified in Wuhan in December 2019 before spreading round the world and killing nearly 7 million people.

☆ CIA director says Russia is offering to help Iran's advanced missile program in exchange for military aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

William Burns said Russia was likely offering Iran help with its missile program in exchange for military aid. Russia has been accused of using Iran-made drones on strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine. National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby said on Friday that US officials believe that Russia may be planning to give Iran military jets after Iran sent much-needed artillery rounds to Russia. While the US has sought to limit Iran's missile program through sanctions, it said in 2019 that Iran had managed to build the "largest missile force in the Middle East." The US and NATO have also said they see evidence that China may be planning to give Russia weapons.

☆ Wagner boss drops gruesome photo of war dead while blasting top Russian military leaders for getting them killed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who founded the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, shared a graphic photograph of dead Russian mercenaries earlier this week and criticized the country's military leadership for getting them killed. Prigozhin shared the gruesome image, which shows dozens of corpses placed in multiple rows on the ground, to his Telegram channel on Tuesday. Russia's defense ministry denied the claims and said any statements about munitions shortages are "absolutely untrue," Russian state media TASS reported. A pedestrian walks past a mural depicting the logo of the Russian mercenary 'Group Wagner' and a slogan in Russian on January 20, 2023 in Belgrade, Serbia. "Wagner is becoming a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries."

☆ Biden, after trip to Ukraine, in Poland to meet NATO allies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Nandita Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Biden will meet Polish President Andrzej Duda to discuss collective efforts to support Ukraine and thank Poland for helping the United States and other countries facilitate deliveries of military and humanitarian assistance. In the evening, Biden will give a speech on how the United States has helped rally the world to support Ukraine as the war enters its second year with no end in sight. Before leaving Warsaw for Washington on Wednesday, Biden will meet leaders of the Bucharest Nine, the eastern flank NATO allies, to reaffirm unwavering support for their security. A year ago, Biden warned skeptical allies that a massive buildup of Russian troops along Ukraine's borders was the precursor to war. Since the beginning of the war, the United States has sent more than $24 billion in security assistance to help Ukraine.

☆ 30,000 Wagner Group fighters have been killed or injured in Putin's invasion of Ukraine, says White House spokesman
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

More than 30,000 Wagner Group fighters have been killed or injured, according to US officials. John Kirby said that half of the Wagner fighters who perished in the war have died since mid-December. Kirby stated that, according to US intelligence, 90% of the Wagner Group soldiers killed in the last two and a half months were convicts. While the Wagner Group has made limited advances in Bakhmut, Kirby said this gain has come at a "devastating cost that is not sustainable." According to British intelligence, 40-60,000 Russian soldiers and Wagner Group fighters have been killed since February 2022.

☆ Four U.S. troops wounded in raid that killed Islamic State official
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIRUT/WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Four U.S. troops were wounded during a helicopter raid that killed an Islamic State group leader in northeast Syria, U.S. officials said on Friday. The U.S. military said the troops and a military working dog suffered the injuries when the target of the raid - identified as Hamza al-Homsi - triggered an explosion. Buccino said the raid was carried out with the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance led by Kurdish fighters that has waged a years-long campaign against Islamic State in the country's north. A separate raid also killed an Islamic State assassination cell leader, Buccino added, without going into detail. Islamic State named a new top leader in December after its former chief killed himself during a raid in southern Syria.

But U.S. and Canadian authorities also announced they had called off searches for three unidentified objects shot down over last weekend, without locating any debris. The last of the debris from the Chinese balloon, which was downed by a Sidewinder missile, is heading to an FBI laboratory in Virginia for analysis, the U.S. military's Northern Command said. Reuters was first to report the conclusion of the recovery efforts for the suspected Chinese spy balloon, which were halted on Thursday. Kirby said the United States had already learned a lot about the balloon by observing it as it flew over the United States. "We will maintain the perspective that we have in terms of what should be the relationship between China and the United States," she said.

☆ White House: Wagner Group has suffered over 30,000 casualties in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The Russian mercenary company Wagner Group has suffered more than 30,000 casualties since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, with about 9,000 of those fighters killed in action, the White House said on Friday. The United States estimates that 90% of Wagner group soldiers killed in Ukraine since December were convicts, White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a regular briefing. Half of the overall deaths occurred since mid-December, as fighting in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut intensified, an NSC spokesperson said, citing newly downgraded intelligence. Kirby told reporters that Wagner continued to rely heavily on convicts, who were sent to war with no training or equipment, despite recent comments from Wagner's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin that he had stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine. Reporting by Andrea Shalal, writing by Paul Grant; Editing by Kanishka Singh and Alistair BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. diplomatic communications with China remain open after the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon this month, but contact between the countries' militaries "unfortunately" remains shut down, the White House said on Friday. Kirby told a White House news briefing that U.S. and Chinese diplomats can still communicate despite tensions over the balloon incident. "I recognize that there are tensions, but Secretary Blinken still has an open line of communication with the foreign minister. "The president will want to have a conversation with President Xi at the appropriate time." "It needed to be shot down because we were confident that it was used by China to spy on American people," she told MSNBC.

WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. diplomatic communications with China remain open after the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon this month, but contact between the countries' militaries "unfortunately" remains shut down, the White House said on Friday. Kirby told a White House news briefing that U.S. and Chinese diplomats can still communicate despite tensions over the balloon incident. "I recognize that there are tensions, but Secretary Blinken still has an open line of communication with the foreign minister. He said he expected to speak with Chinese leader Xi about it and hoped to get to the bottom of the affair. "The president will want to have a conversation with President Xi at the appropriate time."

☆ Relax, those objects in the sky are probably just from one of the 90 countries and 10,000 companies that make up the nearly $1 trillion space economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US shot down three unidentified objects over the weekend, following the downing of a Chinese balloon earlier this month. The space economy was valued at nearly $500 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2030. Over the weekend, the US shot down three unidentified objects over Alaska, Canada, and Lake Huron. These entities, none of which have claimed ownership of the objects, include the 90 countries and roughly 10,000 companies currently involved in the global space industry. But on Monday, the White House said President Biden will establish a team to analyze unidentified objects in the US airspace.

☆ Russia's death toll in Ukraine could be as high as 60,000. Western intel says its forces are being ripped apart by artillery and not getting proper care.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Britain's defense ministry said Russian casualties in Ukraine could be as high as 200,000. They are being torn apart by artillery and not getting proper care, it added. Britain's defense ministry shared in a Friday intelligence update that Russian forces have likely suffered between 175,000 and 200,000 causalities on the battlefield. Britain's defense ministry said that between 40,000 and 60,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the fighting. The 200,000 casualty toll offered by Britain's defense ministry echos a similar estimate provided by a top US diplomat earlier this week.

☆ Joe Biden’s Unexplained UFO Silence
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Daniel Henninger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A half week after the U.S. government used fighter jets firing Sidewinder missiles to shoot down three “objects” over North America—an event with no precedent—and more than a week after the destruction of a large Chinese spy balloon, it’s obvious the Biden White House isn’t going to tell the American people what this is all about. On Tuesday, the White House’s national-security spokesman, John Kirby said the Alaska, Yukon and Lake Huron shootdowns really were about protecting civilian air traffic, notwithstanding that nothing like this fantastic statistical anomaly has happened in the days since.

☆ Biden aides briefed former Trump officials on the Chinese spy balloon intrusions the ex-president has claimed never happened
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Biden administration has briefed key former Trump administration officials on China's spy balloons. "It never happened with us under the Trump administration and if it did, we would have shot it down immediately," he said on Sunday. He referenced "recent balloon/"object" incidents," but nothing from the Trump administration. During a February 6 briefing, Kirby told reporters that the Chinese surveillance balloons transited US airspace "for brief periods of time" during the Trump administration. Biden officials reached out to key officials from the Trump administration to offer briefings on the forensics they did.

"We don't yet know what these three objects were, but nothing right now suggests that they were related to China's spy balloon program or that they surveillance vehicles from any other country," Biden said at the White House. "At the end of the day, their surveillance balloon was indeed in our airspace," she said. Less than a week after the spy balloon was destroyed, the first of three more objects was taken down in waters above the Arctic Ocean on Friday. The size of a small car and floating at 40,000 feet, this object was much smaller than the Chinese balloon. As of Thursday, the White House says it has recovered key surveillance technology from the Chinese balloon.

☆ Senator says U.S. should consider mandating transponders on high-altitude balloons
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Senator Mark Kelly says Congress should consider mandating transponders on high-altitude weather and research balloons to help the U.S. military differentiate between potential threats. The issue has drawn new attention in recent days after U.S. fighter jets shot down a Chinese balloon and three other objects. The United States has said the Chinese balloon was used for surveillance purposes while Beijing called it a weather balloon. Since an American fighter jet shot down the 200-foot Chinese balloon on Feb. 4, three other objects have been downed. The National Weather Service launches balloons at about 90 locations daily carrying an instrument tracked by specialized ground equipment.

☆ Biden plans speech on balloon, unidentified objects - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Steve Holland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden plans on Thursday to make his most extensive remarks yet about a high-altitude Chinese balloon and three other objects that were shot down by U.S. fighter jets, two sources familiar with the discussions said on Wednesday. Biden has been under pressure from lawmakers to speak more extensively about the spate of flyovers by unidentified objects, which have baffled many Americans. The United States has said the Chinese balloon was used for surveillance purposes, while Beijing called it a weather balloon. He said the United States still had no firm grasp on the origin of the three objects. Biden has asked national security adviser Jake Sullivan to preside over a task force of related agencies to come up with guidelines on how to address unidentified objects in future.

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