Saudi Arabia Says $50 Billion Investments Agreed at China Summit
Fahad Abuljadayel, Abeer Abu Omar
1 minute
Xi Jinping meets and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the royal palace in Riyadh, Dec. 8.
Photographer: Yue Yuewei/Xinhua/AP
"About
$50 billion of investment agreements were signed during the China
summit held in Saudi Arabia last week, the kingdom’s investment minister
said, without giving details on the types of deals or countries
involved.
The pacts included both the private and public sectors,
Khalid Al Falih told Bloomberg on the sidelines of a conference Sunday
in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. He didn’t specify whether the figure also
reflected agreements involving other Arab nations whose leaders attended
too."
China releases first data from gamma-ray burst detection satellites
CGTN,China Global Television Network
2 minutes
"The Chinese Academy of Sciences releases the first batch of
scientific data produced by two satellites sent into space two years ago
to detect gamma-ray bursts, December 10, 2022. /CMG
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released the first batch
of scientific data produced by two satellites sent into space two years
ago to detect gamma-ray bursts on Saturday.
The satellites,
launched on December 10, 2020, are undertaking the Gravitational Wave
High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM)
mission.
Among the data published are detailed observations of 75
gamma-ray bursts from January 2021 to May 2022, which can contribute to
a multiband, multi-messenger study of the cosmic phenomena for global
astronomers.
The GECAM mission monitors high-energy celestial
phenomena such as gravitational-wave gamma-ray bursts, the high-energy
radiation of fast radio bursts, special gamma-ray bursts and magnetar
bursts. It also includes the study of neutron stars, black holes and
other compact objects and their merger processes.
The satellites
have also been designed to detect high-energy radiation phenomena in
space, such as solar flares, Earth gamma flashes and Earth electron
beams.
On October 9, 2022, a device mounted on the GECAM detected
the brightest gamma-ray burst ever known, according to the National
Space Science Center (NSSC) under the CAS.
The data was uploaded to the NSSC's website and is available to the public."
Oct 26, 2022 · The burst, dubbed GRB 221009A, went off about 2 billion light years away in the Sagitta constellation—one of the closest and most energetic ever ...
Oct 21, 2022 · On October 9, astronomers detected a bright blast of light more energetic than they had ever seen, reports Space.com's Tereza Pultarova.
US greenlights Ukrainian attacks inside Russia – The Times
3 - 4 minutes
Washington now reportedly believes such strikes are
less likely to trigger a direct clash between Moscow and NATO
"The US has quietly given Ukraine the go-ahead to
launch long-range strikes against targets inside Russian territory, The
Times reported on Friday, citing sources. The Pentagon has apparently
changed its stance on the matter as it has become less concerned that
such attacks could escalate the conflict.
According to a US defense source interviewed by the outlet, the Pentagon is now “not saying to Kiev, ‘Don’t strike the Russians [in Russia or Crimea].’
“We can’t tell them what to do. It’s up to them how they use their weapons,”
he said, adding that Washington only demands that Kiev conforms to
international law and the Geneva conventions when using US-supplied
weapons.
However, the Pentagon has revised the evaluation of
threats linked to the Ukraine conflict, particularly on whether
providing Kiev with arms might trigger a direct clash between NATO and
Russia, the report says.
“We’re still using the same escalatory calculations but the fear of escalation has changed since the beginning,” a US official told the outlet, arguing that the calculus had changed due to “brutality the Ukrainians are being subjected to by the Russians.”
Against this backdrop, Pentagon officials are now reportedly “seriously” considering Ukraine’s requests for long-range weapons that could be used for strikes deep inside Russia. “Nothing is off the table,” a senior US defense official told The Times.
Earlier
this month, Ukraine launched an attack on two Russian air bases in
Ryazan and Saratov regions, both several hundred kilometers from
Kiev-controlled territory, using a number of “Soviet-made” drones, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry. The raid “fatally injured” three service members, with another four being taken to hospital.
On Tuesday, following the attack, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Washington had “neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia.”
The
report comes as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba claimed on
Thursday that, while Washington and Kiev agree that Ukrainian forces
will not use US-supplied weapons to attack most Russian territory, this
does not apply to Crimea.
In September, Russian Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned the US that, should it provide Kiev
with long-range weapons, this would cross a “red line” and make America “a direct party to the conflict.”
MAJOR ESCALATION US gives Ukraine green light for drone warfare inside Russia. The
Pentagon has given a tacit endorsement of Ukraine's long-range attacks. . .
15 hours ago · The Pentagon has given a tacit endorsement of Ukraine's long-range attacks on targets inside Russia after President Putin's multiple missile ...
15 hours ago · The US has quietly given Ukraine the go-ahead to launch long-range strikes against targets inside Russian territory, The Times reported on ...
1 day ago · The Pentagon has given a tacit endorsement of Ukraine's long-range attacks on targets inside Russia after President Putin's multiple missile ...
4 days ago · The latest attacks fit a pattern of various Ukrainian military “successes” and more covert provocations designed to prolong and escalate the ...
‘Nazi’-inspired US prison guards, American ‘revolution’ and Ukraine conflict: Highlights from Viktor Bout’s RT interview
The Russian businessman described “inhuman”
conditions in US jails and ridiculed claims that he armed the Taliban
In
his first major interview since his release, Viktor Bout, whom the US
claimed was an arms dealer, spoke to RT on Saturday. Bout was returned
to Russia in a high-profile prisoner swap for basketball player Brittney
Griner on Thursday.
During the conversation, the businessman
revealed his techniques to stay sane while behind bars, spoke about the
conflict in Ukraine and on whether he believed the US might be on the
verge of an uprising.
The President believes that the former German leader's remarks justified Moscow's offensive in Ukraine
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has
said he is “disappointed” by former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s
recent comments regarding the Minsk agreements – the now defunct roadmap
for peace in Ukraine – which she admitted was a ruse to buy Ukraine
more time to build up its military.
“What can you say to that?”
Putin said during a press conference on Friday, adding that he was
shocked to hear such a confession from the former German leader, having
believed that Russia’s partners in Berlin “treated us with sincerity.”
The
Russian leader said Merkel’s remarks once again prove that launching a
military operation in Ukraine was the correct decision.
“As it turns out, nobody intended to fulfil any part of the Minsk agreements,”
Putin said, recalling that former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko
also recently admitted that he had no intention of adhering to the
documents when he signed them in 2014 and 2015.
“I thought the
other participants of this agreement were at least honest, but no, it
turns out they were also lying to us and only wanted to pump Ukraine
with weapons and get it prepared for a military conflict,” Putin said. “Apparently,
we got our bearings too late, to be honest. Maybe we should have
started all this [the military operation] earlier, but we just hoped
that we would be able to solve it within the framework of the Minsk
agreements.”
Vladimir Putin said Merkel’s admission raises an important question about trust. “Trust
is already almost at zero, but after such statements, how can we
possibly negotiate? About what? Can we make any agreements with anybody
and where are the guarantees?” Putin asked, while acknowledging that some sort of agreement will have to be reached eventually.
Putin’s
comments follow Angela Merkel’s interview with the newspaper Die Zeit
on Wednesday, in which she said the actual purpose of the 2014-2015
Minsk agreements was to stall for time and allow Kiev to build up its
military potential for a future confrontation with Russia.
Moscow
has expressed shock over the admission, with Russia’s Foreign Ministry
claiming that Merkel’s words are legitimate grounds for a tribunal.
The
Minsk agreements, brokered by Germany and France, were supposed to be a
roadmap for peace in the war-torn country, giving the regions of
Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state, whose
rule they rejected after the 2014 Maidan coup.
Russian has
explained that its current military offensive in Ukraine was largely
prompted by Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the accords."
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