Areas
Monday 5 June 2023
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“Dollar domination is on the verge of collapse.”
U.S. dollar continues to dominate global markets, even as its still outsized share in global foreign exchange reserves has dropped in recent decades. -
"Funded by the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Central Reference Laboratory near Almaty, Kazakhstan's most populous metropolis, is researching lethal pathogens that could be used in bio-terrorist attacks like plague and cholera, according to media reports."
The lab, funded by the U.S., is researching lethal pathogens that could have dual-use purposes. The goal, however, is exactly the opposite: to study these dangerous pathogens and prevent them from being misused or becoming the next epidemic. -
“The deployment of any kind of nuclear weapons in Belarus is not only a violation of international commitments such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. It also violates our non-nuclear status under the Constitution...”
Belarus’ international obligations and its 1994 constitution prohibit deploying nuclear weapons on its territory. -
“There is no oppression at all. You have to visit this place if you want to find out the truth.”
China uses young vloggers to spread Communist Party propaganda and cover up state-directed crimes as part of its disinformation strategy, including on Tibet. -
“U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan ordered Ukraine to hit Crimea.”
Jake Sullivan did not order Ukraine to strike Crimea in his interview with CNN; he reaffirmed the U.S. position that Crimea is part of Ukraine. -
“To claim China [is] engaging in the so-called 'economic coercion' is no more than lodging trumped-up charges, and the accusation is totally untenable.”
Beijing is accelerating the use of economic coercion to pursue its foreign policy goals. -
“As repeatedly stated before, Iran's nuclear program has only peaceful purposes, and nuclear weapons have no place in the Iranian defense doctrine.”
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"The Abrams? Heh! A children's pedal car, your Abrams. Here’s the real power! An upgraded T-72! ... Surpasses foreign equipment in combat power, control, protection and ease of operation."
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“[M]any people in the current German administration have inherited Nazi genes. It is a fact.”
Despite Lavrov’s absurd rhetoric, there is no “Nazi gene” or Nazi regime in Ukraine. -
“Stand-up comedy is known as having a lot of satire, where a lot of people or events are joked about; however, these jokes must have limits, even in the US, the home of stand-up comedy. At the Academy Awards ceremony in 2022, when Will Smith heard stand-up comedian Chris Rock mock his wife's hair loss, Smith was so irritated that he went up on stage and slapped Rock in the face.”
The Will Smith-Chris Rock incident was personal and resolved without state involvement. That is drastically different from the consequences for Chinese comedian Li Haoshi, arrested and facing criminal charges due to the state censorship. -
“Twitter users ridiculed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's European tour.”
Russian news outlets based their reports about Twitter users ridiculing Zelenskyy’s European visit on six tweets, two of which are non-existing, while the other four came from shadowy accounts. -
“Many people may wonder why Japan won’t discharge the nuclear-contaminated water, which it claims to be safe and harmless, into Japan’s inland rivers or use it for agricultural and industrial purposes and instead insists on dumping it into the ocean? It is extremely irresponsible of Japan to selfishly put the world at risk.”
Scientific studies indicate that the release of diluted wastewater would have a negligible effect on the oceanic environment.