For practically 30 years, Russia has been enabling China’s rise as a army energy. Russian weapons producers have provided the Individuals’s Liberation Military with missiles, helicopters and superior fighter jets to the tune of a median of $1.5bn a 12 months.
Now, the tide is popping. As reported by the Monetary Occasions this month, Russia has requested army help from China to take care of its invasion of Ukraine. In accordance with intelligence the US shared with allies, Russia requested provides together with surface-to-air missiles, drones, intelligence-related gear and armoured and logistics autos.
Arms commerce specialists mentioned that if these requests had been made after the beginning of the warfare, the procuring listing pointed to a army in dire want of primary assist. “Vehicles are one thing that Russia produces quite a lot of. In the event that they need to ask for that, that will inform you what unhealthy situation their armed forces are in,” mentioned Siemon Wezeman, an arms commerce specialist on the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute.
Each governments have denied that Moscow made a request for Chinese language help with army gear for its Ukraine warfare.
Such assist would mark a task reversal in China’s long-running defence commerce relationship with Russia, and one which analysts mentioned would spotlight a broader change already beneath means within the bilateral energy dynamics.
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Sipri’s arms transfers database, which tracks offers from 1950 to 2021, information scores of Russian weapons exports to China, with none going the opposite means. However China is clearly outgrowing its conventional reliance on Russian for provides of superior arms.
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China over the previous twenty years has more and more manufactured beneath licence defence merchandise it traditionally purchased from Russia. Such licensing offers helped China develop the flexibility to construct its personal frigates, plane carriers and superior fighters — and even their vastly advanced engines — as a substitute of counting on Russia suppliers.
Extra lately, China has shipped some arms elements to Russia.
If China meets Russia’s latest gear requests, it could be the primary time it has provided arms to Russia as army help, however not the primary it has executed in order “a part of regular military-technical co-operation”, mentioned Alexander Korolev, an skilled on the China-Russia safety relationship on the College of New South Wales in Sydney.
Vassily Kashin, a number one skilled on the Chinese language military-industrial advanced on the Russian Academy of Sciences, advised Russian media that China had exported a batch of Haval off-road autos for driving command personnel in addition to drone elements and naval engines.
Korolev mentioned Moscow was shopping for the naval engines for Russian coastguard ships and for its Buyan class missile corvettes from Henan Diesel Engine Trade Co to exchange MTU model engines made by Energy Methods, a German enterprise division of Rolls-Royce. In accordance with Waimaobang, a Chinese language exterior commerce database, marine energy plant producer Henan Diesel Engine Trade Co has accomplished greater than 300 transactions with Russian prospects.
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An internet announcement by a Chinese language firm buying and selling in diesel engines suggests such shipments began as early as 2017.
“Russia [has also been] taken with procuring manufacturing know-how of space-grade, radiation-resistant digital elements from the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Trade Company for Russian weapons,” Korolev mentioned.
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Different Russian analysts have identified that China is best positioned than Russia to provide some weapons as a result of its armed forces purchase bigger portions of refined objects comparable to naval ships, and it has a stronger manufacturing sector.
Nonetheless, defence specialists believed it was unlikely that the Russian authorities would enable the nation to develop depending on Chinese language arms provides.
“Russia has been very targeted on being self-reliant for weapons and there may be an virtually cultural resistance about treating China as an equal,” Wezeman mentioned. “They must overcome their pleasure.”
Previously, Russia sourced some elements for its weapons programs in Europe. However Moscow tried to get rid of any reliance on overseas suppliers from its military-industrial advanced after it was focused by western sanctions in 2014 over its annexation of Crimea and fomenting a proxy separatist warfare in jap Ukraine.
Throughout the identical interval, co-operation with China on army and dual-use programs elevated. “There are joint initiatives in satellite tv for pc navigation going again to 2015,” mentioned Korolev.
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China’s Beidou and Russia’s Glonass satellite tv for pc programs are anticipated to make use of the identical sign and the international locations plan to co-operate in creating functions. The joint satellite tv for pc communication system is believed to have the ability to compete with the US-backed Iridium community, Korolev mentioned.
However, pointing to the Russian army’s shortcomings in reconnaissance throughout their Ukraine marketing campaign, analysts mentioned business drones had been the most certainly merchandise China may usefully provide shortly.
“Small, super-short vary drones of the sort you should purchase in toy retailers may already assist them as a result of they’ll simply look across the nook and people are utilized by the People and Europeans by the lots of,” Wezeman mentioned.
He mentioned that it was possible that “ultimately” a drone produced in China however operated by the Russian army could be found in Ukraine.
“You can’t cover that as a result of ultimately, one will come down. What you’ll be able to cover on this case is Chinese language authorities involvement as a result of these are business merchandise that don’t want an export licence,” he mentioned.
187. The significant spike in the volume of negative sentiments toward Ms. Lively,
included notable spikes on approximately August 8 and 14, 2024, and continued to trend mostly negative
Net Volume of Positive and Negative Mentions of Blake Lively
June 14, 2024 – December 19, 2024
2
3
for the remainder of 2024:
4
5
4,000
2,000
6
0
7
-2,000
-4,000
8
-6,000
-8,000
10,000
10
12,000
11
12
5/Jul/24
14/Jun/24
21/Jun/24
28/Jun/24
12/Jul/24
188.
13
14
August 10, 2024.
189.
15
19/Jul/24
26/Jul/24
2/Aug/24
T
9/Aug/24
16/Aug/24
23/Aug/24
6/Sep/24
30/Aug/24
13/Sep/24
20/Sep/24
27/Sep/24
4/Oct/24
11/Oct/24
18/Oct/24
25/Oct/24
1/Nov/24
8/Nov/24
15/Nov/24
22/Nov/24
29/Nov/24
6/Dec/24
13/Dec/24
Indeed, as noted above, TAG itself noted a shift due to their efforts as early as
16
As of that date, the sentiment towards Ms. Lively turned toxic, with a sudden
increase in negative comments including hypersexual content and calls for Ms. Lively to “go fuck”
17 herself.55
18
19
20
20
190. Nearly decade-old interviews of Ms. Lively were surfaced, commenting on her
tone, her posture, her diction, her language. 5
56
21
22
23
24
24
25
26
27
28
55 @pocketsara, X post, https://x.com/pocketsara/status/1824146308707291152, (Aug. 15, 2024) (“Blake Lively is a cunt”)
@imtotallynotmol, X, Aug. 15, 2024 (“You’re a piece of shit, genuinely go fuck yourself”); FluffyPinkUnicorn VII, Reddit
post, https://www.reddit.com/r/DListedCommunity/comments/1escnuy/blake_lively_getting_criticized_over_press_tour/,
(Aug. 14, 2024) (“Bottled blonde + long legs + fake tits – (brains, judgement, & humility) = Blake Lively”); KettlebellFetish
Reddit
post,
(Aug.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DListed Community/comments/1escnuy/blake_lively_getting_criticized_over_press_tour/,
14, 2024) (“Even with the nose job, she’s such a butterface, great body, hair, but odd face and that body would be so easy to
dress, just a dream body, and nothing fits right, odd clashing colors, just tacky.”); Creative_Ad9660, Reddit_post,
https://www.reddit.com/r/DListed Community/comments/1escnuy/blake_lively_getting_criticized_over_press_tour/, (Aug.
15, 2024) (“Boobs Legsly”); @chick36351, X post, (Aug. 16, 2024) (“Well Blake I a bitch.. She always has been, nice to see
people realize it now… Also WAY too much plastic surgery..”); @Martin275227838, X post,
https://x.com/LizCrokin/status/1824618500431724917, (Aug. 17, 2024) (“@blakelively is a pedophile supporting bully . . .”);
@ZuperGoose, X post, (Aug. 17, 2024) (“Liz tag the bitch @blakelively Blake = pedo”); @myopinionmyfact, X post, (Aug.
22, 2024) (“…@blakelively YOU ARE SUCH A BITCH! What a horrible rude bitch you are. I cannot believe somebody
fucked u, made a kid with u, married u and now has to be stuck with your bitch ass. OMG LMAO I would run!”).
56 Beth Shilliday, Blake Lively Taking a Social Media Break After Being Labeled a ‘Mean Girl’ Amid ‘It Ends With Us’
Backlash, Yahoo Entertainment (Sept. 5, 2024, 8:04) https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/blake-lively-taking-social-media-
57
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
WhatsApp has prevailed against Israeli spyware maker NSO Group in a US lawsuit over NSO’s abuse of the messaging app to enable the infiltration of the phones of journalists, activists and dissidents with its Pegasus hacking tool.
A judge in the Northern District of California ruled on Friday that NSO breached hacking laws and the terms of its service agreement with WhatsApp by using the messaging platform to inject more than 1,000 devices with its Pegasus spyware.
The ruling in the civil case did not address the rights of the individuals whose phones had been hacked, but it hands a victory to technology groups seeking to prevent their platforms from being abused by groups targeting their users.
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It is also a win for Apple, Amazon and other tech giants that supported WhatsApp’s case.
“The court finds no merit in the arguments raised” by NSO Group, judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled. The summary judgment means an upcoming trial will cover only the question of damages, rather than whether NSO can be held liable for its actions.
“After five years of litigation, we’re grateful for today’s decision,” WhatsApp said. “NSO can no longer avoid accountability for their unlawful attacks on WhatsApp, journalists, human rights activists and civil society.”
NSO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pegasus can read encrypted messages stored on a phone, turn on its camera and microphone remotely and track its location. Its use has been tied to human rights abuses and the US Department of Commerce has blacklisted the Israeli company.
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The legal case was launched after a 2019 Financial Times report that coincided with WhatsApp’s discovery that its services had been hacked by NSO and Pegasus.
The ruling said NSO Group did not dispute that it “must have reverse-engineered and/or decompiled the WhatsApp software” in order to hack phones, but had raised the possibility that it did so before agreeing to WhatsApp’s terms of service.
However, the judge found, “common sense dictates that [NSO] must have first gained access” to the WhatsApp software and NSO had offered “no plausible explanation” for how it could have done so without agreeing to the terms of service. It ruled in favour of WhatsApp’s claim that NSO had violated federal and state hacking laws.
The judge also found that NSO had “repeatedly failed to produce relevant discovery”, including in relation to the Pegasus source code.
“This sets a precedent that will be cited for years to come,” said John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab who has investigated the use of Pegasus.
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“This is the most-watched case about mercenary spyware and everyone is going to take note. I predict this will have a chilling effect on other shady spyware companies’ efforts to enter the US market, and investors’ interest in backing their hacking,” he said.
Video shows scene outside mall after man drives car through store striking customers
Texas Department of Safety Sgt. Bryan Washko says a man drove into a Texas mall after a 19-mile police pursuit, striking four people before he was fatally shot by responding law enforcement officers.
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