The American Heritage Dictionary “plagues”
1. A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
2. A virulent, infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (syn. Pasteurella pestis) and is transmitted primarily by the bite of fleas from an infected rodent, especially a rat. In humans it occurs in bubonic form, marked by lymph node enlargement, and in pneumonic form, marked by infection of the lungs, and can progress to septicemia.
3. A widespread affliction or calamity seen as divine retribution.
Important Takeaways:
- China reports a five-fold increase in Mpox cases; 96% patients are male
- As per a statement by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 96 per cent of the patients were male and reported sexual activity with another man.
- As per the Chinese CDC, while in June the cases stood at 106, in July, the count reached a high of 491. However, as per a Bloomberg report, there were no severe cases or deaths from the virus, that until recently was known as Monkeypox.
- In late July, the agency, as per the report, asked its local branches to improve access to tests and treatment, mobilize volunteers and social organizations to educate “priority groups” — vulnerable groups including men who have sex with men — about Mpox.
- The largest concentration of cases have been reported from Guangdong province and Beijing. However, last month, other areas have also reported quite a few cases. Shanghai and Western Sichuan province each reported 25 Mpox cases.
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Important Takeaways:
- Taiwan warns of surge in tensions as Chinese planes cross median line
- Taiwan’s defense ministry warned on Tuesday of a possible “sharp increase” in military tensions after reporting renewed Chinese military activity including fighter jets crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait.
- The ministry said that on Tuesday morning, it spotted 12 Chinese military aircraft in its air defense identification zone, of which seven crossed the median line – six J-10 fighters and a single drone.
- Five Chinese ships also carried out “combat readiness patrols”, the ministry said, without giving a location.
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Important Takeaways:
- The PLA, in recent months, has disclosed work on ChatGPT-like artificial intelligence systems in military writings, according to a report by a U.S. Air Force think tank highlighting China’s push to make its forces the first in the world to bring AI-powered systems to the battlefield.
- The Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute assessed in the report that the PLA is building AI weapons-related systems in seven main areas, including human-machine ties, rapid decision-making, network warfare, cognitive warfare, wartime logistics, space operations, and military training.
- The report, published under the title “China’s ChatGPT War,” was made public Monday by the institute, part of the Air University located at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
- The Biden administration recently restricted exports of advanced computer chips to China over concerns that the chips will assist China’s drive for AI-powered weapons.
- Cyberwarfare is another area of focus for China.
- According to the China Aerospace Studies Institute report, PLA authors wrote recently that AI will write code and carry out offensive cyberattacks.
- “Generative AI will be used by hackers to design, write and execute malicious code, build bots and websites to trick users into sharing their information and launch highly targeted social engineering scams and phishing campaigns,” the report said.
- The technology also aims to produce advanced “polymorphic” malware that can rapidly evade network security software, the report said.
- For PLA cognitive warfare, it said, PLA researchers believe “ChatGPT will raise the intensity of cognitive warfare to a whole new level.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Port call: China’s Navy scouting range of sites for future overseas bases
- China has fully militarized at least three islands it built in the disputed South China Sea and is now looking around the world to establish a network of naval bases to bolster its ability to project power and match the global reach of the U.S. Navy.
- Beijing’s first overseas naval base, situated in the small country of Djibouti on the Horn of Africa and operational since 2017, has given it a foothold in the Arabian Sea. National security experts are speculating about the next outpost.
- The most likely possibilities are Sri Lanka, where Beijing has made its largest overseas commercial port investment in the past decade, and Equatorial Guinea, which is strategically located on West Africa’s Atlantic coast and could put Chinese naval assets squarely in America’s backyard.
- John C. Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said in March 2022
- “I think over the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the largest military buildup since World War II by the PRC,” Adm. Aquilino said at the time, using China’s formal name. “They have advanced all their capabilities, and that buildup of weaponization is destabilizing to the region.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Xi Jinping wants to ‘hollow out Taiwan from within,’ ex-CIA official warns
- China’s ruling Communist Party is preparing for war over Taiwan, but President Xi Jinping would much rather take control of the U.S.-backed Island democracy without a military clash.
- His plan, for now, is to tilt the Taiwanese presidential election in January in Beijing’s favor.
- That’s the assessment of David Sauer, a former U.S. intelligence officer with deep experience in the region. He said China’s strategy is to “hollow out Taiwan from within” and “create chaos” around the election to seat a president who will push the island toward unification with the communist mainland.
- Beijing will expand its operation using “a combination of information warfare, military intimidation, political and economic manipulation,” he said during an appearance this week on “The Washington Brief,” a monthly virtual forum hosted by The Washington Times Foundation.
- Chinese propaganda will also “frame the election as a choice between peace and war.”
- In the wake of the election, China will assess whether to engage in military action or proceed with coercion tactics toward whatever Taiwanese government takes power, he said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Biblical flooding in Beijing after heaviest rain in 140 years
- Torrents of water gushed through streets in China as moisture from former Typhoon Doksuri triggered catastrophic flooding over the weekend and into the start of August.
- Doksuri made landfall last Friday in the Chinese province of Fujian, located roughly 1,000 miles (1,609 km) south of Beijing, and lost wind intensity over the weekend as it pushed inland. However, the tropical moisture fueled extreme rain across the country for days.
- More than 800,000 people were forced to relocate in and around Beijing after nearly 30 inches of rain triggered some of the worst flooding in the city’s history.
- At least 26 people have died due to the flooding. The death toll may continue to climb as officials assess the damage and as floodwaters gradually recede.
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Important Takeaways:
- WORLD WAR 3: Biden Administration Sends $345 Million in Weapons to Taiwan to Provoke China
- The Biden regime is sending $345 million in weapons to Taiwan as they look to create another proxy war against China similar to the proxy war they have set up in Ukraine with Russia.
- The U.S. made the announcement on Saturday. In response to the news, China has made it clear they will not be backing down.
- “No matter how much of the ordinary people’s taxpayer money the … Taiwanese separatist forces spend, no matter how many U.S. weapons, it will not shake our resolve to solve the Taiwan problem. Or shake our firm will to realize the reunification of our motherland,” said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China.
- “Their actions are turning Taiwan into a powder keg and ammunition depot, aggravating the threat of war in the Taiwan Strait,” they added.
- a Green Beret officer said…It looks like it will only be a matter of time until the U.S. is in a full-blown proxy war against China. May God have mercy on us all.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Japan raises alarm over China’s military, Russia ties and Taiwan tensions in new defense paper
- The Japanese government stepped up its alarm over Chinese assertiveness, warning in a report issued Friday that the country faces its worst security threats since World War II as it plans to implement a new strategy that calls for a major military buildup.
- The 2023 defense white paper, approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet, is the first since the government adopted a controversial new National Security Strategy in December, seen as a break from Japan’s postwar policy limiting the use of force to self-defense.
- China, Russia and North Korea contribute to “the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II,” according to the 510-page report. It says China’s external stance and military activities have become a “serious concern for Japan and the international community and present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge.”
- On Thursday, Russian and Chinese delegates joined North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in North Korea’s capital for a military parade that showed off the country’s latest drones and long-range nuclear-capable missiles.
- Russia and China have also stepped up strategic ties
- The report predicted that China will possess 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 and increase its military superiority over Taiwan, in what Japan views as a security threat, especially to its southwestern islands including Okinawa.
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Important Takeaways:
- China is helping Russia evade Western sanctions and likely providing Moscow with military and dual-use technology for use in Ukraine, according to an unclassified U.S. intelligence report released on Thursday.
- “The PRC is providing some dual-use technology that Moscow’s military uses to continue the war in Ukraine, despite an international cordon of sanctions and export controls,” the ODNI report said.
- It also said China has become “an even more critical partner” of Russia after Moscow invaded Ukraine last year.
- China has increased it importation of Russia energy exports, including oil and gas rerouted from Europe, the report said.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Expert warns US over China flashing military capabilities: ‘Ready’ for war
- With China flashing its military capabilities this past weekend, one foreign policy expert sounded the alarm on the Chinese Communist Party’s “fast” war preparations – and America’s lack thereof.
- “There’s only one president who can do something about it, and that’s the current one,” Gatestone Institute senior fellow Gordon Chang said on “Mornings with Maria” Monday. “And he’s not. He doesn’t have a sense of urgency, which means that the Pentagon doesn’t have a sense of urgency, and China does.”
- “We can argue all day about whether they will actually go to war or whether they’re bluffing,” he continued, “but the point is these guys in Beijing are ready to go to war – and we’re not.”
- Chang’s comments come on the heels of a flurry of Chinese warplane drills over Taiwan between Friday and Saturday. The Associated Press reported that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army sent 37 aircraft and seven navy vessels around the island, and 22 of the planes crossed the Taiwan Strait’s midline.
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