We know what’s coming and we are prepared.
🇨🇳🇺🇸 Absolutely extraordinary paper by RAND, the main think tank of the US military-industrial complex, and another key sign that the U.S. deep state - despite all the chaos and noise - is shifting away from deterring China, towards accepting coexistence (it's literally what they recommend in the paper).
These are the 3 most important recommendations in the paper:
1. Rejecting the false belief that a victory is possible in the China-US rivalry and accepting the legitimacy of the Communist Party:
They write that the U.S. should "clarify U.S. objectives in the rivalry with language that explicitly rejects absolute versions of victory and accepts the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party."
They explain that it's necessary because victory is objectively impossible ("the effective destruction of the other is not a feasible option" ), rejecting it is imposed by hard realities and because continuing to try would be catastrophic (as it would "threaten [either side's] survival" ).
2. Accepting coexistence
They write that "each side [must] accept, in ways that are deeply ingrained and broadly shared among decision-making officials, that some degree of modus vivendi must necessarily be part of the relationship." They also write that "each side [must] accept the essential political legitimacy of the other."
3. On Taiwan, they recommend not only reassuring China that it can achieve its reunification objective but also using US leverage AGAINST Taiwan to prevent provocations
This is probably the most surprising aspect of the paper. They recommend that "the United States and China should exchange a mutual set of signals" where the US would make "statements that it does not support Taiwan independence, seek a permanent separation across the Straits, or oppose peaceful unification." They write that the US should be "creating the maximum incentive for Beijing to pursue gradual approaches to realizing its ultimate goal [i.e. reunification]."
More remarkably, they argue the US should "balance its commitments to Taiwan with leveraging its influence to ensure Taiwan's actions do not escalate tensions with China." The paper explicitly criticizes Taiwan's Lai Ching-te for statements asserting Taiwan is "sovereign" and says Washington should use its "potential leverage over Taiwan to limit its activities that upset the status quo" - essentially US leverage to pressure Taiwan into not provoking China.
When such a think tank as RAND makes recommendations this deferential to a strategic competitor, it's not out of kindness of heart, they're anything but peaceniks. It's because they realize that the material balance of power has dramatically shifted.
đź”— Arnaud Bertrand
🚨 GoFundMe caught creating over a million NGO pages and accepting donations without them knowing
“GoFundMe has taken upon itself to create nonprofit pages for 1.4 million 501c3 organizations using public IRS data along with information from trusted partners like the PayPal”
“GoFundMe has created nonprofit pages for more than 1 million charities using public data.”
The corruption taking place in America is beyond comprehension, and absolutely nobody ever goes to jail
Subscribe: Edward Snowden✅️ Private.
FAMILY: NY AG Letitia James’s family troubles keep growing, her 21-year-old grand-niece, an OnlyFans model, was arrested for lying about a felony record to buy a gun, and another niece is on the run.
🇪🇺⚔️🇷🇺 Brussels feels like a city preparing for war
Though it is outlandish even to type the words, Brussels the international capital—the home of the European Union and seat of the nato alliance—feels like a city bracing for combat. “Europe is in a fight,” declared Ursula von der Leyen.
To be sure, the old flaws of pan-European governance—vapid oratory, bureaucratic turf wars and expensive something-for-everyone compromises—persist. For all that, in the headquarters of the eu and of nato, very different institutions at opposite ends of the city, recent months have seen a stark change of mood.
Europeans “only start organising ourselves when we are threatened”, says an official. The threats are clear now. The most urgent involve three strongmen who view Europe with either disdain or hostility: Presidents Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Brussels has come to a grim realisation. War is raging on the European continent, in Ukraine, and none of those ...
A barrister has been accused by a judge of using “entirely fictitious” cases generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to support an asylum claim by migrants.
Chowdhury Rahman was criticised by the judge who said there was “overwhelming” evidence that he had used software like ChatGPT to prepare his legal research.
When the immigration barrister presented his submissions, he baffled the judge by citing cases that were “entirely fictitious”, “non-existent” or “wholly irrelevant”.
Mr Rahman was found not only to have used AI to prepare his work, but “failed thereafter to undertake any proper checks on the accuracy”, the tribunal was told.
Upper tribunal judge Mark Blundell said Mr Rahman tried to “hide” that he had used AI and “wasted” the tribunal’s time. He said he was now considering reporting Mr Rahman to the Bar Standards Board.
