News

“Overcapacity” and “dual-purpose trade” are catchphrases to hide the fact that Washington is getting trounced in the economy of the future

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in China on Wednesday to kick off a three-day trip. It is reported that he will speak with his Chinese counterpart and potentially with President Xi Jinping. As the New York Times reported, quoting officials privy to the visit, one of the main topics will be China’s alleged support of Russia, which includes the supposed sale of weapon components and dual-use products. It also comes at a time of increased tensions. 

Relations have shown a flicker of warmth since US President Joe Biden and Xi’s encounter at the 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco last year. However, this visit comes sandwiched between significant moves by the Biden administration. 

On the one hand, Biden recently signed off on a hefty military aid package for Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel, coupled with a divest-or-ban provision for the Chinese social media juggernaut, TikTok. On the other, a historic trilateral summit involving the US, Japan, and the Philippines hints at potential formal military collaborations down the road, with the US deploying medium-range missiles in the Philippines, a move with unmistakable implications for China.

Blinken’s trip also follows closely on the heels of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent visit to China, which coincided with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s presence in the country. Lavrov’s visit underscored the enduring bond between Russia and China, while Yellen’s seemed to foreshadow potential trade tensions over what Beijing perceives as baseless accusations of “overcapacity.”

Behind the diplomatic niceties lies a deeper agenda: the concerted effort by the US and some of its allies to curb China’s economic and technological ascent. This was laid bare when EU officials on Tuesday executed unannounced raids on the offices of a Chinese company in Poland and Denmark.

Read more US ‘shooting itself in the foot’ by arming Taiwan – Beijing

The European Commission said that its “unannounced inspections” are based on “indications that the inspected company may have received foreign subsidies that could distort the internal market pursuant to the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.” Despite this explanation, it appears the EU is mirroring Washington’s growing scrutiny of and hostility against Chinese firms. The EU’s alignment with the US on trade policy, particularly regarding China, signals a loose front aimed at constraining China’s global economic reach.

The issue of Russia is also another excuse to limit China. The bilateral partnership has been extraordinarily beneficial for both sides: their trade reached a record $240.1 billion in 2023, and Russia’s economy grew by 3.6% the same year despite Western sanctions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts Russia’s economy will grow faster than all advanced economies in 2024.

This is due in no small part to trade with China, the world’s second-largest economy, but it’s also due to the fact that many other large countries, such as Brazil and India, have not joined Western sanctions on Russia – they just aren’t trading in strategic sectors of the economy like China is. But even in those sectors, the US and its allies have never revealed evidence that Beijing is directly helping Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

What it’s really about was revealed in 2021 when US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated bluntly that “we (the US) need to work with Europe” to “slow down China’s rate of innovation.” Even during the administration of former President Donald Trump, the US was strong-arming European countries to implement bans on Huawei and attempting to bully others into signing public tenders with US companies over Chinese competitors.

Read more US would beat China in a war – intel official

The idea was that without the ability to compete globally, Chinese firms in the high-tech sphere would inevitably become less profitable and, thus, less innovative. But this is not the case, in fact. While Western countries attempt to control the narrative with accusations of unfair trade practices and military equipment sales, the reality is that Chinese firms continue to dominate global markets in crucial sectors like solar power, telecommunications, and electric vehicles.

They are simply implementing protectionist policies to prop up their own companies while failing to take concrete steps to actually compete in the market. But for Europe, it should be noted how one-sided this is. The continent is reliant on US tech; the EU’s GDP advantage has crumbled over the past decade-and-a-half since the 2008 financial crash; and it is becoming strategically compromised due to US influence and a lack of domestic innovation.

In essence, the diplomatic dance between Blinken and his Chinese counterparts encapsulates a broader struggle for supremacy in a rapidly evolving world order. Overcapacity is a myth; China has the best industrial base in the world and shouldn’t be ashamed of it. Accusations of assisting in war efforts – made even more absurd by America’s open support for Israel’s operation in Gaza, which has been credibly accused of genocide – are just noise. The US and its underlings are simply just getting beat in almost every meaningful sphere, which will make Antony Blinken’s job especially tough this week.

Purchases of Bibles or searches for “MAGA” and Trump were considered indicators of “extremism”

Republicans in the House of Representatives have sent letters to 13 financial institutions they suspect of colluding with the FBI and the Treasury Department to spy on Americans without a warrant in relation to the 2021 Capitol riot.

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump had stormed the legislature just as Republican lawmakers were starting to register objections to certifying the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. Democrats labeled the unrest as an “insurrection” and sought to arrest over 1,000 people involved in any way.

Some of these people were apparently targeted by financial institutions working with the FBI and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by the Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“The Committee and Select Subcommittee remain concerned about how and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans by weaponizing backdoor information sharing and casting sprawling classes of transactions, purchase behavior, and protected political or religious expression as potentially ‘suspicious’ or indicative of ‘extremism’,” said a letter from Jordan, which the Daily Mail obtained exclusively on Thursday.

Read more Apple and Google more dangerous than governments – Telegram founder

Jordan has pointed to evidence that the FBI and FinCEN instructed banks to look for purchases of Bibles or search terms such as “Trump” or “MAGA,” the acronym for the 45th president’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Congress was already investigating Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and Truist. Thursday’s letter was sent to Charles Schwab, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union. That makes 13 banks or financial institutions potentially involved in the dragnet.

Bank of America alone sent data on 211 individuals to the FBI and FinCen by January 17, 2021. However, its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) was sent after the federal agencies asked banks to look for “extremist” purchases. Four of the 211 were tagged for a follow-up and visited by FBI agents. None of them ended up being charged with anything.

Read more Trump pledges to release Capitol rioters

“This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government’s respect for Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties,” Jordan wrote in a separate letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, also obtained by the Daily Mail.

Since 2021, the FBI has targeted “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as well as parents who spoke up at school board meetings – on issues such as mask mandates or critical race theory – as potential domestic terrorists. Both programs were officially denounced after being revealed by whistleblowers.

Purchases of Bibles or searches for “MAGA” and Trump were considered indicators of “extremism”

Republicans in the House of Representatives have sent letters to 13 financial institutions they suspect of colluding with the FBI and the Treasury Department to spy on Americans without a warrant in relation to the 2021 Capitol riot.

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump had stormed the legislature just as Republican lawmakers were starting to register objections to certifying the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. Democrats labeled the unrest as an “insurrection” and sought to arrest over 1,000 people involved in any way.

Some of these people were apparently targeted by financial institutions working with the FBI and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by the Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“The Committee and Select Subcommittee remain concerned about how and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans by weaponizing backdoor information sharing and casting sprawling classes of transactions, purchase behavior, and protected political or religious expression as potentially ‘suspicious’ or indicative of ‘extremism’,” said a letter from Jordan, which the Daily Mail obtained exclusively on Thursday.

Read more Apple and Google more dangerous than governments – Telegram founder

Jordan has pointed to evidence that the FBI and FinCEN instructed banks to look for purchases of Bibles or search terms such as “Trump” or “MAGA,” the acronym for the 45th president’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Congress was already investigating Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and Truist. Thursday’s letter was sent to Charles Schwab, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union. That makes 13 banks or financial institutions potentially involved in the dragnet.

Bank of America alone sent data on 211 individuals to the FBI and FinCen by January 17, 2021. However, its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) was sent after the federal agencies asked banks to look for “extremist” purchases. Four of the 211 were tagged for a follow-up and visited by FBI agents. None of them ended up being charged with anything.

Read more Trump pledges to release Capitol rioters

“This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government’s respect for Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties,” Jordan wrote in a separate letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, also obtained by the Daily Mail.

Since 2021, the FBI has targeted “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as well as parents who spoke up at school board meetings – on issues such as mask mandates or critical race theory – as potential domestic terrorists. Both programs were officially denounced after being revealed by whistleblowers.

Purchases of Bibles or searches for “MAGA” and Trump were considered indicators of “extremism”

Republicans in the House of Representatives have sent letters to 13 financial institutions they suspect of colluding with the FBI and the Treasury Department to spy on Americans without a warrant in relation to the 2021 Capitol riot.

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump had stormed the legislature just as Republican lawmakers were starting to register objections to certifying the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. Democrats labeled the unrest as an “insurrection” and sought to arrest over 1,000 people involved in any way.

Some of these people were apparently targeted by financial institutions working with the FBI and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by the Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“The Committee and Select Subcommittee remain concerned about how and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans by weaponizing backdoor information sharing and casting sprawling classes of transactions, purchase behavior, and protected political or religious expression as potentially ‘suspicious’ or indicative of ‘extremism’,” said a letter from Jordan, which the Daily Mail obtained exclusively on Thursday.

Read more Apple and Google more dangerous than governments – Telegram founder

Jordan has pointed to evidence that the FBI and FinCEN instructed banks to look for purchases of Bibles or search terms such as “Trump” or “MAGA,” the acronym for the 45th president’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Congress was already investigating Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and Truist. Thursday’s letter was sent to Charles Schwab, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union. That makes 13 banks or financial institutions potentially involved in the dragnet.

Bank of America alone sent data on 211 individuals to the FBI and FinCen by January 17, 2021. However, its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) was sent after the federal agencies asked banks to look for “extremist” purchases. Four of the 211 were tagged for a follow-up and visited by FBI agents. None of them ended up being charged with anything.

Read more Trump pledges to release Capitol rioters

“This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government’s respect for Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties,” Jordan wrote in a separate letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, also obtained by the Daily Mail.

Since 2021, the FBI has targeted “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as well as parents who spoke up at school board meetings – on issues such as mask mandates or critical race theory – as potential domestic terrorists. Both programs were officially denounced after being revealed by whistleblowers.

Purchases of Bibles or searches for “MAGA” and Trump were considered indicators of “extremism”

Republicans in the House of Representatives have sent letters to 13 financial institutions they suspect of colluding with the FBI and the Treasury Department to spy on Americans without a warrant in relation to the 2021 Capitol riot.

Supporters of then-President Donald Trump had stormed the legislature just as Republican lawmakers were starting to register objections to certifying the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. Democrats labeled the unrest as an “insurrection” and sought to arrest over 1,000 people involved in any way.

Some of these people were apparently targeted by financial institutions working with the FBI and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), according to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by the Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“The Committee and Select Subcommittee remain concerned about how and to what extent federal law enforcement and financial institutions continue to spy on Americans by weaponizing backdoor information sharing and casting sprawling classes of transactions, purchase behavior, and protected political or religious expression as potentially ‘suspicious’ or indicative of ‘extremism’,” said a letter from Jordan, which the Daily Mail obtained exclusively on Thursday.

Read more Apple and Google more dangerous than governments – Telegram founder

Jordan has pointed to evidence that the FBI and FinCEN instructed banks to look for purchases of Bibles or search terms such as “Trump” or “MAGA,” the acronym for the 45th president’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Congress was already investigating Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and Truist. Thursday’s letter was sent to Charles Schwab, HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, PayPal, Santander, Standard Chartered and Western Union. That makes 13 banks or financial institutions potentially involved in the dragnet.

Bank of America alone sent data on 211 individuals to the FBI and FinCen by January 17, 2021. However, its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) was sent after the federal agencies asked banks to look for “extremist” purchases. Four of the 211 were tagged for a follow-up and visited by FBI agents. None of them ended up being charged with anything.

Read more Trump pledges to release Capitol rioters

“This kind of warrantless financial surveillance raises serious concerns about the federal government’s respect for Americans’ privacy and fundamental civil liberties,” Jordan wrote in a separate letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, also obtained by the Daily Mail.

Since 2021, the FBI has targeted “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as well as parents who spoke up at school board meetings – on issues such as mask mandates or critical race theory – as potential domestic terrorists. Both programs were officially denounced after being revealed by whistleblowers.

Pedro Sanchez says he needs a time-out as his wife faces inquiry over influence peddling

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has suspended public duties to “stop and reflect” on whether to remain in the job, after a court opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged illegal activities by his wife.

The prime minister issued a four-page letter on Wednesday, saying he was taking a five-day break from public duties and would announce his decision to stay or quit on Monday. Sanchez has been in office since 2018 and last year secured another term for his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as leader of a minority coalition government.

“I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?” the PM wrote, explaining the decision on what he called “unprecedented slander and harassment.”

The announcement came hours after Spanish media reported that a Madrid judge had launched a preliminary investigation into whether the PM’s wife, Begona Gomez, had used her government connections to further her private business interests.

Carta a la ciudadanía. pic.twitter.com/c2nFxTXQTK

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 24, 2024

The court did not give details of the accusations against Gomez other than to say it had begun investigating allegations of influence peddling and corruption on April 16.

Read more Spain to end golden visa program

The complaint against Gomez was raised by anti-corruption campaigners Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, who have taken part in a number of high-profile court cases in recent years. The platform is reportedly led by a man linked to the far right.

Manos Limpias put out a statement on Thursday acknowledging that its allegations might be false, because they were based on online newspaper reports. “If they are not true, it will be up to those that published them to take responsibility for the falsehood,” the platform claimed.

According to media reports, Madrid’s prosecuting authority on Thursday requested the dismissal of a corruption case against Gomez.

Sanchez said his wife would defend her honor and work with the judiciary to make clear there is no substance to the allegations against her.

Pedro Sanchez says he needs a time-out as his wife faces inquiry over influence peddling

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has suspended public duties to “stop and reflect” on whether to remain in the job, after a court opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged illegal activities by his wife.

The prime minister issued a four-page letter on Wednesday, saying he was taking a five-day break from public duties and would announce his decision to stay or quit on Monday. Sanchez has been in office since 2018 and last year secured another term for his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as leader of a minority coalition government.

“I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?” the PM wrote, explaining the decision on what he called “unprecedented slander and harassment.”

The announcement came hours after Spanish media reported that a Madrid judge had launched a preliminary investigation into whether the PM’s wife, Begona Gomez, had used her government connections to further her private business interests.

Carta a la ciudadanía. pic.twitter.com/c2nFxTXQTK

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 24, 2024

The court did not give details of the accusations against Gomez other than to say it had begun investigating allegations of influence peddling and corruption on April 16.

Read more Spain to end golden visa program

The complaint against Gomez was raised by anti-corruption campaigners Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, who have taken part in a number of high-profile court cases in recent years. The platform is reportedly led by a man linked to the far right.

Manos Limpias put out a statement on Thursday acknowledging that its allegations might be false, because they were based on online newspaper reports. “If they are not true, it will be up to those that published them to take responsibility for the falsehood,” the platform claimed.

According to media reports, Madrid’s prosecuting authority on Thursday requested the dismissal of a corruption case against Gomez.

Sanchez said his wife would defend her honor and work with the judiciary to make clear there is no substance to the allegations against her.

Pedro Sanchez says he needs a time-out as his wife faces inquiry over influence peddling

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has suspended public duties to “stop and reflect” on whether to remain in the job, after a court opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged illegal activities by his wife.

The prime minister issued a four-page letter on Wednesday, saying he was taking a five-day break from public duties and would announce his decision to stay or quit on Monday. Sanchez has been in office since 2018 and last year secured another term for his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as leader of a minority coalition government.

“I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?” the PM wrote, explaining the decision on what he called “unprecedented slander and harassment.”

The announcement came hours after Spanish media reported that a Madrid judge had launched a preliminary investigation into whether the PM’s wife, Begona Gomez, had used her government connections to further her private business interests.

Carta a la ciudadanía. pic.twitter.com/c2nFxTXQTK

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 24, 2024

The court did not give details of the accusations against Gomez other than to say it had begun investigating allegations of influence peddling and corruption on April 16.

Read more Spain to end golden visa program

The complaint against Gomez was raised by anti-corruption campaigners Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, who have taken part in a number of high-profile court cases in recent years. The platform is reportedly led by a man linked to the far right.

Manos Limpias put out a statement on Thursday acknowledging that its allegations might be false, because they were based on online newspaper reports. “If they are not true, it will be up to those that published them to take responsibility for the falsehood,” the platform claimed.

According to media reports, Madrid’s prosecuting authority on Thursday requested the dismissal of a corruption case against Gomez.

Sanchez said his wife would defend her honor and work with the judiciary to make clear there is no substance to the allegations against her.

Pedro Sanchez says he needs a time-out as his wife faces inquiry over influence peddling

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has suspended public duties to “stop and reflect” on whether to remain in the job, after a court opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged illegal activities by his wife.

The prime minister issued a four-page letter on Wednesday, saying he was taking a five-day break from public duties and would announce his decision to stay or quit on Monday. Sanchez has been in office since 2018 and last year secured another term for his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) as leader of a minority coalition government.

“I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?” the PM wrote, explaining the decision on what he called “unprecedented slander and harassment.”

The announcement came hours after Spanish media reported that a Madrid judge had launched a preliminary investigation into whether the PM’s wife, Begona Gomez, had used her government connections to further her private business interests.

Carta a la ciudadanía. pic.twitter.com/c2nFxTXQTK

— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 24, 2024

The court did not give details of the accusations against Gomez other than to say it had begun investigating allegations of influence peddling and corruption on April 16.

Read more Spain to end golden visa program

The complaint against Gomez was raised by anti-corruption campaigners Manos Limpias, or Clean Hands, who have taken part in a number of high-profile court cases in recent years. The platform is reportedly led by a man linked to the far right.

Manos Limpias put out a statement on Thursday acknowledging that its allegations might be false, because they were based on online newspaper reports. “If they are not true, it will be up to those that published them to take responsibility for the falsehood,” the platform claimed.

According to media reports, Madrid’s prosecuting authority on Thursday requested the dismissal of a corruption case against Gomez.

Sanchez said his wife would defend her honor and work with the judiciary to make clear there is no substance to the allegations against her.

Civilian oil platforms could be modified into supply depots and missile launchers

An American military contractor wants to repurpose unused oil rigs as mobile bases that would help resupply US Navy vessels in the Pacific and host missile launchers.

Gibbs & Cox, a naval architecture subsidiary of Leidos, presented the Mobile Defense/Depot Platform (MODEP) concept at the Sea Air Space 2024 exhibit in Washington, DC earlier this month.

“Our target here is to find a solution to help the challenging problem of having capacity issues in the Western Pacific. For not enough cells, not enough missiles, not enough of being able to keep those ships in the forward station,” Dave Zook, a solutions architect and combat systems department manager at Gibbs & Cox, told Naval News.

The MODEP concept refers to “a large floating island base” capable of positioning itself “at an ideal distance from shore” and independently operating for almost six months. It would be configured for either a supply function or missile launching.

The US Navy currently lacks the capability to reload its missile launchers at sea. The supply MODEP would solve this by having two cranes capable of lifting 100 tons each.

Read more US would beat China in a war – intel official

The missile base version could hold up to 512 Vertical Launch System (VLS) missile cells, or up to 100 new Large Missile Launchers (LML). The concept also “reduces risks and costs associated with land-based defense systems,” Leidos and Gibbs & Cox also said. Japan has considered using converted oil rigs as an alternative to its canceled Aegis Ashore missile defense program.

Both variants could travel at speeds of 5-8 knots to cover about 200 nautical miles a day and maintain stability even in waves up to 60 feet (20 meters) tall.

The concept calls for the MODEP to have a range of 4,000 nautical miles without refueling, generate between 6-20 megawatts of power, hold up to 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of fuel and host a maintenance and repair shop for warships.

The best part, according to Gibbs & Cox, is that there are up to six commercial oil rigs that could be converted to military use at a relatively low cost due to an “oversupply in the oil market.” The platforms could be ready within as little as two years, the company said.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Navy have officially commented on the proposal.

Civilian oil platforms could be modified into supply depots and missile launchers

An American military contractor wants to repurpose unused oil rigs as mobile bases that would help resupply US Navy vessels in the Pacific and host missile launchers.

Gibbs & Cox, a naval architecture subsidiary of Leidos, presented the Mobile Defense/Depot Platform (MODEP) concept at the Sea Air Space 2024 exhibit in Washington, DC earlier this month.

“Our target here is to find a solution to help the challenging problem of having capacity issues in the Western Pacific. For not enough cells, not enough missiles, not enough of being able to keep those ships in the forward station,” Dave Zook, a solutions architect and combat systems department manager at Gibbs & Cox, told Naval News.

The MODEP concept refers to “a large floating island base” capable of positioning itself “at an ideal distance from shore” and independently operating for almost six months. It would be configured for either a supply function or missile launching.

The US Navy currently lacks the capability to reload its missile launchers at sea. The supply MODEP would solve this by having two cranes capable of lifting 100 tons each.

Read more US would beat China in a war – intel official

The missile base version could hold up to 512 Vertical Launch System (VLS) missile cells, or up to 100 new Large Missile Launchers (LML). The concept also “reduces risks and costs associated with land-based defense systems,” Leidos and Gibbs & Cox also said. Japan has considered using converted oil rigs as an alternative to its canceled Aegis Ashore missile defense program.

Both variants could travel at speeds of 5-8 knots to cover about 200 nautical miles a day and maintain stability even in waves up to 60 feet (20 meters) tall.

The concept calls for the MODEP to have a range of 4,000 nautical miles without refueling, generate between 6-20 megawatts of power, hold up to 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of fuel and host a maintenance and repair shop for warships.

The best part, according to Gibbs & Cox, is that there are up to six commercial oil rigs that could be converted to military use at a relatively low cost due to an “oversupply in the oil market.” The platforms could be ready within as little as two years, the company said.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Navy have officially commented on the proposal.

Civilian oil platforms could be modified into supply depots and missile launchers

An American military contractor wants to repurpose unused oil rigs as mobile bases that would help resupply US Navy vessels in the Pacific and host missile launchers.

Gibbs & Cox, a naval architecture subsidiary of Leidos, presented the Mobile Defense/Depot Platform (MODEP) concept at the Sea Air Space 2024 exhibit in Washington, DC earlier this month.

“Our target here is to find a solution to help the challenging problem of having capacity issues in the Western Pacific. For not enough cells, not enough missiles, not enough of being able to keep those ships in the forward station,” Dave Zook, a solutions architect and combat systems department manager at Gibbs & Cox, told Naval News.

The MODEP concept refers to “a large floating island base” capable of positioning itself “at an ideal distance from shore” and independently operating for almost six months. It would be configured for either a supply function or missile launching.

The US Navy currently lacks the capability to reload its missile launchers at sea. The supply MODEP would solve this by having two cranes capable of lifting 100 tons each.

Read more US would beat China in a war – intel official

The missile base version could hold up to 512 Vertical Launch System (VLS) missile cells, or up to 100 new Large Missile Launchers (LML). The concept also “reduces risks and costs associated with land-based defense systems,” Leidos and Gibbs & Cox also said. Japan has considered using converted oil rigs as an alternative to its canceled Aegis Ashore missile defense program.

Both variants could travel at speeds of 5-8 knots to cover about 200 nautical miles a day and maintain stability even in waves up to 60 feet (20 meters) tall.

The concept calls for the MODEP to have a range of 4,000 nautical miles without refueling, generate between 6-20 megawatts of power, hold up to 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of fuel and host a maintenance and repair shop for warships.

The best part, according to Gibbs & Cox, is that there are up to six commercial oil rigs that could be converted to military use at a relatively low cost due to an “oversupply in the oil market.” The platforms could be ready within as little as two years, the company said.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Navy have officially commented on the proposal.

Civilian oil platforms could be modified into supply depots and missile launchers

An American military contractor wants to repurpose unused oil rigs as mobile bases that would help resupply US Navy vessels in the Pacific and host missile launchers.

Gibbs & Cox, a naval architecture subsidiary of Leidos, presented the Mobile Defense/Depot Platform (MODEP) concept at the Sea Air Space 2024 exhibit in Washington, DC earlier this month.

“Our target here is to find a solution to help the challenging problem of having capacity issues in the Western Pacific. For not enough cells, not enough missiles, not enough of being able to keep those ships in the forward station,” Dave Zook, a solutions architect and combat systems department manager at Gibbs & Cox, told Naval News.

The MODEP concept refers to “a large floating island base” capable of positioning itself “at an ideal distance from shore” and independently operating for almost six months. It would be configured for either a supply function or missile launching.

The US Navy currently lacks the capability to reload its missile launchers at sea. The supply MODEP would solve this by having two cranes capable of lifting 100 tons each.

Read more US would beat China in a war – intel official

The missile base version could hold up to 512 Vertical Launch System (VLS) missile cells, or up to 100 new Large Missile Launchers (LML). The concept also “reduces risks and costs associated with land-based defense systems,” Leidos and Gibbs & Cox also said. Japan has considered using converted oil rigs as an alternative to its canceled Aegis Ashore missile defense program.

Both variants could travel at speeds of 5-8 knots to cover about 200 nautical miles a day and maintain stability even in waves up to 60 feet (20 meters) tall.

The concept calls for the MODEP to have a range of 4,000 nautical miles without refueling, generate between 6-20 megawatts of power, hold up to 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of fuel and host a maintenance and repair shop for warships.

The best part, according to Gibbs & Cox, is that there are up to six commercial oil rigs that could be converted to military use at a relatively low cost due to an “oversupply in the oil market.” The platforms could be ready within as little as two years, the company said.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Navy have officially commented on the proposal.

The Israeli Prime Minister has denounced as anti-Semitic the growing surge of pro-Palestine protests at American universities

Pro-Palestinian protests sweeping across university campuses in the US are anti-Semitic and must be stopped, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, claiming that mobs have been attacking Jewish students and faculty members.

His comments come after US police arrested more than 80 protesters on Wednesday in a crackdown on the pro-Palestine demonstrations taking place at some 21 universities in states like Massachusetts, California and New York, among others.

The students have been demanding that the US government cease all funding for the Israeli military and “stop giving them any more money to continue this genocide,” referring to the ongoing Israeli offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza.

In a video published on his X account on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that the protests on America’s college campuses are “horrific” and claimed that “anti-Semitic mobs have taken over leading universities” and are calling for “the annihilation of Israel.”

Read more Dozens arrested at pro-Palestine protests in US (VIDEO)

“This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally,” the prime minister said, in an apparent reference to the Nazi Student League, which persecuted German students and university faculty members who were not of Aryan descent or were considered political opponents of the Nazi regime.

The Israeli leader also slammed what he called the “shameful” response of some university presidents to the protests. “More has to be done,” Netanyahu urged, saying there has been an “exponential rise of antisemitism throughout America and throughout Western societies.”

The Israeli leader also claimed the student protesters “want to kill Jews wherever they are” and are chanting slogans like “Death to the Jews.”

Earlier this week, Rabbi Elie Buechler urged Jewish students of New York’s prestigious Columbia University to stay home, claiming they were no longer safe amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests. That was after a group of Jewish counter-protesters on Sunday got into an altercation with demonstrators from a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on university grounds.

READ MORE: Rabbi tells Jews to leave prestigious American university

The White House has denounced any “calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community.”

Activists, however, have denied that the protests are anti-Semitic and say many Jewish students and organizations are involved in organizing the demonstrations. Hundreds of Columbia faculty members staged a walkout on Monday to criticize the university leadership and to express their solidarity with the protesters, after the university president called police to the campus.

History professor Christopher Brown branded the move as “unprecedented, unjustified, disproportionate, divisive and dangerous.”

A surge of demonstrations followed the deadly attack on Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas last October. The students are protesting Israel’s relentless retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, which has caused unprecedented destruction in the enclave and has left more than 34,000 dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Israeli Prime Minister has denounced as anti-Semitic the growing surge of pro-Palestine protests at American universities

Pro-Palestinian protests sweeping across university campuses in the US are anti-Semitic and must be stopped, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, claiming that mobs have been attacking Jewish students and faculty members.

His comments come after US police arrested more than 80 protesters on Wednesday in a crackdown on the pro-Palestine demonstrations taking place at some 21 universities in states like Massachusetts, California and New York, among others.

The students have been demanding that the US government cease all funding for the Israeli military and “stop giving them any more money to continue this genocide,” referring to the ongoing Israeli offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza.

In a video published on his X account on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that the protests on America’s college campuses are “horrific” and claimed that “anti-Semitic mobs have taken over leading universities” and are calling for “the annihilation of Israel.”

Read more Dozens arrested at pro-Palestine protests in US (VIDEO)

“This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally,” the prime minister said, in an apparent reference to the Nazi Student League, which persecuted German students and university faculty members who were not of Aryan descent or were considered political opponents of the Nazi regime.

The Israeli leader also slammed what he called the “shameful” response of some university presidents to the protests. “More has to be done,” Netanyahu urged, saying there has been an “exponential rise of antisemitism throughout America and throughout Western societies.”

The Israeli leader also claimed the student protesters “want to kill Jews wherever they are” and are chanting slogans like “Death to the Jews.”

Earlier this week, Rabbi Elie Buechler urged Jewish students of New York’s prestigious Columbia University to stay home, claiming they were no longer safe amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests. That was after a group of Jewish counter-protesters on Sunday got into an altercation with demonstrators from a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on university grounds.

READ MORE: Rabbi tells Jews to leave prestigious American university

The White House has denounced any “calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community.”

Activists, however, have denied that the protests are anti-Semitic and say many Jewish students and organizations are involved in organizing the demonstrations. Hundreds of Columbia faculty members staged a walkout on Monday to criticize the university leadership and to express their solidarity with the protesters, after the university president called police to the campus.

History professor Christopher Brown branded the move as “unprecedented, unjustified, disproportionate, divisive and dangerous.”

A surge of demonstrations followed the deadly attack on Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas last October. The students are protesting Israel’s relentless retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, which has caused unprecedented destruction in the enclave and has left more than 34,000 dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Israeli Prime Minister has denounced as anti-Semitic the growing surge of pro-Palestine protests at American universities

Pro-Palestinian protests sweeping across university campuses in the US are anti-Semitic and must be stopped, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, claiming that mobs have been attacking Jewish students and faculty members.

His comments come after US police arrested more than 80 protesters on Wednesday in a crackdown on the pro-Palestine demonstrations taking place at some 21 universities in states like Massachusetts, California and New York, among others.

The students have been demanding that the US government cease all funding for the Israeli military and “stop giving them any more money to continue this genocide,” referring to the ongoing Israeli offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza.

In a video published on his X account on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that the protests on America’s college campuses are “horrific” and claimed that “anti-Semitic mobs have taken over leading universities” and are calling for “the annihilation of Israel.”

Read more Dozens arrested at pro-Palestine protests in US (VIDEO)

“This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It’s unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally,” the prime minister said, in an apparent reference to the Nazi Student League, which persecuted German students and university faculty members who were not of Aryan descent or were considered political opponents of the Nazi regime.

The Israeli leader also slammed what he called the “shameful” response of some university presidents to the protests. “More has to be done,” Netanyahu urged, saying there has been an “exponential rise of antisemitism throughout America and throughout Western societies.”

The Israeli leader also claimed the student protesters “want to kill Jews wherever they are” and are chanting slogans like “Death to the Jews.”

Earlier this week, Rabbi Elie Buechler urged Jewish students of New York’s prestigious Columbia University to stay home, claiming they were no longer safe amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests. That was after a group of Jewish counter-protesters on Sunday got into an altercation with demonstrators from a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on university grounds.

READ MORE: Rabbi tells Jews to leave prestigious American university

The White House has denounced any “calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community.”

Activists, however, have denied that the protests are anti-Semitic and say many Jewish students and organizations are involved in organizing the demonstrations. Hundreds of Columbia faculty members staged a walkout on Monday to criticize the university leadership and to express their solidarity with the protesters, after the university president called police to the campus.

History professor Christopher Brown branded the move as “unprecedented, unjustified, disproportionate, divisive and dangerous.”

A surge of demonstrations followed the deadly attack on Israel by the Palestinian armed group Hamas last October. The students are protesting Israel’s relentless retaliatory bombardment of Gaza, which has caused unprecedented destruction in the enclave and has left more than 34,000 dead, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Environmentalist diehards reportedly manipulated experts’ conclusions to fit their own agenda

Top-ranking German government officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs intentionally falsified experts’ reports to make it look like nuclear power was no longer viable in the country, Cicero magazine reported on Thursday.

Citing internal documents and e-mails it obtained via a court order, the media outlet claims that long-time Green Party proponents of a nuclear phase-out in high positions swept reports under the rug, or altered them, if they ran counter to their ideological convictions.

Following the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, Germany’s parliament voted in favor of shutting down all similar facilities in the country. In April 2023, Germany’s last three operational nuclear power plants were taken offline.

In the article, Cicero claims that Patrick Graichen and Stefan Tidow, then-undersecretaries at the Economy and Environment ministries respectively, played a key role in the effort to portray the prolongation of German nuclear power plants’ operational life as dangerous.

Read more Germany spending billions to replace nuclear power

The two allegedly conspired to prevent their respective bosses from getting acquainted with any technical reports that refuted this assumption. According to the article, these documents dated March 2022 clearly pointed out that with starkly diminishing Russian gas imports, an “extension of the nuclear power plants’ operational life” could have alleviated the dire situation in Germany’s energy sector and prevented prices from skyrocketing in the coming winter.

However, the Green higher-ups, unhappy with this conclusion, allegedly rewrote the document, ramming home the message that any prolongation of the remaining nuclear power plants’ operation “is not tenable on technical-security grounds.”

Cicero claims that Economy Minister Robert Habeck most likely only saw the reworked version of the report, and not the original.

Faced with the threat of looming energy deficits, on October 17, Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered the remaining three nuclear power plants to remain operational throughout the winter, despite warnings coming out of the Economy and Environment ministries. However, as Cicero notes, the overall trend toward the total phasing out of nuclear power-generation has remained unchanged.

READ MORE: German industry ‘moving abroad’ – Bild

With energy prices on the rise, Germany’s prized industrial sector has found itself increasingly at a disadvantage, with one in three manufacturers considering moving production overseas as a result, Bild reported in February.

Environmentalist diehards reportedly manipulated experts’ conclusions to fit their own agenda

Top-ranking German government officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs intentionally falsified experts’ reports to make it look like nuclear power was no longer viable in the country, Cicero magazine reported on Thursday.

Citing internal documents and e-mails it obtained via a court order, the media outlet claims that long-time Green Party proponents of a nuclear phase-out in high positions swept reports under the rug, or altered them, if they ran counter to their ideological convictions.

Following the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, Germany’s parliament voted in favor of shutting down all similar facilities in the country. In April 2023, Germany’s last three operational nuclear power plants were taken offline.

In the article, Cicero claims that Patrick Graichen and Stefan Tidow, then-undersecretaries at the Economy and Environment ministries respectively, played a key role in the effort to portray the prolongation of German nuclear power plants’ operational life as dangerous.

Read more Germany spending billions to replace nuclear power

The two allegedly conspired to prevent their respective bosses from getting acquainted with any technical reports that refuted this assumption. According to the article, these documents dated March 2022 clearly pointed out that with starkly diminishing Russian gas imports, an “extension of the nuclear power plants’ operational life” could have alleviated the dire situation in Germany’s energy sector and prevented prices from skyrocketing in the coming winter.

However, the Green higher-ups, unhappy with this conclusion, allegedly rewrote the document, ramming home the message that any prolongation of the remaining nuclear power plants’ operation “is not tenable on technical-security grounds.”

Cicero claims that Economy Minister Robert Habeck most likely only saw the reworked version of the report, and not the original.

Faced with the threat of looming energy deficits, on October 17, Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered the remaining three nuclear power plants to remain operational throughout the winter, despite warnings coming out of the Economy and Environment ministries. However, as Cicero notes, the overall trend toward the total phasing out of nuclear power-generation has remained unchanged.

READ MORE: German industry ‘moving abroad’ – Bild

With energy prices on the rise, Germany’s prized industrial sector has found itself increasingly at a disadvantage, with one in three manufacturers considering moving production overseas as a result, Bild reported in February.

Environmentalist diehards reportedly manipulated experts’ conclusions to fit their own agenda

Top-ranking German government officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs intentionally falsified experts’ reports to make it look like nuclear power was no longer viable in the country, Cicero magazine reported on Thursday.

Citing internal documents and e-mails it obtained via a court order, the media outlet claims that long-time Green Party proponents of a nuclear phase-out in high positions swept reports under the rug, or altered them, if they ran counter to their ideological convictions.

Following the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011, Germany’s parliament voted in favor of shutting down all similar facilities in the country. In April 2023, Germany’s last three operational nuclear power plants were taken offline.

In the article, Cicero claims that Patrick Graichen and Stefan Tidow, then-undersecretaries at the Economy and Environment ministries respectively, played a key role in the effort to portray the prolongation of German nuclear power plants’ operational life as dangerous.

Read more Germany spending billions to replace nuclear power

The two allegedly conspired to prevent their respective bosses from getting acquainted with any technical reports that refuted this assumption. According to the article, these documents dated March 2022 clearly pointed out that with starkly diminishing Russian gas imports, an “extension of the nuclear power plants’ operational life” could have alleviated the dire situation in Germany’s energy sector and prevented prices from skyrocketing in the coming winter.

However, the Green higher-ups, unhappy with this conclusion, allegedly rewrote the document, ramming home the message that any prolongation of the remaining nuclear power plants’ operation “is not tenable on technical-security grounds.”

Cicero claims that Economy Minister Robert Habeck most likely only saw the reworked version of the report, and not the original.

Faced with the threat of looming energy deficits, on October 17, Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered the remaining three nuclear power plants to remain operational throughout the winter, despite warnings coming out of the Economy and Environment ministries. However, as Cicero notes, the overall trend toward the total phasing out of nuclear power-generation has remained unchanged.

READ MORE: German industry ‘moving abroad’ – Bild

With energy prices on the rise, Germany’s prized industrial sector has found itself increasingly at a disadvantage, with one in three manufacturers considering moving production overseas as a result, Bild reported in February.