French arms firm busts sanctions to help Russia build weapons


Wed, June 15, 2022


It was the BMD-4 with the Thales-made Catherine FC thermal imaging camera that took part in the shelling of Ukrainian civilian cars in Bucha.

I saw a post by volunteers on a social network, and together with my fellow lawyers we launched our own probe into the French manufacturer's involvement in Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.
Oleksandr Dubilet,
Chairman of the Board of CB "PrivatBank" (1997-2016), Financial and banking expert

So-called exemplary company

In France, Thales is not just a public company. There are three arguments to support this assertion.

1) The company specializes in the manufacture of systems for military, aerospace and maritime purposes


2) The company's shares are listed on the Paris Stock Exchange

3) It is not so much the private shareholder (the Dassault family with its 24.62% share) that is important, but the French government and its 25.67% share. Simply put, a company that is more than a quarter controlled by the French government, exports components that kill Ukrainians.

Thales

According to open sources, Thales supplied Catherine FC thermal imaging cameras to Russia, which were used to manufacture the Essa, Plissa and Sosna-U thermal sighting systems. They enhance the combat capabilities of modified Russian T-80, T-90, T-72 tanks and other military vehicles.

Conscious violators

After photo and video evidence of "fruitful" cooperation between Thales and Russia appeared on the Internet thanks to volunteers, my fellow lawyers and I have found real evidence that Thales supplied these combat components after the imposition of sanctions related to Russia's annexation of the Crimea.

Since this model of equipment was created in 2016, foreign manufacturers had to supply components at least a year earlier. Consequently, Thales sold military goods and technologies to Russia after the introduction of the first wave of sanctions (Council Regulation (EU) No. 833/2014 of July 31, 2014).

Catherine FC

Are these sanctions significant? Undoubtedly. In 2015, Thales failed to sign a $1.3 billion deal to supply two helicopter carriers to Russia. Instead, both ships were sold to Egypt.

I will also talk about a lesser-known episode of illegal but profitable cooperation between Thales and the aggressor state. The French company Sofradir, a subsidiary company of Thales, specializes in the manufacture of infrared detectors for military, space and commercial use.

According to NGO Disclose, in 2016, the company supplied 83 infrared detectors (S24) and 258 infrared detectors (S02) to Russia's CJSC TPK Linkos.

What is Linkos? According to the Arms of Russia information agency, Linkos specializes in the development and production of computers and communications equipment, optical, optical and electronic and microwave systems and complexes, night vision equipment and quantum electronics products.

In addition, Sofradir supplied 138 infrared detectors (S10) to JSC NPO GIPO, the Russian state institute of applied optics, which develops and manufactures optical and electronic systems. Since 2008, GIPO has been a part of the Rostekhnologii state corporation.

Mutually beneficial cooperation between this subsidiary of Thales and Russian military institutions is evidenced by two decisions (documents 1 and 2) of the 2016 Inter-ministerial Commission for the Study of Military Exports (CIEMMG) of France. According to the documents found by our team, French officials allowed Sofradir to supply military technology and goods despite the sanctions.

In 2019, Sofradir and Ulis merged and created a new company – Lynred. The well-known Thales is a 50% shareholder in Lynred.

The conclusion is simple: Sofradir actually misled the Inter-ministerial Commission by concluding an additional agreement "to fulfill the contract." The additional agreement extended the contract and aimed at circumventing sanctions for further supplies of military technology to Russia.

I and my colleagues found information that proves that Thales violated the sanctions in both the first (thermal imaging cameras) and the second (infrared detectors, through the subsidiary Sofradir) episodes, in the public domain (!). In my opinion, this illustrates the perception of sanctions very well. That is, the above French companies did not even bother to conceal evidence of their sanctions violations.

Demanding action

An EU Council decision bans the supply of dual-use goods and technology to Russia. However, you may be interested to know that this document has a loophole that reads as follows: the authorized state body may issue a license to supply such goods under contracts concluded before August 1, 2014.

And the French company Thales took full advantage of it, deliberately extending the old contracts through additional agreements and actually supplying military goods in 2015-2018.

My team of lawyers is working on each of two episodes of criminal cooperation between Thales and its subsidiary Sofradir with Russia. We have sent statements to the EU Council as the body that imposed the sanctions, as well as informing the law enforcement agencies, in particular, the French prosecutor's office. Our goal is to open criminal cases based on these statements.

Having revealed the corporate structure of Thales and identified the shareholders (in particular, the French government), we plan to address the shareholders of this company, French banks, secondary monitoring bodies and stock exchanges and demand that they take appropriate action against sanctions violators.

As in the case of our legal "hunt" for the Belgian company New Lachaussee, which supplied ammunition equipment for the Kalashnikov concern, the purpose of international lawsuits against Thales is to punish violators of sanctions and show the toxicity of any cooperation with the aggressor state.

At a time when Ukrainians are dying for European values, Europe must be completely on our side.

Patsy Mink, first woman of color elected to Congress, to be honored with portrait in US Capitol



Ryan General
Tue, June 14, 2022

The late Democratic legislator Patsy Mink (D, HI-2) will be honored for her historic work in Congress with the unveiling of her portrait in the U.S. Capitol later this month.

Mink became the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman in Congress after winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964. She was also the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii.

On June 23, Mink's portrait will be unveiled during a ceremony spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA-12). Her portrait will be part of a series that recognizes former members of Congress who made history.

She initially served to represent Hawaii's at-large congressional district from 1965 to 1977 and then the state’s second congressional district from 1990 until her death in 2002.

During her early years in Congress, Mink introduced important initiatives such as the first federal child-care bill under the Early Childhood Education Act and worked on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

Mink also authored the early legislative draft for Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bans sex discrimination in education — including sports — in federally funded programs. Following her death in 2002, the federal civil rights law was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in her honor.

Her last term in office was similarly focused on pushing for legislation with importance to women, children, immigrants and minorities.

In 2014, then-President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Mink with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“Every girl in Little League, every woman playing college sports and every parent, including Michelle and myself, who watches their daughter on a field or in the classroom, is forever grateful to the late Patsy Takemoto Mink,’’ Obama said during the awarding ceremony.

Rep. Judy Chu (D, CA-27), chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said they pushed for the unveiling of Mink’s portrait in Congress “so that everybody who walks down the halls of the Capitol can see that an Asian American woman was a prominent leader who influenced this country to be better.”

According to Chu, the portrait and a proposal to build a national museum of Asian Pacific American history and culture would allow for a better appreciation of the contributions of Asian Americans.

Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics in the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, also highlighted the significance of Mink’s portrait.

“It's important to showcase the Asian American leaders that have played a vital role in our country's culture and policymaking,’’ she said.

Featured Image via Women Make Movies

Marjorie Taylor Greene Argues Global Warming Is 'Actually Healthy For Us'

Josephine Harvey
Tue, June 14, 2022,

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) apparently believes in global warming ― but she’s not concerned, because in her opinion, it’s “actually healthy for us.”

“The temperature tracking is from the 1800s. We’ve already warmed 1 degree Celsius and do you know what’s happened since then?” the extremist Republican said during an appearance on the Right Side Broadcasting Network on Monday.

“We have had more food grown since then, which feeds people. We are able to producing fossil fuels, keeps people’s houses warm in the winter. That saves people’s lives, people die in the cold,” she said. “This earth warming, and carbon, is actually healthy for us. It helps feed people, it helps keep people alive.”

The comments came after RSBN host Brian Glenn complained that proponents of the Green New Deal want to “put all types of regulations on your vehicles and factories and things like that.” Greene advised him sarcastically that it’s because people think “carbon is bad.” She then attempted to refute that argument by explaining that plants need carbon to survive.

Greene, who is not a scientist and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, was right in saying the earth’s surface temperature has risen by roughly 1 degree Celsius since the pre-industrial era.

It’s widely accepted science that global warming been brought on by rising carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, which trap the sun’s heat when they rise into the atmosphere. Emissions have been driven by human industrialization.

The rise in temperature is driving an increase in extreme weather events, shifting temperature extremes, intensifying heavy rainfall, droughts and other damaging climate extremes that are negatively impacting crop production and threatening global food security.

Things like using energy to heat or cool your home, or for agricultural processes, generate carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, not the other way around.

And yes, as any school-age biology student could tell you, plants do use carbon dioxide. This underscores the urgency to protect and restore ecosystems like forests and grasslands to help remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

Greene has previously argued that the climate “just changes” of its own accord.

“How much taxes and how much money did the people back in the ice age spend to warm up the earth?” she asked at a town hall in March 2018. “Maybe perhaps we live on a ball that rotates around the sun, that flies through the universe, and maybe our climate just changes. And I don’t think a whole lot of spending is going to do anything about it.”

ROFLMAO
North Korean defector says she's 'terrified’ of son's socialist 'indoctrination' in US public schools


Jane Nam
Wed, June 15, 2022

North Korean defector and human rights activist Yeonmi Park, 28, criticized what she described to be a “massive indoctrination coming from the left” in U.S. public schools.

In an interview with Fox News on June 15, Park detailed how she escaped North Korea at age 13 and was held captive in China by human traffickers, but said she still finds herself “fighting for freedom even in America.”

She explained that her son was being educated to “think like [a] socialist” and taught that socialism is “a good, benevolent system.”

“I never knew I was going to be waking up at night terrified [of] being in America,” she shared.

Park stated that socialism was a “playbook” for dictators and the elite to keep all of the power.

“The definition of socialism means giving all of the power to the government. They decide the means of production, they decide every aspect of our lives. And that’s how they are artificially fixing the outcomes,” she said.

“I mean, it’s [Adolf] Hitler’s youth, Mao’s youth and Kim Il Sung’s youth. They always go for young children because they have [not] lived their life enough to… have critical thinking skills,” she continued.

“And… big kills [who] want to seize power from the people, they always mobilize the youth. And that is the truth that [worries me that], as a parent myself, that I cannot protect my child right now in America.”

Park has appeared on Fox News on several occasions. Last year, she appeared to warn viewers of the “Marxist” parallels between cancel culture and the Kim Jong Un regime.

Park will also reportedly be releasing a book in 2023 titled “While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector’s Search for Freedom in America,” which will explore some of what she claims are similarities between the U.S. and North Korea, including speech censorship and demonization of groups for what Fox describes as “the purpose of exploiting power.”

As a human rights activist, Park has been featured in several major news outlets including Time and The New York Times, sharing her experiences of starvation and oppression in North Korea.

Her bestselling book, “In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom,” was published in 2016 and has nearly 12,000 reviews on Amazon, with some reviewers describing it as “life-changing.”

STFU

New CNN Boss Wants Staff to Stop Calling Trump Claims ‘The Big Lie’ to Avoid Democratic Party ‘Branding’



Josh Dickey
Wed, June 15, 2022

New CNN honcho Chris Licht is acting on his promise to begin dialing down what he sees as the network’s partisan (left) bias, telling staffers in a conference call this week that he prefers they stop using the term “The Big Lie” when referring to Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, Mediaite reported Thursday.

Reason: The term adopts “branding” favored by the Democratic Party.

Licht expressed a “preference” for the adjustment after someone on a Tuesday conference call with management and producers asked his opinion on Trump’s “Big Lie,” Mediaite said – adding that staffers “have taken it as a clear directive from the new boss” nonetheless.

CNN and CNN staffers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday.

Also Read:
CNN ‘Partisan’ On-Air Talent Must Tone It Down Under New Boss – Or Else

Mediaite said Licht encouraged producers to instead use “Trump election lie” or “election lies” in chyrons and elsewhere. CNN staff is expected to gather Thursday for its first town hall since Licht took over at the end of February.

Mediaite spoke to one CNN staffer who said some staff were rankled by the perceived “Big Lie” directive, and speculated that it may be coming from a board member at newly merged parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. Licht has said since taking the job that he planned to return the network to its traditional “facts-first” footing after listing toward leftward commentary for years under ousted boss Jeff Zucker.

The term “The Big Lie” was coined by Adolf Hitler and adopted by Trump critics to describe the former President’s ongoing insistence that the 2020 election was stolen. Mediaite reported that CNN has used the term more than 10 times per day this month, citing the monitoring firm TVEyes.

Axios reported earlier this month that Licht has instructed everyone at CNN to “tone down” the divisive rhetoric – or face possible termination.

U.S. Senator likely would block passage of EV tax credits - Canada minister
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIBERALS AND DEMOCRATS

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) walks through the Senate Subway during a vote at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

Tue, June 14, 2022
By Steve Scherer

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's minister of natural resources on Tuesday said U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a key Democrat, would likely block the passage of tax credits that favor U.S.-manufactured electric vehicles (EVs) and are opposed by Ottawa.

Last year, many Democrats in Congress and President Joe Biden proposed boosting EV tax credits to up to $12,500 - including a $4,500 incentive for union-made, U.S.-assembled vehicles and $500 for U.S.-made batteries. The base $7,500 credit would be limited to only U.S. made vehicles starting in 2027.

But those provisions were part of larger infrastructure bill, dubbed "Build Back Better", which has not passed in Congress in large part due to Manchin's opposition.

"I had a long conversation with Senator Manchin... who is not supportive of the EV provision. He is obviously a critical vote if this (bill) comes to another vote," Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"While we are continuing to be vigilant and we are continuing to engage on the issue... my understanding is that (the EV tax incentives) may not move forward even if the bill does," he said.

Wilkinson met Manchin last month about two weeks after the senator questioned the need for EV tax credits at a hearing on April 28.

"There's a waiting list for EVs right now with the fuel price at $4 (per gallon). But they still want us to throw $5,000 or $7,000 or $12,000 credit to buy electric vehicles. It makes no sense to me whatsoever," Manchin said at the Senate hearing.

Manchin's office did not respond on Tuesday to a request for comment about whether he specifically objected to the U.S. production provisions, or if he opposed the entire tax credit expansion on grounds it was not needed.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters last week the White House was pushing Congress on EV tax credits but acknowledged the proposal's fate is uncertain. "Obviously there's discussions," Granholm said. "The president would certainly encourage his original proposal to be adopted."

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during a trip to Washington last year, directly lobbied Biden to drop the incentives, saying the measures threatened to undermine "50 years of integrated automaking in our two countries".

Canada, the European Union, Germany, Japan, Mexico, France, South Korea, Italy, and other countries wrote U.S. lawmakers last year saying the proposed EV tax credits would violate international trade rules, and Canada pledged to retaliate if they passed.

The pivot to EVs is important to Canada because it is trying to safeguard the future of its manufacturing heartland in Ontario - where major carmakers have long assembled combustion engine vehicles - as the world seeks to cut emissions by embracing EVs.

Canada and the United States want all sales of passenger vehicles to be zero emissions by 2035.

Since the U.S. legislation stalled last year, Canada has teamed up with industry, including General Motors, to retool assembly lines for EVs, and Stellantis, the parent of Jeep and Chrysler, to build an EV battery plant in Windsor in partnership with South Korea's LG Energy Solution.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer, additional reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

NEW YORK CITY RESTERAUNT REVIEW
An Eleven Madison Park worker earning $15 an hour at the $335-a-person restaurant says he was yelled at for scooping ice 'too loudly' in the silent kitchen — and threw away loads of food despite the swanky restaurant's green reputation


Sarah Jackson,Kate Taylor
Wed, June 15, 2022, 

The meal follows recipes by chef Daniel Humm.

Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Blancpain

New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park went vegan last year, but that choice has led to chaos, Insider's Kate Taylor reported Tuesday.

A junior prep cook who quit the restaurant in November says he was paid $15 an hour. The vegan tasting menu costs $335 a person.

The cook recounted a massive food waste problem and being yelled at for scooping ice "too loudly."

A former employee at acclaimed New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park says he was once chastised for scooping ice "too loudly" in the establishment's notoriously quiet kitchen and that the eatery had a massive food waste problem despite its outward efforts to be environmentally conscious.

From May until November, Chandler Yerves was a commis chef, or junior prep cook, at the upscale eatery, which was once crowned the best restaurant in the world. He recounted his exhausting tenure at the restaurant to Insider's Kate Taylor in a story published Tuesday.

"It was definitely a huge toll on my mental health," Yerves said. "It was definitely the most egotistical restaurant I've ever been in in my life."

World-renowned chef and Eleven Madison Park owner Daniel Humm announced last May that the New York restaurant would no longer serve meat and fish, becoming just the second restaurant with three Michelin stars to serve almost entirely plant-based food.

Yerves recounted a time he was sent out with a ruler onto the streets of New York and told not to return until he had enough 5-inch red peppers for the dish for the evening: fried peppers wrapped in Swiss chard. Two hours later, after visiting three or four Whole Foods stores, Yerves returned with the peppers, only to have half of them thrown away, he says, as part of what a former colleague called the restaurant's "farm to trash" pipeline.

Yerves said he was paid $15 an hour during his Eleven Madison Park tenure. Patrons ordering the vegan tasting menu could expect to pay $335 per person.

Yerves and another former worker said most of the vegetables used at the restaurant came from delivery services rather than farms or local markets and that staff regularly chucked produce that had even a slight imperfection, wasn't the right size, or went unused.

 MY AVATAR

The History of Godzilla (1954)  

#Godzilla #GodzillaHistory #Gojira Sources - Brian Solomon's "Godzilla FAQ" - David Kalat's, "A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series". - Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle's "Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa" - Steve Ryfle's "Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G".

The History and Evolution of Godzilla
Oct 11, 2017

Cynical Justin

Today, I go through the history of Godzilla and its evolution over more than half a century. This video discusses the origins of Godzilla, the Showa period, the Heisei period, the 1998 American Godzilla film, the Millennium period, the 2014 American Godzilla film, and the latest installment in the franchise, Shin Godzilla.

80 years after an unprecedented attack, Australia is having run-ins with another rival close to home

Benjamin Brimelow
Tue, June 14, 2022, 

A US Navy destroyer patrols by burning Allied warships after a Japanese air raid at Port Darwin, Australia, June 13, 1942.AP Photo

In May and June 1942, Japanese submarines attacked the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.

The attacks were an intense reminder of the war moving closer to Australian shores.

Eighty years later, another powerful adversary is making its presence known off Australia's coasts.

In the early hours of May 29, 1942, a reconnaissance plane launched from Japanese submarine I-21 was spotted over Sydney Harbor. Observers believed it was an Allied plane and didn't raise the alarm.

The plane was in fact doing a final reconnaissance of the harbor for four other Japanese submarines, I-22, I-24, I-27, and I-29, which had arrived off Australia's coast carrying three Type A Kō-hyōteki-class mini-submarines on their decks.

On the night of May 31, the mini-subs were launched toward the harbor, where they delivered a message to Australians about the war inching closer to their homes.

Eight decades later, tensions in the Pacific are rising once again, and the surprise attack on Allied ships in Sydney is a reminder of the proximity of the threat Australia now faces.

A tense time

The USS Lexington explodes after being bombed by Japanese planes during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

AP Photo

By May 1942, the war and its intensity were visible to Australians.

In December 1941, the Japanese dealt the British a devastating defeat by sinking the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse in the South China Sea.

In January 1942, Rabaul, in what is now Papua New Guinea, was captured by the Japanese, who turned it into a major base. February saw the Japanese capture Singapore and bomb the port city of Darwin in northern Australia. In early March, the Japanese captured the Dutch East Indies, which is now Indonesia.

Japan's advance was finally checked on May 8 at the Battle of the Coral Sea, which relieved some of the pressure on northern Australia, but Japanese air and submarine attacks were still a great threat.

Southern Australia was believed to be safer because it was far from the fighting, and early in the war Allied capital ships — such as battleships, cruisers, and aircraft carriers — tended to dock there, especially in Sydney Harbor.

USS Chicago in Sydney Harbour at the time of the attack by Japanese submarines, May 31, 1942.Australian War Memorial

At the time, Sydney was not optimally prepared for submarine attacks. There were no regular offshore sea or air patrols and the harbor's anti-submarine net was still under construction.

There were passive detection systems around the harbor entrance, but the Royal Australian Navy didn't have submarines or much experience hunting them, so its personnel didn't quite know what to listen for.

The Japanese Navy was keen to strike Sydney's target-filled harbor and decided to use mini-submarines rather than fleet submarines because their size increased their chances of getting in and out undetected. The cigar-shaped Type As were 78 feet long and 5 feet wide, had a crew of two, and were battery-powered. They were armed with two 770-pound torpedoes and carried scuttling charges.

Five Type As were used unsuccessfully at Pearl Harbor, but the Japanese believed that subsequent upgrades, including cages on the bow and conning tower designed to cut through anti-submarine nets, increased their likelihood of success.

Their targets were any Allied capital ships in Sydney Harbor, especially the heavy cruisers USS Chicago and HMAS Canberra, and the light cruiser HMAS Adelaide.

The raid

HMAS Kuttabul after the Japanese attack on Sydney Harbor in June 1942.

Australian War Memorial

The three subs were launched at 20-minute intervals on the evening of May 31.

The first sub, M-27, entered the mouth of the harbor around 8 p.m. but got stuck in the completed section of the anti-submarine net. It was then spotted and attacked by two Australian navy patrol boats. M-27's crew detonated the scuttling charges to avoid capture, sinking the sub and killing themselves.

The second sub, M-24, had more success. It entered the harbor undetected around 9:48 p.m. but was eventually discovered and fired on by USS Chicago, which had been alerted by M-27's attempt.

A Japanese two-man submarine is recovered from Sydney Harbour, June 1, 1942.

Ronald Noel Keam/Australian War Memorial

M-24 fired its torpedoes at Chicago, but both missed. One ran aground but the other hit a seawall and detonated under the ferry HMAS Kuttabul. The explosion sank the ferry, killed 19 Australian and two British sailors, and slightly damaged a nearby Dutch submarine.

M-24 was hit by machine gun fire as it left the harbor and sank 3 miles off the coast north of Sydney. (It remained undiscovered until 2006.)

The third sub, M-22, entered the harbor after midnight. It was detected and Australian patrol boats pounced before it could attack. The patrol boats crippled the sub in one of the harbor's bays, and both submariners shot themselves.

Governor-General Lord Gowrie inspects damage in Bellevue Hill, Sydney, after Japanese submarines shelled the city, June 9, 1942.

Fairfax Media via Getty Images

The five Japanese fleet submarines spent two nights waiting for the Type As to return. On June 3, they left to hunt merchant ships in the area, attacking seven, sinking three, and killing 50 sailors.

On June 8, I-24 and I-21 returned and surfaced near Sydney. They bombarded the city and nearby Newcastle for 20 minutes with their deck guns, firing some 44 rounds before disengaging when coastal artillery returned fire.

Almost none of the Japanese rounds detonated and there were no casualties, but the attack further frightened the cities' residents.

A new, growing threat

Chinese navy intelligence collection vessel Haiwangxing off of northwest Australia.

Australian Department of Defense

The attacks on Sydney and Newcastle are reminders that distance alone won't protect Australia, especially against an enemy with significant air and naval resources. That has renewed relevance amid Australia's deteriorating relationship with China.

Canberra's call for an independent review of the origins of COVID-19 in April 2020 prompted intense backlash from Beijing. Since then, China has frozen high-level contacts and imposed trade restrictions on Australian goods.

There is also longstanding concern about China's influence in Australian society, and the tensions became a major issue in recent elections.

The situation has been made worse by recent incidents with the Chinese military around Australia.

A Chinese navy Yuzhao-class amphibious transport dock in the Torres Strait north of Australia, February 18, 2022.

Australian government

On February 17, one of two Chinese warships sailing in the Arafura Sea between Australia and western New Guinea shined a laser at a Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon as it flew by on a patrol flight. Canberra condemned the Chinese crew's actions, calling it "a serious safety incident" with the "potential to endanger lives."

A military laser itself is not a weapon, but it is usually part of a weapon's fire-control system and is used to illuminate a target before firing. As such, lasing a ship or aircraft can be considered aggressive — the US has criticized China for similar actions in the past.

More recently, on May 13, Australia expressed concern about a Chinese intelligence-gathering vessel operating off its west coast, where it sailed by a secretive naval communications base. Peter Dutton, Australia's defense minister at the time, called it an "aggressive act" and said its intention was to "collect intelligence right along the coastline."

In recent years, amid rising tensions with Beijing, Australia has increased efforts to modernize its military and to strengthen its alliances with the US and others in the region — steps meant to counter a threat that will likely only grow in the years ahead.

Trump’s pick for Pa. governor says he sees ‘parallels’ to Hitler’s power grab in Capitol riot

Ryan J. Reilly
Tue, June 14, 2022, 

WASHINGTON — The Donald Trump-endorsed nominee for governor in Pennsylvania compared the Jan. 6 attack to historical events staged by the Nazis, saying that he saw "parallels" between the criticism of the Jan. 6 attack and the 1933 Reichstag fire, which Hitler used to seize more power.

Doug Mastriano was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator, has been subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee. He organized buses to D.C. that day, according to receipts his campaign's lawyer previously acknowledged turning over to the Jan. 6 committee. Video shows he was just feet away as rioters ripped down police barricades, but he has said he followed police lines “as they existed” and says he left the Capitol when it was “apparent that this was no longer a peaceful protest.”

His primary election victory last month has prompted a renewed look at his role on Jan. 6, including previously unpublished photos that show him in the back of a crowd that breached a police barricade.

He is also receiving increased attention about his comments about Jan. 6.

Last week, Mastriano live-streamed on Facebook as he was interviewed Friday for the podcast "The World According to Ben Stein."

Stein — a former Richard Nixon speechwriter who hosted the 1990s gameshow "Win Ben Stein's Money" and played an economics teacher in the 1986 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" — called the deadly Jan. 6 attack "a ridiculously trivial thing" on the podcast.

Stein said the country is getting "more and more into a dictatorship," and compared Jan. 6 to the 1933 fire on the Reichstag, the legislative branch in Berlin, that Hitler blamed on communists. The Nazis then used the fire as a pretext to suspend civil liberties and assume more power.

"The Nazis immediately seized upon it [the Reichstag fire] to impose emergency measures," Stein said. "I think something like this is happening with the Jan. 6 nonevent."

Stein called the riot a "ridiculously trivial thing."

“It was not an insurrection," he added. "It was not an attempt to take over the government. It was a demonstration by a group that felt frustration by the statistical impossibility of the vote having gone the way the Democrats said it did.”

Mastriano responded to Stein's comparison, saying he concurred with the comparison between Jan. 6 and the Reichstag fire.

“I agree with the political, with the historic analogy laid out there, so using something that was very suspicious in Berlin to advance their agenda, you know, the national socialists there," Mastriano said. "I do see parallels.”

Mastriano, who previously said that those who broke the law on Jan. 6 "must be prosecuted," said on Stein's podcast that law enforcement had taken "extreme, heavy-handed measures" in response to the attack.

"It's just really heartbreaking watching how quickly our country's falling down, and that we have people being publicly arrested for show to send a message," Mastriano said. "I think what we're seeing in America now makes McCarthy in the '50s look like an amateur."

A member of the online sleuths Sedition Hunters — individuals who have spent the past 17 months investigating the Jan. 6 attack and identifying hundreds of rioters to law enforcement — say they have found new photos of Mastriano on the Capitol grounds moments before the rioters breached a police barricade line on the eastern side of the U.S. Capitol. Minutes later, rioters smashed the window of a door leading into the Capitol rotunda, according to timelines the online sleuths have constructed using the videos, photos, press coverage and social media posts of the day.

Online sleuths have assisted the FBI in hundreds of Capitol riot investigations, successfully identifying rioters months before they are arrested.

NBC News has reviewed the videos and images used to construct the timelines and compared other images of Mastriano at the rally with those identified by the sleuths. In the images, Mastriano appears to be wearing the same scarf and hat and is in a consistent place in the crowd. In the series of images, Mastriano is accompanied by a woman who appears to be his wife, and Mastriano has publicly acknowledged that his wife was with him that day. He has never disputed his identification in previous images.

The images, shared with NBC News, appear to show Mastriano holding up his cellphone as rioters in the front of the mob face off with police at the Capitol steps. Reconstructed timelines and other videos filmed nearby show rioters would breach this police line within minutes, ripping away a crowd control rope line and rushing past officers up the stairs. The timelines and videos, including unedited versions, that show Mastriano in the crowd were reviewed by NBC News.

A man who appears to be Doug Mastriano takes photos or video with his cell phone on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (@MichaelCoudrey via Twitter)

Online sleuths also identified a video posted by "Stop the Steal" organizer Mike Coudrey on Jan. 6 that appears to show Mastriano taking photos or video with his cellphone as rioters face off with police on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Coudrey's tweet celebrated the mob, which he said "broke through 4 layers of security at the Capitol building.

Mastriano’s campaign did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment. Mastriano previously said that he “respected all police lines as I came upon them" and that he never stepped foot on the Capitol stairs. One of his campaign aides, Grant Clarkson, was near the front of the mob, NBC previously reported. There has been no evidence that Clarkson entered the Capitol that day and he has insisted he did not.

Mastriano is facing Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, in November.