International Briefs

Lula Calls Bolsonaro an ‘Imbecile’ for Handling of Brazil’s COVID Crisis

On March 10, in his first public speech since being railroaded into prison, former Brazilian President Lula da Silva took the gloves off on current President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of COVID, calling him an “imbecile” and stated that “Many of these deaths could have been avoided,” referring to Brazil’s stunning 268,000 deaths—second only to the United States.

At the rally of metalworkers and other supporters, Lula continued, “This country is disorganized and falling apart, because it has no government.” He demanded “health, jobs and justice for Brazil.” Lula may run for President against Bolsonaro in the October 2022 elections, although some are calling for Bolsonaro to leave office immediately, due to his lax approach to COVID. Bolsonaro recently told Brazilians to “stop whining” about the pandemic.

According to Fiocruz, a respected biological sciences R&D center in Rio de Janeiro, the new P1 strain of the coronavirus that has emerged in Brazil, which is thought to be twice as infectious as the original strain, may also evade immunity built up by those who have had the original version of COVID, with a chance of reinfection estimated at between 25% and 60%.

China, Russia Sell Vaccines to Mexico, Biden Refuses

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted on March 11 that 3 million doses of CanSino Biologics vaccine had arrived at the Mexico City airport very early that morning. The Chinese pharmaceutical maker CanSino will be joined by Sinovac and Sinopharm, who will ship 10 million and 12.1 million doses, respectively, set to arrive in early April-June. “Eleven million more people vaccinated. Our gratitude to the Government of the People’s Republic of China for its decided and timely support,” Ebrard rejoiced.

The day before, a plane had arrived carrying the first 200,000 of another half-million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, the rest scheduled to arrive by the end of March. Whenever a shipment arrives, Ebrard posts a video clip of the large containers of vaccines rolling off the plane, received by himself or another high-level Foreign Ministry official, accompanied by a diplomat from the sending country.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador personally asked U.S. President Joe Biden if the United States would also help Mexico secure vaccines for its people, when they met on March 1. The White House Press Secretary repeated the next day: The answer is still “No.”

Kerry on Great Reset Tour, Targets China

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry arrived in Brussels March 9 to coordinate implementation of the fascist Great Reset/Green Deal policy. He met the entire EU Commission, after which they issued a joint statement. In her welcoming address, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she is delighted to have once again “a friend” in the White House, adding that man-made climate change caused the pandemic: “This pandemic also taught us that one of the breeding grounds for this pandemic is the loss of biodiversity and the complex world behind it.”

In an interview with the Leading European Newspaper Alliance (LENA), Kerry was joined by EU Commission Executive VP, Frans Timmermans, who is in charge of the EU Green Deal. Kerry targeted China: “It is in China’s full interest to participate, and therefore I hope that we can work with China to achieve that [the energy transition].”

Kerry, on behalf of the British climate mafia, said that “the market will lead the transformation in a phenomenal way in the next two to three years, believe me. In two or three years, the latecomers and climate deniers won’t have any place any more in our politics and our economies.”

Putin Insists Russia Will Develop Coal Industry, Citing Texas Crisis

Russia has no intention of committing suicide by submitting to the “Great Reset” hoax. On March 2, President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of government officials and the leaders of the coal regions and industries, pressing them on developing the coal-mining industry and increasing exports for revenue to improve living standards. He cited “the national coal industry [as] a key pillar of the national fuel and energy sector.” Putin also stressed that “Russia has been producing over 400 million tons of coal per year since 2017. Over 50% of this amount is exported elsewhere. Coal export volumes have soared by over 33% in the past eight years.… Today, the main coal sales are happening in the Asia-Pacific.”

While never saying “Great Reset,” or “climate hoax,” Putin clearly indicated the absurdity of the green agenda, referring to those who suggest “a significant market contraction … due to technological changes in the global fuel and energy sector, as well as the active use of alternative fuels.” He countered: “We also know what is happening with this: Texas froze because of the cold weather. And the windmills had to be thawed in ways that are far from environmentally friendly. Maybe this will also cause adjustments.”

China and Russia Sign MoU for Lunar Research Station

Dmitry Rogozin, chief of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos, and Zhang Keijan, Director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), this week signed a memorandum of mutual understanding on behalf of their governments, for cooperation in creating an international lunar research station. The Roscosmos/CNSA March 9 announcement was reported by TASS.

The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) is described as a comprehensive scientific experiment base, built on the lunar surface or in lunar orbit, that can carry out multi-disciplinary and multi-objective scientific research activities, including exploration and utilization, lunar-based observation, basic scientific experiment and technical verification, and long-term autonomous operation, SpaceNews correspondent Andrew Jones reported March 9.

According to a statement by CNSA, the two sides will uphold the principle of joint consultation, construction, and sharing, to push forward cooperation in the building of the international research station on the Moon. The project will also “be open to nations that are interested in the project as well as partners of the international community,” reported Global Times.

New York Times Claims U.S. in Cyberwar with Russia and China

The March 7 New York Times reported that the Biden Administration plans a “retaliatory,” large-scale but clandestine cyberattack on Russian computer systems within weeks, according to unnamed “officials.” But the article, “Preparing for Retaliation Against Russia, U.S. Confronts Hacking by China,” quotes National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other White House officials by name saying that China’s “main security directorate” made a major attack on 30,000 government and corporate computers in the United States last week, by exploiting a Microsoft email program vulnerability.

The NSC issued a statement that said, “The White House is undertaking a whole-of-government response to assess and address the impact” of the intrusion, under direction of Anne Neuberger, the Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies.

The planned cyberattack on Russian systems, however, is supposedly in response to Russia’s alleged attack on the SolarWinds company, for which Sullivan has been preparing a retaliation “from the first day of the new administration,” according to the Times.

If Sullivan and the NSC have been working on retaliatory cyberattacks on the other major powers since Inauguration Day, are these attacks which, in fact, were held back by President Donald Trump in his 2018 order to conduct “short-of-war” fights in cyberspace?

Study: Cut Emissions, Equivalent to Pandemic Lockdown, Every 2 Years

A study in Nature magazine claims that, in order to reach the 1.5°C temperature limit of the Paris Agreement, the world must accept emissions reductions equivalent to those of one pandemic lockdown every other year over the next 10 years.

The study’s lead author, Prof. Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia Environmental Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), told The Guardian March 3, “We need a cut in emissions of about the size of the fall [from the lockdowns] every two years, but by completely different methods,” indicating the Great Reset and its financial red-lining of all “unsustainable” high-energy investments.

The article and graphics show that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global CO₂ output of the world decreased by 2.6 gigatons in 2020, a 7% decrease from 2019 levels. EIR notes that this is an even greater decrease in CO₂ than resulted from Fed Chair Paul Volcker’s 20% interest rates of the 1980s.