IAEA experts have observed no mines or explosives on rooftops of Unit 3 & 4 reactor buildings and turbine halls at 🇺🇦 #ZNPP, after having been given access yesterday. Team continues to request to visit the roofs of the other 4 units, @rafaelmgrossi said. https://t.co/JqTnn3DAFA pic.twitter.com/Y9WlDab69K

— IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency ⚛️ (@iaeaorg) August 4, 2023

No one could have predicted this was another nonsensical hohol hoax.

A hohoax!

The Guardian:

The UN nuclear watchdog says it has found no explosives in areas of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine to which it had requested access a month earlier.

On 4 July, Russia and Ukraine accused each other of planning to stage an attack on Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, with the latter claiming “operational data” showed “explosive devices” had been placed on the roofs of two units.

…

A small IAEA team based at the plant sought to verify the accusations by inspecting areas of the site to which it had already been granted access. It issued updates in the ensuing weeks to say it had found no signs of explosives in those areas, except mines outside the perimeter that appeared to pose no danger to the plant’s safety.

Imagine being a living human person and reading these stories about the Ukraine and having been lied to dozens of times, and then believing the next obvious lie.

There are people like this, apparently.

I’ve never met one, but there is evidence that there are people who hear “Zelensky says Russia is going to blow up their own power plant” and think “wow, Russia sure is evil.”

Russian forces ensuring safe rotation of observers from International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Plant, during a 12 hour ceasefire. Ukraine is known for sabotaging all sorts of agreements, evacuations, ceasefire initiatives. Today, thankfully, all went well. pic.twitter.com/HnXVhix1s9

— Onegin (@Stan23387461) August 4, 2023

Russian missiles damaged the building of the Consulate General of China in Odesa, – official. Broken glass is visible from the entrance. China has not yet reacted to the damage. pic.twitter.com/cY4sDZz791

— Ukraine Front Lines (@EuromaidanPR) July 20, 2023

Chinese consulate building in Odesa damaged by russian rockets️

In 1999, NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. This led to the sentiment “爱国” (lit. Love ones country); bringing patriotism to the mainstream in China. Vice president Hu Jin Tao called the act…

— Maria Drutska 🇺🇦 (@maria_drutska) July 20, 2023

These false flags are getting increasingly goofy and desperate.

Frankly, I’m not really sure this is a false flag so much as it is just an attack on the Chinese. I mean, the Chinese know they did it. Of course, for international reasons, they have to blame Russia.

But the bigger story is buried in the lede: Russia is declaring that any ships sailing to the Ukraine through the Black Sea will be assumed to be carrying weapons.

Reuters:

Russia jolted world grain markets with an escalation in the Black Sea, mounting a third straight night of air strikes on Ukrainian ports and issuing a threat against Ukraine-bound vessels to which Kyiv responded in kind.

At least 27 civilians were reported hurt in the air strikes on the ports, which set buildings ablaze and damaged China’s consulate in Odesa.

The United States said Russia’s warning to ships indicated Moscow might attack vessels at sea following Moscow’s withdrawal this week from a U.N.-brokered deal to let Ukraine export grain. The signals that Russia was willing to use force to reimpose its blockade of one of the world’s biggest food exporters set global prices soaring.

Moscow says it will not participate in the year-old grain deal without better terms for its own food and fertiliser sales. The United Nations says Russia’s decision threatens food security for the world’s poorest people.

Kyiv is hoping to resume exports without Russia’s participation. But no ships have sailed from its ports since Moscow pulled out of the deal on Monday, and insurers have had doubts about whether to underwrite policies for trade in a war zone.

There is literally no way to know if they are carrying weapons.

They all have to be sunk.

Since quitting the deal, Moscow has rained missiles down nightly on Ukraine’s two biggest port cities, Odesa and Mykolaiv. Thursday’s strikes appeared to be the worst yet.

Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper posted an image online of China’s consulate building with broken windows. It is located in Odesa’s city centre just across railway tracks from the port.

“The aggressor is deliberately hitting the port infrastructure – administrative and residential buildings nearby were damaged, also the consulate of the People’s Republic of China. It shows the enemy does not pay attention to anything,” Kiper said on Telegram.

In Mykolaiv, firefighters battled a huge blaze at a pink stucco residential building, blasted into a ruin. Several other residential buildings there were also damaged.

Moscow has described the port attacks as revenge for a Ukrainian strike on Russia’s bridge to Crimea on Monday. It said on Thursday its retaliatory strikes were continuing and it had hit all its targets in Odesa and Mykolaiv.

In its most explicit threat yet, Russia’s military announced it would deem all ships heading for Ukrainian waters from Thursday morning to be potentially carrying weapons, and their flag countries as parties to the war on the Ukrainian side. It said it was declaring parts of the Black Sea to be unsafe.

I think this means they are going to blow them up.

Based.

Russian missiles damaged the building of the Consulate General of China in Odesa, – official. Broken glass is visible from the entrance. China has not yet reacted to the damage. pic.twitter.com/cY4sDZz791

— Ukraine Front Lines (@EuromaidanPR) July 20, 2023

Chinese consulate building in Odesa damaged by russian rockets️

In 1999, NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. This led to the sentiment “爱国” (lit. Love ones country); bringing patriotism to the mainstream in China. Vice president Hu Jin Tao called the act…

— Maria Drutska 🇺🇦 (@maria_drutska) July 20, 2023

These false flags are getting increasingly goofy and desperate.

Frankly, I’m not really sure this is a false flag so much as it is just an attack on the Chinese. I mean, the Chinese know they did it. Of course, for international reasons, they have to blame Russia.

But the bigger story is buried in the lede: Russia is declaring that any ships sailing to the Ukraine through the Black Sea will be assumed to be carrying weapons.

Reuters:

Russia jolted world grain markets with an escalation in the Black Sea, mounting a third straight night of air strikes on Ukrainian ports and issuing a threat against Ukraine-bound vessels to which Kyiv responded in kind.

At least 27 civilians were reported hurt in the air strikes on the ports, which set buildings ablaze and damaged China’s consulate in Odesa.

The United States said Russia’s warning to ships indicated Moscow might attack vessels at sea following Moscow’s withdrawal this week from a U.N.-brokered deal to let Ukraine export grain. The signals that Russia was willing to use force to reimpose its blockade of one of the world’s biggest food exporters set global prices soaring.

Moscow says it will not participate in the year-old grain deal without better terms for its own food and fertiliser sales. The United Nations says Russia’s decision threatens food security for the world’s poorest people.

Kyiv is hoping to resume exports without Russia’s participation. But no ships have sailed from its ports since Moscow pulled out of the deal on Monday, and insurers have had doubts about whether to underwrite policies for trade in a war zone.

There is literally no way to know if they are carrying weapons.

They all have to be sunk.

Since quitting the deal, Moscow has rained missiles down nightly on Ukraine’s two biggest port cities, Odesa and Mykolaiv. Thursday’s strikes appeared to be the worst yet.

Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper posted an image online of China’s consulate building with broken windows. It is located in Odesa’s city centre just across railway tracks from the port.

“The aggressor is deliberately hitting the port infrastructure – administrative and residential buildings nearby were damaged, also the consulate of the People’s Republic of China. It shows the enemy does not pay attention to anything,” Kiper said on Telegram.

In Mykolaiv, firefighters battled a huge blaze at a pink stucco residential building, blasted into a ruin. Several other residential buildings there were also damaged.

Moscow has described the port attacks as revenge for a Ukrainian strike on Russia’s bridge to Crimea on Monday. It said on Thursday its retaliatory strikes were continuing and it had hit all its targets in Odesa and Mykolaiv.

In its most explicit threat yet, Russia’s military announced it would deem all ships heading for Ukrainian waters from Thursday morning to be potentially carrying weapons, and their flag countries as parties to the war on the Ukrainian side. It said it was declaring parts of the Black Sea to be unsafe.

I think this means they are going to blow them up.

Based.

The story of what is happening with the Solomon Islands and Australia is very important, given that it reflects the context of the Ukraine conflict.

The Solomon Islands has ostensibly agreed to host a Chinese military base as part of a wider-ranging security pact with China. Australia is claiming that this is unacceptable, and that despite the fact that the Solomon Islands is a sovereign country, they have no right to host Chinese troops so near to the Australian border. The United States and the entire Western world have backed up Australia’s claim that they have a right to veto a military base on their maritime border.

Meanwhile in the Ukraine, the West is claiming that the government of the Ukraine has an absolute right to join NATO and put nuclear weapons on Russia’s border.

It’s a virtually identical situation in some ways – but the Ukraine situation is much more extreme. Firstly, let’s do a little map porn.

Solomon Islands is over a thousand miles from the shores of Australia.

Meanwhile, the Ukraine border is literally zero miles from the Russian border.

Just to put a little bit of perspective on this – NATO member Turkey is only a couple hundred nautical miles from the Russian border.

Possibly even more relevant: the distance between Russia and Poland – that is, the length of the Ukraine – is about half of the distance of Australia to the Solomon Islands.

The second major thing is: the Ukraine people president has literally said aloud that he wants to put NATO nukes on the Russian border. Western analysts admit that we probably would not have a conflict in the Ukraine if it were not for the speech Zelensky gave in Munich calling for nukes – on February 19, 2022.

From Putin's speech today. Zelensky speech at the Munich Security Conference probably sealed his fate. Whatever hesitations Putin may have had before Zelensky spoke were removed by Zelensky's suggestion that Ukraine might acquire nuclear weapons. https://t.co/VlbsPlzg7z pic.twitter.com/1yZKT9HTJI

— George Szamuely (@GeorgeSzamuely) March 16, 2022

Talking about a small naval base is a lot different than talking about nuclear weapons.

The third thing is this: China only started this deal to put a base on the Solomon Islands AFTER the US declared war on Russia in defense of their right to station missiles in the Ukraine.

The US war against Russia is a war against all non-aligned countries, having in it an implicit threat that anyone who dares go against the interests of Washington will face the wrath of the US war machine. After this attack, moves that could have previously been framed as aggressive – i.e., China putting a base in the Solomon Islands – are now clearly defensive.

Speaking of acts of war – the leader of the Solomon Islands is now saying he’s being threatened with invasion. Australia doesn’t seem to be denying this.

RT:

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged the Solomon Islands’ leader Manasseh Sogavare to remain “calm” after he said his country was being “threatened with invasion” over a security pact it signed with China.

“We need to be calm and composed when we deal with these issues,” Morrison said on Thursday, insisting the relationship between Australia and the Solomon Islands remained friendly even while acknowledging he was concerned over “security” in the region following Sogavare’s decision to sign the “secret arrangement” with China.

Sogavare has criticized both the US and Australia’s response to the security pact his island recently inked with Beijing, insisting there is “nothing to be concerned about” and that the island nation is “insulted” by the West’s response to the move. 

“We are being treated as kindergarten students walking around with Colt 45s in our hands” who “need to be supervised,” Sogavare complained, insisting his country was being “threatened with invasion” over the controversial pact and that Australia’s response demonstrated a “lack of trust.”

Sogavare said on Tuesday that there had been a “warning of military intervention” in the Solomon Islands if other countries’ security goals were undermined. “We are threatened with invasion,” he warned. “Now, that is serious.” 

That is very serious.

Morrison insisted that Australia remained Honiara’s “primary security partner,” and that his country trusted the island nation as an equal.

No final version of the pact between the island nation and China has yet been published, though a draft leaked in March mentioned Chinese warships were to be given safe harbor in the islands.

Morrison had previously warned that a Chinese military base in the Solomon Islands would be considered a “red line” for Canberra, though he did not explain what he would do to prevent it, or how.

Well, apparently what he would do is send the United States to menace and threaten these peaceful island folk.

This Solomon Islands conflict gives the lie to the entire fake war in the Ukraine. The West is claiming outright that it is very serious concern if someone puts a military base near someone else’s borders, even if the context is much less extreme than a NATO move into the Ukraine.

So there is no underlying principle of “absolute sovereignty for every nation, including military bases” here. I think we already knew that from the Cuban Missile Crisis – but apparently, people have pretty short memories.

Cuba was a lot closer than the Solomon Islands as well!

I appreciate the comparison of Biden’s treatment of the Ukrainian border to his treatment of the US border, and I appreciate jokes about “undocumented Russian migrants” in the Ukraine. But ultimately, even right-wingers would have to admit that there is some difference between the US border crisis and the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

However, there is literally no difference whatsoever between Australia drawing a “red line” and threatening an invasion of the Solomon Islands over a military base – except that the situation in the Ukraine was much more extreme.