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Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

Tuesday 09/01/20

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Photos: China's New Carrier-Based Early Warning Aircraft Spotted on First Flight

As China expands its carrier fleet to include catapult-launched aircraft, it's adding new planes to round out the air wing's capabilities. A new airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft, the KJ-600, made its first flight last week, and its design is clearly inspired by the US Navy's E-2 Hawkeye. The new carrier-based aircraft took to the skies for the first time over Shaanxi's Xi'an last week, the Xi'an-based magazine Ordnance Industry Science Technology reported. However, the Chinese Defense Ministry has made no official statement or verification of the event to the press. Photos of the prop-driven aircraft in flight appeared on social media just as commercial satellite photos of the KJ-600 sitting on the tarmac at a Xi'an air base began to circulate as well. However, the plane's layout was not that much of a mystery for military observers: an experimental design used to build the KJ-600, called the JZY-01, appeared in 2018. That aircraft was in turn based on the Russian Au-24 transport aircraft, which at 77 feet long is far too big to launch from an aircraft carrier. Much about the KJ-600's design is clearly inspired by the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, a well-proven AEW aircraft in use by the US Navy and many of its allies since the 1960s.

An E-2D Hawkeye lands aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). This is likely because the Hawkeye's design is already optimized for its role: its propeller engines allow it to loiter for up to four hours high above the carrier battle group, where its huge radome mounted above the fuselage can dramatically extend the radar range of the fleet. Its slender fuselage leaves enough room for between four and six crew members to operate, while still being small enough to fit below decks on the carrier, and its four-finned tail provides it with superior stability as it lugs around that huge radome. The Soviet Union's proposed Yak-44 AEW aircraft would have used a remarkably similar design to the Hawkeye as well. However, the KJ-600 will almost certainly not fly from the Shandong or the Liaoning, the People's Liberation Army Navy's (PLAN) only two aircraft carriers at present. A heavy plane like the Hawkeye doesn't generate enough thrust to survive the low-speed launch off the ramp on the front of the flight deck, requiring instead the more powerful catapult launching system used by US aircraft carriers - and featured on the PLAN'S upcoming Type 003 carrier. That warship is under construction in Shanghai and is expected to be completed in 2021. China's carriers do have a form of AEW aircraft in specially modified Z-18J helicopters, but they have a far shorter range than the KJ-600 would likely have: some 200 miles versus a 500-mile radius. However, even that is better than the carrier's tower-based radar, which cannot see beyond the horizon, just 12 miles away.

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

The KJ-600 isn't the only new carrier-based aircraft under development in China: in July, the Chinese Aeronautical Establishment, the research and development branch of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, announced it would be teaming up with Shenyang Aircraft Corporation to test a new carrier-based aircraft later this year. As Shenyang made the FC-31 "Gyrfalcon" stealth aircraft, which has been widely anticipated to become China's new carrier-based fighter, it has been assumed the announcement refers to the FC-31. Like the KJ-600 and the E-2 Hawkeye, the FC-31 has also seen comparisons drawn with the United States' F-35 fighter, but as Sputnik reported, their similarities are superficial and do not warrant the accusation that it was copied from the Lockheed Martin jet using stolen designs, as former US national security adviser John Bolton has claimed.

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Trump Pledges Millions in Federal Aid to Wisconsin After Days of Protests in Wake of Blake Shooting

In the wake of massive protests over the police shooting of an unarmed Black man, US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday he is sending millions of dollars in funds to small businesses as well as the police force in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Trump said at a roundtable talk in the Wisconsin port city on Tuesday that he was sending extensive financial support to Kenosha, including $1 million to the Kenosha Police Department, "so that you have some extra money to go out and do what you need to do," $4 million to support local businesses "that got burned up, burned down," and more than $42 million "to support public safety statewide, including direct support for law enforcement and funding for additional prosecutors to punish criminals, and resources to provide services to victims of crime." "When you grab them and then nothing happens, then they're back on the street. That doesn't work out too well," Trump said, noting Attorney General William Barr requested the additional funding. "I'm committed to helping Kenosha rebuild, we all are," Trump said. Trump's visit to Kenosha went against the wishes of Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who asked Trump to "reconsider" his visit in light of considerations about "what your presence will mean for Kenosha and our state." "I have to see the people who did such a good job for me," Trump said at a Monday press conference in reference to his Tuesday visit. "It could increase love and respect for our country." After 29-year-old Jacob Blake was shot in the back during a traffic stop last week by Kenosha police, inflicting wounds that paralyzed him below the waist, massive protests broke out in Kenosha and across the United States. At least half a dozen buildings were set ablaze in the city and two protesters were killed by a protestor with a rifle. In response, Evers mobilized some 750 Wisconsin National Guard soldiers and Trump dispatched nearly 1.000 additional guardsmen, plus 200 federal law enforcement officers to crush the protests and restore order.

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Listen: US Airline Pilots Landing in Los Angeles Baffled by `Guy in a Jetpack' Flying Nearby

Pilots in a pair of airliners coming in to land at California's Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday got the shock of their life when what everyone agreed was a man flying using a jetpack appeared near their aircraft. While aircraft pilots have had to adjust to the rise in commercial drones in recent years, which sometimes appear close to the flight paths of landing or taking off airplanes, it seems watching out for people in jetpacks might be the next adjustment pilots will have to make. At least two passenger airliner crews reported the strange incident on Sunday evening, noting the man was flying at roughly 3,000 feet up in the air. "We just passed a guy in a jetpack ... off the left side, maybe 300 yards or so, about our altitude," the pilot of an American Airlines flight told the air traffic controllers at the airport in a recording obtained bv Fox 11 Los Angeles. A few minutes later, the pilot of a Skywest aircraft confirmed the sighting, saying over the radio: "We just saw the guy passing by us in the jetpack." In response, the tower alerted a JetBlue flight on its way in: "JetBlue 23, use caution, a person in a jetpack reported 300 yards south of the LA final at about 3,000 feet, 10 mile final." "We heard and we are definitely looking," the JetBlue pilot responded. His copilot could be heard musing "only in LA." The FBI's Los Angeles Field Division told NBC on Tuesday it is "aware of reports by airline pilots of a possible sighting of someone flying with a jet pack" and "is working to determine what may have occurred." In recent years, a technology that was once firmly in the realm of science fiction has become a reality as commercial and military developers have put out several experimental designs for personal flying devices. One company, the UK-based Gravity Industries, has anticipated a jetpack racing league will become popular using the devices it tested in 2018, and the British Ministry of Defense has shown an interest in adopting the technology as well. More recently in Arizona, a mysterious UFO was spotted in March that to many people seemed to be a man in a jetpack. Perhaps the man has made a trip west to California?

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

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US Army Holds Live-Fire Rocket Artillery Drills Less Than 70 Miles From Russian Border

The US Army announced on Monday the beginning of live-fire drills involving rocket artillery in Estonia, less than 70 miles from Russian territory. The move comes just days after large Russian naval exercises in the Bering Sea, near Alaska. On Tuesday, US Army Europe's Rail Gunner Rush exercise began, featuring artillery barrages by the 41st Field Artillery Brigade. The drills are hosted at Estonia's Tapa Army Base, just 66 miles from Russian territory. The 41st Field Artillery Brigade uses the M270A1 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), which can fire barrages of up to 12 missiles at a time. The Army's news release announcing the drills noted this will be the unit's first live-fire drill after being rebased outside Germany. While the drills come just days after Russian naval exercises in the Bering Sea that attracted Washington's close eye - and the media's wild paranoia - the Pentagon said the "routine training exercise is not tied to any current events in the region." Even though the shooting drills will happen practically within earshot of Russian soil, the US media has refused to relent in its drive to paint the exercises as justified and not at all hostile. On Monday, the right-wing Washington Times said in its report that the drills "aren't a direct response to any recent Russian aggression," but they are "calculated measures to send a message to an increasingly brazen Kremlin." "Russia over the past six months also has routinely entered air defense zones off the coast of Alaska, drawing harsh rebukes from the Pentagon. Last Friday, Russian planes intercepted a US B-52 that the Pentagon says was `conducting routine operations' over international waters of the Black Sea," the Times continued. Those "routine operations" were actually an unprecedented overflight of every single NATO member by four nuclear-capable strategic bombers. In response, the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC, issued a statement condemning both the drills and the media's response as "demonstrative saber-rattling." "We drew attention to messages, including in The Washington Times with anti-Russian assertions, and media support to the exercises of the US and Estonian Armed Forces taking place from 1 September to 10 September using multiple launch rocket systems in the immediate vicinity of the Russian borders - 70 mi (110 km)," the embassy said Monday on Facebook. "The Russian Federation has repeatedly offered to the United States and its allies to limit training activities and to divert exercise areas from the line of contact between Russia and NATO. We consider the actions of the US Armed Forces in Estonia provocative and extremely dangerous for regional stability." Earlier this year, Washington also dispatched a B-1B Lancer, a strategic bomber originally designed for low-altitude supersonic sprints into the Soviet Union to deliver nuclear strikes, on a surprise globetrotting trip from South Dakota to Estonia for another set of live-fire exercises in conjunction with the Estonian Armed Forces.

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

Former COVID-19 Ground Zero Wuhan Reopens Schools After Seven Months

Students in China's Wuhan, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, returned to class on September 1 as the city reopened all of its schools following a seven-month shutdown. Nearly 1.4 million students resumed classes in around 2,800 kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools in the city. High schools were reopened in May, according to AFP. State media broadcast images of students hoisting the Chinese flag, a daily routine in schools across the country. Despite the reopening of schools, however, officials are remaining vigilant and have devised online teaching plans in the event of potential COVID-19 outbreaks. In addition, students have been advised to wear masks while traveling to and from school and avoid public transportation if possible. Drills and training sessions to prepare students for new outbreaks will also be conducted at schools. Shanghai reopened schools in May, while the country's capital city of Beijing, which experienced a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in late June, will reopen all of its schools this month. In Beijing, teachers and students will also be required to wear masks on school property. Wuhan was responsible for around 80% of China's more than 4,600 COVID-19 deaths, according to AFP. The city was under lockdown for more than two months starting in late January. The restrictions were lifted in April, and no new local transmissions of the virus have been reported in the city since May 18, according to Reuters.

This material is distributed by Ghebi LLC on behalf of Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, and additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

US Divorce Agreement Sales Soar by 34% During COVID-19 Pandemic

An analysis by Legal Templates, a company that helps simplify the process of creating legal contracts, reveals that the firm saw a 34% increase in US sales of divorce agreements during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period in 2019. According to the company's findings, many marriages were destroyed in less than three weeks of quarantine. In addition, couples in Southern states were most likely to sign a divorce agreement. In fact, the rate of divorce in the South was two to three times higher than in other US regions. The Southern states with the highest divorce rates were Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana. These are also some of the US states hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company determined that they saw separation inquiries hit a peak on April 13, at about the same time that the majority of US states were beginning to impose strict lockdown measures to curb the further spread of the novel coronavirus. The report notes that officials saw a 57% increase in inquiries on April 13 when compared to figures from February 13.

Received by NSD/FARA Registration Unit 11/12/2020 3:16:35 PM

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