China Mocks Nancy Pelosi for Contracting Coronavirus

Chinese state media on Friday gleefully mocked U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for contracting the Wuhan coronavirus, snidely informing Pelosi that she should abandon any plans to visit Taiwan lest she infect the island.

The state-run Global Times approvingly quoted a hashtag on Weibo, China’s heavily-censored version of banned Twitter, that sarcastically advised Pelosi to talk to a doctor about her infection instead of talking to Taiwanese “secessionists”:

The development received high attention on social media, with netizens urging Pelosi to abandon any dangerous plans. “Get well soon, but forget about a Taiwan visit. You won’t want to see the consequences,” said a Weibo user.

”She not only needs to overcome [Chinese coronavirus], but should also seek treatment for the ‘messing up the world’ disease. Many US politicians should see a doctor for that,” another net user said on Sina Weibo.

“Since the US has removed most epidemic restrictions, I bet Omicron is nothing to worry about. The biggest problem is hegemonic mentality embedded in her, and many others’ minds,” said another.

(Read more from “China Mocks Nancy Pelosi for Contracting Coronavirus” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Putin Says World Faces Food Crisis Due to West’s Sanctions

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia must keep a close eye on its food exports to hostile countries because the West’s sanctions had fomented a global food crisis and spiralling energy prices.

The West’s sanctions over Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine have tipped Russia towards its worst economic crisis since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, though Moscow says the global impact of the sanctions could be much more significant.

The Kremlin chief cautioned that higher energy prices combined with a shortage of fertilisers would prompt the West to print money to buy up supplies, leading to food shortages among poorer countries.

“They will inevitably exacerbate food shortages in the poorest regions of the world, spur new waves of migration and in general drive food prices even higher,” Putin told a meeting on developing food production.

“In these current conditions, a shortage of fertilisers on the global market is inevitable,” Putin said. “We will have to be more careful about food supplies abroad, especially carefully monitor the exports to countries which are hostile to us.” (Read more from “Putin Says World Faces Food Crisis Due to West’s Sanctions” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Kim Jong-Un’s Sister Threatens to Nuke South Korea

Kim Yo-jong, the powerful and influential sister of communist North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, threatened to use nuclear weapons against South Korea on Tuesday after South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook discussed his military’s ability to “accurately and swiftly” strike targets in the North.

Suh made his comments on Friday while attending a ceremony at the South Korean Army Missile Strategic Command base in Wonju.

“Currently, our military possesses large numbers and various types of missiles that have greatly improved in terms of ranges, accuracy and power, and it has capabilities to accurately and swiftly strike any targets in North Korea,” Suh told his troops.

Suh said South Korea has the ability to strike the “origin of any attack and its command and support facilities,” a comment widely interpreted as a warning to North Korea, which conducted a provocative missile test in late March. (Read more from “Kim Jong-Un’s Sister Threatens to Nuke South Korea” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Airbnb Blacklists Every Russian and Belorussian

Airbnb has banned the entire populace of two countries. If you are located in Russia or Russia-aligned Belarus, you will no longer be able to make reservations through the platform, anywhere in the world.

News of the upcoming ban was reported earlier this month, after Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, currently sporting a Ukraine flag in his Twitter profile, tweeted that the platform planned to suspend all operations in both countries. Airbnb has since released details of the move on its website, including the fact that “guests located in both countries will no longer be able to make new reservations anywhere in the world.”

Via Airbnb:

Airbnb has suspended operations in Russia and Belarus. This means that new reservations cannot be made for stays or Experiences in Russia or Belarus, and guests located in both countries will no longer be able to make new reservations anywhere in the world.

This is an evolving situation, and we’ll provide further guidance as we receive more information.

(Read more from “Airbnb Blacklists Every Russian and Belorussian” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Despite Enormous Opposition From Soros, Zelensky, and the Biden Administration, Hungary’s Pro-Family President Wins Reelection

[President Viktor] Orban’s Fidesz party had a commanding lead with 71% of the votes counted, Hungary’s national elections board said on Sunday evening. . .

But despite opinion polls forecasting a tighter race, Orban’s Fidesz party won comfortably across much of the country. Opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay even failed to win in his own district, where he had served as mayor.

“We have such a victory it can be seen from the moon, but it’s sure that it can be seen from Brussels,” Orban said in his speech on Sunday night, making light of his government’s long-running tensions with EU leaders.

“We will remember this victory until the end of our lives because we had to fight against a huge amount of opponents,” Orban said, citing a number of his political enemies including the Hungarian left, “bureaucrats” in Brussels, the international media, “and the Ukrainian president too — we never had so many opponents at the same time.”

“The whole world could see this evening in Budapest that the Christian Democrat politics, the conservative politics and the nationalistic politics won,” Orban said on Sunday night. “Our message to Europe is that it’s not the past but the future. This will be our common European future.” (Read more from “Despite Enormous Opposition From Soros, Zelensky, and the Biden Administration, Hungary’s Pro-Family President Wins Reelection” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

China Reportedly Orders Mass Killing of Pets Belonging to COVID-19 Patients

One city in China ordered the mass killing of household pets Wednesday, according to state-run media.

The Anci district in Langfang city reportedly told residents Wednesday that all pets belonging to individuals infected with COVID-19 were to be executed, according to the state-run China News Service, as translated by Business Insider. The order was then reportedly repealed by 5 p.m. local time Wednesday, but it remains unclear how many pets were killed before that happened.

Authorities initially ordered the “complete culling of indoor animals” belonging to coronavirus patients, before an official with the Langfang Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the order was reversed, according to Business Insider. (Read more from “China Reportedly Orders Mass Killing of Pets Belonging to COVID-19 Patients” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Russia Blames Ukraine After Belgorod Fuel Depot Explodes

An oil depot in the Russian city of Belgorod, located about 22 miles from Ukraine’s border, erupted Friday morning after a pair of Ukrainian helicopters hit it with missiles, Russian officials claimed.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Friday that two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters entered Russian airspace early Friday morning, slipped past Russia’s defenses, and attacked the civilian fuel depot. Konashenkov said that the fuel storage facility held only fuel for civilian use, not the military, according to the Associated Press.

“The helicopters struck a civilian oil storage facility on the outskirts of Belgorod,” Russia’s Ministry of Defense said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “As a result of the missile strike, some of the tanks were damaged and caught fire. Only civilian vehicles were supplied with fuel from this facility.”

A top Ukrainian national security official denied Russia’s claims about Ukraine’s involvement, according to the AP. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, said during a television appearance: “For some reason, they say that we did it, but in fact this does not correspond with reality.” (Read more from “Russia Blames Ukraine After Belgorod Fuel Depot Explodes” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Ukraine Warns of ‘Huge’ Threat to Chernobyl Facility

Russian forces have stored “dozens of thousands of tons” of ammunition near the infamous Chernobyl nuclear facility near Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials who claim that Russia regards the area as a safe zone despite the risk of a disastrous accident.

“They use this nuclear facility as an umbrella because they understand that Ukrainians will not attack them there,” Oleksandr Danilyuk, a national security official for the central government in Kyiv, told the Washington Examiner.

That tactical choice has made it easier to conduct some military operations around Kyiv, the target of one of the main prongs of the Russian military campaign over the last month. And yet, that relative security against Ukrainian attacks comes at the cost of a “huge, huge risk” to Chernobyl and the $2.5 billion confinement shelter designed to contain a destroyed nuclear reactor and “radioactive dust” and debris left behind from the 1986 disaster.

“So the transportation route of this ammunition is literally, like, maybe, 300 meters from the shelter and the final destination, the final storage is less than 20 kilometers from the shelter,” said Danilyuk, a security official not to be confused with former Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk. “And the quantity of that ammunition is big enough to say that this risk makes that accident and destroying of that shelter almost imminent.” (Read more from “Ukraine Warns of ‘Huge’ Threat to Chernobyl Facility” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

China: Biden Pushing Ukraine Crisis Into ‘Nuclear War’; US Skeptical of Russian Claims It’s Scaling Back the War in Ukraine

By Breitbart. China’s state-run Global Times on Monday accused President Joe Biden of pushing the world closer to nuclear war by declaring Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” after invading Ukraine.

The Global Times was unimpressed by White House efforts to spin Biden’s remarks away as a gaffe, or later as a personal expression of his deep “moral outrage” that has no bearing on U.S. foreign policy.

“No matter how well Biden’s propaganda machine works, it cannot downplay the fact that such a blunt statement at a sensitive time could further inflame the situation. This was unwise and irresponsible, reflecting a dire problem within U.S. policy-making: some politicians are taking their personal grievances to the national level,” the Chinese Communist paper wrote.

No additional examples of such grievance-nationalizing were provided, but one suspects the editors were thinking about stern criticism of China’s actions from American politicians.

The Global Times and its correspondents mocked Biden for talking tough after his debacle in Afghanistan, which brought a 20-year effort to change the regime in a far smaller and poorer nation than Russia to a mournful conclusion. (Read more from “China: Biden Pushing Ukraine Crisis Into ‘Nuclear War’” HERE)

___________________________________________________

US Skeptical of Russian Claims It’s Scaling Back the War in Ukraine

By Breitbart. President Joe Biden and other American officials voiced extreme caution Tuesday at signals Russia is scaling back its military operations near Kyiv, suggesting they were waiting to see stronger signs of de-escalation before making an assessment of Moscow’s intentions.

“We’ll see. I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are. We’ll see if they follow through what they’re suggesting,” Biden said at the White House, where officials were busy digesting intelligence and reports from the ground that Russian troops were moving their focus away from Ukraine’s capital toward other areas of the country.

Biden’s don’t-trust-but-verify approach reflects deep American skepticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s motives amid his monthlong invasion of Ukraine. While the US has observed movements of Russian forces away from Kyiv, there remains doubt the Russian assault on Ukraine will end soon.

Some Western officials viewed Russia’s moves as a mere tactical exercise amid a stalled campaign in Ukraine. US officials also said Russia could always reverse itself if the battle conditions allow. (Read more from “US Skeptical of Russian Claims It’s Scaling Back the War in Ukraine” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.

Ukraine Peace Talks End With Possible Crimea Concessions

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended Tuesday in Turkey with some optimism that both sides may be one step closer to ending the war.

Russia pledged to “reduce military activity” significantly near Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, as well as in Chernihiv to the north. Moscow also said it was ready to set up a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky once a draft peace agreement is in place.

Ukrainian officials outlined potential concessions over territory occupied by Russia, including a proposal that negotiations over Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, be conducted over a 15-year period. Ukraine also said it would refrain from trying to retake the peninsula by force.

Zelensky said his country is prepared to declare its neutrality, as Russia demanded, and is also open to compromise over the fate of the contested Donbas region in the eastern part of Ukraine. (Read more from “Ukraine Peace Talks End With Possible Crimea Concessions” HERE)

Delete Facebook, Delete Twitter, Follow Restoring Liberty and Joe Miller at gab HERE.