China Refuses to Use U.S. mRNA Vaccines Even Though Chinese COVID Cases Are at All Time High

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with COVID-19, and while recent protests there are not a threat to Communist Party rule, they could affect his personal standing, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday.

Although China’s daily COVID cases are near all-time highs, some cities are taking steps to loosen testing and quarantine rules after Xi’s zero-COVID policy triggered a sharp economic slowdown and public unrest. . .

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Sunday.

China has not approved any foreign COVID vaccines, opting for those produced domestically, which some studies have suggested are not as effective as some foreign ones. That means easing virus prevention measures could come with big risks, according to experts. (Read more from “China Refuses to Use U.S. mRNA Vaccines Even Though Chinese COVID Cases Are at All Time High” HERE)

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Russia Willing to Discuss Ending Bloody War With Ukraine — If Demands Are Met

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The Kremlin on Friday once again claimed it was “open to negotiations” on ending the war in Ukraine, but only if the West accepts its demands.

“The president of the Russian Federation [Vladimir Putin] has always been, is and remains open to negotiations in order to ensure our interests,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to comments made Thursday by President Biden, according to Reuters.

Biden and Putin have not spoken since Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago, and Peskov’s comments were the second time in two days that the Kremlin signaled they would be open to resuming talks with Washington.

However, Rebekah Koffler, a Russia expert and former DIA intelligence officer for Russian Doctrine & Strategy, told Fox News Digital, “Make no mistake, Putin is not caving.”

“This is likely a distraction,” she added, pointing out that Putin was also in talks with Western nations, including the U.S., as he was preparing to invade Ukraine in February. (Read more from “Russia Willing to Discuss Ending Bloody War With Ukraine — If Demands Are Met” HERE)

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Persecuted Christians in Nigeria Hoping for Trump Resurgence

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Donald Trump may be facing headwinds within the Republican Party after the disappointing midterm elections, but in the killing fields of Nigeria embattled Christians long for his return.

“Since [Trump] left office, there is no one speaking for us anymore,” said a member of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Solomon Maren, to The Epoch Times.

“The American government under Trump made sure religious freedom was guaranteed in Nigeria,” said Maren, who represents a district of Plateau state in the Nigerian House of Representatives.

Maren and other opinion leaders interviewed by The Epoch Times bemoan the fact that the Biden administration does not acknowledge religious freedom is being violated in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari addresses the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly at U.N. headquarters on Sept. 24, 2021 in New York. (John Angelillo/Getty Images)
More than 1,000 Nigerians were murdered for their faith in the first three months of 2022, and the nation witnesses more such deaths than the rest of the world combined, according to Open Doors, a human rights NGO. (Read more from “Persecuted Christians in Nigeria Hoping for Trump Resurgence” HERE)

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Chinese Cities Cut Back COVID Restrictions After Protests

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Two cities in China have loosened some COVID restrictions after massive protests rocked the country in recent days.

The cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing said they will cut back on COVID restrictions following the outcry of citizens across the country. Chongqing will now permit close contacts of those who are infected with COVID to stay at home while they quarantine if they meet certain requirements, according to a city official. Guangzhou also said it will let up on the restrictions, but officials did not discuss the demonstrations. The area where violence broke out on Tuesday was still under strict rule. On Monday, protesters demolished a COVID testing site in Guangzhou, leading police to take action to scatter the groups of people.

China’s “zero-COVID” policy has been a key strategy in President Xi Jinping’s attempt to control the virus, but the intense restrictions and crackdowns on citizens appeared to be reaching a breaking point in recent days.

Health authorities in China also toned down their discussions of COVID, reportedly telling local governments not to take part in lockdowns that are long and unnecessary.

“International and domestic monitoring data confirmed that the pathogenicity and virulence of the Omicron mutant strains … are significantly weaker than the original strain and variant strains such as Delta,” Chang Zhaorui, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the press. (Read more from “Chinese Cities Cut Back COVID Restrictions After Protests” HERE)

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China on Pace to Match U.S. Nuclear Stockpile by 2035, Pentagon Warns

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The Chinese military’s rapid buildup is on pace to reach 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035 — nearly the number of current U.S.-deployed warheads, the Pentagon said in a survey of Chinese military power revealed Tuesday.

Two years ago, the People’s Liberation Army’s nuclear arsenal was limited to about 200 warheads, a stockpile that has doubled to more than 400 today, the report said. China first tested a nuclear weapon in 1964, but it has long trailed far behind the U.S. and Russia in the number of warheads in its arsenal.

The nuclear buildup could serve as a backstop for Beijing’s long-range plan for a military takeover of Taiwan, the self-ruled democratic island that China claims as its territory, the report said. The buildup includes intercontinental ballistic missiles and increased warhead production because of the deployment of multiwarhead missiles.

In 2021, Beijing expanded work on three large fields in western China that will hold at least 300 new ICBMs.

China also has deployed an ultra-high-speed missile called the DF-17, designed to defeat missile defenses and able to deliver both nuclear and conventional warheads. (Read more from “China on Pace to Match U.S. Nuclear Stockpile by 2035, Pentagon Warns” HERE)

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Finland Offers to Train Ukraine Soldiers in Winter Warfare Against Russia

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Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö has said his country can give Ukrainian forces the training they need to take on Russian aggression.

After observing Finnish Army field exercises in North Karelia, Niinistö suggested that Finland can help Ukraine’s war effort, telling reporters that it would back up the military equipment it is sending to Kyiv with the training required to operate it.

“Of course, training on these could be very appropriate,” Niinistö said on Tuesday, Finnish media outlet YLE reported, “we know how to use them.” (Read more from “Finland Offers to Train Ukraine Soldiers in Winter Warfare Against Russia” HERE)

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Build the Wall? Finland Plans Border Fence With Russia as NATO Membership Looms

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As walls go, it’s shaping up to be far less imposing than the Berlin Wall and not nearly as politically divisive as former President Donald Trump’s coveted barrier between the U.S. and Mexico.

But Finland‘s planned border fence with Russia looks to be a major geopolitical statement, one that could fuel even greater tensions between the Kremlin and the West while signaling that Russia‘s war in Ukraine may have forever altered Europe’s attitude toward its hostile neighbor.

Finnish border guard officials announced recently that they will begin construction next spring on a nearly two-mile stretch of fence on the Finland-Russia border near the eastern town of Imatra, according to Euronews and other media outlets. Beyond that initial construction, Finnish leaders earlier this month proposed spending up to $143 million to build many more miles of border fence along the country’s boundary with Russia, with the fence eventually stretching well over 100 miles.

If completed, such a fence could cover between 10% and 20% of Finland‘s 833-mile border with Russia, the largest such boundary that any European nation shares with Russia. (Read more from “Build the Wall? Finland Plans Border Fence With Russia as NATO Membership Looms” HERE)

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Russia Advances Law Banning LGBT, Pedophilia Propaganda

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Lower-level Russian parliamentarians unanimously passed a law Thursday that would ban the distribution of materials promoting homosexuality, pedophilia, and gender reassignment.

More than 300 representatives of the State Duma, including the chairman, authored the new law, which imposes heavy fines of up to 10 million rubles ($165,000) for violating the ban by promoting such propaganda using online channels, media, or in public. Foreign citizens and stateless persons who violate the law would also face expulsion from the Russian Federation.

Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the law would help protect the motherland’s traditions and values for her children and the future of Russia from the “darkness spread by the United States and European states.”

Volodin called the U.S. the “center of this sodom in the world” in response to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who had allegedly proposed Russian representatives withdraw the draft law.

“There is no need to impose alien values ​​on us,” Volodin said. “You destroyed yours — we’ll see how it all ends. But it’s definitely sad because this is sodom — there’s no other way to say it.” (Read more from “Russia Advances Law Banning LGBT, Pedophilia Propaganda” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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White House Accuses Russia of Tempting a Nuclear Accident With New Attacks on Ukraine’s Power Grid

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The White House on Wednesday condemned Russia’s latest barrage of attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and warned that the Kremlin appears “willing to increase the risk of a nuclear safety incident” as it continues to pummel the country’s power grid.

Multiple regions throughout Ukraine have gone dark following Russia’s latest onslaught, forcing Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom to disconnect the country’s three fully functioning nuclear power plants from the power grid as part of an “emergency protection measure.”

Officials in Kyiv reported that three people were killed and nine wounded after a two-story building was hit in the capital city. Another four people were killed and 34 wounded in the surrounding region.

White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the Kremlin is turning to “increasingly horrific attacks” as it struggles on the battlefield. (Read more from “White House Accuses Russia of Tempting a Nuclear Accident With New Attacks on Ukraine’s Power Grid” HERE)

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Reported Ukrainian Attack on Russian Naval Base Could Be Crucial, UK Officials Say

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Media reports that Ukraine used a drone to attack an oil terminal near a Russian naval base on the Black Sea could turn out to be a turning point in the nine-month-long war, British military officials said.

Russian and Ukrainian media outlets reported Friday that an attack took place in the port city of Novorossiysk on Russia’s Black Sea coast. A major naval base of the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet (BSF) is near the oil terminal, British military intelligence officials said.

“The BSF relocated many of its submarine operations to Novorossiysk after its Sevastopol base in occupied Crimea was struck by Ukraine over the summer,” the British Defense Ministry tweeted Tuesday. (Read more from “Reported Ukrainian Attack on Russian Naval Base Could Be Crucial, UK Officials Say” HERE)

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