Author: J.P. Knowles

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reminded lawmakers of some of the biggest tragedies in U.S. history as he pleaded with them for more help Wednesday.

Zelenskyy addressed Congress virtually from Kyiv as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues. The Ukrainian president thanked the U.S. for its support but said more is needed.

“Remember Pearl Harbor, the terrible morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you,” Zelenskyy said. “Remember Sept. 11, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked from the air.”

“Our country is experiencing the same every day, right now, at this moment. Every night for three weeks now,” he continued, as he tried to relate with Americans on what Ukraine is going through while reminding the U.S. what being under attack was like.

Zelenskyy requested once again that the U.S. establish a no-fly zone, which the administration has repeatedly said they would not do.

Even as he pressed for a no-fly zone, Zelenskyy acknowledged that the U.S. has said they would not do it. He also suggested an alternative option during his address, asking for surface-to-air missile systems that would allow Ukraine to protect its sky.

Zelenskyy pushed for more sanctions as well, asking that President Joe Biden’s administration blacklist all Russian politicians. He also pleaded with all American companies to leave the Russian market.

During his address to Congress, the Ukrainian president played a video for lawmakers featuring viral photographs and clips of the devastation going on in Ukraine.

The video showed dead women and children, bodies being thrown into mass graves, buildings that had been destroyed, and more. The video concluded with a request to “close the skies.”

Zelenskyy ended his speech with a direct plea to Biden: “Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace,” Zelenskyy declared.

Russian anti-war protesters often face borderline “torture” when booked into police stations. They are subjected to psychological abuse and sexual threats, Mark Narusov, a protester who was detained by the Russian police for protesting the war in Ukraine, said.

Narusov said he, along with 25 other people, was apprehended after shouting “no war” outside a metro stop in Moscow. He said they were taken by bus to a police station 1.5 hours away and faced hours of interrogation.

“The police officers didn’t communicate where we were going, of course, didn’t read the Miranda Rights to us or anything,” he said, noting they were not physically harmed while on the bus.

“At the police station, they confiscated our phones,” and everyone who refused was put in a jail cell, he said. “The police officers took fingerprints, saliva testing, and mugshots,” he said, claiming that under Russian law it is illeal to do so to someone only being detained.

Mugshots are “particularly useful” because the Moscow subway system has “advanced face identification technology” to track and detain protesters, Narusov said.

“What happened next was borderline torture… There were police officers in civilian clothing who took each one of us in order for interrogation,” using techniques that could be “absolutely clearly classifiable as emotional abuse,” he said.

“They started calling everyone names, there were a lot of threats of sexual violence directed towards women” and even toward himself, he added.

“I was personally threatened with them putting me in an actual prison and then there being Dagestani cocks in my mouth,” he said. “One of the officers in civilian clothing even made sexual sounds” demostrating what would happen to him.

“I was one of the lucky ones… there are a lot of cases of violence happening during the interrogations, people getting hit. In our group of 25, one person was physically harmed,” and one protester was threatened to be killed, he continued.

All the protesters were scheduled for a court date, and Narusov said he received the lowest possible fine of 10,000 rubles ($90).

“When I had to explain why I went to the protest, I had to use the Orwellian term ‘special military operation,’ because one can not say war,” he said. Most of the people in his group got “knocks at the door” by police officers weeks later to “dissuade them from reoffending,” he said.

Protesting in Russia is becoming more and more difficult, as “the Red Square and many other squares in Russia are just completely blocked off,” Narusov said. Holding up blank signs, signs that merely say “two words” or signs that have stars instead of words will also get you detained, he said. Wearing green wrist bands or using a Russian flag without the red stripe — two anti-war symbols — will also get you picked up by the police, he said.

“I have lived in Russia for almost the entirety of my life,” and the media landscape has categorically changed “after the start of the war,” Narusov concluded. People can still use a VPN, Twitter, and Telegram to get independent reporting, but those in rural Russia are unlikely to access it. Nearly all news organizations not controlled by the Russian government were closed down after March 4, when Russia passed a law banning the publication of narratives contrary to that of the government. Offenders can face up to 15 years in prison.

Over 750 people have been arrested in Russia for protesting against the war.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated Monday that a Florida middle school teacher was detained on Friday and charged with attempting to attract someone he thought was a 14-year-old kid into participating in sex acts using the internet.

According to the Department of Justice, a police agent dressed as a 14-year-old girl replied to an online notice made by a user entitled “English Teacher,” who was later identified as Matthew Christopher Yates, a 27-year-old eighth-grade English teacher in St. Augustine, Florida.

According to the DOJ, the agent told Yates they were 14 and in eighth grade in online talks, and the two exchanged sexually suggestive and sexually explicit photographs. Yates also sent a photo of his penis in his email to the agent.

According to the DOJ, Yates requested the person he believed to be an underage girl to meet him in person and outlined the sex acts he planned to perform to the undercover agent, even asking to film the acts on camera.

Yates was apprehended at the spot where the undercover agent had arranged to meet him. He had many condoms in his possession, according to the FBI. He faces a minimum mandatory sentence of ten years in jail and the possibility of life in prison.

The Russian foreign ministry has placed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as other Canadian officials, on a “black list” that prevents them from entering Russia.

“This step is forced and taken in response to the outrageous hostility of the current Canadian regime, which has tested our patience for so long,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday. “Every Russophobic attack, be it attacks on Russian diplomatic missions, airspace closures, or Ottawa’s actual severing of bilateral economic ties to the detriment of Canadian interests, will inevitably receive a decisive and not necessarily symmetrical rebuff.”

The heads of other federal parties, as well as those in control of other Ukrainian-Canadian organizations, are among those who have been blacklisted. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Canada imposed sanctions on President Vladimir Putin, his political allies, and Russian oligarchs.

“The only response from Russia that we’re interested in is an immediate end to the illegal, unnecessary war in Ukraine,” a spokesperson for Trudeau said. “Until then, Canada and our allies will continue imposing crippling sanctions on Putin and his enablers in Russia and Belarus.”

“I think what we need to do is continue — every day, every week — to announce sanctions. We know we have to do more and we know that our sanctions must really target Putin himself, which we have done,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and former presidential contender Hillary Clinton, as well as a number of US officials, were all denied entry to Russia. In addition to penalties, the Biden administration has prohibited the import of Russian oil into the United States.

Brent Renaud, a critically acclaimed American journalist and filmmaker, was shot and killed by Russian soldiers in a city outside of Kyiv on Sunday while reporting on the conflict in Ukraine.

The late journalist, who was a former contributor to The New York Times, paid a visit to Ukraine’s war-torn area. Renaud was driving a car with another reporter after passing through a checkpoint when Russian forces opened fire on the journalists, killing Renaud.

Renaud is the first American journalist killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine while on assignment.

Renaud garnered multiple awards and nominations for his films, which he co-directed with his brother and received broad critical acclaim, according to the Pulitzer Center.

Killing members of the press during a military conflict is considered a war crime and a violation of international law.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman warned Sunday night the Russian invasion of Ukraine “looks like it ends very badly for Ukrainian people,” during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Right now it looks like it ends very badly already for Ukrainian people. I think we all spend every day just horrified by the suffering…” Sherman said. “As your reporter on the ground discussed, it is just awful, particularly in Mariupol where people are either going to starve to death or freeze to death or die because they don’t have their medicine. It is truly horrifying.”

Sherman said President Joe Biden’s administration has put $1.2 billion in security assistance to help Ukraine defend itself. She also said the U.S. needs to put “enormous pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin to persuade him to stop his aggression in Eastern Europe.

“That pressure is beginning to have some effect. We are seeing some signs of a willingness to have real serious negotiations, but I have to say, as your reporter said, so far it appears that Vladimir Putin is intent on destroying Ukraine. We need to help Ukrainians in every way we can.”

Ukrainian officials announced Sunday that a Russian airstrike hit a military base approximately 20 miles from the Polish border, killing at least 35 and injuring 135 people. The base is west of the city Lviv, which has been a crucial location for supplying weapons to the Ukrainian people.

Russia has launched airstrikes in the western Ukrainian cities Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk. The forces’ continued aggression has led to at least 579 civilian fatalities, including 42 children, though the United Nations Human Rights office reported Saturday the actual figures are much higher.

American motorists want President Joe Biden to know they believe the buck stops with him at the gas pump. Decals of a finger-pointing Biden, with the words “I did that!” in big, bold print, have been popping up on fuel pumps across the country as gasoline prices continue to skyrocket.

With the average price of a gallon of gas reaching $4.326—the stickers of Biden are popping up at pumps everywhere.

“I take off five or six a day from our different pumps,” Perry Cagle, assistant manager of an Exxon station near Athens, Alabama said.

The stickers have been seen on a pump at a Speedway in the Mott Haven neighborhood of New York. They have also been spotted at a Shell pump in Harlem. They sell in packs of 100 for $7.98 on Amazon.

“I just know everything he’s been doing since he took office has been going downhill. Bring Trump back,” New York City resident Harold Frost, said. “My car has been parked the whole week because of this. I took the train, but it’s dangerous now on the train. You gotta be careful.”

Javier Estrada Ovalles sells his own Biden stickers through his company, Automotive Anarchy. Ovalles said he’s benefiting from the gas prices and fills about 80 sticker orders a day.

“I don’t go for the Democrats. They make it seem like they got the backs of minority people, but in reality, they’re just in it for themselves,” said Vincent Williams, 29 a black Harlem resident who said he could only afford to put $15. “The rise in gas prices is B.S.”

President Joe Biden said Friday the United States is prepared to defend NATO territory but warned that it would absolutely lead to World War III.

“I want to be clear: We will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full might of a united and galvanized NATO,” Biden tweeted Friday. “But we will not fight a war against Russia in Ukraine.”

“A direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III. And something we must strive to prevent.”

Biden made similar remarks while speaking in Philadelphia on Friday.

“As we provide this support to Ukraine, we’re going to continue to stand together with our allies in Europe and send an unmistakable message: that we will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Biden said. “If they move once – granted, if we respond, it is World War III, but we have a sacred obligation on NATO territory.”

Biden clarified,“we will not fight the Third World War in Ukraine,” by declaring a no-fly zone.

The president has made similar statements in the past, stating as recently as February that the U.S. would not send troops to evacuate American citizens stuck in Ukraine should Russia invade. Biden warned doing so could lead to a“world war.”

“That’a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another,” Biden said when asked if there was any situation in which he’d deploy troops to assist Americans evacuating. “We’re in a very different world than we’ve ever been.”

More than 30 people have reported getting sick after eating at a Thai restaurant in Las Vegas this year according to the Southern Nevada Health District.

Health officials are investigating what caused what they called the “unusual” illnesses

Patrons of the Secret of Siam restaurant located on Centennial Center Boulevard reported incidences of increased heart rate, blurred vision, disorientation, loss of consciousness, and numbness or tingling within hours of being at the restaurant. The Secret of Siam restaurant closed earlier this month.

The Health District is asking anyone who ate at the restaurant in January or February to take a survey on its website. Las Vegas police have also taken citizen complaints.

The restaurant opened in 2019 and consistently passed health inspections.

Some customers have said they suspect their food was tainted with THC after seeking medical attention and testing positive for it.

Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said Wednesday that the “radical left” wouldn’t allow President Joe Biden to change his policies even if he wanted to.

Jordan slammed the “crazy policies of the Biden administration,” and in particular the scrapping of the Keystone XL Pipeline and keeping oil and gas companies from any new drilling on federal lands, and said reversing them will help resolve the U.S. and Europe’s reliance on Russia’s energy sector.

“Even if Joe Biden wanted to do that, his party won’t let him,” Jordan said. “His party is controlled by the left. The left actually wants to destroy the oil and gas industry … They want to drive the oil and gas business out of business, and it just shows how out of touch they are. It would be nice if Joe Biden wanted to reverse policies but I don’t think he can because the radical left controls his party.”

Jordan said the “radical left” controlling the Democratic Party wants to defund the police, refuse to prosecute criminals, and open the nation’s borders.

“He may want to change, who knows, but his party won’t let him and that’s why, I think, this fall there is going to be a big change … in the midterm election.”

Jordan accused Democrats of wanting $8-a-gallon gas prices, citing a previous hearing where Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna asked witnesses whether they pledged to decrease energy production.

Biden confirmed Friday that U.S. sanctions on Russia do not impact Russian oil and gas exports, which make up 40% of that country’s economy. Crude oil prices skyrocketed to over $100 per barrel following the invasion of Ukraine, the highest since 2014.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that reversing the administration’s current domestic energy policies will have no impact on rising gas prices.