Category: Opinion

Ukraine President Zelensky’s leadership has surprised people all over the world and likely Putin himself. Monday he emerged from his bunker in Kyiv and returned to the presidential palace, declaring: ‘I am here, I am not hiding, and I am not afraid of anyone.”

Zelensky warned the West that Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be satisfied with conquering Ukraine. “We will come first,” he said. “You will come second because the more this beast will eat, he wants more, more, and more.”

Zelensky declared Ukraine a ‘zone of freedom’ that needs to be preserved.

Zelensky said, “we used to say Monday, Monday is a hard day, but it is war in our country, so every day is a hard day,” and on day 12 of the Russian invasion he addressed his country saying, “We are all in our places working, where we should be, my team is in Kyiv with me. We are all fighting, we are all contributing to our victory which will surely happen.”

President Joe Biden spoke with Zelesky over the weekend and discussed the enforcement of a no-fly zone.

Such a move would see fighter jets from the United States and its NATO allies patrolling the air space above Ukraine, and taking out any Russian jets that enter – effectively putting the West at war with Russia, in World War Three.

Zelensky expressed concern about the dramatic escalation and insisted it was the best way for the U.S. to help Ukraine.

“I told him that for us, the most important thing today is the security in the sky,” he said.

“We cannot allow Russia to be active there only, because they’re bombing us, they are shelling us, they are bombing us, they are sending missiles, helicopters, jet fighters – a lot of things.”

A mummified “mermaid” that is said to grant immortality to whoever eats its flesh, will be studied by scientists looking to find its true nature. The creature is believed to have been caught in the Pacific Ocean, off the Japanese island of Shikoku, between 1736 and 1761, and is currently being kept in a temple in the city of Asakuchi.

The creature has some human features such as two hands and hair on its head and brow, but it also has razor-sharp pointed teeth, and a fish-like lower half complete with a tail.

Hiroshi Kinoshita of the Okayama Folklore Society, who’s in charge of the project, said the mummy could have religious significance.

“Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality,” he said. “It is said that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid, you will never die. The is a legend in many parts of Japan that a woman accidentally ate the flesh of a mermaid and lived for 800 years.”

In the age of COVID-19, a mermaid could be a dark omen according to folklore.

“There is also a legend that a mermaid predicted an infectious disease,” warned Hiroshi.

A historic letter dated 1903, written by a former owner stored with the mummy tells of its origin.

“A mermaid was caught in a fish-catching net in the sea off Kochi Prefecture,” the letter states.

The fishermen who caught it did not know it was a mermaid, but took it to Osaka and sold it as an unusual fish.

“My ancestors bought it and kept it as a family treasure.”

It’s unknown how or when the mummy came to the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi.

According to the chief priest, Kozen Kuida, it was put in a glass display case 40 years ago and is currently in a fireproof safe.

During the “State of the Union,” Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio responded to Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s calls to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Graham’s statements urging that the Russian people assassinate Putin on Thursday, according to Rubio, were merely exaggeration in response to the “frustration” people are feeling as a result of the ongoing issue.

“People are watching these images, they are seeing what’s happening there—people being murdered and suffering—it makes you angry,” Rubio said. “And you want something to happen and you reach the conclusion ‘well, wouldn’t it be great if someone internally just took this guy and eliminated it.’ That’s not the official policy of the United States, no one’s talking about the U.S. doing it.”

“Lindsey will have to answer for what he meant by that other than to say I think he’s expressing the frustration a lot of people have that these horrible things are happening and there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do that immediately brings an end to it and it’s very frustrating for people.”

Rubio said he foresees the fall of Putin’s power in the near future and he hopes the Russian president will stand trial for war crimes.

Graham’s comments calling for Putin’s assassination cost him a great deal of backlash from both sides of the political aisle. Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called his remarks “an exceptionally bad idea,” instead urging for the U.S. to impose harsher sanctions and “boycott” Russia’s energy sector.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that assassinating a head of state “is not the position of the United States government” and that the administration will continue to push for “diplomatic” solutions to end the conflict with Russia.

 

A New Mexico woman has been arrested after causing a crash that killed an officer and a retired firefighter and then lying about having been carjacked.

Jeannine Jaramillo, 46, faces charges including two counts of first-degree murder, authorities said in a news conference Saturday, after initially claiming she was a victim.

The car chase that led to the crash on Interstate 25 near Santa Fe Wednesday took the lives of Officer Robert Duran, 43, and retired firefighter Frank Lovato, 62.

Lovato was driving his personal vehicle and not involved with the pursuit.

Jaramillo initially claimed she had been carjacked at knifepoint, according to authorities. She was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries then released.

She was arrested Saturday, according to a New Mexico State Police news release, after evidence submitted to a lab Friday showed Jaramillo was the sole driver of the stolen vehicle involved in the crash.

DNA found on the airbag belonged to Jaramillo and evidence showed there had only been one person inside the vehicle at the time of the crash, according to New Mexico State Police.

Search warrant affidavits filed to seek DNA and evidence from Jaramillo’s cellphone said a police officer saw a woman get out of Jaramillo’s car but no other person.

She also faces charges of reckless homicide by vehicle, receiving and transferring a stolen vehicle, and tampering with evidence, according to the Santa Fe District Attorney’s office.

‘I believe the arrest of Jeannine Jaramillo has made our community safer,’ said Tim Johnson, chief of the New Mexico State Police

‘Her actions put the entire public in danger and took the lives of two dedicated public servants.’

Police had said immediately after the crash they were searching for a suspect described by Jaramillo as a man she’d dated briefly and that he had abducted her from an apartment complex following an argument.

Authorities said her story was ‘suspiciously similar’ to a statement she had given in a September 2021 case, when she reported that a man held her against her will with a knife to her neck and that he hid on the floorboard of the vehicle.

At the time she was charged with receiving a stolen vehicle, aggravated fleeing, and possession of methamphetamine, authorities said.

Court documents show Jaramillo was previously involved in pursuits in Cibola County in September and October.

She had told officers she had been carjacked but no other person was found.

Prosecutors dismissed both cases ‘pending further investigation.’

Jaramillo had said Friday that she was abducted, feared for her life, and didn’t see the man get out of the car after the crash because she blacked out briefly.

‘I crawled out the driver’s side window, I fell to the ground and I looked up and there was the police, and I just ran for my life, and I was screaming, “help me,”‘ Jaramillo said.

‘I’m crying, I was hysterical, I was in shock.’

Jaramillo had said it was wrong to suggest she was alone in the car.

‘I think people should understand that, when you are involved in a situation like that, I don’t think that it is right for them to say things that have their opinion, like that, until they are in a situation like that themselves,’ Jaramillo said.

In a perverse robbery, a box of human heads was stolen from a freight truck in Denver on Sunday.

Police said the box of human heads was stolen from a freight truck parked on East 23rd Avenue sometime between 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

The words, “Science Care” were printed on the side of the box. Science Care is an organization where people can donate their bodies for scientific research and education. The box was also labeled as an “Exempt Human Specimen.” The heads were to be used for medical research.

Isaac Fields said the discovery was “pretty shocking,” but that it was possible the heads were being used for research.

“I guess I don’t see too many strange things happening around here usually, but you know you never know,” Fields said.

“Well, my wife actually does Ph.D. research at the University of Colorado Anschutz,” he explained. “So cadavers are definitely utilized in certain situations. And I’m assuming that was probably the case.”

It’s unclear whether the suspect knew what was in the box at the time of the theft.

A public information officer for the Denver Police Department said that police are “working on gathering more information about the case, identifying the suspect or suspects, and recovering the stolen items.” Additionally, anyone with tips about the case can contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers. No arrests have been made at this time.

Anyone who finds the box of human heads is encouraged to call the police.

American citizens had their accounts frozen during the Hong Kong protests and Congress is demanding answerers from a multinational British investment bank.

In a letter from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) to HSBC Group Chief Executive Noel Quinn, Congress raised “questions and concerns” regarding “restrictions placed on the accounts of American citizens and the freezing of accounts of Hong Kong activists, independent media, and civic groups,” demanding the second largest bank in Europe to “justify” why such actions were taken and if “actions were requested by Hong Kong authorities or officials from the People’s Republic of China” in the wake of the June 2020 National Security Law.

Signed by a bipartisan group of 13 senators and congressmen, the bicameral Feb. 28 letter also pressed HSBC on whether or not its actions were “consistent with HSBC’s stated policies and the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

The letter noted Apple Daily executives, publisher Jimmy Lai, his aide Mark Simon, and CEO Cheung Kim-hung also had their accounts targeted by HSBC.

“What shocked me most about the HSBC freezing of my Hong Kong account was how I was banned by HSBC US, still am, from sending wires and how HSBC staff in the U.S. at my branch knew much more of my situation with HSBC HK than was rational,” Mark Simon said.

“It wasn’t just my checking accounts that were frozen, it was business accounts,” he said. “I missed payments and payrolls.”

The National Security Law followed Hong Kong’s 2019-2020 protests which opposed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) violations of the principle of “one country, two systems.” Among other things, the “one country, two systems” framework assured the special administrative region of its legal system.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on July 16 that the National Security Law had “systematically undermined Hong Kong’s democratic institutions.”

In June 2020, Peter Tung-shun Wong, former CEO of HSBC Asia, signed a petition supporting the National Security Law. The petition read: “Anti-Hong Kong Independence, Anti-Subversion, Anti-Terrorism, Anti-Intervention.”

Wong is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a Communist Party organization that has been described as “the peak United Front forum, bringing together CCP officials and Chinese elites” by a June 2020 Australian Strategic Policy Institute report.

The CECC letter stated the National Security Law had “put almost the entirety of the city’s opposition figures behind bars and denied bail to most” before rewriting “electoral rules to allow only ‘patriots’ fully vetted by the national security police to run in future elections.”

Blinken also said the legislation had “delayed elections, disqualified elected lawmakers from office, and forced officials to take loyalty oaths to keep their jobs,” according to his July 2021 remarks.

In October 2021, hundreds of politicians in Hong Kong were obliged to swear loyalty oaths to the CCP. Communist Party officials later concluded 49 of the politicians had made disingenuous

loyalty oaths and as a result faced prosecution, according to a Bloomberg report.

The CECC letter claimed that HSBC closed the “corporate account used to raise funds” for a non-profit which “provided legal, medical, food, and education assistance to protestors.”

The “former pro-democracy legislator” Ted Hui and his family members, as well as Pastor Ray Chan and his church, had their bank accounts frozen by HSBC, according to the letter from Congress.

Asking HSBC to “reverse all actions taken” against “the accounts of American citizens or legal permanent residents,” the CECC letter also urged HSBC to “answer directly” if its actions had in any way contributed to the erosion of “freedom of assembly, speech, press, or independent rule of law” or undermined participation in “democratic outcomes.”

YouTube suspended popular news channel The Hill for playing a clip of former President Donald Trump arguing the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

YouTube channel The Hill was suspended and will not be able to upload videos for seven days. The morning show, “Rising,” violated policies when it posted two clips of Trump denying the validity of the results of the election. New videos cannot be posted during the suspension but older videos can still be accessed.

“We covered former President Trump’s remarks about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Rising’s Twitter account said. “In a soundbite, he repeated his claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Our discussion focused on what Trump said about Putin and did not explicitly rebut claims of election fraud.”

The clips in question featured Trump speaking with News host Laura Ingraham and attributing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the election results, as well as raw footage of Trump speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he continued to deny the validity of the election results.

“It’s hard to understand how the cause of fighting misinformation could be well-served by punishing news channels that educate viewers about what their political leaders are saying,” Rising host Robby Soave said.

YouTube policy communications manager Ivy Choi confirmed that the channel had been suspended for posting content in violation of YouTube’s policies.

“We removed content from and issued a strike to this channel for violating our election integrity policy, and as a result, this channel is suspended from publishing new videos or live streams for seven days,” Choi said. “We do allow for content with sufficient educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context, which the removed content did not contain.”

Soave addressed the suspension in an article for Reason, saying that YouTube’s expansive election integrity policy “effectively outlaws straight news reporting on YouTube.”

“It is one thing for YouTube to ban people who are making false claims,” Soave wrote. “It is quite another for YouTube to prohibit people from educating their viewers about the reality that the former president is still spreading these false claims.”

Fox News host Sean Hannity suggested Wednesday that the U.S. should assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin in light of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Hannity began the segment by calling Putin a “murdering thug” that needs to be stopped by any means necessary. He also said the Russian leader had forfeited his “right to live” due to the thousands of civilian casualties he is responsible for, many of them being “children and women.”

“It’s a simple rule in life. If you invade an innocent country and you kill women and children and men, you forfeit your right to lead a country and you forfeit your right to live. And I hope the people around Vladimir Putin take action sooner than later.”

“Now currently the U.S. operates under a decades-old executive order signed by [former President] Gerald Ford that prohibits the U.S. government employees from engaging in political assassinations. But my final question tonight is when it comes to Putin, is it now time to visit the rule? My rule I like better. New rule. You invade a sovereign country, you kill innocent men, women and children, you forfeit your right to run a country and you forfeit your life to live. It’s that simple.”

“Cut off the head of the snake, the snake dies,” Hannity concluded.

Ford signed Executive Order 11905 into effect on Feb. 18, 1976, which prohibits any member of the U.S. government from conspiring in foreign and political assassination attempts. The order was later superseded by former President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, whose executive orders were slightly different.

Since Russia’s Feb. 25 invasion, Ukraine had reported more than 2,000 Ukrainian civilian deaths as of Wednesday. Ukraine’s Emergency Services said “children, women, and defense forces are losing their lives by the hour.”

Russian troops overtook the Ukrainian port city of Kherson on Wednesday. The city has more than 280,000 residents.

Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott said that he would be open to changing his proposed policy agenda that was released last week, reiterating that it came from him personally, not the Senate GOP, after it was criticized by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“I put out some policy ideas. I’m going to keep working on this. There’s going to be things people agree with and don’t agree with,” Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said. “This is what Rick Scott believes in, it’s not the Republican plan,” he added.

Scott’s plan was immediately met with pushback from Republican leaders, who said that it would invite attacks from Democrats and could potentially jeopardize their political momentum ahead of the midterm elections.

McConnell said during his press conference Tuesday that Scott’s plan would “not be part of the Republican Senate majority agenda” if they win back the chamber, specifically mentioning his proposal to apply an income tax to every American.

“We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years,” McConnell said. Scott spoke only moments before him, but he left the group when McConnell took the podium.

While many believe Republicans are the clear favorites to take back the House in November, the outcome of the 50-50 Senate remains far more uncertain.

Republicans are defending a seat in Wisconsin, where President Joe Biden won, as well as open seats in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, and Missouri. While the latter two have trended consistently Republican in recent years, Republicans are engaged in expensive and brutal primaries, and both states could ultimately nominate Republican candidates with a lot of baggage.

Democrats, however, are also defending weak incumbents in Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and New Hampshire, which Scott said he sees as pickup opportunities.

“We’re winning in Georgia, we’re winning in Nevada, we have an opportunity in Arizona, we have an opportunity in New Hampshire,” Scott said. “I think we can defend all 20 of our Republican seats, and I think we’re going to have some sleepers.”

President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he will reimpose economic sanctions on the operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

“I have directed my administration to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers,” Biden said in a statement. “These steps are another piece of our initial tranche of sanctions in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. As I have made clear, we will not hesitate to take further steps if Russia continues to escalate.”

The president added that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine has given the world an “overwhelming incentive to move away from Russian gas.” The sanctions, which target Nord Stream 2 AG, are the latest in a series of actions taken by the Biden administration in response to Russia’s actions.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered his economic ministry to suspend the certification of Nord Stream 2, which was completed in September, in response to Russia’s invasion of separatist-controlled territories in Ukraine on Monday.

The Biden administration signaled support for Germany’s action shortly after Scholz’s announcement.

When asked about additional measures Biden could take against the pipeline, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration had already acted on that front.

“Well, I would first say that, you know, the president has never been a supporter of Nord Stream 2,” Psaki told reporters Tuesday evening. “We’ve always criticized it as a — as a project that we didn’t support. We took a range of steps and sanctions — including sanctions, to make that very clear.”

However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken waived the sanctions placed on the direct Russia-to-Germany pipeline by former President Donald Trump in May. Biden approved the $11 billion project in July after a meeting with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The White House also urged Democrats to stop a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz that would have reimposed the sanctions but it failed to garner the required 60 votes needed to pass.

As recently as Wednesday, White House officials suggested that additional aggressive measures against Russia were not necessary.

“Sometimes I wonder if there’s almost a bloodlust out there for sanctions as an end to themselves,” White House Deputy National Security Advisor for international economics Daleep Singh said Wednesday. “But let me just be really clear. We did hit hard yesterday.”