John Hayward - Page 90

Russian scientist Dmitry Kolker reportedly died on Saturday, two days after he was arrested in Novosibirsk, dragged from the ward where he was receiving treatment for Stage Four cancer, and whisked to the infamous Lefortovo prison in Moscow.

The launch of China’s third aircraft carrier on June 17 was an expected – actually slightly delayed, thanks to coronavirus lockdowns – step toward the aggressive Communist power challenging the ability of the United States and its NATO allies to project power across the seas.

America celebrates its independence on the Fourth of July, while captive people around the world hope they might one day celebrate their own.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, commonly known by the nickname “Jokowi,” said on Friday after meeting with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia that the situation between them is “still very difficult.”

Hong Kong human rights protesters say fervent Chinese Communist Party supporters assaulted them during the FIBA World Cup qualifier basketball match between China and Australia in Melbourne on Thursday night.

Mayor Victor Hugo Sosa of the small Mexican town of San Pedro Huamelula ceremonially married an alligator on Thursday. The mayor happily obliged repeated urgings from the crowd to kiss his blushing bride.

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping arrived in Hong Kong via train on Thursday afternoon to attend Friday’s 25th-anniversary commemoration of the United Kingdom ceding control of the island to Beijing.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Thursday announced its forces have withdrawn from Snake Island, which Russia occupied on the first day of its war against Ukraine.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) on Tuesday announced the Chinese Communist Party had barred at least ten local and international media organizations — including Reuters, Bloomberg News, AFP, and the South China Morning Post — from covering the 25th anniversary of the United Kingdom handing Hong Kong over to China.

Iran’s state-run PressTV on Tuesday mocked Vice President Kamala Harris for her remarks on the Dobbs abortion decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.

A poll released by Gallup on Tuesday found the world “sadder, more worried, and more stressed-out” in 2021 than the year before, pushing its “negative experience index” to a record high of 33 points in the first year of U.S. President Joe Biden’s term.

The deadly synthetic opioid known as fentanyl is hitting New Zealand hard, and drug abuse experts say the authoritarian government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was completely unprepared for its arrival.

A report published last week by the National Association of Scholars (NAS) warns that China’s state-run Confucius Institutes – a program for spreading Chinese Communist political influence on American campuses, disguised as harmless lessons in traditional Chinese culture and language – are making a comeback by “rebranding” and reopening under new names.

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday reported an unseasonable spike in influenza cases across southern China blamed by government doctors on “weak immunity” due to “low exposure to respiratory pathogens affected by prevention and control measures against COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus].”

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday reversed a good deal of spin from Beijing by admitting that U.S. demand for Chinese goods is falling sharply enough to damage the Chinese economy. 

Cai Qi, the Chinese Communist Party secretary of Beijing, told state media Monday that the city would adhere to its “zero-Covid” policy of lockdowns and quarantines for the next five years.

Leftist commentator Danny Haiphong, who contributes to Chinese state media outlets, touted on Sunday the easy availability of abortions in China and other authoritarian nations, including the psychotic dictatorship of North Korea, as evidence of their superiority over the United States.

The Biden White House announced on Monday that Russia defaulted on its international bonds for the first time in over a century, ostensibly because the pressure of international sanctions is crushing the Russian government financially.

Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) nations on Sunday announced a $600 billion infrastructure plan for developing nations – a program clearly intended to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). 

Hu Xijin, a top Chinese communist propagandist and former editor of the state-run Global Times, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday for overturning Roe w. Wade. Hu saluted abortion and sneered at the supposed hypocrisy of a “U.S. that advocates human rights vigorously.”

Nigerian Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife Beatrice Nwanneka Ekweremadu were arrested in London on Tuesday and charged with planning to bring a 15-year-old boy into the United Kingdom so they could harvest his organs.

Even as the U.S. Supreme Court was preparing to hand down its historic Dobbs decision on abortion law, Brazil was wrestling with a controversy revolving around an 11-year-old girl who was raped by a 13-year-old boy and sought an abortion.

John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR), wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, and the heads of several congressional committees on Wednesday complaining that the Biden administration abruptly stopped cooperating with his investigations after he issued a report critical of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

U.S. officials said Thursday that the Taliban has not officially requested assistance in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday that reportedly killed over a thousand people.

Two weeks after one of China’s most popular social media personalities, “Lipstick King” Li Jiaqi, abruptly disappeared over a minor and probably unintentional defiance of Chinese Communist Party dogma, Beijing is cracking down on other livestreamers by publishing a list of “norms” they could be instantly sent to the digital gulag for violating.

Despite his international pariah status after invading Ukraine, Russian leader Vladimir Putin was a welcome guest at the 14th summit meeting of the BRICS forum on Thursday.

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping delivered a keynote address to the BRICS Business Forum on Wednesday that urged foreign investors to “do business in China” despite growing concerns about its costly coronavirus lockdowns, unsteady economy, unfair trade practices, human rights abuses, refusal to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and territorial aggression.

Colombia’s currency and stock index fell sharply on Tuesday, a market aftershock to the election of leftist former guerrilla Gustavo Petro as president on Sunday. 

Netta D’Souza, a top official with the opposition All India Congress Committee (AICC) party, was arrested on Tuesday for spitting on female police officers during a rancorous protest against the investigation of party member Rahul Gandhi for money laundering charges.

The heatwave in northern and central China grew even worse on Wednesday, with temperatures of 105 degrees and higher reported. Shandong, one of the most populous provinces in China, bumped several of its cities to the highest level of heat alert. 

China’s state-run Global Times on Tuesday railed at length against the alleged “unilateralism, protectionism, and bullying” of America’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) – but also admitted the law is working as intended, even before it officially went into effect on Tuesday.

Russian doubles tennis player Natela Dzalamidze found a simple solution to widespread bans against Russian players in international sports after the invasion of Ukraine: she changed her nationality to Georgian and will therefore be allowed to play at Wimbledon with her Serbian doubles partner, Aleksandra Krunic.

China’s trifecta of summertime natural disasters includes torrential rain, tornadoes, and a blistering heat wave in the north.

The government of India this weekend followed up on its feisty refusal to apologize for buying huge amounts of Russian oil by refusing to apologize for buying huge amounts of Russian coal.

Tuesday marked the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which passed Congress last year and was signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2021.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele told his constituents on Saturday night to stop worrying about the price of bitcoin and “enjoy life.” At Bukele’s urging, El Salvador became the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender in June 2021.