The World Blog by humble servant.

The White House repeatedly refused on Friday to rule out the possibility that President Joe Biden could pardon his son Hunter Biden or brother James Biden if suspected financial crimes related to business dealings in China are proven in court, despite questions from multiple journalists and a growing volume of articles on the subject. “That’s not a hypothetical I’m going to entertain,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told a room full of journalists after she was asked whether the president had considered a pardon for his son Hunter or brother James, both of whom are being investigated for financial impropriety regarding a business deal with Chinese firm CEFC China Energy. Asked about the president’s continued insistence that there was nothing “unethical” and that Hunter Biden had made no money from “this thing about what you’re talking about, China,” Bedingfield doubled down on the elder Biden’s denial – made over a year earlier – that his son was guilty of any ...

After Russia began its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, the West was quick to condemn it and to impose further sanctions. The United Nations, EU meetings, and even NATO summits became the stage for Western countries and their satrapies to repeat their pledge of allegiance to the United States. But naturally there were some countries that, although they didn’t outright side with Russia, didn’t condemn its military operation either. While Western commentariats, think-tankers and bureaucrats expected this from China, they were somehow shocked to see a similar reaction come from India. Motions against Russia at the UN Security Council and the General Assembly saw abstentions by India. This was viewed with shock, anger, and disgust by the usual suspects in the West, who for some reason consider India to be an American colony due to their mutual distrust of China. However, it seems that these Western intellectuals have forgotten their history. India and Non-Alignment...

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has announced that introducing a total ban on Russian gas imports has been ruled out because the bloc would not be able to pass a unanimous vote due to Hungary’s position. “A unanimous decision cannot be taken because there is one country, Hungary, which has said it will veto it,” the politician said in an interview with the Spanish outlet COPE. At the same time, Borrell seemed to acknowledge Budapest’s position, saying, “Giving up what you don't have is easy,” adding that countries that are much more reliant on Russian gas imports are in a difficult position right now. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, who recently won re-election, said last week that Russian gas is his country’s only option, as the country is landlocked and wouldn’t be able to directly receive liquified gas from the US. “It’s not about putting on a sweater at night, or turning down the heating a little or paying a bit more for gas, it’s about the fact that if there...

The Central European nation has also reportedly supplied Kiev with howitzer artillery pieces and Soviet-made BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, the Wall Street Journal has said. The supplies had been funded by the Czech government and some private donors, who joined the government-backed crowdfunding campaign. The western nations have been supplying Ukraine with weapons, ammunition and fuel almost since the start of the Russian military operation there in late February. Most deliveries included portable anti-tank and anti-air missiles as well as small arms so far. Australia said earlier this week it has been flying Bushmaster armored vehicles into Europe to hand them over to Ukraine. German media also earlier reported Berlin greenlighted German self-propelled howitzer deliveries to Ukraine by some other European nations. NATO member states in Central and Eastern Europe are also concerned with the fact that they are virtually unable to supply Ukraine’s needs since the Ukrainian army...

As the world is becoming more unstable, the “potential for significant international conflict is increasing, not decreasing”, the top US military officer told lawmakers on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley defended the record-setting $773 billion budget the US Department of Defense is requesting for the fiscal year 2023 at a grueling House Armed Services Committee hearing. The hearing saw innumerable mentions of US adversaries Russia and China, both of whom are perceived as a threat to US global power in Washington. Milley dubbed Russia's attack on Ukraine “the greatest threat to peace and security of Europe and perhaps the world” in his 42 years serving in the US military. However, it was “heartening” to see the world rally around Ukraine, he added. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine is threatening to undermine not only European peace and stability but global peace and stability that my parents and a generat...

Beijing is on the verge of making a breakthrough in its nuclear arms capabilities that would see a major shift in global security balance, Admiral Charles Richard, the head of the US Strategic Command, has written in testimony prepared for a hearing on Capitol Hill, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The admiral is scheduled to meet the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee at a closed-door hearing on Tuesday. China’s “breathtaking expansion” of its strategic nuclear arsenal means a rapidly escalating risk to Washington, Richard believes. The admiral particularly refers to an intercontinental ballistic missile-launched hypersonic glider test the Chinese military conducted in July 2021. The test saw the hypersonic vehicle flying some 40,000 kilometers for more than 100 minutes, according to the testimony. It was “the greatest distance and longest flight time of any land attack weapon system of any nation to date,” Richard said, according to Bloomberg. This technological advancement on...

UK PM Boris Johnson is awaiting the finishing touches on a “secretive deal worth millions” by which migrants who enter the UK illegally would be put on planes and flown to Rwanda for processing. London would pay the landlocked East African country for its trouble, UK media report, citing “a government source.” Johnson was on the verge of announcing the deal last week following a surge in unauthorized migration across the English Channel but postponed the statement pending the completion of the deal’s final details, the source claims. The Times reports that the terms of the pay-to-process Rwanda scheme cannot be finalized until royal assent is given to the Nationality and Borders Bill, proposed legislation to allow immigration authorities to process asylum seekers abroad. However, the bill has so far failed to make it past the House of Lords. READ MORE: Britain bears responsibility for migrant deaths – Macron Key disagreements between the upper and lower chambers of the British Par...

Russia tends to think the West is enabling ‘hysteria’ around the alleged mass killings in the Ukrainian town of Bucha to derail the peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed on Tuesday. Purported events in the town, which he referred to as a ‘provocation,’ have been introduced just at the time progress was being made at the peace negotiations in Istanbul, Lavrov said. “We tend to think that the reason lies in the desire to find a reason to disrupt the ongoing negotiations. Moreover, to do it at the very moment when, as they say, the light dawned, not very bright, but still. On March 29, for the first time in the entire period of contacts between our delegations, the Ukrainian side proposed a written vision of how the treaty could look in terms of the status of Ukraine and security guarantees,” the minister said. According to Lavrov, in the course of negotiations with Russia, Ukraine had "for the first time put on paper" its readiness to d...

Photos of people in Ukraine being tied to lamp posts and sprayed with green antiseptic dye appeared on social media on Monday. According to reports, they were taken in the western city of Lviv. The victims are reportedly Roma (also known as Gypsies). Several people, including teenagers and families with women and children, were reportedly tied to lamp posts with duct tape, their faces sprayed with antiseptic dye known as ‘zelyonka’ in former Soviet countries. The green-colored substance is very difficult to wash away and can cause chemical burns to the eyes. According to local media, the victims were punished for trying to steal from passengers on a bus. However, there are claims on social media that they were only trying to steal food, as they were starving after escaping from Some social media users say the harsh punishment was due to the victims’ nationality. The atrocious act has been blamed on members of Territorial Defense Forces, a recently established volunteer branch of the U...

The nationalization of assets is a double-edged weapon, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed, during a government meeting in response to some Western countries proposing to seize Russian assets abroad. “We’re already hearing announcements coming from some officials about the possible nationalization of some of our assets. Well, this can be taken very far. Let no one forget that this is a double-edged weapon,” he cautioned on Tuesday. Putin noted that the situation in the global energy sphere has significantly worsened as a result of “crude and non-market measures” introduced by foreign partners, including the mounting of pressure on Russia’s gas giant Gazprom. Putin accused European nations of trying to “shift the blame for their own mistakes in economy and energy onto Russia.” Germany seizes Russian gas companyREAD MORE: Germany seizes Russian gas company Last Thursday, the president signed a decree that required countries that have slapped Moscow with sanctions to pay fo...

Footage published on Ukrainian social media on Tuesday appeared to show people in uniform beating up and harassing detainees. The mayor of the country's fourth largest city, Dnepr, close to where the incidents happened, justified the mistreatment on social media, branding the arrestees as “crime bosses” and claiming they previously attacked members of the region’s militia. The graphic footage includes two separate videos, showing armed people in military fatigues brutally arresting men in civilian clothes. The troops are wearing the same kind of blue armbands that Ukrainian soldiers often use to identify their allegiance. One clip shows troops beating up a man, who is standing with his legs spread and bowing down, with blood apparently visible. The perpetrators then turn their attention to another man, his face bloodied and his pants apparently stained with urine, for which the assailants mocked him. The soldiers questioned the detainees, asking whether they respected the milita...

NATO plans to deepen its cooperation with partners in Asia as a response to a rising “security challenge” coming from China, which refuses to condemn Russia’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a press conference on Tuesday. He announced that the bloc will host foreign ministers from member states as well as Finland, Sweden, Georgia, and the EU. However, he also noted that NATO’s Asia-Pacific partners such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea have been invited as well, stating that the current security crisis has “global implications.” The ministers will discuss new strategic concepts which will account for the military conflict in Ukraine, but will also include for the first time the issue of China’s “growing influence and coercive policies on the global stage which pose a systemic challenge to our security and to our democracies.” “We see that China has been unwilling to condemn Russia’s aggression and has joined Mos...

Beijing has mocked Washington’s pressure to make China take a side in the Ukrainian conflict, claiming it’s just a thinly veiled threat. In a caricature posted on Twitter by Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Zhao Lijian, on Saturday, a dark human figure is pictured with a gun held to its head by a hand painted in the US flag’s colors. The caption overhead reads “Take (my) Side!” According to the Chinese diplomat, this is exactly what the US means when it “pressures others to take sides.” Lijian appears to have a soft spot for caricatures, having posted several others over the past month. In mid-March, the Chinese official posted a world map featuring only the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, titled “the ‘international community’ you always hear about.” Lijian suggested that this is what the West really means when it talks about the international community. In February, following the start of Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine, the Chinese Foreign M...

Russia won’t be seeking gas payments from “unfriendly states” in rubles immediately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, noting that the switch is likely to be a “gradual process.” “Nobody is in a rush,” Peskov told reporters. He explained “This is the move in stages, very cautious, with consideration of financial and economic realities existing on global markets. Certainly, there is no room for sudden changes.” According to Peskov, this must be an “absolutely thought-out, gradual and carefully calibrated activity. It is impossible to act otherwise.” On March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that provides for a new procedure of payments for Russian gas by buyers from unfriendly countries from April 1. The measure concerns countries that imposed economic sanctions on Russia and froze Moscow’s foreign reserves. Putin also indicated that all of the nation’s energy and commodity exports could soon be priced in rubles.

Retreating Ukrainian forces have allegedly blown up a tank allegedly containing hydrochloric acid, at a chemical plant in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) town of Rubezhnoe, which has emerged as a flashpoint in the ongoing military conflict. The tank explosion was aimed at a populated area, controlled by local fighters, the LPR's militia claimed on Tuesday. “[These] terrorist actions might lead to mass civilian casualties,” the force warned on its Telegram channel, adding that authorities are currently collecting information about any casualties resulting from The LPR has also accused Ukrainian media of “actively spreading fakes” that Donbass fighters had blown up the tank themselves. They said Kiev has been doing this in order to cover up “the criminal terrorist actions” of its own forces. Earlier on Tuesday, the Kiev-nominated governor of Lugansk, Sergey Gaidai, stated in his Telegram channel that a Russian projectile had hit a nitric acid tank in the area, and call...

Despite accusing Russian troops of genocide, Ukraine cannot stop negotiating with Moscow, President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalists on Tuesday. He said he had “no other choice” but to keep channels of communication open. Zelensky sat for an hour-long interview with Ukrainian media a day after visiting Bucha, a Kiev suburb, from which Russian troops withdrew last week. Days after the pullout, Ukrainian officials accused Russian soldiers of committing war crimes during the time they were present in the area. Zelensky claimed the evidence gathered in Bucha indicated the crime of genocide was committed by Russia against the Ukrainian people. Moscow has denied the allegations and said Kiev was playing the public with staged scenes of brutality that it then falsely blamed on Russian troops. Asked by journalists how he envisioned continuing diplomatic talks with Moscow after making the allegations, Zelensky said it would be a “challenge” due to domestic pressure, but said he realized ...

The gruesome clip emerged on social media on Tuesday, purportedly showing the execution of Russian prisoners of war by Kiev’s troops in Ukraine. The video starts with the apparent murder of a severely wounded Russian serviceman, who was lying on a road. “Look, he’s still alive. He’s wheezing,” a voice said off screen before shots were fired at the defenseless soldier. It then shows the bodies of several more Russian troops, scattered on the ground nearby in puddles of blood, as armed men with Ukrainian military insignia on their uniforms cheer as they walk among them. At least one of the prisoners of war in the footage has his hands tied behind his back, and was apparently executed with a shot to the head at point-blank range. Some media outlets suggested that other soldiers may have had their throats slit. The Ukrainian troops in the video are seen shouting “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to Heroes!” – a nationalist slogan adopted by the country’s military – and discussing what gear the...

The US authorities have stopped the Russian government from paying holders of its sovereign debt more than $600 million from reserves frozen in American bank accounts. “Russia must choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in, or default,” a US Treasury spokesperson said on Monday as the largest of the payments came due, including a $552.4 million principal payment on a maturing bond. An $84 million coupon payment was due on the same day on a 2042 sovereign dollar bond. JPMorgan, which had been processing payments as a correspondent bank heretofore, was stopped by the US regulator, according to a source familiar with the issue, as cited by Reuters. Now Russia has a 30-day grace period to make the payment. Russia’s foreign currency reserves held by the country’s central bank at US financial institutions had been previously frozen as part of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine. Russia settles another doll...

Russian bailiffs are seeking to forcibly recover a 2 billion ruble fine (approximately $24 million) from the American company Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram and is designated by Moscow as an extremist organization. According to the Federal Bailiffs Service (FSSP) database, the enforcement proceedings were launched on March 24 in accordance with the Tagansky district court’s decision. Meta’s “systematic failure to delete prohibited information” was listed as the reason for issuing a fine of 1,990,984,950.05 rubles. On February 15, the Tagansky district court in Moscow upheld the fine for Meta, which was imposed on the company in December 2021. Minimum turnover fines on the company and another American tech giant, Google, in the amount of 5% of their 2020 revenue, were issued for their multiple refusals to remove information considered illegal in Russia. The fine for Meta exceeded 1.99 billion rubles, the penalty for Google – 7.2 billion rubles (more than $86 million). Meta ap...

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has commended the Russian ruble on its resilience in the face of international sanctions, imposed in light of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine. “The ruble has shown a strong resistance capacity. Putin now insists that they pay him for gas in rubles to maintain the currency. We’ll see what happens,“ Borrell told Spanish COPE outlet on Tuesday. The statement comes as the ruble has recently made a recovery and bounced back almost to values seen just before the conflict began, despite the sweeping sanctions imposed by the West against Russia for its military operation in Ukraine. Previously, the Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki used the ruble’s resilience as evidence of Western sanctions having no effect on Russia. “I must say this very clearly: The sanctions we have imposed so far don’t work. The best evidence is the ruble exchange rate,” said Morawiecki on Saturday. Anti-Russian sanctions don’t work – Poland The strengthening of the...

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed, on Tuesday, that Ukrainian security services have staged more alleged killings of civilians in several towns and villages in order to elicit sympathy by prompting media headlines in the West. Officials believe that Kiev is trying to create a narrative of Moscow being responsible for war crimes. Moscow insists that the same tactics were used by Kiev to blame Russian forces for atrocities in the town of Bucha last week. “The troops of the 72nd Ukrainian Main Center for Psychological Operations conducted another staged filming of civilians allegedly killed by violent actions of the Russian armed forces in order for it to be distributed through the Western media,” spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said during a briefing. According to “confirmed information,” the filming took place in the village of Moschun some 23km northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Monday, he insisted. Similar false flag operations have been carried out by the Ukrain...

Germany has taken ownership of a local branch of Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom. Berlin’s energy regulator will temporarily control the company despite Moscow’s previous insistence that such a move would be illegal. Gazprom Germania, a subsidiary of the Saint Petersburg-based firm, operates some of the country’s largest natural gas storage facilities. Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced the decision on Monday, arguing it would mean that Germany’s energy infrastructure is not “subject to arbitrary decisions by the Kremlin.” “The arrangement of the trust administration serves to protect public safety and order and to maintain the security of supply,” Habeck told reporters, adding that the step “is urgently necessary” to ensure the “security of supply in Germany.” Germany mulls nationalizing Gazprom, Rosneft branches – reportsREAD MORE: Germany mulls nationalizing Gazprom, Rosneft branches – reports The minister said the Gazprom branch would come under the trusteeshi...

Pyongyang’s nuclear forces would have no other choice, but to respond if the South decides to attack the country, Kim Yo Jong, a key adviser to her brother, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has said. It was her second warning in three days, following Seoul’s claim that it could carry out a preemptive a strike against its neighbor. “In case South Korea adopts military confrontation against us, our nuclear combat forces are inevitably obliged to carry out its mission,” she said as cited by KCNA state news agency. Seoul would “suffer a terrible disaster unimaginable by far, if its army violates even an inch of our land,” Kim added. “It is not a threat,” but only an explanation of how Pyongyang would react to hypothetical “reckless” actions by its neighbor, the member of North Korea’s State Affairs Commission pointed out. She was referring to last week’s statements by South Korean defense minister Suh Wook, who mentioned the possibility of a preemptive strike against Pyongyang. Seoul...

The US has tested a hypersonic missile designed by Lockheed Martin for the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program, a defense official cited by CNN on Monday has claimed. The Biden administration supposedly kept the trial secret not to antagonize Russia further. According to the CNN source, the scramjet missile was launched from a B-52 bomber off the west coast and traveled at an altitude of 65,000 feet (20,000 m) for more than 300 miles (480 km). The source did not disclose the speed of the projectile, though it should have been at least Mach-5, which is considered the low range for hypersonic weapons. It was the second reported successful test under the HAWC program, which is run jointly by the US Air Force and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Last September, DARPA announced it had tested a scramjet missile prototype produced jointly by Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman, without offering any details. Both variants use a booster sta...