News of the World

[kyonides]

Blinken Ends Central Asia Visit Without Changing Minds on Russia, Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day visit to Central Asia after meeting the leaders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

He also met with his counterparts from the C5+1 group of nations, which comprises Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the United States.
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During his visit, Blinken repeatedly stressed Washington’s commitment to the “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity” of the five Central Asian states.
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He also stressed Washington’s “full support for the aims of President Tokayev’s reform agenda” and the U.S. commitment “to working with government, civil society, and other Kazakh partners to advance the values shared by our two countries.”
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He commended Uzbekistan’s “regional leadership, especially through engaging in the C5+1 diplomatic format,” according to the State Department.
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The Central Asian region has historically been seen as Russia’s “backyard.” Like Ukraine, all five Central Asian states were Soviet republics before the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.

Although the Central Asian states maintain close ties with post-Soviet Russia, none of them has publicly endorsed Moscow’s year-old “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Nor, however, have they condemned it.

What did he expect?
The region is controlled by Russia and China, meaning there was pretty much no room for negotiations.

US Imposes Fresh Sanctions to Restrict North Korea’s Revenues

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Chilsong Trading Corporation, which it says is used by North Korea to earn foreign currency and collect intelligence; and Korea Paekho Trading Corporation, which is accused of generating funds for the North Korean regime since the 1980s by conducting art and construction projects throughout the Middle East and Africa.

OFAC also sanctioned two individuals—Hwang Kil Su and Pak Hwa Song—for helping the North Korean regime generate revenue, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The department said the individuals established a company named Congo Aconde SARL in the Democratic Republic of Congo to earn revenue from construction and statue-building projects with local governments.

Last week, state media said North Korea test-fired four strategic cruise missiles during a drill designed to demonstrate its ability to conduct a nuclear counterattack against what it calls hostile forces.

Chinese Donors to Trudeau Foundation
Asked for Statue of Mao to Be Erected at University of Montreal

Jeff Heinrich, a spokesperson for the University of Montreal, told The Epoch Times that the institution in 2016 received $550,000 from Zhang Bin and another donor, Niu Gensheng, which went toward establishing the Bin Zhang-Niu Gensheng Chinese-Canadian Scholarship Fund, although a final payment of $250,000 was never made.

The university declined the request to build the Mao statue.

Heinrich also noted that the university had no knowledge of the donation allegedly coming at the behest of a Chinese official, as reported recently in a Globe and Mail report citing a national security source.
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According to the Globe, Zhang was instructed by a Chinese diplomat to donate $1 million to the Trudeau Foundation, and that Beijing would reimburse him for the amount. The report adds that the conversation was captured by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in 2014, soon after Trudeau became Liberal leader in 2013, and that the diplomat and Zhang had discussed the upcoming 2015 federal election, and the possibility that the Liberals could defeat the Conservatives to form government.
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Zhang was a guest at a Liberal Party cash-for-access fundraiser event in 2016 with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Shortly after the 2016 fundraiser, Zhang and Niu donated $1 million to “honour the memory and leadership” of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, the Globe says. The amount was split for different initiatives, including the building of Pierre Trudeau’s statue, a donation to set up a scholarship at the University of Montreal’s faculty of law, where the former prime minister had attended as a student and was later an instructor, and a donation to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

In a September 2016 newsletter produced by the University of Montreal’s law school, Zhang and Niu were seen in a photo posing with Guy Breton, former rector of the University of Montreal, Alexandre Trudeau, then director and member of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, Peng Jingtao, then consul-general of China in Montreal, and Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens, who was the University of Montreal’s Dean of the Faculty of Law from 2015 to 2019.

Trudeau Foundation Returns $200,000 Donation
From Chinese Billionaire 7 Years Later

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is returning a controversial $200,000 donation it received seven years ago from a Chinese billionaire with ties to China’s communist regime.

Trudeau Foundation President Pascale Fournier announced in a statement on March 1 that the organization “learned in recent days through the media that there was a potential connection between the Chinese government and a 2016 pledge of $200,000 to be received by the Foundation.”
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“We cannot keep any donation that may have been sponsored by a foreign government and would not knowingly do so. In light of these recent allegations, the Foundation has refunded to the donor all amounts received with respect to the donation pledge,” he said.

Finnish Parliament Passes NATO Bill With Large Majority

Approval of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s treaties and Finland’s accession passed with 184 members of the 200-seat parliament voting in favor, seven against, and one abstaining.

In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland last May applied to join NATO.
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New NATO entrants must be approved by all existing members of the Western military alliance, and support for Finland’s application remains pending from Turkey and Hungary.

By adopting NATO’s founding documents, Finland may get a head start on neighboring Sweden, which has also applied to join but has had its application held back by Turkey.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said his country is ready to accept Finland into NATO but accuses Sweden of harboring people he considers members of terrorist groups.
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party will back the ratification of Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

US Homeland at Risk in CCP Taiwan Invasion: Army Secretary

“If we got into a war with China, the United States homeland would be at risk as well, with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks,” Wormuth said during a Feb. 27 discussion with the American Enterprise Institute.

“They are going to go after the will of the United States public. They’re going to try to erode its support for a conflict.”

In the event of such a catastrophic conflict, Wormuth said, it was likely that the CCP would conduct large-scale cyber and kinetic attacks on vital U.S. infrastructure including the power grid and natural gas pipelines.
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U.S. military leadership believes that the CCP is preparing for a full-scale amphibious invasion of the island, with various military officials predicting that fighting could break out in either 2025 or 2027.

With that in mind, Wormuth said that such a conflict would likely become a protracted war, drawing in numerous powers across the globe.
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To that end, Wormuth said the U.S. Army had two key priorities: “Helping Taiwan become a porcupine” by arming it with asymmetric strike capabilities, and “complicating China’s decision-making” by ensuring that the United States would have multiple regional partners engaged in the fight.

After witnessing Blinken's "success" in Central Asia, I don't know if the US can truly rely on all of its regional partners. Just keep in mind the Philippino President paying a visit to the infamous Xi!

Senate Votes Unanimously to Declassify COVID-19 Wuhan Lab Leak Intelligence

The bill, known as the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023, specifically aims to investigate the possibility that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.

Republican Sens. Mike Braun and Josh Hawley reintroduced the bill on Monday after the Department of Energy (DOE) provided a classified intelligence report to the White House and certain members of Congress, which concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely arose from a lab leak. The FBI had previously come to a similar conclusion.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) made a request for unanimous consent of the bill, which was granted “without objection.” Unanimous consent enables a bill to pass without a recorded vote.
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The bill would require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify the information in the U.S. government’s possession on the most likely origins of COVID-19.
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Braun also declared the unanimous passage of the motion, likewise calling on the House to pass the bill.