- On Monday, Pfizer Inc. took a stand on Moscow’s offensive, denouncing the “brutal situation it has created.” The US pharma giant said that it would “no longer initiate new clinical trials in Russia.” Additionally, the company will “stop recruiting new patients in our ongoing clinical trials in the country,” with such research being transitioned to “alternative sites outside Russia.” However, Pfizer stressed that it was committed to “providing needed medicines to the patients already enrolled in clinical trials” in the country.
- A human trafficking sting in central Florida has netted 108 arrests, including four Disney employees, Polk County police revealed on Wednesday, announcing the conclusion of a six-day undercover investigation called ‘Operation March Sadness 2’. Among those caught up in the sting were a 27-year-old man who worked as a lifeguard at the Disney Polynesian Village Resort, a man who was caught sending graphic sexual messages and indecent photos of himself to an undercover officer posing as a 14-year-old girl. The other Disney employees included a 24-year-old worker at the Cosmic Restaurant, as well as a 45-year-old IT worker and a 27-year-old software developer.
- Russian military specialists in weapons of mass destruction are analyzing documents obtained from staff members of the Ukrainian labs, ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a daily briefing. He claimed they detailed “implementation by the US in Ukraine of a secret project to study the ways humans can be infected from bats,” which was done in Kharkov. The official said the same Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine in the Ukrainian city worked for years to study under which conditions wild birds carrying flu could cause an epidemic in humans and to assess the damage that would result. Konashenkov didn’t explain why such research should be considered military in nature, as assessed by the defense ministry. The spokesman further said more Ukrainian documents will soon be released on the transfer of human samples from Ukraine to the UK and other European nations. The materials will be accompanied by Russian military assessments of the work they detail, he said.
- China has dismissed calls from NATO for it not to support Russia in any way on Thursday, reminding the bloc it was its US-led forces which bombed its embassy in Belgrade during the 1999 attack on Yugoslavia. “Chinese people can fully relate to the pains and sufferings of other countries because we will never forget who had bombed our embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We need no lecture on justice from the abuser of international law,” a spokesman for the Beijing’s diplomatic mission to the EU said, responding to remarks made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
- Brazil asked Russia for help in developing its first nuclear-powered submarine during President Jair Bolsonaro’s visit to Moscow last month, Folha de S.Paulo daily reported on Wednesday, citing a military source. The South American country then reportedly turned to Russia for assistance. Bolsonaro was said to have asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin for help with the submarine during his trip to Moscow last month.
- According to Putin, from now on the West will be losing its “global dominance” both politically and economically. Speaking on Wednesday, the Russian head of state proclaimed that the “myth of the Western welfare state, of the so-called golden billion, is crumbling.” Moreover, it is the “whole planet that is having to pay the price for the West’s ambitions, and its attempts to retain its vanishing dominance at any cost,” Putin said. The president predicted food shortages across the world as Western sanctions against Russia are adversely affecting the entire global economy.
- Pope Francis has invoked the threat of nuclear war, warning that humanity would have to “start from scratch” in the event of a thermonuclear exchange and that the world’s attention is increasingly focused on a world-ending calamity. Speaking during his weekly address on Wednesday, the Pope said that “extraordinary” technological progress and “a future full of machines” warrant some optimism, but noted that mankind could yet take another path. “The ‘day after’ this – if there will still be days and human beings – will have to start again from scratch. Destroying everything to start again from scratch.” Though Francis said he did not want to “trivialize the idea of progress,” he argued that “Flood” imagery is “gaining ground in our subconscious” – a reference to the Biblical flood narrative found in the Book of Genesis.
- Norway’s gigantic Oil Fund is required to divest its holdings in Russia, but that is impossible at the moment, the country’s central bank has stated in a letter to the Finance Ministry. In line with the Ministry’s decision, Norges Bank, which is tasked with managing the Oil Fund, has had to sell all of its assets and investments in Russia. However, due to closed markets and extensive sanctions, it is not possible to start the sale at the current moment, Norges Bank explained in the letter.
- A policewoman in Swedish has been placed under internal investigation for having a portrait of Putin as a screensaver on her computer at the police station. When questioned by Expressen, she emphasised that she has friends and relatives on both sides of the Ukrainian conflict. Her alleged sympathy for Putin and her homeland have sparked growing uncertainty among colleagues.
- This morning, The New York Times published an article about the broad, ongoing FBI criminal investigation into Hunter Biden’s international business and tax activities. Prior to the election, the Times, to their credit, was one of the few to apply skepticism to the CIA’s pre-election lie, noting on October 22 that “no concrete evidence has emerged that the laptop contains Russian disinformation.” Because the activities of Hunter Biden now under FBI investigation directly pertain to the emails first revealed by The Post, the reporters needed to rely upon the laptop’s archive to amplify and inform their reporting. That, in turn, required The New York Times to verify the authenticity of this laptop and its origins — exactly what, according to their reporters, they successfully did: People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation.
- February consumer price inflation in Europe accelerated by 5.9% compared to last year’s 0.9% per annum, marking the fastest annual jump on record, Eurostat statistics agency said on Thursday. The indicator rose sharply from 5.1% in January. Prices spiked most in Lithuania (14.0%), Estonia (11.6%) and the Czech Republic (10.0%). The lowest annual price rise rates were registered in Malta and France (both 4.2%), and Portugal, Finland, and Sweden (all 4.4%). According to the agency’s data, inflation fell in only two EU member states, while spiking in 25. The highest spikes were recorded in the energy sector, followed by services, food, alcohol, tobacco, and non-energy industrial goods.
- Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who stepped down last year amid investigations into multiple sexual harassment allegations, as well as accusations his policies contributed to thousands of Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes, has hinted he plans to run for governor again to clear his name. Cuomo’s younger brother Chris is also on the warpath, demanding $125 million from CNN in private arbitration proceedings. The younger Cuomo was fired over his extracurricular activities advising his brother on how to beat the sex harassment charges, and now he wants $110 million in damages plus $15 million he claims is owed to him under his contract with the cable network.
News Burst 18 March 2022
Rose Rambles... 