Tag: ukraine

US Rep. Swalwell Suggests Kicking Russians Out of US Universities But Ignores Chinese in US Universities Stealing US Knowledge and Research Used in Development of COVID-19

Democrat US Congressman Eric Swalwell from California suggests that Russian students should be removed from US universities but he for some reason has never suggested the same for Chinese students. 

FOXNews reported on Swalwell’s interview on CNN:

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said on CNN Thursday that kicking Russian students out of U.S. universities should be “on the table” in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin launching an invasion into Ukraine.

“Frankly, I think closing their embassy in the United States, kicking every Russian student out of the United States … should … be on the table. … Vladimir Putin needs to know every day that he is in Ukraine, there are more severe options that could come,” Swalwell said on “CNN Newsroom.”

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Game footage being shared as ‘Ukraine videos’

Several videos which have made their way around social media described as footage of the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine have been debunked as clips taken from games.

A report by Bloomberg has revealed that some of the most-viewed videos on Facebook’s gaming channel were clips that were being spread as on-the-ground footage of military action in Ukraine. The videos were reportedly viewed by more than 110,000 people and shared over 25,000 times before they were taken down. Nevertheless, they made their way to other social media platforms, being spread around with titles such as ‘Ukraine fires missiles to intercept Russian aircraft’s artillery fire’ and ‘Intense dogfight in the skies of Ukraine’.

The first video which went viral on Thursday purportedly showed a military plane performing a bombing run while dodging fire from AA defense systems. However, the video turned out to be footage from the ‘Arma III’ military simulator game.

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John Kerry fears Russia-Ukraine war will distract from climate change

President Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, warned that Russia’s war against Ukraine could distract the world from the climate change crisis and produce “massive emissions” that will negatively impact the globe.

“I’m concerned about Ukraine because of the people of Ukraine and because of the principles that are at risk, in terms of international law and trying to change boundaries of international law by force,” Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, said in an interview Monday on BBC Arabic, MEMRI reported Wednesday. “I thought we lived in a world that had said no to that kind of activity. And I hope diplomacy will win.” 

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Chinese State Media Accidentally Releases Censorship Rules On Russia–Ukraine Coverage

A quickly-deleted social media post – released to the public apparently by accident – provides a rare glimpse of how the CCP’s messaging on the escalating Ukraine–Russia tension is channeled to the masses.

Horizon News, a video news network under state-run Beijing News, on Feb. 22 instructed staff to avoid posting any Ukraine-related content on China’s Twitter-like Weibo that may come across as unfavorable to Russia or pro-Western.

“Let me review your draft before you first put it out,” stated the Weibo post, which has since been removed. Commentaries, it added, must be “carefully selected and controlled,” while topic selections should follow the lead of People’s Daily, Xinhua, and CCTV—three of the country’s foremost Party mouthpieces.

“Whoever publishes them will be held responsible,” the post stated, noting that each post should be monitored for at least two days.

Although China is well-known for its tight restrictions on press freedom, the post provides a rare, if small, revelation into the workings of Chinese media machinery and the inner anxieties of the regime as politically fraught international developments unfold.

While deepening ties with Moscow, Beijing is also cautious to avoid blowback by being seen as directly supporting a unilateral move to seize sovereignty of another nation—given the regime’s own designs in absorbing self-ruled Taiwan.

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Ukraine ‘invasion’ not new: Russia has had troops in Donbas for 8 years, U.S. official admits

Amid charges from U.S. and foreign officials that Russia now has invaded eastern sectors of Ukraine, a senior administration official confirmed that Moscow has maintained forces inside the region for nearly a decade.

“Russian troops moving into Donbas would not itself be a new step,” the official said. “Russia has had forces in the Donbas region for the past eight years.”

The official made the comments during a background briefing with reporters on Monday, and spoke on the condition of anonymity. 

The comments seem to contradict official White House declarations that by sending in troops to the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an incursion against its western neighbor.

“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” President Joe Biden said on Tuesday from the White House.

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