The U.S. earlier this month banned U.S.-made planes, or those with more than 25 percent of their components made in the U.S., from entering Russia without authorization. The Commerce Department said on 18 March 2022 it began grounding 100 planes, including one belonging to Russian businessman Roman Abramovich, after multiple aircraft violated sanctions.
According to Central News Agency, the list includes 99 Boeing aircraft from Aeroflot and Russian cargo airlines, including Aeroflot, AirBridge Cargo, UTair, Nordwind, Blue Air, Azur Air and Aviastar-TU aircraft, as well as Roman Abramovich's Gulfstream G650 jet, could further prevent Russia from maintaining some international flights.
The U.S. Department of Commerce warns businesses and other entities around the world that any addition of fuel, maintenance, repairs, parts or services violates U.S. export controls and faces U.S. enforcement actions, including “imprisonment, fines, loss of export privileges, or enforcement of other restrictions".
The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement that the action represented "the de facto grounding of these aircraft's international flights from Russia."
Officials told Reuters that the Commerce Department may also block Russian domestic flights because U.S. enforcement actions could target companies that maintain planes in Russia.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement that the department "published this list to inform the world that we will not allow Russian and Belarusian businesses and oligarchs to go unpunished when they violate our laws."
Russia's largest cargo airline, Volga-Dnepr, said on 18 March 2022 that it had temporarily suspended all Boeing-style flights due to Western sanctions.
Since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine in the early hours of 24 February 2022, Western countries have imposed a large number of sanctions on Russia. They have expelled Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) payment system on 26 February 2022, the most severe financial sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Russian Prime Minister Mishustin said on 1 March that Russia will temporarily prevent foreign investors from selling Russian assets. It also ordered a ban on the export of cars, planes and drones by the end of this year, and will suspend the export of wheat and other grains to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) until 31 August 2022.
Image of Ikar Air in Cam Ranh : Researcher's Picture
Image of Aeroflot Russian Airlines in Tel Aviv : Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images
Image of Nordwind Airlines aircraft in Phuket : Researcher's Picture
News (2)
Ukraine reports "Comfort Women" arrested by Russian troops
Image : A Ukrainian congresswoman accused the Russian army of treating Ukrainian women as "comfort women" after the invasion, even women over 60 years old. (AFP)
Russia invaded Ukraine. Following the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba’s accusation of sexually assaulting women after the Russian army occupied Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian parliamentarians have also recently accused the Russian army of treating Ukrainian women as "Comfort Women” after the invasion, whom they vent their desires on. Even women over the age of 60 are not spared. Some were tortured and killed after being sexually assaulted, and some even chose to commit suicide because of the humiliation.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba recently accused the Russian army of not only bombing cities, but also sexually assaulting women after occupying Ukrainian cities, and "arresting Ukrainian women as comfort women", and revealed that he had received a number of related reports.
According to comprehensive foreign media reports, Ukrainian Congresswoman Lesia Vasylenko and her party visited the United Kingdom recently. They also actively sought foreign aid and told the tragic situation in Ukraine. Vasylenko complained that after Russian President Vladimir Putin failed in the lightning plan, the Russian army changed its strategy and began to target women and children who were unarmed and unable to escape. ".
Another congresswoman, Maria Mezentseva, added that many older Ukrainian women have suffered violence in the war, and they have received multiple reports of sexual assault of women, most of them 60 years old. Many of the above-mentioned elderly women who could not escape on their own were unbearably humiliated and chose to commit suicide, and some were even tortured and killed by the Russian army.
Mezentseva pointed out that they will continue to collect evidence of the violence committed by Russian soldiers against civilians, which will be submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in the future, hoping that Putin will get the sanctions he deserves.
News (3)
China reports its first two covid deaths in more than a year
Image : AFP via Getty Images
China reports two covid deaths on 19 March 2022, its first in more than a year, underlining the threat posed by an Omicron outbreak that has triggered the country's highest case counts since the pandemic's outset.
The National Health Commission said both deaths occurred in Jilin, the northeastern province which has been hardest-hit by a nationwide rise in cases that has prompted lockdowns or tight restrictions in several cities.
The deaths were the first reported in mainland China since January 2021, and bring the country's total death toll in the pandemic to 4,638.
In all, the National Health Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reported 4,051 new cases on 19 March 2022, down from 4,365 the day before, with more than half of the new cases coming in Jilin.
News (4)
Little mention of covid death cases by CCP media
Beijing's communist leadership has touted its low death rate relative to other countries as evidence of the strength of its one-party governance model.
The two new deaths were buried in the health commission's daily report, and state-controlled media outlets made little mention of them.
SARS-CoV-2 emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 but China has largely kept the covid epidemic waves under control through strict border controls, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns.
News (5)
Omicron challenges the zero-covid strategy
The highly transmissible Omicron variant is posing a stern challenge to the effectiveness and long-term viability of the government's 'zero-covid' strategy.
In recent weeks some official sources have suggested China may at some point need to co-exist with Covid-19 as other countries are doing, while also warning of the economic impact of mass lockdowns.
President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that China would stick with its zero-covid strategy, while also allowing for a more 'targeted' approach.
While in the past full lockdowns could be expected for any outbreak, authorities around the country have responded with varying measures to the latest viral spread.
News (6)
"Targeted" approach of zero-covid strategy
Some cities have been closed off, including the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, home to 17.5 million people. However, Shenzhen's measures were partially eased following Xi's comments.
Shanghai, meanwhile, has moved schooling online and rolled out mass testing but has averted a full lockdown.
Authorities also have said that people with mild cases could isolate at central quarantine facilities, having previously sent all patients with any symptoms to specialist hospitals.
However, tens of millions of people remain under stay-at-home orders across China due to an outbreak that has sent daily reported new cases soaring from less than 100 just three weeks ago to several thousand per day now.
News (7)
National Health Commission fears deaths from Omicron
Beijing also has watched nervously as Hong Kong has struggled to contain an Omicron outbreak that has sent deaths in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city soaring into the thousands.
Mainland China officials have also moved to free up hospital beds over fears the virus could put the health system under strain.
News (8)
8 square cabin hospitals and 2 quarantine centres in Jilin
Jilin has built eight "square cabin hospitals" and two quarantine centres to stem the current upsurge.
State news outlets this week broadcast footage of dozens of giant cranes assembling temporary medical facilities in Jilin, which has only around 23,000 hospital beds for some 24 million residents.
The latest flare-ups also have prompted long queues to form outside mass testing sites across China and seen tight controls at ports, raising fears of trade disruption.
News (9)
The Russian army used the 'Dagger' hypersonic missile for the first time to attack the underground ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army
Image : The Russian Ministry of Defense pointed out that it used the "Dagger" hypersonic missile for the first time in a military operation in Ukraine. The picture shows the MiG-31 fighter jet carrying the "Dagger" missile. (File photo, AFP)
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has entered the 24th day, and the delay in winning the capital, Kyiv, may have made the Russian army very anxious. A hypersonic missile destroyed a military warehouse in western Ukraine.Comprehensive foreign media reports, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on 19 March 2022 that the "Dagger" aviation missile system equipped with hypersonic missiles destroyed a large underground military warehouse in the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk in western Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that missiles and aviation ammunition were placed in the warehouse; the official RIA news agency (RIA) emphasized that this was the first time the Dagger hypersonic missile was used in a "special military operation" against Ukraine.
Earlier, U.S. "Forbes" military reporter David Axe warned that if Russia puts the "dagger" into the battlefield, Ukraine will not be able to stop it, because the weapon can break through defenses and attack high-value targets such as headquarters.
Axel said Russia has a small fleet of MiG-31s (MiG-31s) carrying hypersonic missiles called Daggers, which are complementary to the Kh-101 cruise missiles, the former flying high and fast, while the latter It is low and slow, making Ukrainian air defense operations more complicated.
Hans Kristensen, a nuclear expert at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), has also warned that the Dagger may be used exclusively against high-value targets such as headquarters, air bases and large warships.
Ref: https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3864943
News (10)
The CCP strictly controls the meeting between Xi and Biden, "anti-Americanism" is still the main axis
After the video conference between US President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 18, the CCP's censorship agencies strictly controlled relevant information, and the official media continued to conduct anti-US campaigns on social media. publicity. Experts believe that "anti-U.S." is still the main axis of the CCP's propaganda strategy and foreign policy.
The video conference between Biden and Xi was held on the 18th. It was the first meeting between the two since November last year and the first phone call three weeks after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to the Voice of America report, shortly after the Biden-Xi talks began, a topic titled "China-U.S. President Video Call" suddenly entered the sixth most searched list. However, after searching for this topic, the blog posts that appeared were from Xinhua News Agency, CCTV and other official CCP media, and the content was almost identical. The Weibo of ordinary netizens is not displayed at all.
The comment area under these official blog posts is also strictly filtered, and only the filtered comments are displayed. These comments are mostly support for the talks, praise for China and expectations for more exchanges between the United States and China in the future.
During the talks, the Chinese Communist Party's official media appeared on the content of Xi Jinping's speech at the meeting. Among them, "state relations cannot go to the stage of fighting against each other" and "peace and security are the most cherished wealth of the international community", which quickly became hot searches. topic, and is also strictly controlled. The search results only show Weibo of official media, and the comment area is also strictly filtered or closed.
Liu Lipeng, a former Weibo censor, told VOA that, generally speaking, the CCP will issue an order to tell you that you must strictly abide by the caliber of Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and CCTV, and you cannot repost or translate articles from foreign media without permission.
Many observers believe that the CCP's official attitude has not changed, and that anti-American and anti-Western policies will continue to be the main axis of its propaganda strategy and foreign policy.
Melissa Chan, a Chinese-American journalist living in Germany, wrote on Twitter, "It's important to remember that any content in English from the Chinese Communist Party's official media is exclusively for us. This is an international PR campaign to the outside world. It does not reflect Beijing’s message to the domestic population.”
Chen Jiayun said that the fact is that the CCP still does not call Russia's attack on Ukraine an "invasion".
Carl Minzner, a senior fellow at the American Council on Foreign Relations, also pointed out on Twitter that "News Network," which best reflects the CCP's official attitude, has not put down its pro-Russian stance.
The "News Network" on the evening of the 18th still did not broadcast the pictures of Ukrainian civilian casualties. Not only that, the show also claims that the United States and the West are the initiators of this war.
On the 18th, US President Biden and CCP Chinese President Xi Jinping had a 110-minute video call. Biden tried to dissuade Xi Jinping from assisting Russia in the war against Ukraine.
CCP Chinese state media reported that Xi told Biden that both the United States and China had a responsibility to ensure peace. However, the White House later said its concerns that Beijing might aid Russia had not been eased.
"We have this concern," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said after the call. "The president detailed if China would provide Russia with substantial Support, what will be the impact and the consequences. That's something we'll be watching, and the world will be watching that."
"The Chinese have to decide for themselves which side they want to be on and how they want history to see them and their actions. That's a decision for President Xi to make," Psaki said.
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