Monday, August 2, 2021

Marco Rubio | Aug. 2, 2021

 1 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

An electron microscope image shows coronavirus particles from what was believed to be the first U.S. case of Covid-19.
What We Know About the Origins of Covid-19

Key findings from The Wall Street Journal’s investigation into how the global pandemic began

Date published on July 23, 2021

...The WHO-led investigators have pushed for a second phase of research into the origins of the virus, warning that time was running out to examine blood samples and other important clues in China. Meanwhile, the Journal disclosed a U.S. intelligence report asserting that three WIV researchers became sufficiently ill in November 2019 to seek hospital care. In late May, President Biden ordered that U.S. intelligence agencies report to him within 90 days on how the virus emerged, with a focus on two scenarios—whether the coronavirus came from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident.

​Meanwhile, China said further investigations should now turn to other countries, suggesting that the virus might have originated outside its borders and spread via frozen food...     quoted from

  Rubio, Risch, Menendez, Warner Call on POTUS to Pursue Investigation into COVID Origins


Jul 28 - U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jim Risch (R-ID), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Mark Warner (D-VA) sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking the administration to take three crucial steps to get to the bottom of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, Rubio introduced the COVID Act of 2021, which would authorize sanctions and other restrictions if, within 90 days after enactment, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to refuse to allow a credible and comprehensive investigation into the origins of COVID-19 to be conducted at suspect laboratories in Wuhan. Investigating the origins of COVID is crucial to preventing a similar calamity in the future.


​“The PRC’s refusal to cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO) investigation into COVID-19 origins, the gag order it imposed on Chinese scientists and medical personnel, and its ongoing obfuscation and disinformation campaign regarding the pandemic have caused severe hardship worldwide,” the senators wrote. “As the United States emerges from the pandemic, we believe that, in addition to addressing gaps in international pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, including within our own government, three crucial steps are necessary to prevent a similar calamity in the future.”

These steps include:
  • Directing the intelligence community to continue prioritizing a thorough investigation into the origins of COVID-19 until there is a conclusion in which the United States has a high degree of confidence;
  • Working with allies and partners to use all available resources and tools to pressure Beijing into permitting a transparent forensic investigation in the People’s Republic of China; and
  • Completing a thorough review of existing and prior U.S. government support or funding for research collaboration with the PRC related to gain-of-function, synthetic biology, biotechnology, or other research areas that pose dual-use concerns.

“We expect that Congress will remain fully informed of and consulted on your efforts to reach definitive conclusions regarding the origins of this pandemic, as well as any concrete policy recommendations,” the senators concluded. “We stand ready to work with your administration in a bipartisan manner to seek answers to these important questions.”

Rubio is Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The full text of the letter is below...     more


Florida's Delta variant outbreak triggers record number of new COVID infections
Aug 2, 2021
Florida health officials report more than 21,000 new infections in a single day. However, the state has a 60% vaccination rate for people over the age of 12. Dr. Kartik Cherabuddi, an epidemiologist and associate professor of infections diseases at the University of Florida, joins CBSN's Lana Zak to discuss how concerning the surge in Florida is and why masks are needed to slow the variant down.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida.
Sen. Marco Rubio mocked Defense Sec. Austin for masking up in the Philippines, where masks are required and COVID-19 is surging

Jul 31 - ...Rubio's home state of Florida is dealing with its own COVID-19 surge. The state leads the US in COVID-19 cases, and has the highest number of residents hospitalized with COVID-19 per capita, according to data compiled by the Times. It also has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita, after Louisiana....     quoted from

Marco Rubio burned to the ground by CNN's Keilar after he 'punched himself in the face' with mask rant

Jul 30 - ..."Rubio is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, so you would think if he saw a cabinet member wearing a protective get-up he usually doesn't in a foreign country, it might occur to him that there could be different rules or norms there. And he could have saved himself scorn by doing a little research before the rip," she said. "And Rubio, mocking masks, that's really where we are still as we learn that vaccinated people while hugely protected from hospitalization or death compared to the unvaccinated can spread the delta variant perhaps as easily as chickenpox."

She went on to elaborate, adding, "Florida, Rubio's state, is currently the worst in the nation when it comes to the spread of delta. Florida is now averaging 10,000 new cases a day -- that is up 61 percent since last week. More than 8,000 people are in the hospital right now -- the most since January. Every county in Rubio's state except for one is experiencing high transmission"...
Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Florida. A Republican, he previously served as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Rubio unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2016, winning presidential primaries in Minnesota, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Rubio is a Cuban American from Miami, Florida. After serving as a city commissioner for West Miami in the 1990s, he was elected to represent the 111th district in the Florida House of Representatives in 2000. Subsequently, he was elected speaker of the Florida House, and was Speaker for two years beginning in November 2006. Upon leaving the Florida legislature in 2008 due to term limits, Rubio taught at Florida International University.

​Rubio was elected to the United States Senate in 2010. In April 2015, he decided to run for president instead of seeking reelection to the Senate. He suspended his campaign for president on March 15, 2016, after losing the Florida Republican primary to the eventual winner of the presidential election, Donald Trump. He then decided to run for reelection to the Senate, winning a second term later that year. While Rubio was harshly critical of Trump in the 2016 election, he was pro-Trump during Trump's presidency. Due to his influence on U.S. policy on Latin America during the Trump administration, he was described as a "virtual secretary of state for Latin America".     from Wikipedia

美情报机构竟“预言”疫情 美军德堡秘密何时给全球交代?20210801 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Aug 2, 2021

Republican report says coronavirus leaked from China lab; scientists still probing origins

Aut. 2 - A preponderance of evidence proves the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a Chinese research facility, said a report by U.S. Republicans released on Monday, a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have not reached.

The report also cited "ample evidence" that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists - aided by U.S. experts and Chinese and U.S. government funds - were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans and such manipulation could be hidden.


Representative Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the report by the panel's Republican staff. It urged a bipartisan investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that has killed 4.4 million people worldwide. (Graphic on global cases and deaths)

​China denies a genetically modified coronavirus leaked from the facility in Wuhan - where the first COVID-19 cases were detected in 2019 - a leading but unproven theory among some experts. Beijing also denies allegations of a cover-up.
Other experts suspect the pandemic was caused by an animal virus likely transmitted to humans at a seafood market near the WIV.

"We now believe it's time to completely dismiss the wet market as the source," said the report. "We also believe the preponderance of the evidence proves the virus did leak from the WIV and that it did so sometime before September 12, 2019."

The report cited what it called new and under-reported information about safety protocols at the lab, including a July 2019 request for a $1.5 million overhaul of a hazardous waste treatment system for the facility, which was less than two years old.

In April, the top U.S. intelligence agency said it concurred with the scientific consensus that the virus was not man-made or genetically modified. read more

U.S. President Joe Biden in May ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to accelerate their hunt for the origins of the virus and report back in 90 days. read more

A source familiar with current intelligence assessments said the U.S. intelligence community has not reached any conclusion whether the virus came from animals or the WIV.    source from

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Bob Menendez | July 31, 2021

 1 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Video of anti-government protestors in San Antonio de los Baños 
​How Does Breaking News Break in Cuba?

Jul 31 - ...​Those videos and others like them went viral, prompting the Cuban government to cut internet access a day after the protests began.

The official version of events broadcast in Cuba showed the arrival of President Miguel Díaz-Canel to San Antonio de los Baños in Artemias province. The president called the protesters "confused,” blamed the worsening of the crisis on the U.S. government embargo, and said discordant voices had no place in the state media.


Some of the online profiles of people who initially uploaded video from the protests have disappeared, says Rodríguez. The original video with the first Facebook Live from San Antonio is no longer on social media. He says he is unable to find some of the first videos that were published by Yoan de la Cruz and Samantha Regalado.

Sources contacted by VOA report there is pressure from Cuban authorities to remove any mention of support for the protesters from social media platforms, and some pressure to persuade residents’ relatives abroad to do the same...     quoted from
Thousands of Cubans continue to take to streets to push for global action – Jul 17, 2021
U.S. Treasury sets new sanctions against Cuba as Biden meets with Cuban-Americans

Jul 30 - The Biden administration announced new sanctions on Friday against Cuba’s national revolutionary police and its top two officials as the U.S. looks to increase pressure on the communist government following this month’s protests on the island.

The Police Nacional Revolcionaria and the agency’s director and deputy director, Oscar Callejas Valcarce and Eddie Sierra Arias, were targeted in the latest sanctions announced by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The police are part of Cuba’s interior ministry, which was already the subject of a blanket designation by the Trump administration back in January.

“We hear the cries of freedom coming from the island. The United States is taking concerted action to bolster the cause of the Cuban people,” President Joe Biden said at the start of a White House meeting with Cuban Americans not long after Treasury announced the sanctions.     source from

Related Articles:
 Cuban president admits government failings but urges protesters to not be ‘hateful’

Robert Menendez (/mɛˈnɛndɛz/; born January 1, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2006.[1] A member of the Democratic Party, he was first appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Jon Corzine, and chaired the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 2013 to 2015, and again since 2021.

​In 1974, at the age of 20, Menendez was elected to the Union City School District's Board of Education. He received degrees from Saint Peter's University and Rutgers Law School. In 1986, he was elected mayor of Union City. In 1988, while continuing to serve as mayor, he was elected to represent the state's 33rd district in the General Assembly of New Jersey and, within three years, moved to the New Jersey State Senate, upon winning the March 1991 special election for the 33rd Senate district. The next year, Menendez won a seat in the House of Representatives and represented New Jersey's 13th congressional district for six two-year terms, from 1993 to 2006. In January 2006, he was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Jon Corzine (who had been elected governor of New Jersey), and was elected to a full six-year term in November; he was reelected in 2012 and 2018.

In 2015, Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges, which were dropped in 2018. The United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics "severely admonished" him.

Foreign affairs
Menendez spearheaded a nonbinding resolution in July 2018 "warning President Trump not to let the Russian government question diplomats and other officials". The resolution states the United States "should refuse to make available any current or former diplomat, civil servant, political appointee, law enforcement official or member of the Armed Forces of the United States for questioning by the government of Vladimir Putin". It passed 98–0...     from Wikipedia

‘Trror’: Crackdown After Protests in Cuba Sends a Chilling Message

​In a remarkable act of defiance, thousands of Cubans took to the streets two weeks ago and chanted “We’re not afraid!” Many are now terrified.

Jul 27 - The courage many Cubans showed when they poured into the streets two weeks ago — chanting “Down with the dictatorship!” and “We are not afraid!” — has curdled into fear for many.

Hundreds have been detained, advocates say, and an untold number are still being held. The police have staked out the homes of activists. And among government critics, there is a widespread sense that the crackdown is far from over.

Maykel González, an independent journalist taken into custody after the July 11 protests, has ventured out of his home rarely in recent days, frightened by the surveillance and harassment that other protesters are enduring.

“At any moment they could show up at my door,” said Mr. González, 37. “It’s a fear that’s with me from the moment I wake up”...      more

Related Articles:

Cubans Denounce ‘Misery’ in Biggest Protests in Decades
July 11, 2021

‘Everyone Has a Tipping Point’: Hunger Fuels Cuba’s Protests
July 12, 2021

‘The Spark Has Been Lit’: Cuban Dissidents Feel Emboldened Despite Crackdown
July 13, 2021


Friday, July 30, 2021

Sergei Ryabkov | July 30, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

俄美边对话边较劲 多领域对抗不断加剧 20210729 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Jul 30, 2021
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov pose before a meeting at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva, Switzerland on 28 July.
Russia, U.S. Hold Closed-Door Talks in Geneva

U.S. Praises “Professional and Substantive” Talks with Russia


Jul 28 - Russia and the United States held talks yesterday in Geneva that focused on arms controlAgence France-Presse reports. State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that the two sides “remain committed, even in times of tension, to ensuring predictability and reducing the risk of armed conflict and threat of nuclear war.”


The leaders of the two countries, U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, took part in a summit last month, also in Geneva, which resulted in few concrete measures other than an agreement to begin a dialogue on nuclear arms control. 

The Kremlin yesterday criticized Biden’s recent statement that Russia’s economy was limited to nuclear weapons and oil. A Kremlin spokesman said Biden’s words betrayed a lack of knowledge about the country, Reuters reports. On Tuesday, Biden accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of seeking to disrupt the 2022 U.S. congressional elections by spreading “misinformation.”   source from
Sergei Alexeyevich Ryabkov (Russian: Сергей Алексеевич Рябков) (born 8 July 1960) is the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation.[1]

Ryabkov was born in Moscow in 1960. At age 22, in 1982, he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Upon graduation, he immediately joined the Russian Foreign Ministry. In 1995, he worked in the Foreign Ministry's Department of European Co-operation. In 2002, he worked as a counselor at the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC. In 2006, he returned to Moscow and was appointed head of his former department (the Department of European Co-operation). He was designated Deputy Foreign Minister in 2008.

​Ryabkov speaks English fluently and frequently gives interviews to English-speaking media organizations. Ryabkov, for example, has been featured on the channel RT several times. He often speaks for the Foreign Ministry in commenting on nuclear and other disarmament negotiations, specifically such things as the New START treaty.     from Wikipedia

U.S. and Russia want China, France and UK included in nuclear arms talks

Jul 30 - 
Both the U.S. and Russia want to extend nuclear arms talks to other nations, Moscow said on Thursday.

Senior officials from the two powers met in Geneva to start easing tensions between Washington and Moscow, following promising signs of collaboration when Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. counterpart Joe Biden met at a summit earlier this year. 

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov spoke about arms controls during the meeting and they will meet again in September.

According to different Russian officials, Moscow now wants to extend the discussions to include France and the UK, while the U.S. wants to include China.

"This question has taken on particular relevance in light of London's recent decision to increase the maximum level of nuclear warheads by 40 percent, to 260 units," said Russia's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov.

Ryabkov said in a separate comment that the U.S. wants to include China in the conversation.

When asked to describe the atmosphere around the negotiating table, Ryabkov said: "I would call it very down to earth, very business-like, very focused."

Ned Price, a U.S. state department spokesman, also said the meeting was "professional and substantive." Adding: "We remain committed, even in times of tension, to ensuring predictability and reducing the risk of armed conflict and threat of nuclear war."

The U.S. will brief NATO allies on the content of the meeting on July 29.

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A Chinese instructor discusses Chinese rocket launcher systems during the second day of the code-named Interaction-2017 joint anti-terrorism training between the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force and the Russian Federation National Guard, in Qingtongxia, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on December 4, 2017. The two leading U.S. rivals have intensified their diplomatic, economic and military relationship in recent years.

China, Russia to Train Together Against Terror as Last U.S. Troops Exit Afghanistan

Jul 30 - China is set to host Russia for mass drills together involving counterterrorism training next month just as the last of the U.S. soldiers are set to exit Afghanistan.

The Chinese Defense Ministry and Russian Defense Ministry issued a joint statement Thursday stating that the Western Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army will join troops from Russia's Eastern Military District for a large-scale exercise called West-Interaction 2021, which will be held in early and mid-August in the city of Qingtongxia, which lies along the Yellow River in China's northern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

​The two militaries are set to establish a joint command center overseeing the activities of some 10,000 troops along with various aircraft, artillery and armored equipment. The plan is to mix personnel from both sides for enhanced interoperability for the combined maneuvers involving an array of objectives...     more


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Mischief Reef |Mar. 25

  WH keeping public in dark on what Biden demanded of China’s Xi over arming Putin​ Mar. 18 - The White House was tight-lipped Friday about ...