Biden's bid to oust Ukraine prosecutor followed intense pressure by son's Burisma firm

Six high-level meetings included a previously undisclosed contact with U.S. ambassador in Kiev, records show.

Hunter Biden and representatives of Burisma Holdings secured at least six high-levels meetings with senior Obama administration officials in the weeks just before Vice President Joe Biden forced the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the gas company, according to newly disclosed memos and testimony.

During some of the meetings, a Democratic firm called Blue Star Strategies that was representing Burisma repeatedly pressed U.S. officials to help end corruption allegations that long had dogged the Ukrainian gas firm, which appointed Hunter Biden to its board in 2014.

In one previously undisclosed contact in December 2015, Blue Star secured a meeting with then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt in which the Burisma lobbyists made a case that the gas firm should not be prosecuted any longer.

The meeting came at a sensitive time. Pyatt just a few months earlier had given a speech demanding that Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky be prosecuted for corruption, and Ukrainian prosecutors had begun stepping up activity in the case, including sending evidence to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau for further investigation and eventually securing a new asset forfeiture against Zlochevsky.

The New York Times also had just reported a story saying Hunter Biden's presence on Burisma's board during the investigation was undercutting U.S. credibility in the fight against Ukrainian corruption. State Department officials divulged Joe Biden also made the first effort to fire the lead prosecutor in the Burisma case that same month.

Amos Hochstein, a senior energy policy official at the State Department and confidant of Vice President Biden, told Senate investigators he took meetings with Blue Star in late 2015 and again in March 2016. He also met once with Hunter Bidem during the same time frame to discuss Burisma.

In the latter of its meetings with Hochstein, Blue Star argued there was no longer a reason to pursue the gas firm or its founder Mykola Zolchevsky, Hochstein testified.

"They told me that they believed that Zlochevsky was tried, prosecuted, and the charges against him were dismissed by the U.K. and, therefore, there was no reason to hold him responsible since the judicial system worked," Hochstein said, describing the March 2016 meeting.

"I was very clear about my views that I disagreed," he added. "… They clearly did not agree with me, and I expressed my disappointment."

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/joe-bidens-bid-oust-ukraine-prosecutor-followed-intense

College football coach leaves 'All Lives Matter to Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ' note, quits team

An Illinois State football coach abruptly quit the team Thursday, leaving a note on the door while exiting the facility.

Kurt Beathard, who was the Redbirds’ offensive coordinator, told The Pantagraph he let a note that said “All Lives Matter to Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ” before he left. Officials told the newspaper Wednesday he was no longer a part of the team and declined to comment on why he abruptly left.

His departure apparently followed an incident involving a “Black Lives Matter” poster in the locker room. Sources told The Pantagraph that the poster was taken down from the Illinois State locker room in the school’s football building. Beathard denied any involvement in the locker room saying that someone put a sign on his door and that he took that down.

“That locker room crap is wrong. I took the sign down somebody put on my door. That’s it,” Beathard told the newspaper. “I didn’t take anything off that wasn’t put on my door. I wrote the message.”

Beathard’s departure came weeks after players had an issue with athletic director Larry Lyons using the phrase “All Redbird Lives Matter” in a video conference, according to the newspaper. Some student-athletes boycotted workouts because of it and a march supporting Black voices was held.

Beathard returned to Illinois State in 2018 – his third stint with the program. He’s spent 15 years as a coordinator in the FCS. He played in the USFL and Arena Football League.

His nephew, C.J. Beathard, is a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/college-football-coach-all-lives-matter-jesus-quit

Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai slams Catholic Church for deal with Chinese Communist Party

"The Vatican should stand up as a moral standard and authority of the world, not just Catholic believers," said the billionaire media mogul and democracy activist. "We need the leadership of moral authority that [the] Vatican has forsaken."

Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai, a devout Catholic, slammed leaders of the Vatican for renegotiating a renewed treaty deal with China, saying the Catholic Church has forfeited its moral authority by not doing more to protect religious believers in the communist nation.

Lai, a media mogul and billionaire, was arrested last month under a harsh new national security law that mainland China imposed on Hong Kong as part of an intensifying crackdown on political autonomy and dissent on the island. After a public outcry by pro-democracy activists, Lai was released on bail. Earlier this month, a court in Hong Kong found him not guilty of criminal intimidation charges stemming from a separate 2017 case.

"I'm very disappointed about this Pope," Lai told Just the News in a video interview from his home in Hong Kong. "I'm very disappointed about what they did by extending the treaty, which is secret, nobody knows what's happening. And during the last two years, what [Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader] Xi Jinping has done to religion is really horrible. And yet the Vatican is so pleased to extend the pact with them. I just don't understand."

Lai's criticism was echoed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an op-ed for the online magazine First Things earlier this month.

Pompeo noted that Vatican diplomats have been meeting this month with their Chinese counterparts to negotiate the renewal of a two-year-old provisional agreement between the Holy See and China. The terms of that pact have never been publicly disclosed, Pompeo wrote, but the Church's hope was that it would improve the condition of Catholics in China by reaching agreement with the Chinese regime on the appointment of bishops, the traditional stewards of the faith in local communities.

"Two years on, it's clear that the Sino-Vatican agreement has not shielded Catholics from the Party's depredations, to say nothing of the Party's horrific treatment of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong devotees, and other religious believers," Pompeo wrote. "The State Department's 2019 annual report on religious freedom provides an illustrative example in the story of Father Paul Zhang Guangjun, who was beaten and 'disappeared' for refusing to join the CCP-run Patriotic Catholic Association. Sadly, his experience is not unique. Communist authorities continue to shutter churches, spy on and harass the faithful, and insist that the Party is the ultimate authority in religious affairs."

https://justthenews.com/world/hong-kong-dissident-jimmy-lai-slams-catholic-church-deal-chinese-communist-party

As Taiwan – China Tensions Remain High, New Japanese PM Urges Regional Stability

Stoked by the second visit to the renegade Chinese island by a senior US official in the last couple of months, and the recent announcement of a massive package of pending weapons sales by the US, the last week has been another intense period of live-fire military drills and mutual recriminations. Meanwhile, Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday he had agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping to pursue high-level contacts in a bid to promote regional and international stability.

China has stepped up its military flights near Taiwan, including numerous incursions across the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, in the weeks following the announcement by the Trump administration that the US is planning a major weapons sale to the renegade island, probably including cruise missiles, drones and mines.

China has threatened or entered into Taiwan’s airspace 46 times in the past nine days, the island’s defence ministry said.

On Thursday, an aircraft of the People’s Liberation Army entered the island’s air defence identification zone, thought to be a Yun-8 anti-submarine aircraft. Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence broadcast radio warnings, scrambled fighters, and deployed anti-aircraft missile systems in response. LINK

Taiwan’s defence ministry said China’s aerial incursions were at their most intense at the end of last week as Keith Krach, the US undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, arrived on the island for an official visit.

Chinese officials stated that China has been reacting to what Beijing has called ‘collusion’ between Taiwan and the United States, and to protect China’s sovereignty, in response to Krach’s visit last week to Taipei.

In response to the spike in hostile aerial activity, Taiwan’s armed forces held military drills on one of its offshore islands close to China on Thursday and Friday. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the drills to repel a landing took place on the Matsu archipelago, which lies just offshore the Chinese city of Fuzhou.

The drills took place across the archipelago involving the use of cannons and machine guns, the ministry added, accompanied by pictures of the exercises.

Taiwan has held Matsu, along with Kinmen further down the coast, since defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 at the end of the Chinese civil war.

When Taiwan and China last joined battle on a large scale in 1958 it was around Matsu and Kinmen, with Chinese forces carrying out more than a month of bombardments, including naval and air battles…

Both are considered by experts as likely targets for Chinese invasion in any war with Taiwan due to their proximity to China. LINK

The South China Morning Post reports that Taiwan has also test-fired missiles off its eastern and southern coasts following military manoeuvres staged by Beijing near the self-ruled island in recent days.

https://southfront.org/as-taiwan-china-tensions-remain-high-new-japanese-pm-urges-regional-stability/

Armenia Says Turkey Directly Participates In Azerbaijani Advance On Nagorno-Karabakh, Claims Hundreds Azerbaijani Soldiers Killed

Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces continued in the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region on September 27 evening. Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey, seeks to take control over the entire region and dismantle the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a self-proclaimed state with an Armenian majority and integrated into Armenia.

Azerbaijani forces have been advancing sine the morning and so far, according to the Azerbaijani side, have captured at least 7 villages and several key heights in Fuzuli and Jabrayil areas. Turkey, a strategic ally of Azerbaijan, already declared its full support to its actions and said that it is ready to provide any requested assistance.

The Armenian side says that Turkish forces and proxies directly participate in the clashes. Arayik Harutyunyan, the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, said that not only Azerbaijan, but also Turkey is at war with the republic.

The Armenian Defense Ministry also declared thatit has data confirming the participation of mercenaries (likely members of Syrian militant groups funded by Turkey), the “Turkish involvement” and the usage of “Turkish weapons”.

Armenian sources continue releasing videos of the destroyed military equipment and killed soldiers (at least 8 bodies) of Azerbaijani forces. The first seconds of the video likely shows vestiges of a Mi-8 helicopter of the Azerbaijani military:

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that about 200 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed. He also said that 30 armored vehicles and 20 drones were destroyed. According to Hovhannisyan, 90 out of almost a hundred wounded Armenian soldiers are in normal condition, the rest were taken to a military hospital in Yerevan. At least 16 Armenian soldiers were confirmed to be killed.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan declared that it got a fire control over the road between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Forces of Azerbaijan allegedly took the Murov height of the Murovdag mountain range and established fire control of the Vardenis-Aghdar road connecting Karabakh with Armenia. The Ministry of Defense said that this will prevent the transportation of additional troops and equipment from Armenia along the route in the direction of the Kelbajar and Aghdar regions in Karabakh.

The Armenian side denied these claims and said that the Azerbaijani attack on its positions near the town of Mrav was repelled. Nonetheless, it confirmed that the Armenians lost ‘some positions’ in the area Talish and in the southern areas.

Clashes are ongoing.

https://southfront.org/armenia-says-turkey-directly-participates-in-azerbaijani-advance-on-nagorno-karabakh-claims-hundreds-azerbaijani-soldiers-killed/

CDC says COVID-19 mutating & becoming more contagious but not more lethal

The CDC noted that the Covid-19 virus is continuing to mutate and experts believe it is becoming more contagious but not any more lethal, according to new research.

The CDC study analyzed 5,000 genetic sequences of the virus, which appears to be continuing to mutate throughout the epidemic. However, the study did not find that mutations of the virus have made it more lethal. According to a report in the Washington Post, public health experts said the mutations are normal and all viruses have them, most of which are insignificant.

Currently, the Fall has seen an increase of COVID-19 in certain states. Medical experts have continued to warn that the virus is expected to spread during the Fall and Winter seasons, as most viruses do.

Coronavirus cases have increased by at least 10 percent or more compared to the week before in 21 states

CNN reported that as of Sunday, the number of new coronavirus cases has increased by at least 10 percent or more compared to the week before in 21 states. They noted that most of increases of the virus were in the West, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

https://saraacarter.com/cdc-says-covid-19-mutating-becoming-more-contagious-but-not-more-lethal/

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