European Commission Demands ‘Transparency’ from China Over COVID-19 Origin

The European Commission has called for “transparency” from China regarding the origins of COVID-19 after the country blocked a WHO investigation earlier this year.

Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, has called for “transparency” from the Chinese government over the origin of COVID-19.

It comes after a World Health Organisation (WHO) investigation into the origins of the virus was mothballed due to Communist authorities refusing to comply with the agency in key areas.

Responding to a written question from an EU parliamentarian on the issue, Commissioner Kyriakides said that EU leaders were concerned that the investigation was shelved, viewing such an investigation as important for preventing another worldwide pandemic.

“The Commission agrees that it is essential to fully understand the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as it is crucial to prevent and prepare for similar future situations,” Kyriakides wrote in her reply.

“The Commission supports the World Health Organisation efforts studying the origins of COVID-19, deeply regretting that key pieces of data necessary to reach conclusions continue to be missing,” the EU bigwig continued.

“The Commission urgently calls for the necessary transparency so that ongoing investigations can produce results with the sufficient level of confidence,” she went on to say, adding that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is still continuing on its investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

Such a call for “necessary transparency” is likely to irk some within the Chinese Communist Party, which in recent months has been key to distract from the idea that it may be responsible for the worldwide pandemic.

Authorities in the country have repeatedly obstructed and destroyed evidence in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, with so much evidence being left unavailable to the WHO that they have ultimately been forced into abandoning their research into the origin of the disease.

The government appears particularly concerned at recent reports indicating that some parts of the U.S. government now believe that the pandemic may well have its origin in a Chinese medical lab.

Communist authorities are now attempting to shift blame for the outbreak onto the United States, recently pushing the claim that the virus originated from a military lab in Maryland and deployed in Wuhan to make the Chinese look culpable.

“It is the U.S. who should respond to the world’s questions and concerns over Fort Detrick and its military and biological labs across the world,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Communist government, claimed, adding that any attempt to “discredit” China by the Americans would backfire on the country.

“Many have raised questions and concerns about U.S. bio-military bases at Fort Detrick and around the world,” the same spokeswoman said at a later press briefing. “The US should work with the W.H.O. to invite experts from the world to the U.S. for origins-tracing study as soon as possible, and share the research result with the international community in a timely, open and transparent manner.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/04/21/european-commission-demands-transparency-from-china-over-covid-19-origin/

Red Cross Reports Mexico’s Violence Similar to a War Zone

The top officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross compared the violence in Mexico with the levels seen in an active war zone. The comparison comes as the country continues to see a high number of murders, forced disappearances, and cases of people forced to leave their homes.

In their recently released 2022-2023 Humanitarian Balance, the IRC expressed deep concern about the ongoing violence in Mexico. While not specifically noted in their report, the brunt of the violence in Mexico is directly linked to crimes distinctive to those carried out by drug cartels.

“The pain of those who look for a loved one of the people who are forced to abandon their homes to save their lives and the lives of their loved ones and the communities that don’t have access to essential services is similar to the one faced by people in other parts of the world affected by armed conflicts,” Oliver Dubois, head of the ICR delegation for Mexico and Central America said in a written statement.

In 2022, Mexico recorded 30,968 murders with an additional 35,625 murders listed in 2021, the IRC report revealed quoting official government figures. The report also claimed that in 2022, Mexico saw more than 100,000 cases of forced disappearances According to the definition listed by Mexico’s Government, the word forced disappearance is used to describe the kidnapping of an individual where the government gives permission, hides information, or refuses to intervene. In Mexico, most of those cases remain unsolved indefinitely.

The IRC points out that the violence in Mexico in 2021 caused more than 379,000 internal displacements or cases where people had to flee their homes. This compares to 262,411 reported in 2020. The figures pointed to a rising trend in violence which alarmed the members of the NGO.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/04/21/red-cross-claims-mexicos-violence-is-similar-to-a-war-zone/

Top Chinese Propagandist Condemns Beijing Fire Cover-Up, Then Deletes Post

A top Chinese government propagandist, former Global Times editor Hu Xijin, lamented the censorship of a deadly fire at a Beijing hospital this week, then rapidly deleted his social media post and replaced it with an innocuous post calling for police to investigate the incident.

Hu Xijin ran the Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party’s most belligerent English-language propaganda newspaper, as editor-in-chief before abruptly “retiring” in late 2021.

At the time, his newspaper had taken the lead in responding to the outrage surrounding the disappearance of tennis champion Peng Shuai, who had accused a top Communist Party official of rape and vanished from the public eye. The Global Times published staged videos of her allegedly dining in public that exacerbated global disgust and preceded the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) announcing it would no longer host tournaments in China (the WTA ended the boycott this month).

Hu remains on the staff of the Global Times as a commentator, publishing a video series titled “Hu Says.” His latest commentary condemns American law enforcement authorities for shutting down an illegal Chinese police station used to repress political dissidents in New York City.

Hu’s recent censorship — or self-censorship — followed news surfacing of a fire at Beijing’s ChangFeng hospital on Tuesday afternoon. Information about the fire, including shocking videos of patients climbing out of hospital windows to avoid burning to death, began circulating on the Chinese state-controlled social media site Weibo on Tuesday, but users found that censors rapidly deleted the videos.

Chinese state media outlets also did not report on the incident, and Weibo appeared to suppress the fire as a trending topic, prompting angry comments from users who shared that they only learned about the fire from foreign media.

The Global Times finally reported on Wednesday that the fire had caused 29 deaths and counting. The fire had reportedly affected a hospital wing treating elderly in-patients, making it difficult to evacuate and escalating the casualty count. The state newspaper noted that local police held a press conference the next day explaining that they believed construction inside the hospital triggered electric sparks that set the building on fire.

Police also announced they had arrested 12 people in relation to the fire.

Prior to those updates, however, both hospital and Beijing government authorities offered little information. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Wednesday that many of the relatives of the victims of the fire found out about it through foreign media or censored social media posts, and the hospital did not offer a confirmed list of the dead, so many loved ones were still not updated on the status of the patients at the time of publication.

Hu joined in the outrage on Tuesday by appearing to condemn authorities for not offering citizens updates on a breaking news story.

“There’s very little information about the fire, I don’t think this is how it should be,” Hu initially wrote on his Weibo profile, urging the Chinese government to “trust the public.” Hu deleted the post, but it remains available online through websites that track and document content on Weibo.

Following the deletion of his post, Hu published another message dryly sharing information about the fire and calling for an investigation into the alleged “private” corporation that manages the hospital.

“Such a catastrophe should indeed be vigorously contained,” Hu wrote in his revised comments.

Hu was far from the only Chinese social media user whose content about the Beijing fire abruptly disappeared this week. Voice of America noted that even ChangFeng hospital’s account posted and either deleted or had content deleted about the fire on WeChat, a separate government-controlled social media platform.

“According to online screenshots, ChangFeng hospital, where the fire happened, posted an article on WeChat less than two months ago about how the leadership and staff held a meeting and ran inspections to ensure fire safety,” the outlet reported. “The article has since been deleted.”

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2023/04/21/top-chinese-propagandist-condemns-beijing-fire-cover-up-then-deletes-post/

Pentagon prepares to evacuate embassy in Sudan as nation descends into civil war

The administration is positioning troops in Djibouti should the evacuation come to fruition.

The Biden administration is preparing for the possible evacuation of U.S. diplomats at the embassy in Sudan amid an ongoing civil war within the country.

Roughly 70 U.S. staff are stationed at the embassy and as many as 16,000 U.S. citizens are in the country, The Hill reported.

Combatants loyal to the Sudanese Armed Forces have clashed with the paramilitary militants of the Rapid Support Forces in recent days, resulting in roughly 2,000 killed or wounded thus far.

Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the SAF and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF worked together to depose the nation's government in 2021, but their factions have since turned on one another.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby indicated that the U.S. was "very concerned about the violence" but insisted there was "no indication that either side is deliberately going after or trying to hurt or target Americans."

The administration is positioning troops in Djibouti in case the evacuation come to fruition.

https://justthenews.com/world/africa/pentagon-prepares-evacuate-embassy-sudan-nation-descends-civil-war

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