News of the World

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Biden Signs Bill to Declassify COVID Origins Intelligence on Wuhan Lab

President Joe Biden has signed into law a bill mandating the declassification of intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19, saying that he shares “Congress’s goal of releasing as much information as possible” on the issue.

“We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19’s origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics,” Biden said in a statement. “My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

He added that, in implementing the legislation, the administration will “declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security.”

This month, both the Senate and the House unanimously passed the bipartisan bill, dubbed “COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023,” before sending it to Biden’s desk. The bill directs the director of national intelligence to “declassify any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin” of COVID-19.

Biden Signs Resolution Overturning DC Crime Bill

President Joe Biden signed on March 20 a GOP resolution overturning a Washington, D.C., crime bill.

The GOP-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate both passed the resolution on a bipartisan basis and Biden expressed that he would sign the bill, pitting himself against progressives and his own belief that the District of Columbia should be a state. The conundrum also put Biden on the spot amid GOP criticisms of his fellow Democrats being soft on crime. The city’s Democrat mayor, Muriel Bowser, vetoed the bill—only for the city council to override her veto. The resolution was the first time in decades that Congress voted to override a D.C. bill.

“I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule – but I don’t support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections – such as lowering penalties for carjackings. If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did – I’ll sign it,” posted Biden on Twitter on March 2. This was a reversal from the administration saying that Biden would veto the resolution.

In a Jan. 4 letter to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson explaining her veto of the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 (RCCA), Bowser lamented that the bill “reduces sentences for illegally carrying a gun on our streets … [reducing] the maximum penalty from 15 years [behind bars] to four years.”

California County to Sue State for Changing Squaw Valley’s Name

This year, the government again upset many of them by renaming the town without asking, Singh said.

“I’m hurt, more than anything, because it’s my homeland,” she told The Epoch Times. “That’s where I grew up. It’s where my tribe is from.”

In January, a federal committee renamed Squaw Valley to Yokuts Valley after deciding the term “squaw” was a slur against Native American women. The decision has rocked the small community of about 3,500 located 220 miles north of Los Angeles.

“It’s pretty offensive,” Singh said. “Nobody ever directly came to us and asked us anything regarding it. It doesn’t come from the people. It came from one person, and he doesn’t represent us.”

Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig has tried to tell state and federal officials that most residents didn’t want the change, he told The Epoch Times. According to a survey he took of residents, 87 percent didn’t want it, he said.

Fresno County voted March 14 to sue California over a new state law passed last year that paved the way for the federal decision.

New York DA Office Responds to Demands for Information About Trump Arrest

“We will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process,” a spokesperson for Bragg told news outlets in the first public response to inquiries linked to the Trump investigation. “Many false claims have been lobbed out, so let’s set the record straight. New York remains one of the safest big cities in the US.”

Republicans, Trump, and some legal scholars have said that Bragg’s pursuit of what they have called left-wing policies have led to a surge in violent crime in New York City and have questioned why the DA is targeting Trump over an incident that occurred in 2016 while crime remains relatively high in the city. Law enforcement groups have said the DA’s office’s policies have led to the release of repeat offenders who instead should be jailed, leading to more criminal activity.

The New York City Police Department’s data shows that overall crime in New York City was up 22 percent in 2022 over 2021. The city saw 433 murders last year, which is an 11 percent drop year-over-year, but that’s still far higher than previous years. For example, police data shows that New York City 295 murders and 318 murders in 2018 and 2019, respectively. There were 462 murders in 2020.
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House Republicans sent a letter to Bragg on Monday, demanding testimony and documents over the investigation. Both Trump and Republicans say that Bragg is engaging in a politically motivated investigation.

US Expedites Delivery of Abrams Battle Tanks to Ukraine

The United States is expediting its delivery of battle tanks to Ukraine by providing a different variant of armored capability than previously decided.

Ukraine will still receive a full battalion of Abrams battle tanks from the United States, but will be getting the M1A1 variant rather than the M1A2 variant. The M1A1 is a slightly older variant with similar armament but older electronic systems and different tracks.

“[Department of Defense] announced in January that the United States would be providing 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine under the Ukraine Security Assistance initiative with the intent of providing the M1A2 variant,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder during a March 21 press conference.

“However, ever since we made this announcement, we have been committed to exploring options to deliver the armored capability as quickly as possible.”

Ryder added that close bilateral study and analysis had led Ukrainian and U.S. officials to conclude that expediting the delivery of tanks by sending the M1A1 variant would be more beneficial than waiting for M1A2s.

Russia Says Jet Scrambled as US Strategic Bombers
Fly Over Baltic Sea Toward Border

A Russian fighter jet was scrambled on Monday to intercept a pair of U.S. strategic bombers flying over the Baltic Sea, Russia’s defense ministry said.

“On March 20, 2023, radars of the Western Military District Air Defense force on duty detected two airborne targets over the Baltic Sea, flying towards the state border of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said, as per Russian state media TASS. “The targets were identified as two U.S. Air Force B-52H strategic bombers.”

A single Su-35 fighter jet took to the air to “prevent violations of the state border” by the American warplanes that allegedly reached a “designated air patrol area,” but returned to its home base after the targets moved away from Russian territory, according to the ministry.

“No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” the ministry said, without specifying near which part of the Russian Baltic border the incident took place. Russia directly borders four NATO members in the region: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and Poland via its Kaliningrad coastal enclave.

In a statement released Tuesday, the U.S. Air Force in Europe said that the bombers were conducting a mission with NATO allies and partners in Estonian airspace as a part of their “normally scheduled training operations.”