Miscellaneous News

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing global hunger and galloping food prices, and future supply-chain disruptions will bring more such misery. Many countries are realizing that they should grow more food, but they’ve sold much of their best land to China, which uses it to feed its own population. A few years ago, China bought nearly one-tenth of Ukraine’s arable farmland.

Over the past few years, Chinese buyers have bought farmland in countries ranging from the U.S. and France to Vietnam. In 2013 Hong Kong-based food giant

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bought Smithfield, America’s largest pork producer, and more than 146,000 acres of Missouri farmland. In the same year, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps bought 9% of Ukraine’s famously fertile farmland, equal to 5% of the country’s total territory, with a 50-year lease. (In 2020, the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Chinese company over human-rights abuses.) Between 2011 and 2020, China bought nearly seven million hectares of farmland around the world. Firms from the U.K. bought nearly two million hectares, while U.S. and Japanese firms bought less than a million hectares.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R., Wash.), currently before the House Appropriations Committee, proposes to ban Chinese, Russian, Iranian and North Korean companies from buying American farmland. It follows a bill introduced in 2020 by Republican Sens. Jim Inhofe and Thom Tillis, which would require screening of farmland acquisitions by foreign entities.

Such scrutiny should be accompanied by efforts to buy land back from China and any other strategic rivals. Allowing hostile powers to own farmland has become too risky. Demand for arable land will grow as the climate changes. At the same time, geopolitical confrontation will cause more disrupted food-supply chains. Every hectare counts.

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FriedButter said:

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Lol. This suggestion is worst than Trump mysteriously dying in prison. Turning him into a martyr is the last thing you want.

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Abominable said:

I'm confused on the Trump allegations. Who would Trump be planning to give the nuclear secrets to? It's obviously not Saudi Arabia or Iran as either would not trust Trump, and having nuclear blueprints doesn't mean much. You need the fissile material and infrastructure to assemble and maintain them.

The only obvious answer would be Russia or China for espionage purposes, but even that is a stretch. Would they really go through a former president rather than through their own intelligence agencies?

Apparently the charge is treason so they will be throwing the book at him....

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Abominable said:

I'm confused on the Trump allegations. Who would Trump be planning to give the nuclear secrets to? It's obviously not Saudi Arabia or Iran as either would not trust Trump, and having nuclear blueprints doesn't mean much. You need the fissile material and infrastructure to assemble and maintain them.

The only obvious answer would be Russia or China for espionage purposes, but even that is a stretch. Would they really go through a former president rather than through their own intelligence agencies?

Apparently the charge is treason so they will be throwing the book at him....

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FriedButter said:

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Lol. This suggestion is worst than Trump mysteriously dying in prison. Turning him into a martyr is the last thing you want.

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Abominable said:

LOL....I wonder what all the Trumptards will say now that the military has not only turned on him, but want him to die...

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Suspect Who Tried To Breach FBI’s Cincinnati Office Dies in Standoff​

WILMINGTON, Ohio (AP) — Authorities are investigating the motives of an armed man who they say tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office, fled and died hours later in a rural standoff with law enforcement, a case unfolding as the FBI warns agents to take extra precautions amid increased social media threats to its employees and facilities.

Officials have warned of a rise in threats against federal agents in the days following a

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in Florida.

In the Cincinnati case, officials said a man tried to breach the visitor’s screening area at the FBI office Thursday morning and fled when agents confronted him. He was later spotted by a state trooper along Interstate 71 and fired shots as the trooper chased him, said Lt. Nathan Dennis, an Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesperson.

The suspect eventually got out of his car on a rural road, exchanged gunfire with police and was injured, Dennis said. No one else was hurt.

Attempted negotiations failed, and police tried unsuccessfully to use unspecified “less lethal tactics," but the suspect was shot when he raised a gun toward officers, Dennis said. The man died at the scene.

Dennis said he couldn't comment Thursday on whether the suspect said anything to officers during the standoff.

The man is believed to have been in Washington in the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and may have been present at the Capitol on the day of the attack, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.


The suspect was identified as Ricky Shiffer, 42, according to the law enforcement official. He was not charged with any crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, the official said. Federal investigators are examining whether Shiffer may have had ties to far-right extremist groups, including the Proud Boys, the official said.

There have been growing threats in recent days against FBI agents and offices across the country after federal agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. On Gab, a social media site popular with white supremacists and antisemites, users have warned they are preparing for an armed revolution.

Federal officials have also been tracking an array of other concerning chatter on Gab and other platforms threatening violence against federal agents. FBI Director Christopher Wray denounced the threats as he visited another FBI office in Nebraska on Wednesday.

“Violence against law enforcement is not the answer, no matter who you’re upset with,” Wray

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The FBI on Wednesday also warned its agents to avoid potential protesters, and to ensure their security key cards are “not visible outside FBI space,” citing an increase in social media threats to bureau personnel and facilities.

The warning did not specifically mention this week’s search of Mar-a-Lago but attributed the online threats to “recent media reporting on FBI investigative activity.”

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