Foreign / Movies / News / politics / War

Actor Morgan Freeman has been banned from Russia

Although many people around the world consider him to have the voice of God, with a booming baritone that may save or damn a movie, this did not stop the Russians from naming Freeman in a list released by the Russian government of more than 900 Americans who have been banned from entering the country for being “anti-Russian.”

The un-Free man when it comes to visiting Russia, was blacklisted (ironically on a list full of whites) due to his role in the creation of a video slamming the Russian government’s involvement in the United States’ 2016 presidential election.

The Stand by Me star directed and narrated the video, which was released in 2017, and also features fellow actor Rob Reiner.

Reiner, naturally, was also on the ban list.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former U.S. Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg along with three deceased U.S. Senators, including John McCain, were on the list.

Regarding the McCain and the other deceased senators, this could be Russian President Vladmir Putin’s way of ensuring that, in this world or the next, he will find you like Liam Neeson promised in the movie Taken.

“In the context of responding to the constantly imposed anti-Russian sanctions by the United States and in connection with incoming requests about the personal composition of our national ‘stop list,’ the Russian Foreign Ministry publishes a list of American citizens who are permanently banned from entering the Russian Federation,” the list reads.

“We emphasize that the hostile actions taken by Washington, which boomerang against the United States itself, will continue to receive a proper rebuff. Russian counter-sanctions are forced and aimed at forcing the ruling American regime, which is trying to impose a neo-colonial “rules-based world order” on the rest of the world, to change its behavior, recognising new geopolitical realities.”

Freeman will soon be starring in a movie called “A Good Person”, which Putin would probably rename “A Good Person to be on the Ban List”, but

…
Foreign / News

Biden administration takes aim at gun trafficking

 

A day before US President Joe Biden was due to announce measures to combat a rise in violent crime, the Justice Department on Tuesday revealed it had created five new units to tackle gun trafficking. 

The units will be set up in the next 30 days and will focus on the major cities of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, which have suffered a sharp increase in homicides over the past year and a half.

Bringing together federal prosecutors, specialized police officers and local partners, the “firearms trafficking strike forces will investigate and disrupt the networks that channel crime guns into our communities with tragic consequences,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement.

On Wednesday, Garland will be at the White House when the Democratic president sets out his administration’s strategy to fight rising crime, in the face of criticism from the Republican opposition that he has not properly addressed the problem.

After years of decline, homicide rates rose about 25 percent in 2020, and remain at their highest levels in 2021.

“We believe that a central driver of violence is gun violence,” said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki during a briefing on the issue.

“A big part of that in [Biden’s] view is putting in place gun safety measures, even as Congress is not moving forward currently,” said Psaki, referring to the Republican senators blocking a bill aimed at better regulating the purchase of weapons.

…