2020-08-10: News Headlines

Max Blumenthal (2020-08-10). Western media's favorite Hong Kong 'freedom struggle writer' is American ex-Amnesty staffer in yellowface. mronline.org A prominent Hong Kong pundit and anti-China activist named Kong Tsung-gan has become a go-to source for Western media. An investigation by The Grayzone confirms Kong as a fake identity employed by an American teacher who's a ubiquitous figure at local protests.

Staff (2020-08-10). Headlines for August 10, 2020. democracynow.org Lebanon Unrest Mounting as Death Toll from Catastrophic Port Blast Tops 200, Trump Signs Executive Orders After Coronavirus Bill Stalls, Dems Say They Are Unconstitutional , U.S. COVID-19 Cases Top 5 Million, with More Evidence of Infections in Children and Teens, Coronavirus Surging Across India, Brazil as Europe and Cuba Reimpose Containment Measures, Hong Kong Arrests Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai Under National Security Law, Protesters Take to Streets of Belarus, Accuse Officials of Fraud After Lukashenko Claims 80% of Vote, Mauritius in State of "Environmental Emergency" as Tanker Leeches Fuel into Protected Areas,…

Arhama Siddiqa (2020-08-10). The rise of the Middle Kingdom in the Middle East: China's Belt and Road Initiative. zcomm.org China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) stands as the most prominent example of the pivotal shift in Chinese foreign policy from Deng Xiaoping's "bide and hide" philosophy to the current ambitious endeavors…

Binoy Kampmark (2020-08-09). The United States, Diego Garcia, and International Law. dissidentvoice.org There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People's Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations. In July, Mike Pompeo released a statement putting any uncertain minds at ease on where Washington stood on the matter. "We are making clear: Beijing's claims to offshore …

Dr. Binoy Kampmark (2020-08-09). Selective Maritime Rules: The United States, Diego Garcia and International Law. globalresearch.ca There are few more righteous sights than the paunchy US Secretary of State savaging the People's Republic of China with his next volley on Chinese territorial aspirations. In July, Mike Pompeo

_____ (2020-08-09). Washington Signals End of One China Policy Towards War Footing. strategic-culture.org A Washington Post Azar, a senior cabinet member in the Trump administration, is scheduled to meet Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen in the capital Taipei. The visit has sparked fury in Beijing which views Taiwan as a reneg…

yenisafak (2020-08-09). France to host fundraising conference for Beirut. yenisafak.com France's President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday will bring the international community together to raise funds for Beirut in the aftermath of the deadly blast earlier this week.The virtual conference will be held at 1200GMT with Macron hosting the conference from his vacation home in the south of France.The conference is backed by the United Nations and will involve major world leaders, including Lebanon's President Michel Aoun and US President Donald Trump.Leaders from the EU, Britain, China, Russia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE are also expected to participate.Two massive explosions tore through…

yenisafak (2020-08-09). Hong Kong reports 72 new coronavirus cases. yenisafak.com Hong Kong reported 72 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, of which 63 were locally transmitted, as authorities continued efforts to contain a resurgence of infections in the global financial hub over the past month.More than 4,000 people have been infected in Hong Kong since January, 51 of whom have died. Sunday's figure was slightly up from Saturday's 69 cases.

Tony Cartalucci (2020-08-09). Australia: Willing Pawn in US Conflict with China. globalresearch.ca Upon reading Australia's new defense strategy, one might think its authors believe they are surrounded by nations invaded and destroyed by China with Australia next in line. | News headlines declare, "

Eds. (2020-08-08). The filthy hypocrisy of America's "clean" China-free internet. mronline.org The Trump administration wants to keep other countries from weaponizing technology the way the U.S. and its allies already have.

Anand Naidoo (2020-08-08). The Heat: U.S. targets China. america.cgtn.com No deal yet. Talks still in limbo over an economic rescue package providing financial relief to millions of Americans as the coronavirus pandemic continues to surge across the United States.

RT (2020-08-08). 'Flagrant example of unfair competition': Russia slams US over 'baseless' ban on China's TikTok. rt.com Washington's recent order banning cooperation with the popular TikTok video-sharing service is an attempt to protect the dominance of American web giants, and violates the rules of the World Trade Organization, Moscow has said. | The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that…

RT (2020-08-08). Doctors sound alarm as deadly tick-borne virus re-emerges in China, kills 7 so far. rt.com As if Covid-19 wasn't enough, Chinese doctors are warning that the country's population is threatened by yet another virus. The infection is passed by tick bites, but could also be transmitted between humans, experts say. | The SFTS virus has already infected around 60 people this year in China's eastern Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces, and seven of them have died. | Symptoms of the potentially deadly infection include fever, cough, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting, as well as a decline in white blood cells. | SFTS isn't exactly new, as the first cases of the tick-borne disease were reported in rural parts of the Hub…

RT (2020-08-08). Goodbye, greenback! As they abandon dollar in trade, Russia & China could create 'financial alliance,' leading Russian expert says. rt.com Moscow and Beijing's ditching of the US dollar could result in the creation of a "financial alliance," according to a top Russian analyst. Alexey Maslov believes the partnership is approaching a "breakthrough moment." | Maslov, director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, predicts that Russia-China "de-dollarization" could lead to the two nations forming a de-facto fiscal alliance. | "The collaboration between Russia and China in the financial sphere tells us that they are finally finding the parameters for a new alliance with each other," he said, speaking to Japanese p…

_____ (2020-08-08). TikTok Diplomacy: A Digital Containment Doctrine. popularresistance.org With TikTok, Donald Trump is adding State Department coercion to his "art of the deal" toolkit. After months of feigned concern that the viral TikTok app represents a "trojan horse" for the Communist Party of China to access U.S. consumer data, the Trump Administration issued the Chinese company an ultimatum: sell the app to a U.S. buyer, or be shut down. | Microsoft has stepped forward as a potential buyer of TikTok, a clone of the Chinese video app Douyin tailored for a Western audience.

WSWS (2020-08-08). Former Australian PM: Beware the Guns of August in Asia. wsws.org Kevin Rudd argues that the danger of war between the US and China is greater than at any time since the 1950s and warns the risk "will be especially high" in the lead-up to the US presidential election.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-08-07). America had first Contemplated Nuclear War against both China and North Korea in 1950. globalresearch.ca America's use of nuclear weapons on a first strike basis is no longer considered as a weapon of total annihilation. Quite the opposite, the preemptive use of nukes is upheld as a means to ensuring global peace and security. This is the doctrine which prevails today under Trump's "fire and fury"

T.J. Coles (2020-08-07). Fighting Over Kashmir Could Blow Up the Planet. counterpunch.org Jammu and Kashmir, widely referred to as Kashmir, has had many designations since India and Pakistan were partitioned by Britain and gained their respective independence from the Empire: a Princely State, a State, a Union Territory. The 86,000 mile, Muslim-majority region sits in the Himalayas on the border with China. It is of strategic significance

Ian Goodrum (2020-08-07). TikTok — Trump's anti-China tech war is a protection racket for U.S. capital. peoplesworld.org I can't say I expected a viral teen dance smartphone app to be the latest flashpoint in President Donald Trump's war on all things China. But that's 2020 for you. TikTok, the wildly popular short video platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is in the U.S. government's crosshairs due to alleged national security risks. Trump …

RT (2020-08-07). 'National security threat'? Trump signs executive orders on TikTok & WeChat, bans transactions with Chinese owners in 45 days. rt.com US President Donald Trump has issued a series of executive orders addressing what he dubbed a technological national emergency, barring all transactions with the Chinese owners of social media apps TikTok and WeChat after 45 days. | Citing the "threat posed by TikTok," the president signed an order on Thursday prohibiting "any transaction by any person… subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, with ByteDance Ltd.," the Beijing-based tech firm that owns the platform. | BREAKING: President Trump just issued an executive order "on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok." It takes effect in 45 days, proh…

Danny Haiphong (2020-08-07). American left silence on China helps lay foundation for the U.S.' New Cold War. mronline.org When it comes to China, Democracy Now, Jacobin, The Nation and others on the imperial-minded U.S. 'left" are allies of white supremacy.

Pepe Escobar (2020-08-07). The Heart of the Matter in the South China Sea. globalresearch.ca When the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz carrier strike groups recently engaged in "operations" in the South China Sea, it failed to escape cynics that the US Pacific Fleet was doing its best to turn the infantile

CGTN (2020-08-07). Choking China and Hassling Huawei. dissidentvoice.org U.S. attacks against China have shifted to a fresh round of arbitrary threats forbidding travel to the United States by employees of Huawei and by the Communist Party of China members and their families. The reasoning behind it is astounding.

Conn Hallinan (2020-08-07). What's Driving the Simmering Conflict Between India and China. counterpunch.org Chinese and Indian forces have pulled back from their confrontation in the Himalayas, but the tensions that set off the deadly encounter this past June—the first on the China/India border since 1975—are not going away. Indeed, a combination of local disputes, regional antagonisms and colonial history have brewed up a poisonous elixir that could pose

sputniknews (2020-08-07). Taiwan Deploys F-16s With Live Anti-Ship Missiles Amid China's Rumored Island Invasion Drills. sputniknews.com Taiwan's Republic of China Air Force launched two multirole F-16 fighters fitted with anti-ship missiles from Hualien Air Force Base this week following reports that forces from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) would be holding drills simulating the capture of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands, which Beijing calls the Dongsha Islands.

sputniknews (2020-08-07). US Selectively Omits 'Complicity' in Libyan War While 'Angling' Against Russia, China in Africa. sputniknews.com As hue and cry rises in US media over whether Russian security contractors are involved in the Libyan civil war, one activist told Sputnik the US has no room to judge, since it created the chaos in Libya and deploys its own mercenaries around the globe.

_____ (2020-08-07). The Smartest Guy in His West Point Class. strategic-culture.org The imaginary inner world of a fool is a dangerous place, especially if he happens to be the Secretary of State of the United States of America. | Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's July 23 speech on U.S. policy with China exposes the vast empty realm between his two ears. This man, who also served as a veteran congressman and ran the CIA for a year and a half reveals himself as so ignorant of diplomacy, history, competence and commonsense that in assessing his comments and their dire consequences it is difficult to know where to start. | First, Pompeo imagines that the United States, guided of course by him can "c…

Staff (2020-08-06). Trump's cold war with China is heating up. therealnews.com The world's largest economic powers are in a battle for dominance complicated by the pandemic and Trump's escalation.

The Canary (2020-08-06). Twitter introduces new labels for government and state-linked media accounts. thecanary.co Twitter is to begin adding labels to the accounts of government officials and state-affiliated media groups to provide more context on who the account represents.The new feature will initially focus on senior political officials who are the voice of their state abroad and accounts belonging to state-backed media, its editors and senior staff.The social media platform said that for political figures, the labels would currently only be applied to accounts from the countries that make up the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, France, Russia, the UK and the US.Personal accounts of heads o…

Azhar Azam (2020-08-06). Huawei and 5G Technology. US-China Confrontation. globalresearch.ca This informative article focusses on the China-US confrontation regarding 5G. it does not address the impacts of 5G on health. | *** | First-generation mobile technology

yenisafak (2020-08-06). Coronavirus claims another 174 lives in Iran. yenisafak.com A total of 2,634 people tested positive for COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, raising the tally to 320,117, according to ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari.She said more than 277,000 patients have recovered so far, while 4,156 are still hospitalized in critical condition. "Over 2.6 million tests have been conducted in Iran to date," Lari added.The surge in daily fatalities has increased the fears of a collapse of Iran's already overwhelmed health care system.Since appearing in China last December, the virus has spread to at least 188 countries and regions, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins U…