Daily Archives: December 18, 2020

2020-12-18: News Headlines

RT (2020-12-18). WHO sending Covid-hunting team to Wuhan, China in January to probe origins of pandemic. rt.com Investigators from the World Health Organization (WHO) will head to China in January in a bid to unearth the origins of the coronavirus, officials said on Friday, more than a year after the first infections were reported there. | The United Nations health agency will send an international team of up to 15 scientists to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus is first thought to have spread from a wet market. | The WHO's health emergencies chief, Dr Michael Ryan, said the researchers would travel to China in the first week of January, visiting Wuhan, which he said was the "purpose of the mission," as well…

Yanis Iqbal (2020-12-18). China's Rise in the Context of Global Capitalism. dissidentvoice.org The world-system is slowly changing. For the first time in capitalism's history, the global economy's centre of gravity is shifting away from the west — a process which is a result of Uneven and Combined Development (UCD). On the one hand, dominant states utilize imperialism to preserve existing uneven configurations of capitalist development which favour …

teleSUR (2020-12-17). China's Probe Change-5 Reaches Earth With New Lunar Samples. telesurenglish.net China's Change-5 probe touched down on Earth in the early hours of Thursday, bringing back the world's freshest lunar samples in over 40 years. | RELATED: | It marks a conclusion of China's current three-step lunar exploration program of orbiting and landing and bringing back samples, which began in 2004. | The capsule will be airlifted to Beijing for opening, and the moon samples will be delivered to the research te…

Umar A Farooq (2020-12-17). Coalition of groups criticise OIC for failing to condemn China's persecution of Uighurs. middleeasteye.net Coalition of groups criticise OIC for failing to condemn China's persecution of Uighurs | Rights and advocacy groups call on Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to demand accountability and transparency from Beijing | Thu, 12/17/2020 – 19: 55 | Despite protests from Uighurs outside China, many Muslim-majority countries have remained silent on China's rights violations (AFP/File photo) | A coalition…

Dean Baker (2020-12-17). China, Christmas, and the Coronavirus. cepr.net As we hunker down this holiday season, waiting for our vaccines, or at least until the diffusion of the vaccines has slowed the spread of the pandemic, it's worth thinking for a moment about an opportunity lost. Specifically, we lost an opportunity to have worldwide cooperation in the development of vaccines, bringing in not only …

Peter Koenig (2020-12-17). China's Economy of Peace. dissidentvoice.org In the context of China's webinar on 14 December 2020, on the topic of "China's New Development Paradigm and High-Quality Belt and Road Cooperation", organized by the China Center for Contemporary World Studies, International Department of CPC Central Committee and the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, my presentation was on China's …

James O'Neill (2020-12-17). The China Shock May Provide a Much-Needed Catalyst for Change. dissidentvoice.org In an opinion poll published in the Guardian online an astonishing 2/3 of voters either approved or strongly approved of the Prime Minister's conduct of the nation's affairs. While this may in part be a reflection of the abysmal performance of the official Labor "opposition" there must be a deeper reason for the Prime Minister's …

WSWS (2020-12-17). US secretary of state incites xenophobic hysteria against Chinese students, denounces "anti-American" universities. wsws.org The remarks represent a coming together of the war drive against China and the assault on the exchange of ideas on college campuses.

sputniknews (2020-12-17). Watch as Chinese Helicopter Zips Through Highway Traffic Just Inches Above Road. sputniknews.com China's Z-8 helicopter, derived from the French Super Frelon, has long been a staple of the Chinese armed forces, which is still finding new uses for the powerful heavy-lifter. However, using such a large aircraft for stunts was probably previously unknown.

MEE correspondent (2020-12-16). Covid-19: Scholars say having vaccine is religious duty for Egyptians. middleeasteye.net Covid-19: Scholars say having vaccine is religious duty for Egyptians | Arrival of first shipment of vaccine from China has raised religious, political and public debate in the country | Wed, 12/16/2020 – 12: 41 | Worshippers attend Friday prayers inside Cairo's historic al-Azhar mosque (AFP) | Egypt's religious establishment has stepped into the heated debate over Covid-19 vaccines, ur…

Tobita Chow (2020-12-16). Post-Election Reflections on Sinophobia in U.S. Politics. zcomm.org The last 12 months have seen a sharp rise in anti-China sentiment and, consequently, anti-Asian racism…

news.un (2020-12-16). China undermining human rights by locking up rights lawyers, UN independent expert says. news.un.org China has mounted a "shocking" five-year assault on lawyers who stand up for human rights, putting them in prison and even torturing them, an expert mandated by the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement on Wednesday.

imperial.ac.uk (2020-12-15). Smart toilets and managing natural disasters: designing cities of the future. imperial.ac.uk Imperial students have collaborated with students from Tsinghua University in Beijing to devise solutions for the smart cities of the future.