Daily Archives: December 21, 2020

2020-12-21: News Headlines

D. Raghunandan (2020-12-21). The climate cloud and a thin silver lining. peoplesdispatch.org As many as 45 countries, among them 24 high-emission nations, announced additional cuts than those in their PA commitments by 2030, either at the summit, or over the past few months, despite the sharp economic downturn precipitated by COVID-19.

WSWS (2020-12-21). COVID outbreak and China tensions expose Australian government bid to claim "recovery" wsws.org The government's own statistics show that more than three million workers remain dependent on poverty-line JobKeeper wage subsidies or JobSeeker dole payments, both of which are being slashed.

Leo Panitch (2020-12-21). Empire, socialism and November /w Leo Panitch. mronline.org First, whether the pandemic has fundamentally altered the geopolitical balance between the U.S. and other great powers, specifically China. And second, how socialists in the U.S. should approach the November elections. For Panitch, the two issues are intimately connected.

Dean Baker (2020-12-21). China, Christmas and the Coronavirus. counterpunch.org 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

Online News Editor (2020-12-21). Travel suspensions to UK rise as concern mounts over mutant Covid strain. laprensalatina.com (Update 1: adds info from various countries) Toronto/New Delhi/Budapest/Hong Kong/Geneva, Dec 20 (EFE).- Several countries across the world on Monday suspended air travel to the United Kingdom in the wake of a rapidly spreading mutant variant of the coronavirus detected in Britain. India announced on Monday that it was suspending all flights to and from …

C.P. Chandrasekhar (2020-12-21). Bilateral swaps in China's global presence. mronline.org China's use of yuan-denominated central bank swaps, while enhancing its influence, is a source of support for developing countries in an unequal international order.

Alan Macleod (2020-12-21). Trump Enacts Sweeping New Sanctions on China, Iran, Venezuela. Biden Promises More To Come. mintpressnews.com The new sanctions come even as an estimated 100,000 people have been killed by American sanctions in Venezuela alone as vital medical equipment and lifesaving drugs have been blocked from entering the country.

Shane Quinn (2020-12-21). The US-China Power Struggle, Two Decades of CIA Interference in Tibet. globalresearch.ca Of relevance to the crisis in US-China relations, we bring to the attention of our readers this incisive historical analysis of CIA interference in Tibet by Shawn Quinn, first published in January 2020 | *** | America's position as the world's …

Telesur (2020-12-21). Will the Biden Administration Seek to Disrupt China's Presence in Latin America? globalresearch.ca While Donald Trump's policies towards Latin America sought to disrupt China's investments in the region, the ever-increasing presence of the Asian giant in the continent will be something with which the new Biden administration will have to contend. | China has …

Matthew Ehret-Kump (2020-12-21). Today's China Espionage Scandals Revive the Gouzenko Hoax That Unleashed the Cold War. globalresearch.ca Today, a new coordinated psychological operation has been sprung to convince every living patriot across the Five Eyes sphere of influence that the enemy of the free world who lurks behind every conspiracy to overthrow governments, and western values is…China….

Mehr News Agency (2020-12-21). China urges US to return to JCPOA unconditionaly. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Dec. 21 (MNA) — The Chinese State Councilor and FM Wang Yi on Monday stressed that the US should return to the JCPOA at an early date unconditionally.

Newsclick (2020-12-20). Now China achieves quantum supremacy — What does this mean? peoplesdispatch.org Chinese quantum computer Jiuzhang achieved quantum supremacy. It is only the second quantum computer to ever do so, after Google's Sycamore. How does this computer work and what does quantum supremacy mean for us?

Direct Action Everywhere (2020-12-20). Saturday 1/9: Online Assembly: What Industrialization Means for Dairy Cows in China (and for us). indybay.org Online Zoom…

_____ (2020-12-19). Capitalism On A Ventilator. popularresistance.org Asian countries have been far more successful than the US in responding to the COVID pandemic, but you'd never know that from the US media. Even most alternative media has been largely US- & Euro-centric. While our domestic issues here are important, we have been missing out on important lessons from other places. | A partial remedy to this dearth of information is provided by the just released, "Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China & the U.S." The book is an anthology of writing by over fifty activists and independent journalists, edited by Sara Flounders & Lee Siu Hin. | Th…

A Guest Author (2020-12-19). How long will Peru last? History weighs on today's events. workers.org By Sergio Rodriguez Gelfenstein The writer was the director of international relations in Venezuela's presidential office and the country's ambassador to Nicaragua. Currently, he is a guest professor at Shanghai University in China. This article was posted at sergioro07.blogspot.com on Nov. 13. Translation: Michael Otto. Mariategui's magazine, Amauta. Credit: Juan . . . |

Holly Sheppard (2020-12-19). The Heat: China's economic goals. america.cgtn.com Senior Chinese policymakers meet to map out the nation's economic blueprint for 2021.

sputniknews (2020-12-18). Trump Signs Bill That Could Block Some Chinese Companies From US Exchanges. sputniknews.com Earlier in December, the bill requiring foreign companies to comply with the US audit standards was approved by the Congress, prompting condemnation from Beijing, as it named the legislation "discriminatory".

Areeb Ullah (2020-12-18). Pakistan returns $1bn to Saudi Arabia and turns to China for loan assistance. middleeasteye.net Pakistan returns $1bn to Saudi Arabia and turns to China for loan assistance | Cash-strapped Islamabad forced to return part of soft loan amid tensions with Riyadh | Fri, 12/18/2020 – 12: 04 | Pakistan had already made a billion-dollar payment in July and set to make a third payment next month (AFP) | Cash-strapped Pakistan has returned $1bn to Saudi Arabia as the second instalment of a $3bn soft loan, a…

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 …