China’s President Xi Jinping held a virtual call with Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam and vowed to assist the city during its fight with COVID-19 but insisted it is important that the city is controlled by “patriots.” “Hong Kong’s significant change from chaos to peace again showed an important rule: we must insist on patriots...
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U.S. BOMBERS FLY TO MIDDLE EAST TO KEEP IRAN IN CHECK
The U.S. flew a B-52H Stratofortress from a base in Louisiana over the Middle East and back to deter “any aggression in the region” and to “reassure” allies, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes as tension between Washington, D.C. and Tehran continues. There has been U.S. media hype of “chatter” from “government officials” that Iran...
POLAND: PRO-ABORTION PROTESTS
Thousands of Poles protested last week over Warsaw’s decision to implement a constitutional court ruling considered an almost outright abortion ban, which puts new limits in place for access to abortions when there are fetal abnormalities. The government waited months to implement the 22 October Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling that essentially bans all abortions after two...
PROTESTS TUNISIA: “YOUTH REVOLUTION” TOP TREND
Youth in Tunisia took to the streets last week to express their frustrations over economic woes and anger of police brutality in the country that launched the Arab Spring a decade ago when Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled the country for a quarter-century, was ousted from office. Out of work, out of money, with...
PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN INDIA OVER FARM BILL
It happens all the time: peaceful protests turn ugly. We note this since the Battle of Seattle, back in 1999, when demonstrators took to the streets protesting the World Trade Organization meeting that was being held in the city. It was by far the largest demonstration in the United States when over 40,000 people marched...
CHINA MILITARY. READY FOR WAR?
It was reported Chinese military aircraft conducted an exercise that simulated an attack on a U.S. aircraft carrier as tensions in the region continue to simmer after Beijing announced last week that Taiwan’s independence would mean war. The Financial Times, citing intelligence officials from the U.S. and other countries, reported the pilots in the H-6...
MYANMAR MILITARY COUP: NOTHING NEW
Myanmar’s military on Monday detained the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, declared a state of emergency, and took control of the government until a new election next year. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy called for her immediate release. Reuters reported that her whereabouts since the siege is unknown. The U.N. Security Council planned...
TECH GIANTS AND NATION STATES: WHO CONTROLS WHO?
At a virtual Davos agenda meeting of the World Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted that technology corporations are rivaling the power of nation-states. “These are not just economic giants. In some areas they are already de facto competing with the state,” Putin said in an address. Russia is currently accelerating regulatory pressure on...
YOUTUBE DEMONETIZES THE EPOCH TIMES
The ability of insurgent media companies to gain followers and generate income via social media platforms took another hit this week. The Epoch Times, a Washington-based newspaper offering counter-narratives to Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post, has found itself demonetized by YouTube. The change means they can no longer make money from videos they post on the...
HOW ENCRYPTED SOCIAL MEDIA MAY DISRUPT THE WORLD
During the Wall Street “GameStop” furor this week, there were various attempts to clamp down on the activity of traders on the Reddit group Wall Street Bets. The NYSE halted trading of GameStop stock, and even when they relented, Robinhood and other popular trading apps disabled and limited trades, or experienced mysterious disruptions in service....