This is an archived newsroll page on A Socialist In Canada, consisting of headlines and weblinks, with occasional news summary and brief analysis, for the indicated month(s) and year. See the current, ‘World news’ website page here. To find past stories on this and other news pages on this website, use the ‘find’ (word search) function on your web browser. Headlines in red denote items published on the main news page of A Socialist In Canada, mostly authored by Roger Annis.
World news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, December 2021
New York City is once again a center of the pandemic, Washington Post, Dec 31, 2021
Related:
* New York city officials denounced for holding New Year’s celebration amid crippling pandemic surge, Common Dreams, Dec 31, 2021
* New York state sets new Covid record with over 85,000 new cases on Jan 1, NBC News, Jan 1, 2022
Beijing’s war movie propaganda…—and Washington’s, by Robin Anderson, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, Dec 31, 2021 Audiences at the opening of the 11th Beijing International Film Festival in September 2021 cheered ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’. Chinese people have flocked to cinemas to see the film, which has grossed more than $900 million to date at the box office, making it the second-highest-grossing film in the world in 2021.
Review: The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021), by Derek Elley, published in Sino-Cinema, Oct 29, 2021
Related: The Battle at Lake Changjin: China’s anti-war film, by Kim Petersen, Dissident Voice, Jan 14, 2022
Telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joseph Biden, brief report on the website of the President of Russia, Dec 30, 2021 …Vladimir Putin detailed the fundamental approaches underlying the Russian drafts of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America and the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. He stressed that the negotiations needed to produce solid legally binding guarantees ruling out NATO’s eastward expansion and the deployment of weapons that threaten Russia in the immediate vicinity of its borders.
Related:
* Putin warns Biden of ‘complete breakdown’ in U.S.-Russia relations, RT, Dec 30, 2021
* Biden talks sanctions, Putin warns of rupture over Ukraine, Associated Press, Dec 31, 2021
[This article by Associated Press is a mix of fact and of Western media lies and obfuscation. It is one of the less offensive such articles to be published by a Western media outlet. That said, note this very novel claim by the AP writers: ‘The security proposal by Moscow has raised the question of whether Putin is making unrealistic demands in the expectation of a Western rejection that would give him a pretext to invade [Ukraine].’]
Small teams of researchers in Texas gives the world what Big Pharma refuses: A patent-free vaccine, Common Dreams, Dec 30, 2021
Related: A new coronavirus vaccine is heading to India for manufacture. It was developed by a small medical team in Texas that expects nothing in return, Washington Post, Dec 31, 2021 For some vaccine developers, the coronavirus pandemic has had a silver lining in billions of dollars in profits. But a new vaccine rolling out soon in India is taking the opposite approach: Its developers are getting zilch. “We’re not trying to make money,” said Peter Hotez of the Texas Children’s Hospital’s Center for Vaccine Development. “We just want to see people get vaccinated.”…
Spurred by Omicron, Europe is setting coronavirus infection records every day, New York Times, Dec 29, 2021 Across Europe, records for new coronavirus infections are being set day after day, as the Omicron variant tears through populations with a swiftness outpacing anything witnessed over the past two years of the pandemic.
Like the United States, which recorded a new high in daily cases on Tuesday, European nations are struggling against an onslaught of infections from a virus that shows no sign of going away. Driven, health officials suspect, by the Omicron variant, Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain all set records for new daily case counts this week…
Related news of pandemic negligence:
* As Omicron washes over the U.S., much of the country still isn’t using exposure notification apps, Washington Post, Dec 29, 2021 …The ‘exposure notification’ app built by Google, Apple and a handful of other tech companies is not used at all in 20 states, including Florida and Texas, while in California, only about three per cent of reported cases were logged… The seven-day average of new daily cases in the U.S. hit 253,245 on Dec 28, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. Traditional contact-tracing systems have been overwhelmed, and people who test positive with at-home tests still can’t upload their results to the tech companies’ app in most of the states that use it. The U.S.’s decentralized public health system, where state and even county governments are responsible for public health and contact tracing rather than the federal government, has contributed to this patchwork system…
* Canadian government has quietly ‘given up’ on its ‘Covid Alert’ contact tracing app, National Post, Dec 29, 2021 …The revelation comes as Canada grapples with massive numbers of new Covid-19 infections. On Dec 29, Canada reported nearly 25,000 new cases, with Quebec (13,149), Ontario (10,436) and Manitoba (947) all reporting single-day records… The application was available in most provinces except British Columbia and Alberta, who never signed on to Ottawa’s program… Derek Ruths, a member of the government’s independent Covid Alert app advisory council until it was disbanded last summer, says poor uptake in the country’s biggest provinces means the overall impact of the app has been “muted”. A paper he co-authored and published earlier this year noted that Canada’s application had one of the lowest adoption rates when compared to the equivalent service in eight other countries such as France, Germany, the UK and Italy…
Vladimir Putin speaks [on the world’s political and military alignments], by Patrick Lawrence, columnist, Consortium News, Dec 29, 2021 As the Russian president’s year-end press conference on Dec 23 helped underscore, Europe will increasingly understand itself as the western end of Eurasia rather than the eastern shore of the Atlantic
U.S. softens quarantine and isolation rules over worries that omicron surge could lead to breakdown in essential services, Washington Post, Dec 28, 2021 Top health officials in the U.S. met over Christmas weekend to discuss the trajectory of the coronavirus outbreak in the country with several expressing fear about how high case levels might climb in the coming weeks. They worry that the sheer volume of infections could mean that tens of thousands of police, firefighters, grocery workers and other essential employees would be out of work, making it challenging to keep society functioning, even if many of the infections are mild or produce no symptoms…
Related: Healthy, boosted people unlikely to develop severe omicron infections, but jury’s out on older, at-risk populations, Washington Post, Dec 28, 2021 Healthy individuals who have been vaccinated, and especially those who have been boosted, appear unlikely to develop severe infections from the omicron variant that would land them in the hospital, say medical experts who have monitored the effects of the newest coronavirus variant since it was identified over four weeks ago. While omicron has sent U.S. infections soaring to levels not seen since last winter’s wave, it appears to have less severe effects than the delta variant, according to a handful of international studies and early data from several U.S. hospitals…
Province of Quebec is allowing Covid-infected health workers to stay on the job as absences rise, CBC News, Dec 28, 2021 …Quebec’s minister of health says there were about 7,000 health-care workers off the job on Dec 27 due to Covid-19. That number is expected to rise to 10,000 in the coming days. These temporary absences are in addition to the thousands of nurses who left the public system during the pandemic because of the toll it was taking. Quebec reported a record 12,833 new cases on Dec 27…
A socialist defense of vaccine mandates, by Nick Pemberton, CounterPunch, Dec 28, 2021
‘Alarming’ levels of ‘forever chemicals’ have contaminated fresh water sources near U.S. military bases in Okinawa, Common Dreams, Dec 28, 2021
Nine hundred people have been shot and killed by police in the U.S. during the past year, Washington Post, Dec 28, 2021 Police forces across the U.S. have shot and killed nearly 1,000 people each year since 2015, the year the Washington Post began to track all reports of police killings
Related:
* Teen died in mother’s arms in a clothing store dressing room in Los Angeles after police opened fire inside the store, CNN, Dec 28, 2021 Police said they were chasing down a man armed with… a bicycle lock
* Pennsylvania state trooper who killed four troubled men between 2008 and 2021 has been investigated by his own agency all along and exonerated, New York Times, Dec 29, 2021
China pursues self-reliance in techonology, fueling unease in the wealthy countries that currently dominate. Report by Associated Press, Dec 27, 2021 …Computer processor chips are a top priority in the ruling Communist Party’s marathon campaign to end China’s reliance on technology from the United States, Japan and other suppliers that Beijing sees as potential economic and strategic rivals… China’s factories assemble the world’s smartphones and tablet computers but need components from the United States, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. Chips are China’s biggest import, ahead of crude oil, at more than $300 billion last year…
Related: China’s ‘long march’ to close the technology gap with the West, Nikkei Asia, Oct 11, 2021
For a third year in a row, the New York-based ‘Committee To Protect Journalists’ excludes Julian Assange from its index of jailed journalists, by Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, Dec 20, 2021
Related: PEN America’s betrayal of Julian Assange, commentary by Chris Hedges, originally published in ScheerPost, Dec 27, 2021 (widely re-published in other outlets)
Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference, broadcast live on Dec 23, 2021 by television and radio across Russia. Transcript published on the website of the President of Russia, Dec 23, 2021
Excerpt, responding to a Western journalist at Sky News: …We remember, as I have mentioned many times before and as you know very well, how you promised us in the 1990s that [NATO] would not move an inch to the East. You cheated us shamelessly: there have been five waves 
of NATO expansion, and now the weapons systems I mentioned have been deployed in Romania and deployment has recently begun in Poland. This is what we are talking about, can you not see? We are not threatening anyone. Have we approached U.S. borders? Or the borders of Britain or any other country? It is you who have come to our border, and now you say that Ukraine will become a member of NATO as well. Or, even if it does not join NATO, that military bases and strike systems will be placed on its territory under bilateral agreements. This is the point. And you are demanding guarantees from me. It is you who must give us guarantees, and you must do it immediately, right now, instead of talking about it for decades and doing what you want, while talking quietly about the need for security guarantees to everyone…
Excerpt, responding to a Russian journalist: …As for the future, the Minsk agreements state that the Ukrainian Constitution must be amended to grant autonomy to these regions [Donetsk and Lugansk], to hold elections and grant amnesty. As I said, what do we see in [Ukraine’s] draft law on the transition period? A military government instead of elections. Lustration [purges] instead of amnesty. Returning troops to their permanent bases instead of elections and political solutions to political issues. This is the reality. What does it mean, returning troops to their permanent bases? It means sending troops to the territory without any political process or elections…
Related:
* In his annual press conference, Putin says peace in Ukraine is up to the U.S., by Len Bracken, Consortium News, Dec 23, 2021
* Remarks by President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry, transcript published on the website of the President of Russia, Dec 21, 2021
Those nasty Russians, analysis by John Kiriakou, correspondent, Consortium News, Dec 24, 2021
Related:
* Year of major power conflict over Ukraine, by Scott Ritter, correspondent, Consortium News, Dec 23, 2021 …Russia believes it has already yielded as much as it possibly can to what it believes is an overly aggressive, anti-Russian agenda being actively implemented by the U.S. and NATO. In a speech given by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Russian Defense Ministry earlier this week, he declared the status quo ante is no longer acceptable. The U.S. and NATO must be open for the need to change, or else Russia will be compelled to change them on its own…
* In vote at UN General Assembly, U.S. and Ukraine refuse to condemn Nazism, by Craig Murray, Consortium News, Dec 23, 2021 The Ukrainian vote against the General Assembly resolution against Nazism was motivated by sympathy for the ideology of historic, genocidal active Nazis. It is as simple as that, writes Craig Murray.
Omicron is our past pandemic mistakes on fast-forward, by Katherine J. Wu, Ed Yong and Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, Dec 23, 2021 …This is not March 2020. We have masks. We have better treatments. Our immune systems are much more prepared to fight off the virus, thanks to vaccines. But as a society, we are still not prepared. Here are the six traps that we keep falling into, each consequence made all the more acute because of Omicron’s speed…
Related:
* Omicron is the beginning of the end of social interventions to combat the pandemic, commentary by Yasha Mounk, The Atlantic, Dec 22, 2021
Omicron cases less likely to require hospital treatment, studies show, Financial Times, Dec 22, 2021 Data from Denmark, South Africa and the UK point to reduced severity from infection with the coronavirus strain Read the article here in pdf format: Omicron studies
Related:
* Omicron’s effect won’t be as mild as hoped, Scientific American, Dec 23, 2021 …Covid hospitalizations and deaths usually lag infections by weeks. It remains to be seen whether observations of milder disease will hold up over time and in countries such as the U.K. and U.S., whose populations are older and may have less prior immunity from infection (but more immunity from vaccines)…
* Traumatized and exhausted hospital staff face new wave of Covid cases as Omicron rips through U.S., CNBC, Dec 23, 2021
* South Africa’s huge omicron wave appears to be subsiding just as quickly as it grew, Washington Post, Dec 22, 2021
* Omicron by the numbers: Where things stand now, STAT News, Dec. 21, 2021 The acceleration of new Covid-19 cases in New York City is comparable to the peaks in states like Louisiana and Florida when they were hard hit by the Delta wave in late summer/early fall 2021.
‘Build Back Better’ is now dead on arrival: The next phase in the U.S. economic and political crisis begins, by Jack Rasmus (St. Mary’s College of California), Dec 20, 2021 …Historically viewed, the response to ‘Build Back Better’ by Democratic Party Senator Joe Manchin was analogous to the Japanese not providing a declaration of war to the U.S. before bombing Pearl Harbor. It was not only bad faith; it was treachery. In other words, Joe Biden (the other president Joe) has been ‘Pearl Harbored’ by de facto prez Joe Manchin…
Ten Crises: The Political Economy of China’s Development (1949-2020). Book published by Palgrave MacMillan, 2021, 511 pp. Open access, download the book here at Springer.com. Read the book summary (five pages) here in pdf format: Summary, Ten Crises. Here is the table of contents: Ten Crises, table of contents
(This is the first book of the Global University for Sustainability Book Series, published with Palgrave MacMillan. The book examines the ‘ten crises in China’s economic development during the 70 years of contemporary Chinese history since 1949.’ More information about this series is here: http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16706. Series editors are Lau Kin Chi, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China; and Sit Tsui, Institute of Rural Reconstruction of China, Southwest University, Chongqing, China. )
Facts alone aren’t going to win over the unvaccinated. This might, commentary by Dr. Anupam B. Jena (Harvard Medical School) and Christopher M. Worsham (Harvard Medical School), in New York Times, Dec 22, 2021
Vladimir Putin’s annual news conference, broadcast live by television and radio across Russia. Video and transcript coming soon, on the website of the President of Russia
The self-determination struggle of Russian Crimea and the pro-autonomy struggle in Donbas (formerly eastern Ukraine), by Roger Annis, A Socialist In Canada, Dec 21, 2021 (This article is originally published in Dissident Voice, Dec 21, 2021) …Western governments and media are currently spouting a tidal wave of lies and misinformation about the situation in eastern Ukraine, warning of an imminent ‘Russian invasion’ of the country. They are doing more than talking; they are also boosting their supplying of arms and provision of military training to the Ukrainian armed forces and its associated, extreme-right paramilitary battalions. As a result, it is more important than ever for antiwar activists and alternative media to provide reliable and factual information that can counter the government and media barrage emanating from Western capitals…
Media forget the plight of Afghan people as U.S. sanctions drive mass famine risk, by Julie Hollar, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, Dec 21, 2021 As the United States withdrew militarily from Afghanistan in August 2021, television news focused on the plight of the country’s citizens, highlighting what it called “the horror awaiting women and girls” and using that claim to argue against withdrawal. Four months later, as those same citizens have been plunged into a humanitarian crisis due in no small part to U.S. sanctions, where is the outrage? …
The spoils of war: Interview with journalist Andrew Cockburn, 26-minute interview broadcast on ‘On Contact’, with program host Chris Hedges, Dec 17, 2021 Andrew Cockburn’s new book, ‘The Spoils of War – Power, Profit and the American War Machine’, lays bare the naked lust for profit that is behind America’s endless wars and bloated military budget. Andrew Cockburn is the Washinogton editor of Harper’s Magazine.
Related: Review of Andrew Cockburn’s ‘The Spoils Of War’, by Mark Kaldor, in Open Democracy, Oct 3, 2021
‘It’s embarrassing’: CDC struggles to track Covid cases as Omicron looms, Politico, Dec 20, 2021 The U.S. was behind other countries in charting the spread of disease in the pandemic’s disastrous early months. It’s still behind as new variants threaten to disrupt the winter.
Related pandemic analysis:
* The Biden administration should offer free, at-home Covid testing, by Megha Satyanarayana, opinion editor, Scientific American, Dec 20, 2021
* Omicron will overwhelm America’s emergency rooms, commentary by Craig Spencer, The Atlantic (conservative monthly magazine, daily website articles), Dec 21, 2021 Hospitals are already strained and many health-care workers have little left to give. (Craig Spencer is an emergency-medicine physician and director of global health in emergency medicine at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.) Read the commentary here in pdf format: Omicron will overwhelm America’s health care
* Anti-vax talk at conservative conference shows Republican Party has become a death cult, by Dana Milbank, columnist, Washington Post, Dec 20, 2021 read the column here in pdf format: Republican Party become Covid death cult
* Trump tells audience in Dallas he received Covid-19 booster, then fields a smattering of boos. Report by CNN, Dec 20, 2021
Chile turns leftward with election of its youngest-ever president, RT, Dec 20, 2021
Related:
* Victory speech by Chile’s President-Elect Gabriel Boric, delivered on Dec 19, 2021
* Leftist millennial vows to remake Chile after historic win, Associated Press, Dec 20, 2021
* Global celebration follows election victory of Gabriel Boric in Chile presidential election, Common Dreams, Dec 20, 2021 ‘At last, the specter of Pinochet is removed from Chile,’ declared former finance minister of Greece Yanis Varoufakis
How can some progressives get basic information about Nicaragua so wrong?, by John Perry and Rick Sterling, Dissident Voice, Dec 18, 2021 and re-published: LA Progressive, Dec 20, 2021
[This analysis takes a detailed look at a Nov 9 article published in NACLA and authored by U.S. academic William Robinson; the article is titled ‘After silencing the opposition, Daniel Ortega claims victory for a fourth consecutive term’. A similar article to Robinson’s was published on Nov 11 in the U.S. Trotskyist (right-socialist) publication New Politics; this one is headlined ‘After bogus Nicaraguan election, Daniel Ortega remains dictator’.]
Trump’s big border wall is now a pile of rusting steel, by John B. Washington, The Atlantic, Dec 20, 2021 …President Joe Biden persistently campaigned on a clean break from the policies of the Trump administration. Perhaps in no other field did Trump’s critics hope for swifter and more complete reversals than in immigration and border policy. Those hopes have been dashed: Despite many promises, the Biden administration has effectively locked in, and in some cases even expanded, draconian anti-immigration measures implemented by Trump. The wall was supposed to be the easy change. But halting a project of this scale is never easy…
New York Times reports Pentagon documents revealing ‘deeply flawed’ U.S. air war in Middle East, Agence France presse, Dec 19, 2021 and read: report in Common Dreams, Dec 18, 2021
Related:
* Hidden Pentagon records reveal patterns of failure in deadly airstrikes, investigative report in New York Times, Dec 18, 2021 This is part one of a series. Part two (here below) will examine the air war’s human toll. …A hidden Pentagon archive of the American air war in the Middle East since 2014 lays bare how the air war has been marked by deeply flawed intelligence, rushed and often imprecise targeting, and the deaths of thousands of civilians, many of them children, a sharp contrast to the American government’s image of war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs… The air campaign represents a fundamental transformation of warfare that took shape in the final years of the Obama administration, amid the deepening unpopularity of the forever wars that had claimed more than 6,000 American service members…
* Part two: Airstrikes allowed America to wage war with minimal risk to its troops, but for civilians on the ground they brought terror and tragedy, New York Times, Dec 19, 2021
* New York Times reporting on airstrikes should give Daniel Hale more credit, commentary by Sam Carliner, Common Dreams, Dec 20, 2021 The New York Times should give Daniel Hale proper credit and call for Biden to immediately pardon him. As long as he’s in prison, there is no justice.
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin pulls support for Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending plan, NBC News, Dec 19, 2021
Related: From charm offensive to scorched earth: How Biden’s fragile alliance with Manchin unraveled, Washington Post, Dec 19, 2021
Previously reported:
* Reconcile this: Lessons From the latest legislative debacle in the U.S., by Jim Kavanagh, published on his blog The Polemicist, Dec 6, 2021
* The outer limits of corporate politics, by David Sirota and Andrew Perez, published in The Daily Poster, Oct 28, 2021 The halving of the Democrats’ spending agenda suggests the party is still primarily intent on fulfilling Biden’s promise to donors that “nothing would fundamentally change”
Comparing pandemic responses and results between New Zealand and small European countries, by Michael Hanne, Newsroom.co.nz, Dec 18, 2021
Previously reported: Media in U.S. and UK mock New Zealand’s incredibly successful Covid response, by Joshua Cho, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org), Nov 16, 2021
Netherlands announces new lockdown to curb Omicron, Associated Press, Dec 18, 2021
Related pandemic news:
* Here’s what health workers in U.S. confront: Full ICUs, patients dying, and violence, news summary in Kaiser Health News, Dec 19, 2021
* Highly vaccinated countries thought they were over the worst. Denmark says the pandemic’s toughest month is just beginning, Washington Post, Dec 18, 2021 …Ever since the Omicron variant emerged in November, the best hope has been that it might cause less severe sickness than the Delta version with which it is competing. In turn, this might make this wave more manageable and help the transition of Covid-19 into an endemic disease. But Denmark’s projections show the wave so fully inundating the country that even a lessened strain will deliver an unprecedented blow…
* Studies clash on Russian vaccine’s efficacy against Omicron, Associated Press, Dec 17, 2021 …The developer of Russia’s Sputnik V said today that its vaccine provides the best protection against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, disputing a Western study that found Sputnik produced “no neutralizing activity” against the new variant…
* Professional sport spectacles should take a holiday vacation while Covid rages. By Kurt Streeter, sports columnist, New York Times, Dec 16, 2021 read the column here in pdf format: Covid and professional sports
Pandora Papers investigations:
This block in Tennessee used to be for first- time homebuyers. Then global investors bought in, Pandora Papers investigation by Washington Post, Dec 18, 2021 …The plan sought to exploit the 2008 U.S. housing crash, which forced millions of homeowners into foreclosure and left a glut of cheap houses for sale. The financiers’ plan called for buying up tens of thousands of these properties at depressed prices and renting them to families who had lost their homes or, because of tightened lending practices, could no longer qualify for a mortgage. To raise money for the project, Pretium Partners sent confidential invitations to people wealthy enough to put up at least $2 million. Executives projected annualized returns of 15 to 20 percent, according to a 238-page solicitation to investors in 2012. In total, Pretium Partners raised more than $1 billion, and the resulting real estate venture became Progress Residential…
Related: Secret money. Elite Canadian families. And a corporate landlord accused of pandemic evictions, investigative report by Toronto Star, Dec 15, 2021 …The idea was simple: buy tens of thousands of foreclosed homes across the U.S. sunbelt and rent them to heavily-indebted Americans who can’t get a mortgage. The Bronfmans and the Kolbers — elite Canadian families who have financed Liberal prime ministers from Pierre Trudeau to his son Justin — were in for US$1.5 million. Nearly a decade later, the fund has evolved into a U.S. real estate behemoth called Pretium Partners and been wildly successful — and controversial… Pretium has become the second largest landlord of single-family residences in the country. It continues to snap up thousands of houses every month… The billion-dollar company, built partly with offshore Canadian money, now stands accused of filing mass evictions during the pandemic that disproportionately targeted economically vulnerable and racialized Americans…
Russia sets out tough demands for security pact with NATO, demands NATO deny membership to Ukraine, other ex-Soviet nations, Associated Press, Dec 17, 2021 and read: report in Washington Post, Dec 17, 2021 [This Washington Post article calmly writes that Russia’s demands for security guarantees against NATO aggression constitute “demands for an effective veto over other nations’ foreign and security policies”. The ‘news’ article is filled with such editorial commentary, all presented as fact. Another example: it calls NATO’s expansionist moves in Ukraine an “escalating confrontation by Russia with the West over Ukraine”. And so on and so on.].
Related:
* Russia issues draft security treaty, calls on U.S. to cease eastward expansion of NATO, TASS Russian news service, Dec 17, 2021 …The document includes eight articles and covers the main aspects of mutual guarantees of security between Moscow and Washington. One clause reads, “The United States of America shall take measures to prevent further eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and deny accession to the Alliance to the former USSR republics,” The document also stipulates a U.S. obligation not to establish military bases in former Soviet states that are not NATO members, not to use their infrastructure to carry out any military activity, and not to develop bilateral military cooperation with them…
* China’s gov’t supports Russia’s pursuit of security guarantees from West, Associated Press, Dec 15, 2021
Emergency statement on Omicron by Independent SAGE (Britain), Dec 15, 2021
Related:
* How did England end up in this unprepared Omicron mess?, by Caroline Molloy, editor, Open Democracy, Dec 16, 2021 [Open Democracy is a liberal publication; on matters Russia and China, it voices an aggressive view supporting the imperialists’ new cold war.)
* UK records record number of new Covid-19 cases for one day, CNBC, Dec 15, 2021 Britain reported a record number of new daily Covid-19 cases on December 15, with 78,610 in the preceding 24 hours. This was an increase from 59,610 the day before and surpasses the previous high of 68,053 cases reported on January 8. There were 165 new Covid deaths reported on Dec 15, according to government data. The country is seeing a dramatic surge in infections ahead of the holiday period with the Omicron variant expected to quickly become the dominant strain. One senior British health chief has warned there could be “staggering” numbers in the next few days…
The dangerous misuse of ‘natural immunity’ against Covid vaccination, by Joshua Cho, FAIR.org, Dec 17, 2021 [Writer Joshua Cho challenges the mainstream news outlets that are giving voice to the false and dangerous concept of ‘natural immunity’ (infection-induced immunity). He also criticizes left-wing analysts for endorsing the concept, including The Grayzone and its editor Max Blumenthal.] Related:
* Infection-induced immunity versus vaccine-induced immunity: Weighing the benefits and risks, analysis by Health Feedback, Nov 3, 2021
* As Covid deaths in U.S. reach 800,000, The Atlantic publishes essay by U.S. conservative asking ‘who cares?’, by Julie Hollar, FAIR.org, Dec 14, 2021
America is not ready for Omicron, feature essay by Ed Yong, The Atlantic, Dec 16, 2021 The new variant poses a far graver threat at the collective level than the individual one—the kind of test that the U.S. has repeatedly failed. read the essay here in pdf format: America is not ready for Omicron
Related pandemic news:
* Court decisions keep chipping away at Covid-19 vaccine mandates in U.S., Associated Press, Dec 17, 2021
* Flu vaccines don’t match the main circulating flu virus strain, researchers find, CNN, Dec 16, 2021 …According to the CDC, influenza kills anywhere between 12,000 and 52,000 people a year in the U.S., depending on the flu season, and puts as many as 700,000 people into the hospital. Covid-19 has killed nearly 800,000 Americans in less than two years…
Two critical reviews of ‘The Dawn Of Everything’, compiled on Climate and Capitalism, Dec 17, 2021 …It is certainly an enthralling book, but the two reviews published here, both from materialist anthropologists, argue that the book’s account of human history ignores masses of contrary evidence and its political argument is idealist and voluntarist. Both reviews are particularly critical of the book’s failure to consider the causes of the oppression of women…
Executions, death sentences in U.S. reach historic lows in 2021, Washington Post, Dec 16, 2021 Annual report by Death Penalty Information Center finds three states — Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma — account for most death penalty cases
Related: 2021 year-end report by Death Penalty Information Center, Dec 16, 2021 Virginia’s historic abolition of the death penalty highlighted a year in which support for capital punishment in the United States continued to erode, according to the 2021 Year End Report from the Death Penalty Information Center. Executions, death sentences, and public support for capital punishment were all at, or near, historic lows in 2021, while the executions and new death sentences that did take place exposed deep flaws in the administration of the country’s capital punishment system…
Food and Drug Administration eases rules that will now allow abortion pill to be delivered by mail, CNN, Dec 16, 2021 …The FDA first approved the drug mifepristone — when coupled with the drug misoprostol — for abortion use in 2000. The introduction of medication did not immediately revolutionize access to abortion the way some reproductive rights advocates had hoped. But use of the method has steadily grown and it now makes up more than half of the abortions that occur before nine weeks into pregnancy, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation … Nineteen states already have prohibitions that effectively ban the use of telemedicine for medication abortion…
Kellogg’s is pushing to replace striking workers. A Reddit ‘antiwork’ mob is fighting back, Washington Post, Dec 16, 2021 Driven by anti-capitalist ‘anger and resentment’ one of the Internet’s biggest ‘Great Resignation’ discussion boards has focused its power into a real-world labor rights campaign.
U.S. faces a double coronavirus surge as Omicron variant advances, Associated Press, Dec 15, 2021 …“The Delta variant surge is ongoing and, in fact, accelerating. And on top of that, we’re going to add an Omicron surge,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, who monitors variants for a research collaboration led by Harvard Medical School. “That’s alarming, because our hospitals are already filling up. Staff are fatigued,” leaving limited capacity for a potential crush of Covid-19 cases “from an Omicron wave superimposed on a Delta surge.”…
The 2014 ‘Maidan Massacre’ in Ukraine: Revelations from trials and investigations, by Ivan Katchanovski (U. of Ottawa), published by the Jordan Center for Advanced Study of Russia (New York University), Dec 8, 2021 My paper and several video compilations presented recently at the virtual 10th World Congress of the International Council for Central and East European Studies in Montreal examined evidence revealed by the ongoing trial and government investigation into the Maidan massacre in Ukraine in 2014. The massacre of protesters and police during the Euromaidan mass protests on February 20, 2014 not only constituted a major crime and human rights violation, but also contributed to a cascading series of events…
[Note: A Socialist In Canada has long voiced its disagreements with researcher Ivan Katchanovski’s claims of “Russian military interventions in Crimea and Donbas” and “a Russian annexation of Crimea”, including directly to him. His published research into the staged massacre by extreme-right paramilitaries on Kyiv’s Maidan Square on February 20, 2014 is essential for understanding the heightened threats and punitive measures by the NATO powers (a new cold war) against Russia in the months and years following. Katchanovski’s research has been carefully censored by corporate and state media in Canada and internationally, a fact that he has himself documented as part of his research.]
The U.S. Empire’s slow but determined execution of Julian Assange, by Chris Hedges, originally published on Scheerpost, Dec 13, 2021 (Widely re-published, including in Common Dreams.) The journalist and Wikileaks founder committed the greatest sin. He exposed the imperial project as a criminal enterprise.
Related: What would await Julian Assange in the notorious Eastern District of Virginia federal court?, by John Kiriakou, published in Reader Supported News, Dec 13, 2021 (also appearing in LA Progressive)
Why won’t the West embrace Russia’s highly effective Covid-19 vaccine?, by Graham Lawton, staff writer, New Scientist, Dec 10, 2021 Scepticism in Western countries around Russia’s vaccine reflects politics not science. The Sputnik V vaccine has the highest protection against symptomatic disease of any Covid-19 vaccine and early results from the Omicron variant are also positive. read the article here in pdf format: The West won’t embrace Sputnik V
Related: Statement of Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Gamaleya Institute on the Sputnik V vaccine and Omicron variant of Covid, Nov 29, 2021 The Russian Sputnik V and Sputnik Light vaccines have proven to be highly effective against all variants known to date of the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus, including Omicron. This has been demonstrated by an article published in Vaccines medical journal and international real-world data from numerous countries… Based on existing protocols of immediately developing vaccine versions for variants of concern, the Gamaleya Institute has already begun developing the new version of Sputnik vaccine adapted to Omicron. In an unlikely case such modification is needed, the new Sputnik Omicron version can be ready for mass-scale production in 45 days. Several hundred million Sputnik Omicron boosters can be provided to international markets already by Feb 20, 2022 with over three billion doses available in 2022…
Huge study finds myocarditis (heart inflamation) is at least four times more likely to occur after a Covid-19 infection than after a vaccination, in daily Covid-19 report, New Scientist, Dec 15, 2021
At virtual summit meeting, China and Russia agree to create independent financial systems to reduce dependence on West, RT, Dec 15, 2021
Former WHO director says those upholding vaccine apartheid should be tried for ‘crimes against humanity’, Common Dreams, Dec 13, 2021 …Anthony Costello is a professor of global health at University College London and former director of the WHO’s maternal, child, and adolescent health program. He recently wrote that wealthy countries’ hoarding of doses and refusal share vaccine technology could constitute “crimes against humanity” and that international lawyers should consider pursuing charges…
Related:
* We have enough Covid vaccines for most of the world. But rich countries are stockpiling more than they need for boosters, by Olivia Goldhill, STAT News, Dec. 13, 2021 [Note how in this otherwise informative report, any news of how vaccines produced by China, Russia and Cuba are aiding less developed countries and helping to mitigate the vaccine apartheid practiced by the wealthy Western countries is self-censored. Outlandish self-censoring of vital pandemic news is all-too typical of Western news agencies as they act as facilitators of Big Pharma and accomplices of war threats and sanctions against countries deemed ‘threats’ by U.S. rulers.].
* What’s behind global covid inequalities? Vaccine corporatism, commentary by Luke Savage, published in Wash. Post, Dec 13, 2021 [The Washington Post byline reads: ‘Luke Savage is a staff writer at Jacobin magazine.’].
* COVAX promised two billion vaccine doses to help the world’s neediest in 2021. It will deliver less than half that, Washington Post, Dec 10, 2021 …Though COVAX was set up to pool money to purchase its own doses from a variety of manufacturers, many of those orders were delayed in the first part of the year. The organization increasingly relies upon donations from the United States and other wealthy countries of vaccines including the AstraZeneca-Oxford, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. The Biden administration pledged in September to donate or facilitate the purchase of 1.1 billion doses to Covax, though many of those doses are not expected to arrive until next year…
[Typical of Western media, this report says nothing about the global vaccine supply from China, Russia and Cuba. China recently announced it would donate 600 million vaccine doses to less developed countries and provide the manufacturaing capacity for 400 million additional doses. That alone exceeds the 2021 supply provided by the ‘COVAX’ initiative, which is largely controlled by the wealthy countries and Big Pharma.]
More than half a billion people pushed or pushed further into extreme poverty due to health care costs, statement by the World Health Organization, Dec 12, 2021 …”All governments must immediately resume and accelerate efforts to ensure every one of their citizens can access health services without fear of the financial consequences,” says Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This means strengthening public spending on health and social support, and increasing their focus on primary health care systems that can provide essential care close to home…”
São Paulo, largest city in the Western Hemisphere, says it has fully vaccinated 100 percent of its adults. Will it be enough to stop omicron?, Washington Post, Dec 13, 2021
Omicron is a dress rehearsal for the next pandemic, New York Times, Dec 14, 2021
[This New York Times report is an example of how corporate media distracts attention from the criminal negligence of the pandemic response by the political and medical establishment in the United States and in its allied countries. The report contains much useful information, but it self-censors the fact that U.S. leaders remain committed to a ‘let them die’ coronavirus response in which priority is to keep the wheels of capitalist industry turning. Part of this effort is to censor or distort news of China’s contrasting, remarkable successes in combatting the pandemic. Many, many political, corporate and media figures in the U.S. openly spout ‘let them die’ policy, whereas in places such as Canada and Europe, leaders feign concern. But the ‘concern’ is the same policy in different clothes: ‘How do we keep the wheels of industry and finance turning while downplaying the humanitarian calamity of the pandemic we have proven unable to contain?’ An example is in Canada, where pandemic negligence has intensified a murderous, decades-long ‘war on drugs’ and is resulting in record numbers of victims. What are political leaders doing about the rising death tolls from drug poisonings? Incredibly, there is next to nothing in drug policy change, only lots of fake, anguished words of concern.]
Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe covid, major South African study concludes, Washington Post, Dec 14, 2021
Related:
* Everything we know about Omicron based on early data in South Africa, The National Post (Canada), Dec 14, 2021 The first preliminary, real-word study out of South Africa is showing that Omicron is highly contagious but South Africa is seeing a flatter trajectory of hospital admissions compared to previous waves, indicating likely lower severity.
* Omicron might evade antibodies – but that doesn’t mean you don’t have immunity, by Mick Bailey and Nicholas John Thompson (U. of Bristol), The Conversation, Dec 10, 2021
* Medical experts in Ontario sound alarm over rapid spread of Omicron variant, say the province is ill prepared, Toronto Star, Dec 12, 2021 read the article here in pdf format: Alarm in Ontario over Omicron
* How a Wisconsin wedding with ‘super responsible’ vaccinated people exposed staff and patients in Oakland hospitals to Covid-19, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec 11, 2021 …Deborah Furr-Holden, an epidemiologist and associate dean of public health at Michigan State University, was in attendance at the wedding and believes she contracted the coronavirus there. She said the revelation that even a group of “risk-averse” and “super responsible people” could have let their guard down enough to become unwitting vectors of Covid-19 shows just how vulnerable even vaccinated people remain to the virus when indoors and in groups. “We need to shift the narrative and stop calling this a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Furr-Holden said. “It doesn’t honor the fact that we’re seeing more and more breakthrough cases in the vaccinated.”…
Vaccine skepticism is healthy. Cynicism is not, commentary by Geeta Nayyar (U. of Miami), STAT News, Dec. 10, 2021
The death toll from Covid-19 in the U.S. among people 65 and older, New York Times, Dec 12, 2021 People 65 and older in the U.S. are the most vaccinated with 87% of two doses, but they make up about three-quarters of the country’s coronavirus death toll …The share of younger people among all virus deaths in the United States increased this year, but, in the last two months, the portion of older people has risen once again, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 1,200 people in the United States are dying from Covid-19 each day, most of them 65 or older…
How two inhaled Covid-19 vaccines being tested at McMaster Univiertiy might breathe life into the fight against the pandemic, Globe and Mail, Dec 12, 2021 read the article here in pdf format: Inhaled Covid vaccines
The lost world of Bulgarian communism, interview with historian Kristen R. Ghodsee, published in Jacobin, Dec 13, 2021 (Kristen R. Ghodsee is a professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her latest book is Red Valkyries: The Revolutionary Women of Eastern Europe, forthcoming from Verso Books in 2022.)
Seattle’s capitalists couldn’t unseat socialist city councilor Kshama Sawant, by Richard Silverstein, Jacobin, Dec 10, 2021
Far-right demagogue Eric Zemmour launches campaign for presidency of France. Report by New York Times, Dec 11, 2021 [This New York Times report and other corporate news reports compare Eric Zemmour of France to the Donald Trump presidency. But Zemmour’s presidential campaign and appeal is much more directly linked to far-right and fascist movements. Current polls show him at 15 per cent; the first round of voting takes place on April 10, 2022.]
The judicial kidnapping of Julian Assange, by John Pilger, CounterPunch, Dec 10, 2021
Related:
* Assange loses as High Court allows U.S. appeal of decision against sending him to U.S. prison gulag. The case now goes back to lower court. By Joe Lauria, Consortium News, Dec 10, 2021 The matter is now in the hands of Dominic Raab, secretary of state for justice, unless Assange’s lawyers appeal the decision before the UK Supreme Court
* Assange plans to appeal UK High Court decision backing his extradition into U.S. prison/industrial complex. Report by Kevin Gosztola (editor), The Dissenter, Dec 10, 2021 (The Dissenter is a project of Shadowproof. ‘Shadowproof publishes independent journalism on grassroots movements for justice.)
The nonsensical propaganda campaign to make China look bad in Uganda, by Vijay Prashad, Asia Times, Dec 8, 2021 Beijing denies media allegations that it is scheming to ‘take over’ Entebbe Airport by way of a Belt and Road Initiative loan
Previously reported: No, China is not colonizing Africa, commentary by Margaret Kimberley, executive editor and senior columnist, Black Agenda Report, Dec 1, 2021 (also published in LA Progressive)
Vaccine mandates in Europe rekindle fierce debate over civil liberties, New York Times, Dec 10, 2021 …The British prime minister says it is time to have a “national conversation” about whether to make vaccination compulsory — a step Austria has taken, and Germany seems poised to follow. He said Britain could not afford to keep imposing lockdowns “just because a substantial proportion of the population still sadly, has not got vaccinated.” With 70 percent of people having received two shots, Britain’s vaccination rate is comparable to that of France and Germany…
Related: The British government’s criminal inaction on Covid, by Terina Hine, Counterfire, Dec 10, 2021
Supreme Court won’t stop Texas abortion ban, Associated Press, Dec 10, 2021 …The decision was greeted with dismay by abortion rights supporters. It comes little more than one week after the court signaled it would roll back abortion rights and possibly overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Five conservative justices, including three appointed by former President Donald Trump, formed a majority to limit who can be sued by the clinics, a result that both sides said probably will prevent federal courts from effectively blocking the law…
Why Covid-19 herd immunity now looks unattainable, by Sheldon H. Jacobson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), published in Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dec 9, 2021
Related pandemic news: U.S. Senate rejects Biden’s mandatory vaccination for large businesses, Associated Press, Dec 10, 2021 …The vote was 52-48, with two Democratic senators voting with Reublicans. But the Democratic-led House is unlikely to take the measure up, meaning Biden’s mandate would stand, though courts have put it on hold for now… Under the mandate, private-sector companies with 100 or more workers must require their employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or be tested for the virus weekly and wear masks on the job…
World Inequality Report 2022: The world has become more unequal in income and wealth in the last 40 years, by Michael Roberts, published on his website, Dec 9, 2021 referencing: World Inequality Report, produced by the World Inequality Lab (Thomas Piketty), December 2021 (executive summary and full 236 page report at weblink)
Previously reported:
* The world’s billionaires have become much richer in 2021, Forbes Magazine, Dec 6, 2021 After a stellar 2020, when the super-rich added some $1.9 trillion to their collective wealth, the party continued in 2021: the 2,600-plus billionaires around the globe have gotten $1.6 trillion richer this year, according to Forbes’ estimates…
* World’s richest people now own 11 per cent of global wealth, marking the biggest leap in recent history, Fortune Magazine, Dec 7, 2021
U.S./Canada puppet Juan Guaidó is increasingly isolated as UN recognizes Maduro gov’t in resounding vote. Report by José Luis Granados Ceja, Venezuela Analysis, Dec 8, 2021
Biden’s hypocritical democracy summit, commentary by Scott Ritter, in Consortium News, Dec 8, 2021
Related:
* The U.S. gov’t should’t be invited to summit for democracy, let alone be its host, by Alexander Rubinstein, Mint Press News, Dec 8, 2021 In every one of the countries the United States has intervened in over the past decades, anti-democratic means are almost always used towards anti-democratic ends, all in the name of promoting democracy
* With Donald Trump’s ‘next coup’ underway, it’s a bit rich for the the United States to be holding a democracy summit, by Edward Keenan, Washington bureau chief, Toronto Star, Dec 8, 2021 Hosting a global symposium on democracy in Washington today feels a little like holding a fire prevention conference next to a blazing wood stove in a log cabin with faulty wiring
[But don’t be fooled by Trump critics writing in corporate media such as this Toronto Star writer. The main purpose of Biden’s ‘summit for democracy’ is not to combat the deficiencies of democracy in the U.S. These are chronic, very deep and widely accepted by the capitalist rulers of the U.S. empire. No, the summit purpose is to give a boost to the new cold war military threats and economic sanctions by the U.S. and its allies against China, Russia and other ‘threats’ to Western imperialism’s economic and military dominance. On this, all the Western ‘democracies’ are united and determined.]
January 6 was practice. Trump’s next coup has already begun, lengthy esssay by Barton Gellman, The Atlantic (conservative print monthly), Dec 6, 2021 Donald Trump’s GOP is much better positioned to subvert the next election read the essay here in pdf format: Trump’s next coup
Previously reported: The far right continues to build its international, by John Feffer, published in LA Progressive, Dec 6, 2021 also published in Tom Dispatch (John Feffer is the director of the Institute for Policy Studies (Washington). It publishes Foreign Policy In Focus, where John Feffer’s articles also appear.)
‘It’s just crazy’: 12 major cities hit all-time homicide records, ABC News, Dec 8, 2021 At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 — and there’s still three weeks to go in the year. Of the dozen cities that have already surpassed the grim milestones for killings, five topped records that were set or tied just last year…
The 12 U.S. cities with record homicide rates in 2021 (ABC News)
What’s next for COVID’s viral evolution, Nature Magazine, Dec 7, 2021 The rapid spread of new variants such as Omicron offers clues to how SARS-CoV-2 is adapting and how the pandemic will play out over the next several months
Related analysis of the pandemic:
* How New Zealand could break the global vaccination impasse, commentary by Edward Miller, published in Newroom (New Zealand), Dec 3, 2021 (Edward Miller is a researcher at FIRST Union and spokesperson for ‘It’s Our Future’, the people’s campaign against dangerous free trade and investment agreements.) …While it may take months to chart the Omicron variant’s precise immunology, what now seems startlingly clear is that this variant is the product of a brutal system of vaccine apartheid, engineered by our global trading rules…
* Altering our pandemic destiny in New Zealand, by professors Michael Baker, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig and Professor Nick Wilson (University of Otago Wellington), published in Newsroom, Dec 6, 2021 Two years after the emergence of the first Covid-19 cases, we are better placed to identify paths out of the pandemic. Aotearoa New Zealand is one of the few countries that has successfully eliminated and then tightly controlled its pandemic. Here, experts at the University of Otago outline how we can continue to respond strategically to Covid-19 to minimise its health burden. (Otago Global Health Institute has published a ‘Covid-19 Masterclass Series’ in partnership with Newsroom during the past two weeks. Read the series here.)
Omicron could be more contagious but less dangerous. That would be ‘good news for the human race’, USA Today, Dec 7, 2021
Related pandemic news:
* Report from South Africa’s Omicron hot spot spurs cautious optimism, by Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (U. of Minnesota), Dec 6, 2021
* WHO strongly advises against convalescent plasma for treating Covid patients, CNBC, Dec 6 2021
* Young people recover quickly from rare myocarditis side effect of Covid -19 vaccine, reports American Heart Association, EurekAlert News (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Dec 7, 2021 …“In June of this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices reported a likely link between mRNA Covid-19 vaccination and myocarditis, particularly in people younger than 39. However, research continues to find Covid-19 vaccine-related cases of myocarditis uncommon and mostly mild,” said Donald. M. Lloyd-Jones, M.D., Sc.M., FAHA, president of the American Heart Association. “Overwhelmingly, data continue to indicate that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccination – 91 per cent effective at preventing complications of severe Covid-19 infection including hospitalization and death – far exceed the very rare risks of adverse events, including myocarditis.”…
* First plant-based coronavirus vaccine shows ‘positive’ results, say GlaxoSmithKline and Medicago, Washington Post, Dec 7, 2021
* When the surges just keep coming: A view from the Covid vortex in Fresno, California, by Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News, Dec 7, 2021
U.S. House of Representatives approves record war budget of $768 billion. Report in New York Times, Sep 7, 2021 read also: report by Politico, Dec 7, 2021 The House overwhelmingly passed a $768 billion defense policy bill on December 7. The legislation put the Democratic-led Congress on track to increase the Pentagon’s budget by roughly $24 billion above what President Biden had requested, angering antiwar progressives who had hoped that their party’s control of the White House and both houses of Congress would lead to cuts to military programs after decades of growth. The measure provides significant increases for initiatives intended to counter China and bolster Ukraine, as well as the procurement of new aircraft and ships, underscoring the bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill for continuing to spend huge amounts of federal money on defense initiatives… In a separate vote on the same date, the Senate shot down a bipartisan attempt by Senators Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, and Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, to block a $650 million arms sale to Saudi Arabia…
Related:
* Sales by the world’s top 100 arms peddlers continue to grow during pandemic. Media release by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Dec 6, 2021 Sales by the Top 100 arms companies in 2020 were 17 per cent higher than in 2015—the first year for which SIPRI included data on Chinese firms. This marked the sixth consecutive year of growth in arms sales by the Top 100… The United States once again hosted the highest number of companies ranked in the Top 100. The sales by the 41 U.S. companies on the list amounted to $285 billion—54 per cent of the Top 100’s total arms sales. Since 2018, the top five companies in the ranking have all been based in the USA…
* The top 100 arms-producing and military services companies, 2020, fact sheet by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (12 pages), Dec 2021
Dec 7 meeting of Russian president Vladimir Putin and U.S. president Joseph Biden, report on the website of the President of Russia, Dec 7, 2021 …The intra-Ukrainian crisis and the lack of progress in implementing the 2015 Minsk agreements, which have no alternative for bringing about a peaceful resolution, topped the conversation’s agenda. The President of Russia shared specific examples to illustrate the destructive nature of Kiev’s policy to dismantle the Minsk Package of Measures and the agreements reached within the Normandy format. He also expressed serious concern about Kiev’s provocative actions against Donbass. Joseph Biden, in turn, focused on what he described as “threatening” movements of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border and outlined the sanctions the United States and its allies would be ready to impose should the situation escalate any further…
80 years of lies: President Franklin Roosevelt told the U.S. public Pearl Harbor was a ‘surprise attack’. Considerable evidence demonstrates government foreknowledge, by Jeremy Kuzmarov, editor, Covert Action Magazine, Dec 7, 2021
Reconcile this: Lessons From the latest legislative debacle in the U.S., by Jim Kavanagh, published on his blog The Polemicist, Dec 6, 2021 …The necessary social policies will never be achieved in the U.S. through the extant two-party system and the normal legislative process. This is so because that process and those two parties—the Democrats (including their ‘progressive’ squaddies and their ‘socialist auxiliary) at least as much as the Republicans—are institutionally designed to be obstacles to any such reform. They are representatives of the donor caste, not of their ostensible popular constituencies. This truth, commonplace among us Marxists forever, has been common knowledge in contemporary academic and political circles at least since the Princeton study of 2014, which found that: “policymaking in the U.S. is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans… The majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes.” This was succinctly confirmed by a ‘moderate’ Democratic former president in 2015, who said the U.S. “is just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery” …
Related: The outer limits of corporate politics, by David Sirota and Andrew Perez, published in The Daily Poster, Oct 28, 2021 The halving of the Democrats’ spending agenda suggests the party is still primarily intent on fulfilling Biden’s promise to donors that “nothing would fundamentally change”
Concentration of power at COP 26, by Craig Murray, published on his website, Dec 7, 2021 [This is Craig Murray’s first blog posting since his release on November 30 from four months in prison in Scotland for the crime of ‘journalism’. It includes a weblink to video of his speech to supporters upon release (16 minutes). There, he reflects on his experience in prison, voicing much sympathy and understanding for those unfairly ensnared in Britain’s prison/industrial complex.].
Previously reported: Writer and journalist Craig Murray is a free man, released from a British jail, by Joe Lauria, editor, Consortium News, Nov 30, 2021
U.S. coronavirus cases approach 50 million as New York City imposes stricter vaccine requirements, Washington Post, Dec 6, 2021 …By late December 6, the United States had tallied 49.3 million coronavirus cases since the first infection surfaced in January 2020, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. There have been more than 786,000 deaths, and new cases were increasing by more than 121,000 per day, according to a seven-day average of the numbers…
Failure to vaccinate the world created perfect breeding ground for Omicron variant, say campaigners with People’s Vaccine Alliance, media release published by OXFAM (member of People’s Vaccine Alliance), Dec 5, 2021
Related pandemic news:
* Early data from South Africa hints Omicron variant may cause less severe Covid, but more research is needed, by Helen Branswell, STAT News, Dec 4, 2021
* Blood clots derived from Covid-19 vaccines seem solvable, Deutsche Welle, Dec 2, 2021 …In October 2021, the British Heart Foundation reported there had been 423 known cases of blood clots in the UK after an estimated 24.9 million first doses and 24.1 million second doses of the vaccine. Of the 423 people who developed blood clots, 72 died. Six of the deaths occurred after the second dose…
Anger over video showing British PM’s staff holding 2020 Christmas party, mocking Covid safety measures, Associated Press, Dec 7, 2021
UK gov’t accused by People’s Covid Inquiry of ‘misconduct in public office’ over handling of pandemic, HuffPost, Dec 1, 2021
* Read the report of the People’s Covid Inquiry (UK), Dec 1, 2021 Executive summary and full report (226 pages), here
With Ghislaine Maxwell sacrificed, the ruling oligarchs will once again escape justice, by Chris Hedges, originally published in Scheer Post, Dec 6, 2021 also published in Common Dreams …A licentious, money-drenched, morally bankrupt and intellectually vacuous ruling class, accountable to no one and free to plunder and prey on the weak like human vultures, rise to power in societies in terminal decline. This class of parasites was savagely parodied in the first-century satirical novel Satyricon by Gaius Petronius, written during the reign of Nero. Epstein and his cohorts for years engaged in sexual perversions of Petronian proportions, as Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie Brown documents in her book Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story. Her dogged reporting was largely responsible for reopening the federal investigation in Epstein and Maxwell…
Washington tried to destroy the political left in Honduras. Now the left is back in power, by Branko Marcetic, Jacobin Magazine, Dec 3, 2021
Related: In Honduras, first woman president faces tough fight on abortion, Thompson-Reuters Foundation, Dec 8, 2021 Xiomara Castro faces a struggle to get political backing to loosen a strict abortion ban in Honduras
Story: Adrian Zenz, chief fabricator of ‘Uyghur genocide’ conspiracy theory, is featured on the editorial page of Washington Post. Reference: Who ordered the Uyghur genocide? Look no further than China’s leader, editorial, Washington Post, print edition of Dec 4, 2021 …China’s top leadership gave the orders, according to a new analysis from Adrian Zenz, senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, who has led the way in exposing the genocide…
[The Post editorial links to a 47-page report issued by Adrian Zenz on Nov 27, 2021, titled ‘The Xinjiang Papers’. The title is a rip-off from the reports by investigative journalists in recent years that have lifted the veil on the secret world of tax evasion by many of the wealthiest people and corporations on the planet. These reports include the Panama Papers (2016), Paradise Papers (2017) and the Pandora Papers (2021). The term ‘Xinjiang Papers’ was first coined by the New York Times in a conspiracy report published by the newspaper on Nov 16, 2019.
Related analysis: U.S. State Department accusations of China ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang Autonomous Republic rely on data abuse and baseless claims by far-right ideologue Adrian Wenz, investigative report by Gareth Porter and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone, Feb 18, 2021 The Trump and Biden administrations have relied on the work of a right-wing religious extremist, Adrian Zenz, for their ‘genocide’ accusation against China. A close review of Zenz’s research reveals flagrant data abuse and outright falsehoods.
Who is fighting who in Ukraine?, commentary by Glenn Diesen, published in RT, Dec 5, 2021 (Glenn Diesen is a professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and an editor at the journal Russia in Global Affairs.) …The dishonest attempts to frame Russia-Ukraine tensions as solely a conflict between the two countries is merely an effort to unravel the 2015 Minsk agreement; to cleanse Ukraine of eastern Ukrainian influence and purge Europe of Russian influence…
Related:
* Russia’s ‘plan to invade Ukraine’ exists only in the U.S. and NATO imagination, commentary by Scott Ritter, RT, Dec 5, 2021
* [Below is a fawning news story in the New York Times written by a reporter embedded with the far-right militias in eastern Ukraine. Since 2014 , the milittias have been shelling and killing the residents of the autonomous republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, thanks in part to weapons and military training supplied by the U.S., Britain and Canada. Note how the prediction of a ‘Russian invasion’ of Ukraine is presented by the Times as inevitable, even in the headline: On Ukrainian front, grinding war and weary anticipation of invasion, New York Times, Dec 6, 2021. Meanwhile over at the Washington Post, a December 6 article inadvertently but accurately presents the true story: NATO’s drive to establish its military presence right on the Russia-Ukraine border by way of direct membership of Ukraine in NATO. This threat is the real source of the rising tensions by the U.S. and NATO against Russia.]
[See a commentary on the above analyses here in the ‘Editor’s comments‘ page of A Socialist In Canada website.]
Western media says Venezuelan elections must be undemocratic, because Chavismo won, by Ricardo Vaz, FAIR.org, Dec 3, 2021
Related news of Venezuela:
* Dominant United Socialist Party (PSUV) sweeps Venezuela’s ‘mega-elections’, by Paul Dobson, Venezuela Analysis, Nov 22, 2021
* President Maduro reinforces Venezuela’s vaccination efforts, condemns Western ‘political’ response to Omicron variant, by Andreína Chávez Alava, Venezuela Analysis, Dec 3, 2021
Previously reported: Five reasons why the left won the Venezuela elections, by Leonordo Flores (Code Pink), published in Venezuela Analysis, Nov 23, 2021
New Zealand police and soldiers join Australian occupation force in Solomon Islands. Report in Stuff.co.nz, Dec 2, 2021
How the U.S. Official Secrets Act ensnared Julian Assange, by Joe Lauria, Consortium News, Dec 4, 2021 If the U.S. wins its appeal a British court, Julian Assange will face prosecution under a severe espionage law with roots in the British Official Secrets Act that is part of a history of repression of press freedom …Though several U.S. administrations had come close to punishing journalists for revealing defense information, they all pulled back, until Assange. They were restrained because of a conflict with the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress from passing any law, including the Espionage Act, that abridges press freedom. Until that legal conflict is resolved in court, resulting in parts of the Espionage Act being found unconstitutional, the language of the Act threatening press freedom remains…
New book chronicles Trump’s misdeeds and cronies, and the picture got darker, book review by James Kwak, Washington Post, Dec 3, 2021 Reviewing: The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family, by David Cay Johnston, publisher Simon & Schuster, 2021, 285 pp read the review here in pdf format: The Big Cheat
Related: Seven days: Following Trump’s trail of meetings, rallies following his Sep 26 positive test for Covid, Washington Post, Dec 5, 2021 …From the day he tested positive until his hospitalization, Trump came in contact with more than 500 people, either those in proximity to him or at crowded events, not including rallygoers, according to a Washington Post analysis of the president’s interactions during that period…
Six different Covid vaccines are safe and effective when used as boosters, UK study finds, CNBC, Dec 2, 2021 Six different Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective when used as booster doses, a UK study has found. The peer-reviewed phase 2 trial, published on December 2 in The Lancet medical journal, looked at the safety and efficacy of seven vaccines given after two initial doses of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Vaccines included in the study were those produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Valneva and Curevac…
Related: Safety and immunogenicity of seven COVID-19 vaccines as a third dose (booster), published in The Lancet, Dec 2, 2021 (19-page report at weblink)
Prior coronavirus infection is little defense against new Omicron variant, report scientists in South Africa, New York Times, Dec 2, 2021 …Just a week after its existence was revealed to the world, the heavily mutated variant, which scientists fear could be the most contagious one yet, is already by far the dominant form of the virus in South Africa and spreading fast, according to officials there. Top European disease experts said on December 2 that it could be the dominant form in Europe within a few months…
Related pandemic news:
* As world focuses on Omicron, Delta variant has overwhelmed parts of U.S., Washington Post, Dec 2, 2021
* 
As new Covid cases remain high, Germany locks unvaccinated out of public life and a general mandate looms, Associated Press, Dec 2, 2021 Unvaccinated people across Germany will soon be excluded from nonessential stores, restaurants and sports and cultural venues, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Dec 2. The German parliament will consider a general vaccine mandate as part of efforts to curb coronavirus infections. Merkel announced the measures as the country reported a near-record 73,500 newly confirmed cases in a 24-hour period on December 2…
[Germany is #19 in the world by population and #9 by total Covid-19 cases.
* Coronavirus cases in South Africa nearly triple in three days as fears over Omicron grow, Washington Post, Dec 2, 2021 [South Africa has recorded three million total Covid-19 cases in three large waves. A fourth wave is currently underway. Its per capita case rate is one third that of the world leaders among large countries–leading NATO member countries U.S., Britain and Netherlands.]
* Top-ten countries in the world for total Covid-19 cases, as of Dec 2, 2021: U.S. (49.7 million), India (34.6), Brazil (22.1), UK (10.3), russia (9.7), Turkey (8.8), France 97.8), Iran (6.1), Germany (6.1), Argentina (5.3) source: Worldometer 
Corporate greed is prolonging the pandemic, by Peter Certo, published in Other Words (Institute for Policy Studies), Dec 1, 2021 The longer it takes the world to get vaccinated, the more variants we’ll see
Related:
* Unions representing 2.5 million nurses in 28 countries demand UN probe into ‘Covid-19 criminals’ that are blocking vaccine patent waiver, Common Dreams, Nov 29, 2021 The complaint specifically targets the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, and Singapore, wealthy nations that have stonewalled the patent waiver at the World Trade Organization
* Moderna refuses to share vaccine recipe with Africa as Omicron variant rises, by Mike Ludwig, Truthout.org, Nov 30, 2021
Supreme Court justices signal they’ll OK new abortion limits, may toss Roe vs Wade, Associated Press, Dec 2, 2021 and read: report in Kaiser Health News, Dec 1, 2021
Related analysis:
* Women’s right to abortion: For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to retract a fundamental right, by Marjorie Cohn, Truthout.org, Dec 3, 2021
* The end of Roe vs Wade is coming, and it is coming soon, guest essay by Mary Ziegler, in New York Times, Dec 1, 2021 (Mary Ziegler is the author of Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present, Cambridge University Press, March 2020.)
* ‘Roe’ is dead. The stench of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts will live forever, by Dana Milbank, columnist, Washington Post, Dec 1, 2021
* The Supreme Court gaslights its way to the end of Roe vs Wade, commentary by Linda Greenhouse, in New York Times, Dec 3, 2021
* ‘Global empire of the U.S. Christian right’ fuels attacks on abortion access, Common Dreams, Dec 3, 2021
‘Flash mob’ robberies roiling U.S. retailers, traumatizing workers, Washington Post, Dec 3, 2021
Womens Tennis Association suspends all its sponsored tournaments in China over fabricated charges of Peng Shuai being silenced by Chinese gov’t. Report by Associated Press, Dec 2, 2021
Trump tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of Sep 29, 2020 debate with Biden and maintained busy public schedule, CNN, Dec 1, 2021
