alanjjohnstone
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We have a lot of attention to the manipulation of social media, but the UK has been conducting its own control of news. First it was the Iranian Press TV, and although the Russian RT is still on air, it has been vilified.
Now the Chinese CGTN has had its license to broadcast withdrawn because the Chinese Communist Party pulls the strings.
The Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture styles itself an independent conservative think tank; in reality, it is an extremist religious organisation and its leaders have created a web of reactionary organisations in Poland and beyond. Ordo Iuris is able to make such progress because it has infiltrated the inner workings of the Polish state. For example, Ordo Iuris’s founder now sits on the Polish Supreme Court and other Ordo Iuris alumni occupy important positions in government ministries, academia, the judiciary and other public institutions including advising the Polish president.
The U.S. Space Force “absolutely” has the “full support” of the Biden administration and said they are “not revisiting the decision” to establish the sixth branch of the U.S. military as she cleaned up comments from a day earlier.
Further to your query on Chinese involvement, Robbo, this offers a bit of scepticism of that scenario
…It was partly a backlash against China’s growing dominance of Myanmar’s economy a decade ago that led the previous junta to shift toward democratic reforms…Suu Kyi has shifted closer to Beijing in the past few years as she defended the military against condemnation of atrocities against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. That may have deepened military leaders’ distrust…
But the article doesn’t exclude the possibility entirely. Some have speculated that Beijing might have given a covert nod to the generals.
“China will have greater leverage to pull Myanmar further into the orbit of its own plans for economic development,” said John G. Dale, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia.
But while the coup may lead Myanmar’s leaders to lean more heavily on support from China, supplier of most of their weapons and one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign investment, researcher Zhao Gancheng at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, says it was an unwelcome disruption. “As a neighboring country, I can’t see anything good for China, given that all of China’s investments and infrastructure construction need a stable environment,” Zhao said. “China is concerned about this development,” he said.
“China has strategic, vested interests in keeping Myanmar as stable as they possibly can,” said Chris Ankersen, a professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs.
Champa Patel, director of the Asia-Pacific Program at Chatham House in London said in an emailed statement. “Their insecurity has deepened as (Suu Kyi) consolidated her power within the country and deepened ties with countries such as China…the military has at times sought to counter growing Chinese influence over the economy, showing “a more independent streak that sought to balance against Chinese influence,” said Patel
For the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement in a letter to the Nobel committee released on Wednesday, nine US lawmakers across party lines recommends it.
The UN’s 3-road solution to the eco-crisis in farming
First is a shift towards more plant-based diets
Second, restoring native ecosystems to increase biodiversity.
Thirdly, farming in a less intensive and damaging way and accepting lower yields.Prof Tim Benton, “We must stop arguing that we have to subsidise the food system in the name of the poor and instead deal with the poor by bringing them out of poverty.”
Benton said the report was not advocating that all people should become vegan, but should follow healthy diets that are as a result much lower in meat.
Susan Gardner, director of Unep’s ecosystems division, said, “Reforming the way we produce and consume food is an urgent priority,”
For example, a switch from beef to beans by the US population would free up fields equivalent to 42% of US cropland for other uses such as rewilding or more nature-friendly farming.
If the permanent pasture around the world that was once forest was returned to its native state, it would store 72bn tonnes of carbon – roughly equivalent to seven years of global emissions from fossil fuels.
In the US it is a call for a return to FDR’s New Deal
In the UK it is a call for a return to 1945
Prof Sir Partha Dasgupta, of the University of Cambridge, says prosperity has come at a “devastating” cost to the natural world.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55893696
Sustainable economic growth requires a different measure than Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Truly sustainable economic growth and development means recognising that our long-term prosperity relies on rebalancing our demand of nature’s goods and services with its capacity to supply them,” Prof Dasgupta said in a statement. “It also means accounting fully for the impact of our interactions with nature across all levels of society.”
Flowery language which still presents the capitalist mind-set but stripped of its ideological loyalty to capitalism, it expresses the socialist truth that a new economic system is required.
Meantime, to return to the previous post that the worse case scenarios can be avoided by governmental action, the Public Accounts Committee complained of serious delays in tackling “critical” issues like air pollution, water quality and wildlife loss. The 25-Year Environment Plan, published in 2018, lacked a coherent set of long-term objectives or interim targets. The report said the government had not calculated the total costs of delivering its environmental goals. It argued that funding had been piecemeal, and environmental impacts were still not being taken into account in spending decisions.
International travel had the biggest impact on Covid death rates for countries hit in the pandemic’s first wave, a study has found. Researchers in Aberdeen focused on the world’s worst affected 37 countries.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-55919040
A vaccine to tackle the coronavirus variants could be ready to deploy by the autumn should it be needed, the Oxford-AstraZeneca team says. Prof Andy Pollard, from Oxford University, said tweaking a vaccine was a relatively quick process and would only need small trials before roll-out.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55917793
Although it may well be small tweaks to future vaccines, it is a guaranteed income to the drug producers as is the regular tweaking of the flu jabs.
Independence from the UK would cost Scotland’s economy up to three times as much in lost trade than Brexit will.
https://www.ft.com/content/bbf2a097-37ff-42ea-8b22-c5662f0ae4be
A review of America’s media pressing Biden to make concessions to the Republicans in the name of bipartisanism
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/02/02/sunday-shows-only-biden-promise-matters-compromise
The UN Security Council has not condemned it mainly due to the Chinese.
China has not condemned the coup, while state media characterised Monday’s events as a “cabinet reshuffle”. China, with Russia’s backing, shielded Myanmar from any significant council action after a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine State
No more state school education, no more council estate upbringings, no more trade union connections.
Only Saville Row attired Oxbridge graduates should apply.
And standing on the side-lines, ready to take advantage of any economic sanctions imposed by the West – China
https://chinadialogue.net/en/business/11585-trouble-for-belt-and-road-in-myanmar-2/
