News, observations, guesses January 26, 2022

Since March 2020 blogposts have focused on the COVID pandemic, which threatens health and wellbeing of all humans. The possibly resulting miserable lives, the traumatic experiences and mental scars of millions if not billions could break society, leading to chaos, anarchy, and war. 

Yet, the pandemic on the other hand impedes nature destroying industrial activities of humans, forces changed behaviors, enables redirections and paradigm changes.

World leaders in democratic and autocratic nations alike seized the opportunity to increase surveillance, weaken civil rights, and stifle dissent with censorship and coordinated media campaigns. 

While they displayed a certain cleverness, even ingenuity by enacting these measures, they mostly failed miserably in their task of preventing infections, chronic illnesses, and deaths from COVID-19. It seems that they have used up all their intellectual capacity to grab power and defend it against competitors.

They appeared to be not only incompetent, but blatantly uneducated and uninformed. 

And here we are, with politicians, pundits, scientists, influencers, and journalists telling us that the pandemic is practically over and “case numbers go into the right direction” (Fauci), while health services are at a breaking point, hospital stuff is exhausted and quitting, workers, still sick and shedding the virus, are sent back to their job to “keep the economy going.”

The pandemic is now an epidemic just like the flu (with 356,354,024 infections and 5,625,146 deaths); commentators see a silver lining in even the grimmest figures, and high-profile scientists declare the latest surge to be the last, quietly discarding previous predictions into their social media wastebaskets. Health agencies end daily case counts.

And yet, politicians, pundits, and scientists maybe realized in rare moments of self-awareness and self-reflexion that their performance was lacking (to say it mildly) and as they feared that the public could come to the same conclusion and eventually chase them away from the feeding troughs, they decided that the populace needs a distraction.

The distraction is War, of course. What could be more distractive than war?

Eternal scapegoat, arch enemy, and rogue nation Russia wants to invade Ukraine. 100,000 Russian troops are amassed at Ukraine’s borders, Kiev will be conquered, a puppet regime, led by Yevhen Murayev (who curiously is banned from Russia with his assets seized) will be installed.

Shiploads and planeloads of US arms worth billions of dollars are sent from the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia  to Ukraine. The US already has more than 150 military advisers in Ukraine, including Special Operations Forces, joining advisers from the UK, Canada, Lithuania, and Poland.

Back to the pandemic, which is now called an endemic.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has advised countries to transition to more routine handling of COVID-19 after the acute phase of the pandemic is over. The agency said in a statement that more EU states in addition to Spain will want to adopt “a more long-term, sustainable surveillance approach.”

“Vaccine-acquired immunity, coupled with widespread infection, offers a chance to concentrate prevention efforts, testing, and illness-tracking resources on moderate to high-risk groups,” said Dr. Salvador Trenche, head of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine, which has led the call for a new endemic response.

COVID-19 “must be treated like the rest of illnesses,” Trenche told The Associated Press, adding that “normalized attention” by health professionals would help reduce delays in treatment of problems not related to the coronavirus.

The public also needs to come to terms with the idea that some deaths from COVID-19 ”will be inevitable,” Tranche said.

Many countries, overwhelmed by the record number of omicron cases, are already giving up on massive testing and cutting quarantine times, especially for workers who show no more than cold-like symptoms. Since the beginning of the year, classes in Spanish schools stop only if major outbreaks occur, not with the first reported case as they used to.

To keep the economy running despite the exponential rise in infections, governments around the world are dismantling the most basic coronavirus protections. In Germany, the government has reduced the quarantine period to 10 days with a release option after just seven days, and even after five days for children and young people. Governments are limiting the use of PCR tests and end testing for asymptomatic people. 

In disregard of the spin, the Omicron wave is still hitting with full force. In France, about 300,000 people are currently being confirmed infected every day, in Italy almost 200,000, and in Spain about 150,000. Germany and Britain have more than 100,000 daily cases. In Britain, the health system is on the verge of collapse.

The pandemic continues, but the media campaign works nevertheless. Approximately three-in-ten US-Americans in mid-2021 believed the pandemic was over. 45 percent acted as if the pandemic was over, saying in late 2021 that they felt “safe enough to carry out everyday life largely the way it was before the pandemic.” This was up from 36 percent in late August.

Feline news:

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1072812001/cat-vitamix-blender-box-standoff
https://www.treehugger.com/pet-cats-map-owners-location-using-sound-cues-5215698
http://hatchingcatnyc.com/2022/01/22/dewey-dick-brooklyn-police-cat-mascots-liberty-avenue/

Against the odds:

https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/plan-to-save-the-planet/
https://mronline.org/2022/01/19/one-foot-in-the-present-another-in-the-future-food-coops/
https://civileats.com/2022/01/21/a-return-to-native-agriculture/
https://www.treehugger.com/how-live-sustainably-2022-5216489 

Environmental news:

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-Between-COVID-19-Blackouts-and-Heat-Wave-20220115-0001.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/16/toxic-reaction-how-to-clear-dangerous-pollutants-out-of-your-home
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/chemical-pollution-has-passed-safe-limit-for-humanity-say-scientists
Frightening! Why is nothing done against this terminal threat? Are we humans really that stupid?
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/01/19/the-worlds-most-evil-company-may-lose-a-few-court-fights-but-will-keep-on-poisoning-and-killing-millions-of-people-with-its-carcinogenic-pesticide-roundup/
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/01/un-report-the-worlds-farms-stretched-to-a-breaking-point/
https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/pesticides-released-into-brazils-amazon-to-degrade-rainforest-and-facilitate-deforestation/

Economic news:

Strong demand for its jewelry and watches in the Americas and Europe helped quarterly sales at Cartier owner Richemont rise by nearly a third. Meanwhile, luxury brand Burberry said annual profit would beat market expectations as its full-price sales accelerated in the third quarter.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60015294
Wealth of world's 10 richest men doubled in pandemic.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/19/rentier-capitalism-and-class-warfare-in-kazakhstan/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/the-worlds-food-systems-are-in-crisis-and-big-agribusiness-is-at-its-heart/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/the-soya-curse-is-ukraine-facing-the-same-fate-as-the-amazon/

Pandemic news:

The new variant BA.2 was first identified in India and South Africa in late December 2021. It is a sub-variant, believed to have emerged from a mutation of Omicron (officially known as BA.1). Omicron itself was born from a mutation of Delta. Other sub-lineages have already been referenced, such as BA.3 or BB.2, but they have attracted less attention from epidemiologists because of the dramatic increase in cases of people who have contracted BA.2.

BA.2 possesses 80 to 90 mutations compared to 60 mutations of Omicron. It poses certain challenges to scientists, as it is not easy to track. In the UK, the way the tests are carried out does not allow us to distinguish between BA.2 and Delta.

BA2 has already been identified in 43 countries. It is believed to have become the most common variant in a number of countries, including India, Denmark, and Sweden. In Denmark, the number of daily cases of Covid-19 has started to rise again, just when the Danes thought they had already reached the peak. BA.2 has grown rapidly — it accounted for 20 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the last week of 2021, rising to 45 percent in the second week of 2022.

Very early observations from India and Denmark suggest there is no dramatic difference in severity compared to BA.1

The United Kingdom has sequenced 426 cases of the BA.2 sub-lineage and the UKHSA said that while there was uncertainty around the significance of the changes to the viral genome, early analysis suggested an increased growth rate compared to the original Omicron lineage, BA.1.

=========

US epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding issued a firm warning about the dangers of the policy of “living with the virus.” On Twitter, Feigl-Ding wrote: “#Omicron is a potentially really dangerous Trojan horse. It lulls people into complacency but eventually hits them hard with #LongCovid!!!”

A study at Mainz University Hospital demonstrated the long-term effects the coronavirus can have on those infected, including children and adolescents. According to the study, up to 40 percent of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 will still suffer six months later from symptoms such as fatigue, disturbed sense of taste and smell, exhaustion, poor concentration, and poor performance.

According to preliminary research from Sweden, nearly half of those who became ill with Covid in the first wave of infections may have long-term and even permanent changes to their sense of smell.

Pediatricians in Australia say, that the indirect effects of the pandemic on children and adolescents are as substantial — if not more so — than the impact of being infected with Covid-19.

According to scientists at Imperial College London, after taking into account a host of factors Omicron was associated with somewhere between a 4.38 and 6.63-fold higher risk of reinfection, compared with Delta.

The team adds that this means protection against catching Covid arising from a previous infection within the past six months has fallen from about 85 percent before Omicron turned up to somewhere between 0 and 27 percent. The drop is not surprising given that Omicron has been found to have the ability to dodge the body’s immune responses to a significant degree.

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/01/14/UK-COVID-19-infectious-more-than-10-days-study/5321642177829/
Study finds that 1 in 10 people with COVID-19 remain infectious beyond 10 days, and some could remain so for as long as two months.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/covid-oxford-university-b1995706.html
https://www.studyfinds.org/covid-brain-damage-alzheimers/
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/01/14/1072504127/fact-check-the-theory-that-sars-cov-2-is-becoming-milder
A questionable prediction: “All future surges of new variants will likely be less severe than Delta because people have acquired immunity by vaccination or infection.” And how long will this immunity last?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/21/covid-reinfection-how-likely-are-you-to-catch-virus-multiple-times
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/01/15/hhhs-j15.html
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1046853/technical-briefing-34-14-january-2022.pdf
Vaccine protection against mild disease has largely disappeared by 20 weeks after vaccination with a 2-dose primary course of vaccination. After a booster dose, protection initially increases to around 65 to 70 percent but drops to 45 - 50 percent from 10+ weeks. It is therefore likely that current vaccines offer limited long-term protection against infection or transmission.
https://asiatimes.com/2022/01/us-forces-in-japan-were-a-trojan-tank-for-covid
https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/01/the-fight-against-covid-19-the-example-of-cuba-venezuela-and-nicaragua/
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm2052
Nervous system consequences of COVID-19.
https://www.rt.com/news/546851-vaccine-safety-data-transparency-criticism/
https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/covid-19-finds-home-in-deer-where-it-can-mutate-into-a-new-variant
https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/animal-farm-covid-19-doesn-t-need-humans-to-grow
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/01/covid-the-narrative-is-crumbling.html
https://www.rt.com/russia/547239-us-vaccine-researcher-sputnik-pfizer-omicron/

Media, technology, and propaganda news:

https://www.nenroll-nenroll.com/greece-two-journalists-indicted-for-their-scoop-on-a-pharmaceutical/1646342022/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/01/15/syrian-extremists-had-free-access-to-western-media-says-award-winning-syrian-photographer/
https://www.medialens.org/2022/save-the-bbc-in-whose-interests/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/5g-crimes-against-humanity/5767555
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60067032
About people ditching their smartphones.

Imperial news:

At the present rate, US COVID-19 deaths will reach 900,000 this week, and will top one million before winter is over. The daily average of patients admitted to hospitals is 159,000, the highest level of the entire pandemic. The daily average death rate has reached 2,162, above the Delta peak in September, and headed towards the all-time high of last winter.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/01/18/pers-j18.html
COVID-19 nightmare.
https://www.science.org/content/article/u-s-science-no-longer-leads-world-here-s-how-top-advisers-say-nation-should-respond

Imperial conquest news:

https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/01/political-prisoners-in-cuba-and-in-the-united-states-facts-and-fiction-part-1/
https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/01/political-prisoners-in-cuba-and-in-the-united-states-facts-and-fiction-part-2/
https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/01/the-millions-of-us-dollars-to-destabilize-cuba/
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/01/turkey-aims-keep-tensions-high-northeast-syria-through-targeted-killings
https://journal-neo.org/2022/01/21/is-perfidious-erdogan-destroying-russia-for-the-great-turan/
Ottoman Empire.
https://mronline.org/2022/01/18/defying-u-s-caesar-act-china-admits-syria-into-bri/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/01/20/divisions-with-us-government-bidens-minor-incursion-remark-reveals-a-lot-about-his-teams-russia-strategy/
https://gowans.blog/2022/01/21/sense-and-nonsense-about-ukraine/ 
https://sputniknews.com/20220124/ex-un-expert-us-nato-narrative-of-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-has-turned-into-religious-dogma-1092470865.html
https://peoplesworld.org/article/the-west-not-russia-is-responsible-for-the-war-danger-in-ukraine/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/24/nato-as-religion/
https://mronline.org/2022/01/20/state-archive-glitch-reaffirms-israels-genocidal-intent/
Erez Israel.
https://www.juancole.com/2022/01/convention-demolishes-palestinian.html
https://www.rt.com/news/546477-palestine-israel-conflict-violence/ 

China news:

Chinese authorities have suspended 20 United Airlines, 10 American Airlines and 14 Delta Air Lines flights since December 31, after some passengers tested positive for COVID-19. US authorities in retaliation cut flights by four Chinese carriers 

Before the recent cancellations, three US airlines and four Chinese carriers were operating about 20 flights a week between the countries, well below the figure of more than 100 per week before the pandemic.

In contrast to many European countries, there is no sign of easing restrictions in China, even if the incidence rate has been almost zero for months. Two major cities are currently in lockdown: Anyang with 5.5 million inhabitants and Yuzhou, which has a population of one million. The lockdown in Xi'an (13 million inhabitants) has been lifted. 

In the capital Beijing, the 2 million residents of Fengtai district underwent testing following the discovery of more than three dozen cases. Targeted testing was being conducted at residential communities in six other districts.

The lockdowns are part of the country's strict zero-COVID strategy. As soon as even a few cases emerge, entire cities are quarantined. All residents are tested and not allowed to leave their homes; close contacts of infected persons are forced to stay in quarantine hotels. China has a mandatory COVID contact tracing app. International air travel is still severely restricted, with arriving passengers forced to spend weeks in quarantine.

So far, China has officially recorded no more than about 100,000 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic — more people are infected in a single day in France, Spain, Germany, Britain, or Italy. Apart from the regional lockdowns, life in China has largely returned to normal. Nevertheless, the zero-COVID strategy is expected to remain in place at least until the Winter Olympics in Beijing in mid-March.

Olympics organizers say they have confirmed 78 cases of Covid-19 among 2,586 Games-related personnel entering China from 4 January to 22 January, with no cases among 171 athletes and team officials arriving in that period.

US agencies reportedly order WhatsApp to track groups of Chinese users.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/address-chinese-president-xi-jinping-2022-world-economic-forum-virtual-session/
https://mronline.org/2022/01/13/why-the-anglosphere-is-united-in-an-anti-china-front/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/01/15/nyt--j15.html
The New York Times compares China’s Zero-COVID policies to the Holocaust. Must read!
https://fair.org/home/action-alert-nyts-china-covid-coverage-needs-to-acknowledge-reality/
https://chroniclesofhaiphong.substack.com/p/how-to-satisfy-the-american-empire
Smear the Left, Demonize China.
https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-coronavirus-updates-latest-developments-business-advisory-part-2/
https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-covid-hamsters-animals-75f2d3507bdb8255cd2aee79e962fc35
Why not just isolate them? These animals are living beings too and they should be treated with compassion and respect. Cats and dogs may be next. Some cats in China were already killed after their human host was infected, but until now it didn’t happen on a large scale.
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/false-propaganda-against-china-excellent-xinjiang-health-statistics-vs-us-alliance-lies/
https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-china-russia-europe-120b7dedacd8d545bf4521a1948bc31e
If you can’t compete with them, smear and slander them.

Chinese media outlets publish propaganda just like Western media outlets, but they are more transparent and their information value is higher. There existed no Chinese equivalent to Edward Bernays PR or to the Hollywood dream machine who could have shaped Chinese media culture. Some examples:

https://www.globaltimes.cn
https://www.cgtn.com
https://english.news.cn/home.htm
http://en.people.cn 

Armageddon news:

https://tomdispatch.com/only-fools-replay-doomsday/

Uncategorized news:

https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/the-globalization-of-human-rights-violations-the-right-to-live-a-dignified-and-decent-living/
https://www.localfutures.org/the-inner-dimension-of-climate-adaptation/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/21/the-unspoken-victims-of-covid-19/ 

New pictures from cat land:

News, observations, guesses January 14, 2022

The Atlantic writes:

The fact that we’ll eventually end up with endemic COVID has not changed. And the fact that people cannot expect to avoid the virus forever in an endemic scenario has not changed. Omicron is now forcing us to look squarely at the reality that people can get and spread COVID even when vaccinated.

This is the same script that was used for media coverage about the poisoning of the biosphere, habitat destruction, mass extinction, and climate change: First ignore it and deny it, then, if that is not possible anymore, call it inevitable, call it the new normal, and regard it as a fact of life.

Concerning the pandemic, propagandists yet have one big problem: China is not playing along, it still insists on its zero-Covid strategy.

Imagine: The creativity, ingenuity, and discipline of 1.4 billion rather healthy people, compared to the creativity, ingenuity, and discipline of 330 million US-Americans, many of them stricken by long Covid and other chronic diseases.

This is a menace, an existential threat to US hegemony and Western neocolonialism. The whole Western World, the imperial coalition, ravaged by COVID-19, could be outcompeted, subjugated, and humiliated, society and culture could be changed, history could be rewritten.

Will China’s “century of humiliation” be revenged?

There’s only one way to fend off this threat: Brutal military aggression. But is has to come fast, because the window of opportunity will be closing soon.

A new study from the UK suggests that antibody levels may start to drop off by 15 to 25 percent already 10 weeks after a booster shot. Vaccine manufacturers are starting to develop Omicron-specific boosters — but this will take time. Pfizer expects an Omicron vaccine to be ready in March.

Efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines are still vigorously debated by scientists and doctors, but one will not hear anything about this in mainstream media. Questioning the wisdom of betting on “vaccinations and nothing else” is conspiracy theory.

Such a modus operandi is called: “zero visible dissent.”

Pandemic policies have been coherent, logical, and straight forward from the start and throughout the Corona crisis. It never was in dispute that securing profits is the supreme goal of most governments and that ordinary peoples lives and welfare are a distant afterthought. A headline in the Washington Post illustrates: “Lawmakers are discussing more pandemic relief for businesses.”

Pandemic relief for the people may come after that — if the budgets allow it.

News channels report: In another effort to bolster the economy, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that pre-departure tests for people traveling to England will no longer be required because the Omicron variant is so prevalent that travel restrictions meant to contain its spread are now meaningless.

Let ‘er rip.

As authorities all over the world are busy with securing profits and corporate financial wellbeing, pandemic mitigation efforts concerning health care have become individual responsibility. It’s up to you to avoid infection, reinfection, and reinfection again.

If you want to avoid life-threatening sickness and possible longtime ailments: Isolate, don’t contact persons who may be infected, avoid places and spaces where infected persons may be, don’t travel. 

You will object: “But that’s impossible, we live in a task sharing, supply chain dependent industrial global economy.”

But what about creativity, what about “thinking outside the box? Your employer demands that to boost productivity, while your personal life should remain unchanged, so that you remain a dependable cog in the big profit machine.

What about creativity, what about “thinking outside the box” to change your life fundamentally, to drop out of the rat race? 

Old habit’s die hard, old ways of thinking are difficult to leave, old perceptions, beliefs, ideologies are hard to overcome. Maybe an extraordinary experience (a pandemic for instance) can push you over the precipice into a new modest life of subsistence in a close-knit local community.

A modest, harmonious life of subsistence in a close-knit local community — nothing less will do. Not to forget: Inner peace, serenity, content are required too. 

We will need more sages and prophets.

This is old “New Age” crap, easily to be dismissed with some stinging mockery on social media platforms. The noise from quadrillions of loudspeakers, the honking from endless columns of cars, the banging, buzzing, roaring, growling of big industrial and agricultural machines will drown the silence of nature, wisdom, and love. And bury the visions of a new peaceful, harmonious world. 

Is the pandemic a transitional event? Will it end the industrial noises and the cacophony of modern urban life? Will it show the way to a sane world? Will it be the last pandemic or just the start of a merciless purge of human predators in the epic ware of humans against nature?

Will nature prevail or will humans win and continue destroying nature?

Which side are you on? Are you supporting humans or are you a traitor, a thug who is collaborating with nature, trying to impede human progress?

How to cope with the painful realization that we are not uninvolved bystanders, observers, that we are combatants indeed?

How to overcome cognitive dissonance and mental paralysis? How to drop out of the rat race? How to regroup and retreat to the mountains?

Do we need to sacrifice the conveniences and allures of modern life for preserving future or shall be better sacrificing future for the conveniences and allures of modern life? 

You want to have it both ways, have your cake and eat it too? You convince yourself and vehemently argue that these are silly and irrelevant questions, that the poisoning of the biosphere, habitat destruction, mass extinction, and climate change are just bumps in the highway of human progress and that science will find ingenious solutions to enable endless economic growth?

Continue dreaming, but don’t blame anybody than yourself for the rude awakening!

The pandemic is worsening and there could be an estimated 3 billion new infections globally over the next months thanks to the highly infectious Omicron variant. The largest outbreaks are across Europe and North America, but Omicron has reached most corners of the world, with its impact depending on the various health care and disease prevention politics.

Covax, the vaccine-sharing initiative, has shipped a billion doses, which sounds impressive but is far behind where it planned to be at this point in the pandemic. The selfishness displayed by vaccine-hoarding richer countries could prolong the pandemic, but nothing is for sure, as fast changes, unexpected developments, and a deluge of misleading data make predictions difficult. 

Unwavering efforts to eliminate Covid in China

The northwestern Chinese city of Xi'an suspended all passenger flights at its airport until further notice. Chinese officials say that the outbreak in Xi'an has largely "brought under control" after two weeks of a stay-at-home order with daily case counts down to single digits. Other cities where clusters have been detected face similar restrictions, including a partial lockdown in Yuzhou, Zhengzhou, Xuchang, Anyang, and Tianjin. 

The lockdown in Xi’an and associated public health measures, including mass testing and contact tracing, the establishment of quarantine centers, and the provision of food and home supplies required a huge mobilization of resources.

Multiple rounds of testing the whole population have been conducted to identify new cases. 5,077 testing points have been set up, with more than 30,000 testing personnel and 132,900 related service personnel. 

Initially one person from a household was permitted to go out to buy food and supplies every two days. However, that policy was further tightened to prohibit all trips (except testing for COVID-19). To provide food and other daily necessities to the city of 13 million, authorities mobilized 64,000 grassroots officials and 45,000 volunteers, many of whom are students, workers, and retirees.

The purchase of food and other supplies is mainly done by placing orders from businesses, and delivery by volunteers or community workers. In addition, food and daily necessities purchased by the government or donated by people from all walks of life are  distributed by volunteers and community workers.

There has been an expansion of medical services throughout the city. Xi’an has built new hospitals in the course of the pandemic, another one with a capacity of 3,000 beds is under construction.

Beginning in mid-December, medical institutions from neighboring areas have sent more than 1,000 medical workers to Xi’an and on December 27, 150 medical workers from the Air Force Military Medical University went to Xi’an.

The city of Yuzhou in the central province of Henan imposed a lockdown on January 3, 2022, after the discovery of three coronavirus cases. Yuzhou’s 1.1 million residents were ordered to remain indoors and public transport was suspended. As of January 4, over 950,000 people had been tested for Covid-19.

In the port city of Tianjin 97 people tested positive for COVID-19 in a first round of mass testing and contact tracing of the city’s 14 million people, Authorities imposed restrictions on movement both within Tianjin and in neighboring areas including Beijing. 75,000 people are quarantined, subway lines are partially closed, and most flights are cancelled. Tutoring centers, daycare centers, and vocational training centers have been closed while universities and colleges have sealed off campuses.

Imported cases of Omicron have been found in five cities (Tianjin, Guangzhou, Changsha, Shenzhen, and Zhejiang) and there have been a few confirmed cases of community transmission in Guangzhou.

Omicron cases have also been identified in Anyang city in Henan province, more than 300 miles from Tianjin. The cases have been traced to a potential source — a university student who returned to Anyang from Tianjin on December 28, raising the possibility that Omicron has been circulating in Tianjin for nearly two weeks. A lockdown of Anyang, home to 5.5 million, was being ordered to facilitate mass testing. The northeastern city of Dalian reported one Omicron case, imported from Tianjin. 

Chinas efforts to eliminate COVID-19 are dismissed or discredited by Western commentators who are well aware, that this could become a monumental and  unprecedented humiliation for the USA and Europe.

https://mronline.org/2022/01/12/yes-there-really-were-only-two-covid-deaths-in-mainland-china-in-2021-heres-how-they-did-it/ 

The New York Time writes: The army of millions who enforce China’s zero-Covid policy, at all costs. As the troubled lockdown in Xi’an has shown, many Chinese people remain willing to work diligently toward the government’s goal of eliminating the virus, no matter the consequences.

No matter the consequences? If the consequences are less sickness and death, all costs are justified. But that’s certainly not what the New York Times implied.

Or living with COVID

A recent study, published on medRxiv, found, that most Omicron cases were infectious for several days before being detectable by rapid antigen tests. Incubation periods (the time from infection till becoming infectious) were as short as three days.

Omicron has a much higher rate of asymptomatic carriage than other variants. It is often undetected, which certainly helps its rapid global dissemination.

Researchers in Glasgow discovered that an essential protein on lung cells called TMPRSS2, which helped previous SARS-COV-2 variants to gain entry into the lung cells bound less strongly to Omicron, making it more difficult to get inside the cells.

The fact that the new variant seems milder than originally feared is likely to mean that restrictions are lifted more quickly and that the economic effect is more moderate than it might have been. Israel and Australia, for example, are already loosening restrictions despite high case numbers.

The abandonment of public health measures has been spurred by a massive disinformation campaign which has successfully convinced a significant portion of the population that not making a fuss and just enduring COVID-19 is the way to go. The young and healthy have especially embraced this narrative.

Obama and Biden adviser Ezekiel Emanuel, together with other former Biden administration health advisers, including Michael Osterholm and Céline Gounder, called for COVID-19 to become the “new normal.”

Emanuel organized the production of three opinion articles published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association). The statements there were hailed with front coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, and NBC Nightly News. Emanuel told NBC: “We have to reorient our goal so we can get it to a manageable state, and we can continue with our normal life while Covid is around just like we do with flu.”

CDC director Rochelle Walensky correspondingly stated on ABC Good Morning America: “The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities, so really these are people who are unwell to begin with, and yes, really encouraging news in the context of Omicron.”

Ignoring long COVID

Yet, the idea of “Omicron the Pandemic Killer” ignores dangers of long COVID. SARS-CoV-2 is not just a respiratory virus, it is similar to HIV because it can silently spread throughout the host’s body and attack almost every organ. It has multiple avenues to induce long-term impairment, attacking the brain, heart, lungs, blood, testes, colon, liver, and lymph nodes, causing persistent symptoms. The virus is able to cross the blood-brain barrier and cause significant neurological damage (demonstrated in mice at the University of Washington).

SARS-CoV-2 is frequently detected in brain (loss of smell) and heart (loss of cardiac function from myocarditis). Even those who develop ‘mild’ COVID-19 can develop long COVID-19. There is no indication that Omicron involves a reduction in the incidence of long COVID, potentially meaning millions of people will be debilitated for months, years, or their entire lives.

A preprint study by Oxford University investigators on the medRxiv website, compares brain scans for SARS-CoV-2 infections in 394 COVID-19 patients who tested positive for the infection against 388 patients in a control group. “We identified significant effects of COVID-19 in the brain with a loss of grey matter in the left parahippocampal gyrus, the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the left insula,” the study states. “When looking over the entire cortical surface, these results extended to the anterior cingulate cortex, supramarginal gyrus, and temporal pole.”

In the UK, hospitalizations of children under six years with COVID-19 are rapidly rising with 570 admissions in just one week. 3 million children (aged 0-19) have been infected with COVID, with a record 40,000 daily cases on January 10. Long COVID numbers in children have more than tripled in 6 months. 117,000 children have long COVID and 20,000 endure illness lasting more than a year.

For the week ending December 30, children accounted for 17.7 percent of new reported cases in the USA, the American Academy of Pediatrics said, noting a record 325,00 new cases among children — a 64 percent increase from the week prior. The week ending January 6 saw even 580,247 pediatric COVID-19 cases, up 74 percent. There were also a record 1,636 pediatric hospitalizations and 14 additional deaths.

In Georgia, public school teachers who test positive for Covid-19 no longer have to isolate before returning to school, and contact tracing in schools is no longer required, according to a letter to school leaders from Gov. Brian Kemp and public health commissioner Kathleen Toomey. The Georgia Department of Public Health posted an updated administrative order allowing teachers and school staff to return to work after a Covid-19 exposure or a positive Covid-19 test if they remain asymptomatic and wear a mask while at work.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/01/more-on-the-morbidity-risk-of-omicron-like-a-chess-grandmaster-playing-against-schoolboys.html 

US pandemic news

800,000 US-Americans have died from Covid-19 (December 18, 2021).

President Biden vowed “not to shutdown the economy, period.” 

In New York, officials have had to delay or scale back trash and subway services because of a virus-fueled staffing hemorrhage. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said about one-fifth of subway operators and conductors (1,300 people) have been absent in recent days. Almost one-fourth of the city sanitation department’s workers were out sick. The city’s fire department also has adjusted for higher absences, as 28 percent of EMS workers were out sick.

At Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, two checkpoints at the airport’s busiest terminal were shut down because not enough Transportation Security Administration agents showed up for work. 

Just 37 percent of US-Americans name the virus as one of their top five priorities for the government to work on in 2022, compared with 53 percent who said it was a leading priority at the same time a year ago. The economy outpaced the pandemic in the open-ended question, with 68 percent of respondents mentioning it in some way as a top 2022 concern. A similar percentage said the same last year, but mentions of inflation are much higher now: 14 percent this year, compared with less than 1 percent last year.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/13/profits-over-people-why-werent-the-vaccine-manufacturers-nationalized/ 

Other pandemic related news

Scientists at the University of Cyprus have found 25 cases of a strain of the coronavirus that combines elements of the delta and omicron variants. The researchers sent their findings to GISAID, an international database that tracks viruses. They called the mutation “deltacron” and doubt, that it will prevail.

Only one monoclonal antibody, sotrovimab, currently works against Omicron, and supplies are short.

The US government ordered 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca's combination antibody Evusheld, for about 300 US$ per dose. The drug was authorized in December to prevent infection with COVID-19 in immunocompromised adults and adolescents, as well as those who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria, given as a third booster dose, is also said to increase antibodies against Omicron.

Pfizer's antiviral Paxlovid, also recently authorized, has been shown effective at preventing high-risk people from requiring hospitalization. But only 20 million doses of the drug, which is hard to manufacture and costs 530 US$ per course, will be available throughout 2022.

It is doubtful, that these rare and expensive drugs will be equitably distributed.

https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com 

China sent a million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Syria. This is the fourth time China has sent coronavirus vaccine doses to Syria,

Syria experienced a bad outbreak of COVID-19 late last year, exacerbating the fragile healthcare system that has been damaged by year of civil war. Cases have since decreased, and the country of 17 million is averaging around 40 new infections per day, according to data from Reuters.

China is an ally of Syria. Last month, China’s embassy in Damascus provided a grant to a Syrian nonprofit. 

China has provided its Sinopharm vaccine to several countries in the Middle East, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. China’s Red Cross also sent 6 million Sinopharm doses to Iran in October.

UK travel industry groups have called for all remaining Covid restrictions on travelers to be removed. The travel industry said compulsory testing for UK arrivals and departures had held back the sector's recovery.

A recent report by aviation analytics firm Cirium found that the Covid pandemic triggered a 71 percent drop in international flights in and out of the UK in 2021.

Royal Caribbean International canceled cruise voyages on four ships because of "ongoing Covid-related circumstances around the world." Norwegian Cruise Line canceled the voyages of eight ships.

Who wins, who loses?

An unprecedented wealth transfer from the already exploited population to extremely rich and powerful people has been ongoing for the past two years, while the kind of neoliberal restructuring they’ve been dreaming about has been implemented in the name of saving lives.

The cozy Covid life for privileged, resourced people who can work from home or afford not to work is propped up in many ways at the expense of many who are suffering under the economic restructuring process for the oligarchy 

The richest 10 percent of the global population currently take 52 percent of global income, whereas the poorest half of the population earns 8.5 percent of it. On average, an individual from the top 10 percent of the global income distribution earns 122,100 US$ per year, whereas an individual from the poorest half of the global income distribution makes 3,920 US$ per year.

The poorest half of the global population barely owns any wealth at all, possessing just 2 percent of the total. In contrast, the richest 10 percent of the global population own 76 percent of all wealth.

Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce, a unit of Germany's BMW, said its sales soared 49 percent to a record high in 2021, as demand worldwide for luxury vehicles surged. The carmaker sold 5,586 vehicles to customers in more than 50 countries, the largest number in its 117-year history.

Eternal economic growth is still the prevailing state religion.

Asia will be very important for growth prospects in 2022. Major economies such as the UK, Japan and the eurozone were all still smaller than before the pandemic as recently as the third quarter of 2021. The only major Western economy that has already recovered its losses and regained its pre-COVID size is the United States.

China still rising

The Chinese economy is projected to have grown 10.6 percent for the whole of 2021, compared with 2019, the year the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan. Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) was on course to hit 15.66 trillion US$ versus 14.15 trillion US$ in 2019. 

China has managed the pandemic well with strict control measures, and its economy has achieved strong growth since the second quarter of 2020. It has been struggling with a heavily over-indebted property market, but appears to have handled these problems relatively smoothly. Though the jury is out on the extent to which China’s debt problems will be a drag in 2022, some such as Morgan Stanley argue that strong exports, accommodative monetary and fiscal policies, and government provided relief for the real estate sector point to a decent performance.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement came into force. Signed at the end of 2020, and ratified by at least 10 of its parties through 2021, the deal constitutes the largest free trade agreement in history, including 15 countries, nearly one-third of the world’s population, and 30 percent of the world’s GDP. The RCEP trade agreement brings China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) into one bloc, where members enjoy 90 percent of goods tariff free. Tariffs on more than 65 per cent of China’s trade in goods with ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand are expected to immediately reach zero.

Rail trade between China and Europe has seen container traffic up 30 percent and the China Development Bank will provide additional funding support to upgrade the China Railway Express, which links 89 Chinese cities with 23 countries in Europe.

Beijing over the past few years has framed itself as a champion, advocate, and defender of a multilateral trading system against protectionism, and in turn sought to hasten its trade agreements as a means to hedge against Washington’s attempts to block Chinese economic development.

The trade war between the US and China looks likely to continue in 2022. The “phase 1” deal between the two nations, in which China had agreed to increase its purchases of certain US goods and services by 200 billion US$ over 2020 and 2021 has missed its target by about 40 percent (as at the end of November).

Essential questions remain unanswered:

When will the Chinese leadership wake up from the dreams of hegemony and eternal economic growth? Will China’s great awakening and resurgence followed by a great disenchantment? Will the poisoned lands still be able to feed the people? Is Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism a viable fallback option? Will there be a great redemption?

War preparations

According to a new SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) report published in December, the 100 largest arms companies sold 531 billion US$ worth of weapons in 2020 — a 1.3 percent increase compared to 2019.

The defense industry has been largely immune to the economic impact of the pandemic. While the global economy shrank by 3.1 percent in 2020, most of the 100 largest defense companies increased their sales. 

Leading the way in arms sales is the United States, which accounts for 41 of the hundred largest arms producers, who increased their exports by 1.9 percent and achieved total sales of 285 billion US$ last year. This corresponds to 54 percent of the world total. As of 2018, the top five arms companies are all based in the US.

Russian defense sales, which account for five percent of global sales, declined for the third year in a row, falling from 28.2 billion US$ in 2019 to 26.4 billion in 2020. According to SIPRI, this is mainly due to the Russian government's diversification of product portfolios, according to which the share of civilian products must be 30 percent of total production by 2025 and 50 percent by 2050.

Political organizations in Kazakhstan in 2020 received 3.8 million US$ from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, which promotes regime change against pro-Russian leaders in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and more than $1.2 million US$ from NED (National Endowment for Democracy) (data for 2021 is not yet publicly available).

The US European Command (better known by the acronym, EUCOM) announced that it was establishing a new headquarters in the Balkans - a special operations unit based in Albania, which would form part of an overall US government effort to increase the capacity of Western forces.

Former CIA agent Ray McGovern stated in an interview that the US government decided to open a military base in the region to undermine growing Chinese influence in the region and prevent the rapprochement between Tirana and Beijing.

A recent report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (a pro-Western Balkan NGO), identified at least 135 cooperation projects between China and Albania whose value exceeds 36 million US$. The projects work in the most diverse areas, including high technology, computing, metallurgy, mining, energy, transport, infrastructure, security, among others. One of the projects is a cooperation in technology with Huawei, a Chinese company that has been a prime target by Washington.

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News, observations, and guesses January 2022

Almost 900,000 COVID-19 cases were detected on average each day around the world between Dec 22 and 28, with many countries posting new all-time highs. 

Worldwide, there have been nearly 290 million COVID-19 cases and over 5.4 million confirmed deaths. The real death toll is certainly far higher and excess death projections estimate that 18 million have died in the past two years from COVID-19. Moreover, the rate of death has increased: About twice as many people died from the virus in 2021 than in 2020.

The USA broke records at least four times in the last week of 2021 for its seven-day average of new daily Covid-19 cases, reporting an all-time high of more than 386,000 new daily infections.

The high case count is already causing disruptions in essential services and experts are worried, that the US economy is going to shut down, not because of policies from the federal government or from the state governments, but rather because so many people are ill.

Omicron has 57 mutations - It’s almost like starting over again with a different virus. Data from South Africa, Britain, and Western Europe indicates that the Omicron variant is four times as infectious as Delta and approximately ten times as infectious as the original variant.

A virus that spreads faster means more people will be infected, which means there will be more deaths and hospitalizations for unvaccinated and anyone who suffers from a breakthrough case.

While most media revel about “mild” COVID, data from the UK and Denmark show that hospitalization rates for people infected with omicron are not much different from those infected with the delta variant.

Denmark keeps very close tabs on the coronavirus with a government institute devoted to testing, surveillance and modeling. Vaccine rates also are high and boosters are available. Yet nothing is stopping the omicron variant, according to experts, in a cautionary tale for similar countries. Omicron positives are doubling nearly every two days.

All studies and statistics depend on data which could be inaccurate, non-representative, and even plain wrong. An Omicron offshoot (designated BA.2) for instance could be more difficult to distinguish from other strains with routine PCR tests, making it harder to track the global spread of the heavily mutated virus.

The “S-gene dropout,” which helped researchers and public health officials track Omicron in the early days and verify its higher spread than Delta, is not being picked up in the BA.2 offshoot and without sequencing, it will be hard to track and distinguish Omicron cases from Delta or other variants.

The hope of “Mild Omicron”

In theory, if a less virulent strain becomes dominant, more people will become infected but fewer will be critically sick. The virus, while still a problem, also becomes part of the solution; every person who recovers from a mild case is left with greater immunity against future infections than any of the current vaccines provide.

The “mild” theme was quickly picked up by leaders who have vowed to never repeat the lockdowns and other restrictions of previous waves. They are aware that a faster-spreading strain during the holiday travel season in many areas of the world could have drastic social and economic implications. 

Putative experts and the press are at the moment pushing every bit of Omicron hope they can find, to the degree that they are baldly misrepresenting research (which, even if it is accurate, must always be treated with caution). The main message is: “Omicron is mild and will end the pandemic”.

It happened before and one historical example it cited regularly: 

In 1796 an English physician, Edward Jenner, observed that milkmaids who had gotten cowpox were immune to smallpox. He surmised, rightly, as we now know, that the disease was related. Smallpox, which has killed hundreds of millions of people dating all the way back to prehistory, is caused by the virus variola and is related to cowpox, catpox, and several other virus-caused “poxes (Orthopoxvirus family).” Our present day mandated vaccine against smallpox is also a related virus, vaccinia, which causes a small localized lesion leaving a scar and immunity against the variola or smallpox virus. Thus we are used to accepting a minor disease to protect against a lethal disease.

Could Omicron be the cowpox of Covid- 19? Is this relatively benign version the vector of immunity? Is nature providing us with the perfect vaccine that will spread itself in the world population causing mild disease and providing immunity that will, at long last, end this pandemic? Should we, in fact, facilitate its spread?

Wishful thinking maybe, as nobody knows for sure what will happen next.

According to a small study with 13 participants, published by South African scientists this week, people infected with Omicron may have increased immune protection against delta and as a consequence, Omicron could displace delta. Participants in the study also showed an increase in the ability of antibodies to block omicron reinfection.

“These results are consistent with Omicron displacing the Delta variant, since it can elicit immunity which neutralizes Delta making re-infection with Delta less likely,” the team of scientists, led by Khadija Khan at the Africa Health Research Institute, wrote in their findings.

Two small studies from England and Scotland also suggest that that Omicron is associated with a lower risk of hospitalization than Delta. All these findings have a high level of uncertainty because of small sample size and limited time.

Earlier data from South Africa show that Omicron is capable of infecting those who have received one dose of traditional vaccines and two doses of mRNA vaccines. Omicron has also demonstrated the ability to reinfect those who have already been infected by a previous variant. 

Omicron is immune to natural antibodies from previous COVID-19 infections and make monoclonal antibody cocktails less effective. Which means that once someone is so sick as to require hospital treatment, doctors have fewer options available because drugs based on monoclonal antibodies don’t work. Supplies of newly developed drugs made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology are still limited.

As new mutations emerge, Omicron will not be the end of the line. Now one knows for instance if the new variant B.1.640.2, found in southern France and distinguished by 42 mutations and 37 deletions, will take off and conquer the land of Delta and Omicron. But it is concerning that this until now small number of patients have "moderate to severe" condition (what happened to Sars-2-CoV evolving into a cold-like virus?).

No one has a good handle on the total level of Covid cases, since asymptomatic cases are seldom caught. And it’s not as if asymptomatic cases are harmless. One large-scale study from February 2020 to February 2021 estimated that 20 percent of asymptomatic COVID cases result in long Covid. A meta-study by the Pennsylvania College of Medicine concluded even that half of those who contracted COVID-19 had gotten long Covid.

The menace of “long Covid”

A “Mild Covid” infection can nevertheless be debilitating when it leads to long-term or permanent disease and disability.

Even asymptomatic infection brings a significant risk of long Covid – a wide spectrum of more than 200 symptoms and conditions that can appear months after initial infection and apparent recovery, leaving children, adults, and elders disabled, chronically ill, and desperate.

To state it once again unmistakably: 20 to 50 percent of those who survive any Covid infection (from asymptomatic or “mild” to severe) will go on to live with (and sometimes die from) long Covid – a long-term, eventually lifelong, and even life-threatening or fatal chronic syndrome, the biological pathways of which are still largely unknown.

It remains to be seen what the present surge in infections will mean for long COVID. It stands to reason that with a higher number of infections, more people will end up with long COVID, with its ongoing symptoms that include extreme fatigue, breathlessness, and palpitations. Long COVID not only has devastating effects on individuals and their families but can also put pressure on healthcare systems and economies as people have to take prolonged periods off work.

Those living with post-viral conditions – such as ME/CFS, dysautonomia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (Pots) – are used to being ignored, disbelieved, or misadvised.

Long-haulers with Covid should be extremely concerned about reinfection with the Omicron variant. The risk of reinfection is certainly high. A physician told on social media: “We have seen people in our clinic who have been reinfected with Covid and they have new or worsened long Covid symptoms after their reinfection."

There may be other adverse health effects that have yet to come out. Physicians for instance notice an unusual uptick of myocarditis, while oncologists report a rapid increase of soft tissue cancers like malignant melanoma or renal cell carcinoma and lymph tumors like lymphoma or myeloma. This is anecdotal still and likely will be suppressed by news media but it is another warning that COVID-19 is maybe not as benign as experts and politicians present it.

A litany of lost chances

Will Big Pharma come to the rescue again? The Pfizer drug Paxlovid is the first easy-to-use pill to treat COVID-19. The five-day regimen reportedly prevents high-risk people from developing severe illness when taken within a few days of symptom onset. Molnupiravir, Merck's oral COVID drug though appears to be less effective than originally thought. Both drugs have serious side effects. 

There is increasing evidence that vaccinated individuals continue to have a relevant role in transmission and that vaccinations, even those including booster shots, are not offering much protection against infection. The question was always how many people vaccines will keep out of ICUs.

If it turns out that the result is at the level of Sinopharm against Delta, which is what the very poor protection from infection would suggest (contrary to the upbeat propaganda in the media), we are in big trouble.

Places like Chile, Bahrain, the Seychelles, Gibraltar, Israel were the first examples of the failure of the vaccination project back in May and June. They all had to decree post-vaccination lockdowns, in the case of Chile two of them, and recorded half or more of their deaths AFTER they had gotten to quite high levels of vaccination. The vaccines were not working as well as hoped for.

At a private gathering of 33 Pfizer-triple-vaccinated health care workers in the Faroe Islands, 21 were infected with Omicron — a superspreading event among 3-dose-vaccinated people. All received dose 3 within 2.5 months of the event. 

Vaccines may not prevent infections but are still helpful to reduce severe disease, are we told, but even if the alleged 75 percent protection against severe disease is true, in the USA and Europe that means utter catastrophe — we only saw what infecting 20-25 percent of the population in a short period of time meant in New York and Lombardy early in the pandemic, and we know how that went.

Omicron has exposed the stupidity of the “vaccine-only” strategy of Western governments, which claimed that vaccines would, like a “magic bullet,” bring the pandemic under control without any further public health measures like obligatory masks, social distancing, or restrictions to gatherings and travel.

We’ve gone months without significant investments in indoor ventilation, distribution of effective masks and global vaccine access. 

There is much that can be done in schools to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19 among children and staff. Mandatory mask-wearing and staggered break times can help but governments must ensure adequate ventilation in classrooms or install approved air filters.

A Swiss study found that poorly ventilated school classrooms recorded up to six times as many COVID cases compared with those that were regularly aired. The research by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) looked at data from 150 classrooms in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Each classroom had a CO2 monitor, which measures levels of carbon dioxide in the air. If this is high it suggests the room is poorly ventilated. It compared CO2 levels in classrooms with the number of children and staff testing positive. It concluded that badly ventilated rooms had six times as many cases as better-ventilated ones. The researchers recommend airing out classrooms by opening windows or outside doors more than usual – ideally three times each hour for five minutes at a time – even when outside temperatures are low.

An alternative of course is to invest in air filters, which filter out virus-containing aerosol particles. These are expensive but worth investing in as they will also reduce the spread of other airborne viruses among children and result in fewer lost schooldays.

A UK government pilot project is set to trial hospital air purifiers and ultraviolet light to limit COVID outbreaks. Once funding is confirmed, Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge will install filtration units and air sampling equipment across two of its wards to assess spread of the virus between patients. (Better late than never.)

Just like vaccines, masks (respirators) are not a perfect solution.

A German neurologist, Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson, MD, PhD (in pharmacology), who specializes in neurotoxicology and environmental medicine, warns that oxygen deprivation from prolonged Covid-mask wearing can cause permanent neurological damage. She states in her research:

“The re-breathing of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide. We know that the human brain is very sensitive to oxygen deprivation. There are nerve cells for example in the hippocampus, that can’t be longer than 3 minutes without oxygen – they cannot survive. The acute warning symptoms are headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, issues in concentration, slowing down of the reaction time – reactions of the cognitive system.”

The reason so many mask wearers have NO CLUE this chronic damage is happening to them is because once a person has chronic oxygen deprivation, all of those symptoms disappear, because the person gets accustomed to the deprived state; however, their efficiency remains impaired and the lack of appropriate oxygen delivery to the brain continues to dangerously progress.

The end of travel and tourism?

The drastic contraction of international movement is likely to be one of COVID-19’s most momentous cultural and economic ramifications. The old way it was practiced, at vast scale, and across increasingly porous borders, has begun to look like it might be a terminal casualty.

In the first 20 years of the millennium, international tourism arrivals more than doubled, from 700 million in 2000 to almost 1.5 billion in 2019. Over that period, travel, for those of us lucky enough to enjoy it, has become synonymous with wellbeing, a vital adjunct of a fulfilling life.

During the pandemic UK international flights dropped 71 percent from pre-Covid levels. Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport, reported that passenger numbers were 60 percent lower in November than before the coronavirus pandemic and there were “high cancellations” among business travelers concerned about being trapped overseas for Christmas as Omicron spreads. 

Airline operators said the government’s travel restrictions had dealt a fresh blow to travel confidence and predicted it was likely to take several years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Global airline carriers canceled 2,401 flights on Christmas Eve. At least 1,779 flights scheduled for Christmas Day were called off worldwide, along with 402 more that had been scheduled for Boxing Day. Several airlines had to cancel flights because of staff illnesses largely tied to the Omicron variant. In all, more than 8,000 flights have been grounded over the long Christmas weekend that began on Friday. Chinese air carriers and the airports in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an were the worst affected.

US CDC data shows two-thirds of cruise ships are reporting COVID cases (5,013 cases between December 15 and 29) and US authorities are still monitoring and investigating 88 cruise ships hit by COVID while sailing in the country's waters, with several of them reportedly denied port in the Caribbean. Another three are being monitored after reporting positive cases onboard. The Mexican government has offered to let cruise ships with COVID-19 positive passengers disembark in Mexico and to provide medical assistance for passengers.

While numerous countries around the world have banned arrivals from Southern Africa, where the variant was first detected, Asia-Pacific economies that kept deaths low with border closures early in the pandemic have gone further and introduced sweeping restrictions on travel.

Japan banned all non-resident foreigners, delivering a boost to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s approval ratings, while Australia announced a pause of its planned reopening of the borders to skilled migrants and international students.

Hong Kong, which has a strict “zero Covid” policy that has frustrated foreign businesses and residents, has banned travel to non-residents from three dozen countries and mandated 21 days of hotel quarantine for returning residents. Mainland China has had some of the strictest border controls and domestic restrictions throughout the pandemic, with only citizens and resident permit holders allowed entry.

53 of 65 confirmed imported Omicron COVID-19 cases arrived in Singapore through VTLs (Vaccinated Travel Lanes).

Malaysia and Singapore have delayed the introduction of a number of quarantine-free travel lanes, while South Korea has reintroduced 10 days of quarantine for all inbound travelers.

Even before Omicron, the Asia-Pacific region was largely closed to travel, with airline traffic down nearly 93 percent in October compared with the same month in 2019.

Humans have wasted unimaginable amounts of time and energy by moving around over long distances with cars, trains, ships, and airplanes. Was there more at play than simply the decadent joy-seeking of a generation who could? Was it merely a selfish moment in time, one that we now see, in the stark light of a pandemic’s recalibration of our priorities, for the indulgence it always was?

Living (or dying) with COVID

China is one of the few remaining holdouts who try to eliminate COVID-19, though it is increasingly difficult as infections seep through borders from all sides. Chinese authorities issued sweeping stay-at-home orders in the northern parts of Shaanxi province. The country is just weeks away from the Winter Olympics, with concerns growing that the games could further increase the spread.

The historic city of Xi’an — known internationally as the home of the 2,000-year-old Terracotta warriors — just reported over 150 new locally-transmitted for several days in a row. That brought the Xi'an cluster to 1,500 cases since the outbreak began on December 9.

China locked down all 13 million people in Xi’an after detecting Covid cases. The residents were (and still are) barred from leaving their houses except to buy living necessities every other day or for emergencies. Fortunately case numbers are falling now.

There was also an outbreak in eastern Ningbo city, where a small cluster of 7 cases has been linked to a garment factory.

A few bumps in the road

The worldwide surge in coronavirus cases driven by the Omicron variant is the latest blow to hospitals, police departments, supermarkets and other critical operations struggling to maintain a full contingent of front-line workers as the pandemic enters its third year.

A major hospital system in Phoenix, Arizona, has enacted crisis standards of care. Patients 75 and older will reportedly have to meet certain criteria to be eligible for life-saving care, and those 85 and older will not be eligible at all for some treatments.

There are 1,500 nursing vacancies in New York’s three largest hospitals alone, or about double the number at the onset of the pandemic. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have 15 percent fewer workers today than when the pandemic began.

US states such as Massachusetts have called in hundreds of National Guard members to help fill the gaps in hospitals and nursing homes, where they serve meals, transport patients and do other nonclinical work.

Countries including Spain and the UK have reduced the length of COVID-19 quarantines to ease staffing shortages by letting people return to work sooner after testing positive or being exposed to the virus.

In Britain, train company LNER was canceling 16 trains a day. Transport for London, which operates the subway and employs about 28,000 people, warned of slowdowns because 500 front-line staff are off work because of COVID-19-related illness. 

As Australia grapples with a growing COVID-19 caseload, Queensland’s top doctor Dr John Gerrard said infection with COVID-19 was required for the pandemic to evolve into an endemic. “In order for us to go from the pandemic phase to an endemic phase, the virus has to be widespread.”

The only two options to develop immunity were to get vaccinated, or get the virus, Dr Gerrard said. “We all have to have immunity, you will all have to develop immunity and there’s two ways you can do that: By being vaccinated or getting infected.”

And about Omicron: “But the early information we‘re getting is it seems to be a little milder and certainly the vaccine is protective. We’re not going to stop it. We’re going to just try and slow it down a little bit to enable people to get those third doses.”

In the USA, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines each canceled dozens of Christmas Eve flights, as Omicron has taken a toll on flight crews and other workers.

While the New York Times was cheerleading with the headline: “Design and Healing’ Shows How Epidemics Lead to Innovation,” about 2,700 New York police officers were absent at years end.

Facing a potential collapse of essential infrastructure, the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) announced a shortening of isolation and quarantine periods for essential worker, including those who work in healthcare, sanitation, grocery stores, pharmacies, and basic municipal services. US health officials later altered their isolation guidelines for asymptomatic cases generally to 5 days. Quarantine time for exposed persons is now also only 5 days.

The change is fiercely debated among medical experts. Erin Bromage, a biology professor at UMass Dartmouth, said that there is "absolutely no data that I am aware of" to support the switch in guidance. He added that people can still test positive on antigen tests up to seven or eight days after their initial test, even if they don't have symptoms.

US CDC officials maintain that Omicron has a shorter incubation time of only three days, but incubation periods can be vastly different over a wide range.

Spain is reducing the quarantine period for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 to seven days, while Italy is planning to relax isolation rules for those who came into close contact with infected persons. Portugal will shorten its mandatory self-isolation period for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients from 10 to seven days,

All this is in striking contrast to Chinese regulations, which include isolation periods of up to four weeks. Hong Kong authorities have tightened COVID-19 quarantine requirements for crew of the city's flagship carrier Cathay from three days mandatory confinement at a designated hotel to seven days, effectively forcing the airline to suspend all long-haul cargo flights.

It will soon come out which policy yields the better results.

Save the children?

Over one million children are set to resume in-person education on January 3 in New York City — the epicenter of the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the USA — as part of a nationwide reopening after the holiday break.

The warehousing of children in overcrowded classrooms in antiquated and poorly ventilated buildings is a recipe for mass infection. But the continuation of in-person education is a central aim of the Biden administration, and the White House has made clear that it will not close schools, no matter what the danger posed to children.

To support this action — driven not by public health but by the need for corporations to have children in schools so their parents can return to work — the Biden administration and its top official scientists are openly and flagrantly lying to the public.

According to data from the CDC, for the week of December 22 to 28, a record average of 378 children under 18 years old were hospitalized each day with COVID-19, a 66 percent increase from the week before and higher than the peak of 342 per day reached in September during the Delta surge.

Sober words and a serious calling

“Our capacity for social relationships is sorely tired,” Pope Francis said in his traditional Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) message at the Vatican.

"There is a growing tendency to withdraw, to do it all by ourselves, to stop making an effort to encounter others and do things together," the leader of the Catholic Church told the crowds gathered at St. Peter's Square.

Speaking from the balcony overlooking the square, Francis urged people to work together to tackle the pandemic:

God-with-us, grant health to the infirm and inspire all men and women of good will to seek the best ways possible to overcome the current health crisis and its effects. Open hearts to ensure that necessary medical care – and vaccines in particular – are provided to those peoples who need them most. Repay those who generously devote themselves to caring for family members, the sick and the most vulnerable in our midst.

Wise words in the face of nonexistent international solidarity, insufficient compassion, and steadily diminishing social cohesion. 

Media reported that vaccine deliveries, organized by the UN Covax program, surged in the final month of 2021, but with just 910 million doses shared through Covax in 2021, the program fell far short of the original target of 2 billion.

The show must go on

But US retail sales rose 8.5 percent during this year's holiday shopping season from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24, powered by an 11 percent rise in online sales. While Omicron was able to upending holiday plans for tens of thousands of travelers, it didn’t do much damage to holiday shopping. 

===================

Katie Singer writes:

Ask not for energy or goods that depend on international supply chains. 

Ask not for solar power, wind power or battery electric storage (BESS). Ask not for e-vehicles (EVs) or smartphones. These can’t be manufactured without fossil fuels, extractions, deforestation, greenhouse gases, toxic waste and international supply chains. They can’t operate without backup from fossil fuels or battery power. They don’t biodegrade.

Don’t just ask about greenhouse gas emissions during a product’s operation. Ask about energy and water consumption, extractions and chemical waste, worker hazards and ecological harm during manufacturing of devices and infrastructure. 

Ask not for marketers’ sales pitches. 

Ask not how to continue your current lifestyle. 

Ask how much water fabs use to manufacture silicon for solar panels and transistors. Ask why silicon smelters use Tar Sands’ petcoke. Ask about solar panels’ perfluorinated chemical coating (PFAs) – and how to remove PFAs from soil. 

Ask why countries where corporations extract ores for “renewables,” smartphones and EVs score “unsustainable” on the UN’s index while countries that buy these goods score “sustainable.”

Ask about the fire hazards of EVs, solar PVs, BESS and wind turbines. Ask for due diligent evaluations that mitigate hazards from licensed professional engineers. 

Ask how electromagnetic radiation exposure from EVs and other electronics impacts children and people with medical implants. Ask how wind turbines impact wildlife and public health… during manufacturing and operation. 

Ask how to reduce energy consumption by 40 percent, asap. 

Ask how to build an economy based on neighbor-to-neighbor relationships and local raw materials.

===================

Feline news:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/dec/08/the-inner-lives-of-cats-what-our-feline-friends-really-think-about-hugs-happiness-and-humans
http://hatchingcatnyc.com/2021/12/18/1904-1932-holiday-time-hero-cats-old-new-york/
https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3160679/all-hail-our-feline-overlords-cats-prove-way
https://bangordailynews.com/2021/12/27/outdoors/maine-cat-missing-for-2-months-spotted-on-trail-cam-with-a-fox-before-being-reunited-with-its-family-n6hjn1me0n/

Against the odds:

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/el-salvador-womens-group-takes-a-stand-for-river-system-targeted-by-development/
https://monthlyreview.org/2021/12/01/red-current-pink-tide/
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/new-orleans-flood-proofing-green-infrastructure
https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/12/cuba-seeks-more-equality-and-inclusion-with-the-new-code-of-families/
https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/12/cuba-grows-and-advances-despite-the-difficulties-of-2021/ 

Environmental news:

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/layers-of-carbon-the-congo-basin-peatlands-and-oil/
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/tree-planting-goals-miss-the-forest-for-the-lack-of-diverse-good-quality-seeds/
https://www.ehn.org/puerto-rico-hurricane-2655887289.html
Mold in flood-prone areas makes people sick.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/08/microplastics-damage-human-cells-study-plastic
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/09/updated-extinction-assessment-drives-fresh-call-save-life-earth
https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/585382-wetlands-point-to-extinction-problems-beyond-climate-change
https://www.ehn.org/indigenous-people-and-climate-change-2655928728.html
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/15/amazon-plastic-waste-soars-by-a-third-amid-pandemic-finds-oceana-report
https://civileats.com/2021/12/09/at-an-annual-sustainability-gathering-big-ag-describes-its-efforts-to-control-the-narrative/
https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2021/12/its-time-for-bayer-monsanto-to-leave-hawaii-after-pleading-guilty-to-multiple-violations-that-harm-people-and-environment-of-the-state-advocates-say/
https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-and-extreme-weather-may-lead-to-food-shortages-and-escalating-prices-172646
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/12/14/news/insidious-side-effects-recycling-plastic
https://dgrnewsservice.org/resistance/whales-will-save-the-worlds-climate-unless-the-military-destroys-them-first/
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/12/unprecedented-drought-pushes-irans-southeast-brink
https://www.dw.com/en/toxic-waters-in-war-torn-ukraine-how-not-to-phase-out-coal/a-60084288
https://theconversation.com/seagulls-songbirds-and-parrots-what-new-research-tells-us-about-their-cognitive-ability-173954
https://theintercept.com/2021/12/22/epa-whistleblowers-carcinogen-paint-solvent/
https://civileats.com/2021/12/22/taking-stock-and-looking-forward-food-system-overhaul/
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/to-end-illegal-deforestation-brazil-may-legalize-it-entirely-experts-warn/
https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-two-dams-give-way-as-heavy-rain-swamps-the-northeast/a-60261697
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Heavy-Rains-Displace-Thousands-In-Northeast-Brazil-20211225-0001.html
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/27/warnings-from-the-far-north/

Economy news:

La propriété, c’est le vol!
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Behind every great fortune is a great crime.
Honore de Balzac

https://news.yahoo.com/billionaires-share-global-wealth-soars-093440535.html
https://www.propublica.org/article/these-real-estate-and-oil-tycoons-used-paper-losses-to-avoid-paying-taxes-for-years
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/09/sfpa-d09.html
World Inequality Report 2022.
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/12/extreme-weather-and-pandemic-help-drive-global-food-prices-to-46-year-high/
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/11/30/africom-corporations-dr-congo-climate-china/
https://www.rt.com/news/543060-rising-prices-inflation-crisis/
A traditional view. The basic assessment is correct, the suggested remedies not.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-great-inheritors-how-three-families-shielded-their-fortunes-from-taxes-for-generations
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/12/being-rich-does-not-make-you-more-generous-it-makes-you-meaner.html
https://www.rt.com/russia/543537-us-world-bank-role-lose/
https://scheerpost.com/2021/12/22/ellen-brown-the-real-antidote-to-inflation/
Well meant advice for monetary policy, though it is doubtful, that the proposed changes are possible in the current financial system dominated by Wall Street and big banks.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/12/understanding-inflation-risks-in-the-us-and-the-euro-area.html
https://www.redpepper.org.uk/cryptocurrency-crises-blockchain-el-salvador-climate-capital/ 

Pandemic news:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/09/tbrg-d09.html
Vaccines are ineffective against Omicron.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS-CoV-2_Omicron_variant
https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/pfizer-document-concedes-that-there-is-a-large-increase-in-types-of-adverse-event-reaction-to-its-vaccine/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Receives-Russian-Sputnik-Light-Vaccine-Booster-Doses-20211212-0002.html
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2021/12/16/why-cuba-does-not-have-an-anti-vaccine-movement/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/16/cuba-defeats-covid-19-with-learning-science-and-unity/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/alert-japan-places-myocarditis-warning-vaccines-requires-informed-consent/5764467
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/12/9/pandemic-exploited-to-adopt-mass-surveillance-watchdog-warns
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/12/omicron-cases-serious-in-denmark-and-overall-morbidity-picture-not-pretty-either.html
Frightening!
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/12/omicron-fog-of-information-and-definitions.html 
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02243-1/fulltext
https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/unmerry-christmas-looms-as-korea-does-covid-u-turn/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Putin-Highlights-Efficacy-of-Sputnik-V-Against-Omicron-Variant-20211217-0016.html
https://www.rt.com/news/543636-netherlands-hard-lockdown-omicron/
https://www.medscape.co.uk/viewarticle/data-shows-little-improvement-long-covid-patients-after-one-2021a1002mf7
https://newrepublic.com/article/164817/south-africa-omicron-surge-america-future
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/12/20/omicron-is-more-transmissible-but-is-it-really-milder
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2021/12/21/the-cuban-soberana-vaccine-is-not-due-to-a-miracle-but-the-consequence-of-political-decisions/
https://mronline.org/2021/12/22/cuba-now-exporting-covid-vaccines/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cuba-Advances-Research-on-Nasal-Vaccine-Against-COVID-19-20211223-0012.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-021-00593-7
Neurological injuries of COVID-19.
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/coronavirus-can-persist-for-months-after-traversing-body-11640562518422.html
https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/587650-equilibrium-sustainability
Deer populations 'host' coronavirus. Let’s kill all the deer!

Media, technology, and propaganda news:

Caitlin Johnstone:
Western mass media consumers are no less propagandized than North Koreans or any of the other nations we're told to pity because their government indoctrinates them with state media, in fact they are arguably more propagandized, which is why Noam Chomsky said that any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the US media. The way the public is manipulated into consenting to all the agendas of the powerful without their even knowing that they are being propagandized has arguably been the most astonishing feat of social engineering anywhere in the world.

According to court documents, the US won its appeal to extradite Assange due to "four assurances" sent in a Diplomatic Note dated February 5, 2021.

These assurances were that Assange would not be made the subject of "special administrative measures"; nor would he be held at a maximum security prison before or after trial. In addition, the US would "consent" to an application by Assange to be transferred to Australia to service his sentence (if convicted); and while in custody in the US, Assange would receive "appropriate clinical and psychological treatment."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10286723/Biden-demands-MSM-fall-line-White-House-holds-secret-meetings-news-organizations.html
https://www.medialens.org/2021/a-christmas-tale-the-downing-street-party-laughter-and-bigger-state-crimes/
https://www.mintpressnews.com/the-open-technology-fund-makes-privacy-apps-staffed-spies/279147/
https://www.blueprintforfreespeech.net/en/news/famed-whistleblower-ellsberg-hale-lead-blueprint-whistleblower-winners
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/10/the-judicial-kidnapping-of-julian-assange/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12/12/theyre-killing-him-assanges-stroke-reveals-the-western-version-of-the-saudi-bone-saw/
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/542953-us-assurances-assange-extradition/
https://www.blackagendareport.com/why-we-must-defend-julian-assange
https://sputniknews.com/20211204/israeli-pegasus-spyware-used-to-hack-phones-of-11-us-diplomats---reports-1091236247.html
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12/13/absurd-guardian-article-declares-china-worlds-only-imperialist-power/
https://psyche.co/ideas/what-history-tells-us-about-the-dangers-of-media-ownership
Must read!
https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2021/12/17/counterpunch-what-is-patriotism/
https://www.rt.com/news/543946-satellite-removed-rt-de/
Freedom of speech in the Western world.
https://www.rt.com/russia/544217-rtde-serbia-germany-license/
https://fair.org/home/beijings-movie-war-propaganda-and-washingtons/ 

Imperial news:

https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/american-satyricon/
https://columbiainsight.org/as-west-withers-corporations-consolidate-land-and-water-rights/
Water is now a commodity and access to water is not a human right.
https://theconversation.com/nuns-against-nuclear-weapons-plowshares-protesters-have-fought-for-disarmament-for-over-40-years-going-to-prison-for-peace-169918
https://scheerpost.com/2021/12/13/the-color-of-law/
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/12/missouri-tells-health-depts-to-stop-enforcing-and-publicizing-covid-measures/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/14/major-survey-finds-100-million-americans-see-us-healthcare-system-expensive-or
https://theconversation.com/the-us-doesnt-have-enough-faculty-to-train-the-next-generation-of-nurses-171102
https://hardcrackers.com/property-is-it-theft-is-it-freedom-or-is-it-both-merry-christmas/
https://ensia.com/features/radioactive-contamination-drinking-water-radium-radon-uranium/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/23/life-d23.html
Life expectancy in the US dropped 1.8 years.
https://tomdispatch.com/my-year-and-welcome-to-it/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/27/pentagon-just-got-778-billion-usaid-running-out-money-covid-19-vaccines
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/28/tuiz-d28.html
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/28/the-lapd-murder-of-a-14-year-old-girl/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/12/29/131-years-ago-today-the-u-s-army-massacred-native-sioux-at-wounded-knee/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/suvs-trucks-killing-pedestrians-cyclists/621102/
From 2019 to 2020, pedestrian deaths per vehicle miles traveled increased a record 21 percent, for a total of 6,721 fatalities.

Imperial conquest news:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59588956
Tigrayan forces loot UN aid.
https://www.polgeonow.com/2020/11/ethiopia-conflict-map-tigray-control.html
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/12/09/biden-deploys-national-guard-its-deja-vu-all-over-again-as-government-hawks-and-corporate-media-play-up-ethiopian-atrocities-in-tigray/
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/07/civil-war-in-northern-ethiopia-turns-in-favor-of-federal-government-reversing-last-months-advances-by-tplf/
https://mronline.org/2021/12/13/every-option-is-on-the-table-u-s-prepping-for-libya-style-intervention-in-ethiopia/
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/12/chinas-support-ethiopian-government-complicates-ties-egypt
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/12/10/how-armed-drones-may-have-helped-turn-tide-in-ethiopia-conflict
It will be interesting to see, how the USA reacts and how it might try to turn the tide again.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59552888
The Ethiopian conflict is a prime example of Western media sloppy, confusing, contradictory reporting, misinformation, omissions, and sugarcoating of undesired results. Edward Bernays would be proud of his disciples.
https://canadianpatriot.org/2021/12/05/14426/
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/13/un-wfp-and-usaid-have-been-using-humanitarian-crisis-in-ethiopia-to-prepare-grounds-for-western-intervention/
https://www.blackagendareport.com/humanitarian-hawks-demand-war-ethiopia-national-guard-deploys-horn
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2021/12/28/tplfs-regime-was-throughout-supported-by-us-eu-financially-militarily-and-politically/
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/salafis-throwing-bombs-how-american-and-british-planners-partnered-with-al-qaeda-affiliated-groups-at-the-start-of-the-syrian-civil-war/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/09/iran-d09.html
Preparations for war against Iran.
https://www.juancole.com/2021/12/violence-squatters-palestinian.html
Erez Israel.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211216-uk-minister-says-bds-will-be-outlawed/
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211221-why-is-israel-allowed-to-own-palestinian-history/
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/12/israels-bennett-strives-increase-jewish-population-golan-heights
https://news.antiwar.com/2021/12/26/israel-approves-plan-to-double-settler-population-of-golan-heights/
https://syrianews.cc/russian-reassurance-the-star-wars-trap-for-russia-in-syria/
Russia walking a tightrope between Syria and Israel. The danger of a trap set by Israel/USA is real.
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/washingtons-kurdish-client-collapses/
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/12/14/how-the-opcws-syria-probe-censored-science/
https://inthesetimes.com/article/weapons-industry-lockheed-martin-raytheon-laplante-obama-biden
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/09/bidens-650-million-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia/
https://peoplesworld.org/article/u-s-democracy-summit-a-master-class-in-hypocrisy/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Honduras-Hernandez-to-Complicate-Incoming-President-Castro-20211210-0002.html
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/venezuela-save-lives-of-cancer-patients-endangered-by-u-s-sanctions/
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/544357-venezuelan-gold-guaido-supreme-court/
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Backed-Opposition-Continues-to-Loot-Venezuelan-Assets-20211228-0005.html
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-imposes-human-rights-sanctions-china-myanmar-north-korea-2372571
https://www.blackagendareport.com/us-still-strong-arming-democracy-libya
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/10/dangerous-games-western-militaries-on-the-doorsteps-of-russia-and-china/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/13/jeca-d13.html
US habitual war crimes.
https://newcoldwar.org/november-update-ukraine-is-being-pushed-towards-a-suicidal-war/
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/23/2022-year-of-major-power-conflict-over-ukraine/
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/12/gadhafis-son-shakes-libyan-elections
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/libyan-parliament-committee-says-presidential-election-not-possible-2021-12-22/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12/17/when-your-government-ends-a-war-but-increases-the-military-budget-youre-being-scammed/
https://thesaker.is/russias-ultimatum-to-the-west/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/12/20/the-mainstream-media-seems-to-want-more-war-for-the-united-states/
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20211222-why-does-iraq-top-the-lists-of-the-worlds-worst-countries/
https://freeukrainenow.org/2021/12/24/is-the-us-preparing-a-chemical-attack-in-eastern-ukraine/
https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/wikileaks-extradition/
https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2021/12/30/sputnik-news-ex-un-expert-stop-lying-pentagons-war-budget-has-nothing-to-do-with-us-defence%EF%BF%BC/ 

China news:

https://theconversation.com/chinas-long-term-problems-are-forcing-it-to-rethink-the-whole-economy-173443
A very conventional Western view based on the paradigm of GDP growth and free markets.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/542563-uae-tilted-towards-beijing/
https://mronline.org/2021/12/12/ten-crises-the-political-economy-of-chinas-development/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/12/13/chin-d13.html
China’s zero COVID policy. Long read but very informative.
https://www.indianpunchline.com/russia-china-alliance-at-the-tipping-point/
https://www.rt.com/russia/543258-moscow-china-create-independent-structure/
https://www.juancole.com/2021/12/rejecting-pressure-distance.html
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/china-plays-crucial-role-supporting-progress-and-sovereignty-latin-america
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202112/1241336.shtml
Five officials were dismissed and another five were punished in South China's Guangzhou for ordering to cut down large amounts of trees in the city.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/china-zero-covid-closed-world-omicron-variant-2378676
https://socialistchina.org/2021/12/13/danny-haiphong-uygur-tribunal-is-a-misinformation-arm-of-the-uss-anti-china-agenda/
https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/china-well-make-us-pay-the-price-for-sanctions/
https://orientalreview.org/2021/12/16/a-sino-russian-military-alliance-is-gratuitous-as-of-now/
https://www.leftvoice.org/where-is-china-going-a-review-of-two-opposing-views/
https://iacenter.org/2021/12/21/facts-on-xinjiang-%E2%88%92-exposing-u-s-anti-china-propaganda/
https://www.rt.com/russia/544165-putin-beijing-moscow-number/
https://socialistchina.org/2021/12/24/abayomi-azikiwe-africa-china-relations-could-serve-as-bulwark-against-imperialist-hegemony/
https://thuppahis.com/2021/12/24/ganging-up-against-china-in-france-and-elsewhere/
Slandering China.
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/12/29/hldyear-ahead-chinas-economic-shift-to-yield-winners-and-losers
A useful summary well worth reading.

Uncategorized news:

https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/counterpunch-peng-chung-chang-and-the-holistic-approach-to-human-rights/
https://www.blackagendareport.com/people-centered-human-rights-and-black-radical-tradition
https://globalvoices.org/2021/11/29/in-turkey-women-faced-rubber-bullets-tear-gas-from-police-as-they-marched-to-end-gender-based-violence/
https://theconversation.com/un-fails-to-agree-on-killer-robot-ban-as-nations-pour-billions-into-autonomous-weapons-research-173616
https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2021/12/24/resolution-for-2022-dare-to-build-your-own-opinions-and-then-defend-them/
https://mronline.org/2021/12/24/salvador-allendes-grandson-responds-to-boric-the-human-rights-double-standard-and-chic-leftism/
https://www.localfutures.org/on-technologys-past-and-future/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12/29/refusing-to-oppose-us-tyranny-is-siding-with-it-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/ 

More pictures from cat land: