21.04.2022

News, observations, guesses April 2022

Little text, a few links — I’m occupied with Ukraine.

A  study published in the journal Population and Development Review estimates that global life expectancy declined by roughly 0.92 years in 2020 and another 0.72 years in 2021.

Prior to 2020, there had been an uninterrupted 69-year rise in life expectancy since the United Nations began calculating this figure, from 1950 when life expectancy was 45.7 years until 2019 when it had reached 72.6 years.

According to a study published in The Lancet, global excess deaths in the last two years stood at 18.2 million by the end of 2021, nearly equivalent to all the deaths during World War I.

In the USA and many other Western countries, the ruling elites have long advocated lowering life expectancy. They welcomed the COVID-19 pandemic as a positive good to cull the elderly and infirm, reduce pension obligations, and cut social services.

Nations around the world have seen the longest/deepest health care funding squeeze ever. Rising workforce shortages caused by burnout, mental problems, COVID-infections, low moral, retirements, and resignations (looking for a less strenuous profession) are threatening to collapse the health care systems of even high-income countries like Britain and USA.

Britain: In the first week of April, patients in hospital care with COVID-19 exceeded 20,000 — levels not seen since the worst days of the pandemic in January and February 2021. There are presently 19,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized, according to official figures, with 15,432 admitted over the past seven days. Hundreds are dying daily of the disease.

In the face of widespread calls by health leaders and scientists for the reintroduction of social distancing and masking requirements in public spaces to ease the pressure on hospitals, the British government has insisted that there will be “no change to our guidance and our living with COVID plan still stands”.

Reporting about the pandemic (or the aftermath of the pandemic, as it has been declared to be over by many governments) has stopped, replaced by war reports from Ukraine. The Ukrainian population, the millions of refugees, and the soldiers, moving in and out and around, seem to be immune against COVID-19, as there are no reports of infections.

Was the pandemic a hoax, another step to a New World Order, a cynical ploy to increase control and surveillance of ordinary people? 

Was it just political bickering to hypocritically pretend that the plight of the broader population matters to the ruling elite? Made irrelevant now as the war fewer must be heightened for the good of the MIC (military industrial complex) and US world hegemony?

As the Cassandra calls about WWIII and nuclear war are laughed at.

Feline news:

https://nypost.com/2022/03/15/cats-on-glass-tables-reddit-has-the-internet-purring/#3
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086605649/cat-videos-titanic-owlkitty
http://hatchingcatnyc.com/2022/03/19/tige-nypd-cat-gave-birth-fingerprint-room/
http://hatchingcatnyc.com/2022/04/01/bounce-nellie-new-york-fire-patrol-3-cats/
http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/animals/cat-battery-collar-738521
https://narratively.com/how-to-catch-a-cat-killer/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/18/secrets-of-the-cat-walk-why-some-pet-owners-are-taking-their-feline-friends-out-on-a-leash.


Against the odds:

In a 1979 essay called, “My Speech to the Graduates,” Woody Allen wrote:

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

Let us hope, that we have the intelligence and ingenuity to find a third and fourth path with better destinations.

https://www.localfutures.org/the-flower-of-transformation/
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/in-austria-the-government-pays-to-repair-your-stuff/
https://centerforneweconomics.org/newsletters/the-radical-roots-of-csas/
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/systems-can-change-and-so-can-we/
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/california-floodplains-rice-farms-salmon/
https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/04/we-will-prevail-a-conversation-with-cubas-president-miguel-diaz-canel/

Environmental news:

Lately I’m not following environmental reporting as closely as before because it’s always the same: More pollution, more contamination, more habitat destruction, mass extinction, bio-system collapse, and no mitigation measures, just cheap lies and empty promises by political leaders, who apparently have used up all their intelligence to get into the position which they now occupy.

https://mronline.org/2022/03/17/destruction-of-the-amazon-package-approved-with-urgency
The completion of Brazil’s highway BR-319 could vastly increase the Amazon’s destruction by opening it up to violent criminal groups waiting to sweep the region and strip the forest bare. Along one stretch the killings have already begun.
https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/farmers-rediscover-benefits-of-traditional-small-grains-in-zimbabwe/
https://dgrnewsservice.org/featured/the-non-human-costs-of-war/
https://www.dw.com/en/exclusive-how-chronic-oil-pollution-at-sea-goes-unpunished/a-61201989
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/03/un-releases-dire-warning-about-water-scarcity-middle-east-and-north-africa
https://corporateeurope.org/en/2022/03/loud-lobby-silent-spring
https://e360.yale.edu/features/wild-sounds-the-loss-of-sonic-diversity-and-why-it-matters
https://tomdispatch.com/how-not-to-cope-with-vladimir-putin-by-drilling-and-pumping/
https://apnews.com/article/climate-technology-science-business-environment-be7af54650dccb3e80419d8e54767e33
“Green steel” is a pilot project and a vague promise still, just like any other “green” initiatives.
https://dgrnewsservice.org/featured/mining-for-renewable-energy-could-harm-biodiversity-more-than-global-warming/
https://civileats.com/2022/04/04/the-field-report-new-un-climate-report-urges-food-systems-solutions-before-its-too-late/
https://theconversation.com/thawing-permafrost-is-roiling-the-arctic-landscape-driven-by-a-hidden-world-of-changes-beneath-the-surface-as-the-climate-warms-174157
https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/more-than-half-of-activists-killed-in-2021-were-land-environment-defenders/

Economy news:

https://thewire.in/government/as-west-shuns-moscow-officials-say-india-eyes-more-cheap-russian-oil
https://www.arabnews24.ca/en/World_news/193712.html
https://www.rt.com/business/552014-saudi-arabia-china-oil-yuan/
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/03/west-ups-sanctions-russias-oligarchs-many-maintain-israeli-citizenship
https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57055.htm
Russian Gold and Chinese Petroyuan.
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/who-holds-russias-central-bank-reserves/
https://internationalman.com/articles/climbing-the-escalation-ladder-in-the-economic-war-with-russia-heres-the-nuclear-option/
http://infobrics.org/post/35343/
Beijing-Riyadh cooperation advances de-dollarization.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/how-asset-managers-have-upended-how-modern-capitalism-works.html
https://www.rt.com/business/552123-russia-sanctions-survival-plan
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/17/central-asia-struggles-with-the-consequences-of-russias-war/
https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/03/argentina-hunger-and-the-capitulation-of-the-political/
This is written by Spanish with a Spanish mindset that doesn’t easily translate into English. But the message is clear and powerful.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuelan-Economy-Grows-Despite-External-Blockade-Rodriguez-20220323-0003.html
https://evonomics.com/the-making-of-rethinking-the-theoretical-foundation-of-economics/
https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/28/our-economic-system-is-making-us-mentally-ill/
https://www.rt.com/business/553002-us-russia-oil-imports/
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/03/their-inflation-strategy-is-working-corporate-profits-soared-to-record-high-in-2021.html
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/04/no-one-will-win-in-the-russia-ukraine-conflict.html
Important!
https://evonomics.com/the-making-of-rethinking-the-theoretical-foundation-of-economics/
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/03/31/cashless-society-would-leave-millions-struggling-report/
http://thesaker.is/natos-internal-gold-war/
The quest for the legendary, mystery-shrouded gold in the vaults of London, New York, and Fort Knox.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/france-has-repatriated-all-its-monetary-gold
https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/04/ellen-brown-the-coming-global-financial-revolution-russia-is-following-the-american-playbook/
https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/08/ellen-brown-russia-sanctions-may-overturn-the-world-economy-as-we-know-it/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/trojan-horse-in-russias-central-bank-will-putin-wake-up-to-the-threat-of-russias-atlanticist-integrationists-dr-paul-craig-roberts/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/04/08/bombshell-video-digital-programmable-money-economist-at-world-government-summit-says-new-financial-world-order-about-to-shift-in-dramatic-new-direction/
https://mronline.org/2022/04/08/national-responsibility-for-ecological-breakdown/
https://www.bruegel.org/2022/04/the-european-union-demand-response-to-high-natural-gas-prices/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-russian-geoeconomics-tzar-introduces-new-global-financial-system 

Pandemic news:

There is growing evidence that those infected with COVID-19 face an increased risk of brain damage, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and more. The overall long-term societal impact is incalculable.

A Hong Kong study finds, that 40 per cent of patients suffer from long Covid.

Another recent study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan estimated that roughly 43 percent of reported infections worldwide have led to Long COVID, with more than 100 million people likely experiencing various symptoms which can impact nearly every organ in the body.

https://countercurrents.org/2022/04/pandemic-blues/
Please read!
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/3/11/two-years-of-covid-the-battle-to-accept-airborne-transmission
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/sars-cov-2-kills-t-cells-just-like
https://www.dw.com/en/covid-digest-germanys-situation-critical-lauterbach-says/a-61094888
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/15/covi-m15.html
US states shut down daily COVID-19 death reporting.
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2022-03-16/second-covid-booster-shot-does-little-to-stop-omicron-study-finds
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/glenmark-launches-nitric-oxide-spray-against-covid/articleshow/89447489.cms
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/even-mild-covid-can-increase-the-risk-of-heart-problems/
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/mild-covid-19-brain-shrink-grey-matter-research-2557671
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/26/ecbn-m26.html
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/03/a-round-up-of-anti-covid-nasal-spray-vaccine-treatment-research.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/3/24/can-covid-make-your-brain-shrink
https://theconversation.com/half-of-british-people-are-seeing-friends-and-leaving-home-less-since-the-pandemic-new-study-180270
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220401094832.htm
Study shows COVID-19's lingering impacts on the brain.
https://theconversation.com/covid-why-the-current-surge-in-cases-is-a-problem-for-some-countries-but-not-others-179716
https://science.thewire.in/health/xe-recombinant-omicron-ba1-ba2-appears-more-transmissible/
https://thediplomat.com/2022/03/overcoming-covid-19-the-bhutanese-way/
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61010090
Blood clot risk higher for six months after infection.
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/177405/3/Paradigm%20Shift%20AAM.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e5h2K0yd84
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25433800-100-zero-covid-strategies-are-being-ditched-but-they-were-the-best-option/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/16/lead-a16.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/16/skor-a16.html
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/04/15/covid-19-the-poor-peoples-pandemic/


Technology, media, and propaganda news:

Chris Hedges wrote a note so his readers:

There is now no way left for me to continue to write a weekly column for ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show without your help. The walls are closing in, with startling rapidity, on independent journalism, with the elites, including the Democratic Party elites, clamoring for more and more censorship. Bob Scheer, who runs ScheerPost on a shoestring budget, and I will not waiver in our commitment to independent and honest journalism, and we will never put ScheerPost behind a paywall, charge a subscription for it, sell your data or accept advertising. Please, if you can, sign up at chrishedges.substack.com so I can continue to post my Monday column on ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show, The Chris Hedges Report.

Thank you.

Google sent out a notice to PUBLISHERS via email effectively enacting economic censorship against those who go against the “mainstream”.  Here’s what they sent out:

Dear Publisher,

Due to the war in Ukraine, we will pause the monetization of content that exploits, dismisses, or condones the war.

Please note, that we have already been enforcing on claims related to the war in Ukraine when they violated existing policies (for instance, the Dangerous or Derogatory content policy prohibits monetizing content that incites violence or denies tragic events). This update is meant to clarify, and in some cases expand, our publisher guidance as it relates to this conflict.

This pause includes, but is not limited to, claims that imply victims are responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim-blaming, such as claims that Ukraine is committing genocide or deliberately attacking its own citizens.

Until next time,

The Google Ad Manager Team

Caitlin Johnstone writes: Russia will lose the propaganda war on every front, at least in the West. It will lose every narrative dispute about alleged war crimes in the court of public opinion, whether those allegations are true or not. The US military is beatable, the US dollar is beatable, but the US propaganda machine is an unstoppable juggernaut.

==========

I just unsubscribed The Conversation and explained: You are just another outlet of the Western media propaganda machine. Nothing (besides the significantly smaller readership) distinguishes you from New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal.

I also unsubscribed Counterpunch.

At least two regular writers for CounterPunch have attacked Consortium News as a Kremlin mouthpiece, clarifying splits in self-identified western Left:

"On the other hand, there are the small but strangely ubiquitous online “left”-identified folks who read and write for noxious red-brown hack farms like Consortium News, where a ridiculous website that adheres to the doctrines of the demented Russian white nationalist Alexander Dugin is presented as a legitimate primary source on atrocities in Ukraine." (Paul Street)

The website in question noted that the NY Times had a representative in Bucha 24 hours before the first press releases regarding alleged atrocities, and saw nothing. The primary source is the New York Times, not the website. The use of negative adjectives is pronounced (noxious", "ridiculous", "demented" etc) and characteristic of this style of factionalism. The article also includes an iteration, quoting another CounterPunch writer, of an "anti-multipolarity" viewpoint which has surfaced.

https://thedissenter.org/british-court-sends-order-for-assange-extradition-to-home-office-for-approval/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/04/20/scholars-promoting-human-rights-while-extraditing-assange-brings-wests-legal-system-into-question%EF%BF%BC/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/24/assa-m24.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/24/asin-m24.html 

https://fair.org/home/escalation-without-consequences-on-the-op-ed-page/
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/03/15/parallel-worlds-or-parabolic-mirror-images-media-coverage-of-the-russia-ukraine-war/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/14/uk-top-court-rejects-assanges-request-appeal-extradition-decision
https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2022/03/18/a-uk-crackdown-on-academic-freedom/
I commented this post: Thank you for still not giving in and not retreating into inner emigration in the face of a gargantuan media machine that is surpassing everything what Orwell predicted.
https://www.rt.com/news/552494-scotland-professor-ukraine-theater/
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/03/john-helmer-zelensky-himself-is-now-in-polish-hands-march-15-summit-with-polish-czech-and-slovenian-prime-ministers-in-przemysl-poland-not-kiev.html
https://fair.org/home/how-much-less-newsworthy-are-civilians-in-other-conflicts/
Important!
https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2022/03/20/hiatus/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/end-free-speech-online/5774673
https://www.mintpressnews.com/ukraine-propaganda-war-international-pr-firms-dc-lobbyists-cia-cutouts/280012/
https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/counterpunch-when-the-good-guys-censor/
https://www.resumen-english.org/2022/03/eu-attacks-press-freedom-in-europe-advocates-for-press-freedom-in-mexico/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/27/black-ops-in-hollywood-from-censorship-to-normalization/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/27/hollywood-is-full-of-cia-agents-says-ben-affleck/
https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/28/hedges-on-being-disappeared/
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/25/bbc-fixer-war-ukrainian-nationalist-pr-operative/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/04/03/russian-mod-denies-killings-in-bucha-says-footage-was-staged-for-western-media
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/04/ukra-a04.html
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/04/07/google-censorship-now-your-private-email-is-under-threat/
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/04/08/twitter-is-state-affiliated-media/
https://www.blackagendareport.com/liberal-russophobia-and-war-propaganda
https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/13/glenn-greenwald-the-censorship-campaign-against-western-criticism-of-natos-ukraine-policy-is-extreme/
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/04/twitter-re-ban-of-scott-ritter-kafkaesque-support-of-impersonator-is-all-about-anti-russia-propaganda.html
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/13/scott-ritter-twitter-wars-my-personal-experience-in-twitters-ongoing-assault-on-free-speech/
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/04/14/680320/Russia-conflict-Ukraine-dissenting-voices-
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/04/15/more-escalations-in-online-censorship/
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/western-dissent-from-usnato-policy
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/04/16/how-much-are-we-prepared-to-sacrifice-to-help-the-us-win-a-propaganda-war-against-putin/
https://taibbi.substack.com/p/americas-intellectual-no-fly-zone
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/04/lee-camp-ny-times-goes-after-indie-journalists.html 

Imperial news:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/18/pers-m18.html
On war crimes and war criminals
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-03-14/Declining-maternity-care-reflects-deep-problems-with-U-S-democracy-18o1PDfYLjW/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-xavier-becerra-congress-29aef791e891a110677e918fb65cd733
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/12/americas-new-dystopian-normal
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/21/patrick-lawrence-on-american-infantilism/
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/03/28/u-s-spends-billions-on-war-in-ukraine-and-working-class-pays-the-price/
https://theintercept.com/2022/03/30/epa-new-chemicals-division-workplace
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/04/08/drop-life-expectancy-speaks-volumes-about-how-us-handled-covid-expert
The US is failing on all sorts of social indicators, not just falling life expectancy but also falling height (an indicator for the quality of diets among the young), educational attainment, teen births, and crime rates.
https://scheerpost.com/2022/04/16/a-pandemic-of-the-poor/


Imperial conquest news:

https://www.syriahr.com/en/247574/
https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.php?aircraft_id=1486 
https://www.jpost.com/magazine/books-israel-and-the-saleof-advanced-drones-to-russia-480326
https://breakingdefense.com/2022/02/to-placate-russia-israel-told-baltics-states-it-would-block-weapon-transfers-to-ukraine-sources/ 

In recent days Turkey has been ramping up attacks on North Eastern Syria, if it is true that Turkish forces are shelling bases occupied by Russia it will be following a pattern of testing the waters by Middle Eastern powers while Russia and the West are distracted by the war in Ukraine.

As soon as I read this article, it reminded me of the iranian strikes on the oil house/ drone base near Erbil by Iranian proxies last month. The current Russian and US positions in the Middle East are unsustainable, be that both politically and financially. Conflict closer to home means that they must pull resources away from Syria, opening the door for Turkey and Iran to begin increasing their power in the wake of the vacuum that the USA and Russia will be leaving as their priority shifts elsewhere.

Azerbaijan pushing into contested areas once held by Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh also point to how the calculus has already changed.

The intense strikes by Isreal on Southern Syria in recent days as well suggests concerns behind closed doors on the Russia - Isreali relationship, which too has remains in the balance with Isreal supplying the Russian forces with arms against Ukraine, Israel refusing to send weapons to Ukraine, and the fact that drones deployed by Russian forces have vital components in them bought from Israel.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/16/the-huge-gap-between-how-serious-nuclear-war-is-and-how-seriously-its-being-taken/
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2022/03/pentagon-may-boost-troop-presence-somalia/363198/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/03/19/eleven-years-ago-us-nato-invasion-of-libya-and-its-consequences/
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/getting-away-with-murder/
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/03/22/people-yemen-suffer-atrocities-too
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/23/as-outrage-grows-over-civilian-casualties-in-ukraine-media-ignores-suffering-of-yemeni-people/
https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/24/john-kiriakou-the-us-plea-bargains-for-its-crimes-of-torture/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/the-u-s-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/03/24/israel-should-not-continue-to-enjoy-impunity/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/depleted-uranium-natos-war-against-yugoslavia-created-ecological-catastrophe-poisoned-europe/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-apartheid-un-special-rapporteur-report-human-rights-council
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/26/yes-its-a-proxy-war-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/03/28/argentina-remembers-46th-anniversary-of-the-us-backed-civic-military-coup/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/03/30/afghanistan-facing-total-collapse-biden-refuses-release-central-bank-assets
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2022/04/03/save-sinjajevina-from-becoming-a-military-training-ground-by-david-swanson-milan-sekulovic-on-saving-a-mountain-in-montenegro/
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/04/05/the-yanks-did-this-thing-themselves/
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/04/08/the-demise-of-mesopotamia-the-geopolitics-of-water-the-desertification-of-iraq/
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/04/07/we-will-prevail-a-conversation-with-cubas-president-miguel-diaz-canel/
https://mronline.org/2022/04/09/u-s-prepares-new-sanctions-targeting-ethiopia-eritrea-in-latest-destabilization-push/
https://www.blackagendareport.com/notes-wartorn-ethiopia-part-ii
https://www.blackagendareport.com/notes-wartorn-ethiopia
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/leo-n-tolstoy-speech-against-war-call-to-the-people-you-shall-not-kill%EF%BF%BC/
https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/151238-us_empire/
https://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/news/investigative_reports/al-qaeda-is-on-our-side-how-obama-biden-team-empowered-terrorist-networks-in-syria/article_7e6ec247-0ddb-5438-84cb-0c24e73503df.html
https://www.mideastdiscourse.com/2022/04/19/the-turkish-kurdish-war-in-syria-is-at-the-boiling-point/

China news:

China organized its most extensive coronavirus lockdown since Wuhan to conduct mass testing and control a growing outbreak in Shanghai. Shanghai’s Pudong financial district and nearby areas were locked down five days as mass testing was underway. In the second phase of the lockdown, the vast downtown area west of the Huangpu River that divides the city conducted its own five-day lockdown.

That at least was the initial plan, but the lockdown had to be extended as cases rose to more than 20,000 a day. After three weeks the standstill order is still in place. Hundreds of cases are still detected outside the unguarded zones 

Residents are required to stay home and deliveries are left at checkpoints to ensure there is no contact with the outside world. Offices and all businesses not considered essential are closed and public transport is suspended.

More than 38,000 officers and medical stuff have been deployed to Shanghai from other regions. 

https://blackagendareport.com/index.php/battle-against-covid-19-shanghai-human-rights-disaster
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/04/20/covertaction-bulletin-podcast-exclusive-eye-witness-report-from-shanghai-on-covid-lockdown/
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/04/speculating-about-the-botched-shanghai-lockdown.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/4/7/total-disaster-shanghai-lockdown-hammers-small-businesses
It’s all about money, not one word about health and saving lives.
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/China-Rejects-US-Smear-Campaign-Against-Shanghai-Lockdown-20220412-0006.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/11/chin-a11.html
Chinese health officials seem to make progress in the struggle against BA.2 in Shanghai.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/29/pers-m29.html
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/16/pers-m16.html
China mounts all-out effort to stop the spread of Omicron BA.2 subvariant.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/03/chinas-flirtation-with-let-er-rip-goes-hard-into-reverse-with-shanghai-two-phase-lockdown.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/14/china-locks-down-province-of-24m-as-new-covid-infections-rise
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/27/china-shanghai-lockdown-covid-surge
https://mronline.org/2022/03/14/the-uyghur-podcast-brought-to-you-by-a-cia-torture-propagandist/
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1254858.shtml
https://www.rt.com/russia/552142-russia-ukraine-china-benefit/
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/29/feeling-economic-strain-china-explores-tweaks-to-zero-covid
https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/04/10/preventing-chinas-rise-the-america-competes-act-of-2022-risks-turning-taiwan-into-the-next-front-line/

Armageddon news:

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/03/26/hzdb-m26.html
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/03/24/being-this-close-to-nuclear-war-should-change-how-we-see-things/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/01/climate-collapse-or-nuclear-winter-take-your-pick/
Some questionable positions but at least the author sees the problems.

Uncategorized news:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/03/28/hunger-stalks-central-asia-as-the-ukraine-war-unfolds/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/15/wfp-cuts-food-basket-aid-to-northwest-syria-amid-rising-prices
https://www.fao.org/3/cb9236en/cb9236en.pdf
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-europe-united-nations-janet-yellen-93487cb2e8e33f1b9e9188524423a3d4.
https://www.bssnews.net/international/55653
http://thesaker.is/events-like-this-happen-once-a-century-sergey-glazyev-on-the-breakdown-of-epochs-and-changing-ways-of-life/
https://dgrnewsservice.org/resistance-culture/im-a-luddite-you-should-be-one-too/

News from cat land:

My severely sick cat companions Princess Min Ki (renal failure) and Wendy (exocrine pancreatic insufficiency) are unwaveringly and stubbornly carrying on, as we soon will reach one year since the first diagnosis. They don’t like the weekly visits to the veterinarian, the shots, infusions, and pills. I wouldn’t like that either. They bear their fate with dignity, and have my greatest respect. 

It is heartbreaking, but somehow also rewarding.

The other ones are fine, though they grow older too. 

I have a lot of bumblebees in the garden, as many fruit trees and bushes are blooming. I also found the den of a hedgehog. He (or she) apparently just widened an existing mouse-hole. When I poked with a little branch to find out how far the hole goes, he (or she) made the typical noise of an annoyed hedgehog. The next day I could even make out the spines on its back, when I investigated with a torchlight. I wonder, if that is one of the two hedgehogs who hibernated three years ago in the big greenhouse. 

Hedgehogs have become rare in the meantime, because so many are killed by cars.






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