world news, Hong Kong, etc

[JohnRoberts]

Sadly it looks like China is tightening the screws on HK's remaining liberty... Now it looks like the street protestors who have been resisting mainland China's hegemony over the last few years, are now liable for 10 years or more prison time if they make similar protests.  I spent a week working in HK last century and it is (was) an impressive city and people. I was optimistic that it could provide the good example to drag larger China into a modern future. Sadly it looks like China is intent on hammering HK down into the past. 

China has been pressing their long term geographic goals while the ROW (rest of the world) is occupied with COVID. They just killed something like 20 Indian soldiers in a border skirmish with them. To de-escalate violence in that border region they don't even use bullets, so those deaths were from hand to hand fighting, and exposure in frigid, high altitude.  Some good old advice is to look at old Chinese maps for what they think the borders should be and will be again... not looking good for Taiwan long term based on that.

Sadly I suspect HK is already toast... Finance/Business leaders will be pedaling away as fast as they can.

==
An odd news item out of Pakistan, after a couple of pilots planted one on a landing (cockpit recorder said they were talking, instead of flying the plane) the investigation revealed that they and some tens of Pakistani pilots cheated on the certification exams. They apparently paid others to take the tests for them. These cheating pilots are not just working in Pakistan but at other airlines too.  :

===

A new (fake?) news item is that Russia is reportedly paying Taliban fighters bounties to kill US and/or coalition soldiers. First this is an age old strategy used by enemies of America, but this particular claim is not verified by the intelligence community and appears leaked to embarrass the administration and not an actual issue.

If anything President Trump is making progress withdrawing from Afghanistan, but this will not help negotiating peace between Taliban and Kabul government.

FWIW we supported the Mujahideen fighting against Russia in Afghanistan... (OBL was fighting Russia back then). What goes around comes around.
===
[edit= authorities found $1B worth of amphetamine pills being smuggled into Italy from Syria...  These AKA "ISIS amphetamines" are used by ISIS fighters to make them better fighters (more energy, less afraid, etc...). Sounds like ISIS is still bad, probably looking for alternate revenue sources.  [/edit]

mo...lata

JR

 

[cyrano]

It's too late for Hong-Kong...

As for the rest, you've missed the one fact that is true and is being touted by everything anti-China: The CCP today has opened the floodgates to prevent worse flooding later. Only, they didn't bother telling the people who were living in the vicinity, resulting in an unknown number of deaths and some houses destroyed. It's a typical CCP decision and we can't judge easily if it's the right one. The lesser of two evils etc.

Forget about the Russians paying Taliban to kill US soldiers. The Taliban already are doing that for free and the Russians simply aren't that stupid. I mean, what would be the ROI?

And, yes, it's not looking good for Taiwan. Let's hope COVID will keep the CCP busy for a long time. But maybe that won't even stop them, as they're ready to vaccinate their soldiers without waiting for stage 3 tests.

COVID has nothing to do with it. It isn't a Chinese/communist plot as the right-wing gutter press is trying to sell. China is seeing the second wave of COVID infections close to it's capital and they're dealing with the next virus (H1N-like) already.

Who knows, pretty soon we might have so much trouble in the world peace will break out?

 

[JohnRoberts]

It's too late for Hong-Kong...

sadly I concur...

As for the rest, you've missed the one fact that is true and is being touted by everything anti-China: The CCP today has opened the floodgates to prevent worse flooding later. Only, they didn't bother telling the people who were living in the vicinity, resulting in an unknown number of deaths and some houses destroyed. It's a typical CCP decision and we can't judge easily if it's the right one. The lesser of two evils etc.

China's totalitarian government has the luxury of making such choices absent the empathy most governments are influenced by.

Forget about the Russians paying Taliban to kill US soldiers. The Taliban already are doing that for free and the Russians simply aren't that stupid. I mean, what would be the ROI?

Not the russians, US political spin to dredge up more partisan BS to discredit POTUS.

And, yes, it's not looking good for Taiwan.

I don't see them giving up easily. For now at least they have western military support, but if we let china get stronger, while we all get weaker, we may not have any say in the dark future.

Let's hope COVID will keep the CCP busy for a long time. But maybe that won't even stop them, as they're ready to vaccinate their soldiers without waiting for stage 3 tests.

life (especially other people's lives) is/are cheap...

COVID has nothing to do with it. It isn't a Chinese/communist plot as the right-wing gutter press is trying to sell. China is seeing the second wave of COVID infections close to it's capital and they're dealing with the next virus (H1N-like) already.

this was never expected to be a one and done infection cycle, that said I have to be suspicious of all news reports coming from that nation for ulterior motives. Now they are supposed to be truthful in opposition to how they lied and concealed about COVID data... :  New variant on a former virus? Time for everybody to duck and cover...(Buy more chinese masks). At least we already have drugs being researched for those oldies but deadlies .

Who knows, pretty soon we might have so much trouble in the world peace will break out?

Maybe after we are all dead....  8) 

It is the human condition to play king of the hill as long as there are two of us left standing.

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

There was a report in the UK papers the other day that the USA has bought up all the supplies of an anti viral drug that can be used to treat Covid-19 meaning the UK will be unable to get any until October.. No idea if it is true.

Cheers

Ian

 

[cyrano]

There was a report in the UK papers the other day that the USA has bought up all the supplies of an anti viral drug that can be used to treat Covid-19 meaning the UK will be unable to get any until October.. No idea if it is true.

Cheers

Ian

I fear it's true, Ian. They've tried before to buy up entire stocks of other supplies.

Well, at least they're not commies...

 

[ruffrecords]

I fear it's true, Ian. They've tried before to buy up entire stocks of other supplies.

Well, at least they're not commies...

Turns out, as usual, to be partly true. It is a drug made by a US company that is not yet fully approved or in volume production. The UK purchased some pre-approval because of the Covid emergency and apparently has enough to to treat all current patients. Also there is a cheap readily available steroid that has been found to be more effective in saving lives. The problem for the US manufacturer is the drug is not approved so they have not invested in high volume production capability. To counter the threat of cornering supplies, some countries are considering legislation to allow patented drugs to be produced as low cost generics for the duration of the emergency. It remains to be seen if the needs of humanity will prevail over the needs of big  business and politics.

Cheers

Ian

 

[JohnRoberts]

There was a report in the UK papers the other day that the USA has bought up all the supplies of an anti viral drug that can be used to treat Covid-19 meaning the UK will be unable to get any until October.. No idea if it is true.

Cheers

Ian

This has been well vetted by the news. News outlets will spin this differently to maximize outrage in their local markets (its what they do).

The US government secured about two-three months production. This drug shortens inpatient hospital stays that improves outcomes and reduces hospital costs.

The big news stories here in the US was not about the beggar thy neighbor aspect, but pricing. Reportedly it cost Gilead (US company) something like $1B to develop this drug and will not break even if/when Remdesivir gets eclipsed by the next new improved treatment, but the knee jerk reaction from US news is calling it over priced. Gilead is sensitive to public relations damage from appearing to over price this.

Gilead donated 1M doses to countries around the world (enough for 140k courses of treatment). Gilead negotiated agreements with generic drug makers in India, Pakistan, and Egypt to supply low income countries.  https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/01/health/remdesivir-drug-supply-us-intl/index.html

As the old saying goes there are a lot of dogs (drug companies) hunting this one fox (covid19) so I expect the fox to get spanked sooner rather than later.

JR

 

[scott2000]

;D

 

[JohnRoberts]

Like a bad remake of  George Orwell's "1984" the Chinese  "education bureau" are removing books from Hong Kong that they consider subversive. 

JR