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from Asia Times
LEAST BIASED, HIGH; News & Media Website based in Hong Kong
Insurgents do rounds of key states to shore up support as new US administration reviews Afghanistan Doha peace process
What may be expected from US President Joe Biden’s administration? Certainly not an attempt at unity or bipartisanship, despite claims he made in his inaugural speech. In that document, cheek by jowl with protestations of dovish democratic reconciliation, and emphasized in the manner of the speech’s presentation, we see implied charges against the former Donald Trump administration of racism, and (support for) white supremacy; Biden said his “cause” had “prevailed” in favor of “democracy.” One is tempted to ask, “prevailed” against what? Against the 74 million people who voted for Trump? Against the (truly deplorable) mob that violated the Capitol building? But, since they were not mentioned, was he also against the equally deplorable mobs that raged in multiple cities (and still do) during the politically hot summer months preceding the election? It seems the divide that separates left from right in America will persist.
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from BBC News (UK)
It seems incredible today, but lobotomy was once hailed as a miracle cure, portrayed by doctors and the media as "easier than curing a toothache". More than 20,000 lobotomies were performed in the UK between the early 1940s and the late '70s. They were typically carried out on patients with schizophrenia, severe depression or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - but also, in some cases, on people with learning difficulties or problems controlling aggression. While a minority of people saw an improvement in their symptoms after lobotomy, some were left stupefied, unable to communicate, walk or feed themselves. But it took years for the medical profession to realise that the negative effects outweighed the benefits - and to see that drugs developed in the 1950s were effective and much safer.
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from Deseret News
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What happens to old solar panels, windmills and high tech batteries?
Although countries are feverishly looking to install wind and solar farms to wean themselves off carbon-based, or so-called “dirty” energy, few countries, operators and the industry itself have yet to fully tackle the long-term consequences of how to dispose of these systems, which have their own environmental hazards like toxic metals, oil, fiberglass and other material.________
from DW News (Deutsche Welle)
Broadcasting & Media Production Company in Bonn, Germany
COVID-19 vaccines are scarce in Europe, and China is using that to its advantage. There's no misunderstanding the effect of sending 1 million doses to Serbia, writes DW's Miodrag Soric.
One would have to be shockingly naive to think that the vaccines from China come with no strings attached, that they are only sent for humanitarian reasons or as an apology from the country where the pandemic is thought to have started. China is a country that thinks long-term. While it has had difficulties buying its way into companies in Germany, Britain and the United States, it can do so much more easily and cheaply in places like Serbia or Hungary. In doing so, those countries become both economically and politically dependent on China -- as has been the case in Latin America and Africa in the recent past.
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from FEE (Foundation for Economic Education)
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, HIGH, non-profit organization
Censoring certain voices isn’t just morally problematic, it’s bad for the economy, too.
Free speech is usually considered a constitutional right, which is certainly correct. It’s also often discussed as a human right—also correct. But the benefits of free speech go further. Free speech acts as a gateway toward human improvement and the betterment of society.
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from National Review RIGHT BIAS
An emphasis on inclusiveness, however necessary and legitimate, does not define or exhaust the moral foundations of democracy
Until a half century ago or so, there was a moral consensus, however fraying, that informed and shaped the exercise of freedom in the Western world. The self-determination of human beings, of citizens in self-governing political orders, presupposed a civilized inheritance that allowed free men and women to distinguish, without angst or arduous effort, between liberty and license, good and evil, honorable lives and dissolute and disgraceful ones. Few would have suggested that liberty and human dignity could long flourish without a sense of moral obligation and civic spirit on the part of proud, rights-bearing individuals.
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from The North American Anglican
Media/News Company: "A journal of orthodox theology in the Anglican tradition"
PROTOMARTYR, ROYAL MARTYR AND THE POLITICS OF GRACE¹
In an age of heightened partisanship in many polities.. we need the Royal Martyr’s witness to the politics of grace, a sign and an anticipation of the reconciliation which will, in the end, be brought to pass in the 'crowned knot of fire.'
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from The Orca
News & Media Website in B.C.
How a Fraser gold seeker became the foremost economic thinker of his time.
I remember the first time I had a good look at the fabled Golden Gate Bridge. It was the mid-1980s and fortune struck when a friend invited me to spend the summer in California. There we were, on the beach below the historic Presidio in an immense crowd of San Franciscans celebrating the 50th anniversary of that hugely symbolic bridge – a gateway marking the entrance to a harbour jam-packed with gold rush history. Legendary crooner Tony Bennett was there, just off the beach (singing, “I left my heart, in San Francisco. . .”), and the sky had been so warm and blue as to question Mark Twain’s observation that the coldest winter he ever experienced was the summer he spent in San Francisco. That gorgeous long summer was my chance to explore firsthand the historic connection between British Columbia and the Golden State. Wandering around old San Francisco felt familiar – after all, the 1850s iron-façade buildings on Wharf Street in Victoria were manufactured in California. My mission was to locate two historic markers. First, the site of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s California headquarters established in 1841, when San Francisco was still known as Yerba Buena, and not part of the United States. But more particularly, I wanted to see the location of a well-known hotel that once existed about 400 feet away from the HBC store, a hotel established in 1852 with the city’s first public library and reading room, known as the “What Cheer House.” Standing there that day I wondered just how many gold seekers must have stayed here? Who read in this first library during the time of the Fraser River exodus (the 3rd great mass migration of gold seekers in human history)? Here is the singular story of one such would-be miner: Henry George, subsequently “the most popular American economic thinker of the 19th century” – a populist before populism had a name. The word “populism” – coined in 1890 – meant opposition to a monopoly on wealth held by businessmen and bankers, and this is a rags-to-riches story of the gold rush of a very different sort!
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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
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from Sputnik
RIGHT-CENTER BIAS, MIXED, Broadcasting & Media Production Company out of Moscow, Russia
US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan told TV Rain in an interview that there is currently no need for a reboot of the Russia-US relations and the two countries should maintain constant dialogue despite the existing disagreements. Sullivan recalled that US President Joe Biden had recently talked about serious disagreements between Russia and the United States. At the same time, the ambassador noted that the relations with Russia are much broader than disagreements. The ambassador said that Washington and its allies will not weaken sanctions against Russia imposed over Donbas and Crimea, adding that the US approach toward Ukraine and the Minsk agreements remains unchanged.
Jim Mattis said that among other things, globalism was to blame for the riot at the Capitol on 6th January, which led to five deaths. Former defence minister of the United States James Mattis has put the blame on Donald Trump for the deadly 6 January Capitol siege.
Four US B-52 Stratofortress bombers have returned to a base in Guam after a three-year absence, aiming to conduct deterrence missions in the Indo-Pacific region, the Andersen Air Force Base said in a press release.
The US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) criticized Chinese military activities in the South China Sea and in the East China Sea, but stressed that Beijing forces have posed no threat to US military assets deployed to the region.
GameStop's stock has jumped nearly 400% in the last business week, with a 70% gain on Friday alone, despite numerous attempts by brokerage firms to limit traders' ability to buy stock in the struggling video game vendor. Paradoxically, this has caused several institutional investors to lose billions for betting against its success. The battle between small-time online stock traders and professional Wall Street investors has taken its toll on institutional investors, with hedge funds registering an estimated $70.87 billion in loss in the past month alone, thanks to a short squeeze, according to financial data analytics firm Ortex, with $19 billion of that just on shorted GameStop stocks. Short sellers make their money by borrowing stocks and trading them away, gambling their value will decline before they repay the loan. By buying the stocks back at a lower price, traders get to pocket the difference. However, if they guess wrong, their potential for loss is theoretically infinite.
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