alanjjohnstone
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59,938 COVID-related deaths were recorded between December 8, 2022, and January 12, 2023, Jiao Yahui, Bureau of Medical Administration head, told reporters, adding that cases had peaked and were declining.
The reported death toll only included those who died in the hospital, meaning more may have died at home.
https://www.dw.com/en/china-reports-almost-60000-covid-19-deaths-in-a-month/a-64393563
Who’s victory would that be?
“Yevgeny Prigozhin, has claimed repeatedly over the past few days that his forces are the only units on the ground in Soledar. He said on Tuesday night that his mercenaries had seized the town, only to be contradicted by Russia’s defence ministry the next morning.
Daily updates from the Russian defence ministry have made no mention whatsoever of Wagner, and Friday’s briefing was no exception. The military said that paratroopers had played a key part in the capture of the town.
Mr Prigozhin then released a statement saying he was “surprised” to read the defence ministry briefing. There “wasn’t a single paratrooper” in Soledar, he insisted, warning against “insulting [his] fighters” and “stealing others’ achievements”.
And on Friday evening, Mr Prigozhin accused “officials who want to stay in their places” of being the biggest threat to his group’s advance in Ukraine.
In a later statement, the defence ministry praised the mercenaries’ “courageous and selfless actions” during the fighting, but again emphasised the leading role of regular Russian forces.”
The US Supreme Court to decide on strikes
The Supreme Court Is About to Eviscerate the Right to Strike
At stake is a 64-year-old precedent that shields workers and unions from state lawsuits while they pursue unfair labor practice claims in the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). If unions have to defend against costly lawsuits, it will likely discourage them from going on strike.
The China-US Chip War
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-64143602
the world’s two biggest economies are battling over another precious resource: semiconductors…These tiny fragments of silicon are at the heart of a $500bn industry that is expected to double by 2030. And whoever controls the supply chains – a tangled network of companies and countries that make the chips – holds the key to being an unrivalled superpower.
China wants the technology to produce chips. That’s why the US, a source of much of the tech, is cutting Beijing off.
“What you find historically is that whenever powerful countries have advanced computing technology, they deploy them to intelligence and military systems,”
I am sure there is another thread on this topic but my first thought was that it is a repeat of the “noble savage” debate.
A certain amount of stereotyping by Marx and Engels and Lewis Henry Morgan recognised positive elements in their writings of Iroquois family gens but regards Celtic clans, weren’t they also critical?
Socialism will not be a society made up of saints and angels. Most hunter-gatherer societies do have traditions and customs that they use to ensure that individuals are subject to the common good prevails.
As an aside, I posted a few links on the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee on another discussion list.
Still blaming Corbyn and his supporters
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64248136
“Labour is taking the five Corbyn supporters to the High Court for conspiring to put the document into the public domain.
But some in the party are concerned that the commissioner’s decision could make the case less likely to succeed.
If it fails, lawyers for the Corbyn supporters say they will seek to recover their costs.”Libcom website also has even more Pdfs – up to 1960
Zimbabwe does what the Tories want – ban strikes in the health sector
https://socialistbanner.blogspot.com/2023/01/zimbabwe-health-workers-lose-right-to.html
Transnistria – A reminder of how Russia creates secessionist republics and how Ukraine collaborated with it.
https://www.dw.com/en/will-the-war-in-ukraine-spell-the-end-of-transnistria/a-64363639
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transnistria
Then there are Abkhazia, Artsakh and South Ossetia, breakaways
Marx’s idea that societies were naturally egalitarian and communal before farming is widely influential and quite wrong… drawing a contrast between an angelic past and our greedy present, primitive communism blinds us to the true determinants of trust, freedom and equity. If we want to build better societies, the way forward is neither to live as hunter-gatherers nor to bang the drum of a make-believe state of nature. Rather, it is to work with humans as they are, warts and all.
https://aeon.co/essays/the-idea-of-primitive-communism-is-as-seductive-as-it-is-wrong
Japan-UK military pact
Japan and the United Kingdom have signed a “hugely significant” new defence deal
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/12/japan-uk-sign-hugely-significant-new-defence-deal
Citizens Advice has called for a ban on energy companies “forcing” customers onto prepayment meters because they are struggling to pay bills.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64235997
The charity estimates that 600,000 people were put onto the pay-as-you-go method last year, with 160,000 more expected by the end of the winter.
Citizens Advice estimates that 3.2 million people across Britain ran out of credit on their prepayment meter last year, the equivalent of one every 10 seconds. The advisory service said it saw more people who were unable to top up their prepayment meter in 2022 than in the whole of the last 10 years combined.
the NHS pay review body (NHSPRB) and the review body on doctors’ and dentists’ remuneration (DDRB) have been brought into question…
Unions representing more than 1 million nurses, ambulance workers and other personnel have refused to submit joint evidence in the usual way to the NHSPRB about the pay for 2023/24 unless ministers first settle the bitter dispute over this year’s salary increase that has triggered a wave of strikes.
The British Medical Association, the main doctors’ trade union, said it was also taking similar action and would not submit evidence to the DDRB because “the process is rigged from the start”.
