2020-07-24: News Headlines

The Lancet (2020-07-25). [Editorial] COVID-19 and China: lessons and the way forward. thelancet.com China has largely controlled COVID-19. A country of 1 ∑4 billion people and a size similar to Europe or the USA now reports only clusters of cases rather than widespread community transmission. China has been widely criticised for its role and responsibilities during the pandemic because of censorship, transparency, and human rights concerns. But the rest of the world can still learn from China's successes in bringing its outbreak under control.

Sasha Abramsky (2020-07-24). Trump Is Flailing, and the Country Is Paying the Price. thenation.com Trump Is Flailing, and the Country Is Paying the Price…

sputniknews (2020-07-24). European Shares Shrivel Amid US-China Consulate War. sputniknews.com China's Foreign Ministry ordered Washington to close down the US Consulate in the city of Chengdu, with the tit-for-tat move coming days after US officials moved to shutter the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas amid allegations that its employees were engaged in systemic espionage and theft of US intellectual property.

Workers World Party (2020-07-24). Portland's movement is fighting back! Defend Portland, Ore.! Defend People's Resistance! No Police State! workers.org Workers World Party Statement Despite the brutal attempt of the White House to crush the heroic Black Lives Matter movement by sending camouflaged federal agents — secret police — to Portland, Ore., Chicago and other U.S. cities, the movement and all who support it have been fighting back. The initial . . . |

Eds. (2020-07-24). From Portland to the World. mronline.org Since the end of May, demonstrators opposing police violence and white supremacy have thronged the streets of Portland, Oregon, clashing with law enforcement officers. Last week, aspiring autocrat Donald Trump escalated the situation by announcing that he would be sending federal agents around the country to assert his authority through acts of violence against protesters.

RT (2020-07-24). WATCH Portland protesters battling federal police to sound of Star Wars' Imperial March. rt.com Chaotic scenes outside Portland's federal courthouse were given a snarky soundtrack by a demonstrator who showed up to the fracas armed with a stereo. The city has seen nightly clashes between police and protesters. | Footage taken by New York Times correspondent Mike Baker shows activists and federal agents fighting over control of a fence guarding the building in downtown Portland, which has been under siege by demonstrators for nearly two months. | Protesters used projectiles and laser pointers against federal law enforcement tasked with protecting the courthouse, who in turn deployed tear gas to keep the m…

RT (2020-07-24). Oregon judge bans feds from arresting or using force against 'journalists & legal observers' at Portland protests. rt.com A judge has issued a temporary restraining order on federal agents deployed in Portland, ruling that they may not arrest, disperse or otherwise use force against reporters and legal observers covering ongoing protests there. | US District Court Judge Michael Simon

Kathleen Wallace (2020-07-24). 2020 Vision Will Show You What is True, if You Can Keep Your Sanity. counterpunch.org We've all been making jokes about how terrible 2020 has played out, but I think even those of us with a bit of an imagination for the absurd and ominous missed the mark as far as this ultimate level of governmental degeneracy we've been able to achieve. Dads backing up moms in Portland with leaf

WSWS (2020-07-24). Trump orders federal police to more cities. wsws.org The Trump administration is stepping up its unconstitutional moves toward dictatorial rule, tear gassing the mayor of Portland, Oregon and announcing the deployment of federal police to additional cities.

David Rosen (2020-07-24). Uprising: Mass Protests Rock the Nation. counterpunch.org In an act of political desperation, President Donald Trump ordered a contingent of federal law-enforcement officers to impose order in Portland, OR. Under the direction of Attorney General Bill Barr, agents from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Bureau of Prisons were deployed to protect

Dave Welsh (2020-07-23). 'Pivot to Peace with China and the World' says San Francisco labor. workers.org San Francisco The following is based on a webinar presentation given on the July 18 Workers World Party webinar: "Why We Defend China." It can be viewed on Facebook at tinyurl.com/y2fevsmx. Military veterans tend to have a deeper understanding of the human costs of war. So it was not surprising . . . |

calvin deutschbein (2020-07-23). Quick facts on China and COVID. workers.org This slightly edited talk was given at the July 16 Workers World Party webinar: "Why We Defend China." The webinar can be viewed at tinyurl.com/yxbbpwwy/. The U.S. ruling class has increasingly turned to misinformation and propaganda campaigns to maintain control of the country during the COVID-19 epidemic and to concoct . . . |

WSWS (2020-07-23). US orders closure of China's Houston consulate, raising the danger of war. wsws.org The White House, facing a massive domestic crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, is seeking to divert internal tensions outward.

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-07-23). The Militarization of Strategic Waterways: US- India War Games Contemplated. Aggressive "Signal to China" globalresearch.ca "Whoever attains maritime supremacy in the Indian Ocean would be a prominent player on the international scene." (US Navy Geostrategist Rear Admiral Alfred Thayus Mahan (1840-1914)) | Among Washington's strategic objectives is the militarization of major sea ways, extending from the …

sputniknews (2020-07-23). Chinese Sex Toy Makers See Global 'Surging Demand' Amid COVID-19 Pandemic. sputniknews.com Sex toy manufacturers in China have seen notable increases in the number of orders they receive since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially from other countries.

sputniknews (2020-07-23). US Investors Could Purchase TikTok to Bypass National Security Concerns Over Chinese Ownership. sputniknews.com The application TikTok has drawn widespread controversy as relations between the United States and China begin to sour. The Trump administration accuses the platform of being a means by which the Chinese government can access US customer data.

sputniknews (2020-07-23). Closure of Houston Consulate Marks Shift of US' China Policy Towards Confrontation, Scholars Warn. sputniknews.com On Tuesday evening, the US government ordered Chinese diplomats to close the country's consulate in Houston, Texas, in 72 hours. International observers have discussed China's potential retaliatory measures in the wake of Washington's decision and the future of the countries' bilateral relations.

Mike Walter (2020-07-23). The Heat: U.S.-China relations. america.cgtn.com Tensions rise as the United States orders the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas.

John Feffer (2020-07-23). Okinawa: Will the Pandemic Transform U.S. Military Bases? counterpunch.org Okinawans opposed to the expansion of U.S. military bases on their island have been upset by the environmental damage, the accidents, and the crimes associated with the presence of 25,000 American troops. Now the anti-base movement has one more powerful argument to use in its case to shrink the U.S. footprint in this southernmost Japanese

Staff (2020-07-23). Paramilitary-Style Tactics in Portland Mirror Decades of U.S. Violence on the Border & Abroad. democracynow.org The harrowing scenes of paramilitary-style units in the streets of American cities like Portland has shocked mainstream America, but award-winning independent journalist Todd Miller, who has reported on border security and immigration for over a decade, says it's a reflection of how the U.S. has operated around the world. We also speak with Cecilia Menjívar, UCLA sociology professor, who says the image of unmarked vans snatching people from the streets "brings back memories to Latin Americans who lived through disappearances of families and friends and co-workers."

Marilyn Bechtel (2020-07-23). Cities challenge Trump's dispatch of federal law enforcement officers. peoplesworld.org OAKLAND, Calif. — Outrage is growing throughout the country over Donald Trump's use of federal law enforcement against protesters in Portland, Oregon, and his threats to dispatch federal officers to other U.S. cities. On July 20, Trump told reporters he might send federal "law enforcement" to cities he claimed were experiencing heightened violence, naming cities …

Eds. (2020-07-23). As Trump threatens secret police deployment nationwide, Democrats debate expanding surveillance powers and new money for DHS. mronline.org The rogue deployment of secret federal police forces in Portland, Oregon, has added a new complication to negotiations over reauthorizing the Trump administration's vast surveillance powers and appropriating new money for the Department of Homeland Security.

Editor (2020-07-23). Defend Portland! Defend People's Resistance! No Police State! workers.org Despite the brutal attempt of the White House to crush the heroic Black Lives Matter movement by sending camouflaged federal agents ‚àí secret police ‚àí to Portland, Chicago and other U.S. cities, the movement and all who support it have been fighting back. The initial response to the threat of . . . |

RT (2020-07-23). Portland mayor cheers protesters & joins them to face tear gas, gets calls to resign anyway (VIDEOS). rt.com Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler failed to win over a crowd of angry anti-police protesters despite rooting for their cause. But rather than seeing him as an ally against federal agents, some said he's part of the problem and has to go.

RT (2020-07-23). MSNBC's Joe Scarborough calls Portland protests 'peaceful'… despite footage of escalating violence. rt.com Joe Scarborough has called protests in Portland "peaceful for the most part," less than a day after the mayor was tear-gassed in the face amid escalating violence following more than two months of demonstrations. | On his Morning Joe show Thursday, Scarborough railed against the deployment of federal agents to the city of Portland, saying they have launched "deeply disturbing attacks" against "peaceful protests, for the most part." | The MSNBC host has no doubt seen footage of federal agents arresting protesters and proceeding to throw them into unmarked vans — but perhaps he missed the videos of demonstr…

Max Elbaum (2020-07-23). Guns? Yes. Masks? No. And Gestapo in Portland. zcomm.org The toxic mix of valuing gun ownership over protecting public health, conspiracism, and reactionary movements glued together by white supremacy and national chauvinism are too deeply rooted to be ended any time soon…

William Boardman (2020-07-23). Defund the Police State, Before It's Too Late. globalresearch.ca The American police state is currently making its boldest test run to date in Portland, Oregon, escalating violence and lawlessness against the peaceful population of an American city. The people of Portland have responded with increased resistance, but support from …

Black Alliance for Peace (2020-07-23). Trump Administration Deploys Federal Forces into Major U.S. Cities. globalresearch.ca The repressive U.S. state's chickens have come home to roost with President Donald Trump announcing federal troops will be deployed to several U.S. cities. This comes after federal agents reportedly disappeared protesters last week off the streets of Portland, Oregon….

Fight Back (2020-07-23). Stand with the resistance in Portland! fightbacknews.org Protesters grabbed off the streets by federal agents who refuse to identify themselves, placed unmarked vehicles, and taken to undisclosed locations. These same agents nearly killed a young man holding part of a sound system at a demonstration. This is the outrageous reality in Portland today, were Trump has deployed a paramilitary police force to carry out a wave of repression. The good news is that the resistance in Portland has been nothing short of heroic, as thousands have taken to the streets in a powerful display of opposition. | The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that it is deploying federal a…

Marlee Kokotovic (2020-07-23). U.S. Navy veteran speaks out about being attacked by Trump's secret police in Portland this past weekend. nationofchange.org It isn't about me getting beat up. It's about focusing back on the original intention of all of these protests, which is Black Lives Matter.

Ken Klippenstein (2020-07-23). The Federal Response to Protests Extends Far Beyond Portland. thenation.com The Federal Response to Protests Extends Far Beyond Portland…

_____ (2020-07-23). Portland's Mayor Tear-Gassed By Militarized US Police. popularresistance.org The mayor of Portland, Oregon was tear-gassed by U.S. government agents as he stood outside a federal courthouse during another night of protests against the presence of federal police sent by President Donald Trump to quell the city's ongoing unrest. | Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, appeared slightly dazed and coughed and said Wednesday night it was the first time he'd been tear-gassed. | He put on a pair of goggles someone handed him and drank water but did not leave his spot at the front of the protest and continued to take tear gas as the demonstration raged — with protesters lighting a large fire betwe…

_____ (2020-07-23). New Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed Against Federal Law Enforcement. popularresistance.org The Western States Center, the First Unitarian Church of Portland, two state representatives and an ACLU legal observer are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which alleges the federal government has violated protesters' 10th Amendment rights. It was filed Tuesday in federal court. | The 10th Amendment delineates the separation of powers between federal and state governments. | "The power to engage in ordinary law enforcement is one of the long-recognized powers that belong to the states and to their municipalities," said Cliff Davidson, an attorney with Snell & Wilmer, the firm filing the lawsuit. | The W…

_____ (2020-07-23). What Are Trump And His Goons Up To? popularresistance.org First and foremost, it is a political stunt to capture the law and order crowd and press on divides between the coastal cities and inland voters. But it's also more sinister than that. The use of federal forces is designed to weaken local accountability by freezing out local government that constituents can reach. Portland's mayor might not even have opposed some "help" from the feds, but he wasn't asked. In other words, this wasn't mutual aid. This was indeed an invasion. An alphabet soup of federal agencies have been employed to crack down on police brutality protests, including the National Guard, the US Marsh…

_____ (2020-07-23). Federal Agents Retreat To Portland Base As Protesters Control Streets. popularresistance.org The DHS officers dispatched by the president to put down the demonstrations have instead become prisoners of the building they are ostensibly there to defend. | "The feds don't have control of the streets," said a woman holding a sign "100% not a terrorist", who gave her name only as Shannon. "I think they're more scared than us. They're hiding in there. They don't know what they're doing." If the intent was to intimidate the protesters into abandoning the few square blocks of downtown Portland under their control, it backfired spectacularly. | Residents of a city with a long history of radical street protest wer…

yenisafak (2020-07-23). In another night of unrest in Portland, tear gas hits mayor. yenisafak.com The mayor of the U.S. city of Portland, Ted Wheeler, was stung by tear gas early on Thursday morning after he joined demonstrators protesting against racial injustice and police brutality.Protests have rocked Portland every night for weeks, with security forces often tear-gassing and clubbing demonstrators.Visiting the protest site, Wheeler was jeered at by some demonstrators who called on him to resign and chanted "Shame on You". They said he should have done more to protect Portland's citizens.However, as he stood amongst the crowd outside Portland's Justice Center, Wheeler, who was wearing a face mask, was him…

Staff (2020-07-23). Paramilitary-Style Tactics in Portland Mirror Decades of Global US Violence. truthout.org The harrowing scenes of paramilitary-style units in the streets of American cities like Portland has shocked mainstream America, but award-winning independent journalist Todd Miller, who has reported on border security and immigration for over a decade, says it's a reflection of how the U.S. has operated around the world. We also speak with Cecilia Menjívar, UCLA sociology professor, who says the image of unmarked vans snatching people from the streets "brings back memories to Latin Americans wh…

DLI (2020-07-23). Secret police in Portland violated human rights of peaceful protesters. indybay.org Videos showing U.S. Federal secret police(with no badges and riding in unmarked vehicles)inflicting massive violence on mostly peaceful protesters are running viral across the Globe. Yet the Federal governing regime brazenly avows that this will be the "new normal" in major cities from now on…

teleSUR (2020-07-22). Trump Orders Closure of the Chinese Consulate in Houston. telesurenglish.net The U.S. State Department Wednesday confirmed that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, Texas. This decision has been harshly criticized by Beijing. | RELATED: | The order issued by Washington comes amid political tensions that have confronted the world's two largest economies for months. | According to State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, the closure of the Chinese Consulate occurred to…

Anthony Cartalucci (2020-07-22). Washington's Anti-Chinese "Pan-Asian Alliance" thealtworld.com US-backed protesters complain about economy, then seek to ruin regional relations with Southeast Asia's most important economic partner, investor, and source of tourism. | One of Washington's reoccuring dreams is creating a "pan-Asian alliance" to encircle and contain China's economic and political rise. Unable to do this through regime change, economic incentives, military alliances, or even coercion and terrorism, it has drawn deeper and deeper from its "soft power" toolkit. | The US is also increasingly lumping its various regional assets together to fight in its growing rift with China. | In this way, it alr…

teleSUR (2020-07-22). China Condemns US Request To Close Its Consulate In Houston. telesurenglish.net The Chinese embassy in the United States said on Wednesday the U.S. government's abrupt request to close the Chinese Consulate General in Houston as of July 24 is "a political provocation," and "an outrageous and unjustified move which sabotages China-U.S. relations. | RELATED: | "It is a political provocation unilaterally launched by the U.S. side, which seriously violates international law, basic norms governing internation…

WSWS (2020-07-22). Despite withdrawal of ICE ruling, international students in the US remain at risk. wsws.org Amid an intensifying anti-immigrant and anti-China campaign, Trump's tactical retreat from the July 6 ruling putting international students at risk of deportation is not any cause for celebration.

Caitlin Johnstone (2020-07-22). China, QAnon Censorship, And Other Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix. thealtworld.com QAnon is one of the most annoying things on Twitter and its followers are morons. And, also, it is dangerous and unacceptable that monopolistic Silicon Valley tech plutocrats are exerting more and more control over human communication. | I criticize QAnon constantly and find its acolytes intensely irritating. And, also, I don't want monopolistic tech billionaires paternalistically protecting my fragile little mind from them. | Twitter shouldn't be In a corporatist system of government, w…

WSWS (2020-07-22). Letter from a student in China on the COVID-19 pandemic. wsws.org "People are worried that on top of the hardship they have already gone through, they would face more unknown, long-term, and negative consequences from the pandemic."

Alvaro Rodriguez (2020-07-22). In provocative move, Trump orders shutdown of Chinese consulate in Houston. peoplesworld.org HOUSTON — The Trump administration has ordered the shutdown of China's consulate in Houston. Consulate staff have been given a few days to close the facility and vacate all workers. The deadline for closing the consulate is Friday, July 24. The closure of China's consulate marks a sharp escalation of the Trump administration's attacks on …

Bill Julian (2020-07-22). Weaponizing Intellectual Property: the Scientist and the Spy. counterpunch.org China is the latest in the long list of post-World War II villains who threaten the American way of life, or America's deserved spot at the head of the table, or the peace and prosperity of America's allies, or the values of the West. China's particular threat is its ambition to replace the US at

yenisafak (2020-07-22). China may shut US Wuhan consulate after U.S. orders its Houston mission closed. yenisafak.com China is considering ordering the closure of the U.S. consulate in the central city of Wuhan, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday, after Washington told China to shut its consulate in the city of Houston.China's foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment, but at a media briefing earlier on Wednesday warned of possible retaliation over the U.S. decision.The U.S. embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

yenisafak (2020-07-22). Pompeo: China's behaviour was unacceptable in border clash with India. yenisafak.com India's recent border clash with China was the latest example of the Chinese Communist Party's "unacceptable behaviour," U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.He made the comment at the U.S.-India Business Council's India Ideas Summit, being conducted on line, adding: "I am confident that with our concerted efforts, we can protect our interest."India's relations with China have been strained after last month's deadly clash in the Himalayas, prompting calls in India for closer security ties with the United States and its allies including Japan.

sputniknews (2020-07-22). Indian Def Minister Asks Air Force to Stand Ready, Despite De-escalation Efforts Along China Border. sputniknews.com New Delhi (Sputnik): A month after violent skirmishes involving the armies of India and China in eastern Ladakh, the commanders of the Indian Air Force (IAF) met in New Delhi to "review the operational scenario and deployments" and to discuss "building the IAF capabilities in the next decade to tackle all emerging threats."

sputniknews (2020-07-22). France Tells Telecom Operators Licences for Huawei 5G Gear Will Not Be Renewed, Reports Say. sputniknews.com European nations, France included, have been pressed by the United States to ban Huawei from building their 5G networks. Washington has claimed Beijing uses the firm's equipment for spying. China has repeatedly denied the accusations.