There is no doubt that this is a REAL THREAT. I'm not going to sugar coat the severity of the situation, but I find myself thinking a lot about the far Larger Threat to Freedom and Capitalism than China and it is all around us ... Artificial Intelligence Systems.

A company

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Good afternoon, thank you for joining us. I'll give you some warning in advance - my update is going to be slightly longer than normal today because I've got a few updates I'm going to cover."

NS: "I'm also going to touch a little bit on Christmas, which I know is of huge interest to everyone. But firstly, as usual, I will cover today's statistics."

NS: "There were 689 positive cases reported yesterday, which is 5.9% of the total number of tests and means that the total tally of confirmed cases now is 108,438."

NS: "140 of today's new cases were in Lothian, 109 in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 92 in Lanarkshire and 91 in Ayrshire & Arran, and the remaining cases are spread across 8 other health board areas."

NS: "1,031 people are currently in hospital which is an increase of 35 from yesterday. 49 people are in intensive care, which is 4 more than yesterday."

1. UN Human Rights Office Handed Names of Dissidents to Chinese Regime putting lives in direct danger.

2. UN Rights Council Attacks Western Sanctions, Backs Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba.

3. UN Elects Turkey to Head General Assembly in 2020-2021.

4. UN’s WHO Names China Booster Helen Clark to Head COVID-19 Inquiry.

5. UN Condemns Israel 17 Times, Rest of the World 6.

🇺🇲The Two Cubas🇺🇲
Im sure everyone knows about the "Second" Cuba, which was discovered and named by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The territory of modern day Cuba was inhabited by the Ciboney Taíno people from the 4th millennium BC until Spanish colonization in the 15th century..

1) But....do you know about the "First" Cuba??

In the small district of Alentejo, Portugal, there is a small town known as Cuba.

This town has quite a historic claim to history...

2) In this small village there stands a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus. Around the base of the statue are plaques that tell a remarkable.. yet unprovable story.

3) The story is that Christopher Columbus was originally from Portugal, NOT Italy, as written in the Washington Irving biography of Christopher Columbus which claims Genoa, Italy as Christopher Columbus birth city.

4) I will not dispute one way or the other, but will let you decide for yourself. So, in 1492, Columbus sails the ocean blue...and he finally hits land and names it "Cuba"...why not Genoa?
🤔🤔🤔

President Mnangagwa has arrived at the PPC plant in Msasa industrial area, Harare, where he will tour the facility. The President is being accompanied on the tour by VP Kembo Mohadi and several Cabinet Ministers.

Official proceedings have started with the PPC board member Stanford Moyo giving his welcome remarks.

PPC managing director Mr Kelibone Masiyane says the company is committed to the Zimbabwean market since it started production 107 years ago.

Says the company welcomes Government efforts to create an enabling environment. He says the company is playing a big role in the country's infrastructure development especially road construction and rehabilitation.

He ends his remarks and invites Industry and Commerce Minister Sekai Nzenza to the podium.

The Man-Made Famine In #Yemen
By @DanielLarison

The war on #Yemen has done nothing to hurt #Iran in the slightest (not that it would be justified if it had), but it has driven a country of almost thirty million people into the abyss.

For five and a half years, our government has supported the wrecking and starvation of another country, and we have failed to bring that horror to an end. That will have to change in the new year, or countless more #Yemenis will die preventable deaths.

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The litmus test for U.S. policy on #Yemen is simple: does it help end the conflict, or keep alive the millions of suffering #Yemenis? A terrorist designation of the #Houthis fails on both counts. Sadly, the #Trump administration knows this. In 2018,
1/4-1

it decided against designating the #Houthis because “it could complicate aid deliveries.” Yet despite worsening humanitarian indicators, President #Trump has now decided to push forward.

1/5

#Yemenis are being starved. That is the heart of it. And the statistics released last week are shocking. Amir [Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme] will speak to this.

It’s the war that’s pushing #Yemen towards famine. That’s how we got to this point.
1/5-2

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "I'm going to speak in a few moments about the announcements we made over the weekend, the announcements I set out here on Saturday evening..."

NS: "and I will also reflect on the decisions that have been made and intimated by some other countries, in respect of closing borders with the UK.

But first of all, let me begin with today’s statistics.

The total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 1,504."

NS: "That represents 6% of the total number of tests carried out, and the overall number of confirmed cases is now 113,050.

As you'll have noticed, today’s figure represents a significantly higher number of cases than we have seen in recent times."

NS: "We think that this may be, in part, down to a processing backlog last week within the UK Lighthouse system.

Please be aware that today’s figure may be affected by that backlog of cases now coming through the system and being reported on."

NS: "However we will be doing further analysis of these case numbers to confirm that."

Out they go!
A CLEAN HOUSE is very important.

THREAD.

Former Australian Prime Minister @MrKRudd interviewing China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi for @AsiaSociety.

Rudd is making opening remarks in Mandarin.

Rudd (returning to English): It gives me no pleasure that the current state of the US-China relationship is 'probably the worst that we've seen in the nearly half a century.'

Rudd: The key challenge for the future is what we will do for the extraordinary decade of the 2020s which lies ahead

1. Sees China work within the framework of rules-based order that we've been developing together.

Rudd:

2. World adjusts and becomes more accommodating of China's values and interests and Chinese leadership becomes more apparent.

Rudd:

3. International machinery works better to preserve open systems.

Rudd disagrees with 4th that we are destined for war.

This morning, His Excellency starts the 2020 Edition of the National Thanksgiving Ceremony at ZITF Grounds. This is the fourth such get-together of the faithfuls, with the President having attending all but one. Zimbabwe is a prayerful Nation of many faiths, all of which coexist

...harmony as dictated to by the National Constitution.

A reading for the winter solstice: a look at the relationships between women and news in Kenya. South Africa, Mexico, Brazil. Hong Kong, Japan, UK, Finland, Germany, US, and South Korea
My report with @simgandi for @risj_oxford
https://t.co/UnpeR4BBwg. Some thoughts below.

Men are more likely than women to say they are extremely interested or very interested in news. This is a tiny part of a bigger story.

Women talk about news with their friends, face to face.

Women are much more likely to get their news from TV

And just look at what is happening inside each of the countries. In Mexico, as @julianafregoso and Dr. María Elena Gutiérrez Rentería orgs like @Cimacnoticias are fighting to highlight the shocking levels of femicide other news orgs are

THREAD:

1/ Why UBI is #Kuwait’s best hope to survive the next 20 years.

2/ Kuwait's economy is dominated by the state which in turn generates almost all its revenues from oil. Furthermore, private sector activity today is in effect completely dependent the public sector.

3/ I posit that excessive public sector employment is the root cause of many, if not the majority of Kuwait's problems that, left unchecked, will ensure standards of living only decline from here on.

4/ The obstacle to change is Kuwait's 1961 constitution obliging the state to provide every citizen with employment. Kuwait’s high population growth has brought it to a tipping point where:

5/

— Public payroll increasingly crowds-out all other types of state spending, meaning state dominated/controlled sectors are starved of capital and the private sector isn't allowed to fill the gap.

FLASH: LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT THROUGH THE LAGOS SAFETY COMMISSION (@safety_lasg) SEALS 12 FACILITIES, TO COMMENCE LEGAL ACTION FOR FLOUTING COVID19 REGULATIONS

#ForAGreaterLagos
#Covid19Lagos

@jidesanwoolu

The Lagos State Government through the Lagos State Safety Commission have been carrying out routine enforcement and monitoring activities throughout the holiday season to monitor compliance with the Governments directive on the COVID-19 pandemic ...

.. especially as it concerns social and recreational centers.
The operations led by the Director General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola and his team have sealed over 12 facilities including; DNA Night Club, ...

... Buzz Bar, Silverfox, Cocoon, Westend Nightclub, Rumours, Lekki Waterside, Landmark Event Centre, The Wave Beach club amongst others.
He however mentioned that recalcitrant establishments who broke the goverment seal and continued partying will be charged to court ...

.... once documentation has been properly processed. He affirmed that the State Government is committed to curbing the spread of the virus and would leave no stone unturned to achieve this mandate.