China’s capital Beijing dropped the need for people to show negative COVID tests to enter supermarkets and offices on Tuesday, the latest in an easing of curbs across the country following last month’s historic protests.

“Beijing readies itself for life again” read a headline in the government-owned China Daily newspaper, adding that people were “gradually embracing” the slow return to normality.

Further loosening beckons after a string of demonstrations last month that marked the biggest show of public discontent in mainland China since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.

“This might be the first step towards reopening from this pandemic,” Beijing resident Hu Dongxu, 27, told Reuters as he swiped his travel card to enter a train station in the capital, which has also dropped the need for tests to ride the subway.

The shift comes as top officials softened their tone on the severity of the virus, bringing China closer to what other countries have been saying for more than a year as they dropped restrictions and opted to live with the virus.

China may announce 10 new nationwide easing measures as early as Wednesday, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, as cities across the country have been lifting localised lockdowns.

That has sparked optimism among investors for a broader reopening of the world’s second biggest economy that could boost global growth.

But despite reassurances from authorities, commuter traffic in major cities such as Beijing and Chongqing remains at a fraction of previous levels.

Some people remain wary of catching the virus, especially the elderly, many of whom remain unvaccinated, while there is also concern about the strain the loosening could put on China’s fragile health system.

China has reported 5,235 COVID-related deaths so far as of Monday, but some experts have warned that toll could rise above 1 million if the exit is too hasty.

Analysts at Nomura estimate that areas now under lockdown equate to around to be 19.3% of China’s total GDP, down from 25.1% last Monday.

This marks the first decline in Nomura’s closely-watched China COVID lockdown index since the start of October, nearly two months ago.

Meanwhile, officials continue to downplay the dangers posed by the virus.

Tong Zhaohui, director of the Beijing Institute of Respiratory Diseases, said on Monday that the latest Omicron variant of the disease had caused fewer cases of severe illness than the 2009 global influenza outbreak, according to Chinese state television.

China’s management of the disease may be downgraded as soon as January, to the less strict Category B from the current top-level Category A of infectious disease, Reuters reported exclusively on Monday.

“The most difficult period has passed,” the official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary published late on Monday, citing the weakening pathogenicity of the virus and efforts to vaccinate 90% of the population.

Analysts now predict China may re-open the economy and drop border controls sooner than expected next year, with some seeing it fully open in spring.

But more than half of Chinese say they will put off travel abroad, for periods from several months to more than a year, even if borders re-opened tomorrow, a study showed on Tuesday

Fear of infection with the disease was the top concern of those saying they would postpone travel in a survey of 4,000 consumers in China by consultancy Oliver Wyman.

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Asian stocks retreated from three-month highs and the dollar held on to gains following strong U.S. data that again suggested the Federal Reserve might stick longer with aggressive interest rate increases.

While investors remained hopeful of China’s economy improving with the easing of the country’s zero-COVID policy, analysts said markets had already priced in a lot of the upbeat news.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) shed 0.4%, after climbing to a three-month high in the previous session. The benchmark has gained 21% from October lows on persistent chatter about China easing pandemic measures.

Stocks in Korea (.KS11) and Taiwan (.TWII) traded lower, while China’s broader index (.CSI300) rose 0.6% and Japan (.N225) and Hong Kong <.HSI> stocks were steady.

Tuesday’s muted performance in Asian equities came after global stocks and Treasury prices fell on Monday as new evidence of a strong U.S. economy raised expectations that interest rates would stay higher for longer.

“The black swan in the room is the risk of the Fed being too late again, but this time in cutting rates,” said Havard Chi, head of research at hedge fund Quarz Capital Asia.

“Monetary policy works with a lag and key spot indicators such as falling housing prices, rental rates, commodities, and freight pricing as well as rising layoffs and inventories are already signalling a weakening U.S. economy,” said Chi.

U.S. services industry activity unexpectedly picked up in November and employment rebounded. It was the latest data showing economic momentum that could push the Federal Reserve to tighten policy further, and it followed a robust U.S. payrolls report for November.

Futures show the market expects U.S. short-term interest rates to peak at 5.001% in May. The expectation is about 9 basis points higher than it was last week. By December 2023, the rates will have declined to 4.574%, according to futures markets.

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 1.4%, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 1.79% and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 1.93%.

Data in Europe was still downbeat. Euro zone business activity declined for a fifth month in November, final PMI data showed, suggesting the economy was sliding into a mild recession.

Oil prices edged up, after a G7 price cap on Russian seaborne oil came into force on Monday on top of a European Union embargo on imports of Russian crude by sea.

Brent crude futures ticked up 0.9% to $83.4 a barrel. Futures fell more than 3% in the previous session after the U.S. economic data.

The dollar stayed firm versus major peers, following its biggest rally in two weeks on Monday, which was helped by the strong U.S. services data.

The Australian dollar was stuck near a one-week low ahead of a central bank rate decision, with market participants watching for signs of a pause in tightening after inflation unexpectedly cooled last month.

Treasury yields rose on expectations the Fed would continue to raise rates well into next year, though at a slower pace.

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A nationwide strike by South Korean truckers has led nearly 100 petrol stations across the country to run dry, government data show, and a national trade union said it would launch a general strike on Tuesday in support of the drivers.

The truckers’ strike over a minimum pay programme, which began on Nov. 24, has seen two negotiation sessions between the union and the government, but so far there has been no breakthrough.

As supplies of fuel and construction materials run low, the South Korean government has stepped up pressure to end the strike.

President Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday ordered preparations to issue a return-to-work order for drivers in sectors such as oil refining and steelmaking, where additional economic damage is expected. Yoon last week invoked such an order, the first in the country’s history, for 2,500 truckers in the cement industry.

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), an umbrella union under which the truckers’ union falls, has called the President’s “start work” order the equivalent of martial law and says the government should negotiate.

The KCTU said it had planned a walkout on Tuesday to support the truckers’ protests.

As of Monday afternoon, nearly 100 petrol stations had run out of fuel. About 60% of them were in Seoul and Gyeonggi province, a densely populated region near the capital, according to Korea National Oil Corp data. That is up from the 21 petrol stations that the industry ministry had said were out of fuel on Nov. 28.

Amid soaring fuel costs, as many as 25,000 truckers are calling on the government to provide a permanent minimum-pay system known as the “Safe Freight Rate”, which was introduced temporarily in 2020 for a small portion of more than 400,000 truckers.

In their second strike in less than six months, those truckers are fighting the bitter cold and the government’s narrative that they are well paid “labour aristocracy”.

The Yoon administration has said it would not give in to the union’s demands. The government has said it would extend the current program for three more years.

The impact of a general strike is unclear and depends on participation, said Han Sang-jin, a KCTU spokeperson.

Labour minister Lee Jung-sik said on Monday that a general strike would not win public support.

The strikes have disrupted South Korea’s supply chain, and cost more than 3.2 trillion won ($2.46 billion) in lost shipments over the first 10 days, the industry ministry said on Sunday.

Losses are expected to have grown in various industries, but traffic at ports has slightly improved to 69% of its pre-strike average since the back-to-order was issued, according to the government.

($1 = 1,303.4400 won)

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It’s the final stretch. That’s where we are as it relates to the Georgia special election. We can’t let Walker win. It is as simple as that. So that is why we must: Phone bank. Donate. Door knock. Tweet. Drive people to the polls if you live in Georgia.

Republicans are working hard as well to get him elected. So it is important we do not take anything for granted. In the meantime, I do have some news on Mr. Walker. Geoff Duncan, who is the Republican lieutenant governor in Georgia, has said he just could not bring himself to vote for Walker.

Can’t say I blame him. Duncan said he wound up walking out without voting for either walker or Warnock. It doesn’t seem likely at this point that Donald Trump will stump for Walker. And Walker’s campaign manager, Scott Paradise, sent a memo to donors pleading for help.

And although most polls have Warnock ahead, we CANNOT go by the polls. So what can we do that we’re not already doing? In these last few days, anything that we’re doing can be amplified.

For example, if you are thinking about doing one phone banking shift — think about doing two or three. If you are thinking about donating five dollars (and have the money), donate ten or fifteen.

If you are thinking of sending ten postcards – send forty or fifty. It’s ALL a numbers game, people. It’s all about who turns out the most people. Numbers are where it’s at, and we have shown we’re excellent at getting our people out. That is really what it is going to come down to.

Walker’s campaign is floundering, BUT he, too, has people working for him. We need to do it better, and more efficiently, and then we can claim victory.

Senator Warnock isn’t just another Senator either. He has shown extraordinary talent. So let’s get to 51 Senators! Let’s all pitch in these last few days. We have the momentum. We just need to make sure our numbers are sky-high.

The post Key Georgia Republican bails on Herschel Walker appeared first on Palmer Report.

This year, the country singer Mickey Guyton represented America on its biggest stages, belting out the national anthem at the Super Bowl and hosting PBS’s July 4 celebration from the Capitol Lawn. She became the first Black nominee for Best Country Album at the Grammys in the award’s history.

Guyton also fulfilled a lifelong goal in collaborating with one of her idols, the country star LeAnn Rimes, on Rimes’ new song “the wild.” “Hearing her sing these powerful words with me and knowing her journey in this business as a Black woman, it’s just been incredible to see her overcome so much oppression…. it was deeply emotional for both of us,” Rimes told TIME in an email. “Mickey coming into her own authenticity as a country artist and writing about her personal heartaches and triumphs, speaking from her heart and spirit, and pushing against the tide of conventionality: that is what country music needs to always be about.”

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But Guyton faced plenty of resistance: to her music being played on country radio; to conversations she tried to hold about race with industry leaders; to the representational gains that seemed to vanish two years after the racial reckoning in the summer of 2020. “I am seeing it very much going back to your regularly scheduled programming, and that’s something I’m scared about,” she says.

Guyton opened up to TIME about her year of growth and frustration.

When you walked into SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to sing the national anthem for more than 110 million Super Bowl viewers, what was going through your head?

It was the most nervous I’ve ever been. I felt like I was about to give birth for the first time or walk down the aisle and get married to the wrong guy.

To be honest, it’s really hard right now with what’s going on in this country. I wanted to be proud of singing the national anthem. So if you had noticed the choir, it was really important to show what I saw America as. We chose someone with a disability, a Black trans woman, an Asian man.

You performed in many iconic spaces this year, including at A Capitol Fourth and onstage with Metallica and the Nashville Symphony. What does it mean to enter spaces that haven’t welcomed many people who look and sound like you?

It means so much to me. It’s a heavy weight. After 2020, I did receive a lot of pushback and hate all at once. That was scary for me. Part of me has a little bit of anxiety when I walk into these spaces. But so far it’s been completely lovely people.

In the summer of 2020, you released the song “Black Like Me,” a searing condemnation of racial inequality. How do you think it changed, or didn’t change, race dynamics in country music?

I had so many country artists behind the scenes reach out to me, wanting to have conversations on what they could do and how they could be more of an ally. A lot of them did start finding musicians of color for their bands. There’s a drummer named Elizabeth Chan who played with me, who you now see at every country-music award show. Also, there are a lot more Black country artists that have loved the genre but didn’t think there was a space for them that are migrating to Nashville and trying to have careers. But if you study the country-music charts, they’re against women and people of color.

Read More: Black Artists Helped Build Country Music—And Then It Left Them Behind

All of the Nos. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart this year were performed by white men.

Yep. It’s f-cking frustrating. There are so many incredible singers out there and we’re just accepting the crumbs. I keep thinking to myself, I know some of you have daughters.

It’s a lot to digest, and part of the reason I stepped away from social media: I have to protect my inner peace. And people get really upset when you talk about it. They’re just tired of hearing it. But these are people’s livelihoods and careers that you’re deciding. You need to give your listeners a little more credit.

It does feel like many of the changes forged in the summer of 2020 around race were reversed, with Black books and histories being banned across the country. What do you make of those patterns?

I have seen it all completely wiped away, sometimes it feels like. Evidenced by looking at country-music awards shows: There was so much inclusion the year before. And there’s maybe one Black person on the CMAs nominated. [Breland was nominated for his collaboration “Beers on Me” with Dierks Bentley and HARDY.] And that’s just in one area.

How do you deal with it?

Behind the scenes, if there is an artist of color I think is exceptionally talented, I will straight up call my record label, A&R, whomever, and tell them about them. That’s all you can do–continue to mention people’s names that may have never gotten that chance. And creating the best music you can make in these moments.

What is the significance of your new song “I Still Pray”?

I wrote this song after the shooting at that grocery store in Buffalo in May. I was so affected by it. And with everything happening, with two shootings happening in the same week, this song has an importance right now because I literally don’t have the answers. I’ve spent so many years outraged by everything and I don’t have the ability to be outraged anymore because it’s so exhausting. The song is a message of, whoever you believe in, help us right now. Because we need it.

You collaborated with one of your idols, LeAnn Rimes, on her song “the wild.” What did you learn from her?

She is one of the kindest salt-of-the-earth people you will ever meet. She went through a lot, from her childhood, to the industry turning its back on her for her own decisions. A male in country music could engage in the same things and have viable careers. But there’s a fire in her that I thought was so beautiful. She comes in and puts a plate of amazing food in front of me. She feeds your soul.

How has motherhood informed your creative process?

I can sing about heartbreak—which I’m great at—but having a child really changes your whole perspective of everything. Our souls picked each other, and he is going to continue on when I’m going to be gone. I’m thinking a lot about that in my songwriting now. I’m singing about love, because that’s what I’m surrounded by in the end.

CNN

 — 

Russia launched a fresh barrage of missiles toward Ukraine on Monday as it accused Kyiv of striking military airfields deep inside its territory.

Dozens of missiles were launched by Russian forces towards Ukraine on Monday, cutting off water and electricity supplies in some areas, and killing at least one person in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, and at least two people in Zaporizhzhia, according to local authorities.

Debris from one missile also crossed the Ukrainian border, hitting a town in Moldova.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that more than 60 Russian missiles were intercepted. Yet some reached their targets and the shelling cut water and electricity access in Kryvyi Rih and in the southern city of Odesa, after recent shortages across the country due to Russian attacks targeting critical infrastructure.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukraine used drones to attack two Russian military airfields on Monday morning, adding that its air defenses intercepted the attacks “in the Saratov and Ryazan regions,” according to a statement carried on the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

“On the morning of December 5, the (Kyiv) regime, in order to disable Russian long-range aircraft, attempted to strike with Soviet-made jet unmanned aerial vehicles [drones] at the Diaghilevo military airfields in the Ryazan region and Engels in the Saratov region,” it said in the statement.

“The air defense of the Russian Aerospace Forces intercepted these Ukrainian drones flying at low altitude,” it said, adding the the destroyed drones “slightly damaged” two aircraft.

Three people were killed and six injured after a fuel truck exploded at the Russian airfield near the city of Ryazan, Russian state media reported. The explosion occurred at an aircraft parking lot at the airfield, emergency services told state news agency TASS on Monday.

The aftermath of the explosion at the airfield appears to have been captured by Israeli satellite imagery company ImageSat International (ISI), which showed “burn marks and objects” near “a Tu-22M aircraft that was probably damaged,” it told CNN.

The second drone flew to the western Russian city of Engels, where an airbase with the same name is located.

CCTV footage geolocated by CNN appears to show an explosion lighting up the sky at around 6 a.m. local time on Monday morning in Engels, which is around 500 miles southeast of Moscow. The footage, which was shared on social media, was recorded approximately 3.7 miles away from where the Engels-2 airfield is located, a strategic bomber airbase.

Saratov region Governor Roman Busargin, reassured residents on Telegram that no civilian infrastructure was damaged but said “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”

He acknowledged information about “about a loud bang and a burst in Engels in the early morning” was spreading on social networks and the media.

Pro-Russian bloggers have said that the incidents were likely an act of sabotage from Ukraine, which has not confirmed that it attacked either airfield.

The Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram that 70 missiles were launched on Monday by Russia. While it said that a “massive attack on critical infrastructure” had been repelled, with the bulk of missiles intercepted, some caused considerable damage.

The port city of Odesa appearing to be among the worst affected regions. Water supply company Infoksvodokanal said that in Odesa, “all pumping station and reserve lines are without power – thus consumers don’t have water.”

“Part of the city is without electricity, some boiler houses and pumping stations are off,” said Oleksandr Vilkul, a military official in Kryvyi Rih.

In the capital, Kyiv, about 40% of people in the capital are without power supply after an energy facility was hit on Monday, according to military official Oleksii Kuleba.

Power cuts were also reported in the western Ukrainian region of Prykarpattia, as a result of Moscow’s shelling campaign.

State energy company, Ukrenergo, had reduced electricity capacity in the Prykarpattia area by one third, Svitlana Onyshchuk, a regional official, said.

The head of a major energy distributor said the overall situation was difficult but under control. “Almost all regions of Ukraine are subject to emergency blackouts. Power engineers have started to repair the damage, the work will continue overnight. We will try to return to the scheduled outages as soon as possible to stop emergency outages,” Dmytro Sakharuk, CEO of DTEK, said on Telegram.

“The most complicated situation is in Kyiv region, Kyiv city, Odesa city and northern regions of the country. This is due to both the damage and the number of consumers,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked “air defense forces, our power engineers and our people” in a statement on Monday, adding that power engineers have already started to restore electricity.

He later added that repair work was continuing “in the central regions of Ukraine, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv.”

“In order to stabilize the power grid, it was necessary to switch to emergency shutdowns in many regions,” he said.

There has been much speculation about the Russian stockpile of missiles – with the last such wave of missile strikes on Ukraine happening on November 23.

In the wake of Monday’s attacks on Ukraine, the country’s Defense Intelligence (DI) said Moscow still has enough missiles to inflict heavy damage on Ukrainian infrastructure – despite stocks potentially falling to “critical levels.”

The shelling during the day was “another terrorist attack on peaceful, civilian infrastructure, primarily energy infrastructure,” according to DI spokesperson Andrii Yusov.

“Regarding high-precision weapons in Russia, by many indicators the stockpiles of missiles have fallen to critical levels,” Yusov said on Ukrainian television on Monday.

Further south, and away from the front lines, a missile was identified in a town called Briceni in Moldova, about three kilometers (almost two miles) from the Ukrainian border.

It is not immediately clear from the images what type the rocket is. CNN is working on confirming the type of missile.

The Moldovan Interior Ministry added in their statement “the area where the rocket was discovered has been isolated by police patrol and border police. The specialized services of the interior ministry” are on the scene.

Residents in Moldova suffered sweeping blackouts after the Kremlin targeted critical infrastructure in November. At the time, Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu warned the risks of power cuts remain high in the face of Russia’s grueling invasion of Ukraine.

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