China announced on Wednesday the most sweeping changes to its tough anti-COVID regime since the pandemic began three years ago, loosening rules that curbed the spread of the virus but had hobbled the world’s second largest economy and sparked protests.

The relaxation of rules, which include allowing infected people with mild or no symptoms to quarantine at home and dropping testing for people travelling within the country, are the strongest sign yet that Beijing is preparing its people to live with the disease.

Many of the changes announced by the National Health Commission (NHC) reflected steps already taken in various cities and regions in recent days, following protests against COVID controls that were the biggest demonstration of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

Even still, citizens cheered the prospect of a shift that could see China slowly emerging back into a world three years after the virus erupted in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Wednesday’s announcement quickly soared to the top most viewed topic on China’s Weibo platform, with many people hoping for a return to normality after a series of weeks-long lockdowns that have brought mental suffering to tens of millions.

“It’s time for our lives to return to normal, and for China to return to the world,” wrote one Weibo user.

Some investors also welcomed the shift that could reinvigorate China’s sagging economy and currency and bolster global growth.

“This change of policy is a big step forward,” said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. “I expect China will fully reopen its border no later than mid 2023.”

Foreign businesses in China also hope the changes could mark a shift to broader opening up and an easing of travel restrictions.

“We need the business environment here to return to a level of predictability whereby companies can return to normal operations,” Colm Rafferty, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said in a statement.

But NHC spokesperson Mi Feng told a news conference that any changes to measures regarding travel would be “gradual”.

The policy change came after President Xi Jinping, who regards China’s relentless fight against COVID as one of his main achievements, chaired a meeting of the Communist Party’s Politburo on Tuesday.

Some analysts seized on a report on the meeting by official news agency Xinhua that lacked any mention of the “dynamic zero-COVID” policy, though it was unclear whether this was a signal of a fundamental change in stance.

Major cities across China, including Beijing and Shanghai, were gripped by protests last month, which started to peter out amid a heavy police presence and various restrictions being lifted in different parts of the country.

Officials have not linked any of the changes, made on Wednesday or earlier, to the protests.

But they have been softening their tone on the health risks of the virus – bringing China closer to what other countries have been saying for more than a year as they dropped restrictions, and shifted towards living with the virus.

The looser approach has set off a rush for cough and fever medicines as some residents, particularly the unvaccinated elderly, feel more vulnerable to a virus that has largely been kept in check by Beijing’s strict policy.

China’s current tally of 5,235 COVID-related deaths is a tiny fraction of its population of 1.4 billion, and extremely low by global standards.

“Please buy rationally, buy on demand, and do not blindly stock up,” the Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration was quoted as saying in the state-owned Beijing Evening News.

In Beijing’s upmarket Chaoyang district, home to most foreign embassies as well entertainment venues and corporate headquarters, shops were fast running out of some those drugs, residents said.

The surge in demand drove up share prices in medicine manufacturers including cough syrup producer Guizhou Bailing (002424.SZ), and Xinhua Pharmaceutical (000756.SZ), which makes 40% of all Ibuprofen sold in China.

China’s yuan has seen a recent resurgence against the dollar, buoyed by the prospects that government would relax its “zero-COVID” policy.

But the currency remains set for its worst year since China unified official and market exchange rates in 1994, as its economy has been battered by COVID curbs.

In further evidence of that, China’s exports and imports shrank at a much steeper-than-expected pace in November, data on Wednesday showed.

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At least 150 ethnic Rohingya are stranded at sea off Thailand after their boat broke down, activists said on Wednesday, adding that several may have died and urging authorities to rescue the survivors.

Each year many Rohingya, members of a persecuted Muslim minority, risk their lives boarding rickety vessels to escape oppression and violence in Myanmar and squalor in Bangladesh refugee camps. Many attempt to reach Malaysia.

The number attempting the treacherous journey has surged following deteriorating conditions in the camps and last year’s military coup in Myanmar which brought back to power the army accused by the United Nations of carrying out a “genocidal” crackdown on Rohingya in 2017.

The vessel left Bangladesh in late November and began to leak when it was off the coast of Ranong, in southern Thailand, said Chris Lewa, director of rights group the Arakan Project, citing interviews with relatives of passengers.

“(They have) almost run out of food and water on the boat,” she said, adding that men were desperately trying to scoop water out of the vessel.

She said those on board said they had seen a Thai navy boat but it did not help.

A Thai navy officer told Reuters by phone the boat had not entered Thai waters and was currently in Indian terrority. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

The exact location of the vessel remained unclear.

Siyeed Alam, a Thailand-based Rohingya activist who also said he spoke to relatives of those on board, said some passengers had died. Reuters was not able to independently confirm this.

“Their condition is very bad… (they are) emaciated and if there is no help, they will die,” he said.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Friday said this year had seen a “dramatic increase” in the number of people attempting to cross the Andaman Sea between Myanmar and Bangladesh. At least 1,900 people had made the crossing, one of the world’s deadliest, six times more than in 2020.

At least 119 have died attempting the journey this year alone, the agency said.

A spokesperson for UNHCR in Thailand said the agency was “deeply concerned by the current situation aboard” the boat and was advocating that Thai authorities rescue them and help them disembark safely.

More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar in 2017 after a military crackdown that included mass killings and gang rape, and settled in sprawling makeshift camps in southern Bangladesh.

Myanmar’s military said soldiers were carrying out a legitimate campaign against insurgents who attacked police posts and denied widespread atrocities.

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Michael Novakhov @mikenov

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Não sei se você tem acompanhando, mas um desastre está ocorrendo em câmera lenta diante de nossos olhos. As redações do Brasil estão sendo esvaziadas porque está cada vez mais difícil sustentar o jornalismo, mesmo para as grandes empresas. Isso significa que os brasileiros como você, que se importam com uma sociedade mais justa e mais honesta, estão sendo cada vez mais prejudicados.

A CNN Brasil foi a última redação a efetuar um “passaralho”, demitindo mais de 120 funcionários na semana passada. Inúmeras redações estão apertando os cintos recentemente apesar do fato de que o jornalismo é mais necessário do que nunca. Até o Intercept quase fechou permanentemente apenas algumas semanas atrás (mas foi salvo pelos nossos leitores!).

Pense quantos escândalos ultrajantes não teriam sido revelados nos últimos anos sem o trabalho incansável de repórteres investigativos. Será que os resultados das eleições de outubro teriam sido diferentes sem o jornalismo? Eu tenho certeza de que sim. Mas a turbulência não acabou.

Não podemos deixar esse encolhimento da imprensa continuar em 2023, um ano que definirá o nosso futuro. O Brasil precisa de um jornalismo dedicado e independente para lutar em nome do cidadão comum.

E agora você tem uma oportunidade incrível de garantir que o jornalismo de que você precisa para manter sua água limpa, sua comida segura, seus impostos bem gastos e empresários bilionários sob controle: apenas no mês de dezembro, cada nova contribuição ao Intercept vai valer o triplo! Não é espetacular?

É isso mesmo, se você contribuir com R$ 50 para o Intercept, nós vamos receber R$ 150! Esta oferta incrível é graças a um leitor generoso que acredita na importância do trabalho do Intercept e nos procurou querendo encorajar outras pessoas a se tornarem apoiadores também. Para cada real que você envia este mês, esse apoiador vai casar mais 2 reais.

Melhor ainda: para membros mensais, a oferta se aplica aos três primeiros meses de contribuições. Então, vem ajudar a gente agora!

Hoje, lançamos a campanha de fim do ano mais inusitada e importante de todos os tempos. Será nosso primeiro ano sem o apoio da redação dos Estados Unidos e é muito importante que cheguemos a janeiro com um plano sólido para garantir nosso futuro. Aproveite essa oportunidade e ajude-nos a turbinar nossa redação em 2023.

Temos menos de um mês para alcançar a meta de 1.000 novos apoiadores mensais.

E por que apoiadores recorrentes? É simples: são os apoiadores mensais que nos permitem planejar o futuro do TIB e contratar jornalistas.

São eles que nos dão a certeza de que poderemos passar seis meses investigando uma mineradora ou um ano produzindo uma pauta sobre tráfico de armas e milícias sem que lá na frente nos faltem recursos.

Mais jornalistas executando sua profissão com responsabilidade significa mais revelações de fraude e abuso, menos oportunidades para os maus atores e mais proteção para os corajosos guerreiros da verdade que são nossas fontes que arriscam suas vidas para lutar pelo que é certo. A situação no Brasil segue grave; temos que nos juntar na luta.

Precisamos investigar o passado, para que possamos construir nosso futuro e continuar fiscalizando os agentes do atraso. A extrema direita não poderá seguir impune. Você topa vir com a gente?

Basta clicar na imagem abaixo:

The post As redações estão sendo esvaziadas. Precisamos de apoiadores para seguir fortes. appeared first on The Intercept.

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The post Sixteen killed in military vehicle accident in temporarily occupied Donetsk region appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

One of the objectives of the Russian Intelligence Services’ hypothetical involvement in the #Idahomurders (GS) may be the displacement of the Public attention and the media coverage from the #Russia – #Ukraine War onto the US domestic issues and problems. thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2022/12/one-of…

#homophobia

#Putin-#Russia’s sick obsession with homophobia acquiring ideological-cosmic-idiotic dimensions under Putin, while it is not an issue now in the most European countries; points to the deeply rooted, unexplored yet but very clear (Semi-)Fascism thenewsandtimes.blogspot.com/2022/12/putin-…

German authorities on Wednesday detained 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that the prosecutor’s office said were preparing a violent overthrow of the state, with some members suspected of plotting an armed attack on the parliament.

One active soldier and several reservists are among those being investigated, a spokesperson for the military intelligence service told Reuters. The active soldier is a member of the Special Forces Command, it said.

A former parliamentary lawmaker from the far-right Alternative For Germany (AfD) who serves as a judge in Berlin was also among those detained, along with a former member of a German royal family.

Investigators suspect individual members of the group had concrete plans to storm the Bundestag lower house of parliament in Berlin with a small armed group, the prosecutor’s office said.

One of the suspects, identified as Heinrich XIII P. R. under Germany’s privacy law, had reached out to representatives of Russia, whom the group saw as its central contact for establishing its new order, the office said. It said there was no evidence the representatives had reacted positively to the request.

Heinrich, who comes from the royal House of Reuss, which had ruled over parts of eastern Germany, was seen as the designated leader in the group’s future state while another suspect, Ruediger v. P., was the head of the military arm, the office said.

The House of Reuss had previously distanced itself from Heinrich, calling him a confused man who pursued conspiracy theories, according to local media. The house did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Prosecutors said the raids were conducted by more than 3,000 police officials and security forces across 11 German federal states. Suspects were arrested in the German states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Thuringia as well as in Austria and Italy, said the office.

The suspects are accused of preparing, since the end of November 2021 at the latest, to carry out actions based on their ideology, according to the office. These actions include procuring equipment, recruiting new members and holding shooting lessons, it added.

The focus of the recruitment efforts were primarily members of the military and police officers, the office said.

The group was aware its plan would involve deaths, the office said, adding that its members considered this scenario to be a “necessary intermediate step” towards overarching system change.

The group’s ideology is in the same vein as the far-right Reichsbuerger movement and QAnon conspiracy theorists who share the deep conviction that Germany is ruled by a “Deep State”, the office. It did not name the suspected group.

Members of the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) do not recognise modern-day Germany as a legitimate state, and insist the former, far larger “Deutsche Reich” still exists despite Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War Two.

The BAMAD said it had worked with the prosecutors on their investigation and shared information with the domestic intelligence service and federal criminal investigators in the run up to Wednesday’s raids.

The detained suspects will appear before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice on Wednesday and Thursday who will issue the arrest warrants and decide on their pre-trial detention.

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