Author: Osumashi
On the Korean Peninsula
How did this fly under the radar?:
What has happened to Kim Yo Jong, the North Korean leader’s influential sister?
That is a question many who watch the cloistered, nuclear-armed country are wondering after she failed to appear in absolute leader Kim Jong Un’s newly released lineup for the country’s powerful Politburo in recent days.
Some say Kim Jong Un may have demoted his sister over general policy failures. Others, however, believe he could be worried about her rapid rise and increasingly high profile as he tries to bolster his domestic authority in the face of growing economic challenges.
Also:
(Sidebar: this is a translation.)
In June last year, North Korea launched storm corps (11th corps) and 7th Corps in the north-central border area, and in August it warned that “personnel and beasts entering and invading buffer zones are shot without notice” through a social safety statement.
As such, the North Korean authorities used various measures to prevent the epidemic from infecting the country last year, including actual shootings while using military forces to prevent it from infecting the epidemic.
This continues into the new year. On January 2, residents were captured shooting at a bird flying from China by soldiers in Bocheon County, Yanggang. In particular, there was also a “drama” in which soldiers were killed in the shooting of soldiers who searched the border in search of food.
“Now we’re forcing the people to kill the beast,” the source said, noting that “it’s also inducing a kind of spread of fear that a cat coming from China could be buried with a coronavirus (virus).”
More and more residents are displaying their anger at the unknown ‘singing’ instructions.
“It’s not about killing a cat on the plate where people shoot and kill people,” he says, “it’s not too barbaric instruction.”
Trudeau Is An Ugly Liar
Trudeau was asked why Canadians could travel out of the country to tropical all-inclusive vacations, while children are being fined for playing hockey on an outdoor rink.
“There are rules in different part of the country that apply differently, and different jurisdictions will set up the rules they think are best based on the best advice from public health officials,” said Trudeau.
“We have strongly discouraged non-essential international travel, including by imposing mandatory quarantine to anyone returning to Canada, and now mandatory testing before they get on a plane to come back to Canada,” said the prime minister. …
On Wednesday, Bloc Quebecois leader Yves Francois Blanchet questioned newly-appointed Transport Minister Omar Alghabra’s ties with what he called “the political Islamic movement.”
Blanchet said that “questions arise” due to Alghabra’s role as the former head of the Canadian Arab Federation.
“I was absolutely floored,” said Trudeau. “Carefully coded questions, particularly this week when we just lived through last week, what happens when leaders don’t take care of the words they do, and play these dangerous words around intolerance and hate.”
“That kind of political pandering to the worst elements and to fears and anxieties has no place in Canada,” said Trudeau.
In order for the F@g to be a traitor, he would have had some allegiance to Canada in the first place. As usual, he is divisive and petty like a teen-aged high-school queen.
I’m Sure It’s Nothing to Be Concerned About
Japan plans to collect data from people who become infected with the novel coronavirus even after they receive vaccinations to assess how vaccines may help prevent the spread of the virus, sources close to the matter said Sunday.
**
Suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, a survey found.
The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to the study by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.
“Unlike normal economic circumstances, this pandemic disproportionately affects the psychological health of children, adolescents and females (especially housewives),” the authors wrote in the study published on Friday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
The early decline in suicides was affected by such factors as government subsidies, reduced working hours and school closure, the study found.
But the decline reversed — with the suicide rate jumping 37% for women, about five times the increase among men — as the prolonged pandemic hurt industries where women predominate, increasing the burden on working mothers, while domestic violence increased, the report said.
The study, based on health ministry data from November 2016 to last October, found the child suicide rate spiked 49% in the second wave, corresponding to the period after a nationwide school closure.
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The death of a Montreal Inuit man is being investigated after his body was discovered in a portable toilet just 25 metres from the homeless shelter he used to frequent.
The La Porte Ouvert shelter, which translates literally to “the Open Door shelter,” normally operates 24 hours a day, but was closed due to “plumbing problems and a major COVID-19 outbreak,” reports CBC Radio-Canada.
**
China’s economy exceeded its pre-pandemic growth rates in the fourth quarter, propelling it to a stronger-than-expected expansion of 2.3% for the full year and making it the only major one to avoid contraction in 2020.
Gross domestic product climbed 6.5% in the final quarter from a year earlier, fueled by industrial output, the statistics bureau said Monday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted 6.2% growth for the quarter and 2.1% for the full year.
“China has more than returned to trend growth,” said Raymond Yeung, chief economist for Greater China at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. The strong rebound means authorities can “prioritize structural reforms rather than economic reflation” in 2021, he said.
Oh, My …
Twitter Inc. is leading social-media stocks lower Monday as investors digest a new reality for the services after Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump from its platform and Facebook Inc. said it would restrict him at least until the end of his term.
The announcement from Twitter TWTR, -5.91%, which came late Friday, followed a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters midweek. Twitter charged that Trump’s tweets after the riot served to glorify violence and went against the company’s terms of service. Facebook FB, -3.54% had announced Thursday that Trump would be barred from its platform at least until the inauguration.
Twitter shares are off 6.6% in Monday morning trading, while Facebook shares are down 3%. Shares of Apple Inc. AAPL, -2.25% and Alphabet Inc. GOOG, -2.18% GOOGL, -2.14%, both of which pulled right-wing social-media app Parler from their app stores citing lax moderation policies, are off 2.2% and 1.7%, respectively. Shares of Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.94%, which booted Parler from its AWS web-hosting platform, are down 1.4%.
“While the week will certainly be remembered for far more shocking events, it’s not lost on us that we may be at the precipice of a change to long-standing internet rules of engagement,” Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik wrote. “Perhaps the limited time left in Trump’s presidency eased social media worries of a presidential retaliation, while a more cynical view we’ve heard suggests that these platforms took actions precisely because of the Democrats’ recent Senate win.”
Cynical? Really?
Wow …
(Courtesy: SDA)
There Are Two Canadians Sitting In Chinese Prisons
Guess which squeaky wheel will get the grease:
When Bolden was sentenced to die, the jury didn’t know he was a Canadian citizen. The Canadian government was also unaware that one of its citizens faced the death penalty.
Let the Air-Brushing Begin!
Kamala Harris appeared on the front page of Vogue.
The comments section is pretty brutal:
She is captured in two portraits — one that’s considered a digital cover and another that will be on newsstands and sent to subscribers. The digital cover shows Harris looking directly into the camera dressed in a pale blue blazer and matching trousers by Michael Kors. She has her arms folded across her chest, an American flag pin on her lapel and a genial smile on her face. It’s very much the political portrait. The backdrop is a medley of fabrics in shades of yellow from butter to saffron and quietly suggests optimism. Harris looks both traditionally authoritative and singularly pretty.
SEE! This is what really matters.
Voters Blocks
I believe that this was said before:
Immigrants are more likely to apply for citizenship to vote rather than to seek a Canadian passport, says in-house research by the Department of Citizenship. Foreigners said they prized the country’s freedom of speech: ‘It was for my children.’
People who care about their children recognise the reasons why they left their former countries and do not repeat the mistakes that made them unlivable in the first place.
No, this is about keeping certain persons or parties in power, hence the ethnic and sectarian divide and conquer.
Parachute a non (insert ethnic identity here) into (insert previously mentioned ethnic identity here) and run solely on the issues.
Let’s see who votes for the issues then.
Blinding White
But don’t take my word for it:
An all-white, female RCMP civilian board says cabinet should appoint an Indigenous member and “consider” appointing a Black person in the aftermath of Black Lives Matters protests. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission made its recommendation to the Commons public safety committee: “The only way the public complaint process works is if people trust the system.”
Affirmative action has served to empower fat, white liberal broads, infantalise instead of enfranchise minorities and squeeze everyone else out and we all know it.
Then They Came For the Balloons
Because I was not a balloon, I said nothing:
The Department of Environment in an educational program for schoolchildren recommends kids avoid party balloons as pollutants. Cabinet proposes to list plastic as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act: “You are never too young or too old to start taking climate action.”
I’ll just leave this right here:
Quality and safety issues are drawing more attention as incomes rise and upwardly mobile Chinese grow more health conscious. While virtually all toys on the market, whether foreign or domestic brands, are made in China, factories making foreign brands are assumed to abide by more rigorous standards to screen out lead paint and other harmful materials.