(2022-02-12). 'Freedom Convoy': A Dangerous Movement for the Working Class, but Useful for the Ruling Class. orinocotribune.com By Communist Party of Canada — Feb 4, 2022 | The Communist Party of Canada views the "Freedom Convoy" as a public expression of the increasingly organized and assertive far right. The clear links between the organizers of the convoy and far-right networks indicate that this is not a spontaneous working-class demonstration. On the contrary, it is part of a global phenomenon: the rise and mainstreaming of the far right, which is demonstrated by the strong support (ideologically and financially) from the US far right and circles close to Donald Trump and the Jan. 6thinsurrection. The convoy is filled with Nazi…
(2022-02-12). Russia issues warning to US. rt.com 
Another round of negotiations between Moscow and Washington on Ukraine has been held ahead of crucial talks | Another round of Russia-US negotiations on the Ukraine crisis, on Saturday, saw Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warn his American counterpart, Antony Blinken against a "propaganda campaign" over an alleged plan by Moscow to attack Ukraine. | Both foreign and defense ministers of the two countries held phone conversations over "security issues of mutual interest," ahead of crucial talks between the presidents of Russia and the US, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, in the evening. | According to a statement f…
(2022-02-12). [Articles] Casirivimab and imdevimab in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial. thelancet.com In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, the monoclonal antibody combination of casirivimab and imdevimab reduced 28-day mortality in patients who were seronegative (and therefore had not mounted their own humoral immune response) at baseline but not in those who were seropositive at baseline.
(2022-02-12). Explosion in eastern Ukraine — reports. rt.com 
The news comes amid heightened tensions between NATO and Russia | Several unverified reports on social media and in local media have claimed that a large bang could be heard in the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. Some alleged eyewitnesses said they felt a "shockwave." | Denis Pushilin, the top official in the region, told RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan that the blast occurred in the area controlled by Kiev and that, in his opinion, the situation is "under control" so far. He added that the explosion appeared to come from what he described as a "
(2022-02-12). AI could already be 'slightly conscious', expert claims. rt.com 
Other experts are skeptical, accusing the OpenAI researcher of "trolling" | The co-founder of a San Francisco-based AI research laboratory claimed in a Twitter post this week that "today's largest neural networks" could already be "slightly conscious." | Ilya Sutskever from OpenAI did not clarify what system or systems he was referring to, or how exactly he defines "slightly conscious." | It is possible he was referring to OpenAI's GPT-3 — an advanced language processing system developed for translation, question answering, and filling in missing words. | Sutskever's cryptic tweet quickly engendered a deb…
(2022-02-11). Beijing Winter Olympics: Front line in new cold war on China — with Carl Zha. multipolarista.com With a diplomatic boycott by Western governments, corporate media propaganda has demonized the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. China expert Carl Zha discusses the new cold war.
(2022-02-11). Shen Yun: The Falun Gong cult's anti-communist propaganda roadshow. peoplesworld.org 
From February 15-20, 2022, Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will host a sensational retelling of China's history spanning thousands of years. Shen Yun—the stunning production that has graced stages in a perpetual roadshow across North America since 2006—is returning to the U.S. capital. The advertising for this affair across 96 cities …
(2022-02-11). They Don't Just Lie to Us About Wars. They Lie to Us About Everything. strategic-culture.org By Caitlin JOHNSTONE | The lion's share of propaganda goes not toward convincing us to accept new agendas of the powerful, but toward keeping us entranced in the status quo dream world which enables the powerful to have power in the first place. Toward normalizing status quo systems and training us to shape ourselves to fit into them like neat little cogs in a well-oiled machine. | And it's not even a grand, monolithic conspiracy in most cases. The giant corporations who indoctrinate us with their advertisements, their Hollywood movies and shows, their apps, their websites and their news media are all naturally i…
(2022-02-11). Beijing 2022 and China's challenge to sports imperialism. mronline.org 
In this essay, Charles Xu exposes these narratives for the new Cold War propaganda they are. At the same time, he draws from valuable left analysis of the Olympic movement's historical imbrication with white supremacy to explore China's fraught relationship with international sports.