SO MUCH WEALTH! China tops U.S. as home to most billionaires

CHINA

A Journal of People report

The latest Hurun Global Rich List said: One in every two newly minted dollar-denominated billionaires last year stemmed from China. The Asian country had 1,058 billionaires last year compared with 696 in the U.S.

Based on January 15 valuations, of the 610 new billionaire tycoons globally, 318 were in China, compared with 95 in the U.S.

The report said: “China has added more new faces than the rest of the world combined, and pulled away big time from the USA in the past year.”

The Hurun Global Rich List tells the story of the world economy through the stories of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. The list ranked 3228 billionaires from 2,402 companies and 68 countries.

In defense of Ken Loach

PEOPLE AND POLITICS

Yanis Varoufakis

New Left Review | February 18, 2021

So, it’s come to that: Ken Loach is now the target of a character assassination campaign waged by those who will stop at nothing to shield the apartheid policies of Israel. Their message to people of good conscience is simple: Unless you too want to be tainted as an antisemite, keep quiet about the crimes against humanity and the assault on human rights in the land of Palestine. They are putting the rest of us on notice: If we can do this to Ken Loach, a man who has spent his life championing the victims of oppression, racism and discrimination, imagine what we shall do to you. If you dare support the Palestinians’ human rights, we will claim that you hate the Jews.

Sovereign 2: Could Cuba’s Covid Vaccine Break Big Pharma’s Grip on Production?

INDOMITABLE CUBA

Alan Macleod

MintPress News | March 02, 2021

The worldwide Covid vaccine rollout has gone anything but smoothly, with only a handful of countries able to immunize even 10% of their populations yet with a first dose. Two primary causes of this have been rich nations hoarding precious doses and their refusal to waive the intellectual property rights to their creations, both of which have led to massive shortages across the world, particularly in the global south.

These practices have been denounced by charities and human rights groups alike. Oxfam expressed its dismay that, as a result of copyright rules, three of the largest pharmaceutical companies on the planet are doing nothing to produce vaccines as they have not secured the rights to do so, even as up to 10,000 people die daily from COVID-19. Human Rights Watch has supported a proposal led by India and South Africa that Western governments should waive any restrictions on the production of lifesaving vaccines. But there appears to be little prospect of that happening soon.

The Age of Social Murder

CAPITALISM

Chris Hedges

MintPress News | March 02, 2021

Princeton, New Jersey (Scheerpost) — The two million deaths that have resulted from the ruling elite’s mishandling of the global pandemic will be dwarfed by what is to follow. The global catastrophe that awaits us, already baked into the ecosystem from the failure to curb the use of fossil fuels and animal agriculture, presage new, deadlier pandemics, mass migrations of billions of desperate people, plummeting crop yields, mass starvation, and systems collapse.

The science that elucidates this social death is known to the ruling elites. The science that warned us of this pandemic, and others that will follow, is known to the ruling elites. The science that shows that a failure to halt carbon emissions will lead to a climate crisis and ultimately the extinction of the human species and most other species is known to the ruling elites. They cannot claim ignorance. Only indifference.

Think all your plastic is being recycled? New research shows it can end up in the ocean

ENVIRONMENT

Monique Retamal, Elsa Dominish, Nick Florin and Rachael Wakefield-Rann

The Conversation | March 03, 2020

Research shows plastic meant for recycling often ends up elsewhere. Shutterstock

We all know it’s wrong to toss your rubbish into the ocean or another natural place. But it might surprise you to learn some plastic waste ends up in the environment, even when we thought it was being recycled.

Our study, published today, investigated how the global plastic waste trade contributes to marine pollution.

We found plastic waste most commonly leaks into the environment at the country to which it’s shipped. Plastics which are of low value to recyclers, such as lids and polystyrene foam containers, are most likely to end up polluting the environment.