Day: December 5, 2020

mid Washington’s continuing anti-Beijing rhetoric and fresh sanctions targeting various Chinese activities, the Asian giant was slammed as allegedly posing the “greatest national security threat” to the US by current Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe.

The US State Department announced on 4 November that it was curtailing five cultural exchange programmes with China, slamming them as “soft power propaganda tools.”

The Department said on its website it had “terminated” the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the US-China Friendship Program, the US-China Leadership Exchange Program, the US-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202012051081367684-us-pulls-the-plug-on-exchange-programmes-with-china-slamming-them-as-soft-propaganda-tools/

An outrageous statement by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas regarding the negotiation of a new nuclear deal with Tehran has been met with a devastating response from his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

In an interview with Spiegel magazine on Friday, Maas spoke of what he called a “nuclear deal plus” with Iran, saying the accord would also cover the country’s conventional missile program and regional role.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/05/640048/EU-arms-sales-massive-destruction

US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to withdraw nearly all of the hundreds of American troops deployed to Somalia, which is part of a global pullback by the outgoing president that will also see him drawdown forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump “has ordered the Department of Defense and the United States Africa Command to reposition the majority of personnel and assets out of Somalia by early 2021,” the Department of Defense (DOD) said in a statement issued on Friday.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/04/640010/Trump-orders-Pentagon-to-pull-nearly-all-troops-from-Somalia

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Moscow began distributing the Sputnik V COVID-19 shot via 70 clinics on Saturday to the most exposed groups, marking Russia’s first large-scale vaccination against the disease, the city’s coronavirus task force said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia-vaccination/moscow-rolls-out-sputnik-v-covid-19-vaccine-to-most-exposed-groups-idUSKBN28F09O?il=0

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will speak to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday to try to break an impasse in trade talks with time running out to avoid a chaotic end to the Brexit saga.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu/british-pm-johnson-and-eu-chief-seek-to-break-brexit-impasse-idUSKBN28F0B0

(CNN)For weeks, experts have warned Americans in increasingly dire terms that this winter will be one of the darkest periods in the nation’s public health history.Now that time is upon us.From California to Kansas, Massachusetts to Florida, and everywhere in-between, doctors, nurses, funeral home directors and food bank organizers are bracing for a devastating season. They’re already stretched thin and exhausted after months of confronting the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, but they fear the worst is still yet to come.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/04/us/covid-19-winter-doctors-nurses-funeral-food/index.html

The Trump administration prevented President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team from meeting with its counterparts at Pentagon intelligence agencies this week, according to a former senior intelligence official familiar with intelligence transition discussions.The slowdown means the Biden team has not yet been able to meet with officials from the military intelligence agencies within the Defense Department — including the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency — even as all other meetings by Biden review teams appear to be happening smoothly now after weeks of delay.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/04/politics/pentagon-biden-transition-intelligence/index.html

Tehran, Iran – Iran has extended many coronavirus-related restrictions across the country as its COVID-19 death toll went past 50,000 on Saturday.

Iran, the worst affected country in the Middle East, is battling its third wave of the epidemic.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/5/iran-extends-restrictions-as-covid-19-deaths-surpass-50000