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  1. Hong Kong independent media outlet Citizen News has announced that they will halt operations on Tuesday after five years. Its website will cease to be updated and it will close “after a period of time,” the non-profit outlet said in a statement.

    We announced with a heavy heart that CitizenNews will cease operation starting from Jan 4 (Tue).
    To our subscribers and readers, we sincerely thank you for your support. We shall always treasure this incredible journey in the past five years. pic.twitter.com/32nSlQFAZR
    — ??? CitizenNews (@hkcnews_com) January 2, 2022

    https://hongkongfp.com/2022/01/02/breaking-independent-hong-kong-news-outlet-citizen-news-to-shut-down-on-tue-days-after-stand-news-raid/

  2. Although up till now the Biden administration has been treating “white supremacism” and COVID19 as the enemies, not Russia or China, I think there has been a subtle although mainly covert shift in opinion on the question of foreign intervention in the Biden administration. As I see it, a number of factors have influenced this shift. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was a very humiliating defeat that cost the administration a lot of popular and Congressional support. The Democratic Party has a four-year history of villifying Russia. Although this has been mainly a pretext for villifying Trump as a supposed Russian agent, this villification of Russia, and the repeated claims of Russian interference in U.S. politics, has created a lot of hostility to Russia in Biden’s political base. Biden and his puppet-masters will come under heavy attack, even from some congressmen and senators within his own party, if he does not make what is viewed as a strong response if Putin makes good on his threat to occupy and annex the two disputed provinces in eastern Ukraine.

    Of course, Putin’s threats and his movemnt of large forces to the Ukrainian border aren’t helping to ease tensions.

    I don’t think American soldiers will respond to a Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine with outright intervention in the war. But the USG will probably take some actions that will increase the danger of a Russo-American war. This could take the form of a naval flotilla dispatched to the Black Sea, or the dispatch of a substantial force of “military advisors,” possibly “contractors” rather than regular soldiers, and a build-up of U.S. forces in NATO countries with a common frontier with Russia, Byelorussia of Ukraine. Putin has publicly warned that any such U.S. action will have dire although unspecified “consequences” in the “military-political sphere.”

    The Biden-Putin teleconference apparently failed to result in any progress in reducing tensions.

    Does any of this have anything to do with China? I think so. If there are armed clashes or even a hightened cold war between Russia and the United States, it will make a context favorable to China’s own projected and threatened military moves in the South China Sea region. The U.S. doesn’t have the military forces, after several force reductions, to respond to aggression by two foreign poers in two widely separated parts of the world. If China makes military moves in Taiwan or the disputed islands, the present hawkish Japanese government may decide to intervene, even without the support of the United States.

    Again, be prepared for an extremly bumpy ride.

  3. From Business Insider this morning EST:

    Not directly related to Chinese problems, perhaps. But it looks like war or something close to it may break out between Russia and the United States in the near future.

    I am a student of the crisis that led to World War I. That war occurred when a similar situation arose. Austria’s invasion of Serbis led to an all-Europe war, even though Serbia (like Ukraine today) was a minor power of little strategic importance to any of the great powers. Ukraine seems to be playing the same role now in relations between the great powers.

    Be prepared for a sudden and unexpected disaster. World War I came as a complete surprise to many Europeans, who were preoccupied with other issues right up to the moment that war broke out.

    Putin threatened Biden with a complete collapse of US-Russia relations if he launches more sanctions over Ukraine
    Sinéad Baker2 hours ago
    Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin spoke on Thursday as Russia appeared close to invading Ukraine.
    Putin told Biden that sanctions over Ukraine could mean a total rupture in US-Russia relations.
    Biden urged Putin to ease tensions but said the US would respond if Russia invades.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin warned President Joe Biden in a phone call on Thursday that relations between the two countries could collapse if the US imposes sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

    The Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said after the call that Putin told Biden that sanctions “could lead to a complete breakdown in ties between our countries,” Reuters reported.

    “Our president also mentioned that it would be a mistake that our descendants would see as a huge error,” he said.

    White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that Biden told Putin that Russia needed to “de-escalate tensions with Ukraine.” She said Biden warned that the US would respond if Russia presses ahead with a Ukraine invasion.

    “President Biden reiterated that substantive progress in these dialogues can occur only in an environment of de-escalation,” she said.

    “He made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”

    The US, Ukraine, and their allies are warning that Russia appears to be preparing to invade Ukraine, its neighbor, soon.

    Russia has been building up troops and military equipment along the border.

    Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula in 2014. Russia also supports armed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

    The war between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops has killed more than 13,000 people in recent years.