Good morning,
UKRAINE/RUSSIA
U.S. President Biden will meet Russian President Putin by video conference Tuesday to try to head off an military re-invasion of Ukraine. Putin says he wants assurances Ukraine will not join NATO, but thats a smoke screen because Ukraine is no where close to joining, and any assurances would be worth little over time.
Ukraine which broke away from Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union once had a neutrality clause in its constitution which was later withdrawn.
Russia which is mobilizing over 100 thousand troops on Ukraines border wants the country to by under its control, and has already invaded Crimea and Eastern Ukraine in 2014.
What will Biden say to Putin to head off an invasion? More sanctions? Will that truly be enough? Cancellation of the NordStream 2 pipeline to Germany? Maybe. But at this dangerous moment, Bidens meeting with Putin will be critical in forcing Putin to take a step back from the brink and that won’t be easy.
As my friend Edward Lucas wrote in the Times today; “Vladimir Putin is already laying down an artillery barrage of misleading claims about the threat Nato supposedly poses to his country, and contentious demands about how to de-escalate the crisis. Like a mafia don, he creates a problem and then offers to solve it — at a price”.
If you haven’t listened to our latest podcast on Ukraine the link is here;
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/9637680
Omicron Variant
The spread of Omicron variant is at lightning speed. At this time last week in Britain there was a handful of cases. Now there are over a thousand and you can bet that means theres really thousands and thousands we don’t know about.
It is all across Europe and the variant has now been found in 17 U.S. States and in Canada. 42 countries in all have the variants.
Severity? Encouraging signs so far that Omicron is NOT more severe than the Delta variant but more will be known in the coming 2 weeks.
Myanmar
The ex leader of Myanmar and Nobel Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to four years in jail. This is only the first of several cases against here and its feared she will be jailed for life by military courts.
A military coup took place in Myanmar in February and since then dozens of political leaders have been unjustly arrested and jailed. Amnesty called the charges "bogus", saying it was the "latest example of the military's determination to eliminate all opposition and suffocate freedoms in Myanmar".
CNN and Chris Cuomo
There is nothing complicated by the CNN decision to fire anchor Chris Cuomo after transcripts were released showing he not only advised his brother former Governor Andrew Cuomo over sexual assault allegations, but that he actively participated in outing the alleged victims.
Andrew Cuomo’s assistant Melissa DeRosa asked Chris Cuomo to “check your sources,” regarding an allegation of an unwanted sexual advance at a wedding by the Governor, encouraging the host to leverage his relationships as a journalist to help with his brother’s defense.
“On it,” Chris Cuomo replied at the time. At another point, he said he had been successful trying to identify the woman at the wedding.
“I have a lead on the wedding girl,” he texted DeRosa.
This is not a debate about helping a brother, or family over career. It’s about what responsibilities we have to be impartial as journalists and not taint our broadcasting or our broadcast platforms with partial politics bias.
This is not legislated, but it’s a code by which serious journalist live and work to protect our ability to be unbiased and impartial. It should apply to other networks that claim to be balanced. Plus this was not just about his brothers political careers, but also a criminal investigation into wrong doing.
Chris Cuomo knows better than most, what he did was outside of anything acceptable for a journalist.
And yes, by extension other networks, if they were serious about ethics and neutrality, would be asking biased compromised hosts to stand down because of their commentaries and obvious political bias, that torques their networks left and right and distorts the truth. And in the case of a couple of cable networks where anchors are stoking criminal violence, or peddling election falsehoods, they should be shown the door.
Only then would we have a settled balanced public discourse in America, but thats another story about media ownership and controlling the narrative for personal gain.
Cuomo had to go and bravo CNN for getting on with it.
Other News…
Pope Francis has wrapped up his visit to Greece today, calling on young people to resist the calls of consumerism. The Pontiff has encouraged faith in young to turn away from materialism.
He also lamented the treatment of refugees on his trip, and raised concerns about the retreat from democracy and human rights.
Have a good Monday everyone! And source article links are below for more reading and reference.
Stay away from fringe right wing-y cable outlets and crazy commentators!
Dana
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/texts-transcripts-show-chris-cuomo-000212029.html
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/biden-must-resist-joining-putins-poker-game-9vzlffcvf
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/05/cdc-chief-omicron-covid-variant-in-15-states-and-cases-likely-to-rise.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-59544484?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/pope-asks-young-people-to-resist-consumerist-sirens-as-he-ends-greece-visit-41122018.html