Talking Points
- A two-week ceasefire was declared in war-ravaged Yemen
- A landmark report concluded that Syria used chemical weapons
- Saudi Arabia and Russia ended their oil price war with output cuts
- The WTO predicted a 30% drop in global trade this year
- Virus-stricken Japan implemented a state of emergency
- Boris Johnson's condition stabilised after he was moved to ICU
- China's coronavirus epicentre reopened after a 76-day lockdown
- Indians experienced a rare upside to the pandemic: blue skies
- FIFA was accused of taking bribes (we're seeing a pattern here)
- A pair of cohabiting pandas sealed the deal after ten years
Deep Dive
The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world resulted from an unfortunate containment failure at a Chinese chemical weapons facility in Wuhan. Or from an American bio-weapon attack on that very same city. Or it is a devastating (and possibly intentional) side effect of the 5G communications network...
What's 'pull the other one' in Mandarin?
Misinformation comes in many shapes and sizes: from the diligently omissive, to the cheerlessly conspiratorial, and right up to the palpably propagandistic. And the whole spectrum of grey has been on display in the last week.
First, to Wuhan, where a ten-week lockdown has been lifted. Beijing has placed great stock in the fact that it's halted the death toll at just above 3,300. But it's also broadly agreed that this is a galling undercount ; some residents in Wuhan believe ten times as many of their compatriots have died. But the regional capital is reopening now, to the sound of Beijing's anti-American drum. Wuhan played host to the World Military Games last October, and the presence of American soldiers at this multi-sport event proved to be catnip for conspiracy theorists. The theory that the visiting competitors from the US brought the coronavirus with them to attack China has not just been spread by Foreign Ministry spokespeople – it's regularly broadcast on state television channels.
The message that China has 'defeated' a virus of America's making has proven disturbingly sticky. As one official put it, "China's signature strength, efficiency, and speed in this fight has been widely acclaimed. A new standard has been set for the global efforts against the epidemic". Several hundred thousand Twitter bots have disseminated the good news . And the fact that the virus has sparked an unprecedented wave of racism against Chinese globally has bolstered the 'us vs. them' narrative beyond anything Beijing could've manufactured.
Don't open that chain-email
It is beyond doubt that a political culture in Wuhan and Beijing that punishes whistle-blowers forestalled an effective response to the coronavirus. The addition of finger-pointing and Cold War-redux point-scoring merely adds insult to America's injury. But instead of a focused and coordinated US response to China, Donald Trump's intemperance (and untruthfulness) in his nightly pandemic updates has once again soaked up most of the attention. The US president has leaned heavily on what he terms "the China virus", a racialised epithet that mirrors the propaganda blooming on Chinese social media platforms. His foregrounding of chloroquine is not without its scientific detractors. And it wouldn't be a Trump news story without him turning an underfunded international organisation (in this case the World Health Organisation) into a spear-carrier for a vast and imagined anti-American conspiracy. We shan't dwell on this too long as by now you'll be familiar with Trump's peculiar knack for drafting largely harmless entities into his list of grievances.
Instead, let's move the lens a little closer to home. Amorphous threats like this virus trigger something resembling a malfunction in our ability to mentally categorise dangers. We start reaching for easy answers, and just like that conspiracy theories emerge . A senseless death toll loses some of its angst if it becomes the fault of a long-demonised ethnic group. Or a re-tooled existing fear. That is why newly-constructed fifth generation wireless telecommunications towers have been assigned the role of arch-villain in the two most-popular, and absurd, conspiracy theories.
The first holds that 5G towers emit radio waves which weaken the immune system . The second – which would be quite funny were it not so convincing to some people – alleges that coronavirus itself is transmitted on those radiowaves. Here we see a generalised fear of rampant technological advance (be honest: we've all got it) morphing into a less-grounded but equally potent fear of unseen forces .
It's arguable that the salient trends of the last decade have been the sharp decline in trust of public institutions, and the internet-abetted demolition of fact bases. We're seeing the effects (read: wreckage) of these trends everywhere we turn.
Worldlywise
Biden vs. Trump
Bernie Sanders’ second White House pursuit has ended. The Vermont Senator was leading the Democratic presidential nominee race just seven weeks ago. But Joe Biden’s South Carolina and Super Tuesday wins reversed the early lead. Sanders couldn’t match Biden’s support among African-American voters. And Democrat party leaders, major donors and moderate voters all deemed Sanders’ policies of free healthcare and public tertiary education too far-left; a position that would make him an easy target for Trump.
Sanders will remain on the ballot in a bid to win more delegates and influence the Democratic platform. And though he’ll exit the main political stage, the socially progressive ideologies he has championed for four decades will not. As Biden himself said, Sanders has shifted the Democratic party to the left. He has also shown that nominees can fundraise through small donors; and popularised the ideas of universal healthcare, the $15 minimum wage, and higher taxes on the wealthy.
Sanders rose in not only national but also global prominence and popularity with the GFC and the subsequent Occupy Wall Street movement . Now, thanks to the coronavirus, America's entrenched inequality is again on full display. To wit: Jeff Bezos was again declared the world’s richest human while his workers staged walkouts , and 16.8m Americans sought jobless aid . As another reckoning for capitalism looms, Sanders’ ideologies will undoubtedly rise again.
Meanwhile, a septuagenarian standoff between Biden and Donald Trump begins. Biden faces many challenges in the run up to November 3. He must unite liberal and moderate Democratic voters , solidify his health care and climate change policies, and stay awake to disprove his pet name “Sleepy Joe”. He has made a start by proposing to lower the Medicare eligibility age, and eliminate some student debt. Trump’s success will hinge on his handling of the public health crisis. Which, if Wisconsin is anything to go by , threatens to seriously disrupt this election. Buckle in. It’s going to be a ride.
Cardinal sins
In 2017, long-whispered allegations about Cardinal George Pell manifested in the form of criminal child sexual abuse charges. Here was the third-most-powerful man in the Holy See, the Vatican treasurer no less, being dragged before temporal powers. It was a watershed moment for those who seek repentance from a church that has harboured and defended paedophiles for generations. After an initial mistrial in 2018, a jury found Pell guilty. An appeal the following year was refused 2-1. That result opened the door for the cardinal's lawyers to seek recourse from Australia's highest court.
This week a full bench of Australia's High Court justices quashed the earlier conviction and ordered the cardinal's release. The decision set off a wave of anguish for his alleged victim, and for the communities rent apart by Catholic paedophiles across Australia. It rippled around the world.
The painful reality is that historic sexual abuse cases are weighed down by uncertainty . Time erases evidence, memory, and accuracy. Juries are asked to make decisions based on the evidence of personal testimony and often little else. Credible witnesses may sway juries – as in this case – but their decisions will be prone to appeal.
Pell's release was celebrated in Rome by the Vicar of God himself, Pope Francis. The Supreme Pontiff prayed for those who he said had suffered "unjust sentences" .
The Best of Times
A green future
Three stories caught our eye this week: each of them speaks to our new energy reality. The coronavirus costs and shutdowns in the energy industry have been overwhelmingly borne by oil companies. This latest shock has only exacerbated the long-term trend: a full three-quarters of the energy generation capacity built last year uses renewable sources . This is unsurprising given the plummeting price of renewables in the developed world and the soaring costs associated with extracting and burning fossil fuels. 46% of the world's coal-powered plants will be unprofitable. It's increasingly hard to finance and insure these high-polluting power stations.
Footy's nearly back
It's the Bundesliga but none of us are in a position to be picky.
The Worst of Times
Counting the felled tall trees
Each year on April 7th Rwandans commemorate the 800,000 lives lost during the genocide of 1994. This week, some 26 years after he led a Tutsi army into the capital to end the bloodletting, President Paul Kagame lit the flame of Kwibuka (remembrance) in a solemn ceremony. Just days earlier yet another mass grave was unearthed on the outskirts of Kigali. It's believed to hold the remains of as many as 30,000 Tutsis killed by Hutu génocidaires.
White as snow and hot as hell
In February soaring ocean temperatures off the east coast of Australia caused a mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef. For the first time ever all three regions of the 2,300km coral reef ecosystem experienced catastrophic bleaching. As the reef goes, so goes the world.
Weekend Reading
Quote of the week
" Every number is a face ."
– New York Mayor Andrew Cuomo dispels the graphs and charts with a home truth.
Headlines of the week
''Zoom asks Facebook's former chief security officer to help fix its privacy issues" – BGR . In other news, AfD asks 8chan users to help fix its anti-semitism issues.
Special mention
A crooner , a folk icon , and the irrepressible Ms. Galore .
Some choice long-reads
- Businessweek confronts a danger to the family
- Financial Times asks a doozy: can sports survive the virus?
- Foreign Affairs tests the drag of China's vast rural underclass
Tom Wharton
