China's Xi Jinping sounds alarm over inflation threat to global recovery

Tom Rees

Mon, January 17, 2022, 3:04 AM

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Xi Jinping Davos inflation

Surging inflation is threatening the global recovery and putting China’s economy under “tremendous pressure”, President Xi Jinping has warned.

The leader of the world’s second-biggest economy told the Davos summit that the world is “emerging from the depth, yet it still faces many constraints” after the low inflation backdrop “notably changed”.

He called for coordination on global economic policy in his address to the summit, which is being held online for the second year.

“If major economies slam on the brakes or take a U-turn in the monetary policies, there would be serious negative spillovers,” Mr Xi said.

“They would present challenges to global economic and financial stability, and developing countries would bear the brunt of it.”

He insisted that the Chinese economy will be resilient against growing headwinds but warned that “shifts in the domestic and international economic environment have brought tremendous pressure”.

“The fundamentals of the Chinese economy are unchanged; it remains resilient, has sufficient potential and its long-term prospects are positive,” Mr Xi added.

His comments come as China unveiled more economic support to fight the omicron blow after its zero-Covid strategy and property market woes slowed growth to its weakest pace in 18 months.

GDP rose by 4pc year-on-year in the final three months of 2021, down from 4.9pc in the previous three months. Forecasters warned that Beijing’s use of draconian lockdowns would mean a tougher year ahead for the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s central bank cut a key lending rate for the first time since April 2020 after Beijing placed 20m people into ultra-strict lockdowns ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics.

New outbreaks in Beijing and Shanghai in recent days have sparked fears of lockdowns spreading to China’s biggest cities.

Economists fear China’s economy will be hit hard by omicron this year as the faster-spreading variant pushes its zero Covid stance to the limit.

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North Korea launches 4th missile test in 2 weeks

Mon, January 17, 2022, 3:13 AM

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea Monday morning, its fourth test in less than a month.

“South Korea’s military detected two projectiles believed to be short-range ballistic missiles launched into the East Sea to the northeast from the Sunan Airfield in Pyongyang, North Korea, around 08:50 a.m. and 08:54 a.m.,” South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff told reporters Monday.

The missiles traveled about 236 miles and reached an altitude of about 26 miles, said South Korea’s military, which was analyzing details of the launch.

It was the fourth missile launch this year, following two self-claimed hypersonic missile tests on Jan. 5 and Jan. 11 and last Friday’s short-range ballistic missile that the secluded regime’s state news agency, KCNA, claimed was launched from a rail car.

Pyongyang’s consecutive showcases of its military capabilities came as the United States discussed sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear program.

“North Korea probably believes they pulled out a response from the U.S. by firing hypersonic missiles in the new year because the U.S. acted with new sanctions,” Moon Keun-sik, a military expert at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, told ABC News. “North Korea claims that ballistic missile test-launch is a part of the training, but it also acknowledges that their action is a UN violation.”

North Korea has said its weapons development is a rightful act of self-defense. The country blames the U.S. for escalated tensions.

“The DPRK's recent development of new-type weapon was just part of its efforts for modernizing its national defense capability. Nevertheless, the U.S. is intentionally escalating the situation even with the activation of independent sanctions, not content with referring the DPRK's just activity to the UN Security Council,” KCNA said on Friday, citing North Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

North Korea expressed open discontent about the sanctions imposed last Wednesday on North Korean individuals and entities who support the country's ballistic-missile program.

 

Nasa to ignite engines of $18bn Space Launch System in effort to return to Moon

Gustaf Kilander

Thu, March 18, 2021, 9:06 AM

The core stage for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket is tested on 16 January, 2021. (Getty Images)

NASA is closing in on the final test of its massive rocket that it is hoped will put the first woman and next man on the Moon.

The agency will ignite the engines of its $18.6bn Space Launch System later today for an eight-minute burn to see if it is ready for use this autumn. This will be the second test of the engines and the final run-through before NASA moves to the second stage on the launchpad.

The mission planned for November will be unmanned, but the hope is that this launch system will be used for a future manned mission to the Moon. However, budget constraints have blurred the timeline for such a trip.

According to NASA, the Space Launch System is a "super-heavy-lift launch vehicle" that it says "is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and cargo to the Moon on a single mission".

Orion is a kind of partially reusable space capsule that is intended to "take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before".

The burn of the rocket’s core stage using four RS-25 engines for eight minutes will generate 1.6 million lbs of thrust and take place at the Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi, close to the Gulf of Mexico.

Over 700,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen will fill up the tanks of the 212-foot core so that it can fire up its engines without actually shooting off into space.

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The goal is to test the procedure for its launch ahead of its mission to send a capsule without a crew around the Moon and back to planet earth.

NASA's acting administrator Steve Jurczyk said the Space Launch System "is going to be the most powerful rocket ever developed," NPR reported.

The test is to begin sometime after 3pm Eastern Time on Thursday. Earlier this year, a test had to be ended after 67 seconds because of an engine failure.

 

‘Autocratic. Anti-Democratic. Anti-American’: Schumer launches blistering attack on GOP bills targeting voting rights

Alex Woodward

Wed, March 17, 2021, 9:13 AM

(REUTERS)

Senate Democrats will introduce their version of the For The People Act, a sweeping voting rights proposal and single-largest election legislation since the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said lawmakers will revive the bill from Mitch McConnell’s “legislative graveyard” after the Republican Senator sidelined the bill along with other Democratic-backed measures.

The bill is an antidote to “despicable” acts of voter suppression across the US, Mr Schumer said, pointing to the more than 250 GOP-sponsored bills aimed at restricting ballot access in at least 43 state legislatures in the wake of the 2020 election, compelled by Donald Trump’s persistent lie that the election was tainted by “irregularities” and “stolen” from his supporters.

“When you lose an election, what you do in a democracy is try to win over the people who didn’t vote for you, not prevent them from voting,” Mr Schumer said. “That is autocratic. That is anti-Democratic. That is anti-American.”

Voting restrictions will disproportionately target Democratic-leaning voters of colour, according to civil rights groups and voting rights advocates.

“It’s Jim Crow, a century after we thought Jim Crow was dying, and it’s been resurrected in the most horrible way,” said Mr Schumer.

The legislation, along with other White House-backed measures in Congress, is likely to face steep Republican opposition in the Senate to fall short of a 60-vote threshold to pass. Senate Democrats are facing mounting pressure to reform the filibuster to pass critical items on their agenda and bypass GOP roadblocks.

Mr Schumer suggested lawmakers have not ruled that out.

“Failure is not an option” he said. “Our caucus will decide the appropriate action to take. Everything is on the table.”

A version of the bill passed in the House of Representatives would mandate automatic voter registration, at least 15 consecutive days of early voting for federal elections, and mail-in voting and drop boxes for absentee ballots, among a host of other proposals wrapped into the bill. It would also make it more difficult to purge voters from voter rolls and would restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people.

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