China’s biggest political gathering of the year is finally taking place after a two-month delay because of the coronavirus pandemic. Called “Two Sessions,” the first meeting was yesterday and was a gathering of top political leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Today’s meeting is of the National People’s Congress. Premier Li Keqiang will lay out the country’s economic goals and the policies needed to achieve them. And the U.S. government is lashing out at a new proposed Hong Kong security law.
Unemployment in the United States is likely in the 25 percent range with some 40 million Americans having filed for unemployment benefits in the past month. In real terms, it’s almost certainly higher, perhaps significantly, as many people have dropped out of the labor market or their benefits have run out. Like the US, the UK has struggled with its response to the coronavirus. But the official UK unemployment rate is less than four percent. That’s ridiculous, of course. Unofficial figures put it at around 20 percent. As Mark Twain once said, there are three kinds of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics. Is that what we’re seeing in the UK? John speaks with Neil Clark, a journalist and broadcaster whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The Week, and Morning Star.
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. John speaks with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog.
Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on the chaotic and deadly push to reopen the country’s economy, the 2020 election, exploding unemployment, a developing housing crisis, and more. Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell join Brian and John.
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