Has the age-old conflict between liberals and conservatives ceased to matter? To put it another way, has the philosophical debate between left and right devolved into the semi-comic spectacle of “two bald men fighting over a comb”? That is how the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges described the bloody war in 1982 between his country and Britain over ownership of the windswept and desolate Falkland Islands. Signs of exhaustion and confusion abound on both sides of the left–right divide. As liberal leaders raged against the presidency of Donald Trump, their wish list lengthened, becoming angrier, more radicalized, and increasingly detached from reality. It now ranges from saving the planet to creating millions of supposedly self-sustaining (but highly subsidized) jobs in alternative energy, from universal government-paid child care to free or near-free college education, and from rooting out “systemic racism” in every institution under the sun to stripping poor (mostly Black or Latino) neighborhoods of much-needed police protection against violent crime. Time was when the Left prided itself on a fierce commitment to free speech and a willingness to debate others with opposing viewpoints. That time has passed. Welcome to the brave new world of progressive intolerance — where exclusivity masquerades
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the possibility of jointly producing coronavirus vaccines in a phone call, the Kremlin said on Tuesday (Jan 5). "Issues of cooperation in combating the coronavirus pandemic were discussed with an emphasis on the possible prospects for joint production of vaccines," the Kremlin said in a statement. The Kremlin added that an agreement was reached to "continue contacts on the issue" between the two countries' health ministries and specialised agencies. The two leaders also discussed the settlement of the conflict between Kiev and pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, that has largely remained at a standstill since peace accords were signed in 2015. Both Russia and Germany have recently started mass vaccination drives at home to curb the spread of the coronavirus and avoid reimposing nationwide lockdowns. While Germany is using the vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and the Mainz-based company BioNtech, Russia has put into mass circulation its homemade jab - Sputnik V. Russia announced the registration of Sputnik - named after the Soviet-era satellite - in August, before the start of large-scale clinical trials, raising concerns
