Today Monday I'll be back on UK telly screens sitting in for Nigel Farage on the new must-see channel GB News. The show starts at 7pm GMT - that's 2pm North American Eastern. Hope you'll tune in.
UPDATE! If you missed the live broadcast, the show reruns on the livestream below at the following hours:
Midnight London time (7pm New York)
5am London time (9pm Los Angeles)
You can watch from anywhere on the planet on the GB News home page - or you can click the livestream here (you may have to refresh the page):
~On Friday's Mark Steyn Show, I noted that empire is always with us: If it's not the Romans or the Portuguese or the British, it'll be someone else. And, by way of example, I observed that China was basically taking over the entire British Commonwealth, from the Solomon Islands to the Caribbean by way of the Raj's old Indian Ocean ports. I didn't give an African example, but lo and behold:
Uganda has lost its only international airport, the Entebbe International Airport, to China for failing to repay a loan, African media reported.
The government has failed to reverse a loan agreement with China which had repayment conditions for attaching its only airport.
In 2015, China's Export-Import (EXIM) Bank lent Uganda $207 million at two per cent upon disbursement. The loan, meant for the expansion of Entebbe airport, came with a maturity period of 20 years including a seven-year grace period, News X reported.
However, as per international media reports, the Ugandan government waived off the clause for international immunity for securing the loan, following which the Chinese lender can retake possession of Entebbe International Airport without any international arbitration.
Ah, but don't worry. When America defaults, I doubt Chairman Xi will want a dump like LaGuardia or LAX.
~Beautiful Barbados becomes a republic at midnight, which pains me beyond columnar-length words. But is that too a China story? From The Spectator:
On Monday in the city of Bridgetown, Prince Charles will be forced to witness the spectacle of Barbados officially becoming a republic as it removes the Queen as its head of state...
The decision appears to have been influenced to some degree by China's activities. Barbados has signed up to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), while an office to facilitate investment in Barbados has opened in Beijing. Prime Minister Mia Mottley calls President Xi 'very engaging'. Barbados was among the first English-speaking Caribbean countries to establish ties with China and Beijing is now making millions of dollars' worth of donations to the country's armed forces.
These "donations" come from the money China has from all the crap every American buys at Walmart since the Chamber of Commerce "right" hit on the genius wheeze of transferring the entirety of US manufacturing to a Communist dictatorship.
~Today is the final day of our SteynOnline birthday sale. We hung out our shingle at Thanksgiving 2002, so to mark our nineteenth anniversary we're offering nineteen per cent off everything at the Steyn Store. Just shop till you drop as you normally would, and the discount will be applied to your basket as you check out. But only through midnight North American Eastern time tonight. So don't leave it too late.
Note that my books and CDs are manufactured in North America (Quebec and New Jersey mostly), at least until we get a better offer from Wuhan.
~It was a busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with the weekend edition of The Mark Steyn Show on GB News with Laura Perrins on the Great Migrations, Neil Oliver on this week's Covid mutation and John O'Sullivan on the light at the end of the tunnel. For his weekend movie date Rick McGinnis considered the pre-Corona prescience of Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets. There was another anthology edition of The Hundred Years Ago Show, and our Sunday song selection offered Stephen Sondheim's biggest hit. Our marquee presentation was the conclusion of our ongoing Tale for Our Time: Agatha Christie's first Hercule Poirot novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Click for the penultimate episode and for the conclusion - or go wallow in a good old binge-listen.
If you were too busy buying Xmas decorations from China this weekend, I hope you'll want to check out one or three of the foregoing as a new week begins.
~Incidentally, if you enjoy The Mark Steyn Show, you can find them "curated" (as the rather tedious expression has it) over at the show's home page, where you can explore not just the latest episodes but classic editions with Jordan Peterson, Lionel Shriver, George Papadopoulos, Michele Bachmann, Kathy Shaidle and many more.
Tales for Our Time and The Hundred Years Ago Show are special presentations of The Mark Steyn Club. You can find more details about our Club here - and we also have a great gift membership.
