Selected Stories: Annexation of Palestine. Crime against Humanity

July 3, 20203 Comments

3 July 2020 — Global Research

Security Council, General Assembly Never Held Israel Accountable for Violations of UN Principles

By Michael Jansen, July 03, 2020

There is little doubt that some countries emerging from the death and devastation of World War II at least temporarily meant to commit to these principles. But, commitments did not for long stand the test of time. The four permanent members, the US, UK, France and Russia, had interests which assumed paramountcy over principles and conflicted with the Charter. Palestine is, of course, the most dramatic case. Western actions have consistently violated the UN Charter and international law. Despite the intervention of five Arab countries, Palestine was denied independence because of the determination of Britain, the US and France to partition it between the two-thirds Palestinian Arab indigenous population and the one-third Jewish colonists.
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A Statue of Hatuey

July 3, 20202 Comments

3 July 2020 — The New Dark Age

By Don Fitz

A monument to Hatuey is in Baracoa, Cuba. The plate at the base reads “To the memory of Chief Hatuey, unforgettable native, precursor of the Cuban liberty, who offered his life, and glorified his rebellion in the martyrdom of the flames on 2/2/1512. Monuments Delegation of Yara, 1999”.

If you look at a US $20 bill, you might notice Andrew Jackson nervously watching statues of Columbus and Robert E. Lee coming down and wondering if his face is going to disappear from currency. As Democrats ponder which militarist they wish to glorify in the next round of monuments, it is critical to realize that statues which go up are at least as important as the ones that come down. Perhaps the best nominee for a new statue is Hatuey.

A few years ago, while visiting my daughter and grandson in Havana, I learned that his favorite playmate was Hatuey. “I recognize a lot of Spanish names,” I told my daughter. “But I’ve never heard that one.”

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LEE CAMP: Connecting the Dates – US Media Used To Stop The ‘Threat’ of Peace

July 3, 2020July 3, 20201 Comment

1 July 2020 —Consortium News

Peace seems to have exceedingly, ridiculously, laughably bad timing, this latest time in Afghanistan, says Lee Camp.

By Lee Camp
Special to Consortium News

This is not a column defending Donald Trump.

Across my career I have said more positive words about the scolex family of intestinal tapeworms than I have said about Donald Trump. (Scolex have been shown to read more.)

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The New York Times fabricates Russian murder plot

July 3, 2020July 4, 2020Leave a comment

3 July 2020 — WSWS

Not since William Randolph Hearst cabled his correspondent in Havana in 1898 with the message, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war,” has a newspaper been so thoroughly identified with an effort to provoke an American war as the New York Times this week.

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Tonnes of ‘recycled’ European plastic pollute the oceans

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1 July 2020 — Climate & Capitalism

Capitalism fouls things up

Researchers find that much supposedly recycled plastic from Europe is in fact exported to Southeast Asia and dumped

Researchers from National University of Ireland Galway and the University of Limerick have concluded that “Recycling of European plastic is a pathway for plastic debris in the ocean.” That’s the title of a study published this week in the journal Environment International, showing that much of the plastic supposedly recycled by the EU, UK, Switzerland and Norway actually ends up in the ocean.

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The storm of protest in the United States

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3 July 2020 — MRonline

Interview by Ömür Şahin Keyif for BirGün (Istanbul) conducted on June 23, 2020

John Bellamy Foster

Originally published: BirGün (Istanbul) (July 2, 2020) |

ÖŞK: The protests started after George Floyd’s death continue all over the United States. Do you think these protests will fuel the will to organize among the working-class people? Can the energy coming out of the protests be persistent? What are the obstacles?

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Open letter calling for the release of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange

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3 July 2020 — Defend Wikileaks

Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC MP
Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

3 July 2020

RE: Open letter calling for the release of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange
CC: Rt Hon Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Download PDF here

Dear Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC MP,

On 8 June 2020, responding to a question in the House of Lords about the United Kingdom’s stance regarding the protection of journalists and press freedoms, Minister of State Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said, “Media freedom is vital to open societies. Journalists must be able to investigate and report without undue interference”.

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40+ Rights Groups Call on UK to Free Julian Assange

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3 July 2020 — Defend Wikileaks

WikiLeaks publisher turns 49 in prison, facing U.S. extradition

Dozens of press freedom, human rights, and privacy rights organizations across five continents have co-signed an open letter to the U.K. government, calling for the immediate release of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The publisher, who turns 49 years old today in HMP Belmarsh, is facing extradition to the United States where he has been indicted under the Espionage Act for WikiLeaks’ 2010-11 publications of the Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Diaries, and State Department cables. If convicted, Mr Assange would face up to 175 years in prison, “tantamount to a death sentence.”

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GM groups call on the public: Ask Ministers to reject plans to de-regulate gene editing

July 3, 2020January 11, 2022Leave a comment

2 July 2020 — GMWatch

UK: PLEASE TAKE ACTION

Three of the UK’s largest GM campaigns – GM Freeze, Beyond GM and GMWatch – have joined together to oppose an amendment to the Agriculture Bill that would give the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice, the power to change the definition of a GMO and re-classify many forms of gene editing as non-GM.

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Gene Editing: Scientifically indefensible, anti-democratic, and harmful to trade

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2 July 2020 — GMWatch

The amendment to the Agriculture Bill seeking to de-regulate gene-edited foods and crops should be discarded

An amendment has been tabled[1] in the UK House of Lords to the Agriculture Bill, seeking to change the definition of a genetically modified organism (GMO) in the UK’s Environmental Protection Act (1990) in order to exempt certain types of new genetic modification techniques, such as gene editing, from GMO regulations, within the context of “Agriculture Research”. This would mean that certain types of genetically modified organisms, including gene-edited ones, would escape safety checks and labelling. The Agriculture Bill will go to the committee stage in the House of Lords on 7 July.

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Institute of Race Relations fortnightly digest (17 June – 1 July 2020)

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2 July 2020 — Institute of Race Relations

If you suddenly move hundreds of extremely vulnerable people, en masse, together in vans, out of safe, self-contained flats where they could cook for themselves, giving them less than an hour’s notice, to shared accommodation in hotels where social distancing is impossible, at the same time withdrawing their £5.39 per day living allowance, cutting them off from phone lifelines – tragedy is very likely to follow. The asylum seeker shot dead after the multiple stabbing at Park Inn, Glasgow, run as an asylum hostel by Mears during the pandemic, is not the first to die after suffering severe mental health deterioration in this situation; Syrian refugee Adnan Olbeh died in early May at another asylum hotel. Charities and migrant support groups such as Positive Action in Housing warned for months of the dangers of this ‘hotel detention’.