Day: October 1, 2020

The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 1

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1 October 2020 — Indian Punchline

By M.K. Bhadrakumar

Transcaucasian Trail: Ancient lands & new frontiers in great game

Three days into the renewed conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh in the Transcaucasian region — also known as South Caucasus — it is becoming clear that the binary narrative dished out by western commentators of this being a Turkish-Russian clash of wills and strategies is either simply naive or purposively deceptive. The point is, Russia and Turkey — and Iran in a somewhat supportive role — are already proactively talking of negotiations involving the warring sides.

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Assange’s Seventeenth Day at the Old Bailey: Embassy Espionage, Contemplated Poisoning and Proposed Kidnapping

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30 September 2020 — Global Research

September 30 2020, Central Criminal Court, London

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Today will be remembered as a grand expose.  It was a direct, pointed accusation at the intentions of the US imperium which long for the scalp of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.  For WikiLeaks, it was a smouldering triumph, showing that the entire mission against Assange, from the start, has been a political one.  The Australian publisher faces the incalculably dangerous prospect of 17 charges under the US Espionage Act and one under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  Stripped to its elements, the indictment is merely violence kitted out in the vestment of sham legality.  The rest is politics. 

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Doubt is a treacherous path. We must avoid being diverted towards terminal cynicism

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1 October 2020 — Jonathan Cook

What I think of as the cynical left are once again berating the progressive critical left, myself included, for failing to write what they want written about Covid-19. I take this as a kind of unintended compliment: that they think we can write about their concerns better than they can themselves.
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The Lancet censors Gaza health letter after pro-Israel pressure

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1 October 2020 — The Electronic Intifada

Omar Karmi

A doctor wearing a face mask is taking a boy's temperature

A doctor in Gaza City is using a temperature test machine to test a boy for coronavirus. Ashraf Amra APA images

With a fresh spike in the number of coronavirus infections, Gaza is yet again facing the very real prospect that its healthcare system will be overwhelmed.

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If I Didn’t Believe, I Wouldn’t Know How to Breathe: The Fortieth Newsletter (2020)

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1 October 2020 — Tricontinental

Liu Xiaodong China Refugees 4 2015 4Liu Xiaodong (China), Refugees 4, 2015.

Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Here’s a story that encapsulates the terrible situation of our world: Associated Press reporters were on a Turkish coast guard vessel which picked up 37 migrants, including 18 children, from two orange life-rafts in the Aegean Sea on 12 September. The refugees were from Afghanistan, a country that shudders from an endless war. One of the refugees, Omid Hussain Nabizada told the reporters that the Greek authorities held them in Lesbos, put them onto life rafts, and then sent them into the turbulent seas. They were left there to die.

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Black Agenda Report 1 October 2020

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1 October 2020 — Black Agenda Report

Who is Rwanda’s Real Hero? Paul Kagame or Paul Rusesabagina?

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
What Kagame has done to Rusesabagina, of Hotel Rwanda fame, embarrasses the US foreign policy establishment that has lionized his brutal regime for so long.

The Politics That Led to the “Worst Debate” 

Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
The incoherence of the Biden-Trump debate will be repeated every election cycle until Blacks and progressives break with the corporate duopoly.
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Genomic sequencing: the brave new world

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29 September 2020 — Open Democracy

The window of opportunity for the public to be heard is closing. This is dangerous.

The first bacterial whole genome to be sequenced was of the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae. – Wikicommons/ T CDC/Dr. W.A. Clark (PHIL #1617), 1977. Some rights reserved.

Many believe that tampering with human DNA is tantamount to “playing God”, and a boundary that must not be transgressed. Caution in the face of the unknown has led to blanket bans on certain genetic technologies. Our understanding of genetics, however, is evolving at a dizzying pace. This has led to the development of new genetic technologies, which make it possible to directly edit human genetic makeup.

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