October 2020
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The factors drawing Putin and Xi together
The following is the eighth installment of an extended report on one of the most important geopolitical developments of the 21st century: the increasingly comprehensive alliance between China and Russia and its implications for Eurasian and regional powers across the planet. To follow this series, click here. Continue reading
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Will the Israel-US “New Wars” Succeed in Weakening Hezbollah?
When conventional military war failed to defeat the Lebanese Hezbollah, Israel and the US adopted different tactics in the art of war whilst avoiding overt conflict in the public eye. The new tactics, whilst not excluding traditional warfare, include a group of wars or actions based on irregular formations, terrorist acts, chaos, sanctions, electronic platform… Continue reading
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Bolivia’s Fight Against Imperialism Heads For Its Decisive, Violent Moment Of Reckoning
Mao Zedong, who had many years of experience with militarily fighting the forces of imperialism and reactionary nationalism, concluded that the mission of the retrograde facets of society is to “Make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again…until their doom-that is the logic of the imperialists and all reactionaries the world over in dealing with… Continue reading
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Gates Foundation doubles down on misinfo campaign at Cornell as African leaders call for agroecology
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded another $10 million last week to the controversial Cornell Alliance for Science, a communications campaign housed at Cornell that trains fellows in Africa and elsewhere to promote and defend genetically engineered foods, crops and agrichemicals. The new grant brings BMGF grants to the group to $22 million. Continue reading
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How a Police State Starts
On Saturday a small, socially distanced vigil of 18 people for Julian Assange at Piccadilly Circus was broken up by twice that number of police and one elderly man arrested and taken into custody. The little group of activists have been holding the vigil every week. I had just arrived to thank them and was… Continue reading
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The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 2
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin on October 2 that the European Union seeks a “constructive dialogue and a positive agenda” with Turkey. She had just returned to the German capital after a 2-day summit meeting of the EU countries in Brussels. Germany played a key role at the summit in steering EU-Turkey… Continue reading
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Russia’s response to expansion of NATO to its doorstep
The following is the sixth installment of an extended report on one of the most important geopolitical developments of the 21st century: the increasingly comprehensive alliance between China and Russia and its implications for Eurasian and regional powers across the planet. Continue reading
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Energy Policy: The UK Government conceded
The Government has at last accepted it must review its outdated energy policy that has allowed fossil fuel projects to be forced through. This important concession from Government, which can be read here, followed judicial review proceedings launched by Good Law Project in March alongside noted environmentalists Dale Vince and George Monbiot. Continue reading
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Eyewitness to the Trial and Agony of Julian Assange
2 October 2020 — John Pilger John Pilger has watched Julian Assange’s extradition trial from the public gallery at London’s Old Bailey. He spoke with Timothy Erik Ström of Arena magazine, Australia: Continue reading
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Revealed: Key Assange prosecution witness is part of academic cluster which has received millions of pounds from UK and US militaries
2 October 2020 — Declassified One of the US prosecution’s key medical witnesses in the Julian Assange hearing, who claimed that Assange’s risk of suicide is ‘manageable’ if extradited to the US, works for an academic institute that is funded by the UK Ministry of Defence and linked to the US Department of Defense, it Continue reading
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The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 1
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… Continue reading
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Assange’s Seventeenth Day at the Old Bailey: Embassy Espionage, Contemplated Poisoning and Proposed Kidnapping
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… Continue reading
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Doubt is a treacherous path. We must avoid being diverted towards terminal cynicism
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. Continue reading
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The Lancet censors Gaza health letter after pro-Israel pressure
The letter – “Structural violence in the era of a new pandemic: the case of the Gaza Strip” – was duly published in the The Lancet online on 27 March. Just three days later, however, in a move unusual if not unprecedented for The Lancet, the letter was taken down without comment. Continue reading
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If I Didn’t Believe, I Wouldn’t Know How to Breathe: The Fortieth Newsletter (2020)
1 October 2020 — Tricontinental Liu 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 Continue reading
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Black Agenda Report 1 October 2020
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” Continue reading
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Genomic sequencing: the brave new world
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… Continue reading
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Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day 21
I really do not know how to report Wednesday’s events. Stunning evidence, of extreme quality and interest, was banged out in precis by the lawyers as unnoticed as bags of frozen chips coming off a production line. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 