19 July 2021 — Counter Currents
NSO Group, a private Israeli firm that sells surveillance technology to governments worldwide, insists that its Pegasus spyware is used only to “investigate terrorism and crime.” Leaked data, however, reveals that the company’s hacking tool “has been used to facilitate human rights violations around the world on a massive scale.”
19 July 2021 • 14:45 — The New Dark Age
There may be some duplication due to cross-posting and may be updated throughout the day, so please check back
What do you really know about U.S.-Cuba relations?
https://dissidentvoice.org/2021/07/what-do-you-really-know-about-u-s-cuba-relations/
What They Don’t Say About Cuba
https://popularresistance.org/what-they-dont-say-about-cuba/
19 July 2021 — Dr Sebastian Rushworth
One commonly used trick in drug trials is to exclude any group that might make the drug look worse, such as those that are more likely to experience side effects. A good recent example of this is the covid vaccine trials, which largely excluded people with auto-immune diseases (more likely to develop an auto-immune disease after vaccination), people with allergies (more likely to have an allergic reaction to the vaccine), and, of course, the elderly (less likely to develop immunity after getting the vaccine, and more likely to become seriously sick from it).
JERUSALEM — In November of last year, an Israeli judge invoked the controversial Jewish Nation-State Basic Law when striking down a lawsuit against the city of Karmiel over funding transportation for two Palestinian students.
17 July 2021 — The New Dark Age
There may be some duplication due to cross-posting and may be updated throughout the day, so please check back
Gaza: A Vision Of What Capital & Empire Intend For The Rest Of The Globe
https://seeyouin2020.blogspot.com/2021/07/gaza-vision-of-what-capital-empire.html
Cuba Proves US Involvement In Destabilization Actions
https://popularresistance.org/cuba-proves-u-s-involvement-in-destabilization-actions-against-the-cuban-people/
15 July 2021 — Tricontinental
Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
In early June 2021, the United States military led a major military exercise on the African continent: the African Lion 21. Major General Andrew Rohling of the US Army’s Southern European Task Force said it was the ‘largest US military exercise ever conducted on this continent’. The African Lion military exercise, which was first held with the Kingdom of Morocco in 2002, is – in the words of US Africa Command – an annual ‘joint, all-domain, multi-national exercise … to counter malign activity in North Africa and Southern Europe, and increase interoperability between US, African, and international partners to defend the theatre from adversary military aggression’. African Lion 21, which included the armed forces of 21 countries including Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Italy, Libya, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, took place in Morocco and in the occupied territory of Western Sahara as well as in Senegal and Tunisia. The overall military exercise – with over 7,000 soldiers – was conducted under the leadership of the US Africa Command with the assistance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Flag of Afghan Taliban (in white) was raised on the Afghan side of the border with Pakistan at the major border crossing at Chaman, 14 July 2021.
The ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the meeting of the SCO-Afghanistan working group at Dushanbe on July 13-14 have thrown light on the templates of China’s approach to the evolving situation in Afghanistan.
14 July 2021 — GMWatch
The EU Commission has rejected criticism of its report on plants and New GE (New Genetic Engineering, genome editing). In a letter to Testbiotech, the Commission stated that there were no new risks associated with plants derived from genetically engineered plants compared to conventionally bred plants, as long as no transgenes were inserted. The Commission is directly repeating claims made by industry and affiliated experts that are contrary to existing scientific evidence. Testbiotech is therefore warning against the spread of misinformation and disregarding of science.
16 July 2021 — Good Law Project
The statement issued by Downing Street when Michael Gove lost the Public First case (“We welcome the judgment”) might almost have made you think he had won. He didn’t of course – and the finding he had broken the law by awarding a contract to friends of Dominic Cummings was a powerful vindication of Good Law Project’s analysis of the Government’s attitude to public money as “institutionalised cronyism”.
So, it looks like GloboCap isn’t going to be happy until they have fomented the widespread social unrest — or de facto global civil war — that they need as a pretext to lock in the new pathologized totalitarianism and remake whatever remains of society into a global pseudo-medicalized police state … or that appears to where we’re headed currently. We appear to be heading there at breakneck speed. I don’t have a crystal ball or anything, but I’m expecting things to get rather ugly this Autumn, and probably even uglier in the foreseeable future.
In many ways in their mindset, the US and Russia are similar.A “thaw” has appeared in the US-Russian relations. The unanimous vote by the United Nations Security Council last Friday extending a cross-border aid operation into Syria from Turkey must be regarded as an important moment.
February 2021 — Swiss Policy Research
Published: February 2021 (upd.)
On the strategic implications of the coronavirus pandemic.
Overall, medical aspects are only the operational level of the coronavirus pandemic: in countries where the median age of covid deaths is above 80 years, the public health impact of the pandemic will be quite limited and primarily related to serious cases of ‘long covid’. Indeed, even the WHO recently acknowledged that the coronavirus pandemic “wasn’t necessarily the big one”.
15 July, 2021 — NetPol
PHOTO: Loredana Sangiuliano
In the end, every member of the governing party in the House of Commons voted for the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in its entirety.
Perhaps surprisingly, this included the Conservative MPs who sit on the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which only a week before had been severely critical of the parts of the bill affecting the right to protest. It included the one Tory who had been part of an all-party inquiry on the Clapham Common vigil and Bristol protests, which had called for the scrapping of this section of the bill completely.
In late 2018 we learned about the secret British government campaign to smear Russia. The campaign was run by the ‘Integrity Initiative’ – A Military Intelligence Operation, Disguised As Charity, To Create The “Russian Threat”.
13 July 2021 —
…there is no precedent in world history of a nation that has been assaulted by another without pause for sixty years…
Washington believes that the time has come to intensify its attacks on any government in the region that does not obey its orders. In the last few days we have seen the suspicious assassination of the president of Haiti, with a modus operandi that bears the imprint of the CIA. Also the brutal attack by Colombian paramilitaries and drug traffickers, equipped with weapons of war, in the Cota 905 in the outskirts of Caracas and shooting at the top of their lungs at residents surprised by the unusual and unexpected aggression. The offensive against Nicaragua gained strength as opinion polls anticipated a resounding victory for Sandinismo in the next presidential elections.
14 July 2021 — Caitlin Johnson
Listen to a reading of this article:
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As the world burns, as ecosystems die off, as the insects vanish, as the forests disappear, as soil becomes rapidly less fertile, as extinction takes over, as the oceans gasp for air and become lifeless deserts while continents of plastic form in their waters, it is interesting how often you hear the sentiment that this is the result of some flaw in humanity for which we all share equal guilt.
14 July 2021 — Consortium News
Boris Johnson chairs daily Covid-19 press conference at 10 Downing Street, April 2020. (No. 10/Flickr)
By Dr. Bob Gill
in London
Special to Consortium News
On the 73rd birthday of the National Health Service, the queen awarded the beloved NHS the George Cross for the valor of its staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
No one doubts the dedication of NHS staff, and its worthiness for the highest honor, but this medal now serves to cover the insidious dismantlement of the NHS.
11 July 2021 — Indian Punchline
Amidst reports that Taliban fighters have entered Kandahar City, Afghan forces guarding a road, Afghanistan, July 9, 2021The untimely remarks by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the situation in Afghanistan during a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov at Moscow on Friday does no good for his reputation as a scholar-diplomat with integrity or for India’s standing on the global stage as a responsible regional power.
13 July 2021 — MROnline
President Miguel Díaz-Canel in San Antonio de los Baños. Credit — Cubadebate.cu
Originally published: Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation by Liberation Staff (July 11, 2021 )
13 July 2021 — Moon of Alabama
In mid June Turkey floated a plan to occupy the airport of Kabul with Turkish troops to allow for emergency evacuation of ‘western’ embassies. The plan seems to have originated on the U.S. side. I had speculated on what might be behind it:
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