8 January 2021 — The Defender
Study that found vaccines that don’t prevent viral transmission may accelerate evolution of more virulent strains could mean leading vaccine candidates may make COVID crisis worse.
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Lockdown ‘INEFFECTIVE’ against spread of COVID-19, may even increase risk to vulnerable populations, research claims
11 January 2021 — RT
A Stanford University study claims mandatory stay-at-home orders and business closures have “no clear, significant beneficial effect” on Covid-19 case growth and may even lead to more frequent infections in nursing homes.
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On the Edge: Security, protracted conflicts and the role of drones in Eurasia
8 January 2021 — Drone Wars
Click to open report Our new report, ‘On the Edge: Security, protracted conflicts and the role of drones in Eurasia’ examines the proliferation of drones and loitering munitions (often descried as suicide drones) across Eurasia. It charts their increasing use along the borders of separatist areas, aims to shed some light on the acquisition of large Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Chinese drones in Central Asia, and asks why this has happened and what the likely consequences might be.
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Black Agenda Radio for Week of January 11, 2021
11 January 2021 — Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Cops Colluded with Trump Mob at Capitol / Black Anarchists Prefer “Non-Hierarchical” Activism / Black Feminism Informed by “Sensuous Knowledge”Cops Colluded with Trump Mob at Capitol
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
“If this had been a Black-led effort, it would have been a massacre,” said Mara Vanderheyden, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice, which is demanding a “fully public” investigation into United States Capitol Police collusion with the mob that assaulted Congress, last week. “We can only conclude that this could not have happened if the Capitol Police had not allowed it to happen.”
(more…)
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Growing Protests Over Threat of US Bio Weapons
10 January 2021 — — New Eastern Outlook
The spread of coronavirus infection in the world has inadvertently forced the leading powers and the UN to open their eyes to many issues and, above all, to comply with the provisions of the international Biological Weapons Convention.
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Genetic Engineering, Agriculture and Brexit: Treachery in Our Midst
9 January 2021 — Counter Currents
By Colin Todhunter
The UK government has launched its public consultation on the deregulation of gene editing in England. To kick things off, somewhat predictably Environment Secretary George Eustice recently spun a staunch pro-industry line at the Oxford Farming Conference by stating:
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ASSA 2021: part two – the radical answers
8 January 2021 — Michael Roberts Blog
At the annual conference of the American Economics Association (ASSA), there are sessions hosted by the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) for Marxist and other heterodox economists to present papers.
At this year’s ASSA 2021, many of the URPE sessions were concerned with the economic impact of COVID-19 and climate change, as did the mainstream sessions, but, of course, from a different perspective. But before I look at those sessions, let me start with the annual David Gordon lecture presented by a different radical economist each year.
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“The Storming of the Capitol”: America’s Reichstag Fire?
8 January 2021 — Off Guardian
The four big lies underpinning this story show it was likely a staged event.
Kit Knightly
The media are already spinning a narrative around the events in Washington DC. One that bears no resemblance to reality, does not hold up to any kind of scrutiny and will have massive, far-reaching consequences for all of us.
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State Terrorism: Remembering General Soleimani
8 January 2021 — Global Justice in the 21st Century
by Richard Falk
[Prefatory Note: 2020 hardly began when the news reported the shocking MQ9 Reaper Drone assassination of General Qassim Soleimani on Januarary 3rd shortly after he landed at the Baghdad Airport to begin a discreet diplomatic mission to reduce tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. At the time, I felt this was provocative and self-defeating, as well as unlawful and criminal, as to deed and precedent. After a year those initial reactions seem even more appropriate than they did at the time. If the United States is setting the operative rules of world politics it is doing itself no positive service by such behavior, and with drones proliferating at a rapid rate, encouraging forces of disorder, whether governments or political movements. Published below are two efforts of mine to comprehend the many facets of this most unfortunate and humanly tragic incident, which was reinforced by the apparent Mossad murder by remotely controlled explosives of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27th while driving in a suburb of Tehran. The first selection is a short essay entitled ‘Remembering General Soleimani,’ and the second is an interview titled Responses Questions of Tasnim News Agency on the 1st anniversary of General Qassim Soleimani’s Assassination by U.S. drone on 3 Jan 2020.]
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Crisis, What Crisis? Hypocrisy and Public Health in the UK
17 November 2020 — Dissident Voice
by Colin Todhunter and Rosemary Mason
On 12 March 2020, British PM Boris Johnson, referring to COVID-19, informed the public:
We’ve all got to be clear; this is the worst public health crisis for a generation.
Since that time, we have seen lockdowns, an ongoing government-backed fear campaign, fundamental rights being stripped away, dissent censored, inflated COVID-19 death numbers and the use of a flawed PCR test to label perfectly healthy individuals as COVID-19 ‘cases’ in order to fit the narrative of a ‘second wave’.
But, just for a moment, consider an alternative scenario.
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ASSA 2021 – part one: the mainstream dilemma
7 January 2021 — Michael Roberts Blog
The annual conference of the American Economic Association (ASSA 2021) was unusual this year, for obvious reasons. Instead of 13,000 academic and professional economists descending on an American city to present and discuss hundreds of submitted papers over a few days, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASSA 2021 was virtual. Despite that, there were a host of papers presented, along with plenaries of the great and good in mainstream economics and economic policy.
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We Are Living in an Emergency That Requires Urgent Action (a note written with Noam Chomsky): The First Newsletter (2021)
7 January 2021 — Tricontinental
Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
The first newsletter of the new year is written in collaboration with our friend, the great linguist and prophetic voice, Noam Chomsky. What follows is a statement by Noam and me.
Xiang Wang (China), Extinction, 2020
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Assange saga: Real journalism is criminally insane
7 January 2021 — Asia Times
Ultimate aim of the post-truth Inquisition of whistleblower Julian Assange is his termination inside America’s gulag penal system
by Pepe Escobar
A mural of Australia’s Julian Assange is seen in Melbourne on January 5 after a magistrate in London ruled that the WikiLeaks founder should not be extradited to the US to face espionage charges for publishing hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010. Photo: AFP / William WestSynchronicity is definitely fond of mirror wonder-walls.
The Julian Assange saga seemed to have entered a new chapter as he was, in theory, on his way to – conditional – freedom this past Monday, only one day after the first anniversary of the event that started the Raging Twenties: the assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani.
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Julian Assange News Links 5-7 January 2021
7 January 2021 • 15:40 — The New Dark Age
There may be some duplication due to cross-posting and may be updated throughout the day, so please check back
The US and UK may not will Assange’s death, but everything they are doing makes it more likely
https://dissidentvoice.org/2021/01/the-us-and-uk-may-not-will-assanges-death-but-everything-they-are-doing-makes-it-more-likely/Assange saga: Real journalism is criminally insane
Proxy Jailor: Denying Assange Bail
https://dissidentvoice.org/2021/01/proxy-jailor-denying-assange-bail/
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Revealed: UK sets up media influencing project in Venezuela amid secretive £750,000 ‘democracy promotion’ programme
6 January 2021 – Declassified UK
By Matt Kennard and John McEvoy
The UK government has established a journalism project to ‘influence’ Venezuela’s ‘media agenda’ while a Foreign Office-funded foundation is spending £750,000 on a secretive ‘democracy-promotion’ programme in the country, as Britain appears to deepen efforts to remove the Maduro government. (more…)
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American right-wing funders back GB News ready for launch
7 January 2021 — True Publica
By TruePublica: Benjamin Ward, the Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch recently and very publicly accused Boris Johnson of systematically dismantling the democratic fabric of Britain. The illegal suspension of parliament was cited of course, but so was the gaming of appointments to parliamentary committees that scrutinise government policies. Ward also cites the dramatic increases in executive powers, the use of dictatorial decrees and hugely damaging undermining of the country’s independent legal system.
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It Wasn’t 2020, It Was The Ruling Class Trying to Kill You
6 January 2021 — Hood Communist
Reflections on COVID-19, capitalism, empire, and the worst year ever from the Hood Communist editorial staff.
They Are Letting Us Die
The sick reality underlying the present situation of poor, working-class, African, and colonized people around the world is that the people who currently have the most power to address our circumstances also happen to be the least interested in our long term survival. A decision was made in the spring that the interests of capital should supersede all consideration during the COVID-19 pandemic – that the machine should not be allowed to stop. That the trains were to run, the planes were to fly, the shelves were to be stocked, and the people were to work.
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PSL Statement: Trump Incites Fascist Insurrection Against Congress — What Comes Next?
7 January 2021 — PSL
Photo: Trump speaking to the Jan. 6 rally outside the White House ahead of the fascist mob’s takeover of the Capitol building Today, a fascist mob — called to action by Donald Trump and acting in obvious collusion with elements of the Capitol Police, the Department of Defense, and possibly other armed forces — stormed the U.S. Capitol building and dispersed Congress. Trump himself spoke at today’s main protest rally outside the White House as part of his campaign to desperately hang on to power. The extreme right wing that assaulted the Capitol today is united above all by the figure of Trump. Shortly before the mob marched on the Capitol he declared, “You’ll never take back the country with weakness. You have to show strength.” Trump more than anything else wants to avoid criminal prosecution once out of office, and retain his political control of the Republican Party.
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Both Tortuous and Torturous
6 January 2021 — Craig Murray
Magistrate Vanessa Bararitser walked into Westminster Magistrates Court No.1 at 10.12am this morning with the sunniest smile and most carefree disposition I have ever seen her adopt. Her shoulders appeared visibly lifted. She positively beamed at Clair Dobbin, counsel for the US government, as she invited her to put the case for the prosecution as to why Julian Assange should not be released on bail.
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US govt-sponsored website Bellingcat disrupts MH17 trial in Netherlands
2 January 2021 — The Grayzone
Bellingcat has attacked defense attorneys and smeared witnesses in the trial over the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Is it being used by Western intelligence services to steer the case in a particular direction?
(This report was originally published at Eric van de Beek’s personal website.)
The New Dark Age 