This is the archive page of world news headlines and analysis for November 2024 on The Multiplural World. Items with red headlines indicate they were published in full on the home page of the website and emailed to website subscribers. Comments and information in square brackets [ ] are by the website editors. Previous months are archived here (commencing March 2024).
World news headlines and analysis for November 2024
How India, called ‘the world’s largest democracy’, came to be an authoritarian state, book review in New York Times, Nov 27, 2024 Reviewing: The New India: The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy, by Rahul Bhatia, published by Abacus (Hachette Group), Aug 2024, 440 pages (Read the review here in pdf format: How India came to be an authoritarian state)
Chad government ends military ties with France, Senegal says it will follow suit, Al Jazeera, Nov 30, 2024 [The move is the latest in a growing list of blows to the post-colonial status and ambitions of French imperialism in northern Africa. Chad was the last, large north African country with close military ties to France. Over in Senegal, there are some 350 French soldiers currently stationed there… ].
Related:
* Senegal demands answers for the 1944 massacre of Senegalese serving in the France colonial army, Associated Press, Nov 30, 2024 …Many French and Senegalese historians agree that the true death toll of the massacre at Thiaroyes, Senegal on Dec. 1, 1944 of Senegalese serving in the French army was in the hundreds, perhaps as many as 400. The soldiers had returned from combat in Europe and were protesting the fact they were not being paid as promised. Senegal’s government is bowing to public pressure and demanding that France explain one of the most sinister episodes of its colonial rule in Africa…
* 80 years after the killings, Senegal wants the facts from France, New York Times, Nov 30, 2024 …The calls in Senegal for reparations echo campaigns across Africa demanding truth, justice and reparations for colonial-era crimes. In the former French colonies of West and Central Africa, few historical events resonate as much as the memory of Thiaroye. “Thiaroye could be the foundation for a Pan-African consciousness shared by all African countries who lost citizens in the tragedy,” said Mamadou Diouf, a Senegalese historian and director of Columbia University’s Institute for African Studies. Mr. Diouf was appointed by the Senegalese government this summer to lead a research committee on Thiaroye. He called Senegal’s new attitude [emphasis added] “indicative of a breakaway and a strong assertion of sovereignty.”…
[Note the acknowledgement in the above New York Times report that demands for historic reparations from the former colonial powers of Africa, notably from France, Britain and Germany, are on the rise across the continent. This contrasts with the situation in Haiti, where calls for historic reparations by popular forces opposing neo-colonial domination have fallen by the wayside. The government led by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide that was elected in November 2000 placed the issue of historic reparations by France front and center during its three and a half years in office, cut short by a violent, paramilitary coup on February 29, 2004. President Aristide and the other elected institutions of government in Haiti were overthrown in a paramilitary coup aided by France, the USA and Canada. Ever since, the country has been wracked by grim crisis as the neo-colonial powers struggle mightily to maintain their domination.]
The Empire strikes back, launching military assault in Syria, new sanctions against Russia, and fomenting a coup in Georgia. Informative military analysis published on the Substack page of ‘Simplicius The Thinker’, Nov 29, 2024 [A new, seperate report on ‘Simplicius The Thinker’, dated November 30, continues the writer’s naive belief in “Trump and the West’s plans for a Ukrainian ceasefire”. But such ‘ceasefire plans’ do not exist; they are a myth in the minds of naive believers. The new Trump regime is cobbling together a ‘ceasefire’ proposal mean to prevent the looming defeat of the unelected and far-right governing regime in Kiev. This regime is an utterly subordinate proxy of the Western powers. The Trump regime is hoping against hope that the government of the Russian Federation will bow to a ‘ceasefire’ that will keep the Kiev regime in power, ready to continue fighting Russia another day. Only wrongheaded ideology could prevent a serious analyst from seeing this.].
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* Georgian police arrest over 100 at anti-government protest in capital city of Georgia, RT News, Nov 30, 2024 [A key element that is missing in Georgia compared to Ukraine in 2024 are far-right paramilitary shock troops, trained and armed by the Western powers. Thus is a Ukraine-style coup in Georgia unlikely to take place.].
* Over 200 killed, more than 7,000 displaced in clashes in Syria’s Aleppo province, analysis by Beatrice Farhat, in Al-Monitor (paywalled), Nov 29, 2024 The fighting marks a significant escalation in northwestern Syria, which had been relatively calm since a ceasefire between Russian and Turkish forces in 2020 (read the report here in pdf format: Over 200 killed, more than 7,000 displaced in clashes in Syria province of Aleppo)
* Syrian rebels reach central Aleppo as army announces a temporary withdrawal, report in Al Jazeera, Nov 30, 2024
Growing numbers of scientists head home to China from the West; others look to China for research collaboration, South China Morning Post, Nov 30, 2024 (here in pdf format: Growing numbers of scientists head home from the West; others look to China for research collaboration)
Related: Half of top 20 research cities are now in China, according to annual Nature Index, South China Morning Post, Nov 29, 2024 Beijing continues to lead the rankings of the world’s cities for the eighth consecutive year, while half of the top 20 science cities in the ranking are now Chinese (read the report here in pdf format: Half of the world’s top 20 research cities are now in China)
Donald Trump’s tech war against China will prove self-defeating, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, Nov 30, 2024 Biden’s ‘small yard, high fence’ strategy may become ‘huge yard, tall fence’ under Trump; prohibitively expensive to maintain and with diminishing returns (here in pdf format: Donald Trump’s tech war against China will prove self-defeating)
Fairy tales by Consortium News concerning the new Trump adminstration in Washington. [The publication writes on November 30: “There will be political rewards for Trump if he were to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine and to end Israel’s wars in the Middle East.” Yes, and Santa Claus may well be delivering nice presents to all the world’s little boys and girls this Christmas season. Hope springs eternal.]
UN is ignoring Russia’s requests to list alleged victims of ‘massacre’ in Bucha, Ukraine in April 2022, RT News, Nov 29, 2024 Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he has asked UN officials three times for the relevant list of names three times, ‘but the response is only silence’. There is similar stonewalling over the growing evidence of the sabotage in September 2022 of the two Nord Stream gas pipelines delivering Russian gas to delivery terminals in Germany.
Japan angers South Korea by clinging to its wartime atrocities, clouding efforts to deepen security ties, South China Morning Post, Nov 29, 2024 (here in pdf format: Japan angers South Korea by clinging to the record of its wartime atrocities)
Key takeaways from Vladimir Putin’s address to the summit meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, RT News, Nov 28, 2024 The CSTO security alliance comprises Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Putin’s address described the vast gap in missile technology that distinguishes Russia from Ukraine and its Western backers, and he stated that the unelected governing regime in Kiev no longer has the slightest democratic legitimacy.
Related: Vladimir Putin speaks to military defense council of neighbouring coutries of Russia, summarizing the military/political situation between Russia, Ukraine and the West, English transcrition of speech published on the website of the President of Russia, Nov 29, 2024
Ukraine’s leaders discuss continued war against Russia, plans to transform country into Western colony, analysis by Dmitri Kovalevich, in Ukraine, published in The Multiplural World, Nov 27, 2024 (Dmitri Kovalevich is the special correspondent in Ukraine for Al Mayadeen English, where this report first appeared on November 25, 2024. He writes two reports per month; this is his report for end-November 2024.)
Ceasefire in Lebanon and the future of resistance to Israel, analysis by Abdaljawad Omar, in Mondoweiss, Nov 27, 2024 The ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel has accomplished Israel’s goal of decoupling Gaza from Lebanon. But while the future of the Axis of Resistance remains unclear, so does Israel’s own strategic path forward.
Related: Interview with writer Abdaljawad Omar, broadcast on The Electronic Intifada, Nov 27, 2024 (50 minutes; interview begins at 1′ 10″ mark)
Visiting the Bekka Valley in Lebanon during Israel’s punishing war against the people of Lebanon, eyewitness account by Craig Murray in Lebanon, published in his website blog, Nov 25, 2024
Related: The displaced of Lebanon, 14-minutes documentary film broadcast on the YouTube account of Craig Murray (in Lebanon), Nov 26, 2024 (This is the first of a series of short documentaries we intend to make about Israel’s attack on Lebanon. We have plans for a serious programme of written and video content to be produced in Lebanon between now and Christmas, but this will depend on our obtaining needed financial donations to do it…)
A swell of ‘WW3’ warnings by Western governments and media aims to divert attention from mounting Russian successes, analysis published on the Substack page of ‘Simplicius The Thinker’, Nov 26, 2024
Related:
* Opposition in South Korea to Ukraine’s wish list for arms shipments, report in South China Morning Post, Nov 27, 2024 A Ukrainian delegation led by Defence Minister Rustem Umerov is set to arrive in South Korea on November 27 to request weapons aid, according to an informed source. But domestic opposition remains a significant hurdle. Opposition lawmakers have threatened to impeach South Korea’s defence minister if the government sends military aid to Ukraine… (read the report here in pdf format: Opposition in South Korea to Ukraine’s wish list for arms shipments)
* Ukraine drops its opposition to Poland investigating WW2 massacres of Poles by Ukrainian Nazis, RT News, Nov 27, 2024
And so it begins: Trump announces steep tariffs against China, Canada, Mexico, to take effect on day one of his administration, seeks to ‘blame China’ by falsely accusing it of responsibility for the opioid crisis caused by the long-failed U.S. ‘war on drugs’. Report in South China Morning Post, Nov 25, 2024 (here in pdf format: Trump announces steep tariffs against China, Canada, Mexico, to take effect on day one of his regime) [Time will tell how much of Trump’s tariff threats against U.S. allies are real and how much are bluff for the sake of negotiating pressure.] Related: U.S. should value China’s good faith in fentanyl cooperation, not shift blame, analysis by Wang Yi, in Global Times, July 8, 2024
Chinese scientists increase fighter jet afterburner efficiency to nearly 100%, South China Morning Post, Nov 25, 2024 (here in pdf format: Chinese scientists increase fighter jet afterburner efficiency to nearly 100%)
The U.S. and UK were ‘directly involved’ in the sabotage of Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines, RT News, Nov 26, 2024 …Sergey Naryshki, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), has told the heads of security services of former Soviet republics that “Destroying Nord Stream was an obsession not only of the Democratic Party administration in Washington but also of the Republican Party administration before it”…
RT News turns to far-right Tucker Carlson to promote its naive myths of a ‘peace loving’ Trump. Reference: ‘Washington elites want to saddle Trump with world war, says Tucker Carlson’, RT News, Nov 26, 2024
Mania over Western-supplied missiles to Ukraine dies down as the perilous state of the NATO proxy come into ever sharper focus, report on the Substack page of ‘Simplicius The Thinker’, Nov 25, 2024 The dual hype surrounding both the Oreshnik ‘secret weapon’ and Ukraine’s ATACMS/Storm Shadow strikes on Russian territory has died down, to reveal the continuing pattern of Russian troop advancement on every front. A new graph highlights the accelerating territorial captures in square kilometers of the Russian forces this year from April to November. The mood has turned absolutely dour in the West’media, which has for months been doing its desperate best to prop up Ukraine’s hopeless cause…
[In the wake of the Nov 5 election of Donald Trump, this writer voiced naive hope that Trump may well “settle the war in Ukraine”. Perhaps as a result of readership rebellion, he writes in this new report, “Unfortunately, some of the recent signals [cabinet appointments by the Trump presidential clique] are getting worse in this regard, and seem to indicate escalation as the plan.” And further: “Trump’s ‘peace through strength’ mantra is the real biggest threat we face because Putin is the one leader Trump could misread, as Putin has no further room for backing down: the conflict’s resolution is an existential issue for Russia. It’s the unmovable object versus the unstoppable force…”
Shift in tone by anti-Russia, ‘Counterfire’ leftists in Britain: Reference: ‘Weekly briefing by Lindsey German’, published in Counterfire, Nov 24, 2024 …There has always been a strand of the left that supported the arming of Ukraine in the slipstream of British government policy, on the grounds that it was about the right of small nations to self-determination. It’s a spurious argument… [But the writer shows her continued, anti-Russia colors in describing the war in Ukraine as an ‘inter-imperial rivalry’. Such a description whitewashes the long aggression by the Western imperialist powers (the ‘real’ imperialist powers) against Russia. This aggression accelerated following the 2014 coup in Ukraine, the key event which Trotskyists and other deluded leftists in the West prefer to never mention or think about.]
European Union and USA are losing to China the battle for cooperation with Africa and Latin America, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, Nov 25, 2024 Developing countries prefer investment and infrastructure development over the West’s moralising hypocrisy and badmouthing (here in pdf format: EU and USA are losing to China the battle for cooperation with Africa and Latin America)
South Korea holds memorial to forced laborers at Sado mines during WW2, one day after boycotting Japanese event, Associated Press, Nov 25, 2024
Related: Groveling diplomacy by Seoul toward Japan derails memorial service over forced labour at wartime Japan’s Sado mines, report in The Hankyoreh, Nov 25, 2024 …In July 2024, the South Korean government consented to the registration as a UNESCO World Heritage site the wartime gold mine complex on Japan’s island of Sado (Niigata Prefecture). This despite the de facto erasure by Japan of the mine’s history as a site of Korean forced labor…
Chinese scientists build ‘recoilless AK-47’ that can be wielded by almost any drone, South China Morning Post, Nov 25, 2024
Related: New coating can make China’s stealth aircraft and drones invisible to anti-stealth radar, South China Morning Post, Nov 25, 2024 Chinese military scientists have achieved the impossible with a new stealth material that can defeat anti-stealth radar
Previously reported: Scientists in China develop anti-ship missile that flies at hypersonic speed and plunges into the sea to strike target, South China Morning Post, Nov 23, 2024 No country yet has the ability to intercept such weapons, says the Chinese research team (read the report here in pdf format: Scientists in China develop anti-ship missile that flies at hypersonic speed and plunges into the sea to strike target)
The Int’l Criminal Court, a Western tool with no powers of enforcement, has finally issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. The fight is far from over, analysis by Craig Mokhiber, in Mondoweiss, Nov 21, 2024 The International Criminal Court issued ‘arrest warrants’ on November 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes committed in Gaza. As a result, the two will be unable to travel to at least 124 countries. …The ICC warrants were issued after the longest delay in the Court’s history, during which Israeli and U.S. persecution of the court, slander of the Court by pro-Israel media and lobby proxies, and personnel shake-ups, were also unprecedented. But the glare of global public attention and its demands for justice have prevailed, at least for now. Each one of the parties to the 1998 ‘Rome Statute’ of the ICC that established the ICC is now obliged to arrest the two war criminals and hand them over for trial… [the arrest warrants should curb Western government proclivities to grant free travel to anyone else representing the Israel apartheid regime, including athletes, for example…].
Related: Israel pounds residents of central Beirut while killing 120 in Gaza during previous 48 hours, live updates in Al Jazeera, Nov 23, 2024 and read: report in Al Mayadeen English, Nov 23, 2024 [Apartheid Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon in late 2024, while its genocide in Gaza has killed nearly 45,000 beginning in October 2023.]
As the world burns from global warming and poverty rises, world peace is shattering and military spending is running amok, commentary by David Dodwell, columnist, South China Morning Post, Nov 23, 2024 (read the column here in pdf format: World peace is shattering and military spending is running amok) [This commentary by a business columnist in the South China Morning Post raises an alarm which most leftists and environmentalists in the West are unable to voice due to their prevailing anti-Russia confusion and prejudices. The prejudices, in turn, prevent the said leftists and environmentalists from understanding modern-day imperialism, leaving them totally unable to explain and fight for the needed socialist alternative. Indeed, far from fighting for an alternative to global imperialism, the skewed and misleading ideologies of such ‘leftists’ and environmentalists have made them part of the problem. So long as these anti-Russia (and anti-China) prejudices and ideologies are not named, described and denounced (for example, degenerate Trotskyism), then ideological confusion will continue to reign.]
With Trump 2.0, it will be every country for itself, analysis by Andrew Sheng, in South China Morning Post, Nov 23, 2024 (Andrew Sheng is a former central banker and financial regulator, currently distinguished fellow at the Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong. Read his analysis here in pdf format: With Trump 2.0, it will be every country for itself)
‘Please Mr. Trump, speak out against the war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear war. Never mind that everything you did during 2017 to 2021 was the opposite, my naive hope springs eternal.’ Latest essay by Scott Ritter, published on his Substack page ‘Scott Ritter Extra’, Nov 23, 2024
Previously reported: Scott Ritter joins the ‘give Trump a chance’ crowd. Reference: ‘Why Matt Gaetz matters’, essay by Scott Ritter, published on his website blog ‘Scott Ritter Extra’, Nov 16, 2024 President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Matt Gaetz to be the next Attorney General of the United States. Many Americans are appalled and offended by this choice. I find it one of the best nominations made by Trump… Matt Gaetz wants to hold the FBI and Dept. of Justice to account[!]. We should do everything possible to give him the chance to do just that by supporting his nomination as Attorney General. We are in the midst of the Trump Revolution [??] and Matt Gaetz is as revolutionary as they come…
Related:
* [Another writer on Substack of the ‘give Trump a chance’ crowd of naive analysts is ‘Simplicius The Thinker‘, otherwise known for excellent military analysis of the U.S./NATO-driven war in Ukraine.].
* Liberal imperialist Jeffrey Sachs adds his voice to those appealing to Donald Trump regime to ‘be nice’. Reference: ‘What ails America, and how Donald Trump could fix it’, essay by Jeffrey Sachs, in Common Dreams, Nov 23, 2024 [Common to all the liberal-imperialist analysts and to the other, naive analysts ‘hoping’ for good outcomes to the Donald Trump presidency is an absolute lack of faith that the people of the world have the capacity to chart a new path for humanity that simultaneously opposes the worsening global warming emergency and rising imperialist militarism and war.]
Scientists in China develop anti-ship missile that flies at hypersonic speed and plunges into the sea to strike target, South China Morning Post, Nov 23, 2024 No country yet has the ability to intercept such weapons, says the Chinese research team (read the report here in pdf format: Scientists in China develop anti-ship missile that flies at hypersonic speed and plunges into the sea to strike target)
Vladimir Putin speaks to the people of Russia and the world about the U.S.-led military escalation taking place in Ukraine, video and transcript of nine-minute broadcast by Vladimir Putin on Thursday, November 21, broadcast and published on the website of the President of Russia, Nov 21, 2024
…We are developing intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in response to US plans to produce and deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
We believe that the United States made a mistake by unilaterally destroying the INF Treaty in 2019 under a far-fetched pretext [Wikipedia]. Today, the United States is not only producing such equipment. As we see, it is also working out ways to deploy its advanced missile systems to different regions of the world during training exercises for its troops, including in Europe. In the course of these exercises, they are conducting training for using them. I remind here that Russia has voluntarily and unilaterally committed not to deploy intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles until U.S. weapons of this kind appear in any region of the world. To reiterate, we are conducting combat tests of the Oreshnik hypersonic missile system in response to NATO’s aggressive actions against Russia. Our decision on further deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles will depend on the actions of the United States and its satellites.
We will determine the targets during further tests of our advanced missile systems based on the threats to the security of the Russian Federation. We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow to use their weapons against our facilities, and in case of an escalation of aggressive actions, we will respond decisively and in mirror-like manner. I recommend that the ruling elites of the countries that are hatching plans to use their military contingents against Russia seriously consider this… Air defence systems currently available in the world and missile defence systems being created by the Americans in Europe cannot intercept our advanced missile systems; it is impossible…
Breaking news: France follows U.S. and Britain in permitting Ukraine regime to use of its long-range missiles against Russia, RT International, Nov 23, 2024
The beginning of the end for Israel, essay by Stefan Moore (American-Australian documentary filmmaker), published in Consortium News, Nov 21, 2024 … Israel is collapsing from within while externally it has become a pariah state in the eyes of the world… Today, Donald Trump and his rabidly Zionist cabinet appointees may draw out Israel’s offensive but they won’t fundamentally change the calculus. In the foreseeable future, Israel will cease to exist as a nation, hopefully replaced by a secular, democratic state where Palestinians and Jewish citizens will be able to live side by side in peace.
Related: Israel’s war of genocide in Gaza follows the long, terrorist war by the West against the people and state of Syria, essay by Bouthaina Shaaban, in Al Mayadeen English, Nov 18, 2024
Ford is latest auto firm to cut jobs in Europe, 14% of its workforce there, RT News, Nov 22, 2024 …The job cuts are due to weak sales of electric vehicles and due to rising competition from EV manufacturers in China. The bulk of the layoffs will take place in Germany, where 2,900 positions are under threat, and in Britain, with an expected 800 jobs to be cut. Volkswagen earlier announced that it would consider plant closures or layoffs in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history…
Related:
* Volkwagen facing job cuts as sales decline, report by Inside EV’s, July 11, 2024 …The Volkswagen Group reported 2,243,700 vehicle sales globally during the second quarter of 2024, a 3.8% decline compared to Q2 2023. The first half of 2024 was also negative at 4,348,000, down 0.6%. The company’s all-electric vehicle sales recently stalled, which is a worrying sign. In Q2, Volkswagen Group’s EV sales amounted to about 180,800, up 0.1% year-over-year. That’s about 8.1% of the total volume, compared to 7.7% a year earlier, but the growth is solely due to the total sales decline…
* VW profits down, opinion is mixed on prospects, Forbes magazine, Oct 11, 2024 …This is VW’s second profit warning this year and follows similar declarations this month from BMW and Mercedes. Stellantis has taken a massive hit of nearly 15% to its stock price…
* EU slaps stiff tariffs on imports of electric vehicles manufactured in China, report by Reuters, Oct 29, 2024
Chinese firms boost purchases of microchips from the U.S. ahead of Trump-led regime taking office, South China Morning Post, Nov 22, 2024 (read the report here in pdf format: Chinese firms boost purchases of microchips from U.S.)
RT News continues its favorable reporting of Trump election in interview with Trump-welcoming analyst Larry Johnson (‘Sonar 21’). Reference: interview with Larry Johnson, RT News, Nov 21, 2024 [The malevolent analyst Larry Johnson routinely gives the impression of opposing the U.S.-led imperialist world order, but in reality he favors a ‘better way’ to lead this world order: under Donald Trump! In this latest interview, he posits that the outgoing Biden regime in Washington is preparing a coup to prevent the ‘better’ Trump regime from assuming office! This decision by RT editors to publish yet another favorable view of Trump stands in total contrast to the position of the Russian government, which for years has been warning the world of the dangers of the aggressive U.S. government and NATO alliance it leads, be they led by the likes of J. Biden or D. Trump. Meanwhile, another analyst holding out ‘hope for peace’ under Trump is ‘Judge Napolitano’, in an essay appearing in Consortium News on November 21. His essay there is a long critique of the warmaking foreign policy of the U.S. government under J. Biden, but he has not a word to say about Biden’s predecessor and now-incoming replacement, the warmaking Donald Trump. More than that, the ‘judge’ and Consortium News hold out this forlorn hope in the essay’s final sentence: “Can a presidency of peace come soon enough?” Oh dear, have these folks not considered following the lead of genuine anti-imperialists of the world, beginning with the governments of Russia and of China, who are taking stands worldwide in favor of the emerging, multipolar and anti-imperialist world? Such leadership sure beats placing hope-against-hope on the degenerate and far-right Donald Trump and his degenerate, far-right followers.].
Related:
* ‘Trump is not a warmonger’ declares latest member of ‘Trump naive 2.0’ club, comedian Jimmy Dore. Reference: Report in RT News, Nov 24, 2024 [‘Yes, he’s a racist and a sexist woman-hater, he supports Apartheid Israel, and his previous term in office was one of escalation of the military conflict in Ukraine. But hey, let’s talk positive, here!’ says the naive and nasty commentator.].
* RT News leads the charge in prettying up the warmonger Donald Trump. Reference: ‘Military industrial complex’ wants WW3, says Trump Jr.’, report published in RT News, Nov 18, 2024 RT News continues to deceive its readers in putting a positive spin on the racist and sexist imperialist Donald Trump, It fails to report that in 2019, then-president Donald Trump escalated the conflict in Ukraine by beginning to supply the far-right government there with U.S.-manufactured Javelin missiles. Pro-Trump moles evidently have free reign at the news network. Their actions besmirch not only the serious journalists at RT News but also the news outlet’s principle funder: the Russian government. They should be fired.]
In symbolic vote, U.S. vetoes UN Security Council resolution demanding Gaza ceasefire, UN News Service, Nov 20, 2024 and Middle East Monitor, Nov 20, 2024
[This is now the fourth UN Security Council resolution to be vetoed by the leader of the ‘free world’, with the rest of the ‘free world’ entirely on board. The vote on November 20, 2024 was strictly symbolic, and meaningless. Fourteen of 15 members of the Council voted ‘for’ the resolution, yet four of those who voted in favor are leading members of the ‘free world’ and ardent supporters of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza–Britain, France, Japan and South Korea. So the show on November 20 was all deception and hypocrisy. This latest voting exercise recalls the betrayal by the Western powers of the 2015 ‘Minsk 2’ peace agreement for Ukraine. ‘Minsk 2’ was unanimously approved by the UN Security Council on Feb 17, 2015. Yet what a deceptive farce of a vote it proved to be! As later acknowledged by the betrayers themselves, who happen to be leading member-countries of the ‘free world’, they never intended in the slightest to abide by the Minsk 2 Agreement. They are liars and hypocrites; their words and their votes are worth nothing, less than nothing.]
The ’35+’ political plot and riots in Hong Kong in 2019-2020 were an attempted constitutional coup, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, Nov 21, 2024 Forty five anti-government rioters in Hong Kong were convicted on November 20 under the terms of China’s Hong Kong National Security Law (Read the report here in pdf format: Convictions in the trial of 45 rioters in Hong Kong in 2019-2020)
Lame duck U.S. president escalates the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine with decision to let U.S. missiles fly against Russia, reports here in RT News and here in Al Jazeera, Nov 18, 2024
In-depth military analysis: published here on the Substack page ‘Simplicius The Thinker’, Nov 17, 2024 [Contrary to the deliberate impression created by Western media, the limited missile strikes by Ukraine against Russia on November 19 using U.S.-supplied, longer-range, ‘ATACMS’ missiles struck secondary targets, in Russia’s Bryansk region. Ukraine has a limited supply of the missiles, and the U.S. is hard-pressed to provide more.]
Related: Another, grim, Ukraine decision by the lame duck, killer regime in Washington: send more anti-personnel mines, report by CNN, Nov 19, 2024 [In typical Western media treatment, CNN here writes this worn, unproven and undocumented claim: “The grinding battle [in Russia’s Donetsk republic, formerly of eastern Ukraine] has cost Moscow tremendously, with Ukraine claiming (emphasis added) that Russia has suffered its highest number of casualties this past week.”]
Russia rejects the idea by NATO member Turkiye for a ‘freeze’ of the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine, RT News, Nov 18, 2024
Russian president approves an updated nuclear weapons doctrine, first announced in September, RT News, Nov 19, 2024 …According to the new doctrine, Russia may use nuclear deterrence to prevent aggression by hostile powers and by military blocs that possess weapons of mass destruction or large arsenals of conventional weapons. Countries that provide their sovereign space for other parties to prepare and launch attacks against Russia are subject to the policy as well. An attack by a single member of a bloc, including one that does not have nuclear weapons, will be considered an attack by the entire collective. The same would apply where a nation that does not formally belong to a military organization is backed by a nuclear power…
Ukrainian medical university lecturer resigns over persecution for using Russian language, RT News, Nov 19, 2024 [Western media, which backs genocide in Gaza to the person, carefully avoids reporting on Ukraine xenophobic language law, dating from 2019 (Wikipedia). The law aims to eradicate the multilingual and multinational history of present-day Ukraine and Soviet Ukraine before it. Liberals and leftists in the West (including the remnants of Trotskyism) embrace the right-wing and far-right ideology of Ukrainian nationalism; they have always done so.].
Background: The reactionary origins of Ukrainian nationalism and the extreme-right ideology of its present-day expression, special report by Dmitriy Kovalevich, in The Multiplural World, Nov 16, 2022 [There are many amongst the political left in Western countries (notably among the remnants of Trotskyism and those it influences) who repeat the narratives of the heads of NATO governments in support of ultra-right, Ukraine nationalism. These Western leftists hijack the rhetoric of anti-imperialist and anti-colonial struggles in the world while simultanously rejecting Russia’s demands for a demilitarized (non-NATO) and denazified Ukraine. How do former leftists and aspiring Marxists in the West end up allied with far-right nationalism in Ukraine? It is not as surprising as it sounds: it has existed and been evolving for many decades. It is one of the key measures of the transformation of Trotskyism into a new and novel form of right-wing socialism during the past 40 years. This, in turn, is akin to those leftists and Marxists who in 1941 rejected defense of the Soviet Union against the catastrophic invasion by Nazi Germany of the Soviet Union (Soviet Ukraine and Soviet Russia).]
New Zealand veers sharply right, leaving the era of Jacinda Ardern behind, report in New York Times, Nov 18, 2024 (here in pdf format: New Zealand veers sharply right, leaving behind the legacy of Jacinda Ardern )
[Two small populist parties are helping to accelerate the shift to the political right in New Zealand which is felt most acutely by the Indigenous Māori people. On Tuesday, November 12, tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on the national parliament in Wellington “to defend that we exist”, in the words of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of the Te Pāti Māori party. The ancestors of the Māori were the first humans to settle in New Zealand, some 900 years ago. Today, they comprise 18 per cent of the country’s population of 5.3 million. The tenure of Labour Party Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern from 2017 to 2023 is an old story, paralleling what took place in Britain during the time of Tony Blair, namely, social democracy coming to the rescue of capitalism. This caused a collapse of the socialist ideal because its former advocates wanted an easy way out of capitalism’s accelerating collapse. As in Britain, the people of New Zealand fell for the siren song of social democracy because this was ‘easier’ than taking the road of class struggle and a socialist goal.]
Previously reported:
* Tens of thousands march on New Zealand capital against Indigenous treaty overhaul, report in Al Jazeera, Nov 15, 2024 Controversial legislation proposes revisions to the 184-year-old Treaty of Waitangi to reduce the land rights of Maori people.
* New Zealand gov’t affirms its role as a staunch supporter of Israel apartheid and genocide, by John Minto, in The Daily Blog, Nov 4, 2024 (John Minto is National Chair of Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.)
Starbucks franchisee in Malaysia faces sharp sales decline due to boycott/divestment sanctions movement, South China Morning Post, Nov 18, 2024 The boycott has forced BFood Starbucks franchisee to close over 10 per cent of its 400 branches in Malaysia (here in pdf format: Starbucks franchisee in Malaysia faces sharp sales decline due to boycott)
Russia inflicts significant damage on gas production facilities used for Ukraine’s war industry, report by TASS news agency, Nov 17, 2024 [Western media is carefully scripting its reporting of the attacks by Russian forces on November 16-17 against military facilities in Ukraine. The attacks are presented as ‘massive, terror attacks’ by Russian forces against civilian energy infrastructure. But this media reports a total of four people were killed. Four people killed? Those numbers pale in comparison to the truly massive, genocidal war by Israel that is killing dozens and even scores of Palestinian people each day. That genocide is fully backed by the Western imperialists. These contrasting facts provide clues that the latest Russian attacks have nothing to do with hitting civilian infrastructure per se. Of course, attacks against the energy infrastructure that powers Ukraine’s and NATO’s war against the people of Russia will also have bad consequences for the civilian population of Ukraine. But that is very different from writing that Russia is deliberately targetting civilian infrastructure. The reality is that Russia has been slowly degrading the energy system of Ukraine that makes its war possible in the expectation that this would lead growing numbers of Ukraine’s population to conclude that NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine is a crime and a folly against the people of Ukraine themselves. The retreats and the impending collapse of the Ukraine armed forces are occuring because recruitment–even forcible conscription–to Ukraine’s armed forces is falling away as the population’s confidence in the war course of the governing regime in Kiev evaporates.]
Recovery efforts continuing in Cuba as it recovers from Hurricane Rafael, report by Resumen Latinoamerica, Nov. 6, 2024 [Hurricane Rafael struck western Cuba on November 6 as a Category 2 storm. Power was knocked out across the entire island before the strom even made landfall. This follows Hurricane Oscar, which struck the island on October 20. The year 2024 is one of heightened hurricanes in the Caribbean region, caused by global warming. The pro-genocide-in-Gaza Western media explains none of this, instead presenting a false and vengeful image of economic and social collapse in Cuba caused by the island’s socialist system.].
Related: Russia to send Cuba diesel fuel and electrical transmission equipment worth $62 million, TASS news agency, Nov 8, 2024
Background (previously reported):
* The regime of U.S.-led sanctions against revolutionary Cuba is tightening its grip, analysis by Roger Harris, in Orinoco Tribune, Nov 13, 2024
* Cuba confronts the harsh continuity of Obama-Trump-Biden sanctions policy, by Roger Harris, in Orinoco Tribune, Oct 17, 2024
The U.S. presidential election through the prism of the war in Ukraine, report from Ukraine by Dmitri Kovalevich, The Multiplural World, Nov 15, 2024 (Dmitri Kovalevich is the special correspondent in Ukraine for Al Mayadeen English, where this report first appeared on Nov 15, 2024.) Kurt Volker, former special representative of the U.S. State Department for Ukraine during Trump’s presidency, recently made a number of statements anticipating that Trump will not talk about compromises; he will simply demand that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine. This will be no different from the stance of the Biden administration
Related:
* U.S. Congress has allocated a total of $182 billion in war aid to Ukraine since February 2022, report in Al Mayadeen English, Nov 16, 2024
* Kremlin comments on Nov 15 phone conference between Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, RT News, Nov 17, 2024 …Putin stated that Russia’s peace terms are “well known”, having been outlined back in June 2024. They include that Ukraine adopt a neutral status, remain nuclear-free, and undergo demilitarization and denazification. In addition, Russia is committed to protecting the rights of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine and recognizing the regions of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye as part of Russia, and it wants the removal of all economic sanctions by the Western countries…
Canadian government to apologize for sled dog slaughter by police during the 1950s and 1960s, Canadian Press, Nov 8, 2024
Related: RCMP self-investigation does not reveal the truth about the slaughter of Inuit sled dogs in the 1950s and 1960s, media release by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, Dec 5, 2006
[It’s another day in Canada and another day of the national government anouncing an ‘apology’ for past genocide. How sincere are the apologies made to First Nations people in Canada for the genocide waged against them in the 19th and 20th centuries? Canada is supporting the genocide in Gaza being waged by Apartheid Israel; this tells all we needs to know: the ‘apologies’ ro First Nations are empty and meaningless public relations efforts.]
Seoul is making ‘diplomatic efforts’ with Russia over North Korean troops, report in The Hankyoreh (print daily), Nov 15, 2024 [South Korea’s right-wing president Yoon Suk Yeol is scrambling to block the growing military and political ties between the Russian Federation and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. To this end, he is wielding the threat of commencing arms supplies to Ukraine, but that faces stiff opposition in the country, where he is slowly losing his grip on power.] Related: End the war in Ukraine… before North Korean troops learn too much, column published in The Hankyoreh, Nov 15, 2024
Revolutions are violent and messy, in Haiti as elsewhere, analysis by Kim Ives, in Haiti Liberte (print weekly), Oct 30, 2024
Related: Brief interview with Kim Ives (editor at Haiti Liberte weekly), broadcast on TRT World (Turkiye), Nov 15, 2024 (seven minutes)
Three ‘foreign policy realists’, led by John Mearsheimer, discuss and agree that China is an expansionist and threatening power causing tensions with the United States. Reference: ‘Glenn Diesen and Alexander Mercouris interview John Mearsheimer’, broadcast on the Youtube channel of ‘The Duran’, Nov 15, 2024 (90 minutes) [Listen carefully as the three AGREE that China is an expansionist power that, in its own way, threatens world peace! And that the answer to this is for China to retreat from the confrontation being created by the Western imperialist powers. Entirely absent from the discussion is any analysis or understanding of imperialism in the modern-day world; how the declining capitalist and imperialist world order, an expansionist order of the first degree is destroying the Earth’s ecology while simultaneously giving rise to imperialist militarism and war. Mercouris is asked by Mearsheimer whether he would term his views as favoring ‘containment’ of China. Mercouris replies, “I prefer to call it a detente strategy, whereby the two great powers seek to establish mutual understanding.” Diesen offers his own advice to the U.S. imperialists on how to ‘handle’ their economic and diplomatic diffuculties. In summary: the cunning proponent of confrontation with China, John Mearsheimer, discusses with two naive liberals on how the U.S. may achieve some kind of favorable ‘balance of power’ arrangement with the People’s Republic of China. The three spend the final 30 minutes discussing the situation in Ukraine. Here, the ‘realist’ Mearsheimer takes over and challenges the naive thoughts of Mercouris and Diesen that ‘maybe’ the Trump regime may seek peace with Russia over Ukraine. Mearsheimer believes that Ukraine will become a ‘frozen conflict’ in which the U.S. will never accept realignments of Ukraine’s borders, corresponding to the wishes of residents of given areas, nor a neutral, non-NATO rump Ukraine.]
UN Special Committee* finds Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war, press release by the UN Special Committee, Nov 14, 2024 Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there, the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices has said in a new new report (multiple languages) released today… (The 27-page report is here; it is the 56th annual report issued by the Special Committee.)
( * The United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1968 to examine the human rights situation in the occupied Syrian Golan, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The Special Committee is currently composed of three member states: Malaysia, Senegal and Sri Lanka.)
Related:
* Day 407 of genocide in Gaza: 43,799 martyred, 103,601 wounded, report by Al Mayadeen English, Nov 16, 2024 As Israeli occupation forces continue their aggression against the people of Gaza, rescue teams continue to face increasing difficulties in navigating their way to the site of the massacres without being targeted
* Western values, what Western values?, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, Nov 11, 2024 (Here in pdf format: ‘Western values’, what Western values?) The deaths and displacements of millions of Muslims in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen mean little to the Western, imperialist powers. But if they are Muslims in Xinjiang, suddenly their lives take on phenomenal value for the West: propaganda value.
Analyst Larry Johnson (‘Sonar 21’) who welcomes the election of Trump is featured on RT News saying Biden regime is planning a coup to prevent Trump regime from assuming office. Reference: report in RT News, Nov 21, 2024 [This report continues the editorial stance of RT News welcoming the election of the far-right, Russia-hating entity Donald Trump, a stance that is in flagrant contrast to the stance of the Russian government itself. The RT News report is based on an interview with the malevolent analyst Larry Johnson. He feeds his malevolent or naive followers with an appearance of opposing the U.S.-led imperialist world order, all the while favoring the ‘better’ version of this world order, to be led by Trump.]
‘Only in the Americas’, you say? Norwegian government, a NATO warmaker, ‘apologizes’ for past genocide-by-assimilation policies. Report in New York Times, Nov 15, 2024 (read the report here in pdf format: NATO warmaker Norway ‘apologizes’ for past genocide-by-assimilation policies)
[For more than a century, Norway forcibly suppressed the language and culture of Indigenous people and other minority groups, including removing children from their parents. It was a system of ‘Norwegianization’ whose devastation continues to be felt. This week, the country’s Parliament issued a formal apology to the Sami people and to the Kven and Forest Finn peoples. The Sami number some 100,000 out of a total of 5.2 million residents of imperialist Norway.]
U.S. missile base opens in Poland, another step in U.S./NATO aggression threatening Russia, report by RT International, Nov 15, 2024 [Many apologists for U.S. and NATO military aggression and expansion against Russia dare to claim that this has nothing to do with the proxy war being financed and armed in Ukraine by these same powers. This is a another example of anti-Russia propaganda and disinformation in action.]
Two liberals discuss the emerging multipolar world and now the ‘Trump disruption’ factor. Interview with Glenn Diesen (U. of Southern Norway) by Roger Köppel of Die Weltwoche (weekly newsmagazine in Switzerland); broadcast on YouTube on Nov 12, 2024 (100 minutes) [The two analysts call themselves ‘foreign policy realists’, in the style of the liberal imperialist John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago. Roger Köppel calls the Russian military intervention in Ukraine ‘catatrophic’ and a ‘major blunder’ by Vladimir Putin and the Russian government. Glenn Diesen says he concurs. The two also concur that the new presidential regime in Washington under Donald Trump can be expected to seek peace in Ukraine. This is hardly ‘realistic’, considering the four-year record of the Trump presidency of 2017-2021 of escalating military and economic threats against Russia. The two attended the recent, annual Valdai Discussion Club meeting in Russia and discuss the four-hour session there featuring a speech and then lengthy Q&A with Vladimir Putin.]
Zionists run riot in Amsterdam, by Patrick Lawrence, in Consortium News, Nov 12, 2024 What happened in the Dutch capital on November 8 symbolizes the state of the world: Ever since the Zionist regime of Israel began its barbaric assault on Gaza, the Western powers have blessed it and Western media continues to hide it from view …Two films help to explain the systematized indoctrination of Israeli citizens. Defamation (here) is a cleverly done documentary from 2009 that follows adolescent students during a summer sojourn in Europe as they are brainwashed into fearing a world that hates them. Israelism (here) was released last year and shows how American Jews are similarly instructed in Hebrew school and how the eyes of many of these victims are opening to the frauds and racist cruelties of Zionist ideology…
Russia and North Korea (DPRK) ratify comprehensive strategic partnership, Nov 12, 2024 [Western media reporting of the mutual defense treaty now formally ratified between the Russian Federation and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is thoroughly polluted with claims that Korean troops are assisting Russia’s defense against NATO aggression in Ukraine. There is not a single, verifiable case of a Korean soldier participating in the fighting in Ukraine–Western media would certainly tell its consumers of such evidence if it existed. But facts be damned–the stream of lies and unproven claims continues apace. This is now par for the course for this grotesque media backing genocide in Gaza.].
Related: Seoul must abandon confrontation with Pyongyang for sake of Korea as a whole, editorial in The Hankyoreh (S. Korean daily), Nov 14, 2024
The Kazan Summit of the BRICS economic bloc, analysis by Prabhat Patnaik, published in People’s Democracy (Marxist journal in India), Nov 10, 2024
France’s Macron to attend Nov 14 football match in Paris featuring Apartheid Israel team, orders thousands of police to protect the match and declares ‘solidarity’ with Israel as it wages genocide in Palestine. Report by CNN, Nov 10, 2024
Trump 2.0 is likely to be worse for China and the global economy, commentary in South China Morning Post, Nov 11, 2024 (here in pdf format: Trump 2.0 likely worse for China and the global economy)
As Trump threatens a wider trade war, U.S. confronts a changed China. Report in New York Times, Nov 11, 2024 The Chinese economy is more dependent on exports, making tariffs more potent, yet it’s less reliant on American markets and increasingly bent on self-sufficiency (read the report here in pdf format: As Trump threatens a wider trade war, U.S. confronts a changed China)
Previously reported:
* Could growing consensus in Washington on tech curbs against China backfire for the United States?, South China Morning Post, Nov 5, 2024 (This is the 16th report of an in-depth series in the South China Morning Post) on the next stage in the U.S. technology war against China and how this might play out. (Read the report here in pdf format: Could growing consensus in Washington on tech war against China backfire against U.S.?)
* U.S. elections are losing their shine for educated Chinese once drawn to them, by Sylvie Zhuang (reporter), in South China Morning Post, Oct 18, 2024 (Read the report here in pdf format: U.S. elections are losing their shine for educated Chinese once drawn to them .)
Washington Post issues lying report saying Trump and V. Putin held a phone call. Report by NDTV News (India), Nov 11, 2024 (The lying (and lengthy !) Wash. Post on Nov. 10 report is here. Its report on Nov. 11 of Russia’s denial of a Putin-Trump call is here.)
[All of Western media is backing genocide in Gaza, so its journalistc credibility already sits at zero. Much of it is working furiously to resurrect its ‘Russiagate’ lies spewed in 2016 and the years following (with many ‘left-wing’ and liberal observers in the West once again along for the ride!). For its part, the Russian government has expressed unease over the election of Donald Trump on November 5, 2024, saying it prefers a more predictable entity to be sitting in the White House. Trump initiated the arming of Ukraine with advanced U.S. missiles and artillery all the way back in 2017, and he is ‘all in’ for genocide in Palestine. Trump as ‘peacemaker’ in Ukraine and the Middle East? Oh sure, and Santa Claus will be visiting all the little boys and girls of the world in less than six weeks from now; how exciting, we can hardly wait! Meanwhile, in contrast to the stance of the Russian government, RT News continues to mock voters as well as celebrities in the United States who oppose the racism and anti-women policies of the incoming U.S. presidential regime led by the proto-fascist Donald Trump.]
In Gaza, ‘an entire society is now a graveyard’, column published in the Washington Post, Nov 10, 2024 The devastation in northern Gaza, now the focus of a punishing Israeli military campaign, has stunned veteran aid officials (read the column here in pdf format: In Gaza, ‘an entire society is now a graveyard’)
Related: War crimes by Israel and atrocity propaganda by Western media: first-hand accounts by an Australian human rights observer, by Craig Nielsen, published in Pearls And Irritations, Nov 10, 2024 [Pearls And Irritaitons is a foreign policy journal based in Australia that is critical of the U.S.-led international order but which also regularly publishes anti-Russia propaganada.] My name is Craig Nielsen and I am a born-again, evangelical Christian living in Adelaide, South Australia… For the last 15 or 16 years, I have been intensely interested in the Israel-Palestine conflict, including serving as a a volunteer human rights observer in the West Bank, part of a long-term program run by the World Council of Churches…
No, there were no ‘antisemitic pogroms’ in Amsterdam on November 8; here is what really happened, by Sana Saeed, in Mondoweiss, Nov 9, 2024
Related:
* Western media can’t figure out why some violent and racist Israeli soccer hooligans were beaten up in Amsterdam, report by Billy Haisley, published in The Defector (journal of sports and politics), Nov 8, 2024 Visiting soccer fans getting drunk and causing havoc ahead of a big continental match in Europe would normally be so routine as to be almost unworthy of mention. But the hooligans in this instance were supporters of the Israeli soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv, and the residents of Amsterdam weren’t keen to their disruptive behavior…
* Brief comment by the editor of The Multiplural World, Nov 9, 2024 [The Western media that has supported genocide in Gaza to the person is in a tizzy over the rough ride received by football fans of Apartheid Israel in Amsterdam on Nov. 8. Here is the real issue involved: How on Earth was a football team of Apartheid Israel allowed to travel to Amsterdam and then play a match? The people of Netherlands need to learn and act upon the humanitarian need for ‘boycott, divestment, sanctions’ against the apartheid, Zionist entity called Israel. Many of them so acted on November 8. ‘BDS’ is the path to the disarming and dismantlement of Zionist, Apartheid Israel; alrady proven as a successful strategy in the long battle to bring down the ‘fellow’ Apartheid regime of South Africa, culminating way back in 1993.]
Vladimir Putin speaks on Nov 7 to the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, then fields questions from researchers and journalists. Four-hour video broadcast (with English voiceover), posted to the website of the President of Russia, Nov 8, 2024
China seeks safe havens amid US dollar risks, report in South China Morning Post, Nov 10, 2024 (read the report here in pdf format: China seeks safe havens amid US dollar risks)
Related: U.S. lawmakers eye China technology as they target semiconductor equipment makers, report in South China Morning Post, Nov 10, 2024 (here in pdf format: U.S. lawmakers eye China technology as they target semiconductor equipment makers)
U.S. election 2024: inflation, immigration and identity, election analysis by Michael Roberts (UK writer), published in his website blog, Nov 8, 2024
Related:
* Vote tally in 2024 U.S. presidential election: Republican vote remained stable, while the Democratic Party vote dropped like a stone. In 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won almost 66 million votes (48%), compared to Donald Trump’s nearly 63 million (46%). Trump won the presidency that year thanks to the ‘Electoral College’ gatekeeping mechanism. In 2020, Senator Joseph Biden received about 81 million votes (51%) compared to Trump’s 74 million (47%). In 2024, Kamala Harris won 70.4 million votes (47.7%) while Trump won 74.2 million. In 2020, about 158 million people voted, a 65.9% turnout of registered voters; in 2024, it was 143 million, a 58.2% turnout).
* The U.S. presidential election of November 5, 2024; and the genocidal rampages by the Zionist Israel entity demonstrating the limits of Western military might, analysis by Brian Berletic, broadcast on his YouTube channel ‘The New Atlas’, Nov 7, 2024 (34 minutes) ‘The election of Donald Trump will change nothing in the war policies of the U.S. government nor in the war policies of the NATO military alliance it leads’
Related:
* Don’t dare blame Arab and Muslim Americans for Trump’s victory, analysis by Ahmad Ibsais, published in Al Jazeera, Nov 7, 2024 ‘We did not betray the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party betrayed us’ (Ahmad Ibsais is a first generation Palestinian American and law student. He publishes the ‘State of Siege’ website blog at Substack.) As Kamala Harris stands before the wreckage of her election campaign that failed to win over a single swing state, the Democratic Party and its liberal supporters are eagerly looking for someone, anyone, other than themselves to blame for their catastrophic defeat. They have already found their convenient scapegoats: Arab Americans, Muslims and anyone else who refused to cast a vote for an administration that has eagerly enabled the genocide of the Palestinian people… Gaza is speaking now, Vice President Kamala Harris. Was the slaughter of our children worth it to you and your election ambitions?
* Kamala Harris failed to read the room, election analysis by Damon Linker, in New York Times, Nov. 7, 2024 By portraying herself as the defender and champion of the country’s governing establishment against Donald Trump’s anti-system impulses and diatribes, Kamala Harris placed herself, fatally, on the wrong side of public opinion (here in pdf format: Kamala Harris failed to read the room)
Total silence during Nov 4, 2024 U.S. election about the global warming emergency. Reference: Analysis published in Toronto Star, Nov 4, 2024 (here in pdf format: Total silence in U.S. election about the global warming emergency)
[The biggest silence of all over the global warming emergency comes from liberal and left-wing analysts in the Western, imperialist countries. For more than ten years, they have utterly failed to recognize that the military and economic aggression being waged by the imperialist countries against the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, and growing numbers of peoples of the Global South (Palestine!) is precisely intended to divert attention from the existential, global warming emergency. This is additional to whatever crazed goals they believe their wars and their genocide in Palestine will achieve for them. What bigger example can be found of the failures and betrayals by those, including of Trotskyist origin or influence, who cling to the failed legacies of 20th century Marxism and other left-wing thought? What more compelling reason may be found of the need for renewal and rebirth of Marxism and socialism?]
The Bolsheviks Come to Power, a New Interpretation, historical esssay by August Nimtz, published in October 2017 (here in pdf format: The Bolsheviks Come to Power, a New Interpretation, historical esssay by August Nimtz, Oct 2017) This essay is also listed in the ‘Books and Essays’ page of The Multiplural World website, in the subsection titled ‘The Russian Revolution of 1917’.
Economic policies of Trump and Harris, two-part analysis by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in UK), published on his website blog, October 2024
* Part one, Nov 2, 2024
* Part two, Nov 4, 2024
‘The major capitalist economies of the Western world remain in what I have called a Long Depression, namely where after each slump or contraction (2008-9 and 2020), there follows a lower trajectory of real GDP growth, in which the previous trend is not restored. The trend growth rate before the global financial crash (GFC) and the Great Recession has not returned, and the growth trajectory has dropped even further after the pandemic slump of 2020…’
Vladimir Putin speaks to ‘National Health Care Congress 2024’ in Moscow, hailing advances in public health care in Russia and planning for more, text of speech by Vladimir Putin, published in the English language version of the website of the President of Russia, Nov 4, 2024
Introduction by presidential website: The 3rd National Healthcare Congress of the Russian Federation, including international participation, took place in Moscow on October 28 and 29, 2024. The Congress marked the 150th birthday anniversary of Nikolai Semashko, the historic leader and organiser of the health care system of the early Soviet Russia and Soviet Union. The healthcare model and basic principles he helped to found remain relevant to this day with many countries relying on it in their respective healthcare systems. [Nikolai Semashko was a colleague and contemporary of Vladimir Lenin; he served as the first health care minister (commissar) of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union, 1918 to 1930. (Wikipedia) ]
Related:
* The work of the public health authorities in Soviet Russia, extract from speech in 1923 of Comrade N. A. Semashko, Commissar for Health of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, speech to a conference of the Workers’ International Russian Relief at Berlin, originally published in the The Communist Review (Britain), June 1923 (in Marxists Internet Archive, 2006)
* Dr. N. A. Semashko, First Commissar of Health of Soviet Russia, essay by Anna J. Haines, published as chapter five of ‘Health Work in Soviet Russia’, book published in 1928 by Vanguard Press (New York) (Find the essay here online Marxists Internet Archive.)
Kremlin reacts to Donald Trump victory, saying Russia-U.S, relations ‘couldn’t get worse’, RT News, Nov 6, 2024
Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ for Ukraine: Sacrifice more human lives and sell off national patrimony, report from Ukraine by Dmitri Kovalevich, in The Multiplural World, Nov 6, 2024 (Dmitri Kovalevich is the Ukraine correspondent for Al Mayadeen English, where this report first appeared on November 5, 2024. He writes two reports each month for the publication; this is his report for end-October 2024.) Zelensky’s ‘victory plan’ combines nuclear blackmail against Russia, false accusations of Korean and Iranian militaries directly aiding Russia’s combat operations, and talk of mobilizing women into combat support roles to ‘defend Europe’
Could growing consensus in Washington on tech curbs against China backfire for the United States?, South China Morning Post, Nov 5, 2024 (This is the 16th report of an in-depth series in the South China Monring Post) on the next stage in the U.S. technology war against China and how this might play out. (Read the report here in pdf format: Could growing consensus in Washington on tech war against China backfire against U.S.?)
Big tone change by Western powers and their media over Ukraine as they stare at the prospect of Kiev’s surrender. Report on the Substack page of Simplicius The Thinker, Nov 2, 2024
Related:
* Ukraine’s territorial losses beginning in 2014 caused by its hostile actions and and treachery, says Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov, report in RT, Nov 3, 2024
* Two leaders of the new ‘Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht’ left-wing party in Germany assess the NATO war in Ukraine, commentary by Michael von der Schulenburg and Ruth Firmenich, in Brave New Europe, Sept 3, 2024
At the ‘BRICS 16’ summit, Russia seeks to build a world without U.S. dominance, report by Fred Weir, in The Multiplural World, Oct 25, 2025 (Fred Weir is the longtime correspondent in Moscow for the Christian Science Monitor. This report first appeared in the Christian Science Monitor on October 25, 2024. Enclosed in this home page posting on The Multiplural World are listings of recommended, related readings.)
‘The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza’, says ‘B’Tselem’ human rights agency in Israel. But what does that mean? Reference: ‘The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza’, brief statement by B’Tselem, Oct 22, 2024 (B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Right in the Occupied Territories, Wikipedia)
Comment by the editor of The Multiplural World:
There are two mechanisms available to the people and countries of the world to end the genocide (ethnic cleansing) being waged by Apartheid Israel in Palestine, to end that regime’s military assaults against the people of Lebanon, and to end its deadly threats against the peoples of Iran and Yemen:
1. The complete isolation of Apartheid Israel by the civilized world–expulsion from the United Nations; ending all economic, political, cultural, academic and travel ties; ending all arms supplies; and more.
2. Providing military and economic assistance as needed to those countries and political movements that are standing up to the Israel war machine, that is, assistance to the people and governments of Iran and Yemen, to those in Lebanon resisting Apartheid Israel on behalf of the human rights of the peoples of the world.
Ok, maybe that is too much to expect from B’Tselem. But why are liberal and, especially, left-wing forces in the Western countries not voicing this? Instead, so many utter mere words. Sadly, even the governments of Russia and China appear unwilling to see and act beyond the utterly failed and discredited ‘two-state solution’ for Palestine. Sure, ‘the world must stop the genocide (ethnic cleansing) of Palestine’. But how? Sorry, words alone cannot stop the vast war crimes being committed by Apartheid Israel and by the Western imperialist countries (all of them) which arm the apartheid beast. Whatever happened to the days not so long ago when so much of the civilized world united and acted to isolate, boycott and otherwise help bring about the fall of Apartheid South Africa, not just in words but also in action? (end comment)
A Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel [the ‘two-state solution’] seems more distant than ever, writes veteran New York Times bureau chief
[The New York Times has published a commentary on October 22 written by one of its veteran bureau chiefs on the death (martyrdom) of Yahya Sinwar, historic leader of the Hamas national liberation movement. He was martyred on October 16 while helping lead the armed resistance to the genocide being waged by Apartheid Israel in Gaza and the West Bank. The Times, of course, is a leading media voice in support of Apartheid Israel, and yet it cannot deny the dreadful consequences for Apartheid Israel and the Western powers (all of them) arming and supporting that criminal regime. They are all staring into the abyss of their demise as the inevitability of the fall of the Israel Apartheid regime and rise of a democratic, non-racial Palestinian state continues to slowly take shape upon the ashes of the Zionist state. You can read the Times commentary here in pdf format: Yahya Sinwar is dead, and a ‘Palestinian state’ [that is, the ‘two-state solution’] is now more distant than ever .]
U.S. elections are losing their shine for educated Chinese once drawn to them, by Sylvie Zhuang (reporter), in South China Morning Post, Oct 18, 2024 (Sylvie Zhuang joined the South China Morning Post as a reporter in 2023. She graduated from the University of Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois. Read the report here in pdf format: U.S. elections are losing their shine for educated Chinese once drawn to them)
‘I started following U.S. elections during the Clinton era. Back then, it was like some sort of halo and I saw American capitalism was all about freedom and such,’ says finance worker Mandy Huang who lives in Beijing. ‘But now I pretty much see it as the system … exploiting the world, and making the world pay for it.’
How ‘the Blob’ frighteningly described by French historian Emmanuel Todd took over U.S. foreign policy, by Alex Lo (columnist), South China Morning Post, Oct 24, 2024 (here in pdf format: How ‘the Blob’ frighteningly described by French historian took over U.S. foreign policy)
Previously reported: A Russian victory in Ukraine will liberate Europe says French historian Emmanuel Todd, RT News, Oct 9, 2024
The IMF and the BRICS countries hold summit meetings in a world where no return to Bretton Woods is possible, analysis by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in Britain), published on his website blog, Oct 20, 2024 This coming week the IMF-World Bank semi-annual meeting takes place in Washington, DC, while atthe same time, the BRICS+ group meets in the city of Kazan (Tatarstan republic of Russia…
[This is another excellent analysis by Michael Roberts of the state of the world economy. The writer has long dismissed the erroneous and increasingly absurd claim that the economy of the People’s Republic of China is ‘capitalist’. And, unlike most present-day, radical economists, he makes a sharp distinction between modern-day imperialism and other forms of capitalist rule in the world. Unfortunately, he has long condemned the actions of the Russian government in defending the people of Russia and of Ukraine (yes!) against imperialist predation and violence.]
