This is an archived newsroll page on A Socialist In Canada, consisting of headlines and weblinks, with occasional news summary and brief analysis, for the indicated month(s) and year. See the current, ‘World news’ website page here. To find past stories on this and other news pages on this website, use the ‘find’ (word search) function on your web browser. Headlines in red denote items published on the main news page of A Socialist In Canada, mostly authored by Roger Annis.
World news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, June 2022
China tells UN Security Council that expansion of NATO or a NATO-like body into the Asia-Pacific will stir up conflict, South China Morning Post, June 29, 2022 Beijing is concerned the United States is building an Asian version of NATO after Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea attended a NATO leaders’ meeting (in Spain, June 28-30) for the first time. Read the article here in pdf format: China condemns NATO expansion into Asia
Related:
* China protests NATO attempts to label it a ‘challenge’, The Hankyoreh (S. Korea), June 30, 2022
* Biden meets with leaders of South Korea and Japan at NATO summit in Spain amid frosty ties between the two Asian countries, Bloomberg News, June 28, 2022
Africa would welcome the G7 countries pledge for US$600 billion infrastructure investments–if they happen, South China Morning Post, June 29, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: G7 investments in Africa
China to press on with its ‘zero Covid’ policy, says president Xi Jinping, South China Morning Post, June 29, 2022 China must protect lives at the temporary cost of lower growth, Xi says on trip to Wuhan Read the article here in pdf format: China’s ‘zero Covid’ policy [This article provides an informative overview of China’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy. But it is also full of dismissals of the value of human life which are typical of Western media reporting of China’s great successes in combatting the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This quotation from the article sums this up well: “The frustration [over China’s zero-Covid policy] is felt most keenly by private companies and the foreign business community, with lockdowns confining hundreds of millions of consumers to their homes and hitting supply chains.”].
Related: Covid death toll vs China’s puts U.S. to shame, by John V. Walsh, published in Asia Times, June 25, 2022 (John V Walsh is until recently a professor of physiology and neuroscience at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. He is a member of Veterans For Peace.)
Russia moves quickly to assist restoration and rebuilding in Donbass, report by Kommersant (Russian daily), June 30, 2022 (translation by A Socialist In Canada, read the translated report here in pdf format: Russia assists the rebuilding of Donbass
Peace versus justice: The coming European split over the war in Ukraine, policy brief published by the European Council on Foreign Relations, June 15, 2022 …ECFR’s research shows that, while Europeans feel great solidarity with Ukraine and support sanctions against Russia, they are split about the long-term goals. They divide between a “Peace” camp (35 per cent of people) that wants the war to end as soon as possible, and a “Justice” camp that believes the more pressing goal is to punish Russia (22 per cent of people). In all countries, apart from Poland, the ‘peace’ camp is larger than the ‘justice’ camp…
Related:
* Support for West’s tough response frays, report by China Daily, June 24, 2022
* More Europeans prefer peace to revenge-style justice over Ukraine, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, June 29, 2022 read the column here in pdf format: …Only a third of those surveyed support increasing the defence spending of their country…
Ukraine confirms Russian missile hit industrial building in Kremenchuk storing munitions adjacent to burned down shopping mall, RT, June 29, 2022 The mayor of Kremenchuk has accused the owners of the shopping mall of criminal negligence for ignoring air raid warnings
Cracks in Western unity on Russia exposed at G7 leaders meeting in Germany, by M.K. Bhadrakumar, columnist, NewsClick (India), June 29, 2022 (also published here in People’s Dispatch) The summit exposed that the existing sanctions against Russia have gone beyond most Western policy makers’ pain threshold.
Related:
* Misguided geopolitics is derailing decades of globalisation, pushing the most vulnerable to brink of disaster, analysis by Dan Steinbock, South China Morning Post, June 28, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Misguided geopolitics
* The meeting of G7 leaders in Germany and the desperation stage of Russian sanctions, by Jack Rasmus, published on his website, June 29, 2022
An open letter to President Biden against using Okinawa as an attack base against China, statement by the ‘No More Battle of Okinawa Association’, published in CounterPunch, June 29, 2022
The fantasy of fanaticism, analysis by Scott Ritter, re-published in A Socialist In Canada, June 28, 2022 (originally published in Consortium News, June 25, 2022) Notwithstanding what some ‘defense analysts’ may be telling Western media, the longer the war continues in Ukraine, the more Ukrainians will die and the weaker NATO will become
Related:
* The Western countries have reached an inflection point in Ukraine, by M.K. Bhadrakumar (columnist, NewsClick, India), published in Canadian Dimension, June 28, 2022
* While Biden gives the Ukraine army ‘the most lethal weapon’, war profiteer BAE Systems stock soars, by Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor, Covert Action Magazine, June 27, 2022 The M-777 howitzer is made by the U.S. division of BAE Systems, the largest arms manufacturer in Europe. BAE has supplied Ukraine with 400,000 rounds of munitions, anti-tank guided missiles and armored vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft missiles.
Commando network coordinates flow of weapons in Ukraine, special report in New York Times, June 25, 2022 A secretive operation involving U.S. Special Operations forces hints at the scale of the effort to assist Ukraine’s still outgunned military
Related: Canadian and other NATO country special forces are operating in Ukraine, New York Times reports, by David Pugliese, military affairs columnist, Ottawa Citizen (Postmedia), June 26, 2022 Canadian special forces are in Ukraine as part of a NATO network to provide weapons, training and gather intelligence about the Russians, the New York Times is reporting. Neither the Department of National Defence nor the office of Defence Minister Anita Anand would comment on the report published on June 25 that a few dozen commandos from NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, have been working inside Ukraine. The United States withdrew its own 150 military instructors before the war began in February…
Five things to know now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, Kaiser Health News, June 24, 2022 1.Where is abortion still legal? 2.What can the Biden administration do? 3.Will people in states where abortion is illegal be able to access medication abortion? 4.How will this affect doctors’ ability to provide care? 5.Could this ruling affect more than just abortion? …
Abortion pills take the spotlight as states in U.S. impose bans on abortion services, New York Times, June 25, 2022 ‘In 2020, medication abortion accounted for 54 percent of all abortions in the United States’ Read the article here in pdf format: Abortion pills take the spotlight as U.S. states ban abortions
Related:
* German parliament votes to end Nazi-era ban on publicizing abortion services, Associated Press, June 25, 2022
* In many countries, abortion is protected by law, not court decision, Washington Post, June 24, 2022 …The Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling in 1973 found that the constitution protected the decision to terminate a pregnancy as a fundamental matter of privacy. But it was never codified into federal law. Since then, “monumental gains” have been made to secure abortion rights worldwide, with more than 50 countries liberalizing their laws over the last several decades, decades, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global advocacy group opposed to abortion restrictions…
* Abortion is legal in Russia, Wikipedia Abortion in Russia is legal as an elective procedure up to the 12th week of pregnancy, and in special circumstances at later stages. In 1920, the Russian Soviet Republic under Lenin became the first country in the world in the modern era to allow abortion in all circumstance., A ban on unconditional abortions was enacted from 1936 to 1955; from then on it has once been legal…
The catastrophe of Ukrainian capitalism, book review by Jim McIlroy, published in Green Left (Australia), June 17, 2022 Reviewing: The Catastrophe of Ukrainian Capitalism: How privatisation dispossessed and impoverished the Ukrainian people, by Renfrey Clarke, published by Resistance Books, 2022, 176 pages $AUS 25 [This important new book was completed well prior to the 2022 political/military intervention of Russia into Ukraine. The reviewer slips into the final sentence of his book review a gratuitous condemnation of that intervention, reflecting the views of Green Left, the online journal that published the review. Green Left is, in turn, affiliated with the book publisher proper.]
From the book publisher’s description: In the years before its independence in 1991, Ukraine had been among the most industrialised, technologically advanced regions of the Soviet Union. Thirty years later, it was being rated by the IMF as the poorest country in Europe.Why did Ukraine’s transition to capitalism result in such disaster? Was this purely the outcome of an ill-conceived model of ‘reform’? Or was capitalism itself the wrong choice? Has ‘association’ with the European Union provided any answers?
Parliamentary election in France: Bad blow for Macron, mixed news for the left, by John Mullen, published in The Left Berlin, June 20, 2022 (John Mullen is a U.S.writer living in Paris.)
Previously reported:
* A Mélenchon-led government in France would shake the foundations of capitalist Europe, interview with author Stefano Palombarini, by Stathis Kouvelakis, published in Jacobin, June 13, 2022
* High hopes for the new, left-wing electoral alliance in France on eve of legislative election, by John Mullen, re-published in A Socialist In Canada, June 4, 2022 (with related readings at weblink)
Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett interviewed from Donetsk, interview broadcast on the George Eliason Show (TNT Radio), June 21, 2022 (55 minutes. George Eliason is a radio broadcaster in Donbas. TNT Radio is a talk radio network streaming on the internet. )
Related: Journalist Krystal Néant interviewed from Donbas, broadcast on the George Eliason Show (TNT Radio), June 23, 2022 (Find the broadcast at the weblink, 54 minutes. Krystal Néant is a founding editor of Donbass Insider.)
Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov battalion has built a ‘state within a state,’ and it despises both Russia and the liberal West, essay by Dmitriy Plotnikov, published in RT, June 25, 2022
Tune in to Covert Action Magazine gala fundraiser, Sat. June 25 in New York City, report in A Socialist In Canada, June 24, 2022
Map and chart in Wash. Post, June 25, 2022
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; rules that states can ban access to abortion services, Associated Press, June 24, 2022
Related:
* Roe vs Wade demise marks new phase in state-by-state battle over abortion, analysis in Washington Post, June 24, 2022
* Many U.S.companies say they will cover employee travel costs for abortions, Washington Post, June 24, 2022
* The Supreme Court’s radical abortion ruling begins a dangerous new era, editorial, Washington Post, June 24, 2022
Americans’ belief in God is dropping, Washington Post, June 24, 2022 …In the latest Gallup Poll, belief in God dipped to 81 percent, down six percentage points from 2017, the lowest since Gallup first asked the question in 1944. Even at 81 percent, Americans’ belief in God remains robust, at least in comparison with Europe, where only 26 percent said they believed in the God of the Bible, and 36 percent said they believed in a higher power, according to a 2018 Pew poll…
Ever-harsher words for Russia in Ukraine by liberals in U.S. Reference: Is Putin the face of the future or the final gasp of the past?, by John Feffer, published in Tom Dispatch, June 23, 2022. (The essay is re-published in LA Progressive , CounterPunch , and Common Dreams–a rogue’s gallery of pro-war, anti-Russia liberal publications. John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy in Focus liberal think tank, in Washington DC.)
[Writer John Feffer terms the 2014 right-wing coup in Ukraine as “Euromaidan protests”. He makes zero mention of the self-determination votes which took place in the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk to secede from the new, extreme-right and ultra-nationalist Ukraine. He makes zero mention of the long war since 2014 by the coup regime in Kyiv against the peoples of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics and zero mention of the Minsk 2 peace agreement of 2015 which Kyiv and NATO member countries ‘accepted’ and then proceeded to systematically sabotage. Note here the writer’s crude falsification of that sabotage and its consequences: “In the early 2020s, facing disappointment abroad, Putin effectively gave up on preserving even a semblance of good relations with the United States or the European Union.”
[Here is how the writer embraces and pretties up imperialist militarism: “In reality, though, the West’s military record hasn’t been much better [sic] than Russia’s performance in Ukraine.” He laments the decisions of the U.S. and France to militarily ‘withdraw’ from Afghanistan (in 2021) and Mali (in 2022), respectively, covering up the fact that the militaries of the two imperialists countries were driven out of those two countries by popular will. Unbelievably, the writer laments the failure of the U.S. government to violently overthrow the government of Syria. Read the essay and weep.]
Another similarly wretched commentary by the same writer: Vladimir Putin: Global gunman, by John Feffer, published in Foreign Policy in Focus, June 15, 2022
Food insecurity increases in the U.S. while it declines in Nicaragua, by Nan McCurdy, published in Covert Action Magazine, June 23, 2022 (Nan McCurdy is the editor of the ‘Nica Notes’ blog of the Alliance for Global Justice.)
Toothless ‘gun control’ measure passed in U.S. Senate. Report by Associated Press, June 24, 2022 …The $13 billion measure would toughen background checks for the youngest gun buyers, keep firearms from more domestic violence offenders and help states put in place red flag laws that make it easier for authorities to take weapons from people adjudged dangerous. It would also fund local programs for school safety, mental health and violence prevention…
Related:
* U.S. Supreme Court decision expands gun rights in a country deeply divided on the issue, Associated Press, June 24, 2022 In a major expansion of gun rights after a series of mass shootings, the Supreme Court ruled on June 24 that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, a ruling likely to lead to more people legally armed. The decision came out as Congress and states debate gun-control legislation…
* The most dangerous Supreme Court gun ruling in history, at the worst possible time, commentary by Michael Waldman, in Washington Post, June 23, 2022 (Michael Waldman is president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and the author of The Second Amendment.) read the commentary here in pdf format: Supreme Court gun ruling June 2022
Russia’s economic path: Speech by Vladimir Putin to St Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17, speech by Vladimir Putin to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17, 2022 (English text published on the website of the President of Russia, 20-page text. Read the speech at the weblink, or read it here in pdf format: Vladimir Putin speech to St Petersburg Forum, June 17, 2022)
Press release on threats to global food security and Ukrainian grain supplies to international markets, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, June 22, 2022 text here in pdf format: Threats to global food security and read: Threats to global food security and Ukrainian grain supplies to world markets, excerpt from the weekly report by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, 22, 2022 read the excerpt here in pdf format: Threats to global food security and Ukraine grain supplies to world markets
Türkiye wants ‘concrete steps’ from Sweden, Finland over NATO bids, Al Jazeera, June 15, 2022 and read: What Turkey wants to let Finland and Sweden into NATO, analysis in New York Times, June 22, 2022
Related:
* Stop militarising Aegean islands, Türkiye warns fellow NATO member Greece, Al Jazeera, June 9, 2022
* NATO expansion and Türkiye, by Craig Murray, published on his website, May 17, 2022 I am in Türkiye because if there is to be movement in ending the war in Ukraine, it will happen here. President Erdogan’s firm stance on a potential veto of Swedish and Finnish NATO membership is framed in public only in relation to perceived support by those countries for Kurdish resistance groups. But of course it goes much deeper…
Update on Ukraine, contained in the weekly report by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, 22, 2022 read the report excerpt here in pdf format: Update on Ukraine, June 22, 2022
District outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow is renamed to ‘Donetsk People’s Republic Square’, report by CNN, June 23, 2022 Here is the full text of the CNN report:
Moscow city has renamed the area outside the U.S. Embassy after the breakaway Donetsk republic in Donbas, formerly eastern Ukraine. The new address has been changed to ‘Donetsk People’s Republic Square’, the Moscow City Hall office announced on June 22. Its statement says: “The US Embassy in Russia has received a new official address. The address of the diplomatic mission is now ‘Russian Federation, city of Moscow, intracity territory of the Presnensky municipal district, square of the Donetsk People’s Republic, building 1, buildings 1–9’.
The new address was chosen following the results of a public vote with nearly 280,000 participants, according to the city hall. The embassy’s previous address was 8 Bolshoi Devyatinsky Lane.
At BRICS leaders forum in Beijing , China’s Xi Jinping takes aim at West over Russia sanctions, by Jack Lau, South China Morning Post, June 22, 2022 read the news report here in pdf format: China’s Xi Jinping at BRICS forum
Related: Greetings to BRICS Business Forum participants, by Vladimir Putin, English text published on the website of the President of Russia, June 22, 2022 read the three-page text here in pdf format: V. Putin greetings to 2022 BRICS Business Forum
U.S. democracy vs Chinese-style development is the real ideological clash, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, June 22, 2022 U.S. President Joe Biden sees a global conflict between authoritarianism and democracy, but China’s President Xi Jinping thinks it’s rather between development and poverty, between the nations of haves vs those of the have nots Read the column here in pdf format: U.S. democracy vs Chinese-style devlopment
Related: China’s Global Development Initiative as accelerator to achieve UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development goals, Global Times, June 22, 2022
China’s Tangshan city stripped of ‘civilised’ status after brutal attack on women diners, South China Morning Post, June 22, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: China’s Tangshan city
Denunciation of Vladimir Putin’s 2021 essay on the history of Russia and Ukraine is unwarranted, by Roger Annis, A Socialist In Canada, June 21, 2022 (This essay was originally published by Covert Action Magazine, June 20, 2022. Read that version to see extensive, accompanying photos.)
Significant escalation of U.S. sanctions against China with ‘Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act’, South China Morning Post, June 21, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: ‘Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act’ comes into force
Related:
* How U.S. sanctions targeting industry in Xinjiang are damaging China’s cotton textile industry, South China Morning Post, June 20, 2022 Read the article here in pdf format: U.S. sanctions targetting Xianjiang Chinese traders in Xinjiang say losses have been mounting for months, with vast inventories unsold as buyers shun what was once the world’s most expensive cotton.
* EU companies in China pay the price for Brussels stance on Xinjiang, South China Morning Post, June 21, 2022 Chamber of commerce chief Joerg Wuttke says companies will find it difficult to prove their supply chains are free of forced labour links
Western media and politicians prefer to ignore the truth about civilians killed in Donetsk shelling, by Eva Bartlett, in Donetsk, report published in RT, June 16, 2022 When Kiev’s guilt in a rocket attack against a maternity hospital in Donetsk on June 13 cannot be denied, it is simply brushed under the carpet
Previously reported:
* Ukrainian shellings of Donetsk city kill 12 civilians, injure 93 over the week, Donetsk News Agency, June 20, 2022 …”All nine districts of Donetsk city are under fire. The worst attacks were against Kievskiy, Kuibyshevskiy, Kirovskiy, Petrovskiy and Voroshilovskiy districts.” … and read: Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk city kills five, RT, June 18, 2022 Twelve people were also injured in strikes on June 18, local authorities claimed
* Ukrainian attacks on Donbass have claimed 27 civilian lives and left 111 injured across the Donetsk republic during the past the week, Donetsk News Agency, June 17, 2022 …“From June 10 till June 16 [2022], 67 members of defense and law enforcement agencies were killed while 388 were injured. 27 civilians died, including one child, and 111 civilians were injured,” reports Donetsk republic ombudswoman Daria Morozova.
NATO underling Lithuania expands blockade against goods shipped to Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Report in RT, June 21, 2022
Russia claims hundreds of casualties in strike against shipbuilding complex in city of Nikolaev, RT, June 21, 2022 As many as 500 Ukrainian troops from a single brigade were killed in the city of Nikolaev, the Russian defense ministry is reporting
Imports of Russian crude oil by China and India surge amid Ukraine war sanctions, Al Jazeera, June 20, 2022
Ex-rebel fighter Gustavo Petro wins Colombia’s presidency, Al Jazeera, June 19, 2022
Related:
* How Colombia shifted to the left, El Pais (main corporate daily in Spain), June 20, 2022
The victory by Gustavo Petro is based on the fact that voter turnout rose in every department of Colombia.
* National strike in Ecuador against right-wing gov’t enters second week, People’s Dispatch, June 21, 2022
French president Macron’s election coalition loses its majority in National Assembly, Mélenchon-led left alliance scores strong second, Al Jazeera, June 20, 2022
Results: (577 seats in National Assembly, 289 needed for majority. 2017 seat result in brackets.)
Ensemble (Macron) 39%, 245 seats (down from 347)
NUPES (Mélenchon) 32%, 131 seats (up from 58)
Ralliement national (Le Pen), 17%, 89 seats (up from 7)
Tens of thousands join union-led protest in the streets of London on June 18 demanding relief from the rising cost of living, People’s Dispatch, June 20, 2022
Dossier on how corporate media in the West lies about Ukraine:
* Zelensky visits war-torn Mykolaiv and Odessa in southern Ukraine, New York Times, June 18, 2022 … Zelensky’s meetings in the city of Odessa on June 18… included discussions on how to export wheat and other agricultural products, which are stuck in Ukraine because of a Russian blockade [emphasis added]…
* EU condemns ‘real war crime’ of Russian grain blockade, Deutsche Welle (German state broadcaster), June 20, 2022 Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief has called for Russia to end its blockade of Ukrainian ports. His comments come ahead of a meeting of the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers …German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Germany will host a conference on June 24 on the question of securing food exports from Ukraine to “improve the humanitarian situation worldwide and to set global food security on a more stable footing”…
* With sea off-limits, Odessa rallies home-front war effort, Agence France presse, June 19, 2022 …Kyiv mined the Odessa harbour as a preventative measure after the [Russian] invasion began. The city, a multicultural crossroads of a million inhabitants, has found itself isolated, forced to turn away from the sea and become more inward looking. “Turbot, red mullet, goby… 80 percent of our fish used to come from the Black Sea,” Jarova told AFP. “But now offshore fishing is banned.”… “We don’t want to demine everything,” says former vice president of the region Yuriy Dimchoglo, referring to negotiations on the setting up of demined “corridors”. He declines to give details on how many mines are littering the seabed, to the great regret of residents who stroll around well-known Arcadia beach enjoying an ice cream. Putting even a little toe onto the beach is out of the question. Red signs bearing a skull on them warn people not to go swimming in the water…
* Russia ready to open corridor for ships leaving Ukraine with food, Reuters news agency, May 25, 2022 …“We have repeatedly stated on this point that a solution to the food problem requires a comprehensive approach, including the lifting of sanctions that have been imposed on Russian exports and financial transactions,” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko. “And it also requires the demining by the Ukrainian side of all ports where ships are anchored. Russia is ready to provide the necessary humanitarian passage, which it does every day.”…
* Russia offers safe passage for Ukraine grain, says it is not responsible for safe corridors, Reuters, June 15, 2022 Full text of article: Russia can “provide safe passage” for Ukraine grain shipments from the country’s Black Sea ports, but is not responsible for establishing the corridors, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told reporters on June 15. “We are not responsible for establishing safe corridors. We said we could provide safe passage if these corridors are established. Establish them. It’s obvious it’s either demine the territory, which was mined by the Ukrainians, or to ensure that the passage goes around those mines,” Nebenzia said. [end article].
* Speaking to St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 17, Russian president repeats offer for safe navigation of food commodities out of Ukraine ports (weblink here). Excerpt from speech: …As for Ukrainian food supplies to global markets – I have to mention this because of numerous speculations – we are not hindering them. They can do it. We did not mine the Black Sea ports of Ukraine. They can clear the mines and resume food exports. We will ensure the safe navigation of civilian vessels. No problem…
[In addition to its outright lying, corporate media in the West carefully self-censors any news of continued war crimes by the Kyiv regime, notably the regime’s shelling attacks against civilians. See the news report immediately below; its information is nowhere reported by Western media (including its anti-Russia ‘alternative’ media). Reuters news agency did publish a rare report on Ukraine war crimes six days ago. Its report is full of denials issued by the Kyiv regime, including this preposterous denial: “Ukraine routinely denies carrying out any attacks on the two regions, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, where separatists [sic] seized large swathes of land in 2014.”]
References:
* Ukrainian shellings of Donetsk city kill 12 civilians, injure 93 over the week, Donetsk News Agency, June 20, 2022 …”All nine districts of Donetsk city are under fire. The worst attacks were against Kievskiy, Kuibyshevskiy, Kirovskiy, Petrovskiy and Voroshilovskiy districts.” … and read: Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk city kills five, RT, June 18, 2022 Twelve people were also injured in strikes on June 18, local authorities claimed
* Ukrainian attacks on Donbass have claimed 27 civilian lives and left 111 injured across the Donetsk republic during the past the week, Donetsk News Agency, June 17, 2022 …“From June 10 till June 16 [2022], 67 members of defense and law enforcement agencies were killed while 388 were injured. 27 civilians died, including one child, and 111 civilians were injured,” reports Donetsk republic ombudswoman Daria Morozova.
The case of Julian Assange is a permanent stain on Anglo-American ‘democracy’, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, June 20, 2022 read the column here in pdf format:
Is Nicaragua a ‘dictatorship’ for regulating the operations of charities and NGOs, as do the United States and all other Western powers?, by John Perry, published by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, June 16, 2022
Related: [Read how various ‘NATO socialists’ disparage the popular government of Nicaragua and agitate for its overthrow]:
* Nicaraguan government outlaws feminist groups serving vulnerable people, International Viewpoint (Trotskyist publication in Europe), June 13, 2022
* Obituary for Hugo Torres, former Sandinista combatant and leader, published in Green Left (Australia), Feb 22, 2022
* [The recently held ‘Summit of the Americas’ in Los Angeles excluded the governments of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. The U.S. government invited foreign-funded NGOs from these three countries to attend in place of the uninvited governments, organizing a ‘Civil Society Forum’ as part of the two-day summit. Many NGOs jumped at the opportunity. Read here a report by a participant from Canada, a professor at the Univesrity of British Columbia. Excerpt: “There was great clarity with respect to the non-democratic status of Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, perhaps because civil society groups from these countries were either well represented or especially vocal, but perhaps also because it is clear that they are in their own category. There is much backsliding in the region, but these three countries do not meet the most minimal standards of democracy.”]
In interview with German newspaper, NATO chief threatens ‘long war’ against Russia in Ukraine, interview with Jens Stoltenburg (secretary general of the NATO military cartel), published in Bild am Sonntag, June 19, 2022 (Read the translated interview here in pdf format: NATO head threatens ‘long war’ in Ukraine. Translation to English by A Socialist in Canada. Bild am Sonntag is the largest-selling Sunday newspaper in Germany. NATO will hold a ‘summit meeting’ in Spain on June 29 and 30.)
Growing numbers of Ukrainian servicemen are refusing to fight on the Donbass frontlines, RT, June 18, 2022
Agreement on vaccine patents by World Trade Organization decried as a ‘sham’ dictated by wealthy countries, Common Dreams, June 17, 2022 The 12th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization ended on June 17 with an agreement on patent rights that campaigners said would do virtually nothing to address vast global inequities in coronavirus vaccine and treatment access, a failure they attributed to relentless obstruction by rich countries and the pharmaceutical industry… “The conduct of rich countries at the WTO has been utterly shameful,” said Max Lawson, co-chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance. “The E.U. has blocked anything that resembles a meaningful intellectual property waiver, Britain and Switzerland have used negotiations to twist the knife and make any text even worse, while the U.S. has sat silently in negotiations with ‘red lines’ designed to limit the impact of any agreement”…
How Cuba became a pioneer in Covid-19 vaccines for children, Washington Post, June 18, 2022 …Most Cuban children as young as two have been vaccinated with the country’s ‘Sobrena 2’ vaccine. The pandemic-negligent imperialist countries have no prospect of achieving such a rate. The U.S., for example, has a Covid vaccination rate for 5 to 11 years of age of 36 percent; in Canada, it’s 56 per cent; in Britain, it is less than 20 per cent. Cuban vaccines have not yet been approved by the World Health Organization, although they’ve gotten the green light from regulators in Mexico, Iran and Vietnam…
Counting on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold key rights was always a mistake, essay by Samuel Moyn, in Washington Post, June 17, 2022 read the essay here in pdf format: Counting on U.S. Supreme Court for rights a mistake Liberals are re-learning the lesson that only democratically enacted rights are reliable (Samuel Moyn is a professor of history and law at Yale University and the author of the 2021 book Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War.)
Related: State supreme courts will not save abortion rights, op-ed by Neal Devins (professor of law at William and Mary College, Virginia), in Washington Post, June 22, 2022
Dossier on Western media lies about casualties during Russian military operation in Ukraine:
Civilian casualty update for Ukraine as of June 17, 2022, report by UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, June 17, 2022 [The report by the UNOHCR contains the following:
* There have been 4,509 civilian deaths and 5,585 civilians injured since the beginning of Russia’s special military operaiton in Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022. Of those, 2,628 were killed and 3,117 were injured in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. On Kyiv government-controlled territory: 2,452 killed and 2,393 injured. On territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics: 176 killed and 724 injured.]
Compare to:
* Death in Ukraine: Special report in New York Times, June 17, 2022: …It is impossible to get a true tally of those killed in Ukraine. So many people have been killed in the past 115 days — and so many bodies buried in mass graves by Russian forces — that international organizations the West has relied on for an impartial accounting acknowledge that their tallies fall woefully short… [This NYT report focuses on alleged ‘Russian atrocities’ committed in areas now controlled by the Kyiv regime, for example the small city of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv. Yet not a single figure of casualties in Kyiv-controlled terrtories is provided. Instead, we are offered this: Petro Andryushchenko, advisor to the ‘mayor’ of Mariupol [the ‘mayor’ lives in Kyiv], tells the NYT there is an “endless caravan of death in Mariupol”. He says “officials [which officials?–the city is entirely controlled by Donetsk and Russian forces] were finding 50 to 100 bodies beneath every collapsed building in the city.” ].
* Ukraine’s death workers: ‘If you take it all close to heart, you go mad’, special report in New York Times, June 18, 2022 [This special report contains many photos of gravesites and the work of those burying the dead. But the sole mention of numbers is here: “Ukraine and Russia have kept their casualty numbers closely guarded secrets, mostly issuing statements, impossible to verify, about the other side’s losses.”].
* Radio news report by CBC Radio One (Canada state broadcaster) on June 16, 2022: ‘An estimated 20,000 civilians have died in the city of Mariupol alone.’
* More than 10,000 civilians have died in Russia’s siege of Mariupol, says mayor of city, CBC News, April 11, 2022 …The mayor of the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol [he lives in Ukraine, not in Mariupol] says more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city. The death toll could surpass 20,000, he said, noting that dead bodies were “carpeted through the streets”. Speaking by phone to the Associated Press on April 11, Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to Mariupol to dispose of the bodies…
How China inadvertently became the dominant power in Central Asia and is radically reshaping the region, book review by David Dodwell, in South China Morning Post, June 18, 2022 Reviewing: Sinostan: China’s inadvertent empire, by Raffaello Pantucci and Alexandros Petersen, Oxford U. Press, 2022 Read the book review here in pdf format: Book review, China and Central Asia
Related: China’s ‘detached’ power in Central Asia, book review by Maximilian Hess, published in Eurasia.net, June 15, 2022 A new book exposes the hollowness of many Western assumptions about China’s role in Central Asia.
China launches ‘Fujian’, the third aircraft carrier of the People’s Liberation Army, South China Morning Post, June 18, 2022
Leaders of France, Germany and Italy pledge arms and EU path for Ukraine in Kyiv visit, Associated Press, June 16, 2022 [For years, liberal and even some left-wing analysts in the West ignored the ongoing sabotage of the Minsk 2 peace agreement for eastern Ukraine (region of Donbas) by two of the agreement’s guarantors–France and Germany–in partnership with Kyiv. These analysts made false claims that the governments of France and Germany truly wished for peace and maintaining constructive relations with Russia.].
Related:
* The West’s unity over Ukraine could be starting to crack, just as Russia’s invasion gains ground, CNBC, June 16, 2022 [Note the myth promoted by this CNBC report: “There appears to be [sic] a faction within Europe — namely France, Italy and Germany — that are hoping for a peace deal sooner rather than later.”].
* U.S. won’t pressure Ukraine to concede territory to Russia says top U.S. official while conceding a negotiated outcome is inevitable, The Hill, June 16, 2022
Russia details the numbers of foreign combatants fighting with Ukraine, says there are far fewer than Kyiv claims, RT, June 17, 2022 …The Russian Defense Ministry reports a total of 6,956 foreign citizens from 64 nations arrived in Ukraine to become pro-Kiev combatants between February 24 and June 17. Some 1,956 of those have been killed, while 1,779 have left the country. The largest number of fighters came from Poland with 1,831, followed by Canada, the US, Romania and the UK. Between 422 and 601 people came from each of those four nations…
UK home secretary signs extradition order against Julian Assange, Consortium News, June 17, 2022 The tortured and imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher can now appeal the decision of Priti Patel to the High Court as well as the points of law he lost when the magistrate’s court initially blocked his extradition.
Should the left support Biden in Ukraine?, by Lawrence Davidson, published on his website To The Point Analysis, June 15, 2022 (and re-published here on Consortium News) (Lawrence Davidson is a retired professor of history from West Chester University in West Chester PA. He is the author of numerous books on U.S. foreign policy.)
The Biden regime’s ‘Summit of Exclusion’ backfires, by Jill Clark-Gollub (Washington DC), Alina Duarte (Mexico) and John Perry (Nicaragua), published by the Council On Hemispheric Affairs, June 13, 2022 [The ninth ‘Summit of the Americas’ was convened by the U.S. government and held in Los Angeles on June 10-12. Three countries were excluded–Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. In response, seven heads of government declined to attend–those of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay.].
Related:
* Invitation to ‘Summit of the Americas’ of Haiti’s unelected government reveals U.S. double standards, by Jake Johnston, published in the ‘Americas Blog’ of the Center for Economic Policy Research (Wash. DC), June 10, 2022
* Haiti’s cup of tears is overflowing, by Berthony Dupont (editor), Haiti Liberté (print weekly), edition of June 14, 2022 [Haiti Liberté publishes in French and Kreyol each week, with a English language page, ‘This Week In Haiti’. This essay is translated and published on June 14 on ‘This Week In Haiti’.]
Universal health care could have saved more than 330,000 lives in the U.S. during pandemic, Scientific American, June 13, 2022 …According to findings published on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, from the beginning of the pandemic until mid-March 2022, universal health care could have saved more than 338,000 lives from Covid-19 alone. As well, the U.S. could have saved $105.6 billion in health care costs associated with hospitalizations from the disease. That is on top of the estimated $438 billion that could be saved in a nonpandemic year…
Reference: Universal health care could have saved more than 330,000 U.S. lives during Covid, research paper by multiple authors, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, June 13, 2022 (six-page pdf at weblink)
European Union members ponder ‘no’ to membership for Ukraine, by Vladimir Kornilov, columnist, RIA Novosti, June 13, 2022 (Translation by A Socialist In Canada, original in Russian here.) Read the column here in pdf format: European Union members ponder ‘no’ to Ukraine
Related:
* NATO to supply more heavy weapons to Ukraine, Dutch PM announces at meeting with NATO head, NL Times, June 15, 2022 NATO countries will supply more heavy weapons to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced with his Danish colleague Mette Frederiksen and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg after meeting in The Hague on June 14. No concrete pledges for arms assistance have been made by The Hague. NATO is convening a meeting in Brussels on June 15 with leaders of European countries to discuss and plan further military aid to Ukraine…
* NATO convenes meeting in Brussels with European leaders to boost weapons shipments to Ukraine. Press release by NATO, June 15, 2022
* U.S. announces another $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, CNBC, June 15, 2022 and read: The staggering amount of US military aid to Ukraine explained, VOX, May 17, 2022
Ukraine lacking training and tech suppport for advanced weaponry supplied by U.S. and NATO, RT, June 14, 2022 Ukrainian fighters are struggling to use some of the weaponry provided by Washington to battle Russian forces, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, because the Pentagon has failed to provide training materials, spare parts and other logistical assistance, The Washington Post reported on June 14…
Related:
* Captured Ukrainian officer labels American Javelin portable missile ‘useless’, RT, June 14, 2022
* Lack of technical support, spare parts grounds U.S.-built Javelin portable missiles in Ukraine, Washington Post, June 16, 2022
The end of ‘laissez-faire’: Russia’s attempt to reshape the world economy, by Ramzay Baround, Middle East Monitor, June 8, 2022 (Ramzay Baroud is the editor of The Palestine Chronicle.)
The no-shows at Biden’s ‘Summit of the Americas could mark an historic shift, by Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News, June 14, 2022 The Ninth Summit of the Americas was an international conference held in Los Angeles from June 6 to 10, 2022.
Related: Venezuela and Iran agree to 20-year cooperation plan as Maduro tours Middle East, by José Luis Granados Ceja, Venezuela Analysis, June 13, 2022 Venezuela and Iran signed a 20-year cooperation agreement on June 11 during President Nicolás Maduro’s visit to the country. His two-day visit to Iran comes is part of a foreign tour with earlier stops in Turkey and Algeria.
The AUKUS minefield laid by the defeted coalition gov’t in Australia, by Michael McKinley, published in Pearls and Irritations, June 14, 2022 (Michael McKinley is emeritus professor at the Australian National University in Canberra.)
Chris Smalls’s Amazon uprising and the fight for a second warehouse, feature article in Wash. Post, June 12, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Chris Smalls’s Amazon uprising
Related:
* Amazon calls police, fires workers in attempts to stop unionization nationwide, Washington Post, June 13, 2022
* These are the workers who took on Amazon, and won, by Luis Feliz Leon, In These Times, May 23, 2022 Against all odds, Amazon workers in New York organized a successful union against one of the biggest companies in the world. Here’s how.
New brooms, old stories: The Australian Labor Party and Julian Assange, by Binoy Kampmark, published in Pearls and Irritations, June 7, 2022
Leaders of the European Union are happy to pose for photos with Zelensky but are hesitant on Ukraine membership, Washington Post, June 10, 2022 …If Ukraine were to join the EU, it would become the fifth-most-populous EU country but also, by far, the poorest, drawing subsidies from the rest of the bloc. Ukraine’s per capita gross domestic product last year was $4,872. The current poorest EU country, Bulgaria, stood at $11,683, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund…
Assessing the Russian intervention in Ukraine, by Roger Annis, A Socialist in Canada, June 12, 2022 Aaron Maté’s informative new essay describes responses in the U.S. Democratic Party to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and is an essential read. But it is marred by his use of the term ‘catastrophic’ to describe the Russian intervention and by his unexplained claim that Russia has failed to provide sufficient justification for it.
NATO-member Poland shows the risks for women when abortion is banned, New York Times, June 11, 2022 …The long battle over Poland’s 29-year-old ban on abortion has intensified over the past 17 months after the elimination of the last significant exception permitting the procedure — fetal abnormalities. Only one in 10 Poles support the stricter ban. The rest of the population is roughly split between reverting to milder restrictions and legalizing terminations. Today, Poland and Malta, both staunchly Catholic, are the only European Union countries where abortions are effectively outlawed…
Related: Lessons for the U.S. from Poland, the other developed country curtailing abortion rights, Washington Post, June 12, 2022
The Russian language in post-Soviet Ukraine: 30 years of discrimination against the country’s most widely-spoken tongue, by Rachel Marsden, RT, June 10, 2022
Italy’s complicated perspective on Russia’s war, by Giorgio Cafiero, published in The Daily Sabah (Turkiye), June 9, 2022 [In this informative essay, the writer makes the false claim that the government of France wishes to pursue a policy of peace with Russia.].
Related: France-supplied artillery is now killing civilians in Donbass, report in Donbass Insider, June 7, 2022
Why the U.S. needs a national day of remembrance for Covid-19 victims, op-ed commentary by Sarah E. Wagner, Roy R. Grinker and Joel C. Kuipers, in LA Times, June 10, 2022 read the commentry her in pdf format: National day of Covid-19 remembrance (Sarah Wagner, Roy Grinker and Joel Kuipers are professors of anthropology at George Washington University.)
The problem for New Zealand of blindly following the U.S. war drive against China, commentary by Bryce Edwards, published by The Democracy Project, June 9, 2022 …New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is now planning to attend the next NATO summit meeting, to be held in Madrid on June 29 and 30. This would be a strong provocation against China… This week the New Zealand Herald published an editorial bemoaning that Ardern has “signed up to a joint statement that nailed New Zealand’s colours squarely to the U.S. mast on security and strategic concerns”… The idea of New Zealand becoming something of a deputy sheriff to the United States in the Pacific is increasingly asserted in the media…
Previously reported:
* China has every right to deal with our Pacific brothers and sisters and not be sneered at, commentary by John Tamihere, in New Zealand Herald, June 8, 2022 (John Tamihere is a former, two-term Labour Party MP (1999-2005) and cabinet minister (2002-04). He is the chief executive of Whanau Ora and the West Auckland urban Maori organisation Te Whanau o Waipareira.)
* China has aided Samoa for decades, often when New Zealand hasn’t, commentary by Leiataua Tuitolova’a Kilifoti Eteuati, in The Spinoff (New Zealand), June 8, 2022 (Leitaua Dr Kilifoti S Eteuati is a retired diplomat from Samoa who served as that country’s amabassador to Australia, Japan and the Pacific Island countries.)
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions following talks with Foreign Minister of the Republic of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara on June 8, 2022, text published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, June 8, 2022 read the full text here in pdf format: Sergey Lavrov June 8, 2022
Three mercenaries who fought for Ukraine plead guilty to lesser charges in Donetsk military court, RT, June 9, 2022 [The three pleaded guilty under Article 232 of the Donetsk legal code to “undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities” while one pleaded guilty to an Article 323 charge of “acting to seizing power by force.” All three pleaded not guilty of being mercenaries in an armed conflict (Article 430) and participating in a conspiracy (Article 34)… The British government has demanded that two of the prisoners who are British nationals be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, but Donetsk government officials say the Geneva conventions only apply to uniformed soldiers of a national military, not foreign mercenaries…
Updates:
* Two British and one Morrocan mercenary are condemned to death penalty in Donetsk trial, RT, June 9, 2022 [The three men have one month in which to file an appeal of their penalty.].
* British mercenary imprisoned in Donetsk warns against following his example, RT, June 9, 2022
* British mercenary says he was ‘duped’ into Ukraine conflict by Western media, RT, June 9, 2022
[Note: There is a moratorium on the death penalty in Russia since 1996. Wikipedia]
Liberal imperialist John Mearsheimer recommends that U.S. gov’t. should target China, not Russia. Interview with John Mearsheimer, broadcast on The Crux (news outlet in India on YouTube), May 2022 (23 minutes)
[In this interview, John Mearsheimer makes a compelling argument blaming NATO for the conflict in Ukraine. But his argument is a liberal imperialist one. Moreover, he is not the accurate observer of events in Ukraine admired by so many liberals as well as leftists in the world. From the interview:
* ‘The Russian military is faltering in Ukraine and therefore its [then-upcoming] offensive in Donbass could be defeated by Ukraine.’
* ‘The Russian economy is collapsing.’
* Russia ‘took’ Crimea in 2014. “We [the U.S.] didn’t help Ukraine in keeping Crimea.”
* “In the United States, there is one serious threat in the world and it’s China. It’s not Russia. China is a peer competitor. It threatens to be a regional hegemon in Asia. The United States should be focusing laser-like on China. It should be working overtime to think about how to contain China, and at the same time, it should be working with Russia as an ally to help contain China…”]
Russia is building a new world while the West copes with its destruction of the old, by Irina Alksnis, columnist, RIA Novosti (Russian state media), June 8, 2022 Read the column here in pdf format: Russia is building a new world. (Translation by A Socialist In Canada, original Russian here.)
Related analysis: U.S. is shooting itself in the foot and harming the world in its efforts to hurt Russia, by Margaret Kimberley, executive editor and senior columnist, Black Agenda Report, June 8, 2022 [You can subscribe to the weekly email bulletin of Black Agenda Report and support its work financially by going to its website at the above weblink.]
NewsGuard’s scarlet letter, by Bruce Fein, Consortium News, June 8, 2022 (Bruce Fein was associate deputy attorney general and general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Ronald Reagan and is author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy (St. Martin’s Press, 2008).)
A further ending of the Nordic ideal as Finland and Sweden move to join NATO, by Heikki Patomäki, published in The Nation, June 7, 2022 (Heikki Patomäki is a professor of world politics and global political economy at the University of Helsinki.)
Related:
* Progressive forces in Finland protest gov’t bid to join NATO while anti-NATO protests take place in other European countries, People’s Dispatch, June 8, 2022 Progressive forces in Sweden are also protesting that government’s bid to join NATO.
* World military expenditure passes $2 trillion for first time, report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, April 25, 2022 World military spending continued to grow in 2021, reaching an all-time high of $2.1 trillion. This was the seventh consecutive year that spending increased. U.S. military spending amounted to $801 billion in 2021, compared to $65 billion for Russia.
Capital city of Donetsk republic suffers rocket fire against residential neighbourhoods, report in RT, June 6, 2022 Self-defense forces of the Donetsk republic report on Telegram that barrages of Grad rockets were coming from the Ukraine-controlled small city of Adviika, some 15 km north of Donetsk city.
Related: Two French journalists under Ukrainian artillery fire for five hours in Petrovski district outside Donetsk city, by Laurent Bayard, Donbass Insider, June 5, 2022
In interview on Russian TV, Vladimir Putin responds to accusations that Russia is causing food and fertilizer price inflation and supply squeezes, interview with Vladimir Putin, broadcast on Rossiya 1 television channel, June 3, 2022 Transcript published on the website of the President of Russia, June 3, 2022 read the interview transcript here in pdf format: Is Russia causing world food crisis
Related: Meeting of Vladimir Putin with African Union chairperson and President of Senegal, Macky Sall, report on the website of the President of Russia, June 5, 2022
What does the future hold for the regions of Ukraine now controlled by Russia? analysis by Alexander Nepogodin, in RT, June 4, 2022 RT examines the prospects for Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of southern Ukraine
The missing part of America’s pandemic response, by Cary P. Gross and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, published in The Atlantic (conservative print monthly), June 6, 2022 (Cary P. Gross is a professor of medicine and epidemiology and the director of the COPPER Center at the Yale School of Medicine. Ezekiel J. Emanuel is an oncologist, a bioethicist, and a vice provost of the University of Pennsylvania.) Fighting Covid-19 demands new knowledge. But the country’s most important health-research agency has become sclerotic and overly cautious.
Related: Media fail to raise alarm over deadly lack of Covid-19 booster shots among elderly, by Dorothy Benz, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR.org), June 4, 2022
Britain’s threat to extradite Julian Assange to the U.S. and the new Labour Party gov’t in Australia, analysis by Binoy Kampmark, published in Pearls and Irritations, June 7, 2022
Nine more deaths in three new, mass shootings in U.S., ABC.net.au, June 6, 2022
Kim Phuc, survivor of American War in Vietnam, 50 years after iconic photo that changed the course of the war, report in Toronto Star, June 5, 2022 [The Toronto Star talks to Kim Phuc and Nik Ut. “I did want to tell people how horrible war is,” says Nick Ut, the man who took the iconic photo and then saved Kim Phuc’s life, whisking her off for medical care and arguing with medical officials until they treated her.]
Related: It’s been 50 years. I am not ‘Napalm Girl’ anymore, op-ed commentary by Kim Phuc, in New York Times, June 6, 2022
Buffalo’s East Side was a food desert. The mass shooting on May 14 has made things worse, report in Washington Post (with extensive photos and map), June 1, 2022 read the article text here in pdf format: Food supply in Buffalo’s East Side worsens following May 14 shooting
Related: Anger and heartbreak on Denver’s bus route #15, report in Washington Post, June 6, 2022 (with extensive photos at weblink) read the article text here in pdf format: Denver’s bus route #15
Biden’s Taiwan talk, by Patrick Lawrence, columnist, Consortium News, May 31, 2022 read the commentary her in pdf format: Kim Phuc 50 years later
Labor activists launch new organization to challenge AFL-CIO foreign policy, by Kim Scipes, Covert Action Magazine, June 3, 2022
A sixth round of sanctions against Russia announced by European Union, explainer published in RT, June 3, 2022
Food, famine and war, analysis by Michael Roberts, published in A Socialist In Canada. June 3, 2022
Related readings:
* World food crisis: causes, consequences and solutions, by C Saratchand, People’s Dispatch, May 26, 2022 The war in Ukraine is exacerbating the food crisis, but to end it, the United States must first realize no military solution will bring about the defeat of Russia it seeks
* U.S. sanctions against Russia risks global food disaster, by John Ross, Pressenza, May 26, 2022 (This article was produced by Globetrotter.) Even before rapid price rises surrounding the Ukraine war, more than 800 million people were suffering from chronic food insecurity
* Global food price squeeze is a result of policy decisions by U.S. and EU, says economic advisor to the Russian president, RT, June 3, 2022
U.S. State Dept.-affiliated ‘NewsGuard’ censorship agency targets Consortium News, lengthy analysis by Joe Lauria (editor), Consortium News, June 2, 2022
Related: Guarding democracy from news censors and the likes of ‘NewsGuard’, by John Kiriakou, Consortium News, June 2, 2022
Biden eases Trump’s sanctions against Cuba and Cubans hope for an economic lift, Washington Post, June 2, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Biden eases Trump’s sanctions against Cuba
Related: A limited step in the right direction, editorial in Granma (Cuban daily), My 17, 2022
Shanghai reopens after successful, two-month lockdown stops coronavirus infection wave. Report in South China Morning Post, June 1, 2022 (read the article and view photos here at Yahoo Finance.) …The death toll in Shanghai from Omicron since April 18 stands at 588, or 0.09 per cent of the 626,600 people – mostly without symptoms – who caught the disease in the city of 25 million residents…
Related: Shanghai to embrace a brand new start from June 1, Global Times, May 31, 2022
[In this otherwise informative article, the South China Morning Post journalist echoes Western media in writing: “The outbreak of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19 since March had tarnished Shanghai’s previously lauded success at keeping the disease at bay…” But China’s health care system has succeeded in keeping the coronavirus at bay in Shanghai, unlike the failed health care systems in Western countries that have given up on stopping Covid-19 and are instead allowing it to become endemic. China’s overall, per capita death rate from Covid-19 is negligible compared to the Western imperialist countries. There, millions were allowed to die and hundreds of millions were allowed to become infected due to criminal negligence by government and health authorities.]
A war to the last Ukrainian, monthly update by Dmitriy Kovalevich, published on New Cold War.org, May 26, 2022 read the update here in pdf format: A war to the last Ukrainian
Gustavo Petro wins first-round presidential election victory in Colombia, Orinico Tribune, May 30, 2022 …Colombia’s National Registry has announced the candidates who will contest the second round election on are Gustavo Petro, candidate of the left-wing ‘Historical Pact’ with 8,479,095 votes, or 40.3% of the votes cast in the first round vote on May 29, and right-wing candidate Rodolfo Hernández, who obtained 5,931,722 votes (28.2%).].
Related: The May 29 presidential election in Colombia is a first triumph on the path of change, Resumen LatinoAmerica, May 30, 2022
Peace candidate Geoff Young who wants to abolish the CIA wins Democratic Party primary in Kentucky, by Jeremy Kuzmarov (editor), Covert Action Magazine, June 1, 2022
New Covid-19 cases in the United States are six times higher than one year ago, ABC News, May 31, 2022 [According to Our World In Data, the seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases in the United States on May 31, 2022 was 303 per million population. That compares to app. 60 per million population one year ago and is way down from the all-time of 2,425 in mid-January 2022.
This chart records daily deaths from
Covid-19 in the U.S.:
Jacobin writer claims a ‘Russian defeat’ in Ukraine and pines for ‘global stability’. Essay by Branko Marcetic (columnist), Jacobin Magazine, June 1, 2022 [In which the writer makes zero mention of Ukraine’s eight-year war against the people of Donbass and zero mention of Ukraine’s eight-year blockade of water, electricity, transport and trade against Crimea. Instead, we read an armchair quarterback-style declaration of “the tacit acknowledgment of defeat [by Russia] implied by [acceptance of] serious peace negotiations at a time when its battlefield gains remain so disappointing”. The writer falsely claims the editors of the New York Times are acknowledging the need for a negotiated settlement, citing favorably a NYT editorial on May 19 that read, “Ukraine deserves support against Russia’s unprovoked aggression, and the United States must lead its NATO allies in demonstrating to Vladimir Putin that the Atlantic alliance is willing and able to resist his revanchist ambitions.” He concludes with: “Will we find a way to cut through the toxicity of our current political discourse and save both Ukrainian lives and global stability (emphasis added) by pressing concertedly for a diplomatic solution to the fighting?” Here, he makes zero mention of the long sabotage of a diplomatic solution by Kyiv and NATO following the successful negotiation and of the Minsk 2 peace agreement of 2015. What, exactly, was the ‘global stability’ to which the writer longs for the world to return? It was the stability of the graveyard–rising imperialist war and militarism, and a catastrophic global warming emergency. No thanks.]
Related:
* More writing by ‘NATO socialists’ on Ukraine. Reference: ‘Why Ukraine matters for the left’, feature essay by Matthew Duss, The New Republic, June 1, 2022 [The article byline reads: Opposition to U.S. adventurism is principled. But this is Putin’s adventurism, and the left must stand firmly against it. The writer offers the following argument for supporting NATO weapons to Ukraine: “If the American people are providing arms to Ukraine, as we are to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, then we have a reasonable interest and expectation of influence on its outcome.”].
* And an antidote: Anti-interventionism: An antidote to the split over Russia-Ukraine in the U.S. peace movement, by John V Walsh, in LA Progressive, June 1, 2022
Modern Ukraine was built on an anti-Russia foundation, but a large part of the country refused to play along, historical essay by Alexander Nepogodin (Russian writer), published in RT, June 1, 2022 [Like the essay by Scott Ritter re-published in A Socialist In Canada on May 30, this new, historical essay in RT analyzes the prospects for Russia to achieve a demilitarized and denazified Ukraine. The writer describes the complex development of the national entity of Ukraine and the large sections of Ukraine’s population who reject an ultra-nationalist ideology of intolerance and hatred towards Russia and towards the history of Soviet Ukraine. The writer describes the deep roots of Russian national identity among the populations in the south and east of Ukraine and the deep political divisions opened up by the extreme-right coup in Kyiv in February 2014. He concludes, “We need to acknowledge that the process of self-determination of the Ukrainian nation is still ongoing.”]
