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 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, October 2022
Britain creates casus belli with its participation in Oct 29 drone attacks against Russian fleet in Crimean port of Sevastopol, by Vladimir Kornilov, columnist, RIA Novosti, Oct 31, 2022 (original in Russian here, translation to English by A Socialist In Canada herein pdf format: Britain creates casus belli)
How Lenin’s Bolsheviks placed Russia’s new regions on a collision course with Ukraine 100 years ago, historical essay in RT, Oct 31, 2022
[This historical essay is informative, but it voices a uniformly negative view of the self-determination policies of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Bolshevik Party he led, and the Soviet governments he led, first of Russia then of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics founded in 1922. Indeed, the essay makes no mention at all in name of the self-determination policies of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party! It merely describes events in and around the future Ukraine, and presents a uniformly negative viewpoint of Bolshevik policy. It avoids certain parts of the history that don’t fit the overall negative view.
[The 1917 Russian Revolution and the existence of the Soviet Union leading all the way to the foundation of the Russian Federation in 1991 were not possible to achieve were it not for the self-determination policies of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. These policies secured vast, popular support for Lenin and his party throughout the former Russian Tsarist Empire. They secured the viability and success of the Soviet Ukraine that formed during World War One and the years that immediately followed the collapse of that imperialist war.]
Electro-shock therapy for slow learners in the electricity war Ukraine, by John Helmer, published on his website Dances With Bears, Oct 29, 2022 …Polish Border Guard figures – reported daily — show that in the days before the Russian raids on the electric grid began in earnest on October 10, more Ukrainians left Poland to return home across the frontier than the movement from the Ukraine into Poland. After October 10, however, the cross-border flow has changed direction. Significantly more Ukrainians are now moving to Poland. Vienna press reports are suggesting in parallel that more refugees are crossing into Austria from Poland… For the time being, the Russian plan of attack is not hitting the electric grid powering the passenger trains between Kiev, Lvov, and the Polish terminal at Przemysl. Instead, they have been cutting power to trains moving east from Kiev towards the Dnieper River and the front from Kharkov to Odessa…
Seven reasons why Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential election, report in El Pais (Spain), Oct 30, 2022
The crisis in Ukraine, weekly update by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeperson Maria Shapharova, published on the ministry website, Oct 27, 2022 Read the section on Ukraine of the weekly update here in pdf format: The crisis in Ukraine, MFA update on Oct 27, 2022
Vladimir Putin explains the Russian government’s stance on possession and use of nuclear weapons. October 27, 2022 [The pdf attachement here contains the English transcript of an exchange during the question and answer session that followed the address by president Vladimir Putin on October 27 to the annual conference of the Valdai Discussion Club, held in Moscow this year. The entire English transcript of the president’s address to the conference and the lengthy question and answer session that followed is here on the website of the President of Russia. Pdf attachment: Vladimir Putin speaks on Russia’s nuclear weapons policy ]
Is it time to negotiate peace and disarmament in Ukraine?, panel discussion on RT program ‘Crosstalk’, featuring Scott Ritter and two other guests, Oct 28, 2022
The inflation conundrum, by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in Britain), published on his website, Oct 28, 2022 [This informative analysis is marred by the following claim: “Capitalist investment and the production revival during the economic recovery in 2021 were inadequate to meet to renewed spending by consumers and companies. That failure was exacerbated by supply-chain blockages. The Russia-Ukraine conflict then added to that in reducing energy and food supply and exports, causing rocketing food and energy prices.” This is false. The Russia-Ukraine conflict (in reality, a NATO-caused conflict) has amplified existing factors causing rising prices globally, but has not caused the rising prices.]
Washington launches all-out siege against China’s semiconductor ambitions, by Che Pan, columnist, South China Morning Post, Oct 29, 2022 One analyst report says many of China’s chip firms will be ‘destroyed, damaged, or circumscribed’ by the latest U.S. export controls Read the column here in pdf format: Washington launches all-out siege
Related:
* Worst is yet to come in U.S. tech war against China, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, Oct 28, 2022 For Washington, the economic destruction of China and US national security now amount to the same thing Read the column here in pdf format: Worst is yet to come in U.S. tech war against China
* Does the U.S. computer chip ban against China amount to a declaration of war in the computer age?, by Prabir Purkayastha, Canadian Dimension, Oct 29, 2022 Sanctions can at best slow China from taking the global lead in chip manufacturing (Prabir Purkayastha is the founding editor of Newsclick.in, a digital media platform. This article originally appeared in Peoples Democracy (India), Oct 23, 2022, the weekly newspaper of the weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
New Pentagon defense strategy says China remains top ‘threat’, Associated Press, Oct 28, 2022
Related: U.S.-Philippines alliance under pressure as closer ties risk a Chinese backlash, commentary by Mark Valencia, South China Morning Post, Oct 29, 2022 Manila recognises China’s military and economic dominance, raising the need for hedging and trying to preserve relations with both sides Read the column here in pdf format: U.S.-Philippines alliance under pressure
Why many South Asians aren’t celebrating Britains’s new, ultra-wealthy prime minister, commentary by by Zahra Khozema, Toronto Star, Oct 28, 2022 Rishi Sunak is not only the first British prime minister of colour, but he is also the first U.K. prime minister who is a few hundred million dollars richer than the monarch Read the commentary here in pdf format: Many South Asians aren’t celebrating new UK prime minister
Related:
* Rishi Sunak and the primrose path, by Craig Murray, published on his website, Oct 29, 2022
* Family wealth from outsourcing by India’s Infosys adds to the secretive fortune of British PM Sunak, feature report in New York Times, Oct 28, 2022 …Revelations add to the growing picture of Mr. Sunak’s closely guarded wealth, one flecked by tax controversies, offshore accounts and millions of dollars in potential conflicts of interests that went undeclared. He and his wife, Akshata Murty, have a net worth of $845 million, according to The Rich List, the annual catalog of British wealth published in The Sunday Times. Mr. Sunak is a former Goldman Sachs banker and hedge fund manager…
Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the Valdai Discussion Club conference, English transcript published on the website of the President of Russia, Oct 27, 2022 ‘The world is diverse by nature. Western attempts to squeeze everyone into the same pattern are clearly doomed, nothing will come of this.’
More excerpts:
…I am convinced that sooner or later both the new centres of the multipolar international order and the West will have to start a dialogue on an equal footing about a common future for us all, and the sooner the better, of course. In this regard, I will highlight some of the most important aspects for all of us… Current developments have overshadowed environmental issues. Strange as it may seem, this is what I would like to speak about first today. Climate change no longer tops the agenda. But that fundamental challenge has not gone away, it is still with us, and it is growing…
The blindness about which Alexander Solzhenitsyn spoke 50 years ago is openly racist and neocolonial, and has acquired especially distorted forms after the emergence of the so-called unipolar world. What am I referring to? Belief in one’s infallibility is very dangerous; it is only one step away from the desire of the infallible to destroy those they do not like… Classic liberalism was understood to mean the freedom of every person to do and say as they pleased, but in the 20th century, the liberals started saying that the so-called open society had enemies and that the freedom of these enemies could and should be restricted if not cancelled…
I am convinced that real democracy in a multipolar world is primarily about the ability of any nation – I emphasise – any society or any civilisation to follow its own path and organise its own socio-political system. If the United States or the EU countries enjoy this right, then the countries of Asia, the Islamic states, the monarchies of the Persian Gulf, and countries on other continents certainly have this right as well. Of course, our country, Russia, also has this right, and no one will ever be able to tell our people what kind of society we should be building and what principles should underlie it…
The unipolar world is being relegated into the past. We are at a historical crossroads. We are in for probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and at the same time most important decade since the end of World War II. The West is unable to rule humanity single-handedly and the majority of nations no longer want to put up with this. This is the main contradiction of the new era. To cite a classic, this is a revolutionary situation to some extent – the elites cannot and the people do not want to live like that any longer…
The future world order is being formed before our eyes. And in this world order, we must listen to everyone, take into account every point of view, every nation, society, culture, every system of worldviews, ideas and religious beliefs, without imposing a single truth on anyone, and only on this basis, understanding our responsibility for the fate of our peoples and the planet, to build a symphony of human civilization…
U.S. Republicans who want diplomacy with Russia are about as ‘pro-Putin’ as Reagan was ‘pro-Soviet’, commentary by Rachel Marsden, published in RT, Oct 28, 2022 Liz Cheney invokes Ronald Reagan to bash those in the GOP who want talks with Russia. But that’s exactly what Reagan would have done
How Western media ‘quarantined’ evidence on Nord Stream sabotage, published in Media Lens (Britain), Oct 26, 2022 (part one)
Related: Part two: How the media quarantined evidence on BP and cancer In Iraq, Media Lens, Oct 28, 2022
The West is giving its blessing to a nuclear provocation by Kyiv, by Sergey Savchuk, columnist, RIA Novosti, Oct 25, 2022 (Original in Russian here, translation to English by A Socialist In Canada; read the translation here in pdf format: The West is giving its blessing to a nuclear provocation by Kyiv )
Related analysis:
* ‘Dirty bomb’ and threatened destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam. The dangerous games being played by Ukraine, commentary by Christelle Néant, in Donbass Insider, Oct 25, 2022
* Nuclear high noon in Europe, by Scott Ritter, Consortium News, Oct 19, 2022
Previously reported:
* Three Ukrainian missiles strike the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, but no damage, RIA Novosti, Oct 24, 2022 Full translation to English here: Ukrainian troops fired 19 U.S.-supplied missiles at the city of Novaya Kakhovka, three ofwhich struck the nearby Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, a representative of the emergency services of the Kherson region has told RIA Novosti. “The Kyiv regime continues to shell the civilian infrastructure of Nova Kakhovka,” according to the representative. “At 11:20, it fired 19 HIMARS and Alder missiles. Some of them were shot down by air defense, but unfortunately, three missiles hit the hydroelectric power station. Information about victims is being gathered.” The head of the city administration, Vladimir Leontyev, told RIA Novosti, there were no critical damages. The station continues to operate. [end report].
* Russia urges UN Security Council to prevent Ukraine’s ‘terrible provocations’ in shelling of power stations, RT, Oct 22, 2022
* Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant, Wikipedia
‘Progressive Caucus’ in U.S. Congress withdraws its open letter calling for diplomacy in Ukraine, Common Dreams, Oct 25, 2022 The mild and carefully worded letter signed by 30 elected representatives sparked furious backlash from pundits and at least one Democratic Party leader
Latest essay by Chris Hedges condemns U.S. and NATO warmakers but also condemns Russia as threatening nuclear destruction. Essay by Chris Hedges, published in Scheer Post, Oct 24, 2022
[The essay by Chris Hedges describes the leader of Russia as ruthless and says U.S. leaders should proceed with caution. Hedges falsely accuses Russia of “attacks on power, sewage and water treatment plants” in Ukraine. He argues that the Russian government may turn to the irrational use of nuclear weapons. “If NATO prevails and Putin feels his hold on power is in jeopardy, what will stop him from lashing out in desperation?” For all of his anti-imperialist rhetoric, Hedges presents Western imperialism as the ‘reasonable’ side that must be rescued from the current control by fanatical warmakers. He goes so far as to present Donald Trump as “a voice of reason” seeking peace in Ukraine!
[In a more recent essay, published on October 25, Hedges writes, “It’s impossible, under international law, to defend Russia’s war in Ukraine, as it is impossible to defend [the U.S.] invasion of Iraq [in 2003]. Preemptive war is a war crime, a criminal war of aggression…]
As winter approaches, both Russia and Ukraine bulk up their forces in preparation for decisive battles, analysis published in RT, Oct 25, 2022
Related:
* The U.S. signals readiness to launch nuclear strike against Russia, by Alexander Timokhin, published in the Russian military journal Vzglyad, Oct 24, 2022 (translation to English by Dances With Bears (John Helmer) ) read the translation here in pdf format: U.S. readiness to strike Russia with nuclear weapons
Ukraine faces hyperinflation, economic collapse, by Renfrey Clarke, A Socialist In Canada, Oct 24, 2022 (The following article was prepared for New Cold War.org and was first published there on Oct 24, 2022.)
The causes of the war in Ukraine: A reply to Simon Pirani, by Paul Atkin, published on his website Urban Ramblings (Britain), Oct 17, 2022 (Paul Atkin is a retired teacher in Britain and convenor of the Climate Change Network of the National Education Union.)
U.S. tries to bend UN Charter to bless illegal, unwanted invasion of Haiti, by Kim Ives, published in the ‘This Week In Haiti’ English page of Haiti Liberté (print weekly), Oct 19, 2022 The gloves came off at the United Nations Security Council on Monday, October 17 in one of the best bare-knuckle diplomatic throw-downs [weblink to recording of the session, two hours, is here] since the dawn of the new multipolar world on Feb. 24, 2022. The subject was Haiti. The United States is searching for a formula to justify its fourth major military intervention into Haiti in a century. To do so, Washington is playing fast-and-loose with the UN Charter, trying to deputize one nation or group of nations to intervene on its behalf. Sources say that the candidates for the honor are Canada, Mexico, and Norway. However, veto-wielders China and Russia are pushing back, and there’s no guarantee that the U.S. (with its usual allies, Canada and France) will succeed in its gambit…
Related news:
* UN Security Council unanimously adopts resolution to sanction armed gangs in Haiti, but only one person is named, popular leader Jimmy Cherizier, report by France 24, Oct 21, 2022
* Security Council establishes sanctions regime against Haiti, report on United Nations website, Oct 21, 2022 [This news report contains summaries of the debate at the UN Security Council on Oct 21. The report contains lots of brave talk, but the fact is that key members of the Security Council – Russia and China – have turned away a U.S. proposal to once again invade and occupy Haiti militarily in the name of the UN.]
‘Here in Germany is where preparations for a nuclear war are rehearsed’: Interview with Joachim Schramm of the German Peace Society (DFG-VK), published in Junge Welt, Oct 18, 2022 (Translation to English by A Socialist In Canada; read it here in pdf format: Interview with Joachim Schramm of the German Peace Society. Original in German is here.) Protesting against the NATO military exercise ‘Steadfast Noon’ and concerns about further escalation in the Ukraine conflict.
The German government’s bizarre effort to blame Russia for attacking the Nord Stream gas pipeline, by Victoria Nikiforova, columnist, RIA Novosti, Oct 21, 2022 (Translation to English by A Socialist In Canada, read the translation here in pdf format: German government’s bizarre claims over Nord Stream sabotage. Original in Russian is here.)
FBI raided home of star ABC News producer James Meek in April; he hasn’t been seen since, by Tatiana Siegel, Rolling Stone, Oct 18, 2022
Read also: An ABC News investigative journalist disappeared six months ago. He knew a lot about American activities in Ukraine, RT, Oct 22, 2022
The long history of anti-Jewish prejudice and violence by Ukrainian nationalists, and how Soviet Ukraine fought against it, by Dmitriy Kovalevich, A Socialist in Canada, Oct 21, 2022 While Ivy League professors and book writers in the West equate the Soviet Union with Nazi Germany, the Soviets fought the Nazis and ended violent anti-Jewish pogroms.
As inflation stalks Europe, leaders shudder, New York Times, Oct 21, 2022 The downfall of Britain’s prime minister serves as a warning of the political peril that awaits those leaders who fail to address the erosion of living standards, no matter the cause. Read the article here in pdf format: As inflation stalks Europe, leaders shudder
Fact and fiction in Russia’s 300,000-strong mobilization: Update on Russian military operations in Ukraine, by Brian Berletic, broadcast on his YouTube Channel The New Atlas, Oct 20, 2022 (31 minutes)
Grave new world: Biden’s long-delayed National Security Strategy is the kind of pablum that disguises danger and comes with a price, by Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News, Oct 18, 2022
Kherson Region will relocate civilians to safety announces governor, RT, Oct 18, 2022
Related: [In response to Russia’s recent retaliatory strikes against electricity infrastructure in Ukraine, the head of the governing regime in Kiev tweeted, “No space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime.” Volodomyr Zelensky signed a decree to that effect weeks ago, on October 4. source]
Blood in the archives: How Australia’s foreign affairs dep’t provided cover for Indonesia’s genocidal occupation of East Timor, by Peter Job, Declassified Australia, Oct 16, 2022 …In 1975, Indonesia invaded the small Portuguese of East Timior in 1975, with the full knowledge and approval of the West and equipped with some of the latest US weaponry. The invasion was accompanied from the first day by large scale death and destruction; the occupation of the country by the military government of General Suharto continued for the next 24 years…
Josep Borrell as Europe’s racist ‘gardener’, analysis published in Al Jazeera, Oct 17, 2022 …Borrell was also wrong when he claimed in his speech that Europe has become stronger and more independent of the United States since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Rather the contrary. A weaker, colder, more vulnerable EU has become more subservient to Washington… [To be clear, notwithstanding these words by its senior columnist, Al Jazeera has been a big cheerleader of NATO’s proxy war against Russia.].
Related: The European Union must act against its leader Josep Borrell for his racist remarks, commentary in The National, Oct 18, 2022 The European Union’s high representative to the rest of the world has said that Europe is ‘civilised’ while the rest of the world is a ‘jugngle’ from which Europe must protect itself
Massive protest in Paris against inflation and climate crisis, Al Jazeera, Oct 16, 2022 Organisers say 140,000 people attended the march against the rising cost of living and government inaction against climate change. The theme of the march was ‘March against high living costs and inaction on climate change’.
Related news: Tens of thousands march in Paris to protest rising living costs; unions call general strike for Oct 18, New York Times, Oct 16, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Protest in Paris against rising cost of living
[The protest march in Paris on October 16 was called by the left-wing party France insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Trade unions did not officially participate. Instead, they have called for a general strike to take place on October 18. The government of President Macron has pledged to push back the retirement age from 62 to 65, bringing France into line with its European peers. But the idea is fiercely opposed by trade unions and left wing parties.].
Background: France insoumise party condemns Russia for Ukraine intervention, says French government should support and work alongside Ukraine regime for peace. Reference: Statement by France insoumise (France Unbowed), Sep 21, 2022 Read the English translation here in pdf format: France insoumise statement on Ukraine.docx
Investigation of the pipeline sabotage in the Baltic Sea that stinks to high heaven, by Joerg Kronauer, analysis published in Junge Welt (left-wing German daily), Monday, Oct 17, 2022 (original in German is here; read the translated article here in pdf format: Investigation of the pipeline sabotage in the Baltic Sea that stinks to high heaven) [See further below the news reports dated Oct 13 and 14 providing more background on the censoring by Sweden, Denmark and Germany of any information in their secret investigations into the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines on September 26, 2022.]
Rand Corporation study in 2019 is a damning revelation of long-planning military and economic threats against Russia, editorial, Strategic Culture Foundation, Oct 7, 2022
The third term of China’s President Xi Jinping: Growth, investment and consumption, by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in Britain), published on his website, Oct 16, 2022 [The 21st congress of the Communist Party of China opened on October 16 and will last for one week. President Ji Jinping is expected to be elected to a third term as secretary general of the party.]
Interview by Vladimir Putin on October 14, 2022 in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, following the 6th summit meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (excerpts). The full interview (English translation) is here on the website of the President of Russia Read the interview excerpts here in pdf format: Interview by Vladimir Putin Oct 14, 2022 (excerpts)
Statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry on the UN General Assembly resolution ‘Territorial integrity of Ukraine: Defending the principles of the Charter of the United Nations’, statement published on the ministry website, Oct 14, 2022 During its 11th emergency session, which resumed on October 12, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution titled ‘Territorial integrity of Ukraine: defending the principles of the Charter of the United Nations’. It condemns the referendums held in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. This deplorable initiative repeats much of the UN Security Council document, which Russia vetoed on September 30…
Previously reported: UN General Assembly votes to condemn self-determination votes held in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye. [The vote was 143 in favour, 5 opposed, 35 abstaining. The text of the adopted resolution is here. The five countries voting against were Russia, Belarus, Syria, Nicaragua and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Abstentions were cast by most countries in Asia and Africa, including China, India, Pakistan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Kazahkstan and Uzbekistan; and South Africa and South Sudan. The Latin American countries abstaining were Cuba, Honduras and Bolivia. Venezuela did not cast a vote.]
Elon Musk discovers the Ukrainian kill list ‘Mirotvorets’ after his name briefly appeared on it, RT, Oct 16, 2022 …The news that Musk briefly appeared on the ‘kill list’ followed reports that he sought to cut off free Starlink services for Ukraine unless the Pentagon agreed to cover his company’s losses. On October 15, Musk made an abrupt U-turn, saying “the hell with it… we’ll just keep funding Ukraine gov’t for free”.
Sweden opts out of joint probe with Germany and Denmark into explosions that targeted Nord Stream pipelines on Sept 26, The Local.dk, Oct 14, 2022 read the report here in pdf format: Sweden says ‘nej’ to joint probe of Nord Stream sabotage
Related readings:
* Sweden refuses a joint, formal investigation of Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, citing ‘national security’. Report by Reuters, Oct 14, 2022
* Germany, Denmark and Sweden exclude Russia from any formal investigation into Nord Stream sabotage. Report by Reuters, Oct 13, 2022
* Sweden keeps secret the findings of its investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosion sabotage, rejects Russia’s request to share. Report by WION News (India), Oct 11, 2022
[Western governments and media are terming the explosions that sabotaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea on September 26 as “leaks”. Nord Stream 2 remains pressurized and operational, but the German government has decided that German industry will not purchase its product.]
How ‘Counterfire’ left-wing group in UK plays both sides of the fence in Ukraine war. References:
* Burning bridges: the Ukraine war could be heading for a point of no return, Oct 14, 2022 …From the bombing of a theatre sheltering civilians in Mariupol in March [sic], to the excavation of mass graves [sic] in territories lost by Russian troops in the Kyiv and Kharkiv areas since then, it is evident that Russia’s military machine has perpetrated numerous war crimes against defenceless people… [The article writes further: “Leaving the world in the hands of the likes of Putin and Biden is too risky to contemplate. Anti-war movements in both East and West must do all they can to raise the pressure for a negotiated peace as soon as possible, linking the demand for peace with demands for economic measures to combat the cost of living crisis.” But the article ‘overlooks’ reporting that Ukraine, due to Western pressure, has, precisely, refused to negotiate an end to hostilities with Russia. Instead, NATO and the governing regime in Kyiv continue to escalate their attacks against the people of Donbass, Crimea and elsewhere in the region.].
* The deadly dynamics of war, Oct 11, 2022 …Our Ukrainian brothers and sisters deserve real solidarity from workers who reject war and want to live in peace. Ukrainians need an end to war, and a commitment to help Ukraine rebuild as an independent state, free from the machinations of both NATO and Russia… [But the governing regime in Kyiv has, precisely, repudiated the concept of an independent Ukraine. It staged a violent coup in 2014 and then quickly accepted austerity and other such policies imposed on the Ukrainian people by the regime’s ‘partners’ in the European Union and global financial institutions. This is another case of Counterfire ‘overlooking’ to report the key events that created the current crisis.]
Ukraine gov’t continues its wartime attacks against worker benefits, report in the anti-Russia Open Democracy (Britain), Oct 14, 2022
For British PM Truss and her Conservative Party, a ‘fairy tale’ unravels, New York Times, Oct 14, 2022 read the artile here in pdf format: British PM’s austerity plans shipwrecked
Letter by V.I. Lenin in 1919 to the workers and peasants of Ukraine, A Socialist In Canada, Oct 13, 2022 [This is the first in a series of articles to be published in A Socialist In Canada that will examine the self-determination policies of the revolutionary governments led by V.I. Lenin, his Bolshevik Party, and other revolutionary parties and forces in Russia following the October Revolution of 1917. The articles will focus on the evolution of Ukrainian nationalism. The extreme-right and anti-Jewish nationalism of the landlord class in Ukraine before and after 1917 is the inspiration of the current government which came to power in Kiev in February 2014 through a violent coup. In contrast, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, founded in 1920, had a long and often difficult history of combatting the great power chauvinism and anti-Jewish prejudice inherited from the Russian Tsarist Empire while promoting the language, culture, and socio-economic development of the Ukrainian people.]
Dossier on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: The failed responses by the Western powers, and where the world is headed, A Socialist In Canada, Oct 14, 2022
Russian missile and drone strikes continue across Ukraine, situation report by Brian Berletic, broadcast on his YouTube channel ‘The New Atlas’, Oct 13, 2022 (22 minutes)
‘Morning Star’ newspaper in Britain stands with ‘brave antiwar voices’ in Russia
Reference: An uncontrolled escalation of the war in Ukraine is ‘happening before our eyes,’ peace campaigners warn, report in Morning Star, Oct 11, 2022 [The newspaper, published by the Communist Party of Britain, has modified its earlier, anti-Russia stance (editorial, Feb 22, 2022, and here) that called for Russian surrender before NATO (‘withdrawal from Ukraine’) and described Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine as a “blatantly expansionist invasion”. Today, it writes, “In the end, a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia is the only way the war will be brought to a halt.” This has been the stance of the Russian government; it is Ukraine that walked away from negotiations in late March/early April. But this is not acknowledged by the newspaper; instead, it calls misleadingly on ‘both sides’ to agree to talk. It writs further, ““Securing peace cannot be left to the brave anti-war forces in Russia and Ukraine itself. The anti-war movement in Britain needs to mobilise, as it is doing in Germany…” But ‘mobilize’ for what purpose? If it is to call on Russia to ‘withdraw’ from Ukraine, then this amounts to whitewashing of NATO, which is centrally responsible for the crisis.]
Canada’s finance minister, a pro-Ukraine fanatic, delivers speech in Washington calling on the imperialist countries to circle the wagons, expand fossil fuel and nuclear power production, and threaten the non-imperialist world with isolation and sanctions
References:
* Chrystia Freeland has laid out a bold vision [sic] for a new global economic path, but it won’t be easy, analysis in Globe and Mail, Oct 12, 2022 read the analysis here in pdf format: Chrystia Freeland lays out a ‘bold’ vision
* Video of Chrystia Freeland’s one-hour speech and q&a before the Brookings Institute in Washington DC on October 11, one hour video here
[Canada is counting on a vast expansion of its fossil fuel exports to Europe, says Freeland. It is also promoting a renewal of the nuclear power industry. These and other policy shifts are precisely among the reasons why Canada has chosen a lead role in the proxy war by NATO against Russia. This has left the environmental protest movement and the political left in Canada in tatters, sitting on the political sidelines, because they support war against Russia or have fallen into silence. They have no alternative political course nor meaningful, alternative economic course on offer. It’s a tragic and frightening state of affairs.]
Nuclear energy is making a comeback. What’s happening in Canada and abroad, Globe and Mail, Oct 12, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Nuclear energy is trying to stage a comeback
Related:
* Nuclear industry hopes to expand output with new reactors, Associated Press, June 21, 2022 The U.S. nuclear industry is hoping to nearly double output over the next three decades, according to the industry’s trade association… U.S. nuclear electricity generation capacity peaked at 102 gigawatts in 2012, when there were 104 operating nuclear reactors. Currently, 92 operating reactors have nearly 95 gigawatts of capacity and supply some 20 per cent of U.S. electricity…
* The new geopolitics of nuclear power, report published by Chatham House (lead imperialist think tank in Britain), Sep 29, 2022 States may be looking to build or restore nuclear reactors, but they will need to bypass Chinese and Russian dominance …In response to the Russian and Chinese dominance of the civilian nuclear industry, American nuclear industries are asking the U.S. government to streamline the export-licensing process and provide them with support. Washington is also establishing strategic partnerships with nuclear-capable allies such as South Korea to win procurement contracts. South Korea has recently made a U-turn in its nuclear policy. Its new president Yoon Suk-yeol intends to revive the role of nuclear power… However, responding to widespread public concerns after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan [year 2011], the high earthquake risk in South Korea, and the nuclear scandals, the new government of President Moon Jae-in elected in 2017 decided to gradually phase out nuclear power…
* Nuclear power in South Korea Wikipedia …In 2012, South Korea had plans for significant expansion of its nuclear power industry and to increase nuclear’s share of generation to 60% by 2035. Eleven more reactors were scheduled to come online in the period 2012 to 2021, adding 13.8 GWe in total. However, in 2013 the government submitted a reduced draft plan to parliament for nuclear output of up to 29% of generation capacity by 2035, following several scandals related to falsification of safety documentation…
* Germany’s new hunger for coal dooms a tiny village, New York Times, Oct 13, 2022 …The cutting of Russian gas supplies to Europe has led Germany to step up coal use, despite its goal to phase it out by 2030. A poll taken this past summer found that 56 percent of Germans were in favor of turning coal plants back on, with just 36 percent against. That compares to the 73 percent of the population who supported ending coal use “as soon as possible” in a 2019 poll…
UN Human Rights Council rejects Western bid to debate situation in China’s Xinjiang province, The Diplomat (India), Oct 6, 2022 [The 47-member Human Rights Council of the United Nations has voted down a proposal from Britain, Turkey, the United States and other mostly Western countries to hold a debate on alleged rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s western Xinjiang region. The vote was 17 countries in favor, 19 against and 11 abstained. Indonesia’s UN ambassador Febrian Ruddyard has explained that Indonesia voted ‘no’ because “country-specific initiatives that do not enjoy the consent and support of the concerned countries” would not result in any “meaningful progress” on human rights. Achsanul Habib, director of human rights and humanitarian affairs at Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explained, “We voted ‘no’ because we don’t want the politicization of the Human Rights Council, [for it] to be used for the purpose of political rivalry.”]
Why so many cannot find child care in the U.S.: 100,000 workers are missing, New York Times, Oct 14, 2022 …Where did the child care workers go? To better-paying jobs stocking shelves, cleaning offices or doing anything that pays more than $15 an hour. The typical American child-care worker earns about $13 per hour, and many earn just above minimum wage. Last year, 29 percent were so poor that they experienced food insecurity, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of Oregon…
The USA vs. two gas pipelines supplying northern Europe from Russia, analysis by Scott Ritter, published in Consortium News, Oct 12, 2022
Related: Berlin showing no interest in gas delivery via Nord Stream, report by DPA news agency, in Junge Welte, Oct 12, 2022 (original in German here; read the translated report here in pdf format: Berlin no interest in Nord Stream gas
‘Global Energy In A Multipolar World’: Speech by Vladimir Putin to the Russian Energy Week International Forum, text published on the website of the President of Russia, Oct 11, 2022
Related:
* Interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Russia’s ’60 Minutes’ television program, transcript in English published on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oct 11, 2022
* The crisis in Ukraine: report by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, text published in English on the Ministry website, Oct 11, 2022 [This report is one part of the weekly press briefing by Maria Zakharova. You can read it at the weblink, or here in pdf format: Report on the Ukraine crisis, Oct 11.]
Missile strikes across Ukraine and what may follow next, video report by Brian Berletic, broadcast on his YouTube channel ‘The New Atlas’, Oct 8, 2022 (31-minute broadcast)
Related: Russia’s strikes against infrastructure in Ukraine show the truck bombing of the Crimea Bridge was a ‘red line’ for Moscow and Kiev crossed it, analysis published in Sputnik International, Oct 10, 2022 [Western media is promoting the lie that Russia’s attacks against military infrastructure in Ukraine on October 10 were actually directed against civilians. Yet this same media reports that the “barrage of Russian missiles” that struck cities “across Ukraine” killed only 11 people. The New York Times reports on October 14, citing notoriously unreliable Ukraine officials, that “more than three dozen people” have been killed by Russian missile strikes during the previous three days. It does not explain how many of those deaths were soldiers and how many were civilians. Thus do we see inadvertant confirmation of Russia’s claim that it targetted military infrastructure, not civilians, in response to Ukrainian bombing of the Crimea Bridge and continued shelling of nuclear power plants and the people of Donbass region (Donetsk and Lugansk). Only hardened ideologues could believe the Western/Ukraine story and promote it.]
The right to self-determination on the brink of a nuclear catastrophe: September update on Ukraine, by Dmitriy Kovalevich, A Socialist In Canada, Oct 11, 2022 (Dmitriy Kovalevich is the special correspondent in Ukraine for New Cold War.org, where this report first appeared. Each month, he writes a monthly update on the situation in Ukraine; this is the report for September 2022.)
Missile strikes in Ukraine by Russia are a response to Ukrainian terrorism says Russian president in address, RT, Oct 10, 2022 The Russian president has confirmed the launch of a major operation against Ukrainian infrastructure in response to the Crimean Bridge attack
Related: Ukraine reports damage to 29 critical infrastructure facilities, brief report in RIA Novosti, Oct 10, 2022 (read the translated report here: Ukraine reports damage to critical infrastructure )
Kharkov and mobilization, by Jacques Baud (Swiss military analyst), published in The Postil Magazine, Oct 1, 2022 The recapture of the Kharkov region by Ukrainian armed forces at the beginning of September appears to be a success for Ukrainian forces… A closer look at the operations shows that from a military point of view, this operation is a tactical victory for the Ukrainians and an operational/strategic victory for the Russian coalition… In August, indications suggested that the Russians had planned to leave the area well before the start of the Ukrainian offensive. They therefore withdrew in good order, together with some civilians who could have been the subject of retaliation…
[Jacques Baud’s most recent book is Operation Z, published in French in August 2022, 357 pages.]
The sins of silence in Western media, by Patrick Lawrence, published in Scheer Post, Oct 8, 2022 The media’s treatment of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage is reminiscent of the Cuban missile Crisis in 1961 when disaster could have been avoided with responsible reporting …Keeping Americans in the dark as the Cold War proceeded was key to the national-security state’s ability to operate without concern for civilian oversight or political interference. Now this same silence descends upon us once again…
Moves by Iran and Turkiye to join Shanghai Cooperation Organization raises its profile, by John Ruehl, produced by Globetrotter, Oct 10, 2022 [This informative essay writes, “Support for autocratic rule and limiting criticism of human rights violations set the Shanghai Cooperation Organization apart from other Western-aligned international organizations…” The implication here is that the imperialist governments of the world are not ‘autocratic’ and ‘violating human rights’. Such a Western media trope should be out of place in this otherwise informative essay.]
What did the US.-Pacific Summit meeting achieve?, The Diplomat (India), Oct 6, 2022 [The first-ever U.S.- Pacific Island Country Summit took place in Washington, D.C. on September 28-29, 2022.].
Related:
* Pacific leaders sign U.S. declaration, New Zealand supports U.S. recognition of NZ colonies Cook Islands and Niue, report in Stuff.co.nz, Sep 30, 2022
* Nuclear testing and colonisation explain Pacific Island Nations’ alignment with China, by Jerry Grey, published in Pearls and Irritations, Oct 9, 2022
Western anti-China rhetoric reeks of racism and hypocrisy, by John Queripel, published in Pearls And Irritations, Oct 10, 2022
Chip bans against countries like China will hurt the U.S. more than they’ll help, and they won’t even work, Forbes Magazine, Sep 28, 2022
Power and communications lost in the city of Energodar due to shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, report by RIA Novosti, Oct 9, 2022 (original in Russian here; translation to English by A Socialist In Canada here in pdf format: Power and communications lost in city of Energodar )
Truck bombing damages bridge to Crimea, Ukraine claims responsibility, report in RT, Oct 8, 2022
[Ukraine has claimed responsibility for the attack against Europe’s longest bridge crossing. According to Bloomberg News: “A truck explosion on the bridge span’s roadway caused seven fuel tanks on a freight train to ignite as it crossed the span early Saturday, Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee said, according to the state-run Tass news service. Two sections of the road bridge fell into the waters below. Three deaths were reported.]
Related:
* Crimean Bridge reopens for traffic after explosion (with video), RT, Oct 8, 2022 [Auto and bus traffic resumed within 24 hours on two of the bridge’s four road lanes. Trucks are using ferry service. There is no date for resumption of train service across the bridge.]
* Moscow points to Kiev’s ‘terrorist nature’ after explosion damages Kerch Strait Bridge, RT, Oct 8, 2022 [Western media is nervously reporting Ukraine’s hailing of its truck bomb attack against the Crimea Bridge (Kerch Strait Bridge) early on October 8, local time. CNN quotes the words of David Arakhamia, the head of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s party in parliament and a member of Kyiv’s negotiating team with Russia: “Russian illegal construction is starting to collapse and catch fire. The reason is simple: if you build something explosive, sooner or later, it will explode. And this is just the beginning.”].
* Impact of the attack against the Crimea Bridge and the next likely offensive by Ukraine, video report by Brian Berletic, broadcast on his YouTube channel ‘The New Atlas’, Oct 8, 2022 (26-minute broadcast)
* The U.S. or its ally may have sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline, says Jeffrey Sachs, report published in Berliner Zeiting, Oct 10, 2022 [This report is translated to English and published here by Pearls And Irritations (Australia).]
Update on the Ukrainian crisis, by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, delivered on Oct 6, 2022 read the text of three sections of the report here in pdf format: Update on the Ukrainian crisis as of Oct 6, 2022
[This text consists of three excerpts from the weekly report on October 6, 2022 by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation:
1. Update on the Ukrainian crisis;
2. Outcome of the UN Security Council meeting of Sept 30, 2022 on the attacks against the Nord Stream gas pipelines;
3. The situation in Denmark and Sweden in connection with attacks on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2.]
Serial killer U.S. condemns petty criminal Hong Kong, by Alex Lo, columnist, South China Morning Post, Oct 8, 2022 read the column here in pdf format: Serial killer U.S. condemns petty criminal Hong Kong
Russia nationalizes Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, RT, Oct 5, 2022 …The plant will be operated by a subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned nuclear power giant Rosatom. For now, it will continue to function under Ukrainian-issued licenses until Russian equivalents are obtained, according to the document…
‘Now all of you are Azov’: Ukrainian neo-Nazis on speaking tour in U.S., meet with members of Congress, by Moss Robeson, investigative journalist, published on his website on Medium.com, Oct 5, 2022
Consortium News publishes anti-Russia diatribe alleging Russian support to Israel’s attacks against Syria. Reference: Putin and the Arabs, article published in Consortium News, Oct 5, 2022 [This article in to Consortium News is written by a regular contributor. It falsely claims the existence of a close political and military alliance between Russia and Israel, including for continued domination over Syria, and says Russia ‘supports’ Israeli violations of Syrian sovereignty, including air strikes. Not a shred of evidence is offered. Instead, here is just one example of the hearsay ‘sources’ used throughout the article: “Former U.S. President Donald Trump said Putin expressed fawning admiration for Netanyahu during their second summit meeting.” The words of Trump are here presented as fact! Or how about this bald claim: “Putin also represents a thread of Russian nationalism which is reactionary and fundamentally Islamophobic.” The article repeats this claim which is central to the ideologues of regime change for Syria: “Israeli coordinates closely with Moscow’s military activities in Syria.” This is a new variant of the old saw which scolds Russia for failing to go to war against Israel or NATO-member Turkey whenever they attack Syrian territory or its government.]
In Russophobic outburst, Finland city of Kotka removes the country’s last monument to one of its founding fathers: Vladimir Lenin. Reports in RT and in Associated Press, Oct 5, 2022
Background: Finland’s last Lenin statue sparks heated debate, article in YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company), May 11, 2022
[Finland was a conquered territory of Sweden for centuries. Following the Sweden-Russia war of 1809, Finland became a duchy of the Russian Tsarist Empire. Economic conditions and national status improved for a time under Russia, but the Tsarist autocracy began removing earlier liberalizing policies. Aspirations for national independence rose through the course of the 19th century. One of the first acts of the new government in Russia led by Lenin and his Bolshevik Party in 1917 was to grant independence to Finland, on December 30 of that year. Finnish society then promptly split and degenerated into civil war as the ascending capitalist class embarked on a violent counter-revolution to crush the Finnish working class and peasant movements seeking to emulate the 1917 Russian Revolution. Britain and the United States dragged their heels for nearly 18 months in recognizing Finnish independence; their leading imperialist allies in Europe did so within days of Bolshevik-led Russia’s decision. An hour-by-hour account of the 1917 independence declaration is here on Wikipedia. The statue of Lenin was created by prominent Estonian sculptor Matti Varik and presented by the capital city of Estonia, Tallinn, to the city of Kotka in 1979 when the two cities agreed to become twin friendship cities.
[The self-determination policy of the Bolshevik-led government that was applied in Finland was also applied in Ukraine, culminating in the formation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic during the years 1917-1920. This was the first truly sovereign Ukrainian government in history. The vandalizing and toppling of statues and monuments to Lenin and other figures from the 1917 Russian Revolution and Soviet Union in the ‘new’, extreme-right Ukraine following the ‘Maidan’ revolution of 2014 significantly alienated the people in southern and eastern Ukraine and contributed to their decision to secede.]
Florida faced a housing crisis and Hurricane Ian has made it worse, Washington Post, Oct 3, 2022 read the article here in pdf format:
[In its 2021 annual report, the Florida Housing Coalition reported there are 875,259 very low-income Florida households paying more than 50% of their incomes for housing. The state, population 21.2 million, has the third-highest homeless population, 27,640 people, of any state in the U.S. The state minimum wage was recently increased to $11 per hour.]
At long last, can malaria be eradicated? Two new vaccines offer hope, but they also complicate the path to ending the disease, New York Times, Oct 3, 2022 China and El Salvador were certified malaria-free last year, and the six countries in the Greater Mekong region, including Vietnam and Thailand, have driven down cases by about 90 percent. About 25 countries are expected to have eliminated malaria by 2025. Nearly all of the lives lost to malaria are in sub-Saharan Africa, where about 80 percent of the deaths are in children younger than five. Read the article hee in pdf format: Two new vaccines offer hope in eradicating malaria
The inevitable, coming financial crisis, by Yves Smith, published in Naked Capitalism, Oct 3, 2022 For months, I have been confident that Europe would suffer a financial crisis and a depression, as in a real-economy catastrophe accompanied by a market crash. It might not be that severe and lasting as 1929, but the breadth would mean there would not be 1987 quick bounceback nor a 2008 derivatives crisis concentrated at the heart of the banking system… The short version of what follows is things are looking even worse now, and on multiple fronts…
Latest anti-Russia rant in Western ‘alternative’ media claims Russia is weakened and speculates on overthrow of its government. Reference: commentary by John Feffer in Foreign Policy In Focus, Sep 28, 2022; reprinted in CounterPunch, Oct 3, 2022 [The commentary by John Feffer in CounterPunch et al is remarkably similar to a commentary on September 30 by the (former) Moscow bureau chief of The Washington Post. Both describe Russia (not Ukraine) as an authoritarian state, and both describe Russia as worthy of attacking and weakening. Feffer speculates favorably on what would happen if Vladimir Putin “dies” or if a “military coup” were to overthrow him.] Postscript: [Here is the latest brilliance by John Feffer, a darling of anti-Russia, not-so-alternative media in the U.S. He writes in Foreign Policy In Focus on October 5 (and reprinted in CounterPunch), “I’ve been calling the Russian leader a fascist since early March. The war in Ukraine is … an expression of Putin’s fascist imperialism.”]
Western media says Russia blew up Nord Stream. But why would Moscow destroy pipelines it spent billons of dollars building?, analysis by Felix Livshitz, published in RT, Oct 2, 2022
A journey inside Pakistan’s flood zone reveals how the poorest have been hit hardest, Washington Post, Oct 2, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: The poorest hit hardest in Pakistan’s flood zone
Related: Understanding the gravity of Pakistan’s health and food crises in the wake of catastrophic flooding, by Hannan R. Hussain, Middle East Institute (Washington DC), Sep 22, 2022
Cuba’s new family code passes by a wide majority in referendum vote, by Katherine Schultz (in Cuba), published in A Socialist In Canada, Oct 2, 2022 (with background information, including the text of Cuba’s address on the world situation to the UN General Assembly on Sept 21, 2022)
Facts about the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China, by John Queriple, published in Pearls And Irritations, Sep 30, 2022 (John Queriple is a writer and author living in Newcastle, Australia.) From where do all the human rights charges against China come, and what evidence accompanies them?
World news headlines on A Socialist In Canada, September 2022
Vladimir Putin speech at ceremony marking the treaties of accession of Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to Russia, text (with photos) published on the website of the president of Russia, September 30, 2022
… It is worth reminding the West that it began its colonial policy back in the Middle Ages, followed by the worldwide slave trade, the genocide of Indian tribes in America, the plunder of India and Africa, the wars of England and France against China, as a result of which it was forced to open its ports to the opium trade. What they did was get entire nations hooked on drugs and purposefully exterminated entire ethnic groups for the sake of grabbing land and resources, hunting people like animals. This is contrary to human nature, truth, freedom and justice.
We, on the other hand, are proud that in the 20th century our country led the anti-colonial movement, which opened up opportunities for many peoples around the world to make progress, reduce poverty and inequality, and defeat hunger and disease…
Instead of bringing democracy they suppressed and exploited, and instead of giving freedom they enslaved and oppressed. The unipolar world is inherently anti-democratic and unfree; it is false and hypocritical through and through…
Related: Brief speech by Vladimir Putin to the concert and ceremony in Red Square on September 30, 2022 welcoming the new territories joining the Russian Federation, text (with photos) published on the website of the President of Russia, Sept 30, 2022
The onus is on Biden and Putin to avoid a spiral into nuclear weapons use, analysis by Scott Ritter, published in Consortium News, Sep 30, 2022
The West’s ‘Great Game’ in Ukraine is spinning out of control, by Jeffey Sachs, published on his website, Sep 28, 2022 (and widely re-published in alterative media outlets) …It is urgent to return to the draft peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine of late March, based on the non-enlargement of NATO… [Jeffrey Sachs is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He was an advisor to governments in eastern Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union during the 1990s on transitioning from planned economies to the dog-eat-dog world of capitalist imperialism.].
Related news: Russian forces withdraw from key Donbass city of Krasny Liman, RT, Oct 1, 2022
Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia on the referendums in the Donestsk and Lugansk people’s republics and in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, published on the Ministry website, Sep 28, 2022
Related: Donbass and Ukraine update, Sept 29, 2022, contained in the weekly media briefing by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sep 30, 2022 ‘The people of Donbass and southern Ukraine have exercised their right to self-determination. Let someone say it is not so. They did this in accordance with the UN Charter as well as with those practices and norms that the West had never denied before, and even sometimes applied.’ Read the update here in pdf format: Donbass and Ukraine update, Sept 29, 2022
German air force holds first-ever joint military training in Japan, following exercises one month earlier with Australia, Global Times, Sep 28, 2022 The German Air Force took part in a multilateral military exercise in Australia in mid-August with 13 aircraft, its largest peacetime deployment, underlining Berlin’s increased focus on the Indo-Pacific
Alt media Democracy Now! claims ‘mass graves’ and ‘widespread torture’ by Russian forces in Ukraine. Its sources? Western corporate media. [Democracy Now! has broadcast on September 29 an interview with a Ukrainian writer making the above allegations, and more, against Russian forces in Ukraine. The writer pens articles in the notorious, anti-Russia outlets The Guardian and The Washington Post. The writer’s ‘sources’ for her claims are… unnamed people to whom she says she has spoken on the phone. Democracy Now! asks about claims of ‘sexual violence’ against women by Russian soldiers. The writer replies, “There were the cases, and I think the UN also issued recently a report where things were recorded. We know these cases are out there. We cannot ourselves verify, but we hear the records from, let us say, trusted sources.”
Related:
* Alt media ‘Common Dreams’ sides with frightened minority in Russia and Western media against the large majority of Russians who want their government to defend the country against NATO and its Ukraine proxy. Reference: UN human rights office ‘deeply disturbed’ by arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia, article published in Common Dreams, Sep 27, 2022 [This article in Common Dreams is typical of the alternative media outlets in the West that are voicing ‘great concern’ about the small minority of Russians who oppose their government’s actions in Ukraine. These Russians fear additional sanctions and war threats by NATO in response to the Russian government’s decisive moves to defend the country and its people. Common Dreams ‘conveniently’ forgets to mention in its report the grinding, eight-year war by Kyiv against the people of Donbass and the harsh political and social repression throughout Ukraine accompanying that. All encouraged and backed by the NATO countries. It fails to mention the large majority of Russians as well the governments and people internationally who view Russia’s actions as a tragic but necessary action against imperialist aggression. Postscript: Common Dreams reaffirms its opposition to self-determination for the peoples under attack by the illegal coup regime in Kyiv in a commentary by an anti-Russia ideologue published on September 30. The ideologue (Anatol Lieven) writes, “The Russian government’s move today to annex the territories it has occupied in Ukraine is absolutely illegal, as well as a very serious escalation of the conflict. The local ‘referendums’ in support of this move were a sham and will quite rightly be condemned by the vast majority of states around the world.” Lieven cites CNN as his authority in claiming the refendums were “sham”.]
* Fleeing from their own in Russia, and there is no way back, by Petr Akopov, columnist, RIA Novosti, Sep 29, 2022 (translation to English by A Socialist In Canada) read the translation here in pdf format: Fleeing from their own in Russia
Russia responds to false allegations that it conducted ‘massacres’ of Ukraine citizens; its statement also documents Ukraine’s war crimes. Lengthy statement, with many images, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, September 27, 2022 (The statement is titled ‘Statement by the Russian Federation on the false allegations against the Russian Federation made by Ukraine to cover-up its own violations of international law and military crimes against civilian population of Donbass as well as Kharkov, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions’.)
Imperialism’s liquidity crisis, and drowning naked, by Michael Roberts (Marxist economist in Britain), published on his website, Sep 29, 2022
In fiery UN speech, Honduras president condemns colonialism, neoliberalism, coups, corporate exploitation, by Ben Norton, published in his Substack media outlet, Sep 26, 2022 The speech by Xiomara Castro was delivered to the UN General Asembly on September 20. It was the first time the Honduran president addressed the United Nations since her election in January 2022.
In Ukraine, the world is in the terrain of a Word War 3, analysis by Patrick Lawrence, published in ScheerPost, Sep 25, 2022
In interview, Noam Chomsky say Russia has suffered ‘devastating defeat’ in Ukraine, its military is ‘utterly incompetent’. Interview published in Truthout.org, Sep 22, 2022
[Noam Chomsky asks rhetorically in the interview: “Will Putin pack up his bags and slink away silently to obscurity or worse?” The academic has harshly condemned Russia’s defensive military operation in Ukraine, but he covers his condemnations with simultaneous ‘criticisms’ of the U.S. and NATO threats against Russia. In truth, he is a comfortable voice for former antiwar liberals who, like him, condemn Russia in the harshest terms for defending itself and the people of Ukraine from Western imperialism and for advocating a world of equality between countries and peoples. Chomsky also appeals to liberals and anti-Russia leftists by typically citing the following undeniable fact in this latest interview: “Unless the great powers find ways to confront the most important threats that have arisen in human history — environmental destruction and nuclear war — nothing else will matter.” There is a twofold problem in this citation. One, he pins his hopes (and those of humanity) on the will of the ‘great powers’. What about the people? And two, Chomsky fails utterly to explain how the people may accomplish a world without war and come to live in harmony with nature. That’s because he recoils from the imperative of creating broad, anti-imperialist alliances to challenge the dominance of environmental-wrecking and warmongering imperialism.].
Related: For a contrary analysis to Chomsky’s claimed ‘devastating defeat’ of Russia in Ukraine, read the latest essay by U.S. journalist Patrick Lawrence, weblink above or here: published in ScheerPost on Sep 25, 2022
Russia grants citizenship to Edward Snowden, who exposed U.S. surveillance. Report in Washington Post, Sep 26, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Russia grants citizenship to Edward Snowden
Background:
* Report in RT, Sep 26, 2022 …Snowden applied for citizenship in 2020 upon receiving permanent residency rights. according to his lawyer, his wife Lindsay Mills will also apply for citizenship…
* Report in Business Standard (India), Sep 26, 2022
Fascists set to take power in Italy for first time since Mussolini, Common Dreams, Sep 26, 2022
Five things about Covid-19 that we still don’t understand, at our peril, Washington Post, Sep 26, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Five things about Covid-19 still not understood
U.S. states are voting to ban access to abortion or enshrine it as a right, by Marjorie Cohn, Truthout.org, Sep 21, 2022
The United States has always considered Russia to be its enemy, by Victoria Nikiforova, columnist, RIA Novosti, Sep 26, 2022 (translation to English by A Socialist In Canada, the Russian original is here) read the translated column here in pdf format: The U.S. has always considered Russia to be its enemy
German armed forces establish a new civil war headquarters, by Arnold Scholzel, published in Junge Welt (left-wing daily in Germany), Sep 26, 2022 (translation to English by A Socialist In Canada, original in German here) read the translation here in pdf format: German armed forces new civil war hq
Fridays For Future stages global protests on Friday, Sept 23 under the theme ‘people not profits’, condemning inaction on global warming , by Wolfgang Pomrehn, published in Junge Welt (left-wing daily in Germany), Sep 26, 2022 (translation to English by A Socialist In Canada, original in German here) read the translation here in pdf format: Fridays For Future global protests Sept. 23
Related: Fridays for Future calls for new climate strikes, but issues of war and peace remain unresolved, interview with ‘Fridays For Future’ leader in Germany Ibo Mohamed, published in Junge Welt (left-wing daily in Germany), Sep 24, 2022 (translation to English by A Socialist In Canada, original in German here) read the translation here in pdf format: Fridays For Future global protests Sept. 23
Psychological operations by U.S. gov’t and spy agencies disseminating pro-Western narratives exposed, RT, Sep 25, 2022 A bombshell Washington Post investigation has revealed that the Pentagon is conducting a “sweeping audit of how it conducts clandestine information warfare,” after a variety of social media accounts, which its operatives used to target foreign audiences in elaborate psychological warfare efforts, were exposed… A landmark report in August by social media analytics firm Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory found that over the past five years, hundreds of accounts disseminating pro-Western narratives – such as a recent propaganda blitz that “advanced anti-Russia narratives,” including criticism of the Kremlin’s “imperialist” war in Ukraine – were likely being run by the Pentagon’s Centcom unit…
Reference: Pentagon opens sweeping review of clandestine psychological operations, special report in Washington Post, Sep 19, 2022 …The report by Graphika and Stanford suggests that the clandestine activity did not have much impact… Clandestine influence operations have a role in support of military operations, but it should be a narrow one. “Otherwise, we risk making more enemies than friends.” Read the report here in pdf format:Pentagon scrambles after social media psy-ops exposed
Ukrainian ‘hit list’ publishing names and addresses of alleged ‘Russian propagandists’ turns out to be based in Langley, Virginia (where the CIA hq is located). Coincidence?, by Jeremy Kuzmarov, editor, Covert Action Magazine, Sep 19, 2022
Little mitigation in Puerto Rico following a succession of storms and hurricanes, Washington Post, Sep 25, 2022 read the report here in pdf format: Little hurricane mitigation in Puerto Rico …Residents and experts say unrestrained coastal construction, mangrove destruction, deforestation, coastal erosion and poor canal maintenance in Puerto Rico have heightened the risk for marginalized communities. Across the island archipelago, only five percent of the available post-Maria FEMA funds for hazard mitigation have been obligated…
[Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico on Sept 17 and the days following. It is the first major hurricane in the Caribbean in 2022. Maximum sustained wind speeds reached 115 mph, while many areas received at least 20 inches or more of rain. Hardest hit was the southeast part of Puerto Rico. Ponce, the island’s second-largest city, received more than 32 inches (800 mm) of rain. As of September 21, some two thirds of the island’s residents are without electricity and one half are without treated water.].
Related: Puerto Ricans were still rebuilding five years after Hurricane Maria, now Hurricane Fiona has hit, report in Washington Post, Sep 20, 2022 In the five years since Hurricane Maria in September 2017 [Wikipedia], there have been ongoing blackouts, protests, earthquakes and a global pandemic. Puerto Ricans have moved from powerlessness to precarity.
Crisis in elder care in U.S. as home-aide workers flee industry for higher pay and less stressful work, Washington Post, Sep 25, 2022 …Workers at the lower rungs of the home-care industry — mostly women and people of color — are among the lowest paid in the United States. The median pay for personal care aides was just $14.27 an hour in 2021… The home-care workforce nationally numbers around 2.6 million. About one million more home-care workers will be needed by 2030 as the baby-boom generation finishes aging into retirement… The Biden administration in 2021 sought $400 billion in new spending for home- and community-based care but the plan collapsed when Democrats failed to muster enough Senate votes for the ambitious ‘Build Back Better’ legislation… Read the article here in pdf format: Crisis in elder care in U.S.
Ukraine is targeting civilians for retribution in the east while its Western backers turn a blind eye, analysis by Vladislav Ugolny (Russian writer, in Donetsk), RT, Sep 23, 2022
Related:
* Claimed military losses by Russia and by Kiev regime, RT, Sep 23, 2022 [Russia says nearly 6,000 of its soldiers have died during its six-month military operation in Ukraine, while losses by Ukraine have been ten times more. Ukraine president Zelensky says his armed forces are suffereing 50 daily deaths, down from its recent claims of several hundred daily deaths.].
* Why support in Russia for the war in Ukraine hasn’t wavered, TIME Magazine, Aug 24, 2022
To be or not to be at one with Russia: Referendums in Donbass Republics and Zaporozhe and Kherson regions, by Deborah Armstrong, published on her media outlet on Medium.com, Sep 23, 2022
The contrast between China and the U.S. looms ever larger as the Covid debacle rolls on, by Eve Ottenberg (U.S. writer), published in Pearls and Irritations (Australia), Sep 24, 2022 (originally published in CounterPunch, Sep 9, 2022)
Related:
* Report of the Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the Covid-19 pandemic, published by The Lancet medical journal, Sept 14, 2022 (You can read the executive summary at the weblink as well as the full report in pdf format, 57 pages.)
* What scientists have learnt from Covid lockdowns, report published in Nature Magazine, Sep 7, 2022 Restrictions on social contact stemmed disease spread, but weighing up the ultimate costs and benefits of lockdown measures is a challenge
* Governments got an F for their pandemic responses – but will they learn from their multiple mistakes?, by André Picard, health columnist, Globe and Mail, Sep 20, 2022 …The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic, a blue-ribbon group of 28 global experts (with another 173 scientists contributing to the commission’s task forces), has essentially given the world’s response a big fat F grade… read the article here in pdf format: Governments receive ‘F’ grade for pandemic responses
Reaping the whirlwind of Western imperialism’s aim of ‘strategic defeat’ of Russia in Ukraine, by Scott Ritter, A Socialist In Canada, Sep 22, 2022 (This analysis was originally published in Consortium News, Sep 22, 2022. Scott Ritter is a writer, military analyst and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq. He is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer and served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties.)
Related:
* From ‘special military operation’ to open war, by Gilbert Doctorow, published on his website, Sep 22, 2022 (Gilbert Doctorow is a Research Fellow of the American University in Moscow.)
* Western media continues to ignore how Ukraine is using NATO weapons to kill innocent civilians in the Donbass, by Eva Bartlett, published in RT, Sep 23, 2022
Referendums announced on joining Russia: The West forgot Moscow’s main weapon, its support from the people, by Irina Alksnis (columnist at RIA Novosti), A Socialist In Canada, Sept. 21, 2022 (This column is translated to English by A Socialist In Canada from its original in Russian.)
Related: Voting in Donbass republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions commences on joining Russia, RT, Sep 23, 2022 The votes will take place from September 23 to 27. Preliminary results are expected to be released on September 28.
The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine is a prelude to undemocratic regime change and unilateral coercive measures, by Alfred de Zayas, published in the eclectic, anti-Russia CounterPunch, Sep 23, 2022 [Alfred de Zaya is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. He is the author of ten books including Building a Just World Order, Clarity Press, 2021. Throughout the text of his essay, the writer uses the acronym ‘UCM’. This stands for ‘unilateral coercive measures’.] …Today we witness throughout the United Nations system the instrumentalization of values in the service of certain Western powers, the weaponization of human rights against geopolitical rivals, and the penetration of institutions and non-governmental organizations by partisan interests and intelligence services…
Western media smears summit meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that portends a different world order, by Joe Lauria, editor, Consortium News, Sep 21, 2022 …While Western media pushes the line that the whole world is standing with Ukraine and against Russia, the reality is quite different. In fact, most of the world has not joined in the Western sanctions against Moscow. The result has been the emergence of an economic, financial and commercial system that is increasingly able to exist without the West. The Shanghai Cooperation Council (SCO)’s summit in the Uzbek capital of Samarkand on September 15, 16 was a world historical event for the forces creating this separate world representing the majority of humanity… [Read extensive analysis of the recent Shanghai Cooperation Council meeting further below on this news headline page, dated September 16.].
Related: New lows by Western media in its coverage of SCO summit meeting, media analysis by Patrick Lawrence, columnist, Consortium News, Sep 1, 2022
Lament for NATO’s failing anti-Russia drive: Nearly 90 per cent of the world isn’t following us on Ukraine, commentary by Michael Gfoeller and David Rundell, published in Newsweek, Sep 15, 2021 (David H. Rundell is a former Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a former Political Advisor to the U.S. Central Command.)
New British PM has global imperialist ambitions, but ignoring the widening wealth gap and the global warming emergency will be her undoing. Analysis by Paul Rogers, published in the anti-Russia Open Democracy, Sep 21, 2022
Interview with John Mearsheimer, the U.S. foreign policy outlier and favorite son of Western liberals. Broadcast on the YouTube channel of interviewer Jasmin Kosubek, broadcast in June 2022 (62 minutes)
[The exact interview date is not indicated at the YouTube channel. Jasmin Kosubek (b. 1983) is a German journalist and self-described libertarian. She was a host on RT‘s German service from 2014 until she resigned in December 2021. She considers the Russian military intervention in Ukraine to be an illegal invasion. In early 2022, the German government banned the RT Deutsch online news service. Here is a brief summary of the interview:
* Mearsheimer restates forcefully his opposition to the NATO military intervention in Ukraine directed at Russia.
* He falsely claims that the governments of France and Germany wish for peace with Russia but are pressured by the U.S. government to support NATO’s anti-Russia drive. Meanwhile, from the Washington Post on Sep 16, 2022: …German officials have been stung by the round of charges that Berlin is not doing enough to help Ukraine. They are publishing meticulous, regular updates of shipped supplies, including Gepard antiaircraft guns, multiple-launch rocket artillery, and antiaircraft Stinger missiles. On Thursday, Germany announced it also would send 50 Dingo armored vehicles, but no tanks… [end citation]
* Mearsheimer is asked if war would be happening in Ukraine if Donald Trump were president. He replies ‘quite possibly’. He goes on to falsely claim that as president, Trump was interested in good relations with Russia and an end to the NATO military alliance. “Trump’s basic foreign policy instincts were right”, Mearsheimer says.
* The interviewer asks. “Trump says the real threat to U.S. interests is China. Do you agree with that?” Mearsheimer replies, ‘yes’. This restates his long-held view that China is the ‘real threat’ to the United States and U.S. military and economic threats should be directed against it accordingly.]
Russia is mobilizing sections of its army reserves: Address to the Russian people by the President of the Russian Federation, published on the website of the President of Russia, September 21, 2022 Read the full address at the weblink, or read it here in pdf format: V. Putin address to the Russian people on Sep 21, 2022
Excerpts:
…This is what I would like to make public for the first time today. After the start of the special military operation, in particular after the Istanbul talks [on March 29, 2022], Kiev representatives voiced quite a positive response to our proposals. These proposals concerned above all ensuring Russia’s security and interests. But a peaceful settlement obviously did not suit the West, which is why, after certain compromises were coordinated, Kiev was actually ordered to wreck all these agreements…
…I find it necessary to support the proposal of the Defence Ministry and the General Staff on partial mobilisation in the Russian Federation to defend our Motherland and its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to ensure the safety of our people and people in the liberated territories. As I have said, we are talking about partial mobilisation. In other words, only military reservists, primarily those who served in the armed forces and have specific military occupational specialties and corresponding experience, will be called up. Before being sent to their units, those called up for active duty will undergo mandatory additional military training based on the experience of the special military operation. I have already signed an Executive Order on partial mobilisation…
News reporting:
* Russian president announces partial military mobilization, RT, Sep 21, 2022 The measure applies to members of the reserve forces and those with military experience
* Executive Order on partial mobilisation in the Russian Federation, published on the website of the President of Russia, Sep 21, 2022
* Russia reveals military losses in Ukraine, report by RT, Sep 21, 2022 A total of 5,937 Russian troops have died during the military operation, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu says. Fatalities on the Ukrainian side are ten times higher, with 61,207 Kiev troops killed, according to the minister.
‘American imperialism is destabilizing the global economy’: On Michael Hudson’s theory of ‘super-imperialism’ and his debt jubilee propositions, by Jack Rasmus (political economist and professor at St. Mary’s College in California), published on his website, Sep 16, 2022 [In this new essay, political economist Jack Rasmus of St. Mary’s College in California examines the workings of today’s global capitalist/imperialist order. He explains that the accumulation and wielding of debt is central to the workings of this system. Calls to ‘cancel’ the use of debt in economic transactions (a so-called debt jubilee) as argued by Hudson
Is the Covid-19 pandemic over, as the U.S. president has declared?, analysis by Helen Branswell, STAT News, Sep 19, 2022 …Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, explains that pandemic deaths have risen in recent weeks in the U.S. and the disease is still the fourth-leading cause of death in the country. “I don’t know how anyone can say the pandemic is over for that reason,” he said. “In addition, we don’t yet know what the next shoe to drop is.” He says there is no science to bolster the president’s statement…
Related:
* Biden’s declaration that the coronavirus pandemic is ‘over’ further complicates efforts to fight it, report by NPR, Sep 20, 2022 Joe Biden has told CBS television news on September 18 that the pandemic is ‘over’
* ‘Very harmful’ lack of public health data blunts U.S. response to virus outbreaks, New York Times, Sep 19, 2022 Major data gaps caused by decades of underinvestment in public health have undercut the U.S. government response to the coronavirus and now to monkeypox Read the article he in pdf format: Lack of public health data in U.S. blunts responses to virus outbreaks
* Covid still kills but the demographics of its victims are shifting, by Phillip Reese, published by Kaiser Health News, Sep 21, 2022 …Each week, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is killing hundreds of Californians, hitting the unvaccinated hardest. In July, pandemic deaths trailed heart disease, cancer, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease but outpaced diabetes, accidental death and a host of other debilitating diseases. In the first seven months of the year, about 13,500 California residents died of Covid, of whom 75% were aged 65 or older. By comparison, the virus killed about 31,400 people in 2020 and almost 44,000 in 2021…
Background: The Biden administration killed America’s collective pandemic approach, by Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, March 2, 2022 Protections meant to shield everyone cannot be a matter of ‘personal preference’ …The CDC’s recent decision to lift mandates or recommendations for indoor wearing of masks marks a substantial cross-continental change, delivering a final blow to what little remained of the collective approach to quashing the pandemic in the United States...
Arrests along U.S.-Mexico border top 2 million annually for the first time, Texas Tribune (reprinted from Wash. Post), Sep 19, 2022 The U.S. is on track to tally more than 2.3 million arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2022 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The total far exceeds the 2021 record of more than 1.7 million arrests.
Ukraine update on Sep 21: Russia advances deeper into Bakhmut as Ukraine stalls; Putin wins support from China, India and Iran. By Alexander Mercouris, broadcast on his YouTube channel on Monday, Sep 19, 2022 (52 minutes) [The small city of Bakhmut is located in the Donetsk republic, some 70 km north of Donetsk city and 40 km south of Kramatorsk.]
Peace activists hit the streets across U.S. demanding ‘ceasefire now’ in Ukraine, report by Marcy Winograd, published in LA Progressive, Sep 19, 2022
[The actions were organized by the affiliates of the ‘Peace in Ukraine‘ coalition’. As reported, “The coalition condemns the Russian invasion but argues there is no military solution to a war that was provoked by the same neo-conservatives responsible for the disastrous U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
[During the American War against the people of Vietnam, antiwar protests in the U.S. and internationally demanded self-determination for the people of Vietnam, as provided in the UN Charter, the founding document of the United Nations. This was encapsulated in the slogan popular at antiwar protests: ‘Vietnam for the Vietnamese’. The protest actions reported above concerning Ukraine makes no equivalent call for self-determination for the peoples of Crimea and Donbass. They are victims of military aggression by the governing regime in Kyiv and its NATO backers. Considering the 2014 coup in Kyiv, the ongoing, Western corporate takeover of Ukraine’s industry and agriculture, and the NATO intervention and military buildup that has run in parallel, calls for political self-determination for Ukraine itself need to be voiced by antiwar protests. The the foreign takeover of Ukraine should be condemned, including how Ukraine’s government authorities and economic elite have cowtowed to it and profited from it. This is the main reason for the country’s sharp decline in living standards ever since the shallow independence acquired in 1990-91.]
International Atomic Energy Agency takes Ukraine side in war in September 15 vote, making UN Secretary-General Guterres either a liar or a fool, by John Helmer, published on his website Dances with Bears, Sep 17, 2022
Policies of forced attendance at work were behind threatened rail strike in U.S., Washington Post, Sep 18, 2022 A nationwide rail strike, the first in 30 years, is still possible unless union leaders persuade 115,000 workers across 12 unions to vote to ratify negotiated agreements Read the article hre in pdf format: Policies of forced attendance at U.S. railways behind strike threat
Related:
* Everything you need to know about the averted rail strike, Washington Post, Sep 16, 2022 Union leaders and railway carriers reached a tentative deal on September 15. It is now being studied and voted on by workers at the country’s main rail carriers. The impasse was tied to disagreements between management and labor over sick time and penalties for missing work. Read the article here in pdf format: Everything you need to know about the averted rail strike
* Biden and union leaders tout rail deal, but workers have yet to vote and many remain skeptical, by Jeff Schuhrke, In These Times, Sep 16, 2022 …The tentative agreement reached on September 15 covers over 60,000 workers with the Teamsters-affiliated Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen and the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division, two of 12 rail unions that have been in contract negotiations with the major freight rail carriers for nearly three years. The other unions already reached tentative deals…
Covid shots for under-5 children in U.S. arrived in June but few have received them, Washington Post, Sep 18, 2022
Related: Joe Biden says the Covid-19 pandemic is over but the data shows otherwise, report by NPR, Sep 19, 2022 [The United States is still recording an average of more than 400 deaths per day from Covid-19 and more than 1 million Americans have died from the virus since the pandemic began in early 2020. The World Health Organization still categorizes Covid-19 (the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus) as a pandemic.]
Denny Tamaki wins re-election in Okinawa on anti-U.S. bases platform, meaning bad news for Tokyo, report in The Asahi Shimbun (Japan), Sep 11, 2022 [About 70 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan are located on the Okinawa Islands, a prefecture of Japan, population 1.5 million. There are 28 U.S. military bases there. The Okinawa Islands are part of the Ryukyu Islands group, composed of 100 main islands and stretching some 1,000 km from the southern tip of Japan to Taiwan (Wikipedia). Okinawans have for decades campaigned to close U.S. military bases. There is particular opposition to the U.S. and Japan government plan to relocate the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma elsewhere on Okinawa Island. A list of the two dozen, main U.S. military bases in Japan (and Okinawa) is here. There are 28 U.S. military bases on the Okinawa island group.]
Related: Reelection of Denny Tamaki as Okinanwa governor disrupts plans to expand U.S. military presence in Japan, People’s Dispatch, Sept 13, 2022 The re-election of Denny Tamaki marks the third consecutive gubernatorial election in Okinawa where an anti-US base candidate has won with a clear majority
Background: Canada joins U.S. in militarizing the Pacific, trampling on the sovereignty of Okinawans, by John Price and Satoko Oka Norimatsu, A Socialist In Canada, July 22, 2022
Ukraine and energy on the line as three dreaded words reappear: ‘German military power’, analysis by Sebastiano Canetta, published by Il Manifesto Global, Sep 14, 2022 …Germany’s reincarnation as the policeman of the EU is envisaged in the German government’s ‘National Security Strategy’, a plan unprecedented in a country whose sovereignty in this regard has been limited by the U.S. and USSR for decades…
Related:
* Germany’s new national security strategy, by Gurjit Singh (former ambassador of India to Germany), published by Observer Research Foundation (India), Sep 15, 2022
* Germany must become ‘the best equipped armed force in Europe’, says Chancellor Olaf Scholz, by AFP and Euronews, Sep 16, 2022 …Russia’s war in Ukraine has been a turning point for German defence policy with the country creating a special fund of €100 billion to upgrade its armed forces, Scholtz told the two-day conference of the German armed forces (Bundeswehr). He said a previous defence minister had erroneously believed that Germany was surrounded by friends… Scholz also said he supports setting up a ‘European headquarters’ capable of “carrying out missions, whether it is an evacuation of our nationals, as last year in Afghanistan, or a European advisory or training mission, such as in Iraq, Mali or Niger”… read also: report in Deutsche Welle, Sep 16, 2022 …Scholz’ remarks come as lawmakers from coalition partners the Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) are putting pressure on the Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor to deliver the battle tanks Kyiv has called for to help fight invading Russian forces…
Britain and the U.S. are poor societies with some very rich people, report in Financial Times, Sep 16, 2022 read the report here in pdf format: Britain and the U.S. are poor societies with some very rich people
Let us end the global food crisis, news release by the Committee For The Abolition Of Illegitimate Debt (Belgium), Sep 5, 2022
The international food crisis and proposals to overcome it, by Eric Toussaint and Omar Aziki, published by the Committee For The Abolition Of Illegitimate Debt, (Belgium), Sep 5, 2022 Contrary to a notion that spread in 2022, the global food crisis started before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the rise in the cereal prices due to speculation. On a global scale, from 2014 to 2021, the number of people affected by serious food insecurity increased by over 350 million, from 565 to 924 million. The rate of increase was particularly sharp from 2019 to 2021…
News conference by Vladimir Putin following meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Uzbekistan, text published on the website of the President of Russia, Sep 16, 2022
Related:
* Full text of speech by President Xi Jinping to Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit meeting on Sept 16, Xinhua, Sept 16, 2022
* Samarkand Declaration of the Council of Heads of State of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, adopted on Sept 16, 2022, translated from the Russian original and published on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, Sep 16, 2022 [Additional reporting on the September 15-16 meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is listed here below. The presidency of the SCO for the forthcoming period passes to the Republic of India.].
* No meeting between the leaders of China and India at SCO meet, South China Morning Post, Sep 19, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: No meeting of China-India leaders at SCO
Left Party’s former co-leader, Sahra Wagenknecht, slams German government for causing ‘fatal’ economic war with Russia, report by Iran Press Europe, Sep 10, 2022 [As reported in Junge Welt daily newspaper on September 17, there is a campaign by moderate factions in the Left Party to expel Sahra Wagenknecht for her criticisms of German government policy of sending armaments to Ukraine. (Perhaps they are inspired by the UK Labour Party’s expulsion… of its former leader Jeremy Corbyn!) But so far, an inner-party petition to this effect has gathered 2,700 signatures while an opposing petition has gathered 10,300. The caucus of the party in the Bundestag (39 members out of 726 total in the Bundestag) will meet to further discuss the matter on September 20. In the 2021 German election, the Left Party won 9.2% of the vote, slightly more than the Green Party.].
Related:
* Resistance to war and price gouging is needed, commentary by Sarah Wagenknecht, published in Junge Welt (left-wing daily in Germany), Sep 10, 2022 (translation to English by A Socialist In Canada, read the translation here in pdf format: In Germany, resistance to war and price gouging is needed
* German armed forces must become Europe’s ‘best equipped’, says Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Deutsche Welle, Sep 16, 2022
* Death to the world, news analysis by Joerg Kronauer, published on page one of Junge Welt (German daily), Sep 17, 2022 Economics Minister Habeck wants to allow arms exports to war and crisis areas. Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock wants Germany’ main battle tanks supplied to Ukraine. (Translation by A Socialist In Canada, read the translation here in pdf format: Death to the world
Pipe dreams: The concept of a nuclear-armed German-France-Poland triumvirate to lead Europe, commentary by Wolfgang Streeck, published in ‘Sidecar’ (blog of the anti-Russia London Review of Books), Sep 12, 2022 [This is a German writer who pines after a Europe independent of the U.S. and who describes the current conflict in Ukraine as “uncompromising brinkmanship on the part of both the US and Russia”.]
Update on Ukraine by Alexander Mercouris, broadcast on his YouTube channel, Sep 16, 2022 [54 minutes. The report briefly addresses at the 13′ mark the new accusations of ‘massacres’ committed by the Russian military in and around the city of Izyum, located app. 120 km southeast of the city of Kharkiv. The Russian military has stated its goal of liberating the entire Donbass region from the violence and control by the extreme-right government in Kyiv and its neo-Nazi paramilitary battalions. The Ukraine side has contructed heavy fortification in the region during the past eight years as it violated the 2015 Minsk 2 peace agreement and treats its soldiers as cannon fodder. Both sides have acknowledged heavy casulaties on the Ukraine side. So there is no news and should be no surprise in the fact that many Ukrainian soldiers, paramilitaries and mercenaries have died and were buried in the region of Izyum. The ‘outrage’ being manufactured over this reality by Western media is a repeat of the earlier, attempted outrage in March over deaths in the Kyiv district city of Bucha.]
Donbass and Ukraine update, part of weekly update by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sep 2022 read the update here in pdf format: Donbass and Ukraine update, Sept 15, 2022
Related: Ukraine pushes for security guarantees in new world order, Deutsche Welle, Sep 15, 2022
Address by Vladimir Putin to the State Council meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on September 16, 2022, published on the website of the President of Russia, Sep 16, 2022 read the address here in pdf format: Address by Vladimir Putin to SCO summit, Sept 2022
Related: News conference by Vladimir Putin in Uzbekistan following Sep 15-16 meeting of the Shanghai Coopertion Organisation, published on the website of the President of Russia, Sep 16, 2022
Meeting of the State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, report published on the website of the President of Russia, Sep 16, 2022 [The annual summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is taking place in Uzbekistan on September 15 and 26. The heads of state of the eight member countries are attending–China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan. In addition, the leaders of Belarus, Iran, Mongolia, Turmenistan and Afghanistan are attending as observers, as are the leaders of six ‘dialogue partners’: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Türkiye. The heads of many invited international organisations are also participating. Iran has signed a memorandum to join the SCO. A growing number of countries in the Middle East are accepting ‘dialogue partner status’. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded in 2001 (Wikipedia). More than one half of the world’s population lives its member states; they account for about 25 percent of global GDP and oversee a considerable part of global natural resources.]
From Brezhnev to Khrushchev: Ukraine had a huge influence on the Soviet Union, something Kiev now prefers to downplay, historical essay by Alexander Nepogodin, published in RT, Sep 14, 2022
IAEA board passes resolution calling on Russia to withdraw from Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. Russia and China vote against because the resolution is silent on Ukraine shelling and other attacks. TASS Russian news service, Sep 15, 2022 The resolution was drafted by Canada and Poland, two leading antagonists in NATO’s war against Russia [RIA Novosti reports there were 26 votes in favor of the resolution, two against, and seven abstained. It writes, “Western countries voted an anti-Russian resolution on the Ukrainian issue in the IAEA Board of Governors. The resolution says not a word about the systematic shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is the main problem in terms of ensuring nuclear safety and security in the world.”]
China’s home-grown C919 passenger jet set for certification, entering stiff competition with Boeing military/industrial behemoth. Report in South China Morning Post, Sep 14, 2022 Single-aisle C919 has been built by the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China to compete with Boeing’s 737 and Airbus’ A320 Read the report here in pdf format: China’s C919 passenger jet set for certification
Related:
* The Russian MS-21 passenger jet is not afraid of success for its Chinese competitor, by Olga Samofalova, published in Vzglyad (online Russian newspaper), Sep 14, 2022 (Translation to English by A Socialist In Canada; read the translation here: Russia’s MS-21 passenger jet and its Chinese competitor)
* Engine delay and Western sanctions slow China-Russia 280-seat passenger jet program, report by AIN Online, Aug 25, 2022
* Russia’s MC-21 jetliner prototype is swapping Western engines for Russian PD-14 turbofan, Air Data News, Aug 9, 2022 The MC-21 aircraft prototype has two models, of 132 and 163 seats
Colombia and Venezuela announce the reopening of their shared border, People’s Dispatch, Sep 10, 2022
No, I do not mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II, by Shree Paradkar, columnist, Toronto Star, Sep 14, 2022 read the column here in pdf format: No, I do not mourn the death of the Queen
Previously reported: Caroline Elkins’ new book Legacy Of Violence tells the brutal truth about the cruel and violent legacy of Britain and its monarch Elizabeth II, book review and news compilation on A Socialist In Canada, Sep 9, 2022
Fears of more flooding as Pakistan death toll crosses 1,400, Al Jazeera, Sep 14, 2022 …About one third of Pakistan is submerged by melting glaciers and record monsoon rains that began in June, affecting more than 33 million people. The government revised its initial estimate of losses from the devastating flooding from $10bn to $30bn last week. Close to one million people have been rendered homeless, many of them sleeping in the open on highways and higher planes… [A full dossier on the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan (pop. 221 million) is contained on the ‘Ecology news’ page of A Socialist In Canada website, dated Sept 14, 2022.]
Zelensky promises Ukraine a terrible winter, by Vladimir Kornilov, columnist, RIA Novosti, Sep 14, 2022 (Translation to English by A Socialist In Canada; read the translation here in pdf format: Zelensky promises Ukraine a terrible winter.)
The road to fascism: How the war in Ukraine is changing Europe, by Ramzy Baroud, editor, Palestine Chronicle, Sep 10, 2022 Mainstream Italian politicians refuse to recognize that the government in Rome is adopting many of the fascist traits that defined the country a century ago. Read the commentary here in pdf format: Ukraine and the road to fascism in Europe
Related:
* Sweden counts final votes from Sep 12 election bringing the far-right to the brink of gov’t power, Agence France Presse, Sep 14, 2022 [The four right-wing parties in Sweden scored 176 electoral seats compared to 173 for the four left-wing and moderate parties.]
* Russophobia in Sweden brings ultra-nationalists to the brink of power, by Dmitry Bavyrin, published in Vzglyad (VZ.ru), Sep 13, 2022 (Translation to English by A Socialist In Canada; read the translation here in pdf format: Russophobia and the Sept 11 election in Sweden
Russia is showing a readiness for tough measures against Ukraine, by Alena Zadorozhnaya and Daria Volkov, published in the online Russian newspaper Vzglyad (VZ.ru), Sept 12, 2022 (Translation to English by A Socialist In Canada; read the translation here in pdf format: Russia is showing a readiness for tough measures against Ukraine.)
[Electricity was cut for a time in five regions of Ukraine on the evening of Sunday, September 11 following missile strikes by Russia against thermal electricity plants in Kharkiv and nearby. The missile strikes follow months of attacks by Ukraine armed forces against electrical infrastructure in Donetsk and in liberated areas of Ukraine. The Kyiv regime has also been shelling for weeks the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. It appears these attacks will no longer go unanswered by Russia, and this is being welcomed by many citizens and commentators in the country.]
Related news of Ukraine:
* Kiev releases proposed ‘security agreement’ with Western countries, affirming goal of NATO membership. Report by TASS, Sep 13, 2022 (includes weblink to the nine-page proposal by the governing regime in Kyiv)
* Kyiv regime badgers German gov’t to send it more weapons. Report in Washington Post, Tuesday, Sep 13, 2022 read the report here in pdf format: Kyiv badgers Germany for more weapons
Ukraine’s surprise military advances in Kharkiv region do not alter an eventual outcome in favour of Donbass liberation by Russia. Analysis by Scott Ritter, published in RT, Sep 13, 2022
Related:
* Situation report on Ukraine, by UK analyst Alexander Mercouris, broadcast on his YouTube channel, Sep 13, 2022
* Russian Ministry of Defense announces redeployment of forces from Kharkov to Donbass, triggering criticism in Russia, situation report on Ukraine by UK analyst Alexander Mercouris, broadcast on his YouTube channel, Sep 11, 2022
* Electricity and water supply cut off in city of Kharkiv, RIA Novosti, Sep 12, 2022 Read the translated article here in pdf format: Electricity and water supply cut off in city of Kharkiv
The next NATO Secretary General should be a woman and a Russophobe: Can you say ‘Chrystia Freeland’?, by Vladimir Kornilov, columnist, RIA Novosti, Sep 12, 2022 (Translated to English by A Socialist In Canada, read the column here in pdf format: Talk of the Russophobe Chrystia Freeland as next head of NATO )
Related: Update on Donbass and Ukraine, excerpt from the weekly briefing by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sep 8, 2022 read the update here in pdf format: Update on Donbass and Ukraine, Sept 8, 2022 …The aggressive rhetoric by the Kiev regime reaffirms the its focus on escalating the conflict, which will inevitably lead to more civilian casualties. However, the Kiev regime doesn’t care about the lives of ordinary people, including many of its compatriots. Everything that is happening now is founded on that premise. They don’t need the citizens of Ukraine because the West doesn’t need them. What the West needs is Ukraine’s rich territories and resources, the resources of Donbass, and the ability to govern these territories and make the local people completely dependent on them…
Michelle Bachelet’s report ‘Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in Xinjiang’ risks discrediting the OHCHR and politicizing the UN’s human rights regime, lengthy analysis by Casey Ho-yuk Wan, published on the website of Friends of Socialist China, Sep 9, 2022
Related: The OHCHR human rights report on Xinjiang lacks credibility, by Danny Haiphong, published by CGTN News (China), Sep 8, 2022 (This analysis is also published by Friends of Socialist China, Sep 8, 2022.) [On August 31, the high commissioner for human rights of the United Nations, Michelle Bachelet, released a report purporting to examine the human rights sittuation in China’s province of Xinjjiang. The report followed an official visit by her and her office (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) to Xinjiang in late May 2022.]
Expanded safety net drives sharp drop in child poverty in U.S., New York Times, Sep 11, 2022 [The New York Times article claims a child povery rate in the U.S. of 11 per cent, but uses the year 2019. It has no figures for 2020-2022. Colombia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy says the rate for 18 year olds-and-under in July 2022 is 17 per cent. A July 2021 article published in the New York Times opened with, “The huge increase in government aid prompted by the coronavirus pandemic will cut poverty nearly in half this year from prepandemic levels and push the share of Americans in poverty to the lowest level on record.” The report and chart published here below (headline and weblink) totally belies that claim.] Related:
* Monthly poverty rate in U.S. rose in June and remained elevated in July, report by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy (Colombia U.), updated as of Aug 26, 2022 Monthly poverty rates in the United States increased from May to June and remained elevated in July. The monthly poverty rate for the total population in June was 14.7%, the highest rate observed so far in 2022.
* Why America has been so stingy in fighting child poverty, NPR, Feb 22, 2022
Life expectancy and human development in the 21st century, by Michael Roberts, published on his website, Sep 10, 2022 …Life expectancy fell in the US in 2021 to its lowest since 1996, the second year of a historic retreat, mainly due to COVID-19 deaths. The decline from 2019 marked the largest two-year drop in life expectancy at birth in close to a century. Also, disparity in life expectancy between men and women widened last year to the highest in more than two decades, with American men now expected to live just 73.2 years, nearly six fewer years than women… Drug overdoses and heart disease are also major contributors, the data shows…
[In this informative essay above, the writer uses the Human Develpment Index (HDI) to compare and analyze countries. The related reading here below argues that a superior analysis uses the newly developed ‘Sustainable Development Index’. A map showing the comparitive rates of SDI in the world is at the website of the Sustainable Development Index. According to the SDI, the worst rated countries are the wealthiest imperialist countries that are also major producers of fossil fuels (Canada, U.S., Norway, Australia) or major users of coal (South Korea). The top five countries of the world (in 2019) according to the SDI were (in order) Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Georgia, Panama, Cuba. The world map on the website of the SDI project has not been updated since 2019.].
Related reading: The sustainable development index: Measuring the ecological efficiency of human development in the Anthropocene, research paper by Jason Hickel (U. of London), published in Ecological Econmics, issue #167, 2020 (online in Nov 2019)
Western media continues to ignore Ukraine’s public ‘kill list’ aimed at those who question the Kiev regime, by Eva Bartlett, in Moscow, published in RT, Sep 10, 2022 This week, a number of international and Russian journalists convened in Moscow to discuss the now-infamous Ukrainian ‘Mirotvorets’ (‘Peacekeepers’) kill list. Some joined by video link. Many of these journalists are themselves included… There are thousands of names entered on the site, of whom 341 are journalists and, shockingly, 327 are minors…
Military situation report in Ukraine on September 10, daily situation report by analyst Brian Berletic, broadcast on The New Atlas YouTube channel, Sep 10, 2022 (17 minutes)
Related: U.S. policy is stoking tensions with Russia and China, running with ‘the West’s false narrative’, interview with Jeffrey Sachs (Colombia University), broadcast on the anti-Russia Democracy Now!, Sep 9, 2022 (23 minutes)
New York Times scolds China for not ‘learning to live’, and die, with Covid, by Jim Naureckas, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Sep 9, 2022
Previously reported: 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 in the U.S.)
Chile’s rejection of its proposed consstitution, one of themost progressive in the world, by Camila Vergara, published in ‘Sidecar’ (blog on New Left Review), Sep 9, 2022
Michigan and four other states will hold referendums on abortion access during mid-term elections in November 2022, New York Times, Sep 9, 2022 [Federal elections in the United States will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.].
Related:
* Medical impact of Roe reversal goes well beyond abortion clinics, doctors say, New York Times, Sep 9, 2022 State abortion bans carry narrow but sometimes vague exceptions, and years of prison time. That’s forcing doctors to think like lawyers, and hospitals to create new protocols.
* Republican Party backs away from some hard-line abortion measures it once championed, Washington Post, Sep 9, 2022 …In South Carolina, Republicans failed to pass a near-total abortion ban during an extended legislative session Thursday night, unable to agree on whether to include exceptions for rape and incest. In West Virginia, a recent special session over similar legislation ended in gridlock… At the same time, efforts to advance a strict nationwide ban in Congress have quietly fizzled…
Governor of New York state declares disaster emergency after polio found in wastewater, Reuters, Sep 9, 2022 New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency on September 9 after samples of the polio virus were discovered in wastewater in three counties outside of New York City… From the New York Times on Sep 9, 2022: …The polio vaccination rates in counties where the samples were collected are lower than those in the rest of the state. The statewide average rate for polio vaccination among children under two years old is around 79 percent. The rate in Rockland County was around 60 percent, in Orange County 59 percent and in Sullivan County 62 percent.In New York City and Nassau County, the rates of vaccination are higher…
Vladimir Putin speech to Eastern Economic Forum on Sept 7, 2022: On economic development in eastern Russia, the continuing shifts towards a ‘multipolar world’, and the deadly alliance between NATO and the coup regime in Kiev Text of Vladimir Putin’s address to the Eastern Economic Forum and the question and answer session that followed, delivered in Vladisvostok, published on the website of the President of Russia, Sep 7, 2022 (You can read the full text of the address by Vladimir Putin and the Q&A session that followed (27 pages) at the weblink above or here in pdf format: Vladimir Putin speech to Eastern Economic Forum on Sept 7, 2022
Washington Post reports approvingly on Ukraine’s steps in becoming a terrorist entity
Reference: Ukrainian hit squads target Russian occupiers and collaborators, article appearing in Washington Post, Sep 8, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Ukrainian hit squads For anyone contemplating a top administrative position in the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, Kyiv authorities have a message: Be afraid. Very afraid. Since Russian forces invaded in late February and began seizing Ukrainian cities and towns, close to 20 Kremlin-backed officials or their local Ukrainian collaborators have been killed or injured in a wave of assassinations and attempted killings. They have been gunned down, blown up, hanged and poisoned — an array of methods that reflects the determination of the Ukrainian hit squads and saboteurs often operating deep inside enemy-controlled territory. The unpredictability of the attacks is meant to terrify anyone who might agree to serve in the puppet governments Russia has been creating with an eye toward staging sham referendums and ultimately annexing the occupied lands…
More anti-Russia arguments in CounterPunch. [CounterPunch editors have reprinted on September 9 a commentary from the anti-Russia Foreign Policy In Focus that is headlined, ‘Russia faces dissent within its military’. This claim has been common in corporate media in the West for months. What evidence is offered in this article in CounterPunch for the claim in the headline? Judge for yourself (emphasis in italics is added):
* “Comprehensive numbers are difficult to come by. In fact, it’s difficult to determine just how many troops Russia has poured into Ukraine, and how that has changed since the April invasion.” [‘April’?].
* “Rather than an easy victory, the Russians have experienced a high rate of injury and death. Death estimates range from 1,500 (Russian figures) to 40,000 (Ukrainian figures), although no one is certain.”
“A recent memoir by a Russian paratrooper who fled the country revealed that Russian troops were ransacking homes for something to eat and that many of them deliberately shot themselves in the leg to be sent home and collect $50,000 compensation.” The source for this claim is the virulently anti-Russia Guardian newspaper in Britain.
* “The truth is there’s a much larger segment of the population ready to revolt if Putin institutes a general draft… But how long Russia can maintain its limited military campaign and how long the public will put up with a deadly, slogging war is anyone’s guess.” Among the ‘evidence’ for the specific claim offered in this article, the best that is offered is “whispers and mutterings leaking from officials at various levels”.]
EU Council scraps 2007 visa faciliation agreement with Russia. Report in RT, Sep 8, 2022
Related: Moscow responds to EU ditching visa deal with Russia, RT, Sep 8, 2022 The Kremlin insists it will not introduce retaliatory visa restrictions after the bloc suspended simplified visas for Russians
Caroline Elkins’ new book ‘Legacy Of Violence’ tells the brutal truth about the cruel and violent legacy of Britain and its monarch Elizabeth II, book review and news compilation on A Socialist In Canada, Sep 9, 2022 (Including related readings on Britain’s long, bloody colonial rule in Kenya.)
Related:
* In former British colonies, ghosts of past haunt mourning for Elizabeth II, Washington Post, Sep 12, 2022 …“Western people need to genuinely try to absorb and realize that while colonialism is history in the West, a thing of the past, iin our countries, colonialism is now,” explains Sipho Hlongwane, a writer based in Johannesburg…
* King Charles long ago turned his sleepy Duchy of Cornwall into a money making behemoth. Report in New York Times, Sep 12, 2022 …The Duchy of Cornwall was established in the 14th century as a way to generate income for the heir to the throne and has essentially funded Charles’s private and official expenses. One example of its financial might: The $28 million profit he made from it last year dwarfed his official salary as prince, just over $1.1 million. Piecing together the royal family’s assets is complicated, but the fortune falls generally into four groups…
* BBC post about Queen Elizabeth and Africa called ‘rebranding colonialism’, RT, Sep 8, 2022 read also: report in Newsweek, Feb 9, 2022
It appears Ukraine planned to use the UN’s nuclear experts as tools for nuclear blackmail and seizing the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. The scheme failed, analysis by Scott Ritter, A Socialist In Canada, Sep 8, 2022 (This analysis was first published in RT, Sep 8, 2022. This version on A Socialist In Canada includes related readings on the situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear plant.)
What is happening on the front lines in Ukraine?, analysis by a Russian blogger, published in A Socialist In Canada, Sep 7, 2022 Included in this new posting is this related reading: Six months into the conflict, what exactly does Russia hope to achieve in Ukraine?, analysis by Dmitriy Trenin, published in RT, Sep 8, 2022 (Dmitry Trenin is a member of the Russian International Affairs Council.)
The long road to truth: Anti-Putin Russian protester faces reality in accompanying reporting tour to Donbas, by Deborah Armstrong, published on her media outlet on Medium.com, Aug 19, 2022
UK programme to train ‘citizen soldiers’ is expanding, Sky News, Sep 5, 2022 The UK is significantly expanding a training programme in Britain to turn potentially tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens into frontline soldiers to fight Russia, Sky News has learned
Russia responds to IAEA report on Zaporozhye nuclear plant, RT, Sep 6, 2022 …IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi has told CNN he wasn’t calling for a “demilitarization” of the nuclear plant but something “more modest”, what he calls a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” that would get a “commitment from all sides to avoid any aiming at the plant, any shelling at the plant.” …
Related:
* Two news report in RIA Novosti:
1. Ukrainian troops inflicted massive strikes on city of Energodar, Sep 7, 2022
2. The head of the IAEA says he cannot determine who is shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Sep 6, 2022
Read the two news reports here in pdf format, translation to English by A Socialist In Canada: Two news reports in RIA Novosti on Zaporozhye nuclear plant, Sep 6 and 7
* Anatomy of Western media propaganda over the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. [Here is the text of the ‘news’ report published in the Washington Post on September 6, 2022 concerning the situation at the ZNPP. Analysis by A Socialist In Canada is highlighted within the news report text: IAEA warns of ‘catastrophic’ threat.]
The historic collapse of corporate journalism, by Patrick Lawrence, Consortium News, Sep 6, 2022
Related:
* Interview with journalist Patrick Lawrence, broadcast on ‘The Chris Hedges Report’ on The Real News Network, with host Chris Hedges, Sep 2, 2022 (36 minutes) [This interview also appears in the Substack media outlet ‘The Chris Hedges Report’, a paid subscriber service.]
* On being disappeared, by Chris Hedges, published on Scheerpost, Mar 28, 2022 [In March 2022, YouTube silenced the longstanding interview program on RT America ‘On Contact’, hosted for six years by Chris Hedges. The entire archive of the weekly program was scrubbed by YouTube. RT America folded in April 2022 after all the cable television outlets in the U.S. carrying the program cancelled their broadcasting of it.].
* Chris Hedges responds to YouTube deleting his six-year archive of interviews on RT America, interview with Chris Hedges, broadcast on Democracy Now!, Apr 1, 2022
* Chris Hedges writes in Scheerpost on September 5, 2022: There is now no way left for me to continue to write a weekly column for ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show without your help. The walls are closing in, with startling rapidity, on independent journalism, with the elites, including the Democratic Party elites, clamoring for more and more censorship. Bob Scheer, who runs ScheerPost on a shoestring budget, and I will not waiver in our commitment to independent and honest journalism, and we will never put ScheerPost behind a paywall, charge a subscription for it, sell your data or accept advertising. Please, if you can, sign up at chrishedges.substack.com so I can continue to post my Monday column on ScheerPost and produce my weekly television show, ‘The Chris Hedges Report’.
Canadian government changes tune on support for ‘Azov’ neo-Nazis in Ukraine, by Jeremy Appel (Alberta writer), published in his Substack media outlet The Orchard, Sep 7, 2022 Canada’s Departmenet of National Derfense no longer denies that its arms may have wound up in the hands of Ukrainian far-right extremists
‘NATO socialist’ alternative media outlet CounterPunch dismisses claim of neo-Nazism in Ukraine. Report published on Sep 7, 2022, titled ‘Ukraine’s Azov Battalion: Neo-nazis or Russian propaganda?’ [The report writes, “Russia’s claim to be fighting fascism in the Ukraine is pure propaganda.” It concludes, “Moscow’s reference to a problem that is real and problematic [neo-Nazism and fascism in Ukraine] is, in reality, not very significant at all. As a justification for its war against the Ukraine, it does not hold much water.”].
Related:
* [On September 6, the lead article in CounterPunch was a reprint of the latest article by corporate media journalist Patrick Cockburn (The Independent, UK). It is headlined, ‘Why Putin’s failure in Ukraine will be as momentous as Gorbachev’s in Russia’. This continues the anti-Russia drumbeat being waged by Cockburn (and CounterPunch) ever since February 2022.].
* [CounterPunch followed up the above anti-Russia screeds of September 6 and 7 with a commentary published on September 8 saying, “It is clear that Russia’s invasion [of Ukraine] is an international crime under the Charter of the United Nations, the Hague and Geneva Conventions and a multitude of UN General Assembly resolutions. The world has justifiably condemned it, and Russian’s attack should recall the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg…” In reality, ‘it is clear’ that under the admittedly specious concept of ‘international law’ that Russia is fully within its right to defend itself and neighbouring republics in Donbass from the aggression of the illegal, coup regime in Ukraine backed by NATO. The pontificators in CounterPunch conveniently have little to say on the long history of this aggression except, ‘Oh, by the way, we think the U.S. and NATO have been a little bit aggressive, too.’]
The political and military situation in Ukraine: Interview with Swiss military analyst and author Jacques Baud, published in A Socialist In Canada, Sep 6, 2022 [This is a lengthy interview with Jacques Baud, originally published in The Postil Magazine on September 1. Baud has recently published (in French) Operation Z, a 480-page book analyzing the Russian military intervention in Ukraine.].
Related: Getting it wrong on Ukraine, by Scott Ritter, Consortium News, Sep 1, 2022 Newsweek’s William Arkin is a prisoner of his sources, a problem that pervades Western reporting on the conflict in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin pays last respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, brief report published on the website of the President of Russia, September 1, 2022 Text: The President came to the Central Clinical Hospital to pay his last respects to Mikhail Gorbachev, laying flowers at the coffin. Mikhail Gorbachev died on August 30 at the age of 91.
Related:
* Condolences to the family of Mikhail Gorbachev’s family from Vladimir Putin, published on the website of the President of Russia, August 31, 2022 The message reads, in part: “Mikhail Gorbachev was a politician and a statesman who exerted a tremendous influence on the course of world history. He headed this country at a time of complicated and dramatic change and large-scale foreign policy, economic and social challenges. He realised that reforms were necessary, and he strove to suggest his own solutions to long-standing problems. I would like to make special mention of the large-scale humanitarian, charitable and educational activities that Mikhail Gorbachev conducted in the past few years.”
* Greetings to Mikhail Gorbachev on his 91st birthday, by Vladimir Putin, published on the website of the President of Russia, March 22, 2022 The greetings read, in part: “You have lived a great and eventful life, and have rightfully won high prestige and recognition. It is gratifying that your diverse work helps to implement highly needed social, educational and charity projects, and promotes international cultural and humanitarian cooperation.”
[Vladimir Putin laid a wreath and paid last respects at the coffin of Mikhail Gorbachev on September 1. He was unable to attend the funeral in Moscow on September 3 due to a pressing schedule. He was due to visit Kalinigrad region on September 3 and then visit the far east of the country–Vladisvostok and the Kamchatka Peninsula. The President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on September 1 that Mikhail Gorbachev was an “extraordinary” statesman who will “always remain in the country’s history”. He went on, “Mikhail Gorbachev gave an impulse for ending the Cold War and he sincerely wanted to believe that it would be over and an eternal romance would start between the renewed Soviet Union and the collective West. This romanticism failed to materialize. The bloodthirsty nature of our opponents has come to light, and it’s good that we realized that in time.”]
The new ‘bivalent’ Covid-19 boosters and when you should get them, Forbes Magazine, Sep 5, 2022
Related: America banished polio. Anti-vaxxers brought it back, editorial, Houston Chronicle, Sep 4, 2022
Liz Truss, Britain’s next prime minister, is in thrall to the lost world of the British Empire, commentary by Kojo Koram, in New York Times, Sep 6, 2022 (Kojo Koram is a lecturer at the University of London’s Birkbeck School of Law) Read the commentary here in pdf format: Liz Truss in thrall to the British Empire
Ukraine update for Aug 2022: Ukraine is losing its independence as it wields blackmail over nuclear energy and food supply, by Dmitriy Kovalevich, A Socialist In Canada, Sep 5, 2022 (originally published in New Cold War.org, Aug 31, 2022)
Donbass and Ukraine update by Russian Foreign Ministry, A Socialist In Canada, September 3, 2022 (The published item consists of two sections from the weekly briefing on August 31, 2022 by Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. It also includes a brief supplement: ‘Update on the situation in the city of Nikolaev (Mykolaiv), Sep 5, 2022’, note by the correspondent of New Cold War.org in Ukraine.)
Update on the situation in Ukraine on Sep 5, 2022, report by Alexander Mercouris on his YouTube channel, Sep 5, 2022 (63 minutes)
Wary of cold days and hot tempers ahead, Europe’s leaders vow economic relief as protests rise against soaring prices and war against Russia. Report in New York Times, Monday, Sep 5, 2022 read the report here in pdf format: Protests rise in Europe against soaring prices and waging war on Russia
Related:
* Unions and other working class organizations in Britain launch ‘Enough Is ‘enough campaign, Common Dreams, Aug 9, 2022 and read: report in The Canary, Aug 14, 2022 [The website of Enough Is Enough is here. It lists the five main demands of the campaign: A real pay rise; Slash energy bills; End food poverty; Decent homes for all; Tax the rich.].
* Stainless steel mills in Europe are closing due to energy crisis, published in AG Metal Miner, Sep 2, 2022
* Energy crisis empties greenhouses in Netherlands, the world’s top flower producer, Bloomberg News, Sep 2, 2022 Flower production in the Netherlands may drop by up to 40 per cent
Zelensky says two towns in the south of Ukraine have been liberated, New York Times, Sep 5, 2022 Excerpts: After weeks of trying to weaken Russian positions in Kherson, last week Ukraine began its most complex and ambitious counteroffensive since it drove the Russians [sic] from around the capital, Kyiv, and other cities in the north in the first months of the war… Ukrainian forces have recaptured two villages, Zelensky said on September 4, offering few details… Ukraine’s military has imposed sweeping restrictions on journalists and urged people not to publicize details of the operations… With details around the offensive scarce, both militaries are waging an information battle to control the narrative of what military analysts say could be one of the war’s most significant confrontations to date… On September 5, the Ukrainian military southern command claimed that the 127th Regiment of Russia’s 1st Army Corp had refused to fight. The claims could not be independently verified… In a sign of the hunger for good news, Ukrainian social media accounts lit up Sunday night with videos and images of a soldier hoisting a Ukrainian flag on a rooftop…
‘The country that helps us is China,’ Africans say, by Nury Vittachi, published in Friday Everyday (Hong Kong) Aug 21, 2022
A mission from the int’l atomic agency is currently inspecting the Zaporozhye nuclear plant, Europe’s largest; can its presence prevent a Chernobyl-style catastrophe?, analysis by Maxim Hvatkov, RT, Sep 4, 2022
Related:
* Civilian authorities of Kherson region say IAEA mission members will remain at Zaporozhye nuclear plant until September 6 and may establish permanent presence, TASS news sservice, Sep 4, 2022
* IAEA director general statement on the situation in Ukraine, update #97, pubished on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Sep 3, 2022
What they are writing in Ukraine about the failure of the Kiev regime’s ‘counteroffensive‘, by Petr Gorodov, published in Arguments and Facts (Russian weekly), Sep 2, 2022 (translated to English by A Socialist In Canada, original in Russian here) Read the translated news report here in pdf format: The failure of the Kiev regime’s ‘counteroffensive
Related:
* The attack against Kherson turned into a farce. What did Kyiv achieve by killing 1,200 of its soldiers?, by Semyon Veprov, published in Arguments and Facts (Argumenty y Facty), Aug 30, 2022 (translated to English by A Socialist In Canada, original in Russian here) Read the translated report here in pdf format: The attack against Kherson turned into a farce
* Russian forces repel several Ukrainian attacks in speed boats directed at city of Energodar and Zaporozhye nuclear plant, RT, Sep 3, 2022
* Report on Ukraine’s failed ‘counteroffensive’ in Kherson region, video report by analyst Alexander Mercouris, Sep 4, 2022 (45 minute report)
German chancellor announces a strengthening of Ukrainian artillery and air defense while members of his party are calling for peace talks, by Maria Vasilyeva, Izvestia, Aug 30, 2022 (Translated to English by A Socialist In Canada, original in Russian here) Read the translated news report here in pdf format: Members of the party of the German chancellor are calling for peace talks
Related: Europeans worry cost of living crisis will cause social unrest, reports survey, Euronews, Sep 2, 2022
Colossal flooding in Pakistan, and why it must be a catalyst for action on global warming, by Fahad Saeed, in Climate Home News (UK), Sep 1, 2022 (published originally in the blog on Climate Analytics)
Related:
* Collapse of G20 talks in Bali spark fears of ‘backtracking’ on climate pledges, Climate Home News, Sep 2, 2022
* ‘Nothing’ happens at meetings of energy and environment ministers of G20 countries in Bali, Indonesia, Climate Home News, Sep 2, 2022 Climate and environment ministers of the G20 countries held one-day meetings on Aug 31 and Sep 1, respectively. One minister in attendance from a participating country wrote to Climate Home News: ‘Nothing happened in Bali. Failure. Weak presidency.’
The hybrid war by the West against Russia: Sergey Lavrov speaks to students in Moscow, A Socialist In Canada, Sep 3, 2022 [This is the text of an address by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to students, teachers and professors at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) at the start of the new academic year. The text of Sergey Lavrov’s speech is originally published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sep 1, 2022.]
The Ukraine death list, essay by Scott Ritter, A Socialist In Canada, Aug 31, 2022 (This essay originally appeared in RT, Aug 31, 2022)
Russia defense ministry reveals details of latest Ukrainian attacks on Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, RT, Sep 3, 2022
Jean Luc Mélenchon and France Insoumise, by John Mullen, published in The Left Berlin, Aug 30, 2022
Mikhail Gorbachev, a vector of change, essay by Scott Ritter, published in Consortium News, Sep 1, 2022
Related: Mikhail Gorbachev’s bittersweet legacy: Eyewitness to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, by Deborah Armstrong (U.S. writer), published on her media oulet on Medium.com, Sep 1, 2022 (Deborah Armstrong was living in Leningrad in 1991. She writes about Russia in her blog on Medium.com.)
China denounces OHCHR report on Xinjiang as ‘a patchwork of disinformation and political tool for U.S. and other Western forces’, Global Times, Sep 1, 2022 …The report by the OHCHR (UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) has once again proved the agency has descended into an enforcer and accomplice of the U.S. and some Western forces against the developing countries, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin. He noted that the report did not dare hype groundless accusations of “genocide”, “forced labor” or “forced sterilization” in Xinjiang province. These have long been hyped by the U.S. and some Western forces. Wang Wenbin said this also shows that the lie of the century made by the U.S. and the some Western forces on China’s Xinjiang has bankrupted…
Related:
* Report on Xinjiang by UN human rights agency is expected to further strain relations between China and West, South China Morning Post, Sep 2, 2022 read the news article here in pdf format: Report on Xinjiang by UN human rights agency will strain relations
* Xinjiang has witnessed booming development in the past decade; the numbers serve as counterinformation to Western government and media slander, report by Global Times, Aug 27, 2022
Leaked document exposes hidden Western hand behind new British-style anti-worker laws in Ukraine, by Slobodan Kolomoets, published in RT, Sep 2, 2022 A communication strategy prepared by research consultancy Abt Associates on behalf of the British Embassy in Kiev and Foreign Office unit ‘UK Aid’ offers extensive proposals for marketing the new anti-worker laws.
Previously reported: Large privatization process to begin in Ukraine on Sept 1, 2022, raising more questions than answers, A Socialist In Canada, Aug 16, 2022 (With extensive background readings. This news article was originally published in the Russian edition of Maxim magazine on Aug 11, 2022; it is translated to English by A Socialist In Canada.)
Canada’s ‘feminist’ prime minister responds to reports of the country’s secret police smuggling schoolgirls into ISIS territory, RT, Sep 1, 2022
Related: Trudeau backs CSIS amid allegations of smuggling schoolgirls into Islamic State territory, Globe and Mail, Aug 31, 2022 read the article here in pdf format: Trudeau backs CSIS in smuggling of schoolgirls into ISIS territory
No honor among NATO warmakers: Poland demands $1.3 trillion war reparations from Germany, Berlin says issue was settled long ago, Associated Press, Sep 1, 2022
Pakistan floods: The wealthy pollute the world and the poor suffer, analysis by Stuart Rees, published in Pearls And Irritations (foreign policy journalpublished in Australia), Sep 2, 2022
Previously reported: UN seeks $160 million in emergency aid for Pakistan floods, Associated Press, Aug 30, 2022 …On August 29, the International Monetary Fund approved the release of a much awaited $1.17 billion for Pakistan. The funds are part of a $6 billion bailout agreed on in 2019. The latest tranche had been on hold since earlier this year, when the IMF expressed concern about Pakistan’s compliance with the deal’s terms under the government of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan was ousted through a no-confidence vote in the parliament in April. To get the IMF bailout, the government agreed to austerity measures…
From nurseries to Nazis and neo-Nazis: The shocking indoctrination of children in Ukraine, three-part article by Deborah Armstrong, published on her media outlet at Medium.com
