media review: Is India being pressured by the West using the human rights claims?

media review: Is India being pressured by the West using the human rights claims?

    Sunday, September 24, 2023   No comments

India and Canada are in a diplomatic crisis at this point, and now made more intense with the US government declaring its support for Canada and reportedly providing the Canadian government with intelligence about the assassination case. Indian media reacted to the US involvement. Like the Guadian newspaper three years ago, Indian media started to produce the list of assassinations undertaken by the US government in other sovereign nations and on official of sovereign nation states.  

The Tribune asked: Look who’s talking, US reveals its bias, double standards:

BACKING Canada’s efforts to vilify India over allegations of its involvement in the killing of pro-Khalistan terror accused Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the US — that inveterate global policeman — has stated that no country can get any ‘special exemption’ for such actions. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said: ‘We will defend our basic principles and consult closely with allies like Canada as they pursue their law enforcement and diplomatic process.’ But has India sought any exemption, special or otherwise? Obviously not. New Delhi has not only rejected Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s claims as ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’ but also asked Ottawa to share relevant evidence, if any. There’s a bigger question: Does the US have the moral authority to grant such an exemption, even if unsolicited, considering its own unenviable history of adventurism in foreign lands? The answer is again an emphatic no.

 

The Syrian and Chinese presidents sign a strategic cooperation agreement

The Syrian and Chinese presidents sign a strategic cooperation agreement

    Friday, September 22, 2023   No comments

On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed the Syrian-Chinese strategic cooperation agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that Beijing is ready to develop cooperation with Syria and jointly defend international justice under conditions of instability.

During his meeting with his Syrian counterpart, in the Chinese city of Khanzhou, Xi said that China and Syria are moving towards announcing the establishment of strategic partnership relations, adding that this will be an important turning point in the history of bilateral relations in the face of unstable international situations.

Xi confirmed that Syria is one of the first countries to establish relations with the new China, adding that it was one of the countries that proposed a draft resolution to restore China's seat in the United Nations.

The Chinese President stressed that Syrian-Chinese relations have withstood changes in international situations for 67 years, and the friendship between the two countries remains solid over time.

The Chinese President also announced his country's keenness to continuously make joint efforts to exchange firm support between the two countries and enhance cooperation between them to defend international justice and peace.

In turn, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stated that his country looks forward to China's constructive role in the international arena and rejects all attempts to weaken this role.

Al-Assad expressed his happiness at visiting China, which stands with the just causes of peoples, based on the legal, humanitarian and moral principles that form the basis of Chinese policy in international forums and which are based on the independence of countries and respect for the will of the people.

Al-Assad pointed out that this visit is important in its timing and circumstances, as a multipolar world is forming today that will restore balance and stability to the world, and it is the duty of all of us to seize this moment for the sake of a bright and promising future.

The Syrian President thanked President Xi and the Chinese government for what it did to stand by the Syrian people in their cause and suffering, wishing the Chinese people more scientific, civilizational and humanitarian victories.

Yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in a press conference: “We believe that President Bashar al-Assad’s visit will lead to a deepening of mutual political trust and cooperation in various fields between the two countries, and the advancement of bilateral relations to new heights.”

The Syrian President arrived at Khanzhou Airport in China yesterday, Thursday, in his first official visit to the country in nearly two decades, at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

In 2021, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Damascus on an official visit to enhance cooperation between China and Syria. This was the first visit by a high-ranking Chinese official since the start of the war on Syria.

Chinese media. often reflecting the thinking of Chinese leaders, suggest that China's investment in Syria is likely to be in transportation and other infrastructure projects and that such investments will be protected from Western sanctions by using yuan for related transaction.

Seymour Hersh: Ukrainian armed forces have already called off the attack after weeks of heavy losses and Zelensky and Biden are not interested in putting an end to the “massacre”

Seymour Hersh: Ukrainian armed forces have already called off the attack after weeks of heavy losses and Zelensky and Biden are not interested in putting an end to the “massacre”

    Friday, September 22, 2023   No comments

Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh stated that the Ukrainian army effectively stopped the attack after weeks of heavy losses.

“After several weeks of heavy losses and minimal progress, as well as horrific losses in tanks and armored vehicles, the main units of the Ukrainian army, without announcing it, effectively called off the attack,” Hersh quoted an official with access to the intelligence as saying.

Hersh quotes an unnamed American intelligence officer: “The truth is that if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army will rebel. “The soldiers don’t want to die anymore, but this doesn’t fit with the nonsense written by the White House under US President Joe Biden.”

Hersh also reported that Vladimir Zelensky insists on continuing the conflict with Russia, and there is no talk in Kiev or Washington of negotiations and a ceasefire.

“The war continues because Zelensky insists on it,” Hersh said, citing sources. There is no discussion of a truce at his headquarters or in the White House under President Joe Biden, and they are not interested in negotiations that put an end to the massacre.”

Hersh added, quoting an intelligence source, and as the source points out, all of Kiev’s statements about the successful counterattack are lies, as the Ukrainian forces have only gained scattered pieces of land, and the pace of their advance is measured in meters per week.

An unnamed American intelligence official was quoted as saying: “The war is over. Russia has won. “There is no longer a Ukrainian attack, but the White House and the American media must support the lie.”

The Russian Armed Forces continue to implement their special military operation, with the aim of disarming Ukraine, to ward off threats emanating from Ukrainian territory to Russia's security.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia does not plan to occupy Ukrainian lands, explaining that Russia's goal is to protect the population, which has been subjected, for 8 years, to persecution and genocide by the Kiev regime.

Ukrainian forces have been launching a counterattack in the directions of southern Donetsk, Artyomovsk and Zaporozhye for the fourth month now, sending brigades trained by NATO and armed with foreign equipment into the battle.

According to President Vladimir Putin, during this time they could not achieve any results. In turn, Western military experts point to the effectiveness of Russian fortifications and minefields, due to which the Ukrainian armed forces suffered heavy losses.

Earlier, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that “Ukrainian forces have lost more than 66,000 soldiers and 7,600 weapons since the start of the so-called “counterattack.”

Shoigu also stressed that “the Ukrainian army did not achieve its goals during the three months of the counterattack.”

Comparing controll maps from the start of the counteroffesive to recent maps make Hersh's claim about the stopped or stalled offensive evident:

Control map in September 2023:

Control map in June 2023:

  

General Assembly of the United Nations; 19-23 + 26 September 2023

General Assembly of the United Nations; 19-23 + 26 September 2023

    Wednesday, September 20, 2023   No comments

General Assembly of the United Nations; 19-23 + 26 September 2023: World Leaders Urge Transformative Solutions to Myriad Threats as Ukraine Conflict, COVID-19 Pandemic Compound Food, Fuel Crises, Worsen Climate Emergency

Information about speeches and news stories are archived by the UN; this year's speech can be accessed from these site and streaming platforms:

UNGA Meetings Cooverage

UNGA debate on youtube

The neocolonial food economy: How Bill Gates and others threaten Africa's agricultural future?

The neocolonial food economy: How Bill Gates and others threaten Africa's agricultural future?

    Monday, September 18, 2023   No comments

A report on the American “The Nation” website, under the title “The New Colonial Food Economy,” by Alexander Zaitchik, author of the book “Owning the Sun” - A History of the Medical Monopoly, spoke about the consequences of the actions of the global billionaire Bill Gates and other business giants in the areas of food. And agriculture, on small farmers in Africa and the countries of the South.

“Last summer, the global trading system finalized the details of the revolution in African agriculture,” the report stated, explaining that “under the project, the trade bodies sponsoring the African Continental Free Trade Area seek to restrict all 54 African countries to a model “It aims to replace farmers’ traditions and practices, which have persisted on the continent for thousands of years.”

He continued, "The main goal is farmers' human right to seeds and crops, and to share and cultivate them according to personal and societal needs."

"By allowing corporate property rights to replace local seed management, the protocol is the latest front in a global battle over the future of food," he adds.

Based on draft laws written by Western seed companies more than three decades ago in Geneva, the new generation of agricultural reforms seek to impose legal and financial penalties across the African Union on farmers who fail to adopt seeds manufactured abroad and protected by patents, including This includes genetically modified versions of local seeds, according to the report.

The resulting seed economy would turn African agriculture into a bonanza for global agribusiness, foster export-oriented monocultures, and undermine resilience during a period of profound climate disruption.

This new seed economy includes not only major seed and biotechnology companies, but also sponsor governments, in a more complex and controversial effort to re-engineer global agriculture for the benefit of biotechnology and agribusiness, not for the benefit of African farmers or the climate, the report asserts.

The author adds, “Tightening ownership laws on farms across the African Union would represent a major victory for global economic powers, which have spent the past three decades campaigning to undermine farmer-run seed economies and oversee their forced integration into global agribusiness value chains.”

These changes threaten the livelihoods of Africa's small farmers and their collective vital biological heritage, including a number of staple grains, legumes and other crops, which their ancestors developed and protected since the dawn of agriculture.

For farmers who are on the path to a global market drive to standardize and privatize their seeds, the risks are simply preserving their right to economic self-determination.

In a statement to the website, one of the farmers warns: “Companies have changed our food culture... They are now using threats to change our agricultural culture. If we replace traditional seeds with foreign seeds that cannot be replanted, what happens if the new seeds do not arrive? It is an attack on our survival!” .

After waiting longer than any applicant, Erdogan now says Turkiye could 'part ways' with EU

After waiting longer than any applicant, Erdogan now says Turkiye could 'part ways' with EU

    Saturday, September 16, 2023   No comments

After waiting far longer than any other country that applied and joined the Bloc, Turkiye is not frustrated with the process, but not giving up yet. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on 16 September that Ankara could “part ways” with the EU if necessary, following the release of a European Parliament report rejecting the possibility of Turkiye joining the EU soon.

The report instead suggested the EU explore “a parallel and realistic framework,” such as a customs union, to determine its ties with Ankara.

“The EU is trying to break away from Turkiye,” Erdogan told reporters. “We will make our evaluations against these developments and if necessary, we can part ways with the EU.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said the European Parliament report contained unfounded allegations and prejudices and took “a shallow and non-visionary” approach to the country’s ties with the EU.

Visa liberalization, which would give Turkish citizens visa-free travel to the bloc for long periods, is a significant reason Turkiye wishes to join the EU. Many Turkish citizens work in EU states, most notably Germany, and EU membership for Turkiye would free them of the difficult bureaucratic process needed to obtain visas.

The European Parliament report follows renewed Turkish efforts to join the EU. Earlier this summer, President Erdogan sought to link Turkiye’s EU accession to approving Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

However, EU officials balked at linking the two issues, citing human rights abuses and the deterioration of the rule of law in Turkiye under Erdogan.

“We have recently seen a renewed interest from the Turkish government in reviving the EU accession process,” said the lead lawmaker on the file, Spanish Socialist Nacho Sánchez Amor, upon adopting the report on Wednesday.

“This will not happen because of geopolitical bargaining, but only when the Turkish authorities show real interest in stopping the continuing backsliding in fundamental freedoms and rule of law in the country,” Sánchez Amor said.

EU officials accuse Erdogan of stifling the media and imprisoning dissidents, including during a crackdown after a failed coup in 2016, which Erdogan blamed on the Gulen Movement. Turkiye’s occupation of parts of EU-member Cyprus has also led EU officials to criticize Erdogan.

In 2018, the European Council said in a statement that negotiations for Turkiye to join the EU “have come to a standstill.”

While Western governments are crying foul over Russia’s termination of the “gain deal”, European governments are banning the import of grain from Ukraine

While Western governments are crying foul over Russia’s termination of the “gain deal”, European governments are banning the import of grain from Ukraine

    Wednesday, September 13, 2023   No comments

Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria will introduce restrictions on the import of grain from Ukraine. 

This was stated by Hungarian Agriculture Minister Istvan Nagy after negotiations with colleagues.

 Countries want to introduce restrictions on the import of Ukrainian grain at the national level until the end of 2023, if the EC does not extend them at the pan-European level.

Poland has already announced a unilateral ban on grain imports, and Romanian farmers are threatening to block ports and customs if the import ban is not extended.

Related to the grain deal, and after a meeting between Erdogan and Putin in Sochi, Russia, Turkeye, and Qatar agreed to form an alternative structure that would supply African countries with grain and fertalizer. Russia has offered to provide free grain to Africa.

The grain will be provided by Russia, the logistics will be financed by Qatar, and the operation will be managed from Trukeye, which is also asiring to become a natural gas hub for the world.

Inflation contributes to declining income and increasing poverty in the United States

Inflation contributes to declining income and increasing poverty in the United States

    Tuesday, September 12, 2023   No comments

The US Census Bureau announced that inflation caused a decline in real income by 2.3% in the United States in 2022 despite raising wages, while poverty increased with the cessation of government aid, which was provided during the Corona pandemic.

Liana Fox, a Census Bureau official, explained during an online press conference that “high inflation led to a decline in real average family income,” which amounted to $47,960.

The official poverty rate remained stable compared to last year, at 11.5%, or 37.9 million people, living on less than $14,880 annually, or $29,950 for a family of four.

But another measurement showed a completely different truth. This measure, also published by the Census Bureau, adjusts the income below which a person is considered poor, taking into account government assistance and the cost of child care and medical expenses.

According to this measure, the poverty rate rose for the first time since 2010, increasing from 7.8% to 12.4% between 2021 and 2022.

The child poverty rate doubled, rising to 12.4%, while it was 5.2% in 2021, a historic low.

The summit of the “77 + China” group in Havana... increasing roles for the groups that reject hegemony

The summit of the “77 + China” group in Havana... increasing roles for the groups that reject hegemony

    Monday, September 11, 2023   No comments

The Havana Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Group of 77 + China, which will be held in the Cuban capital, Havana, from September 15 to 16, is being held under special international circumstances and a combination of efforts and paths of joint bilateral and multilateral action to overcome hegemony. Western and its associated institutions and forums.

The summit comes under the title “Current Development Challenges: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation,” as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced last June, calling for action on this occasion to strengthen the unity of the member states of the group, and to take an effective decision on Collective and practical actions to confront contemporary challenges.

The largest intergovernmental group

The Group of 77 is the largest intergovernmental group of developing countries in the United Nations. It aims to collectively advance the economic interests of its members, as well as create common negotiating capacity within the scope of the United Nations.

The group began on June 15, 1964, at the initiative of 77 countries that signed the Joint Declaration, which was issued at the closing session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva.

Although the membership of the Group of 77 has reached 134 countries today, it has maintained its original name due to its historical significance. It represents two-thirds of the members of the United Nations and 80% of the world’s population.

The group's first ministerial meeting was held in Algeria in 1967, and represented a qualitative shift in its structure, as the Algeria Charter was adopted, which became the group's institutional structure, and also paved the way for a permanent institutional structure that grew continuously.

The structure of the group gradually developed, as this development led to the establishment of the pacts of Rome, Vienna, Paris, Nairobi, and Washington. The group also has representatives in several international institutions and paths, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). ", and others.

The group takes the United Nations building in New York as its headquarters, and the presidency of the group is transferred between member states in a vote that takes place every year at the end of each session.

Since its establishment, the Group of 77 has enjoyed China's support, as Beijing attended the group's meetings as a "special guest" at first, until coordination between the two parties began in 1991.

In 1996, the 20th Ministerial Session of the organization adopted its current name, and then the first statement was issued under the name “Group of 77 + China”, and the name has been adopted since then.

China confirms that it supported the legitimate demands of the group and maintained cooperative relations with it, despite the fact that it is not a member of it.

Collective goals for the countries of the South

According to its official website, the G77+China aims to provide the means for countries of the South to articulate and advance their collective economic interests, and to promote South-South cooperation for development.

The group seeks to enhance its joint negotiating capacity on all major international economic issues within the United Nations system.

In the political context, some attribute the roots and reasons for its establishment as an international group and bloc to the fact that it is the economic complement to the bloc of Non-Aligned Movement countries, as it was established due to the geopolitical and economic conditions that characterized the post-Cold War period, and as a middle way between the two social and economic systems existing at that time, the liberal capitalist system. The free market economy, the socialist system, and the commanded market economy.

The group's main decision-making process is known as the South Summit, and the first summit was held in the Cuban capital, Havana, in April 2000.

It is also noteworthy that the member states finance the group's activities through contributions, and enjoy a joint work system at the level of its various branches. The presidency of the organization is also transferred on a regional basis, between Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean countries, and the period extends for one year in all branches.

Havana Summit...intensification of the roles of counter-hegemonic blocs

According to what was announced by Cuba's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Pedro Luis Pedroso, Cuba, as the current president of the group, hopes that the upcoming Havana summit will contribute to strengthening the voice of the group in the ongoing intergovernmental negotiation processes, which aim to hold a “sustainable development” summit in September 18 and 19, in New York, and the “Future” Summit, scheduled to be held in September 2024, are two events that aim to chart a future of peace and sustainable development for the peoples of the Global South.

For his part, the Cuban President spoke, during his speech at the recent BRICS summit, that the Group of 77 and the BRICS group bear the responsibility of calling for a change in the current international system, indicating that “this is not an option, this is the only alternative.” .

Cannell stressed that the Group of 77 and the BRICS have historically called for a real transformation in the current international financial structure, describing it as “extremely unfair, outdated, and suffering from dysfunction.”

This year's meetings in Cuba come in light of transformations and coups at the global level, while the role of political blocs, groupings, and economic and geopolitical alliances is growing.

The current summit also gains special importance, for more than one factor, including that related to the location of its holding, as some Western media outlets reported that Cuba “by presiding over the summit, will seek to lead like-minded countries in standing against the United States.”

The upcoming summit also represents special importance as the world is preoccupied with talking about the Global South, and the authenticity and history that the group represents in its representation of the countries of the South.

In the same context, the American ABC network spoke, in a report, about the definition of the Global South, stressing that “at one stage the Group of 77 was considered the Global South.” It is also noted that the summit also comes after the “Voice of the Global South” summit was held. In India, which took place last January, in addition to the recent BRICS summit in South Africa, last August, which indicates the increasing importance of these groupings and frameworks.

Healthcare inequity: How Big Pharma and Western Governments betrayed countries of the Global South

Healthcare inequity: How Big Pharma and Western Governments betrayed countries of the Global South

    Thursday, September 07, 2023   No comments

First, it was Western governments that prioritized the vaccination of people in Europe over the need to protect the most vulnerable. For two years, EU governments either banned the export of covid vaccines outside the bloc or pressured companies to prioritize orders coming from Europe, even after many people in Europe were vaccinated, not just once, but twice.

Now, it is the turn of big pharma; companies that are headquartered in the West and protected by western governments, have been bullying African governments to sign deals for the supply of vaccines at higher prices.

It is now reported that Pharmaceutical giant Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and generic manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII) charged the South African government more than the European Union for COVID-19 vaccines – and South Africa assumed all the risk in ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ contracts with Pfizer, J&J and SII.

 

This is according to an analysis of the contracts led by Health Justice Initiative (HJI), a South African NGO that won a court challenge last month to get access to all South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine contracts.

 

J&J charged South Africa $10 a dose, 15% more than the company charged the European Union (EU), and the government was required to pay a non-refundable down payment of $27.5 million.

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