World News/Foreign Affairs

For posts prior to January 1, 2020, click here.

COLOMBIA

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians took to the streets in marches and national strikes in November and December as anger mounted against right-wing President Iván Duque and his cabinet. The protests were triggered by Duque’s proposed labor reforms and cuts to the pension system, as well as a recent military airstrike against a camp of alleged dissident rebel drug traffickers, which killed eight children.  Al Jazeera reports (12/27/19):

"Colombia's anti-riot police are under increasing pressure over their violent response to protesters taking part in a national strike.  One student has died and dozens of people have suffered eye injuries after being hit by rubber bullets. Opposition congressmen and NGOs in the country are asking for the anti-riot squads to be dismantled. But President Ivan Duque announced they will be reinforced."

VENEZUELA  

Venezuela will be subjected to a renewed round of "maximum pressure" as Trump meets with far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.   The discussions between the two right-wing leaders of the largest nations in the Western Hemisphere are the latest attempt to force President Nicolás Maduro from power.  Venezuleanalysis.com reports on Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza's comments to the UN Human Rights Commission in late February as Trump threatened additional sanctions:

"Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza denounced US sanctions at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)...Speaking at the 43rd Session of the UNHRC in Geneva, Arreaza described the measures from the US Treasury Department as “economic terrorism.”  “It is down to the UN and the UNHRC to lead urgent humanitarian efforts against the massive human rights violations that these sanctions represent,” he said.  The top diplomat stated that Washington has imposed over 300 unilateral measures since 2014, which he claimed has cost the South American nation an estimated US $120 billion. Caracas has recently submitted a lawsuit against the US at the International Criminal Court, arguing that sanctions constitute a “crime against humanity.”

In the year since opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president and immediately received support from 50 countries, Maduro has consolidated his power .   Al Jazeera reports:

"President Nicolas Maduro appears to have an even tighter grip on his control as the opposition continues to fracture. And Guaido, struggling to maintain support at home amid the country's deepening economic crisis, faces more challenges ahead, analysts say. "The opposition has lost its influence in the country," said Ronal Rodriguez, a professor and researcher at the Venezuelan Observatory, a think-tank at the University of Rosario in Colombia.  "The situation has changed, and people have started to leave the politics behind, and have instead focused on the day-to-day problems," he told Al Jazeera. "The passion and enthusiasm that Guaido awoke has started to fade."

The Trump-Bolsonaro meeting hopes to reverse that trend, with what degree of damage to Venezuela still to be determined.

Since the beginning of this year, with the global community confronting its greatest crisis since World War II, there has been no let up in the Administration's cruelty, injustice and threats.   

A partial listing of these actions in the foreign policy area:

January 3 - Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis are killed in a Trump-ordered air strike on their convoy at Baghdad airport 

January 5 - Iraq's parliament passes a resolution calling on the government to expel foreign troops from the country following the killing of a top Iranian military commander and Iraqi armed group leader in a US strike in Baghdad. 

January 10 - Trump refuses Iraqi parliament request to remove US forces and threatens Iraq with sanctions

January 28 - Trump/Kushner peace plan for Palestine & Israel is announced and is promptly rejected by the Palestinians (Jan 28) and the Arab League (Feb 1) (see above link in sidebar)

January 31 - Trump extends travel ban to six African nations 

Feb 4 -Under Secretary of Defense John Rood announces the deployment of the "W76-2 low-yield submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) warhead,”  The introduction of the W76-2 nuclear warhead was the result of Pentagon planning for a potential first strike scenario against adversaries, especially Iran.

Feb 9 - Trump’s budget proposal slashes foreign aid by 21% - seeking $44.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, compared with $55.7 billion enacted in fiscal 2020 

March 21 - With the US effectively blocking bilateral medical aid to Iran and Iran's request for a $5bn loan from the International Monetary Fund,  Sec of State Pompeo announces an increase in the sanctions on Iran displaying "callous disregard for Iran’s Covid-19 emergency "

March 26 - US cuts humanitarian aid to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen UPDATE (May 6): The United States announced it would provide $225m in emergency aid to Yemen to support food programmes, and called on the Houthis to do more to allow aid operations to operate "independently and neutrally".

March 26 - DOJ announces $15 million reward for information leading to arrest of the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro

April 1 - Trump threatens Iran for actions of Iraqi Shi'ite militia 

April 3 - Announces U.S. Navy ships are being deployed to the waters near Venezuela

April 15 - US ends aid to the World Health Organization as the greatest pandemic in a century assaults the planet

April 22 - Trump threatens to "shoot down" (sic) tiny Iranian skiffs on naval maneuvers (see above link in sidebar)

Mid-month Rundown (May 2020)

POSTED MAY 14, 2020

A summary of a few stories from the past couple of weeks.

May 3 - An attempted coup against Venezuelan President Maduro, orchestrated by a retired Venezuelan general and the founder of an American private security company, was foiled.  Beginning on May 1, nearly 60 Venezuelans and two former US Green Berets tried to enter the northern tip of Venezuela in two fishing boats.  Maduro’s forces killed eight Venezuelan members of the raiding team and arrested another 13 members, including the two American veterans.  The Trump Administration's harsh sanctions against Venezuela and $15 million reward for the arrest of Maduro set the context "because it creates the conditions for a attempted violent, unconstitutional regime change in Venezuela. [link below right]

May 7 - The Department of Justice officially moved to drop charges against Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.  Flynn’s indictment was one of the first major acts of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia, as Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.  Reaction included an open letter from nearly 2000 former Justice Department and FBI officials calling the action "extraordinarily rare, if not unprecedented."  The letter calls on Barr to resign and encourages Congress to formally censure Barr over "his repeated assaults on the rule of law in doing the President’s personal bidding rather than acting in the public interest."

May 7 - A set of detailed documents created by the nation's top disease investigators at the CDC meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places such as mass transit, day care centers and restaurants during the still-raging pandemic has been shelved by the Trump administration.  Update:  A leaked copy of the CDC guidelines is available and school superintendents, among others, will be using them rather than the "underwhelming" guidelines officially released by the White House.

May 8 - The US blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.

May 11 - The largest study of the antiviral hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found that there "were no significant differences in in-hospital mortality between patients who received hydroxychloroquine with or without azithromycin and patients who received neither drug." The study found that the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin together was associated with "significantly elevated levels of cardiac arrest.”  Trump & Fox had hyped hydroxychloroquine  until an earlier study conducted in VA hospitals found more deaths among those treated with hydroxychloroquine than those treated with standard care. 

May 13 - In its latest nose-thumbing of international law, the Trump Administration, in the person of Mike Pompeo, went to Israel to "bless" the annexationist coalition government being formed by indicted prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his new partner, Gen. Benny Gantz.  [link below left] Israel has declared its intention to annex its illegal settlements in the West Bank in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and numerous UN resolutions. 

Mid-month rundown: world news

POSTED JUNE 16, 2020

A summary of some events and stories from the past couple of weeks.

Climate Crisis Update

POSTED JULY 27, 2020

While the coronavirus has temporarily reduced the amount of carbon being poured into the air, global warming and its associated events continue apace.  Here are some recent headlines from around the world and some context on the implications.

Coronavirus protests and politics

POSTED AUGUST 10, 2020

Coronavirus protests are not just a US phenomenon.  The virus is impacting politics around the world.  

-Popular protests criticizing their government's coronavirus response, these demonstrations have grown to include protests against economic problems and corruption. 

-Authoritarian governments have taken advantage of the virus to stifle dissent and entrench their power.  

-Here in the US, with more Covid deaths than any other country, a no-brainer on measures to contain the virus has become politicized as an incompetent administration tries to whitewash its failure and convince people it has the virus under control. 

In countries that have had success against the virus such as Germany, the protests take the form of "Why do we need to continue a lockdown? It's over."  In others, such as Chile, which saw widespread demonstrations in 2019 against inequality, the protests are about the lack of food.  Elsewhere, popular protests against their governments' response to the coronavirus have morphed into  "fury over grievances including economic problems and alleged corruption or incompetence.  Demonstrators have taken to the streets to voice their anger at perceived failures by leaders to rise to the unprecedented challenges heightened by the pandemic." The Mercury News reported on the July demonstrations in Israel, Serbia, Lebanon, and Bulgaria.  

The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

POSTED OCTOBER 14, 2020

October is the time of the Nobel prizes - a time when we celebrate the best of humanity and humanity's greatest discoveries and accomplishments.  Many of the prizes in science or literature acknowledge a decade's or a lifetime's work.  The Peace Prize sometimes reflects a more immediate, near-term accomplishment.  Also in contrast to the other awards, the Nobel Peace Prize is sometimes awarded to organizations.  This year's winner is an organization that intensified its long-standing efforts to relieve hunger during the pandemic 

This year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations' World Food Programme "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."  Noting that the "coronavirus pandemic has contributed to a strong upsurge in the number of victims of hunger in the world" and that in some countries, "the combination of violent conflict and the pandemic has led to a dramatic rise in the number of people living on the brink of starvation" the Nobel Committee praised the World Food Programme in demonstrating "an impressive ability to intensify its efforts".  The Committee warns that the "world is in danger of experiencing a hunger crisis of inconceivable proportions if the World Food Programme and other food assistance organisations do not receive the financial support they have requested."  

The official website of the Nobel Prize Committee can be found here.  A link to the New York Times summary of the complete list of 2020 Nobel winners is below left.

Latin America Update: Ending the Monroe Doctrine

POSTED OCTOBER 25, 2020

The election season is a difficult time to call for just US policies towards Latin America. For every Latinx supporter of humane immigration policies and freedom from external interference in their country's politics, there is another that supports harsh sanctions and embargoes and clamors for regime change in countries like Cuba and Venezuela. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Florida, where well-organized conservative factions have dominated Latino politics for decades.* 

Take, for example, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who built his political career in Florida on the fiction that his family fled Cuba to escape the Revolution. The facts: Rubio's grandfather fled Cuba during the reign of Fulgencio Batista, the U.S.-backed military dictator of Cuba from 1952 to 1959.  His grandfather, Pedro Victor García, actually moved back to Cuba in the days following Castro’s triumph. When he tried to re-assume his permanent residency in 1962, U.S. immigration officials determined that he had given up his legal status when he moved back to Havana and ordered him to be deported.

For more than a century, the US has intervened in the internal affairs of Latin American nations with only the occasional gesture – such as FDR's “Good Neighbor Policy” and Obama's rapprochement with Cuba - towards acknowledging their rights as sovereign nations.

As Common Dreams notes, “The Trump administration openly calls its Latin America and Caribbean policy the “Monroe Doctrine 2.0.” The Monroe Doctrine - asserting U.S. geopolitical control over the region - served as a pretext for over 100 years of military invasions, support for military dictatorships, the training and financing of security forces involved in mass human rights violations and economic blackmail, among other horrors.”

Related Posts

Dawn of a new era of US imperialism in Latin America (11/15/2018- updated 1/18/2019)

The immigration crisis: a century of US intervention in Central America (4/5/2019)

Fueling a right-wing coup in Venezuela (1/25/2019)

South American Notes: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile & Colombia (11/20/2019)

Updates from South America (3/8/2020)

Latin America Update

POSTED DECEMBER 28, 2020

As of July 26, Latin America, the region stretching from Mexico to the Tierra del Fuego, became the region with the most confirmed Covid-19 cases, accounting for one-quarter of the world's total.  Even with the onset of warmer weather in the Southern Hemisphere, the region is experiencing a surge in cases. Health services in Brazil, Mexico and Paraguay are dangerously stretched as a second wave of the pandemic buffets a region where the first never ended.  Brazil's death toll has surpassed 190,ooo, second only to the US.

Since the pandemic's start, Cuba has been sending medical personnel to nations struck by the pandemic in a singular example of an "internationalist" response to the pandemic which has now killed almost 1.8 million people worldwide.  Nearly 40 countries across five continents have received Cuban medics during the pandemic, as the island nation—home to just over 11 million inhabitants—has once more punched far above its weight in medical diplomacy.  Since its 1959 leftist revolution, Cuba has dispatched its “army of white coats” to disaster sites and disease outbreaks around the world in the name of solidarity. In the last decade, they have fought cholera in Haiti and Ebola in West Africa.

The most active Atlantic hurricane season ever recorded devastated Central American countries.  The region, which already has some of the highest poverty rates in Latin America, was particularly hard hit by hurricanes this year.  Two of the year’s strongest storms, Eta and Iota, ravaged swathes of Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize in unusually quick succession in November.  Altogether, more than 200 people were killed and more than half a million displaced. Hundreds of thousands are now unsure where their next meals will come from.  Climate change experts warn that this is a preview of what may be in store for the region in the future.

Military dictator Gen. Agosto Pinochet's 17 year reign in Chile may have ended in 1990, but the Pinochet-era constitution lived on.  That is about to change. In late October, 78 percent of Chileans voted to replace the current charter written by the far-right autocrat who ruled from 1973 to 1990. after overthrowing the elected president Socialist  Salvador Allende.  Starting in April, a 155-member constitutional assembly — which must feature an equal number of men and women elected by the public — will draft the new constitution by early 2022 and submit it to the nation for approval.

A more recent right-wing power grab - that in Bolivia in November 2019 - was reversed in October elections.  A final official vote gave leftist Luis Arce a smashing victory in Bolivia’s presidential election, a vindication for the Movement Toward Socialism party of ousted President Evo Morales, who was barred from running. Arce won 55% of the votes against six rivals on the ballot, easily avoiding the need for a runoff. The runnerup was centrist former President Carlos Mesa with just under 29%. Conservative Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the leaders of the protest movement that helped drive Morales out of the country a year ago, received only 14% of the vote. (link below right)

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador committed to work on a humane strategy to regional migration by addressing its root causes in Central America and southern Mexico.  The two leaders “discussed working together on a new approach to regional migration that offers alternatives to undertaking the dangerous journey to the United States” in a Dec 19 phone call. 

In Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro has claimed victory in parliamentary elections. Turnout was unusually low, at just over 30%, after opposition leader Juan Guaidó called for a boycott of the election.  Maduro is calling on incoming President Joe Biden to abandon the U.S.’s interventionist agenda in Venezuela and drop all sanctions.   Analysts in an Al Jazeera round table (link below left) provide their viewpoints on both sides of the issue.

Protests erupt against Myanmar military coup

POSTED FEBRUARY 9, 2021

It's been 8 days since Myanmar's military staged a coup ending the power-sharing agreement with Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy.  The agreement had been in place since 2016.   

Like the coup attempts in the United States and Venezuela, this one was based on election results disputed by the losing side.  Unlike the coup attempts in the United States and Venezuela, this one had the support of the military.  

The coup unfolded hours before lawmakers were to take their seats in the opening of parliament, following a November election in which the military made unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, claims that have been dismissed by the country's election commission.  If this sounds familiar, it's because the same bogus claims of election fraud, all refuted by state electoral commissions and the courts, were used by Donald Trump in his attempted coup.  Suu Kyi said in a statement the military had put Burma — which the military calls Myanmar — back under dictatorship, and urged people to protest.  (Democracy Now!, Feb 1)

Rule #1 for staging a coup to overturn an election result appears to be: "Make sure the military is on your side."  Trump's thugs and crazies were not up to the task here in the United States in their January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Rule #1 for stopping a coup is: "Begin protesting the legitimacy of the coup immediately."  If an anti-coup is to be successful, protests must be organized in a matter of days. 

Suu Kyi's call for protests has been heeded.  "Thousands of people spilled into the streets of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, on Saturday, chanting "down with the military dictatorship." The protesters held up three-finger salutes, signs that critics of the coup are growing louder...People from all walks of life are mounting a campaign of civil resistance due to the coup. Some residents have been banging pots and pans at night, and some essential workers like teachers and doctors have refused to work." (CBS, Feb 6 - below left)

In the runup to our own elections, Jeremy Brecher at Common Dreams [below right] discussed the work of theorist and historian of non-violence Gene Sharp on popular resistance to subversion of elections and other forms of coup d’état. His "Waging Nonviolent Struggle" provides many case studies of effective nonviolent resistance; his "The Anti-Coup" focuses in on the use of these methods against illegal seizures of government power. It proposes such guidelines as:

Repudiate the coup and denounce its leaders as illegitimate

Regard all decrees and orders from the coup leaders contradicting established law as illegal and refuse to obey them

Keep all resistance strictly nonviolent – refuse to be provoked into violence

Non-cooperate with the coup leaders in all ways

Myanmar's police and military have begun their crackdown on the protests.  "Police and military forces cracked down on civil protests in Myanmar on Tuesday February 9, using water cannons and rubber bullets on demonstrators that seriously injured at least two...Activists demonstrating against the military coup were injured in the capital Naypyidaw on a third day of youth-led street protests...Local administrators barred people from protesting or gathering in groups of five or more and ordered a curfew, according to Myanmar's Assistance Association for Political Prisoners."  (UPI, Feb 9)

Updates:  

"Large crowds demonstrating against the military takeover in Myanmar again defied a ban on protests Wednesday  Feb 10, even after security forces ratcheted up the use of force against them and raided the headquarters of the political party of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Witnesses estimated that tens of thousands of protesters, if not more, turned out in Yangon and Mandalay, the country's biggest cities. Rallies also took place in the capital Naypyitaw and elsewhere." (CBS, Feb 10)

"The top United Nations human rights body has called on Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other officials and to refrain from using violence on people protesting against the military coup.  The 47-member Geneva forum adopted a resolution brought by Britain and the European Union (EU) unanimously without a vote.  The resolution was adopted after the UN human rights investigator for Myanmar urged the UN Security Council to consider imposing punitive sanctions, arms embargoes and travel bans in response to the coup." (Al Jazeera, Feb 12)

Biden must reverse ALL of Trump's foreign policy fiascos: why the delay?

POSTED MAR 2, 2021

As President Biden attempts to restore America's credibility abroad and have us "lead by the power of our example", his first priority must be cleaning up the wreckage of Trump's foreign policy blunders, cruelties, and violations of international law and agreements.  Biden has taken steps on some "no-brainers" by rejoining agreements and commissions abandoned by Trump - the World Health Organization, the Paris Climate Accords, the UN Human Rights Commission.  Notably, Biden renewed the New START Nuclear Treaty with Russia before it expired.  He has also restored aid to the Palestinians and given notice to Saudi Arabia that it will no longer be business as usual for their intervention in Yemen.  The Biden Administration is considering cancellation of some existing arms deals with the Saudis and, for future arms sales, only providing weapons that are defensive in nature and cannot be used for attacks.

There are a large number of Trump policies, however, that still need to be remedied as soon as possible - policies that demonstrate the US' disdain for international law, punish civilian populations, and exude a distorted American exceptionalism.

Below are some urgently needed actions.  There are no acceptable excuses for delaying the reversal of  these Trump disasters.   Taken in the context of his choices for many of his foreign policy advisers, Biden's hesitancy in addressing these injustices is troubling.  

World News Briefs

POSTED MAR 12, 2021

Myanmar protests continue amidst deadly crackdown

POSTED APRIL 2, 2021

It's been two months since a military coup in Myanmar toppled the elected government of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi on the basis of unsubstantiated claims of irregularities in an election that Suu Kyi's party had won in a landslide.  Over 500 people have been killed in protests against the military junta.  Last Saturday, March 27, in what has been called a "day of shame", the junta killed more than 100 protesters.  

The killings have not stopped the protests.  Protesters were back out in several places on Thursday and two more people were killed, according to media reports, as activists burned copies of a military-framed constitution and called for unity among all those opposed to army rule. 

In an attempt to stifle communication about the turmoil, the junta ordered internet service providers to shut down wireless broadband services until further notice.  Suu Kyi, three of her deposed cabinet ministers and a detained Australian economic adviser, Sean Turnell, were charged a week ago in a Yangon court under the official secrets law.  Their lawyers say the charges, which carry a 14 year sentence were trumped up. (Reuters, March 31) 

The United States and others, at the urging of UN officials, are imposing ever tighter economic sanctions and severing diplomatic channels. The immediate effect of this pressure will be limited against a regime that is ready to weather international isolation.  The best hope for a political solution may be The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).   ASEAN is a consensus-driven group with a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of its member states.  It sees its strength as being the ability to keep open lines of communication unavailable to any other multilateral group. The UN Special Envoy for Myanmar has apparently approached ASEAN members for this reason after being denied access to Myanmar. ASEAN governments hope that this ability to continue dialogue will eventually coax Myanmar’s military back into a democratic process.   To succeed, ASEAN will have to engage both the junta and Suu Kyi's party, but neither party appears ready to engage in this dialogue at this time.  (CSIS, April 1)

The BBC summarizes the situation in the link below.

World News Briefs

POSTED APRIL 30, 2021

Iran

• Reuters (Apr 27): "World powers and Iran sought on Tuesday to speed up efforts to bring Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord, as the United States reassured its Gulf Arab allies on the status of the talks.  Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia began a third round of meetings in Vienna to agree steps that would be needed if the agreement, which was abandoned by then-U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018, is to be revived.  The main differences are over what sanctions the United States will need to remove, what steps Iran will need to take to resume its obligations to curb its nuclear programme, and how to sequence this process to satisfy both sides."

• Iran has signaled it is open to a prisoner exchange with the United States, a move that is seen as a rare diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington.  

• The Biden administration is considering a near wholesale rollback of some of the most stringent Trump-era sanctions imposed on Iran in a bid to get the Islamic Republic to return to compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear accord, according to current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.

Myanmar  

NPR (Apr 24): Leaders of nine Southeast Asian countries called for an immediate end to the violence in Myanmar, where the military government has cracked down violently on the enormous protests over its February coup.  At least 748 people have been killed and 3,389 are being detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.   The official statement released Saturday April 24 by ASEAN leaders makes five demands of the military junta, including an "immediate cessation" of the violence and a peaceful solution to the situation via "constructive dialogue," mediated by a special envoy appointed by ASEAN. The leaders also demanded that Myanmar's military government allow the arrival of humanitarian assistance.  In Myanmar, protests have mostly quieted in recent weeks due to the crackdowns. 

Reuters (Apr 27) reports on other developments: The junta has declined to accept the ASEAN proposals, saying it would consider them "when the situation returns to stability" and provided the recommendations facilitated the military's own roadmap...Myanmar authorities are seeking to file charges of murder and treason against one of the main leaders of the protest campaign against military rule according to the state broadcaster...Myanmar's pro-democracy unity government, formed to oppose the junta, ruled out talks on the crisis until all political prisoners are released...Fighting has intensified between the military and ethnic minority Karen insurgents in the east with more air strikes sending villagers fleeing into neighboring Thailand.

India

India has become the epicenter of the pandemic.  The surge in Covid-19 cases that began in mid-March is overwhelming India's healthcare systems.  There have been 350,000 cases per day over the past week and total confirmed deaths is now over 200,000.  India thought it had weathered the worst of the pandemic last year, but the virus is now racing through its population and systems are beginning to collapse.  Hospitalizations and deaths have reached record highs, overwhelming health-care workers. Patients are suffocating because hospitals' oxygen supplies have run out.  A number of countries including the United States are providing critical medical supplies, vaccines, oxygen and other life-saving assistance.  India's deadly Covid-19 second wave has devastated big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Pune. Hospitals and crematoriums have run out of space, and funerals are taking place in car parks. But the pandemic has now firmly gripped many smaller cities, towns and villages where the devastation is largely under-reported.

The variants causing the surge are worrying epidemiologists; Time explains: "Scientists believe that the variants of SARS-CoV-2 responsible for this second wave of cases in India already include at least two mutations that make them more dangerous. These mutations are already familiar to COVID-19 experts. One is found in a variant first identified in South Africa, while the other is part of a variant believed to have emerged from California. Researchers believe that these two mutations may, respectively, make it easier for the virus to infect human cells, and to evade the protection provided by immune cells like antibodies."

A "Trump-lite" foreign policy is unacceptable

POSTED JUNE 3, 2021

President Biden's foreign policy and defense budget are failing progressives and peace activists.  Biden's proposed increase to an already obscenely bloated defense budget and his failure to quickly reverse all of Trump's odious policies are warning signs of a same-old, same-old status quo approach to  foreign affairs.  Just as Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam War became Richard Nixon's Vietnam War more than 50 years ago, Biden will own Trump's policies if he does not abandon them soon.  

To his credit, Biden has reversed some of Trump's most egregious actions.  But he has given no indication that he will transform US foreign policy in any significant way.  Instead, we are witnessing what Win Without War calls "a slow accumulation of failures to use presidential leadership" to end the failed policies of the past.

Notes: 

*Between 2016 and 2020, the United States "accounted for 37 percent of total international weapons deliveries, nearly twice the level of its closest rival, Russia, and more than six times that of Washington’s threat du jour, China...The United States has held that top spot for 28 of the past 30 years, posting massive sales numbers regardless of which party held power in the White House or Congress." [1]

**Over the past two decades, the United States has provided Israel with $63 billion in security assistance, more than 90 percent of it through the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing, which provides funds to buy US weaponry. [1]

References: [1] The Nation, May 27 [2] Washington Post, May 17  [3] Reuters, June 1 [4] China Daily, May 5

World News Update

POSTED JUNE 18, 2021

Ethiopia [1,2,3]

Ethiopia's twice-delayed national elections will begin June 21 against the backdrop of numerous crises including, most notably, the conflict in the Tigray region. Raising concerns that the election would not be free, fair, and credible, opposition parties are calling for a postponement. They say that the government should instead focus its efforts on convening an inclusive national dialogue to build a national consensus on the future of the country.  

The crisis in Tigray has now reached “a tipping point” with famine threatening the region. U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council and put the blame squarely on forces from the neighboring nation of Eritrea. "Eritrean soldiers are using starvation as a weapon of war," he said.

The fighting which began in November has led to a humanitarian crisis with more than 60,000 people fleeing across the border into Sudan and hundreds of thousands of others forced from their homes. Massacres of civilians have been recorded as well as sexual violence. More than 350,000 people are said to be living in famine conditions, according to one assessment. Overall, the UN estimates that more than five million people need humanitarian assistance.

Colombia [4,5,6]

Protests against the right-wing government of Iván Duque Márquez have raged across Colombia for nearly two months.  What started as a protest against a tax hike morphed into protests against the inequalities that have plagued Colombia for decades.  The initially peaceful protests turned violent after a brutal response by the police.  

On June 15, the protest leaders said that they will stop organizing marches in the country’s largest cities following seven weeks of antigovernment demonstrations that have resulted in at least 50 deaths. Members of the National Strike Committee — a group made up of unions and student organizations — said at a news conference that they will suspend marches to prevent more deaths of protesters at the hands of police and also to slow down coronavirus contagion in Colombia, where deaths from the virus are at an all-time high. The changed strategy will focus on meeting with civil society organizations to draft legislation that will be presented to Colombia’s congress in July, following a large march on the nation’s capital.

The protests were preceded by the murder of left-leaning social leaders – assassinations likely carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups.  These killings are continuing – including one earlier this month of José Alonso, a signatory of the 2016 Peace Accord between the Colombian state and the then Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  

Solidarity rallies have been held in New York, Berlin and other cities as social media overflows with messages of support and videos of police brutality and murder. Yet despite the widespread indignation, the US government has remained relatively silent on the state violence being committed by one of their closest allies in Latin America.

The utter hypocrisy of the United States is once again on display.  The preferential treatment the US gives its allies in the region could not be more clear: with any unrest just across the border in Venezuela, Washington is quick to deliver debilitating sanctions and threaten military action.  When human rights are violated in Colombia, we are treated to non-answers about the killing of protesters like this from Biden's press secretary in a briefing in May: “I’ll have to ask our national security team on the latest engagement we’ve had with the Colombian government and others on that, and I will get back to you with a comment”...and to absurdities like the press release from the US Embassy in Colombia.  After affirming the rights of protesters, it goes on to offer support to the Colombian government and puts trust in the Colombia police to “address any violations of human rights.”   

Israel/Occupied Palestine [7, 8, 9]

The record 12-year reign of Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel is over after its parliament voted in a new coalition government. Right-wing nationalist Naftali Bennett has been sworn in as prime minister, leading a "government of change". He will lead an unprecedented coalition of parties, which for the first time includes an Arab political party. The new government was approved with a razor-thin majority of 60-59.

Netanyahu did not go quietly. As a parting shot to the Palestinians' quest for a homeland, Netanyahu authorized an ultra-nationalist “Flag March” through Jerusalem over the objections of his Defense Minister. The Israeli squatters’ deliberately provocative march on June 15 went through Palestinian neighborhoods, and 33 Palestinians were injured during confrontations with the Israeli Occupation authorities in the area of the Old City in occupied Jerusalem, one of them by live fire, and at least 17 were jailed.

An estimated 5,000 Israelis, primarily youth belonging to far-right and ultra-nationalist groups, participated in the parade, which is held every year in commemoration of Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967. Basically, the squatters are rubbing the occupied population’s noses in their life of defeat and ongoing humiliation.

Outside the Damascus Gate, the entrance to the Muslim quarter of the Old City, crowds of Israelis danced, waved Israeli flags, and chanted racist slogans. Among the chants that were reported were “Death to Arabs,” “may your village burn,” and “a second Nakba is coming,” referring to the nakba, or ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, when thousands of Palestinians were massacred by Zionist militias and over 750,000 were forcibly expelled from their homes in 1948.

It's hard to see how things could be much worse for Palestinians than they were under Netanyahu, who told an Israeli radio station in 2019 that "a Palestinian state will not be created, not like the one people are talking about. It won't happen."  But, for the most part, Palestinians do not see much of a change in their situation coming with the new government.  The Occupation and Israel's apartheid laws continue, the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem make a Palestinian homeland less and less viable, and the blockaded, destitute Gaza Strip remains "the world's largest outdoor prison."  

Sources: 

[1] Al Jazeera [2] CBS News [3] BBC World News Africa  [4] NBC News  [5] Democracy Now!  [6] New Frame  [7] Reuters [8] Mondoweiss [9] Informed Comment

Hypocrisy in action

POSTED JULY 23, 2021

Nowhere is the hypocrisy of America's foreign policy more evident than in the contrasting cases of Cuba and Israel.  Nowhere has mainstream media bias and the power of lobbies been more detrimental to Americans' understanding the realities of the respective situations.  The recent US reaction to the Cuban government's response to protests there compared to its reaction to Israel's response to Palestinian protests illustrates the point.

Earlier this month, anti-government protesters took to the streets in cities across Cuba.  Despite being limited in size and immediately met by substantial counter-demonstrations, corporate media were keen to present the actions as widespread and momentous.  So intent to present the anti-government protests as massive, a host of media outlets across the political spectrum resorted to using images of pro-government demonstrations to illustrate how large and impressive the anti-government movement was. [1]

The protests erupted amid Cuba's worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, a surge in coronavirus infections, with people voicing anger over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the authorities' handling of the pandemic.  What few media outlets reminded their readers of was that much of this can be laid at the feet of the United States' brutal embargo against the small island nation since the early 1960's and the Trump sanctions that are still in effect six months into the Biden presidency.

Official documents going back to 1960 note that, by “denying money and supplies to Cuba,” the US hopes to “decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and [the] overthrow of [the] government.” [1, 2]  On June 23, for the 29th year in a row, the UN General Assembly on June 23 voted overwhelmingly to condemn the embargo.  Only the US and Israel opposed the resolution, which passed 184-2 with 3 abstentions.

The Trump administration expanded the economic war against Cuba, strangling the island with more than 200 sanctions.  During the pandemic, these sanctions escalated, hindering Cuba’s response to COVID.  Even now, as COVID cases in Cuba rise to their highest levels since the pandemic began, Joe Biden has done nothing to lift the sanctions. His response to the protests, of course, did not mention either the embargo or the sanctions.  U.S. sanctions, intensified during the Trump administration, triggered Cuba’s economic crisis.  But the protesters took their anger out on the Cuban government. [3]

Notes: 

*Through FY2020, the United States has provided Israel with $146 billion in military, economic, and missile defense funding. Adjusted for inflation, this amount is equivalent to $236 billion in 2018 dollars, making Israel the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. assistance since World War II. [4]

**Peace Now is the largest and longest-standing Israeli movement advocating for peace and the two-state solution "through public pressure".  Americans for Peace Now is the American "sister organization" to the Israeli movement.

References: [1] Common Dreams [2] Reuters  [3] Democracy Now! [4] Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

World News Briefs

POSTED AUGUST 6, 2021

Ethiopia [1, 2]

There are 80 ethnolinguistic groups in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation.  As the conflict in the northern Tigray region escalates, there are increasing concerns about the nation's unity.  The nine-month-long war between Tigrayan rebel forces and the Ethiopian army and its allies has been mostly contained in Tigray itself. But now the fighting is spreading into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.  The Tigrayan forces have said they will not stop fighting until a number of conditions have been met by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy. This includes the end of the federal government's blockade of Tigray and the withdrawal of all opposing troops - the Ethiopian army, forces from other Ethiopian regions and the Eritreans fighting alongside them.

The conflict has caused a massive humanitarian crisis. The United Nations' children's agency, UNICEF, said on Friday July 30 that more than 100,000 children in Tigray could suffer life-threatening malnutrition in the next year.  Food experts say 400,000 people in Tigray are experiencing "catastrophic levels of hunger".  Meanwhile all aid routes into Tigray are blocked except for one road from Afar region where food convoys have recently been attacked, reportedly by pro-government militias.  The Ethiopian government has suspended the activities of three foreign humanitarian organizations which have been working in northern Tigray. Ethiopia's Agency for Civil Society Organizations said on August 4, 2021 that it had identified "rule violations" by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Maktoume Foundation.

Myanmar [3, 4]

The general who took power in a coup in Myanmar in February has named himself prime minister and said emergency rule may now extend to August 2023. In an hour-long speech, Min Aung Hlaing pledged to hold a "free and fair multi-party election" but also called the elected party he removed "terrorists".  Hundreds have died in continuing protests against the military coup.  

Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun sent a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, saying 40 bodies had been found in July in the Sagaing area of north-western Myanmar.  The junta has denied the massacre, while news agencies have not been able to independently verify the reports due to mobile networks being cut in the remote region.  The envoy's statement came as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Wednesday appointed an envoy to Myanmar after a months-long delay in diplomatic efforts to resolve the coup crisis. The appointment of an envoy is expected to clear the way for Asean to send emergency aid to help authorities cope with a severe Covid-19 outbreak.

Colombia [5, 6]

Colombian authorities unlawfully detained, tortured, and used lethal weapons against peaceful protesters during the demonstrations that have swept the country since April, said a new report from Amnesty International.  These practices are not isolated incidents, but rather reflect a pattern of violent repression by Colombian authorities including President Iván Duque, who fuelled protests by sending military units “shaped by more than six decades of armed conflict” into city streets, the report concluded.  

Protests in Colombia began in late April, initially against a tax proposal that has since been axed, though they quickly morphed into a nationwide howl of outrage over entrenched economic disparity. Protesters stayed in the streets for nearly two months, with marches taking place almost every day in major cities.  The police response was brutal, with at least 44 protesters killed and 1,650 injured across the country. 

Venezuela [9]

Talks between Venezuela's government and the opposition about the country's political crisis are expected to begin in mid-August in Mexico. The dialogue will be supported by international actors including Norway, which acted as a mediator in a previous dialogue proceeding in 2019 that collapsed before the two sides could hammer out a deal to ease the political standoff.

President Nicolas Maduro has said he is willing to negotiate with opposition leader Juan Guaido.  Maduro has said the agenda will have to be focused on lifting U.S. sanctions, most of which were created by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019 in efforts to force Maduro from power.  Guaido has said the opposition wants to use the talks to push for guarantees of free and fair elections.

Cuba [10]

The United States is finding itself increasingly isolated in pursuit of its sanctions and its six-decade embargo against Cuba.  This year's resounding 184-2 vote at the UN for the US to end its embargo marked the 29th straight year the nations of the world asked the US to end the embargo.  While the politically important "anti-Castro" Cuban exile community is urging additional actions after the July protests, the rest of the world is telling the United States to "back off."  

The right-wing governments of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Honduras joined the United States in issuing a statement condemning mass arrests and calling for full restoration of disrupted internet access.  Yet only 20 foreign ministers worldwide joined in signing the letter, signalling how relatively isolated Washington is on its Cuba policy, analysts said.  Even U.S. allies like Canada who have condemned the Cuban crackdown and supported protesters' right to freedom of expression did not sign.

Mexico [7, 8]

In U.S. federal court in Boston on Wednesday August 4, the Mexican government sued U.S. gun-makers and distributors, including some of the biggest names in guns like Glock Inc., arguing that their commercial practices have unleashed tremendous bloodshed in Mexico.  The Mexican government argues that the companies know that their practices contribute to the trafficking of guns to Mexico and facilitate it. Mexico wants compensation for the havoc the guns have wrought in its country.  

The United States is by far the world's largest arms dealer.  In 2019, Trump withdrew US support from the UN Arms Trade Treaty.  The US signed the treaty in 2013 but never ratified it. The Treaty is intended to ensure "that arms in private ownership do not enter illicit circuits" by regulating conventional weapons, including small arms, battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.

Sources: [1] BBC News  - 1  [2] allAfrica  [3] BBC News - 2  [4] The Guardian -1 [5] Al Jazeera - 1 [6] The Guardian - 2  [7] NPR  [8] Al Jazeera - 2  [9] Reuters - 1  [10]  Reuters -2

Biden's nuclear flip-flop, the South China Sea, and the coming Cold War

POSTED AUGUST 12, 2021

On the campaign trail, candidate Biden said the United States “does not need new nuclear weapons” and that his “administration will work to maintain a strong, credible deterrent while reducing our reliance and excessive expenditure on nuclear weapons.”  

In the Oval Office, President Biden has proven to be as disappointing in his nuclear weapons budget as he is in bringing the US and Iran back into compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Biden's acquiescence in continuing the Trump nuclear arms buildup  combined with his Administration's confrontational China policy may have started both a new nuclear arms race and a new Cold War.  Having spent more than half my life during the Cold War era of "mutually assured destruction," I have no wish to see it happen again.  

The New Arms Race

Although the United States already has many times the nuclear weapons that it needs to provide what Biden calls a "credible deterrent,"  his Administration's first budget request proposes to continue the expensive and controversial nuclear weapons sustainment and modernization efforts it inherited from the Trump administration.  According to the most recent Congressional Budget Office assessment of the cost of nuclear forces published in late May, the United States as of the end of the Trump administration is planning to spend $634 billion over the next decade to sustain and modernize the arsenal. This is an increase of $140 billion, or 28%, from the previous 10-year projection just two years ago. [1]

Trump's buildup of the nuclear arsenal and Biden's failure to cut the nuclear budget may initiate a nuclear arms race with China.  In response to the US defense budget and continuing military pressure in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits, Chinese military experts are urging an increase in the number of the country's nuclear weapons, especially its sea-based nuclear deterrent of intercontinental submarine-launched ballistic missile.  Think that's a coincidence?  Think again.  President Biden’s latest Pentagon budget proposed millions for new Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles (SLCMs): weapons rejected by four previous administrations and that Navy officials themselves don’t want in their arsenal. [2, 3]

The one and perhaps only definitive answer to the existential threat of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them entirely.  Instead of initiating a new nuclear arms race, the United States could have taken the lead in this effort with the objective being the eventual total disarmament of the nine current nuclear nations (graphic below) and the implementation of a strongly monitored non-proliferation agreement to prevent any nation from acquiring them in the future.  

Until those goals are reached, there are several things that the nine nuclear nations can do to decrease the possibility of a civilization-ending nuclear war [7]:

1. Each nuclear nation could pledge that it will never be the first to use a nuclear weapon, regardless of the circumstances. Doing so would reduce the risk of miscalculation during a crisis, and limit the possibility of a smaller, non-nuclear conflict escalating into a nuclear one.

2. Elimination of the "sole authority" system of control in the United States and in other countries where this exists.  Other officials could securely be included in the decision, providing checks and balances and a basic defense against mistakes, accidents, miscalculations, and recklessness.

3. Take nuclear missiles off hair-trigger alert systems.  A long list of nuclear close calls—which include technical malfunctions, miscommunications, and plain bad luck—shows how close we’ve come to mistakenly starting nuclear war.

4. Rather than upgrading nuclear weapons systems, we should be securing them until they can be eliminated.  We should also budget for disposal of the nuclear waste from the weapons.  This would be a much better and wiser use of taxpayer dollars.

5. The United States should show that it is acting in good faith by committing to a “diplomacy first” approach with North Korea and rejoining the Iran Deal.  We could then build on this to lead the global disarmament effort.

The New Cold War

In early February, less than three weeks into the Biden presidency, the Administration made its first move in the South China Sea.  Two U.S. carrier groups conducted joint exercises, days after a U.S. warship sailed near Chinese-controlled islands in the disputed waters.  China denounced the United States for damaging peace and stability.  In April, China sent its own aircraft carrier into a region of the Sea where the United States had been just conducted naval exercises The Liaoning's reported arrival in the South China Sea came after a US Navy expeditionary strike group, fronted by the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island, conducted exercises in the South China Sea a day earlier. [4, 5]

This week at the UN, China and the United States sparred over who presented the biggest threat to stability in the region.  The South China Morning Post reports on the exchange [6]:

China has faced “no consequences” for ignoring rules in the South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the latest UN maritime security summit, as the two powers blamed each other for stirring up tensions in the flashpoint region.  Blinken took aim at what he called “dangerous encounters between vessels at sea and provocative actions to advance unlawful maritime claims” in the South China Sea.

Blinken’s remarks were soon met with protests from China, with Dai Bing, the Chinese deputy ambassador at the UN, calling the US the “biggest threat to stability in the South China Sea”.  As the only major power to have failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), an international treaty that lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans and seas, the US “has no credibility … to act as a judge of the convention and to dictate and interfere with other countries.”

The Biden Administration has yet to prove that it possesses the skill and imagination to defuse tensions in the area.  China, for its part, is maintaining close diplomatic ties with Russia and increasing its military spending.  There is much at stake here and much to advise a more co-operative approach.  Besides being our largest trade partner, China holds more than $1 trillion in US debt.  Resolving the climate crisis - about which the world received another wake-up call this week [link below left]- will also require the co-operation of both countries, the two largest emitters of CO2.  

If the United States is ever to move off this binary paradigm of "us vs. them, good vs. evil" in foreign affairs, we must first put to rest the distorted version of American Exceptionalism which infects both political parties. 

• Bill Clinton's Secretary of State Madeline Albright's assertion that the United States can use force to achieve its goals because "we are the indispensable nation" is as false as it is arrogant. Appearing on national TV, she famously declared, “If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.” [link below right]  

• More recently, Trump and his collection of neocons, Islamophobes, war mongers, and xenophobic nationalists displayed their exceptionally distorted version of American exceptionalism and their disdain for diplomacy, international law and human rights from Latin America to the Middle East.

The reality is that there is much here at home - think COVID-19, climate change, poverty, hunger, and inequality to name a few - that can use some fixing and much in our foreign policy that can only be described as hypocritical and arrogant.  The United States, if it chooses to live up to its highest ideals, can indeed play an "exceptional" role in making the world a better place.  No nation is better equipped to address the poverty, disease, and hunger that plague so many.

As the Biden Administration convinces itself that China is an existential threat to the United States (which it is not), Congress is now considering the EAGLE Act, which would commit our tax dollars to dangerous anti-China rhetoric, as well as wasteful and environmentally damaging military training, and an extra $7 billion of our tax dollars to the Department of Defense.  The bill seeks to address human rights abuse accusations in China while ignoring the very same issues of "forced labor in U.S. prisons, ICE concentration camps that target people for their ethnic origins, and extralegal detention facilities like Guantanamo Bay that have previously detained and interrogated Uyghur Muslims. Beyond that, the EAGLE Act’s rhetoric continues the Sinophobic demonization of China that began under the Trump administration while claiming to rebuke overt racism and the former President." [8] 

One of the problems with cold wars is that they could tip over into an active war.  Another is the proxy wars that destroy lives in third party countries.  To prevent these blood-spilling "hot" wars, John Gerson writing at Counter Punch [9] suggests:

+ U.S. adoption of a no first use nuclear war fighting doctrine, renewed U.S.-Chinese military to military consultations to prevent miscalculations, and credible U.S. and Chinese steps toward fulfilling their Article VI NPT obligation.

+ Ending all provocative and dangerous military shows of force.

+ Honoring the one-China formula and encouraging Chinese-Taiwanese negotiations. 

+ Engage the ASEAN Regional Forum to renew U.S.-Chinese-ASEAN multilateral negotiations, including a binding Southeast Asian Code of Conduct regarding military operations in the South China/West Philippine Sea and for joint development of the sea’s mineral resources.

+ Nuclear "umbrella states" signing and ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition if Nuclear Weapons to put pressure on all the nuclear weapons states.

Diplomacy can work.  The unending failures of America's forever wars in the Middle East have proved what does not work.  It's time to try something else.

Sources: [1] Arms Control Association, July 9  [2] Global Times, May 28 [3] Win Without War  [4] Reuters, Feb 9 [5]  CNN, April 12 [6] South China Morning Post, Aug 10  [7] Union of Concerned Scientists  [8] Counter Punch - 1, July 20 [9] Counter Punch - 2, August 10

World News Briefs

POSTED SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

Ethiopia [5, 6, 7 ]

The conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia is entering a particularly dangerous and critical phase.  What started as a dispute between the central government and a regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), has widened into a civil war that has unleashed a humanitarian disaster and left hundreds of thousands of people on the brink of famine.  

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed last month issued a call to arms for "all capable citizens", urging them to join the army to suppress the resurgent Tigrayan rebellion “once and for all.” TPLF-allied forces have gained control of Tigray and have now crossed into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions.  They even vowed to march on the capital Addis Ababa if a government blockade on the Tigray region is not lifted.  In recent days, both the Ethiopian military and the Tigray rebels claim to have killed thousands of enemy fighters.  

As the fighting surges, the flow of humanitarian aid into Ethiopia's northern Tigray region has been slowed to a trickle.  Grant Leaity, the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia said in a statement that "stocks of relief aid, cash and fuel are running very low or are completely depleted. Food stocks already ran out on 20 August.”  A negotiated settlement appears to be the only way the conflict will end, but attempts to mediate it have so far been unsuccessful.

Iran Nuclear Talks [1, 2]

The Biden Administration may have missed its chance to rejoin the JCPOA and bring Iran back into compliance with the agreement.  Iran hardliner Ebrahim Rahisi won the presidential election in June and replaced moderate Hassan Rouhani in August.  The talks have been on hold since the election.  Rahisi is showing little urgency in resuming the indirect talks with the United States, and Secretary of State Blinken is warning that US patience is not going to last forever.  Iran has said that it needs 2 to 3 months to rejoin the talks.  The US and Germany have said that is too long, expressing concern that Iran is continuing to enrich uranium.  Iran has reached out to Qatar and United Arab Emirates - indicating all hope may not yet be lost.

If the talks collapse, Biden and Blinken will only have themselves to blame.  In December, after Biden's victory but before the Iranian moderates' defeat, Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif stated that Iran would come back into full compliance with its nuclear deal immediately after the incoming Biden administration in the US lifted all the illegal sanctions imposed by Donald Trump.  Biden could have done this on Day One of his administration.  He did not do so - apparently choosing to use the sanctions as bargaining chips instead.  

Afghanistan [3,4]

Dozens of women in Kabul and the north-eastern Afghan province of Badakhshan protested against the formation of an all-male interim Taliban government to rule Afghanistan. As the Taliban government seeks international recognition, the EU said the Islamist group had reneged on promises to make their government "inclusive and representative", while the US also expressed concern that the interim government includes figures linked to attacks on US forces.  A lack of clarity on the Taliban's position on women in Afghanistan has generated "incredible fear" across the country, a senior U.N. official said on Wednesday, warning there were daily reports of curbs on the rights of women.

Brazil [8]

Brazil's far-right president Jair Bolsonaro took a page from his friend Donald Trump's page book as he battles Congress and the judiciary over their refusal to go along with his attempts to rewrite electoral rules ahead of the 2022 election and over probes into him and his allies that could imperil them criminally.  On September 7, Brazil's Independence Day, one hundred thousand hard-core Bolsonaro supporters responded to his call and showed up at rallies in Brasilia and Sao Paolo, where he said he would not follow the decisions of certain justices, including one who will be in charge of the electoral tribunal during the 2022 elections.  The September 7 marches were the culmination of Bolsonaro's attempt to discredit Brazilian democracy, as his handling of the pandemic, the state of the Brazilian economy, and charges of corruption have plunged his approval rating to 23 percent.  

Although a January-6-style insurrection did not occur, Brazilian democracy remains in danger.  The September 7 marches were a test for how far Bolsonaro and his backers might take their threats.  They showed that Bolsonaro's dwindling but loyal base is buying into his attacks on Brazil’s democracy.  The marchers carried pro-Bolsonaro signs, some blasting the Supreme Court and  some calling for a military takeover.  It is not clear that  Bolsonaro has enough support in the military to engineer a coup should he fail to win the election, but the threat to Brazilian democracy remains.

Venezuela [9]

Venezuelan government and opposition representatives said they agreed during talks in Mexico to find ways to deal with the pressing needs of the people. In a joint statement, Venezuela's government and the opposition said they agreed to "establish mechanisms for the restoration and achievement of resources to meet the social needs of the population with special emphasis on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic." The Maduro government repeated its call for an end to US sanctions.  President Biden has said he is open to that possibility if progress is made in the talks.  Unlike previous failed attempts, the talks in Mexico have included other parties, including Norway, which led the talks, as well as the Netherlands, Russia, Bolivia and Turkey.

Sources: [1] Forbes, Sep 9  [2] The Guardian, Dec 3, 2020 [3] BBC, Sep 8  [4] Reuters, Sep 8  [5] Al Jazeera, Sep 2 - 1 [6] BBC, Sep 5  [7] Al Jazeera, Sep 2 - 2 [8] Vox, Sep 8  [9] DW, Sep 7

World News Briefs: Democracy, Human Rights, and Freedom of Expression

POSTED OCTOBER 28, 2021

Another coup by the military, this time in Sudan, threatens to reverse that country's steps toward democracy.  The head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah El Burhan, declared the dissolution of the transitional council, which has been in place since the overthrow of the country's long-time ruler, Omar el-Bashir, in 2019.  A long-running competition between various Sudanese actors came to a head in recent weeks and months, including a previous attempted coup only a month ago, as rival interests both pro-military and pro-democracy took to the streets.  The African Union has suspended Sudan until the civilian-led council is restored. Demonstrations against the military takeover are continuing in the capital Khartoum. [1,2,3]

In Myanmar, where a military coup overthrew the government in February, 1183 people are now confirmed dead and a total of 7031 people are currently under detention.  In total, 65 persons have been sentenced to death including two under the age of 18.  The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)  held an emergency meeting late Friday Oct 22 after Myanmar refused to cooperate with the bloc’s crisis envoy. ASEAN announced that they will invite a non-political representative instead of Myanmar’s military leader to its upcoming summit, in what some are calling its sharpest rebuke yet 0f the junta leaders.  Earlier this month, ASEAN expressed their disappointment that Myanmar’s military has made no significant progress in implementing a Southeast Asian roadmap for peace following their coup. [4,5,6]

In a move more consistent with authoritarian regimes than with a democracy, Israel labeled six human rights groups as "terrorist" organizations.  The designation was swiftly condemned by Israeli human rights groups ("Criminalizing such work is an act of cowardice, characteristic of repressive authoritarian regimes"), international human rights organization ("...an attack by the Israeli government on the international human rights movement. For decades, Israeli authorities have systematically sought to muzzle human rights monitoring and punish those who criticize its repressive rule over Palestinians."), the United Nations, and democracy activists across the world.  In the United States, progressive Congressmembers have issued statements denouncing the terrorist designation.  The Biden Administration has yet to speak on the matter, although Israel appears concerned - they are sending an envoy to Washington. [7, 8, 9, 10]

The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists, Filipino-American Maria Ressa and Russian Dmitri Muratov "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace ." 

Maria Ressa is an outspoken critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.  Her arrest in 2019 and conviction in 2020 for "cyberlibel" was seen by many in the opposition and the international community as a politically motivated act by Duterte's government.  Time magazine designated her as one of the "guardians" named as Persons of the Year in 2018 for her battle against misinformation.  Referring to the Trump presidency, she said at the time, "“I think the biggest problem that we face right now is that the beacon of democracy, the one that stood up for both human rights and press freedom—the United States—now is very confused.  What are the values of the United States?”  More recently, she has called for technology companies to face greater regulation globally to curb disinformation on social media, as she criticized Facebook for being “biased against facts.” [12, 13, 14]

Donald Trump v. the First Amendment (New Left Bank Cafe, Dec 15, 2016)

Dmitry Muratov is the editor of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and a persistent critic of the Kremlin, government corruption and human rights abuses in Russia.  Since Novaya Gazeta was established by Muratov and colleagues in 1993, it has investigated corruption inside and outside Russia, as well as the long wars in Chechnya. Six of the paper’s reporters and contributors have been murdered for their work. Muratov said the prize belonged to them: “It’s for Igor Domnikov, it’s for Yuri Shchekochikhin, it’s for Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya, it’s for Nastya Baburova, it’s for Natalia Estemirova, for Stas Markelov,” he told Russian media. “It is that of those who died defending the right of people to freedom of speech.” [15]

Ten to be thankful for in 2021

POSTED NOVEMBER 25, 2021

1. The successful development of safe and effective vaccines against Covid-19.  The unprecedented global effort created vaccines in record time.

2. America's survival as a democracy after Trump's coup attempt and the Trump-fueled January 6 Insurrection.  Trump-appointed judges rejected Trump's bogus claims about the election; the military stayed non-partisan; the Capitol police defended lawmakers against the mob; and Vice-President Mike Pence rejected Trump's request to subvert the election.

3. Progressive Democrats advocating a just and humane foreign policy based on diplomacy and respect for human rights.  Among those standing up to pressure groups and jingoists:  Bernie Sanders, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, and Ro Khanna.

4. The climate change talks in Glasgow (COP-26) produced the strongest government commitments to fighting climate change in history, including an agreement between the world's two largest carbon emitters, China and the United States, to ramp up cooperation in the fight against climate change.

5. The Nobel Committee recognized the importance of journalism and its role in speaking truth to power.  The Committee awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists, Filipino-American Maria Ressa and Russian Dmitri Muratov "for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace ." 

6. Biden's Build Back Better agenda is halfway there.  The infrastructure portion has been signed into law, and the social and environmental spending portion is in the hands of the Senate.

7. Pope Francis.  In recent weeks, the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics advocated a stop to the execution of an intellectually disabled Missouri man, made an impassioned plea on behalf of migrants, called on lawmakers worldwide to overcome “the narrow confines” of partisan politics to quickly reach consensus on fighting climate change at COP-26, advised us to  ‘Take a look at yourself!’ before criticizing other people, and met with President Joe Biden, discussing climate change, Covid-19 and migration. [link below]

8. This past week, two of three juries got it right in cases related to race relations and white nationalism.  The killers of Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty, and the organizers of the Unite the Right rally were held liable for the violence in Charlottesville to the tune of $26 million.

9. The NBA continues to lead the way for sports leagues in its support for social justice.  A statement released after the Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal reads: "“Our thoughts are with the families of those whose lives were taken in this tragedy.  The right to peacefully protest is a bedrock of our democracy, and the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition remains committed to preserving that right for all. Any forms of vigilantism in our society are unacceptable."

10. Incumbent New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy became the first Democrat in 44 years to win re-election.  Murphy's first-term accomplishments include taxpayer-financed community college, tighter gun laws, expanded voting access, recreational marijuana, more state aid for schools, a fully funded public pension, a phased-in $15 an hour minimum wage and paid sick leave, and an increased tax on the most wealthy.

Sources: [1] France 24 [2] Human Rights Watch  [3] Democracy Now!  [4] Al Jazeera-1 [5] The Diplomat  [6] Al Jazeera - 2  [7] Informed Comment  [8] Democracy Now! [9] US News & World Report

Overheated rhetoric, broken promises: Russia, Ukraine, and NATO

POSTED JANUARY 21, 2021

In this past Wednesday's address regarding his first year in office, President Biden promised severe consequences to Russia were they to invade Ukraine.  Biden later clarified that he meant severe economic consequences, but still the Russophobes are braying in a replay of all that was wrong with the Cold War of the mid-twentieth century.  In those days, we called the Russophobes "anti-communists."  Their illogic held sway over American foreign policy for decades - principally in the name of the discredited domino theory.  They led us to abandon our democratic principles, to break with the right of national self-determination and to support any right-wing dictator who cried that communists were taking over his country.  In the ultimate irony, the more rabid of these anti-communists even persecuted fellow citizens for their political beliefs.

Russia's troop buildup on its border with Ukraine has Western nations concerned that Russia is about to invade Ukraine.  Does Putin really intend to invade Ukraine?  Nina Khrushcheva, former Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev's great-granddaughter and now a professor of international affairs at The New School thinks not.  In an interview with Democracy Now!, she says President Vladimir Putin is expanding Russia’s sphere of influence but will not invade Ukraine. “It’s not that he wants to take more territory. I think he wants to get heard.” 

That is also what senior Russian diplomats are saying in talks with NATO.  As Biden addressed the nation, Russia maintained a tough posture amid the tensions over its troop buildup near Ukraine, with a top diplomat warning that Moscow will accept nothing less but “watertight” U.S. guarantees precluding NATO’s expansion to Ukraine.  Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who led the Russian delegation at the security talks with the U.S. in Geneva last week, reaffirmed that Moscow has no intentions of invading Ukraine as the West fears, but said that receiving Western security guarantees is an imperative for Moscow.

Why does Putin "want to get heard"?  Look no further than the NATO expansion into former Soviet-bloc countries in eastern Europe.  Many Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, believe this is a betrayal of promises made during and immediately after the break-up of the Soviet Union. [link below left]  In 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined NATO, amid much debate within the organization and Russian opposition.  Another expansion came with the accession of seven Central and Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Albania and Croatia joined on 1 April 2009, prior to the 2009 Strasbourg–Kehl summit. The most recent member states to be added to NATO are Montenegro on 5 June 2017 and North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.  

NATO's overtures to Ukraine appear to be a step too far.  Ukraine was an actual part of the Soviet Union from the end of the Second World until the USSR's dissolution in 1991.  Ukraine maintained a close relationship with Russia for more than 20 years until a 2014 coup* resulted in the ousting of the elected president Viktor Yanukovych.  Moscow considered the overthrow of the Yanukovych government illegal.  Ensuing pro-Russian and pro-coup protests in eastern and southern Ukraine resulted in Russian troop invasions, the annexation of Crimea, and self-proclaimed proto-states of  Donetsk and Luhansk.

But this is not 2014, and the hysteria around the Russian troop buildup on their common border is misplaced and dangerous.  Russia is suspicious of a continuing expansion of NATO, a military organization pledged to go to war if one of its member nations is invaded.  Russia is also concerned about the continuing betrayal of the pledges of Western nations.  As Katrina vanden Heuvel  sums it up [link below right]:

"Gorbachev was promised after German reunification that NATO would not move one inch eastward. That is to be found in archives — National Security Archive, for example. And there is kind of a thought that Putin is asking for written material because he thinks that might protect him from Gorbachev’s fate. I don’t think so. But again I come back to, if there is creative diplomacy, I think you could see a resolution of this crisis. And to have war at this time is to add to the other wars we confront, climate, pandemics."

Consider how the United States would have reacted had Mexico joined the Warsaw Pact in the days of the Cold War.  That's the equivalent of what is happening here.  Ukraine shares a 1400 mile border with Russia.  To end the crisis, all NATO and the United States have to do is guarantee that the NATO military alliance will not venture onto Russia's doorstep.  

*In November 2013 protests began in response to President Viktor Yanukovych's refusal to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union.  In February 2014, a series of violent events involving protesters, riot police, and unknown shooters in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv culminated in the ousting of elected president Viktor Yanukovych, and the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.  Moscow considered this overthrow of the Yankovich government to be illegal.  In the aftermath of the overthrow - in February and March 2014, pro-Russian protests erupted in eastern Ukraine.  Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine.  Protests in eastern and southern Ukraine also provoked a Soviet invasion, resulting in the self-proclaimed proto-states Donetsk and Luhansk. 

Sources: Democracy Now! - 1,  PBS, Wikipedia

Biden's appallingly unimaginative and failing foreign policy

POSTED FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Occasionally, I remind myself that Joe Biden did, after all, vote for the Iraq War, our greatest foreign policy disaster since Vietnam. Biden along with 76 other Senators swallowed whole the neocon lies and gave George W. Bush the go-ahead for the invasion and all the subsequent horrors that ensued.

Biden's role in the ensuing months went far beyond that vote. In the wake of September 11th, Biden stood as a leading Democratic voice on foreign policy, chairing the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As President Bush attempted to sell the U.S. public on the war, Biden became one of the administration’s steadfast allies in this cause, backing claims about the supposed threat posed by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and insisting on the necessity of removing him from power. [1]

This past year provided ample evidence that Joe Biden has not changed much since that vote for the Iraq War. It is also obvious that he lacks the imagination and political courage to take US foreign policy in a new, more productive direction. Not only has Biden failed to move the needle on foreign policy, he has not yet undone some of the abhorrent actions of his abhorrent predecessor – policies that could have been undone with the stroke of a pen. [sidebar below]

Notes

*In his 2018 Senate run, Menendez received $576,000 for his campaign from the Israel lobby, the most by far of any Senate candidate.

**During his four years in office, Trump added to the misery of one of the most marginalized peoples on the planet and destroyed any hope for a two-state solution. Cutting off US aid, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, leaving the UN Human Rights Council after the Israeli massacre of Palestinian protesters, and unilaterally declaring that the Israeli settlements on Palestinian land were not illegal - all indicated that Trump was intent on ending the two-state solution. If there were any remaining doubt, the Trump-Kuchner "peace plan" put the last nail in the coffin of that long-standing American approach to Israel and Occupied Palestine.

***Americans for Peace Now (APN) is the sister organization of Shalom Achshav, Israel's preeminent peace movement.

Sources: [1] In These Times [2] Informed Comment [3] moveon.org [4] Common Dreams

Thinking about the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine

POSTED FEBRUARY 27, 2022

Russia has invaded Ukraine in the latest episode of "The Folly and Tragedy of War."  As with many conflicts, diplomacy could have prevented it.  People are now dying because of that collective failure to find a solution.  

Mainstream media coverage of the Russian troop buildup and the invasion has been devoid of context, primarily in its omission of the background of Russia's relationship with Ukraine, the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War, and US support for the Maidan coup in 2014.  Before getting to some thoughts on the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, I'll try to fill in the missing background.

Some background:

Russia and Ukraine

Ukraine's relationship with Russia stretches back centuries.  Most of Ukraine became part of the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762 -1796) as Russia wrested control of Ukraine from Poland.  In 1922, after the Russian Revolution, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established with Ukraine as one of its founding members. Except for the occupation of the country by Nazi Germany (1941-1943), Ukraine would remain part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.  In 1991,  Leonid Kravchuk, leader of the Soviet republic of Ukraine, declared independence from Moscow. In a referendum and presidential election, Ukrainians approve independence and elect Kravchuk president. 

Kravchuk was succeeded by Leonid Kuchma, who tried to balance Russian and Western interests, from 1994 until 2005.  Pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko served as president from 2005-2010.  It was during Yushchenko's term, in 2008, that NATO promised Ukraine future membership in the western military alliance.  In 2010, pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovich was elected and served as president of Ukraine until he was overthrown after the Euromaidan protests in February 2014.

The Maidan Coup and its Aftermath

Though the overthrow of Yanukovich involved people in the streets and is sometimes referred to as a democratic revolution, the Maidan Revolution was a coup. How much of it was spontaneous and how much directed, or inspired, by high-level actors in the West remains unclear.  The rush to seize Yanukovich’s residence was triggered by snipers who killed some 80 or more protesters and policemen on Maidan.   Initially blamed on Yanukovich himself, it is now acknowledged that the shooters may have been from the neofascist group Right Sector who were among the protesters on the square.  [sidebar below, The Nation] While many question Putin's motivation in claiming he is entering Ukraine to de-nazify it, neo-fascist groups remain prominent in the Ukraine. 

The Maidan Coup was swiftly followed in 2014 by Crimea's annexation by Russia after a March referendum showed overwhelming support in Crimea for joining the Russian Federation. In April 2014, pro-Russian separatists in the eastern region of Donbass declare independence. In May 2014, businessman Petro Poroshenko wins a presidential election in Ukraine promising a pro-Western agenda. 

2017: an association agreement between Ukraine and the EU opens markets for free trade of goods and services, and visa-free travel to the EU for Ukrainians.  

2019: former comic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy wins an April presidential election on promises to tackle corruption and end the war in eastern Ukraine.

Jan 2021: Zelenskiy appeals to President Biden to let Ukraine join NATO.  A summary of post-Cold-War NATO expansion into former Warsaw Pact countries is given below.

Feb 2021: Zelenskiy's government imposes sanctions on Viktor Medvedchuk, an opposition leader and the Kremlin's most prominent ally in Ukraine.

Spring 2021: Russia masses troops near Ukraine's borders in what it says are training exercises. 

Autumn 2021: Russia again begins massing troops near Ukraine.

World News Updates

POSTED APRIL 13, 2022

Iran Nuclear Talks 

The talks in Vienna to resurrect the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran "Nuclear Deal") have reached a make or break point.  Last week, Iran said it would return to the negotiating table only to “finalize” a renewed deal.  Both Iran and the United States say that a deal is close, but the deal has been "close" for many months. One delay after another have caused the parties to fail to reach final agreement.  The immediate holdup, according to experts familiar with the details of the talks, is a sanction that the Trump administration put out in 2019 against a branch of the Iranian armed forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that has designated them as a foreign terrorist organization.

*The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 led to additional hardships for the Cuban people as the American embargo on the island continued unabated.  During its existence, the Soviet Union had provided Cuba with large amounts of oil, food, and machinery tempering the effect of the embargo.  In the years following the Soviet Union's collapse, Cuba's gross domestic product shrunk 35%, imports and exports both fell over 80%, and many domestic industries shrank considerably.  The 1990's saw the exodus of tens of thousands of Cubans who fled the island by any means available.

World News Updates: The Americas

POSTED AUGUST 16, 2022

Ukraine is becoming Russia's Vietnam

POSTED SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

Russia invaded Ukraine after NATO and the United States refused to negotiate on Ukraine neutrality and instead escalated their arms shipments to the region.  As this preventable and senseless war entered its eighth month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization of military reservists in Russia.  The mobilization announcement initiated another round of antiwar protests in Russia, reminiscent of our own country's experience in the massive protests against the Vietnam War six decades ago.  Russian men are heading to the borders just as many in the US went to Canada to avoid fighting and killing in another unjustifiable war.

The government responded to the protests with a brutal police crackdown, mass arrests, and threats to send protesters to fight in Ukraine. Can anyone say "Chicago 1968"?  

Although the US antiwar movement of the '60's forced Lyndon Baines Johnson to withdraw from the 1968 election, the Vietnam War continued for another seven years under Presidents Nixon and Ford.  The mobilization order has sent Russia into turmoil, but it is not likely to mean the end of Putin's rein, and neither the mobilization nor the protests are going to change the war in Ukraine.  A negotiated settlement may have been pushed even further out of reach as Putin declared the annexation of four regions of eastern Ukraine. [link below]

Related: We have only two choices in Ukraine (June 19, 2022)

War in Ukraine enters its ninth month

POSTED OCTOBER 29, 2022

As the casualties and the devastation in the war in Ukraine mount, diplomacy appears to have taken a permanent exit from the stage.  A war that negotiations could have been prevented [Thinking about the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine - Feb 27] and that negotiations may have stopped after one month of fighting [link below] seems destined to continue into the foreseeable future because of the same failure to negotiate.  

As Russia continues its assault, there is no sign of any willingness on the part of Ukraine or the West to even consider a diplomatic solution, possibly the only thing that will stop the war [We have only two choices in Ukraine - June 19].  

• Last month, echoing President Biden's intention "to make Russia pay", Ukrainian President Zelensky addressed the United Nations asking the world to punish Russia's government "until the internationally recognized border [of Ukraine] is restored,” and “until the damages and losses of the war are fully compensated.” 

• Recently, NBC reported that a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers are planning a new military aid package for Ukraine that could be worth as much as $50 billion that would bring the total U.S. spending on Ukraine to a staggering $115 billion.

In the West, the voices calling for a negotiated end to the war are outnumbered by the media wogs and politicians calling for  more arms shipments.  In Russia, antiwar activists are being suppressed by the state.  Nonetheless. there are some points of sanity and light in the darkness of this war, and it may not be too late to put an end to the bloodshed by negotiation.  

Democracy Now!  gives these points of sanity and light a much-needed voice in the media:

• In a new report titled Promoting Stability or Fueling Conflict? The Impact of U.S. Arms Sales on National and Global Security, William Hartung of the Quincy Institute writes: Aid designed to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia has proceeded at the most rapid pace of any U.S. military assistance program since at least the peak of the Vietnam War. But the United States has failed to offer an accompanying diplomatic strategy aimed at ending the war before it evolves into a long, grinding conflict or escalates into a direct U.S.-Russian confrontation.” He notes that without a diplomatic strategy, pouring weapons in and hoping for the best is a very dangerous approach. [Democracy Now!, Oct 24]

• Asked by Amy Goodman what exactly the U.S. can do now to end the war, Noam Chomsky replied: "What the U.S. can do is stop acting to prevent negotiations. For a long time...the position of the United States has been to try to undermine possibilities of negotiations. They’re not alone in this. President Macron was indeed trying very hard to avoid the invasion...[but] Putin was dismissive at the very end, couple of days before the invasion. He just dismissed it with contempt.  [But] one thing the United States can do is...[to drop] the official position, that the war must go on to weaken Russia severely, meaning no negotiations. Would that open the way to negotiations, diplomacy? Can’t be sure. There’s only one way to find out. That’s to try. If you don’t try, of course it won’t happen." [Democracy Now!, Oct 10]

• In a wide ranging interview (link below) Medea Benjamin of Code Pink and Nicolas Davies, co-authors of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, discussed the early torpedoing of negotiations by the West, the continuing ruling out of negotiations by the Biden Administration, the improbability of Ukraine achieving its stated military objectives, and the need for negotiations, "the only way this war is going to end." Medea Benjamin pointed to successful negotiations such as the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, getting the grain out of Ukraine, and prisoner swaps as reason to hope that Russia would negotiate if the West would. 

Lula defeats Bolsonaro in Brazil's presidential runoff

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

In a victory for the people of Brazil and for Planet Earth, leftist presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s runoff election, ousting far-right President Jair Bolsonaro after just one term.  Lula garnered 60 million votes, the most in Brazilian history, but as of this writing, Bolsonaro has not conceded or congratulated him on his victory.  It was the latest in a string of victories for the Latin American Left, and it completed the political comeback of Lula, who had been kept from running in 2018 by trumped up charges later thrown out by the Brazilian Supreme Court. 

Addressing supporters in São Paulo on Sunday night, Lula said, "On this historic October 30th, the majority of Brazilians made it very clear that they want more and not less democracy, that they want more and not less social inclusion, that they want more and not less opportunity for all, they want more and not less respect and understanding among Brazilians. To summarize, they want more freedom, equality, fraternity in our country."

COP 27's successes, disappointments and the unfinished business of stopping global warming

POSTED NOVEMBER 25, 2022

After two weeks of deliberations, COP 27, the UN's annual climate summit, concluded last Friday.  The consensus of climate experts, success in establishing the "loss and damage" fund and disappointment at the failure to agree on phaseout of fossil fuels,  is summarized by Democracy Now!:

Rich countries agreed to establish a “loss and damage” fund at the close of the two-week-long U.N. climate summit in Egypt to help the Global South deal with the worst effects of the climate catastrophe. The fund is a major breakthrough for Global South countries, which have been demanding a similar mechanism for the past 30 years but faced opposition from the United States and other large polluting nations. Climate justice activist Asad Rehman says the fund is a “glimmer of hope” despite the summit ending with a massive expansion of carbon markets and delegates making “no progress” to phase out fossil fuels.

First, then, the successes.

• After 30 years of wrangling, wealthy nations agreed to establish a loss and damage fund, which is intended to reduce future harm, repair the harm that’s already been done, and compensate people for the harm that can no longer be repaired.  Unfortunately, no target  amount was agreed and no mechanism to ensure its implementation was put in place.

• More money is coming for clean energy like wind and solar.  "Among the steps likely to free up more cash is a plan to reform leading public lenders such as the World Bank so that they can take more risk and lend more money." (Reuters)  The U.S and Japan also announced a $20 billion deal to help Indonesia shift away from coal-fired plants to clean energy. 

• Issuing a clear call for commitments to be ambitious, have integrity and transparency, and be credible and fair, a major report drew a line in the sand between corporate greenwashing and credible commitments to net zero. The High-Level Expert Group’s report shared guiding principles and recommendations on how companies can deliver on their net zero commitments. (Environmental Defense Fund)

• Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was greeted by roaring crowds as he declared "Brazil is back" in the global climate fight, and vowed to host COP30 in 2025 in the Amazon region.  The leftist leader made the Egypt climate summit his first visit abroad since winning Brazil's presidential election last month against right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over mounting destruction of the rainforest.  Brazil also joined Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in launching a partnership to cooperate on forest preservation. The trilateral alliance is expected to press rich nations to pay for forest preservation. (Reuters)

• In addition, a critical element for the climate talks' success happened far away from the Red Sea locale.  As the COP entered its second week, China's President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met in Indonesia for the G20 where the heads of the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters agreed to restart cooperation on climate change after a months-long hiatus due to tensions over Taiwan. (Reuters)

Now, the disappointments and unfinished business

The planet, unfortunately, is on track to smash through the tipping point for climate change, 1.5 C temperature rise above pre-industrial temperatures. If global average temperatures rise above this level, the effects will be serious, synergistically re-enforcing, and irreversible.  To avoid exceeding this temperature, we have to basically halve our emissions by 2030 to be able to be at zero by 2050. We have got less than five to 10 years of the current carbon budget if we want to limit temperatures below 1.5. The latest synthesis report said we’ve only reduced our emissions in terms of the Nationally Determined Compositions (NDCs), the plans that governments have got in place, by 0.3%.   Another report from Accenture found that one-third (34%) of the world’s largest companies are now committed to net zero, but nearly all (93%) will fail to achieve their goals if they don’t at least double the pace of emissions reduction by 2030. (EDF)

• A key goal for COP27 was to strengthen the emission pledges made last year in Glasgow to keep global warming limited to 1.5ºC. No such commitments were made.  On the contrary, wording to phase "out" fossil fuels was replaced by wording to phase "down" fossil fuels.  Even as the tipping point approaches, the United States, the U.K., the European Union - prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine - are all planning massive expansions of oil, gas, and even coal.* (Democracy Now!)

• As noted above, there is no target for the amount of money to be placed in the loss and damage fund.  

• Although increased funding for adaptation (e.g., better flood defenses, seawalls, moving communities to higher ground and protecting road and rail links and other infrastructure from storms and inundations) was agreed, funding still lies well below the investments that will be needed soon. The total funding required for adaptation is at least USD 2.5 trillion by 2030.

Progress was made at COP27, but not enough for the planet to meet the 1.5 C temperature rise maximum target.   Unless there is a massive shift in political will, more commitment and more action, the consequences will be drastic.

COP 27 begins as the planet hurtles towards the climate change "tipping point" - November 8

Notes:

*The amount of CO2 produced when a fuel is burned is a function of the carbon content of the fuel. The heat content or the amount of energy produced when a fuel is burned is mainly determined by the carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) content of the fuel.  Natural gas produces the least CO2 per unit o energy delivered.  Propane produces approximately 20% more CO2 than natural gas; oil and gasoline, approximately 35% more; and coal 80-85% more. (AGI)

A right-wing resurgence? (Part I)

POSTED JANUARY 3, 2023

Last year, as the Left continued to pile up electoral victories across Latin America, the Right made significant gains across Europe.  And at year-end, topping off the year for the Right, Israel put in power the most far-right, extremist government in its history.  What should we make of these developments?  Is there really any threat of fascism becoming "a thing" again?  Does this portend anything for the United States where one of the two major political parties has given up all pretense of a commitment to democracy?

In this post, we'll examine what happened and why in the 2022 elections in Israel, Italy, and France.  In a future post, we'll look at what this might mean for the US policies and the 2024 elections.

Israel.  [1], [2]

On Thursday December 29, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial facing a corruption indictment, took the oath of office to again serve as prime minister, this time leading the most far-right and religiously conservative coalition in the country's history.  The parallels of the situation of the indicted right-wing leader with that of hopefully-soon-to-be-indicted Donald Trump should give us all pause. 

Some ministry appointments were only possible because of a pair of laws passed by the Knesset  - one enabling Aryeh Deri of Shas to serve as minister of the interior despite his recent tax fraud conviction and another allowing Religious Zionism's Bezalel Smotrich to take on multiple posts.  "These laws... dovetail with Netanyahu's own attempt to escape potential liability for his long-running corruption/bribery trial," wrote Mondoweiss' Jonathan Ofir.

Netanyahu's coalition features "a mix of an ultra-Orthodox and right-wing bloc," with some of the most "right-wing politicians we've seen," Al Jazeera's Sara Khairat reported from West Jerusalem, as protesters gathered. "They were on the fringes of politics and now here they are on the main stage."  

Palestinians, of course, have the most to worry about. 

Among the priorities of the new government will be the further expansion of the illegal settlements on Palestinian lands.

Israeli human rights advocacy groups are sounding the alarm, calling the coalition "disastrous for human rights between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea...Previous Israeli governments have already entrenched military control over millions of Palestinians, severely harmed their human rights, and made the possibility of a just future more difficult...The senior figures in this new government have made it clear that they intend to exacerbate this trend and advance dangerous measures."

The organizations—including Adalah, B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Peace Now, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI)—warned that "the occupation and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories have made Jewish supremacy the de facto law of the land and the new government seeks to adopt this into their official policy."

Since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin [sidebar below], Israel has been on a downwards Palestinian human rights spiral so the election of this far-right coalition comes as no surprise.  

What is a surprise is what may happen to the rights of the Israeli LGBTQ community due to the ultra-orthodox component of the coalition.  Three hundred former Israeli soldiers have written a letter to their new government pleading with it not to inflict harm on the LGBTQ community. At the same time, two prominent rabbis close to the new government launched an attack on the Knesset members who voted in Amir Ohana, who is gay, as the speaker of parliament. 

Netanyahu has allegedly agreed with the extremist Religious Zionism and Jewish Power blocs to change anti-discrimination laws in Israel to allow Jewish fundamentalist businesses and professionals not to serve gay people or groups of women and men who are not practicing gender segregation.  Netanyahu denies that he will permit such discrimination, but who knows?

A right-wing resurgence? (Part II - Brazil's "January 6" Moment and the International Far-Right)

POSTED JANUARY 9, 2023

World News Updates

POSTED JANUARY 27, 2023

HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Ethiopia

The fragile Ethiopian ceasefire negotiated in November to end a two-year civil war is holding.  Last week, large numbers of Eritrean troops left the town of Shire in Ethiopia's Tigray region where they fought in support of government forces during a two-year civil war.  The Eritrean forces' continuing presence in Tigray, despite a November ceasefire agreement between Ethiopia's government and Tigray regional forces that requires the withdrawal of foreign soldiers, is seen as a key obstacle to a lasting peace.  The Tigray war is believed to have resulted in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of deaths and forced millions to flee their homes.

Previous related World News Update July 2022 ("Ethiopia")

Israel/Occupied Palestine

The Israeli military is continuing its deadly operations in the West Bank.  Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad exchanged rockets on Friday following the Israel's single deadliest raid on the West Bank in two decades.  The Thursday raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank killed ten Palestinians, including an elderly woman.  The Palestinian death toll so far in 2023 is now at least 30.  A spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry said the situation on the ground was very difficult, with injured people continuously reaching hospitals, as it accused Israeli forces of obstructing ambulances and medics.  “There is an invasion that is unprecedented … in terms of how large it is and the number of injuries,” Wissam Baker, head of Jenin public hospital.  

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Egypt, Israel and the West Bank this weekend as the U.S. expressed alarm about escalating violence.  The trip, the second by a senior U.S. national security official this month, had already been expected to be fraught with tension over disagreements between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly on the Palestinian conflict. 

Previous related Middle East Update September 2022 ("Biden's Middle East Trip")

Related post "Gaza blockade reaches 15 years" June 2022

Haiti

Angry demonstrators roared through the streets of Haiti’s capital, blocking roads and shooting guns into the air to protest a slew of killings of police officers by Haitian gangs over the last week.  Gang violence has been on the rise across Port-au-Prince in recent months, after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise worsened widespread political instability and created a power vacuum.  

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who took up the post just weeks after Moise’s 2021 killing and faces a crisis of legitimacy has appealed for an international armed force to be deployed to Haiti to restore order, but that set off new protests, with many Haitians, including civil society leaders, rejecting the prospect of foreign intervention.

Previous related World News Update: The Americas  August 2022 (Haiti)

Iran

Tehran was again the scene of anti-government rallies on Thursday night as Iran’s ruling clerics intensify their crackdown against opposition voices and ongoing nationwide protests.  Following a widespread power outage in Parand, southwest of Tehran, residents came to the streets and chanted slogans against the government. People in several nerigborhoods in Tehran itself, including Ponak, Bagh-e-Faiz, Tehran Pars and Bagheri town, also staged protests overnight.  At least 100 protesters are currently at risk of “execution, death penalty charges or sentences,” according to one rights group.  Around 20 people have been handed capital punishment sentences in connection with the protests. Four have been executed so far amid international outrage.

Previous related post: "What's going on in Iran?" October 2022

Nice speech, Joe...now, if you could change your abhorrent foreign policies, you may deserve a second term 

POSTED FEBRUARY 8, 2023

In what some have called the kickoff to his 2024 presidential campaign, President Biden delivered a State of the Union in which he focused on the economy, touting the economic achievements since he came into office and calling for a bipartisan effort to rebuild the middle class, to "finish the job".  Little mention was made of foreign policy and it was probably just as well.  President Biden's foreign policy continues to disappoint.  Instead of an imaginative diplomacy-oriented approach, Biden has continued the decades-old blunders of the foreign policy establishment and many of Trump's abhorrent policies, which now have become Joe's abhorrent policies.  

A Trump-lite foreign policy is unacceptable (June 3, 2021)

(1) Biden and NATO could have prevented Russia's invasion of Ukraine with diplomacy.  Instead they chose confrontation.  The war in Ukraine is is approaching the one-year mark and many observers consider it "unwinnable" by either side.  Believe it or not, here is one war that may have been prevented had Trump been president.  With Trump being more willing to negotiate with Putin on NATO's expansion into Russia's sphere of influence, the war may have been prevented.

Thinking about the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine (WITW, February 27): "The crisis stems directly from NATO's expansion into eastern Europe and could have been stopped by NATO's written guarantee that it would not expand to Ukraine, which shares a 1400 mile border with Russia.  The Biden Administration and NATO offered no such guarantee...The Russian government feels threatened by the NATO military alliance’s expansion to and significant military presence in  eastern Europe. This leads Russia to be hyper-aware of NATO's influence in Ukraine and other nations it views as within its sphere of influence."

(2) The Iran Nuclear Agreement is dead.  

• President Obama's signature foreign policy achievement - an agreement that would prevent Iran from ever building a nuclear weapon - remains "dead" with no hope of resurrection.  

• One of Code Pink's "10 Foreign Policy Fiascos Biden Can Fix on Day One", the Biden Administration's utter failure to end the Trump-sanctions and restore the JCPOA ranks near the top of the list of the President's foreign policies blunders.  It earns this #2 position because it would have been so easy to accomplish in the early days of the Administration.

Code Pink: "After reneging on the JCPOA, Trump slapped draconian sanctions on Iran, brought us to the brink of war by killing its top general...Biden must act decisively to restore mutual trust: immediately rejoin the JCPOA, lift the sanctions, and stop blocking the $5 billion IMF loan that Iran desperately needs to deal with the COVID crisis." 

What in the World? (Sep 10, 2021): "If the talks collapse, Biden and [Secretary of State] Blinken will only have themselves to blame.  In December, after Biden's victory but before the Iranian moderates' defeat, Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif stated that Iran would come back into full compliance with its nuclear deal immediately after the incoming Biden administration in the US lifted all the illegal sanctions imposed by Donald Trump.  Biden could have done this on Day One of his administration.  He did not do so - apparently choosing to use the sanctions as bargaining chips instead."  

(3) Biden has made no effort to curtail the out of control military budget.  

• Largely unnoticed and unremarked, Congress passed the largest military budget in US history in early December.  Despite the war in Ukraine being used as the justification for the massive surge in military spending, the central focus of the bill is US preparations for conflict with China.  

• For the first time in US history, the United States is directly arming Taiwan, providing $10 billion in arms over 10 years. The direct arming of Taiwan strikes yet another major blow at the long-standing one-China policy and yet another step towards a 21st century Cold War with China.

Biden's nuclear flip-flop, the South China Sea, and the coming Cold War (Aug 12, 2021)

(4) Biden has taken a business as usual approach to Israel as it imposes an apartheid regime on Palestinians, violates their human rights, kills them, and expands illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land.  

• Not only has the Administration made no effort to advance the two-state solution, Biden welcomed the incoming Netanyahu ("my friend for decades") administration.  The most far-right government in Israeli history is committed to further violations of Palestinians human rights and expansion of the illegal squatter settlements. 

• The Administration did not take any action for the May murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces operating in the West Bank city of Jenin.  In fact the Administration initially helped Israel whitewash the killing in spite of the evidence.  

• 2022 was the deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians in nearly two decades as well as the 15th anniversary of the devastating Gaza Blockade.  Israel's raids on the Jenin refugee camp continued unabated in the new year with at least 30 Palestinians killed in January.  

(5) Biden has continued the traditional US policy of 'disdain' for Latin America, even keeping in place many of  Trump's policies.  

Cuba

• The Cuban embargo, which has done so much harm to the Cuban people, continues.  Last November, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn the American economic embargo of Cuba for the 30th year, with the Biden administration continuing former President Donald Trump’s opposition and refusing to return to the Obama administration’s 2016 abstention.  The vote in the 193-member General Assembly was 185 countries supporting the condemnation and just 2 countries, the United States and Israel, opposing it.

• Biden has entered his third year in office and still hasn’t used his executive power to undo many of Trump’s harmful policies towards Cuba, including removing Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list - a sop thrown to South Florida anti-Castro Cubans after he was defeated in November. Over 100 lawyers signed a letter urging Biden to lift Cuba's SSOT designation, as there is no legal justification. In addition, all 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations demanded Cuba be removed from the state sponsors of terrorism list at the CELAC Heads of State Summit in Buenos Aires

Venezuela

• Unlike the United Nations, the European Union and the vast majority of countries of the world, the United States has not yet recognized Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.  Four years ago after Maduro's election, the leader of the right-wing Venezuelan opposition, US-supported Juan Guaidó, declared himself President.  The coup attempt went nowhere, and the US imposed harsh sanctions on Venezuela.  Last month, opposition lawmakers voted Guaidó out of power, and entered into discussions with the Maduro Administration.  

• Biden has slightly lessened, but not totally removed, the economic sanctions on Venezuela.  Although the framework for the US sanctions was created by an Obama executive order in 2015, they were significantly increased by the Trump Administration in 2017 and again during the failed coup attempt by Juan Guaidó in 2019.  The sanctions, most of which remain in place, cost an estimated 40,000 Venezuelan lives in the 2017-2018 time period alone - and this was before the "maximum pressure" sanctions of 2019 intended to overthrow Maduro and before the pandemic.  The US sanctions are illegal under the Organization of American States’ Charter and also violate US law.

Refugees and asylum seekers

• In January, Biden announced that the United States will start to block migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba from applying for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on Biden to invest more in Latin America and to end what he describes as decades of, quote, “disdain” by the U.S. towards the region and, instead, to start a new stage of respect and mutual aid, help, and assistance.

• The Biden administration has continued Title 42, a policy implemented in March 2020 by order of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to protect public health during the pandemic. More than 1 million migrants seeking to apply for asylum in the United States were expelled to their home countries or Mexico in fiscal 2022.  Last week, the Biden administration declared the Covid-19 national and public health emergencies would come to an end on May 11. And though it noted in a statement to Congress that Title 42 would end then too, the administration walked back that assertion — and refused to explain why, prompting confusion and furor among immigration groups.