Daily Archives: October 22, 2020

2020-10-22: News Headlines

MEE correspondent (2020-10-22). Iranian press review: Lifting of UN arms embargo celebrated by reformists. middleeasteye.net Iranian press review: Lifting of UN arms embargo celebrated by reformists | Meanwhile, hardline lawmakers increase pressure on President Hassan Rouhani, and Iranians shocked by suicide of young student | Thu, 10/22/2020 – 11: 11 | A missile being fired out to sea from a mobile launch vehicle, southern coast of Iran, 18 June 2018 (AFP/HO/Iranian Army Office) | Political factions divi…

Sam Bahour (2020-10-22). Understanding American Jewish Philanthropy. counterpunch.org Throughout history, the American Jewish community has had a lot to be rightfully proud of. Their dedication to Jewish communal life, their commitment to education, their organizing and lobbying skills, and their sustained investment in Jewish-focused media outlets, are just a few. Much of the individual and institutional successes across a myriad of domains can

Katharine Early (2020-10-22). Transforming Our Food Systems is the Only Way to Nourish the World. counterpunch.org The way we produce our food is under pressure like never before. And with the climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic now posing the greatest challenges to nourishing the expanding global population, our precious and fragile food system is fast reaching breaking point. So do we intensify the current system of farming or is there

The Canary (2020-10-22). Thailand cancels state of emergency in bid to calm pro-democracy protests. thecanary.co Thailand's government has cancelled a state of emergency it declared last week for Bangkok in a gesture offered by the embattled prime minister to cool massive student-led protests seeking democracy reforms.The decree had banned public gatherings of more than four people and allowed censorship of the media, among other provisions. It was challenged in court by an opposition party and a group of university students.The revocation of the emergency decree declared that the situation had been mitigated and could now be dealt with by existing laws.Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has faced calls to step down (Governme…

Paul Antonopoulos (2020-10-22). Will Azerbaijani Gas Compete with Russia in Southern Europe? globalresearch.ca The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will become operational in November and will deliver Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian fields to countries in southern Europe. This gives Russia a new competitor in the European energy market. This would have raised questions in …

Peter Koenig (2020-10-22). The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic: The Real Danger is "Agenda ID2020" globalresearch.ca WHO has most likely received orders from "above", from those people who also manage Trump and the "leaders" (sic) of the EU, European Union. The final decision to go ahead NOW with COVID-19 pandemic, was taken in January 2020 at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos – behind very much closed doors.

Stephen Lendman (2020-10-22). Trump Regime Maximum Pressure on Iran a Crime Against Humanity. globalresearch.ca On Sunday, the UN arms embargo on Iran its ruling authorities voluntarily accepted ended. | Iran is now once again free to buy and sell conventional arms — what many other countries do unrestrained. | Key to understand is that the Islamic …

Abayomi Azikiwe (2020-10-22). Voter Suppression and Right-wing Threats Fail to Keep Millions Away from the Polls. globalresearch.ca Efforts aimed at thwarting the fundamental bourgeois democratic rights of the majority of people in the United States are well underway. | President Donald J. Trump has said repeatedly that mail-in voting and early opportunities to cast ballots are inherently fraudulent …

Fight Back (2020-10-22). Tallahassee: Candidate from for Superintendent of Leon County Schools. fightbacknews.org Tallahassee, FL – On Saturday, October 10, the Progressive Parent Teacher Student Alliance (PPTSA), a subcommittee of Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC) hosted an online candidate forum for Superintendent of Leon County Schools, with the aim of giving the viewing public an opportunity to learn where the candidates stand in relation to the progressive platform put forth by TCAC. | The event was hosted on Zoom and broadcast on Facebook Live. Although TCAC put on the forum, moderator Dawn Orocio opened the event by clarifying, "TCAC does not endorse candidates but we encourage candidates to endorse our p…

ACU (2020-10-22). Video: The Moment for Change Is Now. Medical Doctors Speak Out. globalresearch.ca On October 10, 2020, ACU2020.org announced the world doctors' alliance in Berlin, Germany. | It is an alliance of medical doctors, scientists and peace activists who together claim that this COVID-19 affair is just not true. | And as medical doctors, it …

Pepe Escobar (2020-10-22). Russia and the EU: "Business as Usual" Is Over. globalresearch.ca This article was originally published on Sergey Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, is the world's foremost diplomat. The son of an Armenian father and a Russian mother, he's just on another level altogether. Here, once again, we …

Susan Price (2020-10-22). Indonesia: New rebels, new movement, new hope. greenleft.org.au Since Indonesia's parliament secretly signed the Omnibus Job Creation bill into law, more than 100,000 people have protested across the country, writes Wagimanto. This movement is involving scores of civil society, labour, student and political groups and masses of young people fed up with President Joko Widodo's betrayal of hope.

Staff (2020-10-21). "Break 'Em Up": As DOJ Targets Google, Zephyr Teachout Urges Breakup of More Big Tech Monopolies. democracynow.org The Department of Justice and 11 states have filed a major antitrust lawsuit against Google in a move that could lead to the breakup of the company's business and holds major implications for other tech giants. The lawsuit accuses Google of engaging in illegal practices to maintain a monopoly on the search market, which fuels its dominance in online advertising. Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout, who has long advocated for breaking up Big Tech monopolies, says it's "an incredibly important lawsuit" that should be the start of a wave of legal and legislative action to tackle "this incredible democratic crisis…

Staff (2020-10-21). Ex-Mexican Military Head Arrested in U.S. on Drug Charges. Should He Be Tried for Massacres, Too? democracynow.org We speak with legendary Mexican investigative journalist Anabel Hernández about a case that has sent shockwaves throughout Mexico: the U.S. arrest of Mexico's former defense secretary for allegedly working with a major drug cartel while heading Mexico's military. General Salvador Cienfuegos served as secretary of defense from 2012 to 2018 in the former government of President Enrique Peña Nieto and has long been accused of human rights abuses, including refusing to allow investigators to interview soldiers who may have been involved in the 2014 disappearance and likely massacre of 43 students from a teachers' col…

WSWS (2020-10-21). As teachers fight deadly return to school, the DSA runs to the defense of the unions and Democrats. wsws.org A recent article in Jacobin magazine makes it clear the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is trying to prevent educators from drawing the necessary conclusion that the fight against unsafe school openings must be organized independently of and in opposition to the unions and the Democratic Party.

Peoples Dispatch (2020-10-21). 8,000 Colombians march to Bogotá demanding to meet with president Duque. peoplesdispatch.org Nearly 8,000 Indigenous and Afro-descendant people, peasants, students and women from southwestern Colombia arrived in Bogotá on October 18 to meet President Iván Duque. They are still waiting for a response. Meanwhile, four indigenous leaders were killed in other parts of the country as mobilizations took place in Bogotá.

Dr. Jack Rasmus (2020-10-21). The 2020 Great Recession 2.0: The 'On Again, Off Again' U.S. Fiscal Stimulus Negotiations. globalresearch.ca It's been more than three months since the March-April economic rescue package, called the Cares Act, expired at the end of July. Since then both political parties, Republican and Democrat, have played a 'hot potato' bargaining game: i.e. "here's my …

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida (2020-10-21). Brazil Chooses US as Its Partner in 5G Technology, Refusing China. globalresearch.ca After months of controversy and discussions, Brazil has chosen to prioritize the US as a partner in 5G technology. The decision contradicts the opinion of the greatest experts on the subject, who see the choice as Brazil's alignment to Washington …

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida (2020-10-21). Bolivia: Arce's Victory Does Not Represent a Return to Morales' National Project. globalresearch.ca The great victory of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) — Evo Morales' party — in Bolivia opens the way for a new era of change in the South American country. The positions on the Bolivian national political scene are currently …

Prof. Marjorie Cohn (2020-10-21). Trump Administration Is Paying Big Pharma Billions in Rush for Vaccine. globalresearch.ca Desperate to distract the national discourse from his criminal mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump is promising that a vaccine will be available before Election Day. His vaccine campaign is named "Operation Warp Speed" and there is a real …

MEE correspondent (2020-10-21). European MPs tell Egypt's Sisi to release prisoners of conscience. middleeasteye.net European MPs tell Egypt's Sisi to release prisoners of conscience | Egyptian president facing mounting calls by lawmakers from the US and Europe to end his government's rights violations | Wed, 10/21/2020 – 11: 17 | Egypt's President Sisi has been accused by international rights groups of presiding over the country's worst crackdown on human rights in its modern history (AFP/file photo)…

Global Research News (2020-10-21). Selected Articles: The 2020 Great Recession 2.0. globalresearch.ca By Both political parties have played a 'hot potato' bargaining game: i.e. "here's my offer, the ball's in your …

Paul Antonopoulos (2020-10-21). US Failed to Turn the Philippines Against China Despite Maritime Demarcation Issues. globalresearch.ca Cooperation between China and the Philippines could easily be hindered by U.S. interference in territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Washington wants to exploit Chinese-Filipino contentions in their demarcation claims over the South China Sea in an attempt to …

Philip Giraldi (2020-10-21). Internet Resources Become Weaponized. globalresearch.ca The current electoral campaign differs from that of 2016 in that the media, both conventional and online, has realized its power and has been openly playing a major role in what might well prove to be a victory across the …

Stephen Lendman (2020-10-21). Freedom Triumphs Over Fascism in Bolivia if It Sticks. globalresearch.ca In November, US orchestrated fascism replaced freedom in Bolivia. | President Evo Morales' legitimate reelection was overturned by a cadre of US recruited traitors. | Generals and others were bribed to betray their country for the right price. | Fascism tied to US …

Staff (2020-10-21). Senate Democrats Can Still Block Barrett Confirmation by Slowing Down Process. truthout.org Fordham law professor Zephyr Teachout says Senate Democrats can still block the confirmation of President Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, if they use every possible procedural method available to them to slow and frustrate the process. "A Barrett confirmation is a catastrophe," Teachout says. "A 6-3 majority on the court is basically a bomb coming at what is left of our protections against corruption in politics, against corporate money, against what is left of the Voting Righ…

Justinas Baltrusaitis (2020-10-21). Critical Increase in the National Debt Triggered by Covid Crisis. globalresearch.ca The debt-to-GDP ratio has emerged as a vital metric for determining economic prospects for a given country. Most countries usually strive to put in place measures to keep their ratio as low as possible. | Data presented by

Dean Baker (2020-10-21). Government-Granted Patent Monopolies Gave Purdue Pharma Incentives to Push Opiods. cepr.net Maybe this is too obvious a point, but I don't see it mentioned in news coverage of the company's settlement. If we could ever have a serious debate on the relative merits of government-granted patent monopolies compared with direct upfront funding, as we did with Moderna's research on a coronavirus vaccine, the incentive that patents …

Jon Miltimore (2020-10-21). Masks Aren't Helpful in Beating COVID-19: Europe's Top Health Officials. globalresearch.ca This article was first crossposted in August. | Denmark boasts one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world. As of August 4, the Danes have suffered 616 COVID-19 deaths, That's less

John C. A. Manley (2020-10-21). Does this CDC Report Actually Show that Mask Wearers Are 17x More Likely to Get COVID-19? globalresearch.ca I'm afraid I'm going to be the fact-checking party, again. I must call foul on those claiming that a recent I hate face masks, but I …

WSWS (2020-10-21). Northern Virginia Community College faculty and staff speak out about loss of work due to budget crisis. wsws.org Professors and student workers in the Virginia Community College System spoke to the IYSSE about their loss of work related to the pandemic…

Black Alliance for Peace (2020-10-21). Candidate Accountability: Demand a Commitment to a Peace and Human Rights Agenda. globalresearch.ca The novel coronavirus pandemic both revealed and accelerated the irreversible crisis of the global capitalist system and, consequently, the domestic conditions shaping the 2020 U.S. presidential election and every level of U.S. governance. | The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) asserts …

Megan Sherman (2020-10-21). All Power to the Imagination: Remembering John Lennon. globalresearch.ca In 1971, early one morning on a Steinway piano on his resplendent Berkshire estate, John Lennon reflected on the seismic uprising of a peaceful counterculture, of united students and workers, which could have scared a thousand kings by reviving the …

Robert Wheeler (2020-10-21). Operation Moonshot: UK Says Weekly COVID Tests Could Offer "Passport to Freedom" globalresearch.ca Those who have watched the police state grow over decades have known that as the UK goes, so does the rest of the Western world. | Unfortunately, the UK population the testing grounds for intrusive and totalitarian policies that will be …

Dr. Binoy Kampmark (2020-10-21). Follow the Money: Banking, Criminality and the US FinCEN Files. globalresearch.ca It was all a fitting reminder of Bertolt Brecht's remark that bank robbery lies in the province of amateurs. The real professionals of plunder establish banks. Last month, the labours of Buzzfeed and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed …

Telesur (2020-10-21). Video: Mike Pompeo About CIA: We Lied, We Cheated, We Stole. globalresearch.ca This video was first published in April 2019. | * | Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc….

Steven Sahiounie (2020-10-21). Iran Now Free to Buy and Sell Weapons Legally. globalresearch.ca The UN Security Council

WSWS (2020-10-21). Washtenaw County issues stay-at-home order at University of Michigan campus in the wake of campus COVID outbreak. wsws.org The rise in cases at the University of Michigan follows the shutdown of the graduate student strike last month, which was waged in opposition to the university's unsafe reopening policy.

Julia Conley, staff writer (2020-10-21). Pope Francis Signals 'Historic' Shift for Catholic Church, Publicly Supporting Civil Unions for Same-Sex Couples. commondreams.org Catholic leaders and observers of the Vatican marked "a major step forward" for the Catholic Church Wednesday after Pope Francis indicated his support for civil unions for same-sex couples, breaking with the church's long-held official teachings. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Dr. John P.A. Ioannidis (2020-10-21). Infection Fatality Rate of COVID-19 Inferred from Seroprevalence Data. globalresearch.ca Abstract | Objective: To estimate the infection fatality rate of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from seroprevalence data. | Methods: I searched PubMed and preprint servers for COVID-19 seroprevalence studies with a sample size ‚â• 500 as of 9 September, 2020. I also …

Andrew Korybko (2020-10-20). The Expiry of The Iranian Arms Embargo. globalresearch.ca The 13-year-long anti-Iranian arms embargo expired on the 18th of October, which creates opportunities for the Islamic Republic to strengthen its national defense capabilities and cultivate even deeper relations with its top strategic partners such as China and Russia, possibly …

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-10-20). Video: The "Smoking Guns" of a Manufactured Pandemic. globalresearch.ca "Closing down the Global Economy as a means to combating the Killer Virus. That's what they want us to believe. If the public had been informed that Covid-19 is "similar to Influenza", the fear campaign would have fallen flat…"

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-10-20). America's "Corona 2020 Great Depression": US Federal Budget Deficit Hits $3.1 Trillion. globalresearch.ca On March 11, the governments of 193 member states were ordered to close down their national economies as a means to combating V-The Virus. | Corporate bankruptcies, mass unemployment and poverty: The closure of the planet's real economy has triggered a …

Robert Hunziker (2020-10-20). Large-Scale Permafrost Thawing. dissidentvoice.org Ice is seen here under permafrost soil in Spitzbergen, the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. (SeppFriedhuber/Getty Images) Twenty-five percent (25%) of the Northern Hemisphere is permafrost. By all appearances, it is melting well beyond natural background rates, in fact, substantially! Making matters much, much worse, new research has …

Ana Santoyo (2020-10-20). CPS pushes to reopen: Parent solidarity says, 'Keep children, teachers and administrators safe!'. liberationnews.org The following is re-posted from Reds in Ed website. The unelected school board of Chicago Public Schools and mayor of our city, at every stage of the pandemic, have pushed for reopening and in-person learning despite unsafe conditions in the midst of a global pandemic. On October 15, a record setting day with 4,015 new …

Sondoss Al Assad (2020-10-20). Bahrain's Mounting Anger over the Monarchy's Official Formalization of Ties with Tel Aviv. thealtworld.com A joint delegation, led by US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, headed to Manama on Sunday, hoping to ink a communique that officially bolster the US-brokered normalization deal and establish the embassies in the two capitals. | According to the US Treasury, the trip focused on inking memorandums of understanding that cover trade, aviation services, telecommunications, finance as well as economic cooperation, tourism, science and technology. | Public Outrage: | Streams of citizens, from different backgrounds and affiliations, flood the streets across Bahrain in huge peaceful push to vehemently denounce the visit.

Areeb Ullah (2020-10-20). Qatar: Domestic workers still face abuse despite protection laws. middleeasteye.net Qatar: Domestic workers still face abuse despite protection laws | Research by Amnesty International reveals that Qatar has failed to implement its own laws that limit working hours and mandate paid holidays | Tue, 10/20/2020 – 11: 42 | Amnesty believes a lack of inspection mechanisms and Qatar's kafala system contribute to employers having excessive powers over workers (Reuters/file photo)
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RT (2020-10-20). Trauma surgeons decry UNDERREPORTING of US gun violence & cherry-picking media coverage in damning new report. rt.com A new study led by trauma surgeons has decried US media coverage of gun violence, claiming that the disproportionate emphasis placed on fatal and multiple shootings negatively impacts survivors and broader public policy. | The researchers fear a skewed perspective on gun violence dominates the media narrative in the US and paints a somewhat unrealistic picture of the everyday tragedies which occur, influencing public policy and perception to the detriment of survivors and their families. | "I am particularly saddened when I find there was no media reporting on the shootings that have caused injury and death to…

RT (2020-10-20). France will dissolve pro-Hamas Muslim group, as Islamist crackdown continues — Macron. rt.com French President Emmanuel Macron has said that a Hamas-linked Muslim group connected with the beheading of a teacher in Paris will be disbanded. Macron also promised to take "concrete actions" against radical Islamist terrorism. | "We know what needs to be done," the president told reporters in Paris on Tuesday, announcing that a Muslim group connected to Palestinian Hamas militants would be broken up. The group is believed to be linked to the beheading of history teacher Samuel Paty by a teenage Chechen refugee last week. Prior to the killing, Paty had shown his class a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed. | A…

Global Research News (2020-10-20). Selected Articles: How the Global Media Lost Its Way. globalresearch.ca By Corporate bankruptcies, mass unemployment and poverty: The closure of the planet's real economy ha…