Daily Archives: November 5, 2020

2020-11-05: News Headlines

MEE staff (2020-11-05). Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras passes 100 days on hunger strike. middleeasteye.net Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras passes 100 days on hunger strike | Taghreed, Akhras's wife, says her husband has been in and out of a coma as his health deteriorates | Thu, 11/05/2020 – 12: 01 | Palestinians carry placards demanding the release of administrative detainee in Israeli custody Maher al-Akhras during a demonstration Hebron, 3 November (AFP) | Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras is on the "ver…

Leonid Savin (2020-11-05). Who Is Behind The Milk Tea Alliance? thealtworld.com The Economist writes disapprovingly that the King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn, wants to restore an absolute monarchy. The article

Akram Al-Waara (2020-11-05). Israel makes 41 Palestinian children homeless as world watches US election. middleeasteye.net Israel makes 41 Palestinian children homeless as world watches US election | Eleven families left searching for shelter after Israeli forces destroyed their village in the Jordan Valley | Thu, 11/05/2020 – 10: 35 | Palestinian children playing next to their demolished home in the Bedouin village of Khirbet Humsa, 4 November (MEE/Akram el-Waara) | On the evening of Wednesday 4 November, a cold, b…

Eds. (2020-11-05). Climate Crisis and Imperialism: The Unfair Demonization of the East. mronline.org Last week in the presidential debate, Donald Trump said "Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia. Look at India. It's filthy. The air is filthy," when asked about his decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Danny Haiphong (2020-11-05). American exceptionalism won't save the U.S. Empire from itself, or stop China's rise. mronline.org China's rise reflects a bourgeoning global movement away from U.S. imperialism and toward self-determination.

Vijay Prashad (2020-11-05). U.S. is Doing Its Best to Lock Out China From Latin America and the Caribbean. counterpunch.org On August 20, 2018, El Salvador's leftist president Salvador Sánchez Cerén announced on national television that El Salvador would break its ties with Taiwan and recognize the People's Republic of China. This was in accord with international law, said Sánchez Cerén, and it would bring "great benefits for our country."

MEE correspondent (2020-11-05). Iranian press review: Lockdowns lead to marriages. middleeasteye.net Iranian press review: Lockdowns lead to marriages | Meanwhile, an aide to the supreme leader denies the Holocaust, widespread abuse reported in private rehab centres, and a top athlete practices in a field | Thu, 11/05/2020 – 14: 29 | A couple walks past a mural painted on the outer walls of the former US embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran on 20 September 2020 (AFP) | Lockdowns l…

_____ (2020-11-05). How a Wise Decoupling May Be a Good Thing for Both China and the West. strategic-culture.org Imagine a bird was led to believe that it was a fish. For a while it might get used to living under water, but it wouldn't take long before it could sense that something was wrong. If the bird didn't realize that its nature is to fly and breath the air in time, then its fate would be bleak indeed. | Since the world was taken off the gold reserve system way back in 1971, a new age of "post-industrialism" was unleashed onto a globalized world. Humanity was given a new type of system which presumed that both our nature and the cause of value itself were located in the act of consuming. The old idea that our nature w…

Prof Michel Chossudovsky (2020-11-05). The Corona Pandemic and Trump's Trade War against China: America's Dependence on "Made in China". Potential Disruption of the US Economy. globalresearch.ca First published in May 2020, updated June 14, 2020 | What Prospects for trade relations with China, in the wake of the 2020 US November Presidential Election? | Introduction | The US has been threatening China with trade sanctions for several years. At …

Andre Vltchek (2020-11-05). The Uyghur Issue: How Can the U.S. Dare Lecturing China About the Rights of the Muslims? globalresearch.ca This article by the late Andre Vltchek was first published in 2019. | In 2019, I have written a long analysis about "the Uyghur issue"; analysis which will be soon published as a book. | For some time, I have been warning …

Kathy Fairfax (2020-11-05). Indigenous water defender demands court hearing in Wilcannia. greenleft.org.au Leah Ebsworth, a Barkindji woman from the far-west NSW town of Wilcannia, faced the District Court there on October 21 charged with not moving off a bridge when ordered and assaulting a public officer with water after a Local Court dropped charges of being drunk and disorderly and not obeying a move on order.

news.un (2020-11-05). Dozens displaced in largest demolition in years in the West Bank, reports UN relief office. news.un.org Seventy-three people, including 41 children have been displaced after Israeli authorities demolished their homes and other structures, and destroyed belongings in the Palestinian community of Humsa Al Bqai'a in the West Bank, the UN humanitarian wing has reported.

teleSUR (2020-11-05). UN Asks to Protect Palestinian Harvesters From Israeli Settlers. telesurenglish.net The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other international NGOs on Thursday call on the Israeli authorities to protect Palestinian olive pickers from violence by Israeli settlers living in the West Bank. | RELATED: | As of October 7, the OCHA has recorded 33 incidents where Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians or damaged their trees or produce. At least 25 Palestinians were i…

South Front (2020-11-05). Video: Presence of Turkish-backed Syrian Militants in Nagorno-Karabakh Gives Armenia Additional Chances in War. globalresearch.ca The Azerbaijani Armed Forces and their allies continue to storm Armenian positions in the mountainous terrain near Shusha and the Lachin corridor in Nagorno-Karabakh. After making rapid advances, the Azerbaijani forces now appear to be stuck in a kind of …

Ilan Pappe (2020-11-05). From Balfour to the Nakba: The Settler-Colonial Experience of Palestine. globalresearch.ca The late prominent scholar of settler-colonialism, Patrick Wolfe, reminded us repeatedly that it is not an event, it is a structure. While settler-colonialism in many cases has a historical starting point, its original motivation guides its maintenance in the …

news.un (2020-11-05). Protect Palestine olive harvest from settler violence, Israel urged. news.un.org UN agencies, together with other international NGOs, are calling on Israel to better protect Palestinian farmers from violence by Israeli settlers, as they bring in their traditional olive harvest – crucial to livelihoods – and ensure families can access their land "freely and safely".

David Hearst (2020-11-05). Suspension of Jeremy Corbyn Will Define UK Labour Leader Keith Starmer as Iraq Defined Tony Blair. globalresearch.ca One of the lesser known aspects of Keir Starmer's assault on the left of his party since becoming Labour leader is his growing silence on Palestine. | Silencing the Palestinian lobby in Britain has always been a goal of Israel's …

Paul Antonopoulos (2020-11-05). Belarusian Protests Are Spilling over into Poland but Warsaw Is Beginning to Blame Russia. globalresearch.ca Polish leaders at all levels continue to speak with enthusiasm about the need to fully support "peaceful protests" in Belarus and to help them morally and financially. However, with widespread protests across Poland now, the same national leaders are angrily …

Manlio Dinucci (2020-11-05). Fukushima, the Nuclear Pandemic Spreads. globalresearch.ca It was not Covid, therefore the news went almost unnoticed: Japan will release over a million tons of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. The catastrophic incident in Fukushima was triggered by the Tsunami that …

Kathryn Shihadah (2020-11-05). The Military-Industrial Complex, Israeli-Style. New Docuseries Touts Virtues of "Iron Dome" mintpressnews.com A new documentary series produced in Israel tells the story of the Iron Dome missile system, but as Kathryn Shihadah reports, it leaves out crucial details about how the weapon is used and who funded it.

Dave DeCamp (2020-11-05). DOJ Seizes 27 Domains, Claims They are Controlled by Iran. globalresearch.ca The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday …

John Helmer (2020-11-05). Australian Journalist Identified as Ukrainian Spy in Malaysian Airlines MH17 Prosecution Leak. globalresearch.ca A freelance Australian-Ukrainian reporter named Demjin Doroschenko (lead image), employed by the Australian, British and US press to report from the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in July 2014, has been exposed this week as an agent of …

WSWS (2020-11-05). Sri Lankan government rejects total lockdown amid surging COVID-19 infections. wsws.org The Rajapakse regime's decisions are aimed at continuing corporate operations, particularly factory production for exports, forcing workers to stay on the job.

Dave DeCamp (2020-11-05). Online Censorship: DOJ Seizes 27 Domains, Claims They are Controlled by Iran. globalresearch.ca The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday …

Khaled Iskef (2020-11-05). The Arab World and the US Elections. Who Will Succeed in Controlling the White House? globalresearch.ca The exit of the American forces from Iraq and Syria, finding a solution to the Palestinian issue and the Syrian and Libyan crisis and ending the war in Yemen is what the Arab World wants, in addition to ending the …

teleSUR (2020-11-05). 'New Peru' Leader Veronika Mendoza Will Run in 2021 Elections. telesurenglish.net The New Peru leader and former congresswoman Veronika Mendoza on Thursday officially announced her candidacy for the elections to take place in April 2021. | RELATED: | She made the announcement in the city of El Cusco on the occasion of the 240th anniversary of the beginning of the revolution undertaken by Tupac Amaru and Micaela Bastida. | She will run for Together for Peru and her Vice president posts will be a…

Andrew Corbley (2020-11-05). US Congress Tries to Restrict F-35 Sales to UAE for All the Wrong Reasons. globalresearch.ca Congressmen Eliot Engel (D-NY) and a number of his colleagues from both sides of the isle have introduced legislation into the House that would prohibit the sale of F-35 fighter jets to the UAE unless a long list of conditions …

_____ (2020-11-05). Wage War Against The Philosophy Of War. popularresistance.org In mid-October, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its World Economic Outlook report, which offered some dizzying data. For 2020, the IMF estimates that the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will decline by 4.4%, while in 2021 the global GDP will rise by 5.2%. Stagnation and decline will define the economic activity in both Europe and North America, as well as in large states such as Brazil and India. With a second wave of coronavirus infections in Europe and with the first wave not having been controlled in Brazil, India, and the United States, it appears that these IMF estimates might sink further…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-11-05). Mass detention of health workers in India; union to continue fight. peoplesdispatch.org As many as 2,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) were forcefully detained in the State of Andhra Pradesh on November 2. They were staging protests to demand the implementation of the National Health Mission guidelines…

The Canary (2020-11-05). Woman arrested trying to take 'deteriorating' 97-year-old mother out of care home. thecanary.co A woman was temporarily arrested and restrained by police after she attempted to take her 97-year-old mother out of a care home. | Video footage shared on social media by former Coronation Street actress Leandra Ashton appeared to capture part of the incident in a car park in Market Weighton in East Yorkshire on Tuesday. | In the two clips an upset Ashton claims she and her mother had taken her grandmother out of the home where she is "deteriorating" because they had not seen her for nine months. | The 97-year-old woman could be seen sitting in the passenger seat of a stationary car with a police vehicle parked i…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-11-05). Moldova set to hold second round of presidential polls on November 15. peoplesdispatch.org Among the eight candidates contesting the presidential polls in Moldova, pro-EU candidate Maia Sandu (36.1% votes) and incumbent pro-Russian president Igor Dodo (32.66% votes) qualified for the second round, scheduled for November 15…

Zafar Syed Zaffsyed (2020-11-05). "I Found Out that My Father Was Imprisoned in Guantánamo on Google" globalresearch.ca The article below was written by Zafar Syed Zaffsyed for the Pakistan Independent and published on November 2, 2020. The original is available Our thanks to Reprieve for bringing this …

Mohammed al-Deirawi, Ramzy Baroud (2020-11-04). "They Tried to Freeze Me to Death:" Torture and Resistance in Israeli Prisons. counterpunch.org Mohammad Ibrahim Ali al-Deirawi was born on January 30, 1978 in Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. His family is originally from Bir Al-Saba', an ethnically cleansed Palestinian town located in the southern Naqab desert. Mohammad was arrested by the Israeli army at a military checkpoint in central Gaza on March 1, 2001. He

MEE and agencies (2020-11-04). Palestinian killed by Israeli fire near West Bank checkpoint. middleeasteye.net Palestinian killed by Israeli fire near West Bank checkpoint | Bilal Rawajba, 29, was a legal consultant in the Palestinian Authority's Preventive Security Service in the Tubas district, and lived in the village of Iraq al-Tayeh, outside Nablus | Wed, 11/04/2020 – 10: 42 | Israeli forces gather at Huwara checkpoint near Nablus in the occupied West Bank where Bilal Rawajba, 29, was killed (…

Bill Meyer (2020-11-04). Features from Iran at 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. peoplesworld.org Iran, yet another country in the bull's-eye of U.S. imperialism, has probably one of the most humanist national cinemas in the world. Despite rabid U.S. attempts to demonize the people of Iran, the country's rich history of filmmaking has provided a different picture entirely, of a country defending itself through many chaotic transitions in power, …

MEE staff (2020-11-04). Bahrain convicts dozens on allegations of membership of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. middleeasteye.net Bahrain convicts dozens on allegations of membership of Iran's Revolutionary Guard | Conviction of 51 people, mostly in absentia, decried by activists as proof of 'systemic corruption of Bahrain's judiciary' | Wed, 11/04/2020 – 11: 05 | Bahraini women demonstrate in solidarity with political prisoners, in the village of Shakhora, west of Manama, on 1 June 2012 (AFP) | The Bahraini government announced on Tuesd…

RT (2020-11-04). France bans Turkish right-wing 'Grey Wolves' group for inciting 'discrimination and hatred'. rt.com The French interior minister has announced that the Turkish nationalist group 'Grey Wolves' has been dissolved, adding that the organization was responsible for violent acts and incited discrimination and hatred. | On Wednesday, the Council of Ministers approved the dissolution of the Turkish nationalist group Grey Wolves in France. | The outcome of the meeting was announced by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. He shared a photo of the decree on Twitter, adding that the group "was dissolved… in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Republic." | It [the Grey Wolves group] incites discrimin…

Susan Abulhawa (2020-11-04). Labour's ouster of MP Jeremy Corbyn aims to crush criticism of Israel. workers.org Member of Parliament and former leader of the Labour Party (2015-2020), Jeremy Corbyn was ousted from his own party by its new leader, Keir Starmer, who has clearly allied with right-wing and neoliberal forces to destroy the socialist left in Britain and beyond. While Workers World Party has disagreed with . . . |

Ragip Soylu (2020-11-04). Turkey slaps social media networks with millions of dollars' worth of fines. middleeasteye.net Turkey slaps social media networks with millions of dollars' worth of fines | Ankara took the step after companies such as Facebook and Twitter failed to assign a legal representative in the country as new law requires | Wed, 11/04/2020 – 10: 21 | The Turkish government believes the social media network providers would eventually submit papers to assign legal representatives (AFP) | The Turkish governmen…

Ted Kelly (2020-11-04). International calls for release of Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike. workers.org Hunger striker Maher al-Akhras The International Association of Democratic Lawyers, in a resolution released late last month, called for the immediate release of Maher al-Akhras, a Palestinian man imprisoned by Israeli occupation. Detained without charges under the notorious "administrative detention" policy, al-Akhras has been staging a hunger strike for almost . . . |

Gloria Rubac (2020-11-04). Indigenous nations in Oklahoma win Supreme Court ruling. workers.org A surprisingly progressive Supreme Court decision found that over one-third of Oklahoma still falls into "Indian Country" under federal law for the Muscogee Creek Tribe and other Oklahoma tribes. The court ruled July 9 in McGirt v. Oklahoma that under treaties dating back two centuries, much of eastern Oklahoma is . . . |

Areeb Ullah (2020-11-04). Saudi Arabia to allow foreign workers to change jobs without employer's permission. middleeasteye.net Saudi Arabia to allow foreign workers to change jobs without employer's permission | New labour reforms will not apply to the millions of migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia | Wed, 11/04/2020 – 11: 16 | New rules will allow workers to change jobs and leave the country without their employers' permission (AFP) | Saudi Arabia has introduced plans to ease restrictions imposed on foreign workers and mak…

RT (2020-11-04). Putin weighs in on those who 'offend the feelings of believers' after spate of religion-related terror attacks in European cities. rt.com Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a stark warning over growing religious violence in Europe, suggesting that "smouldering conflicts" over faith can linger for years, becoming a powder keg which can eventually explode. | Speaking in Moscow on Wednesday, as Russia celebrated National Unity Day, he told reporters, "it is important to understand that the world is undergoing profound changes. Traditional values are facing serious challenges. The most complex, extremely sensitive issues of interethnic and inter-religious relations are, unfortunately, sometimes the subject of speculation, [and] untidy geopo…

Peoples Dispatch (2020-11-04). Spate of attacks against civilians in Afghanistan. peoplesdispatch.org Hours after a suicide attack in Kabul University left 20 students dead and dozens injured in six long hours of fighting on November 2, Monday, Afghan security forces killed another suicide car bomber near a military outpost in Kunduz's Imam Sahib on Tuesday. The ground situation in Afghanistan continues to remain volatile despite the ongoing intra-Afghan peace talks between the Taliban insurgents and the Afghan government in Doha. | In the attack inside Kabul University, one of the premier institutes of the country, at least three attackers stormed the campus premises and began firing indiscriminately near the la…

_____ (2020-11-04). Ecosocialism: An Alternative To Global Capitalism. popularresistance.org Over the past four decades or so, various leftists have become more sensitive to the environmental degradation in developed and developing capitalist societies and post-revolutionary societies, particularly in the former Soviet Union and, in recent times, China. | As a result, they have sought to develop an ecosocialism, ecoMarxism or ecological Marxism. | Robert Albritton in Eco-Socialism for Now and the Future: Practical Utopias and Rational Action states that the earliest use of the term of the term ecosocialism he uncovered appeared in a pamphlet titled Eco-Socialism in a Nutshell, published in England by the…

Fight Back (2020-11-04). Green Bay, WI: Vigil and caravan for Donna Christensen and missing, murdered indigenous women. fightbacknews.org Green Bay, WI – On November 1, the Wisconsin Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a car caravan and vigil for Donna Christensen, an Ojibwe woman and member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, who was found dead in a jail cell in Vilas County, Wisconsiin. | The car caravanners displayed signs and chanted slogans calling for justice for Donna Christensen and for all Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), as well as justice for all victims of police crimes. They flew a banner with the words "Native lives matter" and "Justice for Jonathan," an indigenous man murdered by Gree…

South Front (2020-11-04). Video: Turkish Risk Investments in Local Conflicts and Prospects of Armenian Counter-offensive in Karabakh. globalresearch.ca In early November, the Azerbaijani-Turkish advance in the directions of the Lachin corridor and the town of Shusha in the Nagorno-Karabakh region slowed down. | The main factors are the fierce resistance of Armenian forces, the complicated terrain, deteriorating weather conditions …

_____ (2020-11-04). Amazon Bans Book Exposing US COVID-19 Chaos. popularresistance.org A decision by the Amazon company to block a book focused on a scientific and cooperative approach to COVID-19 amounts to corporate information control operating at a new intensity. This censorship occurs while almost every form of U.S. media permits and promotes racist, unscientific and thoroughly confusing information. | The censored book is "Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China & the U.S." This anthology of 55 articles by a broad range of social justice authors discuss the importance of free health care, social distancing, testing, protective equipment, education and social mobilizat…

Editor (2020-11-04). How Will the U.S. Election Change the Mideast? scheerpost.com By Juan Cole / Informed Comment If Joe Biden wins the presidency and the Democrats sweep to power in both houses of Congress, it will have a huge impact on domestic policies, on everything from health care to workers' rights to green energy. But the impact on foreign policy would be equally significant. The biggest foreign loser in such a sea change will be Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a country… |

Tom Anderson (2020-11-04). Campaigners take direct action as Palestinians remember Balfour's shameful declaration. thecanary.co UK Palestine solidarity campaigners have taken coordinated direct action across the UK to mark the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. | The Balfour Declaration