Daily Archives: February 26, 2021

2021-02-26: News Headlines

Raul Diego (2021-02-26). Microchips and the Macro World: Semiconductor Shortage Ushers in East-West Tech War. mintpressnews.com If Taiwan were no longer the center of the semiconductor manufacturing universe, would the U.S. relinquish its influence over the island or would it continue to use it as a pawn against the country that is increasingly being cast as the next global nemesis of the "free world"?

Chris Humphrey (2021-02-26). 'A Disgrace': Luxury Housing Plans Threaten Cambodia's Bokor National Park. asia-pacificresearch.com

Mike Walter (2021-02-26). The Heat: One scientist's fight against disease & Racism against Asian-Americans. america.cgtn.com As the pandemic continues to take its toll, we'll talk to one of America's leading science pioneers. Plus — what's behind the alarming rise in violence against Asian Americans?>

Michael T. Klare (2021-02-26). A New Cold War on a Scalding Planet: Biden, Climate Change, and China. counterpunch.org Slowing the pace of climate change and getting "tough" on China, especially over its human-rights abuses and unfair trade practices, are among the top priorities President Biden has announced for his new administration. Evidently, he believes that he can tame a rising China with harsh pressure tactics, while still gaining its cooperation in areas of concern

Michael T. Klare (2021-02-26). Biden, Climate Change, and China: A New Cold War equals A Scalding Planet. juancole.com ( Tomdispatch.com ) — Slowing the pace of climate change and getting "tough" on China, especially over its human-rights abuses and unfair trade practices, are among the top priorities President Biden has announced for his new administration. Evidently, he believes that he can tame a rising China with harsh pressure tactics, while still gaining its …

Kim Petersen (2021-02-26). North Korea Steadfastly Resisting US Hegemony. dissidentvoice.org I learned a while back to be especially skeptical of western mass media and their governments.1 My experience of life in China is nothing like how western demonization portrays it to be. Therefore, I looked forward to the chance to experience North Korea first hand. I traveled there with a Chinese group departing China. Starting …

Tom Clifford (2021-02-26). China's Big New Market…in China. counterpunch.org Beijing. It's over. The China threat. No Thucydides trap of rising power threatening established power. Still scope for misunderstandings, a naval clash in the South China Sea, an exchange at the border war with India, fighter jets taking matters into their hands. But the economic race with the United States is over. China has new

_____ (2021-02-26). Biden's CIA Nominee Identifies China As Top 'Adversary'. popularresistance.org William Burns, Biden's pick for CIA chief, had tough words for China during his Senate confirmation hearing and identified countering Beijing as a top priority. | "Adversarial, predatory Chinese leadership poses our biggest geopolitical test," Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday. He described China as "a formidable, authoritarian adversary." | "Out-competing China will be key to our national security in the days ahead," Burns said. For the CIA, he said this means "intensified focus and urgency, continually strengthening its already impressive cadre of China specialists, expanding its languag…

_____ (2021-02-26). America Condemns Putin & Xi but Supports Gangsters. strategic-culture.org If U.S. weapons are to be sold to a foreign country, then it's an 'ally' and there is no investigation into any of that leader's crimes. But if the weapons are to be used against a country, then whatever the person does is condemned-in-advance. | The U.S. regime condemns and threatens the Governments of Russia, China, and Iran, and pretends to be not a regime itself, though it is one, and so are most of its 'allies'. (Whether any of those three targeted nations of the U.S. regime — Russia, China, and Iran — is or is not a regime will not be a topic here, but my personal judgment on that would be no, b…

Roger Harris (2021-02-26). Joe Biden's US Foreign Policy: Return to the Old Normal? counterpunch.org US President Biden bellicosely proclaimed, "American is back," in his major foreign policy priorities speech at the Munich Security Conference on February 19. Repeated twice for effect, Biden signaled the end of the Trump interregnum. No more assuring words could have been uttered for George W. Bush's former Defense Secretary Colin Powell and the 70 odd Republican national security officials, who wrote an open letter endorsing Biden out of fear that Trump would upset the bipartisan foreign policy consensus of regime change, forever wars, and the NATO alliance. Republican neo-cons now shelter in the Democrat's big…

Viviana Weinstein (2021-02-26). Denver protest: 'No war on Iran!'. workers.org Feb. 20, Denver.Denver Students for a Democratic Society, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Denver Peace Council held a demonstration Feb. 20 at the state capital, in cooperation with the national call to prevent Washington from instigating a war against Iran. Threats the U.S. warships would move into the Persian/Arabian . . . |

_____ (2021-02-26). Scheer Intelligence: Lawrence Ferlinghetti. popularresistance.org Ninety-seven-year-old Lawrence Ferlinghetti was one of the founders of the paperback bookstore City Lights in San Francisco, as well as publisher and champion of beat poets and writers including Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. In their conversation, Ferlinghetti tells Robert Scheer how his experience as a naval officer in Japan during World War II made him an "instant pacifist." Ferlinghetti discusses many in the Beat movement's surprising sympathy for Fidel Castro and Cuba in spite of their socially progressive views. Despite his lifetime of work with the Beats, Ferlinghetti never considered himself one.

Juan Cole (2021-02-26). Why the US needs to get out of Syria: Biden orders Bombing that kills 17 in Proxy dance with Iran. juancole.com Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) — Al-Quds al-`Arabi [Arab Jerusalem]' reports that at least seventeen fighters were killed in U.S. air strikes on Thursday night on small bases on the Syrian border with Iraq. The bases south of Al-Bu-Kamal belong to the Brigades of the Party of God [Kataeb Hezbollah] and the Brigades of the Prince …

Mehr News Agency (2021-02-26). 46 Taliban members killed in Afghanistan's Kandahar prov. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Feb. 26 (MNA) —The Afghan Ministry of Defense announced that 33 members of the Taliban were killed and 13 others were wounded in clashes with Afghan security forces in Kandahar province.

Jessica Buxbaum (2021-02-26). Rethinking Israel's Blank Check in Light of Palestinian Teen's Death with US Weapon. mintpressnews.com JERUSALEM — Last year, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager with an American gun. Now human rights organizations, activists, and politicians are calling on the United States to investigate the killing and stop the flow of military support to Israel. | On Dec. 4, 2020, Israeli forces fatally shot Ali Abu Aliya in the stomach while he was watching a protest against the establishment of a new settlement in the West Bank. It was his fifteenth birthday. According to Defense for Children International — Palestine (DCIP), Aliya wasn't participating in the demonstration and did not pose a threat to Is…

Ramzy Baroud (2021-02-26). Imagining Palestine: On Barghouti, Darwish, Kanafani and the Language of Exile. counterpunch.org For Palestinians, exile is not simply the physical act of being removed from their homes and their inability to return. It is not a casual topic pertaining to politics and international law, either. Nor is it an ethereal notion, a sentiment, a poetic verse. It is all of this, combined. The death in Amman of

Staff (2021-02-26). Battleground Baltimore: Maryland shows solidarity with unionizing Amazon workers. therealnews.com Amazon workers rally in Baltimore County, the LEOBR could survive attempts to weaken it, City Councilperson Ryan Dorsey feuds with the FOP, and more.

RT (2021-02-26). Amazon-owned Twitch removes anti-union ads pushed by parent company after media and users complain. rt.com Ads urging workers in Alabama not to unionize "shouldn't have been allowed," the streaming platform Twitch said, bucking its parent company Amazon after a pro-union outlet published a story complaining about the videos. | "Twitch does not allow political advertising, and these ads should never have been allowed to run on our service," the company said in a statement on Wednesday, thanking the "community" for bringing them to attention. | new: Twitch says they have removed these ads from the platform "Twitch does not allow political advertising, and these ads should never have been allowed to run on our service…

Ahmed Abdulkareem (2021-02-26). Futile: Saudi's Decade-Long Attempt to Bottle Up Yemeni Youth Revolution is Failing. mintpressnews.com "Saudi Arabia has crushed our revolution, turned our lives into hell because our uprising was interpreted by the ruling family as a threat to [their] influence and because of their fear of the revolution spreading to the Saudi interior." — Yemeni artist Aisha Ali Saeed…

Lindsey Snell (2021-02-26). 'No one cares if we die': Ex-Syrian rebels recount Nagorno-Karabakh nightmare as 'disposable force for Turkey'. thegrayzone.com Repurposed into a mercenary force by Erdogan's Turkey, the remnants of Syria's armed opposition were sent off to fight for Azerbaijan with promises of sweet paychecks. They met abuse, humiliation and death instead. In the first week of October 2020, Ahmad Hadad* and more than 20 other fighters from the Hamza Division faction of the so-called Syrian National Army stood in the middle of a mountain range in Azerbaijan near the Iranian border. They were lost. After the Armenian army …

Jeffrey St. Clair (2021-02-26). How Real Nazis Came to the Americas: the Recruitment of Klaus Barbie. counterpunch.org By the time Klaus Barbie went on the payroll of an American intelligence organization in 1947, Klaus Barbie had lived several lifetimes of human vileness. Barbie sought out opponents of the Nazis in Holland, chasing them down with dogs. He had worked for the Nazi mobile death squads on the Eastern Front, massacring Slavs and Jews. He'd put in two years heading the Gestapo in Lyons, France, torturing to death Jews and French Resistance fighters (among them the head of the Resistance, Jean Moulin. ) After the liberation of France, Barbie participated in the final Nazi killing frenzy before Allies moved into Germany…

Andrew Korybko (2021-02-26). Biden's Latest Strike on Syria. The S-300 No-Show. The Russia-Israel De Facto Alliance? globalresearch.ca All Global Research articles can be read in 27 languages by activating the "Translate Website" drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version). | *** | The Alt-Media Community is suspiciously silent about the S-300s' no-show following …

MEE and agencies (2021-02-26). Covid-19: Israel freezes programme to send vaccines abroad amid legal scrutiny. middleeasteye.net Covid-19: Israel freezes programme to send vaccines abroad amid legal scrutiny | Bid to garner international goodwill suspended after attorney general said to be seeking clarification about its legality | Fri, 02/26/2021 – 10: 32 | Palestinians have accused Israel of ignoring its duties as an occupying power by not including the Palestinians in its inoculation programme (AFP) | Israel has…

Greg Kearney (2021-02-26). When it comes to COVID, why aren't Republicans 'pro-life' anymore? peoplesworld.org Read:

Henry Tufnell (2021-02-26). High Court: Covid self-employed support scheme does not unlawfully discriminate against women. ukhumanrightsblog.com R (The Motherhood Plan and Anor) v HM Treasury [2021] EWHC 309 (Admin) — read judgment In a judgment handed down on 17 February 2021, the High Court has ruled that the Self Employment Income Support Scheme ("the Scheme") introduced during the coronavirus pandemic does not indirectly discriminate against self-employed women who have taken a …

Marilyn Bechtel (2021-02-26). Calif. essential workers and supporters call for extended COVID-related sick leave. peoplesworld.org Essential workers, labor advocates, and legislators are joining together to urge the California legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom to act immediately to expand emergency paid sick days and paid family and medical leave protection for workers in the state's 2021-2022 early action budget. Both federal and California emergency paid sick leave mandates on employers expired …

John Zarocostas (2021-02-27). [World Report] New WTO leader faces COVID-19 challenges. thelancet.com Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the first woman and the first African to lead the World Trade Organization. She already faces scrutiny over intellectual property rights in the pandemic. John Zarocostas reports.

Global Research News (2021-02-26). Selected Articles: Haiti Betrayed. globalresearch.ca By There's a big mystery that needs to be solved. It's how many people are getting sick and dying from the Covid vaccines. …

Staff (2021-02-26). Headlines for February 26, 2021. democracynow.org President Biden Orders Airstrikes on Syria, Killing 17 Iran-Backed Militia Members, Biden Calls Saudi King Salman, Doesn't Raise Crown Prince's Involvement in Khashoggi's Murder, Brazil's COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 250,000, "Long Covid": 1 in 10 COVID-19 Survivors Face Lingering and Debilitating Symptoms, WHO Warns, Biden Warns it's "Not a Time to Relax" as U.S. Records Another 2,400 COVID-19 Deaths, Senate Parliamentarian Advises Against Including Minimum Wage Hike in Coronavirus Relief Bill, Police Chief Warns Pro-Trump Militia Members Are Plotting to Blow up the Capitol, Hundreds of Nigerian School Girls Feare…

Staff (2021-02-26). Sanders Blasts Parliamentarian's Ruling Dropping Wage Hike From COVID Bill. truthout.org Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and several other Democratic lawmakers are lambasting a decision by the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan referee in that legislative body, who determined on Thursday that a provision to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in the COVID economic relief package does not align with the rules for the reconciliation process. | But while Democrats appear upset over the decision, the party may be disunited on what path they should take next to raise the minimum wag…

MEE and agencies (2021-02-26). Iraq: Protesters killed in clashes with security forces in Nasiriyah. middleeasteye.net Iraq: Protesters killed in clashes with security forces in Nasiriyah | At least five demonstrators have been killed over the past week as activists defied a Covid-19 lockdown to take to the streets | Fri, 02/26/2021 – 16: 00 | Iraqi protesters are pictured next to burning tyres during clashes with police during anti-government demonstrations in the city of Nasiriyah in the Dhi Qar province…

Lubna Masarwa (2021-02-26). Israel's closure of Covid clinic leaves 50,000 people at high risk. middleeasteye.net Israel's closure of Covid clinic leaves 50,000 people at high risk | Termination of vaccine programme for those living in Israel without legal status may be legally challenged by rights groups
| Fri, 02/26/2021 – 13: 50 | A paramedic with Israel's Magen David Adom medical services prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for a Palestinian man in a mobile clinic on 26 February 202…

Online News Editor (2021-02-26). South Korea starts its vaccination campaign against COVID-19. laprensalatina.com Seoul, Feb 26 (efe-epa).- South Korea began Friday its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 more than a year after detecting its first case in the country and with the aim of having immunized the majority of its population by November and thus achieve herd immunity. The first person to be inoculated with the vaccine developed by …

Eds. (2021-02-26). Hundreds of law students announce boycott of Chevron law firm Seward & Kissel for "unethical" private prosecution of human rights attorney Steven Donziger. mronline.org Students from over 50 leading U.S. law schools—including Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and New York University—have announced a recruiting boycott of a prominent Chevron law firm to protest its "unethical" private prosecution of U.S. human rights lawyer Steven Donziger after he helped win a $9.5 billion pollution judgment against Chevron.

John Bachtell (2021-02-26). Haaland on track to make history as first Native American cabinet secretary. peoplesworld.org "This is all of our country, this is our mother. You've heard the Earth referred to as Mother Earth. It's difficult to not feel obligated to protect this land, and I feel that every Indigenous person in this country understands that," said Rep. Deb Haaland, President Joe Biden's nominee to be Secretary of Interior. "It's …

Areeb Ullah (2021-02-26). Shamima Begum not allowed to return to UK, Supreme Court rules. middleeasteye.net Shamima Begum not allowed to return to UK, Supreme Court rules | Londoner who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State as a teenager argued she should be able to appeal stripping of citizenship in UK | Fri, 02/26/2021 – 09: 45 | Shamima Begum, photographed in her tent at the al-Roj camp in northeastern Syria in February 2020 (Screenshot) | The UK's Supreme Court has ruled that Shamima Begum, a British wo…

Vijay Prashad (2021-02-26). Your privileges are not Universal. mronline.org Stencilled in red on the walls of Santiago, Chile is a statement of fact: 'your privileges are not universal' (tus privilegios no son universales).

Staff (2021-02-26). Biden's team won't end the forever wars. therealnews.com From Afghanistan to Niger, the "new normal" of American warfare shows no signs of changing course under President Biden and his hawkish national security team. In this episode of "The Marc Steiner Show," combat veteran and writer Danny Sjursen issues a dire warning about American military policy. Tune in for new episodes of The Marc Steiner …

Editor (2021-02-26). All Risk, No Reward: The Perils and Absurdity of Iraq War 4.0. scheerpost.com By Maj. Danny Sjursen / Reposted with permission from AntiWar Secretary of State Anthony Blinken might have been " outraged" by a rocket attack on a U.S. base in northern Iraq — that killed a foreign contractor and wounded an American service member and several other contractors — but he shouldn't have been surprised. After all, it's the muddled US military mission and ongoing troop presence… |

Staff (2021-02-26). "We Want the Truth Uncovered": Malcolm X's Daughter Ilyasah Shabazz Backs New Probe into Assassination. democracynow.org The family of Malcolm X is demanding a new investigation into his 1965 assassination in light of the deathbed confession of a former New York police officer who said police and the FBI conspired to kill the Black leader. Ilyasah Shabazz, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and one of Malcolm's six children, says the latest revelation is further evidence of how the authorities worked to infiltrate and undermine Black organizations during the Civil Rights Movement. "All he wanted was for America to live up to her promise of liberty and justice for all," she says of her father. "I'm happy…

Staff (2021-02-26). "The Whole System Needs to be Indicted": Attorney Benjamin Crump on Overhauling U.S. Policing. democracynow.org The Democratic-led House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a sweeping police reform bill that would ban chokeholds, prohibit federal no-knock warrants, establish a National Police Misconduct Registry and other measures. The legislation, known as the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021, is in response to a series of high-profile killings of Black people in 2020 and the nationwide racial justice uprising they sparked. Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who has represented the families of Floyd, Daniel Prude, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many other victims of police and racial viol…

Staff (2021-02-26). The Assassination of Malcolm X: Ex-Undercover Officer Admits Role in FBI & Police Conspiracy. democracynow.org The FBI and New York Police Department are facing renewed calls to open their records into the assassination of Malcolm X, after the release of a deathbed confession of a former undercover NYPD officer who admitted to being part of a conspiracy targeting Malcolm. In the confession, Raymond Wood, who died last year, admitted he entrapped two members of Malcolm's security team in another crime — a plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty — just days before the assassination. This left the Black civil rights leader vulnerable at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, where he was fatally shot on February 21, 1965.

Alan Macleod (2021-02-26). Another Step Back for Biden: Attack on Syria Draws Establishment Cheers. mintpressnews.com "This is basically the polar opposite of getting back in the peace agreement, which was what [Biden] promised to do." — Political commentator Kyle Kulinski…

Eds. (2021-02-26). The Pandemic: Half a million lives lost in U.S., more than the two World Wars and Vietnam War combined. mronline.org Over half a million people have died of coronavirus in the U.S. Grasping the enormity—half a million people gone—is difficult to visualize.

WSWS (2021-02-26). No to school reopenings in Turkey before the pandemic is contained! wsws.org We call on all educators, parents and students who support this initiative to contact us to establish rank-and-file committees for safe education and to expand this struggle, which is vital for public health.

Staff (2021-02-26). Big Tech Shouldn't Be the Arbiter of Our Free Speech Rights. truthout.org Business corporations don't need free speech rights. Nor should they have the power to deny free speech to others. But leading up to and following the 2020 election, we saw both undemocratic realities on display. | The 2020 election was largely "democratic." Due to the pandemic, more voters had more ways to cast their ballots than ever, and the elections were overall free and fair. H…

Mark Gruenberg, C.J. Atkins (2021-02-26). Biden's economic rescue plan advances, but minimum wage hike more uncertain. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON (PAI)—Congressional supporters of a $15 minimum wage are not backing down, despite a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian Thursday night that the hike cannot be part of a reconciliation package in the upper chamber. The reconciliation procedure—which lets tax and budget legislation proceed with a simple majority—would have allowed the wage hike to pass …

RT (2021-02-27). NYT columnist faces conflict of interest accusations after singing praise for Facebook 'Groups' feature in tech giant's blog post. rt.com New York Times writer David Brooks has come under fire for a potential conflict of interest after penning a blog post for Facebook's corporate site while a project he helped to found accepted money from the social media giant. | A

Deirdre Cooper Owens (2021-02-27). [Perspectives] Listening to Black women saves Black lives. thelancet.com I am one of two African American women who are endowed professors in the history of medicine in the USA. I am the only African American woman directing a traditional medical humanities programme in the USA. When I accepted my position in 2019 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I did not know I would step into a position that would make me a historical first. Since this time, I have become preoccupied with learning about Black women who are "firsts" within the annals of US histories of medicine.

South Front (2021-02-26). Video: Two Truths and a Lie: US Patriot Missiles Leave Saudi Arabia for Syria. globalresearch.ca All Global Research articles can be read in 27 languages by activating the "Translate Website" drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version). | *** | The United States has deployed a Patriot defense battery to Syria's …