Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Late on April 9, an Iraqi group identifying itself as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq – ‘Ashab al-Kahf (AK) announced that its “engineer and sabotage units” had targeted a U.S. convoy on the Erbil-Saladin highway in the country’s northern region.
The group released a video of the alleged operation, showing two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) hitting trucks transporting vehicles for the U.S. military.
AK claimed that the attack resulted in material and human losses. However, these claims are yet to be verified. The U.S.-led coalition has not commented on this issue, thus far.
Founded in August of 2019, AK is a pro-Iran Shiite group. The group has been threatening U.S. forces in Iraq for months now.
Last January, the U.S. assassinated Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Deputy-Commander, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and Iran Quds Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani, in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
Washington presented the assassination as a victory, claiming that its troops and interests in Iraq are now safer than ever. Nevertheless, recent developments say otherwise. Today, Shiite groups are openly preparing for a full-scale war with U.S. forces. A war they can win.
Tehran – As the Coronavirus keeps sweeping across the world, some initiatives like that of an Iranian businessman is inspiring. On the outskirts of Western Tehran stands Iran Mall, one of the five largest shopping malls in the world and the largest across the Middle East. This luxury space is now at the service of the people with the opening of a COVID-19 patient temporary hospital in its facilities.
The mall has closed its doors to promote social distancing and in a smart and humanitarian move, the founder of the shopping center decided to turn it into a huge medical center to help the Iranian society fight the epidemic.
In an interview with al-Ahed news, Mr. Qassem Akbari, head of the Iran Mall Health Center said “Iran mall is a giant shopping center that was turned into a health care center to take care of Coronavirus patients. This does not come as a surprise in Iran because it comes in the context of carrying out social responsibility that people feel at such times of crisis.”
Pointing out to luxury space is now at the service of the health emergency with the opening of a COVID-19 patient hospital in its facilities, the manager said “Mr. Ansari, the owner and founder of the project Iran Mall was the one who took care of financing and funding the project. This temporary hospital was sponsored by charity foundation of Mr. Ansari his brother and their family, they set up the convalescence center.”
Noting that the move comes in the context of social support, Mr. Akbari told al-Ahed news “The entire world has been affected by the pandemic which has caused a complicated situation across different countries. The establisher of Iran Mall decided that he must bare part of the responsibility and join the fight against COVID-19.”
Explaining the logistics of the temporary health care center, Mr. Akbari elaborated “The shopping mall has a separate and independent section which serves as an exhibition center; it was turned into the health care center. This section was turned into a temporary hospital prepared and equipped with 1,000 beds so far and another 2,000 will be installed shortly. It is also prepared with all the needed equipment including ventilators, monitors and surgery rooms.”
Built on an area of 1.3 million square meters West of Tehran, the mall features around 700 shops, a large supermarket, 200 restaurants and coffee shops, a dozen1,800-seated movie theaters and a five-star hotel. Besides the luxury and its large size, the mall has special details such as a bazaar inspired by the history of Tabriz or Isfahan; a garden designed in Persian tradition and a hall of mirrors like those of the palaces of the Qajar dynasty. The roof of the mall serves as a sports complex with long routes for hiking, cycling, and public activities. It includes 15 sports fields, tennis courts, a 12,000 square meter ice rink and swimming pools.
Asked on how the health care center is managed, the manager explained “The School of Medical Sciences in Iran and its medics are in charge of the temporary hospital and all the work is done in cooperation with the Ministry of Health. The doctors, nurses and medics that serve at Iran Mall health care center are from the University of Medical Sciences in Iran and they are the ones managing the center. So, we basically sponsored, equipped, and prepared the center and these doctors and nurses are the ones running it. It is important to note that these medics are all volunteers.”
Explaining how the work is carried out, Mr. Akbari noted that “The patients who come to this center basically spend 15 days of quarantine after they are released from the different hospitals across Tehran. Patients come to the hospital on daily basis and stay until they fully recover.”
Mr. Akbari underscored that “In an Islamic society, it is the duty of each and every one to bare part of the responsibility. It is not surprising at all to see such initiatives as this is part of the Iranian Islamic culture. I think this is a ‘humanitarian’ investment that can be a lesson to all the people of the world.”
He went on to say that such initiatives are unforgettable experiences in society that bring so much love into the society.
“Such an initiative is a moral lesson, teaching us that people must take care of one another and cooperate at times of need or crisis. In this context, money and capital is not only a means to do financial investment, it is a means to serve the people and carry out what we see as our social and humanitarian duty. I can describe it as a moral investment. The value of this act lies in the fact that such charitable work serves the people and brings them some relief,” he described.
Mr. Akbari concluded saying “I can also say this is in particular part of bringing harmony to the society and fighting corruption and greed. This is what we believe in, that there will be a time when no poor people will exist and when capital will be distributed in a fair manner to help the poor and the needy. Simple attempts like that of Iran Mall is on the path of bringing justice to the world, which will culminate by the coming of the savior Imam Mahdi.”
When jailed Bahraini activist Abdullah Habeeb Swar developed a bad cough that lasted several days, his 14 cell mates feared he might have contracted the coronavirus and would spread it through their overcrowded wing.
They share a cell designed to sleep eight in one of three wings in Manama’s Jaw prison reserved for detainees sentenced on security-related charges.
“You can imagine how scared they were,” Swar told Reuters by telephone, referring to last month’s coughing fits.
He is one of hundreds of opposition politicians, activists, journalists and human rights defenders sentenced in mass trials. Detained in 2019 after six years in hiding and serving a 40-year term, Swar said he was not seen by a doctor.
US-allied Bahrain has come under pressure from human rights organizations over prison conditions including overcrowding, poor sanitation and lack of medical care.
Rights groups including Amnesty International last week jointly called Bahraini authorities to release those who “peacefully exercised their rights to freedom of expression”, especially elderly prisoners or those with existing health conditions.
“The authorities don’t like to be seen to bend to political pressure,” said Marc Owen Jones of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.
Mass trials became commonplace in Bahrain – home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet – after an uprising in 2011.
OPCW issued another press release for al Qaeda in Syria, which immediately received the approval of US Secretary of State, Mike ‘Lied, Cheated, Stole’ Pompeo. This author has determined that the utterly and flagrantly corrupt Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was likely titillated to release its very very first report by its Investigation and Identification Teamin which it blamed Syria for chemical weapons attacks that did not happen, on hospitals that do not exist.
Using the methodology of the OPCW — that of making conclusions without proof or evidence, this author declares that the IIT statement in support of terrorists — err, “armed opposition groups” — was intentionally released at this time because US President Trump is considering decreasing or ending funding to the World Health Organization.
The headline of the press release of course omits the salacious details of the full report, knowing that NATO stenographer-journalists will not bother to read it.
OPCW strikes again.
The ITT report is essentially the same report as the OPCW’s FFM report of 2018 of the fake chemical weapons bombing of the unhospital in Ltamenah, Syria (the Health Ministry’s complete lists of public and private hospitals are hyperlinked, here.)/
Due to the fake that the fake watchdog group ignores the Geneva / ICRC agreements on the requirements for hospitals in war zones, Syria News again provides key screengrabs:
A terrorist — err, “armed opposition” — gang’s claim of a cave hospital, and or a sign on a moped garage does not turn a garage into a hospital, no matter how many terrorists claim to be witnesses.
The sign to the moped garage remained pristine, according to 1:29 video “documentation.”
NotAHospital
It is highly likely that the IIT expects the intellectual sloth of the stenographers to not re-read (or, more likely not read) the FFM Ltamenah report, which stated:
As with other allegations investigated by the [FFS], the team was not able to visit secured sites immediately after the alleged incidents. The potential for access was made more difficult as the areas were predominantly military areas with ongoing conflict prior to the alleged incident through to the time this report was being drafted. The team therefore relied on: the testimony of interviewees, samples as made available by the interviewees, and limited hospital records. — 6.1. OPCW did not do a physical inspection, did not maintain a chain of custody of “evidence” (& the dog ate the terrorists’ homework)…The [FFS] requested hospital documentation from medical staff. However, due to damage sustained to the medical facility on 25 March 2017, it was not possible to provide these records and documentation…” (5.31). Fluky and fortuitous, though the unhospital’s medical records were destroyed, the interviewees presented to the FFS with medical records intact (5.49).
The OPCWIIT report is more than twice the length of its FFM report. Though essentially the same, the extra words were needed to say that the team could not find terrorists to corroborate the massive evidence of the Syrian Arab Republic that terrorists have plottedthe staging of sites of alleged attacks claimed by terrorists.
The al Nusra White Helmets have finished a new chemical hoax video so that Trump will bomb Syria for alQaeda,
As with the fraudulent FFM report, the OPCW’s exciting new IIT report is based on hearsay, hearsay from armed, Captagon-fueled savages, and from its chain of uncustody.
Additionally, this issue of OPCW criminal lies against Syria added some interesting redactions that will very very likely go unnoticed by the media and by the NATO klan occupying the UN. Though HTS (also known as Jabhat al Nusra) is a designated terrorist gang, designated as terrorist by the UN, the US, the UK, France, et al., this unlikely neutral alleged watchdog group redacted the name of a head terrorist of the designated terrorist gang, and redacted all of his aliases.
The arrogantly corrupt OPCW’s new IIT which blamed Syria for chemical attacks that did not happen, because human pathogens said they happened, did not consider their sources as that old saying goes. Since the liberationof Ltamenah (and other cities and towns of Hama governate), the Syrian Arab Army has found massive weapons in Ltamenah, and mass graves.
Liberated Ltamenah: Mass graves unearthed.
The OPCW continues to let the truth be damned; as long as Secretary Lied, Cheated, Stole Pompeo is pleased..and there is a likely possibility that Trump may reward the corrupt with monies removed from WHO.
DAMASCUS, (ST)_Syrian Ministry of Expatriates and Foreign Affairs has affirmed that the report of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the use of sarin and chlorine in attacks on Latamneh village in Hama province in 2017 includes false and fabricated outcomes that aim to forge facts and to accuse the Syrian government. It underlined that the OPCW’s report depended on sources prepared by terrorists affiliated to al-Nusra Front and White Helmets in accordance to the instructions of their masters in the U.S., Turkey and other western countries.”Syria condemns in the strongest possible terms the report and rejects both its form and content, ” the ministry added. It concluded by saying:”Syria categorically denies its use of toxic gas in Latamneh village or in any other Syrian villge or city…Syria has never used Chemical weapons and it can not use them as it does not possess such weapons. Moreover, Syria beleives that the use of such weapons contradicts its moral and legal obligations.
يبدو بوضوح أن محاولات منظمة الأمم المتحدة لإعادة إحياء “مفاوضات السلام” بين القوى المتحاربة في اليمن تصطدم بخلاف كبير على مفهوم هذه الحرب.. ففيما ترى الأمم المتحدة على لسان أمينها العام انطونيو غوتيريش أنها حرب داخلية بين مكونات يمنية، ويساندها في هذه القراءة الأميركيون والبرطانيون وما يسمّى “التحالف العربي” الجامع بين السعودية والإمارات بتعاون عسكري غير رسمي مع السودان وباكستان و”اسرائيل”، والبحرية المصرية.
يرى اليمنيون انها عدوان كبير تشنه منذ خمس سنوات متواصلة، السعودية والإمارات بدعم غربي وعربي وإسرائيلي تستهدف القضاء على قوات يمنية أصلية تدافع عن بلادها بالتعاون مع الجيش الوطني اليمني وذلك لاحتلال كامل اليمن ورهنه لخدمة النفوذ الأميركي الكبير على مستويي الموقع وأكثر والمصالح السعودية ـ الإماراتية ضمن اطار شبه جزيرة العرب وجوارها.
لذلك بدا هذا الخلاف واضحاً في وثيقة الأمم المتحدة الداعية للعودة الى المفاوضات بين الأفرقاء الداخليين على اساس انها حرب بين قوى داخلية، وتجاهلت أن الأطراف المتحاربة هي قوات سعودية ـ إماراتية مدعومة بمرتزقة من عشرات البلدان وإسناد جوي أميركي ـ بريطاني وبحري من مصر و”إسرائيل” ومجمل دول الغرب مقابل قوات تنطلق من “شرعية صنعاء” وتضم الجيش اليمني وانصار الله والمؤتمر الشعبي.
وفي ما تغطي القوات الأجنبية المهاجمة، مجموعات داخلية ضعيفة موالية للرئيس السابق المخلوع عبد ربه منصور هادي وميليشيات ذات ميول انفصالية في الجنوب تمسك قوات صنعاء من جهتها بشرعية جماهيرية أتاحت لها الصمود أمام هذا العدوان الخارجي في الخمس سنوات الأخيرة، وسمحت لها التقدم نحو الوسط والجنوب والمناطق المحاذية للحدود السعودية في الشمال والشرق والمحافظة على الساحل الغربي في منطقة الحديدة.
هناك حقائق تبعث على السخرية من نظريات الأمم المتحدة، فبالتزامن مع بياناتها، حدثت عمليات إنزال أميركية وبريطانية لمقاتلين وأسلحة في مناطق رأس العارة في لحج وسواحل الشخر في حضرموت قرب مقار لشركة “أوكسن” وعرماء في محافظة شبوه.
الا يكشف هذا الأمر عن هوية اصحاب العدوان على اليمن؟ فبالإضافة الى هذا الأمر، فإن الذي أعلن عن وقف القتال لأسبوعين هو المتحدث السعودي باسم “التحالف العربي” الذي يهاجم اليمن منذ خمس سنوات وهو العميد في الجيش السعودي تركي المالكي ومندوب عن منصور هادي بالإضافة الى مقابلتين تلفزيونيتين، الاولى للسفير الأميركي في اليمن كريستوفر هتل والثاني لنظيره البريطاني مايكل آرون.
هذان المندوبان أشادا بالدور السعودي التاريخي في اليمن الذي يقدم الكثير من المساعدات المادية والمكرمات لليمنيين على مدى التاريخ واعتبرا بخبث أن الصراع داخلي ومناطقي، ما يكشف عن طبيعة التوجهات المقبلة لقوى العدوان وما تريده من المفاوضات المرتقبة.
إن المحصلة الحالية للعدوان السعودي ـ الإماراتي على اليمن فاقت عن مئتي الف شهيد وجريح من رجال ونساء واطفال وتدمير بنى حضارية تعود الى آلاف السنين أي قبل تأسيس السعودية والإمارات بثلاثة آلاف سنة على الأقل، كما تسبق تأسيس الولايات المتحدة الأميركية نفسها بـ 2800 سنة على الأقل.
فهل يمكن تصديق السفير البريطاني مايكل آرون بدفاعه عن السعودية، وصولاً إلى سؤاله اذا كانت أموال آل سعود تساوي هذه الدماء اليمنية التي تواصل الدفاع عن بلادها في وجه كل أنواع المستعمرين قبل الاسلام وبعده؟
لذلك، فإن مشروع السلام الأممي الذي عمل عليه طويلاً المندوب الأممي الى اليمن غريفيث، يحمل أهدافاً متنوّعة عميقة بمظهر خارجي مخادع أي أنه يُظهر الدسم مخفياً السموم الكامنة، كما تقول الامثال الشعبية.
أما الإغراء الأممي هنا، فهو عرض السلام المنشود بعد سنوات خمس من قتال صعب انهك جميع الأطراف، وقد لا يكون هذا كافياً بالنسبة لحركة جهادية كانصار الله تبدو مستعدة من اجل تحرير بلادها لقتال مفتوح زمنياً، لذلك أطلقت الأمم المتحدة إغراء آخر يقول بتثبيت وقف القتال عند الخطوط الحالية للحرب. وهذا بلغة السياسة العميقة اعتراف اممي بريطاني ـ أميركي بالحدود الحالية لدولة صنعاء، على قاعدة اعتراف اممية ـ أميركية ـ بريطانية وبالتالي سعودية ـ إماراتية بقانونية هذه الدولة وشرعيتها الدستورية والأممية، إلا أن السفير البريطاني أبقى على هذه النقطة مجالاً للتفاوض كي يستحصل مقابلاً له في تدعيم نفوذ بلاده في الاستراتيجية اليمنية والثروات.
فبدا هذا السفير الماكر وكأنه يقدّم شمالي اليمن لأنصار الله بسخاء بريطاني غير مسبوق، علماً أن بنادق المجاهدين اليمنيين هي التي حررت هذه المناطق وليست ترهات هذا البريطاني.
هذا يعني أن القوى الأميركية ـ البريطانية استسلمت لحقائق الميدان العصية على التغيير، وأخذت بعين الاعتبار الانكشاف السعودي ـ الإماراتي ووصولهما الى مرحلة التراجع والخسارة، فحاولت عبر الأمم المتحدة الدفع نحو سلام مزعوم يستند الى ما كانت مفاوضات ستوكهولم السويدية تسعى إليه. وهذا يعني تقسيم جنوبي اليمن الى كانتونات تعكس المطامع الرباعية للفريق الأميركي ـ البريطاني الاستراتيجي الاهداف والسعودي ـ الإماراتي الباحث عن النفوذ العربي وتعطيل ولادة دولة يمنية قوية تستطيع الاستحواذ على دور أساسي في شبه جزيرة العرب انطلاقاً من العديد الكبير لسكانها، الوطنية اليمنية التاريخية والموقع الاستراتيجي المتحكم عبر باب المندب والمحيط الهندي بعشرين بالمئة من التجارة العالمية وحركة مرور نحو 18 مليون برميل نفط يومياً، هذا من دون احتساب ثروات اليمن من النفط والغاز ودورها في المكانة الإقليمية والإنماء الداخلي.
بأي حال هناك حرص غربي على تجنيب السعودية الهزيمة في اليمن، خصوصاً في مأرب لأن أي تحرير لها يعني اجتياحاً يمنياً للعمق السعودي بما يعنيه من تداعيات على مستوى العلاقة بين آل سعود والسعوديين، خصوصاً في زمان جائحة الكورونا التي يبدو انها أصابت فريقاً من الأمراء الفاعلين، الأمر الذي يتطلب أي هدنة، تريح هذه العائلة، وتمنع عنها الانهيار وتفجير علاقاتها بسكان جزيرة العرب المنصاعين لها بالخوف والذعر ومفهوم الإطاعة بالقوة والارهاب.
فهل تنجح خطة الأمم المتحدة؟ لن يقبل انصار الله بهدنة لأسبوعين، ومشروعهم ينطوي على مفاوضات تنتهي بإعادة بناء دولة يمنية تطرد كل انواع المحتلين، وتعيد ربط اليمنيين ببعضهم بعضاً على قاعدة مشروع سياسي له بعدان: انماء وطني داخلي، ودور اقليمي في إطار حلف عربي ـ مشرقي يعكس الأهمية الدائمة لليمن في تفاعلات منطقة الشرق الأوسط.
The chaos and confusion rocking President Donald Trump’s administration on the most tragic day yet of the coronavirus pandemic was exceptional even by his own standards.
Trump set out Tuesday to cement his image of a wartime leader facing down an “invisible enemy” at a dark moment as the country waits for the virus to peak and with the economy languishing in suspended animation.
“What we have is a plague, and we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel,” the President said, on a day when a record number of Americans succumbed to the wicked respiratory disease.
But instead of putting minds at rest, Trump’s wild performance instead put on a display many of the personal and political habits that have defined his tumultuous presidency. It was a troubling spectacle coming at such a wrenching chapter of national life, the kind of moment when Presidents are called to provide consistent, level leadership.
To begin with, Trump sparked concern that he will prevent oversight of the disbursement of economic rescue funds by removing a watchdog official responsible for overseeing the $2 trillion package. The move, coming after Trump ousted an intelligence community inspector general last week, was yet another sign that an already impeached President is using the cover of the worst domestic crisis since World War II to further erode constraints on his power.
Trump’s acting Navy secretary quit after an episode in which he called an aircraft carrier captain dismissed for raising the alarm about virus infections among his crew “stupid.”
Then Trump insisted he hadn’t seen January memos by a top White House official warning about the pandemic at the same time the President was dismissing it as a threat.
He also announced he was placing a “very powerful hold” on funding for the World Health Organization, even though it correctly identified the scale of the virus and he didn’t. Then moments later, he insisted he did no such thing.
Adding to the sense of farce, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham was moved out, without ever having given a briefing, on yet another day of staff turmoil. CNN’s KFile reported Tuesday that her replacement, Kayleigh McEnany, recently said that thanks to the President, “we will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here.”
Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow admitted that a small business rescue program was off to “a bad start” after recipients struggled to register funds, only for the President to celebrate the program’s roaring success — and to credit his daughter Ivanka with personally creating 15 million jobs.
To top off a disorientating day in the West Wing, the President presided over an unchained news conference in which among other topics, he lashed out at mail-in voting, making claims about fraud that don’t square with the facts, even though he recently cast such a ballot himself. The comment followed extraordinary scenes in Wisconsin, after Republicans blocked the Badger State’s Democratic governor from delaying the state’s primary over concern that voters could infect one another with the novel coronavirus.
In many ways, it was just another inexplicable day of the Trump presidency.
Trump did mention Americans grieving the loss of loved ones in his scripted remarks, but the intensity of Trump’s clashes with reporters and litany of outrageous claims seemed incongruous with a backdrop of such human tragedy with more than 1,800 deaths reported in a single day.
There are, after all, more confirmed cases in the United States than anywhere else in the world — even if there are some hopeful and preliminary signs that the wave of infections may be beginning to slow in the New York epicenter.
The chaos and contradictions coming from the administration do not just raise questions about the White House’s current management of the pandemic. They will cause concern because the second stage of the national effort — reopening the economy and keeping a second wave of infections at bay — will require focused and subtle leadership that can win the confidence of the nation.
No White House has ever faced the task of ensuring such an expansive economic package is properly implemented and does not fall prey to corruption. There is little in the history of the Trump administration that suggests this will go smoothly.
The President sparked fresh fears about his capacity to properly oversee previous rescue packages and those to come when it emerged he had removed Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine from a post monitoring the stimulus funds.
The move prompted Democrats to warn that Trump is seeking to oversee the package himself. Trump had already warned he will ignore a provision in the bill requiring the special inspector general to report to Congress on the handling of the funds.
His dismissal of Fine was the latest swipe against the structures of government meant to hold him accountable — that peaked with his defiance of the impeachment inquiry.
On Monday, Trump personally attacked a Health and Human Services inspector general who uncovered massive shortages of vital protective equipment at hospitals battling Covid-19.
On Friday night, the President fired the intelligence community inspector general who alerted lawmakers to a report about his pressure on Ukraine to dig up dirt on his Democratic foe Joe Biden.
With the pandemic taking a tighter grip on the United States, Trump has taken vigorous steps to cover up for his multiple statements earlier this year downplaying the virus.
The question of his responsibility for a lack of preparation for the crisis intensified on Tuesday when The New York Times revealed that a top economic official, Peter Navarro, had written a memo to the President in January warning coronavirus could become a “full blown pandemic” causing trillions of dollars in economic damage and risking the health of millions of Americans.
The revelation undercut the President’s repeated declarations that nobody could have foreseen the consequences of the virus. It also left him in a tricky spot. Either he had to admit that he had seen the warning, or if he said it didn’t reach him, he would paint a picture of dysfunction at the White House.
He did neither, seeking to foster misinformation and confusion around the document designed to disguise his own culpability.
The President maintained that he did not see the memo or memos until several days ago.
“I didn’t see them. I didn’t look for them either,” the President said, then argued falsely he had reached the same conclusion as Navarro, citing his decision to stop flights from China. In fact, Trump was downplaying the impact of the virus as recently as early last month.
When asked why he did not level with Americans about the potential impact of the crisis if his unexpressed thoughts aligned with Navarro, Trump said: “I’m not going to go out and start screaming, this could happen.”
“I’m a cheerleader for this country. I don’t want to create havoc and shock.”
Unlike the President, the World Health Organization has warned for weeks about the gravity of coronavirus.
The WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International concern on January 30 after sending a team to Wuhan and to meet Chinese leaders in Beijing.
On the same day, at a rally in Michigan, the President said of the virus, “We think we have it very well under control.”
But on Tuesday, the President lashed out at the global health body, claiming it had underplayed the threat of the virus and that he had got it right.
“We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We’re going to put a very powerful hold on it,” the President said in his briefing.
“They called it wrong. They missed the call. They could have called it months earlier,” Trump said.
“It’s a great thing if it works but when they call every shot wrong that’s no good,” he said, accusing the WHO of being biased towards China, which Republicans have accused of trying to cover up the virus.
Given the President’s long timeline of false statements and predictions, that must go down as one of the most audacious comments of his presidency. It was also reflective of his own tendency to nominate an enemy and accuse it of the very transgression that he is accused of perpetrating.
He added to the confusion by denying that he had said that he would halt funding to the WHO — a move that would be counterproductive in a pandemic and would undermine already compromised perceptions of US leadership on the crisis.
“I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but we are going to look at it,” the President said.
The President was also unable to provide much clarity on the chaos afflicting the Navy, following the resignation of Thomas Modly. The acting Navy secretary quit a day after leaked audio revealed he called the ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt “stupid” in an address to the ship’s crew.
This came a little more than a week after Capt. Brett Crozier sent a memo warning of coronavirus spreading among the sailors. The memo leaked and Modly subsequently removed Crozier from command.
“I had no role in it. I don’t know him but I’ve heard he was a very good man,” the commander in chief said.
But Trump also rebuked Crozier.
“He didn’t have to be Ernest Hemmingway. He made a mistake but he had a bad day. And I hate seeing bad things happen.”
منذ العام 2004 لم تترك الرياض أية فرصة للسيطرة على اليمن والانقضاض على حركة أنصار الله من خلال حروبها العدوانية الستّ التي شنّتها عبر وكيلها في اليمن الرئيس السابق علي عبد الله صالح الذي قتل عام 2017 بعد انقلابه على حكومة صنعاء في ظلّ الحرب العدوانية السابعة التي قادها الأصيل السعودي بتحالفه الأميركي الإماراتي على اليمن بعد هزيمة الوكيل السعودي على يد أنصار الله، حروبٌ عدوانيةٌ ستّ قادها الوكيل على مدى سنوات طويلة تخللها توقيع اتفاقيات صلح ووقف لإطلاق النار كانت أولاها في شهر شباط عام 2006 حيث وقعت حكومة الرئيس علي عبد الله صالح اتفاقية الصلح في صعدة مع أنصار الله تمهيداً للانتخابات التي بمجرد انتهائها بادرت الحكومة حينها الى الانقلاب وإعلان الحرب على أنصار الله من جديد، تلاه اتفاق على وقف لإطلاق النار في تموز عام 2007 الذي أسّس لاتفاق الدوحة عام 2008، ولكي لا ندخل في تفاصيل الاتفاقيات التي وقعها وكلاء الرياض وانقلبوا عليها لا بدّ من التذكير بأنّ مجموع الاتفاقيات التي وقعت بين السعودية ووكلائها بلغت تسع اتفاقيات تقريباً من ضمنها اتفاقية السلم والشراكة عام 2014 ومفاوضات جنيف بين عامي 2015 و2018 بمراحلها الثلاث إضافة إلى مشاورات الكويت 2016، واتفاق استوكهولم (كانون الأوّل/ ديسمبر 2018)…
كلّ تلك الاتفاقيات لم يُكتب لها النجاح بسبب سياسة السعودية الانقلابية وعدم التزامها بالاتفاقيات وما جرى في الحديدة بعد اتفاق السويد كان آخر عهد نكثت به الرياض، ففي حين نص اتفاق السويد الموقع بين الطرفين على وقف فوري لإطلاق النار في مدينة الحديدة وموانئها والصليف ورأس عيسى. إضافة إلى تفعيل اتفاقية تبادل الأسرى وإعلان تفاهمات حول تعز كان ردّ قوى التحالف العدواني بشنّ المزيد من الهجمات على الحديدة لم يجن منها التحالف العدواني إلا المزيد من الخسائر في قواته وعتاده ولم يحصد إلا الهزائم التي تتالت عليه. حيث شكلت معركة الحديدة نقلةً نوعيةً في مسار مواجهة العدوان بالتزامن مع تعزيز الجيش اليمني لقدراته الصاروخية والقتالية ووحدة طائراته المسيّرة، أمر أدّى إلى تحقيق انتصارات نوعية للجيش واللجان الشعبية خلال سنوات العدوان الذي دخل عامه السادس لا سيما بعد ضربة «أرامكو» وما تلاها من عمليات نوعية على جبهات الداخل من عملية نصر من الله ونجران والجوف ووصولاً الى مأرب المحاصرة من قوات صنعاء والتي تشكل كنز اليمن النفطي الذي اذا ما تمّ السيطرة عليه من قبل الجيش واللجان الشعبية فإنّ ذلك يعني هزيمة التحالف في أمّ المعارك التي ستضيف تحوّلاً استراتيجياً متقدّماً في مسار المعركة. وهنا تظهر بوضوح أهداف المبادرة السعودية الاضطرارية التي أعلن عنها أمس والتي استبقها العدوان بشنّ ثلاثمئة غارة على المحافظات اليمنية لن تكون أقلّ من سابقاتها من المبادرات والاتفاقيات لأنّ الهدف منها أولاً تقويض عملية الردّ والحساب على الغارات التي أعلن عنها المتحدث باسم القوات المسلحة اليمنية العميد يحيى سريع في تغريدة له على «تويتر» متوعّداً بأنه لن يمرّ هذا التصعيد من دون ردّ مناسب وتأجيل عملية تقدّم قوات صنعاء باتجاه مأرب والسيطرة عليها. وقطع الطريق على تلك القوات لمنعها من تحقيق انتصار جديد يزيد صورة قوى التحالف ومرتزقته تهشيماً إضافةً إلى خلق فرصة زمنية لكسب الوقت والاستعداد لمواجهة هجوم مأرب والحؤول دون سقوطها وتقويض كلّ إنجازات الجيش واللجان الشعبية. وهو أمرٌ لن يتحقق لأنّ ما عجز التحالف عن تحقيقه من أهداف كبيرة على مدى سنوات العدوان لن يستطيع ان يحققه في جزئيته الصغيرة وكما في الميدان كذلك في السياسة لا يمكن تجزئة الحلول من خلال تقديم مبادرات لن تصمد كما ثبت بالدليل والتجربة. وهذا ما أعلنه مراراً سيد اليمن الأبي السيد عبد الملك الحوثي حين صرح في مناسبات عدة أنه (لا يمكن تجزئة الحلّ السياسي ولا يمكن الخروج بحلّ إذا لم يكن حلاً شاملاً) وإلا تبقى تلك المبادرات الأحادية غير مجدية ولن تكون جدية وبناءً على ذلك جاء ردّ صنعاء على المبادرة من خلال تقديمها للأمم المتحدة اقتراح وثيقة للحلّ الشامل لإنهاء العدوان على اليمن وتتضمّن وقفاً لإطلاق النار وإنهاء جميع العمليات الحربية ورفع الحصار البري والبحري وإنهاء الحظر الجوي والعمل على إنهاء الأزمة الإنسانية والاقتصادية وفتح حوار يمني – يمني من أجل العملية السياسية. وعلى هذا الأساس فإنّ أية مبادرة أو اتفاق لا يتضمّن تلك المطالب المعلنة لا تعني صنعاء وبالتالي فإنّ استمرار العدوان بعد أسبوعين وهي المدة التي أعلنت التزامها الرياض في مبادرتها لوقف العدوان لن تجني منه سوى المزيد من الهزائم لا بل أنّ صنعاء ستحوّل العدوان إلى فرصة لإسقاط نظام آل سعود في ظلّ المتغيّرات التي يشهدها العالم.
You don’t need to read Michel Foucault’s work on biopolitics to understand that neoliberalism – in deep crisis since at least 2008 – is a control/governing technique in which surveillance capitalism is deeply embedded.
But now, with the world-system collapsing at breathtaking speed, neoliberalism is at a loss to deal with the next stage of dystopia, ever present in our hyper-connected angst: global mass unemployment.
Henry Kissinger, anointed oracle/gatekeeper of the ruling class, is predictably scared. He claims that, “sustaining the public trust is crucial to social solidarity.” He’s convinced the Hegemon should “safeguard the principles of the liberal world order.” Otherwise, “failure could set the world on fire.”
That’s so quaint. Public trust is dead across the spectrum. The liberal world “order” is now social Darwinist chaos. Just wait for the fire to rage.
The numbers are staggering. The Japan-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), in its annual economic report, may not have been exactly original. But it did note that the impact of the “worst pandemic in a century” will be as high as $4.1 trillion, or 4.8 percent of global GDP.
This an underestimation, as “supply disruptions, interrupted remittances, possible social and financial crises, and long-term effects on health care and education are excluded from the analysis.”
We cannot even start to imagine the cataclysmic social consequences of the crash. Entire sub-sectors of the global economy may not be recomposed at all.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) forecasts global unemployment at a conservative, additonal 24.7 million people – especially in aviation, tourism and hospitality.
The global aviation industry is a humongous $2.7 trillion business. That’s 3.6 percent of global GDP. It employs 2.7 million people. When you add air transport and tourism —everything from hotels and restaurants to theme parks and museums — it accounts for a minimum of 65.5 million jobs around the world.
According to the ILO, income losses for workers may range from $860 billion to an astonishing $3.4 trillion. “Working poverty” will be the new normal – especially across the Global South.
“Working poor,” in ILO terminology, means employed people living in households with a per capita income below the poverty line of $2 a day. As many as an additional 35 million people worldwide will become working poor in 2020.
Switching to feasible perspectives for global trade, it’s enlightening to examine that this report about how the economy may rebound is centered on the notorious hyperactive merchants and traders of Yiwu in eastern China – the world’s busiest small-commodity, business hub.
Their experience spells out a long and difficult recovery. As the rest of the world is in a coma, Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong stresses that China faces a 30 percent decline in external demand at least until next Fall.
Neoliberalism in Reverse?
San Miguel, Bulacan, Philippines, 2016. (Judgefloro, CC0, Wikimedia Commons)
In the next stage, the strategic competition between the U.S. and China will be no-holds-barred, as emerging narratives of China’s new, multifaceted global role – on trade, technology, cyberspace, climate change – will set in, even more far-reaching than the New Silk Roads. That will also be the case in global public health policies. Get ready for an accelerated Hybrid War between the “Chinese virus” narrative and the Health Silk Road.
The latest report by the China Institute of International Studies would be quite helpful for the West — hubris permitting — to understand how Beijing adopted key measures putting the health and safety of the general population first.
Now, as the Chinese economy slowly picks up, hordes of fund managers from across Asia are tracking everything from trips on the metro to noodle consumption to preview what kind of economy may emerge post-lockdown.
In contrast, across the West, the prevailing doom and gloom elicited a priceless editorial from TheFinancial Times. Like James Brown in the 1980s Blues Brothers pop epic, the City of London seems to have seen the light, or at least giving the impression it really means it. Neoliberalism in reverse. New social contract. “Secure” labor markets. Redistribution.
Cynics won’t be fooled. The cryogenic state of the global economy spells out a vicious Great Depression 2.0 and an unemployment tsunami. The plebs eventually reaching for the pitchforks and the AR-15s en masse is now a distinct possibility. Might as well start throwing a few breadcrumbs to the beggars’ banquet.
That may apply to European latitudes. But the American story is in a class by itself.
Mural, Seattle, February 2017. (Mitchell Haindfield, Flickr)
For decades, we were led to believe that the world-system put in place after WWII provided the U.S. with unrivalled structural power. Now, all that’s left is structural fragility, grotesque inequalities, unpayable Himalayas of debt, and a rolling crisis.
No one is fooled anymore by the Fed’s magic quantitative easing powers, or the acronym salad – TALF, ESF, SPV – built into the Fed/U.S. Treasury exclusive obsession with big banks, corporations and the Goddess of the Market, to the detriment of the average American.
It was only a few months ago that a serious discussion evolved around the $2.5 quadrillion derivatives market imploding and collapsing the global economy, based on the price of oil skyrocketing, in case the Strait of Hormuz – for whatever reason – was shut down.
Now it’s about Great Depression 2.0: the whole system crashing as a result of the shutdown of the global economy. The questions are absolutely legitimate: is the political and social cataclysm of the global economic crisis arguably a larger catastrophe than Covid-19 itself? And will it provide an opportunity to end neoliberalism and usher in a more equitable system, or something even worse?
‘Transparent’ BlackRock
Wall Street, of course, lives in an alternative universe. In a nutshell, Wall Street turned the Fed into a hedge fund. The Fed is going to own at least two thirds of all U.S. Treasury bills in the market before the end of 2020.
The U.S. Treasury will be buying every security and loan in sight while the Fed will be the banker – financing the whole scheme.
So essentially this is a Fed/Treasury merger. A behemoth dispensing loads of helicopter money.
And the winner is BlackRock—the biggest money manager on the planet, with tentacles everywhere, managing the assets of over 170 pension funds, banks, foundations, insurance companies, in fact a great deal of the money in private equity and hedge funds. BlackRock — promising to be fully “transparent” — will buy these securities and manage those dodgy SPVs on behalf of the Treasury.
BlackRock, founded in 1988 by Larry Fink, may not be as big as Vanguard, but it’s the top investor in Goldman Sachs, along with Vanguard and State Street, and with $6.5 trillion in assets, bigger than Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank combined.
Now, BlackRock is the new operating system (OS) of the Fed and the Treasury. The world’s biggest shadow bank – and no, it’s not Chinese.
Compared to this high-stakes game, mini-scandals such as the one around Georgia Senator Kelly Loffler are peanuts. Loffler allegedly profited from inside information on Covid-19 by the CDC to make a stock market killing. Loffler is married to Jeffrey Sprecher – who happens to be the chairman of the NYSE, installed by Goldman Sachs.
While corporate media followed this story like headless chickens, post-Covid-19 plans, in Pentagon parlance, “move forward” by stealth.
The price? A meager $1,200 check per person for a month. Anyone knows that, based on median salary income, a typical American family would need $12,000 to survive for two months. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in an act of supreme effrontry, allows them a mere 10 percent of that. So American taxpayers will be left with a tsunami of debt while selected Wall Street players grab the whole loot, part of an unparalleled transfer of wealth upwards, complete with bankruptcies en masse of small and medium businesses.
Fink’s letter to his shareholders almost gives the game away: “I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.”
And right on cue, he forecasted that, “in the near future – and sooner than most anticipate – there will be a significant reallocation of capital.”
He was referring, then, to climate change. Now that refers to Covid-19.
Implant Our Nanochip, Or Else?
West Virginia National Guard members reporting to a Charleston nursing home to assist with Covid-19 testing. April 6, 2020. (U.S. Army National Guard, Edwin L. Wriston)
The game ahead for the elites, taking advantage of the crisis, might well contain these four elements: a social credit system, mandatory vaccination, a digital currency and a Universal Basic Income (UBI). This is what used to be called, according to the decades-old, time-tested CIA playbook, a “conspiracy theory.” Well, it might actually happen.
A social credit system is something that China set up already in 2014. Before the end of 2020, every Chinese citizen will be assigned his/her own credit score – a de facto “dynamic profile”, elaborated with extensive use of AI and the internet of things (IoT), including ubiquitous facial recognition technology. This implies, of course, 24/7 surveillance, complete with Blade Runner-style roving robotic birds.
The U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Canada, Russia and India may not be far behind. Germany, for instance, is tweaking its universal credit rating system, SCHUFA. France has an ID app very similar to the Chinese model, verified by facial recognition.
Mandatory vaccination is Bill Gates’s dream, working in conjunction with the WHO, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Big Pharma. He wants “billions of doses” to be enforced over the Global South. And it could be a cover to everyone getting a digital implant.
Here it is, in his own words. At 34:15: “Eventually what we’ll have to have is certificates of who’s a recovered person, who’s a vaccinated person…Because you don’t want people moving around the world where you’ll have some countries that won’t have it under control, sadly. You don’t want to completely block off the ability for people to go there and come back and move around.”
Then comes the last sentence which was erased from the official TED video. This was noted by Rosemary Frei, who has a master on molecular biology and is an independent investigative journalist in Canada. Gates says: “So eventually there will be this digital immunity proof that will help facilitate the global reopening up.”
This “digital immunity proof” is crucial to keep in mind, something that could be misused by the state for nefarious purposes.
The three top candidates to produce a coronavirus vaccine are American biotech firm Moderna, as well as Germans CureVac and BioNTech.
Digital cash might then become an offspring of blockchain. Not only the U.S., but China and Russia are also interested in a national crypto-currency. A global currency – of course controlled by central bankers – may soon be adopted in the form of a basket of currencies, and would circulate virtually. Endless permutations of the toxic cocktail of IoT, blockchain technology and the social credit system could loom ahead.
Already Spain has announced that it is introducing UBI, and wants it to be permanent. It’s a form insurance for the elite against social uprisings, especially if millions of jobs never come back.
So the key working hypothesis is that Covid-19 could be used as cover for the usual suspects to bring in a new digital financial system and a mandatory vaccine with a “digital identity” nanochip with dissent not tolerated: what Slavoj Zizek calls the “erotic dream” of every totalitarian government.
Yet underneath it all, amid so much anxiety, a pent-up rage seems to be gathering strength, to eventually explode in unforeseeable ways. As much as the system may be changing at breakneck speed, there’s no guarantee even the 0.1 percent will be safe.
Pepe Escobar, a veteran Brazilian journalist, is the correspondent-at-large for Hong Kong-based Asia Times. His latest book is “2030.” Follow him on Facebook.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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