Daily Archives: March 3, 2021

2021-03-03: News Headlines

Online News Editor (2021-03-03). Spain king's sisters stir controversy by getting vaccine on Abu Dhabi trip. laprensalatina.com Madrid, Mar 3 (efe-epa).- The Spanish royal family has found itself at the heart of another scandal after it was revealed that the sisters of King Felipe VI were vaccinated against Covid-19 during a trip to the United Arab Emirates, where they went to visit their father, the self-exiled former monarch Juan Carlos I. Reports …

_____ (2021-03-03). Ukraine Intensifies Shelling Of Donbass As Western Media Are Silent. popularresistance.org While much of the world is focused on Covid-related issues, Ukraine's seven-year war on the people of Donbass continues. In recent weeks, Kiev's shelling of civilians has intensified, met by the predictable Western media silence. | Ostensibly, following the Minsk agreements, there was a ceasefire. In reality, Donbass residents in villages bordering peace lines are incessantly subject to Ukrainian shelling. | Ukraine uses heavy weapons in violation of the agreement, including 82mm and 120mm mortar shells, routinely shelling at night when Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observers are not…

Juan Cole (2021-03-03). Reporters without Borders Files German 'Crimes against Humanity' Case against Saudi's Bin Salman for Khashoggi Murder. juancole.com Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) — The France-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) has filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor-General of the Federal Court of Justices in Karlsruhe, Germany, against crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman and other Saudi officials for the murder of Washington Post columnist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The filing alleges …

South Front (2021-03-03). Video: Armenia Lost the War against Azerbaijan. Calls for Resignation of PM Pashinyan. globalresearch.ca Three months after losing the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister …

Stephen Lendman (2021-03-03). Biden Administration Escalates "War on Russia by Other Means". On the Target for "Regime Change" globalresearch.ca The US is implacably hostile toward nations free from its control. …

Areeb Ullah (2021-03-03). ICC prosecutor opens investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel and Hamas. middleeasteye.net ICC prosecutor opens investigation into alleged war crimes by Israel and Hamas | Fatou Bensouda formally begins her investigation after the International Criminal Court ruled it had jurisdiction in the Palestinian territories | Wed, 03/03/2021 – 14: 26 | Bensouda said the decision to begin an ICC investigation comes after a five-year preliminary inquiry (Reuters) | The International Criminal Court's pros…

Howard Lisnoff (2021-03-03). What We Got in Biden. counterpunch.org The wrenching appeals by some on the political left to vote for Biden must sting for some of those who actually did cast their vote for him, or at least against Trump in November 2020. This is the game that plays itself out again and again and again, ad nauseam, in US politics, the politics

Raul Diego (2021-03-03). The Bits and Bytes of The Great Reset: COVID-19 and the Scaling Up of Data-Capitalism. mintpressnews.com The so-called Great Reset amounts to little more than a campaign to turn humanity into datasets, which the world's most powerful hedge funds and transnational corporations can use to create more profits for themselves and their clients.

Martha Grevatt (2021-03-03). Support keeps building for #BAmazon union drive, Biden feels pressure. workers.org A people's movement against an anti-people corporation has intensified, backing the union drive at Amazon's Bessemer, Ala., warehouse. The courageous Southern union warriors are finally starting to get the support they need and deserve. People's Organization for Progress rally to support Amazon workers outside Whole Foods, Newark, N.J., Feb. 27. . . . |

Paul Street (2021-03-03). Ruling Class Joe and the Essence of American Politics. counterpunch.org It's a damn good thing that the demented pandemo-fascist oligarch Donald Trump no longer sits in the White House and that his Republifascist Party no longer holds the majority in the U.S. Senate. But make no mistake: Americans continue to live under an unelected dictatorship of money and empire. Just because that class dictatorship isn't quite ready for Door #1, open fascist rule, don't look for Door #2, neo-New Deal reformist social democracy, anytime soon. No, we are still getting slammed in the face with Door #3, a neoliberal corporate-imperial authoritarianism that cancels #2 while setting us up for a harsher…

Staff (2021-03-03). Latinx Farmworkers Risk Their Lives During Pandemic. Many Now Struggle to Access Vaccines. democracynow.org There are about 2.5 million farmworkers around the U.S., many of them undocumented immigrants working under dangerous and exploitive circumstances without sick leave or healthcare. Despite their status as essential workers, however, many farmworkers are facing an uphill battle to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Estella Cisneros, legal director of the Agriculture Worker Program for California Rural Legal Assistance, says an uneven rollout in California as well as technical barriers have left many farmworkers unvaccinated. "There's been a lot of inequities that we've seen," she says. We also speak with Mary Jo Dud…

Staff (2021-03-03). Latinx Farmworkers Risk Their Lives During Pandemic. Many Now Struggle to Access Vaccines. democracynow.org There are about 2.5 million farmworkers around the U.S., many of them undocumented immigrants working under dangerous and exploitive circumstances without sick leave or healthcare. Despite their status as essential workers, however, many farmworkers are facing an uphill battle to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Estella Cisneros, legal director of the Agricultural Worker Program for California Rural Legal Assistance, says an uneven rollout in California as well as technical barriers have left many farmworkers unvaccinated. "There's been a lot of inequities that we've seen," she says. We also speak with Mary Jo Du…

Rayhan Uddin (2021-03-03). Syria: Majority in opposition areas impacted by attacks on medical facilities. middleeasteye.net Syria: Majority in opposition areas impacted by attacks on medical facilities | New report documents devastating impact of a decade of assaults on health care in the country's northwest | Wed, 03/03/2021 – 16: 10 | An aerial view of a hospital reportedly hit by an air strike in the Syrian village of Shinan, 30 kilometres south of Idlib (AFP/File photo) | A majority of Syrians living in the country's e…

Kenneth Surin (2021-03-03). Policing Universities by Neoliberal Governments in the UK And France. counterpunch.org The respective motivations, and their specific underlying conditions, are of course different in the UK and France, but both culminate in plans for universities to curb the expression of leftist points of view. In the UK this gives a potential pulpit to "maverick" speakers on the right, such as Steve Bannon, who (facetiously?) approved the delivery of pipe bombs to critics of Trump, and who lost his book deal for having a favourable view of underage sex.

Joe Piette (2021-03-03). Community demands Sanctuary Schools in Philadelphia, a 'sanctuary city'. workers.org Erika Guadalupe Nuñez speaking, March 1. "Philadelphia has declared itself a 'sanctuary city,' but how can it be a sanctuary city without its schools being sanctuaries for all students?" asked Erika Guadalupe Nuñez of Juntos at a well-attended March 1 press conference outside the School District of Philadelphia headquarters. . . . |

Joyce Chediac (2021-03-03). 7 lies Amazon tells about the union. liberationnews.org In a historic development, 5,800 workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, are right now voting on whether to be represented by the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union.

ProPublica (2021-03-03). How Facebook Suppressed Kurdish Site for sake of its Business in Turkey. juancole.com By Jack Gillum and Justin Elliott | — ( ProPublica ) — As Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish minorities in neighboring Syria in early 2018, Facebook's top executives faced a political dilemma. Turkey was demanding the social media giant block Facebook posts from the People's Protection Units, a mostly Kurdish militia group the …

Liberation Staff-Yakima (2021-03-03). Richland, Wash., protesters demand 'no kids in cages'. liberationnews.org Facilities used to cage children that were closed under Trump's administration are being reopened under Biden's administration.

Eds. (2021-03-03). Debt relief with Chinese characteristics. mronline.org As China is poised to become the world's largest creditor, concerns about debt sustainability have grown. Yet considerable confusion exists over what is likely to happen when a government runs into trouble repaying its Chinese loans.

Gloria Rubac (2021-03-03). Solitary confinement abuse sparks hunger strike in Louisiana's Angola Prison. workers.org Incarcerated workers in Louisiana's notorious Angola Prison began a hunger strike early Feb. 17. The reason: Prison officials refused to release them back into the prison population after they served their sentence in solitary for a rule infraction. Angola State Prison was the 18,000-acre Angola Plantation before the Civil War, . . . |

Ed Rampell (2021-03-03). 'Back of the Moon': A Noirish apartheid-era South African film. peoplesworld.org Director/co-writer and Oscar nominee Angus Gibson's Back of the Moon is another example of why I love PAFF—the Pan African Virtual Film + Arts Festival. If not for this festival film buffs like moi probably would never have heard of, let alone had the opportunity to see, this highly entertaining South African movie. Moon is …

Karen Conner (2021-03-03). Workers Should be Wary Now that Private Equity Is Going Retail. cepr.net Eight years after passage of the 2013 JOBS Act that let private equity firms market directly to individuals to solicit their investments, retail investors — largely high net worth individuals — finally account for a significant share of assets under management (AUM) at some of the largest PE firms. Apollo claims to be "among the …

Jenny Farrell (2021-03-03). Rosa Luxemburg at 150: Toward 'a social order worthy of the human race'. peoplesworld.org On March 5, 2021, we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Rosa Luxemburg's birth. No one who wishes to get a sense of Rosa Luxemburg as a person, both political and private, will regret watching Margarethe von Trotta's meticulously researched 1986 film of the same name. It is available with English subtitles. The film begins on …

Eds. (2021-03-03). Ecuador: from horror to electoral debate. mronline.org Amidst denunciations and accusations the campaign for the April 11 runoff begins.

Jamal Rich (2021-03-03). Solidarity rallies call for end to U.S.-backed dictatorship in Haiti. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON——On the morning of March 1 at the Embassy of Haiti, local D.C. organizers with Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) held a solidarity rally with the people of Haiti who are rising up against a U.S.-backed dictator. Jovenel MoàØse's term of office ended Feb. 7, but he has so far refused to relinquish power. MoàØse, …

Lambert Strether (2021-03-03). CDC school reopening guidance suppresses aerosols based on thin evidence and driven by budgetary concerns. mronline.org For a period of time after this article was originally published (February 18, 2021) it was scrubbed from Google's search index. When the author, Lambert Strether, realized the piece had been "censored," it was published a second time on March 1, 2021 with an analysis of the purging. Subsequently, the article magically reappeared in the search …

Ted Kelly (2021-03-03). Biden pick for Secretary of Agriculture no friend of farmworkers or small farmers. workers.org President Joe Biden nominated former Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a job he held for the entire Obama administration from 2009 to 2017. Vilsack testified before the Senate on Feb. 2 — Groundhog Day — and was confirmed a few weeks later. . . . |

Tomdispatch (2021-03-03). The Real Threats to America are the Pandemic and Poverty; why Give Ever More Money to the Pentagon? juancole.com By Mandy Smithberger | — ( Tomdispatch.com) — This country is in a crisis of the first order. More than half a million of us have died thanks to Covid-19. Food insecurity is on the rise, with nearly 24 million Americans going hungry, including 12 million children. Unemployment claims filed since the pandemic began have …

John Wojcik (2021-03-03). Republicans make the FBI look like the good guys. peoplesworld.org Not too many years ago, it would have been unthinkable that at a congressional hearing on right-wing terror the FBI would be defending left and progressive demonstrators, saying that it was not them but rather white supremacists that were the real threat to security in the U.S. At the obvious displeasure of Republican senators Tuesday, …

Special to People's World (2021-03-03). The devastating, irreparable death of Aruká Juma. peoplesworld.org Manaus, Amazonas — The death of the last survivor of the Juma people, the warrior Amoim Aruká, from complications linked to COVID-19, is an incalculable tragedy. The Juma people suffered innumerable massacres throughout their history. There were 15,000 of them at the turn of the 20th century and by 2002 there were only five Jumas …

Ted Kelly (2021-03-03). Biden pick for Secretary of Agriculture no friend of farmworkers or small farmers. workers.org President Joe Biden nominated former Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a job he held for the entire Obama administration from 2009 to 2017. Vilsack testified before the Senate on Feb. 2 — Groundhog Day — and was confirmed a few weeks later. Vilsack's . . . |

The Conversation (2021-03-03). A common soil pesticide cut wild bee reproduction by 89% — here's why scientists are worried. juancole.com By Philip Donkersley | — When you think of bees, a hive humming with activity probably comes to mind. But most of the world's 20,000 bee species don't call a hive home. These wild species lead solitary lives instead, and around 70% of them build nests underground where they raise their offspring on the nectar …

Sandra Plantier (2021-03-03). What the trees of Notre Dame have to tell us. peoplesworld.org On April 15, 2019, watching television footage of Notre Dame Cathedral burning, I wept like millions of other French people and others around the world. The flames which invaded the screen brought back memories of my first visit to the cathedral as a child, reading the novel by Victor Hugo (Notre Dame de Paris, 1831), …

Mirinda Crissman (2021-03-03). Congelación de Texas: los ricos, más ricos mientras obreros sufren. workers.org Houston Una tormenta invernal sin precedentes azotó a Texas el 15 de febrero y trajo temperaturas bajo cero. Una semana después, grandes sectores de la población siguen sin electricidad, calefacción y/o agua. El horizonte de Houston brilla, mientras millones sufren sin calefacción ni agua en medio de cortes de energía . . . |

Melvin Goodman (2021-03-03). Biden's Quandry: Proxy Wars and Endless Wars. counterpunch.org From the end of the Second World War until the administration of Ronald Reagan, there were very few American battlefield deaths in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and Southwest Asia. Since the administration of George H.W. Bush, however, most American battlefield deaths have taken place in those regions. The turning point took place in 1979 with the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Christian Noakes (2021-03-03). The Bessemer front in the international class struggle. workers.org Bessemer, Ala., is now the site of a historic labor struggle between the majority-Black Amazon warehouse workers there and the $1.7 trillion international capitalist monopoly corporation. About 80% of the warehouse workers are African American, and almost half are women. Rally for Amazon workers, Bessemer, Ala., Feb. 6. In March . . . |

Liberation Staff-Yakima (2021-03-03). Richland, Washington protesters demand 'No kids in cages'. liberationnews.org Facilities used to cage children that were closed under Trump's administration are being reopened under Biden's administration.

teleSUR Desk (2021-03-03). Ecuador: Indigenous organizations announce national strike. mronline.org Supporters of Indigenous presidential candidate Yaku Perez demand the recount of electoral records due to alleged electoral fraud.

Melvin Goodman (2021-03-03). Biden's Quandary: Proxy Wars and Endless Wars. counterpunch.org From the end of the Second World War until the administration of Ronald Reagan, there were very few American battlefield deaths in the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, and Southwest Asia. Since the administration of George H.W. Bush, however, most American battlefield deaths have taken place in those regions. The turning point took place in 1979 with the Iranian revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Nigel Bouvart (2021-03-03). Buffalo demands mental health help, not death-by-cop. workers.org Buffalo, N.Y., City Hall, Feb. 28 Buffalo, N.Y. — Activists demonstrated here Feb. 28 in solidarity with the family of Daniel Prude and the people of Rochester, N.Y, where police killed Prude while answering a mental health crisis call in March 2020. The police response was to put a "spit . . . |

Eds. (2021-03-03). The class character of the expansion of COVID-19: The case of Peru's Capital City Lima. mronline.org At the end of December 2019, the world was notified about the existence of a new coronavirus in the city of Wuhan in China. This virus, SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19), rapidly spread and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020.

Joseph Grosso (2021-03-03). Andrew Cuomo: Legend of a Fall. counterpunch.org Future historians will have a field day examining the daily commentary of the COVID pandemic. Early on there was Madonna sitting nude in a marble bathtub filled with rose petals proclaiming COVID 'the great equalizer.' Trump of course supplied his daily dose of schizophrenic fare so incoherent that even conservative TV hacks were unable to morph it into a convincing picture of brave leadership. Yet nothing tops the spectacle of Ellen Degeneres and Trevor Noah actually declaring themselves to be 'Cuomosexuals', in honor of New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a term that was immediately plastered on various merchandise…

Joseph Grosso (2021-03-03). Andrew Cuomo: Legend of a Fall. counterpunch.org Future historians will have a field day examining the daily commentary of the COVID pandemic. Early on there was Madonna sitting nude in a marble bathtub filled with rose petals proclaiming COVID 'the great equalizer.' Trump of course supplied his daily dose of schizophrenic fare so incoherent that even conservative TV hacks were unable to morph it into a convincing picture of brave leadership. Yet nothing tops the spectacle of Ellen Degeneres and Trevor Noah actually declaring themselves to be 'Cuomosexuals', in honor of New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a term that was immediately plastered on various merchandise…

Jessica Buxbaum (2021-03-03). Emboldened by Trump and Netanyahu, Jewish Settler Terrorism is Spiking. mintpressnews.com "I saw a lot of settlers be proud of attacking Palestinians, be open about annexation and apartheid — all of this behavior came out during the Trump administration." — Issa Amro, Founder Youths Against Settlements…

_____ (2021-03-03). Canadian Hypocrisy Shines Embarrassingly With New Accusations of China's Muslim Genocide. strategic-culture.org China has managed to both find a sustainable cure for terrorism without destroying a single nation, while providing a foundation for extending the Belt and Road into the Middle East and beyond, Matthew Ehret writes. | This week, the Canadian parliament, became the second nation of the Five Eyes (after the USA) to pass a motion condemning

_____ (2021-03-03). Should We Fear a German Ministry of Social Cohesion? strategic-culture.org The idea that there needs to be a ministry to make certain ethnic groups feel a greater sense of equality is of course a red flag. | Hearing the idea of a "Ministry of Social Cohesion" was quite exciting for someone who writes about politics, geopolitics and ideology on a regular basis. On the surface this sounds like a systemic answer to the paradox of our time — that our omnipresent Liberalism only acknowledges the individual and yet humans have always lived in groups from the darkness of prehistory. This sort of ministry sounds like it could be a part of a new rising Chinese Communism or the dreams of a s…

Yanis Varoufakis (2021-03-03). In defense of Ken Loach. mronline.org Ken Loach, thankfully no smear campaign against him can succeed. Not only because Ken's work and life are proof of the accusation's absurdity, but also because of the courageous Israelis who take awful risks by defending the right of Jews and non-Jews alike to criticise Israel.

John Wojcik (2021-03-03). Biden: With Defense Production Act, enough vaccines by end of May. peoplesworld.org President Joe Biden made history in the nation's fight against the coronavirus Tuesday by announcing that the United States will have enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all American adults for coronavirus by the end of May, two months earlier than the end-of-July date he had previously rolled out. Biden credited the stepped-up timetable to his …

Global Research News (2021-03-03). Selected Articles: C.Y.A. and "Fraudulent Marketing": The Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine is an "Unapproved Product" globalresearch.ca By Pfizer Inc…

Russell Mokhiber (2021-03-03). Defend the Guard Act Stirs Debate in West Virginia Over Military Industrial Complex. counterpunch.org A debate over the military industrial complex is raging in West Virginia. The debate was kicked off in the West Virginia legislature again this year by Patrick McGeehan, a Republican member of the House of Delegates from the northern panhandle. McGeehan has introduced House Bill 2138 — the Defend the Guard Act. It's a short