(2021-12-09). India and the 'Summit for Democracy': Behind the Silent Acceptance. moderndiplomacy.eu US president Joe Biden's 'Summit for Democracy' has raised questions over the legitimacy of the American leadership in global geopolitics. The summit is planned for 9-10 December and will be attended by a 'confusing' list of 110 countries. Among the invitees are EU (sans Hungary), Ukraine, Philippines, Pakistan, and India. Some major exclusions are Russia, …
(2021-12-09). Biden's Empty Warning Over Putin's Straw Man "Invasion" dissidentvoice.org 
© Sputnik / Sergey Guneev As we enter the Christmas season that's just pantomime on Pennsylvania Avenue. The private video call which lasted two hours on Tuesday was eagerly anticipated around the world amid mounting tensions and fears of a military confrontation over Ukraine. The next day headlines in Western media outlets were laden with …
(2021-12-09). China Winter Olympics: US Boycott. dissidentvoice.org 
President Biden, in full mood of marking "red lines" against Russia and Ukraine in a virtual meeting with Vladimir Putin, does not forget the importance of boycotting China's Winter Olympic Games. It's a diplomatic boycott only, so says Madame Jen Psaki, White House press secretary. Nevertheless, she and Biden are wishing the US sport-participants best …
(2021-12-09). Biden-Putin Teleconference: Putin Rejects Biden's Demand That U.S. Take Control Over Negotiations Between Ukraine and Its Former Donbass Region. covertactionmagazine.com The two-hour December 7th Biden-Putin conversation (via video-conference) focused mainly on the conflict between Ukraine and its breakaway former Donbass …
(2021-12-09). Does the Deepening Crisis in Turkey Manifest an End to the Erdogan Era? journal-neo.org 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is experiencing his worst moments as head of state today. Social and political tensions in the country are becoming increasingly evident. The economy is collapsing, the value of the national currency is relentlessly falling, and the number of poor people is skyrocketing. According to recently published data, the nation's citizens …
(2021-12-09). Turkish currency, living standards in free fall as pandemic rages. wsws.org The unprecedented high level of cost of living and the raging pandemic in Turkey are driving mounting social discontent in the working class.
(2021-12-09). Demythologizing the Russification of Bulgarian Media's Attitude Towards Civil Society. moderndiplomacy.eu Despite 30 years of post-socialist transformation, many CSOs in the country are unable to counter the denigrating rhetoric that some media outlets use against them. Challenging the presumption of Russia's widespread influence in this area, there are many differences in key aspects of the Russian and Bulgarian media's treatment of civil society. So even if …
(2021-12-09). How Europe's "Shadow Immigration System" Pays Libyan Militias to Jail Migrants in Brutal Conditions. democracynow.org 
An explosive new investigation details how the European Union has created a shadow immigration system that captures migrants arriving from Africa before they reach Europe and sends them to brutal militia-run detention centers in Libya. "This is a climate migration story," says Ian Urbina, investigative journalist and director of The Outlaw Ocean Project, who authored the report for The New Yorker magazine. "The policy of the EU of outsourcing migration control to a failed state in Libya … is a really doomed strategy, and it's only going to get more perilous as more waves of people start trying to reach safer pl…
(2021-12-09). Social Democrat Chancellor Scholz takes power in Germany at head of "traffic light" coalition. wsws.org The coalition of the Social Democrats, Free Democrats and Greens (Red, Yellow and Green in their party colours) will aggressively pursue a right-wing foreign and domestic policy, including enforcing mass infection in the pandemic.
(2021-12-09). Terrorism: The Sahel-5 are turning to Russia. moderndiplomacy.eu With renewed interest to uproot French domination, Russia has ultimately began its inroads into the Sahel region, an elongated landlocked territory located between north Africa (Maghreb) and west Africa region, and also stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. While it remains largely underdeveloped and greater part of the population impoverished, terrorist organizations …
(2021-12-09). "An Outrage": House Passes Largest Military Budget in Generations Despite End of Afghanistan War. democracynow.org 
President Biden may soon approve the largest military spending bill since World War II, which ramps up spending to counter China and Russia. Separately, the Senate voted down a bipartisan bid by Senators Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul and Mike Lee to halt $650 million in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid the devastating ongoing war in Yemen. "The last thing we need to do is be throwing more money at the Pentagon," says William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy. "This whole idea that China and Russia are military threats to the United States has primarily been…
(2021-12-09). Palestine Action Acquitted In First Trial. popularresistance.org United Kingdom – Three activists who defaced an Israeli drone engines factory in the UK were found not guilty of criminal damage on Monday. | The two-day trial took place at Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates Court, near Stoke-on-Trent in central England. | Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori told The Electronic Intifada that the victory showed they were on the right track. | "We're going to continue to take direct action in order to shut down and undermine Israel's arms trade," she said. | It was reassuring to have court backing for taking action against Israeli arms makers, she added, and that "to disrupt the…
(2021-12-08). The Heat: Biden-Putin discuss Ukraine in video call. america.cgtn.com 
The stakes couldn't be any higher for diplomatic relations between the United States and Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a two-hour video call on Tuesday about the Russian buildup of troops along Ukraine's border and fears of a …
(2021-12-08). What Putin Really Told Biden. strategic-culture.org By Pepe ESCOBAR | So Russian President Vladimir Putin, by himself, and United States President Joe Biden, surrounded by aides, finally had their secret video link conference for two hours and two minutes — with translators placed in different rooms. | That was their first serious exchange since they met in person in Geneva last June — the first Russia-US summit since 2018. For global public opinion, led to believe a "war" in Ukraine was all but imminent, what's left is essentially a torrent of spin. | So let's start with a simple exercise focusing on the key issue of the video link — Ukraine [md…
(2021-12-08). Putin: Ukraine Is to Russia What Cuba Was to America in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. moderndiplomacy.eu In an almost universally ignored speech by Putin, on December 1st (titled "Ceremony for presenting foreign ambassadors' letters of credence"), he said, merely as an aside [and I here shall add clarifications in brackets]: By the way, the threat on our western border [he was referring mainly to Ukraine] is really growing, and we have …
(2021-12-08). The United States pushes Russia to the brink of war, then cries "wolf" mronline.org 
The Russians have plainly said that they deem the Ukrainian government to be U.S-controlled, not a free agent, and they hold Washington directly responsible for whatever may happen on the ground in their neighborhood.
(2021-12-08). A One-Sided Narrative: U.S. Press Focuses on "Russian Aggression" While Ignoring U.S. Escalation. democracynow.org 
During a virtual summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Biden threatened to impose new economic sanctions and other measures if Russia invades Ukraine. The talks were held amid growing tension between the two countries over the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and Russia's deployment of tens of thousands troops along the border of Ukraine. Editorial director and publisher at The Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel says the U.S. has a "one-sided narrative" of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that neglects to acknowledge its own role in escalating tensions. "This [t…
(2021-12-08). PSOE-Podemos government, Spanish trade unions agree to savage austerity. wsws.org The pseudo-left Podemos party is imposing attacks on the working class in close collaboration with the European Union.
(2021-12-08). Fascistic provocateur Eric Zemmour announces his presidential campaign bid in France. wsws.org For months, even before formally announcing his election campaign, Zemmour has enjoyed widespread coverage in the French media.
(2021-12-08). 'The Last Duel': Medieval epic explores rape culture. greenleft.org.au Isaac Nellist reviews Ridley Scott's medieval epic detailing the last judiciary trial by combat in 14th century France.
(2021-12-08). Hunger Is Over, If We Want It. zcomm.org Globally, in this now-or-never moment, we can remake governance to answer to all of us, to finally make policy with the understanding that hunger will only be uprooted if we tackle the anti-democracy forces at its roots…
(2021-12-08). Raoul Hedebouw is the new president of the Workers Party of Belgium. peoplesdispatch.org At the unity congress of the Workers' Party of Belgium, Peter Mertens stepped down from the presidency after 13 significant years during which it became one of the prominent Marxist parties in Europe…
(2021-12-08). Amid backlash World Economic Forum launches "Global Center for Urban Transformation" in Detroit. peoplesdispatch.org Protestors rallied in downtown Detroit to protest the opening of the World Economic Forum's "Global Center for Urban Transformation." The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-governmental lobbying group made up of political and business leaders, including representatives from major financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and the European Central Bank. In August, it
(2021-12-08). Biden threatens economic sanctions and a repositioning of NATO troops in meeting with Putin. wsws.org The meeting was preceded by threats against Russia from Biden and Germany's new Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and took place amidst the drum beat of war propaganda in the American and European press.
(2021-12-08). Germany's New Green Foreign Minister Baerbock threatens Russia and China with nuclear weapons. wsws.org With an aggressiveness that is otherwise seen only from extreme right-wing and militarist circles, Annalena Baerbock linked Germany's ability to pursue an aggressive foreign and great power policy with nuclear rearmament.
(2021-12-08). Understanding Germany's 'traffic light' coalition. peoplesdispatch.org Germany's new coalition government is set to be voted in today. Pawel Wargan, organizer, researcher, and coordinator of the International Secretariat of the Progressive International, speaks on the contradictions of the coalition…
(2021-12-08). The Far Right Continues to Build Its International. fpif.org 
What alt-right guru Steve Bannon failed to create, German taxpayers have just stepped in to revive: a Nationalist International. Thanks to the German government, the far right is about to get its own well-heeled global think tank, complete with the sort of political academy that was so dear to Bannon's Germany's gift to the far right is the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, the public-policy arm of the country's most prominent extremist party, the Alternative fàºr Deutschland (AfD). Era…
(2021-12-08). The COVID-19 pandemic, the return of the class struggle and the tasks of the Socialist Equality Party in Germany. wsws.org The Socialist Equality Party, the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, held its party congress November 19—22. We publish here the resolution unanimously adopted by the delegates.
(2021-12-08). What Britain did to Ireland 100 years ago haunts today's UK. dissidentvoice.org 
File Photo: © Getty Images / Charles McQuillan The final cut in partitioning Ireland came with the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty 100 years ago. That colonial division of a nation, conducted as a fait accompli by British rulers, continues to have harmful repercussions. Ironically, it is today's British rulers who are reaping the bitter …
(2021-12-08). Egyptian court grants provisional release to human rights researcher Patrick George Zaki. peoplesdispatch.org Zaki was arrested in February 2020 after returning to Egypt from Italy where he was studying at the University of Bologna. He has since spent 22 months in pre-trial detention on various charges…
(2021-12-08). Lithuania: pensioners get ready for death. moderndiplomacy.eu Main attention of the Lithuanian media has been focused on migrant crises and security issues for several weeks. This problem has become also a good reason to once again draw the attention of the population to the need of increasing defense capabilities. This problem has become a good excuse for further increasing of the armed …
(2021-12-08). 5 Things to Know About Lovett Fort-Whiteman: The Black Communist Who Was Taken To The Gulag in Russia. moguldom.com Lovett Fort-Whiteman was considered the first American-born Black Communist and first African American to receive training at Communist International in Moscow. Communist International (also known as Comintern) was an international organization founded in 1919 that advocated global communism. Despite his devotion to communism, Fort-Whiteman, a political and civil rights activist, spent the end of his …
(2021-12-08). Russian-Vietnamese Relations and the Joint Fight Against the Pandemic. journal-neo.org 
The history of relations between Russia and Vietnam goes back to Soviet times when the USSR supported the Vietnamese communists in their war for creating their state, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). After that, the Soviet Union became a major partner of the SRV for many years. The common ideology, joint opposition to the …
(2021-12-08). The UK's travel ban: Why Nigerians must look towards their leaders. moderndiplomacy.eu Once again Nigeria's image problem rears its ugly head, only this time, it has to do with how little care is taken by other countries before stepping on the toes of Africa's proverbial giant. On December 6, 2021, Nigeria joined seven other African states on the United Kingdom's red list, which essentially bans Nigerians from …