Biden promised to cut off Trump’s ‘favorite dictator’ – then sent him 168 missiles

Analysis. ‘Enough with Trump’s blank checks’ to al-Sisi, Biden had said. Then on Wednesday came the news: $167 million worth of Raytheon weapons will head to Egypt.

written by Chiara Cruciati

Published on February 20, 2021

After four years of carte blanche given by Trump to the regime of al-Sisi, the advent of Biden in the White House was expected to disrupt the situation to some extent. Or, at least, this picture had emerged from the statements of the Democrat before the elections and in the months as president-elect: “Enough with Trump’s blank checks to his ‘favorite dictator’,” as the tycoon called his ally.

Cairo was expected to make a turn, even if just a symbolic one, on the issue of human rights. It did not happen, and yet relations—at least the military ones—have not been affected. While the Egyptian authorities, after the global pressure for the release of the three members of the EIPR NGO, gave in and let them go home (although the charges of terrorism against them remain), the latest episode has reminded Washington that the leopard does not change its spots: on Sunday, in Mounofiya and Alexandria, plainclothes agents arrested six family members of Mohamed Soltan, an Egyptian activist and former political prisoner released in 2015 after two years in prison and a very long hunger strike, then deported to the United States after renouncing his Egyptian citizenship.

From there, he continues his work in opposition to the regime with the Freedom Initiative organization. And it was from there that he set off his “timebomb”: a complaint in the federal court in Washington DC against former Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi for the torture he suffered in prison, in which he also named President al-Sisi and the head of the secret services, Abbas Kamel.

This is not the first time the regime has tried to stop Soltan by attacking his family. It had already happened in 2020: five of his family members were arrested, only to be released shortly after the American elections. However, his father has been in prison since 2013, sentenced to life imprisonment because he was one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, banned by al-Sisi. Mohamed himself was arrested for protesting after the August 2013 massacre of Islamist supporters in Rabi’a Square, the regime’s first act.

The November 2020 release fell under the category of goodwill gestures, similar to the one granted to the EIPR workers, to take down the sword that Biden seemed to have hung over the historic relationship with Egypt. One worry in particular was the intention to make arms sales dependent on the respect for human rights (see Saudi Arabia), as decided by Congress in December.

Yet, even though it’s true that Biden has not yet called al-Sisi (a fate shared by the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been getting more and more nervous about it), and even though the State Department has made it known that it will follow the case of the Soltan family, on Wednesday came the news of the approval to the sale of 168 Raytheon tactical missiles to Egypt, with a total value $197 million. They had been ordered by the Egyptian Navy for the Mediterranean and Red Sea coastal areas.

The sale also includes American technical and logistical support. The motivation was given by the State Department in a note: “Egypt continues to be an important strategic partner in the Middle East.” The move came in confirmation of the untouchable package of military aid guaranteed annually to Cairo, worth $1.3 billion.

That sum has solidified the relationship between Cairo and Washington over time, now difficult to put a dent in even in the post-Trump era, who was a sincere and unfailing admirer of al-Sisi. Since Biden’s victory was certified beyond any reasonable doubt, as anonymous officials told the independent agency Mada Masr, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry had begun working on a series of proposals to shore up the alliance, from the regional role (regarding Libya and Palestine above all) to the possible easing of pressure on internal opposition. There could even be some releases from prison—excluding the Muslim Brotherhood—an option that would not go down well with the real decision makers, the secret services.

Something that was also worrying the regime was the establishment, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Revolution on January 25, of the Egypt Human Rights Caucus, a sort of lobby formed by Democratic members of Congress to put pressure on Washington about Egypt. Now, the 168 missiles can make all its fears melt away.

While Biden proclaims “America is back,” imperialist conflicts dominate Munich conference

Bill Van Auken WSWS

US President Joe Biden used a live video broadcast Friday held in lieu of the annual Munich Security Conference to deliver his long-expected “America is Back” speech, waving the false banner of “democracy” to assert US global leadership in the “great power” confrontation with both Russia and China.

President Joe Biden participates in a virtual event with the Munich Security Conference in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Speaking at the video forum—made necessary by the still uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus in the advanced capitalist countries—Biden received a decidedly chilly reception from his fellow virtual panelists, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. Both stressed the independent interests of the European imperialist powers.

The title given to the livestreamed forum was “Beyond Westlessness.” In an opinion column written on the eve of the forum, Wolfgang Ischinger, the former German ambassador to the US and chairman of the Munich Security Conference, described a Europe “surrounded by a ‘ring of fire’—by bloody conflicts in the East, in Ukraine, and in the Caucasian region, but also in the South, around the eastern Mediterranean, and in our African neighborhood.”

He continued: “Great power competition has made a comeback. The rule-based international order and its institutional framework have been weakened. And we are faced with the massive impact of climate change and a global pandemic with potentially crippling effects on stability, prosperity, and human rights.”

As Biden’s remarks made clear, “America is back”—a phrase he repeated three times in his 20 minute speech—was less a promise than a threat. Behind it lies an even more aggressive and militaristic policy than that pursued by the administration of Donald Trump. His speech represented a thinly disguised demand that the European powers tie themselves unconditionally to Washington’s war wagon.

The US president insisted that the world confronted an “inflection point” in a supposed global struggle between “democracy” and “autocracy.”

Biden made a fleeting and oblique reference to the fascist coup attempt at the US Capitol on January 6, in which Trump attempted to overthrow not only the results of the presidential election, but the US constitutional order, and install himself as a presidential dictator.

Proclaiming that “shared democratic values” were the glue uniting Europe and America, Biden acknowledged that “none of us has fully succeeded in this vision.” He continued: “We continue to work toward it. And in so many places, including in Europe and the United States, democratic progress is under assault.”

That the events of January 6 leave Washington in no position to lecture anyone on democracy did not deter the US president from pivoting to an attack on China and Russia, portraying the two countries and their governments as an existential challenge to the Western world’s “shared democratic values.”

Biden suggested that the blame for the challenges facing democracy in the West lies entirely with nefarious Russian meddling. This, as both the US and Europe have seen the rise of ultra-right and fascistic movements, as well as the introduction of authoritarian and police state measures amid unprecedented levels of social inequality and the homicidal imposition of herd immunity policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Kremlin attacks our democracies and weaponizes corruption to try to undermine our system of governance,” Biden said, adding that “Putin seeks to weaken European—the European project and our NATO Alliance. He wants to undermine the transatlantic unity and our resolve.”

One of Washington’s main charges in terms of Russia undermining “transatlantic unity” has centered on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is nearly completed and will pipe Russian gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany and other European customers.

On the eve of the Munich forum, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that Washington is determined to stop the pipeline’s completion, claiming it will “enable the Putin regime to further weaponize Russia’s energy resources to exert political pressure throughout Europe.” The Biden administration is preparing fresh sanctions against companies involved in the project.

Kremlin spokesperson Dimitry Peskov responded pointedly to Washington’s threats, stating that “It would make sense for our American partners to be less interested in Nord Stream 2 and more interested in Texas’ heat and energy supply.”

Biden went on to demand that Europe align itself with US imperialism in order to “prepare together for a long-term strategic competition with China.” He called upon the NATO powers to jointly “push back against the Chinese government’s economic abuses and coercion that undercut the foundations of the international economic system.”

Under Biden, the US is escalating its military threats against China. In recent weeks, it has deployed two aircraft carrier strike groups in the South China Sea and sent warships on provocative “freedom of navigation” exercises in the Taiwan Strait and near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands.

At the same time, China has supplanted the US as the European Union’s number one trading partner, and, at the end of last year, the EU and Beijing concluded a major investment treaty over Washington’s strenuous objections.

In a clear reference to the Trump administration’s “America First” policy and Trump’s crudely transactional attitude toward NATO, Biden said, “I know the past few years have strained and tested our transatlantic relationship,” adding that Washington was determined “to earn back our position of trusted leadership.”

The response of Washington’s NATO “partners,” however, left no doubt that Trump was far more a symptom of deep fissures in the transatlantic alliance than their cause, and that European imperialism is no more anxious to subordinate itself to Washington’s diktats under Biden than it was under Trump.

Both Germany’s Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron referred repeatedly to their support for “multilateralism,” by which they clearly meant their opposition to making an unconditional bloc with US imperialism against Moscow and Beijing.

Merkel began by citing the growing scope of the German military’s foreign interventions, including its role in Afghanistan, Iraq and in Africa.

She stressed the importance of an independent European defense policy, declaring that developments in Europe’s “neighborhood” are “more important to us,” including in Africa and Syria. Germany’s “relation with Africa has great strategic significance,” she added.

Macron was even more blunt. He began by expressing his own contempt for democracy, cynically stating that the most important thing was “protecting free speech” by regulating internet platforms to suppress “online hate.” This, as his government rams through an “anti-separatist” law that eviscerates democratic rights in the name of combatting Islamist “extremism.”

The French president stressed the need for a “new security architecture” and the necessity of “dialogue with Russia.” He repeatedly advocated “strategic autonomy” for the European Union, while suggesting that the US, with its escalating confrontation with China, was more interested in becoming a “Pacific power.”

Like Merkel, Macron insisted that Europe had to deal “with our neighborhood” and that its “agenda is not the same” as that of the US in terms of the “level of priorities.” He pointedly stated that this was something “we experienced in Syria in 2013,” when the Obama administration backed down from a regime-change intervention backed by Paris on the pretext of a poison gas attack that proved to have been staged by the Western-backed “rebels.”

The appearance of the three heads of state followed a virtual meeting of the Group of 7 that centered on the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed nearly two-and-a-half-million people. While leaders of the major powers mouthed phrases about equality in combating the virus and providing vaccines to the most oppressed countries, none of them stated how many doses they would make available, or when.

At the Munich forum, Macron stressed the importance of sending at least enough doses to vaccinate health care workers in Africa, because of the increasing role being played on the continent by cheaper Russian and Chinese vaccines.

Biden’s first foray into international politics, cast by the corporate media as a radical departure from the policies pursued by Trump, has only demonstrated that the fissures dividing Washington and its nominal European allies are wider than ever. They cannot be contained within the structure of a NATO alliance formed when US imperialism still exercised global economic hegemony.

The working class all over the world is confronted with preparations for “great power conflict” and a new scramble by all the imperialist powers to recolonize the world, which threaten to plunge humanity into a new world war and nuclear annihilation. The virtual discussion between Biden, Merkel and Macron expresses both the immense dangers confronting the world population and the urgency of building a new mass antiwar movement based upon the international working class.

Outage outrage: Texans see power bills as high as $17,000 after brutal storm pummels grid & leaves millions without electricity
20 Feb, 2021 

Get short URL

Overhead power lines are seen during record-breaking winter temperatures and widespread outages in Houston, Texas, February 17, 2021. © Reuters / Adrees Latif

In the wake of a fierce winter storm that knocked out power for millions of Texans, some residents are reporting colossal spikes in their electricity bills, with some asked to pay more than $17,000 for just a few weeks of service.

As the Texas power grid was battered by a days-long snow and ice storm this week – prompting the state’s utilities manager, ERCOT, to impose rolling blackouts – a major shortage of electricity drove up wholesale costs to astronomical levels. While around four million Texans were left in the dark, some of those fortunate enough to not lose power are now reaping the whirlwind in the form of sky-high bills.

Texas resident Ty Williams told a local ABC affiliate that while he typically pays a combined $660 each month for his home, guest house and office, he’s been asked to shell out a shocking $17,000 this time around – and that’s just for the first half of February.

“How in the world can anyone pay that? I mean you go from a couple hundred dollars a month... there’s absolutely no way,” Williams said, adding: “It makes no sense.”

A 38-year-old contractor, Royce Pierce, meanwhile, said he owes more than $8,100 for his electricity use so far this month, a sharp climb from his January bill of $387.79.

“It's mind-blowing. I honestly didn't believe the price at first,” Pierce told the Daily Beast. “It's not a great feeling knowing that there is a looming bill that we just can't afford.”

Before the state was rocked by this week’s inclement weather, wholesale electricity in Texas went for less than $50 per megawatt-hour, according to ERCOT data. On Monday, however, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), a state regulator, ordered the grid manager to jack up prices to beyond $9,000 per megawatt-hour, citing “the scarcity conditions in the market” and its “complete authority over ERCOT.”

Both Williams and Piece use power provider Griddy, which has come in for scathing criticism amid the price jumps. But the company has argued that PUCT’s order is to blame for the surge, insisting it “changed the rules” and kept costs “300x higher than the normal wholesale price,” even after the power grid regained sufficient capacity to return to normal levels. The explanation did little to quell critics, however.

While Griddy has kept mum about whether it would waive any of the price increases or offer some form of relief to customers, earlier this week it urged patrons to simply find another provider, with CEO Michael Fallquist saying: “We want what's right by our consumers, so we are encouraging them to leave.

“We made the unprecedented decision to tell our customers – whom we worked really hard to get – that they are better off in the near term with another provider,” he continued.

Griddy and a handful of other providers use a business model that exposes customers to fluctuations in wholesale energy costs in real time, charging a monthly fee of $9.99 on top of the direct cost of electricity. While that approach has often saved patrons money, it did the opposite this week, sending bills to unprecedented highs.

Another Texas provider owned by the city government of San Antonio, CPS Energy, suggested its customers could arrange a payment plan over “10 years or longer” to make the massive bills “more affordable.”

The offer was not received well, triggering threats of boycott and allegations of price gouging.

“Are you out of your minds? Those of us that had power AND STILL CONSERVED IT are getting rates jacked up?”wrote one irate resident. “I'm not paying 4x the amount I normally would, increased demand or not. Customers should NOT be eating the cost whatsoever.”

As Texas gradually gets its power woes under control, over 100,000 residents remain without electricity, according to data gathered by poweroutage.us. Governor Greg Abbott, meanwhile, has called for a probe into ERCOT’s handling of the crisis, accusing the grid manager of lying about its ability to cope with the blizzard.

“They said five days before the winter storm hit – the ERCOT CEO assured ERCOT, and I quote, ‘We’re ready for the cold temperatures coming our way,’” Abbott said, adding: “What happened this week to our fellow Texans is unacceptable and cannot be replicated again.”


Pretty much you are being held hostage and there isn’t anything you can do about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DON'T CALL THEM CONTRACTORS 

CALL EM MERCENARIES
Blackwater founder Erik Prince accused of Libya weapons ban violations in UN report

Prince is likely to be referred to the U.N.’s Sanctions Committee, which could order a freeze on his assets or a travel ban

By Jared Malsin | The Wall Street Journal


DUBAI — A United Nations report accuses Blackwater founder Erik Prince of assisting in violations of an international arms embargo on Libya, placing the military contractor at risk of U.N. sanctions, according to a diplomat with access to the report.

The report by the U.N. Panel of Experts that monitors the ban on transfers of weapons to Libya says companies controlled by Mr. Prince provided three aircraft to assist in sending helicopters and military contractors to help Russian-backed Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar in 2019.

The plan to send Western mercenaries to Libya developed as foreign weapons and fighters poured into the country in 2019 and 2020 from a variety of outside powers, including Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, deepening a conflict that has been ongoing since 2014, the report says, according to the diplomat.


Erik Prince. (Fox News screen image)

Mr. Prince is likely to be referred to the U.N.’s Sanctions Committee, which could order a freeze on his assets or a travel ban, according to the New York-based diplomat and a former official with knowledge of the situation. The permanent members of the Security Council, including the U.S., Russia, or China, could veto any potential sanctions against Mr. Prince, who has had dealings with all three countries.

"Erik Prince had absolutely nothing to do with any operation in Libya in 2019, or at any other time," a spokesman for Mr. Prince said in an email.

"Erik Prince had absolutely nothing to do with any operation in Libya in 2019, or at any other time."— Spokesman for Erik Prince

A U.N. spokesman said the organization had no specific comment on the Panel of Experts report.

"It is incumbent on our member states to ensure that the sanctions are respected and enforced," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric De La Rivière.

The report itself has been finalized and submitted to the U.N.’s headquarters in New York. It is unlikely to be altered before it is released to the public in the coming weeks, according to diplomats.

Mr. Prince, a former Navy SEAL, came to prominence during the Iraq war, when Blackwater provided private security guards to U.S. officials and contractors working for the company shot dead more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in a 2007 mass killing in Baghdad. Blackwater has since changed its name to Xe Services and later Academi.

Mr. Prince’s financial and political ambitions rose because of his close relationship to the Trump administration. Mr. Prince is the brother of Mr. Trump’s former education secretary, Betsy DeVos. In December, Mr. Trump pardoned the four Blackwater guards accused in the 2007 killings.

Shell companies

According to the diplomat, the forthcoming U.N. report says companies controlled by Mr. Prince sold three aircraft to people who sent Western mercenaries and military hardware to aid Mr. Haftar in the opening months of the commander’s failed assault on Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli. Launched in April 2019, Mr. Haftar’s attack on the capital plunged Libya into its worst fighting since the armed rebellion that overthrew Col. Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

According to the diplomat, the U.N. panel’s report says that firms controlled by Mr. Prince sold three aircraft through a series of shell companies to a Dubai-based company, Lancaster 6, which sent helicopters and a group of Western mercenaries to Libya to support Mr. Haftar. The plan unraveled, and the fighters left Libya.

One of the planes, a Pilatus PC-6, was delivered to Libya for use in reconnaissance and intelligence operations for Mr. Haftar’s forces, according to the diplomat with access to the report. A U.S. company, TST Humanitarian Surveys, controlled by Mr. Prince through a U.S.-based attorney, sold the plane to another company in Austria partly owned by Mr. Prince, which then sold it to Lancaster 6 in June 2019, the diplomat with access to the report said. The plane arrived in Libya days later, according to the diplomat.

The other two planes, including an Antonov An-26 cargo plane intended to transport helicopters, arrived in Jordan and didn’t fly to Libya, but were identified in the report as part of a broader plan to send military aid to Mr. Haftar.

The plan also involved several associates of Mr. Prince, according to the diplomat and the former official with knowledge of the situation. The operation was first reported last year by Bloomberg and the New York Times. Until now, U.N. investigators hadn’t directly accused Mr. Prince of being involved in the scheme.

Helicopter deal

Using funds from a Dubai-based company and a cover story involving a fake plan for a geospatial survey in Jordan, the team later obtained in South Africa three Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopters and three Super Puma helicopters. At least one of the helicopters was transported to Libya. The helicopters were purchased for a total of more than $13 million, a price well above their market value and one that suggested profit was a key motive behind the operation.

"This is basically a scheme where they wanted to make money around procurement of weapons," said the former official with knowledge of the situation.

"This is basically a scheme where they wanted to make money around procurement of weapons."— Source speaking to the Wall Street Journal

The role in the effort of companies based in Dubai also highlights Mr. Prince’s close ties to the United Arab Emirates and its ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed. Mr. Prince has been linked to a range of mercenary efforts on behalf of the Emirates, including an effort to combat Somali pirates, according to a previous U.N. report. The U.A.E. also has been a key military backer of Mr. Haftar, sending air defenses, armed drones, ammunition and airplanes to support the militia leader’s campaigns, according to multiple U.N. reports. Mr. Prince visited Abu Dhabi in recent weeks, according to the diplomat.

The U.N. report, the diplomat said, also accuses Mr. Prince of violating a U.N. Security Council resolution by failing to provide information about the alleged violations of the arms embargo when contacted by the Panel of Experts.

In addition to naming Mr. Prince in the report, the U.N. Panel of Experts is also expected to separately refer Mr. Prince to the United Nations’ Sanctions Committee, which will make a decision about whether to impose an asset freeze or travel ban to be implemented by individual countries including the U.S., the diplomat said.

Write to Jared Malsin at jared.malsin@wsj.com

Inspector general reviews Trump relocation of Space Command

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS | FEBRUARY 19, 2021 

FILE - In this Aug. 29, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump, left, watches with Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Mark Esper as the flag for U.S. space Command is unfurled as Trump announces the establishment of the U.S. Space Command in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. The Department of the Defense Inspector General on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021, has announced an investigation into the Trump administration's January decision to move the U.S. Space Command headquarters from Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado to the Redstone Arsenal adjacent to Huntsville, Ala. The announcement follows protests by Colorado's congressional delegation that the decision was politically motivated. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

DENVER (AP) — The Department of Defense’s inspector general announced Friday that it was reviewing the Trump administration’s last-minute decision to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama.

The decision on Jan. 13, one week before Trump left office, blindsided Colorado officials and raised questions of political retaliation. Trump had hinted at a Colorado Springs rally in 2020 that the command would stay at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

But the man with whom Trump held that rally, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, lost his reelection bid in November, and Colorado, unlike Alabama, voted decisively against Trump. The Air Force’s last-minute relocation of command headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama — home of the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal — blindsided Colorado officials of both parties, who have urged the Biden administration to reconsider the decision.

On Friday, the inspector general’s office announced it was investigating whether the relocation complied with Air Force and Pentagon policy and was based on proper evaluations of competing locations.

Colorado officials of both parties were thrilled. “It is imperative that we thoroughly review what I believe will prove to be a fundamentally flawed process that focused on bean-counting rather than American space dominance,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican whose district includes Space Command.

The state’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, also hailed the probe. “Moving Space Command will disrupt the mission while risking our national security and economic vitality,” the senators said in a joint statement. “Politics have no role to play in our national security. We fully support the investigation.”

Among other duties, the Space Command enables satellite-based navigation and troop communication and provides warning of missile launches. Also based at Peterson are the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, and the U.S. Northern Command.

The Space Command differs from the U.S. Space Force, launched in December 2019 as the first new military service since the Air Force was created in 1947. The Space Command is not an individual military service but a central command for militarywide space operations. It operated at Peterson from 1985 until it was dissolved in 2002, and it was revived in 2019.

The Air Force accepted bids from locations for the command when it was revived and was considering six finalists, including Huntsville, when Trump hinted it’d stay in Colorado Springs.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Diverse Myanmar protesters united in opposition to coup


(Reuters) - Opponents of Myanmar’s coup took to the streets again on Saturday with members of ethnic minorities, writers and poets and transport workers among those coming out to demand an end to military rule and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and others.

Protests against the Feb. 1 coup that overthrew the elected government of the veteran democracy campaigner Suu Kyi have shown no sign of dying down, with demonstrators sceptical of a military promise to hold a new election and hand power to the winner.

A young woman protester died on Friday after being shot in the head last week as police dispersed a crowd in the capital, Naypyitaw, the first death among opponents of the coup in the demonstrations.

On Saturday, young people in the main city of Yangon carried a wreath and laid flowers at a memorial ceremony for her.

The United States was saddened by the death and condemned the use of force against demonstrators, a State Department spokesman said.

The army says one policeman has died of injuries sustained in a protest.

The demonstrators are demanding the restoration of the elected government, the release of Suu Kyi and others and the scrapping of a 2008 constitution, drawn up under military supervision, that gives the army a major role in politics.

Ke Jung, a youth leader from the Naga minority and an organiser of a Saturday protest by minorities in Yangon, said the protesters were also demanding a federal system.

While some minority parties doubted Suu Kyi’s commitment to the cause of federalism, now was the time for all opponents of the military to unite, he said.

“We must win this fight. We stand together with the people. We will fight until the end of dictatorship,” he told Reuters.

Myanmar has experienced insurgencies by ethnic minority factions since shortly after its independence from Britain in 1948 and the army has long proclaimed itself the only institution capable of preserving national unity.

Suu Kyi, 75, like the top generals, is a member of the majority Burman community.

Her government promoted a peace process with insurgent groups but she faced a storm of international criticism over the plight of the Muslim Rohingya minority after more than 700,000 fled a deadly 2017 army crackdown.

‘STAND TOGETHER’

The army seized back power after alleging fraud in Nov. 8 elections that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) swept, detaining her and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the allegations of fraud.

Several thousand protesters gathered in the northern town of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, where police and soldiers have in recent days used batons and rubber bullets to break up crowds.


Crowds marched again through the ancient capital of Bagan and in Pathein town, in the Irrawaddy river delta.

In the second city of Mandalay, writers and poets held a march and later railway workers also protested.

The protests have been more peaceful than the bloodily suppressed demonstrations during nearly 50 years of direct military rule up to 2011.

In addition to the protests, a civil disobedience campaign has paralysed much government business.

The United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have announced limited sanctions, with a focus on military leaders, including banning travel and freezing assets.


Japan and India have joined Western countries in calling for democracy to be restored quickly.

The junta has not reacted to the new sanctions. On Tuesday, an army spokesman told a news conference that sanctions had been expected.

There is little history of Myanmar’s generals giving in to foreign pressure and they have closer ties to neighbouring China and to Russia, which have taken a softer approach than long critical Western countries.

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing was already under sanctions from Western countries following the 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya.

Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said 546 people had been detained, with 46 released, as of Friday.

Suu Kyi faces a charge of violating a Natural Disaster Management Law as well as charges of illegally importing six walkie talkie radios. Her next court appearance has been set for March 1.

ABOUT TIME

Israel Has Agreed to Vaccinate Palestinian Workers Against COVID

Israeli and Palestinian health officials also agreed to work together to curb the spread of new coronavirus strains, the Palestinian Health Ministry says following a joint meeting in Ramallah

A healthcare worker checks the body temperature of Palestinian workers returning from Israel, outside a West Bank checkpoint, in April.Credit: Mussa Qawasma/Reuters

Jack KhouryBen Samuels

Feb. 19, 2021 12:20 PM

The Palestinian Health Ministry announced on Friday Israel has agreed to vaccinate up to 100,000 Palestinian workers in Israel, following a meeting between Palestinian and Israeli health officials.

Some 30,000 workers have been sleeping in Israel on a daily basis, in a bid to prevent infection by people moving between Israel and the West Bank. However, some officials estimate that many other workers return to the West Bank each day illegally.

Israel has so far refused to vaccinate any of the Palestinian workers. A Health Ministry statement from February 10 says that Palestinians working in Israel – legally or not – will not be vaccinated against COVID.

According to the ministry's Friday statement, the sides also agreed to work together to curb the spread of new coronavirus variants.

The Palestinian Authority also asked Israel to ensure vehicles used by its Health Ministry are free to move around the West Bank, referring particularly to the area of Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, where Palestinians say Israel has obstructed health workers' movement.

Israel confirmed earlier on Friday that the Ramallah meeting took place, but said nothing of any agreements having been reached.

On Thursday, Israel said it would let Palestinian workers in the country return to their West Bank homes starting Sunday, relaxing some restrictions that meant tens of thousands of them had to stay in Israel since the start of its third nationwide lockdown on December 27.

Israel still refuses to vaccinate Palestinian workers, but lets them return to West Bank homes

Israeli lawmakers divided over Palestinian request for COVID vaccines

Palestinian Authority accuses Israel of failing to transfer COVID vaccines to Gaza

The Defense Ministry's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced the policy change which will allow workers to enter and exit Israel on a daily basis.

So far, the Palestinian Authority has not publicly requested vaccines from Israel and says it has secured its own supply through the World Health Organization and agreements reached with drug makers.

Still, Israel provided 2,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to the PA earlier this month, allowing it to begin vaccinating medical workers, and the PA says it independently acquired 10,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.

Also on Friday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the U.S. "welcome[s] reports of vaccinations in the West Bank and Israel's provision of vaccine for Palestinian healthcare workers in the West Bank, and we welcome it because we believe it's important for Palestinians to achieve increased access to COVID vaccines in the weeks ahead."

Price added, "We are focused on ensuring the distribution of a safe and effective vaccine to the American people. But we know we can't put the scourge of COVID-19 behind us until the world has access to these same safe and effective vaccines. And we know that because we need look no further than the variants to this disease that have emerged."

"So whether it is in the context of the Palestinian territories, whether it is in the context of countries that may have access to that the vaccine through the COVAX facility, which of course the United States pledged an ambitious amount to today – $2 billion immediately, $4 billion over time – this is something that we are working to see happen," Price went on to say.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Travel was ‘significant contributor’ to second Covid-19 wave – study

First-wave virus variants ‘disappeared’ during ‘effective’ first lockdown, research finds

Simon Carswell Public Affairs Editor

The study found that an “effective” first lockdown led to the disappearance of first-wave viruses. Illustration: Paul Scott

Ireland eliminated Covid-19 variants circulating in the first wave through lockdown measures and the second wave was seeded by variants imported from abroad, a new scientific report shows.

The study, comparing virus types in the first and second waves from hospitalised cases of the disease seen at four hospitals, found that an “effective” first lockdown led to the disappearance of first-wave viruses. The second wave began from variants of the virus linked to those found outside Ireland, “suggesting multiple introductions through travel during the summer of 2020”.

The report by a group of scientists and doctors concluded that travel was a “significant contributor to the re-emergence of the pandemic in the second wave in Ireland”.

The group looked at a significant proportion of hospitalised cases (15.2 per cent) at the Mater, St Vincent’s and Beaumont in Dublin and Wexford General Hospital during the first two waves, covering infected people from 12 counties.

Scientists can trace particular strains of a virus in circulation by analysing the genetic sequence – a kind of bar code that identities the particular make-up of a virus type.

First-wave variant

Of 131 cases analysed from the first wave, March to June, two types of virus were found in 69 per cent of sequences but they were no longer detected by mid-June. In the second wave, from July, a new virus “lineage” – first reported in September – made up 82 per cent of the cases.

The study found that none of the common types of virus detected in the first wave re-emerged in the second with the exception of a single case of a first-wave variant found on December 21st.

The research was carried out on behalf of the All Ireland Infectious Diseases Cohort Study and the Irish Coronavirus Sequencing Consortium, which sequences virus samples and maps the evolution of the virus in the State.

Prof Paddy Mallon, UCD professor of microbial diseases and an infectious diseases consultant at St Vincent’s, said the research shows the “very clear role” international travel plays in seeding a country with a new wave of infections and variants of the disease.

“What this study shows is if you get your cases as low as we did, in effect you have the ability to eliminate those variants from the country, and if you get the cases that low, your main threat comes from travel,” said Prof Mallon, an author of the report.

Resurgence

The research addresses for the first time with clear data that the Covid-19 circulating in the second wave came from overseas rather than a resurgence from the first wave.

“Not to act on data like this – and not to learn from our mistakes as we [plan to] come out of a really tough lockdown – would be really unfortunate and really bad,” Prof Mallon added.

The Government is working on plans to introduce mandatory quarantine arrangements for inbound visitors in an effort to prevent variants of the virus being imported from overseas.

The study detected the more transmissible UK “B117” variant, now dominant in the State, in only three samples, all reported in the 10 days to December 27th. These were taken from just 15 per cent of samples sequenced between late September and December.

'Simply laughable': How a lie about the Texas energy crisis dominated Fox's coverage

Tucker Carlson speaking with attendees at the 2018 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Gage Skidmore

Alex Henderson February 19, 2021

While millions of Texans were coping with freezing temperatures without heat, electricity or running water this week, right-wing media pundits repeatedly claimed that green energy was to blame. And although the lie was debunked, that didn't prevent pundits at Fox News and Fox Business from continuing to repeat it. According to analysis by Media Matters, Fox News and Fox Business, combined, promoted that lie 128 times during a two-day period.

The claim that wind turbines caused widespread blackouts in Texas during the recent cold snap is bogus for a number of reasons. First, only a fraction of Texas' energy system is green energy — the Lone Star State is much more reliant on fossil fuels. Second, Denmark and other countries in Northern Europe that are known for cold, snowy, icy winters use green energy extensively and have no problem keeping warm in January or February. The biggest problem is that none of Texas' energy grid was prepared for the cold weather and surge in demand, including fossil fuels like natural gas. The more Fox News' Tucker Carlson claimed that green energy is much too delicate to handle severe winter weather, the more uninformed he sounded to anyone who lives in Copenhagen and knows that wind turbines and 25F weather can be perfectly compatible.

Media Matters reporter Rob Savillo explains, "As a historic winter snowstorm devastated Texas, personalities and guests on Fox News and its sister network Fox Business went to bat for the fossil fuel industry by falsely blaming frozen wind turbines and green energy policies for statewide power outages a staggering 128 times since Monday evening. Fox has continued its false narrative even after other outlets already debunked the claim that renewable energy sources and green energy policies were solely or primarily the cause of the blackouts."

Savillo notes that on Monday, Carlson said, "It seems pretty clear that a reckless reliance on windmills is the cause of this disaster." And the following day, Pete Hegseth appeared on "Fox and Friends" and said that in Texas, "Wind turbines are frozen solid…. Is this what America would look like under the Green New Deal?" This week, Savillo notes, headlines like "Frozen Wind Turbines Cause Blackouts in Texas" have been common at Fox News.

"Overall, personalities and guests made such claims 104 times on Fox News and 24 times on Fox Business," Savillo reports. "The vast majority of those claims, 75%, came from journalists and pundits affiliated with either network."00:00




Meanwhile, at liberal-leaning MSNBC this week, El Paso Democrat Beto O'Rourke laid out the real reasons why so many Texans have been shivering in freezing temperatures without heat. The former Texas congressman, appearing as a guest on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," explained to hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski that Texas' power system in general was not properly winterized. Texas' problems, he stressed, weren't a matter of green energy versus fossil fuels, but rather, a matter of failing to adequately winterize its energy technology.

In Denmark, wind turbines cope with frigid temperatures well because they are properly winterized. Without that winterization, Demark's green energy would not cope well Scandinavian temperatures in January or February.

Savillo argues that when Fox News and Fox Business report on green energy, facts and actual research fall by the wayside.






"The effort by Fox networks to push false claims about frozen wind turbines and green energy policies is just the latest example in a long-running, fossil fuel industry-supported campaign to discredit emerging renewable energy technology and deny overwhelming climate science pointing to the warming of the planet," Savillo explains. "It's also just another attempt by Fox News to blame Democrats for any and every problem in America. Their argument that 'the left,' which has had no state-wide control in Texas in over a decade, and that the Green New Deal — which isn't official policy anywhere, let alone Texas — is to blame for Texas' power problems is simply laughable."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES
Republicans use Trump's sadistic playbook in the face of the Texas ... ›
Green energy companies encouraged to sue Tucker Carlson over ... ›
There is something to learn from Texas — but it's not what Fox News ... ›

 

All parties should push for unconditional US return to JCPOA

TEHRAN, Feb. 20 (MNA) – In reaction to the recent remarks by US officials about returning to the JCPOA, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said that all parties should push for the unconditional return of the US to the JCPOA as soon as possible.

"Currently, the Iranian nuclear issue is at a critical stage with both opportunities and challenges. China holds that the return of the United States to the JCPOA is the only correct approach to resolve the impasse on this issue," said Hua Chunying.

"All parties should act with greater urgency, work together to implement the consensus reached the foreign ministers' meeting last December and push for the unconditional return of the United States to the JCPOA as soon as possible and the lifting of all sanctions on Iran," she added.

"On its part, Iran should resume full compliance with the JCPOA. In the meantime, we call on all sides to remain calm and exercise restraint, avoid taking actions that will escalate the situation and reserve space for diplomatic efforts," Chunying noted.

She highlighted, "China supports the IAEA and Iran in properly handling issues related to safeguards through dialogue and consultation. We hope all parties will play a constructive role in this regard." 

The United States on Thursday told the United Nations Security Council it was rescinding a Trump administration assertion that all UN sanctions had been reimposed on Iran in September.

Acting US Ambassador Richard Mills informed the 15-member body in a letter seen by Reuters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told European allies on Thursday that President Joe Biden’s administration was prepared to talk to Iran about both countries returning to a 2015 deal.

The Trump administration quit the pact in 2018. Then in August last year former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had triggered a 30-day process at the Security Council that led to the return of UN sanctions on Iran and stopped a conventional arms embargo on Tehran from expiring on Oct. 18.

In reaction to the White House retreat from the snapback mechanism, FM Zarif said that the US unconditionally and effectively must lift all sanctions imposed and re-imposed by Trump in compliance with Resolution 2231.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has emphasized that for Tehran, the return of the United States to the JCPOA is not an important issue, but what is important is the lifting of US sanctions against Iran.

ZZ/IRN84235551