Will Israel survive without US support?

Tehran, IRNA – Israel’s dependency on the United States has grown to the extent that has raised doubts whether the regime’s existence can continue without the help of the White House, despite Tel Aviv’s efforts to gain political and economic independence.

Ties between Israel and the US were limited and in fact very cold until the end of 1960s. Relations then turned into a classical form of supporter-client in 1970s and began to become strategic in 1980s, as we see today.

The two sides now have close ties in political, diplomatic, military, and economic fields, among other things. That has raised different opinions about the type of the relations between Washington and Tel Aviv and the fact that which side has dominance over the other.

Moreover, those close ties have raised serious doubts about the future of the Zionist regime and the final cap of the US support for it.

-- US’s all-out support

It is the fifth decade that US-Israel relations have evolved from two-player international ties to reach the current level that Tel Aviv has become a special and strategic partner of Washington. There are surprising figures on the amount of US support for Israel as well as its financial and weapon aid to the regime.

The US has paid political prices for making Israel survive more than any other political issue. Since 1970s, the US has used its veto power at the UN Security Council more than 80 times to annul demand and resolutions by the council. According to Qatar-based Al Jazeera News Network, 53 out of those cases were in support of Israel and rejecting the resolutions meant to put pressure on the regime.  

Economically and financially, the United States’ support for Israel has been unprecedented, and the regime has been the biggest receiver of military assistance from Washington.

Until some years ago, the United States had spent more than 146 billion dollars as aid to Israel so far, of which an average of around four billion dollars has been allocated to weapons and arms aids per annum.

The US provides Israel the largest aids in the framework of the regime’s military supremacy doctrine in the Middle East in order to turn it into a regime with the most up-to-date weaponry. Therefore, American authorities refuse to provide Arab states in the region with updated weapons.

However, the White House’s Look East policy in recent years has prompted the Tel Aviv regime to make itself independent from Washington.

Israel is a pariah regime in the eyes of Arab and Muslim public opinion throughout the region and as a result of its lack of strategic depth, the regime does not feel secure.

Even hand-made rockets of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can reach every point in occupied territories.

In terms of economy and industry, Israel does not have any independent and inclusive economic sector, which can supply its own demands.

The most important source of income of the regime comes from tourism industry, which can be affected badly if insecurity or chaos forces tourists out of the occupied lands.

– Israel’s endeavor for independence

Middle East Monitor, a research website, analyzed US-Israel ties, writing that Israeli officials traveled to several countries to discuss Ukraine War in order to improve Israel’s geopolitical situation both in the Middle East and Europe.

New York Times reported in 2021 that the US’s financial support for Israel stood at about 10 percent of Israeli economy, while the Americans’ four billion dollars in 2020 was estimated as 1 percent of the economy.

Israel is well-aware that the US has changed its political approach towards the Middle East and it is leaning towards the Pacific Ocean and Eastern Europe, so the regime has adopted the strategy of independence and maturity.

– Will Israel survive?

Newsweek weekly has reported that four decades of relationship between the US and Israel ended up in dependence of Tel Aviv on Washington and that the dependency is so deep that it should be asked if Israel can survive without American support.

Israel suffers from severe weaknesses in terms of security issues and because of lack of strategic depth and excessive dependency on revenues from tourism industry, the regime does not have so much flexibility in terms of budget deficit.

Moreover, Israel is fully dependent on the US concerning supply of arms and ammunitions, so other countries such as the UK, France, Russia, and China cannot take the US’s position in affording iron dome and missile power or joint cyber operations.

The general support for Israel may be at a high level in the United States, but political and social trends in the superpower can affect future relationship between the two allies destructively, so Israel may survive, but undoubtedly the continuation of its existence would become very hard and it will experience less security in a much poorer territory; thus, Israeli factions are not keen on returning to dependence on the US.

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Fresh sandstorms wreak havoc as thousands hospitalised across Middle East

Sandstorms ripped through Gulf states as well as Iran, Iraq and Syria this week, putting thousands in hospital and disrupting flights.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
25 May, 2022

Sandstorms have ripped through much of the Middle East over the past few days 

[Anadolu via Getty]

The latest in a series of sandstorms has torn through much of the Middle East in the last few days, sending thousands to hospital with breathing difficulties.

For the second time this month, Kuwait International Airport suspended all flights Monday because of the dust. Video showed largely empty streets with poor visibility. Flights resumed on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia’s meteorological association reported that visibility would drop to zero on the roads in Riyadh, the capital, this week. Officials warned drivers to go slowly. Emergency rooms in the city were flooded with 1,285 patients this month complaining they couldn’t breathe properly.

Iran last week shut down schools and government offices in the capital of Tehran over a sandstorm that swept the country. It hit hardest in the nation’s southwest desert region of Khuzestan, where over 800 people sought treatment for breathing difficulties. Dozens of flights out of western Iran were canceled or delayed.

In Syria, sandstorms wreaked damage on camps in the Raqqa area in the country's north, with a number of camp residents taken to hospital because of breathing difficulties, North Press Agency reported.

Sandstorms in northern and eastern Syria earlier this month killed five people, the Syrian news outlet reported.

The Middle East's sandstorms are becoming more frequent and intense, a trend associated with overgrazing and deforestation, overuse of river water and more dams.

Experts say the phenomenon could worsen as climate change warps regional weather patterns and drives desertification.

Iraq has been particularly hard hit by the storms, with thousands of people hospitalised by the barrage of sand storms this spring.

“Its a region-wide issue but each country has a different degree of vulnerability and weakness,” Jaafar Jotheri, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Al-Qadisiyah in Baghdad told AFP.

In Iraq, desertification exacerbated by record-low rainfall is adding to the intensity of storms, Jotheri said.

“Because of 17 years of mismanagement of water and urbanisation, Iraq lost more than two thirds of its green cover,” he said. “That is why Iraqis are complaining more than their neighbors about the sandstorms in their areas.”

Iraq's meteorological society forecast "rising dust" in parts of the country until the weekend.

Last week, the world's tallest building - the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai - vanished behind a layer of dust because of a sandstorm.

Iraq Report: 

Iraq is facing an ecological disaster

Once known for its fertile lands and lush agriculture, Iraq is facing an impending climate crisis as drought, incessant sand storms and scorching heat, compounded by a failing government, promise a difficult summer.

The New Arab
24 May, 2022

For thousands of years, Iraq and ancient Mesopotamia have been known as a green, fertile land surrounded by an otherwise inhospitable climate. Iraq is also known in Arabic as Bilad al-Rafidayn, or the Land of the Two Rivers, in reference to the Tigris and Euphrates that have long sustained some of the world’s oldest civilisations.

Despite this rich and fertile history, Iraq’s water sources are drying up due to domestic neglect and regional powers such as Turkey and Iran damming up waters that have historically flowed through the country.

If Iraq’s water resources – vital to life – are put under any additional strain, conflicts could erupt not over fossil fuels, but over this key fundamental resource that is essential to life – both human and otherwise.

"If Iraq's water resources – vital to life – are put under any additional strain, conflicts could erupt not over fossil fuels, but over this key fundamental resource that is essential to life – both human and otherwise"

Desertification and dust storms

In recent weeks, Iraq has been buffeted by seemingly incessant dust storms that have covered the Middle Eastern country in an ominous orange haze. Aside from the obvious respiratory conditions that these dust storms have caused, they have also led to fatalities.

Flights were suspended, government offices shuttered, and thousands were hospitalised since Iraq came to a halt, and the dust storms have led to the death of at least one Iraqi and several others in neighbouring Syria.

The latest dust storm is the eighth in just one month with more such incidents expected in the near future, indicating that these are more than simply a freak occurrence.

Adding to the dust storms are Iraq’s now-annual scorching summer heats. While Iraq has always been a hot country, the recent spikes in temperatures – that can hit as high as 50 degrees Celsius – have been amplified recently, particularly due to intermittent electricity and a shortage of air conditioning.

The searing temperatures, increased water and soil salinity, and the gradually declining annual rainfall has led to another problem – food insecurity.

An Iraqi woman walks in the capital Baghdad during one of many sand storms that have hit Iraq since last month, covering the city in a thick orange haze, on May 1, 2022. [Getty]


Already this year, the lack of water has led the Iraqi government to order farmers to cultivate only half the usual land they would be harvesting close to this time of year. The reduced size of arable land, and the added strain of high temperatures and lack of water, have meant that farmers have quite often watched their harvests wilt to half their usual size.

Agriculture ministry spokesman Hamid al-Nayef said the state was helping by raising the purchase price in order to pay producers around $500 per tonne of wheat.

In 2019 and 2020, wheat harvests had reached five million tonnes, enough to guarantee “self-sufficiency” for Iraq, he told AFP.

This season, Iraq may only grow 2.5-3 million tonnes of wheat, “not enough for a whole year for the Iraqis,” Nayef acknowledged. “We will have to import,” he said.

However, that may not be a readily available solution. As is often the case with economics, Iraq’s problems have also been impacted by international worries, particularly as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had an additional knock-on effect on the prices of fuel, fertilisers and seeds.

Russia and Ukraine are both in the top ten of wheat exporters globally, sitting at third and tenth respectively. As the war between the two continues, this has had a significant slowing effect on the export of hundreds of millions of tonnes of wheat, impacting the global supply while simultaneously ramping up prices.

While global warming and the climate crisis have impacted much of the world, it has been felt particularly acutely in Iraq, a country already ravaged by war, mismanagement of natural resources (including water), and a political system that is stunted by corruption and nepotism.

This has left Iraq more vulnerable and susceptible to global shocks – such as Ukraine – in addition to spiralling costs resulting from supply chain problems that have been felt on an international scale, particularly as China – Iraq’s largest investor – attempts to eradicate its latest wave of coronavirus.

It has also left Iraq – weakened by decades of war and a lack of sovereignty – at the mercy of its neighbours.

Turkey, despite its rhetoric that often champions countries deemed to be in need – such as Somalia – seems to have little problem with continuing to build dams on both the Tigris and the Euphrates to generate hydroelectricity. This has led to, in some cases, a drop of almost two-thirds of expected water flow into Iraq.

"While global warming and the climate crisis has impacted much of the world, it has been felt particularly acutely in Iraq, a country already ravaged by war, mismanagement of natural resources, and a political system that is stunted by corruption and nepotism"

While Ankara’s decision to build these dams has alleviated some of Turkey’s energy problems, it has exacerbated Iraq’s water problems, leading to receding river banks, desertification, and increased soil salinity – a death knell for agriculture.

The water flow has been so badly weakened that the salt water of the Arabian Gulf has begun to flow further inland, further damaging Iraq’s soil.

Iraq’s neighbour to the east, meanwhile, has also been the source of damaging water policies. Iran has stymied the flow of the Shatt al-Arab river by digging canals to the Bahmanshir tributary, leading to not only a 90 percent drop in water, but also a shifting of the international border by affecting the Shatt’s dividing thalweg line in favour of Iran.

Such is the level of distress in Iraq at its receding water supplies that the authorities in Baghdad – ordinarily very friendly to Iran – announced in January this year that they would seek legal action against Iran to compel it to respect international treaties.

The thalweg line in the Shatt was one of the key causes behind the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. While there is little chance that Iraq will be able to militarily prosecute a war to secure its borders now, this water and border issue may be the spark of a future conflict between the two uneasy neighbours.

Domestic political impasse continues

Iraq’s political impasse continues as last October’s election winners have continued to fail to form a new government, following staunch resistance from a coalition of rival Shia Islamists who are hesitant to give up their share of power.

Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose bloc won last year’s election, has presided over multiple attempts to form a majority government but has failed to realise his ambitions.

This led him to declare last Sunday on Twitter that his bloc would cede the ground to the other opposition parties to try and form a government, and that his Sairoun coalition will instead sit in the opposition for “no less than 30 days”.

"The longer Iraq stays in political paralysis, the greater the fury felt by Iraqis will be, particularly as the water crisis worsens, summer temperatures cause tempers to flare, and food prices skyrocket"

In a televised address on Monday, a visibly frustrated Sadr accused the “obstructing third” of Iraqi parliamentarians – largely a coalition of pro-Iran Shia Islamists – of being susceptible to “corruption and vice” and blamed them for not allowing the Iraqi people to have a strong, majority government.

Sadr also hinted that he may, once again, call on his supporters to descend on the streets of Iraqi cities to demonstrate.

More than seven months since the last elections, Iraq is still under a caretaker government led by incumbent Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

However, Kadhimi’s government is powerless to do much beyond administering the civil functions of the state. The Iraqi Supreme Federal Court ruled last week that the caretaker government would not be allowed to pursue a legislative agenda and would instead 
This means that, despite numerous promises of change, Iraqis are once again faced with a political quandary that has seen politicians bickering over ministries and clerics dictating the terms of an Iraqi democracy that has many of the trappings of a Shia theocracy.

Ultimately, it seems likely that they will come to some sort of concession, even if Sadr continuously rules out forming a coalition government. The longer Iraq stays in political paralysis, the greater the fury felt by Iraqis will be, particularly as the water crisis worsens, summer temperatures cause tempers to flare, and food prices skyrocket.

If a new government with a new legislative agenda is not in office soon and, most importantly, is not viewed by Iraqis to be initiating policies that will reduce the terrible burdens that they have been facing since 2003, there is a high chance we may yet witness yet another violent summer.

The Iraq Report is a regular feature at The New Arab.
Click here to see the full archive.

Bank of England tells banks to take climate action now or face slashed profits

Reuters
May 24, 2022 

LONDON — Banks and insurers which fail to properly manage climate risks could face a 10% to 15% hit to annual profits and higher capital requirements, the Bank of England said on Tuesday.

In its first comprehensive stress test of how Britain’s financial system’s will cope with climate change and stresses from the shift to a net zero-carbon economy by 2050, the BoE said action now would lower future costs.

Banks and insurers would be able to manage the costs of moving to a net-zero economy if they act now – or else costs will mount, including for customers, the BoE said.

“The first key lesson from this exercise is that over time climate risks will become a persistent drag on banks’ and insurers’ profitability – particularly if they don’t manage them effectively,” said BoE Deputy Governor Sam Woods in a speech.

“While they vary across firms and scenarios, overall loss rates are equivalent to an average drag on annual profits of around 10-15%.”

Banks face pressure from climate activists to cut financing to fossil fuel projects.

But Woods said banks and insurers would need to continue financing more carbon-intensive sectors of the economy to help them transition to a low carbon future.

“Cutting off finance to these corporates too quickly could prove counterproductive, and have wide-ranging macroeconomic and societal consequences, including through elevated energy prices – potentially akin to those whose negative effects we are experiencing today.”

In the most severe climate change scenario posed by the BoE, where no additional measures are taken to reduce the rise in global temperatures, banks and insurers test could face total losses of up to 350 billion pounds if they take no action.

“To the extent that climate change makes the distribution of future shocks nastier, that could imply higher capital requirements, all else equal,” Woods said, adding that a debate was to be had.

Properties at risk of flooding would become prohibitively expensive to insure under the severe scenario, the BoE said.

The BoE tested the ability of 19 banks and insurers to understand how climate change will affect their business models and if they hold enough capital to cover climate-related risks like catastrophes, or falls in the value of property and other assets on their books.

The Bank had already said there would be no pass or fail mark due to the test’s experimental nature, and that the results would not determine capital requirements for now. 

Boris Johnson Partygate pictures: It is now clear Prime Minister lied to Parliament over parties - Ruth Davidson

Former Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson said the latest Downing Street pictures show it is clear Boris Johnson lied to Parliament and that his position is “untenable”.

By Alan Young
Tuesday, 24th May 2022

Baroness Davidson was speaking after the images emerged of the Prime Minister raising a glass at a leaving party in Downing Street during lockdown restrictions.

ITV News published four images on Monday showing the Prime Minister with a drink in his hand while standing behind a table littered with wine bottles and food.

The pictures were taken at a leaving party for then-director of communications Lee Cain on November 13 2020, eight days after Mr Johnson imposed England’s second national coronavirus lockdown.

For four weeks, people were banned from social mixing, other than to meet one person outside.

“There is now photographic evidence that when the Prime Minister stood up in Parliament and was asked directly was there a party in No 10 on this date and he replied ‘no’, he lied to Parliament,” Baroness Davidson said.

“I don’t think his job is tenable and his position is tenable. The office of Prime Minister should be above being traduced by the person who holds it.”

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who U-turned on an earlier demand for the Prime Minister to stand down, said Mr Johnson had to explain why he believes his behaviour was “acceptable” when most will think the pictures “seem unjustifiable and wrong”.



The pictures showed the Prime Minister with a glass in his hand behind a table filled with alcohol and food

Mr Johnson was not fined by the Metropolitan Police over the event seen in the images, which show at least nine people in close proximity along with six bottles of wine.

Downing Street declined to defend the scene portrayed, saying the Prime Minister will comment after the Sue Gray report into partygate is published in the coming days.

A No 10 spokeswoman said: “The Cabinet Office and the Met Police have had access to all information relevant to their investigations, including photographs.

Sue Gray is due to publish her report this week

“The Met have concluded their investigation and Sue Gray will publish her report in the coming days, at which point the Prime Minister will address Parliament in full.”

Mr Ross said: “These images will rightly make people across the country very angry.

“The Prime Minister must outline why he believes this behaviour was acceptable. To most, these pictures seem unjustifiable and wrong.”

Mr Johnson told MPs in December that “the rules were followed at all times” when asked during Prime Minister’s Questions about Mr Cain’s leaving party.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “While the British public were making huge sacrifices, Boris Johnson was breaking the law.

“Boris Johnson said repeatedly that he knew nothing about law-breaking – there’s no doubt now, he lied.

“Boris Johnson made the rules, and then broke them.”

SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford MP said: "These pictures clearly show, as the police investigation concluded, that parties did indeed take place at Downing Street during lockdown, and that the Prime Minister was there. It is sickening.

"Boris Johnson told us firstly that no parties took place during lockdown, then he said he wasn't at them and that he was angry about them. He is a serial liar and cannot be allowed to get away with it.

"It is truly a disgrace that Tory MPs are keeping him in Downing Street – he demeans the office that he holds. It is time for them to do the decent thing, for once, and get rid of him. This charlatan should be an ex-Prime Minister by now."

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper urged the Independent Office for Police Conduct to investigate why the Met did not fine the Prime Minister over the leaving party, as she joined the SNP in calling on the Tories to remove him from office.

“Conservative MPs must do their duty and sack this law-breaking Prime Minister,” she said.

“Every day he remains in office will do more damage to public trust and to our democracy.”

Jo Goodman, co-founder of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said the emergence of the photographs would “twist the knife” into the wounds of those who had lost loved in the pandemic.

“Like the rest of the country we struggle to see how these pictures show anything other than the Prime Minister breaking the laws the rest of us lived by,” she said.

“They raise serious questions as to how he has only been issued with a solitary fine.”

Controversy before Sue Gray report published

The images emerged after No 10 admitted it did instigate a meeting between Ms Gray and the Prime Minister during the run up to the much-anticipated publication of her partygate inquiry.

Treasury minister Simon Clarke had insisted on Monday morning that it was the senior civil servant who “instigated” the meeting in the weeks leading up to her widely anticipated report into lockdown breaches in Downing Street.

But hours later Downing Street admitted it was “No 10 officials” who had requested the meeting earlier this month so that the Prime Minister could discuss the “timings and publication process”.

No 10 also insisted Mr Johnson did not support allegations attributed to his allies that Ms Gray had been “playing politics” ahead of her report.

The Prime Minister refused to comment on the details of the meeting during a visit to a school in south-east London, but said “of course” Ms Gray remained independent.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer warned of the Government hitting a “new low” with attempts to “undermine” Ms Gray and her report.

The Commons Privileges Committee is due to investigate whether Mr Johnson lied to Parliament with his denials of rule-breaking.

Intentionally misleading the House would normally be a resigning matter.

On December 8, Labour MP Catherine West asked Mr Johnson in the Commons whether there had been a party in Downing Street on November 13 2020.

The Prime Minister replied: “No, but I am sure that whatever happened, the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times.”

ITV’s images show Mr Johnson standing closely with seven others in one image.

Including the photographer and the Prime Minister, that makes at least nine people in the room.

Six wine bottles are on the table, one is clearly half empty.

ITV described Mr Johnson as holding half a glass of fizz in the images, while a ministerial red box is perched on a chair in front of him.

The Prime Minister only received one fine during the Met’s investigation, for the gathering for his 56th birthday in June 2020.

Scotland Yard did issue a fine to at least one individual who attended a gathering on the date of Mr Cain’s leaving do, but the force declined to say what the offending event was.

But it was clear the breach, or breaches, were in relation to restrictions on indoor gatherings consisting of two or more people.

The Metropolitan Police declined to explain why the Prime Minister was not fined over the leaving party.

‘How did he get away with this?’ What the papers say about new Johnson Partygate photos

Boris Johnson shown raising a glass at event during a national Covid lockdown, in newly released photos

British newspaper headlines for 24 May, 2022 Photograph: The Guardian

Samantha Lock

@Samantha__Lock

Tue 24 May 2022 

Images have emerged of Boris Johnson raising a glass at a No 10 party during a national Covid lockdown, sparking fresh acrimony across the UK front pages on Tuesday.

The prime minister is facing fresh claims of lying to MPs after four pictures,      first published by ITV News, showed him toasting a senior aide at a Downing Street leaving drinks event.

“Fresh danger for Johnson over No 10 drinks pictures”, the Guardian front         page reads, alongside a photo of the prime minister raising his glass. The paper reported the Metropolitan police were under pressure too after Johnson            escaped   a fine despite attending the leaving do for director of communications Lee Cain.

The Mirror asks: “How did he get away with this?” in its headline, with a    subhead saying: “Johnson pictured drinking champagne at office party during lockdown … but no fine.”

The Times goes with: “Partying PM ‘misled Commons’” and also displays the parliamentary exchange from last December in which the prime minister, when asked by the Labour MP Catherine West about events on the date in question, insisted “the rules were followed at all times”.

The Telegraph focuses on the Met’s response to the ongoing Downing Street scandal. “Pressure on Met over pictures of PM raising a toast in No 10,” its headline reads.

“Police asked why Johnson avoided Covid fine for aide’s lockdown leaving        party that was ‘so obviously a breach’,” the paper adds.

The customarily loyal Express joins in focusing on the questions the police face over their inquiry, with its headline: “Nothing to see here! Yard says Boris broke no rules”. It notes that the Metropolitan police believe the prime minister was    not partying at the leaving do.

Metro puns with “Lockdown in one, PM”, adding its own voice to the           general query: “How did Boris not get fined for this booze-up?”

The Independent takes a slightly more matter-of-fact approach. “PM        pictured drinking at lockdown party in No 10,” its headline reads.

“Lockdown party photos hit PM,” says the i, noting the PM is awaiting Tory       and public reaction to the latest Covid revelation.

Staying away from the subject entirely, the Daily Mail opts to splash on a possible rail strike, warning of “power blackouts, petrol shortages and empty shelves” alongside a picture of the Queen riding in a buggy at the Chelsea      Flower Show.

The Sun makes only a fleeting mention of the No 10 allegations, with its          front page dedicated to an off-duty policewoman celebrating on the football    pitch. Directing readers to a page six story on Johnson, the front page        reference is:  “Only here for the cheers”.

VIDEO Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer warned of the Government hitting a “new low” with attempts to “undermine” Ms Gray and her report.

Why I quit as a Russian diplomat to the United Nations

WRITTEN BY

Boris Bondarev

23 May 2022

My name is Boris Bondarev, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Russia since 2002, since 2019 until now — Counsellor of the Russian Mission to the UN Office at Geneva.

For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24 of this year. The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country.

Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred.

Those who conceived this war want only one thing - to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity. To achieve that they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.

I regret to admit that over all these twenty years the level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time. However, in most recent years, this has become simply catastrophic. Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysis and sober forecasting, there are propaganda clichés in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s. A system has been built that deceives itself.

Minister Lavrov is a good illustration of the degradation of this system. In 18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual, whom many of my colleagues held in such high esteem, to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world (that is, Russia too) with nuclear weapons!

Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves the interests of the few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy.

I studied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for twenty years. The Ministry has become my home and family. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless and absolutely needless ignominy.

This text is from the statement issued by Boris Bondarev on his resignation from the United Nations.

Boris Bondarev was Counsellor of the Russian Mission to the United Nations in Geneva. He resigned in protest to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on May 23 2022.

No, monkeypox didn’t leak from Wuhan

23 May 2022, 

It’s a familiar story. Close contacts of individuals infected by a dangerous illness are being asked by UK officials to isolate as government concern about the outbreak grows. Just 57 cases have been reported in Britain so far – 168 globally – but already questions are being asked about the virus’s origins. One theory involves the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The lab, which is considered by a growing number of scientists to be the origin of the original Covid pandemic, specialises in so-called ‘gain of function experiments’. These experiments aim to genetically enhance viruses (like Covid) so they are more likely to jump species to humans. Reports emerged last year that researchers at the lab fell ill before the first cases of Covid-19 were recorded.

Now, a February study (submitted last August) has come to light suggesting similar experiments may have been carried out in Wuhan on a monkeypox virus. The paper, ‘Efficient assembly of a large fragment of monkeypox virus genome as a PCR template using dual-selection based transformation-associated recombination’, was published in the journal Virologica Sinica (the Wuhan lab’s own journal). It looked to create a monkeypox virus that could be identified on PCR tests. The researchers successfully produced a ‘genomic fragment of monkeypox virus’. The paper identified the potential risks of such research:
“This DNA assembly tool applied in virological research could also raise potential security concerns, especially when the assembled product contains a full set of genetic material that can be recovered into a contagious pathogen.

So could it have leaked? The researchers say that this would be impossible because the monkeypox DNA fragment they produced was so small – ‘less than one-third [...] of the genome’. So the experiment was: ‘fail-safe by virtually eliminating any risk of recovering into an infectious virus.’

So it’s very unlikely that any experiment on monkeypox in the Wuhan lab would have leaked. But the discovery of these experiments raises alarm given the experience of Covid. Emails uncovered between the Wellcome Trust’s Jeremy Farrar and America’s Antony Fauci suggested that the lab ‘accidentally created a virus primed for rapid transmission between humans.’ In the same emails, the former director of the US National Institutes for Health warned publication could damage ‘international harmony.’ Without more transparency within the scientific community, particularly in China, any outbreak or any virus will immediately lead to more and more suspicion.

WRITTEN BY

Michael Simmons is a data journalist at The Spectator

Monkeypox outbreak ‘is containable’ says

World Health Organization

AMELIA HANSFORD MAY 24, 2022

The stages of monkeypox. (UK Health Security Agency)

The emerging monkeypox outbreak is a “containable situation” in “non-endemic countries”, according to experts at the World Health Organization (WHO).

The virus, which has seen more than 100 cases in Europe, the Americas, and Australia, is expected to spread further, but the overall risk to the wider population is low, WHO experts said on Monday. (23 May).

The virus is most common in remote parts of Central and West Africa and hasn’t seen an outbreak this significant outside the region in 50 years.

However, WHO’s emerging diseases lead Maria Van Kerkhove stressed that “this is a containable situation”.

“We want to stop human-to-human transmission,” Kerkhove said. “We can do this in the non-endemic countries.”

A big reason monkeypox is containable is its low transmissibility, as Kerkhove explained: “Transmission is really happening from skin-to-skin contact, most of the people who have been identified have had more of a mild disease.”

It also “tends not to mutate and [tends] to be fairly stable,” noted WHO’s smallpox secretariat lead Rosamund Lewis. There’s no current supporting evidence to suggest the spreading virus is a mutation.

According to the BBC, Andrea Ammon of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control noted the “likelihood of spread is very low”, but is higher through close contact during sex.

“The likelihood of further spread of the virus through close contact, for example during sexual activities amongst persons with multiple sexual partners, is considered to be high,” Ammon said.

UK officials have confirmed that cases in the country have predominantly been found among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, though a sexual health expert told PinkNews that it’s unclear whether this is because of queer men attending more regular sexual health screenings.

Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headaches, swellings, aching muscles, and exhaustion. Rashes and lesions may start to appear on the face, hands, and feet.

Monkeypox is not currently considered a sexually transmitted infection, but can still be transmitted through sex. Residents in the UK who have come into contact with a confirmed case are now being asked to isolate themselves for 21 days.

The UN has previously condemned reporting on the virus as “racist and homophobic,” with UNAIDs deputy executive director Matthew Kavanagh telling The Guardian: “Stigma and blame undermine trust and capacity to respond effectively during outbreaks like this one.”