Articles by WSWS
We found 363 results.
New York Times Report Demolishes the Narrative of the “Unprovoked War” in Ukraine
Patrick Martin | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Mar 2024
26 Feb 2024 – Nearly every reference in the US media to the Feb 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia has been preceded by an obligatory word—“unprovoked.” However, the NYT just published a lengthy article revealing that the invasion was instigated by a systematic and widespread campaign of military-intelligence aggression on the part of the CIA-USA.
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Oxfam Report: Poorer Countries Going from Crisis to Catastrophe
Nick Beams | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Apr 2022
19 Apr 2022 – In the lead up to the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank being held in Washington this week, the global aid agency Oxfam has produced a report detailing the horrendous impact of rising inflation, coming on top of the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, for almost half the world’s population.
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AP Reporter Challenges US Lies about Russian War Preparations
Clara Weiss | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Feb 2022
5 Feb 2022 – In a remarkable exchange on Thursday [3 Feb], US State Department spokesman Ned Price was challenged by Matt Lee from the Associated Press. With just one simple question—“what evidence do you have?”—Lee threw Price completely off and exposed a simple fact: The current press campaign over an allegedly impending “Russian invasion” of Ukraine and “false flag attacks” has no more credibility than Colin Powell’s lies of “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq.
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White House Discusses Plans to Send up to 50,000 Troops to Eastern Europe
Johannes Stern and Alex Lantier | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Jan 2022
24 Jan 2022 – Yesterday the New York Times reported that the Biden administration is discussing plans to deploy tens of thousands of troops to the borders of Russia and Ukraine. Despite the administration’s threadbare attempt to present this as a defense of Ukrainian sovereignty against Russia, it is apparent that Washington is preparing a military escalation aiming to provoke Russia, a major nuclear power, into a war.
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Billionaires Increased Wealth by $3.6 Trillion in 2020, as Millions Died from Global Pandemic
Trévon Austin | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Dec 2021
The World Inequality Report 2022, released by the World Inequality Lab on 7 Dec, found that the COVID-19 pandemic has widened the financial gap between the rich and poor. The world’s billionaires enjoyed the steepest increase in their share of wealth last year since the World Inequality Lab began keeping records in 1995.
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New York Times Cites US Torturer Michael Chertoff on Chinese “Repression”
Andre Damon | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Sep 2021
A Case Study in “Human Rights Imperialism” – There is one source quoted in the 1,500-word editorial, a report by Freedom House, an organization the Times says nothing about: “Freedom House receives 90 percent of its funding from the US government. Its current chairman is Michael Chertoff, who served as US Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, and co-authored the USA Patriot Act, which justified mass illegal surveillance, torture, and the assassination of American citizens. Chertoff has been accused of war crimes.”
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US Military Steps up Taliban-Approved Evacuation from Kabul
Patrick Martin | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Aug 2021
19 Aug 2021 – Some 2,000 US citizens and Afghan associates were flown out of Kabul yesterday, and the US military said it would be able to increase the airlift to 9,000 a day once all runways at the main airport are cleared. There were at least 4,000 US troops at the airport and a total of 6,000 were expected once the full deployment was carried out.
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And So It Begins Again: The Media Recycles Afghanistan War Lies
Patrick Martin | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Aug 2021
20 Aug 2021 – Following the desperate evacuation of US troops, the corporate press is raising concerns for the “human rights” of Afghans. For the last 20 years, the corporate media raised no objections as the USA killed over 100,000 people, set up black site torture chambers, carried out drone assassinations, robbed the country of its resources, and facilitated horrific crimes by promoting the war as a “just cause,” a necessary response to 9/11.
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Journalist Craig Murray Jailed for Eight Months in a Major Assault on Democratic Rights
Robert Stevens | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Aug 2021
30 Jul 2021 – Yesterday, Murray was informed that the UK’s Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal for a punitive eight months by a Scottish court. The railroading of Murray into prison is the culmination of a politically motivated witch-hunt. For the last decade, he has been a trenchant defender of Julian Assange.
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US Imperialism’s Criminal Debacle in Afghanistan
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jul 2021
7 Jul 2021 – US troops pulled out of the sprawling Bagram Air Base at three in the morning last Friday [2 Jul], without notifying the Afghan government forces meant to replace them, and cutting off the power on the way out, an act that triggered an invasion of the base by a small army of looters. This ignoble retreat is a fitting symbol of the debacle wrought by 20 years of US war and occupation in Afghanistan.
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Divisions over Russia Policy Erupt Inside EU at Brussels Summit
Johannes Stern and Alex Lantier | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Jun 2021
On Thursday [24 Jun], EU heads of state met for a two-day summit in Brussels that endorsed EU policy on the pandemic, while clashing bitterly on foreign policy, especially Russian. The EU issued an initial summit communiqué whitewashing its pandemic policies in Orwellian terms.
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The American Working Class Must Come to Assange’s Defense!
Thomas Scripps | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Jun 2021
10 Jun 2021 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been subjected to more than a decade of vicious uninterrupted persecution by the imperialist powers. He is currently in London’s Belmarsh maximum-security prison, fighting extradition to the US.
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Tokyo Pushes Ahead with Olympics despite Growing Demands to Cancel
Ben McGrath | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jun 2021
31 May 2021 – With the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games scheduled to start on July 23, opposition continues to grow in Japan as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens throughout the country. The head of the Japan Doctors Union warned that holding the Games could lead to a new “Olympic” strain of the COVID-19 virus.
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Danish Public Broadcaster Reveals Ongoing NSA Spying on Top EU Officials
Alex Lantier | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Jun 2021
2 Jun 2021 – While Snowden’s actions have met with support and gratitude from workers and young people in the US and across the planet, that is not the case with the governments that rule them. All of them bow to the bullying from Washington. Like the US government, they defend wealthy ruling classes under conditions of ever-widening social inequality, and like Washington, they fear that their conspiracies against their own people will be exposed to the light of day.
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Israeli Provocations Continue as Scale of Gaza Damage Emerges
Mike Head | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 May 2021
24 May 2021 – The United Nations said nearly 450 buildings had been damaged, including six hospitals, 53 schools and 11 primary healthcare centres, as well as more than 1,000 homes.
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Rampant Wall Street Speculation: The Fever Chart of a Terminally Diseased System
Nick Beams | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 May 2021
7 May 2021 – The phenomenal rise of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which has risen 11,000 percent since the start of the year, is the expression of a seemingly new principle in the world of speculation—the more intrinsically worthless a so-called “asset” the faster its rise.
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Ten Years Since WikiLeaks and Assange Published the Guantánamo Files
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 May 2021
1 May 2021 – Last week marked a decade since WikiLeaks published a tranche of 779 secret files from the US government’s Guantánamo Bay military prison, revealing in greater detail than ever before the global dragnet of illegal detention associated with the fraudulent “war on terror.”
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Leaked Photographs Expose Dismal Conditions in US Child Immigration Detention Center
Trévon Austin | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Mar 2021
23 Mar 2021 – Leaked photos from a facility in Texas released Sunday [21 Mar] by US Representative Henry Cuellar, gave the first glimpse of the crowded conditions for children detained at the US-Mexico border. Children can be seen cramped in enclosed spaces, many lying on mats with Mylar blankets. Amid an increase in COVID-19 infections, the crowding makes social distancing impossible.
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Quad Summit Consolidates US-Led Military Bloc to Prepare for War against China
Peter Symonds | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Mar 2021
The first leaders’ summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad, online on Friday [12 Mar], has raised the stakes in the US-led war drive against China. The summit not only issued a formal statement, but Biden and the prime ministers of India, Australia and Japan put their names to an opinion piece published prominently in the Washington Post on Sunday[14 Mar].
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Assange’s Partner Exposes Ongoing Denial of His Legal and Democratic Rights
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Mar 2021
22 Feb 2021 – Assange is still being denied proper access to his lawyers and to crucial legal documents. In an online post last week, Stella Moris, the partner of Julian Assange and mother of his two young children, outlined the ongoing denial of the WikiLeaks founder’s fundamental legal and democratic rights, even after a British Magistrates’ Court ruled early last month against his extradition to the United States.
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The Mars Rover and the Texas Catastrophe: Scientific Possibility vs. Capitalist Reality
Bryan Dyne | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Feb 2021
20 Feb 2021 – If society operated on the principle of rationality and human need, not the insatiable greed of the rich, the scientific advancements that made possible the Mars rover would be used to end the many ills that plague humanity.
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Dam Disaster in India: Over 200 Construction Workers and Villagers Trapped or Dead
Saman Gunadasa | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Feb 2021
On Sunday [7 Feb 2021] morning, part of the glacier at India’s second highest peak, burst. Massive floodwaters and silt gushed downstream virtually wiping out power plants, bridges and tunnels, and cutting off villages. The disaster trapped and killed more than 200 power plant workers and villagers near the Chinese and Tibetan borders in India’s Himalayan region.
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Oxfam: Global Billionaires’ Wealth up $3.9 Trillion during the Pandemic
Jacob Crosse | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Feb 2021
26 Jan 2021 – A new report issued by Oxfam International ahead of this week’s virtual World Economic Forum, which is usually held annually in Davos, Switzerland, underlines the effect of government policies enacted in response to the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic: Inequality Expected to Rise in Every Country “Simultaneously”
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Trump Pardons Bannon, Grants Clemency to Reactionaries and Criminals
Jacob Crosse | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jan 2021
21 Jan 2021 – President Donald Trump ended his presidency by granting clemency to 144 individuals, including one of his top fascist advisers, Stephen Bannon. On his way out of the White House, Trump issued 74 pardons and commuted the sentences of 70 others.
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US Brands Yemen’s Houthi Rebels “Terrorists,” Paving Way for Mass Starvation
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2021
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday [11 Jan] that Washington will designate the Houthi rebels, who govern territory containing 70 percent of the Yemeni population, as a “foreign terrorist organization.” This cynical and potentially catastrophic measure is being taken by the ostensibly “lame-duck” secretary of state as part of an unrelenting “maximum pressure” campaign of punishing economic sanctions and continuous military provocations against Iran.
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Brazil: 6 Patients Die of Asphyxiation as Hospitals in Manaus Run Out of Oxygen
Tomás Castanheira | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
18 Jan 2021
16 Jan 2021 – Amid an explosive growth in COVID-19 hospitalizations, the Brazil’s Amazonian capital, Manaus, is experiencing days of terror with a collapse of the oxygen supply in its hospitals. An entire wing of University Hospital patients died on Thursday [14 Jan] night due to lack of oxygen, six people in total.
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The Fascist Coup of 6 Jan 2021
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2021
7 Jan 2021 – The fascist insurrection in Washington DC—which resulted in the storming of the US Congress, the panicked dispersal of terrified senators and members of the House, the delay of the official validation of Joseph Biden’s Electoral College majority, and even the occupation of the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—is a turning point in the political history of the United States.
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Every Journalist Should Be Concerned about What Was Said Today in Assange’s Kangaroo Court
WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jan 2021
The Political Arguments Provided by the U.S. Were Upheld by the British Judicial System – Fidel Narváez, ex-consul from Ecuador in London and Assange’s friend, thanked those gathered outside the court for “supporting freedom of expression, supporting Julian Assange, the man, the journalist, the activist, the freedom fighter”.
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Pandemic Profiteers: Forbes Adds 50 Health Care Moguls to Its List of Global Billionaires
Genevieve Leigh | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2021
29 Dec 2020 – For the richest layer of society, the year 2020 has proven to be one of soaring profits and the accumulation of personal wealth on a scale never before seen. The world’s billionaires collectively increased their already massive fortunes by more than a quarter (27.5 percent) from April 2020 to July 2020 alone, reaching a record total of $10.2 trillion.
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The Class Dynamic of the Massive Wall Street Speculation
Nick Beams | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jan 2021
30 Dec 2020 – The year is ending amid the greatest economic contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but Wall Street is finishing the year at a record high. The ruling financial oligarchy is benefiting from the COVID-19 pandemic to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
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John Le Carré (19 Oct 1931 – 12 Dec 2020): Spy Novelist and “Inside-Outside” Man
Stefan Steinberg | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Dec 2020
David John Moore Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré, was a British author of espionage novels and former intelligence agent. He died of pneumonia December 12 aged 89 years. Le Carré leaves behind an intriguing body of literary work set against a background of some of the key political and social developments of the past half-century.
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In Bipartisan Vote: US House Approves Record $741 Billion Military Spending Bill
WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Dec 2020
The overwhelming bipartisan vote by the House of Representatives Tuesday [8 Dec] to approve the largest military budget in American history demonstrates the reality. Democrats and Republicans are supposedly at each other’s throats over an array of social and political issues, but they are entirely in agreement on funding the world’s largest and most lethal, destructie military machine–including the climate.
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EU Summit: Billions for the Banks, Nothing for Workers
Peter Schwarz | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Dec 2020
12 Dec 2020 – European Central Bank extended its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme until the end of March 2022 and expanded it by €500 billion. This is the greatest redistribution of wealth in history, for the huge sums of money will ultimately have to be paid back by the working class in the form of cuts in social programmes and wages. The stock exchanges are jubilant.
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Contradictions Emerge Amid the Race to Develop a COVID-19 Vaccine
Benjamin Mateus | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Dec 2020
3 Dec 2020 – Both Pfizer, a pharmaceutical giant, and the start-up firm Moderna have used essentially the same biochemical process, involving messenger RNA (mRNA) to develop a new vaccine against coronavirus.
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Ten Years Since WikiLeaks Published the US Diplomatic Cables
Thomas Scripps | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Nov 2020
28 Nov 2020 – Today is the tenth anniversary of “Cablegate” when WikiLeaks, leading a group of partner media organisations, began reporting on the contents of hundreds of thousands of leaked United States government diplomatic cables. The documents revealed the vast scope and global reach of US imperialism’s criminal conspiracies and the brutality and corruption of governments the world over.
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Study Finds Meatpacking Plants Were Responsible for 8% of Coronavirus Cases in Opening Phase of Pandemic in the US
Cordell Gascoigne | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Nov 2020
27 Nov 2020 – A recent study by Charles Taylor of Columbia University, and Christopher Boulos and Douglas Almond of the University of Chicago, found that outbreaks at meatpacking plants were responsible for 8 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the USA during the early months of the pandemic.
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US Mercenary Exposes Trump Administration Links to Abortive Venezuela Invasion
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2020
3 Nov 2020 – Senior Trump administration officials were in on the planning of and offered assistance to the abortive May 3, 2020, invasion of Venezuela carried out by a mercenary band that included at least two former US special forces operatives, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami, Florida, last Friday [30 Oct].
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New Documents Show Mueller Investigation Unable to Concoct Charges against Assange and WikiLeaks
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2020
6 Nov 2020 – Previously redacted portions of the Mueller report into supposed Russian interference in the US, released this week, have shown that despite every effort, the Justice Department was unable to concoct evidence of any criminal wrongdoing on the part of WikiLeaks or Julian Assange. The revelations demonstrate that the US state has been seeking to manufacture a criminal prosecution of Assange for years, in response to his exposure of its war crimes and corruption.
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Three Short Films–Including ‘The Present’–about the Brutality of Israeli Checkpoints
Joanne Laurier | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Nov 2020
5 Nov 2020 – Oppression of the Palestinians, child hunger, and the COVID-19 pandemic are dealt with in two short films and an hour-long documentary currently screening at international film festivals or available online.
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Brazilian Armed Forces Conduct Unprecedented Military Exercises Amid US Threats to Venezuela
Gabriel Lemos | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Nov 2020
2 Nov 2020 – Bolsonaro’s Foreign Ministry last Friday [30 Oct] classified as “secret” cables about Pompeo’s trip to Brazil, which took place during war games in Brazil and Colombia. Since coming to power at the beginning of last year, the Brazilian government of fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro has aligned itself with the US regime-change operation in Venezuela.
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Ten Years since WikiLeaks and Julian Assange Published the Iraq War Logs
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2020
23 Oct 2020 – Today marks a decade since WikiLeaks published the Iraq War Logs, the most comprehensive exposure of imperialist criminality and neo-colonial banditry since the Pentagon Papers of the 1970s revealed the scale of American military activities in Vietnam, and perhaps of all time. In minute detail, the logs exposed all of the […]
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Goldman Sachs Fined $2.9 Billion over Role in 1MDB Corruption Case
Nick Beams | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Oct 2020
23 Oct 2020 – Goldman Sachs has been fined $2.9 billion the US Department of Justice announced yesterday closing one of the biggest corruption cases in the history of Wall Street. With a July settlement with Malaysian authorities, Goldman Sachs will pay more than $5 billion for its involvement in the 1MDB scandal but it can afford it easily: 2019 revenue: US$ 36.55 billion – Net worth: US$ 64 billion
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Global Billionaire Wealth Tops $10 Trillion as COVID-19 Deaths Mount
Jacob Crosse | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Oct 2020
8 Oct 2020 – The collective wealth of the world’s billionaires has risen to $10.2 trillion, an increase of nearly $1.3 trillion. The unprecedented surge in wealth takes place amidst a global pandemic that has killed more than one million people worldwide. The report, “Riding the Storm,” is based on data from 43 markets, including interviews with 60 billionaires, accounting for 98 percent of global billionaire wealth.
→ read full articleJPMorgan Pays $920 Million Settlement over Illegal Trades
Nick Beams | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Oct 2020
1 Oct 2020 – Following hard on the heels of revelations that major global banks have been involved in a network of criminal money laundering, JPMorgan Chase has been fined $920 million for manipulating markets on two of its trading desks. The charges involved the practice of spoofing.
→ read full articleReport Documents Criminality and Corruption at Heart of Global Banking System
Barry Grey | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Sep 2020
An explosive report published on 20 Sep by BuzzFeed News documents the role that major US and international banks knowingly play in laundering and circulating trillions of dollars in dirty money from terrorist organizations, drug cartels and assorted international financial criminals. The report is an unanswerable indictment not only of the banks, but also of Western governments and regulatory agencies.
→ read full articleAs Pandemic Death Toll Approaches 200,000, American Oligarchs Celebrate Their Wealth
Niles Niemuth | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2020
12 Sep 2020 – According to Forbes’ list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, the super-rich now possess $3.2 trillion, enough to pay for an entire year of public education, health care, nutrition and disaster relief for millions of people.
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Two Decades of US “War on Terror” Responsible for Displacing At Least 37 Million People and Killing Up To 12 Million
Jacob Crosse | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2020
9 Sep 2020 – A new report from Brown University estimates the number of people who have fled from US military operations since September 2001 to be as high as 59 million.
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Trotsky’s Last Year – Part 6 (final)
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2020
Why had the 1917 Revolution in Russia been followed by the defeats of the working class in Italy, China, Germany and Spain, to name only the most consequential of the political disasters? Why had the Great Depression—the greatest economic breakdown in the history of capitalism—led not to socialism, but, instead, to fascism and war? Why had the workers’ state founded on the basis of the October Revolution degenerated into a monstrous totalitarian regime?
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John Pilger outside the Old Bailey Court on Julian Assange’s Trial
John Pilger | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 Sep 2020
Veteran investigative journalist and filmmaker John Pilger delivered this speech outside London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court on 7 Sep 2020, the first day of resumed show-trial proceedings for the extradition of Julian Assange to the USA. Pilger, along with a number of other journalists and human rights activists, was denied access to the court.
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Trotsky’s Last Year – Part 3
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Sep 2020
25 Aug 2020 – An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
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Trotsky’s Last Year – Part 4
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Sep 2020
29 Aug 2020 – Trotsky’s miraculous survival of the assassination attempt of May 24, 1940, proved to be only a reprieve. The GPU immediately set into motion an alternate plan. The next attempt would be carried out not by a heavily armed squad of killers, but by a lone assassin.
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Trotsky’s Last Year – Part 5
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 Sep 2020
2 Sep 2020 – An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
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Trotsky’s Last Year – Part 1
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2020
20 Aug 2020 – Eighty years ago, on August 20, 1940, Leon Trotsky—the exiled co-leader of the 1917 October Revolution and founder of the Fourth International—was mortally wounded by an agent of the Soviet Union’s secret police. The murder of Trotsky was the outcome of a massive political conspiracy organized by the regime headed by Stalin.
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Trotsky’s Last Year – Part 2
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2020
21 Aug 2020 – An appraisal, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of Trotsky’s assassination, of the work of the great theoretician and strategist of World Socialist Revolution during the final year of his life.
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Julian Assange Receives First Visitors in Six Months: “He Is in a Lot of Pain”
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Aug 2020
28 Aug 2020 – Stella Morris, Assange’s partner and an internationally-respected human rights attorney, was allowed to meet with the WikiLeaks founder earlier this week. It was the first time that Morris and their two young children Gabriel and Max had seen Assange since March 22. The visit is welcome news but it has underscored the brutal conditions in which he is held by the British authorities, despite not having been convicted of any crime.
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In Act of High Seas Piracy, US Hijacks Iranian Oil Bound for Venezuela
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
19 Aug 2020 – The US interdiction of oil shipments bound from Iran to Venezuela represents a dangerous escalation, raising the threat of armed conflict. The Department of Justice issued a statement Friday [14 Aug] bragging that “approximately 1.116 million barrels of petroleum” had been stolen “with the assistance of foreign partners.” There has been no indication of what “foreign partners” were involved in this act of piracy, but US officials claim that the seizure did not involve military force.
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Israel Launches Airstrikes against Gaza and Threatens War
Jean Shaoul | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Aug 2020
21 Aug 2020 – Israel is preparing for war on the besieged Palestinian enclave, even as it ups the ante against Hezbollah in Lebanon and its primary target, Iran.
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The Show Trial of Julian Assange: A Cruel and Pseudolegal Farce
Thomas Scripps and Kevin Reed | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Aug 2020
15 Aug 2020 – Yesterday’s hearing in London made clear that the prosecution of Julian Assange is a shameful and degrading show trial, intended to railroad an innocent man to prison or death for revealing the crimes of US. In a botched proceeding, Assange was initially not brought to the video room to join the proceedings, the US prosecutors failed to show up after getting the hearing time wrong… (read on)
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Assange Appears in Court, as Lawyers Warn Case May Be Delayed by New US Indictment
Thomas Scripps | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Aug 2020
28 Jul 2020 – As it stands, the UK courts are continuing with Assange’s extradition process based on an outdated indictment.
→ read full articleEU Summit Agrees to €750 Billion Fund for the Banks and Corporations
Will Morrow | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Jul 2020
22 Jul 2020 – The agreement will provide a new revenue stream for European states to give handouts to corporations, and a new mechanism for austerity across the continent.
→ read full articleMarkets Soar as the Corpses Pile Up
Andre Damon | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jul 2020
15 Jul 2020 was a disaster: 71,670 new cases of COVID-19, the second-worst day on record. Nearly 1,000 people lost their lives to the disease. With Texas hospitals at 90 percent capacity, mobile morgues are dispatched. In Florida, 54 hospitals have zero available beds in intensive care units. And one third of children who were tested in Florida were positive. Amid this death and economic devastation, the stock markets surged, with the Dow Jones closing up for the fourth day in a row. Goldman Sachs posted one of its most profitable quarters ever, doubling the predictions of analysts.
→ read full articleReal Economy Plunges but Financial Profits Surge
Nick Beams | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jul 2020
16 Jul 2020 – The four major US banks this week have highlighted the widening dichotomy between the real economy and the financial system. The US is set to record the worst recession since the Great Depression, threatening elevated levels of unemployment well into the future and a wave of bankruptcies. Yet the banks are raking in billions of dollars through speculative operations financed by the massive intervention of the Fed into all corners of the financial markets.
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Pandemic Spirals out of Control in South Africa, India, Brazil
Bryan Dyne | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2020
4 Jul 2020 – The official tallies in each country of daily confirmed coronavirus cases have become exponential, indicating that whatever containment measures were implemented to halt the spread of the virus have essentially collapsed.
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New US Indictment of Julian Assange Not Served in UK Courts
Thomas Scripps | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2020
30 Jun 2020 – In yet another Kafkaesque turn, UK legal proceedings are continuing on the basis of an indictment which has been replaced and therefore has no legal force in the US.
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In Letter to the Lancet, Doctors Condemn Torture of Assange and Demand His Release
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2020
26 Jun 2020 – More than 200 eminent doctors from around the world have reiterated their call for an end to the psychological torture of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange and his immediate release from Britain’s maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.
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As Pandemic Spread Accelerates, Wall Street Celebrates Biggest Quarterly Surge in More Than 20 Years: Obscene
Nick Beams | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Jul 2020
2 July 2020 – The end of the second quarter, June 30, must surely go down as one of the stranger days in financial history. With the US economy in the grip of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, having experienced an even more rapid contraction than in the 1930s crisis, Wall Street recorded its best quarter for more than 20 years.
→ read full articleUS Indictment of Assange Based on Testimony of FBI Assets, Convicted Child Molester
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Jun 2020
In Thordarson, a convicted paedophile and conman, and Monsegur, a former petty criminal turned stool pigeon, the US government has found the fitting representatives of its campaign against Assange. The reliance on testimony from both men demonstrates that the US extradition request should be dismissed as a criminal operation, involving individuals who themselves should be in prison.
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Microsoft to Replace MSN News Production Workers with Artificial Intelligence
Mike Ingram | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jun 2020
3 Jun 2020 – Microsoft is firing dozens of news contractors after June 30 and replacing them with artificial intelligence. Around 50 journalists and editors in the US will lose their jobs. These workers operate MSN news pages, curating content and in some cases rewriting headlines and editing content to fit the format.
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Julian Assange Unable to Attend Court Hearing Due to Illness as Legal Travesty Continues
Thomas Scripps | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Jun 2020
2 Jun 2020 – Yesterday morning at Westminster Magistrates Court, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange missed his third hearing in a row due to ill health. His lawyers told the court he was too ill to attend via videolink from Belmarsh prison and was suffering from a “respiratory problem”.
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Germany and EU Expand Military Deployment in Africa
Gregor Link | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Servivce,
8 Jun 2020
2 Jun 2020 – The Bundestag decided to extend or prolong two military operations. Besides Libya, Mali and Somalia, German forces operate in Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger in the future. The stationing of 1,100 soldiers in Mali under the umbrella of the UN MINUSMA mission was extended. At the same time, the training of African troops has been expanded.
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US Withdraws from Open Skies Treaty, Heightening Danger of War with Russia
Clara Weiss | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 May 2020
22 May 2020 – The treaty, signed in 1992 after the dissolution of the USSR, has been in full force since 2002. It has been ratified by 34 states, including almost all NATO and EU members, Russia and most countries of the former Soviet Union. The US withdrawal from Open Skies, which will take effect within six months, comes amidst growing tensions with Russia.
→ read full articleWall Street Feasts on Death
David North | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Apr 2020
15 Apr 2020 – Since March 23, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 25,000 lives in the United States. During the same period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen more than 30 percent.
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Amid War Threats, Washington Blocks UN Resolution Demanding End to Sanctions
Bill Van Auken | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Apr 2020
4 April 2020 – Washington and its allies on 2 April killed a UN resolution calling for the lifting of unilateral sanctions that are severely impeding efforts to combat the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Joining the US in blocking the resolution were the European Union and the United Kingdom, along with the right-wing governments of Ukraine and Georgia.
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Chelsea Manning Released from Jail after Grand Jury Is Dismissed by US Federal Court
Kevin Reed | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Mar 2020
13 Mar 2020 – Chelsea Manning, the whistleblower who refused to answer questions before a federal grand jury empaneled as part of the US conspiracy against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was released late yesterday after spending the last year in jail. Manning’s release occurred one day after the courageous fighter for truth attempted suicide in her cell and was hospitalized by prison authorities.
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Judge Rules Assange Cannot Sit with Lawyers during Extradition Hearing
Thomas Scripps and Laura Tiernan | WSWS - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Mar 2020
28 Feb 2020 – The first week of the extradition hearing in USA v Julian Assange ended yesterday at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court with Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejecting a submission from Assange’s lawyers that he be allowed to sit with them in court.
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Trump Pardons White Collar Ruling Class Elite Criminals
Patrick Martin | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Feb 2020
20 Feb 2020 – Trump issued 11 pardons on Tuesday [18 Feb], expunging the lawbreaking records of billionaire financier Michael Milken, the “junk bond king,” and billionaire real estate magnate Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., former owner of the San Francisco 49ers. He also pardoned former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, convicted of tax fraud and perjury, and commuted the 14-year jail term of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, impeached and then convicted on multiple corruption counts, including attempting to sell the Senate seat of Barack Obama after Obama’s election to the presidency in 2008.
→ read full articleWall Street Celebrates Milken Pardon
Nick Beams | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Feb 2020
20 Feb 2020 – The decision by Donald Trump to pardon the financial criminal Michael Milken is being celebrated on Wall Street and for good reason. He was a pioneer of the methods and financial mechanisms that have led to the greatest accumulation of wealth by the financial oligarchy ever seen in history, at the expense of the jobs and social conditions of broad sections of the working class.
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Trump Budget Gives Top Priority to New Generation of Nuclear Weapons
Patrick Martin | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Feb 2020
11 Feb 2020 – The most ominous feature of the new budget document issued yesterday by the Trump administration is the prominent place given to the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons, including so-called low-yield weapons, smaller than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which are widely regarded as more likely to actually be used in combat.
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UN Rapporteur Nils Melzer Exposes British Government Attempts to Obstruct His Defence of Assange
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Feb 2020
5 Feb 2020 – At a meeting in London’s St. Pancras New Church on Monday [3 Feb] night, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer provided new information about the efforts of the British government and the establishment media to hinder his defence of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Melzer revealed he had “been asking the BBC for an interview for nine months.” He had offered to appear on the “Hard Talk” program to discuss Assange’s case, but had been rebuffed with the claim that it would not be “newsworthy.”
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India’s Supreme Court Greenlights Modi Government’s Internet Shutdown in Kashmir
Wasantha Rupasinghe | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Feb 2020
28 Jan 2020 – In a January 10 ruling, India’s Supreme Court gave Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government the greenlight to continue their now almost six-month long shutdown of internet access in Indian-administered Kashmir.
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Private Equity Firm to Purchase the Assets of the .ORG Domain Registry for $1 Billion
Kevin Reed | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Feb 2020
27 Jan 2020 – A public demonstration took place on 24 Jan in front of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to demand a halt to the sale of the .ORG domain registry to the private equity firm Ethos Capital for $1.135 billion. The conversion of .ORG into a for-profit is an attack on public access to news, information and digital media. Among the threats are higher domain registration fees, censorship-for-hire schemes, selling browsing data and diminished technical maintenance and support.
→ read full articleJPMorgan Chase Records the Biggest Profit of any Bank in US History
Gabriel Black | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jan 2020
18 Jan 2020 – JPMorgan Chase made $36.4 billion in 2019, the biggest annual profit of any bank in American history. The six largest US banks revealed that they saved a combined $32 billion from Trump’s corporate tax cut. JPMorgan’s profit is more than half the education budget of the US federal government.
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The Prosecution of Julian Assange, the Destruction of Legality and the Rise of the National Security State
Richard Hoffman | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jan 2020
15 Jan 2020 – It is worthwhile to consider briefly the lawless character of Assange’s persecution by Britain, the United States and Sweden. Since the beginning, Assange has been subjected to endless procedural abuses and political interference in the legal process. Virtually every customary precept, practice and procedural protection, which an accused is traditionally afforded, has been discarded in the effort to railroad him. The disintegration of the democratic system and the rise of the national security state are hallmarks of the deepening crisis of imperialism.
→ read full articleBillionaires’ Wealth Surged in 2019
Barry Grey | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
28 Dec 2019 – The wealth of the world’s 500 richest people rose 25 percent in 2019, reaching a combined net worth of $5.9 trillion. To place this figure in some perspective, these 500 individuals control more wealth than the gross domestic product of the United States at the end of the third quarter of 2019, which was $5.4 trillion.
→ read full articleJulian Assange “Slowly Dying” and “Often Sedated” at UK Belmarsh Prison
Mike Head | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
28 Dec 2019 -Vaughan Smith is a freelance video news journalist who gave refuge to Assange in 2010. He tweeted that Assange called his family on Christmas Eve: “He told my wife and I how he was slowly dying in Belmarsh where, though only on remand, he is kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day and is often sedated.”
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(Français) De nouveaux documents de WikiLeaks démentent les mensonges sur une attaque chimique en Syrie en 2018
Niles Niemuth | WSWS, Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Dec 2019
19 Déc 2019 – Des documents publiés par WikiLeaks le 15 décembre confirment l’existence d’une dissidence importante au sein de l’Organisation pour l’interdiction des armes chimiques (OIAC), l’organisme mondial de surveillance des armes chimiques. Les différences concernent la rédaction d’un rapport public sur l’attaque présumée du 7 avril 2018 à Douma, en Syrie, qui aurait tué 49 personnes et blessées jusqu’à 650.
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Assange Gives Evidence in Spanish Case against Security Contractor
Thomas Scripps | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
21 Dec 2019 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was brought from Belmarsh Prison yesterday to appear in person at Westminster Magistrates Court and provide video-link witness testimony. The relentless nine-year persecution of Assange—including the flagrant violation of his human rights and the monitoring of his every word and movement while he was supposed to be protected by political asylum—is aimed at terrorising all would-be whistleblowers and journalists into silence.
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Corporate Media Silent on Journalists’ Letter Demanding Freedom for Julian Assange
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
11 Dec 2019 – In a glaring act of political censorship, media corporations in the English-speaking world have maintained a complete silence on a powerful open letter by journalists and media workers issued last weekend demanding the unconditional freedom of Julian Assange. The blackout occurs under conditions where doctors have warned that Assange’s health has deteriorated to the point that he may die in Britain’s maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.
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Chelsea Manning Must Not Be Forgotten!
Eric London | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
18 Dec 2019 – Yesterday, December 17, whistleblower Chelsea Manning spent her 32nd birthday alone in a prison cell in Alexandria, Virginia, where she has been locked up for nine months for refusing to testify in a grand jury proceeding against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
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The “Afghanistan Papers”: The Criminality and Disaster of a War Based upon Lies
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
10 Dec 2019 – The documents published by the Washington Post constitute a damning indictment of both major parties as well as the media for lying to the world for two decades. The Post obtained the raw interviews after a three-year Freedom of Information Act court battle. The Obama administration moved to classify the documents after the newspaper sought to obtain them.
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UK to Leave European Union at End of January after Johnson Passes Withdrawal Agreement
Robert Stevens | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Dec 2019
21 Dec 2019 – MPs have backed Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson Withdrawal Agreement Bill. MPs voted yesterday 358 to 234—a majority of 124. The massive majority vote was the first since Johnson defeated Labour by a landslide in last week’s general election.
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US House Approves Bill for Record Military Spending
Patrick Martin | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Dec 2019
12 Dec 2019 – The House of Representatives voted by a huge bipartisan majority, 377–48, to approve the largest US military spending bill in history, providing a record $738 billion for the US war machine. The National Defense Authorization Act passed with 188 Democrats and 189 Republicans supporting it.
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US Carries out Fresh Massacre in Afghanistan, Killing Entire Family with Drone Strike on 29 Nov
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Dec 2019
3 Dec 2019 – A US drone strike in Afghanistan last Friday [29 Nov] wiped out an entire family after they were leaving a clinic, including a woman who had just given birth to a child.
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Trump Signs Hong Kong “Democracy” Bill
Nick Beams | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Dec 2019
29 Nov 2019 – Entitled the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act”—and passed by the US Congress with only one dissenting voice, making it veto-proof—the legislation has nothing to do with either.
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An Open Letter from Doctors: Julian Assange “Could Die in Prison”
WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Dec 2019
24 Nov 2019 – The following letter was authored by more than 65 eminent medical doctors from the UK and around the world, calling for urgent action to protect the life of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange.
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Groundswell of Support for WikiLeaks Publisher Julian Assange
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Dec 2019
30 Nov 2019 – Over the past week, a growing groundswell of opposition to the US-led persecution of Julian Assange has come to the surface of political life internationally. Prominent public figures in Britain, Europe and Australia, including doctors, journalists, politicians and United Nations representatives, have condemned the WikiLeaks founder’s imprisonment in the UK’s maximum-security Belmarsh Prison.
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Rising Seas Threaten US Pacific Nuclear Dump
John Braddock | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Nov 2019
23 Nov 2019 – According to reports from the Marshall Islands, plutonium is leaking into the Pacific Ocean from a massive concrete bunker the United States built in the 1950s to dispose of nuclear waste. A potential disaster is looming.
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Conference at European Parliament Defends Julian Assange
Oscar Grenfell | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Nov 2019
At the European Parliament in Brussels on14 Nov, MEPs and prominent public figures condemned the US-led persecution of the WikiLeaks founder and called for his freedom. Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, remarked: “Two hundred years ago on this continent we were ruled by people who had absolute power. We decided we didn’t like that. We created states that were to be democracies governed by the people.”
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US Seizure of Oil Fields Escalates Tensions in Syria
Bill Van Auken | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2019
8 Nov 2019 – The US has deployed hundreds of troops backed by armored vehicles into oil fields located in Syria’s northeastern Deir Ezzor province, where they are reportedly building two new bases… Asked whether the US forces were going to take over all of Syria’s oil fields or only a portion of them, the naval officer suggested that this would be left to “commanders on the ground.”
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Wall Street at Record Highs as Global Growth Slows
Nick Beams | WSWS – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Nov 2019
7 Nov 2019 – As Wall Street reaches new highs all three major indexes (the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nadaq) hit records in the past week. While impoverished workers and youth from US, India, Lebanon, Iraq, Chile, Ecuador are told “there is no money” for jobs, wages, schools or health care, trillions are made available to the speculators and big investors to increase their stock portfolios and enlarge their personal fortunes.
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