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Tue, 02 Nov 2021
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An open letter to The Guardian on Nicaragua

Nicaragua

The Guardian
has been one of the most inaccurate outlets for reporting what is occurring in Nicaragua. What is happening is a US regime change operation, working with oligarchs and big business interests in Nicaragua and supported by the Catholic Church, a long-time ally of Nicaraguan oligarchs. The US operates by spending tens of millions annually over many years to create an NGO complex that dominates Nicaraguan human rights groups, environmental, women's groups and others. They have also given aide to a small minority of right-wing youth with tens of thousands of dollars and training.

Some of these youth also made a trip to Washington, DC sponsored by Freedom House, long noted for its ties to the CIA, where they met with extremist, Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Just yesterday, Rubio threatened war in Nicaragua claiming it was in the national security interests of the United States because the conflict would result in mass migration and drug trafficking into the US. He seems willing to make anything up to achieve regime change.

Comment: Regime change in Nicaragua: Historical amnesia & blindness of US interventions


People

Mass protest of minority community in Israel over 'discriminating' nation-state law

Protest at Tel Aviv, Israel
© Corinna Kern / Reuters
Tens of thousands are protesting in Tel Aviv against 'nation-state' law that prioritized Jewish values in Israel and has been criticized as discriminating sparking local and international condemnation.

Protesters have been holding signs "If we are brothers we must be equals" and "Our force is in our unity - the nation-state law differentiates between us," according to the Haaretz newspaper. They were waving Israeli and Druze flags.

Comment: See also:


Star of David

Israel shuts down field hospital for terrorists as Syrian army continues to gain ground in Golan

Mazor Ladach field clinic golan terrorists Israel
© Press TV/File
A view of the Mazor Ladach field clinic in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel has shut down a field hospital specialized in treating anti-Damascus terrorists as Syrian government forces continue to liberate more areas in the Golan Heights.

In a statement released on Friday, the Israeli military said it had started evacuating the Mazor Ladach clinic, which has been set up in August 2017 to provide medical care to terrorists fleeing into Israel.

The statement added that some 6,800 terrorists had been treated in the clinic.

Comment: Even Israel sees the writing on the wall for its jihadist pets.


People

Free Speech: Inducing people's employers to fire them should be a civil wrong

Australians
If you aren't from Australia or New Zealand you may be tempted to think of Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day as simply a variation of Veteran's Day or Remembrance Day-but for many Aussies (and Kiwis), it's a little bit like Veteran's Day combined with the Fourth of July or St. Patrick's Day. It is a deeply patriotic holiday that many regard as a semi-sacred, particularly because we celebrate it on April 25 to mark the anniversary of the day in 1915 when Anzacs arrived on the shores of Gallipoli, Turkey to fight in a battle that would result in over ten thousand soldiers losing their lives. Like it or not, Anzac Day has become patriotic mythology.

To mark Anzac Day in 2015, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) reporter Scott McIntyre took to Twitter and wrote: "Remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these 'brave' Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine and Japan." To make matters worse, he also asked "if the poorly-read, largely white, nationalist drinkers and gamblers pause today to consider the horror that all mankind suffered." Then to round things off he added that Australia and its allies perpetrated the largest single-day "terrorist attacks in history" by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

Hiliter

European Federation of Journalists chief: Belgium disrespects information access laws, charges fees

Reporters Brussels
© Eric Vidal/Reuter
Reporters covering an EU event in Brussels.
The head of the largest journalist organization in Europe told RT that Belgium doesn't respect the basic rules on access to information, blasting nation's decision to charge the press with 'security fees' at the EU events.

The Benelux country is under fire for wanting to force local journalists and reporters into paying €50 ($ 60) every six months for mandatory security screenings if they wish to cover the EU summits. The move was widely blasted by the media organizations as "discriminatory," and denounced by the European Commission.

"Belgium is not respecting the standard laws with regards to access to information," Ricardo Gutierrez, the general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) told RT. "Access to information is a fundamental right in Europe. The decision [to charge the media with security fees] goes against it."


Comment: The latest form of writer's block?


Star of David

Israel's policies in Gaza are categorically genocidal

Razan al Najjar, Gaza medic
© Twitter
Razan al-Najjar, the 21 year old Gaza medic killed by an Israeli sniper on June 1, treating an injured man.
The 1948 Genocide Convention clearly states that one instance of genocide is "the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part." No matter whether this happens at a fast rate, or in "slow motion." That is what has been done to Gaza since the imposition of the blockade by Israel, and the subsequent massacres which led to the death of more than 4000 Palestinians in three successive genocidal wars.

Palestinians of Gaza live an ongoing, illegal, crippling Israeli siege that has shattered all spheres of life, prompting the former UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Richard Falk, to describe it as "a prelude to genocide". In 2009, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, headed by the highly respected South African judge, Richard Goldstone, found Israel guilty of "war crimes and possible crimes against humanity," as did major international human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The Goldstone report, for example, concludes that Israel's war on Gaza was
"designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability."

Star of David

Gaza border protest: 25 Palestinians injured by IDF's live fire and tear gas

protesters Gaza
© Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Tear gas canisters are fired by Israeli troops towards Palestinian demonstrators during a protest demanding the right to return to their homeland at the Israel-Gaza border, east of Gaza City August 3.
Some 25 Palestinians have been injured, mostly by gunfire from the Israeli army, during violent clashes at the Gaza border, Gaza Health Ministry reports. The injured demonstrators have been evacuated. Their condition is unknown.

At least 12 injured Palestinians were shot, while dozens of others suffered breathing and suffocation issues due to tear gas inhalation.

Friday's violent outburst comes as an Israel-Hamas deal on Gaza's future is understood to be nearing a possible breakthrough, which would see an end to protests, shootings and the use of firebomb kites along the Gaza-Israel fence. In exchange, two crossing points would be opened.


Comment: The video claims 1 Palestinian was killed, 220 injured, 8000 participated at 5 locations.


2 + 2 = 4

Hundreds of North Carolina teachers flunk math exams, probably not their fault

Hand Wave Math
© Adam Hayes
Almost 2,400 North Carolina elementary school teachers have failed the math portion of their licensing exams, which puts their careers in jeopardy, since the state hired Pearson publishing company to give the exam in 2013, according to a report presented to the state Board of Education Wednesday.

Failure rates have spiked as schools around the state struggle to find teachers for the youngest children. Education officials are now echoing what frustrated teachers have been saying: The problem may lie with the exams rather than the educators.

Teachers in Florida and Indiana have also seen mass failures when their states adopted Pearson testing, according to news reports from those states. Concern about the validity of the Pearson licensing exams is so pervasive that it was discussed at this year's National Education Association conference, said North Carolina Association of Educators President Mark Jewell.

Comment: Adding it all up, Pearson Publishing Co. is making money on retesting.


Георгиевская ленточка

Moscow appoints action star Steven Seagal special envoy on Russia-US humanitarian relations

Steven Seagal
© Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
Hollywood star Steven Seagal, who was granted Russian citizenship back in 2016, is going to be Moscow's special representative on humanitarian relations with the US.

The veteran actor's task will be "to contribute to the further development of Russian-American relations in the humanitarian sphere, including interactions in the fields of culture, art, public and youth exchanges, among other things," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its Facebook page.

Seagal won't be receiving any payment for doing the job, which the ministry described as "the case of people's diplomacy meeting with traditional diplomacy."

Comment: See also: Steven Seagal interview with Piers Morgan, "Russia and America should be great allies"


Stormtrooper

Highly guarded US secret base near Iran borders disclosed by Turkish newspaper

Highly Guarded US Secret Base Near Iran Borders
© FNA
A leading Turkish newspaper disclosed that the US has established a secret base in Turkey near the borders with Iran which is heavily guarded
The Turkish-language Milli Gazete newspaper wrote that the base is located in Eastern Turkey, 450km away from Iran's borders, where dozens of US commanders have deployed and are strongly protected.

"The US has allocated a heavy budget in 2018 to improve the situation of its military bases in Turkey, specially the air force budget," it added.

"The military structure of the base and the type of military equipment and ammunition existing in there are still unknown," the paper said.