09/07/2015
8 July 2015 (RT)* – The New Development Bank (NDB) is the first institution created by BRICS countries, and is a permanent instrument that will work every day and serve as the heart of BRICS cooperation, VTB CEO Andrey Kostin told RT.
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RIA Novosti / Alexey Kudenko
RT: Do you think that this time it will boost Russia-China cooperation and if yes in what ways?
Andrei Kostin: Definitely, yes. The creation of new institutions is quite important to develop a relationship between country members of BRICS, and of course China is a leading nation with the largest economy among the BRICS.
So I’m quite sure that this project, together with others like Silk Way, will definitely increase the scope of cooperation between Russia and China in the economic area.
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09/07/2015
The root causes of last year’s conflict in Gaza – which claimed nearly two thousand lives and ravaged large swathes of the Palestinian enclave – remain unaddressed despite a growing humanitarian crisis in the area, the head of the United Nations agency assisting Palestinian refugees has warned.
Children in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, Gaza. Photo: UNICEF State of Palestine/Eyad El Baba
In a statement issued on 8 July 2015, Pierre Krähenbühl, the Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), voiced concern that the “despair, destitution and denial of dignity” resulting from the 2014 war with Israel and from the ongoing blockade remain “a fact of life for ordinary people in Gaza,” adding to the mounting humanitarian burden with which they are faced.
“The physical and psychological scars are everywhere to be seen in the Gaza Strip. Countless children live with the traumas endured during the war and over a thousand live with what will be life-long disabilities,” Krähenbühl declared.
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08/07/2015
By David Swanson*
7 July 2015 – TRANSCEND Media Service – Max Blumenthal’s latest book, The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza, tells a powerful story powerfully well. I can think of a few other terms that accurately characterize the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza in addition to “war,” among them: occupation, murder-spree, and genocide. Each serves a different valuable purpose. Each is correct.
**Image: Ruins in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, August 2014 | Author: btselem | Wikimedia Commons
The images people bring to mind with the term “war,” universally outdated, are grotesquely outdated in a case like this one. There is no pair of armies on a battlefield. There is no battlefield.
There is no aim to conquer, dispossess, or rob.
The people of Gaza are already pre-defeated, conquered, imprisoned, and under siege — permanently overseen by military drones and remote-control machine-guns atop prison-camp walls.
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08/07/2015
7 July 2015 (RT)* – The economic crisis in Greece created deep national divides but it’s not the Greek people’s fault, it’s the fault of the way the European elites have obfuscated the real issues at hand, professor of sociology Costas Panayotakis, told RT.
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**3 July 2015: Demonstration for voting NO in front of the Greek parliament, Syntagma Square, Athens. | Author: Ggia | Wikimedia Commons
RT: How come the pollsters got the outcome so wrong – they were predicting the Greeks would agree to the creditors’ proposals?
Costas Panayotakis: I think in Greece there is a lot of cynicism about pollsters and how they often times try to manipulate impressions in favor of the pro-austerity camp, but what was interesting was that even newspapers affiliated to the left were seeing a very close vote.
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08/07/2015
By Johan Galtung*
6 July 2015 – TRANSCEND Media Service – At the time of starting writing this editorial the referendum is on, so is the TV. Those two Greek words are all over. But the outcome is unknown; it will be known at the time of finishing the editorial.
**A “No” protestor outside the Greek parliament building on 29 June 2015, holding a sign reading ΟΧΙ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΞΟΝΤΩΣΗ (“no to annihilation”). | Author: janwellman | Wikimedia Commons
However, could the most important aspect of the referendum be the referendum itself, not the outcome? The idea of asking people, the very demos in a democracy, even at the risk of losing, resigning?
The most aggressive creditor against Greece, Germany, did not dare to do that over the Euro entry. They decided for a people they knew were against, hiding behind Hitler’s use of a referendum as demagogy.
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08/07/2015
One year after the escalation of hostilities in Gaza, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper, on 7 July 2015 expressed concern over the ongoing humanitarian situation and the slow pace of reconstruction there.
A rubble removal project at Shujaiyah, Gaza, is funded by Sweden and implemented by UNDP. Photo: UNDP
Piper said following a meeting of humanitarian organizations held in yesterday [6 July] Gaza city.*
The 51-day conflict killed 1,462 civilians, including 551 children, and injured many thousands across Gaza. Six Israeli civilians (including one child) were also victims of the hostilities.
It caused close to $1.4 billion in direct and indirect damages and $1.7 billion in economic losses to Gaza, points out a press release from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
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08/07/2015
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 7 July 2015 strongly condemned attacks by Boko Haram in Lake Chad Basin countries, including the deliberate targeting of Christian and Muslim worshippers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Nigeria’s northeast states of Borno and Yobe.
Refugees in Minawao camp , Cameroon, after fleeing violence by Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria. Photo: WFP/Sofia Engdahl
“The Secretary-General takes note of [Nigerian] President Muhammadu Buhari’s determination to root out this menace, and commends the countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission and Benin for their steadfast efforts in the fight against Boko Haram,” according to a statement issued this evening by Ban’s spokesperson in New York.*
News agencies report that extremist violence against both Muslims and Christians left dozens of people dead in Nigeria’s northern town of Zaria earlier today 7 July.
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08/07/2015
By Robert J. Burrowes*
I routinely come across efforts to change an individual’s attitude, belief and/or value by using education to teach the ‘right’ one. This is most usually intended to lead to a better behavioural outcome, such as someone who is not sexist, racist or violent. I would like to explain why education cannot achieve such a change, except in the most superficial of circumstances, as the evidence clearly demonstrates.
**A scared child shows fear in an uncertain environment. | Author: D Sharon Pruitt | Wikimedia Commons
For the sake of this article, an attitude is a settled way of thinking about someone or something, a belief is an acceptance that something is true and a value is a principle in relation to something judged to be important in life.
Attitudes, beliefs and values are primarily shaped by emotions; education is much less significant and only has impact if the attitude, belief or value is not deeply held.
Attitudes, beliefs and values that are often considered ‘undesirable’ are particularly shaped by emotions such as fear, terror, self-hatred, emotional pain, guilt, humiliation, embarrassment and shame, and the relative importance of each emotion will depend on an individual’s culture and personal social context.
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08/07/2015
By John Scales Avery*
At the moment, the issue of debt slavery is very topical because of the case of Greece; but it is an issue that has a far more general significance.
**Campaign poster showing William McKinley holding U.S. flag and standing on gold coin “sound money”, held up by group of men, in front of ships “commerce” and factories “civilization”. | The United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division | Author: Northwestern Litho. Co, Milwaukee | Public Domain | Wikimedia Commons
Usury, the charging of interest on loans, has a history of being forbidden by several major religions, including not only the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but also the ancient Vedic Scriptures of India. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury#Historical_meaning).
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04/07/2015
By Uri Avnery*
4 July 2015
A MIGHTY naval battle took place this week on the waves of the Mediterranean. It will go down in history as the equal of Salamis or Trafalgar.
Uri Avnery
In a daring move, the navy of the State of Israel intercepted the enemy, consisting of the trawler Marianne and the 18 people aboard. Israel naval commandos captured the ship and towed it to the harbor of Ashdod.
The admiral who commanded this glorious action has so far modestly remained anonymous.
Therefore we cannot honor him with a column in the center of Tel Aviv, like Admiral Horatio Nelson’s column in London’s Trafalgar Square. Pity.
However, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lauded the courage of the victors in glowing terms, expressing the gratitude and admiration of the nation for their gallant deed.
I WOULD continue in this vein, but even sarcasm has its limits.
The whole affair was a masterpiece of stupidity.
Five years ago, several boats tried to reach Gaza, as a symbolic act of support for the beleaguered enclave, and were let through by the Israeli navy. No one mentioned them again.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 