Both Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, and its Foreign Secretary, Sergey Laverov, have repeatedly stated that Russia does not intend to invade Ukraine.
Logic also tells us that if they had wished to do so, they would have done it long ago. The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is a western invention.
Russia fears the eastward expansion of NATO
To understand how Russians feel about having western weapons and troops poured into a position on their nation’s borders, we should imagine how the United States would react if large numbers of Russian weapons and troops were stationed in Mexico or Canada.
A broken promise
In 1990, US Secretary of State James Baker assured Mikhail Gorbachev that “not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastward direction”.
The Conservative MP writes today on openDemocracy that urgent action is needed to stop ‘growing’ levels of fraud
John Penrose, the UK government’s anti-corruption tsar, warned that online fraud is growing | Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters / Alamy Stock Photo
10 February 2022 (openDemocracy)* — The UK government’s anti-corruption tsar has called the City of London “a magnet for dirty cash” and warned that online fraud is growing.
There is an old expression that “the chickens have come home to roost.” The wars that the American Empire waged abroad have come to the continental USA. For more than a century the US has waged war, overtly or covertly throughout Latin America.
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And in recent decades throughout the Middle East. Not to mention its so-called Cold Wars with Russia and now China. But now the invasion of the Capitol one year ago has signaled the beginning of a second civil war at home.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 11 2022 (IPS)* – The Joint Inspection Unit (JIU)– the UN’s only independent external oversight body mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations– is conducting a survey probing the widespread racism and discrimination in the world body.
Credit: United Nations
In a circular to staffers worldwide, the JIU says it is conducting “a system-wide review of measures and mechanisms for preventing and addressing racism and racial discrimination (RRD) in the institutions of the United Nations system.”
The survey will examine the various forms of RRD at the individual, institutional, and structural levels and the measures and mechanisms in place, including cultural and contextual factors that facilitate or constrain efforts by organizations.
MADRID, Feb 9 2022 (IPS)* – Pulses and meat are both needed as part of your diet, however…
While the total emissions of greenhouse gases from global livestock amount to 7.1 Gigatonnes of Co2-equivalent per year, representing 14.5% of all anthropogenic emissions, pulses have root nodules that absorb inert nitrogen from soil air and convert it into biologically useful ammonia, a process referred to as biological nitrogen fixation.
Pulses provide nutrients and energy and they help prevent diseases like diabetes and coronary conditions. The United Nations declared 10 February World Pulses Day.
NEW DELHI, Feb 9 2022 (IPS)* – If India ranks among the world’s fastest growing economies it is also where inequity is growing the fastest, thanks to endemic features unique to the country such as the caste system.
A woman holding a child begs at an intersection in New Delhi. Credit: Ranjit Devraj/IPS.
“It is not widely understood but India does not have a working class — instead it has large labouring castes that are trapped in an inherently iniquitous system,” says Manas Ray, professor in cultural studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.
It’s easy to say, but it’s been six very hard decades that began with disconcerting lightness and the belief that the United States government’s blockade of Cuba would not last long—a couple of years, maybe.
A mural in Cuba against the U.S. blockade. | Photo: Reuters
On February 2, 1962, U.S. President John F. Kennedy called his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, and gave him an urgent task: “I need a lot of [Cuban] cigars.” “How many, Mr. President?” “About a thousand,” Kennedy replied.
(UN News)*— Conflict last year had forced more than 700,000 Afghans to leave their homes and added to the 5.5 million people already displaced over past years, the UN migration agency said on Tuesday [8 February 2022].
“The ongoing crisis in Afghanistan is intensifying humanitarian needs and increasing displacement risks both inside the country, as well as across borders to countries in the region”, according to a statement issued by Ugochi Daniels, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Deputy Director-General for Operations.
8 February 2022 (UN News)* — With more children and young people spending time online, cyberbullying is the top concern for their safety when using the internet, according to a survey carried about by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on two social media platforms.
In the lead up to Safer Internet Day this Tuesday, 8 February, the UN agency polled its followers on Twitter and LinkedIn to find out what worries them most about children being active online.
With the publication of Amnesty International’s new apartheid report, Israel’s supporters have just one tactic left: to accuse critics of antisemitism.
Jonathan Cook
The walls protecting Israel are quickly crumbling. A year ago, it was Israel’s most celebrated human rights group, B’Tselem.
Months later, it was the New York-based Human Rights Watch, whose senior staff have often enjoyed a revolving door with the US State Department.
Now, the one speaking up is Amnesty International – an organisation widely viewed as the most authoritative arbiter of what constitutes human rights violations.
Over the past year, all have reached the same conclusion: Israel is an apartheid state.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 