Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
- April 19 – Why Washington's Anti-Russian Policies Are Likely To Intensify
Related:
– Putin should refuse Biden’s offer of a summit: Americans will bring only political theatrics & threats, nothing will be achieved – Glenn Diesen / RT
> The fundamental misperception appears to be the assumption that Russia aims to find its way back into the US-led order; rather, Russia is pursuing an organized decoupling from the US-led order. Furthermore, the willingness to reach a political settlement is absent. The US and Russia view each other as increasingly less relevant actors and no longer the main focus of their respective foreign policies.
…
Until a new format for cooperation is established that restores sovereign equality, any summit between the two world leaders will likely fall victim to political theatrics and harmful posturing. Moscow should politely reject the offer and instead rely on less public formats to negotiate pragmatic and mutually beneficial arrangements. <
- April 20 – Xi's Boao Forum Speech And The Messed Up Reporting Around It
Related:
– Say Hello to the New Multilateral Boss – Pepe Escobar
– Uighurs set to be imperialists’ scapegoats – Asia Times
– Unlocked: Uyghur Birth Genocide: Deceptions and Delusion – Peter Lee aka Chinahand
- April 21 – Vladimir Putin On Petty Tabaquis And International Issues
Related:
– Unlearned History Lessons – Dmitry Medvedev / Sputnik News
– Putin rewrites the law of the geopolitical jungle – Pepe Escobar
– Putin signs decree on countermeasures to other states’ unfriendly actions – TASS
- April 22 – The Ukraine Crisis Recedes – But A False Narrative Of It Leads To Bad Conclusions
Related:
– From Prague with love – what’s behind the Czech spy scandal – Politnew
– Russia’s ‘Reality-Czech’ for European Provocation and Hysterics – SCF
– Czech counterintelligence finds no proof of Russians’ presence in Vrbetice – president – TASS
– 'Acting like a tiny pooch': Czech ex-president ashamed of Prague’s policies towards Russia – TASS
– Russia withdraws from the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples – Estonian World
- April 23 – When Regime Change Does Not Change A Thing
Related:
– Biden’s Appeasement of Hawks and Neocons Is Crippling His Diplomacy – Naked Capitalism
- April 23 – Covid Say – What Monroe Doctrine? What Commonwealth? – by Debs is Dead
Related:
– Modi Govt’s vaccine diplomacy unravels—within India and abroad – Indian Punchline
– ‘Americans first’: US cites domestic priorities to reject India's vaccine plea – Times of India
– U.S. defends restrictions on export of COVID-19 vaccine raw materials amid India's request to lift ban – The Hindu
– The West does not have any moral high ground over China, their conduct during Covid crisis is further proof of it – OpIndia
Brahma Chellaney @Chellaney – 5:55 UTC · Apr 24, 2021
Thanks to COVID-19, many nations learned hard lessons about China-reliant supply chains. And the Quad agreed to build resilient supply chains. But now, thanks to Biden's hoarding of vaccines and raw materials, many nations are learning hard lessons about US-reliant supply chains.
- April 24 – Investigation Launched Into Premature Release Of Turtle Through Windscreen Story
Relaated:
– How Capitalism Created Doomscrolling – Tribune Mag
– TSMC founder doubts US competence in chip-making – Asia Times
- April 24 – NYT Investigates U.S. Jewish Billionaire Funding For Anti-Islamists – Then Distracts With Loads Of Anti-Russian Slander
Related:
– Hundreds of Jewish supremacists chant 'Death to Arabs' as tensions boil over in Jerusalem clashes – Yahoo
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Other issues:
Afghanistan:
- Afghanistan: US exit is with caveats – Indian Punchline
- Afghanistan — the long defeat – The war has exposed US military primacy as a chimera – Spectator
- General: Afghan military will collapse without some US help – AP
- CIA head said to have made unannounced trip to Afghanistan – Yahoo
> Separately, a senior former Afghan security official deeply familiar with the country's counterterrorism program said two of six units trained and run by the CIA to track militants have already been transferred to Afghan control.
…
The CTPT teams are feared by many Afghans and have been implicated in extra-judicial killings of civilians. In 2019, the head of the Afghan intelligence service, Masoom Stanikzai, was forced to resign after one of these units was implicated in the summary execution of four brothers.Earlier this year, in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province, one of the teams was accused of gunning down civilians in a counterterrorism operation. The United Nations has also criticized the tactics of these units, previously blaming them for a rise in civilian casualties along with insurgent groups. <
Armenia:
Covid-19:
- Charité intensiv – ARD
A German TV docu (4 x 30 min) about a Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit at the Berlin Charité University Clinic. It is free to watch but in German language. - High-dimensional characterization of post-acute sequalae of COVID-19 – Nature
Covid-19 Vaccine Thrombosis:
- Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCov-19 Vaccination – NEJM
- Do preservative and stray proteins cause rare COVID-19 vaccine side effect? – Science Mag
- The Gamaleya Center statement – Sputnik V
Annals of Diplomacy:
Original – bigger
Use as open thread …