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| A couple of years ago, I was corresponding with Daniel Ellsberg, the elder statesman of whistleblowers and the author of The Doomsday Machine. I had never had the pleasure of talking to him before, so I introduced myself as a columnist at Antiwar.com. He told me that Antiwar.com is his "go-to site every morning!" The other day, I asked him if I could quote him in this article, and he replied "Yes," and added that "that�s still true!" Antiwar.com is more crucial now than ever, and there is more reason now than ever for it to be the "go-to site every morning!" In researching my articles, every scholar, journalist and expert I talk to bemoans that it is becoming nearly impossible to write the truth without being edited or censored. From Russia to China and from Iran to Venezuela and Cuba, if your voice is not in harmony with the officially sanctioned choir, it is not heard. Democracy, as Plato and Sokrates used to argue, as government by the majority, is government by non-experts. Its lifeblood is an honest media to inform it. Without an honest, independent media, democracy becomes misleading, manipulative and blind. |
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| Over the weekend, Israel carried out attacks against a poultry farm on the Syrian coast, wounding two civilians. Russia issued a statement Monday, warning such attacks are "categorically unacceptable."
Russia has positions on the Syrian coast, and has warned Israel away from the area before. The latest attack came from the coast, and conspicuously Russia didn't comment when it happened.
The Russians say it violates Syrian sovereignty, and is against international norms. Those are plainly true things, but have never stopped Israel before. |
| A two-day conference on Ukraine's future reconstruction efforts kicked off in Switzerland on Monday, and Ukrainian officials put the price tag for their "recovery plan" at $750 billion. Addressing the conference virtually, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the reconstruction of Ukraine is a "common task of the entire democratic world - all countries, all countries who can say they are civilized." Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the funding would need to come from grants and loans from partner nations, independent organizations, corporations, and Ukraine's own budget. But he said Ukraine believes the "key source of recovery should be confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs." The analysts said that if Russia reduces oil output by 3 million barrels per day, it would bring prices up to $190 per barrel. In the worst-case scenario, Russia would slash production by 5 million barrels, bringing prices up to $380 per barrel. |
| | Last week the US and its allies were busy. Both the G7, an exclusive club for Western industrialized states, and NATO, whose 30 members include military midgets like Montenegro, met in Europe. Both gatherings included ostentatious promises of continuing robust military support for Ukraine. Indeed, taken at their word, there is nothing America and Europe would not give Kyiv to achieve its military ends. At least, that is what senior US and European Union officials declared last week. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was asked if the administration supported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's objective to reclaim all territory occupied by Russia, including that seized in 2014. That would mean a longer and more intense war, noted the interviewer. |
| Analysts are warning that a US-proposed idea being explored by the G7 to impose a price cap on Russian oil could backfire and have devastating consequences. A new report from JPMorgan Chase said that oil could shoot up to a "stratospheric" $380 per barrel if Russia responds to the price cap by reducing oil output. "The most obvious and likely risk with a price cap is that Russia might choose not to participate and instead retaliate by reducing exports," the JPMorgan analysts wrote. "It is likely that the government could retaliate by cutting output as a way to inflict pain on the West. The tightness of the global oil market is on Russia's side." |
| On Tuesday, Ben & Jerry's sued its parent company Unilever to block the sale of its business interests in Israel. Unilever announced the sale on June 29, a move that was made over Ben & Jerry's plans to stop selling ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a ban that was set to take effect at the end of this year. In a complaint filed with the US District Court in Manhattan, Ben & Jerry's said blocking the sale was necessary to "protect the brand and social integrity Ben & Jerry's has spent decades building." The ice cream company was sold to Unilever in 2000, but under the deal, Ben & Jerry's board was to keep its independence. |
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