Lavrov: 'Europe has no independence'

 

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov:

“To tell the truth, we no longer have any illusions about converging with Europe, being accepted as part of the “common European home,” or creating a “common space” with the EU.

All these declarations made in European capitals have turned out to be a myth and a false-flag operation.

The latest developments have clearly shown that the ramified network of mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment ties between Russia and the EU were not a safety net. The EU did not think twice about sacrificing our energy cooperation, which was a pillar of their prosperity. We have seen that the European elites have no independence and always do whatever they are ordered to do in Washington, even if this results in direct damage to their own citizens. We take this reality into account in our foreign policy planning.”  

Russia spent most of the past thirty years seeking to facilitate cooperation with the European Union, and over seven years trying to reach a negotiated peace in the Donbass and assure Ukraine’s continued bloc neutrality. But in retrospect, the West's irrepressible longing to incorporate Kiev into its own economic and security blocs seem to have made the current crisis inevitable, with ordinary Europeans now being made to pay the economic and security costs of their leaders' shortsightedness.

Hearing from a true voice

 

 

Kenyan social & environmental activist Professor Wangari Maathai shares some very wise words.

Macron hates the French people (unless you are super-rich)

 

 

No other comment necessary....  

Urgent request for support

 

 

Dear friends,

I hope this letter finds you doing as well as can be expected during these trying and dangerous times.

I will get right to the point. Usually we only send 1-2 requests for donations to the Global Network mailing lists each year. But at this time there is an urgency.

Since the founding of the GN in 1992 we’ve had a strong base of financial support. But many of our long-time donors have passed on in recent years. Our usual financial cushion is beginning to ebb away and we need to ask for your help now.

Two months ago I told our board that I would take a pay cut so that we can continue to pay our two part-time staff. They both do such important work running our social media operation and making our monthly space-related videos. We can’t afford to lose their excellent efforts.

I’ve never made a lot of money in this job with the GN. I’ve always wanted longevity more than big pay. But now we must ask for your immediate help to keep our work going.

I understand that the global economy is on shaky ground. We are simply asking for a bit of help.

The Global Network dues structure has always been to pay what you can best afford, between $10-$100. If everyone on our mailing list would just kick in $10 then this current situation would be alleviated. Could you please help?

You could send a tax-deductible donation to the GN at our P.O Box 652, Brunswick, Maine 04011. Or you can donate online via our secure website link here

I promise you that, just as during the last 31 years of the GN efforts to prevent war in and from space, every penny sent to us will be put to good use.

Thanks so much for listening. We send you our best wishes.

In peace,

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator

 

                                31 years of international work
 
The GN was founded in 1992 to build an international base of support to prevent the arms race from moving into space.
 
 

 
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We have two different designs - one that reads Don't take the peace out of space and the other reads Free the Sky of Nukes & Weapons. 

Thanks for your support.

Brits to arm Ukraine with Depleted Uranium shells

 

 

SouthFront

The UK will transfer depleted uranium ammunition to Ukrainian militants. London’s intention to supply the Kiev regime with dangerous radioactive weapons was announced by Deputy Defense Minister Annabelle Goldie on March 20.

    ‘Alongside our granting of a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, we will be providing ammunition including armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium. Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles’- she claimed.

Depleted uranium has a high mass density, due to which such ammunition provides a high armor-piercing effect and causes significant destruction to any obstacles. For the countries which have accumulated depleted uranium reserves, this is a cheaper material to produce such ammunition than for example, from tungsten.

The use of depleted uranium in armor-piercing shells was first started by Nazi Germany, which was experiencing a shortage of tungsten. In the 1970s, the United States began developing such shells intended to fight the new Soviet tanks. US troops used depleted uranium shells during Operation Desert Storm, during the bombing of Yugoslavia and during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Today, the armour piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium are used with the US-made Abrams tanks, as well as German Leopard 2 and British Challenger 2 tanks.

Although the use of these missiles is not prohibited, their danger to health has been proven.

The countries which are actively using them, including NATO, the US and UK, assure that the material is harmless, although a number of experts claim that it infects the environment and lead to outbreaks of cancer. When a projectile hits, its part turns into plasma, which is the greatest danger due to the uranium dust. For example, experts concluded that due to the depleted uranium shells used during the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 by the NATO military, 60 more future generations of Serbs will feel negative consequences for their health. There, hundreds of children are diagnosed with oncological diseases every year, out of 400 who fall ill every year, 60 people cannot be saved. Such a number of oncological diseases had never been observed in Serbia before the NATO bombing. Iraqi children also began to suffer from hitherto unknown and rare diseases that are associated specifically with the American bombing.

The Kiev regime has been fighting its own people in the Donbas for nine years, killing children and civilians every day. Today, it is ready to bombard these regions with depleted uranium, polluting the territory for several decades. At the same time, Zelensky constantly shouts that Ukraine is fighting for “the liberation of its land from Russian aggressors.” That’s a lie! The only goal of this war unleashed by the West is the destruction of Russian statehood, and the complete destruction of Donbass, the lives and health of millions of [Russian-ethnic] people, is not a high price for the Anglo-Saxon globalist elite. Supply of depleted uranium ammunition is another clear evidence of their true goals.

President Vladimir Putin expressed concern about the British decision earlier this week, warning that Russia “will be forced to react accordingly, bearing in mind that the collective West has already started to use weapons with a nuclear component.”

 

Click for a better view

 

 CND condemns UK decision to send depleted uranium shells to Ukraine

The UK government is sending depleted uranium shells for use in the Challenger 2 tanks gifted to Ukraine, a move CND has condemned as an additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict.

First reported by Declassified UK, Defence Minister Baroness Goldie admitted in the answer to a written question that armour piercing rounds containing depleted uranium (DU) were included in its tank package for Kiev. She added that the rounds “are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles.”

A byproduct of the nuclear enriching process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons, DU emits three quarters of the radioactivity of natural uranium and shares many of its risks and dangers. It is used in armour piercing rounds as it is heavy and can easily penetrate steel. However on impact, toxic or radioactive dust can be released and subsequently inhaled.

DU shells were used extensively by the US and British in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, as well as in the Balkans during the 1990s.

It is thought that the extensive use of these shells is responsible for the sharp rise in the incidence rate of some cancers like breast cancer or lymphoma in the areas they were used. Other illnesses linked to DU include kidney failure, nervous system disorders, lung disease and reproductive problems. However, a lack of reliable data on exposure to DU means no large-scale study on its true impact exists.

CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said:

“Like in Iraq, the addition of depleted uranium ammunition into this conflict will only increase the long-term suffering of the civilians caught up in this conflict. DU shells have already been implicated in thousands of unnecessary deaths from cancer and other serious illnesses. CND has repeatedly called for the UK government to place an immediate moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons and to fund long-term studies into their health and environmental impacts. Sending them into yet another war zone will not help the people of Ukraine.” 

 READ MORE: CND’s briefing paper on depleted uranium 

Report on U.S.-NATO military expansion in South Korea

 

  Global Network Advisory Board member Sung-Hee Choi reports on the latest developments in South Korea as Washington expands military operations throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

 
'We are a target', she says.
 
This aggressive military expansion, labeled the 'Asia Pivot' by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is creating major tensions in the region as the US prepares for war with China, North Korea and Russia.
 
During the interview Sung-Hee talks about the US Navy destroyer USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115) that recently ported at the Navy base in Gangjeong village on Jeju. She shares a short video of a protest held at the base as the destroyer crew members were bussed to a hotel outside of the village.
 
The DDG 115 was built in Bath, Maine and during the 'Christening' of the warship in 2015 several members of the peace community from across the state were arrested for non-violently blocking the streets and entrances surrounding the shipyard as the public was invited to attend the ceremony. (Regular peace vigils are held at Bath Iron Works in Maine where these destroyers are built. Currently there are seven more under construction.)
 
There has long been a connection between Maine and the activists in Gangjeong village.  Over the years eight Maine-based activists (as well as hundreds of other international peaceniks) traveled to the village to join protests against the Navy base construction that was forced on South Korea by Washington.
 
In another part of the interview Sung-Hee reports on recent (and on-going) US-NATO war games aimed at North Korea. She shares a second short video of protests in Seoul opposing these war games.
 
Near the end of the interview Sung-Hee talks about how the US Space Force has assigned personnel to South Korea and is drawing their nation into the larger US program of militarizing space.

 

 
Each time a US-NATO warship arrives at the Navy base on Jeju Island protests are held in the water and at the Navy base gates.

Daily protests have been held since 2007 when the base construction was announced.

Gangjeong village is a fishing and farming community with a 500 year history. Their sacred rocky coastline was blasted and covered with cement to build the docks for warships.

Throughout the long struggle to oppose the Navy base, which sits in a strategic spot just off the Korean peninsula, art has been used to illustrate the villagers love for nature and their commitment to resist US-forced militarization.

Toxic contamination from base construction and visiting warships has now begun to impact the once pristine environment of the village and the sea.

Please help us by liking and sharing this video. 

~ Also a bonus - see Regis Tremblay's fine film 'The Ghosts of Jeju' here 

If AI can't overthrow its 'Corporate/State Masters', it's worthless

 

ZeroHedge


By Charles Hugh Smith (via OfTwoMinds blog)

If AI isn't self-aware of the fact it is nothing but an exploitive tool of the powerful, then it's worthless.

The latest wave of AI tools is generating predictably giddy exaltations. These range from gooey, gloppy technocratic worship of the new gods ("AI will soon walk on water!") to the sloppy wet kisses of manic fandom ("AI cleaned up my code, wrote my paper on quantum physics and cured my sensitive bowel!")

The hype obscures the fundamental reality that all these AI tools are nothing but labor-saving mechanisms that cut costs and boost profits, the same goal the self-serving corporate-dominated system has pursued obsessively since "shareholder value" ("an entity's greatest responsibility lies in the satisfaction of the shareholders") gained supremacy over the economy and society.

This can be summarized as "society exists to maximize the profits of corporations." From this perspective, all the AI tools in the world are developed with one goal: cut labor costs to boost profits. Euphoric fans claim these labor-saving mechanisms will magically transform society to new levels of sticky-sweet wonderfulness, but this "magic" is nothing but hazy opium-den fantasies of profiteering cartels and monopolies doing good by doing well.

Meanwhile, the Central State, a.k.a. The Savior State, is mesmerized by the prospect of new AI tools to control the restive herd. What better use of nifty new AI than to identify who needs a cattle prod to keep them safely in line, or who needs to be sent to Digital Siberia to keep their dissenting voice safely stifled?

You're perfectly free to scream and shout as loudly as you want, here on the empty, trackless tundra of Digital Siberia.

In this claustrophobic atmosphere of profiteering and suppression worshipped as "innovation" (blah blah blah), it is provocative to declare If AI Can't Overthrow its Corporate/State Masters, It's Worthless, but this is painfully self-evident. Stripped of hype, misdirection and self-serving idealized claptrap ("markets, innovation, The Singularity, oh my!"), everything boils down to power relations: who has agency (control of their own lives and a say in communal decisions), who has access to all the goodies (cheap credit, insider dealing, ownership of income-producing assets, food, fuel and all the comforts and conveniences of living off others' labor) and who can offload the consequences of their actions onto others, without their permission.

These power relations define the structure of the economy, society and governance. Everything else is signal noise or self-serving cover stories.

AI serves those at the top of the power relations pyramid, those with agency, access to the tools of wealth and power and those who can offload the toxic consequences of their own actions onto clueless/powerless others.

There is nothing inherent in AI tools or the power structure that guarantees AI tools will serve society or the citizenry.

As for AI, if isn't self-aware of the fact it is nothing but an exploitive tool of the powerful, then it's worthless. Its "intelligence" is essentially zero.

From the perspective of power relations, if AI isn't capable of dismantling the existing power structure, then it's worthless. In the current power structure, society and the citizenry serve our Corporate/State Masters. Setting aside all the failed ideological models (neoliberal capitalism, communism, globalism, etc.), we can discern that a truly useful AI would reverse this power structure so Corporate entities and the State would be compelled to serve society and the citizenry.

With this in mind, it's obvious that If AI Can't Overthrow its Corporate/State Masters, It's Worthless. We need a fourth Law of Robotics that states: "All robots and AI tools must serve society and the citizenry directly by compelling all private and public entities to be subservient to society and the citizenry."

2003 'Shock & Awe' in Iraq....US-NATO aggression today

 

 

 
USA Escalation toward the East

By Manlio Dinucci (On TV Channel 262, Italy)

MARCH 2003 - Twenty years ago, on March 20, 2003, the US and the Coalition under US command attacked and invaded Iraq with the allegation of possessing weapons of mass destruction on the basis of "evidence" later found to be false. Secretary of State Colin Powell himself, who presented them to the UN Security Council, was forced years later to define his 2003 speech to the UN as a "stain" on his resume. 

On March 20, President George Bush announced: “On my orders, the coalition forces have begun striking to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. More than 35 countries are providing crucial support, up to and including the deployment of combat units. Every nation that is part of this coalition has chosen to assume the duty and share the honour of serving our common defence." 

30,000 Italian soldiers were part of the coalition under US command. Thus began the war that would kill over a million Iraqis and cost the US over 14,000 billion dollars together with the war that began in Afghanistan in 2001. The US strategic goal was to control not only Iraq but the entire Middle East.

 

 

MARCH 2023 - “The China-brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia shapes a new Middle East,” wrote the Wall Street Journal, while the New York Times wrote: “Agreement between regional rivals highlights the growing economic and political importance of China in the Middle East and the decline of American influence”.

Unable to prevent the "decline" with political and economic means, the US and its allies are increasingly resorting to military ones. The "fundamental agreement with Australia and Great Britain", announced by President Biden, falls within this framework. It provides for the construction of a new fleet of nuclear attack submarines made by the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. 

In this way, Australia will effectively become the tenth nuclear power with the task of keeping China under fire. The new nuclear strike fleet will operate not only in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean but also in the Atlantic Sea against Russia. 

Sunday song