POOR PEOPLE’S AND LOW-WAGE WORKERS’ ASSEMBLY AND MORAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON

AND TO THE POLLS

https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/

MOBILIZING PARTNERS

AFL-CIO Planned Parenthood MoveOn Common Defense Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Sunrise Movement National Council of Churches USA Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Black Voters Matter Center for Popular Democracy The Episcopal Church Presbyterian Church (USA) Border Network for Human Rights Islamic Circle of North America American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Unitarian Universalist Association League of Women Voters Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Physicians for a National Health Program Children’s Defense Fund The Climate Reality Project

7 STEPS BEFORE THE MIDTERMS

A MOVEMENT DECLARATION TO RECONSTRUCT AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

We – the thousands gathered here in the active declaration of a rapidly growing front of organized moral fusion power – and in deep solidarity with those rising up across this country, who are demanding reconstruction of this democracy and reconstitution of the policy and legal priorities of this nation – say: we are in a time of emergency. We gather in Washington D.C. for a Mass Poor Peoples and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls in a dark summer, as our democracy is threatened by a state-by-state coordinated assault on the right to vote and imperiled by open violence, greed, obstruction, distortions, and denial, while more than 140 million poor and low wealth people of every race, creed, religion, in every region of this country are rising up daily against growing indignities, pain, injury, and death at the hands of immoral policies and interlocking injustices.

Even after historic numbers of people, including those gathered here, voted in 2020 and said we must do more in a collective act of faith,  during the grief of a global pandemic, our democracy remains in an untenable, fragile place: it is bending under the unrelenting weight of an orchestrated attack on our rights to vote for the purpose of further entrenching anti-democratic, non-majority power. And we are facing an attempt to stop the power of this movement and what our presence and witness represent.

We see the truth and so we say the truth: if the assault on this democracy prevails, the consequences will be felt across generations. We see and say that we come here in the shadow of mass death, insurrection, an attempted coup, and in a time in our nation’s history when it is openly known that there are those in political office – and running for political office – who are working with grotesque resources to seek to overthrow the will of the people of the United States again. And we come with the sight and insight to see ahead of us to the generationally transformative resurrection possibilities of a Third Reconstruction of this democracy and this country.

As we gather in Washington D.C. before Congress, before this Supreme Court that – unchecked – threatens to decay our constitutionally protected right to justice and equal protection under the law, and before this White House, we declare that we know there are 143 days between today, June 18, 2022, and the last day of the mid-term elections on November 8. On the ballot are 469 seats in Congress – 34 in the Senate and 435 in the House.

We stand together today without the full protections of a Restored Voting Rights Act. And we declare that we will use our full power to force this democracy to reckon with its people’s plight. We will not be silenced and we will not go unheard! This movement will not be turned around or turned back! Our votes are not supported but demand to be heard and to take action. A movement that votes does not vote for any party or any one person, we vote for our people and for our lives. We vote to summon a Third Reconstruction that can birth us out of an impoverished democracy and usher in a new world.

For this purpose: 

1.

We demand that every member of Congress publicly acknowledge the reality and pain of 140 million poor and low-wealth people – including 43 % of our entire population and 52% of our children, who have died at a rate 2 to 5 times higher during this pandemic, and 250,000 of whom died from poverty and inequality every year –  and recognize a moral crisis that must be corrected, reckoned with, and repaired. This is an emergency, and we need emergency action now to redress these injuries. 

2.

We demand every member of Congress commit to creating and supporting legislation that reflects the Third Reconstruction Agenda developed by poor and low-wage communities. No action that is available to this Congress to relieve this injury and protect our democracy should be taken off the table – no matter how close we are to an election.  

3.

We demand a White House Poverty Summit with President Biden to allow this administration to meet with a delegation of poor and low-wealth people, religious leaders, and economists and to commit to an Executive Action Plan to Eliminate Poverty in 2022.

4.

We declare that this Campaign will engage in massive mobilization and outreach through every means available to us – by visits, letters, petitions, candidate forums, and phone calls – advocating for our current representatives to take action now to address the needs of 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country.

5.

We pledge to return to Washington D.C. in September 2022, to join 5,000 poor and low-wealth people and religious leaders, along with 100 economists in nonviolent moral direct action in our next step of declaration and notification of these demands.

6.

This Campaign announces its launch of a nationwide effort for the next 143 days to register and educate poor and low-income communities to vote in every election for candidates who commit to a Third Reconstruction Agenda to address poverty and low wealth from the bottom up. We must vote in historic numbers for our ancestors, for our children, and for the generations to come whose lives and planet are under threat today.

7.

We declare that we are a movement that votes. We call on all poor and low-wealth people to march in mass assembly from here to the polls this November and to use your vote to make your voices heard! We will expand the “we” included in “we the people” and fight with every tool we have to ensure no voice is excluded from this democracy, no vote is denied, and no cry for justice rising up from this moral fusion movement is unrepresented at the ballot box.

Forward together, not one step back!

The UK's Decision to Extradite Assange Shows Why The US/UK's Freedom Lectures Are a Farce

The Assange persecution is the greatest threat to Western press freedoms in years. It is also a shining monument to the fraud of American and British self-depictions.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-uks-decision-to-extradite-assange

Glenn Greenwald

The eleven-year persecution of Julian Assange was extended and escalated on Friday morning. The British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, approved the U.S.'s extradition request to send Julian Assange to Virginia to stand trial on eighteen felony charges under the 1917 Espionage Act and other statutes in connection with the 2010 publication by WikiLeaks of thousands of documents showing widespread corruption, deceit, and war crimes by American and British authorities along with their close dictatorial allies in the Middle East.

This decision is unsurprising — it has been obvious for years that the U.S. and UK are determined to destroy Assange as punishment for his journalism exposing their crimes — yet it nonetheless further highlights the utter sham of American and British sermons about freedom, democracy, and a free press. Those performative self-glorifying spectacles are constantly deployed to justify these two countries’ interference in and attacks on other nations and to allow their citizens to feel a sense of superiority about the nature of their governments. After all, if the U.S. and UK stand for freedom and against tyranny, who could possibly oppose their wars and interventions in the name of advancing such lofty goals and noble values?

Having reported on the Assange case for years, on countless occasions I've laid out the detailed background that led Assange and the U.S. to this point. There is thus no need to recount all of that again; those interested can read the granular trajectory of this persecution here or here. Suffice to say, Assange — without having been convicted of any crime other than bail jumping, for which he long ago served out his fifty-week sentence — has been under ineffective imprisonment for more than a decade.

In 2012, Ecuador granted Assange legal asylum from political persecution. It did so after the Swedish government refused to pledge that it would not exploit the WikiLeaks founder's travel to Sweden to answer sex assault accusations as a pretext to turn him over to the U.S. Fearing what of course ended up happening — that the U.S. was determined to do everything possible to drag Assange back to U.S. soil despite his not being a U.S. citizen and never having spent more than a few days on U.S. soil, and intending to pressure their long-time-submissive Swedish allies to turn him over once he was on Swedish soil — the government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa concluded Assange's core civic rights were being denied and thus gave him refuge in the tiny Ecuadorian embassy in London: the classic reason political asylum exists.

When Trump officials led by CIA Director Mike Pompeo bullied Correa's meek successor, ex-President Lenin Moreno, to withdraw that asylum in 2019, the London Police entered the embassy, arrested Assange, and put him in the high-security Belmarsh prison (which the BBC in 2004 dubbed “the British Guantanamo”), where he has remained ever since.

After the lowest-level British court in early 2021 rejected the U.S. extradition request on the ground that Assange's physical and mental health could not endure the U.S. prison system, Assange has lost every subsequent appeal. Last year, he was permitted to marry his long-time girlfriend, the British human rights lawyer Stella Morris Assange, who is also the mother of their two young children. An extremely unusual unanimity among press freedom and civil liberties groups was formed in early 2021 to urge the Biden administration to cease its prosecution of Assange, but Biden officials — despite spending the Trump years masquerading as press freedom advocates — ignored them (an interview conducted last week with Stella Assange by my husband, the Brazilian Congressman David Miranda, on Brazil's Press Freedom Day, regarding the latest developments and toll this has taken on the Assange family, can be seen here).

The Home Secretary's decision this morning — characteristically subservient and obedient to the British when it comes to the demands of the U.S. — does not mean that Assange's presence on U.S. soil is imminent. Under British law, Assange has the right to pursue a series of appeals contesting the Home Secretary's decision, and will likely do so. Given that the British judiciary has more or less announced in advance their determination to follow the orders of their American masters, it is difficult to see how these further proceedings will have any effect other than to delay the inevitable.

But putting oneself in Assange's position, it is easy to see why he is so eager to avoid extradition to the U.S. for as long as possible. The Espionage Act of 1917 is a nasty and repressive piece of legislation. It was designed by Woodrow Wilson and his band of authoritarian progressives to criminalize dissent against Wilson's decision to involve the U.S. in World War I. It was used primarily to imprison anti-war leftists such as Eugene Debs, as well as anti-war religious leaders such as Joseph Franklin Rutherford for the crime of publishing a book condemning Wilson's foreign policy.

One of the most insidious despotic innovations of the Obama administration was to repurpose and revitalize the Wilson-era Espionage Act as an all-purpose weapon to punish whistleblowers who denounced Obama's policies. The Obama Justice Department under Attorney General Eric Holder prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act of 1917 than all previous administrations combined — in fact, three times as many as all prior presidents combined. One whistleblower charged by Obama officials under that law is NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who in 2013 revealed mass domestic spying of precisely the kind that Obama's Director of National Intelligence James Clapper (now of CNN) falsely denied conducting when testifying to the Senate, which led to legislative curbs enacted by the U.S. Congress, and which courts have ruled unconstitutional and illegal.

This law is so insidious that, by design, it is almost impossible for the government to lose. As I detailed in a Washington Post op-ed when the indictment was first revealed — arguing why it poses the greatest threat to press freedoms in the West in years — this 1917 law is written as a “strict liability” statute, meaning that the defendant is not only guilty as soon as there is proof that they disclosed classified information without authorization, but they are also barred from raising a "justification” defense — meaning they cannot argue to the jury of their peers that it was not only permissible but morally necessary to disclose that information because of the serious wrongdoing and criminality it revealed on the part of the nation's most powerful political officials. That 1917 law, in other words, is written to offer only show trials but not fair trials. No person in their right mind would willingly submit to prosecution and life imprisonment in the harshest American penitentiaries under an indictment brought under this fundamentally corrupted law.

Whatever else one might think of Assange, there is simply no question that he is one of the most consequential, pioneering, and accomplished journalists of his time. One could easily make the case that he occupies the top spot by himself. And that, of course, is precisely why he is in prison: because, just like free speech, “free press” guarantees in the U.S. and UK exist only on a piece of parchment and in theory. Citizens are free to do “journalism" as long as it does not disturb or anger or impede real power centers. Employees of The Washington Post and CNN are “free” to say what they want as long as what they are saying is approved and directed by the CIA or the content of their “reporting” advances the interests of the Pentagon's sprawling war machine.

Real journalists often face threats of prosecution, imprisonment, or even murder, and sometimes even mean tweets. Much of the American corporate media class has ignored Assange’s persecution or even cheered it precisely because he shames them, serving as a vivid mirror to show them what real journalism is and how they are completely bereft of it. And the American and British governments have successfully exploited the petty jealousies and insecurities of their failed, vapid and pointless media servants to get away with imposing the single greatest threat to press freedom in the West without much protest at all.

Free speech and press freedoms do not exist in reality in the U.S. or the UK. They are merely rhetorical instruments to propagandize their domestic population and justify and ennoble the various wars and other forms of subversion they constantly wage in other countries in the name of upholding values they themselves do not support. The Julian Assange persecution is a great personal tragedy, a political travesty, and a grave danger to basic civic freedoms. But it is also a bright and enduring monument to the fraud and deceit that lies at the heart of these two governments' depictions of who and what they are.

Yes to Peace – No to NATO! Disengage from NATO and Dissolve It!

The biggest war machine in history, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is having its Summit on 29-30 June in Madrid, Spain. One more summit where the war hawks of 30 countries and their governments will ratify and develop their imperialist plans as the “world sheriff’.”

The history of NATO is full of crimes, wars, interventions, and Coup d’Etats. NATO was never a defensive organization and even less today. It was and is the armed wing of US and EU imperialism.

The World Peace Council was from the first moment of NATO’s foundation against it, our members and friends are fighting in the NATO member states for the disengagement from NATO and for its dissolution as such.

This struggle becomes even more timely and necessary when we observe the plans for further enlargement of NATO with Sweden and Finland an act that will fuel the war in Ukraine and the aggressiveness of NATO. NATO is taking advantage of the war for its expansionist plans; it is further fuelling the war at the expense of the Ukrainian and Russian people who were living fraternally together and in peace for 70 years. This war, and in connection with it the NATO’s plans, enhances the dangers of a more generalized war of global dimensions. The war has to end and a politically negotiated solution has to be found based on the founding principles of the UN Charter. NATO’s plans must be fought against by the peoples of the world!

The World Peace Council is calling upon all members and friendly organizations in the world to organize and hold protest events, rallies, and demonstrations denouncing the imperialist plans and actions of NATO around the dates of the NATO summit, which is going to be held in Madrid on 29-30 June.

The WPC will take part in the anti-NATO rally and demonstration on the 26th of June 2022 in Madrid with its banners and flags and is calling upon the anti-imperialist peace-loving forces to rally behind the WPC contingent in the rally which will take place on Sunday 26th June 2022 in Madrid at ATOCHA at 12:00 (at the Metro station Estacion del Arte) and march towards the Plaza de España.

All comrades and friends of the WPC are encouraged to come to Madrid and protest and march with the WPC against NATO together with our local partner of the Spanish Committee for the Defense of the Solidarity and Struggle for Peace (CEDESPAZ).

The WPC Secretariat
15th June 2022

 

***

U.S. Peace Council • P.O. Box 3105, New Haven, CT 06515 • (203) 387-0370 • USPC@USPeaceCouncil.org
• https://uspeacecouncil.org • https://www.facebook.com/USPeaceCouncil/ • @USPeaceCouncil

 Xi, Putin hold phone call, vow mutual support amid global turbulence

China-Russia strategic ties remain solid despite rising Western pressure: experts

By 

Yang Sheng, Wan Hengyi and Cui Fandi

Published: Jun 16, 2022 

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202206/1268239.shtml

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday afternoon held a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, with analysts saying this is a signal to the world that the close China-Russia strategic partnership and high-level mutual trust between the two sides remain unchanged when the world is experiencing turbulence and uncertainty.

The NATO summit and the BRICS summit will be held later this month, and the communication between the top leaders of China and Russia is also sending a message to the world that the two major powers will continue to have mutual support on matters regarding their core interests and will keep pushing the multi-polarization of the international order, experts said. 

There is no chance for the West to use the Russia-Ukraine crisis to instigate China-Russia ties and China's stance on fairness and justice has won the understanding of both Russia and Ukraine, observers noted.  

During their conversation, Xi noted that since the beginning of this year, bilateral relations have maintained a sound development momentum in the face of global turbulence and transformations.

The economic and trade cooperation between the two countries has made steady progress, Xi said, adding that the Heihe-Blagoveshchensk cross-border highway bridge has opened to traffic, creating a new channel connecting the two countries.

The Chinese side stands ready to work with the Russian side to push for the steady and long-term development of practical bilateral cooperation, Xi said.

The two heads of state also exchanged views on the Ukraine issue. Xi emphasized that China has always independently assessed the situation on the basis of the historical context and the merits of the issue, and actively promoted world peace and the stability of the global economic order.

All parties should push for a proper settlement of the Ukraine crisis in a responsible manner, Xi said, adding that China for this purpose will continue to play its due role.

Yang Jin, an expert at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that this shows that the strategic firmness of China to keep developing ties and promote cooperation with Russia in the fields of economy and trade, even if the West is pressuring China to join their sanctions against Russia.

On this matter, China is not alone, as most non-Western countries, as well as some EU and NATO members, don't share the view of indiscriminately sanctioning Russia on everything or cutting off all cooperation and exchanges even if this comes with a high cost, and there is nothing wrong for the countries to develop ties with Russia based on the interests of their people, said, analysts. 

China is willing to work with Russia to continue supporting each other on their respective core interests concerning sovereignty and security, as well as on their major concerns, deepening their strategic coordination, and strengthening communication and coordination in such important international and regional organizations as the United Nations, the BRICS mechanism and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Xi said.

China is also willing to work with Russia to promote solidarity and cooperation among emerging market countries and developing nations, and push for the development of the international order and global governance toward a more just and reasonable direction, he added.

Cui Heng, an assistant research fellow from the Center for Russian Studies of East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the US has fully activated its Cold War asset, and the upcoming NATO summit will adopt a new Security Concept for the Alliance to target not only Russia but also China, and Japan and South Korea's leaders will attend the summit for the first time. 

"It's clear that NATO is no longer a military organization in the regions around the north of the Atlantic, but will step into Asia and have global influence, and more importantly, it targets Russia and China as its rivals, even enemies," he said.

China and Russia have no choice but to jointly resist NATO's all-around suppression through close strategic coordination, and further maintain the balance of the global strategic situation, Cui said, noting that this is the key signal delivered by the conversation between Xi and Putin.

Yang stressed that the NATO summit is focusing on military and security, while the BRICS summit is focusing on development and the cooperation among the rising economies, so they are different and will not become some kind of Cold War situation like bloc-to-bloc confrontation. But it is important for China and Russia, as well as the rest of the BRICS members, to send a signal to the world that the international order should focus on development and ease tensions via dialogue rather than letting a few Western countries dominate the international community to make confrontation dominate the international relations.

Another important opportunity for President Xi's phone call with President Putin is that today is President Xi's birthday and the two leaders have enjoyed a deep personal friendship for more than a decade. Mutual trust between the leaders of the two countries guarantees the long-term stability of China-Russia relations, Cui noted.

For his part, Putin said the Russian side sincerely congratulates China on its remarkable development achievements under the strong leadership of Xi.

Since the start of the year, the practical cooperation between Russia and China has been developing steadily, he said, adding that Russia supports the Global Security Initiative proposed by the Chinese side, and opposes any force to interfere with China's internal affairs using so-called issues regarding Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, among others, as an excuse.

He noted that Russia is ready to strengthen multilateral coordination with China so as to make constructive efforts in boosting the multi-polarization of the world and establishing a more just and reasonable international order.

Russia's support toward the issues related to China's core interests, especially on those that face pressure and threats from the US, is as strong as always, said analysts. 

The China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is "the backbone of a multipolar world and plays a vital role in defending NATO's global ambitions and US hegemony," Cui said.

The multilateral cooperation mechanisms with China and Russia's key participation, such as the BRICS and the SCO, are having a stronger voice in international and regional affairs, experts said. "A key is that China and Russia are able to provide precious public goods to many developing countries, which have no ideological strings attached compared with the ones provided by the West," Cui noted.

On Wednesday, the 12th Meeting of BRICS National Security Advisers and High Representatives on National Security was held virtually, chaired by Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPC and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing. 

The topics are multilateralism and global governance, new threats and challenges to national security, and governance of new frontiers, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news conference on Wednesday. National security advisers and high representatives of the national security of South Africa, Brazil, Russia, and India attended the event.

"As the BRICS chair, China looks forward to working with other BRICS members to further consolidate political mutual trust, deepen political and security cooperation, jointly safeguard our security and development interests, and make positive contributions to promoting world peace and stability," he said.

El Estado mexicano debe pagar 160 mdd

EU, Canadá y Europa podrían obligar a pagar por juicios en los que inversionistas extranjeros consideran que el gobierno mexicano ha violado capítulos en materia de inversión.

Darío Celis

junio 15, 2022

https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/opinion/dario-celis/2022/06/15/el-estado-mexicano-debe-pagar-160-mdd/

EN ESTOS MOMENTOS el gobierno de la 4T está condenado a pagar alrededor de 160 millones de dólares, unos tres mil millones de pesos, por incumplimientos en los tratados de libre comercio de Norteamérica.

Y en los próximos meses los paneles con Estados Unidos, Canadá y Europa podrían obligar a México a liquidar más de mil millones de dólares por juicios en los que inversionistas extranjeros consideran que el gobierno mexicano ha violado capítulos en materia de inversión.

Actualmente existen 19 de 23 casos contra México concluidos, donde se condenó a pagar daños a empresas de Estados Unidos y Canadá, producto de controversias comerciales y de inversión, pero sobre todo por violación a lo establecido en el Capítulo 19 del acuerdo trilateral.

Siete de los 19 casos donde la Secretaría de Economía, que ahora encabeza Tatiana Clouthier, ha perdido y está obligado ahora a pagar, son los siguientes:

Metaclad Corporation, condena a México al pago de 16 millones 685 mil dólares más intereses; Marvin Roy Feldman Karpa, condena a México a pagar 17 millones de pesos, más intereses.

Técnicas Medioambientales, el laudo condena a México a pagar cinco millones 533 mil dólares, más intereses compuestos capitalizables anualmente desde hace cinco años en que se dio la afectación.

Archer Daniels Midland y Tate & Lile Ingredients Americas, el laudo condena a México a pagar 33 millones 510 mil dólares más intereses, desde el 31 de diciembre de 2005 y hasta que se liquide la suerte principal.

Gempluf y Talsud, el laudo condena a México a pagar 11 millones de dólares, más intereses; Cargill, condena a México a pagar a la demandante 77 millones 329 mil dólares más intereses y los costos del arbitraje.

Y Abengoa y Cofedes, donde igualmente el laudo arbitral vuelve a condenar a México al pago de aproximadamente otros 490 millones de pesos.

Pero esos 160 millones de dólares podrían eclipsarse frente a laudos superiores a los mil millones de dólares que hoy día o están o pueden sumarse vía paneles, sobre todo en materia energética.

De ahí los acercamientos que el presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador ha permitido con CEOs de empresas estadounidenses y el acompañamiento del embajador Ken Salazar.

Pero el desestimiento y los arreglos extralegales se ven como un potencial problema para los inversionistas, que creen que es mejor seguir el camino del arbitraje internacional.

Le temen a sus propias regulaciones sobre el compliance, porque tanto en Estados Unidos y, en menor medida Europa, son leyes muy estrictas y observantes de acciones anticorrupción.

 Russia’s Oil Revenue Soars Despite Sanctions, Study Finds

Rising oil prices more than offset a decline in export volumes during the first 100 days of the assault on Ukraine.

By Hiroko Tabuchi

June 13, 2022

https://archive.ph/eykD8#selection-474.1-497.13

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered global condemnation and tough sanctions aimed at denting Moscow’s war chest. Yet Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels, by far its biggest export, soared to records in the first 100 days of its war on Ukraine, driven by a windfall from oil sales amid surging prices, a new analysis shows.

Russia earned what is very likely a record 93 billion euros in revenue from exports of oil, gas, and coal in the first 100 days of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, according to data analyzed by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a research organization based in Helsinki, Finland. About two-thirds of those earnings, the equivalent of about $97 billion, came from oil, and most of the remainder from natural gas.

“The current rate of revenue is unprecedented, because prices are unprecedented, and export volumes are close to their highest levels on record,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst who led the center’s research.

Fossil fuel exports have been a key enabler of Russia’s military buildup. In 2021, revenue from oil and gas alone made up 45 percent of Russia’s federal budget, according to the International Energy Agency. The revenue from Russia’s fossil fuel exports exceeds what the country is spending on its war in Ukraine, the research center estimated, a sobering finding as momentum shifts in Russia’s favor as its forces focus on important regional targets amid a weapons shortage among Ukrainian soldiers.

Ukrainian officials again called on countries and firms to halt their trade with Russia completely. “We’re asking the world to do everything possible in order to cut off Putin and his war machine from all possible financing, but it’s taking much too long,” Oleg Ustenko, an economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, said in an interview from Kyiv.

Ukraine has also been tracking Russia’s exports, and Mr. Ustenko described the research center’s numbers as seeming on the conservative side. Still, the underlying finding was the same, he said: Fossil fuels continue to fund Russia’s war. “You can stop importing Russian caviar and Russian vodka, and that’s good, but definitely not enough. You need to stop importing Russian oil,” he said.

Though Russia’s fossil fuel exports have started to fall somewhat by volume, as more countries and companies shun trading with Moscow, surging prices have more than canceled out the effects of that decline. The research found Russia’s export prices for fossil fuels have been on average around 60 percent higher than last year, even accounting for the fact that Russian oil is fetching about 30 percent below international market prices.

Europe, particularly, has struggled to wean itself from Russian energy, even as many countries send military aid to Ukraine. The European Union made the most progress in reducing its imports of natural gas from Russia, buying 23 percent less in the first 100 days of the invasion than the same period the previous year. Still, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that income at Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas giant, remained about twice as high as the year before, thanks to higher gas prices.

The European Union also reduced its imports of Russian crude oil, which declined 18 percent in May. But that dip was made up by India and the United Arab Emirates, leading to no net change in Russia’s oil export volumes, the research showed. India has become a significant importer of Russian crude oil, buying 18 percent of the country’s exports over the 100-day period.

The United States has made a dent in Russia’s earnings, banning all Russian fossil fuel imports. Still, the United States is importing refined oil products from countries like the Netherlands and India that most likely contain Russian crude, a loophole for oil from Russia to make its way to America.

Overall, China was the largest importer of Russian fossil fuels over the 100-day period, edging out Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. China imported the most oil; Japan was the top purchaser of Russian coal.

Stricter bans are coming. Late last month, the E.U. agreed to an embargo that will cover roughly three-quarters of Russian oil shipped to the region, though that won’t be enforced for six months. Britain has said it will also phase out imports of Russian oil by year’s end. But Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, which receive Russian oil via pipelines, remain exempt. European and United States-owned ships also continue to transport Russian oil.

Europe is also speeding up its transition away from fossil fuels altogether. A new E.U. target aims to increase the region’s share of electricity from renewable forms of energy to 63 percent by 2030, up from a previously expected target of 55 percent.

Janet Yellen, the United States Treasury secretary, said last week that Washington was in talks with its European allies about forming a cartel that would set a cap on the price of Russian oil roughly equal to the price of production. That would trim Russia’s fossil fuel revenues while also keeping Russian oil flowing to global markets, stabilizing prices and fending off a global recession, she told the Senate Finance Committee.

Mr. Ustenko, the Ukrainian economic aide, said he would welcome such a move as a temporary measure until full embargoes can be imposed. He also suggested that countries should take the difference between global prices and the capped price on Russian oil and pay it into a fund to aid Ukrainian reconstruction.

“Then we’ll be able to cut off Russians from much of their financing, and almost immediately,” he said.

How Biden’s Israel approach bets on ‘short’ public attention span

One month after the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, Washington has yet to condemn Israel or back the third-party investigation.

By Ali Harb

Published On 11 Jun 2022

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/11/how-biden-policy-on-israel-bets-on-short-public-attention-span

Washington, DC – Despite numerous eyewitness testimonies, investigations by media outlets and rights groups, and a Palestinian probe all-determining that Israeli forces fatally shot journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the United States has not condemned Israel for the killing.

Instead, since the veteran Al Jazeera reporter was killed on May 11 in the occupied West Bank, top US officials have insisted that Israel can and should conduct an investigation.

But in this US response, many advocates see a familiar script that President Joe Biden’s administration has employed on more than one occasion to address Israeli violations: raise concerns, call for more information, and then move on like they never happened.

“It’s a pretty damn thick file of abuses and murders and violations without any end or acceptable outcome as to the investigation of these crimes,” Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC, a think tank, told Al Jazeera.

“So that is continuing, unfortunately, and governments on purpose bet on the short attention span of the public.”

On the one-month anniversary of the killing of Abu Akleh on Saturday, Al Jazeera examines the Biden administration’s response to this and other key Israeli violations:

The bombing of Al Jazeera-AP offices in Gaza

During the May 2021 Gaza war, Israeli forces bombed an 11-story building in Gaza City housing the offices of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera, as well as dozens of residential apartments.

Press freedom advocates immediately condemned the attack and accused Israel of deliberately targeting media outlets. Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, also said the targeting of high-rise buildings in Gaza during the conflict violated international law.

But the Biden administration’s initial reaction was to express “concern” and ask Israel for information about the bombing.

Israel had claimed without evidence that it leveled the building because the Palestinian group Hamas had used it as a military intelligence officer.

“President Biden and other members of the administration have raised directly our concerns with our Israeli counterparts about the safety and security of journalists operating in Gaza,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two days after the bombing, adding that Washington also requested “additional details regarding the justification” of the air raid.

A day later, Blinken said he had received the information, but could not comment further.

As it stands, the Biden administration still has not directly denounced the attack or said publicly whether it thinks the bombing of the media offices was justified. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said last month that the concerns raised in May of last year “still exist”, but he did not condemn the attack.

After the 2021 Gaza war, Washington added $1bn to the $3.8bn it gives Israel annually.

The blacklisting of Palestinian rights organizations

In a widely condemned move in October 2021, Israel labeled six leading Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations as “terrorist” groups.

An order by the Israeli defense ministry practically outlawed Al-Haq, Defence for Children International-Palestine, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and Addameer, over alleged links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) political faction.

While Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called the Israeli decision “appalling and unjust”, the Biden administration’s first response once again was to seek clarification.

There was a brief – and rare – public display of disagreement between the US and Israel when Washington said it had not been notified of the blacklisting in advance. Israeli officials insisted that they had informed their American counterparts of the move.

But the following month, an Israeli delegation visited Washington and Price said the administration had received “detailed information from the Israeli government”.

“We appreciated the consultation. We’re reviewing the information that they provided us,” he said.

In April, UN human rights experts concluded that Israel had failed to present credible evidence to justify the designations, saying they were “disturbed” by the Israeli move. Still, Washington has not said whether blacklisting the NGOs was legitimate, nor has it denounced the decision.

When asked for comment by Al Jazeera this week, a State Department spokesperson said in an email that “the US government has not designated any of the organizations in question, nor have we provided funding to any of these groups”.

The spokesperson added that Washington made clear to Israel and the Palestinian Authority that “independent civil society organizations in the West Bank and in Israel must be able to continue their important work.

“The US government values the monitoring of human rights violations and abuses that independent NGOs undertake in the West Bank and Gaza, in Israel, and elsewhere.”

The killing of US citizen Omar Assad

In January, 78-year-old US citizen Omar Assad suffered a stress-induced heart attack after he was arbitrarily detained, bound, blindfolded, and gagged by Israeli forces, and left out at a cold construction site in the occupied West Bank.

The State Department, which often says it has no higher priority than the safety of Americans abroad, called for a “thorough investigation”.

In early February, the Israeli military announced administrative disciplinary action against the battalion involved in Assad’s killing, but no criminal charges, calling the incident a “clear lapse of moral judgment”.

In response, Price said in a statement: “The United States expects a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability in this case, and we welcome receiving additional information on these efforts as soon as possible. We continue to discuss this troubling incident with the Israeli government.”

Since then, the killing of Assad has not been mentioned in readouts describing talks and meetings between Israeli and US officials.

Despite calls from Assad’s family for a US-led investigation into his killing, Washington has so far left it to the Israelis. Nearly six months later, the State Department is still counting on Israel to investigate the case.

“We understand from our Israeli counterparts that the investigation is ongoing,” a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera this week. “We strongly urge a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability of Mr. Assad’s death, and we continue to closely track this case with the Israeli government.”

The killing of US citizen Shireen Abu Akleh

In May, Israeli forces fatally shot Abu Akleh in what Al Jazeera News Network has called an “assassination”.

The State Department was quick to denounce the killing and label it an “affront to media freedom everywhere”. Price called for a “thorough, comprehensive investigation”, but said the US believed that Israel has the “wherewithal and capabilities” to conduct it.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to avoid assigning responsibility for the incident, all while refusing to carry out its own investigation. Washington is still refusing to back calls for an independent investigation that does not involve Israeli authorities and has explicitly rejected the involvement of the International Criminal Court in the case.

Even when Israeli police attacked Abu Akleh’s funeral, nearly forcing pallbearers to drop the slain journalist’s coffin, Washington did not condemn that conduct. Blinken said he was “deeply troubled” by the Israeli assault on the funeral procession.

“Every family deserves to be able to lay their loved ones to rest in a dignified and unimpeded manner,” he said in a statement, calling on “all to maintain calm and avoid any actions that could further escalate tensions”.

Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at the rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said Israel has always enjoyed a “blank cheque policy where it is not held accountable for any of its crimes” by the United States.

“But it is becoming more blatant and more obvious than before because of political pressure and because of media coverage of these events,” Jarrar told Al Jazeera. “The US government is ignoring its own laws to continue to fund apartheid in Israel-Palestine.”