Author: Steven Sahiounie

A Dutch court has given its backing to the government, dismissing a call to scrap the Netherlands’ corona pass which is required to enter restaurants, bars, museums, theatres, and other public places. On Wednesday, a court in The Hague said the Dutch government had the right to demand citizens show proof of their Covid-19 vaccination or a recent negative coronavirus test result if they wished to enter certain public places. The court noted that the government had made it unequivocally clear that people who weren’t vaccinated were more at risk of catching Covid-19 and passing it on to others. The…

Thousands of French people are set to hold demonstrations against issues such as rising energy costs, changing rules for unemployment and pensions, and decreased spending power. Protests against government policies are planned for Tuesday afternoon at hundreds of spots all over France, where several unions, including the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) will be present. Céline Verzeletti, the confederal secretary of the CGT, a national trade union center, told Sud Ouest, “We will have 200 meeting points [for protesters], which is an initial sign that today will be positive for us.” She said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, “there is a return to…

by : Pepe Escobar . Sides are forming around the Iran vs Azerbaijan squabble. But this fight is not about ethnicity, religion or tribe – it is mainly about who gets to forge the region’s new transportation routes. The last thing the complex, work-in-progress drive towards Eurasian integration needs at this stage is this messy affair between Iran and Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus. Let’s start with the Conquerors of Khaybar – the largest Iranian military exercise in two decades held on its northwestern border with Azerbaijan. Among the deployed Iranian military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units there are…

Russia has been playing a significant role in resolving conflicts, triggered by the West, who seek to exploit ethnic and religious tensions for its own goals, Russian lawmaker Alexey Chepa said during an online press conference on Wednesday. “Russia is doing more than anyone else today [to resolve conflicts]. We see it in Syria, where attempts to exacerbate religious issues led to a civil war. Only through Russia’s efforts was it possible to extinguish this to a certain degree today,” he said. In this context, Chepa noted that a State Duma delegation’s recent visit to Syria proved very clearly that “all…

In a brief statement, Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier General Yehya Saree announced that the Air Defenses managed in the early morning to down a CH4 Chinese-made surveillance fighter jet belonging to the Saudi-led forces. The drone was targeted using a land-to-air missile, according to the statement. The aircraft was targeted while carrying out hostile acts over al-Jouba in Marib Province, Saree added.source : islamtimes.org

Ali Salehabadi was appointed as the new governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on Wednesday. According to Tasnim news agency, the cabinet of President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi gave a vote of confidence to Salehabadi as the top banker at a meeting today. Salehabadi, 43, has a PhD in financial management. He has 20 years of experience of serving in top managerial posts in the money and capital markets. He is also the founder of the Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran.source : parstoday.com

The “Lawyers for Justice” group has accused the Palestinian Authority of disrupting the trial procedures for the assissnation of political activist Nizar Banat. On Tuesday, the “Lawyers for Justice,” group accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of disrupting the trial procedures for the murderers of political activist Nizar Banat, and influencing witnesses. The human rights group asserted that the arrest of Hussein Banat, the main witness in the Nizar Banat case, as well as ongoing pursuits, arrests, and raids on the homes of Banat’s family in al-Khalil are an intentional disruption of the trial. The group indicated that the shooting that…

by : William Ging Wee Dere .Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu (Steveston-Richmond East) is crying foul over his failure to retain his seat in the September 20, 2021 elections. Reminiscing of the era of McCarthyism, Chiu labels those who opposed him as sympathizers of the Communist Party of China and he attributes his defeat to their influence. He gained a more than willing conduit for his views in the mainstream media in the form of Tom Blackwell, who reports for the National Post. His efforts and those of the media could be seen as attempts to intimidate those who criticize Chiu and…

The secretary general of Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba resistance group says the country’s next prime minister must terminate all agreements reached under the dictates of the United States and also expel all occupying forces from Iraqi soil. In a statement on Tuesday, Akram al-Kaabi said the US-ordered agreements give Iraq’s resources away to the hegemonic country’s colonial projects and must therefore be canceled. According to al-Kaabi, the next Iraqi prime minister must end the games of the US military base which acts under the name of Washington’s embassy in the Green Zone and prevent it from dominating Iraq’s oil sales.…

by :  John W. Whitehead “Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges.”—George Carlin You think you’ve got rights? Think again. All of those freedoms we cherish—the ones enshrined in the Constitution, the ones that affirm our right to free speech and assembly, due process, privacy, bodily integrity, the right to not have police seize our property without a warrant, or search and detain us without probable cause—amount to nothing when the government and its agents are allowed to disregard those prohibitions on government overreach at will. This is the grim reality of life in the American…