General

Four UN Agencies Issue Urgent Call to Action To Prevent Coronavirus-Related Childhood Malnutrition, Starvation and Death

July 29, 2020by Jenny Burns in General

Yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UNICEF issued a call for action to prevent childhood malnutrition and death, now worsening in many places, reported in the {Lancet} at length on July 27. What is clear from the call and the dire situation described in a related Associated Press article on the malnutrition, starvation and death among children in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere, is that these needs can only be met by implementation of the LaRouchePAC program to create 1.5 billion productive jobs, and building of global medical infrastructure.

“As leaders of four UN agencies,” the call read, “we are issuing a call for action to protect children’s right to nutrition in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This requires a swift response and investments from governments, donors, the private sector, and the UN. Five actions must be taken and tracked immediately…..[provision of food and help listed]….”

The four agencies estimated that at least $2-4 billion is needed immediately “to protect these children, prevent and treat malnutrition, and avoid human loss. This $2-4 billion estimate includes an essential package of four life-saving interventions: prevention of wasting in children at risk; treatment for children who are wasted; biannual vitamin A supplementation for children aged 6–59 months (90% coverage); and mass communication for the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding that focuses on caregivers or families of children aged 0–23 months.

“The estimated increase in child wasting is only the tip of the iceberg. The COVID-19 pandemic is also expected to increase other forms of child malnutrition, including stunting, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight. The global community’s failure to act now will have devastating long-term consequences for children, human capital, and national economies.”

Dr. Fauci Appeals to Youth To Avoid Infecting Others, “We’re Knee-Deep” Into First Wave; New Complications Emerge in Children

July 9, 2020by Jenny Burns in General

In a conversation yesterday with Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Tony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), made a special appeal to young people to understand that if they become infected, although asymptomatic, they can infect others who may be more vulnerable . Taking necessary precautions can make the difference. Emphasizing that “we are still knee-deep in the first wave” of the coronavirus pandemic, which he described as “a surge, or a resurgence of infections superimposed on a baseline … that really never go down to where we wanted to go,” he reported that the average age of new patients has now dropped by about 15 years just over the past few months. While young people may not become seriously ill, he warned, COVID can still “put them out of action for weeks at a time.”

The fatality rate is significantly lower among Gen Y and millennials, Fauci pointed out, and many of those cases are asymptomatic. But, he cautioned, “just because you’re 21 and you may not have significant symptoms, that does not mean you can’t affect other people, and I think that’s something that we’re concerned about.” Fauci urged young people to remember that when they’re infected, there’s a likelihood that they could spread the disease to people who are at high risk of serious illness, and then, *“you’re part of the propagation of the pandemic,* so it’s your responsibility to yourself, as well as to society, to avoid infection.” (emphasis added)

An article published July 1 in JAMA Neurology indicates that young people and children can experience severe complications from novel coronavirus, manifesting secondary neurological problems, causing brain damage, which occur following a coronavirus infection. Called “COVID-19 pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome,” it is thought to be a debilitating immune response to COVID-19, similar, but worse than, the Kawasaki-like inflammatory condition that has previously been linked to young adults with coronavirus. JAMA Neurology points to increasing reports “of children developing systemic inflammatory response requiring intensive care,” South China Morning Post reported July 6. This suggests that “despite the typically mild acute infection, children may be at high risk of a secondary inflammatory syndrome.”

New Jersey physician Dr. Jen Caudle told CNN she has seen young patients suffer from strokes, shortness of breath, fatigue, or the inability to smell and taste long after recovering from acute effects of coronavirus.

Some Labs Testing for COVID-19 Experience Falling Four to Ten Days Behind Before They Deliver the Results

July 25, 2020by Jenny Burns in General

As the number of confirmed infections in the U.S. has surpassed 4 million, some labs testing for COVID-19 are handling a heavy load of cases, which they are taking longer to process, resulting in long processing delays from four to 14 days to deliver test results.

Jay Solomon, CEO of Aviva in Sarasota, a senior community with a nursing home and assisted living facility, said to AP on July 22 that results were taking up to 10 days to come back. ”It’s almost like, what are we accomplishing in that time? If that person is not quarantined in that 7-10 days, are they spreading without realizing it?”

The AP story, “US Labs Buckle Amid Testing Surge,” reported that health experts say that test results that come back after two or three days are deficient because by then, “the window for tracing the person’s contacts to prevent additional infections has essentially closed.”

Dr. Deborah Birx of the White house coronavirus task force said on Fox TV that “the turnaround times, particularly across the South, are too long.”

Dr. Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University said it’s reasonable to tell people awaiting test results to isolate for 24 hours. “Imagine, you tell a parent with young children to self-isolate for 10 days or more without knowing they actually have COVID? I mean, that’s ridiculous.”

Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation’s largest testing chains, said it can’t keep up with demand and most patients will face waits of a week or longer for results. Quest’s pooled testing process will be rolling out in Virginia and Massachusetts next week. This technology (discussed in the Monday briefing) can allow more samples to be tested.

Testing capacity must be expanded. Defense Production Act, anyone?

“Stop genocide: Peace and development for Yemen!”

June 22, 2018by Motoki Kasai in General, World war danger updates

June 20, 2018 – Elke Fimmen of the Schiller Institute in Germany gave a presentation on Day 2 of the UN-Human Rights Council Session, 38th Session (18th of June – 6th of July, 2018) in Geneva. The seminar “Human Rights in Yemen” which took place on June 19, was sponsored and organized by the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV) and INSAN Germany. The meeting was introduced and moderated by Dr. Hassan Fartousi, researcher in international law at the University of Geneva.

At the one-hour-event, Fimmen was introduced as delegate from the German LaRouche Movement. The meeting was also addressed by Mathias Tretschog, activist of the Berlin Peace Initiative Stop the War in Yemen, who spoke on the complicity of the West in tolerating this genocide. Al Jazeera filmed the entire event, and short interviews were conducted with the two speakers by the Bahrein TV station Alluluwa.

As the brutal Emirate’s and Saudi Coalition assault on the vital harbour city Houdeida is escalating since last week, while peace talks by UN Special Envoy Martin Griffith are continuing (including a meeting next week with EU foreign ministers), Elke Fimmen focussed on how to use the new global strategic momentum established with the Singapur spirit to stop the war and establish the „new paradigm of peace and development“, as Helga Zepp-LaRouche has called for in her new statement.

The now possible Trump-Putin summit will be crucial to change the strategic equation, also in the Middle East, and to open a road towards establishing peace. Fimmen pointed out that there is growing resistance against US-support for the Saudi-war in the US Congress, which should be strenghtened to the maximum. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche said in her latest webcast, the US government could end this war immediately, by withdrawing their support for the barbaric Saudi -coalition aggression against Yemen.

Fimmen detailed the key points for a lasting peace settlement, as had been identified by the Bad Soden Yemen Declaration of last November’s Schiller-Institute conference:

– An immediate ceasefire;

– the lifting of the blockade of the ports and airports, allowing in immediate humanitarian aid and the import of food and other goods;

– a return to the national dialogue and reconciliation process , to find a political solution. The political process should be conducted under the UN umbrella, but it should take place ONLY between Yemeni national factions without interference of regional or global powers. Russia, China and the United States should serve as guarantors of the implementation of the final outcome of the dialogue.

– Finally, Yemen must be assisted in a rapid and large-scale reconstruction process, focused on infrastructure projects to regain the livelihood of the nation and the integration of Yemen into the Belt and Road Initiative (New Silk Road).

In the concluding part of her speech, she stressed the need to focus on Yemen’s right to development, by presenting the main programmatic points of the new Schiller Institute report „Operation Felix: Yemen’s Reconstruction and Connection to the New Silk Road“, including some key graphics of the report and a picture of the Sana’a event two weeks ago. With the cover of the Yemen reconstruction plan on display during her speech, this focus on building a beautiful future out of the present abyss of horror had a very important uplifting and remoralizing effect on the audience.

Text of speech

First I want to thank the sponsors and organizers for inviting me to address this event today.

My topic is “Stop Genocide: Peace and development for Yemen!”

The President and founder of the Schiller-Institute, Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche last Thursday very forcefully called for an immediate end of the bombing of the port of Houdeida by the Saudi Coalition and above all, for the urgent change of policy by the United States.

In her weekly international webcast,14th of June, 2018, she said: “ Already before this bombing against Hodeidah started, Yemen was characterized by the United Nations as the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet, and the Russian Foreign Ministry just commented on the fact that the bombing against this port has started, saying that this will make a political solution that much harder.

But there is one country right now, which really could stop it, and that is the United States. If the United States would just make sure Saudi Arabia does not have the means to continue this, it would! And I find it promising that even two members of the Israeli Knesset, the parliament, basically commented on the Singapore [Korea] summit by saying that this could be a model to solve the Middle East crisis, including the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Now, that is the way to go. I think military solutions just don’t function. … I said at the beginning of the year that geopolitics must be overcome, because geopolitics is the basis of war. In the last century, it was the basis of two world wars, and I think we have to come to a situation where, given the fact that nuclear weapons exist, which could lead to the annihilation of civilization, I think we have to move to a world where war is absolutely outlawed as a means of conflict resolution.”

The principles of a solution

UN emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock warned on June 1st, that the number of starving Yemenites, if the Hodeida harbour is blocked, would increase from 8.4 million to 18.4 million (two thirds of the entire population). Now, the full blocking of Hodeida is a reality, as the Saudi-coalition attack launched last week, has forced the relief workers to flee and halt all import activities. Open warfare is threatening the lives of the whole civilian population of Hodeida.

This barbaric military assault by the Saudi and Emirates coalition on the port of Houdeida, Yemen’s most important lifeline for food and humanitarian goods for the whole country, must be stopped immediately by the world community! Otherwise, what was already a horrible humanitarian crisis in Yemen up to now, could quickly become an unspeakable genocide threatening the whole population of Yemen.

While the efforts of UN Special Envoy Martin Griffith for his peace plan are continuing, in the present midst of turbulence, military and political, the main principles of a workable solution are clear:

An immediate ceasefire;

the lifting of the blockade of the ports and airports, allowing in immediate humanitarian aid and the import of food and other goods;

a return to the national dialogue and reconciliation process , to find a political solution. The political process should be conducted under the UN umbrella, but it should take place ONLY between Yemeni national factions without interference of regional or global powers. Russia, China and the United States should serve as guarantors of the implementation of the final outcome of the dialogue.

Finally, Yemen must be assisted in a rapid and large-scale reconstruction process, focused on infrastructure projects to regain the livelihood of the nation and the integration of Yemen into the Belt and Road Initiative (New Silk Road). *

The Empire fears peace

The geopolitician´s fear of peace was clear from the launching of the agression in March 2015, when the war was started to block the peace agreement by all parties, “National Peace and Power Sharing Agreement”, which had been agreed upon on September 22, 2014.

The geopolitical fear of peace was also seen in the recent targetted murder of the President of Yemen, His Excellency Saleh al-Sammad, who was the responsible person for the peace negotiations and now the absolutely brutal attack launched by the Emirates, the Saudis and the coalition, in order to block the peace proposal by UN special envoy Griffith, wrapping it into the propaganda line that “victory will be quick”, and then “humanitarian aid” would finally reach Yemen.

The old paradigm of geopolitics and confrontation between East and West is what has caused the war against Yemen, but this imperial policy is failing globally, as the Saudi-coalition assault becomes ever more brutal and its supporters become ever more exposed. In the last weeks, voices against the Saudi war and its support by the US, Britain, France and others were raised louder and louder in the whole world, including in Great Britain and the United States themselves. There are more than 30 US congressmen , also senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties, fighting to stop US support for the Saudi war against Yemen, putting a lot of pressure on the US government. Among the other atrocities, the Saudi attack on the hospital of Doctors without Borders, fighting the deadly cholera epidemic, created a big shock.

As one response, US Secretary of State Pompeo issued a statement on June 11, warning the UAE to hold back their assault on Hodeida, stressing that he expected all parties to work with Griffith’s office, to include supporting a political process to resolve the conflict. On June 6, a spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House had said that the US would “not support actions that destroy key infrastructure or that are likely to exacerbate the dire humanitarian situation …”. Of course, at this point, these are just words, and we know that the US and GB blocked the Swedish Ceasefire initiative at the UN last Friday.

It should be noted however, that the barbaric attack against Hodeida was launched at the very same moment, when the historic Korea summit took place between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, obviously targetted by the war party to sabotage this new momentum, which has been built up with the help of China, Japan and Russia.

From a strategic standpoint therefore, it is extremely important now to make maximum use of this historical momentum, especially as President Trump is preparing for a meeting with President Putin, with both of them stressing that they want to cooperate to solve crisis such as in the Middle East.

If a massive international organizing campaign is directed now towards President Trump and Congress to finally stop the slaughtering of innocent people of Yemen on the altar of geopolitics, and instead move forward on the road of peace, the backbone of the historical Saudi-British axis can be broken, which is fuelling this war.

What a scandal, that the United Kingdom is promoting geopolitics and is an active war participant in the war on Yemen, while in the same time being the so called penholder for the Yemen conflict in the UN Security Council. This imperial manipulation must stop and the world must be allowed to create new relations among souvereign nations, based on peaceful development!**

Yemen and the new global paradigm of cooperation

While the emergency task to establish a ceasefire and to get humanitarian support flowing again on a large scale, as well as the start of political talks between the Yemeni factions, the right to development of Yemen as a modern and prosperous nation must absolutely be included in the battle for the future.

The most powerful progressive, anti-Empire dynamic in the world right now, is the BRICS and Silk Road spirit of “win-win”-cooperation, which has made a lot of progress, including in the settling of the Korea problem. This creates a tremendeous opportunity for the whole Mideast, South West Asia and Africa, where young people will only have a joyful future, when they can build cities, infrastructure, railroads, universities and determine their own fate instead of being subjected to oligarchical domination!

This is why the Schiller Institute has just issued its new report “Operation Felix: Yemen’s Reconstruction and Connection to the New Silk Road”, which was presented in a seminar on June 6th at the headquarters of the Yemeni General Investment Authority (GIA) in the capital of Yemen, Sana’a. The report is based on the scientific method of “Physical Economics” as defined by American economist Lyndon LaRouche.

The study by Hussein Askary shows that the destruction of Yemen’s economy started already in the 1990s when Yemen came under the yoke of the IMF and World Bank. The catastrophic consequences of that policy are described in detail in the study, which shows that the IMF/WB prevented Yemen from developing for over 30 years, making Yemen the poorest country in the region, with dependency on imports of food reaching 80% in 2014, even before the war started.

The report then goes through the destruction of the rest of Yemen’s weak economy, the bombing of the infrastructure and every other productive sector, creating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

The reconstruction plan proposed in the report starts with an emergency mobilization to rehabilitate the destroyed infrastructure and providing relief to the population especially in the rural areas, through mobilization of an army of young workers, modeled on the Franklin Roosevelt-era Civilian Conservation Corps. However, the report states clearly that the intention of the authors is not to rebuild Yemen back to what it was before the war, i.e. “the poorest country in the region”, but to build a completely new economic growth platform based on cooperation with the BRICS and China, and other friendly powers. To start the true reconstruction plan, a “Yemeni National Reconstruction and Development Bank” is proposed by the author, modelled on the Hamiltonian national credit system.

The proposed infrastructure projects include large-scale transport, power, water, shipping, manufactures and commercial agriculture projects. The key component of the plan is the “Yemeni Development Corridor”, with the first railway ever to be built from Sa’ada in the north to Aden in the south, branching east and west along the way to the main ports on the Red Sea and key potential industrial, mining and agricultural areas in the eastern plateau. An additional coastal line is required to connect all the major port-cities and to neighboring countries.

The final part of the report is dedicated to the connectivity of Yemen to both the Maritime Silk Road through Yemen’s ports on both the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, and to the Silk Road Economic Belt on land to connect eastward to Oman, Iran and further to Central Asia and China. Westward, Yemen would be connected through a bridge/tunnel across the Bab El-Mandab Strait to Djibouti, Ethiopia and the rest of Africa, making it an ideal bridge between Asia and Africa.

The author of the report, Hussein Askary recommended, that the Sana’a government present this report to the UN and other international powers to be included in any coming peace negotiations, as a key item to be agreed upon by all parties, before any political discussions are undertaken.

The report in Arabic language is available to download for free from the website of New Silk Road Party of Yemen, chaired by Fouad Al-Ghaffari:

http://www.newsilkroadparty.com/ It will soon be presented to an international audience in English and in German.

Conclusion

I want to conclude by saying that it is the future which determines the present. The human spirit can triumph over evil. The world needs Yemen – so let’s create a miracle now! Thank you.

*A resolution “To End the War and Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen” with these demands was adopted by the participants of the Schiller Institute conference in Bad Soden, Germany, November 2017 and circulated internationally.

** History Is Now Being Written in Asia! The EU Summit Must Follow the Example of Singapore!

Lake Chad Conference: Water Transfer Is Not an Option, It Is a Necessity

March 1, 2018by Jason Ross in General, World Land-Bridge updates

March 1 — The official outcome of the Feb. 26-28 International Conference on Lake Chad in Abuja, Nigeria is an unequivocal statement of support for the Transaqua project, calling for the transfer of water from the Congo River basin to Lake Chad. It clearly states:

*There is no solution to the shrinking of Lake Chad that does not involve recharging the lake by transfer of water from outside the basin.

*That Inter-basin water transfer is not an option, but a necessity.

*The Transaqua Project, which would take water from the right tributary of River Congo, conveying the water 2,400 kilometers through a channel to Chari River, is the preferred feasible option.

Furthermore it was officially announced by Italian Ambassador to Nigeria Stefano Pontesilli, during the High-LevelSession of Presidents of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, that Italy will contribute EU1.5 million for the feasibility study of the Transaqua project, declaring that Italy was ready to partner with the proposed “Transaqua Project” to see the success of the water transfer. The feasibility study is planned to be carried out by the Italian engineering firm Bonifica and construction company PowerChina.

Several U.S. States in Line to Become New Hotspots, Unless Strict Guidelines Adhered To, Dr. Deborah Birx Warns

July 29, 2020by Jenny Burns in General

After touring several states in the U.S. south and southwest, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, is warning that at least five more states are in line to become COVID-19 hotspots, unless a concerted effort is made to ensure that citizens follow established guidelines for mask-wearing and social distancing, and states move to close bars, indoor dining and public gatherings.

Over the past week, Dr. Birx visited the five states she strongly recommends “reverse course” now—Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio and Virginia– Bestlifeonline.com reported. She reported that the task force is making this assessment based on current infection rates and daily case numbers per 100,000 people ”We can see what is happening in the South moving North,” she said in a press conference in Frankfort, Kentucky. Tennessee, for example, is considered to now be “critical,” according to the Covid Act Now group of medical professionals, epidemiologists, and researches. The Harvard Global Health Institute puts Tennessee in the highest-risk category. Dr. Birx was especially forceful in her press conference with Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, telling reporters and healthcare officials, “Stop going to bars, indeed close the bars and limit your indoor dining and if you wash your hands and social distance, you can have as big an impact as sheltering in place.” During that press conference, Gov. Lee said he would not implement any of those measures or “shut down” any part of the economy..

On July 22, Birx also named 11 cities– Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St. Louis–which she said should take “aggressive” steps immediately to avoid becoming hot spots. “Until you can see that explosion, it’s hard for people to understand how deeply you have to clamp down,” Birx said. “That’s why we called out the next set of cities where we see early-warning signs, because if you make changes now, you won’t become a Phoenix.”

In addition, Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute has named six other states—Wisconsin, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana–which are not yet hotspots, but are “heading there.” These states don’t tend to be in the news, he said, but they have “limited hospital capacity…and can ill afford to stretch their ICUs.” Both Montana and Wyoming have high infection rates that are “worrisome,” Dr. Jah said. Covid Act Now warns that there is not a single U.S. state that is currently “on track to contain COVID.”

VIDEO: Why a U.S., China, Russia and India Summit is Urgently Needed Now

July 8, 2020by David Dobrodt in General

Helga Zepp-LaRouche leads an international dialogue concerning the urgent need to bring the leaders of the “Four Powers” (U.S., Russia, China and India) together for a summit to address the pandemic, the global financial crisis and the danger of war. Excerpts are taken from The Schiller Institute international conference of June 27th, 2020, entitled, “Will Humanity Prosper or Perish? The Future Demands a Four Power Summit Now.”

History Is Now Being Written in Asia! The EU Summit Must Follow the Example of Singapore!

June 18, 2018by Motoki Kasai in General, Helga Zepp-LaRouche

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche —

The contrast could hardly be clearer. In Singapore, the historic summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un launched a process that, beyond the region itself, could guarantee world peace for the future; at the same time, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) rang in a new era in building a new world order based on trust, harmony and joint development. On the other hand, there was the disunited, antagonistic G7 summit, whose European heads of state and government then returned home, only to plunge into a new dispute over the flare-up of the refugee crisis, and to react to that crisis with remedies as heinous as they are useless. It is high time for a policy reorientation on the old continent! The immediate opportunity to do so is the upcoming EU summit on June 28-29!

Notwithstanding all the cynical comments from the usual suspects in the mainstream media, the groundbreaking summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un would never have been possible without the spirit of the New Silk Road, that has swept over Asia in particular in recent years. Indeed, the idea of economically including North Korea in the integration of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union was very much present at last year’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. And at the Panmunjom Inter-Korean summit in April of this year, South Korean President Moon Jae-in presented his North Korean counterpart with a USB stick containing detailed plans for the economic development of the North.

The White House, in collaboration with the National Security Council, had prepared a video envisaging the perspective of a modern, industrialized, prosperous North Korea—a high-speed rail system, a Chinese maglev, industrial parks, a country on the rise – which Trump showed the North Korean Chairman during their meeting before the final press conference. One can only recommend to those minds in the West that have already been “categorized” and stuffed full of prejudices by the media, to watch Trump’s press conference themselves in the archives. A sovereign U.S. President presented the outcome of the summit: the total nuclear disarmament of North Korea, in return for security guarantees, the lifting of sanctions and the pledge to make North Korea prosperous. In addition, he announced the immediate end of the U.S.-South Korean military maneuvers. That will save a lot of money, he said, and they are “very provocative” anyway.

The people of both Koreas reacted ecstatically to the live broadcast of the Summit and the press conference. President Moon repeatedly commented with enthusiastic applause. We in Germany should recall the elation at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall to get a sense of the effect on the population there.

Not only did China and Russia in particular conduct important background negotiations with North Korea in the run-up to the summit, but the Russian government has also pledged to assist in economic development, while the Chinese government promised to help provide security guarantees for North Korea. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed the importance of resuming the six-party talks for an internationally secured implementation of the agreement. China’s Global Times wrote that the North Korean economy is by no means as dilapidated as is often assumed: “North Korea has economic and geographic advantages to join the B&R, which will help the country realize its economic potential. It won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight. However, getting North Korea into the B&R initiative to promote economic integration may be easier than what people would have imagined.”

The almost simultaneous SCO summit, which India and Pakistan attended for the first time as full members, was opened by President Xi Jinping with the greeting that the future will be guided by the spirit of Confucius, whose birthplace is in the same Shandong Province as the conference venue in Qingdao. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the proceedings of the conference as the beginning of a new era in creating an international order based on mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, respect for diversity and joint development. That, he explained, would transcend the outdated concepts of the clash of civilizations, the Cold War, zero-sum games, or exclusionary clubs.

How different was the G7 summit in Canada! The photo showing Mrs. Merkel, German Chancellor, in a confrontational attitude toward Trump, surrounded by the other heads of state and government, is likewise an expression of the break-up of the geopolitically oriented post-war order, of the “G6 against 1” formation. But actually it was only the G4, because Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte do not agree on the continuation of sanctions against Russia. The disunity of the Europeans is clearly visible on the issue of the refugee crisis. It should be obvious for everyone that neither the idea of turning back refugees at the EU’s external borders, by whatever method, is practicable, nor will there will be unity in the EU before the upcoming summit on the basis of the “solutions” proposed so far.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer’s proposal to turn away refugees on the German border, if they are already registered in another EU member country, will tend to lead to the end of the EU’s Schengen agreement, and thereby to the destruction of the foundation of the monetary union. The idea of so-called detention camps in countries such as Libya, which has sunk into internal chaos as a result of President Barack Obama’s military intervention, is so barbaric that it draws the oft-cited “western values” once and for all ad absurdum.

It is expected that by 2040, two billion people will be living in Africa, a huge part of them young people who need education, a job and more generally, a perspective for the future. What the African continent needs is massive investment in infrastructure, industrial capacities and agriculture, of precisely the type that China has made in the last 10 years. China thus helped reduce poverty in Africa from 56% in 1990 to 43% in 2012. At the G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017, Xi Jinping explicitly and repeatedly proposed to Angela Merkel to cooperate with the New Silk Road in Africa. The German government, for its part, has repeatedly spoken of a “Marshall Plan for Africa,” but other than the usual green “sustainable” projects, detention camps, and the securing of the EU’s external borders, nothing has been forthcoming.

The new Undersecretary of State in the Italian Ministry of Development, Professor Michele Geraci, has just published a memorandum for cooperation between Italy and China, in which he identifies eleven sectors in which Italy has an existential interest to cooperate with China. Among other points, the paper states: “Africa and the migrants? Who can help Africa? China.” Geraci reports that China has invested the most in Africa and thanks to China, poverty in Africa has started to decrease for the first time. “China offers Europe and Italy in particular, an historical opportunity to cooperate for the social-economic stabilization of Africa, which we should absolutely not miss. Therefore, we must strengthen cooperation between Italy and China in Africa.”

If the Merkel government is still in place when this article appears, there is a very good way by which the present crises can be overcome – from the migrant crisis to the government crisis and the EU crisis. Taking the example set by the Singapore Summit—that real change is possible, and that the past does not determine the future—the German government should ensure that the agenda of the upcoming European Union summit on June 28-29 be quickly changed. EU cooperation with China’s New Silk Road initiative for the development of Africa should be made the sole subject on the agenda, and Xi Jinping or Wang Yi should be invited to attend, as well as some African heads of state who are already cooperating with China.

If the EU summit, the Chinese government representative, and the African representatives then pronounce in a joint declaration the commitment to undertake a joint crash program for a pan-African infrastructure and development program, and promise all the young people of Africa that the continent will overcome poverty in a short time, such a declaration, due to the participation of China, would have all the credibility in the world in Africa, and would change the dynamic in all the countries towards definite hope for the future, and thus would immediately effect a change in the migrant crisis. It would also free the EU from its current crisis of legitimacy, and give the European nations a mission which would place the unity of Europe on a great new level.

Will the heads of state and government of Europe manage to follow the example of Trump and Kim Jong-un? The prospect of developing Africa together with China, would also give President Trump the urgently needed opportunity to overcome the otherwise looming spiral of trade war, and to balance the [U.S.] trade deficit by increasing trade, primarily through investment in joint ventures in third countries.

The crisis in Europe, the migrant crisis, the crisis of the German government—they have all assumed such dimensions, that the opportunity for a change of course in policy can absolutely be seized. Needed now, are the people to make it happen.

Seminar in Geneva: Stop Genocide in Yemen

March 16, 2018by Jason Ross in General, World war danger updates

March 15, 2018— During the present UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva, Elke Fimmen of the Schiller Institute addressed a seminar on „Human Rights in Yemen: Sanctions“ on March 13th in Geneva. The seminar was sponsored by the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV) and jointly organized with INSAN for Human Rights and Peace.

The 1.5 hrs seminar was chaired and moderated by Dr. Hassan Fartousi, researcher in international law at the Universiyt of Geneva. Speakers included human rights activists Mohammad Abo Taleb and Abdullah Alkebsi from INSAN, who showed the horrible effects of the illegal , Saudi-coalition imposed sanctions for the population, including the impossibility to seek medical care abroad, with the internal health system being destroyed. Andrew Feinstein, executive director of Corruption Watch UK, called for an end to the illegal arms supply by the UK (BAE etc.) and the USA.

Elke Fimmen, who was introduced as representing the LaRouche-Movement in Germany, spoke about the genocidal and illegal sanctions, imposed on top of the original UN Resolution #2216 of 2015 for weapons embargo against a few individuals, which has been used as a pretext for a full war of aggression and blockade of airports such as Sanaa and the important ports like Houdeidah, through which food, fuel, medical and others crucial items are imported, on which Yemen is fully dependent. The guarantee of full humanitarian assistance and safety of individuals as demanded in the original UN-resolution has been fully violated.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have paid with their lives during the three year war of agression, led by Saudi-Arabia, the UK and USA and there will be complete catastrophe, if this is allowed to continue, as clearly stated in the January 2018 UN Humanitarian Response Plan on Yemen.

The report presents in shocking detail the deteriorating situation in all sectors, and concludes that the lack of basic goods, particular fuel by further blockade of commercial imports will result „in a crisis of dimensions that would be beyond the humanitarian community’s response capacity“, if the ports cannot be opened for all imports. So, nobody can claim, he or she „didn’t know“.

The sanctions, killing the Yemen population have become an integrated part of the military operations by the Saudi coalition and are used as warfare tactic with the use of hunger and epidemics. To deliberately destroy a people’s past, present and future, thus denying its existence in human history, fulfills the definition of genocide as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Elke cited the November 2017 Schiller Institute Bad Soden resolution on Yemen, which had called for an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of the blockades, the return to the national reconciliation process and dialogue for a political solution (without interference by outside forces, but under the UN umbrella and with sponsorship of Russia, China and the United States as guarantors of its implementation); and most importantly, to assist Yemen in „a rapid and large scale reconstruction process focussed on infrastructure projects to regain the livelihood of the nation, and the integration of Yemen into the Belt and Road Initiative“ to create a future.

The seminar was attended by around 40 participants and was transmitted live TV-stream to Yemen.

The same morning, another seminar had adressed the situation of journalists in Yemen, and reported that another effect of the blockade is that any foreign journalists, who had been invited to come to Yemen , cannot travel there and report the truth of the ongoing genocide there. This Thursday, there will be another event on the Human Rights situation in Yemen, concluding three weeks of interventions in Geneva.

Ryabkov: Resolving World Problems Requires China’s Participation; P5 Summit Needed

July 6, 2020by David Dobrodt in General

July 5 — Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on July 4 that there are no negotiations now and there have been no negotiations with the United States for Russian participation in an expanded G7 meeting, as proposed by President Trump in May, specifically because the proposal excludes China. He reiterated, perhaps more strongly, what Russian diplomats had said when the idea was first proposed: “The idea of the so-called expanded G7 summit is flawed, because it is unclear to us how the authors of that initiative plan to consider the Chinese factor. Without China, it is just impossible to discuss certain issues in the modern world.”

U.S. ambassador to Russia John Sullivan had told RBC TV the day before that Washington was “engaged with the Russian Foreign Ministry and with the other G7 governments about whether there is an appropriate role for Russia at the G7.”

Russia is instead working on its proposal for a summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Ryabkov said. “This is a completely different format. We believe that work in that format, including on the most pressing current issues, is optimal…. We have submitted appropriate proposals to other partners in the P5, and we are waiting for their reaction.”

President Trump announced in May the U.S. proposal that the G7 meeting be expanded to include Australia, South Korea and India, in addition to Russia. According to Reuters, Australia has accepted the U.S. invitation to take part.

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