Tag: America

US Intercepts Missile Attacks In Afghanistan Before Withdrawal Deadline

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As American efforts to evacuate troops and citizens from Afghanistan reaches a point of completion, US anti-missile defences are already at work defending attacks. At least five rockets were intercepted stopping them on their tracks, aiming at the Kabul airport.

Currently, America has evacuated about 114,400 people including foreign nationals and Afghans deemed at risk. Meanwhile, British forces have also been evacuated from Afghanistan and efforts are being made to protect the only remaining infrastructure to help people evacuate, if need be.

The onslaught of missiles and suicide bombs have been organized by ISIS who have taken complete responsibility of the attacks. According to Afghan media, the recent missile attacks were initiated from the back of a vehicle. Several other missiles struck various parts of the Afghan capital.

These attacks are going unabated. But later on, a US drone strike was initiated to bring down a suicide car bomber who Pentagon officials said had been preparing to attack the airport on behalf of the ISIS-K, a local affiliate of the Islamic State. It is both enemy of Taliban and the West.

Drone attack led to casualties which has been criticized by Taliban as American unlawful.  America will continue to evacuate as many as possible till the deadline of August 31. Canada and Germany have already ended their evacuation efforts each clearing each 4000 plus citizens and Afghanis. However, about 300 German citizens remain in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the foreign office in Berlin shared with the media.

Other countries that have already finished and closed their evacuation efforts include Ireland, Italy, France, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Denmark, Ukraine, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Spain, UAE, Qatar, India, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. Some definitely remain and might have to wait for longer before any of countries decide to take the bull by its horns, again.

Rich Countries Seek Priority Access to COVID-19 Vaccine

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In order for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine to save as many lives as possible, it would require rapid distribution, and to those countries struggling with the highest infection rates. The chances that will happen are slim, say several experts who see an increasingly competitive race for first-access to a potential vaccine.

“We have this beautiful picture of everyone getting the vaccine, but there is no road map on how to do it,” the Associated Press was told by Yuan Qiong Hu, a senior legal and policy adviser at Doctors Without Borders in Geneva.

Hu predicts that the existing structure, in which companies establish patents at every step of vaccine development, will hamper the distribution and development of a vaccine that could be made available to all. “We can’t afford to face these multiple layers of private rights to create a ‘people’s vaccine,’” she told the AP.

Three phases

Several possible vaccines are under development across the world thanks to global efforts, with around a dozen in the early stages of testing. Vaccine development requires any potential remedy to go through a three-phase process that tests the efficacy of the drug while ensuring that side effects do not pose unforeseen risks.

In the first phase, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine. If the vaccine proves successful without any significant health risks among the participants, the process moves to the second phase.

In phase two, the clinical study expands to a group of people who are part of the risk group for whom the vaccine is intended, which in COVID-19 cases would be older people and those vulnerable because of pre-existing illnesses.

The third and final phase tests the vaccine on thousands of people to ensure safety and a proven efficacy to avoid false positives and detect possible allergic reactions or side effects.

Private investment

Several wealthy countries have spent millions to support the rapid development of possible vaccine candidates and ensure a potential vaccine could be manufactured on a large scale. In exchange for these investments, these countries are expected to receive vaccines before others.

The British government has declared that the first 30 million doses of a possible vaccine under development at Oxford University will be earmarked for British citizens. The US became entangled in a diplomatic row with France over the potential future distribution of a French vaccine candidate to which the US expected first access because of its investments.

AstraZeneca, a drug manufacturer that intends to produce Oxford University’s vaccine, has signed an agreement with the US that would guarantee 300 million doses for the US, to be delivered as soon as possible.

The same manufacturer struck a deal with four EU countries to also supply them with 300 million doses. Drug manufacturers appear to be actively goading governments into making early commitments to buy yet-unproven drugs, playing countries against each other as they stand to make giant profits.

While pharmaceutical companies have pledged to provide a not-for-profit version of their vaccines, it is becoming clear that the world’s richest will be the first to receive the vaccines, even if other countries need them much more. Another example of the perverse nature of privatized medicine, it will be the richest, not the sickest, who will receive priority in this global crisis.

Trump Campaign Confident of 2020 Victory

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Democrats are elated at recent polling that pit Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden against the incumbent, Republican Donald Trump. After months of close polling, Biden appears to have pulled ahead to a double-digit lead, with most polls showing he built an 8-13% advantage. The Economist is giving Joe Biden a 97% chance of beating Trump in the all-important electoral college after projecting a 50-50 chance in early March.

Yet GOP officials on the Trump campaign told Politico they predict a “landslide” victory. “The more bad things happen in the country, it just solidifies support for Trump,” GOP chair for North Carolina’s Robeson County, Phillip Stephens said. It appears that Republican campaign officials are counting on a potential economic revival as the country gradually reopens, which would bring a flurry of good news for Trump to report.

Strangely, both campaigns appear highly confident of victory.“The campaign is Joe Biden’s to lose,” political commentator and former congressional candidate Cenk Uygur told the hosts of popular YouTube-broadcast show “The Young Turks.” But Uygur warned: “Never underestimate an establishment Democrat’s ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Polls

As one of the most unpopular presidents in US history, Trump received his highest approval rating so far in April when 45% approved of his job performance, with 51% disapproving. But as the COVID-19 crisis unraveled business-as-usual, his polling numbers started to steadily decline. A Rasmussen poll on June 15 showed 58% of participants disapproving of the president’s performance, with 41% approving.

In head-to-head national polling, Abacus Data is showing Biden leading Trump 51% to 41%, while a June 10 YouGov poll showed Biden up 9%. In encouraging news for the Democrats, Biden is apparently less unpopular than Hillary Clinton, with 37% of voters seeing him positively in a June 2020 NBC News/WSJ poll.

While Biden is also gaining in battleground states, the United States’ intertwined crises in health and inequality, and the uncertain future of the coming months, leave much unclear.

Impact of COVID-19

The coronavirus epidemic has so far claimed more lives in the country than the US lost in World War I, with no sign of stopping anytime soon. Yet the extremely divided American media landscape means citizens remain divided on whether the country took the right measures to halt the epidemic.

Trump supporters have held protests to demand the “reopening” of their states and right-wing outlets have seen any criticism of the Trump administration’s approach, including from scientists, as political attacks against the Republican president.

Meanwhile, the country is reopening in the midst of what many consider to still be the first wave of infections. The GOP appears to be prioritizing the economy in order to recover some of the job losses before the election, but ever-increasing infection rates are already influencing markets and oil prices.

It is possible that continued COVID-19 infections leading up to November could mean radical changes to how Americans vote. Primaries held in the last months have seen an increase in voting by mail, which Republicans are now working hard to discredit.

Anti-Racism protests

While the protests following the death of George Floyd have now decreased when in terms of violence, the streets of large cities across the US continue to see passionate demonstrations. Following their eagerness to repeatedly publicize images of burning buildings, the media appears to have lost interest. Still, most Americans appear to trust their media and an untold amount of people will have perceived the protests incorrectly.

Whether the protests will energize Democratic voters or spur Republicans towards the polls remains to be seen. The Democrats have not presented any proposals that make the coming election an outright referendum on the rights of American minorities, instead opting for photo ops and symbolic messaging.

Furthermore, Biden’s problematic past remarks on Black Americans received little attention during the primaries, while the Trump campaign is sure to repeat them ad nauseam. The Democratic strategy of presenting Biden as the “anti-Trump” is nearly identical to Hillary Clinton’s strategy. Like Biden, Clinton also consistently polled higher than Trump in the lead up to the 2016 elections.

Repeating mistakes

In any other political system, the opposition would blame the incumbent for orchestrating the largest wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. The bailouts that followed the 2008 crash caused a political bloodbath among Republicans, but Democrats are complicit in the unanimous passing of the 2020 stimulus bill.

Democrats could highlight systemic inequality, but as the 2020 primaries revealed, many would rather not vote at all than even consider overhauling American economics by electing Sanders. The reason for Biden’s primary victory comes down to political maneuvering. Some candidates who secured more delegates than Biden in specific states suspended their campaigns and united behind him in order to prevent a Sanders candidacy.

The Democrats will be hard-pressed to make any strong arguments except for those to which the American public has already been desensitized, including his racism, cruelty, minimal intelligence, and vanity. Biden has chosen to remain quiet during the pandemic response in an effort to allow Trump to self-destruct, but in turn has not shown any substantial leadership himself.

Unfair game

In the end, American politics are not about convincing enough of the other parties’ voters. They are all about energizing the party’s pre-existing base. The reality is that Democrats have used much of their political ammunition during their “resistance” while Trump’s campaign has many yet-to-be-revealed details on Biden that could depress Democratic enthusiasm.

Even if Biden wins the most votes, that is no guarantee of victory, as Hillary Clinton learned in 2016. Beyond that threat, Trump still has the option to give the “green light” for Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which could upend the race.

While Biden’s polling currently looks good, there is no reason for Democrats to cheer just yet. Lessons from 2016 are still relevant, and Democrats appear to have very little beyond growing youth involvement that could help them this year. With Trump providing a perfect channel for his supporters’ rage, it is still unclear whether Democrats can similarly enthuse their traditional base.

The fact that Democrats are not in a clear lead against a candidate — one who has caused thousands of deaths and millions of unemployed people — reveals the need for deep reform in their party. It appears impossible to lose to Trump, but if anyone can do it, it is the Democrats.

Trump: States Should ‘Dominate’ Anti-Racism Protesters

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Protests against institutional racism in the United States, triggered by the death of George Floyd, are meeting state violence and media sensationalism. While US presidents commonly try to bring people together during such moments of national unrest, President Donald Trump used his May 2 speech to decry “an angry mob,” saying that the “biggest victims are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities.”

Trump promised to “fight to protect you, I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters,” before describing the anti-racism protesters as “professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters,” and “Antifa.” The US president blamed the death of two protesters on “dangerous thugs,” a racially charged term for black men.

Distorted narratives

US media networks have been busy building the narrative that racism and police brutality are bad, but that violence during protests is even worse. Governors, mayors, and public figures have urged people to stop protesting and “allow justice to be done.” But it appears to be exactly the absence of justice in so many cases of police brutality that are spurring protesters to continue.

Anyone that watches American television is left with the impression that the country is on fire. Images of burning buildings, violence, and the few instances of looting are played over and over while the mainly peaceful protests go under-reported. US media and politicians appear to have settled on a playbook of decrying George Floyd’s death with numerous superlatives, followed by highlighting cases of violence as justification to halt peaceful demonstrations.

Prominent US figures continue to caution of white supremacists infiltrating protests to instigate violence and escalate tensions.

Fanning the flames

As per usual, Donald Trump’s reactions are less subtle than most. He called for increased state violence and for governors to “dominate” those exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech and addressing their grievances to the government. Trump announced he is “taking immediate action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.”

While Trump applauded the mainly-white protests against COVID-19 measures in April, the current protests will face the full mobilization of “all available federal resources, civilian and military.” Trump is now pressuring governors to deploy the National Guard, a branch of the military, against protesters in order to “dominate the streets.”

Police provoke confrontations

An increase in security forces is unlikely to deescalate protests, as police have often been the source of violence. US police forces are overwhelmingly treating protesters as “the enemy” due to years of a militarization of US law enforcement. Heavily armed police officers in riot gear have been wrongly trained to escalate situations and use violence, according to an analysis provided by The Conversation.

“There was a time when the playbook was much more straightforward. The police would meet with the organizers of the protest, and they would lay out ground rules together that would provide for an opportunity for protesters to do exactly what they have a right to do,” Ronal Serpas, a former police chief and professor of criminology told The Marshall Project.

Electoral ploy?

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called Trump’s strategy “weaponized racism” in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday as it appears Trump is pitching America’s white and Black populations against each other. The Boston Globe highlighted how Trump ignores racism and police brutality as he fuels unrest between different segments of US society.

Donald Trump appears to see the protests as an electoral winner. The unrest distracts from the 105,192 dead Americans due to COVID-19 and energizes racist elements in his base of support.

By filling his supporters’ minds with fear of racial unrest and burning businesses, he appears to want to trigger the anxiety and fear that too often drive some conservative voters.

With the current de-facto state of martial law featuring soldiers on the streets and political opponents labeled “terrorists,” Trump slowly appears more like the dictators he praises on a regular basis.

US Burns With Anti-Racism Rage One Week After George Floyd’s Murder

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George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white police officer jammed a knee into his throat for seven painful minutes during an arrest for a non-violent crime on May 25. The video documenting the incident, when Floyd repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe,” triggered a wave of outrage that has transformed into protests across the United States and in major cities around the world. 

Protestors chanting “I can’t breathe” and “George Floyd, say his name” filled the streets of Minneapolis, New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, and 135 other cities around the US. Protests in cities like Phoenix and Albuquerque remained peaceful, while others turned violent, resulting in vandalism, burnt-out buildings, looting, and a heavy-handed police response.

Amid the anger and violence, the message from protesters has been clear: Black lives matter, and systemic racism and injustice must end. The protestors’ messages have spilled onto social media, which has been filled with calls for white people not to be silent, to recognize their privilege, respect black culture and experiences, and move from being passively non-racist to vocally anti-racist. 

Mahira Louis, a 15-year-old protestor from Boston, summed up protestors’ sentiments.  

“They keep killing our people. I’m so sick and tired of it,” Louis told the Associated Press News (AP News).  

“I hate to see my city like this but at the end we need justice,” said Jahvon Craven, an 18-year-old protestor from Minneapolis. 

Trump retreats 

On Sunday evening, as a protest in Washington, D.C. encroached on the White House, Secret Service agents rushed President Donald Trump into a secure bunker. Trump spent nearly an hour in the bunker as protesters in adjacent Lafayette Park chanted “George Floyd” and peppered the presidential mansion with rocks as police and the National Guard held them back.  

The response from US law enforcement and government has been mixed, with some lawmakers praised for their efforts to calm tensions and others including President Donald Trump accused of inflaming them further. Trump’s advisers counseled him against giving an Oval Office address to try and quell the country’s anger, according to reports from White House insiders, but he has continued to tweet about the unfolding situation. 

Police response criticized

Dozens of cities have rolled out night-time curfews, including Minneapolis, where the National Guard and military police are enforcing restrictions. Utopian scenes played out on Sunday evening as military hummers rolled through the suburban streets of Minneapolis and military police viciously ordered citizens to get inside their houses ahead of the 8 p.m. curfew.  

A number of violent police responses to the protests sparked by the police brutality that killed George Floyd have also drawn criticism. In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms fired two officers and placed others on desk duty for using excessive force after video emerged of officers circling a car on Saturday and stun-gunning the occupants.  

The mayor and “mother to four black children” launched a passionate plea for calm in Atlanta on Friday and has since called on Trump to “just stop talking.”  

“He speaks and he makes it worse. There are times when you should just be quiet and I wish that he would just be quiet. Or if he can’t be silent, if there is somebody of good sense and good conscience in the White House, put him in front of a teleprompter and pray he reads it and at least says the right things, because he is making it worse,” she told CNN on Sunday night.   

Pepper spray from police hit black lawmakers Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, 70, and Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin at the end of a rally in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday. “Too much force is not the answer to this,” Beatty said in a Twitter video posted after the incident.  

The police response comes as no surprise to people like the Director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Christ White. “What’s happening, it’s the way American society has always been,” White said.

Police have arrested over 4,100 people to date in connection with the George Floyd protests. Police have repeatedly used pepper spray, batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and driven their vehicles at demonstrators to disperse and control crowds.  

Read also: US Meets Protests Over Police Brutality With Increasing State Violence 

 

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