Author: Rickey Summers

While the images of the tragedy in the Gaza Strip spread in the media day by day, Israel seems to be losing the “fight” it is waging to garner the international public’s support amid its attacks against the illegally blockaded region. Israel attaches great importance to international support for the continuation of the attacks, which have entered their second month, and predicts that the conflicts will continue for a longer time due to the inability of its army to achieve the targets it has set. With the start of the clashes on Oct. 7, Israel used the footage taken on…

Brussel, Frankfurt (16/11 – 23) A levying of embargoes and export bans, the imposition of sanctions, erection of fearsome “license” (= restriction) protocol: there’s nothing new about this back-and-forth in world trade, in the eternal jousting for advantage among markets and nations. The clever Chinese imagined they had the world tea market all locked up until an earnest Scottish botanist carrying the telling name of “Robert Fortune” snuck into the Middle Kingdom to observe their agriculture, steal tea plants, and pick up tricks of tea processing. The Chinese global tea monopoly was busted wide open. The fortunate Mr. Fortune was…

Former Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape Monday in a Los Angeles court. Weinstein was found guilty on three of seven charges, including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object, according to multiple news outlets. Jurors deliberated for nearly two weeks before returning the guilty verdicts based on reports of an unnamed woman who said she was raped by Weinstein in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2013. Prosecutors said he used his Hollywood influence to lure aspiring actresses into private meetings and then sexually assaulted them.​​​​​​​ “Rapists rape. You can look…

Toronto, Frankfurt (2/11 – 42) World media are jumping all over the conflagration in Gaza following the 7 October attack, killing 1400 Israelis and kidnapping several hundred others – followed by an all-too-predictable retaliatory response from Israel, with indiscriminate bombardment and gunfire into Gaza. The number dead and injured in the Palestinian zone will likely never be known but it is currently estimated at over 5,000 – many of whom are women and children caught in the crossfire. Is Hamas sorry about those who voted for them and support their cause being machine-gunned or trapped by crumbling concrete in a…

London (07/11 – 71) For ten years now, the authorities of Tajikistan have been engaged in forced assimilation of the ethnic Pamiri people, giving away the heartlands to China for debts,” Orzu M. shared with RFI – Radio France Internationale is a French news and current affairs public radio station that broadcasts worldwide. RFI met with Orzu in Paris, sharing the fact that more and more Pamiris are leaving their native homes in Gorno-Badakhshan Mountainous Autonomous (GBAO) Region of Tajikistan; they are driven into exile by the persecution of the authorities, who are displacing indigenous peoples. RFI: How did it…

Jakarta, Surakarta, Berlin (7/12 – 11) Amid a generally declining period for Germany’s national football team, the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia has been a shining light for them. Germany is one of the most successful national teams ever in international competition. They have won four World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014), three European Championships (1972, 1980, 1996), and a Confederations Cup (2017). Nevertheless, in recent years, Germany is suffering a horrid fate. In 2018, Germany suffered their first-ever first-round exit from the World Cup, since 1938. Germany became the fifth defending champions to be eliminated in the…

Brussels (3/12) Governments may be doing great while the people suffer. Bombing of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, carrying cheap Russian natural gas to industry and consumers in Europe, is exerting a cascading effect on companies and employment, eventually to be reflected in rising places and sharpening inflation. Russia is steadily experiencing price increases for a variety of goods and services, Russian media report. Is there obviously not a link to the sanctions placed on Russia and the seizure of Russian funds and savings abroad? Punishment for Russia’s “Special Military Operation” to purportedly protect Russian-speaking citizens in eastern Ukraine from state…

Thousands converged Saturday on the National Mall for the 60th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, saying a country that remains riven by racial inequality has yet to fulfill his dream. “We have made progress, over the last 60 years, since Dr. King led the March on Washington,” said Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. “Have we reached the mountaintop? Not by a long shot.” The event was convened by the Kings’ Drum Major Institute and the Rev. Al Sharpton ‘s National Action Network. A host of Black civil rights…

Frankfurt (11/09 – 20) Two international human rights organizations have called on the Tajikistan government to immediately release jailed lawyer and human rights activist Manuchehr Kholiknazarov, as well as other activists and journalists. The International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) and the international non-profit organization CIVICUS, which bills itself as “a global alliance aimed at strengthening the action of citizens and civil society around the world,” in their message published specially on the eve of Independence Day, September 8, focus on the fact that Tajik human rights activist and civil society activist Manuchehr Kholiknazarov was falsely sentenced to a long…

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he will issue a request for proposals for garbage collection in the city. The garbage collection contract has been a hot-button issue for the mayor and city council and has led to court battles and Jackson residents going without pickup for several days. Last week, the Jackson City Council voted in a special meeting to issue an RFP for trash pickup for next year. “The council can’t issue an RFP. Every court has told them that,” Lumumba said during a news conference Thursday. “That’s irrelevant because we’re choosing to do it. It’s the best…