By Thierry Meyssan | Voltaire Network | May 16, 2023

Pakistan has never been independent. It has always remained a toy in the hands of the United Kingdom and the United States. During the Western war against the Afghan communist regime, it became a rear base for Bin Ladens mujahideen and Arab fighters. However, for the past decade, a cricket champion like no other has been trying to liberate it, make peace with India and create social services: Imran Khan.

Imran Khan, world cricket champion and former Prime Minister. He is fighting for a modern, more social and independent state.

The Pakistani population is rising up against its army and its political personnel. Everywhere, demonstrations are forming in support of the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, who has just been released but is the subject of a hundred legal proceedings.

WHO IS IMRAN KHAN?

Imran Khan comes from an illustrious Pashtun family. His father is descended from an Indian general and governor of the Punjab, and his mother from a Sufi master who invented the Pashto alphabet. He was educated in Lahore, then in England at Oxford. He speaks Saraiki, Urdu, Pashto and English....

Press TV May 15, 2023

Britain has announced plans to provide Ukraines Western-backed military with hundreds of long-range attack drones, coinciding with a high profile visit to London by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ask for more weapons.

Today the Prime Minister will confirm the further UK provision of hundreds of air defense missiles and further unmanned aerial systems, including hundreds of new long-range attack drones with a range of over 200km, the government declared in a statement on Monday amid reports by the local media that visiting Zelensky was holding talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Chequers Court retreat.

These will all be delivered over the coming months as Ukraine prepares to intensify its resistance in the conflict against Russian forces, the Downing Street statement further vowed amid a new US-led push to supply Kiev with massive amounts of advanced weaponry in anticipation of widely publicized spring counteroffensives to retake territory lost to the Russians.

This is a crucial moment in Ukraines resistance to a terrible war of aggression they did not choose or provoke, Sunak claimed in a boastful statement ahead of their talks at the official country house.

Sunaks remarks was described by local observers as quite ironic in view of Britains heavy involvement in destructive US-led wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq amid its history of waging military interventions and establishing colonial rules in countrys across the globe.

Britain became the first western country to provide Kievs forces with a long-range cruise missile named the Storm Shadow.

The Storm Shadow is a turbojet-powered missile that cruises at Mach 0.8 to a max range of 560 kilometers.

Moscow has warned, however, that it will hold the countries supplying long range weaponry to Kiev responsible for any attack on Russian soil and that it reserves the right to response in kind.

Britain, after the US, is the second largest provider of advanced armaments and munitions to Ukraine.

Zelensky, who until recently was denied long-range weaponry for use against Russia, began talks with the British prime minister, who he has described as my friend Rishi

The Ukrainian president in recent days has also held talks with the leaders of Germany, Italy and France, demanding from them to supply Kiev with more and better weapons to fight Russia.

Since Russia launched its special military operation in February 2022 as a security measure against the eastern advance of the US-led NATO military alliance as well as the protection of Ukraines Russian-speaking region, Ukraine has been flooded with tens of billions of dollars in Western armaments.

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Pakistan has never been independent. It has always remained a toy in the hands of the United Kingdom and the United States. During the Western war against the Afghan communist regime, it became a rear base for Bin Laden's mujahideen and Arab fighters. However, for the past decade, a cricket champion like no other has been trying to liberate it, make peace with India and create social services: Imran Khan.

Established in 2001, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has evolved into a significant regional organization in Eurasia, attracting increasing attention from both member states and observers worldwide. This backgrounder seeks to offer an in-depth understanding of the SCOs history, its strategic motives, and the trends that have emerged over time, while also examining its role and relevance in contemporary geopolitics.

 

Brief History of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

The SCO was founded by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan in June 2001. The organization initially emerged from the Shanghai Five, which was formed in 1996 with the aim of demilitarizing the common borders of its members following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Over time, the organization has grown, incorporating India, Pakistan, and Iran as full members, in addition to multiple observer and dialogue partners like Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia, among others.

A key driving force of the SCOs growth has been in response to the enlargement of Western institutions like NATO and the EU. The increasing great power competition between the West and countries like China and Russia has driven these nations to establish and enlarge regional platforms like the SCO without requiring a common doctrine that impedes sovereignty.

 

The post Backgrounder: Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) appeared first on Geopolitical Monitor.

Al Mytty in Illinois during webinar for which these remarks were prepared.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 12, 2023

We very much need World BEYOND War educational and activist events and campaigns in Illinois (and every other location). We also need the people of Illinois (and every other location on Earth) as part of the global movement to end war.

I say that having been in Chicago many times and at least once to Carbondale. Interstate 64 which comes by my house also cuts through Illinois, so a few cups of coffee and Im there.

We started World BEYOND War in 2014 to work with thousands of existing peace groups but to do three things a bit differently. One is to be global. Another is to go after the entire institution of war. Another is to use education and activism, both and together. Ill say a few words about each of these things.

First, on being global. Theres a great peace activist named Bill Astore who has an article this week at TomDispatch where he suggests that if we rid the world of nuclear weapons he could like his country better. I also read yesterday a book by my old philosophy professor Richard Rorty, probably the smartest person in many ways Ive ever met, who simply obsesses over the need to view U.S. history as a glass half full, even if it means believing in myths and ignoring ugly facts. Unless one does that, he writes, we cannot do the work of creating a better country. He never even entertains long enough to reject it the possibility of staring at all the facts head-on and doing the work regardless (is the question of whether a country has done more harm or more good even answerable?). Nor does he ever even consider the possibility of identifying with the world or a locality more so than a nation.

What I love most about online World BEYOND War events is that people use the word we to mean we people of the Earth. Now and again, youll have someone always its someone from the United States use we to mean a military always its the U.S. military. As in Hey, I remember you from that jail cell we were in for protesting the fact that we were bombing Afghanistan. This assertion would seem like a riddle to a Martian who might wonder how one can bomb Afghanistan from a jail cell and why one would have also protested ones...

New in PJ Media: When youre a Leftist politician and youve lost the Washington Post, whats left? The Post editorial board chided Old Joe Biden and his henchmen on Tuesday for blaming their catastrophically botched withdrawal from Afghanistan on their all-purpose whipping boy, Donald Trump. Instead of admitting errors, the Post wrote about the White House assessment of the withdrawal, the []

The defense lawyer is banking on the general concern in Western countries for the well-being of the perpetrators, rather than for that of the victims, coming through for Habib Shamel in this case. And he is probably right. Afghan migrant accused of brutal murder in Ireland wanted bail as prison service may not allow him []