Poland, which has banned almost all abortions, has established a “pregnancy registration”. A new government database tracking women’s pregnancies is sparking fears that medical data will be used to prosecute women who obtain abortion care in other countries or by getting abortion pills through the mail. Unfortunately, this terrifying attack on reproductive rights could be a model for states in the US, if (when) Roe is overturned.
In socialist Vietnam, several high-ranking officials have been arrested for price gouging during the pandemic, among them the country’s health minister and the mayor of Hanoi. Nearly 60 other suspects including ministry officials, public health leaders and military generals have been detained or are being investigated for involvement in the price gouging, according to the Ministry of Public Security. In the US the federal government can’t even find the where withal to tax the ill-gotten gains of big Pharma, et al, much less put the crooks in jail.
If you thought that the Ukraine was the only place the US is flexing its military might, guess again. The U.S. warned North Korea it would face a “swift and forceful” response if the country moved ahead with any test of its nuclear weapons. South Korea and the U.S. flew dozens of fighter jets near the Korean Peninsula the same day in a joint show of force. Tensions are also heating up between the US and China over Taiwan, which was part of China until the 1949 Communist Revolution, when the US-backed government fled there, claiming to still be the legitimate government of all China. When that position became untenable, the US recognized Taiwan as an independent country and has warned China again, that any attempt to reunite their country will be resisted by the US military.
And the US has excluded Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua from the Summit of the Americas, which has resulted in the heads of a number of other Latin American countries refusing to attend. All in all, it appears that we are not in for a new Cold War, but a revival of the old Cold War.
In an executive order issued in February, President Biden confiscated
the reserve funds of Afghanistan’s central bank. The order designated one half of
the $7 billion to be used to settle lawsuits previously leveled by victims of
9/11 against the Taliban. The confiscation of these funds has meant that
ordinary Afghans, already reeling from the collapse of the former government,
are now unable to withdraw cash or perform even basic financial transactions. The
impact of all this has devastated the country, already one of the poorest on
Earth. The United Nations now estimates that roughly half of Afghans are
currently facing acute hunger, which means they are on the verge of
starvation. Kelly Campbell, co-founder of the organization 9/11 Families for
Peaceful Tomorrows, recently led a delegation to Afghanistan to observe
conditions in the country. As she
described it, the impact of the economic crisis there was palpable, with the
drying up of cash in the economy a major cause of the suffering because there’s
no longer a functioning banking system. “The fact of the matter is that these
reserves are the Afghan people’s money. The idea that they are on the brink of
famine and that we would be holding on to their money for any purpose is just
wrong. The Afghan people are not responsible for 9/11, they’re victims of 9/11
the same way our families are. To take their money and watch them literally
starve — I can’t think of anything more sad.” Note: A good portion of the
confiscated assets will probably end up in the pockets of lawyers, who have
sued the Taliban (who were not involved in the attacks) on behalf of some
survivors of 9/11.
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