2020-10-16: News Headlines

Stephen Lendman (2020-10-16). Turkish and Israeli Weapons Fueling Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. globalresearch.ca Weapons-makers — aka merchants of death and mass destruction — fuel conflicts when occur. | The US by far dominates the global arms trade. | According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US accounted for 36% of major conventional …

_____ (2020-10-16). Priest Sentenced To 33 Months For Protesting Nuclear Weapons. popularresistance.org Fifteen supporters in a carefully Covid masked and distanced courtroom witnessed Father Steve Kelly receive a sentence of 33 months today. After a 20 minute delay to get the telephone conference line working and properly muted 160 people listened in to the proceedings on the audio link. | Fr. Steve's sentence falls in the middle of the proposed guidelines and will likely allow his release from the Glynn County Detention Center where he is presently being detained 30 months after the action.

William Hartung (2020-10-15). The Art of the Weapons Deal in the Age of Trump. counterpunch.org The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world's leading arms dealer. It dominates the global trade in a historic fashion and nowhere is that domination more complete than in the endlessly war-torn Middle East. There, believe it or not, the U.S. controls nearly half the arms market. From Yemen to Libya to

RT (2020-10-15). 'International solidarity': German technicians refuse to work on Belarusian President Lukashenko's plane at Hamburg airport. rt.com Technical workers, attached to Lufthansa, at Germany's Hamburg Airport have declined to service the state plane of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, accusing him of "giving the order to shoot at demonstrators in Belarus." | In a Facebook post on the page of the Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft workers union, a statement explained that technicians for Lufthansa Technik would not service the presidential Boeing 737 as an act of "international solidarity" and "standing side-by-side with Belarusian workers." In addition, the union demanded Lukashenko's resignation, and called for democratic elections…

RT (2020-10-15). Jobs, virtual reality & low carbon emissions! BAE makes PR blitz for Tempest fighter jet as UK military stares at budget crunch. rt.com Seeking to secure funding, BAE Systems claims its multi-billion-dollar Tempest jet program will be affordable, create many jobs, and boast cutting-edge software and eco-friendly tech. It sounds a lot like the US' F-35 fiasco. | Once the fifth-generation jet becomes operational in 2035, swarms of drones will accompany it into combat, while its pilot will have an AI "avatar" copilot helping them focus on commanding the mission, not flying the plane. Its radar will be 10,000 times more powerful. A "virtual cockpit" will eliminate buttons and enable flying by gesture. The program will pour £35.3 billion ($45…

William D. Hartung (2020-10-15). The U.S. of Arms: The Art of the Weapons Deal in the Age of Trump. globalresearch.ca The United States has the dubious distinction of being the world's

Gordon Duff (2020-10-15). America's Military, Murdered or Murderers? thealtworld.com American military are stealing oil in Syria, trucking it into Turkey while the Syrian people do without fuel. American military burned wheat fields in Syria, this is not conjecture. | American military attacked Syria with missiles, albeit with a humorous lack of success, in response to poison gas attacks that the US and its coalition partners were complicit in staging, this is not conjecture either. | Where the US military won't commit crimes, and we aren't sure where that line is drawn, contractors are used, like Blackwater and so many others, to smuggle weapons to terrorists, assassinate local leaders including…

Mehr News Agency (2020-10-15). 'Weapons embargo against Iran not linked with nuclear deal'. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Oct. 15 (MNA) — Restrictions on weapons supplies to Iran were not linked with the settlement of the situation around Iran's nuclear program, of which all the parties to the talks were aware from the very beginning, Maria Zakharova said.

MEE and agencies (2020-10-14). Azerbaijan bought $77m worth of arms from Turkey a month before fighting. middleeasteye.net Azerbaijan bought $77m worth of arms from Turkey a month before fighting | Export data shows Turkish arms sales to Azerbaijan rose sixfold in first nine months of 2020 | Wed, 10/14/2020 – 17: 43 | Turkish arms sold to Azerbaijan include drones, rocket launchers, ammunition and other weapons that arrived after July 2020 (Reuters) | Azerbaijan bought $77m worth of arms from Turkey a month be…

Stephen Lendman (2020-10-14). Trump Regime/Russia New START Talks at Impasse. globalresearch.ca As long as nuclear weapons exist, the chance of their use ahead — as once before unjustifiably — is ominously high. | Humanity has a clear choice. Eliminate these weapons entirely or risk their eliminating us. | The history of warfare shows …

news.un (2020-10-14). Continued violence strains Colombia peace process, Security Council hears. news.un.org Enormous challenges remain on the road to lasting peace in Colombia, where despite ongoing attacks and stigmatization, the vast majority of former FARC-EP fighters who laid down their weapons under a 2016 peace agreement with the Government, remain engaged in the reintegration process, the head of the UN mission in the South American country says.

_____ (2020-10-14). Military Bases Never Go Unused. popularresistance.org If, like me, you have the unfortunate habit of pointing out the dishonesty of the cases made for various wars, and you begin to persuade people that the wars are not actually for the eradication of the weapons of mass destruction that they proliferate, or the elimination of the terrorists that they generate, or the spreading of the democracy that they stifle, most people will soon ask "Well, then, what are the wars for?" | At this point, there are two common mistakes. One is to suppose there's a single answer. The other is to suppose that the answers must all make rational sense.

Mehr News Agency (2020-10-14). Security situation in world has worsened: Iran UN envoy. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Oct. 14 (MNA) — Iran's ambassador to the United Nations warned against return of Cold War-era mentality, stating that threat of weapons of mass destruction and outer space and cybernetic threats have worsened security situation in the world.

Katie Miernicki (2020-10-13). After summer of violent repression, Philadelphia City Council considers banning "crowd control" weapons. liberationnews.org On October 7, Philadelphia City Council held a virtual hearing regarding police brutality in the city and the violent repression of protests over the summer sparked by the murder of George Floyd. In response to public outrage over the Philadelphia Police Department's abhorrent treatment of protestors and residents during the summer's uprisings, councilmember Helen Gym, …

_____ (2020-10-13). How Azerbaijan Is Lobbying Washington to Sanitize Its War. strategic-culture.org Documents reveal a flurry of activity to convince beltway elites that Armenia is the aggressor and the U.S. should favor Azerbaijan. | Barbara BOLAND | As conflict heats up over Nagorno-Karabakh, a tiny Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, a covert battle is taking place on Capitol Hill to win the hearts and minds of lawmakers in Washington. | Since hostilities began on September 27, hundreds of lives have been lost as Azerbaijani drones have flown within 20 miles of Yerevan, Armenia's capital, and an Armenian strike was carried out on a military base in Azerbaijan's second city, Ganja. | "The next targets could be…