Afghan War Commission Should Examine US Role on Women’s Rights — HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

None of the 14 men and 2 women appointed as commissioners are experts on women’s rights, and none are Afghan or from the Afghan diaspora.

Afghan women chant during a women’s rights protest against Taliban abuses, Kabul, Afghanistan, August 13,

by Heather Barr Associate Director, Women’s Rights Divisionat Human Rights Watch | Follow heatherbarr1 *SOURCE: Human Rights Watch. Go to ORIGINAL.

⚡️In Afghanistan, the Taliban dispersed a women's rally by firing into the air. There are casualties, AFP reports.

Residents of Kabul spoke out against the discrimination that they face under the new regime in the country. pic.twitter.com/jcZ7HozFSj
— FLASH (@Flash_news_ua) August 13, 2022

Overwhelmingly Male Panel Lacks Necessary Expertise 2022.

And contrary to previous pledges, US focus on evacuating Afghans who worked with US troops left women – including activists – out in the cold; only 7 to 10 percent of Afghan applicants for US special immigrant visas are women.

“We will not abandon you. We will stand with you always,” then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a group of Afghan women in 2010. Clinton pledged that year that the rights of Afghan women would not be “sacrificed” in pursuit of a deal with the Taliban.

http://www.rawa.org/rawa/2021/08/21/rawa-responds-to-the-taliban-takeover.html https://mobile.twitter.com/RealRA

A year after the fall of Kabul, the dreams Afghan girls and women were encouraged to dream have been shattered: the Taliban bans girls from attending secondary schools and women from most jobs, making day-to-day survival increasingly difficult. Women’s and girls’ rights to free movement, association, and expression have been severely curbed.

Afghan War Commission Should Examine US Role on Women’s Rights — HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

It Takes a Whole Village! / Sri Lanka/ ‘Gota Go Gama’—What We Learned in the Occupation Movement

On July 9, a combative crowd stormed the Presidential Palace, the Presidential Secretariat, and the residence of the Prime Minister, forcing Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.

by CrimethInc. via thefreeonline 7 Sept 2022

In the following text, a Sri Lankan anarchist who participated in the protest movement that toppled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa reflects on Gota Go Gama (“Gota Go Home”), the occupation at the heart of the movement.

April 9 was the first day of the protests at Galle F ace, which led to the establishment of the occupation.

Gama is Sinhala for “village”; the Tamil equivalent is Gramam. Starting on April 9, protesters established a permanent occupation at Galle Face, the half-kilometer-long oceanside park in downtown Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.

You can read interviews with participants in this movement here and a reflection on its relation to other uprisings of our time here. The author of the following text signed it “the Gadfly.” Photographs courtesy of Riyal Riffai.

A demonstrator in a car parade on April 4, 2022.

It Takes a Whole Village

“It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. Gota Go Gama was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run… but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant…

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning…

Demonstrators on April 9, at the opening of the occupation movement.

US Billionaires win big in Ukraine with Arms, Gas and Oil Bonanza..’throw citizens welfare ‘under the bus’

US Capitalists biggest winners in Ukraine crisis

by Global Times on Sept 2, 2022 by Zhao Lijian via thefreeonline

As the initiator of the Ukraine crisis, the US has been its biggest winner, standing on the sidelines while reaping the benefits. This deserves consideration and vigilance from the world, a spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The remarks came in response to comments by some in the European media who have said that the US is masquerading as a savior while banking huge profits by selling gas to European countries, with the latter facing energy shortages due to sanctions targeting Russia that forced them to buy US natural gas at high prices.

The comments are very reasonable, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Friday during a regular press briefing.

Ukrainian servicemen unload a Boeing 747-412 plane with the FGM-148 Javelin, anti-tank missiles provided by US to Ukraine as part of a military support, at Kiev’s airport Boryspil on February 11, 2022. Photo: AFP

“The comprehensive escalation of the Ukraine crisis has continued for more than half a year. Facts have once again proved that unilateral sanctions by the US and the West cannot solve the problem. On the contrary, their spillover effects continue to snowball,” said Zhao

“As the initiator of the Ukraine crisis, the US has now become the biggest winner, reaping the benefits. This is worthy of consideration and vigilance by the whole world,” Zhao warned.

Zhao said that he is aware of reports that the gap between gas prices in the European and US markets is now as much as 10 times, a record high.

Zhao cited George Galloway, former British parliamentarian, who said that the US “is ready to fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood, in the end, it’s prepared to fight to the last drop of European blood.”

Galloway also said that the working classes of Europe and North America will pay the price of the NATO-crazed suicide-mission against Russia.

According to data published by Business Insider, an American financial and business news website, US companies are making more than $100 million per container ship of liquefied natural gas bound for Europe.

European suckers blinded by Racism – fall head first for Great US Scam. Sanctions! Lets cut off Russian oil and gas! (**But the US is a gas EXPORTER)… Arms bombs missiles ..Gift Ukraine everything! (**But US gifts are often LOANS, with infinite credit and $Trillion war budget). …Oh no! Europe is bankrupt! Help us USA ( ** Just join the breadlines..)

“Obviously, while US arms dealers and grain merchants have been cashing in on the Ukraine crisis, US energy companies have not been left behind. As a result, the public across Europe faces soaring electricity prices, lower heating temperatures and even prescheduled blackouts,” said Zhao.

According to industry statistics, the current import price of natural gas in Europe has increased by over 200 percent from a year earlier.

One of the examples is the Rose and Crown, an award-winning British pub, which on Sunday posted an energy bill on its Twitter account, showing that its annual electricity bill is 61,667.94 pounds ($71,243), or 97.05 pounds per kilowatt-hour. The price in May was 15 pounds per kilowatt-hour, which means an increase of 547 percent.

……………………….

US ‘throws under the bus’ the citizens’ welfare and the economies of European countries

19 Aug, 2022 11:29 Home Russia & FSU

Washington has harmed the bloc to serve its own interests, a top Putin ally has warned

“Gas in the US costs $333 per 1,000 cubic meters.. Washington sells it to Europe for a price which is 7.3 [times] higher”. (jumping today Aug 19 by another 7% to above $2,600)

/Beppe Gasparro

The United States has doomed the EU to hunger, cold and isolation by pressuring the bloc to cut its ties with Moscow, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said on Friday.