Tidbits From TNT Friday Morning 1-24-2020
TNT:
Tishwash: it seems to be over now and it seems to have gone off with out a hitch
A million demonstration in Baghdad, to denounce the presence of the American forces and to demand their exit from Iraq
Today, the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, witnessed a massive demonstration of millions, denouncing the presence of the American forces and demanding their exit from Iraq.
The demonstration was launched from the Jadiriyah and Karrada regions adjacent to the Green Zone in central Baghdad, to denounce the American presence, during which the demonstrators raised national flags and chanted slogans rejecting the American presence on Iraqi soil and denounced the criminal actions committed by the American administration by targeting Iraqi military forces and resistance leaders.
In the meantime, the security services have taken strict measures and cut a number of roads in central Baghdad to coincide with the launch of the millionaire demonstration condemning the American presence in the country, according to an Iraqi security source.
In statements to SANA correspondent in Baghdad, a number of demonstrators confirmed that the American military presence is the cause of all the predicaments that Iraq is witnessing, demanding the immediate implementation of the House of Representatives decision to remove the American and foreign forces from all Iraqi lands, noting that this demonstration represents a real popular referendum on rejecting any American military presence In their country.
Abdul Ridha Al-Hamid, a spokesman for the Arab National Parties Front in Iraq, said: “The demonstration in which more than a million Iraqis participated, confirms the constants of the Iraqis that removing the American occupation forces from their lands is an Iraqi popular decision that cannot be revoked.” In political and diplomatic ways, it will be taken out by the popular resistance.
In turn, Badr Al-Husseini, a leader in the Badr Organization, one of the factions of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization, called for the removal of American forces from Iraq, pointing out that experiences have proven that victory is always an ally of the resistance peoples.
For his part, Muhammad Karim, a leader in the Al-Fateh parliamentary bloc, affirmed that all options are open for removing American forces from Iraq, noting that if these forces refuse to leave Iraq, they will be treated as occupying forces.
The Iraqi Council of Representatives voted on the fifth of this month, by an absolute majority, on a decision that obliges the government to end the foreign presence in the country after the American crimes against high-level Iraqi military headquarters and leaders. link
Tishwash: Bloomberg: China Locks Down 40 Million People as Anger Grows Over Virus (1/24/20)
China is struggling to contain rising public anger over its response to a spreading coronavirus even as it took unprecedented steps to slow the outbreak, restricting travel for 40 million people on the eve of Lunar New Year.
The government ordered travel agencies to suspend sales of domestic and international package tours after imposing transport curbs on cities near the center of the outbreak.
The turmoil comes as the virus stymies efforts to track infected patients. While the death toll continues to rise -- and now includes someone as young as 36 -- some infected patients aren’t showing a fever, a symptom governments around the world have been using to screen for the pathogen.
The pressure is rising on China as it tries to come to grips with a disease that some fear could rival SARS, which 17 years ago claimed almost 800 lives. While global experts have mostly praised efforts to contain the virus, Chinese citizens are increasingly critical and anxious as travel restrictions grow to encompass a population bigger than Australia.
Beyond the restricted area at the epicenter of the outbreak, major closures took place across the country amid the health fears. Public events to mark the new year were canceled, Shanghai Disneyland announced that it was closing indefinitely, and cinema chains canceled movie screenings. The halt to activity comes during what is usually a peak period for spending, putting China’s economic stabilization at risk.
“This is unprecedented in China, and maybe even in the history of modern health,” said Yanzhong Huang, director of the center for Global Health Studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, of the widening travel restrictions. “It’s a tremendous legal, institutional, not to mention logistical challenge.”
The death toll rose to 25, even as the World Health Organization stopped short of calling the virus a global health emergency. The number of confirmed cases in mainland China rose to more than 800 as of Jan. 23, the National Health Commission said in a statement. At least one patient is as young as 10 years old.
Patients with the infection have been found in countries across Asia, including Singapore, Japan and South Korea. Outside the region, the U.S. has reported one case. Chinese tourists spent $130 billion overseas in 2018, so the restriction on package tours could have significant economic ramifications elsewhere.
In China, what should have been a day of celebration and reunion was colored by growing panic and anger. Local media issued sharp criticisms of the slow response from officials in Hubei province, whose capital city is Wuhan, the center of the outbreak. Rumors have spread rapidly on social media, encompassing everything from a shortage of hospital beds to the spraying of disinfectant from planes.
Chinese officials led by President Xi Jinping pledged “all-out” efforts to contain the outbreak this week. The government on Friday vowed to punish officials who delay virus information, with the State Council setting up an online platform to allow the public to report disclosure problems.
Read full post here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-23/china-expands-travel-limits-who-says-virus-remains-local-crisis
******************
Harambe: AP News: US general says troop surge in Middle East may not end soon https://apnews.com/2208d8645ac0437024ac71c06fcfb8e1
Harambe: Reuters: Iraq's top cleric calls for formation of new government https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-protests-sistani/iraqs-top-cleric-calls-for-formation-of-new-government-idUSKBN1ZN0Z6
Harambe: AllAfrica: Zim Eyes Rescue From IMF Crunch Meeting
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube yesterday met International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva to discuss, among other pressing issues, the country's crisis-hit economy, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ahead of a crucial meeting on Zimbabwe next month.
At the meeting scheduled for Washington DC, the Bretton Woods institution will explore ways of rescuing the imploding economy.The deliberations will be pivotal in deciding the fate of the IMF Staff-Monitored Programme (SMP), following the government's failure to meet the economic agreement's set targets.
Tishwash: This is out of Iraqi news
Vietnam: From the victory of the revolution to the prosperity of the state
The people of the Arab world, including us, love Vietnam. Vietnam, just like Algeria, the first reminds you of the defeat of American imperialism and its nose in the soil, and the second brings to mind the triumph of an Arab revolution against the dangerous French colonialism, and its sweeping from Algeria after 132 years.
We opened our eyes to the news of a distant country that stood up, fought and sacrificed for nearly 20 years, then triumphed over US imperialism, after it had defeated France.
She did not submit, did not surrender, and was able to defeat the greatest, richest and most powerful country, and kicked her from the country with a defamated, defeated, and the last American official escaped with him from the roof of the American embassy in Saigon in a helicopter, thus closing the longest file of American interference in the affairs of one country, and leaving behind it towards 55,000 dead, and more than three million Vietnamese dead, have sacrificed their lives to save their country from the rule of strangers.
History has recorded the names of Vietnamese leaders in letters of light in the memory of the peoples fighting for freedom, especially among the Palestinians, such as General Giab and Ho Chi Minh, who gave his name to Saigon after the unification of the two halves of Vietnam in 1976.
The united state joined the United Nations in 1977, after If the United States used its veto twice to deny membership to North Vietnam, as it did with Peoples China, which seated in the seat of the dissident country, “Taiwan”, which was expelled from the world body in 1971, after US President Richard Nixon’s open references to China, which culminated in Ta Eh in February 1972.
After the great victory of Vietnam, a high-ranking Palestinian delegation headed by Yasser Arafat went to congratulate and listen to some guidance notes that might benefit the Palestinians in their struggle.
Ho Chi Minh delivered the banner of the Vietnamese revolution to the leader of the Palestinian revolution, wishing the Palestinians victory, but he was cautious in optimism and told the Palestinian delegation: “O comrades, we have won, because behind us are two great seas that provide us with the reasons for victory: the People's China and the Soviet Union, in addition to the will and determination of our people, How can we be defeated.
As for you, those behind you are not necessarily supporters of you and your struggle, and you must pay attention not only to the enemy before you, but also to the enemies lurking behind you. ” (Transport in the sense and not literally). Vietnam emerged from a long battle that left the country devastated, divided and backward. The construction battle began, starting with the two parts of the country, and working to overcome the tragedies of war and the devastation left by the long years of war.
Vietnam on the international stage
What reminded me of Vietnam is its membership of the non-permanent Security Council for the next two years. Forty-five years of construction, reform, reconstruction, education, and progress have produced a strong, virtually corruption-free, active country, earning the trust of the Asian Group and other countries worldwide.
And she is elected to the non-permanent membership of the Security Council, with a majority of 192 countries out of a total of 193, which is a rare precedent that clearly indicates the country's good reputation, strong respect, and distinguished relations with the countries of the world. This is the second time that Vietnam has been elected to the Council, for the first time in 2008-2009.
Vietnam has become a developed and active country on all levels, with a population of more than 95 million working with utmost seriousness, to catch up with progress, growth and prosperity in the Chinese way, which modernizes the economy, without opening the paths of political modernization so as not to leak from the cracks of the new imperialists, who will not Forgive Vietnam for its defeat and humiliation.
Vietnam followed a deliberate pace of accomplishments at all levels, settled its many problems with neighboring countries, and even with the United States, and began to restore its economy, which was originally dependent on agriculture, so it distributed land and diversified the economy, encouraged individual ownership, and was able in about twenty years to become The most powerful emerging economies in the world.
It has reduced poverty significantly to outpace China, India and the Philippines in this area. Economists predict that the Vietnamese economy will rank 21st globally by 2025 and that Vietnam will overtake Norway, Singapore and Portugal in 2050.
Vietnamese diplomacy played a great role in improving the country's image and establishing the best relations even with yesterday's enemies. It was elected, as we mentioned last June, to the non-permanent Security Council membership, and was also chosen to head the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the year 2020. And put the country at the head Its priorities are climate change, multilateral politics, security, contribution to peacekeepers, the removal of outer space from armaments, respect for the sovereignty of states, upholding international law, and respect for the Charter.
Vietnam is a model of a country that lives in peace with itself and with others. It is among the least corrupt countries in the world and the most disciplined and serious at work.
Vietnam is now a good example of a country in peace with itself and with others. It is among the least corrupt countries in the world and the most disciplined and serious at work. Vietnam maintains relations with 178 countries, and from the position of dignity and sovereignty, it restored its relations with the United States, despite the years of embarrassment, for the main reason that it wants to build its economy, attract investors to the country, and be a tourist attraction. Its relations with Russia are distinguished, as has its relationship with China, which has fluctuated over the ages.
In Cambodia's war, China stood with the Khmer Rouge, when Vietnam invaded the country in 1978 to overthrow the bloody rule of Pol Pot, who killed millions of Cambodians, and the whole world breathed a sigh of relief after toppling that system that was building its glory on the skulls heaps. There is a deep but disciplined dispute between Vietnam and People's China over the demarcation of the maritime borders and the ownership of some islands in the South China Sea, where the countries bordering the South China Sea, namely China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei, have been fighting for sovereignty over parts of it for several centuries, but tensions In the region, it has escalated recently.
China has strengthened its claims of sovereignty over large parts of this sea, by building artificial islands in it, and by conducting maritime patrols in its waters, which caused concern to Vietnam, and the rest of the riparian countries with that sea. Vietnam has sent an encrypted message to China, and the permanent members, that conflict resolution is by returning to international law and the UN Charter, by holding a Security Council meeting at the ministerial level on January 9th to discuss how to adhere to the Charter and international law, and the principle of resolving disputes by way of Peaceful.
Two lessons for Arabs
They may ask a reader and why write about Vietnam now? The answer is that I want to draw two lessons from the biography of this great country.
The first is for the Palestinians, which is: First, you carry out the revolution and follow it until victory, then build a modern state. As for the leadership of the Palestinian revolution, it abandoned the revolution to adopt an independent state. As a result, the Palestinians lost both the revolution and the state.
As for the second lesson, it is for Yemen, just as the two parts of Vietnam unified in 1976, the two parts of Yemen unified in 1990. The Vietnamese unity was a success and a role model in drawing economic and social plans for the advancement of all people without discrimination.
As for Ali Abdullah Saleh, he considered southern Yemen a spoil. He stole his wealth, destroyed his structure, and insulted his people and permitted him in 1994 for the military to do whatever they want, and the result is what we see now. If the unity of the two parts was seriously strengthened and the country's wealth was spent on proper development, and not on arming the Republican Guard, wars and buying loyalties, Yemen would have been the most powerful country in the Arabian Peninsula region instead of this tragedy, which is mainly a legacy of Ali Abdullah Saleh. Do we learn anything from the experiences of others?
Abdul Hamid Siam link