Universal jurisdiction

 From https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56160486

Eyad al-Gharib was a relatively low-level operative among thousands of others in the Syrian regime's highly developed network of coercion and repression.

The verdict is a legal landmark. The prosecution was intended as a test case, to build up a body of evidence about the actions of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad that could be used in other trials, not just in Germany.

Al-Gharib's conviction starts to chip away at any sense of impunity felt by Syrians 

still working for the regime who might be involved with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The German human rights lawyers behind the case have spent years using the principle of universal jurisdiction to reach out across borders to pursue other allegations. Their targets have included the former US President George W Bush for crimes including violations of the UN Convention against Torture.

Ground water depletion in India

https://phys.org/news/2021-02-indian-agriculture-groundwater-depletion-winter.html 

Indian agriculture: Groundwater depletion could reduce winter cropped acreage significantly in years

Reuters and the British government

 HomeOp-ed Leaked docs reveal how news agency Reuters secretly serves as a tool for British influence across the world

An older article on the topic https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/875776

Continuiing military conflicts

 https://asiatimes.com/2021/02/indias-forever-wars-and-forever-warriors/

Vested interests and entrenched official mindsets drive military conflicts in Afghanistan and on India-China border Says MK Bhadrakumar. The article also links toEli Clifton's article "Vested interests and entrenched official mindsets drive military conflicts in Afghanistan and on India-China border"

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2021/02/16/weapons-biz-bankrolls-experts-pushing-to-extend-afghan-war/

Richard Singer about Tabla master Zakir Hussain’s Kathak connections

 zakir Hussain’s wife is s Kathak dancer

Reversal of earth’s magnetic poles may happen again.

 Reversal of Earth's magnetic poles may have triggered Neanderthal extinction -- and it could happen again

David Labaree on credentialization

 Credentialing I read only two of the articles here. Many more from a favourite author who appeared here several times before.

About the Russian and Chinese vaccines

 China, Russia steal a vaccine diplomacy marchThere is hope for poorer countries.

See also The Folly of Hoarding Knowledge in the COVID-19 Age

New developments in Bhima Koregaon case

 

Bhima Koregaon: Hope and despair for accused https://m.rediff.com/news/special/bhima-koregaon-hope-and-despair-for-accused/20210212.htm?fbclid=IwAR1008MXi_V8U0OdevYNu11teX7a4C4NSo9Px_3x63cdJPOljjP0IXkrJuM

Scientific American on farm protests in India

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/farm-protests-in-india-are-writing-the-green-revolutions-obituary/?fbclid=IwAR1JFOaBMAA-yWUvwKz3Mk8zcTTz8eYO-B3IBQ7RtUghvWWkBlkhYUAxcAw

Farm Protests in India Are Writing the Green Revolution’s Obituary

Mahua Moitra on the current situation in India

 https://youtu.be/OPKw_Y5X1ng

Full speech https://youtu.be/umRjAyqtvYs which seems to be an accurate assessment of the current situation.

Transcript of the speech https://theprint.in/politics/full-text-of-mahua-moitras-lok-sabha-speech-that-landed-her-in-plagiarism-row/258660/?fbclid=IwAR03l-RtQDfwy1vEFTEKNHlo1drsQhaKsZ3l1nLiqbVa0aEXjendqKfH4Lk