Biden Says He 'Doesn't Have Enough Information' on Iran to Have a View
Robert Fisk | zcomm.org | 2020-04-08
How Odd, He Negotiated the Nuclear Deal…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/biden-says-he-doesnt-have-enough-information-on-iran-to-have-a-view/

French Navy flagship & its ONLY carrier 'Charles de Gaulle' cuts Middle East op as DOZENS of sailors get Covid-19 symptoms
rt.com | 2020-04-08
France's sole aircraft carrier 'Charles de Gaulle' had to suspend its Mediterranean Sea mission and turn back to port shortly after around 40 of its crewmembers were placed under medical observation with suspected Covid-19. | All symptomatic sailors have been "isolated" from the rest of the crew and are being constantly monitored by medical staff, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. | They have symptoms consistent with a possible Covid-19 infection. These first symptoms have appeared recently. | The illness struck the crew when the nuclear-powered ship was making its way to the Mediterranean Sea to partici…
rt.com/news/485250-french-aircraft-carrier-covid19/

New COVID-19 project will use the power of smartphones to search for treatments
imperial.ac.uk | 2020-04-08
Imperial researchers will look for potential new treatments for COVID-19 using the computing power of people's smartphones.
imperial.ac.uk/news/196733/new-covid-19-project-will-power-smartphones

Covid-19 Is the Crisis Radical 'Traditionalists' Have Been Waiting For
Benjamin Teitelbaum | thenation.com | 2020-04-08
Covid-19 Is the Crisis Radical 'Traditionalists' Have Been Waiting For…
thenation.com/article/politics/covid-traditionalist-bannon-putin/

Number of coronavirus cases across 81 Russian regions rises by record 1,175 to 8,672
rt.com | 2020-04-08
The number of novel coronavirus cases in Russia has risen by 1,175 over the past day

Seminary student from Russia disinfecting thoroughfares in Qom
en.mehrnews.com | 2020-04-08
QOM, Apr. 08 (MNA)

Iran welcomes Russia's idea of green corridors: FM Zarif
en.mehrnews.com | 2020-04-08
TEHRAN, Apr. 08 (MNA)

UK school unleashes smartphones to seek virus treatment
yenisafak.com | 2020-04-08
A new project will use the power of smartphones to search for COVID-19 treatments, Imperial College London announced on Wednesday.Collaborating with the Vodafone Foundation, the Corona-AI (artificial intelligence) project will use the free DreamLab app, which crunches calculations using a smartphone's computing power while its user sleeps."The app has already helped find potential new cancer drugs and is now aiming to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic," according to the college's website.DreamLab uses machine learning on a mobile supercomputing network to analyze billions of combinations of exist…
yenisafak.com/en/world/uk-school-unleashes-smartphones-to-seek-virus-treatment-3516342

Murder or Suicide? 35th Anniversary of SNP Campaigner's Mysterious Death
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-08
April marks the 35th anniversary of the death of Willie MacRae, a renowned Scottish lawyer, orator, naval officer, politician and anti-nuclear campaigner. The specifics of his lengthy and varied career are worthy of commemoration – and the extremely mysterious circumstances surrounding his untimely passing worthy of investigation.
sputniknews.com/military/202004081078880131-willie-macrae-mysterious-death/

Russian President Putin Addresses Nation on COVID-19 Ahead of Video-Call With Regional Heads – Video
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-08
Russian President Putin has addressed the nation twice in the past two weeks regarding the coronavirus situation in the country. The first time, the president declared the first week of April a nationwide paid leave. He later extended it to the entire month of April in his second address.
sputniknews.com/russia/202004081078880447-russian-president-putin-addresses-nation-on-covid-19-ahead-of-video-call-with-regional-heads–/

Russia to Allocate 10 Bln Rubles for Extra Payments for Medical Staff Amid COVID-19 Pandemic – Putin
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-08
Russian President Vladimir Putin is delivering opening remarks at the beginning of a meeting with regional heads held via a videolink. The meeting will concern the response to measures to battle COVID-19.
sputniknews.com/russia/202004081078880692-russia-to-allocate-10-bln-rubles-for-extra-payments-for-medical-staff-amid-covid-19-pandemic–/

UFO in Siberia? Video of Bright Spots Making Triangle Over Russian City Goes Viral
sputniknews.com | 2020-04-08
The 15-second clip immediately prompted netizens to start guessing about whether the video was a fake or something that showed an unidentified flying object.
sputniknews.com/russia/202004081078878970-ufo-in-siberia-video-of-bright-spots-making-triangle-over-russian-city-goes-viral/

Lithuanian socialist leader Algirdas Palecki released from jail, to serve house arrest
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-04-07
Socialist leader Algirdas Paleckis has been incarcerated since October 2018 for allegedly "intending to kidnap prosecutors" and being a Russian spy. Critics believe that the former diplomat has been targeted by the right-wing Lithuanian government for his socialist ideology…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/04/07/lithuanian-socialist-leader-leaves-prison-after-court-orders-for-leniency/

Imagining a Department of Actual Defense in a Time of Coronavirus
David Swanson | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-06
( DavidSwanson.org)

[Perspectives] Man up
Tom Shakespeare | thelancet.com | 2020-04-04
Masculinities: Liberation through Photography explores half a century of photographic representations of men–their bodies, their identities, and their social roles. Contemporary politics is full of powerful men–Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan–behaving in stereotypically dominant ways. You could be forgiven for thinking that the more things change, the more things remain the same. But #MeToo is here to say it can't go on like this, in the wake of the conviction of Harvey Weinstein.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30683-8/fulltext?rss=yes

The Bigger Picture is Hiding Behind a Virus
Jonathan Cook | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-04-04
Things often look the way they do because someone claiming authority tells us they look that way. If that sounds too cynical, pause for a moment and reflect on what seemed most important to you just a year ago, or even a few weeks ago. Then, you may have been thinking that Russian interference in …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/04/the-bigger-picture-is-hiding-behind-a-virus/

Erdogan's Idlib Misadventure: Reality Checks and Hard Lessons for Turkey
Agha Hussain | mintpressnews.com | 2020-04-03
Turkey has found itself as a historic diplomatic crossroads following its military blunder in Syria. Now, wounded and humiliated, it faces a choice between neighborly detente or escalating its NATO-backed aggression in Syria.
mintpressnews.com/erdogans-idlib-misadventure-reality-checks-hard-lessons-turkey/266275/

COVID-19: When pandemic and precarious work intersect
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2020-04-01
Workers & unions Leo CrnogorcevicIssue 1259 Australia COVID-19 casual workers Fair Work Act 2009April 1, 2020Russian revoluti…
greenleft.org.au/content/covid-19-when-pandemic-and-precarious-work-intersect

Southcom boosts US military presence in Latin America, citing China, Russia 'threats'
Ben Norton | thegrayzone.com | 2020-03-31
Southern Command is ramping up the US military presence in Latin America to counter China, Russia, and Venezuela, after signing…
thegrayzone.com/2020/03/30/southcom-latin-america-china-russia-threats-brazil/

Rosneft Dodges US Sanctions by Transferring Venezuela Operations to Russian State Firm
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2020-03-30
Moscow insists that its support for the Venezuelan government and role in its oil industry will remain unchanged.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14829

The Truth About the United States' "Continuity of Government" Plans & The Coronavirus Perfect Storm
Whitney Webb | thelastamericanvagabond.com | 2020-03-23
Though often discussed in relation to nuclear war or a similarly chaotic scenario, "Continuity of Government" plans can be triggered even by popular, nonviolent opposition to an unpopular war abroad. It exists solely to keep the current system in place, regardless of the cost. WASHINGTON DC