Tag: Afghanistan

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Article: South Korea Changes Course and Begins Investigating CBDCs

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South Korea Changes Course and Begins Investigating CBDCs

John Anlyt, 13 June 2021

The central bank of South Korea (BOK) announced this week the launch of a second specialist team to supposedly develop a digital currency central bank (CBDC) a year after dissolving their first group of researchers.

The entity said it will rededicate itself to studying everything related to the creation and implementation of a CBDC, and the formation of the new research group appears to be a direct response to China’s plans to issue a digital yuan.

The announcement surprised the crypto ecosystem as it signifies a turnaround in South Korea . A little less than a year ago, the BOK stated that there was almost no possibility of a CBDC in the country, which is why the cryptocurrency and digital currency research task force was dissolved .

The beginning of 2020, with China’s firm decision to launch its own CBDC, caused the BOK to change its stance on the issue and claim that it is now ” in the process of investigating ” the possible issuance of its digital currency.

The BOK clarified that its team of researchers will be small, with an initial appointment of eight members specialized in areas as varied as IT, human resources, economics and management.

Popular exchange LocalBitcoins has been suspending user accounts in some countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia without notice . As reported by Forbes these weeks, some users can no longer withdraw their bitcoins from the platform, who only communicated that it is due to a “process of improvements.”

The exchange made no further public comment on the matter. The first complaints began to be noticed last week , when LocalBitcoins users in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Pakistan expressed that they could not withdraw their Bitcoins without deleting their accounts.

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Chris Hedges: Don’t Be Fooled By Joe Biden

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Chris Hedges: Don’t Be Fooled By Joe Biden

Don’t be fooled by Joe Biden. He knows his infrastructure and education bills have as much chance at becoming law as the $15-dollar minimum wage or the $2,000 stimulus checks he promised us as a candidate. He knows his American Jobs Plan will never create “millions of good paying jobs – jobs Americans can raise their families on” any more than NAFTA, which he supported, would, as was also promised, create millions of good paying jobs. His mantra of “buy American” is worthless. He knows the vast majority of our consumer electronics, apparel, furniture and industrial supplies are made in China by workers who earn an average of one or two dollars an hour and lack unions and basic labor rights. He knows his call to lower deductibles and prescription drug costs in the Affordable Care Act will never be permitted by the corporations that profit from health care. He knows the corporate donors that fund the Democratic Party will ensure their lobbyists will continue to write Continue reading “Chris Hedges: Don’t Be Fooled By Joe Biden”

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Article: Britain’s collusion with radical Islam: Interview with Mark Curtis

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Britain’s collusion with radical Islam: Interview with Mark Curtis

Ian Sinclair, 18 March 2018

A former Research Fellow at Chatham House and the ex-Director of the World Development Movement, British historian Mark Curtis has published several books on UK foreign policy, including 2003’s Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World, endorsed by Noam Chomsky and John Pilger. Ian Sinclair asked Curtis about the recently published new edition of his 2010 book Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam.

Ian Sinclair: With the so-called ‘war on terror’ the dominant framework for understanding Western foreign policy since 9/11, the central argument of your book – that Britain has been colluding with radical Islam for decades – will be a shock to many people. Can you give some examples?

Mark Curtis: UK governments – Conservative and Labour – have been colluding for decades with two sets of Islamist actors which have strong connections with each other.

In the first group are the major state sponsors of Islamist terrorism, the two most important of which are key British allies with whom London has long-standing strategic partnerships – Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The second group includes extremist private movements and organisations whom Britain has worked alongside and sometimes trained and financed, in order to promote specific foreign policy objectives. The roots of this lie in divide and rule policies under colonialism but collusion of this type took off in Afghanistan in the 1980s, when Britain, along with the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, covertly supported the resistance to defeat the Soviet occupation of the country. After the jihad in Afghanistan, Britain had private dealings of one kind or another with militants in various organisations, including Pakistan’s Harkat ul-Ansar, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), all of which had strong links to Bin Laden’s al-Qaida. Covert actions have been undertaken with these and other forces in Central Asia, North Africa and Eastern Europe.

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Article: UK’s collusion with Islamists ‘catastrophic’

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UK’s collusion with Islamists ‘catastrophic’

Richard Norton-Taylor, 05 July 2010

British collusion with radical Islamist forces, including extremists who provided training camps for the leader of the 7/7 London suicide bombers and who are fomenting the insurgency in Afghanistan, has had a catastrophic impact, according to an account of British policy in the Middle East and central Asia.

Writing in the Guardian, Mark Curtis, author of Secret Affairs, says: “The terrorist threat to Britain is partly ‘blowback’, resulting from a web of British covert operations with militant Islamic groups stretching back decades. And while terrorism is upheld as the country’s biggest security challenge, Whitehall’s collusion with radical Islam is continuing.”” Continue reading “Article: UK’s collusion with Islamists ‘catastrophic’”

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