Month: September 2022

Bogusław Chrabota: Starajmy się o reparacje, ale bez dęcia w trąby

Nie należy wykorzystywać sprawy reparacji do polaryzowania Polaków.

Nie chciałbym dziś na tych łamach rozstrzygać, czy współczesnej, demokratycznej Polsce należą się odszkodowania za ogrom bestialstwa i zniszczeń, jakich dokonali Niemcy podczas drugiej wojny światowej. Raczej wesprę się posiadaną wiedzą, jaka wynika z publikowanego przez nas w czwartek sondażu: Polacy są w tej sprawie podzieleni niemal na pół. Czyżby dlatego, że ktoś kwestionuje nasze, polskie straty? Nie sądzę, żeby się taki znalazł, poza kompletnymi ignorantami i ludźmi złej woli.

Israeli Missile Hit Damascus Countryside and Aleppo International Airport

The Syrian army air defences confronted an Israeli missile aggression on some points in Damascus countryside and shot down a number of the missiles.

“about 9.18 p.m., the Israeli enemy carried out an air missile aggression from the direction of Lake Tiberias in northern occupied Palestine, targeting some points southeast of Damascus” a Military source said on Wednesday.

Syria’s Losses in Oil & Gas at107.1 Billion Dollars- Foreign Ministry

These direct and indirect losses are estimated at 107.1 billion dollars, according to SANA.

Syria stressed that the practices of the United States, whose forces are illegally present on Syrian territory, along with the theft and illegitimate trafficking carried out by terrorist groups and the separatist QSD (Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF) militia, have caused huge losses and destruction in the sector of extraction, supply, distribution and investment of oil, gas and mineral wealth since 2011.

Syria: More Than 154,000 Still Detained or Disappeared Since 2011

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said on Tuesday that at least 154,398 Syrians arrested between March 2011 and August 2022 are still in detention or have been forcibly disappeared by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in their country, Anadolu has reported. That figure includes 5,161 children and 10,159 women.

Spirals of Delusion

How AI Distorts Decision-Making and Makes Dictators More Dangerous

In policy circles, discussions about artificial intelligence invariably pit China against the United States in a race for technological supremacy. If the key resource is data, then China, with its billion-plus citizens and lax protections against state surveillance, seems destined to win. Kai-Fu Lee, a famous computer scientist, has claimed that data is the new oil, and China the new OPEC. If superior technology is what provides the edge, however, then the United States, with its world class university system and talented workforce, still has a chance to come out ahead. For either country, pundits assume that superiority in AI will lead naturally to broader economic and military superiority.

Iran and Iraq: The struggle for tenable relations

On July 25, the Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative and Future of Iran Initiative hosted a virtual event titled “Iran and Iraq: The struggle for tenable relations.” Moderated by Masoud Mostajabi, associate director of Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, the discussion analyzed the political, economic, and cultural ties and irritants between Iran and Iraq. The event included an introduction by Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, and featured a panel including Abbas Kadhim, director of the Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council; Mohsen Milani, executive director of Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies and professor of politics at University of South Florida; Randa Slim, senior fellow and director of Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues Program at the Middle East Institute; and Ahmed Tabaqchali, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Muqtada al-Sadr just issued a mass resignation decree. Where does Iraq go from here?

After eight months of stalemate in the Iraqi Council of Representatives (CoR), Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his parliamentary bloc to turn in their letters of resignation on June 12 and withdraw from the partially disabled legislature. Even with seventy-three members of parliament out (22 percent of the total members), the institution can still legally conduct regular business. If the mass resignation of the Sadrist bloc becomes final, the law will facilitate a smooth restoration of the full capacity by simply allowing the next highest performer in the October 10 elections to succeed resigning members from the same district. This is particularly straightforward, as the resignation of seventy-three members, although highly significant in symbolism, doesn’t preclude parliament’s ability to have a legal quorum.