CounterCurrents: Mosul Offensive Intensifies Regional Tensions As Turkish Soldiers Intervene In Iraq, The Mother Of All Promises And How Science Failed To Maintain It, Global Biosphere Collapse, The End Of Being, Upon Us,

Dear Friend,

The Mosul offensive is getting ever more tangled with multiple state and non-state forces vying for power in this complex imbroglio. US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter travelled to Turkish capital Ankara to assuage the miffed Turkey who were denied a role in the Mosul offensive. Turkey duly acknowledged the call and joined the attack on Mosul. Iraqi government, which has previously vowed to attack Turkish troops if they become involved, rebuffed the deal.

ISIS terrorists are fleeing Mosul and escaping to Syria, further complicating the affairs there. Turkey continues to attack Kurdish regions inside Syria. Syria has vowed to shoot down any Turkish plane that violates its air space. If that happens things could go out of hand into a wider war. 

Low scale skirmishes are continuing  in the India-Pakistan border. A Border Security Forces man and an eight-year-old boy were killed and three others injured     as India and Pakistan exchanged heavy fire and shelling in several sectors along the International Border in Jammu district. Meanwhile Pakistan media reported that two people, including a one-year-old baby, were killed and seven others injured in firing by Indian troops. The tension is simmering  between India and Pakistan, anytime it can explode into something horrific. 

Dr Glen Barry calls for a  global ecologic ethic based upon ecological truths. He says we must come to realize we are one human family spinning through space upon a naturally evolved living organism upon which we are utterly dependent. 

Every now and then we hear of major breakthroughs bordering on miracles to solve our energy needs. The latest scientific claim that went viral on the web is about a catalyst able to turn CO2 directly into ethanol. It is likely that many people understood as a miracle that would remove the dreaded CO2 from the air and transform it into something useful at little or no cost. Ugo Bardi deconstructs this claim. 

Meet 70-year-old black man, Hank who see communists all over washington and believes that it is destroying 'beautiful' Ameria, in our "Obscured American" series. 

And also more stories from around the world. 

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In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
www.countercurrents.org




Mosul Offensive Intensifies Regional Tensions As Turkish Soldiers Intervene In Iraq
by Jordan Shilton 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/24/mosul-offensive-intensifies-regional-tensions-as-turkish-soldiers-intervene-in-iraq/

Tensions between Turkey and Iraq heightened over the weekend as the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces pushed towards the Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul. US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Ankara Friday, before traveling to Iraq for meetings in Baghdad Saturday and Irbil, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) capital yesterday. Carter announced after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he had secured an agreement in principle to permit Turkish troops stationed near Mosul to participate in the offensive.





As Kashmir Faces Humanitarian Crisis, Time To Show Statesmanship
by People’s Union for Civil Liberties 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/24/as-kashmir-faces-humanitarian-crisis-time-to-show-statesmanship/

There is  an urgent need for the Government of India to revise this militaristic policy and for Indian leaders to demonstrate greater statesmanship in dealing with the Kashmir issue by recognising the political aspirations of the people of Kashmir and charting a policy which ensures the welfare, well being, rights and dignity of the Kashmiri people. As a first step, the government should initiate confidence building measures to build a sense of trust and confidence in ordinary residents of Kashmir





Global Biosphere Collapse, The End Of Being, Upon Us
by Dr Glen Barry 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/24/global-biosphere-collapse-the-end-of-being-upon-us/

Miraculous nature is being murdered. Everywhere we look inequitable over-consumption is devastating the natural ecosystems that sustain a living Earth. Together we yield to ecological truth – personally embracing a global ecology ethic, and demanding others do so as well – or we all needlessly die at each others’ throats as the global ecological system collapses and being ends.






The Mother Of All Promises And How Science Failed To Maintain It
by Ugo Bardi 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/24/the-mother-of-all-promises-and-how-science-failed-to-maintain-it/

The latest scientific claim that went viral on the web is about a catalyst able to turn CO2 directly into ethanol. It is likely that many people understood as a miracle that would remove the dreaded CO2 from the air and transform it into something useful at little or no cost.





Obscured American: Hank The Christian Constitutionalist
by Linh Dinh 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/23/obscured-american-hank-the-christian-constitutionalist/

Meet 70-year-old black man, Hank who see communists all over washington and believes that it is destroying 'beautiful' Ameria






Morality: The Lust For Pleasure -The Case of Peter Kropotkin
by Milan Djurasovic 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/23/morality-the-lust-for-pleasure-the-case-of-peter-kropotkin/

Noticing the signs of approaching death, Kropotkin set out to write a book that would extract and highlight the foundation of moral behavior, a book that would serve as a reliable guide and inspiration for people in their daily conduct, and a book that would delineate the harmful consequences of seeking moral guidance in mysticism, religion, and the apocryphal conclusions of social Darwinists






Uniform Civil Code : An Alternate Perspective
by Mirza Yawar Baig 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/24/uniform-civil-code-an-alternate-perspective/

The ongoing debate on the questionnaire circulated by the Law Commission on the proposed implementation of a Uniform Civil Code and the predictable knee-jerk reaction of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), is a very good opportunity to learn the basics of conflict resolution. 






Fear Has Gripped Bollywood
by T Navin 

http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/10/23/fear-has-gripped-bollywood/

In the latest development, Fadnavis, Thackarey and Karan Johar came together and agreed that for the film to be released, it needs to contribute about Rs. 5 crore towards the Army welfare fund. This is also to be done with other films employing Pakistani artists such as ‘Raees’ and ‘Dear Zindagi’.