Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded zucchini (1 to 1-1/2 medium), squeezed dry
- 1/2 cup egg substitute or 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
- 2 small tomatoes, halved and sliced
- 1/2 cup chopped red onion
- 1/2 cup julienned bell pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- Chopped fresh basil, optional
Another weekend, and another sensational and fact-free, front-page report in the New York Times aimed at portraying the Russian government as the focus of all evil in the world.
Saturday’s front page of the Times carried an article headlined, “Russians Offered Afghans Bounty to Kill U.S. Troops, Officials Say.” A subordinate headline indicated the secondary target of the latest blast: “Trump Administration Has Spent 3 Months Debating Response.”
The article thus has related political purposes: to incite a war fever against Moscow, and to denounce the Trump administration for its supposed reluctance to confront Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
The article served to signal the American media as a whole to step up its propaganda to convince the American people to regard Russia as a deadly enemy and to condition them to support war with a country that possesses the second-largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on the planet.
Moreover, as Trump’s polls plummet due to his disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and violent threats against peaceful protesters, a major aim of the media’s renewed anti-Russia campaign is to divert mounting popular opposition in a prowar direction.
At this point in a commentary, it would be appropriate to review the factual contentions in the Times article and rebut any distortions. But in this particular example, there is no factual substratum, no matter how dubious, to address. The 1,500-word article, carrying no less than three bylines (Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt and Michael Schwirtz), does not adduce a single fact to support its claim of Kremlin blood money.
Instead, the article reports the opinions of top officials of the US military-intelligence apparatus--unnamed, of course--as though they were facts, beginning with, “American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan—including targeting American troops…”
This is followed by a paragraph beginning with the inimitable words, “The United States concluded,” in which the CIA official dictating to his Times stenographers is given the authority of all 330 million inhabitants of this country.
Iraqi authorities said Sunday 13 doctors have succumbed to coronavirus in the country since February.
A further 775 doctors have contracted the virus, Abdulalameer al-Shimmary, head of Iraq's Doctors' Association, told Anadolu Agency.
Iraqi authorities ordered medical students to volunteer at the country’s hospitals after a sharp increase in coronavirus deaths was reported.
The National Security Council made the decision during a Saturday session chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, state media said.
Fifth and sixth-year medical students will be “directed to volunteer to work at hospitals” to support health staff “in the confrontation against the coronavirus pandemic”, the council said.
Authorities in Erbil province announced a total lockdown on late Sunday as the number of coronavirus infections continues to rise. Meanwhile, Kurdistan Region health officials reported 139 new cases and six deaths due to the complications related to the disease over 24 hours.
A ministry statement detailed that among over 1,400 coronavirus tests given in the past day, 139 returned positive. It also said the total number of infections had risen to about 5,700.
The statement noted that six more patients had passed away due to the highly contagious disease and added that, since the beginning of the outbreak, 186 people in the Kurdistan Region had succumbed to the virus.
Firsat Sofi, governor of Erbil, informed Rudaw that the provincial
lockdown will begin on Tuesday, rather than on Monday as previously
noted in a statement
The order will now be put in place between Tuesday, June 30, at 6:00 am and 11:59 pm on Saturday, July 4.
All civilian movement will be prohibited, including vehicle traffic.
Residents will be allowed to purchase essentials at their local
bakeries, supermarkets, groceries, and pharmacies, which will remain
open during the lockdown, according to the issued order. No hours of
operation have been specified for the essential businesses.
The resurgence of the Islamic State can be attributed to a weakened Iraqi government along with an administrative and security vacuum in the country.
The Islamic State (IS) has carried out a series of attacks in recent
times which has led security studies analysts to take note of the
resurgence of the terrorist and extremist groups in Iraq. According to a
May 2020 report by the Combating Terrorism Centre (CTC), there has been
a surge in attack activities in the second half of 2019 and the first
quarter of 2020.
The number of reported Islamic State attacks
increased from 1,470 in 2018 to 1,669 in 2019, with 566 reported attacks
in the first quarter of 2020 alone. As per the CTC report, the number
of areas with active attack cells seems to nearly double, from an
assessed 27 areas in December 2018 to an assessed 47 areas in May 2020.
The IS attacks have taken place in the provinces of Anbar, Baghdad,
Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninewa and Salah al-Din. The IS has also plenty of
fighters at its disposal.
In May 2020, assessments from the U.S. Central Command, the Defence Intelligence Agency and the U.S.-led coalition, shared in a report by the Defense Department Inspector General, claimed that the IS as a group was still operating mostly on the margins, both in Iraq and Syria and the terror group lacks the capabilities to sustain that pace over several months. However, many security experts contend that the U.S.-led coalition is unable to see key changes on the ground.
The most recent U.S. estimates put the terror group’s force strength in Iraq and Syria at anywhere from 14,000 to 18,000 fighters. Further, despite the U.S. raid that killed former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October last year, IS has maintained command and control under new leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
We are so excited to announce the launch of Ms. magazine's very first podcast, On the Issues with Michele Goodwin!
You read Ms. online and in print. You follow along on social media. Now, keep up with the feminist movement and even more of Ms.’s substantive, unique reporting with your new favorite podcast.
Tune in for our premiere episode on Tuesday, June 30 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or MsMagazine.com. 
Get a sneak peek of the feminist analysis, insightful conversations and exciting guests to come: a trailer is available now! We hope you’ll give it a listen, subscribe and rate the podcast.
On the Issues is a show where we report, rebel, and tell it like it is. Join host Dr. Michele Goodwin as she and special guests tackle the most compelling issues of our times, centering your concerns about rebuilding our nation and advancing the promise of equality.
Listen to a trailer for On the Issues with Michele Goodwin now — on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
And we’d love if you help spread the word, too! The number one thing you can do to help the Ms. magazine podcast reach new listeners? Subscribe and rate the podcast on Apple. Let’s show the power of independent, feminist media!
Meet Your On the Issues Host: Dr. Michele Goodwin is a frequent contributor to Ms. magazine and on MsMagazine.com. She is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and also serves on the executive committee and national board of the ACLU. Dr. Goodwin is a prolific author and an elected member of the American Law Institute, as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center. Her most recent book, Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood, is described as a "must read."
Tune in Tuesday, June 30 for the first episode of On the Issues with Michele Goodwin—Policing in America: A Tale of Race, Sex and Violence. Professor Goodwin and her guests will ask critical questions like: where are the women in the field of policing? And why does it matter?
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