Russia Archives - Gorilla Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Helmer (Extended) May 31, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:10 — 22.6MB) | Embed

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded May 31st, 2023

That “war is a racket” no-one listening to this program more than once would doubt. But, just what kind of racket is the current conflagration roiling Ukraine; and just how many players – and how many games – are being run at the cost of the people doing the dying?

This week NATO kicked of its annual war games exercise, Arctic Challenge. The “exercise” is taking place in the “High North” and will, according to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and Air Forces Africa be an opportunity to “hone skills, fine-tune interoperability, nurture key relationships, and acclimate to the inherent challenges posed by fighting in the Arctic’s extreme conditions.”

Moscow has objected to what’s happening in the Barents Sea and over its neighbour countries, calling Arctic Challenge “illogical and harmful” and saying, “There are no issues in the North that require a military solution, nor issues that require outside intervention.”

John Helmer is a journalist and author who’s spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. The principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears, Helmer has too been a professor of political science, sociology and journalism, and served as advisor to governments at the highest levels. Among his many book titles are: ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt’, ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’ and his latest, ‘Australian Fascism: How It Destroyed the Courts’.

Today, John Helmer and watching the war’s widening gyre.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Stavroula Pabst, John Helmer May 31, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:52 — 20.8MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded May 31st, 2023

Stavroula Pabst is a writer, comedian, and PhD student in Communications and Mass Media Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her writing appears online at The Grayzone, Reductress, the Harvard Business Review, and at Unlimited Hangout where I found her tour de force article, ‘Ukraine’s Future Lies in the Great Reset’.

Stavroula Pabst in the first half.

And; this week NATO kicked of its annual war games exercise, Arctic Challenge. The “exercise” is taking place in the “High North” and will, according to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and Air Forces Africa be an opportunity to “hone skills, fine-tune interoperability, nurture key relationships, and acclimate to the inherent challenges posed by fighting in the Arctic’s extreme conditions.”

Moscow has objected to what’s happening in the Barents Sea and over its neighbour countries, calling Arctic Challenge “illogical and harmful” and saying, “There are no issues in the North that require a military solution, nor issues that require outside intervention.”

John Helmer and watching the war’s widening gyre in the second half.

But first, Stavroula Pabst and using Ukraine as accelerant for the New Global Society.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Stavroula Pabst Extended May 31, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:13 — 20.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded May 31st, 2023

Today, Stavroula Pabst and using Ukraine as accelerant for the New Global Society.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dan Kovalik, Kim Goldberg May 17, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:44 — 26.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded May 17th, 2023

The status of Crimea is becoming the main issue forbidding peace between Russia and the NATO-backed government in Kyiv. Canada’s official position – one shared by its NATO partners – treats the peninsula as “occupied” territory, referring to the 2014 referendum on joining Russia as “unconstitutional” and therefore invalid.

For his part, Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week, “The world should know: Respect and order will only return to international relations when the Ukrainian flag returns to Crimea.”
Needless to say, Russia sees things differently.

Dan Kovalik is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist, author, and filmmaker. He’s just returned from an extended research mission in Russia, including travels throughout Crimea.

Dan’s observed elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia – where he witnessed the 2016 peace plebiscite promising an end to the generational war there. His book titles include: ‘Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture,’ the ‘Plot to…’ series on American efforts to undermine the governments and economies of Iran, Venezuela, and Russia, ‘No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interest,’ and his recently released, ‘Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention & Resistance‘.

Dan Kovalik in the first half.

And; the epochal events roiling our World may seem to us to be all of the moment, but they are merely more of the same found under the Sun. History waxes and wanes, just as Fortune, ever capricious, turns the magnificent to meanness in a twinkle. It is all illusion, a bubble blown and popped and done. What endures are words of wisdom; verse uttered on a stage, prose printed on the page. It’s a great and humbling realization to know our times will seem someday to some others as so many tempests in a char’s pail.

And if that sounds to you like so much philosophy, and all too poet-y, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet!

Kim Goldberg is a Nanaimo-based poet, journalist, and author. She’s written 8 books of poetry and nonfiction, including her most recent collection ‘DEVOLUTION: poems and fables of eco-pocalypse‘. Kim is playing host this Saturday, May 20th in Nanaimo to ‘Poetry of Resilience’, a gathering of lettered presenters at the Harbourfront library branch. It will feature fifteen local poets and musicians sharing their vision of resilience through word and song.

Kim Goldberg with the constant poets in the second half.

But first, Dan Kovalik and Crimea as crucible of the Russia/Ukraine war.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Philpot, Pablo Ouziel April 19th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:00 — 25.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 19th, 2023.

Last week, Russia placed sanctions on more than 300 Canadians, barring the mostly government apparatchiks and media personalities access to the country. It was, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, in hopes of “...encourag[ing] those on the black list to change their behaviour“.

Wide-ranging sanction policies – including those Canada aims at Russia and Eastern Ukraine – are now so common, (Canada alone sanctioning a couple dozen countries and thousands of individuals and entities) they threaten the World’s economic system. Or so argues the recently published book, ‘Sanctions: A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy‘.

John Philpot is a Montreal-based defense attorney in International Criminal Law. Long active in Palestinian and African support organizations, and campaigns to free political prisoners, Meng Wanzhou and Alex Saab, Philpot is too an executive board member of Just Peace Advocates and the Sanctions Kill Coalition. John will be one of three speakers touring the Canadian book release, starting tonight in Hamilton.

(For Montreal event Webinar livestream link here.)

John Philpot in the first half.

And last week, France’s Constitutional Court allowed some of President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, notably the most contentious one; an age eligibility rise. Organized Labour there – who’ve rallied tens of thousands into the streets against the move over the last month – vows now to bring in a General Strike on the Workers’ holiday, May Day.

Meanwhile, Macron’s address Monday was delivered to a cacophony of pots and pans – a regular cacerolada banging outside the walls of power – where the workers chanted, “If Macron won’t listen to us, we won’t listen to him!”
Dr. Pablo Ouziel is a PostDoc at the Université du Québec à Montréal whose area of study is The European Union: Political, Legal and Economic Integration from Above and Below, and Settler Colonialism and Canadian Society.

Pablo’s book, ‘Democracy Here and Now: The Exemplary Case of Spain‘ chronicles the birth of the M15 movement against draconian government “austerity” measures, and the rise of authoritarianism there and across the western world. Pablo divides his time between Montreal and his native Catalonia.

Pablo Ouziel and “Oui Emmanuel, Paris IS burning” in the second half.

But first, John Philpot and Sanctions: the Hegemon’s desperate bid to hold back the tides of change.

Song: Juan Carlos El Bobon

Artist: Pablo Hasel – Youtube

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ingmar Lee (Stand-Alone) April 15th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:09 — 14.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 15th, 2023.

Regardless of which level of government or party affiliation, the political process in Canada is incapable of preventing the rampaging destruction of what remains of the natural ecology here. Though the people say they want to protect and preserve the environment, what they’re offered from on high is silence, or worse yet, dismissive lip service. On Vancouver Island, this means the destruction of trees and ecosystems more ancient than human history.

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.” He’s has spent a life-time making enemies of the “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” working in the service of rapine corporations and their captured legislators. Ingmar’s latest article, ‘Voracious Industrial Logging Between Klaskish & Klaskino Inlet’ recalls just what’s being sacrificed and on whose altar.

Brooks Peninsula as Google Maps Sees It

Today, Ingmar Lee and the destruction of the final forest frontiers.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Diana Johnstone, Ingmar Lee April 15th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:28 — 24.2MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 15th, 2023.

The World is changing – fast! And, nowhere is that more evident perhaps than in Europe, where the political class has decided to ditch liberal democracy in favour of an authoritarianism not seen there in almost a century. Germany and France are leading the regression, with policies and actions that have brought the citizenry into the streets demanding the restoration of rights and freedoms – so far to no avail.

Diana Johnstone is an author and journalist. Her book titles include ‘ From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning,’ ‘Circle in the Darkness: Memoirs of a World Watcher,’ and ‘Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusion.’ Diana’s articles can be found at ConsortiumNews.com, where her recent piece, ‘Germans Down & Russians Out: Anti-War Views Criminalized in Germany‘ appears.

Diana Johnstone in the first half.

And; regardless of which level of government or party affiliation, the political process in Canada is incapable of preventing the rampaging destruction of what remains of the natural ecology here. Though the people say they want to protect and preserve the environment, what they’re offered from on high is silence, or worse yet, dismissive lip service. On Vancouver Island, this means the destruction of trees and ecosystems more ancient than human history.

Ingmar Lee is a long-time BC-based environment defender who describes himself as a “rotten, belligerent, iconoclastic, ungrateful, unrepentant, and unpleasant treehugger.” He’s has spent a life-time making enemies of the “greedhead political fraudsters, money-grubbing business leaders, spinmeisters and journalistic hacks” working in the service of rapine corporations and their captured legislators.

Ingmar’s latest article, ‘Voracious Industrial Logging Between Klaskish & Klaskino Inlet’ recalls just what’s being sacrificed and on whose altar.

Ingmar Lee and the destruction of the final forest frontiers in the second half.

But first, Diana Johnstone and a resounding echo of Europe’s political past ringing ominously in the streets of Berlin and Paris today.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Helmer (extended) April 12th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:00 — 24.4MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 12th, 2023.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s office announced “more support for Ukraine”. Goodhearted Canadians concerned about the well-being of that country and its citizens will be disappointed however to discover just what “support” in the parlance of Ottawa’s current rulers translates as. In bullet points, it means:

⦁ Tens of thousands of weapons
⦁ Millions of rounds of ammunition
⦁ And the unaccountable “dispersal” of more billions of Canadian dollars to the Kyiv regime

In simpler terms, the Liberal government is guaranteeing more war and more destruction in Ukraine for the months – and perhaps years – to come even as it wages a sanctions war against the only party that can stop the war; Russia. Some “support”!

And, if the Ottawa weather vane Globe & Mail is any indication, its chief political scribe, Steven Chase’s recent article headed, ‘Pro-Kremlin Twitter Accounts ‘Weaponizing’ Fringe Users to Erode Canadians’ Support for Ukraine, study finds’ signals a new Canadian understanding of citizenship with an unmistakably McCarthyite ring.

Today, John Helmer and fighting the Canadian think tanks and troll armies in the war for truth-telling in the second half.

Song: Ears to Hear (from the album, Run Rabbit Run!)

Artist: Alicen Grey – When Humans Had Wings

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, John Helmer April 12th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:51 — 24.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 12th, 2023.

⦁ Tens of thousands of weapons
⦁ Millions of rounds of ammunition
⦁ And the unaccountable “dispersal” of more billions of Canadian dollars to the Kyiv regime

Ken Stone is an executive member of both the Syria Support Movement International and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Coalition are pleased, they say, to participate this month in kicking off the Canadian tour of “Sanctions: A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy.”

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; if the Ottawa weather vane Globe & Mail is any indication, its chief political scribe, Steven Chase’s recent article headed, ‘Pro-Kremlin Twitter Accounts ‘Weaponizing’ Fringe Users to Erode Canadians’ Support for Ukraine, study finds’ signals a new Canadian understanding of citizenship with an unmistakable McCarthyite overtone.

John Helmer and fighting the Canadian think tanks and troll armies in the war for truth-telling in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and fighting Canada’s Sanction Warriors.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone (extended) April 12th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:23 — 23.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 12th, 2023.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister’s office announced “more support for Ukraine“. Goodhearted Canadians concerned about the well-being of that country and its citizens will be disappointed however to discover just what “support” in the parlance of Ottawa’s current rulers translates as. In bullet points, it means:

⦁ Tens of thousands of weapons
⦁ Millions of rounds of ammunition
⦁ And the unaccountable “dispersal” of more billions of Canadian dollars to the Kyiv regime

https://solidaritycenter.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=17

Today, Ken Stone and fighting Canada’s Sanction Warriors.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Helen Caldicott, Nils Melzer (redux) April 2nd/5th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:48 — 22.1MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded April 2nd and 5th, 2023.

Just thirty years since the fall of the USSR and end of the Cold War, the atomic Mexican stand-off between East and West is hotter than its ever been. At this moment, nervous fingers hover above buttons and toggles that once triggered mean the end of everything we know. Worse, with the advent of AI, human agency is no longer required; its messy, indecisive moral acid removed from the Earth-ending equation.

Dr. Helen Caldicott is a physician, author, and lecturer who has for more than forty years studied, written, and campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their derivatives, delivering impassioned speeches and making imprecations to both the politicians and power-brokers overseeing the precarious atomic tinderbox, and more importantly, imploring the people step up to stop the madness.

Helen Caldicott’s book titles include: ‘If You Love This Planet,’ ‘Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer,’The New Nuclear Danger,’ ‘Depleted Uranium: Metal of Dishonour,’ ‘If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth,’ and her most recent, ‘Sleepwalking to Armageddon’ in which she assembles contributions from the world’s leading nuclear scientists and thought leaders to “assess the political and scientific dimensions of the threat of nuclear war today.”

Helen Caldicott in the first half

And; Reporters Without Borders was to pay a visit to Julian Assange, the journalist wasting in Belmarsh Prison, London this week but in yet another example of arbitrary cruelty at the last moment authorities refused the RSF visit, barring too for good measure Assange’s wife, Stella.

April 11th marks the four year anniversary of Julian’s incarceration, under the harshest measures the British penal system can mete out. He’s held not for any crime committed in Britain, or against Britain, but because an American warrant seeking his extradition is “in process”.

June 6, 2019, I recorded an interview with Nils Melzer, then the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Melzer visited Assange in May of that year and subsequently issued a public call for Assange’s immediate release, along with a searing rebuke of both his current jailors in Britain and those in America who would be if their extradition petition is executed.

Nils Melzer and the continued call for Julian Assange’s release in the second half.

Song: Behind These Prison Walls

Artist: David Rovics

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Pitasanna Shanmugathas March 29th/April 2nd, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:47 — 21.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 29th and April 2nd, 2023.

And welcome to the Spring of discontent! While leaders In the capitals of Europe and America promise to carry on the Ukraine proxy war no matter the price, the People are already in the streets protesting the real and rising costs of that belligerence. For Canadians, whose government is already full-throatedly behind: the bellicose stance against Russia, prospects of an expanded war against China and Iran, battles by sanction in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and elsewhere, there is too Haiti.

Last week, the Trudeau Liberals blithely announced another $100 million dollars to be delivered to the tiny island nation’s military and police effort to keep the restive population under heel. This on top of millions already delivered. It’s almost as if Ottawa believes the fatted tax goose’s golden eggs will never flag.

Yves Engler is an independent, Montreal-based journalist and author. He’s written twelve books on Canadian foreign policy, including ‘Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority’, co-authored with Anthony Fenton. His recent article, ‘Canadian government prioritizes war over climate crisis‘ is a troubling portrait of a country few here in our home and native land would recognize.

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; just what is Canada’s place in the world? Generations of us have been taught we are global agents of good; fair-minded, and justice-seeking. You know, “Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, we’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy“, etc., etc.

It’d be a great story, if only it were true.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas completed an advanced degree at one of Canada’s world-class Universities but found, beyond Canada’s “two solitudes” another bifurcation – one not in the curriculum – separating the real from an imagined nation. And so, he says, he set out on an epic three year journey of discovery, from coast to coast to coast, and across the tractless prairies. He documented his Canadian quest in the film series, ‘Truth to the Powerless: An Investigation into Canada’s Foreign Policy‘.

Pitasanna Shanmugathas and the hunt for Canada’s elusive identity in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler and Trudeau of the Tropics, taking Haiti.

Song: The Panic Is On

Artist: David Rovics

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler (extended) March 29, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:00 — 21.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 29th and April 2nd, 2023.

For Canadians, whose government is already full-throatedly behind: the bellicose stance against Russia, prospects of an expanded war against China and Iran, battles by sanction in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and elsewhere, there is too Haiti.

His recent article, ‘Canadian government prioritizes war over climate crisis‘ is a troubling portrait of a country few here in our home and native land would recognize.

Yves Engler and Trudeau of the Tropics, taking Haiti.

Song: The Panic Is On

Artist: David Rovics

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dimitri Lascaris, Brad Wolf March 15, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:16 — 21.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 15th, 2023.

Last week, Canada’s Ministry of National Defence announced a “review of our Defence Policy”. Though only five years into the Liberals’ 20-year Defence Policy Update, or “(DPU”, DoD insists a new DPU is necessary if Canada is to, “be ready, resilient, and relevant to meet any threat in this changed global security environment”.

Dimitri Lascaris is a Montreal-based activist, journalist, and lawyer. He served as Justice Critic in the Shadow Cabinet of the Green Party of Canada and likewise for the Green Party of Quebec (PVQ). In 2020, Dimitri very nearly became leader of the Green Party of Canada, finishing second in a tightly-contested race with the now-departed Annamie Paul. Dimitri’s interviews for TRNN are at TheRealNews.com, and his articles appear at his website, DimitriLascaris.org.

This Saturday, March 18th, Dimitri will host ‘The Art of Peace: Seeing the World Through the Eyes of Our ‘Enemies’. The Special Webinar is his way of engaging with Canadians before embarking on a mission of peace to Russia next month.

Dimitri Lascaris in the first half.

And; there was a time, not so long ago, war profiteers where held to be exemplars of humanity’s basest instincts: Antitheses of Virtue, the very worst of the worst of Evil Doers, they were rightly and roundly despised. Now though, CEO’s of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon and Boeing and Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics and all their lesser factotums are welcome and well-treated in the halls of power and major media teevee studios alike.

Today, the profiteers need never fear official opprobrium, or being called to account for the bitter harvest of their dark seeds – at least not in the courts of the land. But there’s another weighing of justice at hand.

The Merchant of Death War Crimes Tribunal is coming – soon – and it promises to hold accountable the manufacturers of the weapons that kill combatants and non-combatants alike through the testimony of witnesses to the destruction wreaked and the crimes committed against Humanity with them.

Brad Wolf is co-founder of the Peace Action Network of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an affiliate of Peace Action and a partner of World BEYOND War. He’s a lawyer, former prosecutor, professor, community college dean, and full-time activist for peace and justice.

His writings are published at The Progressive, Common Dreams, CounterPunch, Antiwar.com, Consortium News, and Dappled Things among others. He recently authored a book on former priest, Philip Berrigan’s collected writings, ‘A Ministry of Risk’. He’s also a key organizer with the Tribunal.

Brad Wolf and attaching the human costs to the Merchants of Death in the second half.

But first, Dimitri Lascaris and seeing the World and ourselves through the eyes of our “enemies”.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone (extended) March 8th, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:59 — 21.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Welcome to Gorilla Radio recorded March 8th, 2023.

March 20th marks the twentieth anniversary of America’s second invasion of Iraq. Despite the tens of millions of people across the globe coming into the streets to hold at bay the dogs of George Bush’s “generational war” Operation Iraqi Freedom’s “shock and awe” – called “blitzkrieg” in another era – was launched.

We all know what happened, and the failure of the People to stop the slaughter then and in Afghanistan in 2001 seemed to be the end of hope for the Peace Movement; but the flame for a World without War didn’t die, and has in fact recently been spotted flickering in the capitals of Europe, Canada, and even in Washington, D.C.

Ken Stone is an executive member of both the Syria Support Movement International and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the Wars.

Today, Ken Stone and the smouldering desire for peace.

Song: Work for Peace

Artist: Gil Scott-Heron

Correction: The U.S. House APPROVED a resolution to MAINTAIN the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act (2019) by an “overwhelming” margin (414-2), and not DEFEAT a motion to LIFT sanctions as reported. See: https://scheerpost.com/2023/03/02/house-overwhelmingly-approves-resolution-to-maintain-syria-sanctions-after-earthquake/