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1-Minute Junking: Emissions caused Hurricane Helene to intensify?

JunkScience.com | September 30, 2024

Washington Post article

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science, Video | | Leave a comment

Ukraine plans unprecedented attack against its own Hungarian minority

Remix News | October 1, 2024

Despite fighting and dying on the front for Ukraine, the country’s ethnic Hungarian minority is facing further persecution, with a new draft bill moving forward that will ban them from speaking in Hungarian in schools, even on breaks between classes. The bill would stipulate that all lessons must be delivered in Ukrainian and that even the language used in personal conversations in the school would have to be in Ukrainian.

Natalija Pipa, a representative of the Rada, submitted the bill, according to a report from Mandiner.

The rights of the Hungarian minority were already being curtailed long before the Russian invasion of the country, with Ukrainian nationalists often targeting the population, which numbers approximately 150,000 in the Transcarpathia region.

The adoption of the bill may have a negative impact on relations with Hungary, and Budapest will block all EU aid packages to Ukraine in response. Language rights for Hungarians have been eroded over the years despite protests from the Hungarian government.

Notably, Ukraine amended its laws to comply with EU membership requirements, which included restoring many of the language rights stripped from minorities, an action demanded by Budapest, but Hungary’s government has indicated it is not fully satisfied. This new move by Ukraine appears to be a new salvo against Orbán’s government if it passes.

“Both Hungary and Ukraine are interested in the development of neighborly relations, they share the intention to do so, the government is doing everything to achieve this, but it expects Kyiv to restore the rights of the Hungarian national community,” said Péter Szijjártó Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade when he met with the new Ukrainian minister a day earlier.

“We expect Ukraine to restore the rights of the Hungarian national community in terms of access to the mother tongue, in the fields of education, culture and public administration.”

There have been numerous reports that ethnic Hungarians are being drafted in large numbers and often sent to frontline positions as “cannon fodder.“

“If this continues, there won’t be any Hungarians left in Transcarpathia,” said Füssy Angéla during a report from the region for Hungarian news portal Pesti Srácok.

Hungarian news outlet Magyar Nemzet reports that the “Transcarpathian morgues are also full, and they are deliberately slowing down the release of victims.”

According to Hungarian news portal Pesti Srácok, which delivered its report from the Hungarian-inhabited Ukrainian town of Munkács (Mukachevo in Ukrainian), there are rumors circulating that Ukraine is looking to recruit tens of thousands of men in the region. It is likely that a new brigade is being formed because the largest brigade of trained soldiers, the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, suffered huge losses at Soledar. The Russian occupation of the eastern Ukrainian settlement was announced on Jan. 12, 2023.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | 1 Comment

Words kill: Why Israel gets away with murder in Gaza and Lebanon

By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | October 1, 2024

The official Israeli army version of why it targeted civilian areas during the intense and deadly bombardment of southern Lebanon on 20 September is that the Lebanese are hiding long-range missile launchers in their homes. This official explanation was meant to justify the killing of 492 people and the wounding of 1,645 in a single day of Israeli air strikes.

This off-the-shelf explanation will be repeated throughout the Israeli war in Lebanon, however long it takes. Israeli media is now citing these claims and, as usual, US and western media are parroting the same narrative. Keep this in mind as you reflect on earlier statements made by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on 13 October last year when he argued that there are no civilians in Gaza, and that, “There is an entire nation out there that is responsible [for 7 October ].”

Israel does this in every war it launches against the Palestinians or any Arab nation.

Instead of removing civilians and civilian infrastructures from its target bank, it immediately turns the civilian population into the main targets for its bombs.

A quick glance at the number of civilians killed in the ongoing war and genocide in Gaza should be enough to demonstrate that Israel targets ordinary people as a matter of course. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, children and women constitute the largest percentage of the war’s victims at 69 per cent . If we factor in the number of adult males who have been killed — including doctors and other medical staff, civil defense workers and numerous other categories — it will be obvious that the vast majority of all of Gaza’s victims of Israeli brutality were civilians.

Only Israeli media, and their allies in the west, continue to find justifications for killing Palestinian and now Lebanese civilians in large numbers.

Compare the following two statements, which received much attention in the media, by Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari regarding both Gaza and Lebanon: “Hamas systematically uses hospitals to wage war and consistently uses the people of Gaza as human shields,” said Hagari on 25 March. Then he claimed on September 27, “Hezbollah’s terror headquarters was intentionally built under residential buildings in the heart of Beirut, as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using human shields.”

For those who routinely give Hagari and other Israeli spokespeople the benefit of the doubt, just review what has taken place in Gaza in the past year. For example, Israel claimed that the massacre at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was not of its doing, and that it was a Palestinian rocket that killed the nearly 500 displaced refugees and wounded hundreds more on 17 October 2023. All evidence, including investigations by well -respected rights groups, concluded the opposite. However, the false Israeli claims still dominated the media headlines.

The Baptist Hospital episode was repeated with other lies on numerous occasions. In fact, the lies started on 7 October, not 17 October, when Israel made claims about decapitated babies and mass rape. Even though much of that has been proven conclusively to be wrong, some in the media, and pro-Israel officials, continue to speak of it as if it is a proven fact.

Moreover, although no Hamas headquarters were ever found under Al-Shifa Hospital, the unsubstantiated Israeli claims continued to be repeated as if they were the full truth of the matter, and thus justified the death and destruction at Gaza’s main medical facility.

The same logic is now being applied to Lebanon, where Israel claims that it does not target civilians and, when civilians are killed, that it is the Lebanese themselves who should be blamed for supposedly using civilians as human shields.

The Gaza playbook is now the Lebanon playbook.

Of course, many are playing along, not because they are irrational or unable to reach proper conclusions based on the obvious evidence. They do so because they are happy to be part of the Israeli narrative, not neutral storytellers or honest journalists.

Even the BBC plays its part within that narrative, as it uses Israeli claims as the starting point of any conversation on Palestine or Lebanon. “Israel has said it carried out a wave of pre-emptive strikes across southern Lebanon to thwart a large-scale rocket and drone attack by Hezbollah,” reported the corporation on 26 August. That’s just one example of many.

Israel gets away with its lies pertaining to the mass killings in Gaza, and now in Lebanon, because Israeli propaganda is welcomed, in fact, embraced by western officials and journalists. Thus, when US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described the 20 September air strikes on Lebanon as “justice served”, he was telling mainstream media that its coverage should remain committed to that official assessment.

Imagine the outrage if the tables were turned, and Israeli civilians were slaughtered in their own homes by Lebanese bombs. There would be no need to have to explain the reactions of the US or western media, as they would be obvious to anyone who is paying attention.

Lebanon is a sovereign Arab state. Gaza is an occupied territory, and its people are protected under the Fourth Geneva Conventions. Neither Lebanese nor Palestinian lives are without worth, and their mass murder should not be allowed to take place for any reason, especially based on lies communicated by an Israeli military spokesperson and repeated by complicit media.

Perpetuating Israeli lies is dangerous, not only because truth-telling is a virtue, but also because words kill. Dishonest reporting can, in fact, succeed in justifying genocide, which is why Israel gets away with murder in Gaza and Lebanon.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel struck with hypersonic missiles – Iran

RT | October 1, 2024

Iran used hypersonic missiles for the first time during its strikes on Israel on Tuesday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced.

Iran launched several salvos of missiles in what the IRGC called a response to the recent Israeli killings of the heads of Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as an Iranian general who was in Lebanon.

Fattah-2 hypersonic missiles were used in the attack to bypass the Israeli radars, Iranian media reported on Tuesday evening, citing the IRGC.

The Guard claimed that 80-90% of the missiles used in ‘Operation Honest Promise 2’ struck their targets, among which were the Tel Nof air base near Tel Aviv and the Netsarim area near Gaza, where they said “a large number of Israeli tanks” was destroyed.

Iran also claimed to have destroyed a number of Israeli F-35 fighters at the Nevatim air base, located halfway between Beersheba and the Dead Sea.

The Israel Defense Forces estimated the number of incoming missiles at 180 and acknowledged that “a few hits” have been recorded. According to the IDF, the majority of the missiles were successfully intercepted. The only reported casualty on the ground is a Palestinian man, who was killed by a falling missile fragment near Jericho in the West Bank.

Tuesday’s attack was bigger in size and scope than the April strike, the first-ever such attack by Iran, in which scores of ballistic missiles and drones bombarded Israel in reprisal for an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

Hypersonic missiles fly anywhere from five to 25 times the speed of sound. Iran unveiled its first such missile, the Fattah-1, last June. The Fattah-2 version was revealed to the public in November. Neither had been used in combat before.

According to Tehran, the missile attack was the response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, who was killed in Tehran back in July. Iran also cited the killings of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC Major General Abbas Nilforoshan in Lebanon last week.

Israel has vowed to strike back, while Iran has warned that any further attacks will be met with further force.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Jerusalem Post deletes article claiming Lebanon is part of Israel’s ‘promised land’

A man walks over debris of the building, where Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah lost his life, after Israeli army’s airstrike, carried out by F-35 fighter jets, in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon on September 29, 2024 [Houssam Shbaro – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | October 1, 2024

The Jerusalem Post has prompted a controversy after publishing then swiftly deleting an article suggesting that Lebanon and several other Middle Eastern countries are part of Israel’s “promised land”.

“Is Lebanon part of Israel’s promised territory?” was published on 25 September, coinciding with Israel’s assault on Lebanon and subsequent ground invasion. The timing and content of the piece have been viewed by critics as evidence of Israel’s expansionist ambitions in the region.

In the now-deleted article, Mark Fish claimed that the land “promised by God” to the “children of Israel” includes parts of modern-day Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and even Turkey. Fish cited religious texts to support its claims.

“The Torah provides clear guidelines regarding the areas we were commanded to conquer when taking possession of the land,” he wrote. He elaborated further on the concept of “Greater Israel”, suggesting that the Biblical boundaries stretch “from the ‘River of Egypt’ [interpreted by some as the Nile or a smaller river in Sinai] to the Perat River [Euphrates].”

The Jerusalem Post removed the article following a backlash on social media, with many accusing the newspaper of promoting expansionist ideology under the guise of religious justification. However, the article has been archived and continues to circulate online.

Notably, the author provides Torah-based justifications for holding onto occupied land. He said that “Hashem [God] tells us that we are granted every land we will conquer within the borders mentioned,” suggesting that God has sanctioned territorial expansion and occupation. This is an argument that aligns with a core tenet of Zionist ideology, which often cites Biblical prophecy about God’s promise to the Jews as justification for claiming Palestine and surrounding areas.

“Every place where the sole of your foot will tread shall be yours — from the wilderness and the Lebanon, from the river — the Euphrates River — until the western sea shall be your boundary,” wrote Fish. “This promise from the Creator clearly places the land of Lebanon within the Promised Land of Israel, or what some refer to as ‘the Complete Land of Israel’, or ‘The greater Israel’.”

Critics argue that the publication of such content, especially during another Israeli invasion of Lebanon, serves to legitimise Israel’s ongoing colonisation efforts in the Middle East. They contend that it reflects a broader ideology within certain Israeli circles that seeks to justify territorial expansion based on religious beliefs.

The controversy has reignited debates about the role of Israel’s religious claims to Palestine and the potential consequences of such rhetoric in an already volatile region. Like the early Zionists who concealed their true intention about ethnic cleansing and the complete colonisation of all of Palestine, Israeli leaders tend to avoid commenting on the concept of Greater Israel.

As of the time of writing, the Jerusalem Post had not issued an official statement regarding the publication and subsequent removal of the article.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, War Crimes | , , , , | 2 Comments

US deploys thousands of troops to Middle East as tensions rise

Al Mayadeen | October 1, 2024

Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday said the US is increasing its military presence in the Middle East by deploying a “few thousand” additional troops.

According to a statement, this includes bringing in new units and extending the stay of those already stationed there.

“A certain number of units already deployed to the Middle East region… will be extended and the forces due to rotate into theater to replace them will now instead augment” those that are already there, Singh said.

“These augmented forces include F-16, F-15E, A-10, F-22 fighter aircraft and associated personnel,” Singh added, noting that there will be “an additional few thousand” personnel in the region as a result.

This comes in light of heightened escalations amid the start of “Israel’s” “localized and targeted” aggression of Lebanon.

The latest attacks on US positions in the region include a strike on the US military’s Victoria base near Baghdad Airport, occurring late Monday into Tuesday.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have also struck Israeli military targets earlier today using long-range multi-purpose one-way assault Samad 4 drone.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah continues its operations targeting Israeli movements within the occupied Palestinian territories.

Iran also launched a response to the Israeli assassinations of martyrs Haniyeh, Sayyed Nasrallah, and General Nilforooshian earlier, launching hundreds of rockets toward occupied Palestine.

Heightened escalations

On Monday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed support to Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant for “dismantling attack infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah.

Austin also warned Iran of “serious consequences” should it directly strike “Israel” in retaliation for attacks on the Lebanese Resistance group.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah Political Council member Mahmoud Qomati said in an interview with Al Mayadeen that Hezbollah’s allies “will intervene if the battle expands.”

Qomati warned that southern Lebanon “will become a graveyard for the occupation forces” should they enter, highlighting the Resistance’s vast arsenal of unused weapons and the fighters’ readiness to engage with Israeli forces.

Addressing observers, Qomati said the Resistance was rebuilt immediately following the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The legacy of Sayyed Nasrallah is well-maintained, he said, adding, “his trust is in our hands and will remain so with every leader and fighter.”

Qomati also reiterated Hezbollah’s stance, which had been affirmed by the late Secretary-General since the beginning of the Israeli occupation’s war on Gaza, stressing that the party “will not halt its support unless a comprehensive proposal is put forward, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Operation True Promise II: Iran launches barrage of missiles against Zionist entity

Press TV – October 1, 2024 

Sirens sounded all over the occupied territories as Iran launched hundreds of missiles towards the Zionist entity, in a retaliatory attack dubbed Operation True Promise II.

Flares and missiles were seen in the Tel Aviv sky and explosions could be heard in the occupied al-Quds, sending Zionist settlers fleeing into shelters.

The Israel Airports Authority said that no aircraft will be allowed to take off or arrive at all Israeli airports.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported “direct hits” in Negev, Sharon and other locations from Iran’s attack.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) issued a statement shortly after the missile attack began.

It said in response to the martyrdom of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyah, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, the IRGC Aerospace Force launched dozens of ballistic missiles targeting key military and intelligence bases in the heart of the occupied territories.

The IRGC further said that the attack was in line with the country’s right to legitimate self-defense as per the United Nations Charter, and in response to the regime’s escalating crimes—backed by the United States—against the people of Lebanon and Gaza.

The Zionist regime will face more crushing attacks in case it reacts to Iran’s operation, the IRGC added.

In a follow-up statement, the IRGC said three Israeli military bases in Tel Aviv were hit during the operation.

In this operation, a number of air and radar bases, as well as centers for conspiracy and assassination planning against resistance leaders and IRGC commanders were targeted, the statement said.

The IRGC noted that even though the designated areas were shielded by advanced defense systems, 90% of the missiles shot successfully hit their targets.

“The Zionist regime has been terrified by the intelligence and operational dominance of the Islamic Republic,” it added.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations said in a statement that the missile attack was a “legal, rational, and legitimate” response to the terrorist acts of the Zionist regime.

It also warned the Israeli regime that a more “crushing” response would ensue should it dare to respond or commit further acts of malevolence.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in southern Beirut, where Hezbollah chief Nasrallah was killed in a massive Israeli airstrike last week, following Iran’s retaliatory attack.

“Heavy gunfire heard from automatic weapons from areas of the southern suburbs, rejoicing in the missile launch from Iran towards Israel,” Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli strikes on homes, tents, school kill dozens in Gaza

The Cradle | October 1, 2024

At least 25 civilians were massacred, and others injured early on 1 October after Israeli forces bombed homes in central Gaza’s Nuseirat camp, a school in the Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City, and a tent in Khan Yunis in the south.

WAFA news agency reported that according to local sources, Israeli bombs destroyed a three-story house in Nuseirat camp belonging to the Al-Durrah family, killing seven children and three women.

Two women were also killed in another Israeli airstrike on a home in Nuseirat belonging to the Abu Ataya family.

In Gaza City, an Israeli bombing killed seven civilians and injured others sheltering in the Shuja’iyya school.

Israeli forces also blew up residential buildings in the city of Rafah, while targeting the Zeitoun and Sabra neighborhoods in Gaza with artillery.

Reuters reports that in the city of Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, an Israeli air strike on a tent housing displaced people killed six people, local medics said.

At the same time, the armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian resistance factions reported their fighters attacked Israeli forces operating in several areas of Gaza with anti-tank rockets, mortar fire, and explosive devices.

The ongoing Israel campaign to destroy Gaza, ethnically cleanse it of Palestinians, and make way for renewed Jewish settlement, has now lasted almost 12 months and killed at least 41,638 people, most of them children and women.

Thousands of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, as Israeli forces regularly prevent ambulance and civil defense crews from reaching them.

Israel has continued to massacre Palestinians in Gaza even as it carries out a massive bombing campaign in Lebanon, including in the capital, Beirut.

“The eyes of the world now are on Lebanon while the occupation continues its killing in Gaza. We are afraid the war is going to go on for more months at least,” Samir Mohammed, 46, a father of five from Gaza City, told Reuters.

“It is all unclear now as Israel unleashes its force undeterred in Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and God knows where else in the future,” he stated.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | 1 Comment

The weakness of Zionist air power

By Robert Daly | Al Mayadeen | October 1, 2024

What we have seen in the Zionist conduct of war since October 7, 2023, is a flashy, noisy exhibition but no seizure and holding of territory.

The murder of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and the destruction of six high-rise apartment buildings with multiple airstrikes make Zionist air power appear triumphant over Hezbollah. But nothing could be further from the truth. It is not air power that defeats enemies in war. Rather, it is infantry—conquering, seizing, and holding territory that defeats an enemy. The Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany not through air power but through the ground battles of Stalingrad and Kursk and then by pushing the Nazi troops back into Germany as the Soviets liberated one occupied state after another from Ukraine and Belarus to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The West at the time bombed Dresden and other cities, but that effort had little effect in defeating the Nazis. So, Zionist bombings of Lebanon’s cities kill citizens and wreck their homes but do not occupy territory or defeat Hezbollah.

It is beyond the capability of air power to seize enemy territory and hold it. Air power is only a form of contemporary artillery. In the past 100 years, humankind has ‘progressed’ from mere cannons and tanks delivering artillery shells onto an enemy’s positions to warplanes dropping them from above. What we have seen in the Zionist conduct of war since October 7, 2023, is a flashy, noisy exhibition but no seizure and holding of territory. Today, Hamas has retaken all of Gaza and continues to manage the territory as the Zionists have admitted in press briefings though they attacked Gaza by air. The Zionists responded to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack by bombing and destroying civilian residential buildings, but that did not destroy Hamas, which took advantage of the situation and the changed terrain to prepare positions from behind wrecked buildings to attack Zionist tanks and armored personnel carriers, which they have destroyed by the dozen. In this way, we have seen the contrast between ground fighters and air power in Gaza, where the Zionists are effective at killing women and children from the sky above with bombs, but cannot occupy and hold the territory that that population lived in.

If air power is an effective way to defeat one’s enemy and win a war, why is Hamas still ruling Gaza? Yedioth Ahronoth, a leading ‘Israeli’ newspaper, citing Israeli security sources wrote this past week that:

○ Hamas is working to consolidate its authority again in the areas of Gaza that the IOF left.

○ No one in Gaza stands against Hamas, and no one challenges its rule.

This is not new. In June, after eight months of Zionist bombing, the Guardian wrote “Hamas still strong in areas ‘cleared’ by Israel in northern Gaza.” How is that possible? Zionist warplanes far above do not provide much competition with Palestinian freedom fighters on the ground. Zionist armored vehicles full of scared reservists are easy targets for Gazan patriots who destroy those vehicles one after another. The Guardian concludes, “Hamas’s ability to return to areas from which it was earlier forced to retreat threatens ‘forever war’.” The paper explains, “There may be more Hamas militants in the north of Gaza, supposedly cleared by Israeli forces months ago, than in Rafah, the southern city in the territory described by Israeli officials as the extremist Islamist organization’s “last stronghold”. “We do have to remember there are more Hamas armed people in the north of Gaza in the places that the IDF has already moved out of than … in Rafah … Those are the IDF’s numbers. This is why the IDF had to go back into Jabaliya and … Zeitoun. Hamas is controlling all those areas,” Eyal Hulata, the head of “Israel’s” “national security council” from 2021 to last year, told reporters last May. Zionist air power and fragile armor have failed to conquer Gaza. They only wrecked it.

One can expect an even better outcome for the domestic national liberation army in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has the advantage of better and more artillery and soldiers experienced in fighting ISIS and Al-Qaeda on the ground in Syria.

One of the most disgusting Zionist air war practices is their cowardly war by assassination. Zionists will swoop down in aircraft of various sorts to kill someone on a motorcycle, a family in a car, or a leader of the national liberation movement in a building. To do that, they do not hesitate to murder hundreds of others in the area, as when the fascists murdered Sayyed Hassan. For if the Nazi abandoned his air vehicle and fought a fair fight on the ground, he would surely lose.

Moreover, it is an embarrassment to an American with a memory to hear Hezbollah or Hamas referred to as “terrorists” for defending their own land from Zionist invaders. Does not anyone remember Washington’s crossing of the Delaware on Christmas 1776, when they and their makeshift army slaughtered British-hired Hessian mercenaries drunk from celebrating the holiday? If Hamas is “terrorist”, then why isn’t George Washington?

So, we have it: “Israel” has not won in Lebanon. Rather, “the enemy must wait for us by air, land, and sea. We repeat: If war is imposed on Lebanon, the Resistance will fight without rules, controls, or ceilings,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah once said. “Storming the Galilee is a possibility that remains present within the framework of any war that the occupation may launch against Lebanon,” he added, referencing his 12-year-old promise that Hezbollah will invade “Israel’s” north if Tel Aviv chooses to attack.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

UN Report Reveals Nobody Held Accountable for Crimes Against Russian PoWs in Ukraine

Sputnik – 01.10.2024

GENEVA – A recent periodic report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revealed that no one has been held accountable for crimes committed against Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine.

Earlier this year, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council, released a report indicating that Ukrainian soldiers committed war crimes by executing and torturing Russian prisoners of war. The UN mission documented 25 instances of reprisals against these prisoners by Ukrainian troops.

“The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported that as of 16 August 2024, five pre-trial investigations were carried out into possible ill-treatment, as well as wilful killings of Russian prisoners of war, under articles 434 and 438 (“violations of rules and customs of war”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, no person received a notification of suspicion in relation to these investigations,” the report read.

More than half of the 205 Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine interviewed by the UN since March 2023 said they had been tortured and ill-treated, the report read, adding that 10 of them “reported being subjected to sexual violence, including inflicting violence to genitals and threats of rape.”

“The vast majority of incidents of torture or ill-treatment of Russian POWs (reported by 87 interviewees) occurred in unofficial or transit locations including garages, basements or private houses. OHCHR identified several such places. They were typically used by frontline units of the Ukrainian armed forces or by security forces and were located in Donetsk, Kharkov, Kherson, Kiev, Lugansk and Zaporozhye regions. Russian POWs were held in these places after evacuation from the battlefield and before entering official facilities,” the report read.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | | Leave a comment

‘More afraid of democracy than for democracy’ – AfD ban moves forward in German parliament

Remix News | October 1, 2024

Germany is heading closer to outright fascism as the establishment parties move to completely ban the rival Alternative for Germany party (AfD), currently the second-strongest party in the country, according to polling. Now, 10 MPs from four parties, each, totaling 40 MPs from the Christian Democrats (CDU), the Left Party, the Greens, and the Social Democrats (SPD) will put forward a motion to ban the party because it is a “threat to democracy.”

The motion was drawn up by Saxon CDU MP Marco Wanderwitz, who personally lost his local election to an AfD politician but is only in parliament because he was also included on the CDU’s election list. As Remix News has reported, he has been working for at least a year to gather enough support from members of parliament to pass a ban on the AfD.

Although Wanderwitz has struggled to get the required 37 signatures to put forward the motion, now that many of the ruling establishment parties have lost by huge margins in the eastern state of Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Saxony, his work has been easier.

Not all parties have yet joined in, including the left-wing BSW and the Free Democrats (FDP). However, there are already politicians in the BSW who have come out and said they want a ban, including Brandenburg top candidate Robert Crumbach, who called for their banning during his campaign.

The question now is whether there is a majority of MPs who are willing to ban the party in the parliament. The ban motion indicates that the AfD wants to abolish the free democratic order with an “actively combative and aggressive attitude.” It is unclear if there is a majority of MPs who would pass the motion, but there are those who disagree with the motion.

FDP MP Katja Adler slammed the motion on X, writing: “One could get the impression that the supporters of the ban are more afraid of democracy than for democracy.”

Even within the SPD, there are politicians who doubt whether a ban is the right method, not necessarily because they believe in democracy, but because there are fears the Federal Constitutional Court could rule the banning is unconstitutional, which would only help fuel the AfD’s rise.

SPD General Secretary Kühnert, for example, said that he wants the party banned as well but does not think there is yet enough evidence to secure a ban.

Sahra Wagenknecht also expressed criticism of the ban, telling “T-Online” that instead of taking the legitimate concerns of AfD voters seriously, they wanted to get rid of the unwelcome competitor by banning it. Wagenknecht, however, may also be positioning her party to pick up AfD voters should a ban go through.

The CSU regional group in the Bundestag also rejected a motion to ban the AfD. Regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt told the Augsburger Allgemeine that he thought the motion was wrong and counterproductive.

Various AfD politicians have already responded to the ban proposal.

“I think that’s great. A ban motion against the AfD, supported by the CDU and SPD. We will request a roll call vote. That delegitimizes every single applicant and every yes-sayer and every abstention vote as anti-democrats. Not even Minister of the Interior Fraeser, who has had us monitored by her Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for years, has enough evidence together after many years to classify us as extremist,” wrote AfD MP Beatrix von Storch.

There are also worries from the establishment that a ban procedure would last years, during which time, the ban procedure itself would only strengthen the AfD.

Far-left radical Anton Hofreiter, of the Green Party, said in an interview that if he thought an AfD ban procedure would be over quickly, he would support it, but since it would likely last years, he thinks it is risky at this point in time.

Those opposed to the AfD already have a plan B if their efforts to ban the party fail, which would be to cut state funding to the party, which would effectively mean the end of the party, as it would no longer be able to fund its activities or pay employees.

Germany is now the only Western country that is seriously attempting to enact a ban on a major opposition party. Although such actions are routine in non-democratic nations, it would mark a dark day in German history and point to the rise of fascism and a party oligarchy in the country once again.

Notably, with stabbings and terror attacks brought on by the immigration policies of all the major parties, the AfD continues to soar in popularity. Just last week, a Syrian migrant committed arson, attacked people with a machete, and ran over people with his van in a mass attack in Essen that saw the man injure 31 people, including small children. It follows a string of Jihadi attacks in Solingen, Mannheim, and Munich in recent months.

The AfD, which is calling for the strictest immigration controls of all the major parties, is also tremendously popular with the young. Increasingly, the major parties cannot win on the issues, so they are turning to outright bans against their democratic opposition.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties | | Leave a comment

Resources of Ukraine’s NATO allies will dwindle by 2025

By Ahmed Adel | October 1, 2024

NATO’s continued arms shipments to Ukraine next year are at risk due to a lack of resources among key backers of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, experts told Bloomberg on September 27. This is a far cry from the promises made in the first years of the war when the West promised to support Ukraine until victory was achieved, a victory that will not occur.

At stake is a controversial $50 billion loan deal, which came from the profits from the Russian Central Bank’s frozen assets in Western banks. Bloomberg reported that Washington fears that Hungary could block or reduce the deal. Even if the amount were released, it would only be enough to keep the Kiev regime supplied with weapons until the middle of next year.

This is without taking into account Ukraine’s economic situation, including a projected $35 billion gap in the 2025 budget, of which about $15 billion remains uncovered, even after applying subsidies from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

Bloomberg’s sources warned that the deficit could force the Kiev regime to enter peace talks with Russia “from a position of weakness.”

Kiev is also struggling to convince its backers to continue shelling out tens of billions of dollars of weapons for the conflict, as increased Russian production outpaces the combined output of the collective West.

According to the news agency, a November victory for US presidential candidate Donald Trump will likely increase pressure on Zelensky to end the war he intends to continue despite no hope of victory. It is recalled that in April, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives approved a $48 billion security aid package for Ukraine only after a six-month standoff over the crisis on the US southern border.

In addition, Germany — Ukraine’s second-largest backer after the US — faces constitutional debt constraints that have already begun to affect its support for Kiev. With economic troubles spreading to France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, those countries may also cut back on aid. Keir Starmer’s government in London has vowed to continue vigorously supporting Kiev despite tough budget choices at home.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov admitted that his country is more than 80 percent dependent on military aid from Western partners, while the Ukrainian General Staff reports that the situation on the front line remains difficult due to the superiority of the Russian Armed Forces.

According to Umerov, the Western supply of military equipment is the basis of the assistance provided to Ukraine. The country receives resources from the US, the European Union, NATO, the Security Assistance Group Ukraine (SAG-U), the United States European Command (EUCOM) and “a dozen other countries in a bilateral format on a daily basis.”

“So far, international military assistance has been the backbone of our aid. […] We are more than 80 percent dependent on our partners,” he said in an interview with a Ukrainian publication.

On September 25, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that due to the Russian Army’s superiority in terms of the number of troops and equipment available, the situation along the entire front line remains difficult.

“The situation on the front line remains difficult. The enemy, using its superiority in personnel and equipment, is continuously attacking our positions,” the General Staff’s official Telegram channel said.

This difficult situation is not set to be alleviated because, as already mentioned, Ukraine’s allies are facing their own economic issues and political opposition.

Last week, The New York Times reported that the US-EU plan to finance Ukraine stalled due to legal issues, as the systems in Washington and Europe are making it difficult for the initiative to come to fruition. However, even with the plan implemented, the $50 billion will be insufficient to cover Kiev’s military needs for another year of conflict, and the allies will have to look further afield for funding, according to Bloomberg.

The outlet reported that Ukraine’s military is relying on its allies for artillery ammunition, missiles, and improved air defence capabilities. This has prompted US President Joe Biden to announce another $8 billion in funding for Kiev and appear to be coordinating additional support from NATO members before his term ends.

However, all this action has done is once again demonstrate the grand failure Biden’s adventure in Ukraine was, all for the sake of the vain attempt to weaken Russia. Rather, Russia has territorially expanded, diversified its economic partners, and taken great leaps in de-dollarising global trade, all the whilst Ukraine has been economically and demographically destroyed and completely dependent on Western aid, which is clearly running out, for survival.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

October 1, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

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