(November 14, 2024)
A political legacy on the part of the EU diplomacy chief, who has come to the end of his term, but one that is unlikely to be seized upon by the 27: for any amendment to the Association Agreement that governs EU-Israel relations, the rule of unanimity is required.
Fifty-eight percent of U.S. adults agree that a third major party is needed in the U.S. because the Republican and Democratic parties “do such a poor job” of representing the American people, marking the 12th consecutive majority-level reading in Gallup’s trend that stretches back more than two decades. While down five percentage points from last year’s record high, it is still on par with the average 56% support level over the course of the trend since 2003.
Ms. DiCarlo condemned not only the RSF attacks but also the indiscriminate airstrikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in civilian-populated areas such as the capital Khartoum and El Fasher, a major city in North Darfur hosting thousands of internally displaced which has been besieged for months by the RSF.
“Both warring parties bear responsibility for this violence,” she stressed.
She added that as the rainy season nears its end, both sides continue to escalate their military operations, recruit new fighters and intensify their attacks, fuelled by “considerable” external support and a steady flow of arms.
“To put it bluntly, certain purported allies of the parties are enabling the slaughter in Sudan. This is unconscionable, it is illegal, and it must end.”
(…)
The situation in Sudan has been in a freefall since the war erupted last April.
It is now the world’s worst displacement crisis, with more than 11 million people driven from their homes – nearly three million among them into neighbouring countries as refugees, according to the UN relief coordinating office, OCHA.
The war has also unleashed a severe hunger crisis, affecting millions.
(November 6, 2024)
Overall, Trump’s strongest support came from White evangelicals, rural voters, Whites without a college degree, conservatives, and men.
(November 8, 2024)
Democrats actually benefitted from Trump‘s rise, which presented an opportunity for them to win votes freely by positioning themselves as the only alternative to outright fascism.
Yet, instead of looking inwards for answers on why Harris lost to a candidate as problematic as Trump, these liberal Democrats chose to reprimand minorities. Signalling a sense of superiority, they could not hide their racism, implying that it was incumbent upon these minority communities to vote within the guidelines provided by their liberal saviours.
By this logic, Arabs, Muslims and Latinos must vote for a Democrat no matter what.
With Trump winning his second term, it is worth noting that there was no absolutely accountability by the Democratic Party when he won in 2016. Losing an election to so dangerous and corrupt a figure as Donald Trump should cause a political party to do some major inward reflection on their own failures of policy and political strategy. Instead, all the Democrats who bore responsibility for the 2016 failure—starting with Hillary Clinton—found a way to blame anyone else but them.
There was also the larger error of anointing Harris without political competition — an insult to the democratic process that handed the nomination to a candidate who, as some of us warned at the time, was exceptionally weak. That, in turn, came about because Democrats failed to take Biden’s obvious mental decline seriously until June’s debate debacle (and then allowed him to cling to the nomination for a few weeks more), making it difficult to hold even a truncated mini-primary.
(December 9, 2023)
However, another piece of intelligence is marked as being for the eyes of US and British intelligence only: that Israel has been using a long-range unmanned surveillance drone which is capable of flying covertly over Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The drone, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), is a “covert” drone named RA-01. It was not publicly known about.
According to the Zionist news website „Ynet“: „Netanyahu said in a special session of the government on the first anniversary of the October 7 attack that he wants to rename the „Iron Swords“ war to the „Resurrection War“.
„We choose to keep up the fight in a long war of attrition, one that is painful and costly for the enemy,“ said Abu Obeida, spokesman of the militant group‘s armed wing.
He also warned that scores of people taken captive into Gaza on October 7 last year were enduring a „very difficult“ situation.
His statement, broadcast on Al Jazeera, came on the one-year anniversary of the Aqsa Flood operation.
He now has the political capital for negotiations that could set the country‘s next budget and allow him to continue to call the shots for at least another year in the multi-front regional war Israel is fighting.
„He feels he is winning,“ one of Netanyahu‘s aides told Axios.
The six-time prime minister will outlast President Biden, who has largely failed in his attempts to contain the conflict in the Middle East and rein in Netanyahu.
Even more surprising is the Israeli public’s near-total embrace over the last three weeks of Netanyahu’s declared desire to prosecute a war for “total victory”. Prior to this, hundreds of thousands of people were out on the streets, demanding a “deal now” and accusing the prime minister of prolonging the war for his own ends.
Now, it seems the majority of Israel’s Jewish public, from Ben Gvir supporters to fans of the centre-left Zionist Yair Golan, wants a never-ending war. Even the first casualties from the ground invasion of Lebanon are not shifting this support – at least so far.
United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon have been unable to conduct patrols because of the intensity of Israeli strikes and Hezbollah’s rockets targeting Israel, a UN spokesman said Monday.
With more than 10,000 personnel, the peacekeeping force has been stationed in Lebanon since 1978, with its role strengthened after a 33-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
“At about 2:05 am on Tuesday morning the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression with military aircraft and drones from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting a number of points in the city of Damascus. “A military source said in a statement.
The air defense forces responded to the aggression’s missiles and downed some of them “the military source added.
The UN mission which patrols the Blue Line separting Lebanon and Israel, UNIFIL, expressed „grave concern for the safety of civilians“, amid what has been the deadliest day of violence and bombing by Israel since the October terror attacks sparked the regional crisis.
Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, Head of Mission and Force Commander of UNIFIL, has contacted both Lebanese and Israeli parties, emphasizing the urgent need for de-escalation. „Efforts are ongoing to reduce tensions and halt the shelling“, the mission added.
Any further escalation of this dangerous situation could have far-reaching and devastating consequences, not only for those living on both sides of the Blue Line but also for the broader region.
Attacks on civilians are not only violations of international law but could amount to war crimes, UNIFIL reminded.
The troops will number in the dozens, one official said, and will head to the region to help protect the thousands of Americans who are stationed there.
(…)
About 40,000 American troops are stationed in the region on bases in Iraq, in Syria and in the Persian Gulf countries. The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln is in the Gulf of Oman, and a second aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman, left Norfolk, Va., on Monday for the Mediterranean as part of a regularly scheduled deployment.
(September 20, 2024)
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have claimed for months to be working „around the clock“ on a Gaza ceasefire deal that is „close“ to happening. Spoiler alert: It‘s not going to happen because Hamas, the terrorist organization that massacred Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, doesn‘t want to release their hostages.
Despite their reportedly tireless efforts to negotiate with the terrorists, the Biden-Harris administration has privately conceded that a ceasefire deal won‘t happen before the end of Biden‘s term in January 2025. „No deal is imminent,“ a Biden-Harris official told the Wall Street Journal. „I‘m not sure it ever gets done.“
(August 28, 2024)
I appreciate Ms. Harris’s broken heart. What I’d appreciate more is a direct naming of who is killing and starving Palestinians, acts that are neither inevitable nor without a perpetrator. I’d appreciate the upholding of international law through sanctions and an arms embargo.
CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman reacts to Israeli jets flying over Beirut, Lebanon, as Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah delivered an address in response to a wave of explosions across the country.
Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people.
Both attacks, which are widely believed to be carried out by Israel, have hiked fears that the two sides’ simmering conflict could escalate into all-out war.
Hand-held radios used by Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon‘s south and in Beirut‘s southern suburbs, a security source and a witness said, further stoking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions launched via the group‘s pagers.
(December 9, 2023)
Israel’s attack on pagers belonging to Hezbollah on Tuesday was a tactical success that had no clear strategic impact, analysts say.
While it embarrassed Hezbollah and appeared to incapacitate many of its members, the attack has not so far altered the military balance along the Israel-Lebanon border, where more than 100,000 civilians on either side have been displaced by a low-intensity battle.
(December 9, 2023)
(2 September 2024)
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were scheduled to hold a meeting Monday with hostage negotiators, …
(August 28, 2024)
I appreciate Ms. Harris’s broken heart. What I’d appreciate more is a direct naming of who is killing and starving Palestinians, acts that are neither inevitable nor without a perpetrator. I’d appreciate the upholding of international law through sanctions and an arms embargo.
The strike began at 05:00 local time and was expected to last 24 hours but at midday a court ordered it to end, considering it “political” and “unrelated” to the issue for which it had been called. Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David announced to the labor court that he was considering a petition to suspend it that would end the action at 18.00. However, the court ordered the strike to end at 2:30 p.m. and Bar-David responded by urging workers to return to their posts.
During its short duration, the strike failed to paralyze Israel.
(10 Dec 2019)
אני מודה ל @noamr ו- @GilBahat על ה-peer review
(24 April 2024)
The preservation of a temperate climate and liquid water on early Earth depends critically upon the strength of the magnetosphere (Sterenborg et al., 2011; Tarduno et al., 2014). Recent atmospheric escape models have suggested that both weak (<10 μT) and strong (>1 mT) magnetic fields could substantially enhance atmospheric escape under present-day solar wind conditions via the polar wind or cusp escape, respectively (Gronoff et al., 2020; Gunell et al., 2018; Lundin et al., 2007). During the Archean, the Sun was rotating faster, generating a stronger stellar dynamo and therefore the solar wind was more intense than today (Vidotto, 2021). An increased solar wind strength causes greater interaction with the upper atmosphere and greater escape of ions assuming a constant level of protection from Earth‘s magnetosphere. Previous magnetohydrodynamic simulations have suggested that if Earth‘s magnetic field was half its present day strength 3.5 Ga ago, the area of the polar cap (the area containing open dipolar magnetic field lines, allowing atmospheric escape via the polar wind) could increase by up to 50% (Sterenborg et al., 2011).
The age of the Earth’s magnetic field remains under question in part because we don’t fully understand what causes it today. We know it is a product of movements in the molten outer core, whose high iron content turns convection currents into a dynamo, and these currents in turn are produced by the solidification of the inner core.
(24 April 2024)
Today, the magnetic field is driven by the churning of the liquid part of the core and the transfer of heat from the solid inner core to the convective outer core as the former cools. But researchers think the core didn‘t solidify until about a billion years ago.
(24. August 2020)
Da der Staat, sein auf die Bevölkerung losgelassener geheimdienstlicher Komplex und dessen eingebettete Contralinke auf der Suche nach Ketzern alias “Verschwörungstheoretiker”, nur noch daran interessiert erscheinen alle einzukassieren und zu kriminalisieren, die sich diesen Staatsstreich nicht gefallen lassen, hier für die bereits Geblitzdingsten in der Republik eine Gegenmaßnahme – zur Erinnerung an die fundamentalsten Dinge, die sie gerade versuchen zu verdrängen.
1. Ist der vor fünf Monaten vom Staat unter Anglizismen-Blödelei (“Lockdown”, “Social Distancing”) ausgerufene Ausnahmezustand verfassungsgemäß?
Nein.
(…)
2. Ist die Gewaltenteilung, wie vom Grundgesetz dem Staat diktiert, in Deutschland derzeit in Kraft?
Nein.
Abgesehen von der bereits erwähnten Kollaboration des Bundesverfassungsgerichts mit dem Ausnahmezustand durch Verschleppung der Verfassungsklagen – redet noch irgendjemand außer Radio Utopie vom Parlament? Wo ist dieser Sauhaufen überhaupt, in der “Krise”, die die gesamte Gesellschaft lähmt und ihrer Verfassungsrechte beraubt?
Er ist im Urlaub!
(…)
Das Parlament kontrolliert die Regierung. Das nennt man parlamentarische Demokratie.
Die Regierung hat lediglich die Kompetenz Gesetze umzusetzen, nicht mit Verordnungen um sich zu schmeissen und gleich die ganze Demokratie außer Kraft zu setzen.
Das “Robert Koch Institut” ist eine Regierungsbehörde. Eine Re-gier-ungs-be-hör-de.
Hat der Bundestag oder dessen “Ausschuss für Gesundheit”, von dem Sie nie gehört haben, zu irgendeinem Zeitpunkt die Angaben der Regierungsbehörde “Robert Koch Institut” kontrolliert?
Sind innerhalb des gesamten fünfmonatigen Ausnahmezustands, oder gar vorher, die gewählten Abgeordneten des Parlaments auch nur ein einziges Mal bei dieser zu drei heiligen Buchstaben aus dem Morgenlande geronnenen Behörde aufgetaucht und haben irgendetwas, auch nur eine der auserwählten Zahlen denen sich diese Bananenrepublik zu Füßen geworfen hat, tatsächlich überprüft? Haben sie kontrolliert, woher dieses ganze neue Zahlentestament überhaupt stammt, wer es zusammengezählt oder einfach erzählt hat? Haben sie Akten studiert, Datenbanken durchforstet, vor Ort, so als ginge es für sie um einen Steuernachlass von 500 Euro wegen eines neuen, potentiell absetzbaren Smart Devices in ihrer 7-Zimmer-Villa, also praktisch um ihr Leben?
Nein.
(21. März 2020)
Man darf nun spekulieren, dass morgen explizit Kretschmann alles daran setzen wird, der vom üblichen Verdächtigen Schäuble (Rückblick: “Einmal einkaufen, schon ´ne Grundgesetzänderung“) betriebenen Verfassungsänderung zuzuarbeiten. Wenn das, zumindest vorläufig, wieder nicht gelingt, wie beim Versuch Schäubles im Bundestag, wird versucht werden das Infektionsschutzgesetz so zu verändern, dass es zumindest die bisherigen staatlichen Maßnahmen im Nachhinein legalisiert und, aus staatlicher Sicht, “bestenfalls” der Bundesregierung erlaubt, demnächst nach eigenem Ermessen zu bestimmen wann sie Bevölkerung und Parlament gnädig gestattet sich zu versammeln, zu arbeiten, oder aus dem Haus zu gehen.
Und das nennt man dann einen Putsch.
(22. März 2011)
Am 19.März, dem Tag des Angriffs von Frankreich, Großbritannien, Kanada, Italien und den USA auf Libyen, wurde in Moskau eine der erbärmlichsten Erklärungen in der russischen Geschichte veröffentlicht (Angriffskrieg gegen Libyen beginnt: Ticker). Das russische Außenministerium von Sergei Lawrow:
“In Moskau bedauern wir diese bewaffnete Intervention im Rahmen der UN Resolution 1973, die hastig beschlossen wurde.”
Die Weltöffentlichkeit konstatiert: Russlands Staatsführung ist ein Haufen Tölpel, dem – wenn er schon nicht lesen kann und deshalb nicht weiss was vor sich geht – selbst das Wort „Veto“ mit einem einfachen Armhochhalten schon zu viel ist. Das Gleiche gilt für die Atomschwachmacht China, deren leseunkundige kommunistische Staatspartei immerhin 1.3 Milliarden Menschen herumkommandiert. In der Parteizeitung „People´s Daily“ redete man sich heute nun selbst in ein Gewissen, was man nicht hat (1):
„Die blutgetränkten Gewitter, denen Irak seit acht Jahren unterzogen wurde und das unaussprechliche Leiden seines Volkes sind ein Spiegel und eine Warnung. Die militärischen Attacken auf Libyen, folgend den Kriegen in Afghanisten und Irak, sind das das dritte Mal, dass einige Länder bewaffnete Aktionen gegen souveräne Staaten gestartet haben. Es sollte augenscheinlich sein, dass jedes Mal, wenn militärische Mittel benutzt werden um Krisen zu begegnen, dies ein Schlag gegen die Charta der Vereinten Nationen und die Regeln der internationalen Beziehungen sind.“
Die Weltöffentlichkeit versteht: früher hiess es in China „Bombardiert das Hauptquartier“, letzten Freitag hiess es „Bombardiert Libyen“ und heute wieder anders herum. Mal sehen, zu was sich Chinas Staatsführung am Donnerstag entscheidet. Vielleicht der Einfachheit halber zu „Bombardiert irgendwas“.
(17 March 2011)
Adopting resolution 1973 (2011) by a vote of 10 in favour to none against, with 5 abstentions (Brazil, China, Germany, India, Russian Federation), the Council authorized Member States, acting nationally or through regional organizations or arrangements, to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country, including Benghazi, while excluding a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory — requesting them to immediately inform the Secretary-General of such measures.
National Unity chairman Benny Gantz said during a press conference in Sderot on Wednesday that Hamas was militarily defeated following the IDF‘s operation in Gaza.
„From a military point of view – Hamas is defeated. Its fighters are eliminated or in hiding. Its abilities are cut off, and we will continue to strike what remains.
However, “from a military point of view – Hamas is defeated. Its fighters are eliminated or in hiding” and its capabilities “crippled,” he continues, stating that “victory will come step by step” and that Israel “will not stop. We will enter Rafah. We will return to Khan Younis. And we will operate in Gaza. Wherever there are terrorist targets – the IDF will be there.”
(19.07.1986)
The imprudence of this acceptance was demonstrated by the Nicaraguan case, in which the Court ruled that the United States is using force illegally in Central America. That case should not – and need not – have gone to the Court. To make sure the United States retains sovereign discretion to defend itself and its allies, any new American acceptance of the Court‘s compulsory jurisdiction should emulate the good sense of others like India and Kenya by excluding disputes involving armed conflict. America -acting alone or with its allies – still needs the freedom to protect freedom. The finger on the trigger cannot be that of the global judiciary.