“With an Armada of 13 Warships, Over 100 Fighter Jets, Cruise Missiles, Spy Planes and 2,000 Amphibious Special Forces Massing in the Region» By Asad Ismi and Nick Allen All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name. To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected […]
Large Scale U.S. Military Buildup in the Middle East: Is America Preparing to Launch World War III?
“With an Armada of 13 Warships, Over 100 Fighter Jets, Cruise Missiles, Spy Planes and 2,000 Amphibious Special Forces Massing in the Region» By Asad Ismi and Nick Allen All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name. To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected […]
Large Scale U.S. Military Buildup in the Middle East: Is America Preparing to Launch World War III?
The European Union’s early reaction to the war raging in the Middle East only served US interests.
from thefreeonline on 20th Oct 2023 via Timur Fomenko/ South Front /Al Jazeera/
A protester holds a burning picture of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outside the Israeli Embassy in Athens on October 18, 2023 Angelos TZORTZINIS / AFP / shared with thanks
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s showboating in support of Israel in the current Middle East conflict has reportedly provoked a backlash from EU lawmakers and diplomats..
see Clare Daly’s great speech HERE… (WordPress won’t embed it) https://twitter.com/ClareDalyMEP/status/1715032236012036397
When the Israel-Gaza war broke out just over a week ago, von der Leyen made the decision to offer unconditional support to West Jerusalem rather than urge for calm or mediation, having Israel’s flag projected onto the European Commission headquarters and paying a visit to Israel herself.
She clearly did so out of an inclination to appear in line with the US. But her actions have aged poorly as reports of civilian deaths and humanitarian disaster in the besieged Gaza Strip continue to mount.
Anyone familiar with von der Leyen knows that she is an unapologetic neoconservative and transatlanticist who is single-handedly undermining the autonomy, respect, and foreign policy stature of the EU by actively working to make the bloc subordinate to the US in multiple areas, all while attempting to showcase herself as a true regional leader. If the EU sees itself in a fundamental competition with China and Russia, there could not be a worse advert to the rest of the world than her leadership, and her Israel blunders may be her most damaging decisions yet.
Von der Leyen’s foreign policy legacy involves dragging the EU into several confrontations it could have done without. This week, she is heading to Washington DC to try to forge a deal on steel and aluminum trade targeted at China, but that will ultimately resort in throwing the EU market under the bus, again.
Continue reading “How the EU disgraced itself backing revenge Genocide in Gaza, earning worldwide contempt”
The problem for humanity is that it has developed weapons that are capable of destroying all life, and these weapons are in the hands of emotional people incapable of restraint and reason. By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the […]
Rushing into Catastrophe. Intense War Fever in Washington. “America can Afford Two Wars”…?
The case against protester Sasha Skochilenko shows how the Russian criminal justice system is often broken by insane wartime laws and far-right nationalism.
from thefreeonline on 19th Oct 2023 by Sergey Smirnov in MediaZona at Open Democracy
In the Petersburg courtroom, a woman in a green sweater stands behind bars. She holds a special tool for measuring heart activity in one hand: a Holter monitor.
Her name is Sasha Skochilenko, and she has a heart defect. A cardiologist who examined the 33-year-old several times in prison has noted a sharp deterioration in her condition since she was detained in April 2022.
Note: while Sasha needs support and her case is horrifically unjust we remember it’s been taken up by the giant racist propaganda media of the west, while cancelling thousands of even worse cases of repression and state crimes in nazi led Ukraine.
It’s evening and the court is officially closed, but the trial in Skochilenko’s case is ongoing. After 7pm, the defendant asks to end the hearing early – she needs to change the battery in her heart monitor. If she doesn’t, Skochilenko says, the medical examination that she has been waiting for for a very long time will be disrupted.
But the judge claims that Skochilenko, an artist, could have ensured her heart monitor was charged in advance, and refuses.
Upset, Skochilenko asks for at least a 40-minute break to eat.
At the last few hearings she has complained about hunger. “I don’t understand why you are torturing me with hunger,” she tells the judge at the start of the hearing. She is woken up at 6am to be transported to court, so she doesn’t have a chance to eat breakfast.
The court hearings often drag on and when Skochilenko returns from court, dinner at the pre-trial detention centre is over. But Skochilenko cannot eat the dry rations that are provided for prisoners in such cases: she has a gluten intolerance. During previous hearings, Skochilenko has not been able to eat for two days in a row.
This time she took her food with her in advance. But the judge denies this request as well. Then the desperate Skochilenko asks for a 15-minute break to go to the toilet. But the judge coldly refuses this too.
Skochilenko begins to cry in the cell in the courtroom for the first time in the entire trial, which began in December 2022.
She is accused of replacing price tags in a St Petersburg supermarket with anti-war stickers. For this, she faces up to 10 years in prison.
Apparently, her actions amount to spreading “fake news” about the Russian army – a new crime that the Russian authorities have introduced since their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Recently, at an event with several other Russian journalists, I was asked to name an article I am especially proud of.
In general, it is always difficult to answer this kind of question. All our coverage at Mediazona, where I am chief editor, seems important and necessary. Our team, which focuses on Russia’s law and justice system, has published well-read and well-cited stories, as well as several data studies on the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine – which we have done together with our colleagues from Meduza, another independent outlet, and the BBC Russian service.
But after thinking a little, I realised that our most important work is the live reporting on Sasha Skochilenko’s trial.
Our coverage from the Sasha Skochilenko case shows how repression really works in Russia, how officials are trying to justify it and what kind of people are helping to imprison innocent Russian citizens.
An artist and musician, Skochilenko has been involved in many volunteer initiatives in her hometown of St Petersburg, including helping people with mental problems and authoring a comic book about depression.
The fact that the judge is clearly turning a blind eye to both the contradictions in the prosecution’s evidence and Skochilenko’s health means the trial looks more and more like open mockery.
Skochilenko was detained back in April 2022, a few weeks after the invasion began.
After the start of the war, the Russian authorities adopted a whole package of repressive laws, including a new crime on “fake news” (Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code).
This new charge became key for the authorities: spreading any information about the war that contradicts the official position of the Russian Ministry of Defense can be a prosecutable offence. It was deployed actively in the first months of the invasion when the Russian authorities feared anti-war protests. And Sasha Skochilenko was one of the first arrested on “fake news” charges.
Skochilenko is accused of replacing five price tags on items in a city supermarket with anti-war stickers. They bore messages about the Russian bombing of a school in Mariupol, Russian conscripts who were sent to fight in the war, the deaths of thousands of soldiers and the corresponding silence on Russian state television, and the lies Vladimir Putin has told in his 20-year rule.
One sticker reads: “My great-grandfather fought in the Great Patriotic War [against Nazi Germany] for four years not to see Russia become a fascist state and attack Ukraine.”
Continue reading “Sasha faces 10 years in jail for anti-war stickers – now she’s being starved”When children are explicitly framed as “not innocent,” all-out genocidal warfare is possible.
from thefreeonline on 19th Oct 2023 by Antinuclear
TruthOut, By Jonathan Ofir , MONDOWEISS, October 18, 2023
t really is hard to imagine a more malicious statement than “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves” when children in Gaza are now being massacred by the hundreds.
But this was actually said in a recent Knesset session. And it wasn’t someone considered an extreme right-winger, but a liberal centrist – Meirav Ben-Ari from Yair Lapid’s opposition party Yesh Atid.
The full, over-three-hour session from Monday can be seen here. Ben-Ari is evidently getting worked up as Palestinian lawmaker Aida Touma-Sliman (around two hours into the session) bemoans the loss of civilian lives “both in the area surrounding Gaza and in Gaza,” imploring to make an effort to release hostages and to “get the civilians out of the circle of blood.” “Jews as well as Arabs, Israelis as well as Palestinians.”
Continue reading “Israeli Politician Says “Children of Gaza Have Brought This Upon Themsel”
The Free 