La esposa de Julian Assange, Stella Assange, frente a la gran corte de Londres Foto ANDY RAIN / EFE La esposa de Julian Assange, Stella, aseguró este martes en Londres, donde se celebra una audiencia sobre la extradición de su marido, que el juicio se basa en ‘una persecución por motivos políticos’. Rodeada de manifestantes, […]
#StellaAssange: ‘Es una persecución por motivos políticos’
from thefreeonline on 21st Feb, 2024 via HomeWorld News
Katharine received the official distinction in 2010 for her eye-catching anti-establishment designs
British artist Katharine Hamnett publicly renounced her Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) honor as a statement against the government’s ongoing support for Israel’s war in Gaza, in a video posted to social media on Monday.
Wearing a t-shirt reading “Disgusted to Be British” in her trademark all-caps font, the designer said “I’m disgusted to be British for our role in genocide in Gaza,” brandishing her CBE and placing it in a trash can
The honor “belongs in the dustbin along with [UK Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak and [Labour Party leader Keir] Starmer,” Hamnett explained, encouraging viewers to visit a website where they could look up their MP. “Tell them you’ll never vote for them again unless they support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” she said.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3iBW9….
Viewers were also given a link where they could buy a shirt similar to the one Hamnett was wearing.
The US is shamefully covering for Israel’s plan to make Gaza uninhabitable, Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said on Tuesday after his American colleague vetoed the resolution calling for a truce in the Palestinian enclave.
The British designer launched her eponymous label in 1979 and soon got attention for her protest t-shirts, which bore simple slogans across the chest in all-caps font. Early anti-war designs included “Choose Life,” “Education Not Missiles,” and “Worldwide Nuclear Ban Now,” along with more general slogans like “Leaders Suck.”
In the 1980s, she found wider attention, with celebrities like pop acts Madonna, WHAM!, Queen, and George Michael wearing her designs in music videos and performances. Supermodels including Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Nadja Auermann walked in her runway shows early in their careers.
Hamnett has continued to produce political t-shirts ever since, protesting the UK’s involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with slogans like “No War, Blair Out” and “Not in My Name,” and became an early voice for the responsible sourcing of textiles, lobbying for a tightening of industry standards as far back as 1989.
She was awarded the CBE in 2010, a development that she said “surprised” her. “It’s quite funny, I’m respectable at last,” she told the BBC at the time, calling the distinction “seductive.”
Thousands of British artists signed an open letter in October calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. While that letter was published when the Palestinian death toll hovered around 2,750, the number of dead is now more than ten times that, with Gaza’s health ministry estimating the current figure at upwards of 29,000 as of Monday. Israel declared war in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7th breakout following 17 years of mass imprisonment and blockade, which left 1,200 Israelis dead and another 240 taken captive ) as well as “a large number” of the suicidal attackers.
“By Vetoing this Ceasefire, the US stands alone in Casting its Vote against Humanity»
US still supports and Funds Genocide?? Will it VETO Gaza Ceasefire Call Again Tonite??
‘People are starving’: WFP says humanitarian operation in Gaza ‘collapsing’
By Henry Johnston | RT | February 20, 2024 Bloomberg recently foretold the end of Germany’s days as an industrial power in an article that begins with a depiction of the closing of a factory in Dusseldorf. Stone-faced workers preside with funereal solemnity over the final act – the fashioning of a steel pipe at a rolling […]
Superstition and taboo: Germany retreats into the Middle Ages as its economy declines
Hawaii’s last queen was Lili’uokalani. She was raised by American missionaries in the nineteenth century and married an Englishman before taking her up her role as the ruler of the beautiful island chain. She was quite accomplished as a stateswoman and also as a singer who treasured her island’s culture and feared the loss of […]
International Warrior Women Take Charge
from thefreeonline On 20 Feb 2024 By Ali Harb and Brian Osgood at aljazeera.com
US envoy to UN uses third veto in Security Council to kill Algeria’s ceasefire resolution, saying it would harm truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of the city, reports Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli army bombardment targeted several civilian homes, resulting in dozens of deaths and scores of injuries.
Scores killed and injured in Israeli shelling of civilian homes in Gaza City
The homes, Wafa says, belong to the Naim, Khalifa, Shenoura and Yasin families.
The agency’s correspondent reports that the majority of the injured remain trapped under rubble, even as civil defence crews labour to rescue them and transport them to the hospital. However, the crews have been prevented from reaching many by the intensity of the Israeli bombardment.
![A Palestinian child tries to pick up spilled flour during aid distribution in north Gaza. [Screengrab/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-12.14.37-1708432951.png?resize=570%2C380&quality=80)
State Department spokesperson Miller has reiterated that the US does not believe that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, as countries such as South Africa and some experts on international law have suggested.
Asked about recent comments by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust, Miller said the US “obviously” disagrees with those comments.
“We have been quite clear that we do not believe that genocide has occurred in Gaza,” he added.
27m ago
(19:40 GMT)
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports, citing security sources, that Israeli forces detained five children aged 13 and one 16 year old in the village of Aboud, near Ramallah.
Israel regularly arrests Palestinian children – often over minor alleged offences – and keeps them in custody for prolonged periods of time without due process under so-called “administrative detention”.
37m ago
(19:30 GMT)
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has said that detained individuals “must be treated humanely” following UN reports of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces, but declined to offer any follow-up steps that may be taken on the matter.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a statement on Monday that it had received information that Palestinian women and girls have “reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children”.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/19/un-experts-warn-of-israeli-violations-against-palestinian-women-girls
“We have been clear that civilians and detainees must be treated humanely, and in accordance with international humanitarian law. We strongly encourage Israel to thoroughly and transparently investigate credible allegations and ensure accountability for abuses and violations,” Miller told reporters.
The US has yet to take any concrete steps to address widespread reports that Palestinian detainees, many rounded up and held without charge by Israeli forces, have been subjected to torture and inhumane conditions.
46m ago
(19:20 GMT)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office says the US veto at the UN Security Council defies the international community and gives Israel “an additional green light for the Israeli occupation to continue its aggression against the people of Gaza and to launch a bloody assault against Rafah”.
The Palestinian presidency also said that it holds the US administration responsible for “supporting and providing protection” to Israel’s “barbaric attacks” against children, women and the elderly in Gaza.
“This policy makes the United States a partner in the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing and the war crimes Israeli forces are committing,” a statement from the office reads.
It added that the US is advancing its own Security Council draft resolution that would call for pauses in the fighting only to justify its veto against the ceasefire proposal.
56m ago
(19:10 GMT)
Media outlet Al-Monitor reports, citing a US official, that a surface-to-air missile fired by the Yemeni group took down an MQ-9 Reaper drone near Hodeidah.
Yesterday, the group claimed to have shot down a US drone over Yemen, which it said “was carrying out hostile missions against our country on behalf of the Zionist entity”. US officials said they were investigating after a drone crashed over Yemen.
If confirmed, this will be the second US MQ-9 shot down by the group in recent months. The Pentagon acknowledged in November that an MQ-9 was shot down over the Red Sea.
1h ago
(19:01 GMT)
Reporting from Nablus, the occupied West Bank
An Israeli force has stormed the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and clashed with armed Palestinians there, local sources say.
Sounds of fierce fighting and shooting were heard as more Israeli military enforcements, backed by bulldozers, arrived in several areas of the city. Israeli drones were spotted over the area, as well.
At least three Palestinians have been injured in the raid, but Israeli forces prevented medics from reaching them, according to witnesses.
We will bring you more information on the situation in Jenin as soon as it becomes available.
1h ago
(18:50 GMT)
Israeli forces have carried out at least two air strikes on the coastal town of Ghaziyeh in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military and Lebanese state media.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/19/israeli-air-strikes-target-ghaziyeh-in-southern-lebanon
from thefreeonline on 20 Feb, 2024 by HomeWorld News
Washington wants the WikiLeaks publisher on its soil where he could face a prison sentence of up to 175 years
Stella Assange, wife of Julian Assange, speaking to supporters outside Royal Courts Of Justice in London, during the 2-day hearing extradition case of the WikiLeaks founder. Feb 20, 2024.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is “too ill” to attend his appeal against the UK’s decision to extradite him to the US, his lawyers have said.
The US wants him on 17 charges of espionage tied to WikiLeaks’ publication of State Department and Pentagon files in 2010.
Read more Artist vows to destroy $45mn worth of art if Assange dies
Assange, 52, has been held largely in solitary confinement in the Belmarsh maximum security prison in England since 2019, when Ecuador revoked his asylum at American insistence. The Australian-born publisher had requested to appear in court personally, but was unable to do so due to poor health, according to his lawyers.
“The world is watching,” Assange’s wife Stella said outside the court house. She accused the US of abusing the legal system to “hound, prosecute and intimidate” and argued that the US “plotted to murder” her husband – referring to revelations that the CIA sought to kill Assange in 2017, when he sheltered in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
“What’s at stake is the ability to publish the truth and expose crimes when they’re committed by states,” Stella Assange told the dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday.
Free Julian Assange- Journalist jailed forever for exposing US terrorist State
Protesters carried Australian flags and signs that said “Free Julian Assange” and “drop the charges.” The Australian parliament passed a motion, supported by the country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling for Assange’s release from British captivity in the run up to the appeal.
“The outrageous part of the UK’s years-long ‘trial’ to condemn Julian Assange to die in an American dungeon is that the victim of his ‘crime’ (journalism) is a state rather than a person–the definition of a political offense, which the US-UK extradition treaty explicitly forbid,” NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said on X (formerly Twitter).
Activists outside the court chanted “US, UK, hands off Assange” and “There is only one decision – no extradition,” among other slogans.
This week’s hearing will decide whether Assange will be allowed to appeal the 2022 decision by the UK government to extradite him to the US. His attorneys have argued that the extradition would amount to punishment for political opinions and violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
If the appeal fails, Assange will apply to the European Court of Human Rights and seek a Rule 39 order to stop the extradition while it considers the case, Stella Assange has said.
In 2010, WikiLeaks published the US military’s Iraq and Afghanistan “war diaries,” as well as a trove of State Department cables.
The Last Flurry: The US Congress and Australian Parliamentarians seek Assange’s Release
One of the videos, later known as “collateral murder,” showed a US helicopter killing 11 people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists. Suspecting the Swedish “sexual assault” case was a pretext for the US to arrest him – correctly, as it later emerged – Assange sought asylum in Ecuador, which has no extradition treaty with Washington.
He spent the next seven years in the country’s embassy in London, blocked from leaving by the British authorities.
from thefreeonline
The captain reported an “explosion in close proximity of the vessel ” all crew members were evacuated and the ship abandoned.
The Yemeni rebel group has reportedly expanded its arsenal after promising to meet Western “escalation with escalation”
The Yemeni Houthis continue their successful operations in the Red Sea in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people. In the last 24 hours alone, Ansar Allah has announced several successful operations against foreign forces in the region.
The Houthis attacked the British ship Rubymar in the Gulf of Aden. As a result of the strikes by two anti-ship missiles, the ship was heavily damaged and may sink.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in Gaza, the Yemen government (Houthis) have hit multiple Israeli-bound, US and UK vessels sailing the Red Sea. In solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the Houthis vowed to attack any ships they find to be linked to Israel until the siege of Gaza stops.
The Houthis have also announced the deaths if at least 17 more citizens killed by the US/UK air attacks. Nobody has died in the Houthi attacks so far.
They extended their attacks to US/UK ships after their bombing of Yemen began, and may extend it to EU ships after the ill considered EU Maritime Campaign begins, due already on 19th Feb 2024
British-registered ship abandoned amid fears it will sink after Houthi double strike in Gulf
Embry ship security company has confirmed serious damage, claiming that ways of towing it were being considered. The crew has reportedly safely left the ship.
In 2022, this ship was involved in the “grain deal”, in the framework of which it participated in the transportation of Ukrainian agricultural products.
Crew abandon Rubymar cargo ship after Houthi rebel missile attack …
At night, Houthi forces shot down an American MQ-9 Reaper attack drone, as reported in an official statement. The video above reportedly shows the downing of the US drone.
Video Player . Downing of $30 million US Drone video doesn’t work on wordpress.. but really you can just see a light and a lot of cheering in Houthi
This is the second U.S. loss of this type of drone in the Middle East in 2024. LINK
Earlier, the Houthis used an underwater drone for the first time in the Red Sea. The deployment of underwater drones in service with the Houthis is a great threat to foreign ships in the Red Sea. LINK
The US and British military operation against Yemeni forces did not lead to the stated goal. Foreign intervention did not secure navigation in the Red Sea, but only escalated the threat, primarily to Western ships; but the West cannot retreat.
Thus, the European Union announced its decision to launch its own naval operation against the Yemeni Houthis in the Red Sea. The goals of this operation are the same, the result is likely to be the same too.
‘Inspired’ by Washington and London, the EU will also bear the costs of the operation, and ships of European states will be exposed to numerous threats when trying to pass through the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis actually managed to block one of the main sea routes on the planet.
Separately on Monday, The British maritime security firm Ambrey said in a statement that a Greece-flagged, US-owned cargo ship also came under attack twice in two hours off southern Yemen.
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Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attempted to use a submersible drone for the first time, but it was destroyed in yet another wave of US-led coalition attacks over the weekend, the US Central Command has claimed.
The US Navy conducted a series of five strikes, hitting three Houthi cruise missiles, an unmanned surface vessel (USV), and one unmanned underwater vessel (UUV) on Saturday, CENTCOM announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.
“This is the first observed Houthi employment of a UUV since attacks began in Oct. 23,” the US military wrote, claiming it presented an “imminent threat” to US Navy ships and commercial vessels in the area.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in Gaza, the Houthi militants, who are in control of a large portion of Yemen, have harassed multiple vessels sailing the Red Sea. In solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the Houthis vowed to attack any ships they find to be linked to Israel until the siege of Gaza stops.
READ MORE: US targeted Iranian warship with cyberattack – NBC
In response, the US launched an international maritime coalition to patrol the Red Sea called ‘Prosperity Guardian’, with the stated goal of protecting shipping lanes.
Since mid-January, the US and UK have carried out air- and sea-launched attacks against “multiple underground storage facilities, command and control, missile systems, UAV storage and operations sites, radars, and helicopters” in Yemen in an attempt to “degrade Houthi capabilities” to attack military vessels and merchant ships.
The Houthis vowed to “meet escalation with escalation” and expanded their list of potential targets to include US- and UK-owned merchant vessels.
While no Houthi missiles have hit a US Navy vessel thus far, the group has launched scores of missiles and drones against the US-led coalition ships in the Red Sea.
READ MORE: US-UK attacks in Yemen ‘illegal’ – Russian security chief
The attacks on Suez Canal freight – a route which normally accounts for around 15% of the world’s commercial shipping – have forced major companies to avoid the Red Sea altogether and sail around the coast of Africa, facing increased costs and spiking insurance premiums.
The Free 