Al Mayadeen’s correspondent: An Israeli aggression targets the Yarmouk Basin area in the western countryside of Syria’s Daraa province
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) received reports of an incident 150 NM northwest of Yemen’s Hodeidah
IRGC: The criminal Israeli operation came after “Israel’s” irreparable defeats and the steadfastness of the people of Gaza
IRGC: We offer our condolences to the leader of the Revolution on the martyrdom of Iran’s senior military advisors who were veteran freedom fighters of the Islamic Revolution
The Iranian ambassador in Damascus to Al Mayadeen: The attack reflects the reality of the entity that does not recognize any international laws and is ready to commit anything that goes against humanity
Iranian Ambassador to Damascus Hussein Akbari to Al Mayadeen: We will continue to stand by the resisting people, and we do not fear the criminality of this entity
Syrian FM Faysal Mekdad from the Iranian Embassy headquarters in Damascus: The Israeli occupation entity will not be able to affect relations between Iran and Syria
White House: Aware of reports of Iranian Consulate in Damascus hit by Israeli airstrike on Monday
Amir-Abdollahian holds “Israel” responsible for the consequences of the attack: State media
Iranian FM Amir-Abdollahian says Israeli attack on Iranian consulate in Damascus is a breach of all international conventions: State media
By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News Websites
22 Mar 2024 12:32
Three of the UK’s high street banks have been funding a large oil conglomerate with millions to pursue exploitative activities in the North Sea.
HSBC and NatWest, two of the United Kingdom’s largest banks, have been exposed and accused of funding fossil fuel expansion in the North Sea despite signing a pledge to comply with net zero climate goals, TheGuardian reported.
Another high street bank, Lloyds, was also involved in similar funding activities but slowed them down since signing the agreement.
The three banks are part of the Net Zero Banking Alliance and have pledged to cease direct financing for new oil and gas projects and to align their lending and investment portfolios with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest.
However, a report called Banking on Climate Chaos 2023 indicates that between 2016 and 2022, Lloyds, HSBC, and NatWest provided significant financial support to Ithaca Energy, with Lloyds subsequently selling off its debt facilities to the company and having no ongoing lending to Ithaca.
Ithaca Energy is a British oil and gas conglomerate that has been majorly involved in the exploitation of the Rosebank oilfield northwest of the Shetland Islands and has been funded with between $60 million to $78 million from each of the three banks.
Ithaca has invested billions in developing Rosebank
Rosebank is the UK’s largest untapped oil field and holds around 500 million barrels of oil, which could emit 200 million tonnes of CO2 if fully utilized. Ithaca has been investing billions into developing Rosebank and aims to kickstart production by 2026, however, it has not officially declared its intentions to venture into renewables production, prompting critics to coin it a “pure play” company.
It is worth noting that the UK authorized the exploitation of Rosebank in September 2023.
The Israeli army withdrew from inside the Al-Shifa Hospital and the surrounding areas west of Gaza City early Monday, leaving scores of casualties and extensive destruction in the hospital and its vicinity, Anadolu news agency reported.
The army fully withdrew from inside the hospital and the surrounding neighbourhoods towards areas south of Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, southwest of Gaza City, witnesses told Anadolu.
The Israeli forces burned all buildings in the hospital resulting in complete cessation of services, the witnesses added
They also noted that the army destroyed the specialised surgery building and burned the main reception and emergency building.
Israeli forces also burned the buildings of the kidney and maternity wards, mortuary refrigerators, and cancer and burn facilities, and destroyed the outpatient clinic building, according to the witnesses.
Israel has ended its assault on the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, because there is nothing left to assault. The facility — the largest medical complex in Gaza where hundreds of civilians had been sheltering — is now an empty, unusable, burnt-out husk. Witnesses report hundreds of…
According to Palestinian medical sources, the hospital is now completely out of service and the army destroyed all medical equipment in the complex, operation rooms, and intensive care units.
The witnesses reported that scores of scattered bodies were found in the hospital and in the streets surrounding it.
They explained that the army destroyed the makeshift cemetery established by Palestinians in the facility and removed the corpses from it, scattering them in various areas of the hospital.
They further noted that Israeli forces burned and destroyed many homes and residential buildings in the vicinity of the hospital.
The Israeli army raided the hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip that houses thousands of patients and displaced people, on 18 March.
La masacre del hospital Al-Shifa es peor que las masacres de Deir Yassin y Tantoura de la Nakba de 1948 juntas
Más de 300 mujeres, niños y hombres masacrados. Muchos atados y ejecutados, algunos aplastados por tanques, quemados y despedazados por misiles, restos de esqueletos y… pic.twitter.com/j552iQymvU
When Borrell speaks of “our own interest” he literally means HIS own interest and a few of his cronies on the elitist payroll.
If you can get your head around the Moscow attacks or the British foreign minister’s recent video monologue where he explains how the UK is sanctioning a number of Chinese officials, have a thought about the European Union, a Rubik’s Cube which has all its faces painted one colour as its real identity is so opaque.
Now just weeks away from its own elections – yes, one of the most undemocratic organisations in the world even organises elections for its own fake parliament – the EU itself is “about to redefine itself”.
Already there are signs that even EU leaders are growing tired of its foibles and delusional dreams about its identity on the international circuit as a geopolitical contender, but people, humble voters, will soon deliver a message to the elites which run the EU soon: reform or crumble.
After abandoning the interests of Europeans, wrecking the economy and its future, just to blindly follow the US war on Russia,and indeed on the EU itself.
Apparently suffering from a pandemic 0f Stupidity with mass delusions and Long Covid brain fog and acute RussoPhobia, the EU leaders blindly obeyed and keep on and on Sanctioning Russia.
Without ever asking their voters for consent the EU leaders compete in destroying their own industry, losing key resources and sabotaging their own economy -all in favour of the USA, and even of Russia!
Just recently, EU nerds in Brussels noticed that when all of the EU’s leaders descend on the grey, depressing Belgian capital – a city many associate with industrial scale , graft, chocolate and a pissing urchin – that they show anyone who’s paying attention who ultimately runs the EU: member states.
Or at least that’s the theory. In the last few days EU leaders attended a meeting at the European Council of Ministers building and voted to “condemn” illegal West Bank settlers in Israel, while still protecting their financial portfolios by rabidly supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza
Most editors of UK newspapers didn’t even understand what was happening.
It was reported as “EU slams Israel’s West bank settlers” or “EU possibly mulls sanctions against violent settlers” in a number of exclusive, European high-brow journals but completely unreported in the UK or US.
Perhaps the British press didn’t understand the significance of EU leaders – rather than the European Commission or the parliament – taking this initiative?
EU leaders themselves, purely in theory, have the power to overrule the Commission.
They hold the aces. And if they ever decide on a line or a certain policy, the European Commission would have no choice but to go along with it – affirming the old hacks’ dinner party circuit rambling that “the EU Council of Ministers is the most powerful institution in Brussels”.
EU intensifying efforts to revive Middle East peace process: Borrell
Perhaps it is. Or was. But what were EU leaders really trying to say with the stunt?
Simply that they needto pacify the ubiquitous demonstrators with a mild and indirectobjection to Ursula von der Leyen’s repulsive, uncompromising support for the genocide in Gaza and send a signal that Jewish settlers’ violence when they steal Palestinians’ land is unacceptable ( as it has been for 75 years).
Just keep on stealing, murdering and looting as much as you can, but please do it peacefully, seems to be the message.
They’re more concerned with asserting that THEY really run the so-called EU “foreign policy” rather than Ursula or that Catalan fellow in Brussels otherwise known as Josep Borrell.
EU member states every now and again like to remind the elite in Brussels that they, member states, humour the EU hierarchy with this fantasy of being a geopolitical player with its own imaginary hegemony.
But its just a meaningless game, while some members like Ireland or Spain are radically against Israeli fascism while Germany is still supplying them Arms, leaving the EU or its “members” as usual impotent, hesitant and ultimately cowardly on the international stage?
Ultimately, all the EU can do is make statements. That’s it.
It has proven over and over again that it is powerless against anything that Israel does, regardless of that old chestnut often known as “international law”.
And the call from EU leaders for violence in the West Bank to stop is also an indicator to who are the super elites around the world who really control them: Jewish money and power.
And that Jewish money – American Jewish money – which has a key role in the banking system, the federal exchange, World Bank, IMF, Hollywood, both houses in U.S. politics and most of big business in America.
Since Israel finally declared itself a Jewish State it has declared any and everybody who criticizes its policies to be therefore guilty of anti-Semitism, and due for reprisals, very worrying for the dependent international elite. .
EU leaders didn’t meet in Brussels to thrash out a peace plan as they don’t have the instructions to do so.
Rising rejection of nationalist Jews in the West is the most important issue as it could be the thin end of the wedge which removes power from the elites who own Sunak, Scholz, Macron et al not to mention the European Union project which serves their global interests most admirably.
And you can always tell when these powerful hidden elites are fretting over their power base being slightly shaken. Their surfs start whining. Just listen to Josep Borrell recently talk about the Ukraine war and Russia.
“We cannot afford for Russia to win this war. Otherwise the U.S. and European interests will be very damaged” he gushed. “It is not a matter of generosity alone … of supporting Ukraine because we love Ukrainian people. It is in our own interest”.
Of course, when he spoke of “our own interest” he literally meant his own interest and a few of his cronies on the elitist payroll which you might be fooled into thinking was the EU itself.
Oh you thought he was talking about the West in general and its population? Okay it is April 1st…
The corrupt Washington regime okayed another massive arms gift and declared to be ‘UNBINDING’ the UN Security Council order demanding an Israeli Ceasefire, declaring the Genocide illegal .
A line of US officials officials declared yesterday that Black is White and so Israel need not obey the legal Worldwide Ceasefire Demand, and the armaments gifts are going ahead,
The new arms packages include more than 1,800 of the above MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, said the sources, who confirmed a report in the Washington Post.
And this despite Biden publicly “expressing concerns” about an anticipated Israeli military offensive on 1,200.000 homeless and starving refugees, mostly children and women, trapped the Rafah border.
But times have changed, Israel has enjoyed ‘money no object’ IMPONITY due to US sponsorship for most of 75 years, and by now it has learned to infiltrated and now legally buy up all the powerful political and corporate leaders it needs.
Children are traumatised by seeing the mutilated bodies of their families.
Nowadays the boot is on the other foot. The tiny Israeli state can blackmail (“lever”) both parties of the US ‘Superpower’ by threatening their bank books, which explains how they could even order ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden to back Israel’s mass murder of 1000’s of innocent children, which should be politically suicidal for him in the upcoming election.
President Joe Biden has even boasted of being top of the bribery list, receiving millions of Israeli money while gifting them $ billions .
All this is nothing new. Only that now it has become impossible to hide, despite every effort prohibiting foreign journalists, murdering local ones and cutting communications.
Brave demonstrators in front of Radio City Music Hall protesting US President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in New York, United States on March 28, 2024.
Israeli Jews dancing ecstatically in celebration of the genocide in Gaza at music concert;
And almost all US ‘clients’ have followed suit, showing how Nation States, despite democratic charades, are in the end run by a more or less privileged corrupted mafia class claiming a legal monopoly of brute force and extortion over their citizens, while supplying a minimum possible of public services and cashing in on the side.
Nevertheless Nation States can sometimes band together, in the UN or trade blocks for instance, to limit the power of rising transnational Predator Capitalism, led by massive corporations, offshore or with bought tax immunity, which, along with Israel endeavor to suck in and corrupt local elites.
By now 30%-50% of world monetary assets are stowed in ‘offshore’ tax havens, and “must”constantly seek new opportunities for multiplying their trillions, without, of course, taking to account the real cost to us, the world population, or the irreversible collapse of our ecosystems and permanent climate catastrophe.
Israel is a good example, as was Ukraine for a while, of a place to park money and multiply it. But Big Capital is always seeking new opportunities for a new ‘free for all’ Feeding Frenzy. History is littered with them.
In Gaza for example a new stretch of Miami style beachfront, coupled with a huge Gas Field just offshore, maybe a new ‘Suez Canal’ through Gaza…
By teaming up with the world financial elite and outright bribing of decision makers, a bunch of zionist fanatics has hijacked Israel and abused its inside power over other nations and predator capitalism.
Billionaire Capitalists need a base to stow and grow their stolen capital, and Israel is keen to continue to provide one, ploughing back a good percentage of the immense subsidies from US money printing into ‘legally’ buying the elite, politicians and candidates there.
So by now it seems impossible for the US to just stop funding and arming the Israeli State due to Israeli blackmail on the personal wealth of the legally corrupted elite rulers. The Israeli ‘tail’ is wagging the dog, even forcing through US laws like again attempting to close Tik Tok to stop pro Palestine content by millions of youngsters.
But can this analysis really explain the Gaza and West bank nazi style horror?
It fails to explain why Israelis make no attempt to cover up or lessen their mass murder campaign – quite the opposite.
It seems that the far right zionist Israelis now in power represent and empower a big section of real nazis who enjoy and celebrate killing and torturing and believe they assertion of some clever 3000 year old priest that they are directly and uniquely supported by God himself.
While Nation States tend to become controlled by mafia elites, single race based States are much more pernicious, and exclusively single race and single religion run states, like Israel, are a recipe for brainwashed nazi style mass hysteria.
“It’s particularly striking that so many photographs and so much footage has come out showing just how de-humanised many Jews of Israel have become under generations of Zionist indoctrination, and which has prepared them to perpetrate the crimes they are with an apparently clear conscience — indeed more than that: to commit those crimes as a demonstration of virtue.
I’m thinking of the documentation of female Israeli soldiers posing in front of bound and blindfolded male Palestinian prisoners in the manner of the US marines at Abu Ghraib;
About laughing male Israeli soldiers videoing themselves standing over bound female Palestinians forced to their knees, possibly prior to being raped;
About laughing Israeli male soldiers posing with the under-clothing of the Palestinian women they’ve killed in the ruins of the homes they’ve destroyed;
About for example Israeli soldiers recording themselves beating wounded Palestinian prisoners;
And what about the televised footage of Jewish children singing about wiping out Gaza and killing all Palestinians;
About Israeli soldiers proudly dedicating to their own children the mining and explosion of buildings in which Palestinians may still be living ;
The Free 