Yesterday, those of us who maintain an organizing space in Building T of the CCH Vallejo (UNAM College of Science and Humanities – Campus Vallejo), had organized a feminist market of women producers, an activity we carry out twice a month to combat economic violence, and to open up secure spaces where we can meet each other, share, create, and organize together, among women.
Mural Del CCH Vallejo Work of CCH Vallejo students assembly tell the story of how Naomi protected Joel, the boy who almost lost a kidney after an earlier attack on by ‘Porros’ (hired macho goon squads)
At the same time, those of us who organize in the Revuelta space, had just finished our participation as independent editorial projects in the International Book Fair in the Zócalo of the city, where around six other independent women’s projects were able to present and exhibit their creations, books, art, etc.
At approximately 4pm, students from the school approached us to tell us that the porro group3 de Marzo (a shock group) was planning an attack (this rumor had been circulating for a few days amongst student groups at the CCH).
With this news, some compañeras approached the authorities of the school to tell them of the impending attack. The school authorities approached the violent group, who were clearly beneath the influence of hard drugs, questioning them about the threats.
Earlier this month, a district court in Kiev announced its findings in a case that had dragged on since 2015, handing down sentences to five former officers of the long-dissolved ‘Berkut’ police unit.
The ex-police grouping became internationally known during the 2013/14 protests which culminated with the violent ‘Maidan.’
Charged with involvement in the shooting of anti-government protesters by snipers in the center of the Ukrainian capital on February 20, 2014, four of the accused – three of them in absentia – were found guilty and sentenced to terms between five years and life. One was acquitted.
Politically, this was, or should have been, Ukraine’s single most important trial since independence in 1991.
The judges closed – at least for now as appeals have already been announced – the country’s attempt to come to terms judicially with the darkest moment of what has been called a “revolution,” as well as a “coup”: the fall of the government of former President Viktor Yanukovich under pressure from initially peaceful – then violent – street protests and Western meddling.
The events producing regime change and geopolitical re-orientation unfolded over three months, but the killing of almost 50 protesters that February was a crucial tipping point.
The case quickly became known as the “Maidan massacre.”
The shootings were squarely blamed on Yanukovich and his administration and seemed to rule out domestic compromise and confirm Western and Ukrainian pro-insurgent narratives, casting the crisis as a national and democratic freedom struggle against a corrupt and oppressive regime beholden to Moscow.
Neither the disproportionate role of an aggressive and manipulative Ukrainian far right nor the ruthless geopolitics of the West had a place in this framing.
Within days after the killings, a last attempt to stop the spiral of escalation by an internationally mediated agreement failed, Yanukovych fled to Russia, and Moscow’s troops were on the move in Crimea.
Then things got worse. Clashes between Kiev’s new government and rebels in Donbass evolved into an initially intense, then mostly slow-burn, regional civil war, including limited Russian interventions.
The best chance for peace, the 2015 Minsk 2 Agreement, was sabotaged systematically by Kiev and its Western supporters, and, after February 2022, Ukraine became the theater of a proxy war of the collective West against Russia.
The West and Ukraine are now likely to lose this conflict at immense cost in lives and wealth, mostly to Ukraine. International tension is extremely high, trust has evaporated, and meaningful communication is almost impossible.
Ukraine and the world could be in a much better place if the last days of February 2014 had played out differently, allowing for the compromise already negotiated between Ukraine’s government and the insurgents to take hold.
The Maidan Massacre was not the only but the single most important shove toward an ever-widening conflict, especially as the dominant Western narrative about the killings has remained the same, blaming only the old regime and rejecting any challenge to the narrative as a pro-Russian “information war.”
Here was the perfect story, in short, to emotionally legitimize not only support but uncritical backing for Kiev, the rejection and sabotage of any concessions to Ukraine’s domestic rebels in the East, and vilifying any effective cooperation with Moscow.
Maidan massacre trial verdict now confirms: My video appendix visually shows that Zherebnyi was killed from Maidan-controlled Hotel Ukraina & that bullet holes in Paris Match photo of his wooden shield were from this hotel located in his back (3:29, 4:19). https://t.co/Fhyes0S9xD… pic.twitter.com/xWIc706YuU
But what if we were not told the truth about the killings? That is the key claim advanced by Canadian-Ukrainian political scientist Ivan Katchanovski. Katchanovski (who also recently exposed the scandal around the honoring of a Waffen-SS veteran by the Canadian parliament) has long argued that “the Maidan massacre was a false-flag mass killing of … protestors and … police in order to seize power in Ukraine.
It was conducted with the involvement of oligarchic and far-right elements of the Maidan opposition using concealed groups of Maidan snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings.”
The rich detail of Katchanovski’s findings cannot be reproduced here, but three points should be noted: Snipers belonging to the insurgents’ side started shooting at the police on the morning of February 20; key positions, such as in the Hotel Ukraina and a conservatory, from which these policemen were attacked and later Maidan protesters as well, were and remained under the control of insurgent units (not the police); and after 9.00 am, protesters, too, were shot by insurgent snipers (again: not by the police).
A Palestinian woman holds her children at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on October 23, 2023, after an Israeli air strike wounded the family [Mohammed Al-Masri/Reuters]
Gaza has 50,000 pregnant women who lack treatment, access to doctors and adequate healthcare centres.
Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Niveen al-Barbari is terrified for her unborn child. With every Israeli air attack near her, the 33-year-old’s back and stomach convulse with fear and pain.
Before the Israeli offensive began on October 7, al-Barbari regularly visited a specialist because she has gestational diabetes and high blood pressure. But the bombings forced her to seek shelter in her family’s home, and she lost contact with her doctor.
“Every day,” she said, “I wonder how I’ll give birth and where. The bombs don’t stop, and no human, tree or stone has been spared. We don’t know whose house will be destroyed or who will die. I just hope me and my child are safe.”
Al-Barbari is due to give birth to her first child this month, one of thousands of women in the Gaza Strip nearing the end of their pregnancies.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF), there are 50,000 pregnant women in the besieged territory, many suffering from a lack of regular check-ups and treatment because Gaza’s healthcare system is on the brink of collapse due to the siege imposed by Israel on the territory. Last week, the UNPF called for “urgent health care and protection” of the pregnant women.
“All these images of babies and children under the rubble of their homes or lying in hospital with injuries makes me very scared for my baby,” al-Barbari said. “Every day I pray for the war to end in order to save my child from these missiles that have no mercy on anyone.”
Tablets used to delay periods can cause negative side effects but without access to water and hygiene products, women in Gaza say they have no choice but to use them https://t.co/FDuRr7GhcEpic.twitter.com/T5k2aL3PeF
House Republicans have evidence that US President Joe Biden personally benefited from his son Hunter selling China access to the family, Congressman James Comer announced on Wednesday.
File photo: Protesters outside a federal courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware, on October 3, 2023, ahead of Hunter Biden’s appearance on gun charges. . by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP
“Not only did he lie about his son Hunter making money in China, but it also turns out that $40,000 in laundered China money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check. And the Oversight Committee has it,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said in a video message.
The 12-page memo put together by the Republican committee staff purports to show the money trail of a personal check written by James and Sarah Biden, the current president’s brother and his wife, on September 3, 2017.
The check itself says it’s a “loan repayment,” but the money originally came from the Chinese energy giant CEFC and was channeled through the president’s son Hunter, according to the memo.
Biden’s son Hunter and his brother James began working with CEFC in 2016, while Joe Biden was still Barack Obama’s vice president. The company committed to investing $10 million in a joint venture with the Bidens, which a note found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop said would include a ten percent stake for “the big guy,” widely understood to mean his father.
On July 30, 2017, Hunter sent CEFC associate Raymond Zhao this WhatsApp message, demanding to know where the money was:
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. I am very concerned that the Chairman has either changed his mind and broken our deal without telling me or that he is unaware of the promises and assurances that have been made have not been kept. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand. And now means tonight.”
A response from Zhao, dated July 31, said that CEFC was “willing to cooperate with the family.”
According to Comer, this was proof “the extortion scheme worked.”
Northern International Capital, a CEFC front, sent a $5 million wire to Hudson West III – a front company Hunter had set up with CEFC’s Gongwen Dong – on August 8, 2017.
Bank records show that Hunter withdrew $400,000 from Hudson West III to another company he owned, Owasco PC, the very same day.
On August 14, Hunter wired $150,000 from his Hudson West III account to the company owned by James and Sara Biden, called the Lion Hall Group.
Prior to that transaction, the account held less than $2,000. Two weeks later, $50,000 was transferred from the Lion Hall account to the personal checking account of James and Sara Biden, which had held less than $47.
On September 3, they cut a “loan repayment” personal check to Joe Biden for $40,000 – exactly 10% of the amount Hunter had withdrawn from the CEFC wire the month before.
“Joe benefited from his family cashing in on his name – with money from China no less,” Congressman Comer said on Wednesday.
“Without his family peddling his name and his son threatening a CEFC associate with consequences that he said Joe Biden knew about, James wouldn’t have had the money to write the $40,000 check to his brother Joe.”
The problem isn’t just that Biden lied to the American public about Hunter’s business deals or his involvement in them, but that he took money sourced to a company with ties to the Communist Party of China that “wanted to advance China’s interests,” thereby exposing the Bidens to blackmail and putting “America’s interests behind his own desire for money,” Comer argued.
The contents of the Hunter Biden laptop were made public in October 2020, just ahead of the US presidential election.
Joe Biden and the Democrats declared it a “Russian disinformation operation”and the outlet that published the story was censored on social media.
By the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal Biden was able to scrape into power, avoiding 4 more years of Trump mania.
As of October 29, 2023 already 45 percent of 1,500 registered voters disapproved of Biden to 38 percent who approved
The new evidence could finally bury the warmonger ‘Babbling Biden’s bid for re-election, but could just make way for a LOONY RIGHT NAZI like Trump, Mike Johnson or Ron DeSantis
Gaza officials say 195 killed, 120 missing in Israel’s bombing of Jabalia refugee camp, which the UN says may be “disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes”.
Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Gaza’s only medical facility serving cancer patients, forced to shut down after running out of fuel. The Indonesian Hospital running on backup generator.
At last – Bolivia, and Columbia, are recalling their ambassadors and cutting off diplomatic relations with Israel. The outrage of ordinary people around the world has turned against their government’s support for Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people culminating in turning a blind eye to the devastation at Jabalia refugee camp and the bombing of children, a heartless war crime.
Gaza on Thursday morning 2/11/2023
Biden has said US supports humanitarian pause, the first time the US president has said these words himself.
The Gaza Borders and Crossings Authority has released a list of 596 foreign and dual nationals allowed to leave through the Rafah crossing on Thursday after a first group, including 81 critically ill patients, crossed on Wednesday.
At least 8,805 Palestinians been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel.
Israeli air raid targets UNRWA school We’re getting reports that the Israeli military has targeted an UNRWA school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza. Thousands of displaced people in Gaza are currently taking shelter in the school.The attacks come after five Palestinians were killed in an earlier raid targeting areas around that school.
Israeli air strikes target Jabalia refugee camp for a third time
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli air strikes have targeted the Jabalia refugee camp for the third time in as many days.
At least three Palestinians have been killed and many injured in the bombing of a house in the camp.
Almost 200 people were killed and at least 777 wounded in the first two bombings of the camp on Tuesday and Wednesday. Another 120 people are still missing, according to a report published by Gaza’s Government Media Office.
Below is an interactive that shows the situation in the camp before and after Tuesday’s Israeli air raid.
By Perla Issa | Institute For Palestine Studies | October 25, 2023 If you are to read Western news reports coming from Israel, you would likely believe that Kfar Azza, Be’eri, Erez, Nahal Oz, and the other settlements that surround Gaza are “idyllic spots,” “little pieces of paradise, little pieces of heaven;” and “small farming […]
El pueblo palestino tiene derecho a la vida, la tierra y la soberanía Las represalias de Israel por el ataque de Hamas del 7 de octubre de 2023 han evolucionado rápidamente hacia otra fase de lo que sólo puede considerarse una campaña genocida para destruir y desplazar a los 2,2 millones de residentes de Gaza. En el […]
The Free 