International News
Every Place in Gaza is a Target
by Vijay Prashad , People’s Democracy (India)
It is almost as if the Israeli army is trying to gather as many Palestinians as possible in one place and then kill them all. Ahmed Abed and his family fled the Dalal al-Maghribi school in early August after an Israeli airstrike displaced them. That airstrike killed 15 Palestinians, who had taken refuge there after Israel had bombed their homes in the Shujaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City. The family arrived in the al-Taba’een school, a private school with an attached mosque, which sheltered 2,500 people. Since the Israelis began their most recent bombardment of Gaza in October 2023, Palestinians have taken refuge in private schools and in schools run by the United Nations. The UN reports that in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli attacks have damaged 190 of their facilities, most of them schools. There are few sanctuaries left in Gaza. These schools – whether private or UN – are the only places that were seen as relatively safe.
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Ukrainians flee to avoid conscription
by Alex Miller
Large-scale military defeats, a high number of losses, an acute shortage of weapons, the complete absence of social benefits. These days most Ukrainians have lost their patriotic zeal. Guided by a common instinct of self-preservation and fear of serious injury or unwanted death they are not ready to sacrifice themselves.
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Blair was warned over NATO war crimes
by John Miles, Sputnik
As NATO aggression in the former Yugoslavia fully unmasked the alliance as a tool of Western imperialism, newly-released documents reveal that controversial former Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned of the possible legal consequences of the bombing of a state-owned broadcaster in Belgrade.
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The Hypocrites
by Guillermo Alvarado, Radio Havana Cuba
When the humanitarian cost in the Gaza Strip exceeds all imaginable limits and there are more than 40,000 dead, mostly women and children, as a result of the Zionist bombings and ground attacks, it is disgusting to see how those mainly responsible for this atrocity try to clean their image.
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The Kursk gambit: the Samson option
Dr Chris Busby, the scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk and a former member of the UK Defence Ministry’s Oversight Committee on Depleted Uranium, shares his concerns about the situation around the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant
The recent major Ukrainian military incursion across the Russia border in the Kursk region has left everyone scratching their heads in puzzlement. What possible advantage is there in invading an area of no apparent strategic importance when it is clear that full-on defence is necessary in the Donbas?
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Ukraine: a useful tool for imperialism in Africa
by G Dunkel, Workers World (USA)
According to reports in the corporate media, Ukraine is using its special forces to attack the Russian support mission in Syria and is supplying critical intelligence to reactionary movements that are trying to dismantle Mali in Africa’s Sahel region.
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A British eye on Chinese health
by Leng Shumei, Global Times
Over 700 years ago, Italian traveller Marco Polo journeyed through China, documenting his experiences and introducing the splendour of ancient China to Europe in his book. Fast forward to the present day, when people discover China through online videos. With China’s visa-free policies and the introduction of 144-hour visa-free transit, a wave of international YouTubers and vloggers have flocked to China.
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Features
China: the key to global progress
by Einar Tangen, Global Times
China’s contribution to the world has two distinct phases. In the past, China contributed to the world by inventing paper, after which books, kites and paper money were possible. It pioneered iron and bronze production, allowing the creation of seed drills, row planting, movable type, the compass, mechanical clocks and earthquake detectors. Gunpowder changed the military balance of power, while tea, porcelain and traditional Chinese medicine altered how people lived. Intellectually, a variety of influences, including Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, influenced the way people thought.
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A Democratic German report
Book review by Alan Stewart,
Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990 by Katja Hoyer. Allen Lane: 2024; 496pp. Hardback rrp £25. Softback rrp: £12.99.
Katya Hoyer is a German-British historian; she is a visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London. In her new book she argues that it is “time to take a serious look at the other Germany behind the Wall” and look at life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
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Greetings to peace activists of the Netherlands
We are publishing the contents of this video message from one of our closest friends, Leonin Ilderkhin, because it gives a brief but excellent description of the situation in Ukraine, and of the demands of all Ukrainian anti-fascist democrats and patriots.
Dear friends, my name is Leonin Ilderkhin, I’m from the Co-ordination Council of the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.
We greet with all of our hearts your event in the Netherlands, and the other places where you make your great activities.
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