Palestinians observe strike in West Bank against killings by Israel in Gaza
Palestinians call a general strike in solidarity with people in Gaza in the wake of Israeli attack on safe zone that killed at least 90 people. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are observing a general strike in protest against Israel’s war on Gaza, denouncing Saturday’s attack on a designated safe zone of al-Mawasi that killed at least 90 people and injured some 300 others. Most cities in the West Bank joined the general strike on Sunday against Israel’s air attack on the refugee camp west of Khan Younis. Palestinians also protested on Saturday night in the cities of Jenin, Hebron and Tubas to condemn the devastating war. Local Palestinian social media accounts shared videos on Sunday morning showing shops closing in Jenin, the Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem, and Tulkarem in response to calls for the strike. #شاهد | إضراب في مدينة جنين تنديدا بمجزرتي الاحتلال في خانيونس ومخيم الشاطئ. pic.twitter.com/lOp3VgaPxw — المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) July 14, 2024 Translation: A strike in the city of Jenin to denounce the occupation massacres in Khan Younis and the Shati camp. Reporting from Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said Palestinians feel that this is “the bare minimum” they can do “to express solidarity, to feel that they are doing something to stand by their fellow Palestinians in Gaza as they feel helpless”, while at the same time “confronting” Israeli raids imposed on several cities in occupied West Bank since October 7. “That reality of occupation and relentless war happening in Gaza, [as well as] raids and home demolitions and confiscation of land happening here in the West Bank is coming full-circle in this expression of solidarity,” said Odeh, adding that apart from the sentiment, the strikes are unlikely to have any effect. Anger against ‘fractured politics’ In addition to voicing their anger over the war on Gaza, Palestinians are also expressing frustration with their fractured politics, said Odeh. “In Ramallah, for example, the Palestine factions were unable to agree to join the general strike, while the same factions in other cities agreed on that bare minimum.” Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Sunday that at least 38,584 Palestinians have been killed and 88,881 have been injured in Israel’s war on the enclave. Meanwhile, violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which had been escalating even before Israel’s war on Gaza began in October, has intensified dramatically in the past months. An increase in Israeli military raids on Palestinian groups, expansion of settlements and violent attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages have drawn response from Palestinian armed groups in the occupied territory. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reported on Sunday that Israeli soldiers arrested 30 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank over the past two days. Israel has arrested nearly 10,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in near-daily raids. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump’s control over party in focus as Republicans meet, post shooting
The words read like one of his social media posts. Sentences abruptly shifted into uppercase letters. Warnings of chaos and instability, and false claims about immigration, leapt from the page. And sprinkled throughout was his trademark catchphrase, “Make America Great Again”. But this was no social media screed from former United States President Donald Trump. Instead, it was the new draft platform for the Republican Party, released in advance of its national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The RNC has said the convention will proceed as scheduled and Trump has confirmed that he will attend the event as planned, despite Saturday’s assassination attempt. In the aftermath of the shooting, the Republican Party has rallied around Trump, pushing the image of the former president with his fist raised, blood streaking down his cheek. Even traditional detractors in the party, such as former President George W Bush, have condemned the assassination attempt. The apparent takeover of the party by Trump is likely to be visible throughout the convention this week. For the Republican Party has indeed become the party of Trump, say experts. Recent changes within the party and its leadership offer a glimpse at Trump’s plans for the White House, should he succeed in being re-elected this November. Kathleen Dolan, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, noted that Trump and his supporters already have a clear plan for his second term. Part of their agenda involves consolidating power, much as Trump has done within the Republican Party. “What we’d be moving into is a world in which the balance of power between the branches [of government] could be shifting,” Dolan said. In March, Lara Trump became the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, with the encouragement of her father-in-law Donald Trump [Chris Seward/AP Photo] Committee changes The convention will affirm Trump’s leadership over the party. During the four-day event, Trump will receive his party’s nomination for the presidency, with speakers taking the stage to support his candidacy. But in the lead-up to the convention, experts have said there have been signals of how Trump’s dominance over the party might translate to the White House. Trump has a history of appointing family members to high-profile roles, and that continued this year when Ronna McDaniel stepped down as the chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), the party’s governing body. The leadership shake-up left vacancies, and Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump ultimately took a role as co-chair, with the ex-president’s endorsement. Within days, she pledged to ensure “every penny” of the committee’s funds goes to “making sure Donald Trump will be the 47th president”. The Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign for re-election have since merged their operations, raising questions about the resources available to other candidates. The committee also cut staff, aiming to leave only Trump loyalists in place. Experts said these actions reflect Trump’s plans for the executive branch, should he retake the White House. A new draft party platform will be presented at the Republican National Convention on July 15 [Brian Snyder/Reuters] A new platform The Trump campaign’s influence over the new party platform also indicates how the Republican National Committee and campaign have fused. “It closes the circle on the platform of the Republican Party being the personification of whatever Donald Trump believes and wants that platform to be,” Dolan told Al Jazeera. The platform had not been updated since 2016, due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the convention neared, members of the party’s platform committee gathered to create a draft that could be presented at the gathering. Trump’s campaign, however, pushed to present a “streamlined” platform that would minimise opportunities for Democrats to attack the Republican candidate. The party also refused to televise the platform committee’s meetings, in a break with past election cycles. There was no opportunity for compromise on the platform, Dolan noted. “It was a very closed process and presented with a document that was approved. That’s different from how platforms usually happen,” she explained. “Again, that shows us that it is all very tightly and completely controlled by a small group of people and in service to what former President Trump wants the platform to say.” For example, the Republican Party platform has long supported a national ban on abortion. But in the latest edition, the platform committee dropped abortion almost entirely, except for a single line opposing late-term abortion. Trump said during the recent debate that the matter should be left to individual states. Dolan argued that changing the platform’s language was merely a strategic move for November. She pointed out that one of Trump’s main talking points is taking credit for appointing the justices who overturned Roe v Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that previously upheld a federal right to abortion. “I don’t think he’s pushing the party to be more moderate,” Dolan said. “They understand that they are vulnerable among voters if they are seen as too extreme.” “But that does not in any way signal a shift in their thinking,” she added. “This is just politics, and they’re trying to hide their real positions.” The Heritage Foundation has designed the proposal package Project 2025 as a possible plan for Trump’s second term [Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo] Consolidating power The way Trump has tightened his grip on the Republican National Committee has aligned with some of the goals of a proposal called Project 2025. Written by some of Trump’s closest allies, Project 2025 is a nearly 900-page policy document that outlines a plan for the presidency if Trump is re-elected. Trump has denied knowledge of the project, which was helmed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Still, analysts have noted overlaps between its proposals and Trump’s own stated goals. For instance, Project 2025 suggests reducing career staffers and replacing them with hand-picked political appointees. Trump has hinted at rallies that he would take similar steps if re-elected. And the Republican National Committee, under Lara Trump’s leadership, fired about 60 staffers, aiming to empower
What we know so far about the assassination attempt on Trump
NewsFeed A gunman shot at former US President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Trump was injured in the ear in what the FBI is investigating as an assassination attempt. One spectator was killed and two others were critically injured. Published On 14 Jul 202414 Jul 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Is enough being done to end the conflict in the DRC?
UN warns of dire humanitarian crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo. For years, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been trapped in a cycle of conflict, with devastating consequences for its people. The latest escalation in violence between the military and the M23 armed group has forced 7.4 million people from their homes in two years. The United Nations says more than 25 million people are in desperate need of aid. And it’s warned the latest M23 activity in the east carries the very real risk of provoking a wider regional conflict. What will it take to bring peace to the DRC? And is there a role its neighbours can play to prevent the violence from spreading? Presenter: Mohammed Jamjoom Guests: Emilie Katondolo – Peace activist who advocates for the rights of women Greg Ramm – DRC country director for Save the Children Crystal Orderson – Journalist for The Africa Report Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli attack on al-Mawasi kills at least 90 people: What we know so far
Israeli air strikes on the al-Mawasi camp in southern Gaza have killed at least 90 people and wounded 300 others, according to Palestinian health officials. The attack on Saturday on the Israeli-designated “safe zone”, located west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, involved fighter jets and drones, according to witnesses. Israeli officials have said the attack targeted two senior members of Hamas’s military wing, claiming they were hiding among civilians. Hamas has dismissed this claim as “false”, saying it is a way of covering up the “horrific massacre” at a location where displaced Palestinians were urged to seek shelter after receiving orders to evacuate their homes elsewhere in the Strip. Here’s everything you need to know about the attack and its aftermath: What’s the situation on the ground? The attack killed at least 90 civilians in a densely populated area sheltering about 80,000 people, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Israeli warplanes hit tents housing displaced Palestinians and a water distillation unit. Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said the area was hit by “five bombs and five missiles”. Displaced people sheltering in the area said their tents were torn down by the force of the strikes and have described bodies and body parts strewn on the ground. “I couldn’t even tell where I was or what was happening,” said Sheikh Youssef, a resident of Gaza City who is displaced in the al-Mawasi area. “I left the tent and looked around. All the tents were knocked down, body parts, bodies everywhere, elderly women thrown on the floor, young children in pieces,” he told the Reuters news agency. The injured were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which is severely understaffed and lacks critical equipment. Rescue workers say the Israeli army attacked crews who were on their way to help victims. An official at Nasser Hospital told Al Jazeera that medical teams did not have the capacity to receive any more wounded patients as civil defence teams continued to work on search and rescue operations at the site of the attack. Mohammad Subeh, an emergency doctor working at one of the field hospitals near al-Mawasi, told Al Jazeera that rescuers were “digging people out of the ground”. The al-Mawasi area has been repeatedly attacked by the Israeli military, with a strike in late May that hit tents housing displaced families killing at least 21 people. What are Israeli officials saying? The Israeli military claimed in a statement that it acted based on “precise intelligence” to hit an area where “two senior Hamas terrorists” and additional fighters hid among civilians. It described the location of the strike as “an open area surrounded by trees, several buildings, and sheds”. The figures targeted were Rafa’a Salameh, commander of Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade, and Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’s military wing – both accused of masterminding the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel. Speaking at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “not absolutely certain” that the Hamas officials were killed in the attack but maintained that it had nonetheless been beneficial to Israel. “Just the attempt to assassinate Hamas commanders delivers a message to the world, a message that Hamas’s days are numbered,” he said. “And this is what I will be doing next week at the US Congress. I will deliver Israel’s message to the United States and the entire world.” Netanyahu said he approved the strike after receiving satisfactory information on collateral damage and the type of ammunition to be used. He added that the Israeli military would “one way or another” kill all Hamas leaders. Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said Netanyahu’s directive to “target and kill Hamas officials wherever they are”, claiming that it was carrying out precise and targeted attacks, had repeatedly been used as a justification to strike civilians in densely populated Gaza. What are Palestinian leaders saying? Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s deputy head in Gaza, claimed that Netanyahu had wished to declare a “fake victory” and that claims about targeting the Hamas leaders were false. “Mohammad Deif is listening to you now and mocking your false, empty statements,” he told Al Jazeera Arabic. Hamas had earlier issued a statement on Telegram calling on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem to “mobilise” in response to the attack. “We call on all resistance brigades to mobilise for Gaza and in loyalty to the blood of the martyrs,” the statement read. The armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said in a statement that Israel was “continuing the war of extermination against our people”. “This crime confirms that the occupation has disregarded all international norms and covenants,” the PIJ said. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa condemned Israel’s “genocidal crimes” in Gaza, saying that Palestinians were “going through a very difficult stage”. Mustafa said Israel’s actions were more broadly targeting the Palestinian project as a whole and included Israel’s goal of establishing an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Hanan Ashrawi, a scholar and activist, said the attack on al-Mawasi had “turned all of Gaza into one massive death zone”. “American bombs and shells rain down on Gaza while the Israeli government and thugs succeed in preventing any form of medical, food, or fuel supplies from reaching the devastated population,” she said in a post on X. Today’s horrific massacre & savage bombing of displaced Palestinians in Israeli designated “safe” zones of Muassi, Khan Younis is the latest in an escalation that has turned all of Gaza into one massive death zone. American bombs & shells rain down on Gaza while the Israeli… — Hanan Ashrawi (@DrHananAshrawi) July 13, 2024 What’s the situation under international law? Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, told Al Jazeera the attacks may have breached international law. “People in a safe area are protected under international law. If there
‘Everybody must condemn it’: Biden after Trump rally shooting
NewsFeed US President Joe Biden offered his first remarks after a shooting at a Donald Trump rally in the state of Pennsylvania. “The idea that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of. It’s just not appropriate. And everybody, everybody must condemn it.” Published On 14 Jul 202414 Jul 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Despite UN appeal, US and UK don’t fund ‘critical lifeline’ to Palestinians
Israel has tried for years to dismantle the UNRWA, which helps Palestinian refugees in Gaza and elsewhere. The United Nations chief has led an internationally backed effort to support its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) but has yet to persuade its biggest Western donors. The United States and the United Kingdom, key allies of Israel, have continued to financially block the main organisation delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere. Fourteen of the 16 donor nations resumed funding after suspending it in January, when Israel accused members of the organisation of having taken part in the October 7 Hamas-led attacks that killed more than 1,100 people in southern Israel. The US was the UNRWA’s biggest donor, but Congress has banned any payments to the agency until March 25, 2025. An independent review in April found that Israel has not presented credible evidence for its claims. There is a separate investigation into the October attack itself, by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a pledge conference in New York on Friday that the UNRWA faces “a profound funding gap” and that without financial support to the organisation “Palestinian refugees will lose a critical lifeline and the last ray of hope for a better future”. “Let me be clear – there is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said, also warning that Israeli evacuation orders are forcing Palestinians “to move like human pinballs across a landscape of destruction and death”. Without the necessary support and financing for @UNRWA, Palestine Refugees will lose a critical lifeline and the last ray of hope for a better future. My appeal to the international community: Protect UNRWA, its mandate and its funding. — António Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 13, 2024 UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini thanked the 118 countries that signed on to a shared commitment to support and bolster financial and political support for the agency as it “undergoes unprecedented attacks and systematic attempts to dismantle it”. Lazzarini said he was hopeful the UK – which elected a new Labour government last week – would soon resume its financial support. He said the organisation has currently secured funding from donor countries until September, but the total amount in pledges won’t be known until next week. According to Lazzarini, there are now 600,000 Palestinian “girls and boys of the age of primary and secondary school living in the rubble, deeply traumatised”, who need the UNRWA’s help to restart their education. The initiative to support the organisation at the UN was spearheaded by Slovenia, Jordan and Kuwait and was signed by all 15 members of the UN Security Council. ‘Kill the refugee file’ Hassan Barari, professor of international affairs at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera that Israel has been trying for years to defund the UNRWA because they believe that the organisation has been effective in helping Palestinian refugees. “They think that if they defund UNRWA then the Palestinians would be in their own societies and forgotten in the years to come,” he said. “This is the continuation of the Israeli attempt to defund UNRWA in order to kill the refugee file from any future negotiations.” Lex Takkenberg, former chief of UNRWA’s ethics office, told Al Jazeera that the agency is the only international body with an elaborate neutrality framework that includes staff training, financial checks and inspections of its installations. “It can never be ruled out that there are abuses, as in any other organisation, but it is doing an amazing job in providing support to Palestinians in the direst circumstances,” he said, adding that the agency was going above and beyond to operate according to humanitarian principles. Takkenberg said Israel did not present credible evidence to support its claims that UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 attacks. These claims instead served to normalise raids against the UNRWA and its facilities, which have become “an integral part of the onslaught in Gaza”, he said. Adblock test (Why?)
Pakistan court acquits former PM Imran Khan, wife in unlawful marriage case
Acquittal comes after another appeals court upheld the couple’s conviction, but Khan’s lawyer says he won’t be released. A court in Pakistan has acquitted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife on charges of unlawful marriage, according to his party and lawyer. Khan and his wife Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to seven years in prison, days before Pakistan’s election in February, a court ruling at the time that their marriage in 2018 violated Islamic law. In June a court rejected their plea to have the February ruling suspended. But on Saturday, an Islamabad court said the “appeals of both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are accepted”. Zulfi Bukhari, a senior official in Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party told Al Jazeera that the charges had been “dismissed”, while Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, posted on X, that the couple “are acquitted”. Khan remains behind bars as a court this week cancelled his bail over accusations he incited riots by his supporters in May 2023. Lawyer Intazar Hussain Panjutha told Al Jazeera that Khan “will not be released despite acquittal today [Saturday]”. An anti-terrorism court in Lahore this week approved Khan’s arrest in a case related to last year’s riots, his party’s legal team said. The court refused to grant him bail on Tuesday as the investigation into his alleged role in the unrest continues, despite the fact he was behind bars at the time. Bukhari told Al Jazeera that “at this moment, there is not one case on which Khan can be kept in jail any more”. And as for his wife, “this unlawful marriage case was the only one keeping her behind bars and with this acquittal, she should be immediately released today, not tomorrow”, Bukhari said. Earlier this month a United Nations panel of experts found Khan’s detention arbitrary and said it “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”. “Thus, from the outset, that prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose,” it said, calling for his immediate release after nearly a year in jail. Candidates loyal to Khan won the most seats in the general election, but were kept from government by an alliance of military-backed rival parties. The PTI secured a major legal victory on Friday when the Supreme Court declared it eligible for a share of reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies, a significant setback to the coalition government. Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was removed by a no-confidence vote after falling out with the military establishment, which wields huge influence over civilian politics. In opposition, he waged a campaign of defiance against the top generals, even accusing them of an assassination attempt that wounded him. But the former cricket star’s comeback campaign was hobbled by scores of legal cases, which analysts say were likely brought at the behest of the military establishment. Khan was first briefly arrested in May 2023, sparking nationwide unrest from PTI supporters, some of which targeted military facilities. The government and military cited the attacks as justification for a sweeping crackdown on the PTI, which saw its senior leadership decimated by arrests and defections. Surviving the crackdown PTI candidates were forced to stand as independents in the February 8 elections, which had been repeatedly delayed amid political chaos. Khan’s arrest and conviction for corruption back in August 2023 – on charges that he denies – meant he was barred from standing for office himself, confined to a cell in Adiala Jail south of the capital, Islamabad. Despite that, candidates loyal to PTI secured more seats than any other party. They were blocked from power by a broad coalition of parties considered more pliable to the influence of the military. Supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan protest outside the court in Islamabad in June to demand his release and that of his wife, Bushra Bibi [File: Farooq Naeem] Adblock test (Why?)
Austerity and immigration no longer explain the far right’s rise in Europe
The results of Sunday’s general elections in France have brought some relief to Europeans anxious about another far-right government being formed within the European Union. But this is by far not the end of the story. As debates rage about what the response should be to the far-right surge in Europe, it is important to explore why it is happening in the first place. Beyond the usual explanations, the deeper reasons for the rise of the far right are to be found in the rise of China, India and the Global South. Let us start by addressing some of the traditional explanations for this phenomenon. A decade ago, “populism” became a buzzword in the Western media. So-called populist parties were booming – from the Five Star Movement in Italy to Podemos in Spain. The Brexit populists pulled the United Kingdom out of the EU in 2016. One of the most widespread explanations for the rise of left and right-wing populism centred on the economy: Europe was in the middle of a debt crisis accompanied by self-defeating austerity measures. Budgets were cut, economies were in recession, and unemployment was skyrocketing. No wonder voters were turning to the extremes, many argued. This thesis has much less explanatory power today. While inflation has certainly reduced purchasing power, Europe is currently experiencing record-high employment. The European economy is surely not booming, but neither is it contracting. And there is little austerity: on the contrary, European countries have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine with significant public investment. A twist to this answer is to point to the greenlash – or the reaction from some quarters to Europe’s climate policies. Think taxes on petrol, reduction of agriculture subsidies, or higher energy costs. True, farmers’ protests played a key role in propelling far-right leader Geert Wilders to first place in the Dutch parliamentary elections. At the same time, however, the transition to renewable energy is bringing tangible benefits in the form of a reduction of energy costs. Italians went on a house improvement spree thanks to 200 billion euros ($218bn) of government-sponsored subsidies for energy efficiency – if there is a greenlash in Italy, it has solar panels on its roofs. Many analysts also turn to the issue of migration when trying to explain the far right. Voters, they argue, are reacting to the continuous influx of migrants into Europe and to the loss of a homogeneous culture. There is certainly racism in Europe, and building a multicultural society doesn’t come cost-free. And yet, this is an equally insufficient explanation. The locations where migrants represent a truly significant part of the population –cosmopolitan cities like London, Paris, or Milan – are those where the far-right scores the lowest in elections. It is where migrants are barely seen – the countryside and provincial towns, and most of Eastern Europe – that it does well. It is true that migrants compete with locals for access to scarce public services, and yet, with unemployment near record lows, the narrative of “migrants stealing jobs” is nowhere to be heard. Instead, faced with demographic decline, even right-wing governments are listening to industry’s demands for more migrants. For example, Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s right-wing prime minister, recently increased the number of work visas for foreign workers. Each of these three explanations has some truth to it. And yet none goes to the heart of the matter. To understand what is going on we must change our language and approach. We are not witnessing the rise of the far-right, but the rise of nationalism. This comes at a time when Europe is hit by relative decline compared with the rest of the world. As celebrated philosopher and analyst of European fascism Hannah Arendt pointed out in her writings, Europe’s imperial projection served to reconcile inequalities at home. Put simply, pauperised French workers and decadent industrialists had one thing in common: they were French and not from the colonies. They considered themselves to be superior to the peoples their country ruled over. Even in more recent times, well after the supposed end of colonialism, an insurmountable psychological gap separated the “first” and the “third” world. A European, however poor, had access to opportunities, technologies and freedoms that few from other parts of the world could aspire to. The sense of privilege provided a powerful tool for social cohesion. The material reality of that privilege provided governments with enough wealth to co-opt the population with rising welfare expenditure. But today Europe is increasingly marginalised. It is technologically backwards in key sectors of the global economy – think Chinese electrical vehicles replacing German ones. It is geopolitically disoriented and militarily weak – think Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Its small nation states, too proud and short-sighted to truly unite, see their global rankings drop year after year. This has profound, if understudied, psychological effects. It is this sense of decline and disorientation that the nationalist right thrives on. The proud “nation” is brandished as the place of refuge, where cohesion, unity, familiarity and a sense of shared purpose can be rebuilt. Europe’s contemporary nationalism is not the expansionist, juvenile kind of 20th-century fascism. It is the nationalism of the provincialised, the demoted, and the exhausted. If migrants and minorities are the preferred target of the far right this is not for any reason other than the old strategy of constructing a community through the identification of those who do not belong to it. By defining as “not-migrant”, “not-gay”, or “not-woke”, a sense of unity is forged. Europe, in its quest for internal social cohesion, has swapped the colonial wars for the culture wars. Reading this from outside of Europe, one may be excused to feel a sense of schadenfreude, that feeling of pleasure when something bad happens to someone else. And yet, before celebrating this as an instance of postcolonial justice, we must be aware that nationalism is on the rise across the globe: in India and China in the east, all the
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 869
As the war enters its 869th day, these are the main developments. Here is where the war stands on Saturday, July 13, 2024: Fighting Russian attacks killed at least six people and injured 13 in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, regional prosecutors said. Three civilians were injured by a mine in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, a few kilometres from the Russian border. The regional administration has warned of mine clearances taking place in other areas along the Russian border. Ukraine’s domestic security service said it has documented the deaths of nearly 300 civilians from mines left by Russia and is collecting evidence for the International Criminal Court (ICC). Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed an allegation by a Russian official that Kyiv was planning to stage attacks on its own power dams to blame Russia for the assault, describing it as a new intimidation tactic. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, condemned a missile strike on a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, earlier this week and blamed Russia, which has denied attacking civilian targets. Ukraine asked the IAEA’s governing board to consider the matter because the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital had received support from the agency for cancer diagnostics and treatment. Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, called on the ICC to prosecute Russia over the attack on the children’s hospital. Diplomacy Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia does not rule out any scenarios regarding the possible resumption of the now-defunct Black Sea grain deal. Russia accused Australia of inciting “anti-Russian paranoia” for charging a Russian-born couple – an army private and her husband who are Australian citizens – with espionage. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected Russian criticism over the arrest of the Brisbane-based couple, telling the Kremlin to “back off”. Albanese said Russia had “no credibility”, accusing Moscow of engaging in “espionage here and around the world”. United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov spoke for a second time in just over two weeks and discussed lowering tensions, the Pentagon said. “The issue of preventing security threats and reducing the risk of possible escalation was discussed,” Russia’s Ministry of Defence said of the talks. The two sides have held occasional phone calls despite tensions over the Ukraine war, including one in June where Moscow criticised Washington’s arms supplies to Ukraine. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow was not planning to attack NATO, and the military alliance was aggravating tensions. The Russian Foreign Ministry accused South Korea of blackmail and threats over potential weapons supplies to Ukraine. China said it was conducting joint military drills with Russia along its southern coast after the NATO meeting in Washington warned of a growing threat from Beijing’s strong ties with Moscow. Politics A Russian-installed court in Ukraine’s Donetsk region sentenced an Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) official to 14 years in prison on charges of spying, Russia’s prosecutor general said. Adblock test (Why?)