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Click here to see the summaryJaradat is one of 24 children killed in Israel’s airstrikes on the West Bank since last summer, when the Israeli forces began deploying drones, planes, and helicopters to carry out attacks in the occupied territory for the first time in decades. Since June of last year, and with increasing regularity during the Gaza offensive, the Israel Defense Forces have shown a new willingness to use air power in the West Bank, regardless of the collateral damage to children and other civilians caught in the blasts. Palestinian fighters’ have adopted more ambush tactics and deployed more improvised explosive devices in response to Israeli military raids in the West Bank in recent years, which Munayyer said could account for the new prominence of air power. After a January strike in Balata refugee camp, Seth J. Frantzman, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and analyst at the Jerusalem Post, wrote that “increased activity from groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad have led Israel to be more aggressive in its campaigns.” The Israeli drone strike targeted a building in the center of the camp that functioned as the local headquarters for Fatah, the political party that exercises partial control over the West Bank (and has fought armed conflicts of its own against Hamas). “The new level of violence by the Israeli army in the West Bank, specifically targeting refugee camps, has resulted in a large amount of internal displacement,” said Aseel Baidoun, acting director of advocacy and campaigns at Medical Aid for Palestinians. — Saved 92% of original text.
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Click here to see the summaryBut in four of these cases we were able to corroborate accounts by speaking with eye witnesses.Our research, which features in a new BBC documentary, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?, suggested a clear pattern. "He and two others - another from Cameroon and a man from Ivory Coast - were transferred to a Greek coastguard boat, he said, where events took a terrifying turn.“They started with the [other] Cameroonian. Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?In June 2023, an overloaded trawler flips in front of a Greek coast guard patrol boat. Our interviewee made it to land where he was eventually spotted by the Turkish coastguard.In the incident with the highest loss of life - in September 2022 - a boat carrying 85 migrants ran into trouble near the Greek island of Rhodes when its motor cut out.Mohamed, from Syria, told us they rang the Greek coastguard for help - who loaded them onto a boat, returned them to Turkish waters and put them in life rafts. Human rights groups allege thousands of people seeking asylum in Europe have been illegally forced back from Greece to Turkey and denied the right to seek asylum, which is enshrined in international and EU law.Austrian activist Fayad Mulla told us he discovered for himself how secretive such operations seem to be in February last year, on the Greek island of Lesbos. He replied that they “drive them back”, and said such orders were “from the minister”, adding they would be punished if they failed to stop a boat.Greece has always denied so-called “pushbacks” are taking place.Greece is an entryway into Europe for many migrants. — Saved 82% of original text.
I wouldn’t doubt it. I’m sure those military guys are just salivating at the thought of getting into another war and spinning up the military industrial complex to print more money.
I’m sure Lockheed Martin wouldn’t mind it too much, but I can’t see Washington being interested in actually entering a conflict (given the situation with Ukraine), and I’m sure even the suits at Lockheed are hesitant about that major of a war.
American corporations want an “easy” war. Like against a country like Iraq or Afghanistan. You know, someone that has no real capacity to fight back or strike foreign military targets (like a Lockheed martin manufacturing facility) and is more of a punching bag for the US military. A war with China would immediately spark World War 3 and trigger a global economic and military crisis. It is also extremely undesirable because China is a nuclear superpower and, uh…we tend not to get into shooting wars with those because they can potentially escalate into literal nuclear holocaust.
China is a regional power with nuclear capabilites, not a superpower. They lack both the conventional force projection and soft power capabilities of an actual superpower - and what little soft power China has ever had (which has always been less than that of several individual European nations on their own) has been decimated by Xi’s highly destructive “wolf warrior diplomacy”.
I also disagree with the claim that any war with China would immediately spark WW3. Neither Beijing nor Washington have an interest in this and for as irrational and delusional as Xi is, he’s not stupid enough to strike US mainland; if he ever made that suggestion, I’m sure that an army of far more intelligent advisors immediately tried to dissuade him from that using gentle enough language in order to not upset the emperor. You don’t need to be a genius to figure out that a second Pearl Harbor would, even in this day and age, unite Democrats and Republicans against China. No amount of buying senators and riling up young voters through TikTok could counteract this.
I’m pretty certain - based on how similar China’s buildup and propaganda is to what Russia did in the years before invading Ukraine - that the Asian dictatorship is going to start a war over Taiwan in the coming years, but they would struggle enough with combating Taiwan alone, conducting the most challenging naval landing using armed forces that haven’t fought in any serious war (apart from a small regional conflict with Vietnam) since the early 1950s. They could have the most advanced weaponry in the world (which they clearly don’t) and the lack of institutional experience would still put them at a massive disadvantage against the sole superpower on the planet. For as many issues as the US has a country and as a society, they are currently defeating what was once believed to be the “second army in the world” using Ukrainian soldiers and largely obsolete and/or expired 1970s to 1990s weaponry using no more than 5% of their military expenditure (and even that figure is misleading, since most weapons sent over were already considered worthless to them). China, which has been commonly ranked below Russia in terms of capabilities (remember Russian units struggling with poor quality Chinese tires in Ukraine or are currently embarrassing themselves with running head-first into Ukrainian positions on Chinese golf carts?) would face current American equipment and (sorry Ukrainians) far better trained American soldiers, far more competent American command in a far more challenging environment against a nation that built up a military strong enough to fight and win several wars at the scale of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan at the same time - that’s what all those expensive carrier groups are for.
This would be a ridiculously uneven fight.
They might be able to score some cheap hits in the initial chaos (which would only rile up the American voting public as a few of their boys come home in coffins), but have no chance of maintaining that momentum. My guess is that a war against China would result in more American casualties than the war against Iraq, but far less than Vietnam. Chinese and Taiwanese casualties (especially civilian ones in case of the latter) would be horrific though, with potentially destabilizing effects for mainland China as the number of bodies become impossible to hide.
In previous discussions of this topic, there’s always someone who dropped the impressive tonnage of the Communist Party’s navy, which ignores that most are “coast guard” (i.e. vessels built for range, solely for the purpose of harassing fishing boats thousands of kilometers away, which lack weaponry and systems that would allow them to do anything more than look scary) would be near useless in an actual shooting war against a non-third-world military. That’s on top of countless issues inherent to the Chinese system, like enormous corruption (remember when it came out that fuel for ICBMs had been sold and swapped out for water?) and party-led governance that is entirely based on obedience and loyalty instead of competency, even more so than before since Xi took power. Nearly all issues that Russia is still experiencing in Ukraine would also hamper China against Taiwan, except that they would have to cross a giant moat instead of just rolling over the border. No amount of manufacturing capabilities (which would at least partially collapse without foreign help in case of a war) can help them with this.
There would be a massive global recession, you’re right on that (it would hit China the hardest right after Taiwan though, especially in the long run), and the danger of this war escalating into a nuclear one still exists, but based on everything I’ve read on this topic, it’s far from certain this would “immediately spark” a nuclear Holocaust. I’m just some random guy on the Internet though, so it’s your choice whether you take my word on it or not. I hope I’ve made my point clear.
I’m sorry, but have you been living under a rock in recent years? Have you totally missed the ramp up in belligerent Chinese propaganda and their military buildup?
I mostly see US based consent manufacturing propaganda and the military industrial complex foaming at the mouth. Maybe you have some credible sources that aren’t from a CIA cutout or state sponsored media? I will dig into it so don’t be shy.
But considering that we (the US) have surrounded their borders with military bases, would you blame them if they felt the need to bolster their military? (Probably, because you’re a hypocrite.)
How do you think the US tried to make China invade?
I think it’s a bafflingly absurd claim. And I’m surprised some people wouldn’t doubt it.
How does this fit into China invading and harassing other ships in international waters near Taiwan? Or China punishing Taiwans independent election results by doing military maneuvers around Taiwan, clearly showing force and threatening. And the constant reiterations of considering Taiwan as part of China. Integration of Taiwan is a clear and repeatedly voiced goal. Their willingness to use force was shown repeatedly; in Tibet, Hong Kong, and against minorities in their own established lands.
I don’t see how with such a discrepancy believing the Chinese claims makes any sense. It’s smoke and trying to influence and irritate the western nations and their alliances. Similar playbook to Russia.
China isn’t ready for any random event that might happen today, like for example another epidemic, given the baffling show of incompetence that was Xi’s and his government’s reaction to COVID-19.
Given how they are also messing up the relatively new three-child policy and the economic challenges the country is currently experiencing, one does not have to worry about any baby boom any time soon.
lol you are always jumping to the extreme whenever I criticize the US even a little.
I didn’t “defend a dictatorship”, I correctly pointed out that the pandemic was handled terribly in the states, especially from the president, so it was a dumb thing to use as a metric for how a leader is doing. Trump was a fucking joke. He created a terrible situation and reaffirmed the antivaxxers. He was basically telling people to take crazy doses of ivermectin instead and implying it was all “fake news”. Maybe you don’t understand the entirety of that since you said yourself you “aren’t a US citizen” but for some reason you are always reaffirming our propaganda.
In regards to numbers, should we just believe state sponsored media or confirmed CIA startups like Radio Free Asia instead? They are usually listed as a source for these kinds of things despite the fact that their sole purpose for being created was to combat the spread of socialism.
The US is just a beacon of truth that would never lie about a socialist country or attempt to manufacture consent. /s
I think 2049 is the 100th anniversary of the current PRC, so a reasonable target for ceremonial goals.
No different than saying an American leader said he wanted a Mars landing for the tricentennial in 2076. It’s good symbolism, not necessarily a technical merric.
It was always just a distraction to divert news from asking who was stopping aid getting in, by giving them a narrative about “need to build this pier first”. Sleight of hand for propagandists to exploit.
Why are there foreign judges serving in Hong Kong?
It is a holdover from Hong Kong’s past as a British colony. After the UK handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the agreement between the countries stipulated that the special territory would continue to operate with its freedoms and systems for 50 years- including its common law legal system which operates in several other jurisdictions worldwide. Currently there seven foreign judges remaining on the court– three British and four from Australia.
So, foreign judges who are meddling in HK affairs are upset that China (the inheritor of HK) is meddling in HK affairs?
If the West actually cared about HK independence, why do they wish to maintain colonial judges in HK courts? If they cared, shouldn’t HK judges be in HK courts?
While China has been heavy handed in its effort to speed up the timeline of the power transfer, in the end, the West has concluded that HK is to be Chinese territory. By the West’s own policy, these are foreign judges getting kicked out by the “rightful” new rulers, just a bit early.
It says that it continued into the Biden era as well.
The military program started under former President Donald Trump and continued months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters found – even after alarmed social media executives warned the new administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID misinformation. The Biden White House issued an edict in spring 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found.
Xi Jinping is smart. China didn’t take the bait, but it was hard to resist the urge. The people of China ached as they realised they were tricked, but their glorious leader had them covered. The real, Xi Jinping-approved plan came later./s
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