After bumpy recovery, China’s economy faces serious headwinds in 2024 (www.aljazeera.com)
‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans (www.theguardian.com)
As Tunisia suffers economic woes, voters will head to polls for local elections on Sunday (www.pbs.org)
Escaping Xi’s China by paddleboard: ‘I rushed into the water and thought if they catch me, they catch me’ (www.theguardian.com)
Russia bans anti-war candidate from challenging Putin (www.bbc.com)
U.S., China Militaries Start Talking Again After a Dangerous Rupture (archive.is)
Revealed: how US residents are funding illegal settlements in the West Bank (www.theguardian.com)
"Beijing’s lack of good faith is the first problem:" China will try to manipulate a U.N. human rights review in January which may even worsen the situation in China, experts warn (thediplomat.com)
A United Nations review of China’s human rights record set to occur in January should shine a light on Beijing’s atrocity crimes, but China will play the game to their favor which may actually worsen rather than improve the human rights situation inside China, the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) warns....
‘I’m very proud of him’: Sebastien Lai on Hong Kong, accountability and his father Jimmy’s trial (www.theguardian.com)
"There is that idea that we always thought China would liberalise economically, get freer and freer,” says Lai. “But I think Dad realised very early on, and he said in an interview, that wishful thinking doesn’t work. You’ve got to put the work in. And that’s what he did.”...
New York court: Spanish company and the CIA found guilty of violating rights of Julian Assange’s visitors (english.elpais.com)
A court in New York has ruled that UC Global and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) violated the constitutional rights and privacy of U.S. citizens when they met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at Ecuador’s embassy in London....
Sold to Salafism: The millions for which Golf-pro Jon Rahm sold himself to Saudi Arabia hide tortured citizens, executed minors, women sentenced to perpetual confinement, and enslaved foreign workers (english.elpais.com)
They will tell us that they are just athletes chasing or hitting balls, but by agreeing to do so in exchange for the huge amounts of money paid to them by Saudi Arabia, they are becoming political actors in a regime that spreads its anti-democratic values throughout the world....
Why Netanyahu Bolstered Hamas: the Israeli prime minister followed a decades-old divide-and-rule strategy that fuels endless war (www.thenation.com)
The intelligence failures that allowed the October 7 attack to take place have received some press attention—but have yet to be the focus of sustained political ire....
Gaza war's staggering toll reaches a grim milestone: 20,000 dead (apnews.com)
China provocations worrisome but his country will not yield an inch of its territory to any foreign entity, Philippine President Marcos says (www.manilatimes.net)
Nations like France, the United States, Canada, India, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Japan are planning maritime patrols with the Philippines to illustrate their opposition to China’s incursions in the West Philippine Sea.
Israel is losing the war against Hamas – but Netanyahu and his government will never admit it (europe-solidaire.org)
The official narrative has been that Hamas is weakened, but in reality the IDF’s doctrine of massive force is failing, writes Paul Rogers, emeritus professor of peace studies at UK’s Bradford University.
The plight of Gaza’s ‘WCNSFs’ – wounded child, no surviving family: A chilling acronym used by aid workers reflects the reality of a conflict in which 40% of casualties are believed to be minors (www.theguardian.com)
"We had a 14-year-old girl just walk out of some war zone of Gaza City, stunned, mute, bloodied, and she absolutely had no one,” says James Elder, Unicef’s chief spokesperson, who spent weeks in Gaza under bombardment. “How many other children are like that right now? We simply don’t know.”
The UN says more than 1 in 4 people in Gaza are starving because of war (apnews.com)
The death toll in Gaza has climbed to at least 20,000 Palestinians. At least 1 in 200 people living in Gaza are now dead. 1 in 4 remaining Palestinians in Gaza are starving to death. I just can not comprehend this amount of violence and death in such a small area in such a short time. This is at a scale unheard of in any other...
Ex-Romanian Minister of Finance, Anca Dragu, proposed to be the new governor of Moldova’s National Bank (www.romaniajournal.ro)
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Israel-Palestine: injured patients ‘waiting to die’ in northern Gaza as last hospital shuts down, amid rising 'catastrophic' hunger levels, UN says (news.un.org)
Assad: ‘No evidence six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust’ (www.jns.org)
No functional hospital left in northern Gaza, WHO says (www.aljazeera.com)
Milei begins dismantling the Argentine State by imposing 300 reforms in a single decree (english.elpais.com)
Prague shooting: Gunman dead after killing more than 15 at Charles University (www.bbc.com)
Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China (www.nbcnews.com)
In North Korea, torture awaits those deported from China (www.dw.com)
