The offices of property firm ‘LondonMetric’ have been shut down by Palestine Action, with activists targeting the firm for their complicity in Israel’s arms manufacturing in Britain. The company owns the land and building of Elbit Systems’ UAV Tactical Systems drone factory in Leicester, from which military technologies are produced for the Israeli weapons market. As a result of their criminal association with Elbit, LondonMetric’s offices have been disrupted by activists: using a lock-on device on their arms to prevent entry to the building at 1 Curzon Street, W1J 5HD, and dousing the building in red paint to mark it with a symbol of the Palestinian blood which soaks LondonMetric’s profits.

Archive: [ https://archive.is/aQe1E ]

Foreign journalists were hailed by the Ukrainian government early in the war, especially as they helped shed light on atrocities committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians. Today, media access to the frontline is under increasingly tight control, and officials who spoke freely with The Globe and other organizations during the first year and a half of the invasion are now wary of having their names attached to what they say about the state of the war or the leadership of the country.

With the “Pilnacek” case, the debate on corruption in Austria – ongoing since the „Ibiza affair“ (May 2019) but largely inconclusive so far – is heading for a new high point. The affair showcases massive political influence on the Austrian criminal justice system and proves that it is challenging to bring the problem of corruption under control. One of the main reasons is that Austria has not made the necessary adjustments to the European „acquis communautaire“ since its (relatively late) accession to the EU and keeps ignoring fundamental principles of EU law. Since 2000, there have even been setbacks. The case of Christian Pilnacek illustrates the problem of corruption in Austria in an exemplary manner. Likewise, it underlines the continuing backlog of reforms in Austria and the country’s unwillingness to adjust to the European rule of law.

December 3, 2023: ‘Death corridor’: The al-Samounis recall terror of ‘safe passage’ in Gaza

December 6, 2023: Two Gaza brothers stripped, jeered at by Israeli army, one taken captive

The U.S. vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Friday calling for a ceasefire to the fighting in Gaza.

The U.S. and Israel have opposed calls for a ceasefire, saying it would strengthen Hamas.

The vote was delayed for several hours over worries the U.S. would veto it. Diplomats from several Arab nations met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to try to convince the U.S. to abstain from voting.

As a permanent member of the council, the U.S. has veto power, and had signaled it planned to block the resolution. The U.K. abstained from the vote, while the 13 other members of the council voted for it.

read more: https://www.semafor.com/article/12/08/2023/un-security-council-votes-on-gaza-ceasefire-resolution-amid-israel-hamas-conflict

March 2, 2009: The pasta, paper and hearing aids that could threaten Israeli security

Aerial footage shows a number of improvised mines being blown up in the jungle.

Nearly 20 illegal gold mines were blown up by the Colombian and Brazilian authorities in the Amazon this week, part of an ongoing attempt by both governments to combat an illicit trade that pollutes and degrades the area’s natural habitat.

Aerial footage provided by the Colombian military shows a number of improvised mines in an area in the far south, close to the country’s shared border with Brazil.

Their corrugated iron roofs burst into flames as explosions set by the military detonate in the surrounding green jungle, blowing to smithereens mines that were producing some $1.5 million in gold a month, according to official estimates. Both the Brazilian and Colombian security forces also destroyed digging equipment and other tools used to mine gold.

Illegal gold mining has been on the rise in Colombia, and according to some sources generates $2.5 billion a year, and is more lucrative than the country’s illegal cocaine trade.

Its networks are connected to other organized crime activities, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

“We found that this type of mining is linked to various crimes … including money laundering, corruption, and human trafficking carried out by organized crime groups,” Candice Welsch, the regional representative for the body in the Andean and Southern Cone regions, said last year.

link: https://www.vice.com/en/article/ak3qw5/illegal-colombian-gold-mines-blown-up-amazon

content warning: involving discussion of rape/sexual assault although as the title implies, there is no convincing evidence that any of this has actually occurred.

note: and I promise you person about to link something, it's not convincing evidence, I read a lot of news including mainstream news, there is none as of the time I am posting this and if you believe some of the lurid, unsubstantiated (and frankly racist) atrocity propaganda fantasies spun up then propogated by the BBC among other outlers, I have a bridge to sell you.

The lack of any evidence of "mass rape" perpetrated by Hamas members on October 7 hasn't stopped Israel from weaponizing these accusations to legitimize its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

and the closing paragraph

But it extends further than that. The reliance on lazy Orientalist caricatures of Arab men as savage sexual predators is both cunning and destructive. The implication that brutality and sexual depravity are intrinsic characteristics of Arab men and Arab people suggests that Palestinians are, inherently and irredeemably, an evil race, and their total annihilation, therefore, is justifiable. Manufacturing consent for a genocide works only when the genocide of a people is not regarded as a loss, and the eradication of their culture, their history, and their humanity is an act that renders the world a better place. The stigmatization and dehumanization of indigenous men and men of color is not new. It is an agenda that is all too familiar, and we must resist it.

read more: https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/despite-lack-of-evidence-allegations-of-hamas-mass-rape-are-fueling-israeli-genocide-in-gaza/

On 14 October, Iris Hefets, a 56-year-old psychoanalyst, stood alone in a public square in Berlin and held up a sign. On it, she had written: “As an Israeli and Jew, stop the genocide in Gaza” – on one side in English, and on the other in German.

Very quickly, police officers stationed nearby arrived. They told Hefets that she was not allowed to do this and that she must take the sign down. A crowd formed and started filming. Hefets, who’s lived in Germany for the past 20 years, politely argued with authorities, saying that she just wants to stand alone with her sign, that she’s not causing any trouble.

This was happening on Hermannplatz, in Neukölln, a neighbourhood in the south of Berlin with a big Middle Eastern and Arab community, Palestinians in particular. It was one week after the 7 October attack by Hamas that subsequently launched Israel’s war on Gaza. In Germany, like in the past two years, authorities reacted by banning all public gatherings that might be considered pro-Palestinian.

The reason that Hefets had insisted on standing alone on Hermannplatz was because law professionals told her that the German constitution states that being alone does not constitute a gathering – it only becomes potentially illegal if several people gather.

"Over 850 arrests were made by Berlin police in the first three weeks following 7 October, mostly of people with presumed pro-Palestinian sympathies"

The Berlin police’s justification for banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations was that such gatherings would bring “an imminent danger” of “seditious, anti-Semitic exclamations” and “violent activities”.

Over 850 arrests were made by Berlin police in the first three weeks following 7 October, mostly of people with presumed pro-Palestinian sympathies. This does not include people who were detained at protests, which is estimated to be in the hundreds, according to legal experts.

In response, Jewish artists, writers, and scholars warned that Germany’s “disturbing crackdown on civic life”, including the ban on public gatherings, has been used to scapegoat its large Arab and Muslim community and restrict freedom of speech, including legitimately criticising Israel or expressing solidarity with Palestinians.

read more: https://www.newarab.com/analysis/how-pro-palestine-jews-are-resisting-germanys-mccarthyism

On Wednesday, 6 December, dozens of activists from Fossil Free London assembled outside BP’s London headquarters to protest Israel’s approval of 12 new licences for natural gas exploration off the west coast of Gaza to six companies, including BP.

BP not only received this licence but is also set to acquire 50% of the Israeli Delek Group-owned NewMed, who have also been granted a licence. NewMed owns 45% of Leviathan, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, situated off the coast of Israel.

Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip denies the besieged population access to natural resources within its waters, in violation of international law.

Activists held signs linking the oil and gas company to Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza and shouted “stop fuelling genocide” as well as “profits from oil but none from aid, Gazan genocide is British made.”

Progressive and anti-fascist groups in Turin, Italy mobilized to condemn the police action on students at the Einaudi Campus of the University of Turin. On December 5, students who had protested the campaigning of right-wing student group University Action on the campus were brutally beaten up by a big group of police.

Students allege that the police rushed into the campus to protect the right-wing student group which is affiliated to the Giorgia Meloni led neo-fascist government in Italy. Meloni herself used to be part of a similar far-right youth and student group.

Various groups including the Turin Anti-Fascist Coordination, Communist Youth Front (FGC), Potere al Popolo, Cambiare Rotta, and others protested the police action on students and also raised their concerns over the spike in far-right activism in and around universities and schools across the country.

Archive: [ https://archive.is/3Gm8E ]

250 155mm artillery shells;

One LUNA NG reconnaissance system;

10 VECTOR reconnaissance drones with spare parts;

6 border protection vehicles;

8 Zetros trucks;

100,000 first aid kits;

70 70mm grenade launchers.