The international community has so far failed to fulfill its basic humanitarian duties and protect civilians in Gaza amid the continued Israeli bombing campaign, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said on Thursday. Humanitarian aid pledged by national governments and various relief organizations is barely reaching Gaza residents, he added.

Israel’s “heavy bombardments” are “getting worse,” even in parts of the enclave that were supposed to be safe, and aid “is barely trickling in,” Griffiths wrote in a statement published on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Life on Earth is under siege. A chain of tipping points with catastrophic consequences for everyone are being unleashed. Yet governments worldwide remain indifferent to the danger. Indeed, many continue avidly to stoke the very furnaces that will consume our civilisation.

 

Hallucinatory world: Governments blind as multiple catastrophes besiege human civilisation

   

By Julian Cribb

 

‘Virtually unknown’ Mike Johnson being picked to be at the helm of the House raised some eyebrows, US political analyst and Republican strategist Melik Abdul told Sputnik.

Mike Johnson has been sworn in as the 56th Speaker of the US House of Representatives, in what ended three weeks of chaos in the lower chamber after Kevin McCarthy's ouster.

This was followed by Johnson announcing that the House is "back in business," and pledging that his first legislative action would be in support of Israel, which purportedly faces multiple threats. The 51-year-old politician never mentioned Ukraine-related issues among the House's priorities in his opening speech.

 

Germany is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian community, with roughly 80,000 Palestinians living in the country. For years, German authorities have tried to stifle Palestinian activism, viewing it as a nuisance to its explicit policy of “unconditional support for Israel.” 

Demonstrations, such as one earlier this year to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, have been sporadically banned in recent years. Organizations, such as the Palestinian prisoner solidarity network Samidoun, have also come under increasing scrutiny.

 

While other European countries are witnessing mass protests in solidarity with Palestine, Germany has been policing such scenes off its streets, Peoples Dispatch reports.

Australian sovereignty should have been something of a pub joke prior to AUKUS. After it, it has become a dead letter. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s sole purpose during his visit to Washington is to be the country’s uncritical undertaker, ensuring that remains of independence are buried, even as the minerals are extracted.

 

Anthony Albanese: Australia’s lobbyist for the US Imperium    By Binoy Kampmark

 

U.S. Senator Graham warns Iran: If Gaza war grows, it's coming to your backyard

JERUSALEM, Oct 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on Sunday accused Iran of involvement in the Oct 7 Hamas onslaught that triggered a Gaza counter-offensive by Israel, and warned that any escalation of the war could exact a cost from Tehran.

“We’re here today to tell Iran: ‘We’re watching you. If this war grows, it’s coming to your backyard,’” Graham said during a visit to Tel Aviv, without elaborating on what that meant.

Yesterday, French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Israel to brazenly solidarize himself with the genocidal war the Israeli state is waging on the Palestinians in Gaza. At his joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he gave an open-ended pledge of French military support to Netanyahu’s government.

 

In Israel, Macron endorses Netanyahu’s genocidal war on Gaza

   BY Alex Lantier

 

Prime Minister Albanese has an obligation to engage President Biden in a conversation on Gaza. Australia cannot and must not stay in lock step with Israel. If US support for Israel is written in concrete, no matter how Israel behaves, or what inhumanity it inflicts on an imprisoned people, it is Australia’s duty to deliver a message of dire warning to the US on what this will lead to. 

 

By George Browning

 

PARIS: French intelligence is ‘‘taking seriously’’ the idea that Russia has fanned panic over its bedbug outbreak.

Reported outbreaks of bedbugs infesting homes and migrating to metros and cinemas have produced plenty of headlines in France.

Algeria said in early October it would introduce preventive measures to ward off the spread of bedbugs to the country from France on planes and ships.

 

Russia blamed for fanning bedbug panic

Henry Samuel

 

A test tube full of bedbugs was even brought into the French parliament by an MP raising concern about the ‘‘wave of panic that has seized the country’’.

The family background of Giorgia Meloni, ....,  Italy's first female prime minister, is one of abandonment by her father, Francesco. When she was eleven, he left the family home and moved to the Canaries.

In September 1995, he was arrested by the Customs Surveillance Service in Mahon, Minorca. He was one of four people on a boat, Cool Star, on which were 1,500 kilos of hashish.

He was tried at the Provincial Court in Palma and sentenced to nine years.

It is long overdue for the United States of America to assume its responsibility, hold Israel accountable and force it to respect international laws and resolutions and recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

An open letter to Anthony Albanese

By Ali Kazak

Dear Anthony,

On the eve of your meeting with US President Joe Biden, the Australian people you represent and people around the world are looking to you to speak truth to power and to be the Australian voice of fair dinkum, the voice of peace to achieve the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people based on international law and United Nations resolutions, to achieve a just peace and stability in the Middle East.

The Penny Drops - The World Is Multi-Polar

In 2007, during his famous speech in Munich, the Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed to the inevitable rise of a multipolar world.

He started out by defining the opposite state:

However, what is a unipolar world? However one might embellish this term, at the end of the day it refers to one type of situation, namely one centre of authority, one centre of force, one centre of decision-making.

It is world in which there is one master, one sovereign. And at the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.

This is a moment of global danger and deep horror. Horror is, or ought to be, the ordinary human response to Israel’s attempt to use the October 7 Hamas assault – attacking military targets, which constitutes legitimate resistance to occupation under international law, but also civilians, which is an odious crime – as a pretext for ethnic cleansing by inflicting genocidal atrocities on the Palestinians in Gaza and beyond.

 

By Tarik Cyril Amar

 

Having responded to disparate Chinese requests for specific arms, General Marshall moved quickly to ensure tighter coordination between Chinese requirements and U.S. production plans. He established the American Military Mission to China (AMMISCA) on 3 July 1941 under Brig. Gen. John Magruder, an officer with previous China experience.

Rather than simply serve as a conduit for Nationalist requests for supplies, Marshall directed Magruder to advise the Chinese on their military needs and ensure a closer match between those needs and the capabilities of U.S. defense production.

The White House has asked Congress for $106 billion in funding to allow Washington to continue supporting its allies in three separate global flashpoints: Ukraine, Israel and Asia. Sputnik reached out to retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and international geopolitics and military affairs consultant Earl Rasmussen for his take on the situation.

Congress will almost certainly pass President Biden’s massive $106 billion supplemental funding request bundling new assistance for Tel Aviv together with other security spending, because “no one is going to vote against aid to Israel,” Rasmussen told Sputnik.