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The lives of the cadets, who stay at the facility for two years before they turn 18, are strictly choreographed, according to Dmytro Yermolenko, the deputy head. He says the teenagers are given systematic military training and learn strict discipline.

One of the recruits is 16-year-old Yevhen, whose childhood dream was to join the school. His grandfather, a decorated general, had set the example. Generations of the family have served as artillerymen, submariners and intelligence officers but Yevhen wants to become a fighter pilot. “It’s a very necessary job right now,” he explains. If Yevhen is successful, he could be training on Dutch or Danish F-16s by next year.

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In a frenzied effort to get more Europeans vaccinated, the EU spent an estimated €21.5bn (£17.9bn) on an exclusive deal with Pfizer for up to 1.8bn doses. The deal was secured by Von der Leyen after her text offensive, as she later told the New York Times in a flattering interview.

As an investigative reporter, I filed an access request under the EU’s freedom of information law to the messages shared between von der Leyen and Bourla. These messages, if we had them, might provide important insights into how the controversial life-saving vaccines deal came together. They might also help to answer questions such as why the EU became Pfizer’s single biggest customer but reportedly paid a much steeper price for this batch of vaccines compared with the first tranche of Covid shots it had bought.

There is a bigger principle at stake here, too: EU citizens have a right to know what was being negotiated on their behalf during a public health emergency. Did the contract involve too many doses of the vaccine bought at a fixed price, with no scope for a review as the pandemic developed?

But the commission refused the request to share the messages, claiming that the texts were “by [their] nature short-lived” and were not covered by the EU’s freedom of information law. The commission’s secrecy around its communications is so fiercely guarded that it is now defending its refusal to make the texts available in the EU court.

As things stand, any potentially controversial exchanges between EU officials and outside interests, including corporate lobbyists and authoritarian governments, can simply be moved to text or WhatsApp to dodge public scrutiny.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25854998

By Alex MacDonald
Published date: 10 February 2025 16:44 GMT

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Blumont, a Virginia-based humanitarian aid group responsible for the management of two of Syria’s IS detention camps, al-Hol and al-Roj, was given a stop-work order on 24 January by the US state department.

The camp holds the relatives of suspected IS fighters and is mostly populated by women and children. Rights groups have for years warned that detainees are held arbitrarily without charges in inhumane and substandard living conditions.

No charges have been raised against the camp’s population. Despite this, they are unable to leave, with the exception of non-Syrian detainees whose countries agree to take them back.

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cross-posted from: https://hcommons.social/users/adachika192/statuses/113973121389482921

Peter Beinart, _Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning_ (9780593803899 | Penguin Random House | Published by Knopf | Jan 28, 2025)

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/775348/being-jewish-after-the-destruction-of-gaza-by-peter-beinart/

#JewishCurrents #Zionism #Judaism
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe @israel

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25845692

by David Hearst
10 February 2025 11:03 GMT

{Hopefully, Trump and Netanyahu's arrogance is going to cost them big-time.]

"A covert relationship claimed by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Saudi Arabia, one that was years in the making, has been unraveling in a matter of days."

"Trump also bragged that Saudi Arabia would normalise with Israel without a Palestinian state. "So, Saudi Arabia is going to be very helpful. And they have been very helpful. They want peace in the Middle East. It's very simple," Trump said.

It took Riyadh just 45 minutes to reply in what has become known as the dawn statement.

It left little room for manoeuvre.

"His Royal Highness emphasised that Saudi Arabia will continue its relentless efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and will not establish relations with Israel without that.""

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China has reaffirmed its support for a Palestinian state after Donald Trump’s surprise proposal that the United States should take control of Gaza.

“Gaza belongs to Palestinians and is an inseparable part of Palestinian territory,” Chen Xiaodong, China’s vice-minister for foreign affairs, told a group of ambassadors from Arab states in a meeting in Beijing on Friday.

Any arrangements regarding the future of Gaza must respect the will of the Palestinian people, Chen added, according to a statement from the foreign ministry.

“China has always firmly supported the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people and the effective jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority over all Palestinian territories, including Gaza and the West Bank,” he said.

He added that Beijing would continue to maintain “close communication and collaboration” with Arab countries.

Friday’s meeting was held upon the request of the Arab states, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

The statement added that the ambassadors had said they “expected China to continue to play a constructive role in safeguarding international fairness and justice and supporting Palestine’s legitimate national rights”.

On Thursday, Guo Jiakun, the foreign ministry’s spokesman, also underlined Beijing’s long-held position against the forced displacement of people, saying that Gaza should never be turned into a “bargaining chip for political gains”.

Beijing has been a long-standing supporter of Palestinian statehood and has repeatedly said that a two-state solution is the only way out of the cycle of violence in the region.

Archive link

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Israeli forces have withdrawn from the strategic corridor that divides northern and southern Gaza, as part of a ceasefire plan that has brought a fragile pause to the 16-month war.

On Sunday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas officials confirmed that the Israeli military had withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor, the 4-mile (6km) strip of land that Israel set up within weeks of the war and used as a military zone during the fighting.

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cross-posted from: https://hcommons.social/users/adachika192/statuses/113968271923451432

Gallant admits 'Israel' used Hannibal Directive during war on Gaza | Al Mayadeen English (2025-02-06)

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gallant-admits--israel--used-hannibal-directive-during-war-o
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“Former Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant admitted that the Israeli occupation forces were ordered to implement the Hannibal Directive—a controversial protocol that involves killing captives along with their captors—during the war on Gaza.”

#HannibalDirective #YoavGallant
@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe @israel

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The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to expire on February 5, 2026.

It is the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between the world's two biggest nuclear powers.

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