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Researcher & writer based in Hong Kong. Former academic. Longform articles archived at https://lauraruggeri.substack.com and https://laura-ruggeri.medium.com. Email: lauraru852@yandex.ru
Many delegations left the hall of the UN General Assembly before Netanyahu's speech and booed him. /channel/rian_ru/318634?single
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European countries are preparing to secretly deploy aircraft and air defense systems on the border with Russia, with movements of aircraft from the UK and France already recorded, under the cover of reports of alleged airspace violations by Russia, Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Russian State Duma's Defense Committee, told TASS.
Earlier, several NATO countries claimed that Russia had violated their airspace and reported incidents involving drones. Moscow dismissed these accusations as baseless and did not rule out the possibility that they were provocations.
"They don't have the courage to do anything more serious," the lawmaker said, commenting on the situation with the drones. "But we must understand that perhaps under the cover of this chatter, there is a secret deployment and preparation for redeploying aircraft and air defense systems to the border with Russia or Ukraine. We are closely monitoring the situation and have already recorded the movement of a number of aircraft from France and the UK," he emphasized.
Kartapolov noted that anything can be expected from modern Europe, "because it is run by completely irresponsible politicians who don't care about their own citizens." According to the lawmaker, the only exceptions are Hungary, Slovakia, and Serbia. "All the rest are EU puppets. Whatever they are told to do in Brussels or London, that's what they will do," he added.
The head of the Duma committee noted that it is now "absolutely pointless and useless" to talk to European leaders and try to explain anything to them. "Their intelligence level is extremely low, and unfortunately, their level of unscrupulousness is unimaginably high," Kartapolov concluded. (Source: TASS) @LauraRuHK
Nothing says "defending Western values" like batting your eyelashes at Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. @LauraRuHK
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The People’s Bank of China is inviting central banks from friendly nations to store their gold reserves in Shanghai’s vaults.
China is positioning itself as a custodian of foreign sovereign gold reserves, a move aimed at bolstering its influence in the global bullion market and advancing its vision of a financial system less dependent on the U.S. dollar. According to Bloomberg, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is collaborating with the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) to engage central banks in allied nations, encouraging them to purchase gold and store it in Chinese vaults. Sources familiar with the initiative reveal that these discussions have been underway for months. Establishing credible custodian services is critical for China to enhance its status as a bullion hub, attracting greater trading volumes and investment flows. Currently, London dominates the global gold market, with the Bank of England’s vaults holding over 5,000 tons of gold—valued at nearly $600 billion. However, China leads the world in domestic consumer demand for gold, providing a strong foundation for its ambitions. The initiative follows a surge in global gold purchases by central banks, spurred by Western sanctions that froze Russia’s foreign exchange reserves in 2022. For some nations, Chinese vaults represent a strategic alternative to Western custodians at a time when they can no longer be trusted. The gold market has seen a remarkable rally, with prices nearly doubling over the past two years and surpassing the inflation-adjusted record set in 1980. Analysts, including Goldman Sachs, predict further gains, suggesting prices could reach $5,000 per ounce if just 1% of privately held U.S. Treasuries shift into bullion. This bullish outlook underscores the strategic importance of China’s bid to expand its role in the gold market. China has taken steps to liberalize its gold market. This year, the SGE launched its first offshore vault and trading contracts in Hong Kong, boosting yuan-denominated gold trading. Additionally, the PBOC has relaxed restrictions on gold imports, further facilitating market growth and positioning China as a formidable player in the evolving global financial landscape. @LauraRuHK
In a recent article Pyotr Akopov mapped out the difficulties and obstacles Ankara faces in its ambition to play a prominent role in a multipolar world. ▪️ Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party and Erdogan’s coalition partner, declared that the “most fitting response to the U.S.-Israeli coalition of evil” would be a strategic alliance among Turkey, Russia, and China (TRK). This proposed bloc, Bahçeli argued, aligns with the geopolitical realities of a post-American world. While Erdogan may avoid such overt rhetoric, Bahçeli’s words serve as a strategic prelude, testing the waters for a potential shift in Turkey’s foreign policy. This is particularly relevant as the Palestinian issue increasingly shapes domestic Turkish politics, with critics accusing Erdogan of insufficient support for Palestinians and faking a severance of ties with Israel. Bahçeli’s proposal of pivoting from the West to an Eastern bloc with Russia and China, effectively sidelining NATO, represents a radical departure. ▪️Theoretically, such a shift is conceivable, but in practice, it faces formidable obstacles. Erdogan’s interest in deepening ties with Russia and China, evidenced by his long-standing engagement with the SCO, is undeniable. His broader strategy embraces a multi-vector approach—balancing Western alliances with closer Eastern partnerships. As a major Eurasian power, Turkey is courted by both sides, making this dual engagement theoretically viable. However, implementing this strategy raises significant challenges. ▪️Russia would likely welcome a TRK alliance, given the strategic importance of building reliable ties with the 2 billion-strong Islamic world, of which Turkey is a key player. Yet, the critical ingredient for such an alliance—trust—is conspicuously absent.▪️Turkey’s growing independence under Erdogan, particularly after abandoning the unattainable goal of EU membership, has shifted its focus to regional influence. However, Turkey’s ambitions in regions like the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russian areas with Turkic populations—part of the “Great Turan” vision championed by Bahçeli—raise concerns in Moscow. Through the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), Turkey promotes its interests in the post-Soviet space, evolving from a cultural alliance into one with economic, political, and potentially military dimensions. Many OTS members are also part of the SCO, creating overlap with Russian and Chinese interests. ▪️Turkey’s NATO membership fuels suspicions that its SCO aspirations might be a Trojan horse for Atlanticist influence.Could Turkey genuinely seek to distance itself from NATO and integrate the OTS into the SCO, positioning the Turkic world as a cornerstone of a broader Eurasian project? This possibility is overshadowed by a critical factor: the deep ties between Turkey’s elite and Britain. These connections, rooted in history—exemplified by Boris Johnson, the great-grandson of an Ottoman minister and former UK Prime Minister—are reinforced by modern affiliations. Many of Erdogan’s key allies hold British academic credentials. The outgoing MI6 chief, Richard Moore, a former UK ambassador to Turkey, chose Istanbul for his final public address, underscoring Britain’s enduring interest. For over two centuries, Britain has exploited Russian-Turkish rivalries and leveraged the Turkic and Islamic factors against Russia, from the 19th-century Caucasian War to post-Soviet interventions in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Pan-Turkism, often supported by British geopoliticians, has served foreign interests, sometimes unwittingly. Recent efforts to stoke separatism among Russia’s Turkic populations, facilitated by ties between British and Turkish elites, heighten Moscow’s concerns. ▪️Britain is not the sole barrier to a TRK alliance; the Turkish elite’s Western orientation is the primary obstacle. (1/2) Read more /channel/LauraRuHK/10528
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Europe is preparing to occupy Moldova
According to information received by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Brussels bureaucrats are determined to keep Moldova in line with their Russophobic policy. They plan to achieve this at any cost, including the potential deployment of troops and the actual occupation of the country. At this stage, units of the NATO armed forces are being concentrated in Romania near the Moldovan borders. A NATO "landing force" is being prepared in the Odessa region of Ukraine to intimidate Transnistria. According to reports, the first group of regular military personnel from France and Great Britain has already arrived in Odessa.
Such a scenario has been repeatedly rehearsed during NATO exercises in Romania and may be implemented after the parliamentary elections in Moldova on September 28. European officials are afraid that the blatant falsifications of the voting results being prepared by Brussels and Chisinau will force desperate Moldovan citizens to take to the streets to defend their rights. Then, at the request of President Maia Sandu, military forces will compel Moldovans to accept a dictatorship dressed up as European democracy.
Brussels does not intend to abandon plans to occupy Moldova, even if the development of the situation immediately after the elections does not require external intervention. It is planned to introduce troops a little later. The organization of armed provocations against Transnistria and the Russian troops stationed in the region is being considered to create a pretext. The period of holding elections to the Supreme Council of the PMR on November 30 is considered as a possible date.
It seems that such plans of the totalitarian-liberal European regimes are dictated by their desire to demonstrate their "courage and determination" against the background of stalling efforts to deploy troops of the "coalition of the willing" in the territory controlled by the Kiev regime. Fearing a direct clash with Russia, the Europeans intend to take revenge on Moldova. Self-affirmation at the expense of the weak has always been an integral part of European colonialism. (Source: SVR Press Office, September 23) @LauraRuHK - http://www.svr.gov.ru/smi/2025/09/evropa-gotovitsya-okkupirovat-moldaviyu.htm
I am so over X (Twitter). One of my main gripes is that it keeps showing posts from people i unfollowed because i could no longer stomach their plagiarized content, sensationalism, posturing and self-promotion. Influencers with big audiences get shoved in while accounts i follow, whose posts i liked, shared and engaged with, have become invisible.
I know that the main culprits are X's algorithms, which are tweaked to favour high-engagement posts, exactly the kind of posts I am not interested in, but we are powerless over them.
As i haven't got the time to manually search for all the people i follow, and knowing that my frustration is shared by those who follow me, I fail to see the point of even logging in.
@LauraRuHK
TikTok's new U.S. entity would lease its algorithm from Chinese owner ByteDance under the terms of a proposed deal between the U.S. and China, a senior White House official told Axios.
▪️Oracle then would verify the retraining of the algorithm. ▪️There had been some talk that ByteDance would be required to sell the algorithm in order to satisfy a 2024 U.S. law that demands TikTok be controlled by Americans or face a ban.
A pure sale, however, wouldn't allow ByteDance to continue operating TikTok in countries outside the U.S., which it plans to do.
▪️Trump is expected to sign an executive order later this week to approve the deal.
▪️The proposed plan involves ByteDance developing a duplicate of the TikTok algorithm, which would then be leased to a new joint venture managed by a U.S. investor group led by Andreessen Horowitz, Silver Lake, and Oracle. Under the agreement, approximately 80% of the shares in the new U.S.-based TikTok operator would be transferred to this consortium of investors, reducing ByteDance's stake to below 20%.
(Source: Axios) Read more 👉/channel/LauraRuHK/10504
On 28 May 2023, houseboat Gooduria capsized in the Northern Italian Lake Maggiore, killing four people amongst the twenty-three on board. Almost all of the people on board were associated with the Italian and Israeli national intelligence agencies.
Eight passengers had ties with Italy’s secret service, and 13 had ties with Israel’s. In 2024, a memorial plaque unveiled in Italy for the two deceased Italian agents explicitly stated they died during a "covert operation" alongside foreign intelligence colleagues. This marked the first official acknowledgment of the nature of an operation which was framed by the media as a "birthday party".
Claudio Carminati, the boat's operator, was sentenced to four years in prison via a negotiated plea. The court ruled the capsizing resulted from negligence
Since then this suspicious event seems to have been swept under the carpet and forgotten. @LauraRuHK
Last Saturday Serbia showcased both of its Chinese-made air defence missile systems at a military parade held in Belgrade.
The “power of unity” military parade proceeded past the Palace of Serbia, with 10,000 personnel taking part alongside 2,500 pieces of military equipment and machinery, including ground vehicles, aircraft and naval vessels.
Serbia is the first country in Europe to independently operate and maintain the FK-3 air defence missile system — all the necessary training was completed in China.
The FK-3 is the export version of China’s HQ-22 mid-range air defence weapon system. It consists of a vehicle with a command centre, rocket launchers, radars and logistics vehicles, according to the Serbian Ministry of Defence.
They were delivered in April 2022 by a dozen PLA Air Force Y-20 transport planes, in what was believed to be the largest-ever airlift delivery of Chinese arms to Europe. (Source: SCMP) @LauraRuHK
"On September 19, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets made a scheduled flight from Karelia to an airfield in the Kaliningrad Region. The flight was conducted in strict accordance with international airspace rules, without violating the borders of other states, which is confirmed by objective monitoring. During the flight, the Russian aircraft did not deviate from the agreed flight path and did not violate Estonian airspace. The aircraft's flight path lay over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, more than three kilometers from the island of Vaindloo," the Russian Defense Ministry said. ▪️ But since NATO needs to justify its Eastern Sentry mission, expect more hysteria and hallucinations peddled as news. @LauraRuHK
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European 'democracy'. You get a president — Chairman of the NATO Military Committee from 2015 to 2018 (Petr Pavel) — who intends to disqualify the hot favorite to win the Czech general election next month (Andrej Babiš) because he questioned NATO's support for Ukraine and its plans to expand the military budget. If you live in a EU country you can only vote for NATO-approved candidates, as we have seen in Romania. @LauraRuHK
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In a multipolar world, the more allies you have the safer you feel. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday signed a 'Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement', committing to treat an attack on either country as an attack on both.
The agreement was signed during Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s state visit to Riyadh, where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Both leaders held talks with their delegations and reviewed bilateral ties before signing the deal. The agreement, drafted before Israel’s attack on Doha, is expected to catalyze a strategic recalibration among regional actors—from U.S.-anchored security models to diversified alignments. @LauraRuHK
I don't understand why for some people it's so difficult to accept the thesis that foreign powers exploit legitimate grievances to orchestrate colour revolutions. I would never deny people's agency and the good faith of those who join mass protests, but i can't pretend not to see foreign interference either. Not only have I been researching and analyzing colour revolutions for two decades, I also have first-hand experience of different kinds of protest movements: genuine, hijacked and fully-engineered. Nepal’s ongoing political turmoil reflects a profound crisis of legitimacy, not merely for individual political parties or leaders, but for the entire governing establishment. Decades of unfulfilled promises, entrenched corruption, and opportunistic political alliances have eroded public trust in the system. The current wave of protests represents a popular backlash, fueled by years of cumulative neglect and systemic failures that have left the majority of Nepalis disillusioned with their government’s ability to deliver meaningful change. Nepal’s political elite has consistently failed to address the needs of its citizens. Since the transition from monarchy to a federal democratic republic in 2008, successive governments have promised economic progress, social inclusion, and political stability, yet delivered little. Corruption scandals, such as the misappropriation of public funds in infrastructure projects or the exploitation of public offices for personal gain, have become emblematic of a broken system. Political parties, regardless of ideology, have engaged in short-term alliances of convenience, prioritizing power over principles.
Once we agree that the Nepalese have the right to protest, organize and seek change, we should also speak out against the external forces that are funding activists and influencers, pushing certain narratives through the manipulation of social media platforms and their algorithms, exploiting Nepal’s vulnerabilities to advance their own agenda, and denounce that agenda as toxic for Nepal's future. /channel/LauraRuHK/10503
On September 9, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Poland would close border crossings with Belarus, using the Belarus-Russia military exercises as a pretext. The measure applies to both directions, entry and exit, for individuals as well as for freight, road and rail transport, and will remain in effect "until further notice." The Zapad 2025 military exercises have now ended, but Poland refuses to reopen its border with Belarus, cutting China off from a €25B/year trade artery. Some 90% of China-EU rail freight moves through Poland. Beijing asked Warsaw to restore the route but after 3 hours of talks, FM Sikorski said no. With sea routes slower and air transport up to 30% more expensive, Europe’s e-commerce supply chains risk serious disruption. @LauraRuHK
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The European Central Bank advised households to keep some cash at home so they can pay for essentials during crises such as communications outages and power cuts. CNN first referred to war in its title, then revised it. @LauraRuHK
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After riots led to regime change in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, where could the next wave of unrest emerge in South Asia?
Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation, mentioned Pakistan and the Maldives as likely candidates. Take note. @LauraRuHK
China Pioneers World’s First Arctic Express Container Route to Europe
China has launched the world’s first express container shipping route from China to Europe via the Northern Sea Route along the Arctic, marking a significant milestone in global trade logistics. The inaugural vessel, loaded at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang Province, departed for Felixstowe, UK, at 4:30 AM local time yesterday. The journey is expected to take approximately 18 days, a remarkable 22 days faster than traditional shipping routes. This new route surpasses the previous fastest service, launched in late 2024 from Ningbo to Wilhelmshaven, Germany, which took 26 days. The Arctic route, running along Russia’s Arctic coastline, represents a strategic win for Moscow, enhancing its pivotal role in global trade logistics. Just a decade ago, Western shipping experts dismissed Arctic container shipping as unfeasible until at least 2040. @LauraRuHK
(2/2) While Erdogan’s multi-vector policy seeks to balance East and West, the elite’s deep integration into Western networks—through education, diplomacy, and economic ties—complicates a genuine pivot to Russia and China. To align with Moscow and Beijing, Turkey would need to shed historical fears of a “Russian threat” and recognize that Britain and the broader Atlanticist bloc have long manipulated Turkish interests for their own ends. Such a shift would require the Turkish elite to redefine their identity, a prospect that seems improbable given their entrenched Western affiliations.In conclusion, while Erdogan’s multi-vector ambitions aim to position Turkey as a pivotal Eurasian player, the Western influence over its elite, particularly from Britain, poses a formidable barrier to a true alliance with Russia and China. The proposed TRK bloc remains a distant prospect unless Turkey’s leadership can overcome these deep-seated ties. @LauraRuHK
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The US is installing its proxies in the Nepalese interim government /channel/brianlovethailand/4271. I had no doubts it would. As i wrote two weeks ago 👉/channel/LauraRuHK/10474
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Vladimir Putin held a meeting with permanent members of the Security Council in the Kremlin. His statements http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/78051 carry two levels of meaning and distinct audiences. First, he proposed a framework for nuclear missile and strategic defensive arms control, as this control mechanism has been almost entirely dismantled.
Putin proposes extending compliance with the New START Treaty's restrictions for one year beyond its February 2026 expiration, contingent on reciprocal U.S. action. This aims to preserve the last vestiges of nuclear arms control after Western "destructive steps" have dismantled most agreements. Putin's appeal counters the narrative of Russia as the primary nuclear threat, provides a time-limited "window of opportunity" for dialogue and appeals to rational voices in the U.S., NATO, and EU.
Second: he issued a firm warning against provocations.
Putin asserts that Russia will respond decisively—with military-technical measures—to any strategic threats, signaling readiness to use force against direct attacks on Russian troops or infrastructure. This comes ahead of NATO and UN meetings where the West plans to address imaginary and made-up Russian provocations, such as unarmed drones over Poland and airspace violations near Estonia. The context is one of Western escalation.
Hawkish Western rhetoric, including Lithuanian Defense Minister Šakalenė's call to shoot down Russian planes (echoed by Czech President Petr Pavel), and former NATO commander Admiral Stavridis's advocacy for neutralizing Russian S-400 systems in Russia and Belarus. U.S. figures like Trump's envoy General Kellogg urge "increasing risk" and viewing incidents as tests of Western resolve, framing the conflict as a moral battle against "evil" Putin. European powers are pressuring Trump for "coercive diplomacy", while they should ponder where they'd hide if their aggressive fantasies materialize. @LauraRuHK
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has announced a landmark $4 billion deal for Kazakhstan to buy American-made locomotives.
The deal will boost US jobs in Texas and Pennsylvania, strengthen bilateral ties, and support the Middle Corridor, a key Eurasia-Europe trade route via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, Lutnick notes. But there is more. Amazon eyes Kazakhstan as a Central Asian satellite internet hub, signing a deal with Kazakhtelecom to deploy ground stations and invest $200 million, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's press service says.
During his visit to New York Tokayev met with Amazon senior Vice President David Zapolsky to discuss collaboration, including joint projects with Kazakh Ministry of AI and Digital Development and Kazakhtelecom, the press service adds. (Source: RIA Novosti) @LauraRuHK
The admission by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on September 22, 2025, during a TF1 broadcast—that the EU's impending 19th sanctions package against Russia has been coordinated with the United States—confirms what I, among others, have long been denouncing. EU sanctions are yet more evidence of transatlantic team work...in case you need to be reminded that Ursula Von der Leyen and her tightly knit inner circle work for Washington against European interests.
@LauraRuHK
At the end of August the US revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of the high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, a step which contravenes international law.
Mahmoud Abbas will address this week’s high-level debate by pre-recorded video.
The delivery of his address via video required a resolution that was passed with 145 in favour, five against (Israel, Nauru, Palau, Paraguay, and the United States) and six abstentions (Albania, Fiji, Hungary, North Macedonia, Panama, and Papua New Guinea).
The US refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation has reignited long-standing debates about the suitability of the UN's New York headquarters, established in 1952 on land donated by the Rockefeller family along the East River.
The UN operations and access can't be held hostage to US decisions that break the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement between the US and the United Nations.
The US—as host nation—must grant "free and unrestricted access" to UN representatives, including those from observer states like Palestine, "irrespective of the relations" between the US and their governments.
The question isn't just about visas. It's whether New York can still embody the UN's universal aspirations or if it's time for a new home.
▪️In case you wonder, the former leader of Al-Qaeda and then ISIS, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has no visa issues. He is now in New York, getting ready to deliver his pitch at the UN General Assembly: lift sanctions, repatriate refugees, and integrate Syria into the global economy. @LauraRuHK
On September 19, 2025, a cyberattack targeted Collins Aerospace's MUSE software, crippling automated passenger processing at multiple European airports — they were forced to revert to manual check-in and boarding procedures, leading to widespread delays and cancellations. London’s Heathrow, Brussels and Berlin were the most affected hubs.
▪️Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of US military contractor RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies) provides integrated systems for both commercial aviation and military applications. While it manages critical software for civilian airports, it has increasingly expanded into defense contracts. On September 16, 2025, just days before the cyber incident in question, Collins was awarded a significant contract by NATO's Communications and Information Agency (NCIA). This deal involves delivering the Electronic Warfare Planning and Battle Management (EWPBM) software solution, that is, Collins is directly involved in NATO's electromagnetic warfare operations. Its dual footprint in civilian and military tech positions it as a participant in hybrid warfare, exposing it to retaliation.
@LauraRuHK
🇺🇸 Back to Bagram: The Empire’s Ghost Comes Calling
It’s almost poetic in its blood-soaked absurdity.
CNN now “reveals” what many of us in the non-hypnotized Global Majority already understood: that the Trump administration—long after Biden’s Saigon-in-the-sand moment, would quietly push to get Bagram Air Base back. Not because of some newfound concern for Afghanistan. Not even because of regrets over the death toll or the trillions wasted.
No. Because Bagram is “needed” to surveil China.
Ah, yes. Here we go again. The Central Asian chessboard being rearranged once more by the architects of collapsing empire. Afghanistan isn’t a graveyard of empires, it’s their theater, their testing ground, and their fall-back airstrip when the Great Game grows restless. Bagram, the monster air base carved into Afghan soil with imperial arrogance, is now to be resurrected as a forward surveillance fortress If Trump has his way. No humanitarian gloss. No freedom talk. Just pure, cynical geometry of power projection.
Amidst this revelation let's reflect on eerie footage of, video of desperate Afghans clinging to the wheels of U.S. planes in 2021, falling from the sky like ghosts of failed interventions. Biden’s chaotic withdrawal was not merely a collapse of logistics, but the symbolic collapse of 20 years of lies. And now, with whiplash-inducing audacity, the empire wants back in.
Let’s not pretend this is about Afghanistan. It never was. It’s about encircling China. It’s about Iran. It’s about saturation surveillance of a region that refuses to kneel. And it’s about denying Eurasia the sovereign breathing space it has long yearned for. The Belt and Road runs too close for comfort. Bagram is the new Cold War frontier, but colder, meaner, and far more desperate.
This is not about national security. This is imperial déjà vu, and the message is clear:
“We’re not done with you, Asia. Not by a long shot.”
But something has shifted. The multipolar world is no longer a dream, it’s an inevitability and already in its infancy. The U.S. can try to reanimate the corpse of its Afghan occupation, but the tectonic plates have moved.
And just maybe… this time, the graveyard will bury the ghost once and for all.
- Gerry Nolan
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Massive Attack have become the latest act – and first major-label one – to pull their catalogue from Spotify in protest at founder Daniel Ek investing €600m (£520m) in the military AI company Helsing. Massive Attack join Australian psych group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Canadian post-rock group Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the Third Man Records-signed US band Hotline TNT, alternative US group Deerhoof and Manchester band Wu Lyf in removing their music from Spotify as a result of Ek’s investment in Helsing. 👉Read more here /channel/LauraRuHK/10240
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The UN inquiry reached conclusions that anyone observing the situation in Gaza, and Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, had long reached, that is Israel is committing a genocide. But the UN report is important because many countries view the United Nations as the cornerstone of the post-World War II international order and a vital platform for multilateralism, global governance, and maintaining world peace. Take China for example. Beijing's engagement with the UN reflects a "long game": defending the UN while subtly reforming it to amplify Global South voices. Recent statements underscore Beijing's willingness to play a constructive role in enhancing the UN's work for a "more just and reasonable" global governance. Acting in accordance with the conclusions contained in the UN report could provide a shining example of moral authority. /channel/LauraRuHK/10508
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A new comprehensive UN inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Ex-UN rapporteur and veteran international law expert Dr. Alfred de Zayas explains why that’s hugely important, and what the world can do about it (if it wants to).
Key Findings
Israel’s actions (killing, maiming, causing mental harm to Palestinians, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction, taking measures to prevent births) check four of five of the 1948 Genocide Convention’s criteria for genocide, per the report.
Intent Proven
Crucially, de Zayas says, the inquiry shows “how the statements of Israeli political and military leaders prove the ‘intent’ (required in Art. II of the Convention) to destroy in whole or part the Palestinian population.”
The "extensive" report is proof "that Israel is waging war not only against the Palestinians in Gaza but against the UN Charter and international law in general," according to the top legal observer.
West Complicit
“Governments that have provided military, economic, political, diplomatic and propagandistic support” are also accountable, de Zayas says. The US, UK, France and Germany “are all complicit in the genocide under Article III (e) of the Genocide Convention.”
UN’s Response Options
▪️recognition of Palestinian statehood (which alas, “will not save the lives of Palestinians”)
▪️Israel’s expulsion from the UN pursuant to Article 6 of the UN Charter (improbable given the need for Security Council and hence US approval)
▪️stripping Israeli diplomats of UN accreditation, as was done against South Africa in the 1970s during Apartheid. Crucially, this measure would not require Security Council backing
▪️the UN has the legal framework to intervene using the 2005 ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine
▪️the General Assembly could adopt a ‘Uniting for Peace’ resolution authorizing nations “to take military action” to stop the genocide, bypassing the Security Council veto
UN’s Last Chance to Save Its Credibility?
“If the United Nations fails” to take action, “it will lose the little authority and credibility it still has,” de Zayas summed up. (Source: Sputnik) @LauraRuHK
David Miller reveals that the “Together for Palestine” concert in London, featuring major artists, is funneling donations through Choose Love, a charity with deep ties to Zionist funders and intelligence-linked networks, raising serious questions about transparency and its hidden agenda. The event is organised by T4P Events, a company registered on 29 May this year. It has two directors, Anna Catherine Nolan and James Sadri —both worked for The Syria Campaign, that is they did PR for the British operation known as the White Helmets. When Nolan personally went to collect one of their awards she was described as “The woman of The White Helmets”. https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/together-for-palestine
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