alanjjohnstone
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Japan will hold a joint military drill with US and French troops in the country’s southwest next month, the defence minister has announced, as China’s actions in regional waters raise concern.
The exercise, running from May 11 to 17, will be the first large-scale exercise in Japan involving ground troops from all three countries.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/24/japan-to-host-first-joint-war-games-with-us-france
I don’t think his comment is about you, MS, but that he attacked the Leninists on Tik Tok for their claims
British campaign group Free Speech on Israel report, written by Oxford University researcher Jamie Stern-Weiner and set to be officially published on Sunday, shows that statements made by spokespeople and publications of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) have misrepresented the “Working Definition of anti-Semitism” by claiming that it includes a hotly contested list of “examples” of anti-Semitism. Stern-Weiner identifies repeated public statements made by IHRA, its spokespersons and representatives which misrepresent the IHRA’s definition of anti-Semitism by conflating it with the list of examples.
Oxford University Professor Avi Shlaim argues that its findings “ought to lead any government or organisation that is considering the adoption of the IHRA definition to think again”.
Hundreds of nationalist Jews shouting “Death to Arabs” confronted Palestinian demonstrators at the city’s Damascus Gate.
The Jewish group – led by the far-right Lehava organization – announced earlier in the day that it would march to the gate to stop the Arabs and remind them who Jerusalem belongs to.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/police-gearing-up-for-far-right-protest-in-jerusalem-666057
Lehavah (Hebrew acronym for Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land) is an Israeli right-wing organization founded by activist Ben-Zion Gupstein. Its purpose is “to save Jewish girls who have been tempted to associate with a Gentile.” The organization works to prevent Jewish women from associating with non-Jews and also offers practical and legal help to Jewish women on severing their romantic ties with non-Jews. Members of the organization also encourage Jewish-only labor because the employment of Arabs in Jewish-owned businesses contributes to an increase in the rate of assimilation in Israel.
A scientific paper claiming current smokers are 23% less likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 compared to non-smokers has been retracted by a medical journal, after it was discovered some of the paper’s authors had financial links to the tobacco industry.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/22/climate-crisis-emergency-earth-day
So-called “solar geoengineering” doesn’t actually modify the sun itself. Instead, it reduces incoming sunlight by other means, such as putting chemicals in the atmosphere that reflect sunlight to space. It addresses a symptom of global heating, rather than the root cause, which is human-caused increase in the atmosphere’s burden of carbon dioxide…The heating effect of carbon dioxide persists for 10,000 years or more, absent unproven technologies for scrubbing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In contrast, the sun-dimming particles in question drop out in a year or less, meaning that if you come to rely on geoengineering for survival, you need to keep it up essentially forever. Think of it as climate methadone.
Val The hammer of the banks
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-56843329
London mayoral candidate for political party Burning Pink, Valerie Brown, 68, was among the women arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.
She said: “Investing in fossil fuels is murder. More and more people can see that clearly. Why can’t you?
“We will not stand by whilst you [HSBC] invest in runaway greed, whilst people’s lives are being shattered by the fossil fuel industries,” she added.Australia cuts business ties with China
The federal government used new powers to rip up two deals made between the state of Victoria and China, backing away from the agreements to protect Australia’s national interest.
Building the case for war
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/21/iran-giving-houthis-significant-and-lethal-support-us-envoy
“What I see is continued aiding and abetting an army of Houthis by the Iranians so that they can continue attacking Saudi Arabia…” US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said
As we expected climate proposals agreed with by governments is often playing with figures on paper.
Insects once again on the menu
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210420-the-protein-rich-superfood-most-europeans-wont-eat
Today my wife brought home ant-eggs for herself. I often see locals with long poles harvesting them from their tree-top nests.
Is it really that different from caviar fish-eggs.
We now have the experience of the French climate assemblies and their realisation that their recommendations were ignored by the government, despite prior guarantees that it would not meddle with the assembly’s consensus.
Philippines has ramped up its rhetoric in recent weeks in defiance of what it says is threatening behaviour by Chinese vessels. Duterte has ordered authorities to continue “sovereignty patrols”, and intensify operations against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in its territorial waters, the task force said.
