cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27375048

The dream is becoming reality. At least for the media talking heads who take their orders at weekly meetings in the Kremlin. The US is aligning with Russia’s outlook, they say. Now, Russia can begin to imagine a just punishment for its old enemies in Europe’s democracies(..)

He [Sardaryan] urged Moscow to focus on fomenting “anti-war movements” that will block the roads and impede the functioning of freely elected parliaments across Europe, and “destabilize the situation in all the countries that dare to act against Russia’s interests.”

Note: this article by Center for European Policy Analysis is about what Russian (propaganda)media is saying, as a mean to analyse what's going on in Putins head.

Also, in light of the implications of the content found in recent leaked US signal app group info, it reaffirms an anti-European sentiment ( Europhobia), which appears to be shared by Moscow.

Gaza's civil defense agency said an Israeli drone strike on Monday afternoon killed Hussam Shabat, who was working with Al Jazeera, near a petrol station in Beit Lahia. 

An Israeli air strike killed a journalist working with Al Jazeera on Monday, March 24, and the military issued fresh calls to evacuate parts of Gaza's north as Israel pressed its renewed bombardment and ground operations in the Palestinian territory. Israel resumed intense air strikes across Gaza last Tuesday, followed by ground operations, after talks on extending a ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group Hamas reached an impasse.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.25-050434/https://www.ft.com/content/7640fe64-006a-4d46-9564-cbb2bd89ebd4

Back in the heyday of China’s boom a decade ago, Zhou Yousheng’s shoe factory in Guangdong province employed more than 100 workers. 

In those days, China’s abundant supply of cheap labour and highly concentrated supply chains made it a dominant force in low-end manufacturing. 

The country’s share of global footwear exports, for example, hit more than 70 per cent just over a decade ago, according to figures from the World Footwear Yearbook.

But over the past decade, Zhou has gradually seen the competitiveness of his business erode amid stiff overseas competition, a burgeoning trade war with the US and weak domestic demand.

Wages in the manufacturing hubs of southern China, which were once the backbone of the country’s explosive economic growth, have risen steadily, while the competition from rivals in south-east Asia has become fierce.

A compact, deep-sea, cable-cutting device, capable of severing the world’s most fortified underwater communication or power lines, has been unveiled by China – and it could shake up global maritime power dynamics.

The revelation marks the first time any country has officially disclosed that it has such an asset, capable of disrupting critical undersea networks.

Immigrant women say they were held "like animals" in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention and subjected to conditions so extreme they feared for their lives.

Chained for hours on a prison bus without access to food, water or a toilet. Told by guards to urinate on the floor. Held "like sardines in a jar," as many as 27 women in a small holding cell. Sleeping on a concrete floor. Getting one three-minute shower over three or four days in custody.

"We smelled worse than animals," one detainee said. "More girls were coming every day. We were screaming, begging them, 'You can’t let them come.' They didn’t have space."

The allegations come after two men at Krome died in custody on Jan. 23 and Feb. 20.

The government's own investigators have repeatedly found serious problems in immigration detention centers around the country. The problems have persisted through Democrat and Republican administrations and range from fatal medical neglect to improper use of force.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.22-153012/https://www.ft.com/content/643368db-038a-4da0-91ad-adf241b42016

Turkish police have detained more than 300 people during the biggest opposition demonstrations in more than a decade against the arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main challenger to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the country’s longtime leader, was taken into custody on Wednesday on corruption and terrorism charges.

Police detained 343 people at protests in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and seven other cities, according to a statement by Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister. 

İmamoğlu’ denies the charges and his supporters accuse Erdoğan of using the police and judiciary to stymie his political aspirations. The justice minister has denied the investigations are politically motivated and said Turkish courts act independently.

The move against İmamoğlu has thrust the country into political and economic turmoil. It ignited a deep sell-off in Turkish assets that forced the central bank to sell billions of dollars of its reserves to defend the lira as it tries to cool inflation of about 40 per cent.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.22-111729/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/03/22/israel-power-struggle-between-government-and-judiciary-thrusts-the-country-into-the-unknown_6739413_4.html

Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet voted unanimously on Friday to dismiss Ronen Bar, head of Israel's domestic intelligence service. The Supreme Court suspended the legally dubious procedure, and their decision was supported by the Attorney General. The prime minister has decided to force the issue.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.21-122722/https://www.ft.com/content/f31073b8-694a-43c0-b262-ebda774e3946

Israel will begin annexing parts of Gaza if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages held in the strip, the country’s defence minister warned.

Israel Katz said on Friday that the Israel Defense Forces would “seize additional territories [in Gaza], while evacuating the population” if Hamas did not agree to revised terms of a hostage-for-ceasefire deal.

“The more Hamas continues its refusal, the more territory it will lose and be annexed to Israel,” Katz added, threatening to expand border “security zones” and bring them under “permanent Israeli control”.

Israeli forces on Friday pushed ahead with a new ground offensive in the enclave, days after launching a ferocious air campaign that shattered a two-month-old, US-brokered ceasefire.

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed so far, according to local health authorities, and the Israeli military has issued repeated evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people living in border areas. The IDF says it has killed several senior Hamas political officials.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.21-023605/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-21/china-to-add-cobalt-copper-in-boost-to-state-metal-reserves

China plans to add to its strategic reserves of key industrial metals this year, an effort to boost the resilience of critical minerals supply at time when energy-transition demand is increasing and geopolitical tensions are running high.

Cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium are among the metals the government plans to purchase, according to people familiar with the discussion. They asked not to be named as the conversations are not public. The National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, which manages the country’s official commodities stockpiles, has made price inquiries and sought to bid for some of these metals, the people said.

The National Development & Reform Commission — China’s top planning body, whose purview includes stockpiles — had signaled the plan in its report for the country’s annual parliament earlier this month, writing that the country would “move faster to fulfill the yearly task of stockpiling strategic goods.”

Among nature's great engineers, beavers and their inventions have long been championed by environmentalists for their ability to protect against flooding, improve water quality and boost wildlife.

Officials had hoped to build a barrier to shield the Klabava River and its population of critically endangered crayfish from sediment and acidic water spilling over from two nearby ponds.

As a bonus it would turn a part of this protected area south of the capital Prague into a nature-rich wetland.

First drafted in 2018, the project had a building permit but was delayed by negotiations over the land, long used by the military as training grounds.

Yet before the excavators got the green light to begin digging, the herbivorous rodents set to work building a dam of their own.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.19-090302/https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-army-says-it-targeted-hamas-military-site-with-strikes-killing-five-gaza-2025-03-19/

CAIRO, March 19 (Reuters) - Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, health officials in the enclave said, and the Israeli army, which resumed attacks against the territory, said it targeted a Hamas military site in the north.

Three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Sabra suburb in Gaza City, while another airstrike left two men dead and wounded six others in Beit Hanoun town in the north, the Gaza health officials said.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.18-183250/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/03/18/in-lebanon-and-syria-israel-continues-its-war-of-attrition_6739279_4.html

In parallel with the resumption of operations in the Gaza Strip, which shattered the fragile truce signed with Hamas on January 19, Israel is pursuing a war of attrition on its northern borders against Hezbollah, an ally in Lebanon of the Palestinian Islamist movement, as well as against the new Syrian government, which it has described as a "threat to the State of Israel." Having become the target of regular bombings by the Israeli air force, Lebanon and Syria suffered new deadly strikes on Monday, March 17.

Despite the truce agreement signed with Lebanon on November 27, 2024, which put an end to more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Israeli army has been carrying out almost daily strikes against the Shiite party's positions. The aim is to prevent Hezbollah, which opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 8, 2023, from rebuilding its military arsenal and redeploying to southern Lebanon.

On Monday, one person was killed and three others wounded in an "Israeli enemy raid" in Yohmor, southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Health said. The Israeli army said it had carried out a strike on two Hezbollah members "who were serving as spotters and directing terrorist activities" in the area.

Late last year, China broke its own record for the world’s fastest train, clocking in at 281 miles per hour. But in Japan, testing is underway for another type of train — one that levitates and can top 300 miles per hour, showing that the race for the fastest train isn’t just a competition. It could revolutionize the future of travel.

Israel says it has 'resumed fighting' in Gaza, launching its heaviest airstrikes since January and killing at least 330 people, after accusing Hamas of obstructing hostage negotiations. Hamas, in turn, condemned the strikes as a breach of the ceasefire that jeopardizes hostage talks.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.16-051824/https://www.ft.com/content/49fe2291-1d1e-4a3d-ae04-7348e3258874

Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 50 suspects for crimes including prostitution and begging after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the creation of a unit to police “immoral acts”, following years of loosening the kingdom’s hardline social restrictions.

The Ministry of Interior — set up to address “community security and human trafficking” — has arrested 11 women for prostitution, the first time Saudi authorities have publicly acknowledged the existence of the practice in more than a decade.

It has also rounded up dozens of foreigners for “immoral acts” in massage parlours and for forcing women and children to work as street beggars.