World News
www.reuters.com
U.S. dock workers and port operators reached a tentative deal that will immediately end a crippling three-day strike that has shut down shipping on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast, the two sides said Thursday. The tentative agreement is for a wage hike of around 62% over six years, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, including a worker on the picket line who heard the announcement. That would raise average wages to about $63 an hour from $39 an hour over the life of the contract. The deal ends the biggest work stoppage of its kind in nearly half a century, which blocked unloading of container ships from Maine to Texas and threatened shortages of everything from bananas to auto parts, triggering a backlog of anchored ships outside major ports.
resumen-english.org
Mexico: a New Turn for the Left (Resumen) By Atilio Boron on October 2024 The powerful could not with AMLO, who took away many of their privileges and began to put an end to the plunder they had exercised for more than a century. Nor will they be able to with Claudia Sheinbaum. Claudia Sheinbaum begins today [by Tuesday] a new six-year term within the framework of the Fourth Transformation initiated with the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on December 1, 2018. Sheinbaum arrives at Mexico’s highest office on the shoulders of a sweeping electoral victory: 59.76 percent against the meager 27.45 percent of her most immediate pursuer, right-wing candidate Xóchitl Gálvez. And also being the beneficiary of the positive legacy bequeathed by her predecessor, who is retiring from the presidency -and from politics, as he has said- with an impressive 74 percent popular approval rating that reaches 77 percent in other polls. Among women, AMLO’s approval rises to 78 percent; but the sharpest jump occurs with those over 65 (87 percent) and the younger electorate, under 34, where his approval fluctuates around 80 percent. There are objective reasons for this popular support. López Obrador’s government implemented a series of social programs that benefited the elderly, once left to their own devices, with pensions. He also launched a massive scholarship program for young high school and university students. In addition, during his administration, 145 universities or university institutes were created within the framework of the “Universities for Benito Juárez Welfare” program, conceived to extend free public higher education -attention Casa Rosada!- in rural areas and marginalized districts of the country, where popular access to university was very difficult. This proposal is inspired by the experience of the American “community colleges”, offering programs that normally last two years in specialized fields with immediate employment opportunities such as agronomy, nursing, automotive mechanics, among others, and that either enable students to be trained to respond to the needs of their community or serve as a gateway to careers offered by traditional universities. Among the peasant population, support for the Morena government and its allied parties, mainly the Labor Party and the Green Party, is also in the majority, as a result of numerous initiatives within the framework of the “Sembrando Vida” program (economic support to reforest and revitalize agricultural soils); guarantee prices for corn, beans, wheat, rice and milk; microcredits “a la palabra”, direct subsidies to producers as well as numerous infrastructure works that improved living conditions and the possibilities of developing economic activities and guaranteeing adequate transportation of what is produced. The new president has indicated her firm decision to maintain AMLO’s achievements. She counts on a qualified majority in both houses of congress and the governorships of 23 of the 32 states that make up the republic. To maintain the social advances but also to broaden its social agenda and intensify the fight against poverty, which although it was reduced during the last six-year term, still hovers around thirty-five percent of the population as a consequence of the increase caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. There is nothing in the current and future governing cast that could be mistaken for naïve conformism. Satisfied with what has been achieved, however, there prevails a lucid conviction that there is still much to be done and that the nefarious legacy of long decades of neoliberal orthodoxy cannot be dismantled in a six-year term. Proof of this was the difficulty to advance in a fiscal reform, in cutting the independence of the Bank of Mexico or modifying the neoliberal components of the T-MEC, the new treaty between Mexico, the US and Canada, which replaced the one signed in 1994, which limits the margin of action of the Mexican government. Domestically, Sheinbaum will have to deal with several burning issues, the main one being insecurity. Violence and drug trafficking, especially in the northern states of the country, with a focus on Sinaloa and its cartel war, results in an average of 80 homicides per day, and on some days, up to 100 homicides per day. In the year 2023 the homicide rate was 23.3 per 100,000 inhabitants, slightly higher than that of Brazil, 22.3, not to mention Argentina, where it was 4.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. But the issue of insecurity in Mexico or Brazil does not even remotely reach the spectacular and yellowish nature of the Argentinean case, especially when progressive forces are in power, and where the media scoundrels bombard the collective imaginary with apocalyptic images of uncontrolled violence. Related to the issue of violence, the implementation of the Judicial Reform, already with constitutional rank, will be one of the biggest challenges Sheinbaum’s administration will face. All of Latin America looks with hope at this advance that the government of the Fourth Transformation has achieved to break the resistance of one of the most backward and conservative centers of our countries. The new president begins her administration with an economy that rests on solid foundations. The peso was significantly revalued against the dollar; the international reserves of the Bank of Mexico reached a historical level of 225,427 million dollars in the last months, while exports reached 600 billion dollars in 2023 (almost equal to Argentina’s GDP in that same year). Add to the above a growing commercial and technological link with China, which has now become the second largest trading partner after the US. In addition to these favorable conditions, the country has received 63 billion dollars in remittances from Mexicans living abroad and more than 12 billion dollars from tourism, all of which make up an economic picture that is not free of challenges but which allows us to look to the future with cautious optimism. Contrary to Argentina’s official credo, the left in government, far from impoverishing and underdeveloping countries, does the opposite, as the Mexican case amply demonstrates. I wish Milei would take note of this lesson, although I see it unlikely, blinded as he is by his ideological fanaticism. On the external flank, Sheinbaum will have to deal with a convulsed international scenario. The closest: the tensions within the T-MEC. It is well known that for Washington Mexico is the most important country in the world, although its bureaucrats and experts say otherwise with the intention of weakening the negotiating capacity of the Aztec country. Such importance goes hand in hand with an uncontainable tendency to interfere in Mexico’s internal affairs. Examples: the militant opposition to the energy reform and, just now, to the Judicial Reform. There is also the complex issue of migration, given that Mexico is an obligatory passage for the huge caravans of victims of neoliberal policies from Central American and Caribbean countries seeking to enter the U.S., which provokes racist and very aggressive responses from the U.S. leadership, such as those of Trump and just a little less from Harris. The growing commercial and political gravity of China will be another issue that will strain the always complicated relationship with Washington. It is not just a matter of trade but a geopolitical issue of vast scope. AMLO’s “Mayan Train” will not only favor the economic and social development of the Mexican Southeast, but it is also a key piece to turn the Isthmus of Tehuantepec into a new bioceanic passage between the Atlantic, via the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific. At just two hundred kilometers wide, it is the most attractive alternative to facilitate the traffic of goods between East and West, which would relegate the Panama Canal, in fact controlled by Washington, to an unbearable obsolescence. There is a huge Chinese interest in promoting this initiative and this inevitably leads to a collision course with the US government. There would also be other issues on Mexico’s external agenda, such as its deep respect for national self-determination, its support for multilateralism and, of course, the multipolarism that is here to stay in the international system. For now, there is no talk of Mexico’s eventual entry into BRICS, which would be little less than a declaration of war for Washington, but the question floats in the air. In sum, Sheinbaum will have to face challenges of all kinds both domestically and internationally. But she is a very intelligent person, with a solid political background, and a long career in the management of public affairs. And, above all, she is a woman of strong convictions who will not be intimidated by the powers that be: the Mexican plutocracy and its American masters. They could not stand AMLO, who took away many of their privileges and began to put an end to the plunder they had exercised for more than a century. They will not be able to defeat Claudia Sheinbaum either, and this is great news for Mexico and all of Latin America. There is a reason why the big media in the US, Latin America and Spain are attacking her.
www.theguardian.com
cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13941188 > The paper is [here](https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ese3.1934)
www.palestinechronicle.com
The Israeli army announced the death of two soldiers and injuries to more than 20 others following a drone attack launched from Iraq last Wednesday. The incident took place at a military base north of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. This is the first time the Israeli army acknowledges that operations by Iraqi resistance groups have resulted in both casualties and injuries among Israeli forces. An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed that two soldiers were killed and 24 were injured in the attack, with two in critical condition. https://xcancel.com/RFN3138/status/1842216304582824346 The Israeli army has released the names and photos of the two soldiers who were killed, both members of the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade. The Israeli Army Radio further reported that an initial investigation revealed two explosive drones had been launched from Iraq early Thursday morning. One of the drones was intercepted, but the other managed to evade air defense systems and detonated at the military base north of the Golan Heights. This admission from Israel follows a statement from the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which claimed responsibility for attacking three separate targets in northern Israel at dawn on Wednesday. https://xcancel.com/AryJeay/status/1842207385902858742 The group declared the strikes were part of their ongoing resistance against the occupation and in support of the Palestinian and Lebanese people, in response to the massacres committed by Israel against civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. For several months, Iraqi factions have been launching missile and drone attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which includes movements such as the Hezbollah Brigades, Al-Nujaba Brigades, and Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, stated that they had successfully struck multiple significant Israeli targets, ranging from the Golan Heights and Haifa in the north to Eilat in the south. Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, praised the operation in a statement on Friday. “We salute our brothers in the Iraqi Islamic Resistance for supporting our Palestinian people in the face of the Zionist aggression,” Abu Obeida said. “We bless their qualitative operation that targeted with drones the occupation forces in the Golan, leaving dead and wounded,” he added. According to Abu Obeida, the operation “carries a message to the occupation that your persistence in your aggression will bring you more losses and setbacks until your retreat from our land, God willing.”
Russia has urged its citizens to leave Israel immediately, following the escalating military tensions with both Hezbollah and Iran. Yesterday, Anatoly Viktorov, Moscow’s ambassador to Tel Aviv, recommended that Russian nationals depart Israel without delay. “We advise our citizens currently in Israel to seriously consider leaving the area,” Viktorov added.
theintercept.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21022250 > Ahmad Wuhidi > October 4 2024, 6:00 a.m. >
english.almayadeen.net
The Israeli military spokesperson announced, under the "permitted to publish" clause, that two soldiers from the Golani Brigade, Battalion 13, were killed when a drone launched from Iraq exploded in a military base in the Golan. The Israeli Army Radio said there was no prior warning to the soldiers as an (Iraqi) drone exploded inside a base, killing two soldiers and wounding 24 others from the Golani Brigade, detailing that the drone entered the Golan Heights airspace on Wednesday night coming from Iraq.The radars failed to detect it, it maintained
www.newsweek.com
Newly released footage shows Russian forces striking a Ukrainian town, using what pro-Kremlin sources have claimed is one of the most potent non-nuclear weapons in the world. On Tuesday morning, videos began circulating on Russian and Ukrainian media of a "vacuum bomb" being dropped on the town of Vovchansk in the country's northeastern Kharkiv Oblast. Ukrainian news agency InsiderUA posted the video to its Telegram channel, citing Russian military bloggers who said that the bomb was the ODAB-9000, a three-ton glide bomb sometimes referred to as "the father of all bombs." A thermobaric or "vacuum" bomb draws in oxygen to generate intense, high-temperature combustions. According to the International Review of the Red Cross, an international law-focused academic journal produced by the humanitarian organization, the use of thermobaric weapons in built-up, civilian areas could constitute a war crime.
www.middleeasteye.net
US officials believe they can exploit the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hezbollah's disarray to push for the election of a president in Lebanon, according to Axios. The report echoes the belief among some Lebanese opposition leaders who spoke to Middle East Eye that there is an opportunity to push for the election of a president after the post has been vacant since October 2022. Under Lebanon's de facto confessional system, the president of Lebanon must be a Christian.
www.aljazeera.com
Experts have asserted that this tactic is a gross violation of international law and that targeting civilian infrastructure, no matter the justification offered, is a war crime. Yet, Israeli authorities insist that it’s a legitimate tactic of war and helps deter future attacks on Israel by its enemies.rms and mosques. Two years after the devastating 2006 campaign on Lebanon, the head of Israel’s northern command, Gadi Eisenkot, asserted that Israel will continue to use the strategy in future conflicts. “What happened in [Dahiyeh]… will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on,” he said. “We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.” Of course, the most severe display of the Dahiyeh Doctrine has been during Israeli’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza. Since October 7, Israel’s apparent strategy of targeting Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure with the full force of the military to try and deter Hamas has brought a catastrophe comparable only to the Nakba of 1948. In just a year, Israel’s military completely devastated all infrastructural and institutional bases of Palestinian civilian life in Gaza. The global majority is of course deeply critical of Israel’s assaults on civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon. Yet, Israel’s partners in the West continue to support these efforts both materially and ideologically. Even when Israeli authorities outrageously claim that they are “escalating” their war efforts – meaning killing and maiming civilians and making their environments inhabitable – to “de-escalate”, they nod in approval.
www.radiohc.cu
> Beirut, October 4 (RHC)-- International and local media reported on Thursday that the Lebanese army responded to Israeli fire for the first time since the Israeli occupation army launched its latest campaign of aggression.
www.businesstoday.in
Lebanon foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib told CNN that Nasrallah had agreed to a 21-day ceasefire with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu days before his death. The temporary ceasefire was called for by US President Joe Biden, France President Emmanuel Macron, and other allies on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month. Habib said, "We agreed completely. Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire but (after) consulting with Hezbollah. The (Lebanese House) Speaker Mr Nabih Berri consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French about what happened. And they told us that Mr Netanyahu also agreed on the statement that was issued by both (US and French) presidents (Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron)...They told us that Mr Netanyahu agreed on this and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that and you know what happened since then." Following the Hezbollah leader’s death, Iranian authorities are thoroughly investigating possible infiltration within its ranks, including the Revolutionary Guards to senior security officials. They have focused on those who travel abroad or have relatives outside of Iran. As per reports, Tehran grew suspicious of certain members of the Guards who have been travelling to Lebanon. One of these members reportedly asked about Nasrallah’s whereabouts and how long he would remain in those particular locations.
www.dropsitenews.com
Romal Ahmadi’s voice trembles when he recalls the day of the drone strike. “All my three children ran out of the house to welcome my older brother as he returned from work. I was sitting in the living room. They ran in the courtyard and the next thing I heard was a loud explosion.” His children were Arwin, 7, Benyamin, 6, and Aayat, 2. All of them were killed on August 29, 2021 when an American hellfire missile struck the car in their courtyard. In total, seven children and three adults were killed. The target of the U.S. strike was the oldest Ahmadi brother, Zemarai. The U.S. military tracked him for several hours that day via a drone after they observed him filling some containers. Ahmadi was employed with an American aid organization, distributing food in Afghanistan. Every now and then he brought containers to his office to fill them up with potable water and bring them home. Then he made his way from his office back home, which was in the same direction as the Kabul Airport. **When he reached his home, the drone operator fired the missile.**
Airstrikes were launched on Friday at several parts of Yemen including its capital Sanaa and Hodeidah airport, Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthi movement controlling much of Yemen, and residents said. Strikes also targeted the south of Dhamar city, Al Masirah TV added. Al Masirah TV reported that the strikes had been carried out by US and British forces, but a British government source said Britain was not involved.
link: https://xcancel.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1842095647228624913
english.almayadeen.net
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in South Lebanon reported that Hezbollah executed a well-planned ambush against a group of Israeli soldiers who were preparing to infiltrate from Odaisseh and Kfar Kila. Our correspondent mentioned that dozens of elite Israeli soldiers were wounded, and their cries were heard throughout the area. The Islamic Resistance fighters opened fire at the Israeli forces from point-blank range, leading to fierce confrontations, according to our correspondent in South Lebanon.
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (Reuters) - An Israeli strike on Friday near Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria cut off a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee Israeli bombardments in recent days, Lebanon Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters. Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman had accused Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Thursday of using the crossing to transport military equipment into Lebanon. "The IDF will not allow the smuggling of these weapons and will not hesitate to act if forced to do so, as it has done throughout this war," IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X. According to Lebanese government statistics, more than 300,000 people - a vast majority of them Syrian - had crossed from Lebanon into Syria over the last 10 days to escape escalating Israeli bombardment.
TOKYO (AP) — An unexploded U.S. bomb from World War II that had been buried at a Japanese airport exploded Wednesday, causing a large crater in a taxiway and the cancellation of more than 80 flights, Japanese officials said. No one was hurt, and there were no aircraft nearby when the bomb exploded at Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan, Land and Transport Ministry officials said. An investigation by the Self-Defense Forces and police confirmed the explosion was caused by a 500-pound U.S. bomb and there was no further danger. Officials were determining what caused its sudden detonation.
www.politico.eu
>“Thither Bibi repaired for a while, and it may or may not be a coincidence but I am told that later, when they were doing a regular sweep for bugs, they found a listening device in the thunderbox,” Johnson writes as he recalls a meeting.
www.telesurenglish.net
>On Wednesday, the Government of Nicaragua reiterated its condemnation of the attacks by Israel and “its First World allies” against Arab peoples such as Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Palestine. >Through a statement, Managua said, “In the face of the atrocity that with so much cynicism, arrogance and brazenness they display and impose daily; in the face of infinite cruelty, the extreme hatred and barbaric manner in which they despise the whole world and the institutions and peoples that we have always denounced those regimes that launch themselves against everything and everyone, in permanent genocide; against crime”. >In addition, Nicaragua recognized that “we join the global cry to stop this new holocaust which threatens to spread and generate more destruction, massacre, aberration and death”. >“As always, our Complaint and our Voice are firm, high, consistent and consistent with the justice that must be for all,” quotes the text signed by President Daniel Ortega and Vice-President Rosario Murillo. >They also remembered and paid tribute to the memory of the martyrs and victims of these attacks. >“Nicaragua honors the heroes and martyrs of all time and before this demential Zionist and imperialist attempt at extermination, and from all the Organizations and all the Spaces of Demand for Peace, we cry for an end to the Hell that continues to be unleashed by the Enemies of Humanity”. >The Nicaraguan denunciation joins the wave of Latin American countries that condemn and ask for an end to the brutal attempt at extermination and excessive violence to which countries are subjected by the Israeli regime.
www.france24.com
Biden told reporters at the White House however that he was not expecting Israel to launch any retaliation for Tehran's missile barrage on Israel before Thursday at least. When asked by a reporter if he supported Israel striking Iran's oil facilities, Biden said "we're discussing that. I think that would be a little... anyway." Oil prices jumped five percent over concerns about the Middle East after Biden spoke. A rise in oil prices could be hugely damaging for Biden's Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican former president Donald Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue. Biden said he did not expect any immediate action from Israel -- even if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently paid little heed to calls for restraint as he targets the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
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