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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/25875560

By Yasmine El-Sabawi in Washington
Published date: 10 February 2025 22:16 GMT

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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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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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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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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/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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