Daglig diskussion – 23 april 2024

Hizbollah slår till Israel med drönareattack

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on Tuesday it had launched a drone attack against Israeli military bases north of the city of Acre, in its deepest strike into Israeli territory since the Gaza war began.

The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of any of its facilities being hit by Hezbollah, but had said earlier on Tuesday that it intercepted two "aerial targets" off Israel's northern coast.

The two sides have been engaging in regular exchanges of missile fire and airstrikes since the start of the war in Gaza last October, but have refrained from pushing the…  Läs mer conflict into all-out war.

IOC-studie visar att transkvinnliga idrottare är i underläge jämfört med cis-kvinnor.

A Study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee and the University of Brighton found that while trans women are stronger in some respects, like grip strength, cis women have stronger lower bodies.

The study also found that trans women have a similar bone density as their cis women counterparts, which rebuts a frequent refrain from conservatives who’ve argued otherwise to justify banning trans girls and women from sports.

All the participants in this study participated in competitive sports or took part in physical training at least three times a week. The 35 trans athletes…  Läs mer had to have completed at least one consecutive year of hormone replacement therapy.

Offren i massgrav i Gaza "blev avklädda med händerna bundna."

A total of 283 bodies were recovered at Nasser Hospital, of which 42 were identified.

“Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Reports suggest that there were 30 Palestinian bodies buried in two graves in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City; one in front of the emergency building and the others in front of the dialysis building,” Ms. Shamdasani told journalis…  Läs merts in Geneva.

Bernie Sanders introducerar ändringsförslag för att blockera militärt stöd till Israel.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday that he would put forth an amendment to remove offensive military funding for Israel from a House-passed aid package that the Senate is set to consider this week.

The amendment would “cut billions in offensive military funding to Israel from the proposed national security supplemental package,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. The package, approved by the Republican-controlled House over the weekend, includes $17 billion in unconditional military assistance to the Israeli government, which stands accused on the world stage of perpetrating…  Läs mer genocide in Gaza.

Iran är svagare än vi tror

As for Iran’s military chiefs, their standard of success is so low that, in the immediate aftermath of the failed aerial offensive, Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, declared that Iran “has achieved all of its goals”. He then unwisely added a vainglorious threat: “If the Zionist regime or its supporters demonstrate reckless behaviour, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response.”

Iran’s response was an all-out air offensive with hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and cruise missiles. But this very expensive attack…  Läs mer failed most miserably, wounding just one Israeli, a seven-year-old Bedouin, and inflicting only trivial damage to the non-functional edge of a runway.

Världsvapenutgifterna når 2,5 biljoner dollar

Total military spending by nations reached a record high of $2.443 trillion in 2023, according to a new report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI.

Across the globe, military expenditures increased by 6.8% in real terms over 2022, the steepest rise since 2009, according to the Swedish think tank which has tracked the military spending by countries based on open sources since the 1960s. Every region saw an increase, but Europe, Asia and Oceania, and the Middle East saw the greatest growth..

“The unprecedented rise in military spending is a dire…  Läs merct response to the global deterioration in peace and security,” according to Nan Tian, the report’s senior author. “States are prioritizing military strength but they risk an action-reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape,” he added.

Kinesiska banker hjälper Ryssland att finansiera kriget med Ukraina

The U.S. is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system, arming Washington’s top envoy with diplomatic leverage that officials hope will stop Beijing’s commercial support of Russia’s military production, according to people familiar with the matter.

The banks serve as key intermediaries for the commercial exports to Russia, handling payments and providing client companies credit for trade transactions.

U.S. officials say targeting banks with sanctions is an escalatory option in case the diplomatic overtures fail to persuade…  Läs mer Beijing to curb its exports. U.S. officials have ramped up pressure on Beijing in recent weeks in private meetings and calls, warning that Washington is ready to take action against Chinese financial institutions handling trade in such dual-use goods.

Högskolor kastade in i kaos över pro-palestinska protester

Less than a week after the arrests of more than 100 protesters at Columbia, administrators at some of the country’s most influential universities were struggling, and largely failing, to calm campuses torn by the conflict in Gaza and Israel.

The menu of options for administrators handling protests seems to be quickly dwindling. It is all but certain that the demonstrations, in some form or another, will last on some campuses until the end of the academic year, and even then, graduation ceremonies may be bitterly contested gatherings.

At New York University, the police swept in to arrest…  Läs mer protesting students on Monday night, ending a standoff with the school’s administration.

Gaza-kriget sätter vänstern i ledningen för Demokratiska partiet

For the first time in decades, possibly since the anti-Vietnam War and environmental movements, the left wing has led the center of the Democratic Party in a new political direction on a major issue — one sharply critical of the Israeli government, impatient with the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and increasingly willing to use American leverage to curb Israel’s military plans.

In recent weeks, Democratic leaders have begun inching closer to the progressive view that it is against U.S. interests to continue sending unconditional U.S. military aid to Mr. Netanyahu&…  Läs merrsquo;s government in an asymmetrical war that has killed thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza. And they have recognized that anger among Democratic voters — especially young voters — over the U.S. role in Gaza is a serious threat to Mr. Biden’s re-election that cannot be ignored.

16 döda, 28 saknade efter att migrantbåt har kapsejsat utanför Djibouti

Sixteen would-be migrants have died and another 28 are missing after a boat carrying 77 people capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the second such incident in two weeks, the United Nations migration agency said on Tuesday.

The boat's occupants included children, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a post on social media platform X.

It said its Djiboutian office was helping with rescue efforts.

Nordkorea simulerar kärnvapenmissilattack

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised salvo launches of the country’s “super-large” multiple rocket launchers that simulated a nuclear counterattack against enemy targets, state media said Tuesday, adding to tests and threats that have raised tensions in the region.

The report by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency came a day after the South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the North firing what they suspected were multiple short-range ballistic missiles from a region near its capital, Pyongyang, toward its eastern seas.

Analysts say North Korea…  Läs mer’s large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundary between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are guided during delivery. The North has described some of these systems, including the 600mm multiple rocket launchers that were tested Monday, as capable of delivering tactical nuclear warheads.