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© Reuters/Jim YoungU.S. President Barack Obama meets with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office.
The U.S. government's support of Israel - which includes Obama and all 100 senators - further exposes the gigantic clash between the unpopular foreign policy of the U.S. versus the wishes of its residents. The government will be further pushed by corporate interests to pursue these unpopular yet profitable overseas policies, which are teaching millions of people about the reality of their government, consequently undermining the future basis for an elite-driven foreign policy.
Merely glancing at the casualty statistics was enough for most Americans to know their T.V. was lying to them: 1900 Palestinians have died, 10,0000 have been injured - 80% of them civilians. Meanwhile, 3 Israeli citizens have died, zero injured. There is typically more damage from a Super Bowl victory party than Israel has suffered from Hamas' fireworks.
© blogs.icrc.org
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reported emergency medical workers, ambulances and civilian volunteers have all come under Israeli attack as they attempted to rescue civilians injured during the ferocious month-long air, land and sea bombardment of the densely populated strip.
On July 25, ambulances from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) were attacked by Israeli forces as they attempted to rescue wounded civilians in Beit Hanoun.
The vehicles were clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem when they were attacked. One medical rescue worker was killed and three others seriously injured in the attack.
Also on July 25, ICRC reported one of its volunteers was fatally wounded while working in Khuza'a. Israeli troops also fired on other volunteers who attempted to rescue him.
The main PRCS hospital and administrative facility in Gaza has also been attacked by Israeli forces, and 40 of its emergency workers have been wounded while on duty. Some 26 ambulances have also been damaged. Many ICRC ambulances have been shot at while attempting to rescue injured civilians.
Doctors, nurses, medical rescue personnel and ambulance drivers described the horrific and dangerous conditions under which they must work, sometimes narrowly avoiding death as they attempt to save others.
Activists and police have clashed in the Ukrainian capital's center after communal workers tried to dismantle the camp. It follows a months-old conflict over the camp with the city administration.
Camp residents are currently fortifying the old barricades and building new ones, Ria Novosti reported.
Law enforcement officials have been injured in the clashes with activists on the Kiev's Independence square, according to the Interior Ministry press service.
It's not known how many people were injured, ITAR-TASS reports. The majority of injuries were from stones thrown by protesters.
The smoke from burning tires can be smelt all over the city center, witnesses say.
Law enforcement officials have been injured in the clashes with activists on the Kiev's Independence square, according to the Interior Ministry press service.
It's not known how many people were injured, ITAR-TASS reports. The majority of injuries were from stones thrown by protesters.
The smoke from burning tires can be smelt all over the city center, witnesses say.
The police are now fining homeless folks for any arbitrary offense they can think of, and city councils across the country are making it illegal to sleep in public. They've gone so far as to make it illegal to camp, or even sit or lay down in certain public areas. Worst of all, many cities are making it illegal, or prohibitively expensive to give food to the homeless. According to an interview from The Independent, with a former police chief involved in a charity dedicated to feeding the poor:
The homeless are an embarrassment for the town, said Arnold Abbott, a 90-year-old former police chief from Pennsylvania and director of Love Thy Neighbor, an organization that has been feeding homeless here for over 20 years. Five times the city has tried and failed in court to stop him serving meals each Wednesday on the beach beneath the tourist strip.
The town, he said, really wants the homeless to go away. "They would like to put them in a bus and send them to Miami or Palm Beach. It's very close to ethnic cleansing. But they are not going to succeed."
© ReutersYoshiki Sasai, deputy director of the Riken's Center for Developmental Biology in Japan, attends a news conference in Tokyo April 16, 2014. Sasai, a Japanese researcher at the center of discredited research that was initially hailed as a potential breakthrough for stem cell treatment, killed himself after months of stress and exhaustion, officials said on Tuesday.
Sasai, 52, was considered an expert in embryonic stem cell research and co-authored two research papers published in January in the journal Nature that detailed a seemingly groundbreaking method of harvesting stem cells to grow new human tissue. Sasai and lead author Haruko Obokata reported having successfully altered ordinary mouse cells into versatile stem cells by immersing them in a mildly acidic solution. The resulting cells were named stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cells.
Senior government official issues warning over possible curb which could hit major air carriers.
Russian lawmakers are considering limiting or banning transit flights across Siberia on the Europe-Asia route, according to a high-ranking government official.
A report was carried on Tuesday by Vedomosti newspaper and cited by other major Russian media including RIA Novosti.
Consultations are believed to have been held by the Transport Ministry and Foreign Ministry over curbs on Western airlines which have dozens of flights daily using Siberian airspace.
'Any unfriendly measures taken by the EU, including that concerning air transportation, will be considered and not left without the response,' a diplomatic source told Vedomosti. 'To fly to Asia European airlines presently use the shortest Trans-Siberian route and pay for it to Russian Aeroflot. According to the source close to the company, Aeroflot receives less than $300 million annually from foreign airlines,' reported RIA Novosti.
© Virgin AtlanticExamples of Western airlines overflying Siberia are British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa.
A report was carried on Tuesday by Vedomosti newspaper and cited by other major Russian media including RIA Novosti.
Consultations are believed to have been held by the Transport Ministry and Foreign Ministry over curbs on Western airlines which have dozens of flights daily using Siberian airspace.
'Any unfriendly measures taken by the EU, including that concerning air transportation, will be considered and not left without the response,' a diplomatic source told Vedomosti. 'To fly to Asia European airlines presently use the shortest Trans-Siberian route and pay for it to Russian Aeroflot. According to the source close to the company, Aeroflot receives less than $300 million annually from foreign airlines,' reported RIA Novosti.
© rt.comItalians petition for a Nuremberg trial for Israel.
The petition was signed by 525 Italians, mainly academics, Haaretz reported. The signees say they are dismayed by the events in Gaza and accuse Israel of pursuing colonial policies and "ethnic cleansing" of the Palestinians.
The document calls for Israel to face an international tribunal, a Nuremberg-like trial, for its war crimes and the "slow genocide" of the Palestinian people. Italian activists believe that not only the Israeli military and the government, but also the entire state of Israel and "its accomplices" should be brought to trial over current events, as well as those in the past and "the foreseeable future."The online document also blames the US for supporting Israel, and the EU for "active or passive complicity" in Israel's actions against the Palestinian people. The petition signees also accuse the United Nations of its failure to stop Israel. The Western media, according to activists, paints the events in the wrong light, justifying the Israeli offensive in Gaza as a self-defense operation.
Called 'Noi Accusiamo' (We Accuse), the petition was initially published on an academic website, Historia Magistra, but has gone viral after being re-posted on the website of left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto.
Comment: An old man in Gaza held a placard that said: "You take my water, burn my olive trees, destroy my house, take my job, steal my land, imprison my father, kill my mother, bombard my country, starve us all, humiliate us all but I am to blame: I shot a rocket back."
Since inception in 1948, Israel has systematically become a terrorist state. Its hypocrisy, disinformation and subterfuge authorize self-permission for genocide, destruction, ruthless brutality--including using extreme methods against itself in order to further an agenda (as in the murders of three Israeli teens blamed on Hamas and the killing of its own IDF soldier in order to violate the recent ceasefire). It has purposefully and willfully brought Gaza to the brink of collapse while, without mercy, the death toll of innocent civilians keeps rising. Who will stop this massacre? Who will hold Israel (and accomplices) accountable? And, what is taking so long?
"Like the Exxon Valdez, Mount Polley will be synonymous with one of the most disastrous environmental events in British Columbia," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said in a statement. "The frightening fact is both environmental disasters could have been prevented by vigorous government oversight by an effectively resourced agency bound by robust legislative and environmental safeguards."
People and destroyed buildings in Khuza'a, southern Gaza
An Al Jazeera team arrived at Khuzaa in Khan Younis to find people retrieving decomposing bodies from homes.
Witnesses said six youths had been taken to a house and executed by Israeli forces. The bodies were left there for several days.
One man said: "It is a mass execution of six Palestinian youths who were brought to this bathroom. Look at the gunshots on the wall."
Comment: Additional examples of the ongoing discrimination against America's homeless: