placnx

Your idea that the US government preferred the zoonotic theory is interesting. It's true that the Wuhan Institute got NIH grants which went through Daszak - ECOHealth Alliance, who organized the Lancet article to downplay the lab hypothesis. That the US government may claim that they did not fund dangerous gain-of-function research does not preclude the possibility that there was parallel military research at the Wuhan lab on virus collected from a quarry in Yunnan where around six workers died after contracting Covid from the bats there. Sorry, my links are marooned on a disk drive from a old computer. I'll ask the friend, microbiologist who sent me a link to an excellent article on the lab leak theory, to send again, if he can.

I just tried to access the above link, and FEWS website says "access denied". The November report already indicates a dire situation and is still accessible: https://fews.net/middle-east-and-asia/gaza/alert/november-2024 At that time the population in North Gaza was 75-95,000 people. "A famine can be declared only when certain measures of mortality, malnutrition and hunger are met. They are: at least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 per cent; and the death rate exceeds two persons per day per 10,000 persons." https://news.un.org/en/story/2011/07/382342 Actually, the Israeli COGAT & American ambassor's claim of a remaining population of 9-15000 people, means that based on the famine critieria quoted above the situation would be even more critical than with the higher population figure, so the retraction is entirely political, not based on the FEWS evidence-based approach. Mr Lew is just trying to confuse the public. There is an obvious confusion between the remaining population of 3 beseiged camps and the population of North Gaza. The situation in North Gaza is described in the UN report in my earlier post.

There is a recent report from UNWRA regarding around four beseiged refugee camps in north Gaza. "Some parts of the North Gaza governorate have been under a tightened siege for more than ten weeks. Access remains extremely challenging and partners’ ongoing attempts to deliver aid into these besieged areas continues to be largely prevented, leaving 10,000-15,000 people without access to food, water, electricity or healthcare, as mass casualty incidents continue." https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-152-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem This is not the population of the North Gaza governate. Where is your link to your UNWRA claim?

It was a great pity for the country that in 2020 he hid out in his bunker during Covid instead of showing his already declining capacity. It's also too bad that the Dems didn't have a better field of alternatives at the primary stage. Basically they are pretty feckless. They should have derailed the Biden rerun back in 2022. The WSJ article is a good read.

The most likely Republican candidate in 2028 is Marco Rubio.

I have done it in CM, using EMS with return receipt by EMS as well. It's good if you live far from Immigration.

I agree that Kamala's laugh and tone was really unappealing, rather like those young American women with speech and intonation disconnected from any part of the country, Call it metropolitan bourgeoise? Her dismissive retort to Muslims in Dearborn showed no empathy toward people, some of whom had family in the Occupied Territories. Beltway Bubble, perhaps. Anyway, election results there were Harris 37%, Trump 43%, Stein 19%. I thought that Amy Klobuchar would have been a sensible candidate, but she was up for reelection as senator last year. Her speaking is a huge contrast to Kamala's.

In view of Britain's historic relationship to Europe and its proximity, the sensible solution on trade would be to harmonize goods standards or have UK and EU mutually accept the other's goods standards.

The most disgusting was when right-wing AIPAC manipulated two Democratic primaries to get rid of incumbents by contributing $9 million in the case of Cori Bush (MO) and $12 million in the case of Jamaal Bowman (NY).

It does seem like America is going manic as it reacts in the runup to January 20th. Maybe informed foreigners see better what is happening to America than the locals can.

My roommate's thesis was on the Peter Principle. exploring the idea of promoting someone above his/her failed position to see whether he/she would display new competence. So perhaps the Dems should ask her to wait until they could expand the membership of the Supreme Court and then appoint her to it.

The tank firing which killed all the people in the house has been widely reported, so why don't you know about it? Anyway, I should try to ignore the people who keep repeating lies that are not germane to the subject of a thread, so the point of my latest reply was to return to the subject of the thread: Israel's Disinformation Campaign Against UNWRA, and I supplied relevant links on that subject.

You need an eSata drive to record programs for playback anytime later, but I heard that Truevisions is no longer selling them, or even providing replacements for their sat receiver boxes. I saw that they have a new approach, streaming with the possibility of playing any program that aired in the previous 7 days. That's not convenient for me when I go out of the country for a month. Truevisions recently deleted CNBC, but fortunately I only watch Meet the Press which NBC allows us to see online without their streaming subscription.

People in Iran are mostly born after 1953. but they are nonetheless aware that the CIA ran a coup that ousted the democratic government led by Mossadegh and elevated the Shah to autocrat status supported by SAVAK,a rather unpleasant secret police, so like the Syrians, I doubt that Iranians would like the interference of Mossad or CIA to institute regime change.

Now I have found out how to post the link from x.com: https://x.com/Israel/status/1728031404708032701 Trying to get back to where the comment about dead babies evolved from the original subject, UNWRA, I noticed that a lot of your posts replying to comments by others was the demand to post "credible" links. Sometimes people were only making very general statements with no specifics, so why was a link warranted? So here are links related to "Israel’s Disinformation Campaign Against UNRWA". These links report that Israel's claims were unsubstantiated: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/israel-unrwa-staff-terrorist-links-yet-to-provide-evidence-colonna-report https://www.reuters.com/world/no-evidence-israel-back-unrwa-accusations-says-eu-humanitarian-chief-2024-03-14/ An UNWRA report says that "some employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention reported having been pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the Oct. 7 attacks." https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/unrwa-report-says-israel-coerced-some-agency-employees-falsely-admit-hamas-links-2024-03-08/ Do you have credible sources (with links) to substantiate Israel's claims?

Parallel to the OP question, if you have a retirement visa, is it possible to apply for less than 365 days extension in order to have the renewal date fall in a less busy period such as the rainy season?

The "baby-raper", baby beheader, baby burner hasbara was all debunked long ago. What did come out was than an Israeli general ordered a tank to fire on a house in a kibbutz where a few Hamas were holding a dozen or so Israelis, including young children. The Israeli act resulted in burned, dead children. Collateral damage.

I could not check your NYT link since I canceled my subscription a while ago after the newspaper reported IDF claims as fact without any apparent attempt to verify them. As to the European parliament link, it is just some members exercising their free speech right, not any demonstration of fact. Similarly, NPR is just reporting what the Israeli government told them. I agree that al-Monitor is good. Here is their story on the 296-page Amnesty report just issued on Israel's genocide in Gaza: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/12/amnesty-international-accuses-israel-committing-genocide-gaza

The claim that Israel's actions do not meet the definition of genocide was throughly debated by scores of countries in the ICJ hearing last January. South Africa's presentation, for example: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k11/k11gf661b3 Here is one more recent report refuting this Zionist talking point that you repeat: "Conclusions 93. The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group. This report finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the following acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to groups’ members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Genocidal acts were approved and given effect following statements of genocidal intent issued by senior military and government officials. 94. Israel has sought to conceal its eliminationist conduct of hostilities sanctioning the commission of international crimes as IHL-abiding. Distorting IHL customary rules, including distinction, proportionality and precautions, Israel has de facto treated an entire protected group and its life-sustaining infrastructure as ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist-supporting’, thus transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable. In this way, no Palestinian in Gaza is safe by definition. This has had devastating, intentional effects, costing the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroying the fabric of life in Gaza and causing irreparable harm to its entire population." https://www.un.org/unispal/document/anatomy-of-a-genocide-report-of-the-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-palestinian-territory-occupied-since-1967-to-human-rights-council-advance-unedited-version-a-hrc-55/ Regarding the claim that Israel gave up Gaza in 2005: As many have observed, Gaza continued to be an open air prison where Israel controlled entry and exit of goods and people. This meet the definition of occupation under international law, even if settlers and IDF were no longer inside Gaza. "Despite the Israeli disengagement, Gaza is still considered occupied by Israel under international law.[20][21] The current blockade prevents people and goods from freely entering or leaving the territory, leading to Gaza often being called an "open-air prison".[22][23] The UN, as well as at least 19 human-rights organizations, have urged Israel to lift the blockade.[24] Israel has justified its blockade on the strip with wanting to stop flow of arms, but Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment and exacerbates dire living conditions." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip Regarding the collective punishment mentioned in the Wiki above, the Guardian reported in 2012 on Israeli government documents released inder court order covering the period of 2007-10: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/17/israeli-military-calorie-limit-gaza

Israel grabbed the Golan Heights in 1967, never gave it back. Around 20 years ago, there were negotiations to give it back, but the problem was whether the Syrian land would extend to the shore of the Sea of Galilee as before, even though the lake's shoreline had receded due to excess use of the water (Syrian position) or the Golan border with Israel would only go to where the shoreline was in 1967 (Israeli position).

I looked up the 700,000 tons claim. It was made by Israel during a Security Council briefing on Gaza on 22 August 2024: "For his part, the representative of Israel, said: “We did not ask for this war.” Israel is not intentionally killing civilians and “there is no famine in Gaza”, and the Israel Defense Forces take pride in being “the most moral army in the world”, he added. Since the start of the war, his country has facilitated more than 14,000 trucks carrying aid into Gaza — including over 700,000 tons of food, he said." https://press.un.org/en/2024/sc15797.doc.htm (see paragraph 21 in this link) A while ago I saw Sacerdoti on BBC World News. He was spouting propaganda. I have not seem him there lately.

First of all, the juxtaposition of Netanyahu with Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran is not the point. More appropriate is the truth that we can see with out own eyes in videos from the crime scenes compared to the denials by Netanyahu et al. I think that reports from BBC and al Jazeera are largely factual, although they may intervew people with bias and sometimes fail to explain the ideologial background of their think tank or NGO. For me, that's not a problem, but can confuse the average viewer. As for your request to name sources, the list is very long for a subject that I have followed since the 1960s.

Maybe you could use Zoom. That way you could get more people who are qualified.

Thanks. I can see the idea of people with quite advanced knowledge of Thai getting together to help each other polish their command of the language.