Day: June 9, 2024

Our health service is a perfect example of socialism in action. Let’s apply its principles elsewhere

I agree with Will Hutton that the essence of socialism is fellowship, and it’s easy to show what that can mean in practice (“Socialism isn’t a dirty word. It’s simply about wanting to make a fairer society”). The NHS is essentially a system of mutual medical aid with state funding, paid for by income tax – the more you earn, the more you contribute – which means it is firmly rooted in the socialist principle “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. It has been the most popular institution in the country for almost 80 years. People may complain about its performance (largely caused by Tory attempts to dismantle it), but how many of them criticise it for being socialist?

I’d like Labour politicians to pledge to apply the principles of the NHS to other state bodies. And if the Tories and the rightwing press scream that this is socialism, Labour should ask people how bad the socialism of the NHS has been for them.
Charles Osborne

Prague, Czech Republic

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Videos of megaphone-wielding lifeguards announcing the news that four hostages had been rescued, sparking the exultant cheers of beachgoers, summed up an “only in Israel” moment on a scorching summer day.

The exuberance — of a kind Israelis have not felt in a long time — was soon tempered by the announcement that Arnon Zamora, a commander of the elite Yamam force who helped lead the rescue, was killed in the operation. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant hailed the father of two as a hero, and Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesman, said his tragic death underscored Israelis’ willingness to “risk lives to save lives;” Hagari may be a spokesman, but he spoke the honest truth.

Another solemn factor amid the celebrations: The quartet rescued on Saturday — Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv — brought the number of hostages extracted by the military to seven. In comparison, more than 100 were released early on in the war via negotiated deals. With 116 hostages remaining, dozens of whom are presumed dead, negotiation remains the more likely way to achieve their freedom.

Yes, the tactical success of the operation — a raid on the Nuseirat area of central Gaza, which was reportedly planned for many weeks — underscored that Israeli intelligence and special forces can still get the job done, despite the epic breakdowns of Oct. 7. But that success does not change Israel’s fundamental strategic dilemma.

That dilemma has, if anything, grown this past week, as Hamas has appeared increasingly likely to reject the ceasefire proposal President Joe Biden laid out in late May. One reason Hamas may be demurring: The organization is clearly cognizant that Israel will be ready to renew its campaign at the first provocation.

What may be left is for Israel to publicly offer the Hamas leadership in Gaza amnesty and exile, in something of a sort of replay of the 1982 deal that allows Yasser Arafat and his battered Palestinian Liberation Organization to leave Beirut for Tunis — where they remained until the Oslo Accords enabled them to establish an autonomy government in parts of the West Bank and Gaza 12 years later.

If such an offer is what is needed to achieve a ceasefire, Israel must make it. Among the many challenges Israel has faced in this battle is Hamas’ indifference to the lives of Palestinians, whom it deliberately places in harm’s way as its own operatives hide in a massive tunnel network underneath the strip. That pattern held true during Saturday’s raid: It’s significant that the hostages rescued were held in residences, a move that clearly endangered civilians in the surrounding area. Gaza officials claimed on Saturday that more than 200 Palestinians were killed in the rescue, without specifying how many were combatants. To continue to inflict heavy tolls on Palestinian civilians is to play directly into Hamas’ hands.

On one level, the tragedy of this war has been told in numbers — the shocking number of massacre victims on Oct. 7, and the unfathomable amount of death and destruction that has followed in Gaza. 

But human beings are programmed to respond most viscerally to stories about individual people — and that is what brought such intensity to Israelis’ reaction to the rescue, especially since some of the hostages, and their family members in Israel, have become well-known figures.

That was especially the case with Argamani, 26, who was shown in one of the first videos Hamas released after Oct. 7 begging the terrorists “Don’t kill me” as they marched her and her boyfriend, Avinatan Or, toward Gaza. Argamani has since appeared in other propaganda videos, and had become a well-known face among the captives. (Or is still in captivity.) It was Argamani’s story that dominated the news cycle after the hostages’ rescue: Her father celebrated his birthday on the day of her retrieval, and before Saturday was over she had reunited with her mother, originally from China, who is battling terminal brain cancer and has publicly begged to see her daughter again before she passes.

She also received a phone call from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said “we didn’t give up on you for a moment” and told her to “get better with your family, and hug your mother as well.” 

Yet as is always the case with Netanyahu, nothing he does remains unsullied by controversy. He was already catching heat Saturday for his speech on the raid, which emphasized his own role, as  he repeatedly declared that he had authorized and approved the raid. That said, a planned announcement by the moderate National Unity party — which many expected to be that they are leaving Netanyahu’s coalition, deepening internal Israeli disarray — was put off by the events.

The day’s drama underscored something fascinating about Israel: a nation that is famously and perhaps hopelessly divided also deeply yearns to be united. For one day at least, that wish appeared to be fulfilled.

The post The hostage rescue brought unity to Israel — and underscored a great paradox about the country appeared first on The Forward.

Если журналиста задержат, ему будет грозить до двух лет лишения свободы.

Причиной сбоя могли стать тесты будущих нововведений и обновлений.

TOKYO — Japanese police are searching for the suspects who spray-painted the word “toilet” on a Tokyo shrine that commemorates the country’s war dead, in an apparent protest against the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials and news reports said.

The red graffiti on a stone pillar at the entrance of Yasukuni Shrine was discovered early Saturday. In a video posted on Chinese social media, a man who identified himself as Iron Head criticized the discharge of wastewater from the damaged nuclear power plant into the ocean.

“Faced with the Japanese government’s permission to discharge nuclear wastewater, can we do anything?” the man asks. “No, I will give them some color to see.”

In another part of the video taken at night, he is seen apparently urinating on the pillar and using spray paint to write “toilet” in English.

Tokyo police are investigating at least two suspects, the person who appeared in the video and another who shot it, according to Japanese media including NHK public television and Kyodo News agency. The reports said police believed the incident occurred late Friday after the shrine closed and that the perpetrator is believed to have already left Japan, they said.

Police declined to confirm the reports.

Yasukuni Shrine, in a statement emailed to The Associated Press, said the graffiti was “extremely regrettable” and said it was “an act of degrading the dignity of the shrine.” The shrine said it will continue patrolling so that visitors can pay respects in “a tranquil environment.” Yasukuni Shrine declined further comment, saying it has reported the damage to police and investigation is under way.

The discharge of wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has been opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries, especially China, which imposed a ban on all imports of Japanese seafood immediately after the release began in August. The ban has particularly affected Japanese scallop growers and exporters to China.

Yasukuni Shrine honors about 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism. The countries criticize visits by Japanese lawmakers to the shrine as signs of their lack of remorse over Japan’s wartime actions.

The graffiti appeared to have been cleaned by Monday.

VERONA, Italy — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni joined top political and cultural figures at Verona’s ancient Arena amphitheater Friday night for an open-air celebration of Italian lyric opera’s recognition by UNESCO as a global cultural treasure.

Conductor Riccardo Muti presided over an orchestra of 170 musicians from Italy’s 14 opera houses, joined by over 314 choral singers and a cast of global star opera stars who delivered a greatest hits of Italian opera from Verdi to Puccini, Donizetti to Bellini for an appreciative crowd. La Scala’s two star dancers, Roberto Bolle and Nicoletta Manni, also performed.

“I am here to testify to my enthusiasm and my pride for the fact that Italian lyric opera has received this great recognition,” Muti told the crowd. “Of course, this is an important moment, because recognition is never a point of arrival but a point of departure.”

“The great masterpieces are our heritage, which we Italians have given to the world,” Muti added in a prepared message for the television audience.

While UNESCO included Italian opera on its intangible cultural heritage list in December, the Arena proved a fitting place to celebrate the milestone. The ancient stone amphitheater built by the Romans is home to a popular summer opera festival that for generations has made opera accessible to the uninitiated with lavish productions. More than half of the 400,000 spectators at the Arena each summer are foreigners.

“We have brought together the entire Italian opera system to celebrate, together with the great singers of the world,” said the Arena’s deputy artistic director, Stefano Trespidi. “I am convinced that this evening will bring benefits to the entire music and opera system.”

Joining Italian opera stars like Luca Salsi, Francesco Meli and Vittorio Grigolo were international stars including German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, Australian soprano Jessica Pratt and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko canceled at the last minute due to illness.

Though a previous center-left government prepared the UNESCO bid for Italian lyric opera, the recognition has been embraced by Italy’s far-right-led government. Besides Meloni, also attending the gala were Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano — who has set out to replace foreign opera house directors with Italians — and Senate speaker Ignazio La Russa, both members of her Brothers of Italy Party.

The loudest applause was reserved for Italy’s nonpartisan president, Sergio Mattarella. And Muti seemed to be making a point against Eurosceptics on the far-right when he transitioned from the Italian anthem, with its “Brothers of Italy” refrain echoing the name of Meloni’s party, to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, which is the European Union anthem.

Europeans are voting for European Parliament seats in an election that concludes Sunday and could determine whether far-right parties will have a greater say in the direction of the 27-member bloc.

ROME — The total global volume of fish, shrimp, clams and other aquatic animals that are harvested by farming has topped the amount fished in the wild from the world’s waters for the first time ever, the United Nations reported Friday.

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, in its latest report on fisheries and aquaculture — or farming in water — says the global catch and harvest brought in more than 185 million tons of aquatic animals in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

Experts say the milestone in human history had been expected, as the hauls from fisheries have largely stagnated over the last three decades — largely because of limits in nature.

Manuel Barange, who heads FAO’s fisheries and aquaculture division, said aquaculture has benefited from a growing recognition of the nutritional benefits — like omega-3 and other micronutrients found in food from aquatic animals — and lesser environmental impact than food derived from land animals.

The total amount of aquatic animals captured in the wild fell from 91.6 million tons in 2021 to 91 million tons the following year, FAO said in its latest State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture report.

Global production rose to 94.4 million in 2022, up from 91.1 million a year earlier, it said.

Asia was the source of more than 90% of all aquaculture production of aquatic animals, the FAO added.

Some 90% of aquatic animals that are farmed or fished go to human consumption, with the remainder going to other uses like feed for other animals or fish oils.

The most common fish that are captured in the world’s oceans, seas, rivers, lakes and ponds include Peruvian anchovies, skipjack tuna and Alaskan pollock, while freshwater carp, oysters, clams, shrimp, tilapia and prawns are among the most harvested animal life.

Flam: Due to political posturing, COVID questions linger  The Columbian

Here’s what you should know about FLiRT, the new COVID strains  FOX 5 San Diego

Republicans grill Fauci about COVID-19 origins and pandemic response  WLRN