Escaping Xi’s China by paddleboard: ‘I rushed into the water and thought if they catch me, they catch me’ (www.theguardian.com)
Heads of 3 top US colleges refuse to say calling for genocide of Jews is harassment (www.timesofisrael.com)
Abandoned babies found decomposing in Gaza hospital weeks after it was evacuated (www.nbcnews.com)
Spotify to phase out service in Uruguay following new copyright bill requiring ‘fair and equitable remuneration’ (www.theguardian.com)
Nepal bans TikTok and says it disrupts social harmony (apnews.com)
Philips Kept Warnings About Dangerous CPAP Machines Secret While Profits Soared. (www.propublica.org)
Exhibit #482,683 on why capitalism and medicine are inevitably a horrible combination.
Australia rejects proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in constitution (www.theguardian.com)
In Singapore, a certificate to own a car now costs $106,000 (www.reuters.com)
Prague shooting: Gunman dead after killing more than 15 at Charles University (www.bbc.com)
Germany approves global minimum corporate tax (www.reuters.com)
Multinational firms will have to pay a minimum of 15% tax on all of the profits they make worldwide, regardless of where the profits are generated.
Zelensky asks to visit Israel in show of solidarity (www.axios.com)
China's Xi says reunification with Taiwan is 'inevitable' in New Year's address (www.france24.com)
The UN says more than 1 in 4 people in Gaza are starving because of war (apnews.com)
The death toll in Gaza has climbed to at least 20,000 Palestinians. At least 1 in 200 people living in Gaza are now dead. 1 in 4 remaining Palestinians in Gaza are starving to death. I just can not comprehend this amount of violence and death in such a small area in such a short time. This is at a scale unheard of in any other...
Paris mayor quits X platform, calling it a 'gigantic global sewer' (www.reuters.com)
Israel Readying Emergency Regulations Allowing Arrest of Journalists for Factual Reporting (www.commondreams.org)
Prices soar in Argentina after Milei’s currency devaluation (english.elpais.com)
Biden wants to ban ripoff "financial advisors" (pluralistic.net)
An American tourist is arrested for smashing ancient Roman statues at a museum in Israel (apnews.com)
Israel, Hamas agree on four-day truce, hostage release and aid into Gaza (www.reuters.com)
Note that this isn’t ALL the hostages – just 50 in exchange for 150 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. archive.org link...
Gaza’s Largest Hospitals Close, Premature Babies Taken Out of Incubators, Israeli Forces Reportedly Entered Hospitals and Fired at Patients (www.democracynow.org)
“Five kids in the pediatric [Shifa Hospital] ICU left alone in Rantisi Hospital, and we don’t know what’s going on with them. The communications were lost, so they might be dead or alive,” one of the doctors said....
France has banned pro-Palestinian protests and vowed to protect Jews from resurgent antisemitism (apnews.com)
cross-posted from: lemmus.org/post/1165004...
China cracks down on negativity over economy in bid to boost confidence amid record high youth unemployment and struggling property sector (www.theguardian.com)
This month the Weibo account Weibo Finance, which has more than 1.5 million followers, issued an instruction against posting any comments “that bad-mouth the economy”. The post appears to have since been deleted. Bloomberg reported that several other finance influencers had been told by Weibo to “avoid crossing red...
Portugal just ran on 100 percent renewables for 6 days in a row (grist.org)
U.S. President Biden says "Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under single government" and "extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop" (feddit.de)
Cross-posted from: feddit.de/post/5830159...
Israel intensifies ground and air strikes on nearly cut-off Gaza while UN denounces 'war crimes' in conflict for first time and warns many will soon starve to death (english.elpais.com)
“In the beginning, people could go to the market or to the stores. Now, no more. Stores have empty shelves. People are struggling to get food, but there are already people starving in Gaza,” warns Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent, speaking over the phone....
