The Guardian reports: “France election: surprise win for leftwing alliance keeps Le Pen’s far right from power.”
JEAN BRICMONT, [in Paris] jean.bricmont@uclouvain.be, @JeanBricmont
A noted author, academic and political commentator, Bricmont has been following the French election. He splits his time between Paris and Brussels. He can also talk about the NATO summit which starts Tuesday in Washington, D.C. His books include Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War.
Haaretz reports: “IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive.” See summary. Last month, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller claimed: “I am not familiar in any way” with “that supposed directive.” See: “VIDEO: State Dept. Claims to Be Ignorant of Hannibal Directive.”
An article in the Lancet, “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential,” states: “Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population’s inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organizations still active in the Gaza Strip.
“In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”
Available for interviews:
RICHARD SILVERSTEIN, richards1052@gmail.com, @richards1052
Silverstein writes at Tikun Olam. He has written extensively about the Hannibal Directive. His recent pieces include “Growing U.S. Complicity in Gaza Genocide” and “Mossad Mafia Threatens ICC Prosecutors, Journalists.“