The UNSC session on the recent three day Gaza war has now started. Egypt, Jordan and a representative of Palestine are attending as observers. UN Envoy Tor Wennesland @twennesland is now briefing.
Israel is representing itself in the meeting. Earlier the Israel's UN Ambassador @IsraelinUN held a standup meeting addressing media. He did not take questions. He said he would take media questions after today's session.
The Permanent Representative for the State of Palestine is opening the session with a searing address. He thanked several countries at the outset for supporting an appeal to allow Palesinte to brief - they included UNSC members China ,Ireland and the UAE (1 more I missed).
Israel's UN Ambassador (@IsraelinUN ) Gilad Erdan began his statement by saying that the UNSC would be left with an indelible "stain" if it did not hold Palestine responsible for the recent events. #GazaUnderAttack
Egypt and the UAE followed. Then P5 member France which delivered a short anodyne contribution.
This may set the tone for US and UK contributions. Norway is talking now making sense. Also short. Now Ireland which along with UAE called for the emergency meeting.
The Ambassador says 80% of children in Gaxa 800,000 of 1 million are in need of psychosocial assistance to deal with the constant attacks on their home.
. @USAmbUN@LindaT_G’s statement is surprisingly moderate in tone - but unsurprisingly repeats Israeli talking points condemning Palestinian Islamic Jihad, PIJ missiles killing Gazan children and accusing Gaza of delaying implementation of the ceasefire.
Mexico’s Ambassador calls for an investigation and the lifting of the blockade on Gaza. He also condemns military actions on both sides, accusing Israel of breaking rules of proportionality and distinction in their bombing, as well as PIJ for its rocket fire.
Ghana says that the council should reintegrate the tracks for the ME peace process without delay.
Russia thanks regional states and the UN for assistance with a quick ceasefire and also seeks a resumption of peace talks to resolve the conflict within the Quartet.
Rejects un-cooperative approach of US to resuming quartet activity.
Albania as usual makes a useful and articulate intervention, condemning the conflict actors on both sides. “There is no alternative to negotiations.” The, solution, he says, come through hard work, dedication and trust.
India thanks those who brokered the peace and calls for peace negotiations to resume.
Similarly Gabon wants negotiations. The UK thanks the UAE. Reaffirms support for Israel’s rights to defend itself. Calls for an investigation of what happened and reaffirms it’s support for a 2 state solution on 1967 borders.
Kenya says most of the same things.
China as President closes the meeting, he says the situation is heart breaking, he addresses the disproportionality of the attacks, condemns the killing of children and calls for the lifting of the seige of Gaza.
His statement is fairly long, and much more nuanced and activist than any of the other P5. He calls for a comprehensive just and fast conclusion to the conflict.
Jordan speaks on behalf of the Arab Group. He expresses concerns about the situation in the Holy Sites in Jerusalem and supports the call for an investigation into Israel’s attacks. “Peace will never be secured by settlements,” he says & condemns violations of the Aqsa Mosque.
In summary the usual - but for the impassioned statement made by the Palestinian representative at the beginning of the meeting - which is likely to receive the bulk of media coverage as a result.
Netanyahu has proposed a pathway to end the war in Gaza under pressure primarily from the U.S. UK, France & Germany. Spain and Ireland and several other European nations & the European Commission.
The @israelipm sounds defeated. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end. The deal being offered to Gaza is far from perfect but it sounds workable in Netanyahus outline.
@IsraeliPM Whether it will be approved by Hamas however is unclear and rather complicated - as it’s unclear who inside Gaza would be in a position to respond to the offer. Many of Hamas’s fighters may prefer to die as martyrs also than to agree to any deal.
This is pathetic from @realDonaldTrump he’s lashing out like an angry teenager. Jerome Powell says he’s included a the costs of a building that was completed years ago in his very public attack on the FED Chair.
Trump has completely lost the plot. The single most damaging thing that he could do to undermine confidence in the U.S. dollar (which he publicly claims to want to deflate and there by make all Americans poorer - is to attack the Federal Reserve and the SEC.
@realDonaldTrump Trump is setting fire to the dollar to distract from his Epstein mess what a complete baby.
I attended the Bonn climate talks. They were very disappointing to everyone. The elephant in the room was (of course) the U.S. decision to withdraw from the talks altogether.
Unfortunately.. perhaps intentionally in advance of the continuation of climate talks regardless of #US_Disintigration the talks were also very sparsely attended particularly by activists and NGOs. The reason for this was @elonmusk destroying @-USAID.
@elonmusk As you can see the USAID Twitter account is now dead - deleted which is an appalling act of vandalism executed by Elon and his tech-bro team of teenagers.
This article is deeply depressing. For my part at Scoop.co.nz it is clear to me that:
1. The Govt has a deliberate strategy - probably not official but nevertheless operative to destroy NZ media. 2. This is not going to change any time soon. thespinoff.co.nz/politics/02-07…
& Sadly from what I discerned last year the @nzlabour opposition is both apathetic and indifferent to the plight of media. Also the @NZGreens. And have always been so for as long as I can remember.
This is extremely disappointing
@nzlabour @NZGreens I will be returning to NZ in August to ensure continues to function in these very difficult times for NZ media. We have faced numerous big challenges recently and thank our supporters and readers for their support.Scoop.co.nz
Ok so this is a bit weird, but in a kinda chill way so do bare with me and and I will be happy to answer questions afterwards. It’s about a castle on a virtual island in a massive online role playing game called Evony and it involves a possible but speculative discussion about @elonmusk and @X.
All will be revealed but first a picture or four actually from the game. More will come.
Ok. So here’s what I think is going on in a nutshell. I think elonmusk has invested in a MMORPG: a “Massive Multimedia Online Role Playing Game” which is a bit of a mouthful, called EVONY.
I liked its Twitter ads and finally clicked. It’s huge. Someone else can do the business story here which I am sure is interesting too.
But the this bit is weird.
The mysterious knight on the red horse arrived this morning beside my castle and he had some treasure.
I hadn’t a clue who it was so I grabbed the treasure and tried to kill the horse and rider as that’s what you do. But we got smashed badly.