Hungary blocked allocation of 500 million euros ($533 million) for arms delivery for Kiev under the European Peace Facility, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated on Monday.
According to Szijjarto, Hungary has not received guarantees from Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) on non-inclusion of Hungarian companies in the list of “international sponsors of war."
The minister stressed that there was a big pressure on Hungary regarding this issue during the meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday. has failed to provide guarantees.
“Surely, I did not agree to this today, we still adhere to our position: until we receive guarantees from the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption that the situation with the inclusion of OTP Bank or any other Hungarian enterprise for far-fetched reasons in the list of international war sponsors will never be repeated,” Szijjarto told Hungarian journalists.
Hungary will not support anti-Russian any sanctions
The European Commission will present the draft 12th package of anti-Russian sanctions to the EU countries this week, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations, Peter Szijjarto announced on Monday.
"At a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, we received information that the European Commission’s proposal for a new package of sanctions against Russia will be presented to member states this week," Szijjarto at a meeting with Hungarian reporters, which was broadcast on his Facebook page (banned in Russia, owned by Meta Corporation, recognized as extremist in Russia).
As Szijjarto noted, he considers the introduction of the 12th package of sanctions "without any comprehensive analysis of the consequences of the first 11 packages" unjustified. He believes that the restrictive measures did not achieve the goal that was stated by the EU, but only caused damage to the European economy, since "the Russian economy was not brought to its knees, and peace in Ukraine did not come closer."
The minister said he is not yet familiar with Brussels’ latest proposals for the 12th package, but Budapest still opposes restrictions on nuclear cooperation with Moscow.
"Hungary will not support any sanctions against the nuclear industry, as this would mean abandoning the security of the Hungarian energy sector," he reiterated.
Szijjarto recalled that approval of a new block of restrictions against Russia will require a unanimous decision of all EU countries. According to preliminary data, the package does not provide for sanctions against organizations and enterprises of the Russian nuclear industry. As Szijjarto noted, one of the types of restrictive measures in this package will likely affect the Russian diamond industry.
As hospitals in Gaza are forced to suspend operations due to Israeli bombardment and shortages of fuel and medicines, the US has expressed concern about medical facilities being affected by fighting.
Gaza’s two largest hospitals, al-Shifa and al-Quds, have both closed. Israeli snipers continue to fire at anyone near al-Shifa Hospital, trapping thousands inside
Two patients and a premature baby have died in al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s Health Ministry has said, according to the AFP news agency.
Yousef Abu al-Rish told AFP the new deaths brought the toll to six premature babies and nine patients since electrical shortages began affecting the hospital several days ago.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that it had managed to contact al-Shifa after three days without electricity, water and functioning internet, and that “the hospital is not functioning as a hospital anymore”.
Palestinians arrive south of Gaza City on Sunday after fleeing their homes and the northern Gaza Strip amid nonstop Israeli bombardment and ongoing clashes between Israel's army and Hamas [Mahmud Hams/AFP]
The largest hospital in Gaza has ceased to function and fatalities among patients are rising, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday, as a fierce Israeli assault continues in the Hamas-controlled strip.
Hospitals in the north of the Palestinian enclave, including the al-Shifa complex, are blockaded by Israeli forces and barely able to care for those inside, with three newborns dead and more at risk from power outages amid intense fighting nearby, according to medical staff.
The WHO managed to speak to health professionals at al-Shifa, who described a "dire and perilous" situation with constant gunfire and bombing exacerbating the already critical situation, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
"Tragically, the number of patient fatalities has increased significantly," he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that al-Shifa was "not functioning as a hospital anymore".
"Tragically, the number of patient fatalities has increased significantly," he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that al-Shifa was "not functioning as a hospital anymore".
Tedros joined other top United Nations officials in calling for an immediate ceasefire.
"The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair," he said.
"A ceasefire must be implemented soon, we also must accelerate and increase the amount of humanitarian aid, and we must begin peace negotiations," President Joko Widodo said in a video recorded after he took part in an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh.
He said the world seemed "helpless" in the face of the suffering of the Palestinians. The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate "war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing" in the Palestinian territories.
The president of Indonesia, home to the world's biggest Muslim population, also called for a ceasefire ahead of meeting U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday.
Amid the growing global outcry over the Palestinian death toll and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, the US has offered Israel its wholehearted support and refrained from joining calls for a ceasefire in the enclave. It has also remained highly opaque regarding the specific military assistance it has pledged Tel Aviv.
Throughout its history, the United States has never allowed concerns about the civilian death toll to impact its warfare strategy, and current developments in Gaza are yet another glaring example of this, scholar, educator and journalist K.J. Noh told Sputnik Media.
"The fundamental immorality of US warfare… is that it has never sought to minimize the deaths of civilians. We know that US wars recently have been somewhere in the range of 90 percent civilian deaths,” the scholar underscored.
Recalling US doctrine implemented in countries like Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere, it has been “simply to kill anything that moves. You create a free fire zone, you kill anything that moves, and the murder is indiscriminate,” the pundit said. Afterwards, they may use mainstream media to “paste it over” with "PR means and releases."
US Business 'is War'
Whether it is fuelling weapons to fuel the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, or sending military assistance to Israel in its fight against Hamas, “fundamentally, the business of the US is war,” K.J. Noh emphasized.
“You know, the US is number one supplier of arms to the world. It's 40 percent of all arms sales… and it sells them to quisling governments and to governments that are involved in the Pacific pivot - this escalation to war against China,” underscored the scholar, adding that Washington is “turning the entire planet into an armed madhouse” using taxpayers’ dollars.
Ever since the Hamas attack of October 7, Israel’s strong response, with its relentless strikes and then ground operation in Gaza that has been driving up the civilian death toll in the enclave has boosted sympathy for the Palestinian issue across the globe. And yet, we see how Washington has doubled down on its determination to offer “unwavering” support for Israel. As Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continue their onslaught on Gaza, the Palestinian death toll in the enclave since 7 October has exceeded 11,000, according to local health officials. US President Joe Biden, however, has rejected calls for a ceasefire, with Washington floating the suggestion for a brief “humanitarian pause” in Israel’s assault to allow aid to enter Gaza or permit civilians to leave the enclave.
After the Biden administration asked for an additional $14 billion for Israel from Congress, Washington committed to delivering to Tel Aviv Iron Dome air defense missiles, small diameter bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits, besides the earlier agreed weapons deals, as per US media reports. At the same time, unlike the case with Ukraine, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged that Washington's military supplies to Israel were shrouded in secrecy. During an October 23 press briefing, Kirby said that "We’re being careful not to quantify or get into too much detail about what they’re getting — for their own operational security purposes, of course."
“Transparency in war is largely an illusion or at best, selective. You know, war is always deception. Both the published lists and the unpublished lists. The published lists are designed to intimidate, or message, or signal, or posture. And the unpublished lists are… often hiding dirty criminal tactics.”
As far as the ongoing developments in besieged Gaza, which is being pounded by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), “the US is providing the weapons,” K.J. Noh pointed out, adding:
“It is now the accomplice, or it has always been the accomplice to this genocide of which we know 99.6 percent have been civilians so far by any tabulation that we can see. And so because the US is accomplice to this genocide, it has said there are no restrictions on how the weapons are used. So then it makes sense that it would obscure the weapons that it provided.”
“The use the use of war by the US has been a constant, certainly at least since the 1990s, and certainly… the use of proxies as well… We know that ISIS* itself was cultivated by the US until it started to blow back,” the expert recalled.
Furthermore, now Israel has reportedly requested several hundred expendable switchblade kamikaze drones, K.J. Noh pointed out, which signals “that there is going to be intense urban warfare with intense casualties.”
“And it just speaks to the constant escalation, and the fact that there is the ‘no holds barred’ [approach] as this war continues to move forward," he said.
'Real Costs of War'
From the Biden administration's opaque arms deals with Israel, and lack of concern for the civilian death toll in Gaza, the educator weiged in on the American establishment's attitude towards its own soldiers.
“We don't understand or we choose not to understand the real costs of war,” K.J. Noh said.
A recent report in The New York Times appeared to shed light on strange new physical and psychic wounds discerned among military gun crews, dating back to a "secret US offensive during 2016 and 2017" seeking to defeat the Islamic State in Syria. At the time, a plan to put a minimal number of American boots on the ground to target the enemy with artillery fire backfired in the sense that the US soldiers returned plagued by nightmares, panic attacks, depression, etc. Many, as per the report, have died by suicide. The Marine Corps in 2019 issued findings of an investigation that showed these gun crews were likely injured by having to fire a huge number of rounds daily. And yet, the military appeared to dismiss these concerns.
“What this article does, in my opinion, is it takes what looks to me like a description of war trauma, PTSD, moral injury, and then tries to shoehorn it into a kind of biophysical symptom that is blast exposure or blast shock. Now, this is not new. This type of thinking goes all the way back to World War II,” claimed the expert.
According to K.J. Noh, its “part of an ideological crusade that wants to distract from the moral costs, and to turn moral damage into a medical phenomenon which that you can then treat with medical procedures."
“The simple fact is that when you seek to snuff out another human's life, you have to silence your own conscience. And sometimes that doesn't work, and so then this conscience returns with a vengeance... And I think these types of hauntings and hallucinations are part of that phenomenon,” K.J. Noh underscored.
A lion that escaped from a travelling circus in the Italian town of Ladispoli roamed the streets for nearly six hours on Saturday, sparking panic among residents.
Alessandro Grando, the mayor of the town, announced on Saturday that an animal had escaped and warned people to be careful and not to go out until further notice. He added that the fugitive had been “immediately tracked down” and an operation to capture him was being led by circus staff and police. Ladispoli is north of Rome on the Mediterranean coast.
Meanwhile, shocked locals began posting footage on social media of the lion casually walking the streets, expressing fear and anxiety.
After almost six hours, Grando reported that the predator had been tranquillized and corralled. According to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, even a helicopter was used to locate the lion.
The animal initially refused to eat meat containing sedatives. Veterinarians later managed to hit it with a rifle shot containing a tranquillizer, local media reported, but this was not enough to stop the lion and it escaped again. After another two hours, the animal was finally found asleep and taken back to the circus.
The mayor pointed out that he had not allowed a travelling circus with animals to come to the town but explained that it was not up to him to make such decisions, adding that he “cannot forbid circuses with animals from coming.” He noted that an attempt to ban them in 2017 failed, as the town lost an appeal to the Regional Administrative Court and also had to pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees. “Until the regulations change, we can’t do anything else,” he concluded
Following the incident, the International Organization for Animal Protection (OIPA) said the lion’s case “highlights the danger of circuses with animals from the point of view of public safety” and the discomfort of “poor creatures forced into captivity to be used for entertainment.” OIPA called for a ban on circuses with animals, pointing out that performances with only acrobats and clowns can be educational and showcase human talent.
