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Torturing children is normal for Israel

In 2018, veteran Palestine solidarity campaigner and Jewish anti-Zionist Tony Greenstein was expelled from the Labour Party after being smeared as an anti-Semite. As has been seen so often during Labour’s manufactured anti-Semitism crisis, the charges cited by party lawyers referred not to actual “anti-Semitism”, but to legitimate criticism of …

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Pakistan returns $1 bln of Saudi Arabia's loan over Kashmir dispute

Pakistan has returned $1 billion to Saudi Arabia as a second instalment of a $3 billion soft loan, as Islamabad reaches out to Beijing for a commercial loan to help it offset pressure to repay another $1 billion to Riyadh next month, officials said on Wednesday according to a report …

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Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq civilians

Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones Donald Trump has pardoned four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were serving jail sentences for killing 14 civilians including two children in Baghdad …

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Albanians Search Anxiously for Youngsters Arrested in Street Protests

Parents of the youthful protesters arrested during the latest anti-government rallies are hunting in police stations across Tirana for their children – some accusing the police of making arbitrary arrests. Emin Basha, uncle of Ibrahim Basha, a police officer killed on duty while fighting drug lords in southern Albania four …

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With Arms Deals and Donations, Turkey Steps up Balkan Influence

Turkey has long pursued a policy of soft-power diplomacy in the Balkans. More recently, the defence sector has come to the fore. When, in the midst of a reignited war over the Caucasus mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh, President Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia was considering buying Turkish armed drones, it was …

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DEMOCRACY DIGEST: BATTLE OF THE BUDGET HAS POLAND AND HUNGARY CLAIMING VICTORY

Poland and Hungary declare victory in their fight with Brussels over a plan to make EU funds conditional on upholding the rule of law. But the mechanism is still coming in. Central European leaders headed to the summit of EU leaders in Brussels buoyed by a compromise plan to end …

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Balkan States Race to Secure COVID-19 Vaccine Supplies

As the countries of the Balkans strive to secure sufficient supplies of COVID-19 vaccine, many questions remain unanswered – how much will there be, when will it start and what will it all cost? With UK grandmother Margaret Keenan becoming the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech …

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