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Morning Star Editorial: Beijing’s victory parade is a reminder: the world does not belong to, or revolve around, the West

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/beijings-victory-parade-reminder-world-does-not-belong-or-revolve-around-west

 Military personnel take part in a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025

CHINA’S parade marking 80 years since victory over Japan has prompted alarmist coverage in Western media.

The sight of Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un together has led to panicky talk of an “axis of upheaval” aimed at toppling the so-called “rules-based order” — with pundits’ dismay increased by the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation summit just before, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared alongside Putin and Xi.

Their anxieties were stated with typical bluntness by US President Donald Trump, who asked Xi to “give my regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States of America.”

…

China has not been at war since the 1970s — whereas the US has hardly been at peace since then, and since the late 1990s Britain has joined it in attacking Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, wars of aggression that expose the West’s “rules-based order” as a sham.

If China is strengthening its armed forces, maybe that’s because a US general predicted two years ago that his country would be at war with China by now. Even so, it spends far less per head on the military (1.7 per cent of GDP) than any Nato state and less than a third of what the US spends. The US’s Nato alliance accounts for 75 per cent of worldwide military spending.

As for its nuclear arsenal, China is the only UN security council member with a no-first-strike policy and the only one to store warheads and delivery systems separately to prevent accidental or knee-jerk launches.

So we should not fall for talk of a need to rearm against an “axis of upheaval” — as if the long trail of destabilisation and destruction left by Nato wars does not suggest that cap better fits the Western alliance.

We should recognise that the threat to peace comes first and foremost from our own governments — and their determination to prevent the rise of a multipolar world, which all on the left should welcome.

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/beijings-victory-parade-reminder-world-does-not-belong-or-revolve-around-west

Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Beijing’s victory parade is a reminder: the world does not belong to, or revolve around, the West

12 countries commit to arms embargo on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza

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Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Hague Group Summit in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo: Abby Martin

In the final document, the signatory countries commit, among other things, to cease arms trade with Israel, review public contracts with that country, and seek accountability for war crimes.

Countries of the Global South have expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people at the Emergency Ministerial Conference on Palestine organized by The Hague Group, which took place on July 15 and 16 in Bogotá, Colombia. The multilateral meeting was attended by representatives from Algeria, Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Slovenia, Spain, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Africa, Turkey, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Regarding the meeting, Colombia’s deputy secretary of state, Mauricio Jaramillo, said: “This conference is being convened by the Hague Group, but it is not an exclusive meeting of this group. Given the urgency of what is happening in the occupied territories, especially in Gaza, where today, for example, we have passed the threshold of 58,000 fatalities, we must commit ourselves to action.”

The conference, which was organized by the governments of Colombia and South Africa and attended by 30 countries, agreed that: “The era of impunity must end – and that international law must be enforced without fear or favor through immediate domestic policies and legislation – along with a unified call for an immediate ceasefire.”

The agreements

According to an official press release, the meeting laid out several measures to stop the genocide in Gaza:

  1. Prevent the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel.
  2. Prevent the transit, docking, and servicing of vessels at any port … in all cases where there is a clear risk of the vessel being used to carry arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel.
  3. Prevent the carriage of arms, munitions, military fuel, related military equipment, and dual-use items to Israel on vessels bearing our flag … and ensure full accountability, including de-flagging, for non-compliance with this prohibition.
  4. Commence an urgent review of all public contracts to prevent public institutions and funds from supporting Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory and entrenching its unlawful presence.
  5. Comply with obligations to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes under international law, through robust, impartial, and independent investigations and prosecutions at national or international levels, to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes.
  6. Support universal jurisdiction mandates, as and where applicable in national legal frameworks and judiciaries, to ensure justice for victims of international crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Although 30 countries attended the meeting, only 12 countries committed to immediately complying with the agreements outlined in the final declaration: Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and South Africa. The others expected to join them by September 20, 2025 – the date of the 80th UN General Assembly. The group will also be consulting various other states on an ongoing basis for participation in the measures against Israel.

Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro stated: “We came to Bogotá to make history — and we did … Together, we have begun the work of ending the era of impunity. These measures show that we will no longer allow international law to be treated as optional, or Palestinian life as disposable.”

“What we have achieved here is a collective affirmation that no state is above the law … The Hague Group was born to advance international law in an era of impunity. The measures adopted in Bogotá show that we are serious — and that coordinated state action is possible,” said South African Secretary of State Ronald Lamola.

The final agreement is historic as it is the first multilateral agreement that seeks to influence the Israeli government’s actions in its offensive against Gaza. In this sense, it is the first time that several countries have challenged the apparent immunity of the Israeli state in its actions in Gaza, which could have unpredictable diplomatic repercussions. It could also become the starting point for other countries to demand an end to the violence in Palestine jointly.

Original article by Pablo Meriguet republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue Reading12 countries commit to arms embargo on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza

What lessons from torture bases for NHS reform?

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/what-lessons-torture-bases-nhs-reform

Health Secretary Wes Streeting speaking at the launch of the Government’s 10-year health plan during a visit to the Sir Ludwig Guttman Health & Wellbeing Centre in east London, July 3, 2025

US General Stanley McChrystal has been invited to advise on creating a ‘team of teams’ for healthcare transformation. His credentials? He previously ran interrogation bases where Iraqis were stripped naked and beaten, reports SOLOMON HUGHES

HEALTH SECRETARY Wes Streeting adopted Labour’s “warfare over welfare” approach by inviting US General Stan McChrystal, a key player in the disastrous Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to give advice on NHS “reform.”

Papers I recently obtained under Freedom of Information show Streeting sought out McChrystal for the meeting, which took place last November. Streeting’s office wrote to the Ministry of Defence saying he “would like a contact for General Stanley McChrystal as he’d be interested in hearing more about his experience in mobilising change” to “inform” his “10 Year Plan for Health.” With Ministry of Defence help, Streeting invited McChrystal to London.

…

McChrystal led JSOC from 2003–8, battling the al-Qaida insurgency in Iraq, which followed the British-US invasion. McChrystal is credited with success through the 2006 killing of al-Qaida’s Iraqi leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. However, defeating al-Qaida only led to the rise of the more vicious group Isis.

Human Rights Watch and the Washington Post detailed abuses by troops under McChrystal’s command in Iraq in this conflict. JSOC ran an interrogation base, Camp Nama, where Human Rights Watch says detainees were “beaten” and “regularly stripped naked, subjected to sleep deprivation and extreme cold, placed in painful stress positions.” Maybe Streeting thinks McChrystal being in charge of physical abuses gives him some kind of medical knowledge.

It’s certainly hard to see how Streeting can believe McChrystal is somehow a model for good and lasting change. McChrystal’s Afghanistan success was also short-lived: the Taliban is back in charge of Kabul.

…

Continue ReadingWhat lessons from torture bases for NHS reform?

Green Party respond to US strikes on Iran

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Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.

Responding to news of US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP said:

“We utterly condemn the reckless attacks on Iran by the United States that can only lead to further dangerous conflict in an already volatile region. There is no international legal basis for this unilateral action that poses a serious threat to international peace and security.

“Our prime minister has shamefully decided to echo the rhetoric of Trump and Netanyahu rather than condemn the indefensible aggression of both Israel and the US. Keir Starmer has further implied that it is justifiable for the Iranian regime to be bombed back to the negotiating table. I fully recognise the brutal nature of the Iranian regime but this unilateral action is no way to build peace and risks making the UK once again complicit in escalating a Middle East crisis.”

Continue ReadingGreen Party respond to US strikes on Iran