International

A gift for NATO’s 75th anniversary – Support from France’s opposition parties

by Pierre Levy,* Paris

(26 April 2024) (CH-S) All of France’s major parties now seem to agree that NATO’s and French President Emmanuel Macron’s course of war is heading in the right direction. Opposition parties have aligned their banners with mainstream opinion. There is now hardly any serious opposition to the war policy in the French parliament. European elections are coming up and there is no longer any major party in France clearly speaking out in favour of peace and against the thriving bellicosity.

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Biden reaches out to Xi Jinping with eye on financial stability

by M. K. Bhadrakumar,* India

(19 April 2024) The salience of the phone call from the US President Joe Biden to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday [2 April] is their consensus that during the period since their summit meeting in Woodside, California, in November 2023, the US-China relationship “is beginning to stabilise”.

Statement

Six months of war leave Al-Shifa hospital in ruins

(6 April 2024 | Statement | Jerusalem/Cairo/Geneva) – A WHO-led multi-agency mission accessed Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza on 5 April to conduct a preliminary assessment of the extent of destruction and identify needs to guide future efforts to restore the facility.

The highly complex mission was conducted in close partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS), and in collaboration with the acting Hospital Director.

Africa on the rise: The Sahel's 'Axis of Resistance'

by Pepe Escobar,* columnist at “The Cradle”

(12 April 2024) The African Sahel is revolting against western neocolonialism – ejecting foreign troops and bases, devising alternative currencies, and challenging the old multinationals. Multipolarity, after all, cannot flower without resistance paving its path.

With its role in the Ukraine war the European Union may risk its own political future

Michael von der Schulenburg* and Hans-Joachim Funke**

(5 April 2024) The deteriorating military situation in Ukraine and the United States increasing withdrawal from this war created a situation in which the EU is now pushed into the forefront in dealing with this problem.

Probably for the first time since the end of the Second World War, the EU would thus have the opportunity, independent of US geopolitical considerations, to take a lead in determining Europe's fate in such a crucial issue as war and peace in Europe.

“The USA and China should assume shared responsibility for the global community”

by Prof. em. Beat Schneider,* Bern

(29 March 2024) (Ed.) This contribution arose from a lecture given by Beat Schneider as part of an event organized by the “Swiss Standpoint” on the topic “Thoughts on Chinese modernization. Is China a capitalist country?” on March 22/23, 2024. He is referring to his current publication “China’s Long March into Modernity”. It is characterized above all by the following two characteristics: In its portrayal of China, it starts from a consistently non-Eurocentric point of view and it presents Chinese culture as a culture of “as well as”.