https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/death-toll-from-israeli-aggression-on-gaza-rises-to-49

Death toll from Israeli aggression on Gaza rises to 49

The death toll from the Israeli occupation's latest aggression on Gaza Strip has risen to 49, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Friday.

The latest death that brought the toll to 49 was a 22-year-old Palestinian who "died at the hospital from severe wounds he sustained" during the latest round of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the Ministry said in a statement, referring to the Israeli occupation's three-day long offensive on Gaza.

The Ministry had reported earlier that the aggression martyred 41 people, including 19 children and four women.

The death toll is expected to rise even further considering the critical injuries a lot of Palestinians sustained by the aggression, as at least one death case is reported almost daily.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said there were at least 360 people injured as a result of the arbitrary atrocious Israeli attacks on the Strip.

The Israeli occupation began on August 5 its aggression on the Gaza Strip, and Al-Quds Brigades announced that Tayseer Al-Jaabari, a military commander in the northern Gaza Strip, had been martyred.

Consequently, Al-Quds Brigades launched an operation in response to the Israeli occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip by launching salvoes of rockets toward the occupied Palestinian territories, in retaliation for the bombing.

During the second day of aggression, the Israeli occupation committed a horrifying crime in the Jabalya refugee camp, located in the northern Gaza Strip.

Five people were martyred, including three children, and many others were wounded.

Sources told Al Mayadeen Sunday that a ceasefire in Gaza has been reached agreeing to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's demands in full.

PIJ political chief Mohammad Al-Hindi said that "a formula for the Egyptian declaration of the truce agreement has been reached, and it includes Egypt's commitment to work for the release of the two prisoners, Khalil Awawdeh and Bassam Al-Saadi."

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/14-of-us-400-wars-were-in-middle-east-africa:-study

1/4 of US 400 wars were in Middle East, Africa: Study

In the first major study of its kind, under the title “Introducing the Military Intervention Project: A New Dataset on US Military Interventions, 1776–2019”, a total of 400 wars were found to have established the military hegemony the US holds today, with the military manifestations of its imperialism increasingly targeting the Middle East and African regions mainly.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Niger, and Somalia were among the list of US hegemony targets, especially following the post-9/11 era, which amplified US military hostilities and deployment frequencies on hollow pretexts. On top of that, the US has voluntarily aided in training both Ukrainian forces and Israeli security forces, despite the latter's atrocious crimes across the region, the latest of which is the aggression on Gaza.

The report concluded that more than a quarter of the 400 wars occurred in the post-Cold War period, although the period brought fewer power conflicts that called for the need to "defend" vital US interests. However, its military encroachments continued at high rates with higher hostilities - much to the surprise of Sidita Kushi, an assistant professor at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, and one of the study's authors.

The report further stated that "this militaristic pattern persists during a time of relative peace, one of arguably fewer direct threats to the US homeland and security."

Don’t preach what you don’t practice

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 paved the way for the US to emerge as a dominant military power globally, allowing itself to expand its intervention territories under the pretext of protecting human rights and the freedom of democracy, which it preaches but does not practice.

Professor Monica Duffy Toft, of the Fletcher School of Tufts University, clarified that the US used and still uses military force to resolve its issues, noting that the US has deployed more special forces in more countries than ambassadors – a clear strategy of asserting dominance and hegemony.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a report demonstrated that the budget assigned solely for the US military exceeds $800bn annually, accounting for almost 40% of global military spending, while the US has neglected to handle properly its internal matters such as baby formula shortages, fuel crisis, and inflation.

Even as US rivals reduced their military intervention, Washington "began to escalate its hostilities," resulting in a "widening gap between US actions relative to its opponents."

>>17387289

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/lockheed-martin-wins-nearly-8bln-contract-for-129-f-35s:-pen

Lockheed Martin wins nearly $8Bln contract for 129 F-35s: Pentagon

The aerial unit of arms manufacturing conglomerate Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, has won a contract that would see its pockets grow more than $7.6 billion deeper, according to the Pentagon.

The deal is a US Navy modification contract, under which Lockheed Martin will produce 129 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets, the US Department of Defense announced.

"Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a not-to-exceed $7,630,940,571… contract," the Defense Department said in a press release on Friday. "This modification increases the ceiling to procure 129 Lot 15 aircraft."

The order includes F-35A aircraft for the US Air Force; three F-35B aircraft and ten F-35C aircraft for the Marine Corps; 15 F-35C aircraft for the US Navy; 32 F-35A aircraft and four F-35B aircraft for non-Defense Department participants; and 16 F-35A aircraft for Foreign Military Sales customers, the release added.

Around 57% of the work on the contract will be performed in Forth Worth, Texas, 14% in El Segundo, California, and 9% in Warton, the United Kingdom, the release also said.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in January it had sued to stop the acquisition of the country's last independent supplier of missile propulsion systems over concerns that Lockheed would use its leverage to harm rival defense contractors. One month later, Lockheed Martin scrapped a $4.4 billion deal to buy Aerojet Rocketdyne after the FTC moved to block it.

Lockheed Martin, however, is still conducting business as usual with Washington, as it handed over its first operational Multiple Rocket Launch System (MLRS) to the US Army, the company announced in mid-July.

According to the arms conglomerate, the MLRS can be carried on heavy military airlift carriers, and they are designed to destroy artillery, air defense concentrations, trucks, light armor, and personnel carrier at distances further than previously possible while having the ability to relocate at high speed.

Two days after the handover, the US announced that it launched two hypersonic missiles manufactured by the company in light of mounting concerns that China and Russia have had more success manufacturing and developing their own homemade hypersonic weapons.

The latest time period has seen the US conduct successful hypersonic weapons tests in a change from its usual failures, raising questions about cost and increasing concerns that Washington has been failing in what is now dubbed a superpower arms race.

Arms manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon Technologies have all touted their hypersonic weapons programs to investors in a bid to further benefit from wars and the shift to the new arms race in light of surging tensions around the globe.

M270 MLRSs are among the weapons handed out to Kiev as part of the influx of western arms to the country in light of the Ukraine war. However, Ukraine has been found to be selling weapons it acquired from the West on the black market due to the Kiev forces' limited ability to use them because of their lack of training, logistical challenges, and the diminishing size of the Ukrainian armed forces, as per former Pentagon advisor Karen Kwiatkowski.

At the start of June, the White House announced that the United States was sending a new batch of military supplies to Ukraine. The new batch of arms supply is worth $450 million in shipments.

Though the United States has been taking care of providing training for the Ukrainian soldiers when it comes to arms they are not accustomed to, Kiev is still selling its arms to the black market due to "inexperience".

Even the HIMARS are likely to be sold, US defense officials have said, though Pentagon policy chief Colin Kahl said Kiev's forces recently completed training on HIMARS delivered to Ukraine by Washington and London.

>>17387450

Matar mean Rain in Arabic.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/bangladesh:-150000-striking-tea-workers-demand-a-pay-raise

Bangladesh: 150,000 striking tea workers demand a pay raise

About 150,000 workers from more than 200 tea plantations in Bangladesh went on strike Saturday, demanding a 150% increase in their wages of one dollar a day, one of the lowest in the world according to researchers.

Most tea workers in the overwhelmingly Muslim country are low-caste Hindus, the descendants of laborers brought to the plantations by colonial-era British planters.

A worker explained that this was barely enough to buy food, let alone other basic necessities. "Today, we can't even afford brown rice for our family with this amount," said Anjana Bhuyian, 50. "A wage of one day can't buy a liter of edible oil. How can we then even think about our nutrition, medication, or children's education?" she told AFP.

Unions are demanding an increase to 300 takas a day, with inflation rising and the currency depreciating and said that workers in the country's 232 tea gardens began a full-scale strike on Saturday, after four days of two-hour stoppages.

"Nearly 150,000 tea workers have joined the strike today," said Sitaram Bin, a committee member of the Bangladesh Tea Workers' Union. "No tea worker will pluck tea leaves or work in the leaf processing plants as long as the authority doesn't pay heed to our demands," he told AFP.

Researchers say tea workers who live in some of the country's most remote areas have been systematically exploited by the industry for decades.

"Tea workers are like modern-day slaves," said Philip Gain, director of the Society for Environment and Human Development, a research group, that has written books on tea workers. "The plantation owners have hijacked the minimum wage authorities and kept the wages some of the lowest in the world."

Figuring among the poorest nations in the world, Bangladesh has for long been seen as a free-for-all for international capital. The ruling gangsters do not care for the lives and working conditions of ordinary people.

The result is a long list of tragedies in Bangladesh’s recent history, in which the lives of workers were carelessly put at risk.

The Dhaka Tribute reported in 2022 that no less than 2,000 workers have died in 26 fires over the last 20 years.

Only last year, Bangladeshi child laborers were burned alive in a factory fire.

More than 1,100 garment workers were killed in the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse – the deadliest industrial accident in Bangladesh’s history – and they still have not been given proper justice.