Report: European missile group MBDA selling parts for bombs that killed children in Gaza

France 24

2 days ago

The New York Times documents the mass deportation of 1 million Afghans from Iran. It's one of the worst displacement crises of the past decade, according to The Times. Since the beginning of the year, more than 1.4 million Afghans have fled or been deported from Iran as the Tehran clamps down on undocumented refugees. "Where do we even go now?" is a question many of them are asking. Many Afghan refugees have lived in Iran their whole life and now face prospect of having to move to a country that's foreign to them.
The paper explains that Iran is host to the world's largest refugee population of about 4 million people, with 95 percent of them believed to be Afghans. They are limited to low-skill, physical work and can only live in 10 of the 31 Iranian provinces. Since the war with Israel however, Afghans in Iran have faced increasing xenophobia. Officials and state media have claimed without proof that Afghans were recruited by Israel and the US to stage terrorist attacks, seize military sites and build drones. This has led to a wave of attacks against Afghans. Some of them have been denied access to hospitals or basic food supplies, which has also precipitated their departure. The Afghan paper Hasht e Subh, for its part, notes that Afghanistan 's economy could be pushed to the brink. Vital remittance money sent from Afghan refugees in Iran to relatives in Afghanistan has been abruptly cut off. Furthermore, the mass influx of Afghans to Afghanistan has also intensified the housing, healthcare and unemployment crises in the country.
The Guardian has published an exclusive report which shows that Europe's biggest bomb maker sold parts for bombs used by Israel in attacks that killed children in Gaza. The paper notes that concerns are mounting about the extent to which European companies are benefiting from the devastation in Gaza. The paper's investigation, alongside investigative websites Disclose and Follow the Money, examines the supply chain of the GBU-39 bomb. EU bombmaker MBDA owns a factory in the US state of Alabama, which produces parts fitted to the GBU-39, made by Boeing. Revenue from the US company flows to its UK branch which then passes on profits to MBDA, which is headquartered in France. Last year, the French company distributed €400 million to its shareholders, notably BAE Systems, Airbus and Leonardo, which are British, French and Italian respectively. Using open-source data, the investigation verified 24 cases where the GBU-39 bomb was used against civilians in Gaza, each one including children or several child casualties. Many of these attacks took place without warning and at night in places of refuge – attacks that the UN and Amnesty International have called suspected war crimes.
Turning to the US, The Washington Post has interviewed former guards and inmates at the Trump administration's new detention centre in the Everglades and they have shed light on its appalling conditions. It was hastily built in eight days and cost $450 million. The temporary migrant detention centre is rather crudely nicknamed "Alligator Alcatraz" by the Republicans. Former prison guards told The Washington Post that the food served is cold and that they get one 15-minute break during a 12-hour shift, in which they are standing the whole time. Detainees face a lack of basic hygienic products and backed-up portaloos cause a stench to float across the centre. As one academic writes in an opinion piece for The Conversation, the centre showcases Trump's penchant for visual cruelty.
Staying with The Washington Post, the paper focuses on an unusual sporting alliance – basketball and chess. Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and former NBA great Derrick Rose have paired up to share their love of chess. Rose has harboured a passion for chess for a long time but hesitated to talk about it with his teammates because "for some reason he felt the cerebral game was out of place in the basketball space". Rose paired up with Carlsen last weekend to host Chesstival in Las Vegas. The all-day affair brought together chess masters and NBA players for a series of tournaments. Filmed with close-up angles and players dressed casually, the idea is to make chess more accessible but all the while respecting its traditions.