I think we may have to agree to disagree on this - my experiences of seeing and meeting with Jewish people on these protests is such that I wonder whether antisemitism is arising from people's misatributation of the actions of the government of Israel (and the UK and USA) to Jewish people more widely, rather than via the experience or reporting of these protests... ...and I may be mistaken, or subject to confirmation bias.
Everything is about rare earth minerals at the moment. Supposedly the oil in Venezuela is very thick and expensive to extract, the infrastructure is also probably in need of massive modernisation and given the glut of oil we already have, it doesn't make a inviting prospect for US companies. On the other hand Venezuela does have rare earth minerals which Russia and China would like to get their hands on. The same applies to Greenland. It's easy to say it's needed for defense but everyone knows it's about minerals. Why would the US and Russia plan carving up the Arctic together otherwise. You could suggest similar for Ukraine. China is allowing Russia just enough rope that they can continue the war but the debt accrued will have to be paid off. Russia has plenty of minerals but also the 20% of the world's fresh water in Lake Baikal, which China want to build a pipeline to.
My experiences are admittedly not from speaking to those people, however I have seen footage of some utterly abhorrent incidents where Jewish people are being targetted - and not by the Israeli government either.
I am firmly of the mind that most of this has China behind it - including the goings on in Ukraine, albeit they are quietly goading Russia from the shadows. China are not playing with a straight bat, and never have - the Western countries have been utterly stupid by moving all sort of production and reliance over to China in the name of saving a few quid when the reality is that we've basically funded their growth in military terms whilst decimating our own. China want pure dominance and nothing less. Their human rights record is appalling and yet we never see folks out in the streets here protesting about that... oh no, they're far too comfortable getting their cheap iPad or cheap phone to rock the boat.
I remember when I was learning spoken Chinese in evening classes in about 1976 our teacher was a lecturer at the local university. He had come over here for a year’s visit before going back to Beijing, where he taught English. He encouraged us to learn vocabulary by presenting items to the class. One chap drew out his bicycle clips and asked what the Chinese was for them. China at that time had hardly any private cars and everybody cycled everywhere. Dr Huang looked at them for a moment and then said that there was no Chinese word for them. “Chinese trousers are more sensible” was his only comment.
Apparently the US has just seized a Russian flagged tanker off the coast of Iceland, the same one that the US failed to stop recently off the coast of Venezuela. At this rate Trump will be guest of honour at the Brixham Pirate weekend later this year.
I don't think the pirates will like him much, given that it is them he has stopped... That is the Bella One that I mentioned earlier, reflagged when it had a warrant for seizure put on it's head. It has to also be remembered that the this indictment and related events all go back to 2020 - it is just that it hasn't been acted upon before now.
I just wish the term "Anti sematism" wasn't constantly mis used by media, politicians and others. Question the current Israeli govt's policies and actions and you are immediately accused of AS. We are constantly questioning our own govt's policies so does that make us Anti anglophile or even Anti semitic as I believe Mr. Starmer has Jewish connections ? No one in their right minds would deny that the Jewish people have suffered ( and still do in many areas ) but that doesn't mean that every Jewish or non Jewish person can not say a word against the Israeli govt and it's current policies without being castigated. Between the US and Israel, do the people of Gaza have a say or even a right to life? Apparently not. The Middle East has been a time bomb for decades and no one knows how to deal with it. Russia and Ukraine are at a stand off and look to remain that way. The US wants to own/run the whole of the Western hemisphere and snaffle the resources for their own use and profit. China is quietly biding it's time before deciding when and where to pounce and Europe is stuck in the middle. Our current PM says that we in the UK will notice an improvement in our lives this year so welcome to 2026 !!
No, questioning the current government on anything makes you "far right" possibly "racist" or "misogynistic", "sexist", "homophobic" or "trans-exclusionary" depending on who you are criticising. We'll soon have another one for them to mess up when they add Islamophobia.
I think we've already got Islamaphobia haven't we ? Must admit it gets harder to keep up with all of the terms. Personally speaking I don't consider myself any of those you mention but of course we all have to have a label of one sort or another these days. I may go for FUTBT - no, don't worry about the F..........it just stands for Fed Up To the Back Teeth
It is not fully defined yet, hence our Labour overlords are pushing for a definition. Currently they shout it is racism, however they never can answer which race.... If only they spent as much time and energy resolving actual problems, we'd be golden.
As far as I'm concerned if you like plants and take an interest in them and similar for the environment you can be whatever you like; with the exception of being a white US citizen.
It’s just how you see things that matters. Like this: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/07/entertainment/video/meet-the-first-flock-of-gay-sheep-digvid
Is Trump going to Venezuela with a box full of beads for the natives? I read yesterday that Trump is going to personally control the $2billion from the sale of Venezuelan oil. How very caring of him.
