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The original was posted on /r/ukrainianconflict by /u/one_and_equal on 2026-04-20 21:40:17+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/ukrainianconflict by /u/UNITED24Media on 2026-04-20 21:31:21+00:00.

A joint assessment published Monday by the European Union, United Nations, and World Bank found that an estimated $71.4 billion is needed over the next decade for recovery and reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, where 30 months of Israeli genocide has set human development back by an entire lifetime.

The Gaza Strip Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA) states that the $71.4 billion figure includes an estimated $26.3 billion required over the next 18 months "to restore essential service, rebuild critical infrastructure, and support economic recovery."

"Physical infrastructure damages are estimated at $35.2 billion, with economic and social losses amounting to $22.7 billion," the report continues. "The hardest-hit sectors include housing, health, education, commerce, and agriculture. Over 371,888 housing units have been destroyed or damaged, more than 50% of hospitals are nonfunctional, nearly all schools destroyed or damaged, and the economy has contracted by 84% in Gaza."

"Catastrophic impact on human development across Gaza... is estimated to have been set back by 77 years," the RDNA states. "Around 1.9 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and more than 60% of the population has lost their homes."

"Women, children, persons with disabilities, and those with preexisting vulnerabilities bear the greatest burden," the publication adds.

The new analysis follows a November 2025 UN Conference on Trade and Development report that found Israel's assault on Gaza has caused “the most severe economic crisis ever recorded."

The Israeli war has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing; the strip in ruins; and most of its approximately 2 million people forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.

“Over two years of conflict has resulted in more than 71,000 Palestinian fatalities and over 171,000 injured, and many are missing under the rubble," the report notes.

With the vast majority of Gaza's buildings damaged or destroyed, separate UN analyses have estimated that it could take as many as 80 years to rebuild the obliterated coastal exclave.

So far, roughly $17 billion in pledged funding has been announced through the so-called "Board of Peace" launched by US President Donald Trump, whose ideas for rebuilding Gaza have included kicking Palestinians out and turning the strip into what he called the "Riviera of the Middle East."

Only a "tiny fraction" of that already inadequate $17 billion has been received, Reuters reported earlier this month.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Journalists and rights advocates reacted on Monday with a mix of bemusement and anger over US Rep. Chip Roy's display of "blatant Islamophobia" as the Texas Republican introduced a bill that appeared as intent on personally targeting New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as it was on unconstitutionally expelling immigrants from the US over certain political and religious views.

"Blatant Islamophobia aside, Roy's staff probably wasted days trying to land this acronym," said Ravi Mangla, press secretary for the Working Families Party, after Roy unveiled the Measures Against Marxism’s Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists (MAMDANI) Act.

According to Roy, the legislation would enact "sweeping" changes to US immigration law that would deport, denaturalize, and deny US citizenship or entry to any immigrant "who is a member of a socialist party, a communist party, the Chinese Communist Party, or Islamic fundamentalist party, or advocates for socialism, communism, Marxism, or Islamic fundamentalism."

The bill was introduced nearly four months after Mamdani was sworn in to office. Roy had suggested that the political rise of the democratic socialist, who is a Muslim immigrant from Uganda, risked bringing what he believes to be "Sharia law"—actually a broadly defined set of personal theological and ethical guidelines rather than a national law—to the US.

In reality, Mamdani has taken steps toward enacting a universal childcare program, opening a network of city-owned grocery stores to compete with corporations, and convincing the state to tax the second homes of wealthy New Yorkers.

The legislation introduced Monday comes days after a Washington Post analysis found that Roy has been particularly fixated on promoting the view that allowing Muslims to immigrate to the US and practice their religion—in accordance with the US Constitution—will harm the nation.

Including one recent post that explicitly said, "No more Muslims," Roy has posted from his campaign and official accounts about Muslims, Islam, and "Sharia law" more than 244 times since January—more than any other member of Congress, including Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), who has faced called to resign for numerous anti-Muslim comments that have attacked public figures like Rep. Ilham Omar (D-Minn.).

The Council on American Islamic Relations said in a report last month that last year, it received 8,683 complaints from people facing anti-Muslim bias or attacks—the highest number of complaints in a single year since the group began compiling civil rights reports in 1996. Employment discrimination was the most common complaint, with immigration and asylum discrimination and hate incidents rounding out the top three.

Gun control and human rights advocate Cameron Kasky said that "many moderate Democrats and the mainstream media have played a pivotal role in normalizing this dangerous, escalatory Islamophobia."

A number of influential establishment Democrats suggested Mamdani's victory in the mayoral race last year could endanger Jewish New Yorkers, and refused to endorse him. Party leaders also continue to support arming Israel—which has spent the last two-and-a-half years attacking Palestinians in Gaza and has now returned to assaulting Lebanon—claiming the Israeli government needs US weapons to defend itself against other countries and groups in majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East.

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) warned that while Roy's bill targets socialists and Muslims whom the congressman says subscribe to "fundamentalism," the party will likely "expand their list of targets—little by little, hoping you do not notice—until their is no one left to stand against their agenda."

"Fascism," she said, "ALWAYS requires a public enemy."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

Spanish-American War Begins (1898)

Thu Apr 21, 1898

On this day in 1898, the Spanish-American War began, greatly expanding the scope of American imperialism, granting the U.S. sovereignty over the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico, as well as de facto control of the Cuban economy.

The war began with an American naval blockade of Cuba, which was fighting a war for independence from Spain, and only lasted three months. The U.S. intervened in the Cuban War of Independence after the internal explosion of the U.S.S. Maine, despite there being no evidence of Spanish involvement in the explosion.

The outcome of the war resulted in U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, and signaled a new era of American expansionism and colonialism in the 20th century.

From 1899-1901, the U.S. had to brutally suppress the Filipino movement for independence, killing between 200,000 and 1,000,000 civilians in the Philippine-American War. In 1901, the American government also refused to withdraw troops from Cuba unless their Constitutional Convention signed the Platt Amendment, which gave the U.S. government and capitalists de facto hegemony over the newly "independent" Cuba.

• Date: 1898-04-21
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.thenation.com.
• Tags: #Imperialism, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Announcement on Steam.

https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.ft.com/content/539bdbe1-a535-44fb-aa7a-2c1fe1828adf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_efficiency_in_transport

that table is thoroughly fascinating. i mean all of them, there's more than one table on that article

apparently walking is the most energy-efficient transport mode of all?!?!? apart from bicycles

what i find mind-blowing is that airplanes consume approximately the same amount of energy as cars and trains. I mean i can easily see cars and trains being on the same level, but i always thought that airplanes consumed like an order of magnitude more fuel than cars. considering how everybody keeps saying that "airplanes consume so much fuel" and such. crazy.

and also boats are less efficient than i thought? boats consume 16 L/100 km while cars, trains and airplanes consume 6 L/100 km?

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/49146842

Context

(Let me know if there's a better place to share these memes)

Hello! Does anyone here make their own soil mixtures without purchased materials? If you look for home made soil, its usually just a mix of bought ingredients like peat moss, coco coir, perlite etc. Peat moss is fossil, coco coir and perlite is certainly not from around here so definitely transported long ways.

Now, I’m no gardener but I can see that all the native plants around me don’t have any of that luxury, yet they thrive. Compost is the next obvious answer, but if you haven’t yet had time to establish one, what options are there?

I’ve successfully grown plants like tomatoes, strawberries, herbs and salad in a mix of gravel, local manure, topsoil and rotted wood.

I am looking for recipes and information on such mixes as I often struggle with drainage which killed my cucumbers. I need huge amounts of gravel to keep the silty manure from clogging up my pots but 3kg pots become quite silly too and the gravel makes repotting an almost sure death to any roots I want to move.

What are the consequences of using uncomposted organic materials? Some gardeners say soil acidity usually solves itself through microbes, yet the common saying is that it must be composted first.

Happy gardening Cheers

xkcd #3235: Types of Board Game

Title text:

I can't believe Candles of Vienna caved to commercial pressure and added the Goku expansion.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3235/

explainxkcd for #3235

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/8474447

Several Toronto-area business people aligned in various ways with the Chinese government were among guests who paid close to $2,000 to attend a Liberal party fundraiser with Prime Minister Mark Carney last month. Article content

The attendees included individuals and groups that have won praise from Chinese diplomats and agencies, echoed Beijing’s talking points on contentious issues and worked with Chinese Communist Party (CPP) organizations.

...

Co-hosted by local MP Michael Ma, the dinner attracted attention even before it began. Ma crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals in December 2025, then drew controversy last month by pointedly challenging parliamentary testimony about the well-documented phenomenon of forced labour in China.

...

The Liberals are not alone in their interactions with pro-China figures here. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sat next to a prominent Beijing ally at a party-organized community-outreach event in 2023, while Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was endorsed by a Toronto group and a then-senator aligned with Beijing when he ran for the Tory leadership in 2022.

...

But Fung said the recent dinner came as China-boosting forces seem to be stepping up their influence efforts. A recent letter urged Chinese Canadians to support the Liberals as they pursue “friendly cooperation between Canada and China.” It was signed by 36 groups, including two that espouse “reunification” of China and Taiwan, a key policy goal of Beijing. Most residents of Taiwan, a self-governing island that has never been part of the People’s Republic, oppose such a merger.

...

Meanwhile, a new organization, Canadians United Against Modern Exclusion, has emerged to oppose government plans for a foreign-influence registry and other products of what it calls “foreign interference hysteria,” while evoking a law that excluded immigrants from China – and was repealed almost 80 years ago.

...

The [Liberal] party has a fraught history with wealthy members of the Chinese-Canadian community in the Toronto and Vancouver areas. The Liberals faced a barrage of criticism when word got out in 2016 that Trudeau had held a series of fundraisers at the homes of rich donors. Some guests had business with government, others had ties to the Chinese state, prompting cash-for-access accusations.

...

The Liberals eventually responded by introducing rules around fundraising events that they say are more stringent than those of any other party.

The episode was embodied by a photo taken at one of the events in a private home, depicting smiling donors hovering around the then-prime minister as he learned how to make Chinese dumplings.

Next to Trudeau in the widely distributed picture was businesswoman Jenny Qi, who has participated in events of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a Communist Party-controlled advisory body.

Qi was at last month’s event, too, a photograph in a Chinese-language article on the dinner showing her handing the current prime minister a business card.

She is head of the Canadian Confederation of Shenzhen Associations, which among other activities has hosted an “Innovation and Entrepreneurship International Competition” in Toronto designed to connect entrepreneurs here with companies in Shenzhen. The confederation promotes “peaceful reunification” of China and Taiwan, a key goal of Chinese President Xi Jinping but opposed by most Taiwanese, the group’s website says. And it is recognized by the Shenzhen section of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, a branch of the United Front Work Department, a huge agency of the CCP charged in part with extending the country’s influence worldwide. Qi has taken part in Shenzhen regional events of the party’s CPPCC.

...

The fundraiser also drew former and current directors of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese Canadian Organizations (CTCCO) and the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC), both groups with a long history of echoing Beijing’s position on controversial issues. The CTCCO was even praised by Beijing’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office – now part of the UFWD – for its China support.

Dozens of veterans were arrested by US Capitol Police on Monday after they occupied the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill to protest President Donald Trump's illegal war on Iran.

During the protest, which was organized by a coalition of veterans groups, the demonstrators stood in the middle of the rotunda, holding red tulips and chanting anti-war slogans.

A video published by Reuters shows Capitol Police restraining the veterans and taking them into custody one by one.

Military veterans protest Iran war https://t.co/jtiGxiTMjv
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 20, 2026

One of the demonstrators arrested was Mike Prysner, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War (CCW) and a veteran of the 2003 Iraq War, who encouraged members of the US military to become conscientious objectors in a statement released ahead of the demonstration.

"The war I was sent to senselessly claimed the lives of thousands of Americans and a million Iraqis," said Prysner. "Like the other veterans here with me today, I have spent the last two decades wishing I could turn back the hands of time and refuse to go. Service members have that chance right now."

Prysner then informed US service members that "conscientious objection is your legal right, and we have professional counselors who will fight to ensure you are approved and kept from deployment."

Tyler Romero, conscientious objector client for CCW, said that he "decided to get arrested today because as someone who was a participant in a war machine that is responsible for untold suffering around the world, it is my duty to help put an end to it."

Like Prysner, Romero also encouraged service members to declare themselves conscientious objectors.

"My advice to troops still serving is this," he said, "This is the most important historical moment of our lifetime, and what you choose to do matters. I can tell you from experience that continuing to help the war machine will only cause you more pain. There has never been a better time to reject those orders, and join a fight that matters."

Trump over the weekend renewed his threats to commit war crimes by bombing Iranian civilian infrastructure, including bridges and power plants, unless Iran agreed to a deal to give up its uranium enrichment capabilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

"If they don’t sign the deal, then the whole country is going to get blown up,” Trump said.

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2046484793437663510

Falcon 9 lands on Just Read the Instructions, which is the last planned Falcon mission for this droneship

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2046484941739790412

After 156 successful Falcon 9 landings, Just Read the Instructions will be fully dedicated to support Starship operations going forward

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Guitar and Composition
Mario Rom: Trumpet
Colin Vallon: Piano

Announcement on Steam.

Major military contractor and surveillance giant Palantir has posted a chilling manifesto on social media that calls for tech companies like itself to play a larger role in a dystopian future where imperialist and white supremacist powers are unleashed and Americans are increasingly subject to the whims of the surveillance state. The post contains 22 points it says were summarized from a 2025…

Source

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.