The Shortwave Report July 18, 2025

This week's edition begins with the true death toll in Gaza, the UK and France make a nuclear weapon pact that excludes the US, the world reacts to Israeli bombing of Syria, the Australian PM has a friendly visit to China, and a new Freedom Flotilla heads to Palestine from Italy.

This week's show features stories from Radio Deutsche-Welle, France 24, NHK Japan, and Radio Havana Cuba. http://youthspeaksout.net/swr250718.mp3 (29:00) From GERMANY- The death toll in Gaza as presented by the Hamas Ministry of Health is often reported with disclaimers in the western media suggesting they are exaggerated. Recent research from the University of London, led by Professor Michael Spagat, says the Hamas figures are short by 40%, meaning that the current death toll of Gazans is 100,000, or 4% of the entire population. Britain and France have agreed to coordinate their nuclear weapons without US involvement. This pact, known as the Northwood Declaration, is discussed by Scottish Professor Phillips O’Brien- he describes the pact as a decoupling from the US without saying it. From FRANCE- First a press review about the announcement by French President Macron that to be free we must be feared and a large increase in military spending. A press review on the 30th anniversary of the massacre of 8000 muslim men and boys in Srebrenica by Serbian forces during the Bosnian war. International comments after Israel dropped nearly 500 bombs on Syria, including Damascus, as punishment for battling with Druze forces who are Israeli allies. From JAPAN- Japanese electronics firm Panasonic opened a $4 billion plant in Kansas building batteries for electric vehicles. Australian PM Anthony Albanese met with Chinese President Xi during a 6 day visit to the country- they agreed to treat each other equally, though they critiqued each others large military exercises. A new law banning children under 16 from using social media in Australia comes into effect in December. From CUBA- 30 countries are meeting at a summit in Colombia to find a way to stop the war on Gaza- the collection of countries is called the Hague Group and were addressed by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine. A new Freedom Flotilla has left Italy to try to bring aid to Palestine- the crew includes a trade unionist from the US and several Parliamentarians. Available in 3 forms- (new) HIGHEST QUALITY (160kb)(33MB), broadcast quality (13MB), and quickdownload or streaming form (6MB) (28:59) Links at outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml PODCAST!!!- https://feed.podbean.com/outFarpress/feed.xml (160kb Highest Quality) Website Page- < http://www.outfarpress.com/shortwave.shtml ¡FurthuR! Dan Roberts "War itself is, of course, a form of madness. It is hardly a civilized pursuit. It is amazing how we spend so much time inventing devices to kill each other and so little time working on how to achieve peace." -- Walter Cronkite Dan Roberts Shortwave Report- www.outfarpress.com YouthSpeaksOut!- www.youthspeaksout.net