Israel loses the support of Americans
Polling shows the majority of Americans no longer support Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
And significantly, approval for President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict, which began when Hamas launched a deadly assault on Israel, killing more than 1200 people and taking more than 200 hostages, has fallen to 27 per cent.
What is so interesting about this polling is that it doesn’t necessarily equate the dissatisfaction for taking Israel or Hamas’ side but rather betrays perceptions about US ineffectiveness.
‘As someone who closely listens daily to US officials discuss what the United States is doing to try to manage the conflict, I would hazard a guess that part of the reason Americans have such low approval of Biden’s handling of this conflict is just how very ineffective the United States appears to be,’ writes journalist Laura Rozen.
‘American officials travel to the region often, and sometimes announce that they got Israel to agree to open a new aid crossing, for instance. But for all the US diplomatic efforts over the past six months, the American public sees that the United States is not really getting meaningful results, either in averting famine in Gaza, or in getting a new hostage release deal, or in ending the war.’
Could Australia be left with no subs at all?
The whispers are getting louder. Just how viable is AUKUS - the grand plan for Australia to acquire US-made nuclear-propelled submarines and eventually co-build a British-designed next-generation boat?
Malcolm Turnbull is one of three Australian prime ministers who sought to sort out Australia’s looming submarine capability gap when he awarded France’s Naval Group with the contract to build diesel-electric boats.
Before that, Tony Abbott had wanted to buy Japanese-made ones in a handshake deal agreed with former prime minister Shinzo Abe.
Enter Scott Morrison, who spectacularly ditched the French plan and announced AUKUS in 2021.
But as the glitz and shock of that subsides, what is now emerging, and has been quietly whispered in the right circles for over a year now, is the program’s entire viability.
While there’s been a lot of speculation about what Donald Trump might think of the deal and do if re-elected, Turnbull astutely crunches the numbers, to point to a scenario where: the US can’t agree to sell the conditionally-agreed Virginia-class boats because doing so would shortchange their capability, and the UK-design overruns — as is pretty much always the case with massive defence procurement projects.
What was that about eggs and one basket again…?
Meanwhile, Macron coy about helping Brazil build nuclear subs
Amid a lot of hand-holding in the rainforest with President Lula, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Brazil to launch the country’s third and latest French-designed conventional submarine.
Brazil is building its own nuclear-powered boat, which France is designing with the exception of the nuclear boiler. But Brazil wants France’s help in obtaining nuclear technology.
Without making any promises, Macron told Lula that France was ‘at your side’ and would look at the request.
‘I want us to open the chapter for new submarines ... that we look nuclear propulsion in the face while being perfectly respectful of all non-proliferation commitments,’ Macron said.
Thailand to join Taiwan, and Nepal in approving gay marriage in Asia
Thailand is set to become the third government in Asia, and the first in Southeast Asia, to legalise gay marriage.
Taiwan led the way in 2019 when it became the first Asian jurisdiction to approve gay marriage. Nepal followed last year.
Now Thailand, long renowned for its gay-inclusive culture, is on its way to extending the same legal marriage rights for LGBTQ couples as exists for heterosexual ones.
When a bill was put to Thailand’s House of Representatives, of the 415 members, just 10 voted against it, two abstained and three didn’t vote, according to AP.
The country will be hoping that the Senate and King’s all-but-guaranteed final approval of the bill will build on its worldwide reputation as one of Asia’s most LGBTQ-friendly nations, reflect the growing societal acceptance for LGBTQ Thais as well as set an example for other Asian countries.
But some gay rights campaigners aren’t entirely happy. They wanted ‘mother’ and ‘father’ replaced with the gender-neutral word ‘parent’.
Diet by (personalised) algorithm
Researchers are trying to find a way to deliver recommended diets via an algorithm based on their genetics.
With one billion people obese, this sort of personalised diet advice could be a game changer, as we have known for a long time that providing a set type of diet to a group of people doesn’t always lead to the same results.
US academics will gather data from one million Americans and eventually offer 500 (from 10,000) people, the chance to follow a personally-researched diet under laboratory observation.
‘We're going to find out not only about what people are eating and how they respond to it, but in the context of their whole medical history, their genetics and their socioeconomics,’ said Lucio Miele, a genetics professor at Louisiana State University Health New Orleans.
‘This will generate one of the richest databases on Earth of how people's diet interacts with their overall health and lifestyle.’
Commercial personalised nutrition plans are increasing in visibility and popularity but programs like ZOE’s, are incredibly expensive.
If an algorithm could provide this advice cheaper this would remove another barrier to anyone wanting to overcome their chronic health conditions.
And that’s my list for this week. his week, I joined Times Radio to discuss the week’s big topics in the UK.
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This is great Latika! Thanks for pointing us in the direction of Diplomatic by Laura particularly on this issue of US support for Israel on this Hamas issue.