Gaza

“There is no starvation in Gaza. There is no policy of starvation in Gaza,” so spake Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Well, just about everyone disagrees with him, including his good buddy Donald Trump.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in July alone 63 Gazans died of malnutrition. Obviously many more are suffering from it and still clinging to life. Of those who died 24 were children and 38 adults. The adults were mainly parents who gave what little food they had to their children.

Death from malnutrition is one of the worst possible ways to die. It takes months and is extremely painful.

It usually starts with fatigue. Then the body—in its search for the energy it needs to stay alive—starts to break down muscle tissue from the organs, including the heart and lungs. The skin becomes dry and develops sores. Hair falls out. The victim suffers severe stomach cramps and joint and muscle pain. The victims become highly susceptible to other disease. In the final stages a malnourished person becomes apathetic, confused and then dies.

The worst affected, are children under three. They are more likely to become malnourished simply because they are at an age when their fast-growing bodies need more energy/fuel. They also have limited reserves of fat so they become malnourished more quickly.

Survivors can suffer long-term problems, dependent on how soon they can be treated high calorie foods such as “plumpy nut.” But they have to be treated in special centres over a period of many months or their bodies can suffer other problems.

If their state of starvation is too far advanced, then the children especially will suffer complications for the rest of their lives.

They will almost certainly be below height and weight and the onset of puberty will be delayed. The children will be more susceptible to diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, measles and chronic diseases. They will also have a lower IQ and have difficulty concentrating.  According to the WHO, children who survive severe malnutrition are 12 times more likely to die from a childhood disease.

If they survive to adulthood, they will suffer from depression and anxiety and find it difficult to forge relationships.

One of the main reasons for long-lasting damage is the permanent harm that malnutrition does to the synaptic connections. These are the tiny electrical connections between the body’s cells. Synaptic connections are most commonly referred to when talking about brain functions, but they are also vital in the nervous system and keeping the heart pumping.

Brazil and Canada

Trump’s tariffs are now a political weapon. Actually, they have always been in his political arsenal. He is just being a bit more open about using excise duties for political ends.

The two main targets this week are Canada and Brazil.

The latter involves Trump’s Brazilian friend Jair Bolsonaro. The former Brazilian president was known as the “Latin Trump” and the two men had a lot in common. Not only did their policies overlap, so did the way in which they left office.

Both men claimed that their second runs for the presidency of their respective countries were “stolen” by a “deep state” liberal establishment. Both men also allegedly organised coups to reverse the results of those elections and encouraged their supporters to storm federal buildings to keep them in power.

Trump got away with it. His 2024 election victory brought an abrupt halt to attempts to bring him to trial. Bolsonaro was not so lucky. First he was banned from running for office again until 2030 and then, in February of this year, he was told by Brazil’s Supreme Court that he must stand trial.

Trump’s says the charges against Bolsonaro are “a political witch hunt” and he has slapped a 50 percent tariff on Brazil. He also sanctioned the judge—Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes—leading the investigation of Bolsonaro with sanctions and blocked the justice’s access to US investments.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) has responded by telling Trump that if January 6 had occurred in Brazil, he would be in prison.

Canada appears to be near the top of Trump’s countries-I-hate-most list. This week Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that he would be following France and Britain in recognising the Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.

The proposed recognition was tied to so many conditions that it seems unlikely to actually come off. That didn’t matter to Trump. He immediately announced that Carney’s announcement on Palestine made “trade talks much more difficult.” He then increased tariffs on Canadian goods to 35 percent.

Officially, the hike was attributed to Canada’s inability to stop the flow of fentanyl across the US-Canadian border. Less than one percent of fentanyl imports into the US come via Canada. Diplomats are certain that the real reason is relations with Israel and Trump’s desire to turn Canada into the 51st state.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron came in for an insultingly dismissive rebuke for his position on Palestine. “What he says doesn’t matter,” said Trump.

Oddly enough, the US president appeared to support Britain’s Palestinian position. While visiting Scotland, he said: “I don’t mind (Sir Keir) taking a position.”

Britain has also escaped with the lowest level of tariffs—ten percent. Perhaps it pays to grovel to Trump with a second state visit and personal time with the King Charles.

Ukraine

Volodomyr Zelensky was elected on an anti-corruption ticket. He was not elected as a war leader.

Corruption in Ukraine was so bad under Zelensky’s predecessor Petro Poroshenko that in 2016, the Western ambassadors in Kyiv wrote a joint letter to the president threatening to cut off aid if something was not done.

Since Zelensky came to power there has been an improvement—but not much. According to Transparency International’s corruption index, Ukraine has jumped from 131st out of 176 monitored countries in 2016 to 105th last year.

Zelensky’s government has seen several high-profile corruption scandals. These included Andrii Smyrnov, Zelensky’s Deputy Chief of Staff, who resigned after it was revealed that he was taking bribes and involved in money laundering.

The corruption problem is one of the biggest sticks which America’s Republican right uses to fight support for Ukraine. This is why alarm bells were sounded recently when the government reversed a 2016 decision to make Ukraine’s independent anti-corruption investigators responsible to a presidentially-appointed prosecutor general.

The move was immediately condemned by the European Union which warned that anything that reduced the independence of anti-corruption bodies would damage Ukraine’s chances of joining the EU. The measure was quickly reversed.

But it is clear that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) are unpopular with the political establishment. 263 legislators out of 269 legislators voted in favour of Bill 12414 which re-established political control and Zelensky signed the bill the same day.

Update on Epstein

Unsurprisingly, the American media continues to badger President Trump on the Epstein files. Also, unsurprisingly, the Trump continues to avoid the issue. But this week—surprisingly—he let an info nugget slip.

It came when the president was asked why he broke off his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. He replied that the break had nothing to do with Epstein’s sexual proclivities.  No, it was simply business. Epstein “stole people who worked for me,” said Trump.

To be precise, he hired women who working in Trump’s Mar-a-lago spa. To be precise, Epstein recruited Virginia Giuffre who had sexual relations with Prince Andrew while under-aged at an Epstein-organised event. Ms Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year.

The timeline does not quite add up because Ms Giuffre quit her job at Mar-a-lago in 2000 and Trump and Epstein did not end their friendship until four years later. By the way, Ms Giuffre was 17 when she stopped working at Trump’s spa.

The reporter also asked the president: “What did you think Epstein was stealing those women for?” Trump didn’t answer.

Correction: Last week I wrote that Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania to Donald Trump and was a guest at their wedding. This is incorrect. He was, however, a guest at Trump’s wedding to Marla Maples.

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice. He also contributes to “The New World” magazine and lectures on world affairs. He is the author of “America Made in Britain,” two editions of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “The Falklands Crisis.”