Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Image is of vehicles set aflame by protestors near a government building.
Since July 1st, students have protested the unpopular proposal in which 30% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans of the 1971 War of Independence and their relatives. In a country with a youth unemployment rate of around 20% and a population of 170 million, a large number of otherwise eligible and competent people would have been forced out due to favouritism for veterans. As with basically every country on the planet over the last couple years, Bangladesh is suffering from inflation and an increasing cost-of-living, further exacerbating tensions.
The student protests have been met with significant violence by the government - local newspapers report that over a hundred protestors have been killed, and thousands have been injured. Guns and tear gas have been used. Additionally, the government has completely cut internet access throughout Bangladesh to prevent organizing, which has had some success in dividing protestors, but has also only further angered various parts of the country due to the massive impact to Bangladesh's online industries and various startups. And a national curfew has been in place to limit movement, with the population told to remain home if they want to be safe.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh relented, stating that now, only 5% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans and their families. 2% would be allocated to members of minorities, with the remaining 93% distributed on merit. A period of tentative calm has arrived, but Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has stated that unless the government restores the internet, removes the curfew, releases detainees, and forces certain ministers to resign within a few days, then the protests will resume.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Bangladesh! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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From the Wall Street Journal:
-Harris will meet 1v1 w/ Bibi, then skip his address. She's expected to tell him to stop the "war" & the "suffering of Palestinian civilians"
-She likely won't keep Sullivan, Blinken, or Austin
-Jim Zogby says she's shown "'far greater empathy' for Palestinians than Biden"
I assume she'd just replace Blinken and Sullivan with her own ghouls but holy shit would I love to never hear Blinken again.
This isn’t a reason to vote for her (I sure am not), but it’s not unreasonable to think she is less Zionist than Biden. That says much more about Biden than it does Harris…
I think Harris is trying to recoup some of those votes the dems have lost because of Gaza. It’s why I think there’s no way she picks Shapiro as her VP.
we can assume that Bibi does not have Epstein Material on her.
One of her better qualities, the sex parties she goes to only have adults
This isn’t a reason to vote for her (I sure am not), but it’s not unreasonable to think she is less Zionist than Biden.
Context: There's not a single US politician who's more Zionist than Biden.
being alive probably helps her see that the democratic base isn't exactly chill with what's going on with Israel. I wouldn't go as far as calling that "better political instincts" though
-Jim Zogby says she's shown "'far greater empathy' for Palestinians than Biden"
absolutely meaningless statement. the bar to clear is on the floor
the bar to clear is on the floor
on the floor of a mass grave
Permanently Deleted
if she did they probably already quit because she's a terrible manager apparently. someone posted that 90% of her original staff has left at this point
then skip his address
How are you gonna put on a little political theatre and then not even give it the time of day
Skipping the address is the political theater
Doesn't want any photos of them together.
wow she's like 98% hitler instead of 99%
Incremental change at work!
holy shit would I love to never hear Blinken again.
Oh you will, he'll get a think tank job by day and an MSNBC late show where he does covers of American rock songs
she's shown "'far greater empathy' for Palestinians than Biden"
She's a new face and will try to leverage that to corral the anti-genocide movement back into the democrat party where it can be neutered and euthanised like all the other popular movements the democrats have buried.
I have no illusion that she will do anything meaningfully helpful, zionism is too important a project for American imperialism for it to be abandoned over an election. The bombs and planes and dollars will continue to flow from the US to the zionists. At best she will try to put the mask back on zionism and switch to a more PR-friendly type of apartheid.
holy shit would I love to never hear Blinken again.
The next guy will be just as insufferable, if not worse. The iron law of bourgeois Electoralism states that any incoming administration is objectively going to be worse than the preceding one, regardless of party affiliation or electoral promises.
