Bulletins and News Discussion from April 8th to April 14th, 2024 - First Iran-Israel War Megathread
Bulletins and News Discussion from April 8th to April 14th, 2024 - First Iran-Israel War Megathread
Iran has struck Israel.
previous preamble
The continuing fall of the remains of the British Empire is pretty entertaining from the outside: an archaic royal family that is seemingly being smote with disease by God itself for their past crimes; a navy that virtually no longer functions, ramming into foreign ports and under constant repair; and an economy that cannot seem to stop sputtering, fucked whether they're in the EU or outside it. Watching the impacts on people from the inside is a little more worrying, though.
A fifth of the population is in poverty, including nearly a third of all children. These figures have barely shifted since the Labour government in the early 2000s, aside from a decreasing poverty rate for pensioners. Actually, poverty hasn't substantially shifted since Margaret Thatcher. Before her, the poverty rate was around 14%, but her catastrophic policies caused a major increase, and poverty levels since then are still 50% higher than over 50 years ago, because neoliberal economic policy since then has not fundamentally changed. Parties and corporations have impoverished the usual vulnerable groups, such as large families, minority ethnic groups (including half of Pakistani and Bangladeshi households!) and disabled people. These differences are also regional, with the North more impoverished than the richer Southeast (but some of the poorest boroughs are in London, so it's a complex pattern).
With Corbyn's defeat in 2019 mere months before the pandemic began, the Labour Party shifted back towards the right, with left-wingers purged from the party if they did not kowtow to Keir Starmer. This leaves us with a situation where the only substantial difference between the two parties would be on social policy, but it goes without saying that economic policy is the overwhelming factor that determines if minorities can have a decent life. Worker-oriented movements since then have been largely not under the umbrella of major party leaderships, such as the Don't Pay movement in late 2022 that arose in the wake of dramatically rising energy prices where 3 million people vowed to not pay them (which did lead to results).
Most notably recently is the major upset in the constituency of Rochdale - the victory of George Galloway - who is the leader of the Workers Party of Britain, which describes itself as both socialist and socially conservative. This took place both in the context of aforementioned economic troubles, as well as anger over Israel's genocide of Gaza in the British population, especially in British Muslims. It remains to be seen how much of this is an isolated event, especially as Corbyn has, understandably, refused to collaborate with Galloway due to his socially conservative stances. The UK general election will be held at some point within the next 9 months or so, and might well be a shitshow depending on what happens domestically and geopolitically before then; parallels to the current American electoral shitshow with increasing anger over Biden are pretty apparent. The Conservatives are quite likely to lose given 14 years of uninspired rule if current polling is correct, but it truly is a race to the bottom.
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 the United Kingdom! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
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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The three leaders of the parties making up Denmark's succdem-led right-wing regime are angry, shocked and scared after having their fun quiz night for lanyard nerds mildly inconvenienced by protesters who held them to account for their tacit support for the zionist genocide against Palestine.
Below is an article from government broadcaster DR:
The politicians' reactions has a vibe of unintended absurd comedy to it. There's some really nice bits in there:
Shortly after, they expanded their repertoire with chants like "child murderer" and "you have blood on your hands," while filming the scene with their mobile phones, just as the aforementioned man referred to [prime minister] Mette Frederiksen as "Mrs. Genocide."
"Speak nicely about people," admonished a still irritated [foreign minister] Lars Løkke Rasmussen, while the other two ministers and the lead candidates remained silent and grim-faced at the café tables they had set up behind the stage.
The most emotionally shaken of the three is minister of defense Troels Lund Poulsen.
"I fundamentally experienced it as a disgrace to Danish democracy. A deliberate sabotage action to ruin an EU quiz," said Troels Lund Poulsen:
Democracy itself is in peril! They ruined the most cursed pub quiz ever!
"I know it's strong words I'm saying, but I'm actually very, very sad that well-integrated people living in Denmark – that they can do it."
The "well-integrated people living in Denmark" part is a racist dog whistle. He's essentially saying that some non-white people acted very un-Aryan.
"[…] I usually think that when a meeting is held, you respect it, that you can either say something to us before we arrive or do it afterward. That wasn't what was wanted. They wanted provocation; they wanted the fight in the room to ruin an evening."
The uppity riffraff didn't want to be ignored away from the spotlight as they're supposed to.
"There is no easy solution to that, but it basically shows a societal problem that is emerging. That a conflict in the Middle East moves into the streets of Copenhagen and is used – and to a great extent now abused – to ruin our democracy."
More racist dog whistles. Plus pearl clutching over "our democracy".
Prime minister Mette Frederiksen manages to cram every brainworm there is into her reaction:
And no matter how you look at it, it is extremely un-Danish to try to shut people up and thereby quietly – and that's probably also what some of them really want – step by step destroy our democracy. And they certainly should not be allowed to do that.
She takes all the nasty stuff from before and adds to it a claim that she, the prime minister who has unhindered access to mass media, is at risk of being silenced as well as adding vague conspiracy theories to the mix.
The Euros are not okay.
“These dangerous browns are going to ruin free speech and democracy with all their “protests” and “popular opinion”. Don’t they know that our values demand we expel ungrateful uppity immigrants who speak out of line and try to impose their will via the democratic process”
Translation of the full article
After nearly an hour, the mood suddenly changed during an EU event at a Copenhagen restaurant where several top ministers were present. This has now made Troels Lund Poulsen angry.
Troels Lund Poulsen (Liberal Party) initially took it calmly when the event he was attending on Monday evening was interrupted by protests from a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Neither the Minister of Defense nor Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (Social democrat) flinched while the loud expressions continued – instead, they let Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen ("Moderate party") respond to accusations that the Danish government does not want a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The government's three top ministers, along with their respective party's lead candidates for the upcoming European Parliament election, were invited to an EU quiz organized by the Moderate Party at Restaurant Gorilla in the Meatpacking District [bougie gentrified venue] of Copenhagen, and it started off pleasantly.
There were fried snacks and passion fruit drinks, lounge music, and harmless questions about the Eurovision Song Contest, as well as the prominent participants being tested on whether they could remember the name of the well-known Austrian chocolate cake with apricot jam – the Sachertorte.
However, about an hour into the quiz, the mood suddenly changed.
"Haven't we heard enough of this nonsense? Children have been bombed for six months now", a man among the approximately 250 guests in front of the stage suddenly exclaimed.
"Stop sending weapons to Israel. You are still silent. What is that? You vote against a permanent ceasefire."
"That's wrong," replied a visibly irritated Lars Løkke Rasmussen into his microphone, while the protester continued.
"Of course, it's wrong, because we have voted for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council, and as recently as last week, I tightened Danish export control laws," the Foreign Minister continued, but the man persisted, and in front of the stage, several other demonstrators among the audience began shouting "ceasefire now."
Shortly after, they expanded their repertoire with chants like "child murderer" and "you have blood on your hands," while filming the scene with their mobile phones, just as the aforementioned man referred to Mette Frederiksen as "Mrs. Genocide."
"Speak nicely about people," admonished a still irritated Lars Løkke Rasmussen, while the other two ministers and the lead candidates remained silent and grim-faced at the café tables they had set up behind the stage.
'It became unsafe'
The group of demonstrators was led out of the restaurant – it happened quietly – but it quickly became apparent that not everyone had left the premises.
Two more times, the EU quiz was interrupted by protests, and eventually, the Moderate Party felt compelled to end the event about three-quarters of an hour early.
"That's what happens," declared the emcee from the stage:
"But I also sense that you have noticed that there are other agendas on the program that also matter out there."
Mette Frederiksen immediately left the event and the Meatpacking District, while Lars Løkke Rasmussen quickly found himself in a conversation with two scarf-clad women who approached him. None of them had participated in the protests.
"I would like to have this conversation, but I do not want to be yelled at," said the Foreign Minister afterward, dismissing the demonstration as "a somewhat unfortunate way to do it."
Troels Lund Poulsen remained his usual calm and merely remarked on his way out the door that it was "a sad low point for Danish democracy."
Isn't it perhaps also an expression of deep frustration at not being heard if one feels compelled to use such an event? Can you understand that frustration?
"No, I can't. Because we are completely available to discuss all the questions that may arise afterward. There wasn't anyone who really wanted to discuss this question. They only came to do this stunt," said the Liberal Party leader:
"It's super tragic."
"It was supposed to have been a cozy and enlightening evening, but it turned out to be the opposite," he later wrote on his Instagram profile:
"It became unsafe, and we were accused of being 'child murderers.'"
'I know it's strong words'
However, by Tuesday morning, Troels Lund Poulsen was no longer quite as calm.
About half a day after the event, DR News caught up with the Minister of Defense at Christiansborg, and now the reaction to the protests was somewhat less measured.
How did you experience what happened during your debate event last night (Monday evening, ed.)?
"I fundamentally experienced it as a disgrace to Danish democracy. A deliberate sabotage action to ruin an EU quiz," said Troels Lund Poulsen:
"I know it's strong words I'm saying, but I'm actually very, very sad that well-integrated people living in Denmark – that they can do it."
But there have probably been demonstrations during such events before, when there are conflicts?
"Yes, but I usually think that when a meeting is held, you respect it, that you can either say something to us before we arrive or do it afterward. That wasn't what was wanted. They wanted provocation; they wanted the fight in the room to ruin an evening."
"And that destructive behavior, I think, gives cause for great reflection."
"There is no easy solution to that, but it basically shows a societal problem that is emerging. That a conflict in the Middle East moves into the streets of Copenhagen and is used – and to a great extent now abused – to ruin our democracy."
How do you think this becomes a problem for democracy?
"I think that at many EU meetings leading up to June 9th (EP election day, ed.), you will see this discussion. Because there are some people in the environment around those who were there yesterday who want to destabilize the EU discussion and simply take it to a negative level because they do not want democracy to function."
"It is highly, highly regrettable and something that can only be condemned in the strongest terms."
'I will not stand for it'
On March 8th, a similar demonstration took place when Mette Frederiksen gave a speech at Vega [another Copenhagen venue] on the occasion of International Women's Day – here the protests were so loud that the Prime Minister eventually left the stage before she had finished speaking.
Troels Lund Poulsen also experiences that the expressions are particularly directed at Mette Frederiksen.
"But I experienced it yesterday when I left calmly, that I was shouted at, accused of completely unacceptable things – 'child murderer' and the like," said the Liberal Party leader, visibly angry when he added:
"I think that all of us who have children know that it's not something you call people. It's simply such a vulgar use of words that I will not stand for it. I will not stand for us being subjected to this."
"And I know that comes with a price. Because when I'm as honest as I am about standing up to it, as I haven't been before, I am fully aware that I am, of course, also now attracting even more attention. But enough is enough, and now I also set the limit for what I will stand for."
Even before the event on Monday evening, the government parties had heard rumors that there could be demonstrations, and the police as well as the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) were noticeably present both inside and outside the restaurant. All guests also had their identity and bag contents checked.
And that is "a wrong way to make democracy," according to Troels Lund Poulsen.
"We're not talking about being in the Middle East – we're talking about being in Copenhagen."
And although he does not anticipate that the Liberal Party will have to limit the number of public events in the near future – especially in connection with the election campaign leading up to the European Parliament election on June 9th – he still expresses some concern.
"If we are in the Copenhagen area and hold meetings with my participation, we will have to do as we did yesterday – there will have to be guards, and we will have to make the police aware that it is taking place."
'Shut up'
On the way to the Social Democrats' group meeting at Christiansborg on Tuesday morning, Mette Frederiksen also addressed the protests for the first time the night before.
"It is a democratic problem when one meets in one context or another and would like to discuss Danish politics or European politics, and then there are some who try to shut more and more of us up," said the Prime Minister.
Do you think it's directed at you personally?
"No, I have no reason to believe that. Because it's something that concerns a war that is taking place very, very far from Denmark," said Mette Frederiksen:
"And no matter how you look at it, it is extremely un-Danish to try to shut people up and thereby quietly – and that's probably also what some of them really want – step by step destroy our democracy. And they certainly should not be allowed to do that."
On Facebook and Instagram, the organization PalActions claims responsibility for the demonstration during the EU event – the same group has also taken responsibility for the protests in connection with International Women's Day.
DR News has unsuccessfully attempted to obtain a comment from PalActions on the reactions from Troels Lund Poulsen and Mette Frederiksen.
Oh no, it's "un-danish". What will they ever do./s
Would like someone to ask them who is shutting up who.
The Danes are a mistake
We're nothing but Angloform pork Germans at this point