Bulletins and News Discussion from May 6th to May 12th, 2024 - The Nagorno-Karabakh Nosedive - COTW: Armenia
Bulletins and News Discussion from May 6th to May 12th, 2024 - The Nagorno-Karabakh Nosedive - COTW: Armenia
Image is of Stepanakert, essentially the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is now a ghost city, and Azerbaijan has recently torn down the parliament building and various other important places. Sourced from this article.
Despite the predictions and assertions of various NATO-aligned commentators that Russia's influence is waning, the opposite generally appears to be occurring. ASEAN has become more strongly aligned with Russia despite claims to the contrary. In Central Asia, there has been a propaganda push to declare that countries there are "emerging from Russia's shadow", while in reality, as Bhadrakumar analyzes, Russia's significant economic growth and ongoing march towards victory in Ukraine is creating opportunities for further integration, not separation, and there are no major political shifts there in terms of Russian ties. And in Niger, Russian soldiers have now entered an airbase which once hosted American soldiers, now kicked out, and generally Russia's diplomacy and economic deals (nuclear power plant construction, military equipment, grain shipments, etc) have accelerated in Africa.
Where Russia's influence has actually seemed to decrease (outside of the West, of course) is in Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh's remarkably rapid collapse in late 2023 demonstrated that Russia was not willing to escalate things in defense of Armenia to fend off Azerbaijan. One hundred thousand Armenians - most but not all of them in the region - fled in advance to avoid mass persecution, which received remarkably little attention by a West which calls itself overwhelmingly concerned with borders changing due to military action as in Ukraine. Since then, Armenia seems to be on some kind of self-annihilating bender, allured by the potential of Western military and economic deals. Armenia froze its membership in the CSTO due to its failure to protect them, and the head of NATO, Stoltenberg, visited the region in March. The West has offered up hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to Armenia and is helping them "modernize their military"; given the poor track record of Western military equipment in Ukraine, one wonders why they're even bothering. RAND has advocated for a balancing act; America should, in their eyes, realize that they can't entirely remove Russia's influence but nonetheless should make inroads to protect Armenia from Azerbaijan (which is an interesting position given that Israel provided arms to Azerbaijan to help them take Nagorno-Karabakh).
A quick look at Armenia's geographical position reveals the folly of trying to create some kind of Western outpost. With a hostile Azerbaijan to their east, a very unfriendly (albeit NATO member) Turkiye to their west, an ascendant Iran to their south, and Russia not far from the action, there is little hope of doing much more than causing a little chaos in the hopes it'll momentarily distract Russia while it makes inroads most everywhere else on the planet. The political situation appears miserable for Pashinyan, but there isn't really a popular alternative to take the reins. A truly cursed situation.
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 Armenia! 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.
Hasan brought up a good point on his stream earlier. The “safe zone” is like 20 km from Rafah. That is not an easy hike to make quickly for a young person in good health. Now consider how much harder it is for an elderly person, a child, or someone who is injured. And that’s before considering that Gazans have been living in famine conditions for a while now. As a parent, even as a matter of life and death, I don’t think my little kids could walk 20 km in the timeframe the IOF is demanding.
This is inhuman evil. The Zionist entity is truly on an eye-to-eye standing with the Nazis, and all their enablers like the US are with them too. Death to “israel” and death to America.
Genocide Joe doubles down, endorses collective punishment, says support for apartheid state is "ironclad," refuses to mention Palestinian deaths or starvation.
Biden says Palestinians are "driven by ancient desire to wipe out Jewish people off the face of the Earth".
Not surprising, but a revealing moment of police culture regarding the protests here.
For those that can't see the Twitter video...
Police are violently arresting protestors on the bridge. Batons out. Often five or sex different officers tackling individuals, kneeling on them, getting licks in.
One officer in a riot helmet and drawn baton is stood to one side, watching, but not wanting to get stuck in with the other five or six officers with a protester already on the ground.
A much larger superior comes over to him aggressively, getting in his face, and yells *"Let's go! Let's go! You're the police! Let's go! Don't be a fucking traitor!"
Not only is this very clearly gang shit, but the idea that he could be a 'traitor' clearly shows that the police view this as a war against the protesters.
Again, this won't be surprising to anyone. But it's laid out so perfectly in this five seconds or so of footage.
All i can do is wish good luck and plan for revenge from the sidelines. Free Palestine. Death to Israel. Death to America.
12 Israeli soldiers hospitalized after their tank runs over a wasp nest
WASP INTIFADA NOW 🐝🐝🐝Reposting this one
Blinken says Israel’s propaganda fails to work because social media allows people see exactly what is happening without any ability to mediate it, and the imagery is very emotional. Romney then says yes, that’s why they've banned TikTok
NASA CONTRACTOR WARNS THAT BOEING LAUNCH MUST BE STOPPED "BEFORE SOMETHING CATASTROPHIC HAPPENS"
Quite interesting, particularly with boeing whistleblowers dying frequently recently.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-contractor-warns-boeing-valves
Isn't there someone you forgot to ask?
Journalists vagueposting on twitter but apparently the Israeli Eurovision delegation harrassed the Dutch participant and made fun of his dead parents (which his song is about), the Dutch guy punched someone and now Eurovision is (maybe?) disqualifying him. The show is being delayed, nobody is saying anything concrete. This is all rumours, could be wrong entirely, but something almost definitely happened between the Dutch and Israeli parties. The local reporters say it's total chaos and nobody really knows what's going on.
They're really gonna burn everything to the ground to protect Israel's impunity.
Edit: Apparently the Italian girl just sang Imagine by John Lennon for no discernable reason.
Edit 2: All press conferences scheduled for today have been cancelled, everyone is confused
Edit 3: Seems like the Dutch guy was a huge fan favorite and he called out the Israeli woman during press conferences before. Now the rumor is that he got in a fight with a photographer. It does seem like he's being disqualified. There's also a video of an Israeli journalist harassing him.
Edit 4: Spanish journalist also harrassed by Israelis at Eurovision
Edit 5: Joost Klein is not performing during the Jury show. They're saying this has nothing to do with Israel but there was an incident with a Swedish photographer but I don't buy it. This is, from what I know, the first time something like this has happened. You're telling me no Eurovision contestant has ever gotten in a fight before a big show? Nobody has ever thrown hands during this yearly freak show of rival countries? This is the first time someone needs to be disqualified? Shut the fuck up.
BREAKING: UN General Assembly (kind of) just Recocnized Palestina as a Member state (Basiclly and Un Veto-able in its 1967 borders , and its grands Palestina those Member rights "even if not passed by the security council" , meaning Biden. there is some caviats but --> It just Passed overwelmingly with 143 to 9 Votes in the General Assembly !
USA was completly blindsided by this it seems .. It was Brought in and Passed extremly fast , without US beeing able to activate its softpower slime ... Glorious !! Expect USA to stop their UN Founding and other tandrums btw..
The original campus protest at Columbia has been successful beyond even what I thought was possible - and I was optimistic! Fuck the NYPD but I hope every student who got arrested and/or suspended can hold their head high and see how these protests are spreading and growing across the planet.
I’m not on twitter so I can’t link directly to the videos, but this news story has the videos embedded. It has Macklemore singing Hind’s Hall live at a concert in New Zealand. Crowd goes nuts, love it.
These are the kinds of videos that make every Zionist under 40 go
. No way any of them would get applause like this. Everyone their age hates them, the movement for the liberation of Palestine has an entire generation on its side. The only people who cheer on Zionists are the ones who are as miserable as they are.
This is just pathetic. I'd do a lenghty ramble about this but I wont, I can't find the words to describe how awful this is going to be.
It's just sad to see this man prostitute himself for free to the US and "Israel", not because I care for this man, but because I feel sad for us. This comprador piece of shit is giving everything away and not offering the slightest resistence, not even for a decent price tag. It's just for free, come and take it, while he wraps himself in a foreign flag showing the absolute disdain he has for our country and it's people. And a flag that represents a "country" that is carrying out a genocide, double insulting. And you know what? Apart from that piece of dog shit elon musk nobody must respect this asshole, even the US capitalists who are very interested in our national resources kinda dislike this guy, you can't be this bad man, you can't immediately begin sucking US cock the moment you take power. That mentality is not well received by the "self-made men" of the capitalist class.
May we behead this motherfucker soon.
Holy shit, diaper force took casualties from waspsTwelve soldiers were wounded after being stung by wasps in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today.
The incident occurred amid an operation by the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade in the border area, near the community of Nirim.
A tank had driven over a large wasp nest, leading the insects to sting the troops. One of the soldiers is listed in moderate condition, and the other 11 are lightly hurt, the IDF says.
They were taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment.
Even the wasps can see the red triangles over the diaper force!
Indefinitely? That's fucking convenient.
US report on Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza delayed indefinitely - POLITICO
5/8/24 - Hexbear user @SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net documents catching and releasing invasive Asian hornet.
5/10/24 - Asian hornets attack IDF troops, hospitalizing 10.
Coincidence?
Joost Klein (Dutch representative) officially disqualified from the Eurovision grand final. Fans are in outrage. The delegations from Switzerland, Ireland and Italy have complained about harrassment from the Israeli delegation and have refused to show up to the flag parade ceremony. Bambie Thug (Irish representative, one of the most vocal Israel critics) demands that the harrassment is addressed. Individual jurors are withdrawing in protest. EBU is having a crisis meeting.
Apparently, the Israeli delegation cheered when the disqualification of Joost Klein was announced. Do they want the world to hate them?
Edit: Libs have discovered that the Israeli representative Eden Golan is from Moscow. I think the only way this could be worse is if Eden Golan shot a puppy on stage Kristi Noem-style.
Edit 2: Norwegian spokesperson Alessandra Mele, who was supposed to give Norway's points at the grand final tonight, announced her withdrawal from said role in protest. The Portuguese representative Iolanda has expressed her support for a free Palestine ahead of the dress rehearsal today.
Edit 3: This is from last night's show: Finnish spokesperson refuses to say "Israel" when giving out points, instead saying "Ireland" even after the moderator asks her to repeat. Last night, the Finnish representative from last year appeared in an Instagram story with Eden Golan and was forced to apologize later. Eurovision fans really, really, really hate Israel right now.
In reaction to student pressure (and possibly legal action) the UCLA Chancellor has finally agreed to an investigation of the Zionist/IOF/Proud Boy attack assisted and allowed by LAPD.
In fact, his statement names a new 'Chief Safety Officer' to lead the investigation:
To that end, inaugural Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Safety Officer Rick Braziel is leading a law enforcement investigation to identify the perpetrators of the violence and hold them to account.
If you recognise that name, it's because Rick Braziel was the guy who was put in charge of investigating the police handling of the Ulvade school shooting and ruled that there was no fault on behalf of any of the officers.
Israel is such a fucking pariah
Israel's ambassador to the UN is currently giving a speech condemning Palestine's bid to join. And he's shredding the UN charter, which is what he says the general assembly is doing.
https://nitter.poast.org/JoshuaPHilll/status/1788953068106920343#m
YouTube Accused of Censoring Macklemore's 'Hind's Hall' | Newsweak
YouTube has been accused of censoring the video for Macklemore's new song, "Hind's Hall," on its platform.
On May 6, the rapper shared the track, which supports a free Palestine and student protests, on his social media accounts. The song also pays tribute to 6-year-old Hind Rajab, a Palestinian child who was killed by the Israeli military days after she had called emergency services begging to be rescued.
Rajab has become a symbol for people protesting the Israel-Hamas war. After students occupied Columbia University's Hamilton Hall, they unfurled a banner over the hall's facade that said "Hind's Hall," paying tribute to Rajab, who was killed alongside her family and the EMTs who tried to save her.
The song's accompanying video is made up of clips of people protesting and showing support for Palestinians, plus various clips of police officers and politicians. At the time of writing, it had received 24.7 million views on X, formerly Twitter, and more than 75 million views on Instagram. However, the video has been age-restricted on YouTube, where it has been viewed 232,116 times, prompting social media users to accuse the company of limiting the song's reach.
as others have noted, YouTube is even age restricting audio-only reuploads of the song
Israeli society continues to fray. Displaced colonizers from the north are yelling about how they want to break away and create the "State of Galilee". I have no idea how serious their intentions or capabilities are, and I'd hazard a guess that if they try to go through with it, they'll just be a bunch of armed vagrants wandering around killing people.
Might be a hot take but it needs to be said that the Axis of Resistance are righteous heroes of justice armed with the light of Allah and anime on their side and they are on a quest to defeat one of the greatest evils in human history: Settler Colonialism, of which Israel is the most recent incarnation. This is not an opinion, this is not biased, this is not exaggerated, this is a fact, cold hard facts that are supported by science. No I will not elaborate.
russia finally going after kharkiv, this is like christmas for telegram power users
Samsung Next Withdraws From Israel
Samsung Next, the innovation arm of the Korean technology giant, Samsung, is shutting down its Tel Aviv operations, yet another strong indicator of the dramatically declining confidence in the Israeli economy.
In withdrawing from Israel, Samsung Next, which had invested in some 70 Israeli start-ups to date, is the latest fund to divest from Israel’s once thriving hi-tech sector, which accounts for over 50% of exports. Quite a few US and Israeli tech firms have already withdrawn. In 2023, investment in Israeli tech firms plummeted by 56% compared to 2022.
I don't know if Samsung has other operations there, or if "Samsung Next" is the extent of their presence/involvement.
(EDIT: Oops. Almost a month old. Sorry if it's already been mentioned.)
Losing my marbles seeing every university in my area respond to the BDS/Palestinian solidarity camps on campuses in the exact same way: Shutting down all access to buildings overnight and restricting access to all buildings on campus throughout the day (therefore blocking access to bathrooms) to create disruption and "health and safety concerns" out of nothing to justify clamping down later.
Also, my university's faculty association sent an open letter to the university president in solidarity with the encampment, and no profs from my department signed their name
i'm so cynicalWhy are those pesky young people not voting for me smh.
context :
https://nitter.poast.org/tparsi/status/1789031773386527115
Stunning polll! Of Biden's 2020 voters, a very strong majority disapprove of Biden's Israel policy. And of those, only 50% plan to vote for Biden again. That is a HUGE loss of votes that Biden is sacrificing to enable Israel to continue its war crimes.
About a dozen far-right Israeli protesters have blocked the Latrun Interchange of Highway 1 in the occupied West Bank to stop trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, Israeli media reports.
Germany finds roundabout way to commemorate the Wehrmacht and SS:
https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1788859019488108910Germany is introducing a Veterans Day for the first time since its reunification. In a country that is very ambivalent about its armed forces, this is a sensation.
Death to israel
Liberals can't even tolerate performative anti-genocide in their privileged faux-woke parties.
Burning Man festival removes "From the River to the Sea" sculpture from website amid allegations of antisemitism. The pro-Palestinian artwork, shaped like a sliced watermelon, was set to be displayed at the Nevada festival from August 25 to September 2, 2024.
Burning Man Removes Pro-Palestinian Sculpture Amid Antisemitism Allegations
Unfortunately I have to inform you all that a certain zionist, known as "Tank Posting" on Twitter, is unfortunately still alive and is seen celebrating the IOF's entry into Rafah, comparing the destruction of the "I LOVE GAZA" monument with the famous video of the destruction of the swastika in Nuremberg in 1945.
However, there is still time. This little fuck is on active duty and from what appears the IOF not only eats shit in Gaza but his deployment may take him to face Hezbollah in the north. Not all is lost, he can still get reduced to nothing by Yasin 105 RPG, or later on, by Kornet ATGM.
Nothing but death and misery for all zionists around the world, especially those engaged in genocide directly.
Meanwhile in KKKalgary, Alberta, Canada
Pigs use fire bangs and riot shields to clear a university encampment on its first day
All cops should be minecrafted
After 1.5 years of me, 72T and the other nerds here being in pain when looking at Ukraine-Russia War maps, Russian troops have finally crossed the northern section of the Ukraine-Russia border and have reactivated the Kharkov front. Multiple reports are now flowing in and all are saying the same things, Russian units have captured some of the border villages and the main Russian forces still haven't deployed yet. My short dumb megathread guy analysis says that the attack north of Kharkov is another 5D diversion tactic, but the thrust from the Vovchansk direction is the main one and it will be in the direction of the Kupiansk-Izium-Liman line.
Today marks the two year anniversary of the Israeli assassination of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a United States citizen. The Biden administration dropped it's position of calling for investigation and prosecution, and failed to condemn the Israeli assault on Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem, wherein armed officers beat her pallbearers with batons. To date no one has been held accountable.
Apparently LAPD unexpectedly ("unprovoked" is used to describe it) arrested the press and legal observers in a parking garage today, along with a mayoral candidate and a bunch of UCLA students. /r/ACAB thread
(Camera person does some good swearing at the pigs. Sounds like he's absolutely shocked they would do this. I guess they didn't pay any attention during BLM....)
Between campus protests in Europe, invasion of Rafah, the UN vote, and Eurovision shenanigans… it almost feels like this has been the worst few days for “controlling the narrative” on behalf of US and Israeli interests. I’m not suggesting some Israeli singer getting booed will stop a solitary bomb from dropping on Gaza… but narratives do matter. That’s why the US works so hard to control it.
Student interviewed by fox
‘If our government and academic institutions are complicit in this [genocide] there comes a point where we say we are not following orders because there are principles & human lives that matter more than our careers and our futures’
https://nitter.poast.org/SanaSaeed/status/1788211323177714152#m
I am here to remind everyone of Bangladesh and their relations with "Israel". Well, first they have none. Second it gets funnier because in 1971, during the Bangladesh War of Liberation, "Israel" stated that they supported the Provisional Government of Bangladesh against Pakistan. And then, when Bangladesh gained independence in 1972, "Israel" was among the first nations (if not even THE first) to recognize Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh quickly rejected this recognition calling it not acceptable, basically telling "Israel" to "fuck off and die and shove your recognition up your ass", then Bangladesh recognized the Palestinian state and has maintained this position ever since.
All passports issued in Bangladesh read: "This passport is valid for all countries in the world except Israel", something I find extremely funny. By 2021, however, Bangladesh was forced to erase this text from their passport but this has only happened on the e-passports, printed ones still have it.
I wish everyone was a bit more like Bangladesh.
https://twitter.com/darrion_nguyen/status/1788834313791844485
Vietnam just arrested a spy from ministry of labour who leaked state secret in an effort to establish “independent trade uinion”, just like the “sorlidanorc” which destroyed socialist poland. It is banned under our goverment and as usual western MSM (AP) said we are “repressing”
The Cradle: Yemen’s strategic escalation into the Mediterranean
The Yemeni “circle of fire” – its maritime reach – now encompasses the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. On land, Sanaa’s focus is on impacting Israel’s geographic depth, particularly its southern regions which abut the Red Sea. In multiple speeches, Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi has emphasized Yemen’s staggering advances in military capabilities, both quantitatively and qualitatively. These advancements are made possible by various factors, most notably the real-world testing of their arsenal. Recent broadcasts showcased a distant suicide drone targeting a ship in the Red Sea, equipped with a camera on its nose. Additionally, there has been significant Yemeni progress in the use of winged and ballistic missiles: according to military analysts, for the first time in history, anti-ship ballistic missiles were deployed against seaborne vessels, a qualitative advancement in Ansarallah’s military bag of tricks.
[...] Since early April, various European naval commanders have thrown their hands up in full public view. Jerome Henry, commander of France’s Aquitaine-class FREMM frigate Alsace – deployed in the Red Sea for 71 straight days – said on 11 April that his ship had depleted its entire combat arsenal, and while it would head to port to replenish those munitions, would return to face an impossible mission: "We didn’t necessarily expect this level of threat. There was an uninhibited violence that was quite surprising and very significant. [The Yemenis] do not hesitate to use drones that fly at water level, to explode them on commercial ships, and to fire ballistic missiles."
[...] Yemeni Brigadier-General Shamsan points out that the US defense system failures, and growing risks faced by the anti-Yemen naval coalitions, have “forced it and its allies to withdraw more than 18 ships from the theater of operations, as the number of American ships that left reached 10, while eight ships belonging to European tools left.”
Shamsan says the rapid development of Sanaa’s military capabilities during the ongoing war has positioned Yemen as a pivotal player not only regionally but globally, owing to its strategic position overseeing one of the world’s most crucial maritime passages. As Ansarallah’s phase four operations commence in the Mediterranean Sea, Shamsan declares that Yemen has now effectively implemented a maritime blockade and economic stranglehold on Israel, which heavily relies on sea routes for the vast majority of its imports. This blockade, in turn, represents a significant leverage point against both Tel Aviv and its western allies, which have failed to protect their interests in the Red Sea or counteract Sanaa’s embargo on ships entering the ports of the occupation state.
Far from being a mere political and military backwater, Yemen has demonstrated far-reaching military capabilities and impressive strategic planning that has confounded the world’s greatest naval powers. Sanaa’s formidable maneuvers in West Asian maritime zones have catapulted it to the forefront of the region’s Axis of Resistance as the member most capable of influencing global maritime security and regional stability. As the US and its allies rally around their newly constructed “aid pier” on Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline to, as many suspect, consolidate the area as a future site for US military operations and protect Israel’s oil and gas platforms, Yemen is emerging as a frontline adversary in that far-flung theater.
Western navies are complete paper tigers.
It’s crazy to me that western leaders are still insisting that Ukraine get favorable terms and will join NATO. They know that’s the red line and trigger for the whole war, they know that giving up on that is strategic defeat. Russia is in no rush, they can keep the war they are winning going as long as the west refuses to give up on Ukrainian NATO membership. They can’t join NATO while they are in an ongoing war cause that would cause instant WW3 and is useless as deference since Russia wasn’t deterred, so why ever end the war? Even after other objectives have been secured like buffer zones, securing all annexed Russian oblasts, denazification, end of shelling (especially of Donetsk and Belgorod); Crimean land bridge, water and rail lines, etc. if Ukraine won’t fold then Russia can and should just keep them on simmer.
This is talked about so little in the west, at least in public. It’s the elephant in the room that they are all talking around in their articles and cope. They will have to give in to Russian demands
4 tribes to go before they all ban her lol
"Atrocities that we see in Gaza every day are inadmissible and have to stop," PM Golob said.
On Thursday, the government of Slovenia began the procedure of recognizing the State of Palestine to help end the violence in Gaza.
"Atrocities that we see in Gaza every day are inadmissible and have to stop," Prime Minister Robert Golob told a news conference following a government session.
Slovenia's government coalition, which is composed of three center-left parties, is united on the plan to recognize the State of Palestine, he said, adding that he hopes other countries will follow Slovenia.
The Slovenian government will send a formal request to the parliament to recognize the State of Palestine by June 13.
"I am pleased that the government has taken a decisive and irreversible step in the process of recognizing Palestine. Slovenia thus sends a clear message on the urgency of Middle East peace and a two-state solution," Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said.
Over 100 students from Ljubljana University's Faculty of Social Sciences protested on the premises for the second day in a row on Thursday, calling on the university to issue a clear condemnation of the genocide in Gaza and end any cooperation with Israel's Bar Ilan University.
Slovenia, an incumbent non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, issued a joint statement with Spain, Malta and Ireland in late March saying that the countries stand ready to recognize the State of Palestine when "the circumstances are right".
In a further example of how petty universities are getting (while turning blind eyes to Zionist hate) I offer this from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio:
CWRU has a 'spirit wall' where students are encouraged to express themselves with paint, chalk, fliers and more.
Students opposing the genocide in Palestine and organising against it used this wall, with great support from others, and completely within the published policy available on the university website.
The university decided they were going to have contractors go in and paint over the entire wall to remove the pro-Palestine messages.
Students stood in front of the wall so that the work couldn't be done and demanded to know why the university was removing pro-Palestine messages when it had never done previously.
So university staff ordered the contractors to paint over the students.
The university later finished respraying the wall and it was immeadiately covered in graffiti by Zionists calling the students "terrorists". It remains up.
Do something funny, Iran. These cowards are too scared to fight someone their own size.
The other day I made this post about how we could flood the Utah hotline to report trans bathroom usage with false reports, and now Utah is reporting that the hotline is nearly unusable because of all of the false reports lol
The onslaught has led the state official tasked by law with managing the tip line, the Utah auditor, John Dougall, to bemoan getting stuck with the cumbersome task of filtering through fake complaints while also facing backlash for enforcing a law he had no role in passing.
“No auditor goes into auditing so they can be the bathroom monitors,” Dougall said on Tuesday. “I think there were much better ways for the legislature to go about addressing their concerns, rather than this ham-handed approach.”
In the week since it launched, the online tip line already has received more than 10,000 submissions, none of which seem legitimate, he said.
Folks, direct action gets the goods
The auditor’s office has encountered many reports that Dougall described as “total nonsense”, and others that he said appear credible at first glance and take much longer to filter out. His staff had spent the last week sorting through thousands of well-crafted complaints citing fake names or locations.
Now is a great time to remind everybody to keep sending in false reports (via this site) that sound legitimate and make this hotline unusable.
Comrades, it is Victory Day today, although this victory was 78 years ago, its impact has only grown with time.
Long live the USSR, Glory to the Red Army, All Power to the Anti-Fascist Heroes! The defeat of Fascism will forever be one of the defining moments in all of human history!
Permanently Deleted
John Bachtell, previous National Chairperson (Revisionist version of General Secretary) of CPUSA, member of their national committee (revisionist version of Central Committee), and president of Long View Publishing Co., the publisher of People's World (The mouthpiece of CPUSA that puts out articles so bad they stopped printing physical copies so as to avoid having them used as toilet paper.), one of the few public faces of the right-opportunist anti-communist rot that has killed CPUSA and reanimated its corpse into a DNC sheepdog, turboshitlib extraordinare, and coincidentally has worked personally with former President Obama back in the day with his senatorial campaign as some kind of precinct coordination officer.
This is someone in CPUSA's leadership who openly pushes the party to support the Democratic party and calls any third party candidate a running-dog for 'fascist' trump, (and we know for a fact he'd call PSL anti-democratic and 'progressive', if it wasn't for the fact that he'd face greater backlash) as I've previously quoted before...
Third-party candidates prevented both Democrats and Republicans from surpassing 50% in 2016, playing a key role in Trump’s victory. Therefore, another GOP scheme is to siphon off votes from Democrats by flooding the zone with third-party candidates or supporting those that develop independently in order to widen division, play on concerns about Biden’s age, and tap disappointment with the policy promises that Biden and the Democrats haven’t been able to fulfill.
In 2024, the GOP and MAGA are excited by the “No Labels” Party, the Democratic primary challenge of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Green Party candidacy of Cornel West. They see all of these campaigns as opportunities to disrupt the election, divide the anti-MAGA majority, and undercut the progressive voter mobilization needed to defeat fascism.
~ John Bachtell, previous leader of CPUSA and president of People's World
MAGA Republicans will use any means necessary to win—including ‘progressive’ third parties
And of course if you feel like torturing yourself more with his writing here's another one titled: Biden’s ‘crisis presidency’ and potential for transformative change
So anyways, now that I've riled you up, allow me to drop the feather to break the proverbial camel's back.
John Bachtell says "I condemn Hamas" because of some video showing some dude getting his ass beat because he was stealing phones, food, solar cells, etc. from refugees and got caught. (link to proof)
Zero investigation into the image and he immediately begins to push pro-fascist talking points.
And if that's not disgusting enough, not much later he begins posting in support for the Georgian color revolution thats happening right now
Good fucking luck actually having your social fascist and class traitor leadership willingly relinquish power - and thats assuming you can actually vote them out to begin with - any members of CPUSA here. You'd literally have better luck trying to learn as much as you can and getting as many resources as you can then bailing for an actual communist party.
Edit: I also forgot to mention he's unironically repeats nazi propaganda and is a banderite
Live stream and a news article for this one.
Demonstrators in the lobby of Ylen Mediatalo. Photo: Petteri Sopanen / Yle
On Saturday morning, a group of protesters arrived at Yle's Helsinki office to demand that Yle withdraw from Eurovision because Israel is participating in the competition.
Israel's participation has attracted strong criticism , as Israel is waging a war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
In the press release, the protesters say that Israel will get a platform to polish its own image in Eurovision.
The Eurovision has released an official explanation for why the illegal zionist entity is allowed in the contest while Russia is not.
The Eurovision makes a song and dance about how the contest is "apolitical" and how it is "not a contest between governments". They claim that while Russian broadcasters were suspended for "persistent breaches of membership obligations and the violation of public service values", the zionist broadcaster has been a member for more than 60 years.
To underline their moral cowardice they state that their decision to ignore the ongoing genocide and allow a zionist entry is aligned with many other international organisations like sport unions who allow zionist participation.
It is a bullshit explanation that puts a fig leaf on their blatant loyalty to western imperialism, but at least that is the explanation they give.
https://twitter.com/BrianMteleSUR/status/1787529786916483537
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is back in the hospital with a rare skin infection. The doctors announced that the antibiotics are working, but he's being transferred from Manaus to a hospital in Brasilia today.
Union theological seminary, which is housed on Columbia's campus and a partner of Columbia but has separate endowments, has officially divested. They had been working towards this since November 2023. Some may know Union as where Cornell West has taught.
David Cameron made a statement recently where he said British weapons could be used by Ukraine against Russia.
Russia summoned the ambassadors of Britain and France to a 30minute meeting. They then exited the building in total silence.
Later, the Russian foreign ministry said:
A strong protest was expressed to the British Ambassador in connection with Foreign Minister Cameron’s statement about Kiev’s right to strike Russia with British weapons.
The ambassador was warned that the response to Ukrainian strikes using British weapons on Russian territory could be any British military facilities and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and beyond, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.
Egypt to back South Africa genocide case against Israel at world court [SCMP]
From what I've heard Egypt cracked down pretty hard on the protests and I'm under the impression no one expects the government to do the right thing unprompted so this was kind of surprising.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68987130
Unrwa closes East Jerusalem compound after attacks
head of the UN's largest aid agency in Gaza says he is temporarily closing its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem after a number of attacks.
Philippe Lazzarini said "Israeli residents" twice set fire to the compound's perimeter on Thursday evening.
There were no casualties but the fire "caused extensive damage to the outdoor areas," he wrote on social media.
"Once again, the lives of UN staff were at a serious risk."
Our director with the help of other staff had to put out the fire themselves as it took the Israeli fire extinguishers and police a while before they turned up," he added.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli authorities.
Mr Lazzarini also posted a video of what he said was a "crowd accompanied by armed men" who were chanting "burn down the United Nations". This video has not been verified by the BBC.
He said it was the second time this week the compound has come under attack, and it would not be reopened until "proper security is restored
UK 's Labour Party inadvertently endorses armed struggle against Israel by the students
David Lammy thinks students should copy Mandela’s protest style. Apparently Lammy doesn’t know about uMkhonto we Sizwe.
https://nitter.poast.org/DavidVeevers1/status/1788455122009210897#m
And now a massive crowd forging new barricades at Rokin in central Amsterdam. They emptied the tires of the buses supposed to transport the people arrested at the omhp encampment. Oh @UvA_Amsterdam you have started a revolution
https://nitter.poast.org/HarrygPettit/status/1788287605676662795#m
Edit: Also I'd like to note that at this uni the cops literally bulldozed the encampment
Pentagon has confirmed a pause of bombs to Israel.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-weapons-shipment-us-eed365ebef0477ba74bf9848cacae4f4
(Al Jazeera) United Nations General Assembly backs Palestinian bid for membership
Resolution does not give Palestine full UN membership, but recognises them as qualified to join and extends rights.
143 yes, 9 no, 25 abstained.
And here is the list of countries exact votes. US, Israel, and US puppet regimes are predictably the no votes: https://twitter.com/Raminho/status/1788956393438859580
Full Text
The Biden administration moved Friday to terminate a decades-old agreement that governs conditions for migrant children in government custody, according to a court filing, which argues that the settlement was meant to be temporary.
The 1997 Flores settlement, as the agreement is known, requires the government to release children from government custody without unnecessary delay to sponsors, like parents or adult relatives, and dictates conditions by which children are held. The Health and Human Services Department is charged with the care of unaccompanied migrant children.
The Biden administration has previously signaled that it planned to end the Flores agreement, instead preparing a federal regulation that, the administration argues, “faithfully implements” the requirements spelled out in the settlement, provides additional protections and responds to “unforeseen changed circumstances since 1997.” The regulation was published in late April.
“By its own terms the FSA was meant to be temporary. The parties initially agreed that the FSA would terminate no later than five years after final court approval and then later agreed that the FSA would terminate 45 days after the INS published final regulations implementing the FSA,” Friday’s court filing reads.
“The Rule is expansive and responsive to the changing needs of ORR’s (Unaccompanied Children) Program. ORR anticipates it will guide its operations and provide needed protections to unaccompanied children for years to come,” the filing adds, referring to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency within HHS.
But immigration attorneys have expressed concern over the lack of outside oversight if the Flores settlement is terminated. “If the government were to prevail in its motion, HHS would no longer be bound by the Flores settlement. As Flores counsel, we would no longer be able to interview children in HHS custody, or file motions to enforce when the rights guaranteed by Flores are denied to children in HHS custody,” said Neha Desai, senior director of immigration at the National Center for Youth Law.
US official says Chinese seizure of TSMC in Taiwan would be 'absolutely devastating'
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/us-official-says-chinese-seizure-151702576.html
Xi pls
I somehow completely missed that Ukraine is now using civilian planes to bomb Russia. You'd think the international "rules based" order people would have something against this but they predictably do not.
A Ukrainian Sport Plane Drone Just Flew 800 Miles Into Russia To Blow Up An Oil Refinery [forbes]
I just saw some images from southern Brazil on Twitter. The cities are destroyed and flooded, really terrible. And there are still people denying that global warming is real. Fortunately Lula da Silva is the current president and he is acting like a normal human being by sending help. I 100% believe that if it had been Bolsonaro the president, he would have said that this was a punishment from God because the big cities in the south are pro Lula or some shit like that.
Colombia Proposes Arrest of Netanyahu and Peace Force in Gaza
President Petro made these proposals given that Israel will not stop the genocide against the Palestinian people.
On Friday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro called for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to his genocidal military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
“Netanyahu will not stop the genocide, which implies an international arrest warrant from the Criminal Court,” he said.
“The United Nations Security Council must consider establishing a peacekeeping force in the territory of Gaza,” he added.
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation forces have killed 34,904 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where they have also injured 78,514 people.
The number of fatalities, however, could be much higher given that the Palestinian authorities have not been able to recover the bodies that lie under the rubble of buildings and homes destroyed by indiscriminate bombings.
During all these months, the Colombian president has maintained strong criticism of the bombings carried out by the Zionist state. On May 1, at a massive event for International Workers' Day in Bogota, Petro announced the breaking of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Meanwhile, in the last week, Netanyahu has confirmed that he will continue the military offensive in Gaza even if he does not have the support of U.S. weapons.
BenarNews (US Funded Media) - US officials to discuss with Malaysia ‘potential impact’ of Iran sanctions’ violations
Treasury Department says it’s concerned about Washington-sanctioned Iranian oil being moved from ship to ship in Southeast Asian waters.
A U.S. Treasury delegation will discuss the consequences of allowing transshipments of Washington-sanctioned Iranian oil in meetings with government officials here this week, amid longtime allegations by Western news and research firms that Malaysia permits Iran to use its waters for ship-to-ship petroleum transfers.
Western news
YOU YOURSELF ARE WESTERN NEWS?
…The American officials who arrived in Kuala Lumpur late on Monday will engage in blunt discussions with their Malaysian counterparts, U.S. Ambassador Edgard Kagan said on the sidelines of Asia’s largest defense show.
“You brown orientals need to listen to the White Man and stop trading with the Islamofascist Terrorists”“We are confident that the Malaysian government understands the U.S. position with regard to transshipment of oil that has been sanctioned, and understands the potential impact that this could have,” Kagan said in response to a question about whether Washington sees Malaysia as a transshipment hub for Iranian oil.
These Crakkkers need to STFU. Keep swinging buddy, it’ll just encourage further decoupling from the West.
He did not elaborate on what he meant by “potential impact,” which could mean anything from sanctions on Malaysia to an emboldened Iran potentially causing more trouble for Washington.
Sanctions deny people or companies access to assets within the United States and prevent American citizens or financial institutions from doing business with them.
Don’t know how that concerns people in Southeast Asia but okay
“We look forward to candid and frank discussions that are going to be done very much from our standpoint in the spirit of working together to address a common problem,” Kagan said.
Go ahead and sanction. I don’t think the numerous American companies based in Malaysia are gonna react too kindly to the political machinations of the warmongers affecting their bottomline.
common problem
It clearly ain’t a problem for the numerous local businesses benefiting from trade with Iran.
In December, the U.S Treasury Department imposed sanctions on four Malaysia-based companies it accused of helping Iran’s production of drones. Washington accuses Iran of supplying deadly drones to what it says are terrorist proxies in the Middle East, and to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Only four? The companies in Malaysia need to step up their game.
On Friday, the Treasury Department said that two of its top officials would visit Malaysia and Singapore on May 6-9 to advance its work in countering what it called terror financing by Iran and its proxies, and the implementation of sanctions against Russia.
Only Singapore has imposed sanctions on Russia. The USA is not in the position to dictate how an independent country wants to handle their own trade and diplomatic relations. Fuck off
“In Malaysia, Under Secretary Nelson and General Counsel MacBride will discuss the United States’ efforts to disrupt terrorist financing, including through fundraising for fraudulent charities and illicit oil sales, while ensuring that U.S. sanctions and other financial measures do not impede the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
efforts to disrupt terrorist financing, including fundraising for fraudulent charities
We should ban the New Endowment for Democracy to be in line with the stated objectives.
humanitarian aid
Such as “lethal aid” for Israel mayhaps?
BenarNews contacted the Prime Minister’s Office and the foreign ministry for comment on the U.S. officials’ visit and Kagan’s comments, but did not immediately hear back.
I don’t think they care to respond to US propaganda outlets.
Both the issues – sanctions against Russia and Iran – have seen the East and the West divided in their responses.
No shit.
…Malaysia has taken a stance supporting Iran, which launched drones and fired missiles at Israel on April 13. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim described Iran’s actions as a “legitimate act” in response to Israel’s “barbarous” attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus.
This is the opinion of the Global Majority.
‘I will not accept any threats’ …He said in November that Malaysia would maintain ties with Hamas and not be cowed by the threat of “unilateral” sanctions for doing so in the face of a proposed U.S. law to sanction the group’s supporters. He was responding to the Nov. 1 passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the Hamas and Other Palestinian Terrorist Groups International Financing Prevention Act. It has yet to be passed by the Senate. “I will not accept any threats, including this,” Anwar said in Parliament back then. “This action is unilateral and not valid because we, as members of the United Nations, only recognize decisions made by the United Nations Security Council.”
I have covered this before but I’ll repeat again: Anwar faces internal opposition from more radical Islamic political factions that are staunchly pro-Palestine and Anti-Zionist. Even if he wasn’t himself a believer of a modernist Islam, it would be political suicide if he did not take a stance for Hamas.
The government’s position is entirely in line with the opinion of the vast majority in Malaysia.
In December, Malaysia banned Israeli shipping company ZIM, vessels flying the Israeli flag and those headed there from docking at its ports, saying the move was a response to the Jewish state’s actions in Gaza.
Is the article trying to imply hypocrisy here? Lmao.
Washington ups the pressure Still, allegations about Malaysia’s support for Iran evasion of U.S. sanctions have been made for years, and long before the latest crisis in the Middle East. More recently, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA), in September, noted that China’s oil imports from Malaysia in the first half of 2023 rose to 1 million barrels a day – a figure that exceeded total production in Malaysia.
Actually maybe Malaysia increased production imo I think we are rushing too much on our conclusions.
USEIA pointed to a May 2021 article from the Washington-based Middle East Institute’s website to explain this discrepancy. The article was titled “Iranian sanctions evasion and the Gulf’s complex oil trade,” and cited news sources like Bloomberg and Reuters as well. “With a heavy discount on Iran’s high-risk, illegal oil exports, buyers in China are purchasing so much that oil tankers are ‘clogging up’ ports in the country,” the article said, referring to a Bloomberg News story for the information about the choked ports.
Thank you China, very cool.
The Treasury officials’ visit to Malaysia comes less than two weeks after President Joe Biden signed a national security package that included the “21st Century Peace through Strength Act,” which extends the statute of limitations for violations of sanctions to 10 years.
“Peace through Strength Act” sounds like satire
In a recent article for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, research assistant Rebecca Redlich wrote that “Kuala Lumpur is once again displaying its willingness to facilitate Iran’s illicit activity.”
It’s the free market at work baby. The invisible hand supports Iran and Hamas, what can I say?
“The United States has repeatedly sought to curb Kuala Lumpur’s growing ties with Iran by sanctioning various Malaysia-based entities,” she said in her article dated April 24.
Ya’ll repeating what the colonizers did 300 years ago and think no one here will see the ploy for what it is.
“U.S. officials have focused most of their outreach and punitive actions on areas where Malaysian decisions directly threaten U.S. objectives, such as facilitating illicit Iranian oil sales and creating a permissive environment for sanctions evasion.”
So much for the free and open trade and markets.
Again - why should Malaysia care if what they do threaten US objectives? Should a Global South country not advocate for and do stuff that is in their best interests?
Death to Amerikkka
I've become like really actually prejudiced against the Baltics, like not "I have a cogent critique of the ruling regime of the nation state of Lithuania" or "Official sanction of revisitionist history and anti-semetic violence within the Baltics is bad", but like prejudice against the people and the non-Nazi parts of the culture. Gonna work on that. : |
I began to get the awful feeling last night that the Biden admin is going to let the Rafah invasion go on the full 90 days that Israel claims is planned (meaning it ends in August), and then let them slow roll/block letting aid until closer to the election. He will claim a "victory" in "forcing" Israel to let more aid in closer to the election, even though its all kayfabe. The casualty count in Gaza is almost assuredly undercounted by an order of magnitude. Part of the reason for Israel attacking all of the hospitals and emergency services was definitely to make an accurate count during the war (and for a while after) logistically impossible. If the war ended today, there would be enough time for an official casualty count to begin, and for the death toll to reach six figures before the election. Hitting 100K+ is going to tank what's left of Biden's approval, and I suspect that the White House is going to do everything possible to make sure that doesn't happen until after the election.
yfw you'll never be as cool as the dude with the DPRK flag
https://twitter.com/african_stream/status/1787682258138055127
Several hundred protesters gathered on 3 May outside the US embassy in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, expressing anger and discontent with Washington for recently criticising the African state's military leadership.
Permanently Deleted
Palestinians Flee Rafah for Fear of Israeli Ground Offensive
UNESCO Director Russell warned that 600,000 children of Rafah have no safe place to go.
Since Monday morning, thousands of Palestinians began to flee the area east of Rafah to avoid bombing by the Zionist army.
Previously, through leaflets dropped from the air, the Israeli occupation army announced that it "will work with extreme force" in neighborhoods such as Al-Salam, Al-Jeneina, Tabba Zaraa, and Al-Byouk, as well as in the blocks 10-16, 28, and 270.
Due to this announcement, the Palestinians fear that the Israeli State will soon order a ground military assault against Rafah, which is home to over 1.2 million internally displaced Palestinians due to the violence that the Israeli forces have deployed since October 2023.
Thousands of Palestinians began evacuating from areas east of Rafah amid Israeli plans to invade this city in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to local accounts, at least 100,000 could evacuate the area east of Rafah and head west towards Khan Younis and north towards Deir al-Balah.
“Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza," said Catherine Russell, the director of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
"If large scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened,” she pointed out.
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) stated that Israel is preparing to launch a large-scale ground offensive "without considering the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip" or the fate of the Israeli hostages.
"We affirm that any military operation in Rafah will not be a picnic for the fascist occupation army. Our brave resistance, led by the Al Qassam Brigades, is fully prepared to defend our people, defeat this enemy, and thwart their plans and objectives," Hamas said.
Currently, the Palestinian presidency is intensifying its contacts with the United States and other countries in the region to avoid a massacre in Rafah.
It is pretty interesting to see the gradual decline of America’s image since the Bush administration. Obama managed to bring some life back into it and everyone after him only continues to dig it further.
US soft power becoming more controversial for the wrong reasons (“woke culture”) has somewhat helped as well in leading people to look for alternatives. Europe and the rest of NATO will probably keep worshipping them with a few outliers. They seem to love slop.
Al Jazeera calls this a "significant step" by Israelis.
25m ago
Palestinians now trapped in Gaza
Tareq Abu Azzoum reporting from Rafah, southern Gaza
The Israeli military carried out a limited incursion on the eastern side of Rafah and the main target was to control the crossing.
Israeli military tanks were stationed at the Rafah crossing, as we have seen images emerging from there, in which these tanks were moving on the yards of the crossing.
That is devastating because this is the only point that Palestinians have been using to travel abroad and leave Gaza. Palestinians will no longer be able to leave the territory in light of this limited Israeli operation.
During the raid on the crossing, there was a heavy exchange of fire between Hamas fighters and the Israeli military, accompanied by an intense bombing campaign.
This is a significant step taken by the Israeli side.
Two Army aviators were injured when their AH-64 Apache helicopter was involved in a mishap on Tuesday at Fort Riley, Kansas, said Lt. Col. Jefferson Grimes, a spokesman for the Army’s 1st Infantry Division.
“The crew is receiving all necessary medical treatment,” Grimes told Task & Purpose. “They are in stable condition.”
...
At the time, 11 helicopters and one C-12 fixed-wing aircraft have crashed since October,
The crash is the latest in a rapid series of flying mishaps for Army pilots. Army officials announced in April that all aviation units would be required to undergo mandatory training to reinforce basic flying skills following 12 crashes in the past six months that had killed nine soldiers and one Border Patrol agent.
This is the saber American politicians constantly rattle at Russia, China, and Iran!
It turns out that "I feel unsave and I'm afraid" loser served in the IOF as a naval officer lmao:
https://twitter.com/LegalishCA/status/1788690668027519190Palestine Action's recent action in Leicester, where they ripped a hole in the roof with pickaxes and vandalized a partially constructed drone:
https://twitter.com/Pal_action/status/1788523404225544631The Cuban Communist Party is mad at the German Embassy over a Facebook post.
On that same date, Press Freedom Day, 8 161 kilometers from Berlin, the German Embassy in Cuba, and through the Facebook account of that legation, consummated a gross act of interference and flagrant violation of international standards for diplomatic relations, by altering the text and photo on the front page of Granma with erasures typical of (un)classified documents, even on the name of Palestine. "There is not much to see here," the publication added.
15m ago
BREAKING via Axios:
Israeli forces are going to take over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza in the next few hours.
https://bsky.app/profile/yasharali.bsky.social/post/3kru3gqqjqd24
Shout-out to our Macedonian comrades for tripling (from 2 to 6) their numbers in parliament yesterday. May the growth continue and may some more of the countries of former Yugoslavia follow your lead.
Israelis in the North seek to partition, become 'State of Galilee'
By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
Today 12:47As a result of the loss of deterrence, the Israeli Conflict Zone Forum plans to announce the establishment of the "State of Galilee" and full separation from "Israel".
Article
During a meeting of "Israel's" Conflict Zone Forum, the leaders of the Israeli northern settlements decided to announce the establishment of the State of Galilee and fully separate from "Israel".
According to Israeli news website Walla!, the step is set to be announced on "Independence Day". The media website explained that their decision was reached after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissive response to Benny Gantz's inquiry about settlers returning home for the school year, saying, "What would happen if they return a few months after September 1?"
This latest action follows the forum members' publication of protest advertisements in early April, where they publicly solicited bids to "locate the Israeli government."
As cited by Israeli media, the ads read, "A public tender to locate a government in Israel!" and "The Conflict Zone Forum hereby invites proposals to be submitted to an alternative government in Israel as detailed in the tender documents."
Most significant was the ad which depicted the extent of the despair of Israeli settlers on the border with Lebanon that reads:
"The full details of the tender can be found in the evacuated hotels and the accommodation apartments of the displaced throughout the country, with the business owners who collapsed in the north, in the dead tourism areas in the north, and in the offices of the authorities in the north."US & Friends are complaining a lot about China subsidizing their EV industry, so I tried to look up what those subsidies are, but it seems like no one really knows any specifics? Maybe I'm just bad at searching for information, but I couldn't really find much at all about what kinds of subsidies they're supposedly using, and how they're different from the subsidies the Western countries are handing out to their own industries. It looks to me like they're just mad coz bad at free market competition.
The charging document notes that Heyman broke the trooper's "state-issued bike bell," which costs $62.
And through the grapevine I've heard at least one student received notification from campus police that they are banned from campus with no mention of exceptions for educational reasons. It seems they are planning to suspend or expel at least some students.
I still can’t believe the democrats just accepted Bibi and Likud doing anything they wanted. Likud has been forcing democrats into horrible positions since the early 90s. They actually had an opportunity to clear a huge thorn in their side, but they chose to keep it in because…. Lobbying?
It really shows how captured the party is by large donors.
July 2023:
An increasing number of countries are repatriating gold reserves as protection against the sort of sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, according to an Invesco survey of central bank and sovereign wealth funds published on Monday. The financial market rout last year caused widespread losses for sovereign money managers who are "fundamentally" rethinking their strategies on the belief that higher inflation and geopolitical tensions are here to stay.
Over 85% of the 85 sovereign wealth funds and 57 central banks that took part in the annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study believe that inflation will now be higher in the coming decade than in the last. Gold and emerging market bonds are seen as good bets in that environment, but last year's freezing of almost half of Russia's $640 billion of gold and forex reserves by the West in response to the invasion of Ukraine also appears to have triggered a shift.
The survey showed a "substantial share" of central banks were concerned by the precedent that had been set. Almost 60% of respondents said it had made gold more attractive, while 68% were keeping reserves at home compared to 50% in 2020.
2024:
Nigeria repatriates its gold.
Ghana repatriates its gold.
Egypt repatriates its gold.
South Africa repatriates its gold.
Cameroon repatriates its gold.I've seen rumors that other, larger countries are also doing so but these claims are generally not sourced so I won't repeat them. Though, even the above claims are only present in a couple independent media outlets, there's nothing in the MSM. Whether that indicates that these articles are mere rumors or something more insidious going on, I don't know.
Yesterday, around noon, the students of the universities of Amsterdam started an encampment. Already last night the riot police emptied the encampment and arrested a number of the protestors. https://www.dutchnews.nl/2024/05/police-clear-pro-palestine-protestors-from-amsterdam-university/
In UK Labour Party news, they're having a cracking couple of days.
UNITE, the large union happy to work with Labour who were assisting in writing their 'New Deal for Workers' policy has confirmed that it's not just been watered down, but scrapped entirely. They've called the new document a "charter for bad bosses" that defends fire and rehire policies and zero hour contracts. I saw a quote earlier that referred to the provisions for workers as opposed to bosses in it as 'so miniscule it's not worth the meeting'.
Then Labour front bencher Emily Thornberry had an absolute car crash appearance on the BBC when trying to defend her, Starmer, Lammy and co repeatedly saying on camera that Israel had the right to deprive Gaza of 'water, power and food's. She first tries to claim they didn't. Then that they did, but just because it was an emotional time after the events of Oct 7th. Then realises she can't say that so tries to pivot to saying it was just about power. Then when reminded of her own words on tape says it was okay because it was only going to be for a short but unspecified amount of time (which no one said and isn't a defence anyway) and then tries to argue that they were advocating for Israel to do something that is against international law 'but within the law' which is of course, absurd.
And finally, Labour just welcomed a Tory defector to their ranks in the form of Natalie Elphicke. A Boris Johnson loyalist, racist who has spent years engaging in inflammatory racist policy and language about the battle against 'small boat's of refugees, who whole heartedly supports the illegal deportation of people seeking asylum to camps in Rwanda, who has been mulitantly anti-trade union, and who voted to make abortion a criminal offense. Then there's the small fact that her husband was a convicted sex predator who she supported, smeared the victims of, said after his conviction that his only crime was "being attractive to and attracted to women", before she an a handful of other Tory MPs were found to have tried to illegally use their power to pressure the judge in the case.
Welcome to the Labour Party!
Live updates: Israel-Hamas war, eastern Rafah evacuations
---
Edit
New Gaza euphemism has dropped. "Expanded humanitarian zone," is a polite way of saying "enlarged graveyard."
Celebrating Eurovision by drinking baileys and frantically reading updates about the small thrust Russia has made towards Kharkiv.
Assistant Chief of NYPD sprayed himself with pepper spray:
https://twitter.com/MerruX/status/1789414670136185139 (last 3 seconds of the clip)
https://twitter.com/peterhvideo/status/1789434275109994813IOF goon got owned so hard by a sniper he almost got ignited in flames. But seriously, how are the rifles doing that?
https://twitter.com/IranMilitaryNet/status/1789003111945658857Liberal "he's just the president; he's totally powerless and his hands are tied", but this time for...yeah, I kid you not, policing and the crack down on journalists. /u/PronoiarPerson in /r/ACAB: "Biden isn’t king...."
Israeli business man got assassinated. The group behind it say he was a Mossad agent.
A small breakdown of student protests in The Netherlands:
Monday
Amsterdam: On Monday May 6th students and teachers at the UVA, VU and AUC barricaded a part of the UVA university terrain and set up an encampment to demand their institutions to break their ties with Israel.
15 Counter protesters entered the terrain in the evening with torches to threaten the protesters and to entice the police to break down the encampment. The counter protesters were quickly disarmed and chased out of the encampment. A video of a pro Palestine protester is going around X/Twitter where he beats a counter protester with a wooden plank, politicians are sharing this video as an example of antisemitism and aggression by the protesters, ignoring the fact that the man that was beaten created a very dangerous situation prior by running around with a torch in a crowd of people. There is another video going around where a pro Palestine protester burns an Israeli flag which he supposedly stole from one of the counter protesters.
After the altercation the protests continued on peacefully. Around 3:30 am the riot police broke down the barricades and arrested around 150 protesters. There are videos of riot police beating students who are running away or sitting down in a human chain. The police in general looked very agitated while making the arrests and were not holding back on their aggression.
Tuesday
Amsterdam: In a reaction to the videos of police violence being used against peaceful protesters, students and employees of UVA organised a new protest on Tuesday to demand the board of UVA (who ordered the riot police to intervene) to resign. Thousands of people marched through the city during the day, and a few hundred set up a new encampment and stayed overnight. They also occupied one of the university buildings. This time the UVA did not order the police to intervene. On Wednesday morning the UVA board has agreed to have a conversation with the protesters.
Utrecht: Inspired by the encampment in Amsterdam, students of Utrecht University set up their own encampment on university terrain on Tuesday May 7th to demand their university to cut their ties with Israel. There were no altercations until 23:00 when the police was ordered by the UU board to arrest the about 50 protesters that refused to leave. There are videos in which the police is beating protesters who are holding the gate to the encampment, and dragging protesters across the ground to the arrest bus.
Other universities in the country had protests as well on Tuesday, but there the protests were ended early in agreement with the university boards.
You can follow the Amsterdam and Utrecht encampments on instagram: @amsterdam.encampment @encampment.uu More student protests are expected today and during the week
I'm gonna fucking lose it if one more person decides to be a "good samaritan" and stop one lane, the far lane out of two or more, so somebody can turn across all of them. because let me tell ya bud, when I'm going 50 miles per hour down the road and I can't see past your shitty ultrawide suv I have no idea some fucking jerkoff is trying to turn across three lanes of traffic to go eat at their nazi chicken restaurant for the third time today and in their frenzy they just pull on out like there's not traffic barreling towards them and we almost hit, of course with gestures and honking to imply I'm somehow morally or legally in the wrong. Sorry! Should've turned on my Citizens Band Radio to get the minute by minute updates where you announced your random act of kindness lane closure! It's not LA traffic, the fucker can wait a minute for conditions to clear on their own, without your assistance. Cars are the root of ALL FUCKING EVIL DEATH TO AMERICA
Someone posted a video about boycotting Eurovision on /r/BreadTube. The video is full of "why won't they ban Israel when they RIGHTFULLY banned Russia?!" and "people RIGHTFULLY booed Russia" and shit (will have to watch out for Brigitte Empire, who I thought was better than that). I was just going to remove it, but I thought I'd test out whether people have progressed on their view of Russia and Ukraine. So I commented with what should honestly be extremely obvious stuff to any leftist and a good number of progressive liberals who have escaped the worst of the foreign policy propaganda:
If anyone should have been banned for the war in Ukraine, it is Ukraine. Non-stop war crimes against the people in Donbass for almost a decade is pretty close to the Israel/Palestine situation, in fact...at least the slower burn of that genocide prior to Oct 7, in any case. Or, of course, the U.S. which precipitated and enabled the whole thing...but I take it the U.S. doesn't participate anyway.
Or, if you want to go so far as banning countries that generally participate in invasions and war crimes and colonialism and sometimes historically even genocide, Eurovision is going to be a pretty lonely place. If you ban Russia, then you'd damned well better ban the UK, Denmark, France, Spain, Australia (whose genocide is still going, even, much like the U.S.'s), etc. if you want to avoid being an absolute hypocrite. (I'm all for it, but I don't see it happening.)
Anyway, yeah: there's not much reason not to ban Israel from absolutely everything at this point. BDS the fuck out of it. Take Ansar Allah's lead and go further than just halting your own economic activities, even. And absolutely boycott things like Eurovision when they won't.
If the participants wanted to divest themselves from the genocide and actively denounce Israel while they participate, I could see an exception being made. But, of course, they'd never be welcome home without handcuffs, so someone had better be willing to offer them asylum afterward.
Anyway, instant down-vote still, but not nearly as heavily as I expected.
is incapable of seeing Western hypocrisy, even when you ban all the liberal dipshits who actually comment with their nonsense.The American Association of University Professors condemned the militaristic response to student activism.
The recent raid on pro-Palestinian encampments on U.S. college campuses and arrests of over 2,400 students by police have drawn sharp criticism from various sides in the United States.
"We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the heavy-handed, militaristic response to student activism that we are seeing across the country," said a recent statement by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
Too many cowardly university leaders are responding to largely peaceful, outdoor protests by inviting law enforcement in riot gear to campus and condoning violent arrests, said the statement, which was signed by over 50 chapters at various universities.
According to the latest tally by The Associated Press, over 2,400 protesters have been arrested since April 17 on over 45 U.S. campuses nationwide.
The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), an academic publication, said it is "horrified and angered to learn of the assault and arrests," noting that "police violence against peaceful protesters on college campuses has become an alarming trend in the last two weeks."
"We denounce police brutality and the militarization of campuses sanctioned by institutional leaders," said MERIP in a recent statement.
In particular, the police in New York City have made over 450 arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses since April 17.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is seen as the face of the crackdown on student protests, defended the arrests by stressing the role of outside agitators and the need to end the threat to academic life.
"We condemn the use of militarized police force against students in the strongest possible terms and affirm their right to assemble peacefully," said Ana Maria Archila, a director of the New York Working Families Party, in a recent post on social media.
"This is a shameful day in our city's history, and one that will not be forgotten," said Archila, referring to the crackdowns on students at Columbia University and City College of New York protesting the mass killing in Gaza.
There are no outside agitators in the fight against injustice and everybody with a conscience and a heart for the people has a right and a responsibility to join the fight and to stop injustice, said Carl Dix, a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, in a rally on Saturday.
These recent interferences and threats are part of an ongoing partisan, political attack intended to dismantle U.S. higher education and make its institutions beholden only to corporate, political and private interests, warned the AAUP's statement.
The AAUP called on institutional leaders to reinstate student organizations shut down in recent months for political activity, drop charges against peaceful protesters, keep armed law enforcement off campuses, and uphold fundamental freedoms for students and faculty.
Al Mayadeen English - Time, Space, and the Will
Those who have a connection to the land, and who know its every intimate corner will always have the advantage, even in the face of imperialist terror
Journalist Antony Lowenstein wrote a book called “The Palestine Laboratory'', which details how the Zionist entity uses Palestine as a testing ground for their weapons which they sell to other merchants of death worldwide. In this article, I want to flip this laboratory analogy on its head, by showing how Palestine is where 21st-century guerilla warfare is being developed strategically and tactically. First, there will be a survey of a few 20th-century guerilla warfare tacticians such as Mao and Vo Nguyen Giap, who laid the ground for the Palestinian fedayeen of the 1960s and 1970s. Then, a piece of writing from the martyr Basel al Araj titled Live Like a Porcupine, Fight Like a Flea will be analyzed alongside the actions of resistance factions against the Zionist garrison state.
In reference to the advances of the Vietnamese People’s Army against the French and American imperialists, General Vo Nguyen Giap argued that “in the face of an enemy as powerful as he is cruel, victory is possible only by uniting the whole people within the bosom of a firm and wide national front based on the worker-peasant alliance”. While General Giap is undoubtedly a master tactician of the previous generation, the rank and file of the people’s army showed how correct his analyses are in practice. The question of land remains the decisive factor in planning and executing guerilla warfare.
Those who have a connection to the land, and who know its every intimate corner will always have the advantage, even in the face of imperialist terror. The Vietnamese People’s Army–under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh and General Giap–used the terrain to set traps for imperialist troops, but also to be able to mesh with the masses of workers and peasants. The types of traps used included false floors with snake pits underneath, nets to corral foreign troops into ambushes, spike traps that injured imperialist troops and sent them to the injured reserve. The point was never to confront the enemy face-to-face and inflict massive casualties, but to wear them out, spread them thin, and expose their barbarity. This also included nationwide programs of patriotic education and organization towards national unity and independence. General Giap continues: “Guerilla war is the war of the broad masses…is the enemy strong? One avoids him. Is he weak? One attacks him…there is no fixed line of demarcation, the front being wherever the enemy is found”.
Besides the uses of time and space, the will of the Vietnamese people in their revolutionary war was quite a decisive factor against imperialist troops far from their homes. In the words of Ho Chi Minh: “It was patriotism…that inspired me. You will kill ten of us, we will kill one of you, but in the end, you will tire of it first. Remember, the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability”. The question of supplying weapons in a hostile environment was also a key struggle. General Giap points out that this was mainly done through acquiring arms as ‘war booty’ and then training in their use for the next battle. This strategy is one which was exemplified in Operation Al Aqsa Flood, as discussed later. Mao Zedong and the People’s Liberation Army are another example of 20th century guerilla warriors who struck great blows against world imperialism.
Like Vietnam, China’s PLA were very inspirational to the Palestinian fedayeen. Many photos can be found of PFLP commandos engaged in study sessions of Mao’s Red Book. In modern China, author Cixin Liu’s gripping sci-fi series “The Three Body Problem” pits humanity against an invading alien force who compares humans to bugs due to our relative technological inferiority. It is only when the humans realize that bugs have never been eradicated despite anyone’s efforts that their intergalactic guerilla warfare gains potency and vitality. On guerilla warfare, Mao says: “the enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue”. The Palestinian martyr-intellectual Basel al Araj terms this ‘the flea war’.
Al Araj seamlessly weaves together an ecological analysis of the porcupine and the flea with a political-economic analysis of guerilla warfare in his piece Live Like a Porcupine, Fight Like a Flea. In regards to the flea, Al Araj points out that fleas do not kill their host through biting them and making them anemic, but rather the flea exhausts the host and spreads them thin physically and psychologically. As for the porcupine, the author describes this animal as one which is popular in Palestinian folklore, “[Palestinians] describe it as a strange creature; it cries and wails like humans, it has hopes and wishes. It's been likened to humans in that when upset, it directs its spikes towards predators in an attempt to strike them”. As for the defenses of the porcupine, beyond its spikes, Al Araj highlights that “porcupines are night animals that live underground in relatively large holes that connect to a network of tunnels, where it also creates rest spots.
The porcupine uses various techniques to get in and out of its hole”. In a world-historical sense, then, we can see that the Palestinian resistance is advancing the theory and practice of guerilla warfare for the 21st century. In the absence of jungle or forested mountains in Gaza, the resistance has tunneled underground, like the porcupine, and have created an entire network of tunnels which bypass enemy positions and allow for the use of time and space to our people’s advantage.
The tunnels of the resistance allow for the advancement of the ‘flea war’, whereby Hamas, PIJ, or PFLP commandos can attack over a large surface area while remaining in small units. This has done immense damage materially and psychologically to the Zionist enemy, especially since October 7th. This is evidenced by Gaza being littered with Merkavas and Zionist APCs which are no longer in use. In regards to General Giap’s insistence on the importance of ‘war booty’, time and evidence have shown that Operation Al Aqsa Flood was so successful in part because there were many Hamas units disguised as Zionist troops and using Zionist armaments which caused confusion among Zionist ranks. Palestinians have also reverse engineered the missiles dropped on Gaza, so unwittingly, the Zionists arm the revolutionary forces.
In the West Bank as well, the actions of groups like Lion’s Den and the Jenin Brigades express another expression of the ‘flea war’ whereby Zionist troops are lured into mazes of alleys, harassed and corralled by youth with stones and Molotov cocktails until they arrive at a set location where they are ambushed by light, mobile infantry forces.
This intimate relationship and collaboration between the resistance and the people is crystalized in the concept of the popular cradle. Not only is there a deep connection between the masses and the revolutionaries in practice, but we can see in the slogan of PIJ the importance of immaterial factors: “Islam as the starting point, jihad as the means, and the liberation of Palestine as the goal”. In a deeply religious society, Islam animates revolutionaries to fight against the “taghut” (the oppressor).
The will of the Palestinian people for national liberation and self-determination is expressed through the society-wide resistance to colonial occupation and genocide. These immaterial factors aredecisive, according to General Giap, Mao Zedong, and Basel Al Araj. The victories in guerilla warfare come at a huge cost, and while I will refrain from romanticizing warfare, it is sufficient to say that Palestine is where guerilla war is being theoretically and practically developed in the 21st century after the failures of pitched battles against the Zionists and their imperialist sponsors in 1948, 1967, and 1973.
Much like Vietnam, Palestine has powerful friends who provide aid. Iran not only supplies the resistance with weapons and open source blueprints to produce weapons domestically, but as of April 14th, provides a steadfast ally, willing to attack the Zionists and keep the flame of liberation alight. While Vietnam injured the imperialist war machine, Palestine will bury it.
Unhinged Zionist attempts to steal Palestinian flag from anti-Zionist Jew:
https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1787604077678841899The Economist - In South-East Asia, the war in Gaza is roiling emotions
Far more than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war in Gaza is rattling public opinion in three key South-East Asian countries: Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The first two have Muslim-majority populations, and Singapore, largely ethnic-Chinese, has a Muslim minority of 16%. As on campuses in America and in street protests in Europe, the sympathies among those who are concerned about the conflict—and who in Singapore include many young non-Muslims—are for Palestinians suffering from Israel’s heavy-handed prosecution of the war.
Strong feelings have thus made the war a political challenge in ways that are connected, but also vary from country to country. Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, is by far the most strident leader in South-East Asia in support of the Palestinians. Mr Anwar has decried what he says was Western pressure to condemn Hamas, the hardline group ruling Gaza that started the war with a brutal raid on Israel.
While Palestine maintains an official embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Hamas can boast an unofficial one. Mr Anwar’s government has banned Israeli ships from docking. Politicians join rallies against the West’s backing of Israel.
Mr Anwar’s stance is no surprise. He has long espoused Palestinian independence. Malaysia itself has refused to recognise Israel. Meanwhile his chief challenge comes from PAS, an ultra-conservative Islamic group and the largest party in parliament. He cannot afford to let pas outflank him on religious issues, or he loses power.
comes from PAS, an ultra-conservative Islamic group
If PAS is ultra-conservative then every single Western political party is ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-conservative.
For now Mr Anwar sees little downside in his pro-Palestinian, anti-American stance. His government, keen on Western investment, says it is open for business. Yet more stridency may make investors wonder. As it is, Malaysia’s religiously tolerant ethnic minorities are growing more uncomfortable with the increased religiosity that the Gaza war has helped feed.
The government has drank the neoliberal Kool-Aid of foreign investments, yes, but seemingly these Western companies continue to keep coming despite the geopolitical positions of the country.
These fake concern for investments acting like the West and particularly the US are their biggest investors when that is not even the case for majority of ASEAN anymore.
In Indonesia feelings also run high. Yet the rhetoric among political leaders is relatively restrained. True, the government of Joko Widodo has condemned Israel’s imminent offensive on Rafah, Hamas’s last stronghold. And, in a recent opinion piece for The Economist that was widely cheered back home, the president-elect, Prabowo Subianto, condemned the West for caring more about Ukrainians’ fate than Palestinians’. Yet that is tame stuff compared with Mr Anwar: unlike Malaysia’s denial of Israel, Mr Prabowo calls for talks and a two-state solution. What factors explain the difference? Indonesia’s ties with Israel are closer than the elites like to let on.
Malaysian official foreign policy stance is still the two-state solution, although that has been obviously not mentioned in the context of the Zionist Regime’s relentless assault against the Palestinian people.
They include purchases of Israeli tech and weaponry. Before the war, secret talks looked likely to establish ties between the two countries, starting with reciprocal trade offices. Although Mr Prabowo denies Islamists’ claims that he is chummy with Israel, he is in little danger of being outflanked by hardliners, having absorbed key Muslim political groupings in his coalition. Domestic considerations count.
This is mostly true and Israeli-Indonesian relations will be mostly off the books by most accounts.
Any public relations, including normalization, despite Western sources stating otherwise, is near impossible. It’s not as likely as they otherwise try to picture.
Squeezed between Indonesia and Malaysia, Singapore has close security ties with Israel—two small states encircled by danger. Yet Gaza greatly complicates the relationship, on account of domestic feeling. As Lawrence Wong, the incoming prime minister, told The Economist this week, even though the war in Ukraine carries economic consequences for Singapore, at an emotional level it resonates little.
encircled by danger
Yeah the two states are similar in their racism against Muslims, with their founders being White supremacists and having disdain of Islam and indigenous people. Surprisingly, they have close relations, I know.
By contrast, though Gaza has had negligible economic effect, it has had “a much higher level of resonance”, given the plight of Palestinians. The concern is that communal tensions might surface in ways that strain Singapore’s famed social and religious harmony. That, says the government, is why pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been banned. Christians, who are generally pro-Israel and account for 19% of the population, would demand their own protests, thereby bringing religious discord into the open. The government also fears that Malaysian stridency could cross the bridge that joins the two countries and foster extremism in Singapore.
communal tensions
A common phrase echoed by the Singaporean establishment to justify their continual interference and authoritarian measures of silencing dissent.
The racial undertones are also perfectly clear to those that aren’t blind. Who are the instigators in the picture they are trying to portray? With whom are they trying to gaud into being against?
This “surrounded by nefarious and scheming Muslims” rhetoric has been the hallmark of Singapore’s post independence psyche because it precisely justifies its own existence.
It is patently false since Malaysia has a larger Chinese population than Singapore’s total population. It ignores the fact that by declaring independence it put the Chinese in neighbouring Malaysia in jeopardy. This is why I say Singapore’s independence has been selfish. It was done to maintain the rule and capital accumulation of the colonial-era anglophone Singaporean bourgeoisie who would lose many of its privileges under a partnership with Malaysia.
This post-hoc justification is nothing but that, fluff that ironically, despite what they say, actually inflames racial and communal divisions more.
Bringing up the 19% Christian population is nothing but a diversionary tactic that ignores the realities of the mass support for Palestine. The Singaporean government simply doesn’t take the step forward because it would anger their monopoly-Capital overlords based in London and New York. It would challenge the long-standing justifications of their existence and bring about a truly progressive and international outlook that they truly despise.
The necessary response, Mr Wong says, is “to go out [and] explain to our people the positions that Singapore has taken”. That includes condemning Israel’s heavy hand, urging for a ceasefire and a two-state solution and providing aid to beleaguered Palestinians. Those steps are surely right in themselves. But in South-East Asia, when dealing with a distant war, never ignore factors that are close-to-hand.
Singapore’s position is closer to that of her European parents, which remains unsurprising as they have been colonised economically and spiritually. Singapore continues to contribute to the “accumulation of waste”, as coined by Ali Kadri, contributing to Israeli’s defense industry to defend against a mythical invasion from those dastardly Muslims.
Ms USA resigned recently, something that's never happened before. Her resignation letter contained a coded message reading I AM SILENCED HIP.
HIP are the initials of the director of the pageant.
A few months ago, control of the Ms USA Instagram account was taken from her, also atypical.
Something is up, is she anti-zionist?
On Thursday in Amsterdam thousands came to protest against Dutch support of Israel and police violence. In Utrecht hundreds of people came together with the same message.
Amsterdam protest organisers have decided to de-escalate due to increased violence by police and lack of medics in the organisation. They made a gofundme to cover legal help and (medical) supplies for future protests. Protests will continue but less disruptive. Utrecht has made no such statement (yet). A few Amsterdam protesters that were arrested will have hearings today that will be accompanied by a support protest.
An organisation of Dutch scholars for Palestine shared a petition to stop academic support for Israel by Dutch universities and a message to all students and staff at all universities to walk out on Monday at 11am. Huge protests are expected that day in remembrance of the Nakba.
Important instagram accounts for information: @amsterdam.encampment @encampent.uu @dutchscholarsforpalestine
LIVE: Pentagon press briefing - YouTube
The Pentagon spokesperson is already managing expectations about the pier: "You have to remember, this is a temporary pier. This is not the best way to get humanitarian aid into Gaza."
It's a Bluesky post. He must have transcribed what she said.
Good read here if you want to be cheered up a bit. Tweet thread from a zionist blob ghoul who does Middle East policy and analysis for Breaking Defense, the Jerusalem Post, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
https://twitter.com/sfrantzman/status/1788623358097068147
TLDR - Zionists blob member admits Hamas is not weakened in any meaningful way and is basically holding all of the cards. They have shown back up in areas previously cleared by Israel because Israel is not willing to commit to an extended military occupation of Gaza. Or rather, as probably all of us could have imagined, Israel is actually being held back by Joe Biden and not being allowed to "take the gloves off" in Gaza. It's so funny that they are going to try and deal with the internal contradictions of this war by doing the "stabbed in the back" routine to Biden, after all he did for them. Serves you right, Genocide Joe.
Select quote:
Hamas is not weakened. There is no evidence that it is. It hasn't lost control of parts of Gaza and seen other polities rise in its place. It's true that it doesn't have the "infrastructure" it had before. But it can rebuild this. Labor costs are cheap in Gaza, that is how Hamas built the tunnels before.
spoiler
One of the greatest misconceptions of the war, in my view, is that Hamas has taken heavy losses and is somehow on the ropes.
It is not. Hamas has returned to 90 percent of Gaza, mostly because Israel left every place it "cleared." The evidence for this is that Israel has gone repeatedly back into areas like Zaytun to fight Hamas again...it literally returns immediately after Israel leaves.
There is zero evidence that Hamas is under pressure. Hamas feels it is winning. Hamas may have lost thousands of its fighters, including senior commanders. But Hamas has ALWAYS been willing to take losses. It's entire history is full of it losing men, and having them detained and eliminated.
If Hamas was under pressure we would be seeing concessions. Israel claimed in November during the first hostage deal that pressure brings hostage released. Well...there is NO EVIDENCE that pressure was maintained and Hamas learned immediately that Israel was going to leave most of Gaza, all it had to do was wait.
How did Hamas know this? Probably the same way it knew on Oct 6 that Israel had been lured into believing Hamas is "deterred." Hamas passes messages to its leadership in Doha, and they talk to Doha and Doha is a major non-NATO ally and Doha and the US talk to Israel. So Hamas understood, either through channels or public details, that Israel was being asked to move to a "low intensity" conflict in December/January.
Who encouraged the US to pressure Israel to move to "low intensity" when Israel's own defense minister was saying that pressure would bring more hostage deals. Clearly Israel was asked to shift gears and probably told that if it did so then Hamas would make concessions. Israel shifted, Hamas didn't.
Then what happened? Israel withdrew from northern Gaza. Hamas rapidly returned, for instance 1,000 suspected terrorists went to Shifa hospital and were rounded up in a raid in March. But that raid also ended and Hamas returned again. We know that Israel was told by the US to basically do a de facto ceasefire for Ramadan in March. Probably Israel was told that if it did this then Hamas would also make concessions. But Hamas didn't make any concessions. Instead Israel got played again.
Then came April and by this time the US was moving to build the pier off of Gaza and the IDF withdrew from Khan Younis. Hamas returned to Khan Younis. Once again it seems Israel was told that if it held off on a Rafah op, then Hamas would make concessions in the hostage talks. Israel held off for a month. Hamas didn't make concessions. Israel got played again.
Each time Hamas was likely consulting its backers and handlers. For instance, its leadership went to Ankara, a NATO ally, in April. They were probably told "just wait a little more, pressure will build in the West and the war will end, you can keep the hostages and get the ceasefire and get the IDF to leave."
So Hamas held on. The campus protests began. Hamas rebuilt its positions and its forces. Hamas returned to most of Gaza and began coordinating attacks with PIJ, PFLP, DFLP and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades to target Netzarim. Hamas felt it was winning and in the driver's seat and dictating the tempo of the war. It had the initiative.
Hamas knew it didn't need to make any conessions in the hostage talks because its two hosts (western allies) were getting the US and the West to raise the pressure on Israel. Then comes late April and discussions begin about munitions deliveries. Hamas may have been informed about this before the leak to media on May 3-4.
After the story about the munitions pause appears, Hamas targets Kerem Shalom. It now feels it has Israel in checkmate. It can target IDF troops who were staging for an eventual Rafah op, it may have even planned to lure Israel in, or create chaos between Israel and the US.
Hamas also knows that Ankara has sought to cut off trade and Doha is calling for international intervention to stop the Rafah Op. Now Hamas also lies on May 6 about accepting a hostage deal, which it changes at the last minute, apparently with knowledge of the "mediators."
Empowered by its sense that Israel has been given a red line against an operation, Hamas feels it now has a de facto ceasefire in most of Gaza, and Israel as de facto withdrawn from most of Gaza except the Netzarim corridor. Hamas increases attacks on the corridor. Israel goes into Zaytun on the night of May 8-9.
There is a narrative also in Israeli media that "Hamas cannot be defeated" and "it was unrealistic to think the hostages will return"...but that "Israel is winning" because Hamas has lost an estimated 10-14,000 fighters. I think this number is likely exaggerated and even if it isn't, Hamas has recruited half this number in 7 months of war. It is replenishing its ranks.
Hamas is not weakened. There is no evidence that it is. It hasn't lost control of parts of Gaza and seen other polities rise in its place. It's true that it doesn't have the "infrastructure" it had before. But it can rebuild this. Labor costs are cheap in Gaza, that is how Hamas built the tunnels before.
I don't doubt that we will be fed stories about how "Israel is winning" and "take the win" and we even were fed stories about a "picture of victory" when tanks rolled into Rafah. This is all designed to lure Israel into another trap, just like before Oct. 7 Israel was told Hamas was "deterred." This conflict has been stage-managed by Hamas backers and Israel has often been played.
We've seen this before. In other rounds of fighting with Hamas, Israel "took the win" and Hamas got stronger each time, exponentially stronger. Israel Israel decides to claim it "kind of won" now...then Hamas will return easily to Gaza and rebuild and then take over the West Bank.
What's shocking is how the int'l community and NGOs don't mind Hamas running Gaza, despite it murdering a 1,000 people. Despite it parading dead bodies in Gaza to crowds. Despite its crimes against humanity. A lot of the international community is taken in by Hamas somehow, probably due to the connections it has via its backers.
Hamas is also capable of lying, via the backers, and claiming it has suffered high losses and letting Israel "take the win" while Hamas prepares the next step. Beware of stories about this, unless they can be verified. And by verified, I mean Hamas being thrown out of power.
In today's edition of wtf are the DA (white liberal political party in South Africa, the official opposition to the ANC) doing in South African elections, the DA had an advertisement which depicted the burning of the South African flag 🇿🇦. This is extremely inflammatory as the flag 🇿🇦 is a symbol of national unity and healing post apartheid. It's a symbol of freedom from oppression and racism. Given senior DA officials recent racist statements, such as Hellen Zille saying that colonialism had positives, burning the flag of post apartheid South Africa did not go down well. As a result, the public broadcaster in the SABC has removed the advert from it's channels.
Continuation of student protests in The Netherlands:
Amsterdam: Hundreds of Amsterdam students, staff and concerned citizens occupied a university (UVA) building on Tuesday afternoon. Representatives had a conversation with the UVA board on Wednesday with no results. UVA has said that they would meet one of the demands by publishing a list of Israeli institutions they work with, they are legally required to do this and still haven’t. Demands of breaking all ties with Israel and allowing peaceful protest on campus were ignored. Instead the board decided to order the police to remove the protesters from the building. Around 5pm riot police violently infiltrated the building. Some protesters threw rocks at the police and there is a video of a protester spraying the police with fire extinguisher. A few protesters ended up with very serious injuries because of the police beatings.
In The Netherlands it’s common for public transport busses to be used at illegal protests to remove the protesters. While one group of protesters was still occupying the building, another group of protesters went elsewhere to the city for the support protest (support protests consists of those protesters who do not want to risk violent altercations with the police). The support protesters saw empty busses that were probably going to be used to arrest the occupant protesters. So they blocked these busses from getting to the occupied building. With no means to arrest hundreds of people, the riot police at the occupied building decided to only arrest a few protesters while letting the rest run away from their beatings.
The situation in the city was very chaotic that evening, with protest groups emerging and fleeing whenever the police would show up. During the night the protests stopped because the police destroyed all encampments.
Utrecht: Following Amsterdam’s example, Utrecht University students and staff organised a protest on Wednesday against the police violence from the previous day. In the evening they managed to occupy a university building and set up another encampment. The president of the university visited the encampment two times to tell the protesters to leave the building, but refused to talk about the demands of the demonstrators. At 1am the police was instructed to remove the protesters. Riot police entered the building and began violently rounding up the protesters. They used pepper spray on non-violent protesters and caused many injuries. There are reports that there were some undercover police at the encampment as well.
Utrecht University is closing all buildings for the rest of the week to prevent other buildings from getting occupied by protesters.
You can follow the Amsterdam and Utrecht encampments on instagram: @amsterdam.encampment @encampment.uu The Utrecht encampment also has twitter/X account: @UU_encampment
Zionist businessman with Mossad connections after getting owned by a new Egyptian resistance group:
https://twitter.com/revolutionaryem/status/1787965717188427901Shalom from the children of Gaza
Destroying the energy sector, your research and losing energetic sovereignty to own the commies
Argentina’s pioneering nuclear research threatened by huge budget cuts
President Javier Milei is making moves to partially privatize the sector, but in the meantime, projects have paused.
Owing to massive budget cuts and lay-offs of government employees, Argentina’s nuclear sector — which includes power plants and research facilities — is at risk, scientists say. The country was the first in Latin America to adopt nuclear energy, has three operating plants that provide about 5–10% of the nation’s electrical energy and runs numerous reactors used for research.
But because Argentina’s current administration, led by far-right president Javier Milei, has held the federal budget flat compared with that in 2023, the sector is facing a financial crisis. Inflation reached more than 200% last year — meaning that, in real terms, a stagnant budget is equivalent to a funding drop of at least 50%. Milei, who took office in December after pledging to diminish the role of government in Argentina and bring the country’s debts under control, has also laid off 15,000 federal employees in the past five months.
With its current budget, the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) will be able to carry out its activities only “until May or June”, according to a statement published in March and signed by the agency’s leaders. The CNEA has been operating since 1950; it sets the country’s nuclear policy and carries out research to improve “the quality of life for society”, among other responsibilities.
“All these [activities] could be in danger,” Adriana Serquis, former head of the CNEA, tells Nature. On Friday, the Milei administration at last accepted Serquis’s resignation, which she had submitted before the president took office in December.
“We cannot operate with this budget,” she says. The agency has taken out loans with private firms in the past few months to keep working, she adds. CNEA authorities stressed to the Milei administration that the agency would need a 2024 budget of US$270 million to operate at a minimal level. The government guaranteed the CNEA only $100 million.
Milei has made moves towards at least partially privatizing Argentina’s nuclear sector. Yesterday, he appointed Germán Guido Lavalle, founder of candoit, an engineering and technology consulting firm based in Buenos Aires, to lead the CNEA — a move that aligns with that push.
The agency has had to pause construction on two projects that could have brought even more renown to Argentina’s nuclear sector: one is a ‘small modular reactor’ prototype that is among the first in the world to be built for electricity generation, and the other is a research reactor that might have produced enough of the radioisotope molybdenum-99, commonly used in medical diagnostic imaging, to meet 20% of global demand.
If this continues, Serquis says, “Argentina will lose its place in the ‘nuclear club’” — referring to the country’s prowess in nuclear research, a global status it has maintained among wealthy nations.
Projects stagnate
One of the stalled nuclear projects is the small modular reactor CAREM, intended to supply low-carbon electricity to rural areas where large power plants can’t be built. Nuclear scientists have been working for decades to create this type of reactor, and countries, including Argentina, have been in a race to get theirs fired up quickly. CAREM, a prototype, would use uranium fission to supply around 30 megawatts of electrical power. If successful, it could be scaled up to larger, commercial versions supplying 300 megawatts of electric power. More than $600 million has been invested into CAREM since construction began in 2014, but another $200 million to $300 million is needed to finish it.
“It has less electrical production capacity than a nuclear power plant, but it’s also cheaper and safer,” says Tomás Avallone, a chemist and nuclear-reactors operator at the CNEA. It could be installed anywhere, be used for high-energy-consumption activities such as water desalinization and bring power to 300,000 people, he says.
Another stagnating project is RA-10, a 30-megawatt reactor that would use neutron beams to produce medical radioisotopes. Scientists could also use RA-10 to conduct materials research. “It is a multipurpose reactor,” says Rodolfo Kempf, nuclear-waste manager at the CNEA. The main construction on RA-10 has been completed, Kempf says, but its instruments haven’t been installed.
Argentina has so far invested more than $400 million in building the reactor, and another $80 million is needed. The commercial sale of the reactor design should provide a significant return on investment, say researchers who spoke to Nature.
Privatization push
The Milei administration has been advocating for the privatization of science and education in Argentina. In April, it sent a bill to Congress that includes a list of state companies to be fully or partially privatized. Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, a state-run firm based in Buenos Aires that oversees the country’s three nuclear plants, is on the list to be partially privatized. If this comes to pass, the government would maintain the majority of Nucleoeléctrica shares, and its vote would be needed for actions including expanding the capacity of a power plant, building a new one or adding shareholders to the company.
Alfredo Caro, a nuclear physicist and former director of the CNEA’s Bariloche Atomic Centre, estimates that a 30% stake in Nucleoeléctrica would be worth between $700 million and $1 billion. If that stake were sold, it might allow the government to finalize the construction of CAREM and RA-10, as well as to complete a planned upgrade of the Atucha I power plant, located about 120 kilometres northwest of Buenos Aires, to extend its lifetime, he says. “A partial privatization could help the sector carry on,” Caro says, “but only if the funds that are raised remain in the sector and are not spent on other areas of the state” — a big ‘if’, given the financial crisis in Argentina. The country’s gross domestic product is expected to drop 3.3% this year, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Officials at Argentina’s Secretariat of Energy and Nucleoeléctrica didn’t respond to questions from Nature about their plans for the nuclear sector. Meanwhile, the bill to privatize state companies has been approved by the lower chamber of Argentina’s Congress, and will now be considered by the Senate.
Welcome to libertarianism, where all your achievements are destroyed in the name of market fundamentalism and foreign interests. I was told by someone who knows much more about this that the request to defund and privatize (in other words, destroy) this program comes exclusively from abroad. It is a request "several US-based nuclear firms" made because the Argentinian reactors and research are "way too competitive", so it must be pushed aside. I cannot prove this, but it wouldn't surprise me.
In new wacky events in the Ukraine war, a very cute Russian Ka-29 helicopter destroys a Ukrainian naval drone... with an anti-air missile strapped to it?
followup to my previous comment thread
Comparing Chinese versus Amerikan diplomacy
Sanctions imposed last year on four Malaysia-based companies accused of helping Iran’s production of drones have been impactful, a top US Treasury official said today.
Brian Nelson, the department’s under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, also said that the sanctions were still in place.
He said they were aimed at “encouraging behaviour change”, and that once the department saw such change, the companies involved would be struck off the list.
Nelson said sanctions would see money in US accounts or accounts with a US correspondent blocked or frozen, thereby preventing these companies from accessing funds.
“And it’s very disruptive to your ability to do business that is cross-border because it is very, very difficult to avoid a touch point with the US financial system,” he said in an interview with several media outlets.
Nelson said that sanctions were a powerful tool, and that the department had found them effective in the context of disrupting activities meant to drive profit or provide capital.
MODS!!!!? DISRUPTING THE FREE MARKET?? MARKET DISTORTING PRACTICE??? MOOOODS!!
“From that perspective, we think, of course, that they are impactful.
“But I think the more impactful thing at the end of the day is the partnership with jurisdictions and the capacity to make anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism ‘regimes’ more resilient.”
…Washington recently imposed further sanctions targeting Iran, including over Iranian drones used by Russia in the war in Ukraine, as the US seeks to increase pressure on Tehran after its attack on Israel.
Nelson is in Malaysia to advance the Treasury’s work in countering terrorist financing and revenue generation for Iran and its proxies.
but Malaysia does not recognise Hamas or Iran as terrorist organizations?
It’s literally the
memeReuters previously reported that there had been an uptick in money moving to Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, through the Malaysian financial system.
Malaysian Islamic Finance helping the mujahideen fight against their oppressors. Mashallah.
He is also in the country to discuss ways to disrupt Russia’s ability to sustain its war in Ukraine.
Malaysia has conveyed to the US that Kuala Lumpur does not recognize sanctions imposed by individual nations, a minister said Thursday.
The US talking about sanctions:
“I emphasized that we will only recognize sanctions if they are imposed by the United Nations Security Council,” the Southeast Asian nation’s Interior Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said.
“The delegation from the US respected our stance,” said the minister.
Saifuddin added that Kuala Lumpur was committed to combating terrorism financing with a “clear strategic plan in place to tackle illicit funding and money laundering.”
However, Saifuddin said Malaysia’s policies and strategies “comply with international standards.”
Washington also said Iran's capacity to move its oil was due to service providers based in Malaysia.
The minister, however, said his meeting with Nelson was “productive” and that Malaysia was “always open to engaging with the US.”
Productive = nothing happened
“always open to engaging” or Amerika will conduct financial warfare to crash the economy again
Compare this to how Chinese and Malaysian officials speak to eachother
Xinhua - Strength of China-Malaysia ties built on common values: Malaysian official
"In partnership with China, Malaysia is leading the way in promoting renewable energy. Both countries are heavily investing in clean technologies including solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. Our joint efforts aim to lead the global transition to sustainable energy," he said.
"Our relations have grown from strength to strength over these past 50 years in not just covering diplomatic and political ties but also business partnerships, tourism, education and cultural ties and exchanges," he said.
…For his part, Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Ouyang Yujing said the comprehensive and practical cooperation is the essential driving force upgrading China-Malaysia relations in all fields.
"China is now focusing on developing new quality productive forces which will provide Malaysia more cooperation opportunities in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, digital economy, green development, new energy vehicles and other newly emerging industries. Fruits from the above cooperation will surely bring benefits to both peoples in a profound way," he said.
I wonder which country is a 5000 year old literary civilization and which one is a deformed culture-less genocidal state.
Ayyyyy lmaooo get
🟢 Martyr Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades: — Watch: We continue to pick off the heads of your criminal officers.
Al-Aqsa Flood — Note: 0:05 - Piercing eyes. 0:11 - Calm breaths. 0:16 - One bullet. 0:20 - A confirmed end. 0:37 - “They’re pulling them while they’re dead.” 0:40 - “Allah is the Greatest and praise be to Him.” 0:47 - We continue to pick off the heads of your criminal officers.
Cw death, obviously https://streamable.com/60r9z1
Russian forces are reportedly now pushing into Sumy region as well.
Call me crazy but a pointless purely performative "red line" is ridiculous. Biden might as well call it the pointless purely performative pline. The "p" is silent. Or not.
The White House thinks the Israeli operation to capture the Rafah crossing doesn't cross President Biden's "red line" that could lead to a shift in U.S. policy towards the Gaza war.
Sun is having a fart because it can, a G4 solar storm, nothing to be too concerned about but if you work retail good luck, last time we had one of those in big flare ups back in April some banks had issues running credit, and a few customers lost their last braincell over it.
Biden Admits That U.S. Bombs Were Used by Israel Against Gaza
"I made it clear that if they enter Rafah, I will not supply the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities".
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said that Israel uses US bombs to commit genocide in Gaza and reported that if Tel Aviv invades Rafah, it will stop sending weapons to the Zionist state.
Although Israel has only sent troops, Biden said Israel is warned of the consequences if it openly invades the southern city of Rafah.
"I made it clear that if they enter Rafah, I will not supply the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities," the US president told CNN.
The current White House resident warned that the first shipments to stop would be those of the famous 900kg bombs.
On these shells, Biden said, "civilians have been killed in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other attacks on population centers".
The president also specified that the Israeli presence in the surrounding areas of Rafah has triggered conflicts with countries such as Egypt, a state with which the US maintains diplomatic relations.
Joe Biden claimed to have warned of Washington’s refusal to support with weapons of any kind against population centers.
"I have made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They will not have our support if, in fact, they attack these population centers," Biden also underlined.
No real source on this but there's some posts going around the telegrams claiming that foreign british mercs are training anti-government forces in Myanmar along with these pics. My guess is that it's true and they're easily deniable special forces sent to train whoever the west thinks will end up being a problem for China if they win.
Ukrainian Canadian diaspora offers his two cents on Xi's trip to France:
https://twitter.com/faseruk/status/1788290881352552856Holding a glass of white wine by the bowl and not the stem. Peasant.
A dark day in the neolib hell that is Finland. There isn't much outrage, the midlle class is still way too cozy and neoliberal hegemony is very well internalized here at this point. The Reds of old probably rolling in their graves today.
Labor unions tried to opposite this in weakest of ways, being aligned with capitalism. I suppose everyone saw this coming and the opposition was just more of the same performative crap.
Austerity will only intensify now.
He also emphasized that Russo-Cuban relations are based on mutual friendship and respect.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel held a meeting at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow
The Russian leader thanked Diaz-Canel for attending the Victory Day Parade and emphasized that Cuba-Russian relations are based on mutual friendship and respect.
"The Soviet Union and modern Russia have always stood by the Cuban people in their struggle for their interests and their homeland," Putin said, recalling that Cuban citizens also fought alongside the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.
"We remember this and will always treat with great respect those who stood alongside our parents and grandparents, shoulder to shoulder, fighting together against Nazism," he stressed.
"We will always support the Cuban people and oppose U.S. attempts to restrict Cuba's development through sanctions and restrictions. However, for decades, the Cuban people have fought against them and feel strong," he said.
For his part, the Cuban president handed Putin a letter of congratulations sent by the revolutionary leader Raul Castro on the occasion of his inauguration as president of Russia.
"Our visit to Russia concluded with a very pleasant meeting with Vladimir Putin, the president of this great country. It was a warm exchange between friends who are well aware of the challenges their nations face and are committed to mutual support," Diaz-Canel said, adding that Moscow can always count on Havana's support.
"Cuba constantly condemns the geopolitical manipulation carried out by the U.S. government," he said, reaffirming rejection of the threat posed by NATO's approach to Russian borders.
Democrat leadership admits there is one unified party when it comes to the interests of the American government.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats "effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority"
Though they disagree on most issues, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has opposed efforts to oust embattled Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Except they don't and the few they do they roll over.
After Johnson worked with Democrats to pass a foreign aid bill that included $61 billion for Ukraine, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who opposed the bill, said she'd follow through with a threat to remove Johnson by forcing a vote on her motion to vacate him. This past week, Democrats released a statement saying they would oppose Congresswoman Greene's effort to remove Johnson, though Jeffries said Johnson has not asked for his help.
Oh lookie lookie, Democrats are rallying around the Republicans to keep them in power.
"Our view would traditionally be, 'Let the other side work its own mess out,'" Jeffries said. "But when that mess starts to impact the ability to do the job on behalf of the American people, then the responsible thing at that moment might be for us to make clear that we will not allow the extremists to throw the Congress and the country into chaos."
Lol they don't act on behalf of the American people, they act on behalf of the capitalists who line their pockets
Division in the House
The United States Congress is not particularly popular these days and it's easy to understand why. The current session will likely be the least productive Congress since the Civil War, in terms of laws passed, according to historical data analysis by J. Tobin Grant, a professor of political science at Southern Illinois University.
says it's unpopular and easy to explain why that is. Doesn't explain why at all.Hint: because it's wildly anti-democratic and constantly acts against the will of the American people.
Republicans hold the majority in the House, but with only two votes to spare, infighting has crippled their conference. Even some Republican representatives are at their wits' end, including Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), who recently told reporters "The Lord Jesus himself couldn't manage this conference."
The lord Jesus would probably get his beating stick out and drive all you demons into the Atlantic
To hear Jeffries tell it, the Democrats are already in charge.
What I'm hearing is that Democrats murdered Roe and are aiding and abetting the targeted persecution of the LGBT+ and the Trans community.
"Even though we're in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done," he said. "Those are just the facts."
That just means the Democrats are rubber stamping all the Republican terror projects.
Indeed, in the 118th Congress, House Democrats provided a majority of the votes on bipartisan bills to avert a government shutdown, send aid to Ukraine, and pass the National Defense Authorization Act, which went on to be signed into law by the president.
Keep the war grift machine going, keep Ukrainian fascism on life support, reauthorize the budget for the U.S DOD, and also fund more Israeli fascist bombing campaigns.
Jeffries, who represents New York's 8th Congressional District, in Brooklyn, views being a member of Congress as being an emissary of the American people to get things done and solve problems. But he said some Republicans have a different take on the job.
Emissary of the people of wall street more like
"It's a difficult situation on the other side of the aisle, because many of my Republican colleagues are more interested in creating chaos, dysfunction and extremism," Jeffries said.
Good.
Jeffries' stance on Israel — and how it might impact the election
The foreign aid bill passed under Johnson's leadership also includes $26.4 billion to support Israel in its ongoing war with Hamas. Amid protests on college campuses across the country over Israel and Gaza, some far left members of the Democratic caucus have shown support for demonstrators.
Remember that the Democrats are actually in charge of the house
In all, 37 House Democrats recently voted against sending more military aid to Israel. The divisive issue will follow Jeffries and President Biden into the election this November, where control of the White House and Congress looks like a coin flip.
Only 37 demons felt a little remorse after they realized some of the blood of thousands of dead innocent Palestinians that had been murdered was on their hands as well.
"We can't take any vote for granted," Jeffries said. "But I also believe that, at the end of the day, voters are going to look at the totality of circumstances. Who is fighting to deliver for everyday Americans, and who is simply fighting for himself?"
Tie me to a missile and launch me at this dudes house
Jeffries, whose district is 11% Jewish, said he supports the First Amendment rights of protesters on campuses, but condemned any form of violence or antisemitism.
He said after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack which sparked the war, Israel had to respond and "decisively defeat Hamas."
"At the same time, my view has been that we have to do everything possible to get the hostages out, and to surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza," Jeffries said.
Jeffries acknowledged that Israel needed to do more to get humanitarian aid into Gaza and that more surgical precision was needed in its military strikes, but he seemed reluctant to criticize Israel.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has spoken out on the issue. In a nearly 45 minute speech on the Senate floor in March, he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an obstacle to peace and urged the Israeli government to hold new elections once the threat of Hamas is reduced.
Dumbfuck chuck says something partially true, holy shit
"Anything that Chuck Schumer has to say on the subject is going to be incredibly important and received. But at the same time, every single member of Congress has the responsibility of answering to their constituency," Jeffries said.
Especially their hasbara constituency
He added that any suggestions by Republicans that Schumer, a staunch supporter of Israel, was somehow undermining the U.S.-Israel relationship are ridiculous.
Lmao
Issues facing voters at the polls: Immigration, abortion, guns and the economy
I don't see any "continue support for Ukrainian or Israeli fascism" so maybe listen to the people on this one, seen if it's over the same dumb buzzword bullshit we've seen our entire lives.
Closer to home, voters are concerned about the influx of migrants; Jeffries' home city of New York is a hot spot for immigration issues. Shelters to house thousands of migrants have gone up in and around Jeffries' district in Brooklyn.
It's not actually that bad. Trust me I actually was there.
"We have a broken immigration system and we have clear challenges at the border that we have to confront decisively and in a bipartisan way," Jeffries said. "And the American people are crying out for us to do something about the situation at the border in a manner consistent with our values."
everyone knows Mexico is at the border of Manhattan and is quickly accessible via rail.Sorry that's New Jersey. My bad.
Jeffries also views abortion rights as a major issue in the upcoming election.
isn't he a fucking republican? Holy shit I forgot he was a lib he sounds fucking indistinguishable from the republican hogs"Extreme MAGA Republicans have set in motion the erosion of reproductive freedom. We're going to fight for it with everything that we've got at our disposal," he said. "If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall. Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. Voting rights can fall. And God help us all, but democracy itself can fall."
God forbid Democrats actually lift a finger to do something to actually combat it instead of being a republican rubber stamp
I'm seeing people on Twitter say that Brazil cancelled their arms deal to Israel, but I haven't seen any "real" sources for it. Anyone know more?
More detailed video of the Egyptian Mossad agent getting owned:
https://twitter.com/AryJeay/status/1789361163723043250Sisi's goons beat Palestinian boy who slipped into Egypt from Rafah:
https://twitter.com/Aldanmarki/status/1788316720878268541One of the worst non-gore videos I’ve seen in a while. Cw for active intentional cruelty
https://www.cadtm.org/Samir-Amin-s-diagnosis-of-worst-case-racial-capitalism
Extremely interesting analysis on sub-imperislism, BRICS+, apartheid South Africa and Israel and post apartheid South Africa, all from the perspective of Amin's works, and a little bit of Rosa Luxemburg. I have been trying to find a non paywallled link to this publication since it came out late last year, and I have finally found one. It's a very insightful piece, I would quote parts, but there is just too much information present. It's a long read, but we'll worth it.
Saudi Arabia reports 4 new cases of MERS coronavirus
Saudi Arabia has reported four new cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a coronavirus which first emerged about 12 years ago, according to health officials. Two of them were caused by human-to-human transmission.
According to a statement from the World Health Organization on Thursday, three of the cases were found in Riyadh between April 10 and April 17. The index case, a 56-year-old school teacher, had no clear history of exposure to MERS risk factors.
The teacher first developed symptoms – including a fever, cough, a runny nose and body aches – on March 29. He went to the emergency room of a local hospital on April 4 and was taken to the ICU on April 6, where he died the following day.
Fascist infighting between "J00s are worse than Ay-rabs" fascists vs "Ay-rabs are worse than J00s" fascists. (CW: fascist shitheads everywhere):
https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1789331187141349456In Saint Petersburg, a bus with
20 people9? people fell into the Moyka River. Cause is unknown, but there was one rumor that the driver was working on a 20 hour shift with 2 hours of sleep.CW death - video of accident
pog-pog-poggity pog pog
Does anyone have the article of how the US military wasn’t able to produce extra parts for some weaponry/combat vehicle to do repairs because they decided to get rid of the mold from their storage room? They sold it to a private buyer and had to track him down to repurchase it from him. I think he turned it into some playground for his kid
Turns out the UAW university strike vote is happening on May 13th, so still a while in the future. The leadership voting went alright though at least. The shittier part of the union still holds at the highest level, but there's more people in various campus level leadership positions, so the grassroot tendrils are still spreading.
Fucking space dorks jog with some of the obnoxious people in the Army and earn the right to call themselves "space cowboys"
The Space Cowboys: Guardians earn their spurs in cavalry tradition
“It’s kind of cool to be called Space Cowboys,” Space Force 1st Lt. Jackson Jennings told Task & Purpose. “It just feels right.”
Jennings was one of three Space Force officers who completed an infamous Army Cavalry “spur ride” at the end of April to earn their spurs, an official Cavalry Stetson hat and the unofficial title of Space Cowboys, err, we mean Cavalry Scout-Guardians.
Jennings, 1st Lt. Jordan Savage and Capt. Bradley Evans joined close to 230 Army soldiers from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team in Fort Bliss, Texas to “earn their spurs.” > The “Order of the Spur” is a Cavalry tradition where soldiers serving with Cavalry units complete a “Spur Ride.”
Basically these turbonerds get to wear fancy hats and spurrs now and be extra obnoxious at formal events.
1h ago
Tanks approach outskirts of Rafah, says Egyptian official
A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian official say Israeli tanks have approached Rafah, and reached as close as 200 metres (yards) from the crossing with neighbouring Egypt, reports Associated Press.
It’s understood that area where the tanks are is on the outskirts of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
The Egyptian official said the operation appeared to be limited in scope, the AP reported. The news agency could not independently verify the scope of the operation.
The official and Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV said Israeli officials informed the Egyptians that its troops would withdraw after completing the operation.
The Israeli military declined to comment and the Guardian has not been able to independently verified the reports.
The Egyptian official, located across the border from Rafah, and the Palestinian security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the press.
On Sunday, Hamas fighters near the Rafah crossing fired mortars into southern Israel, killing four Israeli soldiers.
A pretty interesting book about Armenian Marxist Monte Melkonian is My Brother's Road by Markar Melkonian, himself a Marxist journalist. Monte was a leader in the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) an anti-Turkish/NATO/Israel ML group based out of Lebanon and allied with the PFLP and probably the Soviets. The book is interesting because no one really knows anything about this very secret organization but goes pretty in depth of one of the top commanders who seemingly was involved with many of the conflicts in the middleast from the mid 70s onwards. He was involved in the 79 revolution in Iran and the Lebanese civil war and invasion by Israel. ASALA got started during the civil war as a kind of neighborhood defense thing in Beirut but they expanded their operations through the middle east and Europe. The group eventually splits and Hagop's group carries hired assassinations while Monte's group fights in the first karabahk war, where he ends getting killed. There's a lot of great stories in this book though from blowing up Israeli tanks alongside the PFLP to getting arrested and the negotiation to get him released is we're going to cancel your embassies if you don't let Monte go, which they did.
ASALA is still around as sort of a boogie man but they haven't done anything since the late 90s. The Turkish nationalists often insinuate that ASALA created the PKK, but to my knowledge I don't think the two groups really worked together, but someone else my know more.
Markar also published a collection of his writings in The Wrong Train from the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent Soviet Armenian Republic and the transition to capitalist system but I'm a lazy butt and never finished it.
I don't think Markar is a academic Marxist considering he never denounced his brother who basically was the like the old school Bolsheviks that were in Stalin's group.
Some other famous Armenian Marxist are: The Mikoyan brothers. One is where MiG jets comes from and the other was a Bolshevik politician active from Lenin to Khrushchev and was a personal friend of Stalin from childhood. He was a negotiator during the cuban missile crisis and loved ice cream more than socialism according to Stalin.
There's Bagramyan a marshal of the soviet union during the Great Patriotic War. He led the liberation of the Baltics
Simon "Kamo" Der-Petrosian was a main member of Stalins group and his biggest thing was the Yerevan Square Expropriation which was a heist that ended killing like a dozen Tsarist Pigs and stole millions. He eventually got caught, was sentenced to execution, feigned insanity and was freed during the revolution where his group was so brutal to spies even Lenin told him to chill.
Sergei Lavrov is a former Marxist and favorite RBF diplomat of the Russian Fed. In the Soviet days he spent a lot of time in Sri Lanka and is fluent in Sinhala. He's more of a hardliner than Putin and was a cheerleader of the DPR and LPR basically from the onset.
I'm sure there's many more especially from the Soviet Union but I'm just going off the top of my head. Marxism was extremely popular in the Armenian community since it was the capitalist faction of the Turks that engaged the genocide. The Armenian community was split between the dashnaks who were the pro revolution social Democrats and Marxists. There were some libs but most understood revolution. The Dashnaks were/are anti Soviet and tend to be pretty conservative nowadays. The Marxists don't really exist in an organized fashion mostly fading away after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Boeing 737 skids off runway in Senegal
It just keeps happening
The Pashinyan regime continues to betray the interests of the Armenian people:
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/armenia-stops-financing-csto-amid-growing-riftFormer chief of the Israeli Knesset’s foreign affairs and security committee:
“Israel” must choose which defeat it wants, a small defeat against Sinwar, or a major defeat against the Axis of ResistanceThe Argentine government removed teleSUR’s signal from the open digital television grid.
teleSUR denounced that President Javier Milei's administration prohibited the broadcast of its signal on the Argentine open digital television system.
"Milei, you are afraid of the truth of the people," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said.
The AFL-CIO should start its own version of AAA but for non-union workers. Pay a membership fee (maybe based on income?), get access to stuff like discounted insurance, union-affiliated lawyers who can help with stuff like labor complaints, people who can help explain things like unemployment benefits/help people fill it out, etc. A lot of the services offered could overlap with services their unions already offer, meaning they could maybe consolidate some stuff and lower costs for benefits.
Need News Mega Opinions
Putin is ready to launch invasion of Nato nations to test West, warns Polish spy boss
Putin proposed appointing Belousov as Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Federation Council reported
Andrei Removich Belousov was born on March 17, 1959 in Moscow in the family of Rem Alexandrovich and Alisa Pavlovna Belousov. His father went through the Great Patriotic War in the aviation troops, graduated from MGU and became an economist. Belousov’s mother was a radiochemist who worked in the chemistry of rare elements.
Andrei Belousov studied at the prestigious “second” physics and mathematics school. In his youth he practiced sambo and karate. In 1981 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University with a degree in cybernetics economist.
From 2008 to 2012, he was Director of the Department of Economics and Finance of the Russian Government. Belousov was called “a man of German Gref’s team.” During the 2008 crisis, Belousov personally prepared anti-crisis documents for then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In 2012–2013, Belousov headed the Ministry of Economic Development. From 2013 to 2020, he was Assistant to the President of Russia for Economic Affairs.
In January 2020, Belousov was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. At the end of April - May 2020, he served as acting prime minister for three weeks due to the fact that Mikhail Mishustin became infected with coronavirus infection
Putin appointed Shoigu Secretary of the Russian Security Council
Vladimir Putin decided that the Russian Ministry of Defense should be headed by a civilian; the department should be open to innovation and advanced ideas,
Defendant Khorram required all employees from the butler, the chef to the housekeepers, to walk around with a pouch or fanny pack filled with cocaine, GHB, ecstasy, marijuana gummies (100 - 250 mg’s each), and Tuci (a pink drug that is a combination of ecstasy and cocaine).
from Rodney James' lawsuit against Sean Combs
EDIT: looking up "tuci" most other sources seem to think it is ketamine-based
Russian Defense Ministry claimed yesterday (7 May) that Ukrainian losses (dead+wounded) were 1560. (Not sure why it wasn't posted in English but ctrl+f for военнослужащих and take the preceding number.) Today is another 1050. Obviously going to be inflated numbers especially around VE day, but still,
"I have depicted you as the soyjak and me as the chad." - Ali Mortada
Looks like Eric Adams is going for The Devil's Milkshake
Kinda not news-related, but local hexbear declares met gala 2024 “no-balls” event. Nothing from the richie riches souls of the nation, huh. also thrift shop guy gets “all the balls” award
Armenia is where Brits go to learn persian, they are excluded from Iran, and I guess Tajikistan is too "exotic" for them or something (CIA goons go to tajikistan, if you meet an ami, with a tajik accent in his persian, you know why). So they go to Yerevan, have the "orient lite" experience, and learn persian from iranian teachers.
It is why all of those academic programs to yerevan are so expensive, because the british upper class/junior spies go there.
Yerevan itself is a lovely city, an beautiful example of soviet urban architecture. Outside of the big cities the country becomes very poor from what I have seen.
https://podverse.fm/episode/l2d_2J2_k Here is a good podcast episode of the war with azerbaijan, from an Armenian
Full text
Hamas accepts Egypt, Qatar's ceasefire proposal, Al Jazeera reports
CAIRO, May 6 (Reuters) - Hamas told Egyptian and Qatari mediators that it had accepted their Gaza ceasefire proposal, Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported on Monday, citing a leading Hamas official. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
"You won't be able to censor teleSUR. Milei, rest assured that teleSUR will be able to do more than you," President Maduro said.
On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro claimed that Argentine President Javier Milei is afraid of the "truth of the people."
Earlier, the multi-state channel teleSUR denounced that the Milei administration prohibited the broadcast of its signal on the Argentine open digital television system.
"Milei, you are afraid of the truth of the people," Maduro said, emphasizing that Argentinians will still be able to watch teleSUR through social media.
"You will not be able to censor teleSUR. Milei, rest assured that teleSUR will be able to do more than you," the Bolivarian leader added.
As soon as news of the actions against teleSUR emerged, other senior Venezuelan officials criticized the new attack on freedom of expression in Latin America.
"The media censorship against TeleSUR in Argentina represents a serious attack on the right to information. It seeks to limit access to dissenting voices, restrict informational plurality, and undermine the possibility of actively participating in public debate through informed opinions," said Freddy Ñañez, the Venezuelan Communication Minister.
In 2016, President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) also took teleSUR off the air, preventing it from transmitting its signal through Cablevisión, the main cable television operator in Argentina.
In 2020, however, President Alberto Fernandez (2019-2023) authorized teleSUR's return to the open digital television system of his country.
Founded in 2005, TeleSUR is a Latin American terrestrial and satellite news television network headquartered in Caracas. It was created with contributions from the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Montage of all the time the IOF got owned by snipers:
https://twitter.com/jonelmer/status/1789341126018675032Ankle-biting dipshits lecture Russian military for not winning hard enough
The Russian Army may have defeated Ukraine — if it had followed its own manual
The US Army's new manual on Russian tactics is an impressive-looking document. It's 280 pages packed with details and diagrams of how Russian soldiers are supposed to fight. It is also evidence of a major reason why Russian troops have often fought poorly in the Ukraine war: they are not following their own playbook.
It's actually just a most recently updated version of what TRADOC has already put out for years.
Also fuck you dude for saying the Russians aren't massacring the Ukrainians hard enough. Fly yourself over there and go die in a flooded trench if you think you know better.
"A lot of the basic elements of that doctrine are sound enough that they could form a basis for successful operations," Scott Boston, a Russia military expert for the RAND Corp. think tank, told Business Insider. "But you do have to follow them."
No shit it's made by communists
To be clear, the US Army's manual — ATP7-100.1, "Russian Tactics" — specifies that it "is not meant to represent how the Russians are currently fighting in Ukraine." Nonetheless, armies try to fight according to their doctrine, or the fundamental principles that are intended to guide military operations.
I swear to God it's like they want more Ukrainians to die.
For example, when a Russian division or brigade conducts an assault, units are supposed to advance in multiple echelons — or waves — of troops and tanks, tightly synchronized with reconnaissance, flank protection, engineering, artillery and air defense elements. The goal is to hit hard, move fast, breach the defenses and advance deep into the enemy rear. To minimize the resistance they face, assault troops should concentrate into multiple columns to "spread the attacking units in both width and depth to disperse and reduce the effects of nuclear or precision fires," according to the ATP7-100.1 manual.
That maneuver is supposed to be deployed on an actual front in coordination with an operational plan, not something you do willy-nilly, you jackass.
But when Russia tried to seize Kyiv with a lightning advance in the opening days of the war, armored columns were sent down narrow, congested roads. Bottled up by roadblocks and ambushes, they were decimated by Ukrainian artillery, drones and anti-tank missiles. Nor does the manual describe how the Russian Army is fighting today. Instead of rapid and well-coordinated maneuver with its once-vaunted Aerospace Forces, attacks rely on obliterating Ukrainian defenses with artillery or glide bombs, or swamping them with large numbers of freed convicts and other "disposable infantry."
The cost has been enormous: an estimated 450,000 Russian casualties and 3,000 tanks destroyed. Moscow's best pre-war units have been decimated, and its best tanks and other equipment wrecked.
feels like I'm gonna be using this emoji alot today."Doctrinally sound attacks can still fail," Boston pointed out. "But a lot of their mistakes were failures to follow doctrinal guidance that is there for good reason. Like, have a guard force out in front so your main body doesn't blunder into combat and become decisively engaged. Don't try to send your entire force down too few roads. Don't leave your support troops unprotected. These were pretty basic things.
Assessing current Russian doctrine is difficult. Much of it is derived from the Soviet era of rigidly controlled mass armies. "The commander directs the fight, is responsible for the main elements of the plan, and generally does not expect initiative or flexibility to nearly the same degree from his subordinates, compared with a good US commander," Boston explained.
This is has some truth, Soviet and post-soviet war doctrine hasn't been tested in decades because unlike America the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation don't race around the world invading anything with a pulse.
Yet military reforms enacted after 2008 were supposed to create smaller and more agile Western-style forces. "When that system failed for them in the initial months after February 2022, they reverted to older, more traditional approaches that eventually included much more emphasis on mass," said Boston, a former US Army artillery officer.
Cost-saving measures that mirrors observations made on the u.s military's expeditions into massacring civilians.
However, the problem may not have been Russian doctrine as much as the overall strategy of the Ukraine war. Soviet plans to invade Western Europe were based on fielding millions of Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops supported by huge stockpiles of weapons and supplies. With an initial assault force of just 180,000 soldiers attacking across a 600-mile-wide front against a smaller but still substantial Ukrainian army, Russia couldn't generate the overwhelming mass that its doctrine counted on. Russian leaders also expected — as did many Western experts — that Ukrainian resistance would collapse and the country would be swiftly occupied. Assault units weren't even briefed about the attack until just before the war began.
And they would've if the goddamn British didn't string zelensky along like a quail following a line of seeds into a hole trap
"It's not impossible to win battles with an inflexible army, but in order to have a reasonable chance of doing so it helps a lot to have a good plan," Boston said. He pointed to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003: commanders hoped that Iraqi forces wouldn't offer strong resistance, but the invasion plan assumed they might. "It would have been irresponsible for the US military to do otherwise. But Russia's plan was that level of irresponsible. Units were directed to move into Ukraine and seize key locations on aggressive timetables and without meaningful warning or time to plan for things to go wrong. Doctrine and training can only do so much when you're sent to do the wrong thing with the wrong tools for the job."
It also helps to not having fucking Bojo lie about having the full support of NATO behind the ukraine
To be fair, some areas of Russian doctrine have proven quite sound, especially on the defense, where Russia stopped Ukraine's counteroffensive last summer. "There are plenty of aspects to their defense that are entirely consistent with their historical practice and doctrine," Boston said. "And in some cases, they've improved on their doctrine such as by increasing the depth and density of minefields."
Costing tens of thousands of lives of Ukraine conscripts for a summer "offensive" that died on the planning table but was sent out anyways.
One question will tantalize historians for years to come: could Russia have seized Kyiv — and probably won the war — in the first days of the invasion? "This is a tricky counterfactual," said Boston. "If Russia had made more adequate preparations, Ukraine could have noticed and reacted differently. But Russia had some substantial advantages that they squandered with the initial plan and with their slow adaptation over time. If Russia had tried a better plan, things would have gone much worse for Ukraine much more quickly."
Easy answer, build a heart attack gun that can send its magic bullets back in time and shoot bojo then see what happens.
Ironically, Boston feels maligning Russian military prowess does a disservice to Ukrainian skill. If the Russian military was that bad, then maybe the Ukrainian military wasn't that good? "We underrate how much damage the Ukrainians did against real Russian military capability if we think that that the Russians were all just terrible," Boston said. "I don't think they were terrible. I think they were terribly wrong-footed by their leadership."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zQLrSL-tKc
Weeb has been predicting this offensive for the last couple months, said it would be mid-May. He's covering it in detail here.
Good little 4min summary of the rejected Hamas/Israel peace deal implications and the questions surrounding Israel's ability to take Rafah and achieve their goals. Nitter link to video
It likely won't be new to a lot of people here, but it's succinct, simple, from the respected MiddleEastEye, and probably good for sharing with the libs in your life.
un.org: Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General - 10 May 2024 - various interesting back n forths in here about palestine. Here is one about the UNRWA arsons vs shredding UN charter.
hidden because it's kind of long
Question: And one thing, today the Israeli Ambassador shredded the UN Charter; said that’s what people did in that, in that hall. What is the reaction of the Secretary-General on that image? Does he think they can do that? [cross talk]
Deputy Spokesman: We’ve told you before that we don’t comment on the various remarks made by different ambassadors. And the theatrics, both in the past and the present, are things that are part and parcel of the presentations the Member States make. We don’t comment on those, but regarding the Charter, obviously, this is an organization that is premised on respect with the UN Charter, and all of the Member States have pledged to uphold the UN Charter, and we expect them to fulfil that obligation.
Question: And do you feel uncomfortable to see that image in the TV?
Deputy Spokesman: I’ve been around here a long time. I’ve seen a lot. Look… [cross talk] All I can tell you, look, that was a Charter. There’s many charters. [pulls out a copy of the United Nations Charter] There’s one right here. The Charter is intact. Its ideals are intact.
Correspondent: You resurrected it.
Deputy Spokesman: What?
Correspondent: You resurrected it. [laughing] Good job.
Deputy Spokesman: The Charter is something that will stay with us. And like I said, it’s the founding document of this organization. As long as this organization exists, the Charter exists.
Question: Now that… Why I asked that question, because we saw the attack on UNRWA, and we know it might be some people who hated UNRWA, who had opinions on UN, they did that. But don’t you think this kind of behaviour by the Israeli Ambassador, actually… how to say that? Infused this kind of behaviour, infused this attack for UNRWA, for those people who stopped the trucks, aid trucks, to cross the Kerem Shalom border crossings?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, those are separate things. Obviously, a piece of paper is a piece of paper and theatrics are theatrics… [cross talk]
Question: But those…
Deputy Spokesman: We are against, we are clearly and strictly against threats made on our personnel and our facilities. Those are irresponsible, they’re wrong, they have to stop.
Question: But it’s not connected, you think?
Deputy Spokesman: We have seen so much. You can go over the history of the UN and all the speeches that happened. You know, different moments when people use different props. Their own shoes, their… the various resolutions of the Security Council that got crumpled up by different people; we’ve seen it all. We rise above that. This is an organization of diplomacy, and we encourage diplomacy.
Someone then, uh, tactfully changes the topic to Somalia.
Is there a Zionist ideology against the UN, or is it just a practical conclusion they are reaching?
Shoigu gang it's so over: Vladimir Putin set to transfer Sergei Shoigu from Russian defence ministry
In today's edition of wtf is Jacob Zuma doing
uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party founder Jabulani Khumalo has placed Jacob Zuma on precautionary suspension and wants the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) to remove the former president from its parliamentary list.
The move by Khumalo comes despite his expulsion from the party by Zuma late last month for “ill-discipline” — and takes place days before the constitutional court will hear an appeal by the IEC against an electoral court ruling allowing Zuma to be on the ballot.
The latest drama involving the newest breakaway party from the ANC kicked off on Sunday, when Khumalo — referring to himself as party president — wrote to Zuma and told him that he was being placed on suspension.
In the letter, Khumalo said Zuma had committed “several acts of misconduct in relation to the activities of the MKP”
The IEC released a statement on Tuesday afternoon confirming that it had received the letter by the MK party founder. It however said that it does not involve itself in political party affairs.
“Addditionally the commission only acts on instruction of the registered leader of the party. In the present case, Mr Jacob Zuma is the registered leader of the MK party,” the commission said.
Looks like a power struggle between the founders of the party and Zuma, and Zuma is winning. You have to acknowledge his political instincts, Zuma knows how to obtain power.
Also important to note:
Khumalo also claimed that the leader of another opposition party was preparing to take over the MK party leadership after elections and that was among reasons that Zuma’s daughter, Duduzile, had “publicly disgraced my name”.
Perhaps a deal struck between the MK Party and the EFF?
this resistance hype video is dope, Abu Obeida narrates
https://twitter.com/BIG__Brother7/status/1789387827148427433
BigBoyKarlLiebknecht said on the last thread something i wanted to join in on
Naturally, Formula 1 is completely terrible and I should be sent to the gulag for still watching it since the 1990s out of childhood nostalgia, knowing full well it’s absolutely haram. But...
It’s pretty hilarious that Trump showed up at today’s race, hung out in McLaren’s garage, and then dubbed himself Lando Norris' lucky charm after his first ever win. What’s funnier is that Lando then said, “Donald is someone that you've got to have a lot of respect for in many ways,” which left fans upset that le epic bacon Twitch streaming driver would say such a thing
Imagine being surprised that someone from one of the UK’s richest families, competing in a sport formerly managed by someone who praised Hitler for being “a man who got things done” and someone else whose father led the British Union of Fascists, would have right-wing sympathies
i was cackling when they talked about trump being there because of course he was you dipshits the man is addicted to attention lmao but also yeah, F1 is definitely my problematic fave. In fact, if any of you here are Hamilton fans there's a decent chance i've argued with you on the f1 subreddit lol my username is basically the same on both places cuz idgaf about opsec
Cuban President Diaz-Canel Arrives in Russia on a Working Visit
He will participate for the first time in the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union.
On Tuesday, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel arrived in Moscow to discuss bilateral issues during a working visit that will extend until May 9.
During his stay in Russia, he will attend the military parade on May 9th commemorating Victory Day, the 79th anniversary of the Soviet Union's triumph over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
Diaz-Canel will also participate for the first time in the Supreme Council of the Eurasian Economic Union, an integration bloc in which Cuba holds observer status.
The Cuban delegation includes Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, Deputy International Trade Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva, and Ambassador accredited in Moscow Julio Garmendia.
Previously, the Cuban president, who is also the first secretary of his country's Communist Party, visited Russia in 2018, 2019, and 2022.
During his latest trip, Putin and Diaz-Canel discussed a bilateral cooperation plan that includes joint projects until 2030.
As a result of this high-level cooperation, Cuban authorities stated that the ties between Havana and Moscow will continue to strengthen.
That watermelon seller lying per usual:
https://twitter.com/MenchOsint/status/1788123403573919785Aaron mate on the saga of America's project ukraine
This is an extensive article that is probably familiar to most here. The section on specific ukrainian links to "russian interference" in the 2016 election was new to me though.
Russia warns citizens about travel to Mexico [RT]
The Central American nation has allegedly refused entry to hundreds of Russians, fearing that they will cross the US border illegally
Russia warns citizens about travel to Mexico
8 May, 2024 20:37Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned Russian citizens to calculate the risk involved in traveling to Mexico after the authorities in the Central American nation began refusing entry to more Russian travelers.
Early last year, Russia’s ambassador to Mexico, Andrey Troyanovsky, said that there had been an increase in the number of Russians being denied entry to Mexico. Troyanovsky suggested at the time that the increase may be linked to Mexican authorities attempting to reduce the number of migrants coming to their country in order to enter the US illegally.
“Mexican officials are working to resolve the issue,” Zakharova told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday. However, “we recommend that Russian citizens take into account the existing risks when planning trips to Mexico,” she added.
Mexico has not sanctioned Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, and the country’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has repeatedly called for dialogue between Moscow and Kiev. Last year, Lopez Obrador defended his decision to invite a Russian military band to a parade marking Mexico’s independence day, stating that “we have relations with all countries in the world and we invite everyone.”
Turkish Airlines has prevented around 1,000 Russian travelers from flying to Mexico and other Latin American destinations via Türkiye since January, Reuters reported last month. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the US of pressuring the airline into denying passage to the Russians, as did multiple industry sources, who told the news agency that Washington was trying to reduce the number of Russians illegally entering the US.
Some 81,913 Russian citizens have illegally entered the US since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection data. This number is just a fraction of the roughly 8 million illegal immigrants caught entering the country in the same period, according to government data cited by Republican politicians.
It was like the biggest Monero exchange. Lasted for years. Very popular.
Permanently Deleted
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people
Before the 1970s, the term Miao or Meo (meaning "cats", "barbarians", and even "Sons of the Soil") was used in reference to the Hmong. In the 1970s, Dr. Yang Dao, a Hmong American scholar from Laos, advocated for the term "Hmong" with the support of clan leaders and General Vang Pao.[12][13] Yang Dao had insisted that the terms "Meo" and "Miao" were both unacceptable as his people had always called themselves by the name "Hmong," which he defined as "free men."[14] Surrounding countries began to use the term "Hmong" after the US Department of State used it during Immigration screening in Thailand's Ban Vinai Refugee Camp.[15] In 1994, Pobzeb Vang registered the term "Hmong" with the United Nations, making it the proper term to identify the Hmong people internationally.[16]
Soon after, there was a political push from Hmong American politicians and activists to replace the term Miao with the term Hmong in China with little to no success. To date, China is the only country that doesn't recognize the term Hmong. Rather, they are still categorized under the umbrella term Miáo (苗) along with three other indigenous groups of people by the government since 1949. Historically, the term Miao carried strong pejorative connotations in both China and Southeast Asia. In modern times, however, it has lost such negative connotations in China and has since been officially recognized as an ethnicity, which includes the Hmong. The Hmong in China are often happy or proud to be known as Miao while many Hmong outside China find it offensive.[17][18]
Anyone know much about the Hmong vs Miao thing? It seems like it's being used as a shibboleth by western imperialism and outside agitators to me, if the population of Miao people in China itself are happy with the term and it has lost negative connotations then the attempt to call it problematic from outside the country is an attempt at agitation that nobody wants.
I raise this in relation to the Myanmar situation. If I were the west and I got control of Myanmar and wanted to use it to cause trouble for China I would be doing it via agitation of this ethnic group in the Yunnan province next door:
The death toll due to floods in southern Brazil has reached 95, but authorities believe there may be more. 131 people were reported missing. The disaster forced 150 thousand people to leave their homes, and the disaster affected 1.4 million in total. Video from social networks shows the flooded city of Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Honduras Supports President Petro in the Face of a Coup Attempt
The Colombian far-right seeks to remove Gustavo Petro from office using judicial persecution.
On Wednesday, Honduran President Xiomara Castro expressed her support for Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who warned that his opponents are seeking to remove him from power through a coup.
"Our total and absolute support for the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, in his international denouncement that a coup d'état is being plotted against the people of Colombia," Castro stated.
Previously, the Colombian president referred to the possibility of a coup against him through false accusations related to alleged contributions cap violations during his 2022 campaign.
On Wednesday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) decided to study a report recommending charges against Gustavo Petro for alleged irregular financing of his election campaign.
Infiltrated into state institutions, the far right wants to end the Constitution and the popular mandate. There is a coup against President Gustavo Petro with the corrupt complicity of the CNE. Revolution!
This report was presented by the magistrates Alvaro Prada, a former lesgislator of the right-wing Democratic Center party, and Benjamin Ortiz, a former secretary of the CNE.
Both propose to also bring charges against Ricardo Roa, Petro's political campaign manager in 2022 and current president of the state oil company Ecopetrol.
The Prada-Ortiz report will be discussed by the nine CNE magistrates in a plenary session, where they will decide whether to admit it. Six favorable votes are required for this to happen.
Petro recalled that the Constitution establishes that the Colombian president cannot be judged by an entity other than the House of Representatives' Accusation Committee.
"Why have two entities belonging to an administrative body stated that they are bringing charges against the President? That is deeply unconstitutional and is the beginning of a coup in Colombia," Petro affirmed.
On May 1, the Colombian president also warned that the far-right opposition seeks to remove him from power through a "soft coup," that is, resorting to lawfare or legal persecution.
"If they attempt a coup against the will of the people, as they did on April 19, 1970, the people will take to the streets to defend democracy," he said.
Riiiiiip all my pooooooosts
Something wrong
I hold my head
Russ Bentley gone
Prigozhin dead
Anyone interested in dunking on an argentinian ancap?
Lol they deleted their comments
In fancy lad news-sphere, current affairs opened their issues from last year, which is very nice of them
PDFs here - https://support.currentaffairs.org/issues
Since April 29, the rainfall has affected more than 840,000 inhabitants of 345 municipalities.
On Monday, the Brazilian Civil Defense confirmed that the floods caused by heavy rains have left 84 dead and 111 missing since April 29.
The rainfall has affected more than 840,000 inhabitants of 345 municipalities, who are struggling with shortages of food, medicine, and basic services such as electricity.
Around 121,957 people have been forced to leave their homes and relocate to the homes of family and friends, while another 19,368 citizens are housed in makeshift shelters provided by the authorities.
Located on the border with Uruguay and Argentina, the state of Rio Grande do Sul has been the hardest hit by the rains with at least 83 fatalities, while the neighboring state of Santa Catarina recorded one death.
Authorities are investigating whether another four victims are related to the climatic tragedy that is hitting the country's southern part and is already considered the worst natural disaster in the region's history.
The Guaiba River, whose level stabilized at five meters, flooded downtown Porto Alegre, the regional capital where 1.3 million people live. With a population of 11 million people, Rio Grande do Sul has a total of 496 municipalities, 345 of which have been affected.
At least 1.2 million homes and commercial establishments remain without electricity, and 98 municipalities lack telephone and internet services. The rising rivers have fully or partially blocked around 61 roads.
President Lula da Silva ordered the mobilization of the Armed Forces and around 14,500 professionals to the region. So far, Brazilian military personnel have carried out around 25,000 aerial, land, and river rescues, with the support of 30 aircraft, 182 boats, and 951 vehicles.
Currently, weather forecasts predict further rains in areas already battered by the storms due to a new cold front that will bring heavy precipitation.
From the great Soviet encyclopedia.
Earliest formations of the states that would later form the Soviet Union,
In Transcaucasia, by the turn of the first millennium B.C, many tribes had already reached the stage at which the clan tribal system was disintegrating and a class society was ready to emerge. In the eighth century B.C. what is now Armenia became part of the state of Urartu, whose capital was located at Lake Van. King Argistis I of Urartu annexed southern Transcaucasia and built several fortress-cities to serve as strongholds. The ruins of one such fortress, Erebuni, have been uncovered on the hill of Arin-berd in Yerevan; another, Argistikhinili, was located near what is now the village of Armavir, in the Ararat Valley. With varying success, the kingdom of Urartu warred against Assyria and northern nomadic tribes, the Cimmerians and Scythians. The fortress of Teishebaini, located on the hill of Karmir-Blur, near Yerevan, became very important in the seventh century B.C, when Urartu flourished anew. Excavations at the fortress have revealed many workshops, storage rooms, granaries, wine cellars, vessels, weapons, and decorations.
The struggle against the Urarteans helped the local Armenian tribes consolidate, but they remained too weak and disunited to found an independent state. Between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C the area inhabited by them belonged initially to the Persian Achaemenid state and later to the Seleucid state. The formation of a unified Armenian nationality was completed at this time; class relations developed, based on slaveholding and the exploitation of dependents still at the primitive communal stage. The important state of Greater Armenia was formed in the late fourth and third centuries B.C The city of Artashat, founded circa 176 B.C on the Araks River, became its capital. The state flourished in the late second and early first centuries B.C, when King Tigran II extended his possessions to the Mediterranean Sea. Tigran then joined King Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus against Rome; he was defeated and his state disintegrated in 66 B.C, and only the regions in Armenia proper were left. In the first centuries AD., Armenia, which was ruled by kings of the Parthian Arshacid clan, became the object of a struggle between the Roman Empire and Parthia. After the fall of the Parthian Empire and the weakening of Rome, Armenia fell under the sway of the Sassanids in the third century AD. The decay of slaveholding relations and the formation of feudal relations took place in Armenia at this time.
Transcaucasia and Middle Asia from the first half of the first millennium A.D. to the 13th century.
Feudal relations were established in Armenia, Caucasian Albania, and Georgia by the mid-first millennium A.D. The peoples that settled these territories inherited the stable traditions, in various areas of material culture, of the slaveholding states of Transcaucasia. The formation of feudal relations in Transcaucasia was accompanied by the struggle of the peoples of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia against foreign aggressors: Iran, the Byzantine Empire, the Seljuk Turks, and the Arabian Caliphate.
In Armenia early feudal relations arose in the first half of the first millennium A.D. In 301, Christianity became the state religion. From the fourth to sixth centuries, Armenia warred against Iranian aggressors. The Byzantine Empire, which had aided Armenia in the wars against the Sassanids, itself tried to seize Armenia. In 387 the Byzantine Empire and Iran divided Greater Armenia between themselves. From the fourth to ninth centuries the liberation struggle of the Armenian people—the formation of the Armenian nationality had been completed in the fourth century B.C.—was combined with class struggle and extensive dissemination of heretical doctrines, notably by the Paulicians.
The Arabs conquered Transcaucasia in the first quarter of the eighth century, and the development of feudal relations in Armenia was slowed. Uprisings against Arab rule took place in 703, 748–750, 774–75, and 850–55. The rule of the caliphate was thrown off for good in the late ninth century. The liberation struggle of the Armenian people was depicted in the epic David of Sasun. In the ninth century, most of the region was ruled by the Armenian Bagratid dynasty; the territory under its control was known as the Ani Kingdom. At the same time that such cities as Ani, Dvin, and Artsn developed and large feudal estates were created, the country underwent feudal fragmentation into semi-dependent kingdoms and principalities. As the economy became increasingly based on large patrimonial estates, the personal dependence of the peasants became greater. The exacerbation of the class struggle was reflected in the Thondraki movement.
If you newshounds got horny do you think you'd be into
spoiler
BDSMO
The court decision involves the lawyer of the appointed head of state, Mateo Castañeda, and eight other investigated by the president’s brother for the so-called "Los Waykis en La Sombra" case.
The Judicial Branch of Peru ordered this Friday the preliminary arrest for ten days of Nicanor Boluarte, brother of the de facto president Dina Boluarte, for leading an alleged criminal organization and influence peddling at the State’s expense.
The court decision involves the lawyer of the appointed head of state, Mateo Castañeda, and eight other investigated by the president’s brother for the so-called "Los Waykis en La Sombra" case.
According to reports, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a raid on 26 homes and also arranges the lifting of the secrecy of communications in order to visualize and extract information from their mobile phones, tablets, computers, laptops, USB’s and 22 external hard drives researched. The PNP began the operation for the arrests around 06H30 local time (11H30 UTC) in different parts of Lima, police action that is still underway.
The operation has been called "Los Waykis en La Sombra", referring to the Quechua word that designates the word friend and that Boluarte used to refer to the governor of Ayacucho, Wilfredo Oscorima.
This official was the person who, both parties have confirmed, lent several luxury watches of the Rolex brand to Boluarte, a case in which the Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation to the president and the governor for corruption and bribery.
The judicial document that launched this Friday’s operation, released by local media, includes the search of 22 people.
It considers the registration, reading, viewing and extraction of information from cell phones, CPUs, laptops, tablets and other electronic equipment, as well as the lifting of banking secrecy and tax reserve, according to media.
The Special Task Force of Prosecutors against the Corruption of Power (Eficcop), points out Nicanor Boluarte of using illicit influences for the designation of subprefects and the collection of signatures in membership cards for the registration of the political party Ciudadanos por el Perú.
The prefects and sub-prefects are representatives of the Executive in the different regions of Peru. They are considered trustworthy administrative positions and are appointed by the Minister of the Interior and the President.
The Ministry of the Interior decided on Thursday night the dismantling of the unit of the National Police that is responsible for supporting the Eficcop, a tax group that investigates exclusively cases of senior officials.
By a ministerial resolution, the Boluarte government nullified the previous ministerial resolution created by this specialized group by claiming "duplication of functions" with other divisions.
I also wanted to RE @Teekeeus@hexbear.net with this. I know I already replied, but I think this video says part of what I'm saying about EU too. Skip to 4:30 if 6mins is too much.
https://twitter.com/FareedZakaria/status/1787180840616657322
recently usa dunked on the armenian simps btw, not that its important in the grand scheme of things. Also i wonder how azerbaijan will proceed at eurovision
SEA Headlines
It’s that time of the week.
The Nation Thailand - Thai school breaks barriers, grants hairstyle freedom to LGBTQ+
VNA - Rail route connects China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia
The Bangkok Post - Thai official helps steer Asean in negotiations with China
Reuters - Indonesia's Q1 GDP growth beats forecasts, but outlook's uncertain
CNA - China’s hybrid rice might be Indonesia’s latest solution to improving its food security, but at what costs?
Vietnam Investment Review - ASEAN encouraged to embrace global flows
Pattaya Mail - ‘ASEAN Plus Three’ bolsters financial safety nets amid challenges
The Star - Leveraging China’s GDI to revitalise Malaysia’s industrial sector
Paywalled Article
SINCE the early 1990s, Malaysia has been exhibiting signs of premature deindustrialisation, characterised by a decline in the relative contribution of the manufacturing sector to the economy – a trait typically observed only when a country has attained the status of a developed country.
In 2022, the manufacturing industry contributed only 23.4% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), down from a peak of 30.9% in 1999. The main culprits behind this phenomenon are lack of quality investment, limited spending on research and development (R&D) and high dependence on imported low-skilled labour.
These have collectively led to the country’s inability to join the high value-added segment of the manufacturing value chain.
The Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2021 presents a promising opportunity for resurrecting Malaysia's industrial sector via the industrialisation priority area.
Under this priority area, the GDI aims to: enhance collaboration in worldwide production capabilities; assist developing nations in enhancing their industrial production capabilities and manufacturing standards; facilitate their seamless integration into global industrial, value, and supply networks; and expedite the process of industrialisation and modernisation.
In the 2023 GDI progress report, published by the Center for International Knowledge on Development, the GDI has helped developing countries advance sustainable industrialisation and resolve development bottlenecks.
This is done through three channels.
Firstly, the GDI has established a global network of partners encompassing think tanks, international organisations and multilateral institutions, universities and industry alliances and associations. Secondly, there is strengthening of financial support and policy coordination via Chinese investments in developing countries and cooperation on Industry 4.0 as well as digital transformation. Thirdly, the GDI is supporting the training and capacity building of talent for industrialisation by drawing focus on vocational education. In a bid to revitalise the country’s industrial sector, Malaysia could leverage the GDI to attract foreign direct investment and technology transfer. Chinese investment in Malaysia's industrial parks and special economic zones could facilitate the inflow of capital and expertise, contributing to the modernisation and expansion of the industrial sector. This collaboration could lead to the transfer of advanced manufacturing technologies, ultimately elevating Malaysia's industrial capabilities and competitiveness on the global stage. Two of the 12 key challenges outlined in the New Industrial Master Plan (NIMP) 2030 are stagnating labour productivity, as well as shortage and skills mismatch among local talent. To circumvent these issues, Malaysia can proactively engage in collaborative initiatives with China to enhance skills development and knowledge transfer. By fostering partnerships in R&D, innovation and skills training, Malaysia can ensure that its workforce is equipped with the expertise needed to drive industrial growth in the era of digitalisation and automation. The NIMP 2030’s aim to expand Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is also in line with the GDI’s focus on vocational education. A remarkable example of a successful partnership between China and Malaysia is the acquisition of Malaysia’s national car brand Proton by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in 2017, where the two partners have made great strides in working together. Apart from elevating the brand image and sales of the local carmaker, the signing of various joint ventures, technical assistance, foreign direct investment and technical collaboration agreements between the two countries have greatly benefitted local Malaysian dealers with access to new and advanced technologies, while Chinese suppliers have found new sources of raw parts. Meanwhile, another success story is the setting up of the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP) in Gebeng which has attracted more than 50 international companies and created more than 10,000 jobs for locals. It is worth mentioning that of the RM11.01bil in foreign direct investment that Pahang attracted as of 2022, more than half was contributed by China. These success stories indicate that it is essential for Malaysia to strategically position itself to maximise the benefits of participating in the GDI. This involves formulating inclusive policies, streamlining regulatory processes, and addressing any potential challenges associated with the influx of Chinese investments. By doing so, Malaysia can create an environment that is conducive to sustainable industrial development while safeguarding its national interests. The potential revitalisation of Malaysia's industrial sector through the GDI is not without its considerations. It is imperative for Malaysia to carefully assess the economic, environmental and social impacts of various projects to ensure that they align with the country's long-term development goals and sustainability agenda. Additionally, robust governance frameworks and transparency measures should be put in place to mitigate the risks associated with large-scale infrastructure and industrial development efforts. In conclusion, Malaysia stands to gain substantial advantages by capitalising on the opportunities presented by the GDI. The initiative has the potential to inject momentum into Malaysia's industrial sector, address the challenges of deindustrialisation, and propel the country towards productivity-led growth. By embracing strategic collaborations with China and leveraging the GDI’s multifaceted offerings, Malaysia can position itself as a key beneficiary of the initiative and revitalise its industrial landscape for sustained prosperity.
Huge L for Shoigu, huge W for prigo tbh
P. S. Does anyone have the Patrick Lancaster(?) video where he briefly speaks to Prigo after the "coup" and he says something like "it was a great day". I need that quote. Edit: fuuuuuck fuck fuck it was taken down: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7qvFQJEyjwA..Found the quote:
"Normal result. Energized them all," lol lmao
(https://twitter.com/Sprinterfactory/status/1673074689386639363)
The Country of the Week is Armenia!
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Armenia.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
- What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
- What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
- Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
- Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
- What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
- Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
- How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
- Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
- If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?
@emizeko@hexbear.net to carry over from the prior thread, I say Correa as in after what happened to him. In hindsight Moreno should never have gotten close to power
I find that the depravity of Zionists is more readily apparent when you recontextualize them relative to the Nazis.
CW: Satire of Zionists involving Nazi justifications
It is genocidal racism against Germans to deny them their right to lebensraum. The constant Jewish-backed terrorist attacks against innocent German settlers prove that the Jews have no desire for peace. If the Jews had not disrupted the peace by attacking innocent Germans in Warsaw there would be no Holocaust. They have brought this upon themselves. Why do you support Jewish terrorism?
If you love the Jews so much, why don't you take a train to Auschwitz?
Not sure if the tradle gang has posted somewhere else but:
#Tradle #792 6/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
Cheated slightly for my last guess. The country name came to me and I just peeked the map to make sure I wasn't wildly off base on the location
#Tradle #793 3/6
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Is www.bulletins.hexbear.net axed indefinetely?
#Tradle #794 2/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 https://games.oec.world/en/tradle
spoiler
Well... this is embarassing
#Death to Israel #798 2/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
the belgis
#Death to Israel #797 3/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
one billion guesses still new countries show up
#Death to Israel #796 6/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
didn't guess saint maarten because we had it a couple of months ago
countries have been reshuffled
also I'm renaming these Death to Israel#Death to Israel #799 2/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
NON-SOVEREIGN COUNTRY ALERT
#Tradle #795 2/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
UK->Canada
#Tradle #794 3/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
all the big countries on the north african coast
#Tradle #793 2/6
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https://games.oec.world/en/tradlespoiler
woke up after guess one
we live under the rule of mass-murdering demons and there is no level of escalation in any form that is unreasonable in this case
I do not
at you, sir, but I do
episode doing a deep dive into mainstream coverage of Vietnam student protests in the new TrueAnon ep 
heads think are the chances of dnc shenanigans?
is out as defens minister