Is Iran finally going to do something, or?
Jesus. How long is Iran planning to stay put?
Bipartisan shit is always the most blatantly evil
Well, he's not wrong about hunger being an intended part of capitalism so workers are coerced into working for even less pay.
Calling it a "benefit" is very clickbaity though.
The Argentinian government statistics agency says the official poverty rate in Argentina jumped to about 53% during the first six months of Javier Milei’s presidency.
> Argentina’s poverty rate jumped from almost 42% to 53% during the first six months of Javier Milei’ s presidency, the statistics agency reported Thursday, a steep rise reflecting the pain of the country’s most intense austerity program in recent memory.
> The government’s finding that Argentina’s half-year poverty rate in 2024 had surged to its highest level since 2003, when the country was reeling from a catastrophic foreign debt default and currency devaluation, marks a setback for the far-right economist. So far, foreign investors and the International Monetary Fund — to which Argentina owes $43 billion — have cheered his controversial fiscal shock therapy that has succeeded in pulling down the country’s monthly inflation from 25.5% last December to 4.2% in recent months.
> Argentina’s inflation, now running at more than 230% annually, is among the worst in the world.
> Unlike previous populist governments that kept consumer spending high at the cost of a massive budget deficit, Milei dismantled price controls, cut subsidies on energy and transport and devalued the peso by 54% in December after taking office.
> The austerity measures and deregulation have marked a brutal contraction in spending power and dragged the economy deep into recession.
> A thinning safety net
> Of the millions who can’t clear Argentina’s official poverty level of about $950 a month in local currency for a family of four, even more have tumbled into destitution. Thursday’s poverty report showed that Argentina’s extreme poverty rate had shot up to 18.1% during Milei’s first six months as president from 11.9% in the last half of 2023.
> A jobs crisis
> The runaway inflation — shocking even for Argentines who lived through years of annual inflation averaging above 50% — has forced middle-class Argentines to cut back on spending and drain their savings.
> The economy has contracted 3% so far this year. Government surveys reveal that both Argentina’s vast informal jobs market and formal workforce have hemorrhaged hundreds of thousands of jobs since Milei took office.
> That has put more of Argentina’s once-robust middle class in danger of sliding into poverty.
> Sky-high bills
> For decades low-paid Argentines have navigated their upside-down economy by padding their meager incomes with government cash transfers and generous subsidies that reduced the cost of utilities, food and transport.
> But utilities bills jumped over 200% for many after Milei scrapped the subsidies to trim the deficit.
Words are cool and all, but China hasn't even done the bare minimum of sanctioning israel yet. Even turkey has stopped trade with it by now.
Anyone that opposes the US ruling class is one of 3 things:
- Hamas
- Russian agent
- Iranian operative
Pretty sure this is literally elder abuse. How did they let this guy in
Modi deserves the disrespect though, even if it's not intentional
Guess I'll have to avoid ASUS products if they're willing to fuck over customers like this
An actual socialist party. Very exciting.
Let's hope they put protections in place as quick as possible, because if they're genuinely planning to improve the working-class lives in Sri Lanka, there's a US-backed coup incoming like they did to Chile when Allende was elected.
From an IMF deal he wants to renegotiate to parliamentary elections, president-elect faces key challenges.
> Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake has taken office as Sri Lanka’s president shortly after winning the country’s election.
> Dissanayake, who was sworn in on Monday after winning Saturday’s polls, has inherited the top job in a nation battered by austerity measures imposed as a part of a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
> These austerity measures — hikes in income taxes and electricity prices — were introduced under outgoing President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
> Wickremesinghe took over as leader after his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted in 2022 following the country’s economic collapse and amid mass public protests that Dissanayake and his political party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), were part of.
> In his inauguration speech, Dissanayake pledged “cleaner” politics. “People have called for a different political culture,” he said.
> “I am ready to commit to that change.”
> His presidential campaign was built on the promise of fighting corruption.
> Dissanayake has also been critical of Wickremesinghe’s $2.9bn bailout deal with the IMF.
> Now in power, he faces questions over how he might navigate the island nation’s economic challenges at a time when it is deeply fractured.
> While campaigning, the NPP argued that the current terms of the IMF programme are not favourable to the disadvantaged poor and working classes, Rajni Gamage, a research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, told Al Jazeera.
> Cuts in social welfare schemes and increases in taxes made by Wickremesinghe’s government as a result of the IMF deal have hurt economically weaker sections of society the most.
> “They [the NPP] feel like the deal has been quite unfair and that it favours the more wealthier sections more,” Gamage said.
> Dissanayake said he will renegotiate the IMF bailout plan to make the austerity measures more bearable.
> Even though he won the election, Dissanayake did not get the votes of many Tamils, who make up 12 percent of the population of 22 million and are the country’s largest ethnic minority.
> Still, Dissanayake made a call for unity in his inauguration speech.
> “There are things I know and things I don’t know, but I will seek the best advice and do my best. For that, I need the support of everyone,” he said.
> Tamil leaders have expressed optimism that Dissanayake will steer clear of sectarian politics.
Not through liberal "democracies" no, where the entire point is to keep capitalists in power. Unionizing and organizing for a revolution has always been the only way.
Love being neutral between nazis and their victims
You're telling me writing something on a piece of paper in a liberal system predicated on being capitalist can't actually get rid of liberals?
Organize, comrades.
The new cabinet pulls in allies from the centre and right, despite left-wing parties winning France's election.
> French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled his new government almost three months after a snap general election delivered a hung parliament.
> The long-awaited new line up, led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, marks a decisive shift to the right, even though a left-wing alliance won most parliamentary seats.
> It comes as the European Union puts France on notice over its spiralling debt, which now far exceeds EU rules.
> Among those gaining a position in the new cabinet is Bruno Retailleau, a key member of the conservative Republicans Party founded by former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
> Just one left-wing politician was given a post in the cabinet, independent Didier Migaud, who was appointed as justice minister.
> France's public-sector deficit is projected to reach around 5.6% of GDP this year and go over 6% in 2025. The EU has a 3% limit on deficits.
> Michel Barnier, a veteran conservative, was named as Macron’s prime minister earlier this month.
> Members of the left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP) have threatened a no-confidence motion in the new government.
> Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for the new government to "be got rid of" as soon as possible.
> On Saturday, before the cabinet announcement, thousands of left-wing supporters demonstrated in Paris against the incoming government, arguing that the left’s performance in the election was not taken into consideration.
Always the same map
The vast majority of the world voted at the UN General Assembly to demand an end to Israel's unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory within 12 months, with 124 countries (64%) in favor, 14 (7%) against, and 43 (22%) abstentions.
> The vast majority of the world voted at the UN General Assembly to demand an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory within 12 months, with 124 countries (64%) in favor, 14 (7%) against, and 43 (22%) abstentions.
> The General Assembly resolution was based on a July ruling by the top UN legal authority, the International Court of Justice, which stated that “Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful” and that “Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible”.
> The countries that voted against the resolution, in effect supporting Israel’s illegal occupation, were the United States, Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Malawi, Papa New Guinea, and Paraguay, plus the tiny Pacific island nations of Fiji, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, and Tuvalu.
> These small island countries that consistently echo Washington’s unpopular votes in the UN are essentially unofficial US colonies, and mostly use the US dollar or Australian dollar as their currencies. Together, the six have a combined population of just over 1 million people, making them some of the smallest nations on Earth.
> Among the large countries that abstained were India, Australia, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia.
> However, in a break with Washington, a few longtime US allies voted in support of the resolution, most notably Japan, as well as France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.
> Several countries did not vote in the September 18 General Assembly session. These include a few nations that would without a doubt have supported the resolution, such as Venezuela, which lost its voting rights because it cannot pay UN membership fees due to illegal Western sanctions. The US and its European allies have stolen billions of dollars of Venezuelan foreign assets and reserves, and Washington has blocked Venezuela from using the US-controlled financial system.
> The resolution was not controversial; it simply called for the implementation of a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top legal body.
> On July 19, the ICJ issued a historic ruling stating: > >> – the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful; >> >> – the State of Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible; >> >> – the State of Israel is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory; >> >> – the State of Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; >> >> – all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
> Since war broke out in Gaza in October 2023, Washington has repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions that call for peace and a ceasefire.
> US President Joe Biden has strongly supported Israel as it has brutally bombed civilians in Gaza, in what UN experts say is a campaign of genocide.
> In a press conference in Tel Aviv in October, Biden asserted that “if Israel didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it”, given how strategic the colonial state is for US imperial interests.
A western colony primarily made of western settlers and completely aligned with imperial core countries is western.
It's a political term rather than geographic. Same reason why Australia isn't part of the Global South despite being in the south, because it's controlled by colonizers.
> Tune in on October 19.
> As the narrator for Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, Lenval Brown recorded 350,000 words of dialogue. His warm, crackling tone is one you'll associate with Disco Elysium forever after playing it, though he's also popped up elsewhere—like in retro shooter Ultrakill, city builder Republic of Pirates, and as the host of our own documentary series, Tales from the Hard Drive.
> Next he'll be playing the RPG he's most famous for as a charity fundraiser, "where he will play the game and talk about his experience as a voice actor for Disco Elysium." It'll be part of Workshops 4 Gaza, a series of benefits where writers, artists, and teachers offer online courses in return for donations to Palestinians in Gaza.
> To register for Voice of the Narrator: A Disco Elysium livestream, you'll need to donate to a gofundme to help Dr. Alaa Abu Musa and his family evacuate the Gaza Strip. (Suggested donations are $US60.) Then fill out the registration form linked at the Workshops 4 Gaza event page. The livestream will take place on October 19, from 3–5pm EST.
> Donald Trump is escalating his threats to increase tariffs on imports if he wins a second term in the White House, reviving fears of renewed trade wars that hit the global economy during his presidency.
> On Saturday, Trump went further, promising tariffs of 100 per cent on imports from countries that were moving away from using the dollar — a threat that could engulf many developing economies too.
> “I’ll say, ‘you leave the dollar, you’re not doing business with the United States. Because we’re going to put a 100 per cent tariff on your goods,’” he said at a rally in Wisconsin.
> “If we lost the dollar as the world currency, I think that would be the equivalent of losing a war,” he told the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.
Invitation to drill comes as China and Brazil enjoy improved relations in recent years, including Brasilia’s intent to join belt and road programme.
> The People’s Liberation Army will take part in joint military exercises in Brazil, a rare step for the Chinese military in the western hemisphere.
> A detachment of the PLA Marine Corps will travel to take part in Exercise Formosa 2024 at the invitation of the Brazilian military, the Chinese defence ministry said on Thursday.
> The exercises, with a focus on joint landing and anti-landing combat drills, would “deepen friendship and cooperation between the Chinese and participating militaries and enhance their ability to jointly respond to security risk challenges”, the ministry said in a statement on its website.
> Exercise Formosa is an annual exercise hosted by the Brazilian Marine Corps that last year also included the United States, Germany, France and South Africa. The US Marine Corps has been a regular participant in previous drills. It is not clear which countries will take part in the exercise this year.
> In recent years, China has hosted military medicine forums, senior military officer seminars and defence forums for Latin American countries, but it is not common for the Chinese military to travel to the region to take part in operations.
> This year has seen an improvement in relations between China and Brazil. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced in July that his administration planned to join the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s flagship infrastructure and investment project.
> Also in July, Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun met visiting Brazilian army commander Tomás Ribeiro Paiva in Beijing.
> Dong said during the meeting that the two militaries should “strengthen exchanges and learn from each other” to “jointly improve capabilities and take military relations to a new level”.
> Brazil took part in Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac), a multinational military exercise led by the United States, from June 27 to August 1.
> We all get the big sad sometimes. But you know what? Doomerism doesn't solve anything - it's a gift to the ruling class. Let's talk about that.
> Vietnam has fought and defeated countless Goliaths to achieve its liberation. > > While our people in Palestine are still fighting their own Goliath, we wanted to learn, how did the Vietnamese do it? And what happens once this Goliath is taken down? What does a national identity built on liberation and resistance look like when the country’s at peace? And is Vietnam really at peace? > > We traveled to Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City Saigon in the South to explore Vietnam’s story of liberation, and the story it's writing now.
The dispute started in the early days of the pandemic when the organization expanded access to a free online collection of books.
> When libraries across the country temporarily closed in the early days of the pandemic, the Internet Archive, an organization that digitizes and archives materials like web pages and music, had the idea to make its library of scanned books free to read in an online database.
> The question of that library’s legality became a long-running saga that may have finally ended on Wednesday, when an appeals court affirmed that the Internet Archive violated copyright laws by redistributing those books without a licensing agreement.
> The decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, is a victory for the major book publishers that brought the lawsuit in 2020, and could set a precedent over the lawfulness of broader digital archives.
> A federal court ruled against the Internet Archive in March 2023, and the archive removed many works from its online library of books. It appealed the decision last September.
> A final appeal could potentially be taken to the Supreme Court. In a statement, the Internet Archive said it was “reviewing the court’s opinion and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend and preserve books.”
> In its appeal, the nonprofit argued that its Free Digital Library was protected by so-called fair use laws, and that scanning the books was a transformative use of the material done in the public interest. The court firmly rejected that claim.
> “People are worried about book bannings and the defunding of libraries, but I don’t know that there is really an awareness of what’s going on in the movement toward license-only access to electronic material,” Brewster Kahle, the founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, said in an interview on Wednesday.
> Libraries are “not just a Netflix reseller of books to their patrons,” he added. “Libraries have always been more than that.”
> Unlike traditional libraries, which pay licensing fees to publishers to make their books available for lending, the Internet Archive acquires copies through donated or purchased books to scan and put online. The nonprofit is also known for the Wayback Machine, a popular database of past web pages.
> Is it unresolved guilt over the Holocaust that is behind Germany's blind belief in Israeli propaganda? Or have they simply not dealt with the fascism that led to the Holocaust?
All Chinese projects in the Brazilian automotive industry are aimed at manufacturing electrified vehicles.
> Chinese investment in Brazil grew by 33 per cent in 2023, reaching US$1.73 billion, according to a study by the Brazil-China Business Council (CBBC) released on Tuesday.
> Although the number of confirmed Chinese projects in the country fell from 32 in 2022 to 29 in 2023, it was still the third largest total since 2007. Most of the financing went to the electricity sector, which accounted for 39 per cent of the total investment amount, equivalent to US$668 million. These investments focused on renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydropower.
> The highlight was electric vehicles. According to CBBC, Chinese investment in the automotive sector increased by 56 per cent compared with 2022, reaching US$568 million.
> Tulio Cariello, research director at CBBC, said the entry of EV companies into the Brazilian market was not new – BYD, for example, has been manufacturing electric buses in the state of São Paulo – but the establishment of factories to produce vehicles for the end consumer represented an increase in the overall investment share.
> Cariello said that previously, “Chinese investors favoured entering Brazilian sectors through acquisitions or mergers with already well-established local companies”.
> Despite this increase, the amount remains at historically low levels; it is the second-lowest figure since 2009 and only exceeded the US$1.3 billion recorded in 2022.
> According to the researcher, the growth in investment in 2023 took place against the backdrop of a sharp devaluation of Brazil’s currency, the real. In 2010, when investment peaked at US$13 billion, the dollar was trading at an average of 1.76 reals. Between 2020 and 2023, that average rose to 5.18 reals, which affected the conversion of Chinese investment volume.
> Despite the drop in values, the study identified opportunities for the future, such as renewable energy, electromobility and high-end manufacturing. CBBC also measured trends in other global regions and reported that although investment in the United States, Australia and the European Union fell significantly (36 per cent, 57 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively), China invested 37 per cent more in Belt and Road Initiative member countries.
> For Brazil, which is negotiating with Beijing to become part of China’s infrastructure and trade project, this figure could mean a tangible gain. In July, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he was looking into what benefits the country could get by joining the belt and road.
> “Chinese capital is finding it difficult to invest in these regions due to geopolitical tensions and protectionism in strategic sectors. In this context, it is only natural that the Global South, especially those countries allied with the BRI, offer more security to investors,” Cariello said.
> “I think we are entering an era where the Chinese presence is no longer concentrated in geographically and economically isolated companies, but on projects with a much broader impact on the value chain,” Arbache said.
Elizabeth Wolf, 42, has been charged with attempted capital murder for attack on 3-year-old in swimming pool in Texas.
> A woman in Texas, United States has been formally indicted by a grand jury in the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian American girl earlier this year that police said was motivated by racial hatred.
> The suspect, identified as Elizabeth Wolf, aged 42, was charged by a grand jury in Tarrant County in an indictment filed last month that included a hate crime enhancement, according to court records that came to light on Tuesday.
> According to a police report, the attack in May occurred at an apartment complex swimming pool in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Euless.
> At the time, the suspect approached the mother of the three-year-old girl, who was also at the pool with her six-year-old son, and asked where they were from. The suspect then tried to drown the three-year-old and also attempted to grab the six-year-old boy, the police report said.
> The mother was able to pull her daughter from the water, police said, and local medics responded to the scene and the children were medically cleared. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Texas) said earlier this year that the accused approached the mother of the children “with racist interrogations” and then grabbed the children – who were in the shallow end of the pool – and pulled them into the deep end in the alleged drowning attempt.
> Human rights advocates have warned about rising threats against Palestinian Americans, Muslims, Arabs and Jews since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
> In late November, three Palestinian men in their early 20s were shot near a university campus in Vermont in the US, injuring all three of them.
> A month earlier, a six-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death in Illinois. Police charged a 71-year-old man with murder and a hate crime for stabbing the child to death and seriously injuring his mother.
> According to the police, the elderly attacker targeted the victims as a response to the war in Gaza and their religion.
Endeavour Mining Plc and Lilium Mining have resolved their legal dispute over the sale of two gold mines in Africa, agreeing to transfer the assets to the Burkina Faso government
> Endeavour Mining Plc and Lilium Mining have resolved their legal dispute over the sale of two gold mines in Africa, agreeing to transfer the assets to the Burkina Faso government.
>The conflict arose after Lilium acquired the Wahgnion and Boungou projects in Burkina Faso last June, Bloomberg reported.
>Endeavour had previously claimed that Lilium missed over $100 million in payments, while Lilium accused the London-listed gold producer of misrepresenting the "financial position and operating capabilities" of the mines.
> As part of the settlement, Lilium will transfer ownership of the mines to the Burkina Faso government. In return, the government will pay Endeavour $60 million and a 3% royalty on up to 400,000 ounces of gold produced at the Wahgnion mine, according to a statement released on Tuesday.
>Endeavour and Lilium “have agreed to cease the current legal proceedings against each other,” the statement said. The firms have been involved in an arbitration case in London since March.
>Endeavour said “both parties would like to thank the Government of Burkina Faso for its mediation efforts”.
>Lilium declined to comment on the matter. The company is a subsidiary of Lilium Capital, an investment firm founded by US-Burkinabe businessman Simon Tiemtore. Endeavour, meanwhile, continues to operate gold mines across Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso.
> The nationalization of the mines by Ouagadougou marks a new chapter in a growing trend across Africa, where governments, particularly those under military regimes, are taking steps to assert greater control over their natural resources.
>For instance, in June, Niger's military junta revoked the mining license of French state-owned company Orano at the Imouraren mine, which is one of the largest uranium mines in the world