Bulletins and News Discussion from January 6th to January 12th, 2025 - The Fall of Trudeau - COTW: Canada
Bulletins and News Discussion from January 6th to January 12th, 2025 - The Fall of Trudeau - COTW: Canada
Image is of Trudeau and Trump together at Mar-a-Lago in November 2024. Source is here.
The Liberals, headed by Trudeau, have not been doing so hot lately. Polls have been rather poor, showing the party far behind the Conservatives, and the Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (an outspoken apologist for Ukrainian Nazis) resigned recently, with more MPs following her lead. Trump's return to power has shaken the Canadian establishment due to his threats to impose massive tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which will have substantial economic consequences given that Canada sends most of its exports to the US, compounding the economic malaise that has affected most of the world over the last few years.
With all this bad news, there are rumors and reports that Trudeau will soon resign, ending his nine years of rule. His fall would be yet another casualty in the wave of incumbent parties falling across the imperial core, only to be replaced by more conservative parties that have very similar policies but wish to cast all blame and hardship onto minorities.
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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 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.
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.
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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.
In Sudan news, it appears that the RSF frontlines are full on collapsing, with the SAF gaining large amounts of territory and capturing RSF stronghold cities (such as Wad Madani) in the past few days. It appears that the NATO/USA bloc finally acknowledging that the RSF is committing genocide in Sudan is a sign/public acknowledgement that the RSF has been discarded by them. Without support through the sub-imperialist UAE, I can't see the RSF holding on for very long. The RSF will meet the same fate as South Vietnam.
Tsunami advisory triggered after 6.9 magnitude earthquake rattles southwest Japan - CNN
Japan’s Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami advisory after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of southwest Japan. The quake struck shortly after 9:19 p.m. local time (7:19 a.m. ET), the agency said, triggering an advisory for Miyazaki province, in the island of Kyushu, as well as Japan’s southern Kochi prefecture.
Authorities have urged locals not to enter the sea or approach the coast until the advisory is lifted, the country’s meteorological agency said on X.
Nazi hunters: Countries enforcing the genocide convention against IDF vacationing abroad.
Today’s news and videos from the Donbass and Kharkov oblast.
Russian forces liberated the Donetsk People’s Republic settlement of Yantarnoye (southwest of Kurakhovo) and the Kharkov oblast settlement of Kalinovo (north of Kiev-occupied Kupyansk): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/12/971468.html
After the city’s liberation, Kurakhovo’s civilian population came out to greet the Russian army (video): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/12/972651.html
Former Ukrainian soldiers that joined the Russian military (the Maksim Krivonos battalion) continue conducting drone strikes on Kiev regime armored vehicles in the DPR (videos): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/12/972793.html
My crank political opinion is that all sports teams should be owned by their cities, and that all team management positions should be elected officials. That way, the teams get more mega fans (they're actually involved in the team, even if it's just voting), the managers go for the best decisions for the game, rather than the profitable decision, so they get reelected, and more money can go towards the city, rather than some parasitic billionaire's pockets.
A news article about the US sanctioning the ICC gets posted on a local European subreddit, and the top comments are like: "the US is just as bad as Russia and China!"
Even when the US (and the collective West) goes mask off and does things that Western libs can't find any excuses for, they still can't help themselves but make bullshit comparisons to bAd CoUnTrIeS.
Made the mistake of checking up on NATOpedia articles about Russia and Ukraine.
Using the Russian spelling for Russian legal entities? Nah, the LPR is definitely called Luhansk People's Republic.
An article about a classification of legal entity that exists solely within Russian law (Republics of Russia)? Umm, actually Crimea, Donetsk, and Lugansk don't count because there isn't international recognition of those legal entities' status in Russian law.
Ukraine's claim of North Korean troops? Treated as fact.
Russia blew up their own dam for some reason? Fact.
The images on the main page about the invasion are all Russian casualties or supposed Russian war crimes. Obviously Ukraine hasn't had any losses worth showing, and they definitely haven't committed war crimes.
Extremely, extremely critical support:
Steve Bannon condemns Elon Musk as ‘racist’ and ‘truly evil’
“He [Musk] should go back to South Africa,” Bannon said. “Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?”
It’s fun seeing these assholes fight each other
another scandal from nonce island, in which blairite and former minister of defence under blair during the iraq war, Ivor Caplin, was tagged for soliciting sex from a minor. the british chud press is going pretty wild on this but to avoid linking the daily mail, here's a story from the canary with details.
caplin was also the chair of the 'jewish labour movement' during 2018-2019 over the corbyn years. in 2023 the JLM bragged about having taken down corbyn
North Korean Koksan M1989 170mm calibre Self Propelled Gun (SPG) on the frontlines of the Ukraine-Russia war in a camouflaged position, presumably in Kursk. Video here. These SPGs were seen earlier late last year on trains within Russia itself, once on it's own, and another time accompanied by a delivery of North Korean ballistic missiles.
Interesting note about this SPG. The actual gun is said to be based off of 17cm WW2 era Soviet naval guns or German guns, or a domestic North Korean design combining technology both both countries. The chassis is based off of the Soviet ATS tracked tractor chassis, which uses the same engine as the T-55 tank. Range is reported around 40km for normal shells and 60km for rocket assisted shells. This is likely why Russia would want to use these, their long range is rare on the battlefield and useful for counter battery operations, pushing Ukrainian artillery futher backwards in Kursk. Another fact: the reported DPRK name for this SPG literally translates to "Juche Cannon".
In more news about North Korea in the war, Zelensky decided to publish a propaganda interview with an alleged North Korean POW. Video here. While Ukrainian propaganda continues to get more unhinged, it does appear that the POW has a distinct accent (when compared to presumably the South Korean interpreter) and is just saying whatever the interpreter and Ukraine says he must say, meaning that the answers have no value, as with almost all POW videos. I don't speak Korean, so I have no idea or opinion on the accent or the dialect, if it's North Korean or South Korean, other than it sounds distinct/thick. Any possible Korean users with any opinion?
Posting this since I have been one of the most skeptical posters about DPRK troops fighting on the Russian border with Ukraine
Ukraine actually did release audio of the interview with the supposed North Korean soldiers. Everyone seems to agree that the soldier is speaking Korean with a distinct Northern accent.
I'm still a little skeptical since they only have one single guy capable of speaking. He could be a South Korean who's really good at accents, or maybe they somehow abducted a civilian laborer from the DPRK in Russia
Hell, South Korea was getting more and more involved in Ukraine, so this could be a psyop filmed in South Korea with a DPRK defector.
Maduro suggests using Brazilian troops to free Puerto Rico.
The Venezuelan president has said that the freedom of Puerto Rico, a US territory, is pending. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (United Socialist Party of Venezuela, left) suggested on Saturday using “Brazilian troops” to win the “freedom of Puerto Rico”, an island located in the Caribbean under the control of the United States.
“Just as in the north they have a colonization agenda, we have a liberation agenda. The agenda was written by Simón Bolívar. Puerto Rico's freedom is pending, and we're going to win it, Breno. With Brazilian troops. And Abreu de Lima at the front. Abreu de Lima Battalion to liberate Puerto Rico, what do you think?” said Maduro.
During his speech, Maduro mentions someone called Breno. He then suggests using “troops from Brazil”. It is possible to interpret that the mention of Brazilians was motivated by the relationship that the chavista has with this person called Breno and that it was all just a joke.
The Abreu e Lima Battalion, named after Pernambuco general José Inácio de Abreu e Lima, took an active part in Simón Bolívar's campaigns, including independence movements in countries such as Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. The current governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González-Colón, has already spoken out against Maduro. After the elections in the country, she said that “Edmundo González is the elected president of Venezuela” and that she supports “María Corina and the courageous Venezuelan people”.
The results of the election have been repeatedly contested by the European Union and several individual countries, such as the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. Brazilian president President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that he saw nothing unusual in the country's elections.
Human Rights Watch criticized Presidents Lula, Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico) in August 2024. In a letter sent to the three presidents, they said it was necessary for them to reconsider their positions on Venezuela and criticized the leaders' proposals.
The Brazilian government filed an out-of-court notice for Meta to explain the possible effects of changes in Facebook and Instagram guidelines.
Government lawyers gave a 72-hour deadline for an explanation of the alterations in fact checking and fake news that may affect children, adolescents and women, for example.
In addition, a government working group was created with consultation to the rest of the Powers and civil society to follow up on the measures to protect freedom of expression, without tolerating the violation of fundamental rights.
A long and not super worthwhile article by kagan on ukraine and trump. There's nothing really to learn from this beyond the change to pessimism from once stalwart ukraine dick riders from the US foreign policy blob. The jist of it is that Trump is inclined to bail on project ukraine but doesn't want to look like a loser. In this way, trump's circumstances mirror his rhetoric - he is the same as his predecessors but is gauche about it.
The shift from "bringing the war to an end on day one" to "hoping to wrap it up in 6 months" (paraphrased) suggests a return to A Decent Interval thought, similar to Vietnam in the early 70s and Afghanistan in 2021.
The big serge year end roundup is more worthwhile https://bigserge.substack.com/p/total-kievan-debellation on war nerd things
President Nicolás Maduro awards decorations to Venezuelan officials and high-ranking government officials who were sanctioned by the US, the EU and Canada after the swearing-in of the Venezuelan president.
The regional Jutland branch of DBU, Denmark's football association, has voted down a proposal for allowing amateur transgender, intersex and non-binary players to self-identity their gender. Out of 250 delegates only 34 voted in favour of the proposal. The Jutland branch is the largest regional branch of DBU and the first where such a proposal has been put up for a vote.
To judge from reporting on the vote, delegates voted against under the influence of the same transphobic moral panic against trans-female athletes that has plagued many other countries.
- Source: DR (state media), January 11th 2025
As (COTW) Canada starts with the ability to Farm tundra tiles , you first rush Animal Husbandary to unlook camps, then rush Temple of Artemis to get the amanities in you Tundra capital , as you nearly always have a camp. then its mostly empie building (dont forget to get the Kremlin) until you unlook the Mounties , Mounties are extremly Op ,they have 2 charges to create a National Park ( so worth 3000 Faith per unit basiclly) and Tundra tiles often have high appeal . So you can Bomb National Parks accross you Nation to get ridiculus amounts of Amenities. All While you advance with you Eco Fascist Horse Lord Mounties ,founding National Parks in the Pillaged Conquered Lands to keep the new citizens in Line.
Its a very strong Nation , with the Downsite of it beeing Canada. So you dont actually want to lead it to glory.
In a last-minute move, Biden sanctions what is basically the entire world regarding AI chips. There are now 3 tier countries, with tier 1 with unlimited access, tier 2 with 50.000 AI units limit and tier 3 countries with strictest restrictions. Tier 1 is (shrunk down list of) "always the same map" countries, Tier 3 China, Russia and friends, Tier 2 the rest of the world.
Interestingly enough, Tier 2 includes Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, all the
NaziBaltic states and Poland (heh heh). This could mean even gamers could have a hard time, or more likely no chance at all due to red tape, business demand, or inflated price, getting the upcoming Nvidia's strongest RTX 5090s in those countries.Bloomberg article on archive link: https://archive.ph/UKYTp
LA Wildfires Push California Insurance Market to Its Limit
Love how the lightest color on that scale is $500k
reposting that one debatebro who was going 'why didn't they get insurance?'
José “Cha Cha” Jiménez, a human rights activist who co-founded the Rainbow Coalition and served as chairman of the Young Lords organization, died Friday. He was 76.
Mr. Jiménez spent much of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s fighting gentrification in Lincoln Park, allying with other organizations in Chicago to uplift minority and low-income communities, and rallying for an independent Puerto Rico.
Does anyone have any good sources for the NordStream bankruptcy case this month? The rumor is that U.S. investor Steven Lynch got a special sanctions permit from the US treasury that would allow him to buy the pipeline and then act as a middleman for reselling Russian gas into Europe, earning a nice markup for doing literally nothing. Is this true? If yes, this would mean that Europe has completely and totally capitulated to the US in every way, even at their own direct expense.
are pakistan and afghanistan still beefing?
Today’s news and combat footage from the Donbass and Kursk oblast.
Surrendered Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk oblast revealed that their Kiev regime commanders had cut off some of their fingers for refusing to shoot at Russian troops: https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--⬇️READ-BELOW⬇️--POW'S-with-severed-fingers!:6
President Putin awarded Andrey Grigoryev with the Hero of Russia title. He was the Russian soldier from Yakutia that recently eliminated a Kiev regime troop in a dramatic knife fight in the Donetsk People's Republic: https://www.rt.com/russia/610748-putin-decorated-knife-fight-soldier/
A Russian soldier destroyed a Kiev regime position with an anti-tank mine (video): https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--Delivery-of-an-anti-tank-mine-to-the-position-of-AFU-observers:b
Russian drone operators destroyed another Kiev regime tank (video): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/11/970747.html
The Brazilian Supreme Court is asking the former president, whose passport has been detained, to prove that he was indeed invited by Donald Trump to the inauguration of the American president.
Bolsonaro presented the Supreme Court with an email that, according to his defense, was Trump's invitation to his inauguration. But the email is automatic, generated from a website used to book any seat in front of the Capitol. And it's not even a VIP area. The booking site is t47inaugural.com/tickets/. Now it remains to be seen whether the KPoppers and Swifters will fill the seats and guarantee “the largest audience in history”.
Ukraine is saying they captured two "North Korean soldiers". One's jaw is broken so he can't respond to the questions they ask, and they narrated over the other one.
To quote Napoleon Bonaparte
ethel cain, a music artist out posts hexbear, calling for more ceo liquidations
pictures of story
follows her trend of tweets when biden previously send 2 million to israel
edit, i can confirm the first three pictures are legit - saw on her story
On the Attempted Assassination of Comrade Booker Ngesa Omole, General Secretary of CPM Kenya:
https://xcancel.com/BookerBiro/status/1877916575568724010This morning, at approximately 3:00 am, armed assailants equipped with night vision goggles and firearms violently stormed the residence of Comrade Booker Ngesa Omole.
A fierce exchange of gunfire ensued, during which Comrade Booker and his comrades managed to neutralise one attacker, while seven others fled the scene. The police arrived an hour later, long after the attackers had escaped.
The UK's "Chancellor of the Exchequer" Rachel Reeves is currently in China for the 11th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue:
Chinese VP meets with UK chancellor of exchequer; China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue convenes after a six-year hiatus - Global Times
Reeves defends China visit and hails £600m boost to UK - BBC
UK seeks to to rekindle 'pragmatic' economic China ties - DW
How to trigger Trump: Britain’s cozy China trip risks America’s anger - PoliticoI never knew Jimmy Carter actually met with Hamas representatives back in 2008.
Former President Jimmy Carter says the militant group would not undermine talks for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, as long as the Palestinian people approve the deal by referendum. Hamas also says it will offer Israel a 10-year truce if it withdraws from land seized in the 1967 war.
Former President Jimmy Carter says that the Palestinian militant group Hamas is prepared to accept Israel's right to live in peace. Carter met with Hamas leaders over the weekend, a meeting opposed by Israel and the Bush administration. They both shun Hamas and view it as a terrorist organization. A senior Hamas official praised former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday, a day after he met with the group, but said he failed to persuade the Islamic rulers of Gaza to accept international demands, including recognizing Israel.
Carter, a strong advocate of the Palestinians after his presidency, claimed that Israel's policies amounted to an apartheid worse than South Africa's. Though as president Carter brokered the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, the first between Israel and an Arab country, he is perceived by many Israelis as anti-Israel, siding with the Palestinians in their conflict.
He "antagonized" many Israelis with his 2007 book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," in which he argued that Israel must choose between ceding the West Bank to the Palestinians or maintaining a system of ethnic inequality similar to that of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Most Israelis strongly reject the comparison.
I don’t quite understand the SC ruling on Tiktok ban.
The projected loss of revenues for vendors is about $1 billion, with another $300 million loss for content creators. Granted I’m not a fan of Tiktok/Douyin and never used it, but this is undeniably yet another class warfare waged by Biden and probably won’t even be the last before he leaves office.
Is Biden seriously doing this to take away Trump’s bargaining chip with China? Does he really want to stoke a war as his final act as the president?
I think Trump will still fight the court decision but the grounds for divestiture is thin.
The top headline on my google news tonight:
So i guess we are just gonna turn the fires into crime panic huh. Dont pay attention to the profit-seeking corporations that causes this or the lack of funding for public services that could mitigate or prevent a tragedy. Please bro just pay attention to the looters pleaseeeee
So i gave in and actually read this trash. And whats worse is they are also arresting people for "possession of burglary tools" and ofc "possession of narcotics" fuck these pigs
spoiler
18 arrests so far in Eaton, Palisades fires The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said they have made 18 arrests so far regarding criminal activity in connection with the Eaton and Palisades fires.
Charges include looting, burglary, identity theft, possession of burglary tools and possession of narcotics, Assistant Sheriff Myron Johnson said during a briefing Friday.
One suspect was on active parole and was also charged with possession of a concealed firearm, Johnson said.
A curfew enacted in the Palisades and the Eaton fire areas will remain in effect until further notice and "is being taken to enhance public safety, protect property and prevent looting in areas where residents have been evacuated," he said.
Vatican approves guidelines allowing gay men to become priests, as long as they don't have sex
Adjustment, considered unexpected, applies only to Italy. The new guidelines will be valid for a trial period of three years. Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic Church since 2013, has been credited with adopting a more welcoming approach towards the LGBTQIA+ community. He recently allowed priests to bless same-sex couples in specific cases.
However, the admission of gay men to the priesthood remains a taboo subject. Gay priests often express fear of discussing their sexuality. Francis also allegedly used a derogatory word to describe gay people when discussing homosexuality in seminaries during a closed-door meeting last year. The case prompted the Vatican to issue a rare apology.
Interviews with locals in Nuuk has revealed that many of the Greenlanders who had lunch with Trump Jr. were not in fact supporters of the idea of an American annexation. Instead many of them were homeless and socially disadvantaged locals who had been bribed with the fancy dinner at the best restaurant in town, some of them without knowing exactly what the point of the event was.
Leading up to the First Son's bizarre visit, collaborators of his had approached locals on the parking lot in front of the Brugseni supermarket where socially disadvantaged people often meet.
The Trump organisation has not replied to questions about the story but the local collaborator who organised the event has claimed that everyone at the event were there "voluntarily" and that "people from all walks off life" were present.
- Source: DR (state media), January 9th 2025
Some news and videos from Russia’s special military operation.
A Russian drone strike recently eliminated another British mercenary (and former British soldier) in Zaporozhye oblast: https://www.rt.com/russia/610601-british-mercenary-killed-ukraine/
Russian ‘hellish backpack’ destroys Kiev regime position (video): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/09/965938.html
Recent Russian drone strikes in and near the partially Kiev-occupied DPR city of Dzerzhinsk, AKA “Toretsk” (videos): https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--Destruction-of-enemy-vehicles-by-drones-in-Toretsk!!:3
Plus, a special bonus video: Iran has released footage of its latest, impressive underground missile base: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/10/968652.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g9ezyw0keo US announces $25m reward for arrest of Venezuela's Maduro
wait whatIt's like an addiction to nonsense. After having more than 24 hours to come up with a convincing explanation for her (non-existent) "kidnapping", Machado managed to make it even more ridiculous. Somehow, in an age where everything is livestreamed, there is no evidence, nor even a minimal description of who was involved. And also, according to Machado, she was detained by armed men who then released her in exchange for her recording a video saying she had not been detained. No further questions, your honor!
Honestly, Machado should have stayed offline for longer and then come up with a heroic escape tale, given how her supporters and the corporate press will just believe anything. But there is more nonsense. Machado said former candidate Edmundo González did not come because the government turned on air defense systems! When in the past it simply barred planes from taking off without authorization. It also would have been easier to just shut down airspace, or even arrest González once he landed
The bottom line is that the US-backed opposition once again created the illusion that it had plans and means to make something happen to stop Maduro from taking office today, when in fact (and all the evidence suggested it) they really had no cards to play
General who led 2009 coup d'état arrested in Honduras. The former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Honduras, General Romeo Vásquez, was arrested Sunday as allegedly responsible for the murder of a protester by military officers in 2009, days after leading the coup against former President Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009).
Article
The deputy chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Venancio Cervantes, and the former commander of the Joint Operations Command, Carlos Puerto, both arrested along with Vásquez, will also go to prison. They will be held in the Támara National Penitentiary, 27 kilometers northwest of Tegucigalpa, until January 10, when the first trial hearing is scheduled, the authorities said.
The ex-military men were arrested by a strong police contingent on Sunday morning in Tegucigalpa and La Paz (west) and taken to a capital court, where for hours their statements were taken as defendants “for allegedly being responsible for the crimes of homicide and serious injury”. The charges stem from an armed attack on demonstrators near Toncontín airport in Tegucigalpa on July 5, 2009, the Public Prosecutor's Office said. The demonstrators were awaiting Zelaya's return from Nicaragua after he was taken at gunpoint from his home in Tegucigalpa in the early hours of June 28 of that year by around 200 soldiers who handcuffed him and took him to the airport, where he was put on a plane bound for Costa Rica.
“Elements of the Armed Forces” acted ‘disproportionately’ and fired at the demonstrators with M16 rifles ‘indiscriminately’, the Public Prosecutor's Office said in its request. Obed Murillo died of a gunshot wound to the head, while Alex Zavala was seriously injured. Shortly before his arrest in the morning, Vásquez published two texts on the X network in which he denied the accusations against him and accused the government of leftist Xiomara Castro, Zelaya's wife, of “political persecution” and “manipulation of power”. “They won't be able to silence me! I never gave the order to attack any Honduran,” he added in his latest publication. Since he arrived heavily guarded by the Special Police Forces at the Tegucigalpa Criminal Court, supporters and detractors of the accused have begun to gather at the gates of the court.
New lancet paper
than official number, Lancet study finds
Analysis estimates death toll by end of June was 64,260, with 59% being women, children and people over 65 Guardian staff and agencies Fri 10 Jan 2025 18.47 GMT
Research published in the Lancet medical journal estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was about 40% higher than numbers recorded by the Palestinian territory’s health ministry.
The peer-reviewed statistical analysis was conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions, using a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis.
The researchers sought to assess the death toll from Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024, estimating 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury during this period. The study said 59.1% were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian combatants among the dead.
Up to 30 June last year, the health ministry in Gaza reported a death toll of 37,877 in the war, which began on 7 October 2023 after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostages.
According to Palestinian health officials, a total of more than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, from a prewar population of about 2.3 million.
It has not been possible for international media to independently verify the death toll in Gaza as Israel does not allow foreign journalists into the territory.
A senior Israeli official, commenting on the study published on Friday, said Israel’s armed forces went to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. “No other army in the world has ever taken such wide-ranging measures,” the official said.
“These include providing advance warning to civilians to evacuate, safe zones and taking any and all measures to prevent harm to civilians. The figures provided in this report do not reflect the situation on the ground.”
The Lancet study said the Palestinian health ministry’s capacity for maintaining electronic death records had previously proven reliable, but deteriorated under Israel’s military campaign, which has included raids on hospitals and other healthcare facilities and disruptions to digital communications.
Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its operations, which the militant group denies.
The study used death toll data from the health ministry, an online survey launched by the ministry for Palestinians to report relatives’ deaths, and social media obituaries to estimate that there were between 55,298 and 78,525 deaths from traumatic injuries in Gaza up to 30 June 2024.
The study’s best estimate was 64,260 dead, which would mean the health ministry had under-reported the number of deaths to that point by 41%. The estimate represented 2.9% of Gaza’s prewar population, “or approximately one in 35 inhabitants”, the study said.
The figure is only for deaths from traumatic injuries and does not include deaths from a lack of healthcare or food, or the thousands believed to be buried under rubble.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) estimates that, on top of the official death toll from the health ministry, another 11,000 Palestinians are missing and presumed dead.
The researchers scoured the three lists, searching for duplicates. “We only kept in the analysis those who were confirmed dead by their relatives or confirmed dead by the morgues and the hospital,” said Zeina Jamaluddine, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the lead author of the study.
“Then we looked at the overlaps between the three lists, and based on the overlaps, you can come up with a total estimation of the population that was killed,” Jamaluddine told Agence France-Presse.
However, the researchers cautioned that the hospital lists did not always provide the cause of death, so it was possible that people with non-traumatic deaths could have been included, potentially leading to an overestimate.
Patrick Ball, a statistician at the US-based Human Rights Data Analysis Group not involved in the research, has used capture-recapture methods to estimate death tolls for conflicts in Guatemala, Kosovo, Peru and Colombia.
Ball told AFP the well-tested technique had been used for centuries and that the researchers had reached “a good estimate” for Gaza.
Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at Britain’s Open University, said there was “inevitably a lot of uncertainty” when making estimates from incomplete data, but it was “admirable” that the researchers had used three other approaches to check their estimates.
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report
Link to lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02678-3/fulltext
Am I being overly conspiratorial in wondering why Al-Sharaa’s Wikipedia is now automatically condensing any of his military history before 2017 aka when he was in Al-Qaeda? It’s not explicit censorship because the history is still there, but it seems to add one extra step to finding the truth
For context, this is how it’s typically displayed
Trump was “sentenced to unconditional acquittal for his office as president”, according to Judge Juan Merchan. Trump will not pay fines, be imprisoned or remain on probation. He will be free and clear of any legal damages.
Judge Juan Merchan cited Trump's return to the White House to acquit him, stating that despite the seriousness of the crimes, the court must respect the hierarchy of Powers. Juan also stated that it was US “citizenship” that gave Trump back these legal protections, which include, among others, supremacy and presidential immunity.
Thus, Trump will avoid jail time and fines in the case of sexual extortion to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he had an affair. The case involves accusations that Donald Trump paid $130,000 to actress Stormy Daniels to silence her about an alleged extramarital affair before the 2016 election. The payment was made via his lawyer Michael Cohen.
Juan Guaidó: It is the first time and it will be the last time that a clown speaks from the elliptical hall of the federal palace. There is going to be justice.
I guess Juan Guaido is going to delete his twitter account?
President Nicolás Maduro is sworn in for his third term before the National Assembly of Venezuela. Nicolás Maduro receives the presidential sash, presented by President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez. President Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua, was present and hugged President Nicolas Maduro.
Nicolás Maduro has entered the National Assembly for the swearing-in ceremony. Today he begins a new mandate for the period 2025-2031. Cheers outside of the National Assembly. President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in on Friday (10) in Caracas and said that his next six years in office will be “marked by peace”. Amid pressure from the opposition, which threatened to interfere in the ceremony, the president said that he “promised peace and delivered peace”.
“We had strength against a public and media articulation by the US, which turned Venezuela's election into a global dispute. It's not Maduro, it's a people growing into a man. If Maduro has meaning, it's because Chávez has meaning. They tried to turn the election into a peaceful country, but the oligarchy is defeated, the US is defeated,” he said.
Maduro will be the longest-serving president in Venezuelan history. If he finishes his term in 2031, he will have been in charge of the country for 18 years and will surpass the liberator Simón Bolívar, who headed the Venezuelan government for 15 years. He was elected on July 28, 2024 with 6.4 million votes (51.97%) against 5.3 million (43.18%) for his opponent Edmundo González Urrutia.
The Venezuelan once again said that Venezuela will develop in the coming years together with the BRICS. According to him, the country has been part of the bloc “for 200 years, because we are part of the world that is pushing for a new history”. The Brazilian government sent the Brazilian ambassador in Caracas, Glivânia Maria de Oliveira. Colombia is represented in Venezuelan territory by Milton Rengifo Hernández, while Mexico has Ambassador Leopoldo de Gyvés de la Cruz in the Venezuelan capital.
Maduro's third term inauguration has seen a number of foreign dignitaries and delegations arrive to participate in the official ceremonies. Seen were also the Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, St Vincent PM Ralph Gonsalves and the delegation from Nigeria. As well as Russian, Chinese, Honduran, Belarussian and Ugadan diplomats.
While Libs, Gusanos and Chuds cry about "Ebil Dictator Vuvuzela Maduro bad man", theres a literal coup happening in Ecuador
Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump speaks out in support of the Venezuelan opposition, and calls upon the 'regime' not to harm freedom fighters Maria Corina Machado & President-elect Gonzalez.
Maria Corina Machado, the face of the Venezuelan opposition, was arrested earlier today after a last ditch effort to prevent tomorrow's ratification of the Presidential Election results from July 2024, which resulted in a heavily controversial win for incumbent candidate Nicolas Maduro.
Bipartisan support for terrorism
EU's Von der Leyen has not received invite to Trump inauguration, spokesperson says.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not yet received an invitation to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, a spokesperson said on Friday. "If she receives an invitation, then we will see but there are no plans (to attend the inauguration) at the moment", spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters during a daily briefing.
Trump has broken with precedent and invited several foreign leaders to the ceremony. Historically they have not attended due to security concerns and have sent diplomats instead. Chinese President Xi Jinping, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni among others have received invitations.
When will people learn Bolsonaro literally can't leave Brazil. At this point I think they are just fucking with him.
According to reports, Xi will not attend but will send a top-level envoy in his place.
I've queued up the c-span stream of the US supreme Court hearing about the TikTok ban on https://live.hexbear.net/c/news
Surely, they apply the same criteria to everyone
https://www.state.gov/genocide-determination-in-sudan-and-imposing-accountability-measures/
The Kingdom of Denmark changes its coat of arms for the first time in 500 years in response to Donald Trump's threats to invade Greenland and take the territory by force.
The measure taken by King Frederik removes the triple crown of the Kalmar Union (which united Denmark, Sweden and Norway) and places the bear of Greenland and the ram of the Faroe Islands. In his New Year's speech, the king reaffirmed the unity of the Kingdom of Denmark “all the way to Greenland”.
Someone flew a drone into one of the planes fighting the fires in LA
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-sopfeu-plane-grounded-1.7427777
Coup/Presidential Crisis in Ecuador
The Ecuadorean National Assembly returned decree 500, in which President Daniel Noboa asked for a “few days' leave” to campaign, to the presidency, and put in his place a Vice-President appointed by him, rather than the elected one. The Assembly has asked the president to take an official leave of absence. And they have said that they will only recognize the legitimacy of Veronica Abad, the Vice-President elected in 2023, together with Daniel Noboa.
A coup d'état will take place in Ecuador, says Vice-President Abad. The Vice President of Ecuador, Verónica Abad, said today that “a coup d'état will be carried out” in the next few hours by the government itself, when President Daniel Noboa entrusts the presidency to “his secretary.” Cynthia Gellibert.
At a press conference in the capital, Abad addressed the international community and said that the coup orchestrated by the Executive affects national and regional stability. “The constitutional order has been broken. The president and his improvised cabinet have repeatedly violated the Constitution and are carrying out a coup d'état for the democratic history of Ecuador,” he told journalists.
Abad opposes abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and 4th wave feminism. She says she defends freedom of religion, individual rights, private property, small government and free markets. She has also shown sympathy for politicians including Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, and the far-right Spanish party Vox. The Citizen Revolution party, a democratic socialist Correaista party, has declared its critical support for Veronica Abad. Insisting that she take over the presidency until the 2025 elections.
Meanwhile, Daniel Noboa insists that there is a conspiracy between his party, his ministers and Congress to bring down his government. He also insists that the power outages are not due to cuts in the infrastructure budget, but to a plot by one of his ministers against him because they want to remove him from power.
Rather out of topic rant I will make
I think Iraq war was much more devastating to USA in some other ways people realise. I can not say I know too much but no other war veterans seem to be this much opposed to USA foreign actions than Iraq war veterans. I think it is because it was partially successful war. They successfully killed saddam and destroyed so much doing so. When it was time to rebuild, USA failed utterly. Gave way to creation of groups like ISIS. Soldiers saw it first hand how they destroyed a country to turn it into a ruin. They saw it theirself how much they have ruined. So I guess moral of the story is if you successfully occupy a land, you might suffer long term army morale problems if you ruin the land
Norway's government plans to increase the nation's civil defence. The number of conscripts assigned to civil defence will be increased from 8.000 to 12.000.
In addition Norway plans to be 50 percent self-sufficient by 2030 and increase emergency stores of grain to have enough to cover the nation's needs for three months by 2029.
In addition the Norwegian government is increasing funding to voluntary civil defence organisations, working on a new cyber preparedness plan as well as a "strategy to strengthen the public's resilience against desinformation" that will be presented this spring.
- Source: NRK (state media), January 10th 2025
https://xcancel.com/trhxianl/status/1877397900180795752
one pov on lebanese president selection
https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1877474174652002533
related video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyJTv_qLqsI
Modern Nazis like the AfD are so shit, they don't even have the 'dull the Germans by giving them jobs' part, they only have Islamophobia.
Kalecki's saying "One of the important functions of fascism, as typified by the Nazi system, was to remove the capitalist objections to full employment." no longer applies
Lmao. I do prefer this more naked imperialism from the US, it's more honest. Well perhaps not more naked, just directed towards the imperial periphery this time.
But the disquiet brought on by Trump's refusal to rule out military intervention to seize Greenland remains.
Karsten Honge said Denmark would have suffer whatever decision the US takes.
"They just need to send a small battleship to travel down the Greenland coast and send a polite letter to Denmark," he said, only partly in jest.
"The last sentence would be: well, Denmark, what you gonna do about it?
"That's the new reality with regards to Trump."
stated they also will not obey the ICC ruling and the Nazi entity will protect Satan if he enters the country - Al JazeeraThis is the same Poland who is tied with Estonia for being fanatically obsessed with NATO/NAFO and idolise Boer terrorists such as Janusz Walus, already ensuring tensions ahead of time (and ahead of piSSrael) with a post-Apartheid South Africa. It's been almost a decade since South Africa attempted to leave the ICC on the grounds of the court being illegitimate.
Xi, launch the rockets
Iranian military states it is willing to support KKKlanada in an scenario of Amerikkklan aggression
Mainstream media glosses over role of Ukrainian far-right in Wpg hate crimes - People's Voice
Mainstream media in Canada is glossing over the role of far-right Ukrainian groups in acts of hate. Specifically, coverage of the recent appearance of swastikas on a southwest Winnipeg community centre have failed to acknowledge the presence and significance of the spraypainted “M.K.Y.” next to the hate symbols. MKY (or MKU) is an extreme-right accelerationist Ukrainian group that recruits online and encourages acts of racist acts of violence.
i'm not familiar with the source, but i'm not surprised by israel's unwillingness to stop destroying land and people after agreeing to its own "ceasefire"
New York Times rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide” | AFSC Press Release
here are some ads the @nytimes has seen fit to publish in recent years | New York Warcrimes
[not going to repost the hasbara ad images here, partly because of laziness and partly because it feels gross to repost]
A little news from Kursk oblast. All of the Kiev regime’s recent attacks failed – they could not capture a single settlement. Meanwhile, over the past few days, Russian forces liberated the Kursk oblast settlements of Leonidovo, Russkoye Porechnoye, and Kruglenkoye.
In addition, over 20 Kiev regime invaders (from the “82nd Airborne Assault Brigade” and the “225th Separate Assault Battalion”) surrendered to Russian forces in Kursk oblast, near Berdin (videos): https://southfront.press/testimony-of-ukrainian-soldiers-captured-in-russian-kursk-region/
More drone strikes on Kiev regime armored vehicles near the Kursk oblast settlement of Berdin (video): https://s5.cdnstatic.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20890-Berdin.mp4?_=1
Russian drone strikes on Kiev regime positions in Kursk oblast (video): https://s5.cdnstatic.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20924_1.mp4?_=1
Georgia now has two presidents. One is legitimate, and the other is from the representative office of an American foundation. She has employees and a driver under her command.
Zurabishvili claims that in this way she will continue to perform the functions of the President of Georgia.
NO FUCKING WAY, JUAN GUAIDO 3.0 has dropped
The Baltics bootlick the West so hard only to be placed in the same tier as Indonesia and the AES
https://xcancel.com/Gokul_Sahni/status/1877211735364374700A very interesting proposed list – a lot of countries friendly to the US will not make the cut for the most permissive AI exports.
I need a quick @LargePenis@hexbear.net summary of what to expect out of the Michael Aoun presidency, please and thank you.
Bit idea: try to get NAFOs to agree that the Soviet invasion of Poland was good (which it was) because it restored Ukraine's territorial integrity after Poland illegally invaded and annexed parts of it.
If they try to disagree, ask them if Lviv/Lwów should be given back to Poland. If they say no, ask how Ukraine should have gotten that land back otherwise.
I'm actually a bit surprised Qassam doesn't use drones too much against the genocidal entity. We have seen a bunch of those on Oct 7th and a few afterwards, which includes that famous shot of a drone dropping a small grenade on a gathering of iof soldiers. Tbh I expected to see more of that, and perhaps even FPV drones which would disable enemy armour.
Huh, perhaps they couldnt get ahold of a significant number of drones due to the blockade and the limited number they have are used to plan for ambushes or observation, who knows. Also FPV drones are a novelty too, but the ones that drop explosives aren't. It's a shame because they could inflict a fuckton of casualties on the colonizers.
The opposition takes to the streets in an empty march in Caracas on the eve of Maduro's inauguration.
María Corina said that this Friday will be the 'final sentence of the regime'; her alleged arrest has been denied by the government. The opposition has tried to create a climate to interfere with Nicolás Maduro's inauguration. Videos on social networks, calls for marches and an international tour of countries governed by the right were the main tricks used by the extreme right that questions the result of the July 28 elections. But what was seen on Thursday (9) was a demonstration that brought together around 3,000 people in eastern Caracas.
Ultra-liberal María Corina Machado called on opponents to hold what she called a “march for freedom” on the eve of the presidential inauguration. The group claims that the former Unity Platform candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, will be sworn in on Friday (10) in a move that has not been detailed by the opposition.
Trump shares a video of Sachs where he talks shit about Netanyahu. Netanyahu will come groveling and Trump will give in and help with genocide. It's a tragic and horrific spectacle. The kayfabe is impressive.
More terrible numbers out of Germany
Demand fell 5.4% in November from the previous month, far worse than the 0.2% decline economists had predicted in a Bloomberg survey.
Not necessarily news but relevant given the LA fires and other recent natural disasters in the USA alone. There is some kind of poetic justice here that the empire that threatens the environment of the only home that humans have, should receive the worst of its wrath when it isn't respected (of course most of the people don't deserve this). Also curious that what gives the USA a geopolitical advantage (being between two very large oceans etc) also creates for more varied and possibly violent climate.
Blame geography for the U.S. getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet, several experts said. Two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas like Florida, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to naturally brew the nastiest of weather.
Tornadoes. Hurricanes. Flash floods. Droughts. Wildfires. Blizzards. Ice storms. Nor’easters. Lake-effect snow. Heat waves. Severe thunderstorms. Hail. Lightning. Atmospheric rivers. Derechos. Dust storms. Monsoons. Bomb cyclones. And the dreaded polar vortex.
Los Angeles is facing the worst fires in its history. More than 100,000 people have evacuated the region, while strong winds are making it difficult to fight the flames. Malibu and Hollywood Hills celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Jamie Lee Curtis and Billy Crystal have lost their homes.
Six major active blazes in the city hit landmarks such as Mulholland Drive and the 101 Freeway. The Sunset fire, near Hollywood Boulevard, is consuming luxury and tourist areas, leaving a scene of destruction. More than 6,000 hectares have been devastated so far. Residents seek shelter in community centers, while volunteers help with food and supplies. “War zone” is how witnesses describe the scene, with giant flames and gas explosions. Los Angeles is trying to contain the tragedy that has already left 5 dead.
The fires in Los Angeles have disrupted Hollywood productions, the awards season and local TV programming. In the awards season, the Critics Choice was postponed by two weeks, a BAFTA event was postponed, the announcement of the Oscar nominees was rescheduled for February 19 and the SAG Awards announcement event was canceled (and published online without a ceremony).
Films such as Unstoppable, Better Man and The Last Showgirl had their premieres canceled. So did Emilia Pérez and A Complete Unknown. On TV, Hacks, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS and Ted have been suspended. The Jimmy Kimmel Live! show has been canceled.
Unconfirmed reports that far-right opposition leader, María Corina Machado, has been arrested in Caracas after her caravan was "intercepted". More updates as it develops.Update: Well, much ado about nothing. Far-right Machado herself denies the reports that she was "intercepted" or "kidnapped." Someone tell the White House press office to scrap that statement
The president of Panama, Jose Raul Mulino, demanded the freedom of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and held the government of Nicolas Maduro responsible for her personal integrity.
President Mulino should explain why his running mate is still hiding inside the Nicaraguan Embassy. It would be pretty funny if Trump reestablished relations with Venezuela, and at the same time invaded Panama. These people are such puppets of the US, that even when the US goverment openly says they hate Panama and wants to invade, they still obey the orders the CIA gives them.
Russia's ambassador to Denmark has made a statement in opposition American schemes for an annexation of Greenland. He said to corporate newspaper Berlingske:
The question of Greenland's future must be decided on the basis of the Greenlanders' own will, within the framework of Danish law and without outside interference.
Russia has called for strengthening stability in the Arctic region. The ambassador warns that unilateral attempts by the US to strengthen its presence in Greenland would worsen the situation in the Arctic which Russia will need to take into account in its military planning.
Pepe Mujica said that his cancer has spread to his liver: “I am dying”. - La Nacion
Article
The former Uruguayan president gave details about his health condition and assured that he will not undergo any treatment to alleviate the disease. The former Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica spoke in the last hours about how his health continues after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer and revealed that the tumor has spread. “The cancer in my esophagus is colonizing my liver. I can't stop it with anything. Why? Because I am an old man and because I have two chronic diseases,” he said.
Thus, in an interview with the local media Búsqueda, he assured: “Neither a biochemical treatment nor surgery will fit me because my body cannot stand it”. After that, he affirmed: “What I ask is that they leave me alone. That they don't ask me for more interviews or anything else. My cycle is over. Honestly, I am dying. And the warrior has the right to rest”.
The former president was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in April last year and since then he underwent different treatments and interventions. The most recent was in the last days of December, when he was fitted with a device that allows him to feed and hydrate himself better. “I'm going to die here,” he said, referring to the farm in Rincón del Cerro where he lives with his wife, Lucía Topolansky. “Outside there is a big sequoia. Manuela (his dog) is buried there. I am making the papers so that they bury me there too. And that's it,” he said.
In this way, the leader of the Movement of Popular Participation (MPP) also referred to the future of his political space after a historic vote in the last elections in which Yamandú Orsi was victorious. Besides assuring that he feels “proud” and that it is something that allows him to “go away calm and grateful”, he added that he is uncomfortable that “they invent lucubrations” about the fact that he could have an important role in the future government, which will take office next March 1st.
“The day after he won the elections he came to see me in the morning, I never talked to him again”, he said about his relationship with the elected president and remarked: ‘I have no idea, I don't intend to know anything and I don't want to see anything because the worst thing there is is to set up a government’. In the same vein, Mujica defined himself as an “old man at the end” who wants to “say goodbye to his compatriots and supporters”. “It is easy to have respect for those who think similar to you, but we must learn that the foundation of democracy is respect for those who think differently. Therefore, the first category are my compatriots and I say goodbye to them. I give them all a hug,” he said and added: ”Second, I say goodbye to my colleagues and supporters. The only thing I want to do now is to say goodbye”.
In another message of political color, he said: “There is nothing like democracy. When I was young I did not think like that, it is true. I was wrong. But today I am fighting for it. It is not the perfect society, it is the best possible one”. At the age of 88, the political leader of the neighboring country announced in April 2024 at a press conference that he had a tumor in the esophagus, which had been diagnosed at the Casmu Assistance Center after a medical checkup.
“In my life, more than once the grim reaper went around the cot, but he kept on shepherding me. This time it seems to me that he is coming with his scythe at the ready and we will see what happens. As long as I can, I'll keep on militating and entertaining myself with vegetables. As long as the roll lasts, I will continue”, he indicated.
From the beginning, his situation was considered “complicated” due to the fact that the former president has had a previous immunological disease for more than 20 years that affects his kidneys. In addition, he had recently undergone a scheduled surgery to place a stent that would improve his conditions for the ingestion of food.
Earlier this year, in an interview for LA NACION, he had considered that “he could not complain” and that reaching the age of 90 was “a miracle”. “I have about seven different bullets in my body. I lost my spleen, I have a smaller lung, my heart is bent that way... I don't know,” he listed on that occasion. And he said: “I believe that nobody likes to die. Because we are programmed to want to live, but we know that in the end we die. I'm not afraid of it, I don't want it either. But because of the age I am, and the ailments, it is a bitter companion that is near. I have to shepherd her.”
On how he will be remembered by future generations, he said: “As a half-crazy old man. Because at the age of 21 I wanted to transform the world and I started to be a militant when I was 14 years old. In the last election, in the speech I gave at the MPP event, I had to hold on to keep myself upright. But well, now that I am retiring from the political organization to which I devoted almost 40 years of my life, it turns out that we received the record number of votes as a sector in the history of the country, and even more, we got the President! Do you understand me?”.
President of Georgia: Incumbent Disputed between Salome Zourabichvili and Mikheil Kavelashvili since 29 December 2024; Mikheil Kavelashvili was elected as the new president on 14 December 2024 by the ruling party and sworn in on 29 December 2024. It was the first indirect election in Georgia's history after the constitutional amendments changed the electoral system in 2017. Opposition parties, Georgian constitutional experts, living former presidents of Georgia, as well as parts of the international community consider Kavelashvili's presidency illegitimate and maintain that Salome Zourabichvili continues to be the president.
Georgia is undergoing a constitutional crisis due to the disputed legitimacy of the October 2024 Georgian parlimentary election, which was conducted with significant irregularities. The crisis escalated with the unconstitutional self-convening of Parliament, the decision of the ruling party to suspend EU accession negotiations, the election of a new president by the disputed Parliament, and the 29 December 2024 inauguration of Mikheil Kavelashvili by the disputed Parliament.
As a football player, Mikheil Kavelashvili was a striker who notably played in the English Premier League for Manchester City and in the Swiss Super League for a range of clubs. He also played for Dinamo Tbilisi and Spartak Vladikavkaz. He was capped 46 times by the Georgian national football team, scoring nine goals. Kavelashvili was the second former professional football player to become a country's president, following the election of George Weah as President of Liberia from 2018 to 2024.
Zourabichvili left the official presidential residence, Orbeliani Palace, on 29 December 2024, when Mikheil Kavelashvili was inaugurated. She said however that she remained the legitimate president. She was quoted saying "This building doesn’t belong to anyone, this building was a symbol while the President, who was legitimate, sat here. I’m taking away the legitimacy, I’m taking away the flag, I’m taking away what is your trust".
The Iranian capital has not been relocated and will not be relocated. Tehran remains the capital.
Pezeshkian's government spokeswoman said that they are examining plans to move the capital more towards the Persian Gulf coast so that transporting raw materials to / from the capital would be less resource-demanding, but there is absolutely no basis for this and it will never happen.
It costs too much money, and it is not logistically feasible either. It would take massive amounts of resources and decades to complete. For a country like Iran, already under sanctions & with a weak economy, this is simply impossible. Former President Rouhani proposed it, Ahmadinejad also thought about it, but it is a dumb idea and neither the parliament nor the Supreme Leader will accept it. It won't even pass the examination stage.
You learn something new everyday. I was reading a China doomerism article on Naked Capitalism today which I have some issues with and won’t be commenting on, but I came across this quote supposedly from Xi Jinping:
To promote common prosperity, we cannot engage in ‘welfarism.’ In the past, high welfare in some populist Latin American countries fostered a group of ‘lazy people’ who got something for nothing. As a result, their national finances were overwhelmed, and these countries fell into the ‘middle income trap’ for a long time. Once welfare benefits go up, they cannot come down. It is unsustainable to engage in ‘welfarism’ that exceeds our capabilities. It will inevitably bring about serious economic and political problems.
At first, I thought this must be some Western propaganda smear and maybe mistranslation. Then I looked it up, turns out it’s real… It was actually published in Qiushi (CPC’s theory website) back in 2022 on an article titled “To correctly identify and grasp the major theoretical and practical issues of our country’s development” based on Xi’s speech to the Central Economic Work Committee in December 2021:
(the exact quote in Chinese)
要完善公共服务政策制度体系。促进共同富裕，不能搞“福利主义”那一套。当年一些拉美国家搞民粹主义，高福利养了一批“懒人”和不劳而获者，结果国家财政不堪重负，落入“中等收入陷阱”，长期不能自拔。福利待遇上去了就下不来了，搞超出能力的“福利主义”是不可持续的，必然会带来严重的经济和政治问题！
—-
This actually explains why China has been so reluctant to just give people money directly to boost consumption. Turns out this neoliberal brainrot is deeper than I thought (I have been defending Xi all this while and now I am getting disappointed) - they really believe that giving people money is bad and you can only create the money after earning the revenues from selling stuff first.
It makes total sense now why China has been struggling to boost domestic consumption since Covid and why the central bank doesn’t simply inject the money.
Because handout is bad! People will turn lazy if they get free money without work! What the fuck, China! How is this different from your typical GOP rhetoric?
Just give people the fucking money and at least half of the problems will be solved.
I got an old church community cookbook from my hometown to see if I could get any old regional heritage recipes from it, because all of my family's recipes were destroyed in a fire. Almost half the recipes had jello as a major ingredient, and some other ones were real bangers like "baked fish with ritz crackers on top". I could feel my skin turn a few shades whiter.
I really get the sense that there's some kind of directive out to downplay natural disasters in the media in the US in recent years. It used to be something like the LA fires or Hurricane Helene destroying parts of NC would get days-long media extravaganzas - it was a good way to boost viewership and grab attention. Now the reporting is present, but kind of pushed off below the fold. I think maybe whoever does the soft censorship when it comes to geopolitics etc.. is suppressing US natural disaster coverage, maybe to prevent people from freaking out over climate change? Maybe to combat the general feeling of malaise and dysfunction settling in?
Am I crazy or do any of you get the same impression?
It appears Richmond, VA has no tap water after a winter storm caused cascading power failures (grid and back-up) at a water treatment facility, causing the facility to be flooded. Grocery stores are selling out of potable water and other beverages. Real Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic hours.
Twitter: https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1877175191891013921 / Nitter: https://xcancel.com/DropSiteNews/status/1877175191891013921
https://archive.ph/CdR5I - TIMES OF ISRAEL
Gazan ‘human shield’ for IDF shot dead in error by officer — report
Palestinian was said to be assisting troops in Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion in Rafah area over summer; army has said the practice is forbidden, but does not deny it took place
A Palestinian who was assisting Israeli forces in searching potentially booby-trapped buildings and tunnels in the Gaza Strip over the summer was shot dead erroneously by an officer, according to a report by the independent news site Hamakom Hachi Ham Bagehenom (The Hottest Place in Hell).
An extensive New York Times report published in October detailed the practice of using Palestinians to carry out reconnaissance missions throughout operations in Gaza, seeking to minimize harm to troops. The newspaper said it spoke with seven IDF soldiers who said the practice was “routine, commonplace, and organized.”
The New York Times also cited retired IDF Brig. Gen Tamir Hayman, a former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, saying that some detainees had either been coerced into entering suspected booby-trapped tunnels or volunteered to guide troops in the field in order to seek favor with the military.
This is your problem now, Jack! 
https://news.antiwar.com/2025/01/08/biden-administration-will-not-revoke-hts-terror-designation/US officials told the Post that the decision about the terrorist designation will now be up to the Trump administration. They said HTS must show that it has really broken from al-Qaeda for the designation to be lifted, though HTS’s history did not stop the US from supporting the HTS takeover of Syria.
Zuckerberg ends independent fact checking on Meta
Meta moving moderation teams to Texas from California
Meta and Amazon donate $1 million dollars to Trump’s inaugural fund
Welcome to neo-feudalism. Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk are playing court politics for King Trump.
Operation Olive Branch (an organization well known to raise fund for Palestinians by being sponsored by content creators) in hot water for reporting former volunteers to the FBI for cybercrimes and harrasment after the volunteers went on tiktok speaking about their negative experience with the organisation and it's lack of transparency in where funds are going
It's fucking funny to see the fascists over at r/Europe and /2westerneurope4u being completely surprised and annoyed that the EU isn't pushing back harder against Trump's threats, and asking themselves why the clown entourage of Don Jr. and co were even allowed to enter Greenland. They know very well that if it was Putin saying these things, it would've sparked a media frenzy, and politicians wouldn't shut up about it. Hell, if one of Europe's lap dogs made such threats against papa Amerikkka, they would've been made persona non grata by the state department within 0.4 of a femtosecond.
Labour Party is blasted after using 'forbidden' Brazilian funk to extol the Starmer government in the UK.
The post shows Labour's promises for the year 2025 with images of animals made by artificial intelligence and accompanied by the song 'Montagem Coral', by DJ Holanda, which suggests drugging 'novinhas' (“Novinha” is a term that appears in funk music lyrics, and also in sexual content. It is used for young girls) to have sex. The party apologized and the piece was deleted.
The funk lyrics suggest drugging “young girls” for sexual advantage. In the 34-second video, you can hear the lines: “Use poppers and weed! Go, naughty young girl, relaxing sit on dick, naughty, shameless! Go sit on your dick, crazy about marijuana” The Labour Party apologized for the video. “We recognize that the translation of the lyrics is completely inappropriate. We apologize and the video has been deleted,” the party said in a statement.
COVID Year 6: Return of the Mask
I listened to some of Death Panel's "COVID Year Five" podcast episode a few days ago, so this timing is peak.
As a non-American and self-proclaimed enemy of the United States of America, I'm pro-annexation of Canada and Greenland. I hold this position for one reason only, my map-brain is tired of the post-1991 borders and wants to see some new borders. South Sudan, East Timor and Montenegro are pretty much the only changes, and they're really not exciting. Give us massive swathes of land changing color on the map.
I know a lot of people are making fun of Trump for his claims about annexing Greenland and Canada, along with threats to Panama over the Panama canal and claiming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, but from a geo strategic point, it absolutely makes sense. I know that sounds crazy but hear me out.
With global warming, more and more of the Arctic will be explorable, and more shipping routes will become viable. There are also huge amounts of natural resources available there, including an estimated over 400 billion barrels of oil, and lots of mining opportunities. Over 100 mines opened in Greenland since 2012. Currently, only five countries have a recognised claim to the Arctic: the USA (through Alaska), Canada, Denmark (through Greenland), Norway (through Svalbard), and Russia. Russia currently have by far the largest claim, and the USA gaining control of Greenland and Northern Canada would eliminate some of the biggest competition from within the USA's own alliance, getting the USA closer to parity with Russia. Only Norway would remain as a third party. As for shipping lanes, further control over the Panama canal, the Gulf of Mexico and the Northwest Passage in the Arctic would advance the USA's position.
Do I think the US will actually annex Greenland and Canada? Probably not, but they definitely will get some access to their resource claims and shipping lanes, further vassalising Denmark and Canada. The talk of annexation is just to put the US in a better negotiating position and create public outrage. If Trump pulls this off, he's securing the USA's geo strategic future for the long term in the Arctic.
Artic Competition - Foreign Policy dot com - 19 October 2024
All this
stupidtalk about Canada becoming a 51st state reminds me of this video from Radio Canada (CBC) in the 60shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70-WzzTW3jc
The last man in the video: ''I don't think (is it a good idea to become American), because we are already Americans. Our funds are Americans in Canada, you are in Ville-Marie (downtown Montreal) Square and it belongs to the Americans. Every corporations are here are Americans. I work for a company that claims to be Canadian, but the higher ups are all Americans. I don't see the reason to become Americans, it's American money in here.
Interviewer: ''so, we are already Americans''
Man: ''we are Americans, we speak french but we are already Americans, what do you want?''
Just because the colour and the political ceremonies are differents don`t mean you are different. Look at the military
basecollaboration and the economic linkage.We are already annexed.
Remember when California voted against prisoners being not reduced to slavery this election?
Well it's to maintain a Penal unit, but that`s not really news since California fires are yearly events.
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/18/nx-s1-5042174/wildfire-california-firefighters-prison-program
The Venezuelan government says it has arrested seven mercenaries who were planning 'terrorist acts' on the eve of Maduro's inauguration.
The operation was announced on the same day that opponents were arrested in the capital; the ceremony is scheduled for January 10. The Venezuelan government confirmed on Tuesday (7) the arrest of 7 more mercenaries who were part of a plan to destabilize the country. According to President Nicolás Maduro, two of those arrested were Americans, three Colombians and two Ukrainians. Their aim was to promote attacks against Venezuelan authorities.
According to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, the detainees were trained in paramilitarism and the attack plans were to be carried out as of Wednesday (8), on the eve of Maduro's inauguration, scheduled for January 10. The authorities, however, did not give details of how these actions would be carried out. The arrests of the seven agents are in addition to the arrests of another 125 mercenaries from 15 countries, who also had the aim of promoting “terrorist acts”.
At a press conference, Cabello said that María Corina Machado is linked to the attack plans, as well as former Colombian presidents Iván Duque and Álvaro Uribe. The mercenaries' countries include Colombia, the United States, Peru, Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Albania, the Netherlands, Israel, Argentina, Guyana and Yemen. Last Monday (6), Maduro himself denounced a new attempt to kill his vice-president, but this time orchestrated by the Argentine government. The action would be carried out by Argentine policeman Nahuel Gallo, who was arrested on December 8 trying to enter Venezuelan territory.
Hahahahhahhah
After Trump refuses to rule out military force to take Greenland, European Commission response at today's briefing:
"We're looking forward to working towards a strong Transatlantic agenda with the next US administration towards common goals and issues of key strategic interests"
https://xcancel.com/fbermingham/status/1876960394624835586#m
The Eaton Fire has jumped the 210 highway and in the process burnt down a significant portion of Altadena.
While this isn’t “news” in that this event happened decades ago, but it’s worth noting that when Carter handed over the Panama Canal, it wasn’t an event that went largely unnoticed at the time. To the contrary, it was actually a huge deal. The American population didn’t like it (in the same way they didn’t like Biden pulling troops out of Afghanistan - only bad in that it’s a blow to “national pride”). Reagan and other Republicans criticized Carter for it on the campaign trail. And while I wouldn’t say it was a decisive factor in getting Reagan elected, it certainly played a significant part of it.
This is propaganda, right? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_International
They were spreading a story about a woman taking off someone’s head covering and it stunk of “reports from North Korea say that Kim is eating everyone’s hair”
Imagine if Trump ends up inadvertently bringing down American hegemony over the planet by pursuing rabid jingoism against America's own vassal states and global institutions. Truly the harm reduction candidate of the millennium.
Also, it would be hilarious if Obama, Clinton, Blinken, and the rest of the war criminals had to watch Trump be America's Gorbachev and reverse all of their work to ensure American dominance over the planet.
Milei Update: Argentinian cars with paper license plates are seen driving around Brazil and Paraguay.
New Argentinian vehicles have been 'registered' in this way due to a lack of material to manufacture the metal plates. And what may seem like an irregularity is actually the reality of the Argentine country which, due to a lack of raw material to manufacture the metal item, has been issuing license plates with unusual material on a temporary basis.
The authorization for cars from Argentina to circulate in Brazil and Paraguay with paper plates dates back to December 2024, and came about after the Brazilian and Paraguayan Foreign Affairs Ministries decided to issue the plates.
According to the Argentine press, the lack of materials is the result of one of the measures taken by Argentine President Javier Millei to cut costs, which has led to changes at the Mint. Without maintenance, the equipment has become incapable of manufacturing the items. In addition, the press claims that there has been an increase in demand for the manufacture of the item, which is also aggravated by the difficulty of exporting the raw material, a problem Argentina has faced for some years.
"They got notifications yesterday that their homes probably burned to the ground...but, the good news is, I'm a great-grandfather as of today."
Genocide Joe, everyone!
A fifth fire has started in Los Angeles in the West Hollywood hills. Already at 10 acres and spreading downhill towards Hollywood Blvd.
https://ktla.com/on-air/live-streaming/
https://www.foxla.com/live (CW: fox news link)
I'm loving all these cucked, finger-wagging statements from EU countries lately: "Pwease don't intefwere in our elections mr Musk 🥺"
https://www.politico.eu/article/german-olaf-scholz-elon-musk-dont-feed-the-troll/
Vassals who sold out to Uncle Sam shocked that they are now being treated like all the other countries the US couped. Get fucked.
All the Canada stuff has me wanting to watch Canadian Bacon with John Candy
A day after Trump spoke of the 'Gulf of America', Mexico's president defends calling the US 'Mexican America'.
Claudia Sheinbaum's ironic suggestion was a rejoinder to Trump, who suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico the 'Gulf of America' during a press conference on Tuesday (7). The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, suggested on Wednesday (8) that the United States should be renamed “Mexican America”. Her comment was a rejoinder to President-elect Donald Trump's talk of renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”, referring to the USA.
“Obviously the Gulf of Mexico is recognized by the United Nations. But why don't we call [the United States] 'Mexican America'? Nice name, right? Let's call it that, then,” said Sheinbaum, pointing to a map showing Mexico with territories that currently belong to the US, and with the US appearing in green under the name ‘Mexican America’.
Trump defended the name change of the Gulf of Mexico, the largest in the world, during a press conference on Tuesday (7), less than two weeks before returning to the US presidency. Trump also made other inflammatory statements, such as not ruling out the use of military force to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal, in addition to the intention to fix Canada's economic strangulation.
To explain the suggestion, made ironically, Sheinbaum cited a Constitution of Apatzingán, promulgated in 1814, but which was never broken. The text proposes the creation of a State throughout the territory of North America, which covers Mexico, the USA and Canada. The Mexican president also said that Trump is living in the past.
Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), said on Wednesday (8) that social networks will only continue to operate in Brazil if they respect the laws in force in the country, regardless of “threats and tantrums from irresponsible leaders”.
“Here in Brazil, our Electoral Court and our Supreme Court have both shown that this is a land that has law. Social networks are not a lawless land. In Brazil, [social networks] will only continue to operate if they respect Brazilian law. Regardless of the bravado of irresponsible big tech leaders,” he said.
“We can't talk about the world, but in Brazil, I have absolute certainty and conviction that the Federal Supreme Court will not allow the big techs, the social networks, to continue to be used intentionally or culpably, or even just for profit, to spread hate speech, dangerous ideologies such as nazism, fascism, racism, misogyny, homophobia and anti-democratic speech,” said the magistrate.
It's worth remembering that Moraes ordered a temporary ban on social network X in Brazil in August 2024, after billionaire Elon Musk's social network failed to comply with a series of Brazilian judicial orders. In October, the platform complied with the rules and resumed operations in the country.
Article
The destruction caused by Bolsonaro protesters, advocates of a coup d'état, at the headquarters of the Three Branches of Government in Brasilia, turned two years old on Wednesday (8). And to remember the seriousness of the episodes and reinforce the importance of democracy, the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), held a ceremony at the Planalto Palace with the participation of authorities.
“We're still here,” said the president in reference to the film by Walter Salles, based on the book of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva. He continued. “We are here to say that we are alive and that democracy is alive, contrary to the plans of a coup plot on January 8, 2023. We are here, women and men, from different backgrounds, beliefs, parties and ideologies, united by a common cause. We are here to say loud and clear: dictatorship never again, democracy always”, said Lula.
Earlier, offhandedly, the president called those behind the coup attempt “a bunch of aloprados” and referred to the plan that involved the assassination of himself, then vice-president-elect Geraldo Alckimin, and the then president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
“I escaped an attempt together with 'Xandão' and Alckimin,” he said, joking about the nickname attributed to the Supreme Court minister Alexandre de Moraes, and the Vice-President Geraldo Alckimin. “I wonder, if their coup attempt had succeeded, what would happen in this country? They were thinking of killing the president of the Electoral Court, the vice-president of the Republic and me, and we managed to escape,” said Lula.
In addition to the government ministers and First Lady Janja Silva, the heads of the Armed Forces were present: Army Commander General Tomás Paiva, Air Force Commander Brigadier Marcelo Damasceno and Navy Commander Admiral Marcos Olsen. The senator and vice-president of the Federal Senate, Veneziano Vital do Rêgo (MDB-PB) attended on behalf of Congress, and the vice-president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, represented the Court.
Justices Carmen Lúcia, president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) and Herman Benjamin, who presides over the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) were also present, as well as Alexandre de Moraes and the dean of the STF, Gilmar Mendes. The governors of Rio Grande do Norte, Fátima Bezerra, Ceará, Elmano de Freitas, and Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues, also attended the event.
Edson Fachin read a letter from the president of the Supreme Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, who is traveling abroad. “Remembering this date is also an effort to turn the page, but without tearing it out of history, institutional maturity demands accountability for deviations of this nature. At the same time, however, we are here to reiterate our democratic values, our belief in pluralism and the feeling of fraternity,” read the words of Barroso, who advocated punishment for the crimes of January 8.
“Democracy is the regime of tolerance, of difference, of pluralism, of dissent, but it is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution to attack the conditions of existence of democracy itself. Violence is outside this pact and must be sanctioned, according to our legitimate Constitution,” Barroso wrote.
The president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), who is also out of the country, released a note on the two-year anniversary of what he considered “criminal attacks against the buildings of the Three Powers and our democracy” and reaffirmed the importance of Wednesday's actions. “I congratulate the federal government and all the institutions involved in the ceremonies that reinforce the vigil in defense of the regime that I consider to be the fairest and most equitable in popular and social representation,” he wrote.
After the ceremony inside the Planalto Palace, President Lula and the authorities present went down the ramp to meet the pro-democracy demonstrators who had gathered in the Three Powers Square. The demonstration was called by popular movements and political parties that are part of the Peoples Without Fear and Popular Brazil fronts. Ceres Hadich, from the national leadership of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST), highlighted the symbolism of Wednesday's actions after two years of the biggest attacks on institutions and the Brazilian people.
“We are present, we are united, and we are going to defend democracy in our country today and always, as an important step towards defending a popular project for our country. It is a determination of political action by the government itself and by the people not to accept attacks on our democracy and attacks on what has been so hard built over the years by the Brazilian people,” said Hadich.
At various points during the event, people chanted slogans against amnesty for the crimes committed on January 8, 2023, which are currently before Congress. “We came here to reaffirm our commitment to democracy, to embrace democracy, and to say no to amnesty. We defend the need to respect the due process of law, the presumption of innocence, but we must punish all those who undermined democracy and destroyed Brazilian heritage,” said Anderson Amaro, from the Small Farmers' Movement (MPA).
Federal deputy Tarcísio Motta (Psol-RJ) said that the party's bench remains firmly opposed to any initiative that seeks to amnesty the acts of January 8 and that it will demand a clear position on the issue from the next president of the House. “We're going to have this debate, including during the debates for the election of the Speaker of the House, so that we can even get Hugo Motta [favorite candidate for Speaker] to commit to not moving forward with these projects. Amnesty is unacceptable,” he said. “Brazilian justice needs to hold people accountable, respecting everyone's right to a full defense, but these people need to be held accountable. There can be no amnesty for an attempted coup in the midst of democracy. They need to be held accountable so that it is never forgotten and never happens again,” said the Psolista (Socialism and Liberty Party).
The attacks of January 8, 2023 in the Three Powers Square led to the arrest of at least 1,430 people. According to information from the STF, 310 people were convicted of involvement in the coup, 229 for carrying out the acts and 81 for inciting them. The sentences range from 15 to 17 years in prison, for crimes of armed criminal association, qualified damage, deterioration of listed heritage, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law and attempted coup d'état. Another 500 people signed a non-prosecution agreement and their cases were closed, according to a survey by the Attorney General's Office.
A question for discussion: realistically, how could Europe decouple from American hegemony? Is that even possible at this point?
Two thoughts I had - not a comprehensive strategy, just two components of a whole - include:
‘1.) Making friends with Russia. Granted, at this point it feels impossible but warring countries end wars and become allies frequently in history. Russia could provide resources to recharge European industry. And Putin, the Russian bourgeoisie, and frankly most people in Russia seem to want to be a part of Europe. It’s the Americans who don’t want Russia and Europe to move closer to each other and who benefits the most from the current aggressive stances.
‘2.) End the Euro currency. This may seem counterintuitive, when monetary sovereignty is so important. But it’s worth noting that IIRC the whole Euro project was pushed by the USA. I seem to recall Michael Hudson talking about how the Euro actually serves to support USD hegemony, not against it, but I can’t recall the specifics. Not to mention that having a common currency without common fiscal policy always has and always will be a fundamental, unresolvable contradiction. I say unwind the Euro and go back to local currency. At the same time, the EU could pursue a bancor-like strategy within the EU to help stabilize currency relationships.
Here's how Bernie can still win:
2025: Trump threatens Denmark into handing over Greenland. As part of the deal to hand over the colony without making a fuss, Greenland's government gets a guarantee that it's universal healthcare system will remain unchanged and be funded by the federal government.
2026: The Territory of Greenland is a reality. American citizens begin emigrating to Greenland to get healthcare. Nuuk grows to five times it's current size, making the Inuit a minority.
2027: The US regime attempts to restrict access to Greenlandic healthcare but that is struck down as unconstitutional. Feeling the need to do something popular in the face of the rising threat from the Luigi movement the regime decides to expand Greenlandic healthcare to the entire nation.
2028: Having granted Americans access to healthcare, Trump goes down in history as one of the most popular presidents. JD Vance is elected in a landslide on promises of keeping Trump-care
oh cool it's january and los angeles is already on fire
Trump Threatens Denmark With Economic And Military Force As The First Son Goes To Greenland
In a spectacle of colonial ambition reminiscent of a bygone era, the incoming American supreme leader, Donald Trump, dispatched his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to eye up a prospective addition to the sprawling US empire. This most recent chapter in America’s ongoing saga of expansionist dreams saw Trump Jr., accompanied by his court jester, the far-right propagandist Charlie Kirk, making a fleeting yet politically charged visit to the icy expanse of Greenland.
Their arrival, heralded by the distinctive roar of "Trump Force One," a private jet as ostentatious as the ambitions of its owner, was framed as a leisurely tour to "visit some of the most magnificent areas and sights." Yet, no one was fooled. The intent behind this carefully choreographed excursion was as transparent as the icebergs dotting Greenland's coastline: to manufacture consent for an American annexation of the island.
Danish and Greenlandic media, alongside a chorus of wary politicians, watched the spectacle unfold with a mixture of bemusement and apprehension. There was a palpable tension in the air as the American overlord’s emissaries strutted through Nuuk, the heart of a land that has long suffered under the colonial yoke of Denmark. In 2019, the world had looked on in disbelief as then-president Trump floated the ludicrous idea of purchasing Greenland from Denmark—a proposal that left both Greenlanders and Danes aghast. The diplomatic fallout from Denmark’s refusal had seen Trump indulge in a tantrum, triggering a minor yet memorable crisis in transatlantic relations.
Fast forward to 2024, and the stakes have only escalated. With Trump’s reelection—a process marred by a façade of democracy that effectively barred opposition candidates—his delusions of grandeur have expanded. The self-styled leader of the free world now eyes not just Greenland, but also Canada and the Panama Canal Zone, territories he deems ripe for the taking. What once seemed the realm of bad alt-history fiction has disturbingly morphed into official policy for the world's most aggressive empire.
Greenland, a territory scarred by its colonial past, stands as one of Denmark’s last vestiges of imperial ambition, the other being the Faroe Islands. Danish colonial rule has left an indelible mark on Greenland’s indigenous Inuit population, whose culture, language, and very existence have been systematically eroded by genocidal acts by their colonial overlords. From mid-20th century abductions of Inuit children to be raised in Denmark to become "civilised" to "the spiral case", Denmark’s late 20th century eugenics program, which forcibly inserted contraceptive devices in Inuit women and teenage girls as young as 13 without consent, the litany of abuses is a stark reminder of the brutality of colonial rule. Even today, Greenlanders face discrimination within Denmark, where they are often dismissed as lazy, child-like, or alcoholic. Greenland remains the poorest part of the London of Denmark.
Yet, in recent years, Greenlanders have begun to reclaim their narrative, demanding increased respect, autonomy, and a clear path toward independence. Greenland’s Prime Minister, Múte Egede, in his recent New Year’s address, reiterated his commitment to independence within a concise timeframe. The Danish response, however, has been tepid at best, with conflicts over the use of the Greenlandic language in Denmark’s rubber-stamp parliament and a sluggish investigation into past atrocities like the "spiral case."
Despite the growing desire for independence, some Greenlanders harbor understandable concerns about the viability of a self-sufficient future. Questions linger over the island's capacity to manage healthcare, defense, and the economy independently. But one sentiment is clear: Greenlanders are in no hurry to trade one colonial overlord for another. In a pointed Facebook post, Prime Minister Egede declared, "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders. Our future and struggle for independence is our business. Danes, Americans, and everyone else can have opinions, but we shouldn't get caught by hysteria and point fingers at others. Our future is ours and should be decided by us."
Meanwhile, in the days leading up to the visit, MAGA hat-clad Americans were seen in the streets of Nuuk awkwardly polling locals about their stance on American annexation—a scene as bizarre as it was unwelcome.
The propaganda machine behind the visit was as inept as I've would expect. Prior to the visit, Trump had shared a video of an unnamed Greenlandic man professing support for American annexation. The man was later identified as a career criminal and convicted drug trafficker, epitomizing the kind of dubious allies America tends to cultivate in its imperial ventures, from Afghanistan to Latin America—and now, apparently, Greenland.
In characteristic bombastic style, Trump took to his platform, Truth Social, to declare: "Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!" His ally, the far-right oligarch and conspiracy theorist Elon Musk, chimed in on X, the everything app (formerly Twitter) in support of the annexation, proving that the delusions of grandeur were shared among the American elite.
As Trump Force One touched down in Nuuk, crowds gathered to witness the circus. Trump Jr.’s brief four-hour visit, devoid of any substantive engagements with local officials or community leaders, was a farcical exercise in photo ops and propaganda. Trump Jr. and Kirk’s attempts to distribute MAGA hats to curious onlookers only underscored the vacuity of the entire charade.
After the visit a press conference held by Trump senior in his Mar-A-Lago compound, the MAGA Vatican, took a dark turn as the soon-to-be supreme leader of America refused to rule out the use of trade war and military violence to realise his colonial ambitions for Greenland and Panama.
For hours Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s Prime Minister, remained unavailable to the media and when she finally emerged from her hiding place to make a statement it was a lot less forceful than when she had dismissed the sale of Greenland as "absurd" back in 2019. She issued statements that teetered between appeasement of her imperial overlord and hollow declarations of support for Greenlandic self-determination. Her government’s groveling loyalty to the American empire, even in the face of such humiliating threats, drew scorn from Pelle Dragsted, leader of the moderate pro-democracy Red-Green opposition party. He derided Frederiksen’s response as "sad and weak," and expressed concern that the toe-curling display of subservience would only embolden Trump.
Trump's threats should be seen not only as a hamfisted negotiation tactic but also as the act of a declining empire desperate to assert its waning dominance in a multipolar world.
For Greenlanders, American expansionism means the opportunity to use the threat of Washington to get a better deal from Copenhagen. As Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, a Greenlandic MP, aptly put it, "Denmark has to decide if it wants to be part of a greater community." If Denmark wants to be part of Greenland's future they have to sit down at the negotiation table and treat Greenlanders as equals. The road to independence may be fraught with challenges, but the resolve of Greenland’s people to shape their destiny is unwavering.
Today’s news and combat footage from the Donbass and Kursk oblast.
Russian forces recently liberated another DPR settlement (Shevchenko) northwest of Kurakhovo: https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9596656.html
Russian forces eliminated another US mercenary: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/08/963346.html
Ex-Ukrainian soldiers that joined the Russian military (the Maksim Krivonos battalion) are conducting drone strikes on Kiev regime military equipment in the DPR: https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--Ex-Ukrainian-Armed-Forces-soldiers-from-the-Maksym-Krivonos-unit:e
Elite Chechen Akhmat special forces have been conducting a lot of drone strikes on Kiev regime military equipment in Kursk oblast recently: https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9597122.html
I wonder what the realistic chances are on Trump’s proposed expansionism. Like for the most part I think they’d be very low, but part of me thinks he could get away with just landing troops in Greenland and saying “this is ours now” without a fight. Europe is totally cucked to America at this point anyway.
His idea for Canada seems to be economic warfare. How dependent is Canada on the US? How fucked would they be if Trump said “statehood or embargo”? (Although I very much doubt that one would happen.)
And we’ve invaded Central American countries before with no repercussions.
Again I think the likelihood is probably pretty damn low, but at the same time it does seem possible, if Trump really wants to push it and the Republicans in Congress obey him.
Kim Jong-un bans hotdogs for North Koreans, cooking them an act of treason https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/kim-jong-un-bans-hotdogs-for-north-koreans-cooking-them-an-act-of-treason/TKN3HJF3HRHZZHCCJ5L7EPF66Q/
According to reports, Kim has banned North Koreans from eating hotdogs as part of a crackdown on Western culture slowly oozing its way into the hermit nation.
Well it's 'according to reports' absolutely unassailable journalism
Anyone listen to the RevLeft episode on Syria? I'm very curious about the position that the 2011-2012 period was a possibly real and meaningful revolution. The speaker said that after this period, it was coopted by the west. But what that period in Syria looked like seems interesting. Any good resources on that specific period?
Trudeau says 'not a snowball's chance in hell' Canada will join US
Lmao I love how this is now international news
A native of Tajikistan, accused of terrorism in his homeland, received a high post in the new Syrian army
...
Source is Radio Freedom but it does appear to check out, they link the Tajik Central Bank site listing sanctioned individuals
Trump celebrates changes to Meta and says his threats 'probably' influenced Zuckerberg. President-elect has shown approval for measures such as ending the policy of checking content on the company's networks, Facebook and Instagram.
The founder of the
far-right party National Front, Jean-Marie Le Penis, has died, L
Egypt is literally doing the who must go meme
https://balkaninsight.com/2024/03/21/romania-to-host-largest-nato-military-base-in-europe/
Older news,but am I crazy to think this will make my home province of Dobrogea a European Okinawa?
Pic for ref
Some combat footage for today from the Donbass and Kursk oblast.
Russian forces recently liberated the DPR settlement of Petropavlovka (to the northwest of Kurakhovo): https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,---114th-Brigade-of-the-51st-raised-flag-in-Petropavlovka-North!:9
13 Kiev regime invaders surrendered to Russian forces in Kursk oblast: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/07/960116.html
Russian drone operators destroyed another US-built “MaxxPro” armored vehicle in the DPR: https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/📽️-A-🇬🇧-🇫🇷,--Destruction-of-the-🇺🇸American-International-Maxx-Pro:4
Another US-built M113 armored personnel carrier destroyed: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/06/959302.html
LDH reports first U.S. H5N1-related human death
As is tradition they remember to make public that the patient was over the age of 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions, so nobody needs to care and it is unnecessary to stop consuming or think about this much.
Guantanamo still has 15 prisoners, with a handful of Yemeni people recently transferred to Oman
Change is in the air, and surely I’m not hallucinating?
Three weeks ago, Trump put out a very short statement that the US and China should work together. Ever since, Chinese media have sprung into action.
Immediately the week after, the People’s Daily (in conjunction with Global Times) put out a featured call for submission of “US-China cooperation and friendship stories” followed by an editorial “China and the US should extend the list of cooperation, and enlarge the cake of mutual cooperation” (Dec 26th, 2024, in Chinese).
Last week, Qiushi, the CPC theory website, reposted the People’s Daily opinion piece on “The significance of friendship and cooperation for the people between China and the US” (Jan 4th, 2025, in Chinese) and a corresponding piece on their English outlet, “China, United States should inject more certainty, positive energy into world” (Jan 6th, 2025):
China and the U.S. should work together to promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, let the light of peace reach all corners of the world, and ensure that more development gains will be shared more fairly by people across the world.
"There are few certainties in world affairs. What we do know is that without much greater cooperation between the U.S. and China, the world will be in dire straits," said an American scholar when analyzing the future development of China-U.S. relations.
China-U.S. cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-U.S. cooperation. The U.S. should fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, stand on the right side of history, and work together with China to strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, and expand mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to inject more certainty and positive energy into the world.
Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs. The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.
I also checked the English outlets. Global Times editorial puts out several opinion pieces including “1+1>2 is the right path for US-China technological interaction” (Jan 3rd, 2025) urging for increased technological cooperation of both countries especially quantum computing.
Concurrently, two editorial pieces on January 6th, “Biden administration’s ‘steel wall’ redefines economic nationalism” blasting the Biden administration for not respecting the (neoliberal) free trade order and criticizing protectionism (lol), as well as “What do Tesla’s ‘record high’ sales in China reveal?” that praised Tesla as an exemplary model of foreign investor’s success in China and why more foreign companies should come invest in China:
China has become an important part of Tesla's global landscape, and this is not an isolated case. Currently, over 70,000 American companies are investing and operating in China, with annual sales exceeding $600 billion. Qualcomm and Intel derive two-thirds and one-quarter of their global revenues, respectively, from the Chinese market. Among Apple's 200 major suppliers, 80 percent are based in China. In 2023, about 60 percent of McDonald's new stores globally were opened in China. Shanghai became the first city in the world to have 1,000 Starbucks stores. These facts demonstrate that Washington's trade sanctions and technological restrictions against China are unpopular and cannot hinder American companies' enthusiasm for expanding in the Chinese market. This situation is determined by the essence of mutually beneficial cooperation in economic and trade relations between China and US, as well as the objective laws of economic development at play.
Tesla's "report card" serves as a mirror, reflecting China's status as "an important engine of global economic growth" from both production and market perspectives, while showcasing the solid fundamentals and positive development prospects of the Chinese economy. Tesla's thriving presence in China can particularly be attributed to the country's open, inclusive, and mutually beneficial cooperative attitude.
SCMP (not affiliated with CPC) also put out articles from international relations “experts” like “China-US ties may improve if Trump goodwill signals ‘manifest in tangible actions’” (Jan 4th, 2025) and an opinion piece “Why Trump’s return opens door for China to reform capital markets” (Jan 5th, 2025) about why China should open up its capital markets for foreign investors to come in to save its economy lol. Pretty concise read if you want to understand how the libs think.
These are just a sample of the articles and opinion pieces. Overall, I haven’t seen so many articles that signal the thawing of US and China relationships in such a short period. I think we are likely heading towards a rapprochement between the two countries, and a return to a (renewed) status quo. Both countries have realized that they cannot live without one another, and that it is in their self-interests to return to the existing world order after Covid and the Ukraine war.
Wall Street will be happy to enter the Chinese financial markets (and the Belt and Road), the consumption driven by large scale foreign investments will save both China’s economy and allowing further growth and poverty alleviation, while reigniting the US oil and gas boom under Trump. The dollar hegemony is retained and Trump will be happy to declare victory on trade deficit reduction and some token “bring back American jobs” on a limited scale.
Unfortunately, it looks like China’s gonna save the US empire from its crisis once again, and the medium term outcome also means certain victory for Israel.
The questions to follow up on are: are there any forces within the US that will actively undermine this effort? Will the neocons accept it? Maybe Trump give them the war with Iran that they’ve always wanted? Which also brings us to the question of who else benefit from such (re-)arrangement? Will Europe (poised to be the biggest loser) be forced to import Chinese goods under US order to further destroy their industrial capacity? What happens to Palestine, Lebanon, Russia, Iran and the other major players?
Venezuela strongly and categorically condemns the statement issued by the White House, which represents a flagrant violation of international law and a crude attempt to perpetuate imperialist interference in Latin America. “It's grotesque that an outgoing government, such as that of Joe Biden, sunk in political disrepute and marked by a legacy of domestic and international failures, insists on backing a violent project that has already been defeated by the popular vote and the revolutionary democracy of the Venezuelan people."
“The decrepit Biden administration, defeated and retreating, is once again resorting to worn-out intervention strategies, trying to artificially inflate insignificant political figures in Venezuela while ignoring the clear sovereign will of our people. These maneuvers, devoid of legitimacy and historical sense, only demonstrate the moral and institutional decadence of a government that is inexorably approaching a government that is inexorably approaching its end.”
“Venezuela warns that any attempt to undermine our stability or incite violence will be met with firmness, dignity and the support of a people aware of its strength and its ability to defeat fascism and terrorism in any scenario.”
In a statement, the Paraguayan government has acknowledged Edmundo Gonzalez's victory in the July 2024 presidential elections in Venezuela. It has therefore given Venezuelan embassy officials 48 hours to leave Paraguay. Edmundo Gonzalez met this afternoon in Washington with US President Joe Biden. Edmundo Gonzalez met this afternoon in Washington with US President Joe Biden.
Paraguay is well known for recognizing fake goverments such as the goverment of Taiwan
LE PEN (father, not daughter) JUST DIED!!!
edit: replaced the source in French with a source in English
After the meeting at US government headquarters, Edmundo González gave a statement to the press. He was not accompanied by Biden and spoke alone for two minutes. According to the opposition leader, the US government is committed to the “recovery of democracy in Venezuela”.
“This is a commitment that we will follow until President Biden's last day here in Washington. Biden's team is not going with us to Venezuela, but they are accompanying us wholeheartedly on our way back to Caracas,” said the opposition leader.
Biden's term, however, ends in less than two weeks and Republican Donald Trump will take over for the next four years. Also according to the former ambassador, the far-right Unity Platform coalition team has been in contact with Trump's team “for a long time” in order to maintain a close relationship when the Republican is in the White House.
Edmundo also mentioned that the intention is to return to a three-party policy in the country, “as we have maintained since the beginning”. He's referring to the 50-year maintenance of the Punto Fijo Pact, signed by Copei, Acción Democrática and the Democratic Republican Union after the fall of Marco Pérez Jiménez's dictatorship in 1958.
The trip to the United States followed a weekend in which Edmundo met with the presidents of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and Argentina, Javier Milei. In both meetings, the extreme right-wing Venezuelan opposition leader once again stressed his intention to be in Caracas on January 10th to take office: “By any means, I'll be there”.
The opposition leader will still have trips to the Dominican Republic and Panama before Maduro's inauguration. His group, led by the ultra-liberal María Corina Machado, questions the Chavista's victory on July 28 and claims, without providing proof, to have collected 85.18% of Venezuela's electoral records. According to the group's count, these results would give victory to Edmundo González with 67% of the valid votes.
Juan Guaido 2.0 Nalvany Arc?
Argentine Judges Sentence Leftist Leader for Pro-Palestinian Messages - Telesur English
Article
Attempts to silence critical voices show that authoritarianism is an intrinsic component of Zionism, Alejandro Bodart said. On Friday, the Buenos Aires Criminal Court sentenced leftist leader Alejandro Bodart to six months in prison for allegedly inciting antisemitic discrimination.
The complaint was initially filed by the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations (DAIA) in May 2022, after Bodart posted the following on the social media platform X: “74 years of catastrophe endured by the Palestinian people at the hands of the racist and genocidal State of Israel. The key, a symbol of their stolen homes and lands, is present in every struggle. For a secular and democratic Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
Subsequently, the DAIA sent Bodart a message requesting that he retract his statement. In response to such intimidating action, the leftist activist refused to apologize, asserting that his message did not contain hateful antisemitic content. “This permanent anti-democratic attitude of seeking to silence every critical voice only strengthens our political conviction that authoritarianism is an intrinsic component of Zionism,” he stated.
In May and August 2024, two lower-court judges acquitted Bodart of the charges. However, after the most recent ruling was appealed, the matter was transferred to the Third Chamber of the Court of Appeals, which overturned the acquittal by majority vote.
One of the judges who voted to uphold the acquittal, Patricia Ana Larroca, argued that Bodart’s tweets did not meet the “objective or subjective elements” required to constitute the crime of discrimination. She further stated that “the expressions under dispute are protected by the right to freedom of expression,” ARGmedios reported, noting that Bodart announced he would appeal the decision at all possible levels.
Since October 2024, Israeli occupation forces have killed over 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom are women, children, and the elderly. In light of these events, the International Criminal Court (ICC) convicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of crimes against humanity.
“Other international human rights organizations have also agreed that Israel is committing ‘genocide’ in Palestine. Even Pope Francis called for an investigation into whether the events in Gaza could be considered extermination crimes against the population,” ARGmedios highlighted.
Austrian guy calling himself Volkskanzler gets to attempt to make a government, very cool Austria! :austria-cool:
CGTN - Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday tasked Freedom Party's leader Herbert Kickl with forming a new government, local media reported.
Reuters - Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday tasked Kickl, head of the eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO), with forming a coalition government after a centrist bid to assemble one without the FPO collapsed over the weekend.
[Kickl] then railed against a centrist attempt to form what he called a "coalition of losers" that sidelined the FPO. That collapsed at the weekend, leading Nehammer - who had described Kickl as a conspiracy theorist and security threat - to resign. The new leadership of Nehammer's centre-right People's Party (OVP) has signalled it will now enter coalition talks with the FPO, though there is no guarantee they will be able to form a coalition government and another election remains a possibility.
This guy is just a mask off Nazi, btw
In 2010, Kickl said he opposed branding Hitler's Waffen-SS as "collectively guilty" for war crimes. The FPO's first leader in 1955 had been a senior SS officer and a Nazi minister.
[...] Van der Bellen, a former leader of the left-wing Greens, said on Monday as he announced he had asked Kickl to form a government: "I did not take this step lightly."
Unrelated, did anyone make a news mega bingo for 2025 yet?
This is what I had for last year's bingo
His dad would be so disappointed, only stayed in power for 9 years.Assad's Presidency was so mid at best when compared to Gaddafi or Najibullah yet he was better than these nutjobs.
Trump Team Claims New York Court Order Violates Supreme Court Immunity Ruling - Telesur English
Article
The communications team for President-elect Donald Trump has expressed strong opposition to a New York court order requiring the former president to appear for sentencing on January 10. They argue that this order violates a Supreme Court ruling regarding presidential immunity. Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, stated on Friday that the court’s directive represents a “direct violation of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and longstanding jurisprudence.”
Cheung characterized the case as “illegal,” asserting that it should never have been brought forward and claiming that “the Constitution demands it be dismissed immediately.” He emphasized that Trump should be allowed to continue with the presidential transition and fulfill essential duties without being hindered by what he described as remnants of a “witch hunt” against him.
Earlier on Friday, a New York state court determined that there was no basis to dismiss the hush-money case involving the former president, ordering him to appear for sentencing on January 10. This development adds another layer of complexity to Trump’s legal challenges as he prepares for his upcoming term in office.
As the situation unfolds, it remains to be seen how these legal proceedings will impact Trump’s presidency and his ability to navigate both political and judicial landscapes during this critical transition period. The ongoing legal battles highlight the contentious relationship between Trump and various judicial entities, raising questions about accountability and the rule of law in American politics.
I guess it's over for canadian black obama
Not exactly news but relevant for the news heads here: over the last few months Proles Pod has released a series of episodes called The Stalin Era from Episode 63-71 and going.
I haven’t listened to it and probably won’t have time to listen for quite a while, but I guess the comrades here might be interested to give it a go and let us know if they’re good or not!
Today’s news and combat footage from the Donbass and Kursk oblast.
Russian forces liberated the Donetsk People’s Republic settlement of Dachenskoye (south of Kiev-occupied Krasnoarmeysk): https://sputnikglobe.com/20250106/russian-army-liberates-settlement-of-dachenskoye-in-donetsk-peoples-republic-1121368368.html
Russian forces continue repelling Kiev regime attacks in Kursk oblast, destroying another ten tanks and seven infantry fighting vehicles there today: https://www.rt.com/russia/610493-kursk-tanks-ten-broken/
Russian drones finished off a Kiev regime T-72 tank in Kursk oblast (video): https://s5.cdnstatic.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/T72.mp4?_=3
Russian drones striking more Kiev regime tanks in Kursk oblast (video): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/05/957352.html
Justin Trudeau announces his resignation as PM of Canada: “I intend to step down as party leader and prime minister as soon as the party selects its next leader through a competitive, robust and national process.”
This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I have to fight internal battles [in the party], I cannot be the best option in this race.”
Indonesia joins BRICS bloc as full member, says Brazil Brazil, which holds the bloc's presidency in 2025, said the member states approved Indonesia's entry by consensus as part of an expansion push initially approved at the bloc's 2023 summit in Johannesburg.
Sao Paulo: Brazil's government said in a statement on Monday that Indonesia is formally joining BRICS as a full member, further expanding the group of major emerging economies that also includes Russia, India, China and South Africa. Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous nation, had previously expressed its desire to join the group as a means of strengthening emerging countries and furthering the interests of the so-called Global South.
Brazil, which holds the bloc's presidency in 2025, said the member states approved Indonesia's entry by consensus as part of an expansion push initially approved at the bloc's 2023 summit in Johannesburg. The South American nation noted that Indonesia's bid got the green light from the bloc in 2023, but the Asian country asked to join following the presidential election held last year. President Prabowo Subianto took office in October.
"Indonesia shares with the other members of the group support for the reform of global governance institutions and contributes positively to the deepening of cooperation in the Global South," the Brazilian government said. The BRICS group also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Article
The International Antifascist in Uruguay has expressed its most energetic rejection of the visit of the ultra-rightist and former opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who will meet with the president of that South American country Luis Lacalle Pou.
“That our current president and government join this destabilizing campaign is not surprising, considering that they already participated in the operation by not recognizing the elected president Nicolás Maduro (This resulted in the severing of diplomatic relations between Uruguay and Venezuela),” the Uruguayan Chapter of the Antifascist International stated.
“Edmundo González, former right-wing opposition candidate from Venezuela, has been posing as a democratic leader and since 2015 has been attacking Venezuelan democracy and institutions, encouraging coups d’état, sanctions, military invasion, violence, destabilization, migration and death,” says the organisation.
In addition, the Antifascist International in Uruguay highlighted that Urrutia have been denounced by his links with the murder and disappearance of priests during the Salvadoran dictatorship in 1980, and today “he serves as a political operator serving the interests of US imperialism.”
The organization also recalls that in the last elections of July 28 in Venezuela, Urrutia was part of the electoral coup against president Nicolás Maduro, unaware of the results of the Electoral Power, signed a letter as “president-elect”, urged the armed forces to carry out a coup d’état, validated and disseminated a fraudulent website with false results and records that it never presented to the Supreme Court of Justice hearings.
“The hegemonic media are complicit and join in the coup propaganda campaign, spreading false news, covering up the violent actions of the Venezuelan ultra-right and never showing who Edmundo González Urrutia really is, their intentions and their trajectory,” denounces the Antifascists.
About the Urrutia’s recent visits to Argentina and his plans to travel to Dominican Republic and Panama, the organisation stated that heads to seek international support, particularly targeting his ideological and strategic allies, such as Javier Milei in Argentina and Luis Lacalle Pou in Uruguay.
His visit coincides with the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as the re-elected president of Venezuela on January 10 and aims to coordinate a campaign to destabilize and question the Venezuelan elections and its system of government, Provocations have been planned to undermine a legitimate government, which falls within the framework of the Monroe Doctrine that seeks intervention in Latin America, regarded as America’s backyard—a rhetoric that Donald Trump has revived.
The organisation made a call to the Yamandu Orsi’s incoming government to not engage in coup operations or meddle in the internal affairs of other nations and will advocate for respect for nations’ right to self-determination, as well on the popular movement across our continent to organize in unity to uphold Eduardo Galeano’s maxim: our north should be the south.
Of course this fucker, Pou, will make one last garbage decision before leaving office.
So it's done (unsurprising). Next step is to determine who will be the interim leader for the party. My prediction is that it's going to be a dinosaur nobody from the party. If that is the case, the next Party Leader for the election will have the high chance to be someone recently known and freshly groomed like Freeland or Joly.
I will expect Freeland because due to her popularity
If trump makes Russia an offer and Putin is receptive then RF has maybe 3 or so months to capture as much territory as possible. Since they moved west of Oskil river Luhansk is completely controlled by Russia which leaves parts of Donbas, northern Zaporizhia oblast and Kherson oblast north of Dnipro river still on the table.
Looking at Donbas there are two major fronts left. In the north there is the Slovyansk - Kramatorsk line and in west there is the Pokrovsk & Myrnohrad to Dobropiillya line. Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk + Myrnohrad are each larger than Bahkmut and all of them are transportation hubs with multiple highway and rail access from western Ukraine. Several small rivers flow east to west thru these areas with small farm cities along the banks and with limited access but other than that it's all farmland. If Syrskyi tries to defend this like he did Bahkmut it will be a blood bath.
railroad map
Bolivian President Arce Says He Will Not Change the Country’s Economic Model - Telesur English
Article
The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, said this Saturday that his government will not change the economic model based on social organizations, despite criticism from the opposition and analysts for the economic situation in the country, and also announced that it will defend and improve the economic stability of Bolivians.
“That is the basis of our economic model that we are not going to change (…) we will improve it for the benefit of the Bolivian people, with you we will do it,” said the president in his speech during the anniversary of the Women’s Federation “Bartolina Sisa” in the eastern region of Santa Cruz. Arce recalled that this social organization, like others, founded the Movement to Socialism (MAS), an official party based on “rebuilding the country and recovering natural resources” for the benefit of the population.
The Bolivian president stated in his speech that his government is committed to ensuring the economic stability necessary for the country, highlighting the achievements made in this area and reiterating that it will continue working to maintain such stability. According to official data, the Bolivian model achieved growth indicators despite opposition sectors claiming that the economic model is exhausted, but without proposing alternatives that would privilege the interests of the population.
The total aggregate budget amounts to 369,341 million bolivianos (official currency of Bolivia), while the consolidated budget totals 296,566 million bs, that is, they are increased by 8.5% and 11.7%, respectively, compared with EGP 2024. Of the consolidated expenditure budget, of Bs 296,566 million, 58.8% (Bs 174,235 million) is current expenditure, 17.2% (Bs 51,046 million) capital expenditure and 24.0% (Bs 71,285 million) use funds.
For the subsidy on fuels, inputs and additives, it allocates BRL 15,156 million, and for the subsidy on food a total of BRL 750 million (wheat, BRL 383 million; maize, BRL 268 million and rice, BRL 99 million).
Hey everybody interested in the aforementioned Imperialism Reading Club, with some feedback, I think we'll start off with the foundation of Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. It's not a terribly long book, so it's a soft start for those who aren't really sure if they have the energy to commit to a big text right off the bat.
I was thinking two chapters per week to start off. That averages out to something like 20-30 pages per week, which should be achievable even for quite busy people, and we'd be done by mid-February. If you think that's too slow and would prefer to go faster, then let me know - I'm unsure how many of you are already involved in reading so I don't want this to be overloading. After Imperialism, I think we'll move on to Super Imperialism by Michael Hudson, with the benefit of adjustments to the pace and structure of reading as we learn lessons as we move through Imperialism.
To give everybody time to get their hands on a copy, digital or physical, we'll be starting next week. If you already have it, then feel free to read the introductions and prefaces and whatever for whichever copy you have.
As I previously said, I will take notes on each chapter and post them here, so that even if you don't or can't read along with us, you can still benefit from getting the basic idea and key arguments made.
To understand the political landscape of Canada (more specifically the Quebecois' side). The book Mediocracy by Alain Deneault is pretty good.
https://www.amazon.ca/Mediocracy-Politics-Extreme-Alain-Deneault-ebook/dp/B07D42426J
The book basically explains that the politic of common sense and technocracy is well installed in the Canadian politics to the point that there are no real solutions (aka political\economical reforms) which opens the door to fake populism mostly right wing populism.
I don't think this is really news to anyone here, but it does show that we are not so different from any Liberal Democracy around the world.
Jim Crow Trudeau must go
New
spoiler
