Biden calls ICC decision 'outrageous'

Critical support to Isnreal for destroying decades of Western "rules-based order" propaganda in a matter of weeks

Didn’t know someone could deserve worse than hell

For context: “ Israeli occupation soldiers filmed themselves setting fire to the library at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City, which housed a valuable scholarly collection built up over many years.”

President of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traore, reduces ministers and politicians salaries by 30%. He increases workers salaries by 50% and refuses to accept a presidential salary.

Looks like Ireland, Slovenia, Norway and Spain will all officially recognise the State of Palestine tomorrow. Not often we get positive news from Nazi Europe, so I'm happy about this.

We are self-deprecating and irony poisoned enough, time for a bit of an antidote.

This news mega, and Hexbear writ large, is such a great resource for understanding what’s going on in the world. Proof that the immortal science of Marxism-Leninism really is the most powerful lens for understanding the reality around us.

I sat down and ate breakfast for a long time at a hotel over the weekend. The breakfast room had Fox News blaring the whole time. Obviously you’re getting a heavy reactionary slant on things with them. But beyond that, it’s just the quality of information was so low, it was actively harmful to watch. You’d better informed not watching anything and absorbing information about the world around you from the ether. Saw some MSNBC last month and it’s not much better. Not so much inventing reality from whole cloth like Fox News, but still leaving out plenty of critical information, without which you still really can’t understand the world around you.

It’s never been more clear to me how deeply propagandized mainstream news is. It’s not even always a conscious act (though it definitely is a lot of the time), just your normal base/superstructure stuff.

And this news mega, this site, and Marxism broadly is such an oasis. Helps you not only stay properly informed, but keeps your sanity as well.

In a meeting with Blinken, he expressed that if Palestine were allowed to join the UN as a state, this would mean that the US would be forced to defund the UN, which would then lead to programs being underfunded. This includes the World Food Program, which helped 150 million people get food in 2023.

The threat is, therefore: allow Palestine in, and millions will starve.

France has announced its support for the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu

Lol. Lmao, even

Ok, I think we have officially reached a new peak of absurdity in domestic American politics regarding Israel. You might not even believe what I am about to tell you:

Representatives Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) and Max Miller (R-OH) have introduced a bill to Congress which grants Americans serving in the IDF the same benefits as those serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Biden denounces ICC for ‘outrageous’ implication of equivalence between Israel and Hamas

Agreed, Israel is obviously worse.

this is the level of expertise being an ivy league graduate brings you 😅

I don't particularly like anti-cortes posting, but incredible comment:

Biden administration signals it will support push to hit ICC with sanctions

Okay this is getting ridiculous lol. I understand the geopolitical reason the US supports Isreal is that it needs a vassal state to exert military influence on the Middle East / North Africa and prevent any attempts of decolonisation. But at this point maintain the state of Israel is costing them the entirety of their soft power in every other region in the world.

Let's not forget that a massive chunk of America's power(especially in Europe and East Asia) comes from people liking them. Otherwise no one will agree to hosting tens of thousands of their troops in their own country. This is also why the US invests such a large amount on cultural exports like Hollywood movies.

So I missing something in my analysis? Surely the Middle East can't be more important than Europe and Asia? Or is the American political class so demented they can no longer make rational decisions even in the interests of the bourgeoise?

Damn. Communist guest absolutely fucking destroys a Tory MP's narratives about Palestine and student protests on some British TV show: Revolutionary Communist vs. Tory MP Suella Braverman on GB news (18m video)

This is an excellent example of going on the attack, refusing to be diverted, and keeping reactionaries from controlling the narrative even in a hostile environment. Holy shit.

ICJ orders Israel to halt Rafah offensive

In his reading of the ruling, Judge Salam says the court orders Israel to halt its Rafah offensive.

https://aje.io/hg54p3?update=2922734

Of course, Israel isn't going to comply but still a L.

Never go into the tunnels unless you're a tunnel guy.

There’s a not unreasonable chance that the presidential election is a tie, based on current polls.

Trump has a few points lead in Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. That puts him at 268. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin are much closer. If Biden wins those he’d be at 269. Finally Trump is a couple points up in Nebraska’s second, which would put him also at 269.

https://www.270towin.com/maps/yPJ8v

I hope that happens, it would probably be the funniest outcome.

Kabosu, the dog who inspired memes and cryptocurrency logos, passed away today.

Two more activists were just declared not guilty of criminal damage for occupying, shutting down, and exposing another Israeli owned Elbit drone factory here in the UK.

In case you missed it Zelenskyy pushes allies for direct involvement in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

Some rather legitimately impossible demands from Zelenskyy in there:

“Russians are using 300 planes on the territory of Ukraine. We [Ukraine] need at least 120-130 planes to resist in the sky,” Zelenskyy said, again calling on Western allies to supply with additional air defence systems. Ukraine is waiting for the delivery of US-designed F-16 fighter jets.

He just asked for 130 fighter jets from NATO? What the actual hell! Ukraine only had 170 jets in 2014 before the war started. Does any NATO country except for the USA even have that many spare jets? Zelenskyy is asking for an entirely new air force to fight Russia, direct from NATO. He really sees NATO as Amazon Prime for arms shipments or something.

He [Zelenskyy] said if countries could not supply the planes straight away, they could still fly them from neighbouring NATO states and shoot down Russian missiles.

Ukraine was also negotiating with international partners to use their weapons to strike Russian military hardware at the border and further inside Russian territory, Zelenskyy said.

“So far, there is nothing positive,” he said.

Did he just ask for European airforces to directly participate in the war? Is he out of his mind?! Of course NATO said you you clueless fool!

China re-establishes direct flights with Cuba to strengthen relationship with the Caribbean

Cuba bets on Chinese tourism to help improve economic situation amid embargo

article

Last Friday (17), Air China resumed flights between Beijing and Havana, with the first aircraft arriving in the Cuban capital with 116 passengers. The flights resumed after several years of interruption following the Covid-19 crisis.

With a stopover in Madrid and two flights a week, the Cuban authorities and the Asian giant hope to increase this frequency in the short term in order to increase exchanges and communication between China and Latin America and the Caribbean.

At the beginning of May, Cuban Tourism Minister Juan Carlos García announced that Cuba would not require a visa for Chinese citizens with ordinary passports wishing to visit the Caribbean island.

Since then, according to the official Chinese newspaper Global Times, Internet searches about travel from China to Cuba have “skyrocketed”, becoming one of the main trends on the Chinese social network Sina Weibo.

Cuba's Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, showed up at Havana's international airport to welcome the first flight. After landing, the minister assured that the re-establishment of this air connection was “a dream come true” and that “it's here to stay”.

Referring to the difficult economic context the country is going through, Marrero said he was grateful for “all of China's cooperation at this time”. He added that the re-establishment of flights between Beijing and Havana “is not an isolated action”, but “will favor government and tourist exchanges”.

The Prime Minister, noting the strategic importance for Cuba of flights with China, said that the Cuban government is focused on ensuring that “this visa exemption action produces results and facilitates these exchanges”. He also announced that Cuba's next International Tourism Fair will be dedicated to China.

In adventurism news, the shooter of Fico's testimony leaked and y'all probably won't hear about it in western media (as i predicted) as it turns out he indeed did it because Fico was anti-Ukraine (amongst others).

China's new drills are extensive.

I still don't think an invasion will come to pass but they're definitely ready to do one at this point.

May 21st: Israel seizes AP News' equipment
May 24th: AP news runs the article How 2 debunked accounts of sexual violence on Oct. 7 fueled a global dispute over Israel-Hamas war

Israel is recalling envoys from Norway and Ireland.

They keep owning themselves by doing shit like this.

I WAS THINKING ABOUT HOW OCTOBER 7TH IS GOING TO BE CELEBRATED ALL AROUND THE WORLD EVERY YEAR FROM HERE UNTIL THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ZIONIST ENTITY AND EVEN AFTERWARDS

THIS YEAR, OCTOBER 7TH 2024, I IMAGINE WESTERN GOVERNMENTS WILL CRACK DOWN HARD ON ANYONE CELEBRATING IT PUBLICLY.

Any liberal who still defends Israel at this point is completely irredeemable, and should forever be treated as the fascists that they truly are. They deserve no mercy in a post-revolution world.

Today in nightmare world: The grandson of the commander of Auschwitz tells the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors that Christian Zionism cannot be anti-Semitic

Peak liberal investigative journalism

Norway recognises Palestine

University of Barcelona Breaks Ties With Israeli Institutions

Article

On Friday, Spanish students will set up a new camp in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

On Wednesday, the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities of the University of Chile (UC) severed collaboration agreements with Israeli institutions.

This occurred as a form of protest against the killing of over 35,700 Palestinians during the offensive that Israeli occupation forces are carrying out in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian authorities have also recorded over 80,000 injured since October 2023.

The University of Barcelona committed to not establishing "agreements with Israeli institutions until the conditions in the Gaza area guarantee a situation of absolute peace and respect for human rights."

Besides terminating a collaboration agreement with Tel Aviv University, the Spanish university will implement the precautionary suspension of all its agreements and contracts with companies allegedly linked to the conflict. This will occur through a case-by-case analysis.

University authorities clarified that their institution does not have Israeli suppliers and will not hire any until the Zionist state publicly offers guarantees of peace and respect for human rights. The University of Barcelona Council will request the European Union to block "the participation of Israeli institutions in all projects funded with European funds."

On Friday, Spanish students will set up a camp in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Starting in June, they will also lead a general strike to protest the genocide in Gaza.

In Chile, the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities terminated a cooperation agreement with the International Center for University Teaching of Jewish Culture and the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In justifying its decision, the Dean's Office highlighted its rejection of an Israeli response that is criminal and disproportionate, as well as the deliberate destruction of universities and hospitals by the Zionist army.

@AryJeay reports:

Al-Qassam launched about 10-12 long-range rockets, from Rafah, travelling 100-110km to hit Tel Aviv, after a hiatus of 4 months. The Iron dome failed to intercept the rockets, more than 8 direct impacts were made, causing material damage and the ignition of fire.

2 settlers were also injured.

the british government just invited a load of open neo nazis wearing nazi insignia into parliament and then gave them a round of applause

Windows introduces Bonzi Buddy

In regards to the Al-Qassam mujahideen capturing more zionist soldiers, its only a matter of time before they capture some US or UK soldiers in Gaza and the whole world will see just how involved the arrogant imperialist powers are involved in this incomprehensibly evil genocidal war on Gaza.

holy fuck is it exhausting to talk to redditbrained liberals IRL

I made the mistake to actually engage in a discussion about politics, and all the greatest hits came out -- and the worst, most frustating thing about this that I was treated like the weirdo, and I didn't even get into the "more controversial" topics

You think socialism is good? How do you explain Pol Pot then?!

They were literally propped up by the USA/CIA it's not even controversial at this point. [then they looked at me like I said grey aliens killed Princess Diana]

Well Israel's reaction is understandable, Khamas murdered and raped civilians you see

... Israel killed literally 100x as many civilians

If you are a moral person, you must condemn Putin's invasion of a sovereign country

Well, USA also invaded sovereign countries, and almost nobody gave a shit

That was a long time ago

The US war criminals are literally golfing as we speak

But Ukraine did nothing they were just minding their own business

wellll, except UKR did shell civilians in Donbass

Have you been brainwashed by Ruzzian propaganda?

Putin wants to bring back the Sovyet Yunyon, and the whole point of the USSR was Russian world domination

What? THe USSR wasn't even a Russian ethnostate? what the fuck are you talking about?

Where did the so called revolution start? St Petersburg! Where is St Petersburg? Russia! It was a Russian plot for world domination

I guess you also think that the Holodomor was good

... Not even Western liberal historians (with a few neocon exceptions) believe that there was a genocide there

So you DENY the HOLODOMOR??!?!

As I said, not even Western liberal historians (with a few neocon exceptions) believe that there was a genocide there, unlike what Churchill did to starve Bangladesh, that is actually well documented

Well we also condemn THAT

Yet you curiously never bring it up, but if someone mentions anything remotely Russian you start harping about the "Holodomor", and "Soviet-Russian imperialism"....

So you actually DENY the Holodomor? Like people would just LIE?! And the GULAGS were good?!?!

You see the GULAG was not a unique phenomenon, at the same time Africa was full of concentration camps run by the Fr*nch and the Bri'ish

But they did NOT put THEIR OWN people in camps! Putting your own people in camps is the WORST

I give up, I'm afraid it's a terminal case of brainworms

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A map of the countries that recognize a Palestinian state from Al Jazeera. As always its the Same Map

The most wholesome thing you can find on the internet right now are dead occupation soldiers.

"Israel" bombed tents in Rafah. last report over 50 dead. horrific videos and images

(cw: death, gore) https://twitter.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1794853360149172575

This is old news and not of great importance but it's a silly little story about the uselessness of liberal western progressivism that I don't think has been posted here before:

On May 8th the chairperson of the Copenhagen Pride organisation resigned to appease angry corporate sponsors who were cutting funding for the parade.

What angered companies like Google and Mærsk so much was a statement put out back in February by the pride organisation in which they declared that the organisation "stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people" and stated that the organisation would "voice concern over business activities in 'Israel' and the occupied Palestinian territories" to their partners.

Sponsors and the liberal establishment were deeply offended by the statement that they saw as a demand for them to take a stand against the genocide. The pride organisation demonstrated a complete lack of backbone as soon as the sponsors they depend on fire funding started leaving and put our a new statement apologising for "poor communication" and promised that they were "not asking any questions or making any demands" to their partners regarding 'Israel' and Palestine.

Eventually the chairperson decided to resign as a way of appeasing sponsors.

Received mainstream wisdom as communicated through the mainstream media quickly settled on siding with the sponsors. Everybody seems to agree that it was foolish of the organisation to say "please don't be an accessory to genocide" to their corporate sponsors, "experts" in the media are talking about how the pride organisation needs to fire their top leadership and grovel at the feet of corporate sponsors and everybody who have opinions for a living are talking about how you shouldn't connect LGBT rights to "a complex conflict in the middle East".

TLDR of Simplicius's article yesterday:

• Ukraine is, all of a sudden, finding significant success in hitting Russian air defence with ATACMS for some reason. Generally, how it's gone is that Russia shoots most of them down, but one or two missiles in the salvo gets through and wipes out the S-400/300 anyway. The good news is that the Russian doomers now have something to complain about again; it was deeply harmful of Russia to deprive Rybar's habitat of bad news as it's a critical part of their diets. It won't really change the course of the war necessarily, but...
• Ukraine is also taking shots at Russian early warning nuclear ICBM sites, which is, to say the least, concerning. There's been some news about Russia doing tactical nuke exercises, but Simplicius points out that in this kind of war where vehicles and troops are generally fairly distributed and not in massive parking lots all concentrated together, a tactical nuke wouldn't achieve much that a bunch of conventional explosives couldn't, outside of cities at least. And we both doubt that Russia is close to nuking Ukrainian cities. But there's an implicit threat there nonetheless, which NATO may listen to, or may not.
• Putin's been talking recently about how Zelensky is now an illegitimate ruler given the lack of elections in Ukraine, which is interesting when combined with the information that Yanukovich was recently spotted landing in Belarus. To be fair, there are alternative explanations (many high-up figures were brought there and perhaps Yanukovich was just asked to tag along due to the whole "brotherly nations" thing) but even so.
• There have been rumors/claims recently in the media that Putin wants to freeze the conflict along the current front lines and sue for peace; this has been denied by Peskov.
• There's been a fair amount of activity in rooting out corruption in the Russian army. As I understand it, none of it is incredibly major - some bribes here, a little unauthorized action there, and some punishments for underperforming commanders. But it is still a lot, all at once.
• As always, rumors of new fronts opening up. Obviously with the whole thing in Kharkov now, I find it much harder to ignore these rumors, but an invasion from Belarus still seems a little unlikely.
• Speaking of Kharkov, the Russians are now issuing Russian license plates for the region and some officials are beginning to talk about letting Kharkov decide its future and all that jazz. Significant to be sure, but it doesn't herald any imminent attempt to seize all of Kharkov IMO, especially with Putin saying that they wouldn't try to capture it for the forseeable future and the fact that there's like a single Russian division there also indicates that the intent wasn't immediate, massive territorial expansion like with the beginning of the war. Ukraine is stripping men from both Donbass and also Kherson to face Russia up there. It looks like the Kherson front has been basically terminated, with whatever tiny gains Ukraine scraped together being abandoned and the water levels raised via upstream Ukrainian dams to prevent Russia from trying anything clever.
• Generally the tempo of escalation and mutual threats between Russia and NATO continue, but this has been a theme for literal years now (I remember at least one Putin speech in like summer 2022 warning NATO), so, unlike the new front rumors, I mostly ignore these as just saber-rattling and behind-the-scenes activity that's being aired for effect until I'm given a big reason to believe them.

It's worth noting with the ATACMS thing that some of the big pro-Russian people on Twitter are stating that Ukrainian usage of ATACMS is through the roof and they've already fired an appreciable fraction of all the ATACMS ever produced (and, in typical American fashion, they make very few per year), and that Russian losses aren't so bad comparatively (I mean, they aren't, if I understand the number of destroyed systems versus the number the Russians have ever made/can make per year - which I may not understand as I'm not a military guy). Others can work out if this is accurate reporting or cope, just saying what I've saw. But Simplicius did sound fairly concerned about it in the article. Not very concerned, but fairly concerned.

I don’t know what the right word is. My first thought was to call it “gaslighting” but I don’t think this is the right word here. Maybe there’s a better non-English word.

What I’m referring to is the fact that no one on planet Earth believes Israel isn’t intentionally murdering civilians by the thousands. There is no explanation for not letting food and water in if not for reasons of collective punishment. Like, I’ve even tried to come up with a BS line I would take if I was Israel, and I can’t think of one. To my knowledge Israel hasn’t even really addressed not letting food and water in, they just simply do it.

We all know what Israel is doing. But the imperialists and Zionists simply trot out lines about “Israel isn’t targeting civilians” and “Hamas is the enemy, not the Palestinian people”. No one believes it but we are sort of “expected” to believe it. What would you actually call this?

The news coming out of Rafah is horrific. I've deliberately avoided looking at the images, but I can't stop crying.

I'm not a third worldist, but even with the widespread protests in the west, how can this kind of injustice be resolved without something at least a little like a JDPON?

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Colombian president orders opening of embassy in the West Bank.

This comes after the country broke diplomatic ties with Israel

Article

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has ordered the opening of an embassy in the city of Ramallah, in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told journalists on Wednesday (22).

“President Petro has ordered us to open the Colombian embassy in Ramallah, the Colombian representation in Ramallah, that's the next step we're going to take,” Murillo said.

Earlier this month, Petro announced that he would cut diplomatic relations with Israel due to its actions in the Gaza Strip.

The president strongly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and asked to join South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accuses Israel of genocide.

Ramallah serves as the administrative capital of the Palestinian state (The Palestinian Authority Capital). Israel's response to the Hamas attack on October 7 generated a lot of criticism from the international community.

More recently, humanitarian aid access to southern Gaza has been disrupted, according to a UN agency, since Israel stepped up military operations in Rafah.

According to the UN, 900,000 people have been forced to flee due to the fighting in Rafah, which has also increased tensions with Egypt.

The White House has said it is looking into the incident wherein Israeli authorities seized equipment from The Associated Press, and called the incident “concerning”.

White House or Elon Musk?

Praying for an end to settlement and anti-semitism. The world will never be free of that prejudice until Israel ceases to exist and colonize in its name.

“Not only do we live in fear of displacement at the hands of a colonialism that professes itself as Jewish, not only are our people bombarded by an army that marches under what it claims is the Jewish flag, and not only do Israeli politicians over enunciate the Jewishness of their operations, we are told to disregard the Star of David soaring on their flag—the Star of David they carve into our skin.”

-Mohammed El-Kurd

https://mondoweiss.net/2023/09/jewish-settlers-stole-my-house-its-not-my-fault-theyre-jewish/

The Biden campaign is spending $200 million on ads in rural counties where Trump won landslide victories in order to lower his margins.

Super cool how we are getting a window into this brand new, bold strategy that has definitely never been tried before. I’m really glad the Biden campaign is letting idiots like us, who don’t think that Biden will win, know that if Biden gets Trump supporters to vote for Biden instead, he will win!

China seems to be escalating it's Taiwan policy Essentially, if you're chill we're chill, but if you keep escalating we'll keep escalating "until reunification."

A few years ago, I would've called anyone suggesting a hot war over Taiwan to be insane. These days... it still seems pretty crazy, but it'll depend on how much Taiwan lets America run their politics. Surely they don't want to be the next Ukraine?

Whether or not anything comes from the International Criminal Court or International Court of Justice remains to be seen, but what has been done with these institutions is destigmatize the act of leveling criticism against the state of Israel, criticizing Israeli society; Israel's rampage being livestreamed and frequently archived has permanently tarnished its reputation within the West. The act of enabling genocide has denigrated the legitimacy of the US and its allies.

The state of Israel has severely diminished its credibility as self-appointed papacy of the Jewish faith and aegis of the Jewish people.

What this horror has proved is how direct action by activists impacts policy decisions in the private sector and challenges the state for good or ill to take action. Repression and capitulation by state and capital - and not through electoral politics - sheds light to myth that elections and electioneering - abdication of power through delegation - is a farce; this exposition radicalizes the young and heritors of society.

Though I can't cite when or where Ilan Pappe said this, but he noted that Israel is approaching or in the next stage of BDS. Divestment.

What I think all of this would amount to is further castration of liberalism's capacity to manage social and class antagonisms; the state will lean into further escalation of force with greater frequency.

Our democracy, already an extant rotating dictatorship, will punish dissidents across the mainstream with closing parity as it has with internally colonized and preexisting second-class citizens.

This was posted an hour ago.

Only 30 minutes of fuel remain at Al-Aqsa Hospital

[The Gaza Health Ministry] just updated us that the hospital is going to run out of fuel in the next 30 minutes. Unfortunately, we are talking about hundreds of patients that are daily doing dialysis, and most of these patients were transferred from Rafah, from the hospitals there.

We are also talking about babies connected to incubators, and we’re also talking about people who were injured by Israeli forces and are undergoing surgeries every single hour.

All these people completely rely on electricity, and Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Hospital is one of the only hospitals still functioning across the Gaza Strip

We’re still waiting, and they still have hope that someone can bring them more fuel, but unfortunately, they’re saying that 30 minutes is all the fuel they have left.

you know who doesn like arrest warrents against war Criminals ?

spoiler

Warcriminals

The Zionist entity resorting to Unit 731 shit:
https://twitter.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1794314820717629633
https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/israel-torture-chambers-message-directed-us-palestinians

There they lie day after day, night after night, in a state of utter sensory deprivation, with nothing to distract from their wounds and pain. In the midst of this, Israeli medical interns can use their exposed, vulnerable flesh as a canvas for experimentation.

According to one whistleblower, the detention centre has quickly gained a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”.

There, they are allowed to use Palestinians as little more than lab rats and encouraged to carry out medical procedures they are not qualified to perform.

A whistleblower told CNN: “I was asked to learn how to do things on the patients, performing minor medical procedures that are totally outside my expertise.”

Such procedures were frequently done without anaesthesia. Unlike doctors in Gaza, Israeli doctors have ready access to painkillers. It is a choice not to use them.

"On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023:

• Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Statute;
• Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health contrary to article 8(2)(a)(iii), or cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
• Wilful killing contrary to article 8(2)(a)(i), or Murder as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(c)(i);
• Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime contrary to articles 8(2)(b)(i), or 8(2)(e)(i);
• Extermination and/or murder contrary to articles 7(1)(b) and 7(1)(a), including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity;
• Persecution as a crime against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(h);
• Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(k).

My Office submits that the war crimes alleged in these applications were committed in the context of an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas (together with other Palestinian Armed Groups) running in parallel. We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.

My Office submits that the evidence we have collected, including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photo and audio material, satellite imagery and statements from the alleged perpetrator group, shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.

This occurred through the imposition of a total siege over Gaza that involved completely closing the three border crossing points, Rafah, Kerem Shalom and Erez, from 8 October 2023 for extended periods and then by arbitrarily restricting the transfer of essential supplies – including food and medicine – through the border crossings after they were reopened. The siege also included cutting off cross-border water pipelines from Israel to Gaza – Gazans’ principal source of clean water – for a prolonged period beginning 9 October 2023, and cutting off and hindering electricity supplies from at least 8 October 2023 until today. This took place alongside other attacks on civilians, including those queuing for food; obstruction of aid delivery by humanitarian agencies; and attacks on and killing of aid workers, which forced many agencies to cease or limit their operations in Gaza.

My Office submits that these acts were committed as part of a common plan to use starvation as a method of war and other acts of violence against the Gazan civilian population as a means to (i) eliminate Hamas; (ii) secure the return of the hostages which Hamas has abducted, and (iii) collectively punish the civilian population of Gaza, whom they perceived as a threat to Israel.

The effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known, and have been confirmed by multiple witnesses interviewed by my Office, including local and international medical doctors. They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women.

Famine is present in some areas of Gaza and is imminent in other areas. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned more than two months ago, “1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger – the highest number of people ever recorded – anywhere, anytime” as a result of an “entirely manmade disaster”. Today, my Office seeks to charge two of those most responsible, NETANYAHU and GALLANT, both as co-perpetrators and as superiors pursuant to Articles 25 and 28 of the Rome Statute.

Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its population. That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any State of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law. Notwithstanding any military goals they may have, the means Israel chose to achieve them in Gaza – namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population – are criminal.

Since last year, in Ramallah, in Cairo, in Israel and in Rafah, I have consistently emphasised that international humanitarian law demands that Israel take urgent action to immediately allow access to humanitarian aid in Gaza at scale. I specifically underlined that starvation as a method of war and the denial of humanitarian relief constitute Rome Statute offences. I could not have been clearer.

As I also repeatedly underlined in my public statements, those who do not comply with the law should not complain later when my Office takes action. That day has come."

Imagine if arrests Bibi. Still can't believe France is Hamas.

Eagerly awaiting germans meltdown with icc

https://x.com/prem_thakker/status/1793006351058186622

such bipartisanship is a rare sight in these divided times 🤩

Its real fucking scary how unhinged america behaves, just toss netanyahu to the wolves mates, its an easy out, next israel will behave.

Yemen announced a missile attack on an Israeli ship, the Essex, in the Mediterranean earlier today. Western state propaganda is doing the usual and denying anything has happened. Also further attacks in the Red Sea on Western companies trying to violate sanctions on Israel.

It's worth noting that the US itself has admitted that Ansarallah has this capability. An article in Bloomberg puts it:

The Houthi militants in Yemen have weapons that can reach as far as the Mediterranean Sea, according to a senior defense official, lending some credence to the group’s threats that it can expand its attacks on shipping beyond its immediate borders. The US government is concerned that the Iran-backed group has the capability to extend strikes on shipping beyond the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to the Mediterranean, said the official, who asked for anonymity to discuss private talks. The official said Houthis have access to advanced weaponry and that their deployment of anti-ship ballistic missiles is virtually unprecedented. The group has also used drones in its attacks.

The rest of the article is basically repeating the comforting myth that Iran's strike was successfully repelled, and so surely they could probably do the same for Yemen; I assume the fact that the Red Sea blockade is still ongoing despite this "supremacy" in defense is something they would rather like to forget.

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The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan has announced that he is pursuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/5/20/icc-arrest-warrants-sought-for-israeli-and-hamas-leaders

Yeah nevermind who started all this, gotta target both sides to say fair 🤓

Anyone have any idea of the true death toll in Gaza given the genocidal famine conditions? I've seen estimates that around 200 000 people have already been killed by these conditions enforced on Gaza by Israel, and that the world may be looking at over half a million deaths by the end of 2024. If such is true, it is downright irresponsible to keep using the official death toll. With all the hospitals being bombed by Israel, there is no way to accurately track how many people have been killed. This is honestly tragic in ways that cannot be described...

UC Strike update. This week grad students at UC Santa Cruz started striking. As this is organized as a standup strike, campuses are getting called in over time. There was some concern about high leadership excessively slow-rolling it, but they announced that UCLA and UC Davis are going to start striking on Tuesday, as Monday is a holiday.

The UC admin filed an injunction to PERB, the Public Employee Relations Board, which is the regulatory body for our union, saying the strike was illegal and should be shut down. This goes with their letter full of lies claiming the same. This injunction however was denied! Despite their repeated claims, the strike is absolutely not legal, and they can't use the regulatory body to stop it.

I'm ready to see what's happening next week. While I won't full dox myself, I will be striking next week, which I am so ready for. There's a lot of people trying to push this to something meaningful.

This whole helicopter in a fog thing seemed pretty legit, but now Isntreal has said that they didnt do it and suddenly i am not convinced it was an accident anymore

The European Union will deprive Georgia of its membership candidate status if the country's authorities do not abandon the law on foreign agents - Foreign Policy magazine

Two birds, one stone. Liquidate their little structures, embrace Lukashenko thought

Imagine how popping hexbear and the news mega would be if 9/11 happened today

I think it's cute that Ken Klippenstein has such a reaction to the statement that came out of the Iranians post Soleimani's assassination, that the west has no heroes, only cartoon characters. He cannot help but compare the dead Iranian president to Wily [sic] Coyote. Of course they're wrong, we have sports champions and movie stars as well. And when they die in a helicopter or car crash it is absolutely not like Wily [sic] Coyote, no matter their personal statements or beliefs.

milei is known for doing stupid shit right, like first being born and second choosing anarchocapitalism and nazism and his guide through life. Okay now I spoke yesterday of milei's latest enemy: """Communist Spain""". You know, he went there on an official visit, did not meet with the First Minister of the Soviet Spanish Republics and the King of the Soviets, breaking diplomatic protocol. Instead, he went to a VOX rally, spoke about the dangers of socialism, 150million dead bla bla. And while there he also insulted the PM's wife.

Spain didn't like it of course and decided to recall it's ambassador and stuff. Now, I will make it clear that I don't believe Spain is going to break diplomatic relations with Argentina, because we have a lot of deep and important matters that links us with Spain, it's just not that easy. HOWEVER, we're living in ancap wonderland and this utter imbecile is indeed capable of almost anything, especially now that he identified Spain as "Socialist" and he made it clear months ago that he will not deal with "Communist countries" (Back then it was China and Brasil).

Now why I'm a bit worried about this? Because I applied for spanish citizenship a few months ago and I still haven't received it (I'm fully eligible). This process takes quite some time. I understand this process is not done by the Embassy but by the Consulate, different diplomatic institution, and this one continues to function. However, if both countries break relations, doesn't that mean that both the Embassy and the Consulate are closed? What will then happen to my application? Is it sucked into the void never to be seen again?

And I kinda need that citizenship, first due to family reasons and second because it is my ticket out of this hole if everything goes down like really bad, plus I'd like to go to Spain on vacations one day and perhaps visit other parts of that wretched glorified peninsula known as "Europe". But I swear if this motherfucker, moronic piece of insecure ancap shit kills it I will dedicate my entire life to wage a Protracted People's War against this pro-zionist pro-USA fascist regime.

I can't stop thinking about how isntreal's genocide of Palestinians is covered in the media, specifically how CBC was using a graph to illustrate ongoing Palestinian deaths vs isntreali deaths on October 7. I remember thinking when they started it that there was no way they would keep it up as the genocide continued and I was right.

This is the last time they used it that I could find, from October 31. Since then there has been 25000+ confirmed deaths and god only knows how many people have been murdered that haven't been counted.

Death to and every single one of their lapdogs

They posted this, problem is that the person in the pic is another person named Mohammed Shabana, who is an Egyptian sports commentator.

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatens to create one new settlement in the West Bank for every country that recognizes Palestine as a state.

Machine translation

Last winter, Norway and Israel agreed that Norway will act as a so-called intermediate station for Palestinian tax money . This means that tax money that Israel collects from Palestinians should be sent to the Palestinian Authority via Norway. Now Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he will withdraw Israel from the new agreement.

-Norway was the first to unilaterally recognize the Palestinian state today. They cannot be a partner in anything related to Judea and Samaria, Smotrich said. That's what The Irish Times writes .

Judea and Samaria refers to the West Bank. Smotrich also warns that he will freeze the transfer of tax money from Israel to the Palestinian Authority, and that he will ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop all further payments. Smotrich also threatens to create one new settlement in the West Bank for every country that recognizes Palestine as a state.

NRK has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to comment on the matter. They have not yet responded to NRK's ​​inquiry.

Between this and the USA threatening to starve the world if Palestine becomes a full member of the UN, the two countries are really competing for who can be the biggest supervillain, huh?

fucking incredible

After 9/11, President George W. Bush and his team argued that a nonstate actor like al-Qaeda could not have pulled off the attacks alone, and that some country must have been behind it all. That state, they insisted, was Iraq—and the United States invaded Iraq. In a savage irony, they may have been right after all about state support, but flat wrong about the state. Should we now invade Saudi Arabia? ..(of course not)

Even is tired of Israel

So in light of the recent situation in Goma where a third Congo War might be kicking off, I decided to start reading a book about the first and second Congo Wars, the latter of which is the 21st century's deadliest war (5+ million dead) that myself and seemingly nobody else knows fuck all about. The book is called Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe by Gérard Prunier, a French scholar of the African Great Lakes region. I wish I could find a book by an African scholar, but doesn't seem like there's much out there in English.

Anyway, outside of some weird colonial European habits (he has extensive footnotes for why he claims that the Rwandan people are raised to heavily respect and obey authority) it's pretty good. He spends much of the book decrying how the so-called international community didn't give a shit about any of this because it wouldn't make them any money, and how in general Africa is just ignored. I'm only a hundred pages in, and we've just covered the background of post-genocide Rwanda and holy shit, I cannot emphasize enough how much of a nightmare it was. Insane reprisal killings of mostly innocents whilst the actual Interahamwe (the militias who carried out the genocide) fled to Zaire and started raising an army again in UN run refugee camps to reconquer Rwanda. No international Nuremberg style courts at all. An exile Tutsi population that came back to Rwanda and subsequently condemned the Tutsi who survived the genocide as "collaborators" because they didn't die. UN troops watching as RPF troops slaughtered thousands of civilians en masse. People accusing other people of genocidal acts so they could steal their house, corpses littered on the side of the road rotting for weeks. A pervasive societal numbness to violence and atrocity that very clearly leads directly into what kicks off the Congo Wars. Reading this book is difficult because after like ten pages I'm exhausted with the depravity and the failure of our demonic world to care.

The failed Congo coup leader had links to the Israeli military

Video footage has emerged showing Christian Malanga, the leader of the failed coup in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, visiting Israeli occupation forces in Palestine.

https://t.me/mintpress_news/5999

Abu Obeida announced that they got more prisoners of war

edit: speculation that they're from Shayetet 13, equivelent to the Navy seals or someshit, point is that the gun they're using is a Scorpion evo 3

God i missed the only good news place on the internet

O Allah, please make Abdel-Fattah Al Sisi crash a helicopter

Americans cry about Moloch then post shit like this

Another school encampment has given in. McMaster University this time. Exactly the same 'deal' as the others; a meeting to "discuss" divestment in October. There's a Twitter thread here.

Obviously these universities are co-ordinating. I do wonder exactly what pressure the institutions are using in these meetings, although I don't discount the idea that some were simply never in it for thr long haul.

Daily death to the occupiers post

ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders

Never get in a helicopter or old light aircraft. Honestly gliders (planes with no engines) are probably safer than helicopters.

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Another heroic action, running up to a tank

https://streamable.com/91mnpx

laughing at 'leftists' who think NATO and the Ukraine side has any revolutionary potential like bro what the fuck are you talking about

Serious question: What will Russia's response be if the US gives the OK for the Ukraine to hit sites deep in Russian territory with US missiles? Some options:

-Russia starts indiscriminately carpet bombing Ukraine. All of it.

-Russia gives the Houthis some Khinzhals and the western fleet in the Red Sea goes bye-bye

-Russia directly and rapidly arms Israel's opponents, gives them to go-ahead to bye-bye Israel

-Nuclear war (on the dance floor)-

I wrote up the following response as an answer to @join_the_iww’s really great question of: ”Do Americans realize that the majority of people ruled over by Israel are not Jewish?” and thought it might have some interesting standalone/discussion value so I’m crossposting the comment here:

I don’t think pro-Israel Americans know this and I also don’t think pro-Israel Americans would really care all that much/believe you if you told them.

The average American who supports Palestine is relatively well read on the issue, or at least knows that fundamentally what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people is wrong. They are smaller in number than the Pro-Israel crowd but have way more passion for the issue.

Whereas

The average American who supports Israel does so because that’s what the default opinion is supposed to be. They know little to nothing about the situation on the ground. The most the average Pro-Israel American can tell you is: ”Israel is our closest ally in the Middle East.” and ”Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.” and they don’t particularly care about these issues all that much. Generally, they aren’t vocal about the issue at all unless some outside force intentionally riles them up, but the support does quickly as interest wanes.

That’s why I think this moment for Palestine is huge, but even bigger than most people realize as it pertains to the future of young people in America. The media and government both tried very hard to get American conservatives and liberals aligned and galvanized on the issue by stoking the coals that burn under each side and generally grab their respective interests.

The media/government tried to galvanize liberals through the traditional method of pinkwashing, espousing Israel’s so-called liberal social beliefs, and advocating for a two state solution so that Israel can appear to no longer be oppressing Palestinians.

The media/government tried to galvanize conservatives via Islamophobia, “invasion” rhetoric, freedom and democracy rhetoric, badass military rhetoric, etc.

Historically this has worked well enough, even with younger demographics, but this time it fell flat on its face because the United States and Israel are incapable of adapting this strategy in a way that effectively utilizes the historic method of suppressing information about what exactly Israel is doing. The average nominally pro-Israel American just stopped caring and the issue lost their attention at the same speed it always has. This differs immensely from the pro-Palestine side, which not only sees the ongoing issue with Israel’s actions, but also the issue of the combined effort the media and government are utilizing to suppress the issue/obscure the truth as much as possible.

I may be jumping to conclusions when I say that Tiktok has been an enormous catalyst in regards to galvanizing young people to be pro-Palestine, but at the very least it has been an incredible tool to study this conflict as a social trend amongst its primary user base. Pro-Palestinian content on Tiktok occurs at a rate 2000% higher than pro-Israeli content. A recent study, conducted by computer scientists at Northeastern University who specialize in mass online sociological patterns, determines that “The pattern of pro-Palestinian posts is consistent with a prolonged social movement… while the pattern of pro-Israeli posts is typical of what follows a major news event.” and we can see that demonstrated in the way support for Palestine has remained steadfast no matter what major news event the combined propaganda departments of the United States and Israel try to throw at it. This is an absolutely unprecedented shift.

In my opinion, when accounting for the dual issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict and subsequent obvious bias/obfuscation regarding the conflict, this is potentially the largest mass deprogramming/radicalization event for young Americans I can think of in any stretch of American history. I do not see any major event that touches the speed and depth of which young people have turned against a combination of domestic, international, and media dealings AND narratives. I do not believe that even the events surrounding the George Floyd Uprising (and potentially even the Vietnam war) will have such lasting impacts as the shift in young peoples’ opinion on the issue of Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid; in each of those corresponding issues, never was the entire government, its international allies, and private media propaganda so completely aligned while being so thoroughly rebuked.

TSMC’s EUV machines are equipped with a remote self-destruct in case of an invasion (archived page is a bit messy)

"Yes my liege, we vow to commit industrial seppuku should the mainlanders attack"

Full article

TSMC is one of the largest chip makers globally, even beating Intel and Samsung by revenue numbers. And its location in Taiwan is a potential hotspot between the U.S. and China, especially as China (the PRC) considers Taiwan (the ROC) an integral part of its territory. With the regional superpower not discounting a military invasion of the island, the U.S. wants to ensure that TSMC’s chip-making capabilities won't fall into the PRC's hands. Thus, reports indicate that TSMC's EUV machines (made by ASML) have a remote kill switch fitted, for security.

Just last year, U.S. Congressman Seth Moulton suggested that the U.S. might bomb TSMC facilities in Taiwan if China invaded. However, the Taiwanese government said that it would defend the company against any form of aggression from anyone — including the United States. The Taiwan Security Bureau even said that destroying TSMC’s facilities is an unnecessary move, as producing high-end chips requires more than just the factories.

“TSMC needs to integrate global elements before producing high-end chips,” says Chen Ming-tong, director-general of the Taiwanese National Security Bureau (via Bloomberg). “Without components or equipment like ASML’s lithography equipment, without any key components, there is no way TSMC can continue its production.”

Nevertheless, geopolitical issues typically go beyond the business sense. So, even if China knows that capturing these advanced foundries from Taiwan and the U.S. is a futile endeavor, the thought of depriving its primary competitor of the latest chips could be enough motivation to execute a special military operation to ‘liberate’ TSMC. This is especially true as the U.S. said that a Chinese seizure of the company and its facilities would be devastating for the American economy.

Because of this threat, TSMC and ASML, currently, the only supplier of tools that could make cutting-edge 2nm chips, have added a ‘kill switch’ that will disable TSMC’s EUV machines remotely. According to Bloomberg, the latter added this feature to assuage U.S. fears that the former’s chipmaking capabilities could fall into the wrong hands if war breaks out in East Asia.

The U.S. has been hard at work trying to limit China’s technological progress, especially in the semiconductor industry. Washington has blacklisted several Chinese companies from acquiring advanced tech due to fears that the communist PLA will use them to further its military might. The White House also recently placed severe tariffs on several Chinese imports to protect its own investments with the CHIPS Act.

Nevertheless, Chinese President Xi Jinping is still adamant that it can continue its technological development with or without U.S. sanctions. Although the country still lags behind in cutting-edge processors, China is already a powerhouse in legacy chip production. Furthermore, the Chinese government is continuously supporting local companies to develop homegrown tech that makes them resistant to external actions.

Aside from ASML’s and TSMC’s latest move to protect American interests, the U.S. has also invested billions of dollars in the latter to move its chip production to North America. TSMC is also building facilities in Japan, which could help protect it from China’s ambitions in Taiwan.

All these moves are a part of the U.S.-China trade war, as the former attempts to limit the latter’s ambitions of becoming a global power. While Washington’s moves are slowing Beijing’s efforts to achieve technological superiority, it’s also pushing the Asian power to innovate and work around the limits it’s facing. While China’s homegrown chips are currently several generations behind Intel and AMD’s products, they’re taking leaps and strides in advancements, and we may soon face Chinese technology that is similar or even superior to what the West has to offer.

She claimed by paying to push an article in the paper, I could get asylum in the US.

Interesting thread on Chinese migrants taking the route through south america, this stood out to me though. This is a solid tactic to get negative stories written by people about a communist country that aren't true. If I was a fed I'd be doing this (and suspect these are feds).

What would you do? You want to migrate to america but couldn't get a visa and you know you have a pretty poor asylum claim. So you pay to write some made up bullshit for an outlet or newspaper or whatever that you can then use as part of your asylum claim. You will never admit that it's made up bullshit too because your entire claim to asylum falls apart if you ever do that.

Source thread: https://x.com/WeiDuCNA/status/1793593455144476739

Karim Khan going from the guy that the West, including Israel, wanted in the ICC a couple years back to safely ensure that nothing would ever happen to them, to the media going "So, is Karim Khan a bigger antisemite than Hitler, Goebbels, and Goring combined, and wants to murder every single Jewish person on the planet? We investigate this claim." is really very funny

Why does he look like a 49 years old man? Isn't he like 20 lmao?

According to documents from Denmark's Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense, a donation to Ukraine of 100 vintage Leopard 1 tanks from Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands has been so riddled with defects that the Kiev regime at one point refused to accept more.

The defects includes cannons that couldn't fire due to missing parts and faulty electric and hydraulic systems. Especially the German subs industry is being blamed for not being able to keep it's promises.

Some of the tanks had previously been used by the Danish army but were decommissioned in 2010 and sold to a German arms dealer who kept them on a lot in Flensburg until 2023 when the Danes bought them back and hastily restored them to send them to Ukraine.

The tanks were supposed to be ready in April of 2023 but that didn't happen as the German company doing the restoration couldn't source the parts needed and the Danes had to dust off museum tanks to give Ukrainian crews something to train in. In September 20 tanks had been delivered to Ukraine. The Ukrainians found defects on all of the tanks and refused to accept any more and Denmark had to send teams of mechanics to Germany to help get the tanks ready.

Today Denmark's Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense claims that "more than 90" tanks has been restored to a state where they can be used by the Kiev regime.

if anyone wondered How America could justify the position the ICJ has no authority to make arrest warrants for Netanyahu, but does have the authority to make arrest warrants for Putin, they found a way. it's because evil, authoritarian countries like Russia will never punish their criminal president on their own, but Israel totally could try and sentence Netanyahu for war crimes. eventually. just give them time.

"The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed. In other situations, the Prosecutor deferred to national investigations and worked with states to allow them time to investigate. The Prosecutor did not afford the same opportunity to Israel, which has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel."

very funny referring to the prime minister as just "personnel". and "no, he's of course not outside the law, can't you see he's already so well known for corruption that he's being investigated for bribery!" and "clearly there is no chance of anyone in his cabinet being indicted for war crimes, but isn't the theoretical possibility of him being indicted for political corruption years from now basically the same?"

Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman is heading to Iran for the first visit by a Saudi royal in two decades.

There was a ~200 mph tornado in Greenfield (in Iowa) yesterday, huge chunk of the town looks legitimately flattened

Nyt talking out of both sides of their mouth about the Gaza pier https://archive.is/9lZ8u

They admit its a failure but imply the blame is in "looters" without elaborating. The solution?

Paul D. Eaton, a retired major general, was in Somalia in 1993 when the U.S. military put a pier in place to deliver humanitarian aid to civilians caught in the war there. Some four light infantry Army battalions — 2,000 troops — were on the ground to help the aid get through, General Eaton said in an interview.

Oh we just need to put 2000 American troops on the ground.

Hamas uses VLC player

https://x.com/AJArabic/status/1794727531276292172

Michael Roberts wrote a piece a week ago where he talks about all the business with US tariffs on Chinese products. I think we're all familiar with the basic premise: the US is doing protectionist trade policies in the face of Chinese production of electric vehicles and renewable energy and such.

Article TLDR:

Chinese EV imports are only 2% of the US market and the new tariffs, in total, constitute only about 7% of US-China trade; so the US is still evidently unable to cut their reliance on China. The reason why the US cannot cut their reliance is that Chinese dominance in this territory is not just skin deep. China is dominant in EV production, and the battery manufacturing for those EVs, and the manufacture of cathodes and anodes for those batteries, and the refining of the chemicals that go into the batteries.

China produces 80% of the world's solar photovoltaic modules, 60% of wind turbines, 60% of electric vehicles and batteries. In 2023 alone, China's solar power capacity grew more than the entire installed capacity in the US.

Chinese firms have rerouted supply chains to the US via Morocco, Mexico, and South Korea, which have free trade agreements with the US. Most solar cells come to the US via various South-east Asian countries. In response, the US government has mandated that US automakers won't receive tax credits if any company in their battery supply chain has 25% of its equity, voting rights, or board seats owned by a Chinese government-linked company. Nonetheless, American firms like Ford and Tesla have partnered with China's CATL to make batteries, in a way that makes them compliant with that law. I mean, they kind of have to, given China's dominance in that sector. For what it's worth, Trump has expressed support for China building factories in America so long as they employ American workers.

Here's the thing: this general strategy has been tried before. US protectionist measures against Chinese solar panels resulted in an 86% drop over the 2012-2020 period, and the US solar industry received billions in subsidies from Obama and Biden, but not only has it not revitalized the industry, the market share of the global solar industry has plummeted from 9% in 2010 to 2% in 2024. China has risen from 59% to 78% over the same period.

Part of the reason is that China does subsidies much better than the US. Chinese businesses on average receive subsidies equivalent to 3.7% of their revenues, compared to 0.4% in the OECD (more or less, the imperial core). And subsidies in China are usually low-cost loans, while in the OECD it is tax concessions. Therefore, the Chinese government can maintain control while in the West, tax concessions just let the private sector fuck off with the money. Additionally, Chinese state aid focuses on boosting manufacturing and export sectors, not protecting weak sectors. The US does the opposite, which even the IMF admits is not a strategy for good long-term growth.

The US accusing China of "non-market practices" given this context is obviously hilarious; so is the US pretending to discover that overcapacity resulting in mass exports is a thing that exists but only China is doing it.

Obviously this will all have a big climate impact; reducing access to renewables isn't going to make renewables easier to build in the US. But even in an economics sense, because China is so dominant in so many industries, the protectionism just means that input costs will rise, not that new American industries will come along and replace Chinese imports. This reduces profitability, and obviously corporations will refuse to take that hit, so they'll raise prices for the working class.

Mexico: The candidate for the Popular Party of Chiapas, Lucero Lopez Maza was killed after an attack by armed groups. President AMLO denounced the assassination.

Cool article on China's railgun testing and the US' failure to get very far with it

https://asiatimes.com/2024/05/china-firing-railguns-while-us-blows-hot-and-cold/

The term of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially ended on Monday (20). Despite this, he will remain head of the country's executive.

At war with Russia since February 2022, the country has since been under martial law, which makes it impossible to hold elections in the country. The election, which was scheduled to take place on March 31, had already been canceled long before, in November last year.

On November 6, 2023, Zelensky released a message in which he said that it was not time for elections. At the end of February, he said that any talk questioning his legitimacy was a “hostile narrative”.

In addition to martial law, the president and experts argue that it would be impossible to hold full elections in Ukraine due to the conditions of the country, invaded by the Russians, and its population -- many have had to flee their homes and even the country. In addition, soldiers would not be in a position to vote.

The text of the Constitution is not entirely clear on this point. One of the articles, for example, states that the term of office is five years. But, according to “The Economist” magazine, constitutional experts in the country say that martial law provides for an exception, which is in Article 108 of the Charter, which states that the president exercises power until his successor is sworn in - except that elections are prohibited during the period of martial law. Ukrainian legal experts consulted by the Deutsche Welle news agency said they expect Zelensky to remain in power until a new president is elected.

According to DW, the legitimacy of Zelensky's mandate after May 20 derives not only from the law, but also from broad popular support. A poll conducted by Ukraine's Razumkov Center in January revealed that 69% of respondents trust Zelensky. Less than a quarter said they didn't trust the president.

Another poll, by the International Institute of Sociology in Kiev (IISK) at the beginning of February, showed that 69% of respondents believe Zelensky should remain in power until Martial Law ends. Only 15% of respondents supported holding elections under the current circumstances, and 10% wanted Zelensky to hand over power to the speaker of parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

I send my warmest sympathies to comrades trapped on Terf Island in these trying times of cringe and liberalism. May you outlive the shitshow and see better days again.

Looks like a huge Ukraine propaganda op is going on today. My reddit feed is filled with it.

They went and put ERA on an Abrams, the Warthunder memes are real

good NC article on US bragging about their behaviour in LATAM and how project colombia is a model for others, like ecuador/peru. Worth reading in full imo but here are some quotes.

If there’s one thing most historians can agree upon, it is that “Plan Colombia”, the US government’s anti-narcotics drug-eradication program, was an unmitigated disaster — at least from an anti-narcotics perspective. Signed in 1998 by President Bill Clinton and his Colombian counterpart, Andrés Pastrana, it burnt through $10 billion of US and other overseas funds over two decades, worsened the violence in Colombia, bathed more than a million hectares of farmland in a rich brew of toxic chemicals, including Monsanto’s “probably” carcinogenic weedkiller glyphosate and exacerbated organised crime — all while overseeing a significant upsurge in coca production.

Global cocaine production reached the highest level ever reported in 2016, with most of the production coming from Colombia, according to the United Nations’ World Drugs Report 2018.

One of the main architects of Plan Colombia was then-US Senator Joe Biden. In 2022, former Colombian President Ivan Duque personally thanked Biden for helping to draw up the plan, which, he said, allowed the Colombian government to “confront and defeat many challenges we had.” But two years earlier, the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee admitted that Plan Colombia had been a resounding failure from a counter-narcotics perspective. It did, however, provide short-term benefits from a counter-insurgency perspective:

As I reported in December last year, both Ecuador and Peru have entered into “Plan Colombia”-style initiatives with the US, with the ostensible aim of combating the increasingly powerful drug cartels. Since then, the Milei government in Argentina has announced plans for the Southern Command to deploy military personnel to an Argentine base in Tierra del Fuego, near Antarctica, and signed an agreement, through the General Port Authority, for The United States Army Corps of Engineers to have a presence along the Paraná waterway and fulfil “advisory tasks” on the management of ports and navigable waterways.

tldr - war on drugs is used as cover to embed military assets into latin american countries as a warmed over monroe doctrine, with current major targets of US imperialism being ecuador, panama, peru and argentina. I wonder if USSOUTHCOM forces are being used in panama to go after land defenders and people who are against the cobre panama mine that first quantum was operating until they were shut down.

I have very few words for the images I have seen from Rafah tonight, but they will haunt my memories for a lifetime or more.

Israel must be dismantled. There is nothing else to say.

Ukrainian eBay account selling Russian military scrap, equipment, and surplus military equipment https://www.ebay.com/itm/386232697556

Based on the suggested items, it seems like there are many Ukrainians selling spare/captured equipment lol

Israel cuts connection between Spanish consulate in Jerusalem and Palestinians in the West Bank

Article

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Friday that he has decided to “sever the connection” between Spain's diplomatic representation in Israel and the Palestinians,” in response to Madrid's initiative to recognize Palestine as a state and an ‘anti-Semitic’ comment by Minister Yolanda Díaz.

“Following Spain's recognition of a Palestinian state and the "anti-Semitic" statement by the deputy prime minister of the Spanish government [...] I have decided to sever the connection between Spain's diplomatic representation in Israel and the Palestinians, and to prohibit the Spanish consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to Palestinians in Judea and Samaria,” i.e. the West Bank, wrote Katz in Spanish on the social network X.

On its website, the Spanish consulate general in Jerusalem indicates that its demarcation covers this city, as well as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The embassy is in Tel Aviv.

In the text, Minister Katz also strongly criticized Thursday's statement by Yolanda Díaz, second deputy prime minister and minister of Labor.

In a video message published on the X network, Díaz, leader of the radical left-wing platform Sumar, defended the decision of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government to recognize Palestine as a state from 28 May and concluded her comment with the phrase “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea”.

The phrase is a reference to the borders of Palestine during the British Mandate, between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Utah man declined $100K offer to travel to Congo on ‘security job’ that was covert coup attempt (May 25)

Marcel Malanga, the 21-year-old son of eccentric coup leader Christian Malanga, was detained by Congolese forces Sunday morning, along with a former classmate from their hometown of West Jordan, Utah, after his father was killed in a shootout while resisting arrest. His high school football teammate, Tyler Thompson, 21, was one of two other Americans arrested after an ill-fated attack on the presidential palace in Kinshasa.

... Although it’s unclear whether Thompson was offered money, multiple teammates told the AP that he had alluded to such incentives, telling one friend that the trip could be a “big financial opportunity.”

... “Marcel was pretty secretive about his dad. He didn’t even know him well until he spent last summer in Africa,” Gonzalez said. “There’s no way Marcel had any idea what he’d be getting us into or he never would’ve offered. He’s one of the best friends a person could have.”

... Marcel had told Gonzalez that his father was letting him hire a friend so he would have company during his summer abroad. He seemed excited to be able to offer such a substantial amount of money to a close friend who needed it, Gonzalez explained.

The Malangas had promised on-the-job training, full coverage of travel expenses and the chance to explore a new part of the world while making an income, he said. Marcel insisted repeatedly that it was safe, but didn’t share details about his father’s background.

So, what's the Hexbear take on this?

It's Joever

Trump is ahead according to Gamblers

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, also a Republican, called the move an “outrageous decision” that is “a slap in the face to the independent judiciary in Israel, which is renowned for their independence”.

Graham said he will work with Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress to “levy damning sanctions against the ICC”.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has denounced requests from the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders.

Translation of an interview of someone who was in one of the helicopters that didn't crash: https://twitter.com/AryJeay/status/1792940529526747394

Interview

After our noon prayers, we departed towards the direction of Tabriz. The weather was clear, there was no weather condition to be worried about. After half an hour being in the air, prior to reaching the Sungun copper mine, there was a small patch of clouds; interviewer asks: “So there was no fog?” He replied, not at all. There was fog on the ground, but not in up the air where we were advancing with the helicopters. However in one small compacted area, there was a small patch of clouds above a cliff. In terms of height, this cloud was on the same height as our flight’s height.

It was there when the now-martyred helicopter pilot, who was also the commander of the fleet, that told the rest of the pilots to ascend above the clouds. We were the 3rd pilot, behind the president’s helicopter. We came above the clouds, we advanced for approximately 30 seconds. Our pilot suddenly realised that the main helicopter carrying the president is missing.

Interviewer asks: “You didn’t see the helicopter anymore after ascending?” He replied, yes exactly, after ascending above the clouds, we didn’t see the main helicopter. The ascension itself didn’t feel difficult or hard. Sometimes, when we use the plane we feel turbulence but we didn’t feel anything at all inside the helicopter this time, when ascending. And after we ascended there were no other clouds.

Interviewer asks: “So beyond this, there were no weather forecasts mentioning any disturbances in the weather to make it unsafe?” He replied, no there wasn’t any.

Shortly after, we were able to see beneath us and there were no clouds anymore and we had reached the area of the copper mine. We realised however that our pilot is making an U-turn suddenly so I asked him why? He said that one of our helicopters is missing. We estimate that they made an emergency landing, because we also have no radio contact with it anymore. So I asked him when was the last time contact was made? The pilot answered: “A minute and 30 seconds ago, when the pilot told us to ascend above the clouds.”

Our pilot circled around the area a couple of times, but the area with the cloud patch was also invisible to us and it was too risky to enter that area. We failed several times to make any radio contact. We were forced to make a landing after 30 seconds at the Sungun copper mine to investigate.

During the flight, we had continuous cell phone calls with the passengers, including the bodyguard, Mr. Abdollahian, the governor of East-Azerbaijan and the Friday imam of Tabriz. However we tried calling all of them without luck.

After some tries, calling the cellphone of the captain accompanying the president, someone picked the phone. It was Ayatollah Hashem, the friday imam of Tabriz. He told us that I’m not feeling well. He didn’t tell us anything special. I asked him what exactly has happened? He told us that he didn’t know what has happened, when asked on his whereabouts, he said that he didn’t know. He only described what he could see, described to us what he saw, e.g. surrounded by trees. I asked him about the condition of the others, the Ayatollah replied that he’s alone and couldn’t see anyone else and he’s alone.

The copper mine had good facilities such as ambulances and the necessary vehicles. We formed a team to go and search for them. We requested for immediate emergency help as well.

The bombshell is that there was apparently a survivor of the crash:

After some tries, calling the cellphone of the captain accompanying the president, someone picked the phone. It was Ayatollah Hashem, the friday imam of Tabriz. He told us that I’m not feeling well. He didn’t tell us anything special. I asked him what exactly has happened? He told us that he didn’t know what has happened, when asked on his whereabouts, he said that he didn’t know. He only described what he could see, described to us what he saw, e.g. surrounded by trees. I asked him about the condition of the others, the Ayatollah replied that he’s alone and couldn’t see anyone else and he’s alone.

This is bizarre. It doesn't seem likely that some 60+ year old dude would survive jumping off a helicopter that's about to crash into a mountain, so maybe there's some truth to the earlier reports describing the crash as a hard landing. I also remember the very early reports mentioning that they were about establish communication with some people in the crashed helicopter, so I guess they were talking about him.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-dpa-money-mines-canada-analysis-1.7214664

The U.S. military has, for the first time in generations, spent public money on minerals projects inside Canada: nearly $15 million US to mine and process copper, gold, graphite and cobalt in Quebec and the Northwest Territories.

The U.S. has expressed escalating unease over its dependence on its biggest rival. China controls the global mineral supply, has cut off minerals exports in the past, and fears a potential standoff with the U.S. over Taiwan.

Washington said two years ago that it was weighing funding Canadian mining startups under the U.S. Defense Production Act (DPA). It promised funding last year, and this month, it formally revealed the first such initiatives.

The cash comes with no strings attached — for now. This is free money, in the form of grants, to help companies get through final feasibility studies and permitting.

In other words, the U.S. military could leap to the front of the customer line.

$15m is peanuts in the grand scheme of resource extraction and junior miners. Still, this is an interesting advancement. If either of these projects go ahead I expect the pressure, funding and expectations of the US military will increase

Houthis bagged another US drone

Holy shit the Rishi Sunak election announcement is one of the funniest farcical humiliations I’ve seen in a long time

Sopping wet while a New Labour anthem drowns you out

Edit: video - https://x.com/scottygb/status/1793315621662290087/mediaViewer

Israel recalls ambassadors from Ireland and Norway after recognizing Palestinian statehood

Kenya "mission" to haiti about to start btw, kinda nice how all the civilized world figured out you can hire some goons from outside to do your deeds, and then be like "wow, we woudl have done it better" (see morocco as well)

Sometimes I wish the Mongols conquered Europe.

Caught NPR this morning as they brought someone on to tell us:

• Raisi was the hardest of hard liners
• He hated America
• He even opposed the assassination of Suleimani, in an example of how hard-line he was
• He was actually just a puppet of the supreme leader
• And everyone in Iran hated him anyway

So I guess it was an assassination then?

I tried donating money to the Municipality of Gaza https://gaza-city.ensany.com/campaign/6737 and I got slapped by my credit card's fraud detection. As a test, I used the same credit card to donate to a gofundme that's unrelated to Gaza and the transaction completely processed like normal. The only irregularity I could think of is the Gaza donation needed a telephone number, so I just put a fake number, but I don't think my credit card would know or care about a fake telephone number. I know those fraud detection sometimes trigger if you have a financial transaction that's noticeably greater than your usual financial transaction, but it's not that much more.

I think my credit card is purposefully blocking the transaction because it's related to Gaza. I've found some tweets that mention this, including one who tried to donate to the exact same Municipality of Gaza donation campaign.

Interesting report on the North Korean-Russian relationship that only seems to be growing. Obviously take this with a grain of salt because the source is "US intelligence officials" but it seems to have a lot of folks in Washington troubled. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/are-russia-north-korea-planning-october-surprise-aids-trump-rcna153828

The Biden administration is increasingly concerned that the intensifying military alliance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could vastly expand Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities and increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, six senior U.S. officials told NBC News.

U.S. intelligence officials believe Putin is providing North Korea with nuclear submarine and ballistic missile technology in exchange for Pyongyang’s sending Russia large amount of munitions for its war in Ukraine, the senior U.S. officials said. North Korea provides Russia with more munitions than Europe provides to Ukraine, including millions of artillery shells.

Officials are also concerned that Russia might help North Korea complete the final steps needed to field its first submarine able to launch a nuclear-armed missile.

Pyongyang has long sought a long-range ballistic missile able to fly thousands of miles and then re-enter the atmosphere with the payload intact. U.S. officials warn that Russia could now be helping it achieve the final steps. A nuclear-capable missile with survivable re-entry vehicles would present a significant challenge for U.S. missile defense systems.

Personally I'm hoping the Russians give the North Koreans some hypersonic glide missile tech. Scenes when the North Koreans have a weapons tech the Americans have failed to develop for over a decade would be too good to miss.

Ah yes we have a permanent carrier strike group next to Iran but have you noticed however that [RAMBLING ABOUT INTERNATIONAL LAW]? Therefore we should nuke Teheran to save the Western Civilization (TM)

UK infected blood scandal made worse by ‘chilling’ cover-up, inquiry finds

Full text

UK infected blood scandal made worse by ‘chilling’ cover-up, inquiry finds

Thousands of deaths could have been avoided, final report on infection of thousands with HIV or hepatitis C concludes Haroon Siddique and Rachel Hall Mon 20 May 2024 19.42 BST First published on Mon 20 May 2024 12.30 BST

The scandal that claimed the lives of 3,000 people treated with contaminated blood was inflamed by a “chilling” NHS and government cover-up, a scathing report has found on what Rishi Sunak has declared a “day of shame”.

In the long-awaited conclusion to a five-year public inquiry, Brian Langstaff, who chaired the investigation, said on Monday the calamity could “largely, though not entirely, have been avoided” – but successive governments and others in authority “did not put patient safety first”.

He said the death toll was rising weekly among the 30,000 people who were infected with hepatitis C, HIV or both from the 1970s to the early 90s, either from receiving transfusions during surgery or through blood plasma products imported from the US to treat haemophiliacs.

The 2,527-page report contains a litany of examples of unheeded warnings about what would become the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history. Clinicians and ministers were told about the risks but patients were lied to and infected during trials carried out without their consent or, in the case of children, that of their parents. There were also delays informing patients of their infections, stretching to years in some cases.

“The NHS and successive governments compounded the agony by refusing to accept that wrong had been done,” said Langstaff, after being given a standing ovation on Monday at Central Hall in Westminster, London, by more than 1,000 victims and affected people gathered to hear the report’s findings.

“More than that, the government repeatedly maintained that people received the best available treatment and that testing of blood donations began as soon as the technology was available. And both claims were untrue.”

With the current government having come under fire in the report for its failure to compensate victims, Rishi Sunak said he would implement last year’s recommendations “whatever it costs”. He also offered a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology for the scandal – including for “the loss and destruction of key documents including ministerial advice and medical records” – on what he called “a day of shame for the UK state”.

The NHS England chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, also apologised to those who “put their trust in the care they got from the NHS over many years” and “were badly let down”.

The report provides vindication for campaigners who, after decades and in the face of denials, have insisted that risks were disregarded, lies were told and tracks were covered.

Langstaff wrote: “The answer to the question ‘was there a cover-up?’ is that there has been. Not in the sense of a handful of people plotting in an orchestrated conspiracy to mislead, but in a way that was more subtle, more pervasive and more chilling in its implications. To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth.”

He condemned a culture in which “financial and reputational considerations predominated”.

Among thousands of tragic stories, he described the use of children as “objects of research” at Treolar’s school in Hampshire, where only 30 pupils remain of the 122 who attended the specialist school for people with haemophilia between 1970 and 1987, as “unconscionable”.

In response, many of the affected experienced mixed emotions. Andy Evans, 47, the chair of Tainted Blood, who was infected as a small child with HIV and hepatitis C, said it was a “momentous day”, adding: “We’ve been gaslit for generations.”

He added: “When we told people, they didn’t believe us. They said this wouldn’t happen in the UK. Today this proves this can happen – and did happen – in the UK.

“When you’ve been building up to a single day for 40 years there’s no wrong or right emotion about it, but the campaigners who’ve been doing this for so long – relief, absolute relief, will be an overriding emotion. Certainly that’s the case for me.”

Rosamund Cooper, 50, was diagnosed with Von Willebrand disease, a bleeding disorder, when she was eight months old, and found out she had been infected with hepatitis C when she was 19. She said: “We were told it was accidental. We were told … the decisions made were the best possible at the time.”

The report “is showing that that’s not the case, and that people were covering things up, denying things, hiding things from us, which is disgraceful”.

Langstaff said the risks of hepatitis posed by blood transfusions or the use of plasma were known before the NHS’s inception in 1948 and if measures to mitigate them proposed by the World Health Organization in 1952 had been adopted, “it is reasonable to believe that a significant part of the harm on which this inquiry is focused could have been prevented”.

Significantly, he found the risks were sufficiently clear that factor VIII products imported from the US, created using blood plasma from high-risk donors including prisoners and drug addicts and used to treat haemophilia, should never have been licensed for import in 1973 – nor should other similar blood products later in the same decade.

With Aids, the report says it was apparent by mid-1982 to “some clinicians and some within government” that whatever was causing it might be transmissible by blood and blood products. But ministers continued to give safety reassurances, as did doctors. Despite the risk, in July 1983 a decision was taken not to suspend the continued importation of commercially produced blood products.

Langstaff said: “The failure of clinicians to tell people of the risks of infection from blood or blood products, the failure to tell people of the availability of alternative treatments, the failure to tell them that they were being tested for HIV or hepatitis C and, sometimes, the failure even to tell them, or to tell them promptly, that they had been infected with HIV or hepatitis by their treatment; the failure to explain these devastating diagnoses privately, in person and with sensitivity – these failures were widespread. They were wrong. They were unethical.”

Reflecting the loss of faith in the state by victims and relatives, Langstaff said he would not consider the inquiry over until the government either implemented his recommendations or gave good reasons for not doing so, giving it a year to respond substantively.

https://archive.is/dszqJ

US DOD lift moratorium on V-22 Ospreys, allowing them to fly again, but with an extremely specific rule

The services are barred from flying the controversial tiltrotor aircraft more than 30 minutes away from a suitable airfield to divert to in case anything goes wrong. That has caused some of the services, such as the Navy, to continue relying on other aircraft to accomplish tasks that the Osprey would have taken

May the crashprey strike once more.

Mr. President we need to do something, we are losing popular support, we are not signing new trade deals and the IMF is refusing the send us funds. We need to distract the people, shall we order the armed forces to invade the Islands?

No, I have a better idea.

Milei gives musical show, rails against abortion during book launch

The president sang and gave a speech where he called abortion a ‘murderous agenda’

President Javier Milei gave his followers a full show on Wednesday night for the presentation of his latest book Capitalism, Socialism And The Neoclassic Trap. The president gave a fiery speech railing against socialism and abortion — he called the latter a “murderous agenda” — but the headline was the brief musical show where Milei appeared as the frontman of a rock band.

“I am doing this because I wanted to sing,” Milei told around 8,000 of his supporters as he went on stage at the Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires. “I’ve always done this acapella. Now I wanted to have musicians.”

Dressed in his customary black leather jacket, he sang Panic Show, a song by rock band La Renga that has become an anthem for libertarians in Argentina, despite the band’s opposition. The president frequently sings a part of this song before giving speeches to his supporters.

The band that appeared alongside the president was made up of libertarian deputy Alberto “Bertie” Benegas Lynch, his brother Joaquín, and journalist Marcelo Duclos, co-author of Milei’s biography. After the musical performance, Milei gave an hour-long speech and later joined a panel with presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni and libertarian deputy José Luis Espert.

The event was live streamed on the presidential YouTube channel, but the musical section was left out. The only footage of the moment was taken by people recording on their phones. No professional video equipment was allowed inside, aside from the devices used by the presidential team.

Milei devoted part of his speech to speak about his book, claiming that it provides tools to fight what he calls “21st century socialism.” But he also went against abortion, despite recently saying that overturning legal pregnancy interruption in Argentina is not on his government agenda.

Citing a passage from the Exodus book of the Bible, Milei claimed that abortion was a mechanism the Egyptians used in biblical times to “annihilate Jews.”

“Abortion is an agenda that is over 3,000 years old, and it is completely murderous,” he said.

Milei was initially scheduled to present his book at the Buenos Aires Book Fair on May 12. However, he decided to call it off and do it at the Luna Park stadium on the grounds that he thought the organization would “sabotage” the event. “We need to thank [Book Fair organizers] El Libro Foundation, which gifted us this party with their boycott attempt,” he said on Wednesday night.

Tickets for the event at Luna Park were handed out free of charge. According to the government, the event was funded using earnings from the president’s book. Publisher Planeta announced on Wednesday that Milei had given up the book’s economic rights. The president later explained they were transferred to Distribuidora Belgrano Norte SRL (DBN), a music distribution company that paid for the rental of the stadium.

In recent days, Milei has been accused of plagiarism in his new book. According to an investigation published by Noticias magazine, he allegedly copied exact paragraphs from published works by two Chilean economists and a group of researchers from Argentina’s top publicly-funded research institute, CONICET, as well as a United States website.

“There is no plagiarism of any kind; everything is within intellectual property law,” the presidential spokesman said on Tuesday. Milei has already been accused of plagiarism on previous occasions.

I want our next president to be the most boring ass bureaucrat possible, I've had enough of this wild ride (it has just been 6 months).

This might explain the both-sidesing of arrest warrants by the ICC

Slovenia to recognise Palestinian state by mid-June

SARAJEVO, May 9 (Reuters) - The Slovenian government on Thursday initiated the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state as a form of leverage to end the conflict in Gaza, a move it announced in March, Prime Minister Robert Golob said.

"The horrors we see every day in Gaza are inadmissible and must stop," Golob was quoted as saying on the government X platform. "I call on Israel to put an immediate end to its attacks on Gaza and to use the negotiating table."

Golob said he would like his country´s recognition to be "an incentive for these negotiations to proceed more quickly" and speed up the dialogue in the United Nations on an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the security and existence of Israel through a two-state solution.

The announcement came as Ireland, Spain and a number of other European Union member states are reportedly considering recognising a Palestinian state on May 21, according to a report by Ireland's national broadcaster.

The date of Slovenia's recognition will depend on the success of the progress in peace talks, with June 13 at the latest, Golob said. If progress is accelerated, Slovenia will complete the recognition procedure faster.

He said the decision to initiate the recognition procedures contained expectations for all those involved in the conflict - the progress in peace talks, release of hostages and in the reform of the Palestinian Authority.

The ruling coalition agreed unanimously on this decision, Golob said, expressing hope that the recognition would inspire other countries to follow in Slovenia´s steps.

Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia said in March they had agreed to take the first steps towards recognising a Palestinian state. The countries reportedly have been waiting for a vote by the United Nations General Assembly on May 10 which could lead to the recognition of the Palestinians as qualified for full U.N. membership.

Since 1988, 139 out of 193 U.N. member states have recognised Palestinian statehood.

Israel has said that the four countries' plan constituted a "prize for terrorism" that would reduce the chances of a negotiated resolution to the Gaza conflict.