Claudia Sheinbaum, part of the left-wing and populist Morena party to which AMLO also belongs, is now the first woman to ascend to the Mexican presidency. She is also a climate/energy scientist and was previously mayor of Mexico City. Results indicate that she has won with approximately 60% of the vote, which would be the highest vote percentage in Mexican history.
AMLO's presidency has been generally successful. He campaigned on reducing violence inside Mexico, and while this has technically occurred if measured from 2018, homicides are still considerably higher than in 2010. This is largely due to warring drug cartels, which are more reflective of the United States and its rise in drug addiction and thus imports from Mexico. He also campaigned on reducing corruption, which he also kinda has, and also on reducing income inequality, which he also kinda has. The overall figures don't show massive budges in income inequality, but the minimum wage has risen by 82% and manufacturing wage have risen 27%, and this plus other social programs has lifted 9 million Mexicans out of extreme poverty - a good achievement - but not much further than that, with poverty rates still above the Latin American average. Unemployment is officially at record lows, but much of this job growth has been in the informal sector.
The Mexican economy suffered greatly during the pandemic, and while growth since then has been pretty decent, the economy is still below where it was in 2018. As Mexican capitalists do not pay much in taxes, AMLO's programs have required large budget deficits and borrowing. These capitalists are, of course, not doing many productive investments and thus there is not much productivity growth; productivity has been more-or-less stagnant for two decades. The reason why Mexican capitalists are not investing is because of the major decline in profitability since the 1990s - there is no reason to invest if your money is at major risk of not making a profit. Therefore, they have followed the trend of other national capitalists of investing in real estate and speculation, particularly in American companies.
Since NAFTA/USMCA, Mexico has become increasingly dependent on the United States for a location for its exports, while the US has exploited cheap labour in Mexico. Additionally, with the anti-Chinese sanctions increasingly put in place by the US, Mexico has become one of several conduits for China to redirect its goods so that they can still reach American markets. This has allowed Mexico to have an essentially balanced trade account and keep the peso relatively strong against the dollar.
Mexico's limited fortunes will likely decline from here as the US economy continues to slow. If Trump is elected, he may decree protectionist policies which will hit a US-reliant Mexico quite hard. Additionally, industrial production has recently declined and retail spending is also down. AMLO's presidency was genuinely beneficial for the poorest 50%, but the policies he created failed to really change the fundamentals of the economy. He relied on the private sector rather than the public sector. This is not entirely his fault - if he had tried to do anything terribly transformative, Mexico would have probably been hit hard with consequences by the US and simultaneously faced a domestic revolt by Mexican capitalists. There were and are already threats of outright invasion in response to the limited things AMLO has already done.
In an increasingly multipolar future in which America becomes weaker and weaker, it's very possible that Mexico's reliance on the US will decrease, allowing parties to be more radical without facing the possibility of facing crippling sanctions like Venezuela. However, Mexico's sheer proximity to the US means that they might be among the last countries to break free of American influence, as the US will continue to bitterly resist any attempt to break down the Monroe Doctrine long after it loses Asia, Europe, and Africa. So, it seems likely that Sheinbaum may soon find herself in a situation where she is forced by capitalists to implement fiscal austerity regardless of her intentions, which is equivalent to a declaration of war on the working class. What happens then is anybody's guess.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Mexico! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Also, to anyone doubting the effectiveness of the Houthis - Red Sea traffic has remained at the same reduced levels since December into the present day.
🔴⚡️URGENT: An Israeli soldier suffering from severe psychological issues after fighting in the Gaza Strip went to the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv today and threw hand grenades at the ministry. It is unknown if there are any casualties.
CPUSA officially condemns Hamas by platforming member of the politburo of the Communist Party of Israel (Maki) who spends speech blaming Hamas for Oct.7 'massacre', the genocide in gaza, and Israel's rabid dog-like response.
Remember when Kim Jong Un said "Joe Biden should be beaten to death with a stick like a rabid dog"?
Now, this is not a call to violence or anything, I'm just quoting someone. That someone being Kim Jong Un. And the quote being "Joe Biden should be beaten to death with a stick like a rabid dog"
Wasn't that wild? You know, the fact that he said "Joe Biden should be beaten to death with a stick like a rabid dog"? Wild right.
A muslim killed a cop in Germany and it's all the media talks about. "Radical Islam" is now officially the #1 threat to national security and "How and when are we gonna deport all those muslims" is the #1 issue that politicans are asked about. It's complete insanity how this islamophobia has just been kinda... talked into existence over the past few months. Don't get me wrong, Germany has always been racist but to say it's been amped up to eleven would be an understatement. Israel has broken the brain of every liberal in this country, every pro-Palestine protest has been explained away as "Islamist agitators" and now it feels like the libs are one "Allahu Akbar" away from dusting off the swastika armbands.
Hey, do you guys remember when the EU was condemning Georgia for its foreign influence law? Well, you'll never guess what the EU is up to...
Germany, backed by a group of countries including Hungary and Poland, is leading a revolt against new EU legislation aimed at shining a light on foreign influence in political campaigns.
Under the proposed law, the bloc would set up a central register for media, non-governmental organisations and lobby groups that receive funding from outside the EU.
Berlin and other capitals have thrown their weight behind international NGOs that have condemned the proposed regime, saying it mirrors discriminatory measures imposed by the governments of Russia and Georgia on dissenting voices in those countries.
Russian officials were not invited to the D-Day commemoration despite the Soviet Union being an ally of the US and France during World War II and suffering tens of millions of deaths. Biden used the event to rally support for NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine and slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “tyrant.”
“We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never fade,” Biden said. “Here, in Europe, we see one stark example. Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination.”
Biden also declared that NATO was the “greatest military alliance in the history of the world” and framed the proxy war in Ukraine as a battle for “democracy” despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky canceling elections and remaining in power after his term ended.
“Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time — in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now — it will be said: When the moment came, we met the moment. We stood strong. Our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well,” Biden said.
Twelve local Jewish organizations declared they will stop funding the Oregon Food Bank over them making a very both-sides "starvation is bad" statement.
Majority of young Britons think Israel should not exist
A majority of Britain’s young people do not believe Israel should exist, a new UnHerd poll has revealed.
A preliminary finding of an exclusive survey of 1,012 voters about foreign policy, conducted by Focaldata and due to be released tomorrow on UnHerd, found that a striking 54% of 18-24-year-olds agreed with the statement that “the state of Israel should not exist.” Just 21% disagreed.
This finding dovetails with other UnHerd polling on the same issue. In a separate question, young respondents were asked who was more to blame for the war in Gaza. Half blamed the Israeli government, while a quarter answered Hamas. Only 19% responded “all equally”.
Edit: I removed the link because, as Droplet pointed out, UnHerd is a TERF site.
Putin (slowly racking up Ws, the man's strategy has been paying off for a while now)
Soviet engineering (crazy how resilient Ukrainian cities are despite all the bombing, big respect to chad Soviets)
Zelensky (a little promotion for Z-man, I'll give him credit for getting his wishes fulfilled 24/7 by being too annoying)
War update youtubers (UKRANIAN COLLAPSE I SWEAR!!!, but nothing happens)
TCC (I'm sure that dragging a 22 year old cashier into an unmarked van will provide an effective solider)
Hamas, PIJ, Qassam, PFLP and all resistance groups in Gaza (Allah's bravest soliders)
Hezbollah, Iran, Iraqis, and Houthis (still making the Zionists shake)
Pro-Israel propagandists (so bad at their jobs that the world now actively hates Israel more thanks to them, keep doing a horrible job please)
Joe Biden (it's so funny that he keeps getting disrespected by Israeli hogs like Ben Gvir even on the tiniest concessions)
Egypt (the cucking is so bad that Israel killed their soliders and they still took it like good imperialist dogs)
The people of Gaza (bravest people ever)
Spanish government (surprisingly good positions on Palestine despite being a Western European nation)
The "Eyes on Rafah" AI pic (nice sentiment, but why would you use an AI-generated slop pic and what does having your eyes on Rafah achieve)
Hindutva Indians (amazing levels of cucking for the zios, and all they receive in return is racism towards India)
The entire country of Germany (irredeemable people and government)
Yahya Sinwar (making the Zionists seeth since day 1, this man might have set in motion the chain of events that leads to the destruction of the Zionist state)
Claudia Sheinbaum (won the election, making English-speaking libs mad and zionists mad by being an anti-zio Jew)
Vinicius Junior (great player, suffers a lot due to racism, but he's such an annoying little shit)
Anwar Sadat (he died like 44 years ago, but the effects of his cucked behavior is still felt today, hope he's in hell)
I was going to say that Biden’s aid pier was a massive and catastrophic boondoggle that accomplished nothing but apparently it has actually accomplished something because Israel used it to kill 200 people.
After reading the Biden time magazine interview transcript I was looking at trump rally transcripts to compare and contrast and I found this excellent passage
In fact, I shook so many hands of policemen and law enforcement. This hand. They tend to have very strong hands and when you shake hundreds of them, they have very, very powerful hands. “Sir, thank you very much.” “Thank you, sir.” One guy’s fingers, like sausages. “Sir, do you mind if I shake your hand?” “Absolutely.” And he’s crying a little bit because he’s happy. He hasn’t cried since he was about one month old. ” Sir, do you mind if I shake? We have to save our country. May I shake your hand, sir?” “Yes.” You go, “Aww.” But that’s okay. We do it.
Ken Klippenstein tweeting about how it "would be nice" for Gaza to suffer disarmament, but that it wouldn't happen because "hamas doesn't care about regular Palestinians" is so fucking egregious I genuinely believe he deserves to be shot.
Just like any Nazi deserves to be shot pre-repentancy.
The Southern District of New York has unveiled an indictment against Weidong Guan, Cheif Financial Officer of the Epoch Times (a Falun Gong joint), accusing him of using the company to launder at least 67 million dollars of fraudulent money.
a little recap, the IDF did a rescue operation where they brazenly broke the Geneva convention and managed to kill about 200 people to save 4 people who had been abducted/rescued by Hamas from a music festival where the IDF killed about 300 people
The Israeli government is behind a large-scale influence campaign primarily aimed at Black lawmakers and young progressives in the United States and Canada.
A network analysis found four other websites that used the same IP and promoted content designed for certain audiences.
One was the United Citizens for Canada site, which had multiple social media accounts and disseminated heavily Islamophobic material, including claims that Muslim immigrants were a threat to Canada and demanding a sharia state.
Another was the Arab Slave Trade site, which was copied almost entirely from Wikipedia and was aimed at Black Americans, trying to repeat the message that the Arabs had been slave traders in Africa.
Yet another site was called Serenity Now, which branded itself as anarchist and anti-establishment, sought to convince young Americans to oppose the creation of a Palestinian state because "states are manmade structures" and a Palestinian state "would hurt the goals of the progressive movement."
The WHO has confirmed the first official human death as a result of H5N2 (Bird Flu): A Mexican man has passed away after testing positive with no history of animal contact.
So, UC strike update. The university admin has been working overtime to shut down the strike via legal means, in addition to all their normal intimidation stuff. They filed not one, but two, complaints to PERB, the union regulatory body, and both were struck down. PERB even filed a complaint against the UC after the second one, due to their gross breach of union protections and norms.
So, what did they do? Decide to just strike break like a normal company? No.
They shopped around California to get a judge to rule the strike illegal, outside of the entire legal chain of how this is supposed to go, after the actual regulatory body has declared it legal, twice. And they just succeeded! A restraining order got signed, of some weird legal justification or another. Of course the crank judge signed off on this, and now our collaborator union executive board just signed off an email to pause striking. The order is to pause it until June 27th, which is coincidentally 3 days before the strike is constrained to end at, June 30th, so it's effectively a full destruction of the strike.
Fucking amazing. There's a strong wildcat strike supporting contingent already, and I can only imagine it's going to get bigger in the face of this obviously farcical judicial order. Now we're going to pressure people to try to stop being pieces of shit at the top end. Because honestly, if they let this slide, what is even the point of a union existing anymore? Like seriously!
Kyiv wants the United States to train more Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, but the U.S. says there are limited spots and too many customers from other nations, Politico reported on June 5, citing Ukrainian and U.S. officials.
Several countries, including the U.S., have pledged to assist Ukrainian aviators with the necessary training under the F-16 coalition framework. The first Ukrainian pilots began their training at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, last October.
Ukraine says it has 30 pilots prepared to start the training program in Tucson, but U.S. President Joe Biden maintains that the program only has space for 12 students at a time, three officials told Politico.
The same availability issues reportedly also affect training facilities in Denmark and Romania.
Over the past several weeks, Kyiv has officially requested that the U.S. train the additional pilots at the Tucson facility. The U.S. has not granted the request, citing committments to other nations in line for F-16 training at the base.
"We understand they don't want to break those contracts, but they could move their American pilots to a different base for training," Ukrainian lawmaker Sasha Ustinova told Politico.
They could. But you failed at achieving the impossible, now get stuffed.
Eight new pilots will begin training at the facility in Romania, while another eight are set to undergo training at the Tucson base. For the rest of the year, across all training sites, only four spots will be available for Ukrainian pilots, one official told Politico.
It would be more useful if they trained with the Japanese, they probably still remember how to get something out of vastly outnumbered and outclassed disposable airplanes.
Some tasty cope in the comments:
Why would any country trust paper security assurances ever again as a fair exchange for some more tangible sacrifice they are asked to make?
Why indeed.
Are the USA secretly Putler's best friends?
Reality keeps making everyone part of putinist Hamas.
This is the heart of the most popular touristy area in Chicago this time of year, so I think it's a smart move to increase visibility and cause disruption, but I'm equally really worried about inevitable police rioting to clear it out because of how visible and disruptive it is.
Edit: Some additional context, Chicago's downtown neighborhood (the Loop), where this is situated, infamously clears out at night. Not because it's unsafe or anything, but just because there's virtually no night life unlike other neighborhoods. There's a huge police presence around the fountain right now, but I'm really worried that the cops will just wait for the middle of the night to do their thing.
The headlines about Mexico’s new president remind me how little people pay attention to Central America. We already had two female presidents with Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica and Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua.
In another dogshit article out of the CPUSA mouthpiece, People's World, the Joe Sims once again steals valor by framing the gains of the wider anti-genocide movement as gains made by the communist party that's celebrating 100 years of failures before quickly pivoting to saying the palestinian genocide isn't as bad as a trump presidency would be, therefore it is the duty of every member of CPUSA to fight redmaga fascism by voting for bluemaga fascism.
Sims also spoke of the “raw racism at the very heart of MAGA,” and added, “Immigrants are a special target.
Hey someone remind me of the news about what Biden just did to the immigrants and assylumn seekers
“First, they tried the wall,” Sims said of Trump’s scheme to keep migrants from entering the U.S. across the Mexican border. “Then the Muslim ban, now they’re planning concentration camps. That’s right, we said it. And if they come for immigrants in the morning, they’re damn sure coming for us at noon.
Who actually built the wall Joe? Who not only helped build concentration camps at the border but is also expanding them Joe? They've been going after immigrants for decades, Jackass, you're just phrasemongering to sheepdog your cultist underlings back to backing the Blue. They won't come for you since you're never on the front lines.
“Think mass firings, public lynchings, public trials for the act of thinking. Think it can’t happen here? Think again, it already did. It was called McCarthyism.
“Hell yeah, there’s a fascist danger,” Sims said, emphasizing that’s why everything has to be done now to prevent it.
"Therefore why don't you be a good communist and vote democrat?"
“And what will Trump do when the people rise up and say no? Will he invoke the Insurrection Act, call out the National Guard and the militias, suspend the Constitution? Honestly, we don’t know. What we do know is we don’t want to find out. Fascism in this country could mean a dictatorship. Democracy as we know it could be eliminated.”
Lol. Lmao even. This is your titular communist party, America. Literally nothing existing would be better than it's existence because at least you can begin building from the ground-up.
Edit: Follow-up, I'm making myself angry and gotta froth a bit more at the article.
But we’re not at fascism yet, of course, Sims said. And that moment of respite – for however long it lasts – means that for now, “There is room for struggle. Let us use that space to fight for a ceasefire in Gaza and for an end to the war in Ukraine. Let us use it to stop the expansion of NATO, end the blockade of Cuba, and bring the Cold War against China to a close.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA endorses the Palestinian Genocide by saying to vote for Joe Biden.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA deny the existence of actual existing fascism that is the Ukrainian fascist state project.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA supports the expansion of NATO and the blockade of Cuba because he supports the bourgeoise rabid dogs that are building and preserving imperialism.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA wants a cold war with China because they do not stand for Communism and they do not stand with actual existing socialist states as they rally their followers to sheepdog the masses into supporting the ghouls of empire that desire to carve up China once more and plunge them into another century of humiliation.
Joe Sims and the entirety of CPUSA are enemies of the working class and must be combatted as such. Any individuals that will listen to reason must be persuaded to leave. Everyone else must be treated with the same ferocity and vitriol that's reserved for the liberals that make up the Democratic Party of the United States.
Funny how with US elections libs are constantly saying "you can't get everything you want" but when it comes to Ukraine and Israel, "negotiation" somehow means "give us everything we want".
Matt Miller: "No, they are signed up to an agreement that leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities, but with a number of provisions that have to be negotiated...there cannot be continued rule of Hamas"
Who will sign that treaty from the other side? fucking pa?
Regarding the latest massacre, it seems like people noticed the infiltration, attacked the infiltrators, then the IOF started bombing and shooting to get out? I don’t really understand how a "hostage rescue" could kill 200 people. Of course I do, it's israel
Fucking nauseating, death to israel and any who continue to defend this atrocity
Let's spin things around for a little bit. See, the western imperialist powers are going to do a full demonstration of the Normandy Landings in France, like a big ass military exercise where br*tish and ameriKKKan troops are going to paradrop and carry out amphibious operations in the area to commemorate the landings in 1944. Now, this is all good and bla bla, but I will tell you this: These exercises are here to remind the French the ameriKKKans and the pathetic island are more than willing to resort to military power to keep their shit ally in check.
Why am I saying this? Because I've just read the WiKKKipedia's article for "Zapad-81", the largest military exercise carried out by the USSR. It was pretty massive, a fuckton of tanks, airplanes and ships took part. The exercise was done in Poland and, as far as I know, it included units of the Polish People's Army. But CracKKKerpedia has another point of view, and I quote: "Exercise Zapad included amphibious landings in Poland near Gdańsk, reminding Poles that the Soviet Union could resort to military force if it was deemed necessary for the preservation of communist power."
And it has no citation, of course it doesn't. It's just the author's opinion.
Therefore I can freely consider the Normandy exercises as mere shows of force against Russia, to keep their sometimes rebellious ally in check and to preserve capitalism.
Ken Klippenstein evidently thinks genocide is funny, given that his reaction to the backlash for his position that Palestinians should have to submit entirely to their murderers is to spend the past days tweeting sarcastic bullshit like "Ken Klippenstein sold out to big newsletter" and "Fuck Ken Klippenstein!!!"
BIG NEWS: Europe sucks massive amounts of ass and they've done nothing good for humanity save for some cool individuals like my main man Karl Marx and some others. It's a good-for-nothing glorified peninsula that without exploitation of the third world it wouldn't even exist.
Yo what the fuck. Obviously Democratic governors are cowardly and suck etc etc but Hochul just "indefinitely delayed" congestion pricing in New York City, the one good policy on the horizon for New York and something that would have made my day to day living experience infinitely more delightful. This was due to go into effect in 25 days. It's been planned for years. Would've reduced traffic and air pollution in Manhattan by a lot. Cowards. https://abc7ny.com/post/congestion-pricing-nyc-kathy-hochul-start-delay/14912968/
Protesters in Tel Aviv call on Germany to cease arms exports
Demonstrators have gathered in front of Germany’s embassy in Tel Aviv to demand the German government halt arms exports to Israel.
At the entrance of the embassy, protesters held signs reading slogans such as, “Stop arming Israel”, “Don’t you have enough blood on your hands?” and “For once, be on the right side of history.”
They also chanted, “Germany, you can’t hide, you’re complicit in genocide.”
Israeli police removed the protesters by force and detained five individuals.
Nobody seems to have brought this up here yet but GME is having another moment in the spotlight, the original dude that got called up to congress (Roaring Kitty / DeepFuckingValue) is back posting his daily positions, this time on /r/superstonk. His story is honestly impressive, dude has gone from a $50k initial amount of money to $200+million now.
Anyway I'm bringing this up because shit might actually pop off again and, if anyone recalls last time, it caused a marketwide liquidity crisis that nearly brought down the entire market.
I think it's worth keeping an eye on, if it turns into another squeeze it's going to cause whacky shit across the market again. I'm not really convinced it will but it's a possibility on the table.
Voting doesn't matter huh. (tbh i find it funny when like florida panhandle has 10 psl voters) (also not sure about correctness of both descriptions of locale and party)
well, I'll fucking be. that Indian elections analysis I posted last thread really did have credence
obviously Modi will still be made leader for a third term and the NDA will keep an overall majority but that was already baked in, that was virtually no universe where that didn't happen, so meaningfully reducing the BJP's margins especially to the point where they have to rely on coalitions to push things through is the next best thing, and that seems to be what's happened if trends hold. looks like reactionaries have made big inroads in Kerala though, so that sucks
India's stocks have been hit hard by the election results. I hope those Indian billionaires are taking a mental health day and doing some self-care and that the people they love are checking in with them right now
The situation in Lebanon continues to escalate. Earlier today, Hezbollah successfully directed a significant drone attack against an occupation outpost, destroying a settler military unit.
There are now reports on telegram and twitter that aggression from the occupier has ratcheted up, including what seem to be indiscriminate missile attacks / air strikes against south Lebanon, mostly near the city of Tyre. As always CW for possible reactionary content, and wait for confirmation from more reliable sources
The president insisted that he is a libertarian prophet with the mission of fighting the cultural battle to save the West from socialism.
On his recent trip to the United States, the president gave an interview to The Free Press and insisted that he is a kind of libertarian global prophet.
"What I am warning about is that it is not necessary for the world to suffer such a debacle to escape the ideas of socialism," he said when referring to the situation in Argentina, which in Milei's vision is what the West should avoid.
Yes, please. Don't emulate us, especially whatever the fuck we've been doing since like 2016 until today. ESPECIALLY the last six months.
"And one of the things that I usually say, let's say, is that I come from an apocalyptic future to avoid it. Something like the story of Terminator. Well, in fact Schwarzenegger is a libertarian," said Milei to the disbelief of journalist Bari Weiss.
He is?
"Apart from the laughing issue, this is because the cultural battle has not occurred. But someone who comes from the battle, like my case, has been able to come to power. That is a no small point," the president continued.
"When I came to power I never stopped fighting the cultural battle. And now the microphone is much bigger, the level of reach is greater. I had already been saying the things I said in Davos for a long time. But saying them as president and being the first libertarian president in the history of humanity, the effect is much greater" he continued.
"The most positive part is that from these speeches many people are waking up. In fact, when I started my political career, in my first speech I said 'I don't come here to lead lambs, I come to wake up lions.' Fortunately, what I am Looking globally is that there are many libertarian lions awakening. Therefore, although the present is looking dark, I believe that the foundations for a much better future are blossoming," he continued.
Already during his trip to Spain, Milei confessed that what keeps him awake is not the presidency of Argentina but "the cause of freedom" and the cultural battle, which he said is "an inalienable commitment." "In any case, now that I am president, my responsibility for fighting the cultural battle is even greater, because what I do and say has a greater effect," he said at that time.
I uh... just... uh.. yeah.
He legit thinks he's some sort of messiah. No joke here. Apparently in one of his books he says that he met Conan (his long dead dog) at the Roman Colosseum when he was a gladiator and his dog a fucking lion or something and they didn't fight because God told them to join forces to save Argentina centuries later. I don't know if this is real, I don't want to check. Can you imagine reading any of his books? I am not insane.
What have we done?
On the other hand, how MASSIVE is this guy ---> . He is immense, like for real. They thought the events of 1989 and 1991 put an end to Marxism, and that Capitalism was on the path to total victory. They tried to bury Marx and Marxism forever. And look at it now, this motherfucker crying because "the west is in danger from socialism" (COOL I LIKE THAT) and Marx, once again, appears on the stage. He was never dead, he will never die. His works are here to remain, forever.
The plot of the Mad Max video game is that you're just trying to reach a place called the Plains of Silence. You're not trying to save the world or anything, you're just a dude trying to run away from his feelings. 10/10 extremely relatable
A 57- year old man from Denmark has been charged with vandalism, disturbance of the peace, failing to provide aid in a traffic accident and reckless endangerment of life and health by intentionally dumping several tons of potatoes on a highway last year. The incident happened as a protest against a road tax of heavy traffic. Three other men has been charged with aiding and abetting him.
A motorcyclist and their passenger was injured when their bike slipped in the potatoes and several vehicles were damaged due to the incident.
The man denies ever intending to endanger other motorists, saying that "nobody was supposed to drive through the potatoes"
Has anyone in the Democratic party put forward an actual real political plan for how to reinstate Roe v Wade(not literally but an equivalent), as in what actually would have to happen for that to become a reality?
Based Ansar’Allah just dropped footage of their locally-manufactured “Palestine” ballistic missile, alongside footage of its first launch towards Israel the Zionist entity
Oh he's also still holding and his options are now worth $586 million
Dude started all this shit with just 50,000 dollars.
Anyway I don't think it's done. Feels like last time tbh I think mainstream is going to fomo into it and it's going to go off and then a bunch of poor people that were hoping to get rich are going to end up bag holders.
Politicians in my country are barking mad. They are now talking about sending troops to Ukraine. The "Socialist People's Party" (succdems who likes wind turbines) states that it is "absolutely crucial" that Ukraine wins the war and wants to send "advisors". The succdems and the two other right-wing parties in the ruling junta "will not deny the possibility" but claims that it is not relevant now.
The conservatives goes further and claims that "there is no alternative to Ukraine winning the war" and supports putting troops on the ground. The libertarians also supports direct involvement in the war because "Russia has to lose the war".
The only sane people on this question are the demsoc Red-Greens and the fascist Danish People's Party who both seems to be aware that going to war with a superpower can have bad consequences for you.
So there is apparently a press release circulating about 4 hostages who were recently rescued from Hamas. It says that they had been abducted from the Nova music festival where Hamas somehow managed to kill 300 people.
Knowing what I know it's more appropriate to say that they were rescued by Hamas from the IDF.
Large majorities of Americans, including in the Democratic Party, tell pollsters they think you are too old to lead. Could you really do this job as an 85-year old man?
Biden: I can do it better than anybody you know. You’re looking at me, I can take you too.
President Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday allowing him to temporarily seal the U.S. border with Mexico to migrants when crossings surge, a move that would suspend longtime protections for asylum seekers in the United States.
. . .
The order would represent the single most restrictive border policy instituted by Mr. Biden, or any modern Democrat, and echoes a 2018 effort by President Donald J. Trump to block migration that was assailed by Democrats and blocked by federal courts.
Btw, Idk if people have talked about it, but hidden in that ceasefire presented by Biden is that Hamas must dissolve, disarm and give control to Gaza to someone else.
Am I sure they're a fascist? Yes 100%, here they are expressing exterminationist fantasies and contributing to the production of a new slur to be used:
In Ukrainian it's м'ясо (miyaso) but Russian will be a dead language soon so no need to know what it is.
Be vigilant about cryptofascists doing ops in socialist spaces. This one was not too effective but they did get upvoted and I'm sure there's better ops going on.
Hizbullah's latest escalation along Israel's northern border is a marked departure from prior flare-ups that have occurred since October 8. This stage transcends merely responding to Israeli attacks and restoring deterrence; it involves conveying new messages and strategies. Hizbullah's deployment of a squadron of drones and the launching of heavy rockets, which set the Galilee on fire on Monday, must be seen in the context of Biden's cease-fire proposal last Friday. While the party didn't take the initiative seriously, seeing it as an electoral ploy, it's nonetheless trying to improve Hamas' negotiating position in the talks with Israel.
Hizbullah has maintained from the start that its actions across the border with Israel constitute a "solidarity front," but this recent escalation goes beyond attempts to relieve pressure on Gaza by diverting Israel's military capabilities. Hizbullah is now taking on the role of [diplomatic] force multiplier by creating new realities in preparation for "the day after" the war. Alongside this role, Hizbullah is also sending very clear messages to Israel regarding the Lebanese front. Today's attack on the Israeli town of Hurfeish, which left 11 Israelis wounded, was a direct response to Israeli threats to invade Lebanon in the coming days/weeks, and Israel's mobilisation of 50k troops along the border with Lebanon.
Hizbullah seems to be betting that all of these threats and manoeuvres amount to little more than sabre-rattling because it knows Israel is in a much weaker position than it has ever been to launch such a war. This weakness is due in part to the demonstration of Hizbullah's force (it has reportedly used less than 5% of its arsenal so far). It is also partly due to Hizbullah's unprecedented establishment of a buffer zone inside Israel and the forced displacement of tens of thousands of Israeli settlers in northern Israel, around 40% of whom are reportedly not planning to return to their homes once the war ends. Hizbullah is exploiting the strained relations between the northern settlers and the Israeli government, which are rooted in accusations of the state's neglect for this "peripheral" region. This aligns with Hizbullah's longstanding approach of undermining Israel through both internal discord ("implosion") and external attacks ("explosion").
“Unrealized losses on available-for-sale and held-to-maturity securities increased by $39 billion to $517 billion in the first quarter. Higher unrealized losses on residential mortgage-backed securities, resulting from higher mortgage rates in the first quarter, drove the overall increase. This is the ninth straight quarter of unusually high unrealized losses since the Federal Reserve began to raise interest rates in first quarter 2022.”
Isn't unrealised losses on mortgages how 2008 happened?
Look folks, I am not exactly the world's preeminent Middle East Understander, but come on. This smells more than a ripe sunbaked dumpster. Like Hasbara on a bad day.
Hey so macron just announced he's dissolving the assembly, snap elections the 30th of this month
Lmao
Edit: this came as an announcement right after the european election results in france where the far right had a huge victory, i'm not really sure what his plan/strategy is, with this timing it feels like it's going be very easy for the far-right to organize and the left is a clusterfuck right now.
None of the vessels carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in Havana does not pose a threat to the region, Cuban diplomacy stated.
On Thursday, the Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that three Russian ships and a nuclear submarine will visit Havana between June 12 and 17.
More specifically, the Russian detachment consists of the frigate Gorshkov, the submarine Kazan, the fleet oiler Pashin, and the rescue tugboat Nikolai Chiker.
“This visit aligns with the historic friendship relations between Cuba and Russia, and strictly adheres to international regulations to which Cuba is a State party. None of the vessels carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not pose a threat to the region,” Cuban diplomacy stated.
“The visits of naval units from other countries are a historic practice of the revolutionary government with nations with which we maintain friendly and collaborative relations,” it added.
During their stay, the Russian sailors will follow a program of activities that includes courtesy visits to the Head of the Revolutionary Navy and the Governor of Havana.
“When the Russian vessels arrive at the port of Havana, 21 salvos will be fired from one of the ships in the fleet as a salute to the nation, which will be reciprocated by an artillery battery of the Revolutionary Armed Forces from the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña,” detailed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On this occasion, the Russian ships will not conduct any military exercises in Cuban waters. Previously, in February 2023, the frigate Gorshkov participated in joint exercises between Russia, South Africa, and China. It has also participated in drills between China, Iran, and Russia in the Gulf of Oman.
Alexander Mercouris had enough of all these line crossing memes. He wants all of us Putin red line commenters to know that Nato is drawing the red lines and not Russia. Alexander says "you want a red line I'll give you one. Nato drew a red line around Ukraine and on 24 February 2022 Putin crossed it".
I haven't paid my taxes. The IRS finally sent me a thing telling me about the penalties I now owe, etc, but every time I've decided to sit down and pay the taxes since I filed months ago I start thinking about the fucking bombs dropping on Gaza. I am probably going to just pay, I don't really owe that much and I can technically afford to pay it in one chunk, but fuck I really do not want to do this small thing that contributes in the tiniest way to the ongoing genocide.
Europe is such a garbage continent with so many dumbasses. Laughing at how hard these absolute cucks like Macron and Scholz ate shit. Cuck and Chad ranking dropping tomorrow if I have time, I must read through a bunch of articles and tweets to determine which Europeans qualify for cuck and chad positions. One thing is certain though, these hands will never type the name of a Western European in the gigachad column
The gangster run west backed criminal cartel known as the Republic of Korea, (which holds millions of Koreans hostage in its nightmare capitalist system) has "retaliated" by blasting incoherent anticommunist propaganda at the border as well as kpop and samsung's stock performance among other things that only capitalists find appealing. The shallowness of the America's colonized puppet state is rearing its ugly head once again.
Uncritical support to the DPRK's national mission of liberating the Korean people from Western capitalists. . They'll never peacefully reunify the country because comrade Kim Jong Un would win every election in a landslide against all the capitalist ghouls.
P..p..please javier. I beg you, I'll give you whatever you want, I'll stop making jokes about you fucking your sister. But please, stop posting AI generated propaganda... just for once!
defict cero
This motherfucker relying almost exclusively on AI generated propaganda tells you a lot about him, his movement and capitalism in general. There was a time not long ago when states were able to produce good quality propaganda, like these:
spoiler
EXPLAIN THIS ONE, TANKIES
But I guess this is too much to ask for our bourgeois friends up there, after all, they're the ones going through a period of decadence.
Now, where does that AI generated image comes from? Why is he posting several AI generated images of a lion defending a box with cash in it from rats? Yesterday, the Lower House approved a new pension formula, which milei promised to veto (and veto all laws that would go against him pretty much). In response, by posting these images, he more or less called retired people rats and vowed to defend the state's limited funds that are going elsewhere (payment of external debt and personal trips to the US to meet with ). The new formula barely improves the already terrible the retired people are in right now, and he sees that as a threat to "fiscal balance".
100 NATO officers supposedly killed by Russians in a hypersonic missile strike in western Ukraine. I don’t see any many sources on this outside of obscure websites though, not even state/military reports
"They kidnap our children and then prevent us from holding any protest or demonstration. They also arrest activists and beat us." With this phrase, Mrs. Balshen (a pseudonym) began her speech to Al Mayadeen English before adding, “I have three children, two boys and one girl, who is 14 years old. She was kidnapped by members of the Revolutionary Youth Organization when she returned home from school. In the first period, I didn’t know anything about her, but I later learned that she had been transferred to one of the remote training camps, where they teach my daughter the Kurdistan Workers Party doctrine, and they are training her to use weapons."
Western electoral politics is deeply unserious and the most unserious election is that to the EU parliament.
No normal people gives a shit about it because there is no shit to give. All it does is determining what neoliberal ghouls gets a meal ticket and what poor left-wing schmuck gets to talk into the void for five years.
The parties don't take it seriously either, if you look at the ugly posters they put up, half the candidates seems to be 18 year old nobodies who haven't earned a real candidacy yet and get a go on the ballot this time as a consolation prize.
And that is not even the worst kind of election poster, the other half of the posters are "Do as [politician you know], vote for [some ghoul you've never heard about]". The worst poster of them all is one that's just a big portrait photo of their party leader. The guy's not on the ballot but people know him and not his failson who is running, presumably totally unrelated to who his daddy is.
*Data obtained in new study highlights chilling growth in poverty levels – nearly 25 million people in urban areas nationwide are now considered to be poor. *
More than half of Argentines now live in poverty, according to an expert body that tracks the measure. The latest report from the influential Observatorio de la Deuda Social of the Universidad Católica Argentina (Social Debt Observatory of the Catholic University of Argentina, ODSA-UCA) put poverty at 55.5 percent for the first quarter of this year – up from 44.7 in the third quarter of 2023 and 49.5 percent in December, when President Javier Milei was sworn into office.
Some 17.5 percent of the country's 46 million people were considered destitute, according to the figures – nearly double the rate in the third quarter of last year. The figures show that the number of poor in Argentina has risen consistently from a year ago, with the rate now quickening. Extended out to the total population, poverty affects some 25 million people nationwide.
The poverty level in Argentina is officially defined as a monthly income of less than the US$292 required to buy a basic basket of consumer goods for an adult, or US$904 for a family with two children. An adult making less than US$132 is considered to live in extreme poverty, or destitution. The minimum wage in Argentina is 234,315 pesos (about US$250 at the official exchange rate), an economy with almost 50 percent informal employment.
Purchasing power has deteriorated since Milei took office and devalued the currency, while the costs of essential services increased by more than 300 percent on average in the last quarter thanks to the widespread deregulation of utility costs and a massive reduction of subsidies.
“Total food insecurity for the urban areas surveyed by the ODSA-UCA reaches 24.7 percent of the people, 20.8 percent of households and 32.2 percent of children and teenagers. On the other hand, 10.9 percent of people, 8.8 percent of households and 13.9 percent of children and teenagers are in an even more serious situation, facing severe food insecurity,” stressed the report.
“When considering the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, total food insecurity applies to 26.4 percent of people, 21.8 percent of homes and 35 percent of children and teenagers. As for severe food insecurity, the values are 9.9 percent, 12.7 percent and 16.5 percent respectively,” it added.
Higher than official
The new figures are worse than recent data from the INDEC national statistics bureau, which put the poverty rate at 41.7 percent at the end of 2023. That was up from 39.2 percent a year earlier. According to government data, poverty peaked in 2002 65.5 percent and mostly fell until it reached 25.7 percent in 2017. Since then, the figure has grown.
INDEC releases poverty data only twice a year, and its latest report dates back to the period before President Milei's sharp devaluation of the peso mid-December and the rapid inflation that followed. Unlike the UCA body, which measures poverty multi-dimensionally to include access to essential services, INDEC estimates it solely on the basis of income.
All economic indicators are pointing to a crushing impact on the population of Milei's austerity measures, with falling employment and consumer rates on top of annual inflation exceeding 200 percent. In March, UNICEF said the extreme poverty rate among children in Argentina likely reached one in five by the end of 2023.
Highlighting the knock-on impact on education, the UCA report said that 23 percent of children aged three to five do not attend formal educational institutions and that 35.3 percent of young people aged 18 to 29 had dropped out of school before completing their studies. The UCA report highlighted that 42.6 percent of children and teenagers now live in homes that receive a basic child allowance payment and access the Tarjeta Alimentar food stamp programme.
Milei's government, meanwhile, has frozen the distribution of thousands of tons of food aid for months pending an audit of soup kitchens. Last month, a court ordered the food to be released "immediately" and – despite an appeal from the government – an emergency distribution drive was organised this week, with the help of the military.
Only soon-to-expire foodstuffs will be shared, however, with the rest kept for “possible catastrophes,” said Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni. The UCA report was published just a week after the Argentine Synod called on the government to redistribute stockpiled food and grant aid to community soup kitchens.
This is the most fucked up thing this government has done thus far, in a sea of many fucked up things. The situation for Argentina's poorest has been agonizing for many years now, and it will only get worse with these motherfuckers in charge. What do I even need to say here? Am I going to waste time saying that denying food to people is a crime? It's more than that, even. There's nothing to explain to all of you. However, milei is on the record saying that "People are not stupid, they will not allow themselves to die of starvation, they will find ways".. and he is right. Of course, he thinks poor people will use "market mechanisms" to find food, but in the end poor people WILL find a way to get food, oh, they will.
They seem to be advancing at a rapid pace, they seem to be spreading the markets and it's logic through all spheres of social and political life, they seem to think they're going to discipline the poor. They seem to be winning, it might appear to some that they are indeed winning. But they're not, quite the contrary: They're creating the conditions for their own destruction. The entire system is doing this as we speak, we're seeing it at an accelerated pace in Argentina. But if you look closely, wherever you are, you will notice it. Just as Marx said.
Now, of course we have to give it a little push and organize. We don't want all of this to conclude in something more sinister than it already is..
Holy astroturf Batman, what in the name of psyops is happening on non-political subreddits showing alleged Ukrainian POWs who were allegedly starved on purpose? No sources of course, but thousands of upvotes and hundreds of RUSSIA BAD comments.
I'm still using reddit to doomscroll* once in a while but this atrocity propaganda is getting ludicrous
*apparently doomscrolling is looking at negative news? What do they call when you keep scrolling through stupid slop just to pass the time while you are waiting for something?
So, I woke up today seeing the front page of reddit saying a hostage was hiding in a journalists house. Since it was r world news, I had to double check.
He lived in apartment building on the first floor. The 3 male hostages were on a diff floor - 3rd iirc. Considering we prob all have friends who have no clue who their neighbors are on the same floor, I doubt he knew.
Debunking the false claim that Abdallah Aljamal kept an Israeli hostage in his home:
1- Abdallah lived in an apartment in a multi-storey building. No connection was ever provided by the IDF between him & the hostage.
2- The building where Abdallah lived was one of 7 homes reportedly raided by the IDF on June 8. Hostages were held in only 2 of these buildings, not yet clear which. The other homes belong to the families Matar, Salihia, Ayish, Jodeh, al-Habash.
3- Undercover IDF soldiers pretended to have rented an apartment in the building where Noa Argamani was held (see Israeli source below), which shows it was a multi-storey apartment building where residents in one apartment don't necessarily know what happens in another. It's not even clear if the talk here is about Abdallah's building.
4- Abdallah, his wife & dad were all shot dead by the IDF in front of their children who were wounded or escaped before the building was bombed. The family insists they saw no militants or hostages, only IDF soldiers.
The IDF now claims it was NOT Noa Argamani in the building where Abdallah lived but the 3 male hostages.
This raises the likelihood that he didn’t know, b/c he lived on the 1st floor & the hostages were kept on the 3rd in an apartment building.
Calling him a “Hamas operative” without evidence is just Israe exploiting this to defame al-Jazeera which he wrote for a few times as a freelancer.
The 32nd National Convention of the CPUSA will be held this weekend. All members of the party who call themselves Marxist-Leninists must grasp that the future of the party is at stake, and set it on a path towards genuine revolutionary action.
Many of the 23 convention resolutions have openly reformist aims that content themselves with moldy scraps leftover from the bourgeois government’s table. A Communist Party must to act like a Communist Party, not sleepwalk alongside sleepy Joe.
The root of this putrescent language, which suffuses the convention resolutions and documents, and dangles over the party’s future like a noose, grows from the mouths and literature of the party’s ideologues and organs, such as its National Committee and People’s World.
Article about the coming 32nd national Convention that starts tomorrow
The President announced that he is going to incorporate Artificial Intelligence services for education and State reform.
Javier Milei went to the United States in search of tech investments, but in the end he announced that the Argentine government will contract services from Google and Meta. The President said that he wants Argentina to incorporate the Artificial Intelligence services of these companies to apply to education and State reform.
"The Meta company has an entire system in place to train human capital, to train people so that, let's say, they can build a career," Milei said in an interview on Radio Mitre. "I already spoke with Minister Pettovello and starting tomorrow (this Monday) we will begin to make contacts with the people of Meta to implement Artificial Intelligence in the education of our children," he announced.
Professor, who is AI: Human children, tell me when Argentina gained independence from Communist Spain [QUESTION MARK MISSING]
The Children (who is also AI):
Milei added that "Google has crafted a system to reform the State through Artificial Intelligence." "Do you know where they applied it very successfully? In El Salvador," said the president, who said that the topic was part of the talk with Bukele and that he intends to incorporate it into the country. The reform of the State was the task assigned to Federico Sturzenegger.
Oh yeah, El Salvador. Lol. Lmao, even. What a great example indeed!
Also, why can't they reform the state in the classic way? Are they lazy? Stupid? They don't trust their theories? Why leave it to the fucking AI? lmao
Milei's announcement leaves some doubts because presented in this way it would seem like a direct hiring, without any of the control mechanisms established by Argentine regulations. In political terms, it also reveals that during the Milei tour it did not achieve investment commitments and for now the technology giants are more inclined to sell their services than to put money in Argentina.
And here's the key of the issue. milei has been travelling around the world for a good while now looking for investments, and so far he got nothing. Like literally, nothing, not even a single miserable dollar. We spent more money on this absolute imbecile and his wife (his sister) travelling around in expensive jets than we got in return for investments. It's sad, a couple of weeks ago he gave a speech on one of these pathetic "freedom" whatever events where businessmen and other larvae are invited to eat and talk about "development". One of his biggest friends was there, a gigantic businessman. He spoke about milei's accomplishments and bla bla, but then he decided to invest in Uruguay, completely avoinding Argentina. Yeah, it's that bad. Argentina is in deep shit and investments are not coming, money is running out and so is time.
"We are proposing that Argentina be one of the four poles of artificial intelligence in the world," said Milei. "We have the United States, which has a very fearful attitude and, therefore, is moving through a gray area that is not beneficial for this type of company; there is the case of Europe, which is hyper-regulated and, therefore, is very difficult for these companies to develop; and there is the case of China, which is always an element of great uncertainty, what is in the background," he explained.
Cringe.
Anyways, remember. We're going through a period of absolute bourgeois decadence, this is why shit like this happens. Instead of talking about cool and good techology investments like I don't know, fucking solar panels? We get bad shit like "investments in AI". What are schools going to do now, use AI generated pictures of San Martín?
Israeli occupation forces strike multiple locations across Lebanon resulting in multiple injuries as tension along the northern occupied Palestine border intensifies.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon reported that four people were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a detergents factory in Wadi Jilou, southern Lebanon.
Hours before that, the correspondent had confirmed that seven people were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting Beit Yahoun near the city of Bint Jbeil, also in southern Lebanon.
Moreover, our correspondent reported that Israeli airstrikes also targeted the towns of Siddiqin, Adchit, Odaisseh, and Kounine.
These attacks followed Israeli warplanes breaking the sound barrier over several areas in southern Lebanon around midnight
In response to the Israeli aggression, said the correspondent, a military target in the settlement of Metula came under direct fire from Lebanon around midnight.
Significantly, Israeli media reported that a suspicious object was intercepted in the sea off the coast of Nahariya in northern occupied Palestine, without the sounding of sirens.
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon issued its first statement for Thursday announcing the targeting of the al-Ramtha site in the occupied Lebanese hills of Kfar Chouba using rocket-propelled weapons, confirming a direct hit.
Hezbollah's Military Media also released footage of the Islamic Resistance targeting an Israeli military vehicle and its crew at the Adather site in northern occupied Palestine, as well as footage of targeting an Iron Dome platform at the Ramot Naftali barracks
Now that vote counting is over in India, BJP has 240 seats which is 32 less than required for forming a government. This is quite less compared to 303 seats last election and 32 seats less from forming a government on their own. And is like 150 seats less than what they expected to get.
Now they'll likely try to buy some MPs and form coalition but it's also possible that they just don't form the government and instead the opposition bloc comes in power although that government will be highly unstable due to the number of parties in it. Congress only has 99 seats which are double from the previous election and are very fabulous comeback after ten years of continuous media slander.
SpaceX's Starship test flight went pretty well. It achieved suborbital flight with a maximum altitude of 234 km. There was one engine failure out of thirty-three, and an issue with a flap. Still, both stages managed to softly splash down. Congratulations to the engineers.
(WASHINGTON) — In a milestone for organized labor, the Amazon Labor Union has formally affiliated with the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The affiliation supplies renewed representation and stronger resources for Amazon workers — behind the wheel and inside warehouses — as they organize and demand a contract from the global behemoth.
Amazon Labor Union members will vote to ratify the affiliation in the coming weeks. The affiliation was announced by Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien on Tuesday during the union’s General Executive Board meeting in Washington, D.C. The Teamsters’ board unanimously approved the affiliation agreement.
The newly chartered ALU-International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 1 will represent the roughly 8,000 Amazon warehouse workers at JFK8 and have jurisdiction across New York’s five boroughs. This will be the first ALU-IBT local union fully established under the Teamsters Constitution. Members of ALU-IBT Local 1 will have access to the financial and organizational resources of the Teamsters International Union, the Teamsters Amazon Division, and Teamsters Joint Council 16 in New York.
“Together we are creating an unstoppable movement to take on Amazon. Building relationships with workers, communities nationwide, and rank-and-file Teamsters has been essential to creating the capacity to stand up to Amazon — and this affiliation demonstrates it,” O’Brien said. “It will require unprecedented unity and long-term investment to finally force this company to respect working people and fairly negotiate. Amazon is far and away the greediest of American corporations. It does the most harm to American workers in delivery and logistics. In this partnership, the Teamsters and ALU will ensure Amazon workers at JFK8 realize the first contract they are long overdue. We will continue to expand our organizing campaigns nationwide. We will exhaust all resources to hold Amazon accountable as a direct employer and dismantle its corrupt DSP program. The Teamsters proudly set the standard in the industry with our historic agreement protecting 340,000 UPS Teamsters, and we will make sure that standard is upheld at every other company, and especially at Amazon.”
“Today is an historic day for labor in America as we now combine forces with one of the most powerful unions in the country to take on Amazon together,” said ALU President Chris Smalls. “Our message is clear. We want a contract and we want it now. We are putting Amazon on notice that we are coming. It is time to bargain.”
“Affiliation between the Amazon Labor Union and the Teamsters represents the very best shot for workers to collectively expand the national, necessary, and militant campaign to win the rights that we deserve,” said Connor Spence of the ALU Democratic Reform Caucus. “The chartering of a new ALU-IBT local union in New York will be a future model for Amazon organizing efforts. With the support and strength of 1.3 million Teamsters across the country, Amazon workers will not lose.”
The USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier, along with its strike group, appears to be sailing without any significant damage according to publicly available imagery from the Sentinel-2 satellites, from 21 hours ago.
A reminder that every side, even those whose actions we support, engages in propaganda. Ansar Allah/ the Houthis have been making increasingly false claims about landing direct hits on US Navy ships in the past few months, including claiming weeks old attacks which were intercepted as successful attacks.
The former presidential candidate of the "Strength and Heart for Mexico" coalition, Xochitl Galvez, said that her coalition will present challenges and complaints against the electoral process, showing that there was favoritism towards Cláudia Sheinbaum, president-elect. He said they will "make sure this never happens in future elections."
According to a press release from the Danish regime, the nation's authoritarian succdem leader Mette Frederiksen has been "hit" by a man on the street in Copenhagen. The leader is alleged to be "shocked over the incident".
According to eye witness reports in local media, the man didn't hit Frederiksen but rather gave her "a hard shove on the shoulder". The shove "almost knocked her over" but she didn't fall to the ground. The man didn't say anything to Frederiksen prior to the incident.
Everybody who is something in western electoral politics from every Danish party leader to EU's nazi princess Ursula Von der Leyen has already condemned the incident and is talking about how it is concerning and a threat to Our Democracy™.
Security forces has detained the man and is keeping him in an undisclosed location.
In other news, as the unofficial Hexbear ambassador of the middling state of New Jersey, I humbly remind you that primary elections are being held TOMORROW, June 4th. New Jersey has a semi-closed primary system. If you have a party affiliation, you can only vote in that party's primary. If you are unaffiliated, you can choose a party affiliation at the polling place and vote in that primary (in other words, it is too late to change your affiliation if you are already affiliated).
On the Democratic Party ballot, it is worth punching one in for Uncommitted. Additionally, Lawrence ("Larry") Hamm is running for Bob Menendez's seat in the US Senate. Larry Hamm is a lifelong activist and organizer from Newark. A couple years back he was invited to speak to my local DSA group and he was talking to us about Chairman Mao lmao. The guy is pretty cool.
We need a statue of liberty with milei's face emote
Wait, do we really need to? I don't know.
Anyways, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that milei constantly posts cringe on main. This is the level we're at. He's deeply unfunny at it to, not like Trump who posted cringe yes but also great moments like that time he used to post small rant videos from his office saying "WHATS GOING ON???" when speaking about new indiana jones or ghostbusters movies.
Just saw some real nasty videos out of Sudan. The things I would give to see the UAE turned into a burning crater for what they are doing with the RSF...
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, praises former Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff's management of the BRICS Bank.
The Russian president and the head of the NDB met at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
"The New Development Bank has achieved a lot under your leadership and recorded significant profits for the 1st time," Russian President Vladimir Putin told Dilma Rousseff in St. Petersburg yesterday, "it's recovering, working more and more in an organized and successful manner."
“a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind” fails to convey its intended meaning in Chinese, according to Professor Li Xiguang, who has served at both the Washington Post and Xinhua News Agency. Li lamented that all emerging countries, including China, suffer from the constraints of translation on the power of their narratives.
One of the most important aspects for constructing the China’s narrative of Zhongguoshi Xiandaihua (中国式现代化) is the translation of its keys concepts. Current translations are not only inaccurate but also misleading for international readers. Here are some examples:
Zhongguoshi xiandaihua (中国式现代化) [lit. Chinese style modernization] : “a Chinese path to modernization”. The translation missed the keyword “Chinese style”.
Renlei wenming xinxingtai (人类文明新形态) [lit. Human civilization new form/state]: “a new form of human advancement”. The translation missed the word “civilization”.
Renlei mingyun gongtongti (人类命运共同体) [lit. Community of Human Destiny]: “community of shared future for mankind”. The addition of the word “shared” in the English translation suggests a perceived difficulty for countries or peoples of diverse backgrounds to jointly build a “community of human destiny”.
Why can’t Renlei mingyun gongtongti be translated as “a mankind community of different value systems”?
As rightfully pointed out by scholars such as Professor Ejaz Akram from Pakistan, Zhongguoshi xiandaihua is the first modernization attempt in human history that is not associated with the West. Since the West ushered in modernity, it has been promoting its own set of value standards, which is a product of its unique European historical setting, as the universal standards for all of humanity. The Western style of civilization is based on inequality rooted in dichotomies of Christians versus barbarians and “modern Western society” versus “traditional non-Western society”.
The Western-style civilization, in terms of the production and dissemination of knowledge, has regarded non-Western knowledge as alternative, ignorant and barbaric. Consequently, the West has been engaging in a thorough intellectual cleansing of non-Western knowledge as Western modernity swept across the world. Nowadays, China’s prestigious universities have to establish Guoxueyuan, or Schools of Traditional Chinese knowledge, to preserve traditional culture. This only shows how unpopular they are in Chinese universities. To the contrary, we never see Western universities establish any “school of traditional knowledge” because their current knowledge system is steeped in their values and their traditional knowledge.
When Chinese universities set up institutions such as Guoxueyuan, the implication is that since we now have a designated place for traditional knowledge, it should stay out of the way in other disciplines. As a result, humanities and social sciences such as communication, business, law, political science, etc. can comfortably copy disciplinary structures and standards of their Western counterparts.
Utilizing its extensive influence in the existing body of knowledge on modernity, the West deems itself the judge of civilizations, even casting judgement on the longstanding Chinese civilization. This mindset is embraced by China’s academia to the the extent that they think China’s modernization can only be legitimized if it fits into the Western discourse of modernity.
However, such approach is essentially an attempt to “reason” with the Western within their own linear logical framework, a system which the West holds the right of interpretation. The confinement of our own thoughts and language by Western narratives and ideas would ultimately render China’s position indefensible.
In this sense, key concepts in Chinese politics, including those stemming from its unique experience striving for modernization, should be translated within the context of China. For instance, the meaning of the Chinese term for human rights (人权 renquan) extends far beyond “right to vote” and “right to ballot”. Therefore, the best translation for the Chinese term should simply be its pinyin: renquan, highlighting the fundamental differences between Chinese and Western paths to realizing human rights. The same approach should also be applied when translating key concepts such as ziyou (freedom) and minzhu (democracy).
Phonetic translation of key Chinese concepts, instead of direct appropriation of the existing English words, enables China narratives rooted in its cultural roots, which will facilitate better communication of China’s original ideas on the world stage. It will not only promote the construction of China’s narratives, but also enrich the language and the body of knowledge for all humankind, capable of supporting the order of Renlei mingyun gongtongti.
I have a theory about this latest supposed news that Biden said Israel agreed to a ceasefire proposal and then Netanyahu ripped him a new one and said they did not.
It appears to be the same proposal that Hamas agreed to just prior to Israel doing the ground invasion of Rafah and ceasing the border crossing to Egypt. I think Biden literally just had a senior moment and confused Hamas and Israel, and when people around him tried to correct, he ripped them a new one and they just had to shrug and go with it. We're literally just dealing with his Alzheimer's (or general senility) at this point.
Another piece of the party line about ceasefires etc. Biden apparently believes that Hamas has been degraded enough while netanyahu doesn't, with the far right of Israeli fascism actively advocating for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
I don't know how pitching this kind of story doesn't just make Biden look feckless and weak, but I suppose they're triangulation from his real position of being an enthusiastic cheerleader for genocide
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, who has been chief minister of the western state of Gujarat since 2001, is regarded as a dynamic and efficient politician who has helped to make his state an economic powerhouse.
They are referring to him privatizing natural resources, giving land for next to nothing, near zero interest loans. 'efficient'
But he also is accused of doing little to stop the 2002 religious riots when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed - allegations he has consistently denied.
Weird how they didn't lead with that.
Mr Modi may polarise public opinion in India and abroad, but he has also been credited for bringing prosperity and development to Gujarat and enjoys support from some of India's top industrialists.
The state's economy has been growing steadily, and Mr Modi's image is that of a clean and efficient administrator who is corruption-free.
And finally "Narendra Modi: India's economic saviour?"
He has built a reputation of being a pro-business, decisive and hands-on political leader who can get things done - the polar opposite to how many saw the outgoing government of Manmohan Singh in its final years in charge.
"The industry is looking for strong leadership that can bring in clarity and give confidence," says Sunil Kanoria, vice-chairman of SREI Infrastructure Finance.
"And Narendra Modi is that leader."
It is not only the business community that thinks he is the man who can fix the economy - a large section of Indian voters believe so and that is why they voted out the last government.
Mr Modi pitched his economic track record in the state of Gujarat as his main selling point during the course of the election.
A report by the credit rating agency Crisil traces two key reasons for this - inflexible labour laws and a shift in growth pattern towards less labour-intensive jobs such as IT and IT-enabled services.
Given the frantic pace of growth between 2004 and 2010, India needed consistent investment in infrastructure, which would have acted as a cushion even when the economy started to slow down. But instead, red tape and environmental issues stalled many projects.
And to add to that, India is regularly ranked as one of the toughest places to operate - currently 134th on the World Bank's "ease of doing business" list.
"The government's immediate priority should be to improve ease of doing business in India ," says Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej Group, one of India's largest conglomerates.
"We need a leader who can get things done," says infrastructure expert Mr Kanori.
"It doesn't matter whether it's achieved by a dictatorial approach or by consensus building. And Modi is that leader."
Benny Gantz, Israel's war minister, resigns and says Netanyahu is “preventing Israel's victory”. Gantz's resignation does not, however, represent a threat to the prime minister, who still retains a majority in parliament.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, recovering from serious injuries and subsequent operations, votes in the elections. Fico once again accused the West of inciting war and called for voting for those deputies who oppose the war.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived an assassination attempt, has said he 'forgives' his shooter in a released video
Mr Fico had been recovering from multiple wounds after being shot in the abdomen.
New information is coming out of Denmark, regarding the incident last nigh involving an altercation with the hermit kingdom's authoritarian leader Mette Frederiksen.
The man, who the regime claims to be responsible for the altercation, and who has been held captive by security forces ever since was arraigned today where it was revealed that he was a 39-year old Polish citizen who has been living in Denmark since 2019. In court the police claimed that the man had hit the succdem iron lady on the arm once with his closed fist. This contradicts eye witness reports released in the media shortly after the incident in which two young women who passed by as it happened. The women reported that the man shoved Frederiksen rather than hitting her.
The Polish man was heavily influenced by drugs and alcohol at the time of the incident and at the tine of the arraingment he was still so affected that he had to be helped out of the car. He admitted to having recognised Frederiksen but denied police claims that the altercation was motivated by ill will towards the supreme leader. He explained that he thought she was "a really good prime minister" and that he was "positively surprised" about seeing her on the street.
As is routine in Danish courts the judge granted the prosecution's motion that the Polish man should not be released. Instead he is being held in custody due 12 days.
In a press release the regime claims that the supreme leader was taken to a hospital after the altercation where she was allegedly diagnosed with "mild whiplash syndrome". Several of the leader's scheduled events for today has been cancelled.
The incidents draws the competence of the bodyguards supplied by PET, the nation's unaccountable secret police agency, into question. The bodyguards follow the supreme leader and other top officials around the clock, yet they failed to prevent a man from running across the street and allegedly get involved in a physical altercation with the supreme leader. All they were able to do was to arrest the man after the fact.
On Thursday evening, Presidente Emmanuel Macron confirmed that France will supply Mirage warplanes to Ukraine and train their soldiers.
“We will launch a new cooperation and transfer Mirage 2000-5s,” he said, promising to train a whole Ukrainian battalion of 4,500 troops to be deployed on the battlefield.
He said the delivery of French fighter jets “is not a factor of escalation” and promised “these weapons will not be used to bomb civilians.” Mirage 2000 is a French multi-role, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter, manufactured by Dassault Aviation.
Additionally, the French president did not exclude the possibility of sending military instructors to Ukraine. “There should be no taboo on this subject,” he said.
The EU parliament elections don't seem to have gone as disastrously as everyone thought. Center right and far right parties have made some gains but it's not a massive change or landslide as some were predicting. Vichy France mostly to blame. Frankly, the European parliament is mostly irrelevant when it comes to world politics so I'm not really concerned. The EU is rapidly losing its global importance and individual EU countries will do whatever they want anyway. Mercouris notes that some of those far right parties hate each other; it's not much of an alliance. The most important global political changes are those in the superpowers US and China, and the regional superpowers Russia, Iran, and to some extent India and Brazil. I firmly believe that BRICS is far more important to global politics than the EU will ever be again. 2008, Brexit, COVID, the Ukraine, and the energy suicide seem to have pretty much wiped the EU out.
Does anyone have the really long Twitter thread on Yemen? I think it started from 20th century all the way to present day and posted by either Aldanmarki or Aryjeay. I remember it being posted on the news mega around the beginning of the war.
These flag day videos are absurd, there are vicious lynch mobs provoking and assaulting Palestinians and journalists to the point where the cops have to stop them from doing worse
HAVANA, June 6 (Reuters) - Cuba said on Thursday that Russian warships would arrive in Havana next week, but that the four navy ships carried no nuclear weapons and did not present a threat to the region.
"This visit corresponds to the historical friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation and strictly adheres to the international regulations," Cuba`s foreign ministry said in a statement.
"None of the ships carry nuclear weapons, so their stopover in our country does not represent a threat to the region."
The announcement out of Cuba comes one day after a U.S. official told reporters that Russia had plans to send combat vessels into the Caribbean region, including to allies Cuba and Venezuela, to conduct naval exercises.
Tensions between the United States and Russia have increased since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Russian naval activity - though routine in the Atlantic - has ratcheted up because of U.S. support for Ukraine, U.S. officials have said.
The United States does not, however, see the expected arrival of a small number of planes and ships as threatening, but the U.S. Navy will monitor the exercises, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
The Russian ships are expected to arrive in Havana harbor between June 12 and June 17, according to the Cuban statement.
Boeing Starliner finally took off today after several previous failed attempts!
Special note: the Atlas V rocket that carried the spacecraft was, of course, propelled by RD-180 - Soviet rocket engines the Americans bought off cheap in the 1990s - perhaps the most reliable rocket engine ever made.
Apparently there are not many RD-180s left in America, and an attempt to manufacture an Americanized version of RD-180 by Aerojet Rocketdyne (the AR1) has so far failed to make it to production stage.
Flight controllers in Houston are troubleshooting a helium leak in the propulsion system on Boeing's Starliner. According to a mission commentator the crew has closed all helium manifold valves in an effort to isolate the leak. Helium provides pressure to the propulsion system, which is used for manuevering and the braking burn needed to return the astronauts to Earth. A helium leak detected prior to launch delayed the mission by several weeks but was deemed safe to fly with.
Butch and Suni have now begun the sleep portion of the timeline just after Mission Control hand-off to the overnight team.
While the crew rests, Mission Control will be working the problem of the helium leaks that were detected in the Top Helium 1 and Port Helium 1 manifolds. Those are separate from the Port Helium 2 manifold leak seen before launch.
Before the crew went to bed, the ground had them close those two helium manifold valves and reconfigure the propulsion system to maintain attitude control while teams work the problem.
No burns are scheduled for the next eight hours which allows time for the crew to sleep without alarms - NSF's Philip Sloss.
Hope they’re ok… but this is like playing with Russian Roulette. Three separate helium leaks and counting.
Fighters from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s Akhmat military unit have been deployed to northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region amid Russia’s recent offensive, the unit’s commander Apti Alaudinov said Monday.
On his Telegram channel, Alaudinov claimed that the Russian military plans to “complete” combat operations in Ukraine in 2024.
“We’re preparing for actions that we call decisive,” he told the troops on a visit.
Time lapse map of the Middle East. I'm a spatial person so this is one of the easiest ways for me to understand history.
The area from Tehran through Beruit has been one contiguous empire for most of the last 3000 years.
The US inherited a Balkanized Middle East and West Asia and most of its geopolitical strategy is about maintaining that status quo. Even in the absence of fossil fuels this place would be a world power if left alone due to it's location along trade routes and the natural defensibility of much of it.
The notion of an independent cohesive Israel spanning any real space and time is an ahistorical and compensatory fantasy. Ethnorelgions were a primitive concept even in the time of King David. When you are required to ethnically cleanse every place you conquer and maintain higher birth rates in order to occupy that space your success is bound to be limited and temporary. A small blip allowed by the Bronze Age collapse and little more than that.
SEOUL/TOKYO--The United States, Japan and South Korea agreed to hold new trilateral joint exercises this summer, a joint statement issued by U.S Department of Defense said on Sunday, after a meeting of the three allies' defense ministers.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Japan's Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and South Korea's Defense Minister Shin Won-sik met on Sunday in Singapore on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit there.
The three "committed to continue to strengthen trilateral cooperation to ensure peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific, and beyond," according to the statement.
The three also agreed to establish a Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework this year in an effort to institutionalize their three-way defense cooperation.
The top defense officials of the three countries criticized North Korea's recent launches of ballistic missiles and a military spy satellite using ballistic missile technology as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
It’s far too early to call election outcomes for sure, but it looks like the anti-Hindu Nationalist coalition in India is dramatically outperforming any of the recent polls.
And when I say dramatically, I mean an even bigger margin (by far) than what pollsters were predicting in the 2016 US Presidential election.
The INDIA (anti-NDA) coalition was slated to win anywhere between 100-170 out of 543 seats. They are currently sitting in the lead in 261 seats. Truly unbelievable numbers. NDA (Hindu Nationalists) are leading in 259 seats, falling just behind the INDIA coalition as of now. 272 seats are needed for a majority.
I was somehow brought to a video of a screaming pig on YouTube. Looked at the comments and one of them with a couple hundred likes said, “The sound of Zelensky.”
Denmark's Liberal Party-controlled ministry of defense has elevated the cyber threat assessment level from "low" to "medium". Authorities claim that Russia is "more willing to take risks in challenging NATO countries" and is "likely to direct attacks against a broad range of targets in the critical infrastructure sector". Authorities claim that major cyber attacks are still unlikely to happen but even smaller attacks can cause disruption. Authorities advise actors to increase their cyber security and promise to release guidelines in the near future.
As for why Russia would do this, the only explanation given is a vague statement that the allegedly upcoming Russian cyber attacks "can try to weaken the Danes' support for Ukraine". Authorities has not commented on whether the claimed increase in risk is connected to recent statements by Denmark's succdem ruler Mette Frederiksen in which she announced full-throated support for the Kiev regime using weapons trafficked to them from Denmark to attack targets inside Russia. This move is seen as an escalation by the Russian government who have warned that they will retaliate against regimes facilitating attacks inside Russia.
The Mexican citizen who died from the H5N2 variant had no known contact with poultry.
On Wednesday, a Mexican laboratory confirmed world’s first-ever human case and death from H5N2, a strain of avian influenza virus that had only been detected in animals until now.
The first human death from H5N2 is an isolated case that should not cause “extreme concern” but does require increased monitoring of farms to minimize contact between infected animals and people, explained Doctor Luis Buzon, spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC).
Avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds, caused by type A influenza virus strains. These birds can infect humans, though it is not common, with fewer than 1,000 cases recorded worldwide. Human-to-human transmission does not exist so far.
If it were to occur, “a new pandemic could arise because these viruses are 100 percent new to humans,” Buzon stated, explaining that there is no immediate scenario for human-to-human transmission because “that would require a series of actions that are highly costly for the virus. Obviously, the more cases there are and the more contact there is between infected humans, the more easily that could happen.”
Currently, the virus is only spreading among birds and other animals like seals or cows, which become hosts. Since 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) has only recorded 889 cases of avian influenza in humans and 463 deaths caused by the H5N1 strain, which has been known for more than 20 years. The last three human deaths from H5N1 occurred in the United States in April.
The most common way the virus is introduced into a territory is through migratory wild birds. The WHO acknowledged that the spread of the H5N1 variant to mammals and humans is concerning and called for close monitoring of this development.
The main risk factor for human infection is exposure to infected poultry, live or dead, or to contaminated environments, such as live bird markets. Other risk factors include slaughtering, plucking, and handling carcasses of infected poultry, and preparing birds for consumption, particularly in households.
The 59-year-old man who died from the H5N2 had no known contact with poultry and presented symptoms such as fever, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, nausea, and general malaise. Some of these symptoms are similar to those of human influenza, making it difficult to identify the H5N2-related influenza.
Japanese F35 around Misawa Air Base conducts emergency landing due to emergency mechanical issues. The fickle God of flight has decided to spare the land-creature piloting the plane this time but says to look out for a possible next time we deny the deity by taking flight in our mechanical contraptions
In other f35 news, apparently there was a year-long moratorium on exporting them that's about to expire as early as this coming July. So look forward to the coming months
Karagonov has been named the moderator of the SPIEF plenary session with Putin, starting imminently at 1400 MSK.
Sergey Karaganov - the political scientist who called for Russia to use nukes to save humanity from global catastrophe. According to the author, Moscow must climb the steps of nuclear escalation in order to “break the will of the West” and win the war in Ukraine.
Pay attention to what Putin says today! The unfortunate fact is that we are heading towards nuclear annihilation and this could yet be another step in the escalation.
Good article by Foreign Affairs about Hamas' tunnels. Unfortunate bit at the end that accuses Hams of using human shields, but a good summary of the strategic use of tunnels
An exit poll suggests an interesting result of the Danish EU elections. For the first time in more than a century, neither the Succdem party or the Liberal Party are the largest party in a national election. With 18,4 percent of the vote SF, the "Socialist People's Party" (a squishier, greener form of succdems) has become the most popular choice.
In 2022 the succdems chose to abandon their traditional strategy of forming minority governments with parliamentary support of the centre-left and opted to form a majority government with two other right-wing parties, namely the Liberal Party and an astroturfed centrist vehicle for the continuation of the political career of former liberal prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
That exited a lot of people who have opinions for a living, finally we could have sensible policy for the majority of people, free from the corrupting extremism of "the wings". Reality turned out to be a lot less rosy, free from the civilising constraints of a threat from the left, the new extreme centre government embarked on a programme of deeply unpopular decisions, including the abolition of a popular public holiday, cuts on education and shitcanning a promised investigation into prime minister Mette Frederiksen's liability for the illegal culling of minks during covid.
In addition their messaging was one of doom, gloom and finger-wagging, seeking to raise what they called "crisis awareness". The world is a scary place, we were told, with Russia and China lurking to hurt us. We were told that an imminent need for aggressive military buildup meant that there were no money for welfare or healthcare or elder care or anything else. There were however some money to pay for the tax cus the liberals demanded as their prize for entering the coalition. In addition to that, top succdem officials, including party leader Mette Frederiksen herself, felt an inexplicaple urge to scold the public fire bott working hard enough, calling us lazy and entitled and contrasting it with Russia where "the factories run around the clock" and "people [working in the factories] don't go home".
During all of this the succdems also managed to severely sour relations to the trade unions who have been their top supporters for as long as they have existed. Especially abolishing the holiday without consulting with unions and employers as it is otherwise the norm to do when legislating on labour law pissed off the unions to such a degree that succdem speakers who have otherwise headlined Mayday rallies were banned form them entirely last year.
In contrast to this you have the Socialist People's Party. Being founded as an early Eurocommunist party in 1957 by former communist leader Aksel Larsen (who defected to the CIA as part of the process). Since then they lived a relatively unnoticed existence as representatives of the soft western left, supporting every revolution except the ones that succeeded. In the 1980's they were among the first to pick up the green and environmentalist agenda. From the turn of the millennium SF began "professionalising" and moved to the right, with the goal of becoming "fit for government".
Their dreams materialised in 2011 when they became they formed a government with the succdems and the centre-right "Radical Left" party under the leadership of succdem leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the spouse of British Labour ghoul Stephen Kinnock.
It turned out the SF was everything but fit for government. Parliamentary realities meant that the "Radical Left" party called the shots and were able to steamroll over the SF, blocking all of their promises from being realised. Eventually internal tensions led to SF leaving the government and splitting.
Since then the SF has recovered and has managed to find a position of projecting a green and progressive image without doing it so much that they're perceived as being "angry" or "looney" or "extreme" and they have severely dialled down their antiracism, thereby being more palatable to resist voters.
In recent years the succdems' have accelerated their constant movement to the right, becoming more aggressively socially regressive. This has opened a niche for the SF who are now able to appeal to disaffected succdem voters by being succdems without so much nasty stuff.
EU elections are different from general elections but there's no way tonight's results are not raising serious concerns in the succdem party apparatus.
The proposal does not convince the presidential advisors, who run the risk of not fulfilling their promises to the representatives of the sectors and organizations that supported them.
On Friday, the idea of Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Garry Conille to reduce the number of ministries in the new government is generating a new stage of disagreement in the political arena of the Caribbean country.
The members of the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) expressed their disagreement with this initiative, which leaves the number of incumbents between 11 and 13, when it was expected that there would be 18 portfolio heads.
The proposal does not convince the presidential advisors, who run the risk of not fulfilling their promises to the representatives of the sectors and organizations that supported them.
Hence the open conflict between the two parties, just four days after Conille officially took up his duties after returning from abroad, according to the online newspaper Le Facteur Haiti.
In this sense, some politicians believe that the measure could contribute to the smooth running of the country if the money allocated to these ministries, now to be eliminated, were to be used for social services, in order to assist people affected by the serious socio-economic crisis.
It is customary for some ministries to become instruments used by certain sectors to act to the detriment of others, and to make their political capital, without offering anything to the Haitian nation, points out the daily Le National.
Hence, the reduction in the number of transitional ministers can reduce waste within the public administration. All this conflict – according to local media – will mean that the process of forming a government will take longer than expected.
Can anyone suggest a good current events recap video or something similar? Some of my siblings were recently homeless for several weeks, and now that things have improved and stabilized for them, one of them mentioned feeling like they don't know anything that's going on right now. I was hoping there's something out there that would help them get caught back up, without me sending them like ten different videos on individual topics
So last year a bunch of Nazis were beaten by antifa in Hungary before one of their stupid parades and a bunch of people (some of them foreigners) were arrested, mostly wrongly. One of them, an italian teacher is gonna be in EP.
With 10 days (now 9 as midnight passes) left to form a government, the ANC, with 40.2% of the vote, has stated that they are seeking a "Government of National Unity"(GNU). The MK (with 14.6%) and the EFF (with 9.5%) have rejected the proposal of a GNU. This means that coalition talks and negotiations are going on between the ANC and DA (21.8%), as well as a few smaller parties, namely an IFP. An ANC+DA+IFP coalition has the advantage of also being able to have 50% or more of seats in all 9 provinces, including Kwazulu-Natal, where the MK got 45.4% of the vote. An ANC-DA-IFP coalition would have 40 of 80 seats in KwaZulu-Natal, and would just need a deal with the NFP for 41 seats. So all signs point towards an ANC-DA +smaller parties agreement. Here's an article with the current results of negotiations between the ANC and DA, along with an image summary I'll post below.
The party (DA) dropped its most contentious manifesto points, such as scrapping BEE and amending the minimum wage laws, in its statement of negotiating principles, but these can resurface in substantive negotiations.
Thank goodness. Such policies would be disastrous
To open its position, the DA states, “The DA stands for an open society, underpinned by the Constitution, in which every person’s rights are respected and in which security and prosperity are enjoyed by all”.
The party says “the protection and promotion of the Constitution is foundational to the future success of South Africa,” and it says the Bill of Rights “in their entirety” should be protected.
This is important because MK’s manifesto says it will scrap the Constitution and re-introduce an apartheid-style system of parliamentary sovereignty.
A rare good thing from the DA. With certain political parties running on undermining the constitution, it's important that it remains a foundation for any coalition talks.
The DA also specifically says the clauses enshrining the South African Reserve Bank’s (Sarb) independence and committing South Africa to sound monetary policy must be protected.
Okay and now the DA is back to their nonsense. But it doesn't matter much, the SARB is basically an independent government body and private shareholders have no influence on monetary policy, it's all controlled by whoever the president appoints to the SARB. Ramaphosa could appoint a Marxist to lead the bank if he wanted to, and it would still be independent as per the constitution without any nationalisation needed (he won't do that). I guess neoliberal economic policy will continue sadly.
In addition, the DA also wants devolved powers for metro policing and metropolitan passenger rail. These are regarded as essential to the running of Cape Town and are long-standing lobbies for the party.
Not sure how practical this is, South Africa is not a federalist country. More independent provinces with the power to control policing and rail might not be practical or work, the country is too interconnected. We saw this during COVID 19 when provinces tried to shut down travel from other provinces, it didn't work.
To protect reforms in energy, logistics, water supply and skills, the party fully supports Operation Vulindlela. This is the quiet but effective reform programme of the Presidency, which is a crucial reason why there have been no rolling blackouts for less than 70 days. Vulindlela, run by Rudi Dicks in the Presidency, is a programme to unblock hurdles for growth and employment.
This is a concession from the DA. Openly supporting a ANC and Ramaphosa government program. Might be a first from them. But at least it shows that they are open to concessions in coalition negotiations. No other major parties have been open to any concessions while Ramaphosa remains in charge of the ANC.
Overall, this shows that coalition talks have taken place, and the DA are taking them seriously and are acting in a mature manner for now. Makes sense, since the DA strategy since 2019 was to consolidate their support around 20%, and go into coalition with the ANC once they dropped below 50%. So this has been in the works for a while. Am I optimistic about this development? No of course not, but it is the only option available. There are no other viable options. The only good thing here is upholding the constitution and bill of rights, but that should be the bare minimum. ANC+MK will never happen with Jacob Zuma at the helm of the MK. ANC+EFF can't get 50% nationally, or in KwaZulu-Natal.
Damn Jadue sent to preventive prison for the rest of his trial.
The dude was a political corpse after fumbling the easiest primaries a communist could have, but I imagined him retired after his mayoral term ended not in jai.
Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar - NCPSP
0
7
7
Lok Janshakti Party(Ram Vilas) - LJPRV
0
5
5
Shiv Sena - SHS
0
5
5
Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party - YSRCP
0
4
4
Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI(M)
0
4
4
Rashtriya Janata Dal - RJD
0
3
3
Indian Union Muslim League - IUML
0
3
3
Aam Aadmi Party - AAAP
0
3
3
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha - JMM
0
3
3
Janasena Party - JnP
0
2
2
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) - CPI(ML)(L)
0
2
2
Janata Dal (Secular) - JD(S)
0
2
2
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi - VCK
0
2
2
Communist Party of India - CPI
0
2
2
Jammu & Kashmir National Conference - JKN
0
2
2
United People’s Party, Liberal - UPPL
0
1
1
Asom Gana Parishad - AGP
0
1
1
Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) - HAMS
0
1
1
Kerala Congress - KEC
0
1
1
Revolutionary Socialist Party - RSP
0
1
1
Nationalist Congress Party - NCP
0
1
1
Voice of the People Party - VOTPP
0
1
1
Zoram People’s Movement - ZPM
0
1
1
Biju Janata Dal - BJD
0
1
1
Shiromani Akali Dal - SAD
0
1
1
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party - RLTP
0
1
1
Bharat Adivasi Party - BHRTADVSIP
0
1
1
Sikkim Krantikari Morcha - SKM
0
1
1
Pattali Makkal Katchi - PMK
0
1
1
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - MDMK
0
1
1
Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) - ASPKR
0
1
1
Rashtriya Lok Dal - RLD
0
1
1
Apna Dal (Soneylal) - ADAL
0
1
1
AJSU Party - AJSUP
0
1
1
All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen - AIMIM
0
1
1
Independent - IND
0
6
6
Total
2
541
543
The oppositions have really performed well, and I am actually surprised. This makes me a little satisfied with the current political-scenario, but I'm really not that happy with the result. However, this time, we've got a larger opposition, with a socialist/communist bias. Congress getting less share of vote within the alliance is always better, because now they don't have any means to dictate terms and bully other smaller parties in the alliance.
The BJP kept bragging about अबकी बार, चार-सौ पार (this time, beyond four hundred), and what is happening to them is so embarrassing. With that being said, what surprised me about the results was how the AAP lost entirely in Delhi (perhaps this is because Arvind Kejriwal was accused in the liquor scam), INC gained seats in Gujarat after decades of BJP rule (which makes no sense), and the CPIM losing all their seats in Kerala to INC (Pinarayi Vijayan was an incompetent chief minister who mismanaged state funds, and perhaps, that has made the locals hate on the communists).
What's even funny is that Shiv-Sena (Uddhav Thackrey faction), a centre-right ally of the Congress is on par with BJP, meanwhile the Shiv-Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) is far behind. Shinde is that dog, who bites his owner's hand, and lo, his ass is being handed to him. I suppose that the Uddhav-Thackrey faction has swung left, most probably because of his son Aditya Thackrey. Normally, Himachal Pradesh swings between INC and the BJP, but this time, the BJP stayed. And ironically, Uttar Pradesh is getting rid of BJP (wow, what a surprising development). But sadly, in Karnataka, the BJP seems to be taking a lead, which is a dangerous precedent, as Karnataka is said to be the first and last bastion of BJP in the South.
So is the GME stock getting even more fucked? Insane volume but price is barely budging, i might not know a lot about markets but this is clearly NOT normal.
The result of the Icelandic presidential elections is boring. The tactical voters of the anyone but Katrín Jakobsdóttir (traitorous socdem) crowd finally settled on Halla Tómasdóttir (a "businesswoman") instead of Baldur Þórhallsson (the gay political "scientist"). Us Jón Gnarr enthusiasts kept the faith, with his votes only increasing compared to the polls. I hope he runs again.
Here is some more info about this Halla. Very boring. Although, I saw a reddit post about her allegedly pulling a Trump and embellishing her achievements, she graduated from Auburn University, Montgomery. Not THE Auburn University.
VietnamPlus - MATERNAL, CHILD HEALTH CARE – EVIDENCE OF ENSURING HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM
Notice how human rights are interpreted differently here.
China Daily - Malaysia-China relations: An exemplar for ASEAN countries
Reuters - Freeport Indonesia raises output target, awaits new export permit
SCMP - US-Thailand ties: strategic recalculations amid Bangkok’s tilt towards China and new geopolitical realities
CSIS - Palm Oil Powerhouses: Why the EU’s Deforestation-Free Regulation Does Not Work in Southeast Asia
VNExpress - Southeast Asian tourists make beeline for China as visa rules eased
WSWS - Ukrainian president berates China at Singapore security conference
Bloomberg - Competing US-China Defense Tactics Dominate Singapore Forum
China accuses US of seeking to build an Asian version of NATO
SEATO 2.0 baby
SCMP - China’s growing influence shapes talks at Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue, with spotlight on rules-based order
And East Timor’s President Ramos-Horta said there needed to be better communication between military and political leaders to quickly de-escalate potential crises such as possible miscalculations on the Korean peninsula or in the South China Sea.
“Ideally, in a romantic world, the South China Sea should be a zone of peace and prosperity,” he said. “Crisis consultation on the code of conduct in the South China Sea should be intensified with active dialogue and bilateral negotiation.”
A Ground Self-Defense Force instructor was killed by a fragment from an exploding grenade during a drill in Yamanashi Prefecture on May 30, GSDF officials said.
An ambulance was summoned to the GSDF’s Kita Fuji Maneuver Area around 8:45 a.m., but emergency workers could not save Taku Yamamiya, 29, a sergeant in the Third Company of the First Infantry Regiment, according to the GSDF.
In response to the death, the GSDF suspended all training using live weapons and established an accident investigation committee.
The incident occurred when Yamamiya was instructing members on how to throw grenades in a field inside the maneuver area, the GSDF said.
When one of the grenades exploded nearly 30 meters from the thrower, a fragment hit Yamamiya in the neck, causing a fatal wound.
According to the GSDF, grenade-throwing instructors and those being trained watch where the grenade drops and then take cover behind a U-shaped barrier before it explodes.
In the accident, the grenade exploded at the intended location. The GSDF is investigating why Yamamiya was unable to protect himself from the blast.
Yamamiya’s death is the first in a GSDF grenade drill since 1958, the force said.
“A grenade exercise is common training for infantry regiment members, just like live-fire drills, and is conducted every year,” a former senior GSDF officer said. “The focus of the investigation will be on whether the rules were properly followed.”
The grenade-throwing drill was part of the First Infantry Regiment’s outdoor training exercise scheduled from May 27 to 31.
On May 30, the second day for the grenade drill, 23 members were taking part.
(This article was written by Daisuke Yajima and Takuya Ikeda.)
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Mexico.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
spoiler
What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?
The two factions of the british conservatives are locked in a battle for the future of the conservative movement. One faction seeks to preserve the tory party while the other seeks to have it collapse, forcing the conservative movement to merge into the Reform party where Farage will be leader.
In Portugal the turnout for the eu elections was 40%, the 2 centrist ruling parties tied with the center left being slightly ahead which everyone is making a lot of hay about since the center right is governing right now and the former center-left absolute majority government seems to have been couped by the judicial branch, the far right and market radical liberals got 9% each, which is a big decrease from the far right and increase for the liberals (who have a lot of youth vote) compared to the national election a few months ago. The communist party and left block each lost 1 MEP and elected 1 MEP, the pro-war eurocuck green party missed electing anyone by a few thousand votes (which is good because they would've taken the communist's seat), this was after a ton of articles came out reposting a POLITICO hit piece which named the 2 portuguese communist former MEPs as among the "largest friends of Putin" for not voting along with the rest of the EU parliament on several russia-ukraine war related measures and anti-china stuff, and obviously a deluge of bashing from national media.
For people thinking taking a principled anti-war stance is already electorally beneficial I'd say not yet, at least not here in portugal, but we take it because we shouldn't feed the NATO machine.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said France was working to “finalize a coalition” of NATO countries that are willing to send troops to Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a step that would mark a huge escalation in the proxy war.
During a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris, Macron said Ukraine’s request for NATO trainers was “legitimate” and downplayed the risk of escalation.
“It’s much more efficient and practical for certain capacities in certain conditions to train on Ukrainian soil, it’s a legitimate request,” Macron said. “We’re going to use the coming days to finalize the broadest possible coalition.” He added that several NATO countries have already agreed to the plan.
Moscow has said that any French trainers deployed to Ukraine would be legitimate targets of the Russian military, but Macron dismissed the warning. “This is not deploying … European soldiers on the front line. It is recognizing the sovereignty of Ukraine over its territory,” he said. “Who would we be to give in to the invocations or threats of Russia?”
Reuters reported on May 30 that France planned to initially send a few dozen troops to asses the training mission before sending hundreds of soldiers. The talk of sending French troops to Ukraine has highlighted the fact that there are already a small number of NATO special operations soldiers inside Ukraine (97 as of March 2023), but a larger public deployment will take NATO involvement in the war to another level.
The advancement of France’s plans to send troops to Ukraine comes after the US gave Ukraine the greenlight to strike Russian territory with US-provided missiles, which also risks a major response from Russia. So far, the Biden administration has said it has no plans to send trainers to Ukraine, but it has taken escalatory steps that it’s previously ruled out throughout the conflict.
one thing I've noticed is that on the wiki pages for many smaller countries there's often a photo of the country leader posing for a photo op with Barack and Michelle Obama and it's in the same exact room with the same exact pose and the same exact expressions, like a cheap theme park photo with the park mascot
Lets just say this isn't financial advice or anything but, lets just say calendar puts @$15 or $20 for 14/21th June or even longer depending if you want to risk more in case this rocket is real which its very unlikely...
Just saying, its extremely unlikely this ship will stay at these levels and they're so far down its quite cheap.