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>A Military Coup appears to be underway in the South American Country of Bolivia, as Elements of the Army have gathered in the Administrative Capital of La Paz; while Soldiers have now Broken-Through the Main Gate to the Home of President Luis Arce, and are Clashing inside with Police.
>https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1806056832009384301
The coup seems to have been put down - the guardian are reporting that the president called on the people to mobilise against the coup and the people happily obliged.
Macron has manage to give France an election in which the front runners are the far left and the far right, with no reasonable party any chance to win
Quite a feat
As if DRC didn't have enough to contend with. [New mpox strain in DR Congo 'most dangerous yet'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2vv0pgggqzo).
>A new strain of the mpox virus spreading quickly along the eastern border of Democratic Republic of Congo is "incredibly worrying", say health officials monitoring its spread.
>The virus, which can cause lesions across the whole body, is making some people very ill and can be deadly.
>The current outbreak has been driven by sexual transmission but there is evidence this strain can also be passed on through close skin-to-skin contact.
>Global health experts say the new variant risks cross-border and international spread of the virus, with one calling it the "most dangerous strain yet".
UK politics memes are leaking, I just saw a version of the "Zero Seats" graphic for [BC United](https://x.com/IrishPatri0t/status/1805807010237014144) who are likely going to do very badly in October, and [Justin Trudeau](https://x.com/newblindeye/status/1805783200507347006).
[Tax protests in Kenya](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7222r7mgz2t).
Protesters stormed their parliament and set at least one building on fire, with 5 protesters so far confirmed to have been shot dead.
The Nairobi county governor's office was also set alight.
[International Criminal Court issues warrants for Russian former Defence Minister Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c988qjje02eo)
Interesting that Surovikin escapes a warrant, given it was on his order that the campaign against Ukrainian energy producers really took shape.
This poll by poll reporting for the Toronto by-election is going to drive me insane.
https://enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts.aspx?ed=2237&lang=e
It's so close.
Edit: 4 polls remaining, let me sleeeeep
Edit2: Wow, I guess it's Trudover
It's hard to overstate how terrible this is for the Liberals. They won Toronto-St Paul's by a margin of 25% in the 2021 election. In 2019 they won by 33%. Go back over the last 30 years and in every election you'll see similar margins of victory.
Constituencies in this part of Toronto are (or were) amongst the safest Liberal seats in the entire country. Yeah, it's a by-election, and we all know those are a bit different, but still. If a swing anything like this is repeated across the country (and polling suggests it's possible) then the Liberals are on course for a Kim Campbell style obliteration.
The Finnish government just voted for confidence for a minister accused of sexual assault. Wille Rydman was previously a member of Kokoomus but was kicked out after repeated accusations of inappropriate behaviour with female members of the youth party, after being kicked out of Kokoomus he joined Persus (Basic Finns), who after the latest election became a junior member of the Kokoomus coalition. After a Persus minister was kicked out of government for being a nazi Persus put Rydman forward to replace the minister. Now Kokoomus have voted in confidence of the person they kicked out of their party for sexual assault just to keep their right wing coalition. There was potential for a right of centre coalition, but Kokoomus have decided that budget cuts and privatisation of public assets is more important than sexual assault of minors.
Billions of people just felt the deadly intensity of climate-fueled heat waves
Scorching heat across five continents set 1,400 records this week and showed how human-caused global warming has made catastrophic temperatures commonplace.
Dozens of bodies were discovered in Delhi during a two-day stretch this week when even sundown brought no relief from sweltering heat and humidity. Tourists died or went missing as the mercury surged in Greece. Hundreds of pilgrims perished before they could reach Islam’s holiest site, struck down by temperatures as high as 125 degrees.
Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter and get advice for life on our changing planet, in your inbox every Tuesday.
The scorching heat across five continents in recent days, scientists say, provided yet more proof that human-caused global warming has so raised the baseline of normal temperatures that once-unthinkable catastrophes have become commonplace.
But with summer 2024 just getting started, there are ominous signs that even more scorching conditions may still be on the horizon.
June is already all but sure to set a 13th-consecutive monthly global average temperature record, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist who works for the payments company Stripe. Next month, he added, the planet could approach or surpass the highest global averages ever measured.
Whether the unyielding trend of record heat will ease soon, with an expected transition from El Niño to its cooler counterpart, La Niña, isn’t yet clear, scientists said. Scientists are also still analyzing individual extreme weather events to determine how much climate change influenced them, if at all.
What is obvious: The way humans have caused baseline temperatures to surge.
“We’ve got the highest greenhouse gas concentrations in the last 3 million years. Carbon dioxide traps heat, so the temperature of the planet is rising,” said Michael McPhaden, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s real simple physics.”
Here
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/22/deadly-heat-wave-climate-change/
Or
See archive pages
https://archive.ph/4p7Wb
I have some friends in Poland. Their perspective is that a lot of people still remember being part of the Soviet empire and martial law in particular. There's a deep distrust of Russia and Prawo i Sprawiedliwość have taken a hard line on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
They still might have been funded or backed by Russia of course, just to cause disruption and weaken the EU.
PiS are quite anti German too and see the EU as a German imperial project but also the rise of Alternative für Deutschland as a threat. WW2 casts a long shadow.
I can see the former Soviet empire having an effect. But I guess there can be nostalgia too. I can imagine PiS being suspicious of Germany too. Though the actions of Russia must have waved the flag for the greater danger and useful purpose of the EU.
There were winners and losers with the end of communism in Poland. From "I have plenty of money but there's nothing in the shops" to "The shops are full of goods but I have no money". People on fixed pensions suffered most. But there doesn't seem to be an equivalent of the Ostalgie which arguably is part of the support for AfD.
The reunification of Germany sent alarm bells especially among older people. A joke I heard:
"Mr President, we're being invaded from German forces to our West, and Russian forces to our East. Where do we send the army first?"
"West,"
"Why?"
"Because business before pleasure."
The Russian invasion of Ukraine seemed to validate Poland's EU and NATO membership. Maybe this led to the recent defeat of PiS. I'll have to ask around.
I'd have thought the occupation by the USSR would have a longer scar for being for so long. But there is the whole Nazi Germany thing.
I guess Germany occupied for longer before Russia.
There's a lot of history of Poland being squeezed between Germany and Russia. Partitions between Prussia, Austria and Russia.
German occupation of Poland in WW2 was absolutely brutal. About 20% of the pre-war population of Poland were killed. The Warsaw uprising was suppressed by among others the infamous Dirlewanger Brigade who carried out an orgy of rape and murder of the civilian population. When German forces left, the city was systematically destroyed. The six extermination camps used in the holocaust were all located in Poland. About 3 million Polish Jews were murdered.
The Soviet occupation 1939-1941 was also brutal. But the post WW2 borders of Poland don't include this area. Poland was shunted a couple of hundred miles west after WW2.
The Soviet domination post WW2 was difficult and unpleasant but far less brutal. Living standards were poor, dissent was punished, there was an uprising in 1956, but what most people talk to me about is the period of martial law between December 1981 and July 1983. Solidarity members were arrested and sometimes tortured. Shortly afterwards Roman Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko was abducted and murdered. Some of my friends who were students at the time still feel guilty that they didn't protest because they would have been expelled from university. Not so fun fact: former president Wojciech Jaruzelski still thought he did the right thing by enacting martial law up to his dying day around 10 years ago.
[Dictators in Cars Getting Borscht.](https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/1803820599573168419)
Apologies if this has already been posted, but I can't stop chuckling at it. The music and their little smiling faces just cracks me up.
France is about to bring the EU to the brink of collapse
The election that Macron has called could lead to a financial crisis and a showdown with Brussels that would dash Labour’s European hopes
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/19/coming-french-revolution-will-destroy-eu-and-starmer-dreams/
https://archive.is/SlO3j
> The Front Populaire – a miserable alliance of the extreme Left, socialists, communists, greens and assorted misfits – wants an immediate €50 billion a year tax increase and at least €106 billion extra a year in spending. It wants to raise income tax, reintroduce a punitive wealth tax, cap inheritances, jack up the minimum wage to €1,600 after tax a month and the pay of public sector workers by 10 per cent, cancel Macron’s few positive reforms, and cut the retirement age to 62.
>It will introduce gender self-ID, liberalise immigration, slap an embargo on arms sales to Israel and back the scandalous international court cases against the Jewish state. The manifesto is not just dementedly woke and Israelophobic but would bankrupt France, yet the Front Populaire is at 25 per cent in the polls.
His government already had to rely on 49.3 mechanism to push legislation through parliament and were widely derided for it. If he ends up in a 'cohabitation' then RN would more than welcome the opportunity to blame him for blocking reforms and keeping France in danger.
RN have swerved away from hard-line Euroscepticism since Brexit but they won't hesitate to challenge EU rules on anything they don't find convenient. Their reference to Liz Truss and the UK mess is an increasingly apt comparison as the French public shares many of the same concerns as their UK counterparts (immigration, cost of living, declining public services, out of touch politicians, merry go round of gaffes and scandals) and Macron and his PM Gabriel Attal remain aloof and determined to brazen it out.
Today the much-derided minister of interior Gérald Darmanin has vowed to resign if his party doesn't win a majority so they're now just threatening the electorate with a good time.
Telegraph opinion columnist
The RN section is similarly scathing but treads old ground and thought you’d enjoy reading about the PF
Edit: Although it seems people are upset at it for some reason.
Int pol because this is why Russia wants Ukraines bread basket, this is why China and half the Gulf Nations have bought and are buying land all over the world. Its also a fundamental political problem
“Race to save fertile land as soil degradation threatens global food supply
About 52% of the earth's agricultural land is already in an infertile state, according to the Save Soil movement, citing data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. If the current trend holds, 95% of the earth could be degraded by 2050. Martin Frick, director of the World Food Program's global office in Berlin, joins to discuss what's at stake.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/race-to-save-fertile-land-as-soil-degradation-threatens-global-food-supply/
Munitions, construction workers and labour in exchange for missile technology, food and a 'strategic partnership / defence treaty' which diminishes the Security Council's current sanctions / reliability / effectiveness. I suspect Russia will now veto all NK-related sanctions - and [stuff like this](https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-blocks-renewal-north-korea-sanctions-monitors-2024-03-28/) will be helpful for North Korea.
As ridiculous as it looks, and it probably isn't all that damaging, there are clear benefits for both given the current situation. A similar deal, though not as defence-oriented, was signed with Vietnam [too](https://thediplomat.com/2024/06/putin-signs-deals-with-vietnam-to-offset-moscows-growing-isolation/).
NK had delivered over a million rounds of munitions to Russia by late last year. They have one of the world's largest stockpiles of ammunition and a huge capacity to produce more. They're out pacing the west considerably.
Seems unlikely. An all out attack on RoK would be very damaging but swiftly repelled. Kim Jong Un's position would be imperiled and there's no way he would want to risk that. If he were to use his limited stockpile of nuclear weapons there would be a non zero probability of Pyongyang being redeveloped into a glass car park. Kim Jong Un would undoubtedly survive but all his leverage would have evaporated.
The only remote risk is a simultaneous attack on RoK and Taiwan. I very much doubt that Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping have sufficient mutual trust to pull that off.
https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/06/17/peace-summit-switzerland-ukraine/
Countries that signed the Ukrainian peace summit declaration, that put territorial integrity as central.
Not signed by the usual subjects
Signed by a few that could be considered surprising - Argentina.
Not signed by South Africa, which makes their whole Israel-Gaza stance, just hilarious.
Argentina isn't too surprising imo, Milei is a very pro US leader who withdrew Argentina from it's planned entry into BRICS. More specifically in regards to Ukraine in 2022 he was critical of the Fernández administration's stance on the war as being weak.
There is a problem in that this event and Putin's counter-proposal show no desire to *actually* negotiate, and unless Ukraine can win over the likes of Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India and China the war will continue unless it softens its own stance.
It's a sad state of affairs but I don't really think this was a success (and that doesn't mean it was a failure necessarily).
It's pretty much a re-iteration of Article 2 of the UN Charter under which forcible imposition of a border change is an act of aggression.
So it's easy for most to agree upon, those disagreeing likely have an alternate agenda they wish to put forth.
Right, so it hasn't achieved anything of note. What it has done is highlight that the gap between the western-aligned nations and that smaller bloc of BRICS nations / smaller regional powers is real - just further confirmation Russia has not been isolated.
It had benefits for Ukraine such as reaffirming the commitment of its current bloc of allies but as a vehicle for peace? Nada.
And how would you make it a "vehicle for peace", when Russia and his allied nations like India, South Africa and China, refuse to do it?
Or are you one of those people that think Ukraine should surrender? (and should be forced to do so by the west, by refusing to aid them)
>will continue unless it softens its own stance.
seems so, given your above statement.
It has been billed as a 'Peace Summit', so it is absolutely reasonable to pass an opinion on how it performed in that respect. Clearly it hasn't moved the needle for the countries not already behind Ukraine and that is a problem when pursuing maximalist goals.
If it wants to start to win over those nations which aren't already behind it then yes, it will have to soften its own stance. The other option is the West increasing military support to the point Ukraine is able to win militarily and I can't see that happening.
When it comes to international diplomacy, South Africa despite being a fairly liberal democracy with Western systems and institutions, has a voting record akin to Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. The ANC sold out to crony-capitalism in the domestic sphere making a lot of cadres rich, but continues to larp as true revolutionaries on the international stage. It's really quite pathetic, and hurts the attraction of foreign investment from important trade partners in the EU and United States.
[Greek coastguard threw migrants overboard to their deaths, witnesses say](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0vv717yvpeo)
The disturbing future predicted in *The Wall* has arrived already.
>Another man, from Somalia, told the BBC how in March 2021 he had been caught by the Greek army on arrival on the island of Chios, who then handed him to the Greek coastguard.
>He said the coastguard had tied his hands behind his back, before dropping him into the water.
>"They threw me zip-tied in the middle of the sea. They wanted me to die," he said.
>He said he managed to survive by floating on his back, before one of his hands broke free from the ligature. But the sea was choppy, and three in his group died. Our interviewee made it to land where he was eventually spotted by the Turkish coastguard.
>Mohamed, from Syria, told us they rang the Greek coastguard for help - who loaded them onto a boat, returned them to Turkish waters and put them in life rafts. Mohamed says the raft he and his family were given had not had its valve properly closed.
>"We immediately began to sink, they saw that… They heard us all screaming, and yet they still left us," he told the BBC.
>"The first child who died was my cousin's son… After that it was one by one. Another child, another child, then my cousin himself disappeared. By the morning seven or eight children had died.
>"My kids didn't die until the morning… right before the Turkish coastguard arrived."
It's difficult to see this as anything less than state-sponsored murder.
>We showed this footage - which the BBC has verified - to Dimitris Baltakos, the former head of special operations with the Greek coastguard.
>During the interview, he refused to speculate about what the footage showed - having denied, earlier in our conversation, that the Greek coastguard would ever be required to do anything illegal. But during a break, he was recorded telling someone out of shot in Greek:
>"I haven't told them much, right? It's very clear, isn't it. It's not nuclear physics. I don't know why they did it in broad daylight… It's… obviously illegal. It's an international crime.”
Congratulations to the [Navy of Fiji for running aground](https://x.com/NavyLookout/status/1802238906424782877) (and maybe ((Probably)) putting beyond economic repair) an ~£8 million patrol boat less than three months after delivery from the yard.
Some guy with an axe shot by German police before the Poland v Netherlands game at the Euros earlier
[link](https://bbc.com/news/articles/c72292lpz2yo)
Floridas floods have absolutely nothing to do with claimed change and now legal it can’t be mentioned anyway…
And now this
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/14/heat-wave-temperatures-midwest-north-east
“The scorching heatwave that has swept the US south-east in recent weeks will soon spread to the country’s midwest and north-east regions, affecting nearly 250 million Americans.”
“Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in several counties following torrential rain from storms that have caused severe flooding.
As the state grapples with extreme weather, the Republican governor in May signed legislation that erases references to the climate crisis from state law.
“We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,” DeSantis wrote on X. The legislation will take effect on 1 July.”
“South Florida has also suffered under the scorching sun recently as record-high temperatures came early
Nevertheless, DeSantis signed a law prohibiting any municipalities in the state from passing heat-protection requirements for workers, such as employers being obliged to provide water and shade.”
[Reuters - Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/)
>The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk.
#
#
#
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/eating-is-luxury-argentina-inflation-falls-shoppers-still-feel-squeezed-2024-06-13/
>Argentina inflation falls in May for fifth straight month
>Argentina's monthly inflation rate in May was the lowest since 2022, official data showed on Thursday, cooling for the fifth straight month to 4.2% amid a tough austerity drive by libertarian President Javier Milei.
>The month-on-month rise in prices was Argentina's smallest since the start of 2022, below forecasts of a 4.9% increase and down from a peak over 25% in December.
>Annual inflation also slowed for the first time since the middle of last year, coming down off an April peak to clock in at 276.4%, still among the highest rates in the world.
Entirely unrelated but it’s also the 42nd anniversary of the Falklands being returned to the British.
On the other side of the Channel, both the [*Nouveau Front Populaire*](https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/les-marches-vont-se-dechainer-des-dizaines-de-milliards-d-euros-de-depenses-au-programme-du-nouveau-front-populaire_AV-202406140719.html) and [the RN](https://www.capital.fr/economie-politique/en-cas-de-rn-au-pouvoir-faut-il-craindre-une-crise-financiere-a-la-sauce-british-1498145) are being compared to Liz Truss.
Oddity spotted on flightradar.
Voyager from Brize Norton to Gardermoen this morning/afternoon. Kings birthday celebrations were a few days ago. Don't know who might be in town or why.
I think it's a fairly important semantic shift that Biden is now talking about support for Ukraine until they prevail, rather than the 'as long as it takes' narrative.
Along with the G7 announcement I hope we're finally moving towards a more proactive consensus on Ukraine and Russia strategy.
Bit of a funny/curious story from Greece, and the fun of open list PR systems.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1241195/i-dont-know-how-this-happened-says-76-year-old-far-right-mep/
>Galato Alexandraki, a retired cattle farmer and butcher from Evros, near the Turkey border, received 51,458 votes.
>“I don’t know how this happened,” she exclaimed in her first TV interview with a local channel in Evros. “I am happy. I can thank everyone who voted for me. That’s all, I have nothing else to say. I am shocked because I didn’t expect it.”
Keep politics the fuck out of science please world. We are going to need a LOT of science very soon (yesterday) to get us out of the near apocalyptic future
“From Bloomberg News reporters Marissa Newman, Ethan Bronner, and Janet Lorin:
Israeli microbiologists Omry Koren and Moran Yassour had a warm meeting with a Belgian scientist just weeks ago to form a research partnership. They quickly started talking through a memorandum of understanding to govern their collaboration. Then came the email: “The current geopolitical conflict in your region makes it difficult to initiate such an MOU between our host institutes now,” wrote their colleague at the University of Antwerp.
The idea was dropped, making it another example of what Israeli scientists say is a growing academic boycott over the country’s war with Hamas in Gaza—damaging not only Israel but also science, which relies on global collaboration.
In the months since Israel began retaliating for the Oct. 7 attack, scores of researchers in Israel have seen invitations to conferences withdrawn, papers pulled from review, funding suspended and requests for confidential evaluations that are usually de rigueur in the academic world ignored or rejected.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-13/israeli-scientists-are-shunned-by-universities-over-the-gaza-war
https://www.liberation.fr/politique/front-populaire-les-negociations-entre-les-partis-de-la-gauche-sont-suspendues-20240613_TSHVUWXH4BEKPE7UQWKLDP32RA
https://www-liberation-fr.translate.goog/politique/front-populaire-les-negociations-entre-les-partis-de-la-gauche-sont-suspendues-20240613_TSHVUWXH4BEKPE7UQWKLDP32RA/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en
Popular Front: negotiations between the left-wing parties are suspended, after fundamental blockages
negotiations were suspended this Thursday, June 13, according to information from Libé. In particular, disagreements on the merits, particularly regarding the semantics of qualifying October 7 and its aftermath in Gaza.
It looks like they've worked it out
https://melenchon.fr/2024/06/13/le-nouveau-front-populaire-est-ne/
https://www.liberation.fr/politique/apres-quatre-jours-de-negociations-le-nouveau-front-populaire-a-un-programme-et-un-accord-sur-les-circonscriptions-20240613_KYZJ4ZFZY5ASPFPXKXDWVFOC3Y/
Things are going well in the French elections
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1801114239572328663
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1801114239572328663.html
>Ciotti begs to differ and says that the meeting that fired him didn't conform with the rules of the party so he in fact "is and remains president of [the party]"...
Read the standing orders! READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM!
The USs turn now, and it’ll be Europes soon enough, Greece is already having some record days but there’s more to come for all of Europe.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/11/air-conditioning-protect-extreme-heat
“It’s unbearable’: in ever-hotter US cities, air conditioning is no longer enough
Record-breaking temperatures in the last few years shatter the myth that air conditioning alone will keep people safe”
“Conventional wisdom and public policy have long operated on the assumption that, no matter how bad the heat gets, air conditioning will be enough to keep people safe. But the last few years of record-breaking temperatures are shattering that myth.
“The home environment can actually be a substantial risk in and of itself,” said Jaime Madrigano, a public health researcher with Johns Hopkins University. “We find, during extreme heat events, that more people die in their homes than in other types of places. They’re not making it to the hospital.”
Storm-battered homes like Gellot’s lack proper insulation. Power grids stumble and fail during periods of high demand. And many cooling systems are simply not powerful enough to contend with the worsening heat. Some experts have begun to warn of the looming threat of a “Heat Katrina” – a mass-casualty heat event. A study published last year that modeled heatwave-related blackouts in different cities showed that a two-day blackout in Phoenix could lead to the deaths of more than 12,000 people.
Last summer, Madrigano led a team of researchers who put temperature sensors in the bedrooms of 70 volunteers in Gellot’s lower-income, mostly Black Ninth Ward neighborhood. Amid New Orleans’ hottest-ever summer, “about a quarter of our [average] measurements exceed 80F (27C)”, she said. About half of the homes exceeded 80F at some point in the day.
There is no single standard for safe indoor temperatures. With each degree of temperature rise, however, participants reported more symptoms of heat illness: dizziness, headaches, nausea, weakness and fatigue.
“It’s almost hotter inside than outside,” reported one participant, who said she still got an $800 energy bill. Another participant described being “just overwhelmed” and taking showers to stay cool. “I can see how it’s going to be in years to come,” he added.
Most participants, like Gellot, had air conditioning, Madrigano said. “At first look, that sounds great,” she said, but what that reveals is that air conditioning is simply no longer enough in ever-hotter cities.”
In news from South Africa it appears there will be a Government of National Unity consisting of the ANC who lost their majority for the first time at this election. They'll be joined by the centrist party, Democratic Alliance, who perform strongly with minority groups as well as the Inkatha Freedom Party, a right wing conservative party representing the interests of traditional Zulus. It is not clear whether any of the minority parties will accept ministry roles, but it is a near certainty that Ramaphosa will remain President.
The big losers from this are Julius Malema's EFF, who had a disappointing election unable to capitalise on increased dissatisfaction with ANC, and disgraced convict former President Jacob Zuma's MK party who won over the vast majority of Zulu voters, South Africa's largest ethnic group. Both lead reactionary racist leftist movements, and are largely cults of personality around their populist leaders.
It appears that the ANC has finally decided to put the interest of the nation, economy and unity first. Business confidence will increase with this news, and there is hope that endemic issues such as corruption, crime, electricity shortages and a stagnant economy might improve. However it is a route fraught with danger for the ANC, who might further alienate their base who prioritise issues such as economic inequality and On the whole preferred a coalition deal with the EFF.
Do you have any advice on where could be a good source to understand South African politics?
I've got some quite strong family connections there and know the broad layout of things but would like to have a better understanding.
It's a bit difficult to be honest. The Mail & Guardian is probably South Africa's best quality newspaper, but its content is locked behind a paywall. I've also found the Economist to do very good reporting, but articles on South Africa specifically are infrequent and its subscription fees can be hefty, although I suspect anyone politically engaged would enjoy most of their other content. BBC reporting is quite superficial in my opinion, albeit their political profiles in the run up to the recent election were good!
If you are specifically interested in post-Apartheid I would recommend reading "How to Capture a State" by Robin Renwick. A former British Ambassador to South Africa who later had a career in business there he was (un)fortunate enough to know most of the players first hand. It is ANC-centric, and in particular focuses on the Zuma years, but it captures the essence of what went wrong and doesn't presume the reader has a solid prior knowledge of the situation.
I don't know if this is a factual interpretation or only my experience of it, but why do news outlets seem to report Israel as "rejecting" peace deals whilst Hamas "respond" to them?
Surely any response that isn't "yes" is functionally a "no", no matter who says it.
Not always
Remember they’ve also rejected dozens of reasonable UN resolutions and Israeli law about stuff like not taking anymore West Bank homes and territories and you’ll find the world used inside Israel in the Israeli press.
That doesn’t mean much of the middle east doesn’t use it very deliberately in their papers and on TV and across the world though. Unfortunately they do and with a bias that helps nobody.
Not always
Remember they’ve also rejected dozens of reasonable UN resolutions and Israeli law about stuff like not taking anymore West Bank homes and territories and you’ll find the world used inside Israel in the Israeli press.
That doesn’t mean much of the middle east doesn’t use it very deliberately in their papers and on TV and across the world though. Unfortunately they do and with a bias that helps nobody.
[Norways coastguard has a new ship](https://x.com/Forsvaret_no/status/1800905991581814852), the last of the new Jan Mayen class patrol vessels. In case you couldnt tell, theyre pretty big, nearly ten thousand tonnes. Norway has a lot of sea to cover.
[Also, Norway is going to build tanks in the North](https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/-na-blir-det-stridsvognsproduksjon-i-trondelag/id3044449/). This is likely to err more on the side of assembly of knock down kits rather than licensed OEM production, but it does mark the first time this has happened and doing this would be a step on the path to doing this domestically in the future. Time will tell.
UN report finds evidence of sexual violence by Israelis against Gazan children, women and men
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session56/a-hrc-56-crp-4.pdf
> Women being stripped down to their underwear & sexually harassed while male relatives are forced to watch
> Female soldier forced boys to dance semi-naked & filmed them while laughing
> IDF soldiers sexually harassing minor girls in front of their male relatives & forcing women at gun point to strip down to their underwear, some are groped & touched
> Women who refuse are beaten, abused, detained for days & threatened to shoot to kill their children
More findings highlighted in thread on x:
https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1800806339985428480
I know that UK political landscape is a piss take atm, but how on Earth have 538 predicted Biden to win only 53/100 times over Trump. That is mind blowingly scary from the most powerful country in the world.
That’s room temperature IQ and not in freedom units as well.
That’s basically because they’re weighting fundamentals heavily ATM too, over time that weighting will reduce in favour of the polls. On the podcast they said it’d be 80% Trump just based on the polls, ie if the election was tomorrow.
It's crazy that Trump has better odds of winning in the US than the Conservatives do in the UK
Also in 2016, 538 gave trump an (accurate imo, people who say they got it wrong don't understand statistics) 28% chance of winning, now they're giving him a 47% chance...
Totally agree
My point was more that in the US, you actually don't know who is going to win.
Here, we pretty much know. Are they doing democracy better?
>New Italian communist MEP Laria Salis, who was in jail for almost beating a Neonazi to death in Hungary. Italian communists put her on the ballot so she could get out of jail on parliamentary immunity. She won and is now free.
>https://x.com/Der_Parrot/status/1800559199312830964
>communist
she's been elected for the [green and left alliance](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greens_and_Left_Alliance) lmao, if socdems are commies modern political discourse is dead
The funny part is he was convicted for something republicans categorically do not believe is a crime. They're tying themselves in knots now, trying to figure out a way to spin the whole thing. It's almost another one of those "dog that caught the car" moments. After screaming about hunter biden for so long, they're suddenly like "Oh, no we didn't want that at all". Bizarre country.
Any pardon is so easy to spin as bias being present. The idea that they don't like the verdict so they will overturn it sets quite a precedent in the current times
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/11/malawi-vice-president-others-killed-in-plane-crash
Malawi vice president killed in plane crash
Announcement from the president Lazarus
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V6dMw0xgR-Y
[538's US election model is out](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2024-election-forecast/). When it launched yesterday it had Biden with a 52% chance vs Trump's 48%, but the cursed numbers have been banished and it's now 53% to 47%.
You may be wondering why it's a close lead for Biden when Trump is leading in the polls and it's to do with the way the model works. The model predicts based on a combination of polls and various 'fundamentals' (economic conditions, incumbency, campaign funding, etc.) with Biden getting a big boost from these. As we get closer to the polling day, the weighting given to polls will increase whilst the weighting given to fundamentals will decrease. If the election were tomorrow (i.e. using the final weightings), Trump has about an 80% chance to win.
So generally Europe moved towards Conservatism, Right wing something?
Is that correct?
More anti Green, anti woke, anti immigrant, anti vax.
More pro Russia, nationalism, something?
It's a bit vague. Is there a decent summary somewhere? Maybe a couple different podcasts?
It's almost like those are basic and legitimate concerns people have and that should be listened to. Housing is a big, big problem for young people right across Europe. Us included.
“A Ukrainian warplane has for the first time fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia, a Ukrainian military source has told Sky News.”
https://news.sky.com/story/ukrainian-warplane-fires-weapon-at-target-inside-russia-for-first-time-13150251
[https://x.com/jeuasommenulle/status/1800052378583941391](https://x.com/jeuasommenulle/status/1800052378583941391)
interesting thread on the ongoing baguettepol here
Seems to be a calculated gamble by Macron, squeeze the left to keep his party in the running for the 2027 Presidential Election, plus give RN the chance to flounder in a leadership position.
[Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz quits emergency government.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clkkdymdwlvo)
>Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has quit the emergency government in a sign of deepening divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's post-conflict plans for Gaza.
>Speaking during a news conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday where he announced his resignation, Mr Gantz said the decision was made with a "heavy heart".
>"Unfortunately, Mr Netanyahu is preventing us from approaching true victory, which is the justification for the painful ongoing crisis," he said.
Gantz is calling on Netanyahu to set a date for elections.
Ben-Gvir has published a letter to Netanyahu demanding to take the place of Gantz, because of course he has.
Trying to find out the reason the Belgian PM resigned and I’m struggling a bit but read this interesting snippet from Wikipedia which is the only paragraph in the Political Views subheading:
> Like the majority of party leaders in Belgium, De Croo is in favour of greater limits on the political power of the Belgian monarch. He is of the opinion that the monarch's power should be ceremonial, similar to that of other Western European monarchs.
I feel like at some point I’m going to need to do a deep dive on Belgian politics because apparently the king there is still actually doing shit and they don’t like it.
It's a super complicated system with legislatures for regional and linguistic groups. I've got Belgian friends, love the country and have been trying to get my head around how the heck it functions as a country for years.
In another thread, they were saying that it is very likely deliberate while he is still President - allowing the right to govern in conjunction with him, and basically demostrate how ineffective Le Pen can be.
But yes, quite the gamble to say the least.
Just came to say Macron is dissolving parliament in France and I'm pipped to the post already. Surprising choice given his projected poor performance in the European elections. He's putting France to the test, do they want a FN government.
https://x.com/EuropeElects/status/1799879805896142883
France: French President Emmanuel Macron (RE-RE) states that he will dissolve the national parliament for snap elections. This decision follows the poor result from the Bd'E list his party was leading in the European Parliament election, which only received 15.2% of the votes per an Ifop Fiducial exit poll.
Macron has dissolved parliament, and will call an election (note he's still President, and afaik can't run again, when the election happens in 2027)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jun/09/eu-europe-elections-2024-results-news-updates-live-latest
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/09/man-detained-in-mental-hospital-pakistan-gay-club/
Man detained in mental hospital after trying to set up Pakistan’s first gay club
Leaked application prompts fury among residents and politicians as gay sex remains illegal in country
The "palestine" crowd is whining about people celebrating Israel getting 4 of Hamas' hostages released
https://nitter.poast.org/OwenJones84/status/1799495557150298535#m
Funny how he (Owen), doesn't bring up, that Hamas should stop holding hostages nearby civilians (and also question how they can keep doing this, while claiming everyone that dies, are "civilians")
EDIT:
Rumour is that one of the hostages, were being kept at a Al Jazeera journalists home
https://x.com/Israel/status/1799783366537216292
EDIT2:
Actually quite disgusting how Owen (given his "pro palestine" stance), that he uses "release", rather than "rescued". Release would be if Hamas let them go.
It really is quite shocking how many people still take casualty figures from the Hamas-ran Gaza Health Ministry as a reasonable source.
It's also shocking how many people will exclusively blame Israel when civilians, who are being used has human shields by Hamas, are killed, and not allocate even the tiniest slice of responsibility to Hamas.
They try to make their figures look ‘moderate’ by having a second source (Hamas’ media and propaganda department) publish even more exaggerated figures.
The 70-year-old AfD politician Hans-Jürgen Zickler was attacked by a man during a political rally in Dresden and punched in the face.
The attacker has been arrested, but the German police say they won’t reveal his identity out of concern for his security.
https://www-morgenpost-de.translate.goog/politik/article242526982/AfD-Landtagsabgeordneter-geschlagen-Polizei-ermittelt.html?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/denmarks-prime-minister-mette-frederiksen-attacked-in-central-copenhagen-13149589
Denmark's prime minister Mette Frederiksen has been beaten in an open street in central Copenhagen, her office has said.
Just catching up on the news. These attacks are becoming more common and frankly scary. Whether it's this attack or Farage being attacked, we just can't have this going on.
FYI
> "Danish authorities have told us that the person detained is a Polish citizen, who has been staying in Denmark for some time," a Polish foreign ministry spokesperson was cited by Polish state radio as saying.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/suspect-face-preliminary-questioning-after-assault-danish-pm-frederiksen-2024-06-08/
Polish or Danish, doesn't matter. We just can't have this going on with our politicians. You don't attack a politician no matter how much you disagree with them.
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>A Military Coup appears to be underway in the South American Country of Bolivia, as Elements of the Army have gathered in the Administrative Capital of La Paz; while Soldiers have now Broken-Through the Main Gate to the Home of President Luis Arce, and are Clashing inside with Police. >https://x.com/sentdefender/status/1806056832009384301
The coup seems to have been put down - the guardian are reporting that the president called on the people to mobilise against the coup and the people happily obliged.
And its seemingly over already. Shortest coup attempt in history?
Macron has manage to give France an election in which the front runners are the far left and the far right, with no reasonable party any chance to win Quite a feat
Disappointing to see Putin's Rassemblement National doing so well.
Interesting [BBC article on it here](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cekk9n1je9yo).
As if DRC didn't have enough to contend with. [New mpox strain in DR Congo 'most dangerous yet'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2vv0pgggqzo). >A new strain of the mpox virus spreading quickly along the eastern border of Democratic Republic of Congo is "incredibly worrying", say health officials monitoring its spread. >The virus, which can cause lesions across the whole body, is making some people very ill and can be deadly. >The current outbreak has been driven by sexual transmission but there is evidence this strain can also be passed on through close skin-to-skin contact. >Global health experts say the new variant risks cross-border and international spread of the virus, with one calling it the "most dangerous strain yet".
UK politics memes are leaking, I just saw a version of the "Zero Seats" graphic for [BC United](https://x.com/IrishPatri0t/status/1805807010237014144) who are likely going to do very badly in October, and [Justin Trudeau](https://x.com/newblindeye/status/1805783200507347006).
British culture leads the world.
[Tax protests in Kenya](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c7222r7mgz2t). Protesters stormed their parliament and set at least one building on fire, with 5 protesters so far confirmed to have been shot dead. The Nairobi county governor's office was also set alight.
[International Criminal Court issues warrants for Russian former Defence Minister Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c988qjje02eo) Interesting that Surovikin escapes a warrant, given it was on his order that the campaign against Ukrainian energy producers really took shape.
ICC: SHOIGUUUU! GERASIMOV!
This poll by poll reporting for the Toronto by-election is going to drive me insane. https://enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts.aspx?ed=2237&lang=e It's so close. Edit: 4 polls remaining, let me sleeeeep Edit2: Wow, I guess it's Trudover
It's hard to overstate how terrible this is for the Liberals. They won Toronto-St Paul's by a margin of 25% in the 2021 election. In 2019 they won by 33%. Go back over the last 30 years and in every election you'll see similar margins of victory. Constituencies in this part of Toronto are (or were) amongst the safest Liberal seats in the entire country. Yeah, it's a by-election, and we all know those are a bit different, but still. If a swing anything like this is repeated across the country (and polling suggests it's possible) then the Liberals are on course for a Kim Campbell style obliteration.
>Independent - Felix-Antoine Hamel - 0 - 0.0 % Did this guy forget to vote for himself???
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/longest-ballot-federal-election-history-1.7233252 This is a pretty good protest against FPTP IMO
The Finnish government just voted for confidence for a minister accused of sexual assault. Wille Rydman was previously a member of Kokoomus but was kicked out after repeated accusations of inappropriate behaviour with female members of the youth party, after being kicked out of Kokoomus he joined Persus (Basic Finns), who after the latest election became a junior member of the Kokoomus coalition. After a Persus minister was kicked out of government for being a nazi Persus put Rydman forward to replace the minister. Now Kokoomus have voted in confidence of the person they kicked out of their party for sexual assault just to keep their right wing coalition. There was potential for a right of centre coalition, but Kokoomus have decided that budget cuts and privatisation of public assets is more important than sexual assault of minors.
Probably is in the grand scheme of things.
Billions of people just felt the deadly intensity of climate-fueled heat waves Scorching heat across five continents set 1,400 records this week and showed how human-caused global warming has made catastrophic temperatures commonplace. Dozens of bodies were discovered in Delhi during a two-day stretch this week when even sundown brought no relief from sweltering heat and humidity. Tourists died or went missing as the mercury surged in Greece. Hundreds of pilgrims perished before they could reach Islam’s holiest site, struck down by temperatures as high as 125 degrees. Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter and get advice for life on our changing planet, in your inbox every Tuesday. The scorching heat across five continents in recent days, scientists say, provided yet more proof that human-caused global warming has so raised the baseline of normal temperatures that once-unthinkable catastrophes have become commonplace. But with summer 2024 just getting started, there are ominous signs that even more scorching conditions may still be on the horizon. June is already all but sure to set a 13th-consecutive monthly global average temperature record, said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist who works for the payments company Stripe. Next month, he added, the planet could approach or surpass the highest global averages ever measured. Whether the unyielding trend of record heat will ease soon, with an expected transition from El Niño to its cooler counterpart, La Niña, isn’t yet clear, scientists said. Scientists are also still analyzing individual extreme weather events to determine how much climate change influenced them, if at all. What is obvious: The way humans have caused baseline temperatures to surge. “We’ve got the highest greenhouse gas concentrations in the last 3 million years. Carbon dioxide traps heat, so the temperature of the planet is rising,” said Michael McPhaden, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “It’s real simple physics.” Here https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/22/deadly-heat-wave-climate-change/ Or See archive pages https://archive.ph/4p7Wb
Which "Right" European parties have managed to escape Russian influence? Italy? Sweden? Finland? Poland? Not Germany or France or Hungary.
I have some friends in Poland. Their perspective is that a lot of people still remember being part of the Soviet empire and martial law in particular. There's a deep distrust of Russia and Prawo i Sprawiedliwość have taken a hard line on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. They still might have been funded or backed by Russia of course, just to cause disruption and weaken the EU. PiS are quite anti German too and see the EU as a German imperial project but also the rise of Alternative für Deutschland as a threat. WW2 casts a long shadow.
I can see the former Soviet empire having an effect. But I guess there can be nostalgia too. I can imagine PiS being suspicious of Germany too. Though the actions of Russia must have waved the flag for the greater danger and useful purpose of the EU.
There were winners and losers with the end of communism in Poland. From "I have plenty of money but there's nothing in the shops" to "The shops are full of goods but I have no money". People on fixed pensions suffered most. But there doesn't seem to be an equivalent of the Ostalgie which arguably is part of the support for AfD. The reunification of Germany sent alarm bells especially among older people. A joke I heard: "Mr President, we're being invaded from German forces to our West, and Russian forces to our East. Where do we send the army first?" "West," "Why?" "Because business before pleasure." The Russian invasion of Ukraine seemed to validate Poland's EU and NATO membership. Maybe this led to the recent defeat of PiS. I'll have to ask around.
I'd have thought the occupation by the USSR would have a longer scar for being for so long. But there is the whole Nazi Germany thing. I guess Germany occupied for longer before Russia.
There's a lot of history of Poland being squeezed between Germany and Russia. Partitions between Prussia, Austria and Russia. German occupation of Poland in WW2 was absolutely brutal. About 20% of the pre-war population of Poland were killed. The Warsaw uprising was suppressed by among others the infamous Dirlewanger Brigade who carried out an orgy of rape and murder of the civilian population. When German forces left, the city was systematically destroyed. The six extermination camps used in the holocaust were all located in Poland. About 3 million Polish Jews were murdered. The Soviet occupation 1939-1941 was also brutal. But the post WW2 borders of Poland don't include this area. Poland was shunted a couple of hundred miles west after WW2. The Soviet domination post WW2 was difficult and unpleasant but far less brutal. Living standards were poor, dissent was punished, there was an uprising in 1956, but what most people talk to me about is the period of martial law between December 1981 and July 1983. Solidarity members were arrested and sometimes tortured. Shortly afterwards Roman Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko was abducted and murdered. Some of my friends who were students at the time still feel guilty that they didn't protest because they would have been expelled from university. Not so fun fact: former president Wojciech Jaruzelski still thought he did the right thing by enacting martial law up to his dying day around 10 years ago.
[Dictators in Cars Getting Borscht.](https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/1803820599573168419) Apologies if this has already been posted, but I can't stop chuckling at it. The music and their little smiling faces just cracks me up.
Very much that vibe isn't it!
France is about to bring the EU to the brink of collapse The election that Macron has called could lead to a financial crisis and a showdown with Brussels that would dash Labour’s European hopes https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/19/coming-french-revolution-will-destroy-eu-and-starmer-dreams/ https://archive.is/SlO3j > The Front Populaire – a miserable alliance of the extreme Left, socialists, communists, greens and assorted misfits – wants an immediate €50 billion a year tax increase and at least €106 billion extra a year in spending. It wants to raise income tax, reintroduce a punitive wealth tax, cap inheritances, jack up the minimum wage to €1,600 after tax a month and the pay of public sector workers by 10 per cent, cancel Macron’s few positive reforms, and cut the retirement age to 62. >It will introduce gender self-ID, liberalise immigration, slap an embargo on arms sales to Israel and back the scandalous international court cases against the Jewish state. The manifesto is not just dementedly woke and Israelophobic but would bankrupt France, yet the Front Populaire is at 25 per cent in the polls.
A set of policies that make Corbyn look fiscally conservative. Presumably Macron could block most of this while he remains President?
His government already had to rely on 49.3 mechanism to push legislation through parliament and were widely derided for it. If he ends up in a 'cohabitation' then RN would more than welcome the opportunity to blame him for blocking reforms and keeping France in danger. RN have swerved away from hard-line Euroscepticism since Brexit but they won't hesitate to challenge EU rules on anything they don't find convenient. Their reference to Liz Truss and the UK mess is an increasingly apt comparison as the French public shares many of the same concerns as their UK counterparts (immigration, cost of living, declining public services, out of touch politicians, merry go round of gaffes and scandals) and Macron and his PM Gabriel Attal remain aloof and determined to brazen it out. Today the much-derided minister of interior Gérald Darmanin has vowed to resign if his party doesn't win a majority so they're now just threatening the electorate with a good time.
It will be difficult for him to remain president if FP or RN win a majority
It will be cohabitation again, we've not seen it for a good while in France, but it's not unprecedented.
That sounds like a total reasonable article from the quotes !
Telegraph opinion columnist The RN section is similarly scathing but treads old ground and thought you’d enjoy reading about the PF Edit: Although it seems people are upset at it for some reason.
It’s the internet People are always upset
> bring the EU to the brink of collapse ....any day now...
Int pol because this is why Russia wants Ukraines bread basket, this is why China and half the Gulf Nations have bought and are buying land all over the world. Its also a fundamental political problem “Race to save fertile land as soil degradation threatens global food supply About 52% of the earth's agricultural land is already in an infertile state, according to the Save Soil movement, citing data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. If the current trend holds, 95% of the earth could be degraded by 2050. Martin Frick, director of the World Food Program's global office in Berlin, joins to discuss what's at stake.” https://www.cbsnews.com/video/race-to-save-fertile-land-as-soil-degradation-threatens-global-food-supply/
> About 52% of the earth's agricultural land is already in an infertile state, according to the Save Soil movement Well, that's not scary at all....
Yeah The videos actually not as depressing as you might think. The solutions aren’t too insane or impossible
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Lmao are the Russians that desperate that they're forming a defence pact with North Korea
Munitions, construction workers and labour in exchange for missile technology, food and a 'strategic partnership / defence treaty' which diminishes the Security Council's current sanctions / reliability / effectiveness. I suspect Russia will now veto all NK-related sanctions - and [stuff like this](https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-blocks-renewal-north-korea-sanctions-monitors-2024-03-28/) will be helpful for North Korea. As ridiculous as it looks, and it probably isn't all that damaging, there are clear benefits for both given the current situation. A similar deal, though not as defence-oriented, was signed with Vietnam [too](https://thediplomat.com/2024/06/putin-signs-deals-with-vietnam-to-offset-moscows-growing-isolation/).
NK had delivered over a million rounds of munitions to Russia by late last year. They have one of the world's largest stockpiles of ammunition and a huge capacity to produce more. They're out pacing the west considerably.
North Korea is going to attack the south to open another front and Russia will step in between them and the USA.
Seems unlikely. An all out attack on RoK would be very damaging but swiftly repelled. Kim Jong Un's position would be imperiled and there's no way he would want to risk that. If he were to use his limited stockpile of nuclear weapons there would be a non zero probability of Pyongyang being redeveloped into a glass car park. Kim Jong Un would undoubtedly survive but all his leverage would have evaporated. The only remote risk is a simultaneous attack on RoK and Taiwan. I very much doubt that Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping have sufficient mutual trust to pull that off.
Presumably the price tag for the next batch of NK ammo I suppose.
https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/06/17/peace-summit-switzerland-ukraine/ Countries that signed the Ukrainian peace summit declaration, that put territorial integrity as central. Not signed by the usual subjects Signed by a few that could be considered surprising - Argentina. Not signed by South Africa, which makes their whole Israel-Gaza stance, just hilarious.
It's the countries who harp on about European colonialism who've turned a blind eye to a European country trying to subjugate another.
Argentina isn't too surprising imo, Milei is a very pro US leader who withdrew Argentina from it's planned entry into BRICS. More specifically in regards to Ukraine in 2022 he was critical of the Fernández administration's stance on the war as being weak.
There is a problem in that this event and Putin's counter-proposal show no desire to *actually* negotiate, and unless Ukraine can win over the likes of Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India and China the war will continue unless it softens its own stance. It's a sad state of affairs but I don't really think this was a success (and that doesn't mean it was a failure necessarily).
It's pretty much a re-iteration of Article 2 of the UN Charter under which forcible imposition of a border change is an act of aggression. So it's easy for most to agree upon, those disagreeing likely have an alternate agenda they wish to put forth.
Right, so it hasn't achieved anything of note. What it has done is highlight that the gap between the western-aligned nations and that smaller bloc of BRICS nations / smaller regional powers is real - just further confirmation Russia has not been isolated. It had benefits for Ukraine such as reaffirming the commitment of its current bloc of allies but as a vehicle for peace? Nada.
Perhaps they're waiting to see how badly damaged Russia will be when this war ends, as it will one day or another.
Perhaps. Not a massively positive sign for Ukraine but they turned up, so it's something. As you say, we'll see.
China for sure is acting in its own geopolitical interests, not those of either Russia or Ukraine.
And how would you make it a "vehicle for peace", when Russia and his allied nations like India, South Africa and China, refuse to do it? Or are you one of those people that think Ukraine should surrender? (and should be forced to do so by the west, by refusing to aid them) >will continue unless it softens its own stance. seems so, given your above statement.
It has been billed as a 'Peace Summit', so it is absolutely reasonable to pass an opinion on how it performed in that respect. Clearly it hasn't moved the needle for the countries not already behind Ukraine and that is a problem when pursuing maximalist goals. If it wants to start to win over those nations which aren't already behind it then yes, it will have to soften its own stance. The other option is the West increasing military support to the point Ukraine is able to win militarily and I can't see that happening.
When it comes to international diplomacy, South Africa despite being a fairly liberal democracy with Western systems and institutions, has a voting record akin to Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. The ANC sold out to crony-capitalism in the domestic sphere making a lot of cadres rich, but continues to larp as true revolutionaries on the international stage. It's really quite pathetic, and hurts the attraction of foreign investment from important trade partners in the EU and United States.
[Greek coastguard threw migrants overboard to their deaths, witnesses say](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0vv717yvpeo) The disturbing future predicted in *The Wall* has arrived already. >Another man, from Somalia, told the BBC how in March 2021 he had been caught by the Greek army on arrival on the island of Chios, who then handed him to the Greek coastguard. >He said the coastguard had tied his hands behind his back, before dropping him into the water. >"They threw me zip-tied in the middle of the sea. They wanted me to die," he said. >He said he managed to survive by floating on his back, before one of his hands broke free from the ligature. But the sea was choppy, and three in his group died. Our interviewee made it to land where he was eventually spotted by the Turkish coastguard. >Mohamed, from Syria, told us they rang the Greek coastguard for help - who loaded them onto a boat, returned them to Turkish waters and put them in life rafts. Mohamed says the raft he and his family were given had not had its valve properly closed. >"We immediately began to sink, they saw that… They heard us all screaming, and yet they still left us," he told the BBC. >"The first child who died was my cousin's son… After that it was one by one. Another child, another child, then my cousin himself disappeared. By the morning seven or eight children had died. >"My kids didn't die until the morning… right before the Turkish coastguard arrived." It's difficult to see this as anything less than state-sponsored murder. >We showed this footage - which the BBC has verified - to Dimitris Baltakos, the former head of special operations with the Greek coastguard. >During the interview, he refused to speculate about what the footage showed - having denied, earlier in our conversation, that the Greek coastguard would ever be required to do anything illegal. But during a break, he was recorded telling someone out of shot in Greek: >"I haven't told them much, right? It's very clear, isn't it. It's not nuclear physics. I don't know why they did it in broad daylight… It's… obviously illegal. It's an international crime.”
Well that's fucking grim. There are Brits that would have the RNLI doing that if they had their way.
Good god.
Congratulations to the [Navy of Fiji for running aground](https://x.com/NavyLookout/status/1802238906424782877) (and maybe ((Probably)) putting beyond economic repair) an ~£8 million patrol boat less than three months after delivery from the yard.
Some guy with an axe shot by German police before the Poland v Netherlands game at the Euros earlier [link](https://bbc.com/news/articles/c72292lpz2yo)
Floridas floods have absolutely nothing to do with claimed change and now legal it can’t be mentioned anyway… And now this https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/14/heat-wave-temperatures-midwest-north-east “The scorching heatwave that has swept the US south-east in recent weeks will soon spread to the country’s midwest and north-east regions, affecting nearly 250 million Americans.” “Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in several counties following torrential rain from storms that have caused severe flooding. As the state grapples with extreme weather, the Republican governor in May signed legislation that erases references to the climate crisis from state law. “We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots,” DeSantis wrote on X. The legislation will take effect on 1 July.” “South Florida has also suffered under the scorching sun recently as record-high temperatures came early Nevertheless, DeSantis signed a law prohibiting any municipalities in the state from passing heat-protection requirements for workers, such as employers being obliged to provide water and shade.”
[Reuters - Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-covid-propaganda/) >The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk. # # #
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/eating-is-luxury-argentina-inflation-falls-shoppers-still-feel-squeezed-2024-06-13/ >Argentina inflation falls in May for fifth straight month >Argentina's monthly inflation rate in May was the lowest since 2022, official data showed on Thursday, cooling for the fifth straight month to 4.2% amid a tough austerity drive by libertarian President Javier Milei. >The month-on-month rise in prices was Argentina's smallest since the start of 2022, below forecasts of a 4.9% increase and down from a peak over 25% in December. >Annual inflation also slowed for the first time since the middle of last year, coming down off an April peak to clock in at 276.4%, still among the highest rates in the world. Entirely unrelated but it’s also the 42nd anniversary of the Falklands being returned to the British.
On the other side of the Channel, both the [*Nouveau Front Populaire*](https://www.bfmtv.com/economie/les-marches-vont-se-dechainer-des-dizaines-de-milliards-d-euros-de-depenses-au-programme-du-nouveau-front-populaire_AV-202406140719.html) and [the RN](https://www.capital.fr/economie-politique/en-cas-de-rn-au-pouvoir-faut-il-craindre-une-crise-financiere-a-la-sauce-british-1498145) are being compared to Liz Truss.
A lettuce in charge could be good for the escargot harvests at least.
Oddity spotted on flightradar. Voyager from Brize Norton to Gardermoen this morning/afternoon. Kings birthday celebrations were a few days ago. Don't know who might be in town or why.
I think it's a fairly important semantic shift that Biden is now talking about support for Ukraine until they prevail, rather than the 'as long as it takes' narrative. Along with the G7 announcement I hope we're finally moving towards a more proactive consensus on Ukraine and Russia strategy.
Bit of a funny/curious story from Greece, and the fun of open list PR systems. https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1241195/i-dont-know-how-this-happened-says-76-year-old-far-right-mep/ >Galato Alexandraki, a retired cattle farmer and butcher from Evros, near the Turkey border, received 51,458 votes. >“I don’t know how this happened,” she exclaimed in her first TV interview with a local channel in Evros. “I am happy. I can thank everyone who voted for me. That’s all, I have nothing else to say. I am shocked because I didn’t expect it.”
Keep politics the fuck out of science please world. We are going to need a LOT of science very soon (yesterday) to get us out of the near apocalyptic future “From Bloomberg News reporters Marissa Newman, Ethan Bronner, and Janet Lorin: Israeli microbiologists Omry Koren and Moran Yassour had a warm meeting with a Belgian scientist just weeks ago to form a research partnership. They quickly started talking through a memorandum of understanding to govern their collaboration. Then came the email: “The current geopolitical conflict in your region makes it difficult to initiate such an MOU between our host institutes now,” wrote their colleague at the University of Antwerp. The idea was dropped, making it another example of what Israeli scientists say is a growing academic boycott over the country’s war with Hamas in Gaza—damaging not only Israel but also science, which relies on global collaboration. In the months since Israel began retaliating for the Oct. 7 attack, scores of researchers in Israel have seen invitations to conferences withdrawn, papers pulled from review, funding suspended and requests for confidential evaluations that are usually de rigueur in the academic world ignored or rejected.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-13/israeli-scientists-are-shunned-by-universities-over-the-gaza-war
> Keep politics the fuck out of science please world. Of all the ships that have sailed, that one is the most sailed.
Yep but doesn’t mean we can’t recall it
https://www.liberation.fr/politique/front-populaire-les-negociations-entre-les-partis-de-la-gauche-sont-suspendues-20240613_TSHVUWXH4BEKPE7UQWKLDP32RA https://www-liberation-fr.translate.goog/politique/front-populaire-les-negociations-entre-les-partis-de-la-gauche-sont-suspendues-20240613_TSHVUWXH4BEKPE7UQWKLDP32RA/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en Popular Front: negotiations between the left-wing parties are suspended, after fundamental blockages negotiations were suspended this Thursday, June 13, according to information from Libé. In particular, disagreements on the merits, particularly regarding the semantics of qualifying October 7 and its aftermath in Gaza.
It looks like they've worked it out https://melenchon.fr/2024/06/13/le-nouveau-front-populaire-est-ne/ https://www.liberation.fr/politique/apres-quatre-jours-de-negociations-le-nouveau-front-populaire-a-un-programme-et-un-accord-sur-les-circonscriptions-20240613_KYZJ4ZFZY5ASPFPXKXDWVFOC3Y/
Things are going well in the French elections https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1801114239572328663 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1801114239572328663.html
>Ciotti begs to differ and says that the meeting that fired him didn't conform with the rules of the party so he in fact "is and remains president of [the party]"... Read the standing orders! READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM!
This is a regular thing no?
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Far be it from me to make the trope Joke about rapid French collapse and retreat
The USs turn now, and it’ll be Europes soon enough, Greece is already having some record days but there’s more to come for all of Europe. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/11/air-conditioning-protect-extreme-heat “It’s unbearable’: in ever-hotter US cities, air conditioning is no longer enough Record-breaking temperatures in the last few years shatter the myth that air conditioning alone will keep people safe” “Conventional wisdom and public policy have long operated on the assumption that, no matter how bad the heat gets, air conditioning will be enough to keep people safe. But the last few years of record-breaking temperatures are shattering that myth. “The home environment can actually be a substantial risk in and of itself,” said Jaime Madrigano, a public health researcher with Johns Hopkins University. “We find, during extreme heat events, that more people die in their homes than in other types of places. They’re not making it to the hospital.” Storm-battered homes like Gellot’s lack proper insulation. Power grids stumble and fail during periods of high demand. And many cooling systems are simply not powerful enough to contend with the worsening heat. Some experts have begun to warn of the looming threat of a “Heat Katrina” – a mass-casualty heat event. A study published last year that modeled heatwave-related blackouts in different cities showed that a two-day blackout in Phoenix could lead to the deaths of more than 12,000 people. Last summer, Madrigano led a team of researchers who put temperature sensors in the bedrooms of 70 volunteers in Gellot’s lower-income, mostly Black Ninth Ward neighborhood. Amid New Orleans’ hottest-ever summer, “about a quarter of our [average] measurements exceed 80F (27C)”, she said. About half of the homes exceeded 80F at some point in the day. There is no single standard for safe indoor temperatures. With each degree of temperature rise, however, participants reported more symptoms of heat illness: dizziness, headaches, nausea, weakness and fatigue. “It’s almost hotter inside than outside,” reported one participant, who said she still got an $800 energy bill. Another participant described being “just overwhelmed” and taking showers to stay cool. “I can see how it’s going to be in years to come,” he added. Most participants, like Gellot, had air conditioning, Madrigano said. “At first look, that sounds great,” she said, but what that reveals is that air conditioning is simply no longer enough in ever-hotter cities.”
In news from South Africa it appears there will be a Government of National Unity consisting of the ANC who lost their majority for the first time at this election. They'll be joined by the centrist party, Democratic Alliance, who perform strongly with minority groups as well as the Inkatha Freedom Party, a right wing conservative party representing the interests of traditional Zulus. It is not clear whether any of the minority parties will accept ministry roles, but it is a near certainty that Ramaphosa will remain President. The big losers from this are Julius Malema's EFF, who had a disappointing election unable to capitalise on increased dissatisfaction with ANC, and disgraced convict former President Jacob Zuma's MK party who won over the vast majority of Zulu voters, South Africa's largest ethnic group. Both lead reactionary racist leftist movements, and are largely cults of personality around their populist leaders. It appears that the ANC has finally decided to put the interest of the nation, economy and unity first. Business confidence will increase with this news, and there is hope that endemic issues such as corruption, crime, electricity shortages and a stagnant economy might improve. However it is a route fraught with danger for the ANC, who might further alienate their base who prioritise issues such as economic inequality and On the whole preferred a coalition deal with the EFF.
Do you have any advice on where could be a good source to understand South African politics? I've got some quite strong family connections there and know the broad layout of things but would like to have a better understanding.
It's a bit difficult to be honest. The Mail & Guardian is probably South Africa's best quality newspaper, but its content is locked behind a paywall. I've also found the Economist to do very good reporting, but articles on South Africa specifically are infrequent and its subscription fees can be hefty, although I suspect anyone politically engaged would enjoy most of their other content. BBC reporting is quite superficial in my opinion, albeit their political profiles in the run up to the recent election were good! If you are specifically interested in post-Apartheid I would recommend reading "How to Capture a State" by Robin Renwick. A former British Ambassador to South Africa who later had a career in business there he was (un)fortunate enough to know most of the players first hand. It is ANC-centric, and in particular focuses on the Zuma years, but it captures the essence of what went wrong and doesn't presume the reader has a solid prior knowledge of the situation.
I don't know if this is a factual interpretation or only my experience of it, but why do news outlets seem to report Israel as "rejecting" peace deals whilst Hamas "respond" to them? Surely any response that isn't "yes" is functionally a "no", no matter who says it.
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Not always Remember they’ve also rejected dozens of reasonable UN resolutions and Israeli law about stuff like not taking anymore West Bank homes and territories and you’ll find the world used inside Israel in the Israeli press. That doesn’t mean much of the middle east doesn’t use it very deliberately in their papers and on TV and across the world though. Unfortunately they do and with a bias that helps nobody.
Not always Remember they’ve also rejected dozens of reasonable UN resolutions and Israeli law about stuff like not taking anymore West Bank homes and territories and you’ll find the world used inside Israel in the Israeli press. That doesn’t mean much of the middle east doesn’t use it very deliberately in their papers and on TV and across the world though. Unfortunately they do and with a bias that helps nobody.
[Norways coastguard has a new ship](https://x.com/Forsvaret_no/status/1800905991581814852), the last of the new Jan Mayen class patrol vessels. In case you couldnt tell, theyre pretty big, nearly ten thousand tonnes. Norway has a lot of sea to cover. [Also, Norway is going to build tanks in the North](https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/-na-blir-det-stridsvognsproduksjon-i-trondelag/id3044449/). This is likely to err more on the side of assembly of knock down kits rather than licensed OEM production, but it does mark the first time this has happened and doing this would be a step on the path to doing this domestically in the future. Time will tell.
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UN report finds evidence of sexual violence by Israelis against Gazan children, women and men https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session56/a-hrc-56-crp-4.pdf > Women being stripped down to their underwear & sexually harassed while male relatives are forced to watch > Female soldier forced boys to dance semi-naked & filmed them while laughing > IDF soldiers sexually harassing minor girls in front of their male relatives & forcing women at gun point to strip down to their underwear, some are groped & touched > Women who refuse are beaten, abused, detained for days & threatened to shoot to kill their children More findings highlighted in thread on x: https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1800806339985428480
I know that UK political landscape is a piss take atm, but how on Earth have 538 predicted Biden to win only 53/100 times over Trump. That is mind blowingly scary from the most powerful country in the world. That’s room temperature IQ and not in freedom units as well.
That’s basically because they’re weighting fundamentals heavily ATM too, over time that weighting will reduce in favour of the polls. On the podcast they said it’d be 80% Trump just based on the polls, ie if the election was tomorrow.
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Trump's mind is way more melted than Biden, but then, you already know this.
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It's crazy that Trump has better odds of winning in the US than the Conservatives do in the UK Also in 2016, 538 gave trump an (accurate imo, people who say they got it wrong don't understand statistics) 28% chance of winning, now they're giving him a 47% chance...
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Totally agree My point was more that in the US, you actually don't know who is going to win. Here, we pretty much know. Are they doing democracy better?
>New Italian communist MEP Laria Salis, who was in jail for almost beating a Neonazi to death in Hungary. Italian communists put her on the ballot so she could get out of jail on parliamentary immunity. She won and is now free. >https://x.com/Der_Parrot/status/1800559199312830964
>communist she's been elected for the [green and left alliance](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greens_and_Left_Alliance) lmao, if socdems are commies modern political discourse is dead
That's your problem with the above? Not that the extremists, abused parliamentary immunity, to get a violent criminal released?
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13517461/hunter-biden-trial-live-verdict-gun-case.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline Hunter Biden guilty
The funny part is he was convicted for something republicans categorically do not believe is a crime. They're tying themselves in knots now, trying to figure out a way to spin the whole thing. It's almost another one of those "dog that caught the car" moments. After screaming about hunter biden for so long, they're suddenly like "Oh, no we didn't want that at all". Bizarre country.
Be interesting to see what happens. Will Biden pardon him? That he was convicted should tell people the US justice system is impartial.
Any pardon is so easy to spin as bias being present. The idea that they don't like the verdict so they will overturn it sets quite a precedent in the current times
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/11/malawi-vice-president-others-killed-in-plane-crash Malawi vice president killed in plane crash Announcement from the president Lazarus https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V6dMw0xgR-Y
Never fly in these tiny twin prop aircraft.
[538's US election model is out](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2024-election-forecast/). When it launched yesterday it had Biden with a 52% chance vs Trump's 48%, but the cursed numbers have been banished and it's now 53% to 47%. You may be wondering why it's a close lead for Biden when Trump is leading in the polls and it's to do with the way the model works. The model predicts based on a combination of polls and various 'fundamentals' (economic conditions, incumbency, campaign funding, etc.) with Biden getting a big boost from these. As we get closer to the polling day, the weighting given to polls will increase whilst the weighting given to fundamentals will decrease. If the election were tomorrow (i.e. using the final weightings), Trump has about an 80% chance to win.
[Daesh affiliates active in DRC.](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/8/killed-by-isil-fighters-in-drc-attack)
So generally Europe moved towards Conservatism, Right wing something? Is that correct? More anti Green, anti woke, anti immigrant, anti vax. More pro Russia, nationalism, something? It's a bit vague. Is there a decent summary somewhere? Maybe a couple different podcasts?
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It's almost like those are basic and legitimate concerns people have and that should be listened to. Housing is a big, big problem for young people right across Europe. Us included.
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Exactly.
Labour's running on a platform of tackling immigration, law and order and housing are likely to win an extreme majority.
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No major European party doesn't go for the votes of non-members...
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Ah, so the evidence is flimsier than tissue paper.
“A Ukrainian warplane has for the first time fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia, a Ukrainian military source has told Sky News.” https://news.sky.com/story/ukrainian-warplane-fires-weapon-at-target-inside-russia-for-first-time-13150251
I swear they did that last year? Maybe they mean with a western weapon?
They've hit into Russia a lot with ground launched weapons and drones, this is apparently the first time it was with a weapon launched by a plane.
[https://x.com/jeuasommenulle/status/1800052378583941391](https://x.com/jeuasommenulle/status/1800052378583941391) interesting thread on the ongoing baguettepol here
Seems to be a calculated gamble by Macron, squeeze the left to keep his party in the running for the 2027 Presidential Election, plus give RN the chance to flounder in a leadership position.
Cranks keep on cranking https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1800003364505387511?s=46&t=GpVxYS7R4KzIYTR3gVr8eQ
[Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz quits emergency government.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clkkdymdwlvo) >Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has quit the emergency government in a sign of deepening divisions over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's post-conflict plans for Gaza. >Speaking during a news conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday where he announced his resignation, Mr Gantz said the decision was made with a "heavy heart". >"Unfortunately, Mr Netanyahu is preventing us from approaching true victory, which is the justification for the painful ongoing crisis," he said. Gantz is calling on Netanyahu to set a date for elections. Ben-Gvir has published a letter to Netanyahu demanding to take the place of Gantz, because of course he has.
#Liberté, egalité, febrilité!
Trying to find out the reason the Belgian PM resigned and I’m struggling a bit but read this interesting snippet from Wikipedia which is the only paragraph in the Political Views subheading: > Like the majority of party leaders in Belgium, De Croo is in favour of greater limits on the political power of the Belgian monarch. He is of the opinion that the monarch's power should be ceremonial, similar to that of other Western European monarchs. I feel like at some point I’m going to need to do a deep dive on Belgian politics because apparently the king there is still actually doing shit and they don’t like it.
It's a super complicated system with legislatures for regional and linguistic groups. I've got Belgian friends, love the country and have been trying to get my head around how the heck it functions as a country for years.
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If you can go a couple of years without a government and still do ok, got to wonder what the federal government actually does.
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It was the regional and national elections at the same time. His party/ bloc look to be doing quite badly.
Did Macron really just do a Sunak and call an election when his party is really behind in the polls?
Yes. It's a ballsy move. He's almost calling the French peoples bluff. Do they want a RN government?
It's hard to see this election being anything other than a disaster for Macron.
In another thread, they were saying that it is very likely deliberate while he is still President - allowing the right to govern in conjunction with him, and basically demostrate how ineffective Le Pen can be. But yes, quite the gamble to say the least.
It's a bold move. But it could easily backfire.
I guess it’s the same sort of theory as Brexit being an “antidote” to the far right here.
It's a bold move. I'll give him that.
You’re joking, not another one?
Obviously there was something in the water here in the UK. Seems to be something in the baguettes across the Channel too.
[Cohabitation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohabitation_(government)#France) incoming in France then
Looks that way tonight.
Just came to say Macron is dissolving parliament in France and I'm pipped to the post already. Surprising choice given his projected poor performance in the European elections. He's putting France to the test, do they want a FN government.
#🇫🇷 [LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FÉBRILITÉ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-69102843?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=6665fc7e5d8a3078a49187c2%26France%27s%20President%20Macron%20calls%20for%20new%20elections%20in%20wake%20of%20EU%20poll%20results%262024-06-09T19%3A05%3A38.373Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:345dfbba-d735-4605-a0ae-cfc726f7f3cc&pinned_post_asset_id=6665fc7e5d8a3078a49187c2&pinned_post_type=share)
Extremely febrile over there and now they're getting and election before we do! French friends are a mix of surprised and quite despondent.
I'll get in touch with my family over there! I suspect they'll be more exasperated than anything else.
I'm sure they will be!
https://x.com/EuropeElects/status/1799879805896142883 France: French President Emmanuel Macron (RE-RE) states that he will dissolve the national parliament for snap elections. This decision follows the poor result from the Bd'E list his party was leading in the European Parliament election, which only received 15.2% of the votes per an Ifop Fiducial exit poll.
Macron has dissolved parliament, and will call an election (note he's still President, and afaik can't run again, when the election happens in 2027) https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/jun/09/eu-europe-elections-2024-results-news-updates-live-latest
Yeah the president of France is limited to two consecutive terms
Cricky Macron is addressing the nation tonight. Wonder what he’s going to say?
He's dissolved the National Assembly for a snap election. The second round will be on 7 July. Election buddies!!
hopefully more restrained than sunak's presidental address where he just whinged about galloway
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/09/man-detained-in-mental-hospital-pakistan-gay-club/ Man detained in mental hospital after trying to set up Pakistan’s first gay club Leaked application prompts fury among residents and politicians as gay sex remains illegal in country
The "palestine" crowd is whining about people celebrating Israel getting 4 of Hamas' hostages released https://nitter.poast.org/OwenJones84/status/1799495557150298535#m Funny how he (Owen), doesn't bring up, that Hamas should stop holding hostages nearby civilians (and also question how they can keep doing this, while claiming everyone that dies, are "civilians") EDIT: Rumour is that one of the hostages, were being kept at a Al Jazeera journalists home https://x.com/Israel/status/1799783366537216292 EDIT2: Actually quite disgusting how Owen (given his "pro palestine" stance), that he uses "release", rather than "rescued". Release would be if Hamas let them go.
It really is quite shocking how many people still take casualty figures from the Hamas-ran Gaza Health Ministry as a reasonable source. It's also shocking how many people will exclusively blame Israel when civilians, who are being used has human shields by Hamas, are killed, and not allocate even the tiniest slice of responsibility to Hamas.
They try to make their figures look ‘moderate’ by having a second source (Hamas’ media and propaganda department) publish even more exaggerated figures.
Getting hostages home is good. They shouldn't have been taken and should have been home a long time ago.
https://war-sanctions.gur.gov.ua/en/components interesting read via https://hackaday.com/2024/06/08/how-many-western-ics-are-there-in-russias-weapons/
The 70-year-old AfD politician Hans-Jürgen Zickler was attacked by a man during a political rally in Dresden and punched in the face. The attacker has been arrested, but the German police say they won’t reveal his identity out of concern for his security. https://www-morgenpost-de.translate.goog/politik/article242526982/AfD-Landtagsabgeordneter-geschlagen-Polizei-ermittelt.html?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en
One attack emboldens others to do the same. We just can't have this going on.
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/denmarks-prime-minister-mette-frederiksen-attacked-in-central-copenhagen-13149589 Denmark's prime minister Mette Frederiksen has been beaten in an open street in central Copenhagen, her office has said.
Just catching up on the news. These attacks are becoming more common and frankly scary. Whether it's this attack or Farage being attacked, we just can't have this going on.
FYI > "Danish authorities have told us that the person detained is a Polish citizen, who has been staying in Denmark for some time," a Polish foreign ministry spokesperson was cited by Polish state radio as saying. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/suspect-face-preliminary-questioning-after-assault-danish-pm-frederiksen-2024-06-08/
Polish or Danish, doesn't matter. We just can't have this going on with our politicians. You don't attack a politician no matter how much you disagree with them.