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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net
 
 

Days without a bridge failure: zero-0 amerikkka-clap

Temperatures in NYC have reached their highest point so far this year, with Central Park reading 95°F (35°C) yesterday. This will be the 5th straight day with temperatures above 90°F (32.2°C). New York City sees 15 days reach 90°F (32.2°C) per year on average.

Link to the article

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Here's a video that CNN and BBC do not want us to see. Four brave Ukrainian soldiers did not want to die for the corrupt and fascist regime ruling Kiev. So they made makeshift rafts out of plastic bottles and swam all the way across the Dnieper River to surrender to Russian forces. All of them made it across safely.

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Image is of the DPRK sending their trash over the border, in an equal exchange of value to Western capitalist propaganda.


The totalitarian capitalist dystopia which was created by the United States in the aftermath of the Korean War has increasingly experienced problems as the multipolar world is being gradually birthed.

Due to the widespread exploitation of the population, long work weeks, and high housing prices, the population growth of South Korea has plummeted, with the lowest fertility rate on the planet, and the highest suicide rate in the OECD. While a capitalist "success story" before the 2008 recession in terms of profit accumulation for the richest at the expense of most others, conditions have grown more dire in the Long Depression since the crash. GDP growth per year has averaged out at 2-3%. For more concrete figures, labour productivity has stagnated, particularly in the service sector. The rate of profit hit a peak when the dictatorship ended in the late 1980s, but has since massively tumbled. These dynamics are not unique to South Korea; they are happening throughout the West.

While South Korea is stagnating, perhaps even falling, its northern neighbour is rising. With Russia already persona non grata to much of the developed world and yet still maintaining fairly good economic growth and continuously albeit gradually moving towards victory in Ukraine, Putin sees no reason to be intimidated by the West's shunning of the DPRK, and Russia is establishing ties as well as military and economic deals. This seems to portend an end to the post-Soviet period of forced isolation due to UN actions forbidding the people of the DPRK to leave the country (which many westerners believe is a policy originating from the Korean leadership due to their propagandized education).

Many in the West are still, regrettably, unable to properly analyze the geopolitical situation of Korea due to their government programming, leading to bizarre takes about imminent collapse, or desperation on the part of Russia or the DPRK, unable to recognize that the DPRK has a powerful military sector all its own, and decades of autarky has created a durable society where limited resources must be used efficiently and effectively. The position of the Korean Peninsula seems likely to be a critical part of the US-China conflict, whether this is an outright war or instead a series of proxy wars. Indeed, Korea's position may soon become very important in global trade routes if the US tries to cut off the Strait of Malacca to Chinese-bound cargo ships, with vital resources like oil and food potentially transported both over land and via the Arctic Route over Russia and through the DPRK to China. Russia's leadership clearly sees the importance of Korea in the future, hence their actions now; and, of course, South Korea siding with Ukraine has also forced Putin's hand to oppose them more openly.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The "Country" of the Week is South Korea! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful. Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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I paste the article text below but I assume it’s a false, planted narrative (even more so because it’s Go-Troops™ San Diego).

article text

Published June 28, 2024

A San Diego judge said that on Jan. 9, 2021, in Pacific Beach, antifa members "sought to crush, through the use of violence, the First Amendment rights of citizens others" during a pro-Trump rally

A San Diego judge sentenced eight defendants to prison and jail terms Friday for their roles in a series of politically motivated attacks during a January 2021 rally in Pacific Beach, calling the defendants “hypocritical” for professing to be anti-fascist while violently assaulting political opponents practicing free speech.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein said that after presiding for years over the first-of-its-kind case alleging an antifa conspiracy, he was left with no doubt as to the existence of antifa as an organization.

“I don’t believe it’s as structured as a criminal cartel,” Goldstein said. “I think it pops up fairly fast … But it does appear they have funding, and they have an ability to make contact and morph into other things very quickly, in many different jurisdictions.”

The judge did not say what kind of funding he believes the group has. Extremism experts consider antifa to be a leaderless group of like-minded, left-wing activists. A 2020 Congressional Research Service report described the U.S. antifa movement as “decentralized, consisting of independent, radical, like-minded groups and individuals” who often “echo the principles of anarchism, socialism, and communism” and among other things “may also support environmentalism, the rights of indigenous populations, and gay rights.”

But Goldstein said that on Jan. 9, 2021, in Pacific Beach, antifa members “sought to crush, through the use of violence, the First Amendment rights of others.”

On that day, supporters of then-outgoing President Donald Trump held a “Patriot March” in the coastal neighborhood, some of them falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen. Other rallygoers that day were members of the “Proud Boys,” an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group and the Anti-Defamation League has designated a right-wing extremist group. At least five people present in Pacific Beach had been at the storming of the U.S. Capitol three days earlier.

Goldstein said none of that mattered.

“I don’t doubt for any minute that the Trump supporters were offensive to the defendants and actually others in Pacific Beach that day,” the judge said. “But that’s the nature of political speech. That does not mean that individuals with offensive speech cannot assemble, congregate and protest.”

Though reporters and bystanders also documented violence committed by the pro-Trump rallygoers — one video showed a group attacking a barefoot man in a George Floyd T-shirt, including one man who spit on him and sucker punched him — the District Attorney’s Office has maintained that most of the violence was carried out by the left-wing counterprotesters.

The judge said it’s natural for individuals to have ideological differences, but “you can’t resort to physical violence when you believe the other team is wrong.”

Despite the judge’s harsh criticism of the defendants’ actions, he handed out relatively light punishments Friday. The longest custody sentences were given to Jeremy Jonathan White and Brian Cortez Lightfoot Jr., the two defendants who took their cases to trial in April. The judge sentenced both White, 41, and Lightfoot, 27, to two-year prison terms that they’ll be able to serve in county jail.

Later in the hearing, after sentencing a different defendant, the judge said he would have given White a longer sentence, if possible. Goldstein said that White, who was convicted by the jury on one count of conspiracy to riot, was a “ringleader” of the group unlike many of the other defendants who joined because they were followers who were looking to fit in. White’s attorney told reporters in May after the verdict was read that White intends to appeal his conviction.

“If Mr. White was the brains, Mr. Lightfoot was the fist,” Deputy District Attorney William Hopkins told the judge Friday. Lightfoot faced up to five years and four months in prison after the jury convicted him on one count of conspiracy to riot and five counts of use of tear gas not in self-defense. The jury was hung on nine counts of assault.

Goldstein said the probation department recommended a maximum prison term for Lightfoot. “But … unlike Mr. White, you’re expressing remorse,” the judge told him in handing down the two-year sentence. Lightfoot’s attorney said his client has been training to become a wildland firefighter. Goldstein said he would recommend that Lightfoot be able to serve part of his term in one of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s conservation camps, where inmates learn firefighting skills and help battle wildfires, though the judge acknowledged his sentence was likely not long enough to qualify for such a camp.

The six other defendants who were sentenced Friday had pleaded guilty to various charges, some of them nearly two years ago. The judge sentenced each of them to what is technically probation, though as a term of their probation they each must serve custody terms in county jail.

He sentenced Alexander Akridgejacobs, 33, to 270 days in custody; Joseph Austin Gaskins, 23, to one year; Ruchelle Ogden, 26, who was previously known as Samuel Howard Ogden, to one year; Bryan Rivera, 22, to 180 days; Faraz Martin Talab, 29, to one year; and Christian Martinez, 25, to 180 days.

Goldstein previously sentenced Jesse Merel Cannon to five years in prison and Nikki Yach, previously known as Erich Louis Yach, to four years and eight months in prison. Goldstein said Friday that Cannon and Yach, like White, were leaders of the group. The final defendant, Luis Francisco Mora, pleaded guilty shortly before he was set to go to trial with White and Lightfoot. He agreed to a sentence of two years and eight months in his plea agreement.

Correction: This story previously misstated the sentences six of the defendants received. They were sentenced to probation with mandatory terms of jail custody, not suspended prison terms.

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Snip:

"The Hannibal Directive or Hannibal Procedure is an Israeli military policy that says it is permissible to kill Israeli soldiers and settlers to prevent them from being taken captive by an enemy, including the Palestinian fighters."

Zionist propagandists always love to claim that the 'State of Israel' exists to "protect Jews." In reality, Tel Aviv is more than happy to kill Jews to prevent prisoner exchanges with Palestinian resistance movements. That is the entire purpose of this barbarously fascist "Hannibal Directive."

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brump bear baiting's back jack

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2934489

CNN — AI images have become an unavoidable roadside attraction on Facebook and other social media, where dramatic and outlandish depictions of emotional scenes lure users into doling out likes, shares and “Amens.”

Among the funhouse images of fake children crying in the street and police officers saving inexplicably huge Bibles from the rain, countless depictions of Jesus Christ seem to take up an outsized amount of AI real estate.

It makes sense. The central figure of Christianity invokes potent reactions from billions of followers around the globe. For the last 2,000 years, faithful hands have labored to create likenesses of their professed savior, projecting onto him various theologies and mythologies combined with aesthetics of the time: Jesus suffering on the cross, Jesus as the Good Shepherd, Jesus the creator of miracles, Jesus the word made flesh, Jesus as cosmic judge.

Now, in the age of AI, Jesus can assume an infinite variety of roles with just a few keystrokes. Jesus as a durian fruit, for instance. Or Jesus battling shirtless with Satan. Sometimes, Jesus is cuddling a person in need in a hospital bed, his chiseled features and strong hands providing divine comfort.

None of these things are in the Bible, but they are alive in the minds of particularly imaginative Christians, or just those who want some easy engagement on Facebook.

What’s unsettling is how many AI-created images of Jesus are unnecessarily handsome and rugged, like one of those Instagram influencers who wears a lot of pendants and is always wandering barefoot through an island jungle.

There’s nothing wrong with that, per se. The Bible doesn’t get specific about Jesus’ looks, and certainly artists over the millennia have taken creative license when it comes to his physique (and, to a different point, his skin tone).

However, generative AI, like the kind that can create images from text prompts, doesn’t work like an artist’s brain. All of these handsome AI Jesus images are created from patterns a machine picks up from the information it is fed. What does that say about us, and how we view the figures most important to our cultural identities?

wasn't there c/the_dunk_tank posts about this lmao

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2934407

Niger's military leader, speaking alongside the junta chiefs from Mali and Burkina Faso, has said they are "irrevocably" turning their backs on the wider West African bloc, Ecowas.

The three men are meeting together for the first time to cement an alliance created in the face of opposition from neighbouring countries.

Soldiers took power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023.

All three countries – which now form the Alliance of Sahel States - have been affected by jihadist violence, in part a reason given for the army takeovers.

In January, they all announced a plan to leave Ecowas, which is holding its own summit on Sunday.

Speaking at Saturday’s meeting in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, the country's leader, Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani, said that in the place of Ecowas, the junta chiefs wanted to build a community of sovereign peoples "far from the control of foreign powers. A community of peace, solidarity, prosperity based on our African values.”

Gen Tchiani is hosting the talks with Burkina Faso’s Capt Ibrahim Traoré and Mali’s Col Assimi Goïta.

In a message on X, external, the Burkinabé leader said that "together, we will consolidate the foundations of our true independence".

Speaking at the summit, Capt Traoré went on to say that "this continent has suffered and continues to suffer from the fire of the imperialists. These imperialists have only one cliché in mind: 'Africa is the empire of slaves'."

Security co-operation is high on the agenda, but the alliance, known by its French acronym AES, will also look towards forming closer economic ties, including the aim of creating a common currency. This would be a rejection of the France-backed CFA Franc, which is used in many states across the region.

All three countries have expelled French soldiers who were there as part of an anti-jihadist mission and turned towards Russia for military assistance.

Calls for greater sovereignty and a rejection of the former colonial power have been a key part of the rhetoric coming from the junta leaders.

The countries have also resisted calls from Ecowas for a rapid return to civilian rule.

Capt Traoré arrived in Niamey a day ahead of the meeting and was welcomed with an enthusiastic reception. Television pictures show cheering crowds waving Nigerien and Burkinabé flags.

Among them was Sidi Mohamed, the head of the National Youth Council.

"Today, as Africans, we are very proud to see a summit where it's an African summit, a summit where states have decided to pool their energies, to pool their forces to create an alliance for their development, without any foreign stakeholders, without any counterparts from the powers that are used to ruling over us,” he told journalists.

Col Goïta arrived on Saturday.

The presidents of the wider West African bloc will have their chance to respond at a heads of state meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Sunday.

They are also due to announce the activation of a standby force to fight regional insecurity.

Over the past decade, the Sahel has become an increasing focus of Islamic State militant activity, creating insecurity and instability.

The juntas in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have so far failed to quell the violence.

TLDR:

  • they basically met in person for the first time at a summit (as the Alliance of Sahel States)
  • they are activating their own standby force
  • they are looking towards closer economic ties and a common currency
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CNN — Israel’s government has approved a large land seizure in the occupied West Bank – the biggest since the 1993 Oslo Accords set out a path for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, according to the Israeli rights group Peace Now.

The Israeli military’s Civil Administration department, which manages civilian matters in the West Bank, issued the declaration on June 25 converting the area into state land, according to a document from the body, but the official notice wasn’t posted until Wednesday, Peace Now said.

The declaration covers a 1,270 hectare (3,138 acre) section of the Jordan Valley in the eastern West Bank near Jericho, the document from the Civil Administration shows. Peace Now, an Israeli rights group that monitors illegal Israeli settlement expansion, criticized the move in a statement on Wednesday, saying that the seizure makes it even more difficult to establish “a Palestinian state alongside Israel.”

The group also noted that the latest declaration followed several previous announcements that have made this year the biggest, by far, for Israeli land seizures in the Palestinian territory, according to data it has collected that dates back to 1993.

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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by plinky@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net
 
 

hope they do work out a deal tho

linky to paywalled archive

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i think the chances of a civil war are very low. there will probably be a lot of protests, but there have been protests from the left and the right under macron so shrug-outta-hecks

also New Popular Front has a decent chance of getting a plurality. unfortunately, Ensemble is more likely to work with National Rally and keep pushing France right, but that might improve Pop Front's popularity

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Biden is subconsciously trying his best to fuck up his campaign. Love seeing lib reactions on reddit

https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1dwe58u/biden_at_peace_if_he_loses_to_trump_as_long_as_i

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spoilerAn Italian archbishop and staunch critic of Pope Francis has been excommunicated by the Vatican, its doctrinal office has said.

Carlo Maria Vigano was found guilty of schism - meaning he has split from the Catholic Church - after years of fierce disagreement with the pontiff.

The 83-year-old ultra-conservative has previously called on the Pope to resign, accusing him of heresy and criticising his stances on immigration, climate change and same-sex couples.

Archbishop Vigano was a senior figure in the Church, serving as papal envoy to Washington from 2011 to 2016.

In 2018 he went into hiding after alleging that the Pope had known about sexual abuse by an American cardinal and failed to act. The Vatican rejected the accusation.

Over time, the archbishop became associated with US conspiracy theorists, criticising Covid vaccines and alleging a "globalist" and "anti-Christian" project by the UN and other groups - both familiar conspiratorial themes.

On Friday the Vatican's doctrinal office said his refusal to submit to Pope Francis was clear from his public statements.

"The Most Reverend Carlo Maria Vigano was found guilty of the reserved delict [violation of the law] of schism," the statement said, adding that he had been excommunicated - or banished from the church.

Responding by a post on X, the archbishop linked to the decree that was emailed to him and said:

"What was attributed to me as guilt for my conviction is now put on record, confirming the Catholic Faith that I fully profess."

Archbishop Vigano was charged with schism and denying the pope's legitimacy last month. At the time, he write on X that he regarded the accusations against him as "an honour".

"I repudiate, reject, and condemn the scandals, errors, and heresies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio," he said, using Argentine Pope's given name.

Pope Francis has put himself at odds with traditionalist Catholics by making overtures towards the LGBTQ+ community, championing migrant rights and condemning the excesses of capitalism.

Last year, he took action against another ultra-conservative critic, dismissing Bishop Joseph E Strickland of Texas when he refused to resign after an investigation.

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