news

US Establishes New Stockpile in Australia to Prepare for War Over Taiwan

The US created a new stockpile of military equipment during drills in Australia last summer to prepare for a future war with China over Taiwan, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

The stockpile was left behind after the Talisman Sabre exercises, which ran from July 22 to August 4 and were billed as the largest-ever iteration of the drill, demonstrating US focus on preparing for a future conflict in the Asia Pacific.

The Reuters report said the equipment left behind includes 330 vehicles and trailers and 130 containers in a warehouse in Bandiana, a suburb of Wodonga, a city in southeastern Australia.

The supplies are enough to supply three logistics companies that would focus on getting equipment to US troops who are fighting a war elsewhere in the region. “We’re looking to do this more and more,” said Gen. Charles Flynn, the top Army commander in the Pacific. “There’s a number of other countries in the region where we already have agreements to do that.”

The US is working to establish stockpiles in the Philippines, Japan, and other countries in the region. Congress is also looking to establish a weapons stockpile in Taiwan itself, something that might not be publicized due to the risk of provoking China.

US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said last year that the Army’s role in a future war with China would be to establish “staging bases for the Navy, for the Marines, for the Air Force” and to “provide intra-theater sustainment” using the weapons stockpiles and watercraft.

Wormuth said the Army would also have a role to play in the homeland since a full-blown US-China war would likely spread around the globe. “If we got into a major war with China, the United States homeland would be at risk as well, with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks,” she said.

US military officials are preparing for a direct war with China despite the obvious risk of it quickly turning nuclear. They say they’re trying to “deter” a war, but the military buildup in the Asia Pacific and the new levels of US support for Taiwan make a conflict more likely.

I am proposing a style guide update. I am now referring to the US before Civil rights as an apartide state. It still was after but that is less fun to bother liberals with

After the US resumes sanctions on Venezuela, Brazil makes new contacts to ease the climate between the countries

The Brazilian government has begun contacts with the US and Venezuela, with the aim of easing the situation after the return of US sanctions on Caracas.

The US decision came after the Venezuelan Supreme Court blocked the presidential candidacy of the main opposition leader to Nicolás Maduro, Maria Corina Machado.

According to diplomats and Planalto sources, talks are taking place with Washington and Caracas, but still at an "exploratory" level. "It's a negotiation process and it takes time," said one source.

iraqi hezbollah going silent mode, saying they want ease of expulsion of us troops or did they get talking to?

Without further comment: https://old.reddit.com/r/BreadTube/comments/1aet2ce/muslim_american_leaders_our_community_will_never/ (current /r/BreadTube top post)

Do not fool yourself, the USA is now at war with Iran. 1776 WILL commence again.

Iran is about to learn why the usa doesn't have free healthcare OOH RAH SEMPER FI MARINES

mr zaluzhny, your fired sir

The maps and figures in today's MoA are good for this tower 22 attack.

also, simplicius linked this video of a 60 minutes segment on the 2021 missile attack by iran on the american al-asad airbase in iraq, mentioning it because it shows the paucity of air defence to modern iranian armaments.

last but not least, I've got some invites on iptorrents, a general private torrent tracker. if any of you newsheads want an invite dm me. you need to be able to seed to stay in good standing, so if you didn't get your semen in time then no invite.

THE TOWER-22 STRIKE IN JORDAN TRIGGERS US, ISRAEL INTO ALL-FRONT WAR – THE ARABS AND IRAN ARE READY, THE RUSSIANS TOO

John Helmer

28 Jan 2024

[character limit hit continuing in reply]

My support for JDPON grows every day

Looming disaster.

Argentina court rules Milei’s labour reform unconstitutional

Court rules that the labour reform President Javier Milei tried to implement through decree is unconstitutional.

An Argentine court ruled that the labour reform President Javier Milei tried to implement through decree is unconstitutional, the latest blow to his plans to overhaul the nation’s economy. The ruling was posted on the court’s website on Tuesday.

The court had already suspended the labour reform Milei announced on January 3, following an appeal from the powerful labour union CGT. Union leaders held a nationwide strike against Milei’s reforms last Wednesday. The government could have proposed the reform via Congress, as opposed to trying to implement it through an urgent executive order, the judges wrote in the ruling.

Milei’s only recourse now is to appeal to the supreme court or push the reform through Congress. Argentina’s lower house Chamber of Deputies will hold a session to debate Milei’s so-called omnibus bill Wednesday. Milei’s labour measures centred around simplifying employers severance pay obligations and “trial periods” before a company must hire a worker to a full-time contract, among other reforms. Argentina has higher labour costs relative to worker productivity.

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Kinda wild how he can just push an unconstitutional reform, lose and then not suffer the consequences. At minimum this should call for some sort of impeachment.

Another defeat:

Another judicial setback for Milei as Court suspends repeal of 'Ley de Tierras'

Ruling signed by judge Ernesto Kreplak, responding to a La Plata war veterans centre, preventively suspends repeal of Ley de Tierras, temporarily blocking limitless purchase of land by foreigners.

More bad news for President Javier Milei. Following on from the suspension of the labour chapter of his sweeping DNU 70/2023 emergency deregulation decree, a court has now accepted an injunction and preventively suspended the president’s proposed repeal of the “Ley de Tierras’ (“Land Law”).

Milei wants to repeal the law, which would open the door to the purchase of land by foreigners without any limit. The decision was delivered by Federal Judge Ernesto Kreplak on Monday as he accepted a lawsuit lodged against the government by the CECIM (Centro de Ex Combatientes Islas Malvinas) veterans centre in La Plata, requesting that the above article be quashed as unconstitutional for repealing Law 26,737 (“The Régime for the Protection of the National Domain”) regarding the ownership of rural property.

In their initial writ, CECIM representatives had argued that "the repeal, by liberating the land market, would clear the way for its foreign and more concentrated ownership, thus bringing into crisis the principles of territorial integrity and national sovereignty while conditioning the availability of not only Argentine soil but also fresh water."

The judge also criticised the government by claiming that the impugned DNU "had not complied with the essential and substantial procedures nor has made use of the permanent services of legal counselling."

The norm in question regulated land ownership in foreign hands. Law 26,737, sanctioned during the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Presidency in December 2011, established a ceiling of 15 percent of rural land in foreign hands at national, provincial or municipal level.

Based Cristina, as always.

To date, there has been compliance with this law at national level, with foreign ownership currently 6.09 percent or 16.2 million of the country’s total rural land surface of 266,707,361 hectares in foreign hands.

The potential repeal of the law had aroused a growing enthusiasm on the part of the representatives of foreign firms to invest in this country. Indeed, the head of the local branch of a well-known multinational with hundreds of thousands of hectares in the south told Perfil that Milei’s decision as enshrined in the DNU was "very positive."

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There has also been talk of the massive wave of privatizations that milei will carry out. Some state-owned companies, like YPF, will not be privatized as it is deemed illegal or impossible. However, state-owned companies such as Fabricaciones Militares (Arms manufacturer), Tandanor (Ship Building) and FADEA (Aircraft Manufacturer) are all up in the air and ready to be sold to foreign interests. This man is willing not only to sell argentinian land to whatever rich fuck, he's also willing to sell Argentina's entire defense industry, leaving us completely dependant on foreign military "aid". He's a threat to the very elements that make up this country.

He also continued to insist with dollarization, claiming that "we're very close to fully dollarizing" (As he claimed on a Wall Street Journal interview here). He's completely going for this goal, in the next couple of months we will see more peso devaluations to fully destroy this currency and make it completely uncompetitive with the dollar, forcing people to ditch the peso and buy dollars instead. This is the thing we must avoid at all costs, we simply cannot leave our entire monetary policies and economy up to the US and it's Federal Reserve. This is just pure insanity. If we dollarize, we're fucked. You can't really leave a dollarized economy, not now at least. Ecuador, for example, can't leave dollarization, if they go back to their old currency (or create a new one), their foreign debt skyrockets and destroys the economy, same will happen to us. On the other hand, salaries will be crushed. Yes, we will get paid in dollars but how much will be the minimum, 4USD per hour?

Still, I firmly believe this has the strong potential to be the shortest-lived Argentinian government in history. Things will get very heated after March, that's when the people as a whole will begin to feel the effects of economic slowdown, devaluation, almost 30% monthly inflation rates and so on. This government will not survive, not with this lunatic in charge.

BreakThrough News interview with PLFP leader Haam Abdo (sp?).

Especially rich the strawman critique that leftists who ever mention imperialism just have an "america bad" stance. what sort of greatly nuanced perspective do these people show for their adversary countries? "Russia bad, but it's beyond the pale to support Chechen Islamism as a counter"? Hardly, these people are way too comfortable calling Kadyrovites race traitors for fighting for the autonomous government rather than ISIS. "Russia bad, but their national weather service's climate change archives shouldn't be nuked." - a deranged take that would get you banned from SlavaNeoliberalDefence.

Senate Unveils $118 Billion Bill With Money for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and New Yemen War

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Sunday unveiled a massive $118 billion spending bill that includes military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, as well as spending for President Biden’s new war with Yemen’s Houthis.

The bill is the result of months of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans on border policies and includes $20 billion in border spending. But some Republicans are unhappy with the agreement and seek more stringent border policies.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) rejected the deal and said he would bring a stand-alone bill for Israel to the House floor for a vote this week. The House bill would provide $17.6 billion to support the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, while the Senate bill includes $14.1 billion for Israel.

The Senate bill would authorize $60 billion to spend on the proxy war in Ukraine and $4.8 billion to “support key regional partners in the Indo-Pacific,” a portion of which will go toward replenishing arms sent to Taiwan.

The US has always sold weapons to Taiwan since severing diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 but never financed the purchases or provided the weapons free of charge through military aid until last year.

The bill also provides $2.44 billion to US Central Command and to “address combat expenditures related to the conflict in the Red Sea,” where US naval forces have been bombing Yemen and downing Houthi drones and missiles. Since January 12, the US has bombed Yemen at least 16 times, and the situation in the region continues to escalate as the Houthis are not backing down.

'There are mistakes, it is war': Israeli commander indicates IDF were behind white flag shooting. — ITV

30 Jan 2024

The IDF initially dismissed the video, which was broadcast on January 23, claiming the footage "is clearly edited and we have no way to comment".

Why do they bother denying this stuff again? Pleasing the necromantic spirit of Goebbels? Sort stuff into different media streams? Everyone gets bites with different toppings? You could probably find people who still believe the Gaddafi's Viagra story.

pathetic.jpg

🔥🔪🇧🇪🗡️🔥

Belgium's silent heart of darkness — Olenka Frenkiel

5 May 2002

cw: general cw

Something is rotten in the state of Belgium. Six years after the arrest of Marc Dutroux, the country's notorious paedophile, no date has been set for his trial and the case remains painfully unresolved. In 1995, when two eight-year-old girls were kidnapped, Dutroux, a convicted sex offender, was a prime suspect from the start, yet he wasn't arrested for 14 months. By that time, four of his captives - including the two girls - were dead. Since his arrest, 20 potential witnesses connected with the case have died in mysterious circumstances, fuelling suspicions of a cover-up reaching the highest levels.

anglo island news: Ministers plan to push cash-strapped English councils to sell assets

Councils in England are to be encouraged to sell publicly owned buildings and other assets worth up to £23bn under plans being explored by ministers to plug budget shortfalls amid the crisis in local government.

In a consultation with town hall bosses closing on Wednesday, ministers estimate that councils have “investment properties” worth £23.2bn which could be disposed of to help meet budget shortfalls with proposed changes to the rules that would allow sales without government approval.

Dozens of councils have already earmarked libraries, civic halls, swimming pools and community centres for sale to raise hundreds of millions of pounds, including in Leeds, Kent, Somerset and Woking.

However, property experts warned the moment to sell could hardly be worse amid a slump in the market driven by near-stagnant growth in the UK economy and higher borrowing costs from the Bank of England.

“If you were trying to identify the worst moment to sell, the first half of 2024 would probably be it,” said Mat Oakley, head of UK and European commercial property research at the leading estate agent Savills.

“A potential buyer will say: ‘They have to sell this, how little can I get away with paying them for it?’ I wouldn’t advise anyone to sell now just because there is that hint of blood in the water.”

However, many assets bought in recent years are likely to be worth less than councils paid for them. Figures from Capital Economics show capital values have dropped by about 20% since mid-2022, with offices recording a fall of 23%.

There are worries that much-loved community buildings will also be listed for sale. Analysis by the IPPR thinktank last year found 75,000 public assets, worth about £15bn, had been sold by English councils since 2010, in part to plug holes in their budgets.

Sounds like some grim shit is going on over there on shit island

Libs explain how Zionists trying to keep the Democratic Party from counting write-in votes for "Ceasefire" on their primary ballots helps Trump. Challenge: impossible.

(nope, still impossible)

Egypt Rejects Israeli Control of the Philadelphi Corridor

Israel's retaking control of this zone would violate the 1979 peace treaty, said the chairman of Egypt's State Information Service.

On Tuesday, an Egyptian high-ranking official said that any Israeli attempt to control the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is "unacceptable."

"No new arrangements have been discussed with Israel regarding the Philadelphi Corridor on the border, and any Israeli unilateral moves in this regard are unacceptable," the unnamed Egyptian official was quoted as saying by Egypt's Al-Qahera News TV.

The remarks came a week after Diaa Rashwan, the chairman of Egypt's State Information Service, warned that Israel's retaking control of the Philadelphi Corridor would violate its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.

Also known as "The Philadelphi Route," this corridor is a 100-meter wide, 14-km-long buffer zone along the Egypt-Gaza border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently expressed his desire to retake control of the corridor to ensure future demilitarization of Gaza and prevent the alleged smuggling of weapons into Gaza through border tunnels. Rashwan also denied last week the Israeli claims about the weapon smuggling from Egypt to Gaza.

The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has been a major lifeline to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave, which has witnessed relentless Israeli bombings and a massive military offensive since last year.

Since October 7, 2023, Israeli occupation forces have killed 26,751 Palestinians and injured 65,636 people. The death toll figures could be higher due to the undetermined number of Palestinians trapped under the rubble of buildings and homes.