World Politics

[Tracker]

 

 

                               

[iHeart]

GET HIM!!!!

 

[Mark F]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility.

 

https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-russia-disinformation-twitter-musk-49af27699727d6f4157a5d6d5f35819b

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility.

 

https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-russia-disinformation-twitter-musk-49af27699727d6f4157a5d6d5f35819b

Musk's ditchweed consumption has had its predictable effect.

[Tracker]

Poland's ambassador to France says that his country will intervene in the War if it sees that Ukraine is losing !

[Tracker]

U.K. Sending Depleted Uranium Shells to Ukraine Despite Russian Warning

-Toby Melville/Reuters
The U.K. is planning to send armor-piercing tank rounds “which contain depleted uranium” to Ukraine, a British defense official said, despite strong-worded warnings from Russia that such an act would be treated as tantamount to using a nuclear dirty bomb. Responding to a written question on Monday, the U.K.’s minister of state at the Ministry of Defense, Baroness Goldie, said the depleted uranium rounds would be given to Kyiv alongside a squadron of Challenger 2 tanks. “Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armored vehicles,” Goldie added. Though exposure of the outside of the body to depleted uranium is not considered a serious risk, its particles can cause a “serious health hazard” if inhaled or ingested, according to the EPA. In January, Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation in Vienna on arms control, said the Kremlin would consider such ammunition being sent to Ukraine “as the use of dirty nuclear bombs against Russia with all the ensuing consequences,” according to the BBC.

https://www.politicususa.com

[Tracker]

                                                      

[Tracker]

Russia’s Shadow Army Threatens to Dump Dead Bodies on ‘Dirtbag’ Officials

-Reuters
When the mayor of a small town in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai told the notorious Wagner Group over the weekend that he didn’t want the area to become the new dumping ground for dead mercenaries, he apparently thought he had a say in the matter.

He didn’t. And Yevgeny Prigozhin, the cutthroat founder of the group, would soon make that frighteningly clear—with threats to dump dead bodies on his doorstep instead.

Prigozhin’s fighters backed their boss up, releasing a video of themselves armed to the teeth in the Donbas and threatening to come home to kill.

“You just wait, degenerates, for us to have to come and deal with you. Because you fuckers are doing more harm than the Ukrainian army, than the Nazis. Because you are the Nazis, the ******* administration of Goryachy Klyuch,” one of the masked fighters warned.
In perhaps the starkest illustration yet of Prigozhin’s growing power, the burial went ahead just as he’d wanted, under the barrel of guns wielded by more masked Wagner fighters.

But hundreds of local pensioners, veterans, and out-of-towners also attended the burial of eight Wagner recruits killed fighting in Ukraine. Some of them apparently heeded Prigozhin’s public call to pay their respects and defy local authorities.

“The administration of Goryachy Klyuch forbid the burial of our Wagner fighters at the cemetery in Bakinskaya. Tomorrow, at 10 a.m. the funeral will be held for our fighters. Everyone wanting to say goodbye to them, I invite you to the cemetery,” Prigozhin fumed in an audio message released on the eve of the planned burial.

[Tracker]

Gentlemen, It is with great pleasure to inform you that from today, Finnish airspace is open for NATO surveillance and intelligence missions. New 1340km of border to scout.

                                                      

[JCon]

48 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Gentlemen, It is with great pleasure to inform you that from today, Finnish airspace is open for NATO surveillance and intelligence missions. New 1340km of border to scout.

                                                      

This is Russia's greatest nightmare. 

Previously, NATO had no access to a huge border along Russia, which Russians moved their forces through. There's one main route that could be disrupted that would not allow Russians to move North. Now, they need to defend that entire border.

Ef' Putin. 

[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/finland-nato-membership-president-legislation-884ca75e7768f11f0d1efb222b532916

Quote

HELSINKI (AP) — The Finnish president on Thursday formally sealed the Nordic country’s historic bid to join NATO by signing into law the required national legal amendments needed for membership in the Western military alliance.

The move by President Sauli Niinistö means Finland has completed national measures needed to join NATO, and is now just awaiting approval from Turkey and Hungary, the only two of NATO’s 30 existing members that haven’t ratified its bid.

In Turkey Thursday, a parliamentary committee approved Finland’s NATO application, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, bringing Helsinki a step closer to joining the alliance.

Members of the Turkish parliament’s committee on foreign affairs voted in favor of Finland’s bid a week after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would move forward with ratifying it.

Finland’s application could be ratified by the full Turkish assembly, where Erdogan’s party and its allies hold a majority, as early as next week. Turkey has presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14, and ratification is expected before that.

[Tracker]

7 minutes ago, JCon said:

This is Russia's greatest nightmare. 

Previously, NATO had no access to a huge border along Russia, which Russians moved their forces through. There's one main route that could be disrupted that would not allow Russians to move North. Now, they need to defend that entire border.

Ef' Putin. 

The fear of invasion from Europe with NATO coordinating is what is being stoked and sold to Russians by their military and politicians, much as the GOP in the US and Cons here are trying to do. Conventional sociology states that in times of danger/crisis, people tend to gravitate towards "strong" leaders and are willing to sacrifice rights and freedoms for a perceived sense of security.

[JCon]

2 minutes ago, Tracker said:

The fear of invasion from Europe with NATO coordinating is what is being stoked and sold to Russians by their military and politicians, much as the GOP in the US and Cons here are trying to do. Conventional sociology states that in times of danger/crisis, people tend to gravitate towards "strong" leaders and are willing to sacrifice rights and freedoms for a perceived sense of security.

Well, thanks to Putin, he's making it possible. Without his invasion, Finland and Sweden would not be joining NATO. So, thanks? 

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, JCon said:

Well, thanks to Putin, he's making it possible. Without his invasion, Finland and Sweden would not be joining NATO. So, thanks? 

Now Putin can be even more hysterical about The Phantom Menace encroaching their borders.

[Tracker]

How the Cuban government and its people collaborated on the Family Code

 

 

Image via caesarjulivs/Shutterstock.

Natalia Marques

and

Globetrotter

March 23, 2023

Revolutionary Havana youth describe the process of building legislation in dialogue with the people.

On September 25, 2022, Cuba passed one of the world's most progressive codes on families. All in one go, the small island nation legalized same-sex marriage, defined and upheld the rights of children, the disabled, caregivers, and the elderly, and redefined "family" along ties of affinity rather than blood. This opens the concept of "family" to include nontraditional forms of familial relations, which exist outside the model of the heterosexual nuclear family.

This article was produced in partnership by Peoples Dispatch and Globetrotter.

Hailed as "revolutionary" by many in Cuba, the code will help provide protections to people who would have otherwise faced discrimination in society while ensuring that Cubans in same-sex relationships who wish to marry now have the legal right to do so.

According to young Cubans and social movement leaders, whom I spoke to about the Family Code while attending a conference titled "Building Our Future" in Havana in November 2022, the code is a reflection of a dialogue between the Cuban people and their government.

In the time since the code was passed, the Cuban government remains in dialogue with the people. The Ministry of Justice is still holding seminars in provinces throughout Cuba for people seeking answers to questions that have come up during the implementation process. The Family Code has been influencing everything from sports to property relations. Notably, in just the first two months of the law being passed, 112 same-sex marriages were registered.

A Revolutionary Code

"It's a revolutionary code that will change the thinking and the vision that Cubans have regarding… discriminations that can happen in society," said Jose Luiz, a third-year international relations student at the Higher Institute of International Relations Raul Roa García. The Family Code legalizes and broadens the definition of a "family" far beyond the traditional definition. The code "will bring new protections to people who have, in one way or another, been discriminated against," Luiz told me.

 

Cuba ratified a new constitution in 2019. The constitution was written through "popular consultations" with the Cuban people. Through this process, Cubans participated in community discussions with government officials to both discuss and amend the constitution. Article 68, which called for defining marriage as a union between two people, thus legalizing same-sex marriage, was mentioned in 66 percent of popular consultation meetings. A majority of the Cuban people involved in these processes supported maintaining the definition of marriage as being a union between a man and a woman. This is partly due to historicprejudices against LGBTQ+ people that are prevalentacross the Americas, and partly due to Cuba's growing conservative evangelical movement, which opposes progressive social reforms such as same-sex marriage.

After intense debate regarding Article 68 among the Cuban people, the constitutional commission decided not to include the proposed language in favor of same-sex marriage and instead pushed the decision of addressing the matter through a future "family code" legislation. This legislation became the 2022 Family Code.

'Popular Consultation': A Government in Dialogue With Its People

In order to overcome social conservatism to pass one of the most progressive Family Codes in the world, Cuba underwent a meticulous process of popular consultation, from February 1, 2022, to April 30, 2022. The National Assembly of People's Power stressed the importance of Cubans familiarizing themselves with the code, in order to prevent feelings of uncertainty. Through this process, the Cuban people made more than 400,000 proposals, many of which were included in the finalized code. Minister of Justice Oscar Manuel Silvera Martínez said that the 25th version of the code, presented to and approved by the National Assembly,
"was more solid because it was imbued with the wisdom of the people."

Young people played a central role in the process leading up to the approval of the Family Code. "The Cuban youth… are involved in all tasks that are deployed by the Cuban revolution," said Luiz. "We also participated in our referendum for our constitution in 2019. We were in popular committees, discussing the constitution and we contributed to that."

In 2019, Cuba held a referendum on a new constitution. The referendum passed with a majority vote of 86.85 percent, which is about 73.3 percent of the total electorate. The referendum was preceded by a popular consultation process, in which a draft constitution was discussed in 133,000 public meetings nationwide, where the people of Cuba submitted 783,000 proposals for changes. Cuban officials stated that almost 60 percent of the draft constitution was modified based on the proposals submitted by the public during the popular consultation process.

"I remember at my college, we had meetings to explain the [Family Code], and for us as students to give our perspective of the code and propose something for the code," Neisser Liban Calderón García, also a Cuban international relations student, told me. "But after we did that at college, we had the same thing in our community, with a different perspective because at college we are with our friends, with [other] students; but in the community, we are with people from all ages and from different families." García, who has a boyfriend, told me that he is glad that he will now have the opportunity to marry in the future.

The results of this popular process speak for themselves: With 74.01 percent of eligible voters participating, the Family Code passed in a landslide victory with 66.87 percent of votes in favor.

[JCon]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

Now Putin can be even more hysterical about The Phantom Menace encroaching their borders.

He was doing that anyways. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Tracker]

Report Signals Humiliating End for Russia’s Shadow Army in Ukraine

Yevgeny Prigozhin is preparing to pull his Wagner Group mercenaries’ attention away from the war in Ukraine, according to a Bloomberg report that cites sources familiar with the matter.

His current plan is to focus the private mercenaries’ focus back to countries in Africa, such as Sudan, Mali, and the Central African Republic, where Wagner has deployed forces. On Monday, Wagner posted a recruitment notice offering deployments to African countries that would last between nine to 14 months, Bloomberg reported.

The apparent decision to recalibrate Wagner operations in Ukraine comes after a series of setbacks Wagner has faced in trying to work with the Russian government to wage war in Ukraine. Prigozhin, who enlisted private mercenaries from prison, was blocked in recent weeks from recruiting from prisons. His colleague was also recently barred from accessing Russia’s military command in Ukraine.

Tensions have spilled over into the public eye as well. Wagner Group has also had to resort to pleading with Russia in various videos posted to social media to provide more ammunition they said was desperately needed to try to fight in Ukraine, to no avail.

It’s not clear how quickly the changes will go into effect. Evidence has emerged this week that suggests Wagner Group is still fighting in southern Bakhmut as well as Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka, and in the direction of Predtechyne, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

-Reuters

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-wants-demilitarised-buffer-zones-ukraine-says-putin-ally-2023-03-24/

Quote

MOSCOW, March 24 (Reuters) - Russia wants to create demilitarised buffer zones inside Ukraine around areas it has annexed, an ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, saying it might be necessary to push deeper into Ukraine if such zones cannot be set up.

 

Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who casts himself as Putin's most publicly hawkish official, said Russia needed demilitarised corridors around the areas it is claiming - and which Ukraine says it will never accept Russian control of.

"We need to achieve all the goals that have been set to protect our territories, that is the territories of the Russian Federation..."

Russia would have to push further into Ukraine if such zones were not established, he said, taking Kyiv the capital or even the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Ukraine says it will never accept Russian occupation of its land.

Russia currently controls around 17-18% of Ukraine, including a swathe of land in the east and along the Azov and Black Sea coastline as well as Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014.

It seems like these war criminals forgot what happened a year ago when they tried to push further Ukraine and had to retreat.

******* ghouls.

[Tracker]

Taped Call Captures Putin’s Troops in Self-Loathing Spiral‘

Published Mar. 23, 2023 2:33PM ET 

-Reuters
Russian troops in Ukraine say the situation has become such an embarrassment more than a year into the war that they’re convinced no one wants to be there in the first place.

That’s according to a two-and-a-half minute recording released Thursday by Ukrainian intelligence that is said to capture a phone chat between two fed-up Russian soldiers discussing mass desertions.

After 119 soldiers fled the front line, one of the unnamed soldiers said, many of them were tracked down and 70 of them were hit with criminal charges, while 30 were “jailed for ******* two years or more.”

Instead of venting his frustrations at his AWOL fellow troops, the man scoffed at military officials who he said “once again” explained to all the soldiers that they’d be tossed in jail if they left their positions for more than 48 hours, something that has apparently become a popular trend.

[WildPath]

10 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-wants-demilitarised-buffer-zones-ukraine-says-putin-ally-2023-03-24/

It seems like these war criminals forgot what happened a year ago when they tried to push further Ukraine and had to retreat.

******* ghouls.

"You better give us more territory or we're going to start actually trying."

[bustamente]

[FrostyWinnipeg]

 

[Tracker]

Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister For Urging Halt To Court Overhaul

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister on Sunday, a day after the former army general called for a halt to the planned overhaul of Israel’s judiciary that has fiercely divided the country.

The move signals the prime minister will move ahead this week with plans for the overhaul, which has sparked widespread opposition. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets, military and business leaders have spoken out against it and leading allies of Israel have voiced concerns.
Outgoing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a former army general, is a senior member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party. On Saturday, he called for a pause in the controversial legislation until after next month’s Independence Day holidays, citing the rift’s threat to Israel’s national security.

-.VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister For Urging Halt To Court Overhaul

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister on Sunday, a day after the former army general called for a halt to the planned overhaul of Israel’s judiciary that has fiercely divided the country.

The move signals the prime minister will move ahead this week with plans for the overhaul, which has sparked widespread opposition. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets, military and business leaders have spoken out against it and leading allies of Israel have voiced concerns.
Outgoing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a former army general, is a senior member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party. On Saturday, he called for a pause in the controversial legislation until after next month’s Independence Day holidays, citing the rift’s threat to Israel’s national security.

-.VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

With the Netanyahu Government's dismissal of the Defense Minister, who opposes judicial reform, the number of protesters is increasing in all Israeli cities. The Israeli Army has reportedly lost control and is on alert.

[bustamente]

1 minute ago, Tracker said:

With the Netanyahu Government's dismissal of the Defense Minister, who opposes judicial reform, the number of protesters is increasing in all Israeli cities. The Israeli Army has reportedly lost control and is on alert.

Another criminal who should be in jail but he was smart enough to get back in and is now in the process of protecting himself for a long as he wants. Sounds familiar except Trump is an idiot