World Politics

[Tracker]

21 minutes ago, bustamente said:

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

I wouldn't credit Bibi with too many smarts, either. He id facing corruption charges (accepting bribes) but has refused to step down until the charges are resolved. He is also in bed with very hard-line Zionists who believe that Israel should be solely for Jews, and further, that absorbing all Palestinian property into Israel with the aim of expelling them is what God wants. When religion and politics enmesh, things always go badly. 

[Tracker]

 

Israeli Unions Launch Workers Strike, Upping Pressure On Netanyahu

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Workers from a range of sectors in Israel launched a nationwide strike on Monday, threatening to paralyze the economy as they joined a surging protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the judiciary.

Departing flights from the country’s main international airport were grounded, large mall chains and universities shut their doors, and Israel’s largest trade union group called for its 800,000 members — in health, transit, banking and other fields — to stop work. Local governments were expected to close the preschools they run and cut other services, and the main doctors union announced its members would also walk off the job.
The growing resistance to Netanyahu’s plan came hours after tens of thousands of people burst into the streets around the country in a spontaneous show of anger at the prime minister’s decision to fire his defense minister after he called for a pause to the overhaul. Chanting “the country is on fire,” they lit bonfires on Tel Aviv’s main highway, closing the thoroughfare and many others throughout the country for hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/largest-strike-decades-leaves-germany-standstill-2023-03-27/

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BERLIN, March 27 (Reuters) - Airports and bus and train stations across Germany were at a standstill on Monday, causing disruption for millions of people during one of the largest walkouts in decades in Europe's biggest economy as soaring inflation stokes wage demands.

The 24-hour "warning" strikes called by the Verdi union and railway and transport union EVG were the latest in months of industrial action which has hit major European economies as higher food and energy prices dent living standards.

[Tracker]

Prigozhin continues to blackmail the Kremlin for weapons, publishing daily footage compromising Putin's special operation and, above all, that everything is going according to plan. Today: Krasnodar Cemetery.

[Tracker]

                                                  

[Tracker]

Another team of Russians surrendered along with their armored vehicles for a reward. Under the cover of night, they went to the meeting place and handed over their armored vehicles to the Ukrainian Army.

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-united-states-missile-test-nuclear-1.6794485

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A senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday that Moscow will no longer inform the U.S. about its missile tests, an announcement that came as the Russian military deployed mobile launchers in Siberia in a show of the country's massive nuclear capability amid the fighting in Ukraine.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies that Moscow has halted all information exchanges with Washington after previously suspending its participation in the last remaining nuclear arms pact with the U.S.

Along with the data about the current state of the countries' nuclear forces, the parties have also exchanged advance warnings about test launches. Such notices have been an essential element of strategic stability for decades, allowing Russia and the United States to correctly interpret each other's moves and make sure that neither country mistakes a test launch for a missile attack.

The termination of missile test warnings appears to mark yet another attempt by Moscow to discourage the West from ramping up its support for Ukraine. It comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons to Moscow's ally Belarus.

[Tracker]

3 hours ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-united-states-missile-test-nuclear-1.6794485

Putin trying to instill fear into the countries who are actively supporting Ukraine in the hopes of splitting the informal alliance.

[Tracker]

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Promised to Give a Racist Security Minister His Own Government Militia

To keep his far-right coalition together, Bibi’s giving Itamar Ben-Gvir control of the National Guard, which he’ll use as “combat police” to patrol Arab-Israeli areas..

Last November, the far-right neo-Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir helped deliver Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory. Once a fringe fixture of Israel’s radical right, he is now the country’s minister of public security. Unlike the late Meir Kahane, his hero, Ben-Gvir walks the corridors of power. Like Kahane, however, he finds himself at the eye of a continuous political storm.

On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, placed a temporary hold on his bid to degrade the country’s judiciary. To garner Ben-Gvir’s support, Netanyahu made a jarring concession that left critics seething and Ben-Gvir grinning—he would hand control of the National Guard (presently a unit of the Border Patrol) over to the ministry of national security, which is currently run by Ben-Gvir (the Border Patrol would then be subsumed into the reconstituted National Guard).

That’s a ton of clout for any one person, particularly Ben-Gvir, who decades earlier was declared by Israel’s military as unfit to serve.

In the end, Netanyahu may fail to honor his pledge. Funds might not be allocated. The government might fall. For the moment, however, the prospect of Ben-Gvir at the helm of a state-backed militia sets plenty of nerves on edge.

“It could be very dangerous,” a senior police official told Ha’aretz.

Earlier this week as throngs protested outside the Knesset, the unnamed official pondered whether “the minister would have sent companies from the National Guard to deal with the protesters, it looks bad.” (For the record, Kobi Shabtai, the police commissioner, opposes Ben-Gvir’s bid.)

Ben-Gvir said the Guard would be focused on “extortion in areas with criminal organizations and ‘mixed’ cities,” which The Jerusalem Post said is “a clear implication of focusing on Israeli-Arab crime,” adding, “National guard members would be issued guns and be considered combat police.”

Combat police under the control of a racist security minister, patrolling Arab neighborhoods. What could go wrong?

 

[Tracker]

Russian Troops Given Holy Candles Not Battle Gear to Protect Them in Ukraine

Russian draftees in the country’s Perm region have been given “protection candles” instead of much-needed equipment and told to light them in the heat of battle to “cast out evil spirits.”

“This is some ******-up ****. I’m more and more astonished by these gags. They gave such candles to everyone in the squadron. What jackass is going to light this in battle, this candle of protection? They somehow can’t issue new uniforms or combat boots on time, but distributing candles is no problem,” one soldier told local outlet Perm 36,6.

A photo he provided of one of the candles in question shows that it came with instructions featuring the Russian Orthodox cross and advice to “light the candle in battle” in order to dispel fear and make bullets “not scary.”

The instructions also unironically featured the pro-war slogan, “We don’t abandon our own.”

Other men called up to fight in Ukraine from the region also recently complained of being issued uniforms that smell “like they were pulled off corpses and given to us.”

-Getty

[Mark F]

Putin .... maybe not that smart.

"Japan's Toyota hands St Petersburg plant over to Russian state"

https://news.yahoo.com/toyotas-st-petersburg-plant-handed-095827412.html

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Mark F

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

I never trusted Asange nor wikileaks... 

 

[JCon]

 

[blue_gold_84]

15 minutes ago, JCon said:

 

Love it. Eat ****, Putin!

[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/russia-putin-defector-war-crimes-khodorkovsky-karakulov-dossier-845421fe06ed9cfa1962ad4f98a2e413

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LONDON (AP) — On Oct. 14, a Russian engineer named Gleb Karakulov boarded a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter. He switched off his phone to shut out the crescendo of urgent, enraged messages, said goodbye to his life in Russia and tried to calm his fast-beating heart.

But this was no ordinary Russian defector. Karakulov was an officer in President Vladimir Putin’s secretive elite personal security service — one of the few Russians to flee and go public who have rank, as well as knowledge of intimate details of Putin’s life and potentially classified information.

Karakulov, who was responsible for secure communications, said moral opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his fear of dying there drove him to speak out, despite the risks to himself and his family. He said he hoped to inspire other Russians to speak out also.

“Our president has become a war criminal,” he said. “It is time to end this war and stop being silent.”

[Tracker]

ANOTHER Russian Oligarch Dies Mysteriously in Putin’s Russia

-Reuters
Russian energy oligarch Igor Shkurko was found dead in a Siberian prison cell Tuesday after he was accused of taking a bribe. Shkurko, 49, was the deputy general director of energy company Yakutskenergo. He had reportedly submitted appeals against the bribery allegation the day before being found dead in his cell. Shkurko, who was a member of the pro-Putin United Russia party, is now one of many unexplained deaths that have occurred since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Experts estimate that at least 39 high-profile figures have died mysteriously since the start of the war. Russian authorities released no details surrounding Shkurko’s death, but said they saw no evidence of a “criminal death.” Shkurko was accused of demanding a bribe worth approximately $6,200. He was married with two sons.

 

[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/china-iran-saudi-diplomatic-relations-beijing-d12dc5dc4049052c6228caceaa2a2b9f

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-time Mideast rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia took another significant step toward reconciliation Thursday, formally restoring diplomatic ties after a seven-year rift, affirming the need for regional stability and agreeing to pursue economic cooperation.

The agreement was reached in Beijing during a meeting between the Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers, a month after China had brokered an initial reconciliation agreement between the two regional powerhouses.

The latest understanding further lowers the chance of armed conflict between the rivals, both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region. It could bolster efforts by diplomats to end a long war in Yemen, a conflict in which both Iran and Saudi Arabia are deeply entrenched.

Thursday’s announcement also represents another diplomatic victory for the Chinese as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States slowly withdrawing from the wider region.

But it remains to be seen how far the reconciliation efforts will progress. The rivalry dates back to the 1979 revolution that toppled Iran’s Western-backed monarchy, and in recent years the two countries have backed rival armed groups and political factions across the region.

 

[Mark F]

Northern Ireland peace agreement 25 birthday.

 

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2023/0410/1375929-gfa-negotiating-anniversary/

 

We might look at what they did to reform the police.

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, Mark F said:

Northern Ireland peace agreement 25 birthday.

 

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2023/0410/1375929-gfa-negotiating-anniversary/

 

We might look at what they did to reform the police.

Old hatreds and resentments are reappearing and threaten the peace.  And what does this have to do with Sting's old band?

[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/us-philippines-military-exercises-60af099f1526c6fce180d217e97788ad

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — American and Filipino forces on Tuesday launched their largest combat exercises in decades in the Philippines and its waters across the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, where Washington has repeatedly warned China over its increasingly aggressive actions.

The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan — Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder” — will run up to April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel. It will be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration strengthens an arc of alliances to better counter China, including in a possible confrontation over Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing claims as its own.

That dovetails with efforts by the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea, which China claims virtually in its entirety, by boosting joint military exercises with the U.S. and allowing rotating batches of American forces to stay in additional Philippine military camps under a 2014 defense pact.

 

[Tracker]

 The Russian command officially removed Prigozhin from directing the fighting, leaving him only Bakhmut. The rest of the areas in which he commanded have been taken over by the Russian army.                                      

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[blue_gold_84]

https://apnews.com/article/leaked-documents-pentagon-justice-department-russia-war-d3272b34702d564fe07a480598bcd174

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts Air National Guard member who has emerged as a main person of interest in the disclosure of highly classified military documents on the Ukraine war was taken into custody Thursday by federal agents, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because it hadn’t been publicly announced.

Investigators believe that the guardsman, who specializes in intelligence, led the online chat group where the documents were posted. The guardsman was identified as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira.

What a dummy.

[Bigblue204]

52 minutes ago, blue_gold_84 said:

https://apnews.com/article/leaked-documents-pentagon-justice-department-russia-war-d3272b34702d564fe07a480598bcd174

What a dummy.

You have to be a next level idiot to do something like this and not have some kind of knowledge on how to secure your identity. I'll be surprised if he ever sees the light of day again.