International events

[kissdbyfire]

41 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

Interesting - Saudi Arabia has stated publicly that there will be no normalized relations with Israel while there is no independent Palestine. This is a pretty big step back in normalizing relations with SA and SA had previously been decently warm to Israel even during the war in Gaza.

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-02-06-24/h_a11e604ec144bb45307cf5efb0898d4e

 

Perhaps I the saudis weren’t too happy about Blinken using this normalisation as the carrot in their ongoing negotiations.

[Zorral]

9 minutes ago, kissdbyfire said:

Perhaps I the saudis weren’t too happy about Blinken using this normalisation as the carrot in their ongoing negotiations.

Certainly other reasons beyond that, i.e. larger regional relations and theological conflicts.

[kissdbyfire]

16 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Certainly other reasons beyond that, i.e. larger regional relations and theological conflicts.

I’m sure there is no lack of reasons, but they were inching closer and closer, despite regional, theological, geopolitical and other reasons. What seems to be the new factor here and now is the ongoing negotiations.

[Zorral]

Just now, kissdbyfire said:

What seems to be the new factor here and now is the ongoing negotiations.

 We can only speculate, unless somebody who has the power who knows tells us, I guess. 

[Zorral]

Bolsonaro named target in Brazil coup probe, ordered to surrender passport

My goodness, does this ever sound familiar --

For months before the election, Bolsonaro and his top allies made unsubstantiated allegations in public and on social media that the Brazilian electoral system had been stained by fraud and could no longer be trusted. Police now say those remarks were part of a plot to provide political cover for a military takeover if the election didn’t go their way. Police say Bolsonaro officials also undertook logistical and tactical planning, in coordination with military officials, to execute the takeover

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/08/bolsonaro-named-target-brazil-coup-probe-ordered-surrender-passport/

Quote

 

.... The revelation came as federal police launched a large search-and-seizure operation early Thursday morning that targeted some of Bolsonaro’s closest advisers and aides, including former justice minister Anderson Torres and Bolsonaro’s running mate, Walter Braga Netto.

The announcement sent political shock waves through Latin America’s largest country, still reckoning with an attack by thousands of Bolsonaro supporters on its most important federal buildings early last year after a historically divisive presidential election, and brought closer the prospect that Brazil could again witness the prosecution of a former president.

Since Bolsonaro was bested by current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and left office, he and his allies have fended off probes and allegations of corruption that have ranged from lying to U.S. authorities about Bolsonaro’s vaccination status, improper handling of state jewelry and using government surveillance to spy on opponents.

But the most significant has long been an investigation, overseen by the Brazilian supreme court, into whether the Bolsonaro government planned to subvert Brazilian democracy and maintain its grip on power despite the outcome of the 2022 presidential election.

On Thursday, federal police shared fresh findings of the investigation. Two police officials, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss the probe, said the plot to steal power was far more advanced than previously known. It involved logistical and tactical planning and entailed the involvement of the most senior officials in the Brazilian government.

Brazilian court bars Bolsonaro from running for office

For months before the election, Bolsonaro and his top allies made unsubstantiated allegations in public and on social media that the Brazilian electoral system had been stained by fraud and could no longer be trusted. Police now say those remarks were part of a plot to provide political cover for a military takeover if the election didn’t go their way. Police say Bolsonaro officials also undertook logistical and tactical planning, in coordination with military officials, to execute the takeover.  ....

 

 

[maarsen]

30 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Bolsonaro named target in Brazil coup probe, ordered to surrender passport

My goodness, does this ever sound familiar --

For months before the election, Bolsonaro and his top allies made unsubstantiated allegations in public and on social media that the Brazilian electoral system had been stained by fraud and could no longer be trusted. Police now say those remarks were part of a plot to provide political cover for a military takeover if the election didn’t go their way. Police say Bolsonaro officials also undertook logistical and tactical planning, in coordination with military officials, to execute the takeover

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/08/bolsonaro-named-target-brazil-coup-probe-ordered-surrender-passport/

 

Is there no originality any more? Do people really think Trump is good at planning and executing any such plan?

[kissdbyfire]

23 minutes ago, maarsen said:

Is there no originality any more? Do people really think Trump is good at planning and executing any such plan?

I don’t think lack of originality is an issue here since it’s Bannon and his merry band of criminals behind Trump’s and Bozo’s coup attempts, and their filthy little fingers are probably in several other pies. 

[House Balstroko]

1 hour ago, kissdbyfire said:

I don’t think lack of originality is an issue here since it’s Bannon and his merry band of criminals behind Trump’s and Bozo’s coup attempts, and their filthy little fingers are probably in several other pies. 

I’m guessing you’re referring to Argentina here. 

[Zorral]

Definitely Ecuador -- from last spring --

https://www.newsweek.com/ecuadors-right-wing-leader-uses-mutual-death-clause-avoid-impeachment-1801007

 

[Zorral]

Demolition of Muslim Properties Sets Off Deadly Violence in India
When officials arrived to raze a mosque and seminary ruled to be illegally located on public property, they encountered hundreds of protesters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/world/asia/india-demolition-muslim-properties.html

Quote

 

The demolition of a mosque and a Muslim seminary has led to deadly clashes and an internet shutdown in northern India. The flare-up, in the hill state of Uttarakhand, is the latest bout of sectarian tensions as Muslim sites have become a broader target of the Hindu right wing after the opening of a major temple last month.

The toll of the violence was unclear. An official in Haldwani, the town where the clash took place, said in an interview that two people had been killed and dozens injured, including police officers. Reports in the Indian news media, citing top police officials, said four people had been killed, but this could not be confirmed because the police did not respond to requests for comment. Images from the area revealed vehicles destroyed by fire and debris littering the streets.

Thursday’s unrest began when officials and the police arrived to raze the structures, which the authorities said had been illegally built on public land, and encountered an angry crowd. Witnesses said that the police fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who threw stones at a police station and set vehicles on fire. The police have denied using live ammunition.

The violence unfolded against the backdrop of Hinduism’s rise as a national identity in India, a multiethnic state founded as secular republic, but which in the past decade has been moving steadily further from that vision under the leadership of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party. ....

 

 

[kissdbyfire]

I guess if he wants to run and hide in Trumpland aka Florida again he'll have to go like any other illegal migrant.

 

 

 

[TheLastWolf]

22 hours ago, Zorral said:

Demolition of Muslim Properties Sets Off Deadly Violence in India
When officials arrived to raze a mosque and seminary ruled to be illegally located on public property, they encountered hundreds of protesters.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/world/asia/india-demolition-muslim-properties.html

 

The wheel or fire isn't man's greatest invention or discovery. It's organised religion hands down (war included). Henry Ford couldn't raise a voluntary army in a moments notice if he wished. Teach the Catholic Church's history or the caste system in business schools so they make more of a killing than they already do. All it takes to grab power is fire and brimstone, it's going to be my first vote and wonder whether to bother with the elections seeing as it's already cemented, 1.4 billion d only make for sunstrokes standing in line 

Edited February 10 by TheLastWolf

[Zorral]

Shocking Opposition Victory Throws Pakistan Into Chaos
The party of Imran Khan, the jailed former prime minister, took the most seats, humiliating the country’s military rulers and creating a political crisis.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/world/asia/pakistan-election-imran-kahn.html

Quote

 

The party of the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, won the most seats in parliamentary elections this week, delivering a strong rebuke to the country’s powerful generals and throwing the political system into chaos.

While military leaders had hoped the election would put an end to the political turmoil that has consumed the country since Mr. Khan’s ouster in 2022, it has instead plunged it into an even deeper crisis, analysts said.

Never before in the country’s history has a politician seen such success in an election without the backing of the generals — much less after facing their iron fist.

In voting on Thursday, candidates from Mr. Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., appeared to win about 97 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, the country’s election commission reported on Saturday. The military’s preferred party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or P.M.L.N., led by a three-time former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, won at least 73 seats, the commission said. Only seven seats were left unaccounted for — not enough to change the outcome as reported by the commission.

While candidates aligned with Mr. Khan were set to be the largest group in Parliament, they still fell short of a simple majority — setting off a race between the parties of Mr. Khan and Mr. Sharif to win over other lawmakers and establish a coalition government.

Leaders of Mr. Khan’s party also said they planned court challenges in dozens of races that they believe were rigged by the military, and said they would urge their followers to hold peaceful protests if the remaining results were not released by Sunday. ....

 

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

Maduro is increasing forces at  Guyana border bases. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/09/venezuela-troops-guyana-border-essequibo-satellite-images

Christopher Hernandez-Roy, deputy director of CSIS’s Americas programme, said: “The same day that the Venezuelan foreign minister is meeting with Guyanese diplomats, the Venezuelan military is conducting tank drills just a stone’s throw from Guyana. All of this tells us Maduro is pursuing a duplicitous policy.”

[Zorral]

What no expert saw coming: The rise of Japan
By Rahm Emanuel

Gift/shared link --

https://wapo.st/3SBv49B

Quote

 

Before I arrived in Tokyo as ambassador two years ago, a number of foreign policy experts cautioned me that Japan moves slowly. They urged me to find a virtue in patience when dealing with the government — which I knew would be tricky for someone like me who has zero patience.

Sign up for the Prompt 2024 newsletter for opinions on the biggest questions in politics
I needn’t have worried. Two years later, one thing is clear: The experts didn’t know much about the new Japan. No one predicted that this would be an era of Japanese transformation, a time when the Japanese surprised nearly everyone with what they can and will do.

First, national security: In a relatively short period of time, Japan has redefined how it thinks about deterrence and stepped from a nation limited in its exercise and definition of self-defense into the role of regional security partner. Driven by a belligerent China, a bellicose Russia and the threat of ballistic missiles from North Korea, Japan has updated three national security documents that were long thought to be untouchable — and then committed to doubling its defense budget to 2 percent of gross domestic product by 2027, giving it the third-largest defense budget worldwide.

The new defense budget — $56 billion this year and $300 billion over five years — will enable the purchase of F-35 stealth fighter jets and critical munitions, including 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States. From doubling the defense budget to enhancing its counterstrike capability, Japan has fundamentally altered and upended decades-old policies that were once sacrosanct.

Japan has also been busy building a broader network of partners to safeguard the region. U.S.-Japan military exercises that once included perhaps one or two other countries now feature other participating nations and their service members. This diversification of these exercises strengthens regional deterrence and reflects a growing demand for expanded Japanese security participation.

Like its evolving defense policies, Japan also has broadened its diplomatic engagement. Gone are the days of Japan focusing first on parochial national interests limited to its shores and following others on global issues. Instead, Japan is setting the pace diplomatically on the world’s most pressing challenges in the region and beyond.

What changed? Japan realized that its future is indivisible from what happens in the region and around the world. It decided to play a larger role to project the alliance and serve as a counterweight to Chinese regional aggression.

Consider August’s historic trilateral summit at Camp David. Seeing our Japanese and Korean allies work together to strengthen regional deterrence through security cooperation has been a long-term dream of Washington’s — and China’s worst nightmare. As an outcome of the Camp David summit, the two nations are also cooperating on ballistic missile defense.

Ukraine is another example. Japan marshaled the support of allies as Group of Seven chair and secured votes from eight out of 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations members to join the March 2022 U.N. resolution against Russia’s illegal invasion. Japan was also the first nation to commit reserves of liquefied natural gas for European partners’ energy security in the early days of Russian economic coercion.

Finally, but vitally, few expected decades of Japanese economic stagnation to end. But ended they have.

Despite the global headwinds of inflation and strained supply chains, Japan has played to its strengths as an alternative to China-bound investment and seen notable advances for workers, investors and businesses. ....

 

 

[Kyoshi]

On 2/7/2024 at 8:36 PM, Zorral said:

 We can only speculate, unless somebody who has the power who knows tells us, I guess. 

Not saying that I know for sure-sure, but it seems other Muslim and Arab nations were trying to unseat SA as the Muslim/Arab "leader nation," especially after the war in Yemen. SA flexed its muscles and the mutiny didn't happen, but South Africa** being the country to take Israel to court, as opposed to a majority Arab or Muslim nation, was very embarrassing I'd say. There's no doubt in my mind that Saudi Arabia's current position has nothing to do with morality or brotherly love towards Palestine. They're trying to save face. Also, American arrogance and militarism has not helped. It's also Ramadan in a few days; normalisation RIGHT NOW is an absolutely terrible idea; the whole world is watching, especially the Muslim and Arab worlds. Saudi Arabia needs to wash its image a little. But I expect they'll come back to the table once things die down.

**Chile, Mexico and Indonesia also having their own cases is making things worse. Palestine has really been abandoned by their "brothers," only Indonesia and Yemen stand with them in "word and deed," and they're not very powerful either. Yemen is still coming out of its own tragedy. So really, the question has been, for a very long time, where is the Arab world in all of this? More specifically, where is Saudi Arabia? Why are they allowing this?

Edited February 12 by Kyoshi

[Zorral]

4 hours ago, Kyoshi said:

only Indonesia and Yemen stand with with them

In yesterday's NYTimes little piece with many photographs of the tiny island of Indonesia which was the source of the vastly lucrative nutmeg trade back in the day (17th - 18th Centuries), 

Manhattan or Pulau Rhun? In 1667, Nutmeg Made the Choice a No-Brainer.
Growing a spice once worth its weight in gold, a tiny isle in Indonesia was so coveted that the Dutch traded Manhattan for it. Some 350 years later, life on the two islands couldn’t be more different.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/world/asia/indonesia-pulau-rhun-nutmeg.html

If you cut&paste this into a new tab, you can see this photo --

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/02/04/multimedia/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

Which foto's caption ignores the slogans of solidarity painted along the walkway, that are at least half the space the foto covers -- the island may be tiny but it gets news from around the world:

"Most people get around by walking along the paved footpaths and steep stairways, often toting plastic jugs of water from the numerous village wells."

 

Edited February 12 by Zorral

[Altherion]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

What no expert saw coming: The rise of Japan

Few people foresaw the exact timing correctly (and those who did were probably just luck with their guesses), but it was only a matter of time. Their catastrophic defeat in WWII and the subsequent American redesign of their society convinced the Japanese to try a new, non-militaristic path... but it is now abundantly clear that the world is not well suited to such an approach (it was clear even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but after that, it's simply unmistakable). Thus, the Japanese will rearm and given the nature of that society, they will probably do it well.

[Fragile Bird]

16 minutes ago, Zorral said:

In yesterday's NYTimes little piece with many photographs of the tiny island of Indonesia which was the source of the vastly lucrative nutmeg trade back in the day (17th - 18th Centuries), 

Manhattan or Pulau Rhun? In 1667, Nutmeg Made the Choice a No-Brainer.
Growing a spice once worth its weight in gold, a tiny isle in Indonesia was so coveted that the Dutch traded Manhattan for it. Some 350 years later, life on the two islands couldn’t be more different.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/world/asia/indonesia-pulau-rhun-nutmeg.html

If you cut&paste this into a new tab, you can see this photo --

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/02/04/multimedia/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

Which is captioned:

"Most people get around by walking along the paved footpaths and steep stairways, often toting plastic jugs of water from the numerous village wells."

There’s a book called Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: The Spice Trader who Changed History, that looks interesting. The Dutch eventually killed Captain Nathaniel, but the events leading to his death also led to the trade for Manhattan.

Sailors weren’t allowed to have pockets in their clothes, in case they stole some of the nutmeg.

[Kyoshi]

47 minutes ago, Zorral said:

In yesterday's NYTimes little piece with many photographs of the tiny island of Indonesia which was the source of the vastly lucrative nutmeg trade back in the day (17th - 18th Centuries), 

Manhattan or Pulau Rhun? In 1667, Nutmeg Made the Choice a No-Brainer.
Growing a spice once worth its weight in gold, a tiny isle in Indonesia was so coveted that the Dutch traded Manhattan for it. Some 350 years later, life on the two islands couldn’t be more different.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/world/asia/indonesia-pulau-rhun-nutmeg.html

If you cut&paste this into a new tab, you can see this photo --

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/02/04/multimedia/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh/00Indonesia-Nutmeg-Dispatch-08-vpjh-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

Which is captioned:

"Most people get around by walking along the paved footpaths and steep stairways, often toting plastic jugs of water from the numerous village wells."

I've kind of been following the election build-up (because everyone is having an election this year for some reason), and one segment** focused on how kids in some of the poorer islands/villages/provinces go to school, and it kind of broke my heart, mostly because it looked so familiar (I'm rural South African).

**it was on the news so I unfortunately don't have a link. But the top 3 candidates are all running on education, and each aspect is maybe as important as the next, but each one is so neglected, they can be split into three separate campaign footholds.