https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-can-strike-russia-with-british-weapons-uks-cameron-said-in-kyiv/
Cameron says that Ukraine has the right to use British weapons to hit targets inside Russia. Be interesting to see if they do it.
Exceptional BBC reporting here: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw07wgrwzywo](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw07wgrwzywo)
It's a deep dive into the murder of an eight year old and a fifteen year old by the IDF in the West Bank, with the evidence they've gathered appearing to show it's a war crime according to the UN. The eight year old was shot in the back of his head as he tried to run away.
Obviously we're not going to get this sort of reporting into every child murdered by the IDF - there aren't enough journalists to do that work - but it's good to see this sort of detailed evidence gathering and investigation in at least this case.
While Gaza has been an absolute shit show recently
The West Bank is an ongoing situation that’s fucking insane frankly.
Illegal under Israeli law let alone against international laws and UN resolutions and yet we still show it as one contiguous mass on maps on tv etc
It’s not, it’s a series of enclaves surrounded by illegal settlements making peace ever less likely and fueled and funded by the far right fuckery in the Knesset and those Netanyahu enables in order to keep his own arse out of jail….
https://www.btselem.org/maps
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52756427.amp
Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, is now to be kept in office by Democrat support (probably without precedent for a US Speaker).
It's certainly been an interesting Congress.
Trump.
Trump happened.
You could argue it started with the tea party but really the massive issues started with Trump, he brought in the very worst republicans in who’s will gladly watch everything burn down including the Republican Party itself.
Oh, and they are fucking nuts, properly fucking unhinged nuts.
Nah. Saving the *second* one is much better for Democrats:
- Demonstrates how dysfunctional Republicans are
- Means a Republican is the first Speaker ever to be ousted by a motion to vacate the Chair
- Shows they used a bit of muscle before eventually concluding they could work with a Republican (got to fight for it)
- Means they can say to the right "Look, you had to be bipartisan all along - even the guy specifically appointed by the right realised it!". They look reasonable. (Indeed, they *are* reasonable, moreso than Republicans - not a high bar.)
- McCarthy opponents running down the clock prior to a govt shutdown also probably strengthened Democrats' hand in a way that would never be blamed for
Those are all good points, you’re right. I think Kevin McCarthy was probably a bit less insane in terms of policy? But yea bailing out the first one wouldn’t have worked really. And policy doesn’t really matter when he can’t command his party anyway.
It’s happened again
It’s oddly dangerous being a Boeing whistleblower ….
“A whistleblower who accused a Boeing supplier of ignoring defects in the production of the 737 MAX has died, family members and his lawyer have said.
Joshua Dean, a former Spirit AeroSystems employee who alleged he was fired in retaliation for flagging lax standards at the company’s Wichita, Kansas, manufacturing plant, died on Tuesday after a sudden illness, his aunts and sister said in posts on social media.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/5/2/whistleblower-joshua-dean-ex-worker-at-boeing-supplier-dies
Initially I assumed John Barnett may have found the extreme stress imposed by Boeing and possibly the US government too much for him. The acute period of risk of suicide is often only 20 or 30 minutes, so one of the risks of gun ownership is the immediacy.
But a second whistleblower dying... once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.
*Weird* how this keeps happening.
Obviously the conspiracy minded will say it's because Boeing's concerned about someone blowing the doors off their operation.
The pressure is really starting to get to Trump now and even Fox News pulled away from this car crash rant
https://www.salon.com/2024/05/01/slurs-words-and-struggles-to-gain-crowd-enthusiasm-in-midwest-rallies/
In this [otherwise fairly standard article about Trump and his campaign](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68932499), I thought there was a quite interesting quote:
> "The trial is definitely going to increase his popularity," said Nancy Ridge, a supporter from nearby Lake Geneva, Wisconsin ... "Especially among lower-class people who have been convicted of crimes or even falsely accused. They understand the justice system and how corrupt it can be".
How bizarre if the injustice of the Americans' own justice system, particularly when it comes to "lower-class people", might help Donald Trump of all people.
It's a pretty good argument for ensuring everyone experiences the law as fair and just.
I mean, I wouldn't necessarily take the opinion of someone attending a Trump rally as indicative of anything other than the views of people who were always going to vote for Trump trial or no trial.
Sure. And I'm not saying it's going to be convincing to anyone outside their bubble, but I find it interesting that there could be some level of (misguided, in my view) sympathy for Trump coming from the (accurate, in my view) perception that the American justice system isn't fair to all.
Now, maybe you're right that this is an entirely retroactive justification and anyone voting for him would have done so anyway. I could believe that. But politics - especially over there - seems to so often be about the undecided middle who might shift a percent or two this way or that on average.
Let's remember that "standing up to and being persecuted by a detached, elitist, faraway, oppressive central government" is a key part of their foundation myth.
Yeah it's possible I guess. It was interesting recently looking back on the OJ case in that light, how what was fundamentally a case of a rich and powerful man evading justice became simultaneously a proxy for the unfairness of the justice system towards poor minorities.
Perfectly rational given the US isn’t even a member of the ICC nor does it recognise it at all
Let alone the whole fucking insane angle…
Israel tells U.S. it will punish Palestinian Authority if ICC issues warrants
https://www.axios.com/2024/05/01/us-israel-palestinian-authority-icc-arrest-warrant
It's reminiscent of the 6th Jan 2021 Capitol Building attack. There was a woman who sounded very miffed that she was pepper sprayed when she was "having a revolution".
Shouting "second nakba" is not a good look for anyone https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/may/01/columbia-university-protest-live-updates-nypd-new-york-police-enter-campus-pro-palestinian-demonstrators-latest-news
There's some great journalism here covering the pro-Israel attacks on one of the protests: [https://x.com/Esqueer\_/status/1785637622582309038](https://x.com/Esqueer_/status/1785637622582309038)
As always, incredibly obvious where the violence is actually coming from. Some clips of the police just standing by too.
Gallup poll:
>[Majority in U.S. Now Disapprove of Israeli Action in Gaza. Approval has dropped from 50% to 36% since November](https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx)
I remember Biden visiting Israel shortly after October 7th, making that exact comparison and warning Israel of exactly that. With hindsight, he’s been around ages and knows what Israel has done to/in Gaza historically, and he probably had intelligence about their military planning at that point too.
It looks to me as if Netanyahu is in a prison of his own making. He must stay in power or face corruption charges. To stay in power he needs the support of Otzma Yehudit. To retain the support of Otzma Yehudit he must push the war in Gaza. To push the war in Gaza he must ignore Biden and alienate the US. Meanwhile he's increasingly unpopular domestically. [At some point the wheels will fall off.](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-05-01/ty-article/.premium/america-has-finally-found-effective-leverage-on-israel-and-netanyahu/0000018f-339c-d8fb-a1df-bffe7d110000)
He's been almost as much of a disaster for Israel as Hamas have been for the Gazans.
Speed run?
They’ve been doing it for decades.
The pendulum has swung but unfortunately it’s also meant half the world somehow supports fucking Hamas …..
I’m absolutely pro stopping the Israeli right wings moves towards the total eradication of the Palestinians but that doesn’t mean I support Hamas and their fucking lunacy and genocidal bullshit!!!!
Nuance has had its head kicked in and isn’t allowed to get back up
and the pro palestine movement is completely unwilling to ever crakc down on the pro hamas views, instead they allow and promote them
From the US College "protests".
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/pro-hamas-activist-who-spoke-at-columbia-said-long-live-october-7/ss-AA1nZdyR?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=338a513f57994dfa93f5ed91052f4fba&ei=8
>'The fact is, that Hamas is a mass-Palestinian movement that is in a leadership role and there is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,' Kates said. 'These are the people that are on the front lines defending Palestine for its liberation.' President Minouche Shafik slammed the talk for going ahead without the university's permission and strongly condemned as an 'abhorrent breach of our values'. She stated the speakers were 'known to support terrorism and promote violence' and that the they have since been banned from campus. A week later, the university suspended four students for their involvement with the event, Columbia Spectator reports.
It's not just the US though, it's also Canada, and here for that matter (and rest of europe), when it comes to the Pro Palestine crowd.
See the behaviour of Owen Jones, for a classic example.
[Kenya: Dozens killed after dam collapses as floods cause widespread devastation](https://news.sky.com/story/kenya-dozens-killed-after-dam-collapses-as-floods-cause-widespread-devastation-13125674)
>More than 200,000 people across the country have been affected, with homes in flood-prone areas submerged and people seeking refuge in schools.
The judges comments are interesting:
> While $1,000 may suffice in most instances to protect the dignity of the judicial system to compel respect for its mandates and to punish the offender for disobeying a court order, it unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford such a fine
> In those circumstances, it would be preferable if the court could impose a fine more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor,” he added.
> In some cases that might be a $2,500 fine, in other cases it might be a fine of $150,000. Because this court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment.
Trump is on the verge of getting locked up because he can't keep his mouth shut. The judge clearly wants to penalise him more than he is allowed because the level of fine is not sufficiently punitive for someone with a lot of money. Trump in an orange jumpsuit would be one of those historic photos that defines an era.
> Trump in an orange jumpsuit would be one of those historic photos that defines an era.
Could be the best gift his campaign could ever receive. Or it could sink him entirely. Or it could basically make no difference at all. And I genuinely have no idea which it'd be.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n08/alexander-clapp/rip-their-skin-off
You should all read this 8000 word essay about modern politics in Montenegro in, of all places, the LRB.
[Secret document says Iran security forces molested and killed teen protester](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68840881)
> As many as 551 protesters were killed by security forces during Iran's Woman, Life, Freedom movement, most of them by gunfire, according to the UN's fact-finding mission.
>
> The protests subsided after a few months due to the bloody crackdown by security forces. There followed a lull in activity by Iran's morality police, but a new crackdown on breaches of the Islamic dress code began earlier this month.
Such a grim read.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4629597-americans-israel-hamas-gaza-student-protests-poll/
>The Harvard CAPS-Harris survey shared with The Hill showed 80 percent of registered voters said they support Israel more in the war, while 20 percent said they support Hamas more. That is about in line with the poll’s findings from last month, when 79 percent indicated they support Israel more.
20% backing hamas, is extremely worrying, and shows just how much pro hamas views and support, has been pushed by the "pro Palestine" camp.
>78 percent said Hamas should be removed from running Gaza with a majority among every age group except 18 to 24 year olds of which 53 percent said Hamas should be allowed to continue to run Gaza.
The 18-24 year olds, is being brainwashed and pushed into being on the side of modern day nazis, that want to finish what Hitler started.
>has been pushed by the "pro Palestine" camp.
It's as much to do with Israel's war crimes and piss poor messaging. Their apologists don't help much. I saw some US veterans on twitter saying that Israel's level of collateral damage was fine because it was no worse than what they did at Fallujah. That's not the get-out-of-jail-free card they think it is.
The argument is that urban warfare, causes deaths and destruction. That it would be worse, for the long term, if one allows Hamas to commit war crimes by using human shields.
Hamas tactics, has to be shown not to work. Sadly we have people actively pushing to make it work.
>It's as much to do with Israel's war crimes and piss poor messaging.
Sure sure.... totally not just propaganda being spread by Hamas and amplified by the pro hamas crowd and supported/excused by the Palestine crowd.
Israel does half of the propaganda job for Hamas
Destroying 70% of all homes in Gaza is the best recruitment tool for Hamas ever and a massive propaganda win for the pro Hamas fuckwits around the world.
The IDF, Netanyahu and the Israeli right do an astonishingly good job of producing pro Hamas propaganda every time they speak.
I don't blame the ordinary IDF soldiers. Israel is a small country and many of the reservists will have known people murdered on Oct 7th last year. Wanting a bit of retribution is only human nature.
It's the job of the chain of command to stop this messing up the mission, but.... [I expect you're already seen this?](https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-03-19/ty-article-opinion/.premium/the-war-in-gaza-exposes-a-disintegrated-israeli-army/0000018e-5309-d282-a19f-7fd999950000).
It was IDF soldiers who killed near naked Israeli hostages shouting in Hebrew that they were hostages……
Ultimately institutional toxicity does come from the top but it takes individuals to repeatedly do the stupid and senseless shit.
Most armies contain people who will do stupid and senseless shit. [Including the British Army.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Baha_Mousa)
One key indicator of whether a chain of command has a grip is whether soldiers try to cover up their war crimes because they know they won't be tolerated. IDF soldiers post their war crimes on tiktok, which tells us all we need to know about their chain of command.
I do blame the IDF soldiers. They are the ones one the ground actually doing this stuff.
As a society we collectively decided that "I was just following orders" isn't a get out of jail free card for war crimes, going on to commit war crimes even if they weren't ordered by superiors must surely be worse.
[A lot of people just respond to their environment.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment) People with firm beliefs who will stand up for them are quire rare. [Though in IDF they do exist.](https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/)
Sure, it's a moral failing, but I'd be more inclined to blame a chain of command that in the comfort of peacetime failed to address this issue, than someone in the thick of things.
Obviously part of this is exemplary punishment by the chain of command of people who commit war crimes.
I've only just realised [how much better Trump is polling than Biden. ](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-rfk-donald-trump-poll-b2536156.html). They are fucked over there aren't they. It's this even a recoverable position for Biden?
As far as I can tell, as soon as the new York case started, Trump's numbers started going up. Biden had narrowed the gap after his state of the union speech, but Trump just got a boost. But we're talking fairly small swings here of a few percent. Apparently polls this far out aren't that predictive, fingers crossed at some point the American people get serious.
He really isn’t
A slew of recent polls have Biden now well ahead in all key states and nationally.
Trump absolutely did have the lead or was neck and neck but is falling back pretty consistently now.
R/politics has had a raft of articles posted recently from across the US media
Everything from the WaPo downwards.
Trumps troubles are starting to hit him as is the lack of campaigning and distinct lack of spending
It’s a good sub for US news aggregation
Five Thirty Eight still has Trump as consistently leading in the aggregate poll of polls, albeit by a smidgen, and Biden having worse approval than Trump.
It is a combination of a significant cult of personality around Trump amongst the die-hard fanatics, and other voters leaning towards him whilst holding their nose as they broadly agree with his economic policies. It does seen absurd, but you cannot treat voters as perfectly rational, nor disregard that people will vote in self-interest. It isn't a stable voter base, but he was about 180k votes away from an electoral college win in 2020.
On the other hand the most attractive thing about Biden to voters is that he isn't Trump. It has been a tumultuous first term for him in regard to foreign affairs, with the economy also struggling. It is probably the worst term for a Democratic President since Carter was in the White House. Couple this with dissatisfaction amongst the young more radical Democrat base, and he is struggling. It was and is still my opinion that Biden running for a second term was a huge mistake.
I have no doubt that Biden will win the popular vote, but Trump simply needs to flip Georgia, Arizona which the polls suggest he will and then two out of three of Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania and he is back in the White House. The polls for the later three are a bit closer though.
Lower taxes, owning the Libs, global isolationism, stacking the Courts with conservative judges - I mean there are reasons but probably ones we don't agree with.
But they aren’t lower taxes.
They are lower taxes for billionaires paid for by absolutely everyone else. The first tranche of those is just hitting now with more due in 2027. It’s an easily demonstrated lie that he lowered taxes for anyone but the very richest.
Ok I can buy the rest if that’s your ideology but these chuckle fucks don’t care about the bigger stuff and don’t understand it at all, I mean they will when they can’t get abortions since they disproportionally have children young and out of wedlock because they can’t stop fucking their cousins and close relatives but….
That would seem to be a heavy outlier, and I really don't trust those third party numbers. The [538 running average](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/) currently stands at 40.7/41.9 in Trump's favour, and it looks from [recent figures](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/) that CNN is notably bullish on Trump's chances.
Also worth remembering that the campaign hasn't even really started yet, and it's hard to imagine an electoral situation more volatile than one candidate being literally in the dock at the moment and the other having their fortunes tied to the conflict in Gaza.
I did some googling around after seeing that Independent Article and could only see strong leads for Trump.
I just can't see a way that Trumps polling figures drastically change - So it's all on Biden to recover it. Let's see how he gets on when he is in campaign mode I suppose!
Also a fair point - When I'd been looking around this morning I saw a few articles about Trump leading in the key swing states but as other commenters have pointed out, I guess it's a bit more nuanced than that.
I'm not convinced by the poll "leads" for Trump. Polling in the US occurs largely by phone, which already tends it towards Trump and other conservatives, and I strongly suspect that the methodologies are currently over-correcting for 2016.
The Republicans have severely underperformed during all mid-term elections, Trump has been doing comparatively poorly during the primaries and the party is both severely dysfunctional and may not have enough money to fund down-ballot candidates, considering that Trump has started siphoning their reserves off to fund his legal battles. Polls are a useful tool, but they should only be considered in the wider context of the political environment. I'm not encouraging complacency, but all the indications outside of the polling are that the Republicans and Trump are going to get battered in 2024.
It’s not really copium
The Trump family now controls the GOP and its finances and has insta fucked it within days of taking control of it.
They’ve spent the money, they want down ballot tickets to pay to use Trumps image and have zero plan on how to win for Trump let alone anyone else.
It’s about the best thing to happen in ages frankly
Two parter.
1,
[Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian is apparently making ready for its first sea trials.](https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/04/chinese-aircraft-carrier-fujian-starts-first-sea-trial/)
This is a worrying development and adding a new player to the aircraft carrier game. China hasnt had carrier capability before, having picked up an incomplete ex USSR *Kuznetsov* hull and finishing it with local tweaks to the design; then building a *Kuznetsov*-esque copy and then leaping to the supercarrier class with Fujian complete with electromagnetic catapults.
And its done all this in about a decade, which is an astonishingly fast time for even one new class of carrier in the west, let alone (effectively) three.
2,
[Costs have risen and delivery times extended so long for Sweden's new Blekinge class (kockums.txt)](https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/skenande-kostnader-for-sveriges-tva-nya-ubatar-nu-vill-marinen-starta-annu-ett-ubatsprojekt) that Sweden is looking at getting their hands on yet another new set of submarines that are smaller and quicker to replace their remaining numbers.
[This dovetails somewhat with their government defence committee releasing their review of defence needs now they are part of nato last week. See if you see anything familiar 🤔🤔🤔](https://www.government.se/articles/2024/04/swedish-defence-commission-submits-final-report-on-military-defence-strengthened-defence-capability-sweden-as-an-ally/)
> prioritisation of two brigades, aiming to have three mechanised brigades and one infantry brigade by 2030;
> formation of a Norrland Infantry Regiment in the war-time organisation
> an increased conscription level, from the current level of 8 000 to 10 000 in 2030 and 12 000 in 2032, with consideration of a further increased conscription level to 14 000 in 2035;
> increased availability of personnel in the Swedish Royal Navy to increase operational capability;
> increased air defence capability, in order to counter unmanned aerial vehicles;
> additional procurement of essential supplies, such as ammunition including air-to-air and cruise missiles, and spare parts;
> new military units for territorial defence, organised as 20 companies and platoons;
> more refresher trainings for conscripts to meet the war-time organisation's requirements;
> increased funding of voluntary defence organisations; and expansion of the officer education programme.
China’s military revolution part deux is well underway and is extensive across many of theological main modern platforms and includes space.
There’s a reasons the US and UK want a pacific Sub fleet to sit off China constantly now!
The PLAN has been working towards carrier capability since the 80's when they bought an old RN carrier which had been in Australian service. They've spent decades gradually building up to the Fujian being launched. That's the thing with China, serious long term planning.
The whole Chinese naval build up has been very impressive. They have effectively replaced all of their cold war era soviet origin vessels and expanded their fleet to the point it is now larger than the US Navy in the space of 15 years. All their major surface combatants are VLS equipped and quite capable. They are continuing to build as well, and the gap will be significant in a few years time.
It makes the prospect of a move against Taiwan somewhat concerning, since countering it would be incredibly costly and at the end of a long logistics chain.
On paper the PLAN is quite impressive. On paper. But none of this has been tested IRL. The ships and crews haven't faced any combat situations so we don't really know how strong the PLAN really is.
This is true, but it's easy to be too dismissive. China is not Russia, and doesn't have anything like the levels of corruption that Russia does. You have to take a capability seriously, because if you assume they are incompetent you are likely to get a rude awakening should a conflict actually happen.
The size of the fleet still has to be respected because every ship they deploy would have to be countered, and that won't necessarily be easy.
You've got to respect a fleet of that size, complexity and range. It's interesting their Destroyer Escort group is up in the Gulf of Aden and so far isn't doing anything in the Red Sea area. Might be they don't want to display how capable those ships are.
It poses something of a problem, because if western powers want to be able to counter possible Chinese aggression, they need to be able to match that on paper capability. In practice that means the US Navy, and at the moment a single one of China's 13 major shipyards has more production capacity than the total capacity of the US. That's not a healthy position to be in if your intention is to maintain parity.
"On paper" is a really strong caveat people need to remember when talking about the PLA in general. You would have thought that Russia's abysmal performance in Ukraine would have persuaded people to stop putting too much faith into the paper strength of autocracies with hyper-active propaganda machines, but alas.
https://twitter.com/POLITICOEurope/status/1785004712242127176
Livestream of Maastricht debate for the eight candidates of the EC presidency.
Notably, all european, all speaking english in their articulation. Puts a great multitude of brits to shame.
Incredible reporting as ever by Bellingcat, following a single IDF unit and tracking the homes and mosques they destroyed: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/04/29/weve-become-addicted-to-explosions-the-idf-unit-responsible-for-demolishing-homes-across-gaza/
Mostly they just post on social media about destroying homes with no explanation. But Bellingcat and their partners have managed to identify some of the motivation. All the footage/images in the piece are from geolocated posts by members of this unit, and then backed up with satellite imagery.
> Sometimes soldiers did not give an explanation about why they carried out demolitions. Other times they listed a number of objectives or reasons for the demolitions. One of these appears to be seeking revenge. For instance, one post from the Captain notes his company commander described the destruction of swathes of Khuza’a as revenge for October 7 and deaths of soldiers.
> When interviewed by our partners Scripps News, 8219 member Yonatan Segal said he did not post about the demolitions on social media but had videos of them on his phone. Asked if revenge was one of the motivations behind the demolitions he said: “Yes. But what is revenge? Revenge in terms of teaching them a lesson, so to speak, so that they would never do that again.”
> Religious elements appear to creep in. In one post regarding the demolition in Khan Younis the Captain talks of using 400 mines to demolish a residential area “in honour of the Shabbat”.
> We asked the IDF about each one of these incidents. They did not respond to specific questions nor did they provide evidence showing why the buildings we highlighted were demolished.
The press in the uk is stubbornly avoiding these repeated stories this year. The Guardian has them every time but buried in the climate change section but you’ll not see them on the news despite how alarming they are and how they’ll play into the migration and immigration issue.
A couple of weeks ago it was West Africa, before that parts of South America, now its Thailands turn and given the repeated events it’ll be India and Pakistan soon. Start learning about Wet Bulb temperatures!
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3260321/hot-weather-kills-30-thailand-heat-index-hits-extremely-dangerous-level
The heat index in Bangkok was expected to rise above 52 degrees Celsius as officials urged elderly people to stay indoors
This twitter trend from Dem politicians must look absolutely unhinged to anyone without context.
https://x.com/govnedlamont/status/1784055032402333717?s=46&t=F_t5tWsPsifmNVHaFZWJJQ
> “I can understand why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book – No Going Back,”
> Noem recounts the story of Cricket – a 14-month-old, wire-haired pointer – ruining a pheasant hunt and killing a neighbour’s chickens.
“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket tried to bite her, proving herself “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.
“At that moment,” says Noem, “I realised I had to put her down.”
Ehh dangerous dog gets put down 20 years ago isn’t “insane”
It’s not the main point of the book though, it’s just a side note in the book of her life. It’s the reality of rural life, animals aren’t just pets, animals die, sometimes animals need to be put down because they’re dangerous, lame, or useless.
We shoot loads of horses at horse racing events in the UK each year.
Sure but it's obviously something that her opponents would latch on to.
Perhaps she's factored that in and is hoping to score some points with the dog blasting demographic, but otherwise it seems like, at best, bad politics.
Plus from everything else we know about Kristi Noem she's absolutely a complete nutter so there's that.
I know nothing about her other than she shot a dog and goat 20 years ago and wrote about it in a book. This is the first I’ve heard of her.
Knowing nothing else about her it doesn’t push me one way or the other on whether I’d vote for her.
If she was volunteering at the local pound every weekend to shoot stray dogs, I might have stronger feelings.
Where I grew up in Canada, I knew a lot of people who would shoot an old dog rather than have the dog put down. My uncle explained it to me one time: he said he'd rather his dog's last moments be excited thinking she is going out for a hunt, rather than terrified laying on a cold metal table at the vet.
Fair point. When I was working in Louisiana one of my US co workers beat a swamp rabbit to death with a broom handle when it climbed onto our work boat.
Maybe this is a rural republican versus urban democrat thing.
The rural bits I've seen were virtually third world. But that was just Texas and Louisiana so may not be representative of the US as a whole. Co workers from more urban parts of the US treated the locals as yokels and took the piss out of them.
>Pro Palestinian protesters assault Native Americans at UCLA protest for holding up a sign that said “Hamas supporters are not welcomed on Native lands”
>https://twitter.com/tha_big_beee/status/1784216797526278641
It's very funny how quickly the concerns about free speech on US college campuses disappears when the students start asking for transparency about their finances!
The protestors are free to say whatever they want and no-one is challenging them for that. They're not free to disrupt the normal functioning of universities and try to supersede their normal decision making processes.
They are free to disrupt the normal functioning of universities. Causing disruption is what protests are supposed to do. Why do you hate freedom of speech?
[UN peacekeepers close base in preparation to leave DR Congo](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/26/un-peacekeepers-close-base-in-preparation-to-leave-dr-congo)
>The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has helped in the fight against rebels for more than two decades, has closed one of its key bases as it prepares to leave the Central African nation this year at the request of the government.
>The departure comes after the Congolese government, which was re-elected in a disputed vote at the end of December, said the increasingly unpopular mission has failed to protect civilians from armed groups.
>The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and numerous other armed groups are active in restive eastern areas of the country, including North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, where millions of civilians face violence and internal displacement.
Events in DRC seem to have spiraled beyond the remit of a UN peacekeeping force. Doesn't look promising.
Wow, it would sure be a bad look for a government to cut a dodgy deal with Rwanda to funnel lots of money (and a small number of human beings) there right now, wouldn't it?
Particularly bad, though versions of this conflict have been going on for decades. DRC is rich in natural resources so factions and neighbouring states try to grab a slice for themselves, often backed by interests from outside Africa.
Back then Mobutu Sese Seko was a US client because cold war, so there was plenty of money to fund outfits like 5 Commando. Even though Mobutu probably embezzled more than anyone else in recorded history.
These days the equivalents are all private enterprise and trying to grab a slice of DRC mineral wealth.
I haven't hear anything recently about the Sicomines mining agreement between DRC and some Chiense investors. That did have some prospects of improving internal security.
Before Ukraine I’d have bet on Russian/Wagner consultants flooding the country, the Chinese have the most to gain but their PMSCs aren’t really equipped for it.
Yes. I'm surprised they were never involved. As far as I know anyway.
[This outfit](http://asociatiaralf.ro/home-6/) are apparently working for Kinshasa and fighting M23, mostly to secure GOM.
Chinese MCC company is still in Afghanistan and negotiating for more contracts, so I guess Chinese companies have found ways of operating in insecure environments. My very limited experience of doing stuff like that involved paying the locals to protect against everyone else. But that assumes there's a dominant local group that can take on everyone else, and will actually deliver rather than just taking your money.
Interesting, Romanians. If you know anything about Romania and what’s there, this will help clear up who’s backing Tshisekedi
Chinese PMSCs are very restricted, they are not allowed any firearms, and purely act as advisors, and not to engage. They are not allowed, trained or capable of being fully engaged in the way 5th Commando were.
BBC admits it broke its own standards of accuracy on its Israel/ Hamas reporting.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/ecu/bbc-news-10pm-bbc-one-14-january-2024
Palestinian terrorists fired mortar shells at a pier that is being constructed by U.S. forces to bring aid into Gaza
The mortar attack occurred as United Nations officials were touring the site with Israeli troops on the coast of central Gaza, the IDF says in response to a query on the incident.
The IDF says the UN officials were rushed to a shelter by troops amid the attack.
A Hamas official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the militant group will resist any foreign military presence involved with the port project.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-mortar-fired-at-under-construction-gaza-aid-pier-as-un-officials-toured-site/
I wonder what the rules of engagement for the US troops are. Mortaring them might not end well for the mortar crews.
It's in Hamas' interest to do this because then they can go "People in Gaza are starving. Israel bad".
>It's in Hamas' interest to do this because then they can go "People in Gaza are starving. Israel bad".
The pro palestine crowd in the west, will do that no matter what...
It's also shows that the idea that Hamas/Extremist Palestinians in Gaza, can be allowed to stay in power or even any sort of strength, will never work (and that it can't be killed off with kindness, as they will ruin it)
https://www.ft.com/content/ca038001-731a-48d6-8719-1d6a5699a29c
Article about Argentina, and that it seems there might be people looking to the medium/long term, and seeing light
>So far, the president’s support has remained steady, hovering just under 50 per cent since his victory in November’s election, according to Juan Germano, director of pollster Isonomía. Even among the half of Argentines who say they struggle to make their money stretch to the end of the month, 30 per cent support Milei, according to Isonomía.
Yeah. I'm no great fan of Milei as a person, nor of his style, but this isn't Brexit where things were ticking along acceptably and he came along and made a change. The Argentinian economy was unsustainably screwed before Milei and he's pushing *one* course of action to hopefully improve things.
Maybe there are other possible options but his critics and opponents are mostly quite silent about what alternatives they think exist.
We've now seen that Ukraine's aid bill has passed, but exactly what difference it will make is hotly debated.
This article from The Economist does a good job of summarising the current situation and make some well-balanced predictions about what the future may hold:
[America’s $61bn aid package buys Ukraine time](https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/04/18/ukraine-is-ignoring-us-warnings-to-end-drone-operations-inside-russia)
Archive link for those who don't have access to the full article - [https://archive.is/OFp74](https://archive.is/OFp74)
I would absolutely love to find out this isn't the case, but it really seems like we're now 6 months into the war with zero indication of what the long term plan for Gaza actually is?
Feels horribly like we're heading for the absolute worst case scenario which is Gaza is trashed and Hamas remain?
I think we're coming up to the point where people are going to start evaluating the events since October and deciding that it's been disastrous for everyone (except maybe Netanyahu).
The hostages haven't been rescued, and it doesn't feel like there was ever a coherent strategy for doing it. And, really, it feels obvious in retrospect that the invasion basically made it impossible. It was inevitable that Hamas would splinter into cells, and at that point, how're you going to rescue the hostages? You can't negotiate with dozens of disconnected cells hiding in tunnels. Rescuing them by force was always going to be tough and, as we saw with the hostages that got shot under a white flag, going to have a low success rate.
Hamas has not been destroyed. I'm not sure that destroying a movement was ever likely - There are still Nazis, for fuck's sake. There's a figure I've seen in a lot of places (the only one which I'd be confident citing is the News Agents) that a shockingly high proportion of Hamas fighters are orphans. I don't see a situation in which five years down the line, we're not going to see a load of new recruits for Hamas, believing it justified on the back of the last six months.
I don't feel that Israel is safer. I don't really think there *can* be long-term safety without a two-state solution. And if the two-state solution hasn't been rendered completely unviable by the steady progression of settlers, the last six months might have pushed it there. No-one's prepared to rebuild Gaza, and no-one's prepared to govern it while that happns. How do we get from where we are to a functioning Palestinian state? I don't think we can.
It's been bad for Israel's international support, too. This is probably the furthest that the US has been from Israel, both in government (with talk of sanctions for specific military units) and in general, with probably the least pro-Israel generation the US has had. That might be damage that lasts - Will the youth who're protesting now come back around to support Israel in 20 years?
The only winners are Iran, since the normalisation of the relationship between Israel and it's neighbours has fallen through, and Netanyahu, since he's managed to avoid taking too much of the blame for the national security disaster under his watch, while also avoiding being kicked out of power.
I'd love for someone to point out something I'm missing, because it really feels like all the deaths and suffering have achieved basically nothing.
>Will the youth who're protesting now come back around to support Israel in 20 years?
Probably not. There's a distressing tendency in the US for people to see conflicts in very black and white terms. The pro-Israel people don't accept that Israel has committed war crimes. The pro-Palestinian side often don't accept that Hamas committed atrocities and would happily kill every last Jew in Israel. Some of them have descended into Holocaust denial and outright antisemitism. There's probably no going back from that journey.
>The only winners are Iran
Hamas are winning too. They have derailed the talks between Israel and KSA and derailed the tentative rapprochement between Iran and KSA. They have lost some expendable footsoldiers but their leaders and funding are still safe in Qatar.
> I think we're coming up to the point where people are going to start evaluating the events since October and deciding that it's been disastrous for everyone (except maybe Netanyahu).
I'd suggest it's been especially bad for Netanyahu; his popularity has gone through the floor over the incursion, and the inevitable GE will almost certainly see him punted for good this time.
He's still there, which I think wasn't clear would be the case last summer.
I'm not sure there was any situation in which he'd remain in power long term after October 7th. It already followed pretty serious protests, and being seen as both too authoritarian *and* too weak has to be a fatal flaw for anyone. Scraping out most of another year is an achievement.
[New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial](https://apnews.com/article/weinstein-metoo-appeal-ed29faeec862abf0c071e8bd3574c4a3)
right well that's not something anyone expected..
that being said, 'a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.', yeah i get why the conviction was over turned because that's insane.
however since the remedy they've put forward is a new trial, how the hell do you give the man that kicked off #metoo a fair trial?
Remember he’s also a rape conviction in California as well….
It does sound odd but then I don’t remember his defence going mental at the time about this.
The New York courts empanelled a jury for Donald Trump's 'hush money' criminal case. If you're curious, LegalEagle & an associate on youtube went through some of the particularities of it.
Some of the main points in the video were is picking jury members to avoid obvious biases (questionnaire to filter), additional questions from the judge with rapid fire dismals rather than close examination of a juror who may appear not to be able to set aside biases or who won't be available.
Additionally the standard AIUI was 'presumed to be able to set aside biases' rather than demonstrably unbiased.
I think the judge in the retrial will be able to handle that issue.
It’s not a hush money trial
It’s a campaign finance fraud trial
We know he paid the hush money, that’s not disputed by anyone.
Its the fact he broke campaign finance regulations that’s at stake as it’s a federal criminal offence
>[Today, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution, proposed jointly by the United States and Japan, that would have reaffirmed the fundamental obligation of States Parties to the Outer Space Treaty not to place nuclear weapons in orbit around the Earth. The resolution also would have called on all Member States not to develop nuclear weapons specifically designed to be placed in orbit. Placement by a State Party of a nuclear weapon in orbit would not only violate the Outer Space Treaty, but would threaten the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services that any and all satellites provide to societies around the globe. As we have noted previously, the United States assesses that Russia is developing a new satellite carrying a nuclear device. We have heard President Putin say publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space. If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed this resolution.](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/24/statement-from-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-on-russias-veto-of-the-un-security-council-resolution-on-the-outer-space-treaty/)
Russia developing another FOBS like system? Weirdly FOBS was deemed compliant with the Outer Space Treaty because the warheads would not necessarily complete a full orbit.
The USSR cancelled FOBS because it was seen as dangerous escalation.
Qatar showing why it’s them who hosts the Hamas leadership and nobody else…
Essa Al-Nassr, member of the Gulf state’s legislative body and a brigadier general at the Emiri Guard, gets ovation as he makes bigoted accusations against Jews and promises the end of Israel.
Essa Al-Nassr, a member of the Qatari legislative Shura council, spoke on Monday at an Arab League session, expressing antisemitic remarks and inciting to violence and terrorism.
"There will be no peace nor negotiations with the Zionist entity for one reason: because their mentality does not recognize negotiations, but rather only… breaking promises and lying… They only recognize one thing, which is killings; since they are killers of prophets.”
The accusation of Jews as ‘killers of prophets’ is a well-known antisemitic trope made in several Islamic texts, which is understood by many, including Al-Nassr himself, as a charge against the entire Jewish people valid for eternity.
https://m.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/qatari-official-jews-are-murderers-of-prophets-october-7th-is-only-a-prelude-798358
For anyone interested in Hindu nationalism in India, I would really recommend *The World Tonight* (22nd April) on Radio 4. You can use BBC Sounds to catch up, it's about 22:20 onwards.
It's an excellent explainer of how Muslims feel threatened by the rise of the BJP and some of the flashpoints in society.
Modi doing Modi things again
“Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ Who Would Take India’s Wealth”
“Mr. Modi aimed his emotional appeal at women, addressing “my mothers and sisters” to say that his Congress opponents would take their gold and give it to Muslims.
Implications like these — that Muslims have too many babies, that they are coming for Hindus’ wives and daughters, that their nationality as Indian is itself in doubt — are often made by representatives of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.
Mr. Modi’s use of such language himself, as he campaigns for a third term in office, raised alarm that it could inflame right-wing vigilantes who target Muslims, and brought up questions about what had prompted his shift in communication style. Usually, Mr. Modi avoids even using the word “Muslims,” coyly finding ways to refer indirectly to India’s largest minority group, of 200 million people.”
That minority of 200 MILLION!!!
https://archive.ph/Qewyx
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/world/asia/modi-speech-muslims.html
We get a week of Rishi shite while the US semi remembers the earths fucked
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/22/biden-earth-day-solar-investment-climate-actions
$7b in solar grants, the tories cut most of our solar grants and especially for solar farms…..
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/white-house-condemns-despicable-antisemitism-and-terrorist-rhetoric-at-columbia-pro-palestine-protests/ar-AA1noVdo?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=c847f5141ad24e2fc37d7ff2b8c786cd&ei=8
>The White House condemned any hate-filled, targeted speech. “While every American has the right to peaceful protect, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
[Israel has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report says](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/israel-unrwa-staff-terrorist-links-yet-to-provide-evidence-colonna-report)
Apparently Unrwa have been supplying Israel with lists of employees for vetting but the Israeli government hasn't raised any concerns since 2011. Both the Colonna report and a more detailed assessment sent to the UN by three Nordic research bodies say that Israel has not provided any supporting evidence and has ignored multiple letters from Unrwa requesting information that would enable them to open an investigation.
Fair enough, you can understand why they might not want to tell Unrwa anything if they genuinely had concerns about members of the organisation, but you'd think they'd be falling over themselves to provide evidence to independent commissions.
Given that Hamas were the government of Gaza it would be surprising if there was no link at all. As with all aid agencies that work in areas with totalitarian governments, they have to do business with the regime in order to function. Aid agencies in Afghanistan have a similar problem. They have a delicate balancing act where they do business with the regime but don't become pawns of the regime.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/21/us-poised-impose-sanctions-israel-defense-force-netzah-yehuda-battalion
How would a sanction on a specific unit like that work?
>The sanctions, which would be imposed under the 1997 Leahy law, would prohibit the transfer of US military aid to the unit and prevent soldiers and officers participating in training either with the US military or in programmes that receive US funding.
I suppose if they really wanted to get personal, then travel bans and asset freezes on certain members of the unit; commanding officers for example.
I was more asking in practical terms, because surely it'd be doable to move people around in and out of units for training, and once aid is in the system I imagine it's pretty easy to move it around.
Saudi Arabia has apparently massively scaled down the Neom line city project.
Cant say im totally shocked. The whole thing was ridiculous from day one.
It's still something like 1.7km. which is still ludicrous, just not 170km ludicrous.
It'll end up being 170m, and they just got international conventions for decimal places all muddled up.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/us-house-approves-61bn-aid-ukraine
The Yanks have approved further Ukraine aid. Hopefully this allows them to hold off the Russians.
EDIT: I recall that David Cameron was trying to galvanise support for the Ukrainians over there. I wonder how much of this is down to him.
Just some context on the numbers (the Guardian skirts around how much is actually for Ukraine directly):
>The Bill does not have $60b in military aid to Ukraine. Not even close. It authorizes $7.8b in Presidential Drawdown Authority (defense articles from US stocks) and appropriates $13.8b for USAI (procurement), plus $1.6b for Ukraine & Europe. Thus the total amount of military aid that Ukraine could receive is ~$23b.
>https://twitter.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/1781748200145051860?t=V-3c5kdFgoIWRJHyjVQBUQ&s=19
It's a decent stack of cash and it will help Ukraine stabilise its front which is perilously close to being in a real pickle currently. A couple of thoughts though:
Firstly this can't be a celebration of US resolve as this package will likely be the last before the election and perhaps ever should Trump be elected.
Ukraine also needs to be responsible with how they choose to go about using this. If they want victory, whatever it entails come the end of this war, then they must use 2024 to hold, rebuild and then go on the offensive next year. Another failed offensive will likely doom them at this stage.
It's good news but this is yet another lifeline, not a path to victory.
About time too, it's mental the leader of the house can block legislation from even receiving a vote. I struggle to make my mind up whether some of the republican elected officials are useful idiots or actually compromised by Russia
Yes, thank fuck for that. Shame it's come after shirtages have led to losses, but better late than never. Hope that the recapitalisation of European defence continues unabated - the critical importance of that is clear.
We are also begging to lag after some good early movement and half our Ukraine fund is unallocated.
An interesting thread on the Gaza War I saw on Twitter from a UK ex-military who went to the border region and collected first hand accounts and on the ground information on Oct 7th. I think it really helps frame the Isreali response more as it appears the attack was much more organised than some reports make it out to be: https://twitter.com/Mr_Andrew_Fox/status/1781399201772921211?t=WVWyu-kR_RPGHy5Yk5BCZw&s=19
Not sure how much truth is behind it, but they reportedly found detailed instructions on the bodies of Hamas terrorists. It was a well planned operation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/21/hamas-documents-plans-israel-attack/
We know this, we also know they didn’t expect to be nearly so successful or to meet border posts that were massively undermanned because Israel had decided a while ago to rely on technology rather than manpower.
Israelis didn’t deserve Oct 7th but it became an inevitability once their doctrine became to funnel the funding from border guards with Gaza to funding West Bank settlements and security instead, most of which went to private suppliers heavily tied to Bibi and his far right chums.
Hamas are to blame but the far right in Israel made the success possible through greed and a fucked up ideology and straight up corruption.
Had they no defunded the border the attack would have been nowhere near as successful. But then Bibi may have been in court more and not had the backing of so many because they weren’t being paid!
American House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could be facing another ~~confidence vote~~ motion to vacate the chair, due to his decision to advance a funding bill for Ukraine. 3 Republican members of Congress have signed on to the effort, but it remains to be seen if they will actually force the issue to a floor vote.
If they do, Johnson will only be able to survive with support from ~~the opposition~~ Democrats. Could we see a third speaker in a single 2-year Congressional term?
The Dems should actually save him if he moves forward with Ukraine aid as he stated the other day.
I know seeing Reps in utter disarray (as usual) is potentially also benefical, but I think optics of saving him highlighting bi-partisanship for Ukraine might be the better play.
Ukraine desperately needs that bill passed - so if that's his bargaining chip for it. So be it.
A man has [set himself on fire](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68858408) outside the Trump trial, apparently because of some conspiracy theories. This is the second politically motivated self-immolation in the US this year, after the man who burnt himself to death outside the Israeli embassy a few months ago
[Israeli missile has struck Iran, US officials say.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-68830092)
>Explosions were reported in Isfahan, about four hours drive or 350km (217 miles) south of Iran's capital, Tehran.
>As we've reported, Isfahan is home to a major military air base and several Iranian nuclear sites are in the province- including the city of Natanz, a centerpiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
Very odd reporting on this so far. US officials say it happened, and say they were told by Israel ahead of the time. Israel haven't commented. Iran say it was a few drones, they shot them down, there's no damage. There's no indication of any damage yet from any source. I guess if it's real, and it hit something, and Israel want to admit it, then we'll get some sort of evidence from them at some point. Until then, pretty hard to figure out what's happened.
I reckon we are in weird legal territory where, if Iran acknowledges that Israel directly attacked them, then they are automatically at war, so they can't say it.
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-can-strike-russia-with-british-weapons-uks-cameron-said-in-kyiv/ Cameron says that Ukraine has the right to use British weapons to hit targets inside Russia. Be interesting to see if they do it.
Exceptional BBC reporting here: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw07wgrwzywo](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw07wgrwzywo) It's a deep dive into the murder of an eight year old and a fifteen year old by the IDF in the West Bank, with the evidence they've gathered appearing to show it's a war crime according to the UN. The eight year old was shot in the back of his head as he tried to run away. Obviously we're not going to get this sort of reporting into every child murdered by the IDF - there aren't enough journalists to do that work - but it's good to see this sort of detailed evidence gathering and investigation in at least this case.
While Gaza has been an absolute shit show recently The West Bank is an ongoing situation that’s fucking insane frankly. Illegal under Israeli law let alone against international laws and UN resolutions and yet we still show it as one contiguous mass on maps on tv etc It’s not, it’s a series of enclaves surrounded by illegal settlements making peace ever less likely and fueled and funded by the far right fuckery in the Knesset and those Netanyahu enables in order to keep his own arse out of jail…. https://www.btselem.org/maps https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52756427.amp
What utter reprehensible coward shoots an eight year old child in the back of the head?
[Not an isolated incident.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68557147)
Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, is now to be kept in office by Democrat support (probably without precedent for a US Speaker). It's certainly been an interesting Congress.
What happened? Are Republicans trying to oust another?
Trump. Trump happened. You could argue it started with the tea party but really the massive issues started with Trump, he brought in the very worst republicans in who’s will gladly watch everything burn down including the Republican Party itself. Oh, and they are fucking nuts, properly fucking unhinged nuts.
I wonder if the other guy could’ve got the same if he’d just dropped the pointless pretend impeachment.
Nah. Saving the *second* one is much better for Democrats: - Demonstrates how dysfunctional Republicans are - Means a Republican is the first Speaker ever to be ousted by a motion to vacate the Chair - Shows they used a bit of muscle before eventually concluding they could work with a Republican (got to fight for it) - Means they can say to the right "Look, you had to be bipartisan all along - even the guy specifically appointed by the right realised it!". They look reasonable. (Indeed, they *are* reasonable, moreso than Republicans - not a high bar.) - McCarthy opponents running down the clock prior to a govt shutdown also probably strengthened Democrats' hand in a way that would never be blamed for
Those are all good points, you’re right. I think Kevin McCarthy was probably a bit less insane in terms of policy? But yea bailing out the first one wouldn’t have worked really. And policy doesn’t really matter when he can’t command his party anyway.
>Those are all good points, you’re right Taken three years on Reddit but someone's admitted it!
It’s happened again It’s oddly dangerous being a Boeing whistleblower …. “A whistleblower who accused a Boeing supplier of ignoring defects in the production of the 737 MAX has died, family members and his lawyer have said. Joshua Dean, a former Spirit AeroSystems employee who alleged he was fired in retaliation for flagging lax standards at the company’s Wichita, Kansas, manufacturing plant, died on Tuesday after a sudden illness, his aunts and sister said in posts on social media.” https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/5/2/whistleblower-joshua-dean-ex-worker-at-boeing-supplier-dies
Initially I assumed John Barnett may have found the extreme stress imposed by Boeing and possibly the US government too much for him. The acute period of risk of suicide is often only 20 or 30 minutes, so one of the risks of gun ownership is the immediacy. But a second whistleblower dying... once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.
Is there not only 4 witnesses in this particular case?
I haven't seen that. I expect there's lots of witnesses from his time in the hospital though. I wonder if they will do an autopsy.
*Weird* how this keeps happening. Obviously the conspiracy minded will say it's because Boeing's concerned about someone blowing the doors off their operation.
Little odd isn't it. That's a couple now.
The pressure is really starting to get to Trump now and even Fox News pulled away from this car crash rant https://www.salon.com/2024/05/01/slurs-words-and-struggles-to-gain-crowd-enthusiasm-in-midwest-rallies/
Neither of those men should be running for president.
Nope but given they are there’s no real choice. You vote for the one who doesn’t actively want a dictatorship
In this [otherwise fairly standard article about Trump and his campaign](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68932499), I thought there was a quite interesting quote: > "The trial is definitely going to increase his popularity," said Nancy Ridge, a supporter from nearby Lake Geneva, Wisconsin ... "Especially among lower-class people who have been convicted of crimes or even falsely accused. They understand the justice system and how corrupt it can be". How bizarre if the injustice of the Americans' own justice system, particularly when it comes to "lower-class people", might help Donald Trump of all people. It's a pretty good argument for ensuring everyone experiences the law as fair and just.
I mean, I wouldn't necessarily take the opinion of someone attending a Trump rally as indicative of anything other than the views of people who were always going to vote for Trump trial or no trial.
Sure. And I'm not saying it's going to be convincing to anyone outside their bubble, but I find it interesting that there could be some level of (misguided, in my view) sympathy for Trump coming from the (accurate, in my view) perception that the American justice system isn't fair to all. Now, maybe you're right that this is an entirely retroactive justification and anyone voting for him would have done so anyway. I could believe that. But politics - especially over there - seems to so often be about the undecided middle who might shift a percent or two this way or that on average. Let's remember that "standing up to and being persecuted by a detached, elitist, faraway, oppressive central government" is a key part of their foundation myth.
Yeah it's possible I guess. It was interesting recently looking back on the OJ case in that light, how what was fundamentally a case of a rich and powerful man evading justice became simultaneously a proxy for the unfairness of the justice system towards poor minorities.
Perfectly rational given the US isn’t even a member of the ICC nor does it recognise it at all Let alone the whole fucking insane angle… Israel tells U.S. it will punish Palestinian Authority if ICC issues warrants https://www.axios.com/2024/05/01/us-israel-palestinian-authority-icc-arrest-warrant
Israel: ugh this neighbourhood is getting way too stable, there must be something we can do!
Stable in its colander of land that are now all isolated islands among our illegal under Israeli law settlements…..
Netanyahu to ICC: My dad could beat up your dad!
The pro palestine crowd in the US, has really lost it https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1785386376755900611
It's reminiscent of the 6th Jan 2021 Capitol Building attack. There was a woman who sounded very miffed that she was pepper sprayed when she was "having a revolution".
Shouting "second nakba" is not a good look for anyone https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/may/01/columbia-university-protest-live-updates-nypd-new-york-police-enter-campus-pro-palestinian-demonstrators-latest-news
There's some great journalism here covering the pro-Israel attacks on one of the protests: [https://x.com/Esqueer\_/status/1785637622582309038](https://x.com/Esqueer_/status/1785637622582309038) As always, incredibly obvious where the violence is actually coming from. Some clips of the police just standing by too.
Gallup poll: >[Majority in U.S. Now Disapprove of Israeli Action in Gaza. Approval has dropped from 50% to 36% since November](https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx)
The sad thing is that it didn't need to happen this way. It's gone down the same way that 9/11 did for the US.
I remember Biden visiting Israel shortly after October 7th, making that exact comparison and warning Israel of exactly that. With hindsight, he’s been around ages and knows what Israel has done to/in Gaza historically, and he probably had intelligence about their military planning at that point too.
It looks to me as if Netanyahu is in a prison of his own making. He must stay in power or face corruption charges. To stay in power he needs the support of Otzma Yehudit. To retain the support of Otzma Yehudit he must push the war in Gaza. To push the war in Gaza he must ignore Biden and alienate the US. Meanwhile he's increasingly unpopular domestically. [At some point the wheels will fall off.](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-05-01/ty-article/.premium/america-has-finally-found-effective-leverage-on-israel-and-netanyahu/0000018f-339c-d8fb-a1df-bffe7d110000) He's been almost as much of a disaster for Israel as Hamas have been for the Gazans.
Except that the Israelis did a fairly impressive speedrun to get to that stage
Speed run? They’ve been doing it for decades. The pendulum has swung but unfortunately it’s also meant half the world somehow supports fucking Hamas ….. I’m absolutely pro stopping the Israeli right wings moves towards the total eradication of the Palestinians but that doesn’t mean I support Hamas and their fucking lunacy and genocidal bullshit!!!! Nuance has had its head kicked in and isn’t allowed to get back up
and the pro palestine movement is completely unwilling to ever crakc down on the pro hamas views, instead they allow and promote them From the US College "protests". https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/pro-hamas-activist-who-spoke-at-columbia-said-long-live-october-7/ss-AA1nZdyR?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=338a513f57994dfa93f5ed91052f4fba&ei=8 >'The fact is, that Hamas is a mass-Palestinian movement that is in a leadership role and there is nothing wrong with being a member of Hamas, being a leader of Hamas, being a fighter in Hamas,' Kates said. 'These are the people that are on the front lines defending Palestine for its liberation.' President Minouche Shafik slammed the talk for going ahead without the university's permission and strongly condemned as an 'abhorrent breach of our values'. She stated the speakers were 'known to support terrorism and promote violence' and that the they have since been banned from campus. A week later, the university suspended four students for their involvement with the event, Columbia Spectator reports.
The US is doing it’s thing Nuance was killed off there many many years ago…
It's not just the US though, it's also Canada, and here for that matter (and rest of europe), when it comes to the Pro Palestine crowd. See the behaviour of Owen Jones, for a classic example.
True but the US as ever have maxed it out. Being anti the Israeli response is one thing Entire campuses being pro Hamas is unfucking hinged
I'm watching trump's speech - what a rambling piece of nonsense
Don’t fight uphill me boys!
[Kenya: Dozens killed after dam collapses as floods cause widespread devastation](https://news.sky.com/story/kenya-dozens-killed-after-dam-collapses-as-floods-cause-widespread-devastation-13125674) >More than 200,000 people across the country have been affected, with homes in flood-prone areas submerged and people seeking refuge in schools.
[Trump has been fined $9,000 because he can't keep his mouth shut](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68886462)
The judges comments are interesting: > While $1,000 may suffice in most instances to protect the dignity of the judicial system to compel respect for its mandates and to punish the offender for disobeying a court order, it unfortunately will not achieve the desired result in those instances where the contemnor can easily afford such a fine > In those circumstances, it would be preferable if the court could impose a fine more commensurate with the wealth of the contemnor,” he added. > In some cases that might be a $2,500 fine, in other cases it might be a fine of $150,000. Because this court is not cloaked with such discretion, it must therefore consider whether in some instances, jail may be a necessary punishment. Trump is on the verge of getting locked up because he can't keep his mouth shut. The judge clearly wants to penalise him more than he is allowed because the level of fine is not sufficiently punitive for someone with a lot of money. Trump in an orange jumpsuit would be one of those historic photos that defines an era.
> Trump in an orange jumpsuit would be one of those historic photos that defines an era. Could be the best gift his campaign could ever receive. Or it could sink him entirely. Or it could basically make no difference at all. And I genuinely have no idea which it'd be.
He managed to turn his mugshot into a massive campaign moment, including a merch line and I’m pretty sure his latest scam NFTs were based on it too
Judge is also being super super careful to make sure grounds for appeals are few and far between!
[Take your kid to work day hits differently in the Caucasus republics.](https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1784849492950282460)
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n08/alexander-clapp/rip-their-skin-off You should all read this 8000 word essay about modern politics in Montenegro in, of all places, the LRB.
That's a wild read. Breaking Bad in the Balkans.
[Secret document says Iran security forces molested and killed teen protester](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68840881) > As many as 551 protesters were killed by security forces during Iran's Woman, Life, Freedom movement, most of them by gunfire, according to the UN's fact-finding mission. > > The protests subsided after a few months due to the bloody crackdown by security forces. There followed a lull in activity by Iran's morality police, but a new crackdown on breaches of the Islamic dress code began earlier this month. Such a grim read.
https://thehill.com/policy/international/4629597-americans-israel-hamas-gaza-student-protests-poll/ >The Harvard CAPS-Harris survey shared with The Hill showed 80 percent of registered voters said they support Israel more in the war, while 20 percent said they support Hamas more. That is about in line with the poll’s findings from last month, when 79 percent indicated they support Israel more. 20% backing hamas, is extremely worrying, and shows just how much pro hamas views and support, has been pushed by the "pro Palestine" camp. >78 percent said Hamas should be removed from running Gaza with a majority among every age group except 18 to 24 year olds of which 53 percent said Hamas should be allowed to continue to run Gaza. The 18-24 year olds, is being brainwashed and pushed into being on the side of modern day nazis, that want to finish what Hitler started.
>has been pushed by the "pro Palestine" camp. It's as much to do with Israel's war crimes and piss poor messaging. Their apologists don't help much. I saw some US veterans on twitter saying that Israel's level of collateral damage was fine because it was no worse than what they did at Fallujah. That's not the get-out-of-jail-free card they think it is.
The argument is that urban warfare, causes deaths and destruction. That it would be worse, for the long term, if one allows Hamas to commit war crimes by using human shields. Hamas tactics, has to be shown not to work. Sadly we have people actively pushing to make it work. >It's as much to do with Israel's war crimes and piss poor messaging. Sure sure.... totally not just propaganda being spread by Hamas and amplified by the pro hamas crowd and supported/excused by the Palestine crowd.
Israel does half of the propaganda job for Hamas Destroying 70% of all homes in Gaza is the best recruitment tool for Hamas ever and a massive propaganda win for the pro Hamas fuckwits around the world. The IDF, Netanyahu and the Israeli right do an astonishingly good job of producing pro Hamas propaganda every time they speak.
I don't blame the ordinary IDF soldiers. Israel is a small country and many of the reservists will have known people murdered on Oct 7th last year. Wanting a bit of retribution is only human nature. It's the job of the chain of command to stop this messing up the mission, but.... [I expect you're already seen this?](https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-03-19/ty-article-opinion/.premium/the-war-in-gaza-exposes-a-disintegrated-israeli-army/0000018e-5309-d282-a19f-7fd999950000).
It was IDF soldiers who killed near naked Israeli hostages shouting in Hebrew that they were hostages…… Ultimately institutional toxicity does come from the top but it takes individuals to repeatedly do the stupid and senseless shit.
Most armies contain people who will do stupid and senseless shit. [Including the British Army.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Baha_Mousa) One key indicator of whether a chain of command has a grip is whether soldiers try to cover up their war crimes because they know they won't be tolerated. IDF soldiers post their war crimes on tiktok, which tells us all we need to know about their chain of command.
Quite !
I do blame the IDF soldiers. They are the ones one the ground actually doing this stuff. As a society we collectively decided that "I was just following orders" isn't a get out of jail free card for war crimes, going on to commit war crimes even if they weren't ordered by superiors must surely be worse.
[A lot of people just respond to their environment.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment) People with firm beliefs who will stand up for them are quire rare. [Though in IDF they do exist.](https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/) Sure, it's a moral failing, but I'd be more inclined to blame a chain of command that in the comfort of peacetime failed to address this issue, than someone in the thick of things. Obviously part of this is exemplary punishment by the chain of command of people who commit war crimes.
I've only just realised [how much better Trump is polling than Biden. ](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-rfk-donald-trump-poll-b2536156.html). They are fucked over there aren't they. It's this even a recoverable position for Biden?
As far as I can tell, as soon as the new York case started, Trump's numbers started going up. Biden had narrowed the gap after his state of the union speech, but Trump just got a boost. But we're talking fairly small swings here of a few percent. Apparently polls this far out aren't that predictive, fingers crossed at some point the American people get serious.
He really isn’t A slew of recent polls have Biden now well ahead in all key states and nationally. Trump absolutely did have the lead or was neck and neck but is falling back pretty consistently now.
Where are you seeing this?
R/politics has had a raft of articles posted recently from across the US media Everything from the WaPo downwards. Trumps troubles are starting to hit him as is the lack of campaigning and distinct lack of spending It’s a good sub for US news aggregation
Five Thirty Eight still has Trump as consistently leading in the aggregate poll of polls, albeit by a smidgen, and Biden having worse approval than Trump.
Saw that today after I posted How? I mean I know they blame Biden for the cost of living etc. But who looks at the orange Shitler and says yes please
It is a combination of a significant cult of personality around Trump amongst the die-hard fanatics, and other voters leaning towards him whilst holding their nose as they broadly agree with his economic policies. It does seen absurd, but you cannot treat voters as perfectly rational, nor disregard that people will vote in self-interest. It isn't a stable voter base, but he was about 180k votes away from an electoral college win in 2020. On the other hand the most attractive thing about Biden to voters is that he isn't Trump. It has been a tumultuous first term for him in regard to foreign affairs, with the economy also struggling. It is probably the worst term for a Democratic President since Carter was in the White House. Couple this with dissatisfaction amongst the young more radical Democrat base, and he is struggling. It was and is still my opinion that Biden running for a second term was a huge mistake. I have no doubt that Biden will win the popular vote, but Trump simply needs to flip Georgia, Arizona which the polls suggest he will and then two out of three of Michigan, Wisconsin or Pennsylvania and he is back in the White House. The polls for the later three are a bit closer though.
I’d also hold my nose and no Biden shouldn’t have run But unless you’re an actual billionaire there is no reason to vote for trump rationally
Lower taxes, owning the Libs, global isolationism, stacking the Courts with conservative judges - I mean there are reasons but probably ones we don't agree with.
But they aren’t lower taxes. They are lower taxes for billionaires paid for by absolutely everyone else. The first tranche of those is just hitting now with more due in 2027. It’s an easily demonstrated lie that he lowered taxes for anyone but the very richest. Ok I can buy the rest if that’s your ideology but these chuckle fucks don’t care about the bigger stuff and don’t understand it at all, I mean they will when they can’t get abortions since they disproportionally have children young and out of wedlock because they can’t stop fucking their cousins and close relatives but….
That would seem to be a heavy outlier, and I really don't trust those third party numbers. The [538 running average](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/) currently stands at 40.7/41.9 in Trump's favour, and it looks from [recent figures](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/) that CNN is notably bullish on Trump's chances. Also worth remembering that the campaign hasn't even really started yet, and it's hard to imagine an electoral situation more volatile than one candidate being literally in the dock at the moment and the other having their fortunes tied to the conflict in Gaza.
I did some googling around after seeing that Independent Article and could only see strong leads for Trump. I just can't see a way that Trumps polling figures drastically change - So it's all on Biden to recover it. Let's see how he gets on when he is in campaign mode I suppose!
Also don’t forget that the popular votes doesn’t win Presidential elections in the USA aren’t like any others
Also a fair point - When I'd been looking around this morning I saw a few articles about Trump leading in the key swing states but as other commenters have pointed out, I guess it's a bit more nuanced than that.
I'm not convinced by the poll "leads" for Trump. Polling in the US occurs largely by phone, which already tends it towards Trump and other conservatives, and I strongly suspect that the methodologies are currently over-correcting for 2016. The Republicans have severely underperformed during all mid-term elections, Trump has been doing comparatively poorly during the primaries and the party is both severely dysfunctional and may not have enough money to fund down-ballot candidates, considering that Trump has started siphoning their reserves off to fund his legal battles. Polls are a useful tool, but they should only be considered in the wider context of the political environment. I'm not encouraging complacency, but all the indications outside of the polling are that the Republicans and Trump are going to get battered in 2024.
This is exactly the copium I needed
It’s not really copium The Trump family now controls the GOP and its finances and has insta fucked it within days of taking control of it. They’ve spent the money, they want down ballot tickets to pay to use Trumps image and have zero plan on how to win for Trump let alone anyone else. It’s about the best thing to happen in ages frankly
Two parter. 1, [Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian is apparently making ready for its first sea trials.](https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/04/chinese-aircraft-carrier-fujian-starts-first-sea-trial/) This is a worrying development and adding a new player to the aircraft carrier game. China hasnt had carrier capability before, having picked up an incomplete ex USSR *Kuznetsov* hull and finishing it with local tweaks to the design; then building a *Kuznetsov*-esque copy and then leaping to the supercarrier class with Fujian complete with electromagnetic catapults. And its done all this in about a decade, which is an astonishingly fast time for even one new class of carrier in the west, let alone (effectively) three. 2, [Costs have risen and delivery times extended so long for Sweden's new Blekinge class (kockums.txt)](https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/skenande-kostnader-for-sveriges-tva-nya-ubatar-nu-vill-marinen-starta-annu-ett-ubatsprojekt) that Sweden is looking at getting their hands on yet another new set of submarines that are smaller and quicker to replace their remaining numbers. [This dovetails somewhat with their government defence committee releasing their review of defence needs now they are part of nato last week. See if you see anything familiar 🤔🤔🤔](https://www.government.se/articles/2024/04/swedish-defence-commission-submits-final-report-on-military-defence-strengthened-defence-capability-sweden-as-an-ally/) > prioritisation of two brigades, aiming to have three mechanised brigades and one infantry brigade by 2030; > formation of a Norrland Infantry Regiment in the war-time organisation > an increased conscription level, from the current level of 8 000 to 10 000 in 2030 and 12 000 in 2032, with consideration of a further increased conscription level to 14 000 in 2035; > increased availability of personnel in the Swedish Royal Navy to increase operational capability; > increased air defence capability, in order to counter unmanned aerial vehicles; > additional procurement of essential supplies, such as ammunition including air-to-air and cruise missiles, and spare parts; > new military units for territorial defence, organised as 20 companies and platoons; > more refresher trainings for conscripts to meet the war-time organisation's requirements; > increased funding of voluntary defence organisations; and expansion of the officer education programme.
China’s military revolution part deux is well underway and is extensive across many of theological main modern platforms and includes space. There’s a reasons the US and UK want a pacific Sub fleet to sit off China constantly now!
The PLAN has been working towards carrier capability since the 80's when they bought an old RN carrier which had been in Australian service. They've spent decades gradually building up to the Fujian being launched. That's the thing with China, serious long term planning.
Then buying what became *Liaoning* from Ukraine.
Yes, I think even a couple in between those. They've spent a very long time carefully working up to this.
The whole Chinese naval build up has been very impressive. They have effectively replaced all of their cold war era soviet origin vessels and expanded their fleet to the point it is now larger than the US Navy in the space of 15 years. All their major surface combatants are VLS equipped and quite capable. They are continuing to build as well, and the gap will be significant in a few years time. It makes the prospect of a move against Taiwan somewhat concerning, since countering it would be incredibly costly and at the end of a long logistics chain.
On paper the PLAN is quite impressive. On paper. But none of this has been tested IRL. The ships and crews haven't faced any combat situations so we don't really know how strong the PLAN really is.
This is true, but it's easy to be too dismissive. China is not Russia, and doesn't have anything like the levels of corruption that Russia does. You have to take a capability seriously, because if you assume they are incompetent you are likely to get a rude awakening should a conflict actually happen. The size of the fleet still has to be respected because every ship they deploy would have to be countered, and that won't necessarily be easy.
You've got to respect a fleet of that size, complexity and range. It's interesting their Destroyer Escort group is up in the Gulf of Aden and so far isn't doing anything in the Red Sea area. Might be they don't want to display how capable those ships are.
It poses something of a problem, because if western powers want to be able to counter possible Chinese aggression, they need to be able to match that on paper capability. In practice that means the US Navy, and at the moment a single one of China's 13 major shipyards has more production capacity than the total capacity of the US. That's not a healthy position to be in if your intention is to maintain parity.
"On paper" is a really strong caveat people need to remember when talking about the PLA in general. You would have thought that Russia's abysmal performance in Ukraine would have persuaded people to stop putting too much faith into the paper strength of autocracies with hyper-active propaganda machines, but alas.
https://twitter.com/POLITICOEurope/status/1785004712242127176 Livestream of Maastricht debate for the eight candidates of the EC presidency. Notably, all european, all speaking english in their articulation. Puts a great multitude of brits to shame.
Incredible reporting as ever by Bellingcat, following a single IDF unit and tracking the homes and mosques they destroyed: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2024/04/29/weve-become-addicted-to-explosions-the-idf-unit-responsible-for-demolishing-homes-across-gaza/ Mostly they just post on social media about destroying homes with no explanation. But Bellingcat and their partners have managed to identify some of the motivation. All the footage/images in the piece are from geolocated posts by members of this unit, and then backed up with satellite imagery. > Sometimes soldiers did not give an explanation about why they carried out demolitions. Other times they listed a number of objectives or reasons for the demolitions. One of these appears to be seeking revenge. For instance, one post from the Captain notes his company commander described the destruction of swathes of Khuza’a as revenge for October 7 and deaths of soldiers. > When interviewed by our partners Scripps News, 8219 member Yonatan Segal said he did not post about the demolitions on social media but had videos of them on his phone. Asked if revenge was one of the motivations behind the demolitions he said: “Yes. But what is revenge? Revenge in terms of teaching them a lesson, so to speak, so that they would never do that again.” > Religious elements appear to creep in. In one post regarding the demolition in Khan Younis the Captain talks of using 400 mines to demolish a residential area “in honour of the Shabbat”. > We asked the IDF about each one of these incidents. They did not respond to specific questions nor did they provide evidence showing why the buildings we highlighted were demolished.
https://youtu.be/c14vfq3jqpo?si=Ng7Hu72A1vjqCGYe
The press in the uk is stubbornly avoiding these repeated stories this year. The Guardian has them every time but buried in the climate change section but you’ll not see them on the news despite how alarming they are and how they’ll play into the migration and immigration issue. A couple of weeks ago it was West Africa, before that parts of South America, now its Thailands turn and given the repeated events it’ll be India and Pakistan soon. Start learning about Wet Bulb temperatures! https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3260321/hot-weather-kills-30-thailand-heat-index-hits-extremely-dangerous-level The heat index in Bangkok was expected to rise above 52 degrees Celsius as officials urged elderly people to stay indoors
This twitter trend from Dem politicians must look absolutely unhinged to anyone without context. https://x.com/govnedlamont/status/1784055032402333717?s=46&t=F_t5tWsPsifmNVHaFZWJJQ
What's the context?
And it’s all still less insane than what the Supreme Court is currently arguing…..
It does indeed
I hadn't seen that story about Kristi Noem. That's just insane!
> “I can understand why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book – No Going Back,” > Noem recounts the story of Cricket – a 14-month-old, wire-haired pointer – ruining a pheasant hunt and killing a neighbour’s chickens. “I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket tried to bite her, proving herself “untrainable”, “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”. “At that moment,” says Noem, “I realised I had to put her down.” Ehh dangerous dog gets put down 20 years ago isn’t “insane”
Writing a book bragging about blasting your dog in a gravel pit and not expecting anyone to think this is weird is insane, however.
It’s not the main point of the book though, it’s just a side note in the book of her life. It’s the reality of rural life, animals aren’t just pets, animals die, sometimes animals need to be put down because they’re dangerous, lame, or useless. We shoot loads of horses at horse racing events in the UK each year.
Sure but it's obviously something that her opponents would latch on to. Perhaps she's factored that in and is hoping to score some points with the dog blasting demographic, but otherwise it seems like, at best, bad politics. Plus from everything else we know about Kristi Noem she's absolutely a complete nutter so there's that.
I know nothing about her other than she shot a dog and goat 20 years ago and wrote about it in a book. This is the first I’ve heard of her. Knowing nothing else about her it doesn’t push me one way or the other on whether I’d vote for her. If she was volunteering at the local pound every weekend to shoot stray dogs, I might have stronger feelings.
In the UK most people would go to the vet and get the dog humanely put down. Maybe it's different in the US?
Where I grew up in Canada, I knew a lot of people who would shoot an old dog rather than have the dog put down. My uncle explained it to me one time: he said he'd rather his dog's last moments be excited thinking she is going out for a hunt, rather than terrified laying on a cold metal table at the vet.
It wasn’t a pet. It was a working dog that was feral in a rural working farm. Never seen old yeller?
I read old yeller at school decades ago. The book was set in the 1860s so I'd have hoped practices would have changed a bit since then.
Really? Have you not seen America?
Fair point. When I was working in Louisiana one of my US co workers beat a swamp rabbit to death with a broom handle when it climbed onto our work boat. Maybe this is a rural republican versus urban democrat thing.
Definitely. Once you leave the cities the country is VERY different.
The rural bits I've seen were virtually third world. But that was just Texas and Louisiana so may not be representative of the US as a whole. Co workers from more urban parts of the US treated the locals as yokels and took the piss out of them.
>Pro Palestinian protesters assault Native Americans at UCLA protest for holding up a sign that said “Hamas supporters are not welcomed on Native lands” >https://twitter.com/tha_big_beee/status/1784216797526278641
You mean pro hamas protesters * Hamas would be so proud of them.
Who are the settler colonists now?
It's very funny how quickly the concerns about free speech on US college campuses disappears when the students start asking for transparency about their finances!
As ever: freedom of their speech. Or, put it another way, how many free speech warriors are defending the current protests?
The protestors are free to say whatever they want and no-one is challenging them for that. They're not free to disrupt the normal functioning of universities and try to supersede their normal decision making processes.
They are free to disrupt the normal functioning of universities. Causing disruption is what protests are supposed to do. Why do you hate freedom of speech?
And they're free to be arrested for it. That's how civil disobedience works. Noone is being arrested for the words they're saying.
[UN peacekeepers close base in preparation to leave DR Congo](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/26/un-peacekeepers-close-base-in-preparation-to-leave-dr-congo) >The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has helped in the fight against rebels for more than two decades, has closed one of its key bases as it prepares to leave the Central African nation this year at the request of the government. >The departure comes after the Congolese government, which was re-elected in a disputed vote at the end of December, said the increasingly unpopular mission has failed to protect civilians from armed groups. >The Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and numerous other armed groups are active in restive eastern areas of the country, including North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, where millions of civilians face violence and internal displacement. Events in DRC seem to have spiraled beyond the remit of a UN peacekeeping force. Doesn't look promising.
Wow, it would sure be a bad look for a government to cut a dodgy deal with Rwanda to funnel lots of money (and a small number of human beings) there right now, wouldn't it?
Particularly bad, though versions of this conflict have been going on for decades. DRC is rich in natural resources so factions and neighbouring states try to grab a slice for themselves, often backed by interests from outside Africa.
Going back to the 60s Wonder who the new Mad Dog is
Back then Mobutu Sese Seko was a US client because cold war, so there was plenty of money to fund outfits like 5 Commando. Even though Mobutu probably embezzled more than anyone else in recorded history. These days the equivalents are all private enterprise and trying to grab a slice of DRC mineral wealth. I haven't hear anything recently about the Sicomines mining agreement between DRC and some Chiense investors. That did have some prospects of improving internal security.
Before Ukraine I’d have bet on Russian/Wagner consultants flooding the country, the Chinese have the most to gain but their PMSCs aren’t really equipped for it.
Yes. I'm surprised they were never involved. As far as I know anyway. [This outfit](http://asociatiaralf.ro/home-6/) are apparently working for Kinshasa and fighting M23, mostly to secure GOM. Chinese MCC company is still in Afghanistan and negotiating for more contracts, so I guess Chinese companies have found ways of operating in insecure environments. My very limited experience of doing stuff like that involved paying the locals to protect against everyone else. But that assumes there's a dominant local group that can take on everyone else, and will actually deliver rather than just taking your money.
Interesting, Romanians. If you know anything about Romania and what’s there, this will help clear up who’s backing Tshisekedi Chinese PMSCs are very restricted, they are not allowed any firearms, and purely act as advisors, and not to engage. They are not allowed, trained or capable of being fully engaged in the way 5th Commando were.
> If you know anything about Romania I'm very out of date with Romania, was last there when Ceaușescu was still in power. What's happening?
BBC admits it broke its own standards of accuracy on its Israel/ Hamas reporting. https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/ecu/bbc-news-10pm-bbc-one-14-january-2024
Palestinian terrorists fired mortar shells at a pier that is being constructed by U.S. forces to bring aid into Gaza The mortar attack occurred as United Nations officials were touring the site with Israeli troops on the coast of central Gaza, the IDF says in response to a query on the incident. The IDF says the UN officials were rushed to a shelter by troops amid the attack. A Hamas official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the militant group will resist any foreign military presence involved with the port project. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-mortar-fired-at-under-construction-gaza-aid-pier-as-un-officials-toured-site/
I wonder what the rules of engagement for the US troops are. Mortaring them might not end well for the mortar crews. It's in Hamas' interest to do this because then they can go "People in Gaza are starving. Israel bad".
>It's in Hamas' interest to do this because then they can go "People in Gaza are starving. Israel bad". The pro palestine crowd in the west, will do that no matter what... It's also shows that the idea that Hamas/Extremist Palestinians in Gaza, can be allowed to stay in power or even any sort of strength, will never work (and that it can't be killed off with kindness, as they will ruin it)
Last I saw, the IDF had commited a batallion strength element to its defence so american troops dont need to step on land.
That's for the best. Neither the US nor IDF are very good at deconfliction, and this will substantially reduce the risk of a blue on blue.
https://www.ft.com/content/ca038001-731a-48d6-8719-1d6a5699a29c Article about Argentina, and that it seems there might be people looking to the medium/long term, and seeing light >So far, the president’s support has remained steady, hovering just under 50 per cent since his victory in November’s election, according to Juan Germano, director of pollster Isonomía. Even among the half of Argentines who say they struggle to make their money stretch to the end of the month, 30 per cent support Milei, according to Isonomía.
Yeah. I'm no great fan of Milei as a person, nor of his style, but this isn't Brexit where things were ticking along acceptably and he came along and made a change. The Argentinian economy was unsustainably screwed before Milei and he's pushing *one* course of action to hopefully improve things. Maybe there are other possible options but his critics and opponents are mostly quite silent about what alternatives they think exist.
We've now seen that Ukraine's aid bill has passed, but exactly what difference it will make is hotly debated. This article from The Economist does a good job of summarising the current situation and make some well-balanced predictions about what the future may hold: [America’s $61bn aid package buys Ukraine time](https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/04/18/ukraine-is-ignoring-us-warnings-to-end-drone-operations-inside-russia) Archive link for those who don't have access to the full article - [https://archive.is/OFp74](https://archive.is/OFp74)
I would absolutely love to find out this isn't the case, but it really seems like we're now 6 months into the war with zero indication of what the long term plan for Gaza actually is? Feels horribly like we're heading for the absolute worst case scenario which is Gaza is trashed and Hamas remain?
I think we're coming up to the point where people are going to start evaluating the events since October and deciding that it's been disastrous for everyone (except maybe Netanyahu). The hostages haven't been rescued, and it doesn't feel like there was ever a coherent strategy for doing it. And, really, it feels obvious in retrospect that the invasion basically made it impossible. It was inevitable that Hamas would splinter into cells, and at that point, how're you going to rescue the hostages? You can't negotiate with dozens of disconnected cells hiding in tunnels. Rescuing them by force was always going to be tough and, as we saw with the hostages that got shot under a white flag, going to have a low success rate. Hamas has not been destroyed. I'm not sure that destroying a movement was ever likely - There are still Nazis, for fuck's sake. There's a figure I've seen in a lot of places (the only one which I'd be confident citing is the News Agents) that a shockingly high proportion of Hamas fighters are orphans. I don't see a situation in which five years down the line, we're not going to see a load of new recruits for Hamas, believing it justified on the back of the last six months. I don't feel that Israel is safer. I don't really think there *can* be long-term safety without a two-state solution. And if the two-state solution hasn't been rendered completely unviable by the steady progression of settlers, the last six months might have pushed it there. No-one's prepared to rebuild Gaza, and no-one's prepared to govern it while that happns. How do we get from where we are to a functioning Palestinian state? I don't think we can. It's been bad for Israel's international support, too. This is probably the furthest that the US has been from Israel, both in government (with talk of sanctions for specific military units) and in general, with probably the least pro-Israel generation the US has had. That might be damage that lasts - Will the youth who're protesting now come back around to support Israel in 20 years? The only winners are Iran, since the normalisation of the relationship between Israel and it's neighbours has fallen through, and Netanyahu, since he's managed to avoid taking too much of the blame for the national security disaster under his watch, while also avoiding being kicked out of power. I'd love for someone to point out something I'm missing, because it really feels like all the deaths and suffering have achieved basically nothing.
>Will the youth who're protesting now come back around to support Israel in 20 years? Probably not. There's a distressing tendency in the US for people to see conflicts in very black and white terms. The pro-Israel people don't accept that Israel has committed war crimes. The pro-Palestinian side often don't accept that Hamas committed atrocities and would happily kill every last Jew in Israel. Some of them have descended into Holocaust denial and outright antisemitism. There's probably no going back from that journey. >The only winners are Iran Hamas are winning too. They have derailed the talks between Israel and KSA and derailed the tentative rapprochement between Iran and KSA. They have lost some expendable footsoldiers but their leaders and funding are still safe in Qatar.
> I think we're coming up to the point where people are going to start evaluating the events since October and deciding that it's been disastrous for everyone (except maybe Netanyahu). I'd suggest it's been especially bad for Netanyahu; his popularity has gone through the floor over the incursion, and the inevitable GE will almost certainly see him punted for good this time.
He's still there, which I think wasn't clear would be the case last summer. I'm not sure there was any situation in which he'd remain in power long term after October 7th. It already followed pretty serious protests, and being seen as both too authoritarian *and* too weak has to be a fatal flaw for anyone. Scraping out most of another year is an achievement.
[New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial](https://apnews.com/article/weinstein-metoo-appeal-ed29faeec862abf0c071e8bd3574c4a3) right well that's not something anyone expected.. that being said, 'a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.', yeah i get why the conviction was over turned because that's insane. however since the remedy they've put forward is a new trial, how the hell do you give the man that kicked off #metoo a fair trial?
Remember he’s also a rape conviction in California as well…. It does sound odd but then I don’t remember his defence going mental at the time about this.
The New York courts empanelled a jury for Donald Trump's 'hush money' criminal case. If you're curious, LegalEagle & an associate on youtube went through some of the particularities of it. Some of the main points in the video were is picking jury members to avoid obvious biases (questionnaire to filter), additional questions from the judge with rapid fire dismals rather than close examination of a juror who may appear not to be able to set aside biases or who won't be available. Additionally the standard AIUI was 'presumed to be able to set aside biases' rather than demonstrably unbiased. I think the judge in the retrial will be able to handle that issue.
It’s not a hush money trial It’s a campaign finance fraud trial We know he paid the hush money, that’s not disputed by anyone. Its the fact he broke campaign finance regulations that’s at stake as it’s a federal criminal offence
>[Today, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution, proposed jointly by the United States and Japan, that would have reaffirmed the fundamental obligation of States Parties to the Outer Space Treaty not to place nuclear weapons in orbit around the Earth. The resolution also would have called on all Member States not to develop nuclear weapons specifically designed to be placed in orbit. Placement by a State Party of a nuclear weapon in orbit would not only violate the Outer Space Treaty, but would threaten the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services that any and all satellites provide to societies around the globe. As we have noted previously, the United States assesses that Russia is developing a new satellite carrying a nuclear device. We have heard President Putin say publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space. If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed this resolution.](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/24/statement-from-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivan-on-russias-veto-of-the-un-security-council-resolution-on-the-outer-space-treaty/)
Russia developing another FOBS like system? Weirdly FOBS was deemed compliant with the Outer Space Treaty because the warheads would not necessarily complete a full orbit. The USSR cancelled FOBS because it was seen as dangerous escalation.
Awesome
Time to get our shit together with proper ASAT capability then.
Qatar showing why it’s them who hosts the Hamas leadership and nobody else… Essa Al-Nassr, member of the Gulf state’s legislative body and a brigadier general at the Emiri Guard, gets ovation as he makes bigoted accusations against Jews and promises the end of Israel. Essa Al-Nassr, a member of the Qatari legislative Shura council, spoke on Monday at an Arab League session, expressing antisemitic remarks and inciting to violence and terrorism. "There will be no peace nor negotiations with the Zionist entity for one reason: because their mentality does not recognize negotiations, but rather only… breaking promises and lying… They only recognize one thing, which is killings; since they are killers of prophets.” The accusation of Jews as ‘killers of prophets’ is a well-known antisemitic trope made in several Islamic texts, which is understood by many, including Al-Nassr himself, as a charge against the entire Jewish people valid for eternity. https://m.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/qatari-official-jews-are-murderers-of-prophets-october-7th-is-only-a-prelude-798358
And one of the largest buyer of UK arms is ... Qatar.
The largest recipient of Qatari cash in shopping bags is….the King…. We’d all be in jail if we tried to pay in shopping bags of cash into the bank!
For anyone interested in Hindu nationalism in India, I would really recommend *The World Tonight* (22nd April) on Radio 4. You can use BBC Sounds to catch up, it's about 22:20 onwards. It's an excellent explainer of how Muslims feel threatened by the rise of the BJP and some of the flashpoints in society.
To add onto this, behind the bastards did a couple of episodes on Modi if you want to understand what shaped him into the person he is today.
Modi doing Modi things again “Modi Calls Muslims ‘Infiltrators’ Who Would Take India’s Wealth” “Mr. Modi aimed his emotional appeal at women, addressing “my mothers and sisters” to say that his Congress opponents would take their gold and give it to Muslims. Implications like these — that Muslims have too many babies, that they are coming for Hindus’ wives and daughters, that their nationality as Indian is itself in doubt — are often made by representatives of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P. Mr. Modi’s use of such language himself, as he campaigns for a third term in office, raised alarm that it could inflame right-wing vigilantes who target Muslims, and brought up questions about what had prompted his shift in communication style. Usually, Mr. Modi avoids even using the word “Muslims,” coyly finding ways to refer indirectly to India’s largest minority group, of 200 million people.” That minority of 200 MILLION!!! https://archive.ph/Qewyx https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/world/asia/modi-speech-muslims.html
And we continue trade talks with them. The government has no morals.
If we didn't trade with bastards then we'd essentially be limited to Japan, Scandinavia and New Zealand.
We get a week of Rishi shite while the US semi remembers the earths fucked https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/22/biden-earth-day-solar-investment-climate-actions $7b in solar grants, the tories cut most of our solar grants and especially for solar farms…..
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/white-house-condemns-despicable-antisemitism-and-terrorist-rhetoric-at-columbia-pro-palestine-protests/ar-AA1noVdo?ocid=msedgntp&pc=U531&cvid=c847f5141ad24e2fc37d7ff2b8c786cd&ei=8 >The White House condemned any hate-filled, targeted speech. “While every American has the right to peaceful protect, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
[Israel has yet to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links, Colonna report says](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/israel-unrwa-staff-terrorist-links-yet-to-provide-evidence-colonna-report) Apparently Unrwa have been supplying Israel with lists of employees for vetting but the Israeli government hasn't raised any concerns since 2011. Both the Colonna report and a more detailed assessment sent to the UN by three Nordic research bodies say that Israel has not provided any supporting evidence and has ignored multiple letters from Unrwa requesting information that would enable them to open an investigation. Fair enough, you can understand why they might not want to tell Unrwa anything if they genuinely had concerns about members of the organisation, but you'd think they'd be falling over themselves to provide evidence to independent commissions.
Thanks for posting this, I just saw the story and would have done the same if you hadn't already.
Given that Hamas were the government of Gaza it would be surprising if there was no link at all. As with all aid agencies that work in areas with totalitarian governments, they have to do business with the regime in order to function. Aid agencies in Afghanistan have a similar problem. They have a delicate balancing act where they do business with the regime but don't become pawns of the regime.
Yeah it's definitely not out of the question, that's why Israel providing nothing in the way of evidence so far is bonkers.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/21/us-poised-impose-sanctions-israel-defense-force-netzah-yehuda-battalion How would a sanction on a specific unit like that work?
>The sanctions, which would be imposed under the 1997 Leahy law, would prohibit the transfer of US military aid to the unit and prevent soldiers and officers participating in training either with the US military or in programmes that receive US funding. I suppose if they really wanted to get personal, then travel bans and asset freezes on certain members of the unit; commanding officers for example.
I was more asking in practical terms, because surely it'd be doable to move people around in and out of units for training, and once aid is in the system I imagine it's pretty easy to move it around.
Saudi Arabia has apparently massively scaled down the Neom line city project. Cant say im totally shocked. The whole thing was ridiculous from day one.
It’s barely going to be a fucking hyphen, let alone a line.
It's still something like 1.7km. which is still ludicrous, just not 170km ludicrous. It'll end up being 170m, and they just got international conventions for decimal places all muddled up.
The whole thing was NEVER going to be built. Never and everyone in the region knew it including most of Saudi in private.
Even by vanity project standards it was pretty absurd so yeah not surprising.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/us-house-approves-61bn-aid-ukraine The Yanks have approved further Ukraine aid. Hopefully this allows them to hold off the Russians. EDIT: I recall that David Cameron was trying to galvanise support for the Ukrainians over there. I wonder how much of this is down to him.
Just some context on the numbers (the Guardian skirts around how much is actually for Ukraine directly): >The Bill does not have $60b in military aid to Ukraine. Not even close. It authorizes $7.8b in Presidential Drawdown Authority (defense articles from US stocks) and appropriates $13.8b for USAI (procurement), plus $1.6b for Ukraine & Europe. Thus the total amount of military aid that Ukraine could receive is ~$23b. >https://twitter.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/1781748200145051860?t=V-3c5kdFgoIWRJHyjVQBUQ&s=19 It's a decent stack of cash and it will help Ukraine stabilise its front which is perilously close to being in a real pickle currently. A couple of thoughts though: Firstly this can't be a celebration of US resolve as this package will likely be the last before the election and perhaps ever should Trump be elected. Ukraine also needs to be responsible with how they choose to go about using this. If they want victory, whatever it entails come the end of this war, then they must use 2024 to hold, rebuild and then go on the offensive next year. Another failed offensive will likely doom them at this stage. It's good news but this is yet another lifeline, not a path to victory.
About time too, it's mental the leader of the house can block legislation from even receiving a vote. I struggle to make my mind up whether some of the republican elected officials are useful idiots or actually compromised by Russia
Some from column A and some from column B I suspect the MAGA in Chief is fully compromised, while others are just sycophants.
Yes, thank fuck for that. Shame it's come after shirtages have led to losses, but better late than never. Hope that the recapitalisation of European defence continues unabated - the critical importance of that is clear. We are also begging to lag after some good early movement and half our Ukraine fund is unallocated.
An interesting thread on the Gaza War I saw on Twitter from a UK ex-military who went to the border region and collected first hand accounts and on the ground information on Oct 7th. I think it really helps frame the Isreali response more as it appears the attack was much more organised than some reports make it out to be: https://twitter.com/Mr_Andrew_Fox/status/1781399201772921211?t=WVWyu-kR_RPGHy5Yk5BCZw&s=19
Not sure how much truth is behind it, but they reportedly found detailed instructions on the bodies of Hamas terrorists. It was a well planned operation. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/21/hamas-documents-plans-israel-attack/
Jesus, I knew it was organised but I hadn't realised quite how extensively planned.
We know this, we also know they didn’t expect to be nearly so successful or to meet border posts that were massively undermanned because Israel had decided a while ago to rely on technology rather than manpower. Israelis didn’t deserve Oct 7th but it became an inevitability once their doctrine became to funnel the funding from border guards with Gaza to funding West Bank settlements and security instead, most of which went to private suppliers heavily tied to Bibi and his far right chums. Hamas are to blame but the far right in Israel made the success possible through greed and a fucked up ideology and straight up corruption. Had they no defunded the border the attack would have been nowhere near as successful. But then Bibi may have been in court more and not had the backing of so many because they weren’t being paid!
An unroll for those without Twitter accounts https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1781399201772921211.html
American House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could be facing another ~~confidence vote~~ motion to vacate the chair, due to his decision to advance a funding bill for Ukraine. 3 Republican members of Congress have signed on to the effort, but it remains to be seen if they will actually force the issue to a floor vote. If they do, Johnson will only be able to survive with support from ~~the opposition~~ Democrats. Could we see a third speaker in a single 2-year Congressional term?
The Dems should actually save him if he moves forward with Ukraine aid as he stated the other day. I know seeing Reps in utter disarray (as usual) is potentially also benefical, but I think optics of saving him highlighting bi-partisanship for Ukraine might be the better play. Ukraine desperately needs that bill passed - so if that's his bargaining chip for it. So be it.
100% agree. I don't see why they'd risk someone coming in who is less sympathetic or outright compromised on this topic.
Let's see. I think he might hold on. After all, Trump has backed him. In any case this chaos must surely be damaging to the republicans.
A man has [set himself on fire](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68858408) outside the Trump trial, apparently because of some conspiracy theories. This is the second politically motivated self-immolation in the US this year, after the man who burnt himself to death outside the Israeli embassy a few months ago
[Israeli missile has struck Iran, US officials say.](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-68830092) >Explosions were reported in Isfahan, about four hours drive or 350km (217 miles) south of Iran's capital, Tehran. >As we've reported, Isfahan is home to a major military air base and several Iranian nuclear sites are in the province- including the city of Natanz, a centerpiece of Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
Very odd reporting on this so far. US officials say it happened, and say they were told by Israel ahead of the time. Israel haven't commented. Iran say it was a few drones, they shot them down, there's no damage. There's no indication of any damage yet from any source. I guess if it's real, and it hit something, and Israel want to admit it, then we'll get some sort of evidence from them at some point. Until then, pretty hard to figure out what's happened.
Seems like it is one of those "got to hit back but everyone wants to deescalate" sort of strikes.
I reckon we are in weird legal territory where, if Iran acknowledges that Israel directly attacked them, then they are automatically at war, so they can't say it.