Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria continues to enjoy “de facto free gas” from Russia’s Gazprom – a situation which satisfies no one but ensures political stability in the Russian-controlled region, the country’s energy minister says. Victor Parlicov, however, also says that this situation is fragile and not sustainable in the long run.
Can't wait to read the comments for this one
(on WaPo, I mean, though comments on my HK nudie pic are welcome as well 🙂)
While the Belgorod conscripts aren’t officially participating in the war, they regularly come under fire; many have suffered injuries, and at least seven have been killed. At the beginning of the war, the country’s leadership, including President Vladimir Putin himself, promised that no conscripts would be involved in the “special military operation.”
can't even do an audio stream to 400k people xDDDDDD
Join in the next "twitter space" to even increase server load :)
Salting = getting a job with the intent to organize a workplace.
When citizens are voting away the democracies they claim to cherish, they are driven in part by the belief that their opponents will undermine democracy first, a new research has shown. The findings suggest that "aspiring autocrats may instigate democratic backsliding by accusing their opponents of subverting democracy". The authors claim that "we can foster democratic stability by informing partisans about the other side’s commitment to democracy."
Here is the study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01594-w
Under pressure from the outside world and increasingly fearful of internal resistance, Wladimir Putin’s system is turning increasingly to the old Soviet dictatorial playbook. A search for enemies, external and internal, is central and denunciation is its tool. The state encourages the lowest human traits and builds upon its repressive system.
Julian Assange's wife Stella and his lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said that a plea deal was one option to end his incarceration in the way a negotiation led to the release of former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks in 2007. “For Julian, this is a life and death situation. Julian has to be free and that is the primary priority,” Stella Assange said.
The Australian lawyer for Assange, Stephen Kenny, who also acted for Hicks before his release, said he was doubtful the US Department of Justice would be open to a plea deal. “My assessment of the American position is that they are quite content to see Julian suffer as long and as much as possible."
Earlier this month the Chinese government announced that it was planning to “improve” district administration, an overhaul that would see the number of publicly elected seats slashed. The day after Paul Zimmerman, the vice-chairperson of the Southern District Council, where he represents Pok Fu Lam, a quiet, middle class residential area home to a number of international schools, wrote to the 5,000-odd residents that the changes would “ultimately [be] a loss for everyone – the public, the city, and the government at all levels.”
Hope I'm not going overboard with all the pro-union stuff I've been posting. Guess I'm a bit jealous since I can't join one, but I do think that having stronger unions in this country could really help improve the quality of people's lives.
The Kremlin will remain committed to undermining Ukrainian (and Georgian, Moldovan, Armenian, and the list goes on) democracy and sovereignty for as long as Putin remains in power and maybe longer if Russian autocracy continues. And the Ukrainian people have already proved their mettle: They will fight for their democracy until the day Russian forces leave Ukraine.
(switched to yt from invidious so thumbnail will show)
In his last statement in the court, the 63-year old once again criticised Russian president Wladimir Putin and the invasion. "This war is [...] the rare conflict in which the truth is one hundred percent on one side," Krieger said. "And that is the Ukrainian side."
China’s envoy Li Hui is in Ukraine's capital at the moment seeking to promote Beijing-led negotiations to resolve the conflict. He is the most senior Chinese diplomat to visit Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. China, a close ally of Moscow, has not publicly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, whose foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said that peace depended on “respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
Extremist groups attract and groom young Brazilians online through seemingly innocuous discussions about music, gaming, and internet culture. A rise in school shootings in the country has brought urgency to the curbing online radicalization, the researchers say, and they are formulating new policies and approaches to tackle the problem.
As in Crimea after the Russian occupation in 2014, Ukrainians who now hesitate to apply for a Russian passport can expect to endure threats and face discrimination, including in accessing medical care or social services. The community leader in one of the occupied cities told citizens that if they "do not take Russian passports, their land will be confiscated and the whole family, including young children, will be deported.”
Also: https://jacobin.com/2023/05/economic-bill-of-rights-insecurity-poverty-freedom
The Chinese Communist Party has increasingly shifted towards a more authoritarian regime under Xi Jinping, says researcher Elke Spiessens from the Dutch University of Leiden. "You see within the party a tendency to draw more control to Beijing and keep people more under control." Among other things, this new direction manifests itself in China's increasing profile as a nation-state, in which there is no room for an alternative identity, and the Islam appears to be the Chinas government's ideal scapegoat to justify the opression of Uyghurs.
A Jewish president of a mainly Christian land sat down with Muslim soldiers and made a solemn vow as they broke the daily Ramadan fast. “We will return to Crimea,” he said. These were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s words as he supped with Crimean Tatars on the peninsula — one that is linked by land and international law to Ukraine but by conquest and an 18-kilometre bridge to Russia.
“I thought of my father waking before dawn, driving hours through the cool morning mist, to cut grass, to spray and inhale chemicals—to become a spectre. He had done everything right. He worked like an animal for his employers. He had no criminal record. His credit was great. He didn’t drink or do drugs. He went quietly to work every morning and came quietly home every evening. He obeyed his bosses and won employee of the year multiple times. He paid his taxes and mowed his lawn and met with his children’s teachers. He was the ideal immigrant. The American Dream personified. And yet, the moment his broken body could no longer be exploited for its labor, he was doubted and ignored and humiliated. Everywhere he turned for help—workers’ compensation or welfare or Social Security or Medi-Cal or the court system itself—he was treated like a scam artist. A crook. The bureaucracy inherent to these programs turned him into a stack of documents. A list of ailments. He was dismissed and forgotten. Just another spectre in America.”
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