World News Thread
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Re: World News Thread
Reuters: "Venezuelans vote in referendum on disputed territory with Guyana."
The dispute has been going on for about a century. It concerns some 60,000 sqare miles, which is about two-thirds of Guyana. There was an agreement in 1966 that set the current borders. An international court has recently been reviewing the case but is unlikely to render a decision for years. This referendum would authorize Venezuela's government to ignore the court's decision if they don't like it. The area is dense jungle, but recently it was found to hold large oil deposits.
The dispute has been going on for about a century. It concerns some 60,000 sqare miles, which is about two-thirds of Guyana. There was an agreement in 1966 that set the current borders. An international court has recently been reviewing the case but is unlikely to render a decision for years. This referendum would authorize Venezuela's government to ignore the court's decision if they don't like it. The area is dense jungle, but recently it was found to hold large oil deposits.
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Apparently an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans will back President Maduro should he decide to take over two-thirds of Guyana, because the measure passed with 95% approval. I have to say that faking the results so explicitly does show that Maduro doesn't really care that people know it's a fraud.N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 12:22 am Reuters: "Venezuelans vote in referendum on disputed territory with Guyana."
The dispute has been going on for about a century. It concerns some 60,000 sqare miles, which is about two-thirds of Guyana. There was an agreement in 1966 that set the current borders. An international court has recently been reviewing the case but is unlikely to render a decision for years. This referendum would authorize Venezuela's government to ignore the court's decision if they don't like it. The area is dense jungle, but recently it was found to hold large oil deposits.
- Túrin Turambar
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Re: World News Thread
I agree. The entire thing is bizarre, from insisting on having a referendum to justify what may be an invasion to making it such a transparently fake one.N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 4:49 amApparently an overwhelming majority of Venezuelans will back President Maduro should he decide to take over two-thirds of Guyana, because the measure passed with 95% approval. I have to say that faking the results so explicitly does show that Maduro doesn't really care that people know it's a fraud.N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 12:22 am Reuters: "Venezuelans vote in referendum on disputed territory with Guyana."
The dispute has been going on for about a century. It concerns some 60,000 sqare miles, which is about two-thirds of Guyana. There was an agreement in 1966 that set the current borders. An international court has recently been reviewing the case but is unlikely to render a decision for years. This referendum would authorize Venezuela's government to ignore the court's decision if they don't like it. The area is dense jungle, but recently it was found to hold large oil deposits.
Funnily enough, local elections in North Korea saw 0.01% of voters vote against the regime, which is an unprecedented level of opposition and has led observers to debate whether this is actually Pyongyang losing its grip or allowing some token 'no' votes for show:
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: World News Thread
Or as an excuse to search for & crack down on dissidents.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
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Argentina's new leader apparently is doing what Donald Trump would like to do in the U.S. if he wins next year:
- RoseMorninStar
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Re: World News Thread
This is supposed to be a libertarian.
"What a place! What a situation! What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter."
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
Re: World News Thread
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, the longest-serving monarch after Elizabeth II, is abdicating in favour of her son.
But wait! There's more!
But wait! There's more!
(from article on Tolkien GatewayIn the eary 1970s, the Queen was inspired to illustrate The Lord of the Rings. She sent her illustrations to Tolkien, who was struck by the similarity to the style of his own drawings. In 1977, Queen Margrethe's drawings were published in the Danish translation of the book (Ringenes Herre, edition by publishers Gyldendal; one illustration for each chapter[1]), redrawn by the British artist Eric Fraser. Under the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer her illustrations were also featured in a British edition of The Lord of the Rings, published by The Folio Society.
- Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: World News Thread
I had forgotten that little tidbit! Thanks!
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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Some rare good news out of Israel.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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Almost 100 people were killed yesterday when two bombs exploded in the city of Kerman in southwest Iran. The victims were attending a memorial for Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military leader whom the U.S. killed in Iraq four years ago yesterday. (Soleimani was arguably a legitimate military target who was definitely responsible for a lot of terrorist activity in the Middle East, although the assassination seems to have been a rash move and resulted in U.S. soldiers being injured in Iranian missile strikes. It also resulted in Iran accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian commercial flight, killing 176 people.) Today ISIS claimed responsibility for yesterday's bombing.
Re: World News Thread
Iran has been increasing security on its borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan as a result. This could get interesting.
When you can do nothing what can you do?
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Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, most of which were successfully thwarted by the U.S. and U.K. armed services, have continued rather incessantly for the past month, and twice led major shipping carriers to withdraw their traffic from that route. In response:Frelga wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 11:07 pm Well, this is not good.
US Central Command wrote:Today, there were four attacks against three separate commercial vessels operating in international waters in the southern Red Sea. These three vessels are connected to 14 separate nations. The Arleigh-Burke Class destroyer USS CARNEY responded to the distress calls from the ships and provided assistance. ...
"The U.S. and U.K, with support from Australia, the Netherlands, Bahrain, and Canada, conducted joint strikes tonight against Houthi targets in Yemen, per a U.S. Department of Defense official. The strikes involved U.S. aircraft, ships and submarines."
Edited to observe that there are a ridiculous number of people on social media arguing that the Houthis were right to attack the ships. I echo this person:
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Two U.S. Navy SEALS have been missing since last week amidst an operation that seized "Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missile components from a vessel off the coast of Somalia ... that was destined for Houthis in Yemen". They went overboard in high swells during that operation.
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A Canadian court has ruled that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated the rights of truck drivers when he invoked emergency powers in 2022 to crack down on their illegal protests.
Re: World News Thread
And this Canadian says that ruling is bullshit.
Re: World News Thread
And this one agrees! What about the rights of the citizens of Ottawa? The truckers held the city hostage for a month!!
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
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Re: World News Thread
N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 9:51 pm Almost 100 people were killed yesterday when two bombs exploded in the city of Kerman in southwest Iran. The victims were attending a memorial for Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian military leader whom the U.S. killed in Iraq four years ago yesterday. (Soleimani was arguably a legitimate military target who was definitely responsible for a lot of terrorist activity in the Middle East, although the assassination seems to have been a rash move and resulted in U.S. soldiers being injured in Iranian missile strikes. It also resulted in Iran accidentally shooting down a Ukrainian commercial flight, killing 176 people.) Today ISIS claimed responsibility for yesterday's bombing.
This is interesting. The Wall Street Journal reports that the United States had advance intelligence that ISIS was planning this attack and that the U.S. sent the intelligence to Iranian officials, who may have ignored it.
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Re: World News Thread
Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan (2018-2022), who is serving a three-year jail term on corruption charges, was sentenced today to another ten years' imprisonment for revealing state secrets. Apparently he claimed there was a diplomatic cable that showed he was originally ousted due to a U.S.-led conspiracy with Pakistan's military, and it was that claim which got him jailed today. Kind of a catch-22, isn't it? If the cable isn't real, then I would think he can't be convicted for "leaking" it. But if it is real, then he shouldn't have been jailed in the first place.
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Re: World News Thread
ProPublica yesterday published an article titled "Did Drug Traffickers Funnel Millions of Dollars to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s First Campaign?" It’s a very long article, but apparently if AMLO didn’t know where the $2 million came from and why, some of his aides surely did.