World News Thread

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Johnson has dropped out of the race to replace his replacement.

[Inanna]

An Indian-origin might be the PM of Britain. Unbelievable.

“No Dogs or Indians”; “Indians and Dogs not allowed”. These were the signs outside clubs in India during the days of the British Raj. 75 years ago.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, it is happening.

[Eldy]

Glad it's not Johnson.

Definitely worth remembering, as Inanna mentions, the milestone that is Sunak becoming PM, for as little as I agree with his politics.

[Alatar]

Ironic that the Brits will be ruled by an Indian they didn't elect

[Inanna]

Trevor Noah:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Ironic that the Brits will be ruled by an Indian they didn't elect

Indeed!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Lula da Silva will return to Brazil’s presidency in stunning comeback

Glad to see Bolsonaro sent packing.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

On the other hand, I'm not happy at all to see another right-wing leader returning to power.

A far-right surge is set to put Netanyahu back in power

[Eldy]

Lula da Silva will return to Brazil’s presidency in stunning comeback

Glad to see Bolsonaro sent packing.

I was glad to see this, too, but also worried Bolsonaro would try to remain in office nonetheless. Fortunately, that seems less likely now despite him pandering to his base in public comments.

[Eldy]

On the other end of Eurasia:

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/07/11104275 ... er-reports

Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot during a campaign speech Friday in western Japan and was airlifted to a hospital but he was not breathing and his heart had stopped, officials said.

Abe has been out of office for nearly two years, and gun crime in Japan is extremely rare, so these were some real out of the blue headlines.

Update:

If you're keeping score, a guy made a homemade shotgun out of plumbing parts and iced a former PM with it in broad daylight and the Japanese govt is giving him everything he demanded because they realize he had a point.

Utterly wild story.

Draft bill in Japan would enable refunds of religious donations - The Japan Times

A new draft bill unveiled Friday aims to help spouses or children of religious group followers who have made excessive donations, leading families to financial ruin.

Under the bill, such family members would be able to get some money back if the follower made the donation due to the entity's coercion or its creation of anxiety or circumstances that "confused" them. The outline of the bill was revealed in a meeting between the secretaries-general of ruling and opposition parties.

The move comes after the Unification Church’s aggressive donation-seeking practices were put in the spotlight following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July. Tetsuya Yamagami, who was arrested on suspicion of shooting Abe, has reportedly told police that he held a grudge against the politician over his ties to the church. Yamagami’s mother was a church follower who gave away ¥100 million to the group, leaving her bankrupt, according to news reports.

The post-assassination LDP/UC scandal also led to a cabinet reshuffle in August to lessen the government's ties to the Unification Church, but one of the ministers who survived that reshuffle resigned less than a month ago over his UC ties.

[Eldy]

Lula da Silva will return to Brazil’s presidency in stunning comeback

Glad to see Bolsonaro sent packing.

I was glad to see this, too, but also worried Bolsonaro would try to remain in office nonetheless. Fortunately, that seems less likely now despite him pandering to his base in public comments.

Sigh.

Bolsonaro contests Brazil election loss, wants votes voided - AP

Took him three weeks. Seems to be getting considerable pushback, at least.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And who is pushing him along this path?

[RoseMorninStar]

And who is pushing him along this path?

VERY interesting question Voronwë.

In your original post the Twitter link does not show up but when I went to quote you I could see it. And it was the person I suspected (and I'm kinda shocked because I'm not that politically adroit) but he was the first person to come to my mind.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This one could go a number of different places, but I'll put it here.

[N.E. Brigand]

Do not mess with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Yesterday the American-British kickboxer Andrew Tate mocked her (and environmentalism generally) on Twitter. Today his home in Romania was raided by police and he and his brother were arrested (apparently in connection with an investigation into sex trafficking.)

Edit: Obviously the two things are not directly connected, but one news report I read does say that after Thunberg responded in kind to Tate yesterday, his further reply helped confirm his location to Romanian authorities.

Further edit: Sorry, I didn't realize this was being discussed elsewhere, as V notes. A search for "Tate" isn't bringing up any recent posts for me -- other than (now) V's and mine in this thread.

Yet another edit: I'd never heard of Tate before yesterday, and probably would have forgotten him if not for today's news. Scrolling through his Twitter history, I see that he not only pushes misogynistic views, pretends that global warming isn't real, and "never forgave vax takers," but he's a big fan of Vladimir Putin. Also Tate and his fans (the people he retweeted yesterday praising his mockery of Thunberg) repeatedly describe life in terms of The Matrix movies -- and his fans today say are blaming "the Matrix" for Tate's arrest and predicting that he will be "suicided" in prison, which they believe happened to Jeffrey Epstein. Which is really weird, because the Epstein truthers definitely believe that Epstein was actually a sexual predator (they claim Epstein didn't commit suicide but was murdered in order to prevent him from testifying against his alleged rich and powerful clients).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm fairly certain that the raid on Tate's home was unrelated to his exchange with Greta Thunberg. This is the second time this year that his home has been raided by the authorities.

(As I mentioned in the other thread where this is being discussed, Tate is one of the banned twitter users that were recently reinstated by Musk.)

[RoseMorninStar]

Huh. To think the only thing regularly raided in my home is the refrigerator.

[Frelga]

It is possible that the raid was not entirely unrelated. The linked article did mention that Tate's social media posts helped confirm that he was in Romania to be arrested. Whether or not it was specifically that pizza box.

Screen_Shot_2022-12-29_at_23.56.47.png (179.68 KiB) Viewed 1310 times

I had thought this was hilarious when I had no idea who Tate was except a dude who challenged a girl to a dick measuring contest and lost. Now that it turns out that he is a sex trafficker and possibly a rapist, it's no longer funny. I just hope they lock him up before he can hurt someone else.

Eta: more news sources are repeating the pizza version. According to them, Romanian police had an outstanding warrant for Tate but didn't know for sure if he was in the country. They were watching his social media, and the pizza boxed him.