World News Thread

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This seems like it is good news. Al? Túrin? Anyone else?

EU and UK strike new deal over post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland

[Alatar]

Its better than nothing for sure. However, here's the crux:

The Stormont brake is likely to be the most controversial part of the deal as it raises questions over the imposition of EU law on a sovereign country. While the brake makes use of an old mechanism that exists in the Belfast Agreement, a peace deal signed in 1998 that brought peace to Northern Ireland, there is inevitably confusion about how the brake will be used.

If the Northern Ireland government pulls the brake but the British government doesn’t use its veto, there will be tension between Westminster and Northern Ireland. If one party in the Northern Irish government wants to use the brake but another doesn’t (Northern Ireland’s government must be made up of politicians from both the Unionist and Republican communities) the government in Westminster might have to effectively pick a side.

UK government officials implied in briefings on Monday that there is a certain degree of flexibility in what will happen in these circumstances. It’s clear from the noises both in London and Brussels that the deal has been negotiated in a way that assumes good faith – something that seemed impossible just a few months ago.

Unionists are already calling this a sellout, claiming (correctly) that it gives the EU power over Northern Ireland trade. Also, the devolved government is non-functional and has been for years now, with no sign of the impasse breaking.

So... yeah.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks!

Sigh.

[Sunsilver]

I have just found out the Auschwitz Exhibit's next stop is going to be California:

'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' in Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California from March 2023

https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/new ... rch%202023.

I think this is well worth a visit for anyone close enough.

[Frelga]

The French continue to strike and riot after Macron pushed through the law that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64. Reportedly, the striking workers cut power to Macron's residence and sent free power to hospitals and other "worthy" customers.

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Meanwhile in the US...

[Frelga]

RPC President Xi Jinping visited the wanted war criminal putin in Moscow. The visit started when putin sent his deputy minister of tourism to greet the guest at the airport and ended with China publishing maps of the Far East regions of Russian Empire with city names in Chinese.



Or in the words of the chess champion Garry Kasparov

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[N.E. Brigand]

On Saturday, Israel's defense minister, Yoav Gallant, called for a pause to the proposed judicial reforms being advanced by the nation's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Today Netanyahu fired him. Later today, Israel's consul in New York, Asaf Zamir, resigned in protest. (Netanyahu himself has been barred from directly participating in the judicial reform process by Israel's attorney general due to conflicts of interest: he is still on trial for alleged corruption.)

There had already been much opposition to these reforms. Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, had called for a pause in early February, and there have been enormous public demonstrations every weekend for 12 weeks. Today protesters in Tel Aviv were joined by members of the Israel Philharmonic:

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Netanyahu Expected to Drop Judicial Overhaul After Mass Protest Chaos: Reports

[Frelga]

Meanwhile in Europe, Hungary signed off on Finland joining NATO. Hungary is probably the most putin beholden European country, so this is a big deal. Turkey is also in the process of giving its approval, and the vote is expected in May. Both Hungary and Turkey are still holding out on Sweden's application.

Hungarian parliament approves Finland’s bid to join NATO

[N.E. Brigand]

Netanyahu Expected to Drop Judicial Overhaul After Mass Protest Chaos: Reports

I found these comments by Josh Marshall helpful in understanding the changes that Netanyahu had been pushing. Marshall builds on an explanation by Eli Cook, a professor at the University of Haifa, about why the "threat was real" because Israel's Supreme Court is the "final line of defense before dictatorship. Israel has no other checks or blaances. No constitution, no separation between executive and legislature ... Imagine Donald Trump (who couldn’t even cancel Obamacare) with no obstacles, no challengers. What would he do?"

[Frelga]

Meanwhile in Europe, Hungary signed off on Finland joining NATO. Hungary is probably the most putin beholden European country, so this is a big deal. Turkey is also in the process of giving its approval, and the vote is expected in May. Both Hungary and Turkey are still holding out on Sweden's application.

Hungarian parliament approves Finland’s bid to join NATO

Turkish parliament voted to ratify Finland joining NATO, so they are in.

Swedish application is still in progress.

[River]

Let me get this straight. Ukraine made some moves toward maybe possibly hopefully maybe joining NATO some day. But it was going to take a while because NATO has certain expectations regarding military organization and equipment that Ukraine did not, at the time, meet. Nevertheless, Russia found that threatening so they invaded (and found themselves facing the very NATO weaponry they feared but that's another thread). Meanwhile, Finland, which also shares an extensive land border and a complicated history with Russia, has had a NATO-ready military for a long time now. Russia didn't seem to mind that much. Maybe because Finland wasn't really going to join NATO...until Russia invaded Ukraine. At which point, Finland applied and got fast-tracked. Russia has responded to Finland by arresting anyone trying to flee to Finland. In other words, this whole conflict was never, ever about NATO expansion. Ukraine does, however, have some pretty impressive rare earth deposits in its eastern and occupied oblasts. I'm guessing Finland is not so well-endowed?

Sweden has also applied to join and faced some diplomatic hurdles. Russia has also spewed some threats in Sweden's direction. I wonder what resources Sweden has that Russia is coveting.

[Frelga]

Russia made threats at Finland, and got Finnish snipers memes and then Finns moved some tractors to the border (in reference to videos of Ukrainian farmers towing captured Russian tanks).

I don't think this war is specifically about Ukrainian resources. It's putin trying to rebuild USSR/Russian Empire. He truly did expect to roll up to Kiyiv to silence from the West. Today it came out that his agents were renting apartments in Kiyiv from which they planned to direct their riot police.

And now Russian army has been exposed as lacking in discipline, equipment, command structure, and basic common sense. It's clear that they don't have the resources to open another front.

So Georgia came out in the streets when the pro-Russian parliament tried to pass a law that would require NGOs to register as "agents of foreign influence, and won. Armenia said they would submit to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, aka arrest putin if an a occasion presents itself. Kazakhstan is taking over the Baikonur space port from which Russians launch their Soyuz rockets. China invites all the -stan former republics to a China-centric Asian summit, and does not invite putin. The empire is crumbling and putin ran out of duct tape to hold it together.

[RoseMorninStar]

There seems to be a religious element (in the mind of Putin & 'his' patriarch) behind his actions. A modern 'holy war'. There are a lot of articles out there from reputable sources. The New Yorker has one, if you have access to that and here is one from Utrecht university: Putin's motive? The radical ideology of a holy Russian nation. TIME.

I think it's about Putin's legacy and how he wants to go down in the history books. He didn't expect to get resistance.

[Frelga]

Finland is officially a NATO member, doubling the length of the land border between Russia and NATO countries.

[narya]

I have just found out the Auschwitz Exhibit's next stop is going to be California:

'Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' in Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California from March 2023

https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/new ... rch%202023.

I think this is well worth a visit for anyone close enough.

I just bought a ticket

I'll be driving down for my yearly visit to my timeshare in Oceanside, CA, and it's on the way (sort of). I'll be doing a 3 ring circus act to pull it off, but I really wanted to see it, so I"ll make it work:
- Wednesday - Attend the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska Tribal Assembly, on my computer at home, via Zoom. This is my tribe's yearly legislative session, for which I represent all the ex-pats in the "village" of San Francisco.
- Thursday - More Tribal Assembly, this time listening in on my phone during the 7 hour drive to Simi Valley. Fortunately there is no voting on this day. I'll check in to a hotel in the evening.
- Friday - Last day of Tribal Assembly, from my computer, in my hotel room (until they kick me out, then I'll be in the lobby, still trying to use their wi fi). The Tribal Assembly adjourns around 3 PM, and I have an entry ticket to the Auschwitz exhibit between 2:15 and 3:15 PM. Since the Assembly always runs a bit late, I'll have to sneak out early. The hotel is just 3 miles from the exhibit venue. When I finish seeing the exhibit, I'll drive the rest of the way to Oceanside, arriving about 9 PM.
- Then spend a week by the beach, with my brother and sister-in-law.
- Then I'm considering swinging by Joshua Tree National Park on the way back, for a few nights in a hotel, to see the night sky and/or desert blooms, but I'll worry about that tomorrow. Just getting this first part arranged tonight was enough!

[Sunsilver]

Coincidentally, this popped up on my FB feed, and it explains the 'why' of this exhibit. (Which most of the people on this board already know, but it doesn't hurt to hear it repeated.) Makes me wish I'd watched The Twilight Zone when I was a kid, but it was just too scary for me at that age.

[narya]

So I went to the Auschwitz exhibit yesterday. I wept for two hours straight as I stood witness. They did not pull any punches with their presentation.

[Sunsilver]

They did a survey in the U.S. recently to test the younger generations' knowledge of the Holocaust. The statistics are shocking, and show there's never been a greater need for this exhibit:

[narya]

I was amazed at the number of slave labor camps there were in Germany. There was a map in the exhibit, similar to this one that I just found in the Holocaust Encyclopedia. Here is the text that went with this map:

The Nazi camp system expanded rapidly after the beginning of World War II in September 1939, as forced labor became important in war production. Labor shortages in the German war economy became critical after German defeat in the battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943. This led to the increased use of concentration camp prisoners as forced laborers in German armaments industries. Especially in 1943 and 1944, hundreds of subcamps were established in or near industrial plants. Subcamps were generally smaller camps administered by the main camps, which supplied them with the required number of prisoners. Camps such as Auschwitz in Poland, Buchenwald in central Germany, Gross-Rosen in eastern Germany, Natzweiler-Struthof in eastern France, Ravensbrueck near Berlin, and Stutthof near Danzig on the Baltic coast became administrative centers of huge networks of subsidiary forced-labor camps.