#brazilian elections 2024

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Faz um tempinho que não faço um desses, né? Mas faltando um mês pras eleições de 2024 acho importante. Sintam-se à vontade pra espalhar a rodo.

(x)

[fly-chicken]

This feels like a good time to remind people of the 1981 Regan assassination attempt and the fallout was republicans turning out in droves to re-elect him as well as popularity in polls surging positively

Especially since trump is not original and all his ideas seem to be torn from Regans playbook or other global autocratic dictators

EDIT OMG AND BOLSONARO STABBED DURING HIS ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN 2018, GUESS WHAT HAPPENED W HIS TURNOUT AND RESULTS TOO?!?!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Isabela Dias at Mother Jones:

It didn’t take long for the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania to galvanize right-wing politicians and supporters of former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. About a month before the election in 2018, Bolsonaro, then the frontrunner, was stabbed on the campaign trail. While Trump seems to have recovered from the shot in the ear, his Brazilian counterpart had to undergo a colostomy and several abdominal surgeries in the aftermath of the stabbing. The incident with Bolsonaro has lessons for how the attempted assassination of Trump could affect this year’s US election. In Brazil afterward, false theories spread—both on the left and the right—of either a staged attack or a purposeful attempt to kill a dangerous threat to the establishment. Critics softened rheotric. Right-wing actors blamed the media for instigating the attack. And the discussion about Bolsonaro’s anti-democratic politics became notably more complex.

After the Trump news, Brazilians on the right were quick to see the similarities and decried the shooting as part of a systematic persecution against conservatives. On X, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman and the third son of the one-time Brazilian president, shared a photo montage of a bloodied Trump and a pained Bolsonaro. “Trust me: he is already elected,” he wrote in English. “We have experience with a situation like that, we know the enemy—and you too.” Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son, also chimed in, blaming the left: “They tried to kill Trump, they tried to kill Bolsonaro, but the (extreme) right is the one accused of being violent. You may not like Trump or Bolsonaro, but ask yourself: why did they want to kill them?” A debunked video dubbed in Portuguese with a supposed message from Trump to Bolsonaro said, “They tried to do the same thing to me as they did to you.”

When asked about the shooting, Bolsonaro suggested “only conservatives suffer attacks.” Echoing talking points from some US Christian Nationalist groups, Bolsonaro said it was “a miracle from heaven” that Trump “was saved by a matter of a few centimeters,” just like it was a miracle that he survived in 2018. Calling the Republican nominee the “biggest world leader of the moment,” Bolsonaro, who has been barred from running for office until 2030, posted, “See you at the inauguration.” Earlier this year, the police confiscated Bolsonaro’s passport as part of a sweeping search-and-seizure operation linked to an ongoing federal investigation in Brazil—overseen by the Supreme Court—into Bolsonaro and his allies’ alleged coup-like efforts to overturn the results of the 2022 elections. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned the attack as a loss for democracy.

[...] The shooting also resurfaced false theories, from both sides of the political spectrum, about the attack against Bolsonaro six years ago. In September 2018, Adélio Bispo, who had previously been a member of a left-wing party, stabbed Bolsonaro in the abdomen. Although police investigations concluded that the perpetrator, who was arrested on the spot, acted alone, Bolsonaro and his supporters insisted that the stabbing had been ordered by someone and tried to blame it on the left. At the time, Bolsonaro called the left “aggressive,” saying they “have tried to eliminate their opponents no matter how.” His supporters have continued to use the stabbing to cultivate an image of Bolsonaro as a “political martyr.” Meanwhile, some on the left raised doubts about the incident, suggesting it had been staged and calling it a “fake stabbing.” After Saturday, André Janones, one of Lula’s allies in Congress, joked about Bolsonaro having “taught” Trump how to fake an attack and questioned the seriousness of the attempted assassination, mentioning the fact that Trump asked for his shoes amidst the chaos. “At least this time they remembered to provide the ‘blood,'” he posted on X. In response, a far-right congressman aligned with Bolsonaro has vowed to send a letter to the US Embassy requesting the cancelation of Janones’ US visa.

The impact of the assassination attempt against Trump on the presidential race remains to be seen. But there could be hints in what happened with Bolsonaro. Some political analysts in Brazil believe that staying away from the public stage during recovery ultimately helped the far-right Brazilian candidate insulate himself from fiercer criticism and potential debate confrontations. A voter intention poll by the Economist from that time shows a rise in support for Bolsonaro and a decline for the opponent Fernando Haddad, from the Worker’s Party, after September.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump in 2024 in the US and the stabbing of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 in Brazil have some things in common: they brought increased support for the person in polls (though it is too early to tell in Trump’s case).

[reasonsforhope]

— Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped to its lowest level since March 2018, according to new data from the Brazilian government.

— Deforestation for the year to date is down 40% compared to 2023, with expectations for a significant annual decline when the “deforestation year” concludes on July 31.

— Despite declining deforestation in the Amazon, the region is experiencing a rise in forest fires due to a severe drought...

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continued to plummet in May [2024], reaching the lowest level since March 2018, according to new data from the alert system run by Brazil’s national space research institute, INPE.

According to INPE’s DETER system, deforestation in May 2024 amounted to 501 square kilometers (193 square miles), an area 147 times the size of New York City’s Central Park. This tally brings the accumulated deforestation detected by DETER over the past year to 4,350 square kilometers, down 54% from the same time last year.

For the year to date, DETER has detected 1,182 square kilometers of forest clearance, down 40% from the 1,986 square kilometers recorded at this point in 2023.

[Note: January 2023 is when Lula da Silva was elected in Brazil. As you can see, after that, deforestation immediately plummeted. He is doing SO MUCH for the environment, we are SO lucky he beat Bolsonaro (the big pro-deforestation guy) for president of Brazil.

Also, in case the above chart makes you think we're doing worse than ever, that chart actually starts on a major low point for deforestation, toward the end of Lula da Silva's first term. Here's another chart that gives a longer-term picture, from 2002 to 2023. If we are lucky, Lula da Silva will bring the kind of drop in deforestation to us now that he did during his first term: an almost 80% drop in deforestation.]

Pictured: Annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon since 2002 under each presidential administration, according to INPE’s PRODES system. Note: Temer took office on 31 Aug 2016 replacing Rousseff, while other presidents started their terms Jan 1. Also 2023 data is preliminary.

The decline in deforestation registered by DETER mirrors the trend recorded by an independent system maintained by Imazon, a Brazilian NGO. Imazon’s system is seen as a check against official data.

The alert data suggests observers should expect a sharp drop in deforestation for the 12 months ending July 31, the period Brazil uses for measuring annual deforestation. July 31 corresponds with the peak of the dry season across much of the Brazilian Amazon, when cloud cover is at a minimum, facilitating efforts to measure changes in forest cover.

For the annual assessment, Brazil uses higher resolution satellite imagery, which requires more time for analysis. In contrast, the shorter timeframe of DETER enables authorities to take action against illegal deforestation if there is interest in doing so. Data from DETER and PRODES, the annual system, have a strong correlation.

-via GoodGoodGood, July 2, 2024

[darkmaga-retard]

Next Democratic president and vice president may implement sweeping plan for "fighting misinformation" and "hate speech"

Michael Shellenberger

Sep 02, 2024

Brazil’s banning and blocking of the social media platform X is far more extreme than anything being proposed in the United States, social media regulation experts are telling the New York Times, Washington Post, and other publications. One implication is that we need not be concerned that Brazil-style censorship will ever happen in the US.

In fact, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz both repeatedly endorsed the three main censorship tactics used by the Brazilian government: censorship of election “misinformation,” de-platforming political opponents, and cross-platform bans so that a person is banned, not just from one social media platform, but many or even all of them.

[mariacallous]

On Saturday, former U.S. President Donald Trump became the latest major political figure worldwide to face an assassination attempt, in an incident that experts say may reflect a broader global pattern of increasing threats and violence against politicians.

In recent years, for example, both Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan have survived being shot (Fico in May this year and Khan in November 2022), while then-Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner narrowly escaped a shooting attempt in 2022 when the gunman’s pistol jammed. South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in January, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed in 2018. And assassinations claimed the lives of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (in 2022) and British politicians Jo Cox (in 2016) and David Amess (in 2021). 

“We seem to be seeing that assassinations are on the rise now,” said Jacob Ware, a terrorism expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and the co-author of God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America, although he noted that he was drawing on anecdotal evidence. 

“Politicians and political figures are finding themselves in the crosshairs, and the people are determining that the ballot box and elections are no longer the best way to exercise political grievances,” Ware said. 

The United States is no stranger to high-profile assassinations and attempts, both on the lives of sitting U.S. presidents and presidential candidates. Four former U.S. presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy—were killed during their presidential terms. A handful more survived failed attempts, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, the latter of whom had a hand grenade thrown at him while in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 1968, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, was assassinated. 

In recent years, the number of threats issued against U.S. public officials has grown, according to a 2024 study conducted by the researchers at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center. The study, which examined federal charges over the past decade, found that threats have “steadily risen” over that time period, coinciding with a surge in political polarization across the country. 

“In the last six years, the number of individuals who have been arrested at the federal level for making threats has nearly doubled from the previous four years,” the study’s authors wrote, while the number of federal prosecutions for such threats is “on pace to hit new record highs” in 2023 and 2024. 

“The mistrust and distrust of government is so great that it leads to almost the dehumanization of political figures,” said Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and the other co-author of God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America. “That’s also contributed to this demonization of individuals that can, in the minds of certainly a minority of Americans, incite violence.”

Two recent examples are incidents involving former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who were the targets of failed abduction and assassination plots, respectively; in the Pelosi case, though the former speaker avoided the attack, her husband was brutally assaulted with a hammer. And in 2020, the FBI announced that it had arrested more than a dozen people in connection with a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and put her on trial for treason; nine people were ultimately convicted or pleaded guilty in the plot, and five were acquitted.

“It certainly feels like we’re in a different era. There’s a lack of civility that I think permeates our political discourse, and it’s frequently peppered with references to violence and extreme violence” said Colin P. Clarke, the director of research at the Soufan Group. That includes Trump himself, Clarke said, who “has been a big purveyor of this.”

That may not be a uniquely American phenomenon, either. While assassinations of high-profile leaders in the world’s most-developed nations may be relatively rare today, the outlook may be different for other government figures around the world.

One key example is Mexico, which recently reached a bleak new political milestone in holding its deadliest election season ever. During the country’s 2024 election cycle, 37 political candidates were assassinated, many of whom were vying for local office. In the country’s 2021 midterm election, 36 candidates were assassinated, according to Integralia, a security consultancy. 

Beyond the issue of assassinations, other violence against candidates was also more pervasive in Mexico this year. Integralia logged 828 nonlethal violent incidents during the 2024 election season, eclipsing the 389 attacks recorded in 2018 during the country’s previous presidential election. 

Pakistan has also experienced a rise in such threats in recent years. According to the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database, whose data only goes as far as 2020, Pakistan experienced a marked uptick in assassinations and attempts against government officials from 2012 to 2016, peaking at 36 in 2013 and 2015. 

While variations in laws and data collection make it difficult for researchers to measure whether there’s been a broad global uptick in violence, these examples indicate that they’re hardly uncommon. Now, the attempted assassination of Trump may serve as an alarm bell for other officials around the world. On Sunday, John Woodcock, a member of the U.K. House of Lords and a former government advisor on political violence, said in an interview with the Guardian that the attempted assassination is “a vivid reminder of the vulnerability of all politicians” and warned of the possibility of similar attacks in the United Kingdom. 

“We have seen the growth in the UK of US-style politics of aggressive confrontation and intimidation which is unfortunately, exactly the toxic environment that could lead to another assassination attempt on a UK politician, of which we have already tragically seen a number in recent years,” he said. 

Ware, the Council on Foreign Relations expert, said that the attempted assassination of Trump, a former U.S. president, presents an “opportunity for Americans to come together and decide: ‘Is this really the kind of country that we want to build for the next generation?’”

[kp777]

By Olivia Rosane

Common Dreams

April 4, 2024

"Steep declines in the Brazilian Amazon and Colombia show that progress is possible, but increasing forest loss in other areas has largely counteracted that progress," one expert said.

An annual accounting of global deforestation, released Thursday, shows that political will can make a significant difference when it comes to protecting vital ecosystems and the Indigenous and local communities that depend on them—but that policymakers in many regions are not taking enough action to save tropical forests.

The data, gathered by the University of Maryland's Global Land Analysis and Discover Lab and published on the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch program, found that primary tropical forest loss in 2023 decreased by more than one-third in Brazil and nearly 50% in Colombia after both countries elected leaders who championed conservation policies. However, on the global level, these declines were offset by increased deforestation in other countries.

"The world took two steps forward, two steps back when it comes to this past year's forest loss," Global Forest Watch director Mikaela Weisse said in a statement. "Steep declines in the Brazilian Amazon and Colombia show that progress is possible, but increasing forest loss in other areas has largely counteracted that progress. We must learn from the countries that are successfully slowing deforestation."

"This year's forest loss numbers tell an inspiring story of what we can achieve when leaders prioritize action, but the data also highlights many urgent areas of missed opportunity to protect our forests and our future."

All told, 3.7 million hectares of primary tropical forests were felled last year at a rate equivalent to 10 soccer fields per minute. While tropical deforestation decreased by 9% in 2023 compared with 2022, the overall deforestation rate has held steady when compared to 2019 and 2021. Tree clearing released 2.4 metric gigatons of climate pollution into the atmosphere, which is nearly half of the U.S.'s yearly emissions from burning fossil fuels.

"Forests are critical ecosystems for fighting climate change, supporting livelihoods, and protecting biodiversity," WRI President and CEO Ani Dasgupta said in a statement.

Global Forest Watch focuses on the tropics because more than 96% of human-caused deforestation occurs there. However, the climate crisis contributed to making 2023 a devastating year for global tree loss, which rose 24% due to record-breaking wildfires in Canada's boreal forests.

"That is one of the biggest anomalies on record," University of Maryland researcher Matt Hansen toldReuters, adding, "It's a big deal, and it's a cautionary tale for climate impacts to fire."

In the tropics, Brazil managed to cut primary deforestation by 36%, the lowest level in the country since 2015. The country moved from being responsible for 43% of tropical deforestation in 2022 to 30% in 2023.

The decline coincided with the election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who replaced former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro oversaw record deforestation as he prioritized exploitative industries over forest protections and Indigenous rights. Since taking office in early 2023, Lula has reversed course by promising to end deforestation by 2030, ramping up enforcement efforts against illegal forest clearing, rolling back anti-environmental measures, and recognizing new Indigenous territories.

"We're incredibly proud to see such stark progress being made across the country, especially in the Brazilian Amazon," Mariana Oliveira, who manages the Forests, Land Use, and Agriculture Program for WRI Brazil, said in a statement.

In Brazil, Amazon forest loss decreased by 39%, though deforestation increased in the vulnerable and vital Cerrado and Pantanal ecosystems.

"We still have a very long ways to improve and sustain the efforts, and I hope today's release energizes the national and subnational governments in Brazil—and governments around the world—to build on this momentum rather than using it as an excuse to slow down," Oliveira said.

The other 2023 success story was Colombia, which curbed primary forest loss by 49%. This reversal followed the election of left-wing President Gustavo Petro Urrego, who took office in August 2022 with Vice President Francia Márquez, a Goldman Environmental Prize winner. After a 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, other armed groups and other opportunists moved into territories they had vacated, increasing forest loss. Petro has prioritized conservation in negotiating peace agreements with these other armed groups.

"The story of deforestation in Colombia is complex and deeply intertwined with the country's politics, which makes 2023's historic decrease particularly powerful," WRI Colombia natural resources manager Alejandra Laina said in a statement. "There is no doubt that recent government action and the commitment of the communities has had a profound impact on Colombia's forests, and we encourage those involved in current peace talks to use this data as a springboard to accelerate further progress."

Despite the good news out of Brazil and Colombia, upticks in deforestation in Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Laos counteracted that progress on the global level. In Bolivia, forest loss rose by 27% to reach the greatest loss on record for a third consecutive year. A little over half of this was due to fires that spread more readily because of climate-fueled drought, while the rest was due to the expansion of agriculture, particularly soy. Agriculture was the main force behind deforestation in Nicaragua—which cleared 4.2% of its remaining primary forest—and Laos, which saw record loss of 47%.

Deforestation rates also continued to creep upward in Congo at 3% in 2023. This is concerning because the Congo rainforest is the last tropical forest that reliably acts as a carbon sink, and because of its importance to local communities.

"Forests are the backbone of livelihoods for Indigenous people and local communities across Africa, and this is especially true in the Congo Basin," Teodyl Nkuintchua, the Congo Basin strategy and engagement lead at WRI, said in a statement. "Dramatic policy action must be taken in the Congo Basin to enact new development pathways that support a transition away from unsustainable food and energy production practices, while improving well-being for Indigenous people and local communities as much as revenues for countries."

The new data comes as world leaders have six years to meet their promise, made at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021, of ending deforestation by 2030. However, WRI found that nearly 2 million more hectares were cleared in 2023 than would be consistent with meeting that goal, Mongabayreported.

WRI global forest director Rod Taylor told reporters that the world was "far off track and trending in the wrong direction when it comes to reducing global deforestation."

WRI's Dasgupta said: "The world has just six years left to keep its promise to halt deforestation. This year's forest loss numbers tell an inspiring story of what we can achieve when leaders prioritize action, but the data also highlights many urgent areas of missed opportunity to protect our forests and our future."

Taylor added that the rest of the world could not rely on individual leaders like Lula or Petro, but should take steps to encourage deforestation such as making it more profitable to preserve forests than to clear them, making sure global supply chains are deforestation free, and protecting the land rights of Indigenous peoples.

"Bold global mechanisms and unique local initiatives together are both needed to achieve enduring reductions in deforestation across all tropical front countries," Taylor said.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazilian mayoral debate turns ugly as candidate attacks speaker with chair on live TV

Wild footage has emerged of a candidate for mayor physically attacking his challenger with a chair during a televised debate.

A candidate for mayor of the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo has physically attacked his challenger with a chair during a televised debate.

Pablo Marçal, 37, was delivering his spiel when Jose Luiz Datena suddenly appeared from the shadows, brandishing the chair and beating him with it.

The broadcast panned to the debate mediator, who stood in shock, before the footage went blank.

Astonishingly, it’s understood the debate continued.

Continue reading.

[sklogw]

reading log: 30.12.23–05.01.24

Main Sequence Scatter is Real: The Joint Dependence of Galaxy Clustering on Star Formation and Stellar Mass (A. Berti, A. Coil, A. Hearin, et al. 2020)

On the Angular Momentum History of Galactic Disks (A. Renzini, 2020)

Long COVID is a double curse in low-income nations — here’s why (Heide Ledford, 2024)

Angular Momentum Acquisition in Galaxy Halos (K. Stewart, A. Brooks, J. Bullock, et al. 2013)

On the Concept of History (Walter Benjamin, 1940)

xGASS: The Role of Bulges Along and Across the Local Star-Forming Main Sequence (R. Cook, L. Cortese, B. Catinella, et al. 2020)

Analyzing Misinformation Claims During the 2022 Brazilian General Election on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Kwai (S. Hale, A. Belisario, A. Moustafa, et al. 2024)

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Less sustainable (NYT) The federal debt starts the new year at a level that is hard to grasp: $34 trillion. That is 1.2 times the U.S.’s annual economic output. Both parties have contributed to the situation. Republicans have passed large tax cuts. Democrats have enacted ambitious climate and health care initiatives. Both funneled money to Americans in response to the Covid pandemic. For years, many economists believed the country’s debt was not a problem. But times have changed, and federal deficits now look scarier. In November, the financial firm Moody’s lowered its outlook on U.S. debt from “stable” to “negative.” The solution remains unclear. And the economy may be able to continue growing at a steady clip for years despite the debt. At some point, though, the federal government will likely need to raise taxes and cut spending in ways that many Americans will find unpleasant.

Biden and Trump are poised for a potential rematch that could shake American politics (AP) U.S. presidential elections have been rocked in recent years by economic disaster, stunning gaffes, secret video and a pandemic. But for all the tumult that defined those campaigns, the volatility surrounding this year’s presidential contest has few modern parallels. In the coming weeks, the high court is expected to weigh whether states can ban former President Donald Trump from the ballot for his role in leading the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court is weighing Trump’s argument that he’s immune from prosecution. The maneuvers are unfolding as prosecutors from New York to Washington and Atlanta move forward with 91 indictments across four criminal cases involving everything from Trump’s part in the insurrection to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his hush money paid to a porn actress. On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden is seeking reelection as the high inflation that defined much of his first term appears to be easing. But that has done little to assuage restless voters or ease widespread concerns in both parties that, at 81, he’s simply too old for the job.

Maine Secretary of State Targeted by ‘Swatting’ After Trump Ballot Decision (NYT) Maine’s secretary of state was the victim of a “swatting” call to her home, the authorities said, the latest politician to be targeted in recent weeks by people reporting fake crimes to the police, hoping to provoke heavily armed responses. A hoax call was placed on Friday night, just a day after the secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, barred Donald J. Trump from the state’s ballot, a politically fraught decision that drew criticism from Republicans across the country. The state police said that in the call, a man claimed to have broken into Ms. Bellows’s home in Manchester, just outside the capital city of Augusta. State troopers searched the residence, but did not find anything suspicious. Swatting incidents have risen in recent years, and advances in technology have made it easier for perpetrators to make 911 calls sound more credible. In the days before the hoax call against Ms. Bellows, numerous other high-profile politicians said swatters had targeted their homes.

Brazil’s economy improves during President Lula’s first year back, but a political divide remains (AP) Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva likes to boast he had a good first year after returning to the job. The economy is improving, Congress passed a long-overdue tax reform bill, rioters who wanted to oust him are now in jail, and his predecessor and foe Jair Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030. Still, the 78-year-old leader has struggled to boost his support among citizens and lawmakers. Some major setbacks, including a series of votes by Congress to override his vetoes, signaled that Lula’s future could be less productive in a Brazil almost evenly split between his supporters and Bolsonaro’s. “Brazil’s political polarization is such that it crystallized the opinions of Lula and Bolsonaro voters beyond the economy,” said political consultant Thomas Traumann, the author of a recent best-selling book on Brazil’s political divisions. “These groups are separated by very different world views, the values that form the identity of each group are more important than food prices or interest rates.”

British fish and chips is endangered (NBC News) Ever since she was old enough to walk, Terrilea Coglan was climbing aboard fishing boats that set sail each morning from the rocky beachfront of Hastings to harvest the key ingredient in Britain’s most iconic dish: fish and chips. The day’s catch travels just a short way from the boats up to the seaside fish and chips shops, or “chippies,” that pride themselves as much in the freshness of the fish as in the secret recipes for their gooey batter. Now, all along the British coast, towns like Hastings are being squeezed by a cost-of-living crisis that’s hit the supply chain behind fish and chips, pushing up prices beyond what some are willing to pay for a humble, if comforting, weeknight meal. The cost of diesel to power the fishing boats, the sunflower oil to fry the fish and the electricity to run the friers have all skyrocketed. The high prices are threatening a billion-dollar business and a staple of the British menu: Every year, Brits eat more than 382 million orders of fish and chips, the federation says.

Heavy Russian missile attacks hit Ukraine’s 2 largest cities (AP) Ukraine’s two largest cities came under heavy Russian missile attacks on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring dozens. Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, said one person died and 41 were injured in Russian missile strikes that hit the center of Kharkiv city and other areas. In Kyiv, the capital, five areas of the city were hit in the strikes and at least 12 people injured, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko. The barrage of the cities continued Russia’s escalated attacks on Ukraine in recent days that began on Friday with its largest single attack on Ukraine since the war started, in which at least 41 civilians were killed.

Myanmar’s ‘watermelons’: Soldier on the outside, rebel inside (Reuters) For about two years, says 24-year-old Yan, a former Myanmar police officer, he risked his life pretending to serve the military junta while secretly spying for the armed resistance. “I freed myself from unfair orders,” he told Reuters from a room in a town near the Myanmar border where he said he was taking refuge after fleeing the country in April. Opposition groups said it was difficult to determine how many members of the security forces supplied information to the resistance, and their number was likely small given the risk, but they play a crucial role. They have supplied intelligence, including about the transportation of military supplies, that has helped opposition groups plan attacks, a spokesperson for People’s Goal, a group that supports defectors, told Reuters. Sources inside the security forces are known in Burmese as “watermelons”—green on the outside, appearing loyal to the army, but red, the colour of the ousted National League for Democracy government, on the inside.

China Is Pressing Women to Have More Babies. Many Are Saying No. (WSJ) Chinese women have had it. Their response to Beijing’s demands for more children? No. Their refusal has set off a crisis for the Communist Party, which desperately needs more babies to rejuvenate China’s aging population. With the number of babies in free fall—fewer than 10 million were born in 2022, compared with around 16 million in 2012—China is headed toward a demographic collapse. China’s population, now around 1.4 billion, is likely to drop to just around half a billion by 2100, according to some projections. When Beijing said it would abolish its 35-year-old one-child policy in 2015, officials expected a baby boom. Instead, they got a baby bust.

South Korean opposition leader is stabbed in the neck by a knife-wielding man (AP) South Korea’s tough-speaking liberal opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung, was stabbed in the neck by an unidentified knife-wielding man who attempted to kill him during his visit to the southeastern city of Busan, police said. Lee, 59, the head of the main opposition Democratic Party, was airlifted to a Seoul hospital for surgery after receiving emergency treatment in Busan. Police and emergency officials earlier said he was conscious after the attack and wasn’t in critical condition, but his exact status was unknown.

Planes collide and catch fire at Japan’s busy Haneda airport, killing 5 (NYT) A Japan Airlines flight carrying 367 passengers and 12 crew members collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft today while landing at an airport in Tokyo. The crash killed five Coast Guard members and caused the passenger jet to burst into flames. But the airline said that every person on the Japan Airlines plane was able to evacuate to safety. “The crew was spectacular in their reaction times,” one aviation expert said. “It really is a miracle.” The Coast Guard members had been en route to deliver supplies to the region affected by the powerful earthquake that struck western Japan yesterday, killing at least 55 people.

The U.S. and Israel: An Embrace Shows Signs of Strain After Oct. 7 (NYT) No other episode in the past half-century has tested the ties between the United States and Israel in such an intense and consequential way. The complicated diplomacy between Washington and Jerusalem since Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people and seized 240 hostages has played out across both governments, in direct interactions between the leaders and intense back and forth between military and intelligence agencies. The relationship has grown increasingly fraught as Mr. Biden has involved himself more intensely in the conflict than almost any other issue in three years in office. Mr. Biden has seen growing internal resistance to his backing of Israel, including multiple dissent cables from State Department diplomats. In November, more than 500 political appointees and staff members representing some 40 government agencies sent a letter to Mr. Biden protesting his support of Israel’s war in Gaza. Congressional Democrats have been pressing him to curb Israel’s assault, and the United States has found itself at odds with other countries at the United Nations. The friction appears to be coming to a head as the new year arrives. The Biden team recognizes that its challenge is not just Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, since Israelis across the board support the military operation that according to the Gaza Health Ministry has killed more than 20,000 people. But there is no serious discussion inside the administration of a meaningful change in policy, like cutting off the arms supply to Israel.

Ethiopia signs pact to use Somaliland’s Red Sea port (Reuters) Landlocked Ethiopia signed an initial agreement with Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland on Monday to use its Red Sea port of Berbera, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said. The Horn of Africa country currently relies on neighbouring Djibouti for most of its maritime trade. President Abdi said as part of the agreement, Ethiopia would also be the first country to recognise Somaliland as an independent nation in due course. Somaliland has not gained widespread international recognition despite declaring autonomy from Somalia in 1991. Somalia says Somaliland is part of its territory.

Books (YouGov) A new poll found that 46 percent of Americans did not read a book in 2023 as of a December 16-18 poll. Overall, 26 percent of respondents reported reading between one and five books, 10 percent somewhere between six and 10 books, 8 percent between 11 and 20 books, and 11 percent more than 20 books so far. Indeed, the most active readers are reading a whole lot of books: 6 percent of respondents said they read over 40 books, a truly impressive stack.

[swldx]

BBC 0409 19 Sep 2024

12095Khz 0358 19 SEP 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from TALATA VOLONONDRY. SINPO = 55334. English, dead carrier s/on @0358z then ID@0359z pips and newsday preview. @0401z World News anchored by female announcer. § At least 20 people have been killed and more than 450 wounded by a second wave of explosions from wireless communication devices in Lebanon, the country’s health ministry says. Walkie-talkies used by the armed group Hezbollah blew up in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon - areas seen as its strongholds. Some of the blasts took place during funerals for some of the 12 people who the ministry said were killed when Hezbollah members’ pagers exploded on Tuesday. Hezbollah blamed Israel for that attack. Israel has not commented. UN Secretary General António Guterres warned of the “serious risk of a dramatic escalation” and called on all parties to “exercise maximum restraint”. § One of America's most influential labour unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has declined to issue a US presidential endorsement for the first time since 1996. The union, which boasts some 1.3 million members across the US and Canada, said it had received "few commitments on top Teamsters issues" from either Democratic nominee Kamala Harris or Republican nominee Donald Trump. § A Lancet study has revealed that over 11 million stroke cases were reported in 2021, which has risen by 70% since 1990. With over 7 million deaths in 2021, stroke is the third leading cause of death globally. For the first time, the study revealed the high contribution of air pollution to stroke. Population growth and aging are also major causes of this burden. § A 10-year-old student at a Japanese school in southern China has died one day after he was stabbed. The boy, who was enrolled at the Shenzhen Japanese School, succumbed to his injuries early on Thursday, Japanese officials said. His assailant, a 44-year-old man surnamed Zhong, was arrested on the spot, local police said. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa called the attack "despicable" and said Tokyo had asked Beijing for an explanation "as soon as possible". § Donald Trump on Wednesday night staged his first rally since he became the target of a second attempted assassination in as many months, telling his supporters in a sports venue outside New York City that what he called “these encounters with death” had only hardened him. § Haiti's government on Wednesday created a provisional electoral council, marking the most concrete step toward reviving the electoral process in years after political turmoil and later violence thwarted previous attempts. The Caribbean nation is set to hold elections by 2026, a decade after they were last held in 2016. § Some X users in Brazil were once again able to access the social media platform on Wednesday despite a ban imposed by the nation’s judiciary last month. Brazilian users swarmed the site after X, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, updated how its servers within the country are accessed. The platform’s restoration in Brazil was unintended, an X spokesperson said in a statement late on Wednesday. @0406z "Newsday" begins. 100' (30m) of Kev-Flex wire feeding "Magic Wand" antenna hanging in backyard tree w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), JRC NRD-535D, 250kW, beamAz 315°, bearing 63°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 15359KM from transmitter at Talata Volonondry. Local time: 2258.

[darkmaga-retard]

Peter Halligan

Sep 12, 2024

The Labour Party in the UK ad the Democratic Party in the US are about to authorize the use of long range weapons by Ukraine – ostensibly to attack military installations deep inside Russia, but, give the drone attacks already underway against civilian targets in Moscow – and Russian attacks against cities of Ukraine – this is likely to be a prelude to missile attacks on cities like Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia.

At which point, the Russians may well lose patience and employ the same tactics the Americans used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to quickly end the war with Japan in order to save the lives of American GI’s.

The clock to nuclear Armageddon will then move to three hours before midnight and the end of the world as we know it.

The Russians look to be about to have taken the two weeks to encircle the Ukrainian forces that invaded the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukrainian forces will either evacuate or surrender.

Zelensky has not been required to call for elections after his term expired In May 2024 – no elections can be called when the country is under martial law.

Yesterday he threw a bit of a hissy fit over the Chinese and Brazilian peace plan, you can check it out here and here:

China's peace plan has international backing, Beijing claims after Ukraine summit snub (kyivindependent.com)

Ukraine's Zelenskiy dismisses 'destructive' China-Brazil peace initiative | Reuters

Of interest, Putin is considering banning the export of uranium to the US. From Brave, we have this:

[deblala]

HUGE! US State Department Pushed "Voting Machine Semiconductors" Prior to Brazilian Election - Then CIA Pressured Populist Candidate Jair Bolsonaro to Keep His Mouth Shut When He Lost! - Elon Musk Responds! | The Gateway Pundit | by Jim Hoft

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/huge-us-state-department-pushed-voting-machines-prior/

[mariacallous]

On March 9, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma, tweeted a video that purported to show former US president Donald Trump encouraging “all South Africans to vote for uMkhonto WeSizwe,” her father’s party, in the country’s May 29 elections. In another post, just days before the elections, Zuma-Sambudla, who has more than 300,000 followers, shared videos and photos of what appeared to be paper ballots. The accompanying text accused the African National Congress (ANC), the party currently leading the government, of stealing votes. That post has been viewed nearly 650,000 times.

Experts who spoke to WIRED say that X, formerly Twitter, was a major source of election-related mis- and disinformation in the lead-up to the vote, which dealt a major blow to the ANC. And Zuma-Sambudla was a super-spreader.

“We’ve seen clear campaigns to undermine the [election commission],” says William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), a media and human rights watchdog. “It's been driven in no small part by [Jacob] Zuma's daughter.”

In the days following the elections, Zuma-Sambudla has continued to imply that the election was rigged in the ANC’s favor, even though the party lost its long-held parliamentary majority. Bird sees Zuma-Sambudla and her massive platform on X as symptomatic of a larger problem—there’s no one home at the company to curtail content that undermines trust in the elections or threatens election-related violence.

“When Elon took over, he just completely trashed the whole thing,” says Bird. As part of its work, MMA runs a platform called Real411 in collaboration with South Africa’s election commission, known as the IEC. The platform allows regular South Africans to report instances of mis- and disinformation around the election. MMA can then flag these pieces of content to Meta, TikTok, and Google, all of which work with the IEC to protect elections. X, according to Bird, “didn’t want to engage” in conversations to help shape digital and social media guidelines for elections on the continent during 2024 and 2025.

“That's not just one small country, South Africa,” says Bird. “That was the entire continent that they refused to engage with.”

Following the insurrection in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, the company then known as Twitter beefed up its trust and safety staff—the people keeping hate speech, disinformation, and illegal content off the platform—around elections, to ensure that its platform couldn’t be used to foment civil unrest. In the lead-up to the US midterm elections and the 2022 Brazilian presidential elections, the company was particularly vigilant around mis- and disinformation that questioned the electoral process or the validity of an election’s outcome. (Brazil, like the US, also saw an insurrection in the months following then president Jair Bolsonaro’s loss). After Elon Musk took over the company, however, he laid off most of the people working on trust and safety. As part of this, the entire Twitter Africa staff was cut.

“A lot of times it's sort of blamed on, you know, ‘We're undergoing a lot of changes because of layoffs,’” says Bulanda Nkhowani, sub-Saharan Africa campaigns director at the tech accountability nonprofit Digital Action, which has tried to engage with X about its approach to elections on the continent. “It's as if they don't know who to point you to.”

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Though only about 55 percent of South Africa’s 26 million social media users use X, the platform appears to be vastly overrepresented when it comes to the spread of mis- and disinformation. In a report prepared for the IEC and shared with WIRED, MMA found that a vast majority—68 percent—of 200 pieces of content reported through the Real411 portal that were ultimately found to be disinformation came from X. And a great deal of that content was tied to Zuma-Sambudla.

“We've noticed that a lot of the complaints are being generated through her account or accounts of her supporters,” says Sherylle Dass, regional director at Legal Resources Center, a public interest law center and human rights organization, which helped monitor the tip line.

Dass believes that X’s lack of moderation has been a boon to Zuma-Sambudla and her supporters, potentially laying the groundwork for future election-related violence. “I think they've been using this and leveraging this to promote divisive content, to engage in disinformation and incitement to violence,” she says.

Fears of the latter are well founded. In 2021, Zuma—who was recently barred from running for Parliament—was imprisoned for contempt after refusing to testify before a commission investigating claims of corruption in his administration. This sparked riots in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Zuma-Sambudla “was very instrumental at that time,” Dass says. In the lead-up to last week’s elections, the country faced a spate of violence against local politicians and activists. Now, Dass and others worry that Zuma-Sambudla’s attacks on the country’s election integrity could lead to more unrest.

“We are very concerned that these calls for anarchy and calls for violence on Twitter might spill over to offline violence,” says Dass.

And Nkhowani says that even if the country avoids postelection unrest, “an attack on the electoral processes is part of an overall attack on democracy.”

[news24-7live]

Elon Musk Shuts Down X Operations in Brazil

The conflict between Elon Musk's X and the Brazilian judiciary began when Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the platform to block certain accounts. These accounts were accused of spreading disinformation and hate speech during the tenure of Brazil's former right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro. https://twitter.com/beatsinbrief/status/1824859308711948316 Also Read: Huawei Set to Launch the World’s First Tri-Folding Phone Initially, X complied with the court orders, blocking the targeted accounts. However, Elon Musk known for his strong stance on free speech publicly criticized the actions of the Brazilian judiciary. He described the orders as unconstitutional and an affront to democratic values. His criticisms became more pointed over time. The tension reached a boiling point when Justice Moraes allegedly issued a secret order threatening one of X's legal representatives in Brazil with arrest. The judge's directive included fines of 100,000 reais per day for any account that X reactivated after being blocked by the court's order. Elon Musk himself became a target of the Brazilian judiciary. Justice Moraes opened an inquiry into Musk accusing him of obstructing justice by resisting the court's orders and reactivating the blocked accounts. X announced the immediate closure of its operations in Brazil. The platform addressed that the decision was made to protect the safety of its staff in the country. According to a statement from X, Brazilian employees had no control over the platform's content moderation decisions, yet they were being unfairly targeted by the judiciary. Elon Musk took to X to explain the rationale behind the closure. He argued that agreeing to the Brazilian court's demands would have compromised the platform's integrity and principles. He stated that X could not justify its actions without feeling ashamed if it complied with what he termed as illegal censorship and demands for private information. X's Global Government Affairs office further elaborated on the situation. They expressed frustration over their appeals to the Brazilian Supreme Court being ignored and criticized the lack of due process. The office highlighted that despite complying with similar content moderation requests in other countries, the Brazilian judiciary's actions were egregious due to the direct threats against their staff. https://twitter.com/ultimate_phyco/status/1825009123156521469 Also Read: Google Gemini Assistant Coming to Wireless Earbuds Many of the accounts targeted by Moraes' orders were associated with right-wing supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. These accounts often questioned the legitimacy of Bolsonaro's 2022 election loss and expressed sympathy for the January 2023 insurrection, where protesters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices. Elon Musk has been openly critical of Moraes, accusing him of censorship and overreach. He has frequently posted on X denouncing the judge’s actions as violations of free speech and arguing that they are inconsistent with Brazilian law. Judge Moraes' actions have included orders to suspend specific accounts and posts, most of which are sealed from public view, meaning that the reasons for these suspensions are not fully disclosed. In recent days Elon Musk’s team at X publicly shared images of some of Moraes’ orders, which included demands to remove at least 19 accounts. Among these were right-wing influencers and a federal lawmaker. Elon Musk's refusal to comply with these orders led to a sharp confrontation with Moraes threatening severe penalties including fines and the arrest of X’s legal representative in Brazil. Shutting Down Operations Faced with these legal threats, Elon Musk announced on August 17, 2024, that X would shut down its operations in Brazil to protect the safety of our staff. Despite the closure of the office Elon Musk confirmed that X’s platform would remain accessible to Brazilian users. In 2022, he ordered a temporary ban on Telegram in Brazil after it failed to comply with similar orders. While X remains operational in Brazil, the platform could face similar bans or restrictions if it continues to defy Moraes’ orders. https://twitter.com/TheRevolutionR1/status/1825371332735074792 Also Read: Google Found Guilty of Violating Antitrust Laws Over Search Monopoly

Top Sources Related to Elon Musk Shuts Down X Operations in Brazil (For R&D)

Reuters: reuters.com AL Jazeera: Elon Musk’s X to shut operations in Brazil amid bitter legal fight | Social Media News | Al JazeeraWe use cookies and other tracking technologies to deliver and personalize content and ads, enable features, measure site performance, and enable social media sharing. You can choose to customize your preferences.Learn more about our Cookie Policy. New York Times:

Elon Musk Closes X Office in Brazil Over Fight With JudgeThe billionaire said he would shutter his social network’s Brazil operations instead of complying with a Brazilian judge’s orders to suspend accounts. BBC News:

X suspends business in Brazil over censorship rowThe social media platform says its legal representative was threatened by a supreme court judge. AP News: X announces suspension of Brazil operations, alleging ‘censorship orders’ from Supreme Court justiceSocial media company X says it will close its operations in Brazil, claiming Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes threatened to arrest their legal representative in Brazil if they did not comply with orders. The Guardian: Elon Musk says X will pull operations from Brazil after ‘censorship orders’Judge Alexandre de Moraes had ordered X to block certain accounts as he investigated fake news and hate messages Read the full article