#he stole the election 100%

[bunnisari]

trump will turn the united states into a dictatorship i dont see how people can’t understand that !!!

[shikai-the-storyteller]

Who is Luzu?

Luzu was just announced as a QSMP member, and since he's a very important character in Karmaland and a VERY important person to Quackity's character, here's a quick rundown of Luzu and his lore for folks who aren't familiar with him:

Luzu is played by LuzuVlogs, a Spanish Twitch streamer who's good friends with Quackity!

IRL, they're such good friends that Luzu once accidentally called his real life son "Quackity"

Luzu is bilingual and can speak English and Spanish.

Luzu's character used to be a very kind, friendly, and loving man who helped everyone

HOWEVER, during Karmaland 4 (the season before Quackity joined) when he campaigned to be mayor of Karmaland, he was betrayed and mocked by his friends and the person he loved (who then ran off with someone else)

Luzu before the elections vs. after the elections

These two animatics sum up his K4 lore pretty well if you want an even shorter TLDR: Lemon Boy, Karma (an animatic approved by Luzu himself)

As a result, Luzu is a very vengeful, distrustful, and all around tragic character

Luzu canonically has an evil side, and he made a deal with "dark gods" in the past to take revenge on the people who've wronged him.

Despite all his past heartbreak and lingering anger, he immediately took a liking to Quackity when they first met.

Luzu and Quackity's Karmaland characters are parallels to each other

Luzu and Quackity were canonically in love with each other, but they were too emotionally constipated to confess their feelings despite their many, many, many romantic and borderline sexual shenanigans.

Luzu warned Quackity not to trust anyone in Karmaland except for him. But despite Luzu's deep mistrust of other people, he trusted Quackity immediately.

Luzu is a very possessive man, and very protective of Quackity.

He calls Quackity "Quacks" (both in and out of character)

He and Rubius have a long-standing rivalry, and they normally don't get along very well.

Luzu and Quackity had 4 (adopted) kids together.

When campaigning for mayor of Karmaland, Quackity asked everyone what they wanted most, and Luzu's response was, "I want you to be happy, Quackity."

HOWEVER, the day of the election, Luzu joined as an opposing candidate at the last second and stole the election from Quackity, fearing that the position in office might leave Quackity with the same trauma he had in a previous life (a life which he can only half-remember).

Luzu says everything he did, he did to protect Quackity.

TLDR: Luzu trauma-projected onto Quackity, who then started a revolution that nearly destroyed Karmaland in retaliation.

For a good TLDR of the revolution arc, “I Can’t Decide” is a good one to watch.

Even though he was furious with Luzu, Quackity told Rubius not to kill him. He’s referred to Luzu as “My 100%”, and “the best person I knew in Karmaland”, and even expressed his gratitude that Luzu was always so kind to him to Luzu himself, despite the war and despite knowing one of them would probably have to kill the other to end it.

Luzu said the song that best fits his character during the revolution arc is Bloody Mary by Lady Gaga.

Edit: This isn’t about the character, but I just saw what Luzu said in response to people asking him if he knew about the invitation:

Luzu: A mi Quackity me invitó desde hace bastante, me dijo si quería participar, así que llevo tiempo calladito, calladito, para no spoilear nada, aunque yo soy invitado no sé nada jaja, lo lleva todo Quackity, así que veremos con qué nos sorprende nuestro querido Quacks.

Translation: My Quackity invited me a long time ago, he asked me if I wanted to participate, so I've been quiet for a while, so as not to spoil anything, although I'm invited I don't know anything haha, Quackity takes everything, so we'll see what our beloved Quacks surprises us with.

Other info posts:

Who is Spreen? | Who is Sapo Peta? | Who is Vegetta?

[charlesoberonn]

Trump is 100% gonna gun for the Supreme Court to repeal his conviction and the current majority of corrupt far-right justices, half of whom Trump appointed, is very possibly gonna give him what he wants. It's imperative that Biden reforms SCOTUS before that can happen.

The easiest way to do it is by packing the court with 4 more justices. 2 to balance out the 2 Justices Trump stole (Gorsuch, which took the spot of an Obama-appointed justice, and Barrett, which was appointed after Trump lost the 2020 election and took the spot of a Biden-appointed justice) and 2 more to return the balance to what it should've been without the Trump steals.

[rahabs]

the fact that you would defend the israeli government after they’ve murdered 30,000 innocents in the largest bombing campaign in modern history is literally despicable and borderline evil. if a genocide documented ad nauseam cannot make you cognizant of israel’s colonial and deeply racist regime, then literally nothing can and you are beyond reasoning with. actually incredible how multiple history degrees have clearly taught you nothing about how a genocide works — or perhaps more concerningly, they have, and you simply don’t care because the victims are palestinian. the fact that you would use those very history degrees to excuse israel’s genocide of palestinians is deeply disturbing and indicative of the rancid hypocrisy within western academia. history will exonerate the indigenous palestinians, and it will be unkind to those like you who defended and cheered on their annihilation.

It‘s so amazing to me that you actually believe this, and that you‘ve so wholeheartedly swallowed the propaganda Hamas (known for using their own civilians as human shields, known for paying their citizens extra for killing Jews) has been peddling. So I am going to paste here some points others have already made that I‘ve saved over the course of information-gathering, though I doubt you‘ll bother to read or learn, judging from your asinine little comments here.

1) Palestine Gaza is a genocidal nation. The goal of the Palestinian government in Gaza is literally to destroy and commit genocide against Israel and kill every Jew by every means possible. This is literally written in their founding charter. "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with.

2) Palestine is an apartheid nation that has ethnically cleansed 100% of their Jews and stole their territory after 1948. There used to be tens of thousands of Jews living in the areas of Judea and Samaria, which was renamed to the West Bank by Jordan. However they've all been ethnically after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and 0 Jews are allowed to live in Palestine today. 3) Palestine is an authoritarian dictatorship both in Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas won majority of the votes during an election in 2006, but the Palestinian president simply refused to recognize the results of the election and refused to hand power over to them. This resulted in Hamas siezing power in Gaza, executing hundreds of their political rivals, and they never held another election. Likewise, the leadership in the West Bank also refused to hold any elections and still continue to illegitimately cling to power. Abbas, the president of Palestine had a 4 year term which was supposed to end in 2009. He's still the leader today and has continued to postpone election after election. 4) Palestine supports the outright open murder of innocent civilians. I've already mentioned the charter of the Palestinian government in Gaza above where their goal is to eradicate Israel and genocide Israelis, but the Palestinian government in West Bank is just as horrible. There's the Palestinian Authority Matry Fund where they literally pay a salary / pension to any Palestinians who commmit terrorist attacks against Israelis, be it through stabbings, shootings or suicide bombings, and they've paid out billions so far. The Foundation for the Care of the Families of Martyrs pays monthly cash stipends to the families of Palestinians killed, injured, or imprisoned while carrying out violence against Israel.

5) Palestine is horribly corrupt oligarchy. Palestine receives billions from the USA and Europe in aid every single year. Whatever money isn't spent on paying literal terrorists, or on rockets to shoot at Israel ends up going to corrupt Palestinian leaders. Yasser Arafat, the first Palestinian leader, died a billionaire. Abbas the current President is worth $100 million. The Palestinian leaders in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, Moussa Abu Marzuk and Khaled Mashal have an estimated combined wealth of over $10 billion. Meanwhile the combined GDP of Gaza is only about $2.5 billion, meaning these 3 leaders wealth is equal to 4 years of Gaza's GDP. 6) Palestinians have caused wars and instability in every country that they've sought refuge in. In Jordan, Palestinains assasinated the Jordanian king in 1951, then attempted a coup of a the country in 1970. After they failed, they were expelled to Lebanon where they started a civil war with the Christian Maronites. This war lasted 15 years and killed several times more people than the entire Israel-Palestine war (150k died in Lebanon civil war vs 25k in Palestinian-Israeli wars). In Kuwait, the Palestinians supported Saddam as Iraq invaded Kuwait. In Egypt, they've been hit by several bombings by Palestinians. 7) There is no freedom of speech or equality in Palestine Gaza. No equality of sexes, no equality of races, and definitely no queer rights in the entirety of Palestine where you could be killed for the crime of being openly queer. [If you identify as a liberal, there is literally] no reason to support a country where majority of [your] friends would either have severely restricted rights, be treated like objects, or be thrown off a building just for existing.

Let me reiterate: Jews are indigenous to Israel. Jews have existed and lived in what we now call the Israel-Palestine region for thousands of years before the foundation of Islam, and even before the foundation of Christianity. In the game of “which Abrahamic religion came first?” Islam ranks dead last.

Israel as an identity as a people has existed for thousands of years and has been recorded as far back as the Iron Age on:

i) The Mesha Stele;

ii) The Tel Dan Stele;

iii) The Kurkh Monoliths; and (potentially)

iv) The Merneptah Stele.

While scholars have argued over the translations on the Merneptah Stele, the general consensus among historians, classicists, archaeologist, etc, is that it refers to the existence of Israel at the very least as a collective identity that existed at the time, and was called Israel.

They were eventually repeatedly forced out by other powers such as the Romans and many others, but that doesn’t change the fact that Jews had a continuous existence in Israel before being forced out by what people like you would normally call “colonising powers” were it not so contrary to your own ill-supported arguments. It also doesn’t change the fact that Jews, and Israel, existed before both Christianity and Islam, and long, long before Palestine.

So if your entire argument boils down to "who was here first" and the ideas of "colonialism" and "anti-colonialism" and "decolonisation", then I am telling you, Jews were there first. You could argue Canaanite groups like Moabites and Ammonites were there too, but Moabites and Ammonites don't exist as a continuous group anymore. No matter how you look at it, you are wrong, so let me parrot your horrible argument right back at you:

The fact that you would defend Hamas, a known organisation whose founding Charter literally calls for the annihilation of Jews, who have systematically purged Jews for years, who launched multiple attacks against innocent Jewish people (the music festival, the babies and the woman and the children slaughtered), the fact that there's a Palestinian Authority Matry Fund where they literally pay a salary / pension to any Palestinians who commit terrorist attacks against Israelis, be it through stabbings, shootings or suicide bombings, and they've paid out billions so far; the fact that you defend the existence of the Foundation for the Care of the Families of Martyrs which pays monthly cash stipends to the families of Palestinians killed, injured, or imprisoned while carrying out violence against Israel, etc... that you would defend this is "literally despicable" and not only outright evil, but ignorant to the nth degree.

If the continuous genocidal nature of Hamas against Israel cannot make you cognizant of Hamas' deeply racist, violence, and terrorist regime (to the point where none of the Muslim countries around them will take Palestinians in; even their fellow Muslim countries want nothing to do with them), then I'm not sure what to tell you. You say I am beyond reasoning, but from where I'm standing, your head is so far up your own ass that I don't even know if you're aware of anything that isn't the smell of your own shit.

It's actually incredible to me how you can ignore what multiple historians and scholars are saying because you want to cling to your idea that Hamas are just a bunch of "poor innocent brown people" who need help from the "evil white Israeli regime". Or perhaps, more "concerningly," that is just it: you hate Israel because you erroneously perceive them as white, and so therefore they must be evil. I don't know, but that is what a lot of anti-Israel sentiment seems to boil down to in the world of people like you.

The fact that you would excuse and ignore Hamas' outright horrific acts and ignore history is deeply disturbing and indicative of the rancid hypocrisy within the west, but particularly within western circles that claim to be "progressive", "liberal", and "leftist."

Hamas has said no to every ceasefire. Hamas has said no to every compromise Israel has offered even before October. If Hamas stops fighting, the war ends. If Israel stops, then Israel is annihilated.

History has already shown that Palestinians are not indigenous if we are playing the "who was there first" game with Israel and Palestine, you're just so ignorant that you will refuse to see the evidence right in front of you. You are the one cheering for the annihilation of an indigenous group, and the one history will frown upon is you.

[belladonnabefore]

Im coming back to Tumblr, and as much as it's not important to anyone, the reason is actually socially and politically interesting and i wanna explain it.

So, some context before anything, im Brazilian, grew up a Tumblr kid in from 2016 to about 2018, left for a good while, then i got a Twitter ( i refuse to call it X ) cause of Animation School during 2022, and now im migrating back to Tumblr, and it's cause Brazil is actually banning Twitter, giving a 8,912 dollar fine to anyone who uses a VPN to acess it and to top it off blocked Starlink's financial resourses in Brazil, the reason being justified and absolutely nuts that it happened too, at least in my conception.

So, from 2018 to 2022 the Brazilian president was Jair Bolsonaro, basically the dummer and more openly facist Brazilian version of Trump ( and that's a whole can of worms that im not gonna get into cause this post is already bound to be massive ), and on the end of 2022 presidental elections were held and Bolsonaro lost to Lula, a left leaning guy that will 100% sacrifice his morals for money and power ( but ended up being, sadly, the least worst option on that election, kinda like Biden ). So Bolsonaro started discrediting the electoral results on the internet with the help of other far-right politians and surprisingly ( or not ) Elon Musk. Following these series of inflamatory accusations from Bolsonaro and the far-right there were a few riots and then his following ( and most recent facist movement of Brazil ) stormed the Capitol in January 8th 2023 with enabling from the Brazilian police and military forces ( which sadly kinda work as it's own conservative cell seperate from the government due to Brazil's badly resolved Military Dictatorship issues ), politicians were evactuated before they entered, but when they did they tore down and stole priceless diplomatic gifts and works of art all over, but since it was mostly elderly people they were detained and jailed pretty quickly, even with the police's unwillingness allowing tons of them to escape.

And a huge investigation was open to see if the Coup was organized by political figures or not, led by supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes. And well, from the involvement of the police force blocking highways so rural and poor communities couldn't vote, to a general testifying that Bolsonaro presented him papers detailing a organized planned Coup that didn't happen ( that were later found to be in a liutenant-colonel's house ), to Musk stepping in himself to discredit a deny Judge Moraes' requests to ban the accounts of people involved in the coup and in spreading missinformation about the Covid-19 vaccines back in the pandemic, it was obvious political figure's were neck in deep in shit, and Musk's box-shapped visage was no different.

So, cause of his involvement in this crazy mess, various personal attacks on Judge Moraes and the fact that brazilian facist cells are finding refuge on Twitter without any sort of reprimanding from the plataform, Judge Moraes threatened arresting Twitter's Brazilian representative. Elon Musk's response was to completely shut down Twitter's offices in Brazil, leaving them as a rougue agent with no representative on the eyes lf the law, and so Moraes responded by blocking Starlink's financial resources here and threatening to shut down Twitter for good in Brazil if Elon keeps disrespecting and delegitimazing Brazilian democracy and law, Musk responded to this by throwing more anti-democratic tamper tantrums and posting edited pics of Moraes as Darth Vader or someone of the sort ( i don't watch Star Wars ) like the little facist troll he is. And that's why Brazil ( Twitter's 6th biggest userbase ) is just gonna vanish from there today or soon enough, and why im here now again! And let me tell you something, not having character limitations and being able to say "FUCK YOU ELON MUSK" without getting kicked to the curb is absolutely FREEING.

So, prehaps expect a influx of Brazilians even though most will go to Bluesky, and don't expect me to cover politics anytime soon, maybe expect me to cover history though.

Thanks for reading. ♡

[g-xix]

How accurate are my Sidemen HC's?

A couple years ago I did "Duke of Edinburgh with the Sidemen" Headcanons... And DofE is like a long hike and camp overnight - quite like THIS VIDEO:

So, having watched that video n seeing what the Sidemen are like camping.... How accurate were these HC's I made, from a few years ago⁉️:

Josh: RESPONIBLE "DAD" LEADER -Helps everyone stay on track -First to trample the path through the nettles and brambles  -Goes ahead to hold nettles and thorns out of the way so everyone else can walk -Makes journeys to the back of the group to talk and motivate the person at the back of the group -Waves and says hello to all passerbys -Also apologises to passerbys for the others when the group gets too rowdy -Became leader by firstly being elected by teachers to be the "LEAD ROAD CROSSER"- and thus being made to line everyone up and look both ways before counting to three and all crossing the road together. After that, Josh became head of taking breaks, breaking apart arguments, and dealing punishments. Oh yes- whenever anyone became too rowdy, Josh dealt sanctions- whether that be five push-ups, fifteen sit-ups, or a sticky-weed slap. Ethan, at one point, tried to push Simon into the lake- which would've made Simon's entire kit wet, and have broken his camera. Thus, Josh sanctioned Ethan to bend over whilst all the boys made a circle around him and neck slapped him one by one for his transgression. 

Vikk: TRUSTY NAVIGATOR -Has a compass strung around his neck and map in hand at all times -Whilst the other boys lie in the grass and relax he's on his feet tracing the trail on the map with a finger, finding the route they'll travel during the next 30 minutes -Guided them down the wrong path and made them do an extra 2k one time. JJ showed Vik what everyone wanted to do with him. -Often walks with Josh towards the front or chases after Harry who's stolen the map -Great banter- always sets up his puns by beginning an innocuous conversation about the landscape or the weather before saying the most face-palm-ing dad-pun which makes everyone groan

Tobi: LEAD SNACK-MAN -Think you're running out of energy? Getting hopeless? Tobi'll have something in his pocket to make your day (  ;)   ) -Nobody knows how he managed to carry so many snacks on him -Somehow he always knows exactly what everyone needs  -Often pulls random people to the side and deals a sneaky sweet before saying shhh and returning to the group as if nothing happened -Somehow also never has his snacks melt or get crushed???? -Also 100% snapback merchant - no burning to be seen with Tobi's sunhat  -When he slept (in a tent with Josh) Harry and Ethan stole Tobi's rucksack at 3am and took it back to their tent, giggling like schoolgirls- ready to see whether they were right, and Tobi's rucksack was stuffed to the brim with snacks and nothing else. They ripped the zipper down and peered inside... but were surprised to find nothing but Tobi's toiletries bag, a can of Lynx deoderant, and 3 more snapbacks. Confused, they tip-toed back and inserted Tobi's rucksack back into his tent... Though they also saw a deflated, empty sleeping bag on the side of Josh. Shrugging, thinking it was nothing, they turned back to return to their tents... only to see Tobi shadowy figure stood directly behind them. The sheer shock of Tobi's presence scared Harry and Ethan and caused them to scream before sprinting back to their tent and diving into their sleeping bags, near to shitting themselves from fear...  before giggling once more as they saw Vikk stirring as one of the other tent boys (who had been confused and stepped out of their tent to see what the scream was) got a bollocking from their DofE coach for being awake at such hours. 

Harry: MISCHIEF MAN -Simply signed up for shits n gigs -Got distant cousins and relatives to forge all of his DofE documents as he said that he had volunteered by "Walking his elderly grandma's dog" (Their grandma lived next door and all Harry did was walk his dog afterschool). -Also pretended to have learnt parkour for his skill, and said he rollerbladed for his sports. His Uncle signed both of those off, saying if Harry could do a backflip by the end of the 3 months he would sign them. Harry almost broke his neck trying to do the backflip, but he did it in the end, and Uncle George did end up signing his forms -Steals the map from Vik just to get chased by Vik and see Vik have some fun -Harry has an unbelievable stamina and was able to walk the whole way, and chase butterflies, and throw his backpack down the hills before rolling down the big hills whilst all the boys walked.  -Tried to do a backflip at the campsite (which was shared with other schools) and took down another school's tent. Ethan and Harry ran away giggling whilst Vik just stared at them warily wondering what they'd done now -Harry knew Vik was navigating them the wrong way that entire time (when they ended up doing an extra 2k) but didn't tell anyone because he wanted to see the lake that the 2k route went by -Deffo just wore a pair of shorts got cut by the brambles and strung by the nettles, but didn't care. Came home with bruises and scratches along his legs and told his family he got chased and mauled by a horse, but won the battle in the end.

Simon: CAMERA CREW  -His dad made him take his camera so he could take nice pictures of the landscapes and things to show when he got back home -Took pics of the landscapes + all the boys together -Accidentally knocked the camera and switched all pictures to live pictures which turned out for the better, as the pictures displayed a short audio and video before the picture was taken -Every time Simon got the camera out to take a picture of a landscape, JJ would try to moon the camera by standing by a bush or in the grass and bending over, pulling down his bottoms too. -JJ got a big bug bite on his arse the next day, having pulled his bottoms down in so many fields. -In the night, Harry and Ethan also stole Simon's camera and recorded a video with whispers and giggles, as the duo threw things at Vik and sat on top of him without Vik so much as stirring.  -JJ filmed a few random clips of Simon sleeping with his own commentary before Harry and Ethan stole it

Ethan: MISCHIEF MAN #2 (+CHEF!) -Harry's doppleganger -Whenever someone got too sick of Harry, Ethan would double back on Harry's joke and laugh his iconic laugh that made everyone smile a bit, even if they were sick of Harry's antics -Had a sword fight with Harry using the tent poles needed to set up a tent. Vik just sat on a camper chair to the side and watched in "wow these dumbasses", only running when Harry began jabbing his tent-pole at Vik -At camp, everyone was exaughsted and just wanted to sleep, and Ethan made a great tomato pasta with some cheese on top which was really what everyone needed.  -Last to go into his tent at night and first to wake up, having made hot chocolate for everyone and spent his time packing the stove whilst everyone headed to brush their teeth and change -At first, Ethan wanted just Harry and himself in the tent "for the Behzy-bog vibes", but When everyone got into their pairs for tenting... Vik too focussed on mapping his route and subsequently didn't get a say. Therefore, Harry insisted Vik came into their tent despite Ethan's unsureness. Ethan thought Vik was just a book-smart, education lover. But during their hike, at the times when Harry got too energetic and ran off with JJ, and Ethan was too tired and lagged at the back... Vik would give his map to Josh and join Ethan at the back, making sure he was okay and offering some water and words of encouragement which were surprisingly necessary, Ethan found. And then, although Vik fell asleep quickly during the night, Ethan didn't mind as him and Harry still did all the devious things he thought they might. 

JJ: nobody knows why he's there -Literally hates the outdoors -Hasn't been on a 10k+ hike before -Asks whether they're there yet every kilometer -Drank all his water within the first two hours -Subsequently needed to stop the hike four times so he could take a piss in a bush -Started stealing other people's water bottles so he could drink for the rest of the walk -Got stung by a nettle and began screaming and rolling on the ground clutching his forearm. Josh carried his bag for the next few kilometers before Vik told JJ to suck it up and put it back on JJ -Vik (like everyone) ended up getting stupidly sick of JJ and had a rage moment, yelling at him to "FUCK OFF YOU INCOMPETENT FUCK" which was humbling... until the group walked into a rapeseed field. JJ broke off a shoot of the plant and began violently tickling Vik with it (as Vik sneezed whenever he inhaled too much rapeseed pollen... It was a very specific type of hay fever) until Vik was running across the field with JJ chasing after him giggling maniacally. When Josh reached the end of the field and found JJ laughing over Vik, crouched on the floor and covering his face, and became Vik's protector from JJ for the rest of the day. For the rest of the day, JJ instead (from a safe 2 meters away) threw sticky weed onto Vik's back and ended up covering his back with the foliage- so much so that when the group reached camp, they had to use a pocket knife to cut through the swathes of weed JJ had stuck to Vik's rucksack -Whilst Ethan, Harry and Vik went on plate washing duty, JJ stole a shovel from the camp and tried to dig a hole under the trio's tent. He made about a 10 inch deep and wide hole, which the trio found him digging once they returned. Vik was made to sleep on top of the hole, and woke up groaning from the back pain of the small hole, as well as the fact the entire tent had slept with their heads facing downhill and thus they all had incredible headrushes in the morning. 

[catindabag]

TBOSAS on CRACK short take (58)

Io: Besties, listen up!

Coryo: We’re all ears, Jasper.

Io: Let’s join Ravinstill’s Annual Three-legged Race Competition this upcoming Saturday!😀

Felix: Why would you want us to join my granduncle’s competition, Io? Are we that desperate for pocket change?

Io: It will be fun!

Felix: No.

Io: Pretty please?🥺

Coryo: Felix, is the prize money even worth it?

Felix: Honestly, not really. I mean, at least you get 10 bucks and a gallon of beer for participating.

Coryo: And if you win?

Felix: 100 bucks and a box of expensive chips.

Coryo: Sign me up.

Hilarius: Me too!

Dennis: I do love money-

Clemensia: But seriously, Jasper, what’s the real reason why you want us to join Ravinstill’s Annual Three-legged Race Competition?

Io: Because our class fund is dead.

Urban: When you say dead, you mean-

Io: We have zero class fund money.

Urban: Like zero-

Io: Zero.

Felix: Zero?! How could our class fund be f*ckin’ zero?!

Coryo: Felix, who’s our Class Treasurer again?

Felix: Iphigenia Moss.

Coryo: Well, that explains it.😑

Festus: I don’t get it. What’s wrong with Nia being the Class Treasurer?

Urban: Everything.

Festus: I’m still too dumb to understand.

Clemensia: *sighs* Creed, I thought you knew?

Coryo: And I thought everyone knew.

Festus: Knew what?

Clemensia: That Nia is simply bad at handling money.

Androcles: True. She was even banned from managing her own weekly allowance by her parents last year.

Festus: So who the heck voted her to be the Class Treasurer?!

Sejanus: Palmyra, Andie, Urban, Florus, and Hilarius.

Urban: Plinth, I told you not to snitch on me!

Sejanus: That’s what you get for locking me inside Dean Highbottom’s broom closet without my Coryo, Canville!

Urban: I already said that I was sorry!

Sejanus: I specifically told you to make sure that my Coryo was there with me!

Urban: Fine! I’ll make sure to lock both of you inside the broom closet next time!

Coryo: Next time? What next time?!

Sejanus: Nothing, my love.😘

Felix: Hilari, you disappoint me.

Hilarius: It was supposed to be a funny joke, Class Pres!

Felix: Really?😒

Hilarius: Anderson and Florus peer pressured me to do it!😭

Androcles: To be fair, we never expected her to actually win the election-

Florus: But here we are.

Palmyra: And I just voted for Nia because I can.🥰

Domitia: Ugh. Typical and crazy as ever, Monty.

Palmyra: Thank you, Bestie!

Domitia: That wasn’t a compliment-

Livia: Where’s Nia anyway?

Florus: She’s currently hiding from the Dean and his Peacekeepers.

Coryo: What did Moss do now?

Florus: She stole Highbottom’s beloved goldfish again.

Coryo: For experiment?

Florus: For charity.

Dennis: Nice!

Io: So about that three-legged race competition. Does anyone else want to join?

Felix: *sighs* Sign me up too, Jasper.😞

Hilarius: Yo, we should totally invite our Tributes to join us!

Festus: Great idea, Hilari! Coral and I will totally win that sweet sweet prize money now!

Coryo: Heck, no! Lucy Gray and I will win that money!

Felix: You’re all wrong! Dill and I will be the perfect team to win that race!

Hilarius: Too bad, Ravinstill. I’ll just princess carry Wovey to victory!

Clemensia: Suck it, losers! Reaper and I will-

Florus: How should we even convince our Tributes to sign up with us for Ravinstill’s stupid competition?!

Sejanus: That’s so easy, Flory. My Ma’s cooking will be enough to convince them-

Florus: Even Marcus?😒

Sejanus:. . .

Florus: That’s what I thought, Plinth.

Sejanus: Coryo, my love, I’m sad!😭

Coryo: *sighs* Come here, Sej.

Sejanus: Hug?🥺

Coryo: Sure.

Sejanus: Yey! *tackles Coryo*

Arachne: Yo, I’m going out.

Vipsania: Me too.

Florus: Same.

Felix: Why? We’re not even finish-

Florus: Idiot Plinth and Snowy are starting to shamelessly kiss and make out in front of us again.

Hilarius: *takes out his very own “Snowjanus” camera* Don’t mind if I do-

Felix: Hilari, give me that camera.

Hilarius: *hisses like a cat and runs away*

Felix: Give me that f*ckin’ camera, Heavensbee! *chases Hilarius*

Hilarius: Never!! *runs in circles*

Clemensia: Ugh. My mother was right. I should’ve just chosen that homeschooling option instead.

Urban: But you didn’t.

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 14 – AUTHOR WEEK

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: seventymilestobabylon

seventymilestobabylon is a jack of all trades. Whether it be angst, fluff, smut, action, humor, emotional highs and lows – they manage to be fantastic at all of it. Their writing style is wonderful, and I love the scenarios they come up with for their fics. Their dialogue especially makes me want to take a green pen to every fic and write 'Yes, yes, this!' next to every other sentence. They're an amazing author, and they deserve all the love they can get.

Here's some of their work that I think you should check out:

should be a dream but I'm not sleepy

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: M Words: 4,592 Tags: Huddling for Warmth, Cabin Fic, Telepathy

Summary: Steve and Tony get hit with a telepathy spell and a magical blizzard, and they have to take shelter in a cabin with fresh milk but no working electricity. Even when they can sort of read each other's minds, they are still terrible at communicating.

Reasons why I love it: I love everything about this fic. Tony patching Steve up, drinking hot cocoa, Steve wearing a goddamn Hagrid coat, it's all great. I especially love how they manage to misconstrue everything about each other's intentions, even when they're telepathically linked. We stan a lovable train-wreck ship. This fic is amazing, and I really hope you give it a shot, if you haven't read it already!

Bring Him Home

Pairing: Steve/Tony, Sam/Bucky Rating: E Words: 13,769 Tags: Fix-it, Post-CA:CW, Flip Phone

Summary: Tony misses Steve very badly after the Accords. Some days he deals with it better than other days. (a fic featuring the booty call flip phone, minor kidnappings, and time jumps between chapters because the election has been happening and my brain has been too mush to make a proper plot)

Reasons why I love it: Steve just plays a whole fucking symphony on my heartstrings in this one. He's so vulnerable and sad and I just want to wrap him in a thousand blankets, Christ. Luckily Tony is there for him when he needs it the most. I love how this fic manages to wrap up the whole Civil War drama without any extensive focus on the politics, it's really refreshing. And the dialogue is amazing. I love this fic, and I bet you will too, so give it a shot!

Triskelion Crescent

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 26,949 Tags: Flower Shop, Neighborhood Associations, Epistolary

Summary: Steve Rogers runs a flower shop. Tony Stark owns a real estate company (eh, and it probably does other stuff too, like it's got "Industries" in the title) that's sniffing around Steve's neighborhood of Triskelion Crescent with an eye to building new developments. Triskelion Crescent fights back.

Reasons why I love it: Oh my god, Steve's merry band of Young Avengers are the cutest. Joyce Rumlow is such a genius idea as the neighborhood Karen, and I love how Steve sticks to his friendly demeanor always, committed to doing things the right way. Plus, the entire Stony plot going on parallel to the neighborhood drama is so fucking good, it makes me grin like an idiot. This fic is amazing, and I highly encourage you to read it!

Theory of Mind

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 28,497 Tags: Gift Giving, Getting Together, Avengers Family

Summary: Or, five things Steve didn't let Tony buy him, and one thing he did

Reasons why I love it: One of my favorite 5+1 fics. The way their relationship develops is really satisfying – angsty and cute and emotional in turns. I also love how the team is set up, their friendships feel incredibly real. Natasha and Clint especially just completely stole the show for me. And the banter between Steve and Tony is top notch. This fic is amazing, and I hope you give it a shot!

sambar and scaffolding

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 3,665 Tags: Cooking Class, Fluff, Humor

Summary: Steve ran away from SHIELD when they unfroze him and then accidentally ended up in the same cooking class as Tony Stark. 100% fluffy nonsense birthday fic for my lovely friend Renay.

Reasons why I love it: They're so fucking cute, they make me want to mash my face into a pillow. I love the mild identity porn going on, and Chitra is a wonderful OC who must be protected at all costs. That said, don't read this fic when you're hungry, because the descriptions of the recipe they're following will make your mouth water. This fic is wonderful, and I bet you'll love it just as much as I do!

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Onwald mæg wel reccean se þe ægðer ge hiene habban con ge wiðwinnan.*

- Old English

He wields power well who can both hold and resist it.*

Penny Mordaunt, Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Privy Council, took on a leading role during the coronation service at Westminster Abbey of King Charles III. Many commentators agreed she stood out for doing such a sterling job in standing to attention and holding up a sword weighing around 3kg for a good part of the proceedings. She didn’t waver once.

It’s all the more surprising that the upward political trajectory of the MP from Plymouth had flatlined after she had a promising junior ministerial career before losing out twice in the Tory leadership elections to Liz Truss and later Rishi Sunak.

It was the ill-fated Truss in her brief stint as Prime Minister who had given the 50 year old Mordaunt the wooden spoon of political offices, Leader of the House of Commons, often seen as half-way house for a minister on his way down the greasy pole of ministerial politics. Sunak kept her in the same position after annoying Sunak loyalists for staying in the leadership race to the bitter end. In that position she has thrived somewhat for her debating skills and being good on her feet as well being loyal to the Prime Minister.

Little did anyone think - least of Mordaunt - that as Leader of the Commons she would also breathe life into the nondescript title of Lord President of the Privy Council. But in one of the more arcane details of that title is the right to hold the Sword of State in any royal coronation.

As Lord President of the Privy Council she was expected the wear the august robes of that office but chose instead for a more modest presentation of a blue dress with mute gold olive leaf trimmings. As Lord President of the Privy Council, Mordaunt exchanged the larger Sword of State, a steel blade with a silver-gilt hilt that symbolises royal authority, for the jewelled Sword of Offering, which the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby then placed in the King's right hand. Mordaunt later redeemed the sword by offering 100 newly minted 50 pence coins and carried the sword before the King for the rest of the service.

Symbolising the protection of good and the punishment of evil, the jewelled sword was used as a Sword of Offering at the coronation ceremony of George IV in 1821. It wouldn't appear again at a coronation ceremony until 1902 for Edward VII and it has been featured at all subsequent coronations since. The sword features partly blued and gilt steel decorated on both faces with national emblems, including roses, thistles and shamrocks, while the hilt and scabbard are decorated with numerous jewels such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

There is no question that Penny Mordaunt cemented herself in the public consciousness, with even Labour counterparts commenting that she looked 'damn fine' and 'stole the show'. Admiration for her sword-bearing skills at the coronation might just reignite her political fortunes especially if Sunak and his government are widely expected to lose the upcoming general election. She may be third time lucky at getting the chance to be the leader of the Tory party. In any case many would agree in watching her steadfast performance at the coronation, it really might be the case that the ‘Penny is mightier than the sword’.

[beardedmrbean]

They say no good deed goes unpunished. 

An Oakland, California, City Council candidate, who is running for office on a platform of addressing the city’s homeless crisis and "skyrocketing levels of crime," said she had a bag full of donations stolen by a homeless woman during her campaign kickoff event on Sunday. To make matters worse, she said the police never showed up when she called 911.

Charlene Wang, who is running for the at-large seat in the California city, says the homeless woman grabbed the bag — which contained about $1,000 — at Clinton Square Park at around 4 p.m. Her team confronted the woman and pleaded with her to hand over the bag, but in the end, she made off with her ill-gotten gains, Wang said.

Video of the interaction shows Wang begging the disturbed woman to hand the bag back, but the homeless woman gets angry and refuses to turn it over.

"Can we just get the orange bag please," Wang asks politely to the woman. "When I'm done, y'all want me to take the s--- out so y'all can snatch it and run," she replies.

The homeless woman, who is wearing two hats, a toggle coat and untied sneakers, starts getting agitated and threatens a volunteer while shouting incoherently.

Another volunteer with Wang says he will give her $100 to hand over the bag, but she refuses and says she wants the $100 first. 

Then, Wang's team tried calling homeless services, but they were not available on the weekend, Wang says. They then called the police, who never showed up, having said there were 250 other calls ahead of their incident.

"The complete lack of response we saw from both mental health and police services was unacceptable," Wang told Fox News Digital. "I'm committed to hiring more police and improving mental health services to bring down response times and get people the help they need."

Wang told ABC7 that police told her they would still come by later to file a report, but she insisted that did not happen either.

"I very much tried to have a de-escalatory conversation with her to convince her to hand over the bag," Wang told ABC7. "Offer her a warm meal at the grocery store, even give her money in exchange for the bag, but that did not work out."

CALIFORNIA WOMAN HAD NEARLY $500K WORTH OF STOLEN GOODS FROM DRUG STORES: POLICE

"I can only imagine the trauma she is going through having to live on the streets. I am not angry at her or anything like that, however, I think this is yet another example of first responder service. I was left to fend for myself in an essence."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Oakland Police Department (OPD) for comment. 

Oakland has faced mounting issues such as housing costs, homelessness and crime in recent years, with Wang hoping to tackle these issues if elected. 

Wang is a Democrat who previously worked for the Biden-Harris administration in the Department of Transportation (DOT), although she is running in a nonpartisan election, and no candidates will have a party affiliation listed on the ballot.

"In this [DOT] role, I helped launch a pilot program at the Federal Highway Administration to make construction job training available to people who are coming home from prison," Wang told Fox News Digital. "Those kinds of programs cut people's odds of reoffending in half and are crucial pieces of the public safety puzzle."

Wang's main policy goals include addressing public safety, reducing the cost of living and implementing a "new strategy for homelessness," according to her website. Part of that strategy is to provide homeless people with housing, social services and a job with a new Oakland Corps program to clean up trash and plant trees with the goal of helping to turn their lives around.

In terms of crime, Wang plans to invest in technology and hire more police, noting that Oakland ranks among the nation's highest in terms of violent crime rates while the police force is "unusually small with far below the national average of police per capita."

"I plan to address the skyrocketing levels of crime and gun violence by investing in technology alongside community policing," Wang's website states.

Data released by the OPD in May reported that violent crime rates were down in the first part of the year, with crime down 33% overall. Burglaries had dropped 50%, while homicides had fallen by 17%, assaults were down 7% and rapes were down 21%.

However, a report by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Oakland Report claims that OPD is not comparing like with like when reporting its crime figures for Oakland, California, and thus, its perceived dip in crime is misleading. The publications argued the OPD was comparing incomplete 2024 crime tallies to complete 2023 crime tallies, since the 2024 figures take time to be finalized and have been historically under reported when comparing them in this manner.

[parafic]

Idk if you’re still doing the 100 words woo thing, but I’d love to see something from fantastic communication, guys or to accept the will of heaven!

I am! The 'answer everything the same day' part kind of fell apart because the election stole my brain, but I am almost caught up now. Thank you for asking!

fantastic communication, guys:

“I wanted to know what you think,” Hikaku tries. “Of this?  I think my opinion is clear.” “If you are as opposed to marriage as it appears, why allow it in the treaty?” Tobirama unfolds his arms.  It doesn’t look like relaxation; it just means his hands are now loose at his sides, and can come together for handseals much faster than before.  “You were so insistent on it, we would have had to make many other concessions to have it removed.  And you are neither Madara nor Izuna.  I am confident that I will win.” If Hikaku had to bet, he would bet on Tobirama reaching the dawn unmarried.  But he would also bet that he knows much more about Tobirama than Tobirama knows about him; the Senju surely have a file on Hikaku, but Hikaku has seen the majority of Izuna’s memories of battles with Tobirama, and every memory from any Uchiha that survived encountering him on a mission.  Information can be an edge, and marriage hunts aren’t the same as an ordinary fight.

to accept the will of heaven:

The scroll is old, with worn edges, and the paper crackles as Tobirama unrolls it to read.  It’s also very long, and Izuna has to nudge it back onto the table twice to keep it from falling off and disturbing Tobirama’s reading. Tobirama reads it all the way through, and then he arranges ink and paper and a brush next to him, and goes back to the beginning of the scroll.  He starts reading again, slowly, and writes down at least twice as much as he reads.  Izuna glances at the scroll, but doesn’t care enough to read it; all that matters is that Tobirama is happy with it.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Th Bugle's live election special was last weekend, and the pun run at the end was so long that they released it as a separate episode from the main podcast:

He did the British Prime Ministers from the last 100 years. I've said before that I like it when Andy picks a topic with a finite number of objects in it and hits all of them in one pun run - the Asian countries one from ages ago is one of my favourite pun runs.

Obviously, shoutout to the time Obama beat Romney in 2012 and Andy celebrated with a pun run of American presidents, and at one point Producer Chris sounded concerned that John Oliver had actually left in protest:

But this time was different because he did the British PMs in reverse order, so for the first time ever, in just over 600 episodes, I was able to guess where Andy was going before he got to the punchline of a pun. When he said this right after doing Liz Truss:

“He asked me what the favourite wars of Bugle co-hosts are. I said mine was the Hundred Years War. I know Nish’s favourite war is the war of Spanish Succession. He asked about John Oliver’s favourite war, and I said, oh, it’s that war between Britain and South Africa right at the end of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. He said, ‘Oh, the Boer is John’s one, is it?’ “

I was able to catch up and go "That's the Boer War... Boer, and John, oh shit I can work this one out, as I know who was Prime Minister before Liz Truss!" before he finished the sentence. It's an amazing feeling to be ahead of the game in a pun run. Never happened to me before. I also enjoyed Nish Kumar, as the audience stand-in, immediately pointing out that the audience had worked that one out in advance. And generally acting as the replacement John Oliver for getting upset about all the puns as Andy goes along. Just one of the many ways in which Nish Kumar stole John Oliver's life when he left The Bugle in 2015.

The whole election special was actually awesome. And for balance, giving credit to the treacherous defecting side of the original Bugle, Last Week Tonight also went into their break last week on a very well written special about the UK election. I didn't have a chance to write a post about them because I've been so busy with work this week, but I've enjoyed them.

[nostalgicamerica]

The hyper fixation of negativity is a trademark of Donald Trump. It's a hallmark of his speeches. You know, truth is truth. He's got the Truth Social where he tells his never-ending story of wo is me they stole the election only I can fix it. When a person or a cult following believes everything the speaker says, we have a problem. I was just reading a transcript of part of the Jan. 6 committee investigation into the then DOJ going over to Italy to investigate their so-called involvement in the "stolen election". You know. The Italians zapped the voting machines with their satellite in order to change the vote. Must have been a dead aim because it changed the Presidential outcome to favor Biden but it didn't touch all of the votes the Republicans got for Senate and House Seats. I'm just wondering what kind of kool aide these people are drinking. Even if the truth hits them in the face they still can't believe it. Of course, a smart person wouldn't have to ask if the Italians really changed the vote with a laser. "We have plenty of theories, just no evidence" Rudy Giuliani

Let me be clear: I. Don't. Care.

I don't care that Donald J Trump is impolitic, rude, bombastic, sketchy-as-hell, and egocentric.

I especially do not care if he pissed off every world leader on the planet. He wasn't hired to be president of the world. He - and every president before and since - was hired to be the POTUS.

Every politician in DC, on both sides of the aisle, is corrupt through and through, and if we had any pride at all we'd put down our phones, stop posting on Tumblr, and get involved to try to affect a change. At the very least, we'd demand better from the fuckers in DC.

$31 trillion in debt! We're not going to grow our way out of it. We're not going to tax our way out of it. We're not going to cut our way out of it. In the extremely near future we'll be looking at 100% of GDP just to pay the interest on the debt.

It is only common sense that, that which cannot continue, won't. We - you and I - have allowed this without raising holy hell about it. We've buried our great, great grandkids, grandkids.

Yes, Donald Trump is flawed, but no more flawed than any other booger-eater in the House or Senate.

I am beginning to believe that anyone who wants to run for public office should be disqualified by that fact alone.

[eolewyn1010]

Charité, season 4 - episode 5

*chanting* We will, we will spoiler you! *clap! stomp-stomp clap! stomp-stomp clap!* We will, we will... Oh, yeah, the episode!

Yay, Maral was right all along and there will be no consequences for her selfish and dangerous behavior. Oh jooooy.

"You're not in a physical state to treat him." ??? Dylan, how about she's still suspended and not allowed to treat him?

Why is Dylan the one who is told that he was all about his ego? While Maral will be celebrated as a selfless heroine of modern science. And doesn't even need to lie in a quarantine tube.

Good of her to remember she has a family. And nice of her to lie to her dying father.

Heh, Seda and Nils make for such bitchy exes. They must have been one hell of a couple.

I admire Julia for her restraint. I would have slapped her.

One two-faced hypocrite is not enough; we also need Emilia!

A big chunk of Germany is on fire, but they expect me to believe that climate refugees go there to escape fires in the US. Sure.

They also expect me to believe that Maral is all about family suddenly when she ignored her wife for most of the season, was having shouting matches with her mom, forgetting to talk to her kid about his poor life choices, and snapping at her father.

"It's all about meeeee! Wahwahwah! If it isn't about my heroic deeds, it's about my tragic errors!"

I'd like to point out that Ferhat just stole his completely paralyzed patient's talking device and locked him into his room. This man should not be a doctor. This man should be in prison.

I'm ever so impressed with the subtlety with which they're trying to convince me that Discount Daniel Sträßer is in cahoots with the Evil Redhead SJW.

"I look like 100 years old." Yeah, and you behave like 5.

Ah, this season's Yrsa von Leistner! I was wondering where my jarringly random, not-contributing-to-the-plot thread was. Took me a while to understand she wasn't a hallucination of Maral's.

She even sounds like Yrsa von Leistner back in season 2.

"Stop the aging process" - she's quoting the most whacko of election advertisement, and I'm supposed to take her seriously? Nevermind that she's very visibly one of the 1%; of course, we're talking treatment for the rich and beautiful elite. And tbh, I just don't think highly of people who strive for immortality beyond a long and healthy life. Age with dignity, maybe?

Minister Blowhard is ignoring the nurse to talk about the doctor's achievements. I hate him already; you needn't be so in-your-face.

Are the demonstrators throwing blood bags!? What a waste of limited resources.

Ferhat is one more of those "it's about me" types. Marlene's patient just died on her in surgery; maybe notice that she's down instead of going on about your unethical handling of your patient?

Does anyone actually expect Maral to work for Miss Neverage? She is already exasperated with her, which, finally I agree with the main protagonist on something!

It couldn't last longer than a moment. See, when Maral attempts a risky treatment on a patient, it's better to try than do nothing. When Seda does the exact same thing - she's a horrid egotistical bitch who just wants to be right. Ladies, gentlemen, and gentlefolk, our protagonist is the most self-unaware, self-righteous hypocrite I have seen in a long-ass time.

I also have second thoughts about Maral being able to remote-activate Seda's locator. There's massive stalking potential in that use of technology.

"killed the person most important to me" - way to prioritize your loved ones, dickhead. That's a rude thing to say to your mother. You also wanna tell your kid and your wife that they come in second-place?

These unclad ceilings are fugly. Why are all the pipes and wires out in the open? Is that safe?

Is that a coffin? Why is it, like, a glowy egg?

See, Ferhat's ability to move autonomously takes precedence over his patient's ability to move autonomously.

"I'm not happy with you." Standing ovation to Julia!

And the eeeeevil demonstrators prioritize their anti-reform message over human lives. Lest we forget that people who want social equity are terrorists. But honestly, Minister Blowhard has been set up as such an unlikable character that I don't have a lot of sympathy for him.

I'm a tad less exasperated than I was at the end of the last episode, but that's probably because now that Maral has been proven right, she stops being so obtrusively annoying because the writers remembered that they have to twist her around to a Happy End. Still incredibly rich of her to call Seda self-centered.

[apol]

Yep, the guy that got elected got called Brazilian trump, like he just copy and pasted trump's policies

Promised to make gun regulations less strict so our citizens could protect ourselves (a completely unheard of before afaik)

Called peak covid "just a cold", encouraged people to not wear marks, to not get the vaccine because "it'll give you covid" then turn around and got his vaccination card sealed for 100 years (covid vaccination certificate was required by everything back then and people were paying for fake ones)

Single handedly kick-started the antivaxx movement in brazil (yes, its called antivaxx on brazil, ever tho it doesn't make sense in portuguese, bc they stole it from the US)

Technically not his fault Im counting it bc he raised the voice of far-right people in here:

A proposed change in the abortion that says: abortion after 22 weeks is considered homicide, and will be in prison for 10 to 20 years, which is a higher sentence than a rapist (10 years)

When before you could have an abortion at any point of the pregnancy as long as it met a certain criteria, that been:

To save the woman's life

Rape

anencephalic babies (I used Google translate)

And considering the last proposed change to abortion law was to completely decriminalisation of abortion, you can really tell the influence Brazilian trump and trump had in the country

Not to Both-Sides last night's debate, but I really think both candidates on that stage did an excellent job highlighting how Donald Trump is too much of a deranged lunatic to be president

[newstfionline]

Thursday, August 1, 2024

The repeated security failures that almost led to an assassination (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Just as a Beaver County SWAT sniper was finishing his shift at the Butler County Trump rally, he spotted the man who later turned out to be the 20-year-old gunman—nearly two hours before he took aim at the former president. “He knows you guys are up there,” the officer texted the snipers still in the building. “He’s sitting to the direct right on a picnic table about 50 yards from the exit.” One responded seconds later at 4:27 p.m. with a thumbs-up emoji. Minutes later, another replied “Roger that.” But Thomas Matthew Crooks had time—more than 100 minutes—to lurk around the building, measure the distance to the stage with a rangefinder, crawl to an elevated firing position and take aim. The text messages, which were shared with the Post-Gazette and other media by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, offers the most details so far of the minutes that culminated in one of the worst security failures ever involving a presidential candidate. More text messages would follow in a group chat among snipers from Beaver and Butler counties, pointing to the shooter’s positions as he moved around the building they were in. Around 5:15 p.m., an officer took a photo of him and shared it with the other SWAT operators. At 5:38 p.m., they spotted him again, directly below their position in the AGR International Inc. industrial complex, wearing a T-shirt and glasses. “Kid learning [sic] around building we are in. I did see him with a range finder looking towards stage. FYI. If you wanna notify SS snipers to look out. I lost sight of him.” Not until 33 minutes later would Secret Service snipers fire the shots that killed Crooks—more than two hours after he had shown up and began preparing to assassinate the 45th president. The text messages continue to bring to light the critical security breaches that not only involve the Secret Service but the local law enforcement agencies they relied on to provide protection for Trump as well as thousands of rally-goers on July 13.

What it's like to be vetted as Veep (BBC) With a paperwork deadline looming, US Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris has just a few days to pick her running mate. The process, which Ms Harris herself underwent four years ago, leaves no stone unturned. Evan Bayh, a finalist to become Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008, remembers the procedure took nearly three months and was "like having a colonoscopy performed with a telescope". The former Indiana senator and governor told the BBC: "There was a whole team assigned to me: an accountant, a lawyer, a physician, you know." Television crews were soon camped outside his house in Washington DC. Mr Bayh recalls his shock one morning as he sat down for breakfast with the television on and heard an MSNBC host remark that the senator’s bowl of yoghurt and granola "sure looks tasty".

At least 16 reported dead as Maduro meets Venezuelan protests with force (Washington Post) As Venezuelans poured into the streets for a second day of protests on Tuesday to challenge President Nicolás Maduro’s claimed reelection, the reigning leader accused opposition leader María Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo González of “criminal violence.” Protesters are demanding Maduro publish voting data in an election they say he stole. The authoritarian socialist has responded with force. At least 16 people have been killed in clashes across the country since the presidential vote Sunday, according to the rights group Foro Penal and a survey of hospitals. The dead include one soldier, the defense ministry said. On Monday, crowds marched to the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, blocking streets, banging pots and pans and demanding the end of the socialist state founded by Hugo Chávez a quarter-century ago. Across the country, protesters burned billboards of Maduro and destroyed statues of Chávez. Police responded with tear gas and some gunfire.

Have babies for Russia? (Washington Post) Vladimir Putin, who has long cultivated an aura of machismo as Russia’s strongman leader, is enlisting women to grow Russia’s population through childbirth and to rebuild his nation as a great power steeped in traditional family values. “Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven or eight children, and maybe even more,” Putin declared to an audience of ultraconservative religious and political figures who had convened in the State Kremlin Palace in November. “We should preserve and revive these wonderful traditions.” Russian officials, echoing their leader, are telling women to start young—at 18. Russia’s low birth rate and relatively short life expectancies have caused consternation in the Kremlin for decades, and many other countries have similarly struggled with declining populations, seeking to encourage childbirth with more-generous social benefits. But Putin has set Russia apart by declaring the effort a matter of national security and tying it to the war in Ukraine. In pursuing these sweeping changes, Putin has cast Russia as the global leader in a fight against what he considers Western debauchery.

Ukraine Is Conscripting Thousands More Troops. But Are They Ready? (NYT) Ukraine’s campaign to replenish its war-weary troops is ramping up and should help fill personnel gaps on the front line in the coming weeks, according to Ukrainian officials, soldiers and military analysts. The mobilization push has so far not significantly bolstered Ukraine’s forces on the battlefield, those people say. Many conscripts are still completing the weekslong training process and have yet to reach the front. And some recruits who have arrived are not physically fit for combat, members of Ukrainian units have noted.

U.S. sanctions against Huawei transformed it into one of China’s most important tech players (WSJ) Five years ago, afraid the company would spy on Americans and their allies, Washington cut Huawei’s access to advanced U.S. technologies. Huawei took a hit, but then billions of dollars in support from Beijing enabled it to expand into new businesses, increase profitability and limit its dependence on U.S. suppliers. The telecom titan that portrayed itself as independent from Beijing has become a national champion, helping China wean itself off foreign vendors. Huawei said it owed its survival and development to global customers, partners and “all sectors of society.”

Hamas leader Haniyeh killed in Iran (BBC) Hamas's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has been killed in an Israeli air strike in the Iranian capital, the group has said. Haniyeh—who was from Gaza but had lived in Qatar for several years—had been a target since his group's attack killed 1,200 people in southern Israel on 7 October last year. He had been filmed smiling and waving at the inauguration of Iran's president in Tehran, where the building he was staying in was later hit by an air strike, reports suggest. It came hours after Israel said it had killed the top military commander of Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based group that, like Hamas, is backed by Iran. Fuad Shukr was killed in an air strike in the Lebanese capital Beirut, in retaliation for the weekend rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel said. Haniyeh had been critical to talks over halting the war in Gaza. American officials had recently suggested that ceasefire negotiations might soon succeed, although it’s extremely hard to see how any progress can be made in the immediate wake of the assassination of Haniyeh. Turkey’s foreign ministry has already summed up the likely reaction of many in the region—accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of having "no intention of achieving peace". Qatar's foreign ministry described the assassination as a "heinous crime, a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of international and humanitarian law".

Israel’s far-right uproar (NYT) On Monday, far-right protesters and at least one Israel lawmaker participated in the storming of Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert. The cause of their ire was the Israeli military’s detention of nine reservists suspected of participating in the abuse of a Palestinian prisoner. Security forces cleared them out Monday evening but the disturbances spoke volumes of rifts growing within Israeli society and politics. The stories that have emerged from inside Israeli facilities where Palestinians are detained have shocked rights groups. Reports detail frequent physical abuse, sensory depravation and even sexual assault. “The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo,” Khaled Mahajneh, the first lawyer to visit detainees at Sde Teiman, told +972 magazine, an Israeli publication, last month. Footage from a Monday meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, saw some lawmakers bickering over the decision to censure soldiers alleged to have sodomized a Palestinian detainee, with one official suggesting that all punitive action is “legitimate” against Palestinian prisoners. “In essence, soldiers are in open rebellion for the right to rape prisoners, and more and more coalition politicians are joining them,” posted leftist Israeli journalist Haggai Matar. Far-right groups have assaulted convoys carrying aid to Gaza, while vigilantes from settlements in the West Bank—a hotbed of the Israeli far right—have long participated in attacks on Palestinian civilians in their midst. “In the past it could still be said that they were a handful or a minority, but today they are the government, they are the law, they are the face of Israel,” Israeli journalist Oren Ziv wrote.

Hot times in Dubai (Bloomberg) Dubai has been buffeted by humidity and heat waves that have already caused temperatures to feel higher than 60C (140F) this summer. The searing temperatures come as the Middle East heats up at one of the fastest paces in the world—a world that is repeatedly breaking records for the hottest days in recorded history. Extreme weather conditions are hitting many parts of the globe with greater frequency, but the Middle East is particularly susceptible.

Surviving Rwanda (AP) Thirty years ago, while he was hiding from the machetes that killed his father, two of his brothers and an estimated 800,000 other people during the genocide against Rwanda’s Tutsi minority, Pascal Kanyemera made a deal with God. “Please, if I survive one more week, I will give you 100 Rwandan francs.” God listened, so the 15-year-old prayed again. Then again. And again, until the killings stopped in July 1994. “By the end of the genocide, I owed God 400 Rwandan francs,” said Kanyemera, now 45, from his home in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. “That shows you how I always put my life and my survival in his hands.” Healing, Kanyemera said, is a long process. But many survivors hold on to faith to bring back peace into their lives. Frida Umuhoza details in her book how becoming a Christian allowed her to forgive. Another survivor, Immaculée Ilibagiza, has written about hiding for 91 days in the tiny bathroom of a pastor’s house. Now a U.S.-based author, motivational speaker and devout Catholic, Ilibagiza often recounts how reciting the rosary drew out the pain and rage inside her.