#regional politics

[afrotumble]

Ethiopia-Eritrea-Tigray War: UAE, Saudis, AU and the West Must Stop Conflict Before It Starts

[somalilandcurrentnews]

President Abdirahman Irro in consultative tête-à-tête with 3rd President Rayaale

By M.A. Egge The President of the Republic of Somaliland, His Excellency Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi Irro received in his office at the Presidential Palace the 3rd President of the Republic of Somaliland, His Excellency Dahir Rayaale Kahin. The meeting exuded mutual respect, goodwill and openness, as the duo were immersed in consultative tête-à-tête that discussed extensively the developmental…

[touchaheartnews]

Iran Urges Muslim Unity to Confront Israeli Actions in Gaza

In recent developments, Iran has strongly urged the Muslim world to unite in opposition to what it describes as Israeli “crimes” in Gaza. This call for solidarity comes amid escalating tensions and violence in the region, which has prompted a wave of international reactions and condemnations. The Iranian government, through various channels, has emphasized the need for a collective Muslim…

[freepressjournals]

Unraveling Electoral Bonds: The Nexus of Money and Power in Regional Politics

In the intricate web of regional politics, money often follows power, or at least the promise of it. Electoral bonds, a contentious topic in India’s political landscape, offer a glimpse into this dynamic relationship, particularly for regional parties.

Tracing the Trends:

Recent data published by the Election Commission sheds light on the flow of electoral bonds from April 2019 to January 2024. It reveals a significant correlation between a party’s position in government and the influx of funds via electoral bonds, as well as their alliances.

Regional Powerhouses:

Delving into specific cases, the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) of Telangana, ruling for a decade before losing power, witnessed a surge in electoral bond redemption just ahead of crucial elections. Similarly, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) of Andhra Pradesh saw a notable increase in funds amid talks of potential alliances.

The Andhra Pradesh Dynamics:

The contrasting fortunes of Andhra Pradesh’s ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the TDP underscore the impact of electoral bonds on electoral outcomes. While the YSRCP reaped significant gains following its 2019 victory, the TDP’s funding surged amidst political realignments.

Maharashtra’s Political Chessboard:

The political maneuvers in Maharashtra, epitomized by the Shiv Sena’s trajectory, offer a nuanced perspective. From its alignment shifts to its electoral bond redemption patterns, the Shiv Sena’s journey mirrors the interplay of power dynamics and financial resources.

Bihar’s Political Landscape:

The fluctuating fortunes of parties like the RJD and JD(U) in Bihar, influenced by their coalition affiliations and leadership changes, highlight the pivotal role of electoral bonds in shaping electoral strategies.

Regional Power Shifts:

From Tamil Nadu to Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh to Punjab, electoral bond trends reflect the ever-evolving political landscape. Parties like the DMK and AAP experienced surges in funding coinciding with electoral victories, signaling the intertwined nature of money and power in regional politics.

Conclusion:

The saga of electoral bonds unveils a complex narrative of political finance, where financial resources intertwine with electoral fortunes. As regional parties navigate the maze of alliances and power dynamics, electoral bonds emerge as a critical tool shaping the contours of Indian democracy.

Intrigued by the interplay of money and power in regional politics? Dive into our analysis for a deeper understanding of this fascinating phenomenon.

[heritageposts]

Podcast w/Rania Khalek and Nima Shirazi, link + transcript above ↑

[anyahita]

Middle Eastern kids deserve to wake up to the sounds of birds chirping, not bombs and airstrikes

Middle Eastern kids should be carrying books and flowers, not the dead bodies of their loved ones

Middle Eastern kids deserve to run the streets in joy and laughter, not run away from bombs

[percypaints]

For those who lived on to remember, and those who cannot.

Hong Kong Miku.

I was originally going to make something more... palatable? I guess? But my partner encouraged me to do one themed on the protest back in 2019. The dust has settled, and it looks like everything is painted over, but I still miss my home. So, see this as a sort of tribute to the people who fought for my home, and a tribute to all the freedom fighters in the world-- Palestine, Ukraine, Yemen, and all the others. I love you all.

[ayaahh00]

There’s something I need to say. If you’re a Western radical feminist who claims to care about women’s rights in the Middle East, you must understand the role your countries played in creating the very oppressive systems. The U.S. armed the mujahideens (an extremist group they aided and created) in Afghanistan during the Cold War when it was a socialist country, leading to the rise of the Taliban. In Iran, they backed the Shah and then helped the Islamic regime come to power. Meanwhile, America supported Saudi Arabia since its very existence, spread Wahhabism across the region, fueling religious extremism when many countries were once secular.

Western imperialism especially American invasions and destabilization of the region must be addressed. The U.S. played the biggest role in creating Israel in 1948, funding and arming them while the rest of the region was still reeling from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Then there’s the Iraq invasion which killed 1.5 million Iraqis and the countless Arab lives lost throughout the Arab spring. You can’t talk about women’s rights in the Middle East without this context. If you don’t educate yourself on the harm caused by your governments, you’re just perpetuating a white savior complex, which is damaging to the very people you claim to support.

[fjordfolk]

What’s your thoughts on wui hei quan dogs?

This response is going to derail.

My thoughts about any and all non-western breeds are that English (or Norwegian, which are inevitably translated from English) sources are rubbish, and the current media environment makes it near-impossible to search for anything.

This isn't new. This is western dog fancy.

My search engines will organize my location-based results over the things i actually write in the search field. My English-language and Latin-alphabet search results will inevitably land me search results in English.

Which means that from my scope, the wui hei quan dog could be anything from a fabricated tiktok trend featuring a black "chow" puppy to a genuine heavily pigmented regional breed of Chinese farmdog ("garden dog" but I've been around this translation block before, i c u). I'm tempted to lean toward the latter, just because the google search results want me to exchange "wui hei quan dog" for "xiasi dog," and the regions those are supposed to originate from are some minor fifteen travel hours apart. Which is a little bit like exchanging a Norwegian buhund for a German schnauzer. A household/farmdog from comparable regions. Right?

We run into this problem pretty often. You've got your chows and your shar peis, but otherwise, not-noble breeds are easily overlooked. Pekingese were "stolen" from the aristocracy so they're novel, our knowledge of Japanese breeds curiously spikes after WW2. You can throw a racism argument and I agree, but let's add a class card as well. How many regional Chinese ratters do FCI recognize?

Our knowledge of dogs is limited by access, language, and curiosity. We have access, arguably, and to an extent we can overcome language barriers. But I'm not sure we're curious enough.

In short, I've got zero to no thoughts about the wui hei quan dog or wuyishan black dog, because I know nothing about it. I would love to have more thoughts. I'd love to hear about regional asian dog breeds and their quirks and their qualms and politics.

whats YOUR thoughts on the wui hei quan dogs?

pls tell me

tell me

[katabay]

sort of revisiting this scene, mostly just playing around with it while I figure out the visual vibe I want bad governance to have! this is more like an abridged version of the scene I ended up writing.

for some scene context, Felix was planning on red tagging Cesar as payback, since Cesar’s family was Felix’s political opponent in the elections, but Crasso convinced him not to do it (Crasso’s family was murdered by cops when he was a teenager. It’s a cycle, baby)

I don’t really like to attach too many Ancient Rome sources for these anymore because it’s not supposed to be a modern retelling (again, the naming conventions were inspired by the Iron Heart, but for fun I thought I’d lean into it more. really ham it up, especially since Ancient Rome has a “relationship” with the Philippines lmao), but we’re still in the fucking around stage so as a treat, I’ll mention that this particular thread was partially inspired by the theory that Crassus might have been involved in getting Sulla to back off harassing Caesar. ymmv on whether or not it’s likely, but for me it’s delicious drama to think about.

I’ve also introduced Seth into the plot because politics and business go hand in hand, like you can’t really do one without the other. This is Seth’s historical counterpart, btw!

Crassus, Catilina, and the Vestal Virgins, Ronald Syme

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / tip jar!

[jazeswhbhaven]

inspired by @/wihellib's meme post with Beel-

I saw a tweet the other day that said the following: "my boyfriend always wants to smell my pussy when I haven't showered wtf lol I told him to do it after I've showered and he says it's not the same"

And these three came into mind immediately lmaoooo

Bael? Because he has the same philia as Beel and enjoys smelling sweaty areas. If you've just came home from the gym? Perfect.

Beel- No surprise, he could already smell you before you walked through the door

Asmo- So...you wanted to skip bath day? Coming home from the gym? Humid weather? Whatever it is he is literally trying to get you to sit on his face

[somalilandcurrentnews]

Somaliland’s Rising Star: The Unfolding Drama of Recognition and Rivalry

By Prof. Nassir Hussein Kahin. Somaliland has defied the odds, standing resilient amid a turbulent region, its democratic credentials and strategic geopolitical positioning gaining momentum on the international stage. Once dismissed as an unrecognized entity, it now finds itself at the heart of a geopolitical storm, with global and regional players scrambling to recalibrate their strategies. The…

[artbyblastweave]

I feel like something I've seen the broad outline of- and I could very well be Making Up A Guy To Be Mad At Here, but this feels like at least the bones of something- is that you've got a culture online that goes in big on making jokes about killing conservatives, sexists, homophobes, transphobes and the like, but specifically in an American context, fundamentally people who're venting about their unaccepting parents or peers specifically, or allies trying to be supportive by cheerleading that sentiment. And then an ongoing genocide comes along where the (real or imagined) regressive gender politics of the population under target becomes part of the legitimizing mythology for the slaughter. And suddenly some people have some circles to square, which they square with wildly varying levels of grace and self-awareness

[trainsinanime]

I just want to throw out a quick reminder to go vote next month. The EU parliament is not sexy and does not appear in the news as much as it should, but it is incredibly important. Many important fields of politics are decided there, like all internet regulation (GDPR for Privacy, DSA and DMA for regulating app stores, as just the two most important examples lately), product safety, energy policy, infrastructure funding and so on. A big example: The EU has outlawed the sale of new internal combustion vehicles from 2035.

Conservatives want to overturn that, and this election will be their chance to do so. The EU parliament is arguably the parliament that has the most influence over climate goals. We are seeing a scary rise tide of far-right politicians all throughout Europe that threaten any further progress and want to undo what has been done already. A strong EU parliament with a strong mandate and the right parties can be crucial.

Also note that the EU parliament does not have government and opposition sides, since the government (the commission) is appointed independently by the member states (which is not okay in my book, but that's a separate issue). It works with coalitions that change from issue to issue. What this means is that even tiny parties absolutely get a chance to participate in the political process. So votes for smaller parties are absolutely not wasted.

It seems boring and irrelevant most of the time, but the EU has a tremendous amount of power, and the EU parliament is how we control it. We should take advantage of that.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

So let me get this straight:

Americans, particularly women and minorities (both of which make up a large portion of our community), are screaming out in fear as their government goes fully mask-off fascist — rolling back human rights and freedoms, dictating that transgender and intersex people simply do not exist according to federal law, undoing literal decades of work that made discrimination against race, disability, and gender in jobs and housing illegal, making basic necessities like shelter, food, and water inhumanely expensive, dealing with deep freezes in the south and arson-related fires in the west (both spurned on by climate change), tarrifs that are promised to be met with energy and material sanctions, mass deportations that aim to remove immigrants but are just a thinly veiled excuse to round up all the black and brown people (including Native Americans) in the country and detain them, thus "ethnically cleansing" the US, and the ever growing presense of undeterred nazism with a billionaire apartheid chud doing seig heils at the helm...

And your first thought is, "Good, about time Americans stopped having it so easy in the doll world. More dolls for me!"

... I have no words.

~Anonymous

[all-seeing-ifer]

Holy fuck speaking of the fates its actually making me feel crazy slash pos that this cast with the five mains from the obc but the fates and chorus from the west end cast is the one that's getting proshotted. Like hey girl don't cry trans people AND regional british accents in the hadestown proshot