#withdraw from ukraine

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Vladimir Putin continues to prostitute his entire country for the sake of his delusions.

Despite Ukraine having no navy and no operational control over the Black Sea, Russia has lost flagships and ensured repeated missile attacks on the Crimean Peninsula and surrounding occupied regions.

Despite Ukraine failing to reclaim the occupied territories last summer and struggling to half Russian advances on Pokrovsk village, Ukraine has still managed to invade Russian territory and cause the evacuation of over 100 000 Russian citizens in Kursk Oblast. This caught the Kremlin by surprised and embarrassed Putin.

Of course, Putin has responded with typical savagery, launching yet more missile strikes on Kyiv, Lviv, and Kharkiv, hoping to kill as many Ukrainian civilians as possible and terrorise the country into withdrawal and surrender.

This has not worked.

The more the Russians resort to sadistic brutality and terror, the more Ukrainians are united in opposition. Ukraine is not the same as Chechnya or Syria. Putin has failed to understand this, despite his self-appointed title as historical expert of this conflict. In both Chechnya and Syria, Russia, after conducting ruthless bombing campaigns, was able to either install or protect a puppet dictator.

This has not happened in Ukraine, despite over two years of bombing campaigns. Numerous Ukrainian cities were razed to the ground, like Mariupol. Still no surrender.

Prior to Ukraine's invasion of Russia, Putin's propaganda machine assured Russians that the reason for the lack of Russian victory was Western support/Ukrainian attacks/Ukrainian Nazis, and so on. Russians were assured that Russia would triumph soon.

Now that Ukraine has invaded and seized a substantial portion of territory in Kursk Oblast, the fundamental and racist lie that Ukrainians are little peasants or terrible Nazis (whichever portrayal is convenient for Russian propaganda at any given moment) has been blown to bits.

Putin admitted that Ukraine had invaded to improve its negotiating position. He vowed to 'drive the enemy out'. Up until now, he has failed to do so.

Nobody expects Ukraine to seize more of Russian territory, but nobody expected that Ukraine would even seize any Russian territory in the first place. Western observers expected a purely defensive war, with Ukraine increasingly pressured to keep hold of territory and possibly negotiate over the Russian-occupied areas.

Now Russia is the one having to defend itself. How the tables have turned.

Russia produced the great novel, Crime and Punishment. It's time for Russia to read it-- properly.

Russian state-of-the-art tank T-90 Proryv captured by Ukrainians during the attack in the Kursk region, August 19, 2024. Source: ukr.warspotting.net

P.S. Putler's Wunderwafe completely intact with all the "secret" hardware has been put at the disposal of the Ukrainian army... By the 910th day of the war, the army of Russian war criminals has lost 8522 tanks in Ukraine...

[odinsblog]

Idk, but if Putin doesn’t want the Wagner Group to continue challenging him, maybe he should just give the Wagner Group whatever Russian territory they control. Do it for peace and to stop unnecessary bloodshed, like he told Ukraine to do.

[hussyknee]

Not so friendly reminder that Tankies are people who deny not only the genocides of Russia but also Vietnam and China (including the Uyghurs), and are apologists for the North Korean regime. They push Russian propaganda of "colour revolutions" every time a Global South country rises up against a totalitarian government because they believe totalitarianism is merely anti-communist agenda; deriding, dismissing and dehumanizing the liberation movements of our countries that come at great human cost. They're not anti-imperialists or anti-colonial; their chief issue with the imperial core is that it's not their ideology seated at the heart of it. They only care about Global South lives when it serves their ideology, and have no genuine concern or curiosity about the ground realities or agency of the communities impacted by imperialism and colonialism.

I also want you to understand that every major power player involved in this conflict is a genocidal fascist. Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis that are fighting Israel are funded by the theocratic Iranian regime headed by Ebrahim Raisi (begging you to remember the hundreds of Iranian girls and women killed for protesting it). Iran is also an ally of the notorious Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria, responsible for the genocide and displacement of millions of his own people while actively funding the Islamic State he wages war against. Both Assad and Raisi are allies of Putin, who is currently trying to colonize and genocide Ukraine and is terrorising Poland, Hungary, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia etc. However, Iran and Putin (half-heartedly) are also allies of the Armenians who are being genocided by Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is supported by the US, but also Erdogan in Turkey, infamous dictator that hates the European Union and is a close pal of Putin. Meanwhile the US's best friends in the Middle East is Israel, which hates Arabs, and Saudi Arabia, who doesn't recognise Israel as a country but is hated by most of the MENA and is currently in a Cold War with Iran.

*yanks y'all by the shirt and shouts in your face* THERE ARE NO GOOD GUYS HERE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?? ONLY INNOCENT CIVILIANS CAUGHT IN A SPIDER WEB OF GREEDY, DESPOTIC, GENOCIDAL, FASCIST CUNTS. THERE IS NO POINT TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHICH ONE IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO GLOBAL DEMOCRACY BECAUSE ALL THE FALL OF ONE DOES IS CREATE A POWER VACCUUM THAT WILL IMMEDIATELY BE FILLED BY THE NEXT BULLY.

These governments can only be toppled from within by their own people once external threats like war with their neighbours are eased, because militaries with nothing to fight are economic black holes that try to eat itself, and it's this economic stress that act as catalysts for coalition building and civilian revolt. Military losses weaken imperialists' coercive power and legitimacy over their own people, so the best thing you can do to help them agitate for change is preventing imperialist expansions from claiming any more victims.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Roth and Dan Sabbagh in Washington at The Guardian:

In a critical press conference meant to make or break his presidential campaign, Joe Biden spiritedly defended his foreign policy record even as he faced a barrage of questions on his mental fitness and, in another gaffe, mistakenly referred to Kamala Harris as “vice-president Trump”. Biden offered extensive remarks on thorny foreign policy issues including competition with China and the Israel-Hamas war, in which he said he had warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu away from an occupation of the Gaza Strip. He said he was directly in contact with Xi Jinping to warn him not to offer further support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, but not with Vladimir Putin, whom he said: “I have no reason to speak to him right now.”

But Biden, who is running to be president until January 2029, fielded an equal number of questions during the press conference on his mental fitness, an issue that has loomed over his campaign since a faltering debate performance against Donald Trump that he called “that dumb mistake”. Ultimately, it was a performance that supporters will probably say shows he is capable of handling his responsibilities as commander-in-chief, but unlikely to convince those already in doubt about his mental fitness that he can serve another four years in office. Biden, 81, insisted he would stay in the race despite calls from some in his party to drop out and to allow another figure, including Harris, run in the November election.

[...] Biden said he wouldn’t leave the race unless polls showed him that he had no chance of winning against Trump, even if they showed that Harris’s chances in the election were better than his own. Nonetheless, he said Harris was qualified to be president as well, although he misnamed her in the endorsement. “I wouldn’t have picked vice-president Trump to be vice-president, if she’s not qualified to be president,” he said. That gaffe was compounded by the fact that he had introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as “President Putin” just hours earlier, before correcting himself and saying “we’re going to beat Putin.” Biden initially used the final Nato summit press conference as something of a stump speech, brandishing his national security record in supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression and saying that the November vote was “much more than a political question … It’s a national security issue.”

He then turned to his record on the economy, border security and his efforts to broker a peace in the Israel-Hamas war to bolster his case for his campaign in November. Biden spoke for 58 minutes, including 50 minutes of unscripted question-and-answer. He appeared most comfortable and cogent as he discussed thorny foreign policy questions.

Joe Biden gave an alright presser in which he made a gaffe in which he mixed up the names of his VP and principal challenger when he said “Vice President Trump.” Prior to the presser, Biden mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” before correcting himself.

See Also:

The Dworkin Report: Biden Pushes Back, Delivers Strong Press Conference

[hazamacore]

with bds calling for an official boycott of eurovision, one of the things they have asked is for “supporters to launch creative, strategic initiatives that can pressure broadcasters to withdraw” and so i encourage all those whose countries are participating in eurovision to find out how to contact your national broadcaster to make a complaint. for those living in countries who dont broadcast eurovision i know u can still send a complaint to the bbc if ur outside the uk for one

this is the message i have been sending, feel free to translate it/use it as a template/improve it/etc:

Dear sir/ma'am,

In 2022, following the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, pressure was applied to the Eurovision Song Contest to bar Russia from competing that year and all years since. It was widely rightfully agreed that the invasion was worthy of strong condemnation and that Russia should be given no avenues to rehabilitate its public image.

In October 2023, the state of Israel began a military campaign against the people of the already occupied Gaza Strip in Palestine. In a disproportionate, atrocious response to the Hamas attack on the 7th of October 2023, Israeli forces have murdered over 30,000 Palestinians and displaced almost 2 million from their homes. Palestinian civilians (journalists and doctors included), entirely unaffiliated with the Hamas party Israel claims to target, have been targeted and killed indiscriminately. Stripped of basic necessities like food, water and electricity by Israel, with intent vocalised by multiple Israeli forces to eliminate Gaza and the Palestinian people, this is no less than a genocide.

Thus Israel, much like Russia, should not be permitted to compete in a contest that has been used repeatedly to maintain its pristine public image while it brutally oppresses Palestine. Especially when it has been charged with genocide explicitly by South Africa, a case that took place in the ICJ, thoroughly elucidating the crimes committed by the Israeli state, a charge agreed upon by several countries and genocide scholars alike.

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement has called for a complete boycott of Eurovision by broadcasters, artists and viewers and I ask that the BBC comply with this - abstain from broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest and withdraw this years entry to the contest.

Thank you.

[niveditaabaidya]

Russia’s Exit From Grain Deal Remains High. #youtube #ukraine #tiktok #g...

[bisexual-detectives]

Eurovision is now lying about Israel and Russia. The Eurovision organiser EBU is suggesting Russia wasn’t banned due to invading Ukraine, a lie that even their own website disproves.

The EBU says the Israel situation is “fundamentally different” from Russia in 2022. They suggest they didn’t kick Russia out of Eurovision because they invaded Ukraine, they kicked Russia out of the EBU for unrelated reasons.

Except… that’s not what happened! In 2022, the EBU had announced Russia would be kicked out of Eurovision “in light of the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine”.  

The Russian broadcasters responded to being booted from Eurovision by announcing their intention to withdraw from the EBU, which the EBU reported via their website.

So why are they now saying something else happened? It’s a lie. The EBU kicked Russia out of Eurovision before the Russian broadcasters left the EBU. This is clearly an attempt to distance themselves from their (quite right) decision to remove a country from Eurovision.

But the fact is, the EBU created a precedent for themselves of removing a country due to war and now they want to pretend that never happened so they don’t have to take action against Israel. 

[faelapis]

we interrupt this regularly scheduled dashboard to remind you that the eurovision song contest is one of the biggest platforms in the world, and israel is still included and accepted as a participant.

we don't have to take that laying down. after immense pressure from people and broadcasters alike, russia was banned in 2022 for their invasion of ukraine. if we put pressure on broadcasters to do the same for israel, it is possible that we will succeed. already, iceland has threatened to potentially withdraw over israel's inclusion. other countries might follow. please, watch this video and join in the call to action. the video includes ways to contact every single broadcaster, sponsor and artist participating in eurovision 2024.

[justacynicalromantic]

In early 2014, Ukraine was a neutral country, with a pro-Russian president, and with 70% of Ukraine's population against NATO membership. Yet Russia bluntly violated Ukraine's neutrality and annexed Crimea, then launched a covert invasion of Ukraine in the east.

Petro Poroshenko won the presidential election later in 2014 having promised a settlement with Russia, keeping a special status of the Russian language in Ukraine. He was initially sceptical regarding NATO accession, underlined Ukraine must rely on its own strength to provide security.

Did Putin meet Poroshenko halfway? Not at all. The regular Russian army entered the Ukrainian territory in mid-2014 to fight the Ukrainian troops, which led to the Minsk-1 agreement signed in September 2014.

Further text - down under the cut, or you can follow the Twitter link to the original post:

Few weeks later, Ukraine's parliament adopted a law that would guarantee the then Russia-controlled part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions additional economic, financial and cultural powers.

How did Putin react? Russia staged sham local elections in the occupied Donbas, and then sent the regular army again to Ukraine in early 2015, which led to the Minsk-2 agreement signed in February 2015.

Zelensky was even more sceptical regarding NATO accession. Asked about NATO, he once famously said he never pays anyone a visit if he has not been invited. He won the presidential election promising to compromise with Russia - to stop shooting, sit down with Putin and talk.

Did Putin meet Zelensky halfway? Not at all. He actually raised the stakes by issuing the Russian passports on the occupied territories of Ukraine even before Zelensky assumed the office, putting him in a difficult political position since the start.

Zelensky was ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid in an exchange for the Russian troops withdrawing from Ukraine. The talks were held already before 2022. What did Putin do? He launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the first weeks of the invasion, Zelensky was yet again ready to drop Ukraine's NATO bid. But he wanted to obtain international security guarantees. What did Putin do? He demanded that Russia must be consulted before any aid would be given to Ukraine in the event of aggression.

To sum up, Ukraine has consistently tried to reach a deal with Russia over the last decade, and was open to giving up on its NATO bid in exchange for the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Ukraine. Russia never reciprocated, never showed a good will, kept raising the stakes.

Both Poroshenko and Zelensky were initially sceptical regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO. Both wanted to get a deal with Putin. And Putin himself pushed both of them to seek NATO membership out of no other viable alternatives.

Up till now, Putin has shown absolutely no willingness to compromise with Ukraine. His war aims remain maximalist - subjugating Ukraine and changing its regime. He seeks Ukraine's partition, and will turn what is left of Ukraine into Russian protectorate.

Russia's imperial self-conception is that of Russian elites at large, and not just Vladimir Putin. The Russian leadership simply cannot reconcile with the existence of a sovereign Ukrainian statehood.

Therefore any sustainable Ukrainian-Russian compromise is currently not possible unless the Russian cost-benefit calculus changes. Only credible risk to the stability of the Russian regime would impact this calculus. The easiest way goes through defeating Russia in Ukraine.

[redjaybathood]

це паблік сервіс анноунсмент фор українці онлі

ми не підтримуємо і не дивимось оту кріейторку з тіктоку/��тубу яка робить скетчі про пекло, маньяків і т.п.

бо ця людина:

це та сама людина яка написала це:

і там ще дно дна як от

я не вірю що інзоемці бойкотуватимуть її, вона в їхньому тренді ("робити вигляд що підтримуєш палестину й срати на Україну")

але якщо ви її дивилися раніше - відпишіться/заблокайте.

сенк'ю вері мач

for my International followers. If you would consider not following or supporting this creator, I would appreciate this very much.

There's nothing wrong with prioritizing Palestine over Ukraine if you feel that Palestine needs you more or that you can help them better. There is, however, a lot of wrong with making it a statement against Ukraine, and discouraging other people from supporting it/advocating for withdrawing support. I question her motives, seeing how she only participated in any kind of public discussion on Ukraine and Palestine when it got trendy - thus, giving her additional attention and revenue as a media person.

Additionally, she implies that supporting Ukraine is propaganda (false), that Ukraine does not need help (believe me, very false), and she states that our efforts to secure aid and support is "yapping for attention" and not literally an effort to stay, you know. Alive. She is basically going the Trump way: US has been funding Ukraine, meaning Ukraine received International aid, which means Ukraine does not truly need the aid - and adding a leftist spin on it: while US has not been funding Palestine so Palestine did not receive International aid so it needs it (also false; Palestine also received International funding. Did it help them against Israel after the HAMAS attack? No. Do they need more? Yes. The same thing applies to Ukraine as well! Shocking, I know)

[zvaigzdelasas]

[BBC is UK State Media]

More than 1,400 Finnish music industry professionals have signed a petition urging a ban on Israel from Eurovision over alleged "war crimes" in Gaza.

If Israel is not excluded from the competition, they want public broadcaster Yle to withdraw Finland's entry from the competition.[...]

Last month, Icelandic musicians made similar demands to broadcaster Rúv.[...]

They accuse Yle of double standards, saying the broadcaster was among the first to demand a ban on Russia from the 2022 contest, "and we expect the same active defending of values from Yle now as well".

A day after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Yle representative Ville Vilén said Moscow's attack was "contrary to all the values that Yle and other European broadcasters represent".

The EBU [European Broadcasting Union, the organiser of the contest] soon after banned Russia from participating.

Mr Vilén said the situation in Israel and Gaza was "not quite the same".

"As gruesome as it is, it is not a war of inter-state aggression like between Russia and Ukraine," he told Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat last month.[...]

In December the EBU released a statement saying that Eurovision was "for broadcasters - not for governments" and Israel had taken part for 50 years.

It said member organisations had agreed that Israel's public broadcaster Kan "complies with all competition rules" and insisted the contest was a "non-political event".

10 Jan 24

[mariacallous]

A month after Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1940 presidential election, he called for legislation to ramp up military aid to countries fighting Nazi Germany. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. Within months, Britain and the Soviet Union were pounding Adolf Hitler’s forces with U.S. weapons and other equipment.

Now that Americans have voted to return Donald Trump to the White House, the situation risks flipping into reverse: After Jan. 20, 2025, the United States may abandon its European allies to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s fascist war machine.

During his campaign, Trump said he will “not give a penny to Ukraine.” Part of his plan to end the war “in one day” is that he would “tell [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky, no more. You got to make a deal.” But if Russia is allowed to conquer and subjugate Ukraine, it would only be a matter of which democracy gets colonized next by a neighboring dictatorship: Poland, the Baltic States, Moldova, or Taiwan.

Thus, over the next 75 days, Congress and the Biden administration face an urgent historic mission to help Ukraine get as many weapons as possible before a possible withdrawal of U.S. support.

U.S. President Joe Biden has directed the Defense Department to draw down all remaining Ukrainian security aid that Congress has appropriated by the end of his term. It’s not clear if the Pentagon could supply much more weaponry than that by Inauguration Day, even if it received additional funding from Congress.

Instead, the way to promptly fund more arms is to bankroll Ukrainian procurement of U.S. weapons. Specifically, Biden should request, and Congress should pass, another supplemental funding bill on a similar scale as the one in April, which included $60.8 billion for Ukraine. The new supplemental should authorize the administration to spend any amount of the aid—up to the full amount—to cut a massive check to the Ukrainian government with the stipulation that Ukraine use the funds to purchase U.S.-made weapons.

Sending Ukraine $60 billion to spend on weapons would be entirely consistent with the strategy that the Biden administration had been preparing in case of a Trump win. One of Biden’s main initiatives has been to push the G-7 to give $50 billion in frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, deliberately structuring the transfer to get out the door before Jan. 20 so that Trump cannot stop it. Biden originally wanted to seize and give to Kyiv all $300 billion of Russia’s frozen money, but the Europeans could not be convinced. The administration has also shown its willingness to throw U.S. budgetary resources into the mix: When the $50 billion was blocked by the Hungarian government, the White House engineered a clever way of guaranteeing the money through the Treasury Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The key political challenge, however, could be getting House Speaker Mike Johnson to support this legislation during the lame duck period, when he will probably be preparing to run for another term as speaker. This may require some hardball maneuvering by some of the many pro-Ukraine Republicans in the House. It would be much easier, of course, if Trump quietly goes along with it, like he did with the last supplemental.

The United States would not be the first government to fund Ukrainian arms procurement. Denmark paved the way this year with a grant that finances contracts between Ukraine and defense manufacturers. Denmark and Ukraine developed a transparent set of financial controls that include factory site visits, validation of delivery, and auditing processes. All sides regard this pilot program as so successful that other allies are pulling out their checkbooks to join in on the action.

Americans’ tax dollars would be safely held by the most credibly reformed and reputably led wing of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry: the defense procurement agency. In the early weeks of the full-scale invasion, when Russian forces were bearing down on Kyiv and heavy Western weapons hadn’t yet arrived, Ukraine’s desperate Defense Ministry called up illicit intermediaries, begging them to help buy up old stocks of Soviet-type munitions on the notoriously opaque and fragmented international arms market. But over the following months, as Western aid started flowing, Ukraine’s strategy shifted to building a clean, transparent pipeline for buying weapons straight from producers.

Established in August 2022, the defense procurement agency is now run by Maryna Bezrukova, a seasoned reformer who previously cleaned up procurement at Ukraine’s national electricity company. To be her deputy, Bezrukova hired Ukraine’s most reputably independent corruption investigator: Artem Sytnyk, the former head of the state National Anti-Corruption Bureau. With these sheriffs in town, the surest way for even the most powerful Ukrainians to go to jail is to try to corruptly make money off weapons acquisitions.

Under this reformist leadership, the defense procurement agency is aggressively cutting out intermediaries by contracting directly with arms manufacturers. The clearest sign of success is that excluded arms dealers and their cronies are attacking Bezrukova with threatening messages, smear campaigns, and doxing on Telegram. Most recently, these intermediaries tried to sideline Bezrukova by getting Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to merge her agency into another one—and fire her in the process. That announcement triggered such strong pushback by NATO and Ukrainian civil society that the minister canceled the planned reorganization. Instead, with support from Ukraine’s allies, the ministry formed a new supervisory board of reputable experts to oversee the procurement agency.

Any U.S. legislation that funds weapons contracts arranged by Ukraine’s defense procurement agency should come with one additional condition: Before Kyiv receives any money, it must enact legislation mandating the existence of the agency, safeguarding the independence of its supervisory board, and most importantly, prohibiting the defense minister from firing the agency head without a concurring decision by the supervisory board.

Beyond the strategic benefits, this approach could create jobs for Americans during Trump’s second term, largely in states that voted for him. Unlike military aid provided by Europe or allocated by NATO, U.S. funding would come right back home: to Northrop Grumman’s gun truck production line in Arizona, General Dynamics’ artillery shell facility in Texas, Raytheon’s missile factory in Alabama, and Lockheed Martin’s F-16 plant in South Carolina.

To prevent the Trump administration from using executive authority to block the export of weapons procured by Ukraine under the program, Congress should insert one exemption to the Buy American requirement: If the U.S. government ends up blocking exports, Ukraine would be free to redirect the funds to non-U.S. arms manufacturers.

Just as vital as the original Lend-Lease Act, this legislation could be called the Buy American Weapons Act. And it would keep the United States on the right side of history against the imperial armies that are once again on the march.

[izooks]

Some of Joe Biden’s accomplishments:

**Domestic policy**

* **American Rescue Plan (2021)**: Provided $1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief, including direct payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, and funding for vaccines and testing.

* **Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021)**: Allocated $1.2 trillion for infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, broadband, and clean energy initiatives.

* **Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (2022)**: Expanded background checks for gun purchases and provided funding for mental health services.

* **Child Tax Credit Expansion (2021-2022)**: Temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $3,600 per child in monthly payments.

* **Affordable Care Act Expansion (2021)**: Made health insurance more affordable for low- and middle-income Americans by reducing premiums and expanding subsidies.

**Foreign Policy**

* **Withdrawal from Afghanistan (2021)**: Ended the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

* **Re-joining the Paris Agreement (2021)**: Re-committed the United States to global efforts to address climate change.

* **Strengthening Alliances with NATO and the EU (2021-present)**: Repaired relationships with key European allies after strained relations during the Trump administration.

* **Supporting Ukraine in the Ukraine-Russia War (2022-present)**: Provided military, humanitarian, and diplomatic support to Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion.

* **Nuclear Deal with Iran (2023)**: Revived negotiations with Iran on a comprehensive nuclear deal, aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

**Other Notable Accomplishments**

* **Appointing Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court (2022)**: Made history by being the first Black woman appointed to the nation's highest court.

* **Signing the Respect for Marriage Act (2022)**: Ensured federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages.

* **Establishing the Office of the National Cyber Director (2021)**: Coordinated federal efforts to combat cybersecurity threats.

* **Creating the COVID-19 National Preparedness Plan (2021)**: Developed a comprehensive strategy to respond to future pandemics.

* **Launching the Cancer Moonshot (2022)**: Re-energized the government's efforts to find a cure for cancer.

[vavuska]

Imane Khelif.

In 2018 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships, Khelif participated for the first time, where she ranked 17th after being eliminated from the first round.

In the 2019 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships held in Russia, where she ranked 33rd after being eliminated from the first round against Natalia Shadrina.

Khelif represented Algeria in the lightweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She was defeated by Ireland's Kellie Harrington in the quarterfinals.

Khelif participated in the 2022 IBA Women's World Boxing Championships, she faced Ireland's Amy Broadhurst in the final and was defeated.

She is not a warmachine. Khelif is a biological woman. Khelif is NOT transgender or transsexual. In Algeria, the country that Khelif represents, transgender identity is prohibited, changing sex or gender is not allowed in official documents, nor are medical or hormonal treatments allowed to transition to another sex. If she was transgender, Khelif would not be able to rapresent her country at all nor travel with an official passport with a female identity!

However, pop up this rumor she was disqualified from 2023 IBA's Women's World Boxing Championships due to high levels of testosterone. Later this was debunked by the same organization. Potentially, could be doping and it was all covered up by sport industry.

Edit: This disqualification happened three days after Khelif defeated Azalia Amineva, a previously unbeaten Russian athlete. The disqualification restored the Russian boxer's undefeated record and IBA has huge ties with the Russian government: the president Kremlev is a Putin supporter and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed concerns about the IBA under Kremlev's leadership. The IOC has also been alarmed by the fact that the IBA's only sponsor was a Russian state-owned energy company (Gazprom) that supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Imane Khelif is a UNICEF ambassador, which could again have been seen as a problem by Russian-led IBA, since UNICEF condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine. IBA's allegations that Khelif had failed unspecified eligibility tests are suspicious, expecially because no medical evidence that Khelif has XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone has been published.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), cleared Khelif to compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, confirming that she complied with all necessary eligibility and medical regulations for the event. The IOC noted that Khelif was a woman according to her passport and that this was not a "transgender issue".

She defeated Angela Carini in 42 seconds at the 2024 Olympics, after Carini decided to withdraw citing intense pain in her nose.

This remember me the 'Caster Semenya' case: after Semenya's victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sex testing, and cleared to return to competition the following year. The decision to perform sex testing sparked controversy in the sporting world and in Semenya's home country of South Africa. Later reports disclosed that Semenya has the intersex condition 5α-reductase 2 deficiency and natural testosterone levels in the typical male range.

In 2019, new World Athletics rules came into force preventing athletes like Semenya with certain disorders of sex development (DSDs) from participating in 400m, 800m, and 1500m events in the female classification, unless they take medication to suppress their testosterone levels. Semenya has filed a series of legal cases to restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.

As Khelif, Semenya is cis and has been accused by many people to be trans. Her story has, again, been used and abused to support the anti-trans agenda, claiming that two ciswomen are trans and are unfairly competing with women due to their superior "men strength".

I think Angela Carini was anxious and scared by days of reporter and far-right rumors about how Khelif is incredibly strong and unbeatable, even if Carini has better statistics and more victories in her career than Khelif herself (who was already a Olympics athlete), she was strumentalized by far-right propaganda and made a scene during the match due to anti-trans panic.

J. K. Rowling and Elon Musk, as always, had their small moment of shaming athletes. Most of people think that Carini has been strumentalized by anti-trans Italian propaganda and after being called out for harassing a cisgender woman, she claimed to be sorry for not having respected her adversary during the match.

Edit: more important thoughts on the matter in a detailed political perspective in Italy - A New York Times article develops more extensively what I wrote here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/world/olympics/boxer-quits-gender-angela-carini-imane-khelif.html?smid=threads-nytimes

Edit 2: Imane Khelif spoke against cyberbullism.

Edit 3: Since in those past days we talked a lot about cis women being called men for not meeting western TERFs standard, I should resurface this old post about how a group of Chinese cis runners were wrongfully called "men" by TERFs.

Edit 4: Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling have been named in the cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Olympic champion Imane Khelif.

Edit 5 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif interview

Edit 6 - 13th Sept. 2024: Imane Khelif won gold medal in boxing. Appreciation post.

[dostoyevsky-official]

Gasping for air from a trench in eastern Ukraine, an infantryman was ready for the worst when a suffocating white smoke spread into his position. A Russian drone had just dropped a gas grenade into the trench, an internationally banned practice in warfare used to suffocate Ukrainian soldiers hiding inside. Forced out in the open, the Ukrainians immediately became vulnerable targets for Russian drones and artillery. [...] Russia has increasingly deployed chemical agents in its grand offensive to occupy the last cities in the Donbas region under Ukrainian control. The suffocation tactic is to take out entrenched personnel and dampen the morale of Ukrainian soldiers who – severely outmanned and outgunned – have been withdrawing village by village in the east for nearly a year. The attack experienced by Ihor occurred as Russia ramped up its illegal use of chemical agents during its full-scale invasion launched 2.5 years ago to over 4,000 officially recorded cases, marking a sharp uptick from about 600 as of January, according to the Ukrainian military.

[...] Ukrainian soldiers and officers interviewed acknowledged that the tactic is effective, allowing Moscow to capture positions occasionally without destroying them.   “Your natural reaction is to get the hell out of there because it feels as though you are dying,” said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former commanding officer of the U.K.’s Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment. “And so the guys get out of the trench, and then the Russians immediately follow it up with fire and artillery,” he added, describing the modern era where treacherous illegal weaponry from the past is combined with state-of-the-art killer machines that fly. The exact number of soldiers who were injured or killed by conventional arms after a gas attack is unknown, but de Bretton-Gordon said he expects it to be “lots.”

wwi with drones

[ohsalome]

Most Russians would not support ending the invasion of Ukraine if it meant the withdrawal from Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia, a recent poll conducted by the Moscow-based Levada Center has shown.

According to the survey, only 34% of Russians would support President Vladimir Putin if he decided to end the invasion and return occupied territories to Ukraine.

However, 70% of respondents said they would support Putin’s decision to end the invasion of Ukraine, without the caveat about returning territories.