news

Starmer declines to rule out allowing Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles in Russia

Financial Times so use Archive.today

The Israel-1 "AI supercomputer" debuts on the list of fastest supercomputers, ranked #34 out of 500. The list was published today.

The system has Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

Here's an article from last year on it: regular link □ archive link

The Israel-1 is listed as a U.S. system despite being in Israel. Israel doesn't have any systems on the Top 500 super-computer list. The other system Nvidia announced around the same time, called Tapei-1, shows Taiwan as the country. Both systems are said to be housed in Nvidia data centers.

Amazing things are happening in Germany - https://x.com/HeerJeet/status/1858562537760981420

German elites love doing this shit. "You have shown your antisemitism by signing a petition against murdering civilians in Gaza. Therefore we will not give you the €100,000 Joseph Goebbels award for journalism."

German Org named after a literal NSDAP (nazi party) member dont want to give a award to a anti israeli guy.

German architecture award rescinded over British artist’s Israel boycott vow

Schelling Architecture Foundation refuses to give James Bridle his €10k prize after he signed open letter Philip Oltermann European culture editor Mon 18 Nov 2024 14.27 GMT

A German architecture foundation has rescinded one of its €10,000 (£8,360) awards from a British artist over an open letter he signed promising a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, citing the German parliament’s controversial antisemitism resolution as a factor behind the decision.

The Athens-based artist and author James Bridle was announced in June as the recipient of the Schelling Architecture Foundation’s theory prize, awarded every two years, for his “outstanding contributions to architectural theory”.

But on Sunday, days before this Wednesday’s awards ceremony in the south-western city of Karlsruhe, Bridle was informed in an email that the foundation’s committee had decided unanimously not to award him the prize because he was among the several thousand authors who signed an open letter calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions.

Signatories of the pledge, published on LitHub at the end of October, stated that “we will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians”.

In a press release, the foundation said Bridle’s signature on the letter was “in direct contradiction” to responsibilities from the “awareness of Germany’s national history”.

The foundation’s prizes, which have been awarded since 1992, are named after the late German architect Erich Schilling. On its website, the foundation says Schilling was a member of the NSDAP, the German Nazi party, between 1937 and 1945, and worked on the construction of the offices of the publishing house of the party newspaper Der Führer.

“We respect the right to express political views, especially since the foundation does not accuse James Bridle of antisemitism,” its statement said. “But the foundation can neither support nor be associated with a call for cultural isolation of Israel.”

In its email to Bridle, which has been seen by the Guardian, the foundation further linked its decision to a cross-party resolution passed by the German parliament earlier this month.

“The German Bundestag has just passed a resolution on the protection of Jewish life, which points the way forward for state institutions and is relevant to society as a whole,” the foundation said in its email.

The resolution, entitled Never Again is Now: Protecting, Preserving and Strengthening Jewish Life in Germany, was first proposed after the Hamas terror attack on 7 October 2023. International NGOs including Amnesty International and Israeli Jewish groups campaigning for a two-state solution have criticised its text for eliding antisemitism and criticism of Israel’s human rights record, predicting it would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

The resolution says “the Bundestag reaffirms its decision to ensure that no organisations or projects that spread antisemitism, question Israel’s right to exist, call for a boycott of Israel or actively support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement receive financial support”.

Bridle told the Guardian: “Although they are clearly not prepared to state it outright, the foundation’s decision is an accusation of antisemitism, which is abhorrent. It is particularly so given the organisation’s own history.”

Bridle said there was an irony in that the Schilling jury cited as particularly deserving of recognition his 2022 bookd Ways of Being, which contained a discussion of Israel’s “apartheid wall” in the occupied West Bank, and “of the relationship between genocide and ecocide”.

A spokesperson for the foundation said the other nominees for the prize had been informed of their decision, “and we have to be prepared for there to be further reactions”.

capitalism DEFINITELY is when no food.

Argentina snubs G20 summit launch of Brazil's global anti-hunger alliance

*Argentina the only G20 country not to sign up to a global anti-hunger initiative set to be launched at the opening of leaders summit in Brazil. *

Argentina was the only G20 country not to sign up to a global anti-hunger initiative set to be launched at the opening of a G20 summit in Rio, host Brazil said Monday. The decision by Argentina – led by President Javier Milei – deepens a political gap between the nation and neighbouring Brazil, whose left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is championing the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.

A total of 81 countries signed on to the flagship initiative – including 18 of the 19 nations in the G20 – but Argentina was not among them, according to a communiqué. Its membership is "under negotiation," a source in the Brazilian Presidency told the AFP news agency.

The Global Alliance is an ambitious initiative pushed by Lula, a former steel-worker. It aims to eradicate hunger and poverty by 2030 and reduce inequality. Milei and Lula, whose countries share a border, have had a tense relationship even prior to the Argentine's election last year.

An ally of US president-elect Donald Trump, Milei has imposed radical austerity measures in Argentina to bring down high inflation. The policies sent the poverty rate in the country soaring to 52.9 percent in the first half of this year, 11 percentage points higher than in the previous six-month period.

Milei was the first world leader to see Trump after the Republican's win in the US presidential election. He attended a gala at the Republican's Mar-a-Lago Florida estate last Thursday.

The Argentine leader has several times labeled Lula a "communist" and "corrupt."

The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty also has the support of international organizations such as the European Union and the African Union – both G20 members – as well as financial institutions and NGOs, bringing the total number of signatories to 147. The initiative's goal is ambitious: to reduce world hunger, which affected 733 million people last year – nine percent of the global population – according to the UN.

For Lula, who grew up in poverty before a trade unionist and eventually president of Latin America's biggest economy, the initiative is dear to his heart. At a national level, his left-wing policies have already lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty.

I sometimes don't even know what they're trying to achieve. Hunger good I guess? It's even worse when we consider that these global programs never really have impact on the matter, because hunger and poverty are essential to Capitalism, but still they have to signal that any kind of movement towards improvement, no matter how insignificant, must be squashed. Just sign the fucking thing you pathetic motherfucker.

death to "israel" btw

Russia vetoes Sudan ceasefire resolution put forward by the UK

Russia was the only member of the 15-member council to vote against the measure on Monday morning, in a move that British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said was “mean, nasty and cynical”.

In an address to the Security Council after the vote, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN said that Moscow agreed “that the conflict in Sudan requires a swift resolution” and that “the only way to achieve this is for the warring parties to agree to a ceasefire”.

But Dmitry Polyanskiy said that while the Security Council’s role is to help the warring parties achieve that, it “should not be done by imposing upon the Sudanese, through a council decision, the opinion of its individual members”.

He accused the UK and Sierra Leone of “double standards”, pointing to Britain’s support of Israel’s ongoing humanitarian violations in its war in Gaza, and said Lammy’s criticism was an “excellent demonstration of British neo-colonialism”.

“It is shocking that Russia has vetoed an effort to save lives – though perhaps, it shouldn’t be,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Monday after the Security Council vote. “They claim it is because of Sudanese sovereignty. But Sudan supports the resolution.”

Isn't this a terrible look? Though I doubt a UN resolution alone would change much.

minor movements on the currency front. i expect to see similar shenanigans down the line as tensions continue to escalate but my marxist orthodoxy tells me that war in europe will remain the focal point for anti imperialist struggle for the foreseeable future.

NYT has an interview with María Corina Machado. The main photo is her staring wistfully through a window:

Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady’ Pleads With Trump to Save Her Country’s Democracy

Now, with President Nicolás Maduro accused of stealing the election and his government threatening her capture, María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s wildly popular opposition leader, has gone into hiding — alone.

In a series of rare, in-depth virtual interviews since she mobilized millions to vote against Mr. Maduro in July, Ms. Machado said she was holed up in a secret location somewhere inside her country. Because anyone who helps her could be detained — or might lead government agents to her — she said she has not had a visitor in months.

Nicknamed the country’s “Iron Lady” for her conservative politics and steely resolve, Ms. Machado is, she admitted, “longing for a hug.”

Her mother has urged her to meditate. She has not.

The rest of the article is her begging Trump and the "international community" to coup her country, concluding with “But I am willing to do what has to be done,” she said, “for as long as it takes to assert the truth and popular sovereignty," and then somehow you can hear "SPEAK ABOUT DESTRUCTION" fade in.

Zelensky has been spotted in Kupyansk. the kiss of death from a front line Ukrainian city

Javier Milei decides to join the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, proposed by Brazil at the G20. Argentina was the only G20 nation not to have signed. It is not known whether the change came about due to diplomatic pressure, shame at isolation, or advice from Milei's dead dog

Russia MoD telegram

As a result of successful actions by the Tsentr Group of Forces, Novoalekseyevka (Donetsk People's Republic) has been liberated.

Russian Defence Ministry shows footage of servicemen supported by an armoured group rapidly entering forest belts and destroying enemy fortifications. In addition, attack drone crews defeat enemy hardware and manpower, helping assault detachments to advance.

As a result of active and decisive actions, the servicemen took especially important positions and installed the Russian flag in the village.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11/paris-and-washington-go-scorched-earth-in-the-sahel.html

The forces involved in the Mali attack were from a coalition of armed separatist groups consisting of the Cadre Stratégique pour la Défense du Peuple de l’Azawad (CSP-DPA) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for Supporters of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which reportedly received training from Ukrainian forces in Mauritania and Ukraine.

A CSP-DPA spokesman downplayed any special ties to Ukraine’s intelligence services, however, saying “We have links with the Ukrainians, but just as we have with everyone else, the French, Americans, and others.”

always wonder, what "independent" radical islamist groups think of their foreign policy friendos

I recently saw a cybertruck with a Jill Stein bumper sticker, which is just funny.

@SeventyTwoTrillion I'm not a regular here so not sure of the conventions. Did you make this map? If so very nice! I have one suggestion which is instead of titling it "to present" put the date in so when the image because separated from the text it'll be more useful. If not your work could just add it in the edge somewhere.

(On mobile with no emojis but someone remind me to add "graphic design is my passion" later on.)

Maps and arrows in the megathreads are back! What is this, 2022? Time to start learning the names of every minor Ukranian village east of the Dnieper.