news

Remember when California voted against prisoners being not reduced to slavery this election?

Well it's to maintain a Penal unit, but that`s not really news since California fires are yearly events.

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/18/nx-s1-5042174/wildfire-california-firefighters-prison-program

Jean-Marie Le Pen dies at the age of 96. A historic leader of the French far-right, Jean-Marie, as well as being defeated five times in the French presidential race, was the founder and president of the Réunion National party and the father of Marine Le Pen.

oh cool it's january and los angeles is already on fire

https://ktla.com/news/california/wildfires/eaton-canyon-fire-breaks-out-near-altadena-forcing-evacuations/

Big fires on the north side of LA. Looks like they might even take out Malibu altogether. This is some very expensive real estate going up in smoke.

José “Cha Cha” Jiménez, a human rights activist who co-founded the Rainbow Coalition and served as chairman of the Young Lords organization, died Friday. He was 76.

Mr. Jiménez spent much of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s fighting gentrification in Lincoln Park, allying with other organizations in Chicago to uplift minority and low-income communities, and rallying for an independent Puerto Rico.

https://archive.is/tqRU6

Labour Party is blasted after using 'forbidden' Brazilian funk to extol the Starmer government in the UK.

The post shows Labour's promises for the year 2025 with images of animals made by artificial intelligence and accompanied by the song 'Montagem Coral', by DJ Holanda, which suggests drugging 'novinhas' (“Novinha” is a term that appears in funk music lyrics, and also in sexual content. It is used for young girls) to have sex. The party apologized and the piece was deleted.

The funk lyrics suggest drugging “young girls” for sexual advantage. In the 34-second video, you can hear the lines: “Use poppers and weed! Go, naughty young girl, relaxing sit on dick, naughty, shameless! Go sit on your dick, crazy about marijuana” The Labour Party apologized for the video. “We recognize that the translation of the lyrics is completely inappropriate. We apologize and the video has been deleted,” the party said in a statement.

Guantanamo still has 15 prisoners, with a handful of Yemeni people recently transferred to Oman

https://www.intellinews.com/us-winds-down-guantanamo-bay-with-removal-of-yemenis-to-oman-360173/?source=cuba

Georgia now has two presidents. One is legitimate, and the other is from the representative office of an American foundation. She has employees and a driver under her command.

Zurabishvili claims that in this way she will continue to perform the functions of the President of Georgia.

NO FUCKING WAY, JUAN GUAIDO 3.0 has dropped

Change is in the air, and surely I’m not hallucinating?

Three weeks ago, Trump put out a very short statement that the US and China should work together. Ever since, Chinese media have sprung into action.

Immediately the week after, the People’s Daily (in conjunction with Global Times) put out a featured call for submission of “US-China cooperation and friendship stories” followed by an editorial “China and the US should extend the list of cooperation, and enlarge the cake of mutual cooperation” (Dec 26th, 2024, in Chinese).

Last week, Qiushi, the CPC theory website, reposted the People’s Daily opinion piece on “The significance of friendship and cooperation for the people between China and the US” (Jan 4th, 2025, in Chinese) and a corresponding piece on their English outlet, “China, United States should inject more certainty, positive energy into world” (Jan 6th, 2025):

China and the U.S. should work together to promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, let the light of peace reach all corners of the world, and ensure that more development gains will be shared more fairly by people across the world.

"There are few certainties in world affairs. What we do know is that without much greater cooperation between the U.S. and China, the world will be in dire straits," said an American scholar when analyzing the future development of China-U.S. relations.

China-U.S. cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-U.S. cooperation. The U.S. should fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, stand on the right side of history, and work together with China to strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, and expand mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to inject more certainty and positive energy into the world.

Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs. The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.

I also checked the English outlets. Global Times editorial puts out several opinion pieces including “1+1>2 is the right path for US-China technological interaction” (Jan 3rd, 2025) urging for increased technological cooperation of both countries especially quantum computing.

Concurrently, two editorial pieces on January 6th, “Biden administration’s ‘steel wall’ redefines economic nationalism” blasting the Biden administration for not respecting the (neoliberal) free trade order and criticizing protectionism (lol), as well as “What do Tesla’s ‘record high’ sales in China reveal?” that praised Tesla as an exemplary model of foreign investor’s success in China and why more foreign companies should come invest in China:

China has become an important part of Tesla's global landscape, and this is not an isolated case. Currently, over 70,000 American companies are investing and operating in China, with annual sales exceeding $600 billion. Qualcomm and Intel derive two-thirds and one-quarter of their global revenues, respectively, from the Chinese market. Among Apple's 200 major suppliers, 80 percent are based in China. In 2023, about 60 percent of McDonald's new stores globally were opened in China. Shanghai became the first city in the world to have 1,000 Starbucks stores. These facts demonstrate that Washington's trade sanctions and technological restrictions against China are unpopular and cannot hinder American companies' enthusiasm for expanding in the Chinese market. This situation is determined by the essence of mutually beneficial cooperation in economic and trade relations between China and US, as well as the objective laws of economic development at play.

Tesla's "report card" serves as a mirror, reflecting China's status as "an important engine of global economic growth" from both production and market perspectives, while showcasing the solid fundamentals and positive development prospects of the Chinese economy. Tesla's thriving presence in China can particularly be attributed to the country's open, inclusive, and mutually beneficial cooperative attitude.

SCMP (not affiliated with CPC) also put out articles from international relations “experts” like “China-US ties may improve if Trump goodwill signals ‘manifest in tangible actions’” (Jan 4th, 2025) and an opinion piece “Why Trump’s return opens door for China to reform capital markets” (Jan 5th, 2025) about why China should open up its capital markets for foreign investors to come in to save its economy lol. Pretty concise read if you want to understand how the libs think.

These are just a sample of the articles and opinion pieces. Overall, I haven’t seen so many articles that signal the thawing of US and China relationships in such a short period. I think we are likely heading towards a rapprochement between the two countries, and a return to a (renewed) status quo. Both countries have realized that they cannot live without one another, and that it is in their self-interests to return to the existing world order after Covid and the Ukraine war.

Wall Street will be happy to enter the Chinese financial markets (and the Belt and Road), the consumption driven by large scale foreign investments will save both China’s economy and allowing further growth and poverty alleviation, while reigniting the US oil and gas boom under Trump. The dollar hegemony is retained and Trump will be happy to declare victory on trade deficit reduction and some token “bring back American jobs” on a limited scale.

Unfortunately, it looks like China’s gonna save the US empire from its crisis once again, and the medium term outcome also means certain victory for Israel.

The questions to follow up on are: are there any forces within the US that will actively undermine this effort? Will the neocons accept it? Maybe Trump give them the war with Iran that they’ve always wanted? Which also brings us to the question of who else benefit from such (re-)arrangement? Will Europe (poised to be the biggest loser) be forced to import Chinese goods under US order to further destroy their industrial capacity? What happens to Palestine, Lebanon, Russia, Iran and the other major players?

Here's how Bernie can still win:

2025: Trump threatens Denmark into handing over Greenland. As part of the deal to hand over the colony without making a fuss, Greenland's government gets a guarantee that it's universal healthcare system will remain unchanged and be funded by the federal government.

2026: The Territory of Greenland is a reality. American citizens begin emigrating to Greenland to get healthcare. Nuuk grows to five times it's current size, making the Inuit a minority.

2027: The US regime attempts to restrict access to Greenlandic healthcare but that is struck down as unconstitutional. Feeling the need to do something popular in the face of the rising threat from the Luigi movement the regime decides to expand Greenlandic healthcare to the entire nation.

2028: Having granted Americans access to healthcare, Trump goes down in history as one of the most popular presidents. JD Vance is elected in a landslide on promises of keeping Trump-care

Being sworn in again.

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1hyuruu/ua_pov_sbu_posted_a_video_with_north_korean_pow/

Ukraine is saying they captured two "North Korean soldiers". One's jaw is broken so he can't respond to the questions they ask, and they narrated over the other one.

It's like an addiction to nonsense. After having more than 24 hours to come up with a convincing explanation for her (non-existent) "kidnapping", Machado managed to make it even more ridiculous. Somehow, in an age where everything is livestreamed, there is no evidence, nor even a minimal description of who was involved. And also, according to Machado, she was detained by armed men who then released her in exchange for her recording a video saying she had not been detained. No further questions, your honor!

Honestly, Machado should have stayed offline for longer and then come up with a heroic escape tale, given how her supporters and the corporate press will just believe anything. But there is more nonsense. Machado said former candidate Edmundo González did not come because the government turned on air defense systems! When in the past it simply barred planes from taking off without authorization. It also would have been easier to just shut down airspace, or even arrest González once he landed

The bottom line is that the US-backed opposition once again created the illusion that it had plans and means to make something happen to stop Maduro from taking office today, when in fact (and all the evidence suggested it) they really had no cards to play

Cursed Timeline: Trump annex all of Canada, but grants independence to Quebec.

All this ~~stupid~~ talk about Canada becoming a 51st state reminds me of this video from Radio Canada (CBC) in the 60s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70-WzzTW3jc

The last man in the video: ''I don't think (is it a good idea to become American), because we are already Americans. Our funds are Americans in Canada, you are in Ville-Marie (downtown Montreal) Square and it belongs to the Americans. Every corporations are here are Americans. I work for a company that claims to be Canadian, but the higher ups are all Americans. I don't see the reason to become Americans, it's American money in here.

Interviewer: ''so, we are already Americans''

Man: ''we are Americans, we speak french but we are already Americans, what do you want?''

Just because the colour and the political ceremonies are differents don`t mean you are different. Look at the military ~~base~~ collaboration and the economic linkage.

We are already annexed.

While this isn’t “news” in that this event happened decades ago, but it’s worth noting that when Carter handed over the Panama Canal, it wasn’t an event that went largely unnoticed at the time. To the contrary, it was actually a huge deal. The American population didn’t like it (in the same way they didn’t like Biden pulling troops out of Afghanistan - only bad in that it’s a blow to “national pride”). Reagan and other Republicans criticized Carter for it on the campaign trail. And while I wouldn’t say it was a decisive factor in getting Reagan elected, it certainly played a significant part of it.

Juan Guaidó: It is the first time and it will be the last time that a clown speaks from the elliptical hall of the federal palace. There is going to be justice.

I guess Juan Guaido is going to delete his twitter account?

Trump's Invasion of Greenland Would Be 'World's Shortest War' - Politico. Denmark has only 17,000 soldiers, and most of the heavy equipment for the ground forces was donated to Ukraine.

General who led 2009 coup d'état arrested in Honduras. The former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Honduras, General Romeo Vásquez, was arrested Sunday as allegedly responsible for the murder of a protester by military officers in 2009, days after leading the coup against former President Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009).

Marcus Crassus Material

Maduro suggests using Brazilian troops to free Puerto Rico.

The Venezuelan president has said that the freedom of Puerto Rico, a US territory, is pending. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (United Socialist Party of Venezuela, left) suggested on Saturday using “Brazilian troops” to win the “freedom of Puerto Rico”, an island located in the Caribbean under the control of the United States.

“Just as in the north they have a colonization agenda, we have a liberation agenda. The agenda was written by Simón Bolívar. Puerto Rico's freedom is pending, and we're going to win it, Breno. With Brazilian troops. And Abreu de Lima at the front. Abreu de Lima Battalion to liberate Puerto Rico, what do you think?” said Maduro.

During his speech, Maduro mentions someone called Breno. He then suggests using “troops from Brazil”. It is possible to interpret that the mention of Brazilians was motivated by the relationship that the chavista has with this person called Breno and that it was all just a joke.

The Abreu e Lima Battalion, named after Pernambuco general José Inácio de Abreu e Lima, took an active part in Simón Bolívar's campaigns, including independence movements in countries such as Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. The current governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González-Colón, has already spoken out against Maduro. After the elections in the country, she said that “Edmundo González is the elected president of Venezuela” and that she supports “María Corina and the courageous Venezuelan people”.

The results of the election have been repeatedly contested by the European Union and several individual countries, such as the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. Brazilian president President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that he saw nothing unusual in the country's elections.

Human Rights Watch criticized Presidents Lula, Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico) in August 2024. In a letter sent to the three presidents, they said it was necessary for them to reconsider their positions on Venezuela and criticized the leaders' proposals.

Video/Tweet

Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump speaks out in support of the Venezuelan opposition, and calls upon the 'regime' not to harm freedom fighters Maria Corina Machado & President-elect Gonzalez.

Maria Corina Machado, the face of the Venezuelan opposition, was arrested earlier today after a last ditch effort to prevent tomorrow's ratification of the Presidential Election results from July 2024, which resulted in a heavily controversial win for incumbent candidate Nicolas Maduro.

Bipartisan support for terrorism

Trump celebrates changes to Meta and says his threats 'probably' influenced Zuckerberg. President-elect has shown approval for measures such as ending the policy of checking content on the company's networks, Facebook and Instagram.

another scandal from nonce island, in which blairite and former minister of defence under blair during the iraq war, Ivor Caplin, was tagged for soliciting sex from a minor. the british chud press is going pretty wild on this but to avoid linking the daily mail, here's a story from the canary with details.

caplin was also the chair of the 'jewish labour movement' during 2018-2019 over the corbyn years. in 2023 the JLM bragged about having taken down corbyn

What is going to happen to Los Angeles?

Trudeau says 'not a snowball's chance in hell' Canada will join US

Lmao I love how this is now international news

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzn4xx0q2o

The Eaton Fire has jumped the 210 highway and in the process burnt down a significant portion of Altadena.

KTLA Live Stream

the future is what we make it

Cursed Timeline: Imagine if Trump messes with the US Empire too much and messes with the wrong people. And we'll have an American version of the August coup, with Trump being held hostage at Camp David by Navy Seals, while JD takes control of the country with the help of some ghouls.

Venezuela strongly and categorically condemns the statement issued by the White House, which represents a flagrant violation of international law and a crude attempt to perpetuate imperialist interference in Latin America. “It's grotesque that an outgoing government, such as that of Joe Biden, sunk in political disrepute and marked by a legacy of domestic and international failures, insists on backing a violent project that has already been defeated by the popular vote and the revolutionary democracy of the Venezuelan people."

“The decrepit Biden administration, defeated and retreating, is once again resorting to worn-out intervention strategies, trying to artificially inflate insignificant political figures in Venezuela while ignoring the clear sovereign will of our people. These maneuvers, devoid of legitimacy and historical sense, only demonstrate the moral and institutional decadence of a government that is inexorably approaching a government that is inexorably approaching its end.”

“Venezuela warns that any attempt to undermine our stability or incite violence will be met with firmness, dignity and the support of a people aware of its strength and its ability to defeat fascism and terrorism in any scenario.”

Does anyone have any good sources for the NordStream bankruptcy case this month? The rumor is that U.S. investor Steven Lynch got a special sanctions permit from the US treasury that would allow him to buy the pipeline and then act as a middleman for reselling Russian gas into Europe, earning a nice markup for doing literally nothing. Is this true? If yes, this would mean that Europe has completely and totally capitulated to the US in every way, even at their own direct expense.

The first MP to publicly announce running for leadership to replace Trudeau is Chandra Arya from Nepean, Ontario, and he has vowed to turn Canada into a sovereign republic.

He's sort of a chud but damn getting rid of the king is a bold move.

Edit: he also wants to recognize Palestine as a state

Nazi hunters: Countries enforcing the genocide convention against IDF vacationing abroad.

https://youtu.be/j-d2NGxh5Ak

I really get the sense that there's some kind of directive out to downplay natural disasters in the media in the US in recent years. It used to be something like the LA fires or Hurricane Helene destroying parts of NC would get days-long media extravaganzas - it was a good way to boost viewership and grab attention. Now the reporting is present, but kind of pushed off below the fold. I think maybe whoever does the soft censorship when it comes to geopolitics etc.. is suppressing US natural disaster coverage, maybe to prevent people from freaking out over climate change? Maybe to combat the general feeling of malaise and dysfunction settling in?

Am I crazy or do any of you get the same impression?

It's funny that so many news outlets are talking about the property values of the homes burnt down. But don't those values also include land itself?

And in most cities, land is more expensive than the house itself. It's not like your claim to the land is gone, only the house is.

EU's Von der Leyen has not received invite to Trump inauguration, spokesperson says.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not yet received an invitation to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, a spokesperson said on Friday. "If she receives an invitation, then we will see but there are no plans (to attend the inauguration) at the moment", spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters during a daily briefing.

Trump has broken with precedent and invited several foreign leaders to the ceremony. Historically they have not attended due to security concerns and have sent diplomats instead. Chinese President Xi Jinping, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni among others have received invitations.

When will people learn Bolsonaro literally can't leave Brazil. At this point I think they are just fucking with him.

According to reports, Xi will not attend but will send a top-level envoy in his place.

Citizens and police jointly support earthquake relief in Xizang, China

I wonder what the realistic chances are on Trump’s proposed expansionism. Like for the most part I think they’d be very low, but part of me thinks he could get away with just landing troops in Greenland and saying “this is ours now” without a fight. Europe is totally cucked to America at this point anyway.

His idea for Canada seems to be economic warfare. How dependent is Canada on the US? How fucked would they be if Trump said “statehood or embargo”? (Although I very much doubt that one would happen.)

And we’ve invaded Central American countries before with no repercussions.

Again I think the likelihood is probably pretty damn low, but at the same time it does seem possible, if Trump really wants to push it and the Republicans in Congress obey him.

The Venezuelan government says it has arrested seven mercenaries who were planning 'terrorist acts' on the eve of Maduro's inauguration.

The operation was announced on the same day that opponents were arrested in the capital; the ceremony is scheduled for January 10. The Venezuelan government confirmed on Tuesday (7) the arrest of 7 more mercenaries who were part of a plan to destabilize the country. According to President Nicolás Maduro, two of those arrested were Americans, three Colombians and two Ukrainians. Their aim was to promote attacks against Venezuelan authorities.

According to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, the detainees were trained in paramilitarism and the attack plans were to be carried out as of Wednesday (8), on the eve of Maduro's inauguration, scheduled for January 10. The authorities, however, did not give details of how these actions would be carried out. The arrests of the seven agents are in addition to the arrests of another 125 mercenaries from 15 countries, who also had the aim of promoting “terrorist acts”.

At a press conference, Cabello said that María Corina Machado is linked to the attack plans, as well as former Colombian presidents Iván Duque and Álvaro Uribe. The mercenaries' countries include Colombia, the United States, Peru, Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Albania, the Netherlands, Israel, Argentina, Guyana and Yemen. Last Monday (6), Maduro himself denounced a new attempt to kill his vice-president, but this time orchestrated by the Argentine government. The action would be carried out by Argentine policeman Nahuel Gallo, who was arrested on December 8 trying to enter Venezuelan territory.