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4·21 days agoAfter the Trump verdict, most Republicans say they’re OK with having a criminal as president
Last week, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges in the hush-money case against him. Compared to before the verdict, the biggest changes we found in a post-conviction poll conducted between May 31 and June 2 are in Republicans’ positions on felony, crime in general, and the presidency. They have shifted in a way that puts the verdict in a more favorable light and keeps Trump’s candidacy viable. For example, fewer Republicans think it should be illegal to pay hush money for the purposes of influencing an election than did a year ago, and more now say felons should be allowed to become president than did a few months ago.
1·1 month agoIsraeli activists battle over Gaza-bound aid convoys
Months after some Israelis started to protest against aid lorries entering Gaza at the main Kerem Shalom crossing, the battle has moved to other key junctions, where rival groups of activists do their best to block or protect aid convoys […]
Right-wing activists, including Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank, have uploaded dozens of videos of crowds, including some very young children, hurling food onto the ground and stamping on boxes of aid.
You’ll find a short video embedded in the linked article.
I doesn’t seem so given Israeli officials’ statements. But it will have a long-term political impact if Israel ignores that imho. It could lead to a higher degree of ‘diplomatic isolation’ for Israel and its allies for a long time. That’s just my opinion. And there’re arrest warrants, too.
With the announcement by Norway and Ireland that they have recognised Palestine as an independent state, and Spain expected to follow suit by the end of May, it appears that international momentum for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is growing.
The concept has long been supported by the US and its allies, as well as most Arab states and the United Nations […] Could things be different under different leadership? To answer this, we need to know whether the Israeli and Palestinian people could be persuaded to accept such a plan. Here it’s worth taking a look at what polling tells us.
This article is highly biased and misleading imo.
First of all, it doesn’t make sense to compare economic policy performance by a single metric, be it inflation or GDP or anything else, let alone if you compare economies in different periods.
For example, the high inflation during president Carter’s term was mainly due to the oil crisis in the 1970s. President Biden started his term in 2020 - right when the pandemic broke out and subsequent interruptions of global supply chain caused a soaring inflation. You may or may not agree with both presidents’ economic policies, but you can’t obviously blame Carter or Biden for the oil crises and the pandemic, respectively.
The articles also says:
Neither the Fed nor economists in general view housing prices as inflation. The economic illiterates do not count asset prices in general as inflation.
The ‘economic illiterates’ use inflation to measure prices of consumer goods and services but explicitly not to measure prices of assets. This is why rent can reasonably be part of such an index, but house prices probably not (exactly because a house is an asset and not a consumer good). This is also one reason why you should always look at a dashboard of metrics and interpret them to the individual circumstances (e.g., in different epoches, cultures, etc.) rather than looking at just one measurement.
So the inflation and the way how it is measured (there are multiple ways to do so) is certainly an imperfect metric, but this is true for any metric. And comparing the economic policies over several decades by just using a single metric doesn’t make any sense.
(Edit typo.)
As much as I agree, I am not sure whether this is what they are aiming at.
The law’s provision of civil damages means that private actors — including those with seemingly endless resources — can bog you down in costly and distracting litigation,” Shamas said. “This means that Palestinians and those who support their rights become ‘high risk’ — and those who they rely on — charities, funders, banks or social media companies — are chilled from further engagement. The goal is to isolate Palestinians.”
Here’s an alternative link: https://www.eurasiareview.com/02052024-gazans-face-new-terror-threat-from-booby-trapped-cans-of-food
BUT: It seems that the UN deleted the article.
When looking for an alternative link, I found also this: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/feb/01/instagram-posts/no-viral-footage-doesnt-show-explosives-disguised
Social media posts claim footage from Gaza shows explosives disguised as food cans, but there are no visible labels or pictures on the metal cylinders to suggest they contain food.
Experts on military strategy and the Middle East said the metal cylinders seen in photos and videos online are likely containers for M603 fuzes, which are designed to detonate landmines. Footage shows one of the cans is labeled “fuze mine.”
The fuzes are not designed to explode if a person opens the container. It requires 140 to 750 pounds of force to ignite the fuze and trigger an explosion.
I’m sorry, seems that you can’t trust the UN news?
Iran charges journalists after BBC report on teen protester’s death
Iran’s judiciary has filed charges against “a number of journalists and activists” after the publication of a BBC report alleging men working for the security forces sexually assaulted and killed […] 16-year-old protester Nika Shakarami.
Yeah, but it’s not only the west. It seems there is no such thing as politics if and when enough money is involved.
Yeah, his name is Abdulaziz Alwasil.
Human Rights Watch says about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia:
The Personal Status Law [in Saudi Arabia] requires women to obtain a male guardian’s permission to marry, codifying the country’s longstanding practice. Married women are required to obey their husbands in a “reasonable manner.” The law further states that neither spouse may abstain from sexual relations or cohabitation without the other spouse’s consent, implying a marital right to intercourse.
While a husband can unilaterally divorce his wife, a woman can only petition a court to dissolve their marriage contract on limited grounds and must “establish [the] harm” that makes the continuation of marriage “impossible” within those grounds. The law does not specify what constitutes “harm” or what evidence can be submitted to support a case, leaving judges wide discretion in the law’s interpretation and enforcement to maintain the status quo.
Fathers remain the default guardians of their children, limiting a mother’s ability to participate fully in decisions related to her child’s social and financial well-being. A mother may not act as her child’s guardian unless a court appoints her, and she will otherwise have limited authority to make decisions for her child’s well-being, even in cases where the parents do not live together and judicial authorities decide that the child should live with the mother.
Amid campus crackdowns, Gaza war triggers freedom of expression crisis
Across the United States, “heads are rolling” at the top of some Ivy League universities amid a campus-wide crackdown on students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, shining a spotlight on the question of freedom of expression worldwide, said UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan.
A style guide is a general guidance regarding grammar, style, common journalistic practice. This refers to a single topic, and it is clearly biased towards the Israeli government’s view.
For example (and as the article reads), the memo instructs
to steer clear of the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli–Arab war …
but the very same areas
are recognized by the United Nations as refugee camps and house hundreds of thousands of registered refugees.
Can’t they cite the UN now?
I’m sorry, but this is a first step towards the principle of free journalism and towards autocratic systems. That’s not good practice imo.
One more recent investigation by Rhomberg Group refers to China’s overcapacity and calling it ‘structural’, saying that
One last difference [between Chinese subsidies compared to U.S. and European subsidies] is how much support central and local governments have given failing enterprises with little consideration of profit and efficiency. In addition to generous credit and tax support measures, struggling companies were granted credit forbearances during COVID to help them face liquidity crunches and operational disruptions [while private household received nothing, leaving domestic consumption low]. Government support and prevention of market exit boosted the number of loss-making companies […]. In a crowded environment, with loose budget constraints, firms lowered prices and accepted razor-thin margins to retain market share. Perversely, it also pushed them to build additional capacity in hopes of offsetting lower margins with higher volumes, and because they knew from prior episodes that if authorities ultimately forced a market consolidation, survival would be determined based on scale, not financial health.
[…]
Chinese firms are still using overseas markets to make up for lower prices, margins, or even losses on the China market. But this China-world price discrepancy also means that Chinese firms could lower their export prices further in the future to gain market access, weed out competitors, or make up for new tariff barriers in the EU or the US.
Another new study by German researchers in Kiel on Chinese subsidies has been posted by someone here just today on Lemmy.
According to DiPippo et al. (2022) and recent OECD studies, the industrial subsidies in China are at least three to four times or even up to nine times higher than in the major EU and OECD countries. According to a very conservative estimate, industrial subsidies in China amounted to around EUR 221 billion or 1.73% of Chinese GDP in 2019. According to recent data of 2022, direct government subsidies for some of the dominant Chinese manufacturers of green technology products had also increased significantly - the electric car manufacturer BYD alone received EUR 2.1 billion [in 2022, which is up from just EUR 220 million in 2020].
We have been observing a massive price war within China’s domestic EV market for some time. Many EV car producer have already filed for bankruptcy or are on tbe bring of collapse. Consequently, many Chinese customers are unable to access after-sales and software maintenance services.
New news from the House.
House Votes to Extend—and Expand—a Major US Spy Program
The US House of Representatives voted on Friday to extend the Section 702 spy program. It passed without an amendment that would have required the FBI to obtain a warrant to access Americans’ information.
The U.S. as well as Europe should definitely shift subsidies away from fossil fuels to renewables, and their industries could technologically keep up with China’s. However, it wouldn’t solve the problem here imo, as China has a structural overcapacity across the whole supply chain.
In a nutshell, China will do everything to flood the market with ever cheaper products. Its state policy has always been incentivizing lower prices for larger market share, but this policy has reached unprecedented levels (and not just in EV car market, btw.).
A major reason for this is Beijing’s bias against a ‘social welfare’ state for the benefit of industry subsidies. During the pandemic, the government provided high company subsidies to keep people employed, but no household support (which left and is still leaving domestic consumption low). The federal and local governments provided their subsidies irrespective of firms’ profitability. Knowing that the Chinese state-planned system traditionally rewards the mentioned scale of business over financial health, firms increased their production capacities even more, hoping to compensate lower margins with volume.
The result is now a massive and increasing overcapacity that can’t be absorbed by the domestic market.
Sorry for the long post.
The major problem here is that China is offering prices below production costs aiming to ruin foreign competition. Once the objective of a monopoly-like market is reached, they can increase the price.
China’s domestic market has already seen a heavy price war leaving many EV companies in financial troubles (and, consequently, leaving buyers often without the possibilty of software maintenance and other after-sales services).
Baidu’s brand WM Motor, for example, ran out of liquidity last year, as well as Tencent’s Aiways. Other brands like Levdeo or Singulato filed for bankruptcy if I remember that right.
[Edit typo.]
As you don’t like reading, watch a documentary.
Forced Labour - SOS from a Chinese Prisoner
A desperate cry for help written in Chinese was discovered in a pregnancy test sold in France and made in a Chinese factory. It revealed a hidden world of Chinese prison-companies where prisoners are forced to work for 15 hour days manufacturing products for export. This documentary tries to find out who wrote the letter.
@Dieguito @PoliticallyIncorrect
One can easily infer from your comments that you didn’t even click the link. It really helps to read an article before commenting.
Addition:
China’s central role in global production – it is the world’s largest exporter of goods is a cause for concern as exports from China are increasingly at risk of being tainted by state-imposed forced labour. Since 2018, evidence of forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim majority peoples has emerged in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region). Forced labour imposed by private actors is also reported, in addition to forced marriage and organ trafficking, with vulnerability primarily driven by discriminatory government practices. While China demonstrated some efforts to tackle modern slavery through sustained coordination at the national and regional levels – including by adopting a new national action plan for 2021 to 2030 its overall response is critically undermined by the use of state-imposed forced labour.
Yes, and they promote it heavily.
China: Pro-Colonisation Influencers - (video, 14 min)
The Xinjiang region in China is the historical homeland of the Uighurs, a persecuted Muslim minority. Open data reveals how Chinese influencers are convincing people from across the country to colonise this province.
[Edit typo.]
Just stumbled upon this (it’s a podcast, 7 min, contains some explicit language).
I apologize for losing my shit here