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Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh

Image is of vehicles set aflame by protestors near a government building.

Since July 1st, students have protested the unpopular proposal in which 30% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans of the 1971 War of Independence and their relatives. In a country with a youth unemployment rate of around 20% and a population of 170 million, a large number of otherwise eligible and competent people would have been forced out due to favouritism for veterans. As with basically every country on the planet over the last couple years, Bangladesh is suffering from inflation and an increasing cost-of-living, further exacerbating tensions.

The student protests have been met with significant violence by the government - local newspapers report that over a hundred protestors have been killed, and thousands have been injured. Guns and tear gas have been used. Additionally, the government has completely cut internet access throughout Bangladesh to prevent organizing, which has had some success in dividing protestors, but has also only further angered various parts of the country due to the massive impact to Bangladesh's online industries and various startups. And a national curfew has been in place to limit movement, with the population told to remain home if they want to be safe.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh relented, stating that now, only 5% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans and their families. 2% would be allocated to members of minorities, with the remaining 93% distributed on merit. A period of tentative calm has arrived, but Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has stated that unless the government restores the internet, removes the curfew, releases detainees, and forces certain ministers to resign within a few days, then the protests will resume.

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Bangladesh! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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Last week's thread is here.

1.7K comments

  • Genuinely insane that Netanyahu can just give a speech on the Palestinian people that is the 2024 version of a “White Man’s Burden” and people will still argue that Israel is not an apartheid state. This MF literally was talking about “Israel’s vision of Palestine” like ok well who said that you get to have a vision on Palestine? That’s like… supposed to not be your place to have a say if you aren’t an apartheid state.

  • In case you're wondering how cooked we are with climate change and deforestation, here's a recent satellite photograph of South America. Notice anything that's missing?

    Oh that's right half the Amazon rainforest is gone... Just look at the Western half of Brazil, you can see the boundaries for protected areas as they are still forested. Just islands of forest.

  • President Biden had just finished trying to persuade a group of congressional Democrats to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure bill when Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, took the microphone.

    In 30 minutes of remarks on Capitol Hill, Biden had spoken disjointedly and failed to make a concrete ask of lawmakers, according to Democrats in the room. After he left, a visibly frustrated Pelosi told the group she would articulate what Biden had been trying to say, one lawmaker said.

    “It was the first time I remember people pretty jarred by what they had seen,” recalled Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.), who would go on to mount an unsuccessful primary challenge against the president.

    That was October 2021. That month was the last time Biden met with the House Democratic caucus on the Hill regarding legislation.

    They knew. They've known for YEARS.

    WSJ / archive.ph

  • I'm on a little comment run here but fuck it.

    Gotta say that we on the left have a lot to learn from the sheer impressive power that the DNC have when it comes to consolidation when the serious shit happens. Any issue on the left is debated and derailed by loser energy, while the DNC machine can just snap into overdrive mode where literally every single voice all fall in line when there is a serious lib matter. Remember how hard they consolidated for Biden pre-Super Tuesday in 2020, or how the discussion around Kamala went from "can she do it" to "I'll die for her" in literal hours in the last three days. Yeah of course we don't have the media tools for that, but it just pains me to see how hard the "ackshually" loser energy derails any leftist momentum these days, while libs all deeply know that their candidate is a loser but still delude themselves into actually fully believing.

  • Israel’s national anthem loudly jeered before Olympic soccer match against Mali

    Israel’s national anthem was loudly jeered before its soccer team kicked off play at the Paris Olympics against Mali on Wednesday night.

    When it came to Israel’s anthem, boos and whistles immediately rang out. The stadium speaker system playing the anthems then got notably louder in what seemed like an effort to drown out the jeers.

    This is just the appetizer… I’m hoping that Israel gets booed hard during the opening ceremonies. Though I strongly suspect the broadcasters are expecting this and there will be shenanigans to ensure the broadcast will barely register any booing at all, no matter how loud it actually gets.

  • It's plainly obvious what's going on in Gaza right now is a genocide because westerners aren't currently dying or shriveling up from Genocide Withdrawal stemming from their physiological dependence on committing a genocide at any given moment.

  • "There are 92 elections that we monitor, I would say that the electoral process in Venezuela is the best in the world" - Jimmy Carter, former president of the USA.

    Can't wait for the US to refuse to believe in the Carter Center results again.

  • The Olympics are such a farce, the double standards are ridiculous. Russia gets banned for the invasion of Ukraine yet there is no question that Isn'trael be allowed to compete while actively committing genocide.

    Though of course this isn't new, Amerikkka has been allowed to compete despite everything they have done all over the world. Just another case of these "international events" being a case of

  • From the Economist:

    Several rival Palestinian groups, including Fatah and Hamas, signed a declaration to form a unity government, ending years of division. China brokered the negotiations. Fatah, which controls the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority, was thrown out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007. The agreement paves the way for creating a government for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

    So that unity deal some folks were posting about actually happened. Amazing that China could pull this off, kudos to them for hosting. Hamas and Fatah back together again, that's the power of the disastrous operation in Gaza. Israel has never been more cooked.

  • NYT:

    She starts by praising Biden. “Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishments over the past three years is unmatched in modern history,” Harris says. “Yes, you may clap,” she tells the crowd.

  • seeing the entire legislature today applauding a genocidaire nazi shithead broke something in me (yeah it shouldn't have been there in the first place)

  • https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb_663304/wjbz_663308/activities_663312/202407/t20240723_11458788.html

    Palestinian Factions Sign Beijing Declaration on Ending Division and Strengthening Palestinian National Unity 2024-07-23 18:49

    On July 23, 2024, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi attended in Beijing the closing ceremony of the reconciliation talks of Palestinian factions and witnessed the signing of the Beijing Declaration on Ending Division and Strengthening Palestinian National Unity by 14 Palestinian factions.

    In his remarks, Wang Yi noted that since entering the new era, President Xi Jinping has put forward proposals and propositions on addressing the Palestinian question, contributing Chinese wisdom and solution for addressing the question. Now, 14 Palestinian factions are gathering in Beijing with the greater good of their nation in mind. This is an important historical moment in the Palestinian liberation cause. China commends the reconciliation efforts made by all the factions, and congratulates them on the success of the Beijing dialogue and the signing of the Beijing Declaration.

    Wang Yi pointed out that only when Palestinian factions speak as one can the voice of justice be loud and clear, and only when they join hands and march forward shoulder to shoulder can they succeed in their national liberation cause. The most important consensus from the Beijing talks is to achieve the reconciliation and unity among the 14 factions; the core outcome is the affirmation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of all Palestinian people; the biggest highlight is the agreement on establishing an interim government of national reconciliation focusing on the post-conflict reconstruction of Gaza; and the strongest call is for truly establishing an independent State of Palestine in accordance with relevant U.N. resolutions. The key to the Palestinian reconciliation process is to bolster confidence, keep to the right direction, and make incremental progress. Only by making continuous efforts to build consensus and put it into practice can the reconciliation process yield more and more substantive progress and greater unity. Reconciliation is the internal affair of Palestinian factions, and cannot happen without international support. On the path toward reconciliation, China shares the same direction and destination with Arab and Islamic countries.

    Wang Yi noted that the Palestinian question is at the core of the Middle East issue. China never has any selfish interests on the Palestinian question. China was among the first countries to recognize the PLO and the State of Palestine. China all along firmly supports the Palestinian people in restoring their legitimate national rights. We value fairness and advocate for justice. At present, the Gaza conflict drags on, its spillovers continue to spread, and multiple regional conflicts are interconnected. To help get out of the current conflict and predicament, China proposes a three-step initiative:

    The first step is to achieve comprehensive, lasting and sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible, and ensure access to humanitarian aid and rescue on the ground. The international community should build more synergy for ending the hostilities and establishing a ceasefire.

    The second step is to make joint efforts toward post-conflict governance of Gaza under the principle of “Palestinians governing Palestine.” Gaza is an inseparable, integral part of Palestine. Restarting post-conflict reconstruction as soon as possible is an urgent priority. The international community needs to support Palestinian factions in establishing an interim national consensus government and realizing effective management of Gaza and the West Bank.

    The third step is to help Palestine become a full member state of the U.N. and get down to implementing the two-State solution. It is important to support the convening of a broad-based, more authoritative, and more effective international peace conference to work out a timetable and road map for the two-State solution.

    Ceasefire and humanitarian rescue are pressing priorities. “Palestinians governing Palestine” is the basic principle for the post-conflict governance of Gaza. The two-State solution is the fundamental way forward. The international community should support the parties in taking the three steps in real earnest.

    Wang Yi noted that intra-Palestinian reconciliation will bring hope and a future to the Palestinian people. It is an important step toward resolving the Palestinian question and achieving peace and stability in the Middle East. Unwavering efforts must be continually made in this direction. China sincerely hopes that Palestinian factions will achieve reconciliation and, on that basis, realize independent statehood at an early date. We will strengthen communication and coordination with the relevant parties and make joint efforts for the implementation of the Beijing Declaration.

    Head of the Fatah delegation Mr. Mahmoud al-Aloul and head of the Hamas delegation Mr. Musa Abu Marzouk delivered remarks on behalf of the Palestinian factions. They noted that China holds an important place in the heart of Palestinian people, and expressed sincere appreciation for President Xi Jinping and China’s unchanging, firm support and selfless assistance to Palestine over a long period of time. They spoke highly of China’s acting as a responsible major country and upholding justice for Palestine in international fora. They expressed deep appreciation for China’s strong support for intra-Palestinian dialogue and reconciliation. They stated their readiness to implement the consensus, strengthen unity among factions, advance the reconciliation process, and work for an early solution to the question of Palestine.

    Diplomatic envoys to China or their representatives from Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Russia and Türkiye as well as representatives from 14 main Palestinian factions attended the closing ceremony.

    LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA AND LONG LIVE XI JINPING

  • For all the talk about "terror tunnels" in Gaza, nobody really considers how ordinary this is. There's a network of tunnels under Washington D.C. connecting key institutions, including military ones, but we don't call those terror tunnels.

  • In congress the devil gave his speach but outside he was burned in effigy along with the

    flags from this pole which is pictured with the Palestinian flags which replaced that trash

    In response to the flag burning the pigs fired tear gas, sorry I don't have any pictures of the burning

    Also the parrot for peace says free Palestine

  • My Paraguayan brothers just demolished "Israel" 4-2 in Olympic Games football. "Israel" has the right to defend it's goalposts (they just don't do it very well)

    Death to "Israel". Even in something quite meaningless like olympic games football they deserve to lose. As long as they exist, they shouldn't be able to enjoy anything.

  • China’s central government has approved Shanghai’s plan to build 29 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity, as the city works to cut emissions to meet Beijing’s ambitious climate targets.

    Once the deep sea project is complete, the financial and industrial hub will receive about 100 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity every year, according to local newspaper Xinmin Evening News. That’s more than half of Shanghai’s annual power consumption. The city is also set to receive green power from Inner Mongolia via a state-backed, long-distance grid, the paper reported, without providing details for either project.

    China is leading the global push for renewable energy, with its offshore wind capacity set to triple to 129 gigawatts by 2030, according to BloombergNEF. Fierce prices wars between domestic manufacturers have made equipment much cheaper than in the rest of the world, driving market demand for clean energy. The price of offshore wind power even dipped below that of coal-generated electricity last month in another project off Shanghai.

    it's pretty funny when China, the "authoritarian communist no food no freedom" country, is doing the whole corporations-competing-driving-down-prices thing better than Western countries whose economies now consist of a grand total of about 6-7 monopoly corporations, which, if anything, do the opposite and conspire to increase prices among themselves

  • After the fall of King Brandon the Feeble-minded, the nobles supporting Lady Kamala the Awkward hastened to secure her claim to the Throne of Skulls. Success followed swiftly, for when word spread that she would inherit the throne, no noble or sage in the realm dared support any other pretender. They feared being on the losing side and fall from the grace of the future queen. Soon, even the High Priest of Change, ever careful not to reveal his machinations prematurely, made movements to bless her ascension.

    As the banners bearing the sigil of the House of Brandon were quietly pulled down from the Great White Hall and replaced with those bearing the chained child sigil of the House of Kamala, all was set for Lady Kamala the Awkward to ride to the City of Wind for her coronation. Nobles from all corners of the realm were travelling there to do obeisance and kiss her ring.

    In these dire times, priests and sages, desperate for hope, uttered fervent prayers, convincing themselves and the people that Kamala the Awkward would be the champion to vanquish the hordes of the Orange Troll King. Many a priest, in their desperation, believed the heavens were answering their prayers and promising victory.

    Yet, a pall of unease lingered and whispers of doubt and uncertainty still permeated the air, casting shadows over the pomp and ceremony. Only the passage of time would tell if these hopes were in vain or if the threads of fate had indeed been rewoven in favor of the realm.

  • I cannot believe that people think Biden stepped aside amicably just because he didn't call Harris a removed in his resignation letter. A week ago reporters said he was old-man raging against the people who had turned against him and "betrayed him," boo fucking hoo, and now in forty eight hours libs have completely whitewashed him into some selfless hero with an astounding political IQ.

    As if he wasn't lying in bed with a fever mumbling about Gerald Ford when his advisors told him that the DNC was gonna cut off all funding and handed him that pre-written letter to sign.

  • Maduro once again refers to Milei as a “goddamn miscreant fascist Nazi”. During a campaign event this Sunday in Nueva Esparta, the official candidate for the presidential elections asked his followers in this region if they want "what is happening in Argentina to happen in Venezuela."

  • JD Vance, Trump's running mate, is the least liked non-incumbent vice presidential nominee since 1980, and the first to have a net negative favorable rating - CNN

  • Ryan Grim:

    Israel’s assault on Gaza had killed at least 172 dependents of United Nations staff by the end of June, according to a confidential UN report obtained by Drop Site, in addition to 195 staff members.

    The previously unreported data reflects the extraordinary toll not just for employees of the United Nations but for their families, and emerges as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to address a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

    . . .

    In May, the U.N. reported that 188 staff members of UNRWA had been killed by then, but has not previously disclosed the extent of the familial casualties.

  • Roger Waters asks for a vote for President Nicolás Maduro. “Go out and vote for Nicolás Maduro! Because Venezuela belongs to you, to the people, not to the Chevron Corporation.”

  • Seeing how the chattering classes' coronation of Genocide Joe's handpicked successor has led to her apparently being successful in the polls has made me wonder whether the predominant analysis of her viability has been lacking.

    Before everybody with access to mass media decided that she was going to be the champion of the democrat faction of the state party, people here were dismissive on her chances of winning, pointing out how unrelatable and awkward she is and how embarrassingly unpopular her primary campaign was. All of this is still true but it doesn't seem to matter, she has lots of things going for her. She is not another racist old white man, despite being part of the inner circle for all of Genocide Joe's regime she has been assigned the "fresh face" role meaning that she gets none of the blame for the mismanagement and broken promises and she is neither Genocide Joe or Donald Trump. Even the anti-genocide voices seem to have been dampened by her saying some disingenuous and uncommitting niceties about Palestine and doing some political theatre around Zyklon Bibi's performance.

    To me it seems like the individual merits of a bourgeois politician has less to do with their success than one would otherwise assume and that a weak candidate can be carried across the finishing line by media consensus. A similar thing happened with the appointment of Genocide Joe himself in 2020 who went from being a low-energy loser to bring handed the candidacy after the democrat elite formed a consensus around him.

    Examples like these suggest the existence of a powerful political machine with the ability to manufacture consent very effectively on a large scale. If the powers that be decides that people should be enthusiastic for Kamala Harris, people will be that. If they decide that nobody should care about Genocide Joe being demented, nobody will care, if they flip and decide that people should start caring about it they will.

    This raises the question of how the left is going to engage with that machine. Obviously liberal Electoralism is insufficient and nobody on the left has the means to do a protracted people's war but.

  • cuck n chad ranking: dad edition

    Gigachad Chad Neutral Beta (Fe)Male Virgin Cuck
    Putin (back into first place, so many Ws on the front recently) Ukrainian anti-mobilization people (running over and beating up the mobilization freaks daily, keep rocking) My attention span (still reading telegram news in Russian every day about 100m2 captured in Cockskoye) Julian Röpcke (everyone's favorite Jihadi Julian has finally opened his eyes and stopped coping) Zelensky (it's over Z-man, literally nothing is going well for this man)
    Hamas, PIJ, Qassam, PFLP and all resistance groups in Gaza (Allah's bravest soliders) Hezbollah (still rocking in the north, no settler will ever sleep there again) My son (good kid, but could be a lib in disguise) The Republican Party (absolute freakshow convention, these people are crazy) Trump shooter (coomer shooter who couldn't do his job properly, didn't even give us a manifesto to read and make fun of)
    The people of Gaza (bravest people ever) Ansarallah (defeated the great satan in a naval war and hit Tel Aviv with a rocket) Donald Trump (horrible person, but can't deny the pure aura after literally getting shot) Bernie Sanders (horrible political instincts and increasingly cucked behavior) Bolivian coup attempt (the most cucked coup I've seen)
    Yahya Sinwar (still undefeated) Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah (dropped two big speeches last week, I love listening to him) Kamala Harris (Allah has given this woman so much luck, never seen someone that gets such opportunities while doing nothing) JD Vance (pure beta energy, the world is one Trump McDonald's induced stroke away from the first 4chan president) Joe Biden (idk if he's even alive, but getting pushed out by Pelosi's corpse while you're the literal president is cucked)
1741 comments