In the aftermath of Trump surviving an assassination attempt, many professional opinion-havers are now talking about the scourge of "political violence" that has overtaken, or will soon overtake America, and how we must not let chaos rule. This is, of course, patently absurd. The American government and its allies have been the greatest force of political violence on the planet since the beginning of colonialism, and the foundations of the country are made of corpses. Today, America commits political violence by forcing Ukrainians into the maw of Russian artillery instead of trying to reach a peaceful settlement, which Russia has repeatedly expressed interest in and offered Ukraine relatively favourable terms. They supply Israel with endless weaponry to destroy entire cities and populations, while Biden supporters insist that somehow things could be worse than daily massacres and mass starvation.
In May 1945, French police fired on protestors, causing retaliatory attacks on French settlers, killing about a hundred. In response, the French murdered 45,000 Algerians in a little under two months, in a frenzy of political violence called the Sétif and Guelma massacre. As the massacre was being completed, the International Court of Justice was established. It goes without saying that Algeria never benefited from the ICJ, and the War of Independence from 1954 to 1962 was made inevitable. Over a million Algerians were killed before France could bear the fighting no longer and gave up, and Algeria won itself a state. Comparisons to the ongoing war of independence and genocide in Palestine are obvious.
While the means of colonial violence have evolved over the centuries, the basic structure of it has not. As in Algeria, Vietnam, and Cuba, resistance groups in and around Palestine are fighting for a world with less political violence. The American government would drown every city in the developing world in blood to prevent peace.
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 Algeria! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Crafting a conspiracy theory of how all the secret service agents got hit with the havana syndrome ray gun moments before the shooting by Crook's handler the Iranian secret spy known as "white shadow".
Let's talk macro for a little bit: with the JD Vance pick (and assuming the Democrats can't fix their campaign), are we not seeing the balance of power in DC shift from New York & finance to San Francisco & tech?
That shift in power lends far more credence to reindustrialization and a change in the US Treasury than anything else. A weak dollar is far less important to the Silicon Valley elite than it is to the New York elite. Is it unreasonable to expect a weakening dollar emerge over the next four years, bringing with it a rise in onshoring, a rise in real incomes (which are overwhelmingly from domestic consumption), and a fall in purchasing power abroad?
just learned that not a single president has won a second term with an approval rating below 48% before election day (dubya in 04 was the lowest and only won by a pretty small margin)
lmao joe biden's at 37%. lyndon johnson dropped out of the race when he was slightly higher than that (from 538, data since 1945, scroll down n hover around day 1,835)
The EU may look back at some point in a decade or two and rue the decision to snub Türkiye, but Türkiye has long been expected to go along with the wishes of NATO and the EU despite often being treated like a second-class citizen. The failure of Türkiye’s EU accession is just one of many examples.
As mentioned above, the US threatening to torpedo the nuclear power plant in Türkiye is representative of another. The US sanctions Turkish individuals and companies for “aiding Russia,” for “aiding Iran,” and the US is already threatening to slap on more sanctions over Turkish firms’ exports to Russia. A quick search on the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control site turns up a whopping 232 sanctioned Turkish individuals or entities. This is not a great look when Türkiye is going through its worst economic crisis in two decades.
There have also been, from the Turkish point of view, a lack of consideration of Turkish defense needs. In the 1990s, Ankara asked NATO multiple times to deploy early warning systems and Patriot missiles to Türkiye, but it never came to pass. In 2017 Russia sold Türkiye its S-400 missile defense systems, which are arguably superior to anything the West has. In response the US expelled Türkiye from its F-35 program and sanctioned the country’s defense industry organization and its leaders.
While the US keeps slapping more sanctions on Turkish entities, the economic relationship between Türkiye and SCO countries is growing exponentially.
Scientists have found a tunnel under the surface of the Moon.
The study could help space agencies as they plan to go back to the Moon – and perhaps even stay there for significant amounts of time. The caves could be an important way of protecting those astronauts from the extreme environment on the lunar surface.
The breakthrough discovery seems to confirm decades of speculation about caves that might run under the lunar surface.
Now scientists have found what appears to be an underground cave. It marks the first time that researchers have confirmed an accessible cave – likely a tube left by flowing lava – under the Moon’s surface.
The data was actually gathered in 2010, as part of Nasa’s ongoing Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter or LRO mission. But years on, researchers re-anlaysed that data with new signal processing techniques – and found that suggested that there is an “underground cave conduit”.
“This research demonstrates both how radar data of the Moon can be used in novel ways to address fundamental questions for science and exploration and how crucial it is to continue collecting remotely sensed data of the Moon,” said Wes Patterson, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “This includes the current LRO mission and, hopefully, future orbiter missions.”
The caves might serve as an important shelter for astronauts who are spending significant time on the lunar surface.
Surface temperatures on the Moon can reach 127 degrees Celsius when it is hit by the Sun, and can drop to -173 degrees away from the Sun. Cosmic and solar radiation can be 150 times more powerful than it is on Earth, and anyone on the surface is in constant danger of being hit by a meteorite.
As such, space agencies hope that the caves – and potential networks of them – could be used to build safe habitats for lunar explorers.
The researchers suggest that the newly discovered cave could be a promising spot for a future lunar base. The new techniques could also prove useful in finding other caves, they say.
Astronomers have already found more than 200 pits on the Moon’s surface, some of which appear to have been formed when a lava tube collapsed underneath.
The work is published in a new paper, ‘Radar Evidence of an Accessible Cave Conduit below the Mare Tranquillitatis Pit’, in the journal Nature Astronomy.
In Communist North Korea, supporting the victims against the oppressor is illegal and you will be put under house arrest.
Strait Times - Self-radicalised S’porean teen, 14, and ex-public servant, 33, given ISA restriction orders
The 33-year-old, on the other hand, staunchly supported the Axis of Resistance, a network of Islamist militant and terrorist organisations, including Hamas and the Houthis, and advocated violence against Israelis and Jews, said the ISD.
“militant and terrorist” - comprador
Since the two people have been issued restriction orders, they cannot change their residence or employment, or travel out of Singapore, without the ISD director’s approval.
They also cannot access the internet or social media, issue public statements, address public meetings, or print, distribute or contribute to any publication, or hold office in or be a member of any organisation, association or group without prior approval.
Both Malaysia and Singapore have these ISA laws that were initially used against Communists and labour unionists, originating from the colonial era before independence. So much for “Asian values” while retaining colonial laws.
Grim days for the Democrats, just made me realize how much they missed Neera Tanden - their shitposter in chief. She hasn't shitposted as hard since her shitposts tanked her nomination for the first real job she could've had in 20 years. Say what you want about her, she has a bite and venom that is lacking with the current Biden campaign.
(EN Translated) al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas) luring a Zionist enemy force to an ambush in the Tal Al-Hawa quarter, southwest of Gaza City.
Dated: 14/07/2024.
Is it fair to say that the world is closer to nuclear warfare today than it was at any point during the Cold War? That in the quest for profit, warring capitalist states have no qualms about escalating indefinitely. If so, then I guess Posadism is no longer a fringe ideology
⚡️🇷🇺WOW: The craziest Russian motorcycle assault of the entire war so far. Dozens of motorcycle troops blaze through explosions to successfully storm and capture Urozhaynoye. And since we have subsequent footage of the flag being raised on the town, any Ukrainian claims of "motorcycle meat-assaults" are cope.
Trump almost died? Wow. I didn’t know that. You’re telling me now for the first time. He led an amazing life. What else can you say? He was an amazing man. Whether you agreed or not, he was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I’m actually saddened to hear that. I am saddened to hear that. Thank you very much.
a couple weeks ago i managed to get chatgpt to talk like exaggerated italian-american mario and with the new memory feature it does it in every single new chat i make, i'm surprised by it every time 😭
Sometimes I’ll get some angry Reddit liberal talking shit at me. I decide to respond based on their posting history. I don’t bother If they’ve done nothing but obsess over NATO and “lefties” with a series of 30 posts in the last couple of hours. It shows they have no interest in a conversation.
I know straight white men are the stereotypical Reddit posters but I’ve found most of my more aggressive stalkers have been queer liberals, ex-Muslims, and bougie libs from the global south.
Speaking during the NATO Public Forum held in conjunction with the alliance's summit in Washington, Sikorski stated that the government is "starting to prepare the first Ukrainian brigade composed of volunteers in Poland. We have up to 1 million Ukrainians of both genders in the country, and several thousand have already registered to participate in this initiative."
"Interestingly, many of them genuinely want to serve and relieve their compatriots on the front lines, but they say they do not want to be sent into combat without proper training and equipment," Sikorski emphasized.
The minister noted that Poland will provide these volunteers with training and equipment, after which they will be sent to Ukraine with the right to return to Poland after their rotation.
"If every European country did this, Ukraine would have several brigades," Poland's chief diplomat admitted.
oh yeah uh huh all those people who fled the war, actually they all wanna go fight in Ukraine, that's why they're in Poland right now, yup most definitely
The former president (and dictator) of Peru, Alberto Fujimori (Age 85), will be the candidate of Popular Force, a right-wing nationalist party, for the Presidential elections in the country, in 2026. The announcement was made by his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, party leader.
I’m guessing he picked Vance because he’s a weird loser who would never have the guts to go against Trump in office, and shit can easily be put on his doorstep if needed like Kamala
The Brazilian Goverment called the Brazilian ambassador to Argentina, Julio Glinterlinck Bitelli, for consultations, after the growing tension between the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, became increasingly vocal.
I still can't wrap my head around why a 20 year old republican would try to take out Trump of all people. Especially right after Brandon went hollow on live TV and secured a win for the presumptive GOP nominee.
Edit: maybe it's useless to try to make sense of. Americans are completely incoherent.
I've been made some research into this JD dude since reading his name this morning (I wasn't aware of his existence until a few days ago). The conclusion that I reached is that this guy kinda of a loser. Very strong beta energy from him, completely unremarkable republican who was on Aimee Terese's podcast like three years ago lmao. He converted to Catholicism, which I lowkey respect somehow. Trump should've picked a cooler dude to match the high energy post-assassination attempt
In a recent exclusive interview with the Malaysian media, former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou said that neither China nor the United States wants a war, and the possibility of cross-strait violence is low. He also teased the current Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te who often regards himself as a "pragmatic Taiwan independence worker," saying "No matter what, It is impossible to achieve (Taiwan independence) pragmatically, and sometimes I think he is a bit naive.”
Malaysia's "Sin Chew Daily" published a relevant long interview yesterday. Ma Ying-jeou said that he is very concerned about the current situation in the Taiwan Strait, but he is not worried because neither China nor the United States wants to see a war in the Taiwan Strait. He believes that the mainland has achieved good results in development, especially in economic and technological aspects, and it has made rapid progress. "They must also cherish it and do not want to be harmed."
Ma Ying-jeou emphasized that the Kuomintang's position on peaceful reunification has not changed and cannot be changed. The Kuomintang's views are basically in line with China's historical traditions, support peace, and oppose Taiwan independence. "This is consistent with the views of the vast majority of Taiwanese people. There are not many people in Taiwan who truly support Taiwan independence."
In the interview, Ma Ying-jeou also compared the differences between the two leaders of the Democratic Progressive Party, Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te, and said with a smile: "Most people still think that President Tsai is more moderate, while Lai Ching-de often says that he is a 'pragmatic Taiwan independence worker,' but No matter how pragmatic he is, this is impossible to achieve. This is definitely not a very pragmatic thing, so sometimes he feels a bit naive."
so we all agree trump is winning right? like there is no way he can fumble this, considering how utterly shite democrats are...
At least Trump might be less dangerous for the world at large? Fuck.
I can’t believe libs actually think Trump will tone down and become more “presidential” because he almost got owned. Fascism averted because ear boo boo
The newspaper Maariv said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy had given assurances that the UK will maintain its objection to the application that was initially raised by the Conservative government in Downing Street.
In an instant, the political situation in the United States was transformed when a gunman shot Donald Trump while he was on stage at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania on July 13.
The situation is still evolving, but the initial political impact is highly favorable for Trump. Instructing his Secret Service detail to pause as they evacuated him from the stage, Trump pumped his fist and yelled to the crowd, “Fight!” — instantly creating iconic images that make Trump look heroic and strong. The contrast between his (self-created and false) image as an unstoppable fighter and Biden’s feebleness has never been greater.
Immediately following the shooting, the Biden campaign suspended its advertisements. Practically every major Democratic Party elected official rushed to express their sympathy for Trump and wish him well. A range of corporate leaders, perhaps seeing Trump’s victory as now inevitable, issued statements embracing him.
The main argument the Democratic Party had in the campaign up to now was that Trump was an aspiring dictator and pathological liar who represented an existential threat to democracy. They instantly dropped all these talking points in the name of “coming together” and “turning down the rhetoric.” The furthest Biden now goes is to say Trump has a “competing vision” for the country.
The right wing, on the other hand, immediately went on the attack. J.D. Vance, a vice-presidential contender, directly blamed Biden’s rhetoric for the shooting. Donald Trump, Jr. immediately said after the shooting that his father “will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him.” There is zero indication the “radical left” had anything to do with this, as the shooter himself was a registered Republican, but such comments have saturated the far-right political ecosystem. They are meant to cow Trump’s liberal critics into silence, lest they be seen as supporting violence. It also lays the groundwork and creates a pretext for a new wave of repression, either under a second Trump presidency or even now under Biden.
Already the White House has signaled Biden is planning to go on a new political offensive this week against the campus encampments in solidarity with Palestine as an example of “violent extremism.” This is absurd. The encampments were launched to stop the genocidal violence against the Palestinian people; the student protesters attacked no one and were, in fact, targets of violence themselves.
Trump is headed to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention. His speech at the RNC will set the tone for the next phase of the campaign. Trump is reportedly rewriting his speech, which had originally been an all-out attack on Biden, to focus more on themes of national unity. With leading capitalists extending him an olive branch, Trump could calculate that his best move would be to move in a “moderate” direction and demonstrate to fellow members of the ultra-rich elite that he can be a unifying, “presidential” figure and present strength for the Empire. Trump has no fixed ideology and solely cares about his image and legacy.
In another sign that an elite consensus was emerging around Trump as the next president, the judge in the classified documents criminal case against Trump suddenly dismissed all charges two days after the assassination attempt. Soon, a DC judge will have to decide if other charges relating to the plot to overturn the 2020 election can go forward in light of the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
Fake pacifism and a new cycle of political violence
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Joe Biden says. “No exception.” It is important not to lose sight of the extreme hypocrisy of the powerful figures now issuing blanket condemnations of violence.
The same people who are so appalled that someone would shoot at a politician did not bat an eye at the news the same Saturday morning that Israeli fighter jets had just killed 90 Palestinian civilians in a failed assassination attempt of a resistance leader in Gaza. They normalize and defend all the violence carried out by the state — whether in oppressed neighborhoods inside the United States, at the U.S.-Mexico border, or overseas. But then they turn around and say, “violence has never been the answer.”
All the politicians who have suddenly become pacifists for a weekend don’t really mean it. This is about their own safety and no one else’s.
More than anything, they are concerned about a new wave of political violence that could destabilize their rule. Contrary to Biden’s assertions that such political violence is “unheard of,” working-class leaders and social movement leaders have been targeted by violence throughout U.S. history. There have also been periods of U.S. history where violence and assassination have been the methods used to resolve disputes within the ruling class. The U.S. Civil War came about after years of escalating political violence. A century later, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy in 1963 and 1968 profoundly reshaped the presidential campaigns that were underway in each of those instances. Then came the shooting that left George Wallace paralyzed in the 1972 election, an election which also saw President Nixon order the break-in to the offices of the DNC. The impeachment of Nixon, and the subsequent appointment of an unelected president and vice-president, Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller, capped off this period of extreme instability in the ruling class — and to end it, Nixon was pardoned in the name of “national unity.”
In periods of major upheaval domestically and internationally, the tendency to resolve struggles within the ruling class using violence grows stronger, as does the tendency to use violence against the people.
Lest we forget: from 2017 to 2020, Democratic Party leaders attempted to undo the 2016 election with the phony Russiagate conspiracy, asserting that Trump was elected because of Russian interference in the election. From Day One of the Trump presidency, the Democratic Party leadership and their supporters were looking to impeach him for being a “puppet” of Putin. Then, in turn, Trump tried to undo the 2020 election by mobilizing fascist forces to seize the Capitol at the moment the vote was to be ratified. And in between these two events, there was a mass uprising against police killing of unarmed civilians, during which the National Guard was called out, Democratic mayors complied with Trump to impose curfews and conduct mass arrests, and Trump itched to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military to occupy cities in the United States. Talk about instability.
Headed into the 2024 election, there remains all the same explosive potential around the election and the transfer of power. The underlying social crises — of job destruction, climate destruction, military confrontation, state violence, the cost-of-living crisis, etc. — cannot be solved by either faction of the capitalist class. Neither party can control the two egomaniacs who lead them. The trust in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court are at record lows. There are already hundreds of millions of guns in circulation among the population. The country appears to be on a collision course. No wonder they’re saying, “Cool it.”
All this is more important than who, if anyone, the shooter was connected to politically. Theories already abound, and there will now be extensive investigations by multiple different arms of the government with contradictory political interests. There is intense speculation about how the gunman was able to position himself so close to the stage and why police did not stop him. Some of that may become clearer in the coming weeks, but it also may remain shrouded in mystery. Rather than focus on that, class-conscious workers should pay more attention to how the ruling class will politically utilize this assassination attempt in the here and now.
Real working-class unity — no unity with the ruling-class establishment!
The Democrats now want to invoke “unity” and American patriotism to silence criticism of the institutions whose legitimacy has been rapidly in decline. The Republicans also talk of unity and wrap themselves in the flag, but they want to use this event to blast through any opposition to their radical pro-corporate agenda.
The hypocrisy of elite politicians aside, they are playing on a sincere feeling among many working class people that the United States has become deeply divided in a way that has dangerous consequences. People do desire peace over instability, unity over division. The question, then, is what is the answer to “polarization”?
Socialists desire working-class unity, but no unity with the tiny billionaire class that has doubled their profits in the last four years by exploiting people of all backgrounds. The problem is not that people are politically polarized, but that we are polarized on totally the wrong basis.
Working-class people who vote for Biden or for Trump, or neither, have more in common than they may think. They share the same problems paying for rent, mortgage, a tank of gas, and a dozen eggs while dealing with stagnant wages, disrespectful bosses, decrepit schools, exorbitant child care, and parasitic insurance companies. They have almost no democratic say in any of it. They generally want to stay out of wars abroad and would much prefer to see their tax dollars used to build stronger communities.
There's this documentary by Al Jazeera about Stevan Labudovic, a Yugoslav partisan who was employed by Tito to be the camera man of Algerian guerillas during the independence war, important documentary especially right now because it touches propaganda of the colonizer.
World leaders responded with shock, widely condemning political violence and wishing Adolf Hitler a speedy recovery. The Führer may be a divisive figure, but the leaders in the Allied command — who would prefer him not to take over Europe — were unequivocal in expressing their dismay on what it means and where it could lead. Allied leaders called the attack “despicable,” and described it as “a tragedy for democracies.” "We stand in solidarity with the Führer," they continued "The attack is madness that none of us should condone"
Trump rewrites RNC speech after assassination attempt: ‘I’m supposed to be dead Politico
After the shooting, he scrapped his original convention speech that was going to take aim at President Joe Biden and his administration’s policies in favor of an address focused on trying to unite the nation. Trump sees his new speech as “a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together,” he told the Examiner.
…
Trump also addressed a widely circulated image of him raising his fist as blood trickled down his face, telling the Post “Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
“The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking,” Trump said to the Examiner. “I knew that history would judge this.”
Here’s hoping that Trump doesn’t pull this off. Biden’s best bet is Trump going full fascism so he can capitalize on the terror under Trump.
Something very anachronistic about the Trump shooter. A muddled, borderline apolitical past, a white male high school rifle club reject. It's like the gags in The Simpsons when they'd show first generation Polish immigrant kids with flatcaps playing stickball in a scene set in the 1980's. Not saying it's fake or scripted, just interesting that such people still exist.
It's still death to Amerika, death to the settlers. That squirrely fuckin dead fuckin republican civilian should serve as your object lesson that disciplined range time is important. If you can't hit a qualifier shot, you shouldn't be allowed to hold a marksman's tool.
Algeria's name derives from the city of Algiers, which in turn derives from the Arabic al-Jazāʾir (الجزائر, "the islands"), referring to four small islands off its coast, a truncated form of the older Jazāʾir Banī Mazghanna (جزائر بني مزغنة, "islands of Bani Mazghanna").
Feel free to post or recommend any books, essays, studies, articles, and even stories related to Algeria.
If you know a lot about the country and want to share your knowledge and opinions, here are some questions to get you started if you wish:
spoiler
What is the general ideology of the political elite? Do they tend to be protectionist nationalists, or are they more free trade globalists? Are they compradors put there by foreign powers? Are they socialists with wide support by the population?
What are the most important domestic political issues that make the country different from other places in the region or world? Are there any peculiar problems that have continued existing despite years or decades with different parties?
Is the country generally stable? Are there large daily protests or are things calm on average? Is the ruling party/coalition generally harmonious or are there frequent arguments or even threats?
Is there a particular country to which this country has a very impactful relationship over the years, for good or bad reasons? Which one, and why?
What are the political factions in the country? What are the major parties, and what segments of the country do they attract?
Are there any smaller parties that nonetheless have had significant influence? Are there notable separatist movements?
How socially progressive or conservative is the country generally? To what degree is there equality between men and women, as well as different races and ethnic groups? Are LGBTQIA+ rights protected?
Give a basic overview of the last 50 or 100 years. What's the historical trend of politics, the economy, social issues, etc - rise or decline? Were they always independent or were they once occupied, and how have things been since independence if applicable?
If you want, go even further back in history. Were there any kingdoms or empires that once governed the area?