⚡️⭕️🔥 #YEMEN - Exclusive scenes show the #Yemeni Navy targeting the "Tutor" ship with drone boats in the Red Sea:
https://twitter.com/ME_Observer_/status/1803507759280783490?mx=1

Zelensky accuses China of trying to undermine Peace Summit, but also criticizes Biden. The Ukrainian president spoke at the Singapore Defense and Security Forum and spoke to journalists.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday accused China of trying to prevent other countries from participating in the Ukraine Peace Summit, which will take place on June 15 and 16 in Switzerland. But his criticism didn't stop there. Although he was grateful that US President Joe Biden had authorized the use of US weapons against targets in Russia, he says that this is "not enough".

"The world has to be resilient, it has to be strong, it has to put pressure on Russia," Zelensky said at the Shangri-La Dialogue Defense and Security Forum in Singapore. "There is no other way to stop [Vladimir] Putin - only diplomatic isolation, a strong Ukrainian army and for all the countries of the world not to seek a balance between Ukraine and Russia, but to uphold international justice and law," he added.

On the sidelines of the forum, Zelensky expressed his disappointment that many world leaders had not yet confirmed their presence at the summit in Switzerland - without mentioning China or the US (Biden has not yet said whether he will attend). On Beijing's side, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning argued that the summit should also be attended by Russia, considering that without this it will be "difficult" to play a "substantial role in restoring peace".

The Ukrainian president told reporters that China has been supporting Russia's efforts to prevent some countries from taking part in the Peace Summit. "Unfortunately, Russia, using Chinese influence in the region, using Chinese diplomats as well, is doing everything possible to disrupt the Peace Summit. It is regrettable that a country as large, independent and powerful as China is an instrument in Putin's hands. Asia needs to know what is happening in Ukraine. We need the support of Asian countries."

Zelensky has said he is grateful to Biden for allowing the use of US-supplied weapons against targets in Russia, near the Kharkiv border regions. "Is it enough? No," he said, claiming that Russia launches its attacks "quietly" from certain air bases, knowing that Ukraine "can't retaliate" because it doesn't have permission to do so.

Ben Rhodes, the Obama guy, on grappling with reality

https://archive.is/BeVWG

Second, the old rules-based international order doesn’t really exist anymore. As the old order unravels, these overlapping blocs (BRICS, CSTO) are competing over what will replace it.

If Biden does win a second term, he should use it to build on those of his policies that have accounted for shifting global realities, while pivoting away from the political considerations, maximalism, and Western-centric view that have caused his administration to make some of the same mistakes as its predecessors.

If Washington allows foreign policy to be driven by zero-sum maximalist demands, it risks a choice between open-ended conflict and embarrassment.

On the one hand, encouraging to see an establishment liberal pumping the brakes on unipolarity, on the other hand, disappointing because both the Biden and Trump regimes have been full of maximalist neoconservatives as far as foreign policy.

Definitely liberal brainworms on display still, like this passage:

American rhetoric about the rules-based international order has been seen around the world on a split screen of hypocrisy, as Washington has supplied the Israeli government with weapons used to bombard Palestinian civilians with impunity. The war has created a policy challenge for an administration that criticizes Russia for the same indiscriminate tactics that Israel has used in Gaza.

NO THEY FUCKING HAVEN'T FUCK YOU BEN

In Ukraine, the United States and Europe should focus on protecting and investing in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government—drawing Ukraine into European institutions, sustaining its economy, and fortifying it for lengthy negotiations with Moscow so that time works in Kyiv’s favor.

Rofl what does this mean? How is this different from what's happening now? Time will never work in kyiv's favour - that's the problem with attrition war. Every 6 months ukraine is in a worse position than it was previously.

In the Middle East, Washington should join with Arab and European partners to work directly with Palestinians on the development of new leadership and toward the recognition of a Palestinian state, while supporting Israel’s security. Regional de-escalation with Iran should, as it did during the Obama administration, begin with negotiated restrictions on its nuclear program.

So we're still talking about getting rid of hamas. And it is too bad that Biden didn't pursue restart of the jcpoa, but he chose to continue trump's policy over Obama because he didn't want to give the Israelis a tummy ache. He's a staunch Zionist. Note, no prescription for relations with Hezbollah or ansarallah there, just an assumption that resolving things with Iran will improve relations elsewhere. In other words, misunderstanding of the relationships of the axis of resistance.

In Taiwan, the United States should try to preserve the status quo by investing in Taiwanese military capabilities while avoiding saber rattling, by structuring engagement with Beijing to avoid miscalculation, and by mobilizing international support for a negotiated, peaceful resolution to Taiwan’s status.

America's strategy in Taiwan should be to have its cake while eating it too

Overall, not a terrible framing of the article, but truly written by a speechwriter lapdog. It follows the familiar Obama-technocrat style of describing a problem somewhat correctly while offering no material change in approach, without recognizing the true cost of failure. Still, maybe worth a share to the libs in our lives because of Ben's pedigree.

Houthis have a new remote boom boom boat

New Caledonia Indigenous independence leader transferred to mainland France for pre-trial detention

NICE, France (AP) — A pro-independence leader in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia was transferred to a prison facility in mainland France to await trial on charges relating to two weeks of unrest in May that left nine people dead, the public prosecutor in the territory said Sunday.

Christian Tein, an Indigenous Kanak leader of the pro-independence party known as The Field Action Coordination Unit, was flown to mainland France overnight Saturday, along with six other activists, prosecutor Yves Dupas said in a statement.

The seven Kanak activists were transferred to pre-trial detention on “a specially chartered plane” because of “the sensitivity of the procedure,” Dupas said. Moving the detained activists into custody 17,000 kilometers (10,500 miles) away from their homeland would allow the investigation into their alleged wrongdoings to continue “in a calm manner and without any pressure,” he said.

The Kanak people have sought for decades to break free from France, which first took New Caledonia in 1853.

full article

Consequences of the tragedy in southern Brazil:

Recently, there were heavy rains in the southern region of Brazil, which is made up of three states, all of which are governed by opposition parties. The most affected state, Rio Grande do Sul, is under the control of the PSDB (Social Democratic Party of Brazil, which is actually a neoliberal party). The fascists of the PL (Liberal Party, currently Bolsonaro's party) obtained the majority support of the party's previous voters, who were mainly wealthy, middle-class, white, male Brazilians.

Lula da Silva decided to do what any normal, sensible head of state would do. Give aid and support to the states and people affected. He sent the Army, Navy and Air Force to help with rescues and maintain order. He created an emergency council to deal with this and selected a member of his party (PT, Workers' Party, which is a mostly socdem party with some demsoc politicians in it) as the head of this council. This member is someone who was born in the affected state.

Since the powers of the Executive allow the president to grant aid and order things to help a state without the approval of Congress, Lula began to interact with the governor of the state to see what he needed. The work the governor was doing seemed very bad and poorly done. As he is a neoliberal, it seemed that he wanted the private sector to solve everything. In addition, the state has a series of debts that he wanted to be forgiven, but this was refused.

What happened was that the governor was overshadowed by the Emergency Council created by the federal government due to the incompetence of the governor and his allies. Meanwhile, the Bolsonarist opposition (which doesn't like the governor because he defeated the Bolsonarist candidate) decided it would be a great idea to spread lies about the tragedy and the army operation. Talking about Haarp's conspiracy theory and how global warming was fake, and this was God's way of punishing the state (a state that is mostly white and Catholic, and voted for Bolsonaro in 2018 and 2022).

So, recently opinion poll results were released, showing that not only Lula, who was previously rejected by the majority of the population, now has a good margin of approval, but also the candidates in his party's coalition in Southern Brazil. Meanwhile, the governor is now more rejected than before. So how does Jair Bolsonaro react to this? By posting a video of Jordan Peteson saying that it was all HAARPS' fault, that Global Warming doesn't exist and that this is God punishing the State, that they don't deserve to receive donations because they support the "communist" Lula da Silva and are ungrateful.

Are the Israeli dogs still barking? “Israeli” “civilians” hatred of Netanyahu not doing enough genocide gonna turn into The Offensive to satiate their bloodlust or no?

Something not right about that shooting in Arkansas. Fordyce has six cops on the police force and 5 of them showed up in the grocery store parking lot within 4 minutes of the shooting? Thats 6 cops to cover seven days a week 24 hours a day there shouldn’t be more than 2 or 3 on duty at any one time. Shooter has no criminal history. Police believe most, if not all, of the rounds were fired from a 12 gauge shotgun. Shot 13 people in a town where everyone is armed. Witnesses are saying they tried to call 911 but the service was down. Now the Arkansas state police are saying it was a completely random event nothing to see here. hmm

Lmao the Israeli foreign minister is called “Israel Katz”

Zero Wing ass name, embarrassing “nation”

Denmark's succdem-led right-wing regime is going to lower the inheritance tax for family-owned businesses from 15 to 10 percent. This follows a long period of austerity with abolishment of public holidays, cuts in higher education and chronic underfunding of healthcare, public schools and and other social services. We all had to make sacrifices to fund rapid agressive military buildup or else Putin's Asiatic hordes would run us over, or at least that is what we were told. The royal family was given a generous raise as well.

But now there's money to give tax cuts to rich people. The tracking cuts are funded by "the fiscal space", ie. savings on public services.

The gilding of small business tyrants is a victory for the two right-liberal parties that makes up two thirds of the ruling junta. It is deeply unpopular among succdem voters who, despite their party being a bunch of low-effort strasserite chuds, still support the welfare state and hate to see it picked apart.

In the recent EU elections the succdems suffered a humiliating defeat, being outperformed by the "Socialist People's Party", a more left-ish succdem with greener and less chuddy vibes. By showering the rich with money in a time of alleged fiscal crisis is only going to make succdem voters more eager to look for alternatives.

The regime is deeply unpopular and the parties behind the regime only stand to get 33.7 percent of the vote compared to getting half the vote at the general election a few years ago.

Good day news nerds

do you think nacron is being controlled by his teacher/mommy like ratatouille

French-backed "rebels" sabotage pipeline running from Niger to Benin:
https://twitter.com/marcus_herve/status/1804988223979974694?mx=1

The Patriotic Liberation Front, which is fighting for the release of former president Mohamed Bazoum, who was overthrown in the last July coup, said it was behind the attack earlier that week.

The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, just got inaugurated for his second term. I saw some of the fighter jets practicing their flyover near the Union Buildings earlier this week. Today is the first day of the Government of National Unity (GNU), effectively a coalition between the ANC and DA. To mark this occasion, old video footage, from 2010, has emerged of DA Member of Parliament Renaldo Gouws using racial slurs. For some background, Renaldo Gouws was an "anti SJW" YouTuber during the 2010s, that joined the DA last year for reasons no one can quite explain. What a way to start the GNU... Day one and a DA member is already involved in a racism scandal.

New racist video of DA MP Renaldo Gouws surfaces, Independent Online, 19 June 2024

The full video of the incident on the internet archive, warning for racism