Washington Post cartoonist resigns over paper’s refusal to publish cartoon critical of Jeff Bezos Pulitzer prize winner Ann Telnaes drew a cartoon of the paper’s owner kneeling before Donald Trump Ramon Antonio Vargas Sat 4 Jan 2025 10.23 EST The Washington Post’s Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes has resigned from her position at the newspaper after its refusal to publish a satirical cartoon depicting the outlet’s owner Jeff Bezos – along with other media and technology barons – kneeling before Donald Trump as he gears up for his second US presidency. “I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations – and some differences – about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at,” Telnaes wrote on Friday in an online post on the Substack platform detailing her decision to quit. “Until now.” In a statement reported by the New York Times, the Post’s opinions editor, David Shipley, defended the newspaper’s decision against publishing Telnaes’s cartoon, saying he disagreed with her “interpretation of events” and that “the only bias was against repetition”. “Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force,” said Shipley, whose statement added that he had spoken with Telnaes and asked her to reconsider leaving. “My decision was guided by the fact that we had just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and had already scheduled another column – this one a satire – for publication.” Telnaes’s Substack post from Friday contained a rough draft of her cartoon. Beside Bezos, who founded Amazon before buying the Post, the cartoon portrayed caricatures of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Walt Disney Co mascot Mickey Mouse. “The cartoon … criticizes the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with … Trump,” Telnaes said. “While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon. “To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a gamechanger … and dangerous for a free press.” Telnaes announced her resignation less than three months after the Post and Bezos faced withering backlash over the outlet’s decision to prevent its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of Kamala Harris in the presidential election of 5 November. Soon-Shiong had also similarly refused to allow the LA Times’ editorial board to publish an endorsement of Harris. Readers met both outlets with more than 200,000 subscription cancellations combined, the overwhelming majority of those affecting the Post’s larger readership, according to reports. And commentators accused the two newspapers of demonstrating what has been classified as “anticipatory obedience” to Trump after he had repeatedly accused the media of being enemies of the state and promised retribution against many in the industry if he defeated Harris. Trump then scored a decisive victory against Harris to wrest back the Oval Office, which he had lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. After his victory, Zuckerberg dined with Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort. His company Meta also donated $1m to a fund for Trump’s second inauguration. Observers interpreted those to be conciliatory gestures after Trump during his first presidency had criticized Zuckerberg and his Facebook platform of being “anti-Trump”.

From the guardian: https://archive.is/mtc85

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has resigned after successively failing to build a coalition government without the far right. For four months Nehammer had been trying to stitch together a government between the Conservatives (his party) and the Social Democrats.

No party wanted to form a government with the extremists of the “Freedom Party”, trying to form a government of the center. But it didn't work. The liberals left the negotiations and the Chancellor announced the official end of negotiations with the Social Democrats, his resignation from office and the leadership of his party.

The Austrian President has two options: Either he will ask the far-right leader Herbert Kickl (who once called himself the “people's chancellor”, just like Hitler did); Or he will dissolve parliament and call new elections in the country.

Herbert Kickl, leader of Austria's right-wing extremists, and his party with Nazi roots. About the FPÖ, Austria's far-right party with the most seats:

Founded in 1944 by Nazi leaders linked to the Hitler government, such as the former Austrian-Nazi Minister of Agriculture, Anton Reinthaller, the first leader of the FPÖ party. The current party leader, Herbert Kickl, has been calling himself “The People's Chancellor”, Volkskanzler, throughout his campaign and has now stepped up the propaganda even further;.

U.S. authorities have found notes from Matthew Livelsberger, the U.S. Army soldier who committed suicide and detonated a Tesla 'Cybertruck' near the Trump International Hotel

Having been deployed to Afghanistan twice, he expressed in his writings a need to 'cleanse' his mind of lost comrades and the 'burden of lives he took.' He characterized his actions as a 'wake-up call' to a society that only pays attention to violence, warning that the U.S. was 'terminally ill and headed toward collapse.'

Brazil is sending an ambassador to Caracas for Maduro's inauguration in Venezuela. The hope is to put an end to the crisis that has lasted since the elections.

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The Brazilian government is to send its ambassador to Caracas, Glivânia Maria de Oliveira, for the inauguration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (United Socialist Party of Venezuela). On January 10, the Venezuelan will take the oath of office in the National Assembly for his third term, which runs from 2025 to 2031.

The government's view is that this would help to further reduce tension between the two countries, which has been escalating since Nicolás Maduro's election. The diplomatic crisis was slightly eased after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) said he respected Venezuelan institutions. According to Maduro, the speech was a “wise” reflection by the Workers' Party president and he added: “Point in favor of Lula”.

According to the report, Brazilian diplomacy is still waiting for a formal invitation from the Venezuelan government. The lack of such an invitation with a week to go before the inauguration, however, does not worry diplomats. Each president's inauguration around the world is carried out differently and invitations are generally made at short notice and tend to vary according to the political conditions of each government.

Brasilia's expectation is that two other partners in the region will also be represented by their ambassadors in Caracas. Colombia is represented in Venezuelan territory by Milton Rengifo Hernández, while Mexico has Ambassador Leopoldo de Gyvés de la Cruz in the Venezuelan capital.

The latest demonstrations by opponents of Maduro have had little support. The movement, however, is similar to the election period. On that occasion, María Corina and Edmundo toured several cities in the country without managing to organize massive mobilizations. Nevertheless, the day after the election was marked by violent demonstrations across the country. .

I think Lula da Silva still can't travel by airplane anyway due to his recent surgeries.

currency markets are so silly, markets in general but forex markets are supposed to be most markety market with highest liquidity, yet central bank interventions are needed to prevent it from going too wild. trump says he will implement broad tariffs and that is enough for Dollar to rise against everything else, nothing has happened yet!

really shows the world needs more controls on capital flows.

Next thread here.

China's CR450: A new era of high-speed rail at 400 km/h

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Seriously what’s going on between Brazil and China?

On Dec 23rd, 2024, Brazilian authorities halted the construction of BYD factory after Chinese construction workers were found living in “slavery-like” conditions. This would have been the first BYD factory outside Asia and a significant expansion into Latin America. On Dec 27th, Brazil had stopped issuing temporary work visa to BYD, with the factory merely three months away from completing its construction.

Very conveniently, on the same day, China launched an investigation into its beef import, citing that oversupply has caused a squeeze on its domestic price.

Any trade measures to try to reduce beef imports would hit China's largest suppliers, Brazil, Argentina and Australia.

China's total beef imports reached $14.2 billion in 2023, surging from $8.2 billion in 2019, customs data show. Brazil accounted for 42% of the total trade value, followed by Argentina at 15% and Australia at 12%.

This is clearly pointed towards Brazil. Is this China sending a warning shot to Brazil that they better not interfere with the BYD incident? Will Brazil fold to China’s pressure? Seriously, what’s going on? I hope they don’t start fighting or something.

Javier Milei received Edmundo González Urrutia and they greeted the Venezuelan community from the balcony of the Casa Rosada.

The President met with the former Venezuelan candidate who claims victory over Nicolás Maduro; Argentina recognized him as elected president, with a protocol accordingly; Milei told him that he will not be “an accomplice of silence in the face of the abuses” of the Chavista regime; the meeting took place while Nahuel Gallo, a gendarme, is still detained by the Chavista regime.

Juan Guaido 2.0 Arc continues

In minor climate news, increased risks of flooding is now making the Danish government change planning laws to ban construction of new buildings in flooding-prone coastal plots. This happens in an attempt to reduce the need for expensive ditches and floodgates.

• Source: DR (state media), January 3rd 2025

Anyone know what interview this is from? or have a longer clip? https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1htefeu/ru_pov_because_this_war_the_first_aim_for_the_us/