news

Anybody have a link to that classic video montage of Xi waving during a parade with news clips over top of him about China eliminating poverty and the bloomer at the end? Need it for a friend.

what ever happened to the state department wanting the IDF to stop doing genocide before christmas

Looks like lemmy.world is now removing SCMP for "not meeting their reliability guidelines"

Those guidelines? 🤷

Kyiv Post is reliable though, guys. Don't worry.

Hajj Qassem Soleimani is one of the legendary figures who helped in the construction of the comprehensive regional alliance we now call the "Axis of Resistance". His legacy is one worth studying for every student of revolutionary history. This excellent documentary gives a good introduction into some aspects of his life and "The School of Soleimani".

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/12/31/695492/Qassem-Documentary

Guiding questions:

-What examples of genuine internationalism do you see in the film? What characterizes these as successful internationalism?

-What is pre-conceived notions about the history of the region did this film challenge for you? What do you want to learn more about?

@carpoftruth@hexbear.net, in relation to your comment on rare earth extraction and how it's not necessary that complicated as it's mainly know-how about chemical engineering, there's this article from this September. Not sure if you have any thoughts

Chinese scientists make key breakthroughs in rare earth mining

A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences reveled major breakthroughs in rare earth mining on a meeting on Sunday. The discoveries will helpshorten mining time by about 70 percent, reduce the impurity content by 70 percent and increases the recovery rate of rare earths by about 30 percent.

The findings were made by He Hongping's team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. They presented the research results at a scientific evaluation meeting in Meizhou City, South China's Guangdong Province.

This new mining technology is mainly applied to the mining of weathered crust rare earth ores, a characteristic resource in China. It aims to solve the problems of present in-situ leaching technology in ecology, resource efficiency, and to promote efficient and green utilization of rare earth resources in China.

Professor He's team creatively developed a new way of using electric currents to extract rare earth elements (REEs), compared to traditional methods which uses ammonium chloride as leaching agents to extract REEs. The new technology is more environmental friendly as it avoids soil contamination caused by leaching agents, which responded to Chinese government's demand for environmental protection and green and efficient mining.

With a 5,000-ton earth-moving scale demonstration area, professor He's team was able to test his findings on soil and achieved design outcomes on the ground. This key technology and its results have helped He's team publish 11 high-level papers in journals such as Nature Sustainability, and to obtain 7 patents for inventions. Citing a report from Nature Sustainability, Anouk Borst, a geologist at KU Leuven called the strategy "A game changer, providing that it is feasible on a large scale."

At the evaluation meeting, experts of the Evaluation Committee listened to the report of the He's team, reviewed the relevant information and visited the demonstration site. After discussion and deliberation, the Evaluation Committee unanimously agreed that He's finding is a World-Class technology.

Australia refusing to send any battleships to participate in "Operation Prosperity Guardian". Wonder why?

new front opens in the war on christmas

New legislation passed in Ukraine earlier this year, making the official Christmas holiday December 25, instead of January 7.

In Sydney's west, Father Simon Ckuj, the parish priest of St Andrew's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Lidcombe, said it was the first time Ukrainian Catholics would celebrate Christmas on December 25.

"We have changed it because the church in Ukraine has changed both Catholic and Orthodox," Father Ckuj said.

"It is in a large part due to the war, with a desire by Ukrainians to be more integrated into European society."

Earlier this month, the European Union agreed to open accession negotiations with Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the agreement as "a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe".

Father Ckuj said the change to the date for Christmas was more about leaning towards the West.

"It is a very real way for Ukrainians to turn their back on Russian Orthodoxy. It is a way of expressing the desire for the Ukrainian people to celebrate with the Western world."

Vice president of the Ukrainian Council of NSW Andrew Mencinsky said the change had not been accepted by all – yet.

"The Orthodox Church in Ukraine is celebrating Christmas on the 25th of December," Mr Mencinsky said.

"But some of the Orthodox Church in Australia is still clinging to January 7, but that will change shortly."

Argentines Reject President Milei's Economic Deregulation

Through a decree, the far-right politician reformed over 300 laws to establish "the foundations for the reconstruction of the Argentine economy."

On Wednesday night, thousands of Argentinians protested against the state downsizing policies, privatization of public assets, and economic deregulation proposed by President Javier Milei.

Through an "urgent" decree, Milei reformed over 300 laws to establish "the foundations for the reconstruction of the Argentine economy."

Among other things, his decree transforms all state-owned enterprises into anonymous societies for subsequent privatization, repeals the rental law, authorizes the total or partial transfer of the shareholding of Aerolineas Argentinas, and prohibits setting limits on exports.

The decree also includes other measures aimed directly at deregulating economic activity. These include the repeal of the Supply Law, which imposes sanctions on companies in cases of shortages of certain products, and the repeal of the Shelves Law, which obliges supermarkets to offer a minimum of products manufactured by small businesses.

Protest calls spread rapidly after the national broadcast through which the far-right President announced his package of economic policies. Citizens gathered in the vicinity of the Congress to continue the protest that thousands had carried out hours earlier, marching through the streets of downtown Buenos Aires to Mayo Square in front of the Presidential headquarters.

The nighttime mobilization was also felt in various neighborhoods of the capital, where residents staged a loud protest from their windows and balconies by banging pots and other household items. The protest action was heard in neighborhoods such as Caballito, Almagro, and Avellaneda, but also in middle and upper-class areas such as Palermo and Belgrano.

"Milei subverts the democratic republican order and disrupts the division of powers. His unconstitutionality is evident. We will not tolerate an attack on social security and labor and social rights," said Hector Daer, the secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT).

Danish media is reporting that shipping company Mærsk has announced that they are preparing to resume operations in the Red Sea. According to reports the announcement has been made after the United States started the cartoonishly villanously named "Operation Prosperity Guardian" to help maritime traffic break Yemeni sanctions on the illegal zionist entity.

The US is concerned that Houthi-led Yemen will attack or even sink American ships, according to US officials who spoke to The New York Times. They fear that the war that could break out again between the Gulf states and the Houthis if the US reacts to it will have more serious consequences. For this reason, they abandoned attempts to directly attack the Houthis.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abdullahian also said the US has requested assistance in combating the Houthi attacks. Iran said it could not help because the United States was a party to the war. After the collapse of the anti-Houthi coalition, it turned out that the United States feared that the Houthis would sink their ships, and then they had to ask Iran for help.

The Houthis managed to inflict one of the biggest strategic and tactical defeats on the US this century without even hitting them directly with a handful of missiles and drones.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/China-Bans-Exports-of-Rare-Earth-Tech-as-Critical-Minerals-Race-Heats-Up.html

Note this is a technology export ban, not rare earths export ban. A common phrase is that rare earths are not rare and that is correct, but China does a lot of rare earth mining and the vast majority of the world's refining. Refining of these minerals is quite high tech as far as mineral processing/metallurgy goes because rare earths are all quite similar and so are hard to separate. It is also hard to refine them to be sufficiently pure for the high tech applications they are used in. I suspect that western onshoring of rare earth tech is harder than people expect. there is little institutional memory and skills for these topics in the west after decades of outsourcing and also because the rare earth refining needs have changed over the past decades to reflect advances in technology.

Orban continues to block the $50b over 4 year ukraine aid package from the EU. Hungary is up for $10-20b of eubux, so he wants that and the EU wants him to stay in line. A lot of euro seething in this one but not that interesting, continuation of big question marks for who is going to pony up the bux for project ukraine.

https://archive.is/GCgzD

Ancap Update:

The spokesman for the Argentine Presidency, Manuel Adorni, said that the police operation set up on Wednesday to cover that day's demonstrations would have to be paid for by the organizers.

The cost of the operation on Wednesday was 60 million pesos (74,000 dollars): the Polo Obrero, the Evita Movement, Libres del Sur, Barrios de Pie and 10 other organizations will have to pay it.

In total, the amount is the equivalent of more than 60 million pesos.

Anyone have the video of Yemeni fighters capturing that vessel and dancing with the crew or whatever?

If Venezuela and Brazil invaded Argentina that would be pretty cool and neat.

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/14/a-master-of-terror/

Prabowo first arrived in East Timor in 1976 soon after the invasion. He commanded the unit that captured and then killed East Timor’s legendary first prime minister, Nicolau Lobato, in 1978. Lobato’s body was paraded before the Indonesian and Western press, and to this day his souvenired severed head has not been returned to Timor for burial.

In 1983, Prabowo bypassed a superior officer and undermined a peace process underway between a moderate Indonesian military, and then resistance leader, now Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. He is also the subject of accusations that same year of commanding massacres of as many as 200 civilians, mainly men, in the southern village of Kraras, an area now known as “The Valley of Widows.”

In 1985 Prabowo attended the commando training course in the U.S. at Fort Benning, the notorious U.S. Army’s “School of the Americas.”

My dear newshogs, I bring you news

A volcanic eruption has started (yet again) in Iceland.

I will update this post with some more details, hopefully a ticker in English

In the meantime here is state news ticker through a translator.

Here is a stream (not very good quality, the difference in brightness is hell for these cameras)

Extra news time hour thing!

Europe will be on the brink of total economic collapse and total right wing electoral victory and the European "left" will still be insisting that real clintonism has never been tried.

Some good news in Guatemala. Indigenous rights have been upheld by the Inter-American Court of Human rights. A mine that's been in operating for two decades has been ruled as violating the rights of a local indigenous groups. The article ignores that Guatemala's black population is mostly found in that department as well and have their drinking water poisoned by the mine. It's about time it was shut down. It seems like the events in Panama have sparked something and I hope this momentum can keep up.

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/international-court-rules-guatemala-landmark-indigenous-environmental-rights-105688425

#היום בלילה הכנו במו ידינו את מה שהיינו בו כדי לקצור את ראשיכם

• קרא עוד על נושא זה
• אנו נמשיך להרוג את החיילים שלך על ידי הצלפים המיוצרים במקום

#الليلة

• صنعنا بأيدينا ما نحصد به رؤوسكم
• בידינו יצרנו מה שקוטף את ראשכם
• We will continue Killing your Soldiers by our locally manufactured Snipers

Reposts amirite

Is shit happening or something, I’ve been checked out for the past week

what's the call, is the US going to veto the UNSC resolution again?

When you got tired of losing to Russians and want to lose to Hamas as well: https://nitter.cz/talhaahmad967/status/1737242405135593756

"What we have always desired from day 1, is a direct war between us and the Americans & Israelis, not through their silly proxies.": https://nitter.cz/AryJeay/status/1737466205076599043