Image is sourced from this article.

It takes very little effort to find an article from Western state propaganda decrying Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas as authoritarian and rife with human rights abuses. This is the natural reaction the US has to any successful liberation movement. This fairly long report from Jason Cohen, a socialist who travelled to Nicaragua one week ago, should quell any suspicions.

He describes a country with high political consciousness among the masses, who are working to construct critical infrastructure for the country and their communities. There is a virtual education system that is free across the entire nation, which serves the dual goal of democratizing education and ensuring that those in rural areas or without much free time for university can still achieve degrees and a quality education; and these classes cover technical skills in the production of infrastructure and agriculture, but also political and ideological education in order to counter the fascist propaganda produced by imperialist nations abroad.

While Nicaragua is deeply invested in its nationality and national figures who led to their socialist revolution, such as Sandino, they are also immensely proud of their indigneous history, recognizing it as also part of their anti-colonial history which continues to the present day. Additionally, they honour the struggles of other nations on the continent, such as the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, as well as Castro in Cuba and Allende in Chile. Countries around the world are also celebrated and admired, such as Burkina Faso; during the Reagan administration, Nicaragua and Burkina Faso were comrades in arms, and now Traore is continuing the legacy of Sankara's anti-imperialism in the present. Perhaps most relevant today is their dedication towards Palestine, involving the creation of the Parque Palestina (shown in the post image), in which the Palestinian flag flies alongside the flag of Nicaragua. In July, Leila Khaled of the PFLP gave a speech in Nicaragua, in which the solidarity of the two nations was highlighted.

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 Nicaragua! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

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.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Popularity of Norwegian Monarchy in Freefall

    Support for the Norwegian monarchy has been plummeting recently, as highlighted by a new poll commissioned by Norwegian government broadcaster NRK.

    According to the poll, only 62% of Norwegians still back the monarchy, a sharp drop from 73% in May this year. For context, in 2017, support sat at a solid 81%. The royal family's public image is taking a serious hit, largely due to the actions of two high-profile members: Marius Borg Høiby, the stepson of the future king, who has been charged with abusing a woman, and Princess Märtha-Louise, whose tacky spirituality grifts and highly commercialised wedding to a fellow non-white spirituality grifter have further damaged the monarchy's already fragile reputation.

    Read more...

    The Fuckboy Step-Prince

    Marius Borg Høiby, 27, was arrested last month and charged with assault, vandalism, theft, and stalking after a coke-and-booze-fueled meltdown in the apartment of a woman he claims was his girlfriend. Her lawyer, however, denies that she was ever involved with him romantically. Following the arrest, a restraining order was issued against Høiby, prohibiting him from contacting her.

    Ten days after his arrest, Høiby issued a public apology to the woman, claiming to have several mental health issues and promising to seek treatment for both his substance abuse and his supposed psychological problems. Unfortunately for him, two of his ex-partners have since come forward, telling of his drug use and violent behavior, which blows apart his narrative that this was just a one-time mistake.

    To make matters worse for the royals, Crown Princess Mette-Marit (Høiby’s mother) reportedly called the victim to "discuss" the charges shortly after the arrest, prompting outrage over the royals potentially abusing their status to influence the legal process.

    Though Høiby holds no royal title or official function, this isn’t his first scandal. Apart from a conviction for drug possession the step-prince has previously made headlines for referring to himself as "Prince of Norway" in a short-lived stint as a style editor for a British fashion magazine, and he's used the royal palace's address both to give to police when arrested for drug possession and as a marketing ploy to sell second-hand luxury goods online. When he’s not busy assaulting women, Høiby fills his time doing cocaine, posting videos of reckless driving and partying with celebrities, influencers, organized criminals and alt-right bloggers.

    On top of it all, he’s faced criticism for using his connections to get a Norwegian diplomatic passport — despite having no diplomatic role — using it to dodge law enforcement while abroad.

    Royal Grifters: The Angel Princess and the COVID Shaman

    While Høiby self-destructs, Princess Märtha-Louise — daughter of King Harald — is also doing her bit to fan the flames of republican sentiment, with 69% of poll respondents saying she should lose her royal title.

    Märtha-Louise recently married her long-time partner, Durek Verrett, a self-styled American "shaman" who caters to the spiritual needs of the rich and famous. By his own account Verrett had spiritual precognition of 9/11 but he decided not to warn anyone. Normally, royal weddings serve as an opportunity for monarchies to flex their influence and charm the public with elaborate pageantry, but not this time. For a start just by being black Verrett has pissed off Norway's nastiest elements, who would otherwise have been staunch monarchists.

    But Verrett’s race isn’t the only controversy. The couple’s blatant commercialism has turned off much of the public who sees it as unworthy for the institution. In a break from tradition, they sold exclusive coverage of the wedding to a British tabloid, shunning Norway’s government broadcaster, NRK. While the king and royal family attended, they notably skipped the tabloid photoshoot.

    Adding to the circus, Märtha-Louise promoted her clothing line at the wedding by setting up a stand for guests to purchase her merchandise. Leading up to the wedding, the labels of a bespoke brand of gin marketed by the couple was found to violate Norwegian alcohol advertising laws and had to be relabeled before the state alcohol monopoly would sell it.

    NRK reports that King Harald is displeased, seeing the commercial nature of the wedding as a breach of his agreement with Märtha-Louise not to use her title for financial gain.

    Not content to stop there, Märtha-Louise and her shaman husband are also working on a Netflix series, much to the annoyance of residents in the small village where it’s being filmed. Their prior ventures include Verrett selling "magic charms" to protect against COVID, and Märtha-Louise running a school offering courses on how to perform miracles and communicate with angels to people with more money than sense.

    The monarchy recently removed the "Royal Family" section from its official website. The section had previously included biographies for both Märtha-Louise and Marius Borg Høiby. Instead, a new category titled "Other Royals" has appeared, with Høiby no longer receiving his own profile.