1. UN Human Rights Office Handed Names of Dissidents to Chinese Regime putting lives in direct danger.

2. UN Rights Council Attacks Western Sanctions, Backs Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba.

3. UN Elects Turkey to Head General Assembly in 2020-2021.

4. UN’s WHO Names China Booster Helen Clark to Head COVID-19 Inquiry.

5. UN Condemns Israel 17 Times, Rest of the World 6.

Fuck it, thread on orientalism, emasculation, and Asian fetishism for trans women:

CW: Racism, sexuality, fetishisation, orientialism

(switching from my usual Eleanor gifs because, well, it would be ironic not to)

First things first, this thread is not here to bash on white people or a subtweet of anything in particular. I just want to point out that while being trans is something that does connect me to several trans people on here, there is a certain racial element that cannot be ignored

And once again, I can only speak to my experience as a trans woman transitioning for about a year and a half now, and an able bodied Chinese Australian 26 year old. Now on to the show.

Now I would be remiss to claim that Asian trans people have it worse than any other ethnic trans group. But we do have problems that are somewhat unique to us that yt trans twitter really needs to understand, and it's grounded heavily in that eternal Asian spectre: Orientalism

For those that don't know, orientalism is essentially an othering of Asia, its people, and its cultures. In Western canon, Asia has always been seen as this exotic land just because its different to Euro-centric culture and this leads to extremely patronising behaviour.

Thread: Brazil is ranked number two in the world lists of Covid fatalities, behind the USA. But that is almost certainly wrong. Mexico is almost surely number two. And in this story, we explain why. https://t.co/xeKgkMU1kJ via @WSJ

Mexico is failing to accurately record the majority of those who die from Covid. How do we know? Because the surge of excess deaths in 2020 in Mexico was roughly 2.4 times the official Covid toll. On Dec 12, excess deaths were 274,486 compared to Covid toll of 113,704.

Some of the additional deaths, of course, may not be Covid but from people who put off treatment for chronic disease, for instance. But health experts say the majority of those were likely killed by Covid. Other countries have a far smaller gap between excess deaths and Covid.

In Brazil, excess deaths for last year were 200,270 by Nov 21. The Covid toll by that date was 168,989, a far smaller gap than Mexico. That means Brazil is likely doing a far better job accurately counting its Covid dead.

A big difference is testing. Mexico carries out fewest tests in the Americas. It has only done 3.6 million tests during the entire pandemic. Brazil has done nearly 29 million. Mexico's coronavirus czar @HLGatell says widespread testing is a waste of time and resources.

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Good afternoon, thank you for joining us. I'll give you some warning in advance - my update is going to be slightly longer than normal today because I've got a few updates I'm going to cover."

NS: "I'm also going to touch a little bit on Christmas, which I know is of huge interest to everyone. But firstly, as usual, I will cover today's statistics."

NS: "There were 689 positive cases reported yesterday, which is 5.9% of the total number of tests and means that the total tally of confirmed cases now is 108,438."

NS: "140 of today's new cases were in Lothian, 109 in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 92 in Lanarkshire and 91 in Ayrshire & Arran, and the remaining cases are spread across 8 other health board areas."

NS: "1,031 people are currently in hospital which is an increase of 35 from yesterday. 49 people are in intensive care, which is 4 more than yesterday."

#Thread! For peace in #Balochistan, Islamabad must review FC's role.

In 2021, the conflict in Balochistan entered its 17th year. Islamabad deployed FC in Balochistan in 2004 to counter insurgent activities. The force soon after its deployment became unpopular among the locals

for human rights violations and heavy-handed operations. The Balochistan provincial govt gave police powers to FC in 2013. Since then, FC's traditional role in maintaining border security expanded into controlling crimes and countering terror activities.

More than 550 #ShiaHazaras have been killed in FC's presence since 2012, and thousands of Hazaras have been targeted and wounded in apparent sectarian attacks. Thousands of Baloch activists have disappeared without a trace. More than 1,000 dead bodies of political activists

and suspected armed insurgents were found dumped between 2010 and 2016, according to a report by BBC in 2016. Officials from Ministry of Interior said: "from 2010 to 2015, organized political violence events linked to the insurgency gradually increased, peaking in 2015 with 96

events and 383 total reported fatalities for the year. In 49 suicide attacks in Balochistan between 2003-2018, at least 939 people died, and more than 1820 injured. As insurgents activities increase, FC has become more ruthless and lethal targeting civilians and unarmed activists

#Indonesia #Jakarta #NaturalDisaster #STATISTICS

In the first three weeks of 2021 alone, the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management Agency (@BNPB_Indonesia or just BNPB) said there had been a shocking 171 natural disasters in Indonesia.

"Most are in the form of floods, hurricanes and landslides," Professor Wiku Adisasmito from BNPB, who is also the national COVID-19 task force spokesperson, said in a press conference this week.

Indonesia reported 297 disasters in the month of January last year, including floods in the metropolitan area of Jakarta and landslides in West Java. But the disasters this year have been more deadly, with 160 individuals dying so far in January 2021,

compared to 91 individuals who lost their lives in natural disasters in January 2020. Environmental disasters are not uncommon for Indonesia, with a total of 2,291 disasters in 2020 reported by the government.

On the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates meet, the archipelago still lies, triggering regular volcanic activity as well as earthquakes. Ecologists, however, warn that the loss of forests and climate change are influencing the severity of disasters.

OPERATION BRASSTACKS
A Thread
Type: Major Indian Combined Arms Military Exercise
Target: Southern/Central #Pakistan
Goal: Military provocation leading to armed conflict
Result: Pakistani Counter Deployment; Exercises halted; Standing down of Indian Forces.
Date: 1986-1987
#India

Operation Brasstacks was the brainchild of then Indian Army Chief General Krishnaswamy Sundarji who wished to provoke a Pakistani response to a massive planned Indian army mobilisation in the guise of military exercises near Pakistan’s border. General Sunderji's strategy was

to provoke Pakistan to respond and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to the offensive against Pakistan and take out its atomic bomb projects in a series of preventive strikes.
It was the major and largest mobilization of

Indian forces on the Indian Subcontinent, involving the combined deployed strength of two Army Commands (Western and Southern)- almost 500,000 troops , plus 200,00-300,000 more reservists amounting to over 2/3rds of the Indian Army. The exercises would also involve a series of

amphibious assault exercises by the Indian Navy near to a Pakistan naval base in Korangi Creek. All these exercises were meant to be done within 100 miles of the Pakistani border.

The Indians knew that the military strategists of the Pakistan Armed Forces would regarded this

1/ Wow, what an essay, trying to distill thoughts from this masterpiece: https://t.co/bxR3cnNJrM

Hat tip: @NSKinsella

The essay is about inflation's effect on culture, through the analysis of a short story set in Weimar Germany. I've selected some quotes and will comment.

2/ "With all points of reference gone, the only law...appears to be perpetual change."

When money changes, everything else anchored on money starts to change as well. Prices being the most obvious one, but crucially, not the only one.

3/ "...if we seek an explanation for the dissolution of authority in the world he is portraying, we should look to the monetary madness of the Weimar Republic."

The insanity and disorder of society, in other words, can be traced back to monetary policy.

4/ "Everything threatens to become unreal once money ceases to be real."

Unreal, in this sense is counterfeit or fake. Societal attitudes become as fake as the money we use because it no longer just represents value provided, but also value fraudulently obtained.

5/ "By making money worthless, inflation threatens to undermine and dissolve all sense of value in a society."

Money helps us to know where we can expend our labor to best provide value. If our sense of value is skewed, we will no longer properly value our labor, time or energy.

In the Middle East, such as Syria, the CIA assets operate under splinter cells with different names.

We are seeing the same MO with Antifa, who were trained by CIA terrorist cells in Syria.

First we learned of John Sullivan's Insurgence USA

Now the Boogaloo Boys.

[thread]

Interestingly, if you replace #SovietUnion with #USA and #Communism with #Capitalism, you have a very exact display of our current, turbocharged #LateCapitalism that is willing to sacrifice peoples' lives across the globe for

So no matter if your facism pays in Mark, Ruble or Dollar: At the end of the day, it's #ModiOperandi are similar if not identical.

It's just Germany that industrialized human slaughter for profit during WW2.

Similarly, people lie to themselves that they either enjoy #capitalism or are "better off with this system than X" when it's not

I mean, almost everyone [with very, very few exceptions based of partially and mostly privilegue] is forced to work some sort of job to be able to pay the bills with no actual alternative

...regardless of the fact that people would most likely be far more productive, creative and useful if they're given the economic freedom to spend their time with something that doesn't essentially pay well, but is serving others if not the entire society.

What are the concerns of young Russians? And how will they shape the future of their country & its relationship with Europe? The Levada Centre has done a fascinating study. Buckle up for a long thread. But be aware, it might shatter your Illusions.

First, young Russians are proud of their country and support the forceful restoration of Moscow's role in the international system under Putin. Around 69% agree with the statement “I am proud to be a citizen of Russia”. 2/X

Half of the respondents are sure that Russia’s prestige and international clout will keep growing and many lament that Moscow’s interests are not sufficiently emphasized on the international stage. 3/X

Young Russians are less religious than the overall population and the church is highly polarizing. At the same time, a vast majority considers itself to be Orthodox Christian. No signs of a demographic “Islamisation” of Russia. 4/X

To put it mildly: young Russians are not woke. Many do not want to live in the same neighborhood with Roma (75%), homosexual (61%), refugees (49%), Jews (27%), or people from the Caucasus (34%). 5/X

1) Awful story from Sweden. In September, journalists at public broadcaster Swedish Radio (SR) signed statement demanding better coverage of racism/discrimination & called out racism/discrimination within SR itself.

SR responded by banning a number of them from covering racism.

2) In September of 2020, a group of journalists – most with immigrant backgrounds – at public service broadcaster Swedish Radio signed a statement: ”Whose SR? A Call for Representation and Against Racism at Swedish Radio.” The statement was widely discussed and debated.

3) The statement laid bare problems at Swedish Radio with coverage of race, racism and discrimination in Sweden and abroad. It also outlined examples of racism/discrimination at Swedish Radio itself, and problems with the recruitment and promotion of minority journalists at SR.

4) The conclusion to the statement included a list of demands intended to improve the situation at Swedish Radio. Leadership at Swedish Radio largely dismissed the claims, and a number of journalists in the Swedish press were highly critical of those who signed the statement.

5) In a story just been published in @Journalistense, it is revealed that a number of those who signed the petition were removed from coverage of Black Lives Matter, and issues related to BLM. Why? Because of one reference to BLM at the start of the 2,200-word statement.

Why should SJP’s recent shift in fake news attacks / propaganda to attack large corporates in SL should worry us? I explain my thoughts below after observed fake news that originated from the SJP camp that targeted SL’s largest apparel exporter, State Banks and listed telco - SLT

SJP is the latest avatar of UNP that built his political legacy around free markets, property rights, and pro corporate / capital market policies since independence, often paying a huge political price for its unwavering commitment to them - in 1956, 1970, and even in 2005

These principals we staunchly demonstrated all the way till 2014, when the party suddenly developed a penchant for populist policies in their desperation to oust the Rajapaksa administration. Perhaps, it was also frustration towards the corporate sector’s support for pro inv

Policies of Rajapaksa administration seen during the massive post war infrastructure investment wave. The combination of populism and the misguided zeal to teach a lesson to corporates ended up in the disastrous retrospective super gain tax of 2015 targeting the largest corporate

Suspension of the Port City project, which at the time was the largest committed FDI source and also a massive spending spree on state employee salaries as a vote buying exercise- and predictably, investments crashed , stock marked tanked , bud deficit in 2015 rose &rupee crashed

Who is behind Moldova’s Twitter Revolution? (Prelude to all-out civil war 2009)
“A lot of what we [National Endowment for Democracy] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” -Allen 🕎 Weinstein #Transnistria
https://t.co/Y8uKJPgVF2

Treasury Targets Billion Dollar Foundations Controlled by Iran’s Supreme Leader https://t.co/JCoE8NKD19 The Execution of Khomeini’s Order ‘EIKO’, is the richest and highest revenue-generating enterprise controlled by Khamenei. The other is The Astan-e Qods-e Razavi Foundation.

"EIKO and AQR control large swaths of the Iranian economy, including assets expropriated from political dissidents and religious minorities, to the benefit of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior Iranian government officials." EIKO was also designated in 2013 under E.O. 13599.

EIKO, also known as SETAD, has been able to take possession of some of the most profitable and largest commercial and financial firms, thanks to the direct and daily backing of Khamenei himself. The most conservative estimate of SETAD wealth is $95 billion.

EIKO board members, handpicked by Khamenei, include mullah Hossein-Ali Nayyeri, a judge during the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners; Hossein Shariatmadari, an interrogator and torturer and now Khamenei’s rep & Mohammadi Golpayegani, Khamenei’s chief of staff.

Tadbir Economic Development Group, one of EIKO’s main holding companies, and its subsidiaries own dozens of enterprises in oil, gas, refineries, petrochemicals, electronics, telecommunications, construction, mining, auto industry, and financial sectors.

The latest focal S:N501 build is now up! It includes data from 4 Jan 2021.

We have new sequences in 501Y.V1/B.1.1.7 from Denmark, Singapore, Australia, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Pakistan & the USA.

1/12

https://t.co/FTjvV7T7wL

Denmark has 43 new sequences (in orange). These indicate additional introductions, as well as further expansion of the existing large local transmission cluster we saw previously (shown in zoomed divergence view).

2/12

10 new sequences from Portugal (orange) indicate additional, separate introductions.

3/12

Singapore has 5 new sequences (yellow). These indicate at least 5 separate introductions for the total of 6 sequences, with two identical sequences likely being 1 introduction.

4/12

5 new sequences from the US, from Florida & California (older sequences crossed through).

Zooming in (divergence view) on the California cluster, the relationship between these samples is difficult to infer from phylogenies alone.

5/12

Mr. Governor LIVE on “Politics Today” on Channels TV TONIGHT ... Tune in

@jidesanwoolu @gbenga_omo @gboyegaakosile

[COVID19]: “We will continue to encourage our frontline Heath Workers” - @jidesanwoolu

“2020 is behind us now, For me it’s to continue to serve Lagosians” - @jidesanwoolu

“I am looking futuristically and looking forward to a prosperous 2021” - @jidesanwoolu

“For me personally, It’s not really to dwell so much about the past, you need to learn from the past” - @jidesanwoolu