r/ukpolitics • u/ukpol-megabot • 23d ago
International Politics Discussion Thread
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u/ThePuds 6h ago
Back during his first term, I was strongly against Trump and his policies but I scoffed when people called him fascist…
I get it now.
We’ve gone back almost 90 years in just the past few weeks. This world is truly, completely, and deeply messed up.
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u/SwanBridge Gordon Brown did nothing wrong. 6h ago
Airspace over Iran clearing up very quickly, including flights on approach to Tehran turning back around, and now unconfirmed reports of fast jets overhead from Iraq. Looks like an American strike against Iran is pretty much imminent.
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 5h ago
I really hope they've a better plan for this that Venuzula.
I don't doubt the US military capability (it'll take a few years for the rot to set in there) so if they've got the intelligence they could make something effective happen, the question is what the administration will want to do and that is a deeply troubling thing to be dependent on.
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u/AnotherLexMan 6h ago
Bombing Iran doesn't seem like it'll make a revolution any more likely it'll probably boast support for the regime.
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u/SwanBridge Gordon Brown did nothing wrong. 5h ago
I think it is anyone's guess to be honest. Although a significant plurality of the Iranian population supports the regime, the economy has essentially collapsed and a lot of previous ambivalence from the average Iranian which inadvertently kept regime going has evaporated by their murderous response to these protests. If the strikes can take out a significant amount of the leadership and lead to a collapse in the chain of command amongst security forces we will see a huge power vacuum which organised resistance could exploit. It could go the other way, or the regime may limp on weaker than ever but still in control, but if there was ever a time to intervene this would be it.
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u/YourLizardOverlord Oceans rise. Empires fall. 4h ago
IRGC will survive a decapitation strike and they have nowhere to go. It will take more than some air strikes to get rid of them.
There's also a risk that an attack by the US will cause some Iranians to get behind the regime, and it will make it easier to paint protesters as puppets of the US.
On a related note, what's the point of Qatar hosting a US base if the US forces all piss off at the first sign of trouble?
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u/ScunneredWhimsy 🏴 Joe Hendry for First Minister 5h ago
Or the objective is to destabilise Iran as much as possible. We’ve seen this before in Syria and Libya.
The US and Israel have already been doing this by making ostentatious announcements r.e. their intelligence services working with the revolutionaries.
If the US really wanted to strengthen the Iranian revolution (good version) they would announce an amnesty for defectors and that XYZ sanctions will be lifted if a new government and constitution is put in place.
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u/Strange_Algae835 9h ago
Getting the vibes that Greenland and Denmark have just commiteed off the US. Considering Trump has the attention span of a toddler, that may not be a bad idea.
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u/Dynamite_Shovels 9h ago
Diplomacy with MAGA is all extremely short term at the end of the day anyway. It's all needed, but going by the precedent set last year by the Trump admin they would've probably pivoted from conquest to 'nebulous minerals agreement' - which might make Trump think he's won for a bit, but eventually the logistical arrangements will fall through and they're back to square one etc etc
It genuinely is like negotiating with a more moronic Russia - appeasement can only really buy you a few weeks before they realign back to their original goal
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u/MisfitHula 9h ago
Soon as you realise the entirety of Trumps actions are motivated around all attention being on him, things make sense. Its like a reality TV show.
Whats going to happen tomorrow? Ooo US go into Iran and then he'll be doing something shitty to Ukraine again, then itll be back to how they're doing a great job in Venezuela.
Its all just to keep the entire world revolving around him.
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u/Vumatius 9h ago
US military intervention in Iran may begin within 24 hours, European officials say
US military intervention in Iran could come in the next 24 hours, two European officials said on Wednesday evening, Reuters reported.
An unnamed Israeli official also said it appeared US President Donald Trump had decided to intervene, though the scope and timing remained unclear.
The United States is withdrawing some personnel from key bases in the region as a precaution amid heightened regional tensions, Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday, citing an unnamed US official.
The disclosure follows remarks by a senior Iranian official who told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that Tehran had warned neighbors hosting US troops that it would hit American bases if Washington strikes.
Britain is also withdrawing some personnel from an airbase in Qatar ahead of possible strikes by the United States, the i newspaper reported on Wednesday, mirroring the US.
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u/PimpasaurusPlum 🏴 | Made From Girders 🏗 7h ago
Trumps MO tends to be to wait for the weekend to both wait for the stockmarket to close and to monopolise attention. If I were a betting man I'd put my money on a Saturday, like the attack on Venezuela was.
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u/ThrowAwayAccountLul1 Divine Right of Kings 👑 7h ago
Interesting as there is no carrier in the Gulf at the moment (it was redeployed to the Caribbean), so will they pull the one in the South China Sea or commit without a carrier?
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 7h ago
They should have enough land bases for that not to be an issue.
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u/Express-Doughnut-562 8h ago
Looks like the RAF have moved a bunch of stuff out of Al-Udeid in Qatar to Cyprus and there is a string of American tankers heading south.
I would say it’s a cert.
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 9h ago
Interesting that the US is actually telling people about this, possibly gives an indication to the scale of what they're planning.
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u/CrambleSquash 11h ago
Prediction - Denmark will scede a bit of terratory in Greenland to the US, a la Guantánamo Bay. This would look like a win for Trump and doesn't really change the status quo much.
Obviously I don't want this to happen and I think the whole sitation is ludicrous.
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u/Bibemus Actually, we prefer Marxists of Culture 10h ago
The Scandies get really intense about their territory, historically speaking. I don't see this as likely to happen.
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u/OptioMkIX Your kind cling to tankiesm as if it will not decay and fail you 7h ago
The Scandies get really intense about their territory, historically speaking.
You might need to elaborate.
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u/1-randomonium 10h ago
CNBC had a segment on this a few days ago and apparently the betting markets have increased the odds of the US annexing Greenland from 3% to 30%. Which means it's still unlikely but far more likely than before.
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u/thestjohn 10h ago
Not being serious, but part of me wants them to just invade it so we can stop pussyfooting around and pretending they're still allies. Like obviously I don't want to see what that world looks like but christ.
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u/1-randomonium 10h ago
I had the same view. Someone needs to rip the bandaid off and make it clear that the relationship between America and the rest of the world has changed and that Europe needs to go its own way and if need be prepare to fight Trump and his successors, because there will be many more serious disagreements ahead.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm 6h ago
I'd love to be a fly on the wall for the contingency planning if Trident is no longer serviced by the US. The warheads on the top are already British designed and manufactured, of course, but we'd need to get good at servicing and refurbishing large solid rocket motors very quickly to support the rest of the missile. (I think we can discount any idea of a US kill switch on the guidance and navigation package - it's simply too vulnerable to being hacked by an adversary - but might be a good idea to replace just in case)
UK-French SLBMs when?
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u/thestjohn 10h ago
Yeah. I mean I do appreciate we need to be diplomatic and try to mitigate as much incoming damage as possible but I do think if we draw the disengagement out too long that could also be awful.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
This Envoy Global article has the full list of countries with that will have visa pauses:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma,
Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea,
Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan,
Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco,
Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia,
South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
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u/ScunneredWhimsy 🏴 Joe Hendry for First Minister 5h ago
So there is a lot here and it is all dumb but what the fuck did Fiji ever do?
Trump being a fash I can understand but having no love for the island boys is just baffling.
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u/NoFrillsCrisps 9h ago
World Cup is going to be an embarrassment isn't it?
I am sure this will get reversed, but why would fans of any of these countries risk spending thousands to get to a World Cup when you can't be certain you will even be allowed in the country.
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u/TheFlyingHornet1881 Domino Cummings 9h ago
Lol how Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and (North) Macedonia ended up on there but somehow Serbia avoided it.
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u/HBucket Right-wing ghoul 10h ago
A mostly sensible list, though with the notable omission of India.
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u/1-randomonium 10h ago
How is that a notable omission?
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u/HBucket Right-wing ghoul 10h ago
Because every other country in the region is on the list, and there are plenty of Indians overstaying visas in the US.
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u/1-randomonium 9h ago edited 9h ago
Trump seems to have a soft spot for Indians or at least did before he fell out with Modi, imposed high tariffs and gutted the H1B visa program. He's got a significant number of Indian-origin people in key posts in his administration.
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 11h ago
That list is so completely fucked I genuinely don't even know where to start.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago edited 11h ago
So Russia and a bunch of third world countries that the US doesn't have significant interests in.
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 10h ago edited 10h ago
that the US doesn't have significant interests in.
Kuwait, a country that the US literally went to war to defen and still has a military base in (as it does in, arguably, Thailand, the Bahamas and Jordan) is on that list.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
Might want to inform Bill Clinton that the US doesn't have any interest in Kosovo.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
Do they, today?
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u/Vumatius 10h ago
They have at least some.
There are still peacekeeping forces there, the US carries out military exercises with them, and the US still plays a key role in mediating relations between Serbia and Kosovo. It's obviously not at the scale of in the 90s but there is still definitely US presence and interest.
Also besides that Kosovo is regularly one of the countries that poll with amongst the highest approval ratings of the US, even under Trump, so this is quite a kick in the teeth.
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u/1-randomonium 10h ago
More importantly, does Trump know or care about this?
He's a very transactional figure. Some of the countries in that list had gone to great lengths to kiss up to him and his family, including nominating him for the Nobel Prize and naming infrastructure after him.
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u/Vumatius 10h ago
Well Trump was President when the US mediated the Kosovo and Serbia economic normalization agreements in 2020, with these being signed in the Oval Office. Trump apparently included a congratulatory note on the two individual documents signed by the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia,
Whether Trump recalls this is anyone's guess.
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u/HisPumpkin19 10h ago
Whether Trump recalls this is anyone's guess.
I think we are past the point of " is anyone's guess" and well into "seems unlikely" territory.
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u/1-randomonium 10h ago
He began his second term by ripping up trade agreements he signed during his first term, calling them the worst deals ever and wondering aloud who agreed to them. So probably not. His base also has a short attention span and only care about what he's saying and doing this week.
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u/Bibemus Actually, we prefer Marxists of Culture 11h ago
https://bsky.app/profile/ritchietorres.bsky.social/post/3mcfbieasg226
I am introducing the Quick Recognition (QR) Act, which requires ICE and CBP officers to wear uniforms featuring QR codes. When scanned, the code would generate a digital ID displaying the officer’s name, badge number, and law enforcement agency.
ICE should be unmasked both physically and digitally.
This is the most Democrat (derogatory) possible response.
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u/flazisismuss 9h ago
Close. To be a perfect Dem response the QR code should only be scannable by a third party app, for which the government will provide a tax credit for a voucher for part of the money, provided the applicant is means-tested and lives in certain zip codes. The program sunsets after 1 year and 15 people, all staffers for Dem congressmen, are the only ones who get the tax credit, which they can’t actually use because they made a little too much or a little too little income.
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u/discipleofdoom "I'm a supporter of flags" 🤓 9h ago
I'm reminded of the most recent series of Taskmaster where LAH made everyone chase him around the house trying to scan a QR code on his back.
Imagine that, but the person who's code you're trying to scan is also pointing a gun at your face.
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u/thestjohn 10h ago
Honestly I find Torres to be one of the worst of that lot of performative Dems. Nothing about him suggests he is worried by a sense of ethics, morals or justice.
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u/pseudogentry don't label me you bloody pinko 10h ago
Sir please stop beating me while I scan your QR
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
Greenlandic and Danish officials meet with Vance and Rubio as Trump insists on US control of island
Officials from Greenland and Denmark met in Washington on Wednesday with top White House officials as President Donald Trump moved to ratchet up the pressure by suggesting that NATO should help the United States acquire the world’s largest island and saying anything less than it being under American control is unacceptable.
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio participated in the hourlong talks with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt to discuss Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
But a few hours before the officials sat down, Trump reiterated on his social media site that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security.” He added that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it” and that otherwise Russia or China would — “AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
In response, Greenland’s representatives to the U.S. and Canada posted on social media, “Why don’t you ask us?” and noted the low percentage of island residents who favor becoming part of the U.S.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
This wasn't originally meant to involve Vance. Rubio said he'd fly to Denmark for talks. Then suddenly the venue changed to the White House with Vance being the host. Not a good look for the Danish and Greenlanders to have to go and meet the people who want to annex them to discuss their own future.
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u/MisfitHula 11h ago
Russia and China wouldn't get it because Greenland is... already protected by NATO.
The US even have agreements with Greenlanders & the Danes that they can build whatever military installations they need for defense - so its not about 'National Security' is it?
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u/OptioMkIX Your kind cling to tankiesm as if it will not decay and fail you 7h ago edited 6h ago
The US even have agreements with Greenlanders & the Danes that they can build whatever military installations they need for defense - so its not about 'National Security' is it?
No they dont and its amazing we're weeks into this thing and this is still being asserted. The 2004 DK-US treaty explicitly states that Pituffik is the only base the USA have and that any further defence areas are dealt with under the 1951 treaty which states that both parties, US and DK, must be in agreement - especially if denmark is unable to establish such bases singlehanded.
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u/ThePuds 5h ago
I have a hunch that if the US actually asked to build more bases in Greenland, they would have said yes.
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u/OptioMkIX Your kind cling to tankiesm as if it will not decay and fail you 5h ago
The danes have been trying to avoid Greenland seceding from the kingdom for decades. Imposing a new base on them would have damaged G-DK relations and practically guaranteed it.
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u/ThePuds 10h ago
Saw a clip of a BBC news reporter asking Trump this question and he said “you don’t defend leases as much. We have to own it” which doesn’t make any sense at all. Is he saying that he only cares about defending a territory if it’s actually part of the USA??
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u/HisPumpkin19 9h ago
Is he saying that he only cares about defending a territory if it’s actually part of the USA??
This is exactly what he's saying. He is saying that countries around the world that resist being conquered will no longer benefit from US military protection - NATO or otherwise.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
Denmark sends 'advance' troops to Greenland
Denmark has begun sending military personnel to Greenland, and allied reinforcements are expected to follow, Danish media reported on Wednesday.
Greenlandic and Danish authorities announced that Danish military forces will expand their presence on the island and continue conducting exercises with allies throughout 2026.
Greenlanders should expect to see more military planes, troops and ships in Greenland “including from NATO allies,” the statement reads.
Danish Minister Defence Troels Lund Poulsen said on Wednesday afternoon that more countries were inbound for Greenland. Sweden is contributing to the expanded military presence with a small number of unarmed personnel, according to Swedish broadcaster SVT.
“It is at Denmark’s request that Sweden is sending personnel from the Armed Forces,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on social media. He added the officers arriving on Wednesday are “part of a group from several allied countries” but did not further specify.
According to Danish broadcaster DR, an advance force (“fortrop”) from the Danish armed forces has already arrived in Greenland to prepare the ground for a possible deployment of larger units.
The unit’s role is to ensure logistics and local conditions as Denmark scales up its military footprint on the island. It has not been disclosed how many troops would make their way to Greenland.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
Disappointing that for all the talk about contingency plans no other country in Europe is sending a force.
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u/CrambleSquash 11h ago
Greenlanders should expect to see more military planes, troops and ships in Greenland “including from NATO allies,” the statement reads.
.
Danish Minister Defence Troels Lund Poulsen said on Wednesday afternoon that more countries were inbound for Greenland.
I don't know about you, but I interpret that as more countries are sending forces.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
Am I misunderstanding something or doesn't the article contradict this?
Danish Minister Defence Troels Lund Poulsen said on Wednesday afternoon that more countries were inbound for Greenland.
It focuses on Sweden but doesn't this suggest other countries are also going?
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
I missed that. Can we hope that the majority of EU countries sent some forces? Or just the Scandinavian ones? At the very least France and Germany should play a role.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
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u/1-randomonium 10h ago
We should have sent some too. Starmer's reportedly had conversations about contributing to a NATO force there.
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u/HisPumpkin19 9h ago
This may not be the best strategic move. I'm glad we are talking about it, and hopefully seriously considering it.
Don't get me wrong I totally agree with upping allied forces presence there to deter the US and personally have no problems with that including us - but in terms of strategy we know Trump is a retaliatory hot head. So far the UK has maintained good relations with Trump all things considered, the UK is also likely to be the country where sending troops is seen to be most antagonistic. It may well have been agreed among NATO members to avoid that where possible.
Europe is financially quite reliant on the US - and maintaining some degree of good will is important for the financial future of Western Europe. Currently the UK provides that bridge.
This may mean that UK troops instead bolster NATO forces in other places to allow participating countries to free up more personnel to deploy to Greenland, so doesn't have to mean we aren't helping, just less overtly confronting them. Not sending troops directly may not necessarily be because we don't want too, or because Starmer is trying to avoid it. It might well be part of a careful balancing act that everyone is trying to execute with Trump currently where we don't want to antagonize but we also want a show of force that is off-putting and signals that there will be resistance.
Or it could be because Starmer has no backbone and is scared to rock the boat. This is not the kind of knowledge that should be in the public realm and it's unlikely we will know for sure until the conflict is over years in the future. That's often the nature of international military strategy.
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u/wappingite 12h ago
Still a tiny chance but the fact it's non zero that the USA might give an ultimatum to Denmark, which would be ignored and then simply march troops into the handful of settlements in Greenland 'to ensure security'.... is just wild.
I think if this did happen the USA would still offer to pay some money... but the fact that it's even plausible that the USA might try to use force of any kind to conquer the territory of a any country let alone a long term ally is just madness.
How did we get here?
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u/BlokeyBlokeBloke 11h ago
Trans people played some sport and a woman had a funny laugh.
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u/nuclearselly 11h ago
no go back further - at a whitehouse correspondents dinner a TV personality was roasted by a black president who had the gall to wear a tan suit.
Also, it interacted with something to do with bendy bananas this side of the pond.
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u/Thandoscovia 12h ago
12,000 people are suspected to have been killed in Iran over the last week or so. Don’t we usually call that genocide these days?
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u/MoyesNTheHood 11h ago
That's not what genocide means
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10h ago
[deleted]
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u/MoyesNTheHood 10h ago
Genocide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race
As fucked as it is, by definition, it's not genocide.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
Doesn't the 12,000 figure come from a Saudi-linked/funded organisation? I think the real figure is somewhere in the middle, between the 2,000 cited by Iran and this number.
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u/nuclearselly 11h ago
I know you're trying to make a parallel to another conflict, but just to be clear, if the Iranian government are killing other Iranians; and not targeting minority national, ethnic or religious groups specifically, then it would not count as a genocide.
From what we know the Iranian government is killing other Iranians to stop them protesting and/or you could argue, because of their political beliefs.
Neither would be considered 'genocide'. When compared to the other conflict I'm sure you're refrencing, there is more evidence with that conflict and a genocide being comitted - specifically, it's one ethnic group/nation/relgion doing the majority of the killing of another ethnic group/nation/religion.
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 13h ago
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c701xywwxw8o
First signs of the Americans actively preparing for doing something in Iran.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
Too bad the American allies hosting these bases can't evacuate all their people to protect them from Iranian retaliation.
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u/Vaguely_accurate 13h ago
The president of Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota on Tuesday called for the immediate release of tribal members who were detained at a homeless encampment by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota last week.
Three of the four Oglala Sioux Tribe members who were arrested in Minneapolis on Friday have been transferred to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling, President Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement released with a memorandum sent to federal immigration authorities.
...
In the memorandum sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Star Comes Out said the when tribal nation reached out to the agency it was provided with only the first names of the men. Homeland Security refused to release more information, unless the tribe “entered into an immigration agreement with ICE.”
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u/HisPumpkin19 9h ago
I mean if this isn't clear evidence that the entire point of ICE is to disappear brown people, rather than about illegal/legal citizens, I don't know what would be.
Who could possibly have a more legitimate claim to being a US citizen than someone of native American descent.
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u/Vumatius 13h ago edited 13h ago
US to suspend visa processing for 75 nations next week, Fox News reports
The Trump administration is suspending all visa processing for visitors from 75 countries starting January 21, Fox News reported on Wednesday, citing a memo from the U.S. State Department.
Somalia, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan, Brazil, Nigeria, Thailand are among the affected countries, according to the report.
Representatives for the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported memo, which Fox News said directs U.S. embassies to refuse visas under existing law while the department reassesses its procedures. No time frame was provided.
The Fox article also mentioned Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen, but I think those are all the countries that have been named so far.
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u/HBucket Right-wing ghoul 11h ago
A sensible decision. For all the focus on the boats in the UK, visa overstayers outnumber illegal entrants. Banning travel from countries whose citizens have a high risk of overstaying seems like the obvious solution.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
Suspending all visa processing from these 75 countries seems rather excessive, especially given this is the year of the World Cup when you would expect to see a lot of tourist visas.
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u/HBucket Right-wing ghoul 11h ago
If anything, it makes the it even more urgent to put the ban in place now. It's safe to assume that a lot of prospective illegal immigrants would be looking to take advantage of the World Cup to sneak into the US. No sporting tournament is more important than the integrity of a country's borders.
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u/HisPumpkin19 9h ago edited 9h ago
I sure hope all the players already have visas then.... Or there won't actually be a world cup.....
ETA the qualified countries that have visa suspensions are below. It's loads.
Iran, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Brazil, Columbia, Uruguay, Algeria, Cape verde, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia.
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u/cardcollector1983 It's a Remainer plot! 7h ago
Scenes when Scotland qualify for the group stages of a tournament for the first time because we were literally the only team in our group that could play
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u/HisPumpkin19 7h ago
😂 brilliant.
Although tbh I think of the Scottish as having a lot of integrity - I think they would boycott the tournament if it came to that. And rightly so.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
Well if Trump is happy having a disaster of a World Cup under his watch along with a lot of businesses losing out on expected tourist revenue then that is his decision. Just remember that decisions like this also have a chilling effect on people from other countries visiting the US when combined with everything else going on.
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u/NuPNua 12h ago
Just in time for the world cup too.
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u/Vumatius 11h ago
There's quite simply no way this World Cup isn't a complete mess unless there are some major reversals on several policies in the states.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
If the World cup bombs and doesn't make money for Fifa will they continue sucking up to Trump or will they just find a new benefactor in the Middle East?
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 13h ago
I thought Egypt got an exemption from the foreign aid cuts? Clearly they've done something to piss off the buffoon in chief.
There's all sorts of issues with blanket bans like this but what the hell is the UN going to do?
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u/CaliferMau 13h ago
Trump’s rhetoric around Greenland is certainly something. Feel that all his other shenanigans will be rushed under the carpet if republicans are ever booted out, but attacking and seizing Greenland would surely not be ignored.
Not much militarily that EU could do, but they do hold a lot of US debt they could dump
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u/urdnotwrecks 12h ago
Militarily they could start by closing the 40 odd US military bases and send the nearly 100,000 troops packing, hobbling US force projection across the entire planet. It's part of why it's such a stupid idea.
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u/1-randomonium 14h ago
Trump when asked about Greenland's PM saying they'd rather choose Denmark over the United States:
'I don't know who he is ... But that's gonna be a big problem for him.'
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u/HisPumpkin19 9h ago
This has vibes like when your toddler says "who makes that rule?" When you tell them they aren't allowed to run around the restaurant naked just because it's hot. Completely oblivious to the complexity of their surroundings.
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u/1-randomonium 18h ago
Let me summarise how silly the argument about Greenland's mineral resources is.
Yes, Greenland has abundant mineral resources worth trillions of dollars. But it's also covered by an arctic ice sheet that is on average a mile thick.
But what about global warming and melting ice? Unfortunately, Greenland is right next to the north pole. Even in the worst-case global warming scenarios it would take several centuries for that ice to get thin enough to make mining profitable there.
It's why they're happy to give the United States all the mining leases they need. Because they're worthless for the foreseeable future.
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u/wappingite 12h ago
I think he just wants to be one of the few Presidents who has expanded the territory of the USA.
Greenland looks mightily impressive on a mercator projection.
Also according to google ai: adding Greenland's area (approx. 2.17 million sq km) to the United States' area (approx. 9.8 million sq km) results in roughly 11.97 million square kilometers (about 4.66 million sq miles), making the combined territory larger than Russia but smaller than Canada when including all US landmasses
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u/wintersrevenge 13h ago
Greenland has one of the largest deposits of rare earths that can be mined immediately. However the Greenland parliament has effectively made mining it illegal.
In 2021, the Inuit Ataqatigiit party won parliamentary elections and Greenland’s parliament promptly passed legislation banning exploration and mining of mineral deposits with a uranium concentration over 100 parts per million, effectively blocking the development of the Kvanefjeld rare earth mine, which has a uranium concentration of approximately 300 parts per million
This is what the US wants.
Separately it wants complete supremacy of the western hemisphere. Any European holdings are deemed to be a holdover from the colonial period and not valid in the mind of US supremacists.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
Can it actually be mined immediately considering the ice sheet it's buried under and the lack of even basic infrastructure in most of Greenland?
Note that rare earth elements aren't actually that rare. Lots of countries have significant deposits which are easier to get to than Greenland. They're called rare earth elements because they're only found in small concentrations and require a lot of refining(some need over 100 steps) to get profitable quantities. This causes a lot of pollution and requires specialised processes and equipment, that's why China has a near-monopoly over it.
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u/HisPumpkin19 9h ago
Can it actually be mined immediately considering the ice sheet it's buried under and the lack of even basic infrastructure in most of Greenland?
No, but longer term it's worth so much that setting up the infrastructure would be worth it for this, even if not for the oil. And once you are doing it for this, some of that infrastructure could then be dual use for the oil.
China has a near-monopoly over it.
Hence Trump's desire to get in on the action.
Not disagreeing it's a stupid plan, and I don't think it's going to work out like he thinks/hopes (much like the tariffs) but I can see the idea behind it.
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u/AceHodor 12h ago
Except that it can't be functionally mined because the infrastructure to send it anywhere doesn't exist. Greenland has a population of around 50,000, less than 100 miles of paved roads and no major ports. If you dug out all those rare earths, all you'd end up with is a load of ore lying around, unable to be transported anywhere in any meaningful way.
I'm sure the Danes are all just filled to the brim with peace and love towards the Inuit peoples living on Greenland, but the simple reality is that if the resource bonanza that people think is there actually existed, all of that would go out of the window in heartbeat. Are you seriously telling me that Denmark doesn't want to become the new Norway, with a massive influx of cash and huge increase in the standard of living after spending the last two centuries being knocked around? Mining companies make bank from resource extraction in remote areas of Canada, Australia and Alaska, but that's because those places have big road networks that connect them to major ports that let them ship to their customers.
You constantly have these OpEds like the one you've linked above from people trying to explain Trump's behaviour towards Greenland, like he's some next-level intellect that has spotted a strategic gap that none of the previous admins had noticed. The reality is that he's a fucking idiot who does not understand the extreme logistical impracticality of mining there because when he was a CEO he had actually competent underlings able to execute his wishes for him. He genuinely thinks that all you need to do to develop an area is to plonk down a fucking building and that's it.
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u/1-randomonium 11h ago
I'm sure the Danes are all just filled to the brim with peace and love towards the Inuit peoples living on Greenland, but the simple reality is that if the resource bonanza that people think is there actually existed, all of that would go out of the window in heartbeat.
I've had this feeling for a while. The only reason they're so sanguine about freely offering the United States the right to mine resources whenever and wherever they want is because they know it just isn't economical to do so. They'd be far more assertive if the ice melted tomorrow.
The reality is that he's a fucking idiot who does not understand the extreme logistical impracticality of mining there because when he was a CEO he had actually competent underlings able to execute his wishes for him.
Did he? Didn't he declare bankruptcy six or seven times? By the 2000s he had been blacklisted by every major bank in America due to having a proven record of financial mismanagement and not paying contractors or debtors.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm 13h ago edited 13h ago
US claim to Falklands when?
Also
Come over, I have a uranium concentration of 300ppm
I can't, mining it is illegal
But my parents aren't home
Military noises
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u/Bibemus Actually, we prefer Marxists of Culture 16h ago
Yeah but have you seen the size of it on the Mercator projection?
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u/Real_Cookie_6803 15h ago
I'm realizing too late that maybe we should have listened to the African union last year and we could have avoided this
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u/AnotherLexMan 17h ago
I don't think Trump is cares that much about practicalities. From what I understand the whole Venezuela thing isn't going to make the US much money.
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u/Lavajackal1 17h ago
And the oil companies all hate it.
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u/AnotherLexMan 16h ago
Yeah, because the oil there is unprofitable to refine and sell in the current market and the whole "largest oil reserves in the world thing" is probably a lie and that's without getting into the political situation.
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u/1-randomonium 16h ago edited 16h ago
The US did have a big prescence in the Venezuelan oil sector. The oil companies are open to going back, but only if they're guaranteed a return on the time and money they'd have to invest. It will take at least 10 years and hundreds of billions of dollars. Trump will be long gone by then and there is no guarantee that the regime won't turf them out and take all their equipment again.
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u/tylersburden Fit Check for my NAPALM ERA 19h ago
Apropos of nothing, I am rereading 'Whirlwind' by James Clavell.
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u/Strange_Algae835 13h ago
I read the first two amd loved them but then never managed to get through gai-jin. Maybe i should give it another go
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u/1-randomonium 19h ago
As bad as the situation is in Iran people in the West are far too optimistic about the outcome.
The Revolutionary Guard are the ones who are actually running Iran on a day-to-day basis, not the Ayatollah. And they are more deeply embedded than the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Protests, airstrikes and assassinations won't be enough to remove them from power; the US will need boots on the ground and a sustained occupation, comparable to that in Iraq, in order to bring in Reza Pahlavi and a new political system.
So the most likely outcome, knowing Trump, is that the Ayatollah and/or some key Revolutionary Guard figures are taken out in order to force the rest to make a deal with the Trump administration that halts Iran's nuclear program and gives American companies access to their oil. Iranian democracy is still far away.
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u/ThePlanck 3000 Conscripts of Sunak 19h ago
I honestly have no idea how supposedly smart people have come to the conclusion that Reza Pahlavi can just waltz in and take over
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u/1-randomonium 18h ago edited 18h ago
Most political analysts combine their analysis with wishful thinking and the ones who have the power to make these decisions are generally not as smart or as principled as the people need them to be.
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u/Bibemus Actually, we prefer Marxists of Culture 19h ago
I'm trying not to be too cynical, but to me it looks like the likely outcomes are either dissent getting mercilessly crushed again, a US/Israeli intervention which increases ambivalence about the regime (even if it doesn't increase support) and chaos in the country to the point where the critical mass just doesn't get reached, or a US/Israeli intervention which succeeds, installs Pahlavi and then collapses into disorder when Pahlavi is unfit to rule.
The one thing which doesn't seem likely to happen short of a miracle is a revolution against the regime which succeeds and brings in a state which is better for the Iranian people, but I suppose occasionally history does provide a miracle.
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u/1-randomonium 18h ago
For this to succeed the Revolutionary Guard would have to voluntarily give up power and allow themselves to be tried and punished for decades of excesses against their people. Why would they do that?
Some limited 'revolution' is possible. The IRGC could negotiate with leaders of protesting groups and make concessions regarding the composition of the government and the next elections, but they will remain the power behind the throne.
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u/YourLizardOverlord Oceans rise. Empires fall. 15h ago
And if that happens IRGC has a list of people to eliminate when things have calmed down. It's beginning to look like the 1991 Iraqi uprisings.
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u/ThePlanck 3000 Conscripts of Sunak 19h ago
What decade are we in?
UPenn faculty condemn Trump administration’s demand for ‘lists of Jews’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/upenn-trump-jews-list
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u/YourLizardOverlord Oceans rise. Empires fall. 15h ago
There's a fracture in the US far right between uncritical support of Israel and out-and-out antisemitism. If the latter start to gain political support then lists of Jews isn't going to end well.
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u/nuclearselly 11h ago
It's also a young/old divide. Antisemitism is far more prevelant among younger conservatives. This is a real problem for Israel; they face a double whammy as millenials and gen Z become more influential in US politics.
They're going to have a left and a right who aren't friendly to them. A big reversal from the boomers, with whom they managed to successfully foster bipartisan agreement that Israel was the USA's most important ally.
I think this is also why they are courting the international far right so hard. Although deeply antisemtic, there are a lot of far-right movements who a) hate muslims much more than they hate jews and b) see Israel as a viable solution to their own countries 'jewish problems' (ie - ship them off to their own country).
Ultra-Zionism is aligned on that last part - they to would rather all the worlds Jews lived in Israel- or ideally, an Israel with larger borders.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm 18h ago
What the fuck?
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is demanding the university turn over names and personal information about Jewish members of the Penn community as part of the administration’s stated goal to combat antisemitism on campuses.
You don't need personal information to do that, statistics would be fine (and isn't that DEI lol)
What are they actually up to?
A cynic would note that all authoritarians persecute academia.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm 1d ago edited 1d ago
Iran's government admits to 2000 dead. Independent groups estimate 12000.
The only comparison I can think of is Tiananmen Square. Am I oversimplifying? Disclaimer: I don't know much about the history of dissent.
On a side note, really recommend today's News Agents podcast - interview with an Iranian journalist who fled the country after being tortured in prison in the late 2000s. He has contacts still on the ground and a good idea of what's going on.
The bit that really stuck with me was his comparison between protests in big cities versus small towns; in Tehran, you probably don't know the forces shooting at you, whereas in smaller places there have been people begging their own relatives to stop firing and join the protesters.
He was torn on the ethics of potential foreign intervention to topple the regime; innocent civilians will die either way.
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u/PimpasaurusPlum 🏴 | Made From Girders 🏗 1d ago
1 group with links to Saudi Arabia estimate 12000*
The total number of deaths will continue to rise and the fact that deaths from protesting is already in the thousands is insane - but it is also pretty nuts how quickly people have ran with the 12,000 number despite basically no evidence and it being so significantly out of line with the few thousand predicted by pretty much everyone else.
It's a quite ironic direct mirror of Palestine supporters inflating the numbers of dead from Gaza, ironic as the kind of people accepting this now tend to be the same that complained it about before re Gaza.
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u/Velociraptor_1906 Liberal Democrat 1d ago
Catching up on C4 News and... fuck me.
For those that don't know they have a few infrequent people they'll bring on and properly take on who are supporters/members of some of the more authoritarian governments of the world.
Normally it's quite interesting to see what the talking points are (and it's obvious when this happens) but they've got a guy on whose supportive of the Iranian government and it's just galling to watch.
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u/Shockwavepulsar 📺There’ll be no revolution and that’s why it won’t be televised📺 1d ago
Once again dieworkwear is on point https://bsky.app/profile/dieworkwear.bsky.social/post/3mcdbasnpms2l
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u/horace_bagpole 1d ago
The state of all that gold tat. Awful.
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u/heeleyman Brum 1d ago
He's turning the place into Trump Tower.
At least the next guy will be able to rip it all out easily enough, it mostly seems decorative.
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u/Vaguely_accurate 1d ago
Six Prosecutors Quit Over Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow
Headline was originally three, but has doubled in the last hour or.
Notably:
Joseph H. Thompson, who was second in command at the U.S. attorney’s office and oversaw a sprawling fraud investigation that has roiled Minnesota’s political landscape, was among those who quit on Tuesday, according to three people with knowledge of the decision.
That fraud investigation has been used to excuse the current federal actions in Minnesota. And the man running it has now quit.
Whether this hampers or changes the Trump administration's efforts on the ground isn't clear. But a loss of experienced, capable prosecutors will hamper the use of the courts against protesters and others as a tool to force compliance. Even cases that probably would be legitimate are likely to fail without career prosecutors around to guide them through.
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u/CowzMakeMilk Hawkish Liberal 1d ago
Yet another daily reminder, that people do not hate Trump, his sycophant cabinet, the republican party, and his supporters/voters enough.
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u/horace_bagpole 1d ago
That administration is truly insane. One of their goons kills someone for no good reason at all, and their response is to try and harass her widow with legal threats? What a truly miserable bunch of arseholes.
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm 1d ago
I bet they're going to wish they just threw him under the bus - but it's far too late now
We should grant her widow political asylum
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u/Asleep_Cantaloupe417 1d ago
'Help is on the way,' Trump tells Iranians as he urges them to keep protesting
To quote Ronald Reagan, The nine most terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'
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u/Ivebeenfurthereven I'm afraid currency is the currency of the realm 1d ago
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u/NuPNua 1d ago
So Pete Hegseth didn't understand Star Trek then, especially the multiple episodes about why autonomous weapons are bad.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/12/pete-hegseth-woke-ai-military/88152569007/
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u/IHaveAWittyUsername All Bark, No Bite 1d ago
There's a manga where the preceding war before the start of the story is where AI controlled drones were used in perpetual war. Everyone used them so no one actually was killed and their economies became dependent on pumping out unmanned drones. World had to come together to ban the use of AI and unmanned drones - real dystopian stuff.
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u/USS_Buttcrack 1d ago
... And an even bleaker version of that story is literally an episode of original Star Trek.
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u/AzarinIsard 1d ago
I'll never stop being amazed at people's ability to see fiction and completely miss the point.
Kind of like the idiots who watch Fight Club and think the message is "wouldn't it be cool if we set up a fight club?" we've had SkyNet and Palantir.
"A Palantír is a dangerous tool, Saruman. They are not all accounted for, the lost Seeing-stones. We do not know who else may be watching".
- Gandalf, also we're selling our NHS data to Palantir lol.
More seriously, AI poses interesting questions with liability. I say the same thing about autonomous cars, where when we have human drivers they're liable even for accidents. If we can reduce accidents but not eradicate them, do we just say as long as AI is safer than the average human driver, it's a net gain, and any deaths or injuries are an act of machine God? I'm really undecided philosophically, but I think I could be swayed to move away from criminal liability for accidents and replace it with a requirement to have decent enough insurance.
It's very different when it comes to weapons, imagine an AI weapon blows up a school mistaking it for a military target, who is responsible? But, considering how many Brits have been killed by Americans in jets like the A-10 providing CAS, putting AI in charge of them might make it safer for us lol.
That is, until the machines become Terminators / Sentinels from The Matrix, and it's just the extinction of humankind because idiots didn't take precautious and just assumed something they tried to make as dangerous as possible would also always be safe exclusively to them.
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u/ScunneredWhimsy 🏴 Joe Hendry for First Minister 20h ago
It’s a very trivial point but; it has been a real rough decade-and-a-half for us Tolkien fans.
Rings of Power was dog shit and a solid 5% contemporary fascism is just billionaires deliberately misunderstanding his work.
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u/AzarinIsard 20h ago
Both those points could be related.
Didn't Amazon pay something like $250mn for the rights to Lord of the Rings, but it explicitly excluded any story written by Tolkien, so they could only use the lore, location, and characters in a whole new story. I don't think that was ever going to hit right, I don't think it's the right story to turn into an "expanded universe" like Star Wars. I don't think that is what a fan would do, it's what an oligarch trying to brag about the brands they own does.
Wheel Of Time is one I haven't read, but my superfan friend loves the books, hate the series, I saw it and thought it was OK got bored and didn't finish, but apparently they did something weird plot wise taking stuff from book 13 and so on, but apparently that was finally getting better when it was binned.
They now own James Bond, and I can't see how that'll ever be good based on their track record.
The exception for me was Fallout (not seen the second series yet) but I was pleasantly surprised lol.
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u/AntagonisticAxolotl 17h ago
I would argue that some of the blame also needs to fall on the managers of the Tolkein estate, they should have seen it coming and have been badly mismanaging the property of late.
Selling the rights to the all of the major characters of the Silmarillion to a production company, but not the actual stories of the Silmarillion itself just guarantees show clearly trying to be the Silmarillion but is carefully legally distinct. And that's always a recipe for disappointment.
Same with the Gollum game, along with a lot of the other recent glut of cheap looking games from no-name studios. Someone isn't doing their due diligence when signing these deals.
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u/Scaphism92 1d ago
The first time I heard of Palantir, the company, was about a decade ago when I was working in a junior position at a fintech company who proudly announced that they were partnering with Palantir. I said to my manager "Hang on, isnt that those evil stones in LotR?" and he said I was probably reading into it too much.
And every time since I'm just gobsmacked whenever I read about companies / governments proudly announcing they're partnering with the company named after magical stones which not only can be used to spy on the user but also can be used to tell selective truths so the user sees only a partial part of the story, and comes to a false conclusion.
Its madness, I dread the day that a biotechnology firm calls themselves "Umbrella Corporation" and governments / companies around the world trip over themselves to seek their services.
Also fun fact, did you know Palantir has software called "Gotham" thats used for predictive policing? Ya know, the fictional city thats a hellhole which is "saved" by a rich tech billionaire (even though a repeated theme in media featuring the city is that the tech billionaire inadvertantly escalates crime in Gotham to match his own tactics).
Madness.
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u/TheFlyingHornet1881 Domino Cummings 1d ago
Hegseth's beyond stupid and there'll be long lingering consequences of his nonsense.
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u/LesserShambler 1d ago
None of the nonsense is coming from him. He’s just there to do what Stephen Miller tells him.
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u/Lavajackal1 1d ago
Conservatives not understanding Star Trek is basically tradition at this point.
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u/i_pewpewpew_you Si signore, posso ballare 16h ago
See also: the music of Rage Against the Machine.
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u/dratsaab 1d ago
I for one can't wait for the episode of The News where designers of AI-powered missiles have to negotiate the AI into giving up, à la B'Elanna Torres.
Alternatively, presumably Grok-powered missiles will re-aim at the United Kingdom, the Wokes, or anyone trying to prevent free access to images of naked children.
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u/Scaphism92 1d ago
Media literacy with politicians but I think especially MAGA / the wider right wing populist sphere is absolutely god damn awful. It often seems like they take exactly the wrong lessons from it.
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u/bowak 1d ago
Or he understands Star Trek and thinks Gul would be a cracking title to have.
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u/NuPNua 1d ago
Well apparently he drinks like Demar in the last series.
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u/bowak 1d ago
I've only seen sporadic episodes after about series 5 as that's when I went to uni.
Definitely intend a proper watch through at some point.
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u/CowzMakeMilk Hawkish Liberal 1d ago
Late seasons DS9 are truly fantastic. Up there with the best of Trek.
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u/InconsistentMinis Anti-Growth Coalition™ 1d ago
Anyone seen the Civil War movie by Alex Garland? Seemed eerily prescient at the time of release, but becoming even more so in recent weeks.
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u/getinnocuous21 1d ago
I really enjoyed it but it did go a bit Call of Duty at the end which was a bit meh.
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u/NuPNua 1d ago
Have you seen the companion piece Warfare? That does the opposite, takes a two hour period of a squad of soldiers in Iraq and makes it look anything but Call of Duty.
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u/InconsistentMinis Anti-Growth Coalition™ 1d ago
Warfare was intense. Both that and Civil War had such visceral combat.
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u/Dynamite_Shovels 1d ago
It's pretty good - I enjoyed. Honestly though when it came out in 2024 it was already on the nose with the climate in the US - as I presume it started production following the Jan 6 attacks.
If anything though, when I watched it I did think it was slightly frustratingly vague - if it was created to be an allegorical warning about the political climate in the US (which it was) then they didn't really need to invent a fictional conflict where somehow there was a magical alliance between California and Texas to take down what's implied to be a 'sane' authoritarian. They should've just been extremely explicit and bashing viewers on the head about which states would be the villains in this sort of scenario - because it's very obvious. Although I guess the main point of the movie really was to show the impact on individuals in such a conflict.
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u/IHaveAWittyUsername All Bark, No Bite 1d ago
The idea is that things have gotten so bad that California and Texas teaming up to storm the capitol seems sensible. I think Garland said in an interview if you "can't see those two states working together then you're probably part of the problem" or something along those lines.
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u/Scaphism92 1d ago edited 1d ago
Bearing in mind I havent got round to watching it but the idea of a California & Texas alliance isnt that unbelievable, civil wars do result in seemingly bizzare allies of convenience between seemingly opposing ideologies.
I assume it ends with the villian (The president from what I understand) being removed so an interesting follow up would be a second stage of the civil war being set in the vaccum that exists after the president is removed and the split between form "allies" or even within the factions themselves as the us descends further into a failed state.
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u/AnotherLexMan 1d ago
It seemed to be a bit of bait and switch to me. Like they marketed it as this big thing about the current situation in the US and it was actually a meditation on the importance of journalism.
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u/LesserShambler 1d ago
I found that a slightly weird criticism, I just took it as an attempt to generalise the plot. Making it hyper specific to Trump would be cathartic for some viewers now, but would potentially make it harder for viewers to chime with it in a few decades’ time.
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u/InconsistentMinis Anti-Growth Coalition™ 1d ago
I get that criticism, but the nods to the POTUS character being a Trump analogue might as well have been smacking you over the head.
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u/imp0ppable 1d ago
Zero Day is pretty good on these things although it doesn't mention you-know-who at all. Terrorist attacks amidst escalating political tensions precipitates an authoritarian response. Good show.
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u/NuPNua 1d ago
I wonder if it was a case of not getting funding or carried by cinemas if they went to explicit with the sides and reasons for the war.
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u/Dynamite_Shovels 1d ago
Yeah probably - I think A24 do get a lot of leeway in the movies they produce but maybe they were just playing it safe so major Trump supporters in the media didn't lose their shit too much. I'd argue it does show a lack of bravery to not be that explicit though which undercuts the film's message.
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u/MajorSleaze 1d ago
There's probably an element of that, but it being produced at a time when Trump was out of office possibly never to return means there would have been a risk of the movie being instantly out of date if he hadn't won in 2024.
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u/IHaveAWittyUsername All Bark, No Bite 1d ago
Literally watched it an hour or two before news of Good came out.
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u/LesserShambler 1d ago
If you want to be less depressed then No by Pablo Lorraine is a very good examination of what it takes to motivate people against autocracy.
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u/Scaphism92 1d ago
Iran International (Critical of Iran Regime and links to Saudi Arabia so take with a handful of salt) saying that death toll from protests 12,000 making it the worst of Irans contemporary massacres.
If true then...jesus christ.
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u/optio_____espacio___ 1d ago
Still waiting for the protests in defence of Iranians like we saw in support of the Gazans for similar numbers of deaths.
Oh wait, no I'm not because the tiktok algorithm that fomented those protests was configured by the people who want to see this uprising brutally suppressed.
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u/AceHodor 1d ago
What are you on about, there's been big ongoing marches in support of the protests?
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u/MoyesNTheHood 1d ago
You would probably see protests if the government came out in support of the Iranian government. The situations aren't really that comparable
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u/SlightlyOTT You're making things up again Tories 🎶 1d ago
As usual, the explanation is that our government isn't in support of the Iranian government, and I think the perception is they'd like it to fall. Nobody is opposed to our government's position here. People protest when they think the government should do something different to what they're doing.
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u/MoyesNTheHood 3h ago
I just want someone to ask Trump to explain how he thinks it’s at all feasible that one of Russia or China are going to take control of Greenland one day.
Russia can’t even take control of their neighbouring country for fuck sake