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Anyone who says Gaza will be at peace if Hamas just surrenders and releases the hostages is either knowingly sowing disinformation or ignorantly sowing misinformation. We need to make sure everyone’s clear on this so nobody can say they didn’t know after history unpacks this one.

Netanyahu has made it completely and unambiguously clear that even if Hamas surrendered today and released every single hostage, Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan will still need to be implemented as a precondition for ending the mass slaughter. To be absolutely 100 percent clear, Trump’s plan for Gaza is that “all” Palestinians be removed on a “permanent” basis, never allowed to return.

There is no way to permanently remove all Palestinians from a Palestinian territory without material coercion — meaning more mass scale violence and siege warfare. There is also no way to argue that this mass displacement would be voluntary even without further violence, since Israel has been deliberately and systematically making the Gaza Strip uninhabitable by destroying civilian infrastructure. Forcing them to choose between starvation in an uninhabitable wasteland or submit to ethnic cleansing is exactly the same as forcing them out at gunpoint.

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The Transformers 2023 run has been pretty good, i started it back when it was at issue 10 and its still pretty good at 20, i really recommend it

In a paper published on Thursday in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, they describe how ammonia wafting off the droppings of 60,000 birds contributed to the formation of clouds that might be insulating Antarctica, helping cool down an otherwise rapidly warming continent. Some penguin populations, however, are under serious threat because of climate change. Losing them and their guano could mean fewer clouds and more heating in an already fragile ecosystem, one so full of ice that it will significantly raise sea levels worldwide as it melts.

A better understanding of this dynamic could help scientists hone their models of how Antarctica will transform as the world warms. They can now investigate, for instance, if some penguin species produce more ammonia and, therefore, more of a cooling effect. “That’s the impact of this paper,” said Tamara Russell, a marine ornithologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who studies penguins but wasn’t involved in the research. “That will inform the models better, because we know that some species are decreasing, some are increasing, and that’s going to change a lot down there in many different ways.”

With their expensive instruments, Boyer and his research team measured atmospheric ammonia between January and March 2023, summertime in the southern hemisphere. They found that when the wind was blowing from an Adelie penguin colony 5 miles away from the detectors, concentrations of the gas shot up to 1,000 times higher than the baseline. Even when the penguins had moved out of the colony after breeding, ammonia concentrations remained elevated for at least a month, as the guano continued emitting the gas. That atmospheric ammonia could have been helping cool the area.

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Energy lines, trade routes, supply chains, tariffs, finance networks, railways, shipping lanes, and even space pacts – these are the new frontlines of global power. The rules of international order are being ripped up. What comes next is a raw, unregulated contest for supremacy.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza, tensions across Taiwan, Cyprus, Greenland, and the Panama Canal – all are symptoms of this larger war over trade routes and corridors. Each represents a bid to dominate the flow of energy, goods, and capital.

West Asia, as always, is ground zero. It is no coincidence that US President Donald Trump’s first foreign visit in office was to the Persian Gulf. That 2025 tour yielded $3.2 trillion in deals and unveiled Washington’s counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) that seeks to connect India, via the Persian Gulf, to Israel, and onward to Europe.

IMEC is a construct aimed entirely at bypassing China’s BRI and reasserting US influence through West and Central Asia. But the corridor fight has exposed the fragmentation of global power.

India, China's biggest regional rival, projected to be the world’s second-largest economy by 2050, is Washington’s main partner in IMEC. Yet its open alliance with Israel and its hostile stance toward Pakistan jeopardize the entire plan. Few Muslim-majority nations are eager to align publicly with Tel Aviv. If India provokes a deeper conflict with nuclear-armed Pakistan, IMEC collapses.

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Pretty good article talking about the importance of the maritine/land trade corridors and how the US and China are planning about it

Following Parliament’s motion for an arms embargo on Israel, activists are pressuring the Sánchez government to turn words into action on Gaza genocide

On Tuesday, May 20, a majority of representatives in the Spanish Parliament voted in favor of a motion calling for an arms embargo on Israel. Spearheaded by the progressive blocs Podemos, Sumar, and the Republican Left of Catalonia, everyone but the right-wing supported the motion – including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE).

While the news undoubtedly marks an important achievement for the months-long grassroots Palestine solidarity mobilizations in Europe and beyond, many activists caution against interpreting it as a decisive sign of Spain’s concrete commitment to halting the genocide in Gaza. “The Spanish government has the power to introduce a full arms embargo on Israel as early as tomorrow via Royal Decree,” warned the End Arms Trade with Israel campaign, which has rallied behind this demand since 2024 with the backing of over 600 organizations. “Why hasn’t it acted? What’s holding it back?”

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Venezuelans return to the polls on Sunday, May 25, to elect a new National Assembly, governors for 24 states, and regional legislative councils. This is the 32nd electoral event under the Bolivarian Revolution.

Our guide offers an overview of the process, the parties and candidates running, and some races to watch.

Overview, facts and figures

With their respective terms ending on January 5, 2026, the Venezuelan Constitution determines that a new National Assembly (AN) and regional authorities must be chosen this year. The unusually early date leaves room for other elections later in the year, including municipal contests and a potential constitutional reform.

Voters will elect 285 deputies for five-year terms. This includes 3 indigenous representatives, 50 national list parliamentarians, and 232 from states. Out of these, 133 will be elected via first-past-the-post systems in electoral circumscriptions, while the other 99 will come from regional lists.

In addition, the electorate will also pick governors for the 24 states and 260 members of regional legislative councils. Regional officials serve four-year terms.

According to Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), 21.5 million citizens are eligible to vote. The electoral authority will set up 27,713 voting booths in 15,736 polling stations across the country.

Who is on the ballot?

A total of 36 national political parties feature on the ballot alongside 10 regional ones and 6 indigenous organizations.

The Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) groups the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) and 12 allied organizations. It ran a hybrid process combining grassroots assemblies and leadership decisions to fill out its candidate lists.

Opposing the PSUV-led alliance is an assortment of center-right to right-wing outfits split into three main camps. The Democratic Alliance (AD) brings together 10 minor parties that originally broke with the US-backed opposition in 2019. A New Era (UNT) is the last holdover from the opposition’s Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) that won the 2015 legislative elections, and counts on allies such as newly-formed Unión y Cambio. Finally, the Lápiz alliance ruled out joining forces with other anti-government groups in order to instead field its own lists.

At the same time, far-right factions led by María Corina Machado have called for a boycott of the upcoming vote. The US-aligned sectors have maintained all their focus on their claim of victory in the July 28, 2024, elections that saw President Nicolás Maduro secure a third term in office. Opposition leaders have traded accusations of playing to the government’s agenda in what has become a familiar debate over whether or not to boycott the vote.

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Tensions between teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) and the government have reached a critical point. After a week of protests, including the blockade of Mexico City's main thoroughfares and the closure of access to the National Palace prior to President Claudia Sheinbaum's morning press conference, the teachers' union remains steadfast in demanding the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law. Meanwhile, authorities have limited themselves to describing this reform implemented by Felipe Calderón as an "injustice." However, they maintain that there is insufficient funding to completely reverse it or implement a new pension system under the conditions demanded by the CNTE.

Why are the CNTE teachers protesting?

The teachers' union's main demand is the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law, which replaced the solidarity pension system with one of individual accounts managed by Afores (Afores). According to workers, this provision negatively affects their pensions, as it requires them to be calculated from their individual savings funds. This amount also depends on the current UMA (Unit of Measurement and Update) and not the minimum wage, as they demand.

Another point limiting the negotiations is the demand to restore the possibility of retirement based on years of service, which was previously 28 for women and 30 for men. Under the current system, retirement is determined by age, but the age limit of 56 or 58 does not benefit those who joined ISSSTE after 2007. Additionally, a 100% salary increase is being demanded.

What has the government offered?

In her Teachers' Day message, Sheinbaum announced a 9% salary increase retroactive to January, with an additional 1% starting in September, representing an additional annual budget of 36 billion pesos. Likewise, an additional week of vacation will be added to the next school year, which now begins on September 1, 2025, for elementary school students.

The president also spoke about her campaign promise to eliminate the Unit of the System for the Career of Teachers (USICAMM). So far, it has not been decided how the functions of the administrative body that coordinates the Open and Transparent System for the Allocation of Teacher Positions will be replaced, but in the meantime, a decree will be signed to change the mobility process for teachers affected by these restrictions. “All work center changes will be carried out in person and by educational level to ensure transparency. Furthermore, the only element that will be taken into account is length of service, thereby recognizing the time and dedication of our teachers to public education in Mexico. This is an act of justice; those with the most years of service have the most rights,” Sheinbaum said.

A few weeks ago, when the controversial initiative to reform the ISSSTE Law was finally withdrawn, the government proposed reviving one of its key points: freezing the minimum retirement age for teachers—and other state employees—setting it at 56 for women and 58 for men.

How the Negotiations Are Going

So far, the CNTE teachers have met with officials from the Ministry of the Interior, Education, and the ISSSTE (National Institute of Statistics and Census), but the talks have not yielded satisfactory results. "They wanted to repeat the same thing they've already told us, and we said we didn't agree, that a different response was necessary," said Pedro Hernández, sector spokesperson for the Coordinator. However, it has been agreed that on Friday, May 23, they will be personally received by President Sheinbaum, who has remained faithful to her strategy of keeping a cool head. "We will not fall for any provocation. We will not repress, because we don't believe in that. We believe in dialogue, and we will find a way out," she said during her morning press conference.

Walter Rodney, born in Guyana on 22nd of march in 1942, Pan-African, Marxist intellectual who was assassinated by the Guyanese government in 1980 at 38 years old.

Rodney attended the University College of the West Indies in 1960 and was awarded a first class honors degree in History in 1963. He later earned a PhD in African History in 1966 at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England, at the age of 24.

Rodney traveled extensively and became well-known as an activist, scholar, and formidable orator. He taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania from 1966-67 and 1969-1974, and in 1968 at his alma mater University of the West Indies.

On October 15th, 1968, the government of Jamaica declared Rodney a "persona non grata" and banned him from the country. Following his dismissal by the University of the West Indies, students and poor people in West Kingston protested, leading to the "Rodney Riots", which caused six deaths and millions of dollars in damages.

In 1972, Rodney published "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa". Historian Melissa Turner describes the work this way: "A brutal critique of long-standing and persistent exploitation of Africa by Western powers, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa remains a powerful, popular, and controversial work in which Rodney argued that the early period of African contact with Europe, including the slave trade, sowed the seeds for continued African economic underdevelopment and had dramatically negative social and political consequences as well. He argued that, while the roots of Africa’s ailments rested with intentional underdevelopment and exploitation under European capitalist and colonial systems, the only way for true liberation to take place was for Africans to become cognizant of their own complicity in this exploitation and to take back the power they gave up to the exploiters."

On June 13th, 1980, Rodney was killed in Georgetown, Guyana via a bomb given to him by Gregory Smith, a sergeant in the Guyana Defence Force, one month after returning Zimbabwe. In 2015, a "Commission of Inquiry" in Guyana that the country's then president, Linden Forbes Burnham, was complicit in his murder.

"If there is to be any proving of our humanity it must be through revolutionary means."

Walter Rodney

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

Decolonial Marxism Essays From The Pan African Revolution

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By what standards can we equate the violence of blacks who have been oppressed, suppressed, depressed and repressed for four centuries with the violence of white fascists? Violence aimed at the recovery of human dignity and at equality cannot be judged by the same yardstick as violence aimed at maintenance of discrimination and oppression.”

From: The groundings with my brothers

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Portuguese: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information in Brazil. IBGE performs a decennial national census; questionnaires account for information such as age, household income, literacy, education, occupation and hygiene levels.

Orange countries are BRICS members and Purple speak portuguese, dark green are MERCOSUR members and the light green lines are OTCA members