Image is of China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Sheng, meeting Taliban Prime Minister Hasan Akhund in September 2023.

I know the Rambo title card is a hoax.

The COTW was chosen in the wake of the aborted sequel to the attempted assassination of Trump being performed by a guy who is VERY enthusiastic about Ukraine, to the point of trying to sneak Afghan soldiers into Ukraine by setting up a house in Pakistan to house them and then further transport them. He also apparently offered to send thousands of Afghan soldiers to Haiti to help them combat gang violence. Whomst among us doesn’t have the numbers of thousands of Afghan soldiers on speed-dial. Do you reckon there’s a group chat?

Anyway, while there is still no official recognition of the Taliban’s government by any country, China has taken a different course than the late USSR and the US - forming economic in-roads, rather than trying their own invasion. This has been a big boon for the struggling country, with various mines and oil and agriculture deals helping keep things barely afloat. A total disintegration of the social fabric of Afghanistan is not in the interest of any of the powers that border it - China, Pakistan, and Iran, with Russia not too far away - so an interesting dynamic of helping-without-official-recognition has been established. I wonder who will be the first country to fully recognize them?

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you’ve wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don’t worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Afghanistan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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

Israel-Palestine Conflict

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

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

UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

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

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

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

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

  • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    43·
    2 months ago

    UN Committee: Denmark Fails to Protect the Rights of People with Disabilities

    Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, where conditions for people with disabilities are deteriorating. The increased use of coercion in psychiatric institutions, failed attempts to integrate students with special needs into mainstream classrooms, and the significantly shorter life expectancy for individuals with disabilities are just a few of the damning points raised by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

    Denmark has come under heavy criticism from the committee in its periodic review, highlighting the nation’s failure to fulfill its international obligations to protect and support people with disabilities. While the “Positive Aspects” section of the committee’s report spans a mere three subsections, the “Areas of Concern” dominate the document with a staggering 82 subsections. This grim assessment continues the trend from the previous review in 2014, where Denmark also faced sharp rebukes.

    Read more...

    In general conditions for people living with disabilities are moving in the wrong direction in Denmark. From removing accessibility standards from building codes to lack of access to cultural life to placing disabled children in prison-like institutions to not providing sign language training for staff in care facilities everything is getting worse. Political leaders, bureaucrats and the general public is mostly disinterested and unaware of the rights of disabled people and ableism and negative stereotypes about people with disabilities are common.

    The committee is especially critical of Denmark’s failure to properly implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into national legislation and the lack of a comprehensive national action plan that addresses all areas of the convention.

    The committee is concerned about the “prevalence and increasing use of coercion, forced treatment and restrictive practices […] including physical and chemical restraints against children and adults with disabilities in social care and psychiatric institutions”. The use of force in the psychiatric system has increased by 25% over the last decade with physical and chemical restraints now being used nearly 20.000 times a year.

    To make matters worse, Denmark’s rubber-stamp parliament have recently weakened protections against abuse, making it easier for institutions to use force against people with disabilities while relaxing the requirements for documenting these incidents.

    Denmark’s system of state racism is also being criticised for neglecting the needs of mentally disabled refugees as well as for for making it increasingly harder to be exempt from the stringent language and knowledge tests when applying for citizenship.

    The policy of so-called “inclusion” in public schools was presented by political leaders as a progressive initiative to integrate special need students in mainstream classrooms. In practice it has been an austerity measure intended to save on costly special education rather than helping special needs students. Little to no resources were earmarked to accommodate special needs students. It has predictably been an utter failure for students, teachers and classmates. The committee is criticising this failure and nothing how it is negatively affecting the schooling of special needs students.

    The healthcare system, often considered the crown jewel of the Danish welfare state, is not escaping harsh criticism either. People with disabilities frequently encounter discrimination in healthcare, leading to serious consequences, including significantly lower life expectancies for certain disabled groups compared to the general population.

    Another area of concern is the vast disparity in service quality between municipalities, which effectively turns what should be guaranteed rights into a geographic lottery.

    Thorkild Olesen, chairman of the Danish Handicap Organisations, is not surprised and says that “it is time for a political change of paradigm so people with disabilities are seen as an investment, not an expense”.

    Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, head of the nation’s Social Democrat-controlled ministry of social and housing affairs, has so far refused in-depth questions from the media but has released a brief statement through Ritzau, promising to engage in dialogue with disabled people’s organizations.