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Recently French troops have had to leave Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Now it’s Chad booting them.

The first three countries have Russian troops in them now. Wonder how long it’ll be before Chad joins the crowd?

France has been the most important country in a lot of its ex-colonies in Africa, but it’s losing its place, not just militarily but economically. Countries are turning to China for imported goods and development at the same time as they turn to Russia for security. Chinese goods, development and loans are cheaper, and neither Russia nor China interfere nearly as much in domestic politics.

It’s just a better deal. For a long time you HAD to go to the West, but now Russia and China can supply pretty much everything you need.

 

Hope for a third season of Russell T. Davies' Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson-starring Doctor Who got a big boost from a U.S./U.K. TV report.

Why does the right eat our lunch again? The existence of the infamous Powell memo (1971) is no secret to most lefty activists or to anyone who has listened to Thom Hartmann for more than 30 minutes. Movement conservatism sprouted in the 1970s in reaction to the social changes and liberalizing legislation of the 1960s. But the pushback was likely planted in the wake of Barry Goldwater’s landslide 1964 loss to Lyndon Johnson. Influential, deep-pocketed Republicans, back when they were also conservatives, knew their ideas were unpopular. They decided they needed a long-term marketing strategy to fulfill their antidemocratic visions for American oligarchy. Democrats (naively) never answered with marketing of their own. See, our ideas are popular, as self-evident as the Declaration’s ideals. They need no marketing. And here we are, decades later, facing an oligarchy led by a criminal autocrat bent on tearing down the country to its foundations. And the foundations too. Some of us who have been in this business since the Earth was young (O.G. Original Progressive Bloggers) reflect regularly on what might have been. Perhaps we’ll move from there to what to do now.

There is only one red line in this war and it’s one that Russia crosses daily

Climate Justice Alliance was the only program grantee to speak out on Palestine — and the only one whose funding is delayed.

The post Biden Makes His Own Attack on Nonprofit Over Palestine appeared first on The Intercept.

A rotating guest column in which writers reexamine critically unacclaimed works of art

We didn’t often go to the movies as a whole family, but in 2002 we all saw Signs. This was back when we could be convinced to hit the theater en masse simply because a guy named Manoj—better known as “M. Night”—was making it big in Hollywood. This was a post-9/11, pre-representation time, before streaming services could serve us bespoke categories like “supernatural tearjerker Indian American mockumentaries.” I imagine that Indian American families like ours no longer feel that numinous sense of duty to turn out for films made by brown people. Now we can sit back and let a mediocre movie be, flapping in the wind, without pledging tribal fealty. It’s a kind of progress.

Resistance is not futile yet It may feel as if half the U.S. has been hit with a Cordyceps brain infection that mindlessly seeks to spread submission to autocracy. But take heart. Pockets of resistance remain. In the former Soviet republic of Georgia, for instance (BBC): Riot police in Georgia used pepper spray and water cannon against protesters who turned out on the streets of Tbilisi after the government suspended moves to join the European Union. Forty-three people were arrested at the demonstrations in the capital on Thursday night, the government said. Crowds turned out after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said his government would drop its pursuit of EU membership “until the end of 2028” – a move criticised by more than 100 diplomats on Friday as “unconstitutional”. Kobakhidze had accused the bloc of “blackmail” after EU legislators called for last month’s parliamentary elections in Georgia to be re-run. They cited “significant irregularities”.

My daughter and I have three cats—all rescues: There’s Snow White, our 16-year-old queen and my daughter’s consigliere, who, despite requiring thrice-a-week medication injections to keep her kidneys functioning, rules this place absolutely. There’s subtle Mango, whose first year of life involved struggling to survive—and avoid human contact—in a weedy vacant lot adjoining the United Nations […]

The post Lessons from Cats: Jasper’s Clever Cleanup Routine appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am excited to apply for a seasonal position at Hobby Lobby. The holidays are a time of joy, and I look forward to creating a timeless masterpiece in big-box retail.

References (attached) say I’m a “Renaissance Man,” an unsurpassed polymath, the most curious man who ever lived. But the title I covet most is customer service associate.

Working the Christmas rush at Hobby Lobby would be my grandest vision fulfilled. No disrespect to your brand name, but crafts are no hobby to me. My whole life, my being, my soul, is DIY. Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art. Or crocheted bobble beards.

I’m a dreamer, but more importantly, I’m a doer. Even a talent-free hack like Michelangelo had to admit, “Give Leo a glue gun and some balsa wood, and he’ll come back with an ornithopter.”

Rebecca Mari and Matteo Ficarra. Floods are the most costly natural disaster in Europe. In the UK, they account for around GBP1.4 billion in annual losses. Yet, evidence on the macroeconomic implications is inconclusive. GDP often shows a puzzling delayed response, and prices can be pushed in opposite directions. Using a novel county level data … Continue reading Weathering the storm: the economic impact of floods and the role of adaptation →

The Reform Leader is joining forces with a US-based Christian legal group, which campaigns for abortion to be outlawed around the world

Inspired by a movie and self-taught by the internet, one Nigerian man started a ballet academy to share his passion with Lagos

- by Psyche Film

Watch at Psyche

During the Cold War, Oxford philosophers worked together to aid dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. I was one of them

- by Cheryl Misak

Read at Aeon

Police accused of 'discriminatory' and 'heavy-handed' approach towards children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities

. Even in the most advanced industrial economies, if we strip exchange down to its barest essentials and peel off the obscuring layer of money, we find that trade between individuals and nations largely boils down to barter. Paul Samuelson You will find similar nonsense stories told in almost all mainstream textbooks today. And the […]

IN commemoration of World AIDS Day on Sunday 1 December, Rainbow Coffs Harbour and ACON groups are getting together at the Big Banana as it turns red. Rainbow Coffs Harbour is a social and supportive LGBTQIA+ group, with over 1000 members within the Coffs Harbour area and surrounds. Advertise with News of The Area today....

The post World AIDS Day to be commemorated in Coffs Harbour appeared first on News Of The Area.