UAE says it will withdraw from Yemen after Saudi strike o...

The UAE and Saudi have been allies in the war against the Houthis, but infighting between the rival factions they support has caused a rift between them.

China's plan to boost birth rates with condom tax and che...

Chinese people pay a 13% sales tax on contraceptives from 1 January, while childcare services are exempt.

Reuters

Tourists on remote Yemeni island stranded after Saudi, UA...

When the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week under a deadline from Saudi Arabia, it also left behind the remote Yemeni island of Socotra and the roughly 600 tourists who had

Al Jazeera

Saudi-led coalition says STC's al-Zubaidi fled to UAE via...

Secessionist leader took a boat to Berbera and then boarded plane that flew to Abu Dhabi via Mogadishu, coalition says.

not pauline hanson's one nation over the liberals lmfaoooo

On 12/15/2025 at 12:50 AM, Fleahive said:

I'm cackling. I'm studying American History in depth for the first time. Chile- tell me why I had no idea Hilary won the popular vote against Obama in the 2008 Democratic Primaries. Whew- I know she's PISSED!

This is true, but it is often not cited because the reason was that Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan. 3 other Dem candidates were not on the ballot either. Hillary refused to withdraw her name as a strategy to gain momentum from getting the most votes there, but the delegates from the state did not count up until a compromise was made at convention time… giving Hillary delegates that the other candidates thought would be excluded.

gran colombia postings are on

Reuters

Syria's Sharaa grants Kurdish Syrians citizenship, langua...

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree affirming the rights of the Kurdish Syrians, formally recognising their language and restoring citizenship to all Kurdish Syrians, state news agency S

Let's not beat around the bush: I consider Bukele a dictator.

Óscar Martínez is the editor-in-chief of El Faro, the newspaper most hated by the president of El Salvador. From exile, he publishes an essay-profile of the controversial Latin American leader, an excerpt of which is published in 'Ideas'.

At 42, I'm the editor-in-chief of the newspaper most hated by Bukele: El Faro . I took the position in December 2020, barely a year and a half after Bukele assumed his. No one has conducted any polls about my popularity in my country, but I think that if one were done among the few people who claim to know of my existence, my numbers would be catastrophic. Because, as I said, my people, today, love Bukele. Bukele or his cronies in the government have accused my colleagues and me of being money launderers, drug traffickers, gang leaders, and even human traffickers.

I must admit it: if I were to walk the streets of my country right now, there would be zero risk of a gang member harming me. Bukele wiped them out. And I must also add: I can't walk those streets because I've been in exile since May 2025 , when, after my last publication about his pacts with those criminals, I learned they were going to arrest me at the airport on my way back to El Salvador. Bukele exiled me.

According to Bukele himself, more than 87,000 Salvadorans have been arrested and imprisoned in just three years. One in every fifty-seven citizens is incarcerated in a country with the highest incarceration rate in the world, almost double that of Cuba. And Bukele doesn't just have one prison, the one where YouTubers and Trump-supporting politicians hang around. Bukele has twenty-two prisons, but he only shows one to the world, and the world watches it, watches it, and watches it again. Bukele is a very good publicist.

https://elpais.com/ideas/2026-01-20/dejemonos-de-rodeos-yo-considero-a-bukele-un-dictador.html

Edited January 29Jan 29 by Kitty Kat

Desecration of Kurdish woman fighter's body sparks hair b...

A member of the Syrian interim government forcer cut the braided hair of a killed Kurdish woman fighter.

A member of the Syrian interim government forcer cut the braided hair of a killed Kurdish woman fighter.

Kurdish women have launched a social media campaign following the circulation of a video showing a member of the Syrian interim government forces desecrating the body of a Women's Protection Units (YPJ) fighter in Syria.

The video shows a man, identified as Rami El Dehesh, holding a severed hair braid he claims belonged to a woman killed in the clashes between the interim government and the Kurdish groups in Syria's Raqqa earlier this month.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party deputies have joined the protest. The party's spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan braided her hair during a session at the parliament.

"This person is a member of the Syrian army. This person carries the ISIS mentality and was previously revealed to be an ISIS member," Doğan said during a broadcast on İlke TV. "When he gives the braid to his friend, he says it was her only intact part. This is an action that symbolizes challenging darkness through the leadership and courage of women."

NZ Herald

Labour says it will 'never' support Te Pāti Māori prison...

Labour says it does not agree with the party's stance.

New Zealand 2026: Te Pāti Māori to campaign on abolishing prisons, Labour dead-set against it

Te Pāti Māori says it will abolish prisons by 2040 in favour of community-led solutions to address the enormous inequities facing the country's indigenous people – if it gets into power at the next election.

The most likely governing scenario for Te Pāti Māori is with Labour and the Greens, given the National Party has ruled out working with it. But the party would have to convince Labour to change its stance on prison abolition – Labour told the Herald today it did not support the policy as prisons were "necessary" for corrections and rehabilitation.

At last count (September 2025), there were 10,860 people incarcerated in New Zealand. By mid-2027, the prison population is forecast to breach current capacity, and by early 2025, it is expected to creep over 14,000 (prisoner numbers are currently tracking below the latest justice projections).

Māori have long been overrepresented in the justice system – about 52% of prisoners and 66% of female prisoners are Māori, despite Māori making up about 17.5% of the population.

Instead of prisons, Te Pāti Māori is calling for "community-led and community-based solutions" that address the causes of crime and create environments for community accountability, restoring relationships, healing trauma, reconnecting with whakapapa (genealogy and ancestry) and rebuilding whānau and communities.

The coalition Government's law and order programme – including sentencing reforms, new laws targeting gangs and Three Strikes 2.0 – is expected to send more people to prison for longer. Te Pāti Māori's justice policy includes establishing a Māori Justice Authority and shutting down youth residences and the Government's controversial military-style bootcamps.

The party said it would repeal many of the Government's new punitive justice laws, reinstate voting rights for people in prison, increase the Steps to Freedom payment from $300 to $1000, require police to wear body cameras and bring back funding for section 27 cultural reports.

I'm so disgusted by the Epstein files that it is actually affecting my mood and my motivation at my Job. To know none of these people will face consequences for their actions is a travesty.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/drone-attack-sudan-kills-17-chad-chadian-government-says-2026-03-19/

Drone attack from Sudan kills 17 in Chad, Chadian government says

N'DJAMENA, March 19 (Reuters) - A cross-border drone attack from Sudan killed 17 people in Chad including mourners attending a funeral service, the ‌Chadian government and local sources said on Thursday, and the country's president vowed to retaliate for any further attacks.

The border town of Tine was struck on Wednesday afternoon as mourners gathered at a house for the funeral of a dead relative that involved reading the Koran, a local resident said.

Local government sources said it was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

The conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which began in April 2023, has periodically spilled into Chadian territory, causing casualties and property damage.

Sudan's army and the RSF issued statements blaming each other for the attack. Sudan's army offered "sincere condolences and deepest sympathies to the families of the victims" and to Chad's government and people.

The United Nations resident and humanitarian coordinator for Chad, Francois Batalingaya, also condemned the attack, saying that despite appeals to the ‌warring ⁠parties in Sudan, "innocent people continue to be targeted."