World Politics

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

The fog in the videos of the search is crazy thick. They are looking on foot because they can't see anything from the air.

Which begs to question why did they that helicopter take off in the first place, but then maybe they miss judged the weather developing as it did.

[cuervo72]

Eh, if he's not found the Guardian Council will just pick another figurehead.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Eh, if he's not found the Guardian Council will just pick another figurehead.

The big deal there is this guy wasn't just a figure head. He was largely expected to take over for the Supreme Leader once he retires/dies.


The searchers finally got to where the helicopter supposedly crashed and can't find any sign of it.

[GrantDawg]

They did find the crash site and pronounced them all dead at the scene. Of course, they blame the United States since the embargo doesn't allow them to get parts for their helicopters to keep them in good service.

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[NobodyHere]

That's a shame.

[RainMaker]

The civil trial against the Saudis is bringing to light some stuff that has long been suspected.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...awsuit/678430/

[miami_fan]

UK general election: PM Rishi Sunak calls surprise July vote as his party seeks to defy dire polls | CNN

I am envious of the 43 day election cycle.

Here is a link to the local election results that were held earlier this month.

Local elections 2024 results in maps and charts

Labour won 1,158 seats in the 107 council elections across England, an increase of 186 councillors. The party won control of 51 councils, a net gain of eight.

The Liberal Democrats increased their number of councillors by 104 to 522 and their number of councils by two to 12.

The Conservatives were always likely to lose councillors at this election, as the last time these seats were contested was in 2021 when the party was doing well in the polls in the context of a successful Covid vaccine roll out.

They ended up with 515 councillors this time round, a fall of 474 on 2021. And they lost ten councils, holding on to just six.

Question for the Brits on the board. Is it required that the PM stand outside of 10 Downing St. in in a downpour to announce the election instead of inside a building somewhere? Those pictures seem like a weird gift to provide his opponents at the start of a campaign.

[SirFozzie]

Not to mention pretty much being drowned (ha!) out by someone playing a Labour song loudly.

[Super Ugly]

Rishi Sunak is a dork and can't wait to lose the election, so announcing the election in the rain felt faintly metaphorical. He wants to escape to California to enjoy his wealth and presumably embark on his next career as a tech bro. The Conservatives purged any half-decent MP from the party years ago, and have been uninterested in governing for some time. My local MP closed her constituency office months ago - just upped and left.

The prospect of Starmer as PM doesn't exactly inspire me, and under his leadership Labour appear to have tacked to the right more than I'm comfortable with. But he has some serious people around him and after 14 years of political dysfunction I'm hoping that things in Britain will feel slightly less broken.

[Edward64]

Don't understand French politics. If voting showed a lack of confidence, I wouldn't call snap elections, I'd bide my time and try regain some of the confidence.

I can respect it but suspect he's not long for power.

I'm not clear on Le Pen's stance on Ukrainian war or Israel-Hamas. But her immigration stance is clear cut. A good of time to fix/control that mess but admittedly she is more on the extreme (Trump) range.


EDIT: okay, read a little more on Le Pen. My simplified summary is negative towards Ukraine, positive towards Israel, big negative against France's current legal/illegal immigration.

[JPhillips]

A close aid to Rishi Sunak has been busted for placing a bet on the date of the election a few days before it was called by Sunak.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Don't understand French politics. If voting showed a lack of confidence, I wouldn't call snap elections, I'd bide my time and try regain some of the confidence.

Best I understand it, it's a calculated gamble.

The notion being "well, if it's for all the marbles then voters won't go so far down the other path"

It's a bold strategy Cotton ...

[Flasch186]

I remember how this played out with Brexit


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[Edward64]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Best I understand it, it's a calculated gamble.

The notion being "well, if it's for all the marbles then voters won't go so far down the other path"

It's a bold strategy Cotton ...

Looks like a 2-7 off suit pair of cards … not much to work with.

I read that political categories/parties continuously shift left-right and once radical parties (like Le Pens) are now not as radical but more mainstream. Sounds familiar …

[flere-imsaho]

As I understand it, Macron has come increasingly close to losing no-confidence votes in the past 2 years, including a few weeks ago, a result which would remove him from office and (I believe) force a general election anyway.

At some point trying to rule like this becomes untenable as you're in more-or-less a permanent state of crisis.

He probably figured this was the best possible time to try and extend, as much of the country will be distracted by Euro 2024 and the upcoming Olympics during the campaining period and, heck, you never know.

[SirFozzie]

He does it because they can get into a runoff against the far-right, and there's enough "Sane ones" looking rightward and saying "You know, that's a bit further then I'm comfortable with) and staying home or voting for the centrist candidate