Zosoforum

Here in France, the government just approved of a law mandating ID usage as a means to ban social media to minors under 15 years of age. Emmanuel Macron was then criticized for praising Vietnam for taking a similar measure, on twitter (formerly X, the everything app). Is this the end of internet anonymity? What's currently happening in your country?

Here in Iraq, the parliamentary faction led by Al-Sudani (the former PM) is directly accusing Iran of being "un-cooperative" with the government, claiming that since the Hormuz closures began, Iraq has lost anywhere from 48 to 120 billion dollars in oil exports due to the closure.

Government here has been trying to pursue continued de-francisation measures. This by itself isn't that interesting, but as silly as it sounds, I believe that de-francisation is a measure to eradicate what little intellectual Algeria has. Arabic speaking "intellectuals",such as Belghit, Khettal, etc. if you can even call them that are horrible compared to the rich heritage French speaking Algerians such as Maameri, Harbi or Dib have left us, and with the current state of translation, preventing our people from learning French can only be seen as a measure to prevent them from learning anything about their country, or from reading the works of Algerians which expressed themselves in French which are historically numerous in the opposition.

I began this post by specifying we are de-francizing the country rather than Arabizing it. This is intentional, as the language taking its place here is not Arabic, which is already taught at the level of education where these measures are being applied, but rather, it is English, another foreign language. There is not even a pretense of nationalistic fervour in this process anymore; arabisation has largely failed, the destruction of intellectual life in this country will continue, just in different ways.

Generally these language policies in former colonies are disaster, and I would rather keep the colonial language as a neutral linga franca. There's nothing wrong with that.

Here in Georgia, the power doesn't work.

I'm a yank so my news is unfortunately the world's drama. Biggest thing right now are a couple Democratic Senate primaries going sideways–the Michigan Senate primary is up in the air.

Meanwhile the leftwing candidate in Maine–and presumptive nominee–was exposed as a creep and forced to end his bid. This is after several other scandals, including that he literally worked as a Blackwater mercenary and also was a guard at Abu Ghraib! I'm not the sort of person who thinks every single GWOT vet is on the moral level of a Waffen-SS soldier or something, but I do think that should've raised more eyebrows than it did!

Other big things are the Iran War continuing to be unpopular, without that translating into anything stopping Trump even as US casualties mount and our missile stocks run dry (not to mention the civilian cost in Iran, but nobody here has cared about that since April sadly). We also just passed a military funding bill that contains provisions outlining how Israeli and American supply chains will be integrated, which has predictably generated alarm and outrage. Some of the presentation of the media is that it's a "merger" that integrates the US Armed Forces' command structure with the IDF–so the hysterical commentary online seems to be people thinking Netanyahu now literally has command authority over American military assets–but it's not that, just logistical integration. Still very bad both on a moral level and a national security level, though.

Azerbaijan has passed a law the day before yesterday that allows the government to institutionalize people without their consent for nebulous reasons. Or, in essence, Soviet punitive psychiatry is back in Azerbaijan.

The government no longer tolerates even the idea of opposition. It now believes that only mentally ill people can be against the current system. It's now become even more dangerous to speak out against the regime in the country.

Azerbaijan's psych ward in Maştağa is notorious for its abuse of patients - they are severely beaten, starved and live in dismal conditions. Most patients in the ward were institutionalized against their will - typically by their relatives who wanted to exclude them from inheritance disputes. Now most patients will be Azerbaijan's dissidents.

One may ask what's really the difference between Soviet and the sovereign Azerbaijan anymore. At the very least, the former provided free housing, education, and healthcare to its citizens, as well as actual upward mobility.

https://oc-media.org/aliyev-greenlights-involuntary-psychiatric-hospitalisation-law/

>>5

One thing I picked up a passing interest in a few months ago was the New World screw worm outbreak; for those who did not know or have forgotten, it is a fly that feeds on and breeds in the open wounds of livestock, killing them if left untreated. It reappeared in Texas and New Mexico after having been eradicated for many years, which could adversely affect the cattle industry there. The containment strategy is to release sterile flies so that they can compete with fertile flies for the same livestock. The government account recently posted about one such release: https://x.com/Screwworm_RR/status/2077391329936519470

There was a lot of criticism for how the administration allegedly dismantled some monitoring service, which wouldn't surprise me, but people were predicting catastrophic failure which has not materialized as the outbreak fell out of the news cycle. If it has adversely affected the price of beef, it is hard to point out with respect to the trend as it had already been increasing.

>>7
>The containment strategy is to release sterile flies so that they can compete with fertile flies for the same livestock

>There was a lot of criticism for how the administration allegedly dismantled some monitoring service, which wouldn't surprise me

This is basically what it was, it was a herculean effort between the US and foreign governments in Central America over the course of several decades to eradicate it from Texas down all the way to the Darien Gap in Panama. We continually released special sterile flies who had been irradiated to render them such, and since the screwworm fly can mate only once, well, ah, this gradually eradicated them. It was a genuinely impressive effort and one of those things that makes me feel pride in our country. So, naturally, DOGE and Trump ruined it like they do with everything else good about this land.

It seems it actually appearing on our side of the Rio Grande was enough to wake people up–I imagine Texan ranchers are probably big donors to the Republican Party–and the Department of Agriculture pounced so we've thus far averted a total crisis.

>If it has adversely affected the price of beef, it is hard to point out with respect to the trend as it had already been increasing.


The treatlerite tendencies of many of my countrymen are infamously extreme enough that under any other administration the price of beef rising for complicated reasons like "foreign insects" is enough to spark riots. After all, the Democrats lost in 2024 because the average moron believed Joe Biden personally made groceries cost more for four years! But even now, Trump still has his magic ability to just not face consequences and he's already avoided serious economic repercussions for tariffing the entire planet and hasn't had a gas crisis despite single-handedly cutting off the world's gas supply by going to war against a bunch of hardliner madmen whose missile corps is perfectly positioned to shut down the tiny waterway most of the world's oil runs through. So, I'm sure the average idiot in America would just go "Yup, them bugs sure is driving up the price of burger, eeyyupp" and shrug, because Donald Trump never never faces consequences for the things he says or does. He didn't when I was twelve and he first started running for President, and he still doesn't now when I'm twenty-three and he's in the middle of his nonconsecutive second term.

I'm from Moldova. The past month has been pretty eventful - a corruption scandal was discovered in one of the government companies, MoldATSA; it is, essentially, an air traffic control center. Its director was hired using a fake CV. He specified that he has worked as a pilot for Air Canada for a few years, which turned out to be false. Then, in turn, this director hired several people for high-paying positions with vague responsibilities. One of these people happened to be the current president Maia Sandu's cousin. Sandu became president and the most popular politician in the country on a strict anti-corruption platform and is highly trusted, which makes this pretty amusing. The public consensus is that it is a coincidence and Sandu had nothing to do with the scandal.

A few days later our PM, Alexandru Munteanu, has resigned, lasting 8 months in office. He said that "he couldn't continue working while betraying his principles". Munteanu is a businessman who had no political profile before the ruling party, Sandu's PAS, appointed him after winning the autumn parliamentary elections.

The new PM, Vasile Tofan, has been appointed on 22th of July. He, too, is a businessman, but with a higher presence in politics - he has his own NGO and frequently gives interviews. After the retiring of the previous PM, Tofan made a post on Facebook (which is the leading platform for public political discussion here) where he said that "Moldova needs its own Milei" and called for shrinking the public sector, reducing the number of administrative districts, taxes decentralization, imposing a limit on the government debt and budget deficit, partially privatizing and auditing the state companies and other liberal reforms.

>>8

If there is anything that could get Americans to wipe an incumbent in an election, it is $5 gasoline. Hail JDPON Don.

>>8
>>9

The only simple way to understand this is that 大米国臣民 naturally forgive the actions of 共和党 over mistakes made by the 民主党…

Long live the butcher Don, who, against his own will, labors for global proletarian revolution.