Girkin, an ex-FSB officer, is the man responsible for the MH17 shot-down in 2014.
And so he is a convicted war criminal, wanted by the Hague.
He hold a reasonable influence in the russian public/russian conscripts, even if the perspection of him is warped up in western countries due to his time in the limelight.
He became more and more critical of Putin the last few months, even more after the “coup”.
(edit : to expand : he is loyal to the regime, pro-war, and was on Shoigu/Gerasimov side during the coup, but was more and more critical.)
A bit older : the EU had a bit of a scandal when an American economist, Fiona Scott Morton, with some questionable link to US interest / corporate interest, was nominated for the Chief Economist position.
The controversy was first on the fact that the position was not given to a EU citizen, that fact then highlighted the potential conflict of interests.
Following the controversy, she withdrew. The European Commission will try to find a European citizen for it.
Spain held its general election today to elect a new parliament. It looks like the country may hold snap elections as neither the left nor right parties gained enough support to form a coalition. Theoretically the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party could form a coalition government but it would be dependent on a Catalonian separatist party being willing to hand over their support and it’s unclear what kind of demands they would request. Another theoretical coalition would allow the right to govern but it’s also unlikely. It would require them to form an alliance of 5 different political parties which alone is already a difficult task. But that would also put them at EXACTLY 176 seats which is required for a majority. Meaning between that alliance of 5 parties they would fail to govern if just 1 person decided to vote No on legislation. So now the ball is in the Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party. Will they be able to get the Catalonians on board to form a government or will he take the risk and go for another round of snap elections?
Another little bit of information about the election. It was mainly a victory for the more moderate traditional parties as the People’s Party (center-right to right-winged) and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (center-left) both got a higher percentage of the vote and more seats. Meanwhile the far-right Vox and left-winged populist Sumar both saw a drop in there percentage of the vote compared to the last election and fewer seats. Vox won 52 seats in 2019 but are on track to only win 33 today. Sumar will be going from 36 to 31 seats.
UPDATE:
The Socialist Workers’ Party believes they may be able to form a government without the Catalonians after overseas ballots are counted. It’s unclear though whether or not that is true until all votes have been counted.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:
Overseas ballots did not give them the votes needed.
Members of Niger’s presidential guard surrounded the presidential palace Wednesday. Streets surrounding the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey, were blocked off, as were some government ministries.
The commissions of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States described the events in Niger’s capital as an effort to unseat Bazoum, who was elected president two years ago in the nation’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since its independence from France in 1960.
The governments of France and the United States also voiced concern and urged the participating guardsmen to change course. Bazoum’s administration has made Niger a key Western partner in the fight against Islamist extremism in Africa’s Sahel region.
Potential turned to actual. Damn, the G5 has been falling apart over the past few years. Coups in Mali, Burkina, Niger, Idris Déby´s death in Chad… Only waiting for something to happen in Mauretania as well.
Umm, as if it wasn´t already before that? (sure it increased after the Malian coup, but)
A third defendant has been named in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. Walt Nauta, Carlos De Oliveira and Trump face obstruction charges related to their attempts to delete surveillance footage and Trump has had another Espionage Act violation for retaining national defense information added to his list of charges.
And apparently they’ve erected barricades around the Fulton County courthouse in Georgia, which people are taking as an indication that he’ll be indicted there soon™.
Recently Ukraine began the main thrust of its offensive. Since Ukraine launched its offensive a few months back they have made minor gains along the front line but been struggling to make any large pushes against all the fortifications and trenches Russia spent months creating. So far since the main thrust has begun they’ve managed to push through a few lines of Russian fortifications (shown as the red dots). But it’s currently too soon to say whether or not this will result in a major Ukrainian push or not. Depending on how their main thrust goes it could also give an indication on how long the war may continue.
The Economic Community of West African States or ECOWAS has sent an ultimatum to the Niger military saying they have 1 week to cede power back to the previous government.They have threatened military intervention to restore the old government if necessary. ECOWAS countries are in the dark green. Suspended members in light green. Then Niger in red. The last time ECOWAS used military intervention was back in 2017 when they ousted the dictator of Gambia.
The dictators of Mali and Burkina Faso have pledged to defend the new military government in Niger. If ECOWAS decides to go to war it may become the largest conflict Africa has seen in decades.
Shouldn’t there be reports of a Scandinavian “businessman” embezzling money from the Nigerien people and getting arrested only for armed gunmen to break him out and for the Danish Consulate to take him in leading to mass riots leading to the coup? Maybe Tchiani will “give him the drop” over the Atlantic.
If there’s any serious input to take from the Rush Hour movies, or Chris Tucker in general, it’s that every big crime has a rich white man behind it somewhere, waiting for his cut.
Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver was the acting Governor of New Jersey while Governor Phil Murphy was overseas in Italy. Today after her death was announced Gov. Phil Murphy is now making plans on returning to the state early.
