[BREAKING] News Thread

[Maniakkid25]

So the world is continuing to burn. I mean that figuratively in this case, but it is literally burning, too.

Okay, this is going to take a Wall 'O Text™ to explain. So, in the Soviet Union, there was an autonomous oblast within what is now recognized as Azerbaijan known as Nagorno-Karabakh. The reason for this distinction was because the local populace was largely ethnic Armenian in a sea of Azeri people. This, however, would have been fine...

If the Soviet Union didn't collapse.

But, collapse it did, and Nagorno-Karabakh immediately became a flashpoint for wars between Azerbaijan and Armenia (though Armenia doesn't claim the territory; they just recognized it as it's own state, and not part of Azerbaijan proper). Accusations of "Ethnic Cleansing" were quick to follow, an eerie prelude and echo of Yugoslavia's collapse.

But now, following a "blockade" of the area (technically, the area the "blockade" happened in was within Azeri borders, so it's not really a blockade?), Azerbaijan has decided enough is enough, and shelled the area until the people surrendered themselves into being Azeri territory. Within 24 hours, they did. While the Azeri president has claimed that there will be no special treatment or autonomy, he has also claimed that he will not forcefully supress their language or culture. Unfortunately, right now we only have their word to go on, and this all happened so fast that the rest of the world blinked, and it was over.

Here's hoping that those Ethnic Cleansing worries are unfounded, but given how much bad blood there is between Azerbaijan and Armenia...let's just say I don't have my hopes up.

[shadow]

The world has been burning even over in Canada and even in Hawaii. I have no idea if Canada is still burning all I know is my brother is super allergic to it burning.

[Moonface]

In bed so can't take the time right now to read and comment on the above in this moment, but wanted to share this story I just saw about a stupid kid cutting down a sycamore tree from the 1700's: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-66952980

The tree should've fell on him...

[ShiraNoMai]

I... but why?? Who gets the urge to just... chop down a tree???

[Mr EliteL]

What I want to now is how the kid even did it but I suppose anyone can get a tool nowadays, or their dad's automatic saw or whatever because there's no way in hell the kid cut that size tree manually. But also a big F U to him too.

[Moonface]

Apparently it wasn't (just) the kid but a man in his 60's was involved too: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-66966187

If it was just the kid doing it I'd call it a stupid thing a teenager would have the immaturity to do, but I have no idea why a 60 year old would decide to take part in cutting down a tree that's a known landmark.

@Maniakkid25: Hard to trust a country they won't treat you like dirt when they were happy to suddenly shell your home until you surrendered even though I presume the territory in question wasn't causing any problems by itself. Shame that Russia's fumbling of taking Ukraine wasn't able to be a deterrent to another country trying to do a similar thing elsewhere.

[Maniakkid25]

Yeah, the people that live there think the same way, and are migrating out of there as fast as possible. It's...bad.

*blows raspberry trying to think of what to say* Yeah, sure. That's a thing, I guess.

In 1996, a single death would shock the Hip Hop scene with how brazen it was. Tupac Shakur, one of the leading names in Gangsta Rap at the time, was shot and killed on the Las Vegas Strip after a boxing match. I want you to look at that sentence again, and recognize how absolutely absurd that reads. After a goddamn boxing match on the Las Vegas Strip, he was shot dead by someone, and the cops had no idea who to arrest. If you had written that in a story, ghe editor would have circled that entire section with a "WTF" note! Relatedly, Notorious B.I.G. would be shot and killed 6 months later, often viewed as a relatiation against Tupac's death (they were fueding with each other at the time).

But now, 27 years after his death, which is literally longer than Tupac was alive, Duane Keith Davis has been indicted on the charges of Tupac's murder. I know murder doesn't have a statute of limitations, but holy crap, did you guys take the longest time to get here! Better late than never, I guess.

[Moonface]

Huh, I've heard of both of those artists but didn't really know they were dead or the circumstances behind their deaths. Reading that article makes me wonder how it took 27 years when it isn't like the guy they indicted was making himself scarce:

Davis has long placed himself at the scene of the crime, saying he was in the front seat of the white Cadillac that came up beside Shakur’s car when shots rang out from the back seat, killing the musician. The rapper was shot four times and died six days later.

Like, how does someone place themselves at the scene of the crime yet nothing is found for 27 years that proves they're also guilty in said crime?
I also expected to hear that the reason for him being shot was because of something to do with betting on that boxing match, like that whole mess that happens in Pulp Fiction over a boxing match.

[Maniakkid25]

Yeah, those two deaths are probably the most famous deaths in Hip Hop, to the point that each event has a wikipedia page dedicated to it. If your knowledge sphere doesn't orbit Rap, though, I can absolutely understand why you haven't known about it. To put this in perspective, imagine if Kurt Cobain was murdered, and then Chris Cornell was killed 6 months later. That should be about the level in the Rock World (and contemporaneous, too; Soundgarden and Nirvana were both leaders in the Grunge takeover).

[Maniakkid25]

So I'm sure other people have heard by now, but Israel has declared war on Hamas after it launched a surprise attack. Current death tolls sit at nearly 1500 already, including the atrack that started this war. Most of the deaths have been Palestinians.

If I had a dollar for every time a predominantly Muslim group launched a major offensive in the past 30 days, I'd have 2 dollars -- one for Nagorno-Karabakh, and one for Israel. Which isn't a lot, but it's depressing that it's happened twice.

[Mr EliteL]

Ah knew about the attacks but not turning into war, yeah I've been trying avoid news because it's depressing. So yay another war to be the news of the day for the next however long. Plus other conflicts going on that may or may have not been mentioned and so on. Just disappointing.

[Moonface]

I've been trying to wrap my head around the sides involved in this new war because it doesn't come off as a simple A vs. B scenario like the Russia vs. Ukraine one where you can tell what side is in the wrong. I can at least tell Hamas is in the wrong, but Hamas isn't Palestine yet I've seen condemnation for Palestine as a whole. It doesn't help that I've generally always struggled trying to figure out the relationship between Israel and Palestine.

[Maniakkid25]

*Long, wheezing sigh, before sitting down, and lighting a cigarette* Alright. Let me give you the basics.

After World War II and, importantly, the Holocaust. The displaced Jewish peoples of Europe needed to settle somewhere. So, they chose what they considered their ancestral homeland. Problem: there were people already living there. In 1947, the UN partitioned what was then a British Mandate known as Palestine into two parts, one for Arabs, and one for Jews, apparently having learned nothing from the crises of the Greco-Turkish War and the partition of India. Almost immediately, there was a civil war that lead to the Jewish population conquering much of that Arab territory, and then declared independence. Everyone in the Middle East disliked that, however, which kicked off the first of many Arab-Israeli wars.

In short, Hamas -- stating themselves as representing the will of the Palestinian people -- and much of the Arab world consider Israel a false state, illegally holding territory that was rightly theirs. And I will be the first to say there are legitimate reasons to dislike Israel (e.g. the forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank in favor of Jewish settlers), but Hamas is probably launching what will be a third Intifada -- a sustained rebellion against Israel that will lead to the deaths of thousands more. This is...bad. Like, really bad. "Probably gonna go on for years" bad.

[Moonface]

Ah. I knew Israel believes the land is theirs due to religion/ancestry, but I didn't know how exactly they got into possession of any of their land to begin with. I always thought they maybe got there after someone else already did and were upset that Palestine didn't care for what their version of the little sky book says.

What really gets me is that anyone who says Israel aren't 100% in the right to be doing what their doing is instantly labelled as anti-Semitist. I imagine it would've been similar to someone criticizing the US for invading Iraq after 9/11 being called anti-American, but I have no idea if that sorta thing happened since I wasn't in the US in 2001 and the internet didn't exactly give a view into the general public of the world like it does today with social media.

[Moonface]

Huh, so I didn't know the writer's strike had ended over a month ago on September 27. I only just found out because YouTube recommended a video to me from a channel I follow that was titled "The Strike Is Over!" and I knew that would only be referring to the writer's strike because of what that channel is about. I'm surprised I managed to miss the news since it surely would've been a big deal and posted all over the place at the time.