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Soriek  6mo ago (text post)   968 thread views

Transnational Thursdays 24

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum lives in or might be interested in. Feel free to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Venezuela

I’ve covered in recent weeks that America has undergone a thaw in relations with Venezuela, lifting sanctions in exchange for the Maduro Administration allowing free and fair elections. This began with an opposition party primary, which was marked by intimidation and whose winner, Machado, is still not legally allowed to run for president. Still, it happened, and that’s gotta count for something...

“Top court in Venezuela suspends outcome of opposition primary”

Well, I guess that didn’t last long. The US has, reasonably, said that Venezuela needs to get it together or the sanctions come back. Technically Maduro has till the end of November to lift their prior ban on Machado and specify a date for the election, but as things are going now it doesn’t necessarily look like this thaw will even get that far.

Related: New Scott post on Hugo Chavez

I was just about to link the Scott post myself. It's amazing how much bullshit nigh limitless wealth lets you get away with, and the Venezuelans make the Saudis look competent, which is rare enough.

The Saudis are competent, it’s just that their goals are unconventional for a modern state, although in a way that makes sense for them.

Under which goals stuff like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line%2C_Saudi_Arabia is a good use of money? (note that this article badly underdescribes how stupid this project is)

Every time I look at The Line I get this mix of awe and horror. The inevitable collapse will be something to behold.

I wonder how far this will go. Note that it is supposed to be 170 kilometre long and 500m high. I never seen buzzword-driven development going so far.

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