Unions are advocating for the protection of public sector wages against inflation as tensions with the Government rise in the face of potential strikes. #Cookies #OnlineSecurity #AccessBlocked
Homes cost more per square metre in Madrid than in several major Latin American cities, but lower wages in those cities can make renting even less affordable. #HousingAffordability #MadridVsLatinAmerica #RealEstateTrends
Nigeria – how pro-Russian influence networks sell military rule as the answer When Nigerians took to the streets in August 2024 to protest soaring living costs and frustration with government, some demonstrations acquired an unexpected symbol: the Russian flag. In Kano, Kaduna and other northern cities, protesters were filmed carrying Russian colours and calling for Moscow’s intervention. Some demanded a military takeover. What initially looked like an unusual expression of anger has since become part of a much larger picture. A September 2026 assessment by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies describes Nigeria as a major target of overlapping foreign information operations, with Russia the most active external actor in its information space. The report does not identify a single centrally controlled campaign. Instead, it maps an ecosystem in which genuine dissatisfaction over insecurity, corruption and living standards is repeatedly redirected towards a broader proposition: democratic government has failed, while the military-led regimes of the Sahel offer a more effective alternative. Turning a real protest into a pro-Russian message The clearest example emerged during the 2024 #EndBadGovernance protests. Nigerian investigative reporting found that a Kano-based TikTok influencer with more than 100,000 followers had been paid through a Telegram channel associated with African Initiative, a Moscow-based media operation linked by researchers to Russian influence activity in Africa. The influencer said the channel supplied photographs, videos and talking points for redistribution on TikTok and Instagram. Among the messages provided were phrases such as “Putin please come and save Nigeria” and “The army is the answer for Nigeria”. Influencers were encouraged to use Hausa-language hashtags including #Zangazanga – “protest” – alongside references to Putin and Russia. Investigators identified 38 accounts circulating similar pro-Russian and pro-military narratives during the demonstrations. Russian flags subsequently appeared among protesters in several northern cities. This does not mean the protests themselves were created by Russia. They were driven by genuine economic and political grievances, and Nigerian protesters gave different reasons for carrying Russian flags. The important feature of the influence activity was precisely that it did not need to manufacture the original anger. It could attach a geopolitical message to an existing domestic crisis. From frustration to the idea of military government The narrative fits a wider pattern seen across West Africa. Russia has developed close relations with the military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, while pro-Russian media ecosystems routinely portray those states as examples of sovereignty, stability and resistance to Western influence. Nigeria, by contrast, has remained under constitutional civilian government since 1999. Africa Center researchers say information networks targeting Nigerians increasingly contrast these two models. Recurring messages depict elections as wasteful or predetermined, civilian institutions as incapable of protecting citizens and military governments as more decisive on security and development. Some content portrays the Sahelian juntas as delivering better roads, lower prices and stronger security even where available evidence points to continuing or worsening instability. Language is central to the strategy. Hausa is spoken across northern Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, allowing political narratives to travel across borders that are far less important online than they are on maps. HumAngle documented efforts involving Nigerien state-linked actors to cultivate Hausa-speaking journalists and distribute material favourable to Niger’s junta and hostile to France and Western influence. The Russian and Sahelian-junta information ecosystems are not identical, but their narratives frequently reinforce one another. Fake journalists inside real Nigerian media The campaign environment extends beyond social media. A 2026 investigation by Graphika and Code for Africa identified 44 ghost reporters and fake experts whose identities were used to place Russia-aligned narratives in African media. Thirty-eight were assessed with high confidence to be fabricated. Their articles or quotations appeared across 138 websites and were amplified by at least 113 Facebook accounts and Pages. Nigeria was one of the most heavily targeted countries. According to the Africa Center’s analysis of the research, Daily Post Nigeria carried 39 articles involving 14 identified ghost authors. Once published by a genuine Nigerian outlet, such material could then be cited by other websites, social-media accounts or even Russian official channels as though it had originated independently in Africa. This is information laundering rather than simple propaganda: the most valuable asset being borrowed is the credibility of the local newsroom. Generative AI added another layer. OpenAI and Meta separately disrupted a Russia-origin network that produced Africa-focused political content and operated Facebook Pages posing as local media organisations. One fabricated commentator, “Dr Manuel Godsin”, was presented as a European-trained geopolitical expert although investigators found no evidence supporting his academic biography. ChatGPT had been used to generate articles under the persona’s name, while Meta removed 37 Facebook accounts and 29 Pages connected to the broader network. Different networks, similar strategic direction It would be misleading to merge all these activities into a single Russian command structure. The African Initiative-linked influencer campaign, the ghost-reporter network and the AI-enabled operation disrupted by OpenAI and Meta were uncovered separately and used different infrastructure. Public evidence does not demonstrate that every actor reported to the same organisation. What connects them is a recurring set of themes and methods: portraying Western partnerships as exploitative, presenting Russia as an alternative security partner, amplifying failures of civilian government, and giving military-led rule greater legitimacy. Investigative reporting on leaked Russian documents has meanwhile described a much wider influence apparatus operating across Africa, involving political consultants, paid journalists, influencers and locally tailored campaigns intended to reduce Western influence and expand Moscow’s position. The underlying technique is less about inventing dissatisfaction than redirecting it. Nigeria faces real security threats, economic pressure and public frustration. Influence operators do not need to persuade Nigerians that those problems exist. They need only influence the explanation for why they exist – and which political model appears to offer the answer. That is what makes the Nigerian case significant. The most effective propaganda does not necessarily introduce a completely false reality. It takes a real crisis and changes where the audience is encouraged to look for the solution. Sources Africa Center for Strategic Studies — The Raging Information Battle in Nigeria https://africacenter.org/spotlight/the-raging-information-battle-in-nigeria/ Graphika — Umbrae Ex Machina https://www.graphika.com/reports/umbrae-ex-machina OpenAI — Operation “No Bell” https://openai.com/index/disrupting-malicious-uses-of-ai-no-bell/ TheCable — Ghost reporters in African media https://www.thecable.ng/ghost-reporters-how-fabricated-african-voices-carried-pro-russia-narratives/ HumAngle — Nigeria Is Facing an Information War in Its Own Language https://www.humanglemedia.com/nigeria-is-facing-an-information-war-in-its-own-language DAIDAC / CJID — Russian influence during #EndBadGovernance https://daidac.thecjid.org/how-telegram-tiktok-aided-russian-disinformation-that-led-to-incarceration-of-nigerian-minors/ FactCheckHub — How Nigeria’s hunger protest took a radical turn https://factcheckhub.com/from-economic-protests-to-coup-agitation-how-nigerias-hunger-march-took-a-radical-turn/ News24 — Fake Kremlin-linked analyst planted stories in African media https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/ai-expert-exposed-fake-kremlin-linked-analyst-planted-stories-in-african-media-20260318-0560 Vanguard — AI ‘expert’ exposed https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/03/ai-expert-exposed-fake-kremlin-linked-analyst-planted-stories-in-african-media/ Africa Confidential — How Moscow wages social media war https://www.africa-confidential.com/article/id/15961/how-moscow-wages-social-media-war Keywords #DISINFORMED #Episode15 #Nigeria #Russia #RussianInfluence #RussianDisinformation #Africa #WestAfrica #Disinformation #InformationWarfare #InfluenceOperations #ForeignInterference #FIMI #Propaganda #MilitaryRule #MilitaryGovernment #Democracy #PoliticalManipulation #NarrativeManipulation #AfricanInitiative #EndBadGovernance #Hausa #LocalInfluencers #GhostReporters #FakeExperts #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #AIPersonas #SyntheticMedia #AIPropaganda #Astroturfing #SocialMediaManipulation #Telegram #TikTok #DigitalInfluence #SourceLaundering #NarrativeLaundering #MediaManipulation #Sahel #Geopolitics #OSINT #WRLD
The author shared a Bloomberg headline saying Japan’s real wages had risen again, aided by relief measures from Takaichi. https://t.co/WnJia8qvKC https://t.co/bjFAeoMDxv #日本 #経済 #賃金 #JP
The post, citing Bloomberg, attributed to Nagel the view that risks to the euro-area inflation outlook were tilted upwards and that uncertainty called for flexibility rather than inaction. Nagel also argued for central banks to diversify into gold and said there were no clear signs yet that inflation was feeding through to wages. The post ended with an incomplete reference to an ECB decision. #ECB #Inflation #Europe #EU #DE (translated)
No victims in any category below have been double-counted. Outside Peru, no war-related deaths or imprisonments have been included. Communism vs. Villagers 400,000 dead — Cambodian rural (1) 19.5 million dead — Chinese peasants (2) 250,000 dead — Ethiopian nomads (3) 5 million dead — Soviet peasants (4) 340,000 dead — Tibetan rural (5) Communism vs. Landowners 3 million dead — Chinese landowners (6) 100,000 dead — Vietnamese landowners (8) Note: Soviet kulaks are counted among the villagers. Communism vs. Religion 47,000 dead — Cambodian Buddhists (9) 13,000 imprisoned — Czech priests / religious (10) 7,000 imprisoned — Mozambican Jehovah’s Witnesses (11) 100,000 imprisoned — North Korean Christians (12) 2,100 imprisoned — Polish priests & Jehovah’s Witnesses (13) 200,000 dead — Soviet clergy (15) 2,000 dead — Tibetan monks & pilgrims (18) 400 dead — Romanian Christians (14) Moreover, Christians suffered the following in Romanian prison: In a “baptism of immersion,” inmates’ heads were plunged into buckets of urine and feces, while guards chanted baptismal rites. Near the point of drowning the Christian’s head was let up for air and then plunged back into the sewage (65). Communism vs. Cossacks 400,000 dead or deported ethnics (20) Photo: Bolshevik instructions on “the need to do away with the cossacks.” (21) “Order no.7: In the event of an unauthorized exit of a registered [Cossack] family, the family shall be shot.” “Order no. 8: This execution shall be carried out among every family member.” “Order no. 9: All property of the executed [Cossack] shall be confiscated and given to the poor.” Communism vs. Native Americans 6,000 dead — Ashaninka (Peru/luminoso-22) 5,000 imprisoned — Ashaninka (Peru/luminoso-22) 10,000 forcibly relocated — Ashaninka (Peru/luminoso-22) 35 destroyed — Ashaninka communities (Peru/luminoso-22) 35,000 imprisoned or forcibly relocated — Nicaraguan tribesmen (Sandinistas-23) Communism vs. Unclassified Dissidents* 5,000 dead — Albanian dissidents (24) 10,000 dead — Angolan dissidents (25) 29,000 dead — Bulgarian dissidents (26) 1 million dead — Cambodian dissidents (27) 43 million dead — Chinese dissidents (28) 16,000 dead — Cuban dissidents (29) Moreover, in Cuba’s concentration camps, inmates faced the following “punishments.” They were forced to “cut grass with their teeth,” endure “mock executions,” live in iron cages “1 meter wide, 1.8 meters high,” sit for hours in toilet ditches, withstand shock treatment, die by the hundreds from starvation and lack of medical attention (30). 44,000 dead — East German dissidents (31) 10,000 dead — Ethiopian dissidents (32) 50,000 dead — Hungarian dissidents (33) 3,000 dead — Nicaraguan dissidents (34) Moreover, 11,000 Nicaraguans were tortured at the hands of the Sandinistas. This included their being skinned alive & then executed; drawn & quartered; forced to watch wives and daughters sexually assaulted; caged in cubicles less than a square meter; “punished” via electric shock; deprived food and water (35). 1.6 million dead — North Korean dissidents (36) 21,857 dead — Polish dissidents (37) 120,000 dead — Romanian dissidents (38) 8 million dead — Soviet dissidents (39) 425,000 dead — Tibetan dissidents (40) Moreover, Tibetans suffered the following atrocities at the hands of the Chinese. They faced: crucifixion drowning beheading boiling alive burying alive mutilation (41) Communism vs. Gay Rights 25,000 imprisoned — Cuban gays and other “deviants” (42) 500 dead — Peruvian gays, bisexuals, and transgendered (43) 11,000 arrested — Polish gays (44) 100,000s imprisoned — Soviet gays in slave labor camps (45) Moreover, Chinese gays were targeted for persecution although numbers are impossible to quantify (46). Communism vs. Collective Laborers 160 dead — East German strikers (47) demonstrators killed after protesting a 10% increase in work quotas. 110 dead — Nicaraguan strikers executed by the Sandinistas after demanding back pay (48). 31 dead — Novocherkassk strikers (Kruschev) 24 killed on the spot; 7 later executed; over 100 workers arrested. (49) 51 dead — Peruvian union leaders (50) 106 dead — Polish strikers Poznan demonstrators killed after protesting working conditions & pay issues; others killed in later strikes; thousands attacked by military (51). 3,000 dead — Soviet strikers (Lenin / Trotsky) some shot / others, as N. Werth describes, “loaded onto barges and then thrown by the hundreds into the Volga with stones around their necks” (52). Moreover; Massive factory protests in China — strikers beaten back by 30,000 red soldiers after disputing wages (53). Striking outlawed in Cuba (54). Organizers sentenced to as many as 26 years in prison (55).
My criticism of António Guterres is fundamental: the UN Secretary-General must defend the UN Charter with absolute clarity, especially when Russia wages a full-scale war against Ukraine. Guterres himself called Russia’s invasion a “blatant violation” of the Charter, but I reject https://t.co/83952tYQST #UNCharter #Guterres #UkraineWar #RU #UA
Today, @NYCMayor and I discussed a shared challenge: building an economy for the many. Spain is showing that another economic model is possible. More jobs. Better wages. Less inequality. Social justice is not the enemy of economic growth. https://t.co/XvUVexpZHT #EconomicJustice #JobsForAll #Inequality #ES
Today, @ZohranMamdani and I discussed a shared challenge: building an economy for the many. Spain is showing that another economic model is possible. More jobs. Better wages. Less inequality. Social justice is not the enemy of economic growth. https://t.co/M6nK4NkB5U #EconomicJustice #SocialEquality #JobGrowth #ES
No victims in any category below have been double-counted. Outside Peru, no war-related deaths or imprisonments have been included. Communism vs. Villagers 400,000 dead — Cambodian rural (1) 19.5 million dead — Chinese peasants (2) 250,000 dead — Ethiopian nomads (3) 5 million dead — Soviet peasants (4) 340,000 dead — Tibetan rural (5) Communism vs. Landowners 3 million dead — Chinese landowners (6) 100,000 dead — Vietnamese landowners (8) Note: Soviet kulaks are counted among the villagers. Communism vs. Religion 47,000 dead — Cambodian Buddhists (9) 13,000 imprisoned — Czech priests / religious (10) 7,000 imprisoned — Mozambican Jehovah’s Witnesses (11) 100,000 imprisoned — North Korean Christians (12) 2,100 imprisoned — Polish priests & Jehovah’s Witnesses (13) 200,000 dead — Soviet clergy (15) 2,000 dead — Tibetan monks & pilgrims (18) 400 dead — Romanian Christians (14) Moreover, Christians suffered the following in Romanian prison: In a “baptism of immersion,” inmates’ heads were plunged into buckets of urine and feces, while guards chanted baptismal rites. Near the point of drowning the Christian’s head was let up for air and then plunged back into the sewage (65). Communism vs. Cossacks 400,000 dead or deported ethnics (20) Photo: Bolshevik instructions on “the need to do away with the cossacks.” (21) “Order no.7: In the event of an unauthorized exit of a registered [Cossack] family, the family shall be shot.” “Order no. 8: This execution shall be carried out among every family member.” “Order no. 9: All property of the executed [Cossack] shall be confiscated and given to the poor.” Communism vs. Native Americans 6,000 dead — Ashaninka (Peru/luminoso-22) 5,000 imprisoned — Ashaninka (Peru/luminoso-22) 10,000 forcibly relocated — Ashaninka (Peru/luminoso-22) 35 destroyed — Ashaninka communities (Peru/luminoso-22) 35,000 imprisoned or forcibly relocated — Nicaraguan tribesmen (Sandinistas-23) Communism vs. Unclassified Dissidents* 5,000 dead — Albanian dissidents (24) 10,000 dead — Angolan dissidents (25) 29,000 dead — Bulgarian dissidents (26) 1 million dead — Cambodian dissidents (27) 43 million dead — Chinese dissidents (28) 16,000 dead — Cuban dissidents (29) Moreover, in Cuba’s concentration camps, inmates faced the following “punishments.” They were forced to “cut grass with their teeth,” endure “mock executions,” live in iron cages “1 meter wide, 1.8 meters high,” sit for hours in toilet ditches, withstand shock treatment, die by the hundreds from starvation and lack of medical attention (30). 44,000 dead — East German dissidents (31) 10,000 dead — Ethiopian dissidents (32) 50,000 dead — Hungarian dissidents (33) 3,000 dead — Nicaraguan dissidents (34) Moreover, 11,000 Nicaraguans were tortured at the hands of the Sandinistas. This included their being skinned alive & then executed; drawn & quartered; forced to watch wives and daughters sexually assaulted; caged in cubicles less than a square meter; “punished” via electric shock; deprived food and water (35). 1.6 million dead — North Korean dissidents (36) 21,857 dead — Polish dissidents (37) 120,000 dead — Romanian dissidents (38) 8 million dead — Soviet dissidents (39) 425,000 dead — Tibetan dissidents (40) Moreover, Tibetans suffered the following atrocities at the hands of the Chinese. They faced: crucifixion drowning beheading boiling alive burying alive mutilation (41) Communism vs. Gay Rights 25,000 imprisoned — Cuban gays and other “deviants” (42) 500 dead — Peruvian gays, bisexuals, and transgendered (43) 11,000 arrested — Polish gays (44) 100,000s imprisoned — Soviet gays in slave labor camps (45) Moreover, Chinese gays were targeted for persecution although numbers are impossible to quantify (46). Communism vs. Collective Laborers 160 dead — East German strikers (47) demonstrators killed after protesting a 10% increase in work quotas. 110 dead — Nicaraguan strikers executed by the Sandinistas after demanding back pay (48). 31 dead — Novocherkassk strikers (Kruschev) 24 killed on the spot; 7 later executed; over 100 workers arrested. (49) 51 dead — Peruvian union leaders (50) 106 dead — Polish strikers Poznan demonstrators killed after protesting working conditions & pay issues; others killed in later strikes; thousands attacked by military (51). 3,000 dead — Soviet strikers (Lenin / Trotsky) some shot / others, as N. Werth describes, “loaded onto barges and then thrown by the hundreds into the Volga with stones around their necks” (52). Moreover; Massive factory protests in China — strikers beaten back by 30,000 red soldiers after disputing wages (53). Striking outlawed in Cuba (54). Organizers sentenced to as many as 26 years in prison (55).
Inflation in the UK is starting to tick up. Core inflation is flat. It’s all due to energy. This is what we saw in 2021-22. Energy leads, then gradually feeds into food prices - after that wages rise and services inflation goes up. This will be a bigger one than 2021-22. 🇬🇧 https://t.co/iuxIFL2Xh3 #inflation #UKEconomy #energyprices #UK
EXBRICS NOW. BRICS is not the future I want for the world. It is a bloc increasingly used to challenge the rules-based international order while Russia wages its war against Ukraine and authoritarian powers seek greater geopolitical leverage. My message is simple: countries https://t.co/oOsr4RMYRH #EXBRICS #Geopolitics #InternationalOrder #RU #UA
MODI: STOP FUNDING PUTIN’S WAR. 🇮🇳🛢️➡️🇷🇺🚀➡️🇺🇦 India’s massive purchases of Russian oil are not “neutrality.” They provide revenue to the Russian state while Putin wages his war of aggression against Ukraine. Russian oil money becomes Russian war money — money that helps sustain https://t.co/B4tkoIiOaI #StopFundingPutin #India #UkraineWar #IN #RU #UA
It’s affordability, stupid. 89% of voters for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt say they are worried that prices rise so much that they can’t pay their bills. In fact, food prices are up 34.7% since 2021. Wages are lacking far behind & only rose 14.8%. We need Anti-fascist Economics. https://t.co/5dNXERsFl6 #Affordability #FoodPrices #AntiFascistEconomics #DE
The US wages an illegal war of aggression on Iran. EU citizens pay too, in rising energy costs. Yet, the EU pledges to work with the US to pressure... Iran. Including through "Operation Economic Outcast." We need diplomacy, not self-harming complicity. https://t.co/W85BNKWjbO #StopWar #DiplomacyFirst #NoSanctions #US #IR #EU
Overwhelming vote for strike action. Other unions will follow SIPTU in the next days. How can people survive with the cost of living crisis eroding their wages? Workers need a raise. Join Affordable Ireland Campaign protest Sat 19 Sept 1pm Parnell Sq. https://t.co/DlUY6VwC2F #CostOfLivingCrisis #WorkersRights #AffordableIreland #IE
The Deadly Seduction of Democratic Socialism Young people are being urged to support “democratic” socialism—ideas blamed for tens of millions of deaths in the last century—promising that consent will make it work this time. But consent cannot make an economic system wise. A ballot cannot set the right prices for wages, goods, or services, nor prevent shortages, repression, or famine. This isn’t fringe. New York elected Zohran Mamdani, who says there should be no billionaires and backs rent freezes, state-run grocery stores, free CUNY, and higher taxes. Polling shows strong support for socialism and communism among Americans under 30. The core error is believing resources can be taken from creators and transferred without losing the knowledge that made them productive. Mao’s China illustrates the outcome: land reform dispossessed and killed landowners, production collapsed as local expertise was treated as an enemy, and grain seizures during the Great Leap Forward worsened a catastrophic famine. The lesson: destroying incentives, property rights, and local knowledge destroys production itself. Envy is often disguised as justice. Communist regimes cultivated resentment and turned grievance into political energy, making societies less focused on creating wealth and more focused on making others lose it. Even when central planners tried to subordinate families to the state, people preserved knowledge through markets, private plots, and community practice. Civilization isn’t a machine bureaucrats can redesign. Take away property and you don’t automatically transfer knowledge—abundance can vanish with it. Redistribution may promise equality, but if it destroys the people, incentives, and knowledge that produce abundance, the result is a hungry one.
The Austrian Critique of Marx followed a line from value theory to economic coordination. 1) **Menger:** Value is **subjective**. People value goods because they think they satisfy wants; water in a desert can be far more valuable than water at home, with production labor unchanged. 2) **Böhm-Bawerk:** Marx’s surplus value is flawed. **Time and capital** matter: wages and costs are advanced before revenue arrives, so interest/profit reflect time preference, risk, and production structure—not unpaid labor. 3) **Transformation problem:** Marx’s labor-values should imply different surplus values by industry, but competition pushes toward equal profit rates. Marx tried to convert values into **prices of production**, yet the inconsistency with his earlier theory remains debated. 4) **Mises:** The key issue is whether socialism can **calculate**. Rational planning needs prices for **capital goods**, which only markets under **private ownership** can generate. 5) **Hayek:** Knowledge is **dispersed** and local. **Prices** transmit that information so coordination can occur without everyone knowing the full cause. 6) **Rothbard:** Profit isn’t necessarily exploitation. Capitalists bear uncertainty, organize production, and pay wages upfront; workers get an agreed wage, while profit is what remains if the venture succeeds. So the deepest split is not only about profit source, but about coordination: Marx asks who appropriates value; Austrians increasingly ask how millions coordinate exchange, knowledge, and expectations at all.
