You can listen to the below news update on EBC Radio!
TEP News Dispatch Faces Mass Downvoting Effort
A dispatch from The East Pacific has reportedly faced over 200 downvotes from an unknown source on their latest EPNS release. The EPNS, the East Pacific News Service, released an edition every month updating the region and broader Nationstates on domestic as well as foreign happenings. The motivations for the downvote effort are unknown, but The East Pacific has already successfully responded with their own counter upvoting campaign, which despite over 200 hundred downvotes, has managed to keep the balance at a positive 51 at the time of reporting.
The dispatch is edition 37 of the news series and discusses the happenings of July. It contains a Delegate update, Legislative updates, a recap of military events including the Arkana occupation, Confederation of Corrupt Dictators occupation, and RaiderCon, a section on EPNS's history, and on the University of The East Pacific's recent activity, among other things. Whether the downvote effort came as a result of the content inside the dispatch remains unknown.
The EBC reached out to Minister of Foreign Affairs Altys for comment, who responded: "The EPNS dispatch may have stabilised in the high positives now, but the downvote waves haven't stopped coming. With them also targeting the recently published Religions of Valsora dispatch [a dispatch on TEP Regional Message Board roleplay], it makes me wonder whether this incident will remain isolated or become the norm."
XKI Soon to Switch Leadership
10000 Islands's current Delegate Astrobolt will be replaced by a new Delegate in September, come the region's Delegate elections. Astrobolt has served as XKI's Delegate for nearly a full year, being Delegate of the region for around 315 days at the time of reporting. XKI previously had gotten a new Chief Executive, name Aschente, commonly known as Asche, in early June this year.
TEP University Activity Boom
The University of The East Pacific, a place for debate, essays, and studies, has seen a surge in activity as of late. After a long slumber, the organisation has once again been releasing pieces for both residents and others to enjoy. Articles in the institution discuss topics ranging from regional sovereignty and leadership to military ideology and politics. A good example is Zukchiva's recent contribution, titled "An Argument Against Wanton Founder Supremacy". Arguing against autocratic governor control of regions, Zukchiva lays out several arguments in favour of broader community input and control as opposed to dictatorial governance and unilateral decision making. The EBC highly recommends a read-through of the many articles in UTEP released recently.
Realm of the Whispering Winds (RotWW) Completes Double Transition
RotWW has completed its second transition and installed its rightful leader Xvraks as the governor of the region. The region was the focus of much controversy and military effort in recent history, with an initial Defender effort failing to liberate the region from an LWU led occupation at a pile of less than 40 endorsements. The region has now, however, been finally secured under native leadership, and looks forward to a time of stability. The EBC will soon release a full article on the happenings surrounding the region and its transition, from author Grea Kriopia, someone heavily involved with the organisation and communication of the relevant operations and the preparations thereof.
Maowi Nominated Again as Europeian IRC RepresentativeMaowi has been re-nominated to represent Europeia in the Inter-Regional Chat, pending Senate confirmation on the matter after President UPC's nomination last Tuesday, August 13. The project which can mostly be described as a failure sought to facilitate community and conversation between chiefly Independent regions as an alternative to the NationStates GamePlay Discord server. Asked by Senator Sopo on the state of the IRC, Maowi responds: "It currently sees sporadic activity at best; overall I think it would be fair to describe it as dormant. I would not say it is providing us much utility for the moment, except that any plans with it going forward can be enacted with minimal delay or start-up effort since the structures are already in place." The IRC has since its launch in April 2021 not been viewed as successful. A Europeian poll from October 2021 had 64% of 39 citizens opine the project as unsuccessful. Former Vice President and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Sanjurika posted:
"As disappointed as I am, I think the IRC has largely been unsuccessful. I left it some time ago, just because nothing was of interest to me anymore. The people on their that I want to talk to are already on other servers anyways. I think there is some promise with hosting shows and doing small events with our partners in the IRC, but I've seen no push from anyone to get that done. So that just leads me to believe everyone in other regions are as apathetic as we are."
The IRC last saw a message posted in the server 5 days ago, with most channels having messages from months or sometimes even a year ago as its most recent contribution.
JayDee To Serve Another Term as Associate Justice
President UPC has re-nominated JayDee as Associate Justice to serve for another term, and he's since been confirmed by the Senate. JayDee is currently serving as 1st Chair on the court, joined by Peeps, Kazaman, and Prim. JayDee remained rather elusive during Senate questioning, which he said is to "remain judicially impartial". So far there has not been any work for the lucky Right Honorable, so make sure to stir up some trouble to give the poor man something to do.
Outreach Revamps Recruitment Telegram
The Ministry of Outreach is busy revamping the region's recruitment telegram. The project was part of the campaign of UPC/GK, which stated "Last term, a couple of our recruiters began using new telegram templates, and the results have been promising so far. This term we’ll look to bring this new template to all of our recruiters."
Minister of Outreach ICH has since brought together his staffers to work on revising and choosing a new template for the region. Be sure to sign up to the Ministry of Outreach is you're interested in helping out!
World Assembly
The Ministry of World Assembly has recommended a vote for the current General Assembly proposal at vote, which is titled "Responsible Usage of World Assembly Funds". The ministry's IFV states that "While the original resolution does have prestige, this proposal enhances the original, while keeping the same spirit of fiscal fairness." You can read the full ministry recommendation and analysis in the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs subforum.
