The Great Power News Service

[Alexiandra]

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Alexiandra Sheds its Feathers

LOCKBOURNE, ALEXIANDRA - The National Assembly of the Alexiandran Republic voted Tuesday to approve a new flag design in a move that has stirred controversy in some quarters. The nation's old flag, featuring the time-honoured phoenix design, has been replaced with the black-and-red flag of the international anarcho-communist movement. In a statement to the media on Tuesday morning, Assembly spokesperson Diana Schott said the new banner represented 'Alexiandra's solidarity with the oppressed workers of the world and with all freedom-fighters persecuted by the insidious forces of capital'.

Such lofty rhetoric was not echoed, however, on the streets of Brixton - the northern mining town where the previous phoenix flag is said to have originated. 'It's a travesty,' Joseph Menaker of the local Brixton Sun Herald opined this afternoon. 'Two thousand years of national proletarian tradition eviscerated in the blink of an eye.' According to local legend, the phoenix flag was created by the forced labourers of King Iosef II during their storied rebellion of 979 AD. Professors at the University of Brixton dispute this claim, however, with Doctor David Rumsfeld observing that 'there is no archaeological evidence linking the phoenix flag to Brixton or the rebellion of 979'. Still, the Brixton public has remonstrated angrily with the government this afternoon, with a petition calling for the old flag's restoration having garnered roughly 5,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Iorex Wilkinson, elected as head of the Brixton representative faction in the National Assembly last year, promised this morning to 'seek assurances from the National Assembly that public utilities in Brixton will remain free to fly the phoenix flag'. Such assurances should prove unnecessary, however, given that the authority of the legislative body over individual provinces is strictly limited by the Alexiandran Constitution.

Hailey Applebaum
Assistant News Editor, The Great Power News Service
happlebaum@GPNS.ax.com

[Alexiandra]

Alexiandra Invests In New Cyber Warfare Branch

Joseph Aventi, Assistant Technology Editor
j.nati@gpns.ax.com


Just months after a crippling cyber attack temporarily paralysed local Alexiandran government in 2018, the Republic's National Assembly has voted 640-60 in favour of a new cyber security budget. The new legislation, proposed by Ariostin Representative Tom Lucas, allocates some AX$10bn to a new 'Cyber Warfare Division', which is to be headquartered in the capital of Lockbourne. While Alexiandra already possesses what experts describe as a 'sophisticated' cyber security network, faith in its efficacy was shaken by the devastating 'IllSurf' attacks of June 2018. Over the course of four days, unknown perpetrators succeeded in closing hospitals and rerouting transportation, resulting in thirty-five deaths and an estimated AX$450 million in economic losses. Introducing his bill yesterday afternoon, Representative Lucas declared that the new Cyber Warfare Division would 'ensure that our nation is never again ravaged by unseen attackers'.

Opposition to the proposal was attenuated, given the vast disruption the nation endured just eight months ago and the current divisions within the New Economic Party. Sequoia Brown, leader of the Opposition, described the Cyber Warfare Divison as a 'colossal waste of resources' and called attention to the 'ongoing dearth of consumer products in our urban centres'. His dissent met with opprobrium from the majority of the Assembly, however, with hundreds of government Representatives jeering until Speaker John Lucis was able to restore order. Taking the stand in a relatively rare example of public oration, President Harper Montferrat called upon the Assembly to 'shame' members of the Opposition, whom he blamed for 'engendering the very culture of complacency that allowed us to be caught off guard last year'. To rapturous applause, the President reminded the Republic's legislative body of 'the need to defend our People's Revolution from the forces of capitalist reaction - whether that reaction is delivered by air, sea, land or even electronically'.

7/2/19
12:04pm