The VKS (Valkyrian: Valkyrisk kringkastingsselskap), known in Austral as the Valkyrian Broadcasting Corporation, is the national broadcaster of the Valkyrian Republic. Before September 2022, the VKS was known as the KTN. The VKS is owned by the Valkyrian government but retains constitutional editorial independence.
Predecessor newsfeed: KTN Breaking News (archived link)
Ravneby — The Storting passed the Gender and Sexual Identity Rights Act 2022 on Tuesday, a historic law that marks the first time a Valkyrian legislature passed legislation expanding rainbow rights. Previously, such rights only came after a referendum, with repeated criticism from human rights activists that people’s rights should not be at the mercy of direct democracy.
The legislation reiterates existing rights and freedoms, such as same‑sex marriage and polyamory. It also enumerates transgender rights that had only been mentioned in the Valkyrian constitution without any statutory enforcement. As such, transgender people will now have the right to receive gender‑affirming treatment from the National Health Service and gain protection against hate crimes and other forms of discrimination.
The National Police will now have a hate crimes division to investigate acts of hate speech and violence against anyone potentially targeted due to their gender or sexual identity. Until now, the National Police did not have a specialised division for hate crimes. The new division will also investigate similar crimes committed against other protected groups in Valkyria.
Furthermore, the new law requires the Immigration Service to expedite the applications of rainbow individuals in states where their gender or sexual identity puts them at risk. Under previous law, sexual identity was the only protected migrant group. Additionally, the legislation prohibits Valkyria from giving international aid to states with discriminatory policies and diverts such assistance to states that protect against discrimination.
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The human rights law includes some symbolic acts as well, such as recognising five different pride flags as official variants of the Valkyrian flag and several awareness periods throughout the year. During these periods, students will receive education on the history of gender and sexual identity, discrimination, human rights movements, and prominent figures.
During the third reading of the bill, Prime Minister Steve Bennett said the legislation was “long overdue” and would ensure the rights and freedoms of a historically oppressed community in Valkyria. The bill faced staunch resistance from the right-wing opposition and religious organisations. Nicole Chancellor, the leader of The New Right, called the bill an “affront to the natural state of things and Valkyrian tradition”.
The Gender and Sexual Identity Rights Act 2022 passed in a 376–229 vote, with the governing Alliance of Social Democrats overwhelmingly voting in favour alongside a few liberals and communists and nearly every member of the New Conservative Coalition voting against the bill. Jarlskona Kate Murphy signed the legislation within an hour of its passage in the Storting, a noticeable change from her promulgation of legislation during the Conservative government, which often occurred at the last minute.
In other news…
Ravneby — Valkyrian Prime Minister Steve Bennett announced on Thursday the completion of Valkyria’s withdrawal from Hystaiga, marking the effective end of the Kalkara War. The conflict began in November 2019 after then‑Prime Minister Stella Kaufman accused Hystaiga of shooting down a Valkyrian fighter jet mid‑October and complicity in a June 2019 chemical attack on a Ravneby nightclub.
While the National Police conducted investigations into the two incidents, the agency could not affirmatively conclude that Hystaiga was responsible for shooting down the fighter jet and attacking the nightclub and only said that Hystaiga could “plausibly have played a role” in the incidents. Nevertheless, the Storting declared war on 5 November, sparking international criticism by not letting the investigations run their course or first seeking dispute resolution with Hystaiga.
Bennett, who had only been the Socialist opposition leader at the time, opposed the Kalkara War from the beginning of the conflict. Due to his opposition to the war, Bennett was viewed unfavourably by 72% of Valkyrians in a March 2020 poll conducted by the KTN, making him the most unpopular party leader at the time, followed by The New Right leader Nicole Chancellor at 63% disapproval.
After successive military failures, rising deaths, and the death of Lucilla Steffánsdóttir Bennett, public opinion turned against the Conservative government and in favour of the Socialist leader, culminating in the largest protest in Valkyrian history in May 2021. Despite the protest, the governing New Conservative Coalition held firm on continuing the Kalkara War, with Kaufman arguing that a surge of troops from the military reserve would ensure eventual victory in the conflict.
However, the surge resulted in marginal gains on the battlefield without the Valkyrian Defence Force making any gains in cities that were characterised as Hystaigan strongholds that were regained by the Hystaigan resistance. While the Valkyrian military held on to Karelia, the Hystaigan capital, for nearly a year between April 2020 and April 2021, it could never regain control over the city, even through the mid‑year surge.
The Hystaigans’ ability to regain and hold on to Karelia provided the Hystaigan political and military leadership a firm base of operations and allowed resistance cells in other Hystaigan cities to weaken Valkyrian control before the Hystaigan military advanced on the occupied cities. To avoid potential encirclement in some cities, the Valkyrian military opted to withdraw, including in Dystalia in September 2021, where nearly 50,000 soldiers were said by several unnamed sources to have been surrounded for three hours before the Valkyrian military established control of an “escape corridor”.
Having won the general election in July 2022, Bennett announced that Valkyria would begin withdrawing troops from Hystaiga and end the Kalkara War, negotiating an armistice with Hystaigan Supreme Voice Blisse Starke in August to ensure a ceasefire during the withdrawal period. The agreement required the withdrawal to be complete by 1 October, during which the ceasefire would expire if Valkyria did not complete its withdrawal by then.
Despite having an armistice in place, the two states are still negotiating a final peace treaty. On 23 October, Hystaiga and Valkyria will conduct twin constitutional referendums to ask their respective populations whether future declarations of war must have authorisation from the World Forum. Other topics discussed during negotiations were reparations and having an independent investigation conducted by the World Forum, but these issues will remain unresolved until after the referendums are voted upon.
In other news…
Valkyrian Prime Minister Steve Bennett:
My fellow Valkyrians, in these past few days, I held three meetings: an intra-party discussion within the Socialist Party, a government parties discussion between Alliance leaders, and an all-party discussion between parliamentary leaders. In these talks, we agreed that Cordilia faces a threat – a fundamental threat – to peace, freedom, and democracy that must be confronted. Once again, the stability of this region has been undermined by Ryccia, a rogue state ruled by tyrants.
After three years of unjust war and struggle, we are a nation weary of war. However, we cannot idly stand by and watch the devastation we all saw in Doge Land and continue to see – the disgusting atrocities we saw committed by Ryccia against the forces of our Peonic neighbour in their illegal use of chemical weapons. It is clear that Ryccia is a nation ruled by war criminals who deserve nothing less than imprisonment for their crimes.
It is true that Valkyria is a nation tired of war, but we are as much a nation tired of injustice. As such, I am calling for a global coalition to isolate Ryccia economically, geographically, and politically and a World Forum resolution authorising international military action against Ryccian military forces operating beyond the Ryccian border. We must punish Ryccia for their egregious conduct – from their violation of national sovereignty to their use of illegal weapons.
As it stands, the Valkyrian Republic maintains longstanding sanctions against the Ryccian military regime in place for past transgressions against the rules and norms of international civil society. In the past, we sanctioned the military leadership of Ryccia, but we have now extended financial sanctions against all current Ryccian government officials, barring them from further access to Valkyrian bank accounts and the Pacifinext stock exchange.
Furthermore, we will sanction any state that aids or abets the Ryccian regime in this illegal and unjust invasion and use of banned weapons. The sanctions imposed on these states will be the same as the sanctions placed on Ryccia and will remain in place until we can determine that they are no longer assisting Ryccia in their illegal conduct.
This government will introduce legislation barring anyone from having both Ryccian and Valkyrian citizenship. Anyone who holds citizenship in both nations will have to decide which to retain. If a person were to retain Ryccian citizenship and renounce Valkyrian citizenship, they will have a specified deadline to leave this nation or face deportation by the Immigration Service.
However, we will continue to host all Ryccian refugees within Valkyria’s borders and welcome more as they come. All Ryccians requesting asylum will be treated in accordance with national and international law and shall receive due diligence in the processing of their requests for asylum. This also applies to all of Doge Land’s civilians seeking refuge from this unjust and unlawful war.
Valkyria is a nation that stands for peace, freedom, and democracy for all people, and it is for this reason that we will provide humanitarian aid to Doge Land and, following authorisation from the World Forum, open our railways as needed to the transport of Peonic troops, weapons, vehicles, and equipment through Valkyria and into the north toward Doge Land. Let it be known that we are actively considering further action to counter the Ryccian regime.
The move is a historic reversal of longstanding defence policy
Daniel Mikkelsen (he/him), Deputy politics writer
Wednesday, 19 October 2022
Ravneby — Valkyria will begin exporting missile defence systems to Cordilian states, Prime Minister Steve Bennett told the Storting on Wednesday. The decision marks a historic change to the longstanding Valkyrian policy on military exports, which had long been restricted as part of an effort to prevent the nation’s rivals from discovering the capabilities of Valkyrian weapons and other military technology.
However, the reversal is also out‑of‑character for Bennett, who emerged as a voice against violence during the Kalkara War. Defending his decision, Bennett argued that Valkyria will only export defensive or passive military technology that cannot be used for offensive purposes. By extension, the announcement ruled out the donation of Valkyrian small arms to states invaded by Ryccia, which had been a subject of debate within Valkyria.
Nonetheless, Bennett also stated that states receiving missile defence systems from Valkyria will undergo a “stringent review” by the Intelligence Directorate-General (Generaldirektoratet for Etterretning, GDE) to determine whether the states in question meet a set of criteria that ensures adequate arms control and limits on exportation. According to the prime minister, the GDE review should last no less than six months.
The policy change will not affect Huawan, which is set to receive 50 Týr air defence systems unconditionally from the Valkyrian government. Huawan will be exempt from the new export policy regime due to the “unique relationship” between the two neighbouring nations and the longstanding trust built between them.
In other news…
The World Forum will have the final say on their ability to declare war
Tove Jakobsdóttir (she/her), Chief politics writer
Thursday, 27 October 2022
Ravneby — The Valkyrian Electoral Commission announced the passage of Special Referendum 1 on Thursday following Sunday’s vote, amending the national constitution to limit the Valkyrian government’s ability to declare war. The announcement came after Hystaiga’s election authority confirmed the passage of their twin referendum on Wednesday. From now on, the two Cordilian states will need authorisation from the World Forum on any offensive declaration of war.
Valkyrian constitutional amendment:
Hystaigan constitutional amendment:
As a result of the two states passing the twin referendums, Hystaiga and Valkyria will be able to open a new chapter in their ongoing peace talks that may prove to be the most difficult phase. Hystaiga has been adamant in discussing reparations after the 23 October vote, an issue that divided Valkyrians in a recent VKS poll, with 43 per cent saying that Valkyria should pay nothing in reparations versus 40 per cent saying otherwise.
The Valkyrian government has said little about whether they will agree to pay reparations to Hystaiga. During the 19 October Questioning session in the Storting, The New Right leader Nicole Chancellor asked for the government’s position on reparations, resulting in Prime Minister Steve Bennett responding that “we will have to wait and see”. The issue of reparations will represent Bennett’s biggest challenge yet during his premiership, tackling an issue that will affect both Hystaiga and Valkyria for at least a generation.
In other news…
The move will significantly curtail private property ownership in Valkyria
Tove Jakobsdóttir (she/her), Chief politics writer
Monday, 14 November 2022
Ravneby — The Valkyrian government will abolish landlordism, Prime Minister Steve Bennett said in a speech from the Utøvende on Monday. Following months of interparty negotiations, the governing Alliance of Social Democrats have agreed to specific legislation that will abolish rental housing ownership in Valkyria.
Entitled the Housing Act 2022, the legislation will authorise the national government to expropriate all private property in Valkyria that is either actively being used as rental housing or has been used for that purpose at any time since 2019. The bill also sets a timeline to ban all rental housing by 2026.
The move to nationalise housing in Valkyria has been a long-term goal of the Socialist Party, which gained piecemeal reforms from former Prime Minister Margaret Harrison, whose homelessness legislation came with significant backing from leftists in the Alliance. With the proposed Housing Act, Bennett says homelessness will become nonexistent by the decade’s end in Valkyria.
The Alliance, a bloc of democratic socialists, social democrats, pirates, and green leftists, reached an agreement in principle in July to nationalise housing but its implementation was a matter of debate for months, culminating in a November breakthrough that will see the Socialists achieving total victory on the issue. Following fierce protests against landlands in Ravneby, Gullkysten, and other Valkyrian cities, rent could be a thing of the past.
Under the terms of the Housing Act, the national government will raise taxes to expropriate private housing, maintain the properties, and end monthly rent payments for all tenants as late as January 2026. By then, no person in Valkyria will be legally allowed to rent out property to another person. The legislation will also indefinitely extend an eviction moratorium that was implemented during the GID-20 pandemic.
Anyone in Valkyria who is currently or in danger of becoming homeless will be able to register at a housing office or online for a home within 50 kilometres of their place of usual habitation. The bill will also allocate funding for additional social workers to visit homeless people and help them find shelter.
Monday’s announcement by the prime minister was met with vociferous criticism from the New Conservative Coalition, the Liberal Party, and Valkyrian business leaders, with Liberal leader Jason Sullivan calling the proposed legislation the “death of capitalism” in Valkyria. Some Coalition politicians, such as New Right leader Nicole Chancellor, took to Stream to compare the leftist government to Bruuma.
Political observer Ryan Danielson told the VKS that the Housing Act will be the Valkyrian government’s biggest challenge yet on an issue that has “animated” the conservative and liberal opposition, “For a bill like this, which is the most socialist bill to have ever stood any real chance of passing, we will see how far left this government will be able to go in a historically conservative nation such as ours.”
However, University of Ravneby politics professor Njála Sigurdsdóttir says that Valkyria has been undergoing a left-wing shift in political balance dating back to Patrick Beckley’s presidency in the early 2000s, “The Valkyrian people are reacting to what they see as the excesses of capitalism – inequality, homelessness, and an increasingly out of reach cost of living. This change has been happening for a long time, and we’re finally seeing it come to a head.”
Financial markets reacted negatively to Bennett’s announcement, with the real estate industry facing the biggest blows. Pacifinext was down 4.86% at closing, but housing companies on the index were down a staggering 29.57% on average. Despite the negative financial reaction, Bennett is expected to move forward with the proposed law, as he has long called the stock market an “unacceptable gauge” of political support.
In other news…
Valkyrian prime minister under fire after unveiling nationalisation plan
Ravneby — Just a day after announcing the Housing Act 2022, a bill that would nationalise rented private property in Valkyria, the Valkyrian prime minister took to the floor of the Storting to defend what he called “distortions and misinformation” about the legislation.
The Monday announcement drew criticism from conservative and liberal politicians, businesspeople, financial markets, and foreign leaders who issued varying statements of concern and trepidation. From comparisons to Bruuma to concerns about fair compensation, the Valkyrian government’s proposed housing bill drew a global reaction that reportedly caught the government by surprise, according to sources associated with the Alliance of Social Democrats.
Prime Minister Steve Bennett said it was “disingenuous” for opposition politicians and foreign leaders to draw comparisons between the proposed legislation and the Bruuma, “Valkyria is a multiparty democracy while they are a dictatorship.” The Socialist leader also stated that the government was democratically elected in July to carry out the agenda that led to the Housing Act.
The Valkyrian prime minister also accused his critics of hypocrisy, “The opposition repeatedly talk about the homelessness crisis, yet they often stand for policies that will worsen that same crisis.” Bennett claimed that the Housing Act would implement the constitutionally-protected right to housing by ensuring “every person in our nation will have a roof to sleep under”.
Despite his defence of the proposed housing bill, Bennett did not state whether landlords would receive fair compensation. Following a question posed to him by Opposition Leader Stella Kaufman on the matter, the prime minister only said, “They will be compensated.”
Following the chorus of criticism against the proposed legislation, the Valkyrian Renters Association and the Valkyrian Workers Union came out in favour of the Housing Act, calling the legislation “a necessary bill to solve the homelessness crisis amid a skyrocketing cost of living”.
Meanwhile, protests both in favour and against the proposed legislation have begun in Ravneby, signalling the start of a possibly long and arduous debate.
In other news…
Government budget analysis says Valkyria cannot do both without major tax raises
Tove Jakobsdóttir (she/her), Chief politics writer
Tuesday, 3 January 2023
Ravneby — The Valkyrian government stands between a rock and a hard place after the Statistics Agency published its analysis of the proposed Kalkara War reparations package and the housing expropriation bill. According to the independent government research agency, the government will not be able to fund both proposals without dramatically raising taxes at all income levels, cutting spending on other programmes, or a combination of the two.
For Bennett and his Socialist Party, abolishing rent and reaching a peace agreement with Hystaiga were both central to their winning campaign in July, but the analysis provided on expropriation and reparations, two aspects of both issues, has the government in a bind on funding and keeping their promises.
Emilie Jenssen, a politics professor at the University of Ravneby, said that the Socialists “promised too much in too little time”. Jenssen called the current situation the Socialists find themselves in as predictable, “They were bound to hit a brick wall with their sweeping agenda, but now reality has set in, and they will now have to upset either the housing or peace activists in their coalition.”
Reacting to the analysis, the Valkyrian Renters Association stated that the government can afford to expropriate the housing industry and pay reparations to Hystaiga simultaneously, “This is a false dilemma when the government is fully capable of accomplishing both tasks.” The Valkyrian Workers Union made a similar statement, writing that the government can find the funding to expropriate and pay reparations.
Opposition leader Stella Kaufman wrote on Stream that the government is “threatening to bankrupt the nation with programmes that are impossible to fund”. Kaufman, the former prime minister, called the expropriation plan an “example of communist theft” and rebuked the reparations promised to Hystaiga by asking, “Where are the reparations for the people they killed on Valkyrian land?”
After having seen the Statistics Agency report, several officials associated with the Socialist Party have told the VKS that the government may push back the timeline that the Housing Act 2023 outlines. According to the current proposal, the government would have to nationalise the entire private housing industry by 2026, but officials have said that the timeline may be set back at least a decade – 2036 – or more to prioritise reparations to Hystaiga.
When asked if the government may renege on the reparations promised to Hystaiga, the officials said that was a nonstarter because Bennett allegedly made the promise directly to Supreme Voice Blisse Starke and that he believes that peace with Hystaiga takes precedence over expropriating housing. So far, no one in the government has been willing to speak publicly on the Statistics Agency report.
In other news…
Populist Left joins conservatives and communists to keep ban
Tove Jakobsdóttir (she/her), Chief politics writer
Tuesday, 28 February 2023
Ravneby — The Valkyrian parliamentary human rights committee voted 13–12 with one abstention to suspend work on drafting a bill that would have repealed a Kaufman-era ban on proselytism, the attempt at converting a person to another religion. In the vote, the three members representing the Populist Left joined the New Conservative Coalition and the Communist Party to prevent its advancement to the third reading.
The Populist Left as a party represents left-wing voters who are more likely to have agnostic or atheistic beliefs and support a general ban on proselytism as opposed to the conservatives who are more likely supportive of policies that protect the Valrissi religion, which is the ban’s apparent goal based on past statements from members of The New Right and the Northern Party.
The ban on proselytism originates from the Immigration Regulatory Act 2019 (IRA 19), which had initially been a ban on such actions by noncitizens. However, a full ban was imposed after the passage of the Valkyrian Culture Act 2021 (VCA 21). In both instances, the ban was sent to the Constitutional Court for review by Jarlskona Kate Murphy.
When the Constitutional Court ruled on IRA 19, it determined that it was unconstitutional to prevent noncitizens from adhering to their religions but also stated that the Valkyrian parliament can restrict people from proselytizing, giving way to VCA 21, which implemented a total ban on the act. With the latter bill, the Constitutional Court reiterated the legality of the ban, allowing the law to enter into effect.
The issue of proselytism has been divisive in Valkyria, with a majority of Valrissi adherents supporting a ban to prevent what they say is an encroachment on the national religion and culture. Human rights organisations and adherents of other religions say that the ban is a violation of a person’s fundamental rights. A December 2022 poll conducted by the VKS shows that the Valkyrian people are evenly divided on the ban.
In other news…
Valkyria to nationalise housing under compromise plan and pay reparations at vastly less than expected amount
Tove Jakobsdóttir (she/her), Chief politics writer
Tuesday, 7 March 2023
Ravneby — The Valkyrian government released its plans on expropriation and reparations on Tuesday, ending months of speculation and setting up what could become a heated debate in the Storting and among the public.
In a two-part speech from the Utøvende, Prime Minister Steve Bennett first announced the government’s final draft on housing expropriation, a proposal that will see rental housing all but disappear throughout Valkyria if the bill passes. Under the premise of abolishing rent, the recently-elected socialist government has spent four months soliciting public input and refining the legislation to follow through on a campaign promise Bennett made in the 2022 general election.
In the final draft of the Housing Act 2023, the government will ban rental housing on 1 January 2030, four years later compared to the original proposal, which proposed a ban starting by 2026. If passed the eviction moratorium imposed at the start of the GID-20 pandemic will be extended to the same day by which rental housing will be banned, essentially imposing a permanent ban on evictions.
When the bill was first announced in November, it was met with criticism from conservatives and liberals, some of whom called the legislation a death blow to the free market in Valkyria. However, the Housing Act gained a boost in popularity when former Prime Minister Margaret Harrison announced her support for the bill. Despite losing the 2019 election, Harrison remained a popular politician among Valkyrians, allowing her to remain an impactful voice in Ravneby politics and give Bennett a hand in pushing the legislation.
Recent polling conducted by the VKS shows that 54 per cent of Valkyrians support the government’s proposed expropriation, but international reactions to the bill have been divided by celebration and apprehension. Leaders from the Pelinese and Stoinian governments responded to the proposal by suggesting that the Housing Act is a slippery slope toward authoritarianism. However, the legislation received support from Frost President Revan Kensei, who said that the government was “taking the first definitive steps to [end] a parasitic practice that harms countless people”.
After discussing the expropriation plan, Bennett turned to the peace talks with Hystaiga, announcing that the government had provisionally agreed to pay 200 billion vekts to Hystaiga in four annual instalments adjusted for inflation in each payment after the first. The amount agreed to is vastly less than what was expected when it was reported in late November that the government had agreed to pay 2.1 trillion vekts, more than 10 times the amount announced by Bennett on Tuesday.
When the initial reports of 2.1 trillion vekts being agreed to in reparations came out, the news disrupted the peace talks between Hystaiga and Valkyria with thousands of Valkyrians protesting against paying the reparations. Opposition politicians such as Conservative leader Stella Kaufman accused the government of bankrupting the country and robbing a generation of national wealth.
However, Bennett’s 200 billion vekt announcement came as a relief to the financial markets, with Pacifinext rising 2.5 per cent at closing. The discrepancy between the reported and actual amount to be paid in reparations came as a surprise to many financial observers, so much so that The Gullkysten Post, the news organisation which had initially reported the 2.1 trillion amount, had to issue a retraction and apologize.
Despite the lower amount, the conservative opposition remained adamant about paying a single vekt in reparations. Kaufman, who had been the prime minister who initiated the Kalkara War, remains defiant that Valkyria had been the victim of Hystaigan aggression and should not pay any reparations to Hystaiga. New Right leader Nicole Chancellor called the reparations an “act of acquiescence to a terrorist state”.
The Storting is planning on holding final votes on both expropriations and reparations as early as 13 March.
In other news…
