Image is from this article, of a Chilean copper quarry.
Title is a reference to Trump's social media post about copper, which was, as usual, mostly deranged.
Trying to follow Trump's administration is pretty difficult, but as of right now, he is threatening 30% tariffs on Mexico and the EU starting on August 1st, as well as new tariff announcements on a bunch of other countries (including, bizarrely, a 50% tariff on Brazil), and also apparently a 50% tariff on copper, which the US imports half its supply of and is, of course, a very important metal in many applications.
I'm not sure what the plan is to bring back domestic copper production beyond hoping that it just sorta works out, but prominent copper producers, such as Chile and Canada, seem both concerned and confused. Reuters had a line that made me chuckle:
Boric said he was awaiting official communication from the U.S. government, including whether the tariffs would include copper cathodes, and questioned "whether this will actually be implemented or not."
Big mood, Boric.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
They'd probably be lugged around on land, because of the range of the system a TLAM launched from Lviv can still hit Moscow and St Petersburg. I highly doubt that Ukraine has suitable ships to carry the Mk 70 system, the "Ukrainian Navy", if it can be called that, mainly consists of unmanned surface vessels that can be rigged with explosives, launch short range surface to air missiles, or launch drones, manned patrol boats to shoot down incoming drones, and Neptune missiles. I doubt that Russia has the capability to take out launchers on land in Lviv in a time sensitive manner though. However they aren't being sent yet (according to public information), so this is very much talking about hypotheticals. But it is very much technically possible. As for delivery, a Mk 70 container can fit in the back of a C-17 that lands in Poland, and be sent over the Polish border by land. The super heavy trucks and support vehicles/command centres from the Typhon aren't required, just need a truck that can tow the container and an energy source, and some ability to program the missile, if the goal is to shoot some missiles deep into Russia. Effectiveness would be comprised as you rightfully point out, but if the primary goal is to launch missiles into Russia, it's still doable. Throughout the war, Ukraine and NATO have been willing to heavily compromise on optimal effectiveness in order to get a capability on the battlefield, which is what I'm basing my thoughts on here. Jerry rigging Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG cruise missiles to be launched from Su-24s, and HARM anti radiation missiles from MiG 29s and Su-27s as escorts, is in no way optimally effective for instance. But Ukraine still did it, and have at least hit things of note with these attacks, including damaging a Kilo class submarines and damaging or destroying multiple landing ships.
Ukrainian airstrikes on Russia have mainly been more of an annoyance up until now, targeting warehouses, drone operator locations, and trenches/fortified positions, but they are progressing as Ukraine gets more planes. Recently they started destroying bridges with JDAM ER glide bombs, and deploying multiple aircraft at once. The Russian response is very much "kill the archer and not the arrow", bombing Ukrainian airbases, airports, and support infrastructure during their nightly air raids. The low altitude attack vector limits the kind of airstrikes Ukraine carry out, but it also limits Russian ground based air defences ability to shoot down Ukrainian aircraft. If Russia wants to shoot down Ukrainian strike packages directly, Russian fighter jets are going to have to get closer to the line of contact and engage in closer range fights, with R-77 missiles at least. Launching R-37Ms from safely within Russian controlled skies is no longer working to disrupt strikes. Ex Russian Air Force pilot FighterBomber alluded to such a few weeks ago, that Russian commanders were finally allowing the air force to engage in closer range fights (he sarcastically compared it to the moon landing in terms of significance). Russia has the capability to suppress Ukraine's efforts before the Ukrainian Air Force becomes a more serious threat (even if it means Russia taking losses now), so it would be an error to allow Ukraine to rebuild the air force.