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.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
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.
Belgian court bans further transit of all military equipment to Israel in landmark ruling
https://pers.11.be/belgian-court-bans-further-transit-of-all-military-equipment-to-israel-in-landmark-ruling
Newsmega doesn’t really talk about Belgium, so if people are interested I can post more.
I’m an American, so probably the #1 reason I’m here is to get news from other places around the world. It doesn’t even have to be major news like this.
I would love to hear more about the arms manufacturer LARPing as a state. (Unironically, despite the tone of my comment lol)
our neolib government legit wants to turn every aspect of society towards arms manufacturing now. its scary af
Belgium is basically three gun manufacturers in a trench coat
Give me the Belgium news of ya got it. I just know about waffles (good) and I bet there's more to Belgium than that... Share your knowledge comrade
we got one of the most active and radical ML parties on the subcontinent!
Fuck ya I need to know more!
the left in belgium is broadly divided between the socdems, greens and communists (workers party of belgium, the party i was referring to). because of how the federal system in belgium works every "ideology" is split into two parties by language (french and flemish), so you have two parties for green, two for nationalists (french and flemish ones) two for liberals etc etc. the WPB is the only party that is not split between languages (bc of the unity of the working class). WPB polls around 10 percent nationally, a bit less popular in the flemish region (its more petite bourgeois). best result was in Brussels, where WPB polled at 20% with french speakers, almost overtaking socdems (22%) and liberals (25%).
but elections are a kind of a minor part of the party's work. there is a lot of focus on building relations with local communities and struggles (tenants, workers, students etc), as well as making international contacts. (the general secretary even did an interview with BT news!). the seats in government are used to amplify workers voices and challenge the current neolib coalition (the flemish nationalists, french liberals, both centrist parties, and flemish socdems). i think because of all of this on the ground work the party has a lot of legitimacy among the working class.
thats like a basic overview. i can answer more questions obviously
so ive heard! i also really recommend our congress papers to see how the party works in a lot of detail
That's pretty cool. Especially the on the ground work. Definitely what makes the pitch to the working class more obvious when you can point to current and genuine work.
Also love that the party isn't split by language. Neat in context.
Appreciate the overview since obviously no idea about it until now. If there is relevant Belgium news or analysis you post you can bet atleast I'll read it.
Is there any chance this result will help similar results happen in other nations?
I think so! Most arms exports laws forbid exporting to countries committing war crimes, so forcing the judiciary to make a similar ruling like in Belgium is very realistic.
The strategy so far seems to be “pretend Israel is not committing war crimes” so hopefully Belgium’s acknowledgement will make that more difficult for the rest of them