The WHO has recently declared Smartphones a public health problem. It's interesting that the real problem here seems to be addictive and abusive algorithms deployed by social media and gaming companies but that's not mentioned because those are where the capitalists make their money and it's forbidden to interfere with their profit generation or point that out. Instead they paint it as this vague addiction of which social media is depicted as merely a small part but the real problem is the hardware, the Smartphones and too much use and access to them. And the real issue is people are distracted at work (and school) and productivity is suffering.  And the solution is bans on use of smartphones at schools and crackdowns on use at work because we can't have the proles enjoying the addictive treats we've made to distract them from their horrible lives while they're supposed to be earning us money, those are for while they're taking 2 hours in their commute to get to work or for while they're at home too exhausted to cook or get up off the couch. Just an interesting observation I had. I will be the opposite of shocked when they try and make smartphone lockers at work a thing or implement AI in cameras that detects smartphone usage outside of breaks and applies penalties.
darkcalling Now • 100%
India of course wants to compete against China's electric car market. The west will likely not allow them to displace domestic manufacturers in the US but the US may coerce them into opening plants in the US using their lithium supply to allow their brands to penetrate, the US also I would guess promises them to help drive out Chinese brands from global markets and to give those markets to the Indian firms or at least that's how the Indians will understand it and probably the desire of the US (with an intent to eventually take control of those companies or at least ensure western bourgeoisie own a huge chunk to earn most of the profits).
Regarding China's rise and partnerships with African states. While there are clear-headed leaders who understand the history of colonialism and reach for China, there are just as many mercenary leaders and those of a comprador, western-boot-licking nature in Africa who will taken some token debt relief in exchange for selling out their people and resources to the west. So China's ascendancy through win-win cooperation is by no means guaranteed. For that to work both sides must have long-term visions and understandings of history which is something liberals are terrible at in both directions (past/future).
Let us recall history and remember that the USSR was starting to make inroads with former colonies and victim nations of imperialism after the second world war and that the US used coups, installation of brutal dictators, ethnic conflicts they fanned the flames of, compradors, threats of economic sanction and later in the century terrorism and extremism to blunt this type of independent thinking that would have helped the USSR. That hope has been crushed before as detailed for example in William Blum's excellent "Killing Hope" book and in fact was systemically killed in the 50s through 70s with a new wave with new tactics of broad regional destabilization based off for example the Grand Chessboard type of thinking really taking root from the 70s to 90s.
The road for China is not as smooth of sailing as many like to sell it here. The US still has a lot of potency and strength coming right off the back of its era as a unipolar hegemon. That strength exists economically for coercion and sanctions, in military terms including its NATO navy and air force which polices the world and can enforce sanctions (also including hundreds of bases across the globe in nations that submit themselves to the US boot from Jordan to those in Africa itself even with the loss of the AES/sahel states), as well as dollar hegemony, and the fact they are the gatekeepers with the final say for access to the advanced and wealthy markets of the US/Canada, EU, and their occupied Asian vassals of Korea and Japan, as well as their southern hemisphere long-time colonies Australia/New Zealand which is a part of the economic strength but one that bears underlining.
The population of China+Russia is 1.5 billion but both are experiencing demographic problems from lowered birth rates so that's expected to fall (the west by contrast is all too happy to bolster its populations via immigration for purposes of exploitation and domestic labor discipline so isn't as vulnerable to the kinds of sharp drops Russia/China may be) and we must remember though China has done a great deal in lifting hundreds of millions out of absolute poverty and creating a thriving middle class that several hundreds of millions of those people are not consumers for various goods due to still lacking economic mobility as well as being adapted to say village as opposed to city life. A young Chinese person in a city is going to buy all kinds of goods but a Chinese person who is in their 70s, who grew up in poverty, who lives a simpler life in a village and who isn't terribly well off even if not in absolute poverty isn't necessarily a customer for an electric car company or for many other types of consumer goods that China produces. The real amount of people that China would have in a decoupling and 2-camps situation between themselves, Russia, and a few friends like Vietnam as a market for its production of consumer goods is likely more in the 800 million to 1 billion range which puts it roughly on par with the combined west of USA, Canada, EU/NATO, Australia, NZ, Japan, occupied Korea.
So then you have a situation of two roughly matched populations with one having the benefits of pre-existing hegemony and power and concentrated wealth as well as access to India a population of 1 billion to exploit selling western brands and making cheap goods for export to the west. So the road for China and BRICS (well BR*CS+ because India is all too happy to sell out to the west while pretending to be shrewd and getting deals) is a potentially rough one. We are looking at the strong possibility of a second full cold war or echoes of one at least with strong economic and trade barriers put up by the west and effectively two blocs plus bystanders who lean one way or the other.
There are positive headwinds compared to last time around after WW2 of course. The US is no longer an empire in its ascendancy phase as it was, it has (hopefully) peaked (if it hasn't it means the destruction and looting of China and barbarism reigning forever over humankind), there seem to be many in the global south who've learned the lessons of last century and want cooperation with China. China is exceptionally strong and well developed, the US is looking exceptionally winded in military technology for instance, the gap is widening somewhat in China's favor.
But the US and co can and still are going to put up a tough fight and China is still left contending with the fact that many in the west would rather nuke the whole world than let it fall to communism, than give up white supremacy and their own primacy and rule and thus left placating them and trying to stall for time and put off the confrontation and avoid provoking them too much. From such a position China cannot exercise its full strength.
www.rt.com
Filed under: Decoupling is real and happening AND India is not really a friend to the global south but happy to join with the US to backstab China for some very limited gain of its own > New Delhi and Washington are seeking to reduce their dependence on China, which dominates the lithium supply chain > India and the US have signed an agreement to “expand and diversify” critical supply chains for lithium, cobalt and other critical minerals, New Delhi announced on Friday. > > Both countries are seeking to overcome their reliance on China, which dominates the global supply of lithium, a mineral essential for electric vehicle manufacture and the clean energy economy. > > The pact, signed on Thursday by Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who is visiting Washington this week, and his US counterpart Gina Raimondo, will “leverage complementary strengths to ensure greater resilience in the critical minerals sector.” > > The two countries are focusing on “identifying equipment, services, policies, and best practices” to explore, extract, process, and refine critical minerals.” > > According to Reuters, Goyal described the partnership as multi-dimensional, encompassing open supply chains for materials, technology development, and investment flows to promote green energy. He noted that the US and India will need to engage with third countries, including mineral-rich nations in Africa and South America. > > India has been exploring ways to boost lithium production, both domestically and in third countries. New Delhi is particularly looking to Africa to meet its mineral demands, especially Zambia, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, and Mozambique. Several African nations have approached the Indian government, offering access to their resources in exchange for repayment of part of their development loans. > [...] > China currently controls nearly 70% of the global lithium supply, and larger shares of cobalt, graphite, and manganese – other minerals vital for green technology. India recently discovered lithium reserves in Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir, but does not yet produce lithium domestically, relying entirely on imports. This comes off the back of the EU signaling it has the votes and has agreed to implement tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in the bloc. China's electric vehicle makers are doomed to be excluded from the core west (population 750 million - 1 billion depending on if all countries eventually are pulled in or just EU+US) and confined to China and limited sales in various developed and semi-developed regions in the global. [(Archive link)](https://archive.ph/0iacj)
darkcalling Now • 100%
Are you perhaps thinking of “buggary” which referred to any “unnatural” sex act. That included all anal sex, sex with animals. Really anything in theory but PIV sex between a man and woman. Not so much a biblical thing as something in western law derived from Christianity.
In different places it’s had different connotations and legal definitions though and in reforms of the western legal code its definition underwent various reforms, some progressive, others not so.
But that has nothing to do with biblical definitions or doctrine from over 5 centuries ago.
Considering the bible has instances of girls (underage) to be taken for the pleasure of conquering men in god’s chosen army and considering it has a payment system and mandatory marriage of rapists to their victims I’m fairly confident that any condemnations of abusing children is merely a way of condemning homosexual man/boy acts which the Romans did practice and not Man/girl for instance.
Christianity going back to verified pre-European (Dead Sea scrolls) sources is a mixture of teachings, many socially reactionary and some progressive. Trying to make it approve of modern understandings of human sexuality (sexuality was seen in terms of acts not of attractions or being born a given way) when it’s so old is not likely to yield success as reactionaries who can read Ancient Greek and Aramaic will have points to score against such attempts.
darkcalling Now • 50%
It seems very likely that the intelligence breach came from Iran's side or at least that they have serious problems with infiltration both of the human assets kind and the electronic hacking kind.
It's also worrying if this is true that Hezbollah lacked any kind of sufficiently deep and fortified command bunker to withstand the blast of a single bunker buster munition or that he wasn't moved to it.
I'm not convinced that in a full war that the zionists wouldn't be able to just shut down Iran's command and control and leave them pretty uncoordinated before a coordinated US-zionist assault. They wouldn't be able to knock them out in one blow but they could put them on enough of a back-foot that they'd be in a awful position to attempt to fight back against air power and lose air supremacy in their own country meaning the US and the zionists would just permanently occupy their skies and blow up anything military looking from the air without even needing to put boots on the ground. It could take Iran out of the picture as a regional power and plunge their people into economic misery for a decade easily. This could allow a US regime change attempt as they're the final domino in controlling the middle east and there's already a lot of discontent among the people there after so many years under sanctions.
Fact is the zionists regularly killed Iranian nuclear scientists in drive-by shootings so internal security in Iran is not that tight. Add to it the fact they planted a bomb in a safe house to kill the lead Hamas negotiator and they've compromised them pretty badly.
darkcalling Now • 100%
He believes they remain secure even after the successful assassination of Nasrallah. He discussed in an interview with Judge Napolitano that the attack was the result of a humint breach (he saw the fact that Netanyahu approved it from the US the opportunity presenting itself through new intel) and stressed that it’s hard to get senior people to do things like never use cell phones (Note that an Iranian Republican Guard members were also killed in the same meeting; it’s possible the breach came from the Iran side).
This tracks with my thoughts.
And that interview was well worth the listen.
darkcalling Now • 100%
The North Star (1943)
Mission to Moscow (1943)
The Murder of Fred Hampton
Harlan County, USA
Z (1969)
Strike (1925)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Reds (1981)
Spartacus (1960)
Come and See (1985)
They Live
I Am Not Your Negro
darkcalling Now • 100%
What do people make of the fact that every time they do this and claim most penetrated and that they hit objectives on the ground causing destruction and then in the US it's just denial, that 99% of them were stopped actually and the only ones that got through hit a Palestinian man walking his dog or some shit.
On the one hand I get they want to make the zionists look strong, but on the other wouldn't it lend itself to greater urgency and frothing rage if they met the Iranian narrative half-way and said that actually a number got through and damaged a fighter plane or two and therefore this is why we must immediately approve another 500 billion for the arms manufacturers?
Is it just that the zionists cannot admit that the iron dome failed and the western sources have to tail them and repeat whatever they say verbatim despite it being contrary to the interests of the warmongers?
Or is Iran inflating its numbers a bit?
Because thinking about it, if Iran's attack were to mostly fail or get intercepted and they don't want escalation (clearly they don't, all along they've been trying their hardest to back away) wouldn't it be in their interests rather than admit their attack failed and that they have to up the ante to instead just lie, say it worked instead? That way they can save face and act like they achieved something while not actually really provoking the zionists much thus preventing escalation?
I don't know what to believe here. There are too many parties who benefit from lies out of either end for me to decide. I'm sure they didn't get 100% interception rate but Iran's claims of taking out multiple F-35s also seems rather rosy.
Not surprising from the company that had a rampant culture of sexual abuse and harassment, drunken "cube crawls", a "cosby suite" at their annual convention, protected sexual abusers for years and hired a former Bush administration torture apologist lawyer to defend them in a PR and legal campaign that ultimately led to them beating any legal consequences on technicalities. Waze is owned by Google but was founded by people linked to the infamous isn'treali intelligence unit 8200 and is still developed in occupied Palestine by settlers. Google as has been previously reported is on its own deeply in bed with the zionist intelligence and repression apparatus and its occupation military. In this case they're licensed one of their key characters from their World of Warcraft franchise as a voice assistant in the navigation app as we near the 1-year-anniversary of the completely legal action by the resistance on Oct 7th to use violence to resist. As well as the 1 year anniversary of the start of a genocide against the Palestinian people and outsized aggression against sovereign states in violation of international law and acts against civilians outside of Palestine which violate international law. https://www.wowhead.com/news/new-waze-world-of-warcraft-voice-pack-let-thrall-guide-your-path-to-work-347160
darkcalling Now • 100%
AFAIK China’s opening up didn’t occur until the 80s or hit its stride until the 90s.
darkcalling Now • 87%
That Israel is not interested in compromise, only escalation, and that this is a fight to death – not just against Israel but against the West that sponsors Israel.
That Israel’s ideological extremism – its Jewish supremacism, and its endless craving for Lebensraum
I suppose those who would stand to suffer most from seeing this would be most reluctant to act but to me it's been obvious based off the fact the leader of the zionist regime is very likely headed for prison and disgrace the moment the crisis ends that there are no off-ramps and never were. Add on that the nature of the colony is to do just this and its simply speeding up its long-term goals to exploit a crisis that they probably let happen (Oct 7) on purpose for their own ends and well the picture is pretty clear. We're basically a year in and by the time they started antagonizing Iran it became obvious they were fishing for a larger fight to draw the US in.
So not fighting them is pointless in my opinion. Conserving strength only works if you can actually conserve it. If they start decapitating your leadership structure using unprecedented mass supply-chain interdiction terror attacks it's time to get things into gear because they've declared war on you. You can't conserve your strength against an enemy like this, you can only lie down before them while they murder all your leadership and anyone else they can and are great at identifying sadly as they are a very good hacking regime.
There are basically two choices here in light of the reality and one is to stop any antagonism of the zionist entity, stop firing rockets, stop trying to drive their settlers out, stop trying to tie up their forces in the north to help Hamas in the south and basically take off your militant clothes, bury your weapons and plan to revisit the matter in 4-5 years as otherwise you're just lying down to be slaughtered which makes them stronger while you grow weaker. The other is to acknowledge the reality, acknowledge you're in a life or death struggle, that by attacking them as they engage in a genocide and by virtue of them striking back and decapitating your leadership in a mass terrorist attack and to fully commit. To hunker down, to distribute command structures, to not wait for them but go on the offensive against them and their backers.
Those are the only two logical choices. I can see why Hassan Nasrallah didn't move quickly, he struck me as a thoughtful man. I really can. He had such responsibility but the pager attack should have shown that they were not going to stop or back down or negotiate, that they had good intelligence, that they'd penetrated everything, that they probably knew everything including locations of command bunkers and that it was a now or never. At that point they'd tried to kill him and he and those around him couldn't do enough to keep him alive from their second attack even knowing it was imminent. This is the tactical reality they exist in. But Nasrallah was a good man, a man who didn't want to bring more bloodshed. And for it he was killed in a bunker that wasn't enough to protect him, along with allegedly we are now learning an Iranian official.
I am deeply suspicious that the Iranian official led the zionists to where Nasrallah was, unwittingly of course. But it does raise an interesting if disturbing thought and that is what if there are those highly placed in the Iranian government who want to conspire with the zionist entity to remove their conservative and hard-liners. To sue for a secret peace with the entity as well as their backers by making sure all those who would get in the way of them lying down before the west would be out of the picture beforehand. There is no evidence for this as of yet and we shouldn't really seriously consider it, but the fact is the zionists do have an incredible penetration of Iran on an intelligence level as well as that of the rest of the resistance and it's a damn big problem.
People talk of the zionist entity's fall being imminent, to the contrary I think they've not been stronger in some time. They're butchering their enemies while those enemies stay their hand because the US is near at hand glaring all the while also lying and claiming peace will come soon to keep their hands stayed. Yes it might be the beginning of a shift of public opinion in the west against them but they could care less. And it is a problem for the latter end of this decade or next. The zionist public opinion apparatus is so strong and entrenched I wouldn't be shocked that once the genocide is over their approval numbers go up and there's never a growing movement in the west to boycott, divest, and sanction them. The far right will recruit from those disillusioned by this, spread actual anti-semitism which the zionists will be gleeful to see. It's all going better to plan than it has in a long while for them. Public sentiment against them doesn't matter, it just pulls their people together more cohesively and they see it as a tool to recruit more Jews from abroad to them.
darkcalling Now • 100%
I doubt it. Nothing so far has caused the resistance to lash out. I mean we are seeing escalation but it's entirely driven by the zionist need to escalate.
I really doubt Iran is going to get involved, there isn't going to be WW3, just more little people suffering from the genocidal violence of a white supremacist settler state.
darkcalling Now • 94%
Absolutely awful. He was a good man from all I read. I’m angry and frustrated. It shows the Zionists can and will get to anyone who resists them even someone deep in a bunker of vital importance and top security. It shows the area and the world they are strong and will punish those who challenge them and kill them without any doubt due to their extensive intelligence and infiltration. As they have done with indiscriminate terrorism with the pager attacks.
And still the resistance does nothing.
The Zionists have completely decapitated the command structure of Hezbollah and much of Hamas. They’ve murdered top Iranian commanders and still they sit on their hands.
What are they waiting for? What more could the US do other than inflict itself on civilians harder than the Zionists. They keep saying their response will come but who will plan it? As waiting has allowed the Zionists to kill most of the top leadership everywhere but Yemen. Within 6 months they’ll probably kill another high ranking Iranian because they can. And the genocide of Palestinians will continue. And the bombing of Lebanon into submission will continue.
It is disgraceful if this great man dies without being avenged, if all those who’ve died in the resistance are not avenged. If the Palestinian genocide is not answered.
Rest in power. A true hero of the anti-imperialist resistance.
darkcalling Now • 100%
I am so sick of this shit. Lebanon would be devastated in a war with the zionist entity but they are being anyways. Hezbollah should stop turning the other cheek. It's obvious Benny is not going to stop until he gets a war or destroys his enemies because he's going to prison once the crisis is over so he can only escalate. The US meanwhile is putting on a pathetic show chasing after him pretending to beg and plead for peace while having no intention of making them stop and being there to support them with weapons and money 100% of the way and the zionist entity knows it.
Hasan Nasrallah seems an intelligent, reasonable man from what I know of him. Restrained even. But what credibility does the axis of resistance have if they allow this to continue? It's not like the US is going to force "israel" to stop. It's not like they are going to stop on their own. They could just keep on pushing the goalposts until they actually succeed in decapitating and destroying most of the resistance outside of Iran with these attacks (all while the US sobs for calm and promises they're on the right track to peace after a year of this genocide and aggression) or at least put them on such an awful foot that they can't stand up very long in a war.
I increasingly believe it's a question of whether they sit there and let themselves be destroyed to be seen as noble and peaceful victims who liberals can have a high opinion of and hope that somehow translates to a movement to actually isolate and destroy the zionist colony in the long-term (with hopes something happens in the medium-term that means the zionists eventually get tired of bombing after weakening their enemies badly and decide not to do any annexing today) OR to finally realize this isn't going to be resolved peacefully except through their deaths or total submission to the zionist entity and they stand up and strike back hard. Which yes will probably draw the US in but could also (who knows) actually force the US hand and cause them to force the entity to stop and make peace.
I just don't see a way out that doesn't end with the genocide of Palestinians being completed plus most of the axis of resistance being devastated to the point of needing years to recover their operational abilities and all the while being under threat of infiltration and spying and more bombs put in electronics.
This is awful. I feel awful. I wish Russia would give Yemen some long-range weapons. I wish they'd give Lebanon some strong anti-air systems to take down the isn'treali air force which is the only thing allowing them to be terrorists with impunity. Shoot down the planes and they can't do anything but use ground forces which will lose badly. That's the real balance of power here and the real problem is those planes. Someone needs to give the axis of resistance the ability to down them en mass.
mondoweiss.net
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20775855 > > Israel conducted an unprecedented airstrike on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district on Friday evening in what Israeli media described as an attempt to assassinate Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hasan Nasrallah. > > > The strike targeted and leveled six residential buildings. The Israeli army’s spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, released a video statement shortly after the strike claiming that the buildings contained Hezbollah’s “Central Headquarters.” Lebanese media reported that over 10 Israeli missiles were dropped in less than three minutes on the complex, situated in the Haret Hreik area in Dahiya. The Israeli army’s radio said that Israeli F-35 fighter jets dropped 2000-pound bunker-buster bombs on the residential buildings. > > > Lebanese first responders continue rescue efforts to pull out survivors from under the rubble. As of the time of writing, the number of civilians killed has not been specified. > > > The Israeli army’s radio quoted a military source saying that any person who was present in the targeted buildings “will not come out alive.” The Lebanese Health Minister, Firas al-Abyad, said that some of the buildings targeted were “full of civilian residents.”
www.rt.com
> The video-sharing platform TikTok has deleted three Arabic-language accounts of RT, without explanation. The measure comes as the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has spurred fears of a regional escalation. > > RT Arabic, RT Online and RT Newsroom accounts vanished on Tuesday evening. The Spanish-language Actualidad RT account has also been blocked without explanation. > > They had survived last Saturday’s purge of accounts belonging to RT International, Sputnik Afrique, Sputnik Africa, Sputnik International, Sputnik Brasil, Sputnik Mundo, Sputnik Indonesia and Sputnik Serbia. TikTok has not yet commented on the latest development. > [...] > TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which has come under intense pressure from US authorities in recent months. Under a law enacted in April, the social network could be banned if ByteDance does not sell it to a US owner within a year. I don't get this. Why give in to pressure from the US when they've already passed a law to kick you out? It's not like currying favor with a ban coming from an executive branch organization that can be reversed with the stroke of one person's pen, this is not something that will be reversed because it can be trivially blocked in congress. This is not good. I know Bytedance /=/ China or the CPC but this is exactly why the US wants control of Tiktok in the first place, to control global narratives, to ban who they want, to alter algorithms to push US state dept propaganda, this is just a few steps short of that. And they're functionally giving it to them by going through with these bans which would seem to impact users outside the US. So at this rate they might as well sell to the US. At this rate I hope they do get forcibly shut down and removed from the US so they have no reason at all to do this kind of censorship. (I mean ideally I'd prefer they win at the SCOTUS and get to continue operating and give the US the finger on censoring global operations). At the very least they should split operations off and make the US/NATO operations one distinct legal entity, then another entity that operates outside those regions that the west have no plausible control over which wouldn't have any reason to ban these non-western counter-narrative sources.
darkcalling Now • 100%
It's not thinly veiled. They're pretty open they want decoupling and they intend to isolate and destroy China and anyone who doesn't follow their edicts (aka the rules based order, the only real rule being obey the US).
And frankly I think they're going to get their cold war. They have the strength to set it off and have made strong moves in that direction, decoupling is not something accomplished in a year or 3 but neither was western entanglement with China in the first place. The question is whether they have the strength to endure it for 30 years without succumbing to collapse or revolution and whether for that matter China has the strength, ideological and otherwise to stand up to them. A lot of IFs. Once the cold war is in the open the race to find a way to reliably suppress China's nuclear response begins because that's the only thing preventing the west from nuking their military and a small portion of the country to subdue China to then allow fragmenting it and exploiting its peoples and resources to fuel the capitalist nightmare machine another half century as if they were only so much wood.
There are of course other important factors, whether Russia folds which seems unlikely but they could always do an about-face or have someone more compromised maneuvered into place in Russian leadership after Putin dies or gets too old. And there is the reality that the US has designs to use India as a nuclear-armed Ukraine type proxy against China and would love to goad the two of them into a nuclear exchange, sparing the US and allowing the US to move in and grab prime land and peoples in two destroyed nations.
darkcalling Now • 100%
I'm positive they're going to side with the west enough to matter in the coming struggle. Oh they'll keep their options open, they'll pretend to be "independent" because it makes the west court them more and lets them play both sides but when it comes down to it and the west gives them a knife to plant in China's back for minimal benefit of their own they'll do it in a heartbeat. They see their rise as tied to destroying China, as a zero-sum calculation, either they take industry from China and become a great power or China retains it and they get nothing.
They labor under the same kind of ignorance that the bourgeoisie of Russia had after the USSR was illegally dissolved, namely that they would be let into the big anglo bourgeoisie club and rise to the heights of it as equals. But that moment where they realize otherwise could be decades away, the west has utility in keeping them a country with a vast gulf between the workers and the wealthy and in keeping them thinking its in their own interest to side with the west enough of the time to cause troubles for China, for Russia, for the emerging anti-imperialist world order.
India is IMO a fair-weather enemy for the anti-imperialist bloc. They're not like the US or Europe where there is little in common and a direct threat to their hegemony from the rise of BRICS+ but when the going gets tough they'll assume a neutral pose or do some things to appeal to the anti-imperialist bloc before tacking back again towards sabotaging it.
darkcalling Now • 100%
It depends on what kind of mask. If you're wearing an N95/KN94 mask then you're protecting yourself (and if it doesn't have a valve also others if you happen to have it) by filtering 95/94% of viral particles.
Though I agree it could attract unwanted attention and hassle in some areas. Even in a place like California I've been followed around stores for a minute or so for still masking by employees who I guess thought I was there to shoplift but I've never been seriously confronted about it. I've had a cowardly guy shout from a dozen feet away how I should take it off and some rambling nonsense but I just stared at him and he stormed off, I've had a handful of guys tell me it's a shame I'm wearing it because they'd like to see my "pretty face" (ugh), but most people don't say anything. I'm sure many anti-maskers resent me but given most of the public has joined them in giving up I think they're content to just feel smugly superior and say shit behind my back which I can live with.
www.rt.com
> Italian and Czech customers of Indian ammunition makers were diverting their shipments to the government Kiev, and Moscow has protested this to New Delhi at least twice. The article is strangely written, it's a non-denial-denial on the part of India, they're acting offended but saying they've broken no agreements with Russia and didn't do anything wrong but they're not denying that they're shipping the Ukrainians shells. [The Reuters article in question via archive](https://archive.ph/G40OI)
darkcalling Now • 87%
Short of the US getting pulled into an extended war elsewhere it cannot extricate itself from until China is too much of a peer power to even risk a fight it is going to fight China as part of the larger push of decoupling, containment, humiliation. Almost certainly over Taiwan, they don't need to win per se, just inflict damage, bleed China and rally the western world and any hangers-on (India probably) to their side for sanctions and cutting economic and cultural ties as they do to China and Chinese people and culture what they did to Russia with the Ukraine war but much worse.
China just needs to be prepared and accept this. They need to prepare for war, they need to prepare for the possibility of cold war, of being completely cut off from the west and make plans for how they'll restructure their economy to survive that if it comes. They need to build out their nuclear deterrent as much as possible to deter the US from a decapitating strike attempt and they need to prepare for a much more hostile and western empowered India on their border.
darkcalling Now • 100%
Somewhat. Russia doesn't produce a lot of the things the US produces. For wheat and certain other things sure, but for soybeans, for fresh green vegetables, for nuts, for fruit? A lot of that stuff Russia doesn't have the right climate for whereas the US has a uniquely diverse climate that allows them to from California to the plains and mid-west to the south to the northeast grow a variety of cultivars spanning everything from cheap corn and wheat to most every type of green vegetables, roots, nuts, fruits, etc. California alone has enough fertile soil and farmland to feed hundreds and hundreds of millions of people, maybe a billion if supplemented with grain staples from elsewhere.
As I said China won't starve thanks to their own work in this area and their friends in Russia but well the Soviet people didn't starve but they also didn't have supermarkets with fresh tropical fruit or often an abundance of typical fruits and certain types of vegetables were not in the fullest supply due to the constraints of what they could grow. Agriculture has advanced somewhat but there are still limits and being cut off from the US and its incredible amount of produce will certainly drive up prices for Chinese people. This is why I think the CPC had that push to reduce food waste. If this comes to pass the Chinese people will need to be a bit more frugal with food.
For China to truly replace the US they need to free from the grips of US hegemony and maintain good trade relations with parts of the global south in Asia and Latin America which is still a work in progress. As I said as long as US controls global finance they can cut off trade or make it very expensive and for perishable goods like food that's a real problem because you can't afford another stop in your supply chain in another intermediate country and routing through shell companies for all of this stuff and even for stuff you can it introduces another point of spoilage and rot.
darkcalling Now • 100%
This community might be of interest as they still talk about it a lot there: !covid@hexbear.net
I still wear a mask. I wouldn't necessarily wear one or keep one on if I was walking around a lightly populated park or down the sidewalk but I would before going into a store or a crowd (even outdoors) or any enclosed space with people like a train or station.
I'm not sure how mask wearing compares by country. In most of Asia it seems like it's been normalized for decades for people who are feeling ill or have certain conditions to wear the blue cloth medical masks so I doubt in most of Asia it's a big deal in most situations compared to the west where you have anti-mask reactionary sentiment and ideology that favors individual recklessness rather than responsibility.
darkcalling Now • 90%
Consider that Russia still trades with the west and even sells them vital materials like titanium and winter gas and we’re 2 years in now to the conflict.
I think it depends entirely on whether the US cuts China off first. China needs US food to enjoy a higher quality of living and the US exports a lot to them. If that continues China has reason not to because they want the food supply to continue. They won’t face famine or mass starvation or anything but quality of life would badly dip in that area without US food exports and if the US does that Europe may follow.
If China is cut off anyways from US and European food exports then they have less reason not to act. Sadly even if they act it likely won’t really destroy the west. It’ll hurt the consumer market and drive prices through the roof for electronics among other things and cause some shortages but it’s likely the US will establish alternative supply lines through Indian middlemen (India it turns out is selling ammo to Italy which is handed directly to Ukraine and they know about this and are fine with it) just as Russia has done.
China also doesn’t have alternative markets for goods. Their economy will be in huge trouble if they lose the US and Europe (and if they lose the US they lose their vassal the EU). Africa becoming large enough to buoy them is still a decade away or more.
So China has no way of shutting out the US while remaining open to the rest of the world. The US by contrast has decades of experience doing sanctions and tracking supply chains and as long as they control SWIFT and have dollar hegemony they can force others to comply to enough of a degree that China is probably hurt a bit worse in a vacuum.
darkcalling Now • 100%
Imperialist and colonizer nations are truly sick.
You see when US imperialists scream about China being a threat in our supply chains it's because THEY have put hardware implants targeting others in supply chains they control and as they are good and China is evil China must be willing to do the same to them even more-so. Same with this kind of shit. They look at this and don't think "my goodness are we the baddies?", they instead have a freakout of "what if our enemies do this to us? omg, China is gonna use their products to do terrorism" despite zero evidence the Chinese or Russians, etc would ever sink to their level or have ever done so.
Again and again throughout history westerners do the most reprehensible, terroristic, war-criminal shit to others and despite their enemies having no history of doing that assume they're just waiting to do the same to them the second they get the chance. Projection.
I've heard the axis of resistance is getting fed up with waiting but I'm not sure they'll act even on this.
Oh sure they'll lob some missiles but they're stuck in a situation where there is an unhinged and unstable apartheid colony whose leader faces possible prison, certainly loss of power the moment this "crisis" is over so must keep escalating to keep it going along-with the widespread condemnation of them for carrying out a genocide meaning they want to play the victim, they want a war against them to break out so they can cry for pity and the censorship dial in the west can be turned up even further with ever more hysterical cries of anti-semitism for any criticism of "israel" while "they're fighting for their lives and existence against jew haters who attack them for no reason". So it wants to draw the US into a war, wants a regional war, wants a chance to crush and put down at least one element arrayed against it permanently.
Many feel however if they don't get this war they look increasingly unhinged and become increasingly isolated and the bad PR just keeps on building beyond the ability of the west to tamp down. However there's a real question what the end-game of that waiting play is. The west isn't going to get ashamed soon enough to save the Palestinian people or Gaza, they're really all in on defending the zionist regime and screaming down any criticism as anti-semitism while downplaying it even existing outside of a small group of "extremists" via their media. The US clearly isn't willing to reign in the zionist regime. Trump or Harris neither is going to change things. And the fact is the zionist regime can keep escalating, they can bomb daycares and children's hospitals and just keep upping the ante all the way to using a nuclear weapon if they really want to in order to attempt to provoke a response.
So if they do nothing they invite more attacks and attempts to goad them to draw the US in. If they respond they risk more escalation and war with the US involved. "israel" is doing salami-slicing tactics, they do something that demands a response, perhaps several things and claim they were for self-defense then sit back and wait, let things cool just a little then go back in for more, never letting the heat really drop.
The negotiations are a smokescreen for the zionist regime to carry out their genocide under yet it also gives cover for these actors to do nothing, to not escalate to war, to claim they need to wait and do it this way.
I will say one thing going for the "wait" camp is that unrest in the settler-colony is rising. Mass protests are occurring right now and if that can continue and be magnified it may be possible to collapse it or bring it to its knees and force it to stop the genocide and all other hostilities but that's a big if.
darkcalling Now • 100%
Sorry to say but not great opsec by Hezbollah. I get not opening all of them but they should have opened some at random just to check for the possibility of electronic hardware bugs. Unless it was packed into the lithium cells themselves which might be possible. Heck for all we know they found a way to mix explosive compounds into the lithium itself in a way not visible by physical inspection and only by chemical analysis and perhaps subjecting them to a higher than normal voltage or something triggers the reaction.
Edit I really am going to lean on the idea of either some sort of contaminant introduced into the lithium cells designed to make them more dangerous and likely to explode rather than just burn or some sort of explosive compound mixed in with them that required the battery be overloaded for it to go off.
https://www.rt.com/russia/603929-ukraine-concentration-camps-kursk/ > Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk Region have rounded up local civilians and placed them in “something like concentration camps,” RIA Novosti reported on Thursday, citing a Russian Foreign Ministry report. > > When Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Kursk Region last month, thousands of civilians were evacuated or themselves fled deeper into the Russian heartland. Some however, including elderly people and those with disabilities, were unable to leave, and their settlements fell under Ukrainian control. > > According to a new report seen by RIA Novosti, those left behind were subjected to detention methods synonymous with World War II. > > “In a number of territories controlled by militants, something like ‘concentration camps’ were created, which civilians who did not want or were unable to leave the territory captured by the enemy were forcibly driven into,” the report said, according to RIA Novosti. These claims were based on eyewitness accounts collected by the Russian Red Cross in Kursk. > > Of those detained, between 70 and 100 were taken to a school in Sudzha, where some of the fiercest fighting took place. Once there, they were subjected to psychological abuse and presented to foreign journalists, RIA Novosti claimed. ***** https://www.rt.com/news/603943-taiwan-beijing-navy-seal/ > The US Navy’s elite special operations unit, SEAL Team Six, has been training to “help Taiwan” in case of a “Chinese invasion,” according to the Financial Times. The unit is most famous for the 2011 mission that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. > > SEAL Team Six “has been planning and training for a Taiwan conflict for more than a year at Dam Neck, its headquarters at Virginia Beach about 250km south-east of Washington,” FT reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. > > So far, the only hints of US plans for a potential conflict around Taiwan have come from Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of the Indo-Pacific Command, in an interview in June. > > “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities so I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything,” Paparo told the Washington Post. ***** https://www.rt.com/business/603925-china-western-investment-drop/ > Western firms pulling back from China > Declining economic growth and the rise of other manufacturing centers in Asia are slowing investment, lobby groups claim > China is gradually losing its appeal as an investment destination for Western companies, according to reports released this week by the EU Chamber of Commerce in China and the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. > > The two lobby groups conducted surveys among investors and owners of businesses in China. According to their findings, many respondents have been consolidating their operations in the country and no longer see the Chinese market as a primary investment destination. > > An annual poll by the American Chamber of Commerce shows that the number of businesses considering China as their top investment destination has dropped to 47%, the lowest in 25 years. A survey by the EU chamber shows that only 15% of respondents named China as their top investment destination, while previously the figure stood at 20%. > > “Some European Chamber members have begun both siloing their China supply chains and operations, and shifting investments previously planned for China to other markets to increase supply chain resilience, take advantage of comparatively lower labor costs and hedge against future geopolitical shocks,” the EU lobby group stated in its report. > > Experts from both lobbies suggest that one of the main drivers behind the trend is the slump in China’s economic growth. According to official figures, China’s growth slowed to the worst pace in five quarters in April-June this year, at 4.7%. Other factors are intensifying competition from local companies and the appearance of alternative manufacturing centers in Asia. > > For instance, around 20% of the businesses surveyed by the US business lobby said they would be slashing investment in China this year, while 40% stated they would be redirecting it to countries such as India and Vietnam. > > Many of those surveyed said China’s trade tensions with the US were also affecting investor confidence. Washington has been tightening economic restrictions and hiking tariffs on Chinese goods since 2018, when then-President Donald Trump launched a trade war with Beijing. Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has taken a similarly hostile approach, despite Beijing’s repeated warnings that these measures violate the principles of fair trade. Around 70% of respondents in the survey by the American chamber called US measures targeting China the greatest challenge to the country’s economic growth.
www.globaltimes.cn
Another westerner in China admits the west is full of lies on Xizang and that the people there and their culture, language, etc are flourishing. Here are some bits I found personally a bit interesting: > They call me a liar because I was with the government and only saw what the government wanted me to see. But the government didn't stop me looking out the bus window, nor did they stop me going for long walks into downtown Lhasa, or downtown Linzhi. They didn't stop me interacting, and even dancing, with thousands of people in a village fair in Maizhokunggar. > Oppression exists in many places, I've seen it, and I even helped deliver it as a police officer in the UK, fighting miners who wanted a better life, fighting colored migrants who wanted equality, fighting white supremacists who want their country back. I was one of Margaret Thatcher's thin blue line, keeping "ordinary" people safe from those that in today's world would labeled extremists. > > I know what oppression looks like and here's the thing, after extensive travel in China, I've never seen it anywhere. I didn't see it in Xinjiang and I certainly didn't see it in Xizang. > > I saw kids who speak, read and write their local language. I saw adults dressed in their local styles. I saw ordinary people shopping, visiting temples and serving food in the streets and in restaurants.
www.techspot.com
I have some thoughts on this I'll post as a comment. But basically the predictions of their re-shoring being a total bust were nonsense. It doesn't matter at the end of the day if their efficiency is only 80% of that of their fabs on the island, if it's enough to be part of what supplies the entire west with all they need for laptops and smartphones and gaming consoles then it's enough to no longer need that occupied part of China or care what their actions taken against China result in as far as consequences.
[(archive link)](https://archive.ph/5UG3a) Yes they have to some great degree. Russia is not in danger of collapsing or being unable to trade but the difficulties are mounting as the Chinese continue to be averse to directly standing up to US sanctions. This article is quite good and goes into a bit of the details but I'm not sure how I feel about the conclusion that all is alright and this is doomed not to succeed and that this is a sign of decline which the author hastily inserts at the end without any real supporting evidence compared to the rest of the article. It feels not exactly supported, like putting a rosy spin on bad news. > The resilience of the Russian economy in the face of harsh Western sanctions sent those cheering the rise of multipolarity into victory laps. And it has been a huge embarrassment to the West. But Russia’s burgeoning problem settling payments with China demonstrates that this resilience isn’t without setbacks. > > This past June, the US Treasury put the local banks of countries that trade with Russia in the crosshairs for secondary sanctions. The legal foundation for measures against companies or individuals found trading with sanctioned entities was originally implemented back in December, but it was in June that Washington expanded this framework and sent strong signals that this time it was serious. These threats were felt particularly acutely in China, Russia’s largest trade partner. > **What happened and when** > It started with the big state-owned Chinese banks, which began shying away from dealing with Russia at the beginning of the year. But there were always smaller, regional banks, which were seen as less exposed to the Western financial system, which would take their place. For a while, it seemed these banks would carry the day. But now even these institutions have followed suit. > > By the summer, Chinese banks were rejecting and returning about 80% of Russian payments made in Chinese yuan, Kommersant reported in late July. An article in Izvestia from mid-August claimed that things were even worse: 98% of Chinese banks were refusing to take direct yuan payments from Russia. > > The result has been delayed and disrupted payments for many Russian importers. A Reuters report from last week discusses how transactions with Russia are being shut down “en masse” and billions of yuan worth of payments are being held up, according to a government source. > > “At that moment, all cross-border payments to China stopped. We found solutions, but it took about three weeks, which is a very long time, trade volumes fell drastically during that time,” the government source told Reuters. > [...] > Meanwhile, the tighter restrictions have led to a drying up of yuan liquidity in the Russian market. In other words, it has become harder and more expensive for Russian companies needing yuan to get ahold of the currency. Given how much of Russia’s trade now takes place in the Chinese currency, this is certainly an issue. > As a result of the squeeze, more and more firms are having to turn on a regular basis to a channel previously used as a last resort – expensive swaps with the Russian central bank (whereby entities post rubles as collateral in exchange for yuan). At the start of September, Russian banks raised a record 35 billion yuan through this facility, well up from the 20 billion daily average in August and 10 billion average in June. Essentially, the Bank of Russia is being forced to fill the gap left by Chinese private banks operating in Russia. > The Russian central bank will almost certainly have to play a larger role, and exporters will probably also step in to provide liquidity. But there is no quick and easy fix. > In making sense of these issues, first of all, it is important to note that this problem is well understood in Russia and is freely discussed, including at the highest levels of government and in the media. No façade is being erected; there is no attempt to suppress this story. It’s been on the front pages of the Russian financial press. > > It also bears keeping in mind that Russia-China trade is not exactly collapsing. In fact, despite the problems, turnover actually grew overall by 1.6% in the first half of this year. More importantly, the experience of the last few years has shown that whatever headwinds emerge end up being a strong driver of change. Central banks are proposed as a solution including CBDCs (central bank backed digital currencies) but the question then is would the US sanction central banks of partner countries like China and India? In China's case without knowing more or being an expert in these financial systems I'm tempted to say yes because they have it out for China anyways and really want to create friction between China and Russia by forcing China to choose either the US or Russia and if they choose Russia they use that as evidence and ammo to ramp up decoupling and sanctions on China and if they choose the US then it weakens Russia to encourage a US push to finish them off before taking on China or at least they hope pushes Russia away from helping China when the US takes them on.
[Original source (RT):](https://www.rt.com/news/603535-israel-negotiations-smokescreen-gaza/) > West Jerusalem has been sidelining diplomacy in favor of a “military solution” to the Gaza war, Moscow said > Israel has been using peace negotiations to mislead the international community and hide its true intentions in Gaza, Russia’s deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky has said. > > Speaking at the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Polyansky accused West Jerusalem of “stubbornly seeking a military solution to the problem, while attempting to ignore the decisions of the UNSC.” > > “The Security Council is united in the understanding that the rescue of the remaining Israelis and foreigners by military methods is impossible and that there is no alternative to negotiations. The Israeli society understands and recognizes this as well,” the diplomat said. > > “However, the Israeli leadership, unfortunately, continues to treat the negotiations only as a ‘smokescreen’ designed to distract the international community.”
[(archive link)](https://archive.ph/nUTsm) I have excerpted some of the most interesting parts, to read the full article which is worthwhile please follow the link. > As allies continue to pressure Tehran, the Islamic Republic is wondering who will benefit from a possible war in the region > By Farhad Ibragimov – expert, lecturer at the Faculty of Economics of RUDN University, visiting lecturer at the Institute of Social Sciences of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. > The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh [Hamas leadership and chief negotiator] in Tehran at the end of July has dramatically escalated the tension between Iran and Israel, which have been on the brink of a full-scale war for several decades. > > In 2024, Iran faced a series of major challenges: a large terrorist attack in Kerman at the grave of General Qasem Soleimani; an attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus which killed 11 diplomats and two high-ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) generals; the tragic deaths of President Ibrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash; and finally, the assassination of the leader of the radical Hamas movement Ismail Haniyeh in the center of Tehran. > > All of this forces Iran’s political leadership to take tougher and more radical measures in order to prove both to its own people and to the world that this is not the way to “talk” with Iran. Apparently Iran is delaying taking any action and frustration is growing with its allies such as Hezbollah and other militias. > On the one hand, by its ominous silence, Iran has forced Israel to resort to extreme security measures and close its airspace. Tehran believes that the expectation of a response is also part of the punishment, because tension in Israel continues to rise. > On the other hand, the White House has reassured itself, insisting that through intermediaries, it has convinced Tehran to abandon the idea of attacking Israel. In its usual manner full of pathos, the Biden administration has declared that Iran would face serious consequences if it decided to strike Israel. In fact, Washington does not benefit from the escalation of the conflict – in light of the upcoming US elections, it does not want to give Donald Trump a chance to accuse the Democrats of having failed to prevent an attack on their main ally in the region. Therefore, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan are ready to negotiate with anyone, even Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in order to prevent a scenario that would be unfavorable for them. But as we know this won't bring an end to the genocide in Gaza, the peace talks are a smoke-screen and short of the US somehow using leverage on isn'treali intelligence to force them to coup Netanyahu there will be no peace this year that involves good terms that Hamas finds acceptable and which give any breathing room to the Palestinian people. > A few days ago, the Kuwaiti edition of Al-Jarida reported that Iran’s relations with its allies have deteriorated because of Israel. The media notes that Tehran has provoked the anger of Hezbollah by saying that it’s necessary to be patient about avenging Israel for the murders of Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr – one of the senior military officials of Hezbollah. At a meeting of the representatives of pro-Iranian forces in Tehran, representatives of the IRGC demanded their allies demonstrate restraint regarding Israel – at least while negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza are ongoing. > >The disagreement turned into an argument, and some delegates allegedly left the meeting quite angry. The meeting was attended by representatives of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Yemen’s Houthis (the Ansar Allah movement), and some smaller Iraqi groups. > > Hezbollah believes that the only way to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and peace in the entire region is to use force against Israel. They believe it is time to open all fronts, directly attack Israel and confront anyone who decides to defend it, including US troops and the Arab countries. Tehran’s allies speak in favor of large-scale and long-term military operations aimed at destroying Israeli infrastructure, security systems, military and economic facilities, as well as Israel’s civilian and residential areas. In their opinion, this will force Israelis to live in shelters for a long time, and they will experience the same challenges as the residents of Gaza. > > Moreover, representatives of Hezbollah stated that the current situation cannot be ignored, and that they can independently decide to attack Israel without coordinating their actions with Iran. Hezbollah also said that after the Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, it should attack Haifa and Tel Aviv. Moreover, Hezbollah is considering expanding the goals of its possible military operation and attacking other Israeli cities, even if this leads to casualties among civilians. Yemen’s Houthis supported Hezbollah’s position. > A source in the IRGC said that the Iranian side made it clear that such a scenario is quite risky and will only serve the interests of Israel. > > He noted that the Iranians offered to negotiate with Israel on the principle of “an eye for an eye” – i.e., if one of the leaders of the Axis of Resistance is killed, an Israeli official must be killed in return. To this, Hamas representatives who were at the meeting in Tehran allegedly replied, “If Iran is ready to accept the consequences of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in exchange for the murder of Haniyeh, then Hamas will support this policy, but if Iran’s goal is to kill lower-level figures, the movement will not agree with this.” **** What does everyone think? Should Iran continue avoiding escalation that may draw in the US? Is this foolish and likely to embolden Netanyahu who after all is desperately trying to escalate in order to extend his own rule at home and avoid an election or consequences for his failure to get the hostages back that has made him unpopular even within the settler-colonial occupation? Can a death blow be delivered to the occupation without Iran and other nations suffering serious devastation from US retaliation?
www.rt.com
[(archive link)]([https://archive.ph/HssgC](https://web.archive.org/web/20240902172423/https://www.rt.com/news/603411-venezuela-president-plane-seized/)) > The US government has confiscated an airplane reportedly used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, claiming it violates Washington’s sanctions against Caracas, CNN reported on Monday. > > The US has charged Maduro with drug trafficking and refused to recognize his victory in the last two Venezuelan presidential elections. > > “Seizing the foreign head of state’s plane is unheard-of for criminal matters. We’re sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions,” an unnamed Washington official told CNN, which first reported the story on Monday. > > According to CNN, the plane is worth around $13 million and was seized in cooperation with Dominican authorities.
> Instead of "protecting human rights," the unilateral sanctions have severely undermined the rights of Uygurs, particularly young Uygur women. > The U.S. sanctions had nothing to do with the alleged human rights concerns. The purpose, he said, is to crush Xinjiang's economy, cause mass unemployment and undermine social stability, said an expert who grew up in Xinjiang. This article goes over the human cost of the US's illegal, coercive sanctions on China and how they fall primarily on women and set back women's rights in Xinjiang. This is probably in keeping with what the US wants as they want to foster a traditionalist, conservative, reactionary culture and religious extremist movement in Xinjiang to attack China with, to destabilize the region and China as a whole and of course to grow into a large separatist movement as part of the goal of balkanizing China.
www.rt.com
[(archive link)](https://archive.ph/0n2zw) > Russia often loses all contact with local residents forcibly taken by Kiev troops, the Foreign Ministry has said > Ukrainian troops occupying part of Russia’s Kursk Region have been abducting and sexually abusing local residents, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special mission to investigate alleged Ukrainian war crimes, Rodion Miroshnik, has claimed. > > In an interview with RIA Novosti on Thursday, Miroshnik confirmed numerous earlier reports alleging that Ukrainian forces – including foreign mercenaries – have engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population since the start of the large-scale incursion on August 6. > > “We have evidence of sexual violence committed by both foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian radicals,” he stated, suggesting that the Ukrainian leadership had deployed “all of its scum” to Kursk Region in an apparent effort to get them out of the country and “dispose” of them. > Other apparent crimes by Kiev’s forces include abductions, Miroshnik claimed. “We have data that Ukrainian militants are taking action to kidnap people. They are snatching civilians and taking them away to an unknown location. We often lose contact with them. Where are they taken? To Ukrainian territory, or to secret prisons?” he asked.
www.rt.com
[(archive link)](https://archive.ph/yQQ9Z) > The US and its CIA-controlled “soft power” arm utilized the encrypted social media app Telegram to foment riots and protest movements against foreign governments it deems undesirable, former Trump administration official and free speech activist Mike Benz has said. > > These statements were made during an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson on his show Wednesday. Benz, a State Department official under the Trump administration, now runs the free speech watchdog Foundation for Freedom Online. > [...] > The US has championed free speech globally for decades, “in large part” because it allows the country to build resistance and political or paramilitary movements “in countries where the US State Department seeks political control,” the former official said. Durov’s end-to-end encrypted social media app Telegram has been instrumental in this effort, Benz claimed. > > The reason “26 US-government-funded NGOs” condemned Russia for attempting to ban Telegram in 2018 was that “the US State Department was using Telegram,” utilizing its encryption and local popularity “to foment protests and riots within Russia – just as they did in Belarus, Iran, Hong Kong, and attempted to do in China,” the former State Department official stated. The app’s encryption is a powerful means of evading state control over media and allowing “US-funded political groups or dissidents to garner tens of thousands of supporters with relative impunity,” he added.
https://www.rt.com/news/603033-telegram-founder-paris-arrest/ The founder has been arrested in Paris on charges of abetting criminals by making a censorship resistant app. He in the past claimed the west (NSA/CIA/etc) asked him to put a backdoor in his app and for what little it's worth he claims he refused. Now with him in their custody, in their clutches, where they can sentence him to a brutal prison sentence for the rest of his life he may like many people be willing to cut them a deal on a backdoor so he can save his own life. Such a deal may not be publicly apparent and may even be carefully disguised and hidden behind a public legal drama that is fiction. I don't think any immediate emergency action is warranted but I would encourage those using it to evaluate what this means for their continued usage and the threat it presents to them say 6 months from now. We have to wait and see, he could be cleared and leave quickly, he could face a trial which may or may not say anything about him allowing western intelligence to compromise it. As they could try and hide the fact he cut a deal behind a public apparent defeat by his lawyers if they want to keep it under wraps to better utilize such access against Russians for example who are heavy, heavy users of the app and it could present a trove of intelligence to say nothing of abilities to compromise top Russian officials were they to get in bed with the eyes agreement agencies. Point is they snatched him at the airport when he landed and it can't be anything but politically motivated. At the very least I expect them to force him to submit to public censorship of "disinformation" which means the Russian perspective. Oh they'll bust a few pedophiles and drug rings as well but it's mainly about controlling yet another app that's available in the west and sticking a knife in Russia's back. Here's something interesting from Ars: > As Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, noted tonight, "A popular Russian channel says that Telegram is also used by Russian forces to communicate, and that if Western intelligence services gain access to it, they could obtain sensitive information about the Russian military." > https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/08/shocker-french-make-surprise-arrest-of-telegram-founder-at-paris-airport/ This once again shows the need for tech sovereignty among anti-imperialist nations. It's not enough to use something that's not directly controlled by the enemy because the enemy will find ways to pressure, blackmail, coerce those third parties into doing their bidding anyways. It's important for these countries to have platforms safely headquartered within one of these other friend nations that are resistant to just one person being arrested, where even someone with extraordinary access wouldn't be a threat because of security service involvement.
www.rt.com
[(archive link)](https://archive.ph/A9mMi) > Ukrainian forces that have occupied part of Kursk Region have committed atrocities against civilians while using them as human shields, the commander of the Akhmat Special Forces from Russia's Chechen Republic has claimed. > > In a post on Telegram on Monday, Apty Alaudinov recounted an episode in the border town of Sudzha, where he said Ukrainian troops had entered a residential house with children inside. > > “In this building, they settled down on the ground floor… and chased children and teachers upstairs to use them as a shield,” he said, adding that this practice is widespread. > He claimed that first-person footage filmed by the Ukrainians had ended up in Russian hands, and showed the brutality of Kiev’s forces. > “I received a huge number of photos in which I saw civilians who were simply shot at point-blank [range], in the head and from the back. All these civilians, unfortunately, died,” he said, expressing his condolences and vowing revenge. > As fighting continues on the border, videos have surfaced on social media showing Ukrainian troops grabbing people off the street, blindfolding them, and pushing them into trucks.
[(archive link)](https://archive.ph/2W3z4) > A false flag operation using radioactive warheads is reportedly aimed at spent nuclear fuel > Ukrainian forces have begun preparations to target nuclear waste storage sites at a Russian power plant with radioactive warheads and to then blame Moscow, according to intelligence received by Russia. > > “Sources on the other side report that the [Ukrainians] are preparing a nuclear false flag – an explosion of a dirty atomic bomb,” military journalist Marat Khairullin said Friday on his Telegram channel. “They plan to strike the storage sites of spent nuclear fuel of a nuclear power plant.” > > The special warheads intended for the attack have already been delivered to the Vostochny Mining and Processing plant in Zhovti Vody, in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk Region, according to Khairullin. > > As possible targets of the attack, Khairullin indicated either the Zaporozhye NPP in Energodar or the Kursk NPP in Kurchatov, noting that the Ukrainian government and its Western backers are “desperate and willing to try anything.” > > A security official in the Russian Military Administration of Kharkov Region corroborated Khairullin’s claim to RIA Novosti on Friday. The attack is intended to use radioactive warheads to target spent fuel storage sites at a nuclear power plant, and the ammunition has already been delivered to Zhovti Vody. > Kiev’s intention is to accuse Moscow of a false flag so it could justify using nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the security official said. The Ukrainian government has received orders from its Western backers to “escalate as much as possible,” he added. > According to the security official, the intelligence came from Ukrainian prisoners of war. > Sergey Lebedev, introduced as leader of the Nikolaev Region underground, who said the planned attack would be carried out with NATO weapons, with the consent of the West. > Lebedev pointed out that a large number of Western journalists have already arrived in the Sumy Region near Kursk, as well as the Ukrainian-controlled part of Zaporozhye, suggesting that this is part of Kiev’s preparations for the nuclear false flag.
www.globaltimes.cn
> The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) acts as the US government's "white gloves" and has long engaged in subverting state power in other countries, meddling in their internal affairs, inciting division and confrontation, misleading public opinion, and conducting ideological infiltration, all under the pretext of promoting democracy, according to [a report released on Friday by the Chinese Foreign Ministry](https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xw/wjbxw/202408/t20240809_11468618.html). Rest of the story at the link. Full report link again is: https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xw/wjbxw/202408/t20240809_11468618.html (They use mainstream foreign press sources only, no grayzone or similar likely to be easily dismissed stuff)