God damn it. The Wagner coup was a psyop to make me forget that I take a week off every two months and this week was meant to be that week.

To be honest, many media outlets not in the West were somewhat preoccupied with the coup and the statements made by others observing it, so there's less real news to report today anyway. I've put together something from what I've bothered to sift through.

There won't be another one until Wednesday next week. But there's some stuff I've gotta do anyway that's bulletins-adjacent, so it all lines up quite nicely.

Mini-update for June 26th

European consumer groups are urging the public to stop buying pasta from large manufacturers in Italy and France due to unjustified price hikes (the same old story of "the war in Ukraine has made it very hard for us" while not actually making it hard for them at all).^RT

Most EU hydrogen projects risk prolonging the use of fossil fuels and do not commit to using green hydrogen, surprising nobody.^DeSmog

United Kingdom: Only 6% of citizens believe that the UK political system does not need reforming, while 89% support constitutional reform (31% believe that "complete reform" is needed).^Euractiv

Greece: The current conservative PM Mitsotakis has won the second round of the election with the largest margin of victory in over five decades.^AlMayadeen

Serbia: Vucic believes that foreign intelligence played a role in the Wagner attempted coup and has complimented Putin's ability to stop it.^RT

Moldova: Industrial output contracted by 10% year-on-year in April and was as deep as a 27% plunge in core manufacturing, the lowest it's been since 2016 (excluding the 2020 lockdown).^BNE

Turkey: The 21st annual Istanbul Pride parade was held yesterday, defying a ban on it; police erected barriers and people were detained by police.^MEE

Those gathered chanted pro-LGBTQ and other left-wing slogans, including "Run Tayyip, run. Queers are coming!" in reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "Liberation for queers will shake the world!" and "Queers exist, Kurdistan exists!".

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Aramco and France's TotalEnergies have signed a deal worth $11 billion to build a new petrochemicals complex at the SATORP refinery in Saudi Arabia.^Cradle

Iraq: Resistance factions have issued an ultimatum to the government demanding action against US violations in the country, and failure to do so will result in a reaction against the government.^Cradle

Iran: The government has upgraded tourism and trade ties with the UAE.^Cradle Iran is also sealing deals with Saudi Arabia on developing special economic zones.^AlMayadeen The exiled Iranian opposition group, the MKO, is being supported by Mike Pence in his presidential campaign. The political wing of the MKO is the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which has long received backing from the US.^AlMayadeen

Pence is trying to use the MKO as a trump card in his run for the 2024 presidency, hailing it as a "secular, democratic, non-nuclear" alternative to the Islamic Republic of Iran in a bid to boost his popularity through hawkishness toward Iran in a bid to assimilate with fellow Trump administration senior officials John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.

Russia: The Russian chapter of the WWF has cut ties with WWF International after the country listed the WWF as an "undesirable organization", which is equivalent to a ban.^CCN

Uzbekistan: Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power has signed a contract with Energy China Group Corporation for a solar photovoltaic plant in the Tashkent region.^BNE

*DPRK: Chinese tourists are taking more and more trips to the border with the DPRK as an alternative to visiting the country itself (as the DPRK is one of the only based countries left with coronavirus border control measures), which the West is crying and pissing itself about because it could give the DPRK foreign money to build their nukes.^ANN

Philippines: The World Bank has approved a $110 million loan to finance boosting education.^TeleSUR

Vietnam: The country's tech manufacturing production is slowing down after a flurry of activity last year, with 45,000 electronics workers now out of jobs and many of those still employed with reduced hours and pay.^RoW

New Zealand: A business delegation is following the PM off to China.^GlobalTimes

Egypt: Indian PM Modi is on a visit to Egypt after meeting with Biden in Washington, the first visit to Egypt by an Indian PM since 1997, in order to strengthen ties.^AfricaNews

Niger: The government is ditching its old national anthem and getting a new one in order to get rid of relics of French colonization.^AlMayadeen

Sierra Leone: The results from the Sierra Leone election will be due in a week, with incumbent president Julius Maada Bio seeking a second and final term against Samura Kamara; the winner must receive 55% of the vote or a second round will occur.^TeleSUR Police have fired tear gas at opposition supporters in Freetown and the opposition leader has said that bullets had been fired at his HQ.^AfricaNews

Mali: Malians have approved the draft of the new constitution submitted by the military government with 97% of the vote, with 39% turnout and accusations of irregularities. Critics say that the new constitution is made to keep the colonels in power beyond the 2024 presidential elections.[^AfricaNews

Angola: There's an article by SCMP on the state of play in Angola between China and the West which is fairly interesting. Over a quarter of Chinese African financing has gone to Angola since 2000. The leader since 2017 has been trying to diversify away from China and lean more towards the United States, but the leader before him was, it seems from a cursory glance, one of those who was on the USSR's side and then when it fell were basically forced to give up and turn into a social democracy. I really need to read up on 20th century African history tbh. ^SCMP

Barbados: The PM is on an official visit to China, and has talked with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and are talking about co-operation and the BRI and so on.^TeleSUR

United States: Texas is entering the third week of its heatwave, where temperatures upwards of 110 degrees Fahrenheit are being observed, and power cuts are occurring due to excessive power use from air conditioning (and probably much more importantly because the grid fucking sucks and will never be fixed unless it's profitable enough).^AlMayadeen FAIR takes on the NYT assertion that Millennials are moving to the right, which was itself a counter to a Financial Times article claiming that, surprisingly, Millennials are not moving to the right. Weirdly enough, it might actually have some kind of basis in material reality and it's not a mystical spell that makes you become more of a dipshit as you get older.^FAIR

Venezuela's Maduro and Nicaragua's Ortega have issued a communique showing support to Putin and condemning the Wagner coup.^TeleSUR

Argentina: The UK has replied to the latest things about the Falkland Islands by saying that there is no interest from the people to be incorporated into Argentina, that the UK doesn't have the mandate to negotiate with Argentina on their behalf, and has said that there will be no dialogue on sovereignty until the Islanders wish it.^MercoPress

Peru: President Boluarte's approval rating has reached its lowest level yet, with 80% disapproval and 12% approval.^TeleSUR

Vijay Prashad's latest newsletter is here - this time, it focuses on Europe and whether they can break free from the Atlantic Alliance (probably not, though Macron is certainly a curious figure).^MR

Michael Roberts talks about the 2023 Ukraine Recovery Conference, which probably has one of the largest ghoul-per-square-foot readings ever seen in human history.^{MichaelRoberts}

And, as always,

I Love My Trans Comrades!