The Great Housing Mission of Venezuela, launched in 2011 by Hugo Chavez, is the most ambitious housing project in the country's history. This week, the 4,600,000th house was built, with a goal for 5 million homes by 2024 and beyond. The program has built 1,255 residential complexes on a total of 9,837 hectares, an area equivalent to six times the Swiss city of Geneva.

The program additionally provides social infrastructure like schools, subsidized food markets, and recreational and green spaces. Over 70% of constructions are self-managed by communities, with financial and logistics support from the government. Communities also provide each other with materials - from each according to their supplies, to each according to their needs. Russian, Chinese, and Belarusian companies have helped supply the program over the years.

In Antímano Parish in southwestern Caracas, a group of predominantly women came together in 2015 and trained in construction, cleared land, and then built apartments while under the pressure of food and materials shortages and electricity blackouts due to the United States' sanctions campaign.

Claudia Tisoy, a mother and self-trained plumber, said “This goes beyond building homes for our families, we are also building the future of our country, with women leading the way. This is what the socialist horizon is all about.”VA

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

This week's first update is here in the comments.

This week's second update is here in the comments.

This week's third update is here in the comments.

Links and Stuff

The bulletins site is down.

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can.

Resources For Understanding The War

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.

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.

Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

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

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.

Last week's discussion post.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]M
    ·
    1 year ago

    Update for July 28th

    Takeaways

    • Europe, once again, isn't doing so hot economically. They're hissing at chuds burning the Quran to please stop doing that as Arab countries get increasingly angry about it. Macron went to Vanuatu, an Anglo-French colony until 1980, to warn them against China's "new imperialism" - I guess France is the expert. Blinken also went to Tonga for similar reasons.

    • Azerbaijan's blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh is beginning to cause some real problems, as progress over a peace deal is being made slowly, if at all, though now Lavrov is on the case to try and get them to agree. Saudi Arabia is sad about having to do all the work in OPEC+ while Russia gets to vibe. The West wants to engage with Afghanistan again after realizing they need them geopolitically.

    • More interesting law changes in China. They've also helped Thailand build a fusion reactor, so that's cool. India is building its own air defense system (with the help of Australia?) and, well, it can hardly be worse than the Patriot. South Korea continues to not do so hot economically.

    • Tunisia might economically collapse soon. Europe only really cares about migrant flows going through there though. Niger's government has fallen to a military coup. And desalination in the north Africa region is discussed.

    • Nicaragua is having a great time vibing with China and also probably getting sanctioned more soon because of that. I mean, human rights abuses. Not the China thing. Obviously. Bolivia is signing deals with Iran because they want their drones apparently. There might be minerals under the Falklands Islands.

    expand

    Global

    Putin supports the plan to increase liquidity for the BRICS New Development Bank despite geopolitical tensions, after he and Rousseff met in St. Petersburg.TS In general, there's a lot of conflicting reports going around about a BRICS currency and whether it will or won't be discussed and whether it will or won't even happen, so we'll have to wait and see what happens in August I guess.

    Europe

    The net profits of four of the largest European energy firms reported a substantial drop - some as high as 44% - in net profits for 2023 Q1 and Q2.AM The European Central Bank has hiked interest rates by 0.25% to 4.25%.DW A draft report in the European Parliament has pointed to online services' addictive design and calls for new rules to address this to reduce mental health impacts of excessive screen time.Euractiv

    The EU has once again rejected the desecration of the Quran, presumably while quietly telling Sweden and Denmark to stop fucking doing that.TS

    NGOs are suing the European Commission for approving France's national plan, the Common Agricultural Policy, despite breaching EU law.Euractiv The EU has greenlit 40 million euros for Germany's first permanent LNG terminal.Euractiv

    Irn-Bru workers are going on strike in a series of 24 hour stoppages from early August to October.UtU Three of the UK's largest lenders have cut mortgage rates due to a better than expected drop in inflation in June.FT

    Western Asia

    Palestine's ambassador has urged China to use its leverage to bring Israel to the negotiating table, and for China and the US to work together rather than competing for influence. This latter point seems rather silly to me given that the US's only interest in the region has been bombing it.SCMP The IOF has killed a Palestinian child in Qalqilya and injured a journalist.AM

    Lebanon's government has decided to increase the amount of land available for wheat production to potentially 70% of domestic consumption.AM

    Saudi Arabia has received a growth downgrade from the IMF due to oil revenue cuts, with some complaining that the country is doing most of the OPEC+ heavy lifting compared to Russia.MEE

    Kuwait has overcome 9 years of budget deficit due to an oil boom, though with oil prices falling it may soon return to deficit.AM

    Azerbaijan's blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh is now in its seventh month and food, energy and medical care is running out, leaving the Armenians inside to consider either obtaining Azerbaijani citizenship or leave the enclave.OD

    Central Asia

    Russia's FM Lavrov has holding talks in Moscow with Armenia's and Azerbaijan's FMs, discussing preparations for a peace treaty and potential solutions to remaining issues.CGTN

    China exported about $26.4 billion in goods to Central Asia in 2023 Q1 and Q2, while importing nearly $13.5 billion from the region.EN China is exploring biotech, scientific and manufacturing possibilities in Central Asia.EN

    Kazakhstan will begin the transit of Russian gas to Uzbekistan in October.BNE The UK and Uzbekistan have met up to developer closer economic ties, and also allowing Uzbek agricultural workers in.BNE Uzbekistan's electric vehicle imports have surged, predominantly from China.BNE

    Some people in the West are going "Oh shit, we actually kinda needed to keep Afghanistan in our sphere of influence because we can use it to disrupt China, let's try and make friends with them again"MEE while others are not so cynical.AM The lithium might also have something to do with it.SP

    Eastern Asia and Oceania

    Chinese lawmakers have submitted a draft amendment to the Criminal Law which would increase penalties for bribery and corruption inside private firms.CGTN China has launched economic data inspections to prevent and punish falsification and fabrication, as its fifth national economic census is soon to begin.SCMP

    China's naval base in Cambodia probably won't host aircraft carriers but it may still be used for logistics.SCMP

    Thailand has debuted its first tokamak fusion device with the help of Chinese academic institutions as it aims to become Southeast Asia's hub for fusion technology development.SCMP

    Trade experts have said that Nepal's attempt to save its foreign currency reserves by slamming the brakes on imports has reduced the trade deficit but also caused the country to nearly stop growing entirely despite initial predictions of 8% growth.ANN

    Bhutan's been hit by flash flooding, which has prompted new calls for climate-resilient designs in infrastructure and agriculture.ANN

    Hong Kong has signed 15 new trade deals with Indonesia.ANN

    India is developing its own air defense system with three layers of surface-to-air missiles.ANN India and Australia have held talks on co-development and production of defence equipment.ANN An article on Modi's Smart Cities Mission and how that's going (mixed results).DW Rainfall continues to affect institutions, roads, and is overflowing lakes.PD

    Sri Lanka is taking away existing labor laws fought for in the past century and replacing them with austerity measures in line with IMF proposals.WSWS

    South Korea's economy has grown by 0.6% in Q2, as imports fell even more sharply than exports.ANN There's some crypto bullshit going on that I don't care about.ANN

    The nickel industry in Indonesia is discussed.RoW

    The Australian government's plan to impose a national nuclear waste dump on aboriginal land has been upended by a court decision.Ecologist

    Blinken has gone to New Zealand to invite them to AUKUS, though New Zealand has been trying to be a bit friendlier towards China than most West-aligned nations in the region - perhaps they have officials who actually pay attention to their exports and imports.DW Blinken has visited Tonga, warning them about the dastardly Chinese.DW Macron has visited Vanuatu, and warns against a "new imperialism" in the Pacific, which he seems to target at China but doesn't mention them by name. This is very funny considering that the country was an Anglo-French colony until 1980, within Macron's lifetime.EN

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      the country was an Anglo-French colony until 1980, within Macron's lifetime.

      thinking about this made me realize Brigitte Macron was a year old when the French lost at Dien Bien Phu

    • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]M
      ·
      1 year ago
      expand

      Africa

      Is the end of Western financial dominance in Africa on the horizon or will the history of Libya repeat itself?MR

      There might be an economic collapse on the horizon in Tunisia, which is heavily indebted to the West and has been badly hit by inflation, and the IMF will likely refuse to give them a loan because the president refuses to phase out subsidies on fuel and electricity because he doesn't want to increase poverty.Euractiv The EU seems mostly concerned about refugee outflows in the event of a collapse, and so has given the country 900 million euros in exchange for preventing refugees from crossing to Europe.WSWS

      In Kenya, the main example that people point to for the China "debt trap" accusation, policymakers instead blame corruption, incompetence, and mismanagement.CGS

      Northern African countries have been constructing desalination and water treatment plants as a solution to current and future droughts. Tunisia has 3 more under construction and Morocco has 7 more. Algeria plans for 14 more. Libya is too busy being a shining example of what Western military involvement can do to a country to be building new desalination plants, though Gaddafi's Great Man-Made River has kept things going when NATO wasn't bombing it.AN

      Ghana has voted to abolish the death penalty, with 176 people were on death row (though nobody has been executed since 1993).AN

      Niger's government has been overthrown by a coup, suspending all institutions, imposing curfews, and closing the border.AN The UN has condemned this.TS

      Doctors in Nigeria are on indefinite strike.AN

      Responsible Statecraft questions whether sanctioning Mali over Wagner involvement will achieve anything, or even what it's actually trying to accomplish in the first place (punish Wagner? punish Russia? punish the government? try and restore democracy?)RS

      North America

      The Fed has indeed raised interest rates by 0.25%, to a 22-year high.DW

      Students from wealthy families are overrepresented in US elite private colleges. Is this news? Why is this news?PD

      The Canadian dockworkers strike has been declared illegal because it didn't provide 72 hours notice, and then the leadership of the union pretty much instantly caved and accepted a deal that they themselves rejected, let alone the union membership.GL

      Latin America

      Things continue to not go so well for Haitian protestors.HL

      Nicaragua and China have completed negotiations for a free trade agreementBilaterals The UN climate fund has suspended a project in Nicaragua over human rights concerns between settlers and indigenous people.CCN Nicaragua is celebrating the 44th anniversary of their revolution.Resumen

      Bolivia is whistling nonchalantly after signing a scientific and military agreement with Iran, which includes wanting Iran's drones.MP Bolivia's gas production and exports are expected to drop dramatically over the coming decade due to aging production fields and a lack of new discoveries.MP

      Protests in Peru continue.GL

      The Falkland Islands has awarded a license for gold and mineral exploration by a (I think?) UK-based company. We shall see how this impacts the next struggle session.MP

      The War Against The West

      The EU has failed to convince Latin American countries to denounce Russia, let alone sanction it, at the EU-CELAC summit. The end statement that was agreed on notes the suffering in Ukraine but does not mention Russia (and Nicaragua actually objected to even this). Nonetheless, funding for the region through the Global Gateway program continues as the EU really needs those minerals.CD

      Russia has increased its age of conscription to 30 as of 2024, likely due to demographic problems with obtaining the planned number of reserves and not because Ukraine has killed every Russian soldier, though I imagine that's what the MSM is talking about.BNE Lithuania says that their army is prepared for Wagner's move to Belarus, with reportedly their 10-man army fully prepared for Prigozhin's antics.

      The EU has said that they're ready to export all Ukrainian grain after the Black Sea route closedEuractiv; right on cue, Russia has attacked Ukrainian inland grain ports on the Danube with drones, very close to the border.MP

      The US is accusing China of supplying technology for the Russian military, through "dual-use" items (which can be literally fucking anything).SCMP China supports the UN's efforts to bring the grain deal back.CGTN Turns out China's not happy about the CIA saying they're rebuilding spy networks; who'd have thunk it.SP

      China and Japan have agreed to resume high-level talks with South Korea at the end of this year, the first time in four years; China urges the two US vassals to show sincerity and expel "extraterritorial influence" (this won't happen).GT

      Retrospectives, Analysis, History, Theory, and Technology

      Global Economic History in 2.5 HoursMichaelHudson

      150 minutes of Michael Hudson? What a dream.

      Poverty in Britain: From feudalism to neoliberal capitalism: A review of Jim Silver’s new book examining the relationship between capitalism and poverty in England since the 12th centuryCD

      NYS Regulator Fined Deutsche Bank $150 Million Over Ties to Jeffrey Epstein but Says It Doesn’t Have a Scrap of Paper on JPMorgan and the Sex TraffickerWSoP

      China's gigantic telescope identifies over 800 pulsarsCGTN

      China sends new remote sensing satellites into orbitCGTN

      ‘We Need a Gender-Inclusive Understanding of Police Violence’FAIR

      On how the police murders of black women are generally less well known than those of black men.

      LGBTQIA+

      The Malaysian LGBT community is in dismay at Matt Healy's public kiss during a concert, which got that concert stopped (affecting other artists) and The 1975 has additionally cancelled concerts in Indonesia and Taiwan.Advocate

      Michigan's governor has outlawed conversion therapy on minors, becoming the 22nd state to do so.Advocate

      Rainbow activists call for community solidarity to defend trans rightsGL

      Climate and the Environment

      Scientists detect signs that a crucial ocean current is near collapseAM

      Atlantic Ocean: AMOC to collapse by mid-century?MP

      On the Coast of Greenland, Early Arctic Spring Has Been Replaced by Seasonal Extremes, New Research ShowsICN

      EV Sales Continue to Soar, But a Surge in Production Could Lead to a Glut for Some ModelsICN

      ‘Painfully slow’ grid holding up UK electric car shift, says trade bodyFT

      Climate Litigation Has Exploded, but Is it Making a Difference?[ICN]((https://archive.ph/iGJCX)

      World nations debate future of deep-sea mining in JamaicaEuractiv

      How climate change is redrawing the border between Switzerland and ItalyEuractiv

      Germany plans to support new gas projects overseas until 2025, a breach of its commitment to end international fossil fuel financing.CCN

      A landfill in Brazil has been restored to mangroves, with 60 hectares planted.AN

      Canadian wildfires have caused astonishing global damage, Chinese scientists warnGT Canada's wildfires have emitted 1 billion tonnes of CO2.TS

      I Love My Trans Comrades!