Image is of container ships waiting outside the canal. While there is usually some number of ships waiting for passage, the number has increased significantly lately.
In order to move ships through the Panama Canal, water is needed to fill the locks. The water comes from freshwater lakes, which are replenished by rainfall. This rainfall hasn't been coming, and Lake Gatun, the largest one, is at near record low levels.
Hundreds of ships are now in a maritime traffic jam, unable to cross the canal quickly. Panama is attempting to conserve water and have reduced the number of transits by 20% per day, among other measures. The Canal's adminstrators have warned that these drought conditions will remain for at least 10 months.
It is unlikely that global supply chains will be catastrophically affected, at least this year. Costs may increase for consumers in the coming months, especially for Christmas, but by and large goods will continue to flow, around South America if need be. Nonetheless, projecting trends over the coming years and decades, you can imagine how this is yet another nudge by climate change towards dramatic economic, environmental, and political impacts on the world at large. It also might prompt discussions inside various governments about nearshoring, and the general vulnerability of global supply chains - especially as the United States tries, bafflingly, to go to war with China.
After some discussion in the last megathread about building knowledge of geopolitics, some of us thought it might be an interesting idea to have a Country of the Week - essentially, I/we choose a country and then people can come in here and chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants, related to that country. More detail in this comment.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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.
Part 3: Rwanda to Zimbabwe (and BRICS)
expand
Rwanda:
Rwanda (and Cameroon) are making big changes in their military forces in the wake of all these coups.AN
Saudi Arabia:
Their foreign reserves have dipped to a 14 year low.AM They are considering offering $50 billion worth of shares in Aramco, the largest public stock offering in history.MEE The government is considering bids from China, Russia, and France to build a nuclear power station in an attempt to pressure the US over their proposed security pact.MEE
Slovakia:
Slovakia, which produces 60% of its electricy from nuclear, is cutting off Russian uranium within a year (I think) and is talking to France to get some of the good stuff.Euractiv
Slovenia:
Heavy flooding, with total damage costing 5 billion eurosEuractiv, has disrupted the supply of Volkswagen engine components to Portugal, and a factory in Portugal is being temporarily shut down because of it.BNE Unions have talked about the impact on upstream suppliers and their temporary and contract workers.Euractiv
Somalia:
Young activists attended a three-day training session in Mogadishu, calling for effective action to combat the impacts of climate change on vulnerable groups in the country.TS
South Africa:
A paywalled article on electricity deals that China made with South Africa at the BRICS summit.CGS
South Korea:
South Korea's wind farms on Jeju island aren't able to generate power sometimes because the grid can't handle the power flowing into it during periods of high wind, a phenomenon that is happening more and more around the world.ICN Lawmakers held rallies against Japan's dumping of wastewater into the ocean.PD
Sweden:
Swedish Liberals and their allied far-right party are arguing over whether school staff should be forced to report children illegally residing in the country to the police.Euractiv Several people have been arrested and detained after a riot broke out at a protest involving a burning of the Quran.EN
Syria:
There are anti-Assad protests in the south of Syria for the second consecutive week.MEE Syria and Belarus are celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations and have reiterated their commitment to further co-operation.AM A f-35 nearly collided with a Russian Su-35.AM
Thailand:
Two large Chinese electric automakers want to set up manufacturing in Thailand, with hundreds of millions of dollars being invested into factories.CGS
Ukraine:
The Ukrainian secret poli-- sorry, sorry, their security and intelligence service, have arrested a veteran communist party member Georgi Buiko, for anti-Ukrainian activities and of possessing pro-Kremlin publications.PW
United Kingdom:
The UK's new minister for net-zero is connected to a think tank funded by oil giants that called for climate protestors to be jailed.OD Two thirds of Conservatitve endowment fund directors are linked to the fossil fuel industry.DeSmog The government is in talks with Tata Steel over a £500 million funding package to help them switch to greener technologies.FT The Labour Party took $10,000 in gifts from Google and Youtube and then backtracked on a plan to hike the digital services tax; fucking dweebs.OD DeSmog asks who's going to cleap up the scrap heap in the North Sea, which is a bit of a rude name for Britain but I'll allow it (it's actually about derelict oil platforms).DeSmog. The government has promised to cover the costs associated with the emergency closure of 150 schools built from a form of concrete that is prone to collapse.FT UK house prices are falling at their fastest pace since 2009.FT The National Grid will pay households and businesses to cut power consumption during peak hours this winter.FT
United States:
The US's path towards recession is still plenty open, as consumer spending may slow down in 2024.NC Large banks continue to shed deposits at a frightening pace, while smaller banks are doing pretty great.WSoP JP Morgan is racking up felonies.WSoP The Labor Department has proposed to increase overtime pay coverage by $20,000 per worker, benefiting 3.6 million people immediately.PW The US opioid crisis does more harm to black and brown communities.PD Fauci has said that older people, the ill, and the disabled will "fall by the wayside" in the newest coronavirus surge.WSWS
Biden's administration is calling for the privatization of US water systems.RNN Texas is permitting a lignite mine expansion.ICN Companies wanna mine underneath the Salton Sea for lithium.ICN California has endorsed the call for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty.CD America's hydropower industry is trying to get approval to expand and also covert non-power generating dams into power-generating ones, with industry groups, environmental groups, and native tribes in favor, though others opposed because dams generate shitloads of methane from piled-up dead organic material.ICN Major global banks are financing US coal plants due to loopholes in commitments.CD The Transportation Department is suspending the transport of LNG by rail.CD A Pennsylvanian crypto-mining firm is looking to start burning tyres for Bitcoin, instead of coal.AM
An interview with Margaret Power about her latest book, Solidarity Across the Americas: The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and Anti-Imperialism.Alborada The government of Puerto Rico have a new plan to reduce the debt of their electric power authority.TS Florida was hit by Hurricane Idalia.ICN
Vanuatu:
There is an ongoing political crisis, with a sharply divided parliament forestalling an Australian security agreement and the country's Prime Minister was ousted last month.WSWS
Venezuela:
An article on the war on the Bolivarian revolution and Venezuela.RC
Zimbabwe:
China is ready to work with the Zimbabwean government, saying that the controversial vote was peaceful and orderly, albeit with some irregularities, but it would not interfere.CGS
BRICS vs G7:
Some pro and skeptic BRICS coverage. On the pro side, we have this article from AntiWar, this article from Ben Norton, and an interview with Hudson and Escobar by Danny Haiphong.MH
And on the skeptic side, we have this article from Morning Star (reposted in People's World). Somewhere in between is this article by Prabhat Patnaik.MR
Western countries will never be allowed to join BRICS because they put sanctions on BRICS members.AM
China is expected to skip the G20 meeting in India, with several reasons speculated (doesn't like India? doesn't want to get involved in the inevitable Ukraine row? is snubbing the G20 in general in favor of BRICS?)SCMP
Part 4: Everything Else
War:
An article analyzing internal rifts growing in the Western alliance.CD
War in Africa and the Americas: Accelerating the end of White world supremacyMR A French ex-ambassador to the US has stated that Europe is no longer the power it was once, and that the future of the world will be decided elsewhere.AM The Atlantic has said that NATO and Europe must be prepared to be abandoned by the United States if the Republicans win in 2024.AM
Bernard Sanders has proposed that both America and China cut military spending and spend the money on climate change.PW The US has approved $500 million in arms to Taiwan.Inquirer The US military has announced a new program in which many thousands of drones will be built and unleashed across land, sea, and sky to counter China's mass with mass of their own;RS China says that this is just what China has been doing for the last decade to counter America.SCMP Australia is sending more troops to the Solomon Islands to boost security.AM We have some actual figures on US-China decoupling, which suggests that while some degree of decoupling is occuring, by and large it's exaggerated and the US is just getting Chinese products via middlemen.NC
Western military contractors are making profits in the hundreds of billions, at the small, small cost of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives.PW Is pressure building to end the Ukraine War?PW Sarkozy is being accused of being a pro-Putin stooge for trying to offer a diplomatic way out. He's a terrible person in other ways, guys, this isn't what you're meant to dunk on him for.RS Bhadrakumar on Prigozhin, Niger, France, and what Wagner does now.IP Zelensky has dismissed Reznikov as Defense Minister, and replaced him with Umerov.AM Ukraine's foreign minister has told critics of the counteroffensive to shut up.Euractiv Swedish liberals are calling for permanent NATO bases in their country.AM
Labour:
Lessons and ideas for picket lines, like chants and signs and stuff.LN The Oakland Education Association has won substantial raises and benefits.LN Toronto grocery workers turned down an agreement agreed by their union leadership,PW, and then accepted a new agreement with a higher wage increase.PW Japanese retail workers are striking, in the country's first major walkout in decades.PW United Auto Workers at Detroit car companies are going on strike.PW New Jersey nurses are striking for safe staffing ratios, better retirement benefits, and other issues.LN Kentucky Auto Workers at Ford are preparing for a strike.LN The Anchor Brewing Company is trying to reopon as a co-op.RNN An article on South Korea's war on unions, and how arch anti-authoritarian and most progressive US president in history, Joe Brandon, has embraced the country nonetheless.SP
The Left:
The Red Clarion talks about the power of study groups, and more generally about ridding yourself of rugged individualism.RC An article on how landlords are parasites and deprivers of housing.RC
LGBTQIA:
The Alaska State Board of Education has banned trans girls from partipating in school sports.Advocate Gender-affirming care bans for trans youth will still go into effect in Texas and Missouri despite court challenges.Advocate Gender-affirming surgeries have tripled from 2016 to 2019.Advocate The New York Times is doubling down on transphobia.FAIR Canada has issued warnings to LGBT citizens when travelling to America.Advocate
A 20 year old man in Uganda is facing a potential death sentence, the first to be charged with "aggravated homosexuality" under their new anti-LGBT law.Advocate Over 60 people have been arrested for attending a gay wedding in Nigeria, where homosexuality is illegal.Advocate Chinese LGBTQIA+ organizations are monitored by police and censored online but are finding ways to continue their work.SCMP Lebanon's LGBTQIA+ community is under threat, as political factions, which have been so divided that they haven't been able to select a president for 10 months, decide that they're going to take it out on the LGBTQIA+.EN Budapest Pride is fighting back with a legal challenge against Hungary's "LGBT propaganda" ban.EN
Climate:
Bolivia explicitly asked for deforestation targets to be deleted at the Amazon summit due to increasing beef and soy export targets; Venezuela is also reluctant.CCN Kenya's president is facing opposition from environmentalists over lifting a ban on logging, which he intends to boost the economy while only affecting a small number of forests.CCN Developing countries want a minimum of $100 billion per year by 2030 for loss and damage caused by climate change (a UN report predicts damages reaching up to $300 billion per year).CCN First Nations communities say that they are climate refugees, not wildfire evacuees.RNN Global fossil fuel subsidies have increased to $7 trillion.NC Most carbon offsets aimed at avoiding deforestation are failing to keep forests standing or cut atmospheric greenhouse gases.ICN
Emperor penguins are facing steep population declines due to sea ice declines.ICN Polar bear decline correlates well with greenhouse gas emissions.ICN
Circle of Blue talks about the book Three Ages of Water.CoB US weaponizes environmental rhetoric to seek water hegemony.NC An article on the potential of capturing carbon from water rather than air.ICN
Dipshittery and Cope:
Conscription is resurging across Europe. Is that a good thing?EN
Probably not.
How to fix Tunisia’s economic misery with a fair and bold IMF programEN
Ukraine cannot win against Russia now, but victory by 2025 is possibleFT
Keir Starmer’s Labour has ‘a lot to learn’ from Blair, Reeves saysFT
To be slightly more fair, she then said that Labour's position couldn't be the same as Blair's because it faces different challenges. But an admission that that turgid fucking war criminal could have any good lessons is still going way too far.
Unsorted Analysis:
An article about the Mediterranean refugee crisis.CoB And FAIR talks about how the media encourages hatred of immigrants.FAIR
How companies in the West use online gig work to exploit developing countries.RNN
Sanctions don't help! Weird.RS
Imperialism: How the struggle of both classes and nations creates our worldGPE
Silent coup: How corporations overthrew democracy – book reviewBilaterals
Endorsed by Varoufakis and Chomsky!
A review of a book to do with workers, particularly of the migrating variety, from South Asia entering the Gulf; idk if it's good.DE
The cruelty towards the homeless is the point.CA
The birth of dialectics in Ancient GreeceMR
The UN is unable to mediate nowadays because conflict-ridden countries see the UN has a tool for the West (it is).SP
Michael Roberts talks about materialism, via a recent book written by an economics editor at Sky TV.MR
I Love My Trans Comrades!