Image from this Financial Times article, although the archived version has a different image because they presumably changed it after.

China's Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, has met last weekend with the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi (all pictured), discussing security and trade and particularly strengthening co-operation with China and increasing development in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.

After the United States destroyed the country and killed hundreds of thousands of people and left millions destitute, intentionally destabilizing the region to counter Russia, China, and Iran, Afghanistan's government has been co-operating with China and Russia to try and rebuild. China has already invested billions into Pakistan creating a network of roads, trains, and ports, and the hope is that Afghanistan could receive similar infrastructure investment. And Russia is supplying oil and wheat to the country too.

Additionally, both China and Pakistan have a strong interest in keeping the security situation there manageable, as the country is still the base for several terrorist groups - including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Uyghur militant group - which have committed acts of violence in Pakistan and surrounding countries.

Afghanistan notably hosts approximately $1 trillion worth of minerals. The Taliban have hoped that China will boost investments in the country to help them exploit these resources, as obviously Afghanistan is in dire economic straits.

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

Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.

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

Want to contribute?

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Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

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

Add to the above list if you can, thank you.

Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have decent analysis. Avoid the comment section.

Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.

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 journalist reporting in the warzone.

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 still quite reactionary in terms of gender and sexuality and race, so beware). 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 ~ Another 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's army.

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.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Constitutional Council in Chile remains in the hands of the center right. President Boric in his speech, tells them: do not make the same mistake as us, calling for unity

    • Republican Party: 22
    • Safe Chile Party: 11
    • Unit for Chile Party: 17

    Constitutional Council in Chile Remains in the Center Right

    "...a major defeat for the center-left presidency of Gabriel Boric in Chile..."

    On Sunday night, after Chileans cast ballots, the Right and Extreme Right in Chile obtained the majority of seats in dispute for the drafting of the new Chilean Constitution. Sectors and parties allied to Boric's government remain in a distant second place; the PC will lead that coalition.

    The outcome of the recent vote can be characterized as a major defeat for the center-left presidency of Gabriel Boric in Chile. Additionally, this voting is widely perceived as a referendum on the current administration, which is currently experiencing an approval rating of approximately 30%.

    With 91% of polling stations having reported, the Republican Party, led by far-right José Antonio Kast, who previously lost the presidential runoff to Boric in 2021, has emerged as the front-runner with a 35% share of the total votes cast.

    If the two right-of-center groups, the Republicans and Safe Chile Unite, it could leave Boric’s allies with very little room to influence the final text. The preliminary count indicated that left-leaning coalitions would be unable to attain the 21 seats needed to veto proposals or compel mutual agreement on specific matters.

    Preliminary calculations pointed to the Republican Party ending up with approximately 22 representatives on the constitutional council, in contrast to Unity for Chile with 17 and Safe Chile with 11.

    The Unity for Chile coalition, comprising leftist political parties that have allied with Boric, was in the second position in the electoral race, having garnered 28% of the vote. The Safe Chile coalition, identified as a center-right alliance, garnered 21% of the votes, positioning it in the third place. A significant proportion of 21% comprising null or blank votes was observed in the overall tallied votes.

    The vote that took place on Sunday constitutes a significant milestone in the endeavor to formulate a novel proposal for a constitution, following the rejection of the prior projected charter by 62% of the electorate in September. Once installed, the commission's 50 members will not start from scratch, but rather work from a preliminary document drafted by 24 experts who were approved by Congress. The body's proposal is to be put before plebiscite in December.

    The start of the Chilean constitution's rewriting process was initiated after the demonstrations led by students in 2019, triggered by the escalated public transport fare rates, but swiftly transformed into a more comprehensive call for wider social safeguards and greater equality.

    The Congressional authorities effectively quelled the protests by initiating a referendum to determine the necessity of drafting a new constitution.

    The overwhelming proportion of approximately 80% of participating voters concurred that a new constitution was indispensable.

    :doomer: