On Tuesday and Wednesday, this year's NATO summit will take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, in a grand meeting of some of the most awful ghouls currently populating the planet
Despite strong efforts and words from Ukraine, membership is still very unlikely to be forthcoming and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Sweden might not get membership for a while either, as Erdogan continues to play both sides off each other, but who can truly say.
All of this is in the wake of Biden announcing the delivery of cluster bombs to Ukraine, as he admits that they are running out of other munitions to send, ensuring that Ukraine, its people, and its children - the ones that remain, anyway - will continue to suffer for many, many generations to come. Cluster bombs have, I believe, already been used in the conflict, but now will presumably be used at a higher rate. The leader of Cambodia, a country that is a major victim of US cluster bombing, has said:
"It will be the worst danger for the Ukrainians for decades or even centuries if those cluster bombs are used," Hun Sen said.
"I know for sure that Cambodia is small and weak, and our voice is weightless, but with our pity towards the people of Ukraine, I call on the U.S. president, the provider, and the Ukrainian president, the recipient, not to use cluster bombs in this war because the real victims will be civilians, especially the Ukrainian ones," he said.
What a perfect exemplification of the conflict as a whole. Millions of Ukrainians will be thrown into the inferno, entirely disposable in the eyes of the West, so long as we burn some Russians in the fire.
The suffering is the point.
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
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.
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Eastern Asia and Oceania
China: Trade with Russia is up 40% year-on-year over the January-June period; meanwhile, trade with the US is down by 14% over the same period, with Chinese exports to the US falling 18% and US exports to China falling 4%.AM China's financial regulators have announced that financial support measures for qualified real estate developers will be extended through the end of 2024.MP China has reportedly invited Putin to visit in October to participate in the Belt and Road Forum.SCMP A new high-temperature (80 Kelvin) superconductor has been discovered by a Chinese research team.ANN Durian imports to China have surged this year as gifts, status symbols, and obviously a source of nutrition.SCMP
India: Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has withdrawn from its $20 billion semiconductor joint venture with Vedanta.RoW The Yamuna River has swelled to an all-time record level, with homes and markets flooded.TS Educational institutions in Delhi have shut until Sunday.PD Torrential downpours have killed over 100 people in the last two weeks in the worst monsoon in decades.WSWS The Indian government has rejected a resolution adopted by the European Parliament over the violence in Manipur, saying such a resolution reflected a "colonial mindset".PD India is mulling a ban on 80% of rice exports over growing inflation, which would push up global prices while El Nino is causing havoc.AM
Thailand: The price of Thai rice has increased by 15% over the last four months, reaching its highest level since March 2021, due to El Nino.ANN
DPRK: The government has launched its first ICBM in three months - the Hwasong-18, the country's most powerful nuclear weapon - after warning of consequences to protest US surveillance activity. It flew 1000 kilometers for 74 minutes (a new record) and landed in the sea. Its US-occupied southern neighbour is seething and malding.EN
US-Occupied Korea: The government plans to increase the visa quota for foreign skilled workers from 5000 to 35,000 within a year due to labor shortages.ANN 50,000 healthcare workers are to go on a two-day nationwide strike, the union's first in 19 years.ANN
Sri Lanka: The Colombo Port Workers Action Committee support the Canadian dockworkers' strike and have appealed to other sections of workers in Sri Lanka to also express solidarity.WSWS
Africa
Ghana: Hundreds of Burkinabe citizens have been expelled from Ghana, prompting the UNHCR to urge the government to halt these expulsions.TS The parliament has passed a law which allows licenses to be granted for cannabis cultivation for industrial and medicinal purposes.AN
Gabon: President Bongo Ondimba of the ascendant Gabonese Democratic Party is seeking a third term, with little unified opposition.TS
Kenya: Ruto and Raisi have signed five memorandums of understanding and agreements to increase bilateral relations.PD
Sudan: The number of people who have been displaced is now at 3.1 million, with 700,000 leaving the country altogether, with 250,000 of those going to Chad.EN Leaders from six neighbouring countries met in Cairo to try and hash out steps to end the conflict.AN Sudan's foreign ministry has dismissed the IGAD's bid to deploy peacekeeping forces to protect civilians.MEE The United Kingdom has tried to help stop the conflict by... drumroll ...putting sanctions on everybody.AN
Uganda: On his visit to Uganda, a country which has recently passed draconian anti-LGBT+ laws, Raisi accused western nations of promoting homosexuality, and suggests that Iran and Uganda could co-operate in opposing it.AN
Zimbabwe: President Mnangagwa has urged nations targeted by Western sanctions to unite together as he met with Iranian President Raisi.AN The High Court of Justice has annulled the candidacy of an ally of former president Mugabe in the August 23rd election.AN
Central African Republic: Wagner mercenaries have rescued a group of Chinese miners in central Africa two weeks ago after the Chinese embassy contacted them for help.SCMP
South Africa: Zanile Mafe, who started a fire that badly damaged the country's parliament building last year, said in court that he "burned it intentionally" and that he would "burn it more" if the parliament wasn't moved from Cape Town to Bloemfontein or Pretoria, said that he wasn't afraid of a life sentence, and says that he is angry about racism and failures to help the poor.AN
North America
United States: Not-for-profit hospitals are increasingly cutting ties with Moody's rating agency over high costs and time commitments.STAT Hollywood's largest union representing 160,000 actors and workers have announced a strike, leading to the first industry-wide shutdown of the US entertainment industry in over 6 decades.PD US national security authorities and Microsoft have blamed a Chinese hacker group of infiltrating the email accounts of over 20 government organizations.AM Americans' trust in academic institutions has dropped from 48% in 2018 to 36% this year.AM
Canada: 7400 workers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are striking across 30 ports after management signalled their intent to cut jobs and wages.Jacobin A minority of chiefs at the Assembly of First Nations unseated National Chief RoseAnne Archibald, prompting criticism from some of the Canadian First Nations.CD
Latin America
Cuba: A US nuclear submarine has crossed Cuban waters and docked at Guantanamo Bay, an action which the Cuban government has formally denounced.Resumen
The European Parliament voted to approve a resolution which condemns the Cuban government for human rights violations and called for the EU to impose sanctions, ahead of a meeting between CELAC and the EU on July 17-18th.Resumen
Guatemala: The Constitutional Court has reverted the suspension of the party Semilia, allowing Bernardo Arevalo de Leon to run in the second round of elections on August 20th.TS Various social organizations denounced the suspension as an attempted electoral coup after the Public Ministry first suspended the party.TS
Peru: The US proxy government has extended its state of emergency for another 30 days in response to protests demanding the resignation of Boluarte.TS
Ecuador: The electoral campaigns for the August 20th election are kicking off, with polls indicating that over 40% of the population would vote for Luisa Gonzalez from the Citizen Revolution movement led by former President Correa.TS
Paraguay: Pork exports have increased 6-fold this year due to Taiwan opening their markets to Paraguayn produce.MP
Brazil: The government has said that 43 million people left the poverty line in June due to an increase in the allowances of the Bolsa Familia welfare program.MP
The War Against The West
The Western Front: The US House has struck down an effort to stop the transfer of cluster bombs to Ukraine, in a vote of 147-276 (98 Republicans, 49 Democrats).GZ Ukraine has received more Western equipment to let Russia destroy, to the tune of two Patriot systems, 25 Leopard 1 tanks, 40 Marder IFVs, French SCALP missiles, as well as various armored vehicles from Australia, Canada, and Britain, a NASAMS package from Norway, and the Netherlands has promised to train Ukrainian pilots.PD Le Pen has called Macron's decision to send SCALP missiles "irresponsible".AM Putin has downplayed the threat of Western missile systems, and also said that foreign tanks burn better than Soviet-made ones, and that Ukrainian soldiers sometimes refuse to enter Western tanks as they are a priority target.AM
Climate Change
Canada has pledged $340 million to the United Nations' Green Climate FundCCN
Kerrywatch
John Kerry will visit China from July 16th to 19th, with observers on both sides expressing pessmism that the visit will achieve anything - but one should never, ever underestimate a man like John Kerry.AM
I Love My Trans Comrades!