Image is from this article, of a Chilean copper quarry.
Title is a reference to Trump's social media post about copper, which was, as usual, mostly deranged.
Trying to follow Trump's administration is pretty difficult, but as of right now, he is threatening 30% tariffs on Mexico and the EU starting on August 1st, as well as new tariff announcements on a bunch of other countries (including, bizarrely, a 50% tariff on Brazil), and also apparently a 50% tariff on copper, which the US imports half its supply of and is, of course, a very important metal in many applications.
I'm not sure what the plan is to bring back domestic copper production beyond hoping that it just sorta works out, but prominent copper producers, such as Chile and Canada, seem both concerned and confused. Reuters had a line that made me chuckle:
Boric said he was awaiting official communication from the U.S. government, including whether the tariffs would include copper cathodes, and questioned "whether this will actually be implemented or not."
Big mood, Boric.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
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 Telegram Channels:
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.
The situation in Syria is complex and deteriorating.
An agreement brokered by the United States last night is in place, which has led to Al Jolani/HTS official forces withdrawing from Suwayda and south of Damascus, and Israel ceasing airstrikes on HTS forces. However, this is not the end, as sectarian violence between the Bedouin and Druze is escalating, with reports of massacres on both sides, Druze factions "taking revenge" and sectarian violence against the Druze continuing, despite HTS withdrawal. Armed groups seperate from HTS, part of various tribes/clans or factions, could still go towards Suwayda, and the Druze would be vastly outnumbered. It's unknown what the Israeli response would be, or the response by other groups such as ISIS, who have carried out massacres in the region before.
Israel has begun airstrikes against Bedouin groups, according to Israeli sources
Is there a ELI5 about the actors here? Who is bought by the US? By Turkey? By "Israel"?
As funny as it could be, the answer cant be all of them, someone is doing proxy imperialist war here.
It's very complicated, but Israel is carrying out airstikes on behalf of the Druze, and the Bedouin militias (as well as militias from other groups) are aligned with the Syrian Jolani/HTS government.
What happened to the Assadist/Iran-aligned resistance?
They have a small group in the area (south of Damascus), but not influential, unlike Latakia. Main fighting now is between the Druze and other groups mobilising against them.
HTS is being influenced by everyone right how.
Originally, they were autonomous to Turkey's chosen proxy of the SNA (Syrian National Army), but chose to join their operations room that Turkey also staffed.
By the time of Assad's fall, it appears they were much more subservient to Turkey, and allegedly got permission to move on Aleppo from MÏT (Turkish intelligence). Since, Turkey seems to have more or less focussed on SNA to push east against DAANES (Dem. Autonomous Admin. of NE Syria, colloquially "Rojava" ) and SDF. But they're otherwise favourable of Jolani in a diplomatic sense.
Jolani of course gets called a puppet of Israel, but I think this a bit reductive - you don't take every opportunity to bomb the shit out of your puppet! Maybe that's a semantic argument but the relationship is more coercive than the one we've seen from Turkey. One hands him a gun, the other holds a bigger gun to his head, but offers to put it away for a price.
Modern Syrian (and tbh pan-Arab) history has a habit of throwing Palestinians under the bus to get treats from Israel, even under the Assads. We cannot understate how that impacted the politics of the Syrian opposition.
The long term benefit Israel sees is keeping HTS disarmed and squabbling, which keeps Turkey from moving its scope beyond the SNA. The coercion also allows Israel to bag some favourable deals from normalisation to support for an invasion of Lebanon, and eventually claw HTS from being a potential Turkish asset to a loyal dog of Zionism.
As for Turkey, it's likely willing to accept conceding some of Syria for now -- most of the oilfields are under SDF control, and far from Israeli borders. If an imperialist loves anything, it's controlling vast fields of strategic resources. As long as HTS doesnt turn on them, they'll be fine seeing it go down the shitter.