Image is of the Herðubreið tuya in northeast Iceland, formed when ice sheets covered Iceland thousands of years ago. It's not really relevant to the Grindavik situation but I think they look neat. The title also doesn't make much sense but I saw the pun and took it.
Off in Iceland, different kinds of tunnels are causing problems. Underneath the town of Grindavik in southwestern Iceland, not far from the capital of Reykjavik, tens of thousands of earthquakes are portending the movement of magma in tunnels underneath the peninsula, which could breach the surface and cause an eruption. The 4000 residents of the town have been evacuated as the magma has risen to less than a kilometer below the surface.^TRG^
Icelandic volcanism is pretty fascinating, with the country sitting on the mid-Atlantic ridge, the birthing line of new oceanic crustal rock running right down the Atlantic ocean for many thousands of kilometers, as well as a hotspot, an upwelling of mantle material of debated origin which also feeds otherwise-inexplicable volcanism in the middle of tectonic plates, like Yellowstone and Hawaii.
An additional factor here is the presence of glaciers. When a volcano erupts underneath a glacier, the melting water cools the lava rapidly, causing features usually seen in volcanoes that erupt under the sea like pillow basalts, but also unique features like tuyas, which are steep-sided but flat-topped volcanoes. The rapid melting of water can also cause glacial floods called jökulhlaups.
Icelandic volcanoes have had significant regional and even global impacts in the past. In 2010, the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which was a volcano covered by an ice cap, erupted and the ash cloud spread across Europe, causing airline disruption for about a month which caused nearly $2 billion in total losses for airline companies - though this seems pretty quaint compared to the pandemic's impact on airlines in retrospect. Back in the 1780s, the Laki volcano killed a quarter of the Icelandic population due to sulphur dioxide causing massive crop failure and cattle death. This eruption's impacts spread to Europe and beyond, causing notable worldwide temperature drops and thus crop failures and may well have been a contributing factor to the outbreak of the French Revolution, which obviously heralded the death of the feudal order and the eventual primacy of capitalism in its place. That being said, any eruption at Grindavik is very probably not going to have any significant worldwide impacts - there are over a hundred volcanoes already in Iceland, and regular climate change is doing a great job at causing mayhem right now anyway. It's also still possible that there won't be an eruption at all, at least not in the short to medium term.
Friendly reminder: when commenting about a news event, especially something that just happened, please provide a source of some kind. While ideally this would be on nitter or archived, any source is preferable to none at all given.
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
The Country of the Week is Iceland! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
This week's update is here!
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 4
expand
Labour:
After 112 years, there’s a permanent, onsite Triangle Shirtwaist Fire memorial^PW^
‘They’re making a huge mistake’: Master Lock workers speak out on plant closure^RNN^
Reports: Amazon an “industry leader” in workplace injuries, suffering^PW^
Four GM plants vote down UAW deal as momentum builds against sellout contract^WSWS^
Thousands of US pharmacy workers mount 3-day “pharmageddon” wildcat strike^WSWS^
Department of Labor investigates payroll “glitch,” which left tens of thousands of postal workers without paychecks^WSWS^
US Artists and Studios Reach Tentative Deal to End Strike^TS^
South Australian public school staff strike again for better wages and conditions^WSWS^
Australia: Newcastle steelworkers strike over pay and conditions^WSWS^
Hundreds of thousands of Quebec public sector workers stage walkouts after CAQ government reiterates demand for real wage cuts^WSWS^
Sri Lanka: Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers demand pay rises, oppose austerity measures^WSWS^
Left and Right:
New Syriza leader Kasselakis exposed as pro-capitalist, austerity supporting Reagan worshipper^WSWS^
Michael Roberts reviews Branco Milanovic's Visions of Inequality, particularly focussing on his treatment of Marx in the book and what he gets wrong (and, sometimes, right). Roberts also updates us on the global debt problem rising, both in developing countries and the United States.[^MR^](Debt distress) And finally, reviews a book recapping 50 years of dependency theory.^MR^
From Gaza and Cuba, they ask–are you human like us?: The Forty-Fifth Newsletter (2023).^MR^
A Democratic Socialist Looks Back on 50 Years in Leftist Activism^CA^
The rise of the modern imperial system^GL^
Degrowth and the Global South: remarks on the twin problem of structural interdependencies^DE^
Book of Xi Jinping's discourses on Chinese modernization published;^CGTN^ China’s Xi Jinping says Communist Party control too weak in rural areas, new book reveals^SCMP^ Western Left and the U.S.-China contradiction^MR^
LGBTQIA:
Content Warning - this section is not usually good news.
Nearly All LGBTQ+ Youth Exposed to Online Bullying: HRC Report^Advocate^
Idaho's Anti-Transgender School Restroom Law Blocked by Court^Advocate^
Energy:
Rooftop solar, an emerging solution to Bihar’s land shortage that’s stalling renewable progress^MB^
Michigan Poised to Join States Requiring 100 Percent Clean Electricity^ICN^
New Study Finds Overwhelming Evidence of Harms From Fracking^DS^
Oil and Gas Companies Spill Millions of Gallons of Wastewater in Texas^ICN^
Review suggests few oil and gas companies committed to renewable energy^AN^
Climate and Biodiversity:
Chinese-led study suggests extreme weather is helping invaders replace native animals globally^SCMP^
More funding needed for polar research as ice keeps melting^MP^
What the Melting of Antarctic Ice Shelves Means for the Planet^ICN^
Forests' 'catastrophic ecosystem collapse'^EC^
New Study Warns of an Imminent Spike of Planetary Warming and Deepens Divides Among Climate Scientists^ICN^
Drop in deforestation of Brazilian Amazon reported^MP^
Planned Fossil Fuel Production Vastly Exceeds the World’s Climate Goals, ‘Throwing Humanity’s Future Into Question’^ICN^
Tourism Industry Emissions Are Still Significant Worldwide^TS^
Revealed: ‘Greenwashing’ cruise ships burning diesel despite energy pledge^OD^
Shapiro Orders New Controls on the Oil and Gas Industry in Pennsylvania, Targeting Methane Emissions and Drilling Chemicals^ICN^
Basically nobody in Britain believes world leaders will act on promises made at the most important conference in human history^EC^
Deep Rifts at UN Loss and Damage Talks Cast a Shadow on Upcoming Climate Conference^ICN^
Similar to Mexico’s Hurricane Otis, Storm Ciarán Took Europe by Surprise^ICN^
Miscellaneous Analysis:
How Declining Sperm Counts Have Seeded A Crisis of American Individualism^CA^
Boarding Schools Probe Tells US History of Genocide^TS^
We Want Them Infected: The integration of pseudoscience into the US pandemic response^WSWS^
UK COVID Inquiry reveals how Johnson government planned mass murder^WSWS^
Boris Johnson said Covid was ‘nature’s way of dealing with old people’^OD^
Dipshittery and Cope:
Blow to Putin as Russia faces UK trial over $60bn Yukos oil battle^Biltarals^
DTEK energy company claims $ 267 million victory in The Hague against Russia over Crimea assets^Bilaterals^
The walls are closing in.
I Love My Trans Comrades!