Image is of the breach in the tailings dam near Kitwe.
On February 18th, 50 million liters of acidic waste from a copper mine was accidentally released into the Kafue River after a tailings dam collapsed. The Kafue River stretches for a thousand miles across Zambia and a majority of the country - millions of people - rely on it, for both the economy and drinking water.
The results have already been catastrophic. The water supply for the city of Kitwe, home to 700,000 people, was completely shut off. As the wave of contamination moved downstream, a wave of death accompanied it as dead fish dotted the river surface. The government is dropping lime into the river to try and counteract the acid with an alkali and neutralize the water, but the tailings also contain toxic heavy metals that will undoubtably seep into the nearby environment and affect the area for years to come.
A considerable portion of the media attention to the accident has been devoted to the fact that the mine was Chinese-owned, as well as China’s broader influence and investment in the region. Western anti-China propaganda aside, it has been clear to those in the know that these mines have been badly managed and needlessly dangerous for years now, and it is disappointing - to say the least - to see disasters of this magnitude occur from Chinese businesses. Hopefully this prompts a wave of investigations into China-owned mine managers all around the continent, who will then hopefully face real consequences for their actions.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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 first footage has been released, Xcancel mirror of the US Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps using APKWS laser guided rockets to shoot down Ansarallah (known as the Houthis in western media) drones and cruise missiles. I was talking a few days ago about how this was already happening, but now it’s confirmed by video footage from CENTCOM themselves.
What is APKWS? To put it simply, APKWS is a conversion kit that turns unguided Hydra-70 rockets (of which 5 million exist) into laser guided short range missiles. Similar to how a Paveway kit turns an unguided bomb into a laser guided bomb, or a JDAM kit turns an unguided bomb into a GPS guided bomb, APKWS turns unguided rockets into guided missiles. APKWS was first designed only to be used against ground targets, but the Ukrainians, when firing them from their VAMPIRE ground and sea based launch systems, proved that it can be used successfully against cruise missiles and drones, and as a result the US military is doing the same, and even planning modifications to APKWS to make it even more effective against air targets, such as adding infrared terminal guidance.
Ukrainian VAMPIRE system taking out Russian cruise missiles and drones
Why is this significant? For two reasons: cost and magazine size. APKWS is very cheap, the guidance section only costs $15 000, and the warheads and rocket motors, of which millions are currently in US stockpiles, only cost a few thousand dollars each, for a total cost of between $20 000 - $25 000 per missile/guided rocket. In comparison, an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile launched from US fighter aircraft costs upwards of $400 000 each, and the ship launched SM series of interceptors cost anywhere from $2 -$9 million, depending on the model. So this is a very significant cost saving for the US, the APKWS guided rockets might even be cheaper than the drones and cruise missiles they shoot down.
The second is magazine size. While a fighter aircraft can only carry a handful of sidewinders and other air to air missiles at a time, it can carry dozens of APKWS rockets at a time, as these rockets can be fitted on seven shot rocket pods, which only take up one hardpoint each. This F/A-18 has 14 APKWS guided rockets on one wing (two 7 shot launchers), for a total of 28 guided rockets if the loadout is replicated symmetrically on the other wing. Note with the adaptor, that two seven shot rocket pods are only using a single hardpoint.
These two factors make defending against drone swarms a possibility, both in terms of being cost effective, and in terms of the amount of guided rockets available at a single given time for intercept missions. This could be why drone and cruise missile attacks on US Navy ships are not as effective as before. While in Ukraine the use of APKWS guided rockets is limited to their ground and sea based launching systems, such as technicals and fastboats, the United States does not have such limitations and can fit these to aircraft, enabling defence over a much wider area. The APKWS guided rockets themselves have a very short range, only a few kilometres/miles, meaning that they can only defend a very limited area from ground/sea based launch platforms. So mounting them to a fighter aircraft vastly increases the area that can be defended by them, and detection capabilities for drones out of range of the APKWS (fighter aircraft have their own radar).
Make no mistake, the US military is learning their lessons when it comes to the Ukraine war, the confrontations with Ansarallah in the Red Sea, and defending against Iranian ballistic missiles.
This is a pretty important development. The cost of interceptors is less important than their availability. Good catch.
It’s quite a depressing development from a resistance perspective (which I guess almost all of us share) because it means now that the US Carrier Strike Group (CSG) only needs to remain out of range of Ansarallah’s anti ship ballistic missiles(ASBMs), (max range 500km for Tankeel/Raad-500, maybe 700km if Iran gives them Zolfogar Basir), and that the CSG can just absorb the long range drone and cruise missile attacks, the few that get through the air patrols can be dealt with by the ships themselves. While remaining outside of the range of ASBMs is blunting the CSG’s attacks and US airstrikes as the US fighter planes have to fly longer distances, airstrikes are still happening, and the CSG is not being driven to the extreme north of the Red Sea or anything like that anymore (aside from maybe day two of this lastest conflict).
Editing to say that satellite imagery from the 19th March 2025 has confirmed this, the USS Harry Truman is operating off of the coast of Jeddah, around 700-800km from Yemen. So outside of ASBM range (Zolfogar Basir has a 700km range), but within the range of cruise missiles and drones. This explains why Ansarallah did not launch any ASBMs over the past two nights, the CSG was out of range.
The solution is probably to give Ansarallah longer range ASBMs, but that’s an idea with its own big issues. The short range ASBMs Ansarallah currently use don’t have any midcourse guidance updates, they fire them at the general location the enemy ship is expected to be at, the Manoeuvrable Re-entry Vehicle (MaRV) of the missile does a pull up manoeuvre and performs a short glide phase, in which it’s terminal guidance systems (EO/IR sensors or radar) locate the target and dive down to it. This all happenes in a handful of minutes, the Tankeel/Raad 500 has a burnout velocity of Mach 8 (2.7 kilometres per second), and an impact velocity of probably around Mach 1.5-2. A ship can’t move that far in that time, which is why this approach works, from missile launch to glide phase, the ship can’t move out of the effective range of the terminal guidance systems on the MaRV. Once you start trying to hit ships over longer ranges, the ships can move further, and you need midcourse guidance updates to ensure that the MaRV arrives in a close enough proximity to the target for the terminal guidance systems to work. Who is going to provide that midcourse guidance? Iran with their own ships, or Iran giving Ansarallah long range radars that datalink to the ASBMs? I think the US would consider that an act of war. I also don’t think Ansarallah has this capability themselves. China’s ASBMs use AWACS aircraft to provide midcourse guidance updates for instance. That’s a capability not currently in the possession of Iran or Ansarallah.
Another solution would be really fast (Mach 3+) cruise missiles or really stealthy subsonic cruise missiles. But I don’t see Russia or China giving these weapons to Ansarallah.
how about underwater drones, like a submarine version of their drone boats?
The only recourse Ansarallah has that I can see given their current technological limitations would be to increase the quantity of missile deployments (any missiles or drones), screen attacks through decoy maneuvers to confuse and distract radar teams/aircraft and stagger attacks to disrupt sleep/rotation schedules on US naval ships…keeping all this up continuously day after day
And most importantly threaten critical infrastructure across the Peninsula to increase the scale of the zone of engagement, every time the beast turns its head or wanders over to a decoy it burns calories
And most importantly threaten critical infrastructure across the Peninsula to increase the scale of the zone of engagement
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi gave a speech yesterday specifically calling out all the Arab regimes for collaborating with Israel, so I guess striking them is an escalation option they are considering, and it makes sense given their capabilities. A lot easier to hit a static oil field or refinery than a moving ship.
On the topic of what China should be doing about Israel, this one has gone under the radar for obvious reasons: PowerChina Completes Israel’s Largest Pumped Storage Power Station
The Kokhav Hayarden Pumped Storage Power Station, constructed by Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina), has been officially commissioned for commercial operation. The project is the world’s lowest-altitude pumped storage power station and the largest of its kind in Israel.
As a key national infrastructure project in Israel, the power station is located in the Gilboa mountain range in northeastern Israel. It is also the first pumped storage project undertaken by a Chinese company overseas.
Designed with a total installed capacity of 344 megawatts, the station features upper and lower reservoirs, each with a storage capacity of 3.1 million cubic meters. Operating with a rated head of 410 meters, the facility is equipped with two reversible pump-turbine units, each with a capacity of 172 MW. Once operational, it will play a crucial role in ensuring the safety and stability of Israel’s power grid.
The project was executed under an engineering, procurement and construction contract, which was awarded to a consortium comprising PowerChina and General Electric Company.
China is exporting its state-of-the-art technology to help build Israel’s infrastructure. Maybe they should invite Israel to join Belt and Road as well.
this sucks. all I can hope is that someday not so far away Palestine benefits from this project after the collapse of the zionist entity
EDIT: more about the project, coverage from 2021
https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/kokhav-hayarden-pumped-storage-hydropower-project/
Hutchison Water, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, in partnership with Noy Fund, a privately-held energy and infrastructure investment company based in Israel, is developing the project through a special purpose company (SPC) named Star Pumped Storage.
The £422m ($600m) project is being developed on a design-build-own-operate (DBOO) basis. The construction works on the project were started in December 2016, with the start of commercial operations expected by 2021.
Haha CK Hutchison… it’s been in deep trouble on Chinese and Hong Kong media after Li Ka-shing announced the selling of the Panama Ports. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Chinese government will stop the sale, but that will further raise tension with the US.
The project was executed under an engineering, procurement and construction contract, which was awarded to a consortium comprising PowerChina and General Electric Company.
Bidding, EPCs, and procurement in general always seemed funny to me, but when I started work and had a hand in them it revealed to me that it’s even more of a farce. Playing capitalism will catch up to China sooner or later.
Maybe they should invite Israel to join Belt and Road as well.
I made that proposition some while ago, if Israel decides to not put all their eggs in one basket.
It’s not like there are any principles, cohesion, discipline, etc. in this cute and fancy trade show called the BRICs+ or by extension BRI
Maybe they should invite Israel to join Belt and Road as well.
A trip though the good old times of… 2018. Contradictory and sometimes problematic an outlet as they can be, it summarizes a lot of what is discussed these days.
None of this is new and most observers knew where it was going years ago.
Illan Pappé: ‘‘Chinese interests are mostly commercial, they want to do business. Israel is a hi-tech hub, nowadays Palestine is not an economic bonanza. So no, I don’t think they will play a role in the liberation’’
A lot of talk involved around the legacy of the CPC anti-imperialist past, but let’s face it, the legacy is mostly for the myth building and the maintenance of legitimacy for the party any value is thrown out of the window when the reality of the nation-state is involved. As for the people, I doubt a majority really care about Palestine, most of the time it is bought up when the motive is to be anti-American. the average people don`t have a say in the foreign politics of the country as the system is less and less democratic as you go up the ranks of the party (I guess that explains why the youth are more extreme in their support for Palestine, there are no real future prospect in mainstream politics)
Lazy Bastards: Danish Cops Admits Closing Cases Without Investigating And Lying to The Public To Fudge Crime Statistics
The Danish police are embroiled in yet another scandal, this time over the systematic “washing” of criminal cases—deliberately closing investigations without proper inquiry while lying to the public about it. Thirty current and former police officers have come forward, revealing that police leadership routinely pressures investigators to abandon cases under false pretenses. This practice, known as “washing cases,” has resulted in violent crimes and large-scale financial fraud being ignored, all to make case backlogs disappear on paper.
Read more...
According to whistleblower cops, the police manipulate cases in several ways: pressuring victims not to file reports, misclassifying serious crimes as minor offenses, delaying evidence collection until surveillance footage expires, and conducting superficial or non-existent witness interviews. These tactics allow police departments to appear more efficient while quietly discarding cases that require real investigative work.
One officer, Martin Bjørnvig, has publicly admitted that he and his colleagues routinely deceive the public. “We violate citizens’ legal rights by failing to investigate reported cases. And we lie to citizens about the reasons,” he told Danish state media. He told how he was tasked with processing a large backlog of cases involving economic crime save was instructed to close cases, even if there were named suspects or fraud for large amounts. An anonymous ex-cop admitted to having “washed” assault andremoved cases.
Other officers, speaking anonymously, confirm that leadership not only tolerates but actively encourages this practice. One states: “You have no choice. Management decides. In the end, you’re just a number with an attractive detective job”
The motivations behind this fraud are clear. On an individual level, officers seek to meet internal performance metrics while avoiding complex, time-consuming cases. As an institution, the police force prioritizes bureaucratic efficiency over justice, preferring tidy statistics over meaningful law enforcement.
Despite overwhelming testimony from rank-and-file officers, senior police leadership denies everything. The National Police has flatly rejected the existence of “washing,” dismissing the accusations as mere “prioritization.” Yet officers describe an environment where questioning these methods leads to professional retaliation, confirming that the deception is systemic.
The Liberal Party, one of three parties making up the Nordic hermit kingdom’s Social Democrat-led right-wing regime, has reacted to the scandal not by demanding accountability but by pulling out an old reactionary hobby horse and demanding more money for the police. The party’s justice spokesperson, Preben Bang Henriksen, called the revelations “deeply troubling” but framed the issue as a lack of police resources rather than a structural failure of law enforcement itself.
The government, eager to maintain its pro-police “law and order” stance, has signaled no intention of holding the police accountable. Instead, it continues to lavish funding on both law enforcement and the military, while slashing education, healthcare, and social services. This demonstrates the regime’s true priorities: protecting the state’s coercive apparatus while neglecting the well-being of ordinary citizens.
The Danish “washing” scandal is yet another reminder that, under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the claim that police exist to “protect and serve” is a lie. The police exist to uphold the existing social order, ensuring that the state’s priorities—not justice—are enforced. Any protection the public receives is incidental; their real purpose is to maintain control.
- Source: DR (state media), March 23rd 2025
hey remember that $300bn of
seizedfrozen Russian reserves? I haven’t heard that mentioned as part of the Ukraine negotiations. Putin should demand that it is returnedEDIT: just saw that there was this story 5 days ago
The $300 billion question: What to do with Russia’s frozen central bank money? | ABC News
The Vatican announces that Pope Francis will be discharged from hospital tomorrow, the 23rd. He was hospitalized five weeks ago with a polymicrobial infection, bronchitis and pneumonia in both lungs.
The Pope is now breathing without an apparatus and will appear at the window of Gemelli Hospital before embarking for Santa Marta House, the official papal residence. Francis will need to rest for two months to complete his treatment.
- Telegram
Tradcaths in shambles rn
US airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 8th night in a row, with multiple strikes on Hodeidah International Airport. Also lots of Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon and Syria over the past few days.
Multiple strikes in Marib Governorate.
Sixth round of airstrikes at Hodeidah International Airport.
More strikes on Saada (apparently these strikes targeted new areas for the first time), and no statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces tonight. There were reports of the US Navy intercepting a ballistic missile heading towards Israel. Given that the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) can operate around Jeddah (only around 700km from Yemen) now, it’s feasible for them to perform interceptions of Yemeni ballistic missiles heading towards Israel now if necessary, earlier than Arrow 3 interceptors launched from Israel itself. This stops the air raid sirens from going off inside Israel if the intercept is successful.
Also strikes reported at missile launch platforms and military sites in Marib and Al-Jawf governorates.
Another ballistic missile fired at Israel from Yemen, this one was intercepted by Israeli Arrow 3 interceptors over Saudi Arabia or Jordan, and the air raid sirens did go off. So the US Navy did not intercept that one. Still no statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces on these activities.
Border between Lebanon and Syria is looking tense. Ceasefire may not be long for this world
“There are mobilizations from both the Syrian and Lebanese sides. The Lebanese army is bringing reinforcements to the border, in addition to mobilizing members of the Bekaa tribes. Syrian factions are also installing rocket launchers.”
so this will get the Lebanese army to mobilize, but not israel occupying south lebanon, bombs in Beirut, and a full war against Hezbollah? I don’t understand their government
It’s a lot easier to fight some hts chumps than israel. Plus the sectarianism
fucking why ffs
the whole region is a disaster
We know the answer to this: colonialism/imperialism by way of the Brits/French and now the Americans
Removed by mod
must suck when your human puppet can`t read his script correctly from its ventriloquist
Greenpeace must pay hundreds of millions over Dakota Access Pipeline protests, rules jury
RIP protesting anything. Time for a new form of struggle?
Is there a term for laws that don’t actually get enforced?
US airstrikes continue against Yemen for the sixth night in a row, with the first strikes reported in Hodeidah Governorate.
Yemen has launched a ballistic missile towards Israel.
More US airstrikes in Saada Governorate.
Statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces at 22:00 UTC.
There is a new propaganda campaign stirring up against Burkina Faso and Traore, they’re accusing them of a civilian massacre through Human Rights Watch.
https://apnews.com/article/burkina-faso-violence-fulani-massacre-7ccdd4b30d4f77ea2a86ebd9a68bb0b6
spoiler
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Video footage circulating on social networks of a recent civilian massacre in Burkina Faso appears to implicate government-allied militia, Human Rights Watch said, calling on authorities to investigate and prosecute all those responsible.
According to testimonies collected by the watchdog, security forces and allied militias carried out large-scale operations in the Solenzo countryside on Monday and Tuesday, and targeted displaced Fulani in apparent retaliatory attacks against the community, which the government has long accused of supporting Muslim militants.
“The gruesome videos of an apparent massacre by pro-government militias in Burkina Faso underscore the pervasive lack of accountability of these forces,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch, said, adding that the authorities “should take immediate action to end militia group attacks on civilians by punishing those responsible for atrocities like in Solenzo.”
The Burkina Faso government denied the accusations, saying in a statement it “condemned the propagation, on social media, of images inducing hate and community violence, and fake information aimed at undermining social cohesion” in the country.
What’s ahead for a 50-year-old West African bloc after 3 junta-led countries left the group? FILE -Members stand for the arrival of dignitaries at a joint press conference by African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) electoral observers in Abuja, Nigeria, Feb. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) ECOWAS pledges to ‘keep door open’ after 3 coup-hit West African nations exit regional bloc
Burkina Faso, a landlocked nation of 23 million people in Sahel, an arid strip of land south of the Sahara, in recent years has become the symbol of the security crisis in the region. It has been shaken by violence from extremist groups and the government forces fighting them, much of it spilling over the border with Mali, and by two ensuing military coups.
The military junta, which took power in 2022, failed to provide the stability it promised. According to conservative estimates, more than 60% of the country is now outside of government control, more than 2.1 million people have lost their homes and almost 6.5 million need humanitarian aid to survive.
Based on video analysis, media reports, and local sources, most victims of the massacre in Solenzo appear to be ethnic Fulani, Human Rights Watch said Friday. At least 58 people appear to be dead or dying in the videos, including at least two children, it said.
According to analysts, the junta’s strategy of military escalation, including mass recruitment of civilians for poorly trained militia units, has exacerbated tensions between ethnic groups. Data gathered by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project show that militia attacks on civilians significantly increased since Capt. Ibrahim Traore took power.
Human Rights Watch says the country’s armed forces and militias have committed widespread abuses during counterinsurgency operations, including unlawful killings of Fulani civilians accused of supporting Islamist fighters.
It it impossible to get an accurate picture of the situation in the country since the military leadership has installed a system of de facto censorship, rights groups said, and those daring to speak up can be openly abducted, imprisoned or forcefully drafted into the army.
why can’t they link any evidence or testimony or an article from their sources? is that too difficult?
hard to comprehend how disgusting this sort of fake atrocity propaganda is coming from the same major power participating in a genocidal bombing and starvation campaign in Palestine
The atrocity itself may be real, hard to say, the video probably is at the very least. But who actually perpetrated it? That’s very hard to determine. Could be real, could even be the accused militias, but also the US is currently performing a genocide with one hand while pointing the finger of human rights with another and that is entirely bullshit, meaning they have a different agenda.
Can anyone here guide me around why this whole thing is not to be believed? I suppose I’m still kind of a baby leftist regarding how to assess “journalism”.
HRW used to be called Helsinki Watch and was specifically created by the US to do anticommunist propaganda along “Human Rights” lines. After the fall of the Soviet Union it renamed and expanded to all fronts the US propagandises against. They aren’t shy and openly admit to this because the US learned that being cagey about your operations inspires more suspicion and opposition than being open about it:
Now, whether something is true or not is harder to say. Sometimes they can be correct, and sometimes not. But the very source itself is the problem, when it’s HRW there’s a clear connection to the US state as an organisation created specifically to do state propaganda efforts and dissident support.
I can not confirm or deny whether they are correct about this one. I can only say that they’ve latched onto it as an interest and the fact that they’re performing propaganda and getting headlines suggests the US has some interest in the matter.
