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.
Does this mean things are going well? Bolsonaro’s other son — this one a sitting senator, not the congressman conspiring against his country in the US — suggested Trump back off the 50% threat and instead target individual Brazilians for sanction. He has since deleted the tweet
The US leader Donald Trump has ordered the cancellation of the visas of Alexandre de Moraes (the Supreme Court Justice Bolsonaro attempted to kill), his family members and his “allies on the court”. It is not yet known whether by “allies” he means other Justices. Trump, through its Secretary of State Marco Rubio, states that “his administration will hold foreign nationals responsible for censoring protected expression in the United States accountable.”
Rubio: “@POTUS made clear that his administration will hold accountable foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States. Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro created a persecution and censorship complex so sweeping that it not only violates basic rights of Brazilians, but also extends beyond Brazil’s shores to target Americans. I have therefore ordered visa revocations for Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members effective immediately.”
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Telegram
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The Spectator: Ukrainians have lost faith in Zelensky
Check out this CRAZY bit
Ukraine’s social media is filled with daily videos of men being bundled into vans by recruitment officers. In the first six months of this year, Ukraine’s Prosecutor’s Office reported that it had opened 107,672 new criminal cases for desertion. Since 2022 some 230,804 such criminal cases have been instigated, suggesting that more soldiers have deserted the Ukrainian army than there are fighting men in today’s British, French and German armies combined
How long can this go on?
Trump’s announcement to send Patriots to Ukraine seems to cause confusion:
Trump’s mysterious arms “deal” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, in German)
When Trump finally announced that Patriot systems were already on their way to Ukraine, this was immediately denied. According to German government circles: “Nothing is in the bag yet.”
But it is still completely unclear when and from whom Ukraine can receive additional Patriot batteries, unless the USA itself is prepared to hand over its own systems.
It’s not even clear how useful these Patriots are. They’re not cost effective when shooting down Geran drones, and they can’t reliably shoot down Russia’s most advanced missiles. I guess they can shoot down something in between, but surely that’s not going to make a difference.
Russian forces liberated another ten settlements this week (seven in the Donetsk People’s Republic, two in Zaporozhye oblast, and one in Kharkov oblast): https://sputnikglobe.com/20250718/russias-weekly-military-gains-precision-strikes-and-ten-liberated-settlements-1122455709.html
Some combat footage of one of these settlements (Voskresenka, in the DPR) being liberated: https://s5.cdnstatic.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/voskresenka.mp4?_=4
Felix Baumgartner has died
Apparently Hersh thinks Zelensky is cooked.
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-end-for-zelensky Is anyone still subscribed and can get the full article?
The only thing that I can say is Hillary 2028!
China-Serbia Peace Guardian 2025 Joint Training to be held this month
BEIJING, June 14 – Army special operations troops of China and Serbia will carry out Peace Guardian 2025 joint training in North China’s Hebei Province in the second half of July, said Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, spokesperson for China’s Ministry of National Defense, at a press briefing on Monday.
“This will be the first joint training between Chinese and Serbian militaries. It will help strengthen combat capabilities of participating troops and deepen cooperation between the two militaries,” he stated.
yemeni missile launched and reportedly intercepted
ansarallah and resistance operations in palestine feel like the only thing keeping me afloat rn
House overwhelmingly rejects Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s amendment to cut funds to Israel 422-6.
The six: Al Green (TX) Green (GA) Lee (PA) Massie (KY) Omar (MN) Tlaib (MI)
No time to waste: NATO chief urges rapid industrial mobilization
As the U.S. and its allies in Europe pledge to ramp up defense spending amid mounting global threats, the supreme allied commander of Europe is calling on industry to deliver real capabilities to the field in record time. “We can tell industry exactly what it is that we need for all the leaders that are out there. It’s our job, I think, to hold industry accountable to deliver quickly and to hold ourselves accountable for giving industry the ability to deliver quickly through our acquisition processes,” U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said July 17 during his first public speech since taking command at the Association of the U.S. Army’s inaugural LandEuro conference in Wiesbaden, Germany.
“hold industry accountable”? Uh, yeah pal, it’s called nationalization and economic planning, but I’m afraid that’s all lost technology, even the Adeptus Mechanicus can’t figure out what it was all about. We just don’t know!
“We’ve got to do this fast. We need real capabilities and we need them delivered as soon as possible. We can’t afford to wait, future pledges are no longer enough,” he said. “To do this, the defense industrial base on both sides of the Atlantic is going to have to become fully activated.” Grynkewich stressed there’s plenty of work to go around, it’s not a matter of investing in one or the other. “It needs to be one seamless industrial base that can deliver capability and capacity for the alliance,” he said. Moving quicker is easier said than done. Every country will have to contend with their own budget approval process and work through red tape across borders.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made a pledge earlier this year on a trip to NATO headquarters that the U.S. would conduct major foreign military sales reform. Even so, the U.S. military and NATO have developed solid regional plans beginning with a clear one focused on the Baltic States that will help guide government and industry in getting capabilities to units there. The U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander, speaking a day earlier at the conference, said the “Eastern Flank Deterrence Line” plan aims to enhance ground-based capabilities and drive military-industrial interoperability across the alliance.
As part of the plan to counter Russian threats and enable scalable, global deterrence, the Army and its NATO allies are urgently developing standardized, data-driven systems, common launchers and cloud-based coordination. The plan includes a system to share data. NATO has already procured that system – Palantir’s Maven Smart System – an artificial intelligence platform that takes a vast amount of data and rapidly analyzes information to help military commanders make decisions. U.S. Army Europe and Africa officials have also adopted Maven at headquarters, using it for mission command and visibility across the theater. The system has completely replaced PowerPoint briefings and offers information to commanders in real-time.
you know what’s going to drag us out of our deindustrialization quagmire? that’s right, THE CLOUD! AND AI!
On NATO’s wish list, according to Grynkewich, are capabilities that mirror a Ukrainian brigade. “How do we get our brigades to have the same level of capability where we can match what they’re able to do today?”
ah, so they’re finally admitting that the Ukrainians are way ahead of them in terms of adaptation to the modern battlefield… but wait, aren’t those guys, like, not doing too good? Uh oh!
Additionally, Grynkewich said he wants to focus on air defense. “There’s never enough air defense. You always want more, but it’s an acute requirement, whether it’s counter-[unmanned aircraft systems] or counter-ballistic missiles,” he said. And there will also be a continued focus on long-range fires, Grynkewich noted. “We need the capability to hold things at risk.”
Industry now has real incentives in place, Grynkewich said, with the new commitment made by NATO nations at the last summit to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on defense by 2035. “I would ask industry folks who are here and elsewhere to realize that sustained commitment should be a powerful signal to do the things you need to do, to expand production lines, to increase [research and development] spending, etc., so that we can get where we need to go,” he said.
“a signal to do the things you need to do” y’know, maybe you shouldn’t need to fucking “signal” industry, like “oh pretty please expand your production lines, c’mon guys!”, maybe you should be able to, I dunno, order them to do so?
Leadership is now moving to deliver new and emerging technology to the battlefield along with legacy technology that is still relevant and will work to make things interoperable. “I challenge each of the chiefs of defense, land forces commanders and every leader in here to hold themselves to account for that. There’s no time to waste,” Grynkewich said.
this guy really loves holding stuff accountable I guess
