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.
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.
possible misinformation taken down
Video: British police are using Palestine Action proscription to target even mentioning Palestine, Gaza or freedom in protests of any kind. If you tick off having 2 opinions that are associated with Palestine Action the police have reasonable cause to suspect you of support for a proscribed terrorist organisation and to act on that. For example supporting Palestine and wishing for Gaza to be freed meet this threshold.
So yeah. Currently the vast majority of the population would meet the criteria.
Pro-Palestine protesters breach fence of Edinburgh arms firm factory
Proscribing Palestine Action was never going to stop anything.
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?
John MacArthur, pastor of the Grace Community Church megachurch and founder of Grace to You Ministries is dead at 86
Most of you who were not raised in American Evangelicalism probably don’t know who this bozo was, but for those who were, please celebrate with me!
I hate her so much
Reddit is introducing a photo ID requirement for anyone in the UK to see anything on the site marked as nsfw.
https://hexbear.net/post/5560292
This is quite bad for queer people, particularly access to some very important trans subs. /r/transdiy for example has the entire sub marked as nsfw.
In local austrian news: Felix Baumgartner, the guy who jumped from the stratosphere for Red Bull and spent the rest of his life being a loud racist, misogynist, and Nazi party FPÖ fanboy, is dead. His paraglider crashed into a hotel area. A worker was injured and is in the hospital. Rest in Piss, he died just like he lived: falling from the sky.
Belgian court bans further transit of all military equipment to Israel in landmark ruling
In its ruling, the court immediately prohibits the Flemish government from authorizing any new transit to Israel. Since 2009, there has been an agreement that no arms strengthening Israel’s armed forces would be exported — a policy that in practice has been severely undermined. To enforce the ban on new transits, the court has imposed a penalty of €50,000 per shipment that still leaves for Israel. The judge criticized the Flemish government for providing little to no information and stated that Flanders gave the impression it “did not have the situation under control.” This passive attitude is particularly problematic given the “crushing responsibility,” the judge said.
https://thecradle.co/articles/gaza-on-brink-of-mass-death-due-to-israeli-imposed-famine
God, Gaza is going to starve to death while the whole world watches, isn’t it?
https://t.me/PalestineResist/80263?single
Breaking | In an urgent and important press statement, Gaza Health Ministry reports and appeals to the world:
⭕️Unprecedented numbers of starved civilians of all ages are arriving at emergency departments in severe exhaustion and fatigue.
⭕️We warn that hundreds of severely emaciated Palestinians are at imminent risk of death due to hunger and their bodies’ inability to endure any longer.
Lots of fake Xi Quotes going around while he still has real bangers:
From the Central Urban Work Meeting:
“When it comes to launching projects, it’s always the same few things: artificial intelligence, computing power, and new energy vehicles. Is every province across the country supposed to develop industries in these exact directions?” General Secretary Xi Jinping said, viewing industrial planning from the perspective of “acting in accordance with objective laws,” pointing out the root issues in development: “We must firmly oppose formalism and bureaucratism, and also address the problem of pretending to understand when one doesn’t, and being self-opinionated. We must prevent the emergence of ‘three-pat’ cadres — those who pat their chest, pat their head, and pat their butt.”
“Some of our favs may be implicated.”
After celebrating the overthrow of Assad and staying silent for months of pogroms against Syrian minorities (and attacks on other Palestinian factions), Hamas has bravely come out to condemn the “martyrdom” of the HTS militants bombed by Israel in Syria. Their position on Syria overall remains a major weak point and one to be dissected
spoiler
“In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Press Release
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) condemns, in the strongest terms, the sinful Zionist aggression against the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, which has resulted in the martyrdom of dozens of army and security forces and innocent civilians.
The fascist aggression against Syria represents a flagrant violation of international law and a continuation of Zionist arrogance and attempts to impose hegemony and control over the peoples and countries of the region. This must be confronted with all force.
We affirm our full solidarity with our brothers in Syria and call on all Arab and Islamic countries and the free people of the world to unite and cooperate to repel this ongoing Zionist aggression and foil the terrorist occupation’s schemes that target the will, freedom, and independence of the countries and peoples of the region.
Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas
Tuesday: 20 Muharram 1447 AH Corresponding to: July 15, 2025 CE
Official Website – Hamas Movement“
https://t.me/hamaswestbank1/8584
Here’s some footage of the mass executions, church burning, and drone bombing that HTS have committed in the last 24 hours:
https://t.me/stayfreeworld/45260
https://t.me/nayaforiraq/35095
Anyways, these future “martyrs” are now marching on Al-Suwayda after failing to take it yesterday. Hoping for safety for anyone not fighting for Zionist interests, as of right now Israel is backing both horses
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)
