EU tariffs on chinese EVs. The EU is prepared to sacrifice all of its industries for the USA. My advice: avoid initiating a car tariff war with the largest car market.

When you're just trying to browse geopolitics news on Twitter, and you have to run into straight up reactionary garbage. Wtf does a trans Olympic athlete losing an appeal and being disqualified have to do with BRICS news? Stop trying to associate us with Western imperialism. Fuck offfffffff.

FT: Colombia halts coal exports to Israel in protest against war in Gaza / archive (two days old, somebody may have posted this in last week's thread)

Colombia is Israel’s largest supplier of coal, according to the American Journal for Transportation. Coal exports to Israel were worth $320mn in the first eight months of last year, according to government data, while Colombia’s leading mining agency reports that taxes, royalties and other payments related to coal exports to Israel are worth around $165mn per year to the treasury.

The headline reads "halts," but it has not yet happened and does not impact any shipments which have already been approved. Hopefully this is the beginning of an earnest boycott and not some Erdogan PR bullshit where they simply keep selling to the settler state through an intermediary. Either way, the coal industry is pissed.

What do hexbears think about Putin's recent peace offering?

All the major MSM had a headline story for Putin's speech but didn't go into any details and all rejected it out of hand. I had to go back to Mercouris june 14 video and transcribe them:

1)All Ukrainian troops completely withdraw from annexed territories - they are Russia now

Donetsk Luhansk Kherson Zaporizhzhia

-Russia will guarantee Ukrainian troops safe passage out of the territories

2)Formally declare abandonment of Ukrainian plans to join NATO, no nukes in Ukraine, de-militarisation, de-nazified leadership, non aligned with West

3)Drop all financial sanctions against Russia

un voted for usa-described ceasefire, incredible to watch how usa spins around saying israel agreed to it

studentsforpalestinefinland
URGENT! COME SUPPORT OUR ENCAMPMENT TOMORROW
The University of Helsinki is planning to evict us tomorrow under the pretext of a greenwashing conference. They have given us until noon to leave.
Join us at 10.00 at the encampment for a briefing on how the demonstration will proceed and to show your support for Palestine and the global student movement!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/13/europe/ukraine-prison-soldier-recruitment-intl-cmd/index.html

From prison to the trenches: Inside Ukraine’s attempt to turn inmates into soldiers

The push to recruit inmates into the military appears at first glance to parallel a campaign of prison recruitment by Russia’s mercenary company Wagner early in the war, and continued by the Ministry of Defense since last year. The lives of thousands of Russian convicts have been expended in so-called “meat grinder” assaults, particularly in the fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

But Ukraine’s Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska, speaking to CNN in Kyiv, rejected the comparison.

“In Ukraine, motivation is largely based on patriotism. Our prisoners join the army voluntarily. In Russia, it was voluntary and forced. I personally saw (Russian) prisoners who were forced to join Wagner,” he said, adding that in Russia, inmates were recruited into the notoriously brutal private military company, whereas in Ukraine, they are joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“This is a regular state military service with all the guarantees: salary, social insurance, payments in case of injury, death, and so on. This is a completely different story in terms of motives and mechanisms.”

patriotism

WaPo reports Sen. Federman was driving over 30 mph over the speed limit when he rear ended another driver (she was taken to hospital in ambulance)

One week without Suriyakmaps and life has never felt this empty, I need to know which wheat field Russians have taken or I'm going crazy

Don't tell my wife this Hexbros, but I need name suggestions for my soon to be released son. We're both Arab for context. She wants to name him something cool and hip like Rayyan, but I want to give him a powerful name like Fahad (leopard) or Hassan (Nasrallah reference), or maybe even Qassam (no I won't do this)

Southern Baptists voted on Wednesday to oppose the use of in vitro fertilization. The vote was an indication that ordinary evangelicals are increasingly open to arguments that equate embryos with human life, and that two years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, “fetal personhood” may be the next front for the anti-abortion movement.

ordinary evangelicals

(NYT [Archive])

BREAKING: A military aircraft carrying Malawi’s Vice-President Saulos Chilima and nine others has gone missing, a statement from the president’s office has said:
https://twitter.com/african_stream/status/1800211812472012997?mx=1

China Urges US To Immediately Stop Illegal Unilateral Sanctions

So since half of Europe's far right is concentrating in Hungary because of the curious case of Ilaria Salis, some nazis thought the best way to assert their innocence is to smash up the IMT's (or the 147th Internationale or how they call themselves now) local chapter's meeting, this turned out not to be a smart move and some of them got busted by cops immediately. Nazis are absolutely fuming on their telegrams.

(Sidenote: some of the trots were taken by police too to question them and apparently they sold a newspaper to someone at the police station).

Chinese retail coffee giant Luckin Coffee signs Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Brazilian government, agreeing to pay $500 million for 120,000 tons of Brazilian coffee exports over the next fiscal year, a significant increase from $280 million in the 2023/24 fiscal year.

They do be laying BRICS.

In Ukraine - Russia war news:

The Ukrainians seem to be committing to their asymmetric strategy, they know that they can't beat Russia on the frontlines, so Ukraine is launching an increased amount of attacks against high value targets within Russia. One of the most significant of these is the loss of a Russian Su-57 5th generation stealth fighter jet while it was on the ground, as confirmed by Russian telegrams. It is the first combat loss of a 5th generation fighter aircraft in history, and Russia currently only has a handful of Su-57s that are operational, so a very costly loss. It was unprotected on a runway, and not in a concrete hangar, which is a major oversight from Russia.

In general Russian aviation has lost quite a few high value aircraft throughout the war, both to friendly and enemy fire, including an Su-34 NVO to friendly fire at the beginning of the war (one of only 10, and one of the few fully capable SEAD and EW aircraft at Russia's disposal), and the suspected loss of various AWACS jets both to enemy and friendly fire, and the loss of the Mach 3 capable MIG 31 aircraft, which were also on the ground and unprotected while they were bombed. The Su-57 loss has a tactical impact, as Russia has made extensive use recently of the stealth kh-69 cruise missiles, which the stealthy Su-57 can carry deep into Ukrainian territory to extend their effective range, due to it's own stealth capabilities, to enable strikes on power infrastructure deep in Western Ukraine. A double stealth 1-2 punch. However multiple fighter jets in the Russian Air Force can carry the kh-69. The recent MIG 31 losses also have an impact, it is the only normal sized fighter plane/non bomber that can carry the Kinzhal, and flies to high and fast for most Ukrainian air defences to shoot down.

All in all these losses will not change the trajectory of the war or the reality of the frontlines where Ukraine has no answer to Russia, and losses are to be expected, but it does show that Russian aviation's doctrine is well behind battlefield realities. The lack of proper SEAD/EW aircraft and outdated SEAD/DEAD doctrine, the failure to build protective hangars to protect high value aircraft, and friendly fire incidents are not things an air force of Russia's size should struggle with. It's almost as if there has been no modernisation since the end of the cold war.

Boeing Starliner not ready to come back to Earth – leaving astronauts on International Space Station

Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft will stay at the International Space Station for longer than expected, just the latest in a series of problems for the capsule.

It means that the astronauts who were carried to the space station in a mission earlier this month will have to stay for longer than expected, coming back on 22 June. They may end up staying for longer.

Nasa said that the delayed return will allow Nasa and Boeing to spend more time planning for the astronauts’ return and their journey back down to Earth.

Mission a success or failure?

My dad has some fabulous brainworms and talking to him is like staring into a maelstrom of western nastiness interspersed with a few inexplicably sane ideas that does not fit into any of the rest.

• Large parts of Sweden is ruled by cartoonishly brutal Muslim gangs
• Muslims and Africans should be ethnically cleansed from the west
• Muslims and Africans who can not be deported should be worked to death in camps
• However, Nazis are ridiculous morons, and the rise of the AfD is concerning
• The GDR was brutally looted in the 1990's
• People are voting AfD because the established politicians have not solved the real problems. The real problem is the existence of non-white people
• Meloni and le Pen are okay though because they're not fascists
• It was a mistake to create "Israel", they should have given the Jews Schleswig-Holstein instead
• "Israel" is a democracy which means they're good
• "Israel" is incredibly racist
• Palestinians should "negotiate" instead of doing armed resistance. They should "make themselves useful" for America and maybe offer them access to natural resources.
• If Khamas wins it will be much worse for Palestinians than today because then they will live under "a Muslim dictatorship like in Iran" which is worse than getting bombed
• Wokeness has gone too far
• Conservative catholics are nasty, their theatrical forms of worship is off-putting and they're driving people away from the church
• The Donbas should never have been part of Ukraine
• However, "we can not allow" Russia to win in Ukraine
• Ukraine is going to win the war once the west decides to take it seriously and gives them all the good gear they have been holding back until now.
• China is more scary than Russia because the Russians are primitive
• China is doing imperialism by offering countries material benefits. This is worse than the western way of forcing themselves on the global south.
• Western democracy is precious and shows how civilised we are, however all western politicians he can think of are corrupt arseholes.

I believe him to be a completely ideologically representative sample of the average westerner.

Amal Saad, scholar of Hezbollah:

With the downing of the third Hermes 900, one of Israel's most advanced drones, Hizbullah has now eliminated 12% of Israel's reported fleet of 25 such drones. It has now downed a total of 7 Israeli drones since October, resulting in a significant financial loss for Israel. However, the true significance lies in the fact that Israel's once unchallenged aerial supremacy is now under threat. In addition to downing drones, Hizbullah has challenged this superiority by targeting Israeli jets, compelling them to retreat from Lebanese airspace on two occasions last week, infiltrating Israel with its own drones without being detected or intercepted, and even striking Israel's Iron Dome.

Coupled with how Hizbullah has turned the tables by not only creating a buffer zone inside Israel for the first time in its history, forcing tens of thousands of Israelis to flee northern settlements, but also by using the Galilee as a research and development lab to test its weapons - a reversal of Israel's long-standing tactics against Lebanon - it's clear that Israel is now facing the most significant threat in its history and is fighting a new type of enemy.

Hizbullah's current approach marks a significant shift from its previous strategy, which focused primarily on preventing an Israeli occupation and achieving victory by simply surviving. No longer content with defensive measures, Hizbullah has now taken the offensive against Israel, engaging in a protracted war of attrition. The movement’s goals have expanded far beyond mere survival and the liberation of Lebanese territory; it now seeks to compel Israel to change its behaviour and calculations by imposing unprecedented costs. Furthermore, rather than countering Israel's "complexity" with Hizbullah's "simplicity," as Nasrallah characterized the 2006 war, Hizbullah is now confronting complexity head-on with audacity and more advanced weaponry.

There was also a major ambush operation by Hamas today, where they toppled a building on top of an Israeli force. Israel is probably claiming 2 soldiers lightly grazed and -1 deaths, as in a new Israeli soldier popped out via mitosis

US-EU spat derails push for $50B Ukraine loan using Russian assets

“What Washington is proposing is, 'We [the U.S.] take a loan, Europe takes all the risk, you [Europe] pay the interest, and we [the U.S.] use the money for a U.S.-Ukraine fund,'” said one senior European diplomat. “We might be stupid but we’re not that stupid.”

Fresh from a bruising European election last weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will tell President Joe Biden they reject the American proposal for Europe to act as sole guarantors for the loan, according to conversations with six senior diplomats and officials.

There is palpable anger within European governments about the U.S. plan, which, they argue, would mean they would be on the hook to pay the loan back if anything goes wrong ― while American companies could potentially benefit the most from the Ukraine reconstruction contracts that would flow from it.

The key question is who legally will be liable to pay the loan back if Hungary’s Russia-friendly government vetoes the prolongation of EU sanctions against the Kremlin, which legally have to be renewed every six months — thereby unfreezing Russia’s central bank assets.

Other risks include Russian assets no longer earning enough or being handed back to Russia under a peace settlement.

The U.S. suggested that European countries should bear the brunt of the financial risk if any of this happens, by proposing that countries should be liable in proportion to the amount of frozen Russian assets that they hold.

Washington said that guaranteeing the loan with U.S. taxpayers’ money would mean involving Congress in ratifying the agreement, according to three officials. This comes with fears that opposition from Republican lawmakers will extend the process past November's presidential election.

While EU officials are receptive to these concerns, they’re reluctant to agree to something that comes at the expense of their own taxpayers.

“If it was the other way around, they would say we are crazy,” said an EU official about the U.S. proposal.

Europe and America are also fighting about control over the loan and influencing how the money is spent, senior European officials said.

If Washington — or institutions with major U.S. stakes such as the World Bank — dole out the money, American companies are in pole position to profit, they said

If Trump gets elected, he should pardon Hunter as a power move.

Argentina protesters facing charges include family selling sausages, man leaving subway

Dozens of people were arrested on Wednesday as they protested President Javier Milei’s Bases Law outside Congress

At least 33 people arrested during protests against the Bases Law on Wednesday have been accused of crimes including attacks on Argentina’s constitutional order. Argentina’s presidential press team has called the protesters “terrorist groups” who attempted to “perpetrate a coup d’etat” — allegations prosecutor Carlos Stornelli quoted in his charge sheet. But relatives of the detained say some were arrested while leaving peacefully, while others had only attended to sell food.

Their situations raise questions about the proportionality of charges, the criminalization of protest in Argentina, and whether those arrested played any role in the violence.

The Bases Law, previously known as the omnibus bill, is President Javier Milei’s broad-reaching flagship reform package. It strips away many economic and labor regulations, permits the privatization of numerous Argentine state companies, and courts investment from large multinationals. It was passed by the Senate late on Wednesday night, although the final version depends on whether deputies approve modifications introduced by the upper house.

Social movements, community assemblies, trade unions, rights organizations, and outraged citizens protested in Congress Square as senators debated the bill. Demonstrators threw stones and sticks and burned garbage dumpsters. A massive police operation responded with tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets. Hundreds of people were injured and five opposition deputies were hospitalized after being tear gassed. At least one car was flipped onto its roof and incinerated.

Article sucks on this part. The protest was mostly peaceful and by like 17:00hs people and their orgs began to leave, that's when the police advanced over the remaining protesters. Once again, the bellicose actions of the police plus WELL IDENTIFIED undercover cops began the "riot".

"He wasn’t doing anything but they took him"

Matías Leonel Ramirez was selling sausage sandwiches from a grill. He had driven to the protest. When the police advanced, he stayed with his car to protect it. “He couldn’t leave because he couldn’t get the car out,” said Yesica Maciel, Ramirez’s wife. “A squadron of federal police came by and took him for no reason. He never threw any stones, he’s not with a political organization, he has no criminal record.”

Since his arrest, Ramírez has been transferred to a prison. Maciel and Ramírez, who live in the suburb of San Fernando, have a 17-year-old daughter and are also raising Ramírez’s niece. “He didn’t run, he didn’t resist when they grabbed him, because he thought that since he wasn’t doing anything, they weren’t going to take him. But they took him anyway,” Maciel said.

“All my husband wanted was a couple of pesos so we could eat, because we have a family and our money isn’t enough to live from day to day.”

Musician Santiago Adano, 38, went to the protest with his local community assembly. They left the protest when the situation started heating up. “They have that logic of looking after themselves, because there are retired people in the assembly, so logically, they left,” said his sister, Lucila Adano. “I was chatting with him, and suddenly he stopped replying. Then friends started sending me videos, and it was him.”

He was arrested leaving the subway station, as his friend returned to the square to check on his car. Video footage of Adano’s arrest shows at least 16 officers carrying him away. “They dragged him for like a block,” Lucila said. “They were squeezing his neck, he was completely red and saying he was suffocating, and would they please let him go?”

“The last thing I saw was him fainting.”

Other detainees include three generations of the Ocampo family — father, daughter, and granddaughter. Like Ramírez, they were selling food at the protest. The detainees have been in custody since Wednesday night. Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has asked Judge María Servini to order all of the detainees be placed in pre-trial detention. Her decision was pending at the time of writing.

Stornelli has charged the detainees with fifteen different crimes including inciting collective violence against institutions by instilling public fear, arson, possession of explosives, and attacking the constitutional order to disturb the free exercise of the Senate. The last charge is punishable by up to 25 years in jail. The Security Ministry said it would file a legal complaint over “damages it suffered to its equipment” and said that more arrests are to come. Vice President Victoria Villarruel said the Senate would also file a legal complaint against “the criminals that yesterday attacked the democratic institutions.”

“We are going to make them pay for all the material damages directed towards the historic buildings and sidewalks of the National Congress,” Villarruel said in a post on X. “ The Argentina of sedition and anarchy is over.”

Manipulating concepts adulterates facts

Human rights groups have called the move a criminalization of protest. “The arrests were made at random. The government posted that there was terrorism and coup d’état, the prosecutor made accusations, and 35 people are being used to generate fear to go to a march,” the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) posted on X. “The goal is political: to instill fear in anyone who mobilizes against the government,” they added. CELS called on Servini to release the detainees.

Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina, wrote in an Instagram post that the violence during the protests aimed to “cause damage and disturbance” — but rejected the state’s classification of the events as an attempted coup. “A coup d’etat has the aim of overthrowing a government and its institutions. Manipulating the definition of concepts is a way of adulterating the facts,” Belski wrote. “At such dramatic moments for society, this attitude only adds confusion and impoverishes public debate.”

Some of the comrades have been released already, but others still remain "in custody" as of this moment. Local orgs and trots have mobilized and demanded the release of all hostages. For some, the memories of the 1976/1983 dictatorship, which used to "suck" targeted people off the streets and their homes to disappear them, came rushing back, which is why a quite seizable movement was instantly organised to demand the immediate release of all hostages.

milei and his adminsitration have doubled down not only on rethorics (calling protesters terrorists) but also on the level of violence. And no government can sustain itself in power by cracking skulls open with batons.

They might have scored a win in the Senate, the tiebreaker fell to the Vice President who of course voted yes. Even after all the bribes, all they could manage was a tie. However, despite their victories, internal contradictions are becoming stronger and stronger.

I measure the importance of news by how many new comments are in the news thread

Noam Chomsky had a massive stroke in June 2023 and is being treated in Brazil

95-year-old American linguist is being treated in a São Paulo hospital, and health explains silence on Israel-Hamas war. He's married to a Brazilian and has a house in SP.

God has decided to punish Austria for voting for nazis, by flooding the country

Airbus and Boeing aircraft have become even more dangerous due to counterfeit titanium in their design, the New York Times writes, citing the company that manufactured the parts. After refusing to purchase titanium from Russia, airlines switched to metal of unknown origin and low quality with fake certificates.

Production employees discovered corrosion holes in the next batch of metal, which is impossible for real titanium. The publication's interlocutors claim that this metal has already been used for passenger doors, cargo compartment doors, hulls, engine heat shields and other elements of a number of aircraft.

This also applies to the space industry, but more on that later.

Take it, Putin!!

Import substitution working very well for the West.

Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/faa-investigating-counterfeit-titanium-used-some-boeing-airbus-jets-nyt-reports-2024-06-14/

Possible Taliban redemption arc?
https://twitter.com/resistance_sa/status/1801704587432439917?mx=1

The Taliban have requested from Iran and the Palestinian resistance to be granted the opportunity to send forces when it becomes possible to participate in the fight against Israel.

Hamas popped an APC and killed all 11 IOF soldiers inside

Officials in the Foreign Relations Ministry tell journalist Monica Bergamo that Lula da Silva won't appoint an ambassador to Israel until the genocide in Gaza halts and Netanyahu leaves office.

resisting the urge to reply to zionists on reddit making insanely racist arguments with " (red triangle) "

Hey Germany, how's your second war against Russia going?

Rheinmetall opens repair facility for combat vehicles in Ukraine

The dumbest motherfuckers on the planet are running the various appendages of the fourth reich. Fixing that hardware in-theater is a great plan!

Suspicious accounts 'with Nigerian following' being used to push pro-Reform UK content on TikTok

Of course the takeaway is that it's Russia lol, smolbean uk billionaires would never do this

Cuba after Mexico, I see what you did there !