Image is of the Germany coal power plant Staudinger, taken from this article.
Germany has closed down its last three nuclear power plants, after decades of protests against them in the wake of Chernobyl and then Fukushima. They were going to be shut down last summer, but then some obscure event happened in Ukraine or something, and that kept them alive for a little while longer as energy uncertainty mounted.
Now with the assurances that their natural gas supply will be healthy and sufficient, as their pipeline to Russia that supplied much of their gas is now gone, and new renewables will be sure to fill the gap, as Baerbock does everything in her power to anger China (the dominant renewables and rare earths manufacturer on the planet) things are looking bright for the German economy and energy sector, making this the right time to finally shut down those pesky nuclear power plants, which emit orders of magnitude less pollution and less radiation than coal power plants.
The European environmental movement is going swimmingly.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we’ve collected.
April 17th’s update is here in the comments.
April 18th’s update is here in the comments.
April 21st’s update is here in the comments.
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have decent analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.
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 journalist reporting in the warzone.
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 still quite reactionary in terms of gender and sexuality and race, so beware). 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 ~ Another 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’s army.
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.
First
Update for April 17th
Hungary under more pressure to give up Russian connections. Iranians protest Israel’s anti-Palestine action; Hamas officials go to S.Arabia. Yemen prisoner swap. Russian unemployment so low that it’s causing problems. China, Brazil co-operation. Kenyans threaten strike. Ongoing coup attempt in Sudan. Florida outlaws abortion. Peru coup leader at 91% disapproval. BRICS dedollarizing. And US recession pessimism returns.
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Events
Europe
The Canary: RMT and RCN set to strike again – as nurses stick two fingers up at their union
Common Dreams: People Power Ends Nuclear Energy Era in Germany
Millions of people worked towards this day for years. People who protested against reprocessing plants, nuclear waste transport, unsafe nuclear waste storage facilities, and the construction of new nuclear power plants. Those decades of resistance were worth it.
We’ve finally done it. Now, we can breath in those fumes released by coal power plants and whatever natural gas we can still get. They smell like victory. Dipshits.
Barrons: Hungary Quits Russian-led Bank Day After US Sanctions
Not unexpected - Orban is far from a true believer. I expect to see both Hungary and Serbia reined in as control over vassal Europe is solidified. Turkey will be a different matter, probably dependent on what happens in the elections.
TeleSUR: EU Will Return Frozen Russian Reserves
As per the article’s discourse, despite the overt backing of the notion of allotting funds to Ukraine by prominent officials in the EU, notably the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, executing the same could prove to be challenging in practicality and is predisposed to fail for diverse grounds.
Die Welt reported that anonymous insiders familiar with the EU’s plans have explained that the frozen reserves of the Russian central bank amounting to €300 billion are widely dispersed throughout Europe and are deposited in numerous accounts. These accounts often have no direct connections to Moscow.
Western Asia
TeleSUR: Mass Mobilizations In Tehran On World Al-Quds Day
Massive mobilizations in defense of Palestine and against Tel Aviv’s violence have been registered in the capital, but also in other cities of the Islamic republic, including Qom where a million people participated.
MEE: Yemen: Major prisoner swap begins as more ceasefire talks agreed
MEE: Saudi Arabia to host first Hamas delegation in over a decade
While there has not been official confirmation of the trip from Riyadh, the delegation is expected to hold talks with Saudi officials on a number of Palestinian and regional issues as well as bilateral relations between Hamas and the kingdom.
According to Palestinian media outlets, the issue of Palestinian detainees in Saudi Arabia will top the agenda of talks.
Central Asia
Independent: Russian oil exports back above pre-Ukraine war levels as India and China buy 90% of Moscow’s crude
Intellinews: Russian labour crisis looming as unemployment falls and emigration rises
Suffering from success. Nonetheless, it does partially explain why Russia does not want to officially declare war if that would involve the mobilization of all reservists. Slow and steady wins the race.
Unemployment in Russia is currently at an all-time low, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on economic issues on April 11.
“One of the key issues today is overcoming the shortage of personnel. We have been talking about this all the time lately. Amid all the difficulties of the past year, domestic enterprises avoided mass layoffs of employees, retained their teams. Now the situation is fundamentally different. Taking into account the all-time low level of unemployment – in general it is 3.5% across the country – there are simply not enough workers in many areas,” he stated.
Cimate Change News: Saudi Arabia, Russia push for more World Bank money into carbon capture
The technology is meant to suck carbon out of the atmosphere, usually from a particularly polluting source like a fossil fuel power station’s smokestack, and either use it or put it back in the ground. But it remains very expensive and largely unproven at scale.
Brownen Tucker from the campaigning group Oil Change International said more World Bank support for carbon capture and storage would be “beyond ridiculous”.
“The World Bank prioritising carbon capture and storage would just be a way to greenwash its long-time role as a piggy bank for the fossil fuel industry,” she told Climate Home.
Eastern Asia and Oceania
SCMP: China trade: ‘positive surprise’ as exports surge and fall of imports eases
China’s exports rose by 14.8 per cent in March compared with a year earlier, while imports fell by 1.4 per cent last month
Customs official said China’s trade showed strong resilience in the first quarter and played up the prospects for 2023 overall
Climate Change News: China and Brazil to cooperate in stopping illegal trade fueling deforestation
WSWS: Bangladesh government tables new “essential services” anti-strike laws
On April 6, the Bangladeshi government tabled a modified Essential Services Bill, allowing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s regime to declare any sector an essential service and outlaw all industrial action. The repressive measure was introduced amid rising anger among workers and the poor over soaring inflation and worsening living conditions.
Africa
Africa News: Women still occupy “marginal” place in food production- FAO
They own less land, earn less money and are more vulnerable to crises: essential to feed the world, women still occupy a “marginal” place in food production, says the FAO, in a rare report on the glaring inequalities of the sector.
Africa News: African airlines see accelerated recovery as travel rebounds - Report
Africa News: Senegal gas project drives locals to desperation
When officials announced a new gas project off the coast in 2015, the community was hopeful it would bring new opportunities. Instead, many locals say, the gas has only brought a wave of problems and pushed people to desperation. That includes forcing some women to turn to prostitution to support their families, they told The Associated Press in interviews.
Africa News: Mali: Germany gives itself 9 to 12 months to withdraw its soldiers but will maintain its aid
Germany is counting on nine to 12 months to withdraw its soldiers from Mali, a withdrawal imposed by the new realities of the country under the leadership of the military, but which does not put an end to development aid, two ministers said Thursday during their visit.
WSWS: Kenya’s civil servants threaten strike over wage delay as economic crisis deepens
Hundreds of thousands of Kenyan healthcare workers and civil servants are threatening strike action, a move that could paralyze the country.
The Kenyan government of billionaire William Ruto has delayed salary payment of government and parastatal workers, save for some education workers and police, while imposing International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity measures and privatisations and waging war in Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo in defense of US imperialist interests across the region.
Africa News: Fighting continues in Sudan as death toll climbs
MEE: Sudan: Schoolchildren among hundreds trapped by fighting in Khartoum
North America
StatNews: In counties with more Black doctors, Black people live longer, ‘astonishing’ study finds
Jacobin: American Truckers Are Getting Squeezed. Hard.
Long-haul trucking used to be a stable, high-paying job. But thanks to decades of deregulation and pressure from bosses, truckers now have to work grueling hours for little pay, in conditions that put them and everyone else on the road in serious danger.
TeleSUR: U.S. San Francisco - Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness
People’s Daily: Rare fungal infection outbreak forces temporary closure of U.S. factory
WSWS: Florida Governor DeSantis signs new legislation restricting abortion rights, expanding the death penalty
Common Dreams: ‘A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’: Experts Sound Alarm Over 5th Circuit Abortion Pill Ruling
“The court rightly found that some claims were filed too late,” said one reproductive rights campaigner, “but that should not distract from the radical assault on the FDA’s decisionmaking authority.”
Inside Climate News: Awash in Toxic Wastewater From Fracking for Natural Gas, Pennsylvania Faces a Disposal Reckoning
Inside Climate News: Environmental Justice Advocates Urge California to Stop Issuing New Drilling Permits in Neighborhoods
Inside Climate News: Clean Energy Is Thriving in Texas. So Why Are State Republicans Trying to Stifle It?
Money.
Part 2
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Jacobin: The Trudeau Liberals Can’t Stop Themselves From Selling Arms to Antidemocratic Gulf States
In spite of the frequent lip service they pay to human rights and peace, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have yet to find an antidemocratic Gulf state to which they won’t sell arms. Qatar is the newest potential client being wooed for Canadian-made weapons of war.
Latin America
TeleSUR: Venezuela Invites Russia To The 2023 ALBA Games
TeleSUR: President Nicolas Maduro Reaches 10 Years Leading Venezuela
TeleSUR: Record Alert: +100 000 Refugees On Panama-Colombia Border
TeleSUR: Chile Celebrates 40-hour Law Enactment
This Friday, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, enacted the law that gradually reduces the working day from 45 to 40 hours per week.
Geopolitical Economy: Peru’s coup-plotting congress has 6% approval, 91% disapproval (but full US backing)
As we know from western countries, the lower the approval rating, the more democratic the country. The ultimate liberal democracy would be one where there is a 100% disapproval rating of the leader in office, because that means that those people have the freedom to disagree, unlike in communist countries like China, Russia, and Iran.
The War Against The West
Geopolitical Economy: BRICS Bank de-dollarizing, promises 30% of loans in local currencies, new chief Dilma Rousseff says
Naked Capitalism: The Increasing Number of Trial Balloons for Polish Intervention in Ukraine
Nothing TOO concerning yet - calling them “trial balloons” is about right I think. It’s not hard to joint dots into a trend line though, and that trend line will lead to a lot of body bags going back to Poland if NATO isn’t careful.
TeleSUR: Ecuador Willing to Send Arms to Ukraine, US Leaks Reveal
Earlier this year, General Laura Richardson, the leader of the U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom), asked six Latin American countries to donate Russian weapons to Ukraine. In return, Washington would provide donors with modern U.S.-made weaponry.
When analyzing the U.S. leaked documents, NYT journalists found that the Lasso administration considered the possibility of sending Soviet-made MI-17 helicopters to Ukraine.
Analysis
Retrospectives, History, Theory, and Technology
Michael Roberts: Well founded pessimism
Only last February, I posted that there had been a burst of optimism about the state of the world economy in 2023. The consensus view then was that the G7 economies (with the sorry exception of the UK) would avoid a slump this year. Sure, there will be a slowdown compared to 2022, but the major economies were going to achieve a ‘soft landing’ or even no landing at all, but just motor on, if at a low rate of growth. The international agencies like the World Bank, the OECD and the IMF upgraded their forecasts for global growth.
However, all that optimism has proven “unfounded” as I suggested then. Even in the best performing G7 economy, the US, a recession (ie ‘technically’ two consecutive quarters of contraction in real GDP) now seems probable. Even the US Federal Reserve accepts that a recession is unavoidable. At its last meeting, its economists agreed that there would be a ‘mild recession’ in US economic activity this year.
And according to economists at the Bank of America, there are plenty of signals that suggest a recession in the US has not been avoided and they provide several charts to back that up. First, there was the significant decline in manufacturing activity. “March ISM was 46.3, lowest since May 2020. In past 70 years whenever manufacturing ISM dropped below 45, recession occurred on 11 out of 12 occasions (exception was 1967),” BofA said. Indeed, globally there appears to be a manufacturing recession.
Common Dreams: Oxfam Shows US Billionaires Almost a Third Richer Today Than When Covid Hit
Wall Street On Parade: New Bombshells Filed in Court in the Jeffrey Epstein/JPMorgan Child Sex Trafficking Case
Monthly Review: OPEC+ and capitalism’s fight against inflation
…
World capitalism has been in a crisis for a long time, ever since the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008. It is a hallmark of the crisis that attempts to resolve it in one form simply give rise to a crisis in some other form. The original manifestation of the crisis was in the form of a stagnation; even establishment economists like Lawrence Summers the former US treasury secretary have now started talking of a “secular stagnation”. But the attempt to overcome this stagnation by pumping in extraordinarily cheap credit to the system over a long period of time, and then by running enormous fiscal deficits in the wake of the pandemic, brought on the current inflation. The Ukraine war, a fall-out of the effort to maintain western hegemony over the world, accentuated this inflation. And now the effort to curb this inflation is threatening western hegemony over the world, as well as the control exercised by metropolitan capital over its domestic working class. What we are witnessing in short is a coming apart of the conjuncture that underlay the stability of neoliberal capitalism.
Monthly Review: History has its course and timing
…
This is as far as economy and finance are concerned, but as far as moral and human issues are concerned, Western neo-liberalism has attracted world disgust in a way that so many countries in the world are taking serious educational and cultural measures to protect their population from its destructive trends. In brief, the West has fallen as an example of freedom, democracy, and justice, and although history takes its time before any gigantic turn, the foundations of this change are being laid steadily in the East, which in less than a decade will make Western centrality a mere story we tell our children of a world that was but no longer exists.
Responsible Statecraft: The day the bombs rained down in Laos
…
Fifty years after the last bomb was dropped, we are still uncovering more about what happened to Laos. Today, U.S. involvement in Laos remains an overlooked part of American history, with the legacy of unexploded bombs continuing to threaten the lives of people in Laos. The U.S. should meaningfully recognize the history of the Secret War and the humanitarian efforts still necessary to solve this challenge.
President Obama made history as the first sitting president to visit Laos. There, he acknowledged U.S. military operations there and committed funding for humanitarian demining efforts in 2016. More elected officials can continue the life-saving path he paved by visiting Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam and support the ban on the use of these indiscriminate weapons. We can rely on American leadership to uphold a peaceful legacy moving forward.
Emphasis mine. lmfao.
Part 3
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The Left and the Right
TLB: “Are you now or have you ever been a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn?”
In the latest instalment of the “Jeremy Corbyn is a hideous racist Bogeyman who wants to murder your granny” saga, the Labour NEC have blocked him from being selected as a Labour candidate in the next general election. Corbyn is a hard working and popular MP of 40 years and, without this interference from the NEC and Starmer, he would easily have been selected by his local Labour Party and elected for Labour an 11th time.
The oddly bland motion put to the NEC by Starmer states that Corbyn should not be allowed to stand as he lost the last general election. There was no mention of antisemitism but the shadow cabinet were keen to insinuate that this was the real reason in media interviews. Wes Streeting, gleefully speaking to Times Radio, opined that if had properly accepted the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) verdict into antisemitism “things might have been different”. Starmer must rely on snide insinuation from his besuited attack dogs because putting it in writing might have negative legal consequences. All that smearing and it hasn’t come to much.
The trade union reps on the NEC were split, with the cowards in the GMB, USDAW and fucking Musician’s Union flinching and voting for the motion. The Unison delegate abstained and the Deputy Leader, former Corbyn ‘ally’ Angela Rayner, did not attend. For consistency the NEC should also prevent election-losing former leader Ed Miliband from standing for Labour, but I’m not holding my breath.
Corbyn remains an obsession for Starmer and his cabal of right wing sensibles. Socialists are being purged from the party and he is the big one; the dragon that must be slain by Sir Starmer. They remain horrified that he did unexpectedly well on a social democratic platform in 2017 and that his ideas about helping each other spoke to the future generation of voters. This was doing politics wrong. The adults were not in charge. How dare this upstart talk about ridiculous things like ending homelessness and funding social care and education so that no one is left behind?
Analysis of Western Countries
Monthly Review: So much lying from the International Monetary Fund: The Fifteenth Newsletter (2023)
Monthly Review: If the U.S. can’t boss the World, it will spitefully destroy it
Analysis of Non-Western Countries
Responsible Statecraft: US shouldn’t whine when Brazil does its own thing
U.S.-Brazilian relations have not improved much since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January. Despite hopes for a “new era” in relations connected with Lula’s visit to the U.S. in February, the first few months have not been very productive.
One major reason why relations have not improved more is that Washington has had unrealistic expectations that the Brazilian government would support a U.S.-led agenda. To the extent that Lula has disappointed the U.S. since returning to power, it is largely because many people in our government mistakenly assumed that Lula ought to fall in line behind Biden and became frustrated when he did not. Brazil under Lula charted an independent course when he was president in the 2000s, and it is certain to do so again now.
This is a problem for the U.S. only if Washington insists that every country must toe its line and do its bidding.
Climate Change
ZME: Underwater volcanic eruption in Tonga was most powerful natural explosion in a century
Might partially explain the wet weather California has been having? Would love to see a study to see if there’s any significant connection. Wouldn’t be the first time that a volcano has impacted global weather/climate.
Common Dreams: World’s 60 Largest Banks Have Dumped $5.5 Trillion Into Fossil Fuels Since Paris Accord
I Love My Trans Comrades!
TeleSUR: EU Will Return Frozen Russian Reserves
As per the article’s discourse, despite the overt backing of the notion of allotting funds to Ukraine by prominent officials in the EU, notably the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, executing the same could prove to be challenging in practicality and is predisposed to fail for diverse grounds.
Die Welt reported that anonymous insiders familiar with the EU’s plans have explained that the frozen reserves of the Russian central bank amounting to €300 billion are widely dispersed throughout Europe and are deposited in numerous accounts. These accounts often have no direct connections to Moscow.
Ok so I was reading this article and then I came across this line:
The newspaper reported that Brussels lacks a precise understanding of the whereabouts of the funds in question.
Wtf? How are the funds frozen if they have no fucking idea where they are?
How are the funds frozen if they have no fucking idea where they are?
EU leadership released a memo stating that all Russia assets are to be frozen, so now they’re frozen, ok? If you want to argue that they’re not frozen, you’ll have to point to a bank account that should be frozen and isn’t. And you can’t do that. So therefore there’s no problem.
I believe someone posted an article here last week about this - only a fraction of russian funds have been “found” and frozen, and the majority of those are liberal, west-leaning russian billionaires. The RusFed finances were moved out of Europe by 2014, is the claim, so the seizure of the funds was just a massive own-goal by the west shattering the bedrock of trust and security any non-western nation might have thought the banking system offered.
edit: if this is true then backing away from this action is maybe the best thing the west can do that isn’t an outright admission of a complete and total fuckup
Eco-Fascism is when we just keep emitting carbon for increasingly stupid reasons.