Image is of President Hakainde Hichilema and President Xi Jinping on September 15th, from this article.
Zambia is a country of 20 million people, located in southern Africa. Breaking free from British rule in the 1960s, the new government was a one party state ruled by the socialist UNIP party with its leader Kenneth Kaunda, who was a strong supporter of the Non-Aligned Movement (and was its chairman from 1970-73). Its economy has been and remains characterised by copper exports - it is the second-largest copper exporter in Africa - and the economy deeply struggled in the 1970s due to the price of copper plunging. After the fall of the USSR, and due to violent protests, Kaunda stepped down and instituted a multiparty democracy, which has been maintained without (successful) coups to this day, though there are warnings by the leader that some are plotting a coup, given the trend right now.AA
Earlier this year, in June, Zambia struck a deal to restructure the $6.3 billion in debt that they are burdened with, of which China is the single largest creditor.Reuters Though he has typically been more West-friendly, last week, President Hichilema traveled to China for two days, meeting with various companies, and Xi Jinping himself. They elevated their relationship to that of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.Xinhua He and Xi have agreed to the increased use of local currencies in trade.BB
Hichilema said Zambia thanks China for supporting the African Union’s entry into the G20 and China’s positive role in resolving the Zambian debt issue. The Zambian side abides by the one-China principle, highly appreciates the guiding philosophy and principles of Chinese modernization, and hopes to learn from China’s development experience.
Hichilema has also said:AN
“We can do more, faster, because the needs are tremendous in Zambia. I heard some of the solutions are here. All we need to do is to combine the two together.”
Check out @[email protected]’s discussion of The Wretched of the Earth!
The Country of the Week is Singapore! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
The news summary for last week is here!
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
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.
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.
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 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
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.
pentagon defense procurement paper from last year
conclusions:- no commercial application for missiles makes them unprofitable
- china makes everything
- nobody wants to invest in domestic manufacturing
- nobody wants to work in manufacturing, much less for the DoD
Trillion dollar private defence industry: what, you can’t expect us not to cut as many costs as possible and offshore everything? We’ll need even more money to do that
Honestly even if they gave them more money they’d still cut costs and offshore and then flip off the feds for suggesting they not just pocket the extra
no commercial application for missiles makes them unprofitable
Dr. Strangelove 2 looking great
nobody wants to work in manufacturing
much less for the DoD
Yeah fuck that though. A friend of mine is a quality inspector. She got laid off a few years ago and found a new job. After a couple days she learned they were making weapons for the IDF and she quit on the spot. Very proud of her.
After a couple days she learned they were making weapons for the IDF and she quit on the spot.
Maybe we should do less of the thing that nobody wants to do and that just results in many of us being murdered anyway.
Yeah, okay, okay, I know: crazy, wacko, lefty granola eater go back into my corner and shut up. 👻
no commercial application for missiles makes them unprofitable
R-7 wins again
What we need is a cryptocurrency somehow connected to missile production, or firing them.
no commercial application for missiles makes them unprofitable
Low key glad they’ve actually learned a lesson and aren’t trying Project Plowshare again
This is a common talking point in gun circles, but I don’t know how true it is: china makes most of the primers required for American ammunition
What’s true though is that china, Russia, and even North Korea have some of largest deposits of tungsten in the world, while the US has almost none and is trying to get more tungsten rounds for weapons
guys this is not funny anymore. Which one of you took my f-35?
>my mouth suspiciously shaped like an F-35
not meI’ll never tell~ It’s definitely not up my aaaaaaaaaass~
you ok dude? you look a bit sick
🤮💨~~🛫
🥴
🥰
Georgia’s security service accuses Ukrainian official of plotting coup
The deputy chief of Ukraine’s military counterintelligence is planning an overthrow of Georgia’s government, its security service says.
On Monday, the SSG said Giorgi Lortkipanidze, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s military counterintelligence who used to be Georgia’s deputy interior minister, was plotting “destabilisation aimed at a violent overthrow of the government”.
The SSG said antigovernment protests “are being planned for October and December, when the European Commission is set to publish its decision on Georgia’s EU membership application”. It said the plot “is being carried out with the coordination and funding from a foreign country”.
👀
I was thinking the past few days that this really has a chance of ending up like what America has done to the Middle East. Looking more likely by the day.
And yet Europe will continue to worship them. The politicians will be too cucked to do anything about it.
NYT: Evidence Suggests Ukrainian Missile Caused Market Tragedy
From their original article:
A Russian missile strike in Kostyantynivka that killed at least 17 and injured more than 30 others was one of the deadliest in months.
After the war is over, there is going to be a quiet trickle of articles about how the war crimes Ukraine accused Russia of were actually committed by Ukraine. It wouldn’t surprise me if one year from now the MSM finally acknowledges that the Azov battalion caused Bucha.
Only reason NYT reports on this is because it has the word market in it.
I remember seeing that Zelensky’s telegram post of the video showed the reflection of the missile coming from the wrong direction, but they caught it and posted an edited version by the time it hit twitter. Should’ve saved them
You know what? Fuck it, crossposted to /r/worldnews. Enter at your own peril, I’m mostly curious to see who calls me a Russian spy for posting an NYT articleThey already removed it. Absolute cowards every last one of them.
Removed for “feature story”. What the fuck does that mean?
That is so reddit it isn’t even funny. What a pathetic little cess pit echo chamber.
Remembering how I got banned from worldnews for telling a user saying fascist shit named golden dawn to follow their leader and kill themself
I got shadowbanned from /r/worldnews. It’s kind of crazy how right-wing that place is getting. I don’t think it’s the libs turning fash either. I just think anyone who isn’t a bloodthirsty imperialist has at this point said something to contradict the propaganda and has been shadowbanned.
I was straight up perma banned from r/worldnews for calling isn’treal an imperialist settler state
LMFAO that was removed pretty quick. Did they give you a reason?
They didn’t DM me but the post itself is tagged “feature story”, which apparently breaks the rules.
I was reading analysis here hours after it happened that showed it was most likely a ukrainian anti-air missile that fell short/malfunctioned, good to hear the NYT (eventually) gets it right
From their original article:
I remember when this happened how glaring it was that the nyt didn’t even consider the possibility it was an off course AA missile despite that happening several times through the war
I remember seeing the story on r/all in one of my rare forays back there, the comments were some of the most unhinged shit
I’m from New York and I’ve just received a letter (draft) demanding me to fight for The Ukraine.
What the fuck is going on
Could you give us some more details? Was it a real letter or just some sort of PR thing?
Send a letter back saying referring to it as The Ukraine is marginalising the struggle for independence and sovereignty of the Ukrainian people
Reddit is a whole other level in blood thurst
I saw comments asking for the CIA to kill Musk.
I mean, let them fight and all but it’s hilarious this is what pushes libs into being pro-assassination of American citizens by the CIA, an innocuous comment on the reality of the war
It’s wild how heavily they skew to a certain demographic. I’ve seen people from my country in there going full pro-Ukraine while most people in my town have forgotten about the war entirely and spend their time talking about the game last night.
I have no idea how we will ever fix this. I feel like these brainworms will last 40 years or more.
Think positively: libs have no memory
brainworms have a short lifespan which is why the media needs constant access to consumers to keep implanting them.
Everything falls out of the worm riddled brain as soon as the news cycle shifts. Love getting blank stares when I ask libs if they remember things that happened a few months ago.
Musk is part of the Tesla brand. I really wanted to buy a Telsa Model Y, but I just can’t with all of his support of Russia. All Russia has to do is leave Ukraine and the killing stops. Say that, Mr Musk!
New tagline
One of the comments blames him for personally sabotaging a Ukrainian naval strike. Idk why Musk actually did it, but his stated purpose is that he doesn’t want his company’s tech to be used in war. And
considers that a bad thing.Musk doesn’t want his satellites to get shot out of space. It’s not really that hard to grasp but redditors are impressive creatures.
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/mMjLr
Orthodox deacon captured by Ukrainian abwehr for assisting Ukrainian civilians escape from being apprehend by Zelenskyy regime thugs for forced conscription.
Ex-deacon accused of disguising men as missionaries to avoid conscription in Ukraine I,nvestigators say at least six individuals escaped to EU countries after deacon allegedly took bribes* by Lorenzo Tondo and Shaun Walker.
A former deacon in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa has been detained on allegations that he took bribes to help men evade conscription by disguising them as church missionaries so they could leave the country.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said last week that the former deacon belonged to the Ukrainian Orthodox church, one of two main branches of Orthodoxy in the country and until recently linked to the Moscow patriarchy. Investigators say the former deacon – who has not been named – successfully facilitated the escape of at least six individuals to several EU countries.
“The suspect had compiled lists of missionaries who were intended to travel abroad on behalf of the diocese’s leader and the religious community, with the aim of becoming priests,” the SBU said.
Cool deacon. Fuck those who arrested him
Based church man
I know we dont vote BUTT I have a new campaign
No more tummy aches
PLEASE vote no more tummy aches 2024
"my tummy hurts"Are they frequent aches? IBS?
Low fodmap diet + daily actimel (dairy free version) cleared up all of my cramps and stomach pains after getting them for years and years and years.
What this generally boils down to in practice is - no dairy, no bread (switch to gluten free breads instead of yeasty ones), and getting that probiotic. There’s very little testing for “fodmap” levels in food so the easiest way to stick to low fodmaps is usually to go for gluten free variants of things.
Anyway, switching to this was literally lifechanging for me. I strongly recommend it for anyone that gets these kinds of issues.
I need to put an effort into the low fodmap diet.
The problem is the limitation on things like beans and avocados
you must also restrict/avoid onionsnooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOo
Yeah losing out on things you like is annoying. But I cheat from time to time and get no problems at all. I feel like it’s a threshold, you can eat fodmaps to a certain extent but when you go over the threshold frequently enough in a short enough timespan you get the usual living hell from it.
For example yesterday I had some bread in a breakfast bap I ordered and that’s fine for one day. Having had no other fodmap foods today really I’m not going to get any issues.
Once you get into the swing of this it’s actually pretty easy to follow. I do recommend trying it as soon as you can, in just a week you could see a difference if this is what is causing your issues.
Have you had a scope done?
No they only do this in extreme cases on the nhs. Why?
Fuckin Torys. Its not urgent or anything, but a scope can diagnose/rule out lactose or gluten intolerance, and rule out other things. If there’s a way to get on a waiting list or something that won’t cost money, I think its worth it.
Interesting. Maybe I should ask, I’ve generally sort of dealt with it and up until hearing about fodmap stuff it was a constant burden. It completely changed everything for me.
Can lactose and gluten issues develop? I never had those problems before, cheese used to be one of my favourite things :(
hmmm… is it all onions period or just onions prepared in certain ways?
i eat so much frickingf bread smh
Not a problem if you don’t get these kinds of cramps regularly! I didn’t for a long long time, but then it became a problem. I don’t really know why. If you do have IBS it might be your thing like me though.
What the hell is fodmap
That was my reaction too. It’s an acronym that stands for “Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides And Polyols.” and exceeding a certain threshold of these fodmap carbohydrates is a trigger for IBS cramps, intestinal bleeding etc for some people.
This isn’t kook shit either. It’s a solution being used medically for the problem.
So it’s just you can eat grain or dairy food?
Pretty close. That’s the bulk of it in practice. It’s actually not even that since you can cheat and as long as you don’t go over your personal tolerance level you won’t get any problems. I think of it like a meter that I can fill up and if I overfill it then I get the IBS cramps debuff. I assume other people with IBS have different levels of tolerance.
Fodmap deez nuts
I know right, I’m shitting razor blades over here
What if a Chinese spy balloon hijacked the F35?
I knew comrade balloon was still out there
I think it’s clearly gotta be the aliens. They’re mad we’re talking about them all the time now. Definitely can’t be anything else
Stole it to see if we are reverse engineering ufo tech yet.
No Maverick appeal: Air Force misses recruitment goal for first time since 1999
Despite hopes that movies like “Top Gun: Maverick” would recapture the imagination of youth and open their minds to the possibility of high-flying military service, the U.S. Air Force has missed its recruitment goals for the first time since 1999.
This is part of a service-wide trend (Army and Navy included) that has so far only spared the Marines, which at 33,000 has much lower target numbers than the Army, for example, which missed its goal of 65,000 new recruits in May. It was the second year in a row the Army fell short.
But the active duty Air Force’s failure to meet its goals is the first time in nearly a quarter century, presaging hard times to come. According to this report the active duty component fell just shy (90 percent) of its 26,877 goal, while its reserve and Air Guard fared worse, with 30 percent shortfalls in each.
Unlike the pre-9/11 days in 1999, which, despite small overseas operations against lesser rivals like Saddam Hussein, was considered peace time, military officials are worried about what these shortfalls mean for their ability to meet the current twin security challenges consistently identified by official Washington: Russia and China.
“The geopolitical landscape was so much different” in 1999, Air Force Recruiting Service boss Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein told reporters Wednesday. “Missing this year is kind of at a critical point.”
Is there one reason for the slip in recruitment? The short answer is no. As we’ve said in these pages before, the theories are moving targets, sometimes partisan, and varied. Some observers point out that young people have more economic and educational opportunities today. Others have noted that the pool of eligible recruits is shrinking — young people are more obese, have been on therapeutic drugs (disqualifying), are in poor shape, and have histories of using recreational drugs/alcohol and bad behavior.
On the left, critics say the military continues to be racially biased and misogynistic (particularly at the leadership level; the percentage of women across the military has actually increased to over 17 percent, while the level of minorities is close to 40 percent of the total military population).
On the right, critics say the military has become too “woke,” overtaken by the civilian world’s culture and identity politics, and focused more on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” than preparing men and women for future wars.
But another theory transcends partisan politics. As the trust levels in government institutions (including the military) has eroded society-wide, so has the number of men and women willing to put their lives in the hands of Uncle Sam. After 20 years of failed war policies, a citizenry that feels lied to, swindled, and misled at every turn is less inclined to believe that their children won’t be used as toy soldiers in some future Washington political gambit overseas.
The fact that the propaganda isn’t working as well gives me a glimmer of hope
Others have noted that the pool of eligible recruits is shrinking — young people are more obese, have been on therapeutic drugs (disqualifying), are in poor shape, and have histories of using recreational drugs/alcohol and bad behavior.
I mean yeah this is pretty much it I’d wager. I wanted to be a pilot so badly as a kid that I used to beg my parents to drive me out to the small regional airport we have in town just so I could chance seeing something take off/land. Imagine my amusement in HS when they had the recruiters in the lunch room one day, one of them saw my NASA jacket and went “wanna fly a supersonic jet??
” to which I earnestly replied “absolutely” only for them to go “aw shucks…you’re a type 1 diabetic AND you have poor eyesight?? Sorry kid you can’t fly planes” lmaoIn retrospect this is a good thing because I absolutely would’ve joined the Air Force just to get into the air and would’ve realized like 2 days into boot camp that “holy shit I could just play microsoft flight sim for 4,000 hours and beg a commercial airline to take me up”
I vaguely remember the fbi was having trouble recruiting programmers for the drug reason. Very silly
Military Propaganda: “Only the best of the best of the strongest of the toughest can do even the most menial of jobs in the military! JOIN NOW!”
Propagandized Population: “Oh, okay.” goes back to playing pokemon and posting on Hexbear.net
the f-35 has been upgraded into the unmmaned drone division and you terminal leftists think thats a bad thing
Yes.
next thing you’ll tell me that unmanned f-35s accidentally entering chinese space is a bad thing too
Don’t worry. The F-35 has a very short range. I’m not sure it could even make it to Cuba from SC.
not with that attitude!
I’m sure the West will be quick to denounce this brutal invasion and send weapons to Artsakh, right?
Help I ethnically cleansed my neighbors as a joke, then they came back and told me that wasn’t cool and I’m not welcome anymore.
Yeah historically genocided people wanting to protect themselves from people that hate them. Totally in the wrong…
yeah just a little of that “self defense ethnic cleansing”
You are right, it was very hypocritical for Azerbaijan to do all that ethnic cleansing for decades and then act indignant when the Armenians finally responded.
ww3 starts and quickly ends as everyone realizes their equipment has been reverse-engineered… but how?!
spoiler
Gaijin Entertainment is a Hungarian video game developer and publisher headquartered in Budapest. The company is mostly known for War Thunder
plays the doctor evil theme with a picture of orbán on the background
idea: Tencent should release a realistic missile simulator in order to goad American gamers into releasing the codes to deactivate the nukes (I have no idea how nukes work)me imagining orbàn screaming “release the meteor!”
I thought they were Russian?
the plot thickens
I found some F-35 parts in my backyard. Imma call the Government so they can come and pick them up.
The Chinese Government.
Honestly, they don’t need it. China already has every technical detail of every US military component.
I don’t know how much of a real thing this is but there is also a popular saying in creative circles about trying to not be influenced by others.
In this case I definitely think Chinese engineers could end up picking the wrong/bad qualities from F-35 and other similar systems because
American superiority they believed for so long not realizing it was shit and is in fact all shit.
They’ll just assume you’re a double agent trying to decapitate their pilots
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/nRZ6k
Ukraine says it will sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over food import bans
Protectionist trade policies in play, baby!
KYIV, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans to sue Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in the World Trade Organization over bans on Ukrainian agricultural products, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.
The appeal could be sent “in the near future”, a senior official said, and followed a decision by the three countries bordering Ukraine to ban imports of the country’s key export commodities.
Politico had earlier on Monday quoted Ukrainian Trade Representative Taras Kachka as saying in an interview that Kyiv planned to sue the three countries.
Restrictions imposed by the European Union in May allowed Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, while permitting transit of such cargoes for export elsewhere.
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports on Friday after the executive European Commission decided not to extend its ban on imports into Ukraine’s five EU neighbours.
Warsaw, Bratislava and Budapest say they are acting in the interests of their economies and their farmers.
REVENGE FOR THE POLISH FARMERS UKRAINE MURDERED!
Kachka told Politico that Ukraine could also impose reciprocal measures on the import of fruit and vegetables from Poland if Warsaw did not drop its additional measures.
TRADE WAR TRADE WAR
Polish Agriculture Minister Robert Telus said Warsaw’s ban covers four cereals, but it was also extended to include meals from these cereals: corn, wheat, rapeseed.
PAP news agency quoted Radoslaw Fogiel, the head of Poland’s parliamentary foreign affairs commission, as saying Ukraine’s decision to sue would “reverberate badly in Poland” and that Ukraine should be aware of this.
Oh hell yeah! Shoot yourselves in the foot over flour!
“Our decision is not aimed at Ukraine, it is dictated by the protection of the Polish farmer and the protection of Poland’s interests,” he said.
The EU allowed its ban to expire on Friday after Ukraine said it would take measures to tighten control of exports to neighbouring countries.
Kachka said Kyiv was ready to “take on the responsibility to ensure that export from Ukraine is not creating any tsunami in neighbouring countries” and would impose a system of “real time” export licenses for grains.
Farm ministry data showed 1.4 million tons of Ukrainian farm goods left the country by train in the first three months of the 2023/24 July-June season out of a total export volume of 4.5 million tons. Ukraine ships grain by train via crossings with Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Ukraine also shipped by rail an additional 1 million tons of oils and oilseeds.
Lmao now that the grain deal was sunk because Ukraine was overwhelmingly biased in shipping its foodstuffs to Europe instead of countries that actually need it, ukraines going full mask off to the point its threatening to destabilize European agricultural markets with their flood of foods
in the World Trade Organization
Funny that its not mentioned but Ukraine literally can’t sue anyone in the WTO. No one can, because the US has for years blocked the appointment of new judges to serve on the dispute & settlement court. America doesn’t want anyone winning a trade dispute against them so they just destroyed the whole mechanism for everyone, sucks for you Ukraine.
I guess all that’s left is to have a trade war with Poland
Is this the start of Ukraine’s “allies” turning against them? “Sorry, I mean we loved the fascism and all but you’re starting to be an inconvenience. Keep this up and you’ll be downgraded from European back down to slavs.”
Not really, these import bans are at least 6 months old maybe even from last year. It is just that the EU successfully managed to get these countries to go back and forth, delay or create exemptions etc.
Holodomor 2: The Holodomoring
