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.
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.
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/07/15/video-police-using-palestine-action-proscription-to-target-even-mention-of-palestine-gaza-freedom/
So yeah. Currently the vast majority of the population would meet the criteria.
Lmaooo this is only gonna work insofar that it might scare off a few libs who’d turn up to a rally. But it’s also gonna help loads of supporters realise that the state can only rely on intimidating us - most of these people will never see the inside of a courthouse or jail cell because the system is already at capacity.
People are straight up sitting outside places with “i support palestine action” on placards to get arrested on purpose, and some are even handing themselves in! They’ll all be the first ones to show that PA is beyond suppression.
Is it me or is the whole island about to pop off? It’s entirely vibes because I’ve never been there, but I’ve just been hearing so much horrible news, and you know, it’s an island… isn’t that kind of like a pressure cooker?
Definitely feels tense here, no guarantee of anything kicking off of course but I’d say the chances are only gonna increase, Starmer’s government has managed to achieve almost(?) record unpopularity in a year of governance.
I suspect that is because the entirety of the organised left has been engaged in non-electoral activity due to lack of any electoral options for several years now. That left hasn’t diminished whatsoever, if anything it has grown and radicalised more in that time frame.
Will something pop off? I don’t know. I think the state would have to make a strategic mistake for that to happen. For example when Vylan was cancelled for Radar Festival it occurred because the state was threatening the festival with shutting the whole thing down on the day Vylan would’ve played. My take is that if this had actually occurred then there would’ve been a massive riot, shutting down a festival with thousands of pro-violence punks present and a crowd of pro-palestine people would’ve ended very badly. The festival organisers went ahead with cancelling Vylan though.
What’s missing is a catalyst. Something is ready to pop off, but a large enough event with the right kind of crowd and a serious miscalculation made by the cops needs to occur for it to trigger.
Also if thousands of people riot in current conditions they won’t be able to do much about it. Prisons are full. 14,000 extra capacity is planned for 2031.
The serial decline since the end of Empire has been catching up. Hopefully we will see the liberation of Irish territories in the next decade.
Opinions have shifted a lot the past few months, but it hasn’t translated into much pressure yet.
if the punishment for being a member of a Palestine Action-like group and simply agreeing with them is the same, if you’re going to get thrown in jail (or worse) either way, then you might as well join them and make it worth it