Radio war nerd interviewed the guy behind the eventsinukraine substack for an in depth look at the recent corruption scandal in Ukraine with Mindich. They get right into the weeds here, spending time on the byzantine machinations of oligarchs and corruption in post-soviet/post-Maidan Ukraine. A lot of israeli connections in this one between Mindich and Kolomoysky, among others.
I've listened to/read a couple good things by Greg Grandin on Venezuela recently:
Chapo episode 985, an interview with Greg Grandin: in which Greg describes the history of the Monroe Doctrine, use of the war on drugs as cover for foreign/domestic intervention, and most interesting to me, situating Maduro as successor to Chavez's policies. He talks about material reasons for intervention in Venezuela (Chevron wants the oil) as well as the ideological reasons for neocons (stepping stone towards Cuba/Brazil, similar to the way toppling Iran is the long term goal in West Asia).
this article by Grandin recapping recent American interference in Latin America under the last 50 or so years of presidents.
All Posters are Beautiful, but not all posts are effort posts. DM me to feature effort posts in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own posts)
@jack@hexbear.net on Venezuelan communes as actually existing socialism and a book by Chris Gilbert
Subthread on Chinese tourism in Japan between @Leegh@hexbear.net, @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net and several others.
What the fuck
It's not a central bank, so no. They could receive printed money though, and loads of nato spending comes from debt
This was a good article, lots about how this sausages are made in EU defence spending. It doesn't seem like much ROI as a boost to the economy though, few jobs created.
At best, the European defense spending strategy seems to offer a way to maintain stagnation, rather than achieve growth. But outside of economic concerns, it’s functioned as an ingenious political solution. Rather than dealing with the EU’s economic problems head-on, the Union’s governments have been able to launder a massive economic stimulus plan as a solution to a violent external threat. A courageous facade has been erected to cover clinical – and probably irresponsible – fiscal policy. Appealing to morality, ideology, and fear has been widely successful, and European populations have mostly accepted the messaging.
Because of this, it’s highly unlikely that the EU will tolerate an early conclusion to the war in Ukraine. They stand to lose the justification for their spending, lucrative contracts for their defense sectors, tens of billions on loans that Ukraine will be unable to pay, and the massive investments they’ve made into military-industrial infrastructure. Their dream of a generational extractive project in the form of a debt-ridden, prostrate Ukraine, a place outside the EU but with every trade and economic agreement written solely to benefit it, stands at risk of being destroyed by a steadily advancing Russian army.
This isn't analysis or anything, it's just "a stock had a bad day".
please report posts that don't include a non-paywalled link like archive.ph
i'm tempted to flag this as an effort post of the week
I listened to a professional seminar about battery materials earlier. The speaker was legit but for dox reasons I won't name them. Here is a roundup of their points:
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While there are lots of battery formula and also lots of niche applications, lithium iron/manganese phosphate is the main battery technology to beat for either stationary batteries or EVs. android robots like that Unitree one will probably be higher density formula with lots of nickel.
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No one outside of China is doing commercially useful work on batteries. Companies/researchers in the west are either too silo'd and aren't integrated with the big picture, or their value proposition is predicated on LFMP batteries being more expensive than they have proven to be
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They expressed general concern about the ability of the US power grid to keep up with projections of datacenter build out, discussed renewables+batteries as the only power generation technology that could potentially meet demand. To them, nuclear is a waste of time owing to long permitting times/very high costs.
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Western EPCM firms get an 'F-' grade from him for project delivery, often having price tags 5-7x more than advertised. This applies to Western implementation of Chinese technology too, so just importing Chinese technology/talent is a fix for this issue.
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Recent total installed cost (not just cells) of a grid scale stationary storage battery by a Chinese firm operating in Saudi Arabia was ~$75/kWh. Even a year ago I saw estimates more like 2-4x that.
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There are no rare earths/critical minerals in batteries, but lithium supply can be a bottleneck and should be considered a strategic mineral. There are plenty of rare earths used in other car parts, just not the batteries.
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China EVs are great quality, with 1000+km range batteries that charge in minutes in nice cars widely available. If exposed to Chinese EVs via free trade, vehicle manufacturers in the rest of the world would be 'decimated'
Some definite malding from the crowd about China being so obviously good and ahead of the pack compared to anywhere in the West, so that was fun too.
it's literally only 1 letter off from the military that's been genociding gaza