The world in 2023 increased its annual emissions by 398 million metric tons, but it was in three places: China, India and the skies. China’s fossil fuel emissions went up 458 million metric tons from last year, India’s went up 233 million metric tons and aviation emissions increased 145 million metric tons....
By the winter of 1941, Barbarossa had failed. By the time the Western Front was opened in 1944, Army Group South had collapsed, Army Group North was failing, and Army Group Center was in the process of being encircled. Germany had lost, it was just a question of when. In the meantime, the entire North African campaign cost the Germans less resources than the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive.
Friendly reminder that prior to Pearl Harbour, the US was sponsoring Japan’s war crimes in China. The US made up the bulk of Japan’s iron, copper, oil, steel, and wheat supply… Essentials for industrializing and waging war. Even with this massive economic power backing them, Japan had been fought to a standstill by 1940. By 1944, the Nationalists were more concerned with containing the Communists than they were with containing the Japanese.
In the case of both Germany and Japan, powerhouses at the peak of their power were ground down to a stalemate against a rapidly industrializing nation.
China’s… not so wrong with this one. Under the previous KMT government, Taiwan-China relations were normalizing (not to the degree of reunification, but to the degree that conflict wasn’t really on the horizon anymore because of the economic harm it would cause). The DPP has taken a strongly anti-China stance and the result has been escalating tensions… All while bilateral trade across the strait continues to grow.
And yet, under the KMT government relations were normalizing. In the past, mainland China had extremely positive rhetoric towards Taiwan (and Taiwan towards mainland China). Even today, trade grows and cultural coupling grows.
Frankly, claiming that China violates Taiwan’s airspace shows a gross misunderstanding of international aviation law. American FONOPs in the area since 2016 have broken the status quo that the Chinese and Taiwanese governments were using to split the strait: if the strait is international waters outside of the 12km limit, then the air above it is international airspace by definition.
Oddly enough, that timeline also coincides with Taiwan’s government flipping from KMT rule to DPP rule.
Have you picked up a history book? Taiwan literally still claims mainland China and the South China Sea as ROC territory. Maybe read Taiwan’s Constitution instead of the American media interpretation of it? It’s not my fault that you seem happier to spread ideology with American interpretations than deal with actual facts.
“The intelligence community, their assessment – and it’s a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon,”
After the Navy raised the wreckage from the bottom of the Atlantic, technical experts discovered the balloon’s sensors had never been activated while over the Continental United States.
So, why was it over the United States? There are various theories, with at least one leading theory that it was blown off-track.
So… The only reason people even consider this a spy balloon is because some guy in China launched it? Wonderful.
Maybe drop one to show that Russia still has the capability, then another on a different city to show that Russia can keep dropping bombs for as long as it takes?
Anyone surprised by this is kidding themselves. Only a few countries have developed sophisticated cyberattack capabilities and even fewer are actually interested in China.
Plus, ever since China went around and started executing CIA operatives in China, the US has been operating rather blind with regards to China.
Russia, North Korea, Iran have no reason to launch cyberattacks on China. Neither does Israel, really (their capability is far more oriented towards, y’know, their immediate vicinity). We’re left with the US and UK, but as we all know, the UK doesn’t really have international power anymore and as a result has little reason to provoke China.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday said he is directing three House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in an effort to seek bank records and other documents from the president and his son Hunter Biden....
Why would they? There’s only 535 people in Congress. Giving each of them a million dollars in “donations” every four years is basically a rounding error.
Biden’s polling below Trump in the US (Nov 2024), Sunak is doomed (Jan 2025), and Scholz is leading a flagging economy down the drain (Oct 2025).
Regardless of how people feel about Ukraine, Western support is not indefinite and at some point the Western powers will have to focus their efforts on domestic issues.
Mr Zelensky, a former television actor with an acute sense of his audience, has detected a change of mood among some of his partners. “I have this intuition, reading, hearing and seeing their eyes [when they say] ‘we’ll be always with you,’” he says, speaking in English (a language in which he is increasingly fluent)....
The US and UK will lose some credibility internationally if they pull out now, but they’ll have more flexibility to address domestic issues that can help them in the next election. Given the relative strength of the opposition this election, they’ll need all the help they can get.
Then lastly on Sweden. First of all, it is historic that now Finland is member of the Alliance. And we have to remember the background. The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition for not invade Ukraine. Of course we didn’t sign that.
The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second class membership. We rejected that.
So he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders.
Doesn’t China already have the solution to the debt crisis in a hiked property tax? They’re just debating whether they want to do it because it’ll tank property values and probably lead to them reporting a shrink in GDP.
The change in the geopolitical order, disrupted by the invasion of Ukraine, has exposed the weaknesses of the German economic model. The German model, points out Wolfgang Münchau in one of his analyses for Eurointelligence, hinges on three ingredients: cost competitiveness, technological leadership in its industry and...
“That is why it is so important to achieve all the goals of the special military operation. To push back the borders that threaten our country as far as possible, even if [this is to] are the borders of Poland,” said Medvedev.
English translation isn’t doing him any favours. He’s saying he wants to push to the Polish border, not across it.
Sept 5 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a television interview on Tuesday, without citing evidence, that Western powers had installed Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is of Jewish heritage, as president of Ukraine to cover up the glorification of Nazism....
Nazi in Russia refers to the forced displacement, prosecution, and rape of ethnic Russians and Communists by the invading Nazi forces throughout the war. The Nazis had a much different view on Western Europeans than they did on Slavs and Jews and Communists, so is this surprising at all?
Whereas the West was treated more or less as though under military occupation (see: France, Norway), the goal of the Nazis during Barbarossa was the extermination of the Slavic peoples.
In what fantasy land are you living in? By 1941, Japan was locked in a stalemate and slowly getting whittled down by the sheer number of bodies China could throw at the problem. In 1944, Japan’s Ichi-Go operation showcased the futility of Japanese offensives: despite Japanese strategic successes, China could fight an asymmetric guerilla war and stretch out supply lines even while the Nationalists and Communists were themselves stuck in an unsteady balance of power. By 1945, the USSR had an army large enough to rout any Japanese occupation in mainland Asia and technology that was simply superior to what was available to Japan.
Allied efforts to supply China over "The Hump" were costly and largely ineffective, delivering just 351 machine guns, 96 mountain cannon, 618 antitank rifles, 28 antitank guns, and 50 million rounds of rifle ammunition between May 1942 and September 1944 (Taylor 2009).
Did the US play a role in the Pacific Theater? Absolutely. Would the Japanese have won if the US hadn’t gotten involved? I doubt it.
Lend-lease over the Himalayas was rather futile and happened more of political reasons than for strategic value.
As for the embargo? It’s a byproduct of US war profiteering given that Japan imported something like 70% of their iron, 80% of their oil, and 90% of their copper from the US in 1939.
The Pacific War is a valid point insofar as it forced Japanese industrial capacity to focus on naval strength rather than land arms, but it’s a rather misguided one given that a huge chunk of Japanese forces was stuck in China locked in a stalemate, which made the Pacific Theater far less contested than it otherwise would have been (notably, this meant that Australia was safe from Japanese occupation because Japan lacked the resources to invade Australia).
Ichi-Go was pretty futile tbh. It accomplished its strategic goals, but strong Communist control in the countryside led to a drawn out guerilla war that stretched Japanese supply lines to their limit.
Chaing Kai-shek was right in assessing that, by that point, the greatest threat to KMT rule was the Communists rather than the Japanese. That’s why so much of his forces were tied up with the Communists rather than against the Japanese.
World carbon dioxide emissions increase again, driven by China, India and aviation (apnews.com)
The world in 2023 increased its annual emissions by 398 million metric tons, but it was in three places: China, India and the skies. China’s fossil fuel emissions went up 458 million metric tons from last year, India’s went up 233 million metric tons and aviation emissions increased 145 million metric tons....
what are some of the best purchases you've made ?
I bought cast iron pan which I think is the best ever purchase I made.
deleted_by_moderator
U.N. votes to end US embargo on Cuba; US and Israel oppose (www.reuters.com)
US Vetoes UN Resolution for Ceasefire in Gaza (consortiumnews.com)
China ridicules Taiwan's defence goals as island unveils new submarine (www.abc.net.au)
The submarines will use a combat system by US defence company Lockheed Martin Corp and carry US-made torpedoes....
French police arrest reporter over leaked secrets (www.bbc.com)
In Risky Hunt for Secrets, U.S. and China Expand Global Spy Operations (www.nytimes.com)
The nations are taking bold steps in the espionage shadow war to try to collect intelligence on leadership thinking and military capabilities.
Russian hawks push Putin to escalate as US crosses more ‘red lines’ (responsiblestatecraft.org)
China says it uncovered NSA operatives behind university cyberattack (www.scmp.com)
Kevin McCarthy announces House will begin an impeachment inquiry into Biden (www.nbcnews.com)
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday said he is directing three House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in an effort to seek bank records and other documents from the president and his son Hunter Biden....
China's Solar Investment Drives Global Renewable Energy Spending to Record Levels (www.theswedishtimes.se)
As Ukraine Aid Benefits Their Districts, Some House Republicans Oppose It (www.nytimes.com)
Archive: [ archive.ph/QEfYK ]
Global Fossil Fuel Subsidies Rise to $7 Trillion in 2022, Exacerbating Climate Crisis (www.mercomindia.com)
The IMF report said that explicit subsidites have more than doubled since its previous assessment, from $0.5 trillion to $1.3 trillion in 2022....
Has the West Closed All Its Project Ukraine Exits? | naked capitalism (www.nakedcapitalism.com)
Good analysis of what options (or lack of) the west has with their commitment to killing Ukranians.
Donald Trump will “never” support Putin, says Volodymyr Zelensky (www.economist.com)
Mr Zelensky, a former television actor with an acute sense of his audience, has detected a change of mood among some of his partners. “I have this intuition, reading, hearing and seeing their eyes [when they say] ‘we’ll be always with you,’” he says, speaking in English (a language in which he is increasingly fluent)....
Ukraine's objectives 'no longer aligned with' West's as Russia 'no longer a threat'. (www.express.co.uk)
Head of NATO says Russia invaded Ukraine because of NATO expansionism (www.nato.int)
From the guy’s own mouth.
A huge debt crisis is coming (www.youtube.com)
Germany is staring at the end of its economic model (english.elpais.com)
The change in the geopolitical order, disrupted by the invasion of Ukraine, has exposed the weaknesses of the German economic model. The German model, points out Wolfgang Münchau in one of his analyses for Eurointelligence, hinges on three ingredients: cost competitiveness, technological leadership in its industry and...
Fears of peace talks with Putin rise amid US squabbling (thehill.com)
Putin: West put ethnic Jew to rule in Ukraine to 'cover glorification of Nazism' (www.unionleader.com)
Sept 5 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a television interview on Tuesday, without citing evidence, that Western powers had installed Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is of Jewish heritage, as president of Ukraine to cover up the glorification of Nazism....
Australian lawmakers head to US to lobby against efforts to extradite WikiLeaks founder Assange (apnews.com)
Japan's top court orders Okinawa to allow a divisive government plan to build US military runways (apnews.com)