Link? I need to own some people
Leave it to the state department to do creative casualty accounting.
Yes though, good catch. That number seemed low to me as well but I didn't run it down. Maybe creative accounting or maybe just transcription error by the author or similar mistake.
Denying the lived experience of Israelis who execute aid workers is antisemitism.
No one is filling up their car with crude oil over gas, but yes good clarification.
Essay by Nick turse, the author of "kill everything that moves" on the Vietnam war. This article is about terrorism and counterterrorism in the sahel, centered on Niger delegitimizing the US's airbase 201 in the country. It remains to be seen whether the Americans will leave or if they'll stay in the country despite Niger wishes.
... and despite U.S. security assistance pouring into Mali and its military officers receiving training from the United States, terrorist violence in the Sahel has in no way been reduced. In 2002 and 2003, according to State Department statistics, terrorists caused 23 casualties in all of Africa. Last year, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution, attacks by Islamist militants in the Sahel alone resulted in 11,643 deaths – an increase of more than 50,000%.
John Helmer on the second de-energization campaign of Russia against ukraine. He posits that this time they are pushing to depopulate kharkiv, eastern ukraine both to make seizing territory easier and to create a refugee crisis in Western ukraine/Poland. He draws on and links some specific sources of stats on displaced people in ukraine to make the case that more people are leaving ukraine to Poland now than since the beginning of the war.
A real smorgasbord of content for the news thread on nakedcapitalism.com today
Article on logistical ties between China and Central asia/russia/Afghanistan and other efforts China is making to avoid isolation in event of world war. This is a good, broad survey of different aspects of west and east Asian integration and (potential) proxy war maneuvering. Note also the importance of Xinjiang as a jump off point from China to all these places.
The US, of course, realizes the importance of Central Asia as well, but what can the Americans really offer? Even RAND admits that “the United States is unlikely to outspend China or even Russia” in Central Asia. Case in point: last year Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and announced that the Biden administration would add $20 million to the Economic Resilience Initiative in Central Asia (ERICEN). That brought the total funding up to $50 million since it was launched in September 2022. [1] The total value for Chinese projects in Central Asia is more than $63 billion.
Related is this more detailed and specific article about yellen going to China. Frankly I didn't get as much out of this as the above, but it provides some analysis of the recent xi-Biden phone call and some tea leaf reading.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545
The US is the largest oil producer in the world, cracking the Russian and KSA records in 2018 and exceeding their production by a comfortable margin now. Up from a recent low of 5 million barrels per day in 2008 to 13 million barrels per day now.
Definitely a Thanks Obama moment. I recall when that asshole talked about this being the moment that sea levels would stop rising when he won the primary in 2008. 8 years later, US oil production was just about double to 9 M barrels/day. That fucking asshole.
The US has become a much more significant oil exporter now too, especially since 2022.
See also the American consternation about Chinese green tech, eroding the world demand for oil.
Projection of the thousands of people being imprisoned and tortured in US operated/sponsored black sites.
The colonialism inherent to Zionism was more explicit and honest when colonialism was appreciated as a good thing by what was then the "rules based international order".
This is an awesome book. I've used it as a 101 resource for a couple people and it's perfect for that. Like you said, it's very accessible, it's so human and compassionate, it's easy to read in snippets, phenomenal.