Image from this Financial Times article, although the archived version has a different image because they presumably changed it after.

China's Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, has met last weekend with the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Afghanistan's Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi (all pictured), discussing security and trade and particularly strengthening co-operation with China and increasing development in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative.

After the United States destroyed the country and killed hundreds of thousands of people and left millions destitute, intentionally destabilizing the region to counter Russia, China, and Iran, Afghanistan's government has been co-operating with China and Russia to try and rebuild. China has already invested billions into Pakistan creating a network of roads, trains, and ports, and the hope is that Afghanistan could receive similar infrastructure investment. And Russia is supplying oil and wheat to the country too.

Additionally, both China and Pakistan have a strong interest in keeping the security situation there manageable, as the country is still the base for several terrorist groups - including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Uyghur militant group - which have committed acts of violence in Pakistan and surrounding countries.

Afghanistan notably hosts approximately $1 trillion worth of minerals. The Taliban have hoped that China will boost investments in the country to help them exploit these resources, as obviously Afghanistan is in dire economic straits.

Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.

This week's first update is here in the comments.

This week's second update is here in the comments.

This week's third update is here in the comments.

Links and Stuff

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Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can, thank you.

Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have decent analysis. Avoid the comment section.

Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.

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 journalist reporting in the warzone.

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 still quite reactionary in terms of gender and sexuality and race, so beware). 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 ~ Another 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's army.

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.

  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The article it links to, from January:

    A survey of groups representing pharmacies in 29 European countries, including EU members as well as Turkey, Kosovo, Norway, and North Macedonia, showed that over a quarter of countries reported a scarcity of more than 600 pharmaceuticals, while 20% reported a shortage of 200-300 drugs.

    Three-quarters of the countries indicated this winter's shortages were worse than a year earlier. According to groups in four nations, shortages have been the cause of several deaths.

    It's a picture supported by regulatory data. According to Belgian officials, approximately 300 drugs are in limited supply. In Germany, that number is 408, while in Austria, more than 600 drugs are unavailable in pharmacies.

    Italy's list is much longer, containing nearly 3,000 medications, many of which are different versions of the same medicine.

    ...

    Seasonal diseases, most notably influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), have begun early and are more severe than usual. There is also an uncommon incidence of Strep A in children. Experts believe the exceptionally high level of disease activity is due to immune systems that are no longer accustomed to the soup of germs that surrounds us on a daily basis as a result of lockdowns.

    And then onto this article:

    One common thread was identified across responses from pharmacists: 9 in 10 survey respondents believe the government should place a greater emphasis on manufacturing and distributing amoxicillin here in the United States, as opposed to procuring it from abroad. “This country really needs to put more attention on securing healthcare needs for our citizens,” one pharmacist said. “Without the ability to acquire even the most basic of medications, how can patients have security in knowing we can help them with more complicated issues?”

    Full domestic production of amoxicillin would cost anywhere from 5% to 10% more than acquiring it from overseas, but more than 90% and 70% of pharmacists somewhat or strongly agree agree that a slight hike in price is well worth paying for such an essential medication—especially in a country that already spends over 4 trillion dollars on health care each year. “I find it appalling [that] we as a first world country choose to outsource medications that are necessities to control, sustain and treat American lives,” responded another pharmacist.

    5 to 10% more?! My rate of profit can't handle that! :porky-happy:

    I've found no explanation of the shortages on the manufacturing side of things other than quality control issues. So indeed, I think this is firmly in the neoliberal L column, which is already several miles long