Image is of Brazilian chuds storming the National Congress building in opposition to Lula winning the election, on January 8th, 2023, in their remarkably even shittier version of the January 6th events in America.
Bolsonaro, who is in the tragic category of pro-US South American leaders who are so awful and uncharismatic that even they can't get the US to help them overthrow a democratically elected left-ish government, has recently been facing that most elusive of things in this current world order: consequences for his actions. Bolsonaro and his friends have been under investigation by the police, and his passport has now been seized, meaning he is unable to leave the country. Alongside the man himself, the leader of the Liberal Party, Valdemar Costa Neto, has been caught up in searches and investigations. Brazilian Army Colonel Bernardo Correa Neto, a former aide to Bolsonaro, was very recently arrested upon his return to Brazil from the US, as well as another colonel.
From the Hexbear South American correspondent (a position I just made up), @Redcuban1959@hexbear.net:
Lol, they are really fucked. Iirc, this is a municipal election year in Brazil, Bolsonaro can't campaign publicly, he can't promote his candidates. The leader of his party is currently in prison. And even if he is released from prison, they are forbidden to communicate with each other. The high-ranking members of the Liberal Party are pretty much fucked because they can't communicate with each other and getting support from Bolsonaro could be very bad, as left-wing candidates will exploit the fact that Bolsonaro will probably be imprisoned for planning a coup.
The FBI seems to have concluded its investigation into Bolsonaro's money laundering scheme in the US and handed over its findings to the Brazilian Federal Police, I don't think Bolsonaro can even go to the US anymore, or any other country. And it could get even funnier, there is a very small chance of the Liberal Party being banned and all its seats in congress and the senate being transferred to other politicians, many of whom, even if they are conservative, will be much more favorable to Lula's social and economic reforms, as it has been proven that Bolsonaro used the party to finance the coup.
The Country of the Week is Brazil! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
China's Developing New Batteries Faster and Cheaper Than Everyone Else, But At What Cost?
Seriously though, we've barely gotten started with sodium!
Also, one common concern I see about renewables is that there is not enough copper and lithium for the transition. Copper may be an issue but it's pretty obvious that we'll just use other elements for batteries.
Glad to see new and less environmentally destructive battery technologies, of course (what happened to the graphene-based super-capacitors, anyway?), but they're honestly really not that essential. We've got plenty of ways of storing energy that could make a transition feasible. For example, gyroscopic motion, simple gravitational potential energy (e.g. pumping water), less-efficient batteries, etc. Most energy use (in homes, industry, trains, etc.) doesn't demand extremely efficient storage, because unlike for electric cars it doesn't need to be light-weight, portable, etc. With renewables, you aren't damaging the ecosystem very appreciably by overproducing so you can store in less efficient mediums.
TL;DR - The worry about batteries and the ability to use power at night is mostly just a manifestation of unwillingness to transition and fear of decreased profit, not inability.
This is the kind of thing that is technically true but practically a lot less true. Energy density absolutely matters for trains because they move. Energy density of pumped storage (gravity potential like you say) is very very poor compared to even bad batteries. It also comes with negatives like the hazard of having a huge amount of water stored above grade, or having a big concrete block, or a spinning disc. None of these things are technically impossible and most have some use, but it's not serious to just write off a 1000 fold difference in energy density.
Nope. Because any sustainable train is powered through the rails, rather than carrying its energy source with it. So unlike electric cars, it doesn't really matter that they move.
Granted, yes. As I said in the initial comment. However, you can simply produce more. Generally that's okay with renewables.
Far less hazard than many existing power generation systems, so whatever. Yes, a little bit of a negative. To be mitigated by e.g. keeping that storage where it's not likely to hurt people. Not a very difficult problem, and extremely worth it so that we can transition to renewables.
You seem to think I'm suggesting there's zero cost at all to transitioning, and 100% of everything would then be jellybeans and rainbows. No. I'm saying transition is possible. Right now. Without waiting for some grand new technology like better batteries.
The entire US’ capacity to build its own next generation batteries
That article is almost slapstick, lmfao. "We invested millions of dollars to make these batteries, then somebody accidentally transferred the technology and know-how over to China. Then we tried to bring it back to the West and give it to Europe - to a company that says they're just gonna manufacture in China."