You may know that revealing the records will likely have undesired consequences for the sources. It is their full right to protect them.

Having said that, the article reads that

… a spokesperson for Trump Jr. did not dispute the wedding payments from Kremlev.

It is also noteworthy that, according to the linked article,

… in the days leading up to Trump Jr.’s wedding, Kremlev was in China as part of the delegation accompanying Putin, according to Chinese state media. The month before, Putin had bestowed him with a state honor, the Order of Friendship.

The Ukrainian government has imposed sanctions on Kremlev personally, citing his closeness to Putin and Russian security services.

There is more to trade in the future than food and raw materials. But even if it were that simple, the move would reduce export dependencies for all three countries. More than a third of Australia’s exports - and a quarter of New Zealand’s - go to China, while the U.S. holds also a substantial export shares of both countries. Canada supplies three quarters of its exports to the U.S.

So this agreement of like-minded democratic countries would make them more resilient against future coercion. Even if that would be the only advantage (which is not imo), it is already enough.

Thanks for this.

There is also a map in case you want to have a quick overview: https://amti.csis.org/maritime-claims-map/

@hanrahan@slrpnk.net

Here is a brief rating for Shein:

To save you a click:

• Shein uses few lower-impact materials.
• It follows an unsustainable fast fashion model with quickly changing trends and regular new styles.
• There’s no evidence it’s taking meaningful action to reduce or eliminate hazardous chemicals in manufacturing.
• It’s set a science based target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both its direct operations and supply chain but there’s no evidence it is on track.
• There’s no evidence it’s taking actions to minimise microplastic impacts.
• Most of its final production stage happens in China, an extreme risk country for labour abuse.
• There’s no evidence it provides financial security to its suppliers, which can result in poor working conditions and wages.
• There’s no evidence it supports diversity and inclusion in its supply chain.
• There’s no evidence it ensures workers are paid living wages in its supply chain.
• During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it did not disclose adequate policies or safeguards to protect workers in its supply chain from the virus.

Based on all publicly available information we’ve reviewed, we rate SHEIN “We Avoid” overall.

Such companies should be shut down completely.

Reddit? Isn’t this the platform where these ‘tankies’ have been banned some time ago?

In addition to the archive, here is the Reuters article: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/before-flood-catastrophe-nepal-asked-china-early-warnings-risks-mounted-2026-08-30/

Edit:

“People even didn’t get five minutes of lead time,” Dharam Raj Uprety, chief executive of Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, told Bloomberg News in an interview. “We don’t have weather stations in high mountain areas” because of the “lack of trans-boundary data seeding mechanisms,” or limited sharing of weather and climate data across national borders. - [Source]

As an addition:

This week, students returning to Russian schools. They will discover a change to their civics courses that puts military training at the heart of the lessons. One report about it is by Bloomberg (paywalled), republished by Fortune. Amongst others, it says:

…The mandatory classes for teenagers include learning about the main types of armaments including machine guns, anti-tank weapons and hand grenades, as well as emergency field medicine and general military discipline. While some of the skills were previously taught in limited high school modules, the new version escalates this training for children as young as 13.

The revamped curriculum ordered by the Education Ministry requires half of weekly classes in the “Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland” course to focus on basic military training. It’s part of a creeping militarization of Russia’s schools intended to shape the next generation of army recruits as the Kremlin continues the war in Ukraine that’s now in its fifth year.

“The romanticization of war and violence, combined with a constant fear of external enemies, instills in young people the idea that human life holds no value and that dying for the regime and the president is normal,” said Pavel Talankin, an exiled Russian teacher who co-directed the Oscar-winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin that focused on rising war propaganda in his school. “If necessary, one must die for the motherland, taking up the flag and marching into the line of fire without asking questions" …

State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wants veterans of the war in Ukraine to be placed in “every single school” to teach children in subjects related to their military experience …

Volodin’s wish is already close to being fulfilled. A survey of more than 2,600 Russian school leaders and teachers conducted by the state-sponsored Knowledge Society (Znanie) found that 95% of schools host events dedicated to the war in Ukraine, more than 80% invite combatants to speak to students, and nearly 75% run special lessons about the war.

Outside the classroom, Russia has revived and modernized Soviet-era youth military games called “Zarnitsa” (Summer Lightning) … Participation in the program has grown from 800,000 children aged from 7 to 17 years in 2024 to an expected 2.5 million this year. The youth organization overseeing the games receives annual funding of about 20 billion rubles ($233 million) from the federal budget … Russia’s federal budget has allocated a record 70 billion rubles this year for “patriotic education” through the national project “Youth and Children” — a twenty-fold increase since 2021 …

In the Russian-occupied areas of eastern and southern Ukraine, there’s a wholesale revision of education in schools that amounts to cultural erasure. New state-approved history textbooks introduced this year will teach children in Moscow-controlled parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions that their land was always Russian.

“The entire system has been reshuffled to normalize the war,” said Alexandra Arkhipova, a Russian anthropologist and researcher at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. “The state is preparing young people to accept the battlefield as their primary civic destination.”

It drives you insane even if you think sending your children to such indoctrination camps disguised as schools.

A quick reminder that China is a decisive enabler of the war in Ukraine and openly said it can’t afford Russia to lose the war.

The ‘bourgeois media’ is refering to Chinese propaganda agency Xinhua, citing Chinese PM Li Qiang. Just read the article or at least the paraphrased summary in the body before commenting.

It is the Chinese PM Li Qiang who says, according to Chinese propaganda agency Xinhua,

‘the ⁠problem of insufficient ⁠domestic demand remains prominent, some industries and enterprises are facing increasing difficulties, and uncertainties in external environment are rising.’

China must seek to ‘expand international economic and trade cooperation’ to counter weak domestic demand, according to Chinese PM LI Qiang.

Why does the manufacturing of percussors imply hybrid warfare?

Just read the article, the answer to your question is right there.

As an addition: In October 2025, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) published a report that shows how, for the first time in history, a small group of States led by China and Russia are obstructing and hijacking budget negotiations at the United Nations (UN) to defund human rights bodies and investigations.

ISHR’s report ‘Budget Battles at the UN: How States Try to Defund Human Rights’ (pdf) finds that China and Russia - fueled by the failure of the United States (US) - have led a sustained effort to build influence, disrupt proceedings, and politicise technical discussions at the UN General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (5C), where States negotiate the UN’s budget,

As the report shows in detail, Chinese influence within these bodies has expanded sharply over the years. Beijing has invested heavily in building its representation at the 5C, the ACABQ and other related bodies to push heavy budget cuts to human rights. Russia has frequently played the role of outspoken spoiler in negotiations, enabling China to deploy its influence more quietly but effectively behind closed doors.

‘Russian and Chinese diplomats have weaponised UN budget negotiations to serve their own interests and shield allies from scrutiny, at the expense of human rights. Budget negotiations should be solely guided by the goal of adequately funding the UN’s work, not serving as a political tool to weaken accountability and rights protection,’ says Madeleine Sinclair, Director of ISHR’s New York office.

A quick reminder that gold mining in the Central Africa, Cameroon, and Congo is heavily controlled by Chinese companies and individuals, while even the most basic social and environmental standards in the mining sector are frequently ignored.

In March this year, for example, Cameroon’s gold miners’ union revealed that nearly 200 sites were being operated illegally by Chinese nationals, showing the extent of weak state control.

… Corruption is also a factor, with many Chinese companies protected by powerful elites in Cameroon … Artisanal [informal] gold mining in Cameroon is characterised by Chinese operators working alongside officially registered companies. Most sites lack effective state regulation, community involvement and equitable benefit redistribution …

Local communities’ farmland and equipment are being destroyed, and toxic substances like mercury – used for gold extraction – are polluting rivers and agricultural land. Media reports reveal arbitrary arrests and violence against residents and artisanal miners, allegedly perpetrated by security forces, mining operators or people linked to mining activities …

Similar problems regarding Chinese activities and related environmental and social issues have long been known not only in Africa but across the entire Global South.

They accused Lee and Chow in previous hearings of “endangering national security in the name of human rights”, adding that freedom of speech and association are “not absolute rights”.

This is China’s so-called “whole-process people’s democracy” and “socialism with Chinese characteristics”: a peaceful candlelight vigil mourning those who died on June 4, 1989, is, to the Chinese state, a danger to national security, and "incitement to subversion” …

As the Chinese Communist Party claims that the Tiananmen Square massacre never happened, what are they afraid of?

The main perpetrator here is - once again, unfortunately - the Chinese mining firm.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been experiencing a surge in illegal, semi-industrial gold mining in recent years. Chinese nationals and their Congolese partners have led this gold rush, with the protection of Congolese army and police officers. These “low-tech, artisanal mines” - as the one described in the article - are been presented as operations conducted by ‘artisanal mining cooperatives’ -entities comprised solely of Congolese nationals.

However, as the Durch NGO Pax has found last year, these ‘cooperatives’ were used as fronts for large-scale, semi-industrial mining operations, with the involvement on site of Chinese nationals:

Illustrating this point, an official in Watsa territory told PAX: ‘The cooperatives are just labels. The Chinese nationals are the ones who do everything’ …

In a report published in October 2025, it is said that

For two decades, China’s state-owned mining companies have held a near-monopoly over mining in the DRC. That dominance has allowed Chinese companies to operate with near impunity as they drive corruption, displace communities, and promote illicit mining, according to analyst Ashley Nunes.

“Meanwhile, local populations struggle to maintain access to a stable income and basic services,” Nunes wrote recently for New Lines Institute … Chinese companies have flouted laws designed to keep machinery out of areas specifically reserved for artisanal mining. They have also conducted mining operations in areas where it is banned entirely, according to Pax investigators. Similar illegal Chinese mining operations are in place in Ituri, South Kivu and Tshopo provinces. In those areas, some mining companies are working within the law, but many are not.

Seems the ‘axis of evil’ has another target out of a self-fabricated narrative:

North Korea joins China, Russia in criticising Japan, deepening military ties

Strategic cooperation between North Korea, China and Russia appears to be deepening: Recent reports speculate that Pyongyang and Moscow have increased military cooperation, as Pyongyang echoes its allies’ criticism of Japanese defense policies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday claimed that Russia is preparing to bring in as many as 50,000 more North Korean troops to join its war against Ukraine.

He also claimed that “North Korea’s weapons and combat experience are being enhanced through cooperation with Russia, posing a growing threat to countries in the region.”

I am not sure how I should interpret your comment, but weakening the USD - if it happens in the long term - isn’t a bug in Trump’s policy but a feature. Trump’s former economic advisor Stephen Miran explicitly formulated that more than a year ago.

At the same time, Putin Urges Businesses to Back Russian Innovation as State Funding Shrinks.

Moscow universities face higher competition for tuition-free university spots as paid seats are being eliminated while military quotas expand.

And Russia’s healthcare crumbles amid Putin’s war with Ukraine, one of the biggest consequences being a massive exodus of skilled specialists from the medical profession, as the number of doctors has declined from 800 000 to less than 600 000 from 2014 to 2026.

Russia spends more on military and disinformation campaigns than it spends for education, science, healthcare.

Yes, and Russians have been doing that already this entire year as you may know. The cash held outside banks reached 19 trillion roubles (+200 billion euros) in Russia, a new peak never seen in this century, according to the Russian Central Bank. It already puts pressure on banks which rely on deposits to fund themselves.

Japan does support Ukraine, not Russia like China does. Japan doesn’t bully its neighbours with war games, China does. Just to name two examples.

The threat that a situation like the Ukraine invasion happens doesn’t come from Japan. It comes from China.

Do you agree with that?