AfD popularity is skyrocketing there. This is just another country whose politics I don't really understand, but it is less 'left' or 'green' than it was 5 years ago, for sure.
Update looks into the
Niger coup/pro-Putin stuff impacts Europe:
Quote:
Many have previously asked what Russia does or will do against the U.S. or West in general as a tit-for-tat for things like the Nord Stream bombings. I had said that Russia has many 'asymmetrical' programs in motion.
Now it's being reported that Mali has dropped French as an official language in the country, leading to another big step toward decolonialization.
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At the same time, China is slowly putting the crimp on the West's supplies of critical precious metals and rare earths essential for chip industries. New reports state the following:
Quote:
Chinese export controls on germanium and gallium have stepped into effect amid fears that this will mean more expensive microchips, solar panels, cars, and even weapons. More significantly, the restrictions threaten to sink the Biden administration's ambitious domestic microchip manufacturing goals, says China-US trade expert Thomas Pauken II.
China's rare earths restrictions officially stepped into force on Tuesday, with the measures, announced last month after Beijing said it needed to protect its "national security and interests," expected to cause a sharp jump in the cost of an array of advanced manufactured goods, particularly electronics.
"China produces upwards of 80 percent of the world's gallium, and 60 percent of its germanium, with experts predicting that it could take "generations" for the US to replace lost Chinese capacity."
This represents a one-two punch from both sides as Russia and China are whipsawing the West asymmetrically. I've already written at length about how the West likes to portray themselves as independent with Russia as the one reliant on their 'electronics', yet it's the West themselves who are hugely reliant on the natural resources that Russia/China produce, as well as those found in Africa.
There's that China connection again, in this pesky tit for tat proxy war in Ukraine, over a few square miles for team blue fascists vs. team red ones. I
s the EU about to begin disintegrating? I doubt it, but it is at tremendously greater pressures now, from immigration, energy, budgets, grain/agricultural supplies/inputs, and now more than ever a need to produce/support a dependency/war in Ukraine.
There's an extensive discussion then about artillery, armor, losses, etc. Whatever, it's all kind of over anyway. None of this can be extrapolated to Ukrainians having an army or people that can win.
CNBC:
Ukraine allies signal their patience has run out with it's demands and strategy.