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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1040 thread views

Transnational Thursday for August 14, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Israel says UN undercounts aid entering Gaza by almost 3x.

Reuters: African Union backs campaign to end use of Mercator projection

The African Union has backed a campaign to end the use by governments and international organisations of the 16th-century Mercator map of the world in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa's size.

"It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not," AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi told Reuters, saying the Mercator fostered a false impression that Africa was "marginal", despite being the world's second-largest continent by area, with 54 nations and over a billion people.

Criticism of the Mercator map is not new, but the 'Correct The Map' campaign led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa has revived the debate, urging organisations to adopt the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries' true sizes.

"The current size of the map of Africa is wrong," Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, said. "It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop."

Haddadi said the AU endorsed the campaign, adding it aligned with its goal of "reclaiming Africa's rightful place on the global stage" amid growing calls for reparations for colonialism and slavery.

'Correct The Map' wants organisations like the World Bank and the United Nations to adopt the Equal Earth map. A World Bank spokesperson said they already use the Winkel-Tripel or Equal Earth for static maps and are phasing out Mercator on web maps.

The campaign said it has sent a request to the UN geospatial body, UN-GGIM. A UN spokesperson said that once received it must be reviewed and approved by a committee of experts.

Other regions are backing the AU's efforts. Dorbrene O'Marde, Vice Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, endorsed Equal Earth as a rejection of Mercator map's "ideology of power and dominance".

Stuff I'm looking at this week:

Geopolitics

Americas

Court paves way for Trump to yank billions of dollars worth of foreign aid, concluding that aid groups lacked standing to bring the case.

US offers $5m bounty for Haitian warlord 'Barbecue'

Terrible health conditions at Alligator Alcatraz prison

US appeals court says Trump administration can cut billions in foreign aid

Europe

Musk chatbot Grok says it was 'censored' after suspension from X over Gaza posts

Children dying of hunger in Darfur's el-Fasher city

Attempted coup in Mali

Russia Has an Arsenal of New AI Drones Built with Smuggled Nvidia Chips (old news tho)

Zelenskyy: Ukraine won't cede land for peace amid US-Russia summit

European leaders unite behind Ukraine as Trump-Putin meeting nears

Europe says U.S. and Russia cannot decide on Ukraine land swaps at this week's summit

Migrants swim from Morocco to Ceuta as officials say enclave 'overwhelmed'

Middle East

Ireland intends to pass bill to ban the import of good from Israeli settlements despite US pressure

Iran

Where Next for Iran's Supreme Leader? Another review of his unstable grip on power.

Iran arrests 20 Mossad spies, executes nuclear scientist for providing classified information.

WWIII: Palantir CEO Alex Karp Says 3-Front War With Russia, China And Iran 'Very Likely'

Gaza

Israel strike kills Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza due to allegations of his leadership of a Hamas cell involved in rocket attacks.

Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly in talks with South Sudan to take Gazans

Gaza Sees Five Starvation Deaths in 24 Hours

11 more die from malnutrition in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says

Israel faces growing global condemnation over its plan to take over Gaza City

Gaza terrorists caught using emblem and vests of the World Central Kitchen.

'It's a horrible picture': Gaza faces new threat from antibiotic-resistant disease

Gaza health system 'catastrophic' with hospitals overwhelmed and medicines running out, WHO warns

Yemen

Yemen's Houthis say they launched 3 drone strikes inside Israel

Asia

Morning Brief: US Coast Guard Commissions First New Icebreaker in Over Two Decades; US, China Trade Accusations Over Panama Canal at UN Security Council

China's Chikungunya Outbreak Surpasses 10,000 Cases, Spreads to Taiwan

Chinese Authorities Mandating Blood Tests, Releasing Lab Mosquitoes to Fight Chikungunya Outbreak (although Epoch Times is not generally a reliable source)

A U.S. destroyer illegally entered the territorial waters of China's Huangyan Island; the Southern Theater Command lawfully and according to regulations warned and expelled it.

On August 13, Navy Colonel He Tiecheng, spokesperson for the Southern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, announced the unauthorized entry of the U.S. Navy destroyer "Higgins" into the territorial waters off Huangyan Island. This action was described as a serious violation of China’s sovereignty that undermines regional stability and breaches international law. The Southern Theater Command's naval forces responded by tracking, monitoring, and ultimately expelling the U.S. vessel to assert their legal authority and maintain security in the area.

Key points include the assertion that the U.S. military's activities threaten both China's sovereignty and the peace of the South China Sea. The Chinese naval forces remain vigilant and prepared to defend national interests, emphasizing a continual state of readiness against foreign military actions.

Bangladesh Braces For Potentially Devastating Dengue Outbreak As Cases Surge. The country has documented 101 deaths and over 24,183 infections so far this year

India/Pakistan

Australia To Recognise Palestinian State At UN In September

Germany invites Trump, Zelenskyy, NATO, EU leaders to virtual meeting before Trump-Putin summit

Indian court orders removal of thousands of stray dogs from Delhi region, responding to concerns about rabies. India is facing the highest rabies toll in the world, with approximately 5,700 deaths annually according to government statistics, while some estimates suggest numbers could be as high as 20,000. The stray dog population in Delhi has surged, increasing from 60,000 in 2012 to close to 1 million.

Africa

Over 2,500 cholera cases, 103 deaths recorded in Sudan's North Darfur

Nigeria Emerging As Hub For 22 Islamic Terror Groups

40 dead in Darfur as worst cholera outbreak hits Sudan

FYI there was a pretty terrible famine in Darfur in 1998

US approves potential $346 million weapons sale to Nigeria to bolster security

US imposes sanctions on Congo armed group, mining firms over illicit minerals

Tech and AI

OpenAI gold at the IOI

A U.S. destroyer illegally entered the territorial waters of China's Huangyan Island; the Southern Theater Command lawfully and according to regulations warned and expelled it.

This is the PRC government line.

Back in reality, this is one of the many islands in the South China Sea that the PRC claims but is not recognised as owning. A day prior, two Chinese ships had attempted to physically obstruct a Philippine Coast Guard ship from approaching the island. Fortunately, they only crashed into each other. Then, as often following these kinds of incidents, a US ship sailed into the waters that the PRC insistently claims belong to it (to demonstrate that the US disagrees, to show its support for others ignoring the claim, and to make the PRC look weak when they invariably do not, in fact, enforce their claimed territory).

I'm not going to follow a .cn link due to the Great Cannon, but I've heard that the Chinese media is censoring the fact that two PLAN ships crashed into each other, presumably because it's a massive pratfall. And, well, of course they're parroting the insistent PRC line that "this island belongs to China and how dare anyone else go near it". They're also falsely claiming they "expelled" the US destroyer, because they're trying to save face.

Here is an Australian article about the incident. Here is the Wikipedia article about it.

Yes, I'm quoting Chinese military news

My point is that uncritically quoting propaganda like this might mislead people.

This is a good point. I consider the above an early draft, with fewer signposts, mostly pointers to the primary sources I'm using, because The Motte can take it. Maybe you might derive other interpretations from the primary sources than what I am getting out of them. The final polished version, read by about 3K people, is here.

A Chinese navy ship collided with a Chinese coast guard vessel while pursuing a Philippines coast guard boat. Subsequently, China claimed to have expelled US warships from “Chinese territorial waters” in the South China Sea.

The link under "claimed" links to a more neutral source, because in this case it remarks:

Beijing has also pushed back what it calls infringement of its airspace and maritime waters by the US and its allies, while the latter claims it flies and sails its military assets in international airspace and waters.

Israel strike kills Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza due to allegations of his leadership of a Hamas cell involved in rocket attacks.

Corrected headline: Israel strike kills a Hamas leader and his subordinates, engaged in active warfare with Israel, and those people have been also employed by Al Jazeera.

Israel faces growing global condemnation over its plan to take over Gaza City

Corrected headline: Leftist activists who have consistently opposed every single thing Bibi has been doing since he became Prime Minister now are opposing yet another thing Bibi is planning to do. People who have consistently condemned Israel for every single thing Israel has been doing since its establishment are now are condemning Israel for this thing too.

Yemen's Houthis say they launched 3 drone strikes inside Israel

We launched three drones in the general direction of Israel. They have been shut down, as usual, before they got anywhere near anything interesting in Israel, but hey, we got a headline!

As a context/reminder, here's what kind of "journalists" Al-Jazeera is hiring: https://nypost.com/2024/06/09/world-news/gaza-journalist-held-3-hostages-in-his-home-with-his-family-israeli-military-says/

Thanks.

Iran arrests 20 Mossad spies, executes nuclear scientist for providing classified information.

Likely none of them are actual Mossad spies, and now they have one nuclear scientist less (and probably a lot less people willing to become one). Keep going, guys, you're doing great.

I wish to register doubts concerning the "Europe" headline of some items.

XD, thanks

Reuters:

The prominent Donald Trump supporter and private security executive Erik Prince says he has a 10-year deal with Haiti to fight the country's criminal gangs, and then take a role in restoring the country's tax-collection system.

In an interview with Reuters, Prince said his company, Vectus Global, would be involved in designing and implementing a program to tax goods imported across Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic once the security situation is stabilized.

He said he expected to wrestle control of major roads and territories from the gangs in about a year. “One key measure of success for me will be when you can drive from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haitian in a thin-skinned vehicle and not be stopped by gangs,” Prince said in the interview.

Prince would not comment about how much the Haitian government would pay Vectus Global, nor how much tax he expects to collect in Haiti.

A person familiar with the company's operations in Haiti told Reuters that Vectus would intensify its fight against the criminal gangs that control large swathes of Haiti in the coming weeks in coordination with the Haitian police, deploying several hundred fighters from the United States, Europe and El Salvador who are trained as snipers and specialists in intelligence and communications, as well as helicopters and boats. Vectus's force includes some French and Creole speakers, the person said.

Haiti used to collect half of its tax revenue at the border with the Dominican Republic, but gang control of key transport routes has crippled trade and cut off state income, a report commissioned last year by Haiti's government and several multilateral organizations found. This has undermined the government's ability to respond to the crisis or deliver basic services, the report said.

Other security firms working in Haiti have raised questions about how Vectus would hold onto cleared gang territory as well as the wisdom of channelling resources to private security firms instead of the country's own security forces.

Interesting piece, and honestly, probably a better outcome for the Haitians than they previously might have realistically expected. Thanks again for doing these writeups!

Other security firms working in Haiti have raised questions about how Vectus would hold onto cleared gang territory

I'd guess they're going to be shooting people who try to challenge their hold. What's the argument why they should not be doing this?

as well as the wisdom of channeling resources to private security firms instead of the country's own security forces.

...I am not a fan of Eric Prince or his variously-named corporate entities, but I would be intrigued by an explanation, in detail, of why they would be less trustworthy than Haiti's security forces.

I have not been following recent events in Haiti closely. My uninformed bet would be that the place has been a notably dysfunctional hellhole with little meaningful rule of law and much chaos and illegitimate violence. Even under my least-charitable assessment of Prince and his cohort, rule by competent, efficient mobsters with an unquestioned monopoly on force is almost certainly better than living under ceaseless gang warfare by crazy slum warlords.

Wait, I am confused - does this have anything to do with Trump or journos are so addicted that they are just unable to report any news, no matter what they are, without mentioning Trump somehow?

Setting that aside, I think that's pretty much what Russians, including the infamous Wagner, had been doing in Africa for a while? And in general some state hiring mercenaries to keep the order - this seems to be a common picture for millenia (Carthage did something like that, and probably more ancient examples exist) though I guess it has been out of fashion for a while, but never really went away.

Does this have anything to do with Trump?

The article does mention some connections with Trump specifically and with the US government in general.

Prince, a former U.S. Navy Seal, founded the Blackwater military security firm in 1997. He sold the company in 2010 after Blackwater employees were convicted of unlawfully killing 14 unarmed civilians while escorting a U.S. embassy convoy in Baghdad's Nisour Square. The men were pardoned by Trump during his first term in the White House.

Since Trump's return to the White House, Prince has advised Ecuador on how to fight criminal gangs and struck a deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo to help secure and tax its mineral wealth.

“It’s hard to imagine them operating without the consent of the Trump administration,” said Romain Le Cour Grandmaison, head of the Haiti program at Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

When asked for comment about Le Cour Grandmaison's assertion, a State Department spokesperson said it has not hired Prince or his company for any work in Haiti.

A senior White House official said: "The U.S. government has no involvement with the private military contractor hired by the Haitian government. We are not funding this contract or exercising any oversight.”

"Since Trump's return to the White House" is a temporal mark. Since Trump's return to the White House I've lost five pounds, but Trump didn't really help me do it. The assumption that Trump personally controls every Prince's operation is quite ridiculous. Which is par for the course for an "expert" from "Geneva-based" NGO, but including this nonsense in the article is on Reuters. And of course no private business needs prior "consent" of the government - that's the opposite of how this works, the government is only supposed to intervene if something is wrong, and if nothing is wrong, the "consent" is implied. US govt, undoubtedly while rolling their eyes very hard, confirmed that they had absolutely nothing to do with it, as expected. Overall it looks like Reuters went to ridiculous length to mention Trump here.

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