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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   408 thread views

Transnational Thursday for August 28, 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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Items I'm looking at this week. As in previous weeks, these are headlines, no implicit promises are made about the bias of the sources.

Geopolitics

United States

Trump cancelled $5B in foreign aid

Executive order to prosecute desecrating the American flag

The Rest of the Americas

Venezuela Sends 15,000 Troops to Border as US Warships Approach

State Department Report Warns of Escalating Violence and Human Rights Violations in Haiti

Europe

EU chief plans 7-country tour of Russian border to promote defense buildup

Russian envoys summoned after strikes hit UK, EU offices in Kyiv

Chikungunya Virus Spreads Rapidly in Europe

France reported 45 new cases and Italy 22

Noem's special adviser Corey Lewandowski holds 'veto' power on FEMA expenditures, staff says

Middle East

At least 600,000 displaced from Sudan's El-Fasher amid RSF siege: UNICEF – Middle East Monitor

Afghanistan faces severe health crisis

Iran

Iran-backed attacks in Australia

Gaza

Trump holds Gaza policy meeting with Tony Blair and Jared Kushner. Kushner seemed a bit more competent than Witkoff

Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians

Protests in Israel for release of hostages

Anyone in Gaza City who doesn’t evacuate ‘can die of hunger or surrender,’ Smotrich said to tell IDF chief

Eight Palestinians die of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens

Four Palestinians, Including Two Children, Die of Starvation and Acute Malnutrition in Gaza

Ten more Palestinians die due to starvation and acute malnutrition in Gaza

Israeli tanks close in on Gaza City

289 Palestinians, including 115 children, die of starvation: Gaza health ministry

This number is much higher than other reports, and maybe even chosen to meet the 2 deaths for 10K people threshold for subregions.

Colombia to progressively impose sanctions on Israel

Catholic leaders demand end to 'barbarism in plain sight' in Gaza

Israel declares Gaza City a 'dangerous combat zone', ends tactical ceasefire

U.S. Revokes Visas of Palestinian Officials Ahead of U.N. General Assembly

Yemen

Asia

Internet satellites for China

Kim Jong Un to attend China's military parade with Putin and Pezeshkian

Kim Jong-un supervises test of anti-air missiles

India/Pakistan

Pakistan evacuates thousands as India releases water from swollen rivers

Nearly 190,000 relocated in Punjab amid rising rivers

Vietnam starts mass evacuations, shuts airports as Typhoon Kajiki approaches

Bangladesh Islamist Rise Threatens Hindus Amid Election Delay Crisis

Religious intolerance and Islamist mobilisation rising in Bangladesh

Africa

DR Congo, M23 rebels resume talks in Qatar after renewed violence in east

Sudan records 1,210 new cholera cases, 36 deaths in a week

Children in Sudan's el-Fasher 'starving' after 500 days of siege: UNICEF

At least 600,000 displaced from Sudan's El-Fasher amid RSF siege: UNICEF

Africa launches Cholera response plan as Sudan faces deadly surge

Lassa Fever Cases Decline in Nigeria, But Fatality Rate Rema

Nigeria air force kills dozens of militants near Cameroon border amid rising insurgency – The North Africa Post

Nigerian military airstrikes free 76 hostages, including children and kidnapping victims

4,722 kidnapped, ₦2.57bn paid by Nigerians in two months

Vulnerable South Africans struggle to find HIV medication after U.S. foreign aid cuts

Africa Launches Continental Cholera Response Plan to Eradicate Disease by 2030 – Medafrica Times

Biorisks

Lassa Fever: Death toll rises to 159 – NCDC

WHO Warns of Drug-Resistant Whooping Cough in US

CDC vaccine officials resign while childhood vaccination rates decline

RFK, Jr. says 'let measles run its course'. That's what some said in 1990, and we had an urban health crisis

WHO warns of worsening global cholera outbreaks, urging swift response-Xinhua

How West Nile Virus Is Spreading Along the Columbia River

US Coast Guard seizes record $473M drug haul in historic operation

Artificial Intelligence

More tech

Economy

Talks of Fed reform

"North Korea’s economy grew 3.7% in 2024, the fastest annual pace of growth in eight years, driven by Pyongyang’s expanding economic and military ties with Russia."

Climate and Nature

Study finds that AMOC might not be low likelihood... if one extrapolates models into the 2100s

Others

Evidence of UFOs

Hidden dangers: The risk of America's aging dams

Book review about the Afghanistan war: https://devinhelton.com/afghanistan-fractally-stupid-war

I’d have had an easier time if I’d had only had British troops under my command. The ANA have come on leaps and bounds but their command and control isn’t quite as advanced as ours. My men took significant risks yesterday to push them forward. Or should I say pull them forward? As such, it’s a significantly harder battle to wage.’ While their job was supposed to be to act as mentors for the Afghan Army, they were still commanding them. When I asked what had happened to the ANA’s company commander, Major David couldn’t quite stop himself from breaking into a huge smile. He was a bit more diplomatic than most of his men: ‘He manages to locate himself in the safer rear areas on most occasions. Yesterday, he was not present and I had to command his companies.’ (page 41)

Also included are lawyers imposing hour-long delays before airstrikes could be launched (often the planes had flown away before approval was given) and a Pandora's box full of perverse incentives.

We should've left Afghanistan many years prior to 2021. If the war was a joke in 2009-2012, when the book itself was written, then it was a joke later too. But instead everyone kept passing the parcel onto Biden. My main takeaway is that the Western system is not very good at a timely withdrawal. All this discourse about exit strategies and yet we find it very hard to pull out. It's also basically impossible to correct the error either, no senior figures were punished for the legendary amounts of fraud. Past a certain point the war in its totality can be considered a fraud.

A very sour taste in my mouth now that our cowardly, treacherous, drug-ridden, corrupt, rapey 'allies' from the Afghan Army are being relocated over to Australia, Britain and America, often at considerable expense. The lying still hasn't stopped even after the war was lost.

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