C'est officiel. La Maison-Blanche veut mettre fin à deux missions spatiales de la NASA conçues pour mesurer avec une précision inédite le dioxyde de carbone. Leur disparition priverait la planète d’outils scientifiques uniques, tout en suscitant une tempête politique à Washington. (LES NUMERIQUES)
Climate: Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose
The Trump administration has asked NASA employees to draw up plans to end at least two major satellite missions, according to current and former NASA staffers. If the plans are carried out, one of the missions would be permanently terminated, because the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere. The data the two missions collect is widely used, including by scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. They are the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.
An official review by NASA in 2023 found that "the data are of exceptionally high quality" and recommended continuing the mission for at least three years.
NASA mission leaders were told to make termination plans for projects that would lose funding under President Trump's proposed budget for the next fiscal year, or FY 2026, which begins Oct. 1. The employees asked to remain anonymous, because they were told they would be fired if they revealed the request.
Ihe White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and its director, Russ Vought, are overstepping by directing NASA and other agencies to stop spending money that Congress has already appropriated. In the past, Vought has been vocal about cutting what he sees as inappropriate spending on projects related to climate change. Before he joined the Trump administration, Vought authored sections of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 roadmap for remaking the federal government. In that document, Vought wrote that "the Biden Administration's climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding"
The information can also help predict future political instability, since crop failures are a major driver of mass migration all over the world. For example, persistent drought in Honduras is one factor that has led many farmers there to migrate north, NPR reporting found. And damage to crops and livestock from extreme weather in Northern Africa has contributed to migration from that region.
And that data showed some surprising things. "Fifty years ago we thought the tropical forests were like a huge vacuum cleaner, sucking up carbon dioxide," Denning explains. "Now we know they're not."
Instead, boreal forests in the northern latitudes suck up a significant amount of carbon dioxide, the satellite data shows. The cost of maintaining the two OCO satellite missions up in space is a small fraction of the amount of money taxpayers already spent to design and launch the instruments. "Just from an economic standpoint, it makes no economic sense to terminate NASA missions that are returning incredibly valuable data."
npr„Die Situation für Erdbeobachtung und Klimawissenschaft in den USA ist einfach tragisch und sehr kurzsichtig“, sagt Julia Marshall vom Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt zu Table.Briefings. Die geplanten Kürzungen seien extrem, klagen Klimawissenschaftler, die namentlich nicht genannt werden möchten. So sollen beispielsweise zwei langjährige Missionen zur Messung von Kohlendioxid gestoppt werden, obwohl sie schon lange funktionsfähig im All sind. Das sei besonders sinnlos, weil die hohen Kosten für den Raketenstart und den Bau der Instrumente schon getätigt wurden.
By using the customary tariff threat which he employs to discipline governments worldwide, President Donald Trump urged Russia to agree asap to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Dmitri Medwedjew answered by threatening the United States with nuclear arms, and Trump responded by saying he is sending two nuclear submarines toward Russia.
A silly game among two braggards, or the world’s most explosive moment since 1945? Who can tell?
There are a few facts to consider. Medwedyev loves inflammatory language and is understood as voicing Putin’s true opinion if unbridled by cautious statesmanship.
Trump is torn by competing urges: he hates the idea to be challenged by a subordinate, low level windbag. Although probably wishing to maintain his special relationship with Putin (Krasnov!) there is no reason for him to tolerate a bigmouthed nobody like Medwedyev.
Being addicted to his preferred media, Trump apparently rates Medvedyed’s threats as sufficiently important for the American public opinion to feel urged to counteract. By moving nuclear submarines (or at least pretending such a move) Trump nobilitates Medvedyev.
What an honor for a Russian blogger (with a remarkable past and a rather modest present) to have moved two foreign nuclear submarines!
So far, so weird. But let's assume that the mentally impaired current US president had decided to shed his “Krasnov” persona and discover beneath it a courageous American patriot who resists possible blackmail because of Putin’s compromat.
A new Trump, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Biden, so to speak. The world watches, torn between amusement and horror. Ukraine's Zelensky is a happy camper...
Why should the world pay special attention? Because there is nobody left who could prevent Trump from committing a possible folly. He started his second term of office by surrounding himself with acolytes. None of them would stop him from pressing the red button.
Since it is certain that Putin will continue the Ukraine war at all cost (failing to achieve victory could end his own life), Trump is facing a wall in his ill-conceived efforts to exert pressure on Moscow. Will Trump accept defeat when realizing that Putin will not budge, no matter what?
--ed
...the Kremlin isn’t budging. Putin has made it clear he’s in this for the long haul—aiming to cement control over four partially occupied Ukrainian regions, shrink Ukraine’s military, dodge reparations, and secure recognition of its illegal occupation of Crimea. With backing from India, China, Iran, and North Korea, Moscow has little reason to fear Trump’s Friday deadline for “peace or sanctions.” In short: threats and tariffs may sting, but they won’t force Putin to retreat.
Several Russian media outlets have reported in recent days that the Kremlin would be prepared to propose a halt to deep air strikes by missiles and drones “if Kiev approves this proposal.” This “offer” would obviously not be free of charge, as it would also suit Moscow's interests, since Kiev would no longer be able to strike Russian refineries and fuel depots.
The president had been on something of a winning streak. But when faced with facts and foes that wouldn’t bend to his will, he responded with impatience and disproportionate intensity.
Trump's weird babbling in Scotland reveals his cognitive decline. It was nice of Donald Trump to travel to Scotland and show our European allies we're led by a self-absorbed, weird man in obvious mental decline.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, referred to Gaza as “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel”, also predicting that the West Bank, currently partly governed by the Palestinian Authority, would come under Israeli sovereignty.
The problem for Israeli supremacists is that the Palestinians won’t disappear. They are too numerous to exterminate, and their Arab neighbours have said they won’t take them in, ostensibly for reasons of solidarity but in reality for fear of destabilising their own fragile societies. The last thing Egypt’s current strongman, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, wants is an influx of Gazans clamouring for jobs, houses and a political voice — Jordan, whose indigenous population complains of being swamped by their Palestinian guests, being the example to avoid. Finally, the Palestinians possess a keen appreciation of the deadly intentions of their adversary and something approaching a relish for the fight to thwart them.
The 95th Regiment of the 5th Brigade of the Russian 51st Army has come under renewed scrutiny after two of its battalion commanders – likely captains or majors – disappeared following meetings with their superior officers.
'Petr Lundstrem' *) writes:
"[The] commander of the 2nd battalion, ... Yuri Burakov, call sign Sedy ... was summoned by the commander of the 95th regiment, call sign Starina – we know the full name of this man.Since then, Sedy has been missing and has not responded to communication.
"When his wife asked, the regiment commander said that Sedy was a "voluntary deserter".This is the second battalion commander in 5 days to disappear in this way.
"I appeal to the people holding Sedy and the second battalion commander: everything can still be fixed – return the officers to their units.There is no need to make them missing in action, there is no need to "zero" [execute] them, there is no need to do irreparable things.
"It will not be possible to hide this, or to make it look like an accident. I promise you that I will personally go to the very top. Not to the command with whom you are in collusion, but to the people who were previously unaware of your existence."
*)
Petr Lundstrem, Violin (Russia) - the contestant of the international classical music competition
The Middle East doomsday scenario
A doomsday scenario may be sketched out as follows: recognition of a Palestinian state being dead on arrival, the Palestinians continue to be persecuted not only in Gaza but also the West Bank and Israel proper, while Israel engorges itself on militarism and nationalism that drive out the last vestiges of compassion and good sense.
The Arab states, for their part, captured by groups that apply themselves to Israel’s destruction, in cahoots with a rejuvenated Islamic Republic of Iran and cheered on by antisemites in the West, are unable to provide basic services to their people.
More and more brown people come out of the region and into the lands of white people who don’t want them. Pretty, isn’t it?
With Europe re-arming without the expectation that the United States will help them in their defense, the more Europe will de-couple it’s geo-political position from Washington and become a more independent actor.
This should be a major concern for Russia as it has always operated under the assumption that Europe is America’s subordinate and as long as Russia can steer the US it can manipulate Europe. A truly independent Europe without Washington to constrain it is a significant threat to Russia. A fundamental misunderstanding within the Kremlin was that NATO served dual purposes. While it was expressly made to protect the democratic European countries from Soviet expansionism, it was also made to prevent another European arms race that would threaten to spill over across the continent as it did in both World Wars by keeping European defense within a comprehensive structure.
Given these geopolitical shifts, the Russian position is gradually deteriorating. Increasing reliance with China threatening to make Russia a client state of Xi Jinping, the rearmament of Europe, the increasing cost of the Ukrainian conflict and growing internal fissures within the Russian political hierarchy means Putin does not have the infinite amount of time or manpower that he wishes to project. In fact, the clock for Russia is creeping towards midnight.
Today (Friday, 8/8) was supposed to be the day that Trump announced crippling secondary sanctions designed to bring Russia’s oil economy to its knees.
Did it happen? India got slapped earlier, but China knew Trump doesn’t have the cojones to go after them too.
And remember those reports about how Trump was insisting that Putin meet with Zelenskyy? Yea, that was fantasy as well.
And now Trump is all giddy about striking a ceasefire deal that would stab Ukraine in the back — because Trump can’t help but think he can still make a deal with Putin.
The tough talk was all horse shit.
The US and Russia are discussing a ceasefire deal that would cement Moscow’s control over Crimea and eastern Donbas. The plan envisions freezing fighting, but leaves issues like the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant unresolved, while requiring Ukraine to withdraw from parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions..
Does Ukraine get to decide their future? Who put Trump in charge of Ukraine's future? Putin owns Trump. We all know that Trump turns to rubber in Putin's presence.
Russia is fighting to wipe out Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting to exist. There is no compromise between annihilation and survival. Sergey Maidukov in Sueddeutsche Zeitung (8/29/25)
The issue isn't that we don't spend enough. It's the absolute waste and stupidity.
Why don't we have enough missiles? We fired 100s at Iran and the Houthies, with an avg cost of 6-11 million per. We wasted 100s.of missiles firing at guys with a $2000 rpg.
Why don't we have more money? We wasted 350 billion in the Ukraine fighting a proxy war ... That we started when we talked the Ukraine into trying to kick Russia out of its own naval base in the crimea... And we are losing.said war. That's 4x the entire USMC (US Marine Corps) budget for a year. Colossal waste.
Why can't we build more ships? We shut down our shipyards and didn't replace them. We build ships to benefit congressional districts.
We build ships that dont even work - littoral combat ship was a boondoggle if there ever was one.
We take ships that do work like the USS constellation design and modify it until it no longer works
We spent 4 billion to study how to make more subs..Here's an idea - take some of the billions for studies and actual ship building and put it into a shipyard so you can actually build more ships. We have 4 shipyards, we should have 7-9 shipyards.
Our military leadership needs to be fired.
Putin won’t give up his imperial ambitions to make Donald Trump look good. Ukrainians won’t give up independence to make Donald Trump look good. Imagining a final settlement that makes Trump look good is easy; getting the combatants to accept it is not.
Retirer le droit de vote aux femmes ? Hegseth, le secrétaire à la défense américain, partage une vidéo qui le prône
Pete Hegseth, le secrétaire d’État américain à la Défense a partagé sur les réseaux sociaux une interview du pasteur ultra conservateur Doug Wilson.
Par Inès Chaïeb
Le ministre américain de la Défense Pete Hegseth a repartagé une vidéo appelant à la fin du droit de vote des femmes.Le ministre américain de la Défense Pete Hegseth a repartagé une vidéo appelant à la fin du droit de vote des femmes.
ÉTATS-UNIS - Une nouvelle attaque du camp Trump contre les droits des femmes. Vendredi 8 août le secrétaire d’État américain à la Défense Pete Hegseth a repartagé sur les réseaux sociaux une vidéo dans laquelle un pasteur américain connu pour sa radicalité se dit favorable à la fin du droit de vote des femmes aux États-Unis.
Cette vidéo est un extrait d’un reportage de la chaîne CNN sur le pasteur conservateur et théologien radical Doug Wilson. Interrogés par la journaliste, Doug Wilson et d’autres pasteurs affirment dans ce reportage qu’ils souhaitent la fin du droit de vote des femmes.
Drones have upended the old ways of war. Military doctrine, tactics, and organization will never be the same. Armies everywhere will need to completely revamp their doctrine and training to reflect the realities of fighting on a drone-swept battlefield. And the best way to prepare for the future of combat is to speak to those fighting this war.
Historians often call World War II a “war of factories.” The same is true for the war in Ukraine today. Ukraine produced more than two million drones in 2024 and plans to make over four million by the end of 2025. Its adversary is also getting better at drone production: last year, Russia was building 300 Shahed drones a month. Now, it can produce 5,000 in the same time frame. The side that consistently builds the most drones is the one most likely to prevail. And it is in the interest of the West, and of the United States in particular, to support the Ukrainian people in their dogged determination to win that fight—not only for Ukraine’s sake but also for its own, so it can learn to reckon with this new reality of war.
The world is buzzing with stories trying to anticipate the likely outcome of the Anchorage summit of Putin and Trump.
Some observers expect Putin to offer Trump lucrative personal business opportunities in exchange for Ukraine. A Trump Tower hotel in every Russian city above 100,000 inhabitants? Putin will certainly not shy away from offering one more small sacrifice considering how much he has already sacrificed to achieve his dream of rebuilding the nucleus of the Soviet Union.
Other observers expect Trump to offer Putin lucrative mining opportunities in Alaska in exchange for a Ukraine deal. Many commentators, however, simply suspect Trump to melt like chocolate in the sun when facing Putin.
From the European vantage point the likely result of the Anchorage summit is simple: the Europeans and their friends will be on their own supporting Ukraine's contnuing fight since there is no way Ukraine would accept any armistice or agreement on Putin's terms. Unless Trump could convince Zelensky that Ukrainian suicide is the only option.
-- ed
President Donald Trump on Tuesday returned to his tactic of blaming Ukraine for Russia’s unjustifiable invasion of the nation. Trump’s latest edition of his blame game comes as his recent attempts to negotiate an end to the war have foundered.
“It’s not a war that should have been started. You don’t do that—you don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” widely understood to be his favorite show on the right-wing network.
By shaking Putin’s hand, Trump acknowledged that Russia remains a power to be reckoned with, not a pariah state.
More importantly, the summit amounted to an indirect acknowledgment that the West has effectively lost this war. Ukrainian forces cannot retake the territories annexed by Russia. On the contrary, Moscow continues to make incremental advances on the battlefield. This reality makes a negotiated settlement the only possible exit from the conflict — one that would necessarily involve territorial concessions: Crimea, plus the four annexed eastern and southern oblasts.
💡 Africa's quiet energy revolution is here! Cheap Chinese solar panels fueled record 1.57GW imports in May 2025, with small economies like Algeria (+6300%) leading. Truly astonishing! ☀️ This "extreme low price" makes solar cheaper than coal, bringing power like water. For millions, market-driven.
Macron’s “centrist authoritarianism”, we are confidently informed, is the last gasp before fully fledged fascism can emerge in the form of an RN victory. ...
In reality, there are significant differences between what was once considered to be “fascism” and the RN. Though one can be legitimately suspicious of the genuineness of Marine Le Pen’s detoxification of her party, it shows no insurrectionary tendencies. There is no sign that it intends, or would be able, to dismantle the institutions of French democracy and impose a dictatorship. The comparison with Meloni in Italy might be instructive here. That said, whether or not one wants to call it fascism, the extreme ethnonationalist and identitarian authoritarianism of the RN is a genuinely worrying threat. Among other things, a planned policy of “national preference” would condition access to social rights, including health care, to those with French citizenship. At the same time, Le Pen may end up actively discriminating against France’s million Muslim citizens, not least in her erstwhile enthusiasm for banning the Islamic headscarf in public spaces.
Die USA, europäische Partner und die Bundesregierung arbeiten an einem umfassenden Sicherheitskonzept für die Ukraine. Ein Sieben-Punkte-Plan soll künftig Frieden ermöglichen.Die westlichen Verbündeten haben sich offenbar auf ein Grundgerüst für Sicherheitsgarantien an die Ukraine verständigt. Wie der "Spiegel" berichtet, diskutieren derzeit Sicherheitsberater aus den USA und Europa über ein sieben Punkte umfassendes Konzept, das maßgeblich auf Vorschläge der Bundesregierung zurückgeht. (t-Online)
Rührend. Nühnend, wie es in der N-Sprache der Kinder heißt. Warum verschwenden Erwachsene, vermutlich hochbezahlte Leute, ihre Zeit damit, heiße Luft zu produzieren? Frieden! Sicherheitsgarantien! Das sind schlechte Witze angesichts der Entschlossenheit Russlands, die Ukraine zu besiegen und zu unterwerfen.
--ed
“Putin is just laughing, not stopping the killing but increasing the killing,” EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas .
“Russia can't be trusted, but the bigger problem is that Western countries can't trust each other or themselves. In the age of Tiktok democracy, the policies of Western countries have become so unpredictable that the United States and the major European countries are only ever one election away from a political U-turn or chaos.
So far, only the Ukrainians have shown any real will to fight for Ukraine. Ukraine should therefore be turned into a steel porcupine and armed to the teeth. The sooner, the better.”
Generally speaking, the Ukrainian army recruits between 20,000 and 30,000 soldiers per month. But it also faces heavy losses, including desertions, exhaustion, injuries, trauma, and, of course, deaths. This has led to a shortfall in manpower for the Ukrainian army of several thousand men per month for the past six months to a year. This is not a massive collapse—the army remains large, at around 400,000 men—but a gradual erosion.
On the Russian side, recruitment is based on volunteering, which is highly remunerated. The country has the financial resources to attract volunteers, often from poor backgrounds, who are more motivated by money than patriotism. As a result, Russia is able to maintain a sufficient number of infantrymen, creating a balance of power of around 600,000 Russian soldiers against 400,000 Ukrainians. This difference, however modest, allows the Russians to maintain continuous pressure, limiting the regeneration and rest of Ukrainian forces.
This erosion of manpower, combined with attrition on the ground, defines the current balance of power. Observers, particularly British ones, note that this erosion is extremely slow: at this rate, they say, the Ukrainian army could hold out for several years. This is a miscalculation.
There will inevitably be a critical threshold. For the Ukrainian army, this erosion could ultimately enable the Russians to dramatically accelerate their advance. Faced with this reality, Europeans must not remain in denial. To say that Ukraine can hold out indefinitely is unrealistic: the country could weaken in six months to two years, but probably not beyond four years.
“Sweden is a brutally age-discriminatory country. Swedish employers are the worst in the Nordic countries when it comes to employing people over 55. ... At a time when life expectancy is rapidly increasing, this is an unsustainable waste of human capital. (Expressen)
Many women over 50 report how difficult it is to find a new job. For many over 60, it's completely hopeless. It doesn't matter what qualifications you have or what you can offer an employer - you simply don't get the chance. Sweden has a sick view of old age in which women in particular are written off too early.”(Aftonbladet)
Will Russia freak out when faced with Ukranian long range missiles?
A Ukraine armed with hundreds or even thousands of long-range cruise missiles—as missile expert Fabian Hoffmann outlines as a post-conflict deterrent arsenal—would, from Russia's perspective, pose a permanent strategic threat that would make peaceful coexistence impossible.
In such a scenario, Moscow could conclude that only the complete military end of Ukrainian sovereignty would guarantee its own security interests in the long term.
The development of advanced missile capabilities, actually intended as a protective shield, could thus prove to be a historical catalyst that motivates Russia to escalate militarily until Ukrainian autonomy is ended.
I don't know why this doesn't make the news in the U.S. or why this doesn’t cause more of a reaction in Europe. I learned about this from a young reporter in Kyiv, //www.youtube.com/@CaolanReports" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="margin-top: 0px; color: rgb(181, 89, 4); text-decoration: none; font-weight: 550;" title="">Caolan Robertson who I follow on YouTube.
Russia bombed a British Council building and an E.U. building in Kyiv on Aug 28 (or 27th?). Watch Robertson's video here. According to Robertson, the Russians know this is a British building.
It’s pretty alarming that Putin can attack a U.S. company building, British and E.U. buildings with impunity. Our president literally rolled out a red carpet for him.
Worries about Trump's condition began to skyrocket online after his absence on both Thursday and Friday. The widespread online chatter speculated that something significant may have happened with his health. Terms like 'Where is Trump?', 'It happened' and 'Trump is dead' were becoming viral topics on X, with the President doing nothing to quiet these rumors. It comes just days after viewers spotted a sinister health warning sign in Trump's fingers after new close-up photos emerged.
Both Trump's supporters and detractors rushed to social media to question his location and his remarkably quiet demeanor in recent days.
The influential X account Republicans Against Trump wrote: "Donald Trump hasn't been seen in public since Tuesday and has no events scheduled all weekend. Where is he? Who's running the country?"
In a dramatic development, Poland has discovered the largest oil and gas deposit in its history just off its Baltic Coast, containing 22 million tons of crude oil and 5 million cubic meters of natural gas, with more likely located in the area. The find, which has been hailed as a “breakthrough,” marks one of the most significant energy discoveries in Europe in the last decade, and will more than double Poland’s current oil reserves, which sit at just over 20 million tons. The find is located just shy of the German border, off the coast of the port city of Świnoujście (Swinemünde) in northwestern Poland.
Why it matters: The discovery of this deposit will not only massively help Poland diversify its energy resources and move it closer to energy independence, but may also allow it to emerge as a much more serious regional oil and gas exporter, potentially weakening the reliance of countries like Slovakia, Hungary, and other Central European states on Russian energy. While such an outcome is still years away, with this find, Poland may now be poised to become an even more influential player in Europe, not just as a political and military heavyweight, but as a provider of energy security as well — as long as it plays its cards right and avoids letting domestic political squabbling squander this immense geopolitical opportunity.
L’imposizione di dazi doganali – da ultimo quelli del 15 per cento sulle importazioni dall’Unione Europea – è presentata dall’amministrazione Trump come una vittoria per l’economia americana, una dimostrazione di forza negoziale e un modo per “riequilibrare” la bilancia commerciale. Ma la narrazione poggia su due gravi fraintendimenti, che vale la pena chiarire.
Imporre un dazio del 15 per cento sulle importazioni da una delle economie più avanzate, diversificate e competitive del mondo, come l’Unione europea, significa aumentare del 15 per cento il prezzo di quei prodotti per chi li acquista negli Stati Uniti. In pratica, è una tassa aggiuntiva a carico dei consumatori americani e delle imprese americane che importano. È difficile interpretarla come una “vittoria di Trump”: quando due economie complesse e interdipendenti come gli Stati Uniti e l’Europa alzano barriere commerciali reciproche, non ci sono vincitori, ma solo perdenti. Si riduce la concorrenza, aumentano i prezzi e, potenzialmente, si rallenta la crescita. L’efficienza del mercato viene compromessa, con una riduzione di benessere reciproca. Certamente, i dazi americani sulle esportazioni Ue non sono una vittoria per l’Europa. Ma di certo non lo sono nemmeno per gli Usa.
Secondo errore: le entrate da dazi non le pagano “gli altri”
L’amministrazione Trump ha spesso rivendicato l’aumento delle entrate da dazi doganali. Ad esempio, tra ottobre 2024 e aprile 2025, gli Stati Uniti hanno raccolto circa 59,2 miliardi di dollariin entrate, rispetto ai 44,1 miliardi dello stesso periodo dell’anno precedente. Solo nel mese di aprile 2025 le entrate nette hanno raggiunto 15,6 miliardi di dollari, quasi il doppio rispetto a marzo (8,2 miliardi dollari). L’amministrazione Usa prevede di incassare, entro la fine del 2025, maggiori entrate da dazi per circa 250 miliardi di dollari.
Ma chi paga veramente queste entrate? Di certo, non l’impresa italiana che esporta formaggio grana negli Stati Uniti. Nei registri doganali, il soggetto tenuto al pagamento del dazio è l’importatore americano – ad esempio, la “American Cheese Importers LLC”, con sede in New Jersey – un’azienda che impiega lavoratori americani, paga tasse americane e fa parte della catena produttiva nazionale.
La “American Cheese Importers LLC” potrà decidere di ribaltare il costo del dazio sul prezzo finale del prodotto: in tal caso, a pagare sarà il consumatore americano che troverà il grana più caro al supermercato di Chicago o New York. Oppure, potrà assorbire il maggior costo comprimendo i propri margini di profitto: in tal caso, a pagare sarà l’impresa americana stessa, con possibili ricadute su investimenti e occupazione.
L’esportatore italiano, in tutto ciò, può essere colpito solo indirettamente: se riduce il prezzo per rimanere competitivo, subisce un taglio ai ricavi; se la domanda dei consumatori americani si sposta verso prodotti alternativi non colpiti da dazio (ad esempio, il formaggio olandese), perde quote di mercato. Ma non è lui a pagare materialmente l’imposta. La tesi dell’amministrazione Trump, quindi, che il resto del mondo stia elargendo denaro agli Usa attraverso i dazi è semplicemente falsa.
The Telegraph has found that Chinese companies directly supplied parts and materials worth at least £47m to Russian firms sanctioned for producing drones, from 2023 to 2024, a period when Moscow was building large-scale logistics infrastructure for its domestic drone programme.
Nearly a quarter of the value of those shipments – £10.7m – were sent to sanctioned Russian firms linked to the production of Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones, operating in a special economic zone (SEZ) in the town of Alabuga, according to Telegraph analysis of global trade records compiled by Sayari, a risk and data intelligence company.
Goods directly exported by China to Russia included aircraft engines, microchips, metal alloys, camera lenses, fibreglass, emulsion binders for fibreglass, and carbon fibre yarns – all key components to produce the drones that wreak nightly havoc on Ukraine.
In all, The Telegraph identified 97 Chinese suppliers. (The Telegraph)
Lured by promises of high pay, European travel, education, and the possibility of “finding love,” African girls are being brought to Tatarstan’s “Special Economic Zone” located about 1000 kilometers (625 miles) east of Moscow. Their passports are then taken away and they are made to handover their nominal $700 a month salaries to pay for company housing and other necessities. They are then put to work for long hours gluing together the composite suicide drones.
The Russian military company JSC Alabuga dealt with an acute labor shortage to build Shahed 136 drones (for the Ukraine war) by raising salaries and exploiting high school-age students and immigrant employees recruited under false pretenses. JSC Alabuga has been using two programs to actively recruit young men and women, primarily aged 16-22, to make military drones: Alabuga Polytechnic is used to recruit students within Russia, and the Alabuga Start program is used to recruit workers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (also known as CIS countries) and other countries, primarily African countries.
This deceptive and manipulative recruitment effort is intended primarily to enable JSC Alabuga to meet its ambitious Shahed 136 kamikaze drone production goals for the Russian military, a project that Russia steeps in secrecy, to the point of calling it motorboat manufacturing. Potential recruits are not told that they could be involved in producing Shahed 136 drones
Alabuga Polytechnic’s students and Alabuga Start’s recruits have produced thousands of Shahed drones and dozens, perhaps hundreds of Albatross M5 drones for Russian combat operations against Ukraine,
Aware of the Russian legal problems of hiring workers under 18 years old, defined as children by the United Nations, JSC Alabuga lobbied Russian authorities to change labor laws to allow minors under 18 to work in riskier work environments, which includes Alabuga because of the use of toxic chemicals in making the airframe and the danger of explosions from fuel and high explosives.
The Wall Street Journal reported since its inception that over one thousand women from all over Africa went to Alabuga under Alabuga Start, and another thousand are likely to go this year, based on Ugandan officials aiding or knowledgeable about the recruitment effort. At least twenty-seven countries have sent participants through Alabuga Start to work at Alabuga, most are in Africa, but also seven are in Commonwealth of Independent State countries
Alabuga Start uses several tactics to attract foreign females to join its program. It offers a generous pay of 60,000₽ per month ($673 USD) and a certificate of professional training such as in “Quality Management of Products, Processes and Services” from the technological college Kazan National Research Technical University The participants are not formal students at the technical college and are only listed on the school’s roster to obtain a professional training certificate.
Alabuga Start notes that the salary it offers is at least double the average monthly salary in countries such as: Zimbabwe, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Rwanda. The program even goes as far to claim through videos and advertisements that Alabuga Start participants can “find love” and start families in Russia, and that the Alabuga Polytech offers a great way to do that.
As mentioned earlier, more than an estimated 90 percent of them work in drone production. In some leaked documents from 2023, they were called "mulattoes," a term referring to people of mixed race but apparently used here in a derogatory manner. The modules where they worked were labelled with an additional “M,” or “MM, for “mulatto module.”
Russian companies are widening their campaign to find young African women to help fill a labor shortage, heightening concern many are being deployed in Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
The latest drive is in South Africa, a fellow member of the BRICS block of large emerging market economies. One of the main recruiters, Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan, produces military drones. South Africa’s government is now investigating what Russian companies are doing and what their intentions are, a person familiar with the situation said.
The push involves organizations using BRICS branding. The local chapter of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance signed an agreement in May to supply Alabuga and house builder Etalonstroi Ural with a combined 5,600 workers next year.
“Russia is sitting with a demand for workforce,” Lebogang Zulu, who chairs the women’s alliance and inked the deal on a trip to Russia earlier this year, told Bloomberg. “South Africa is sitting with a crisis of unemployment.”
Russia’s aging and shrinking population, coupled with the loss of hundreds of thousands of men to the front line in Ukraine and a spike in salaries, has left a hole in the labor market. At the same time, a third of the workforce in South Africa is unemployed. But while the economics might make sense, the recruitment push is drawing increasing scrutiny.
The Alabuga zone, for example, has been accused in three research reports from organizations including the Institute for Science and International Security, or ISIS, of tricking African women into working at the plant assembling Shahed 136 kamikaze drones. Women are viewed as more reliable than men for the specific kind of work, according to ISIS.
Officials in Pretoria may summon Russia’s diplomatic representatives to answer questions, the person familiar with the situation said. They asked not to be identified because a public statement hasn’t been made.
“The South African government is actively investigating reports of foreign programs that recruit South Africans under false pretenses,” the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in response to questions. “The South African government is yet to find any credible evidence that job offers in Russia are inconsistent with their stated purpose. However, the government has noted the alleged recruitment of youth by the Alabuga company.”
