#Military Exercise 2021

[utilitycaster]

this may seem needlessly finicky but I do actually believe it's important: calling Verin a himbo is just one of many examples where like, one of the cast says something off the cuff and it's not exactly the right word or it is highly contextual, and that is fine because no one is perfect especially in improv, but then it gets repeated ad infinitum within the fandom when it never really fit in the first place. We have Verin's stats and he's decently more intelligent than average with a 13 (smarter than most of Bells Hells for one; as smart as Pike); it's just he's the guy with a bachelor's degree with good grades followed by military service in a family where everyone has two PhDs - Matt said "himbo of the family" the way in a family where most people are exceptionally tall you'd call the 5'11" child the short one. In Call of the Netherdeep he appears as thoughtful and competent and promoted to a difficult position at a very young age, and in the campaign his appearance is simultaneously as a leader of troops in a dangerous mission, and someone who cares enough about poetry from a completely foreign and distant culture to have tried to learn more about it. I'm sorry, but if you're using the word "himbo" I don't think you're processing a thing about the character yourself; you're just the latest repetition in a game of telephone that's been going on since mid-2021.

And that's not deeply bad on the surface, and I'm using Verin not because he is the character most wronged by this sort of thing but because he's recent and it's really clear where the word came from and that it's not a good assessment, but something I happen to have a decent knack for is pattern recognition in language. I usually find it really easy to pick up on when someone's plagiarized because of the language and pattern shifts. I tend to remember urls and out of place words well. So I do tend to notice when everyone suddenly starts using a single turn of phrase and I tend to flag it. Sometimes that's not bad; sometimes it means everyone came to a similar conclusion and that's the best way to express that conclusion. But like, when Taliesin called the Yios episode a gas-leak episode and the entire fandom started parroting it? The line "bone-dry takes"? The fact that a lot of ship defenses I see were phrased precisely as "I have eyes"? without actually talking about the ship itself? the fact that I've seen a spike in the use of the term "ontologically evil" including in myself and not all uses are actually correct? And extending this beyond strictly language but consider any headcanon with minimal textual support that catches like wildfire (sidebar: remember how we make, or made fun of the SPREAD THIS LIKE WILDFIRE tendency on Tumblr a decade ago? same concept of repetition of a specific turn of phrase without internalizing) all sort of ping this.

And it's fine, truly, to come to fandom and turn off your brain. I know this will sound sarcastic from me, and that's because I don't personally agree, but I do strongly agree that you can do what you want in fandom and you don't have to listen to my opinions so in the end, yeah, it's fine because I am not the arbiter of "fine". But I think critical thought is a vital exercise and I think precision with language is part of it and so if you find yourself using the same exact words and thoughts as everyone else, that should, ideally, trigger a process of "but are these the right words? what do I see when I see this character and how would I describe them? do I agree with this assessment?" Fandom is an interesting and easier microcosm than reality in which to start doing that.

[adrl-pt]

First Russian Military Operation Outside Its Territory. Ukrainian Armed Forces Combat Operations in Kursk Region.

You are watching the news from the weekly rally at the Russian Embassy in Lisbon. Today is August 10, 2:30 PM.

The five-day war in Georgia from August 8 to 12, 2008, was Russia's first "special operation" outside its territory. Journalist Georgy Kobaladze says that Georgian authorities commemorate the anniversary on August 7, marking the Ossetian army's attack on a Georgian village near Tskhinvali as the beginning. https://www.svoboda.org/a/kapkan-i-vtorzhenie-15-let-s-nachala-rossiysko-gruzinskoy-voyny/32538906.html

The Ossetians trace the origins of the war with Georgia back to 1989, when the USSR was collapsing. https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-45106205

After the Dagomys Agreement, Georgia maintained difficult but peaceful relations with the regions of Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia). In 2008, Georgia began to consider joining NATO. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE7_p7WISo4

Matthew Bryza, who was involved in the US mediation plan for this war, told Dozhd in an interview how steps to contain Russia were removed during the process of working with the German Foreign Ministry. https://youtu.be/uK6pyU5DuQM?feature=shared&t=294

The human rights organization "Human Rights Watch" in its research discusses violations of humanitarian law on both sides, including systematic arson, robbery, and beatings of residents of Georgian villages by South Ossetian forces after the withdrawal of Georgian troops. https://www.hrw.org/reports/georgia0109ruweb.pdf

In 2021, the Strasbourg court found that Russia exercised control over Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region and therefore bears responsibility for these violations. The Russian representative stated in court that the fragments of the Iskander missile used by Russia, presented by the Georgian side, were stolen, dismantled, and planted by the CIA. https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-55737376

Volunteer and activist David Katsarava said in an interview with Dozhd: "For us, the war against Ukraine is a continuation of ours." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6pyU5DuQM

Since August 6, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been conducting an operation in the Kursk region. The combat zone has already reached 430 square kilometers. The YouTube channel "The Insider" reported briefly on the situation: people are evacuating on their own, Putin is distributing the usual 10 thousand rubles, and Russian generals ignored reports of Ukrainian forces concentrating on the border. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vbljcaYy1k

On August 9, politician Yulia Navalnaya stated: "Putin's war has finally come to Russia." She addressed those aiding Putin's war efforts: "No one will forget what you did to our country. You are working for a killer, but it's never too late to stop." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-HoR9OJ6mU

On August 7, Vladimir Osechkin held a stream on his YouTube channel in memory of Oleksandr Ishchenko, a member of the Azov regiment who was killed in Russian captivity, and called for information about this crime to be sent to him for investigation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBi3sO5Rq5M

Azov commander Svyatoslav Palamar published a forensic medical examination report on his Facebook page confirming the brutal murder and violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/FWoEAf9XxGmrShd2/

On January 12 of this year, the Memorial Human Rights Center recognized prisoners of war from the Ukrainian Azov Regiment as political prisoners, as they consider the Supreme Court's decision to recognize the Azov Regiment as a terrorist organization to be unlawful. https://memopzk.org/news/my-schitaem-politzaklyuchyonnymi-voennoplennyh-iz-ukrainskogo-polka-azov/

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[intermundia]

in general, i think engaging with star wars from a place of realpolitik and political analysis is a fun thought exercise, especially with the canon and legends lore fleshing out the world a bit beyond lucas's archetypal story. there's a whole swath of authors who have written books and comics for adults that all take the premises of the movies seriously, the work of james luceno jumps to mind, so you can choose to dig into that lore and take it seriously as well.

the politics of the saga are related to but greatly simplified from our reality, and there is much that can be said about the way that the galaxy is designed, from george's viet cong inspired rebellion to his prequels era citizens united and bush era executive overreach. i think it's a mistake to take the jedi's role in government too seriously, as they are kind of a hand-wavy organized militia answerable to the legislative branch (and later executive during the war).

they're both a symbol of how the system works at its best and its worst. under the flourishing galactic republic, they're ideal ambassadors of peacetime diplomacy, whose arrival at a conflict resolves it using negotiation and limited force, before those conflicts sprouted into inter-system military engagement. but under sidious, they're arguably willingly misused to enforce peace on a wider scale, due to sidious's design of breaking the galaxy with a civil war.

i see many, many takes that say that the jedi should not be involved in politics at all, but i really think that's missing the point. you can take how they are being used as like a health test of the body politic, they're an epiphenomenon dependent on the republic as a whole. by the era of the prequels, they were a tool of an age that no longer existed, a more civilized one, where conflict could be resolved locally.

should they not have participated? as george has said many times, they were in a bind. would you act to save civilian lives from an invading army of droids who didn't care for or actively sought collateral damage? could you live with yourself if you had the power to help but did not? it was doomed from the beginning, they were in a trap and about to die, but is it better to fight or run away?

anyway, i got slightly off topic. engaging with star wars politically can be a fun and meaningful exercise, which even academics are not immune from the lure. here are a few articles that i enjoyed reading, if anyone is interested:

Charles, M. B. (2015). Remembering and restoring the republic: Star wars and Rome. Classical World, 108(2), 281–298. https://doi.org/10.1353/clw.2015.0014 (link) Conor Casey & David Kenny (2021): How Liberty Dies in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Star Wars, Democratic Decay, and Weak Executives, Law & Literature, DOI: 10.1080/1535685X.2021.1991610 (link) Rackaway, C. (2020). Star Wars: The Fascism Awakens: Representation and its Failure from the Weimar Republic to the Galactic Senate. Studies in the Social Sciences, 1(1), 7-22 (link)

have at them and enjoy :)

[akookminsupporter]

I was thinking about how, in the last few months or maybe since 2021, Jimin has been exercising with more dedication and discipline. I remember him mentioning taking up running and trying boxing. Considering the state of his hands in the months leading up to enlistment, I think he succeeded. I wonder if he was also preparing for military service, specifically for the division he would be in.

Many fans thought that due to his muscular pains he might not be able to fulfill regular military service and instead would serve like Yoongi is doing, however, Jimin obviously knew for a while what kind of military service he would undergo. So, maybe he decided to further prepare his body for what was to come.

[usafphantom2]

VX-9 ‘Vampires’ F/A-18F Super Hornet Brandishes Heavy Air-to-Air Loadout During Gray Flag 2024

David Cenciotti

AIM-174

The heavy loadout, featuring four AIM-174s, three AIM-120s and two AIM-9s, first spotted on “Vandy 1” at the beginning of September, was not a one-off test.

In September, we reported on a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet from VX-9 “Vampires” showcasing an unprecedented air-to-air loadout, featuring four CATM-174B, three CATM-120, and two CATM-9X missiles, along with a targeting pod and an IRST (Infrared Search and Track) mounted on an external fuel tank. What made the photos taken at Naval Air Station Point Mugu especially notable was that the heavy loadout was carried by “Vandy 1,” BuNo 166673—the flagship of the Vampires squadron. This aircraft sports a unique black livery celebrating the squadron’s 30th anniversary, inspired by the classic livery of VX-4 commander’s F-4s and F-14s, which previously bore the “Vandy 1” callsign.

The heavy loadout, featuring four AIM-174s, three AIM-120s and two AIM-9s, first spotted on “Vandy 1” at the beginning of September, was not a one-off test.AIM-174B

Interestingly, this configuration wasn’t a one-time test. On September 24, 2024, “Vandy 1,” again equipped with the same extensive air-to-air loadout, joined a VX-9 F-35C and a 422nd TES F-15E in a photo session over the Point Mugu Sea Range, marking the conclusion of the Gray Flag 2024 exercise.

From September 17-23, Gray Flag 2024 brought together U.S. and allied forces, alongside academic and industry collaborators, for a large-scale, joint testing event hosted by Naval Test Wing Pacific and VX-9 at Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu, California. This year’s event saw participation from over 3,000 personnel across the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force, executing more than 60 test initiatives. With roughly 600 aircraft sorties and more than 26 distinct systems tested on the ground, Gray Flag highlighted the vast scope of multi-domain capabilities under rigorous evaluation. Conducted on the expansive 36,000-square-mile Point Mugu Sea Range, operated by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), the event used Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) test elements to simulate advanced, multi-domain combat scenarios in a controlled, realistic environment.

“Gray Flag 2024 was an unparalleled opportunity to bring together diverse branches of the military, academic institutions, science and technology experts, and allied forces,” said Capt. David Halpern, Naval Test Wing Pacific commodore.

The range of participants enabled realistic evaluation of system interoperability, informing future requirements and tactics across domains. Importantly, allied involvement was integral to the event, reflecting the coalition-based approach crucial to real-world operations. Rear Adm. Keith Hash, commander of NAWCWD and Chief of Test at Naval Air Systems Command, emphasized that integrating and operating with allies remains a strategic priority:

“The U.S. Navy operates within a global warfighting ecosystem. To deter aggression and uphold freedom of the seas, we need to test alongside our partners, just as we operate with them.”

AIM-174B

As we’ve detailed in recent months, the AIM-174B missile is a variant of the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) repurposed for air-to-air engagements. Originally designed as the RIM-174 Standard Extended Range Active Missile (ERAM), the SM-6 serves as the U.S. Navy’s primary long-range anti-air and anti-missile defense solution, integrated with the Aegis Combat System on Navy vessels.

The SM-6 ERAM is a key asset in the Navy’s long-range air defense strategy. Derived from the RIM-156A SM-2ER Block IV airframe and equipped with an active radar seeker from the AIM-120 AMRAAM, the SM-6 is capable of reaching Mach 3.5 and has a range of 200 nautical miles in its ship-based form.

While traditionally ship-launched, the SM-6 has been tested in air-launched configurations as early as 2018 and again in 2021 on other VX-31 Super Hornets, but only this year has its deployment accelerated, with further involvement from operational units.

In April 2024, an F/A-18 was spotted carrying the AIM-174, then, on Jul. 2, 2024, an F/A-18E Super Hornet belonging to the VFA-192 “Golden Dragons” was photographed taxiing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, carrying two AIM-174B missiles marking the first appearance of the missile on a frontline platform during RIMPAC 2024. At the beginning of September, images of VX-9’s Super Hornet carrying four AIM-174s mounted on both inner and middle hardpoints, along with AIM-120s set a new benchmark for its air-to-air load capacity. Additionally, the ASG-34A IRST integrated on the fuel tank complemented the Super Hornet’s radar, providing advanced tracking capability in electronic warfare or radar-denied settings.

While details on the air-launched AIM-174B’s maximum range remain unclear, it is likely to exceed the surface-launched version when launched at altitude and speed, positioning it among the longest-range air-to-air weapons in the U.S. inventory and filling the void left by the retirement of the AIM-54 Phoenix.

Officially acknowledged in July as operationally deployed with CVW-2 aboard the USS Carl Vinson, the AIM-174B’s availability in IOC (Initial Operating Capability) extends the U.S. Navy’s reach in long-range engagement. Although publicly seen with only inert and training versions, live missiles are likely already available in the fleet.

As we explained in a previous post:

With the induction of the AIM-174B into service, the U.S. Navy joins a number of air arms capable of deploying an extra-long-range beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM), like the MBDA Meteor, the Russian R-37M and Chinese PL-15 and PL-21. In fact, the AIM-174B enables the U.S. Navy Super Hornets to engage targets at much greater distances than is currently possible with the AIM-120 AMRAAM. Integrated with the E-2D, F-35, and AEGIS within the Naval Integrated Fire Control-Counter Air (NIFC-CA) system, the AIM-174B would extend the Navy’s capability to intercept aerial targets at ranges comparable to (if not greater than) those achieved against naval targets using the baseline SM-6.

In essence, this new missile fills the gap left by the retirement of the AIM-54 Phoenix. The AIM-54 was a long-range air-to-air missile used by the U.S. Navy’s F-14 Tomcat and retired in 2004 alongside the F-14. Known for its impressive range of over 100 nautical miles and multiple-target engagement capability, the AIM-54 left a significant void in long-range engagement capabilities.

While there wasn’t a direct replacement for the AIM-54 Phoenix in terms of range, the U.S. military has been developing advanced air-to-air missiles to enhance its fighter aircraft capabilities. The AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) is one such development intended to replace the AIM-120 AMRAAM. Although not a direct replacement for the AIM-54 Phoenix, the AIM-260 aims to offer improved range and performance compared to the AIM-120.

@TheAviationist .com

[mariacallous]

In a small town, a kindergarten teacher leads an effort to evacuate more than 200 women, children, and older people to a local shelter. Using the training she received before the war, she binds wounds and guides the vulnerable along a practiced evacuation route. In this case, it’s just a training exercise in a town of 1,000 people in southern Estonia—one that’s attracted hundreds of volunteers, nervous about the very real war in nearby Ukraine.

Nearly 5,000 miles away, another group of civilians have signed up for a training course on basic first-aid skills, first-responder management, and evacuation planning. Kuma Academy, the Taiwanese organization providing these skills was created in 2021 to help citizens better prepare to respond to natural disasters. But today, the disaster they anticipate most is an invasion by China. Public interest in training courses surged after Russia’s 2022 full-scale war against Ukraine and remains strong due in part to China’s frequent military exercises. The public is also keenly interested in a forthcoming television series that dramatizes events days before an invasion by China called Zero Day.

Democracies have always struggled with finding the right balance between signaling public confidence through preparation for conflict and instilling fear and panic. Yet as the international security environment grows more ominous, with Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine and intensifying climate-fueled natural disasters and global pandemics, leaders and collective defense organizations such as NATO are accelerating efforts to enhance societal resilience. During the Cold War, Americans frequently practiced “duck and cover” nuclear drills and Britons made makeshift shelters and distributed first aid; yet the prolonged and relatively tranquil three decades after the end of the war made such preparations seemingly unnecessary and expensive, thus making them de-prioritized and under-funded.

That era is now over. Greater focus on national and collective democratic resiliency is urgently needed, as adversaries not only implant malware within national water, energy, data and health systems but also utilize state and non-state actors to wage crippling cyberattacks that could paralyze response capabilities. Economic coercion, weaponized corruption, political infiltration, and disinformation campaigns—all hybrid warfare tactics—are designed to convince public opinion that resistance to the adversary’s actions is futile. Ukraine has served as a laboratory for these Russian-implemented activities for over two decades—but the rest of Europe hasn’t been spared either. In the Indo-Pacific, China is deploying similar economic coercion and influence operations beyond Taiwan.

Countries under threat on different sides of the world can learn powerful lessons from each other. NATO’s Resilience Committee, for example, an advisory body formed in 2022, monitors, advises on, and coordinates defense planning and activities alongside nationally developed disaster preparedness and resilience plans to counter hybrid attacks.

NATO views resilience as a tenet of both territorial and collective defense, as enshrined in Article 3 of the North Atlantic Treaty which requires each member to “maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.” The Resilience Committee’s work focuses on six pillars: civic communications, civil protection, energy, food and agriculture, health. and transport.

NATO’s resiliency efforts should be more widely shared with U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific. Whole-of-society resilience and lessons learned from the war in Ukraine were leading topics of discussion during a recent visit by the authors to Taiwan (during Typhoon Krathon, no less). Senior officials of the recently inaugurated Lai Ching-te administration, as well as private sector and civil society leaders, stressed the need for more robust national resiliency efforts embodied in Taiwan’s Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience plan, announced on June 19 with the formation of a national implementing committee.

Holding its first interagency committee meeting in September to implement this plan, Lai underscored the need to “enhance Taiwan’s response capabilities and expand cooperation between the public and private sectors.” The role of the private sector within a resilience framework is key. With an initial investment of approximately $26.4 billion, Taiwan’s five resiliency pillars parallel NATO’s: social welfare and medical supplies; material preparations and critical supply distribution systems; civilian forces training and utilization; energy and critical infrastructure security; and information, cyber, transportation, and financial security. Not only would NATO members and Taiwan mutually benefit from a more focused set of information and best practice-sharing, but as the growing potential for both combined and simultaneous Chinese and Russian hybrid activities in the United States, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific intensifies, it will be critical to understand their evolving tactics.

Vulnerabilities vary, but shared experiences are highly useful—especially in drawing attention to aspects of resilience that one group might have overlooked. During recent discussions, Taiwanese officials seemed particularly focused on building greater resilience of its energy supply and grid, the government’s ability to retain communications with all citizens and the outside world (via resistance to Beijing’s cognitive warfare as well as protection of undersea cables, data, and satellite communications), and citizen preparedness (particularly first aid).

Observers of Russia’s relentless missile and drone attacks against Ukraine’s energy sector for the past two years highlight Taiwan’s energy import vulnerabilities and its need for greater energy resilience as Taipei imports nearly 98 percent of its energy needs (including 40 percent of its crude oil needs, 30 percent of its coal and 19 percent of liquified natural gas). China’s recent Joint Sword-2024B military exercise flexed its military muscles by demonstrating how a limited quarantine or blockade of the island and outlying islands could challenge Taiwan’s energy resilience.

The ability to sustain households and fuel its energy-intensive semiconductor economy is critical to sustaining both political will and economic stability. The private sector, in partnership with the public sector, will play a key role in energy resiliency through activities ranging from resisting cyberattacks to the protection of the energy grid and physical plants.

For the past several years, there has been growing global concern about the vulnerability of undersea cables, whose disruption would have profound implications for global financial and communication systems in both the Euro-Atlantic or Indo-Pacific regions. In response, NATO has recently set up a Maritime Center for Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure to better protect these vital economic links. Estonia and Finland faced disruptions after the October 2023 severing of the 48-mile Balticconnector pipeline and undersea cable by a Chinese-owned and Hong Kong-registered cargo vessel in the Baltic Sea which traveled to Russian ports along the Arctic Northern Sea Route.

Although China claimed the incident was an accident caused by a strong storm, Finnish officials declared it a “deliberate external act.” (Restoration of the Baltic connector and undersea cable took six months. One of Taiwan’s outlying island chains, Matsu Islands, has had its undersea cable cut 27 times over the past five years. After a Chinese fishing vessel reportedly severed an undersea cable February 2023, internet linkages took several months to restore. In a limited quarantine scenario, Beijing could sever Taiwan’s communications with these outlying islands, illustrating Taipei’s inability to protect and sustain communications with its citizens. Greater capacity for low-earth-orbiting satellites and use of microwave transmission are also critical to the country’s resiliency and, again, the private sector will play a key role.

An underappreciated element for any national resilience plan is individual citizen preparedness, a lesson that has been learned repeatedly and tragically by the Ukrainian people. According to the head of disaster management at Estonia’s Red Cross, “Ukrainians say that if the population would have known how to use first aid skills, it would have saved many more lives.” From Estonia to Taiwan, citizens are taking a greater interest in learning such life-saving skills, from applying a tourniquet to maintaining the safety of national blood supplies.

While European and Indo-Pacific leaders grapple with combating intensifying Russian and Chinese conventional military and hybrid activities, sustained senior-level engagement with the private sector remains absolutely critical, yet very underdeveloped. As Taipei urgently builds its whole-of-society defense resilience program, it would benefit from creating a high-level private sector advisory council. This would report to Taiwan’s National Security Council to ensure all five working groups are infused with private-sector input and that companies can rapidly implement as well as support the government’s evolving resilience plans.

While individual and multinational firms may have their own cyber and energy resilience plans, protection of vulnerable critical infrastructure would be insufficient in the event of a military intervention. The private sector should engage in regular tabletop exercises with government and civil society leaders to identify gaps and security vulnerabilities, and there should be clear and public timelines to address these shortfalls. Interestingly, the American Chambers of Commerce in Taiwan and Ukraine have, for the first time, exchanged best practices for private-sector resilience—an initiative that should be continued and strengthened by including other important private sector voices from Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and others.

Just as the NATO Resilience Committee was built upon the organization’s existing work on humanitarian and disaster response, government leaders in Taipei could better utilize the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) as a vehicle to share best practices on whole-of-society resilience—particularly in areas vital to Ukraine’s resilience that have been under sustained attack, such as connectivity, data protection, and energy resilience. Full partners to the GCTF—Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States—should prioritize this area alongside partners with rich societal resilience experience, such as the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, and, Sweden. These nations can deepen cooperation by increasing and intensifying co-organized workshops in support of Taiwan’s whole-of-society plan. Here again, the private sector should also be invited to participate in these workshops.

National preparation and resilience planning can mitigate the consequences of both natural disasters and conflict. A strong national and collective resiliency plan can go one step further and deter an adversary. Success requires societal unity, citizen engagement, and a robust role for the private sector that can work seamlessly with all levels of governments. Whole-of-society defense resilience, or what Finland calls “total defense,” is one of the most challenging tasks that a democracy can undertake—precisely why adversaries exploits societal divisions. As the saying goes, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” For the democratic West, resilience is what happens when whole-of-society preparation counters the adversary’s “opportunity.”

[beguines]

Successive wars in Gaza and political instability have also torn the social fabric of Palestinian communities in the strip. The displacement and re-displacement of Palestinians has caused a blow to traditional family structures. Whereas large families in the past would remain mostly in one area over decades and cultivate the land collectively, constant Israeli military incursions and displacement has prompted children in larger families to move to other areas as adults and take assets for a part of the land to live on for their own families. With this displacement, each member of the family would receive a small part of the land thereby rendering them unable to get income from citrus cultivation as production from smaller orchards is insufficient for it to be financially sustainable. This is part of the reason why many Palestinian citrus farmers in Gaza whose family members remained on their historic family land were nevertheless obliged to transition their crops to other fruits, such as strawberries, eggplants, and watermelon.

The location of the historic citrus orchards in Gaza, away from the sea in cities like Beit Hanoun, but also largely in agricultural lands adjacent to the present-day Israeli-enforced buffer zone served as a hindrance to the military objectives of the occupation. According to the World Food Programme of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a 2010 special focus report, the IOF prevent and systematically target any cultivation of crops over 80 centimeters high along the ARA. By 2018, the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights reported that, according to farmers, the razing activities of the Israeli occupation forces in the eastern border area have forced them to plant crops no taller than 40 centimeters. The objective, to maintain optimal security visibility and surveillance of the 'border' area, is also a central reason for which crop-killing herbicides were sprayed by the Israeli army along this terrain. Maintaining a flat landscape without trees, prevents Palestinian resistance fighters from mobilizing a terrain of relative invisibility as part of their confrontation with the occupation, and—as further discussed in the Conclusion—enables the occupation forces to exercise power against Palestinians from a distance. A kind of flattened, horizontal panopticon, the entire restricted 'border' area is rendered a space of permanent visibility, inducing a state of conscious observation among colonized subjects . . .

The temporality of citrus production played another factor in its slow and engineered erasure in and around Gaza. Unlike other faster-growing crops, citrus trees need constant care, with longer production cycles that can take years before they are ready for harvest once (re)planted. One farmer recounted to me that they tried to save the citrus orchards but they "needed to find enough days of peace" for the replanting. With snowballing Israeli onslaughts in Gaza from major wars in 2006, 2008–2009, 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2021—with increasing degrees of destruction culminating in the 2023 attacks—to daily incursions and bulldozing practices, there have not been enough cumulative periods of stability for Palestinian farmers to replant the orchards. This too, the temporality of eco-colonial violence, is part and parcel of the forced transition to planting faster-yielding produce.

Shourideh C. Molavi, Environmental Warfare in Gaza: Colonial Violence and New Landscapes of Resistance

[littleharpethcrossfit]

Sunday, 25 August, 2024.

Class is at 1 PM. It will be HOT and dry.

Miss Esther was your Coach.

Warmup #1

Big Shane led you in some mobility exercises.

Warmup #2

50 Ab-Mat Sit-ups with Med-Ball

or GHD's 15 / 15 / 15

Strength

Military Press..........2 / 2 / 2 / 2

Push Press.........3 / 3 / 3 / 3

MP / PP

Bernie=155 / 185.....Shane=145 / 185.....Ed=125 / 165 Nathan=125/145.....Herb=115 / 115.....Tim=105/135.....Tom=100/115 Cheri=80/90 .....Alicia=75/95.....Linda=70 / 70.....Sue=65/75 Nathalie=55/65.....Maddi=55/55.....Jackie=45/55.....Sandy=35/45 Average Dave/Chris=did something

WOD

400 Body-weights

SOLO..........Vested ?

Run 400 / Row-Ski 500 / Bike 1000m

40 / 30 / 20 / 10

Pull-Ups

Push-Ups

Squats

Back Raises

Run 400 / Row-Ski 500 / Bike 1000m

LHCF Record

Larry: 15:10 (no one was vested)

December 2021

Bernie=17:55 (1/2).....Sue=18:19.....Nathan=18:54 (1/2).....Alicia=19:12 (3/4).....Shane=20:07 (RX).....Herb=22:10.....Tim=22:12 RX Tom=22:45.....Ed=25:39.....Nathalie=28:04.....Sandy=28:50 Jackie=33:00 (extra runs)..... Chris/Linda/Cheri/Average Dave/Maddi (1/3)=did something Coach=present

Notes:

Jackie brought Daughter Nathalie, who does volleyball at BHS and attends a gym that has obviously exposed her to barbells. Jackie should be very proud of Nathalie because she is the entire perfect package, a real 10+ Unicorn. She has been accepted to West Point, which proves there is still hope for our country and its children. Great job, Jackie !!

Maddi came. She was very late, but at least she was here. She did much of the workout and let us admire her sweet Golden Lab. Maddi leaves for California next week, leaving a trail of broken hearts in Middle Tennessee, some of whom are elderly old men.

Due to your Coaches illness, LHCF will only have 2 weekend workouts for the next several weeks. Esther and Linda will Coach those workouts. I will be unable to attend the Barn area because Average Dave always hawks lugee's and slings snot rockets in the pine straw and since I will be immunosuppressed, whatever contagions he is carrying would surely kill me dead. I'm not feeling so hot already.

The next workout is Saturday, 31 August, 2024 at 0930. Hopefully you will be celebrating my 80th birthday and all the exercises will be for 80 reps.

[fatehbaz]

The franc CFA (originally denoting Colonies françaises d’Afrique) is the official currency of Senegal and most other former French colonies in Africa, from before national independence through the present-day. This monetary system and its history are the subjects of a new book by Fanny Pigeaud and Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency (2021), translated by Thomas Fazi from a 2018 French edition. The book brings to the attention of Anglophone readers the peculiar institutions through which the French Republic continues to exercise colonial rule over nominally independent African states. France’s recent “counterterrorism” operations across the Sahel region (supported and rivaled in scope by the United States’ Africa Command, AFRICOM) represent only one phase in what the Black Alliance for Peace (2020) has called France’s “active and aggressive military presence in Africa for years.” Aggression has often had monetary motivations, and control has often exceeded aggression. One of Pigeaud and Sylla’s commitments and achievements is to show how “French ‘soft’ monetary power is inseparable from its ‘hard’ military power” (2021: 99). In their telling, the CFA franc has for decades been France’s secret weapon in “Françafrique,” the zone in Africa where France, its representatives, and its monetary system have never really left. [...]

---

The franc CFA was born in Paris on the 25th of December, 1945 [...]. The embattled empire was compelled to “loosen its grip” in Africa [...]. Consequently, argue Pigeaud and Sylla, the creation of the CFA franc was “actually designed to allow France to regain control of its colonies” (13). What Minister Pleven called generosity might better be called a swindle. [...] French goods-for-export, now priced in a devalued currency (made cheaper), would find easy markets in the colonies [...]. African goods - especially important raw materials, from uranium to cocoa, priced too expensively for domestic consumption [...] -- would find buyers more exclusively in France [...]. In effect, the new CFA monetary policies re-consolidated France’s imperial economy even as the monopoly regime of the colonial pact could be formally retired in recognition of demands for change from colonial subjects. [...] [T]he egalitarian parlance of community and cooperation modernized French colonial authority, making it more invisible rather than marking its end. [...]

---

Most importantly, France has held up a guarantee of unlimited convertibility between CFA francs and French currency [...]. CFA francs can only ever be converted into France’s currency [...] before being exchanged for other currencies [...]. In 1994, in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund and against the wishes of most African leaders, French authorities adjusted the franc zone exchange rate for the first time, devaluing the CFA franc by half. This blanket devaluation was the shock through which structural adjustment was forced upon Françafrique [...]. And the devaluation proved, to Pigeaud and Sylla, that France’s “‘guarantee of unlimited convertibility’ was an intellectual and political fraud” (74). Nevertheless, French authorities have continually held up - that is, brandished and exploited - this guarantee, without honoring it. [...] Pigeaud and Sylla do not mince words: “France uses its presumed role of ‘guarantor’ as a pretext and as a tool to blackmail its former colonies in order to keep them in its orbit, both economically and politically” (38). [...] In that respect, the CFA franc system has ensured [...] the stabilization of raw material exportation and goods importation, hierarchy and indirect rule, [...] accumulation and mass impoverishment, in short, the colonial order.

---

And all along, France has found - or compelled, coerced, and more-or-less directly put in place - useful political partners in Françafrique. [...]

The CFA franc has been central to the French strategy of decolonization-in-name-only. [...]

When and where demands for self-determination and changes to the monetary system (usually more minor than exit or abolition) have been strongest, from charismatic leaders or from below, they have been met with a retaliatory response from France and its African partners, frequently going so far as “destabilisation campaigns and even assassinations and coups d’état” (40). [...]

The first case is exemplary. In 1958, Ahmed Sékou Touré helped lead Guinea to independence [...]. Guinea was alone in voting down De Gaulle’s “Community” proposal [...], and [...] the new state established its own national currency and central bank by 1960. [...] [T]he decision was ultimately made to make Guinea a cautionary tale for the rest of Françafrique. French counter-intelligence officials plotted and hired out a series of mercenary attacks (“with the aim of creating a climate of insecurity and, if possible, overthrowing Sékou Touré,” recalled one such operative), in conjunction with “Operation Persil,” a scheme to flood the Guinean economy with false Guinean bills, successfully bringing about a devastating crash (43). [...] Yet, Sékou Touré was never removed, only ostracized - unlike Sylvanus Olympio in Togo or Modiba Keita in Mali, others whose (initially minor) desired changes to the CFA status quo were refused and rebuffed and who were then deposed in French-linked coups. [...]

So too the Cameroonian economist Joseph Tchundjang Pouemi, an even more overlooked figure since his death at the age of 47 in 1984. Pouemi’s experience working at the IMF [International Monetary Fund] in the 1970s led him to recognize that the leaders of the international monetary system would “repress any government that tries to offer their country a minimum of wellbeing” (60) and could do so especially easily in Françafrique because of the CFA franc.

---

All text above by: Matt Schneider. “Africa’s Last Colonial Currency Review.” Society and Space [Book Reviews section of the online Magazine format]. 29 November 2021. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[une-sanz-pluis]

Hey, hope you're having a good day. For a good while now I've been intensely fixated on the House of Lancaster, but I feel as though there's a major gap in my knowledge when it comes to John of Gaunt, Henry IV, and Henry V. Could you possibly suggest some further reading/research on them? I've got Red Prince by Helen Carr and I haven't read all of it but I think it's pretty good so far, same with Chris Given-Wilson's book on Henry IV

Hi! I can definitely do that for you - if there's any specific areas of their personality, relationship, life or reign, please let me know so I can be more targeted in my suggestions. I'm just going to focus on books to keep this manageable. All books are given in order of publication, not in order of preference.

John of Gaunt

There are only four book-length biographies about John of Gaunt that I'm aware of:

Sydney Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt (1904)

Anthony Goodman, John of Gaunt: The Exercise of Princely Power in Fourteenth-Century Europe (1992)

Helen Carr, The Red Prince (2021)

Kathryn Warner, John of Gaunt: Son of One King, Father of Another (2022)

To be completely honest, I've only read Goodman's in full though I've looked at the others in passing. Goodman's is on the academic, political biography side of things, which is reflected in the price (if you're looking to own a copy, I'd definitely recommend getting it second-hand rather than new) and language (it can be quite dense). If your interest is in Gaunt's personal life, Goodman doesn't spend much time on that (though I felt like I had more of a sense of Gaunt's personality when I finished reading it). It is a bit dated, obviously, so you'll have to keep that in mind. If you're interested in Gaunt's Castilian campaign, this was really impressive on that score - I feel a lot of English-centric histories tend to gloss over it.

Armitage-Smith's is from early 1900s so if you do read it, be aware that there's going to be some information that's out of date and the considerable risk of some Victorian/Edwardian attitudes seeping in. Despite the datedness, this does seem to be the standard biography on Gaunt (Goodman's being a more academic study, focusing heavily on the practice of power). From what I've seen, Armitage-Smith doesn't focus too much on Gaunt's personal life. It is also, helpfully, free to read on the Internet Archive.

You've already got Carr's biography so I won't talk about that except to say that Carr is heavily biased towards Gaunt, always presenting him in the most favourable light (I also heartily disagree with her opinion on Richard II). Kathryn Warner's biography is the most recently published and her intention was to focus more on Gaunt's personal life rather than his politics, military career or religious interests but while it is lacking on those fronts, it's still a straight forward biography. I have several issues with Warner as a historian and find she's much stronger on Edward II's reign than on later figures. I'd say it's probably worth reading if you're still wanting to know more about Gaunt but it wouldn't be my top pick.

If you're looking for work specifically on Katherine Swynford, there are three non-fiction books (or rather one 30 page booklet and two books):

Anthony Goodman, Katherine Swynford (1994)

Jeanette Lucroft, Katherine Swynford: The History of a Medieval Mistress (2006)

Alison Weir, Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster

If you're really interested in Katherine, I'd say all three are worth looking at. I haven't read Goodman's myself (it's out of print and secondhand copies are expensive) but he's an academic historian whose work I've got a lot of time for. I really loved Lucroft's book but it's more of historiographical approach to Katherine than a biographical, so if that doesn't interest you, it's skippable. Alison Weir is Alison Weir so the scholarship underpinning her biography is seriously lacking and because so little is known about Katherine, there's a lot of filler, so it's more "Katherine and her world", but it does have value in that it centres Katherine and her life and is the only in-print, straight-forward biography.

Henry IV

Ian Mortimer, The Fears of Henry IV (2007)

Chris Given-Wilson, Henry IV (2016)

There are a couple of older biographies of Henry but these two are ones most referred to. If you just want one, you've already got my top recommendation. Given-Wilson's is the most recent and far and away the most scholarly of the two, and he incorporates all of the new research Mortimer did while filtering out the bullshit and over-interpretation Mortimer fills his biography with. I personally find Given-Wilson very readable and even-handed. I am very, very impressed by his coverage of Mary de Bohun, Henry's first wife, too.

I don't like Ian Mortimer as a historian and I've talked about my issues with his work and attitude to history in detail on my personal blog here (it is a very long post). But Mortimer's biography is pretty well regarded and does sometimes include more detail than Given-Wilson, so if you end up wanting another biography of Henry, I'd pick up The Fears of Henry IV. However, while Mortimer's research is generally sound (though there are errors and gaps in his work), his interpretations are often heavily, heavily skewed towards his thesis that Henry IV was The Greatest Man Ever To Exist, Ever.

There are a few other books about Henry that are worth looking at, though some are based on more specific areas of his reign and if their subject doesn't interest you, I'd consider them skippable:

James Hamilton Wylie, The History of England Under Henry the Fourth (four volumes, 1884-1898)

Peter McNiven, Heresy and Politics in the Reign of Henry IV: The Burning of John Badby (1987)

Paul Strohm, England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422 (1998)

Henry IV: The Establishment of the Regime (essays, 2003)

The Reign of Henry IV: Rebellion and Survival (essays, 2008)

Jenni Nuttall, The Creation of Lancastrian Kingship: Literature, Language and Politics in Late Medieval England (2007)

Wylie is by far and away the most detailed and painstaking exploration of Henry IV's reign, though as the title suggests this is less of a focus on Henry but on the events of his reign. Wylie is not the most careful with his sources and he was writing in the Victorian era so it is very old work but there's still a lot of value there. The two essay collections are well worth looking at, covering a broad array of subjects. McNiven's is a good overview of the response to Lollardy (a heretical movement) in Henry's reign and Strohm and Nuttall focus on the propagandistic efforts of the Lancastrians to legitimise their claim to the throne.

There isn't any book-length biography on Mary de Bohun, Henry's first wife (and I'm not sure one could be written), but for Joan of Navarre, Elena Woodacre's Joan of Navarre: Infanta, Duchess, Queen, Witch? (2022) is highly recommended.

Finally, the Penguin Monarch for Henry IV (Catherine Nall, Henry IV: The Afflicted King) is due out in late 2024 and I've been eagerly looking forward to getting my hands on it... for several years. They keep pushing back the publication.

Henry V

There are a lot of books about Henry V so I'm going to try to be as concise as possible and only list the "must reads".

Biographies

Christopher Allmand, Henry V (1992)

Anne Curry, Henry V: From Playboy Prince To Warrior King (2015)

Allmand's biography is the standard academic biography. Like Chris Given-Wilson's Henry IV, it's part of the Yale Monarch series but it's from an older run where the book was divided into two sections, the first being a chronological biography and the second being a thematic study on elements of their kingship. It's very much worth the read but it's dense and heavy going and very much skewed towards the political, not personal. Because it's from the nineties, there's some outdated information (the birthday debate is gone into, Henry's wounding at Shrewsbury is very briskly dealt with) too. Anne Curry's biography is probably the best starting place. It's a solid biography with scholarly underpinnings without being too scholarly, and as part of the Penguin Monarchs series, it's short (under 150 pages) and was published very recently. There's some compression, obviously, but Curry also has insights about Henry's life that you won't find elsewhere. So I'd read Curry first, pick up Allmand if you want more later. If you want another biographical treatment, I'd say John Matusiak's Henry V (2012) orTeresa Cole's Henry V: The Life of the Warrior King and the Battle of Agincourt (2015) are worth looking at with caveats (Matusiak's writing is pretty dense and he dabbles in misogyny, ableism and fatphobia; Cole is the first biography I read of Henry and I loved it at the time but looking back, there's some outdated information that's obviously because she hadn't read the more recent research on Henry IV and Henry V).

Kingship

James Hamilton Wylie, The Reign of Henry the Fifth (three volumes, 1914-1929)

Henry V: The Practice of Kingship (essays, 1984)

Henry V: New Interpretations (essays, 2013)

Katherine J. Lewis, Kingship and Masculinity In Late Medieval England (2013)

Malcolm Vale, Henry V: The Conscience of a King (2016)

Vale has written my absolute favourite book on Henry. It's not a biography so much as a study of Henry and his kingship with the intention of looking beyond the image of the warrior king. It's the perfect riposte to the revisionist studies that vilify Henry and incredibly revealing but not the best introduction to his life and reign.

The Practice of Kingship has the same problem that older works have but it's a very solid, very insightful collection of essays that I keep turning back to; New Interpretations is also very good. Lewis's Kingship and Masculinity is a study of Henry V and Henry VI through a gender-studies lens and is another of my top recs.

Wylie's The Reign of Henry the Fifth is very similar in approach to his work on Henry IV's reign - it's not about Henry V so much as his reign - and the same strengths and weaknesses apply, with one extra caveat. Wylie died in 1914 with the third volume unfinished so it's not as complete as it should be, but still well worth the look.

Agincourt

Anne Curry, Agincourt: A New History (2000)

Juliet Barker, Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle that Made England (2005)

The Battle of Agincourt: Sources & Interpretations (2009)

It's hard to discuss Henry V without talking about Agincourt, of course. Curry is the foremost expert on Agincourt and did a lot of groundbreaking, new research that shifted our perception of the battle and cut through some of the legends; this is published in Agincourt: A New History. This is a dryer, more scholarly read than Barker's but very much worth looking at. Barker's a very readable account in the pop history style that does tend to be recced by scholars as a very readable account. She incorporates Curry's new research but doesn't wholly agree with it so it's very interesting to see the two in conversation with each other. I'd personally start with Barker and then move onto Curry if you want more Agincourt.

Sources and Interpretations is, pretty obviously, a sourcebook for the battle itself from medieval (contemporary and near-contemporary) and early modern accounts. It's concerned with the battle only, not the broader campaign (so there's nothing on the Siege of Harfleur) but it's very valuable for collecting all the various accounts together and also providing an overview about the reliability of each source.

Michael Livingston published Agincourt: The Battle of the Scarred King this year which I haven't gotten around to reading though I'm looking forward to it. He does seem to be interested in cutting through the mythology of the battle, most notably arguing that the traditional location of the battle is not where the battle was actually fought.

Miscellaneous

T. B. Pugh, Henry V and the Southampton Plot (1988)

This is out of print but the best overview of the Southampton Plot (the plot that was led by Richard, Earl of Cambridge and occurred just before Henry was due to sail to France for the 1415 campaign). It's obviously old so some information is out-of-date and I don't always agree with the conclusions but if you want to know about the plot or the plotters, this is the book to pick up. There is another book, 1415: The Plot by Bryan R. Dunleavy, but that one skews heavily away from Henry and his reign to anticipate the Wars of the Roses.

Paul Strohm, England's Empty Throne: Usurpation and the Language of Legitimation, 1399-1422 (1998)

Strohm is a literary scholar that is looking at the processes of legitimisation the Lancastrians used. Obviously, this focuses a lot on Richard II's deposition and Henry IV's response to it but he also explores Henry V's efforts to legitimise his own rule, including his patronage of Lydgate and Hoccleve, responses to the Oldcastle rebellion and the Southampton Plot, the reburial of Richard II and his patronage. There are things Strohm says that I don't find believable or likely, such as his oft-cited assertion that the Southampton Plot was a "mock-up" invented by Henry V to give the conspirators something to confess to, but that doesn't detract from his wider points.

As Prince of Wales

Because Henry played such a prominent role in his father's reign, pretty much all of the recommendations I gave for Henry IV also have a lot of information about Henry V as Prince of Wales. I'd ignore Ian Mortimer because he treats Henry V very strangely in relation to Henry IV (I have a blog/rant about that) and is very weird about Henry V in general (if I had a hall of shame section on this post, his book on Henry V would be there). I think Peter McNiven's Heresy and Politics is very much worth reading, since he goes into some detail about Henry V's responses to Lollardy as Prince of Wales.

Catherine de Valois

The best biographic treatment of Catherine is Katherine J. Lewis's chapter on her in Later Plantagenet and the Wars of the Roses Consorts. The entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is also quite solid.

The Sister Queens by Mary McGrigor is the only book-length biography written about Catherine is the one she shares with Isabelle de Valois, her eldest sister and fellow Queen of England. I absolutely do not recommend this. It reads like the most trashy and melodramatic novel about Catherine, this time written by an author who seems most invested in the invention of new love interests for Catherine and Isabelle (she claims James I of Scotland was actually in love with Catherine, not Joan Beaufort). It's also chronologically confused, full of typos and unsourced quotes. Isabeau of Bavaria's depiction is a replication of the outdated misogynistic stereotype, as is the depiction of Eleanor Cobham (bizarrely called "Elizabeth" on several occasions).

[warningsine]

After two and a half years of fighting and several broken agreements, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda have put a temporary halt in the conflict between the Congolese army and the Rwandan-backed M23 rebellion in eastern Congo's North Kivu province.

M23 rebels launched the offensive in the mineral-rich region at the end of 2021. Since then, they have seized large swathes of territory in an effort to gain a share of North Kivu's major deposits of copper, gold and diamonds.

Angola, which has been mediating to resolve the conflict, announced the peace deal on Tuesday after talks in Luanda, adding that the truce would come into effect from midnight on Sunday. 

Uganda and Kenya have previously been involved in mediating peace talks between the warring parties.

Troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) were last year deployed to eastern Congo to neutralize the M23 rebel group — but they struggled to restore peace and security to the restive region.

'Hypocrisy' in the mediation process

The fresh deal comes as a humanitarian truce between the M23 rebels and government forces obtained through the United States was due to expire on August 3.

However, analysts are sceptic about the new deal because previous truces inked by both countries were never respected for more than a few weeks.

Justine Masika, an activist living in the province of North Kivu, believes that there is too much hypocrisy in these various mediation processes. She told DW that the parties involved in the conflict have too many interests and the well-being of the population is not their priority.

"The truce has been declared, but the problem we still have in this conflict in eastern DRC is that the parties to the conflict don't respect the agreements they've signed."

"There are still papers that are signed but they continue the war and the population continues to die every day."

The UN estimates that fighting in North Kivu province has displaced more than 1.7 million people, driving up the number displaced in Congo by multiple conflicts to a record 7.2 million.

A UN Security Council report revealed that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers have been fighting alongside the M23, indicating that Kigali exercises "de facto control" over the group's operations.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has not explicitly denied the presence of Rwandan forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). However, he has openly stated his readiness to take a "defensive" stance to protect Rwanda's interests.

Political scientist Christian Moleka believes that, like many peace initiatives, this one is limited by the fact that there are not enough elements of pressure that can be exerted on Rwanda.

"By tacitly signing the ceasefire agreement, Rwanda is presenting itself as a co-belligerent, because only those involved in a military operation can sign a ceasefire. So its signature confirms the fact that Rwanda is a player on the ground," he said.

However, Moleka said this signature is not binding on the M23.

"As much as Rwanda can sign the ceasefire, the M23 can disassociate itself from it, especially as the Luanda process does not include the M23 in its dynamics," he said, adding that Nairobi was the second mechanism offering the M23 a political way out.

Angola's president hailed as 'champion of peace'

Although some are sceptical on the new agreement, Angolan President Joao Lourenco is being referred to as the 'Champion of Peace' in this conflict.

Soy Komba, an Angolan specialist in international relations, told DW that Angola has been playing the role of mediation in a very intelligent way.

"The conflict between these two countries also affects Angola, because we have a very large territorial border with the DRC," Komba said. "If instability persists, there is also a disadvantage for our country, because refugees from this conflict can also cross the border into Angola."

He emphasized that the potential influx of refugees from the conflict into Angola has been a key motivator for the Angolan president’s active mediation efforts.

Augustin Muhesi, who teaches political science in eastern Congo, is optimistic but cautious about the new truce, which he said was the result of the diplomatic ballet in the region.

"People who have been at loggerheads for a long time won't return to good feelings in a day, but it's already a process that presents analogies but also breaks with what may have happened," Muhesi told DW.

Cease-fires welcomed by the West

Former colonial power Belgium has welcomed the cease-fire agreed between both countries but urged all sides to stick to the deal. 

In a statement, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib thanked "Angola for its crucial role, and encouraged the parties to uphold their commitments."

"This step is essential to ease the suffering of the population and lead to a resolution of the conflict in Eastern DRC," he added.

France, the European Union, and the United States hailed the signing of the latest agreement on Wednesday.

"We hope this agreement will help create the conditions for de-escalation of tensions between the DRC and Rwanda and enable the safe return of those internally displaced to their homes," said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Eastern Congo has been racked by fighting for 30 years, involving both local and foreign-based armed groups, tracing back to the regional wars of the 1990s.

[zvaigzdelasas]

As the three countries boost their military ties, one question Yoon is facing is whether South Korea could be implicated in a potential conflict between China and Taiwan. On Monday, Yoon gave a briefing where, without naming a country, he said the three leaders had agreed to "support the maritime security of countries in the Indo-Pacific region to ensure freedom of navigation and trade."  Critics of Yoon are now saying that the agreement worsens national security by raising the risk that Seoul could get pulled into a war over Taiwan, while also jeopardizing ties with China, South Korea's largest trading partner. The left-wing Kyunghyang newspaper wrote an editorial decrying the agreement, saying that it could pull South Korea into matters in which it is otherwise uninvolved. "In the event of a conflict or crisis in America's broad area of influence in the Indo-Pacific region, there is a high possibility of the U.S. demanding a joint response under the trilateral agreement with South Korea and Japan," the editorial said.

To implement this agreement, the role of the Korean military would have to be expanded in the mid- to long-term from its current focus on countering the [DPRK] to responding to various threats in the Indo-Pacific region. To enable not only “consultation” about these threats but also joint action down the road, the three countries also agreed to “hold annual, named, multi-domain trilateral exercises on a regular basis.”

Two changes are expected in the short term. First, Japan would have more input in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula. Japan’s role in such a scenario would be to provide rear support (including logistics support) for US reinforcements dispatched to defend the Korean Peninsula under Japan’s Act on Measures to Ensure the Peace and Security of Japan in Perilous Situations in Areas Surrounding Japan of 1999 (renamed the Law Concerning Measures to Ensure Peace and Security of Japan in Situations that Will Have an Important Influence on Japan's Peace and Security in 2016). In that eventuality, any military communication between South Korea and the US would have had to go through the US.

But the consultation to which the three countries have now agreed makes it possible for Japan to directly make various demands of Korea. Japan could ask Korea to allow the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) to enter Korean territory to rescue Japanese citizens. It could also remain in close communication while using its enemy base strike capability (also called “counterstrike capability”) to launch direct attacks on North Korea. Furthermore, the US and Japan could ask Korea to allow rear support units in the JSDF to operate in Korean sovereign territory, rather than only in open waters in the East Sea (known to Japan as the Sea of Japan), to enable smoother missions. [...]

While the US is not treaty-bound to defend Taiwan, US President Joe Biden has said on four separate occasions since his inauguration in January 2021 that he would defend against an invasion by mainland China. That’s because allowing China to overrun Taiwan unmolested would spell the end of American hegemony in the Western Pacific, a hegemony the US has maintained since the end of World War II, more than seven decades ago.

There’s also a growing sense inside Japan that a war against Taiwan should be regarded as a war against Japan and that the JSDF should respond aggressively. The late Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan, said as much in several interviews with the press. And current Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida raised eyebrows when he said in the House of Representatives in April that if the US asked Japan to deploy the JSDF to defend Taiwan, Japan would “make a decision based on the specific and individual [situation] in accordance with the Constitution, international law and domestic law.”

Various war simulations run by leading American think tanks have concluded that the US-Japan alliance would be able to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, if barely, on the assumption that both the US and Japan were fully committed to the war. Given these considerations, Japan has revised three documents related to national security last December and decided to increase its defense budget to 2% of gross domestic product within five years.

If a war were to break out in Taiwan under these grim circumstances, it goes without saying that the US and Japan would use the consultation framework to request a “measured response” from Korea. Along with announcing the redeployment of US Forces Korea, the US could pressure Korea to join Japan in making a direct “military contribution” to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

While Korea would not be obligated under treaty to comply with any such requests, its refusal would surely cause serious harm to its alliance relationship with the US.

Japanese newspaper the Asahi Shimbun reported Monday that Korean government officials are whispering about this amounting to Korea “crossing the Rubicon” in its relationship with China.

22 Aug 23

[lgcbin]

⸻ 𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐘𝐔𝐍𝐁𝐈𝐍 ( 𝟫𝟪𝟣𝟤𝟤𝟧 )

hi, i'm bear, the mun behind son hyunbin (bin). here you can find his profile and bio, and beneath the cut are some shorter facts about him that might come in useful for plotting. you can also find me brain-dumping about him on twt @buttercupful. i also have discord so if you'd prefer to plot there just ask!

[ tw: death, car accidents, ptsd ]

⸺ HISTORY

hyunbin was born and raised in jongno-gu, seoul on christmas day 1998, to a general practitioner and a middle school teacher

he's the eldest of three children—he had two younger sisters, however the elder of the two is deceased

hyunbin had a very standard childhood, did relatively well in school, and was very active and sociable. he always had an interest in movies and tv shows, but never thought about pursuing it acting

due to wanting a bit more freedom and to 'get it out of the way', he learnt to drive early and got his license as soon as he turned 18, however only about 2 months later he was in a terrible accident (deemed entirely not his fault) that resulted in his little sister's death. despite it being the other drivers fault, hyunbin blamed himself

he suffered terrible guilt and ptsd centered around cars, busy roads, loud noises, and hospitals that he still struggles with to this day, and to try and 'escape' his grief he joined the military after a pretty rough first semester at college studying PPEL (philosophy, politics, economics & law) at hangyang university

during his military enlistment he mostly blocked out his grief and focused hard on performing well in his time there, but was left feeling lost, as well as emotionally and mentally vulnerable after his discharge

he returned to university and started seeing a grief counselor, and got a part-time job at a bakery

due to feeling extremely lost and unsure, and upon a random comment from a friend who said he could be an idol because 'he's handsome', he auditioned for legacy ent. on a whim in january of 2021—to his great surprise, he got in

in the years since he's graduated from university, continued working at the bakery, and developed a strong interest in acting and modelling, having figured out he's perhaps not cut out for the dancing part of being an idol

⸺ PERSONALITY

hyunbin's a man heavily 'turned inwards'. his inner world is complex, and is a place he often escapes to to calm himself, or focus his mind

he's often been called an 'old-soul', and was praised as being 'mature for his age' when he was a child

he can come off initially as somewhat of a mystery—while not shy, nor particularly quiet, he tends to be more private about what he shares, and has a way with getting people to open up to him, without giving much of himself back

hyunbin's the type of person to chip away at problems stubbornly for as long as it takes to work through them—he's a stranger to giving up

it can sometimes feel as though bin's unknowable, yet warm and inviting at the same time

he can be a bit of a perfectionist, and in turn that leads to him being hard on himself, which is compounded by the guilt h still feels over the accident when he was 18

hyunbin tends to gravitate towards men as friends, and has always been a bit of a 'mans man', due to his 'masculine' interests, but isn't outright against making friends with women, especially as he was very close to his sisters growing up

hyunbin enjoys sports, and keeping active, although his job at the bakery and regular gym sessions keeps him physically fitter than most other me his age, especially in his upper body (thanks to carrying sacks of flour) and he uses exercise to work through issues he still has from the accident

[willowthornhollyhawk]

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Not sure where to start with Kanopy? Once you have your library card, here are some documentaries from my own watch list to get you started! (Tip: If a title is not available, request it through your library.)

Born in Gaza (2014) - filmed during the 2014 siege of Gaza, which left 507 children dead and 3,598 wounded, born in Gaza follows a group of young children growing up in a war zone.

Where Should the Birds Fly? (2013) - tells the stories of two remarkable young women living in Gaza and the struggle of Gazans trying to maintain their humanity and humour while hoping to find some sense of normality in a world that is anything but normal

Last Stop: Palestine (2013) - an in-depth and eye-opening investigation into life in the West Bank

The First 54 Years (2021) - Director Avi Mograbi hosts the viewers in his living room and provides insights to how a colonialist occupation works

Tears of Gaza (2010) - a record presented with minimal gloss of the 2008 to 2009 bombing of Gaza by the Israeli military.

Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land (2003) - provides a striking comparison of US and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in US coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of America political elites - oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others - work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.