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Image is of the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline, which transports gas from Russia to China. This isn't an oil pipeline (such as the ESPO) but I thought it looked cool. Source here.


Trump has recently proposed a 500% tariff on goods from countries that trade with Russia, including India and China (who buy ~70% of Russia's oil output), as well as a 10% additional tariff on goods from countries that "align themselves with BRICS." Considering that China is the largest trading partner of most of the countries on the planet at this point, and India and Brazil are reasonably strong regional players, I'm not sure what exactly "alignment" means, but it could be pretty bad.

Sanctions and tariffs on Russian products have been difficult to achieve in practice. It's easy to write an order to sanction Russia, but much harder to actually enforce these sorts of things because of, for example, the Russian shadow oil fleet, or countries like Kazakhstan acting as covert middlemen (well, as covert as a very sudden oil export boom can be).

Considering that China was pretty soundly victorious last time around, I'm cautiously optimistic, especially because China and India just outright cutting off their supply of energy and fuel would be catastrophic to them (and if Iran and Israel go to war again any time in the near future, it'll only be more disastrous). Barring China and India kowtowing to Trump and copying Europe vis-a-vis Nordstream 2 (which isn't impossible, I suppose), the question is whether China and India will appear to accede to these commands while secretly continuing trade with Russia through middlemen, or if they will be more defiant in the face of American pressure.


Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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Introducing: HexAtlas (hex-atlas.netlify.app)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by hex_atlas@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net
 
 

Hello and warm greetings to my fellow news mega enjoyers and to the wider hexbear, lemmygrad and lemmy.ml community,

I've been finding myself browsing the newsmega often and was often thinking of a way that would help me contextualize the discussions and news that I'm reading. I remembered an atlas I had in school that would show the location of industries and natural ressources (and more) and decided try to recreate a digital version similar to https://atlas.cid.harvard.edu/. When I stumbled upon lemmy-js-client I found a fun way to display lemmy comments geographically, which I would like to share with you:

https://hex-atlas.netlify.app/

⚠️ Spoiler Tags are not implemented thus CWs are not hidden

Nexus Features:

I'm open for suggestions, but would like to continuously add new features:

  • Mastodon.social (well documented)
  • Marxists.org (will be difficult)
  • ~~Moon of Alabama (looks easy)~~ (Thank you @someone@hexbear.net for pointing out the transphobia)
  • Usability and performance improvements
  • and maybe more cool features where the guiding ideas are: "IRL Victoria 3 UI" and a "cockpit for newsmega-enjoyers" (e.g. comparing regions and seeing commodity/capital flows, real-time 1% flight data, vessel data - to enjoy the ansar allah blockade, virgin chad ranking, etc.)

Basic usage:

  • You can either search for a place or click on it. You'll see various scopes: provinces/territories, countries, intermediate regions, sub regions, continent. You can click also on these to change the scope. What it actually does is send it as a search query into lemmy and you see the search results to it (I built a fancy search page). IN the Fediverse Tab you can select the instances, sort types, and other settings from lemmy. On the Nexus Tab you have a similar behaviour, just for the various modules. You'll see the wiki of whatever is selected on the map :

  • use query to search location by query e. g. brics and find discussions pertaining to the selected location.

  • the query field can also be used to find and filter content by communities that are not listed

  • on Mobile long press pictures to unblur it (not fully tested) on desktop hover with mouse

tldr: Attention [Pink]: Select an option [Purple] to reveal selected information [Yellow].

It's in a prototype stage so please keep in mind:

  • ⚠️ Spoiler Tags are not implemented thus CWs are not hidden ⚠️

  • It's mostly optimized for desktops. Sry comrades with old hardware - no optimization, yet :( @kota@hexbear.net post inspired me to look into this tho.

  • Provinces/Territories: While I was doing manual edits to some regions I realized I'm doing something very political (duh). Following this, I'm looking for solutions to implement user defined regions (if there's interest from you) e.g. #fromTheRiverToTheSea #brics #udssr #whatever Comrade @SleeplessOne1917@lemmy.ml offered help, but I have only experience with front-end and am not sure how and what to propose. All my ideas are leveraging the current state of development and might be annoying to you. If you have experience, suggestions, etc. on how to make this work, feel free to start a discussion, reach out, etc.

  • Provinces/Territories: If you want something particularly aggravating changed asap, feel free to start a discussion and vOtE! I'll update manually.

  • Countries that span two continents are only displayed as belonging to one e.g. Russia - Europe (Dataset used: https://github.com/lukes/ISO-3166-Countries-with-Regional-Codes)

  • Right now this project is exclusive to hexbear, lemmygrad, lemmy.ml and their federated instances. I have an inner conflict: Generally, fuck intellectual property and I would like to make it foss, but this would make it available for lib/chud content as well. Should I? Help me resolve this.

  • No login implemented

Please consider this a tribute to this community, which I've been lurking and a member since the r/CTH days (nevar forget). I started web development not too long ago and am deeply inspired by dev titans among others:

@nutomic@lemmy.ml

@dessalines@lemmy.ml

@SleeplessOne1917@lemmy.ml

Thank you and the mods and admins for making hexbear/lemmy what it is today.

rat-salute

Enjoy your weekend :)

(After I post this I will leave the computer for a while and wont be able to really check and respond for a few hours)

Death to fascism

Death to capitalism

Death to imperialism

Trans rights are human rights

EDIT: After some consideration I decided to make the code public under the GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE ( AGPL-3.0 license )

https://github.com/hexatlas/lemmy-atlas/

https://git.altesq.net/hex_atlas/lemmy-atlas/

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We must clearly return to monke now!

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articleBATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) — Italian chocolate maker Ferrero is buying WK Kellogg Co. in a more than $3 billion deal expected to be finalized before the year is out.

Ferrero will buy Kellogg for $23 per share in cash for a total of about $3.1 billion, the companies announced Thursday. The deal has been approved by Kellogg’s board of directors, though it still needs to be approved by shareholders and regulators.

“WK Kellogg Co is a renowned company, in operation for nearly 120 years, and a leader shaping the future of breakfast. Ferrero, which also brings over 75 years of heritage, has long admired WK Kellogg Co’s legacy and is proud to be entrusted with carrying these iconic American brands forward,” a release said.

Headquartered in Battle Creek, WK Kellogg makes cereals like Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops. It became a standalone company in 2023, when Kellogg Company split into two: WK Kellogg, with a focus on cereal, and Kellanova, which includes snack foods and international cereals. CNBC reported that shares of WK Kellogg fell about 2% this year, but they soared following Wednesday’s news of the potential deal.

“We believe this proposed transaction maximizes value for our shareowners and enables WK Kellogg Co to write the next chapter of our company’s storied legacy,” WK Kellogg Co. CEO Gary Pilnick said in a statement. “Since becoming an independent public company in October 2023, we have made excellent progress on our journey to become a more focused and more profitable business – driven by our tremendous people and a winning culture – all while building a strong foundation for future growth. Joining Ferrero will provide WK Kellogg Co with greater resources and more flexibility to grow our iconic brands in this competitive and dynamic market. As a family-owned private company with values in line with our founder W.K. Kellogg, Ferrero provides a great home for our people and has a track record of supporting the communities in which it operates. We look forward to collaborating with their team to deliver on the great promise of cereal, explore opportunities beyond cereal, and help us bring our best to consumers every day.”

Ferrero is the world’s third largest chocolate confectionary company, with products available in more than 170 countries, according to its website. Its brands include Nutella, Butterfinger, Kinder, Blue Bunny and Ferrero Rocher. It previously bought the Keebler and Famos Amos brands from Kellogg in 2019.

When the deal goes through, Ferrero will own all manufacturing, marketing and distribution of Kellogg products in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Ferrero said the purchase is part of its “plan for strategic growth and expands the Company’s reach across more consumption occasions with renowned beloved brands and strong consumer relevance.” The company said it intended to “invest in and grow” big Kellogg brands like Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Frosted Mini Wheats, Special K, Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, Kashi and Bear Naked.

Russell Zwanka, the director of Western Michigan University’s food marketing program, said consumers shouldn’t notice a difference in the cereal aisle. Rather, the shakeup is behind the box, giving the Michigan brand more resources to grow in the crowded field of consumer-packaged goods, or CPG.

“WK Kellogg is a $2.7 billion company and in the CPG world, Nestle is over $120 billion, PepsiCo is $80 billion, so you need scale to survive in this industry,” Zwanka said.

EMPLOYEES ENCOURAGED BY DEAL DETAILS

The pending sale was a surprise for employees.

“It was pretty hush-hush,” said Trevor Bidelman, union vice president and business agent for Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union Local 3G and a fourth-generation Kellogg worker.

But its details are promising, Bidelman said. He said a broadcasted town hall Thursday morning offered some insight into how workers will be affected: They were told their current contract will be honored without changes for salaried workers for at least a year after the deal closes.

“To me, this is showing that Ferraro is kind of an employee-oriented company, family-oriented company that’s actually going to care about the employees and that’s always very huge,” Bidelman said.

There was also discussion of investing in Kellogg and its facilities, which Bidelman said was necessary.

“When the split took place, you could tell the WK … was going to focus back on being a cereal business — money to be made there, making the decisions more efficiently. So really, with this group coming in, saying that they’re just merely wanting to continue what we’ve already started and that this is not so much an acquisition as it is a partnership, like that is all very good stuff here,” Bidelman said.

In a release, Battle Creek welcomed Ferrero even as it acknowledged it was “too early to predict what this change may mean” for the city.

“W.K. Kellogg Co. has shown a strong commitment to Battle Creek since its formation,” Interim City Manager Ted Dearing said in a statement. “We are hopeful that this commitment will continue under Ferrero’s ownership.”

“We look forward to building a strong, long-term relationship that supports their success and secures their presence in our community for years to come,” Mayor Mark Behnke stated.

Kara Beer, president of the Battle Creek Area Chamber of Commerce, said time will tell how the effects of the deal will ripple across the community. But she also noted Ferrero and Kellogg share the same family values that have built a lasting relationship with Battle Creek.

“We’re on a good, good streak of great things happening here in Battle Creek and I think that this once we figure out more details of what this actually means, that is going to make this community even stronger,” Beer said.

But should the Battle Creek plant close, economic expert Brian Long said it will be “not as big of a deal as when they’ve lost other companies.”

“The number of people that are going to work in this industry is obviously declining,” said Long, the director of supply chain management at the Grand Valley State University Seidman College of Business. “That makes a big difference over the long term.”

“They’re making dry cereal,” he said. “Well, if you look at the lines at McDonald’s in the morning or any other fast food place, you realize that dry cereal is on the decline.”

He added that while the company had expanded with products like Pop Tarts, those brands all left with Kellanova.

“They spun off the good stuff … and left themselves just with the cereal business,” he said. “They probably knew (that) was probably going to close at some point in time, if they couldn’t find a buyer. Fortunately, they did find a buyer.”


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trump-feed policies (tariffs and sanctions) killed an icon. That and "stuggling" starting at 400k housing market. Absolute ass tons of overpiced mcmansion going up all over the area.

Most of Zeeland, MI voted for Trump. It is notoriously conservative.

Article

ZEELAND, Mich. (WOOD) — Zeeland-based clock manufacturer Howard Miller says it intends to wind down operations after nearly 100 years in business.

“It’s sad. From the standpoint of Howard Miller, certainly, it’s iconic for the city of Zeeland,” Zeeland City Manager Tim Klunder said. “Just overall, it’s a sad day in the community.”

The company, which has about 195 employees at plants in Zeeland, Traverse City and North Carolina, plans to continue production into the fourth quarter of the year and remain open into 2026 to sell its inventory, it announced Thursday in a release.

President and CEO Howard J. Miller, who is the grandson of the company’s founder, said it had become “unsustainable” to go on.

“A convergence of market influences beyond our control brought us to this point,” he said in a statement.

He cited a struggling housing market, noting the market’s close ties to furniture sales, and tariffs.

“Our business has been directly impacted by tariffs that have increased the cost of essential components unavailable domestically and driven specialty suppliers out of business, making it unsustainable for us to continue our operations,” he said.

Howard Miller looked for a buyer but could not find one, according to the company. It “would still entertain offers from an interested buyer,” the release said.

“We are incredibly disappointed to have reached this point in our journey,” the president and CEO said. “For nearly a century, we have manufactured clocks, custom cabinets and other furniture designed to enhance the lives of our customers at home.”

Howard Miller employees will receive a severance package and job placement support, according to the release. Hekman Furniture Co., which is owned by Howard Miller, will also be closing, the company said.

“We are deeply grateful to our talented team, our committed distributors and our loyal customers who have supported us throughout the years,” Miller said.

The business was founded in 1926 by Howard C. Miller, the son of another big name in West Michigan furniture, Herman Miller.

“Until about the 1960s, they primarily made mantel clocks and wall clocks. And then in the 1960s, they shifted to become more grandfather clocks and that became a major product for them,” Zeeland Historical Society Director Katelyn VerMerris said. “(The historical society’s) No. 1 research request is to identify clocks that were made in Zeeland because we have so many heirloom clocks that were passed down all over the country

While it also makes curio cabinets and some other furnishings, clocks have been Howard Miller’s staple product. The company was the last of four major clock manufacturers that once called the city home.

“Clockmaking has a massive impact on Zeeland’s economic development, on its culture, on its industry,” VerMerris told News 8. “Clocks were one of the major exports from Zeeland for most of the 20th century.”

She explained the city was well-positioned to host Howard Miller, with plenty of timber in the area, close proximity to “Furniture City” Grand Rapids and an immigrant population with experience in making furniture. She also noted that Howard Miller’s philanthropy has supported city projects including three clocks downtown and the Howard Miller Community Center.

But, she said, the clock industry has been in decline in the city.

“I think it will be a little bit of a loss for culture,” she said of the company’s closure.


Bonus - their newly (2021) merged partner company Knoll is consolidating aka further job losses.

Article

NORTON SHORES, Mich. (WOOD) — MillerKnoll is closing its Muskegon-area facility.

Most of the jobs and product lines at the facility on Estes Street south of W. Sherman Boulevard in Norton Shores will be relocated to two facilities in the Spring Lake area, a spokesperson for the furniture company told News 8 in an email Thursday.

The closure will happen in phases over the next two years, starting this summer.

“As a longstanding employer in West Michigan, MillerKnoll is committed to supporting its employees in the lakeshore community throughout this transition and will provide support and resources to all affected employees,” the spokesperson wrote.

Around 250 people work at the plant, the spokesperson said, and “the majority” of the jobs will be moved to Spring Lake. The spokesperson did not say exactly how many employees will have the option to move their job to Spring Lake.

Longtime Norton Shores resident Mike Naruskiewicz said the announcement is disappointing. He knows firsthand how much the furniture industry means to the area. He spent more than two decades working for companies like Meridian and Herman Miller.

“It’s pretty sad that they consolidate,” Naruskiewicz said. “I think they should just stay where they’re at and do the best they can.”

Naruskiewicz worries the decision to close the Norton Shores plant could have effects beyond the company itself.

“It could put a lot of guys out of work, consolidating like that, so I just don’t think it’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s too bad it puts a lot of people out of work.”

City officials say they’re paying close attention to what the closure will mean for local families and the broader economy. Norton Shores City Administrator Anthony Chandler said in a statement that the city was informed of MillerKnoll’s decision on Tuesday and is now working with local and state economic development agencies to figure out how this will effect the Greater Muskegon Area.

“The plant has been a long-standing employer and contributor to our local economy,” Chandler wrote. “We are working closely with local economic development agencies, including Greater Muskegon Economic Development and Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to assess the full scope of the impact.”

The company currently has around 4,000 employees in Michigan.

MillerKnoll was formed in 2021 when companies Herman Miller and Knoll combined.


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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/32974288

More than 20 countries are convening in Bogota next week to declare “concrete measures against Israel’s violations of international law”, diplomats told Middle East Eye.

The “emergency summit” is due to be held on 15-16 July, co-hosted by the governments of Colombia and South Africa as co-chairs of The Hague Group, to coordinate diplomatic and legal action to counter what they describe as “a climate of impunity” enabled by Israel and its powerful allies.

The founding members of the group included Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa.

States due to take part in the summit include Algeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Honduras, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Portugal, Spain, Qatar, Turkey, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay, and Palestine.

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jokerfication

We live in hell. Death to the west

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While everyone was focused on the BBB and its implications for student loans they just go ahead and do this.

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