Sepia

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53495170

No matter what a retailer says about its climate goals, its main goal is to make you buy more clothes.

...

[Fashion brand Everlane] has signaled its commitment to the planet ... throughout the years, including its focus on using certified organic cotton and attempting to eliminate virgin plastic from its supply chain. Additionally, the company has taken the public inside its factories, publishing glossy-looking photos from its facilities in Vietnam, China, Italy, and other countries and tracking which ones use renewable energy and pay living wages.

For these and other reasons, the company mystified consumers last week, when it was sold to the e-commerce giant Shein, which ranked as the biggest polluter in fast fashion last year. Shein offers clothing, jewelry, home goods, and accessories, all for sometimes shockingly cheap prices — the true cost of which is its carbon-intensive supply chain.

...

Fashion magazines balked, asking if Everlane’s acquisition spells the end of the fashion industry’s sustainability aspirations writ large. But the sale of Everlane to this particular buyer should turn the inquiry around: Of what use are sustainability goals in the face of hyper-consumerism? Put another way: Was it ever the case that simply buying (more) different things would ever yield a more livable planet?

...

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53496010

Point 16 in the joint statement:

[Australian and UK] ministers ... expressed their concern about the role of China's economic support in allowing Russia's illegal war to continue. They called on China to prevent its companies from supplying dual-use components that sustain Russia's defence industrial base.

Ministers urged China to cease support to Russia's war effort and, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, with a particular responsibility to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, to use its substantial influence with Moscow to help bring an end to the war.

...

Dual-use items, including electronic components or satellite imagery, do not meet the threshold for lethal weapons but are still supplies that assist Russia in bolstering its industrial base.

In a subsequent press conference, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the talks emphasised both Australia and the UK’s “unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unjustified invasion”.

“We will stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to do so for as long as it is attacked,” she said.

...

The Australian and UK Ministers noted the increasing scale and severity of hostile activity by states, their proxies and non-state actors. This includes cyber activities undertaken by China-based information security companies, and recent attempts by Russia to interfere in democratic elections through its proxy organisations, the Social Design Agency and ANO Dialog. 

...

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53495327

The commander of the 5th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (formerly the Oplot Battalion), Colonel Ramil Faskhutdinov, has been named a Hero of Russia, the Defense Ministry announced.

...

The specific actions for which Faskhutdinov received the award were not disclosed. In late 2025, the colonel personally briefed President Vladimir Putin on the capture of Myrnograd in the Donetsk region.

iStories describes Faskhutdinov as “one of the main ‘zeroers’” in the Russian army. The outlet also said relatives of soldiers from his brigade said he personally sent wounded troops on crutches into assault units to dispose of them. Separately, some servicemen reportedly said Faskhutdinov had ordered them to execute fellow soldiers.

Astra, a Russian independent news outlet, has reported that the 5th brigade runs a torture camp for its own troops on the grounds of an abandoned mine in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Astra also reported that commanders extort money from the troops sent there and then dispatch them on “human‑wave assaults.”

...

Web Archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53496010

Point 16 in the joint statement:

[Australian and UK] ministers ... expressed their concern about the role of China's economic support in allowing Russia's illegal war to continue. They called on China to prevent its companies from supplying dual-use components that sustain Russia's defence industrial base.

Ministers urged China to cease support to Russia's war effort and, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, with a particular responsibility to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, to use its substantial influence with Moscow to help bring an end to the war.

...

Dual-use items, including electronic components or satellite imagery, do not meet the threshold for lethal weapons but are still supplies that assist Russia in bolstering its industrial base.

In a subsequent press conference, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the talks emphasised both Australia and the UK’s “unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unjustified invasion”.

“We will stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to do so for as long as it is attacked,” she said.

...

The Australian and UK Ministers noted the increasing scale and severity of hostile activity by states, their proxies and non-state actors. This includes cyber activities undertaken by China-based information security companies, and recent attempts by Russia to interfere in democratic elections through its proxy organisations, the Social Design Agency and ANO Dialog. 

...

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53496010

Point 16 in the joint statement:

[Australian and UK] ministers ... expressed their concern about the role of China's economic support in allowing Russia's illegal war to continue. They called on China to prevent its companies from supplying dual-use components that sustain Russia's defence industrial base.

Ministers urged China to cease support to Russia's war effort and, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, with a particular responsibility to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, to use its substantial influence with Moscow to help bring an end to the war.

...

Dual-use items, including electronic components or satellite imagery, do not meet the threshold for lethal weapons but are still supplies that assist Russia in bolstering its industrial base.

In a subsequent press conference, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the talks emphasised both Australia and the UK’s “unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unjustified invasion”.

“We will stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to do so for as long as it is attacked,” she said.

...

The Australian and UK Ministers noted the increasing scale and severity of hostile activity by states, their proxies and non-state actors. This includes cyber activities undertaken by China-based information security companies, and recent attempts by Russia to interfere in democratic elections through its proxy organisations, the Social Design Agency and ANO Dialog. 

...

Point 16 in the joint statement:

[Australian and UK] ministers ... expressed their concern about the role of China's economic support in allowing Russia's illegal war to continue. They called on China to prevent its companies from supplying dual-use components that sustain Russia's defence industrial base.

Ministers urged China to cease support to Russia's war effort and, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, with a particular responsibility to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, to use its substantial influence with Moscow to help bring an end to the war.

...

Dual-use items, including electronic components or satellite imagery, do not meet the threshold for lethal weapons but are still supplies that assist Russia in bolstering its industrial base.

In a subsequent press conference, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the talks emphasised both Australia and the UK’s “unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unjustified invasion”.

“We will stand with Ukraine, and we will continue to do so for as long as it is attacked,” she said.

...

The Australian and UK Ministers noted the increasing scale and severity of hostile activity by states, their proxies and non-state actors. This includes cyber activities undertaken by China-based information security companies, and recent attempts by Russia to interfere in democratic elections through its proxy organisations, the Social Design Agency and ANO Dialog. 

...

The commander of the 5th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (formerly the Oplot Battalion), Colonel Ramil Faskhutdinov, has been named a Hero of Russia, the Defense Ministry announced.

...

The specific actions for which Faskhutdinov received the award were not disclosed. In late 2025, the colonel personally briefed President Vladimir Putin on the capture of Myrnograd in the Donetsk region.

iStories describes Faskhutdinov as “one of the main ‘zeroers’” in the Russian army. The outlet also said relatives of soldiers from his brigade said he personally sent wounded troops on crutches into assault units to dispose of them. Separately, some servicemen reportedly said Faskhutdinov had ordered them to execute fellow soldiers.

Astra, a Russian independent news outlet, has reported that the 5th brigade runs a torture camp for its own troops on the grounds of an abandoned mine in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Astra also reported that commanders extort money from the troops sent there and then dispatch them on “human‑wave assaults.”

...

Web Archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53494925

German missile maker Diehl Defence is hoping to bring production of Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missile to Germany as the continent races to acquire the ability to hit targets deep inside Russia.

Chief executive Helmut Rauch said that his company was planning talks in the coming weeks with Fire Point, one of Ukraine’s leading weapons manufacturers and the maker of a new FP-5 cruise missile that claims a range of more than 3,000km.

“We are in discussions about how we could work together,” Rauch told journalists at the ILA Berlin Air Show. “I think this could really happen,” he said. “In the next few weeks, we have several meetings regarding this and then we will see.”

...

Diehl, which makes the Iris-T air defence system that has proved vital for Kyiv in fending off Russian missile attacks, in April signed a technology agreement with Fire Point but had not previously disclosed any details.

Rauch said that Diehl could offer Fire Point a much more advanced seeker — the part that detects a target and guides the weapon to it. He also pointed to Diehl’s more sophisticated system design and decades of experience.

...

Moscow’s widespread use of ground-launched missiles in Ukraine — in addition to stationing long-range weapons in the Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad — has spurred European nations to acquire or develop their own similar capabilities in a move they see as essential to deterring Russian aggression.

Speaking on a visit to Kyiv last month, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said the “technological leaps here in Ukraine are remarkable” and that joint ventures were being explored for weapons, including long-range drones, air defences and electronic warfare.

...

Archive link

No matter what a retailer says about its climate goals, its main goal is to make you buy more clothes.

...

[Fashion brand Everlane] has signaled its commitment to the planet ... throughout the years, including its focus on using certified organic cotton and attempting to eliminate virgin plastic from its supply chain. Additionally, the company has taken the public inside its factories, publishing glossy-looking photos from its facilities in Vietnam, China, Italy, and other countries and tracking which ones use renewable energy and pay living wages.

For these and other reasons, the company mystified consumers last week, when it was sold to the e-commerce giant Shein, which ranked as the biggest polluter in fast fashion last year. Shein offers clothing, jewelry, home goods, and accessories, all for sometimes shockingly cheap prices — the true cost of which is its carbon-intensive supply chain.

...

Fashion magazines balked, asking if Everlane’s acquisition spells the end of the fashion industry’s sustainability aspirations writ large. But the sale of Everlane to this particular buyer should turn the inquiry around: Of what use are sustainability goals in the face of hyper-consumerism? Put another way: Was it ever the case that simply buying (more) different things would ever yield a more livable planet?

...

German missile maker Diehl Defence is hoping to bring production of Ukraine’s Flamingo cruise missile to Germany as the continent races to acquire the ability to hit targets deep inside Russia.

Chief executive Helmut Rauch said that his company was planning talks in the coming weeks with Fire Point, one of Ukraine’s leading weapons manufacturers and the maker of a new FP-5 cruise missile that claims a range of more than 3,000km.

“We are in discussions about how we could work together,” Rauch told journalists at the ILA Berlin Air Show. “I think this could really happen,” he said. “In the next few weeks, we have several meetings regarding this and then we will see.”

...

Diehl, which makes the Iris-T air defence system that has proved vital for Kyiv in fending off Russian missile attacks, in April signed a technology agreement with Fire Point but had not previously disclosed any details.

Rauch said that Diehl could offer Fire Point a much more advanced seeker — the part that detects a target and guides the weapon to it. He also pointed to Diehl’s more sophisticated system design and decades of experience.

...

Moscow’s widespread use of ground-launched missiles in Ukraine — in addition to stationing long-range weapons in the Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad — has spurred European nations to acquire or develop their own similar capabilities in a move they see as essential to deterring Russian aggression.

Speaking on a visit to Kyiv last month, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said the “technological leaps here in Ukraine are remarkable” and that joint ventures were being explored for weapons, including long-range drones, air defences and electronic warfare.

...

Archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53470152

Dutch customs police at the Port of Rotterdam seized a cargo ship bound for Russia and arrested the captain on charges of evading Western sanctions.

The vessel regularly operated between Rotterdam and St. Petersburg and carried several containers filled with vehicle parts such as doors, air filters and windshields.

A customs officer said that the export of such cargo is banned under European sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

...

Web Archive link

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/53470152

Dutch customs police at the Port of Rotterdam seized a cargo ship bound for Russia and arrested the captain on charges of evading Western sanctions.

The vessel regularly operated between Rotterdam and St. Petersburg and carried several containers filled with vehicle parts such as doors, air filters and windshields.

A customs officer said that the export of such cargo is banned under European sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

...

Web Archive link