Huge thanks to this month’s anonymous sponsor, who wishes me to lead with this droll quote from Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites: “(He) had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.”
“Trump threatens to escalate trade war amid confusion over new tariff rates.
“`Donald Trump vowed to further escalate his trade wars on Tuesday, threatening US tariffs of up to 200% on foreign drugs and 50% on copper, amid widespread confusion around his shifting plans.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/08/trump-tariffs-trade-war-confusion
“China’s weaponisation of rare earths is a new kind of trade war…
“China’s leaders could swallow the political cost of tariffs. But Washington couldn’t ignore the loss of rare earth materials and its impact on auto companies.”
https://www.ft.com/content/77eabb2b-e422-4863-86e1-1a6948ecf368
“China criticises manufacturers over price war as deflation fears mount.
“China has strongly criticised companies and local governments for fuelling overproduction that it blames for driving down prices, as inflation figures this week are expected to show that one of the country’s longest bouts of factory price deflation is running unchecked.”
https://www.ft.com/content/32600025-780e-40b9-a693-dce154ee3338
“China imposes export ban on companies tied to Taiwan’s military…
“China’s Commerce Ministry added eight Taiwan-based firms including aerospace and shipbuilding companies, to an export control list, citing both national and regional security concerns.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/taiwan-china-taipei-beijing-united-states-b2785300.html
“Taiwan Holds Most Expansive Annual Drills Ever to Counter China…
“The Han Kuang exercises starting Wednesday will last 10 days, double the usual number for the drills that date to 1984, and more than 20,000 reservists are being called up — the most ever.”
“Canadian police seize largest ever weapons cache in terrorism inquiry.
“Police in Canada have arrested and charged four people, including active military members, who they allege were “planning to create anti-government militia” and to “forcibly take possession of land” in the province of Quebec.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/08/canada-quebec-rcmp-terrorism-arrests
“Poverty and inequality in France reach highest levels in 30 years.
“France’s poverty rate reached 15.4% in 2023, its highest level since records began in 1996, according to data from the national statistics institute. The gap between the wealthiest and poorest 20% has widened, approaching levels last seen in the early 1970s.”
“Children in England ‘living in almost Dickensian levels of poverty’…
“Young people said they had experienced not having enough water to shower, rats biting through their walls, and mouldy bedrooms, among a number of examples in a report on the “crisis of hardship” gripping the country.”
“Second World War-style restaurants to help feed underprivileged families…
“A taxpayer-funded project will launch a restaurant in Nottingham and another in Dundee offering cheap and nutritious meals to people in disadvantaged areas. The two not-for-profit sites will resemble the British and civic kitchens of the 1940s…”
“UK public finances on ‘unsustainable’ path amid growing climate, debt and pension costs…
“The watchdog says efforts to restore the public finances in the wake of a series of big economic shocks – including the Covid pandemic and the energy crisis – have “met with only limited and temporary success in recent years”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/08/uk-public-finances-obr-national-debt-gdp
“Men acting for Wagner Group convicted of arson on Ukraine-linked London warehouse.
“A group of men have been convicted for their roles in an arson attack ordered by the Wagner Group on an east London warehouse linked to Ukraine, in the first case to result in convictions of Britons acting for the banned Russian terrorist group.”
“Gas tanker leaks ammonia after suspected anti-Russia sabotage.
“Russian authorities are investigating a sixth suspected explosion this year on a tanker serving a Russian port after an ammonia leak linked to an apparent explosion on a gas tanker at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga on Sunday.”
https://www.ft.com/content/b7e78820-0ba7-4dc8-b039-5bb0a9cb9122
“Europe’s biggest port readies for potential war with Russia…
“Rotterdam’s measures are part of a wave of war preparations across the continent. The EU is drawing up a rearmament plan of up to €800bn as it tries to become more self-sufficient in defence…”
https://www.ft.com/content/0c42af06-2139-4848-a980-b90494794c98
“Russia ready for war beyond Ukraine, says Danish prime minister…
“Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she is among the European leaders who believe that Russia is prepared to continue the war not only in Ukraine but also in other parts of Europe.”
“Norway to sanction two Russian fishing companies over espionage allegations…
“”As a basis for the listings, the EU refers to the fact that the two fishing companies Norebo and Murman Seafood are part of a Russian state-sponsored surveillance campaign and intelligence activities aimed at critical underwater infrastructure in Norwegian and allied sea areas.””
“Farmers turned soldiers, fields full of mines and a rural exodus: how Russia is punishing Ukraine’s countryside…
“On the steppes beyond Sumy, a rural way of life is under threat from the complex set of challenges that war has brought. A quarter of the country’s farmland is under Russian occupation. Fields are contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/08/russia-war-ukraine-rural-agriculture-ukrainian-culture
“Trump sharply criticizes Putin, announces weapons will go to Ukraine…
““I’m not happy with Putin, I can tell you that much right now, because he’s killing a lot of people,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting. “We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin. You want to know the truth? He is very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.””
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/07/trump-ukraine-weapons-shipments/
“Turkey to probe opposition leader for insulting Recep Tayyip Erdoğan…
“The probe, which could result in the Republican People’s party (CHP) chair Özgür Özel being stripped of his parliamentary immunity, follows the arrest in March of star opposition politician Ekrem İmamoğlu, which led to mass protests, investor panic and capital flight.”
https://www.ft.com/content/0135418a-e90e-4b22-9c8f-cbdba9c20628
“Israeli strike kills at least three people in northern Lebanon…
“The strike near Lebanon’s northernmost major city – more than 180km (110 miles) from the Israeli border – highlights Israel’s willingness to launch assaults across the country, not just in the south.”
“Israeli defence minister plans to move Gaza’s population to camp in Rafah.
“Israel Katz told journalists on Monday he wanted to establish a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of the city of Rafah to initially house about 600,000 Palestinians – and eventually the whole 2.1 million population… One Israeli human rights lawyer condemned it as nothing less than an “operational plan for a crime against humanity”.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo
“Red Sea ship insurance prices jump as Houthis resume attacks.
“The cost of insuring vessels passing through the Red Sea has surged since Houthi militants resumed attacks on commercial vessels, threatening to disrupt global trade, according to the world’s largest insurance broker.”
https://www.ft.com/content/503b9f75-f3a0-40b1-bc64-a9f2ffd7376f
“Rising tensions in the Horn of Africa.
“Tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea have intensified this year, fueled by regional disputes and instability in the Tigray region. These developments raise concerns about the possible resurgence of conflict in the strategic Horn of Africa and in Tigray, an area rich in gold…”
https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/rising-tensions-horn-of-africa/
“At Least 11 Civilians Killed in Alleged Ethiopian Army Raid in Amhara’s Gedebye.
“At least 11 civilians were reportedly killed and five others critically wounded in a military operation allegedly carried out by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) on Sunday afternoon in the town of Gedebye, located in the Gondar area of Ethiopia’s Amhara region.”
“Khartoum: Destroyed buildings, cars covered in ash tell horrors of war in Sudan capital…
“Al-Araby Al-Jadeed also noted that the capital is overflowing with makeshift burial grounds as Khartoum’s cemeteries became full due the number of those killed by the brutal war, which began in April 2023.”
https://www.newarab.com/news/khartoum-extensive-destruction-tells-horror-war-sudan
“31 dead and hundreds arrested in Kenya’s anti-government protests…
“The East African country has been hit by a wave of bloody protests that began last year over an unpopular finance bill that raised taxes amid a cost-of-living crisis… Some 107 civilians were injured and 532 were arrested, the KNCHR said Tuesday.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/07/africa/kenya-police-prodemocracy-protests-intl
“Sahel militants turn civilian drones into deadly weapons.
“Terror groups are increasingly using new tactics, notably armed suicide or kamikaze drones, according to a government statement released following several attacks on cities in western Mali on 1 July.”
“Four reasons why many of us feel the global economy is not on our side.
“During my adult life, I have never experienced what it’s like to live in a “good” economy. Starting with the global financial crash in 2008, which hit just as I began studying economics, the world seems to have lurched from crisis to crisis….”
I rely on donations and tips from my readers to to keep the site running. Every little bit helps. Can you chip in even a dollar? Buy me a coffee or become a Patreon supporter. A huge thank you to those who do subscribe or donate.
You can read the previous “Economic” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with a “Climate” thread.
“Norway to sanction two Russian fishing companies over espionage allegations…
Bozhe
moi
Beat you to it Cassandra! xD
You did! ❤️
oh meu Deus
Well, now. C&E comments section is turning into a veritable tower of Babel. 😎
That poverty in UK and France..
The human race is trash.
We’ve outgrown our use.
Doom Wizard, I’m afraid worsening wealth inequality is baked into the limits to growth cake.
That process really got underway after the 2008 global financial crisis. Sustained low interest rates and QE may have saved the financial system but the resulting asset inflation favoured the already haves over the have nots.
Hello Pan
You could see it coming: chaos in Africa is complete… the organization of the new drone asymmetry, which makes everything and everyone a target for a few bucks. And they’re coming in swarms… unstoppable. A few thoughts
1. The Doctrine of Flying Power – Swarm violence in the post-state world order
In the border region between Niger and Mali, you can’t dig an oil pipeline less than a kilometer into the ground without a drone appearing above your head. The dream of infrastructure, development, and connectivity is melting away there under the buzzing of commercial drones converted into kamikaze weapons. What once symbolized progress—pipelines, roads, transmission towers—is now an attractive target for what you might call a new class of combatants: the swarm.
The images are everywhere: small quadcopters, often bought in local shops for agricultural purposes, take off from improvised launch sites. They no longer carry cameras, but handmade explosive charges. Their targets: military posts, checkpoints, convoys. Or, increasingly, strategic infrastructure. The tactic is simple, effective, and terrifying. Not only because they cause deaths, but because they undermine the concept of control. Those who have nothing can hit anything.
2. The drone is no longer a weapon, but a doctrine. And that doctrine is spreading like a virus: from Mali to Burkina Faso, from the desert to the savannah. In 2023, attack drones were used for the first time against militias, and in 2024 against Wagner units in northern Mali. In 2025, it will spread to entire regions where the state is physically present but mentally already gone.
What distinguishes this doctrine is its swarm logic. There is no command structure, no front line, no strategic end goal. Only an endless series of micro-attacks intended to slowly but surely undermine the system. The fighters – young people with no future, veterans of previous conflicts, jihadists with a USB stick full of instructional videos – have no tanks, no flag, no country. But they have reach. And battery life.
That’s how it works in the Sahel and other African “chaos” areas. There is no longer any buffer between technology and chaos. The drones of the government armies – Turkish Bayraktars, often with foreign guidance – try to secure the area. But at the same time, they form the template for the rebel groups. The swarm learns quickly.
3. The effect is systemic. Large infrastructure projects – oil pipelines, electricity pylons, roads – are more vulnerable than ever. You don’t have to blow them up, you just have to create the feeling that you could. That’s enough to scare off investors, cause staff to leave, or put a project on hold.
Multinationals are pulling out. Not out of moral considerations, but because their security costs are rising exponentially. Even Chinese BRI projects, long seen as immune to instability, are bogged down in West Africa. The oil route from Niger to Benin has been repeatedly targeted. Not by tanks, but by drones the size of pizza boxes.
The doctrine of flying power is one of radical effectiveness. Power is no longer who you are, but what you can hit. Not how big you are, but how small you remain. Not how long you hold out, but how quickly you strike and disappear. It is a shift from territory to reach, from symbolism to damage, from strategy to viral threat.
4. For the Sahel, this means the end of the military convention. And perhaps also the end of development thinking in its classical form. What remains is a landscape where control will never again be taken for granted. Where every project is temporary. And every silence is suspicious.
This is not a revolution. This is disintegration as a tactic. No demands, no negotiations, no manifesto. Just proof that every dream of order can be destroyed—with four propellers and a GoPro.
“ The fighters … have no tanks, no flag, no country. But they have reach. And battery life.”
“… every dream of order can be destroyed — with four propellers and a GoPro.”
Your roundups of the roundups could be a publication of its own. Pointed, poetic, realistic. Well said and well done.
Seconded. That was a very interesting and beautifully crafted mini-essay, Zip.
What a dystopian world we are lurching into.
Oh, boy! I wonder what’s going on in the world today…
*I see what’s going on in the world…*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NmdbWbIQ3E&t=1
“Arrrrhuaaaargh!” says our soldier.
#relatable
Recall a teacher of mine observing that staunch anti Communist Richard Nixon was the only President that could get away with visiting Red China and opening the door to relations with Chairman Mao.
Trade was even on the topic of conversation…
Imagine that?
Ironical
Those were the days of EARTH FIRST!
RIP Judy Bari
https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/barifemef.html
Wow! Thanks for sharing that, VPK. I can’t say I remember that movement. Not as much easily accessible news back in that time. Brave woman and her sister and brother Earth Firsters trying to stop some of the egregious damage humans were inflicting on our ecosystem.
“As Redwood Summer approached, I began to receive a series of increasingly frightening written death threats, obviously written in the interest of Big Timber. The most frightening of these was a photo of me playing music at a demonstration, with a rifle scope and cross-hairs superimposed on my face and a yellow ribbon (the timber industry’s symbol) attached. When I asked the local police for help they said: “We don’t have the manpower to investigate. If you turn up dead, then we’ll investigate.” When I complained to the county Board of Supervisors they replied, “You brought it on yourself, Judi.” Finally, on May 24. 1990, as I was driving through Oakland on a concert tour to promote Redwood Summer, a bomb exploded under my car seat. I remember my thoughts as it ripped through me. I thought ‘This is what men do to each other in wars.”
The bomb was meant to kill me, and it nearly did. It shattered my pelvis and left me crippled for life. My organizing companion, Darryl Cherney, who was riding with me in the car, was also injured, although not as seriously. Then, adding to the outrage, police and FBI moved in within minutes and arrested me and Darryl, saying that it was our bomb and we were knowingly carrying it. For eight weeks, they slandered us in the press, attempting to portray us as violent and discredit Redwood Summer, until they were finally forced to drop the charges for lack of evidence. But to this day, no serious investigation of the bombing has been conducted, and the bomber remains at large.”
Thanks, Cassandra, for the follow up. Like Martin posted the fossil fuel corporate tyranny is too powerful. Judi explained to those employed in the forest they are here flea b cutting themselves out of jobs. Which is exactly what happened.
Simply moved the on to other places to clear cut, still to this day
With climate change the forest itself will die and do the corporate beast.
PS so long ago very few recall EARTH FIRST! Oh well. Time moves on
Using social media to promote an anti government militia is really throwing OpSec out the window.
Survivalist, my initial impression is that these individuals are not over-furnished in the brain department.
Let’s say that they had been more discreet and actually got as far as seizing a chunk of Quebec with their fearsome cache of weapons – what then? The Canadian government isn’t just going to stand idly by… The story reminded me of last year’s thwarted coup in Germany, where the scope of the plotters’ ambition also significantly outweighed their operational competence:
“Among those on trial in Munich are Hildegard Leiding, 60, a member of the rightwing AfD party and an astrologer, who was allegedly destined to become the group’s “trans-communications minister”.
“Together with a welder from the Bavarian rocker scene, Leiding was said to have used “spiritual criteria” to pick out appropriate candidates for the future government, including a celebrity cook from Austria…”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/18/trial-begins-of-eight-accused-of-plotting-to-overthrow-german-state
Shits a mess yo,
Gonna start an illegal militia,
Smash that Like Button.
The US. military “protects”us by developing systems, usually in secret, that are magnitudes more threatening to our own security than anything any adversary has ever devised. A military that has metastasized into the foundation of the US Capitalist model of military Keynesianism: reduce or merely threaten to halt the expansion of, military spending, and, first the USA’s, then the World’s, economy goes into a tailspin.
Cyber Warfare, identity theft, data-hostages made of entire municipalities, all were non-existent until the US Armed Services wrested billions of tax dollars from the declining wages of its workers to “protect” them by connecting the world of communication to its array of “Smart” weapons commandeered by stupid people.
Now, for the new generation, the US military has once again used the funds provided it by American taxpayers to develop yet another technology that has upped the ante by providing poor nations not only the ability to attack the US, but to eventuate its utter desolation.
The drones Russia launches against US’s Ally Ukraine are products of Iran, and would not exist if the Iranians hadn’t reversed engineered one of the spy drones the U.S. was stalking their country with.
As the Marines are called out to shoot down the very citizens it is paid to protect, the GW doctrine of shoot first and ask questions later is further ensconced in the national psyche. Meanwhile, the sabotage of the US gov’t by its own Chief Executive is given the blessing by the Supremes, who choose to refer to it as “downsizing”, the concomitant Increase in military spending, the outsized portion of whose budget every citizen and congress denizen alike know is allocated via a viper’s nest of corruption, remains the 3’rd rail of unaudited, public funds disbursed to well-heeled, well-connected “private” enterprise.
Never has the world spent so much of its resources on military “preparedness”, and never has it been so precariously balanced on the knife’s edge of “Nobody could have seen it coming” unrecoverable global armsageddon.
https://robertlowrey.blogspot.com/2019/09/greta-globalization-reduces-everything.html
Rob, thank you for this splendidly feisty bit of analysis. For background:
“World military expenditure reached $2718 billion in 2024, an increase of 9.4 per cent in real terms from 2023 and the steepest year-on-year rise since at least the end of the cold war. Military spending increased in all world regions, with particularly rapid growth in both Europe and the Middle East.”
https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2025/unprecedented-rise-global-military-expenditure-european-and-middle-east-spending-surges
Thanx for that … I’ve heard pundits describe Trumplestiltskin’s antics as ‘throwing a monkeywrench” into the workings of gov’t, but the connection of that to The Monkey Wrench Gang, (great read, btw, in case you had any doubt on Abbey’s entertainment value) a group of Saboteurs, is assiduously avoided. But there is no other word to describe every facet of this administration’s so-called policy than Sabotage: “deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political advantage”.
Yet corporate-owned media has never, not once, used the word that exactly describes this administration’s “accomplishments”.
Just a chime in here to nominate Don Trump an honorary member of the Hayduke Monkey Wrench Gang. If Ed Abbey were alive today he would have great fodder for another sequel of his series and this would be a twist of epic proportions; a closet case of the leader doing their best effort to grind the system to a halt.
Suppose realizing the jig is up and as Deutschland Addie Hitter did orchestrate a Wagener finale to see it all crash and burn down.
More cowbells and tariffs and threats and whatnot… entertainment at its best…no wonder TR loves this show…truly fascinating
Major Indices:
The Dow Jones rose 78 points (0.2%), while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5% and 0.3% respectively, according to Barron’s.
Tariffs and Trade:
Investors monitored developments regarding potential tariffs, particularly on copper imports, and a possible delay in their start date.
Nvidia:
Shares of Nvidia continued to surge, inching closer to a $4 trillion market cap.
Bond Yields:
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell slightly, settling just below 4.4%.
Dollar:
The dollar saw modest gains against a basket of currencies.
Other Notable Movers:
AES Corp. (AES) saw a significant rise following a report about the company exploring strategic options, including a potential sale. Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) also rose after Trump’s announcement of 50% tariffs on copper imports.
For the uninitiated, like me:
“George Washington Hayduke is a fictional character in Edward Abbey’s novels The Monkey Wrench Gang[1] and Hayduke Lives![2] Hayduke is portrayed as a rugged individualist in the books by Abbey, and has a predilection for working independently when protecting the environment.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Hayduke_(character)
I’m just waiting for a full study of the health effects of forever chemicals.
This species is “slip sliding away”. The money made on the pollution of the habitat will not protect the species from the pollution of the habitat.
“All the samples had very high PFAS concentrations, up to or exceeding 10,000 times what the Environmental Protection Agency recommends in its drinking water standards.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-raise-red-flags-us-110006664.html
“Children in England ‘living in almost Dickensian levels of poverty’…”
Whatever we do, let’s not blame the parents.