Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
Bulletins and News Discussion from August 14th to August 20th, 2023 - America's War On Pipelines
Thread image created by yours truly, depicting Iran and Pakistan very impolitely not asking whether America, on the other side of the planet, is okay with them transporting gas around.
The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has long been obstructed by American involvement in the region. Iran completed its section of the pipeline quite quickly, but Pakistan has been unable to finish its construction for a decade due to the fear of falling afoul of American sanctions on Iran. The United States has repeatedly tried to pressure Pakistan to give up the project and obtain gas from other countries instead. Recent articles on the state of the pipeline are contradictory, with some stating that Iran or Pakistan have given up on the pipeline while American sanctions persist. Pakistani officials reject this framing, saying that they are still working with Iran to try and get the project completed somehow. Nonetheless, Iran is becoming increasingly frustrated and is threatening a legal battle and a demand for reparations.
Meanwhile, back in Niger, the $13 billion under-construction pipeline connecting Nigeria and other West African countries to Spain and Italy will likely face delays due to the sanctions applied by the West and ECOWAS on Niger. Those following the European gas fiasco will be aware that while Spain and Italy have been impacted by the energy crisis, they have been very busy making deals with African countries to replace their Russian gas, and thus stand a better chance than Germany of making it through the crisis with their industries somewhat intact. The coup has thrown a wrench into their plans, though they can still obtain some gas from northern African countries.
And, last but not least, America tried for years to stop the construction of the Nord Stream pipelines between Germany and Russia, which culminated in them deciding to blow them up late last year.
All in all - the United States really does not like it when countries build up energy infrastructure and gain some independence from them.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
This week's first update is here in the comments.
This week's second update is here in the comments.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
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.
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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
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.
Last week's discussion post.
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Intel to Call Off $5.4 Billion Tower Deal Without Chinese Approval
Intel Corp. is expected to call off its planned $5.4 billion acquisition of Tower Semiconductor Ltd. as time to win regulatory approval runs out, according to people familiar with the matter.
The deadline for the transaction, announced in early 2022, is midnight California time on Aug. 15 and the companies don’t anticipate getting approval from China by that time, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
A representative for Intel declined to comment on the approaching deadline, while Tower didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The purchase of the
company was part of Intel Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger’s plan to get into a faster-growing part of the semiconductor industry, the foundry market dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Tower has a relatively small presence in that area — where companies make chips for clients on a contract basis — but has expertise and customers that Intel lacks.Investors had already discounted the chances of the deal being completed. US-traded shares of Tower have declined 22% this year, even as the broader semiconductor industry saw stocks soar. It closed Tuesday at $33.78 — far below the $53 a share that Intel had offered.
When the transaction was first announced in February of last year, Intel said it would take “about 12 months.” As of October, the chipmaker said it was targeting the first quarter 2023, but then in March warned that the date might slip into the second quarter.
Increasing tension between China and the US has made it harder to secure approval for transactions that require signoff from regulators in Beijing and Washington, particularly when the deals involve semiconductors, a key area of friction.
Tower is a fraction of the size of Intel and TSMC in terms of revenue, but it makes components for big customers such as Broadcom Inc. Intel’s plan was to combine plants with Tower and tap its customer list. Though Tower-made chips don’t require the state-of-the-art production techniques that an Intel or Nvidia Corp. processor demands, they serve growing markets like electric vehicles.
Once the US gets domestic production up and running, they’re gonna let Taiwan hang to dry aren’t they
Liberal reactions when Taiwan is no longer a strategic interest and gets handed to the PRC would be so funny
They will cheer it when the time comes. The media will ensure that.
That's thev point, yeah. TSMC being exclusively in Taiwan is a double-edged sword for the US: it can be used to provoke China, but if China ever did reclaim the island the US would be screwed.
Copying and pasting their shit over here is a way to make the US less dependent on them and therefore have more powerful economic weapons against China.
I’m sure some DC ghouls are trying to but this is pure Hopium on the West’s part. Building a single fab can take years and very specialised know how. To serve as a substitute of TSMCs fabs you need to transfer the technologies - integration, routes, litho mask schemas etc. This shit needs the active participation of Taiwanese engineers and experts.
How many would be willing to go along with this and help make themselves obsolescent? How many will drag their feet or impede the process, making it take years longer still?
If you don’t transfer the technology then previous customers would need to redesign their chips from scratch using the new process design kits. That’s a hard sell and even with active enticement will take many years.
I’m not saying it’s categorically impossible. I just don’t see the US having the focus and political tools to actually make it happen.
The alternative is transferring them over to the US and draining Taiwan of its relevancy lol