nathan1304

not in this world to live up to your expectations

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Best news of the year: Kaja Kallas' only diplomatic achievement may end up uniting Europe on the need to get rid of her, and dismantle her own office.

[Sulaiman Ahmed @ShaykhSulaiman]

JUST IN: FOOTAGE OF IRANIAN IMPACTS AT MUWAFFAQ SALTI AIR BASE

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is an absolutely major story and almost no Western media covered it: India's water minister CR Patil said on Tuesday that "it is certain, not a single drop of water will go (to Pakistan) in the coming years."

Patil said that India is "actively working on it" after "directives" from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As a reminder, Pakistan's dependence on water from India is close to total: the country is essentially built around the Indus river system, all of whose rivers flow through India before entering Pakistan.

The Indus system irrigates 80% of Pakistan's farmland, generates a third of its electricity, supplies its major cities with drinking water, and sustains the livelihoods of some 240 million people.

So, essentially, no water from India = annihilation of Pakistan as a state.

Pretty damn consequential, all the more given we're talking about 2 nuclear powers here. And all the more because, understandably, Pakistan's formal position is that water diversion would constitute "an act of war" (https://t.co/WLoDpGzc2W).

Unfortunately, Patil's statement isn't just talk: India already set up the legal framework to make this possible. Last year, they unilaterally suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, despite the treaty containing no withdrawal clause.

It used to be the one piece of India-Pakistan relations that worked, and had survived multiple wars and over six decades of hostility. Now India is saying officially that it will "never be restored" (https://t.co/2SnUNevFbX).

The one mitigating factor here is physics: you don't just "turn off" a major Himalayan river system. Diverting rivers of this magnitude means building massive storage and canal infrastructure in Himalayan terrain: projects measured in years.

But India IS ACTUALLY BUILDING that infrastructure: for instance it just approved in May the building of the so-called "Chenab–Beas Link Tunnel," an 8.7km ₹2,352 crore (~$280M) tunnel designed to divert water from the Chenab basin into India's Beas river system. The Chenab is one of the main tributaries of the Indus - and one of the three "western rivers" (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) allocated to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.

Which means that, unfortunately, Patil's "not a single drop of water in the coming years" looks like a roadmap: the infrastructure to strangle Pakistan's water supply is being approved and tendered in plain sight.

This is also a story about selective media coverage and double standards: I'm willing to bet that 99% of people in the West have never heard of any of this.

Now make this thought experiment: imagine China announced it was building infrastructure to cut off every drop of water flowing to India and its ministers proclaimed on television that "not a single drop" would cross the border. It would be wall-to-wall coverage, sanctions packages, and a thousand op-eds about Beijing "weaponizing water."

Heck we don't need to imagine because the simple fact of China merely building a hydropower dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo (the upstream Brahmaputra) generated exactly the wall-to-wall alarm I'm describing, even though China threatened nothing and even though Indian officials said the threat is a "myth" given the fact that the river gathers most of its volume inside India from monsoon rains (https://t.co/GBgBybBPoE). Malign intent was still presumed from the act of construction, because it's China.

In India's case, the intent couldn't possibly be clearer: it's proclaimed by ministers on the record, and backed by India's actions. But because they're a courted Western partner, what they're doing - arguably the most extreme form of economic warfare imaginable, directed at a nuclear state - largely gets silence.

Src for screenshot: https://t.co/qav4muNkij

[Angelo Giuliano 🇨🇭🇮🇹 @angeloinchina]

RISKS of confrontations between the Philippines and China are VERY REAL.

There is an ongoing constitutional coup being pushed by Marcos to sideline or remove Sara Duterte, who has maintained a far more pragmatic and level-headed approach in dealing with China.

If this coup succeeds, we will almost certainly see more naval clashes, heightened tensions, and dangerous escalations in the West Philippine Sea.

The current direction under Marcos is clearly dragging the country toward unnecessary conflict instead of protecting Philippine interests through smart diplomacy.

Let’s not forget: Marcos is the son of the US-backed puppet dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who looted around $10 billion from the Filipino people and was exfiltrated to the United States when his regime collapsed.

Now the son is back, following the same playbook >> aligning aggressively with Washington while risking open confrontation with China.

This is not about defending Philippines sovereignty.

This is about choosing escalation over stability, and the Filipino people will pay the price if it continues.

[Andy Boreham 安柏然 @AndyBxxx]

🚨QUICK CHINA UPDATE 🇨🇳

▪️Kiwis now see US as bigger threat than China 🇳🇿

▪️Guardian says “being a woman in China is getting harder”

▪️FT admits Trump’s Iran war just supercharged China’s green tech

Western narratives keep missing the plot.

Watch the full breakdown 🔽

[Natie🇨🇳🇷🇺🇵🇸 @Natie2Natie]

🎙️ Eastease shares his experience living in China: punctual, efficient, affordable, high quality… and wait… 1.4 B and NO homeless?

Me back 🇺🇸: immigration officer losing his mind in an empty airport. SIGH 😓

Yeah. I'm good here. 💀🇨🇳

[The Duran @TheDuranReal]

Kaja Kallas continuously proves why the position of EU foreign policy chief shouldn't exist.

If EU leaders are now discussing stripping powers from her, they may finally be preparing to make a sensible decision.

[Ehsan Safarnejad @Safarnejad_IR]

⚠️ US embassy in Baghdad
This is nothing... probably laundry room fire.

[Kerry Burgess @KerryBurgess]

Sometimes, I feel like I'm living in some kind of a parallel universe. The fucking brazen audacity of these shameless cretins to propose banning Russian soldiers from entering the EU while allowing Zionists to go from the EU to Palestine and commit the very worst of war crimes and return home without fear of santion. How did these evil people get to rule our lands and our lives?

[Carl Zha @CarlZha]

@FT They don't need to do anything. Kallas is already doing a great job at tearing it apart.

[Current Report @Currentreport1]

JUST IN:

Footage confirms that 2 Iranian long-range ballistic missiles struck Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan.

The base hosts a significant US air presence, including F-35 and F-15 fighter jets.

[Right over Left Everytime @RightSide_Uk]

Elon Musk just exposed the EU’s biggest lie.
Ursula von der Leyen was lecturing about “democracy” when Musk hit her with the truth:
“If democracy is the foundation of freedom, surely your position as leader of the EU should be elected directly by the people?”
The EU is run by unelected bureaucrats who impose mass migration, net zero madness and speech controls on 450 million people — with zero accountability.
This isn’t democracy. It’s a dictatorship in slow motion.
The people are waking up. The EU’s days are numbered.

[Suppressed Voices @supressedvoic]

Western hypocrisy on its finest.

[Leyla Hamed @leylahamed]

FIFA stripped Indonesia of the U20 World Cup after it refused to guarantee Israel could be hosted and compete.

[Sasha Meets Russia @sashameetsrus]

Pete Hegseth just stated that the U.S. is considering the abduction of Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

“What should we do today boss?”
“Hmm…let’s kidnap the president of Cuba!”

What an insane reality we live in.

[Angelo Giuliano 🇨🇭🇮🇹 @angeloinchina]

Back in April, Brian already got it right >

« The US has used its “ceasefire” with Iran to reorganize and rearm… »

« continues with details on the global maritime blockade, actions against Russia/Iran/China, preparations to restart hostilities, etc. »

« Keep all of this in mind amid this temporary pause. »

While other analysts would focus on >
- It is all because of Israel
- Nethanyahu and Trump are arguing
- « let’s analyse Trump’s tweet »

Be informed, not entertained.

[Ryan Rozbiani @RyanRozbiani]

Trump wants $350 BILLION to rebuild military after War on Iran

He has to rebuild all those bases we saw get wrecked.

Americans always get screwed paying the bill for a war Netanyahu pushed for. What a joke

[Chay Bowes @BowesChay]

US strikes decimated the IRGC command and control center 40km outside of Tehran.

The US fired 49 Tomahawk missiles and launched fighter jet bombing.

[Danny Haiphong @GeopoliticsDH]

The US is bombing Iran and calling it “self-defense”.

Yet the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf hug Iran’s coastline and is thousands of miles away from the US.

Notice also how neither China nor any other country with respect for international law would utter such absurdity.

The US empire is lawless, and its military adventurism a ball and chain on humanity.

[Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen]

During the hegemonic era, security relied on dominance, or "peace through strength." There was no need for the West to understand the security concerns of its opponents, and diplomacy was replaced by ultimatums and threats. Western hegemony is now over, and the Political West must learn diplomacy again. As Hegseth demonstrates, the only plan is to strike Iran hard and hope that it will do as the US demands.