Bulletins and News Discussion from March 31st to April 6th, 2025 - Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake Hits Mandalay

Image of destruction in Mandalay, Myanmar, from Al Jazeera.

As if the ongoing civil war wasn't enough, Myanmar has now been struck by a very powerful earthquake, resulting in 2000 deaths and thousands more injured as of the time of writing. Estimates are that the death toll could reach 10,000. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are damaged, and the hospitals are overwhelmed. The earthquake struck during Eid prayers, resulting in even higher casualties as several mosques collapsed. 20 million people already required humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, and now the situation there will be even worse. International rescue teams have rushed into the country, and aid is being raised, though with USAID experiencing the... changes that it is, the United States will be of even more limited help than usual. So far, China has sent $14 million, while USAID has supplied $2 million. In Thailand, the death toll seems considerably lower, though there has still been significant damage; a skyscraper under construction collapsed in Bangkok.

Myanmar is located very close to the boundary between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In particular, the country is divided in two by the north-south oriented Sagaing fault. This fault is typically strike-slip; that is, each side of the fault moves horizontally past each other. The earthquake's depth was 10 kilometers, which is pretty shallow, and its proximity to the surface amplified the felt force of the earthquake. Additionally, the soft soil in this region tends to further amplify seismic waves through a process called liquefaction. Combine all this with the lackluster building codes due to many years of impoverishment and civil wars, and this explains why the death toll, and the expense to the country in general to repair damage, will probably be extremely high.

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Palestine Action back with their greatest hits:
https://xcancel.com/Pal_action/status/1906623118438707582
From the rooftop, actionists make a hole to destroy the materials inside the Dean Group factory in Manchester.
Castings produced by the company are used to make Israeli weaponry, making direct action necessary to halt the killer supply chain.
- We love direct action.
- I'm curious, how much trouble does that paint cause for this kind of factory? I had seen one of their previous actions in a clean room was a similar deal. I can imagine that breaking a roof over clean room is a huge problem, a factory like this not as much.
  
  Depends on where they spray. Castings are particularly vulnerable during their pouring, but you can also sabotage the molds, or the sand used to make the cope and drag. That said, paint on the molds is easily gotten rid of, and paint in the sand can be burned away. Some castings require a clean room, so perhaps that is what they targeted. That said, knowing which line to target (which one specifically produces for the war machine) would be a huge pain in the ass without insider knowledge, as foundries like this usually make lots of different things, and for castings you really have to directly hit the molds and machines necessary for production as most production areas outside of the pouring zone tend to be discreet.
  
  Even if they damage the wrong equipment in the right factory, it still gives a financial incentive to cut ties, raises insurance costs, etc. And the general disruption will still delay production of material.
  
  It's a good thought, but they can also be sued if they do not fulfill the contract. Incentives don't just run one way in manufacturing. They may not choose to reup the contract, which is good, but what they are at least pictured doing is lkely not enough to actually cause the factory to cut ties ATM. And general disruption will delay production of material in that area, but again, most of the casting lines will be discreetly run, which means that they will run regardless of delays on other lines.
  I'm not saying what they are doing isn't good, I'm saying that in order to really disrupt these operations you have to get in there and fuck up the machines, particularly the wiring. In Minecraft of course.
  
  Unless you truly commit and carry like explosives or acids onto the roof, it was sufficient as a stunt.

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