`4e20` René Girard: “the new Darwin of the human sciences”?
UkraineCurt Readings & Musings [2024e20]
Hello possums!
☼¶ Institute for the Study of War — Defeating Russia's Kharkiv Operation Requires Eliminating Russia's Sanctuary
Putin's Safe Space: Defeating Russia's Kharkiv Operation Requires Eliminating Russia's Sanctuary
By George Barros
Current US policy prohibiting Ukraine from using US-provided weapons in the territory of the Russian Federation is severely compromising Ukraine's ability to defend itself against the renewed cross-border invasion Russia has recently launched in Kharkiv Oblast. US policy has effectively created a vast sanctuary in which Russia has been able to amass its ground invasion force and from which it is launching glide bombs and other long-range strike systems in support of its renewed invasion. Whatever the merits of this US policy before the Russian assault on Kharkiv Oblast began, it should be modified immediately to reflect the urgent realities of the current situation.
“I see violence and strife in the city” — an introduction to the work of René Girard
Michel Serres called René Girard (2015y04@91) “the new Darwin of the human sciences”. If you know little of his work, or if you wish to read a clear introduction to his thought —>
We Do Not Come in Peace by Cynthia L. Haven
Cheers dears!
Appeal for armistice in the Holy Land
Michelle McDonald, editor of anglican focus (Brisbane), writes that Church leaders are calling for an armistice in the Israel-Hamas war ‘including Patriarch Emeritus Michel Sabbah, who said that “The war must stop without further delay because it is no longer a war. It is a massacre…The world’s religions can and must help. Pray, raise your voice and act.” / It is hoped that this reflection by an Australian Palestinian emergency doctor, Dr Ahmed Abou-Sweid who lives locally and who spoke at our last two Brisbane inter-faith vigil events, will help educate and update Christians about the current crisis (including the urgent situation in Gaza) and prompt Christians to act though prayer or by contacting their elected representatives. / Can you please share this anglican focus reflection on your Facebook pages either from the news site directly or from this ACSQ Facebook post.’
+... and in the Left corner ...+
☼☼(For everyone, but of special interest to Social Democrats, Bolshevik imperialists, and other lefties)
☼¶ ☼Michael Judge
☼What Happens to Freedom Deferred? A conversation with Human Rights Watch’s Maya Wang on Beijing’s Hong Kong clampdown and why there’s reason for hope.
+Wayfarers’ Watch+
☼☼(For everyone, but especially for people interested in religion and theology)
☼¶ ☼Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University — Public Orthodoxy
Are Nuclear Weapons Moral? In Search of Orthodox Christian Thought on Deterrence and Disarmament
by Chris Ferrero
The Orthodox Church of Finland and the War in Ukraine
by Rev. Alexander Zanemonets
Reflections on the Ordination of Deaconess Angelic
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+Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union+
☼☼ (Mostly material from the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group)
The 80th Anniversary of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatars
18.05.2024
20.05.2024
68-year-old Bekir Mamutov and the founder of Qirim are facing two of Russia’s arsenal of silencing norms, including one rushed into legislation after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine
Russians gun down Ukrainian in wheelchair in savage offensive against Kharkiv oblast
20.05.2024
+The Living Spirit+ / +Start every day with a smile, and get it over with+
☼☼
Alone with God
Henri J. M. Nouwen
It is really important that there is a moment in your life that you are alone with God. Some days it can be five minutes. It can be ten minutes. But is it anywhere? Is there any place in your busy day that you stop, and you say, “Here I am, this needy, lonely, anguished, confused person in front of you. And I want to hear again that you love me. Otherwise, I may lose it.” And if I lose it, then I will go all over the place. “You are my Shepherd. And there’s nothing I shall want (though I want all those things!), but you are my Shepherd. So I want to claim that truth. And the truth is that in the deepest sense, all that I need is given to me.”
~ Plough
+Publication Details+
_Just Peace Ukraine_ is published by the Rvrd Martin Arnold
who welcomes comments & suggestions and notification of typos & errors.
For more information about Martin, go to
https://gravatar.com/martinoarnold
+Church, Art, Culture, Ethics, Politics & News+
+From religiously-identified institutions+
☼¶ ☼CathNews New Zealand, CathNews Australia
First Orthodox deaconess of modern times sacramentally ordained
☼¶ ☼Church Life Journal, a Journal of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame
The Monster and the Monstrance: A Sacramental Worldview Beyond Mere Aesthetics
Jennifer Newsome Martin on commodity fetishism.
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God in Things and People: Commodity Fetishism and the Eucharist
William T. Cavanaugh on idolatry.
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The Problem(s) of the Supernatural
Jonathan Heaps on nature and grace.
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Mater Misericordiae: Mary, Mother of Mercy
John Cavadini on the secret.
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Cynthia Haven on stories.
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What Would It Mean for the Truth to Arrive in Person?
Peter Fritz on assembly.
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On the Gratitude of Thinking: A Note on Jean-Louis Chrétien
Philip Gonzales on philosophy.
Relativism as Lebensgefühl: Untying the Knot Through Intellectual Conversion
Roberto De La Noval on Catholic education.
☼¶ ☼Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology Bulletin (ITEST Bulletin).
☼¶ ☼The John Templeton Foundation
Are we the stories we tell? Host of Dispatches from The Well Kmele Foster sat down with legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, actor Terry Crews and more to discuss how humanity makes its meaning. WATCH HERE
☼¶ ☼Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University — Public Orthodoxy
Are Nuclear Weapons Moral? In Search of Orthodox Christian Thought on Deterrence and Disarmament
by Chris Ferrero
The Orthodox Church of Finland and the War in Ukraine
by Rev. Alexander Zanemonets
Reflections on the Ordination of Deaconess Angelic
by Carrie Frederick Frost
☼¶ ☼Outreach (a lesbigatesque Catholic resource from New York)
Jesus desires unity. Do we? Seventh Sunday of Easter (Acts 1:15-17, 20a, 20c-26; 1 Jn. 4:11-16; Jn. 17:11b-19)
James Martin, S.J.
☼¶ ☼Profiles in Catholicism
The May 15 issue of Profiles in Catholicism has a special focus on The Franciscans
☼¶ ☼Psephizo
Why is the Ascension of Jesus the most important event in the New Testament?
+Tl;dr — From many sources+
☼¶ The Atlantic Council
UK gives Ukraine green light to use British weapons inside Russia
By Peter Dickinson
Putin’s one tank victory parade is a timely reminder Russia can be beaten
By Peter Dickinson
Putin expands invasion as outgunned Ukraine waits for Western weapons
By Mykola Bielieskov
Anger and defiance in Kharkiv as advancing Russian troops draw closer
By Maria Avdeeva
Georgia’s government uses Kremlin playbook to consolidate grip on power
By Lucy Minicozzi-Wheeland
A bold policy to protect the US by helping Ukraine stop Russian aggression
By John Herbst
☼¶ Axel Springer SE (_Politico, Bild, Die Welt, Fact_)
☼¶ The BBC, ABC, CBC, NZBC &c.
BBC Monitoring — Disinformation Watch 16 May 2024 — Russia using artificial intelligence to drive disinfo campaigns — Russia is using generative AI to plagiarise and modify content from legitimate media sources to tailor political messages with specific biases, risk intelligence company Recorded Future’s Insikt Group has found. … Recorded Future’s full analysis can be downloaded here (PDF format).
Further warnings of Russian influence campaigns
Ireland: France has warned the Republic of Ireland of a Russian threat to elections involving exploiting the country’s expanding far right movement, the Irish Examiner reports.
Balkans: The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) says that Western Balkan countries have become vulnerable to disinformation from Russian-backed channels, Balkan Insight reports.
Finland: Russian online interference is increasingly targeting smaller languages, including Finnish and Latvian, to drive wedges into society, Finnish national broadcaster YLE reports.
Russia intensifying TikTok disinformation war
Moscow is posting a flood of content to video-sharing service TikTok questioning the legitimacy of Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky, Bloomberg reports (paywall) … Mr Kovalenko says Russia is succeeding due to the scale of its operation, often fooling TikTok’s algorithm by spoofing the user’s location so they appear to be inside Ukraine.
☼¶ Bellingcat
12 May 2024 Bellingcat has been working with Scripps News to investigate the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the West Bank, using open source research to compliment on-the-ground reporting.
☼¶ _The Bulwark_
☼¶ Carnegie (_politica, Russia Eurasia_)
Behind the Scenes: China’s Increasing Role in Russia’s Defense Industry
May 05, 2024 | Nathaniel Sher
The Cost of Russia’s Friendship With Azerbaijan
May 06, 2024 | Kirill Krivosheev
… I [Alexander Gabuev] argue in my guest essay for The New York Times, Chinese culture will not replace Western culture as Russians’ main reference point any time soon, but a profound shift has occurred and a growing number of educated Russians see China as an economically superior power to which Russia is ever more connected. Read Here
Together, the Russian and Chinese governments have demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt to U.S. sanctions over the past two years, Alexandra Prokopenko notes in her article for the Financial Times. Read Here
… Beijing may be drawing very different conclusions in the third year of this grueling war than in the first, as I write in my piece for The Wall Street Journal. Indeed, the lessons China’s leaders are learning may be quite the opposite of what the White House wants them to learn. Read here
☼¶ CEPA, CSIS, CftNI &c.
☼¶ _Daily Kos_
☼¶ Deutsche Welle
☼¶ _Engelsberg Ideas_
☼¶ The European Council / Council of the European Union
Think Tank reports on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine
☼¶ _European Council on Foreign Relations Update_
☼¶ _Forbes_
☼¶ _Foreign Affairs_ (The Council on Foreign Relations [US])
Why Ukraine Should Keep Striking Russian Oil Refineries Washington’s Fears About Energy Markets Are Misplaced
By Michael Liebreich, Lauri Myllyvirta, and Sam Winter-Levy
☼¶ _The Guardian_
☼¶ Institute for the Study of War
Putin's Safe Space: Defeating Russia's Kharkiv Operation Requires Eliminating Russia's Sanctuary
By George Barros. May 13, 2024
Special Report: Russian Strikes More Effective as Ukraine Exhausts Defenses
Riley Bailey and Frederick W. Kagan. Apr 12, 2024
¶ Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment
The Kremlin appears to be re-intensifying a reflexive control campaign targeting Western decision-making using nuclear threats and diplomatic manipulation. Reflexive control is a key element of Russia’s hybrid warfare toolkit — it is a tactic that relies on shaping an adversary with targeted rhetoric and information operations in such a way that the adversary voluntarily takes actions that are advantageous to Russia. Soviet mathematician Vladimir Lefebvre [9 April 2020, aet 83] defined reflexive control as “the process of transferring the reasons of making a decision” to an adversary via “provocations, intrigues, disguises, creation of false objects, and lies of any type.” 2024 e 06
¶ Iran, Israel-Hamas Update
¶ China Project
☼¶ Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Institute for Human Sciences)
☼¶ _The Intercept_
☼¶ _The Interpreter_ (Lowy Institute)
Ukraine gets the green light for strikes in Russia – it was long overdue Tennyson Dearing 10/5/24 But nor does this mean the end of Western hesitancy in its support for Ukraine.
All wars end. But how will the one in Ukraine? Gordon Weiss 9/5/24 An obsession with deterrence of Russian aggression treats Ukraine as a by-product rather than the main game.
☼¶ LGB
☼¶ Meduza
The Beet
Yesterday, Ukraine marked … Victory in Europe Day
2024 e 17 Lucy Duvall with a snapshot from Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, where Russia has opened a new front, forcing thousands of civilians from their homes.
☼¶ _Moscow Times_
☼¶ News Ltd
☼¶ _New Yorker_
☼¶ _New York Times_
☼¶ _openDemocracy_
☼¶ OVD-Info and the _Dissident Digest_
2024e08 Putin’s “inauguration” | the legacy and militarism surrounding May 9 | and two follow-ups.
2024e15
THE MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP On the anniversary of Russia’s oldest rights defense group we remember why it remains so important for human rights in Russia and globally.
☼¶ _Pearls & Irritations_
☼¶ _People & Nature_
Ukraine and Palestine: building real solidarity is hard work, by John Lawrence. "It doesn't matter whether your hospital is in Mariupol or in Gaza. We are with the doctors, nurses, patients who are being bombed, against the people who are bombing them" – Ed Vulliamy
☼¶ 'Perun' - YouTube
☼¶ _Project Syndicate_, George Soros &c.
Russia's Battle of the Ministries
by Nina L. Khrushcheva
The Fragile Fraternity of China and Russia
by Nina L. Khrushcheva
☼¶ Reuters
☼¶ Riddle Russia
☼¶ RUSI
☼¶ _Der Spiegel_
☼¶ Nine Entertainment, _Sydney Morning Herald_ &c
☼¶ _Tempest_
☼¶ United to Protect Democracy [USA]
☼¶ _Vanity Fair_
☼¶ War Translated
☼¶ _The Washington Post_
☼¶ _Die Zeit_
Good-bye & bless you!
*_* Хай живе вільна Україна *_* "L’Ukraine a toujours aspiré à être libre" - Voltaire *_* Няхай жыве вольная Украіна *_* Larga vida a Ucrania libre *_* Да здравствует свободная Украина *_* Long live free Ukraine *_* 自由乌克兰万岁 *_* Bandera rossonera la trionferà! *_* تحي أوكرانيا حرة *_*