VIDEOS

This 1982 cult classic juxtaposes Cold War history, propaganda, music and culture, seamlessly crafted from government-produced educational and training films, newsreels and advertisements. The Atomic Cafe is an absurdist blast from the past that would be downright laughable if it weren’t so eerily relevant to our fake news present.

SCOTT RITTER—Prigozhin’s antics, which were played out in intimate detail on social media, caught the attention of pro-Ukrainian information warfare specialists, who began promoting the narrative of Prigozhin—a former convict with zero political experience—assuming a leadership position in Russia. Prigozhin himself seemed to feed off this notion. While publicly denying any such ambition, Prigozhin continued his public trolling of Shoigu and Gerasimov. The vitriol became so intense that Putin was compelled to summon both men to the Kremlin, where they were read the riot act by an irate Russian President.

MIKE MIHAJLOVIC—The primary injury mechanisms of thermobaric weapons are blast and heat. Secondary injury mechanisms are flying fragments created by the interaction of the blast with structures (e.g. flying debris) and suffocation through the generation of toxic gases and smoke. The most dangerous and far most effective means of incapacitating the enemy troops in the field and urban fortifications is the primary effect of the shock wave causing damage by enormous compression forces in the body. The effects of various fragments are considerably less, as the rocket shell has less fragmentation, but fragments can be from the surrounding objects that disintegrate under extreme pressure.

RODERIC DAY—Though it came as a shock to Western audiences, who understand China to be a tyrannical state-capitalist authoritarian regime, observers in the imperial periphery have always seen things rather differently. As far back as 2004, Fidel Castro argued that “China has objectively become the most promising hope and the best example for all Third World countries,” and in August 2014, he reaffirmed this sanguine outlook: “Xi Jinping is one of the strongest and most capable revolutionary leaders I have met in my life.” 

SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER provides an exhaustive analysis of the situation in the Ukraine War at the moment Kiev continues to talk about an offensive—largely for p.r. reasons— and the West looks for an exit ramp or some viable manner to keep the conflict going indefinitely, without having to concede defeat.