Afternoon Tea 10.5.21 - Drone Rain

A Chinese cop came forward to speak on Xinjiang, the ZuckOmniNet was down for 6 hours, QAnon was involved in a kidnapping in France, we spent $14 trillion losing a fight with an emotion, denim is eternally revolutionary, and drones fell from the sky. It's Tuesday, October 5th 2021, and this is your Tea. Today’s vibe, while a decade old, felt perfect for the last 24 hours, Flux Pavilion’s remix of MIA.

'Some are just psychopaths': Chinese detective in exile reveals extent of torture against Uyghurs (CNN) & Taliban 'Removing' Uyghur Militants From Afghanistan's Border With China (Gandhara) This officer stepping out of the shadows is about to find out if he has any remaining family in China, as we assume they’re about to be kidnapped by the state. Even the Taliban is bowing to the wishes of the CCP re-Uyghurs, and they’re about as pro-Muslim as you can be.

Facebook Knew It Was Fueling QAnon (VICE News) French child kidnap plot shows global sway of QAnon style (AP) & Down the rabbit hole: how QAnon conspiracies thrive on Facebook (The Guardian) The whistleblower testimony is unearthing a particularly sticky problem with Facebook. Not that bad things happened on the platform, but that they knew and either did nothing or made it worse. When the French have to deal with QAnon Qidnappings, they can’t deny it’s a global problem.

(Editor’s Note: This IG photo series explains how FB hurt itself in its confusion.) 

UK threatens to abandon post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland (France24) All that stuff Remain people said would happen? Happening! This week’s flavor of Told You So is the UK threatening to walk from Europe over the literal paradox they set up re: Northern Ireland & EU Customs.

Once lauded as heroes, health care workers are now spit on and ‘threatened every day at work’ (Michigan Advance) Hospital staff need to carry panic buttons in case they’re threatened by people who think Masc & Vaxx is a femme rock duo from Chelsea. We’ve traumatized a generation of healthcare workers. How far we’ve fallen from banging pots and pans outside every night at 7pm.

America’s pandemic is now an outlier in the rich world (Economist) & Why U.S. pandemic management has failed: lack of attention to America’s epidemic engines (STAT News) With each passing week, more & more countries surpass us when it comes to vaccination rates, hospital saturation, and handling of this crisis. When all is said and done, both parties stood by and watched, a body count that will notch three quarters of a million people die, in a few weeks.

US Empire Is Lining the Pockets of Defense Contractors (Jacobin) $14 Trillion. When you ask why every other country has universal healthcare, here is your answer.

How an Instagram star’s $7 million mission to rescue Afghan civilians struggled to get off the ground (Washington Post) This is the youthful version of the Bannon grift to get private citizens to pay for the wall.

Brazilian Workers Paid Equivalent of 70 Cents An Hour To Transcribe TikToks (The Intercept) TikTok is materially easier to use because of the video transcription services. They really should pay non-subsistence wages for the service.

The Most Hated Brands in Every Country (RaveReviews) Wonderful market research. Who knew Uber was so utterly despised around the world.

Were Jeans Really Illegal in the Soviet Union? The Surprising History of Denim Smuggling and the Iron Curtain (Stridewise) & Why Black Women Activists Started Wearing Denim (JSTOR Daily) This delightful read from our friend Nick English at Stridewise sent us down the rabbit hole. After the hyperfocus wore off, we resurfaced with this pairing for your afternoon. Jeans are insurrectionist af it seems.

Poem of the Tea: After yesterday, this Tweet from June might actually qualify.

Things will get much faster from here on out. We hope you’ve trained for it.

Yours,