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[EuchreJack]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/24/europe/trumps-policy-ukrainian-war-unexpected-priority-intl/index.html

...I decided this was far more optimistic than what I originally wrote.  And President Trump promises a long rollercoaster of emotions, so might as well try and stay positive.  It's about all I can do, after all.

[Strongpoint]

So, USAID programs are halted for Ukraine (as well as for other countries). Apart from grants to questionable NGOs (that still went to the Ukrainian economy), it includes aid to healthcare, supplies for repairing energy grids, and other stuff like that. Not good news at all

[Sorg]

del

[EuchreJack]

So, USAID programs are halted for Ukraine (as well as for other countries). Apart from grants to questionable NGOs (that still went to the Ukrainian economy), it includes aid to healthcare, supplies for repairing energy grids, and other stuff like that. Not good news at all

Well, at least it's not targeted at Ukraine.  And President Zelensky seems to have gotten quite good at sucking Trump's dick, so Ukraine is probably going to get its aid restored sooner than many parts of the world.

...
This ain't the place to discuss US geopolitics, but suffice to say that the door is now wide open for China to greatly increase its influence literally everywhere.

[martinuzz]

The US want Ukraine to organize elections this year.
I hope that Ukraine agrees, on one condition: That the US have presidential elections this year.

[Starver]

Hmmm... Sounds like a ploy to get Ukraine to accept that only represented territories (easily polled, to the satisfaction of the Kiev-based voting coordinators) can then be claimed as valid areas to be claimed by whatever form of Kiev government comes out of the process ("No ...nation..? without Representation"?). If (interference-free) voting can come from the whole of Ukraine (it would be tall ask to accomplish, could it be done with UN oversight that neither occupiers nor occupiees can either crow or complain about?), perhaps... But how can you really trust that "Donbexit"(/seperatist parties as a whole (ought to be allowed, for the ultimate declaration of democratic adherence) not to have unfair advantage by either indoctrination/misinformation or threats of repercussions (ditto, for the sake of Russia's inevitable counter-argument, Kiev and maybe society itself being accused of similarly padding the results on the other side of the contentious front-line).

Oh so complicated. Always going to be troublesome. The 'reasonable' request for Kiev to "restart its alleged democracy" (as it will be doubtless be spun as, by those less bothered by democracy than by resolving the situation, regardless of/despite the inevitable dissatisfactory results if conducted in any small way to the banging of the Russian drum) is not an easy circle to square.

But I await being surprised. Not if it happens, as there'll doubtless be pressures applied to attempt a facsimile of a solution, but if it actually looks like it's going to be a truly indisputably fault-free process in the implementation.

[Strongpoint]

The US want Ukraine to organize elections this year.
I hope that Ukraine agrees, on one condition: That the US have presidential elections this year.

Well, many Ukrainian politicians are in the election mode already. I think they think we will have elections later this year.

Also, if there will be any kind of peace deal achieved, Zelensky will be eaten alive if he prolongs nation-wide martial law under some bullshit excuse (not that he can without the parliament). Stopping it means elections.

[anewaname]

The fact that Trump puts "Ukraine should have elections" up front is a sign about which way he is going to flip with Ukraine.

[EuchreJack]

It's gonna be a long year...

[Strongpoint]

It's gonna be a long year...

3 long years, what another one will do? Also, if the Ukrainian front collapses, everything will be quick and action-packed

[Strongpoint]

"We tell Ukraine that they have valuable rare earth metals, I want Ukraine to give us rare earth metals," — Trump

Hey, no problem! You can start with Lithium deposits near Pokrovsk right now. We won't mind a few divisions worth of mining experts.


To be serious, granting some exclusive rights to American companies Trump's friends in exchange for survival and not being genocided by Russians is not the worst proposition ever.

[martinuzz]

I don't think any amount of Lithium is going to stabilize Trump

[Naturegirl1999]

I’m wondering if the lithium that was mined could be alloyed with other metals to help make walls or projectiles, I don’t know if an iron-lithium sphere would make a good cannonball/missile casing/wall, if the mines are being used as a divide, the products of said mine could theoretically help in defense somehow, maybe the leftover ore would make it more difficult for tanks to enter?

[Starver]

Lithium, being a light atom, probably doesn't provide enough mass for useful ballastic purposes. Can't speak for all alloys, intersticially, it might increase density in some cases, but mostly it'd be a strengthening additive to other metals that doesn't increase its mass.

Certain applications of armour, maybe, like it makes strong aviation-parts; canonballs (or equivalent), I doubt it. Stick to whatever you already have in the line of tungsten or depleted uranium.


Of course, it has other good qualities (its lightness in a matrix is one of its advantages in battery technology, and its chemistry).

[Lord Shonus]

Important to note that lithium (like nearly all "rare earths" isn't rare. The US has massive deposits, as do many EU nations. The problem is that extracting it is an environmental nightmare unless you take expensive remediation steps - something that both US and EU laws require. The biggest reason that lithium is considered a "rare earth" is that until fairly recently it was nearly useless and thus nobody actually cared to put in the effort to extract it. Small quantities had some function in lubrication and then in medication, but it wasn't until the middle of the 20th century that any real use for the stuff was found. Around then it was discovered that it had some handy application for fusion bombs and rocket propellant additives. Those applications, however, were also pretty low-volume and not enough to spur demand. Only the 21st-century hunger for batteries has actually required vast carload lots of it, and it is taking time for that demand to actually make it worth mining in developed countries.