(Chapo Trap House)Bonus: Ukrainian Politics Deep Dive feat. Peter KorotaevFelix sits down with writer & journalist Peter Korotaev for a wide ranging conversation on the state of the Russo-Ukranian War in the wake of the Trump administration’s spat with Zelensky & attempts at a peace deal, and loads of context on the politics of Ukraine, Russia, various oligarchs, the Atlantic Council, and other non-state actors that have led to this point.
https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/bonus-ukrainian-politics-deep-dive-feat-peter-korotaevThe Communists Who Told the World About Suharto’s CrimesIn September 1974, socialists in Dili founded the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of Timor-Leste, better known as FRETILIN. Against the backdrop of the Cold War, FRETILIN grew from a small group of left-wing intellectuals into East Timor’s main independence party and armed resistance movement. Remarkably the party survived Portuguese decolonization, a civil war, and a twenty-four-year guerilla struggle against a US-backed Indonesian dictator, General Suharto. In 2001, FRETILIN’s persistence paid off when the party won the first free and fair elections in Timor-Leste. Crucial to their victory were efforts led by members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) to establish and maintain an illegal radio network linking Timor-Leste with the outside world. Known as Radio Maubere, it broadcast from remote areas of Australia’s Northern Territory (NT), a sparsely populated area twice the size of Texas. Between 1975 and 1978, Communists relayed coded messages between FRETILIN fighters, exiled party leaders, and overseas journalists. Their efforts inaugurated the decades-long fight against Indonesian occupation.
https://jacobin.com/2025/04/suharto-east-timor-communists-genocideWall Street Wants To Fix Your AirplanePrivate equity firms are increasingly targeting the little-known companies that fix planes for commercial airlines — preying on an industry with already weakened oversight and further stoking aviation safety advocates’ fears. In the past, commercial airlines in the United States did the critical work of inspecting and repairing their fleets in-house, employing teams of mechanics to conduct airplane maintenance at their facilities across the country. But over the last two decades, repairs have increasingly been outsourced to third parties, many of which operate overseas. Now, private equity — the opaque industry known for hollowing out companies in search of short-term profits — is moving in. According to a recent report from PitchBook, a financial data service, private equity investors have flooded the airplane maintenance industry over the last five years, driving an increasing number of deals, which reached a high of 24 last year. “Private equity interest in the… sector shows no signs of slowing,” analysts concluded. The market, they wrote, was “ripe for consolidation plays.” For decades, advocates have been sounding the alarm about the potential dangers of U.S. airlines outsourcing maintenance overseas, where oversight by U.S. regulators is more limited. Consolidation in the multibillion-dollar industry, paired with private equity’s cost-cutting, extractive playbook, may make things worse.
https://www.levernews.com/wall-street-wants-to-fix-your-airplane/