Sunday weekly news
Today is the 10th of April, 2022. The news digest after Bucha, a change in my subscription strategy and yesterday’s visuals.
The world after Bucha - that is what we have right now. The release of multiple materials on the subject cancelled the opportunity to set on the peace terms in the near future, but that I can’t discuss here for the reasons I’ve explained before. Now I can’t even link the material and will need to close the propaganda theory posts for free subscribers. Those will be open only for paid subscription. So let’s look at the world instead and see what was in the centre of public attention or media concerns. But I start with the changes in my writing routine.
Yesterday I took time to think. I didn’t want to stop writing about things that made me start this feed first of all. And I need to guard myself from the latest changes in the Russian law: I can’t quote any articles or posts about the Russian government or contemporary Russian policy about Ukraine or about the inner state of affairs.
I want to write my thoughts and my view on my life and on the world. I’m a child of the cosmopolitan philosophy of the 90s, every strike against my rights and against freedom as I see it, literally hurts me. So I will continue the feed but I will divide my everyday posts into two categories: public and paid public. I not just grateful for your financial contribution to my work, the crowdfunding (that is getting more and more important for me, I would say soon it’ll crucial source for living). But right now it’s also the barrier from those who can report on my work to the Russian censors if they happen to read the article and, let’s say, disagree with me on particular subjects.
For public posts I will leave the digest on the most interesting and controversial news I’ve spotted during the week, and I will keep sharing my thoughts on personal matters about the day, as well as yesterday’s visuals. Book recommendations will stay as well and everything that I see as “safe” regular content for public share. But the rest - including around Russia political agenda, theoretical posts about propaganda, social media, marketing practice, fashion problems and cultural will be closed and available for paid subscribers.
If you are based in Russia or if you can’t pay online for other reasons, let me know if you want to subscribe, I’ll send you details for the direct payments (10 euro/month or 100 euro/year). The email: o.zakharova@adlifestudio.ru.
If you want to share my Substack page, the articles, please, don’t hesitate. I appreciate your support in any form.
The organised part is over. Let’s move to the news.
So Bucha and other Ukrainian cities related news and materials are easy to find online, I won’t discuss those here. Plus it’s really difficult to add anything to the horrors of war. We can watch those in real time and listen to the witnesses' stories. The whole week was spent on the new pack of sanctions discussion and confirmation. Couple of countries decided to cut themselves from Russian gas immediately, others were looking for alternative suppliers, the problem is there’s not so many available options.
But the major concern of the people more interested in the planet’s future than in the contemporary political agenda is the third IPCC’s report on climate change. The plans on avoiding the Russian energy resources by switching to restoration of coal mining and burning facilities and building more gas installations, and other fossil fuel infrastructure and nuclear stations can lead to the raising of the temperature globally for more than previously predicted 1,5C. On the other hand there’s a proper reason to look closer at renewable energy technologies and open a new chapter now.
Another very interesting remark from the report is:
Daniela Schmidt, a professor at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, said: “A small minority of 10% of the people on this planet are producing between 34% and 45% of the global carbon emissions, which is a staggering number. Per capita consumption is a strong expression of decisions of the few impacting the many which are often also the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.”
Speaking of which, Sri Lanka is struggling with an energy and economic crisis. Started during COVID now it’s marked with political instability and active protests movements. That’s one of the unstable regions that used to be a tourist destination and one of the major regions for the mass fashion production outsourcers. Now due to the logistics, fuel problems and lost overall volumes of the pre-COVID production people lose jobs and companies can’t meet the terms of the existing contracts. The Sri Lankan clothing manufacturers lose their share of the market to Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam. As for that line of countries, the food crisis is going to hit those as well, after Africa, it’s not just the rising prices for commodities, but also the droughts and the debts.
There’s another major subject that was discussed this week - the role of the Big tech companies and the interest to the professional news outlets. The last year brought rising interest to all major news media - printed and online versions, especially after the war started. There are few explanations to that. Some think that it’s due to the changed business models and promotion strategies on social media platforms. But there’s also a recognised trend in consuming traditional media as more trusted than user content on social media and blogs. Political, social crises that we witness almost in every country, COVID news and a lot of changes in lifestyle caused by rising prices on fuels and inflation make more people read news quite often, even if before they didn’t show any signs of active social position.
The distrust of social media giants is reflected in legal novellas not just in Europe but in the USA as well. The scandals caused by the results of the Trump election campaigns, Brexit and all other users' data manipulation stories ended in the initiatives to limit the power of the Big Tech companies. New wave of reaction was triggered by the Ukrainian conflict and its reflection on the platforms, the bans that were introduced by Twitter and Meta in the war with “fake news” and propaganda and so on. You can listen to the conversation between the Times reporters Adam Satariano and Sheera Frenkel on the geopolitical influence of Big Tech. But legal movement is not about information and manipulation with it yet. It’s about the competition among applications and smaller companies' products that had no chance to be presented on the Amazon and Apple Store or Google Play. That goes to the preinstalled applications and to programs that users can’t uninstall because those are built-in solutions. We talk about the open market and the threat from the very companies that make the global market whole by uniting the geography into one virtual space.
And how not to remember about the multiple accusation of Big Tech Companies in stealing or buying for burying a little companies projects? For example, Terra Vision - their story you can learn from series available on Netflix.
On that news background the USA and China military are quietly preparing for the open confrontation in the upcoming 1-2 years. The American policy and role in the Ukrainian-Russian conflict has led both countries to the stage when no one trusts and respects each other's words. So the trade war has a tendency to turn into an actual war if China invades Taiwan.
That’s all for today. See you tomorrow. Leave your comments, your views. Your suggestions for the topics for discussions, questions. Let me know what you think.
A digest from my feed for April 8-9th, 2022
6.00 am zakharova_kaetano Good morning 🌞 How are you today? #haveagoodday My #morninginspiration are hands #contemporarysculpture by @marcomaschioscultore. Those are not finished but I like the idea of projection our character, our life onto the body. Hands speak different stories than our face. Have you noticed it? I like the beauty of lines and wrinkles, folds and texture. Here it’s raw. #artasinspiration #morningmood#goodmorningart #goodmorningpost #contemporaryart#artofsculpture
4.30pm zakharova_kaetano Golden baguette, anyone? #finding@schiaparelli #hautecouture ss22 Bijoux Couture “2 400 hours of hand embroidery. 140 0000 crystals and 2 golden baguettes. Cabochons, pearls, glass and metal pieces from 1930’s embroidered on a moonstone background of @swarovski jet rhinestones”. film @christophe_tiphaine #artoffashion #beautyoffashion#artofjewellery #jewelleryasinspiration #fashionasinspiration
9.00 pm zakharova_kaetano #nightmood #fairytaletime#artfinephotography @christiantagliavinifotografie #artofportraitfrom different series #artofphotography #finephotography#likeapainting #portraitphotography
11.30pm zakharova_kaetano #goodnightandsweetdreams #nightmood#fashionportrait #fashionstory @kindmagazinecn K!ND Chic Cover Issue April featuring @zhou_jieqiong1216 Creative Director: @artemiss_fang Photographer: @sarzn_lyx Makeup: Chen Hui (NAN Beauty) Hair: Lin Styling: MissIvy, @sulli_daye #artofphotography #beautyoffashion #fashionasinspiration#fashioneditorial
8.30am April 9th zakharova_kaetano Good morning 🌞 How are you today? #haveagoodday Yesterday I’ve posted the most liked and saved my video posts for the last 2 years - the link on Substack is in bio. Here’s another one clip, that I find pretty symbol for the historical moment we live in. @azumamakoto Flowers #amkkproject #makotoazuma music is my choice. Original video doesn’t have sound. Maybe that’s right for the observation. You can compare. Sound vacuum adds drama. #flowerobsession #natureasinspiration #floralvideography #colours #flowerstilllife#morninginspiration #morningmood #goodmorningpost
3.00pm April 9th zakharova_kaetano #finding @bulgari brooch 1964, from @christinechengny #artofjewellery #vintagejewelry #jewelleryasinspiration #beautyofjewellery vintage photo by #JosephLeombruno
11.30pm April 9th zakharova_kaetano #goodnightandsweetdreams #nightmood#fairytaletime with #SalvadorDali “Transformation”, 1974 from @colnaghi1760 #artasinspiration #contemporaryart #vintageart#historyofart #beautyofwoman #womanportrait #surrealart#surrealmood
My platforms
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zakharova_kaetano
Twitter: https://twitter.com/olga_kaetano
Telegram: https://t.me/f_simulacrum
Tumblr: https://fashionistaru.tumblr.com
If you like F! Simulacrum and want to help make it even better, give me feedback, point out factual errors or typos, or send me news subjects you want to describe. My email: o.zakharova@adlifestudio.ru
Substack says I have exciting news to share with you: You can now read my F! Simulacrum in the new Substack app for iPhone.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, that sucks (for me:))) you can join the Android waitlist here.