so way back, when FoD was just in the beginning stages, the idea was this: harry & sirius bonding, post gof/ootp. getting to know each other, making new, fun memories. taking in the world together. but ultimately very low stakes, slice of life. the entire focus was supposed to be on the godfather-godson relationship. hence, dog days. a pun. a summer fic where they do nothing except laze around and eat ice cream and frolic.

also, coincidentally, i just looked it up and google tell me this: the hottest period of the year (reckoned in antiquity from the heliacal rising of Sirius, the Dog Star)

cut to now when we’re at chapter 4 and sirius is nowhere to be seen even lol by my estimation, it would take atleast another 10k words for him to come in. there’s so many OCs and plot and tangents i’m keeping track of 💀 it’s become more than just the usual s&h fics i write; it’s about harry coming into himself, becoming independent, fighting back. it’s almost an ode to all the smart/powerful/ooc harry fics i used to love reading lol

so instead you have Foundations of Decay. it’s an mcr song title bc im extremely basic like that but i just—really love it? the idea of harry realising his life is in a state of unending ruin, only getting worse, and that he can either fight fruitlessly, symptomatically, as he has been so far or start anew. enter the system and use it to change things. he’s working off a decaying foundation and he’ll build something lasting (sirius) on it.

idk. might not make sense outside my head but i rly liked it lol

Monday, May 1, 2023

Guam, where America’s next war may begin (Economist) “Where America’s day begins”, as Guam likes to sell itself, is also where a future American war with China may begin. This westernmost speck of America, just 30 miles (48km) long and with a population of about 170,000, helps it project power across the vast Pacific. As tension over Taiwan worsens, war games often predict early and sustained Chinese missile strikes on Guam. Startlingly, for such a vital military complex, Guam is only thinly defended. Its thaad missile-defence battery is not always switched on. It is in any case intended to parry only a limited attack from North Korea, not an onslaught from China. China makes no secret that Guam is in its cross-hairs. The df-26 missile, with a range of 4,000km, is commonly called the “Guam killer”. In 2020 a Chinese propaganda video depicted an h-6k bomber attacking an undisclosed air base: the satellite image was unmistakably of Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. The vulnerability of Guam is belatedly getting attention in Washington, not least because successive heads of Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, in charge of any future war with China, keep pleading for better protection.

Greener pastures? 2,500 hopeful sheep cross Idaho highway (AP) Why did 2,500 sheep cross the road? Because the grass was greener on the other side. In Idaho, it’s not unusual to see ranchers moving a bleating herd of sheep up to higher elevation at this time of year. But the sight of 2,500 wooly beasts trotting across a highway earlier this week brought a crowd about 300 people. Curious onlookers lined the road as the animals sheepishly entered the highway, guided by ranchers and steered by sheepdogs. They traveled up the road a little ways, the fluffy white herd obscuring the yellow-painted centerline amid a chorus of “baas” and the lead ewe’s jangling bell. Leaving the open road behind, they will journey through the sagebrush-dotted foothills for a few weeks to their summer home in the Boise National Forest. This trip up to higher elevations is a tradition dating back around 100 years, the Boise-area TV station reported, and having the sheep graze in the forest helps prevent fires and invigorates plant growth.

Key nations sit out U.S. standoff with Russia, China, leaks show (Washington Post) President Biden’s global agenda faces significant challenges as major developing nations seek to evade the intensifying standoff between the United States, Russia and China and, in some cases, exploit that rivalry for their own gain, classified American intelligence assessments show. The documents, among a trove of U.S. secrets leaked online through the Discord messaging platform, provide a rare glimpse into the private calculations by key emerging powers, including India, Brazil, Pakistan and Egypt, as they attempt to straddle allegiances in an era when America is no longer the world’s unchallenged superpower. Matias Spektor, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said developing nations are recalibrating at a moment when America faces potent new competition, as China projects new economic and military clout and Russia, though weakened by President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, demonstrates its ability to deflect Western pressure. “It’s unclear who will end up in a pole position in 10 years’ time, so they need to diversify their risk and hedge their bets,” Spektor said. The Biden administration has told those countries that it is not asking them to pick sides between the United States on one hand and China and Russia on the other, a message that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stressed in his travels. But nations including South Africa and Colombia bridle at what they see as an implicit choice.

Details revealed about King Charles III’s coronation service (AP) It will be a coronation of many faiths and many languages. King Charles III, keen to show that he can be a unifying figure for everyone in the United Kingdom, will be crowned in a ceremony that will for the first time include the active participation of faiths other than the Church of England. Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders will take part in various aspects of the coronation, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s office said Saturday, as it revealed details of a service it described as an act of Christian worship that will reflect contemporary society. The ceremony also will include female bishops for the first time, as well as hymns and prayers sung in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic, as well as English.

Spain, Portugal swelter as April temperature records broken (Reuters) Mainland Spain and Portugal have broken temperature records for April, as the Iberian neighbours swelter in an early-season heatwave that has exacerbated a long drought in some regions. Spain’s southern city of Cordoba registered 38.8 Celsius (101.8 Fahrenheit) at its airport on Thursday. In neighbouring Portugal, the temperature in the central town of Mora reached 36.9 C, breaking the record of 36.0 C set in April 1945, its weather agency said. Temperatures started dropping on Friday in Portugal but the heatwave persisted in parts of Spain.

They Refused to Fight for Russia. The Law Did Not Treat Them Kindly. (NYT) An officer in the Federal Guard Service, which is responsible for protecting Russian President Vladimir Putin, decided last fall to avoid fighting in Ukraine by sneaking across the southern border into Kazakhstan. The officer, Maj. Mikhail Zhilin, disguised himself as a mushroom picker, wearing camouflage and carrying a couple of small bottles of cognac so that he could douse himself and then act drunk and disoriented if he encountered the Russian border patrol. In the dark, the lean, fit major navigated across the forested frontier without incident, but he was arrested on the other side. “He had these romantic notions when he first began his military-academic studies,” his wife said, "but everything soured when the war started.” Zhilin is among the hundreds of Russian men who faced criminal charges for becoming war refuseniks since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. In 2022, 1,121 people were convicted of evading mandatory military conscription, according to statistics from Russia’s Supreme Court, compared with an average of around 600 in more recent years. In addition, criminal cases have been initiated against more than 1,000 soldiers, mostly for abandoning their units. In theory, Russian law allows for conscientious objectors performing alternative service, but it is rarely granted.

Tense face-off: Philippines confronts China over sea claims (AP) A Chinese coast guard ship blocked a Philippine patrol vessel steaming into a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, causing a frightening near-collision in the latest act of Beijing’s aggression in the strategic waterway. The high seas face-off April 23 between the larger Chinese ship and the Philippine coast guard’s BRP Malapascua near Second Thomas Shoal was among the tense moments it and another Philippine vessel encountered in a weeklong sovereignty patrol in one of the world’s most hotly contested waterways. The disputed shoal is about 194 kilometers (121 miles) west of the Philippine island province of Palawan.

Sudan crisis risks becoming a nightmare for the world—former PM Hamdok (BBC) Sudan’s former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has warned that the conflict in his country could become worse than those in Syria and Libya. The fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would be a “nightmare for the world” if it continued, he said. “This is a huge country, very diverse ... I think it will be a nightmare for the world,” he said. “This is not a war between an army and small rebellion. It is almost like two armies—well trained and well armed.” Mr Hamdok—who served as prime minister twice between 2019 and 2022—added that the insecurity could become worse than the civil wars in Syria and Libya. Those wars have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, created millions of refugees and caused instability in the wider regions. Both factions fear losing power in Sudan, partly because on both sides there are men who could end up at the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed in the Darfur region almost 20 years ago.

A listener’s openness reveals a culture of giving (CSM) There’s a prevailing narrative in Western media about much of the African continent. It’s one of instability and perpetual want, of resources awaiting plunder by outsiders, of self-determination only in pockets. That misses a lot. For the Monitor, contributor Nick Roll delivered a counternarrative: a story of generosity and agency. Through an international aid organization, he learned of an effort in the village of Chadakori, Niger, to integrate refugees fleeing political violence in neighboring Nigeria. It isn’t a perfect arrangement, says Nick. “But then at the same time, everyone I talked to, they didn’t regret opening their doors, opening their villages to these refugees,” Nick says. “You know, if you go out looking for stories of death and destruction, you’re going to find them,” he says. “If you go looking for these stories of resilience or generosity amid really harsh conditions, people will recognize what you’re doing. People are aware of how they’ve been portrayed [before] ... and they trust somebody who is looking to do something differently.”