Good morning, readers!

On this day in 1945, the US bomber Bockscar dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. This followed the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, which failed to elicit a surrender from the Japanese Empire.

Japan announced its surrender six days later, on August 15.

Today’s geopolitics hotspots:

A London wall becomes a battleground

A group of young Chinese artists painted CCP slogans promoting the country’s “core socialist values” over existing street art on a graffiti wall in London’s Brick Lane.

But they were soon covered by anti-China messages, starting a graffiti war between CCP supporters and critics.

✍🏻 Rapid Fact Check:

•  Slogans: These include words like “democracy”, “freedom,” and “rule of law,” but their meaning and implementation in China are entirely different. The slogans erased some existing artworks, including a tribute to the late street artist Marty—angering the local artists and critics of the CCP.

• Purpose: The original creators of the slogans claimed that they were “a group of free-spirited Chinese artists” who wanted to display their freedom of expression and challenge the “false freedom of the West.”

🗓️ Timeline:

• August 5: The slogans, consisting of 24 large Chinese characters outlining the country’s 12 “core socialist values”, are spray-painted.

• August 6: The slogans are overlaid with new graffiti that denounces the CCP's crackdown in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet, as well as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

• August 7: The graffiti is completely painted over in white paint by an unknown party. Later that day, the wall was filled with new signs, slogans, and posters about China again, with many people coming to take photos.

• August 8: The wall is whitewashed again.

📚 Context: 

• Values: China’s “core socialist values” are a set of interpretations of Chinese socialism that was proposed at the 18th National Congress of the CCP in 2012.
  
  ◆ prosperity
  ◆ democracy
  ◆ civility
  ◆ harmony
  ◆ freedom
  ◆ equality
  ◆ justice
  ◆ the rule of law
  ◆ patriotism
  ◆ dedication
  ◆ integrity
  ◆ friendship

All-female sleeper cell uncovered

On Tuesday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has announced the dismantling of a sleeper cell of all-female spies operating in the Donetsk region. It had allegedly been leaking sensitive intelligence to Russia’s intelligence services as well as the Wagner PMC.

✍🏻 Rapid Fact Check:

• Arrests: SBU announced that it arrested three women, all living in the city of Pokrovsk, as they were “conducting reconnaissance”.

• Mission: Their primary mission involved identifying flight paths of Ukrainian aircraft and relaying this data to their handlers in Moscow. They were also interested in the movements of Ukrainian heavy armored vehicles to the frontline.

• Method: The spies roamed specified zones, capturing photographs of Ukrainian facilities and targets. Then they transmitted the classified information to Moscow through secure private chats on a popular messaging app.

• Leader: There's also a ring leader that is currently hiding in Russia, who at the beginning of the war relocated to Russia to coordinate her team remotely.

📚 Context: 

• Affiliation: The female agents simultaneously operated under Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and Prigozhin's Wagner PMC.

• Group: The group consisted exclusively of local women who supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• Sleeping: The spies were recruited prior to the war “and until recently were on standby.”

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