Well, Iran and their allies' response may happen sometime this week and apparently they aren't talking to the US in order to negotiate how and where they will hit Israel (and Shoigu arrived in Tehran rather auspiciously), the Bangladeshi government just fell, F16s have been given to Ukraine, there are fascist riots in the UK, and Japan just had its worst stock fall since 1987 and seems to be taking several other countries/corporations with it. I don't really know where to look right now.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Iraq! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The bulletins site is here!
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Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
When Biden was the candidate, I did not want him to win. Because if he did win, what that would signal is that you can openly commit a genocide and not pay a price for it. The movement for the liberation of Palestine in the US would not only lose the gains that have been made, but we would actually probably be rendered completely irrelevant for the next decade plus. The movement would be decimated.
But everything I have seen over the last ~6 weeks has shown me that the pro-Palestine movement has the Democrats and AIPAC scared. We are on the offensive. I don’t believe Biden’s dementia is what did him in. I think his pushing for genocide against the wishes of his base eroded his support with that base, and that’s why no one was there to stand up for him in the end.
You know AIPAC fully pushed for Shapiro. Because AIPAC, as an extension of the Zionist entity itself, is just as incapable of reading the room as the Zionist entity. Maximal support for Israel is demanded by them, no matter the cost. Support Israel even if costs you electorally. AIPAC needed to show who was in charge here, and they didn’t get their way. Now it could have been that Harris wanted Shapiro but the baggage got to be too much. But the reason itself doesn’t matter, what matters is that the public and democrat politicians saw that the Zionist guy got snubbed.
Which is why I want to see how Harris ends up campaigning on Gaza. If she ends up saying all the right things, while obviously I would want her to follow through… even if she doesn’t follow through but still wins, that’s a big win for us. That shows the democrats feel they need to at least bend a knee towards the cause of Palestinian liberation. It shows every other politician that even a god (the Israeli lobby) can bleed. I’m not in a swing state so my vote doesn’t matter and I have some other personal reasons for voting PSL, but if I was in a swing state I would at least keep the option open of voting for Harris/Walz with a fully sufficient platform regarding Gaza.
Full disclosure: I think there will be no revolutionary potential in the US without pressure from outside the country. In addition to the moral issues involved with Palestinian liberation, a free Palestine would be a major blow to US hegemony. So that’s one reason I prioritize it. I would vote for any politician who credibly pushed for the ending of the blockade against Cuba, for example.
Kamala has been on board since day one and Walz cancelled a meeting with Gazan families after learning that they had actual demands instead of just being a good photo op. Israel will still get support, AIPAC want politicians to be openly enthusiastic about it too.