New preamble:

Palestinian resistance groups have launched an operation in and around Gaza to fight the genocidal settler state oppressing them. Thousands of rockets have been launched towards the so-called state of Israel, overwhelming the Iron Dome. Settlers and the troops protecting them are being killed in the settlements surrounding Gaza, with many caught by surprise in the first few hours of the operation.

Palestinians are taking many Israeli settlers and soldiers hostage and bringing them back to Gaza. An Israeli general, Nimrod Aloni, has been confirmed captured. Palestinians are also taking military and civilian equipment back. Drones and MANPADS appear to be in use, and a number of Merkava tanks have been destroyed/disabled and their occupants removed and taken hostage. Palestinian forces appear to be heading in two main directions so far: southeast in the direction of Be'er Sheva, and along the coast in the direction of Ashkelon, but settlements all around Gaza have been assaulted and taken. It is obviously unknown how far they intend to go, or what their intermediate goals are.

Israel is bombing the Gaza Strip with aircraft, destroying buildings. It appears that their intelligence on the location of Palestinian forces outside of Gaza is very poor, and haven't been able to meaningfully strike them. Netanyahu has given a statement declaring that Israel is in a state of war. Iran has issued statements in support of the uprising, and Israel has responded with hostility to those comments. In all, the IDF appears to still be in a shockingly bad state hours after the assault began.


Old preamble on Antarctica:

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Much of the information for this news post, including both the images in the preamble, came from this article at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which has been circulating in the media lately.

Image has been taken from this article.


Antarctica has had a uniquely bad year.

While the sea ice extent in the last 50 years or so has been very gradually declining, it has done so very slowly on average - by 0.1% per decade. This began to change in 2016:

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Even so, this year is different, showing a remarkable decrease in the maximum sea ice extent. It is unconfirmed (I think) but this year may be the first in which the maximum extent fails to reach 17 million square kilometers - and is more than one million square kilometers lower than the previous record low maximum in 1986.

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The fall in sea ice has been linked by some researchers to warming in the uppermost ocean layer caused by lateral and upward mixing of warmer water. The ocean is a gigantic heat sink, and has been absorbing much of the excess heat that humanity has generated via the greenhouse effect. But put enough heat into a heat sink and it will eventually fill up.

These changes in sea ice extent is no mere abstract climate worry or scientific curiosity. It is having a direct, catastrophic impact on the Antarctic's ecosystem. Emperor penguin colonies have had trouble breeding, so much so that:

...there is high probability that no chicks had survived last year in four of the five known emperor penguin colonies in the central and eastern Bellingshausen Sea. This was because the sea ice had melted well before chicks would have developed waterproof feathers. ... Today's report says about one-third of the 62 known emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica were affected by partial or total sea ice loss between 2018 and 2022.

And, last year, scientists conducted a study on the two plants that are able to grow near Antarctica, looking at a single Antarctic island for simplicity, and found that the populations of these plants had exploded in the last decade - growing as much in the last decade as they had in the last 50 years - due to rising air temperatures. It was warm enough for the scientists to wear shorts and remove their shirts.


The Country of the Week is Syria! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.


Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

The weekly update is here!

Links and Stuff

The bulletins site is down.

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can.


Resources For Understanding The War


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.


Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

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

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.


Last week's discussion post.


  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
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    1 year ago

    Part 6

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    Nicaraguan court hands down prison sentences to two women opposing Ortega.MP

    A report by a US embassy in Paraguay discusses trying to influence President Pena to curb China's increasing presence in the country.SCMP Paraguay and the US have extended an agricultural trade deal until 2025.MP

    An article on Trinidad and Tobago, the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the Caribbean.TS The European Commission has proposed classifying them as a non-cooperative country in the fight against illegal fishing.TS

    Venezuela has evicted over 14,000 illegal miners from Yapacana Park.TS The Venezuelan Amazon reforestation plan has begun.TS Maduro has met with the Qatar Foreign Minister to cooperate on stuff.TS Venezuela and Guyana are fighting over their disputed territory again.TS


    War:

    How America Hides the Human Toll of its Forever Wars
    Avoiding the War on Terror Would Have Saved Over 10 Million Lives at Home and Abroad
    Seymour Hersh: A Year of Lying About Nord Stream
    A book by Sam Roggeveen of the Lowy Institute, "The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace", which argues that Australia doesn't need submarines and military ties with America and instead proposes aggressive diplomacy and the creation of defenses to turn the continent into a spiky echidna (like the West is trying to do with Taiwan).RS

    Chinese commentators are obviously rather dismissive of the US's recent rhetoric in the PacificCGS, going over the countries' colonial legacies.CGTN China, Japan, and South Korea have agreed to revive their summit at the "earliest convenient time".SCMP Taiwan has unveiled its first domestically manufactured submarine.DW The PLA conducted ground exercises on their side of the Taiwan Strait.GT The US has recognized two Pacific nations, the Cook Islands and Niue, to counter China.DW The Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands has called on the US to show more respect to Pacific leaders.PD China and the Philippines had an incident in the South China Sea to do with a barrier being removedSCMP or something, I don't fucking know.CGS China has sent its security chief to Germany for talks.SCMP Turns out that Western companies are rather reluctant to actually start decou--derisking from China.FT

    The Czech government wants to buy 24 F-35s from the US.CGTN the US is to loan Poland $2 billion for military modernization.DW The Marshall Plan: first as tragedy, then as farce. An NPR report on how depleted uranium really isn't that bad is, uh, wrong.FAIR Gaetz tried to rally up support to ban sending cluster munitions to Ukraine once again, and once again failed by 160-269 (with, notably, 26 more Democrats than last time).RS Most Americans probably don't actually care about Ukraine either positively or negatively, let alone follow the conflict, and polls that suggest otherwise have obvious problems.FAIR Finland is making quiet deals with landowners to enable the military to build barriers on its border with Russia.RT

    Russia claims to have destroyed a German-crewed Leopard tank, whose occupants claimed to be from the Bundeswehr.CGTN Russia has sunk to a new low in its disinformation campaign by bringing back a commander from the dead that Ukraine truthfully said that it killed.DW Russia launched another wave of drone strikes.DW It's really funny at this point because the media writes like 30 articles whenever a Ukrainian drone manages to crashland into a fucking cabbage field in Crimea on its way to a depot that it would have mildly damaged anyway, but entire drone strike raids by Russia are covered by a few mainstream sites maximum, so you get this weird impression that Ukraine is somehow doing better than Russia in hitting key targets even though Russia has such a massive advantage that you may as well be comparing a pinprick to being stabbed by a broadsword. The IAEA has told Russia to leave the ZNPP, in a truly catastrophic blow for Putler.DW Putin met with one of the most senior former commanders of Wagner, Troshev, to discuss how best to use volunteer units in the Ukraine war.Euractiv

    An article on how NATO can't make negotiations with Russia. Not "there's no willingness or trust", but almost literally cannot. NATO doesn't really have the ability to enter into treaties because of its structure. Any negotiations will be between the US and Russia directly.NC Russia has formally withdrawn from the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, as Western members paralyzed the institution in the wake of the war in Ukraine.RS The American empire asks us to simultaneously believe that the war was completely unprovoked and that the war, just by pure coincidence, advances the strategic interests of the US.SP


    Labour:

    Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side

    The Writer's Guild of America has reached a tentative deal with studios after five months of striking.DW After a five day strike, Inghams Chickens’ workers win better pay and conditions.GL

    Canadian autoworkers ratify deal with Ford.GL Workers internationally are standing with US autoworkers.MR 7000 autoworkers at two more assembly plants walked off the job on Friday.LN The first tire plant workers to organize in 40 years have won a contract.LN Las Vegas-area hospitality workers vote by 95 percent to strike casinos at mass rally.WSWS Workers at Ontario, California Amazon facility to vote on joining Amazon Labor Union.WSWS French unions hold nationwide protest against police violence, with 80,000 people taking part.WSWS Thousands protest in Germany against the crisis in education, calling for substantial improvements.WSWS University and College Union (UCU) members at just 42 UK universities, less than a third of universities nationally, began another round of strikes Monday for five days over pay and conditions.WSWS 1,700 nurses have been on strike for eight weeks at the Robert Wood Johnson hospital complex in New Brunswick, New Jersey.PW Food delivery workers in New York City must be paid at least $18 per hour, Acting Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Moyne ruled on Thursday.RT New York City school bus workers form rank-and-file committee.WSWS Sri Lanka workers begin sit-in strike at government-owned company to defend jobs.WSWS

    Under new contract, former UPS air drivers in Northern Virginia working in record heat for nearly 50 percent less pay.WSWS The NYT has platformed one of the largest union-busting firms in the country.FAIR Scabs have been deployed at GM parts distribution centers.LN Quebec unions plot betrayal of contract struggle of 650,000 public sector workers.WSWS


    Left and Right:

    Germany bans neo-Nazi group Artgemeinschaft for indoctrination of children.DW Police Seek a Radio Silence That Would Mute Critics in the Press

    I Was the Only US Official Imprisoned Over the Torture Program — Because I Opposed It

    Jacobin interviews Jeremy Corbyn, where he compliments Chris Smalls, talks about Thatcher and her legacy, the impact of unions and why he believes them to be the future, how the Green Industrial Revolution should be pro-worker rather than guilt-tripping people, and why the Left should be for negotiations and peace in the conflict in Ukraine (even if they hate Russia).Jacobin^ Jacobin also talks about the lessons of Orban crushing the Left; somebody with more knowledge can dunk on it if they want (or perhaps Jacobin has achieved a rare W).Jacobin

    A piece on the Israeli Communist Party.RNN

    Sánchez asks EU socialists to follow ‘Spanish example’ to stop far-right in June 2024.Euractiv

    All Black feminisms ain’t created equal
    Decolonising development with Frantz Fanon
    There Is No Middle Class