Image is of Yemen seizing the first ship in its blockade of Israel (the Galaxy Leader) with a helicopter raid.

Alternate title: What If It Was The Bab El-Womandeb And It Was Just For The Ladies?

Ansarallah is a key component of the broader Resistance movement, backed by Iran, and has been a stalwart member in engineering the ongoing collapse of Zionism. It has steadily escalated both its rhetoric and, rarely nowadays, its actions, proving that the mythical "red line" might actually exist in the world after all, after going MIA in both Russia and China. It has been striking first Israel-owned ships heading through the Bab el-Mandeb - the strait that leads into the Red Sea and then to the Suez Canal - and, recently, has demonstrated its promise that any ships that intend to dock in Israel will be attacked. While this is really only half a blockade, the cost of going around Africa is significant, and Western insurance companies really don't like it when their ships get blasted by missiles and drones. Several shipping companies have already stated their intention to alter/stop shipping routes through the Red Sea, trying to prompt the West to find a "solution".

Despite US naval presence in the area, Yemen possesses the ability to strike the oil refining facilities of the Gulf monarchies, leaving the US in a very difficult position. If they attack Yemen, then not only do Western ships risk being attacked directly, but those oil refineries may go up in smoke depending on if they help the West - and global oil prices will skyrocket, in an already declining world economy - and it might cost several Western leaders their leadership positions, including Biden himself. A regional war could ultimately tumble into worldwide chaos.

Equally, however, the US cannot afford to lose Israel. It is the single most important American imperial outpost, perhaps alongside Taiwan. If Zionism is destroyed as a local destabilizing influence, then the Russia-China-Iran axis will find itself in a leadership position over the region. Israeli military losses in Gaza increase every single day as they advance further into the labyrinth death trap under the obligation to show some kind of military victory, with Hamas' strategy of attrition taking its toll. And Hezbollah sits there, having destroyed most of the border infrastructure, silently threatening the obliteration of Israel's infrastructure under the rain of a hundred thousand missiles.

As world attention gradually shifts away from the Gaza genocide, we continue to approach the brink.

The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Saturday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.

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

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]
    ·
    1 year ago

    The package of measures to be announced by Javier Milei (Spanish Only)

    The President will speak on national TV to detail the scope of the decree that will repeal laws such as the Rent and Supply laws, modify labor regulations and open the privatization process of State-owned companies. Afterwards, he will send to Congress a series of economic emergency projects, such as the return of the Income Tax for workers and a new law for the "blanqueo".

    Coincidence or timing, Javier Milei will unveil the mystery behind his austerity package possibly on the same day that leftist social organizations will march against its consequences in downtown Buenos Aires. It will be through a national chain, the first of his term of office. The versions indicate that the President will explain this Wednesday the scope of the economic deregulation decree.

    The Decree of Necessity and Urgency will include from the repeal of dozens of laws to a labor reform. It will be, however, the first step of a two-step movement: first the DNU, and then the package of economic emergency bills that will be sent to the Chamber of Deputies between Thursday and Friday. There will be the core of the reforms that Milei wants to pass before the honeymoon period of his government and the citizenship expires, before the resistances deepen.

    The President will deliver his message in the afternoon, although there was no official confirmation at the time of going to press. It will be a message explaining -and justifying- the Decree of Necessity and Urgency which will include more than 500 articles. Part of it will be oriented to the repeal of several laws regulating the economy (most of them enacted to avoid abuses by the market), such as the Rent Law and the Supply Law. A group of officials of La Libertad Avanza, including the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and the former head of the Central Bank, Federico Sturzenegger, collaborated in the drafting of the bill.

    The other leg will be the labor reform, which will not pass through Congress as some unions were demanding. The changes will include the replacement of severance payments by severance funds -which will be, according to LLA, "voluntary"-, as well as the elimination of fines for improperly registered (or unregistered) work. It is speculated, in turn, that the DNU will also include the first step for the privatization of some of the State-owned companies. That is to say: to modify their status to that of corporations.

    The DNU, however, will only be the initial step. The first sample of the tenor of the adjustment program that Javier Milei plans for the beginning of his government. Between Thursday and Friday it will take on its full dimension, when the Executive will send to Congress the package of economic emergency measures which, this time, will have to be supported by the opposition in order to be implemented. The two main axes of this package will be the reversal of the Income Tax reform and a new law for the "blanqueo" (laundering of taxpayers' money).

    The Congressional bidding

    "There are measures that are not friendly and there is no other choice. But when the President takes this kind of emergency measures to reverse the extremely serious situation in which we find ourselves, we know that they will be temporary, they will not last 40 years". Martin Menem's phrase resounded in the lower chamber of the Chamber of Deputies, a couple of hours after the governors' meeting in Casa Rosada.

    During a toast with journalists, the President of the Lower House was referring to the package of initiatives that will enter the Congress between Thursday and Friday. But not just any law, but those which, going against everything Milei had said during the campaign, would condense the core of the "economic emergency". That is to say: the restitution or increase of taxes, that which the libertarian economist had defined as a "robbery" on numerous occasions.

    The main focus of conflict will be the restoration of the income tax for the fourth category: a reversal of the reform that Sergio Massa had led during the campaign and that Milei himself had supported. The libertarian government's horizon is the zero deficit, so it will bet on increasing tax collection by lowering the non-taxable minimum (which with the reform had been set at 15 minimum wages). It will be ideologically uncomfortable for Milei and, furthermore, it is not entirely clear that he will have the numbers to approve it, because Unión por la Patria has already expressed its opposition and, at the same time, several provincial blocks are reluctant to vote for it. On the other hand, many governors asked for the co-participation of 50 percent of the check tax, but the bill, as far as this newspaper has learned, will not be included in the package of measures.

    There will be, on the other hand, other tax reforms -such as a modification of Bienes Personales or the increase of the PAIS tax-, but also others of an electoral political nature. This is the case of the elimination of the PASO and the implementation of the Single Paper Ballot (which had already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies), although LLA insists that the "priority" will be the economic laws. In turn, a law on money laundering will be included, although there will not be a draft Budget 2024. "To have a serious budget it is necessary to have serious variables, otherwise it is a drawing, as it has been so far. It is not the moment", stated from LLA, from where they bet on the extension of the Budget 2023 with the objective of liquefying the items based on inflation.

    Until the package of bills enters the front desk of the Chamber of Deputies -which is where the laws will be discussed-, LLA is sharpening its knives. Menem is gathering his troops, distributing functions -they need an economic spokesperson to defend the adjustment and they do not have many names, although Marcela Pagano's name is being mentioned- and negotiating places in the commissions with the opposition.

    With only 38 deputies of its own, the ruling party will be in the minority in all the committees, although it intends to be granted the chairmanship of the most important ones, those of governance, which will be the only ones to be convened during the extraordinary sessions: Budget, General Legislation, Constitutional Affairs and the Legislative Procedure for DNUs (bicameral). Menem fantasizes about starting to work next week, but the opposition doubts it: to some of them, he has barely answered the phone.