Image is of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Ansarallah.

The death of Zionism has just massively accelerated.

previous preamble

BRICS has expanded to include Ethiopia, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Argentina is currently experiencing technical difficulties due to the election of the ancap clown Milei - once he's out of office, maybe they can try again.

I don't really have much to say about this one way or another. BRICS has, so far, made only nervous and small steps towards challenging US hegemony. This isn't really that unexpected, as only China and Russia are the real "true believers" in ending US hegemony (and even then, China's government either believes, or is pretending to believe, that reconciliation is still possible). Brazil, India, and South Africa are less enthralled by the concept of dethroning the US, most especially India, who had to make a firm decision in 2023 whether they were going to be on the side of America, or on the side of the Global South, and chose the former, strengthening their military relationship. They're still best of friends with Russia, but they are very obviously the sussy imposter of the BRICS group.

The prospects of BRICS are only really loosely correlated with the prospects of multipolarism, though. It's not a process that hinges on BRICS's successes or failures. It is coming because the contender states (in Desai's terminology) are irreversibly rising, and the US is irreversibly falling. If it will not be BRICS that leads, it will be a different organization. A better world is not only possible, but inevitable - unfortunately for the US.

I'm taking a week off the updates because I've been swamped lately, and also feel the need to reconfigure (and find new) sources. Needless to say that I've grown tired of Financial Times headlines, even if they do represent the actual views of the bourgeoisie.

The Country of the Week is Ethiopia! 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.

  • 1000mH [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    US and Britain prepare to launch strikes against Houthi rebels | Financial Times

    The US and the UK are preparing strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea.

    The US is expected to lead the military response against the Houthis after the Yemen-based militant group began targeting vessels following Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

    UK prime minister Rishi Sunak was preparing on Thursday night to authorise strikes, with Britain acting as part of a US-led military coalition.

    Sunak convened a call of his cabinet ministers at 7.45pm following a meeting of the National Security Council, Whitehall insiders said.

    The Pentagon has drawn up options for targeted strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, including missile launch sites and weapons depots, according to US officials.

    Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said on Thursday he would not speculate on any future operations.

    The Houthis have carried out more than two dozen attacks on merchant ships in the past two months in the Red Sea, causing acute disruption along a critical maritime trade route.

    The Islamist rebels have become one of the most active factions in Iran’s so-called axis of resistance since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7.

    UK defence secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday he was in regular contact with allies in the Middle East.

    “We are all agreed and in one voice that this cannot continue,” he said of the Houthi rebels’ activities, adding: “We won’t allow it to continue.”

    For Sunak this is potentially the most serious military crisis involving British forces since he became prime minister in October 2022, even if the UK is expected to play a junior role in a US-led operation.

    Lord Kim Darroch, a former UK national security adviser, said: “Generally we contribute about 10 per cent of any joint operation. The French would normally be asked if they want to get involved.

    “The important thing is that we are part of any operation, rather than how much hardware we deliver.”

    The UK has two warships in the region, one of them HMS Diamond, which shot down seven of the 18 drones and missiles that the Houthis fired on Tuesday from areas that the group controls in Yemen.

    Should the US-led military operation go ahead, deploying British fighter jets to hit Houthi bases is thought to be one option. Firing Tomahawk cruise missiles from UK submarines is believed to be another option.

    anglo-burn

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      10 months ago

      rebels

      My brother in satan they are literally the government.

      from areas that the group controls in Yemen.

      Which is just, you know, Yemen,.

      • VILenin [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        This is KMT levels of delusion, except instead of an island the leaders all fled to an office in DC

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]
          ·
          10 months ago

          I'm told at one point the territory of teh "Yemeni Government" consisted of a couple of suites in a hotel in Riyahd.

          • VILenin [he/him]
            ·
            10 months ago

            The seat of the Yemeni government is actually located in MBS’ gaping asshole, but you tankies wouldn’t recognize that