Image is of the Te Pati Maori (Maori Party) cofounders, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. They have 6 of the 123 seats in the New Zealand parliament.

Officially confirming that the Republican primaries were a gigantic waste of time for everybody involved, Trump has massively beat everybody else in Iowa, and will very obviously be the Republican candidate for 2024. Given the abysmal state of the US economy (for everybody who isn't in the top 1-10%, which is mainly what national statistics reflect when they aren't telling blatant falsehoods), it's more plausible than ever that Trump may indeed once again become President - though I personally refuse to predict one way or another due to how volatile politics and geopolitics currently are. Project 2025 is coming, folks - either as the official Republican governance program, or as what the Democrats will do in 2026 after the midterms, stating that they have no other choice and have to reach across the aisle as they are the Adults In The Room™.

In other news...

Late last year, New Zealand voted in a new and very right-wing government, composed of the center-right National Party, the libertarian ACT Party (ACT stands for the "Association of Consumers and Taxpayers", good lord), and the fascist New Zealand First party. By what I can tell, this was the well-trodden path of "Vaguely center-left party does neoliberal austerity and causes a recession and workers fucking hated it and voted in a different party out of desperation," though the flooding and cyclones did add challenges to Chris Hipkins' short reign after Jacinda Ardern resigned.

It's worth noting that Hipkins was at least fairly China-friendly, meeting up with Xi Jinping on a five-day visit in the summer. They still do the whole "We have concerns about human rights" thing, but of all the countries of the imperial core, New Zealand is - or, perhaps, was - one of the most amicable. In 2021, China was New Zealand's single largest trading partner, with a third of exports going to China (more than Australia, the US, Japan, and South Korea combined), and they receive 22% of their imports from China too, more than any other single country.

Christopher Luxon, the new Prime Minister and sentient thumb, has said that he is exploring a closer relationship with AUKUS:

Luxon said New Zealand was interested in becoming involved in AUKUS Pillar 2: a commitment between the three partners to develop and share advanced military capabilities, including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonics.

“We’ll work our way through that over the course of next year as we understand it more and think about what the opportunities may be for us,” Luxon said. “AUKUS is a very important element in ensuring we’ve got stability and peace in the region.”

This is not to say that Hipkins wanted nothing to do with AUKUS or Western organizations aimed generally against China - in fact, pre election, "he was open to conversations about joining Pillar II of AUKUS". But the current government is pushing down on the accelerator pedal.

The left-wing Maori party, Te Pati Maori, has stated that they want New Zealand to remain non-aligned, as joining AUKUS would erode the sovereignty of the country:

As Maori we cannot allow our sovereignty to be determined by others, whether they are in Canberra or Washington. Aotearoa should not act as Pacific spy base in the wars of imperial powers. Joining AUKUS will severely undermine our country’s sovereignty, constitution, and ability to remain nuclear free. There is too much at stake for our government to make a commitment of this magnitude without a democratic process.

In general, the party leaders of Te Pati Maori want New Zealand to be the "Switzerland of the Pacific", which is perhaps not the greatest analogy given all the problems Switzerland had and has, but we understand the intended meaning of desiring neutrality.

The Country of the Week is New Zealand! 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.

  • voight [he/him, any]
    ·
    1 year ago
    PM Modi consecrates controversial Ram temple in Ayodhya, declares “new era” for India
    the scoop 🤢

    Following the demolition of the mosque in 1992, over 2,000 people, the majority of whom were Muslims, were killed in the sectarian violence that followed the events of December 6.

    The demolition of the mosque is considered a turning point in Indian history— with the ascendance of Hindu nationalism to the political mainstream, and with it, a decisive departure from the values of secularism enshrined in the Indian constitution.

    Three decades later, with the BJP in power at the center, the foundation stone of the temple in Ayodhya was laid by the head of government in a country where there is no official state religion.

    • People's Dispatch
    Venezuela’s Defense Ministry: US DEA & CIA Linked to 5 Terrorist Plots (+Statement)
    the scoop 🕴️

    “Throughout 2023 and the beginning of 2024, we have seen with indignation that the Venezuelan far-right, with the shameless support of the [US] Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has taken up the worn-out script of coups, interference, and interventionism in Venezuela,” wrote Defense Minister Padrino

    Prensa FNAB on Twitter

    In a confession presented this Tuesday by Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab, one of the leaders of the recent coup plots, Army Captain Anyelo Heredia, revealed that at the beginning of January, the far-right politician María Corina Machado was named as part of the coup plot along with far-right “influencers” based abroad, including Tamara Sujú, Wender Villalobos, Norbey Marin, María Barraez, Mario Carratú Molina, and José Antonio Colina.

    Arrest warrants were issued for the suspects. Many also expect that Interpol Red Notices will be issued, as many of them live in the United States. For unknown reasons, the name of María Corina Machado was redacted from the confession video released by the Public Ministry, with the audio and the caption being censored. However, it is clear from a cursory viewing of the video that the edited name was that of María Corina Machado.

    • Orinoco Tribune
    How Pakistan and Iran neatly tackled their terror threats
    the scoop 🤔🗺️🕵️‍♂️

    On Friday, Islamabad extended an olive branch to Tehran by indicating its willingness to collaborate with them on "all issues." Although Iran’s longstanding security concerns were not explicitly mentioned, credible sources reveal a significant development.

    Insiders🤔🆗 inform The Cradle that Pakistan's powerful military has already approved a "combined border surveillance mechanism" to track and engage Jaish al-Adl's anti-Iran operations from Pakistani soil.

    [...]

    Amid the hostilities last weekend, China offered to facilitate dialogue between Iran and Pakistan, considering its considerable economic and geopolitical interests in both countries. Khattak emphasizes Beijing’s concern over South Asian instability and its impact on the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI):

    “China was active from day one but Chinese diplomacy could not stop Pakistan from retaliating because a predominantly Sunni Pakistan was targeted by Shia Iran and the Pakistani military had to prove to the people of Pakistan that they are not weak. Additionally, Islamabad was under ‘immense pressure’ to return a stern reply and, importantly, Pakistan wanted to show the neighbors, especially the Taliban, not to mess with Pakistan.”

    What is noteworthy is that neither Iran nor Pakistan activated their air defense systems to intercept the rockets that struck their territory. Equally astonishing is the recent revelation that Iranian missiles targeted Iranian individuals, while Pakistani missiles exclusively targeted Pakistani Balochis, with no damage inflicted upon civilian and military facilities in either country.

    Moreover, the stalemate was resolved through a mutual gesture of goodwill between the two neighbors within 48 hours, without the need for any external mediation. These aspects fuel suspicions that the events were premed

    • The Cradle
      • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        they will fill in the context with assumptions.

        this is why it always helps to actually, y'know, read stuff. at a minimum, remembering articles from more than a week ago. but then they probably wouldn't be liberals.

        I read comments convinced that the countries tanked relations with each other and were careening into war for absolutely no fucking reason. It's kind of analogous to AI hallucinations, in a way: GIGO.

        luckily, I knew just enough about Iran-Pakistan relations (not exactly besties, but very far from hostile) to know that they obviously weren't about to go to war, leading me to be very confused when people, predominately liberals, were speculating whether the mutual strikes would eventually lead to war, to the point where I wondered if there was something they knew that I didn't. fortunately, it seems that it was the other way around.

        striking the territory of a power armed with nuclear missiles always makes you hold your breath for a second, but it's not some novel concept. Ukraine's been doing it to Russia for years now. hell, they've technically (on a very small scale) invaded a nuclear power on territory that they both agree is Russian.

      • voight [he/him, any]
        ·
        1 year ago

        For real, I showed this article to a lotta people to get them to chill for a second, but why was that necessary?

        Like, really no joke, 2 different ppl were comparing this to Russia and Ukraine suddenly "starting to commit atrocities against each other" as one put it

        We have clearly learned nothing from the past 2 years but it's okay. It had to start at some point. Maybe I will really sink my claws into people over ignoring the torture issues when the smoke really clears, instead of now when it's just unambiguously starting to be over. Silly me trying to give other people a head start.