Image is of Azerbaijan's President, Aliyev (left) and Armenia's President, Pashinyan (right) in a meeting a month or two after Azerbaijan took Nagorno-Karabakh.

  1. Never go to a second location.
  2. Always get the interior ministry post.
  3. Never get in a helicopter or any small aircraft.
  4. If someone with a gun enters your car, they’re gonna kill you.
  5. If someone tells you they’re not going to kill you, they’re calming you down to kill you later.
  6. Never give up your nukes.
  7. Never release the opposition's political prisoners.
  8. Never let the opposition delay elections.
  9. If someone starts to get into German runes, drop them.
  10. Never trust a South American with a German name.
  11. Never move anywhere for a religion.
  12. Never go into the sewers unless you’re a sewer guy.
  13. If someone’s trying to get you to commit a crime, they're FBI (sometimes CIA or military intelligence).
  14. Never become an FBI informant.
  15. If you do become an FBI informant, record everything.
  16. Never relinquish your arms.
  17. Always get it in writing.
  18. If you keep gambling, you’ll eventually win.
  19. Never talk to cops without a lawyer.
  20. Always pay your mercenaries.
  21. Don’t let anyone take your passport.

To add an addendum to rule 3, never put your President and Foreign Minister in the same helicopter or small aircraft. Especially if doing so in bad weather conditions. Especially if you're already under threat from a hostile nuclear power in the region with a proclivity for terrorism (though this probably isn't Israel's doing, in this particular case).

Anyway, Azerbaijan. Not a great country, I think. Did some genocides. They're a petrostate that is hosting Cop29, which I suppose is a way for the bourgeoisie to implicitly convey their contempt for the green movement. They got weapons from Israel, too.

Just for the record, there's an Iranian province called East Azerbaijan, which is not the same as Azerbaijan.

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 Azerbaijan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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]
    ·
    4 months ago

    Spain Fully Withdraws Its Ambassador From Argentina

    Javier Milei said that he would not apologize "under any circumstances," arguing that he was the one attacked by the Spaniards.

    On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Albares announced that Spain is withdrawing its ambassador from Buenos Aires following the diplomatic crisis sparked by Argentine President Javier Milei.

    After a meeting of the Council of Ministers, Albares noted that Argentina "will continue without an ambassador" since the situation has not changed, meaning Milei has not apologized for his remarks against Spanish President Pedro Sanchez and his wife Begoña Gomez.

    "For those who want to understand, cooperation is always more powerful than confrontation… Spanish institutions do not conduct politics, and much less foreign policy, through tweets nor do they participate in any show," Albares said.

    Previously, during an interview on the television channel LN+, Milei described the withdrawal of the Spanish ambassador from Buenos Aires as "nonsense."

    The diplomatic crisis between Spain and Argentina began on Sunday. At an event organized in Madrid by the far-right party Vox, Milei made statements implying, without directly saying it, that President Sanchez is "scum" and called his wife "corrupt."

    That same day, in an initial immediate reaction, the Spanish government summoned its ambassador in Buenos Aires, Maria Alonso, for consultations.

    "We are facing a case that is not only unique for this government but also in the history of international and diplomatic relations. There are no precedents of a head of state coming to the capital of another country to insult its institutions," Albares pointed out, highlighting that Milei made a "flagrant interference in internal affairs."

    "Ideas are debatable, but institutions, governments, and countries are not," said the Spanish Foreign Minister, who noted that Milei did not request any meetings with any Spanish institutions despite it being his first visit to Spain.

    Regarding the measures taken by the government, Albares recalled that there have been three during the three days of the diplomatic crisis: the summoning of the ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations, the summoning of the Argentine ambassador in Madrid, and today, the permanent withdrawal of the Spanish representative in that country.

    Albares emphasized that the Spanish government did not provoke the diplomatic impasse but is obliged to defend the "dignity and sovereignty of Spanish institutions."

    However, in an interview with the channel Todo Noticias, the Argentine president said he would not apologize "under any circumstances," arguing that he was the one attacked by the Spaniards.

    Pedro Sanchez "is such a coward that he needed to send women to hit me," Milei said, referring to statements made by Spanish Vice President Yolanda Diaz and Science Minister Diana Morant.

    • DEAD_YUCKY [any]
      ·
      4 months ago

      CAN YOU POST THE CONTENT OF THE ARTICLES BEHIND A SPOILER? WHEN YOU POST A FEW ARTICLES IN A ROW IT WOULD BE EASIER TO NAVIGATE THAT WAY

      • GinAndJucheM
        ·
        4 months ago

        You’ll read the news about the global south and you’ll enjoy it.

        Jk, my app always resets the threads I’ve closed and I feel you. I do like how there’s always a block of info though. It breaks up the shit posts.

      • Redcuban1959 [any]
        ·
        4 months ago

        bugs-no

        I'll put them behind spoilers if this annoys people too much.

    • SoyViking [he/him]
      ·
      4 months ago

      Pedro Sanchez "is such a coward that he needed to send women to hit me," Milei said

      Libertarians try not being misogynistic for five seconds challenge (impossible)

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

      So this is more "you came to our country, made no attempt to engage with the government, and did a speech for a bunch of literaly nazis" than just he talked shit about the president?