Well, Iran and their allies' response may happen sometime this week and apparently they aren't talking to the US in order to negotiate how and where they will hit Israel (and Shoigu arrived in Tehran rather auspiciously), the Bangladeshi government just fell, F16s have been given to Ukraine, there are fascist riots in the UK, and Japan just had its worst stock fall since 1987 and seems to be taking several other countries/corporations with it. I don't really know where to look right now.
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 Iraq! 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
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.
This guy is fucking cooked, he's doing the DNC's job for them lmao
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I said it to someone else, but Trump's dream job is being head of state in a country with a prime minister/separate head of government. He isn't cut out for a presidential/single executive system.
That would be second-best to the ultimate arrangement: being a monarch in a parliamentary system. Mostly just there to vibe and make statements and be very rich. Still get to influence shit through wealth and backroom deals and your status but no expectation to govern things. Trump should be made the King of Denmark or whichever of the northern European countries still has monarchs nowadays. I think he'd look so fucking happy in a cape and with a crown and holding a golden scepter. I can imagine his great big beaming smile right now. He would fucking love to do that knighting ritual with the sword on the shoulder to the big important Republicans and media figures that worship him.
Duda leaned into the scepter bit a few months ago, Polish conservatives are pros at sucking up to Trump
IMO, President of Ireland is perfect for him: English-speaking country with a bunch of golf courses so he can just play golf and go to state dinners every day, plus he's commander-in-chief of a rinky dink military that will never see war but gives him an opportunity for the little photo ops he loves. I say we offer to let the Irish keep stealing our intellectual property and being a tax haven in return for making him president for life. UK would also work as king.
The way we get Trump to be less "socially conservative" is to banish nudity laws and regulations under the promise that he can just stay on his golden toilet all day and the cameras will come to him.
He never really wanted the responsibility of the job. The look on his face when he won in 2016 was hilarious. He just wanted to grift the hogs but clinton and the dems/media boosted him so much he actually won lmao
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This guy is saying a fucking cop is more radical than you and you're just going to sit there and take it?
You used to be cool man.
Literally Trump should be trying to force them into taking a public stance on Gaza and claiming that Kamala is less progressive than Bernie or Joe (or rather how progressive they claim Joe is), and instead he's doing this lol.
Yeah but I think Trump likes whipping his little piglets into a tizzy over the opposition being cOmMuNiStS and painting them as such because they're to the left of Hitler.
He does know Bernie Sanders was the most popular politician in the country for quite some time right?
A vote for Bart is a vote for anarchy
Look, this guy wants you to have healthcare!
Hens love roosters
Geese love ganders
Everyone else loves Bernie Sanders
Actual 2024 Bernie Sanders (not the one who lives rent-free in their heads) this is probably a true statement, sadly