Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.

After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.

There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.

The weekly update is here on the website.

Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday 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 Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.

The Country of the Week is Laos! 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.

  • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    The IDF is kettling Gazans in Khan Younis into the LAX-sized Al-Mawasi on the Meditraian. Al-Muwasi is mostly wasteland. Like Gaza - it's also a strip of land that surreally looks like Gaza itself. CNN apparently does not have spellcheck technology. They misspelled it as Al-Muwasi. Clowns.

    Israeli military tells Khan Younis residents to evacuate to area with few facilities on the coast

    The Israeli military has instructed residents of much of Khan Younis, the second-largest city in the Gaza Strip, to evacuate to the Al-Muwasi area, a strip of land with few facilities on the coast, as well as specified blocks shown on an IDF interactive map.

    The Israel Defense Forces said:

    "The general instruction for residents is to move to the Al-Muwasi area, as well as blocks updated in the IDF interactive map published last week.” The military was responding Saturday to a CNN inquiry about where people should go. Earlier, the IDF issued what it called "an urgent appeal" for civilians to leave much of the area in and around Khan Younis where fierce fighting is underway.

    In a post on ‘X,’ the IDF’s spokesperson for Arab media, Avichay Adraee, urged residents of the "neighborhoods of Al-Katiba, Al Mahatta, and the city center in Khan Younis Governorate” to evacuate.

    Adraee specified five blocks (47, 55, 104 – 106) on the map published by the IDF.

    “We call on you to leave where you are urgently and go toward known shelters west of Khan Younis,” he said.

    It’s unclear how many people might be aware of the instruction given the lack of communications networks and internet availability in much of Gaza. It’s also unclear what shelters Adraee is referring to. CNN has reached out to the IDF for further clarification.

    Al-Muwasi is a strip of some 20 square kilometers on the coast.

    A statement last month by United Nations agencies and humanitarian groups such as Care International, Mercy Corps and the World Health Organization, said the area could not function as a safe zone until all sides pledged not to fight there.

    Al-Muwasi is largely open land but has already seen an influx of people trying to escape from the fighting.

    - CNN

    ---

    Edit

    At least 10 Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

    An Israeli air strike hit a house earlier today, killing at least 10 Palestinians and injuring dozens more, WAFA news agency reported citing medical sources. An unconfirmed number of people remain missing under the rubble in the west of Khan Younis. The city, now hosting tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced by fighting in northern Gaza, has endured relentless shelling from the Israeli military.

    - Al Jazeera

    • ziggurter [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Al Mawasi! That's the place they were tying to get Palestinians to crowd into even back when they were first trying to force people to evacuate northern Gaza. I knew it wasn't Khan Yunis (or, I guess, not Khan Yunis generally, if Al Mawasi is a part of it). I'd heard that way back near the start of Israel's "ground operation", but couldn't remember the name.

      • InevitableSwing [none/use name]
        ·
        1 year ago

        The Israelis are in the middle of doing Old Testament wrath. Once there's a sizable number of Gazans crammed into Al Mawasi suffering and managing to stay alive in tents in the wasteland with very little food and water - I'm certain the Israelis will bomb it. Biden will say he's "very concerned" about the situation and the majority of Americans won't use their critical thinking skills and connect the dots.

        • ziggurter [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yep. I was kind of wondering if they want them all right on the coast like that to put them right in the crosshairs of Israeli ships or something.

          That Old Testament god sure was a petty and jealous little shit, wasn't he? One might say paranoid, even. I guess when you insist on recognizing only a single deity and even hs is a fascist....