Image is of Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, with Sudanese Foreign Minister, Maryam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi, at a news conference in Khartoum.


Russia, China, and the United States have been scrambling for Africa over the last year.

Lavrov has recently been to Mali, Mauritania, and Sudan. Last year, he went to South Africa, Eswatini, Angola, Eritrea, Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the PRC. I'm actually having trouble finding consistent lists, he's been zipping around so much. He's reinforced ties with Sudan and their Russian naval base, and South Africa is holding naval exercises with China and Russia.

Qin Gang, the new Chinese Foreign Minister, has been to Angola, Gabon, Benin, Egypt, and Ethiopia - notably, the first diplomatic tour he's been on since being appointed FM, as others before him (in a 30 year tradition).

Meanwhile, Janet Yellen has gone to Senegal, Zambia, and South Africa. And, of course, Biden invited leaders from all across Africa to the US-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022.


Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.

February 13th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.

February 14th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.

February 15th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.

February 17th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.

February 18th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.

Links and Stuff

Want to contribute?

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Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists

Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can, thank you.


Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins


Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)

Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.

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 fairly brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. The Duran, of which he co-hosts, is where the chuddery really begins to spill out.

On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.


Telegram Channels

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

Pro-Russian

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.

https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.

https://t.me/asbmil ~ Now rebranded as Battlefield Insights, they do infrequent posts on the conflict.

https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.

https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.

https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.

https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.

https://t.me/rybar ~ One of the really big pro-Russian (except when they're being pessismistic, which is often) telegram channels focussing on the war. Russian language.

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

Any Western media outlet that is even vaguely liberal (and quite a few conservative ones too).

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.


Last week's discussion post.


  • DoubleShot [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Politifact has an article right now titled "Fact checking claims about the Chinese spy balloon". A fact-checking website uncritically accepting it's a spy balloon is just :chefs-kiss:

    • mkultrawide [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Claim: The United States Government has shared no physical evidence that the alleged spy balloon contains any actual espionage technology.

      Politifact Rating: Well, OK, but here's the thing...

      • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
        ·
        2 years ago

        Rating: False

        It has a GPS device, which is nefarious on a weather balloon.

        • Nou1 [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Fact check: False

          It contained barometric sensors that could spy on American air pressure.

        • SoyViking [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Fact check: False

          US officials have said that it was a spy balloon which proves that it was.

    • WeedReference420 [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      This article has been fact checked by people who are teetering dangerously close to making a scene in a Chinese restaurant in the foreseeable future and found to be: True :maybe-later-honey: :maybe-later-kiddo:

    • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      how journalists could ever possibly believe that they're some kind of arbiters for truth and freedom is completely beyond me. you have to physically wrestle these people away from the boot to stop them from licking it

    • FortifiedAttack [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I remember one of those Fact Checkers stating "false" over a claim of AOC having $29 Million in assets. Regardless of the claim itself, the "fact check" just cited other fact checkers as sources, which in turn cited other fact checkers.

      But the hilarious thing was, when you actually went to look at her financial disclosure, it was so low it was almost criminal. Someone as popular as AOC, who makes $174k a year, is a Washington DC politician, and has been in office for 3 whole years, cannot possibly have less than $50k invested in her collective bank accounts and 401k.

      Yet, that's exactly what she claimed for 2021 and 2022. In addition to that, her boyfriend comes from a * very * wealthy family, and she somehow still has Student Loan debt ranking at around $50k, which has remained unchanged over all the years she's been in office.

      One does wonder where all that money keeps vanishing?

      • ElHexo
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        deleted by creator

        • FortifiedAttack [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Details aren't really known, but considering he owns a web user-experience consulting company, and has his own brand, it's safe to say he probably got a small insignificant loan of a few hundred thousand dollars (or maybe even millions) to get there.

          It's just so funny to see fact checkers adamantly insist that AOC's net worth is in the low tens of thousands, while they just kinda accept that her fiancée is valued in the millions.

    • MaoistLandlord [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      They deboonk claims about Hillary Clinton throwing babies in volcano as a sacrifice to the luciferian Jupiter moon just to jack themselves off as the pantheon of truth