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.
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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.
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It boils down to no one wanting to risk a nuclear war over Palestine or Ukraine. Israel is the only nuclear armed power in the region, and is more than prepared to use these weapons against their neighbours or any European states that oppose them with the Samson option, with full blessing from the United States, with a ton of warships and stealth aircraft in the region. This limits how Iran can retaliate.
Iran has the capabilities to hit Israel hard, but the consequences could be catastrophic. The same is also true to an extent for Israel, which is why Israel's response to Iran's April 13 attack on Israel was pretty much non existent. This is why Iran is meeting with senior Russian officials and trying to get more modern air defence systems in exchange for ballistic missiles, Iran's current air defence could easily be bypassed by Israeli and US stealth aircraft in a counter strike should the conflict expand. Israel has plenty of experience in evading S-300 air defence systems in Syria. But even if Iran gets modern Russian air defence systems, that still does not account for the nuclear factor. Israel has nuclear weapons, Iran does not. And Hezbollah will not attack without Iran. So Iran is taking time to consider all options and choose carefully.
In Ukraine, both Russia and NATO have nuclear weapons, which leads to stalemate on the ground. But Ukraine is not part of NATO, so they can be used as an attack vector, with the consequences of any attack Ukraine makes being isolated to Ukrainian territory. Even if the attack is carried out using NATO intelligence. This is also why the UN appeals about banning anti satellite weaponry are important. Russia could consider NATO member spy satellites as valid targets should they be used to help facilitate Ukrainian attacks against Russia.
So that's it then huh?
No one can fucking do anything?
The US can just do whatever it fucking wants and get away with it? No fucking consequences ever? They don't have to fear anything then right? Running victory laps around everyone. Are they already the world's first forever empire then?
What's the point of living if not the opportunity to
somewhere down the line just to hurt Americans even a ltitle?
Sorry the thought makes me angry. I just want them to face consequences for once. But I guess it's never happening.
Remember that, ultimately, Russia got to the point of launching the SMO. It took a lot. Basically a decade of fascists running Ukraine while it pretended to be a democracy. We have to wait the decades where nothing happens for the weeks where decades happen. I don't know when and I don't know how, but the forces of history will crush the imperialists.
The dark god of capital will weaken and be slain eventually. We just have to wait and suffer while it's still strong and seemingly unassailable.
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