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.
does anyone know if theres any rulings in international law that allow hamas to fight in civilian clothing. I feel like i read something to that effect a while back but trying to google for it is impossible
who's gonna stop them fighting in civilian clothing 😭😭 there's no international fashion police
Obeying the laws of war dictates what you legally can and cannot do. This can be very important if you're taken prisoner by a state that respects the Geneva Conventions. Prisoners of war have many rights that protect their wellbeing; they need to be fed, clothed, sheltered, and given medical care. They have the right to a certain amount of self-governance while imprisoned. They cannot be tortured, and so forth. If you break the rules you can be tried as a criminal and lose most of those rights.
For an example how how important the laws and customs of war can be you can contrast how the Nazis treated Soviet prisoners vs how the Soviets treated Nazi prisoners. The difference is, to put it mildly, incredible. The Nazis exterminated Soviet Prisoners en mass while Nazis captured by the soviets were accorded the basic necessities to stay alive within the limits of the dire supply situation the ussr faced during the war. I believe the Nazi commander at Stalingrad went on the record that when he surrendered the Soviets treated the Nazi prisoners as well as was possible given the situation and almost all the Nazis who died in Soviet custody after Stalingrad were already starving and freezing to death and were beyondsaving given the supply situation.
The Soviets took the laws and customs of war very seriously even when facing the genocidal hitlerite forces, and despite the outright mass murder inflicted on Soviet prisoners. And that's important; Many Soviets fought to the bitter end knowing the Nazis would murder them if captured, while the survivng Nazi forces at Stalingrad largely surrendered. Sun Tzu talks about this; you always want to give your enemy a way out, a way to escape or surrender, because soldiers who know they cannot escape or that they will be tortured if captured will fight viciously to the last warrior, killing many of your troops and expending precious resources in the process.
Following the laws and customs of war isn't (just) about treating your enemies well, it's also about protecting your own troops, resources, and nation.
Very good post
It’s been a while since I studied it so memory could be wrong but basically the rules are different when you’re fighting as a state actor vs when you’re just an “armed combatant”.
The Geneva conventions govern the behaviour of state actors in armed conflict with other state actors which matters mostly for stuff like prisoners of war and the such. Also you are obliged to wear a uniform of some sort if you’re a state actor. Armed combatants aren’t protected to the same degree.
I would guess that what you’re remembering is that Hamas is technically not a state actor or signatory to the Geneva conventions and therefore allowed to not wear uniforms.
You can actually legally wear enemy uniforms (or if you're an old sailing ship fly an enemy flag) to sneak around as long as you remove the uniform and don your own uniform before entering combat.
Also, as far as I remember, parties to the convention are supposed to apply the convention to resistance fighters and soldiers from non-party states. A lot of the idea is that soldiers who are confident they will be treated well in captivity will surrender when their situation becomes hopeless, which will reduce the suffering and brutality of war somewhat. It's supposed to creat some semblance of good faith between armies so they don't immediately resort to maximum terror and total war. There's a lot of "if you promise not to torture our guys we promise not to torture your guys", sort of a mutual hostage situation.
Now, does anyone actually follow it?
I’m pretty sure there’s a material difference between how you have to treat enemy soldiers and enemy combatants (non state actors). Because the US had two sets of rules between Afghanistan (combatants) and Iraq (state actors), in Afghanistan it was only the Army handbook or whatever that they were legally obliged to follow whereas Geneva applied in Iraq.
Of course all international law is basically just unenforceable bs anyway, especially if you’re America
The US made up "unlawful enemy combatants" as a fig leaf to justify torture and flagrant violations of international law and of the laws and customs of war.
The behavior of the US, and NATO more broadly, routinely violates the laws and customs of war and shouldn't be considered normal. There have been, and are, states that abide by the laws and customs of war to a greater or lesser extent.
from what I remember of the Geneva Conventions what constitutes a "uniform" is not high bar. A simple colored arm band or a bandana as long as its recognizable (
) is sufficient to be considered a legal combatant
yeah its Article 4
spoiler
A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:
(1) Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.
(2) Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions:
(a) that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;
(b) that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;
(c) that of carrying arms openly;
(d) that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.
And actually it seems uniforms aren't even required for Gazans in this war as long as they carry arms openly, armed resistance is legal under international law:
(6) Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.
I haven't looked it up in a few years but I believe that the international laws of war do not require resistance fighters combatting occupation to identify themselves with uniforms.
You'll be looking for the international laws of armed conflict as they pertain to civilian armed resistance against unlawful invasion.