Image is sourced from this article.

It takes very little effort to find an article from Western state propaganda decrying Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas as authoritarian and rife with human rights abuses. This is the natural reaction the US has to any successful liberation movement. This fairly long report from Jason Cohen, a socialist who travelled to Nicaragua one week ago, should quell any suspicions.

He describes a country with high political consciousness among the masses, who are working to construct critical infrastructure for the country and their communities. There is a virtual education system that is free across the entire nation, which serves the dual goal of democratizing education and ensuring that those in rural areas or without much free time for university can still achieve degrees and a quality education; and these classes cover technical skills in the production of infrastructure and agriculture, but also political and ideological education in order to counter the fascist propaganda produced by imperialist nations abroad.

While Nicaragua is deeply invested in its nationality and national figures who led to their socialist revolution, such as Sandino, they are also immensely proud of their indigneous history, recognizing it as also part of their anti-colonial history which continues to the present day. Additionally, they honour the struggles of other nations on the continent, such as the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, as well as Castro in Cuba and Allende in Chile. Countries around the world are also celebrated and admired, such as Burkina Faso; during the Reagan administration, Nicaragua and Burkina Faso were comrades in arms, and now Traore is continuing the legacy of Sankara's anti-imperialism in the present. Perhaps most relevant today is their dedication towards Palestine, involving the creation of the Parque Palestina (shown in the post image), in which the Palestinian flag flies alongside the flag of Nicaragua. In July, Leila Khaled of the PFLP gave a speech in Nicaragua, in which the solidarity of the two nations was highlighted.

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 Nicaragua! 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

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.

  • carpoftruth [any, any]M
    ·
    2 months ago

    We've speculated a fair amount about the very measured approach of Iran to Israel - this negotiated pullout of iraq may be something that Iran is working on that they don't want to jeopardize through escalation. Getting the US out of Iraq would be positive for them for sure, especially if some form of sanctions relief was agreed on as well

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us-iraq-deal-would-see-hundreds-troops-withdraw-first-year-sources-say-2024-09-06/

    I posted the following in the waning hours of last week's thread:

    Mkb speculates that sanctions relief is a top priority for their government based on recent statements by khamenei

    The salience is that the Axis of Resistance is not topping Iran’s foreign-policy priorities. That vector plausibly continues in the matrix but somewhere lower down, for sure. Make no mistake, what we are hearing from Tehran is about direct negotiations with the US as the number one priority as the means to get relief from western sanctions, which is an imperative for accelerating the economy and is the lodestar for Iran’s national policy. Iran’s neighbours are keenly watching. To be sure, the Middle East is on the cusp of change.

    https://www.indianpunchline.com/iran-nuclear-talks-will-be-in-new-format/

    https://apnews.com/article/iran-nuclear-deal-khamenei-us-tensions-bc11763f45041ac84171ebc3866f1273

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Sun Tzu tells us that if you cannot win a battle you must not fight. If you can win a battle you must fight, but only if winning that battle contributes to winning a war. It seems that some folks in the news mega must be reminded that warfare is not simply tit for tat retribution. It is a cold blooded mathematics of nightmare. If the ruling powers in Iran think that a retaliation will not contribute to victory then they must not retaliate.

      • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]M
        ·
        2 months ago

        If Iran was not going to retaliate, they would not constantly remind us about how they're going to retaliate, they would just stop talking about it and if pushed, be like "Well, you know how they say that the best revenge is living well? Yeah, that's right - we're not gonna retaliate, because Israel wants us to do it. They're so fucking owned right now."

        Iran is going to retaliate, that is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow, it's merely the degree and the method in which they do it. Sun Tzu is not the only military guy in the world and his lessons are not always applicable, so I hope they're not listening to him and are instead listening to experts in guerrilla warfare against imperialist powers like Ho Chi Minh or Vo Nguyen Giap:

        "Confuse the enemy. Keep him in the dark on your intentions. Sometimes what seems a victory isn't really a victory and sometimes a defeat isn't really a defeat. Whether in attacking, counterattacking, or defensive tactics, the idea of attacking should remain central, to always keep the initiative."

        • carpoftruth [any, any]M
          ·
          2 months ago

          It's also entirely possible that Iran doesn't ever retaliate in a notable and obvious fashion because they don't believe its in their best interest to do so.

        • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
          ·
          2 months ago

          I think the most important lesson that Iran is following is something children learn on the play ground. Something that all the "Iran won't respond" commenters seem to have missed.

          "If you want to punch a nerd wait till his big brother isn't standing right there watching you"

          Iran won't retaliate till the us navy leaves. The us navy is seriously understaffed and overstretched and it won't be hard to outlast them. Iran will then hit isisrael hard and fast. By the time the americans get back in position Iran will be done and usa will have no justification for going to war.

      • carpoftruth [any, any]M
        ·
        2 months ago

        I think what is also important to appreciate is that Iran has other geopolitical drivers than just sympathy for Palestinians. It could be that the strategy that is best for the Iranian state, the Iranian people and the people of palestine is all exactly the same, but perhaps not. I can easily imagine a world where a slow burn strategy of tension degrades America's/Israel's strength over a decade or so and this is a net positive for the greater region, but in the meantime Palestinians are thrown under the bus, as the level of pressure applied by Iran to Israel in the meantime is inadequate to force them to stop doing genocide. As much as Palestine is a popular political cause, let's not make the mistake of believing that the Iranian state is above talking a big game for internal political purposes.

      • Boredom [none/use name]
        ·
        2 months ago

        I mean not sure if that meshes with groups that call everything their x martyrdom brigade. Sometimes the point of brinksmanship is going over the edge.

      • SeekTheDeletion [none/use name]
        ·
        2 months ago

        I think people would be more ok with it if Iran didn’t posture as tough and make noises about retaliation before doing nothing. It’s extremely embarrassing

          • SeekTheDeletion [none/use name]
            ·
            2 months ago

            Honestly I think a lot of it has to do with a liberal winning the elections. Now all Iran can think about is selling out Palestine for sanctions relief. Idk wtf the Iranian people were thinking electing a western friendly person in the middle of a genocide, it’s frankly kind of pathetic

    • Staines [they/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      I understand that conflict might not be worth it at this time, but I surely hope Tehran isn't counting on the US to stick to any agreements.

    • fever [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Ever since assassination of Soleimani there have been phony deals between the US and Iraq for withdrawal of US military every year and that will never happen unless the US wants to.

    • SeekTheDeletion [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      USA will never leave willingly. They will only leave via military defeat. Look at Afghanistan, Vietnam and their occupation of Lebanon. They had to blow hundreds of American troops into the smithereens to get America to leave.

      The US purposefully dangles this in front of Iran to distract them but Iran is extremely naive if they still believe in good faith negotiations with the west at this point. Kill them, they only understand violence

      • carpoftruth [any, any]M
        ·
        2 months ago

        I don't disagree, but I also don't take it for granted that the Iranian state will play this out in a way that stops the genocide. They may get outplayed or they may have other priorities.

    • plinky [he/him]
      ·
      2 months ago

      usa will dangle negotiations for a couple of years until iran either sells its oil reserves to bp or it would be irrelevant, whats new. But anyways iran involvement was always whatevs due to geography

    • meth_dragon [none/use name]
      ·
      2 months ago

      so what im hearing is iran retaliation eta q2 2025 earliest

      nothing ever happens gang stays winning