Image is of Assad's presidential palace in 2013. There's more images of it in this article, though the words in it aren't worth reading.
Here is Assad's version of events. I like to imagine he's making one of those Youtuber apology videos where they sigh at the start and talk in a chastised yet somewhat defensive tone of voice.
As terrorism spread across Syria and ultimately reached Damascus on the evening of Saturday 7th December 2024, questions arose about the president's fate and whereabouts. This occurred amidst a flood of misinformation and narratives far removed from the truth, aimed at recasting international terrorism as a liberation revolution for Syria.
At such a critical juncture in the nation’s history, where truth must take precedence, it is essential to address these distortions. Unfortunately, the prevailing circumstances at the time, including a total communication blackout for security reasons, delayed the release of this statement. This does not replace a detailed account of the events that unfolded, which will be provided when the opportunity allows.
First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed. On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024. As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in co-ordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations. Upon arrival at the Hmeimim airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen. As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes.
With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December. This took place a day after the fall of Damascus following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions.
At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.
I reaffirm that the person who, from the very first day of the war, refused to barter the salvation of his nation for personal gain, or to compromise his people in exchange for numerous offers and enticements is the same person who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front lines, just metres from terrorists in the most dangerous and intense battlefields. He is the same person who, during the darkest years of the war, did not leave but remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism under bombardment and the recurring threats of terrorist incursions into the capital over 14 years of war. Furthermore, the person who has never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, nor betrayed his allies who stood by him, cannot possibly be the same person who would forsake his own people or betray the army and nation to which he belongs.
I have never sought positions for personal gain but have always considered myself as a custodian of a national project, supported by the faith of the Syrian people, who believed in its vision. I have carried an unwavering conviction in their will and ability to protect the state, defend its institutions, and uphold their choices to the very last moment.
When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless. This does not, in any way, diminish my profound sense of belonging to Syria and her people – a bond that remains unshaken by any position or circumstance. It is a belonging filled with hope that Syria will once again be free and independent.
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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 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.
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.
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.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
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.
What’s going to kill the site is the struggle sessions themselves. I almost left after the last two, they’re so miserable. People need to learn to deescalate and talk things out like human beings. Struggle sessions are too fast-paced and defensive to even be dialogue, they’re just screaming, and then people build up these personal resentments that last long after the struggle session ends and have little to do with the original topic of disagreement.
The cure for resentment is to talk things out and try to understand the other person’s perspective, which you can’t even do in a struggle session because they’re too fast paced and everyone is too defensive.
And when the struggle session ends people can’t shut up about it, there are these constant little snipes and eye rolls, like bitter spouses who’ve given up on communicating, and everyone else has to read that shit and soak up that vibe. Most of us have moved on, most of us don’t give a shit.
I mean case in point, this thread we’re in right now is miserable. The removed comment called the mods self-important children and suggested that the site be Balkanized, for fuck’s sake that’s so excessive. The mods aren’t some cabal or narcissists. They ended up here the same way any of us did. They’re just people. What’s broken is the toxic dynamic between individuals not some intrinsic evilness in the individuals themselves.
If you mean the recent struggle session where she briefly came back, then yes that’s what she was doing, she even said as much. She ended up making everything worse but when I put myself in her shoes, I understand it: she sees herself getting vilified more with each passing second, the site is tearing itself apart, the thread is moving way too fast, you have all the usual issues of communicating by text plus all the issues of a large crowd of people, the situation was completely out of control and she probably panicked.
iirc the whole thing started over some trivial issue in the first place, so trivial I can barely even remember, I think that was the dunk tank renaming struggle session? Who even gives a shit? We’re gonna have a screaming match over the name of the fucking dunk tank?
You can’t blame everything on the mods, the other half of the problem is users who don’t knows how to deescalate and communicate. That’s a big problem for leftists, both online and in person, we need to work on that as a matter of anti-wrecker praxis if anything.
I don't want to go into great detail about it, but your perception of not just the subjective value of the events that occurred in that struggle session, but the objective facts of what occurred, is so far from mine that I don't think we can have a constructive dialogue about it.
EDIT: to be clear, I don't mean this to be a moral condemnation of you or anything like that. I just think that coming to terms that we could both agree on as far as our understanding of what occurred in some of these threads would take way too much discussion.
It’s beside the point. That’s one struggle session. I’m not even the one who brought it up.
I’m saying forum health is a collective effort. Blaming everything on the mods is a great way to not learn anything and guarantee another massive struggle session in the future. People here need to learn to talk through disagreements patiently and constructively, not only for the health of the site but for the health of any organizations they may be a part of now or in the future.
It's not beside the point. It's all of the struggle sessions these days, and as I said I don't want to get into details, because, to continue to be charitable, our perceptions of the bare facts of the way the conflicts on this site have occurred are at odds with one another.
I think we maybe miscommunicated
I realize that in the past two struggle sessions the mods had a side. When I talk about deescalating and talking things through, that includes conflicts between users and mods. I don’t know how to talk about that without it turning into “I’m trying to defend whatever specific thing the person reading this is mad at the mods for.”
I’m mad that the site health is deteriorating. You might put that all on the mods, but I don’t think that’s how conflict works. Conflict is a process that takes on a life of its own. When people are at odds there’s a right way and a wrong way to handle it. I feel like I’m going nuts because no one seems to know what I’m talking about, like my whole perspective is alien to people and to even start to explain it I have to cross a minefield.
I feel so defeated reading this shit. The site really is going to die and I’m not smart enough to figure out what to say or do about it.
I think the power dynamics and the at times vicious behavior that have developed in certain posters as a result make it difficult for me to accept this as a situation where responsibility can be doled out equally to all parties.
I'm sorry, what I said was unkind. I was frustrated.
I was in these threads, I saw what people were saying. People were vicious on all sides—and, crucially, very crucially, that doesn't mean they're vicious people, on either side, any more than two spouses who get in an argument are bad people. The argument just has a life of its own. People feel attacked, so they defend by attacking back, and in that rush to attack back there's no time or emotional space to actually reach an understanding and resolve the conflict. So it keeps going, and with every trade the interpersonal damage grows and reconciliation gets harder.
On a forum it's even worse, because there's an audience, your lizard brain's thinking "if I lose this exchange then hundreds of my peers will turn against me."
So, yes, people get vicious. And when the dust settles, the bitterness lingers, and that bitterness accumulates with each struggle session, until the site starts to have a general atmosphere of conflict. And when that happens people start to clique up as a way to defend themselves, which leads to a further breakdown in communication, which leads to even more conflict and resentment, until the site dies. Then afterward the cliques are like two exes who each insist the other was a crazy narcissist, when really they were just bad at resolving conflicts, and the fights brought out the worst in them as fights tend to do.
There's a solution to this, which is to slow down, communicate patiently and respectfully, and try to reach an understanding. Even if the other person is already agitated.
Yeah, it's hard to do, it requires some vulnerability to not rush to defend by attacking back. And it's slow; the whole time you're writing your response it can feel like you're losing ground, like everyone's reading the other person's comment and making up their minds. Which is the other purpose of being civil: it gives the other person time to gather their thoughts, process their emotions, and actually express themself in a constructive way, and then they're more likely to do the same for you because they feel safe, and you get to have a healthy exchange that closes the gap faster than it opens it.