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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Last week's thread is here.
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.
Good news from Iran.
Presidential Cabinet picks are announced and the pro-west faction has been largely snubbed out of the most important spots. Counter-revolutionary and liberal technocrat Javad Zarif, who was planning to be in the role of "Shadow President", has resigned from his position as Vice President of Strategic Affairs. It is noteworthy that Zarif, who was the foreign minister for Rouhani, was studying in San Francisco during the Iran-Iraq war (most politicians in Iran who are that age are veterans of that war) and is known for having "strong connections in Washington" (I'll leave that up to you to interpret.)
Possible that the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran was the wake-up that Pezeshkian needed in order to reject the political machine of the pro-Western bourgeoisie that backed his campaign.
CIA-MKO Terrorist Maryam Rajavi stays seething lol
What is up with the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran? I thought they were some rebel group that was pro-Iraq/Saddam and the US began funding them to mess with Iran after the US killed Saddam. But their ideology seems very confusing, even the Wikipedia page is confused about it, some people say they are a weird cult, like the Shining Path.
There's an okay documentary from Presstv on them.
I don't know too much about Shining Path so I can't speak to that comparison.
Warning for torture and cult stuff
spoiler
They are a cult in the sense that they kidnap people then use torture and other brainwashing techniques to keep their "recruits." Also just generally using torture for "discipline." Extreme warning for that citation btw. Ive heard they force all the women to be sterilized so that they "dont have attachments to this world" or something. I have no way of confirming this and torture is a topic that triggers my ptsd so I am not going to research it more.Warning done.
They've killed over 17,000 Iranians since the Islamic Revolution and are widely hated by everyone in Iran across all ideological lines.
They are ultimately just another group of US-backed contras whose nonsensical ideology is just a cover for their true function. They are about as Marxist as the Wahhabi headchoppers are Muslim; not at all.
In 2012 Killary removed the MKO from the official list of US terror organizations so they could be used to carry out a "Persian Spring" that thankfully never happened. Look how NYT talked about them as "Iranian Dissidents" in 2012
Their main base of operations in Albania was broken up last year and they moved to Canada and Germany.
Iran has since been carrying out an extended trial against MKO members in order to publicly document their crimes.
Seems like they are a bunch of opportunists with a huge cult of personality. No wonder the US continued to fund them after the fall of Saddam.
The Shining Path is a guerrila group in Peru, it was founded by Abimael Guzmán (Also known as Gonzalo). The guy was very weird. The group ideology was Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Gonzalo Thought. And they basically attacked and hated everyone, specially the indigenous peasants. They attack and were in conflict with the Indigenous and others Leftist groups.
CW: Torture and Bad Stuff
During the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission there were presented documents saying that the Shining Path used to boil babies in front of their parents, they used to target LGBTQ+ people, and they bombed civilian places without any warning, public torture and executions. Besides it being known that they are quite racist towards natives and seem to be envolved with drugs. They also hated all AES.Meanwhile the MRTA and the PCP actually did respect the rules of war. They always targeted Military and Diplomatic targets, used symbols to identify themselfs, actually engaged in negociations and were considered a reaction to the authoritian goverments in Peru.
I think the Shining Path still exists in Peru, but they are hiding in the mountains where they are at odds with the Ethnocacerists (a Syncretic Inca nationalist ideology and group that hates anyone who is not an Inca and wants to create a leftist Inca state).
Oh so that's where Gonzaloism comes from! 🫨 I thought this was a purely online phenomenon.
Shoutout to the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority for resisting the kkkapitalists
Fascinating news, given my recent comment based on Bhadrakumar's analysis. I guess that contradiction between wanting to cosy up to the US but willing to hit Israel with missiles had to be resolved in one direction or another, and they've chosen to shy away from the US.
I read that article and was actually going to comment but got distracted.
Let me reread it. Thanks for reminding
Edit: I actually disagree with a lot of his analysis in this. It's neither here nor there at this point because Zarif is gone and Saudi media apparatus are going full steam anti-Iran propaganda mode.