Image is of a Colombian campaign rally in support of Iván Cepeda of the left-wing Historic Pact.
As always, my weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.
preamble
The unstable stare-down in the Middle East continues. Yet again, there's been little region-level change, but there have been some big escalations. Namely, the entity has decided to go further into Lebanon, with all the casualties and destruction that will bring them, while simultaneously abandoning bases elsewhere in the theater due to constant pressure by Hezbollah. Seeking to pressure Hezbollah away from their successful strategy of attrition on IOF forces that attempt to advance only to receive rapid onset symptoms of FPVdroneitis, they have also decided to resume airstrikes on Beirut, which is an obvious violation of the region-wide ceasefire that Iran may or may not militarily respond to, but they do seem very diplomatically displeased as of me writing this sentence. Meanwhile, Iran has responded to US drone incursions with strikes on Kuwait military bases. Trump has escalated his demands lately, so a return to war seems more likely than ever.
In Bolivia, Paz appears to be escalating in response to undiminished general strikes, with Congress allowing him to declare states of emergency at will, and therefore get the military more easily involved. In Colombia's runoff elections, far-right candidate Espriella won the first round of the runoff election with 43.7% of the vote ahead of left-winger Cepeda's 40.9%. Every poll had Cepeda beating Espriella by varying margins, so this appears to be a fairly standard case of the US putting their thumb on the scale; as the saying goes, they do not trust the population of Colombia to do democracy correctly and they couldn't risk them accidentally electing the wrong person.
Over in Sudan, the conflict appears like it is moving in a pro-SAF direction, with some significant military gains against the UAE-backed RSF, although the military situation is still fairly complicated. A potentially notable news item that I missed a couple weeks ago is that the US seems to have ended their strategic ambiguity over who they consider the true government in Sudan, as they now firmly recognize the SAF over the RSF. Why exactly this has occurred is a little beyond me. Could be because they see how the winds are blowing militarily; could be because they want to fuck over the UAE for some perceived slight (to be America's ally is fatal etc etc). The humanitarian situation appears no better though, with millions of people remaining in incredible hardship and near-starvation, and RSF-backed genocidal atrocities of the kind that Zionists would nod approvingly at.
Thankfully, China is looking at all these manifold crises and has dramatically escalated the speed at which they are writing strongly worded letters and are calling for a revitalized UN.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists' 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.
DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List: Defense Secretary Hegseth previously announced the change due to an "impractical" system.
story
Military.com has learned that the Department of Defense, for the first time in almost 10 years, has dramatically reduced its number of recognized religious faiths and belief systems by approximately 180.The reforms mark the first time the list has been officially revised since a memo was issued March 27, 2017, decreasing the total number of faiths from 211 to its new number of 31. The changes were iterated in a May 20, 2026, memorandum issued by the Under Secretary of War and signed by Anthony Tata, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness of the United States, and obtained by Military.com.
This latest revision to the faith codes comes at the direction of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the Tata-signed memo, done to “streamline the DoW collection of religious preferences collection for service members to enhance the delivery of targeted religious support from the Chaplaincy.” It calls for the previously instituted faith and belief codes to be revised within a 60-day period from the issuance of the memorandum.
“The new list will provide chaplains with clear, readily available information that will better enable them to anticipate the religious support needs of service members and to provide religious support activities that align with service members’ personal faith and practices,” Tata wrote.
He added that members will not be limited to the list of “religious affiliation codes” when selecting information for their dog tags. The revised list, according to documents obtained by Military.com, includes Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Islam (Muslims), Judaism, Sikh, and a wide range of Christian-based groups like Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists.
Here is the full list:
This restructuring of faith codes, which help identify service members as well as the military in planning for appropriated religious coverage to include them, has now excluded minority faith/worldview groups including Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick, New Age churches, Pagan, Rosicrucianism, Shaman, Spiritualists, Troth, Unitarian Universalists and various Wiccans.
It represents a stark change from the memo administered in 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first term. The Armed Forces Chaplains Board at the time endorsed a faith and belief code expansion “to standardize and better identify religious preferences recognized by the military services.”
That change at the time was said to better expand religious planning for multiple reasons, including better tracking for more accurate demographic data, better planning for religious support for the force, and providing a better assessment of the capabilities and requirements of each military service’s chaplain’s corps.
Military.com reached out to the DOD, asking what led to the drastic change and removal of countless faiths and beliefs, in addition to whether any concern was expressed by either service members or chaplains. The department was also asked whether members’ lack of individual support could hurt morale within the ranks.
The DOD did not respond to the inquiry. Larger Push, 'Cultural Shift'
It follows a broader administrative push that critics have described as a military-wide ascent towards Christian theocracy, evidenced by Defense Secretary Pet Hegseth hosting Christian-based prayer services in the Pentagon auditorium with controversial speakers—as well as public statements invoking Scripture when describing the ongoing military operation in Iran, for example.
In December 2025, Hegseth announced his intention “to make the Chaplain Corps great again,” prioritizing religious liberty and practice in the military by executing a “top-down cultural shift, putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as physical and mental health.”
This latest action comes on the heels of Hegseth announcing chaplain reforms in March 2026. He said his department would be significantly streamlining the number of faith code affiliations for service members, including a separate but related change to replace rank insignia military chaplains wear on their work uniforms with religious insignia.
The faith and belief coding system, renamed to "religious affiliation codes,” was simply due to a system that had become too big, according to the secretary.
"The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes. … It was impractical and unusable, and many codes were never used at all," Hegseth said in March, adding that 82% of members who identify as religious use only six of the codes.
The secretary added that chaplains "are first and foremost called and ordained by God." 'Not the American Way'
A former U.S. Army chaplain who now serves as an endorser told Military.com the revised list is “horrible.”
“When I raised my hand to become an Army chaplain, I swore that I would support and defend the Constitution,” the individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Military.com. “The First Amendment is the free exercise of religion for everybody. That's what I was buying into.”
The individual said that oath years ago was never rescinded, which makes the new list “an excuse for the failure to provide the free exercise of religion for all people.”
“That's a tragedy and travesty, absolutely,” they said. “As far as I'm concerned, that's a violation of the United States Constitution.”
The individual said that in the Army chaplaincy, the prime directive is to perform or provide for the free exercise of religion of all service members and their families. Essentially, those who cannot be identified struggle to receive the help they may require.
They described it as a “not-so-hidden agenda.”
“There's a lot of faith groups out there that I particularly don't have an interest in, but there are service members who are sending their sons and daughters into the military, and they're expecting pastoral care for their sons and daughters as needed—and I don't think they're going to get it.
“All it takes is the chaplain to say, ‘Well, I don't see them on this list. I don't know how I can help you. Maybe go off the installation and see if you can find anybody who can work with you. Goodbye.' And that's it. That's not the American way.”
(cont.)
Oh noooo I can’t claim “Jedi” while bombing children in Iran.
Mormons getting their own category outside of Christianity
I know I'm missing the main point here but why Baha'i? Ignoring the obvious Christian bias, it's the smallest religion on the list by quite a bit.
it's because of israel. it's a non jewish zionist cult at this point, most of their admin is inside israel even though none of them live there. they also have a moderate amount of popularity between hollywood celebrities. these lists are not that well thought out some israeli aide or advisor must've kept them in.
Yeah they tout the whole “we are a version of islam that isn’t evvvul scary!” mantra.
Baha'i has a lot of Persians/Iranians who hate the Iranian government, actually a lot of West and South Asians who hate Muslim governments generally
I don't know but you're not missing the point as much as everyone blithely commenting "lol more unitarian war criminals" or whatever, as if Hegseth trying to turn the Pentagon into an Evangelical theocracy isn't a seriously disturbing development.
He removed Mormons from the subcategory of Christian ffs. This is a shadow Evangelical takeover. People need to take this seriously.
The Air Force is incredibly Mormon, so this is good if it causes infighting.
Air Force is also incredibly evangelical. Their academy’s scifi horror looking church is evangelical and they’ve taken over Colorado Springs
There was something about this in a recent Know Your Enemy episode, ecangelicals took over the chapliancy corps during and after usa invading Vietnam, something about religious people objecting to the whole imperialist slaughter
https://know-your-enemy-1682b684.simplecast.com/episodes/military-education-and-american-manhood-O3A9X5go
imo usa has changed very little, but i'm not a yankee so i kinda don't care about the internal structure and politics of their military
Good. Then everyone else will be our side instead of Trump's side. Let them isolate themselves with supremacist minoritarianism. Let them destroy their own coalitions. This is good for the same reason that Trump banning Trans people from the military is good. A diverse coalition of US imperialists is more dangerous than a supremacist, isolated one. It is more stable, it gets more buy-in from the population, it is more sophisticated in infiltration and propaganda, it uses rainbow imperialism as a moral shield and sullies anyone who associates with it permanently. Much better to have a clearly supremacist, isolated and brittle system in place that the majority of the population can openly see excludes them.
I understand your point, but I think you underestimate how much damage these people can do. Evangelicals/Christian Nationalists are deeply disturbing people, and- I'm just going to say it- moreso than the liberal imperialists they are replacing.
They already control all of the levers of government, I'm not sure what 'liberal imperialists' you think even have any power. The 'liberal imperialists' are the minority opposition. This is a symptom of their total dominance, not a cause of it.
You're being unhelpfully and inappropriately blasé about a disturbing development, and I don't want to read your replies anymore.
It's not so much as it is a "disturbing development" as it is a "De jure development of what was only a de facto development before."
If you are disturbed by the idea of evangelicals running the U.S. military, idk what to tell you other than that you are extremely out of touch as they have been in charge for awhile.
Average Amerikkkan military would nuke Iran if they got desperate, a fully Amerikkkan Evangelical military would nuke Iran as a start of the war to usher in the end times so God could save them from Satan.
My apologies sir Hegseth sir, I cannot take that shot of whiskey because I’m Agnostic
Just sort of seems like a move that makes demographics harder to account for while also pissing a bunch of people off and giving them more reasons to not join the military.
continued
Changes Ebb and Flow Over TimeAnother individual who also spoke anonymously to Military.com is a U.S. Army veteran who served from 2000 to 2010, including three tours in Iraq.
They are ordained in Wicca as a cleric priest, in Asatru as a Gothi, and as a Druid. And on the secular academic side, they hold a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling, divinity, and a doctorate of ministry in interreligious chaplaincy.
When the individual was notified about five days ago of the changes to the coding system, they were reminded of what happened to them more than 20 years ago. During their first deployment to Iraq, as a junior enlisted infantryman struggling with what they were seeing and doing in combat, they went to the unit chaplain for guidance.
The individual claimed that for the following eight months, that chaplain “took every opportunity to use their rank to try and evangelize and convert me.” Chaplain recruiting offices would hang up as soon as they found out that they were pagan, and it wasn't until 2007 that they were allowed to have “Pagan” identified on enlisted records and dog tags.
“One of the distinctive religious group leaders that I mentor came across the memorandum and forwarded it to me, and that rekindled that anger that I felt when I was actively discriminated against that started the path towards me becoming a civilian chaplain,” the individual told Military.com. “Except, it expanded beyond that because I have endorsed and mentored 26 different lay leaders on different military posts.”
The individual, who has attempted to correspond up the ranks to the chief of chaplains plus to Hegseth himself, said their studies have found that spiritual abuse or trauma affiliated with religious beliefs and affecting more than 8-in-10 service members can have negative ramifications like post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Having appropriate spiritual care is paramount for their well-being,” they said. “Stripping these codes, stripping the appropriate care aspects and leaving them identified as ‘other’ puts them at a risk of being re-traumatized or re-abused without it being intentional.
“As a licensed counselor and a chaplain and a priest, that is not something that I can idly stand by without pushing back against.” 'Middle Finger' to Constitution
The individual, who has attempted to correspond up the ranks to the chief of chaplains plus to Hegseth himself, said their studies have found that spiritual abuse or trauma affiliated with religious beliefs and affecting more than 8-in-10 service members can have negative ramifications like post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Having appropriate spiritual care is paramount for their well-being,” they said. “Stripping these codes, stripping the appropriate care aspects and leaving them identified as ‘other’ puts them at a risk of being re-traumatized or re-abused without it being intentional.
“As a licensed counselor and a chaplain and a priest, that is not something that I can idly stand by without pushing back against.”
'Middle Finger' to Constitution
The individuals who spoke with Military.com are two clients of among more than 100,000 represented by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), whose client base is roughly 95% Christian.
The organization’s co-founder, Mikey Weinstein, told Military.com that this new DOD list is a “middle finger to the United States Constitution’s separation of church and state.” The U.S. Air Force veteran said that codes like this have existed to perform services that sailors, soldiers, Marines, airmen or guardians want.
“Reducing the number of religious faiths from hundreds down to 31 is another absolute, clear, filthy and disgusting, unconstitutional, immoral and unethical attempt to force only the approved solution, getting closer and closer to Christian nationalism,” Weinstein said.
He compared the new list to the faiths and beliefs identified by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which recognizes more than 220 belief systems and has more than 80 emblems for headstones.
“So, if you're dead, you'll get your emblem,” Weinstein added. “But if you're alive, you can't even get it on your dog tags unless you qualify for one of these faith traditions that in the eyes of Hegseth and other Christian nationalists are worthy of recognition after years of all of the others being there.”
Those poor stormtrooper shamans won’t be able to have their religious views respected while they slaughter 150 children :(
👏MORE👏PAGAN👏WAR CRIMINALS👏
Can you put long ones like this in a spoiler plz?
inB4 they cut the list further to be Jew or not Jew /s - jewornotjew.com :)