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Image is of Trudeau and Trump together at Mar-a-Lago in November 2024. Source is here.
The Liberals, headed by Trudeau, have not been doing so hot lately. Polls have been rather poor, showing the party far behind the Conservatives, and the Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (an outspoken apologist for Ukrainian Nazis) resigned recently, with more MPs following her lead. Trump's return to power has shaken the Canadian establishment due to his threats to impose massive tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which will have substantial economic consequences given that Canada sends most of its exports to the US, compounding the economic malaise that has affected most of the world over the last few years.
With all this bad news, there are rumors and reports that Trudeau will soon resign, ending his nine years of rule. His fall would be yet another casualty in the wave of incumbent parties falling across the imperial core, only to be replaced by more conservative parties that have very similar policies but wish to cast all blame and hardship onto minorities.
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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.
In a statement, the Paraguayan government has acknowledged Edmundo Gonzalez's victory in the July 2024 presidential elections in Venezuela. It has therefore given Venezuelan embassy officials 48 hours to leave Paraguay. Edmundo Gonzalez met this afternoon in Washington with US President Joe Biden. Edmundo Gonzalez met this afternoon in Washington with US President Joe Biden.
Paraguay is well known for recognizing fake goverments such as the goverment of Taiwan
LE PEN (father, not daughter) JUST DIED!!! 
edit: replaced the source in French with a source in English
not daughter
After the meeting at US government headquarters, Edmundo González gave a statement to the press. He was not accompanied by Biden and spoke alone for two minutes. According to the opposition leader, the US government is committed to the “recovery of democracy in Venezuela”.
“This is a commitment that we will follow until President Biden's last day here in Washington. Biden's team is not going with us to Venezuela, but they are accompanying us wholeheartedly on our way back to Caracas,” said the opposition leader.
Biden's term, however, ends in less than two weeks and Republican Donald Trump will take over for the next four years. Also according to the former ambassador, the far-right Unity Platform coalition team has been in contact with Trump's team “for a long time” in order to maintain a close relationship when the Republican is in the White House.
Edmundo also mentioned that the intention is to return to a three-party policy in the country, “as we have maintained since the beginning”. He's referring to the 50-year maintenance of the Punto Fijo Pact, signed by Copei, Acción Democrática and the Democratic Republican Union after the fall of Marco Pérez Jiménez's dictatorship in 1958.
The trip to the United States followed a weekend in which Edmundo met with the presidents of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and Argentina, Javier Milei. In both meetings, the extreme right-wing Venezuelan opposition leader once again stressed his intention to be in Caracas on January 10th to take office: “By any means, I'll be there”.
The opposition leader will still have trips to the Dominican Republic and Panama before Maduro's inauguration. His group, led by the ultra-liberal María Corina Machado, questions the Chavista's victory on July 28 and claims, without providing proof, to have collected 85.18% of Venezuela's electoral records. According to the group's count, these results would give victory to Edmundo González with 67% of the valid votes.
Juan Guaido 2.0 Nalvany Arc?
LDH reports first U.S. H5N1-related human death
As is tradition they remember to make public that the patient was over the age of 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions, so nobody needs to care and it is unnecessary to stop consuming or think about this much.
As if not most people have underlying medical conditions by this point.
Not exactly news but relevant for the news heads here: over the last few months Proles Pod has released a series of episodes called The Stalin Era from Episode 63-71 and going.
I haven’t listened to it and probably won’t have time to listen for quite a while, but I guess the comrades here might be interested to give it a go and let us know if they’re good or not!
I'm halfway through 66 and thus far I endorse it. It's not as in-depth as one would get reading source material (which is why we always say read theory!) But for a general overview it's been an enjoyable mix of historiographical primary sources directly from major historical figures, theoreticians, historians, and journalists of the period and historiographical primary sources from the workers and the peasants of the Soviets.
They also stay on topic and follow a historical narrative instead of going off topic as is usually the case with podcasts, so you'll most certainly want to listen actively because it's laden with a constant flow of good information.
Lastly I emphasize it's a series on the Stalin era. It doesn't focus on the man himself all the time and works on presenting the whole story the best it can with the short time that they've alloted to themselves.
Change is in the air, and surely I’m not hallucinating?
Three weeks ago, Trump put out a very short statement that the US and China should work together. Ever since, Chinese media have sprung into action.
Immediately the week after, the People’s Daily (in conjunction with Global Times) put out a featured call for submission of “US-China cooperation and friendship stories” followed by an editorial “China and the US should extend the list of cooperation, and enlarge the cake of mutual cooperation” (Dec 26th, 2024, in Chinese).
Last week, Qiushi, the CPC theory website, reposted the People’s Daily opinion piece on “The significance of friendship and cooperation for the people between China and the US” (Jan 4th, 2025, in Chinese) and a corresponding piece on their English outlet, “China, United States should inject more certainty, positive energy into world” (Jan 6th, 2025):
China and the U.S. should work together to promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, let the light of peace reach all corners of the world, and ensure that more development gains will be shared more fairly by people across the world.
"There are few certainties in world affairs. What we do know is that without much greater cooperation between the U.S. and China, the world will be in dire straits," said an American scholar when analyzing the future development of China-U.S. relations.
China-U.S. cooperation may not solve all problems, but few problems can be solved without China-U.S. cooperation. The U.S. should fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, stand on the right side of history, and work together with China to strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences, and expand mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to inject more certainty and positive energy into the world.
Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs. The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.
I also checked the English outlets. Global Times editorial puts out several opinion pieces including “1+1>2 is the right path for US-China technological interaction” (Jan 3rd, 2025) urging for increased technological cooperation of both countries especially quantum computing.
Concurrently, on January 6th, “Chinese foreign ministry slams US ‘small yard, high fence’ strategy, vows to safeguard WTO-centered multilateral trading system” blasting the Biden administration for not respecting the (neoliberal) WTO free trade order and criticizing protectionism:
"Free trade is an inevitable requirement for global economic development, with the fundamental goal of achieving mutual benefit and promoting common development. Engaging in protectionism and building 'small yard, high fence' significantly disrupts global supply chains and damages the common and long-term interests of all countries," the spokesperson said.
lol
And on the same day an editorial piece titled “What do Tesla’s ‘record high’ sales in China reveal?” that praised Tesla as an exemplary model of foreign investor’s success in China and why more foreign companies should come invest in China:
China has become an important part of Tesla's global landscape, and this is not an isolated case. Currently, over 70,000 American companies are investing and operating in China, with annual sales exceeding $600 billion. Qualcomm and Intel derive two-thirds and one-quarter of their global revenues, respectively, from the Chinese market. Among Apple's 200 major suppliers, 80 percent are based in China. In 2023, about 60 percent of McDonald's new stores globally were opened in China. Shanghai became the first city in the world to have 1,000 Starbucks stores. These facts demonstrate that Washington's trade sanctions and technological restrictions against China are unpopular and cannot hinder American companies' enthusiasm for expanding in the Chinese market. This situation is determined by the essence of mutually beneficial cooperation in economic and trade relations between China and US, as well as the objective laws of economic development at play.
Tesla's "report card" serves as a mirror, reflecting China's status as "an important engine of global economic growth" from both production and market perspectives, while showcasing the solid fundamentals and positive development prospects of the Chinese economy. Tesla's thriving presence in China can particularly be attributed to the country's open, inclusive, and mutually beneficial cooperative attitude.
Meanwhile, still on January 6th, China's two major stock exchanges hold meetings with foreign institutions:
The two exchanges reiterated their commitment to further opening up China's capital markets, expressing hopes that foreign institutions will jointly drive comprehensive reforms and achieve high-quality development.
SCMP (not affiliated with CPC) also put out articles from international relations “experts” like “China-US ties may improve if Trump goodwill signals ‘manifest in tangible actions’” (Jan 4th, 2025) and an opinion piece “Why Trump’s return opens door for China to reform capital markets” (Jan 5th, 2025) about why China should open up its capital markets for foreign investors to come in to save its economy lol. Pretty concise read if you want to understand how the libs think.
These are just a sample of the articles and opinion pieces. Overall, I haven’t seen so many articles that signal the thawing of US and China relationships in such a short period. I think we are likely heading towards a rapprochement between the two countries, and a return to a (renewed) status quo. Both countries have realized that they cannot live without one another, and that it is in their self-interests to return to the existing world order after Covid and the Ukraine war.
Wall Street will be happy to enter the Chinese financial markets (and the Belt and Road), the consumption driven by large scale foreign investments will save both China’s economy and allowing further growth and poverty alleviation, while reigniting the US oil and gas boom under Trump. The dollar hegemony is retained and Trump will be happy to declare victory on trade deficit reduction and some token “bring back American jobs” on a limited scale.
Unfortunately, it looks like China’s gonna save the US empire from its crisis once again, and the medium term outcome also means certain victory for Israel.
The questions to follow up on are: are there any forces within the US that will actively undermine this effort? Will the neocons accept it? Maybe Trump give them the war with Iran that they’ve always wanted? Which also brings us to the question of who else benefit from such (re-)arrangement? Will Europe (poised to be the biggest loser) be forced to import Chinese goods under US order to further destroy their industrial capacity? What happens to Palestine, Lebanon, Russia, Iran and the other major players?
I think we're seeing the process of the US slowly getting absorbed and turned into a kind of a capital mitochondria. A type of fuel tank for another bigger thing.
Let's just hope the CPC is really interested in developing other nations as they say they are. This is probably the way out of colonialism on a global scale.
I wonder how China's whole strategy will look like if humanity still exists 100 years from now and we look back at it starting from Deng until 2080 or something.
I doubt Trump reaching power will make a significant difference, the US and China are inextricably locked in conflict regardless of what the people at the top of each party think about it. The US simply cannot tolerate a world power that is competitive with their (decreasingly) monopoly position, and that lack of toleration will force China to oppose them to fulfill the survival instinct of their own businesses.
It's been the path of interimperial/anti-imperial conflict for the last 300-odd years. Capitalism vs socialism has rather little to do with it, in the same way that the Cold War wasn't communism vs capitalism, it was imperialism vs anti-imperialism (and anti-imperialism largely won, but was then defeated by neo-imperialist strategies). Most of Europe was ruled by the same family of inbred monarchs with relatively similar economies (albeit with stronger and weaker powers, especially pre-WW1) and despite their generally similar capitalist economies, conflict over resource and colony control still prompted them to, twice, start apocalyptically destructive wars. China and the US are in a comparable situation, with even greater ideological differences.
So basically, the US realizes that reindustrialization is impossible and China realizes that there is need for investments.
So both realize their complementaries to one and the other.
China gets to build up the third world to become better producer and consumer and the states gets to have a cut in the pie as financial returns
Basically yes, but it’s not so much complementary but the fact that the US threatens to blow up its own economy through tariffs. If the US does that, the US economy will be damaged, but all the export economies in the Global South get wiped out just like during the 2009 GFC if not worse, and their ultimate fate is still IMF bail out and privatization. That is the stick.
It is a sane calculation to give in to the US threat because at least we’re not going through a mutually assured destruction in this scenario. It is still a win-win (carrot) for both the US and China and other developing countries if they can keep the US from going into an economic depression, while the US gets a good portion of financial control over their assets in return. This will become the renewed status quo until something in the global capitalist machine breaks again.
I’ve always said that the only way for China to gain leverage over this is to make the painful transition into a domestic consumption led economy, and doing that requires China to reclaim its monetary sovereignty instead of accumulating foreign reserves through export and investment. Without that, we will simply see a return to the status quo but with Europe out of the picture as a major player. None of the Global South debt situation gets resolved, the global financial institutions will remain in place, dollar hegemony will persist and capital continues to flow through the established neoliberal free trade system. An alternative is needed.
Chinese liberals are either fully delusional or they're actively trying to surrender to the US empire Gorby-style
Ironically America's racism and inability to tolerate any competition to their hegemony may save Chinese socialism in the long term, since even if Chinese liberals embrace a surrenderist mindset, that doesn't mean American liberals will, they mean business when they rail against Chinese "violations of the world order"
If trump makes Russia an offer and Putin is receptive then RF has maybe 3 or so months to capture as much territory as possible. Since they moved west of Oskil river Luhansk is completely controlled by Russia which leaves parts of Donetsk, northern Zaporizhia oblast and Kherson oblast north of Dnipro river still on the table.
Looking at Donetsk there are two major fronts left. In the north there is the Slovyansk - Kramatorsk line and in west there is the Pokrovsk & Myrnohrad to Dobropillya line. Slovyansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk + Myrnohrad are each larger than Bahkmut and all of them are transportation hubs with multiple highway and rail access from western Ukraine. Several small rivers flow east to west thru these areas with small farm cities along the banks and with limited access but other than that it's all farmland. If Syrskyi tries to defend this like he did Bahkmut it will be a blood bath.
railroad map
Honestly want to vomit when I see these maps and realize how many people recently died horribly over so little land.
Thank you for saying this. Sometimes I feel real "the map is not the territory" times.