Image of destruction in Mandalay, Myanmar, from Al Jazeera.
As if the ongoing civil war wasn't enough, Myanmar has now been struck by a very powerful earthquake, resulting in 2000 deaths and thousands more injured as of the time of writing. Estimates are that the death toll could reach 10,000. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are damaged, and the hospitals are overwhelmed. The earthquake struck during Eid prayers, resulting in even higher casualties as several mosques collapsed. 20 million people already required humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, and now the situation there will be even worse. International rescue teams have rushed into the country, and aid is being raised, though with USAID experiencing the... changes that it is, the United States will be of even more limited help than usual. So far, China has sent $14 million, while USAID has supplied $2 million. In Thailand, the death toll seems considerably lower, though there has still been significant damage; a skyscraper under construction collapsed in Bangkok.
Myanmar is located very close to the boundary between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In particular, the country is divided in two by the north-south oriented Sagaing fault. This fault is typically strike-slip; that is, each side of the fault moves horizontally past each other. The earthquake's depth was 10 kilometers, which is pretty shallow, and its proximity to the surface amplified the felt force of the earthquake. Additionally, the soft soil in this region tends to further amplify seismic waves through a process called liquefaction. Combine all this with the lackluster building codes due to many years of impoverishment and civil wars, and this explains why the death toll, and the expense to the country in general to repair damage, will probably be extremely high.
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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 else are they supposed to do, though?
integrate into the secular Assad government instead of stealing their oil for a decade and impoverishing them
Fight the genocidal fascists? Or at the very least not collaborate with them.
It's not exactly that simple.
I really don't get what is so defensible about this group
Radlibs had a love affair with Rojava in 2016 and still haven’t accepted reality that they fell for a con
I'm not a Rojava supporter, I just find this particular criticism strange, given the circumstances they're in.
I find it strange they are so open to collaborating with the Turkish puppet government
And when you keep their track record in mind,it certainly doesn't paint them in a favourable light
I'm not saying they should begin an all out assault,but such ready cooperation really doesn't seem like a good or particularly smart thing to do
Edogan is ascendant right now. There's really not much they can do.
After 1990 the US was ascendant,and yet Cuba isn't a capitalist nation
I get not wanting more war in a place that bled for decades at this point,but cozying up with Turkey's hand puppet is not a moral move nor a winning move
Lenin ceded huge amounts of Russian territory to Germany and started a civil war so that his government could survive. Sometimes you have no choice but to eat shit.
Sure,but Lenin didn't ship oil to the Americans while fighting the whites
Nor did he proceed to win and let the powers of the time run amok in Russia,that came later
I get your point,but is it crazy to say that they could've done more? What exactly is worth preserving in a leftist formation if for most of its existence it served as a helper to the US and Israel? Will the Kurds be any freer now? Will having the people who made multiple deals with multiple archduke's of hell to survive in charge be considered an acceptable price for completely selling out?
Holy fuck are you comparing Lenin to a comprador US puppet government? This is the shit I’m talking about when I say western leftists twist themselves into knots to defend compradors if sold to them in a rainbow package. You been duped
You should calm down.
You should stop upholding the western left's chauvinist tradition of making excuses for the compradors who work with the empire they are supposed to be opposing.
ok
Uh... Isn't that that a bit revisionist? Surely the fascist whites, supported by 10+ international powers, weren't triggered into war because Lenin wanted to fight to make his government survive? The Bolsheviks took power, the whites started a reactionary civil war
Germany wasn’t likely going to win WW1 at that point. Besides he didn’t join imperial Germany as a province.
Yeah the Syrian kurds really did the worst of both worlds. Sold out their morals to foreign occupiers and still end up losing and getting wiped. Big time LOSERS
Lets join the government that wants us to release jihadists, allows israeli to colonize and bomb the entire country and attacks shia civilians!
Truly very democratic socialism hours
I find the constant bending backwards to defend comprador fascist enablers among the western “left” to be a consistent theme
I don’t care about moral judgments. They are our enemies. I don’t care if they were cornered into the situation, they are our enemies.
What were they planning to do to begin with, then?
You're asking me like I'm a supporter of theirs.
What changed in their situation that made joining in on a genocide okay when staying with the Syrian state was not okay before?
Assad fell and Erdogan won?
They could have rejoined Assad's state instead of applying with NATO, then They didn't.
Yeah? Obviously?
So, why were they fine fighting Assad and Erdogan, but are not fine fighting against Erdogan and the DAESH government?
They'd lose? Like, how is this not obvious?
And that's different from their previous situation how? They apparently did not have a plan for that, either.
They were able to maintain an independent position because of the civil war. Their ability to do that has obviously drastically diminished due to the fall of Assad's government. This is my point when I say you have to eat shit sometimes.
What was their plan for the end of the civil war before? Did they intend to be the ones to conquer Syria on behalf of NATO?
Yes, and they did. Mission accomplished. They helped destroyed Syria on behalf of NATO and their US masters.
IDK
which makes them fascist compradors and traitors to humanity, along with being shortsighted idiots