Image is sourced from this People's Dispatch article, depicting communists attending the 2023 funeral of Communist Party President Guillermo Teillier, who was tortured for years under Pinochet's regime and helped rebuild the Communist Party while under a fascist dictatorship.
We had the Six Day War in 1967, we had the Nineteen Day War (Yom Kippur) in 1973, and now we've had the Twelve Day War. I wonder how many more very short wars will plague the region until Palestine is freed?
However, moving on from Western Asia from a little while, we have some interesting news from Chile - the former labor minister and communist, Jeannette Jara, has won the primary election for the left-wing bloc in a landslide (~60% of the vote), as the current President, Gabriel Boric, is term-limited. Her achievements include a minimum wage increase and a reduction of the work week to 40 hours.
In November, Jara will face down the contenders from other parties, including José Antonio Kast, who is analogous to Brazil's Bolsonaro. Unfortunately, Jara is now the lead figure of a party that has been taking quite a few Ls under Boric's leadership. Ostensibly a Democratic Socialist, he ruled as - you guessed it - a neoliberal, bending the knee to the US and EU. He not only failed to overthrow the Pinochet-era constitution, he actually allowed the right-wing to turn the proposed new constitution into something worse, and had to settle for campaigning against the new one and keeping the old one. And he had very little solidarity with other left-leaning leaders on the continent, like Maduro, Lula, Petro, or Castillo.
With this in mind, I cannot help but look at Argentina's very recent history and feel a little dread - but if anybody can save Chile at this point, it can only be a communist.
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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.
Trump-backed bill may slap 500% tariffs on nations trading with Russia including India, China
Trump tariff bill Russia India China: The bill, which the Republican Senator said now has 84 co-sponsors, aims to pressure countries like India and China to stop purchasing oil and other goods from Russia, thereby weakening its war economy and pushing Moscow to negotiate peace in Ukraine.
The Indian Express ^01/07/25^
Trade war India China Russia: US President Donald Trump has approved the introduction of a Senate bill that would impose a 500 per cent tariff on countries continuing to trade with Russia, including India and China, Senator Lindsey Graham said in an interview published Sunday.
“Big breakthrough here. So what does this bill do? If you’re buying products from Russia and you’re not helping Ukraine, then there’s a 500 percent tariff on your products coming into the United States. India and China buy 70 percent of Putin’s oil. They keep his war machine going,” Graham told ABC News.
The bill, which Graham said now has 84 co-sponsors, aims to pressure countries like India and China to stop purchasing oil and other goods from Russia, thereby weakening its war economy and pushing Moscow to negotiate peace in Ukraine.
“My bill has 84 co-sponsors. It would allow the president to put tariffs on China, India, and other countries to stop them from supporting Vladimir Putin’s war machine and get him to the table. For the first time yesterday, the president told me … I was playing golf with him [Trump]. He says, ‘It’s time to move your bill,’” Graham added.
The bill, expected to be moved in August, is part of growing US efforts to tighten the economic noose around Russia as its war in Ukraine drags on. India and China have continued buying discounted Russian oil despite Western sanctions, making them targets of the proposed legislation.
The bill is co-sponsored by Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. “We are going to give President Trump a tool in the toolbox,” Graham said, adding that the president told him while golfing, “It’s time to move your bill.”
Initially proposed in March, the legislation was delayed after the White House signaled opposition to expanding sanctions, as Trump was trying to reset ties with Russian President. However, the administration now appears ready to support the effort.
Reports suggest the White House previously pressed Graham to soften the bill. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump Administration is “quietly pressuring” the Senate to water down the legislation by turning “the word ‘shall’ into ‘may’ wherever it appears in the bill’s text, removing the mandatory nature of the prescribed reprimands.”
The Journal’s report gained further weight when Graham proposed a carve-out in the bill for countries that support Ukraine—an attempt to prevent a potential US-EU trade war if the legislation is enacted. President Donald Trump, speaking to Politico in mid-June, also signaled hesitation, saying, “sanctions cost us a lot of money,” indicating a reluctance to pursue aggressive economic penalties. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio later clarified that while such sanctions could disrupt the Ukrainian peace process, the administration has not ruled them out entirely.
If enacted, the legislation could mark a significant rupture in US trade relations with both Beijing and New Delhi. For India, which counts the US as a top export market, the measure could have wide-ranging economic and diplomatic consequences.
Oh hey look, China and India are suddenly getting a lot of oil from Kazakhstan
I dunno how good this source is, but you get the idea
https://sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/kazakhstan-changes-regarding-monitoring-of-goods-re-exported-to-russia/
honestly how would america survive if there was suddenly an additional 500% exercise on goods from PRC?
We saw what happens when the US levies extreme sanctions on China a few months ago: America buckles.
I hope it buckles into the abyss before the winter so I can stop having to anxiously look up what the fuck the US is up to today