On December 4th, Rwanda's Paul Kagame and the DRC's Felix Tshisekedi signed the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity (pictured above). Trump boasted that he was settling a war that had gone on for decades, and remarked, idiosyncratically, "[...] and now they’re going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands [...]"
A few days later, the M23 militia (backed by Rwanda) advanced into Uvira, a city near the DRC's eastern border with Burundi and a major commercial and strategic location in the region. Burundi, although a small country, is a significant ally to the DRC and has sent thousands of soldiers to aid them during conflicts; this offensive by M23 aims to cut off a direct route between the two, though they do still share quite a long border over Lake Tanganyika. Tens of thousands of civilians (possibly up to 200,000) fled as M23 approached.
Signed almost simultaneously with the Accords was a Strategic Partnership Agreement between the DRC and the United States, which effectively threw open its critical minerals in the east to American exploitation. These minerals include tin, tungsten, and tantalum, which is vital for many industries. The irony is that M23 has been taking territory in the eastern DRC in order to transport these very minerals to Rwanda and onwards to global supply chains. Signing the Accord was, therefore, a remarkably pointless endeavour for everybody involved. Burundi and the DRC have complained, calling for sanctions on Rwanda, and appeasing to Trump's pride, calling this a "slap in the face to the United States", though I doubt the US is ultimately all that bothered about it one way or another.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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 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.
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.
In the wake of the horrific massacre in Bondi, NSW, Australia the prime minister has announced an intention to adjust gun limits and start a buyback. Given that one of the killers had access to 6 firearms new limits are likely to be below that (A sport's shooter may want 2 or 3 calibres, and potentially shotguns for clay pigeon/lever actions for gallery so this is perhaps a bit stringent?).
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/dec/19/australia-news-live-bondi-terror-attack-latest-updates-antisemitism-liverpool-suspects-victims-funeral-hate-speech-preachers-ntwnfb?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-694498a78f087ccaa844eb94#block-694498a78f087ccaa844eb94
The NSW premier has announced an intention to crack down on [pro palestinian] protests and expressed that if it wasn't unconsitutional he would want to bill protestors for the cost of police presence.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/dec/19/australia-news-live-bondi-terror-attack-latest-updates-antisemitism-liverpool-suspects-victims-funeral-hate-speech-preachers-ntwnfb?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-6944a9de8f086a70a358aea7#block-6944a9de8f086a70a358aea7
This is coupled with broadly uncritical adoption of fringe Zionist positions on what constitutes antisemestism :(
My heart goes out to the Australian Jewish community. Targetting random civvies halfway across the world for crimes some government that is ethnically related has done is completely unacceptable. Racist hatred is always beyond the pale, and the events at Bondi clearly show Australia needs to confront racism and right wing extremist terrorism festering in our culture.
I must also say though I am disappointed with the government response and lack of cohesive vision to protect other minorities that face homicidal hatred. Including our own indigenous people, and migrants from places like India, not to mention the rampant femicide.
Hatred festers here, I think it is misdirection to target left wing protestors and the broadly peaceful gun owning population, when this appears to be right wing religious nutters and intelligence failures/inappropriate gun licensing.
When on a single day 15 people of jewish faith die its a global tragedy worth erasing the freedom of millions and millions of citizens. When 15 Palestinians die on a single day its called a ceasefire.
Edit: context for those who got here from the direct link in the pinned coment: this is in response to a comment asking "Can both be tragedies?" in a discussion of the recent Bondi Beach shooting in Australia and the Gaza genocide.
In an abstract sense, yes (and I agree that they are). Practically, not really. One is treated as inevitable and just an unfortunate necessity / part of life / how it is in that part of the world. The other is treated as the sequel to the Holocaust in order to use it as an excuse for the former. In practice, it makes sense to compare them because that's what zionists are doing when they flood the airwaves with the latter.
Edit: any instance of Jewish suffering is automatically implicitly treated as a direct descendant and potential resumption of the Holocaust, making it the most important event on earth, to the exclusion of anything else that might possibly be a complicating factor or a distraction in the media cycle. It's quite literally impossible not to compare the two when one is being boosted almost entirely by zionists who have a huge interest in dismissing the other.
Palestinian suffering cannot be discussed without a long disclaimer about Jewish suffering, otherwise you're antisemitic. Jewish suffering must be discussed completely in a vacuum, otherwise you're antisemitic. These two judgments are both being made by the same people.
Yes, all of this. Forgetting that some of the victims were pro-genocide and the perpetrators IS CIA assets, so not an act of resistance. The current ongoing settler colonial zionist genocide is HEAVILY ideologically conducted via "pain supremacy" where the pain suffered by people of jewish faith is considered so brutally, abnormal and abhorrent that it commands extreme instant reaction. It justifies levels of violence not granted to any other group than white people.
Even good-natured intended sayings like calling the holocaust (which most people dont find that horrific outside its jewish victims, hell most dont even know the amount of romani, russian, polish, belarusian, greek, serbian, disabled, leftist, queer and homeless people killed by the nazis) "the worst atrocity" or the most "evil act" do reinforce it and implicitly states that the suffering of black people due to slavery, or native people of the americas due to centuries of colonialism, is less than and the crimes committed against the people groups is "not as evil" as the crimes committed against jewish people.
This can be seen on how the genocide of Palestinians is justified in european countries, after all if it doesnt look like the holocaust (aka targets primarily victims of Zionist-aligned jewish people) then its not the "most evil act" and needs not be opposed as severely.
Just like most western leftists nowadays crash and fail the "soft left to electoral socdem" plyometric box, because they use language too close to marxists, the pain supremacy aspect of liberal zionism is also something they also fail at, it sounds too "benign" and feels "just". Despairing at the great violation of the "peaceful sanctum" of "liberal" Australia, while its regime directly contributes to the dozens of Palestinians dying EACH day without pause is exactly what many global south comrades do point out as racism of western leftists.
Literally heard this argument made in real life, explicitly, by a white jewish person directed towards a black person
Yeah the white person is also the heir to an American store chain, so just massive levels of privilege and ignorance to try that shit. Radicalizing moment for sure
Could you expand on that with some examples please ? my non native English speaking ass does not understand this part. I checked what's a plyometric box but dont understand the analogy
I believe it means that western leftists are easily convinced to support "soft left to electoral socdem" political projects despite their uselessness, because those project borrow language and ideas from radical movements (while defanging them completely). In the same way, the discourse that focused on the supremacy of "Jewish pain" tricks them because it uses "progressive" language to manufacture consent for colonialism, apartheid, and genocide.
one is being weaponized as a tragedy by the zionists. one is being erased. if you don't see the difference then that's a blindness of yours
Jews are not an ethnicity. This is your Zionism coming out. The fact is that some of those killed were part of Chabad, an ultra orthodox Zionist cult that has a stranglehold on the Jewish diaspora far and wide and actively contributes to the genocide. Israel is raising its future soldiers abroad by making sure they grow up thinking they are the victims. These ultra orthodox enclaves are what fuel the genocide and settler colonialism.
This is how Zionists will succeed in their genocide in the west. They will make sure every MSM outlet the populace has will be pumping out Jewish pain. They already bought the platforms (like tiktok), silenced those who resist (like electric intifada). Now they will make sure every week is a stream of Jewish themed suffering.
This is Israel at its finest.
Oh piss off Jewish is absolutely an ethnicity, if you want to get super technical you can divide it into several distinct ones but that's pathological for this convo.
This absolutely cooked fucking daesh sympathising father and son pair were lashing out at people doing a religious celebration that has absolutely nothing to do with any sort of proclaimation of allegance to Israel because they were targetting people because of their ethinic and religous idenities. It's as fucking cooked as shooting up a mosque because daesh exists.
That's true that's why I'm ethnically Muslim and part of the billion+ Islamic ethnic group.
When I fill out surveys I make sure in the "other" box I write in "Muslim" instead of South Asian.
You keep throwing around words like "absolutely nothing" like it insists upon itself when I've already demonstrated that its not as binary as this.
I see for you, you've already made up your mind on how to feel, and you've spent it on it "being disappointing" that the Zionist colluding Australian government is using this as a cynical political cover to crush opposition.
We don't conflate Shintoists as an ethnic group even though the vast majority of Shintoists belong to a single ethnic group and most people of that ethnic group perform Shinto rituals at least on a cultural level. Imagine some dude walking around saying they have "Shinto blood."
And it’s all lives matter to mention that more children were killed in the last 72 hours in Palestine specifically assisted by Chabad and the corpse rabbi. Poor Australians
if anything it "all lives matter" to downplay mass death of POC to hyperfocus on a few whities getting killed. That's what the racists do in the US, they ignore the mass death and systemic suffering of POC to hyperfixate on anecdotes of crimes against white people
This is how I initially read the "all lives matter" comment, actually, as a criticism of the hyperfocusing people are doing on this tragedy while ignoring the Gaza genocide, with the remark that it's the first massacre in 20 years being to underscore that.
i think the original comment was implying the opposite. That we are doing "all lives matter" by wanting to refocus on Palestine instead of hyperfixating on a small attack in Australia
Reminded me of this the "lost Jewish tribe" in South Asia. 💀
But yes, apparently it is basic fact that all Jews are ethnically related so much so that Chabad now posits that Judaism is your allegiance to israel and not any particular genetic or ethnographic marker.
I'm being more and more convinced that antisemitism is the new "authoritarianism" in the west.
No, it is not. There are various ethnicities which have cultural affinity with Judaism, but this is true for many ethnicities with respect with religion. Armenians and Georgians have traditionally been Christians, Uyghurs and Hui have traditionally been Muslim, Thai and Tibetans have traditionally been Buddhist, etc. Pakistan tried pulling the "we are one big happy South Asian Muslim ummah family" card, but Bangladeshis still fought for and won their independence.
Jewish is a religion. The attempt to make it into an ethnicity is a zionist project, and the project historically of anti-semites. Jews from Poland have absolutely zero blood relation to the ancient semites of the levant
I don't wholly disagree, but I think the comparison would be valid only if Daesh were occupying Belgium and doing a genocide of Christians, and the mosque in question were affiliated with Daesh and had a genocidal Imam who was constantly hanging out with Daesh soldiers. I'm being facetious here, but I think it illustrates why this is a very flawed comparison. None of which makes the attack good or right.
As I said, I agree that the attack was bad and wrong. Unfortunately, zionists using this as an excuse to intensify support for genocide will increase the likelihood of it happening again.
As I say in the OP, instead of having some coherent platform against right wing violence they're suppressing pro Palestinian protests and adopting fringe Zionist positions on antisemitism.
Daesh did kill a lot of people at their peak, and destroy a lot of irreplaceable cultural heritage, and broke up families. They just mostly hurt other Muslims so the awareness of their horror didn't penetrate as far in MSM in the anglosphere.
I am not interested in constructing some flawless argument in an offhand comment. I just think it's fucking disgusting to attack people for their religious, cultural, or ethnic affiliation on the assumption they are somehow guilty because people claiming to represent them on said base are fucking lunatics.
Claiming that idk because some people in a crowd that somewhat shot into might have been horrible and that somehow makes the act less bad is an absolutely hideous thing to bring up and plays into the hands of the genocidal maniacs in Israel claiming it's somehow in the Jewish diaspora common culture to be senseless butchers of Palestinian people.
There are Zionists and antizionists in Australia, some are Jewish on both sides. Shit the premier of NSW is a Zionist and he's some Irish decendent Catholic bible thumping weirdo and he's one of the most ardent Zionists in the NSW public sphere.
I'm aware, but as you say, they did it mostly to Muslims (and Christians + other minorities in West Asia), who are typically not the perpetrators of the mosque shootings in the west you were referring to. Daesh attacks against crackers (who do that kind of shooting) were extremely few. So your analogy didn't make sense to me as a comparison to this attack.
Edit: clarified the above paragraph a bit.
I agree. But you can't make an analysis where you ignore that Chabad are genocidal zionists and that's almost certainly part of the reason this congregation in particular was attacked. Again, that doesn't make it right (even if all those present were zionists, which is definitely not the case because some were children), but it is reality. And as long as the "Israeli" state continues this genocide, this type of thing will happen more and more frequently. This isn't even the first Chabad congregation that was targeted, it happened in Manchester a few months ago. The point being that it can hardly be said conclusively that this was done only for reasons of ethnic hatred.
Of course, as you say, the people who did this are cooked Daesh sympathizers, they definitely ALSO did it for hateful reasons. No one does something like this without being completely cooked regardless, this kind of adventurist violence is not the actions of organized and principled political actors.
Australia has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, really don't think this was the problem here. The problem is that these were a bunch of terrorists who wanted to kill people. If these sick individuals didn't have guns, they'd do a ramming attack, like the multiple ramming attacks in Europe.
Now I hate to sound like a gun rights activist, but multiple people attempted to disarm and fight the shooters while unarmed themselves. Some of them got shot and killed, some just shot and injured. The shooters ended up getting killed by a detective with a pistol from 40m away. If any of those people who tried to disarm the shooter had a handgun of their own, this may have been over much quicker.
I think the problem with handguns is that once people start carrying them other incidents tend to escalate. Road rage, thefts, these things don't escalate here as much because people aren't carrying weapons.
Handguns are more regulated than longarms in aus, largely because they're basically made to kill humans, concealable, and almost all semiauto. There are long probationary periods, strict social requirements (attend events, compete for score), and a system of vouching for someone.
Our handgun regs work super well, and basically only bikey gangs involved in drug smuggling kill each other with them. Our gun laws work well in general. Shit even the cops don't tend to kill people very often (in direct confrontation).
Everyone is really shocked because mass violence basically doesn't happen, especially not deadly violence.
Unfortunately pollies seem to want to push the narrative that guns whisper to you when you sleep inciting you to violence and that protest is the problem and if we were all just complicit little sheep nothing would be happening.
You shouldn't hate to sound that way. Gun control is always, always, always classist, racist, queerphobic, ableist, etc. By its very nature.
We shouldn't worship guns or violence, of course. "Gun culture" is toxic as fuck and must be dismantled. But under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary. (Not often I actually quote Marx as there are plenty of other leftist philosophers I prefer, but when you're right, you're right.)