At the start of last week concluded the Summit of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES in French), in which, among other significant news, was the announcement of the creation of a unified military force for the alliance - called, rather straightforwardly, the Unified Force - which currently consists of about 5000 soldiers. Strictly speaking, joint military operations between the three countries had already been taking place for over a year before this point, but I imagine this organization streamlines the internal processes and makes it truly official.
Mali's Goïta delivered a speech during the summit in which he stated there were three main threats to the alliance: military, economic, and media. While this new military force is a major effort to combat military threats, the three countries have also mutually launched television, radio, and print media organizations to combat disinformation and psychological warfare. The economic aspect is the most tricky aspect of all, as (albeit decaying) American hegemony is not friendly to states which seek an independent economic path, most especially if that path does not directly benefit Western international corporations. Nonetheless, the three countries are doing what they can; they mutually launched an AES passport earlier in 2025, and this month, Mali has taken a bold move, recovering $1.2 billion after renegotiating mining deals with mining corporations after a comprehensive audit. Gold mining in Mali is a major sector of the economy, comprising about 20% of annual government revenue.
The three countries have also withdrawn from ECOWAS. The remaining countries consist of a small collection of West African countries, most significantly among them Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. ECOWAS is increasingly seen by the AES leadership - quite rightfully - as an organization which seeks to contain the radical shift in West Africa and return the region to the neocolonial French-governed status quo. As I talked about in a semi-recent news megathread, Nigeria is experiencing its own suite of internal problems, so perhaps in the coming years, ECOWAS will crumble from within and the AES can push back the terrorist organizations threatening them.
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.
China is, too. They're betting that the US will collapse even more before the final confrontation. They're not stupid, they're just callous.
They're betting the US will collapse in the next 5 years? Because in 5 years the US can do a hell of a lot to reshape the map. The map is largely already in their favor with a few tiny hold-outs, one of which just got taken out and the other is slated for being taken out (Iran). Others like African countries they can just bully by pointing to this, using moderate rebels, bribes, blackmail, etc. They'll take China's belt and road infrastructure and put it under US ownership, put the people in debt, take the wealth and minerals and perpetuate themselves and obviate China's moves for the next 30 years during which time they can turn up the pressure to crack China by blunting economic growth, sewing separatism, and creating dissatisfaction with the government for living conditions not improving.
I hate to say it but I really think China is playing the wrong game. They think just being good, charitable and a good trading partner will win over the people of the world and bring about change. And absent a violent, experienced hegemon like the US prone to coups, use of hybrid warfare, sanctions, intrigue, manipulation, sewing terrorists and rebellions and a master of propaganda and controller of the world culture and media that might be true but it is not absent that, it has that problem. Last century in the last cold war a lot of newly freed colonies soft-sided with the USSR but didn't hard-side with them and we saw how that ended for the USSR despite their efforts to export development help.
If China had had another 10 years to win over the people of the world, clearly show them they were better and not the US maybe the US would find it impossible to undo with coups and dictators and forced trade deals and debt bondage but they don't. US is an old hand at propaganda and will spin the victimization of people under the new US regime as being China's fault or that of their neighbors or other religious groups or whatever.
That's what I was saying, China is playing the long game, letting the US collapse under its own contradictions and take out half of the world with it.
Or they think that doing that will secure the material base for socialism in China. I'm highly suspicious of any solidarity China shows outside of its borders.
It's not easy to project power at a distance like the US does. China does not have the global infrastructure to do so. They could not win this for Venezuela, they would need to adopt a similar strategy to what the US has done with its global footprint.
China can leverage export restrictions such as rare earth materials to at least force the empire to reconsider.
Please don’t tell me that one of the world’s largest economy, the most industrialized nation in the world with 31% of global manufacturing share, is so weak that it has no cards to play in the face of global conflict. It’s not like the US has the capacity to invade China if they don’t like China’s response either.
I have nothing of substance to contribute, but I just wanna thank you for pushing back against the "China is a smol bean they cant do nothing" nonsense here
Hasn't that already happened though? Choked By China, U.S. Relies On Abandoned French Factory Stockpile To Keep F-35s, Tomahawks Flying
Also it's literally been like a day, we don't know what China is or isn't going to do.
I never was under the illusion that China would put boots on the ground to defend another country's sovereignty. The only time that happened was over 70 years ago.
Im saying that China will allow and even give a thumbs up to the death of millions in the global south if that means they can further consolidate their position in the coming multipolar world.
The PLAN has to more or less sail across the world to help Venezuela because unlike the US, it can't use the Panama Canal but has to sail through the Indian Ocean to arrive at Venezuela via the southern Atlantic. From a purely logistics POV, Venezuela is very much part of the US's backyard. The only countries more US-backyardy than Venezuela are Canada, Mexico, central America, and the Caribbean.
Waiting for a bloodthirsty enemy to collapse while you watch them gobble up all of your allies seems like a dangerous strategy to me.
Can you still trade? Do you still have access to the largest consumer markets in the world (China, India and US)? That seems to be good enough for China.
Besides, the more the US thrashes in its death throes taking out small fish, the easier they will be to take down when the inevitable armed conflict comes.
That's the long term strategy I believe they're pursuing.
That does seem to be their long term strategy. Will it work? Only time will tell. Personally, I'm not convinced it's a good strategy to let an era of the blackest reaction spread unhindered until it reaches your own doorsteps and you're forced to face the entire planet.
Whether it is effective or not, as you said, time will tell. China has shown it's capable of dealing with global reaction, keeping them out of their business as long as they're happy, while wielding the PLA as the stick to that carrot.
It is callous and inhumane for literally everyone else on the planet, that's for sure.