Image is of a destroyed American AWACS plane in Saudi Arabia, of which there is a very limited supply and each of which is enormously expensive both monetarily and in terms of components. Iran hit this with a precision drone strike that likely cost ~$20,000.
I don't have much to add from the last megathread description. This isn't to say that nothing has happened or has changed since then - decades are still happening in weeks - but the general flow of the war is remaining the same. Trump sometimes threatens to open the Strait with troops and flatten Iran to rubble, and other times threatens that he's gonna back off and let other countries handle it if they really want little trifles like "fuel" and "energy" so much. Iran continues to strike across the Middle East. The West continues to bomb civilian infrastructure due to their relative inability to affect the missile cities. In all: things are generally getting worse for America and the Zionists.
April is the month where the last ships that left Hormuz before it was closed will arrive around the world, so the last month of economic turmoil has been a mere prelude to what's going to occur in the near-future. The silver lining is that Iran appears to be formalizing the new state of affairs in Hormuz, creating a rial-based toll to allow passage between a pair of Iranian-controlled islands where they can be monitored, meaning that, as long as the US doesn't do something exceptionally stupid, the global energy crisis may "only" last a couple years instead of simply being the new reality from now on. Some countries have already agreed to this arrangement, and others will inevitably follow despite their consternation as their economies increasingly suffer.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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 the Zionists' 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.
Even bourgeois Liberal rags like The Economist made points to the effect that if the US loses this war, that Iran will be a new superpower.
Trump has made Truths to the effect of, he won't let Iran become rich.
The imperialists have openly acknowledged their fear that they have fully unleashed Iran's potential as a nation.
UAE-based liberal, Dr. Roy Casagranda - before the war started - said that hadn't Iran been under sanctions - Iran would've been a superpower.
and yet i think iran will accept getting out of this with nothing but a toll charge on the strait and some sanctions relief. they've been posturing and all, and we know they could deal incredible damage to the empire, but only commies really have the gut to be flattened by america's bombs and remain defiant. their recent 10 point plan was already pathetic, they'll 100% have caved by the deadline tomorrow
edit: woke up and maybe this was a tiny bout of late night doomerism lol
...right of course, the Shia martyrdom culture that is accused of inventing suicide bombing won't have enough resolve and defiance in them.
generally speaking, i don't believe in the courage of conservatives who are in positions of power, so i don't believe they can take an anti-imperialist struggle to the last consequences (which is what they're facing right now). but i sincerely hope you're correct
Disgusting chauvinism.
If anyone’s curious, Iran has shockingly NOT rolled over and accepted empire’s terms
“IRGC warning to neighboring countries: Restraint is over
"We will act against US infrastructure and that of its partners in a way that will deprive the United States and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years.
Regional partners of the United States should know that, until now, we have exercised significant restraint out of good neighborliness and have taken considerations into account when selecting retaliatory targets, but from this point on, all such considerations have been lifted."
“Iran cancels all diplomatic and indirect channels of communication with the United States and announces the suspension of any and all message exchanges – IRIB”
how is it chauvinism to point out that this leadership lives off an ideological position whose main affect is literally fear lol
Nothing was a big problem until:
What has led you to believe this to be the case about the current leadership and war footing of Iran? They have rejected all negotiations and ceasefires. There's no sign they are speaking with the US about ceasefires, let alone "caving" by Trump's 3rd or 4th deadline so far. Them getting full sanction relief and toll control over the strait would be sign of an extreme victory, the US and Israel would never accept this.
that was before recent attacks on iran's oil infrastructure, which reached another level and haven't been responded in kind
the proposal says the toll control would be shared with oman. and i'm 99% sure this is just a way for the iranian government to save face while actually proposing to share that toll money with the US (funneled through a gulf puppet) in exchange for a peace deal that is somewhat favorable
Iran just struck major oil and gas production facilities in Saudi Arabia and UAE. I'm not sure what you're talking about that "recent attacks haven't been responded to in kind". The waves of attacks are ongoing.
Putting the toll on the strait amounts to an increase of Iran's GDP by 40% over its previous GDP.