Title is a reference to Resistance imagery about how Israeli soldiers will enter Gaza alive but leave it in coffins - the same is true for American soldiers in the Middle East if the regional war expands.
The image is of the Fattah-1 Iranian hypersonic ballistic missile, which its creators boast can overcome any missile defense system on the planet, has a range of 1400 kilometers (and thus Iran can strike Israel), and has a terminal impact velocity of Mach 13.
Dozens of American soldiers have been injured and 3 have been killed on a base in the Middle East. There has been confused reports about whether the attack was on Syrian territory or Jordan's - the Al-Tanf base is in Syria, but Tower-22 in Jordan is another base that helps supply Al-Tanf, and Tower-22 is the one that is alleged to have been hit. These is the first confirmed deaths of American troops since the conflict began, though it's not likely that this is actually the first deaths after hundreds of drone/missile strikes throughout the region on American bases, unless you think American soldiers are having extremely timely heart attacks just after a missile hits.
The attack is certainly impactful, though it does also have considerably symbolism. Courtesy of John Helmer:
The operational success of the strike for the attackers is strategic. Tower-22 is a logistics, supply, and rear guard post for the Al-Tanf base which US troops are operating thirty kilometres north across the border in Syria. The attack demonstrates that both Tower-22 and Al-Tanf, Jordan and Syria, are newly vulnerable to weapons which the US forces have failed to detect and neutralize. Just as significantly, the massive US airbase called Muwaffaq Salti, 230 kilometres west across Jordan, is also vulnerable now.
It indicates that Iran now possesses Russian expertise in countering American equipment:
“This is a significant accomplishment,” one of the sources said. “Was the bypassing of the US air defence system at Tower-22 pulled off with Russian assistance? US bases generally rely on the C-RAM [Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar] system. It was sent to Ukraine last year where the Russians have been learning to defeat it. What now of American EW [electronic warfare]? They’ve been doing a fair job of knocking drones down up to now. It seems a ‘coincidence’ that, not a week after the meetings in Moscow with Arabs and Iranians, we see this success. It’s a success the circumstances of which, we can be sure, Biden and Austin are not keen to advertise.”
I am putting my take on the table right now: I am 99% certain that the US won't attack Iran directly. I think we are still quite a while away from that being a possibility. Much more likely is that Iranian officials in Iraq or Syria will be hit by a retaliatory strike, as Israel has done recently. It is a significant escalation nonetheless. And it comes as Israel seems to be gearing up for a suicidal war with Hezbollah.
The Country of the Week is Iran! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Updates continue to be AWOL - but I am cooking something. Hopefully.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
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EV powerhouse China to set own standards for automotive semiconductors, home of Tesla rival BYD remains dependent on imports from Europe, Japan — Nikkei Asia
"China is a big country, home to Tesla rival BYD." — Charles de Gaulle
January 22, 2024
China has moved to set its own standards for semiconductors used in electric vehicles and self-driving cars as it seeks to replace imports of these vital components with domestic production.
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The government has called on industry to create technological standards for more than 30 important automotive semiconductors by 2025 and more than 70 types by 2030, according to guidelines issued this month by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The guidelines, which were issued to trade groups on Jan. 8, seek to ensure safety and reliability by providing for performance tests of semiconductors used in finished vehicles and core systems.
An auto industry source said the government "will probably use the standard-setting process to instruct automakers to use domestically made semiconductors."
China aims to build a a homegrown semiconductor supply chain that is safe from the threat of U.S. sanctions. Semiconductors are a weak link in China's drive to become an automotive superpower by using its head start in the shift from gasoline-fueled cars to EVs.
Sales of new autos in China grew 12% in 2023 to 30.09 million vehicles, and exports reached nearly 5 million vehicles, putting China ahead of Japan as the world's top auto exporter, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. China led global growth in EVs and other new-energy vehicles last year, with a 38% increase in sales to 9.49 million vehicles. New-energy vehicles, a Chinese term, includes plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.
EVs and self-driving cars require more semiconductors than conventional autos. According to a major Chinese automaker, EVs are loaded with about 1,300 semiconductors each, compared with a little under 500 in gasoline-powered cars.
Level 4 autonomous cars, which can operate without driver input under certain conditions, have more than 3,000 semiconductors, Chinese auto industry data provider Gasgoo reports.
With government encouragement, Chinese automakers are developing their own semiconductors. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the parent of Volvo Cars, puts proprietary semiconductors into its sport utility vehicles. Automotive semiconductor development is also a priority for leading Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), according to a senior executive.
But China is still a long way from self-sufficiency. In power semiconductors, which regulate electric current and are vital to EV performance, domestic production meets only about 15% of China's needs, according to Gasgoo. In advanced chips -- the kind needed for autonomous driving -- Chinese production is below 5%.
China's overall self-sufficiency in automotive semiconductors is estimated at around 10%, compared with about 20% for semiconductors in general.
The number of Chinese companies developing automotive semiconductors has reached about 300, but domestic technology has not kept pace with the auto industry's needs, and China remains dependent on imports. Worldwide, the industry is led by Infineon Technologies of Germany, NXP Semiconductors of the Netherlands, Japan's Renesas Electronics and U.S. chipmaker Texas Instruments.
Many automotive semiconductors are not subject to U.S.-led export controls because they are less advanced than chips used for artificial intelligence and other high-tech defense-related applications. But China's access to foreign supplies of semiconductors for cars may yet be restricted depending on how relations with the U.S. play out.
"With the rise of trade protectionism, automotive semiconductors have become a focus of global competition," Fu Bingfeng, executive vice president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told a December 2023 conference on semiconductors hosted by the trade group in Wuxi.
"We can create a new automotive semiconductor industry," Fu said.
More than a year earlier, in November 2022, Miao Wei, a former industry ministry with powerful connections to the auto industry, had urged industry leaders at a meeting in Shanghai to switch all of their semiconductor procurement to domestic sources.
Chinese media have quoted Gao Xiang, a researcher involved in automobile policy, as saying that government support and other measures can make it possible to replace even extremely technically difficult semiconductors with domestic production in five to 10 years.
I would like to buy 1 semiconductor please. Fucking journalists always manage to mangle information in a way that enters a linguistic uncanny valley.
This is REAL Semiconductor Manufacturing, verified by REAL Probers.