Image is allegedly of the note Trump wrote while editing a speech while on the way back from the G20 summit.
The top Russian-Chinese agent, Donald Trump, has decided that the pace of dedollarization and the decline of American financial hegemony is going too slowly. He has therefore decided to put tariffs on everybody; from America's largest trading partners to uninhabited islands. In the process, he is trying to create an autarkic America. Jokes aside, interpretation and analysis of this has ranged across a wide spectrum. I think we can broadly agree that the most idiotic are the "true believers"; those that actually believe Trump's every word, and that this will somehow bring back American manufacturing and whatever other inane promises he has made.
However, there is a much more interesting debate. The first camp are those who believe Trump is acting as an inadvertent accelerationist due to his lack of understanding about how the world economy and dollar hegemony functions (and that this will subsequently ensure that countries flock to China instead). The second camp are those who believe that Trump does know what he's doing, at least to a certain extent, and that the effective result of this period of madness will be countries kowtowing to the United States; renegotiating trade deals to be even more in favor of the US in order to get tariffs reduced. There's even a yet more cynical camp who believes that in fact, this entire trade war is just theater for further national wealth redistributions from poor to rich; that all these monumental international trade wars are more of a sideshow. To quote the linked article: "[...] out of the mountain of tariffs that threaten to turn into a global trade war will emerge the mouse of further tax cuts."
I'm not embarrassed to admit that I have absolutely no idea which one of these is the closest model to reality. We're in new economic and political ground, and even if the tariffs are quickly renegotiated and/or dropped, the impacts will continue to reverberate around the world for years. I'm sure we'll debate this for months to come here, though!
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
He's close to some important people but he also seems to be all talk sometimes.
I wonder if this is related to whatever gains have been made by the US against Ansarallah's air defense systems that @MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net mentioned. Is KSA allowing the USN to resupply in Jeddah? I was under the impression that the Saudis had been keeping out of this. Maybe this is someone in the Resistance finally designing that the ZCC doesn't get to let the US operate from their territory without a cost (finally).
Not Jeddah, but Yanbu. US Navy ships were caught resupplying there on Sentinel 2 satellite imagery. After that, the satellite imagery has been censored over the Red Sea.
Senior members of Ansarallah have been talking about blowing up Dubai and the UAE for weeks now, so it's interesting to hear that Saudi Arabia is now included.
Also has to do with this
https://x.com/BashaReport/status/1909524378540241378
https://xcancel.com/BashaReport/status/1909524378540241378
full statement
From Yemen, Houthi Loyalists are interpreting the coverage by Saudi-backed satellite news channels alarabiya and AlHadath of the U.S. airstrikes in Yemen as more than just media reporting—they see it as an active part of the psychological warfare and information operations aligned with the U.S. campaign. This goes beyond simply pushing “false propaganda”; it’s about reinforcing the strategic narrative behind the strikes.In today’s broadcasts, Al Arabiya featured loyalists of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who accused the recently targeted figure, Saleh al-Suhaili, of being embedded within the Houthis’ tribal-social intelligence network. They claimed that his home is located on property owned by the National Security Bureau, now under Houthi control, and that he had reportedly provided intelligence on late President Saleh’s movements to the Houthis before his death.
The message being pushed is clear: any civilian or tribal figure who collaborates with or hosts Houthi officials may be considered a legitimate target in the U.S. military campaign. The goal of this narrative appears to be psychological—intended to intimidate the Houthis, discourage the northern Yemeni population from associating with them, and erode the Houthis’ tribal support base. This is particularly impactful given Suhaili’s role as an effective tribal figure who not only aided in Houthi recruitment but also amplified their messaging. Reports suggest he was recruited by Hamran, a key officer in the Houthis’ preventive security apparatus.
That last paragraph in the full statement also fits in with the footage Trump released on social media of a US airstrike killing 70+ people gathered in a circle. In that particular strike, it took place at a Ansarallah fortified military site, with Ansarallah military technical vehicles and drones present. The death of a few senior Ansarallah members was also confirmed a few days later. That's not to say everyone killed in that airstrike were Ansarallah military, just that they had a presence there. So any civilians or tribal figures who associate with Ansarallah, or host them/partake in tribal gatherings with them, are considered legitimate military targets, or as part of acceptable collateral damage, as part of this new phase of the air campaign. And Saudi Arabia is doing the propaganda and PsyOps to justify this in the Arab world.
