The United Nations has just voted 153-1 on a resolution ensuring the safety and security of humanitarian workers

The country against? Yeah you guessed it.

womp womp

Sadly, we’ve learned that Guanguan, who risked his life in 2021 to secretly film the Uyghur concentration camps in China, is now in ICE detention in the U.S., facing the risk of deportation back to China.

A former Ukrainian intelligence officer has estimated that around 10,000 foreign mercenaries have died fighting for the Kiev regime:

The Kiev regime has lost an estimated 10,000 foreign mercenaries over the entire period of combat operations in Ukraine, ex-officer of the Ukrainian Security Service Vasily Prozorov told TASS.

"It is difficult to give their exact number [the number of mercenaries killed] in Ukraine. First of all, this is classified information in Ukraine, and also they have a large number of various units. <…> There is even more than one foreign legion in Ukraine. There is a foreign legion of Ukraine’s military intelligence and a foreign legion of land troops and they are scattered across various units there, across various mechanized brigades, air assault formations. There are a lot of them but I believe that the total number is estimated at about 10,000," he said.

https://tass.com/defense/2058201

Fragmenting The Ummah: How And Why The Malay Neocolony Disrupts Islamic Unity

Although race gets the focus of most analyses over here, important distinctions can also be made through class-based differences on religion and language. Below is the introduction. I also generally recommend the website VoxUmmah where the article was published, especially for those curious on the Islamicate and anti-imperialism.

A few months ago, during a conversation regarding global and local politics, my Maoist friend was surprised to hear me say that Hadi Awang, the current president of the controversial Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), had expressed support for Iran’s struggle against Israel. His shock was due to the widespread chronic online assumption that the president was a Shia-hating Salafi. This, however, is far from reality. A quick internet search would reveal that Hadi Awang has many times, through speeches and written statements, affirmed that the Shia, although considered outside the creed of Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama’ah, are still within the fold of Islam. He even stated in a video once that Shias are welcome to join PAS as members, provided they understood that the usul of the party’s constitution remains as the Quran, followed by the Sunnah, ijma’, and qiyas, thereby reiterating that the party adopts Shafi’i jurisprudence, in line with the historically normative practice of the Malays.

Some US troops were killed by an "ISIS attack" in Syria while entering Palmyra for the first time. Official figures are 2 soldiers dead, 1 translator dead, and multiple wounded. US President Donald Trump has vowed to retaliate.

Video of Trump's statement

However, it's not that straightforward. It looks as if the "ISIS attacker" was affiliated or a member of the Syrian security forces (however had no official leadership position), and was set to be removed from the security forces because of his ISIS aligned ideology.

Source on that with SANA article.

The US Air Force is currently doing "show of force" flights over Palmyra, with A-10s popping flares.

A very bad start to any Syrian-US anti ISIS co-operation with this green on blue incident.

US forces stormed cargo ship travelling from China to Iran: Report Al Jazeera

United States forces raided a cargo ship travelling from China to Iran last month, according to the Wall Street Journal, in the latest reported instance of increasingly aggressive maritime tactics by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

Unnamed officials told the newspaper that US military personnel boarded the ship several hundred miles from Sri Lanka, according to the report on Friday. It was the first time in several years US forces had intercepted cargo travelling from China to Iran, according to the newspaper.

The operation took place in November, weeks before US forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela earlier this week, citing sanctions violations. It was another action Washington has not taken in years.

US Indo-Pacific Command did not immediately confirm the report. An official told the newspaper that they seized material “potentially useful for Iran’s conventional weapons”. However, the official noted the seized items were dual-use, and could have both military and civilian applications.

Officials said the ship was allowed to proceed following the interdiction, which involved special operation forces.

Iran remains under heavy US sanctions. Neither Iran nor China immediately responded to the report, although Beijing, a key trading partner with Tehran, has regularly called the US sanctions illegal.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun condemned the seizure of the oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, which was brought to a port in Texas on Friday.

The action came amid a wider military pressure campaign against Venezuela, which Caracas has charged is aimed at toppling the government of leader Nicolas Maduro.

Beijing “opposes unilateral illicit sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction that have no basis in international law or authorisation of the UN Security Council, and the abuse of sanctions”, Guo said.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday the Trump administration would not rule out future seizures of vessels near Venezuela.

Of course, both Iran and China are quiet about it.

It may seem as though China and Iran have ongoing strategic partnership if you only listen to the “anti-imperialist” alt media news, but anyone paying attention to their relations will notice that China (together with Russia) is pulling their strategic influence away from the Middle East since June 2025.

Trump’s B-2 stunt on the Iranian nuclear facilities killed this partnership. The real message being sent by Trump is that economic investment in the Middle East is far too tenuous for the Chinese investors.

Remember the Iran-China 25 year cooperation program signed back in 2021 that promised $400 billion investment in Iran? Four years on and not even 1% of the investment has reached Iran.

Not only that Chinese investors are pulling away, trade has also gone down, with Chinese customs statistics reporting -25% import and export with Iran in 2025.

On the international stage, China has been quietly abstaining on the UNSC resolution votes on issues pertaining to the Middle East since June 2025 (see my comment here).

Therefore, it is no surprise that the Chinese MFA is keeping quiet on the US seizure of their cargo, for China does not want to get dragged into a bottomless defense for what will turn out to be unprofitable investment in the Middle East.

But most significantly, Trump’s B-2 stunt had smashed the whole Brzezinski’s Grand Chessboard scam about a Russia-Iran-China axis, which unfortunately many “anti-imperialists” on Twitter are still regurgitating about.

It has fully exposed that China’s foreign policy that emphasizes economic cooperation is far inferior to the USSR model of military protection when it comes to mitigating Western imperial advance.

Turns out that economic cooperation contracts can easily be thrown into the dustbin the moment a country is threatened with war. The recipient country is too busy preparing for war to honor whatever contracts they have signed, while the investing country sees too little profit to made if their all investment is sunk by the drop of the first bombs.

There is no Russia-Iran-China axis until they are serious about military alliance and reviving the USSR-style foreign policy. Don’t be fooled by the “alt media” telling you that China’s “strategy” is providing economic partnership to those countries. Trump’s B-2 stunt showed unequivocally the harsh reality that the fist speaks louder than the wallet. Anything else is cope.

https://xcancel.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1999892823210947002

Is a US power crisis unfolding?

Power demand is expected to exceed available electric generation at peak moments by 2028. Peak demand is projected to reach 1,160 gigawatts, above the 1,158 gigawatts of anticipated supply. By 2033, the power capacity shortfall could widen to as much as 175 gigawatts, a level that materially threatens grid stability. This would stem from peak demand rising to 1,229 gigawatts, while anticipated peak supply declines to 1,128 gigawatts. The US is facing a surge in electricity use from AI data centers, factories, and EVs that is expected to overwhelm generation capacity and drain emergency reserves, sharply increasing the risk of outages and blackouts.

We need more power.