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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.

After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin's NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.

There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.


The weekly update is here on the website.

Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.


The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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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[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 30 points 11 months ago
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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 30 points 11 months ago

Honduran Deputy Security Minister Escapes Unharmed From Attempt

Villanueva has received escalated threats, particularly after she reported the discovery of Police-issued bullet casings in a massacre of female inmates.

On Tuesday, the Honduran Deputy Minister of Security, Julissa Villanueva, emerged unharmed from an assassination attempt carried out by armed men while she was traveling through the America neighborhood in Tegucigalpa.

Authorities confirmed that two unknown individuals fired upon one of the armored security vehicles that accompanied the senior official. Fortunately, everyone escaped the attack unharmed.

"I am fine, but it's unsettling to be told that shots are being fired. Nevertheless, I asked the escorts to stay calm and investigate because these people are genuinely trying to kill me," the Deputy Security Minister said.

In recent weeks, Villanueva has received escalated threats, particularly after her report regarding the discovery of Police-issued bullet casings in the massacre of female inmates at the Tamara Women's Penitentiary.

In a television interview, the deputy minister asserted that the threats and intimidations originate from the institution where she works.

"I won't tolerate anyone obstructing my work. I have a technical-scientific unit working with me. How could I not know that the messages are coming from this very institution?"

Villanueva, a forensic doctor, led an intervention commission formed at the National Penitentiary Institute after the massacre of 46 inmates. She has also spearheaded investigations into the murder of football enthusiast Wilson Perez and other prominent cases of violence.

So far, Security Minister Gustavo Sanchez has not provided updates on the progress of investigations related to the threats against Villanueva.

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 29 points 11 months ago

Guyana and Venezuela: The Crisis of Imperialism Currently Unfolding on South America's Caribbean Coast

Good article that goes on the history of venezuelas claims over the essequibo region and how it has its base on the anticommunist policies that Chavez fought against and the role the west has played in the conflict via orgs like exxon

the introduccion of the article 1/3 of it

This week Venezuela will hold a referendum on annexing Guyana’s Essequibo region, claiming that it wants to rescue those Guyanese in Essequibo “mired in misery, in abandonment.” While Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro speaks to a real concern impacting the Guyanese people – the external capture of governance in the country by ExxonMobil and US Southern Command (Westervelt 2023) – Maduro’s statement shows a real disregard for Guyana and Guyanese people while amplifying a rightist tendency in Venezuelan politics that historically aimed to cement Venezuelan nationalism under the guise of anti-communist security objectives. Maduro is not standing with Guyanese workers or Amerindian peoples in Essequibo. In fact, Venezuela has not consulted these communities in its annexation push at all (Clash! Collective 2023). No amount of “left” proselytizing by Venezuela changes this fact.

Given the reliance of Guyana, and the Caribbean region more generally, on the West for both security objectives, goals, and funding – it should not come as a shock that Venezuela’s referendum alongside these broadcasts by Maduro have been interpreted by Guyana as aggressive – heightening security tensions between both countries. Venezuela’s actions, Guyanese Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo notes, makes his incumbent PPP/C party more welcoming towards the establishment of foreign military bases in Guyana to “protect Guyana’s national interest” (France 24, 2023).

Whereas many Western headlines attribute Venezuela’s annexation claims on Guyana to Maduro’s failings as leader, and headlines in Guyana attribute Venezuela’s annexation claims today on the oil find by Exxon – I reject all claims that solely attribute Maduro’s stance towards Guyana on the internal domestic political calculations that he is making in Venezuela. Venezuela’s domestic situation was already negatively impacted prior to Maduro gaining power, given Western sanctions and attempts to undergird the Venezuelan economy. Headlines in Guyana are more accurate noting the change in Maduro’s position post oil. However these headlines tend to downplay the role of ExxonMobil in Guyana’s offshore oil discovery and the subsequent security calculations that Venezuela has had to make from 2013 to the present since that discovery. ExxonMobil is not a neutral actor in the region; it belongs to a state that has tried to institute regime change in Venezuela for decades. It is this latter point, I contend, that is pushing Venezuela’s annexation pronouncements.

I outline these security dynamics in a twitter thread here, but essentially, the changed relationship between Venezuela and Guyana, given Exxon’s oil find, is influencing both the foreign policy of Venezuela and Guyana. Any analysis of the crisis situation unfolding must take into account how states become integrated into preferred regimes of Western security, extractivism, and financial governance. It is not the case that Venezuela’s internal dynamics are purely influencing its current decision to annex the Essequibo; it is security concerns regarding what Venezuela sees as a captured Guyanese government (Westervelt 2023) that has amassed a huge amount of Western interest both during the exploration phase in 2013, and especially after, the oil find in 2015. It must be noted that Guyanese people have challenged their own government over the relationship with Exxon: first with the no-confidence votes of 2018 (John 2020), then the ongoing protests in Guyana against Exxon since first production began in 2019 (GSA 2022; Henry 2022; Bagot 2023), and, finally, the numerous court cases levied against the government of Guyana and Exxon by Guyanese citizens (Janki 2023). None of these grievances by Guyanese, however, have called for annexation by Venezuela.

In fact, Venezuela’s annexation push has instead seen Guyanese people rally behind what they have been protesting against – what The Intercept has called a “captured government.”

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 29 points 11 months ago

dig deep enough into a thread on US enemy-state having an armed conflict i keep seeing people eventually bringing up serbia with like no context, but i'm assuming the implication that there's disputed territory (yugoslavia? just kosovo? FYRONM?)

so my question is two-fold: a) exactly what 'anti-nato' serbian operation is imagined? b) why would that be good

[-] Dull_Juice@hexbear.net 29 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Update on Greg Joseph with the Israeli shoes: Missed a 49yrd field goal.

Vikings offense is so bad I'm guessing he'll get another cracks at it unfortunately. Would love it if he couldn't hit any of them wearing those things.

Edit: Vikings offense is indeed bad, Greg Joseph hit a field goal. Very upsetting to see him 1/2 and not 0/2

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 29 points 11 months ago

Yvan Gil:

The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela informs that today, at the request of the Guyanese side, Foreign Minister Hugh Todd held a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister Yvan Gil to discuss the territorial controversy, following the consultative referendum.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 29 points 11 months ago

Inter-American Court Asks Peru Not to Release Alberto Fujimori

Currently, this far-right former president is serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity, embezzlement, corruption, and office usurpation.

On Tuesday, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) issued an urgent resolution, requesting the Peruvian State refrain from releasing former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), who is serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity, embezzlement, corruption, and office usurpation.

The IACtHR President Ricardo Perez's resolution requires Peru not to release Fujimori until the Inter-American Court has all the necessary elements to analyze whether the release decision complies with the conditions established in the Resolution of April 7, 2022.

Previously, the IACtHR ordered Peru to refrain from implementing a Constitutional Court's decision from December 4, 2023, where the 'immediate release' of Alberto Fujimori Fujimori was ordered.

The Inter-American Court's request was to ensure the right to access justice for the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres.

The new IACtHR resolution is a response to the representatives of the victims, who submitted a document on Tuesday arguing that there is "an extremely urgent situation because the highest national judicial instance has openly disobeyed what was ordered by IACtHR´s resolutions in 2018 and 2022.

The representatives of the victims denounced that Fujimori's release would cause irreparable harm to the access to justice right since there are no national resources to challenge the decision of the Peruvian Constitutional Court.

Currently, Peru is in a "state of anticipation" regarding the release of the former president, Alberto Fujimori, following the decision of the Constitutional Court, which ordered his immediate release in restitution for the pardon he received in 2017.

Fujimori's supporters eagerly awaited his release at the Barbadillo prison gate, while the relatives of the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres protested against the Constitutional Court's ruling outside the Palace of Justice.

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