back in my map era, we’re ukrainemaxxing right now
Declarations of the imminent doom of Ukraine are a news megathread specialty, and this is not what I am doing here - mostly because I’m convinced that whenever we do so, the war extends another three months to spite us. Ukraine has been in an essentially apocalyptic crisis for over a year now after the failure of the 2023 counteroffensive, unable to make any substantial progress and resigned to merely being a persistent nuisance (and arms market!) as NATO fights to the last Ukrainian. In this context, predicting a terminal point is difficult, as things seem to always be going so badly that it’s hard to understand how and why they fight on. In every way, Ukraine is a truly shattered country, barely held together by the sheer combined force of Western hegemony. And that hegemony is weakening.
I therefore won’t be giving any predictions of a timeframe for a Ukrainian defeat, but the coming presidency of Trump is a big question mark for the conflict. Trump has talked about how he wishes for the war to end and for a deal to be made with Putin, but Trump also tends to change his mind on an issue at least three or four times before actually making a decision, simply adopting the position of who talked to him last. And, of course, his ability to end the war might be curtailed by a military-industrial complex (and various intelligence agencies) that want to keep the money flowing.
The alignment of the US election with the accelerating rate of Russian gains is pretty interesting, with talk of both escalation and de-escalation coinciding - the former from Biden, and the latter from Trump. Russia very recently performed perhaps the single largest aerial attack of Ukraine of the entire war, striking targets across the whole country with missiles and drones from various platforms. In response, the US is talking about allowing Ukraine to hit long-range targets in Russia (but the strategic value of this, at this point, seems pretty minimal).
Additionally, Russia has made genuine progress in terms of land acquisition. We aren’t talking about endless and meaningless battles over empty fields anymore. Some of the big Ukrainian strongholds that we’ve been spending the last couple years speculating over - Chasiv Yar, Kupiansk, Orikhiv - are now being approached and entered by Russian forces. The map is actually changing now, though it’s hard to tell as Ukraine is so goddamn big.
Attrition has finally paid off for Russia. An entire generation of Ukrainians has been fed into the meat grinder. Recovery will take, at minimum, decades - more realistically, the country might be permanently ruined, until that global communist revolution comes around at least. And they could have just made a fucking deal a month into the war.
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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.
minor movements on the currency front. i expect to see similar shenanigans down the line as tensions continue to escalate but my marxist orthodoxy tells me that war in europe will remain the focal point for anti imperialist struggle for the foreseeable future.
Russia vetoes Sudan ceasefire resolution put forward by the UK
Russia was the only member of the 15-member council to vote against the measure on Monday morning, in a move that British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said was “mean, nasty and cynical”.
In an address to the Security Council after the vote, Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN said that Moscow agreed “that the conflict in Sudan requires a swift resolution” and that “the only way to achieve this is for the warring parties to agree to a ceasefire”.
But Dmitry Polyanskiy said that while the Security Council’s role is to help the warring parties achieve that, it “should not be done by imposing upon the Sudanese, through a council decision, the opinion of its individual members”.
He accused the UK and Sierra Leone of “double standards”, pointing to Britain’s support of Israel’s ongoing humanitarian violations in its war in Gaza, and said Lammy’s criticism was an “excellent demonstration of British neo-colonialism”.
“It is shocking that Russia has vetoed an effort to save lives – though perhaps, it shouldn’t be,” Thomas-Greenfield said on Monday after the Security Council vote. “They claim it is because of Sudanese sovereignty. But Sudan supports the resolution.”
Isn’t this a terrible look? Though I doubt a UN resolution alone would change much.
Don’t they have Wagner supporting the Arab-supremacist RSF?
The west supports the RSF.
Wait, that’s new to me… I thought only the UAE supports such scum… you have any resources on that?
What do you mean “don’t they”? Where did you see that?
Forgive me, where I’m wrong, but I’ve heard of this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_Support_Forces#Relationship_with_the_Wagner_Group
We are cool! I just wanted to get a sense like, a dream? An ultraleft podcast? In this case it was a formerly London-based Qatari newspaper. Gets a HMMMM from me. Seems like a good way to undermine Russian anti-ISIS reputation grinding in the Sahel.
Basically declare war on Russia
Eh mate, why are those Ruskies not following all our whims innit?
I wonder if this is a response to the us allowing long range missiles to strike Russia
Amazing things are happening in Germany - https://x.com/HeerJeet/status/1858562537760981420
German elites love doing this shit. “You have shown your antisemitism by signing a petition against murdering civilians in Gaza. Therefore we will not give you the €100,000 Joseph Goebbels award for journalism.”
capitalism DEFINITELY is when no food.
Argentina snubs G20 summit launch of Brazil’s global anti-hunger alliance
*Argentina the only G20 country not to sign up to a global anti-hunger initiative set to be launched at the opening of leaders summit in Brazil. *
Argentina was the only G20 country not to sign up to a global anti-hunger initiative set to be launched at the opening of a G20 summit in Rio, host Brazil said Monday. The decision by Argentina – led by President Javier Milei – deepens a political gap between the nation and neighbouring Brazil, whose left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is championing the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.
A total of 81 countries signed on to the flagship initiative – including 18 of the 19 nations in the G20 – but Argentina was not among them, according to a communiqué. Its membership is “under negotiation,” a source in the Brazilian Presidency told the AFP news agency.
The Global Alliance is an ambitious initiative pushed by Lula, a former steel-worker. It aims to eradicate hunger and poverty by 2030 and reduce inequality. Milei and Lula, whose countries share a border, have had a tense relationship even prior to the Argentine’s election last year.
An ally of US president-elect Donald Trump, Milei has imposed radical austerity measures in Argentina to bring down high inflation. The policies sent the poverty rate in the country soaring to 52.9 percent in the first half of this year, 11 percentage points higher than in the previous six-month period.
Milei was the first world leader to see Trump after the Republican’s win in the US presidential election. He attended a gala at the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago Florida estate last Thursday.
The Argentine leader has several times labeled Lula a “communist” and “corrupt.”
The Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty also has the support of international organizations such as the European Union and the African Union – both G20 members – as well as financial institutions and NGOs, bringing the total number of signatories to 147. The initiative’s goal is ambitious: to reduce world hunger, which affected 733 million people last year – nine percent of the global population – according to the UN.
For Lula, who grew up in poverty before a trade unionist and eventually president of Latin America’s biggest economy, the initiative is dear to his heart. At a national level, his left-wing policies have already lifted millions of Brazilians out of poverty.
I sometimes don’t even know what they’re trying to achieve. Hunger good I guess? It’s even worse when we consider that these global programs never really have impact on the matter, because hunger and poverty are essential to Capitalism, but still they have to signal that any kind of movement towards improvement, no matter how insignificant, must be squashed. Just sign the fucking thing you pathetic motherfucker.
death to “israel” btw
The Israel-1 “AI supercomputer” debuts on the list of fastest supercomputers, ranked #34 out of 500. The list was published today.
The system has Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.
Here’s an article from last year on it: regular link □ archive link
The Israel-1 is listed as a U.S. system despite being in Israel. Israel doesn’t have any systems on the Top 500 super-computer list. The other system Nvidia announced around the same time, called Tapei-1, shows Taiwan as the country. Both systems are said to be housed in Nvidia data centers.
hezbollah do something funny, strike a blow for humanity in more ways than one
German Org named after a literal NSDAP (nazi party) member dont want to give a award to a anti israeli guy.
German architecture award rescinded over British artist’s Israel boycott vow
Schelling Architecture Foundation refuses to give James Bridle his €10k prize after he signed open letter Philip Oltermann European culture editor Mon 18 Nov 2024 14.27 GMT
A German architecture foundation has rescinded one of its €10,000 (£8,360) awards from a British artist over an open letter he signed promising a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, citing the German parliament’s controversial antisemitism resolution as a factor behind the decision.
The Athens-based artist and author James Bridle was announced in June as the recipient of the Schelling Architecture Foundation’s theory prize, awarded every two years, for his “outstanding contributions to architectural theory”.
But on Sunday, days before this Wednesday’s awards ceremony in the south-western city of Karlsruhe, Bridle was informed in an email that the foundation’s committee had decided unanimously not to award him the prize because he was among the several thousand authors who signed an open letter calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions.
Signatories of the pledge, published on LitHub at the end of October, stated that “we will not work with Israeli cultural institutions that are complicit or have remained silent observers of the overwhelming oppression of Palestinians”.
In a press release, the foundation said Bridle’s signature on the letter was “in direct contradiction” to responsibilities from the “awareness of Germany’s national history”.
The foundation’s prizes, which have been awarded since 1992, are named after the late German architect Erich Schilling. On its website, the foundation says Schilling was a member of the NSDAP, the German Nazi party, between 1937 and 1945, and worked on the construction of the offices of the publishing house of the party newspaper Der Führer.
“We respect the right to express political views, especially since the foundation does not accuse James Bridle of antisemitism,” its statement said. “But the foundation can neither support nor be associated with a call for cultural isolation of Israel.”
In its email to Bridle, which has been seen by the Guardian, the foundation further linked its decision to a cross-party resolution passed by the German parliament earlier this month.
“The German Bundestag has just passed a resolution on the protection of Jewish life, which points the way forward for state institutions and is relevant to society as a whole,” the foundation said in its email.
The resolution, entitled Never Again is Now: Protecting, Preserving and Strengthening Jewish Life in Germany, was first proposed after the Hamas terror attack on 7 October 2023. International NGOs including Amnesty International and Israeli Jewish groups campaigning for a two-state solution have criticised its text for eliding antisemitism and criticism of Israel’s human rights record, predicting it would have a chilling effect on freedom of expression.
The resolution says “the Bundestag reaffirms its decision to ensure that no organisations or projects that spread antisemitism, question Israel’s right to exist, call for a boycott of Israel or actively support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement receive financial support”.
Bridle told the Guardian: “Although they are clearly not prepared to state it outright, the foundation’s decision is an accusation of antisemitism, which is abhorrent. It is particularly so given the organisation’s own history.”
Bridle said there was an irony in that the Schilling jury cited as particularly deserving of recognition his 2022 bookd Ways of Being, which contained a discussion of Israel’s “apartheid wall” in the occupied West Bank, and “of the relationship between genocide and ecocide”.
A spokesperson for the foundation said the other nominees for the prize had been informed of their decision, “and we have to be prepared for there to be further reactions”.
@SeventyTwoTrillion I’m not a regular here so not sure of the conventions. Did you make this map? If so very nice! I have one suggestion which is instead of titling it “to present” put the date in so when the image because separated from the text it’ll be more useful. If not your work could just add it in the edge somewhere.
(On mobile with no emojis but someone remind me to add “graphic design is my passion” later on.)
It’s taken from Wikipedia. I’m flattered that you think I could have done it though, considering I’ve been in the “badly drawn stick figure” art phase since I was 5
Javier Milei decides to join the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, proposed by Brazil at the G20. Argentina was the only G20 nation not to have signed. It is not known whether the change came about due to diplomatic pressure, shame at isolation, or advice from Milei’s dead dog
Zelensky has been spotted in Kupyansk. the kiss of death from a front line Ukrainian city
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/11/paris-and-washington-go-scorched-earth-in-the-sahel.html
The forces involved in the Mali attack were from a coalition of armed separatist groups consisting of the Cadre Stratégique pour la Défense du Peuple de l’Azawad (CSP-DPA) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for Supporters of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which reportedly received training from Ukrainian forces in Mauritania and Ukraine.
A CSP-DPA spokesman downplayed any special ties to Ukraine’s intelligence services, however, saying “We have links with the Ukrainians, but just as we have with everyone else, the French, Americans, and others.”
always wonder, what “independent” radical islamist groups think of their foreign policy friendos
As a result of successful actions by the Tsentr Group of Forces, Novoalekseyevka (Donetsk People’s Republic) has been liberated.
Russian Defence Ministry shows footage of servicemen supported by an armoured group rapidly entering forest belts and destroying enemy fortifications. In addition, attack drone crews defeat enemy hardware and manpower, helping assault detachments to advance.
As a result of active and decisive actions, the servicemen took especially important positions and installed the Russian flag in the village.
NYT has an interview with María Corina Machado. The main photo is her staring wistfully through a window:
Venezuela’s ‘Iron Lady’ Pleads With Trump to Save Her Country’s Democracy
Now, with President Nicolás Maduro accused of stealing the election and his government threatening her capture, María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s wildly popular opposition leader, has gone into hiding — alone.
In a series of rare, in-depth virtual interviews since she mobilized millions to vote against Mr. Maduro in July, Ms. Machado said she was holed up in a secret location somewhere inside her country. Because anyone who helps her could be detained — or might lead government agents to her — she said she has not had a visitor in months.
Nicknamed the country’s “Iron Lady” for her conservative politics and steely resolve, Ms. Machado is, she admitted, “longing for a hug.”
Her mother has urged her to meditate. She has not.
The rest of the article is her begging Trump and the “international community” to coup her country, concluding with “But I am willing to do what has to be done,” she said, “for as long as it takes to assert the truth and popular sovereignty," and then somehow you can hear “SPEAK ABOUT DESTRUCTION” fade in.
“Iron Lady” Neoliberalism is a disease
Iron LadyRusty Conscience
I think every NYT journalist should be tied to posts in various countries throughout the global south and left to be flogged to death by the general public
Too graceful… they should be unceremoniously shot like the dogs they are, but not killed, and then prompty
redacted
dragged it through the streets of Baghdad, where it was hung up, burned and mutilated, ultimately being run over repeatedly by municipal buses, until his corpse was unrecognizable.[12]
the truth is the people of the global south are far more humane and merciful than the people of the global north, so they’d probably be untied and treated kindly and hopefully their imperialist hearts would melt
I didn’t take you to be such a conservative, Vova
make NYT mean “Now You’re Tied”
More and more people are saying this
Maps and arrows in the megathreads are back! What is this, 2022? Time to start learning the names of every minor Ukranian village east of the Dnieper.