Well, Iran and their allies' response may happen sometime this week and apparently they aren't talking to the US in order to negotiate how and where they will hit Israel (and Shoigu arrived in Tehran rather auspiciously), the Bangladeshi government just fell, F16s have been given to Ukraine, there are fascist riots in the UK, and Japan just had its worst stock fall since 1987 and seems to be taking several other countries/corporations with it. I don't really know where to look right now.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
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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 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.
For context, the Ukronazi incursion into Kursk oblast seems about the same in size as the Russian incursion into Kharkiv oblast. Neither seem consequential. The former will probably grind to a halt after a few days/weeks while the Russians keep making ground in Donetsk oblast. What does Ukraine have to gain by doing this? I have no idea. Morale boost? Reddit points? They could take the entire Kursk oblast and it would have zero impact on the outcome of the war.
Mostly just floating this as a theory but if the rumours of actual peace talks after the election are true (which in itself is a big if I suppose), I wonder if they want to hold onto some Russian territory to use as a bargaining chip.
if Ukraine still possesses this territory in 3 months, I think we need to issue a massive apology for doubting the 500,000 dead Russian soldiers figure. that would be a fuckup to end all fuckups.
if Ukraine still possesses this territory in 3 weeks, a lot of people are getting fired
The war impact is minimal because there's simply no way to translate this into anything more substantial, really. I'm still very much confident in eventual Russian victory, my position hasn't even vaguely budged, the F-16s don't scare me, and neither does this latest border incursion. And as somebody else said below, y'know, if they keep pushing in then Russia has the troops and equipment and air power at their disposal to pulverize them, there are no defenses to hide behind here and no stockpiles to use. And if things get real bad, nukes are always there. But having Ukraine kilometers deep into your territory and holding onto your towns and villages for months on end is just not a tenable domestic situation
and with the F-16 thing, we're probably gonna see a similar story. one of them will hit an important Russian target, the Russian telegram crowd will shit their pants and declare that the war is lost, it'll happen maybe once or twice more, then Russia will implement its new strategy to deal with them and just like the HIMARS and storm shadow and every other Western piece of shit system, it'll be countered and they'll have to come up with another wunderwaffen
Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I don't think that this has remotely turned the tide or that them holding this territory for a long time is at all realistic, but it wouldn't be the first time Ukraine tried some weird reddit brained PR play that's doomed to failure at the risk of huge numbers of their troops (see also them attacking Snake Island repeatedly)
Taking a nuclear plant hostage against a nuclear armed enemy. What could go wrong?
Chances of that happening?
If Russian MoD is to be believed, only 3 of 11 tanks from Ukraine remained as of last night. As of today, I doubt any do. Enter Sudzha with what force? They are just shelling it
OMG MOTHERFUCKING SUDZHA?!?!??!?! RUSSIA IS FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never underestimate Russian Incompetance
It's been clear for a while that they need a buffer zone across the entire border.
they do keep threatening that they're going to make a buffer zone and one keeps seeing reports of Russian troop buildups along their border, but nonetheless...
it's like one of those dragonball Z episodes where the dude spends 10 episodes in a row charging up. it's gonna happen eventually, but on a timescale four times as long as a WW2 Soviet operation despite having 10 times less troops and equipment to physically shift around and organize. neoliberalism: not even once, kids
What do they have to gain? nothing because it assumes they will be successful which is impossible. The goal was
1- A suicidal attack by selfish distanced Nazi commanders that are frustrated by the overall situation and lack of progress. This isn't the first time they raid Russian territory.
2- Attempt to distract the western media from the upcoming collapse of important or even more cities in the east, the big meme now is Niu York is critical soon^tm^ aka anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.
3- Losing Biden and probably Blinken spooked them into real desperation. Putin already made peace demands earlier that was obviously rejected. Nuland is already out of project Ukraine too. Even if Trump won he is less likely to continue this and Kamala is not guaranteed to be a big NATO idiot like Biden. Suddenly looking like the war might end sooner than expected.
Most important IMO 4- Israel is continuing to escalate and yet again there is talk of a total war. If the US is forced to support Israel they may decide to force Ukraine to surrender now and avoid the worst.