Over the last week, Sri Lanka has been hit by their worst national natural disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Over 2 million people (about 10% of the population) were affected; the death toll is currently climbing past 600; nearly a hundred thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, transport infrastructure is heavily damaged; industry has been damaged; and farmland has been flooded. The cost of damage so far looks to be about $7 billion, which is more than the combined budget spent on healthcare and education in Sri Lanka.
While there is plenty to say meteorologically about how this yet another concerning escalation as a result of climate change (Sri Lanka does experience cyclones, but they are usually significantly weaker than this), it’s important to note that such disasters are, to at least a certain extent, able to warned about and their impacts somewhat mitigated. However, this requires both access to early detection and warning equipment, and an economy in which development is widespread - in this case, particularly in the construction of drainage systems and regulated construction, which has not generally occurred.
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
Perhaps neoliberalism’s decay into its eventual death occurring concurrently into the gradual intensification of climate change and renewed wars signifies the rise of the era of disaster capitalism.
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.
Hey buddy, I heard you like posts… DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own posts). Some great discussion this week. I’m grateful to be part of this community.
Please review and provide feedback on revised comm policy and rules
@xiaohongshu@hexbear.net with a real banger on upward social mobility or lack thereof for China’s Gen Z, the modern appeal of the Cultural Revolution, and CPC censorship Part 1 | Part 2. The subthread with @jack about modern youth Maoism is worthwhile as well.
@jack@hexbear.net on who owes the IMF money and the potential for China to upend the debt of the developing world. @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net has a good response here about the likelihood of China rugpulling the IMF/dollar denominated debt (he doubts it).
@seaposting@hexbear.net analyzing the class character of Malaysian resistance to Japanese occupation in WW2 and linguistic nuance around Malaysia’s national monument
@Redcuban1959@hexbear.net on the state of Bolivia, Acre and Morales
Previous posts of the week: Oct 27 | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 17 | Nov 24 | Dec 1
Only been a day and there’s already a lot of great posts!
Best part about this community is that there’s always good posts
there are threads where Nothing Happens and days where GOOD posts are posted
Trump, talking about Venezuela: “We are going to be starting on land pretty soon.”
Live video from Status Coup - Protestors surround hotel near Minneapolis hosting ICE agents
In US military movements in the build-up against Venezuela. F-35A fighters from the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing are in the process of being forward deployed to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, with logistics flights taking place, the F-35As haven’t moved yet. This is notable as the exact same unit was forward deployed to the Middle East only a few days before US strikes on Iran. (This does not mean military action is imminent, just notable). Expect a Bernie Sanders statement about “no war in Venezuela” soon, probably once the F-35As start moving.
Why deploy F-35As when 10x F-35Bs are already operating in Puerto Rico? The F-35A offers a couple of advantages: a larger combat radius due to the lift fan from the B model being replaced by an internal fuel tank, and the A model’s ability to carry 2000lb class Mk-84 bombs internally, like GBU-31 JDAMs equipped with BLU-109 bunker buster/penetrator warheads. The F-35B can only carry 1000lb class Mk-83 bombs internally. The F-35A can refuel faster in the air from tankers, boom refueling on the A vs probe and drogue for the B, though the difference is minimal for fighter jets. Also, the deck of the USS Iwo Jima is currently empty/clear. If the F-35Bs, with their Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) capability are deployed to the Iwo Jima to act as a mini aircraft carrier, Puerto Rico will still have F-35As available.
Russian forces have fully liberated the northern Donetsk People’s Republic city of Seversk:
The controversial Victims of Communism memorial in downtown Ottawa will no longer feature the names of specific individuals after federal officials determined a significant number could be linked to the Nazis.
I really like the title of the article: “Government retreats on Victims of Communism memorial names in aftermath of Nazi controversy”
https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/defence-watch/victims-of-communism-memorial-names-nazis
The Ottawa Citizen reported in 2024 that the Department of Canadian Heritage was told by historians that more than half of the 550 names to be inscribed on the Memorial to the Victims of Communism should be removed. The reason was because of potential links to the Nazis or questions about affiliations with fascist groups.
Global Times interviews Communist Party of Australia national president Vinnie Molina
“Workers of the world, unite” is a phrase that rings true throughout history. To isolate ourselves from the world can lead to the withering of our movement - as seen in parts of the Western left, which have at times fallen prey to the imperialist propaganda.
Former Biden Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council Amanda Sloat was prank called by those people who got Stephen King to praise Stepan Bandera and call him a great man right after mentioning that he was a Holocaust perpetrator.
She openly stated that had the US advised Ukraine to agree to remain neutral and not join NATO, that Russia wouldn’t have invaded and all the death and destruction could have been avoided, but that they didn’t want good relations between Ukraine and Russia because it would increase Russia’s sphere of influence.
https://xcancel.com/ricwe123/status/1998987234998108513
Not really news I guess, but kind of news adjacent and I thought the folks in here would find it interesting.
I didn’t know that there will be two separate votes in the Senate to extend the 2021 enhanced subsidies for the ACA today.
Anyway, both votes failed. I don’t see any reporting on another attempt.
This is just their Totenkopf now
Proposal for new Entry Requirements for People Traveling to the US
- All social media accounts from the last 5 years
- All your biometrics: face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
- All your phone numbers from the last 5 years
- All your email addresses from the last 10 years
- IP addresses and metadata from your submitted photos
- Names of your family members (parents, spouse, siblings, children)
- All your family members’ phone numbers from the last 5 years
- Your family members’ dates of birth
- Your family members’ places of birth
- Your family members’ residencies
- All your business phone numbers from the last 5 years
- All your business email addresses from the last 10 years
the spineless bilingual North Americans, after spending the start of the year farming reddit karma when Trump was talking about annexing them, now won’t even lift a finger when Venezuela’s sovereignty is being threatened by the same entity. Even the UK and Colombia have ended intelligence sharing “in the region”, but Tim Hortonia continues to operate with the USCG, which works directly with the USN.
Apologies if this is the wrong place for this,
What’s the news bulletin’s thoughts on American Prestige podcast? I… often forget to check the megathreads, so frequently it becomes my primary source for global news. Any glaring omissions? Bunk analysis?
