Image is of Trump's initial set of reciprocal tariffs. Source is CNN and Reuters.
It's difficult to keep up with the news around the tariffs; they get instated, then dropped, then reinstated... for example, on Friday, Trump said that certain electronics like smartphones would be exempt, causing markets to rally a great deal, but now the Commerce Secretary has said that they might not be exempt? The state of play right now, if you haven't been keeping up this week, is that the US recently announced a 90-day global pause on implementing the tariffs he had planned (that is, 25% on certain Canadian and Mexican goods, and at least 10% on every other nation) but nonetheless increased tariffs on China to 145%.
Meanwhile, China has been - quite remarkably - standing their ground, increasing tariffs on the US to 125%, and putting restrictions on rare earths. Xi Jinping has been in Vietnam and has made statements against a tariff war there, saying that it would have no winners. Meanwhile, a Chinese spokesperson has essentially said that China can endure the tariff war due to the increasing demand from its domestic market in combination with its growing economic ties with other countries.
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.
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.
CW: possible gore
possible satellite images of CECOT are floating around, searching by name on google maps is censored but if you put in the coordinates you get some results (at least you did yesterday, unsure about today). its as horrific as you imagine.
(note that info for this was sourced from twitter threads, please take with a massive grain of salt)
spoiler
Oh yeah. This. Before someone says, “THIS IS LITERALLY AUSCHWITZ” stop and refrain from using that reference with every detention center, concentration camp, prison, etc. that you come across.
It’s widely known that police brutality from the guards is a thing in CECOT. This is pretty common for the Northern Triangle. Guatemalan prisons have had similar incidents. It’s just that now international attention is on El Salvador that wasn’t there before.
Would not be surprised if they’re dead bodies and definitely not a good sign, but don’t run around thinking this is the same kind of industrial death camp you had in 1930’s Germany. At best it’s what the Americans had in the 1930s with worse living conditions. So maybe more like the detention center in Nauru that Australia had.
Auschwitz wasn't originally an extermination camp either.
Libs can only make one comparison though. Things cannot be bad without 1:1 parallels with the third reich.
In all likelihood, this is just a brutal internment camp where conditions are bad enough that mass deaths are not uncommon. 🙃
I don’t think anyone here believes it’s an actual extermination camp, just a concentration camp like every other
Possible scenario: We know CECOT has heavily armed guards with live ammo and automatic weapons inside the prison. No weapons lockers, they are carrying at all times (unlike U.S. prisons). There is enforced silence and lockdown, which destroys the human mind. Someone snaps. Riot team moves in, attacked physically and swarmed. Gunfire is sprayed into the large holding area from the catwalks. The guards finish off the survivors, including those not wounded because they accidentally shot and killed one of their own riot team and want revenge.
"Prison riot, with causalities. Ordered to remove bodies, clean up holding area, spray down blood". Repeat a couple times a year.
Didn't buy it at first but there's no way that isn't a pile of bodies:
Tap for spoiler
Look at the bottom, there's no way that's anything but a body, blurry as it is
Have a source with more info?
New Bastille dropped
I get this: