Image is of the breach in the tailings dam near Kitwe.
On February 18th, 50 million liters of acidic waste from a copper mine was accidentally released into the Kafue River after a tailings dam collapsed. The Kafue River stretches for a thousand miles across Zambia and a majority of the country - millions of people - rely on it, for both the economy and drinking water.
The results have already been catastrophic. The water supply for the city of Kitwe, home to 700,000 people, was completely shut off. As the wave of contamination moved downstream, a wave of death accompanied it as dead fish dotted the river surface. The government is dropping lime into the river to try and counteract the acid with an alkali and neutralize the water, but the tailings also contain toxic heavy metals that will undoubtably seep into the nearby environment and affect the area for years to come.
A considerable portion of the media attention to the accident has been devoted to the fact that the mine was Chinese-owned, as well as China's broader influence and investment in the region. Western anti-China propaganda aside, it has been clear to those in the know that these mines have been badly managed and needlessly dangerous for years now, and it is disappointing - to say the least - to see disasters of this magnitude occur from Chinese businesses. Hopefully this prompts a wave of investigations into China-owned mine managers all around the continent, who will then hopefully face real consequences for their actions.
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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.
What this is missing is that it wasn't just a strike exclusively on leadership and C2 elements. To assassinate these leaders, both in Gaza and Yemen, Israeli and US warplanes dropped bombs on the homes of these leaders in the dead of night, likely with their families inside. There is a clear parallel between this policy and Trump's 'you have to take out their families' 2015 comments
Two points. Yes the Trump administration's attacks on Yemen are quite different from the Biden administration in some ways. You can see this in the munitions used and the frequency and intensity of the attacks, as well as US military movements suggesting a wider air campaign could be on the horizon. However, it was under the Biden administration that the US sent a direct warning shot to Iran, bombing Yemen using the B-2A Spirit stealth bomber, equipped with the GBU-57 MOP 30,000-pound (14,000 kg) bunker buster bomb, capable of penetrating over 60m of reinforced concrete.
Secondly, stating that the Israeli strikes on Iran were 'limited', is missing the point of the operation. Targeting early warning radars (Ghadir) and Iran's most advanced high level air defence systems (S-300 PMU-2 fire control radars) using Air Launched Ballistic Missiles (ALBMs) opens up the possibility for further air campaigns against Iran. When this is combined with the fall of Syria and the Israeli aerial campaign targeting most of Syria's air defence systems, the highway to Iran is open, so to speak. Iran is trying to patch the ALBM hole in their air defence (Iranian air defence capabilitiy against the ballistic vector was not great to begin with, which is why Israel used ALBMs in their attacks, Iranian air defence was set up to counter cruise missiles and aircraft), unveiling new air defence systems specifically designed to target ballistic missiles (Bavar 373-2 in particular, an Iranian equivalent of the Soviet/Russian S-300V system). But it remains to be seen if this will be effective.
The USA has been flying nuclear capable B-52 bombers all around the world as part of Trump's "peace through strength" initiative. One such flight was off of the coast of Israel and Gaza, with seperate Israeli and UK escorts. These bombers were based out of RAF Fairford in the UK for this mission, but now all of them have returned to the USA. I think that if an attack on Iran's 'open air' (not in bunkers or mountains) nuclear facilities takes place, it might be on the electromagnetic spectrum, with the CHAMP missile. I think the use of nuclear weapons would be a step too far, even for the US.
I like to think so, but who would stop them? Is anyone ready to wage Mao's 10,000 year struggle?