Image is from the Wikipedia article on the Sudanese Civil War.
Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur (a little east of that deep red zone in the west of the megathread map), is the last major holdout of the Sudanese government in that state, and is currently under siege by the RSF. Losing it would be a significant blow to the SAF, though given how the conflict lines are shaping up, it seems increasingly plausible that there will be a de facto - if not de jure - partition of Sudan, unless the military situation substantially changes. This is because the RSF have been pushed out of central Sudan, while the SAF are being pushed out of Western Sudan - although, the situation is pretty complex and has been known to change rapidly before.
As has been a constant feature of the Sudan Civil War - perhaps the single worst humanitarian crisis on the planet right now when measured by numbers - the civilian situation pales in comparison to the military situation, with hundreds of thousands of children dead from famine, and tens of millions of people experiencing extreme food insecurity.
Al-Fashir has been the destination of many thousands of refugees fleeing genocide, and food and aid supplies into the town are being explicitly blocked by the RSF, resulting in scenes similar to what is happening in Gaza right now. The big difference is that fleeing from major battle zones is at least somewhat of an option, though people are often caught and robbed or enslaved or trafficked while moving to neighbouring towns and cities - and these cities are often experiencing similar conditions to places that refugees are leaving.
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Israel'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.
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.
Russia may be conducting a launch test of it's nuclear powered and nuclear armed cruise missile, 9M730 Burevestnik/SSC-X-9 Skyfall. The US has deployed it's nuclear sniffer intelligence aircraft, the WC-135R Constant Phoenix, near the known launch sites. Sources with access to satellite imagery report movement of the launch covers at the site.
Trump appears to have been informed of such activity, and has given a typical Trump reaction, screaming nuclear missiles from the roof of the White House
Given that Russia has made a public statement about no longer following "self imposed" INF restrictions yesterday, I'd expect a lot more of this activity, potentially along with the deployment of other systems. Iskander-1000, Iskander-K, Oreshnik, etc. Though it must be said that Russia has used systems that do not comply with the INF treaty throughout the Ukraine war, and the treaty was already invalid as of 2019, when the US unilaterally withdrew, citing the Iskander-K system and RS-26 IRBM (now called Oreshnik) as violations. Ultimately neither side was going to abide by this treaty long term, given China is not a signatory to it.
i don't get the point of powering it with a nuke if we can get missiles anywhere with normal fuel. i guess it is cool to have a missile-sized nuclear reactor though.
Ballistic missiles are easy to track and potentially intercept.
Regular cruise missiles are limited in range by the fuel they can carry.
A nuclear cruise missile can fly indefinitely, close to the ground/water, all around the world, evading radars and striking from unexpected directions.
ICBMs well outnumber the interceptor systems and can be manufactured more easily, MAD is MAD for a reason if you intercepted 80% of a incoming strategic attack you're all dead anyway
Diversity in nuclear weapons is the only way you avoid your enemies trying to find a way to "win" a nuclear war against you.
That's just Dr Strangelove logic, nuclear war is 'solved' in that no sober people think it is winnable, the actual point of shit like this is grifts and/or forcing the opponent to design a more expensive countermeasure, the latter is just a gamble a nation fighting a real war shouldn't be wasting resources on
Many of Russia's new nuclear weapons came about due to a top-down order from Putin after the US withdrawal from treaties. Whether or not the logic makes sense, it's what Russian leadership subscribes to.
Isn't it cool that modern realpolitik is just playing around with Armageddon?
Less playing with Armageddon for the sake of it, more so using it as a shield where many other nations have fell to the actions of the U.S.
One could say this about the DPRK, all though their use of it is completely justified.
Oh yeah, it's all totally justified and logical. That's the definition of realpolitik. The wild thing is that Armageddon is just something that's part of that logical decision making process.
Somehow Armageddon is made logical.
Which cruise missiles can reach beyond 1-2000km? IRBMs like the Oreshniks cannot reach US soil from Russia, you’d need ICBMs for that, and in that case, it would already be nuclear annihilation.
Burevestniks are cruise missiles with small nuclear warheads with unlimited range intended to destroy strategic targets deep behind enemy lines, for example, to obliterate an entire US air force base with little to no warning. Its unlimited range allows it take on a flight path that can evade radar coverage and enter the US soil almost undetectable (and even when detected, showing up as a small transient blip on the radar that could just as easily be a flock of birds).
With enough of them, you can take out all major air force bases and high value targets in the US in a coordinated manner.
The point is to make your enemy look anywhere and everywhere. Even the very idea of it being launched would make your opponent mobilize valuable resources to search for its presence for days, making the war very costly to the opponent.
i think you answered why these weapons, even if they worked flawlessly (big doubt) aren't an ace in the hole. you're surprise nuking another country and then eating a bunch of ICBMs in return
I don't think it's a good idea either, but it does give the missile almost unlimited range . You could use it as some kind of ace/trump card in negotiations in theory, have the missile in the sky loitering over the Arctic, but not on it's way to a target yet. Yeah I don't think that's a good idea either, but it's a possibility.
The vastly increased range is the big practical benefit that has a valid use case. It allows for the missile to strike anywhere on earth after being launched from the ground, a vast increase in range compared to other ground launched cruise missile systems, or missiles that must be launched from aircraft. It's a different threat than an ICBM. Almost all cruise missiles have a much shorter range than ICBMs.
just flying around the world sprinkling us with hot neutron dust and fusion bombs for days on end