Image is from this article, showing a march by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela Youth. The preamble's information came from a few sources, such as here, here, and here.
Over the last few weeks, pressure on Venezuela from the US has mounted as their newest proxy, Gonzalez, lost the election to Maduro. The Trump administration now alleges that Maduro is the mastermind behind the "Cartel of Suns," raised the bounty on Maduro's head from $25 million to $50 million, and is working to deploy troops and naval assets to the region.
While I would not consider myself an expert, I believe an explicit boots-on-the-ground campaign by the US in Venezuela would be, at best, implausible, though the administration has not explicitly denied it (and even if it did deny it, denials by the US are merely confirmations that are being delayed). What seems much more likely is an intensification of a subversive campaign against Venezuela which seeks to further isolate it, with intelligence from the US given to whatever groups and individuals exist inside the country. There are certainly some parallels in regard to recent US belligerence towards Mexico, with both countries being implicitly or explicitly threatened with military force under the guise of "preventing drug trafficking" - and, of course, spreading drugs is one of America's greatest specialities.
Will this work? I don't know, though I am optimistic about Venezuela's chances. The Venezuelan government does seem to be taking this threat with a refreshing degree of seriousness - with over 4 million militia members being activated across the country as of August 18th, as well as a call from Maduro to the armed forces to be on high alert. The socialist youth of Venezuela are being mobilized in defense of the revolution.
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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.
Chinese Y-20A Kunpeng transport planes were spotted landing in Moscow Chkalovsky Airport today
Something interesting is happening.
Inb4 it's like an aeseptic canning machine for a beverage company or something similar. Heavy lift planes are used for ordinary industrial equipment at times not joking. In the tristate area they would handle large industrial things at Stewart Air Force base.
Also yea I'm fun at parties
👀
Yes quite. Something has changed, what is it? I don't know. But I have to imagine this has come off the back of Putin's visit.
Whenever there's a big meeting between Putin and Xi, or any major BRICS or Global South conference, geopolitical analysts will say that they're finally getting serious, but then in the end there's very little momentum, and the 'nothing ever happens gang' stays winning. But with the recent SCO, and Putin now fully pivoting towards Asia (as is evident with the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline agreement), and China signaling that they're ready for deeper cooperation with allies, we might finally see some interesting changes.
Honestly we only have to look at the data to see where the trend is heading.
This table from China’s Customs tells you everything you need to know about this “no-limits friendship” between Russia and China.
Jan-Jul Total Year-on-Year
Russian Federation Export -8.5% Import -7.7%
So much for the unlimited friendship when it seems Russia is only good at offering energy, raw resources and possibly some military technology.
Similar for the Belt and Road countries:
“Jointly build the countries along Belt and Road Routes” Export +10.4% Import -3.1%
So much for Chinese investment on the Belt and Road countries yet not buying from them to give them the opportunity to earn the money to pay back their creditors.
Who else do you think these Belt and Road countries are going to sell to? There used to be a country that is willing to absorb their surplus goods, but now the Orange King says deficit is too much, and wants to cut back. As a result, China is effectively exporting its unemployment to the countries that are most closely tied to China as a trading partner, because they will be the ones most vulnerable to China dumping its own surplus goods into their countries.
The same goes for the other regions:
Southeast Asia (ASEAN) Export +13.5% Import +0.2%
Latin America Export +7.3% Import -4.2%
Africa Export +24.5% Import +3.6%
Other BRICS members have it even worse:
India Export +13.4% Import -7.1%
Brazil Export -3.0% Import -12.1%
South Africa Export -0.1% Import -8.5%
If BRICS/SCO are serious about forming an independent trade bloc from the US, then they better hurry up with settling amongst themselves how they’re going resolve this huge trade imbalance issue. Otherwise it’s pure mercantilism and the US is happy to sit back and watch these Global South countries getting their domestic industries killed off by the huge volume of Chinese exports directed away from the US/EU market.
This is why I keep saying, for at least a dozen times now, that China has to give up its neoliberal policy and start raising the income of its people such that China can start importing from these countries. The country that runs the record trade surplus (>$1 trillion USD) has the biggest responsibility in this case. Funnily enough, this will almost immediately solve the domestic consumption/deflation problem that China is facing, as the income/purchasing power of their working class is directly raised.
There is simply no reason for an economy as strong as China’s to hoard low/intermediate value-added industries while many other countries simply couldn’t compete with Chinese goods at all.
Actually, there is a reason and you all know what it is: IMF says you need to “balance the budget” (aka “selling cheap goods to the West by running an export-led growth trade surplus strategy”) in order to “climb the global value chain” lol.
It was extremely silly when a few weeks ago I was being aggressively told that the PRC has been 'actively supporting' Russia by simply trading with Russia, with no special action being taken in that regard, and with no charity towards Russia.
This is true, the Russia - China friendship is actually very one sided, and Russia is very much the junior partner in that and honestly is bordering on becoming a Chinese vassal.
However, Russia needs some form of military support currently, even if it's purely defensive. The much hyped summer offensive has achieved little of note, Ukraine hitting a oil/gas/petroleum refinery every few days is not sustainable for the Russian economy (and Chinese oil imports), and the current Ukrainian SEAD/DEAD campaign in Crimea is not sustainable either, Russia even managed to lose an S-500 search radar to Ukrainian TV/human in the loop guided one way attack drones (along with multiple S-400, S-300 and S-300V components). This kind of equipment does not grow on trees, to put it mildly.
You're like the patron saint of framing anything as evidence of this thesis. Absolutely correct btw just funny how many ways you are vindicated.
I am still clinging to the last hope: 15th Five Year Plan (2026-2030). Key decisions will start to be made next month by the Central Committee. There is still hope for things to change…
The leadership of the PRC doesn't seem to have any economic interest in doing so, ever since at least the privatisation of the economy, if not since allying with NATO, so I wouldn't bet on that at all.
The CGTN hosts talked about China's "increased political awareness" (on the world stage?) during the Victory Day parade.
China will definitely not give offensive weapons to Russia, but perhaps they could provide some of their new laser air defense vehicles to protect Russian industry.
There's two things China would benefit greatly from field testing. Drone defence and drone offence.
Could be either tbh. They won't get another chance for field testing.