The war in Sudan has so far been marked by a lot of incompetency and mismanagement by government forces (the SAF). After months of bitter fighting, in late 2023, the opposing Rapid Support Forces suddenly expanded their control towards the southeast of Khartoum after not a lot of resistance, most notably taking the city of Wad Madani. This led the SAF supporters and officials to panic and point fingers at each other about what the hell the army is even doing, while RSF soldiers looted the city.
These victories led to a short period in late December and early January where diplomacy and peace talks were considered, but such attempts fell apart. The leader of the RSF visited various African countries, including meeting Paul Kagame in Rwanda, to boost his legitimacy. Then, the RSF attacked into South Kordofan and consolidated their hold on other areas.
The Sudanese capital of Khartoum sits on a river which divides it from the city to its west, Omdurman (see the post image). The SAF and RSF have been fighting over this grand urban area for the whole war, with the RSF holding most of Khartoum (with an entirely cut-off SAF force holding on in the center), with a similarly cut-off SAF force also in eastern Omdurman, up against the river. For 10 months, this force has been under siege - but no longer. In perhaps the first actual W of the war for the SAF, they finally managed to break the siege a week ago, pouring supplies in. This leaves a section of the RSF now cut off, though Omdurman is still not under full SAF control (and, who knows, the whole situation could once again go badly for the SAF).
Meanwhile, the Sudanese socioeconomic situation has completely collapsed, with potentially a 20% fall in GDP and 8 million people displaced, with 2 million from Khartoum alone. 18 million Sudanese, or about a third of the population, is in acute hunger, and 20 million children are out in school. The refugees streaming out of the country are causing knock-on effects in neighorboring countries like Chad. Nobody is even really counting the dead anymore.
Red is the government forces, the SAF. Blue is the RSF opposition. Other colours are various factions.
The Country of the Week is Sudan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
Looking at the reactions to the self-immolation, it really is impossible for liberals to comprehend anyone sacrificing themselves over something they strongly believe in. Just a total ideology of selfishness. The two main ways to discredit or distract from what this guy did are either calling him mentally ill, or ignoring what he did entirely and focusing instead on that one cop.
they don’t believe it and then become ukrainian ultranationalists if you bring any part of that situation up
On Reddit every thread is filled with comments full of jokes and I had to scroll for several minutes to see the words Gaza, Israel, Palestine or Genocide mentioned even a single time. All they talk about it veteran mental health and mock this guy
I may criticize his tactic here, but to disgusting libs like that I’ll defend him. They’re just mad he didn’t blow his brains out quietly in his apartment like he’s supposed to.
The worst are the military threads where everyone is calling him a Hamas supporter and saying the only genocide is the one being done by Muslims against Israel. Absolute depravity. Makes me wish this guy was even a bit more… adventurous. Seriously wouldn’t care if DC was nuked after reading the WashDC subreddit thread on this.
Liberals don’t actually have beliefs. To them, belief is about signaling group affiliation, not actual intellectual belief.
When a liberal says that they believe in freedom and democracy, they don’t mean that they think that freedom and democracy are the best ways to organize a society, they are merely saying that they belong to WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) society.
Of course it’s incomprehensible for a group of people who are profoundly nihilistic that someone would actually be willing to die for what they think is right.
I’m reminded of the tale of the liberal who says big words about climate change but cannot not be arsed to give up their gas-guzzling SUV. To them, “I believe that climate change is real” is merely a statement of group affiliation (i.e. “I’m with the cool kids”), not a factual statement that implies the need for urgent action.
High quality post comrade
Doxxing myself as a
but i’ve been arguing with people about a game where one player stands next to another player with a rocket launcher. They press a button to reload the other players rocket launcher to make it fire much faster. To the gamers this is a horrible breach of a gamers agency and a " sacrifice" and they don’t want to be burdened by the crushing wait of cooperation mechanics.I am revising some of my beliefs about contemporary American culture accordingly.
frustrating seeing people still call the invasion of ukraine “stupid” two years on. to say nothing of its morality one way or the other, whether or not it was a mistake is not the sort of thing that anybody can reasonably call at this point but it seems pretty far from stupid. russia’s economy has grown as they have been able to pivot towards the east, and they have all but destroyed the second-biggest army in europe (after their own), and they have drained the coffers and supplies of the NATO countries. sure, some more countries have joined nato, but it’s not like there was any chance of them ever joining the antiimperialist bloc anyways. maybe some years down the line it will be a mistake in hindsight, very possible with the demographic challenges in russia and the whole unstable state on their doorstep thing, but for now from an outsider’s perspective it looks like it was a risky gamble that has at least broken even if not paid off a little bit.
The New York Post is reporting that, the day before his death, Aaron Bushnell told one of his friends that his job invovled processing top secret intelligence data, and that info of US soldiers on the ground in Gaza fighting Palestinians has crossed his desk.
With just how awful everything is this feels like me just adding stuff to it but here goes.
Germany currently is diving headlong into fascism after germans patting themselves on their collective backs for protesting the AfD and them polling 2% worse now (21% to 19%) all is fine again.
So fine that the German Landstag is currently thinking about forcing asylum seekers to work. Literally enforced labour, don’t say slavery though because they’ll be paid handsomely, 0,80€ per hour. Germany is quite literally doing a repeat of the last century and with the given trajectory they’ll literally have work concentration camps up by the 2030s, only this time they’ve learned and will only do this against Muslims.
And worst is that germans feel very good and accomplished about themselves because again went on the street to hold up a cute little anti-AfD sign, when all politicians are currently falling each other trying to pass the latest fascist law and policy.
One must imagine the USAmerican left being competent
Damn, intercept also has layoffs (according to latest pod), fucks sake, the only good liberals
“US to airdrop humanitarian aid into Gaza — how it can help and why it’s so complicated” https://apnews.com/article/airdrops-israel-gaza-palestinians-biden-9e6cfb3a2c7d909ca2a8a2abd25793ca
No paywall, text in reply.
WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
The U.S. believes the airdrops will help address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, but they are no replacement for trucks, which can transport far more aid more effectively — though Thursday’s events also showed the risks with ground transport.
The fucking risk, AP, is that Israel will open fire on any gathering of people, no matter how docile or noble (hospitals). Not just “general risk.”
Maddeningly both sides-y too.
The Biden decision comes after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 others were injured on Thursday trying to access aid in northern Gaza under disputed circumstances, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
u N d E r D I S p U t E d C i R c U m S t A n C e S
chad
Bolsonaro Fails again
A study by Torabit cited in Estado de S. Paulo shows 46.2% of all social media comments on Bolsonaro’s anti-Supreme Court protest this morning were negative, 27.5% positive & 26.2% neutral. The Federal Police crippled Carlos Bolsonaro’s social media “hate cabinet”.
According to the conservative Estadão newspaper, Bolsonaro’s anti-Supreme Court protest didn’t make Brazil’s top ten most popular google search queries today. The list was dominated by football teams, topped by Santos, who beat São Bernardo in the S.P. state championship
Bolsonaro shoots himself in the foot again. During his speech at the anti-Supreme Court protest in S. Paulo today, he admitted there was a written plan to coup the Lula govt, falsely claimed it was legal & demanded amnesty for jailed coup plotters - acknowledging their guilt.
180,000 is still a big crowd. How did it happen? There’ll be 5568 mayoral elections on 10/06. Conservative candidates from across the S. and SE. paid for social media ads and brought thousands to SP via hundreds of charter buses.
Greater Sao Paulo packs 22 million people into an area half the size of Greater New York. Organizers clearly assumed that more locals would come out. Obviously many did, but they didn’t come close to hitting he expected numbers.
3x lower than expected turnout, Bolsonaro incriminating himself by providing evidence for the Federal Police in the Jan. 8, 2023 coup attempt investigation, and underwhelming social media stats make this hard to call a success, regardless of how the inter. far right frames it.
Bolsonaro’s anti-Supreme Court protest organizers said they expected a turnout of 700,00 yesterday. University of S. Paulo researchers using P2PNet methodology say the number was closer to 180,000. Conclusion: there was a failure of organic reach.
Seems like Bolsonarists are angry at the Police because the Police agrees that there only 180k people there.
when someone publicly martyrs themselves to protest genocide: I can’t believe people are acting like there’s anything to celebrate or condone here! Killing yourself for a cause is selfish, cowardly, and ineffective. Think of his poor children! when someone willfully delivers themselves to be imprisoned by the government that has already tried to poison them: the most noble of sacrifices, my epic sir. This sends a message of bravery and courage no one will forget. I’ll ask my wife’s boyfriend if we can name their child Navalny o7FIGHT TO THE LAST UKRAINIAN SLAVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
dude you protested a genocide, extremist much?
Killing yourself for a cause is selfish
I wonder if redditors are aware of what soldiers do
Both cases are mostly bots and
, anyway
I don’t know know when von der leyen will die,
but i’m hereby copymarking “ze end of ze leyen”
Sometimes framing in jacobin leaves me baffled, mates are you leftwing journal or fucking politico. (article in question)
In December 2023, Rachel Corrie also blew herself up in protest against the genocide in Gaza.
On Sunday afternoon, an active-duty US soldier immolated himself in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest against the genocide in Palestine.
In a video posted on social media, 25-year-old soldier Aaron Bushnell is seen dousing himself with flammable liquid and setting himself on fire until engulfed in flames. While he performs this act that would lead to his death, the US soldier shouts “Free Palestine.”
“I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonisers, it’s not extreme at all. Free Palestine!,” he said in the video.
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now,” Bushnell posted on X hours before immolating himself.
The Metropolitan Police of Washington responded immediately to the incident. The U.S. Air Force confirmed that a member of its ranks had been involved in the incident but did not provide further details.
The fire department and emergency services indicated that Bushnell was rushed to the hospital with “critical” injuries. The U.S. soldier died a few hours later.
In recent weeks, opposition to the Israeli offensive in Gaza has spread across the United States, where human rights activists demand an immediate ceasefire.
“This isn’t the first incident of self immolation in the U.S. over the ongoing Gaza war. In December, a protester set herself on fire outside Atlanta’s Israeli Consulate,” the Industan Times recalled, referring to Rachel Corrie, a peace activist who also chose self-sacrifice as an extreme form of protest.
“Many in the United States are angry over Biden administration’s ‘insensitive stand’ with the nation vetoing a ceasefire resolution at United Nations Security Council on several occasions,” it added.
In December 2023, Rachel Corrie also blew herself up in protest against the genocide in Gaza.
hrrm? she was murdered in 2003 by an IOF bulldozer
Rare Telesur L
Was this written by a chatbot? The person who self immolated in Georgia in December has not been named publicly and Rachel Corrie was crushed by a bulldozer in occupied Palestine 20 years ago and then had her organs harvested against the will of her family
New Trump nickname just dropped: Governor New Scum
