Image is of China’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Sheng, meeting Taliban Prime Minister Hasan Akhund in September 2023.

I know the Rambo title card is a hoax.

The COTW was chosen in the wake of the aborted sequel to the attempted assassination of Trump being performed by a guy who is VERY enthusiastic about Ukraine, to the point of trying to sneak Afghan soldiers into Ukraine by setting up a house in Pakistan to house them and then further transport them. He also apparently offered to send thousands of Afghan soldiers to Haiti to help them combat gang violence. Whomst among us doesn’t have the numbers of thousands of Afghan soldiers on speed-dial. Do you reckon there’s a group chat?

Anyway, while there is still no official recognition of the Taliban’s government by any country, China has taken a different course than the late USSR and the US - forming economic in-roads, rather than trying their own invasion. This has been a big boon for the struggling country, with various mines and oil and agriculture deals helping keep things barely afloat. A total disintegration of the social fabric of Afghanistan is not in the interest of any of the powers that border it - China, Pakistan, and Iran, with Russia not too far away - so an interesting dynamic of helping-without-official-recognition has been established. I wonder who will be the first country to fully recognize them?

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you’ve wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don’t worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Afghanistan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

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.

  • sisatici [he/him]English
    52•10 months ago

    There are 2 assassination attempts to trump and even the most unhinged tinfoil hat type is not blaming China. It is so over

  • Redcuban1959 [any]English
    56•10 months ago

    BRICS: Palestinian President Will Pariticpate in the Next Summit in Russia - Telesur English

    Article

    Putin promised that the next BRICS summit will include a session devoted primarily to Palestine.

    The Palestinian ambassador in Moscow, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, reported on Friday that the president of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will participate in the next BRICS summit, which will be held in the Russian city of Kazan, from 22 to 24 October.

    Nofal highlighted the confidence of the Palestinian people in Moscow to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.

    The Palestinian diplomat announced in late August that Abbas had received an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the BRICS summit.

    They also condemned the constant bombing of civilian infrastructure, the killing of children, women and health personnel, as well as the lack of access to clean water, medicines and food.

    Thanks to the cooperation of the BRICS, nations like Russia, China and Iran, subject to unilateral restrictive measures imposed by the West and the United States, have established strong links in trade, economy, security and other areas.

    Russia took over the rotating presidency of the BRICS for 2024 on 1 January this year, a year that began with the admission of new members. According to media, Moscow has planned for this year more than 250 events in 11 regions, including the XIV BRICS Summit.

    The group currently accounts for almost half of the world’s population, over 40 per cent of global crude oil production and about 25 per cent of world exports.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]English
    59•10 months ago

    What Lula da Silva said when his microphone was cut off by the UN - Forum Magazine (Portuguese Only)

    President Lula da Silva was talking about the UN Security Council when his microphone was cut off; he continued speaking nonetheless.

    Article (Translated)

    President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had his microphone cut off at the end of his speech at the opening of the Summit of the Future, held in New York, United States. The event is a preparation for the general debate at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, which will take place next Tuesday (24).

    Convened by UN Secretary General António Guterres, the Future Summit aims to discuss the future of humanity, addressing crucial issues such as climate change and the fight against poverty.

    In one of the most striking moments of his speech, Lula strongly criticized the institutions of global governance, including the UN itself. He had just questioned the General Assembly and claimed that the UN Security Council has been losing legitimacy when his microphone was cut off.

    “Most bodies lack the authority and means of implementation to enforce their decisions. The General Assembly has lost its vitality and the Economic and Social Council has been emptied. The legitimacy of the Security Council shrinks every time it applies double standards or omits itself in the face of atrocities,” the president had fired.

    Soon after, the master of ceremonies thanked Lula for his speech, at which point the microphone was cut off. The president, however, continued speaking, even without the amplified audio.

    “The Global South is not represented in a manner consistent with its current political, economic and demographic weight. The UN Charter makes no reference to promoting sustainable development. We need the courage and political will to change, creating the tomorrow we want today. The best legacy we can leave future generations is governance capable of responding effectively to the challenges that persist and those that will arise. Thank you very much,” Lula concluded.

    The event organizers cut off Lula’s microphone in order to follow protocol, which provides for a speech lasting a maximum of 5 minutes for each speaker. At that point, the Brazilian president was about to exceed this limit. Before the Brazilian president, the representatives of Sierra Leone and Yemen also had their microphones cut.

  • xiaohongshu [none/use name]English
    47•10 months ago

    Why do Western progressive left (both US and especially the European parties) support imperialism?

    I am trying to understand the logic here - the left wing parties are correct in their critiques about capitalism and corporations but seem to have a blind spot against their own imperialism on the Global South and even keen on perpetuating anti-China propaganda. Instead it is the right wing nationalist parties that seem to want a closer cooperation with socialist China.

    I need someone to explain this to me. It makes no sense. Is it because they understand that they would lose the privilege of being a Western high income economy if their imperialist machines can no longer continue to extract disproportionately unequal values from the Global South? If this is the case, what use is the European left progressivism/social democracy/socialism if its solution for a welfare state is deeply predicated on its ability to exploit the Global South?

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]English
    71•10 months ago

    all the business press going nineteeneightyfour “there is no alternative to IMF austerity” on Sri Lanka.

    smaller countries like Sri Lanka always gets fucked over more under capitalism. not saying other global south countries are less vulnerable but with smaller countries IMF can force even a well meaning pro-worker Government into doing what they want. no coups or assassinations required.

    India really is the best candidate for the next socialist state imo, large population, one of the larger countries, enough resources, relatively industrialized and the Indian Rupee is more widely used internationally.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]English
    60•10 months ago

    It seems that Haiti has once again turned into a dictatorship. The pro-US Haitian elite has dissolved the presidential role and created a Presidential Transitional Council that controls the entire country, at least the parts it controls that are not under the control of the Haitian right-wing militias. The postponed the elections to 2026, which were originally supposed to be held in 2019.