Image is of the Cuban flag and the Pride flag on the Havana Health Ministry building.
Inspired by a highly upvoted recommendation by @Commiejones@hexbear.net:
We need to kill the Mega Posting Wars meme. It wasn’t very funny to start with and now I get the feeling some people are taking it way too seriously. Clogging up the news thread with bullshit just to try to out post the trans mega is just dumb and annoying.
The News Megathread is now under trans martial law:
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Loving trans people on this site and elsewhere is strictly mandatory.
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Posting about the “comment wars” between the trans and news megathreads is now strongly discouraged inside the news megathread. No shame in it - I also recently made jokes about it - but though they were almost always just jokes, it was unrelated to current events and was beginning to feel more like padding the comment count instead of trying to improve the quality of the thread. If you want to boost comments and engagement here, then post articles and analysis!
The COTW (Chemical of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific chemical every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied chemicals. If you’ve wanted to talk about the chemical 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 Chemicals of the Week are Estrogen and Testosterone! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.
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.
After much campaigning, doing groundwork and burning bridges Kamala Harris has finally overcome her ‘being better than Trump’ status and is now polling behind the incredibly dry boy.
Something something snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Good shit. Palestinian journalist goes to Vietnam and learns about history, liberation, and ideology. Featuring tunnels!
Israel knows ‘nothing’ about tunnels in Gaza, says released captive
Adina Moshe, an Israeli woman formerly held captive by Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza, stated that the Israeli military knows nothing about Hamas’ underground tunnel network, Channel 12 reported on 8 September.
Moshe was taken captive by Hamas on 7 October and released on 24 November as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the US between Hamas and Israel.
Moshe said that after her release, she was debriefed by the Shin Bet (‘Shabak’), Israel’s internal security service.
“The internal security service asked me to draw a map of the tunnels in Gaza because they know nothing about them,” Israel’s Channel 12 quoted her as saying.
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Aircraft carriers are no longer safe from ballistic missiles and drones, following historical attacks by the Yemeni military on these carriers in the Red Sea, the commander of the USS Eisenhower, Christopher “Chowdah” Hill, has revealed.
Chowdah?
Regarding the intensity of Yemeni attacks while the carrier was stationed in the Red Sea to protect the Israeli entity, Hill explained that they had to reorganize crew schedules due to continuous fatigue and nighttime alerts.
Hill confirmed that the increasing pressure has affected crew morale amidst ongoing operations in the Red Sea.
Egypt buys China’s J-10C fighters to replace F-16s.
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/egypt-j10c-f16s-reports
spoiler
The Egyptian Defence Ministry has reportedly placed its first ever order for Chinese fourth generation fighters, with an unspecified number of J-10C fighters reported to have been ordered on August 19. This development comes as Cairo has continued to strengthen strategic and economic ties with Beijing, and follows its admission to the Chinese-led BRICS bloc earlier this year. The acquisition makes Egypt the second client for the J-10C after Pakistan, although unconfirmed reports indicate that neighbouring Sudan had reached an agreement on acquisitions before the outbreak of an insurgency in the country in April 2024 delayed talks for a purchase. The fighters are reportedly intended to replace Egypt’s ageing F-16 Fighting Falcons as these begin to be phased out of service. The acquisition has been speculated to be intended as an alternative to American proposals that Egypt acquire the F-16V upgrade package to modernise its F-16s, with the J-10C considered to have a superior combat capability to this enhanced F-16 model while coming at a similar cost to the package. Other than three squadrons of MiG 29M fighters ordered from Russia in 2015, all of Egypt’s fourth generation fighters are of Western origin, with the J-10C acquisition seen as a potential turning point for the country’s fleet in line with prevailing political trends.
Reports of orders for the J-10C have emerged as Egyptian officials have expressed growing concern with the ongoing Western-backed Israeli war effort in the Gaza Strip, with Cairo being particularly concerned that the Israeli operation is intended to push the Gazan population onto Egyptian territory. The acquisition of J-10s is particularly significant when considering the current state of the Egyptian fighter fleet, which has long been considered almost totally incapable of fighting a major inter-state war. The close to 200 F-16s that form the backbone of the fleet are considered among the least capable fourth generation fighters in the world, and have been heavily downgraded and restricted to using obsolete Cold War era weaponry - and no beyond visual range air to surface weapons whatsoever. This combined with the United States’ control over spare parts supplies, and its tight restrictions imposed on how the aircraft can be operated, seriously limits Egyptian air power.
Alongside its F-16s, Egypt’s French-supplied Rafale fighters ordered since 2015 also suffer from significant downgrades to performance, most significantly the lack of Meteor air to air missiles which seriously limits their combat potential. The J-10C by contrast will provide Egypt with two of the most capable air to air missile classes in the world, the PL-10 and PL-15, which Western sources have widely conceded are significantly more capable than their American counterparts the AIM-9X and AIM-120D. For Egypt, which used Cold War era AIM-9 variants and the obsolete AIM-7, this represents a technological leap of several decades in terms of performance. The J-10C will represent by far the most capable fighter in the country in terms of air to air performance, and possibly the most capable on the African continent. The fighter has proven during simulated combat engagements to be capable of outperforming modern ‘4+ generation’ fighters close to twice its size, including Russian Su-35s and Chinese J-16s, while its arsenal of compatible air to ground ordinance is considerable. The J-10C is considered far more capable than any fighter in the Israeli fleet other than its two squadrons of F-35s, with large scale acquisitions potentially forcing Israel to expand F-35 orders and to invest in more capable air to air missiles for its aircraft.
From the Resistance News Network telegram https://t.me/PalestineResist/56729
Commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami:
The zionist entity is besieged by Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. The nightmare of our response keeps the enemy on alert day and night, and we have begun to see signs of its end.
The zionist enemy will taste the flavor of Iranian revenge and will realize that it cannot toy with our red lines.
“Israel” cannot strike and run away easily; rather, it will receive a decisive response.
Certainly, they will receive a response. How and when? This time, the response will be different, and everyone will realize that.
Presstv and Al Mayadeen also cover this and some highlights from Al Mayadeen below
General Salami emphasized that the Israeli regime is experiencing confusion and internal unrest, with hundreds of thousands of protesters taking to the streets in the occupied territories. According to him, the Israeli occupation is trapped in a crisis with no escape.
He concluded his remarks with a stern warning to the Israeli occupation, saying: “The Israeli regime is now confined within the occupied lands, and its leaders are losing their mental stability, awaiting death at any moment. Rest assured, the response will come. When and how? This time, it will be different, and everyone will know that Israel can no longer strike and escape unscathed.”
Former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaei said in an interview with CNN released on in late August that his country’s retaliation to the Israeli assassination of Hamas’ politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran will be well measured so that Prime Minister Benjamin can not “save himself” from the crises he’s in.
Hezbollah targets Israeli settlements with barrages of rockets
The Hezbollah resistance movement has fired heavy barrages of rockets toward settlements in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories in retaliation for Israel’s deadly attacks on Lebanon.
In statements released on Sunday, Hezbollah said that it has twice targeted the settlement of Kiryat Shmona with Falaq rockets.
The resistance group also noted that it had fired Katyusha rockets toward the Shamir settlement.
Israeli media reported there were no injuries in the Hezbollah strikes, however, they said, some rockets had impacted their targets and caused damage.
Hezbollah said that it had conducted the attacks in support of “steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance” against Israel.
The raids, it added, came in response to the enemy’s attacks on Lebanon’s “southern villages and safe homes, especially the horrific massacre in the town of Froun.”
On Saturday, an Israel airstrike killed three Lebanese emergency workers and injured two others as they tried to contain a fire in Froun.
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Battle of the Promised Victory
neat 🥳
eat shit, prosperity guardian!
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Laughing my ass off at the fact that Bolsanaro is cursed to have the most disgusting ailments over and over again and be in hospital constantly. Didn’t he have to shit out of his nose for a little while?
The new strategy of just charging parents of school shooters with murder is just pathetic.
Can’t stop these tragedies in any effective way. Doing good things is impossible. Sacrifice a few more people on the altar of the justice system and call it a day instead.
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Vodiane has fallen, and with it, Vuhledar will too. Probably within a few weeks.
It shouldn’t be underestimated just how significant a development this will be. Russia has been trying and failing to take Vuhledar practically since the war began.
