Image is from this Black Agenda Report article by the Communist Party of Kenya.
In June, large anti-government protests shook Kenya. President Ruto and his parliament were attempting to pass the new Finance Bill 2024, which, among other things, would have hiked taxes on the population, with a 16% sales tax on bread and a 25% duty on cooking oil, as well as new taxes on financial transanctions and vehicle ownership. There would also have been levies on women's sanitary products and digital goods such as phones, among other measures affecting hospitals.
Hundreds of protestors stormed the parliament building and began to tear the place apart. Shortly afterwards, on June 26th, Ruto announced that he was withdrawing the bill, calling the tens of deaths and hundreds of injuries "unfortunate". A couple weeks later, Ruto then fired his entire cabinet (aside from his foreign minister) and communicated his wish to the nation to form a "broad-based government". Funnily enough, in July, it was announced that the majority of positions were to be filled by members of the old cabinet, while other positions were taken by members of the opposition. This has prompted scepticism among the population, including calls to resign, but there haven't (yet) been any major anti-government events to pressure this outcome. The Communist Party of Kenya has been working to get some of their comrades back after they were abducted by the police during the protest period, and have otherwise supported the protests against Ruto.
The measures in the bill were strongly encouraged by the IMF. Kenya's debt is currently around $80 billion, of which about 10% is owed to China for infrastructure projects (such as a railway linking the capital, Nairobi, to the port city of Mombasa, as well as 11,000 kilometers of road throughout the country). The rest is owed to a combination of the US, IMF, World Bank, and Saudi Arabia. More than half of government revenue is going towards repaying the debt - but despite these massive payments, it has only grown. The most recent round of IMF plundering (and the impetus for current events) began in 2021, when they offered a 38-month programme to "help" Kenya, which would involve the usual warfare on the poor and the dismemberment of any useful societal institutions.
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 Kenya! 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.
honestly big stuff finally seems to be happening in the Russia-Ukraine war and news mega still isn't really picking up in activity? we're cooked man
I mean, there still isn't that much to talk about there because most of the virtual ink that could be spilled on the subject already has been. Most of us can see where things are headed and have known for literally years, and ongoing events aren't surprising in any way because of that. What am I gonna do, write ten comments in a row about how I was inevitably correct with my predictions?
I do think the random kursk hail mary was quite surprising, at least to me. especially since they couldn't keep their mouth shut for the 2023 counteroffensive and this one came out of no where.
i mean... gloating is fun to me at least...
listen ultimately I just miss the big surge in funny posting when random things would happen, the priogzhin coup was so funny lol
Z posters are the most vindicated posters in history
witness us successfully betting on Mike Tyson and not the5 year old.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Zerious Buzziness
it might be unseemly but I would enjoy reading them
gotta get those numbers over the trans mega somehow (/s)
it's always entertaining to read comments from ages ago that face some opposition but end up being vindicated, and I think this will be very true about the comments about how once Russia breaks through the Zelensky Line in the Donbass then things will speed up tremendously. at the time it was easy to be like "this is just cope as to why Russia has slowed down so much" but look at us now, with the Zelensky Line finally in the rearview mirror on large sections of the front, and Russia is finally picking up significant speed and taking villages in hours and days, not months
while I have gradually cared less and less about trying to convince others of how correct the news mega is on average, especially as the war has continued far past any usefulness (beyond NATO demilitarization) and is now a mere slaughter of generations of Ukrainians, it's still nice to at least briefly smugly point out that we were right the whole time
The solution is to re-post every megathread from last year as post fodder. That is the only way to stay on topic and also strike back at the trans empire.
I mean the front is moving pretty fast now, but there's not really much to talk about either way. Russia advances, Ukraine retreats.
Once Pokrovsk, Ugledar, Selydove, etc. are taken, things may change. There aren't any major fortifications behind those locations as far as I know -- big arrows may come after.
i have no faith even big arrows will bring people back :(
I'm mostly looking forward to the Pro-Ukrainian cope once the big arrows hit.
real, like I said i'm not above gloating in the slightest lol
Z Posting (Even through it is the Founding purpose of the Newsmega) got mobbed for 2 years .. "oh did they take another bathroom" how exciting !
you just aren't a true newsmega poster like me, i do it for the love of the game so yes I will hype up every bathroom taken! /j
because the Towel hook was taken , the way to the Toothbrush was opend , Toothpaste was now useless and had to be given up , from this advantage point the Sink was undefendable , it fell with the Soap and the Drain. in quick succession.. reserved orderd to Shower could not stop the momentum and where shattered at the Disinfectant ..
Leaving Nothing to defend the White Throne.
Things could have been different had Ukraine not diverted so many resources to their Kitchen and Pantry Adventure
Dont forget their Suicidal attacks towards the Petunia field and the Rosebushes ... they might make nice pictures but they lay way to exposed .
I have to apologize, I wasn't familiar with your game
i watch this war since the gardengate fell to the Homeowner association.
critical support to homeowner association in their war on suburbanites
That toilet is the most defensible part of the entire backyard of this house and if Russia takes that then the Ukrainians will fall back all the way to the pool.
The porta potty has fallen. Millions must post
Ukraine's inevitable failure to capitalize on their intrusions into Russian territory isn't news.
Ukraine's frontline collapsing because their hail Mary gamble into Russia turned out to be entirely pointless with Ukrainians dying for no reason isn't really news either.
Most people here since around summer 2022 have predicted Ukraine will capitulate between November 2024 and Janauary 2025 based on the prediction that the US will drop Ukraine after the 2024 elections. There are some like shipwreck who say that the war will last for years.
And now that things are cooking in West Asia with the US being forced to bail out their Zionist entity, the trajectory of Ukraine's inevitable defeat is mostly set in stone.
alexander mercoursis just posted another 2 vids about the war just because of this comment
jokes aside you and the others are probably right. the news mega is just the favorite part of my site and I really miss the old times, i guess.
The times havent changed, you've just gotten older. Embrace that and the good times will return
I... am way to be young to be hearing this someone save me im talking like a boomer now
i think it might take a decade, like Syria, but eventually all the natoids will just lose interest and move on without ever admitting they were wrong and pretend like it never happened
Have you considered people prefer to talk about anything else than fucking wars?
fair enough maybe I'm being too callous. but people dont come as much to the news mega for as much else either a lot of the time
I mean, this whole megathread thing started BECAUSE of that war, and there are always updates posted here, so it's normal to expect more.
I also don't think this should be a place to just talk about whatever people prefer or something (there's a general megathread for that), this is for news of one kind or another and the big war is big news
I would still be here even if it was just 4 other people, like it was when the news mega started. I am here for the same reason as before - I'd like to have more than 10 minutes notice of planetary nuclear holocaust
if the nukes come out I better see the site crash from everyone trying to log on at once
if the news mega has one million fans, I am one of them
if the news mega has five fans, I am one of them
if the news mega has one fan, that is me
if the news mega has no fans, I am no longer alive
if the world is against the news mega then I am against the entire world
Don't worry you wont be disappointed during the election later this year.