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.
Russia just signed a deal to tap its Europe facing gas reserves towards China
Do Nothing
Get cheap gas
I don't think people realize how big this is. Russia's pivot from Europe to Asia is now permanent, and Europe's fate has been sealed.
Yeah I remember an early take on the war from Branko Milanovic was that Putin, concerned with his succession, could have a side-objective of making it so whoever succeeds him can't be fooled into cozying up with the west again due to how hostile the EU would become towards russia, and how this would supposedly tie into his goal of really solidifying a pivot to the east that post-putin pro-eu russian elites would not easily reverse
Regardless of whether that was a goal he set out to fulfill with the SMO it certainly looks like it materialized now
This will also mean much harder terms for Ukraine, since the window of rapprochement towards Europe is shrinking and it's less important to be lenient towards the Ukrainians for diplomatic relations.
Ukraine is toast, its lost. Even if they get a favourable peace the country is at its end. A debt colony with declining population. Its going to be a festering wound ruled by azov roaming bandit states, with russia nibbling important territories away.
Especially since the rest of the EU is going to the dump.
Exactly as the US wants it.
Yes the house always wins, so long as one play its games.
It’s the other way around actually. Russia has been trying to get China to sign the Power of Siberia 2 deal since 2022, but China had remained very hesitant and pretending PoS2 wasn’t a thing while signing the other trade deals were with Russia. Apparently it had to do with the gas lines going through Mongolia or something.
So it is China that has finally pivoted to Russia, not the other way round.
Having said that, both China’s import and export with Russia has gone down. Import from Russia (Jan-Jun 2025 compared to same period 2024) has been down -8.6% and export to Russia also down -7.4% (look for 俄罗斯 in the table below). So the deep economic cooperation that has so often touted between the two is definitely ramping down. It’s sad to say this but I’m afraid Russia’s economic transformation has not materialized (I’ve talked about how the central bank’s high rate killed the growth already) and Russia is now relegated to a resource colony for China nowadays.
Most of China’s surge in exports has been to the EU (欧洲联盟), Southeast Asia (东南亚国家联盟), Canada (加拿大) and Latin America (拉丁美洲).
出口 = export, 进口 = import
Also note the last row 共建一带一路国家 (Belt and Road countries) where export has gone up +10.8% but import is down -2.8%. That means despite Chinese investment, China has not been able to absorb the productive capacity from those countries so the BRI countries would have to sell to Western countries anyway. This is effectively building the supply chain for the US.
You're right, China was the one who did not agree to the route passing through Mongolia, while Russia insisted on it. I believe it has to do with the Third Neighbor Policy. I saw someone say that Russia believes the transit fees through Mongolia will tie its interest to that of its two neighbors. That way this "third neighbor" can be nudged out.
Interesting context, thanks
The EU's gas imports have been going down every year though
Surely they'll still be using and importing some gas but not as much as in previous years. I wonder if this will be as damaging as we might otherwise think?
Good for China. Bad for Europe. Win for the US.
Thanks Biden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPZNRZNvwCU
Joe Biden in 1997 gloating to the press corps about Russia telling him if the west keeps expanding NATO, Russia will need to turn towards Asia. "When that doesn't work, try Iran" he said, and a monkey's paw somewhere in the White House twitched.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: