this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2026
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Image (of a Jamaat e-Islami campaign rally) and much of the information below is sourced from here and here.


In 2024, the government of Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, was overthrown in a student-led protest movement which was boosted by US interests. In the interim, Nobel laureate and dyed-in-the-wool neoliberal Muhammad Yunus was made president, and introduced a series of economic and political reforms (e.g. IMF packages and banking sector restructuring) which have sidelined the working class and aligned the country with US financial interests. Regardless of anybody's personal feelings towards Hasina (who did indeed make many mistakes and caused many deaths), it is now very clear that the reason why Hasina was overthrown was not due to a humanitarian, anti-authoritarian impulse, but because Bangladesh had at least some measure of sovereignty while she was in power, as she accepted Chinese infrastructure investments. Certainly, the US is perfectly comfortable with genocidal dictators if they are allied with US interests.

Last week, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party won over two thirds of parliamentary seats - the Awami League was banned from participating at all, and worker-aligned parties were either disallowed or decided to withdraw from participating due to repression. I haven't personally been able to nail down what exact economic/foreign policies they want to introduce, but because of what Yunus has set up in the interim, it might not matter that much - the economic stage has been set such that no matter what party took power, they would have to accept a fait accompli. As Vijay Prashad put it, the competition between the parties is reduced to "which faction will administer austerity"?

One of the many upsetting aspects of this election was that the student movement that helped overthrown Hasina have been forced into irrelevance, despite their legitimate grievances. The "Gen Z" protestors, displeased by the prospect of being ruled by the BNP about as much as the Awami League, found themselves with odd bedfellows, and allied with the now-opposition party (the hardline Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami). They are now in a tough bind, lacking much of the necessary left-wing organization to assert a genuine political project.

This is an instructive moment for many people who are desperate for better conditions in countries that are economically struggling, including Iran with its recent protests. If your country has sovereignty from the US, you walk a very dangerous tightrope - how do you organize for better conditions in such a way that it cannot be co-opted by the US to overthrow your government and put something even more terrible in its wake? Shortly after a jubilant revolutionary moment, you are left without influence, power, or even media representation, and now yet further under the repression of Western imperialism. This is one of the many problems that the population of the non-NATO world will need to find ways to overcome.


Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

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The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist 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 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.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

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.


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[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 40 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Son of Colombia congresswoman who supports Trump ends up detained by ICE - ColombiaInforma

In the past, the Supreme Court investigated Vergara for allegedly receiving bribes from percentages of local contracts, when he served as a councilman in Cartagena, to favor a candidate for the local mayoralty. The congresswoman, along with her party, has opposed the Financing Law and the social reforms promoted by Gustavo Petro's government.

She has also sided with the U.S. government in diplomatic conflicts with the Colombian president. Vergara is part of the pro-life caucus, where he has promoted positions that, according to his critics, have fostered discrimination against the beliefs of indigenous peoples. The congresswoman defended Charlie Kirk, a far-right American activist who died under strange circumstances last year.

Article

Ángela María Vergara, a member of the Conservative Party who has supported President Donald Trump and opposed social reforms in Colombia, reported that her 22-year-old son has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the United States for 17 days.

"There are no guarantees in absolutely anything."

In a video, Vergara asked for help to free his son, Rafael Alfonso Vergara, who was detained by immigration agents in Louisiana while working for a freight transport company.

"One would think that the prison system in the United States is different, but from what I am experiencing firsthand, there are absolutely no guarantees," the representative stated.

According to his testimony, the officers handcuffed his son, confiscated his belongings, and transferred him to the River Correctional Center detention center in Louisiana. In a three-minute phone call, the young man denounced the harsh and inhumane conditions he faces, which have caused him emotional distress.

The path of voluntary departure

Given the situation, the family suggested a voluntary departure as the only way to regain their freedom. This process can take more than 45 days to be finalized. The congresswoman requested that diplomatic channels be activated to expedite repatriation flights and that the hundreds of cases of Colombians in similar circumstances be monitored.

Currently, thousands of families face immense anguish due to the lack of information about the whereabouts of their detained loved ones. Furthermore, once they accept deportation, they must wait for humanitarian flights and pay for their own return tickets.

Former President Andrés Pastrana, known for being a friend of Epstein, meet with Ángela María Vergara.

The political career of Ángela Vergara

In the past, the Supreme Court investigated Vergara for allegedly receiving bribes from percentages of local contracts, when he served as a councilman in Cartagena, to favor a candidate for the local mayoralty.

The congresswoman, along with her party, has opposed the Financing Law and the social reforms promoted by Gustavo Petro's government. She has also sided with the U.S. government in diplomatic conflicts with the Colombian president.

Vergara is part of the pro-life caucus, where he has promoted positions that, according to his critics, have fostered discrimination against the beliefs of indigenous peoples.

The congresswoman defended Charlie Kirk, a far-right American activist who died under strange circumstances last year.

Figures on immigration persecution

According to data from the ICE Deportation Data Project, between January 20, 2025—when Trump assumed his second term—and October 15 of that year, federal agents arrested 6,814 Colombians. This figure represents a 46% increase compared to the same period in 2024, when 3,161 arrests were recorded.

This means that, on average, during the first ten months of the Trump administration, about 25 Colombians were taken into immigration custody every day. Of these, 264 were minors.

Only 1,201 Colombians detained had a criminal conviction. That is, 82% of those arrested by ICE had no criminal record.

Government silence and repatriations

So far, Congresswoman Vergara has received expressions of solidarity from various political parties, including the governing party. However, there has been no official statement from the Executive branch regarding her specific case. The only announcement made was the arrival of the latest repatriation flight from the United States, carrying 112 Colombians, who were received with care and inter-institutional support.

[–] supafuzz@hexbear.net 19 points 17 hours ago