Image is of General Abdourahamane Tiani, leader of Niger (left) and Ibrahim Traoré, leader of Burkina Faso (right).
The Alliance of Sahel States (ASS) formed on September 16th in the wake of the coup in Niger in late July, in which Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso created a military and increasingly economic alliance in which attacking one would result in the other two joining. This was initially most relevant militarily, as ECOWAS was threatening an invasion of Niger if they did not restore civilian rule. Nonetheless, due to a mixture of a lack of real strength in ECOWAS due to Nigeria's internal problems, and the influence of Algeria, a very strong regional military power who negotiated against a war which could further destabilise an already destabilised region, and the vague promises of future civilian rule, the external military threat seems to have mostly dissipated.
However, internal threats remain. Burkina Faso is fighting against ISIS and al-Qaeda, which commit regular massacres of civilians; the government controls only 60% of the country. In Mali, the government is fighting against similar groups as well as the Tuareg, which inhabit the more sparsely populated north of the country - the government is in the process of kicking out the UN mission to Mali, and in the process retaking rebel stronghold cities like Kidal, which is raising some eyebrows as to what exactly the UN was doing all this time; and Niger is fighting against similar Islamic groups too, and is kicking out the French for being exploitative motherfuckers. Combine this with the sanctions against Niger which are crippling the country, disease outbreaks in Burkina Faso, and just the general shitty state of the world economy, and the situation is not looking very good currently.
That all being said, economy and trade ministers from all three countries have met this past weekend in Bamako, the capital of Mali. There, they recommended that the countries: improve the free movement of people inside the ASS (don't laugh!); construct and strengthen infrastructure like dams and roads; construct a food safety system; establish a stabilization fund and investment bank; and even create a common airline. This is all attracting foreign attention too - Russia has signed a deal to build Africa's largest gold refinery in Mali, and China is the second largest investor into Niger after France, ploughing money into the gold and uranium industries there. And, of course, the Wagner group is in the region - though I'm unsure if they're having a major or minor impact on events there.
The weekly update is here on the website.
Your Monday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Tuesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Wednesday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
Your Thursday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Burkina Faso! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail 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. Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
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.
Your Thursday Briefing
Kissinger's fucking dead.
The EU's top court has ruled that government offices across the bloc can prohibit their employees from wearing visible signs of religious belief, which I assume will be carried out equally between Jewish people and Muslim people.
Slovakian truckers will block the main border crossing with Ukraine tomorrow, joining Polish protests that complain that Ukrainian truckers offer cheaper prices for their services and can transport goods within the EU, rather than just between Ukraine and the EU, and that their governments should do something about that. Slovakia is also extending its ban on Ukrainian agricultural commodities due to the financial issues it is causing farmers.
Turkish businesses have stated their intention to keep tapping into China's market, in digital platforms, telecommunications, renewable energy, electric vehicles, cloud technology, and the defence industry, after 50 Turkish representatives visited the Supply Chain Expo. The Turkish ambassador notably said that they can help China trade with the EU, as Turkey has a free trade agreement with the EU but China does not.
Iran has confirmed that it is receiving Su-35 fighter jets, Mi-28 attack helicopters, and Yak-130 jet trainers from Russia.
China's manufacturing PMI hit 49.4 in November, down slightly from 49.5 in October; under 50 means contraction. This is about in line with global manufacturing PMI, which decreased to about 50 recently.
China and Turkmenistan have pledged to expand security cooperation, deepen counterterrorism cooperation, and jointly combat the "three forces" - separatism, terrorism, and religious extremism in Xinjiang and Central Asia, after a meeting between Vice-Primier Ding Xuexiang and President Berdimuhamedov.
An irrigation dam in Ghana reached maximum capacity and overspilled due to heavy rains, with hundreds of households affected by the downstream flooding. This comes a month after a spillage from the Akosombo Dam displaced 30,000 people.
Angola has officially opened its new Luele diamond mine, the biggest in the country and one of the biggest in the world, doubling the country's annual production. Experts warn that factors like high US interest rates (the US is 55% of world demand), weak post-pandemic recovery, and lab-grown diamond competition will reduce the revenue generated by diamonds, however.
Between 2021 and 2023, the US government conducted "counterterrorism" operations in 78 countries, down from 85 between 2018-2020, and yet you fucking tankies won't give Biden a fair shot.
The Mississippi's water levels are falling to the extent that grain barges have to carry less and less grain as there is insufficient draft - similar to what is occurring in the Amazon and Panama Canal. Higher transport costs are lowering the competitiveness of American soy and corn, leading Argentina Brazil to increasingly make gains.
Gang warfare in Haiti is spreading throughout the country, while the Kenyan police deployment continues to be delayed, as a Kenyan court recently extended orders blocking the deployment of police officers. Obviously, police have typically been very good at solving this kind of thing in the past and will likely fix the fundamental issues that caused the gang warfare to become an issue in the first place.
Venezuela has experienced nine consecutive quarters of economic growth, with extraction of oil and natural gas expanding 13% in Q3 2023.
Latin America's largest open-pit coal mine, El Cerrejon in Colombia (nicknamed "the monster" by locals), sprawls 69,000 hectares or 100,000 football pitches and produces 20 million tons of coal every year, generating $256 billion for Swiss company Glencore. Germany is importing millions of tons of coal from El Cerrejon for its energy needs after the Ukraine War started. The new Supply Chain Act, in effect since the start of 2023, requires companies to monitor human rights across their global supply chains; the locals would very much say that human rights are not being respected here.