this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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Over the last week, Sri Lanka has been hit by their worst national natural disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Over 2 million people (about 10% of the population) were affected; the death toll is currently climbing past 600; nearly a hundred thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, transport infrastructure is heavily damaged; industry has been damaged; and farmland has been flooded. The cost of damage so far looks to be about $7 billion, which is more than the combined budget spent on healthcare and education in Sri Lanka.
While there is plenty to say meteorologically about how this yet another concerning escalation as a result of climate change (Sri Lanka does experience cyclones, but they are usually significantly weaker than this), it's important to note that such disasters are, to at least a certain extent, able to warned about and their impacts somewhat mitigated. However, this requires both access to early detection and warning equipment, and an economy in which development is widespread - in this case, particularly in the construction of drainage systems and regulated construction, which has not generally occurred.
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
Perhaps neoliberalism's decay into its eventual death occurring concurrently into the gradual intensification of climate change and renewed wars signifies the rise of the era of disaster capitalism.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity'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.
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.
Apologies if this is the wrong place for this,
What's the news bulletin's thoughts on American Prestige podcast? I... often forget to check the megathreads, so frequently it becomes my primary source for global news. Any glaring omissions? Bunk analysis?
Their news round ups are very solid, but I think they suffer from their lives being almost entirely inside of academia. I don't listen to the non-news episodes (and ended my paid subscription when they had Francis Fukuyama on) now because IMO they both lack an idea of what else the world could be other than what it is which ultimately leads to their discussions just being miserable debates about just how bad the world actually is
Agreed. I unsubscribed because every single guest is some imperialist lib that the hosts yell at but it's never, ever someone involved in anti-imperialist organizing/resistance/etc. These dudes are Kautskyite imperialist opportunists in exactly the fashion identified by Lenin. They take as absolute, undisputable facs that:
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Marxism is dead around the world
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Political progress is impossible
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China is an imperialist, capitalist state that wholly abandoned socialism
These are not points they debate on, elaborate on, or ever have a guest that disagrees. Eventually you can only listen to so many American "marxist" academics suck each other off about how Fukuyama was right before you get sick of it.
I listen to the news round ups occasionally because Derek does good coverage there, and the regular deep dives on Sudan have been helpful for me.
They're good, I like Danny and think he's pretty reasonable IR guy, though I wish he'd formalize someday what he believes, I think he's in the marxist school of IR. I also think he's right on the modern fascism debate, on the side of "No it's not fascism".
Derek I can't put my finger on, he's eloquent and can sum up world events in a "pro-democracy but not pro-american" way pretty well, what I mean is that if he's giving a ukraine war updates his info will be alright but he might make an obligatory comment that putin's bad.
They're good. Derek has an encyclopediac knowledge of issues all over the globe. Their guests are a mixed bag, sometimes it's academics, others new media, and the odd openly liberal debate nerd. I thought their crusades series was fun too.
On 10 December, the head of the Armed Forces of Honduras, Roosevelt Hernandez, said the military would recognize the election results and guarantee that it would be honored. The head of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, asked for soldiers to be deployed outside buildings where ballots are being stored.
head of the Armed Forces of Honduras, Roosevelt Hernandez
Roosevelt
That does it then, the coup is done.
This, by the way, is a perfect example of why I don't consider the Bolivarian Revolution to be an electoral project. It also involves a society-wide mass movement where the people are the primary political actors and the electoral victories are there to lead the state alongside the people. In most other LatAm leftist projects, the masses are a strong voting bloc but not a revolutionary movement able to build socialism independently or apply lasting pressure on state power or undo coups. Bolivia is marginal, kinda straddling the line.
Totally not a soft military coup!
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ANNOUNCED TODAY: The International Campaign to Free Lebanese Prisoners in Occupation Jails
There are currently at least 20 Lebanese prisoners held in the occupation prisons, as well as at least 1 Palestinian refugee to Lebanon. This number is neither complete nor certain, as the zionist occupation denies even the existence of the Lebanese prisoners – over half of them abducted after the ceasefire on 27 November 2024.
The International Campaign to Free Lebanese Prisoners from Occupation Prisons is an international response to the call of the Lebanese prisoners and their family members for worldwide support. Our campaign aims to build grassroots, popular and official solidarity to compel the freedom of all of the Lebanese prisoners in occupation prisons and to bring the ongoing zionist aggression on Lebanon to an end.
Main Page: https://freelebaneseprisoners.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/freelebaneseprisoners X: https://x.com/LebPrisoners Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freelebaneseprisoners/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeLebanesePrisoners
Free the hostages!!
Haven't seen it posted anywhere else, so I think it's worth mentioning:
In response to the joint Chinese-Russian bomber patrol near Japan a few days ago, the US sent out some B-52 Stratofortress bombers to do an exercise around Japan, with US mid air refueling tankers taking off from Yokota, Japan to refuel the B-52s, who flew to Japan and then back to the USA. So both the US, and China-Russia, have now conducted bomber patrols around Japan.
Curious name for the ukrainka airbase in the far east of Russia, it must be the borderlands root
It's also Russia's major/biggest nuclear bomber base. 35+ Tu-95MS and 8 Tu-160s are usually stationed there.
Listen up tough guys, we can also threaten Japan
If one were to look for a response to all the US bomber runs around Venezuela, this is probably it. China and Russia have a limited capacity to directly assist Venezuela, they can't park an aircraft carrier off of Venezuela's coast and fly bombers around it, but they definitely can do that around Japan.
: 
The only thing stopping the US is Trump's bully cowardice. He doesn't want a fight against a nation that can hit back.
That has always been the US military's mindset
"The tanker seized near Venezuela by the US is named Skipper and was carrying a false flag of nationality...It was seized because of its past links to smuggling illicit Iranian oil...although it was carrying Venezuelan oil" -NYT
"Asked what would happen to the oil on the seized oil tanker, President Trump said: 'Well, we keep it, I guess.'" -NYT
carrying a false flag of nationality
Isn't basically every ship registered in Panama
Hey now, some are registered in Greece.
Also known as ADISA. Sanctions are related to transporting Iranian oil according to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Bolivian ex-President Arce detained by police, former minister says - Reuters
LA PAZ, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Bolivian ex-President Luis Arce, who left office last month, has been detained by police, a former member of his cabinet said on Wednesday.
Arce may have been called in to testify in relation to an investigation into alleged embezzlement that happened while he was serving as economy minister under former President Evo Morales, Maria Nela Prada, who served as minister to the presidency under Arce, told journalists.
"Of course he's innocent," Prada told journalists. "This has been a total abuse of power. We hope this case is not being taken as an opportunity to carry out political persecution."
She added that he had not been notified or ordered to appear. "They simply took him," she said.
Reuters was not able to independently verify Arce's whereabouts.
Local media reported that a Bolivian specialized police force known as FELCC had detained Arce. FELCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The embezzlement investigation centers around alleged state disbursements from a fund to finance projects for Indigenous communities.
Investigators cited by local media on Wednesday said evidence presented in the case implicated Arce in the misappropriation of public resources.
The arrest comes less than two months after centrist candidate Rodrigo Paz won the October runoff election, ending nearly two decades of dominance by the leftist MAS party that Arce represented. Paz has pledged to tackle corruption within state institutions.
I hate being the white guy criticising people in the global south but it looks like the Bolivian left really shit the bed this time. It is so painful to see decades of progress being undone within a few months.
They were so cool and militant when they defeated the coup but now it looks like the fash is running circles around them. What the fuck happened? I know there was a fallout between the liberal Arce and the more militant Morales but I don't know the details of why it all went to shit.
The Economy died bc of Covid and the Coup. Arce and his VP went from Democratic Socialist to Social-Democrat to appeal more to the Mestizo Middle Class. Evo wanted Arce to just do one term and prepare the stage for Evo's return, that pissed off Andronico Rodriguez (He represents the younger generation of leftists inside MAS) who got pushed to the side two times by Evo who prefered Arce bc Arce was older.
The Military and Judiciary begun sabotaging Evo, and Evo begun escalating the situation. This caused the economic crisis to worse. Arce tried to control the situation by getting loans and aid from China and Brazil. The military basically tried to kill Evo and take control of the country by force (Bolivia is the country with the most coups in history iirc).
Evo and the Far-Right said that the coup was fake and Arce lost more credibility. Arce basically was forced to gave up a second term and MAS commited suicide by putting a random White guy as their candidate. Andronico begged Evo to support him to save the left, Evo said no and called Andronico a traitor.
The election was between former president and dictator's lapdog Quiroga and Nepobaby son of a president Paz. Paz won because Quiroga wanted to transform Bolivia into a military colony of the USA and genocide the natives. Paz's dad was just a generic neoliberal with vaguely left-wing policies and was basically a puppet of the army.
Paz is just a moron and a puppet, he'll probably beg China, Brazil and the USA for aid, and sell all of Bolivia's resources to American and Brazilian companies. Evo still helds a huge influence in Bolivia, and he'll probably continue to sabotage the new goverment until he gets what he wants.
Interesting Bolivian Fact: The Paz family were elected to power 3 times already. They held huge influence in the 1952 Left-Wing Liberal Revolution. They also got couped by Left-Wing Nationalists (Military Socialists like Nasser and Velasco) and in 1964 and begun supporting the Far-Right, only to get betrayed by the Far-Right during the late 1970s.
So your take is basically that Evo fucked it by insisting he personally run the show? That's where I've been at ever since he demanded another term.
Evo was already fucked during his last term. I think he should've done something about the Term Limits before instead of pulling weird excuses. He also could have just accepted the positionof VP and supported the presidential campaing of Arce or Alvaro Linera (Evo's VP).
I think he was even offered the position of senator, but he refused. After that he lost all his political rights. This basically temporarily deorganized the Bolivian left, and allowed the liberals to return to power. My fear is that Paz will be unable to resist the Military influence, and will either just become another far-right puppet or get coup'ed by the army.
Evo not wanting to give up power and sabotaging his own party seems like a huge bad move. He tried to fight the judiciary and military, and ended up splitting the left. I suppose now at least he controls whatever is left of the movement, we'll see if he is able to return to power or, probably, influence politics.
nearly two decades of dominance by the leftist MAS party
This is why you need to just bite the bullet and form a DOTP. If you've been in power 2 decades and opposition parties still even exist, let alone can run in elections, let alone can fucking win them, what are you even doing??
Just like Peru, they're going after leftists now
I genuinely don't understand why these people don't immediately go to ground and rally their base when these centrists win elections. It's not as if the playbook has changed in the last 30 years. Of course they were going to at least arrest you, that's literally what you did to the rightwing coup leader, and they are more than willing to flout the law and pretend that you are a coup leader.
Arce doesn't have a base. That's why he got arrested while Morales is still free.
:this:
Arce voters are mostly middle class mestizos and whites (with some working class whites too). Evo voters are in majority Amerindians (Natives), Working Class Mestizos, Working Class Whites and Afro-Bolivians.
Himbo Jerome Powell lowered interest rates by a further 0.25, as expected. In his remarks he said that the Fed believes that job growth was overstated by around ~60k in the last three months. IIRC, the growth was already negative all those three months.
Evidence is growing that services inflation has come down, and goods inflation is entirely due to tariffs.
[edit] Money printer go brrrrrrrrr
goods inflation is entirely due to tariffs.
The United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, two American sources told Reuters news agency. No further information is available about the circumstances of the seizure or the ship. The move comes amid a massive US military buildup in the region, including an aircraft carrier, fighter jets, and tens of thousands of troops.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the operation was led by the US Coast Guard. However, details such as the name of the tanker and the location of the interception were not disclosed. Venezuela exported more than 900,000 barrels of oil per day last month, the third-highest monthly average of the year so far. Even with growing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Washington has not interfered with the country's oil flow.
- Telegram
Even with growing pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Washington has not interfered with the country's oil flow.
bit of a tense issue here
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