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Below is my weekly summary/preamble, spoilered so that you can get down into the comments more easily.
preamble
I don't think I've ever seen a ceasefire that, for weeks, is so obviously about to be broken at any given moment and yet nonetheless continues. So-called Operation Freedom may mark a resumption of hostilities, as the US seems to once again be trying an active role in attempting to take control of the Strait of Hormuz. The initial, ridiculous claim was that the US Navy would itself be escorting ships (i.e. just getting your destroyers sunk for no reason), and as expected, this was just said to try and calm markets. Nonetheless, there is reporting that other military measures may be taken against Iran soon if they continue to keep the Strait closed, so we'll see how that all goes.
US gas prices at the pump have hit close to record high numbers, and generally the average citizen is growing mightily displeased with Trump, even those in previously safe demographics. Unfortunately, this discontent is not immediately geopolitically relevant - as both parties are staffed from top to bottom with pro-war Zionists with only a small group of exceptions, and third parties will necessarily never be allowed to take power, there is no way for US public discontent to manifest itself in a change of policy. What is more likely to cause changes in policy will be grumbling from American capitalists, of which there are many factions. The fossil fuel capitalists seem perfectly content for this situation to continue indefinitely, with record profits. I imagine the financial sector is pretty nervous, but aren't currently demanding Trump cease fire - same for the tech industry which has now been engulfed in AI, as the bubble seems to be close to, but not quite, popping. Smaller businesses and agriculture are perhaps the most likely to be crying uncle, but may have limited representation.
Going back to Western Asia, the situation from last week has remained broadly the same. The Zionist tactic in Southern Lebanon appears to essentially be "If we can't occupy this land, then you won't be able to, either," as they are doing their utmost to physically destroy as many towns and villages on the border as possible. Hezbollah's success at keeping Zionist territorial gains fairly minimal, and the growing onslaught of not only anti-tank guided missiles but also FPV drones causing chaos where the Zionists attempt to hold and advance, have, I believe, partially contributed to Iran not pushing the issue of a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon so far as to cause them to feel the need to resume fire on the occupied territories.
The US blockade has truly been a mixed affair. While it's obviously quite leaky and many Iranian ships are getting through, Naked Capitalism and others have pointed out that it's not just Iranian ships that are transporting goods, and that there are ~70 Chinese ships with Iranian oil that are much less willing to risk running the blockade. But, once again, the success of the blockade isn't all that relevant. Iran has experienced periods of a couple years straight without meaningful oil exports and survived, and their extensive land borders make a true siege impossible - goods can and are still pouring into the country, and with Pakistan recently allowing Iranian exports through their border, as well as the Caspian Sea in the north and Iran's railway link to China, Iranian exports can still leave just fine. Another interesting indication is that China's government has ordered Chinese businesses to ignore US sanctions against Iranian oil, so we'll see how that develops. And while the issue of maintaining sufficient public cohesion in the wake of economic suffering is a potential long term problem, we haven't yet seen any meaningful scenes of public discontent inside Iran. Internal unity appears to be staying at record levels in the face of total war.
Even being as careful as possible to check my own biases, it's difficult for me to form any other conclusion other than that Iran is winning, and people like Armchair Warlord have even pointed out that American tactical victories have been pretty minimal so far.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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 the Zionists' 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.
https://xcancel.com/Forbes/status/2051726930727342528 https://archive.ph/dIYxL
Nearly 80% of U.S. hoteliers in 11 World Cup host cities say bookings are tracking below original forecasts, with some describing the tournament as a “non-event,” according to an American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) survey of members released Monday.
I wonder if it's ICE or the TSA or cost of living or cost of travel or the oil crisis that are to blame...oh wait it's all of these! Obviously.
Who woulda thunk that a mass event is not gonna work super well if the masses are too fucking poor to attend.
Plus the fact that Americans don't care about soccer so you're not gonna get much attendance from the local population either.
As such, the main audience for this event is all abroad, and too poor or afraid to go there.
European arms stockpiles doing excellently! https://xcancel.com/Jonpy99/status/2051726963035807809
Here's the rough, superficial research I did today about the remaining stocks of armor in the hands of private defense companies just in Europe.
Some more AFVs I either didn't find or were sold by private individuals, but maybe 20 pieces at most overall. IMVs or MRAPs are almost nonexistant, but nonetheless equipment such as HMMWVs weren't counted. Some may also be surprised about odd choices such as Ferrets, OT-64s or BRDM-2s. I just included those as it is known some Ukrainian TDF brigades use (or at least used them in the past) because volunteers bought, overhauled and donated them. Most stocks are almost completely depleted. You can see it when it comes to things such as T-72s or BMPs: there's barely any piece left. Over the last few years Ukraine or NGOs have mostly bought them for the army.
more
And clearly things are still being bought, such as Warthogs which until very recently were available in big quantities. This isn't a complete list, like I said in the beginning. There are many companies which don't disclose their stockpiles. OIP Land Systems has become (in)famous, but it's one such example. We only know what they have left because of journalists that looked into their warehouse. Based on their website, they should still have some Leo 1s and M113/AIFVs, plus 23 Gepards, but we don't know for sure. Many other big defense companies such as Excalibur Army and STV group with Soviet AFVs, Military Vehicle Solutions with CVRTs, possibly Flensburger Fahrzeugbau with German-made armor, etc. also are unknowns, tho we can see on Google Earth that they still have some stuff left. But most of the times, we can see that lately their stockpiles have thinned out a lot, for obvious reasons.
Some of the stuff still stored is also probably already charted for Ukraine in one way or another, such as those 96 Leopard 1s from the Swiss company RUAG bought back by Rheinmetall in 2024 which will probably be as the basis for Skyranger SPAAGs. In the end, most of what remains are diverse types of CVRTs that the UK is still slowly phasing out and uparmored logistics vehicles such as BV-206s. All in all, what I want to point out with this small thread is that the private stock of heavy equipment in Europe have dried out as a way to resupply Ukraine, and the official govt stocks are for the most part looking the same. It's mostly just old Soviet crap that's left, but a lot of it won't be given to Ukraine in the foreseeable future. Which explains apparently unreasonable things such as the restarted BMP-1 production line by SVT Group in the Czech Republic. Old armor is still a huge part of the Ukrainian fleet, and you need to keep it running somehow.
As usual, I didn't bother talking about trucks because meh. But even the companies and places that used to stored military trucks have been emptied out. And that's it for now!
Heh, just in time regarding the depleted govt military stocks: https://xcancel.com/NichoConcu/status/2051727452762755495
Ive been shared some satellite imagery of the Lenta military graveyard in Italy. Although I cannot share the images, I can say that most of what we saw previously and documented being there has likely been sent to Ukraine. What remains mainly is Italian Army prototypes. There is a few B1 Centauro’s still there, but these will likely also be transferred in the near future. The M113’s and derivatives which were stored outside which we saw months back are no longer there. Now there very well may still be some vehicles hidden in the buildings. However for now, we cannot confirm or deny if that is still the case.
https://xcancel.com/JustTheChuck2/status/2051754163915104342
It feels that Europe is mostly drained of armored vehicles. Not sure if any country outside of Europe would be willing to sell anything given how world is turning for worse, and it's mostly free-for-all political climate in many parts of the world.
Gotta pay US arms manufacturers out the nose for the promise of missiles in ten years, unless the US happens to need the production for some war or another! But when does the US ever start a war?!
how's the Ukrainian campaign against Russian oil going? https://archive.ph/Oohjj
Ukraine has lost part of gas production due to Russian strikes
Naftogaz Group, Ukraine's largest national oil and gas company, has to import additional gas volumes following a large-scale combined Russian attack on its gas production facilities on 5 May.
Serhii Koretskyi, CEO of Naftogaz of Ukraine, during the national joint 24/7 newscast, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine, a Ukrainian news agency: "Sadly, ballistic missiles have caused severe damage… There have certainly been gas losses. Of course, we will make up for them and restore production. We will rebuild everything and do everything necessary. We will compensate for temporary losses in domestic production with imported volumes, as we did last year."
Koretskyi said that since the beginning of 2026, Russia has carried out 107 large-scale combined attacks on Naftogaz Group facilities, mostly gas production sites. The latest attacks have continued for five days in a row. He also reported that Naftogaz will soon restore gas supply to consumers left without supplies as a result of the attack. Media reports say 3,500 consumers are without gas. Koretskyi also expressed his condolences over the deaths of three Naftogaz employees and two State Emergency Service (SES) workers who were killed in the attack. After the all-clear was sounded, they returned to the facility to deal with the aftermath of the attack, but Russia launched a second strike using ballistic missiles. He said most of those injured are in hospital, although some have already been discharged.
two can play at that game, as it turns out
Nationwide USA Gas Prices: 5/6
Gasoline up 5 cent today. Diesel up 2 
Gas is less than 50 cents from its all time high, diesel only 14 cents away 
Gasoline $4.536
Yesterday Avg. $4.483
February 26 (Pre War) $ $2.983
Current Gas Record: $5.016 on 6/14/22
Diesel $5.674
Yesterday Avg. $5.659
February 26 (Pre War) $3.720
Current Diesel Record: $5.816 on 6/19/22
This is the ninth day in a row of a new wartime high 
Every day I’m further vindicated in my recent purchase of an e-bike. I ride by gas stations and think to myself “wow, that must suck right now.” Meanwhile I haven’t filled up my tank in over two weeks.
Gas going up five cents in a day is kinda crazy. I don't see how they sustain this once it starts hitting records, which is like a month from now at most
Riding Solo In The Clown Car - Danish Fascists Loose Yet Another MP
Barely a month after the 2026 general election, the fascist Citizens' Party has now hemorrhaged three of its four Members of Parliament, plunging the Nordic hermit kingdom's newest extremist movement into a farcical record time collapse.
Read more…
Nadja Natalie Isaksen, the party's immigration policy spokesperson, announced her departure on Sunday, telling local media that the party was not what she had "hoped for and fought for" and that she didn't feel she had "the right conditions" to continue her political work within its ranks or to develop politically . Isaksen, who was previously only known for claiming that Danish-Afghan MP Samira Nawa from the centre-right Radical Left party was not truly Danish and postulating that there are genetic requirements to national identity, will have limited options for continuing her work in another of the tiny nation's crowded field of extremist movements . All right-wing parties have ruled out the possibility of her joining them. Although the Danish political elite maintains a racist baseline, Isaksen's open biological racism appears to be a step too far even for them .
When the party entered the tiny nation's rubber-stamp parliament a little over a month ago, party leader Lars Boje Mathiesen gloated over the commentators and journalists who had dismissed the party as a "clown car" and didn't think they had a chance. That triumphalism seems premature in retrospect.
Isaksen is the third of four MPs to abandon the party that entered parliament at the March 24 election. Jacob Harris was kicked out of the party after it was revealed that he and his wife had engaged in fraudulent practices regarding a now-bankrupt construction company, with a bankruptcy trustee recommending the couple for bankruptcy disqualification and police placing them under investigation for siphoning huge sums fun the company to spend on luxury consumption. As art of the candidate vetting process, Harris had signed a sworn statement declaring he was not involved in financial crime, which party leader Mathiesen displayed to the press before retreating to his office when confronted with uncomfortable questions .
Emilie Schytte left the party citing lack of leadership transparency and disaffection with Mathiesen's absolutist leadership style, accusing the party of being "a pyramid scheme of hypocrisy and absolutism". She also protested the overt racism of Rasmus Munch Søndergaard, the self-declared "race realist" who had written the party's immigration policy and the sexism of party secretary Asher Garde who had claimed publicly that younger female MP's had only been elected for their "sexual market value". Schytte herself has come under scrutiny for lying on her CV, claiming she taught artificial intelligence at Roskilde University for two years when the institution confirmed she worked as a teaching assistant for just three months. Serious questions have also been raised whether she fulfills the residency requirements to be eligible to stand for election in the first place, given reports of her maintaining an apartment in Sweden, though authorities ultimately cleared her .
The loss of three out of four MPs is not the only bad story the embattled fascist party has seen since entering parliament, running on a platform of racism, "drain the swamp"-style faux populism and grievances over car taxes. After the party was pressured to publish its previously secret bylaws in the wake of Schytte's exit, it was revealed that party leader Lars Boje Mathiesen cannot be deposed for the next four years and receives the highest salary from his party out of all party leaders, an additional DKK 60,000 per month on top of his MP salary, bringing his annual compensation to over DKK 1.6 million .
This is Mathiesen's third involvement in party politics that ends in chaos. He was previously kicked out of the now-defunct New Right party just a month after being elected party leader in February 2023 due to excessive demands for remuneration and attempts to transfer party funds to his personal accounts . Before that, as a local councillor in Aarhus, he stormed out of the far-right libertarian Liberal Alliance in anger after being passed over for a national nomination, complaining there was "no free competition" in the party.
Lars Boje Mathiesen is now the only MP for the Citizens' Party. The clown car has turned into a unicycle.
NYT update - Asked about President Trump’s social media post announcing that he was pausing the U.S. mission to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command referred questions to the White House.
Spiderman points dot mpeg
Breaking News: Senate Republicans proposed $1 billion for security measures around President Trump’s ballroom project in an immigration bill.
from new york crimes, genuine lmayo, best roi on not stopping the plot(tm) ever
A comment
Trump said the ballroom would be privately funded. A federal judge froze construction. He ruled the project required congressional approval. Senate Republicans just inserted $1 billion for East Wing security into a $70 billion immigration bill. The bill says the money can only be spent on fencing, Secret Service work, and security infrastructure. Not the ballroom itself.
But the bill funds security work "relating to the East Wing Modernization Project." That language gives the whole project congressional approval. The judge's freeze ends. Construction proceeds with the ballroom included. Now everyone knows.
You know, often I wonder how the fuck the nobles in France and Russia were stupid and arrogant enough to push conditions where fucking peasants took up arms.
Trump's ballroom be like:
Not to defend the Tsar's taste or anything, but at least the winter palace was made of actually precious and expensive shit. You just know Trump's ballroom will be all covered in cheap, chintzy stuff.
It'll be stuff that is worth like $50, but sold for $10,000 for sure.
What do you even do with that much money? I mean I get that most of it is graft, but they still have to actually use a decent chunk of it and only on security. Are they gonna cover every square centimeter in gold plated security cameras?
The bunker is almost certainly included in “security”
Maybe they will hire actual guards this time?
They're gonna build that robot from RoboCop but for real with real bullets and stuff
https://t.me/almayadeenenglish/20913
Israeli media reported on behind-the-scenes coordination between the United States and "Israel", following an unusual meeting between US Ambassador to "Israel" Mike Huckabee and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in occupied al-Quds.
According to Israeli Kan news, the United Arab Emirates is no longer satisfied with condemnations and is exerting pressure on the United States to strike Iran, arguing that Tehran should be "punished" over the alleged missile launches, although Iran has denied them.
In more detail, "Israel’s" ambassador to the UAE, Yossi Shelley, spoke with a senior official in Abu Dhabi, who told him that they must "make the American administration act," adding that "it is impossible to be tolerant toward the Iranian regime in any form; they must be punished."
The United States, however, has maintained ambiguity over the content of the discussions, stating, "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on private diplomatic conversations."
Lets understand the series of events.
Zionist entity deploys personel and materiel to UAE -> Iran fires missiles at US navy in retaliation for escalation -> energy infrastructure starts blowing up in UAE -> Iran denies attacking UAE -> UAE loudly demands US return to bombing Iran.
Imagine letting another country carry out a false flag on your own soil, against your most important source of revenue, and you play your theatrical part demanding a war that will end you
Further evidence the UAE has about as much sovereignty as my cat 🐈 fake country
Further evidence the UAE has about as much sovereignty as my cat 🐈
There is no fucking way your cat takes orders as well as the UAE
LOL 😆 I yelled when I read this
Cats are true Multipolarity enjoyers, they'd gladly start selling oil in RMB if that got them more snacks.
RMB (Roasted Mackeral Bites)
Announcement of operation "Project Freedom" pushed down the oil futures prices, announcement that "Project Freedom" will be paused (because it failed) further pushes down the oil futures prices by ~2%.
Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed. President DONALD J. TRUMP
https://xcancel.com/MenchOsint/status/2051645775071826142
Hegseth: Soon we will hand responsibility of strait to the world
Sounds more like an admission of failure. "We ignited a fire, failed to extinguish it, now good luck guys"
rolling up to the strait of hormuz and messaging the work slack asking "who closed last night?"
that's how i broke the news about me quitting to my coworkers at my last job
When you realize that the paper bag full of poop you just set on fire is on your own porch, so you proceed to pretend it wasn't you and hope someone else ends up cleaning it up.
Still step on it, for appearances.
Guardian update - Rubio says the US is working to get ships through the strait of Hormuz as a “favour to the world because we’re the only ones that can”. He says ships that are currently stranded are holding goods that are essential for the people of other countries, including fuel, fertiliser and humanitarian aid.
"It’s their ships that are stranded. Not ours."
He adds that the US is stepping up because “we’re the only ones that can project power in that part of the world”.
The US: unilaterally takes action that results in the Strait of Hormuz being closed
The US: "Have you even said thank you once?" 
Severely downplaying the fact that the US is the only reason ships are stranded there
Haven't you forgotten someone there, Rubio?
