Due to American cluster bombing campaigns advised by Kissinger during the Vietnam War to damage supply lines, over 2 million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over about a decade, averaging a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes. Laos is thus the most bombed country on the planet up to this point. 80 million bombs failed to explode - the cleanup operation is expected to take centuries, and 25,000 people have been killed and injured by bombs in the last 50 years. About 50 people are killed or injured every year to this day.
After the United States withdrew from Laos, the Pathet Lao took power and abolished the monarchy. Kaysone Phomvihane became a dominant figure in Laotian politics, keeping the course on Marxism-Leninism and implementing the first Five Year Plan in 1981. The second Five Year Plan in 1986 was modelled on Lenin’s NEP, and this doubled rice production and significantly increased sugar production. After the fall of the USSR, Laos allowed a small capitalist class to exist, with similar control over them as in China. Laos maintains a 48-hour work week with paid sick leave, vacation time, and maternity leave, and workers are well-represented in trade unions. They faired relatively well during coronavirus from a social standpoint due to quick and efficient action to lock down the country, experiencing ~750 deaths out of a population of over 7 million.
There is hope even after utter destruction by genocidal oppressors.
The weekly update is 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.
Your Friday Briefing is here in the comments and here on the website.
The Country of the Week is Laos! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is 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.
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.
Cuban emergency services have apparently thwarted several terrorist attacks and other “destabilizing actions” planned at the turn of the year. As local media reported over the weekend, units of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) arrested several suspects who wanted to carry out part of the plans developed by groups in Florida. Weapons, including several pistols of various calibers and ammunition, were also seized. The arrests came a few days after the official gazette Gaceta Oficial published on Thursday a list of 19 organizations and 61 people that the Cuban authorities are investigating for “promoting, planning, financing or committing terrorist acts in Cuba and abroad.” Most of those wanted are currently living undisturbed in the USA.
rest of article
Although it is an ongoing investigation, the ministry released initial details of the investigation. Some of those arrested of Cuban origin confessed, it was said. Based on their statements, it has been proven that those who entered the country illegally by sea have connections to terrorists who publicly call for violent actions against Cuba. Among other things, one of those arrested stated that he had received instructions in the USA from a person named Manuel Milanés, the multinational news channel Telesur reported on Sunday. Milanés, who is number 55 on the list of wanted terrorists, offered him $50 for putting up posters, $100 each for attacking officials and burning down sugar cane fields, and $200 for arson attacks on gas stations, the arrestee said. He was also asked to recruit more people for “zero hour” when a military invasion of Cuba took place.
Another prisoner confessed to having ties to Amijail Sánchez, number 61 on the terrorist list. Sánchez was prosecuted in Cuba for illegal possession and carrying of a firearm, theft, illegal slaughter of livestock, bodily harm, illegal economic activity and negligent homicide. Now living in Florida, he said he had offered the witness $1,500 to destroy a high-voltage pylon, $300 to attack government vehicles and $100 to set fires on sugar cane plantations. The prisoner also had contact with Michel Naranjo (No. 48 on the list). The man who emigrated to the USA in 2020 was charged in Cuba with, among other things, assault and robbery with violence against people and, according to Telesur, is now offering to finance terrorist actions in Cuba on the Internet.
US media pointed out that Cuban authorities had previously compiled lists of people suspected of terrorism and forwarded them to foreign governments. However, it is the first time that the government has officially referred to it as such in its official gazette. In addition to self-professed terrorist groups such as “Alpha 66”, “Hermanos al Rescate” and “La Nueva Nación Cubana en Armas”, there is also the head of the Miami-based militant “Asamblea de la Resistencia”, Orlando Gutiérrez, and the man who describes himself as an “influencer”. ultra-right Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Alexander Otaola on the list.
“While some of the individuals have been shown to have been involved in acts of violence, others appear to have been targeted because of their political opposition to the Cuban government,” claimed the Miami daily El Nuevo Herald. The US state propaganda portal Martí Noticias described the publication as an “act of revenge” for the US government’s declaration last week that it would continue to list Cuba on a list of “state sponsors of terrorism” drawn up by Washington. Havana justifies the measures with an increased danger situation.
I hate succdems so much. Kaare Dybvad, My country’s minister of integration (ie. racism), has been at it again, talking to the right-wing press about how the genocidal massacres has revealed “a form of extremism we haven’t seen before”, how “we thought education [of non-white immigrants] would lead to adoption Danish values” and how “no majority Danes [ie. white people] has any trouble condemning Hamas”.
He also parrots zionist propaganda abusing the Holocaust to justify the occupation of Palestine, saying that “In a Danish context the Holocaust plays a special role and you have to understand that”. I hate this ghoul so fucking much. Last time he made himself noticed it was to berate a woman who wrote a book about working less to have more time with her family and call her a lazy parasite. Before that he was minister of housing and happily implemented an explicitly racist housing policy that destroyed cheap public housing where it was misty needed. And no, I’m not going to post a link, as his hateful screeds are behind the paywalls of right-wing media.
Not really new, but this dude was hunted down for sport in oct.7
