Image is of fires in northern Israel set off by Hezbollah, to force settlers to retreat from their occupied areas, in response to attacks on civilians in Lebanon.


I’m not gonna lie to you - I thought Israel would have started shit with Hezbollah by now which would have derailed whatever megathread theme I had planned, so I didn’t bother planning one.

If you want a decent couple pieces going over what Hezbollah has done to Israel, then have a look at How ‘Israel’ Has Lost The North and Hezbollah’s Quarterly Report. It’s not exactly the most professional analysis, as you’ll see if you read it, but it gets the point across and relies on evidence. In essence, Hezbollah has pushed the Israelis back tens of kilometers and decimated their border infrastructure, all while unveiling anti-aircraft missiles that have forced Israel to reconsider bombing runs. They still probably have the ability to turn various towns and cities in Lebanon to rubble, but Hezbollah can do massive damage back to Israel in turn. This has gone on so long with so little meaningful opposition by Israel that border settlements are going a little haywire and tentatively declaring independence from Israel and saying they don’t want IDF troops there anymore. I don’t take these terribly seriously from a military standpoint but it is indicative of the Zionist settler mindset crumbling over the last 9 months.

We’re now at the point where Israel kinda has to go to war against Hezbollah or the entire Zionist ideology of military deterrence and expansion via illegal settlements simply no longer functions, but that war will also lead to massive destruction for military and civilian facilities (ports, power stations, war factories, etc) which is a massive problem for Israel’s continued existence. Hamas continues to function inside Gaza despite the surface occupation of significant areas, including the Gaza-Egypt border, and attrition there is leading to big materiel and psychological losses for Israel too. And Yemen has, for all intents and purposes, prevailed against America’s failed attempt to thwart their blockade - with some in the army claiming it’s the most intense naval battle America has faced since WW2 - and missile strikes are tentatively beginning to hit or at least threaten ships in the Mediterranean Sea.

Nukes are still lurking quietly in the background, of course, but the Resistance is perfectly aware of that and still seems confident to go ahead with operations, so I can’t really do anything but shrug and say that I trust them to do what’s right.


The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you’ve wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don’t worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Lebanon! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli 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 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.


  • Al_Sham [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    5 hours ago

    Video of Iranian women chasing “reformist” presidential candidate (see: neoliberal) Pezeshkian out of the shrine of Hazrat Abd al-Azim al-Hasani.

    They are chanting “marg bar munafiq!” which means “death to hypocrites.” The woman at the beginning says something like “death to the possibility of a third Rouhani administration!”

    https://x.com/Mhmd_holmes/status/1807438400066081132

    The smile this video brought to my face

  • SoyViking [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    5 hours ago

    I saw a headline: “The government has made a broad agreement on a price ceiling for district heating”. Great news, our house is heated with district heating and the bastards just jacked the price 20 percent up. Price controls are awesome! Maybe this will help us out?

    The article behind the headline didn’t tell much but it linked to the official press release. I read the press release. Here’s what a “price ceiling” looks like under neoliberalism:

    • The “ceiling” is based on the price of heating pumps
    • Each year a list of utilities with prices above the “ceiling” will be published, “enabling the consumer to make a price check for their heating bill”
    • Utility companies with prices above the “ceiling” are required to make a plan for bringing prices down
    • If the average price over a three year period is above the ceiling, consumers are no longer bound to the utility company and are able to “choose another heating solution”

    And on top of it they now introduce an “arm’s length principle” between municipal administrations and the operation of utility companies and require utilities to be “corporatised” and have “independent” board members.

  • healthkick [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 hours ago

    I think Obama is throwing his weight behind Biden because he fucking hates Hillary.

    Not in any noble or even political way, I think he just fucking hates her.

    This isn’t a shit post, this is what I really think. I think he can’t stand her and wants to watch her fail.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.net
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    15 hours ago

    Brazil’s President, Lula da Silva, has the same age as Trump. Lula had Covid-19, Cancer and went to jail two times, yet he looks much better than Trump and Biden (and even Bolsonaro). He is always giving interviews, going in public events, etc…

    From what I researched, he does a bunch of exercises and has a good diet to live a healthy life. Hell, even Fidel Castro, who smoked cigars his entire life, lived until his 90’s lucid. He was still receiving visits from heads of state and speaking with them literal days before his death.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.net
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    15 hours ago

    72% of Voters Say Biden Should Not Run After a Bad Break in the Debate

    Article

    The 72% of the registered voters in the United States say that the current President Joe Biden should not run for re-election, according to a poll by CBS News and YouGov after his bad break on Thursday’s debate with Donald Trump.

    Voters say Biden is not in “mental and cognitive health necessary to serve as president,” at his 81 years old. Although he was physically awkward and at times hesitant, incoherent and without finishing a sentence, the current tenant of the White House said the next day that he did not plan to leave the race to get a second term.

    86% of those questioned in the survey consider Biden’s age to be a key reason he should not run, and 72% say Biden does not have the mental and cognitive health to be president, seven points more than in early June.

    When asked more directly whether Biden should step aside as a Democratic candidate to give another Democrat a chance to run, 64% of voters said he should.

    The poll, which was conducted on Friday and Saturday among 1,134 registered voters and has a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points, also shows concern for Trump, 78, by voters.

    On ther other hand, Democracy Corps survey of Democratic-leaning voters, who used words such as “confused”, “frail”, and “dementia” to describe the president’s debate performance, Politico reported.

    The Guardian reports that for this poll, made before and after the debate, 65% said they would vote for Biden before the debate, only 54% said he won the debate once it ended, according to the survey.

    A poll by CNN, the network in charge of the first debate among the November presidential candidates, indicated on Thursday that registered voters who saw the meeting “think largely that Trump surpassed Biden”,

    “Most say they have no real confidence in Biden’s ability to lead the country. At the same time, most of those who tuned in to the program say it had little or no effect on their election for president,” the channel said.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.net
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    15 hours ago

    Bolivian President rejects narrative of self-coup promoted by fascist right-wingers

    Article (Translated from Spanish)

    He asked former president Evo Morales not to join those who deny the coup d’état, a matrix that serves disunity and imperialist interference.

    The President of Bolivia, Luis Arce, stressed this Sunday that what happened in that country last June 26 was a failed coup d’état and asked former President Evo Morales not to replicate the narrative of fascism, which not only denies it but insists that it was a self-coup planned by the Government.

    He asserted that “those responsible who sought to seize power by force are being prosecuted and will be tried, as was the case of the coup plotters of 2019”, he said in relation to the coup of November of that year, when military and police commanders forced Morales to resign under a false matrix of electoral fraud mounted by the local oligarchy in complicity with the U.S. and the Organization of American States (OAS), some of those responsible were arrested and subjected to criminal proceedings.

    This morning, during statements made to a local radio station, Evo Morales, who had vehemently condemned the failed coup d’état, admitted that he is confused about the coup d’état. In spite of this, he blamed Arce of having committed a self-coup.

    He expressed that “initially until Wednesday (26th) night, even on Thursday (27th) morning, I thought it was a coup (of State), but now I am confused, it looks like a self-coup”.

    In that space he commented that he suspects that it was an action planned by the head of state. Through his networks, he pointed out that “Arce deceived and lied to the Bolivian people and the world”.

    After his criteria, the Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, offered statements to the media and said that Evo Morales ended up joining the story of the coup general Juan José Zúñiga and the fascist right wing of denying the gorilazo.

    “Do not be mistaken with history and the people by joining today the discourse and statements of a coup plotter and the fascist right that once again, as at the time he pointed out that there was fraud (and not coup in 2019), pretends to distort history. Do not join in being a puppet, marionette and an instrument of imperialism that intends to plunder in our country.” Prada added that the political opposition is also part of that narrative.

    He stressed that unlike the 2019 coup, on June 26 Bolivia faced a displacement of armed military that tried to seize power in a planned manner, even with the participation of elite groups.

    Although investigations into the failed coup d’état began a few days ago, 21 military officers and civilians implicated have been arrested and have revealed that their organization began last May. One of the high ranking officers involved, former Air Force commander General Marcelo Zegarra, declared in a prosecutor’s statement that Zúñiga assured that he had the support of the “American Embassy, the Libyan Embassy and the European Community”.

    The differences of opinion between Arce and Morales go back months. In an interview given after the coup d’état was neutralized thanks to the firmness of the people and his government, Arce said: “We believe that the political instrument, the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism), belongs to the social organizations; they are the owners, the ones who created the instrument. Therefore, they are the ones who have to decide who are their candidates for deputies, senators, mayors, president, vice-president. On the other hand, comrade Evo wants to be the owner of the political instrument. That is where we are divided”.

    He added: “They are afraid that we will reposition ourselves and that is why we have an economic boycott in the Legislative Assembly, which everybody knows (…) Economic laws, of credits that have to be approved by the Assembly. Absolutely nothing advances, there is a clear boycott by the opposition and when I speak of opposition I also refer to the pro-evolution wing”.

    Rare Evo L? Even some liberal newspaper say the Self-Coup narrative makes no sense because it doesn’t benefit Arce. It makes him look even weaker and it’s bad for Bolivia’s image. Besides, Lula da Silva is going to visit Bolivia really soon to discuss this coup and Bolivia’s membership inside Mercosur.

  • Captain_Wtv@lemmy.ml
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    NYT, New Yorker and Pod Jons want him gone. Seem the sentiment is split among establishment.

    72% of people doubt his mental faculties or something. I forgot the wording of the poll. It was from CBS

  • notceps [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    19 hours ago

    Some exit polls from France from this round of voting

    Things to note:

    Macron and centrist in general have a huge demographic problem only getting 13% with the 18-34 year olds. It doesn’t really get any better until they start hitting the 64+ year olds

    Fascists doing well from 35+ onwards.

    No idea what they mean with employee and worker so if someone wants to inform me on those categories but yeah.

    Center really only did well with old pensioners.

  • Dull_Juice [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    18 hours ago

    I don’t watch a lot of NASCAR but seeing AKUS is blowing money being the lead sponsor on a car is wild. I guess since Australia isn’t actually getting the submarines for a long time (or is it not at all?) they’re free to do this.

    Link to an image of the #6 and #17

    Buildsubmarines is some site talking up AKUS