Image of destruction in Mandalay, Myanmar, from Al Jazeera.

As if the ongoing civil war wasn’t enough, Myanmar has now been struck by a very powerful earthquake, resulting in 2000 deaths and thousands more injured as of the time of writing. Estimates are that the death toll could reach 10,000. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are damaged, and the hospitals are overwhelmed. The earthquake struck during Eid prayers, resulting in even higher casualties as several mosques collapsed. 20 million people already required humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, and now the situation there will be even worse. International rescue teams have rushed into the country, and aid is being raised, though with USAID experiencing the… changes that it is, the United States will be of even more limited help than usual. So far, China has sent $14 million, while USAID has supplied $2 million. In Thailand, the death toll seems considerably lower, though there has still been significant damage; a skyscraper under construction collapsed in Bangkok.

Myanmar is located very close to the boundary between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In particular, the country is divided in two by the north-south oriented Sagaing fault. This fault is typically strike-slip; that is, each side of the fault moves horizontally past each other. The earthquake’s depth was 10 kilometers, which is pretty shallow, and its proximity to the surface amplified the felt force of the earthquake. Additionally, the soft soil in this region tends to further amplify seismic waves through a process called liquefaction. Combine all this with the lackluster building codes due to many years of impoverishment and civil wars, and this explains why the death toll, and the expense to the country in general to repair damage, will probably be extremely high.

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.

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 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.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

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.

  • Redcuban1959 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    39·
    1 day ago

    Argentine financial markets record setback after Milei’s failed mission - MercoPress

    Argentine financial markets experienced a sharp decline Friday amid the global economic storm triggered by a trade war between the U.S. and China following President Donald Trump’s tariffs spree. The market downturn, compounded by a nearly 7% drop in oil prices and a 10-year U.S. rate at 3.87%, reflects fears of a global economic setback, prompting expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts.

    While the country risk index soared and Argentine stocks fell 12% on Wall Street, the S&P Merval of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange plummeted 7.4% to 2,107,815 points. Although the region’s stock exchanges also fell, Buenos Aires’ figures were by far the deepest, as the rest fell between 1 and 3%.

    These results also came after President Javier Milei’s trip to the United States enhanced his socialite status during a conservative event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. But contrary to Casa Rosada’s expectations, Trump was late to the gathering. Therefore, Milei could not meet with him to insist on Argentina’s need for a fresh International Monetary Fund disbursement.

    In addition, the White House Special Envoy for Latin America Mauricio Claver-Carone announced that the United States’ support to the Libertarian administration before the IMF would hinge on Buenos Aires cutting all ties with Beijing, specifically the currency swap agreement brokered during the previous Government of Alberto Fernández and extended during the current one.

    Despite Milei’s ideological shift away from Beijing, China remains a vital economic partner for Argentina—its second-largest trading partner after Brazil—and is heavily involved in sectors like infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications. Ending the swap would require Argentina to repay a large sum it currently lacks.

    “I am not going to interfere in the middle of the negotiations that are taking place with the IMF, which we want to be successful,” Claver Carone was quoted as saying. “What we do want is that eventually the famous credit line that Argentina has with China ends,” he added.

    In the meantime, consensus has been reported to be absent among the IMF’s board on an advance disbursement, despite positive remarks from Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

    Advancing money to Argentina, a practice known as frontloading, generates controversy because any financing for the country before its next principal payment to the IMF would be considered fresh funds, which would increase the multilateral’s exposure to the nation, it was explained.

    This week’s rejection by the Senate of Milei’s two Supreme Court nominees, coupled with his rift with Vice President Victoria Villarruel and treason charges for his April 2 Malvinas/Falklands speech, portray a declining head of State badly in need of funding to keep his administration going.