Image is sourced from this article.
Those who were around in the early days of the news megathread may remember Pedro Castillo, the left-leaning leader of Peru who was deposed in December 2022. He was replaced by Dina Boluarte, the first woman to be President of Peru, who described herself as a progressive but afterwards routinely sided with Peruvian conservatives and American interests. To say she was unpopular is an understatement of titanic proportions - she descended to such lows that she was, at one point, the single most unpopular leader on the planet. As with most deeply unpopular leaders that side with the West, she kept power for a bafflingly long time.
However, on October 10th, after a period of protests against the government, she was impeached and removed by Peru’s Congress in a unanimous vote. José Jerí was sworn in as the new President, who was previously the President of the Congress and is a member of a centrist Peruvian party. The government is trying the classic strategy: keep doing the same thing as before, and sacrifice an unpopular figure - here, Boluarte - in the hopes that this appeases the crowd.
Is this strategy working? It doesn’t really seem to be - protests are not only continuing, but strengthening, as it is clear that neoliberalism will not reformed and the brutality by police will not stop (there was very recently a high-profile case in which a musician, Mauricio Ruiz, was murdered). Controversies surrounding Jerí, including allegations of SA, are already being reported. If Jerí is deposed, the next person in line to try their hand at ruling will be the former army general Roberto Chiabra, who would be the ninth President in less than a decade.
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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.
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.
Ukraine and Sweden have signed a letter of intent for Ukraine to purchase 100-150 Saab Gripen E 4.5 generation fighter aircraft over the next 10-15 years.
Source compilation, including Swedish news articles and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement
Now currently only 13 Gripen Es exist (10 in Brazil, 3 in Sweden), and Sweden just accepted it’s first Gripen E into an operational fighter squadron yesterday. Saab also has about 120 aircraft on order from foreign customers. So the first Gripen Es for Ukraine are over 2-3 years away, and if a contact is signed, it will take a decade to complete. However, Ukraine could get between 10-12 older Gripen C aircraft as soon as 2026, as an introduction to the platform if the deal goes ahead.
Realistically Gripen is probably the best aircraft Ukraine can try get, and most suited to the war Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine’s not going to get F-35s, F/A-18E/F production is about to shut down, and F-15EX/Rafale/Eurofighters are too expensive. The only natural competitor is the F-16V Block 70/72, and Ukraine probably prefer Gripen, a platform designed for the very war Ukraine is fighting. Gripen is notable for its capability to operate from makeshift airbases, being quick to re-arm, refuel, and easy to maintain (for a fighter aircraft). Most notable for Ukraine is Gripen’s compatibility with the MBDA Meteor air to air missile, which has been in service with the Swedish Air Force for almost 10 years. Meteor is an active radar guided, ramjet powered beyond visual range air to air missile, with an estimated maximum range of over 110 nautical miles/200 kilometers. A joint program by European nations to counter Russian fighters or interceptors armed with R-33/R-37M type air to air missiles.
This is very much still up in the air; funding and Saab production capacity are major issues, considering Ukraine’s financial situation and the fact that only 13 Gripen Es currently exist. There’s a chance that the deal will fall through at some stage. But it shows that Ukraine intends to re arm it’s air force long term with advanced capabilities.
Very hard to complete delivery over a 10-15 year period when the recipient state stops existing within that timespan.
Ukrainian morale requires another shiny wunderwaffe to look forward to. I wonder if this was plan B if Russia drew a clear red line at Tomahawks.
I’m guessing this will be funded via confiscated RF funds. Paying Sweden with stolen reserves to build jets for Ukraine that will maybe get delivered eventually seems like just the thing to turn this whole conflict around.