At the start of last week concluded the Summit of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES in French), in which, among other significant news, was the announcement of the creation of a unified military force for the alliance - called, rather straightforwardly, the Unified Force - which currently consists of about 5000 soldiers. Strictly speaking, joint military operations between the three countries had already been taking place for over a year before this point, but I imagine this organization streamlines the internal processes and makes it truly official.
Mali’s Goïta delivered a speech during the summit in which he stated there were three main threats to the alliance: military, economic, and media. While this new military force is a major effort to combat military threats, the three countries have also mutually launched television, radio, and print media organizations to combat disinformation and psychological warfare. The economic aspect is the most tricky aspect of all, as (albeit decaying) American hegemony is not friendly to states which seek an independent economic path, most especially if that path does not directly benefit Western international corporations. Nonetheless, the three countries are doing what they can; they mutually launched an AES passport earlier in 2025, and this month, Mali has taken a bold move, recovering $1.2 billion after renegotiating mining deals with mining corporations after a comprehensive audit. Gold mining in Mali is a major sector of the economy, comprising about 20% of annual government revenue.
The three countries have also withdrawn from ECOWAS. The remaining countries consist of a small collection of West African countries, most significantly among them Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. ECOWAS is increasingly seen by the AES leadership - quite rightfully - as an organization which seeks to contain the radical shift in West Africa and return the region to the neocolonial French-governed status quo. As I talked about in a semi-recent news megathread, Nigeria is experiencing its own suite of internal problems, so perhaps in the coming years, ECOWAS will crumble from within and the AES can push back the terrorist organizations threatening them.
Last week’s thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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.
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.
In the Chinese zodiac, 2026 is year of the effort post. DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own).
Note updated comm rules in the sidebar text.
@FALGSConaut@hexbear.net with the 2026 newsbingo
@ComradeRat@hexbear.net on intra-Warsaw pact conflict and disagreements about foreign policy during the cold war
I spent a couple days away from the news and hard to catch up. Please DM any good roundup posts about the kidnapping of Maduro/escalation in Venezuela.
Previous posts of the week: Oct 27 | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 17 | Nov 24 | Dec 1 | Dec 8 | Dec 15 | Dec 22
Cuba says 32 Cuban officers were killed in US operation in Venezuela
https://apnews.com/article/cuba-us-venezuela-maduro-e66899b41f0b84cf83f77a69d399b486
Venezuelans in New York went out to celebrate Maduro’s capture and were apprehended by ICE. They will be deported as illegal immigrants.
Been hearing libs accuse the left of “wanting Venezuelans to die for your anti-imperialism” which is rich coming from the people who have spent years demanding a fight to the last Ukrainian
The New York Times reports that Trump decided to attack Venezuela and capture Maduro after the Venezuelan politician appeared in public singing and dancing to songs about war and calling for peace. Trump understood this as mockery of the United States.
I think Israel is going to attack Iran very soon
It seems like theres a huge confusion with the American goverment and media on who they even support anymore, the journalist asked if Machado is now going to be the new president of Venezuela, and Rubio had to explain to them who Edmundo Gonzalez was and that he was elected, and Machado wasn’t even on the ballot.
THIS is Venezuela RIGHT NOW Hundreds on the streets calling for Maduro’s RELEASE Holding his portraits and giant national flag
Uhhhhh
I will post more on this tomorrow, but the hyperreal kayfabe kidnapping of a sovereign really has laid bare this bizarre tension between nothing ever happening and a massive geopolitical shift. Like, will all this blow over and everything continues on the same? Maybe. Cause the rest of Latin America to freak the fuck out and start taking defense seriously? Maybe. The first results of the secret treaty/divvying up of the world into American, Chinese, and Russian spheres? Maybe. The last gasps of a dying empire desparate for military wins but incapable of getting them? Maybe. A genius stroke where you can use the image of war without actual war to force your demands? Maybe. It can be all of these outcomes and more. Truly unbelievable times.
The Venezuelan people held a massive rally in Caracas today opposing Washington’s criminal aggression: https://vk.com/video-228568258_456389745
And another video of the rally: https://vk.com/video-228568619_456327482
I know I’m preaching the choir but it’s always amazing to me how the lib’s law/process fetish veneration syndrome cripples their critical thinking skills. I saw a post this morning that I’ve been thinking about all day. It was a quote post and the embed was a comment by a German. Basically the OP said that the Iraq War situation was entirely different from the situation with Venezuela now. And the quoter entirely agreed.
The OP’s argument was even though Bush and company lied - they did get congressional approval. What Trump has done and is doing is all on him. The top reply was a friendly dog pile where more Germans and a Swiss person agreed. I think it was the top reply because Bluesky is not only lib-centric but very American so libs pushed the like button as a way to say “See, Europeans agree with us!”
They entirely ignored the 100% predictable yet insane echo that the propaganda ~20 years ago and the propaganda right now is as similar as can be. They ignored Dubya’s Hague Invasion Act. Plus they ignored that Obama basically said we must look forward and not backward which guaranteed a future president again lying to congress and starting a war would result in zero consequences.
Meanwhile in a million other threads - the libs are demanding eventual justice. The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice? It’s easy as pie to predict that a future President Newsom (or equivalent) would say about Trump and all his cronies that we must look forward and not backward…
i dunno if this is legit or not. way too pixelated - but honestly if it was true, it would not suprise me.
