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The three countries have also withdrawn from ECOWAS.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.
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 US is trying to win the new Cold War outright, and pulling out all the stops to do so. No more facade of “freedom and democracy.”
And make no mistake, the US is not “retreating to the Western Hemisphere.” It’s all about keeping China out so they can’t respond symmetrically to provocations.
I continue to expect a massive proxy war against China in the next few years.
I think there’s more of the opposite going on here. China has less ability to project power toward the US’ backyard than the US does to Chinese interests in Asia. If China wanted to respond symmetrically it benefits from the US moving its assets to the Western hemisphere, because a symmetrical response to this action would look like an attack on Taiwan or strengthening the Axis of Resistance in West Asia.
We’re entered the Spring and Autumn era.
Chinese history-maxxer understands very well that time is a flat circle (I’m partly joking just in case anyone takes this seriously).
Given that sequencing, hopefully we’re not gonna enter the Warring States period any time soon.
Honestly the Warring States period seems more apt considering the current configuration of the global order, if we really want to force an analogy out of it.
You have the superpower in the West (Qin) with its unstoppable killing machines.
The rising economic superpower in the East (Qi) who’s about to challenge the dominance of the Qin.
The crumbling old colonial superpower in the center (Wei) who’s being eroded by Qin.
The small nation in between the East and West (Han) known for its advanced weaponry that somehow manages to survive over the era by playing all sides.
The martial power in the North (Zhao) whose military reform is giving Qin a good run for their money.
The mysterious nation in the far Northeast (Yan) who’s mostly been forgotten and secretly biding its time.
And the nation comprising hundreds of tribes in the South (Chu) with a vast landmass best known for proudly calling themselves the “barbarians” (蛮夷).
Moreover, the period is known for the School of Diplomacy (纵横家) where the Horizontal Alliance (连横, aka the superpower Qin allying with a couple smaller states to prevent a greater coalition from being formed against itself) would come to clash with the Vertical Alliance (合纵, aka the six weaker nations band together to fight the superpower Qin in the West).
There would be 5 major expeditions formed by the six nations against Qin over the next 200 years, each one more desperate than the previous one. Spoiler: they lost.
Can’t wait for Trump to die on a quest for immortality and Barron to be forced into ending himself by the scheming eunuch Pete Hegseth who eventually collapses the empire as some ICE officer declares himself emperor
Bring on the Hundred Tiktoks of Slop.
xhs actually using a tone tag? just fell to my knees in walmart crying tears of joy (/half joke ive been begging you for awhile to use tone tags)
lol, too many people got mad at me for no reason. But that’s just the nature of anonymized internet forum I guess.
tone is just very hard to get across in text especially so if you are communicating in non native tongue. you in particular are easily misunderstood because you have a very dry tone in general and i can never tell if something is serious or a u/simulatedliberlaism rehash