Image is of Ansarallah military spokesman Yahya Saree delivering a statement/speech.
The ceasefire appears to be at least temporarily over, with an exchange of fire between (what appears to be) predominantly Iran and the entity, though as always I expect we’ll find increasing evidence of direct US involvement.
The chain of events was as follows, in spoilers below for those who haven’t been keeping up:
chain of events summary
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A while ago, Iran warned the occupation entity that if they strike Beirut (with particular emphasis on its southern suburbs, which is an area where Hezbollah officials/structures are concentrated as I understand it) then they will directly strike the north of Occupied Palestine, turning the area into a military zone, and encouraged settlers to leave to avoid civilian casualties.
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This warning was grudging accepted by the entity, who ordinarily has a policy called the Daniyeh Doctrine, in which they murder civilians en masse by bombing apartment buildings and houses in enemy cities in order to pressure the military forces they are battling to give into conditions they ordinarily would not be obliged to accept, because the Zionist ground campaigns are usually fairly ineffective at achieving goals on medium to long timescales. While removing their ability to bomb Beirut didn’t halt the Daniyeh Doctrine entirely (they could and did hit other places), their distinct inability to strike the capital when they ordinarily could do that freely was a big source of discontentment in both the civilian population and the military.
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As Hezbollah increasingly attrited the Zionist offensive forces, the attractiveness of bombing Beirut in retaliation increased regardless of the consequences, and of course the Zionists do still want to do anything they can to attack and weaken Iran directly and are much worse at hiding this than even the US. This resentment culminated on June 7th, where the Zionists conducted an airstrike on Beirut on a Hezbollah HQ.
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Iran immediately said that this constituted a break in the ceasefire, and Khamenei put Iran back on a full war footing. Within 6 hours of the strike on Beirut, Iranian missiles were flying towards the northern occupied territories, in what they regarded as merely a warning shot. Western media was obviously fairly dismissive of this; 182% interception rates and all that jazz, but we have several videos of missiles hitting targets.
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Trump publicly warned the Zionists to not respond, which many sensible people immediately diagnosed as kayfabe, and Iran obviously remained on guard against a counterattack. This came a few hours later from Zionist drones and stand-off strikes from aircraft likely in Iraqi airspace, just like in the initial phase of the war months ago. These hit sites in western and central Iran, including a petrochemical facility, but also with some interceptions.
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Iran then responded to this counterattack with a yet bigger warning shot into the occupied territories. Ansarallah also joined in with strikes on the Zionists, and they additionally announced that the Red Sea is now closed to all vessels linked directly to the entity. Certain accounts have said that the Bab el Mandab is now actually under full blockade, but this is not clearly substantiated as of me writing this at about 2pm BST, June 8th. There’s been a lot of “considering closing” and “threatening to close” and “moving to close” the Red Sea over the ceasefire period that hasn’t materialized, so I don’t want to get out over my skis.
Worth noting that according to Yves over at Naked Capitalism (a fairly reliable and left-leaning, but not communist, website), we’re now about a month or so away from reaching “tank bottom”. This is largely because commercial demand destruction has not sufficiently occurred due to oil price market manipulations keeping it low, and also because there have been basically no government policies in the US like widespread work-from-home orders. So, soon the shortages will be of the literal oil molecules not being available and not just the price signal. So there’s an increasing anxiety in the US to get this conflict over before the economy really starts to crash in the latter half of the year, one way or another. As a deal seems only increasingly unlikely given US stubborness and inability to accept battlefield realities, a return to military strikes as we’ve seen appears the only way forward, despite almost catastrophic munitions shortages.
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.
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 the Zionists’ 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.
a US Apache attack helicopter over Hormuz self exploded after its onboard toilet clogged
Millions of Pokémon Go players who spent years scanning their surroundings for in-game rewards allegedly unknowingly contributed to a highly detailed navigation system developed by Niantic Spatial, a U.S.-based company spun out of the original Pokémon Go developer, that is now set to be used in military drones and robots, Trouw reports.
Nearly 30 billion scans collected from hundreds of millions of players have become the property of Niantic Spatial and were reportedly used to train a 3D model enabling precise navigation when GPS signals are unavailable. Late last year, Niantic Spatial and U.S. software company Vantor announced that Vantor would deploy the system in drones and other military robots. Vantor specializes in spatial intelligence software for defense applications.
The company denies that it would use Pokémon Go data directly. However, Trouw reports that it also declines to confirm whether it trained the model it plans to deploy using those scans.
“Without the huge number of scans from all those gamers, the development of this system would never have progressed so quickly,” Jeroen van den Hoven, a professor of ethics and technology at TU Delft, told Trouw. “The players have indirectly, perhaps minimally but still effectively, contributed to military applications.” Van den Hoven said it is difficult to identify exactly which parts of the 3D model were trained with Pokémon Go scans because AI models are enriched with many datasets and no longer contain traceable original data.
The scans were also used to train navigation for those delivery robots that get stuck on the sidewalks all the time, apparently.
In response to earlier questions from Trouw about a separate partnership with delivery company Coco Robotics, a spokesperson said Pokémon Go scans were used to train an “early version” of the model. The company said players had voluntarily agreed to the terms and that it operates ethically
Another reason to think this may all be about the SpaceX IPO: Trump cancelled strikes and started talking about a deal immediately after Iran Threatened Musk’s assets in the middle east.
The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Mask off. I guess they are going to be sending in the meat waves in the near future.
The conflict has gone fully regional overnight. US struck 20 sites across Iran. Iran responded with strikes on US military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan.
Impact at US Navy base in Bahrain confirmed on footage. Kuwait sirens active.
Both sides significantly intensified their exchange of fire over the past 24 hours.
- Slava Intel
China bans export of ALL dual-use items for Japan, dual-use is anything with civilian uses that can also have military uses.
Civil war-type scenes are emerging from Bolivia.
The government passed a law authorising US-backed President Rodrigo Paz to deploy the military against protesters.
Bolivian police and military forces have launched a joint operation to clear strike blockades in San Julián, Santa Cruz department, as a five-week general strike against neoliberalism continues to grip the country. The crackdown came with full government backing — multiple ministers arrived for what was intended as a photo opportunity declaring victory over the movement.
Instead, entire communities mobilised, forcing security forces to retreat after more than four hours of sustained resistance on the highway. The mobilisations, demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz, have left at least ten people dead, 37 injured, and over a hundred facing prosecution, according to the Ombudsman’s Office.
Meanwhile, in El Alto — the indigenous city encircling the capital — daily popular assemblies are being held where communities vote on strike strategy and assess the movement’s progress. A new form of grass-roots democracy is taking shape on the streets.
Peru’s indigenous Aymara region will not recognise the elections if Fujimori wins, because she has already lost the popular vote within the country. If she wins it’ll be due to those from abroad, not in Peru. Protests & strikes are coming to defend the country’s majority.
LMAO
The US has quietly deployed 82nd Airborne paratroopers to Israel, per deployment order leaked to me.
The deployment is tied to new US-Israel joint contingency plans for seizing Kharg Island and carving out coastal territory inside Iran.
Protests happening in Iran against the proposed “memorandum of understanding.”
I would like to point out two important things.
- We would agree that these people and their demands represent the revolutionary position of proletarian masses, and as Helyeh Doutaghi pointed out, the nightly protests played a major role in forcing the government to strike in defense of Lebanon last week.
She wrote:
there has been a noticeable intensification of demands in response to escalating violence against Lebanon over the past week in the streets of Iran. Many carry Hezbollah flags and have been calling for action. In this, pressure emanating from the popular base of the revolution has significantly shaped the posture of the armed forces, particularly amid internal tensions among differing political factions, including reformist elements within Iran.
For those still reading: The Islamic Republic of Iran is a democracy and the revolution is ongoing. Its time to retire this orientalist myth of “authoritarian dictatorship” that infects the international subconscious and discourse on Iran
- You will notice in the protest video above that there are many women, most of whom are in Chador. I have heard from some people who participate in the nightly rallies that less than 5% of the women participants over the last 100 days are with “bad hijab” or no hijab.
I would like every single person who reads this to get this into your head: There are many revolutionary women in Iran. And the revolutionary women in Iran are overwhelmingly Pious Believing Muslims.
These women are playing a major role in shaping the past present and future of the Islamic Republic and therefore the region (and the planet.)
And that hijab, and especially Chador, are inseparable from the anti-imperialist orientation of the Islamic Revolution.
Those left/liberals who continue to espouse their Islamophobic tendencies against “Iranian theocracy” and against hijab are positioning themselves in the camp of zionism. End of story.
Iran Strikes Air bases in Jordan including F-35 hangars
🔺 IRGC Claims Strikes on U.S. Air Base in Jordan, Says 21 Targets Hit Across Region
The IRGC issued a statement claiming it struck 21 targets at U.S. air and naval bases across the region and separately targeted Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan, according to Khabar Fouri.
The statement said IRGC aerospace forces used long-range solid-fuel missiles to destroy four targets at Al-Azraq, including F-35 fighter hangars and a command and control center. The IRGC also reiterated its earlier claim of shooting down a U.S. MQ-9 drone over Jam County in Bushehr Province.
“Our forces are ready to deliver a crushing and decisive response to any renewed aggression by the enemy,” the statement said, adding that “the consequences of any renewed aggression lie with the American enemy.”
The claims could not be independently verified.
(No videos yet, this is like 10 mins old as of writing)
IRGC: 4 important targets including the F35 fighter jets’ hangars at the airbase and the command and control center of the child-killing US army in Al-Azraq, Jordan were targeted and destroyed. (Via Fars News)
The IAEA Board of Governors has issued a resolution against Iran, demanding it to disclose the location of its enriched uranium and allow IAEA inspections to nuclear sites The resolution passed with 21 votes in favor, 3 against, and 10 abstentions. Iran will take ‘reciprocal measures’ in response to the resolution.
Iran’s UN representative: ‘It is literally and physically impossible to allow inspections, because the sites have been bombed and the material is now buried under the ground. The hypocrisy of this Board knows no limits and has shown its lack of professionalism by issuing this resolution, which is political in nature.’
- Middle East Spectator
BREAKING: Iran directly rejects Trump’s new claim of a deal being signed tomorrow, saying the insistence on signing the deal on specifically Sunday is engineered around his own birthday, calling it a “propaganda event” that Trump is trying to turn into a unilateral “symbolic occasion” for himself, along with his UFC White House event, per Fars.
The Iranian negotiating team says it “will not permit such a media and ceremonial manoeuvre,” explicitly stating that the memorandum of understanding has not been finalized and no signing will happen.
