A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like “in Minecraft”) and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of smoke rising after Iranian missiles impact a US military site in Bahrain.


My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.

preamble

After a few weeks of both diplomatic and military manuevering - mostly over Iranian control of Hormuz - we have hit the hottest phase of military exchanges since at least the MoU period began. The US has generally focussed on striking southern Iran, although they have also sporadically hit transportation infrastructure elsewhere, which was repaired in less than 24 hours. Meanwhile, Iran has struck a wide range of targets, with an interesting focus on Jordan, but has, up to the time of me writing this, so far relented on striking the Zionist entity. The US and Iran have had little periods of mutual military strikes during the “ceasefire” before, and so it’s hard to tell for sure whether this yet another temporary spat or if it represents a full return to the pre-ceasefire conflict.

A complicating factor in this conflict is that Ansarallah has become increasingly active, and seems eager to start to break the siege it has been put under by threatening to attack Saudi Arabia and Saudi-aligned forces. This has put Iran in a somewhat awkward spot. On the one hand, it has greatly helped Ansarallah resist foreign attackers and has even recently sent civilian airplanes into Sana’a to begin to break the siege. On the other hand, Iran has, with China’s help, generally desired to improve its relationship with the Saudis over the years. While in this latest war there have been a major dispute between them over whether Iran is “allowed” to strike US military infrastructure located in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis strike me as considerably less anti-Iran as the UAE, let alone the Zionists, and did send a delegation to Khamenei’s funeral. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens next, but I strongly suspect that Iran is going to help Yemen over the Saudis.

And finally, Lindsay Graham has died of a sudden heart attack a suspiciously short time after visiting Ukraine. He was a true enemy of civilian populations all the way to the end of his life, and he seemed to particularly despise children. He advocated for using nukes against Gaza and the total annihilation of anybody and everybody who had even the meekest criticism of Zionism. If God (and, more pertinently in this case, Satan) does exist, I hope Graham is extended the exact same level of courtesy and respect in the afterlife that Graham extended to all Palestinians.


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

If you have evidence of Zionist 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 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:

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.netM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    68
    ·
    15 hours ago

    Oil prices off highs after Trump abandons 20% protection fee on Strait of Hormuz traffic - CNBC

    Article

    Crude oil prices eased off session highs Tuesday, after President Donald Trump abandoned his demand for ships to pay a 20% protection fee to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

    U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 1.82% to $79.56 per barrel. Brent futures, the international benchmark, were up 1.98% to $84.95.

    “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

    Trump demanded the fee Monday in exchange for the U.S. Navy protecting ship traffic through Hormuz. The security situation in the strait has deteriorated over the past week as Iran attacks commercial ships.

    The president’s demand for a fee contradicted past U.S. opposition to tolls in the strait. Iran has sought to collect tolls for safe passage but agreed it will not impose one for 60 days under the interim deal it signed with the U.S.

    The International Maritime Organization, a UN agency, opposes mandatory tolls in Hormuz as illegal.

    U.S. crude oil had traded above $80 per barrel earlier in the session as Washington and Tehran continued to battle for control of Hormuz. The U.S. bombed targets along Iran’s coast Monday in an effort to degrade Tehran’s ability to attack commercial ships, according to U.S. Central Command.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said its forces attacked two supertankers transiting Hormuz with their transponders turned off. The United Arab Emirates’ state oil company ADNOC said two of its tankers were hit by projectiles while transiting the strait, killing one mariner and injuring several others.

    The U.S. Navy will reimpose its blockade against Iran at 4 p.m. ET on Trump’s orders, Centcom said in a statement.

    Citi had warned that Trump’s proposal to impose shipping fees in the Strait of Hormuz materially raises the risk of further military escalation.

    “The possibility that the Iranian regime walks away from the MoU until after the mid-term US elections has also risen, a scenario which would most likely see higher for longer oil prices,” the bank wrote in a report Tuesday.

    Roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Shipping traffic slumped after Iran began targeting vessels in the waterway in early March, but had started to recover following Washington and Tehran’s interim agreement.

    • DogThatWentGorp [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      52
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Damn here I was baffled as hell yesterday over the 20% and the answer is always market manipulation huh?

      Also

      The possibility that the Iranian regime walks away from the MoU until after the mid-term US elections has also risen

      I’m going to keep it 100 with you Citi Bank: I don’t think Iran is making decisions based on American electoral politics. BUT, I know the market cares and might believe this if you say it with enough authority, so I understand why Citi would publish this.

    • thelastaxolotl [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      38
      ·
      13 hours ago

      Its so funny how he said he was going to charge 20% to look strong to his chudlets only for the market to get a panic attack and raise oil prices forcing to back off from his bs announcement

    • culpritus [any]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      62
      ·
      14 hours ago

      This is such a case study in how much the market responds to his statements, while at the same time showing how little the markets respond to actual material reality. This is how “the most efficient economic system humanity has ever conceived” works.

      • limer@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        29
        ·
        13 hours ago

        The markets respond to his statements because the relatively few ultra rich movers and shakers are a corrupt mess of stupid, thieves and grifters.

        And the less wealthy follow their actions.

        At least that is how it seems to me.

    • Lovely_sombrero [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      47
      ·
      edit-2
      13 hours ago

      RIP US fees on SoH traffic Jul 13th 2026 - Jul 14th 2026.

      [Edit] Trump also said: “oil is flowing like never before”. I rate this statement technically correct.