Image of destruction in Mandalay, Myanmar, from Al Jazeera.
As if the ongoing civil war wasn’t enough, Myanmar has now been struck by a very powerful earthquake, resulting in 2000 deaths and thousands more injured as of the time of writing. Estimates are that the death toll could reach 10,000. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are damaged, and the hospitals are overwhelmed. The earthquake struck during Eid prayers, resulting in even higher casualties as several mosques collapsed. 20 million people already required humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, and now the situation there will be even worse. International rescue teams have rushed into the country, and aid is being raised, though with USAID experiencing the… changes that it is, the United States will be of even more limited help than usual. So far, China has sent $14 million, while USAID has supplied $2 million. In Thailand, the death toll seems considerably lower, though there has still been significant damage; a skyscraper under construction collapsed in Bangkok.
Myanmar is located very close to the boundary between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In particular, the country is divided in two by the north-south oriented Sagaing fault. This fault is typically strike-slip; that is, each side of the fault moves horizontally past each other. The earthquake’s depth was 10 kilometers, which is pretty shallow, and its proximity to the surface amplified the felt force of the earthquake. Additionally, the soft soil in this region tends to further amplify seismic waves through a process called liquefaction. Combine all this with the lackluster building codes due to many years of impoverishment and civil wars, and this explains why the death toll, and the expense to the country in general to repair damage, will probably be extremely high.
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. 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.
Trump Tells Inner Circle That Musk Will Leave Soon
To be honest I was surprised he lasted this long. But the recent Tesla news, Wisconsin election results and DOGE trying to run the US Government as a private sector agile takeover have been too much now, the Trump-Musk relationship is no longer beneficial for both sides, so it will be put on the backburner.
Wonder if this all has been a psy op of sorts from the start. Accelerate destroying these agencies through DOGE, Trump kicks musk out so they can more discreetly do that same work, and now Trump will look like a savior to his voter base since it was Musk fucking them over
My argument has always been that the US empire is trying to re orientate itself and prepare for a new phase. These “colour revolution/regime change” organisations have gotten bloated, inefficient, ineffective, and contradictory. We had CIA backed rebels fighting Pentagon backed rebels in Syria. We had Voice of America putting out both pro and anti Trump propaganda. Chaos can be effective, but clearly not anymore. How many successful colour revolutions have taken place over the last decade? I think Ukraine was the last one in 2014. Hong Kong failed, Bolivia had mixed results, Venezuela failed. Notice how Trump and Musk went after USAID hard, but nothing was said about NED. The news about the defence budget being reduced was incorrect as well. My guess is that they want a unified direct line for the regime change stuff, under the direct control of the State Department or even the Presidency. Yemen is a possible flashpoint in the medium term. The opposition to Ansarallah/the Houthis could be reactivated on the completion of the US air campaign.
The DOGE hysteria could have been a PsyOp to distract from this. I think the leaked signal chats are potentially a PsyOp to distract from the largest US military movements to the Middle East in over 20 years, since the Iraq war.
that’s already the way it is though, isn’t it?
Damn good analysis. I was very confused about the defunding of USAID and figured something more sinister was coming down the pike. Also interesting to hear about Syria and Voice of America and the contradictions there I’ll have to read up on that. Gotta save this comment for posterity to see how many Hexbear users correctly predict the future
Here’s the full analysis I made almost two months ago, if you’re interested
https://hexbear.net/comment/5901087
I’ve been wondering this for a while now too. If it’s true, it’s a page straight out of Machiavelli. Are you a king who wants to enact some new policies over a population, but you know they’ll be unpopular? Appoint a vassal to enact your policies, plus a bunch of other bullshit that’s even more unpopular. When the population is fed up and calling for the vassal’s head, swoop in and fire him, undo the bullshit policies but keep the ones you originally wanted, and hey presto you look like a hero!
That said… I have my doubts as to whether the trump folks are that clever.
Trump is pushing this poor African-American immigrant off the glass cliff and you’re laughing?
Strong argument to be made that he just doesn’t like losers and that there are already a lot of knives out for Elon in the cabinet, but I’ve had the same thought as you.
We are actually very lucky that Musk is the most uncharismatic person in the world. If he had just a little bit of charisma, or even Trump level charisma we would be so cooked.
Like how do you end up so hated when people in this country lick billionaires feet at every opportunity
I’m simultaneously surprised he lasted this long and didn’t last long enough if that makes sense.
Say what you will about Trump but he is not a loser and he does not surround himself with losers.
So funny that Tesla stock went up big on news that Trump won the 2024 election and that Elon will be the head of the DOGE department, but now the stock is also rallying on news that Elon will leave DOGE.
I thought Trump would have expelled Elon Musk on his first day in office.