Image is sourced from this Guardian article.
The Pope’s fucking dead.
He gave JD Vance three chocolate easter eggs, exchanged pleasantries for 17 minutes, and then keeled over and died.
What a way to go.
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.
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.
Patrick Lancaster has his
cw blurred deadVancouver police say several people have been killed and multiple others injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd at a street festival Saturday evening.
The incident happened shortly after 8 p.m. near East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street, where the Lapu Lapu Day Block Party was taking place.
Police said the driver is in custody.
Just happened hours ago, I’m not really plugged into socials so I’m not sure what’s known or fake
The PLA deploying their thirst traps to win the hearts and minds of Vietnam:
https://xcancel.com/XH_Lee23/status/1916059226734268449The Swiss under-23 fencing team turns its back on the Israeli team during the medal ceremony of the European Fencing Championship in protest against genocide.
- Telegram
Some news from the Kursk front. Russian forces fully liberated the Kursk oblast border areas today. Russia confirmed that some DPRK troops (including elite Special Operations Forces) participated in the Kursk border area’s liberation.
Russian forces liberated the last Kiev-occupied Kursk oblast village, Gornal: https://sputnikglobe.com/20250426/russias-kursk-region-completely-liberated-from-ukrainian-forces---kremlin-1121935136.html
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated, “The soldiers of the Korean People’s Army, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Russia and the DPRK, which entered into force on December 4, 2024, fought shoulder to shoulder in one trench and shed blood with our soldiers and officers in the Kursk Region and made a significant contribution to the liberation of the Russian land from enemy invaders.” https://sputnikglobe.com/20250426/n-koreas-solidarity-on-liberating-kursk-region-demonstrates-high-allied-level-relations---moscow-1121938683.html
Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov stated, “The DPRK military, acting shoulder to shoulder with the Russian military in Kursk Region, showed resilience and heroism.” https://www.rt.com/russia/616356-north-korean-troops-kursk/
Apple aims to source all US iPhones from India in pivot away from China
Apple plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump’s trade war forces the tech giant to pivot away from China.
Only the assembly stage is being moved to India, internal components will still be manufactured in China
US airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 43rd day and night in a row.
Airstrikes hit the following governorates:
Ma’rib
- Multiple rounds of airstrikes in Madghal district.
Hodeidah
- 3 on the captured "Galaxy Leader ship.
- Multiple rounds of airstrikes on Kamaran Island.
- Multiple rounds of airstrikes on the already destroyed Ras Issa fuel port, potentially damaging a tanker ship.
Al-Jawf
- 4 on Al-Anan district
Saada
- 3 on Al Salem District
- 4 on Kitaf district.
Sana’a
- Multiple rounds of airstrikes on the Al-Sab’een and Bani Al-Harith districts…
Warning for potential graphic imagery during ongoing airstrikes:
The two latest statements from the Yemeni Armed Forces:
Unlike last time where there was supporting video evidence of a ballistic missile impact, I haven’t seen any videos of an impact from this latest ballistic missile strike.
Rally attended by over 250000 people against the Lai regime:
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20250426003700-260407?chdtv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TopCth7qIwThe black signs they’re holding are pretty cringe (It says “Oppose green (color of the DPP) communism. Fight against dictatorship”), but I skipped through the livestream and saw Han Kuo-yu made a speech about how Taiwan can’t fall into the trap of becoming the next Ukraine. And this isn’t the first major political rally against the Lai regime either.
Anyways, we need to keep calm and trust the plan.
Yesterday was Carnation Day in Portugal. I’m gonna pull a mainstream media and instead of talking about the thousands of people who marched down Liberty Avenue to celebrate, I’m going to focus only on a far-right protest that happened the same day and got pretty dramatic.So a bunch of far-right groupings, including a small but old far-right party called “Ergue-te” (which means “Rise up”) scheduled a protest that would happen at the Martim Moniz plaza where they would march there and roast a pig, literally. Now, a lot of immigrants hang out and live there including from muslim countries so obviously this is supposed to be a provocation but, just to explain how dumb this is, if someone here is ever in Lisbon check out the plaza, it’s pretty much just a tourist spot, mostly because it’s outside a metro station and there are a lot foreign food restaurants around it, but aside from some subcontinent dudes hanging out in the garden just chilling, it’s really not that different from most of Lisbon and honestly it’s a place I always recommend to people who visit. So the whole thing is the far-right playing up xenophobic sentiments around people specifically from that region of the world, a lot of which do immigrate to Portugal for seasonal and other low-wage work.
So, because they asked for permission to protest the police had to evaluate whether they could do so safely so that the mayor’s office could approve it. At first, the police gave the ok, then when obviously they realized there would be a bunch of counter protests they backed out and gave the “Not ok”, so the Mayor unauthorized the protest. Now if this had been the far-right Chega party organizing this protest, that would be the end of it, they’d stick to yelling about how the government doesn’t even let you publicly roast a pig, they’re pretty politically astute unfortunately.
But these guys are extra crazy so they decided to hold the protest anyway, and in a rare sight, after pretty clearly provoking both the counter-protestors AND the police who were there to keep the counter-protestors from caving their heads in, well…
Some got smacked, some got detained and some got arrested.
To show how blatant this thing was, here’s a clip of one of these guys caught on camera, pretty clearly infiltrating the counter-protest to start a fight and rile everybody up.
A state of emergency will be declared in Bandar Abbas due to the possible spread of hazardous substances due to the fire in Shahid Rajaee Port. Saudi Foreign Ministry: ‘Saudi Arabia is willing to provide any help or assistance that Iran may need’
It is likely that large amounts of sulfur have been released into the air, causing difficulties breathing, irritation to eyes, and inflammation of the lungs. 8 people confirmed dead so far. The Minister of Roads, Farzaneh Sadeq, visited the site of the fires. The chief of the local firefighting department complains they don’t have enough equipment to extinguish the fire.
The situation is very bad. The fire is spreading to other areas of the port, including areas with flammable containers, and more explosions are likely to happen. The order has been issued to completely evacuate the entire port and all its surrounding facilities.
- Telegram
The Iran explosion made me think of this: I’ve heard Lebanese people say the Beirut explosion is rumoured to be done by Israel, is there anything written about that possibility?
The big cheese himself, General Gerasimov, has confirmed the participation of DPRK troops in the recapture of Kursk.
Pakistan and India Exchange Fire Along the Line of Control - Telesur English
Article
Previously, both countries were embroiled in a diplomatic crisis following Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Kashmir. On Friday, India accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire last night along the “Line of Control,” the de facto border that separates the two countries in the Kashmir region.
“There were incidents of small arms fire at some points along the Line of Control initiated by Pakistan. The firing was effectively responded to. No casualties were reported,” an unnamed Indian Army source said. Ceasefire violations along the Line of Control are relatively common, with both countries accusing each other of initiating attacks and claiming they only use force defensively in response.
This latest exchange of fire, however, comes at a time of heightened tension between India and Pakistan, which are embroiled in a severe diplomatic crisis following Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed. This was the deadliest attack against civilians in Kashmir since March 2000, when 36 people were killed in an insurgent assault in the region.
India accuses Pakistan of providing support to the perpetrators of the attack, among whom, according to New Delhi, were two Pakistani nationals. In retaliation, the Indian government has ordered the expulsion of several Pakistani diplomats, the cancellation of all visas issued to Pakistani citizens, the closure of the land border with its neighboring country, and the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, which governs the distribution of water from several rivers between the two countries.
On Thursday, the Pakistani government responded with some reciprocal measures, including the expulsion of diplomats and the cancellation of certain types of visas. In addition to closing its airspace to Indian airlines, Pakistan warned that if India attempts to divert or halt the flow of water from any of the rivers covered under the treaty, it would consider it “an act of war.”
Both nuclear powers have disputed the divided Kashmir region since their independence from the British Empire in 1947 and have fought two wars and several smaller conflicts over it.
massive port explosion in iran, Shaheed Rajaee Port which is a large container port. Over 500 reported injured, unknown number of casualties. If you watch the videos it is strikingly similar to the Beirut explosion a few years ago
Investigations and recovery are still ongoing
BREAKING | A massive explosion has been reported at the Port of Shahid Rajaee, one of two parts of the port of Bandar Abbas, located on the north shores of the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran.
According to Mehr News, a fuel tank in the port exploded for an unknown reason, and rapid response teams were immediately dispatched to the area.
Port activities have now been suspended so that the situation can be quickly brought under control by security and relief forces.
The number of casualties from the explosion has yet to be determined.
UPDATE | The number of injured in the Shahid Rajaee port explosion has risen to at least 516.
Source- the Cradle
Article
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Chinese counterpart Han Zheng bolster bilateral cooperation in energy, technology, and social development under the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for All Weather” framework.
On this April 24 in Beijing, , Venezuelan Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng strengthened bilateral ties on Thursday in Beijing during a meeting that reviewed over 600 cooperation agreements in strategic sectors, solidifying an alliance both governments describe as a “bulwark against global hegemony.”
The talks at the Great Hall of the People are part of Rodríguez’s working agenda in China, aimed at advancing joint projects under principles of sovereignty and mutual benefit. The visit follows the signing of 31 agreements during President Nicolás Maduro’s historic 2023 visit to Beijing and a 2024 energy-finance pact.
Both nations prioritized modernizing Venezuela’s oil infrastructure with Chinese technology, including refining projects and heavy crude exploration. Rodríguez highlighted China’s support in overcoming “unilateral aggressions” against Venezuela’s energy industry, referencing international sanctions.
Han Zheng emphasized “socialism with Chinese characteristics” as inspiration for Venezuela’s development, while Rodríguez praised Xi Jinping’s leadership in building a “new multipolar order.” Discussions included strategies to strengthen economic blocs as alternatives to Western systems.
The revised agreements include technology transfers in public health, specialized hospital construction, and scholarships for Venezuelan students at Chinese universities. Rodríguez stressed that this cooperation “prioritizes the people over corporate interests.” Both sides condemned “unilateral coercive measures” against Venezuela, with Han reaffirming China’s support for Venezuelan self-determination. Rodríguez thanked Beijing’s consistent diplomatic backing in multilateral forums.
Plans include creating a binational fund to finance agricultural tech and 5G telecommunications projects. Maduro and Xi are scheduled for a virtual summit in June to sign new AI and minin agreements. Rodríguez concluded by asserting that this alliance “demonstrates the Global South can build sovereign development models,” while China reaffirmed its commitment to making Venezuela its top energy partner in Latin America.
