Analysis and images of the parades is all over the internet and in the last megathread; for the China-India stuff I recommend this article, as well as the Tricontinental in general.
Image is from @xiaohongshu@hexbear.net’s comment in the last megathread.
Last week was the 80th anniversary of the end of World War 2, and on such an occasion, China put on quite an impressive military parade, especially in comparison to the rather drab and corporate parade that the USA recently had. In attendance were many world leaders, including Putin, Kim Jong Un, and a very happy-looking Lukashenko.
This took place shortly after the SCO summit in Tianjin, in which Modi was notably in attendance. That one of the world’s most powerful fascists was in attendance in China near the anniversary of the World Antifascist War is obviously pretty ironic. Regardless, the mood was still relatively positive; for example, Xi announced the acceleration of the creation of the SCO development bank, and Indian-Chinese relations are once again in the thaw cycle of their long-term cyclical pattern, with direct flights resumed and links expanded. The fact that there is this much projected optimism from China about a Global South which is being increasingly tariffed, infiltrated, starved, looted, bombed, invaded, and massacred in the hundreds of thousands by rabid imperialist dogs is perhaps a little tone-deaf, but buoying up the SCO is better than doing nothing at all, I suppose.
Any astute Geopolitics Understander can tell you that this is certainly not India joining the side of the Global South, but instead a move somewhat forced upon them as they seek to balance both sides for their own gain. As Trump amps up pressure on India via tariffs, it is natural that India would seek leverage, and there is much that India gains: industrial development, increased intra-regional trade, and scientific knowledge from a China which has, in numerous fields, now pulled ahead of the USA. India is also facing numerous internal crises, ranging from run-of-the-mill capitalist incompetence and corruption, to worsening conditions for farmers, to the ravaging impacts of climate change, and increasing their links with China is a way to vent off a little of that pressure and protect Modi’s regime.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel'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.
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.
Hadn’t seen this here yet, I think it is newsworthy. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/moderna-falls-trump-officials-tie-155222738.html
(Bloomberg) – Vaccine makers’ shares fell after a report that Trump health officials plan to link Covid shots to the deaths of around two dozen children in a presentation to advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next week.
The Washington Post reported Friday that a group of health officials appear to have used the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, to tie the deaths of 25 children to Covid vaccines. A high-profile advisory committee that Kennedy revamped to include vaccine critics is scheduled to discuss the shots from companies including Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and BioNTech SE at its meeting next week.
spoiler
Moderna shares dropped as much as 8.7% during trading in New York Friday. Pfizer shares fell as much as 3.6%. BioNTech’s US-traded shares sank as much as 14%.
Covid vaccines have become a political flash point in recent weeks as conflict between Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former CDC director Susan Monarez led to her ouster just weeks into her job. Kennedy has previously claimed that the shots crafted during President Donald Trump’s first administration — largely credited with saving millions of lives during the pandemic — cause deadly complications, despite rigorous studies involving millions of people that found serious side effects are rare.
VAERS collects copious amounts of unfiltered data in an effort to detect early signs of side effects. Reports can be submitted by anyone and no effort is made to verify the details or prevent duplication, a format that scientific researchers said makes it difficult to draw clear conclusions.
“FDA and CDC staff routinely analyze VAERS and other safety monitoring data, and those reviews are being shared publicly through the established ACIP process,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said, referring to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Pfizer could not immediately be reached for comment. BioNTech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, Moderna said the safety of its Covid vaccine, Spikevax, is “rigorously monitored” by the company, the FDA and regulators in more than 90 countries. Safety monitoring systems have not identified any new or undisclosed safety concerns in children or in pregnant women, the company said, adding that research “continues to demonstrate a favorable risk–benefit profile for Spikevax.”
A 2022 Lancet study of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults who received messenger RNA Covid-19 vaccines found no known deaths, with most patients recovering within 90 days.
The Data System
The Food and Drug Administration had already indicated it was investigating reports of children dying due to the Covid vaccine.
“There have been children that have died from the Covid vaccine,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month. “We’re doing a proper investigation. We’re going to release a report in the coming few weeks.”
Patients, health-care providers, caregivers and companies are encouraged to notify the agency about adverse events following immunization, “even if they are not sure the vaccine caused the problem,” according to the CDC, which manages the VAERS database with the FDA.
Yet VAERS warns that some of these reports “represent true vaccine reactions and others are coincidental adverse health events and not related to vaccination,” according to its fact sheet. “Overall, a causal relationship cannot be established using information from VAERS report alone.”
For 2021 alone, there were more than 11,000 reports of deaths. While many mentioned Covid shots, it’s impossible to know from the database alone if they stemmed from the shots. Many of the submissions detailed “breakthrough” Covid infections, the ones that happened after a patient was vaccinated. This makes it possible that the virus — not the shot — was deadly.
Even Kennedy has raised concerns about the system’s reliability. “It’s outrageous that we don’t have a surveillance system that functions,” he said at an event in Indiana in April.
Kennedy has long said that the government should focus more on vaccine injuries. Before taking office, he made money connecting people with claims of vaccine harm to a law firm that sued manufacturers. More recently, his allies in Congress have hosted hearings featuring people who said their family members experienced vaccine injuries.
The Washington Post report came as the as the CDC reported that Covid hospitalization rates are peaking nationwide. The virus has contributed to more than 15,000 deaths in 2025 through the first week of September, according to the agency.
–With assistance from Madison Muller, John Tozzi, Anna Edney, Michelle Fay Cortez and Phil Kuntz.
Bruh they are trying to kill us. Also without looking up any of the cranks RFK Jr has brought into the CDC, I am getting the vibe that these must be people who really believe their own line of BS.
This almost goes without saying for regular Newsheads, but for any confused lurkers: any intervention has a risk of some harm. Even if we take RFK and Quack’s takes at face value, we have to weigh the harm of any vaccine against the disease it’s being used to prevent. Rare adverse reactions pale in comparison to an entire generation fucked up by immune disregulation, long Covid, scarring in the lungs, blood clots, and a whole host of bad effects that are a direct result of Covid and reinfections.
These fucking maniacs are looking at the pile of corpses left behind during Covid and saying that’s worth it to protect the vanishingly small percentage of people who suffer an adverse reaction. It’s absurd, even if we accept their dubious claims seeing as they’re all anti-vax cranks to begin with.
Thank you, it did not occur to me to contextualize this and I couldn’t have said it half as well as you. I saw the data they were pulling from would likely be making wild conflations between receiving the vaccine and any symptoms that happened after, that they might be double-counting because “Reports can be submitted by anyone and no effort is made to verify the details or prevent duplication” (lol), and they’d be cherry picking like all hell. But I did not even consider that were the worst of their anti-vaxxers claims true here, we’d still be looking at a successful intervention in terms of deaths and disease prevented.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the anti-vaxxers are the exact same people that dismiss out of hand the severity of covid, or that the disease exists at all.