I’m not gonna lie to you - I thought Israel would have started shit with Hezbollah by now which would have derailed whatever megathread theme I had planned, so I didn’t bother planning one.
If you want a decent couple pieces going over what Hezbollah has done to Israel, then have a look at How ‘Israel’ Has Lost The North and Hezbollah’s Quarterly Report. It’s not exactly the most professional analysis, as you’ll see if you read it, but it gets the point across and relies on evidence. In essence, Hezbollah has pushed the Israelis back tens of kilometers and decimated their border infrastructure, all while unveiling anti-aircraft missiles that have forced Israel to reconsider bombing runs. They still probably have the ability to turn various towns and cities in Lebanon to rubble, but Hezbollah can do massive damage back to Israel in turn. This has gone on so long with so little meaningful opposition by Israel that border settlements are going a little haywire and tentatively declaring independence from Israel and saying they don’t want IDF troops there anymore. I don’t take these terribly seriously from a military standpoint but it is indicative of the Zionist settler mindset crumbling over the last 9 months.
We’re now at the point where Israel kinda has to go to war against Hezbollah or the entire Zionist ideology of military deterrence and expansion via illegal settlements simply no longer functions, but that war will also lead to massive destruction for military and civilian facilities (ports, power stations, war factories, etc) which is a massive problem for Israel’s continued existence. Hamas continues to function inside Gaza despite the surface occupation of significant areas, including the Gaza-Egypt border, and attrition there is leading to big materiel and psychological losses for Israel too. And Yemen has, for all intents and purposes, prevailed against America’s failed attempt to thwart their blockade - with some in the army claiming it’s the most intense naval battle America has faced since WW2 - and missile strikes are tentatively beginning to hit or at least threaten ships in the Mediterranean Sea.
Nukes are still lurking quietly in the background, of course, but the Resistance is perfectly aware of that and still seems confident to go ahead with operations, so I can’t really do anything but shrug and say that I trust them to do what’s right.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you’ve wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don’t worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Lebanon! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Please check out the HexAtlas!
The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week’s thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) ditched Ariane 6 in favor of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 for the launch of Meteosat MTG-S1 satellite, just two weeks before the maiden flight of Ariane 6.
Do they still not understand? America is taking over all of Europe’s leading industries. There will be nothing left for them soon.
Also funny for the EU supporters who advocate for free market being so keen to institute protectionism when it is their own countries, not some poor developing Global South countries, who are at the receiving end of free market liberalism.
But it is too late, America is simply doing to Europe what it and Europe itself have been doing to the rest of the world.
In fairness this could have been a purely technical decision and not a political one. The Falcon 9 does have an excellent track record in performance and safety. Falcon 9’s only launch failure was in 2015, using a long-obsolete variant. It’s had over 330 successful launches since then, most of which were the current final variant. Ariane 6 has never yet launched, and new-design Ariane rockets have historically had teething issues. For example, the Ariane 5’s first launch failed because it was using guidance software that was almost unchanged from the prior Ariane 4, despite being aerodynamically a very different vehicle. I’m wondering if Eumetsat’s engineers don’t like what they’re seeing in the Ariane 6, which is due to fly for the first time in two weeks and is many years late in development.
It’s an interesting time in spaceflight. Several new unproven rockets becoming available (Vulcan-Centaur, Ariane 6, New Glenn). Several proven rockets no longer available as they’re being retired or are already retired (Delta IV, Atlas V, Ariane 5). European agencies looking to launch heavy satellites just don’t have many options if they’re legally constrained from launching on Chinese or Russian vehicles. Falcon 9 may have literally been the only alternative that met Eumetsat’s legal and engineering requirements.
A side rant, because where else am I going to rant about Ariane 6’s design? I’ve always been disappointed by ArianeGroup’s choice of using solid-fuel boosters in the Ariane 6 instead of going with kerosene or methane fueled engines that are powerful enough to not require booster rockets. Hydrogen engines are typically very fuel efficient, and they burn clean. The only exhaust is water, there’s no carbon chains that can clog engines. This translates to reliability for multiple engine ignitions while in space. That fuel efficiency and re-ignition reliability are both very useful traits in upper-stage engines where pure power isn’t needed. But hydrogen fueled engines are usually not very powerful and often need boosters just to get off the ground. That’s why the space shuttle had to augment its three hydrogen fueled main engines with two big solid-fuel boosters. It’s unfortunately unsurprising, as it’s also France’s way of quietly subsidizing development of their submarine-launched nuclear missiles through ESA funds. Those missiles are heavily based on P80/P120/Vega solid-fuel rocket technology. The US isn’t the only country out there that’s shackled its space exploration efforts to its for-profit defence contractors.
Awesome comment, I learned a lot googling stuff you mentioned .
Agreed on all points. I am just laughing at the CNES chief who insists on protectionism whereas on many other occasions they’d have cheerfully advocating for “too bad that’s just capitalism” type of free market liberalism.
If this arstechnica article is accurate, Eumetsat may have a damn good engineering reason to want to switch to Falcon 9. That Ariane 6 flight would have been the very first to use the four-booster variant, not the two-booster variant which would have actual flights prior to the now-cancelled flight.