Thank you to @carpoftruth@hexbear.net for covering my position as Supreme Dictator of the Goddamn News while I was moving and getting set up in my new home in a top secret Kremlin-funded bunker five hundred feet below the ground. Our regularly scheduled programming returns this week.
On October 9th, Daniel Chapo won the Mozambique general election with about 70% of the vote. Chapo is the head of FRELIMO, the Marxist-Leninist party of Mozambique's liberation, which fought an internal anti-communist resistance called RENAMO which was backed by Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa; Frelimo won in 1975. However, as the USSR fell, Frelimo began to allow elections inside Mozambique, and has ruled the country with significant majorities in each election ever since.
The main opposition party inside Mozambique is Podemos, which is led by Venancio Mondlane, a former member of Renamo and trained inside the USA. He alleges that his polling figures predicted a majority win for him, not Frelimo, and has accused Chapo of electoral fraud. There have been the usual slogans about how they yearn for freedom. The EU, of course, "witnessed irregularities." As @WilsonWilson@hexbear.net has pointed out, Mozambique has massive undeveloped gas fields and is outsourcing the development process to France, Norway, the UK, and the USA, while mysterious Islamist groups have popped up to cause chaos in the exact regions which have the gas, slowing the process of actually developing those gas fields. Overall, it appears to be a cookie-cutter colour revolution attempt by the imperial core designed to install a comprador for cheaper resources. Its proximity to BRICS+ member South Africa may also be significant, noting the colour revolution in Bangladesh earlier this year exerting influence near India and China.
Protestors have been battling against the police and government since late October, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries as well as massive disruption, as the government has intermittently blocked access to the internet and social media. As of today, calm appears to be returning, with border crossings beginning to reopen.
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.
Xi Jinping and Biden to meet in Peru amid transport strike in the country
Presidents of China and the United States participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in the Peruvian capital. Apec aims to promote the free exchange of products between member countries. Biden and Xi are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine, protection against cyber attacks and communication between the two countries' militaries.
Trump has already announced that his Secretary of State will be Marco Rubio. He will be responsible for guiding US foreign policy and is in favor of putting pressure on China. As a senator, he advocated aid to Taiwan, measures to restrict Chinese commercial operations in the United States and punishments against Beijing for the way it treats Hong Kong and the Uighur minority.
While the meeting between the two is fraught with tension over the question of what Trump's stance will be in the US-China trade war, the summit is also taking place in the midst of a general strike by Peruvian transport workers. Demonstrators closed several roads in the country and gathered in the capital Lima to protest and march peacefully.
This is the second strike by Peruvian transport workers in a month. In October, Peruvians held a 72-hour general strike to demand government measures to guarantee the safety of taxi drivers, truck drivers, bus drivers and transport workers in general. They denounce a series of extortions and murders committed against these workers by criminal groups, which have resulted in 9 workers being murdered in these conditions.
According to the government, 5,600 soldiers have been deployed to operate on the roads and 13,000 police officers are working in the capital on behalf of Apec. This is the third summit the Peruvian city has hosted. The country's Congress has also authorized the temporary entry of 600 US military personnel to work during the summit. Until the publication of this report, the cities of Cusco and Puno had seen the biggest protests. These two cities are strategic for access to Bolivia.
The demonstrators are calling for Law 32.108, which changed the definition of organized crime in the country, to be overturned. The regulation was approved by Dina Boluarte's government and determined that a group of three or more people “with a complex structure and greater operational capacity to commit serious crimes, with the aim of obtaining, directly or indirectly, control of the value chain of an illegal economy or market” would be considered a criminal organization.
The US literally has troops in Peru to prevent the fall of the pro-US government. I think the US thought that if Castillo's coup really worked, he would become a far-left, pro-China dictator (all he wanted was new elections). I wonder if China is going to sign some agreement with the US over this? When the US elected their puppet in Ecuador, he kicked China out of his country and gave all his army equipament to Ukraine.