Imagine a terrifying world where we are all ruled by monsters of every stripe. And not hot ones like werewolves, but instead decaying zombies and mummies who are both insensitive to, and actively benefit from the immense suffering they cause on a daily basis. The top echelon of society, filled with profit-seeking, bloodsucking vampires. And the worst of it is that they repeat on a daily basis that what they are doing is not only just, but there is no other possible way to do it.
Pretty spooky, right? What if I told you that this world... was our own?
Happy Halloween!
Friendly reminder: when commenting about a news event, especially something that just happened, please provide a source of some kind. While ideally this would be on nitter or archived, any source is preferable to none at all given.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
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/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/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.
A group consisting of 16 French senators, most of them associated with the political party The Republicans (LR), introduced a bill, led by Senator Stéphane Le Rudulier, aimed at making anti-Zionism a criminal offense. Senator Le Rudulier argues that the rise in anti-Semitism is linked to hatred of Israel.
The proposed bill, which was submitted for a first reading in the Senate, includes penalties for various offenses related to anti-Zionism. It seeks to punish those who deny the existence of the State of Israel with one year of imprisonment and a fine of EUR 45,000. Those who insult the State of Israel would face two years imprisonment and a fine of EUR 75,000, and those who directly provoke hatred or violence against the State of Israel with five years of imprisonment and a fine of EUR 100,000.
“With 16 senators we demand the criminalization of anti-Zionism. The explosion of anti-Semitism is fueled by hatred of Israel, the false nose of hatred of Jews Anti-Zionism could expose its perpetrators to up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros,” Le Rudulier stated on X. Senator Le Rudulier has also called for the dissolution of La France Insoumise, as well as parties that have advocated terrorism and Hamas, which he says call for the destruction of Israel and the extermination of Jews. In a letter addressed to Élisabeth Borne, the senator denounces the presence of what he calls a “fifth column of Palestinian terrorism in France” and calls for the dissolution of several political groups accused of advocating terrorism.
Some political commentators have said there has been an increase in the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Richard Wagman, the honorary president of the French Jewish Union for Peace (UJFP), has criticized the conflation, emphasizing that anti-Semitism is a form of racial discrimination and hatred, while Zionism and anti-Zionism are political ideas.