Image is of Trump’s initial set of reciprocal tariffs. Source is CNN and Reuters.
It’s difficult to keep up with the news around the tariffs; they get instated, then dropped, then reinstated… for example, on Friday, Trump said that certain electronics like smartphones would be exempt, causing markets to rally a great deal, but now the Commerce Secretary has said that they might not be exempt? The state of play right now, if you haven’t been keeping up this week, is that the US recently announced a 90-day global pause on implementing the tariffs he had planned (that is, 25% on certain Canadian and Mexican goods, and at least 10% on every other nation) but nonetheless increased tariffs on China to 145%.
Meanwhile, China has been - quite remarkably - standing their ground, increasing tariffs on the US to 125%, and putting restrictions on rare earths. Xi Jinping has been in Vietnam and has made statements against a tariff war there, saying that it would have no winners. Meanwhile, a Chinese spokesperson has essentially said that China can endure the tariff war due to the increasing demand from its domestic market in combination with its growing economic ties with other countries.
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.
Alessandro Di Battista on Pope Francis death:
In the coming days, we will witness the usual and hypocritical posthumous glorification by politicians and journalists. There will be broadcasts, television marathons, and miles of editorials written to commemorate “the innovative Pope,” “the reformist Pope,” “the pontiff from the end of the world.” World leaders will come to Rome to pay their respects at his funeral.
But remember this: many of those who will now praise him (politicians and journalists alike) are the same people who completely ignored him, treated him as irrelevant, when Francis dared to speak out against the arms industry, when he broke the veil of hypocrisy by discussing the origins of the war in Ukraine and NATO’s responsibilities, and above all when he cried out in absolute indignation over the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
“It is necessary to investigate whether a genocide is taking place in Gaza,” Francis said on November 17, 2024. Virtually no political leader (except for the Israelis who attacked him) commented on his words. Those who now glorify him ignored him when he denounced the horror (even last night, Israeli terrorists bombed displaced civilians) taking place just a few hundred kilometers from Rome. Hypocrites, merchants of the temple! Francis was a man of peace, and in times as dark as these, that seems to me an extraordinary merit.
China warns it will take “resolute and reciprocal” countermeasures against countries negotiating with the US if they strike deals at China’s expense in the ongoing trade war.
Responding to reports that Donald Trump is pressuring nations to limit trade with China in exchange for tariff exemptions, China’s commerce ministry stated, “China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests.”
The ministry added that “appeasement will not bring peace,” warning that seeking temporary selfish interests at the expense of others will ultimately fail and harm everyone involved.
— From The Cradle (21/4/25)
Hamas statement regarding the passing of Pope Francis:
The Islamic Resistance Movement extends its deepest condolences and sincere sympathy to the Catholic Church worldwide and to all Christians on the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis, Pope of the Vatican, who passed away after a distinguished career in the service of human and religious values.
The late Pope Francis was a noted advocate of interfaith dialogue, calling for understanding and peace among peoples, and rejecting hatred and racism. On more than one occasion, he expressed his rejection of aggression and wars in the world, and was one of the prominent religious voices to condemn the war crimes and genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
While we, in the Islamic Resistance Movement movement, value his moral and humanitarian stances, we emphasize the importance of continuing the joint efforts between the bearers of divine messages and people of living consciences to confront injustice and colonialism, and to support the causes of justice, freedom, and the rights of oppressed peoples.
So we can agree that
went to the Vatican to kill the Pope, right?JD Vance killed the pope
#popecrash
The late pope really held on for Easter, huh.
Currently on a break from Anglo political content while visiting family in El Salvador. I did decide to come back just to relay some interesting information from leftists in the country.
CECOT is actually the prison with the best conditions in the entire country and it certainly looks like it from the outside. I’ve seen much worse looking ones since arriving.
But it isn’t the industrial extermination camp people think it is. The real one is under the radar and it’s at Izalco. There’s an unmarked graveyard rumored to be inside or nearby it while no such thing has been heard of at CECOT.
So I’m off for another couple of days.
Also an obligatory fuck you to anyone still looking to “punish” or invade El Salvador.
The libs are mad again because Pete Hegseth didn’t properly file his paperwork and protect the information about doing massive war crimes. The war crimes themselves tho, those are great.
US lapdog submits to its master:
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/Economy/south-korea--will-not-fight-back--against-trump-tariffs--actFollowing Yoon Suk Yeol’s removal from office this month by the country’s constitutional court, Han Duck-soo, a technocrat serving as acting president, highlighted that “the role of the US was huge in making Korea what it is now.”
Apart from the fact that islands are populated, I’d love to see these libertarians do more of this. Find land that is completely unpopulated. Create a “libertarian”/liberal/conservative utopia. Get owned by bears. Repeat.
I’ve noticed recently that Wikipedia has been a lot less pro-Israel recently. Like, they directly call it an Apartheid state and what Israel is doing a genocide without any qualifiers, and if you look at the Talk pages on those articles, any time someone tries to bring it up, they’re basically just like “No. We’ve already settled on this discussion.”
https://xcancel.com/CPC_HQ/status/1913688390672752696
dunno how to link videos proper, but conservatives in canada achieve tremendous dissonance in advertising
Ukraine truce is broken as many predicted it would be. Don’t know full details too many western outlets laying the blame on Putin. Non western outlets blaming Ukraine. Fog of war right now.
