Image is from the Britannica article on CECOT, known as the Terrorism Confinement Center in English.
This megathread's topic is inspired by our lovely news regular, @Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net, who talks often about the conditions inside El Salvador and gives nuanced and informative takes.
As the Trump administration continues to make foreign policy blunders that would make even the staunchest anti-imperialist accelerationist blush - and we are barely three months in! - it's interesting to compare and contrast his policies of incompetent imperialist and domestic management to the dictators in other countries.
Bukele is somewhat unique among fascists, in that he seems to not hide - and seems to even admit to - his evil, self-describing as the world's "coolest dictator". El Salvador has no particular shortage of prominent fascists in their history, but one major example is Maximiliano Martínez, who led the country over much of the 1930s and the early 1940s. He was responsible the deaths of many thousands of communists and indigneous people, and yet joined World War 2 on the side of the Allies and against the Nazis.
The comparisons between Martínez and Bukele - and, indeed, between Bukele and Trump - in terms of their impact on minority groups are slowly growing as world attention is being drawn to the country. The recent meeting between Bukele and Trump has shifted a spotlight onto El Salvador's crime policy; the internal conditions of El Salvador's prisons are genuinely monstrous. One gets a similar feeling as when reading descriptions of the conditions of Holocaust victims in German concentration camps. Trump has made statements to the effect that he want a similar crime crackdown inside the United States, and I certainly believe that he wants this (ICE is already just kidnapping people off the streets into vans), but his administration has been so chaotic and mismanaged that it's difficult to determine whether this will be an interest he rapidly drops in favor of some other hair-brained scheme.
Last week's thread is here. The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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.
US and UK airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 48th day and night in a row. The following governorates have been hit by nighttime airstrikes:
Sana'a:
Al-Jawf:
Saada
Al Mahwit and Amran Governorates:
The following governorates were hit by daytime airstrikes:
Al-Jawf:
A ballistic missile was fired from Yemen towards Israel, the first in about a week. It seems to have been intercepted at high altitude and videos/photos of debris re-entering the atmosphere over central Israel are now circulating, along with the launch of the missile from Yemen. I will not be sharing the latter for OPSEC reasons, even if prominent resistance or pro Ansarallah/Houthi journalists in Yemen are posting it.
Best video of missile debris re-entering the atmosphere over central Israel
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Warning for potential graphic imagery during ongoing airstrikes:
Al Masirah TV twitter
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As for the US Navy strategy in Yemen, while a more permanent corridor to directly bomb Yemen with stand in weapons like JDAMs and Paveways for non stealth 4.5 generation aircraft like F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, and the UK's Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4s, is open from the west and the Red Sea side, a more permanent corridor is not yet open from the east, F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft onboard the USS Carl Vinson in the Gulf of Aden are still using plenty of stand off munitions to minimise risk and stay out of range of Ansarallah/Houthi air defencea. The majority of aircraft carrying stand in weapons like JDAMs from the Carl Vinson are the F-35C 5th generation stealth fighter aircraft. Only a small amount F/A-18E/F aircraft from the Carl Vinson are carrying stand in weapons. Before people get their hopes up, I think similar to how the US Navy eventually opened the corridor from the east for large amounts of stand in bombings with 4th generation non stealth aircraft, they will eventually open a corridor from the west, it's just that the campaign from the east hasn't gone on long enough to do so, the USS Carl Vinson has only arrived recently. I also think that Ansarallah has reinforced their air defence systems in other areas to try prevent any more corridors from opening up.
F/A-18Es from the USS Carl Vinson, armed with two AGM-84K SLAM-ER ATA subsonic cruise missiles, maximum range: 270km/170 mi.
This shit is insane...48 straight days of bombing??
Remember when military action “had” to be approved by the congreSS?
Over 800-1000 targets hit apparently, and hundreds of civilian casualties, the majority of those from two seperate bombings, one of a migrant centre in Saada, and the other in the bombing/destruction of Ras Isa Fuel Port in Hodeidah, were fuel truck drivers were immolated by the resulting fires. After that, Ansarallah is now preventing ships from leaving Ras Isa until cargo is off loaded or loaded on. I'm unsure how oil and gas tankers can offload or load up with the port being destroyed, but Ansarallah don't want to lose the cargo they paid for, or an export order, due to US sanctions and bombings of the port.