Image of destruction in Mandalay, Myanmar, from Al Jazeera.
As if the ongoing civil war wasn’t enough, Myanmar has now been struck by a very powerful earthquake, resulting in 2000 deaths and thousands more injured as of the time of writing. Estimates are that the death toll could reach 10,000. Infrastructure like roads and bridges are damaged, and the hospitals are overwhelmed. The earthquake struck during Eid prayers, resulting in even higher casualties as several mosques collapsed. 20 million people already required humanitarian assistance in Myanmar, and now the situation there will be even worse. International rescue teams have rushed into the country, and aid is being raised, though with USAID experiencing the… changes that it is, the United States will be of even more limited help than usual. So far, China has sent $14 million, while USAID has supplied $2 million. In Thailand, the death toll seems considerably lower, though there has still been significant damage; a skyscraper under construction collapsed in Bangkok.
Myanmar is located very close to the boundary between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. In particular, the country is divided in two by the north-south oriented Sagaing fault. This fault is typically strike-slip; that is, each side of the fault moves horizontally past each other. The earthquake’s depth was 10 kilometers, which is pretty shallow, and its proximity to the surface amplified the felt force of the earthquake. Additionally, the soft soil in this region tends to further amplify seismic waves through a process called liquefaction. Combine all this with the lackluster building codes due to many years of impoverishment and civil wars, and this explains why the death toll, and the expense to the country in general to repair damage, will probably be extremely high.
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.
China will impose an additional 34% tariffs on all US goods starting on 10 April. JDPONDon ending US hegemony in real time, 川建国万岁！
I find it interesting how much lead time I have on tariffs. Like, having 5 days to short or buy resource securities is very different to having no time at all
Hundreds of thousands of protestors come out to the streets in Spain in the first nation-wide protest against housing and rent prices.
With more than 100k protestors in Madrid and similar figures in other big cities such as Barcelona, protestors have claimed the right to safe and affordable housing, with chants such as “un desalojo, una okupación” (for every eviction one squatting), “los terroristas sois los rentistas” (the landlords are the terrorists), or “nativa o extranjera, la misma clase obrera” (native or immigrant, same working class).
The more radical of the unions organizing the protest want to pave the way for a nationwide rent strike, i.e., tenants not paying rent until the state guarantees affordable housing through expropriation, price limits, and public housing projects.
If the Eurozone and China cut interest rates, Trump will have largely won, the dollar going up in value means the stock market losses today and yesterday will be recouped
For Trump’s plan to succeed, it all depends on what global central banks do in the coming weeks
Trump on Market Crash: Well, I mean, it is to be expected, this is a patient that was very sick. We inherited a terrible economy.
yea put them down!!He almost looks like he is holding back laughter
US bombs civilians celebrating Eid al-Fitr in Yemen.
https://xcancel.com/Ahmed_hassan_za/status/1908311960745127977
That’s so fucking sad.
All those lives ended in an instant, and it’s posted by this fascist shithole of a presidency to cheer about.
When did Ansarallah sink a us ship?
They sunk some commercial vessel I remember. There was a bunch of cope where they kept saying it was fine and not sinking, but photo evidence came out. The Rubymar.
They will never sink our ships again.
again…
again…
again…
Tesla down almost 10% today
TSLA at $245 is still overvalued by around $230.
in the irrelevant shenanigans news: bitcoin been rock steady (within 5 percent), i truly don’t understand cryptobros.
to more news like about tariffs: https://www.techpowerup.com/335012/us-exempts-semiconductors-from-taiwan-tariffs-but-chip-making-equipment-remains-on-the-list
What do you think would cause them to sell?
The true believers see it as a “store of value” so now they get to prove themselves right so-to-speak. I think they want it to be like gold and counter the market, but I don’t see institutions springing for that. It just has no reason to move up or down just yet, the way I see it. Definitely not an expert.
Don’t forget there’s now much more money in Crypto ETFs than a year ago (or two). Most of these ETFs will have a large Bitcoin share.
As long as the people behind those funds don’t pull their money, why should it go down?
Personally, I would always keep some XMR around - it basically only goes up AND you can buy drugs with it. What a world, huh!
It’s a non-governmental fiat currency that’s completely untethered from material reality. Tariffs would initially have negligible impact on it until material demands on buttcoin owners pressure them to liquidate their assets to maintain personal solvency
CW: Gaza aid workers being ambushed and executed by IDF
Israel previously claimed that the ambulances “approached suspiciously” with their headlights and emergency lights off. Video proves otherwise.
UN still refuses to actually call it a genocide. Yet how quickly they pounce on NK or Venezuela.
Yep, of course they lied about it. They made it sound like the ambulances were zooming toward a checkpoint with no lights on.
Also, looks like they were waiting in ambush. Disgusting.
Easily one of the most blatant war crimes, but you know that Israel defenders will find some excuse. Apparently they’re hallucinating shadows of AK-47s on the Red Cross workers now.
Red crescent?
China strikes back with rare earth curbs, new tariffs
Full text
By Cheng Yu and Ma Si | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2025-04-04 18:10
China launched a series of rapid and strong countermeasures on Friday, including export controls on rare earth elements and new tariffs, firing back at the latest round of bullying tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
In a joint statement, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs announced immediate export restrictions on seven key medium-to-heavy rare earth elements — namely samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.
These elements are crucial for manufacturing high-performance magnets used in defense, aerospace, and green energy technologies. Citing their dual-use nature in military and civilian industries, Chinese authorities said the move aligns with global norms and is necessary to protect national security.
In a parallel move, Beijing imposed an additional 34 percent tariff on all US-origin imports from April 10, as approved by the State Council, China’s Cabinet.
China has also added 16 entities from the US, including High Point Aerotechnologies and Universal Logistics Holdings Inc, to its export control list.
Under the new rule, Chinese companies are prohibited from exporting dual-use items to these 16 US entities. Any ongoing related export activities should be immediately halted, said the Ministry of Commerce.
This one is funny:
Citing their dual-use nature in military and civilian industries, Chinese authorities said the move aligns with global norms and is necessary to protect national security.
China is doing rules-based international order on Burgerland.
Citing their dual-use nature in military and civilian industries, Chinese authorities said the move aligns with global norms and is necessary to protect national security.
SP500 -5.2%
Will we hit a circuit breaker today?
7%
I believe
What Trump did with the tariffs is very similar to what Modi did in 2016, quote from an article on it below. I thought shutting down USAID was thoughtless but this is much more significant.
How can anybody be so indifferent to people’s suffering as the Modi government was in decreeing demonetisation? The answer lies in its desire for “shock and awe”, and the belief that the more people suffer, the more they would feel convinced that the government could not be inflicting so much suffering on them unless it was indeed serving some higher purpose. The combination of ignorance, arrogance and the desire for “shock and awe” on the part of a government can be quite lethal, as the Indian people have learned to their great cost.
https://www.newsclick.in/demonetisation-been-utter-failure-all-fronts
South Korea’s President Yoon ousted as court upholds impeachment after martial law
A bit surprised the South Korean Supreme Court upheld the impeachment since President Incel had appointed the majority of justices there.
They’re only on renewable 6 year terms and are retired at 70
reverse extraterritoriality (intraterritoriality?), truly bold innovations coming from the state department now
Death to America
I cannot stress this enough,
Wanna say it in Farsi, to make it enough?
MARG BAR AMRIIKA!
Maybe Her Honor the judge would be better served by enlisting President G. U. Tine
EU are threatening X/Twitter with a billion euro fine
Conveniently occuring immediately after the tariffs come out suggests to me they’re willing to negotiate the fine away if the tariffs do.
Just block the site at ISP level, people still will be able to access via vpn / tor / dns over https (maybe), but traffic will crater
See that makes too much sense so it won’t happen
China announces retaliatory tariffs on US goods - 34%
“A buying opportunity” lmao
Free fall
Down 5 percent
