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.
Being a Zionist and getting caught up in organ trafficking, name a more iconic duo:
https://xcancel.com/GhassanKDE/status/1916782626481807629
Maybe I’m missing discussion about the Canadian federal election, but the Libs have won again.
At least the conservatives were kept from winning, but support for the NDP (the party to the left of the libs) is way down.
The inevitable result of FPTP voting, tbh. What were the NDP’s stances relative to the Libs, were they trying to actually reasonably differentiate themselves by being further left or are they triangulating themselves into irrelevance? IIRC Mulcair swung hard to center and I don’t recall hearing if Singh changed that at all.
I posted the
settlers documentary of louis theroux on tankietube https://hexbear.net/post/4746458In case the new youtube link or the twitter one get taken down
We finally have 2 real videos of DPRK troops with Russian troops
I’ve now seen some of the first officially released footage of DPRK troops training and fighting together with Russian forces.
Russian and DPRK soldiers embrace after liberating a Kursk oblast settlement: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/04/28/1278139.html
The training of DPRK troops that participated in liberating the Kursk oblast border areas: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/04/28/1278340.html
President Putin also thanked the DPRK for its military assistance, stating, “We pay tribute to the courage and selflessness of the Korean warriors who stood side by side with the Russian Armed Forces to defend our homeland as if it were their own.
Our Korean friends acted out of a sense of solidarity, justice, and true comradeship. We highly appreciate this and are sincerely grateful to the Chairman of State Affairs, Comrade Kim Jong-un, the entire leadership, and the people of North Korea.” https://sputnikglobe.com/20250428/putin-thanks-north-korea-for-helping-to-defeat-ukrainian-militants-in-kursk-region-1121945378.html
Plus, some bonus videos…
A Kiev regime Su-27 crashed while attempting to attack Russian Geran-2 drones today: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/04/28/1279097.html
Russian drones struck a Kiev regime airfield near Cherkassy: https://s5.cdnstatic.space/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/chrk.mp4?_=1
hey newsheads, question— not that I give a shit about the ritual minutiae of our liberal “democracy”, but why does the president have complete uniliateral authority to determine tariffs? seems like something the legislature should be doing. I remember hearing someone say it was because of some bullshit national “emergency” execption because of some made-up shit involving fentanyl or whatever?
yeah he’s declaring use of the international emergency economic powers act of 1977, so theoretically a congressional resolution can just put a stop to it and say the emergency is over or they’ve decided to revoke their delegation of authority. apparently trump is the first to use this act to impose tariffs, so the senate parliamentarian was caught completely off guard and has to dig through decades of legal documents before anything like that could happen.
If the parliamentarian decides it’s haram they can shoot Trump, right?
Ah well, nevertheless
That law is pretty much the basis for Treasury sanctions. Congress won’t revoke it.
i’m sure if the parliamentarian weren’t such an obstinate bastard, they could come up with some creative way to revise it so that trump can’t whipsaw tariffs via twitter decree while maintaining the ability to impose sanctions.
but alas
Putin issued a congratulatory statement to the DPRK for victory in the Kursk area.
http://kcna.kp/en/article/q/c555ddd2b262a3b1439e65c861e80efc.kcmsf
Irish woman legally residing in US for 30 years detained following visit to ill father in Ireland
…meanwhile our taoiseach is more focused on chastising kneecap for something they said at a gig a year ago
Thanks
I saw you could download the video but I needed an account. Reluctantly made one but gave up after trying and failing this piece of shit authenticator. Guess I’ll screen recordAlso is xcancel down? Just infinite loading (it works now, and I saved the video by just going in my pc. It’s safe there :) )
i just watched the whole thing on xcancel so i dont think it’s down
deleted by creator
On the loss of an F/A-18E Super Hornet aircraft and a tow truck/tractor during an evasive turn by the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier during an Ansarallah/Houthi attack (as confirmed by US sources), here’s the statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces on the attack (this statement was released before the news of the loss of the F-18).
This is the first time that an Anti Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM) has been fired at US Navy warships in over 20 days from what I recall (there was one launch at a supply ship, not a warship, during this time with a ballistic missile). This, along with the statement about “fleeing north” afterwards, suggests that the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier tried to get closer to Yemen, including coming within ASBM range. During this, it came under attack, including by ASBMs and evidently there was some big error that led to the F-18 going overboard while evading this attack.
I don’t think that the Harry Truman will try get closer to Yemen again anytime soon, and will continue to stay between Jeddah and Yanbu, between 700km-1000km away from Yemen. ASBMs, by all evidence of the current US Navy campaign, seem to be a “game changer” weapon in area denial capabilities. Even without landing a single hit so far, these weapons have been very effective in area denial against US Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs). While their not magic wands that erase CSGs, they can keep them further away (area denial). Ansarallah/the Houthis were the first ever military force to use ASBMs in warfare, and have been highly innovative with these locally manufactured, Iranian designed, weapons. The CSGs don’t dare to come within 700km of Yemen (Zulfiqar Basir ASBM range). This is the first time they’ve tried to in three weeks, and it resulted in a fighter jet going overboard during evasive maneuvers. It’s no wonder that the US Army wants ASBMs, and other longer range ballistic missiles, now.
Overall this was a very expensive “test” by the US Navy in my opinion, they wanted to see if Yemeni ASBM capability remained intact after over 40 days of airstrikes, reduced amount of Yemeni missile attacks, and over 20 days without without an ASBM being fired, so they sailed closer to Yemen to find out. It turns out that yes, Yemeni ASBM capability was (and is) still very much intact, and an F-18 and tow truck have been lost as a result of evading a Yemeni attack.
unconfirmed reports that the tow truck had a bumper sticker which read “IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THE PLANE FELL OFF”
the tow truck fell off, too, so it’s going to be difficult for our elite news team to follow up on the reports
WSJ: The Russian Military Moves That Have Europe on Edge
In 2021, before the invasion, Russia made about 40 of its main battle tanks, the T-90M, according to Western intelligence estimates. Now it is producing nearly 300 a year. A senior Finnish military official said almost none are being sent to the front line in Ukraine, but are staying on Russian soil for later use.
Russia is tailoring its rearmament plans to meet the needs of the new troops to be stationed along its NATO border. Those units will get much of the new equipment. Most of what is being sent to the front line in Ukraine is old and refurbished Soviet-era arms.
The U.S. estimates that around 30,000 Russians are signing up each month, up from about 25,000 last summer. Some Eastern European intelligence officials say the ranks are now swelling by some 40,000 soldiers a month.
The article is written to push the narrative that Russia is inexplicably preparing to invade NATO, just because they can. Of course, Russia does need to remain prepared for war with NATO in the event of some serious provocation (say, something involving Kaliningrad).
That said, I think this information also fits my theory that Russia is basically preparing an entire separate, fresh, and modernized army to swiftly end the war in Ukraine, once the age of attrition is over.
I do wonder if we’ll see many more vehicles at the Victory Day parade this year.
Most of what is being sent to the front line in Ukraine is old and refurbished Soviet-era arms.
Yeah even the “new production” T-80s mostly use Soviet era hulls from stockpiles. The thing is though, those stockpiles are finally drying up. And 300 completely new production T-90s a year is not enough to meet the current rate of attrition. If they are being saved for a second force that will come in once the attrition phase is done, I don’t know if the attrition phase will finish quick enough for that. If the US withdraws support, that would change things though. Ukraine without US support, military aid and intelligence sharing is completely different to Ukraine with all that.
The only stockpiles we know about are the open-air ones. Tanks being moved out of those stockpiles doesn’t necessarily mean they have been destroyed.
And, per the article, the attrition rate of T-90’s is basically zero right now, since they aren’t being sent to the frontline.
Lol, lmao even
A US official said that initial reports from the scene indicated that the Truman made a hard turn to evade Houthi fire, which contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/28/politics/us-navy-jet-overboard/index.html
Fighter jets sliding around aircraft carriers like loose furniture in the back of a pickup truck on the highway
Navy deckhand confidently slapping 100mph tape on a gazillion dollar plane going “oh yeah, that ain’t going anywhere”
There’s a very gruesome video of the aftermath of a recent “israeli” massacre carried out against the Gazans, it’s very bad and little kids were struck by them. When I saw it I said to myself that this is the worst I’ve seen so far, but then I remembered I’ve said that last week, and the week prior and so on. I fear we are becoming too used to this, we definitely reached an almost complete normalization of the relentless killings.
“Israel” is consistently breaching over and over again the limits of violence, each week they become more and more savage and murderous. And now they suffer no backlash for it.
This is it then. Gazans will be taken out one by one by the zionists. It has been decided by those who can stop this madness, this ridiculous bloodshed, that this will be the fate of Gaza, to be killed either by starvation, water deprivation, unbearable sanitary conditions, bombs, bullets or by their own hand. Let it be known that the image of that little girl today, just sitting there not being really sure what’s going on to her, is but a small preview of what’s to come to, honestly, all of us if “Israel” is not stopped and thoroughly dismantled. In her, I saw the future of millions.
May zionism suffer a terrible death. May everyone who defend and support this genocide be thrown into the darkest pits of hell and rot there, forever. May Gaza and Palestine win and “israel” die. The future of Gaza and Palestine is now entirely on the hands of it’s Resistance, glory to them.
Btw bernie sanders is still both sideism. AOC and the squad also approved increased funds for that state.
Just a reminder of the “leadership” of the american left.
15·6 hours agothe image of that little girl today
I havent seen it, do you have a link?
I’m very sorry I don’t have the courage to go back to it.
I am not sure if I have found what you were talking about, nor do I have the need to anymore. I fully understand.
Any good telegram channels to follow india-pakistan news?
