Image depicts Bolivian trade unionists on strike in La Paz, Bolivia.
Long preamble/summary below of recent news events.
summary
The Iran ceasefire is grinding on. After a brief period over the weekend of heightened activity where it seemed that US strikes might be resuming, Trump announced a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Iran, which initially appeared to be an agreement along Iran’s demands.
For those not following along with the diplomatic minutia, Iran’s position for several weeks has been that the nuclear issue must be discussed separately - because, well, last time they started discussing the nuclear issue with the US, they got fucking bombed - and so have proposed a two-stage negotiation where the war is first officially ended with certain preconditions (e.g. the US has to end sanctions and unfreeze assets and presumably withdraw at least some military assets), and then the second stage will begin in which the nuclear issue is handled.
The reason why a deal has still not been signed after all this time is because the US disagrees with doing it this way, and wants the nuclear issue to be handled right away (and obviously also objects with things like Iran retaining control of the Strait). Therefore, Trump’s announcement appeared to be him finally accepting reality, but it quickly became apparent that this was just another market manipulation. I’m definitely in the camp among several other analysts that believes another round of war is going to happen barring some very sudden circumstances (e.g. Trump being forced out of power one way or another, or Iran obtaining a nuke) because the US still seems agreement-incapable. And in Lebanon, consternation for the Zionists against Hezbollah’s attacks continues as the FPV drone threat only continues to increase despite them desperately seeking countermeasures.
As I’ve been perhaps too focussed on Iran lately, here’s a brief roundup of big news events from the last month or so.
-
Orban losing power: Pretty cool, though his replacement being Neoliberal #2980329891 means that big changes seem unlikely.
-
Strikes in Bolivia against that dipshit Paz: Very nice to see, as it appears that Bolivia has among the best widespread on-the-ground popular support for worker-centric policies and politicians in Latin America that makes it so they can genuinely pressure power (already, the Labor Minister has resigned).
-
Situation in the Sahel: “Mysterious” third parties sponsored a big offensive against the AES which they largely repelled with help from Russia. The situation there is still a little tenuous as I understand it with a greater focus by anti-government forces on blockades of cities to cause internal revolts. This tactic is currently broadly failing as armed convoys are getting fuel and food into the cities, but figures like Traore are aware that more needs to be done.
-
Ukraine War: Aside from the usual grinding advance by Russia on the front, there have been back-and-forth missile and drone strikes as Ukraine hit some targets in the outskirts of Moscow with drones and then Russia fired a shitload of missiles, including the iconic Oreshnik, directly at Kiev, as Simplicius and others have covered in greater detail.
I could go on and on with the recent aggressions against Cuba, Modi’s recent victories in India and the AI/chip tech war between China and the US but this preamble has to end at some point due to the character limit.
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.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists’ 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.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
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.
Cuba has done it again.
Meet VAXIRA a therapeutic cancer vaccine developed by Cuban and Argentine scientists that helps the immune system recognise and destroy lung cancer cells. Approved in both Cuba and Argentina for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
It works by mimicking a molecule found on cancer cells but almost entirely absent in healthy human tissue — meaning it targets tumours with remarkable precision and very few side effects.
Clinical trials showed a significant improvement in survival for advanced lung cancer patients, with 1-year survival nearly doubling compared to the control group. Real-world data shows median survival of up to 24.5 months in maintenance therapy.
Minimal side effects. Suitable for long-term use. Affordable and accessible — unlike many Western immunotherapies that price patients out of treatment.
And in 2025, VAXIRA received Cuba’s National Technological Innovation Award. All of this achieved by a country under decades of US economic blockade.
The United States spends billions on cancer research. Cuba, under sanctions, develops vaccines the world hasn’t seen before.
FT and adrian zenz at it again with the uyghurs
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but let’s look at the opening graphs.
In August 2024, the parents of Ekpar Asat made a long journey to a prison in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. Asat, who belongs to the Uyghur ethnic group, was detained by authorities in April 2016 on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred”. The founder of a popular Uyghur-language website, he had recently returned from attending a prestigious leadership programme in the US.
I immediately thought of school of the americas, so let’s dig and see if we can learn more. Here, some harvard rag notes “She is referring to her brother, Ekpar Asat, a Uyghur entrepreneur and philanthropist who after participating in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program was detained by the Chinese government, then sentenced to 15 years in prison for “inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination,” according to Amnesty International.”
So what’s the IVLP about? Here’s what the state department says:
As the foundational professional exchange program of the U.S. government, the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) advances U.S. national security priorities and builds long-term relationships between Americans and international leaders in government, business, academia, and other fields through short-term professional exchanges that strengthen American communities.
I’ve recalibrated this thing to detect intelligence assets and it’s going crazyI’m not going to go point by point, but continue on if you’d like to read about bad stats and orientalism. it would be nice if at some point these articles talked about what was happening in the next country over in afghanistan instead of pretending history started in 2017.
Huawei - We are thankful to US for enabling our chip tech growth
When people asked how Huawei thought of the new chip tech approach for its growth, Xu replied that a major credit goes to the US. Without their “ban efforts”, the company wouldn’t have embarked on catching up with chip-related work.
According to the Rotating Chairman of Huawei, the external pressure from the US has forced the rapid growth of the Chinese semiconductor industry chain. He said:
“If the United States hadn’t forced our country, our companies, and our industry, we wouldn’t have done something like this. But we are also grateful to the US for enabling our country’s semiconductor industry chain to truly grow. Now the momentum is very good, and everyone recognizes and supports it.”
Colombia’s right-wing opposition are threatening their own country with a US military attack if they don’t win tomorrow’s elections. Latin American democracy is weak because it tolerates these people. Just saying this should merit a long prison sentence for terrorism & treason.
Regarding the issue of drug trafficking. Colombia became the epicenter of cocaine production under the numerous right-wing & pro-US authoritarian regimes. Uribe is accusing others of his own crimes.
This is what Bolivia’s highways look like at the moment. Each town & village blocks their stretch, and the union members in each community take turns at the barricades. This is part of the general strike against neoliberalism. Now entering week 3.
Bolivia’s workers union confederation official statement: “There is only one demand: Resignation of the government. There is no turning back”
https://xcancel.com/jonelmer/status/2060595808525775328
Hezbollah seriously wounded the commander of the IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade after tracking him to a newly established forward HQ; he has been commander since the Qassam Brigades killed his predecessor in Jabaliya in October 2024.
critical mineral shaping up to be one of the worst supply bottlenecks for US defense contractors is the rare earth samarium (Sm, atomic number 62). China makes 100% of current production and unlike neodymium and dysprosium magnets, samarium-cobalt magnets are almost entirely used in military applications, making avoidance of export controls via dual-use subterfuge much more difficult. building one F-35 requires ~23 kg of samarium.
US missiles blown up in Iran and Israel [sic] will never be replaced | Inside China Business
from what I can tell the second tightest bottleneck is probably gallium
Trump ekes out a W over Nixon and Bush to be… the most unpopular president of the last 12 US 2-term presidents… on day 491 of their tenure.
The laughably specific graphic aside, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Obamna was the most popular US President in living member but - nope! he was fucking hated by the end of his career. He really fooled 'em.
Patriotic factions within Bolivia’s military have confirmed:
- US Embassy has ordered Bolivian govt to declare martial law to break the strikes
- Embassy has told President Paz: “We can’t lose Bolivia”
- Bolivia’s cabinet is divided, some don’t want to implement the US orders
Patriotic factions in military & police keep Evo Morales and the rest of the movement informed of everything that’s going on inside
President Trump has sent Iran a revised peace deal with tougher terms -multiple US officials to the NYT. The “new, tougher proposal” is intended to put more pressure on Iran to accept a deal.
“The official added that Mr. Trump’s changes — a new, tougher proposal — were potentially intended to speed up the process by putting pressure on Iran to accept the framework already sent to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, for approval.”
A “new, tougher proposal” that Iran probably already rejected previously is exactly how you speed things up.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/us/politics/trump-iran-peace-framework.html
Polish President Nawrocki:
Unfortunately, President Zelensky has demonstrated that Ukraine, in terms of the mentality of glorifying bandits and murderers from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, is not ready to be part of the European family.
There is no place in the European family for bandits and murderers who killed women and children, who murdered Poles.
Such bandits cannot be glorified, and the UPA cannot be glorified.
deleted by creator
MidEastEye - Iran rejects Trump’s terms of deal to lift Hormuz blockade
It sounds like they are no where near any deal.
Snips
…
Trump conditioned the lifting of the US’s blockade on Iran agreeing not to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz and allowing the US access to damaged nuclear facilities in order to destroy Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The US bombed three Iranian facilities in June 2025.
“The enriched material, sometimes referred to as “Nuclear Dust,” which is buried deep underground with virtually collapsed mountains…will be unearthed by the United States…in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED,” Trump wrote on his Truthsocial platform on Friday.
As a result, Trump said that “Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of “heading home!”
…
But Iran said on Friday that “no negotiations" were taking place over its nuclear programme, and a deal had not been finalised.
…
Iran wants sanctions relief and the unfreezing of billions of dollars in funds held abroad as part of any ceasefire extension. Such an agreement, according to reports and analysts, would only be a stepping stone for deeper talks.
Trump ruled out the unlocking of frozen funds in a social media post, saying, “No money will be exchanged, until further notice”. It’s unclear whether that language applies only to frozen funds or to waivers allowing Iran to sell its oil on the global market without sanctions.
