My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.
preamble
To start as usual with the West Asia, I get the sense that we’re once again teetering on the edge of war between the US/Zionists and Iran, with Iran putting itself on high alert and conducting a major military exercise using dozens of ballistic missiles. I greatly struggle to see for what possible reason the US would try and attack Iran again when it’s been repeatedly proven that it simply isn’t going to work and that the consequences you receive are much worse than the damage you deal. The only conceivable motivation is a near-manic short-term desperation to try and bend the curve upwards on upcoming electoral results. Trump apparently covertly asked Iran if he could symbolically bomb Pickaxe Mountain without retribution and was denied - for those unaware, it’s a site in central Iran where the US speculates Iran is rapidly creating a nuclear enrichment facility for nefarious purposes.
The situation in Yemen continues its positive trend for Ansarallah, with their forces now entering Taiz proper after having taken all the territory around it, while also cementing their hold on the coastal plains near the Red Sea by taking some of the mountainous heights there. Egypt has made signals that it may get involved militarily, joining the club of countries that are trying and failing to stop Ansarallah. It’s a situation that, if you’ll excuse an imprecise historical comparison, is reminiscent of the situation in the then-newborn USSR, where an international coalition tried and failed to save the losing, reactionary side of the civil war there. With oil and transportation infrastructure getting hit all the time and various international meetings and summits getting cancelled and MBS seeming (rightfully) quite paranoid, the Saudi position is looking increasingly untenable. It has similarities with the Zionist entity in late 2023 - their choice is to stop their genocide, engage in diplomacy, and survive a bit longer; or continue their genocide and, in the process, anger everybody, and risk being destroyed in the process.
I admit that it took about two months longer than I predicted, but the spark that was the US attacking Iran is now a conflagration spreading around the world. Several of the protests didn’t begin due to problems with fossil fuel supplies, to be clear, but it’s certainly contributing to the public anger in pretty much every case. It’s hard for me to even be aware of all the protests and riots going on, let alone mention them, let alone analyse them, so to just go through a smattering of the ones that have received a lot of press coverage, we have: France, which began as students protesting an idiotic attempt at education reform and now involves at least over 500,000 and perhaps closer to a million people; in Albania, where protestors are demanding the resignation of their Prime Minister and are now burning down state buildings; in Italy, Portugal, and Belgium, which are simultaneously protesting education and/or austerity; massive protests in India which began months ago due to economic hardship in general and the Chief Justice calling the unemployed “cockroaches” in particular; in Indonesia, with protestors angry at the lack of a meaningful response to the extreme wildfires; in Pakistan, protesting the slide into de facto dictatorship under Army Chief Asim Munir; and lots of smaller scale protests and strikes around the world usually consisting of people who directly depend on diesel (truckers, farmers, etc) who simply cannot afford to keep working while fuel is so expensive.
Without the influence of socialist organizations, it’s likely that many protests will be at least temporarily repressed; however, while the situation in the Middle East goes unresolved and the Zionists continue to refuse to accept Iran’s conditions, Lenin’s dictum of “every society is three meals away from chaos” may start to apply regardless. We’re still at least a good few months away from that in most countries, but the trend line is definitely visible.
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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:
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.
Video: “French police shooting at kids” https://t.me/Ghavamchannel/15021
It’s starting. I’m surprised it took so long.
Empty grocery stores in the South of Italy.
Prep now while you can.
https://t.me/Ghavamchannel/15037
“Good Morning Albania!”
قالیباف خطاب به عاصم منیر:
❌ما حرف جدیدی نداریم و آمریکا جز با اجرای شروط هفتگانه، نمیتواند اعتماد ایران را کسب کند
🔖محمدباقر قالیباف در دیدار عاصم منیر که عصر سه شنبه در بهارستان انجام شد، با اشاره به روابط برادرانه ایران و پاکستان از همراهی ملت و دولت پاکستان که در شرایط جنگ و مذاکره در کنار ایران بودند، تقدیر و تشکر کرد.
📌عاصم منیر در پاسخ به پیگیری رئیس مجلس شورای اسلامی درباره تبادلات مرزی دو کشور گفت که مسائل مرزی موقتی و فنی بود و مرز دو کشور از امروز باز شده است.
📌در این دیدار، قالیباف با اشاره به مذاکراتی که بین ایران و ایالات متحده در اسلام آباد انجام شد، گفت: من در آنجا به صراحت خطاب به معاون رئیس آمریکا گفتم که سابقه طولانی اقدامات منفی آمریکا بر علیه ایران پیش و پس از انقلاب اسلامی ما را در وضعیت اوج بیاعتمادی نسبت به آمریکا قرار داده است و اکنون هم با نقض تفاهمنامه اسلامآباد توسط دولت ترامپ، تهدیدهای مکرر وی بنای این بیاعتمادی بلندتر از قبل است.
📌ما حرف جدیدی نداریم و آمریکا جز با اجرای شروط هفتگانه ایران که در نیویورک ارائه شده نمیتواند اعتماد ایران را کسب کند.
ما جنگ طلب نیستیم، اما برای دفاع از 📌 میهن و عزت ملی مان آمادگی کامل داریم، تهدیدها و تحرکات نظامی نمی تواند تصمیمات راهبردی جمهوری اسلامی ایران را تحت تاثیر قرار دهد. این آمریکا بود که با محاسبات غلط و جنگ علیه ایران، وارد باتلاق شد و اکنون هم آنها هستند که باید اقدامات لازم برای خروج را انجام دهند.
Source: https://t.me/Ghavamchannel/15062
Since it was taken down from reddit before I could see it…
CW: death
US Air force soldier drops to his death in a stadium.
اینم از ارتش گنده گوی جهان 😂
@Awoo@hexbear.net according to progovernment Iranian in Iran - Iran avoided an invasion from Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, etc. + Europe by diverting them to fight in Yemen.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=f315OrGeId0 Ghavam - The Secret Behind the Unrest in Europe Revealed; The Spark for a Major Confrontation with Iran!
I come for ye gold!Grayzone - Argentina’s economic demolition: Javier Milei disappears 11 TONS of gold
On October 8, National Audit Office president Juan Manuel Olmos confirmed that Argentina’s Central Bank lost $1.023 billion in gold reserves through operations that moved physical gold out of the country without the public’s consent.
The financial loss may be only part of the story. Nearly 11 tons of Argentine gold are unaccounted for. How the gold bars left the country, where they are now, and whether the government can recover them all remain open questions.
Beyond the missing gold lies a larger issue: what will remain of Argentina’s national wealth, industrial capacity, and economic sovereignty when Milei’s experiment ends?
Two updates on the French government’s handling of the revolts
Two days ago (19/10), an article by the investigation media Médiapart (paywalled) showed that the government ordered information agencies to add to their reports that La France Insoumise (Mélenchon’s movement) was at the origin of the current social movements and of calls for “violence,” despite how according to agency members quoted in the article this is bullshit. Over the past few weeks, and especially after 17th October, the government went on to say that by calling for supporting the protests, LFI is supporting violence (despite how the reformist LFI has spent the past few weeks denouncing “violent” acts and supporting peaceful protests), on the basis of intelligence reports that were submitted to the government. Of course, the movement is not caused by LFI, and LFI is far from the only movement supporting the protests and potentially benefiting from them, with many unions and of course youth orgs arguably playing a larger role on the ground (speaking of which, the French Communist Youth Movement (MJCF) gained 1000 new members in the first few weeks of the protests). But clearly, the government believes it can use this to continue its caricature of LFI as an “anti-republican” movement, and it really seems to me that the objective is manufacturing consent for eventually dissolving LFI.
Yesterday (20/10), the official X/Shitter account of the Paris prefecture announced the creation of a dedicated platform (not a shitter link) for citizens to report “acts of violence, degradations or pillaging” directly by uploading pictures or videos. Denunciation of protestors, plain and simple! To use the platform, you have to log in with France Connect so only French citizens can use it. Anyway, it’d be a real shame if many French citizens gave fed tons of false info (AI slop for example?) to the platform.
deleted by creator
WSJ got their hands on Anthropic’s draft S1 form. It looks like Anthropic made $16 billion in revenue in the first 6 months of the year, this got them a nice cool $80 billion loss. Any normal company would instantly declare bankruptcy after these results. $2 billion of their revenue was interest income on the cash they weren’t able to spend yet.
video
Calgary Opera Have Doubled Down On Their Cancellation Of A Performer For Displaying The Palestinian Flag
Future ‘Tosca’ performances in Canada’s Calgary Opera will not feature bass singer Gabriel Sanchez-Ortega.
The Calgary Opera apologised to pro-Israel viewers who it spoke to like they were victims, simply for having to view the flag of the people they are seeking to oppress and erase from existence.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says the United States must lift its threats and sanctions before any talks can proceed, saying the Iranian people no longer trust Washington after its attacks on Iran during diplomatic talks.
https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/10/20/778823/Pezeshkian-Munir-US-sanctions-distrust
Yemeni forces captured a strategic height from Saudi proxies near Taiz (Jabal Han):
https://southfront.press/houthis-show-capture-of-strategic-jabal-han-as-battle-for-taiz-intensifies/ (combat footage included)
The Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, giving YOU the power to seek out, report, and eliminate fraud in our communities. 🇺🇸
President Trump has waged an unprecedented war on fraud. Our country will not be plundered by fraudsters.
visit fraud .gov to receive latest updates in fraud techniques and styles (but for real, why didn’t they name it antifraud or some shit, or at least americanfraud to be funny)
https://nitter.perennialte.ch/WhiteHouse/status/2112619087599665171
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy announced that a supertanker carrying more than two million barrels of crude oil exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine south of the Strait of Hormuz. -@IrnaEnglish
Iran has said that three tankers have “caught fire” in the SoH today. They published videos of the previous two, not much to see there. Since tankers seemed to have stopped reporting these incidents to the UKMTO (even the UKMTO said that at least half of the incidents haven’t been reported), it is really hard to tell what is really happening.
Another thing that could complicate the situation in the ME








