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, @[email protected], 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.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/03/us/ohio-rodney-hinton-jr-arrest-hnk Cincinnati police fatally shot an armed 18-year-old. The next day, his father killed a sheriff’s deputy, authorities say
Palestinians in Lebanon fear another ‘War on the Camps’ as Israeli airstrikes continue
As Israeli airstrikes throughout Lebanon continue, the Lebanese state is threatening to disarm Palestinian factions in the refugee camps. Residents fear this is a prelude to an all-out assault on the camps — and the Palestinian cause.
The Washington Post reports that Mike Waltz was dismissed due to his extensive communication with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about military action against Iran. Officials in the Trump administration believed he was trying to ‘tip the scales in favor of military action’ and was closely collaborating with the Israelis.
- Telegram
The HTS-led government in Syria has arrested the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) and shut down all of its offices. This follows the Syrian government’s arrest of two commanders from Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) just two weeks ago, who still remain in custody with no charges.
- Telegram
The U.S. says that Iran continues to assist the Houthis with ‘crucial intelligence’ needed to bomb Israel and attack American aircraft carriers in the region, with satellite imagery showing Iranian military-affiliated ships, likely acting as IRGC Navy forward bases, anchored off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. The Americans have previously threatened to sink these Iranian vessels if they continue to provide Ansarallah with intelligence that disrupts ‘international shipping’ and assists in the guidance of missiles headed for Israel or U.S. vessels.
- Telegram
https://www.al-akhbar.com/arab/833658
54 martyrs in Gaza from starvation.
Al-Jolani’s terrorist gangs arrested Talal Naji, Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, in Damascus.
WaPo is reporting they Waltz was fired because he was seen by Trump as working for the president of the wrong country. Can you guess which one?
So, as it turns out, Iran has been given short reprieve while Trump replaces someone who is rabidly dedicated to Israel in Mike Waltz with someone merely enthusiastically dedicated to Israel in Marco Rubio.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/03/waltz-trump-israel/
Rules Based International Order
Australian elections ended up with the labor party winning again, in a landslide by the looks of things. I guess this counts as news.
Elon Musk’s company town: SpaceX employees to vote on ‘Starbase’
Starbase sits on a tiny piece of land near the Mexican border on a small bay that feeds into the Gulf of Mexico. Prefabricated houses, airstreams and palm trees line the streets. An imperious golden bust of Musk stands nine feet tall outside the town. A plaque on its pedestal reads “ELON aka Memelord”.
Last month, vandals defaced the statue by peeling off layers of foam and fiberglass from its cheeks. There is an employee-only restaurant called Astropub with a neon red “Occupy Mars” sign behind the bar. One of the main boulevards is called “Memes Street”.
PHOTO COLLECTION: Russia Victory Day Parade Rehearsal
This is a few days old, but now we know top-of-the-line T-90M tanks will participate in this year’s Victory Day parade. First actual (non-WW2-era) tanks since 2022.
US airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 49th night in a row. The following governorates have been hit by airstrikes:
Hodeidah:
- 4 airstrikes on the Ras Isa Fuel Port.
- Multiple rounds of airstrikes on Al Salif District on the surroundings of Ras Isa Fuel Port.
Al-Jawf:
- 8 airstrikes on the Khab and Al Sha’af Districts.
Sana’a:
- Airstrikes on the capital.
- 1 airstrike on Bani Hushaysh District.
Amran:
- 3 airstrikes on Harf Sufyan District.
Warning for potential graphic imagery during ongoing airstrikes:
Two statements by the Yemeni Armed Forces on two separate ballistic missile launches on Israel yesterday. The “Palestine-2” missile appears to have been intercepted by THAAD last minute in the terminal phase, debris/shrapnel ended up landing near the airbase, causing a large fire. The other non MaRV ballistic missile was intercepted at high altitude.
Another ballistic missile launched from Yemen minutes ago.
Al-Quds Brigades announce two operations against Israeli occupation forces
In a statement, the Brigades reported that their fighters, upon returning from the frontlines, confirmed the detonation of an MK84 bomb—originally left behind by the Zionist enemy—which had been pre-planted to target an enemy military convoy in the same area last Saturday.
The group also claimed responsibility for the precise bombing of an Israeli military D9 bulldozer as it advanced east of Al-Tuffah, emphasizing the operation’s high accuracy.
MK84 is a 2,000lb bomb. Congratulations to Palestine on their new space program
