Over the last week, Sri Lanka has been hit by their worst national natural disaster since the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. Over 2 million people (about 10% of the population) were affected; the death toll is currently climbing past 600; nearly a hundred thousand homes have been damaged or destroyed, transport infrastructure is heavily damaged; industry has been damaged; and farmland has been flooded. The cost of damage so far looks to be about $7 billion, which is more than the combined budget spent on healthcare and education in Sri Lanka.
While there is plenty to say meteorologically about how this yet another concerning escalation as a result of climate change (Sri Lanka does experience cyclones, but they are usually significantly weaker than this), it’s important to note that such disasters are, to at least a certain extent, able to warned about and their impacts somewhat mitigated. However, this requires both access to early detection and warning equipment, and an economy in which development is widespread - in this case, particularly in the construction of drainage systems and regulated construction, which has not generally occurred.
The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.
Perhaps neoliberalism’s decay into its eventual death occurring concurrently into the gradual intensification of climate change and renewed wars signifies the rise of the era of disaster capitalism.
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 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.
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.
Hey buddy, I heard you like posts… DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own posts). Some great discussion this week. I’m grateful to be part of this community.
Please review and provide feedback on revised comm policy and rules
@[email protected] with a real banger on upward social mobility or lack thereof for China’s Gen Z, the modern appeal of the Cultural Revolution, and CPC censorship Part 1 | Part 2. The subthread with @jack about modern youth Maoism is worthwhile as well.
@[email protected] on who owes the IMF money and the potential for China to upend the debt of the developing world. @[email protected] has a good response here about the likelihood of China rugpulling the IMF/dollar denominated debt (xhs doubts it).
@[email protected] analyzing the class character of Malaysian resistance to Japanese occupation in WW2 and linguistic nuance around Malaysia’s national monument
@[email protected] on the [state of Bolivia, Acre and Morales](https://hexbear.net/comment/6738627
@[email protected] , @[email protected] and @[email protected] on China’s ability to do force projection and provide military support to BRICS countries (or lack thereof). “You generally can’t just start leaving missile systems at someone’s doorstep like a cat with dead mice.”
Previous posts of the week: Oct 27 | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 17 | Nov 24 | Dec 1
we’ve been having some discourse on Chinese foreign policy and the potential (or lack thereof) of Chinese military support for other countries in this thread (the subthread from @[email protected]’s comment downwards)
not sure if that’s an appropriate example, but we’re just entering
territory and I thought I’d draw attention to it. any other input or takes would be appreciated, I’ve perhaps gone too hard for the lack thereof side and I’m 
so I may have missed somethingGreat thread, we have the best posters, don’t we, folks?
he doubts it
Appreciate the mentions! But please note that I am not a “he”.
oh my bad, thanks for the heads up
Only been a day and there’s already a lot of great posts!
there are threads where Nothing Happens and days where GOOD posts are posted
Best part about this community is that there’s always good posts
deleted by creator
ASIO (Australia’s equivalent of the FBI) is reporting that the Bondi Beach gunman Naveed Akram was investigated by them six years ago for his close ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State (IS) terrorism cell.
Furthermore we now know the identity of the second gunman, who was his father, Sajid Akram. ASIO started looking into Naveed Akram soon after the July 2019 arrest of IS terrorist Isaac El Matari in Sydney.
An ASIO official said Naveed Akram was closely connected to Matari, who is serving seven years in jail for planning an IS insurgency as the self-declared Australian commander of the terrorist group. Matari was part of an IS cell with several other Sydney men who have since been convicted of terrorist offences and were also close to Naveed Akram, according to sources with close knowledge of the matter.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said on Sunday that one of the gunmen was known to the agency, but did not specify which man.
The article also reports that Sajid Akram had been a licensed firearms holder for the past 10 years.
My opinion: Either ASIO fucked up big time, or they intentionally let these two guys off the leash the same way the FBI lets certain lone shooters do their own thing because it may be politically convenient to do so.
JetBlue flight near Venezuela narrowly avoids ‘MIDAIR COLLISION’ with US Air Force tanker
PILOT: We just had traffic pass… within 5 MILES of us… refueler from US Air Force… they passed DIRECTLY in our flight path
PILOT: It’s OUTRAGEOUS… almost had a MIDAIR COLLISION
The ultra-Zionist cult Chabad and its complicity in genocide in Gaza
Chabad is an ultra-orthodox Jewish cult. It has many adherents in the genocidal Israeli occupation forces. Many of them wear Chabad patches on their uniforms. Here is a Zionist tank flying the distinctive Chabad flag in Gaza.
spoiler
In addition, there are also Chabad Rabbis attached to the Israeli occupation forces. One notes that the genocide is actually about “rooting out evil”. Here two Chabad Rabbis erected the Jewish religious symbol, the Menorah, in Gaza.
But what is Chabad? It styles itself as a friendly outgoing Jewish movement dedicated to helping Jews reconnect with Judaism. However, in reality, it is a supremacist, hate-mongering Zionist cult.
In the past it was anti-Zionist, but back then, even as far back as 1929, its adherents in Al Khalil (or Hebron as it is called by Zionists) were involved in spying on the Palestinians for the Haganah terror militia as well as storing weapons for them.
Chabad is now so ultra-Zionist that it called in December for Gaza to be recolonized with Jewish settlers. Worse, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, its adherents believe - as laid out in the Tanya, Chabad’s key religious text - gentiles have only animal souls, not human souls.
In January, the Tanya was printed out by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza. This supremacism is carried over into its attitude to the Palestinians.
Followers of a Chabad Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh are known as the ‘hilltop youth’. Two of his followers wrote the hugely controversial King Torah, which was also recommended by Ginsburg.
The book states that it is permissible to kill Palestinian children, including babies.
Baseless trumped up charges against Richard Medhurst dropped:
https://xcancel.com/richimedhurst/status/2000321931153928628BREAKING: UK Drops Terrorism Case Against Journalist Richard Medhurst
No charges will be filed, and bail cancelled.
However, it is only a partial victory for freedom of the press, as the UK authorities handed Austria all their intel/files for them to continue the persecution.
Gaza: A Night of Fire and Demolition
The last 12 hours saw relentless, varied aggression across the Gaza Strip, with the primary focus of the zionist entity’s fire centered on Khan Younis and heavy shelling battering Gaza City.
Khan Younis: Airstrikes and tank fire hammered the eastern areas and the Sheikh Nasser region, coupled with the demolition of residential blocks. Central Khan Younis City was also specifically targeted, with the Al-Agha residential building suffering repeated strikes. Even the coast was not safe; naval fire was reported off Al-Qarara Sea, compounding the pressure on the city.
Gaza City: Further north, Gaza City was also bombarded. Shujaiya neighborhood was hit repeatedly by heavy artillery and subsequent demolition in its eastern parts.
Rafah and Central Gaza: Rafah experienced both airstrikes and IOF shooting, with tank fire also detected in the Mawasi area.
Shares of the Roomba maker [iRobot] are up 72% in 4 days, and retail investors think it’s a new short-squeeze
iRobot enters Chapter 11, lender to acquire Roomba maker
https://www.reuters.com/technology/irobot-enters-chapter-11-lender-acquire-roomba-maker-2025-12-15/
Kast (far-right chilean guy) got elected.
In small news, a Werder Bremen (German club) banner in response to Bondi beach
U.S. Created LUCAS Attack Drone Squadron, then Admitted Warheads Don’t Exist Yet
U.S. created LUCAS cheap attack drone squadron as Shahed copies, then admitted missing main component, making them just mockups
more
U.S. Army Central Command (CENTCOM) reported in early December on creating a squadron of LUCAS low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles, which are essentially copies of Shahed-131 attack drones, and targets for which, judging by everything, are Iran and forces this country supports, given that this command’s area of responsibility is the Middle East. The LUCAS drone from SpektreWorks company was first presented in summer this year as a cheap alternative to expensive strike means; as of July, it was stated that it had already passed testing and was ready for production. However, as Forbes emphasizes, at least in the near future, LUCAS drones won’t be able to perform their main mission strike tasks. So, the publication drew attention to a U.S. Army press release from December 3 this year, which plainly states that LUCAS attack drones… don’t have a warhead. And we’re talking not only about it not being installed on drones, but about it simply not existing. “The warhead that will eventually be integrated into LUCAS has not yet been designed, but it will also be low-cost and mass-produced by multiple manufacturers,” the U.S. Army post states. They note that LUCAS is currently being tested with inert payload.
well, @[email protected], here’s the answer to your earlier wonderings about the supposed $35k cost - turns out, it’s a complete ass-pull since the actual finished drone, as a weapon, doesn’t even exist yet! yes, the warhead that we haven’t designed is absolutely going to be low-cost, just look at literally any US procurement effort!
Indeed, it’s worth noting that LUCAS drones are positioned as a modular platform that can perform various tasks on the battlefield be a scout, act as a communication relay, and off the battlefield be used as a target drone. However, LUCAS drone’s main purpose is still a low-cost strike means. After all, this is embedded in its name Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, and this is also actively emphasized directly in the U.S. Army, for example, in the same press release where it’s acknowledged that LUCAS don’t have a warhead, it says these drones are one-way attack aircraft, literally kamikaze drones. However, for LUCAS to be truly an attack drone, a small nuance remains to make a warhead for it. As of today, it remains unknown whether work is even underway in this direction and how quickly they can actually make a warhead for this drone. And overall, it looks like the U.S. simply rushed with implementing the plan to saturate the military with relatively cheap strike systems as opposed to available and quite expensive weapons.
Because we’re talking about a direct initiative of U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth so, in early July this year he issued a directive on unlocking the potential of American drone advantage, which is primarily aimed at arming troops with cheap drones, and the contract with SpektreWorks, manufacturer of LUCAS drones, took effect a few weeks after that, on July 24. It’s also worth noting that in early December, the Defense Department released information that as part of implementing Hegseths strategy, a request for information was submitted to assess defense industry readiness to quickly and inexpensively manufacture about 300,000 drones.
EU state jails anti-NATO politicians for ‘treason’
if you guessed Estonia, bingo
Joe Biden gave up everything for that Presidential Library. Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race that he might have won for a 2nd term for that Presidential Library. Joe Biden sold his soul to the Delaware Credit Card Devil who has since made ‘Ol Joe live out this Job-like Faustian* journey through suffering and grief losing his wife, his favorite child so he could get that Presidential library. Joe Biden did genocide for that Presidential library. Joe Biden cannot enter Catholic heaven because of that Presidential library.
Now—now IRS filings show Biden has enough capital in his library foundation to build and open a mid-sized Dave & Buster’s franchise.
What else is there to say? Enjoy Hell, Joe Biden.
*Instead of Joe becoming youthful again he instead receives an endless amount of face lifts and tucks
Reminder that Chile’s election is today. Communist Jeanette Jara is running against chud piece of shit Karst, who’s just another Noboa/Milei type that’s aping Trump and has US support. Jara came first in the last round, but only with a small margin. It’s likely she will lose as conservative forces coalesce around Karst today.
Praying to Lenin for an upset and an end to the wave of right wing electoral victories in LatAm.
Have there been any updates on the Bondi shooting?
