Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Bulletins and News Discussion from July 22nd to July 28th, 2024 - Fracas in Dhaka - COTW: Bangladesh
Image is of vehicles set aflame by protestors near a government building.
Since July 1st, students have protested the unpopular proposal in which 30% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans of the 1971 War of Independence and their relatives. In a country with a youth unemployment rate of around 20% and a population of 170 million, a large number of otherwise eligible and competent people would have been forced out due to favouritism for veterans. As with basically every country on the planet over the last couple years, Bangladesh is suffering from inflation and an increasing cost-of-living, further exacerbating tensions.
The student protests have been met with significant violence by the government - local newspapers report that over a hundred protestors have been killed, and thousands have been injured. Guns and tear gas have been used. Additionally, the government has completely cut internet access throughout Bangladesh to prevent organizing, which has had some success in dividing protestors, but has also only further angered various parts of the country due to the massive impact to Bangladesh's online industries and various startups. And a national curfew has been in place to limit movement, with the population told to remain home if they want to be safe.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh relented, stating that now, only 5% of government jobs would be reserved for veterans and their families. 2% would be allocated to members of minorities, with the remaining 93% distributed on merit. A period of tentative calm has arrived, but Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, has stated that unless the government restores the internet, removes the curfew, releases detainees, and forces certain ministers to resign within a few days, then the protests will resume.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is Bangladesh! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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The bulletins site is here!
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Last week's thread is here.
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 daily-ish 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 (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
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.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
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.
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.
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Atlantis Is Lost: How the Israeli Army's Plan to Flood Hamas' Network of Tunnels Under Gaza Failed (Haaretz, Jun 26)
Israel started by adopting an old and unsuitable plan, continued by ignoring professional advice and the possible danger to the abductees – and ended quietly a few months later, anyone saying whether it achieved anything at all. Haaretz surveys profiles the Atlantis project – a predictable military failure which no one stopped until it was too late
And, from the Resistance News Network:
“With much fanfare, the zionist entity boasted about its "game changing" plan to "flood" the resistance's tunnels in Gaza at the beginning of the war. A shoddy plan for doing so was created by the IOF in Shati' camp, but to no avail.
Today in Haaretz, it was revealed that the so-called "Atlantis" project turned out to be a miserable and useless failure. As quoted, no one in the IOF can say what benefit, if any, that this expensive project had.
The investigation revealed that the system began operating even before soliciting opinions from specialists. It was used exactly one time in one tunnel, without any knowledge of its effectiveness, even after it was used, nor whether it affected resistance fighters or zionist captives.
Haaretz also claimed that Hamas was prepared for such a possibility and created water absorption drains in the tunnels that would render them impossible to flooding.
Nearly 300 days later, the overwhelming majority of the resistance's tunnel network remains intact, spanning an area almost twice the size of the Gaza Strip itself. What has been uncovered or allegedly dismantled by zionist forces up to this point have been mostly dispensable attack tunnels. With the revelation a few weeks ago of a three-story underground in Rafah, its clear that the secrets the tunnels hold are greater than they appear, and that the ingenuity and adaptability of the resistance continues to pose a challenge to the zionist enemy.”
I wish it were possible to share the tunnel architecture for the eyes of Good People Only. I'd love to know how it all works
someday I will go to Palestine after the zionist project is only a memory and visit a museum where they have a three-dimensional model of the entire tunnel network
It would be cool if they eventually do guided tours down there
In the good timeline one day in the future we will have one of those cut-away profile view books they have for castles or ships for the resistance tunnel network
The earth is very big compared to water pumps, and water percolates through sandstone and sand/gravel/pebbles well. Who knew
the sea itself percolating water in is always going to be a much bigger problem for the tunnels than any water pumping that Israel could feasibly do, and even back in like November or so when Israel announced they were doing this, I speculated that Israel knew that it wasn't going to work but was doing it anyway to try and maintain morale and be seen to be Doing Something. Any engineer on the planet could do the calculations with some educated estimates and determine that it just wasn't going to work, so the only reason it wasn't laughed out of the military operations planning room was because of the propaganda/morale potential.
Because otherwise taking out the tunnel network via the army is just infeasible. Even if you had a competent army, it would be incredibly difficult. We saw how Russia feared to send troops in to the basement of a factory manned by a few hundred starving Ukrainians. And Israel does not have a competent army.
Who knew that geology itself was an antisemitic KHamas supporter?
Yo hold up, you're telling me the people who built an incredibly complex network of miles of tunnels deep underground understand the concept of drains???
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
It’s a tunnel jfc the dirt absorbs the water.
Anthills don’t have to build drainage pipes either, the surface area does it for them.
Literal insects could defeat this idiot scheme