One year on. Hundreds of thousands are dying or dead, millions are displaced, the Middle East is undergoing its greatest changes in a generation, Iran has directly attacked Israel twice in one year, and Yemen has proven that the US Navy ain't worth shit. We are the closest we have been to nuclear war (discounting accidents) in decades, but also the fall of Israel.
Because one day, the prisoners of a concentration camp paraglided over a wall.
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.
My 40-something year old cousin is going in for emergency surgery in St. Petersburg tomorrow morning, and his wife has decided to bunker down with their two kids and my uncle despite being in a mandatory evacuation zone. I don't know his wife well enough to try and talk some sense into her about leaving my cousin in the hospital and booking it out of the Tampa area. Really kind of hoping this thing doesn't make landfall near them.
They are currently on the edge of the mandatory evac zone. I checked GIS map after getting off the phone with my mom, and it looks like there house is ~20ft about sea level according to this map. My mom is apparently going to talk to my aunt, who is closer with my uncle that she is (this is my mother's brother-in-law, her sister is dead) to see if she can convince my uncle to talk her into leaving. I know my cousin's wife since I am godfather to one of their kids, although not super well, but she is pretty stubborn/tough. That's come in well in the past because their other kid has a serious illness and my cousin is bipolar, but this is also the downside of being stubborn. I am thinking about texting her asking if she has an axe or hatchet to be able to break through the roof if necessary, if the water gets too high.
personally don't think your axe/hatchet text would be out of line and would be asking those questions myself, might be good to remind her what she's going to need if it comes down to the worst
The current track is smack dab in the middle of Tampa Bay, right over the top of them. Basically, any way it could go, that place is getting hit with part of it.
My wife is in a similar situation with her family. She has an uncle and cousins who are in Tampa and are not evacuating. They have the means to do so, they just.... aren't.
It's wild
Edit: I also know it's easy to fall into blaming people for not leaving when they don't have the money or ability to do so, but to the best of my knowledge that isn't the case here. They are very securely upper middle class and recently moved to Florida. I think they just don't understand the severity of it? Maybe I'm mistaken though. Idk. I hope somebody can get through with your family and they can be safe!!