Image is of protestors in Nigeria in 2024.
As I’m sure everybody is aware by now, Trump’s accusation that Nigerian armed groups are unfairly persecuting Christians in the country is a rather bizarre lie, seeking a justification to go in, to quote Trump, “guns-a-blazing”. Whether this is likely to actually occur or is merely a threat, who can really say nowadays? But Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province are targeting people in Nigeria fairly indiscriminately; insomuch that there is a target, it is farmers whose land is being raided and taken in resource conflicts, and their religious affiliation is not usually questioned by those groups before they are pillaged and/or murdered from what I can tell.
The President of Nigeria, Tinubu, has no small responsibility for this state of affairs - enacting IMF “reforms” which have exacerbated hunger, poverty, and unemployment in the service of Western financial institutions. Those who have protested against this state of affairs have faced repression by state security forces. Meanwhile, Tinubu allegedly has strong connections to the DEA, paying large amounts of money to avoid a trial for his actions; the DEA released this statement: “We oppose the full… release of the DEA’s Bola Tinubu heroin trafficking investigation records,” which is certainly not concerning at all - followed by “While Nigerians have a right to be informed about what their government is up to, they do not have a right to know what their president is up to.”
It must be a shame for him that such a loyal subject of empire is facing such scrutiny, and it likely has everything to do with Nigeria’s inexorably growing connections to China (just like pretty much every country on the planet), especially in relation to Nigeria’s massive mineral deposits. It could also perhaps be retribution for Nigeria’s failure to adequately oppose the growing independence of the Sahel.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
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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.
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.
Hoping so too, but is there a law that says he can do it? Not that it will come into play, but are there cops who would carry out that order if given? Unfortunately by saying he would arrest Netanyahu, he’s opened himself up to this exact calling of his bluff. Here’s the context where he said he would follow the law and not arrest Netanyahu if it was not legal.
https://youtu.be/uK3LJ67utG4
tfw the democrat who said they’d do something principled but backs down once they realize it might take some political will beyond posting
I am sure its one more compromise until we tots are doing people’s republic of new york, this is like totally the biggest leftist victory since 1945 guys!!
Yeah it’s not happening, the mayor of New York can’t just order someone’s arrest on an international warrant issued by an authority the US doesn’t recognize, or order anybody’s arrest period. Mamdani can’t enter into obligations on behalf of the US. If he could that would mean giving a mayor the power to represent the country in foreign affairs, or to put it another way, handing over national sovereignty to NYC. Obviously, there is no legal framework for this. The only even remotely plausible path is for the NYC DA (who is not Mamdani) to indict Satanyahu for crimes that occurred within the jurisdiction of NYC, and have a NYC judge issue a warrant, two things that are not going to happen, because of the elephant in the room: diplomatic immunity. If Mamdani ordered Satanyahu’s arrest he would essentially be leading NYC as a rogue city attempting to exercise the powers of a state - legally speaking, rebelling against the authority of the federal government. He would be serving his head to Trump on a golden platter, with the latter’s DOJ indicting him on multiple capital offenses.
If he touches Satanyahu he will be at the very least spending the rest of his life in federal prison, if he doesn’t just get JFK’d (legally! after being sentenced to death)
TLDR: Attempting to arrest Satanyahu could end up with Mamdani being executed by firing squad
he could get the nypd to issue an arrest warrant for an unrelated crime
yes this is cope
Unfortunately that would require the conservatives to be right and for him to be the second coming of Mao
serious response
He would have to get the DA to charge Netanyahu for a crime that occurred in the jurisdiction of NYC, convince a judge to issue a warrant, and ignore diplomatic immunity to have a municipal PD usurp the authority of the national government to arrest a foreign head of state. Most likely would not end well for him, unless NYC has secret nukes, in which case, glory to the People’s Republic of New York
He’s reappointing Jessica Tisch as police commissioner, I have a feeling he isn’t gonna do this.
I mean it was called the Manhattan Project for a reason
The problem here is we are thinking of The Crime but sure this man has been involved in numerous other crimes. Or at least, some sort of of probable cause could be found. You don’t need to prove anything to arrest someone, just have a little bit.
Even arresting him for j walking or loitering or a case of mistaken identity because he fit a description for another person would make mamdani a hero around the world.
The next important question becomes: who is the deputy mayor?
Heads of state have diplomatic immunity
See chart under “in the united States” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomatic_immunity which is he? And what about he people he’s with?
(I know I will be wrong)
A head of state is considered a diplomatic official, as well as everyone he’s with, unless they are not government officials. If the mayor of a city could have a foreign head of state arrested on an official visit, then the entire diplomatic system would break down.
2 FAM 232.5(a)
Also:
What this means is that no arrest warrant would be enforceable, including the ICC warrant because the US is not a party to the Rome statute, and you can write as many jaywalking tickets to Satanyahu as you wish but he has no obligation to ever show up to court.
At most, the government can expel him from the country. The federal government, not NYC. If Mamdani took any independent action he would be committing multiple capital offenses relating to defying the authority of the federal government. I mean, he probably wouldn’t actually be sentenced to death, but I don’t think he’s going to choose life in federal prison in exchange for what would at most amount to a stunt.
TLDR: it would be even more illegal for Mamdani to have Satanyahu arrested than for any random person on the street to try.
Foreign Affairs Manual Chapter 2 §230, Immunities of Foreign Representatives and Officials of International Organizations in the United States ↩︎
Concerning the Arrest Warrant of 11 Apr. 2000 (Dem. Rep. Congo v. Belg.), 2002 I.C.J. 3, ¶ 53 ↩︎
If you click the link above the table, heads of state and government get the same visa as a diplomatic agent would. Since head of state isn’t specifically mentioned on the table, maybe he could be detained, but I don’t think you could arrest or charge him with anything. He can be issued a traffic ticket though! (that he won’t have to pay). He might have arrestable servants.
But really, I don’t think his security is going to just let him get arrested and tried. I’m just imagining some wild Mossad operation to break him out of Rikers, while framing Luigi for assassinating Zohran.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: