AFRICA

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—We’re seeing free speech eroded in the west as authorities suppress critics of the genocide in Gaza, just as we saw a huge spike in censorship with the NATO proxy war in Ukraine. They say these wars are to protect the west and its values, while ruining the west and its values in order to protect their ability to manufacture consent for these wars. War, genocide and tyranny are the west’s real values.

EDITORS—8/20/2024 Episode 105 of Blowback: Exposing Imperial Decline with special guests Slava and Max Parry.
In-depth discussion of how personal identity, race and culture are exploited by classism, colonialism and imperialism to maintain their hold on power, with a focus on the Ukraine/Russian conflict.  PLUS: Cynical efforts by the Dems to split the pro-Palestinian movement using pro-ceasefire protests at Kamala Harris events as an attack on Kamala because she’s “black”.

DRAGO BOSNIC—the Russian military already provided Belarus with the necessary upgrades to be able to deliver tactical nuclear warheads. At least 10 Belarussian Air Force jets have been assigned and equipped to carry such weapons, although neither side specified what type of aircraft received the said upgrades. Minsk operates several types of nuclear-capable fighter jets, including the recently acquired Su-30SM and the Soviet-era MiG-29, in addition to the ground-based assets such as the aforementioned “Iskander” systems capable of launching nuclear-tipped hypersonic missiles.

PATRICK LAWRENCE—And then the case of Primo Levi, the famous survivor of the camps and author of, among other things, If This Be a Man, his account of his time at Auschwitz. A couple of years into the regime of Menachem Begin, who was not Israel’s first terrorist prime minister and not the last, Levi dismissed the Zionist project altogether. “The center of gravity of the Jewish world must turn back,” he wrote, “must move out of Israel and back into the diaspora.” He later told an American audience, “Israel was a mistake in historical terms.”

EDITORS—Suicide drones, as they are known, are a relatively modern weapon, posing significant challenges even for technologically advanced states like the US and Israel. These drones vary in range, warhead size, speed, and guidance methods.

Analysis of the wreckage revealed that the “Yaffa” drone, an enhanced version of Yemen’s Sammad drones, was employed in the operation. The name is deeply symbolic as it references the ancient port city of Jaffa, also known as Yaffa in Arabic, which now forms part of modern-day Tel Aviv.