At the start of last week concluded the Summit of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES in French), in which, among other significant news, was the announcement of the creation of a unified military force for the alliance - called, rather straightforwardly, the Unified Force - which currently consists of about 5000 soldiers. Strictly speaking, joint military operations between the three countries had already been taking place for over a year before this point, but I imagine this organization streamlines the internal processes and makes it truly official.
Mali’s Goïta delivered a speech during the summit in which he stated there were three main threats to the alliance: military, economic, and media. While this new military force is a major effort to combat military threats, the three countries have also mutually launched television, radio, and print media organizations to combat disinformation and psychological warfare. The economic aspect is the most tricky aspect of all, as (albeit decaying) American hegemony is not friendly to states which seek an independent economic path, most especially if that path does not directly benefit Western international corporations. Nonetheless, the three countries are doing what they can; they mutually launched an AES passport earlier in 2025, and this month, Mali has taken a bold move, recovering $1.2 billion after renegotiating mining deals with mining corporations after a comprehensive audit. Gold mining in Mali is a major sector of the economy, comprising about 20% of annual government revenue.
The three countries have also withdrawn from ECOWAS. The remaining countries consist of a small collection of West African countries, most significantly among them Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire. ECOWAS is increasingly seen by the AES leadership - quite rightfully - as an organization which seeks to contain the radical shift in West Africa and return the region to the neocolonial French-governed status quo. As I talked about in a semi-recent news megathread, Nigeria is experiencing its own suite of internal problems, so perhaps in the coming years, ECOWAS will crumble from within and the AES can push back the terrorist organizations threatening them.
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.
The limits of reform: 2025 Malaysia news roundup
Malaysia’s Prime Minister is more akin to that of Lula, but this may not seem immediately obvious due to the nature of the respective countries in the capitalist world economy. The centrist coalition, incapable at mobilising structural changes in the economy, resorts to small reforms to stitch over the wounds while delaying the inevitable.
Increases in the minimum wage, instituting a voluntary progressive wage policy and civil servant salary raises were parts of the government’s policy in improving salaries after decades of continual stagnation. Greater push for TVET education and gradual educational reform, with emphasis on STEM and trilingual mastery of Malay, English and Mandarin, has continuously been the government’s strategy in marketing the labour force to international capital. Malaysia has one of the highest % of STEM graduates in Southeast Asia, with about 40% according to some sources. Enrolment has reached 51%, with the government long-term goal being 60%. Coupled with this is record highs in cash handout spending to lower income households in 2025, funded through fuel subsidy rationalisation.
The government has continuously pursued a reduction of the fiscal deficit, as emphasized in the 13th Malaysia Plan (the 2026-2030 5-year plan). Personally, it seems like local conversations and media has finally shifted from scaremongering about the deficit the past couple years, recognising that the government’s exposure to foreign-denominated debt has always been low (<3%), with overall public sector external debt being ~10%.
The high-profile case involving Former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, has reached it’s conclusion with a 15-year jail time and a RM11.38b ($2.8b) fine due to his role in the 1MDB corruption scandal. That said, some major actors remain free and other people involved were able to avoid harsh penalties, questioning the government’s ability and willingness to root out corruption.
The signing of the US-Malaysia ART, widely criticised for being unbalanced and unfavourable to Malaysia, was also signed. Among the provisions that were critiqued include those forcing Malaysia to conform to US rare earth supply chains, acceptance of US Halal certification standards, and a clause involving unilateral tariffs against US enemies.
Law Reform
A constitutional court ruling has decided that the Federal government had not given Malaysia’s poorest state, Sabah, with the highest absolute poverty rate of 17.7% compared to the national rate of 5.1%, on what it was entitled - 40% of oil and gas revenues from the national O&G company, Petronas. The company will predictably contribute about 18% of the entire government budget in 2026 but has had reached highs of 40% in the past couple decades.
The Gig Workers Bill was passed, extending basic workers rights to all those working under platforms, namely Grab and Foodpanda. The amendment to the Employees’ Social Security bill also now means workers have 24-hour coverage for comprehensive social protection, including accidents and injuries outside of working hours.
The federal court has also struck down a provision that penalized organizers with up to a RM10,000 ($2500) fine if they failed to notify the police before a public rally.
Other various tidbits
Malaysia has overtaken Thailand since 2024 to become the most visited country in Southeast Asia, with preliminary assessments indicating more than 40 million visitors in 2025, with 2026 plan’s seeing the government’s target rise to 47 million. Foreign and domestic tourist spending has exceeded 2019 levels.
The Malaysian Ringgit has reached a nearly 5 year high against the dollar, trading at around 4.04-4.06. Trade has also risen to it’s highest level ever, with RM1.45t ($358b) in exports by November. This means a record consecutive export surplus of 67 months since May 2020, and leading to another yearly surplus since 1998.
Looking at various statistics on OpenDOSM, the government’s bid for a fully transparent platform of free, regularly updated and open data unifying sources from all government agencies, does imply some ‘progress’.
For example, FDI
Conclusion
All in all, 2025 was marked by competence by the national bourgeois dictatorship, further cementing Malaysia’s role and reliance on the global economy. Mixtures of neoliberal, and progressive policies further complicate Malaysia’s future trajectory. 2026 will be a pivotal year in assessing ASEAN’s role in the global economy, whether it can successfully build South-South cooperation and retain unity and resilience from ongoing geopolitical fragmentation. Ongoing adherence to neoliberal capitalism limits future imaginations, continues enabling the desecration of class politics into technocratic managerial politics of “good governance”. The political Left remains practically non-existent in this suffocating existence, with the necessary work continuously and slowly being built by those on the ground.
That’s all, and happy new years everyone.