Redlines: May 9, 2025

Daily Dispatches from the Frontlines of Global Class and Anti-Imperialist Struggle

By Weaponized Information | May 9, 2025

Africa

After US interest, UAE to help fund Africa’s largest gas pipeline

When the U.S. couldn’t close the deal, the UAE stepped in to help bankroll the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline—Africa’s largest. But don’t be fooled by the “infrastructure” gloss. This is textbook neocolonial extraction, dressed in Gulf regalia but wired to European sockets. The pipeline is a corridor of looting, designed to siphon Africa’s gas northward while the continent’s own energy needs rot in the dirt. It’s not about development—it’s about delivery: of imperial life support to a Europe deep in energy dependency crisis. The Africans footing the cost? The peasants and workers dispossessed along the route, whose land and labor are once again up for auction.

The Alliance of Sahel States: The road towards nationalization

The Alliance of Sahel States—Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger—isn’t just resisting imperialism. They’re reasserting anti-imperialist sovereignty in the language that empire hates most: nationalization. In the ashes of French colonial rule and the wreckage left by U.S.-backed militarization, these states are reaching for a new horizon—one not dictated by IMF technocrats or French oil barons. This is what revolutionary rupture looks like in real time. It is fragile. It is targeted. But it is alive. And it terrifies every boardroom and military base from Paris to Washington.

African Lion 2025 opens in Senegal, strengthening regional security cooperation

The Pentagon calls it “African Lion.” We call it counterinsurgency in uniform. U.S. troops landed in Senegal not to “build partnerships,” but to rehearse colonial policing in the age of expeditionary militarism. As African countries increasingly reject French occupation and assert their independence, Washington recalibrates—deploying its own boots, bullets, and base agreements. These exercises are not about defending Africa—they’re about defending empire from Africa. The lion may wear an African face, but it hunts for Western masters.

Asia

India looks ready for a deal with the U.S.—but at what cost?

India’s latest overtures toward a trade pact with the U.S. reek of imperialist recalibration. Under the pretext of “mutual benefit,” Washington dangles tariff relief while demanding digital data access, pharma patent concessions, and stricter curbs on Chinese imports. This isn’t a partnership—it’s an asymmetric surrender scripted by U.S. tech monopolies and Wall Street firms drooling over India’s markets. The Modi regime, cloaked in nationalist rhetoric, is offering up Indian sovereignty for a seat at the imperialist table—one that still serves U.S. interests first. What’s unfolding is not an alliance but an annexation through trade.

China’s exports jump despite U.S. tariffs—imports tumble

Despite Washington’s tariff tantrums, Chinese exports surged last month—a defiant reminder that multipolarity can’t be tariffed out of existence. But the sharp drop in imports tells another story: China is tightening its belt and recalibrating supply chains, shifting inward and sideways to its BRICS+ and Global South partners. The U.S. empire hoped to isolate Beijing; instead, it’s isolating itself. These are not just economic shifts—they’re fault lines in the crumbling architecture of unipolarity. Every tariff the U.S. throws is another crack in the wall.

Indonesia and Laos solar exports surge to U.S. as tariffs hit SE Asian rivals

With the U.S. tightening tariffs on Chinese and Vietnamese solar products, Indonesia and Laos have become convenient stand-ins—shuttling panels across the Pacific under the greenwashed banner of “energy transition.” But this isn’t climate justice—it’s supply chain imperialism wrapped in solar foil. Washington isn’t decarbonizing, it’s rerouting supply chains through weaker states easier to dominate. The Global South is being used as a relay race of resource exploitation—one country penalized, another promoted, all to feed the same imperial grid. Green imperialism is still imperialism.

Middle East

Trump and Vance would rather stay out of it as India and Pakistan spiral toward war

As India and Pakistan teeter on the edge of nuclear war, Washington’s ruling clique is split between silence, shrugs, and sloppy spin. Trump and Vance claim it’s “none of our business,” while Secretary of State Marco Rubio issues toothless condolences and “balanced” calls to both sides. But neutrality here is not peacekeeping—it’s a green light for escalation. This is what imperialist recalibration looks like under crisis: exit diplomacy, enter opportunism. While Kashmir burns and children die, the U.S. hedges bets, hoping to gain strategic leverage no matter who bleeds. This isn’t disengagement. It’s strategic delay—waiting for the dust to settle so empire can step in and sweep the ashes.

Trump cuts off communication with Netanyahu, Israeli media says

Trump allegedly cutting ties with Netanyahu isn’t a rupture—it’s a recalibration. This isn’t a break with Zionism, but a squabble between two gangsters over who gets to call the shots in the region. Trump’s base may be tired of the Gaza headlines, but his regime remains tethered to the logic of settler-colonial support and regional hegemony enforcement over West Asia. Don’t mistake palace drama for policy change. Whether through Biden’s diplomacy or Trump’s tantrums, the U.S. will keep arming apartheid until the balance of power shifts from above, or below.

Israel “approves” UN aid distribution plan for Gaza

The Zionist regime “approving” UN aid distribution is like a thief deciding which broken window the fire department can use. This isn’t humanitarian coordination—it’s siege choreography with colonial oversight. Israel bombs the bakeries, blocks the borders, then demands to vet every loaf of bread that enters. This is not a ceasefire. It is siege management. Aid is being weaponized not to relieve Gaza, but to control and discipline it. As always, the UN plays along—its neutrality a fig leaf for colonial control.

Central/South America and the Caribbean

Bolsonaro leads rally demanding amnesty for 2023 coup convicts after hospital release

Bolsonaro is back—and so is the fascist wing of Brazil’s comprador bourgeoisie. Fresh out of the hospital, the former president is demanding “amnesty” for the criminals who stormed state institutions in a failed January 2023 coup attempt. This is not just political theater—it’s a strategic offensive by Brazil’s reactionary class to normalize authoritarian compradorism under the banner of “democracy.” Their goal is to erode the memory of the attempted fascist seizure of power and lay the groundwork for a second, more sophisticated assault. The real amnesty they want? Forgiveness for counterrevolution.

‘The Eternaut’ sparks questions among those born during the Argentine dictatorship

The resurgence of The Eternaut—Argentina’s iconic graphic novel—has reawakened questions among a generation born during dictatorship. In a country still reckoning with the scars of counterrevolutionary state terror and U.S.-backed fascism, this cultural artifact functions as both memory and weapon. In the face of neoliberal erasure, the re-reading of The Eternaut is a revolutionary act—resurrecting suppressed truths about forced disappearances, U.S.-backed fascism, and the ongoing war against popular memory. This is not nostalgia—it is guerrilla intellectual tradition in motion.

New Brazil-Paraguay bridge key to Atlantic-Pacific trade route

Brazil and Paraguay just opened a new bridge connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific—but Western media buried the story. This silence isn’t accidental. The bridge is part of the Bioceanic Corridor, a South American megaproject that bypasses U.S. chokeholds and reshapes trade across Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile. It’s not inherently liberatory—corporate interests are circling, and local elites are already carving up customs zones—but it marks a shift. A contested one. A material foothold for multipolarity in a region long treated as Washington’s backyard. Whether it becomes a pipeline for imperial extraction or a backbone of sovereign integration will depend on who organizes fast and from below.

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Europe

Sétif: VE Day and the colonial massacres that cost France Algeria

While Europe waves flags for “Victory in Europe Day,” Algerians remember May 8, 1945 not as liberation, but as massacre. In Sétif, French colonial forces slaughtered thousands of Algerians demanding independence—an atrocity buried beneath liberal mythologies of freedom. This is the colonial contradiction in blood: Europe celebrates defeating fascism abroad while practicing it at home. The French Empire didn’t lose Algeria because of one massacre—it lost because the people rose, and refused to be buried with their dead. Memory is insurgent. And Sétif is not forgotten.

US offers Europe a “warmer embrace” amid growing global instability

The U.S. offering Europe a “warmer embrace” is not a love story—it’s a clingy empire dragging its junior partners deeper into war and dependency. As multipolar cracks widen, Washington intensifies its grip on the EU through arms deals, NATO expansions, and ideological alignment. This is imperialist recalibration dressed as diplomacy—strategic codependency to preserve U.S. leadership in a decaying Atlantic order. Europe’s bourgeoisie knows the price, but keeps dancing to the tune—because empire pays in dollars, and punishes in sanctions.

Europe backs special tribunal to prosecute Putin

Europe calling for a “special tribunal” to prosecute Putin isn’t about justice—it’s textbook lawfare, where the gavel serves the gun. The same EU that enables genocide in Gaza, arms Ukrainian oligarchs, and whitewashes NATO bombings now pretends to be the conscience of international law. But these tribunals are not neutral—they are imperial weapons, prosecuting only those who challenge U.S. and EU supremacy. If Europe wants to try war crimes, it should start with Brussels, London, and Washington.

North America

Canada’s unemployment rate climbs to 6.9% as tariffs bite

Canada’s job market is cracking under the weight of Trump’s trade war. Manufacturing, construction, and retail are hemorrhaging jobs, while the unemployment rate quietly crept to its highest level in nearly a decade—outside of pandemic years. The ruling class blames “market forces,” but the real story is a textbook case of economic destabilization through sanctions-by-tariff. This is how empire disciplines its so-called allies: with steel duties, auto penalties, and economic uncertainty passed down to working-class households. While Carney schmoozes in Washington, workers in Windsor and Montreal are being laid off. The polite mask of North American partnership has slipped—and what’s underneath is a blunt instrument of coercion.

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Canada says it’s “too reliant” on U.S. as trade tensions grow

After Trump slapped Canada with punitive tariffs and mocked it as better off as the “51st state,” Prime Minister Carney and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly are scrambling to reclaim the narrative of sovereignty. But sovereignty under the shadow of U.S. empire is a contradiction in terms. The real story here isn’t a “reset” in relations—it’s a classic case of imperialist recalibration, with Canada caught in the crosshairs. Joly’s talk of pivoting to Europe and inviting King Charles to open Parliament reeks of desperation: swapping one decaying empire for another. The truth is, Canada’s ruling class doesn’t want independence—it wants more favorable terms under the boot.

Mexico to sue Google over ‘Gulf of America’ renaming

Only in the dying days of empire do tech companies try to colonize geography with a search engine. After Google—nudged by Trump’s executive tantrums—renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” on U.S. platforms, Mexico fired back. President Sheinbaum threatened to rename the U.S. “Mexican America,” and honestly? Fair play. But beneath the humor is something serious: digital colonialism at work. Google isn’t just mapping the world—it’s rewriting it in the language of U.S. supremacy. This is what happens when algorithmic governance replaces diplomacy: tech monopolies redraw borders while politicians wave flags. Mexico’s lawsuit is more than symbolic—it’s a crack in the code of empire.

United States

Trump signals tariff rollback ahead of China talks

Trump says he’s ready to ease up on tariffs—like a mob boss offering to return the kneecaps he shattered. After gutting global supply chains and pushing working-class prices sky-high, the regime now plays diplomat, hoping the world forgets who lit the fire. This isn’t negotiation—it’s imperial spin control. The tariff war was never about jobs or fairness. It was about economic bullying, plain and simple—a page torn from the manual of economic statecraft and wielded to discipline China while flexing for Wall Street. The rollback is no retreat. It’s a recalibration—same fists, new gloves.

Cargo theft surges as U.S. supply chains unravel

Cargo’s going missing and corporate media wants us to panic—but the real story isn’t the loot, it’s the system. The cracks showing up in U.S. logistics aren’t just about thieves; they’re about decades of corporate greed hollowing out the bones of the economy. Deregulated freight, union-busting, offshored production—this is logistical fragility engineered by profit. Now that the machine’s breaking down, working-class desperation gets blamed for what capital created. It’s not organized crime that’s looting this country—it’s the bosses who already emptied the warehouse.

U.S. grants asylum to white South African Afrikaners

While Black and brown migrants are locked in cages or deported to death, 54 white Afrikaners—descendants of apartheid—are granted asylum for being “discriminated against.” This isn’t immigration policy. It’s immigration apartheid. Trump’s message is clear: colonizers in crisis are welcome, but the colonized must stay out. South Africa’s attempt to reckon with its past is now being weaponized by the U.S. to legitimize white victimhood and launder settler mythologies into federal policy. It’s not about justice. It’s about re-whitening the asylum system for a regime that sees race as a border wall.