this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2024
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Image is of Assad's presidential palace in 2013. There's more images of it in this article, though the words in it aren't worth reading.


Here is Assad's version of events. I like to imagine he's making one of those Youtuber apology videos where they sigh at the start and talk in a chastised yet somewhat defensive tone of voice.

As terrorism spread across Syria and ultimately reached Damascus on the evening of Saturday 7th December 2024, questions arose about the president's fate and whereabouts. This occurred amidst a flood of misinformation and narratives far removed from the truth, aimed at recasting international terrorism as a liberation revolution for Syria.

At such a critical juncture in the nation’s history, where truth must take precedence, it is essential to address these distortions. Unfortunately, the prevailing circumstances at the time, including a total communication blackout for security reasons, delayed the release of this statement. This does not replace a detailed account of the events that unfolded, which will be provided when the opportunity allows.

First, my departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles, as some have claimed. On the contrary, I remained in Damascus, carrying out my duties until the early hours of Sunday 8th December 2024. As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in co-ordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations. Upon arrival at the Hmeimim airbase that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen. As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes.

With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday 8th December. This took place a day after the fall of Damascus following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all remaining state institutions.

At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge, nor was such a proposal made by any individual or party. The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.

I reaffirm that the person who, from the very first day of the war, refused to barter the salvation of his nation for personal gain, or to compromise his people in exchange for numerous offers and enticements is the same person who stood alongside the officers and soldiers of the army on the front lines, just metres from terrorists in the most dangerous and intense battlefields. He is the same person who, during the darkest years of the war, did not leave but remained with his family alongside his people, confronting terrorism under bombardment and the recurring threats of terrorist incursions into the capital over 14 years of war. Furthermore, the person who has never abandoned the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, nor betrayed his allies who stood by him, cannot possibly be the same person who would forsake his own people or betray the army and nation to which he belongs.

I have never sought positions for personal gain but have always considered myself as a custodian of a national project, supported by the faith of the Syrian people, who believed in its vision. I have carried an unwavering conviction in their will and ability to protect the state, defend its institutions, and uphold their choices to the very last moment.

When the state falls into the hands of terrorism and the ability to make a meaningful contribution is lost, any position becomes void of purpose, rendering its occupation meaningless. This does not, in any way, diminish my profound sense of belonging to Syria and her people – a bond that remains unshaken by any position or circumstance. It is a belonging filled with hope that Syria will once again be free and independent.


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Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. 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.


top 50 comments
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[–] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 9 points 19 minutes ago (2 children)

Feels like a lot of shit has happened and the vibes are completely off, but I think a lot of folks here and elsewhere have kind of forgotten that the American imperial machine is still in a state of rapid unraveling and no "wins" in the Middle East are going to stop it. Compared to 2015, for instance, the world is entirely different. So many more regions can afford to effectively ignore the United States and pursue their own interests, for good or ill. The civil war in Sudan is case and point; the US can't do shit to stop it, and has no real influence there at all. Fucking Ukraine is doing more on the ground to shape Sudan that the United States, let alone actors like the UAE. India has shown complete disregard for the American imperial project to the point of assassinating enemies of the Indian state in Canada of all places. The Sahel has been able to entirely pursue its own interests, and there's nothing the West can do about it. They can't even stop Yemen from closing down the Red Sea. There's a shit ton of dooming here, but I think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that the world has irrevocably changed in the last decade, that the space for maneuver is far wider than its been in decades, and there's virtually nothing the United States or its pawns can do to change this continuing shift.

[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 2 points 4 minutes ago

The fall of the US empire is inevitable, but the real question is whether it will commit a region-wide Holocaust on the way out, and the answer to that question, especially after the last year is yes

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 4 points 13 minutes ago* (last edited 13 minutes ago)

The US could absolutely tell the UAE to stop in Sudan, the same way we could tell Israel to stop. We don't want to.

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 14 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 56 minutes ago) (1 children)

After losing a vote in the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee over the Dem ranking seat on the House Oversight Committee following Nancy Pelosi and establishment Dems throwing their support behind a 74-year old with cancer, AOC appealed to the general House Democratic Causus, and lost again. Lmao get fucked snake.

The r/politics comments are actually kinda funny. It's hard to tell to what extent reddit shitlibs have changed after the election and the extent to which the DNC isn't paying for astroturfing now that the election is over.

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 55 minutes ago)

A Reddit link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on alternative frontends that protect your privacy.

[–] ShareThatBread@hexbear.net 5 points 28 minutes ago

Rest In Piss Leunig you piece of shit.

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 8 points 15 minutes ago (1 children)

NYPD decided to do a perp walk photo op with Luigi:

This seems to have pretty much backfired on social media, for obvious reasons (this picture objectively goes hard). Lots of people comparing him to pics of Superman in handcuffs or saying they are treating him like a supervillain in Gotham.

Oh, also, that's Eric Adams directly to his right behind him. He might have given a speech about how Rikers is the Blackgate Penetrntiary of New York, I am trying to check.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 17 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Asked this elsewhere, but figured the beloved bulletin bears would be better at answering it.

Commentary has been that "the loss of Syria cuts Iran off from the Mediterranean, from Hezbollah and Palestine".

Was this not the case for the periods from 2003-2011 and 2014-2019, when there were hostile occupying powers in Iraq and/or Syria?

[–] Z_Poster365@hexbear.net 16 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

There has never been a point in history where Israel directly controlled this much Syrian territory, at this rate they will control most of the Syrian-Lebanon border before too long. That’s new. Hezbollah has never had to deal with Israeli invasions from the East

[–] CleverOleg@hexbear.net 11 points 1 hour ago

Correct. The Resistance has been clear on this: it’s a setback for Hezbollah but they have ways of getting materiel from Iran into Lebanon.

[–] AtmosphericRiversCuomo@hexbear.net 20 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (4 children)

NVIDIA's new computer looks legitimately very impressive and can run inference while only pulling a max of 25W. Hopefully hardware and software improvements continue to quickly make AI less power hungry.

edit: to make this post more worthy of the news cavern: This is a low power computer for $250 that is probably powerful enough to run a dog robot that hunts people (if you need a reason to care).

[–] gwysibo@hexbear.net 2 points 7 minutes ago

am I reading right it only has 8gb of vram? I know it's only 250 bones but for an AI machine that seems low

[–] 0__0@hexbear.net 6 points 1 hour ago

They can do that shit but still can't make me not dread the day I have to update their proprietary piece of shit driver on linux

torvalds-nvidia

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 6 points 1 hour ago

Isn't ai block thingies in new cpus do kinda same for 5-10w?

[–] CredibleBattery@hexbear.net 5 points 1 hour ago

This is a low power computer for $250 that is probably powerful enough to run a dog robot that hunts people

but can it ray-trace?

[–] companero@hexbear.net 25 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

High resolution satellite images finally came out from the original Oreshnik strike:

https://xcancel.com/squatsons/status/1869812277333111183#m

You can see that each projectile cluster landed roughly in a straight line, and the lines are pretty consistently spaced.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 10 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Direct link to the article

Because of the nature of ballistic missiles, projectiles do land in an elongated elliptical pattern like that, usually in the orientation from where the missile is launched from.

Interesting that only three of the six submunition packages landed on target. Those that landed on target managed to pierce straight through 10 storey buildings though.

[–] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 42 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Ansarallah continue their streak of being Allah’s strongest soldiers

🇾🇪🇸🇾🇵🇸🇮🇱 The Leader of Yemen's Revolution Sayyed Al-Houthi on the latest developments in the region:

full text

  • The enemy, in partnership with America, has continued to exterminate the people of Gaza for 440 days with American missiles and bombs that it drops on the displaced

  • The soldiers of the so-called Israeli "army" are competing with each other to commit massacres in Gaza, the number of which this week reached 30 massacres

  • What is happening in Jabalia reveals the extent of the deliberate and systematic targeting of all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip

  • The Palestinian people have the legitimate, moral and legal right to confront the Israeli enemy.

  • The enemy continues its attacks on Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement and Lebanon’s implementation of its commitments, but the enemy is known for its disloyalty and treachery.

  • It is unfortunate that the Palestinian Authority does not provide the slightest protection to the Palestinian people, but on the contrary, it is committing a grave mistake that amounts to treason.

  • The Israeli path in Syria is to penetrate towards Suwayda and seek to link it to the desert areas under American control.

  • The Israeli enemy has a plan called “David’s Corridor” which aims to penetrate the Euphrates River in the areas occupied by the Americans.

  • The Israeli enemy has a dream of reaching the Euphrates River and sees the opportunity available to it because it does not face any obstacle in penetrating into Syrian territory.

  • The occupation seeks to create opportunities and considers its control over the strategic Syrian Mount Hermon a very great gain because it overlooks all of the Levant.

  • The occupation destroyed the capabilities of the Syrian army, which belong to all Syrians, and despite that, they were left to be targeted by the enemy.

  • It is very unfortunate that the Syrian military capabilities are left for Israeli targeting and destruction. This is a strange and astonishing asceticism.

  • The occupation is violating Syria by land, sea and air without any response, and it is sending teams to steal certain documents, equipment and research.

  • The occupation’s continuation of its crimes against Arab countries comes with support and partnership from Washington, and they are two sides of the same coin, which is Zionism.

  • Despite the comprehensive Zionist invasion, there is a ban inside Syria against any incitement against the Americans and Israelis.

  • There is great negligence on the part of Muslims and collusion of some regimes and some groups with the Israeli enemy, and this is one of the biggest reasons that encouraged the enemy to target several countries.

  • The harshest and most hideous scenes of crime in Gaza testify that Muslims, and Arabs in particular, are the most cowardly and evasive of nations.”

[–] Clippy@hexbear.net 15 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] bbnh69420@hexbear.net 7 points 3 hours ago

Yee that’s the one

[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 16 points 4 hours ago

‘Sonic the Hedgehog 4’ in the Works for 2027 Release no-copyright

The news comes as “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” races into theaters on Friday, where it is expected to top the box office with $55 million to $60 million from 3,800 North American theaters. The sequel is shaping up to be a nice holiday season hit for Paramount, hence the interest in more “Sonic” adventures. Internationally, the film will open in 52 markets on Christmas. Critics have also liked the latest movie, handing “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” an impressive 87% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Together, the first two films have earned a combined global box office total of $725.2 million and driven over $180 million in global consumer spending from home entertainment rentals and digital purchases. They also inspired a spinoff Paramount+ series, “Knuckles,” which came out earlier this year. “Sonic the Hedgehog” is based on the popular video-game franchise from Sega, which first appeared in 1991.

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 26 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

i can't get over just how much assad fumbled it 2 weeks later, literally 6 months - a year from normalization 🤏, just decided fuck it, we ~~ball~~ bail.

[–] Autonomarx@hexbear.net 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Didn't the resistance ask him to open a front in the Golan after Oct 7 and he said no in order to pursue normalisation?

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 4 points 1 hour ago

yes, but that was always a pipe dream i feel. No way explicitly russian-backed government will start attacking entity.

[–] Clippy@hexbear.net 19 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

literally 6 months - a year from normalization

sorry i am politically incohrent in this region please elaborate, normalization with what explicitly? is that a positive or negative for who interests? thank you

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 8 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

With europe mainly italy and such, which likely would have relaxed sanctions. With arab states - who the fuck knows, they did their arab league stuff, but they are absolutely useless otherwise.

[–] Clippy@hexbear.net 1 points 46 minutes ago

hm okay thank you

[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 50 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

After campaigning against Donald Trump as a grave threat to democracy, President Joe Biden says it’s not his concern that Trump doesn’t “abide by the rules of the democracy we’ve established,” and Biden again committed to a smooth transition of power — including attending Trump’s inauguration.

“Of course I am,” Biden said, asked in an interview with MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas if he would attend the ceremony after Trump skipped his. “The only president ever to avoid inauguration is the guy who’s about to be inaugurated.”

Asked about inviting Trump to the Oval Office after November’s election, Biden said it was “how we’re supposed to be,” even after Trump tried to subvert the 2020 election.

https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-government-shutdown-news-12-19-24/index.html

lol.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 43 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

Funny how libs have just totally dropped the "there will be no more elections" line, huh?

[–] Des@hexbear.net 14 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

they've replaced it with euphoric enjoyment over the thought of minorities and the working class getting fucked. which conveniently they will somehow be insulated from because of their superior brains

[–] Z_Poster365@hexbear.net 7 points 1 hour ago

It’s mostly their superior bank accounts that will do that

[–] miz@hexbear.net 29 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

they'll pick it up again once the new Big Bad is established post-Trump

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 25 points 6 hours ago

Enjoy it while it lasts

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[–] plinky@hexbear.net 54 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)
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