this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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Image is of a solar park in Cuba, donated last year by China, sourced from this article.


To be honest, I don't have much to say about ongoing geopolitical events that hasn't already been said in previous threads (e.g. with India/Pakistan, Trump/Putin, and of course occupied Palestine), so this is more of a "news roundup" preamble for this week.

As we all know, the US (and the imperial core generally) has only three permitted international actions: sanctions, color revolution, and war. None of these have been going well lately, but sanctions are in particularly dire straits right now. Three examples from the last week or so:

  • The EU is on its 17th sanctions package, apparently, which is surprising, as I thought they were on their 76th or something. It apparently targets Russia's shadow fleet of oil tankers, but I don't think anybody actually gives a shit because we all know it won't achieve anything, so, moving on...

  • The head of Nvidia (as well as many others) have come out and said that the US chip export controls on China have failed, remarking that China's internal motivations to develop alternatives are strong and proceeding rapidly, especially as China's number of skilled scientists is only growing. Nvidia has said that they had a 95% share of China's AI chip market in 2020 or so, but now they only have 50%.

  • Lastly, an interesting one: Iran has received its first set of railway shipment of solar panels from China, and there is hope for accelerating shipments of even more products. Myself and many others have predicted a decoupling of Iran from the West and towards China and Russia (especially if any Western-built product could have Israeli devices implanted into them, such as with the pager terrorist attack on Lebanon's doctors), and having a strong link with China will be a necessary step for Iran and their allies to continue their offensives against Israel.


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.

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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[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 17 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

Confirmed Russian losses due to Ukraine's "Spiderweb" attack on Russian tactical and strategic bombers.

Part 1, Olenya Airbase:

  • 4x Tu-95 burning, severely damaged or destroyed:
  • 1x An-12 transport plane burning, severely damaged or destroyed:
  • In this photo, you can see that the 1st and 4th Tu-95s got consumed by flames, along with the suspected An-12 on the left

Belaya Airbase:

  • 3x Tu-95s and 4x Tu-22M3s severely damaged or destroyed, 1x Tu-95 with some minor damage. I'll upload the two SAR images once the website allows me to.

Total so far:

  • 7x Tu-95 severely damaged or destroyed
  • 4x Tu-22M3 severely damaged or destroyed. -1x An-12 severely damaged or destroyed.
  • 1x Tu-95 with minor damage.

For a total of 13 aircraft damaged or destroyed, with 12 of them showing signs of severe damage. Ukraine initially claimed 40, but a success rate of 32.5%, or around 1/3, is nothing to scoff at for an attack like this.

[–] KnownUnknownKnower@hexbear.net 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Please also post this in the next mega, this one is about to be locked

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 12 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Lmao I forgot about that, I'll do so.

[–] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 9 hours ago

i wonder if the success of this attack will lead to specialized equipment being made for exactly this kind of thing

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 36 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Second round of Russia-Ukraine negotiations ended after an hour, Turkey says "non-negative" outcome.

Looking into it more - Ukrainians presented completely unworkable demands that would effectively constitute Russian surrender. Including allowing them to join NATO, no limits on army size, and usage of Russian funds to reconstruct. Not surprising it was over so soon.

[–] Sinisterium@hexbear.net 23 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

They still believe that they haven’t been defeated.

[–] Ildsaye@hexbear.net 22 points 10 hours ago

Or are faithfully following US-British instructions to waste as many Slavic lives and resources as possible

[–] Flaps@hexbear.net 24 points 11 hours ago

It's laughable

[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 12 points 10 hours ago
[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 25 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

A senior Iranian diplomat told Reuters that Iran is working on drafting a negative response to the American nuclear proposal that was delivered to Tehran days ago. Iran's response can be considered as a rejection of the completely unilateral American offer.

Starting to seem like there won't be a negotiated settlement. It's been nearly two months of talk. The question is really whether the entity and its allies are ready to swallow the consequences of a strike on Iranian facilities. I'm not convinced the US administration has the stomach for it...

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 25 points 11 hours ago

Well the US changed the terms of the deal during the negotiations. The US went from "3.67% maximum enrichment and some restrictions on ballistic missiles" in line with previous agreements, which got Iran to engage in more negotiations. Then the US changed the terms to "zero percent enrichment". Iran is currently enriching at 60%, and increased enrichment capacity while negotiations went on, and considers enrichment a fundamental right and red line.

[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 6 points 9 hours ago

Oggy oggy oggy oi oi oi

[–] CleverOleg@hexbear.net 75 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I am at the point where I no longer know what to say in regards to the news coming out of Gaza. Anything I could say does no justice to the horrors of what is happening here. I feel numb and my lack of words reflects that. This is just as much of an American genocide as it is an Israeli one. I’m not exactly young, but this has crossed the point of being the most evil thing the US has done in my lifetime (saying this as someone who organized protests against the invasion of Iraq in 2003).

[–] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 37 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (4 children)

Not sure why people are dooming about the drone attacks.

For one, Ukraine always massively exaggerates their supposed successes. For the other, there have been much worse incidents for Russia in this war, and things went on as if nothing happened.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 34 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

For one, Ukraine always massively exaggerates their supposed successes. For the other, there have been much worse incidents for Russia in this war, and things went on as if nothing happened.

Even if Ukraine was only a quarter as successful as they claimed, it's a huge loss. Russia don't make Tu-95s or Tu-22M3s anymore, and they make new production T-160s in the same way they "make" Su-57s and S-500 systems. It might take a decade or more to replace all the lost Tu-95s and Tu-22M3s with new production Tu-160s, a different plane.

If you view the war through the lens of NATO/USA/the west using Ukraine to damage Russia, this is by far the most damaging attack, over a dozen aircraft have been destroyed or damaged, confirmed by the first satellite imagery and videos of the attack. 8 of those Tu-95 aircraft were part of Russia's nuclear triad. Russia's airborne leg of their triad is now substantially weaker. Russia only has 55 in active service, each loss cannot be replaced. And of those 55, only a fraction have been modernised to "Tu-95MSM" standard, with upgraded engines, radars, and capable of firing the Kh-101 (and nuclear Kh-102) cruise missile, the first MSM got officially introduced in 2019, after previous combat tests against ISIS in 2016 and 2017. The other bombers can only fire the now outdated Kh-55 missile. Every MSM loss would be huge. According to leaked documents, taking a Tu-95MS and upgrading it to MSM standard costs $50 million on average...

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 23 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

nobody should be "dooming" over a bunch of bombers getting destroyed when those bombers belong to a reactionary capitalist dictatorship

it's definitely not a good indication of the Russian state's national security and general competency, though.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 25 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

nobody should be "dooming" over a bunch of bombers getting destroyed when those bombers belong to a reactionary capitalist dictatorship

They were important for global security and stability. What keeps NATO from simply invading Russia? It's nuclear triad, of which these bombers were a part of. Now the aerial leg of triad has been weakened thanks to Russian incompetence and Ukrainian bravado. Russia's power projection goes down, the amount of forward deployments they can do to counter NATO influence and NATO forward deployments goes down, their ability to carry out stand off strikes is reduced, etc. seeing 7-8 Tu-95s going up in flames makes some NSC ghouls in NATO and the USA very happy. Viewing this as some zero sum "everyone is capitalist and reactionary so it doesn't matter" is missing the full picture. It's not even about ideology, it's about the balance of power.

Russia is going to have to respond some way now, they played the "let's escalate the conflict by large scale air attacks" card, and Ukraine had a direct response to that, to destroy some of the Russian aircraft used to carry out these air attacks. What happens next, another escalation?

[–] companero@hexbear.net 31 points 13 hours ago (4 children)

One side is demolishing WW2 memorials and directly participating in a genocide while the other is killing Nazis and supporting AES states.

Sure, Russia's motivations aren't pure, but their victory still benefits the cause of socialism.

[–] Z_Poster365@hexbear.net 15 points 10 hours ago

It’s Cinaa don’t bother, they are still defending SDF in 2025. They are a social chauvinist you will not get them to understand revolutionary defeatism and their place in the world

[–] Sinisterium@hexbear.net 15 points 11 hours ago

Russia literally funds half of the hexbear approved anti-west states/organizations. North Korea a socialist government decided to militarily support russia. What are your (non-specific person) “credentials” for thinking yourselves to be “above” AES?

Like you can kiss countries like Cuba, Burkina Faso and even Iran to an extent goodbye should russia fall.

[–] RomCom1989@hexbear.net 19 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Keep in mind this is the sdf defender speaking,but I do agree long term at least Russia isn't an ally

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 8 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

doesn't feel fair to reduce my contributions on Syria to "SDF defending" when I am the only person I've seen in here even mention the Islamic Resistance Front and its activities over the past few months

[–] Z_Poster365@hexbear.net 17 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

I think it feels pretty fair, you support the enemy of the resistance and zionist proxies

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

PIGPOOPBALLS

you unironically think that Jihadism is a monolith and it's a sensible analysis to say that ISIS and HTS are exactly the same group, so I don't take your view on the matter particularly seriously and nobody else should

[–] KnownUnknownKnower@hexbear.net 11 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

You also smeared unnamed resistance organizations as collaborators, than refused to name your sources

“I can find plenty of counter-examples of direct US collusion over the past decade with Iraqi groups that are supposed to be part of the "Axis of Resistance"”

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)

I was speaking about the Iraqi PMUs in that instance, not just "unnamed resistance organisations", and that was evident from the context of the discussion. You make it sound like I was saying Hezbollah and Ansar Allah are working with the US state dept. That is a misrepresentation.

It is fairly easy to find information on Operation Inherent Resolve, part of which involved the US providing direct and indirect support to groups under the PMU umbrella as they fought ISIS on the ground for the Iraqi state (amongst many others). The PMUs were the most effective combat force in Iraq at this time and quite obviously benefitted from US airstrikes against ISIS. If you are not aware of that then you just don't know that much about the conflict, I'm sorry to say. There are few sources on this either way because a lot goes on there that doesn't get into traditional media, and these organisations aren't just going to do a press release stating that they're working with the Great Satan, for the same reasons that the US also doesn't say "we carried out strikes in support of these organisations" - it looks bad for both sides.

Hereis an article from 2014 detailing Iran's approval of co-operation with the US in the fight against ISIS. This is from the BBC, who obviously have an anti-Resistance bias, but given that this makes Iran look more reasonable (and especially given that the usual western line is that Iran is a repressive theocracy no different to ISIS, whereas this shows them siding against ISIS), it's likely to be based in truth.

Here is another article in which the US-based(!) director of the international relations office of the PMUs stated that they were ready to join an "all-inclusive" volunteer force against ISIS, i.e. collaboration with all factions including US-backed ones. Again, there was nothing wrong with this move. It was the right move at the time, because ISIS are a genocidal organisation that threatens everyone in the region.

Can you stop replying with this to everything I post in the news thread now? It's really reddit-y behaviour, and you're just demonstrating that you know fuck all about the politics and history of the region. It's not a "smear" to acknowledge that reality is more complex than black-and-white. It's not a smear against the USSR to say that they benefitted from US support during WW2 either, so long as you're not saying that was the primary factor in the Red Army's victory.

[–] KnownUnknownKnower@hexbear.net 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

As opposed to the person who posted a whole separate post in the mega thread complaining about another user. Clown

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 3 points 10 hours ago

begs me for sources on an uncontroversial claim

finally gets given them because I'm sick of your whining

bitches out and calls me a clown for something unrelated

can't handle the truth huh? ^^

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 2 points 9 hours ago

@Z_Poster365 you should check this out too <3

[–] cinnaa42@hexbear.net 10 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Ukraine is a national socialist state for sure, but assuming that the genocide you're referring to is the Palestinian genocide, Russia is pretty much as culpable and has been a long term ally of shitrael. There are nazi batallions in both armies too, though Russia's have a lot less influence over the political echelon for sure

tbh i just hope for whatever will end the war the soonest, and curse my own government for directly sabotaging the peace agreement that could have been reached in 2022. The longer this all goes on the closer we get to a nuclear exchange. and every day that this goes on, hundreds of people lose their sons and fathers.

[–] companero@hexbear.net 20 points 11 hours ago

I am deliberately lumping Ukraine in with "The West". Russia does not support Israel in the same way as that group. No weapons, no political cover, and no lip service. In fact, Russia is more aligned with the Resistance: Iran, and formerly Syria.

[–] companero@hexbear.net 27 points 15 hours ago

It looked much worse before the smoke cleared. On paper, they had a chance to hit every single bomber that was deployed at the airfields they targeted.

Russia either got really lucky that Ukraine fucked up somehow, or their defense was better than people give them credit for.

[–] la_tasalana_intissari_mata@hexbear.net 25 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

much worse incidents? how many incidents are worse than getting a rediculous number of strategic bombers destroyed

[–] FortifiedAttack@hexbear.net 29 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Kursk Incursion, Kharkiv, Kherson, constantly losing warships, etc.

Besides, most confirmed losses are 6, not 40.

[–] LoveWitch@hexbear.net 35 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

From Simplicius’ blog

NEW: Ukrainian SBU’s Operation “Web” Took 1.5 Years to Prepare Ukraine’s SBU spent over 18 months planning the massive “Web” operation that struck 41 Russian strategic aircraft today.

[Zelenksy]] also reported that a total of 117 drones, controlled by operators, were used in the operation. He stated that the Russian Federation lost more than 40 units of strategic aviation

Final tally of confirmed hits so far seems to be 5 Tu-95s, 2 Tu-22s, one An-12. According to my info, two of the 95s can most likely be repaired relatively soon, as the damage is not super extensive. At least one is dead for good. The 22s, no idea. Sure hurts but not devastating

The fact is, a tiny FPV drone will have a hard time entirely ‘destroying’ a gigantic strategic bomber—many different FPV hits would likely be needed unless the plane is full of fuel and on-base fire suppression teams do not respond in time—which is of course a possibility.

He makes a good point that it should take more than a single drone strike to actually destroy an airframe unless the airframe catches fire and it is simply left to burn. Since only 117 drones were used, the losses reported by Simplicius seem plausible and not devastating.

[–] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 15 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Thank you for the summary; the attack seems embarrassing but not substantially impactful, like most Ukrainian attacks on Russia

I hope Russia does a calculated but effective response to it; no need to do an Israel and bomb a hospital full of children in retribution for some of your equipment and soldiers getting blown up

[–] Boise_Idaho@hexbear.net 55 points 19 hours ago (5 children)

Things aren't looking good in Cuba:
https://xcancel.com/bellybeastcuba/status/1929158797173371202

Cuba’s population has declined nearly 13% from 2020 through 2024, according to recently released data by the island’s National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI). In 2024, the population was 9.7 million, 1.4 million less than in 2020.

Cuba has been going through its largest emigration wave in history, as people flee a deepening economic crisis fueled by U.S. sanctions. The U.S. is by far the largest recipient of Cuban immigrants. Unofficial reports have put Cuba’s population loss at even higher numbers.

The long-term damage of the emigration crisis can be catastrophic for the island, since thousands of young people, and particularly young professionals, are part of the wave.

Cuba’s education, health and scientific sectors are facing personnel shortages. It is even more alarming considering Cuba’s aging patterns, to which low birth rates also contribute. Cuba’s around 71,358 births in 2024 are the country’s lowest in 65 years.

ONEI’s report points out that more than 25% of the population is over 60 years old, making Cuba one of the fastest-aging countries in Latin America.

[–] WrongOnTheInternet@hexbear.net 18 points 14 hours ago

The birthrate is still like 2x South Korea

[–] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 32 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

"The birthrates are declining" and "the population pyramid is aging" are weird ways of saying "women are highly educated" and "life expectancy keeps rocking" though. No doubt there's economic turmoil, but these two factors are good results of social policy that are expected in humane systems.

[–] Sinisterium@hexbear.net 13 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

This isnt build into stone, before 2014 east german educated women had a higher fertility rate than uneducated east german women and west german women.

[–] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 8 points 10 hours ago

True, it's more of a correlation, society changes those things a lot. For example central-Asian republics in the USSR, despite having similar educational achievement to the majority Slavic ones, had significantly higher fertility rates. But no doubt education plays a massive role.

[–] WrongOnTheInternet@hexbear.net 16 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

women are highly educated

This is a pretty simplistic analysis and I think it's pretty crap because it lets capitalism and men off the hook, as well as sorta suggesting that the reason uneducated women have higher birth rates is because they're stupid (instead of education being a proxy measure, although not a great one, of reproductive autonomy)

[–] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 20 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

lets capitalism and men off the hook, as well as sorta suggesting that the reason uneducated women have higher birth rates is because they're stupid

Lack of education isn't stupidity, they're two very distinct things. I'm not calling uneducated women stupid, I'm saying that uneducated women = oppressed women. This doesn't blame women or let men/the system out of the hook IMO, it just shows the patriarchy keeps women uneducated and oppressed and uses them as child-making, unpaid house labourers. The blame is not on women for not being educated, the blame is on the system for not allowing them to get educated.

[–] 3rdWorldCommieCat@hexbear.net 16 points 15 hours ago

But less wage slaves for capitalists to exploit... how are the poor millionaires gonna get their 3rd jet and 7th yacht in these conditions???

[–] 3rdWorldCommieCat@hexbear.net 25 points 17 hours ago

The consequences of that embargo, death to amerikkka.

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