this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
131 points (100.0% liked)
news
24729 readers
545 users here now
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
-
To learn about and discuss meaningful news, analysis and perspectives from around the world, with a focus on news outside the Anglosphere and beyond what is normally seen in corporate media (e.g. anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Marxist, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of colour).
-
To encourage community members to contribute commentary and for others to thoughtfully engage with this material.
-
To support healthy and good faith discussion as comrades, sharpening our analytical skills and helping one another better understand geopolitics.
We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.
Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
-
Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
-
Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.
-
Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.
-
Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.
-
Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.
-
Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
-
American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
-
Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.
-
AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
131
Bulletins and International News Discussion from April 8th to Whenever We Reach About 3000 Comments - Blockade²
(hexbear.net)
Mere hours before Trump's 8pm Tuesday deadline yesterday, Pakistan's government contacted Iran with a US-written proposal for a two-week ceasefire, explicitly stated to also include Lebanon, during which they would negotiate a permanent end to the war on the basis of Iran's 10 Points. Among other things, these points include 1) maintaining strict control (joint with Oman) over Hormuz, complete with a toll; 2) the end of sanctions on Iran; 3) keeping their enriched uranium; 4) a withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East [stated by the Supreme Leadership Council but not in the 10 Points, so who knows], and 5) some plausible guarantee that Iran would never be attacked again. I've heard rumors that China may have prodded Iran to accept these terms.
In theory, these are relatively confident and maximalist demands. In practice, Iran has already achieved military and economic control over Hormuz and the withdrawal of many US troops and bases from the region, so at least a few of Iran's demands are, to a greater or lesser extent, already achieved, and with little hope for an increasingly exhausted US to undo these achievements short of nukes.
A couple hours after the ceasefire, the Zionist entity began a wave of airstrikes in Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians, as well as flying drones into Iranian airspace. This was a strange move to make even if you assume - very sensibly - that the US is completely agreement non-capable: why not agree to the ceasefire and simply pretend to negotiate for two weeks while regrouping/repairing what assets you can and then start hitting Iran again?
One theory is that the Zionists are testing to what degree Iran is actually willing to have solidarity with Lebanon and Hezbollah. While the Resistance has been relatively united since October 7th, the formation of separate peaces instead of negotiating terms as a united front has been a major exploitable weakness. Alternatively, it's been proposed that the US didn't even consider using the ceasefire to regroup and deceive Iran, and that Trump merely wanted a way to chicken out of his threat on Iran's electrical grid - the fact that US officials have since stated that Iran's 10 Points were not the same ones they agreed to is a point supporting this, I suppose. If the conflict resumes and Trump does not deliver another 48 hour deadline (and/or makes it something silly like a month from now) then this could be the explanation.
From Iran, I am getting the sense that a lot is happening behind the scenes. Statements from top officials like Araghchi have stated quite plainly that there will be no ceasefire and no negotiations unless the Zionists stop attacking Lebanon, but as of ~24 hours after the ceasefire began, there has been no significant military response from Iran yet. There have apparently been phone calls between Araghchi and numerous regional officials, but it is unknown to what end. All the while, the global economic situation continues to deteriorate. Over the next week or two, the last tankers that left Hormuz before it closed will arrive at their destinations. If the missile exchanges begin once more, then the West, much like most of the rest of the world, will be experiencing all sorts of fuel, energy, food, and product shortages while trying to justify why they broke the ceasefire to kill more Lebanese civilians.
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 the Zionists' 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.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
So basically everyone's tl;dr hot takes of the ceasefire gets thrown in the trash bin because the West didn't bother honoring it anyways. A grand total of 2 ships, a Greek ship and a Liberian ship, made it through the strait before the pool got closed again. We are back with the bellum status quo where the US still has air superiority^TM^, the Zionist entity still targets civilians because the IOF always gets owned by Hezbollah, Iran still has undisputed control over the strait, China still alternates between drafting useless letters and sending much more useful intel to Iran, GCC countries still express incredulity over being thrown under the bus etc. Literally nothing has changed.
I'm glad I didn't bother wasting my time typing some massive unhinged rant shitting on the doomers and their terrible analysis lol
Iran's frequent attacks on Israel have effectively been put on pause from 1 hour after the ceasefire was declared. The pause is still ongoing.
Iran has promised retaliation. I'm hoping for a big one. But so far Iranian attacks on Israel have actually stopped.
My hot take was that the US and Israel wouldn't honor the ceasefire. I deserve praise and possibly money for my incredible analytical skills.
I feel personally called out. Sometimes we all need to do a bit of an unhinged rant every now and then.
The funniest thing is that my tl;dr rant would essentially just be, "the ceasefire won't fundamentally change the trajectory of the war because it's only two weeks." I meant that in a long strategic view 5-d chess sense, not in a the-ceasefire-will-be-torn-apart-in-less-than-24-hours-anyways sense.
The point of the 2 weeks was to establish time to negotiate. At least in theory.
Imo the point of the ceasefire was only to give Trump an off ramp from his promised war crimes. The involved parties basically had to cater to Trump's delusional state of mind to prevent a collapse of the world economy. It has worked for now in the sense that people are talking about who is breaking the ceasefire instead of whether there will be any oil infrastructure left in the Gulf.
In general, a lot of countries still seem to be trying to find ways to placate Trump in the hope that the problem will eventually fix itself.
There are days when two weeks happen, etc
The people you call "doomers" are actually cowards lacking either principles or discipline or both.
You are correct to criticize them and should continue to do it.
Combat doomerism! It's something all revolutionary movements have come up against and it's a well-studied topic. Revolutionary optimism, or Gramsci's "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" are not meant for self-help - they're core components to the methodologies of successful revolutions.
It would be funny if Trump just pretends it's over and he won whilst oil fucktuples in price.
"Mr. President, the average price of gas has reached 10 dollars. What's your comment?"
"10 is the new 3. High so low - low-low-low-low-low. When it gets to 11 - even lower. Much low-low-low-low-low-low-low-lower."
new word of the year award 2026
I always felt the ceasefire was a false pretense for the US and Israel to buy time to formulate a strategy moving forward and to maneuver troops to the region, turned out it wasn't even that and it was just the admin lying and making shit up as always.
They are probably still moving troops around.
i'm a True Doomer because i really wanted it to be the end 😔
I don't think it's doomerism to say Israel didn't like even the idea of a ceasefire. Israelis aren't just an American puppet, they have autonomy even if limited.
There are positive aspects, Iran fared well and the Government continues to function, they also get foreign currencies from the strait which is nice.
And I believe the US wants to declare "victory" and get the strait opened. I think last year similar dynamic happeend to where Israel continued to attack Lebanon just in a "reduced" manner.
Technically I was correct, nothing has happened, the deadline came and went, a new deadline has yet to be set but it's functionally a deadline extension.
I have been having a hard time understanding this thing what is the dispute?
because we know that israel (who is understood by iran as part of the US aggression) won't obey anything at all, and the US might posture briefly but ultimately do whatever trump feels like when he wakes up tomorrow, no matter how strange how evil.
it is a power move they do where they "agree" to something bilateral, violate their side but then act as though the other side should adhere to their's. it is a real way to make the other party lick your boots. and everyone always does. It's a way to allow your inferior onlookers to demonstrate their submission. By pretending to see the logic of the opponent as the invoker of hostility. PUA writ global.
will somebody finally show them?! Iran. I have been given one sliver of hope Iran will show them. but it's not gonna be like that the first time right? maybe 5 or 10 fakeass ceasefires in, they will get the idea.
is there a different question that I am not understanding?
don't make me tap the sign (the sign says nothing ever happens)