this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Image is of the breach in the tailings dam near Kitwe.


On February 18th, 50 million liters of acidic waste from a copper mine was accidentally released into the Kafue River after a tailings dam collapsed. The Kafue River stretches for a thousand miles across Zambia and a majority of the country - millions of people - rely on it, for both the economy and drinking water.

The results have already been catastrophic. The water supply for the city of Kitwe, home to 700,000 people, was completely shut off. As the wave of contamination moved downstream, a wave of death accompanied it as dead fish dotted the river surface. The government is dropping lime into the river to try and counteract the acid with an alkali and neutralize the water, but the tailings also contain toxic heavy metals that will undoubtably seep into the nearby environment and affect the area for years to come.

A considerable portion of the media attention to the accident has been devoted to the fact that the mine was Chinese-owned, as well as China's broader influence and investment in the region. Western anti-China propaganda aside, it has been clear to those in the know that these mines have been badly managed and needlessly dangerous for years now, and it is disappointing - to say the least - to see disasters of this magnitude occur from Chinese businesses. Hopefully this prompts a wave of investigations into China-owned mine managers all around the continent, who will then hopefully face real consequences for their actions.


Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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.


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[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

The first footage has been released, Xcancel mirror of the US Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps using APKWS laser guided rockets to shoot down Ansarallah (known as the Houthis in western media) drones and cruise missiles. I was talking a few days ago about how this was already happening, but now it's confirmed by video footage from CENTCOM themselves.

What is APKWS? To put it simply, APKWS is a conversion kit that turns unguided Hydra-70 rockets (of which 5 million exist) into laser guided short range missiles. Similar to how a Paveway kit turns an unguided bomb into a laser guided bomb, or a JDAM kit turns an unguided bomb into a GPS guided bomb, APKWS turns unguided rockets into guided missiles. APKWS was first designed only to be used against ground targets, but the Ukrainians, when firing them from their VAMPIRE ground and sea based launch systems, proved that it can be used successfully against cruise missiles and drones, and as a result the US military is doing the same, and even planning modifications to APKWS to make it even more effective against air targets, such as adding infrared terminal guidance.

Ukrainian VAMPIRE system taking out Russian cruise missiles and drones

Xcancel mirror

Why is this significant? For two reasons: cost and magazine size. APKWS is very cheap, the guidance section only costs $15 000, and the warheads and rocket motors, of which millions are currently in US stockpiles, only cost a few thousand dollars each, for a total cost of between $20 000 - $25 000 per missile/guided rocket. In comparison, an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile launched from US fighter aircraft costs upwards of $400 000 each, and the ship launched SM series of interceptors cost anywhere from $2 -$9 million, depending on the model. So this is a very significant cost saving for the US, the APKWS guided rockets might even be cheaper than the drones and cruise missiles they shoot down.

The second is magazine size. While a fighter aircraft can only carry a handful of sidewinders and other air to air missiles at a time, it can carry dozens of APKWS rockets at a time, as these rockets can be fitted on seven shot rocket pods, which only take up one hardpoint each. This F/A-18 has 14 APKWS guided rockets on one wing (two 7 shot launchers), for a total of 28 guided rockets if the loadout is replicated symmetrically on the other wing. Note with the adaptor, that two seven shot rocket pods are only using a single hardpoint.

These two factors make defending against drone swarms a possibility, both in terms of being cost effective, and in terms of the amount of guided rockets available at a single given time for intercept missions. This could be why drone and cruise missile attacks on US Navy ships are not as effective as before. While in Ukraine the use of APKWS guided rockets is limited to their ground and sea based launching systems, such as technicals and fastboats, the United States does not have such limitations and can fit these to aircraft, enabling defence over a much wider area. The APKWS guided rockets themselves have a very short range, only a few kilometres/miles, meaning that they can only defend a very limited area from ground/sea based launch platforms. So mounting them to a fighter aircraft vastly increases the area that can be defended by them, and detection capabilities for drones out of range of the APKWS (fighter aircraft have their own radar).

Make no mistake, the US military is learning their lessons when it comes to the Ukraine war, the confrontations with Ansarallah in the Red Sea, and defending against Iranian ballistic missiles.

[–] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is a pretty important development. The cost of interceptors is less important than their availability. Good catch.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It's quite a depressing development from a resistance perspective (which I guess almost all of us share) because it means now that the US Carrier Strike Group (CSG) only needs to remain out of range of Ansarallah's anti ship ballistic missiles(ASBMs), (max range 500km for Tankeel/Raad-500, maybe 700km if Iran gives them Zolfogar Basir), and that the CSG can just absorb the long range drone and cruise missile attacks, the few that get through the air patrols can be dealt with by the ships themselves. While remaining outside of the range of ASBMs is blunting the CSG's attacks and US airstrikes as the US fighter planes have to fly longer distances, airstrikes are still happening, and the CSG is not being driven to the extreme north of the Red Sea or anything like that anymore (aside from maybe day two of this lastest conflict).

Editing to say that satellite imagery from the 19th March 2025 has confirmed this, the USS Harry Truman is operating off of the coast of Jeddah, around 700-800km from Yemen. So outside of ASBM range (Zolfogar Basir has a 700km range), but within the range of cruise missiles and drones. This explains why Ansarallah did not launch any ASBMs over the past two nights, the CSG was out of range.

The solution is probably to give Ansarallah longer range ASBMs, but that's an idea with its own big issues. The short range ASBMs Ansarallah currently use don't have any midcourse guidance updates, they fire them at the general location the enemy ship is expected to be at, the Manoeuvrable Re-entry Vehicle (MaRV) of the missile does a pull up manoeuvre and performs a short glide phase, in which it's terminal guidance systems (EO/IR sensors or radar) locate the target and dive down to it. This all happenes in a handful of minutes, the Tankeel/Raad 500 has a burnout velocity of Mach 8 (2.7 kilometres per second), and an impact velocity of probably around Mach 1.5-2. A ship can't move that far in that time, which is why this approach works, from missile launch to glide phase, the ship can't move out of the effective range of the terminal guidance systems on the MaRV. Once you start trying to hit ships over longer ranges, the ships can move further, and you need midcourse guidance updates to ensure that the MaRV arrives in a close enough proximity to the target for the terminal guidance systems to work. Who is going to provide that midcourse guidance? Iran with their own ships, or Iran giving Ansarallah long range radars that datalink to the ASBMs? I think the US would consider that an act of war. I also don't think Ansarallah has this capability themselves. China's ASBMs use AWACS aircraft to provide midcourse guidance updates for instance. That's a capability not currently in the possession of Iran or Ansarallah.

Another solution would be really fast (Mach 3+) cruise missiles or really stealthy subsonic cruise missiles. But I don't see Russia or China giving these weapons to Ansarallah.

[–] miz@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

how about underwater drones, like a submarine version of their drone boats?

[–] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The only recourse Ansarallah has that I can see given their current technological limitations would be to increase the quantity of missile deployments (any missiles or drones), screen attacks through decoy maneuvers to confuse and distract radar teams/aircraft and stagger attacks to disrupt sleep/rotation schedules on US naval ships.....keeping all this up continuously day after day

And most importantly threaten critical infrastructure across the Peninsula to increase the scale of the zone of engagement, every time the beast turns its head or wanders over to a decoy it burns calories

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

And most importantly threaten critical infrastructure across the Peninsula to increase the scale of the zone of engagement

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi gave a speech yesterday specifically calling out all the Arab regimes for collaborating with Israel, so I guess striking them is an escalation option they are considering, and it makes sense given their capabilities. A lot easier to hit a static oil field or refinery than a moving ship.

[–] SoyViking@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

Lazy Bastards: Danish Cops Admits Closing Cases Without Investigating And Lying to The Public To Fudge Crime Statistics

The Danish police are embroiled in yet another scandal, this time over the systematic "washing" of criminal cases—deliberately closing investigations without proper inquiry while lying to the public about it. Thirty current and former police officers have come forward, revealing that police leadership routinely pressures investigators to abandon cases under false pretenses. This practice, known as "washing cases," has resulted in violent crimes and large-scale financial fraud being ignored, all to make case backlogs disappear on paper.

Read more...

According to whistleblower cops, the police manipulate cases in several ways: pressuring victims not to file reports, misclassifying serious crimes as minor offenses, delaying evidence collection until surveillance footage expires, and conducting superficial or non-existent witness interviews. These tactics allow police departments to appear more efficient while quietly discarding cases that require real investigative work.

One officer, Martin Bjørnvig, has publicly admitted that he and his colleagues routinely deceive the public. "We violate citizens' legal rights by failing to investigate reported cases. And we lie to citizens about the reasons," he told Danish state media. He told how he was tasked with processing a large backlog of cases involving economic crime save was instructed to close cases, even if there were named suspects or fraud for large amounts. An anonymous ex-cop admitted to having "washed" assault andremoved cases.

Other officers, speaking anonymously, confirm that leadership not only tolerates but actively encourages this practice. One states: "You have no choice. Management decides. In the end, you’re just a number with an attractive detective job"

The motivations behind this fraud are clear. On an individual level, officers seek to meet internal performance metrics while avoiding complex, time-consuming cases. As an institution, the police force prioritizes bureaucratic efficiency over justice, preferring tidy statistics over meaningful law enforcement.

Despite overwhelming testimony from rank-and-file officers, senior police leadership denies everything. The National Police has flatly rejected the existence of "washing," dismissing the accusations as mere "prioritization." Yet officers describe an environment where questioning these methods leads to professional retaliation, confirming that the deception is systemic.

The Liberal Party, one of three parties making up the Nordic hermit kingdom's Social Democrat-led right-wing regime, has reacted to the scandal not by demanding accountability but by pulling out an old reactionary hobby horse and demanding more money for the police. The party’s justice spokesperson, Preben Bang Henriksen, called the revelations "deeply troubling" but framed the issue as a lack of police resources rather than a structural failure of law enforcement itself.

The government, eager to maintain its pro-police "law and order" stance, has signaled no intention of holding the police accountable. Instead, it continues to lavish funding on both law enforcement and the military, while slashing education, healthcare, and social services. This demonstrates the regime’s true priorities: protecting the state’s coercive apparatus while neglecting the well-being of ordinary citizens.

The Danish "washing" scandal is yet another reminder that, under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the claim that police exist to "protect and serve" is a lie. The police exist to uphold the existing social order, ensuring that the state’s priorities—not justice—are enforced. Any protection the public receives is incidental; their real purpose is to maintain control.

[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago (5 children)

On the topic of what China should be doing about Israel, this one has gone under the radar for obvious reasons: PowerChina Completes Israel’s Largest Pumped Storage Power Station

The Kokhav Hayarden Pumped Storage Power Station, constructed by Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina), has been officially commissioned for commercial operation. The project is the world’s lowest-altitude pumped storage power station and the largest of its kind in Israel.

As a key national infrastructure project in Israel, the power station is located in the Gilboa mountain range in northeastern Israel. It is also the first pumped storage project undertaken by a Chinese company overseas.

Designed with a total installed capacity of 344 megawatts, the station features upper and lower reservoirs, each with a storage capacity of 3.1 million cubic meters. Operating with a rated head of 410 meters, the facility is equipped with two reversible pump-turbine units, each with a capacity of 172 MW. Once operational, it will play a crucial role in ensuring the safety and stability of Israel’s power grid.

The project was executed under an engineering, procurement and construction contract, which was awarded to a consortium comprising PowerChina and General Electric Company.

China is exporting its state-of-the-art technology to help build Israel’s infrastructure. Maybe they should invite Israel to join Belt and Road as well.

[–] miz@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

this sucks. all I can hope is that someday not so far away Palestine benefits from this project after the collapse of the zionist entity

EDIT: more about the project, coverage from 2021

https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/projects/kokhav-hayarden-pumped-storage-hydropower-project/

Hutchison Water, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, in partnership with Noy Fund, a privately-held energy and infrastructure investment company based in Israel, is developing the project through a special purpose company (SPC) named Star Pumped Storage.

The £422m ($600m) project is being developed on a design-build-own-operate (DBOO) basis. The construction works on the project were started in December 2016, with the start of commercial operations expected by 2021.

[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Haha CK Hutchison… it’s been in deep trouble on Chinese and Hong Kong media after Li Ka-shing announced the selling of the Panama Ports. It’ll be interesting to see whether the Chinese government will stop the sale, but that will further raise tension with the US.

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[–] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

For the second night in a row, Ethiopian warplanes drop barrel bombs on villages in the Middle Shabelle region of Somalia.

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[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Defence analyst Decker Eveleth (one of the main people who did the analysis of Iran's ballistic missile attack on Nevatim Airbase in Israel) has just published a new article on Russia's Oreshnik ballistic missile. The article itself states what we've already worked out in terms of the purpose of the weapon, and some of the wording is remarkably similar to my own analysis. Now before I get accused of being a fed again, I promise that I am not Decker Eveleth, and do not work for any Washington DC think tanks. It just seems that with the information available, our conclusions are similar. But I'll link the article from Decker below because it is quite interesting. Also see if you can spot the similarities...

Russian 'Oreshnik' Missile Is Bad News for NATO - Decker Eveleth, Foreign Policy dot com

full articleLast November, Russia launched a new kind of missile into Ukraine. Moscow debuted the intermediate-range ballistic missile Oreshnik (meaning “hazelnut tree” in Russian) in an attack on Dnipro. Though it used only inert submunitions, it marked yet another attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to signal his willingness to escalate.

Footage of the strike and analysis of satellite imagery suggests that the Oreshnik can likely carry six warheads each armed with six submunitions, for a total of 36. As the missile descends toward Earth, it can disperse these submunitions to blanket a wide area with explosives, similar to how a shotgun sprays shot.

The Oreshnik is also almost certainly capable of being armed with nuclear warheads, and many experts have focused analysis primarily on these capabilities and the role that the missile plays in Putin’s nuclear signaling. But relatively little has been said about the Oreshnik’s conventional capabilities and how it might enable a change in Russia’s targeting strategy in a potential future war with NATO.

In a conflict where forces are dispersed over large areas, as is the case in Ukraine, an expensive missile like the Oreshnik is a poor choice. But the Oreshnik makes perfect sense for attacking dense targets like air bases, where its conventional submunitions can deal significant damage.

In a televised interview last December, Putin remarked that with the Oreshnik, Russia was “practically on the edge of having no need to use nuclear weapons.” The Russian leader was exaggerating, but there was a grain of truth to his statement. A mass Russian strike with conventional Oreshnik missiles on NATO strategic sites—such as air bases, command and control facilities, and missile bases—could leave NATO reeling without Putin using nuclear arms.

In a war with NATO, Russia is likely to attack the alliance’s air bases in the opening days of a conflict. Russia is well aware of NATO’s air superiority, and it hopes to give its forces some breathing room by destroying—or at least delaying—NATO’s ability to respond.

Modern fighter aircraft—particularly the F-35, which multiple NATO states increasingly use as their multirole aircraft of choice—are too complex to be repaired in the field. F-35s and similar aircraft were designed to be supported by large, sophisticated air bases. Decades of budget cuts have concentrated NATO’s airpower in only a handful of these bases, making them uniquely vulnerable to the Oreshnik’s shotgun-style munitions.

Russia’s nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) could certainly make short work of NATO air bases. But when it comes to conventional weapons, Russia’s experience in Ukraine has revealed problems with attacking strategic sites with its existing missiles. Russian missiles that are armed with unitary conventional warheads have failed to disable key Ukrainian air bases and other facilities due to a combination of low accuracy and successful Ukrainian air defenses.

The Oreshnik helps solve this problem. Based on Russia’s performance in Ukraine, it may take dozens of conventional Iskander missiles to destroy aircraft at major air bases. It would take far fewer Oreshniks to achieve a similar effect. During the Nov. 21 attack, a single Oreshnik missile dropped 36 inert submunitions on the Pivdenmash rocket manufacturing complex. If the submunitions had not been inert, the missile would have done extensive damage over a large area, negating the accuracy problems of Russia’s Iskander and Kh-101 missiles.

The good news is the Oreshnik’s conventional capabilities will give Russia more non-nuclear options, theoretically lessening the risk that the Kremlin would contemplate using nuclear weapons early in a conflict. The bad news is the Oreshnik’s non-nuclear capacities mean Russia will have more options to significantly disrupt NATO operations at the conventional level.

Current European defenses will do little to protect against the Oreshnik. Despite many NATO bases being protected by a multilayered missile defense grid, the Oreshnik can fly above the intercept range of most systems and comes down to Earth too fast for most terminal interceptors, such as the Patriot air defense system. The interceptors that can stop the Oreshnik—namely, the Arrow 3 and the SM-3 Block IIA systems—will likely have limited inventories if current procurement trajectories hold. In addition, Russian decoys and other countermeasures may be able to fool interceptors into going after a fake target.

The Oreshnik is not a technically difficult weapon to make. Russia is well-versed in the technology involved and has been making the rocket engines for missiles similar to the Oreshnik for decades. Russia is already expanding its missile production facilities to rebuild its arsenal in the long term. Notably, some of the facilities being expanded, such as the Kamensky Plant located across from Ukraine’s eastern border, specialize in the sort of large ICBM-sized rocket motors the Oreshnik uses.

Regardless of how the war in Ukraine ends, in a decade or two NATO may face a rearmed Russia wielding a reconstituted arsenal in which large conventional ballistic missiles like the Oreshnik feature prominently. This new force could defy expectations that Russia will become more reliant on its nuclear arsenal as its conventional capabilities deteriorate.

NATO should begin preparing for this now by making its major air bases less attractive targets for Russian missiles. This can be achieved by dispersing aircraft to remote locations—minor runways and highways throughout Europe—in a crisis so they are harder for Russia to find, target, and destroy.

Some NATO states already train and prepare for certain refueling and rearming operations at dispersed locations. But the problem of aircraft complexity remains. Though dispersion can help ensure the survival of the aircraft themselves, the major air bases will remain tempting targets because of how dependent fighter aircraft are on these bases for intensive maintenance. If Russia can attack these larger bases, it will be able to destroy the valuable maintenance tools and parts stockpiles that keep fighter aircraft running in combat.

To plan for a reconstituted and possibly more dangerous Russian missile force, NATO states should embrace a dispersal plan that allows for longer operations in the field. This plan would require investment in more spare parts and support equipment, as well as the ability to conduct more complicated maintenance operations in the field—such as through mobile units equipped with workstations inside vehicles that would be dispatched to sites to maintain aircraft. This would aid both deterrence and warfighting.

Two problems stand in the way of this effort, but both can be rectified. The first is parts. Budget cuts across many NATO air forces have reduced the readiness rate of aircraft. This is a problem especially for the F-35 fleet, where parts backlogs are widespread, but it extends to other aircraft such as the Eurofighter Typhoon. NATO states should budget for and invest heavily in not only fixing this parts shortfall but also exceeding it, maintaining depots of aircraft parts across their territory to ensure aircraft can be quickly returned to service from wherever they may be dispersed to.

The second problem is experience and personnel. The Government Accountability Office has noted in the past that U.S. military personnel lack experience in many maintenance tasks related to the F-35 due partly to the lack of spare parts and support equipment. Given the global state of the F-35 supply chain, other NATO states will also likely face these problems.

NATO states should regularly practice and perform more complicated maintenance and ensure that they are able to do these tasks on any F-35, regardless of what air force it belongs to. The alliance conducted its first-ever cross-service maintenance exercise with the F-35 last year. Such exercises should be a regular occurrence in all NATO states equipped with the F-35 to ensure jets can easily return to the war regardless of where they have been dispersed. Combined, these measures can reduce NATO’s reliance on a small number of major bases that may be heavily damaged in the opening days of a war.

Russia’s difficulty with long-range strikes against defended military targets in Ukraine should not make Europe complacent about the safety of its forces in the coming decades. The Oreshnik and other systems like it may defy expectations about Russian military posture, and, without action, they will take a toll on NATO’s ability to sustain the fight in a future war.

My own analysis - part one

My own analysis - Part two

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[–] LargePenis@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I'm starting to doubt myself when it comes to Hinkle honestly. Everything about him screams the most obvious fed, but surely Ansarallah know something that we don't know if they're granting him such access. Who is more correct here, the bear unemployment forum or the most significant anti-imperialist group in the world right now?

[–] ZWQbpkzl@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Pretty clearly a Russian asset like Black Hammer. Don't have to be a Russia Gater to see that.

[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

He was also able to talk with Nicolas Maduro, I think he has some very strong ties with the Russian goverment/FSB. Or he is an USian agent that they use to speak with the USA "enemies" and he gets to take pics with cool people and brag about it online.

[–] Z_Poster365@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

everything about him screams russian fed. The Russian paid dudes are so obvious and unsubtle, and they all have these weird esoteric positions and brainworms. Not one of them is a straightforward leftie and commie, but they all have anti-America views.

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[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yanis is throwing Die Linke in the bin.

https://xcancel.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1903411093071876601

spoilerGoodbye, LINKE!

In its quest to become a ‘normal’, ‘acceptable’ party, Die Linke has joined the warmongering radical centrists in their rearmament folly

This past week was one for the history books. The German parliament amended the constitutional debt brake so as to enable unlimited military spending, irrespectively of how deeply into the red it will push the federal government’s budget. Meanwhile, none of that fiscal generosity is to be extended to investment in hospitals, education, firefighters, kindergartens, pensions, green technologies etc. In brief, when it comes to funding life, austerity remains part of Germany’s constitutional order. Only investments in death have been released from austerity’s constitutional clutches.

The underlying reason for introducing this stunning change to Germany’s constitution is simple: German automakers are now too uncompetitive. They can’t profitably sell their cars to civilians in Germany or abroad. So, they demand that the German state buys tanks that Rheinmetall will be making on Volkswagen’s disused production lines. To get the state to pay for this, the constitutional brake of government deficits had to be bypassed. Always eager to serve their Big Business masters, parties of permanent centrist governments were deployed to usher in this cynical constitutional change, one that annuls Germany’s post-war commitment to peace and disarmament.

To change the constitution, the centrist parties needed a two-thirds majority in both houses of Germany’s federal parliament: the lower house, the Bundestag, but also the upper chamber, the Bundesrat where each state is represented by its size and via the coalition state government ruling over it. While the centrist parties secured their two-thirds majority in the outgoing Bundestag, they faced a serious problem in the Bundesrat. Die Linke, the “left Party”, whom we congratulated for their good election result recently, had the opportunity to cause the state governments in which it was party to (as part of a state-level coalition) to abstain in the Bundesrat vote. That would have blocked the constitutional amendment and would have dealt a lethal blow to military Keynesianism’s insidious return. Alas, the leadership of Die Linke chose not to use their power, their vote in the Bundesrat, to do this. They, in short, joined the warmongering radical centrists in their dangerous, extremely costly rearmament folly.

The voters of Die Linke are, rightly, enraged, with some of them even calling for breaking up the state coalitions in which the party participates and expelling the officials involved. Already Die Linke’s failure to rise up against the genocide in Palestine, and the subsequent totalitarian treatment by the German state of those protesting the genocide, has tarnished Die Linke in the eyes of progressives not just in Germany but beyond too.

Nothing obliterates the ethical standing of a political party of the left more efficiently than a leadership overly keen to be ‘accepted’ by a radicalised centre constantly moving towards the xenophobic, warmongering ultra-right. It was terrible enough that the leaders of Die Linke felt the need to turn a blind eye to Israel’ genocidal apartheid project. Now, this week, they have taken the next step to political oblivion: they have used their votes in the Bundesrat to ensconce, for the first time since 1945, military Keynesianism in the German constitution.

Good night Die Linke. And good luck.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Die Linke should have been thrown in the bin over a year ago after their "Rosa Luxemburg Foundation" published this horrific piece on Palestine - Israel.

https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/51112/against-the-logic-of-violence

full article, warning: both sides nonsenseThe horrific images of murder, hostage-taking, and destruction in Israel and Palestine bear witness to an inhuman brutality that deeply disturbs us. We are shocked by the attacks of Hamas on innocent civilians in Israel. We are also shocked by the closure and bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which primarily affects a defenceless civilian population. More death, suffering, and a humanitarian catastrophe are the consequences.

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation mourns all the victims of the massacres, bombings, and acts of violence. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims.

The renewed escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine is an expression of the political failure to find a just and lasting peace solution to the conflict that has lasted for decades. This political failure is also a failure of the international community. If the escalation of violence cannot be contained quickly, the conflict threatens to become internationalized with unforeseeable consequences.

Together with our colleagues in the offices in Tel Aviv and Ramallah as well as numerous partner organizations, we have camnpaigned on the ground for years for an end to the logic of violence. The people on both sides of the barriers and checkpoints need peace, social justice, full democratic participation, equal rights, and solidarity. For this to happen, an end to Israel’s occupation policy, which violates international law, and the construction of settlements in the West Bank is just as indispensable as the strengthening of a secular and democratic civil society, towards which we work in both Israel and Palestine.

The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is affiliated with the «Left Party» [Die Linke] in the Federal Republic of Germany. As is the case with other German party-affiliated foundations, it receives funding from the public budget

[–] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (12 children)

In this clip, Elon Musk and Ted Cruz inadvertently discovered that what MMT has been saying all along is, in fact, true lol.

The Treasury simply orders the Fed to create new money out of nothing. The US government doesn’t need to tax before it can spend, nor does it need to “borrow” from private investors or foreign countries via bonds before it can spend.

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[–] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago
[–] CthulhusIntern@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (4 children)

History will likely condemn Trump for what we've seen, but I sure hope they also condemn Bush II for creating the conditions to allow it, and Obama and Biden for allowing those conditions to continue.

[–] refolde@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago

History needs to condemn the entire history of the United States. US history comprises nothing but racism, war, and genocide. A massive tumor on the face ofn the earth

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[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Looks like the feds are properly starting Anonymous back up again. This dude seems to take them seriously as a "decentralised group". They're feds, they've always been feds, this shit is fake resistance intended to fuck with us and gain influence among anarchists. I suspect it'll turn into anti-tankie left splitting or whatever at some point.

https://youtu.be/RjuX1VbTsto

[–] ziggurter@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

TBF, I don't know a single anarchist in real life who ever took "Anonymous" seriously. Especially given the tight coupling between people who used that name all over the place (and their aesthetics) and 4chan reactionary doxxers and shit.

Though shit like that Mr Robot series probably helped whitewash it for the normies....

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[–] Eldungeon2@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Trump saying he will hold Iran responsible for Yemeni aggressions now.

[–] 3rdWorldCommieCat@hexbear.net 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Guess we gotta start holding the US and "Israel" responsible for the massacres commited by the new syrian regime then.

[–] OrionsMask@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

At this point, the evil dogs will probably happily accept credit.

[–] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's what happens when you genuinely believe the "iranian proxy narrative" and think if they tell the houthis to jump they actually do.

It's funny cos I assume the islamic republic probably pays a guy to pick up a phone every morning and call a houthi guy to tell him not to mess with shipping routes and gets politely told off.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The truth is somewhere in the middle. Ansarallah and Yemen are obviously a sovereign country that makes their own decisions to support the people of Gaza and carry out a naval blockade. However, this blockade, along with the direct attacks against Israel, is only possible thanks to the advanced Iranian designed weapons that they use. Without these Iranian designed weapons (with some components likely manufactured in Iran), there would be no blockade.

[–] Nakoichi@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hopefully there are severe consequences for the mine owners and operators so we can point to that as an example of how a socialist government holds such egregious failures accountable.

Either way a bunch of smug libs are going to try to use it as an indictment.

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[–] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

American surveillance planes have been circling in the Persian Gulf near Iran's nuclear power plant in Bushehr for several days in a row.

  • Telegram
[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Weeks actually.

[–] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Primero fidel-bat

Cuba makes progress in restoring the national power system

According to Havana Electric Company, areas of Boyeros, Guanabacoa, Centro Habana, Marianao, Cerro, 10 de Octubre, La Lisa, Playa, San Miguel del Padrón and Arroyo Naranjo in the capital are already supplied and the service is being extended.

According to recent reports from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, the Felton (units 1) and Nuevitas (units 5 and 6) thermoelectric plants in Holguín and Camagüey respectively have been synchronised with the National Electricity System (SEN).

The Ministry said in X that the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas, the island’s largest, as well as Mariel (eight) in Artemisa and Renté (three) in Santiago de Cuba, are in the process of being commissioned.

“During the day, other units will be connected, as well as the floating generators in Havana and Regla and the Mariel motors,” the source said.

[–] kittin@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (8 children)

Interesting DD I’ve been reading on $TLSA

  • teslas AI is being moved to Twitter / Grok which is privately owned
  • musk and all other Tesla insiders are selling stock as fast as they can
  • SpaceX is privately owned and has large foreign government contracts, perfect for kickbacks

Basically Musk doesn’t even give a shit if Tesla goes to 0. He’s fundamentally operating on the premise that it will go to zero.

His exit plan is Grok AI & SpaceX which are privately owned and soaked in subsidies.

The fucker has won.

[–] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Didn't he borrow against $TSLA to buy twitter? Or has that money been reshuffled enough to not be tied to $TSLA anymore?

[–] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Yes, but it was mostly a leveraged buyout, meaning that most of the debt burden for Twitter's takeover is on Twitter itself. Musk does have other loans borrowed against his TSLA, but the strike price is way below $50 and it is "only" on like ~30% of his shares.

[–] Lemister@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

The easiest way to make money is being rich in the first place. And by making money I mean government bailouts

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[–] miz@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Germany pledges €300m to Syrian govt despite sectarian massacres | The Cradle

Over 1,500 Alawite civilians were executed by Syrian security forces and affiliated gunmen in a series of massacres starting on 7 March

[–] edge@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

Germany saw another genocide starting in the Middle East and decided to get in on the action.

Hmm, what's the Maoist Standard English for Germany?

[–] FunkyStuff@hexbear.net 1 points 1 month ago

Pathogenically inclined Maoists call it Germ$money$

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