Testing a new newsmega feature: great effort posts of the week. The comm is at its best when people contribute their own analysis like this

@CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net with analysis of the social and political dimensions of organized crime in Rio, placing the police operation that killed 100+ people in context.

@MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net on how sanctions against Huawei didn't stop their technical advancement but did save Apple's market share

@xiaohongshu@hexbear.net on the significance of US fed rates on China-US trade negotiations and on China's trade relations worldwide. The back and forth in the subthread is worth reading as well

To fully understand the scale of what happened in Rio de Janeiro on the 28th I'd like to refer to the following public utility. It is a map of the territories in the Rio Metro Area that are under control of criminal factions - which is the word used by brazilians to refer to organized crime on the ground, as opposed to gangs, mafias and so on.

This is a zoomed in portion of the map, centered around Rio city's North Zone or more specifically the Zona da Leopoldina - which is a mixed use, middle to lower class dormitory continuum connecting the international Galeão Airport with the City Center and the affluent South Zone of Rio, where most of tourism lies. The northern black circle is the Penha Complex, the southern black circle refers to the Alemão Complex. Complexes are agglomerations of slums, older housing complexes and the occasional neighborhood which are fully under the control of a criminal faction. The Penha Complex has a population of around 100.000 people, the Alemão Complex is almost 60.000. If you look closely there's one thing between both complexes which is a forested region. That is where most of the extra bodies were found today.

If you look at the full utility I linked above you'll see a bunch of colors and abbreviations. CV stands for Comando Vermelho or Red Command, which is an older faction originally focused on drug trafficking. TCP and ADA are schisms from Red Command, which follow more or less the same logic only more extreme and less pragmatic in its governance of the occupied populations. The blue colors with the CL and 5M abbreviations refer to Milícias (Militias), criminal groups formed out of police and military personnel and their families in the 90s and early 00s. Each of these factions often go to war with each other for territory and this war has been accelerating over time with the frontier moving from one part of the metro area to the next. Moreover, the leadership of every faction has become relatively young and unstable, increasingly paranoid and more aggressive over time - likely due to the fact that the traditional heads of the factions moved on from the coastal cities and took over the drug trade at the border after the FARC disarmed and the Paraguayan syndicates lost ground.

I mentioned criminal governance beforehand and I meant it. When you look at the revenues of criminal factions on the ground nowadays the drug trade can reach up to 11% of the money being made. Most of the money comes from taxes extracted from the working poorest: water, electricity, internet, television, natural gas, rent, protection rackets and so on. There are even bootleg transportation apps in some communities of Rio. All in all, this sort of ad-hoc state organization of crime adds up to more than 70 billion dollars a year which for Brazil's economy is massive.

Where does that leave the Brazilian State in all this? More than 15 years ago when Rio became the centerpiece of a number of international events such as the World Cup and the Olympic games, the State found itself in a pickle. The old modus vivendi it built with the criminal factions was intolerable for capital. The risk was too great. So the state delivered an ultimatum to the factions: we are going to move in, we aren't going to rock the boat all that hard we'll just built police barracks within your territory and you aren't supposed to do anything - hell, you'll probably sell drugs anyways we don't care, we just can't let any of this spill into the touristy areas of Rio. For the most part the factions of Rio complied. There was only one real rebellion in the Vila Cruzeiro, which was immediately met with armoured cars from the marine corps and its interesting to note that Vila Cruzeiro is within the Penha Complex from yesterday's events.

The problem arises from how the factions complied. It would have been one thing if they stayed in place and things were business as usual, just with fewer robberies and turf wars and such. But naturally they branched off. First they moved into the municipalities of the Metro area, which are even poorer than Rio's periphery. Then they moved into Rio State's interior. After that they started making more concerted moves into the peripheries of Brazil as a whole. A few years later, once the imperative to keep things under control for the Olympics was gone the occupation programme was met with a return of the faction wars only now with a vengeance. Now the factions don't just hold territory, they manage and extract resources from its people to fund real military campaigns across the greater Rio Area.

Fast-forward to this year, 4 months ago the government of Rio State tried to do a megaop against the Israel Complex - controlled by the Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP). Megaops are not that uncommon. They are part of the modus vivendi between the state and the criminal elements because, let's face it, the people at the top who launder all the money are tied to politicians, religious leaders and financiers. A Megaop is supposed to kill a handful of people - thereby satisfying the public's need for revenge - arrest a few others but not rock the boat too hard. It was not uncommon for such and such tons of drugs to be apprehended while local leaders somehow escaped. The old leaders of Rio's factions understood this fact and, sure, sometimes they were caught but its not like they lost control over their domains. They still called the shots from prison. But you'll remember that I said the new leaders are young, unstable and increasingly paranoid. It's not just that they'll see you making a vague gesture with your hand and immediately execute you for making 'gang signs' of a rival faction. This also affects how they treat the state.

So what happened 4 months ago in Israel Complex? The Terceiro Comando Puro of the region is led by religious pentecostal fundamentalists. Its in the name Israel Complex. The moment military police was poised to enter they didn't bother shooting at the police officers. Instead they shot at Avenida Brasil, the main thoroughfare of the city. Thousands were in effect kept hostage in a massive traffic jam and the state couldn't even enter the territory. This was a humiliation to the police and the state government both. And humiliations like these need to be avenged. Today's op mobilized 2,500 civil and military police, moved against two Complexes at the same time and actually managed to capture some of Comando Vermelho's middle managers, arrest dozens and kill hundreds (the latest toll at this moment being 168). Needless to say, by the very nature of this lashout many executions were summary and many innocent people died along the way. But it didn't stop there.

Comando Vermelho is big, like all factions today it is a para-statal organization and its unity is always at stake. For the past 5 years Comando Vermelho has been fighting wars against ADA and TCP, schisms from it. And Comando Vermelho is not a centralized entity, it is quasi-feudal in structure. As such, it needs to answer humiliation with humiliation. That retaliation is partly in the form of killing power: they set fires across the city and used makeshift drones to throw grenades at police officers. But for the most part, the relatiation took the form of disrupting activities everywhere from Rio's North Zone, to the Center and to certain cities of the Metro Area.

This is a map of the main thoroughfares that Comando Vermelho ordered closed via barricades - makeshift blockades with torched buses and cars, often also used to delay police action into their territories. This map is meant to be illustrative of their reach because it goes beyond just this action. Threats and rumours online of Comando Vermelho authorizing petty robbery within its territory (often done in order to fund its war operations, now done as retaliation against the state), sackings and killings were enough to force the closure of schools, hospitals, clinics and commerce all across the city.

I cite this retaliation by Comando Vermelho because what we have is a full display of necropolitics, of death and killing as a solution to life's problems. Only it is also part of an old, outdated paradigm of dealing with crime. The assumption in the War on Drugs always that if you can arrest the Dealer, then crime Disappears. It was harder to argue otherwise in the past, when so much of crime hinged on the drug trade. But nowadays the real drug money lies in retail (controlling supply across the country) or international drug routes into Europe. As mentioned, things have changed, drugs are a minimal portion of the revenue of these political entities, which now act and extract revenues from people as though they are the state. They do not necessarily provide public services, but increasingly do. This is the new war that places not only Rio de Janeiro but much of Brazil's peripheric states at a crossroads. And that crossroads is well known.

(continued)

BloombergTV:

"Having a socialist mayor would be catastrophic"

Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square, tells the FII event in Saudi Arabia that he is firmly against Zohran Mamdani's campaign to be the mayor of New York

A socialist mayor in NYC would be the worst thing that has happened in New York since.... Uuhhh... Nevermind.

Iraqi parliamentary elections in around 10 days. I've spent the last week studying the whole situation to my wife's dismay, so you nerds will get a mega post next week where I will break down every big party by governorate and present my calculations of how the government formation might look. You're also getting some commentary on the big question marks ahead of the elections and how the whole system works.

Costa Rican Scientists Confirm Discovery of New Salamander Species

Classic Amazon, they announced that layoffs of 30k Amazon employees are starting... tomorrow.

The US is seeing the largest number of layoffs since 2020, with nearly 1 million people losing their jobs so far this year.

See! If you cut taxes for the wealthy, they will choose to create more jobs.

Latest batch of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel [sic] 'mutilated, unrecognizable' | The Cradle

The latest batch of 30 bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel [sic] were mostly "just bones" and "unrecognizable" following their deaths due to execution and torture, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced on 1 November.

"The bodies of the thirty martyrs that were received yesterday (Friday) are the most difficult among the batches that have been released," Director General of the Health Ministry, Munir al-Barsh, confirmed.

Bloomberg: Two US military planes crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes. What is the comment of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this?

Chinese Spokeperson: If needed, China is willing to provide humanitarian assistance to the United States in salvaging the plane crash in the South China Sea.

I am old enough to remember the late 90s and the time before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Americans were for the most part willing to use the military so long as there was a fig leaf of justification for war. The military failure in Iraq had me convinced Americans were snake bitten on this. And I do think for a time, they were. The US I think was forced to use sanctions and more low-level ops in the aftermath of Iraq, and I think public attitudes and reluctance of Americans to want to deploy boots on the ground in other countries played a part in this.

But now I think that’s over - which makes sense, since Iraq has not been an issue Americans have thought about much in nearly 20 years. The memory has faded.

Saying this as I see how nonchalant Americans seem to be over starting a war in Venezuela that no one actually believes the line the administration is putting out there. Hasan is showing some polling stats right now that, while they don’t show Americans are thirsty for war, they sure don’t seem all that bothered about the US attacking another country totally unprovoked and without any even close to legitimate casus belli.

At this point I just hope the forces of Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution are able to really make the Americans regret their ambivalence over this evil act.

I'm writing my Iraqi elections mega post and I'm already on 3000 words and the thing is like 50% done ffs. There are four massive tables that will break the website for sure, I'm looking forward to that. It's not looking good for the communists, but maybe Allah through the divine intercession of Imam Lenin turns their luck.

Venezuela claims capture of CIA group, accuses U.S. of plotting ‘false flag’ attack

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article312660489.html

https://archive.is/lqPsQ

If the SNAP benefit issue is not resolved in the US, this is going to be a very massive problem very quickly and definitely at the forefront of national news this week. It might be a big enough issue that it gets the shutdown resolved, because there is no alternative that can provide the amount of food SNAP can. Since it is already almost the end of the month and the benefits are meager anyways, food banks are already feeling the pinch, and they have been trying to procure more food in preparation. Unfortunately I just don't think the existing food bank system is close to prepared, and the numbers of people seeking alternative food aid should start to dramatically spike this week as peoples benefits will be running out and they won't be getting deposits next week like they should.

This is also going to have a negative impact on grocery stores themselves, especially in poorer neighborhoods, further escalating the economic and food insecurity crises. Mutual aids, community groups, and churches will have their work cut out for them to feed their communities.

Per Drop Site News:

At least 104 Palestinians in Gaza were killed, including 46 children and 20 women, in Israeli attacks on Gaza overnight, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. At least 253 Palestinians were wounded, including 78 children and 84 women. The total recorded death toll since October 7, 2023 is now 68,643 killed, with 170,655 injured.

Since October 11, the first full day of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 211 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 597, while 482 bodies have been recovered, according to the Ministry of Health.

Among those killed was Mohammed al-Munirawi, a journalist with Palestine Newspaper, along with his wife, as they were sheltering in a tent in Nuseirat, central Gaza. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, al-Munirawi’s death brings the total number of journalists killed since the start of the war to 256.

The Zionist entity murdered as many people in one day (yesterday) as they have in all the days since the ceasefire. Nakedly obvious “collective punishment” since the entity is just mad that a IOF soldier died and by their own admission, they don’t know if it’s Hamas or not.

President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the mass distribution of rifles across the country to arm the workers against a possible United States invasion. The arms, he said in a speech, will go "to the coasts, the mountains, cities, villages, plains, hamlets, borders, popular neighborhoods, all in order to defend our rights, our peace, our lives, and our sovereignty."

fucking finally (from mintpress, it might be slightly overhyping https://nitter.net/MintPressNews/status/1984325697393819863)

Just throwing out huge numbers (100 GW) + asking the government to "build it for us".

OpenAI has asked the US government to massively expand its energy capacity to stay ahead in artificial intelligence.

In a filing to the White House, OpenAI called for 100 gigawatts of new power each year to close the “electron gap” with China.

Horrific images and videos out of El-Fasher, Sudan. Not content with the total siege on the city, UAE backed Rapid Support Forces have entered the city and begun massacring indiscriminately. Over 5000 victims have been reported, including women, children, the sick, and the elderly.

Anyone involved in facilitating this genocide should be walled

Fed rate cut remains the best predictor of China cutting a deal with the US (no pun intended).

I don’t know what other news mega heads think, but I am starting to believe that there is a lot of truths in my hypothesis.

Let’s recap. Back in January when Biden wanted to ban TikTok, I wrote this:

Just last month, Fed’s Powell released more mixed signals, citing uncertainty in inflation and said that the Fed may only cut once or twice in 2025. Of course, interest rate has very little to do with inflation in the US, but it should be seen as an imperialist tool that controls foreign economies.

So Trump has a lot of leverage here: if he can get the Fed to cut more rates this year, then the PBOC can also cut their rates, this will then allow the local governments to borrow at an even lower interest to pay back their outstanding debt, and thus bringing huge relief to their current budgetary situations. Here, you can see how the Fed’s interest rate directly impacts China’s local government finances.

This is just one weapon the US can use. Tariffs, sanctions, interest rates are all “threats” that can be negotiated down if China gives in to what the US wants. What we will have to wait and see is how Trump and Xi deal with these issues in their ensuing negotiations.

On September 15th, China sold TikTok. The following day, the Federal Reserve cut its key rate for the first time of the year.

Last month, when China imposed rare earth export restrictions, I wrote this:

The US has no choice but to negotiate. China showed just how difficult it is for Trump to decouple from itself. The is a lesson that Trump will continue to have to learn until he concedes the point.

However, China also cannot keep going with this because it cannot afford to see inflation going up in the US. This is because China has huge local government debt that desperately needs the Fed to lower its interests, way more than what was done last month.

On October 29th, the Federal Reserve cut its key rate for the second time of the year. Simultaneously, Trump and Xi agreed on a deal after nearly an entire year and at least five rounds of negotiations.

That’s two Fed rate cuts for two biggest US-China deals of the year, happening within 24 hours of one another.

It is becoming clear that China’s maneuvers are centered on lessening the burden on the local government debt level, which must have been taking a heavier toll on the economy than expected.

I’m actually surprised nobody picked up on this, that the Fed rate is an imperialist weapon. Too many people (both mainstream and alt media) focus on the trade war aspect between US and China and fail to see that this is actually a financial war in disguise, and the primary target isn’t even China, but Europe and the rest of the Global South exporter countries.

Remember that when Trump first launched the global tariffs back in April, the narrative of the pro-BRICS alt media circle was all about the US is shooting itself on the foot and the rest of the world will just trade with one another without the US.

Well, the exact opposite has happened - that Europe doubled down on its anti-China policy while many Asian exporter countries are scrambling to sign new trade deals with Trump, including South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia in the last few days.

I had warned back then that this whole decoupling from the US cannot happen without China transitioning into a domestic consumption economy. BRICS has failed to offer any alternative because they all want to run trade surpluses against each other, which is mathematically impossible. As a result, the US consumer market still dictates what happens.

Thankfully, it seems that the Chinese leadership is finally admitting that consumption growth is going to be the priority of the next Five-Year Plan Reuters:

The five-year plan recommendations reaffirmed last week's official remarks that China will increase the proportion of government investment for people's livelihoods and raise the percentage of household consumption of GDP "significantly" over the next five years.

"The allocation of resources will shift more towards consumption, as large-scale expansion of traditional industries and infrastructure has reached its limit," said a policy adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Future investment will focus on high-tech industries and new infrastructure."

China may aim to increase the household consumption rate by about 5 percentage points over the next five years, but policy advisers say it is unclear whether the government will set a specific target in the upcoming five-year plan.

Attempts to boost consumption and related reforms over the past decade have been slow to take root in the real economy. Consumer confidence has remained low because of inadequate social welfare, slowing income growth and a property crisis that has eroded household wealth. The services sector has also taken time to develop.

Whether this can be achieved without the central government running up the deficit, I have my doubts. It will be very difficult to have a meaningful shift towards consumption without resolving the massive wealth inequality problem in the country, which will require the government to run a very high deficit i.e. spends way more than it taxes back. But at least it is going in the right direction.

Czech officials deny entry to Israeli [sic] soldier after Schengen-wide alert | The Cradle

An Israeli [sic] reservist who had served in Gaza and south Lebanon was stopped at Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport on 28 October and denied entry after Czech border police said France had issued a “criminal alert” blocking his travel across the Schengen zone.

The reservist said officers questioned him for hours before forcing him onto a flight back to Israel [sic], describing the experience as “being treated like a criminal.”

Gaza “ceasefire” on the verge of collapsing after one IDF occupier was allegedly sniped and killed in Rafah. Netanyahu has apparently ordered heavy air strikes on Gaza

https://t.me/PalestineResist/83199

Meanwhile Hamas had been excavating to find another captive, working under siege to fulfill their end of the bargain

https://t.me/TheSimurgh313/57248

Hamas has cancelled today’s handover due to Israeli ceasefire violations

Seriously what did Trump show to Xi that was so funny? Did Trump just announced the US surrender or something?

Cry-Bullies On Parade: Danish Political Elite Has Crashout Over Zionism Poster

The small pro-democratic opposition party "Free Greens" that is running for Denmark's upcoming local elections, has suddenly become the target of a coordinated pile-on from the Nordic hermit kingdom's political establishment for speaking out against racism. A lynch-mob of reactionary ghouls with connections to the Social Democrat-led right-wing regime is descending on the small party that represents ethnic minorities and who has made the fight against the pervasive racism in Danish politics one of their main priorities.

This is exactly what he said before US attacked Iran

BREAKING: Trump says that no strikes on Venezuela are planned.

this is a good roundup of American foreign election interference/regime change operations and opportunities in South America by naked capitalism. I appreciate their broader articles.

This one starts with Milei's recent electoral victory and discusses the economic value he represents to the US both in exploitation of Argentina and as an ideological template for other potential compradors in South American. The rest of the article discusses Noboa in Ecuador allowing establishment of US military bases in the Galapagos, the likelihood of Paz in Bolivia taking a punishing bailout from the IMF, and the trajectory towards US invasion of Venezuela.

The RSF/Janjaweed militias have entered El Fasher in Sudan, and begun acts of executions and genocide. Horrific footage out there, I'd recommend not searching for it. Barbaric acts of killing, mutilating and burning anything alive, from people to livestock to dogs.

Latest UN Human Rights Office press release

Today in the dysfunction of the American state: flight delays worsen as the government shutdown continues and air traffic controllers will get their first fully missed paycheques soon^[https://apnews.com/article/flight-delays-shutdown-air-traffic-controllers-9e1c68b03060c6a694e193d272632fef]

Trump says Milei had “a lot of help” from the US to win the election in Argentina. During his trip to Asia, Trump celebrated the Argentine president's victory, but also took credit for the success.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Argentine President Javier Milei had “a lot of help” from Washington to secure his party's victory in the midterm legislative elections, after the US government offered a bailout package worth up to US$40 billion to strengthen Milei before the vote.

“He had a lot of help from us. A lot of help. I supported him—a very strong support,” Trump said, also crediting part of the success to members of his cabinet, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who oversaw financial assistance to Argentina.

“We are firm with several countries in South America. We pay a lot of attention to South America,” the president added. “We made a lot of money on this election because the bonds went up. Argentina's entire credit rating improved,” Trump said, stressing, however, that the US “is not in this just for the money.”

• Telegram

A Venezuelan Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down an aircraft that invaded Venezuelan airspace. The shootdown occurred in the midst of military operations and exercises to ensure Venezuela's national sovereignty amid threats of attack from the United States. After being shot down, the plane was intercepted on the ground by soldiers from the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB)

• Telegram

• Vid

Russia successfully tested the Poseidon, a nuclear-powered, long-range, underwater drone:

"The Poseidon system, known in Western media as a “nuclear super torpedo” and officially titled the Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System, is a nuclear-powered, autonomous underwater drone specifically developed to evade US missile defense systems and unleash massive tidal waves against coastal targets.

It can carry either a conventional or nuclear warhead, with reports indicating yields of up to 100 megatons, and operates at speeds reaching 54 knots while descending to depths of 1,000 meters."

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/10/29/757810/Putin-hails-Russia%E2%80%99s-successful-test-of-nuclear-powered-underwater-drone

Despite supposedly large attempts by the US to sway the world against their votes in favor of ending the embargo on Cuba, the UNGA continue to vote overwhelmingly in favor of ending the embargo.

165 in favor

7 against, New countries in the against list are Argentina, Hungary, Ukraine and other small countries

12 abstentions, mostly US puppets

CW: images of lined up bodies in the link

Death toll in police raid on drug gang in Rio rises 119, Brazilian police say (archive)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A police raid and ensuing clashes with a drug gang in Rio de Janeiro left at least 119 people dead, including 115 suspects and four policemen, officials said Wednesday, a day after the massive operation drew criticism for using excessive force.

The police raid had drawn gunfire and other retaliation from gang members, causing scenes of chaos across the city on Tuesday. Schools in the affected areas shuttered, a local university canceled classes, and roads were blocked with buses used as barricades. The operation’s stated objectives were capturing leaders and limiting the territorial expansion of the Red Command criminal gang, which has increased its control over favelas in recent years.

On Wednesday morning, local activist Raull Santiago said he was part of a team in Penha that found about 15 bodies before dawn. “We saw executed people: shot in the back, shots to the head, stab wounds, people tied up. This level of brutality, the hatred spread - there’s no other way to describe it except as a massacre,” Santiago said.

Gang members allegedly targeted police with at least one drone. Rio de Janeiro’s state government shared a video on X of what appeared to show a drone firing a projectile from the sky.

that is an incredible amount of violence in a police action

Canadian charities channeling millions to fund Israeli [sic] army, illegal West Bank settlements | The Cradle

According to The Fifth Estate, Mizrachi Canada alone sent $50 million between 2007 and 2022, followed by another $5 million in 2023 and 2024. The CZCA transferred millions more to Israeli military-linked institutions, such as the Association for Israeli Soldiers and Friends of the IDF.

While Canadian law prohibits funding foreign militaries, these organizations retained nonprofit status, allowing donors to claim tax deductions.

Google, Amazon agreed to secretly notify Israel [sic] if foreign courts demand Project Nimbus data: Report | The Cradle

Israeli [sic] Finance Ministry documents cited in the investigation reveal the two main controls imposed by Israel [sic].

“The first prohibits Google and Amazon from restricting how Israel [sic] uses their products, even if this use breaches their terms of service. The second obliges the companies to secretly notify Israel [sic] if a foreign court orders them to hand over the country’s data stored on their cloud platforms, effectively sidestepping their legal obligations,” wrote +972 Magazine.

the method of notification is interesting:

Referred to as the “winking mechanism,” Google and Amazon have to send the Israeli [sic] government four-digit payments in Israeli [sic] currency, corresponding to the specific area code.

“For example, if Google or Amazon were compelled to share data with US authorities (dialing code +1) and were barred from revealing that action by a US court, they would transfer NIS 1,000 to Israel [sic]. If a similar request were to occur in Italy (dialing code +39), they would instead send NIS 3,900,” +972 Magazine explained.

Statement by Hamas:

"Hamas affirms that it has no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and confirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement.

The criminal bombardment carried out by the fascist occupation army on areas of the Gaza Strip constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement that was signed in Sharm el-Sheikh under the sponsorship of US President Trump.

This terrorist attack is an extension of a series of violations committed over the past days, including assaults that resulted in the death and injury of civilians, and the continued closure of the Rafah crossing, all of which confirms the insistence on violating the terms of the agreement and attempting to undermine it.

We call on the mediators and guarantors of the agreement to act immediately to pressure the occupation and curb its brutal escalation against civilians in the Gaza Strip, stop its dangerous violations of the ceasefire agreement, and compel it to abide by all its commitments."

https://t.me/thecradlemedia/45111

Israeli Walla News military correspondent Amir Bohbot:

"During a complex engineering operation in the Janina neighborhood of Rafah, where intense battles were taking place between the Israeli army and Hamas both above and below ground, it was suspected that armed men were present deep underground.

It appears that when Israeli engineering forces began targeting a central part of the last tunnel network in the area, gunmen emerged from underground and opened fire on the force. Informed sources said assessments indicate this was an armed cell that had been besieged for a long time and came out as a last resort to attack Israeli forces.

At this stage, the Israeli army does not know whether this was an attack plan approved by Hamas leadership in Gaza or an operation carried out by a besieged armed group that realized the army was closing in on them inside the tunnel."

https://t.me/thecradlemedia/45112

On Unholy podcast, @Freedland asks Hillary Clinton if she’d vote for Zohran Mamdani?

HC: “You know what? I don't vote in this city. I'm not involved in it. I have not been at all even asked to be involved in it, and I have not chosen to be involved in it.”

Of course, both Clintons endorsed De Blasio in 2013. And I'm assuming they also endorsed in previous NYC and NY elections. Kind of funny, HRC is the ultimate electoralism person, she argued that it is your duty to always vote for the Dem nominee, but now she is like "voting, what even is that?". [edit] Bill Clinton endorsed Cuomo in June 2025.

Interview: Venezuela’s militias and the civil-military union

October 30, 2025 - www.red-spark.org

So, in the face of this threat, our militias are prepared and we have very high morale. Just as the militias are prepared for civil duties, we are prepared in the strategic concept of permanent war. We understand the necessity of resistance, of the people in arms and of providing material and logistical support to the entire resistance effort of the armed struggle. We are constantly training in the tactical methods of revolutionary resistance and training in different disciplines of combat so that we can mesh with other combatants in other areas. The militias are prepared, organised and trained to be able to execute any type of manoeuvre in order to resist any attempt to desecrate Venezuelan sovereignty.

We will defend our homeland. If we must resist for 50 years, or 100 years, we will do it and we will resist with everything we have at hand. We will not surrender our homeland to any imperialist power.

https://red-spark.org/2025/10/30/interview-venezuelas-militias-and-the-civil-military-union/

edit: this picture seems to have been removed since I first read this, posting here because I can't stop thinking about it

img description crowd of people behind an APC, there's a woman in a pink garfield tshirt holding a rifle

The situation in the Pokrovsk direction has reached a catastrophic point for Ukraine. Ukrainian formations in Myrnohrad, eastern Pokrovsk, and the surrounding villages are now operationally encircled.

Russian troops broke through to the northern outskirts of Pokrovsk, leaving only a 2km-wide corridor of open fields to escape encirclement. The coming days will be decisive.

Syrsky promised Zelensky today to unblock the Ukrainian units in Myrnohrad and regain control over the Pokrovska pocket.

The commander-in-chief has gone to the Eastern front and will personally lead the Ukrainian Armed Forces counterattacks.

The thing about this is not just that the remaining troops and equipment inside the pocket are lost, but that the Ukrainians are inevitably going to increase their burn by counterattacking to try and pry the mouth back open. Full fledged operational catastrophe.

https://xcancel.com/AMK_Mapping_/status/1983585024751628659

(cw: sexual assault) Israeli [sic] army's top lawyer quits over role in leaking Sde Teiman r*pe footage | The Cradle

The leaked video led to protests in Israel [sic] in support of the soldiers who r*ped the Palestinian detainee

The Israeli [sic] military's top lawyer announced her resignation on 31 October for her involvement in leaking a surveillance video which showed soldiers gang r*ping a Palestinian detainee held at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility last year.

Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi submitted her resignation letter to the Israeli [sic] military's Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, on Friday morning.

A criminal investigation was launched by the Israeli [sic] police earlier this week into the leaking of the surveillance video. She is expected to be questioned by the police in the coming days.

Another non-news (or meta-news) comment, which I apologize for, but for reasons that will become obvious it kind of had to go here.

It seems comrade @aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net was driven off the site by certain behaviors almost a year ago. I heard he still posts under a different account and he was a news-head at the time, so comrade, if you're reading this, I miss your posts. You were an interesting, well-read poster with a great perspective. We interacted a few times and I enjoyed it every time. If you're interested in reconnecting (no pressure), feel free to DM me on here or on Matrix (the "Send Secure Message" button on my profile).

Starmer's new plan for housing refugees is to stick them in army barracks instead of local hotels.

This is actually sort of clever because one of the main ways the fascists are mobilising right now is by protesting outside hotels that have refugees, harassing everyone coming or going and generally making their lives hell.

The fash will have a problem with this plan because it will remove their primary method of mobilising their people and they sure as fuck aren't going to protest outside military bases when they're supposed to be the big patriots.

I am slightly impressed by the idea tbh I think it's a good one. Wish it weren't necessary at all but it will do a lot to improve the situation.

Venezuela’s GDP Could Grow Over 9% in 2025

In its latest report, the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) confirmed that the country’s economy has experienced 18 consecutive quarters of sustained growth and that GDP rose 8.7% in the third quarter of 2025. By economic activity, GDP recorded the highest increases in construction (16.4%), transportation and storage (9.3%), manufacturing (8.9%), commerce (8.2%), and mining (7%).

“No one will ever be able to remove us from the world’s energy equation. However, dependence on oil income — a mistake made 100 years ago — must come to an end completely,” the Bolivarian leader said.

In its latest analysis, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) projected that Venezuela will have the highest economic growth in Latin America in 2025, with a GDP expansion of 6%. It will be followed by Paraguay (4.5%), Argentina (4.3%), and Panama (4.1%).