this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
121 points (100.0% liked)

news

24596 readers
670 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:

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.

  1. Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of thousands of Cubans gathering in 2026 to honor José Martí.


After the Soviet Union fell, in the 1990s, Cuba entered a period (known as the Special Period) of extreme economic pressure, losing almost all of its international trade and fuel imports. Caloric intake almost halved, and electricity was mostly unavailable for much of the day. In response, Cuba undertook Option Zero, in which the country prioritized distributing resources to the most vulnerable, and rationed what little was available as fairly as possible. During this time, the threat of total collapse led to experiments and innovations, and, paradoxically to those on the outside, Cuba's population came together under pressure, rather than shattering. The collective understanding that their suffering resulted from abroad rather than from internal inefficiencies and corruption meant that Cuba's government, and thus their sovereignty, survived.

As the American Empire contracts in the wake of multipolarity and can now no longer tolerate sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere, we are seeing a return to the time of the Special Period, with the illegal blockade being dramatically worsened - among other measures, the US is preventing all fuel from entering the island, a strategy made more viable with Venezuela's fuel exports now restricted. Imperialist supporters are predicting an imminent collapse, after which American mining corporations would descend on Cuba's massive nickel and cobalt reserves.

While it's absolutely possible that this time Cuba's government could collapse, it's important to note four things: 1) as noted, Cuba has been in a situation like this before and survived; 2) the geopolitical situation is quite different to how it was in the 1990s, with China and other powers increasing in power and influence compared to the USSR's incompetent final leaders leaving the lane wide open to American exploitation; 3) there has been a concerted effort to transition to renewable energy sources recently, with solar panels being imported from China and making up an increasing amount of the energy supply; and 4) Cuba's government is taking this threat very seriously, and beginning rationing efforts immediately.


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

If you have evidence of Zionist 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 the temporary Zionist entity. 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.

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.


top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 33 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (4 children)

US military buildup against Iran update, tactical fighters: The 12x F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard, a unit that specialises in suppressing and destroying air defences, have made it to Jordan (6x from the UK and 6x from Spain). The last 2x EA-18G Growlers that were stuck at Morón Air Base in Spain have also made to Jordan. 12x F-15Es have rotated out, heading home from Jordan back to the USA. All of this happened over the course of a few days.

So for an update on tactical fighter numbers:

Jordan:

  • 24x F-15E
  • 12x F-35A
  • 6x EA-18G (3x with NGJ pods, 3x with TJS pods)
  • 12x A-10C.

Saudi Arabia: -12x F-16CM

USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier:

  • 36x F/A-18E/F
  • 12x F-35C.
  • 6x EA-18G (with mixed loadout of NGJ and TJS pods on the same aircraft).

That's 120 tactical fighters.

If/when the USS Gerald R Ford arrives, it will bring with it 48x F/A-18E/Fs, and 6x EA-18Gs with TJS pods. That would bring the total up to 174.

Useless/unnecessary but related drama, you've been warned

I don't know how much longer I can provide these updates on exact fighter numbers as the guy with the most accurate numbers, a 70 year old retiree who worked as an air traffic controller for most of his adult life, and has helped with building all the infrastructure used to track planes, is leaving the online tracking scene. Because he was rude/grumpy when providing corrections (he was always correct though) the "OSINT" community is celebrating his departure (as expected from a bunch of know it all stuck ups who can't handle corrections on their "OSINT", especially from someone who actually worked a real job in the field they're interested in. I hate the online OSINT community. I'd take 1 grumpy old guy who know what he's taking about over 100 online OSINTers)

[–] LeonTreatsky@hexbear.net 1 points 22 minutes ago

How long until the Gerald R Ford arrives? I'm assuming that will constitute the maximum force they can concentrate in terms of SEAD.

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 13 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It's always the obsessive curmudgeons who have the best info.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 13 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

And then when they retire or die, a lot of knowledge is lost because they never bothered to teach or train anyone. Boomers.

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 12 points 5 hours ago

Twitter is conducive to that sort of posting. It's why we have to bring forums back.

[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 17 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

a 70 year old retiree who worked as an air traffic controller for most of his adult life, and has helped with building all the infrastructure used to track planes, is leaving the online tracking scene

Invite him to hexbear news as an exclusive guest with honors

order of lenin if he renounces amerikkka

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 11 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

There's no way he's a leftist lol. He'd get Insta purged on here

[–] Alaskaball@hexbear.net 14 points 6 hours ago

Oh of course not, he's like 70. I'm saying he should have a nice little internet Potemkin villa carved out for him here where he can continue his work while not being annoyed by those annoying slopint losers.

[–] CredibleBattery@hexbear.net 10 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Invite him to hexbear news as an exclusive guest with honors

two days before one of ours tells him he'll get culled when the time comes for being a reactionary (which, he most likely is, but also, free information! you gotta be tactical about these thangs..)

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

Honorary guests get passes and shielding from the most aggressive bears. The handlers must however make sure to keep the guest on topic and not veer towards any topics that they have opinions on that are not the norm on hexbear dot net.

[–] oliveoil@hexbear.net 14 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Causing drama to attack someone's mental health was an attack vector used to install malware in the open source repo XZ (for Linux zip handling code).

It's entirely possible this drama is an op to get the old guy to STFU.

[–] dylan_g@hexbear.net 3 points 2 hours ago

Damn if I were a three letter agency person, I'd be putting that one in the playbook for sure.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 12 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Nah I don't think so, he's just a very grumpy retiree and definitely comes of that way. Obviously it rubs people the wrong way. But with this kind of thing, I prefer grumpy but grounded in fact, vs welcoming but waffling. Also the old guy got pissed off at the "OSINT" community making money off of posting, especially when they posted incorrect information, and said people should rather donate their money to children's hospitals than giving it to a random twitter account. Which ruffled even more feathers.

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 9 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

W old grumpy plane guy. There's lots of OSINT people on twitter, but 99% of the people with OSINT in there name of bio are indeed insufferable.

[–] Sulvy@hexbear.net 32 points 8 hours ago (5 children)
[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 1 points 32 minutes ago

anakin-padme-2 So they will be taught the Jakarta Method and intentional Starvation and suffering caused to these nations by the actions, sanctions, and genocides by the United States right?

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

the American people must be warned of the dangers of communism. especially dialectical materialism and the labour theory of value...

[–] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 13 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Kids famously love and take information to heart when it is force fed to them. Just look how successful DARE was

C I won’t do communism. A won’t have have an attitude

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 17 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

DARE got me to do a lot of drugs, so maybe this will actually be good.

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 7 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Not American, but I remember getting a black and white panflet listing all the drug street names, pictures and instructions on to use them as part of an "anti drug" program at school when I was 13. They even made us study it for a test lol. Is that what DARE was?

[–] mkultrawide@hexbear.net 9 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

Yes. DARE is a course that is usually taught by a local police officer, and they would tell you how bad drugs were and "here's your brain on drugs, it's an egg in a frying pan" type stuff.

In retrospect, there was some good info in there, but the problem was they would make up ridiculous shit about the mostly benign stuff like weed or psychedelics, so when kids would smoke weed for the first time, they would think "well, what else did they lie to me about?"

At the end of the course, at least for me, they made us stand in front our parents in the school auditorium and sing a couple songs, including a call and reponse song where, during portions of the song, a voice on the recording asks the children if they want to do various drugs, and the children respond no in various ways. It took me like 10 minutes but I found some lyrics:

Wanna sneak some beer? (kids) Just stand clear!

Wanna smoke some dope? (kids) Just say "nope"

Wanna take a hit? (kids) No thanks, I gotta split

DARE tells us so

It's our right to say "no"

Wanna try some crack? (kids) no way Jack!

Got some uppers you might like... (kids) take a hike!

Do you wanna get high? (kids) walk on by!

DARE tells us so.

It's our right to say "no"

Wanna pop a lude? (kids) No Way, Dude!

Wanna snort a line? (kids) no thanks, I'm fine!

PCP will thrill you (kids) man that stuff can kill you

Mind you, I was like 12 or 13 at the time, had never heard of some of these drugs, and frankly, I would like to know who the plug for the guy offering me Quaaludes was, because methylqualone was banned in the US in the early 80s.

in school we got a cop to tell us not to join Al Qaeda

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] rootsbreadandmakka@hexbear.net 12 points 6 hours ago

Communism class?! Sign me up!

Kansas

Republicans

Palantir

amid claims of anti-Americanism

Ah, you know what, never mind

[–] aanes_appreciator@hexbear.net 34 points 10 hours ago

Not to AI-post more than necessary, but I noticed a bunch of nerds are going hogwild for some new LLM called "GLM-5" and, well well well if it isn't "mr president yet another Chinese startup has hit the American AI bubble":

https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343239/chinas-zhipu-ai-launches-new-major-model-glm-5-challenge-its-rivals

[–] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 42 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

rainbolt I held off on talking about it cos it kept getting worse but parts of Portugal got absolutely wrecked by the last 2 weeks of sucessive storms and depressions, places near the sea and rivers that were flooded just didn't let up because it kept raining, overtaxed soils couldn't dry up so they were hardly absorbing water, lotta roads closed and 1 highway got a segment destroyed. The right wing government is responding like a right wing government does, poorly, rushing to thank and beg insurance companies to quickly provide coverage (they are notoriously skittish in portugal), giving economic assistance to the people most affected by the storms (but only if they don't have debts), rushing to approve funding of long delayed projects that would've mitigated the damages etc. We had a presidential election and the far right got trounced but he still got 33% (1m700k votes) and there's not way all the resentment that will likely build up over these weather damages isn't going to drive up support for the far-right simply because all the mainstream news channels that millions of people watch are tripping over themselves to get "exclusive interviews" with the far-right leader and labeling him as "anti-system".

Decent weather comes back tomorrow as the Azores Anticiclone, that usually kept these storms away from Portugal, finally revs up. But the fact is that in recent years it has been getting weaker.

I'll say this, I usually really like living in Portugal, it's my country, and even though the left is at its lowest point ever here I can still feel good about being a part of a political project because of the communist party.....but bro if we're going to start having danish winters instead of sunny februaries then just sink this whole country into the ocean man I can't fucking handle this every year. Only silver lining is that it would probably get rid of the expats

[–] qcop@hexbear.net 1 points 4 hours ago

Chega is a fucking fascist party and the media class is fully helping them. Worse is that the Portuguese diaspora in my country apparently voted overwhelmingly for them according to a comrade who's in the PCP and was in the electoral bureau to get data from voters after they voted.

They were talking about how chega is restoring Portugal and they are cleaning up immigrants. These are the same people who were treated like shit as immigrant since they came here (they are now used as "model immigrants who share our culture" to attack the more recent black and brown immigrants)

Their parents or themselves literally left their country because they had no water or electricity in their villages due to Salazar policies.

load more comments
view more: next ›