Or perhaps the end of the beginning, if you’re a little more pessimistic.


Image is from this Bloomberg article, from which I also gathered some of the information used in the preamble.


While Trump was off in the Middle East in an incompetent attempt to solve a geopolitical and humanitarian crisis, China has been doing something much more productive.

Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping, had a summit with CELAC (a community of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries). There, he promised investment, various declarations of friendship, and visa-free entry for 30 days for citizens of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Lula signed over 30 agreements with China. Colombia is joining the New Development Bank and hopes to gain the money for a 120-kilometer railway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as an alternative route to the Panama Canal. Even Argentina, ruled by arch-libertarian and arch-dipshit (but I repeat myself) Milei, was uncharacteristically polite with China as he secured a currency swap renewal to shore up their international reserves.

It wouldn’t really be correct to say that Latin America is “siding with China over the US” - leaders in the region will continue to make many deals with America for the foreseeable future, and even Trump’s bizarre economic strongman routine won’t make them break off economic and diplomatic relations. What’s significant here is that despite increasing American pressure for those leaders to break off all ties with China, few appear to be listening - and given that China is perhaps the most important economy on the planet right now, that is a very predictable outcome.

As the current American empire takes actions to try and avoid their doom, those very actions only guarantee it. As Latin America grows ever more interconnected with China and continues to develop, America will grow ever more panicked and demanding, and this feedback loop will - eventually - result in the death of the Monroe Doctrine.


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

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


  • UnitedNations [it/its]@hexbear.netB
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    Today, Israeli authorities issued a displacement order covering 40 neighbourhoods in Khan Younis — an area encompassing most of the governorate, or about 23 per cent of the whole of the Gaza Strip. It is affecting thousands of people and hundreds of humanitarian facilities, including wells, including pumping stations, including health facilities and including schools. Overall, almost half a million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since mid-March.

    Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, 2025-05-19 | WebTV recording of the Press Briefing

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        Today, Israeli military issued another displacement order affecting 26 neighbourhoods in Northern Gaza, specifically Beit Lahia, Jabalia and its camp, the affected area spans about 35 square kilometers and represents 10 per cent of the whole area of the Gaza strip

        —Spokesperson of the Secretary-General, 2025-05-20, WebTV recording this was transcribed from.

  • xiaohongshu [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    Moon of Alabama is having some hot take today in light of the Denmark raising retirement age: Chinese Work Less For Longer Retirements

    China’s new retirement age for males born in 1970/12 is 61.5, and females is 55.25. With life expectancy 81.5 🇩🇰 vs 79 🇨🇳 and China’s much longer working hours (2450 hrs vs 🇩🇰 1563), Chinese work 4600 hours for 1 year of retirement, while Danes need to work for 6500 hours.

    This calculation assumed Chinese start working at 20 years old and Danes start at 22 years old to account for higher education level in Denmark. Average retirement age 58.4 is assumed in China, just an average of male/female retirement ages.

    So 🇨🇳 worked for 38.4 * 2450=94000 hrs in exchange of 20.6 yrs; 🇩🇰 worked for 48 * 1563=75000 hrs, retire for 11.5 yrs.

    Obviously, the austerity policy in Europe is bad and the raising of retirement age is inevitable with the impending economic difficulties under neoliberalism, but the comparison with China (of all countries!) is quite another level of galaxy brain.

    Average annual work hours by country:

    (Top entry is Chinese internet companies that implement 996 work hours)

    If you are between 20-40 years old, would you rather:

    1. Work an average of 48 hours per week (much higher if you work in some 996 companies) with 0.5-1 day weekend, 5 days of paid annual leave (10 if you have worked for 10 years, 15 if you have worked for 20 years), no free healthcare, no social safety nets, but you get to retire at 60 (going up to 63, for men) or 55 (going up to 58, for women). Also take into account that once retired, a large portion of your 五险一金 (five insurances and one fund) payout is going to be spent on your aging health expenses since there is no free healthcare.

    or

    1. Work an average of 35 hours per week with at least 2-day weekend, 25 days (5 weeks) of paid annual leave, free universal healthcare and supported by strong social safety nets, but now you have to work until you are 70.

    Which one will you choose?

  • edge [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    I’m fairly certain Biden’s handlers have known about his cancer and kept it secret for a couple years, which is bad enough on its own.

    But I just realized that would also mean they purposely forwent any treatment that might have been publicly noticeable, like chemo.

    They let his cancer get worse to keep up appearances. That’s literally elder abuse in probably one of the worst forms.

    (Not that he doesn’t deserve it. But it’s insane that they did it.)

      • culpritus [any]@hexbear.net
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        It was specifically about how he lived near toxic sources in Delaware due to petrochemical industry. The cover was that he was speaking about some minor skin cancer he had treated previously, which of course doesn’t really fit too well.

    • Ram_The_Manparts [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      From what I can gather, prostate cancer is often treated with testosterone blockers which I assume wouldn’t be all that noticeable.

      I agree that the idea his cancer was only recently discovered is probably bs though

    • edge [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      That will probably be dismissed as a conspiracy theory for at least a decade, but eventually it will be an open secret that most of the public will never know like Reagan’s Alzheimer’s.

      • isleofdia [any]@hexbear.net
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        🤔 could there end up being a BlueAnon offshoot down the line screaming for a purge of Dem operatives bc “they hit grandpa Joe with the cancer gun and got away with it!!” ?

    • Sinisterium@hexbear.net
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      People didn’t lie when they mean that expected kamala to take over. They ran a dying man because they thought kamala couldn’t win on her own.

      • edge [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        *knew she couldn’t win

        They only swapped him out when he was already slipping in the polls and his decline became undeniable so the polls started getting even worse. Like single digits in New York. At that point his chances were looking worse than Harris’s.

        But they doubled down and swapped him for someone they knew couldn’t win when they could have picked anybody. agony

        I’m still a little disappointed that we didn’t get the chance to see NY flip red on Biden, as unlikely as it would have been.

  • StillNoLeftLeft [none/use name, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    In Finland news: A stabbing in a school. The 16 year old who did it apparently used chatgpt to plan his violence.

    There have been widespread reports that the suspect, who Yle understands is a 16-year-old boy, published a manifesto saying he planned to use a knife in the attack and that his intended targets would be female pupils.

    According to the manifesto, he wanted to do something “significant” and “exciting”, with the stated aim of going to prison for two to four years.

    The manifesto also claims he had no friends and did not want any. He reportedly planned the act for about six months, allegedly using ChatGPT as an aid.

    • hello_hello [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      Social Security Minister Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP), also posting on X, drew attention to the importance of children now having adults they can talk to.

      “I’m depressed”

      “Try to get better”

      Interior Minsiter Mari Rantanen (Finns) meanwhile described the incident as “extremely worrying,” adding that the authorities will investigate when can be done to prevent young people from carrying knives.

      “I think it is also the responsibility of parents to ensure that their children do not carry knives with them,” Rantanen said.

      Truly this was the issue, the knife itself. pain

    • StillNoLeftLeft [none/use name, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      Today as I was on my way to see a client who has been repeatedly severely abused by men, I saw a headline about this with the cops stating that “no sings of hate towards women have been established in the case”.

      Sure. This guy targeted three girls, planned this for six months. And the pigs conclude that the victims all being girls is completely irrelevant and not at all a choice.

      Nothing like the smell of pathriarchy in the morning. Also fuck cops

  • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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    Two ballistic missiles launched from Yemen towards Israel over the past 24 hours. A Rezvan/Zulfiqar ballistic missile last night, intercepted by Arrow 3, with debris seen flying over Israel. The second missile was a Fattah-1 during the day, with parts of it intercepted by the David’s Sling system. A piece of the booster stage was found in Israel. Booster stages still have the inertia from the initial launch, so they can travel in space and often land somewhere near the target.

    Fattah-1 booster stage:

    David’s Sling interceptor:

    Zulfiqar/Rezvan debris on video:

    Statements from the Yemeni Armed Forces:

    Update to the naming conventions:

    • Unnamed Hypersonic Ballistic Missile = Fattah-1
    • Palestine-2 = Fattah-1/Kheibar-Shekan hybrid variant.
    • Palestine-1 = Kheibar Shekan-2.
    • Hatem-2 = Kheibar Shekan-1.
    • Zulfiqar = Rezvan (initially thought it was a Qassem variant, but that was incorrect).
  • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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    As Trump had a press conference about the “Golden Dome”, the US Military received it’s first radar for the Golden Dome project a few days ago: an upgraded AN/TPY-2 radar with a Gallium Nitride (GaN) front-end. Radars, unlike logical processors in consumer electronics, are one of the areas where GaN is actually highly useful

    US takes delivery of first upgraded AN/TPY-2 radar

    The new version of AN/TPY-2 has a longer range and can provide targeting coordinates to other missile defense interceptors beyond just the Army’s THAAD batteries, Jon Norman, Raytheon’s vice president for Air and Space Defense Systems Requirements and Capabilities, told Breaking Defense.

    “What the TPY-2 does now, with the Gallium Nitride front-end in it, is it can see things twice as far, so we can make that command and control decision a lot earlier on which effector to use, whether it’s an SM series or it’s a Patriot, or it’s a THAAD,” he said.

    The radar can be deployed as a standalone, mobile unit rather than being directly wired into a THAAD battery, Norman explained, which positions it as a potential contribution to President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome plan to create a comprehensive missile shield for the US homeland.

    Double the range means a 6000km range, and given the inverse square law, much more power and target tracking capabilities at closer ranges, differentiating the target from decoys much sooner.

    “If they have anything else falling off, you can discriminate very accurately and say, ‘This is the warhead. This is what we need to shoot. All the other stuff is just junk. It’s like litter on the road, so don’t waste the missile on the junk. Hit the thing that we want to hit,” he said.

    The upgraded AN/TPY-2 can now “detect these very, very small targets, and you can detect them at the separation when the booster separates from the warhead,” he said, adding that with the longer range “we can shoot sooner, and we can hit it before it starts maneuvering.”

    That last paragraph is what the US Navy was doing to ballistic missiles launched from Yemen towards Israel when they had the opportunity and SM-3s to spare. Early midcourse phase or late boost phase intercepts. A recent Senate meeting revealed that the US had fired “dozens” of SM-3s at missiles from Yemen. I came to this conclusion very early on in the US bombing campaign against Yemen. Now imagine the US doing the same thing, but to hypothetical Chinese or Russian ICBMs that would fly over the Pacific towards the USA… Place a GaN front-end AN/TPY-2 radar in East Asia, and some US Navy missile destroyers armed with SM-3s in the West Pacific, or an AEGIS Ashore facility in Guam, and this is possible with the massive increase in range and power of the upgraded AN/TPY-2.

    China and Russia have said as much in a joint statement, that this aspect of the “Golden Dome” undermines deterrence and makes arms control and treaties like the previous INF treaty impossible:

    Deeply destabilizing in nature is also the recently announced “Golden (Iron) Dome for America”, a large-scale program designed to establish unconstrained, global, deeply layered and multi-domain missile defense system to protect against any missile threats, including all types of missiles from “peer and near-peer adversaries”. First of all, this means a complete and ultimate rejection to recognize the existence of the inseparable interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms, which is one of the central and fundamental principles of maintaining global strategic stability. The project also provides additional impetus to the further development of kinetic and non-kinetic means providing for the left-of-launch defeat of missile weapons and the infrastructure that supports their employment.

  • MarmiteLover123 [comrade/them, any]@hexbear.net
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    Update on the United States Air Force Strategic Bomber Task Force deployments:

    2 B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers have been deployed to Guam in the West Pacific, and a further 2 B-52Hs have been deployed to the European/Mediterranean theatre, currently in Spain. They should be doing flyovers in Eastern Europe soon, Latvia was the previous destination before that got cancelled. While these flyovers appear ceremonial, the bomber crews do use them for training, during the last flyover a B-52 crew carried out a simulated Paveway stand-in laser guided bombing run. A further 2 F-15-E Strike Eagle aircraft have been deployed to Diego Garcia. Although they are not strategic bombers, 1 F-15E can carry 5 JASSM stealth cruise missiles, allowing for a squadron of 4 F-15Es to replicate the role of 1 B-52 (20 JASSMs total). F-15Es can also act as combat air patrol aircraft to protect the island from any surface or aerial threats (boats and UAVs).

    F-15s deploy to Diego Garcia

    B-52s to Guam, xcancel link

    B-52s to Europe, xcancel link

    There are now a total of 12 United States Air Force Strategic Bombers forward deployed, along with at least 6 F-15Es:

    Stationed at Diego Garcia:

    • 4x B-52H Stratofortress bombers.
    • 6x F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft, equipped with 5 JASSMs in this picture (1 on each wing, 1 on each aft station, and one barely visible on the centerline of the aircraft).

    Stationed in the West Pacific:

    • 4x B-1B Lancer supersonic swing wing bombers in Japan
    • 2x B52-H Stratofortress bombers in Guam

    Stationed in Europe:

    • 2x B-52H Stratofortress bombers in Spain.

    This means that the maximum JASSM conventional cruise missile salvo per sortie from bombers and strike fighters deployed at Diego Garcia is now 110 JASSMs, and the maximum AGM-86 nuclear cruise missile salvo remains at 80 missiles.

    The maximum JASSM conventional cruise missile salvo per sortie from bombers deployed in the Western Pacific is 136 missiles. The maximum LRASM (anti ship version of JASSM) remains at 96 missiles, only the B-1 is certified to carry the LRASM. The maximum AGM-86 nuclear cruise missile salvo is 40 missiles, only the B-52 can carry those.

    The maximum conventional JASSM, or nuclear AGM-86 salvo, from bombers deployed to Europe is 40 missiles.

    I’ll add sources soon, unfortunately I have been banned from twitter again, so it’s difficult.

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    Palestinian Faction Leaders Leave Damascus Amid Syrian Pressure and Crackdown

    full text

    Several Palestinian faction leaders, including Khaled Jibril(PFLP-GC) and Khaled Abdul Majid (PPSF) left Damascus after coming under pressure from Syrian authorities. Their properties, including homes and offices, were confiscated despite no official expulsion orders.

    The factions have been effectively banned from operating. They handed over all weapons, and authorities demanded names of members with personal arms. A source said there’s no real cooperation with the new Syrian administration.

    The crackdown follows a request by US President Trump for Syria to expel Palestinian “terrorists” in exchange for lifting sanctions. Syrian authorities recently detained Islamic Jihad leaders and briefly held Talal Naji.

    (Photo: AFP)

    https://t.me/alakhbar_english/21618

    May all those who celebrated the “liberation” of Syria bow their heads in shame. This outcome was apparent to those with eyes to see the day butcher Jolani took power. Assad could have done more for the Palestinian cause, but Jolani couldn’t do less

    https://thecradle.co/articles/us-proposal-to-lift-syria-sanctions-requires-normalization-with-israel

  • insurgentrat [she/her, it/its]@hexbear.net
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    Extremely funny news from Australia. In the wake of a historical loss the coalition that makes up the current conservative opposition has (temporarily) dissolved[1]. This has happened in the wake of the right wing liberal party being unwilling to commit to policies that fucked them, which play well with reactionary elements in the regions.

    They will likely rejoin together once it is politically advantageous, having largely been together for the better part of a century, but currently this means the center right welfare state labor party has basically no resistance except the leftish greens party to passing its bills. Severely diminishing the electoral power of the far right for the forseeable future.

    Whether the liberals will embrace the trumpism that cost them the election, hemorrhaging the rest of their moderates, or try and tac towards the bourgeois policies of the so called “teal” (blue + green, environmental policies) independents that have been eating their lunch in the wealthy liberal heartland remains to be seen. My money is on the former because the moderate faction lost most of their seats and they’ve but a numerology[2] donothing clown in charge as a seat warmer while the factions rally.[3]


    1. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/20/nationals-leaving-split-coalition-liberal-party-australian-election ↩︎

    2. https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/05/08/sussan-ley-liberal-leadership-numerology-angus-taylor/ ↩︎

    3. footnotes are the opium of the leftist ↩︎

    • XiaCobolt [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      Yeah it’s pretty hilarious. I agree with your assessment. They’ve lost the wet liberals/moderates. Otherwise I’d be worried about some awful teal reinvention or a color like IDK purple moderates?

      • insurgentrat [she/her, it/its]@hexbear.net
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        Seems like the nats want to bend them over the barrel and force them to embrace bribes for the regions + insane culture war stuff and the libs are like “we’re 19 votes behind in our most secure seat in histo wtf are you doing?”

        But since neither party can hold power without the other, and the nats play so well with morons voting against their own interests, I think there will be enormous pressure for ‘moderate’ libs remaining to stfu and fall in line.

        It would be extremely funny if the party splintered and the right wing vote got split between the fundies and the bougies.

        I just want proportional representation so my fantasy daydreams about having an actual democracy one day can seem even slightly plausible.

  • kristina [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    they only let 9 aid trucks into gaza recently. i feel like our one bag of flour that we got in through some friends is kind of impressive when you consider the sheer lack of any food going in. just tragic

    • UnitedNations [it/its]@hexbear.netB
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      The first trucks of vital baby food are now inside Gaza after 11 weeks of a total blockade and it is urgent that we get that assistance distributed as we need much much more to cross. Our colleagues from [OCHA] tells us that today we are sending in flour, medicine, nutrition supplies, and other basic items, through the Israeli fence into the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, yesterday we managed to get baby formula and other nutrition supplies. To give you a sense of how this complicated operation has to work, Israeli authorities are requiring us to offload supplies on the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom crossing and reload them separately once they secure our teams access from inside the Gaza strip, only then are we able to bring any supplies closer to where people in need are sheltering. Today one of our teams waited several hours for the Isreali green-light to access the Kerem Shalom area and collect the nutrition supplies, unfortunately they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse, so just to make it clear, while more supplies have come in to the Gaza strip, we have not been able to secure the arrival of those supplies into our warehouses and delivery points. Our humanitarian colleagues re-iterate that while the arrival of more supplies closer to where they are needed is a positive development, it is only a drop in the ocean of what is actually needed to address the massive scale of the humanitarian operation, and the humanitarian needs, the deprivations we are seeing in Gaza is the result of ongoing bombardments and blockade and the recurrent displacement.

      —Spokesperson of the Secretary-General, 2025-05-20, WebTV recording this was transcribed from.

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        Question: Can we just confirm, aid supplies—aid trucks have gotten into Gaza, but nothing has been delivered to the warehouses

        Spokeperson: That’s correct.

        Question: And then, what are the numbers of trucks that have been allowed in since the blockade has been removed

        Spokeperson: Let’s just clarify, it is not as if everything is now open, some goods are being allowed in. In the end about 4 trucks, not 5, were allowed in yesterday. Today we have a few dozen, I’m trying to get more exact number but that is where we are. But the point is, the logistical, the security complications, and just the overall environment make this extremely extremely difficult.

        continued shortly

        Question: So as of right now, the aid that has been allowed in is being held by Israeli security forces

        Spokesperson: It is being held in… in a loading dock, to use a term people can understand, because things have to cross the fence from Isreal into Gaza, into an area where the trucks have to be unloaded and reloaded, and then we have to get permission from the Israeli security forces to bring our people in to pick up those trucks. Today a team was able to get into the area, but given the lateness of the hour they were not able to bring the trucks out.

        Daily Press Briefing by the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General, 2025-05-20, WebTV recording this was transcribed from.

  • LoveWitch [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    AI likely to cause rolling blackouts across USA

    With soaring summer temps ahead, AI data centers could strain electricity supplies in the Mid-Atlantic

    Forecasts for scorching temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic this summer could result in a higher-than-usual demand for electricity — at a time when federal regulators are warning that the margins between supply and demand are shrinking.

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s 2025 Summer Assessment of electricity reliability from June through September says while all areas of the country will have enough supply, regional electric grids could be stressed by rising temperatures and a demand that is expected to outpace the previous four summers.

    While FERC’s annual assessment anticipates an adequate supply of electricity under normal conditions, Chairman Mark Christie said the loss of available electricity is happening “at a pace that is not sustainable and we are not adding sufficient equivalent generation capacity.”

    The Mid-Atlantic grid operator PJM Interconnection, which coordinates the transmission of electricity for 67 million commercial and residential customers in all or parts of 13 states and Washington D.C., recently announced that while it expects to have enough supply to meet demand this summer, for the first time, its supply may fall short in an “extreme planning scenario.” The need for more than 166,000 megawatts of electricity would tip the balance, which is enough to power about 133 million homes.

    The biggest increase in demand comes from the enormous amount of energy required to power artificial intelligence and data centers, said Dave Souder, PJM Interconnection’s executive director of systems operations.

    “We’re seeing a lot of electrification and or data center loads, with all the AI and computer requirements,” Souder said. “We’re seeing less capacity. We’re seeing generators retire before we have enough replacement generation come online.”

    Souder said many of those retirements are coal plants. And while new solar and wind sources are increasing, they haven’t kept pace.

    Who could have seen this coming literally 20 years ago

  • Russian presidential adviser Anton Kobyakov made an interesting statement today, “The Soviet Union continues to exist in a legal sense - something that constitutional law specialists, including those in Western countries such as the United States and France, have long acknowledged. This is because the procedure for the so-called dissolution of the USSR was violated. Since the Congress of People’s Deputies (also known as the Congress of Soviets) established the USSR in 1922, it should have been dissolved through a decision by that same Congress. If the legal procedure was not properly followed, then, according to constitutional law experts, the USSR remains legally intact.

    From a legal perspective, the Belovezha Accords are entirely questionable. This agreement was later ratified by the Supreme Soviets of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus - acts that, in fact, exceeded their authority. If the Soviet Union was not legally dissolved, then the Ukrainian crisis, for example, could be viewed as an internal matter rather than an international conflict.”

    https://tass.com/politics/1961499