news

So the British media and police has been on a non-stop manhunt for "terror suspect" Daniel Khalife for the last week, who escaped from prison by clinging to the bottom of a truck in a chef's outfit.

Anyone know anything about what Khalife is or did? The media have been exceptionally cagey about it, all they've said is that at some point he allegedly planted fake bombs in a military base and supplied classified information to a "enemy of the UK".

Apparently they finally caught him roughly an hour ago. I don't know what to make of it because I have no idea what he's done, what country he gave info to and what his goals were.

I just got called “Russian on the inside” as a response for calling someone a Nazi for enjoying watching soldiers die and NOT being a Russian.

Please, I prefer to be called “Soviet on the inside”.

Cope, get your fresh cope here: https://warontherocks.com/2023/09/perseverance-and-adaptation-ukraines-counteroffensive-at-three-months/

Tldr: after slamming their head against the wall to accomplish next to nothing, ukraine has shifted to doing attrition warfare against their autarkic, larger, richer, better armed neighbour. This is good

Really though not a very fun article. Nevertheless I read kofman every so often because he is clearly the thinking man's NATO military booster. The kind of coping and seething you get from an "objective" military analyst like kofman is more instructive than the numerous nyt profiles-in-courage stories that start with 300 words about how it feels when rain falls on sunflowers.

I've noticed that it's mostly office workers that spend hours and years of their life obsessing over Ukraine on Reddit. I work in trades and most of our conversations are about videogames, trips, personal life, and topics related to what we do. I hang out with a bunch of office workers every now and then. They talk about politics a lot more and geopolitical shit as well. Must be nice to have that much free time simping for a country you probably made fun of less than a decade ago.

So Guatemala actually succeeded in getting a center- leftist (which is as radical as our candidates ever get like Arbenz) elected and our corrupt America worshipping congress has pulled the CIA playbook of crying voter fraud and delegitimizing the party. Surprisingly, the US has sanctioned one of the prosecutors pulling this bullshit. The supreme court is packed with right-wing Evangelicals pleasing their gringo masters, so we'll see if this election victory goes anywhere.

Bolivia, Ecuador, and Honduras under Zelaya should have been lessons that a more militant approach is absolutely necessary because the right-wing will pull out everything to secure their dominance.

Edit: Should add that he's like that dumbass Boric in Chile by badmouthing Nicaragua and Venezuela, also pulling the "Russia bad" card and suspending deals with them. This could be why the US is willing to support him. He's promising some stuff that's radical by our standards but unfortunately lacking the teeth that a country like Honduras is currently offering.

Somebody asked me for a video of a Ukrainian de-conscripting himself by hitting a recruiter with a rock. I finally found it. It's short but sweet.

https://leftypol.org/edu/src/1693955002688-3.mp4

Just a thought completely unrelated to any current news: Western European nations maintains absurd terminologies such as "third generation immigrant" as a way of denying that they have gained domestic ethnic minorities and casting these minorities as alien.

Russia has successfully launched Kinzhal hypersonic missiles from Su-34s, no longer requiring the use of MiG-31 platforms:

Russia Launches First Ever Ballistic Missile Attack From Su-34 Strike Fighter: Kinzhal Provides New Capabilities

The Russian Air Force has for the first time employed Su-34 strike fighters to launch ballistic missiles, which was a previously unknown capability that could transform the way the aircraft are used. This development follows a reported surge in production of the missile in question, the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, which from late 2017 was integrated onto modified MiG-31 interceptors which were designated MiG-31K and, for later variants, MiG-31I. While only approximately 30-35 MiG-31K/Is are currently in service, however, the Su-34 is the most widely fielded fighter class in the Russian Air Force with over 120 having entered service. The discrepancy in numbers is further exacerbated by the fact that the Su-34 requires significantly less maintenance and has higher availability rates and lower operational costs than the MiG-31, which makes it an optimal aircraft to deploy Kinzhal missiles. The integration of the Kinzhal onto the Su-34 has significant implications across multiple theatres where the aircraft are deployed, from the Arctic and Far East to the Ukrainian and Syrian theatres. The Su-34 is the longest ranged tactical combat jet in service anywhere in the world, and second only to the MiG-31 for the position of the world’s largest. As a much more modern aircraft with a more efficient design it can carry much heavier payloads over longer distances.

From one of wapo's cope and seethe opeds that is not worth linking (mentioned on a nakedcapitalism article this week) :

Many observers believe that the Russians are determined to stay the course until the 2024 elections in the hope that Donald Trump would be elected and that he would quickly hang the Ukrainians out to dry as he searched for a deal with Vladimir Putin. That would be a disaster, legitimizing naked aggression and emboldening dictators such as Putin and China’s Xi Jinping who want to disregard norms and rewrite the rules of the international system. “The jungle,” as Robert Kagan calls it, would return to international life.

this kind of insane historical revisionism and western chauvinism bullshit is so infuriating. As if the last 50 years of American naked aggression and the boldness of the NATO industrial complex have never happened.

There is no new observation here but this kind of story just really makes me think a lot about minecraft

So... Nobody wants to talk about "Elon mode" on here?

I guess a few days ago he went on Livestream and put the car in "Elon mode" which disables all the safety features. Now the NHTSA or whoever is scrambling to figure out wtf is up with that. "Elon mode" tried to drive him into traffic on stream btw, so he had to slam on the brakes.

The very first Challenger 2 got destroyed near Robotyne. Likely to be from the 82nd Brigade.

https://twitter.com/squatsons/status/1698874543090335841

Blinken is in Kiev. Putin has the opportunity to do something funny.

Two opinion polls about the mood in Russia at the moment.

The first is by Levada Centar, a western funded organisation located in Estonia.

50% of Russians are for peace negotiations, 38% believe military operations should continue no matter what. But only 20% believe that for the sake of peace and the end of the NWO, it is possible to make concessions to Ukraine. 71% believe that there is no need to make concessions.

Most Russians are ready for the sake of peace to agree to exchange of prisoners of war (82% are totally in favour, another 10% find it acceptable).

-55% consider an immediate ceasefire preferable, another 17% acceptable, although here we have a significant 21% who are categorically against it).

But Russians do not agree under any circumstances that Ukraine will be able to join NATO (categorically against - 76%) or returning new territories to Ukraine (76% are categorically against the return of the LPR and DPR, 68% are categorically against the return of Zaporozhye and Kherson regions).

Compared to the same poll in February of this year, more Russians consider it unacceptable to return the New Territories to Ukraine. The position on Ukraine in NATO has not changed at all since last year.

70% say they support the actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. In July it was 75%, in June 73%.

In another, by VTsIOM, a large russian institute, 67% of Russians support shifting the priorities in its relations from Europe and US to Eastern countries. 11% are against, 15% say they don't care, 7% find it difficult to answer. Young people are more likely to be indifferent, but not to be against it.

TL;DR Putin's declared objection to Ukraine joining NATO is still a position supported by the vast majority(76%!) of population. Likewise there is no sign Russians believe in general to be in a losing position i.e no concessions and no returning gained territories(Kherson, Zapo, DPR, LPR).

For any lib out there thinking Putin is some unpopular dictator and where the Russians are just waiting anxiously for the opportunity for some regime change because something something democracy.

you know that discredited line about no two countries with a McDonald's going to war? I wonder if during the Triple Entente there were shitlibs pooh-poohing a World War with some similar maxim

Saw this from SCMP While under US sanctions, where did Huawei get the advanced chips for its latest Mate 60 Pro smartphone?

This was also in the Washington post: New phone sparks worry China has found a way around U.S. tech limits

U.S. sanctions were intended to slow China’s progress in emerging fields like artificial intelligence and big data by cutting off its ability to buy or build advanced semiconductors, which are the brains of these systems. The unveiling of a domestically produced seven-nanometer chip suggests that has not happened.

Industry experts cautioned that it’s still too early to tell how competitive China’s chipmaking operations will become. But what is clear is that China is still in the game.

Willy Shih, an economist at Harvard Business School, said Huawei’s breakthrough was evocative of what happened with Global Positioning System technology, now commonly known as GPS. The U.S. Defense Department developed the technology and restricted its export, wary of it in the hands of rivals. But the export restrictions pushed Moscow and other governments to develop their own versions, Shih said.

“So it went from a situation where the U.S. really dominated that technology and everyone would come to the U.S. to buy it, to now there are all these different alternatives,” he said. “And you have to wonder if the same thing is happening now with Huawei.”

Miller says a considerable gap remains between SMIC’s capabilities and those of TSMC, the industry leader that produces the newest chips for companies like Apple. It also remains unclear if SMIC can produce advanced chips at a scale and cost that will make its products globally competitive.

Shih said that regardless if SMIC can reach the cutting edge, the foundry will certainly be able to produce older-generation chips at scale, possibly pushing down prices of chips worldwide. “We will see price pressure and commoditization pressure,” he said.

U.S. companies like Intel and Qualcomm have already lost significant sales in China, the world’s second-largest economy, due to the U.S. sanctions, crimping their research and development budgets. U.S. executives fear this could weigh on their long-term strength, in an industry where only a few of the strongest, fastest companies tend to survive.

Weekly Update from August 28th to September 4th

It's time to report the GOD DAMN news! COLD HARD FACTS!

Part 1: Afghanistan to Ethiopia

What is the difference between the liberal universalist definition of ideology and Marxist (or Zizek's)?

I'm helping a baby Marxist study for a class and the class is trying to flatten Marxism and Fascism into the same thing, treating ideology like a religion and saying that the reason people die in the third world (revolutions, resistance and otherwise) is because silly people believe in things too hard.

Like in 9/11

✈️

So the situation for Karabakh and Armenia in general looks dire right now. There have been reports of more Azeri military equipment being moved and gathered along the border, which most likely is coordinated with Turkey and the Russians must also be aware since Erdogan and Putin met and one of the issues they must've discussed is the situation in Karabakh. From what I understand Turkey and Azerbaijan are doing everything they can to make sure Iran and Russia won't have a problem with further military action from Azerbaijan as a way to force Armenia for further concessions, because they have done it before and it works every time. Turkey and Azerbaijan are also big into military cooperation and integration, basically making it a single army trained by Turkish NATO officers. Russia also desperately wants our PM Pashinyan to resign ever since the "velvet revolution" when he came to power and kicked out the previous more Russia aligned people. The 2020 war loss didn't kick Pashinyan out, but a total loss of Karabakh and ethnic cleansing might do it. I think the Russians in general, just like with Ukraine, don't really see Armenia as a sovereign state, because we're too small and can't really defend ourselves against much more resource rich and bigger population having neighbours, and if you can't stay true to your so called "red lines" then any talk of sovereignty and independent position is null and void.

Politically, both the west and Russia at this point are more than happy to let Azerbaijan have Karabakh because they keep reiterating that in fact it was Armenia who acknowledged the territory as part of Azerbaijan, without giving any historical context as to why it may be a bad idea to hand people over to a country which in the late 80s was committing pogroms against them and outright denies the Armenian genocide as a hoax. Azerbaijan also has close ties with Israel lately and gets weapons from there as they did in 2020, but the most valuable thing is perhaps their approach to ethnic cleansing, they are learning from the best the way Gazaification of Karabakh is going. The Aliyev regime knows full well that Armenians will never trust them, especially when in 2020 innocent civilians in Karabakh were being beheaded and one of their heads ended up being used by 2 Azeri soldiers as a football.

The problem with much of western analysis of the conflict is that it focuses solely on Karabakh without talking about Armenia itself. Last year around this time Azerbaijan attacked and took positions in Armenia proper, but idiotic and corrupt publications such as the BBC were talking about Karabakh when it had nothing to do with it. In general there is absolutely no attention being paid to the words of Azerbaijani officials (EU politicians love bribes and gas contracts) when they say that they want a corridor through Armenia to their Nakhichevan enclave (or even wilder fantasies where the whole of Armenia is ancient Azeri land), but such a thing was never approved or discussed with Armenia and only came to be after the war where Armenia was already weak and they knew they could push for further concessions. One of the big reasons for military action would be to forcefully open that road since we don't want to discuss it without also including the issue of safety guarantees for the 120k people trapped in Karabakh. Oh and they already made and flag and are claiming southern Armenia (where I'm from) as also part of their territory, so this opening of a corridor can very much be a way to isolate the south and make it easier to attack.

Lastly, my forecast is that Armenians in Karabakh will soon really start starving and within the next month or two maximum we will see more military action from Azerbaijan. They will succeed in their blackmail, our hapless PM will fall to his knees in front of the west for security guarantees, but of course nothing will be given or guaranteed and instead we will be given a table by the french where they go "please guys don't fight let's talk about it, BOTH SIDES BOTH SIDES!!!". What's more insane is that Armenia the other day sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which is extra funny given that Ukraine has far closer ties to Azerbaijan and they were cheering on Azerbaijan when in 2020 they "got their land back". This just goes to show the absolute desperate state that we're in, where you can't really ask anything from anyone, you're just a ball being kicked around.

If I do go to the army (90% chance) they will most likely send me to the border every other month, which basically amounts to 9 months at the border (18 months minus basic training). The Russian "peacekeeping" force has a contract until 2025 which means I'm definitely going to be there when shit hits the fan. What's more scary is that in the last year out of 50 deaths in the army only 13 were from the enemy, the rest are soldiers and commanders murdering one another because they have access to guns, no one can snitch on anyone (criminal/mafia mentality) and all these deaths get counted as suicide and none of the parents so far have been able to do anything to bring justice. Sorry for the long post, but ye, fun times ahead.

Cuba Arrests People Linked to Russian-Based Mercenary Network

Fourteen of them joined the operation by individual decision in exchange for residence in Russia.

On Thursday, Cuban authorities arrested 17 people related to a network that recruited mercenaries to fight for Russia.

Three of these people belonged to the recruitment scheme within the island, while the other fourteen have confessed to having joined the operation by individual decision in exchange for residence in Russia and a substantial monetary remuneration.

The Cuban Foreign Affairs Ministry announced the dismantling of the network after several media reported the presence of Cuban mercenaries fighting on the Russian side in the Ukrainian conflict.

Based on confessions from those arrested and wiretapping, Cuban authorities determined that the network's recruiters were looking for individuals with criminal records and from dysfunctional families.

Although at the moment the crimes for which the detainees are being investigated have not been revealed, the digital media Cubadebate highlighted that the new penal code establishes severe penalties for crimes related to human trafficking and mercenarism.

Jose Luis Reyes, the chief prosecutor of the Supervision Department of the Directorate of Criminal Proceedings of the Attorney General's Office, explained that "in the investigations the attributable crime will be determined for each case, in correspondence with the actions and will of those involved."

The Foreign Ministry stressed that "Cuba is not part of the war conflict in Ukraine," and that Cuba "is acting and will act vigorously" against anyone who "participates in any form of human trafficking for purposes of recruitment or mercenarism so that Cuban citizens do use of weapons against any country".

Statement from the Cuban ministry of foreign affairs about cuban mercenaries in ukraine:

The Ministry of the Interior has detected and it is working to neutralize and dismantle a human trafficking network that operates from Russia in order to incorporate Cuban citizens living there and even some living in Cuba, into the military forces that participate in military operations in Ukraine. Attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against those involved in these activities.

Nicaragua Announces Its Intention to Join the BRICS

"BRICS is where the most powerful countries come together with the most impoverished countries because they join forces to fight poverty and hunger," Ortega said.

On Monday, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced his nation's interest in joining the BRICS, the group of emerging economies led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"We are knocking on the door because that is the multipolar world," the leader of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) said during a ceremony on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the constitution of the Nicaraguan Army.

"BRICS is where the most powerful countries come together with the most impoverished countries because they join forces to fight poverty and hunger," he added.

"Over there the agenda is not defined in function of war as it happens in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, headed by the United States," Ortega pointed out.

"BRICS is making its way in the world and the earth's empires are trying to avoid integration between the nations that want to cooperate not to invade or bomb another country but to strengthen economic and social relations in the fight for peace," he added.

"Nicaragua recognizes in the BRICS a powerful initiative that will allow us to strengthen the multipolar world and change the unfair, colonialist, and imperialist economic model," the Nicaraguan government said on August 24, when it greeted the entry of Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to the BRICS.

These six countries will become full members of the BRICS from January 1, 2024. The expansion of the group is part of its plan to gain influence and be able to reshape global governance towards a multipolar world order, which places the voices of the South Global at the center of the world's political agenda.

Breaking NATO military news!

In a move that will delight short kings — and queens — Denmark's royal guard is abolishing it's height requirement, citing liberal ideals of inclusivity as well as fears that the current height requirement for women is illegal gender discrimination as it is above the average height for women. All parties in parliament, excluding two of the three fascist parties, back the movement, dispelling fears that "it will look weird if they put a very short soldier next to a verytall one" with reassurances that "the royal guard is good at placing people". The royal guard is a regiment of the Danish army that receives ordinary military training in addition to performing ceremonial guard duties at royal palaces dressed in 19th century costume to the delight of tourists and chuds alike.

Americans realize that maybe making your tank weigh 65 tons isn't such a good idea

The U.S. Army is scrapping its current upgrade plans for the Abrams main battle tank and pursuing a more significant modernization effort to increase its mobility and survivability on the battlefield

“We must optimize the Abrams’ mobility and survivability” ... Weight is a major inhibitor of mobility, Norman said last fall. “We are consistently looking at ways to drive down the main battle tank’s weight to increase our operational mobility.”

American equipment in storage turns out to have been improperly maintained

Equipment drawn from the U.S. Army’s Kuwait-based pre-positioned stock bound for Ukraine was not ready for combat operations, the Pentagon’s inspector general has found.

All six of the M777 howitzers and 25 of 29 M1167 High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles were not “mission ready” and required repairs before U.S. European Command could send the equipment to Ukraine

issues with poor maintenance and lax oversight of the [APS] equipment could result in future delays for equipment support provided to the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the report read. “In addition, if U.S. forces needed this equipment, they would have encountered the same challenges.”

When the team arrived at Camp Arifjan in March 2022, the contractor provided a howitzer that it said was fully mission capable. But the weapon system was not maintained according to the standard technical manual, per the mobile repair team, and “ ‘would have killed somebody [the operator],’ in its current condition,” the report stated.

the commander stated the contractor “is not contractually obligated or appropriately resourced to maintain [APS] equipment” at standards laid out in the technical manual the inspector general followed to make determinations regarding mission-capable readiness of the equipment.

lol what the fuck? how can someone who's been hired to maintain your shit not be obligated to follow the manual for maintaining said shit? also imagine leaving the maintenance of your military equipment to fucking private contractors, truly capitalism is the most rational system

BREAKING: New US election polling data shows run away victory for surprise candidate

Jill Biden has tested positive with a mild case of Covid, Joe tests negative

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/05/jill-biden-positive-for-covid-president-joe-biden-tests-negative.html

Russian President calls Ukraine's summer counteroffensive a "failure"

Russian president Vladimir Putin labels Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive, which has been underway since June, a "failure". The comments come despite Ukraine claiming to have made further gains on its southern front and near Bakhmut.

https://nitter.net/SatimMonitoring/status/1699033904244535646

Looking past the Ukrainian assertions that Russia is "strapping tires to its planes" in a desperate attempt to mitigate damage, whatever Russia is doing appears to be some kind of sensor camouflage.

My understanding is that some drones/missiles rely on preloaded (radar-based?) images of the target in order to home in on it. By disrupting the appearance of the planes, that type of targeting wouldn't work, I guess?

Where are we in thinking that the Ukranian banning of leftists parties was genuine fear that they would drum up popular support and eventually seek a peaceful rapprochement with Russia and western Ukraine? By rapprochement, of course, I mean genuine prosecution and purging of fascist elements from ‘within’ Ukraine?

It doesn’t take some oracle to know that war is bad and that the foreseeable future would be bad for Ukraine, so I’m under the assumption that the Ukrainians banned opposition so early in the war as to curtail popular dissent. Is this analysis anywhere in the realm of being realistic?

Ukraine’s Spring Counteroffensive has been a roaring success!

The Summer Counteroffensive is steamrolling the Russians!

Fall Counteroffensive triumph! 100 million Russians dead!

The Winter Counteroffensive an extreme success, Ukrainian troops mere kilometers from Russian defenses!

The Supreme Court of Mexico decriminalizes abortion at the federal level.

US Army Cancels Flight Test of Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon Bloomberg

• Pentagon seeking to catch up with China on hypersonic arsenal
• Defense Department doesn’t say what led to scrapping of test

The US scrapped a test on Wednesday of what’s meant to be the Army’s first hypersonic missile in its arsenal, a setback as the US looks to catch up with China for a crucial weapon of the future.

“The department planned to conduct a flight test at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida to inform our hypersonic technology development but as a result of pre-flight checks the test did not occur,” the Defense Department said in a statement to Bloomberg News, referring to the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon.

It didn’t say what led the test to be canceled. Yet the decision raises questions about the program’s schedule and whether the Army can meet its goal of declaring the weapon initially combat capable by Sept. 30, which would also mark the Pentagon’s first hypersonic weapon.

The US Defense Intelligence Agency said in March that China was in the lead as far as developing hypersonic weapons, which can fly fast and low and may carry nuclear warheads.

The statement added that even without the flight test, “the department was able to successfully collect data on the performance of the ground hardware and software that will inform the continued progress toward fielding offensive hypersonic weapons.”

lmao

I’m telling you the project is dead in the water. They can’t do it.

Why did the Left not canvass for Biden? - the washington post in exile