: "Argentina is fighting for its life... Argentina is fighting for its life. They have nothing. They have no money. Argentina is dying. They have no money, they have nothing. I may even like the... President there, but don't try to tell me they're doing well. They're dying, alright? They're dying."

This has to be one of the coolest fucking things I've read in a very long time: Everything we know about the Louvre jewellery heist

The BBC:

The Australian military is claiming that a Chinese fighter dropped flares "very close" to a plane.

Wow, that sounds dangerous and alarming. Let's see what this is about: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-20/federal-politics-live-blog-october-20/105910558#live-blog-post-233427

There's been another potentially dangerous encounter between the Australian Defence Force and the Chinese military

Our glorious defense force vs their barbarous military

Australian P8 plane was doing a routine maritime surveillance patrol in the South China Sea when it was approached by a People's Liberation Army fighter jet which released flares — two of them "very close" to the Australian surveillance plane.

emphasis mine.

This is about spying on those fucking islands isn't it.

Fucks sake mate, the ADF would absolutely be telling Chinese spy planes to fuck right off if they were flying over terrioral islands.

Just be even handed and fair about it for Christ's sake. You were spying on them, this isn't aggression, you were spying on them.

White house east wing destroyed to make Trump ballroom awesome

source

Russian blogs are saying that if the US sends Tomahawks to Ukraine, Russia should send Kalibr missiles to Venezuela or Colombia.

Nikol Pashinyan, the neo-liberal dictator of Armenia, has arrested the Communist Party mayor of Gyumri (the country's second largest city) and other local officials and citizens. People came out into the streets to protest against Pashinyan's latest power grab.

https://www.rt.com/russia/626714-armenia-arrests-opposition-crackdown/

Chinese branch of Nexperia revolts against the illegal Dutch nationalisation.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/10/20/chinese-staff-go-rogue-dutch-seize-control-of-chip-firm/

70% of the production capacity of Nexperia is based in China btw.

The Dutch basically ruined their own company and reputation for brownie points from America.

From The Atlantic:

ICE expects non-LEO recruits to recruits do 15 push-ups, 32 sit-ups, and run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes. A third are failing the test, posing a major challenge to the agency's efforts to scale up.

From FORTUNE:

42% of consumers didn’t know their chips were made out of potatoes

From popular info:

ICE increased weapons spending by 700% — including purchases of chemical weapons and guided missile warheads.

https://popular.info/p/ice-boosts-weapons-spending-700

Little Heathens: Danish Baptism Rates Plummet As Regime Push For "Spiritual Rearmament"

Denmark is poised to cross a historic threshold next year, with projections showing that for the first time since the late Viking age, fewer than half of newborn Danes will be baptized.

The decline has prompted calls for intervention from th Nordic hermit kingdom's political elite as the regime scramble to reverse what they describe as a civilizational threat.

Evo Morales: "Paz and Lara won with the Evo vote, the vote of those outraged by their proscription and electoral exclusion. The 1.3 million spoiled votes decided the second round. It's clear that the vote went mostly against Tuto, the eternal loser, 'son' of the dictator Banzer and ally of Jeanine Añez. Lucho's government banned me."

"And the people banned the traitors at the polls. The people of the working-class neighborhoods and rural areas, since they didn't have their candidate, had no choice but to vote for Paz and Lara. But they don't give them a blank check. It's a vote with a mandate to prevent him from destroying the Plurinational State and all the great social transformations and achievements; to prevent him from implementing neoliberal measures and submitting to imperialism; to prevent him from being repressive; to prevent him from criminalizing social protest; and to govern by consulting the people."

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I can’t get archive.is to work right so I can’t link the Bloomberg article, but Ethiopia is currently in negotiations with China on converting $5.38 billion in USD-denominated loans owed to China over to yuan. This is on the heels of a similar deal China negotiated with Kenya last month.

It’s possible this is just all strategic, as China may recognize the pressure having USD-denominated debt places on these countries so they are giving them a break to reduce risk of insolvency. But certainly can’t rule out that at least a part of this is geared towards gradual de-dollarization.

China doesn’t need more USD but they are also trapped by it, not much they can do with other than loan it out.

I don't even know why this suddenly got into my feed, but it is quite funny;

Death to amerikkka

BadEmpanada with good call-outs as usual.

Hasan Piker Loves This Serial Killer

(This is about loud and proud U.S. stormtrooper Graham Platner, who is a Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, and boasts about his history of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, 3 with the U.S. military and one with Blackwater, but also superficially tweets leftist memes and shit.)

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Olympic Committee has recommended global sports federations cease holding events in Indonesia after the country barred Israeli athletes from the ongoing gymnastics world championships in Jakarta.

US bombs 2nd ship in Pacific in less than 48 hours; 3 dead According to the US Secretary of War, the attack was carried out this Wednesday (22) in international waters. The action was authorized by President Donald Trump. This was the second attack in less than 48 hours in the region. On Tuesday (21), another boat was bombed by American soldiers , leaving two dead. The attack took place near Colombia , but in international waters, according to the American press. On social media, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated that this second operation was also authorized by Trump .

• Telegram

Ukraine launched cruise missile strikes within Russia's internationally recognised borders using British-French made Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG cruise missiles, and posted such on their general staff twitter account.

On 21 October 2025, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in coordination with the Land Forces, the Navy, and other units of the Defence Forces of Ukraine, struck the Bryansk Chemical Plant.

A massive combined missile and air strike was carried out, including the use of air-launched Storm Shadow missiles, which successfully penetrated the Russian air defence system.

Source

Strom Shadow/SCALP-EG is again being used for strikes on internationally recognised Russian territory, with Ukraine bragging about it publicly. Also there were more targets than just the chemical plant in Bryansk (a substation and ammunition depot were also targeted), so the statement is incorrect in it's implication that just the chemical plant was targeted.

I do think Platner is not who he says he is, cannot be trusted but wtf is going on here. This MSP Account has been showing up on my feed, I thought it was a local newspaper but they are not?

https://x.com/broderick/status/1981104597910638653

Trump: Now, I’m bringing prices down 600% 700% 900% 200%

Staging for more bomber flights around Venezuela taking place, with mid air refueling aircraft being moved to MacDill Air Base, Florida. Speculated to be for B-1B bombers this time by flight tracking enthusiasts. (Refueling aircraft are signalling that they're part of operations for the 7th Bomb Wing, which operates the B-1).

Source

The US also explicitly called the previous B-52 flights off of the coast of Venezuela a "bomber attack demo", escorted by F-35s. F-35s were operating without Luneburg lenses/radar reflectors in a stealth configuration, despite the externally mounted AIM-9X-2 Sidewinder missiles (stealthy pylons). B-52s were operating without external pylons for AGM-158 JASSM type cruise missiles, meaning that the maximum capacity was 8 JASSM per B-52 all internally, instead of the maximum of 20 when equipped with external pylons. B-1Bs can carry a maximum of 24 JASSMs, all internally.

Source

There are also 2 E-3 AWACS aircraft at McDill, and there are often squadrons of EA-18G Growler EW/SEAD aircraft at Naval Air Station Key West, Florida, they train there.

The US Navy has also moved three replenishment oilers (ships that resupply and refuel combat ships at sea) to the Carribean, indicating that they're preparing to spend an extended time out to sea, instead of resupplying at ports.

Source

Also, the semi submersible vessel that was sunk by the US military, was likely targeted using the autocannon or howitzer of an AC-130J Ghostrider gunship. That would explain why there were survivors in that particular strike when compared to previous strikes that reportedly used AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or even 500lb bombs.

Comparison of targeting pod footage

This morning I was renewing my visa in the Chinese Consulate in New York and on all the screens, on a loop, were various different documentaries about all the various different times where the Dalai Lama was appointed or otherwise officially sanctioned by the Ming or Qing dynasties. One of them even explicitly said, "proving that the right to appoint the Dalai Lama rests with the authority of the centeal government, a principle upheld in modern times." Rather amusing, the CPC is obviously preparing for the current Dalai Lama's death and is laying the groundwork for when they appoint a new one. I imagine we'll have an Avignon Pope situation, with at least two Dalai Lamas, one in Tibet and one in exile in India.

Apparently Ukraine has issues with its drones because of the market making a bunch of different drones/drone parts that aren't necessarily mutually compatible, leading to chaos on the frontline among drone operators.

According to the same military blogger, Russia basically only makes one type of drone so they don't have that issue.

I found this particularly interesting reading through this piece by the eventsinukraine substack so I thought I'd share it here:

USDA announces SNAP benefits will not be issued in November

US, Australia sign rare earth, mineral agreement as China tightens supply

United States President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have signed an agreement on rare earth and critical minerals as China tightens control over global supply.

The two leaders signed the deal on Monday at the White House.

Trump said the agreement had been negotiated over four or five months. The two leaders will also discuss trade, submarines and military equipment, Trump said.

Albanese described it as an $8.5bn pipeline “that we have ready to go”.

A copy of the agreement, provided by the prime minister’s office, said the two countries will each invest $1bn over the next six months into mining and processing projects. They also set a minimum price floor for critical minerals, a move that Western miners have long sought

I can’t find detail anywhere regarding specifics, but I have to imagine $2 billion is a drop in the bucket of what it would take to bypass China in the production of rare earth minerals. The story also mentions how I guess Australia is a little embarrassed at sending the US billions for submarines that they may never get (but not get a refund on those billions) so maybe Australia is trying to get some subs in exchange for pretending to be able to impact the rare earth minerals market?

Source

CIA Weighs Shuttering China Center as Trump Shifts Focus to Venezuela

Reflecting the administration’s pivot, the Central Intelligence Agency is now considering dissolving its China Mission Center, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as part of a broader realignment that de-emphasizes confrontation with China.

Sources say that the CIA is thinking about shutting down the China center, in part, for its ineffectiveness, having consumed vast resources with little to show for it. This comes in the wake of one of the CIA’s worst intelligence failures in its history. Between 2010 and 2012, Chinese counterintelligence wiped out the CIA’s network of informants, killing or imprisoning nearly twenty people and destroying years of espionage work, the New York Times reported in 2017. More than a decade later, the agency has yet to fully recover. (The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Rodrigo Paz, President-elect of Bolivia, confirms to CNN that he will not be inviting the presidents of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba to his November 9th inauguration.

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Evo Morales: "It's fake. It wasn't the end of a leftist cycle of justice, inclusion, national dignity, and sovereignty; a model of economic growth and political and social stability. What ended was the cycle of economic destruction of Jeanine Añez's regime (2019) and the treacherous, right-wing, and corrupt government of Luis Arce."

"My 14-year government was one of economic and social success. There was never a shortage of dollars. There was no shortage of fuel or food. Wealth was distributed to the people. Economic growth was almost permanent. We paid double bonuses. Thousands of public works projects were built. We achieved great successes in international politics and ensured that our sovereignty was respected in the face of invading and plundering imperialism."

"As long as the political and media right wing continues to hate, defame, humiliate, insult, and persecute the majority of Bolivians, there will be thousands of indignant and rebellious people who will not give up, who are not afraid, and who will never renounce a popular government. We will save Bolivia once again!"

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NBC News finds that: -- ICE has shortened its training from 13 weeks to six. -- Nearly half of recruits couldn’t pass an open-book written exam. -- Recruits "are supposed to attest" they can pass the physical-fitness test, which requires them to run ... 6 mph.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna238739

wake up, new gestapo just dropped https://archive.ph/4OSVp

Army counterintelligence agents to get enhanced arrest powers

Civilian special agents of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command will receive enhanced authorities to conduct searches, execute warrants and make arrests outside of military bases, Army counterintelligence leaders announced to members of the media during an Oct. 15 roundtable at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.