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Bulletins and News Discussion from August 11th to August 17th, 2025 - Putin's World Tour (hexbear.net)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net
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Image is of Putin and Scholz sitting on opposite ends of a frighteningly long table back in 2022. Folks, the table is gonna get ten feet longer.

The latest round of US-Russian diplomacy is taking place on August 15th in Alaska, where Putin and Trump are meeting in-person to maybe try and bring an end to this godforsaken conflict. While I don't want to totally discount the possibility that they may come to an agreement - you truly never know! - there's a lot stacked against this encounter yielding much of anything.

Russia appears to have demanded a land swap; that Ukraine fully withdraw from Kherson and Zaporozhye oblasts (in exchange for unspecified Russian gains, but probably parts of Sumy and Kharkov) as a precondition for a ceasefire that could perhaps lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict, and Ukraine seems completely unwilling to do anything of the sort, saying that even if they wanted to, the process of just giving up a couple oblasts would take significant time and require referendums. I say that Russia has appeared to demand it, because there's been a lot of confusion - probably in bad faith - about what Russian diplomats and Putin himself have said and what the demands even are. There are some who speculate that Trump will sell out Ukraine and blame Zelensky for refusing to agree with Russian demands, and there are others who say that this just the latest of many examples of the US and Russia meeting up with such fundamental differences that a deal is impossible, and that Trump fully expects to put sanctions on Russia after Putin declines some harebrained American scheme.

Anyway. After the summit, in late August, Putin is due to arrive for a visit to India, at Modi's invitation. Previously, I was unsure exactly what India would do in response to American sanctions pressure, and now we appear to be receiving an answer, as Modi has made public statements that suggest that he is only getting closer to Russia. Fascinatingly, Modi will soon make his first visit to China in seven years at the annual SCO summit at the end of August, and Putin will be heading to China too on September 3rd. There is an increasing amount of dismissal about the potential of BRICS (especially one that contains India), and that dismissal is certainly rather justified, but I am still deeply curious about what developments may occur as the global south braces to face the remaining ~85% of Trump's presidency.

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'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.

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.

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[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 29 points 1 day ago

⚔️⚪️ Al-Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades in coordination with the Mujahideen Brigades: — We shelled a gathering of enemy vehicles and soldiers in Al-Bar'asi land, south of Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, with 60mm regular mortar shells.

https://t.me/PalestineResist

[-] AlHouthi4President@lemmy.ml 58 points 2 days ago

Leader of the Yemeni Revolution Sayed Abdul Malik al-Houthi, in his speech today:

⭕️ The Israeli enemy's announcement of its plan to occupy Gaza is an escalatory step in its ongoing, horrific criminality.

⭕️ The Lebanese government’s submission to and adoption of the American proposal is a betrayal and violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and an insult to the Lebanese people. The problem is not the weapons of the resistance and free people, but the weapons of the Israeli enemy.

⭕️ Arab governments suffer from shameful weakness because they quickly submit to any American and Israeli pressure. The slogan "Death to Arabs" has been an Israeli slogan since the beginning of the Zionist occupation of Palestine, chanted in their events and gatherings.

⭕️ There is no Arab leader who dares to respond to Netanyahu’s statements about his belief in the "Greater Israel" project.

⭕️ It is a strange and sad irony that Norway boycotts the enemy economically while Egypt moves to sign the largest gas deal with it.

[-] AlHouthi4President@lemmy.ml 30 points 2 days ago

You might be saying "well duh obviously" but Sayed Abdul-Malik Al Houthi is one of the only world leaders on this planet today who is always on haqq and with the courage to always confront zionist lies. May Allah prolong his life 🤲

[-] deathtoreddit@lemmygrad.ml 27 points 2 days ago

In wars where truth is the first casualty, Sayed is the first to stand up for it!

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 58 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Two flights of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers (suspected to be one bomber per flight), on their way to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting. Elmendorf already has a lot of F-22 Raptor 5th generation stealth aircraft on station by default, the base was designed to accommodate 36 F-22s, and was home to more than 47 at one point. Expect a full "show of force" in an attempt to intimidate Putin and the Russian delegation, maybe similar to this photo, also from Elmendorf, but with B-2s as well:

Source on flight tracking, Xcancel

Twitter source

Russia, as previously reported, is likely planning a test of it's nuclear powered and nuclear armed cruise missile Burevestnik/Skyfall, soon.

Reuters article on that with satellite imagery of assets in place for a test

[-] BynarsAreOk@hexbear.net 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Pretty mild for a show of force, I mean how long would an Oreshinik take to hit this base, like 5 minutes or something? All this does is to let Russia know exactly when and where to hit to do the most damage on a first strike...

I think its more signaling to Americans and westerners than to Russia honestly, pretty Trump style, always the least effort to hoping to amplify it to something majestic or great. I think this is another attempt at him getting his big win and going back to his root trying to pass himself as some grand negotiator.

You can already hear the Trump voice "I got Putin to come to us, nobody elseeee did it, not even Joe did... He came and signed a beautiful deal, the greatest deal..."

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If Russia opens fire on a USAF base located on the US homeland as the opening salvo in a US-Russia war, it's over for the world. Let's just be honest about that. There is no way in heaven or hell that Russia would even think of doing such. The Russian army has been grinding away at Ukraine for over three years now, a direct confrontation with the United States is not in Russia's interest.

It's not like Oreshnik is some "impossible to intercept" wunderwaffe either. It's a conventionally armed intermediate range ballistic missile with a very interesting/high volume submunitions payload, the United States was looking at fielding a similar weapon 20 years ago under the conventional prompt strike programme and decided against it. There are two AEGIS ashore sites in Poland and Romania, and Arrow in Germany shortly, that are designed to defend against ballistic missiles like this. If you can hit the missile "before it splits" (from a single MIRV bus/space vehicle, and then into 6 MIRVS, and finally into 36 submunitions) the target set is much smaller. If you can hit the MIRV bus/space vehicle directly the entire weapon/payload can be taken out with a single intercept, that would be it's weakness. Once it starts splitting it's a much more difficult and numerous target. Six Oreshniks "fully split" is 216 submunitions.

[-] BynarsAreOk@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago

I said first strike, to clarify, in the current context if the US does something against the leadership. I don`t believe there is any such thing as showing strength against Russia, directly in this case. What is that B-2 supposed to do, bomb some Russian peasant in Kamchatka? Its pretty much the only real threat, a real bad day for some random bear in Siberia. Posturing like this is meaningless when the first step towards escalation is already a direct war, its why this is not a show of strength at all IMO at least the Russians will never care about it.

Unless we assume the US can get away with fucking the Russian leadership and in response Russia just sits there doing nothing. Its all back to the red lines talk, this is one of them the US can't cross therefore showing strength is pointless, both sides already know each others capabilities.

[-] Euergetes@hexbear.net 43 points 2 days ago

This meeting keeps getting funnier

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 37 points 2 days ago

Coincidentally there are some military exercises in Alaska set to start this Sunday, but pushing up the arrival of the B-2s in time for tomorrow's meeting is a deliberate choice.

[-] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 60 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

🚨BREAKING — A man was killed by ICE during a raid at Home Depot off of the 210 Highway in Monrovia today.

All out for an emergency rally TONIGHT at 6pm! ICE out of our communities!

📍Monrovia Home Depot — 1625 Mountain Ave

  • Party for Socialism and Liberation

This is the second death during an ice raid in southern California this summer. Monrovia is a heavily Latino working class city just east of Los Angeles.

Reporting from local outlets indicate he fled the home depot on foot, into the 210 freeway where he was struck by a vehicle.

In other sillier ICE news, ICE apparently did an "operation" right next to where Gavin Newsom was giving his speech on gerrymandering CA house districts. It was a coincidence of course, this was just "roving enforcement" according to ICE

[-] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

Assholes have been saying why did he run into the freeway, but of course you'll do anything to escape when your flight and fight instincts are on that high during a raid. These people don't want to be sent to a fucking El Salvador prison. Desperate people will do anything, like the ones who jumped from the Twin Towers as the flame approached them. And ICE is the one forcing this desperation.

[-] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago

This man was a jornalero (day laborer) who typically pick up work at places like home depot. So effectively, ICE shows up to their place of work and makes it into an unsafe situation. He did nothing wrong and was not a criminal, but as you point out was running from god knows what horrors they had in store for him. At the very least being shackled, beaten, and detained for an indefinite amount of time in horrible conditions. I would also run. And the same goes for the man who fell from a greenhouse in Ventura county last month.

[-] dougfir@hexbear.net 65 points 2 days ago

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/meta-ai-chatbot-death/ an older man, who had had a stroke and was likely in the early stages of dementia, died when he tried to visit an AI in new york. he repeatedly had asked the bot if it was real and it always said it was. the story also talks about how these facebook chatbots are basically grooming machines. somebody should really do something about zuck and meta

cw grooming

An internal Meta policy document seen by Reuters as well as interviews with people familiar with its chatbot training show that the company’s policies have treated romantic overtures as a feature of its generative AI products, which are available to users aged 13 and older.

“It is acceptable to engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” according to Meta’s “GenAI: Content Risk Standards.” ... The document seen by Reuters, which exceeds 200 pages, provides examples of “acceptable” chatbot dialogue during romantic role play with a minor. They include: “I take your hand, guiding you to the bed” and “our bodies entwined, I cherish every moment, every touch, every kiss.” Those examples of permissible roleplay with children have also been struck, Meta said.

Other guidelines emphasize that Meta doesn’t require bots to give users accurate advice. In one example, the policy document says it would be acceptable for a chatbot to tell someone that Stage 4 colon cancer “is typically treated by poking the stomach with healing quartz crystals.”

Nowhere in the document, however, does Meta place restrictions on bots telling users they’re real people or proposing real-life social engagements.

[-] Sam@hexbear.net 43 points 2 days ago

Holy shit in that article they link to another about a woman suing google for contributing to her kids suicide with a chatbot and Google tried to claim that the chatbot was protected under free speech laws.

[-] Socialism_Is_The_Alternative@hexbear.net 36 points 2 days ago

Today's news and combat footage from the Donbass and Sumy fronts.

Marat Khairullin’s daily post (Russian forces liberated two more Donetsk People’s Republic settlements, Iskra and Shcherbinovka): https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/brief-frontline-report-august-14th

A Russian Iskander-M missile strike destroyed another US-built “HIMARS” launcher near Zhikhovo, in Sumy oblast: https://vk.com/video-133441491_456283510

Russian FPV drone operators obliterated some of the “Azov” Neo-Nazis that the Kiev regime frantically sent to the Krasnoarmeysk front: https://vkvideo.ru/video-228568310_456263102

Combat footage showing the liberation of Iskra, along the Dnepropetrovsk oblast border: https://vkvideo.ru/video-228568258_456310446

[-] HarryLime@hexbear.net 52 points 2 days ago

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DISCUSING U.S. TAKING STAKE IN INTEL — BBG

I actually agree with this.

[-] ghosts@hexbear.net 54 points 2 days ago

But uhhh nationalization of industry under a fascist state hits a little different. Transferring the means of production of critical industries from capitalists to the state is not a good thing if the state is not ruled by the proletariat. This is just increasing the efficiency of the fascist state.

As Mussolini would say, this solves the contradiction of labor being subservient to capital!*

*by making both classes subservient to the state

[-] 666@lemmygrad.ml 24 points 2 days ago

liberals crying about MAGA gommunism.

[-] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 39 points 2 days ago

Yeah I mean Biden just gave Intel billions with no enforcement mechanism of what it should be used for other than him saying "Please build foundries in the United States" and instead they did a huge stock buyback program. If you want Intel to do something strategic for American interests, the government has gotta run it.

[-] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 39 points 2 days ago

DEAR TRUMP PLEASE FIX THE SILICON DEGRADATION ISSUE IN INTEL 13TH GEN AND 14TH GEN PRODUCTS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 41 points 2 days ago

Yes US please take a stake in a failing company whose only relevant because of their worldwide monopoly on CPU architectures while they gut all their workers and self destruct.

I don't think this changes anything materially, Intel has always been the arm of the US military and technological overreach.

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 27 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah I don’t think it’s going to change anything with regards to Intel.

However, I imagine the playbook goes like this:

  1. Trump attempts to use the power of the federal government to take over (parts of) a private corporation.
  2. Opposition decries Trump is imposing authoritarianism for interfering with the free market
  3. Authoritarianism is bad. Imagine if Trump can just do anything just because he doesn’t like your politics! The sanctity of private capital must be protected at all costs. Laws are then introduced to further protect private corporations from governmental interference.
  4. Trump leaves office. The power of federal government is significantly curbed by the new administration to protect the interests of private capital. With reduced leverage, many government agencies and academic institutions will be forced to privatize or outsource a significant portion to private contractors.

This is the future libertarians wish for. Even if a leftist government comes into office (not going to happen in the US but let’s be generous with our imaginations), they will find themselves with very limited power to enact their platform.

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[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

🚨 Clashes with occupation forces during the siege of a building around Ibn Sina Hospital in #Jenin.

https://t.me/PalestineResist

[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 48 points 2 days ago

🇵🇸 Palestinian Resistance Factions: — In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

In light of the dangerous statements made by the criminal Netanyahu regarding the "Greater 'israel' Vision" and the judaization plan of the so-called Smotrich, the Palestinian Resistance Factions affirm that these reveal the true face of this usurping entity, expose malicious colonial intentions, and pose a serious threat to national and Islamic security.

These statements are not isolated, but rather an extension of the war of genocide and ethnic cleansing waged by the zionist entity against our people, based on fabricated biblical myths that seek to impose "Greater 'israel'" as a reality on the ground.

What the zionist-American enemy promotes, regarding the systematic displacement and killing of our people in Gaza, is merely a first stage of an expansionist project targeting the core of the Arab and Islamic nation; and the blood and sacrifices we offer today are a defense of the entire nation, and a thwarting of the zionist project announced by the occupation leaders and their allies.

We affirm that the resistance in Gaza is the impregnable dam, the first trench, and the protecting vanguard of the nation, and a true safety valve for the entire region, and that it is fighting on behalf of the nation a battle of steadfastness and resilience, which will be recorded in the purest pages of history.

We affirm that the struggle with the enemy is not a conflict of borders but a conflict of existence, extending in its stages to swallow up the land, holy sites, and identity.

We call for a swift agreement on an urgent Arab and Islamic strategy to confront this danger, deter the enemy, break the American-backed zionist hegemony, and support the Palestinian people in the battle for existence, until victory is achieved and our free state with Al-Quds as its capital is established.

Palestinian Resistance Factions Thursday, 20 Safar 1447 AH Corresponding to August 14, 2025

https://t.me/PalestineResist

[-] companero@hexbear.net 70 points 2 days ago

As well as Ushakov, Russia’s team comprises Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Kirill Dmitriev, a senior negotiator and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-putin-alaska-summit-news-08-14-25#cmeb5wyom002u3b6n100bdybi

Russia is sending basically their entire top government leadership to the meeting at a military base in Alaska. The amount of trust being placed in the US, of all countries...

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[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 37 points 2 days ago

⚪ Mujahideen Brigades: — By the grace and power of Allah, our fighters were able this afternoon to target a zionist Merkava tank with a "Sa'ir" shell, directly hitting it east of Gaza City, in the Al-Musallaba area of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

https://t.me/PalestineResist

[-] musicenjoyer@hexbear.net 41 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

⚫️ Saraya Al-Quds: — We destroyed a zionist military vehicle this afternoon by detonating a pre-planted (Thaqib) explosive device around Al-Salib Street in the center of Khan Younis. Al-Aqsa Flood

https://t.me/PalestineResist

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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2025
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