Testing a new newsmega feature: great effort posts of the week. The comm is at its best when people contribute their own analysis like this

@CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net with analysis of the social and political dimensions of organized crime in Rio, placing the police operation that killed 100+ people) in context.

@MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net on how sanctions against Huawei didn't stop their technical advancement but did save Apple's market share

President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the mass distribution of rifles across the country to arm the workers against a possible United States invasion. The arms, he said in a speech, will go "to the coasts, the mountains, cities, villages, plains, hamlets, borders, popular neighborhoods, all in order to defend our rights, our peace, our lives, and our sovereignty."

fucking finally (from mintpress, it might be slightly overhyping https://nitter.net/MintPressNews/status/1984325697393819863)

I'm writing my Iraqi elections mega post and I'm already on 3000 words and the thing is like 50% done ffs. There are four massive tables that will break the website for sure, I'm looking forward to that. It's not looking good for the communists, but maybe Allah through the divine intercession of Imam Lenin turns their luck.

On Unholy podcast, @Freedland asks Hillary Clinton if she’d vote for Zohran Mamdani?

HC: “You know what? I don't vote in this city. I'm not involved in it. I have not been at all even asked to be involved in it, and I have not chosen to be involved in it.”

Of course, both Clintons endorsed De Blasio in 2013. And I'm assuming they also endorsed in previous NYC and NY elections. Kind of funny, HRC is the ultimate electoralism person, she argued that it is your duty to always vote for the Dem nominee, but now she is like "voting, what even is that?". [edit] Bill Clinton endorsed Cuomo in June 2025.

Interview: Venezuela’s militias and the civil-military union

October 30, 2025 - www.red-spark.org

So, in the face of this threat, our militias are prepared and we have very high morale. Just as the militias are prepared for civil duties, we are prepared in the strategic concept of permanent war. We understand the necessity of resistance, of the people in arms and of providing material and logistical support to the entire resistance effort of the armed struggle. We are constantly training in the tactical methods of revolutionary resistance and training in different disciplines of combat so that we can mesh with other combatants in other areas. The militias are prepared, organised and trained to be able to execute any type of manoeuvre in order to resist any attempt to desecrate Venezuelan sovereignty.

We will defend our homeland. If we must resist for 50 years, or 100 years, we will do it and we will resist with everything we have at hand. We will not surrender our homeland to any imperialist power.

https://red-spark.org/2025/10/30/interview-venezuelas-militias-and-the-civil-military-union/

edit: this picture seems to have been removed since I first read this, posting here because I can't stop thinking about it

img description crowd of people behind an APC, there's a woman in a pink garfield tshirt holding a rifle

This line is so tired and false. Our Revolutions do not operate on exclusion and bigotry. Considerable work is being done within Venezuela towards expanding the rights of all people, including women and LGBT peoples. If you believe Venezuela is 'one of the most conservative countries in North or South or Central America' — then you haven't been to any countries.

Northerners are eager to export their culture war and apply narrow understandings just like embassies work to impose their imperialist agendas on the global south.

• Twitter

Microsoft seemingly just revealed that OpenAI lost $11.5B last quarter

milei's victory in the midterms will spell absolute DISASTER for the working class. There is a gigantic battle ahead of us and we have little chance of winning it. I'm afraid Argentina's toughest days are yet to come.

Milei aims to speed up reform drive after election victory

President Javier Milei is preparing to forge ahead with a second wave of reforms, targeting the labour market, taxation system and pensions. But first, he will have to open dialogue with leaders in what he says will be the “most reformist Congress” in history.

Emboldened by his midterm election triumph, President Javier Milei is opening dialogue with political leaders to advance with a second wave of reforms, targeting the labour market, taxation system and, down the line, pensions. Milei’s government reached last week’s legislative elections amid financial turbulence that has calmed after the win. It now faces the challenge of jumpstarting a stagnant economy and consolidating its political project.

Milei’s first step will be to negotiate his first Budget bill in two years in office with lawmakers after two consecutive rejections. Milei postponed it until December, when his position in Congress will be stronger.

Milei’s La Libertad Avanza caucus will expand but still fall short of a majority. Although the final count is pending, the government is expected to hold around 100 of 257 seats in the lower house and 20 of 72 in the Senate, as from December 10. With their centre-right ally, the PRO party of former president Mauricio Macri, Milei and La Libertad Avanza could have a combined 107 seats in the new-look Chamber of Deputies. In the upper house, the caucus would be 26 seats out of 72.

Milei has happily proclaimed that the new Congress, which will sit for the first time on December 10, will be "the most reformist... in Argentina's history." The President has called on governors and other political forces to open talks on his “second-generation reforms” in 2026. This time, the abrasive right-winger – who in the past dismissed his opponents as "rats" and "traitors" – is showing signs of being more open to dialogue.

Milei says there is a “sequence” for his reforms and simplifying Argentina's byzantine tax code is his top priority. The 55-year-old economist has in the past branded taxes as "theft" and labelled those who stash their money into offshore accounts as "heroes" for managing to "escape the claws of the State."

Milei wants to bring more workers into the formal economy. To achieve that he proposes lowering employer payroll taxes, so that companies put workers on their books and hire new staff.

“We have a plan to eliminate 20 taxes, reduce rates and broaden the tax base so that evasion no longer makes sense,” he told the A24 news channel on the Monday following the election. According to Milei, the new tax scheme will trigger an “expansion of the private sector” that will allow progress towards “labour modernisation.”

Loosen labour laws

Milei always wants to shake up Argentina's "anachronistic" labour code, which he says "is over 70 years old and not designed for today's world."

He argues that the current system is driving informality and wants to make it easier to hire and fire staff. Unemployment in Argentina stands at 7.9 percent, while 40 percent of workers are informally employed.

A bill drafted by a Milei-aligned congresswoman proposes making working hours more flexible – up to 12 hours a day – and allowing a percentage of wages to be paid in non-monetary form, such as with food vouchers or coupons.

They're calling 12 hours shifts a MODERNISATION. Going back to the 1880s is actually GOING FORWARDS.

Milei also wants to end what he calls the "labour litigation industry" by introducing a fixed severance pay system. The Labour Ministry has proposed negotiating collective wage agreements at company level rather than the current union-led talks, along with performance-based pay.

Leaving collective agreements to be decided between the employer and the employees is suicide for the latter, the power relation is completely on the side of the employer. It'll never happen save for a few sectors/industries where certain employees are crucial.

Milei says the proposals, which are being pushed by employers, would be a win-win for companies and employees alike.

But Argentina's famously combative unions have so far categorically rejected them.

Not strictly so. The main Union's Federation, the CGT, is already in talks with the milei admin to negotiate the reforms... to NEGOTIATE THE REFORMS. That's hardly a combative spirit. I hope this entire shitshow finally puts an end to the CGT or the CGT's current leadership, which fucking SUCKS.

Some of the proposals had been included in a massive 2023 mega-decree, but they were ultimately blocked by the courts following challenges from labour groups.

As part of his triptych of new reforms, the President has also floated a shake-up of the country's underfunded pension system, without giving details and making clear it would come last of the three. Groups of pensioners have become a focal point of resistance to the government, staging weekly protests that are often met with police repression. According to the IARAF think tank (Argentine Institute for Fiscal Analysis), pensions and retirement benefits will account for 46 percent of state spending in 2026. So far, the government has not provided details of its proposal to reform the pension system.

They're also fucked.

milei has severely moderated his rethoric. He's no longer treating provincial governors like rats and old men that smell like piss. He just had a meeting with all of them, and the situation greatly changed. He's going for the labour reforms, he's getting the political support to do it.

It's a gamble, either he wins big or the entire situation gets out of control and it explodes in his face. Time will tell, but I have little hopes.

To fully understand the scale of what happened in Rio de Janeiro on the 28th I'd like to refer to the following public utility. It is a map of the territories in the Rio Metro Area that are under control of criminal factions - which is the word used by brazilians to refer to organized crime on the ground, as opposed to gangs, mafias and so on.

This is a zoomed in portion of the map, centered around Rio city's North Zone or more specifically the Zona da Leopoldina - which is a mixed use, middle to lower class dormitory continuum connecting the international Galeão Airport with the City Center and the affluent South Zone of Rio, where most of tourism lies. The northern black circle is the Penha Complex, the southern black circle refers to the Alemão Complex. Complexes are agglomerations of slums, older housing complexes and the occasional neighborhood which are fully under the control of a criminal faction. The Penha Complex has a population of around 100.000 people, the Alemão Complex is almost 60.000. If you look closely there's one thing between both complexes which is a forested region. That is where most of the extra bodies were found today.

If you look at the full utility I linked above you'll see a bunch of colors and abbreviations. CV stands for Comando Vermelho or Red Command, which is an older faction originally focused on drug trafficking. TCP and ADA are schisms from Red Command, which follow more or less the same logic only more extreme and less pragmatic in its governance of the occupied populations. The blue colors with the CL and 5M abbreviations refer to Milícias (Militias), criminal groups formed out of police and military personnel and their families in the 90s and early 00s. Each of these factions often go to war with each other for territory and this war has been accelerating over time with the frontier moving from one part of the metro area to the next. Moreover, the leadership of every faction has become relatively young and unstable, increasingly paranoid and more aggressive over time - likely due to the fact that the traditional heads of the factions moved on from the coastal cities and took over the drug trade at the border after the FARC disarmed and the Paraguayan syndicates lost ground.

I mentioned criminal governance beforehand and I meant it. When you look at the revenues of criminal factions on the ground nowadays the drug trade can reach up to 11% of the money being made. Most of the money comes from taxes extracted from the working poorest: water, electricity, internet, television, natural gas, rent, protection rackets and so on. There are even bootleg transportation apps in some communities of Rio. All in all, this sort of ad-hoc state organization of crime adds up to more than 70 billion dollars a year which for Brazil's economy is massive.

Where does that leave the Brazilian State in all this? More than 15 years ago when Rio became the centerpiece of a number of international events such as the World Cup and the Olympic games, the State found itself in a pickle. The old modus vivendi it built with the criminal factions was intolerable for capital. The risk was too great. So the state delivered an ultimatum to the factions: we are going to move in, we aren't going to rock the boat all that hard we'll just built police barracks within your territory and you aren't supposed to do anything - hell, you'll probably sell drugs anyways we don't care, we just can't let any of this spill into the touristy areas of Rio. For the most part the factions of Rio complied. There was only one real rebellion in the Vila Cruzeiro, which was immediately met with armoured cars from the marine corps and its interesting to note that Vila Cruzeiro is within the Penha Complex from yesterday's events.

The problem arises from how the factions complied. It would have been one thing if they stayed in place and things were business as usual, just with fewer robberies and turf wars and such. But naturally they branched off. First they moved into the municipalities of the Metro area, which are even poorer than Rio's periphery. Then they moved into Rio State's interior. After that they started making more concerted moves into the peripheries of Brazil as a whole. A few years later, once the imperative to keep things under control for the Olympics was gone the occupation programme was met with a return of the faction wars only now with a vengeance. Now the factions don't just hold territory, they manage and extract resources from its people to fund real military campaigns across the greater Rio Area.

Fast-forward to this year, 4 months ago the government of Rio State tried to do a megaop against the Israel Complex - controlled by the Terceiro Comando Puro (TCP). Megaops are not that uncommon. They are part of the modus vivendi between the state and the criminal elements because, let's face it, the people at the top who launder all the money are tied to politicians, religious leaders and financiers. A Megaop is supposed to kill a handful of people - thereby satisfying the public's need for revenge - arrest a few others but not rock the boat too hard. It was not uncommon for such and such tons of drugs to be apprehended while local leaders somehow escaped. The old leaders of Rio's factions understood this fact and, sure, sometimes they were caught but its not like they lost control over their domains. They still called the shots from prison. But you'll remember that I said the new leaders are young, unstable and increasingly paranoid. It's not just that they'll see you making a vague gesture with your hand and immediately execute you for making 'gang signs' of a rival faction. This also affects how they treat the state.

So what happened 4 months ago in Israel Complex? The Terceiro Comando Puro of the region is led by religious pentecostal fundamentalists. Its in the name Israel Complex. The moment military police was poised to enter they didn't bother shooting at the police officers. Instead they shot at Avenida Brasil, the main thoroughfare of the city. Thousands were in effect kept hostage in a massive traffic jam and the state couldn't even enter the territory. This was a humiliation to the police and the state government both. And humiliations like these need to be avenged. Today's op mobilized 2,500 civil and military police, moved against two Complexes at the same time and actually managed to capture some of Comando Vermelho's middle managers, arrest dozens and kill hundreds (the latest toll at this moment being 168). Needless to say, by the very nature of this lashout many executions were summary and many innocent people died along the way. But it didn't stop there.

Comando Vermelho is big, like all factions today it is a para-statal organization and its unity is always at stake. For the past 5 years Comando Vermelho has been fighting wars against ADA and TCP, schisms from it. And Comando Vermelho is not a centralized entity, it is quasi-feudal in structure. As such, it needs to answer humiliation with humiliation. That retaliation is partly in the form of killing power: they set fires across the city and used makeshift drones to throw grenades at police officers. But for the most part, the relatiation took the form of disrupting activities everywhere from Rio's North Zone, to the Center and to certain cities of the Metro Area.

This is a map of the main thoroughfares that Comando Vermelho ordered closed via barricades - makeshift blockades with torched buses and cars, often also used to delay police action into their territories. This map is meant to be illustrative of their reach because it goes beyond just this action. Threats and rumours online of Comando Vermelho authorizing petty robbery within its territory (often done in order to fund its war operations, now done as retaliation against the state), sackings and killings were enough to force the closure of schools, hospitals, clinics and commerce all across the city.

I cite this retaliation by Comando Vermelho because what we have is a full display of necropolitics, of death and killing as a solution to life's problems. Only it is also part of an old, outdated paradigm of dealing with crime. The assumption in the War on Drugs always that if you can arrest the Dealer, then crime Disappears. It was harder to argue otherwise in the past, when so much of crime hinged on the drug trade. But nowadays the real drug money lies in retail (controlling supply across the country) or international drug routes into Europe. As mentioned, things have changed, drugs are a minimal portion of the revenue of these political entities, which now act and extract revenues from people as though they are the state. They do not necessarily provide public services, but increasingly do. This is the new war that places not only Rio de Janeiro but much of Brazil's peripheric states at a crossroads. And that crossroads is well known.

(continued)

Greens second in latest polling

Polling conducted on 29/10/2025, by findoutnow

Photo: Zack Polanski of the Greens.

Polling results:

1. (=) Reform – 32% [-3%]

2. (↑3) Greens – 17% [+5%]

3. (↓1) Labour – 16% [-3%]

4. (↓1) Conservatives – 16% [+2%]

5. (=) Lib Dems – 12% [=]

Similar result echoed by other more reputable pollsters, such as YouGov putting the Greens at 16%, one point behind Labour.

Denmark's Housing Crisis: Capitalist Realism Grinds Construction Of Public Housing To A Halt

A perfect storm of rigid fiscal rules, a real-estate bubble, and weakly enforced planning laws has brought the construction of public housing in Denmark to a virtual standstill. The resulting crisis has left hundreds of thousands of families languishing on waiting lists for public housing, even as a boom in expensive, privately-owned speculative housing reshapes the skyline of the largest cities, allowing parasitic corporate landlords to leech exploitative rents from residents.

Quote of the day:

"...President Xi is a great leader of a great country..." -- Donald Trump

https://sputnikglobe.com/20251030/us-china-to-have-fantastic-relationship-for-long-period-of-time---trump-1123034498.html

Russia successfully tested the Poseidon, a nuclear-powered, long-range, underwater drone:

"The Poseidon system, known in Western media as a “nuclear super torpedo” and officially titled the Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System, is a nuclear-powered, autonomous underwater drone specifically developed to evade US missile defense systems and unleash massive tidal waves against coastal targets.

It can carry either a conventional or nuclear warhead, with reports indicating yields of up to 100 megatons, and operates at speeds reaching 54 knots while descending to depths of 1,000 meters."

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/10/29/757810/Putin-hails-Russia%E2%80%99s-successful-test-of-nuclear-powered-underwater-drone

as seemingly typical with euro rightwing weirdos, dutch ones successfully ate shit, after trying to govern in coalition.

now back to regularly scheduled austerity, euro accents and nazi support across the world. (https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/1030/1541236-dutch-election/)

i think only meloni managed to pull off post-fascist vibes while in government.

Were anti ship missiles what Russia sent over to Venezuela on that cargo plane a few days back?

https://hexbear.net/post/6619741

If so that shit is a huge escalation and I have no idea what might happen in the event of a US ship being hit.

Latest batch of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel [sic] 'mutilated, unrecognizable' | The Cradle

The latest batch of 30 bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel [sic] were mostly "just bones" and "unrecognizable" following their deaths due to execution and torture, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced on 1 November.

"The bodies of the thirty martyrs that were received yesterday (Friday) are the most difficult among the batches that have been released," Director General of the Health Ministry, Munir al-Barsh, confirmed.

Iraqi parliamentary elections in around 10 days. I've spent the last week studying the whole situation to my wife's dismay, so you nerds will get a mega post next week where I will break down every big party by governorate and present my calculations of how the government formation might look. You're also getting some commentary on the big question marks ahead of the elections and how the whole system works.

https://www.404media.co/ai-generated-mpreg-schoolhouse-rock-ad-attacking-mamdani-is-the-sad-poliaesthetic-of-our-time/

https://x.com/andrewcuomo/status/1983919479936409617

Seriously what did Trump show to Xi that was so funny? Did Trump just announced the US surrender or something?

I am old enough to remember the late 90s and the time before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Americans were for the most part willing to use the military so long as there was a fig leaf of justification for war. The military failure in Iraq had me convinced Americans were snake bitten on this. And I do think for a time, they were. The US I think was forced to use sanctions and more low-level ops in the aftermath of Iraq, and I think public attitudes and reluctance of Americans to want to deploy boots on the ground in other countries played a part in this.

But now I think that’s over - which makes sense, since Iraq has not been an issue Americans have thought about much in nearly 20 years. The memory has faded.

Saying this as I see how nonchalant Americans seem to be over starting a war in Venezuela that no one actually believes the line the administration is putting out there. Hasan is showing some polling stats right now that, while they don’t show Americans are thirsty for war, they sure don’t seem all that bothered about the US attacking another country totally unprovoked and without any even close to legitimate casus belli.

At this point I just hope the forces of Venezuela and the Bolivarian Revolution are able to really make the Americans regret their ambivalence over this evil act.

Latvia ditched the Council of Europe’s convention for combatting violence against women for not being overtly transphobic

Somehow this is gonna pwn the Russos or smth tho idk

Leaked emails reveal Jeffrey Epstein helped build a secret Israeli intelligence backchannel to Russian over the war in Syria.

She is now missing, her car was found abandoned at the beach in Tel Aviv

Interview with student activist who volunteered for the Sudanese National Army.

https://jambiyajournal.substack.com/p/a-conspiracy-to-undo-a-nation-interview

Excerpts:

'No idea who he is', says Trump after pardoning crypto tycoon https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7ek63e5xyo

:hahaha:

Fed rate cut remains the best predictor of China cutting a deal with the US (no pun intended).

I don’t know what other news mega heads think, but I am starting to believe that there is a lot of truths in my hypothesis.

Let’s recap. Back in January when Biden wanted to ban TikTok, I wrote this:

Just last month, Fed’s Powell released more mixed signals, citing uncertainty in inflation and said that the Fed may only cut once or twice in 2025. Of course, interest rate has very little to do with inflation in the US, but it should be seen as an imperialist tool that controls foreign economies.

So Trump has a lot of leverage here: if he can get the Fed to cut more rates this year, then the PBOC can also cut their rates, this will then allow the local governments to borrow at an even lower interest to pay back their outstanding debt, and thus bringing huge relief to their current budgetary situations. Here, you can see how the Fed’s interest rate directly impacts China’s local government finances.

This is just one weapon the US can use. Tariffs, sanctions, interest rates are all “threats” that can be negotiated down if China gives in to what the US wants. What we will have to wait and see is how Trump and Xi deal with these issues in their ensuing negotiations.

On September 15th, China sold TikTok. The following day, the Federal Reserve cut its key rate for the first time of the year.

Last month, when China imposed rare earth export restrictions, I wrote this:

The US has no choice but to negotiate. China showed just how difficult it is for Trump to decouple from itself. The is a lesson that Trump will continue to have to learn until he concedes the point.

However, China also cannot keep going with this because it cannot afford to see inflation going up in the US. This is because China has huge local government debt that desperately needs the Fed to lower its interests, way more than what was done last month.

On October 29th, the Federal Reserve cut its key rate for the second time of the year. Simultaneously, Trump and Xi agreed on a deal after nearly an entire year and at least five rounds of negotiations.

That’s two Fed rate cuts for two biggest US-China deals of the year, happening within 24 hours of one another.

It is becoming clear that China’s maneuvers are centered on lessening the burden on the local government debt level, which must have been taking a heavier toll on the economy than expected.

I’m actually surprised nobody picked up on this, that the Fed rate is an imperialist weapon. Too many people (both mainstream and alt media) focus on the trade war aspect between US and China and fail to see that this is actually a financial war in disguise, and the primary target isn’t even China, but Europe and the rest of the Global South exporter countries.

Remember that when Trump first launched the global tariffs back in April, the narrative of the pro-BRICS alt media circle was all about the US is shooting itself on the foot and the rest of the world will just trade with one another without the US.

Well, the exact opposite has happened - that Europe doubled down on its anti-China policy while many Asian exporter countries are scrambling to sign new trade deals with Trump, including South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia in the last few days.

I had warned back then that this whole decoupling from the US cannot happen without China transitioning into a domestic consumption economy. BRICS has failed to offer any alternative because they all want to run trade surpluses against each other, which is mathematically impossible. As a result, the US consumer market still dictates what happens.

Thankfully, it seems that the Chinese leadership is finally admitting that consumption growth is going to be the priority of the next Five-Year Plan Reuters:

The five-year plan recommendations reaffirmed last week's official remarks that China will increase the proportion of government investment for people's livelihoods and raise the percentage of household consumption of GDP "significantly" over the next five years.

"The allocation of resources will shift more towards consumption, as large-scale expansion of traditional industries and infrastructure has reached its limit," said a policy adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Future investment will focus on high-tech industries and new infrastructure."

China may aim to increase the household consumption rate by about 5 percentage points over the next five years, but policy advisers say it is unclear whether the government will set a specific target in the upcoming five-year plan.

Attempts to boost consumption and related reforms over the past decade have been slow to take root in the real economy. Consumer confidence has remained low because of inadequate social welfare, slowing income growth and a property crisis that has eroded household wealth. The services sector has also taken time to develop.

Whether this can be achieved without the central government running up the deficit, I have my doubts. It will be very difficult to have a meaningful shift towards consumption without resolving the massive wealth inequality problem in the country, which will require the government to run a very high deficit i.e. spends way more than it taxes back. But at least it is going in the right direction.

The Trump admin is doing illegal (unexpected, I know!) stuff in order to pay the troops and illegal stuff in order to not tap into the legally-required SNAP emergency funding in order to fund SNAP until the emergency fund runs out (~2 weeks).

https://www.lalettre.fr/fr/entreprises_defense-et-aeronautique/2025/10/22/corruption-at-nato-the-alliance-silences-its-whistleblowers-3_3,110537949-fac

Sorry for the slop:

The article from La Lettre reveals significant details about corruption within NATO, particularly focusing on the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA). The investigation highlights several key points:

• System of Kickbacks: La Lettre, in partnership with Belgian newspapers Le Soir and Knack, and Dutch news site Follow the Money, uncovered a system of kickbacks linked to NATO's awarding of contracts worth over $100 million. This system involves former NATO military personnel who have become consultants, operating across various European cities, including Lugano, Luxembourg, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Washington 1,2.

• Internal Audit Pressure: The head of internal audit at the NSPA, Gerardo Bellantone, reported repeated pressure from Stacy Cummings, the agency's chief, to exclude specific missions aimed at examining the anti-corruption system from the 2025 audit. This pressure suggests a deliberate effort to avoid scrutiny of potential corruption within the agency 1,2.

• Whistleblower Silence: Geneviève Machin, the outgoing head of HR at NSPA, sent a letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in February 2025, detailing "fraud, corruption, and compliance issues" implicating Stacy Cummings and her close collaborators. Despite these allegations, NATO has reportedly taken limited action, indicating a pattern of silencing whistleblowers 1,3.

• Corruption Cases: The investigation revealed at least three corruption cases involving Belgian employees of the NSPA, who are alleged to have passed confidential information to defense companies seeking lucrative NATO contracts. These contracts cover a range of military equipment, including aircraft, helicopters, ammunition, and fuel, for the period between 2021 and 2025 4,5.

• Political Interference: The silence from the Department of Justice and the "very strange" lack of response to inquiries about the corruption cases suggest possible political interference. This interference is further indicated by the dropping of charges against some suspects, despite evidence of their involvement in corruption 4,6,7.

• NATO's Response: Despite NATO's public stance of "zero tolerance for fraud or corruption," the agency has been criticized for its handling of the corruption allegations. The Secretary General, Mark Rutte, has promised to "root out" corruption, but the investigations reveal a series of interventions intended to cover up these cases rather than address them transparently 1,8.

The article paints a picture of a deeply entrenched system of corruption within NATO, where whistleblowers are silenced, and internal investigations are hindered by political and administrative pressures. The scale of the corruption, involving significant sums of money and multiple high-value contracts, underscores the need for more rigorous oversight and transparency within the organization.

12 B-52 Stratofortress bombers conducted what appears to be a Minimum Interval Takeoff (MITO) exercise at Dyess Air Base in Texas, as part of the Strategic Air Command nuclear exercises taking place in the United States over the past week.

Video of the MITO exercise

This is a technique practiced to get as many bombers as possible into the air as quickly as possible in the event of a nuclear war, as the air base would be destroyed by incoming ICBMs in a matter of minutes should a nuclear strike take place. Bombers (and tankers if possible) taxi onto the runway and line up behind each other, taking off in 12-15 second intervals, and proceeding to fly in different directions as soon as they get airborne to minimise the effect of turbulent air from the aircraft taking off in front of them. They then fly as far away from the airbase as they can, to avoid getting caught up in a nuclear strike, and then proceed on their mission, with no where to return in the event of an actual nuclear strike.

To be clear, this is all an exercise in the above video, but definitely one of the more intense and dangerous exercises. Pilots take off at higher speeds than normal and may temporarily lose control of the aircraft just above the ground.

Another non-news (or meta-news) comment, which I apologize for, but for reasons that will become obvious it kind of had to go here.

It seems comrade @aaaaaaadjsf@hexbear.net was driven off the site by certain behaviors almost a year ago. I heard he still posts under a different account and he was a news-head at the time, so comrade, if you're reading this, I miss your posts. You were an interesting, well-read poster with a great perspective. We interacted a few times and I enjoyed it every time. If you're interested in reconnecting (no pressure), feel free to DM me on here or on Matrix (the "Send Secure Message" button on my profile).