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submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image is of a harbor in Tasiilak, Greenland.


NATO infighting? You love to see it, folks.

The latest incident of America's satrapies becoming increasingly unhappy about their mandated kowtowing involves, of all places, Greenland. As I'm sure most people here are aware, Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark with a degree of geopolitical and economic importance - the former due to its proximity to Russia, and the latter due to the proven and potential reserves of minerals that could be mined there. It's also been an odd fascination of Trump during his reign, now culminating in outright demands.

Trump has called for negotiations with Denmark to purchase Greenland, justifying this by stating that it would be safer from Russia and China under America's protection. Apparently, Norway's decision to not give him the Nobel Peace Prize further inflamed him (not that the Norweigan government decides who receives the prizes). He has also said that countries that do not allow him to make the decision - which not only includes Denmark, but also other European countries - will suffer increased tariffs by June, and that he has not ruled out a military solution.

This threat has led to much internal bickering inside the West, with European leaders stating they will not give in to Trump's demands, and even sending small numbers of troops to Greenland. The most bizarre part of this whole affair is that the US already basically has total military access and control over Greenland anyway, and has since the 1950s, when they signed an agreement with Denmark. There are already several US military facilities on Greenland, and B-52 bombers have famously flown in the vicinity of the island (and crashed into it with nuclear bombs in tow, in fact). Therefore, this whole event - in line with his all-performance, little-results presidency so far - seems to be largely about the theatrics of forcing the Europeans to continue to submit to his whims. I would not be surprised if they ultimately do sign a very imbalanced deal, though - the current European leadership is bound too tightly to the US to put up even half-hearted resistance.

This is all simultaneously occurring alongside the Canadian Prime Minister's visit to China in which longstanding sore spots in their bilateral relationship are being addressed, with China reducing tariffs on Canadian canola oilseeds, and Canada reducing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, as well as currency swaps between their central banks, among many other things. It seems no accident that Canada's reconsideration of their relationship with China is occurring as Trump has made remarks about turning Canada into the next US state, as well as the demand for the renegotiation of the USMCA.


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.

The Zionist Entity'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.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

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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[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 28 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Do you want to know more? DM me to feature effort posts and good threads in the newsmega/newscomm here (including your own).

@grandepequeno@hexbear.net with results of the Portuguese presidential election

@xiaohongshu@hexbear.net and @woodenghost@hexbear.net on class division within China through the hukou system.

@MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net and @Boise_Idaho@hexbear.net on the limits of Chinese hard power and the value of revolutionary military analysis

Previous posts of the week:

2025: Oct 27 | Nov 3 | Nov 10 | Nov 17 | Nov 24 | Dec 1 | Dec 8 | Dec 15 | Dec 22 | Dec 29

2026: Jan 5 | Jan 12

[-] Ram_The_Manparts@hexbear.net 58 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Just saw a clip of servile swine-man Mark Rutte from Davos.

He was asked about the Trump/Greenland thing, answered "I have no comment on that, ve must have ze diplomacy, jah?", and then immediately pivoted to saying something along the lines of "Ze Russians und ze Chinese are acting up, so ve muzt zecure ze Arctic!"

i-am-adolf-hitler

Hexbear fucking called it again, these absolute cucks are going to give up Greenland to the US and blame Putin and Xi for it.

And you'll be branded a "Russian bot" for pointing out the obvious bullshit.

lol

lmao, even

agony-deep

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 31 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

But what else is Europe going to do?

The EU wants to run a trade surplus, and their widening trade deficit with China is simply unsustainable (Europe being forced to take in Chinese goods while China has pretty much stopped importing from Europe). If they are further cut off from access to US consumer market, they’re screwed. It’ll be austerity, unemployment and then recession.

This is the problem with following IMF’s export-led growth strategy, which can only work when the US is willing to run a perpetual trade deficit, because it is mathematically impossible for everyone to run a trade surplus. It will only result in mercantilism, and worse, militarism and colonial expansion of the 19th and early 20th century.

Yes, some economies won big with the export-led growth strategy, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and now mainland China. But everyone else has to lose. That’s just how neoliberalism works.

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[-] miz@hexbear.net 102 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

in freedom USA masked government agents are murdering people on the street shooting them in the face and telling others 'do what we say or you'll end up like that lesbian b*tch' but it's still China that is authoritarian

[-] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 52 points 5 days ago

yeah but in China you get fined for burning coal (the government will build you a new free home with modern heat exchangers powered by renewable energy)

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[-] MizuTama@hexbear.net 47 points 5 days ago

Have you considered China is trying to infiltrated New York and turn it to a People's Republic undemocratically?

https://www.newsweek.com/mamdani-china-communist-party-democratic-socialists-11370804

Beware the evils of the CCP!

(LMAO)

[-] supafuzz@hexbear.net 58 points 5 days ago

I wish the DSA were as cool as chuds make it out to be

hell, I wish China were as cool as chuds make it out to be

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[-] Self_Sealing_Stem_Bolt@hexbear.net 54 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)
[-] FuckyWucky@hexbear.net 31 points 5 days ago

Pilot forgot their phone at home

[-] oliveoil@hexbear.net 32 points 5 days ago

Gem of a comment from Segfault: https://hexbear.net/comment/6849689

"arrhythmia is an electrical issue"

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[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 34 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/donald-trump-1951-law-greenland-1631615

https://archive.is/CINap

The provision, which is part of the 1951 Uniform Code of Military Justice, allows service members to decline an unlawful order, meaning Trump's military leadership could step down if commanded to seize Greenland.

Yay! just like when they refused to bomb those fishermen, or torture random taxi drivers, NATO is saved!!

spoilerI joke, but there is a very small chance they may reject orders now that the target's are white and 'western' but still I don't think any boot as refused an order since 2006 and he got court-martialled for it, So imo if trump orders it they'll do it

[-] miz@hexbear.net 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

or when they refused to abduct a foreign head of state based on the most obvious of bullshit

liberals and their deathgrip on the lies they were told in school

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[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 71 points 5 days ago

If Trump succeeds with Greenland, that opens the way for annexing Canada by way of the Alberta independence "movement"

Which also necessities the US targeting British Colombia for annexation, since the US will argue they can't have US states and territories "surrounded by hostile powers"

Literally the same logic the US applied in the Fallout universe when they annexed Canada "we need a land route to Alaska to keep it safe, and you're in the way"

[-] supafuzz@hexbear.net 47 points 5 days ago

if I had a nickel for every country that starts with c, borders amerikkka, and needs chinese dongfeng missiles stationed in it to guarantee its sovereignty, I would have more nickels than you would expect

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[-] VHS@hexbear.net 30 points 5 days ago

They're going to rename BC "American Columbia"

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[-] sexywheat@hexbear.net 33 points 5 days ago

The AB sovereignty movement is kind of a joke. They can barely clear 30% support (although IIRC half of UCP voters are in favour, the idiots).

Fun fact: Support for AB leaving Canada is higher in Quebec than it is in Alberta, lmao.

Certainly the Burgerlanders will try to exploit whatever they can, but there's no way they're going to get popular support for such a maneuver.

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 33 points 5 days ago

Just like in Venezuela the lack of popular support for their quislings won't stop them from constructing a pretext to invade, 30% in more than enough to build a narrative around "stolen elections" and how "anti-democratic" Canada is

Once American troops are visible in public, most Canadian libs with any pull living in Alberta and British Columbia will either flee, surrender or actively collaborate

It'll still be a shitshow, but if the test case of Greenland falls through, then Canada is cooked

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[-] ColombianLenin@hexbear.net 33 points 5 days ago

British Colombia

That's a new one back-to-me-shining

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[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 64 points 5 days ago

Threatening tariffs on someone because they don't want to join your "board of peace" i-cant

[-] VILenin@hexbear.net 36 points 5 days ago

Isn't there some kind of ego appeasement fee you have to pay once you're "invited"? With such a thin pretense he might as well just directly shake countries down for cash

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[-] iByteABit@hexbear.net 32 points 5 days ago

Reality is putting The Onion out of business

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[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 64 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The USA has begun moving and pre positioning mid air refueling aircraft (KC-135 Stratotanker) in the military buildup against Iran, 8 KC-135s are heading eastwards. 4 are heading to Morón Air Base in Spain for now, the other 4 have not declared a destination.

Source.

As a reminder, to track the movements of the US air refueling fleet, you can go to globe.adsbexchange.com and filter by type code K35R|B762 (for KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-46 Pegasus), and DB Flags Military. You can see some of the ones mentioned by the source, Defencegeek on X /Twitter, heading east. Feel free to ask any questions.

Given the altitude they are operating at (>30 000ft), it's just the tankers moving, they aren't dragging fighter jets along with them.

Some more mid air refueling tankers are on the move, but those are likely to be support for Trump's flight to Davos tomorrow. But there are two more tankers going to the UK.

[-] SickSemper@hexbear.net 37 points 5 days ago

Watching this all happen again is giving me déjà vu. It hasn’t even been a year yet

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[-] miz@hexbear.net 85 points 5 days ago

Brussels, 20 January 2026

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has escalated legal action against Guy Hochman, an Israeli propagandist and suspected war criminal, by filing an urgent request for prosecution in the United States, supported by an extensive evidentiary dossier documenting war crimes, direct incitement to genocide in connection with Israel’s crimes in Gaza.

The seriousness of these allegations was underscored yesterday in Canada, where Hochman was detained and subjected to a prolonged interrogation at Toronto Pearson International Airport following the submission of our complaint and the handover of its investigative dossier to the authorities. Hochman was reportedly released only after intervention by the Israeli embassy, highlighting both the gravity of the allegations and the pressures aiming to obstruct justice and accountability.

source: HRF Foundation email

[-] supafuzz@hexbear.net 52 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Hochman was reportedly released

booo. still, is this the first time HRF has managed to get somebody detained? (not a criticism, they are doing good work)

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[-] Socialism_Is_The_Alternative@hexbear.net 59 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

A recent Russian Iskander-M missile strike scored a precise hit on a US-built Patriot system's command and control unit:

https://s1.cdnstatic.space/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/iskander-1.mp4?_=15

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 77 points 5 days ago

Is this the time for the european left to do left wing nationalism?

Here in the UK the media rhetoric on tv is constantly "we need the US" and "we're too connected". It is becoming abundantly clear to people that we're stuck on a leash.

Surely there's an open door here for a left wing nationalist position to be taken that is essentially "We are a vassal state that is not independent of the US and incapable of making our own decisions because we're too tied to them. We should disconnect from the US and get back our sovereignty."

[-] Florn@hexbear.net 39 points 5 days ago

I think Europe's time is kinda done. They're gonna be like the Greek city-states after the rise of Macedonia, a league of nominally independent but wealthy states that gets passed around by Great Powers until eventually one decides to annex them outright.

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[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 80 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

'The old order is not coming back,' Carney says in provocative speech at Davos

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-davos-speech-9.7052725

https://archive.is/U2Zb6

Great powers can afford to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination

Surprisingly honest(this single excerpt is, not to comment on the rest of the speech)

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 49 points 5 days ago

next sentence: and now I'm going to pledge another $30b towards ukraine so they can continue to fight against putinitler

that's sarcasm, but per the complete speech:

We’re doing something else: to help solve global problems, we’re pursuing variable geometry. In other words, different coalitions for different issues based on common values and interests. So on Ukraine, we’re a core member of the Coalition of the Willing and one of the largest per capita contributors to its defence and security.

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 53 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The resurrection of the term 'Coalition of the Willing' is crazy to me, it went sooo well in Iraq

Definitely want to invoke the wholesale destruction of a countries' infrastructure, wholesale slaughter of civilians and the direct cause of the rise of ISIS(although maybe I'm over looking that its exactly what they want in Ukraine)

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[-] da_gay_pussy_eatah@hexbear.net 62 points 5 days ago

The US military has been doing a lot of training exercises disrupting air traffic around Honolulu for at least a week. It's a bit unusual, inbound flights are being held for hours in some cases, it's been going on for the past week

[-] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 38 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's a big exercise involving F-35s and F-22s. It's an annual air national guard exercise called "Sentry Aloha".

For those who wonder why the air national guard needs training like this, it's not purely a defensive force, see the specialist national guard unit from Vermont that deployed to both Iran and Venezuela to suppress their air defences with F-35As. Also defensive counter air is a mission set in of itself, Hawaii is far out to the west.

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[-] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 29 points 4 days ago

agony-mescaline LOLOLOLOLOLOL

EU lawmakers vote to hold up Mercosur trade agreement over legal concerns

In a vote in Strasbourg, France, lawmakers narrowly approved sending the EU-Mercosur agreement to Europe’s top court to rule on whether it is in line with the bloc’s treaties. The result was 334 votes in favor to 324 against, with 11 abstentions.

The assembly cannot vote to approve the pact until the European Court of Justice has ruled, and this could take months.

After 20 years what's a few months I guess

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[-] Socialism_Is_The_Alternative@hexbear.net 47 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Today's "HTS" vs "SDF" related news...

The "HTS" regime captured the al-Hawl camp in al-Hasakah governorate, releasing another big batch of "ISIS" terrorists. Many more are likely to soon escape from al-Aqttan Prison in Raqqa governorate. In addition, the "SDF" and "HTS" are fighting each other near Ayn al-Arab (AKA "Kobani"):

https://southfront.press/syrian-government-takes-over-camp-with-isis-relatives-in-al-haska-amid-kurdish-drone-strikes-videos/

US imperialist "envoy" Tom Barrack just totally threw the "SDF" under the bus:

"Today, the situation has fundamentally changed. Syria now has an acknowledged central government that has joined the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (as its 90th member in late 2025), signaling a westward pivot and cooperation with the US on counterterrorism. This shifts the rationale for the US-SDF partnership: the original purpose of the SDF as the primary anti-ISIS force on the ground has largely expired, as Damascus is now both willing and positioned to take over security responsibilities, including control of ISIS detention facilities and camps."

https://southfront.press/syria-announces-new-understanding-with-kurds-but-clashes-continue/

And the spillover, Iraq is reinforcing its borders with Syria to prevent "ISIS" terrorists from infiltrating:

https://southfront.press/with-isis-remnants-set-loose-in-syria-iraq-vows-to-open-fire-at-any-threat-near-it-border-videos/

[-] AlHouthi4President@lemmy.ml 42 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The consequences of Dec 2024 Great Syrian setback keep getting worse and worse.

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[-] anaesidemus@hexbear.net 53 points 5 days ago

Big national news from Iceland.

The president of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, mentioned Iceland in a press conference.

Full quote here:

interviewer

The EU and the Mercosur just signed a trade agreement this weekend which is going to be the biggest free trade-zone in the world. At the moment you were talking a lot about tariffs. What is your reaction to that?

trump-anguish

I just think this: I think we have trade like we have never had before. We're doing better in trade than we ever have before. We're not being ripped off by every country in the world like we were before. We're doing numbers that nobody's ever thought possible. We're the richest we ever were – it's because of tariffs and the proper use of tariffs and we're also the most secure. As an example Iceland, without tariffs, they wouldn't even be talking to us about it. So we will see what happens. I think it's gonna work out quite well.

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 27 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Trump sounds kinda gravel-ey and droney compared to usual in this speech he's giving at Davos no?

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 31 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Well he just shit himself last night and they had to turn AF1 around to get new pants, he's probably tired. 😞

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[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 23 points 4 days ago

TikTok USA is supposed to launch tomorrow but I haven’t really heard any updates about it. They were saying that an alternate app called M2 was launching in September last year but it never rolled out. Wondering how it’s going to happen if it does at all.

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 24 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Just watched Trump answer questions and a british reporter asked something about disrespecting the UK. Trump said "if they (the UK) don't change on energy and immigration then bad things could happen".

It very much came across as a threat.

EDIT: Clip

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[-] AlHouthi4President@lemmy.ml 95 points 6 days ago

The world has abandoned and forgotten about the people of Gaza.

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[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 60 points 5 days ago

Surrounded by billionaires in Davos, Trump plans to lay out how he’ll make housing more affordable

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to use a key address Wednesday to try to convince Americans he can make housing more affordable, but he’s picked a strange backdrop for the speech: a Swiss mountain town where ski chalets for vacations cost a cool $4.4 million.

porky-happy

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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 47 points 5 days ago

So Trump invited a group of world leaders to join his “Board of Peace in Gaza.” He invited Lula, Lukashenko, Milei, Putin, Xi, etc. Surprisingly, Azerbaijan rejected it (I guess because Armenia was also invited). France also rejected it, but Trump threatened to sanction them for doing so. Vietnam and Belarus agreed to join.

[-] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 46 points 5 days ago

Brazil said they were 'in consultations with other countries' which I read as 'asking everybody else what the fuck is going on'.

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[-] Tervell@hexbear.net 59 points 5 days ago

https://archive.ph/80CIv

China is building ‘full-stack’ defense-innovation cities

While the U.S. struggles to add rare-earth factories and drone-test ranges, Beijing is creating them in clusters.

more

The city of Baotou—long the heart of the rare-earths mining sector that has given China a stranglehold over the modern economy—is now working to establish entire next-generation production chains. In Inner Mongolia’s second-largest city, processed ores flow quickly to factories that make magnets and motors, and onward to production lines that crank out drones, eVTOL aircraft, and even humanoid robots. The result is an industrial powerhouse that other Chinese cities are working to emulate—and that U.S. firms are unable to match. Beijing views rare earths as not just merely a tool of global influence, but an ignition point for integrated industrial innovation. Their unique qualities enable the creation of magnets and motors that deliver more lift per watt and more torque per kilogram. Across China, local governments now co-locate rare-earth processing zones with component makers and drone and robotics parks, turning mineral hubs into full-stack ecosystems. In Sichuan Province, for example, the city of Mianyang is building on its reputation as a regional base of defense research and development with a major investment in permanent magnet construction. Such clusters reflect the government’s push for “new quality productive forces”: advanced industrial capacity built on secure inputs, dense supply chains, and fast scaling.

Baotou shows the model in its most complete form. City plans lay out a network of bases to support UAV testing, training, and logistics. This effort is anchored by the Rare Earth High-Tech Zone, where the proximity of component makers and downstream integrators speeds iteration and reduces supply-chain friction. Local government messaging describes a full chain that runs from mining and magnet production to motor fabrication and UAV assembly. Several rare-earth cities are taking aim at a particular market sector: the “low-altitude economy”: products, services, and infrastructure to support activities in airspace below 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Such activities include delivery, surveillance, tourism, and urban air transport. The Civil Aviation Administration of China expects the sector to be worth up to 2.5 trillion RMB (about $500 billion) within a decade. Already, logistics drones are flying routes that link the mountainous inland province of Jiangxi to major delivery networks serving the Pearl River Delta. In Jiangxi, the city of Ganzhou has built a permanent-magnet-motor park and connected it to a low-altitude-economy park that provides R&D, manufacturing, operations support, and regulatory frameworks. The aim is to create a municipal-scale ecosystem with local sources of magnets, motors, airframes, and operational support, reducing lead times and accelerating scaling. Another low-altitude ecosystem is rising in Fujian Province, Jiangxi’s neighbor to the east. Chinese officials often sell the low-altitude economy as a boon to commerce and public services such as delivery, inspection, agriculture, and tourism. Defense-affiliated commentary and local armed forces activity, however, show how localities increasingly treat it as a dual-use resource for national defense.

Some low-altitude-economy parks are now building defense capacity into their tenant mix, using their talent, platforms, and industrial capacity to aid in defense mobilization. One Sichuan park has created a pair of specialized militia units: a reconnaissance platoon built around long-range UAVs and a company that specializes in the rapid repair of airfields. In Jiangsu, a local People’s Armed Forces Department has organized UAV-based reconnaissance units that have deployed for civilian missions such as disaster survey and water rescue—but are organized for use in wartime. Such militia teams provide structures for training, tasking, and integration during crises. This arrangement narrows the gap between commercial capacity and organized wartime support by keeping platforms, operators, and maintenance ecosystems close to the mobilization system. And China’s military gains as much as commercial firms do from the rise of full-stack, aviation-focused development-and-production centers. As a RUSI report noted, the production of many battlefield drones is constrained less by the ability to turn out airframes than by the availability of propulsion and actuation components. China is increasingly able to manage those constraints inside a single municipal industrial footprint. The wide distribution of such clusters, across coastal as well as inland regions, further strengthens the model. It cushions the system against localized shocks such as environmental enforcement, energy constraints, or regional bottlenecks. And it would complicate wartime efforts to disrupt production through targeted strikes or interdiction.

Like Chinese analysis, U.S. discourse increasingly treats permanent magnet motors as a chokepoint in the global supply chain. This has prompted the Pentagon to become the largest partner in MP Materials, which owns the only operational rare earth mine in the United States. But Baotou’s Rare Earth High-Tech Zone and its imitators show how U.S. policymakers must deepen their understanding and goals beyond current production counts or who owns what mine. While Beijing’s competitors struggle to build rare-earth processing plants, magnet factories, and high-performance motor supply chains, China is doing all of those at once, creating full-stack clusters that will widen its advantage in next-generation technologies.

free market enthusiasts when it turns out they have to actually plan industrial development shocked-pikachu

looking forward to when a single Chinese municipality starts outproducing the entire US

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We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.

Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:

The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.

  1. Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.

  2. Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.

  3. Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.

  4. Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.

  5. Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.

  6. Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.

  7. American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.

  8. Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.

  9. AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.

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