North Korea enshrines nuclear weapons in constitution

The country's rubber-stamp parliament unanimously adopted "the crucial agenda item for formulating [North Korea's] policy on the nuclear force as the basic law of the state," the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

"The DPRK's nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything," said leader Kim Jong Un, using the acronym for the country's official name.

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/EUqR8

Denmark has confirmed that 12 out of 20 Leopard 1A5 tanks for Ukraine had technical faults - 10 combat vehicles have already been recalled

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/wLTan

The Russians Just Knocked Out A Fifth Of The Ukrainians’ Best Strv 122 Tanks

Ukraine has the best equipment, folks!

https://farside.link/nitter/djuric_zlatko/status/1706377073906827676

Hungarian Prime Minister Orban - at the opening of the fall session in Parliament:

✔️ The fragility of the Minsk agreements concluded to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Crimea was obvious to me from the very beginning. We saw that if Ukraine did not give up its intention to join NATO, it was only a matter of time before we would have to count on a new conflict that would also jeopardize energy supplies from Russia.

✔️ Ukrainians have been harassing Hungarian schools for years, they want to turn them into Ukrainian schools, and if that doesn't work, they want to close them down. The Hungarian government fights for the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians, especially Hungarian children, in all international forums. We will not support Ukraine on any issue of international life until it restores the former laws that guaranteed the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians.

✔️ Although Hungary continues to do everything for peace, the Russian-Ukrainian war will continue. The front line is not moving, but there are tens of thousands of victims on both sides. We share the grief of the families and with inexhaustible patience we call for an end to the bloodshed, we want an immediate ceasefire and peace talks.

✔️ There is still no military solution to the conflict. Diplomats must take control of events back from the hands of the soldiers - they should never have been given. If this does not happen, tens of thousands of families will wait in vain for their sons and fathers to return home. Tens of thousands of refugees from Ukraine have found a new and safe home in Hungary. I inform the Honorable House that even if the Hungarian government does not fulfill the request of the Ukrainian government in the fall, we will not force anyone to return to Ukraine.

https://farside.link/nitter/visegrad24/status/1706473493687058795

U.S. govt 'biggest disinformation propagator in history,' says China

In a statement, the spokesperson for the ministry rejected a report released by the U.S. State Department on Thursday that accuses China of investing billions of dollars to "spread disinformation globally."

Here's the actual statement by the Foreign Ministry:

"The US Department of State report is in itself disinformation as it misrepresents facts and truth. In fact, it is the US that invented the weaponizing of the global information space. The relevant center of the US State Department which concocted the report is engaged in propaganda and infiltration in the name of “global engagement”. It is a source of disinformation and the command center of “perception warfare”. From Operation Mockingbird which bribed and manipulated news media for propaganda purposes in the Cold War era, to a vial of white powder and a staged video of the “White Helmets” cited as evidence to wage wars of aggression in Iraq and Syria earlier this century, and then to the enormous lie made up to smear China’s Xinjiang policy, facts have proven time and again that the US is an “empire of lies” through and through. Even some in the US, such as Senator Rand Paul, acknowledged that the US government is the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world.

Some in the US may think that they can prevail in the information war as long as they produce enough lies. But the people of the world are not blind. No matter how the US tries to pin the label of “disinformation” on other countries, more and more people in the world have already seen through the US’s ugly attempt to perpetuate its supremacy by weaving lies into “emperor’s new clothes” and smearing others."

https://ghostarchive.org/archive/bBnJ3

Business Insider says quiet part out loud again

Western-made armor isn't working in Ukraine because it wasn't designed for a conflict of this intensity, Ukrainian analyst says

TL:DR western war machines suck at doing a cheeky world war.

Western-made armor is failing in Ukraine because it wasn't designed to sustain a conflict of this intensity, a military analyst told The Wall Street Journal.

Taras Chmut, a military analyst who's the head of the Come Back Alive Foundation, which has raised money to purchase and provide arms and equipment to Ukraine, said that "a lot of Western armor doesn't work here because it had been created not for an all-out war but for conflicts of low or medium intensity."

You heard it here first, folks. Western vehicles are literally made to kill poor people and eat shit when put toe-to-toe with a peer military.

"If you throw it into a mass offensive, it just doesn't perform," he said.

It's also breaks going to the offensive, during the offensive, and when retreating from the offensive.

Chmut went on to say Ukraine's Western allies should instead turn their attention to delivering simpler and cheaper systems, but in larger quantities, something Ukraine has repeatedly requested, the newspaper reported.

maybe ww2 tech like Sherman tanks would serve them best at this point

Despite Chmut's comments, some advanced Western systems Ukraine has received were conceived with the highest-intensity combat in mind — NATO going head-to-head with Soviet forces. The US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Abrams main battle tanks were built specifically to counter Soviet ground forces.

All Bradley can do is eat hot chip, get suck in mud, roll onto landmine, and die

But like other armored systems, they are susceptible to artillery and mines, both of which have proven fearsome challenges as Ukraine presses against Russian defensive networks.

Real talk, any system would be eating shit when being sent into prepared killzones.

Less than 5% of tanks destroyed since the start of the war had been taken out by other tanks, Ukrainian officials said in the Journal report, with the rest falling to mines, artillery, antitank missiles, and drones. This means the relative sophistication of a tank is no longer as important, the paper says.

True. There probably should be a redesign towards improving anti-air capabilities. Maybe even moving towards lighter and cheaper tanks as infantry support.

Maj. Gen. Christian Freuding, Germany's director of planning and command staff, said Western military strategists had not yet accepted that quantity trumps quality.

I'm sure general dipshit can appreciate the quantity of the repair bill for the quality of their shit tanks.

"You need numbers; you need force numbers. In the West, we have reduced our military; we have reduced our stocks. But quantity matters; mass matters," he told the Journal.

Wait isn't this general dipshit saying the opposite?

Even so, Ukraine continues to ask for more sophisticated tanks and military equipment from its allies.

More king tigers for the reich

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly criticized Western allies for delays in the deliveries of weapons, saying earlier this month that slower arms shipments were hurting Ukraine's chances of success in its ongoing counteroffensive.

It's the west's fault Russian mines are deleting Ukrainian forces in record numbers

A July report compiled by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said Ukraine's allies had only delivered about half of the heavy weapons that had been promised.

Lmao place your bets to reasons why they only got half of their shit. My bet is that the shit that was promised was mothballed so bad it'd kill the user if used for anything.

"The gap between promised and delivered military aid is wide," Christoph Trebesch, the head of the team creating the tracker, said.

Lol cope

Meanwhile, Ukraine's defense minister, Rustem Umerov, told The Economist last week his country was prioritizing domestic ammunition production. "Anything that can be produced locally must be produced locally," he said.

More targets for cruise missiles.

Sergej Sumlenny, founder of the German think tank European Resilience Initiative Center, previously told Insider that Ukraine was stepping up its domestic production in part because of concern that Western deliveries would not keep up with its military needs.

Hope those factories are well-hidden.

Bipartisan effort to ban transfer of cluster munitions fails

A bipartisan amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act which would have banned the transfer of cluster munitions introduced was defeated on the floor on Wednesday. The amendment, introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), was rejected by a vote of 160 - 269. It was the latest in a series of Congressional efforts to reverse the Biden administration’s July decision to provide Kyiv with the controversial weapon.

“These cluster bombs are indiscriminate," Gaetz said on the House floor Wednesday. "They've killed tens of thousands of people... and when this is all done, we'll be right back here on the floor appropriating money to de-mine the cluster bombs that we're now sending, which seems ludicrous to me."

The effort on Wednesday was a bipartisan one, with 75 Democrats and 85 Republicans voting in favor of the measure. Twenty-six more Democratic members supported this amendment than did one introduced over the summer, which would have specifically barred the transfer of cluster bombs to Ukraine.

I think that the people who didn't vote to ban them should be sent on an all-expenses-paid holiday to the Donbass.

http://www.kcna.kp/en/article/q/47647ea5a05791ca8befc14f96e5ac60.kcmsf

News from the DPRK

KCNA Report on Final Findings of Investigation into American Soldier

Pyongyang, September 27 (KCNA) -- The investigation into Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who was detained after illegally intruding into the territory of the DPRK in the joint security area of Panmunjom on July 18, has been finished.

According to the investigation by a relevant organ of the DPRK, Travis King confessed that he illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. army and was disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.

The relevant organ of the DPRK decided to expel Travis King, a soldier of the U.S. Army who illegally intruded into the territory of the DPRK, under the law of the Republic.

15 Potential Gravesites Found Near Former Residential School

On Tuesday, Judy Gingell, chair of the Yukon Residential School and Missing Children Project, announced that at least 15 potential gravesites of children have been discovered near a former residential school in Yukon, a northwestern territory of Canada.

The gravesites were discovered near the former Chooutla Residential School in Carcross, south of Whitehorse, the capital city of Yukon.

The discovery is the latest in a series of potential graves discovered around Canada's residential schools, where 4,100 Indigenous children were confirmed and over 6,000 were estimated to have died from abuse, negligence, lack of medical care, and suicide, according to a 2015 report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The accurate number of victims, however, may never be revealed.

Earlier this month, 93 potential unmarked graves were uncovered at the former Beauval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan in central Canada. In September 2022, the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found in Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia Province, smashing the nation's hypocritical facade, and stunning the world. In June 2021, at least 751 unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school for Indigenous children in Saskatchewan.

Various reports suggest that over 150,000 Indigenous children belonging to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit communities in Canada were forced to leave their families to attend residential schools between the 1870s and 1997.

If you wanna get chuds on board with being against invading Mexico by any means necessary point out to them how many refugees a war creates and where they go. When they say they won't go to the invading country show them the Ukraine refugee statistics and show them how many go to Russia. https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine

It's not ideal to use their anti-immigration shit but getting people into an anti-war position is more important and this shit works.

Wake up honey, two new countries just dropped:

US recognizes two Pacific nations to counter China

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that the United States officially recognized two small Pacific nations. According to Biden, Washington has recognized the Cook Islands and Niue as "sovereign and independent" states and will establish diplomatic relations with both.

The move would help maintain a "free and open Indo-Pacific region," Biden said. He added that the agreements to recognize the two nations would also help curb illegal fishing, address climate change in a vulnerable region, and promote economic growth.

The US and Niue already established diplomatic relations on Monday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Niue Premier Dalton Tagelagi signing a joint statement to that effect, the US State Department said.

The Cook Islands and Niue have a combined population of less than 20,000, but form a vast economic zone in the South Pacific. Both are self-governing nations in "free association" with New Zealand, meaning that their foreign and defense policies are tied to Wellington to varying degrees.

okay so western stooge is now informing us that "russia was stopped at the gates of Orikhiv" ? did russia recapture the hole robotyne area ? Orikhiv was the startngpoint of the counter Offensive WTF? .. my "Spin Reading third eye" is utterly confused. He kind of admits the Bakmuth advance , then tries to spin it into a overall victory by citing "defense of Orikhiv" , but But Russia should not BE at the outscirts of Orikiv that would mean the hole advance salient has collapsed ? (verbovne Robotyne are south of Orikhiv ) .. what the intention here ?

We need to figure out a way to numerically define a vassal state and publish it as a vassal state index. I would genuinely be interested in building a website with a map out of something like this.

https://mronline.org/guest-author/moon-of-alabama/https://mronline.org/guest-author/moon-of-alabama/

Didn't realize that MoA wrote for Monthly Review, an explicitly marxist publication. MoA is quite cagy about his politics outside of geopolitical analysis, but the materialistic lens is quite prominent so I'm not surprised. I'm hoping he can remain cool and not go boomer mode on social stuff, I'm glad to find he's likely a marxist. It's so rare and refreshing to find hardline anti-NATO boomers who don't have brainworms writing in English.

Please President Zelensky. Please send a hit squad to Texas right now

Well, with Feinstein being apparently the one who launched the Assad Must Go thing, that officially locks in Syria as next week's COTW

Britain planning to send soldiers to Ukraine to act as military trainers. This would be an escalation that no NATO country has yet attempted.

The nafo canadians are at the point were they are defending the waffen SS

Biden’s Picket Line Visit Doesn’t Mean He Is On Our Side

Hell yeah, Scheerpost is joining my dunking on Jacobin here!

Yesterday, Joe Biden became the first sitting president to visit a picket line of striking workers. It is historic. A few hours later, Jacobin published an article entitled “The Militancy of the UAW Strike Forced Joe Biden to Take a Side and Walk the Picket Line,” by Nick French. Jacobin is right that Biden’s visit to the picket line results from the UAW strike’s strength. But Jacobin is dead wrong in its assessment that Biden is “on the side of the working class.”

Instead, Biden’s visit is a product of the capitalist crisis in which both Trump and Biden are vying for influence over the working class in a tight presidential race. In doing so, they are representing the interests of the ruling class. In fact, Biden broke the railway strike and has provided massive handouts to the auto industry to build nonunion, low-wage electric-vehicle (EV) plants. Now, that isn’t a guy who is on the side of workers.

We have to understand that both parties are making overtures to workers because the establishment is in crisis and because workers are showing their strength. This just highlights how important it is that class struggle remain politically independent of both parties. We have to build an independent working-class organization that charts a different path from that of Trump, Biden, and the entire ruling class.

...

Of course, it is historic for a sitting president to stand with striking workers. That is undeniable. But the lesson that Jacobin wants you and millions of ordinary people to take from this is the wrong one. Biden is not “on the side” of the workers any more than the kente cloth–wearing Democrats were on the side of Black Lives Matter.

Instead, Biden’s visit to the picket line is part of a project of aligning the working class with the Democratic Party in order to win the 2024 election, especially in the face of an erratic Donald Trump, who won a big-enough sector of the industrial working class to help carry him to victory in 2016. And it’s part of a project of projecting support for the working class in order to quell struggles and create national stability under the hegemony of the Democratic Party in order to continue its strategic competition with China. Biden and the establishment are terrified that this strike could unify the ranks of the working class — as there is bipartisan support for the strike — and reinvigorate a labor movement that has been growing stronger since the Red State revolt of 2018.

This is not “on the side of the working class.”

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-sues-amazon-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power

FTC and 17 US states suing Amazon for enshitification.