Maybe I'm very late to this and maybe what I'm about to say is obvious, but has anyone else been thinking that the massive mobilization of ICE is a way for the state to integrate the fascist gangs/militias/paramilitaries like Proud Boys, Patriot Front, et al. into the security services in a similar manner to what happened in Ukraine with their fascist groups? They're obviously the "target audience" for the recruitment drives and it feels like we haven't heard from those groups in some time, especially since you'd expect them to show up in defence of ICE at the counter-ICE rallies. It's also possible that these people could move "laterally" into other agencies once they have their foot in the door via ICE mass recruitment, then we'd really be seeing something similar to Ukraine. Just some things I've been thinking about after watching this translated documentary about Ukraine's "decentralized totalitarianism" (the author disparages the original use of the term to conflate fascism and communism, but he feels it's descriptive in a post-Maidan context) and how every imperialist frontier is a labratory for the future, and was curious about what the newsmega crowd thought.

Bernie Sanders and AOC on CNN right now talking about israel-palestine

Bernie said "call it a genocide if you like"

socdems are the moderate wing of fascism

Western yurop.

Cops gave me a concussion. Will press charges tomorrow. There's vidz of unmarked mf beating up people everywhere, even national newz had to talk about it.

tldr I saw a kid getting georgefloyed, called them murderer (nobody cared) and told them not wearing id number was illegal. They georgefloyed me and put me in detention for 12 hours. No food nor drink. Guy next to me got beat up bad, a guy told me they were putting CS gaz right into his eyeball.

Syriza's failure was the last straw that radicalised me from "democratic socialism". Class war is war. No more half measures, ~~Tsipras~~ Walter

link

President Xi has one final card to play in the trade negotiations

Israel has used the bodies issue to alter the deal, limit aid and the opening of rafah crossing. They have also violated the ceasefire for the first time, killing and wounding Palestinians by armed drones and shelling

Statement by Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades:

"The resistance has abided by the terms of the agreement. We have handed over all the living prisoners in our custody, as well as the bodies we were able to retrieve. As for the remaining bodies, locating and extracting them requires extensive efforts and special equipment. We are exerting great efforts to close this file."

https://t.me/thecradlemedia/44250

Gavin Newsom signs a New Law (Bill AB175) - “AB 715 would prevent students from learning about the genocide in Gaza.”

We love our soon-to-be harm reduction "stop purity testing" saviour from fascism presidential nominee Gavin Gruesome.

Eurovision Song Contest organiser calls off Israel vote

Eurovision Song Contest organisers will no longer vote on Israel’s participation in the competition following Middle East “developments”, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) says.

Eurovision has faced controversy linked to Israel’s war on Gaza, and several countries pledged to withdraw from the event if Israeli contestants took part.

“The Board agreed to put the issue on the agenda of its ordinary Winter General Assembly, which will be taking place in December,” instead of the extraordinary meeting that had been slated to take place online in November, an EBU statement said.

Whatever fate europeans end up inflicting on themselves, they deserve worse.

He's still got it!

Trump Brags About Surviving Assassination Attempt at Charlie Kirk Ceremony

Palestinian bodies returned by Israel blindfolded, signs of possible ‘field executions’

Some of the Palestinians’ bodies handed over by Israeli forces on Tuesday were blindfolded and handcuffed, medical sources tell Al Jazeera.

According to these sources, there are signs that several individuals may have been subjected to “field executions”.

Additionally, tank tracks were found on the bodies, suggesting that some may have been run over by Israeli vehicles.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/10/15/live-israel-restricts-aid-into-gaza-hamas-releases-bodies-of-4-captives

40% of employees are reporting wasting an average of 2 hours at a time cleaning up AI-generated workslop, per CNN

Leaders of Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye and US sign Gaza deal

Strange, I feel like there's an important name missing from this list, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister:

Tomorrow Iran, Russia, and China will jointly send a letter to the UNSC to announce they recognise the end of Resolution 2231.

Russia, China and 121 other countries from the NaM insist that the sanctions reinstated by the US and E3 through the so-called "snapback" mechanism have no legal validity and UN member states are not obligated to implement them.

With the end of this resolution, the status of Iran's issue at the IAEA will also change, and from now on, the IAEA Director-General will no longer be required to issue reports on the JCPOA.

The Argentinian currency reserves in US Dollars situation continues to deteriorate. The country is bleeding reserves, the Central Bank lost 513 million USD in just two days. The immense weight of the foreign debt continues to crush the country's economy, and thus the exchange rate between the Peso and the US Dollar remains very high, which makes everything expensive despite the "low inflation".

Meanwhile, the US Treasury announced the bailout towards Argentina would reach 40 billion USD. The US Treasury is directly intervening in the Argentine market by buying excess pesos. This is yet another form of debt, but that massive accumulation of pesos immediately becomes a ticking bomb: If tomorrow a new administration takes place that doesn't have the US approval, the US could potentially re-release these pesos back into the market and drop a literal nuclear bomb into the economy, perhaps provoking inflation to spiral completely out of control. Or it could be used as a way to blackmail future administrations into further consessions, who knows?

I think the fate of this country, as we once knew it, is sealed. When the US falls off from the world stage, we (alongside "israel") will follow. We're now bonded together, not as equals, but as dogs and their master.

On a more personal note, the images of milei hanging out with Trump a day or two ago are really hard to speak about. Never in my life I have seen a president get dragged around the mud so much, never seen a more pathetic representation of what a vassal is.. ever. Menem (the guy who did most of the shock therapy policies in the 90s) was a MASSIVE US fan, ridiculous even. But even then Menem stood with leaders like Clinton with some presence, even in public he was not humilliated. Other presidents, who gave a lot to the US, were also well received and treated with some respect. The same cannot be said for milei, whose clown-like appearance was mocked by the likes of Trump (another clown, but this one is different). It is humilliating as a nation to have leaders like these. And even though I am not particularly fond of this nation, even though I am not a nationalist, I still hold some love to it, I don't want to see it being dragged across broken glass, mud and shit for nothing, especially so because millions upon millions depend on it. It is humilliating, it's beyond words.

May the United States of America die, may javier milei get beheaded and as always: Death to "israel".

NEW: POLITICO obtained private group chat messages between leaders of Young Republican groups across the country.

In this morning's Economist Espresso:

The Trump administration wants to revive American shipbuilding, an industry that China now dominates. China’s shipbuilding capacity is more than 200 times greater than that of America.

When put in those terms it's very funny. Good luck with that Donald.

According to Israel's Channel 12, citing Israeli military officials, Hamas has seized at least 45 pickup trucks (Toyota Tundras per another source) hundreds of rifles and machine guns, ammunition, hand grenades, and funds transferred by Israel to tribal militias. Security estimates say Hamas gaining control of more weapons is only a matter of time as long as the Israeli withdrawal continues, in line with the terms of the agreement, toward the buffer zone.

https://t.me/thecradlemedia/44297

It looks like the German NordStream II investigation might be over. Poland and Italy have refused to hand over suspects to the German prosecutors and the weirdos (like Polish president Tusk) are openly celebrating this.

@donaldtusk Polish court denied extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian national suspected of blowing up Nord Stream 2 and released him from custody. And rightly so. The case is closed.

UN confirms Israel allowing only 300 aid trucks daily into Gaza

Israel has told the UN it will allow only 300 aid trucks – half the agreed number – into the Gaza Strip from Wednesday.

No fuel or gas will be allowed into the war-torn enclave except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure, it said.

Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, confirmed the UN had received the note from COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza.

COGAT said on Friday that it expected about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily during the ceasefire.

The COGAT note said the restrictions are being taken because “Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages.”

Emphasis added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/10/14/live-trump-signs-gaza-ceasefire-deal-with-leaders-of-qatar-egypt-turkiye

Edit: COGAT is "Israel", not the UN, which makes more sense.

If Trump holds Israel to this, (and he's bragging about it, so I think he likely will) he's going to be come out of this as the guy who stopped a genocide.

And yeah, he funded and supported it for almost ten months, but still, that's what the media is saying and what the average person is going to think. And it's the same fucking deal Biden refused a year ago, even thought it meant throwing the entire election and putting Trump back in power.

Venezuela’s PSUV Welcomes International Brigades to Defend Revolution Amid US Threats

LETS goooo!

Damn who scheduled the freeing of Palestinians to be right as the News Mega switched over? Why weren't we consulted?

The Prisoners' Affairs Authority reported that 3,985+ Palestinian prisoners were released through three exchange deals during the Al-Aqsa Flood battle (November 2023, February 2025, and October 2025:

The total included:

• 486 serving life sentences
• 114 women
• 297 children
• 33 expected life sentence and high sentence
• 2,724 prisoners arrested from Gaza after October 7.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, and other delegates are heading to Washington DC, USA this Friday, to discuss (with government officials, energy and most notably US defence companies) "air defense and our long-range capabilities aimed at exerting pressure on Russia for the sake of peace." In other words, Tomahawk cruise missiles. (And potentially other weapons, but Tomahawk will be the main discussion point due to it's unmatched range of over 1600km/1000mi)

Co-incidentally today, Oshkosh has revealed a Ground-Based Tomahawk Launcher, called X-MAV, that can launch 4 Tomahawk BGM-109 cruise missiles per truck.

Two points here: This illustrates that it's not a significant engineering challenge for the US military industrial complex to mount 4 launch cells to a truck, trailer or shipping container; even if Ukraine doesn't get X-MAV, there are alternatives. Secondly: 4 cruise missiles per ground launch vehicle is actually a lot in the context of the Ukraine - Russia war. 1 Russian Tu-95 bomber can carry 8 Kh-101 cruise missiles maximum (all externally), and 1 Russian missile corvette in the Black Sea can launch 8 Kalibr cruise missiles. So you only need two trucks/trailers/containers to match the maximum loadout of a Russian Tu-95 bomber or warship. Three to match a Tu-160 bomber, which carries 12 Kh-101 internally (rarely used). Obviously strategic bombers and missile corvettes have a much wider use case outside of the constraints of the Ukraine-Russia war, but in the context of this war, you only need 2 trucks to match one's combat capabilities.

The threat these advanced low flying cruise missiles is significant. This is a completely different threat to the crude Ukrainian FP-5 Flamingo or even Ukraine's upgraded Kh-35/Neptune cruise missiles (the latter have caused significant losses, most notably the sinking of the Moskva), which is why Ukraine wants them so badly, and why Russia is quite concerned.

To defend Moscow from all angles against Tomahawks and the AGM-86, the USSR in the 1980s calculated that they would need a ring of 56 S-300P batteries, (That's 168 launch vehicles, 672 surface to air missiles, 56 fire control radars, 56 low altitude surveillance radars, 14 command posts and 14 long range surveillance radars). Accompanied by mobile Tor air defence systems, and the inclusion of look down-shoot down capability in the radar of the MiG-31 (MiG-25 did not have this) to "thin the herd" of cruise missiles beforehand. And this was just to defend Moscow, which still has an impressive air defence ring to this day. Obviously not every facility can have such protection. While Russia did manage to shoot down Tomahawks over Syria, the actual number was insignificant. Now air defence systems have advanced significantly since the 1980s, and Russia is vastly more defended than Syria. But if (big if) Ukraine gets Tomahawks, some will get through and hit targets, just like ATACMS and Strom Shadow/SCALP-EG previously. And mission planning will be done by or heavily assisted by US military staff. Russia will probably respond with more actions towards Europe if this happens.

This ceasefire has me wondering if we have reached a critical mass of international support here similar to the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa. I don't see a path back to the international status quo Israel had achieved pre-conflict. The hearts and minds of pretty much all young people they had internationally were nearly completely lost by Israel, including the unwavering support of one of their most important international sponsors: The Democratic Party base in the US. Support for Israel has massively cratered, from ~60% down to only 33% amongst self-described democrats in the US. Support for Israel from independents in the US is also down from 75% positive favorability to only 48%. With far more attention drawn to the Palestinian cause, it really does feel like there has been a fundamental change in understanding of the Zionist occupation of Palestine for the average person in the US, whereas it used to be considered a rather balck and white issue of not supporting Israel = fringe position of the far left or antisemitism. Both during and after the Second Intifada in the early 2000s, American opinion on Israel remained steady, never really dropping or rising. This is uncharted territory.

Frankly, I don't see a way for Israel to claw back that support, especially amongst young people. There is not really any amount of short term propagandizing that can undo multiple years of seeing the brutality of the zionist entity commit atrocities day in and day out directly on the front page of their most consumed media sources. Of course, if there is to be a change in support from the US government it comes with the huge caveat that there will likely be a years-long lag before we see it come to fruition.

President Lula says that “no president of another country should interfere in Venezuela or Cuba.”

"What we defend is that the Venezuelan people are masters of their own destiny, and no president of another country has the right to interfere on what Venezuela or Cuba will be like."

• Vid

Reuters' US National Security reporter Phil Stewart has just tweeted this out:

SCOOP! - There's another U.S. military strike in the Caribbean, and this time there are survivors. Strike happened today.

Source

Reuters article up now

I don't even know what to say anymore...

US Southern Command (responsible for military activities in the region) commander Alvin Holsey has also announced his retirement at the end of the year.

Venezuela begins restructuring its foreign service with the closing of embassies in Norway and Australia and the opening of embassies in Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso

“New embassies will be opened in the Republic of Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso. With this decision, the Bolivarian Government strengthens its historic ties with the African continent and establishes resident diplomatic missions in two sister nations, strategic partners in the anti-colonial struggle and resistance to hegemonic pressures.”

“The central objective of this reorganization is to optimize state resources and redefine our diplomatic presence to strengthen alliances with the Global South”

• Tweet

Both CNN and The Financial Times are now reporting that no Tomahawks or other long range cruise missiles (AGM-158 JASSM family) will be sent to Ukraine in the immediate future. It looks like Putin's phone call to Trump yesterday did the trick and stalled the momentum Ukraine was building on that issue. Now we await another summit in Hungary between the USA and Russia.

Elite stalling skills from Putin to be honest, he's probably bought Russia a few weeks to months before the topic of long range fires is back on the agenda, provided the summit in Hungary goes alright. Alaska summit didn't go well, but it also went well enough to prevent any serious escalation against Russia (long range fires were also a topic of discussion beforehand then.)

Hopefully we can all breathe a sigh of relief, at least until escalation ramps up again in a few weeks to months.

Pope Leo is setting up to disband Opus Dei in the coming weeks
Very overdue, some of their people are on trial in Argentina for human trafficking and who knows what else

that Chinese chip company that the Dutch seized? well, turns out their genius act of "safeguarding on Dutch and European soil of crucial technological knowledge and capabilities" now threatens to shut down European car manufacturing! https://archive.ph/36hYY

ACEA calls for quick resolution to critical chip supply shortage

Brussels, 16 October 2025 – The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) is deeply concerned by potential significant disruption to European vehicle manufacturing if the interruption of Nexperia chips supplies cannot be immediately resolved.

this is likely a consequence of China's retaliatory export controls (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-14/china-puts-export-controls-on-nexperia-after-dutch-takeover)

I guess the Dutch forgot to check if, you know, the company actually fully manufactured stuff in Europe and wasn't reliant on imports from China. From looking at their site (https://www.nexperia.com/about/worldwide-locations/manufacturing), they don't even have a plant in The Netherlands anyway? There's a plant in Hamburg which seems to be their main thing, and I assume it's those guys getting screwed over now. Love how the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs specifically said "the company’s regular production process can continue" and like a week later it turns out that, uh, no, it fucking can't.

and the Dutch may already be folding https://archive.ph/ea0jc

Dutch government in talks with China over Nexperia export controls

AMSTERDAM, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Netherlands is in talks with China over export controls imposed on the Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia, which has become tangled up in the trade frictions between the U.S. and China.

Up to 700 people attend pro-Palestine protest in Tallinn, Estonia

The protest comes as Estonian support for Palestine finally exceeds that of Israel.

^11/10/25^

On the weekend, hundreds of people marched in the capital of Estonia. The protest was titled "Wake up, Estonia – a genocide is taking place in Gaza!", with its primary demands being the immediate recognition of the Palestinian state and the genocide in Gaza. The protest was organised by the Noorte Palestiina Liikumine (Youth Palestine Movement) and Palestonia, with a significant Noorsots (Young Socialists, youth wing of the Social-Democrats) presence.

The protestors marched from Freedom Square through the old town and then to the Riigikogu (parliament). An Estonian rendition of Bella Ciao was performed right in the centre of the old town.

Read more

Photo: protestors heading towards the Riigikogu

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The protest coincided with a poll by the Estonian public research institute, Ühiskonnauuringute Instituut, which showed around 18% of Estonians support Palestine compared to the 16% that support the Israelis, though 44% of people preferred Estonia not take a side and 22% simply didn't know. In October 2023, support for Palestine was around 5% and 29% for Israel, meaning support for Palestine has more than tripled increasing by more than 13 points while support for Israel has more than halved, decreasing by the same amount, 13 points.

---

The results are as follows:

Support Palestine – 18% [+13%]

Support Israel – 16% [-13%]

Support neither – 44% [+6%]

Don't know – 22% [-7%]

The poll also showed support for the recognition of the Palestinian state among Estonians being 34%, compared to 32% being in opposition and 35% not knowing. The highest backing for the recognition of Palestine was found among Social-Democrats and Centre Party supporters, 51% and 47% respectively, while the highest opposition to a recognition being among Rightwingers (name of a party), Fatherland and EKRE.

IMF prepared to support Gaza’s reconstruction after peace deal

The peace deal between Israel and Hamas that ended the fighting in Gaza is an opportunity for a lasting economic recovery in the Strip and the wider region, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says.

Deputy Chief Economist Petya Koeva-Brooks said the IMF is prepared to support reconstruction efforts and added the peace agreement would help other countries impacted by the war, such as Egypt and Jordan, recover also.

The UN has estimated more than $50bn will be required to rebuild war-devastated Gaza after it was pummelled for two years by Israel’s military.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/10/14/live-trump-signs-gaza-ceasefire-deal-with-leaders-of-qatar-egypt-turkiye

Wikipedia lumping all these together as being a part of “the Gen Z protest movement” is the dumbest shit but it’s also hilarious because it’s pretty clear the consent manufacturing machine that came up with this moniker doesn’t actually support all of these and are probably mad that the strikes for Gaza in Italy and elsewhere are being described as Gen Z protests

The whole narrative surrounding this is bizarre and incoherent…. Young people are protesting? That in of itself is not novel and deserving of a label and this will only get more weird when Wikipedia is forced to contend with the fact that basically any protest that involves young people is going to be called a Gen Z protest by a “reliable source” that isn’t deeply integrated into the consent manufacturing machine such as the nytimes which only describe protests as Gen Z protests if it aligns with US interests.

Because we are being told that this is all innocuous it’s just about young people it will inevitably just be applied to anything and as mass media picks and chooses what does and does not constitute a Gen Z protest the people buying into this bullshit will have to increasingly jump through more and more hoops to justify why any of this even makes sense.

I think it speaks to how lazy the people pushing this stuff have gotten since the effort required is so small compared to back in the day you just have to game the algorithms and get your hashtags out there until western media starts running with the narrative.

I checked some r/politics reactions about the news that Trump approved covert CIA action in Venezuela and you probably wouldn't be shocked to find out that they are all dunking on the Trump admin for being "stupid" and getting that info to leak. As if it wasn't intentionally leaked in order to provoke.

Anyone else see how Mark Rutte is now pushing the ridiculous idea that China wants to go to war with NATO and is supposedly going to make the Russians start it for them?

https://www.reddit.com/r/GreenAndPleasant/comments/1o84v6i/nato_secretary_general_rutte_china_will_ask/

These mfrs actively want world war III

Trump has commuted George Santos’ sentence. Diva… up?

CENTCOM statement

mini-trumpo, bettting yesterday on crypto

The not-Nobel prize in economics was awarded to - as far as I can tell - three turbo neoliberals. From what I can quickly gather, their work is centered on how “creative destruction” makes everyone better off. A lot of claptrap about how much wealthier “we” are than compared to past centuries. All keeping in line with the massive western chauvinism of the award, because while the western world is better off, plenty of data shows most folks in the global south outside of China and Vietnam (I.e. those who suffer under capitalist, post-colonial hegemony) are most definitely NOT better off.

This and the Nobel peace prize really makes it feel like the European elites are trying to double down on neoliberalism while it’s getting slowly dismantled by forces both internal and external.

Is this the auxillery office for the galactic ministry of agriculture under Emperor Palpetine? Or is it Obama's new presidential library?

Sorry if this is a little too inside-Canadian-baseball, but I think this situation is kind of interesting.

China will remove canola tariffs if Canada scraps EV levies: ambassador

Canada put a 100% tariff on Chinese EV imports, and China retaliated with tariffs on some Canadian agricultural products. The reason for the EV tariff was ostensibly to protect Canadian auto manufacturing, but the reality is that Canada was just aligning policy with the US. That move made (some) sense prior to Trump's trade war when the assumption was that there would be another boring Democratic administration and everyone would go along to get along as usual. However, since Trump got into office, the status quo for Canada-US trade and diplomatic relations has been disrupted. The US is no longer a reliable trade partner, which calls into question how closely aligned Canada needs to be to the US in its own foreign policy.

Dropping the EV tariffs in exchange for the agricultural tariffs would be good for the agricultural sector, good for Canadian consumers, good for propagation of EVs, and would represent a meaningful divergence from US policy, which is a major reason the current government was elected. If Canada wants to be less reliant on US trade then it's going to need to actually do more trade with other markets instead of just whining that Trump isn't being fair. And no, doing more trade with Europe isn't going to cut it. I'm not convinced that they'll actually take this offer seriously, but there are very good arguments to go for it, and very real consequences of turning it down. It probably won't happen, but it's a thing that actually could happen, even in a world where nothing ever happens.