Checking in on the news mega - and what the hell someone tried to impersonate this account?

I honestly don’t know what happened but if the vibe’s wrong, it’s not me lol.

And in case anyone is wondering, long story short, laptop died together with hundreds of sources/references/links and pages and pages of notes I’ve written up. No backup on the cloud. Decided to touch grass and forget about the site. May or may not return as a regular. Meanwhile, I hope everyone has been doing well. The world hasn’t been kind lately and certainly hasn’t to me in many ways. Hang in there, everyone.

Edit: also in case anyone wants to hear my thoughts about the recent events, I wrote a long comment in this thread. May not be everyone’s cup of tea, and if so, just treat it as an entertaining read. Happy to be proven wrong.

WE GOT THE BURGER POPE YEEHAAW

The biggest and most influential union in Norway just declared they’re in support of an economic boycott of Israel:

There were several levels to the boycott of Israel when the LO [Norway’s biggest union] Congress voted today.

The majority resolution on a boycott of Israel prevailed.

It reads as follows:

“If the occupation does not end by September 2025, as the UN General Assembly has demanded, LO will work to ensure that Norway takes the initiative for an international economic boycott.”

The resolution that prevailed also states that the Petroleum Fund, Norwegian companies and financial institutions “must refrain from trade and investments in companies that contribute to the maintenance of the occupation.”

🇺🇸🇮🇱 BREAKING: Trump cuts contact with Netanyahu, says Bibi & his allies “act arrogant” and try to manipulate him — IDF Radio reports.

Close associates of Trump told Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, that the President feels disrespected and manipulated by Netanyahu, and that there’s nothing he hates more than ‘appearing as easily manipulated’ in public.

(looks like he heard about the Laundry thing )

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) claims to have uncovered what it calls a Hungarian military spy network in western Ukraine and arrested two Hungarian citizens. The Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post and the Swedish TV channel Svt Nyheter, citing the SBU, reported that the two arrested individuals were recruited by the Hungarian secret service to carry out the operations. They were previously employed by the Ukrainian army and are now charged with treason, they wrote.

“The task was to gather information on the military security of Transcarpathia, to find vulnerable points in the region’s land and air defense, and to study the socio-political views of the local population: in particular, scenarios for their behavior if Hungarian troops enter the region,” the SBU wrote.

We contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to find out if they confirm the information and how they comment on it, and we will report it as soon as we receive an answer.

According to SBU information, the recruiter of the two arrested agents is a member of the Hungarian counterintelligence, whose exact identity is also known, but the public report does not mention it.

About one of the arrested agents, it is revealed that he is 40 years old, once served as a soldier in the Beregszász district, and was a sleeper agent who was recruited in 2021 and activated last September, Unian wrote.

update:

Hungary has expelled two Ukrainian diplomats who were operating as spies at the embassy in Budapest. This action comes in response to what Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called Kyiv’s persistent smear campaigns against Hungary.

From the looks of India’s drone attack on Pakistan this morning with Israel Aerospace Industries Harpy and Harop one way attack drones/loitering munitions, it looks like India was trying to carry out a Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD/DEAD) mission using the drones. The Harpy has a anti radiation seeker in the nose, while the Harop has a electro-optical sensor, a camera that can transmit footage back to the operator. India were hoping that Pakistan would light up the drones with their advanced air defence systems, such as the HQ-9 and HQ-16, turning on their radars and maybe even firing at the drones, thus revealing their position and opening them up to being targeted by the Harpy anti radiation seeking drones, and potentially ROCKS/Crystal Maze 2, and Rudram-II Air Launched Ballistic Missiles with anti radiation seekers.

IAI Harpy:

IAI Harop:

However, Pakistan quickly wised up to what was happening, turned off the radars and stopped firing from their advanced air defence systems that were targeted, and moved them quickly out of harms way, should their position be comprimised after firing and engaging initially. There are photos of Pakistan quickly moving an HQ-16 battery around to prevent a hit, with a seperate 4x4 truck not part of the HQ-16 system getting hit by Harop drones afterwards. Pakistan made the right choice here, sure India landed some hits as a result and the HQ-16 abandoned it’s primary mission of defending those assets that got hit (so SEAD was accomplished for a limited time, system suppressed in fleeing the area) but saving a high value asset like an HQ-16 from damage or destruction during this kind of attack is worth the trade off (DEAD not accomplished, system still operable and undamaged to fight on another day).

4x4 truck taking hits:

HQ-16 command post or radar vehicle fleeing the scene:

HQ-16 command posts or radar vehicle during peacetime, for identification purposes:

Pakistan then resorted to using jamming and anti aircraft guns against the drones, including the ever reliable Soviet era ZU-23, the AK-47 of anti aircraft guns. So while India landed a few hits and accomplished a limited amount of SEAD, they were unable to get a fix or hit on their primary targets, the HQ-16 and HQ-9, long term SEAD and DEAD not accomplished.

Just for interests sake, hexbear users months ago were talking about the added mobility Chinese air defence systems like the HQ-22 and HQ-16 offer, and how that would be crucial to surviving a modern day SEAD/DEAD campaign in the context of drone warfare.

Russia and China pledged to use “all efforts to combat the growing attempts to rehabilitate the inhuman ideology of Nazism and racial supremacy” in the main joint statement on the occasion of Xi Jinping’s state visit.

Russia and China also pledged to “continue to oppose the glorification of the Nazis and their accomplices, the resurgence of neo-Nazism, militaristic revanchism and practices that contribute to the escalation of various forms of racial discrimination, racism, xenophobia and associated intolerances”. In the only explicit mention of the United States, the text criticizes attempts by the Americans and allies to expand NATO’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Telegram

I heard some architectural people cry about how the evul soviets oppressed the baltics with the riga tv tower, because it was “a monstrosity that dominates and overwhelms the medieval city of riga”. So I look it up, expecting a Le Corbusier Beton behemoth aaaaand its non-intrusive and looks like a spaceship instead.

Just learning today, after finding out that someone skimmed my card and spent all my food assistance money for the month, that in Biden’s final days the Dems came together to pass a bill from Tom Cole which, among other things, says that if your social benefits are stolen you cannot recover them or be reimbursed – and they called it the “American Relief Act”. Fuck the Democrats to hell, why are they so awful.

India adds 2 million deaths to the Covid death toll by using the conflict with Pakistan as cover to avoid backlash.

https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedstatesofindia/comments/1kigg7f/the_covidunderrepoting_news_would_have_been_the/

Israel has presented a plan to take over humanitarian aid in gaza.

The Israeli aid distribution blueprint presented to UN humanitarians envisages only 60 aid trucks per day entering Gaza - “one-tenth of what was being delivered during the ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas which held from 19 January to 18 March.

“It’s not nearly enough to meet the needs of 1.1 million children, 2.1 million people,” Mr. Elder insisted. “There is a simple alternative: lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in, save lives.”

Of course, besides not getting enough aid in, it continues Israels use of humanitarian aid as a weapon, pressuring people to go south.

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder insisted that the Israeli proposal to create a handful of aid hubs exclusively in the south of the Strip would create an “impossible choice between displacement and death”.

The plan “contravenes basic humanitarian principles” and appears designed to “reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic”, he told journalists in Geneva. “It’s dangerous to ask civilians to go into militarized zones to collect rations…humanitarian aid should never be used as a bargaining chip”.

If the Israeli plan were to happen, Gaza’s most vulnerable individuals - the elderly, children with disabilities, the sick and the wounded who cannot travel to designated distribution zones – would face “horrendous challenges” retrieving aid, the UNICEF spokesperson maintained.

Quotes from UN News, 2025-05-09
This is about the Geneva Press Briefing held today, a video of it is available on UN Web TV

Happy Western Tears Day!

The Palestinian flag-adorned Al-Azhar Mosque in Cape Town’s District 6 near the city center had received a bomb threat, reportedly having originated from Miami. This also occurred after the conclusion of the Week4Palestine/Red Card Israel demonstrations in Johannesburg and Cape Town. - Salaamedia

Also in Cape Town, a Jewish author of the book Lost Property by the name of Megan Choritz was expelled from the Jewish Literary Festival for “harbouring extremist political views ()” - wearing a Keffiyeh and being an active member of the SAJFP. She then set up a table outside the Holocaust Museum and was quickly subject to harassment by the police and antisemitic attacks from Zionists, with her stand even being trashed and chairs thrown across the road. Her assistant and another member of the SAJFP Jared Sacks was also assaulted, with the cops of course, doing nothing and just sit back as a Jewish activist is getting attacked by violent extremists in front of the Holocaust Museum. - SAJFP, News24

And in what should arguably be the most damning and critical news of all, the comments of Channel 14’s producer Elad Barashi had very recently been brought to light, where he had made incitements of genocide against Gaza, a day or two after the most recent ICJ hearings concluded. The comments originated on 27 February 2025 in Hebrew and were apparently then deleted, either by Twitter moderation or by Elad himself once the reality set in on what he had typed. They have been already archived and translated during the first half of this week, with some traction on non-mainstream media. Channel 14 is also a very major mainstream outlet in ISISrael. Of course, we already know the genocidal intent, rhetoric and actions of the fascist ISISraeli entity and the near-total support for escalatory violence. But these most recent comments are …quite different.

Harden your hearts, Al-Qassam and Ansar Allah

This mayor getting arrested in Jersey thing seems like an obvious escalation to arrest of political opponents with ICE as the Gestapo.

• facility is run by GEO, who have a $1t contract with the federal government and obviously every relevant politician holds stock in. The mayor has actively fought against it since its inception
• he is in the Dem primary for governor, not polling terribly and is vocally anti trump
• I haven’t seen the entire video and don’t care to, but according to the article, he went on with the congress people, was told to leave and complied, rejoining the protest on the street. Masked ICE agents then dragged him back onto the property and arrested him in handcuffs. AFAIK he is still in detention

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/9/newark-mayor-ras-baraka-arrested-during-ice-detention-centre-protest

Given that trump is also ‘looking at’ suspending habeas corpus for migrants (aka anyone they ‘suspect’ is a migrant), I fear that we are moving toward the armed crackdown on minorities, in a matter of months. Shit makes me anxious as fuck

Putin and Xi vow to protect shared version of ‘historical truth’ in Kremlin talks - France24

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with China’s leader Xi Jinping in Moscow on Thursday, where they pledged to work together against “unilateralism and bullying”. Xi is the most powerful foreign leader attending Russia’s World War II commemoration events on Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday thanked Chinese President Xi Jinping for joining celebrations to mark 80 years since the “sacred” victory over Adolf Hitler in World War Two, and said the two countries stood together now against “neo-Nazism”.