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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 depicts Bolivian trade unionists on strike in La Paz, Bolivia.


Long preamble/summary below of recent news events.

summaryThe Iran ceasefire is grinding on. After a brief period over the weekend of heightened activity where it seemed that US strikes might be resuming, Trump announced a "Memorandum of Understanding" with Iran, which initially appeared to be an agreement along Iran's demands.

For those not following along with the diplomatic minutia, Iran's position for several weeks has been that the nuclear issue must be discussed separately - because, well, last time they started discussing the nuclear issue with the US, they got fucking bombed - and so have proposed a two-stage negotiation where the war is first officially ended with certain preconditions (e.g. the US has to end sanctions and unfreeze assets and presumably withdraw at least some military assets), and then the second stage will begin in which the nuclear issue is handled.

The reason why a deal has still not been signed after all this time is because the US disagrees with doing it this way, and wants the nuclear issue to be handled right away (and obviously also objects with things like Iran retaining control of the Strait). Therefore, Trump's announcement appeared to be him finally accepting reality, but it quickly became apparent that this was just another market manipulation. I'm definitely in the camp among several other analysts that believes another round of war is going to happen barring some very sudden circumstances (e.g. Trump being forced out of power one way or another, or Iran obtaining a nuke) because the US still seems agreement-incapable. And in Lebanon, consternation for the Zionists against Hezbollah's attacks continues as the FPV drone threat only continues to increase despite them desperately seeking countermeasures.

As I've been perhaps too focussed on Iran lately, here's a brief roundup of big news events from the last month or so.

  • Orban losing power: Pretty cool, though his replacement being Neoliberal #2980329891 means that big changes seem unlikely.

  • Strikes in Bolivia against that dipshit Paz: Very nice to see, as it appears that Bolivia has among the best widespread on-the-ground popular support for worker-centric policies and politicians in Latin America that makes it so they can genuinely pressure power (already, the Labor Minister has resigned).

  • Situation in the Sahel: "Mysterious" third parties sponsored a big offensive against the AES which they largely repelled with help from Russia. The situation there is still a little tenuous as I understand it with a greater focus by anti-government forces on blockades of cities to cause internal revolts. This tactic is currently broadly failing as armed convoys are getting fuel and food into the cities, but figures like Traore are aware that more needs to be done.

  • Ukraine War: Aside from the usual grinding advance by Russia on the front, there have been back-and-forth missile and drone strikes as Ukraine hit some targets in the outskirts of Moscow with drones and then Russia fired a shitload of missiles, including the iconic Oreshnik, directly at Kiev, as Simplicius and others have covered in greater detail.

I could go on and on with the recent aggressions against Cuba, Modi's recent victories in India and the AI/chip tech war between China and the US but this preamble has to end at some point due to the character limit.


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 the Zionists' 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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[-] Tervell@hexbear.net 37 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

another day another F-35 banger https://archive.ph/MBPkz

Two British F-35s Are Stuck on an Island in the Atlantic

Of the five F-35B aircraft that the United Kingdom ordered from the United States in March, two are stranded in the Azores—and likely will be for some time.

more

The United Kingdom has long maintained an active military presence in the Mediterranean. In February, the Royal Air Force (RAF) dispatched six F-35B Lightning fifth-generation stealth fighters to Cyprus as part of its efforts to bolster the defensive readiness of British sovereign base territories and assets amid rising tensions in the Middle East. The short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35 was deployed from RAF Marham, joining the approximately 10 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters stationed at RAF Akrotiri on the island in the eastern Mediterranean. Another pair of British F-35s is now on the Azores islands, but it isn’t part of a planned deployment. Instead, the aircraft have been stuck at Lajes International Airport since their arrival on March 9, 2026.

Two US-Made F-35s Didn’t Quite Make It Across the Atlantic

How the two F-35Bs managed to become stranded is almost comical, and London could take it as a sign not to move forward with additional acquisitions of the US-made stealth aircraft. The two fighters were part of the final batch of Lot 17 fighters scheduled for delivery to the UK in March. Five aircraft departed from Lockheed Martin’s factory in Fort Worth, Texas, and set out for RAF Marham, but just three completed the journey. All five stopped in the Azores, which serves as a refueling and staging base for US and NATO aircraft crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Two aircraft experienced technical faults and have remained at Lajes awaiting repairs. Of course, there are worse places for a military aircraft to go on vacation. The islands, which have been described as a mix of Hawaii and Iceland, are known for their scenic beauty, so pilots likely have no problem making a stopover for a day or two to rest and recover. A decades-old bilateral treaty with Portugal even covers US activity at Lajes. Last December, the former Danish F-16 Fighting Falcons that were sold to Argentina also made a stopover in the Azores. However, no one expected that the UK’s brand new F-35s would be essentially stuck on a lasting holiday on the islands. This also comes just a year after a British F-35B, operating from the flagship aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales during the Operation Highmast mission to the Indo-Pacific, was forced to divert to Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in India due to mechanical problems. The aircraft remained at the base for five weeks in June and July 2025, eventually flying back after repairs were completed at the airport. Just weeks later, another F-35B operating from the flattop diverted to Kagoshima Airport in south-western Japan after experiencing an in-flight malfunction.

...

The RAF Is Having Second Thoughts About New F-35s

The UK acquired 48 F-35Bs, but with the loss of aircraft ZM152 from HMS Queen Elizabeth in November 2021, the official number of operational F-35s stands at 47. However, according to July 2025 data from the UK’s National Audit Office, only about one-third of the fleet is currently considered fully mission-capable. Those numbers are even worse than those of the United States Air Force’s fleet of F-35As, the conventional takeoff and landing variants, which had a 67.15 percent mission-capable rate in 2024. The problem is made worse in the UK, as the RAF and Royal Navy lack the spare components needed to keep the aircraft flying. “The intensive demands of Operation Highmast, the 2025 Indo-Pacific deployment, had already consumed significant engineering effort and spare parts reserves,” the UK-based Navy Lookout reported, and added that the surge for the deployment required that spares be stripped from RAF Marham to ensure the 24 F-35Bs assigned to the carrier could be maintained accordingly. “The surge to 24 F-35Bs exceeded the designed capacity of the carrier’s Afloat Spares Pack, which was only sized to support 12 aircraft,” the report noted.

There has been speculation that the RAF would place a follow-up order for at least 27 F-35Bs to bring the fleet up to 74 aircraft, but some British lawmakers have pushed back on the planned acquisition. The mishaps last year and the fact that a full order can’t be delivered accordingly are certainly black marks against the UK buying even more F-35s. However, the UK doesn’t have many options. It may still move forward with an acquisition of the F-35A, which can restore the UK’s capability to deliver a US-owned B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb as part of NATO arrangements, explained Aerospace Global News. Finally, the UK remains committed to the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) with its partners, Italy and Japan, to develop a sixth-generation manned fighter. Critics of the F-35 have called for redirecting funding to the domestic GCAP rather than the American F-35 program.

[-] aanes_appreciator@hexbear.net 30 points 15 hours ago

Buying a bunch of brand new aircraft only to turn half of them into scrap to sustain your initial deployment of the other half. Amazing

[-] john_brown@hexbear.net 9 points 12 hours ago

good thing lemon laws don't apply to warplanes

this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
113 points (100.0% liked)

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