news

Elon thanks the ADL for the prompt defense

Syria terminated the agreement with Russia on the port of Tartus: "The new authorities of Syria have cancelled the investment agreement on the management of the seaport of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea, concluded with a Russian company in 2019.

According to the agreement, the Russian side retained the right to manage the second largest port in Syria for 49 years, where the logistics center of the Russian Navy is located. It was also supposed to invest more than $ 500 million in the modernization of the port.

"All income from the port's activities will be used in the interests of the Syrian state," said Riad Judi, director of the customs department of the Tartus province. "The port workers will return to restoring the worn-out equipment that was used by the company without the modernization that was envisaged by the terms of the agreement"

Russia confirmed fully out of Syria.

Ansarullah Rejects U.S. Terrorist Designation, Calls It a Badge of Honor - Telesur English

wtyp to rheinmetal lobbyist pipeline

Trump tells Putin to reach Ukraine ‘deal’ soon or US will increase sanctions direct FT link archived page not latest version of article yet

Donald Trump has warned Vladimir Putin that the US is ready to punish Russia with a barrage of new trade restrictions if Moscow fails to reach an agreement soon to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump’s statement in a Truth Social post on Wednesday comes as the president tries to ratchet up pressure on Moscow to launch negotiations with Ukraine.

It marks his first broad statement about the conflict since he returned for his second term in the White House after promising on the campaign trail to end the war within 24 hours of returning to power.

“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Trump wrote.

“Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better,” he continued.

Joe Biden’s administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. US trade with Russia has since plummeted, so any additional tariffs would have a limited impact.

But Trump administration officials believe there are more ways that the US could tighten the screws on Russia financially, particularly by targeting its energy sector.

The Biden administration was reluctant to ban Russian oil and gas exports for fear of disrupting global energy markets. Under the former president, Washington imposed some restrictions on liquefied natural gas projects in Russia and set an international price cap for Russian oil, which Moscow has managed to circumvent.

During his confirmation hearing to be Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent last week told Congress that he would be “100 per cent on board for taking sanctions up, especially on the Russian oil majors, to levels that would bring the Russian Federation to the table”.

Bessent added that he believed the US sanctions on Russia set by Biden were “not fulsome enough”.

Trump, who has been sceptical of US military aid to Ukraine, said he expected to meet Putin soon and the Kremlin has said the Russian leader is ready to sit down with the US president, but no summit has been scheduled.

In his post, Trump touted his “very good relationship with President Putin” and said he was not looking to “hurt” Russia, but would be doing it a “favour” by pushing it to reach a deal.

Hours after being sworn in on Monday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Putin was “destroying Russia” by continuing to wage war in Ukraine.

But the president’s announcement reveals his frustration that Moscow does not appear to be listening to his calls for a settlement.

“Putin doesn’t want to end the war, and doesn’t want to be pressured to peace,” a senior Ukrainian official close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Financial Times in response to Trump’s comments.

Trump’s special envoy for the Ukraine war, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News earlier this month he hoped to find a solution within “100 days”.

Kellogg had postponed a trip to hold meetings with top officials in Kyiv earlier this month, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The people said the envoy delayed his visit because Trump had not formulated a plan to get the Russians to the negotiating table and bring the war to an end.

Kellogg is expected to visit Kyiv next month but the Ukrainians may first meet him and other members of Trump’s team in Washington.

David Arakhamia, head of Zelenskyy’s party’s faction in the Ukrainian parliament, said a delegation from Kyiv was planning to meet with members of the new administration in the US capital in the coming days.

“Active contacts between the delegation from the Ukrainian parliament and the new Trump team may begin in early February as part of the ‘Ukrainian Week’ to be held in Washington,” he told Ukrainian television on Tuesday.

Such a wounded bitterness from Trump. This is cartoonishly fascist, foreboding for the next few years. The MLK quoting is crazy

1. National E at southern border. (standing ovation, what dipshit freaks), troops to southern border, cartels as foreign terrorist orgs, invoking some 1798 law to give cops more power to arrest people for deportation
2. Bring down prices
3. Drill baby drill, make america rich, revoking ev mandate, thanks the "autoworkers"
4. Taxing foreign countries to enrich our citizens, establishing External Revenue Services
5. Department of Gov Efficiency (damn all these new departments are so efficient)
6. Immediately stopping all government censorship (don't ask about palestine or campus protests)
7. Law and order
8. End Dei etc, colorblind and merit-based (more like merit cringe), only two genders
9. Ref to ending and avoiding wars "peacemaker and unifier"
10. takes credit for gaza peace deal
11. Literally changing the name to Gulf of America
12. Renaming it back to mount mckinley
13. Reclaiming the panama canal lmao "china is operating it, we didn't give it to china, we gave it to panama, and we're taking it back"
14. "History's greatest civilization" L M A O
15. "ending the chronic disease epidemic"
16. pursuing manifest destiny into space, flag on mars
17. Eulogizing the frontier, colonialism, and ending slavery in the same sentence

Ukrainian media report that the head of Zelensky's office, Yermak, and Zelensky himself are ready to remove the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Syrsky, from his post for failures at the front.

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I don't want to see a peaceful transfer of power ever again

Accidents, not Russian sabotage, behind undersea cable damage, officials say (WaPo) | archive

I am very surprised by this. No one saw that coming. Nevertheless:

At a Baltic summit in Helsinki on Jan. 14, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced plans for new patrols by frigates, aircraft, submarine satellites and a “small fleet of naval drones” designed to detect undersea sabotage.

Mission accomplished I guess.

Are there any resources to track the occurrence of ICE raids, aside from the raids in Newark it's hard to get a grasp on the situation since news media are either not reporting it or reporting vaguely on it

4 IDF soldiers handed over to the Red Cross by Saraya al-Quds and the Qassam Brigades

https://streamable.com/wj9l08

https://earth.nullschool.net/#2025%2F01%2F24%2F0300Z%2Fwind%2Fsurface%2Flevel%2Forthographic=-6.31%2C53.26%2C4382

eire about to experience a storm tomorrow morning, stay safe conrades

*wait, the link breaks over time?

60-100 km winds over nearly whole ireland

Kinda funny that elon would have been sent to re-education camps by fucking uefa over this, that bastion of morality.

Also i wonder whatcha germans will do re: afd and musk proclivities

Iraq Parliament allowing marriage to children as young as 9 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/22/women-children-rights-iraqi-law-allows-child-marriage

US: The Houthis are terrorists (again).

Yemen: https://xcancel.com/Aldanmarki/status/1882830465050059262

The Cradle - Netanyahu signals Israel will remain in south Lebanon after withdrawal deadline

The deadline for Israel to exit Lebanese borders is today, and they are instead making plans to extend their occupation.

“The IDF withdrawal process is conditional on the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and its full and effective implementation of the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani. Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully implemented by the Lebanese state, the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States,”

Mind you Israel violated this agreement 1000 separate times.

In particular they're looking for permission from Donald Trump to hold five military strong points.

The Lebanese Military tasked with actually replacing Hezbollah south of the Litani River seems clueless about the situation, stating they weren't told anything about a delay. Hezbollah gave a statement the other day:

“As we continue to monitor the developments of the situation, which are supposed to culminate in a full withdrawal in the coming days, we affirm that any breach of the agreement or attempt to evade commitments under weak pretexts will not be tolerated. We call for strict adherence to the agreement, without concessions.”

Trump announced the start of a trade war with his neighbors - Canada and Mexico. He also threatened to start a trade war with the European Union and the BRICS countries. Trump announced that he plans to impose a 25% tariff on all goods from Canada and Mexico starting February 1. The US may impose trade tariffs of at least 100% on the BRICS countries, Trump said.

He also said that the US could impose tariffs on European goods. To prevent this from happening, Trump demanded that Europe buy more oil and gas from the US. Trump also confirmed that he will require NATO countries to spend at least 5% of GDP on defense.

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Just remembered they’re still in space

https://www.cnet.com/science/stranded-nasa-astronaut-on-the-iss-takes-a-spacewalk-with-another-planned/

Nothing ever happens: judge blocks Trump's rollback of the 14th amendment.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/23/us-judge-blocks-trumps-order-restricting-birthright-citizenship?traffic_source=rss

Jeremy Corbyn’s cat, El Gato has passed away

He was less popular with much of the wider media, and was – like me – subject to intense activity of the right-wing press who wished to smear his character. He was very much of the Left, and wanted a socially just and fair society.

Indeed, at one time he brought a stray cat into his orbit, sharing his shelter and food.

As this shows, El Gato was very empathetic to the needs of a homeless cat.

his official portrait is giving dreamworks face

Holy shit. All January 6th rioters just pardoned

:sicko-poll-watcher: but actually, it just sucks that voters defect to right wing parties (same with spd->afd) instead of plausibly leftist like greens/linke

‘Very important step’: Chinese scientists turn E coli into a photosynthetic life form

A dangerous bacteria is being used by researchers to help create a range of bioproducts with no carbon footprint

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3296173/very-important-step-chinese-scientists-turn-e-coli-photosynthetic-life-form

https://www.rawstory.com/amp/fema-trump-sign-2670968114 Trump floats eliminating FEMA so states can ‘take care of their own problems'

silk road guy ross ulbricht was just pardoned. wtf is going on

Exclusive: Trump administration canceling flights for nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees, say U.S official, advocate

Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump's order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.

The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the U.S. as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution because they fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups and the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Anyone here have interesting sources on economic calculation, planned economy, and "cybernetic" planning? I've noticed these issues have been completely sidelined even by some leftwing communists, so I was interested in various perspectives. Also notice how far the "economic calculation problem" has slipped from the mainstream - the unquestioned process of "economy" is no longer just unquestioned, it is now completely unacknowledged. We have the "most advanced AI" but we do not dare to even think about tackling the economy. The economy exists outside the purview of even "AGI".

With all the crazy shit going on I forgot about the other demon convention going on, the Davos Summit. It hasn't even made it to the news

Protests in Slovakia have reddit libs furiously masturbating. Anything to worry about? Anyone been paying attention? I know precisely zero about it.

The harmony between milei and trump couldn't be any better since both presidents are aligned with the same principles -- to defend the national interests of the United States of America.

This piece is quite interesting. I won't put the whole thing here since it's long. Just a few interesting snippets that stand out.

Government Monitoring Those With "Negative" Views of Health Insurance Companies

New documents reveal flurry of intelligence activity following Luigi Mangione's arrest

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/government-monitoring-those-with

“Following the shooting, the New York State Intelligence Center (NYSIC-CTC) identified a large amount of negative sentiment towards healthcare executives and health insurance companies on social media,” a bulletin produced by a regional intelligence group on December 12 says. The bulletin goes on to warn of “users online wanting to counter ‘corporate greed’” as well as “growing negative sentiment around conglomerates, the wealthy, and executive staff at private and public organizations.” Setting aside the yeah-no-shit factor, the report provides rare insight into how the government threat machine stokes fear among law enforcement agencies across the country.

...

To give a sense of just how many of these kinds of reports are pinballing around the law enforcement world, here’s one produced by the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center (SNCTC) and also obtained by Property of the People. Like the New York bulletin, this one also focuses on “online rhetoric” expressing “criticism of the public health care system and corporate executives.” Sound familiar?

The shooting spurred online support from Racially Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE), anticapitalists, Anarchist/Anti-government/Anti-authority violent extremist groups (AGAAVE), and unaffiliated individuals

Amuses me that they lump all of these together under "AGAAVE" because they're too lazy to understand the differences but also refer to "anticapitalists" as a different thing to AGAAVE. I assume that what they actually mean when they say anticapitalists is socialists/communists but they do not want to use that language for one reason or another.

When New York Governor Kathy Hochul touts more funding for “social media intelligence analysts & counterterrorism intelligence analysts,” as she did earlier this month, reports like these are what those taxes dollars are going towards.

As absurd as these reports might seem, they’re taken seriously not just by law enforcement, but also the media outlets they’re routinely leaked to. They are also frequently provided to private industry, which are given alarmist recommendations like these:

Lol this shit is so basic.

Even Ukraine doesn't recognize Edmundo Gonzalez (Juan Guaido 2) as the president of Venezuela.

Trump really made the Whitehouse.gov so... Different. It looks like his personal site.

Biden's atleast looked like a Government site.

I decided to get some sleep for a few hours, and I come back to news about Musk doing fascist salutes

Latest statement from Trump, via truth social, on the Russia - Ukraine war.

I'm not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin - and this despite the Radical Left's Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I'm going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don't make a "deal," and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let's get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way and the easy way is always - better. It's time to "MAKE A DEAL." NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!

Very typical Trump, exaggerating the numbers (I think total allied deaths was 60 million, not the USSR alone). But he's really planning to go through with the peace through strength policy he promoted during his campaign apparently. Don't know how helpful sanctions against Russia will be unless he really plans to screw over the "participating countries" Russia does business with (so Europe) in the meantime by closing all the loopholes.

Saudi Arabia plans $600 billion in new US investment, trade over four years

In a phone call between the two leaders, the crown prince said the Trump administration's expected reforms could create "unprecedented economic prosperity", the state news agency reported.

The report said Saudi Arabia wants its investments to capitalize on these conditions. It did not detail the source of the $600 billion, whether it would be public or private spending nor how the money would be deployed.

…

Trump said following his inauguration on Monday that he would consider making Saudi Arabia his first destination for a foreign visit if Riyadh agreed to buy $500 billion worth of American products, similar to what he did in his first term.

"I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450 billion worth of our product. I said I'll do it but you have to buy American product, and they agreed to do that," Trump said, referring to his 2017 visit to the Gulf kingdom.

Remember when we all naively believed that the US confiscating $300 billion of Russia’s foreign reserves was going to “break the trust” in the dollar and leading to the world abandoning them?

Remember when people thought that Saudi Arabia was looking to abandon the so-called “petrodollar” and the US dollar is somehow going to collapse from it?

What we have learned since is that foreign holdings of US Treasuries soared to all-time peak in 2024, more than two years after the incredible sanctions against Russia.

This is what I have been saying since a couple years back: the dollar was at its weakest when the Fed under Biden first raised its interest rate back in 2022 to “fight inflation” - but if nobody was seizing the opportunity to provide an alternative, it is only a matter of time before the treasuries mature and huge interest payout reverses the flow of the dollar back to the foreign sector once again.

And here we are, with the dollar primacy strengthened not weakened after nearly three years of “recklessly” confiscating hundreds of billions of foreign assets. This should disillusion anyone who still thinks the dollar is built on “trust” or “reputation” rather than through coercion. The harvest phase is over, and the consolidation phase has begun.

Meta genai org in panic mode

It started with deepseek v3, which rendered the Llama 4 already behind in benchmarks. Adding insult to injury was the "unknown Chinese company with 5..5 million training budget"

Engineers are moving frantically to dissect deepsek and copy anything and everything we can from it. I'm not even exaggerating

Management is worried about justifying the massive cost of gen ai org. How would they face the leadership when every single "leader" of gen ai org is making more than what it cost to trained deepseek v3 entirely, and we have dozens of such "leaders"

Deepseek r1 made things even scarier. I can't reveal confidential info but it'll be soon public anyways

It should have been an engineering focused small org but since a bunch of people wanted to join the impact grab and artificially inflate hiring in the org, everyone loses

https://www.teamblind.com/post/Meta-genai-org-in-panic-mode-KccnF41n

Did they really played a footage from full metal jacket to show what is the ideal model of the US military?

Not surprising tbh