And now for some light entertainment: AMD CEO says that AI is not a bubble.

Some snippets from her interview with Wired:

I find it really interesting when people ask 'Are we in a bubble?' I'm like: We haven't even gotten started yet!

[...] Yes, we are investing big. But we are investing big at the right time because of the technology capability, and you have to assume that the people who are running these companies are very rational, smart people.

UK Navy to stop provoking China

The UK is responding to the leash jerk and pulling back from harassing China with their tin navy. Good news for the world, let's hope they don't change their minds.

Thinking about my comment earlier today on how easily China could refinance SL's remaining IMF debt. I got curious: could the PRC just eliminate the IMF in a single blow by paying off all of its debt?

Which countries owe the IMF the most money in 2025?

162 billion dollars in outstanding debt to the IMF. How's it split up?

First, wow! Argentina is fucked beyond belief. Holy shit. What a goddamn disaster. There are some interesting observations, here, though. Other than Argentina and Ecuador (conveniently the US's most pathetic running dogs in LatAm atm), Latin America has largely gotten out of the IMF trap. Asia looks pretty similar outside the three big ones shown. Instead, the real locus of imperial and colonialist suffering under the IMF (like under every other capitalist tool) is in Africa. There, IMF debt is spread far more evenly across far poorer countries, entrapping the entire continent in their fiscal schemes. China has already done a great deal to relieve the burdern of the IMF on Africa, but there's so much more - from Africa's perspective. From China's perspective, though, this is nothing. Leave aside Argentina and Ukraine for the moment given their geopolitical alignment. We've seen the headlines bouncing around about China's new $1tn trade surplus.

Now, I'm speaking directly to Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China. Xi and other esteemed comrades: for the low price of 10% of just this year's trade surplus, you could unshackle Africa and the rest of the colonized world from endless debt peonage. The US is withdrawing from the world stage to focus its evil eye on Latin America, a position your intelligent planning, economic development, and trade dominance has forced them into without the imperialist devils able to fire a single shot against you. Xi, you speak often about party members always remembering the lofty goal of leading your people to true communism. And you understand, as a student of Lenin and Mao, the centrality of imperial finance capital and modern colonization in perpetuating capitalism and imposing underdevelopment. And, of course, you know full well the urgency of defeating global capitalism for the preservation of the planet and the thriving of all peoples in a shared future for all humanity. Material reality has long constrained the breadth of options available to you in directly resisting the imperialist system, and so you have carried out the long game of reform and opening up. Well done to all of you on your dedication, which is an inspiration to progressive people all over the world.

But now, new opportunities present themselves. You have recently achieved the incredible feet of $1,000,000,000,000 in trade surplus. What to do with all that cash, you're asking yourselves? Well, were I in your position, I'd invest somewhere between 800,000,000,000 and 900,000,000,000 in improving the lives of your people as infrastructure, social welfare, and enforced reductions in working hours. That remainder? Kill the IMF. One fatal blow, toppling the system. No military interventions. No violating sovereignty. No interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. Just cut out the International MotherFuckers so the rest of the world can stand up next to you.

Comrades, thank you for you consideration of my proposal. Long live the Communist Party of China!

Bolivian ex-President Arce detained by police, former minister says - Reuters

LA PAZ, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Bolivian ex-President Luis Arce, who left office last month, has been detained by police, a former member of his cabinet said on Wednesday.

Arce may have been called in to testify in relation to an investigation into alleged embezzlement that happened while he was serving as economy minister under former President Evo Morales, Maria Nela Prada, who served as minister to the presidency under Arce, told journalists.

"Of course he's innocent," Prada told journalists. "This has been a total abuse of power. We hope this case is not being taken as an opportunity to carry out political persecution."

She added that he had not been notified or ordered to appear. "They simply took him," she said.

Reuters was not able to independently verify Arce's whereabouts.

Local media reported that a Bolivian specialized police force known as FELCC had detained Arce. FELCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The embezzlement investigation centers around alleged state disbursements from a fund to finance projects for Indigenous communities.

Investigators cited by local media on Wednesday said evidence presented in the case implicated Arce in the misappropriation of public resources.

The arrest comes less than two months after centrist candidate Rodrigo Paz won the October runoff election, ending nearly two decades of dominance by the leftist MAS party that Arce represented. Paz has pledged to tackle corruption within state institutions.

Bolivia's new U.S. puppet administration will meet with the Zionist entity to advance the process of establishing diplomatic relations between Bolivia and ‘Israel’.

• Twitter

A former Ukrainian intelligence officer has estimated that around 10,000 foreign mercenaries have died fighting for the Kiev regime:

The Kiev regime has lost an estimated 10,000 foreign mercenaries over the entire period of combat operations in Ukraine, ex-officer of the Ukrainian Security Service Vasily Prozorov told TASS.

"It is difficult to give their exact number [the number of mercenaries killed] in Ukraine. First of all, this is classified information in Ukraine, and also they have a large number of various units. <…> There is even more than one foreign legion in Ukraine. There is a foreign legion of Ukraine’s military intelligence and a foreign legion of land troops and they are scattered across various units there, across various mechanized brigades, air assault formations. There are a lot of them but I believe that the total number is estimated at about 10,000," he said.

https://tass.com/defense/2058201

Robin Ince has been made to resign his job as presenter of a BBC radio/podcast show over his support of trans rights.
Not a huge story by itself, he presents a comedy science show, but the implications are fucked.

Rubio mandates return to Times New Roman for Trump administration documents against Calibri's “wokeness”. In 2023, diversity and disability rights groups in the U.S. government called for the switch to the Calibri font in official documents.

Gaza: A Night of Fire and Demolition

The last 12 hours saw relentless, varied aggression across the Gaza Strip, with the primary focus of the zionist entity’s fire centered on Khan Younis and heavy shelling battering Gaza City.

Khan Younis: Airstrikes and tank fire hammered the eastern areas and the Sheikh Nasser region, coupled with the demolition of residential blocks. Central Khan Younis City was also specifically targeted, with the Al-Agha residential building suffering repeated strikes. Even the coast was not safe; naval fire was reported off Al-Qarara Sea, compounding the pressure on the city.

Gaza City: Further north, Gaza City was also bombarded. Shujaiya neighborhood was hit repeatedly by heavy artillery and subsequent demolition in its eastern parts.

Rafah and Central Gaza: Rafah experienced both airstrikes and IOF shooting, with tank fire also detected in the Mawasi area.

https://xcancel.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1999892823210947002

Is a US power crisis unfolding?

Power demand is expected to exceed available electric generation at peak moments by 2028. Peak demand is projected to reach 1,160 gigawatts, above the 1,158 gigawatts of anticipated supply. By 2033, the power capacity shortfall could widen to as much as 175 gigawatts, a level that materially threatens grid stability. This would stem from peak demand rising to 1,229 gigawatts, while anticipated peak supply declines to 1,128 gigawatts. The US is facing a surge in electricity use from AI data centers, factories, and EVs that is expected to overwhelm generation capacity and drain emergency reserves, sharply increasing the risk of outages and blackouts.

We need more power.

Trump, talking about Venezuela: "We are going to be starting on land pretty soon."

Imagine: The US military is in a hot engagement with China, meanwhile the Gemini AI is just stuck in a loop saying: "You must construct additional Pylons".

Generative AI is now in use across the Department of War. This morning, December 9, 2025, all DOW employees received a memo announcing “Gemini Enterprise” a Google-made generative AI tool. I obtained this memo and screenshots of the Gemini interface.

Pete Hegseth, to all employees: “Victory belongs to those who embrace real innovation. Rather than being reliant on the dusty, antiquated systems of a bygone era, we are thinking ahead here in the Department of War. http://genai.mil/ is part of this monumental transformation. It removes wasted time and focuses more of our energy into deceive results for the warfighter.”

https://kaburbank.substack.com/p/dow-leak-inside-the-ai-platform-and?r=1ogshv

EDIT: Seems like this has already been reported here.

There has been a shooting in Bondi in Sydney. Seems to be a Muslim perpetrator, the media is immediately calling this "anti-semitism" but I haven't been able to find a single news article that is actually giving information, it's all just people reacting to news of the event none of them have actually seen fit to publish. I'll edit this with an actual news link as soon as I find any actual news and not just gossip and fearmongering.

Literally every article I can find is formatted exactly like this, even using the same wording like "What we know so far." I fucking hate western journalists. It's all AI bullshit and truly atrocious reporting.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-14/bondi-beach-shooting-terrorist-attack-12-dead/106141580

Also the government is already talking about "eradicating" the threat of anti-semitism, this is going to be used to crack down on pro-Palestine protests hard, and hard on the Muslim community in this country as well. I don't want to speculate, but the extremely canned reporting on this with no substance but a lot of fearmongering is triggering the paranoia part of my brain.

I didn't know that there will be two separate votes in the Senate to extend the 2021 enhanced subsidies for the ACA today.

Anyway, both votes failed. I don't see any reporting on another attempt.

Oracle stock down over 12%

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oracle-stock-sinks-as-ai-costs-jump-past-wall-street-estimates-200454370.html

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F3633f277-d23b-44d0-b818-5fa3a89086cc

Reports of a Russian drone targeting a Turkish cargo ship in Odessa as Iran seizes another oil tanker in the Sea of Oman. The Age of Sail is back, baby

At least 10 people killed in a shooting at Sydney's popular Bondi beach, one shooter killed another apprehended in a critical condition

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-14/active-shooter-bondi-beach-sydney-nsw/106141580

URL says active shooter but reports say threat is no longer active

On 10 December, the head of the Armed Forces of Honduras, Roosevelt Hernandez, said the military would recognize the election results and guarantee that it would be honored. The head of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, asked for soldiers to be deployed outside buildings where ballots are being stored.

Honduras Election Update.

The Standing Commission of the Honduran Congress will refuse to validate the 2025 elections. The Commission denounces the existence of an ongoing electoral coup and condemns U.S. interference in the November 30 election.

• Twitter (Honduras Congress)

Russian forces have fully liberated the northern Donetsk People's Republic city of Seversk:

https://sputnikglobe.com/20251211/russian-forces-liberate-seversk---general-staff-chief-reports-to-putin-1123277816.html

Bolivia quickly returns to the path of neoliberalism

::: spoiler spoiler

The recently inaugurated Rodrigo Paz has wasted no time in embarking on his project to neoliberalize the Andean country. According to the president, Paz proposes cutting public spending by almost 30% in 2026, equivalent to 4 points of GDP.

In addition, he has proposed eliminating a series of taxes, especially for the wealthiest. One of these is a special tax on large fortunes, which Paz has promised to eliminate. The special tax is levied on those with fortunes of more than USD 4 million (less than 1% of the population) in a country where the basic salary is less than USD 400.

hate hate hate hate hate hate

Paz has announced the creation of at least ten “Truth Commissions”, which, he says, will be responsible for uncovering acts of corruption in public institutions during previous administrations.

Few public companies have been left out of this sort of “new neoliberal inquisition.” State-owned oil, road, telecommunications, lithium, and other companies will be investigated for alleged irregularities. Even before the investigations begin, Paz has already claimed that the alleged damage to the state amounts to nearly USD 15 billion.

They're going to try to open up all these SOEs for US looting.

However, Paz will have to face an opposition that, despite losing the presidency, has not lost its significant capacity for mobilization and historical resistance to neoliberal measures. Furthermore, within his government, Paz has already experienced a recent rift with his vice president, Edman Lara, who called the president a “liar” and claimed that he is poorly advised in creating the “Truth Commissions”.

This, though, is a nice piece of info. VP and President at each other's throat before taking office while the movement behind MAS remains active reinforces my take I've been saying all year: Bolivia's right wing turn is not going to last even a single term.

JetBlue flight near Venezuela narrowly avoids ‘MIDAIR COLLISION’ with US Air Force tanker

PILOT: We just had traffic pass… within 5 MILES of us… refueler from US Air Force… they passed DIRECTLY in our flight path

PILOT: It’s OUTRAGEOUS… almost had a MIDAIR COLLISION

• RT News

Himbo Jerome Powell lowered interest rates by a further 0.25, as expected. In his remarks he said that the Fed believes that job growth was overstated by around ~60k in the last three months. IIRC, the growth was already negative all those three months.

Evidence is growing that services inflation has come down, and goods inflation is entirely due to tariffs.

[edit] Money printer go brrrrrrrrr

Member of UK armed forces dies in accident in Ukraine https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e07kxey74o

In news:

Provincial Antitrans law passes in Alberta following invocation of the notwithstanding clause

The set of three laws will police names and pronouns in school, ban transgender girls from participating in amateur female sports, and restrict gender-affirming health care for youth under 16.

The latter prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy for those under 16.

The notwithstanding clause is basically a mechanism that provincial and federal governments can use in Canada to pass temporary laws that are likely to violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and can't be struck down by the courts for 5 years. It has been frequently used by Ontario, Quebec and Alberta governments in recent times. It's almost always to do some explicitly reactionary shit.

It is the fourth time Smith's UCP has invoked it this fall sitting. In late October, they used the clause to legally backstop a bill that overrode teachers' rights and ordered them back to work to end a three-week-long provincewide strike.

The bill also imposed on 51,000 teachers a collective bargaining agreement they previously rejected.

Millions of children and teens lose access to accounts as Australia’s world-first social media ban begins

Honduras Election Major Update

President Xiomara Castro declares Honduran elections invalid. Inconsistencies were identified in 14.5% of the ballot papers; Honduran leader will file a formal complaint with international organizations. Honduran President Xiomara Castro said on Tuesday (December 9) that the country's presidential elections had been “rigged,” declaring the preliminary results invalid amid a vote count marked by technical glitches and accusations of foreign interference.

Castro directly accused US President Donald Trump of interfering in the electoral process through his support for conservative candidate Nasry Asfura. The president said there would be a formal complaint about the alleged interference to international organizations, including the United Nations, and reiterated that “the actions constitute an ongoing electoral coup and we will denounce them.”

“As president and a woman who emerged from the Resistance, I must defend democracy and the dignity of the people. The 26 audio recordings show that these elections are tainted by nullity. Democracy does not exist without justice, and the people should not accept processes marked by interference and blackmail,” said the Honduran president at a public event in the city of Catacamas on Tuesday (12/9).

Castro was categorical in stating that “the people turned out and participated bravely and decisively at the polls, but we experienced a process marked by threats, coercion, manipulation of the TREP (preliminary results system), and tampering with the will of the people.” The Honduran elections, held on November 30, were accompanied by reports of successive failures in the results transmission system, delays in the results, and allegations of fraud from different political sectors, including those of candidates Moncada and Nasralla.

• Telegram

The IMF, on its 17th program with Sri Lanka, is doing its utmost to prevent such an economy from developing, as they instead promote reductions in public investment. On top of this, the rebuilding effort for Sri Lanka is already being planned and funded, and such donors include, of course, many Sri Lankan oligarchs, who will rebuild the damaged portions of the country yet further according to their visions, while sidelining the working class.

If Wikipedia is accurate, they're currently at $1.3B in IMF debt. China could effortlessly pay that off or even just refinance under better terms, even shifting it wholly or partially into RMB. In so doing, they'd lend an enormous hand to an ML ruling party and an Asian country trapped by financial colonization.

China has restructured a lot of Sri Lankan IMF debt before, so I'm not saying they're failures on this or anything. But I hope they follow through all the way and help Sri Lanka totally close the relationship with the IMF.