Image depicts Bolivian trade unionists on strike in La Paz, Bolivia.
Long preamble/summary below of recent news events.
summary
The 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.
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Orban losing power: Pretty cool, though his replacement being Neoliberal #2980329891 means that big changes seem unlikely.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
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.
I somehow missed this;
“What is the purpose of the UN?! The UN was supposed to be a place where you could peacefully resolve global conflict.” 🤷♂️😎
“We are taking it to the UN”.
https://xcancel.com/calvinfroedge/status/2060978968740642998
An under appreciated point is that basically every ship in Hormuz is going to need to be dry docked after they get out to clean the barnacles off the hulls
Polish President Nawrocki:
Unfortunately, President Zelensky has demonstrated that Ukraine, in terms of the mentality of glorifying bandits and murderers from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, is not ready to be part of the European family.
There is no place in the European family for bandits and murderers who killed women and children, who murdered Poles.
Such bandits cannot be glorified, and the UPA cannot be glorified.
Huawei - We are thankful to US for enabling our chip tech growth
When people asked how Huawei thought of the new chip tech approach for its growth, Xu replied that a major credit goes to the US. Without their “ban efforts”, the company wouldn’t have embarked on catching up with chip-related work.
According to the Rotating Chairman of Huawei, the external pressure from the US has forced the rapid growth of the Chinese semiconductor industry chain. He said:
“If the United States hadn’t forced our country, our companies, and our industry, we wouldn’t have done something like this. But we are also grateful to the US for enabling our country’s semiconductor industry chain to truly grow. Now the momentum is very good, and everyone recognizes and supports it.”
Cuba has done it again.
Meet VAXIRA a therapeutic cancer vaccine developed by Cuban and Argentine scientists that helps the immune system recognise and destroy lung cancer cells. Approved in both Cuba and Argentina for advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
It works by mimicking a molecule found on cancer cells but almost entirely absent in healthy human tissue — meaning it targets tumours with remarkable precision and very few side effects.
Clinical trials showed a significant improvement in survival for advanced lung cancer patients, with 1-year survival nearly doubling compared to the control group. Real-world data shows median survival of up to 24.5 months in maintenance therapy.
Minimal side effects. Suitable for long-term use. Affordable and accessible — unlike many Western immunotherapies that price patients out of treatment.
And in 2025, VAXIRA received Cuba’s National Technological Innovation Award. All of this achieved by a country under decades of US economic blockade.
The United States spends billions on cancer research. Cuba, under sanctions, develops vaccines the world hasn’t seen before.
The Guardian - Netanyahu says capturing Beaufort a ‘dramatic shift’ in Lebanon offensive. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israeli forces’ capture of Beaufort castle in southern Lebanon marked a “dramatic shift” in Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon. “Today, we have returned to Beaufort in a different way. We have returned united, determined, and stronger than ever,” Netanyahu said in a video statement, AFP reports.
“The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading. We have broken the barrier of fear. We are taking the initiative, we are operating on all fronts – in Syria, in Gaza, in Lebanon.”
President Trump has sent Iran a revised peace deal with tougher terms -multiple US officials to the NYT. The “new, tougher proposal” is intended to put more pressure on Iran to accept a deal.
“The official added that Mr. Trump’s changes — a new, tougher proposal — were potentially intended to speed up the process by putting pressure on Iran to accept the framework already sent to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, for approval.”
A “new, tougher proposal” that Iran probably already rejected previously is exactly how you speed things up.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/30/us/politics/trump-iran-peace-framework.html
Exclusive: US military personnel are being targeted using location data, Pentagon letter shows
US Central Command says it was warned that adversaries used location data to target troops Lawmakers urge Pentagon to act, citing adtech industry as national security threat Calls for disabling ad IDs, restricting location sharing, and moving away from Chrome on devicesWASHINGTON, May 28 (Reuters) - U.S. forces deployed to war zones have been targeted using commercially available location data, according to reports fielded by military officials, an illustration of how the global surveillance economy is shaping the battlefield.
In a letter shared with Reuters by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, opens new tab, U.S. Central Command said it had “received multiple threat reports concerning adversary exploitation of commercial location data to target or surveil U.S. personnel in theater." The message, sent on April 14, offered no further specifics, but Centcom’s area of responsibility includes the Gulf, where U.S. forces are facing off against the Iranian military over the Strait of Hormuz.
The Reuters Iran Briefing newsletter keeps you informed with the latest developments and analysis of the Iran war. Sign up here. The disclosure was the first official confirmation that U.S. forces had been targeted in an active war zone, Wyden and a bipartisan group of legislators said in a letter sent on Thursday, opens new tab to the Pentagon.
“Commercial location data can be used to identify where U.S. troops congregate and their pattern of life, which can be exploited by adversaries to target attacks such as missiles, drones, and roadside bombs, as well as for counterintelligence purposes,” the letter warned. Wyden said in a statement that it was time to “start treating the adtech industry as a national security threat.”
The Pentagon said in an email it would respond directly to the lawmakers but did not elaborate. The lawmakers said in their letter that their efforts to obtain more information from military officials about the reported targeting had been unsuccessful.
LOCATION DATA TRADE FUELS PRIVACY CONCERNS
Location data is widely used in digital advertising, which is a key source of revenue for many tech companies. Such data is typically collected from smartphones or other devices by apps or service providers before being sold to data brokers who collate and resell the data, sometimes via complex networks of intermediaries. Although the threat to privacy inherent in selling the details of people’s day-to-day movements on the open market has long been a matter of public discussion, its potential as a national security risk has recently drawn concern as well.
As far back as 2016, one U.S. defense contractor was able to leverage commercially available location data to track special operations forces from their bases in the United States to a sensitive staging post in Syria, according to an account first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, opens new tab.
More recently, journalists at Wired and two German news outlets drew on billions of coordinates collected by a data broker to expose the granular comings and goings, opens new tab of people stationed at or around 11 U.S. military and intelligence sites in Germany.
Two groups that represent digital advertisers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the Association of National Advertisers, did not return emails seeking comment. The letter from U.S. lawmakers to the Pentagon said that, given what military officials know about the trade in location data, they should have acted faster to protect their personnel, for example by disabling the unique advertising ID attached to military-issued devices, automatically turning off location sharing on smartphones in the field, and steering staff away from Google’s Chrome web browser toward more privacy-focused alternatives.
One of the letter’s cosigners was U.S. Representative Pat Harrigan, a North Carolina Republican who was formerly a U.S. Army Special Forces officer. Harrigan said that browsers like Chrome “are built from the ground up to collect and share user data” and that every day they remain on government-issued devices “is another day we are handing our adversaries a weapon against our own troops.”
In a statement, Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google said that Chrome had “industry leading security.” The company added that it had “long advocated for stronger rules and safeguards against data brokers, opens new tab.”
Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis
MidEastEye - Iran rejects Trump’s terms of deal to lift Hormuz blockade
It sounds like they are no where near any deal.
Snips
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Trump conditioned the lifting of the US’s blockade on Iran agreeing not to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz and allowing the US access to damaged nuclear facilities in order to destroy Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The US bombed three Iranian facilities in June 2025.
“The enriched material, sometimes referred to as “Nuclear Dust,” which is buried deep underground with virtually collapsed mountains…will be unearthed by the United States…in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED,” Trump wrote on his Truthsocial platform on Friday.
As a result, Trump said that “Ships caught in the Strait due to our amazing and unprecedented Naval Blockade, which will now be lifted, may start the process of “heading home!”
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But Iran said on Friday that “no negotiations" were taking place over its nuclear programme, and a deal had not been finalised.
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Iran wants sanctions relief and the unfreezing of billions of dollars in funds held abroad as part of any ceasefire extension. Such an agreement, according to reports and analysts, would only be a stepping stone for deeper talks.
Trump ruled out the unlocking of frozen funds in a social media post, saying, “No money will be exchanged, until further notice”. It’s unclear whether that language applies only to frozen funds or to waivers allowing Iran to sell its oil on the global market without sanctions.
https://xcancel.com/jonelmer/status/2060595808525775328
Hezbollah seriously wounded the commander of the IDF’s 401st Armored Brigade after tracking him to a newly established forward HQ; he has been commander since the Qassam Brigades killed his predecessor in Jabaliya in October 2024.
Colombia’s right-wing opposition are threatening their own country with a US military attack if they don’t win tomorrow’s elections. Latin American democracy is weak because it tolerates these people. Just saying this should merit a long prison sentence for terrorism & treason.
Regarding the issue of drug trafficking. Colombia became the epicenter of cocaine production under the numerous right-wing & pro-US authoritarian regimes. Uribe is accusing others of his own crimes.
This is what Bolivia’s highways look like at the moment. Each town & village blocks their stretch, and the union members in each community take turns at the barricades. This is part of the general strike against neoliberalism. Now entering week 3.
Bolivia’s workers union confederation official statement: “There is only one demand: Resignation of the government. There is no turning back”
Rumors have been going around that Ukraine received new batches of Western air defense equipment to prepare for Russia’s Imminent Strike On Kiev™. It wouldn’t be surprising, since Zelensky has been publicly begging for them.
Some pro-Russians are upset by this, but it was extremely predictable, to the point where I’m sure it was factored in by Russian leadership. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was even part of the plan. Coax out another big air defense shipment, track it, and destroy it.
critical mineral shaping up to be one of the worst supply bottlenecks for US defense contractors is the rare earth samarium (Sm, atomic number 62). China makes 100% of current production and unlike neodymium and dysprosium magnets, samarium-cobalt magnets are almost entirely used in military applications, making avoidance of export controls via dual-use subterfuge much more difficult. building one F-35 requires ~23 kg of samarium.
US missiles blown up in Iran and Israel [sic] will never be replaced | Inside China Business
from what I can tell the second tightest bottleneck is probably gallium
NVidia is expected to announce new mobile chips for PC, after an almost 1 year delay. It could be a good power-efficient alternative to Intel/AMD/Apple. I’m betting they will blow the opportunity by integrating AI at a hardware level, so that you will be unable to remove it & it will constantly use power just sitting in the background.
