Bulletins and News Discussion from April 21st to April 27th, 2025 - JD Vance vs Pope Francis, No Items, Final Destination

Huge power outage in Spain, Portugal, some parts of France at least. A while ago.
Edit: No cell data. Using my dad's Internet hot-spot which has satellite Internet
Edit 2: My father says some airplane crashed into a very high voltage line
Edit 3: Some cell data, but very slow, probably under a lot of pressure
Edit 4: airplane story might be fake, but it's confirmed a very high voltage cable got cut somehow
Also radio is so back lol

Total blackout in Portugal, Spain and some parts of France!!!
Guees who's not working 2day

Next megathread is here!

There is going to be a protest levied against the Egyptian government at their embassy in Pretoria (28 April, 13:30 SAST), organized by various activists, media outlets and humanitarian groups in South Africa. Bus services have also been provided to take protesters from throughout Soweto and Johannesburg to Pretoria. The nature of the protests is to demand the Egyptian military to forcibly reopen the Rafah Crossing to reallow the delivery of aid which has been left to rot for the past 2 months and allow medical refugees to escape the Strip, alongside others who so may decide to.
Some of Egypt's crimes that were highlighted include the crackdown and arrests of pro-Palestinian protesters following the Western-backed coup that overthrew the democratic election of Mohamed Morsi, with the Sisi regime as the incumbent successor, trafficking by often demanding refugees from Gaza pay as much as R100k ZAR (or R50k ZAR for children) for each to be allowed entry to Egypt (There is an instance of even a Palestinian-South African citizen having their passport seized and being imprisoned without charge for over 1.5 years - Egypt won't allow them to return to South Africa because of the lack of passport that they disposed of and don't consider a South African ID valid enough to fly back into Johannesburg), Egypt and ISISrael have also destroyed many of the cross-border tunnels used to smuggle in good, most importantly food. This also at a time when WFP and other aid groups have alarmed that there is literally no food left in their stocks and aid workers continue to be targeted in bombings. Organizations such as Africa Muslims Agency and Gift of the Givers may even have to face a bitter reality that none of their workers will be able to return to South Africa.
Rafah as a city also no longer exists. The former city has been annihilated in totality, all of it's former 700,000 residents have been ethnically cleansed and all 70km2 of it is under a kill-on-sight order. The entire Gaza Strip has been squeezed down to 100km2, with plans for squeeze down the area further to convert al-Mawasi into an actual concentration camp.
Infinite death to ameriKKKa and death to piSSrael

The two other votes were Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.

Big news in the announcement of the latest US Military budget plans, in a GOP proposal. It seems that after being on the receiving end of Iranian designed ballistic missiles, and with the rise of ballistic missile proliferation in Russia, China, India, North Korea, Israel, and even Pakistan, and with the death of the INF treaty that previously banned the development of these weapons for the USA and Russia, the US wants advanced Maneuverable Re-entry Vehicle (MaRV) equipped ballistic missiles, including Anti Ship Ballistic Missiles (ASBMs) and their area denial capabilities, for themselves. The US Army alone wants to spend over 800 million dollars (there are more expenses not in the screenshot) on the development and production of modern ballistic missile systems. This is a historic moment, and admission that these weapons are valuable battlefield assets (which I have been saying for years now), despite the distorted information from the cruise missile lobby. This cruise missile lobby in the US is being reigned in for the first time in over three decades (Pershing-II MaRV equipped ballistic missile was retired in 1991). ASBMs have acted as a very effective area denial weapon for Ansarallah/the Houthis in Yemen against US Navy warships and aircraft carriers, even without landing a single hit. The carriers don't dare get within ASBM range.
Source, PDF file format
If anyone wants an example of some of the outlandish lies told by the cruise missile lobby in the USA over the past four plus decades, here's an excerpt from the book "Lighting Bolts - First MaRV":

As for why the focus worldwide is on MaRV capable ballistic missile systems and not hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs), with HGV programmes being cancelled or making up only a small amount of a missile force compared to MaRVs for say China, here's some required reading: Hypersonic weapons are mediocre. It’s time to stop wasting money on them..
Main problem HGVs have is that their launch is the exact same of that as ballistic missile, a rocket booster straight up into the sky, easily detectable by early warning satellites. However, because HGVs spend a lot more time gliding in the atmosphere with large amounts of drag, they take longer to reach their targets than ballistic missiles, which spend the majority of their flight exoatmospheric. Another problem is that this drag effectively limits HGV maneuverability, even a perfectly performed turn can result in an HGV losing 10% of its energy, on a single turn! Here are some slides from a UK MoD analysis of HGVs, showing just how limited the turn capabilities are. And these calculations are based on an impact velocity of Mach 2, not even close to hypersonic (Mach 5). If the constraint was charged from Mach 2 to Mach 5, the turn/divert capability would be much less! Remember, HGVs have no propulsion system once seperated from the rocket booster, they're gliders.
Expect future hypersonic weapons development to be focused hypersonic cruise missiles well above Mach 5 like the Russian Zircon (there's no point in creating a hypersonic cruise missile that's barely hypersonic, see the US Navy cancellation of the HALO missile), and hypersonic boost vehicles (attaching some sort of rocket motor to the HGV) like Iran's Fattah-2 concept, to negate the energy loss from pure gliding. I also expect we'll see some copies of Iran's Fattah-1 MaRV equipped ballistic missile. The Fattah-1 MaRV was the first MaRV to put a thrust vector control sustainer rocket motor on the MaRV itself, allowing for trajectory changes or corrections while exoatmospheric, and for improved glide phase performance with an additional source of energy.
The fact of the matter is that MaRV equipped ballistic missiles can outperform HGVs in many scenarios (which is why I go on about MaRVs being "game changing" weapons all the time), and even if a MaRV equipped ballistic missile is expensive, HGVs are far more expensive still.

US airstrikes on Yemen continue for the 44th night in a row.
The following governorates have been hit by airstrikes so far:
Sana'a
3 houses hit in Bani Al-Harith District.
Amran
3 airstrikes on al-Jabal al-Aswad (Monte Negro/Black Mountain). This mountain has been hit a lot over the past six weeks.
Two airstrikes on Sufyan district.
Warning for potential graphic imagery during ongoing airstrikes:
Al Masirah TV twitter
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Opposition sources also report multiple rounds of airstrikes in Saada and Ta'izz Governorates, but this cannot be verified.

okay so it turns out that after all ..
🇰🇵 🤝 🇷🇺 DPRK officially announces sending troops to Russia in accordance with strategic partnership agreement — KCNA
On the occasion of the liberation of Kursk, Comrade Kim Jong Un specially stressed the following:
"They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.
In praise of the heroism and bravery of the proud sons of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a monument to the battle feats will be soon erected in our capital city and flowers of praying for immortality given by the motherland and the people will be placed before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers.
The fighting spirit and heroism of the soldiers who demonstrated the great name of the strong and the glory of the victors will shine long in the high platform of respect and honor generation after generation.
The motherland should hand down forever the soul of them who fought to defend the great honor and take important state measures to specially and preferentially treat and take care of the families of the brave soldiers who participated in the war."

Hundreds of officers belonging to the UAE-backed 'Yemeni National Resistance' have defected to Ansarallah (the Houthis), and gathered in the capital Sanaa for briefing. These officers defected from the UAE-backed 'Yemeni National Resistance', their territory is on Yemen's Western Coast
They are led by General Tareq Saleh, nephew of the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Houthi ally that defected to the side of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 2017. It seems almost all of their high command have defected.
Telegram

Israel bombs Lebanon's capital Beirut
Israeli forces have carried out an airstrike on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, in the latest violation of a ceasefire agreement with the country's resistance movement, Hezbollah.

Julian Assange and His Family Attend Pope Francis’ Funeral - Telegram

Could you imagine Julian living with Pope Francis in the Vatican lol

Chief of General Staff Gerasimov through TASS has confirmed the presence of DPRK fighters in some capacity:
https://archive.ph/znkqi
Gerasimov also commended the role of North Korean fighters in the liberation of the Kursk Region.
"I want specially to note the participation of servicemen of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in liberating border areas of the Kursk Region who in accordance with the Treaty on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between our countries rendered considerable assistance in crushing the Ukrainian army’s combat group that had launched an incursion," Gerasimov said.
As Russia’s military chief pointed out, "soldiers and officers of the Korean People’s Army were accomplishing combat objectives shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen and in the process of repelling the Ukrainian incursion showed high professionalism and displayed endurance, courage and heroism in combat."

Patrick Lancaster has his
cw blurred dead

Vancouver police say several people have been killed and multiple others injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd at a street festival Saturday evening.
The incident happened shortly after 8 p.m. near East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street, where the Lapu Lapu Day Block Party was taking place.
Police said the driver is in custody.
CBC News
Just happened hours ago, I'm not really plugged into socials so I'm not sure what's known or fake

The PLA deploying their thirst traps to win the hearts and minds of Vietnam:
https://xcancel.com/XH_Lee23/status/1916059226734268449

The Swiss under-23 fencing team turns its back on the Israeli team during the medal ceremony of the European Fencing Championship in protest against genocide.
Telegram

Some news from the Kursk front. Russian forces fully liberated the Kursk oblast border areas today. Russia confirmed that some DPRK troops (including elite Special Operations Forces) participated in the Kursk border area’s liberation.
Russian forces liberated the last Kiev-occupied Kursk oblast village, Gornal: https://sputnikglobe.com/20250426/russias-kursk-region-completely-liberated-from-ukrainian-forces---kremlin-1121935136.html
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated, “The soldiers of the Korean People's Army, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Russia and the DPRK, which entered into force on December 4, 2024, fought shoulder to shoulder in one trench and shed blood with our soldiers and officers in the Kursk Region and made a significant contribution to the liberation of the Russian land from enemy invaders.” https://sputnikglobe.com/20250426/n-koreas-solidarity-on-liberating-kursk-region-demonstrates-high-allied-level-relations---moscow-1121938683.html
Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov stated, “The DPRK military, acting shoulder to shoulder with the Russian military in Kursk Region, showed resilience and heroism.” https://www.rt.com/russia/616356-north-korean-troops-kursk/

Apple aims to source all US iPhones from India in pivot away from China
Apple plans to shift the assembly of all US-sold iPhones to India as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter, as President Donald Trump’s trade war forces the tech giant to pivot away from China.
Only the assembly stage is being moved to India, internal components will still be manufactured in China

US airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 43rd day and night in a row.
Airstrikes hit the following governorates:
Ma'rib
Multiple rounds of airstrikes in Madghal district.
Hodeidah
3 on the captured "Galaxy Leader ship.
Multiple rounds of airstrikes on Kamaran Island.
Multiple rounds of airstrikes on the already destroyed Ras Issa fuel port, potentially damaging a tanker ship.
Al-Jawf
4 on Al-Anan district
Saada
3 on Al Salem District
4 on Kitaf district.
Sana'a
Multiple rounds of airstrikes on the Al-Sab'een and Bani Al-Harith districts..
Warning for potential graphic imagery during ongoing airstrikes:
Al Masirah TV twitter
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The two latest statements from the Yemeni Armed Forces:

Unlike last time where there was supporting video evidence of a ballistic missile impact, I haven't seen any videos of an impact from this latest ballistic missile strike.

Rally attended by over 250000 people against the Lai regime:
https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20250426003700-260407?chdtv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TopCth7qIw
The black signs they're holding are pretty cringe (It says "Oppose green (color of the DPP) communism. Fight against dictatorship"), but I skipped through the livestream and saw Han Kuo-yu made a speech about how Taiwan can't fall into the trap of becoming the next Ukraine. And this isn't the first major political rally against the Lai regime either.
Anyways, we need to keep calm and trust the plan.

Yesterday was Carnation Day in Portugal. I'm gonna pull a mainstream media and instead of talking about the thousands of people who marched down Liberty Avenue to celebrate, I'm going to focus only on a far-right protest that happened the same day and got pretty dramatic.
So a bunch of far-right groupings, including a small but old far-right party called "Ergue-te" (which means "Rise up") scheduled a protest that would happen at the Martim Moniz plaza where they would march there and roast a pig, literally. Now, a lot of immigrants hang out and live there including from muslim countries so obviously this is supposed to be a provocation but, just to explain how dumb this is, if someone here is ever in Lisbon check out the plaza, it's pretty much just a tourist spot, mostly because it's outside a metro station and there are a lot foreign food restaurants around it, but aside from some subcontinent dudes hanging out in the garden just chilling, it's really not that different from most of Lisbon and honestly it's a place I always recommend to people who visit. So the whole thing is the far-right playing up xenophobic sentiments around people specifically from that region of the world, a lot of which do immigrate to Portugal for seasonal and other low-wage work.
So, because they asked for permission to protest the police had to evaluate whether they could do so safely so that the mayor's office could approve it. At first, the police gave the ok, then when obviously they realized there would be a bunch of counter protests they backed out and gave the "Not ok", so the Mayor unauthorized the protest. Now if this had been the far-right Chega party organizing this protest, that would be the end of it, they'd stick to yelling about how the government doesn't even let you publicly roast a pig, they're pretty politically astute unfortunately.
But these guys are extra crazy so they decided to hold the protest anyway, and in a rare sight, after pretty clearly provoking both the counter-protestors AND the police who were there to keep the counter-protestors from caving their heads in, well...
(CW: Police violence) Some got smacked, some got detained and some got arrested.
(CW: Hog violence) To show how blatant this thing was, here's a clip of one of these guys caught on camera, pretty clearly infiltrating the counter-protest to start a fight and rile everybody up.

A state of emergency will be declared in Bandar Abbas due to the possible spread of hazardous substances due to the fire in Shahid Rajaee Port. Saudi Foreign Ministry: 'Saudi Arabia is willing to provide any help or assistance that Iran may need'
It is likely that large amounts of sulfur have been released into the air, causing difficulties breathing, irritation to eyes, and inflammation of the lungs. 8 people confirmed dead so far. The Minister of Roads, Farzaneh Sadeq, visited the site of the fires. The chief of the local firefighting department complains they don't have enough equipment to extinguish the fire.
The situation is very bad. The fire is spreading to other areas of the port, including areas with flammable containers, and more explosions are likely to happen. The order has been issued to completely evacuate the entire port and all its surrounding facilities.
Telegram

The Iran explosion made me think of this: I’ve heard Lebanese people say the Beirut explosion is rumoured to be done by Israel, is there anything written about that possibility?

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1k8asmk/ru_pov_i_would_like_to_separately_note_the/
The big cheese himself, General Gerasimov, has confirmed the participation of DPRK troops in the recapture of Kursk.

massive port explosion in iran, Shaheed Rajaee Port which is a large container port. Over 500 reported injured, unknown number of casualties. If you watch the videos it is strikingly similar to the Beirut explosion a few years ago
Investigations and recovery are still ongoing
BREAKING | A massive explosion has been reported at the Port of Shahid Rajaee, one of two parts of the port of Bandar Abbas, located on the north shores of the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran.
According to Mehr News, a fuel tank in the port exploded for an unknown reason, and rapid response teams were immediately dispatched to the area.
Port activities have now been suspended so that the situation can be quickly brought under control by security and relief forces.
The number of casualties from the explosion has yet to be determined.
UPDATE | The number of injured in the Shahid Rajaee port explosion has risen to at least 516.
Source- the Cradle

Pakistan and India Exchange Fire Along the Line of Control - Telesur English

The US Department of Justice is setting its sights on Wikipedia, threatening the Wikimedia Foundation's tax-exempt status over allegations of spreading foreign propaganda.
“Wikipedia is permitting information manipulation on its platform, including the rewriting of key, historical events and biographical information of current and previous American leaders, as well as other matters implicating the national security and the interests of the United States,” [US Attorney] Martin wrote. “Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission.”
Fanatical Zionist and genocide enjoyer Bari Weiss's rag "The Free Press" is leading the charge on reporting this, so it not difficult to imagine what the objective is here. As a relatively new story, the only article I found that isn't part of this reactionary media blitz was in the NZ Herald: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/us-attorney-for-dc-accuses-wikipedia-of-propaganda-threatens-non-profit-status/6TCXK6CRPNFY3JBAB65JEBSM3Y/
This may amount to nothing, but watch this space.

Venezuela and China Strengthen Strategic Alliance in High-Level Meeting: Over 600 Bilateral Agreements in Energy and Technology - Telesur English

President Trump, after talking to Zelensky for 15 minutes at the Vatican:
'There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days! It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along. Maybe he has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?'.
Telegram

Warning Against Normalizing Extremist Groups in Syria and Future Regional Risks - Telesur English

Russia Not To Comment on Trump’s Ukraine Peace Plan - Telesur English

Zelensky and Crimea: New Escalation Deepens Deadlock in the Ukrainian Conflict - Telesur English

IMF Shows Its Claws in Argentina, Backing Milei’s Far-Right Agenda, Which May Deepen the Current Social Crisis - Telesur English

Syrian Foreign Minister, Assad Al-Shaibani: 'We have repeatedly declared our commitment that Syria will not pose a threat to any country in the region or the world, including Israel'
Telegram

Almost 4 in 10 say neither party fights for people like them

BreakThrough News interviewing someone from Electronic Intefada and giving pretty positive coverage of Ansar Allah and their resistance to U.S. imperial violence. Probably not much (or anything) new to folks here about the actual facts of the war, but still a pretty good summary. And maybe a good resource to point your leftist and left-curious friends, family, and associates to about it, if their primary exposure is mainstream "news".
BreaktThrough News - Yemen Fires Hypersonic Missile at Israel and Takes Out $200M in US Drones (15m video)

The Portuguese Air Force is clear, the F-35 is its future - Defence Archives, 23 April 2025
In a time of intense debate, particularly in the media, over Portugal’s question of what jet to procure to replace its ageing F-16 fighters, and given recent comments by the Minister of Defense, the highlight of the day was whether or not there were other options to the F-35 for the Portuguese Air Force.
For the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Cartaxo Alves, the answer was simple, the F-35 is a must for Portugal and its Air Force.
For him there are several reasons, first and foremost is the recent strategy for the transformation of airpower released last year, Força Aérea 5.3, where it was stated that a 5th generation fighter was a strategic and operational must-have. The General reiterated this idea, reminding that the F-35 is the only jet on the market capable of bringing the needed technological leap forward. He reminded the fact that Lockheed Martin’s fighter boasts a superior survivability and connectivity that European fighters cannot match, namely the Eurofighter, Rafale and Gripen.
This is the only conclusion one can come to after analysing the air campaigns in the Russia - Ukraine war, and even the latest US Navy air campaign against Ansarallah/the Houthis in Yemen. 5th generation capabilities like stealth/low observability to radar and infrared systems have gone from a nice to have, to a must have for a modern air force or air campaign, thanks to the advancements in ground based air defence.

Sweden's Northvolt files for bankruptcy, in blow to Europe's EV ambitions
How it's going for euros trying to compete in battery production. The news is a bit old, but it just now entering discourse in Finland. Incredible amounts of money was spent on this project that was sold as some sort of mission to establish a homegrown, European industrial base for battery production.

Measles Misinformation Spreads as Cases Rise Across U.S. - Telesur English

Venezuela Promotes a Plan for the Development of Artificial Intelligence - Telesur English

BREAKING | Israeli media reports explosions in the Negev following a missile launch from Yemen. - The Cradle Telegram

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1915866000777675043
Trump was informed of the assassination of Russian General Moskalyk: The U.S. president said he would review the information.
"No, I just heard... You're just telling me that for the first time. That's a big one. I'll look at it,"

So cooked
https://newrepublic.com/post/194442/trump-doj-memo-ice-arrest-search-warrant

China's Thorium Revolution - 60.000 Years of Cheap Energy - found this on my FYP, never heard of either of these guys, but the guest is completely
over China's thorium reactor while the host seems pretty stunned at the claims about its potential. Near the end, the host asks what his guest thinks about claims of "China stealing their thorium tech from the US" and is answer is a blunt, "no the US literally handed them their thorium research," and even goes so far as to point out that the US had no interest in further developing thorium reactors because they have no use in creating weapons.

What the fuck

Huge L from Remnin University Chongyang Institute, as they did an interview with Jackson Hinkle over his glazing of the Governance of China, and poverty alleviation efforts
Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY) was established on January 19th, 2013. It is the main funding program that Shanghai Chongyang Investment Group Co., Ltd. donated to Renmin University of China and established the education fund to operate.
Never expected to see this bozo on my WeChat homepage. Cowards also turned off comments to the short video

US airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 42nd day and night in a row. Daytime airstrikes hit the following governorates:
Hodeidah (5):
4 on al-Salif port
1 near Hodeidah city
Nighttime airstrikes hit the following governorates:
Sana'a (8):
3 in Bani Matar.
5 in Nihm district.
Saada (5):
4 in Majz district.
1 in Sahar district.
Marib (7):
7 in Madghal.
Al-Mahwait (1):
1 in al-Tawilay district.
Warning for potential graphic imagery during ongoing airstrikes:
Al Masirah TV twitter
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Ansarallah also launched a medium range ballistic missile (MRBM) at Israel an hour ago of an unknown type, likely intercepted outside of Israeli as there is no footage of an impact or interception within Israeli airspace. The videos online are of interceptors being launched. Air raid sirens went off.
If anyone wants an idea of just how large modern military air to surface ordinance is, here are some pictures of 2000lb GBU-31 JDAMs (the bombs with the three yellow stripes at the tip), and 1000lb AGM-154C JSOW glide bombs (the winged bombs with the wings folded up) are, compared to the people loading these on the aircraft. JDAMs for the F-35Cs, JSOWs for the F/A-18E/F aircraft.

An unexploded 250lb class GBU-53 StormBreaker glide bomb was also found somewhere in Yemen. That intact seeker is likely on it's way to Iran by now.

As for statements by Ansarallah/Houthi/Yemeni leaders, I'd say to stick to statements made by the spokesperson of the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Sare'e, and largely ignore statements by the head of the Supreme Political Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat. Statements by Sare'e tend to be more grounded in reality, while statements by Al-Mashat are more propaganda for domestic consumption in Yemen that play fast and loose with the facts.