Bulletins and News Discussion from March 24th to March 30th, 2025 - The Genocide Continues - COTW: Qatar

Not a lot of people seemed to notice this lemmy post and I don't see it posted here, but this article (computer scientist goes silent after fbi raid and purging from university website) is crazy and idk what to even make of it. Just really set off my conspiracy brain.

Reporter: Are you worried about stagflation?

Trump: I haven’t heard that term in years. I don’t know anything about it.. this country is going to boom. We’re going to have boomtown. We’re going to boom

its going to boom nerds

French court finds far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty in embezzlement case - NPR

PARIS — A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty on Monday in an embezzlement case but didn't immediately say what her sentence might be and how it might impact the far-right leader's political future.

Le Pen, sitting in the front row in the Paris court, showed no immediate reaction as the chief judge declared her guilty. She later repeatedly nodded her head in disagreement as the judge went into greater detail, saying Le Pen's party had illegally used European Parliament money for its own benefit. "Incredible," she whispered at one point.

The judge also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like her, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers. Le Pen and her co-defendants face up to 10 years in prison. They can appeal, which would lead to another trial.

The biggest concern for Le Pen is that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office "with immediate effect" — even if she appeals. That could prevent her from running for president in 2027. She has described such scenario as a "political death." The verdict was shaping up as a resounding defeat for Le Pen and her party. As well as finding her and eight other former European lawmakers guilty of embezzling public funds, the court also handed down guilty verdicts to 12 other people who served as parliamentary aides for Le Pen and what is now the National Rally party, formerly the National Front.

The chief judge, who read the ruling delivered by her and two other justices, said Le Pen had been at the heart of "a system" that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money. The judge said Le Pen and other co-defendants didn't enrich themselves personally. But the ruling described the embezzlement as "a democratic bypass" that deceived the parliament and voters.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from the National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc's regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants denied wrongdoing.

Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party's electoral support has grown in recent years. During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility "would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.

"There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election," she told the panel of three judges. If Le Pen cannot run in 2027, her seeming natural successor would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.

Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of the system meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021. She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some political work related to the party.

Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen's bodyguard — who was once her father's bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant. Prosecutors requested a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility for Le Pen. Le Pen said she felt they were "only interested" in preventing her from running for president.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/mar/31/france-marine-le-pen-embezzlement-verdict-europe-news-live?page=with%3Ablock-67ea58af8f08e6b4b7c0762a#block-67ea58af8f08e6b4b7c0762a

Le Pen and eight MEPs found guilty of embezzlement

US bank exec killed in plane crash https://www.youtube.com/embed/RUL6lEFoVIU?autoplay=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1

this will be a bad week for stonks

In my experience, those who say Israel and Palestine are both bad tend to really fucking hate Palestine but not mind Israel all that much.

In some Lemmyverse news, Hexbear is now refed'd with lemmygrad.ml, with lemmygrad.ml users and posts showing up on embassy of Hexbear on Lemmygrad comm

OG post: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7382514

Found this, don't know where it should go I guess it's news

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1jnjov7/ru_pov_athlete_from_russia_at_the_olympic_games/

Can't upload the picture for some reason. No content warning, except it's still sad in a way.

Small and bizarre news, but still news:

So there's a non-recognized nation in Africa called Republic of Annobon, which is a small island that is part of Equatorial Guinea. A small group of separatists declared independence in like 2022 or something and well, they travel around the world exposing their cause I guess. Many such cases.

Anyway, a small delegation headed by their Prime Minister visited our university, something completely random, and attended to a session of our History Assembly, which is celebrated each week or so to discuss career-related things and such. They were allowed to speak of their struggle against the Equatorial Guinean government. I failed to attend so I missed this peculiar event. Oh and Equatorial Guinea's President, Theodoro Obiang Nguema, as been in power since 1982, so there's that.

The world gets weirder and weirder each day.

And btw, before I forget:

death to "israel"

German Greens want to force people of all ages to serve the state in a new Freedom Service™. Either military or some community service.

"It is time to ask the question: What can you do for you country?", Schulze said to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The threats are growing.

"In order make our society more robust, to defend our freedom, and to strengthen cooperation, we need everybody. The Freedom Service is a collective project for Germany, by all and for all. Through the Freedom Service, we will to bring together generations and milieus, strengthen our society, and defend what is important to us."

I'm not making this up btw.

They're no longer in government of course, that's just their contribution to the debate about re-introducing conscription.

Bougainville may become independent in September 2027

White House aide Peter Navarro today: Trump's tariffs will raise $600 billion per year, or $6 trillion over a 10 year period

Seems to reflect our reporting that Trump wants to go absolutely enormous on the tariffs, regardless of short-term economic consequences

Azov Brigade: Introducing our Asian comrade named [racial slur against Asians] (CW: racial slur against Asians):
https://xcancel.com/azov_media/status/1906029395501875242

Damn, it took almost dying from a lynch mob of rabid Zionists for him to be properly credited:
https://xcancel.com/MayadeenEnglish/status/1906129001405399463

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has apologized for excluding Palestinian co-director Hamdan Ballal’s name in its response to the Israeli settler attack and his subsequent detainment.

Following global outcry from the film industry, including 690 Academy members, among them Mark Ruffalo, Riz Ahmed, Ava DuVernay, and Alfonso Cuaron, the Academy issued a follow-up letter on Friday acknowledging its omission.

“We regret that we failed to directly acknowledge Mr. Ballal and the film by name,” read the statement from Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang, adding that the Academy “condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world” and opposes the suppression of free speech "under any circumstances."

Apparently Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa is in Florida to beg for US troops to be sent to Ecuador. Ostensibly to help in their “drug war”, but conveniently only two weeks before the runoff of their presidential election where Noboa was only 0.17pp above the center-left Correist candidate in the first round and is currently polling 7pp below her in the runoff.

Apparently in El Salvador Nayib Bukele did the exact same thing that got Evo Morales ousted: had the Supreme Court declare that term limits don't apply and got re-elected despite the constitution.

Weird how the US didn't coup him

The T-4 airbase in Syria, which was intended for use by the Turkish Armed Forces, has been rendered unusable after Israeli airstrikes targeted the facility to prevent Turkey from utilizing it.

• Telegram

So is Erdogan likely to maintain power after everything going on in Turkey?

Any news on resistance operations in Gaza? I haven't seen any reports posted here since the ceasefire ended, I checked Radio War Nerd but they didn't say anything about how they are doing, their morale, or whether their operational capacity has been degraded or strengthened

Amsterdam knife attacker is a 30-year-old Ukrainian, Dutch police say (SexUnderSocialism News)

Earlier this week, there was a knife attack near Dam Square in Amsterdam, in the fascist kingdom of the Netherlands. Five people were randomly stabbed in broad daylight. The suspect was arrested, and has now been identified by police as a 30-year-old man from Ukraine. The country's strictly controlled press claims that the suspect is from the Donetsk region, in the eastern part of Ukraine.

This has fueled wild speculation among the country's homegrown social fascists, who support the Zelensky regime, that Russia was involved in this attack, while the country's Zelenskeptic mask-off fascists see it as an opportunity to strengthen their "anti-war" stance while pushing for more fascism at home.

The suspect's motives remain unclear.

Chat, is America cooked? This doesn't seem good

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving

More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00938-y

New Big Serge just dropped

TL;DR Big Serge sees negotiations as untenable and theater. Russia is winning on the battlefield and Ukraine cannot, politically, make any meaningful concessions, which means that fighting will settle this and likely in Russia’s favor.

Thesis:

I have never made any bones about my belief that the war in Ukraine will be resolved militarily: that is, it will be fought to its conclusion and end in the defeat of Ukraine in the east, Russian control of vast swathes of the country, and the subordination of a rump Ukraine to Russian interests. Trump’s self conception is greatly tied up in his image as a “dealmaker”, and his view of foreign affairs as fundamentally transactional in nature. As the American president, he has the power to force this framing on Ukraine, but not on Russia. There remain intractable gulfs between Russia’s war aims and what Kiev is willing to discuss, and it is doubtful that Trump will be able to reconcile these differences. Russia, however, does not need to accept a partial victory simply in the name of goodwill and negotiation. Moscow has recourse to a more primal form of power. The sword predates and transcends the pen. Negotiation, as such, must bow to the reality of the battlefield, and no amount of sharp deal making can transcend the more ancient law of blood.

Classic battlefield analysis of the Kursk offensive, good slop for you war nerds (Russia focused on the flanks while Ukraine mostly prioritized depth over breadth):

Despite their tactical surprise and the early capture of Sudzha, the AFU was never able to parlay this into a meaningful penetration or exploitation in Kursk. Why? The answer seems to be a nexus of operational and technical problems the Ukrainians were unable to create a wide penetration into Russia (for the most part, the “opening” of their salient was less than 30 miles wide), which greatly reduced the number of roads available to them for supply and reinforcement. The narrow penetration and poor road access in turn allowed the Russians to concentrate strike systems on the few available lines of communication, to the effect that the Ukrainians struggled to either supply or reinforce the grouping based around Sudzha - this low logistical and reinforcement connectivity in turn made it impossible for the Ukrainians to stage additional forces to try and expand the salient. This created a positive feedback loop of confinement and isolation for the Ukrainian grouping which made their defeat more or less inevitable.

At the risk of making a perilous historical analogy, the operational form was very similar to the famous 1944 Battle of the Bulge: taken by surprise by a German counteroffensive, Dwight Eisenhower prioritized limiting the width, rather than the depth of the German penetration, moving reinforcements to defend the “shoulders” of the salient.

Operationally, the main distinctive of the fighting in Kursk is the orthogonal orientation of effort by the combatants. By this, we mean that Russian counteroffensives were directed at the flanks of the salient, steadily compressing the Ukrainians into a more narrow position (by the end of 2024, the Ukrainians had lost half of the territory they once held), while Ukrainian efforts to restart their progress were aimed at moving deeper into Russia.

On a schematic level, the Ukrainian position in Kursk was doomed by mid-September when Russian troops recaptured Snagost. If the Ukrainians had successfully isolated the south bank of the Seym, they would have had the river as a valuable defensive barrier protecting their left flank as well as access to valuable space and additional supply roads. As it happened, the Ukrainian flank was crumpled early in the operation by the Russian victories at Korenevo and Snagost, which left Ukraine trying to fight its way out of a very compressed and road-poor salient. The (correct) Russian decision to concentrate its counterattacks on the flanks further compressed the space and left the Ukrainians with inadequate supply linkages subject to persistent Russian drone strikes.

Confinement bred strangulation, and strangulation bred confinement. Fighting with a caved in flank for months, the Ukrainian grouping was doomed to operational sterility and eventual defeat almost at the outset.

The state of the front (multiple ongoing collapses for Ukraine and more to come):

The Kursk salient is the second front to be fully collapsed by the Russian Army in the past three months. The first was the southern Donetsk front, which was completely caved in over the course of December and then rolled up in the opening weeks of the year, which had the effect of not only knocking the AFU out of longstanding strongholds like Ugledar and Kurakhove, but also safeguarding the flank of the Russian advance towards Pokrovsk.

There was no Toretsk counter-offensive. Rather Russia was claiming a victory it hadn’t achieved:

It appears that what actually happened was rather that the Russian MoD announced the capture of the city while its extremities were still contested. Russian forces remain in control of the bulk of the city, but Ukrainian units remain dug at the periphery and fighting has continued in the “grey zone.” DeepState (a Ukrainian mapping project) confirmed that there was no general Ukrainian counterattack - rather, the fighting was simply part of a continuous struggle for the western periphery of the city.

Negotiation is theater (return to thesis):

So long as Russia continues to advance on the battlefield, they have no incentive to (as they would see it) rob themselves of a full victory by accepting a truncated and premature settlement.

The problem for Ukraine, if history is any guide, is that it is not actually very easy to surrender. In the First World War, Germany surrendered while its army was still in the field, fighting in good order far from the German heartland. This was an anticipatory surrender, born of a realistic assessment of the battlefield which indicated that German defeat was an inevitability. Berlin therefore opted to bow out prematurely, saving the lives of its young men once the struggle had become hopeless. This decision, of course, was poorly received, and was widely denounced as betrayal and cowardice. It became a politically scarring watershed moment that shaped German sensibilities and revanchist drives for decades to come.

So long as Zelensky’s government continues to receive western support and the AFU remains in the field - even if it is being steadily rolled back and chewed up all along the front - it is difficult to imagine Kiev acceding to an anticipatory surrender. Ukraine must choose between doing this the easy way and the hard way, as the parlance goes, but this is not really a choice at all, particularly given the Kremlin’s insistence that a change of government in Kiev is a prerequisite to peace as such. Any successful path to a negotiated piece runs through the ruins of Zelensky’s government, and is therefore largely precluded at the moment.

So for all the diplomatic cinema, the brute reality of the battlefield remains the same. The battlefield is the first principle, and the ultimate repository of political power. The diplomat is a servant of the warrior, and Russia takes recourse to the fist and the boot and the bullet.

Sky News Arabia claims to have received a copy of Trump's letter to Iran and Khamenei. I'll post it here below:

Dear comrades, if your protest has any dudes in superhero costumes, meme signs or excessive signs in English if you're not in an English-speaking country, then I'm truly sorry, because your protest is already doomed. Look at Turkey, their protest thing felt serious for like a day, then it turned into goon material for the r/Europe cucks, and now the English signs and the superheroes have arrived. My estimation now is that Erdoğan will rule for another two decades before Allah elevates him to the seventh heaven. I'm not even praising Erdoğan here, it's just that his opponents have fatal liberal brainworms, where protests are held not as a disruptive tool to pressure the ruling government, but as an elaborate esoteric pledge of allegiance to western cultural hegemony. Georgia was the same, and it also failed.

Look at my protest dog:

Per Reuters: "CK Hutchison will not sign deal to sell strategic Panama ports next week, sources say"

Looks like the Chinese threats against CK Hutchinson, and their directives to state owned enterprises to cease business with CK Hutchinson in response to them potentially signing this deal, might have worked their magic.

Not really news, but what do you think was up with the transformer shootings early last year?

Happy Al-Quds Day to those who celebrate. Yemen is once again proving they’re the most based around

Sudanese Army Declares Victory in Khartoum - Telesur English

"A temporary administration could be introduced in Ukraine, under the supervision of the UN, the US, European countries and our partners. This would serve to hold democratic elections and bring to power a capable government that enjoys the trust of the people. And then start negotiations with them on a peace treaty." Putin on Zelensky and the end of the Ukrainian war.

“Putin will die soon, that's a fact, and it will come to an end” Zelesnky on Putin and the end of the war.

• Telegram

Prosecutor accidentally plays porn clip at trial of far-right former president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.

The criminal trial of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was bizarrely derailed by a prosecutor who mistakenly played a porn video of a woman stripping naked and a dwarf dancing with a bottle of booze. Marlene Orjuela, the lead prosecutor for Attorney General's Office, was searching through an archive of folders to present evidence submitted by Uribe's lawyer, Dr. Diego Cadena, during the March 7 virtual court hearing.

In the first video, a man could be seen dancing in front of a parked vehicle and drinking out of a can before the 35-second clip was cut off by Marlene, who laughed and apologized to Judge Sandra Heredia. Uribe stared at the camera and kept a straight face while a member of his legal team giggled. 'What a pity, your honor, we wanted to show everything that Dr. Cadena ordered and there was no foresight that one issue was that,' Orjuela said.

Orjuela proceeded to click on one of the other 57 files that she had on her screen when she brought up a video of a woman posing in swimming attire. The video quickly shifted to the woman removing her one-piece swimsuit. 'What a shame, Madam Judge,' Orjuela said as she immediately cut off the video.

Uribe is the first former president in the history of Colombia to be put under trial as he is facing bribery and witness tampering charges. The government alleges that Uribe attempted to influence witnesses after leftist senator Iván Cepeda accused him being tied to a paramilitary group founded by ranchers in the 1990s to fight rebel groups.

The case dates back to 2012, when Uribe filed a libel suit against Cepeda with the Supreme Court, the entity charged with investigating elected officials. However, the court dropped charges against Cepeda and began to investigated Uribe in 2018. Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010, was formally charged in May 2024 and could face up to 12 years in prison if he is convicted.

Imma be honest, courts in developing countries have more teeth than this.

https://x.com/ryangrim/status/1905604580957729119

EU boots in Ukraine will only make it more likely for the ukronazis to try and pull some false flag shit in order to try and recapture the Donbass and Crimea, this time with full EU support, not only in material but also with troops. They're kicking us towards open conflict with russia and tell us its to preserve peace. Only Meloni is acting as a voice of reason (still dont have to hand it to 'em). Fuck me i hate this place.

Dead Letters: Neoliberalism Kills Mail Delivery In Denmark

Postal services in the Nordic hermit kingdom will cease at the end of this year after 401 years of continuous operations. Postal operator PostNord, a neoliberal "run it like a business" abomination jointly owned by the Danish and Swedish states, has announced that it is no longer profitable to distribute letters and that they will end the service. The iconic red letterboxes will be removed from the streets, postage stamps will no longer be issued and 1.500 mail carriers will be fired.

Curfew in Parts of Kathmandu Over Pro-Monarchy Demonstrations

https://kathmandupost.com/national/2025/03/28/curfew-imposed-in-parts-of-kathmandu

India (or one of the Indian states) is responsible for it, allegedly. I think India wants to be like the US, foreign assassinations, coups etc.

https://thewire.in/religion/adityanath-nepal-gyanendra-gorakhpur-gorakhnath

7.7 Earthquake felt in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam

US aid freeze shakes Southeast Asia, NGOs scramble for alternative funding (archive link)

Me when I can’t get US funds to continue the reproduction of problems so that NGOs continue to have “jobs”

After ex-President Jair Bolsonaro was formally charged with leading an armed criminal organization to plot a military coup by the Supreme Court today, he said, "discussing hypotheses isn't a crime." Not only is he wrong, he's confessed again. I'll explain why here: Bolsonaro's argument that merely discussing a coup is not illegal fails because:

1. Intent matters: If discussions involve planning, recruitment, or incitement, they cross into criminal conspiracy.

2. National security laws do not require the coup to succeed—preparatory acts (like organizing meetings, securing weapons, or drafting plans) are already crimes;

3. Brazilian courts have ruled that even theoretical planning can be punishable if it shows a concrete threat to democracy.

In Tokyo, Brazil's President Lula said there's no use for ex-President Bolsonaro to pretend he's being persecuted. "It's clear that the ex-president tried to stage a coup in Brazil. It is clear that he tried to help plan my assassination. "and the assassinations of the vice president and the former president of the Brazilian Electoral Court. [...] He knows what he did. There's no use begging for amnesty before the trial, that amounts to saying, 'I'm guilty.' He should focus on trying to prove his innocence."

Twitter

1700 killed on last 72 hours. First day of the attack 400.

I will share my friend's message to me from last night:

"I don’t know, honestly, I feel like I’m going insane. Why all this injustice?! Imagine, they are entertaining themselves with our death in every possible way, trying to unleash their psychological disorders on us. Today, they are shooting at people as they are being displaced! What kind of filth is this?! They are toying with us… killing the children and leaving the mother to watch her son die without being able to do anything! We are in a cage, being hunted, starved, and subjected to experiments of all kinds of psychological and moral afflictions in a live broadcast. People are running without legs, and people are crawling, while parents watch the bodies of their children thrown on the ground, abandoned as they flee from shells. It is an absurd situation—there is no war here, no resistance; the situation can only be described as a trivialization and deliberate act of killing, and a trivialization of death. It’s all absurdity, and our blood is sure to bring a curse upon everyone."

That's Gaza for the last 500 days. And I join her in curses. Yemenis are right, Israel and USA are cursed. It's an old biblical rule "do not steal" and that's why Yemenis say death to them. It's not about wanting those nations literally dead, as those nations mean about Palestinans and Syrians, but it's a call of death if their hegemony. Curse be upon them. In last month tens of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians were slaughtered. Zionists and takfiris demonic ghouls who serve Satan himself and Netanyahu is embodiment of Satan. This is all his wicked sick plan to destroy Levant and erase thousands years old culture and people who have direct ties to that land. Curse be upon everyone. This blood is on everyone's hands.

Rabid settlers lynched Hamdan Ballal, Palestinian co-director of film No Other Land:
https://xcancel.com/yuval_abraham/status/1904235552620339365

https://xcancel.com/HossamShabat/status/1904219854183313461

Every Western outlet stumbling over itself to report on “anti-Hamas” protests in Gaza is some heinous shit.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/26/middleeast/why-gazans-are-protesting-hamas-now-intl-latam

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g71lk09npo.amp

A photo of it was also near the top of Reddit, and there’s dozens of top comments about “it looks like they’re all children!” and of course blaming the genocide on Hamas from their enlightened perch inside the empire that is responsible for the genocide.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1jkekcz/antihamas_protesters_in_gaza_call_for_an_end_to/

… it says a lot about Western “civilization” that witnessing a few hundred children allegedly protesting the Resistance evokes more empathy than the slaughter of tens of thousands by the empire. Complete dehumanization, until they can be straw-manned into a pro-empire position

The Constitutional Court has denied Afriforum's appeal and stated that the song "Kill the Boer" does not constitute hate speech. L bozos

Speaking of Bozo, as in the likely upcoming US ambassador, he's probably going to declare the Constitutional Court and everyone of the 200,000 people living within a kilometer of the courthouse as Hamas

Kill the Boer, Kill the Settler. BRRAAAT BRRRRAAAAAT

Death to ameriKKKa

Surprised no one else posted it yet, but the video of the Tufts University PhD student being arrested by Israel Criticism Enforcement officers is just absolutely enraging.

https://x.com/DRBoguslaw/status/1904933137328570859

https://xcancel.com/DRBoguslaw/status/1904933137328570859