this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
114 points (100.0% liked)
news
24774 readers
475 users here now
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
-
To learn about and discuss meaningful news, analysis and perspectives from around the world, with a focus on news outside the Anglosphere and beyond what is normally seen in corporate media (e.g. anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Marxist, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of colour).
-
To encourage community members to contribute commentary and for others to thoughtfully engage with this material.
-
To support healthy and good faith discussion as comrades, sharpening our analytical skills and helping one another better understand geopolitics.
We ask community members to appreciate the uncertainty inherent in critical analysis of current events, the need to constantly learn, and take part in the community with humility. None of us are the One True Leftist, not even you, the reader.
Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
-
Link titles: Please use informative link titles. Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed.
-
Content warnings: Posts on the newscomm and top-level replies on the newsmega should use content warnings appropriately. Please be thoughtful about wording and triggers when describing awful things in post titles.
-
Fake news: No fake news posts ever, including April 1st. Deliberate fake news posting is a bannable offense. If you mistakenly post fake news the mod team may ask you to delete/modify the post or we may delete it ourselves.
-
Link sources: All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. If you are citing a Twitter post as news, please include the Xcancel.com (or another Nitter instance) or at least strip out identifier information from the twitter link. There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance, such as Libredirect or archive them as you would any other reactionary source.
-
Archive sites: We highly encourage use of non-paywalled archive sites (i.e. archive.is, web.archive.org, ghostarchive.org) so that links are widely accessible to the community and so that reactionary sources don’t derive data/ad revenue from Hexbear users. If you see a link without an archive link, please archive it yourself and add it to the thread, ask the OP to fix it, or report to mods. Including text of articles in threads is welcome.
-
Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
-
American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
-
Electoralism: Please try to avoid struggle sessions about the value of voting/taking part in the electoral system in the West. c/electoralism is right over there.
-
AI Slop: Don't post AI generated content. Posts about AI race/chip wars/data centers are fine.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
114
Bulletins and International News Discussion from May 18th to May 24th, 2026 - Stuck In A (Thucydides) Bear Trap
(hexbear.net)
more like thucydideez nuts, gottem
Image is of a satellite image from MizarVision, a Chinese firm that has recently shown pride in being sanctioned for showing uncensored images of the Middle East. The West is not allowing up-to-date satellite imagery of the region to hide destruction.
As always, my weekly summary/preamble is in spoilers below.
preamble
Military news remained relatively subdued last week, with the main front continuing to be the Lebanon border. With dozens of vehicles destroyed and many more Zionist casualties, they are now desperately searching for a solution to the FPV drone threat, with certain analysts characterizing the whole situation as the entity stumbling foot-first into a bear trap (hence the megathread title). Unfortunately for them, two better and more resourceful militaries have spent the last year or two also searching for a solution and have generally failed - with anti-drone strategies consisting mainly of 1) build your own cheap drones designed to physically intercept their cheap drones and 2) separate your forces up rather than conducting large frontal assaults WW2-style and accept that you're gonna have to fight for many months to gain substantial ground. This also explains why they're so eager to kickstart a civil war in Lebanon, although as I've stated before, I don't personally know whether that would be a silver bullet given how the Lebanese army has been deliberately not allowed to become a threatening force due to Zionist fears, and indeed, I don't know how many Lebanese citizens and soldiers would fight against the only force in their country fighting against an army trying to annex their territory and which murders hundreds of people at a time in aerial bombings on their cities.
Aside from the ever-worsening global economic catastrophe, the main event has been the US visiting China. Trump clearly intended to time the summit such that it took place after subjugating Iran and perhaps also Cuba. However, with the former goal not even remotely achieved, and the latter goal delayed - hopefully indefinitely, though the US still seems pretty intent on it - it all amounted to a big nothingburger. Marxist economist Michael Roberts has written up a great piece on the current state of the US-China economic conflict, stating among things that, despite the last decade of US sanctions and economic warfare, the Chinese economy has done extremely well, building up their own domestic industries to replace commodities lost from sanctions. China has, up to this point, refused to withdraw its aid from Iran, and seems to be looking to start moving its tankers through the Strait via Iran's new tolling mechanism.
China obviously continues to maintain its position on Taiwan, and Trump has continued the US tradition of respecting this in words and disrespecting it in actions, but it's becoming clear to everybody but the most delusional diehards that the US will not be fighting China in and around the Pacific for at least a couple decades, and likely never will. There is little choice. The Ramadan War has definitively proven that the US has been severely militarily and logistically weakened over the decades despite skyrocketing military budgets, and much of their equipment, strategies, and tactics are woefully outdated for the modern battlefield. The prospect of the US fighting a war against China and not immediately losing has gone from "almost implausible" to "hilariously absurd". Unable to meaningfully impede China, the US will have to content itself to increasingly ineffective sanctions campaigns and bullying/overthrowing nations that do not currently have much of a capacity to resist. In that vein, one hopes that Iran and friends will share their expertise in drone technology and underground fortification around the world. The age of the tunnel is upon us.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
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.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
https://nitter.net/venanalysis/status/2057327204489384240
dilution of communes or expansion, one wonders, find out next on charge d'affaires z
full text
Rodríguez announced that this consultation will include condominium boards ("juntas de condominio") and neighbor associations ("asociaciones de vecinos"), alongside communes and communal circuits. While this may seem like just expanding participation and the transfer of state funds, there's actually a bit more to it.Communes aren't just some arbitrary form of organization. They are to become the self-government in the territory. They are the "unit cell" in Chávez's vision of socialism. Part of this construction is developing economic autonomy and owning means of production, which of course goes much further than getting state funding for some project every few months. So these consultations, while limited in scope, recognized this form of organization as the one that needed recognition and support. By now extending it to condominium boards, this gets completely diluted.
So why do it? Essentially this is the government's "pre-campaign" mode and efforts to expand its support base. Along the same lines as the recent "pilgrimage." Transferring funds to condominium boards envisions the places where there is no communal organization whatsoever. In other words, strong opposition territories.
And finally, there's the question of funding. Consultations usually yielded $10k to some 5,000 communal circuits, so some $50M in total. Rodríguez said there are 120,000 condominium boards and 15,000 neighbor associations. It's fair to assume that only a fraction will take part, but even in that case, the money will surely have to be further spread
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/18/communal-consults-and-venezuelas-fight-for-the-future/
and more positive article about communal projects, to be balanced
This could lead to major split between the state level and the communal level of the revolution. Very dangerous ground if it continues and is not productively resolved.
the state seems to being teeing up its own crises by diving into all types of contradictions without any type of resolution mechanisms in place. At some point the shit they are doing is going to catch up to the shit they are saying. How long can they keep their radical base content to sit around as their society is transformed into a neoliberal colony and their resources exported to Israel? When the split eventually occurs and socialist principles and solidarity overrides party discipline it will be disastrous for the state, which will either have to go full Arce in Bolivia and start massacring their own guys or buckle under the leftward pressure and try to re-take all the losses they have taken while sitting silently. Even best case scenario it's a step backwards for the revolution.
If dialectics has taught us anything, it is that sometimes you have to move backwards in order to go forwards again. I think people often forget that. In order to truely rebuild, you must first tear down.
The cases where going backwards to move forwards succeeded are primarily cases of recognizing an overstep or moving too quickly ahead and returning to a more liberal method, with plans to control and eventually deconstruct it when conditions allow.
I haven't seen anything like this in the Venezuelan state's recent changes. Instead they are essentially externally imposed for the benefit of imperialists at gunpoint.
True. However, this is where you have to look at the actions of non-state actors. If you just looked at state actors during the Russian Revolution, you would have been fucked. "The revolution will not be televised."
if you think about it, IMF takeover actually accelerates the revolution and further colonization is dialectics for revolution
Depends on the structures of resistance that are in place and their ability to plan and respond. Or you can be smug and passive-aggressive back seat driver.
I wonder which one is more effective?
If people could call a spade a spade there would be no need to rub anyone's nose in it, but they cannot, thus the rubbing must be done
Or you could admit that you are not actually on the ground, and therefore you don't know shit? Also you aren't calling a spade a spade. Don't be coy.
Literally, just wait. Fuck this shit isn't that hard.
Every Marxist calling Gorbachev's administration revisionist and saying it would lead to major crises should have shut the fuck up if they didn't live in the USSR! Stop with the positionalist nonsense, it's non-marxist and non-scientific.
Well there's been no doubt about that since the day Maduro was captured. Best case scenario has always been a violently imposed surrendering of oil sovereignty, hopefully offset by access to international markets. I expect the heights of the PSUV are getting strung along by the US on promises of sanctions relief, which could make the concessions so far much more bearable, but once you start shipping off your own close allies, how much further can you go? I don't believe Rodriguez is a comprador trying to sell out the revolution, but it doesn't seem like she knows how to navigate out of these very dangerous waters. I wouldn't know what to do in her place, either!
The most important thing is that heart of the revolution, the grassroots construction of socialism via communes, remains in place. It has always existed in tension with and (occasionally) opposition to the state. It is now better armed than it's ever been, given the way Maduro attempted to prepare the country for an invasion. If it is necessary, I believe the communes can win out over the PSUV state and in so doing carry on Chavez's mission. I hope it doesn't come to that point.
But it doesn't matter. The USSR didn't fall due to people deliberately conspiring to destroy socialism within the country (it did fall due to US conspiring to do that with some help from suckers inside near the very end). It fell due to lack of discipline, revisionism (and nihilism), and buying too much into the words of the west, their propaganda, their ways, etc. They sleep-walked into it via missteps until the big moment came when it became apparent there had been a long road leading up to it.
Inadequate defense of the revolution might as well be selling it out. Kruschev didn't set out to destroy the USSR but his actions led directly to it and Gorbachev. What the US is likely trying to do is to set in motion rot, internal strife, and divisions. If they're as smart as they used to be they don't expect to destroy it within a year but are happy to take their time rotting away at it until it falls while maintaining a veto on their oil.
Best case was protracted class struggle instead of surrender and gaslighting your own people that you are surrendering their oil for their own good
Structural adjustments programs are every aptly named, don’t you find?
I don’t exactly understand what is implied by those orgs, neighborhood associations for city blocks? That seems like whatever, if it’s not decreasing financing for communes, or it could be most cynical shit imaginable, like you debate over 500 bucks projects, enjoy democracy
I was referring more the Saab stuff and external policy; had an article I'd just read on my mind. It's too early to say about the elections she's calling for. It could easily be an extension of the project in a very productive way, folding in more of society to the deep democratic structures the revolution has built. The Venezuelan state has often simultaneously given to and taken from the communal movement. Rodriguez can offset the lack of sovereignty over oil and foreign policy by strengthening the communes and deepening socialist construction, which she has always been a strong fighter for.