[BREAKING] News Thread

[Karo]

Well I'm sure a lot of countries would love to give them long range drone, but they also don't want to bring Putin's ire.

Though I'll admit I'm not entirely sure what the state of the war right now?

[Moonface]

That's pretty much a Ship of Theseus question. You know, if you replace every part of a boat, is it still the same boat? But the Ukranians, as far as I recall, aren't getting long range drones from any one except Turkey, so it's reasonable to assume that it could have been a modified TB-2... if there weren't reports of honest to god jet engines preceding the attack. I can't say where they got the tech, but the point is that they do have it.

Ah, the question I once pitched to everyone here a few years ago.
I could see western countries trying to use a non-western country as a proxy to get parts to Ukraine by paying those countries for the drone parts but have them shipped to Ukraine.

@Karo: I feel like the war overall is in a form of stalemate of sorts where even if progress is being made by either side it ultimately isn't moving the needle enough to reach an ending one way or the other to the whole ordeal. I could be wrong because I don't follow any news on the matter but with how much it's dropped out of general discussion on the internet I get the impression it's just in a state of non-stop endurance by both sides. Regardless of the specifics of what's happening though I think the whole thing is going to end up like the Iraq war; just a long drawn out thing that will probably end from one side backing out of it rather than a side actually defeating the other.

[Maniakkid25]

Yeah, this war has turned straight up into an attrition grind. Ukraine has been making recent upsets (Kursk, Toropets, etc), but the Russians are grinding them down in the Donbas. It's bad. It's very bad.

[Moonface]

So I don't know if this is a new development or just something that has been going on that I just never knew about before now, but apparently North Korea is sending troops to fight in Ukraine wearing Russian uniforms or something?

Meanwhile over in Cuba, their entire electrical grid bit the dust so the whole country is experiencing a blackout and will continue to do so until all the power stations come back online, which I saw someone claim won't be a simple endeavor because it's more complicated than just turning the stuff back on apparently.

[Maniakkid25]

So the Catholic Church has decided to unveil a new mascot for the 2025 Jubilee. With a very "How do you do, fellow kids?" vibe, they unveiled Luce, a chibi anime girl. Luce is Italian (not Latin, interestingly) for "Light", hence the name. Her design is meant to be reminiscent of a Catholic Pilgrim, with a raincoat in the colors of the Vatican's flag and a pilgrim's staff.

I want to say, with no judgment or advocacy of religious belief: she is adorable.

[Moonface]

Ya know, I saw an image of that yesterday and thought it was some shitpost meme thing that wasn't actually real...

[Maniakkid25]

Yeah, that's what I first thought when I saw it, too. But no, it's a real thing that was really unveiled by the Vatican. There is a great mix of feelings I have looking at Luce, and most of them are probably not what the Vatican is going for.

...No, not like that; get your head out of the gutter!

[Moonface]

I was curious if they had ever used a mascot before, and it doesn't look like they did and I'm a little glad because imagine if this thing had been a figurine on the Pope's desk:

[Maniakkid25]

So, David Wald has accused Crunchyroll of legit crimes. See, he has accused Crunchyroll of mail tampering by way of throwing out fan mail and redistributing gifts amongst Crunchyroll staff. For 5 years, at minimum.

If this is true, this is very bad for Crunchyroll. One of the few things the government actually takes seriously is messing with the mail; you mess with that, you can expect some serious jail time. Crunchyroll has stated they are doing an internal investigation at this time, but that's not gonna be enough when the feds come a-knocking. Guaranteed, they are burning records right now if there is any truth to this.

[Moonface]

I hate any time I hear a company say they'll do internal investigations. I never trust them to not be biased and do their best to either find nothing or downplay what they do find.

If this has happened to his mail though then it's surely happened to others in the company. It's just gonna suck trying to prove it though for any past mail where it was messed with but the recipient has nothing to show it was (either not getting it at all, or nothing saying what the package contents are to know everything is there, etc.).

[Moonface]

LMAO so no bullshit, The Onion has purchased InfoWars in a bankruptcy auction: https://theonion.com/heres-why-i-decided...-infowars/

[Maniakkid25]

...Okay, this is gonna require some context. *deep breath*

So, in the wake of Sandy Hook, Alex Jones wouldn't shut up about how the entire thing was a false flag operation, and the parents were crisis actors. This got people harrassing the Sandy Hook families in question to the point that at least one went into hiding, and two different sets of families sued Jones in two separate states. He then proceeded to drag the case out through every legal means he could make a mockery of, including bankruptcies and more. But, now, Jones has finally reached the end of the line, as a few months ago his Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Free Speech Systems was changed to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, meaning a forced liquidation of any and all assets to pay your debts. As such, Infowars was put up for public auction, and the Onion has indeed bought the property in question. So, yeah. This is actually happening.

[Moonface]

Well, it might have been too good to be true: Judge Halts the Onion’s Infowars Takeover to Review Bankruptcy Auction Process

• The Onion’s winning bid for Infowars was backed by the Connecticut families, which “agreed to forgo a portion of their recovery to increase the overall value of the Onion’s bid,” according to lawyers for the families.
  

• Lawyers for Jones and the only other bidder in the Infowars auction — First United American Companies, which operates the ShopAlexJones.com website — complained about the secrecy of the process, in which bids for a “best-and-final offer” were sealed.
  

• Judge Lopez said he was not aware of the sealed-bid format the trustee implemented nor did he know specifically what assets in the case were being sold. He expressed concern about the way bids were submitted and reviewed by the trustee, and noted that First United (which the trustee designated as the “backup bidder”) didn’t know what the Onion and the Connecticut families had bid. “We’re holding an evidentiary hearing, and I’m going to figure out exactly what happened,” the judge said. Later, he said, “My concern is the lack of transparency in the process.”
  

Considering who the only other bidder was, I hope the decision doesn't change in the end because I don't trust a company supporting that sack of garbage Alex Jones to not just use InfoWars in the same awful manner it already was.

[Maniakkid25]

I'm surprised the judge didn't know about the bidding process, because when it was first reported, it was known exactly how it was gonna go down. My proof is the ending of this video right here, which served as a review of the shenanigans and an overview of what's coming next. Then again, considering all the shenanigans that did happen, Lopez is probably thinking "What did you do this time?"

[Moonface]

I don't see why it even matters if what deal The Onion did is shared with everyone in the auction or not. If FUAC couldn't see what The Onion was bidding, then surely that goes in reverse too and the latter still ended up putting a bid forward that the trustee preferred over what FUAC bid. It isn't like one side had an advantage over the other for the auction to be somehow unfair to any particular party.