Notices by Kevin Rothrock (kevinrothrock@infosec.exchange)

Wow. Bloomberg obtained a recording of Steve Witkoff's October 14 phone call with Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide. This post-Gaza peace deal talk "appears to be the genesis of the 28-point peace proposal." Witkoff looks pretty dumb here. Amateur hour. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-25/witkoff-discusses-ukraine-plans-with-key-putin-aide-transcript

Such a wonderful story from Larissa MacFarquhar on "aphantasia," a condition where people can't form mental images. It's always fascinating to be reminded that brains work differently and how those differences affect our experience of reality. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/03/some-people-cant-see-mental-images-the-consequences-are-profound

i know Putin threatened a massive retaliation for US aid to Ukraine, but reaching all the way to Washington, DC, like this is incredible

Imagine sharing this text exchange and feeling yourself vindicated.

Should be fun to see how Putin reaches Budapest for his big second summit with Trump.

“Evidence gathered by The Telegraph reveals Russia is using rape as a weapon of war in occupied Ukraine […] Their testimonies, including accounts of rape, torture, and forced disappearances, reveal a pattern of systematic abuse intended to terrorize the local population into submission.” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/russia-ukraine-war-life-under-putins-occupation/

nothing from George Orwell or Terry Gilliam rivals the horror that is today's LinkedIn copy

had to laugh when this link to a NYT story about Trump's abuses of executive power redirected to a Volvo ad

TASS had to make a very funny correction to its headline about the audience for Intervision (a replacement for Eurovision, which I’ve also never watched). “Intervision Broadcast Watched by 4 Billion Viewers Worldwide” became “Intervision Broadcast Accessible to 4 Billion Viewers Worldwide.”

YouTube's new default autodubbing "feature" is a giant fucking nightmare for anyone who speaks more than one language.

Kirk was America's latest victim of senseless gun violence for all of an hour or two: "Three people, at least two of whom are students, were shot and critically injured at a suburban high school in Colorado on Wednesday afternoon." https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/10/us/colorado-high-school-shooting.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Rivka Galchen asks in The New Yorker why we stopped taking nuclear weapons seriously. Apparently, most Americans say they would support the use of an atomic weapon that would kill 2 million Iranians if 20,000 U.S. troops were at risk. I am not filled with hope. https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/why-dont-we-take-nuclear-weapons-seriously

Here's some of that footage, btw. CCTV, you can address your takedown order to Kevin Rothrock c/o Barbara Streisand.

LOL, China's state television network, China Central Television (CCTV — nice), has forced Reuters to take down its video of Xi and Putin talking about living to 150, or maybe forever, on biotech breakthroughs. Beijing is revoking legal permission to use the footage. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/reuters-withdraws-xi-putin-longevity-video-after-china-state-tv-pulls-legal-2025-09-06/

Lavrov comments on the Flex electronics factory targeted in Mukachevo last week. Without directly acknowledging the strike, he stresses that US investments in Ukraine's military industrial complex won't deter Moscow from attacking infrastructure used to kill Russians. https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/russian-fm-lavrov-denies-striking-u-s-owned-building-in-ukraine-i-never-heard-of-it-245660741996

Body-language whispers, do your thing.

Russia will launch 75 mice, 1,000 fruit flies, and other specimens on Aug. 20 to study spaceflight effects. The Bion-M No. 2 biosatellite is being dubbed a "Noah's Ark." Probably wise to leave out mankind, this time.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/russia-to-launch-75-mice-1-000-fruit-flies-on-aug-20-to-study-spaceflight-effects

The Alaska summit now appears to be more interesting than it seemed yesterday. Trump isn't removing himself from the diplomacy, and Putin actually did agree to relinquish demands on the large swaths of unconquered lands in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. However...

https://www.ft.com/content/6b0b4912-9438-4de0-aebe-2a8dd804cbab

Putin’s offer still demands all of the Donbas (there's lots of Donetsk still in Kyiv's hands), and he wants "to end Ukraine’s statehood in its current form and roll back NATO's eastward expansion," ie massive changes to the Euro security posture.

Trump has more leeway on the latter than former, but he's distanced himself from Putin’s terms, acting like it's all up to Zelensky. When they meet on Mon, I wonder if he'll still portray it all this way, but so far it seems Putin failed to enlist Trump in his grander effort to roll back post-1991.

MAGA demonstrators have turned out in Alaska, too, asking the Good Lord to “soften the hearts of Presidents Trump and Putin.” This seems to be the closest Vladimir will get to a welcome from ordinary Americans.

The Washington Post and the US media generally have a very amusing policy of explicitly and repeatedly designating every pro-Kremlin source, but nobody is cited as "pro-Ukraine" or "pro-Europe," etc, naturally.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/08/10/putin-trump-russia-ukraine-summit/