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[Explosive transcript of phone call between Trump administration envoy and Putin adviser leaks]

#31

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Tonitrus - November 25, 2025, 10:45:21 PM

Explosive transcript of phone call between Trump administration envoy and Putin adviser leaks

The contents of a phone call involving Donald Trump's top negotiator and a close adviser to Vladimir Putin have been revealed to the public.

November 26, 2025 - 1:33PM

A leaked transcript has revealed the contents of a phone call between Steve Witkoff, the businessman who has been acting as Donald Trump's envoy negotiating with Ukraine and Russia, and Yuri Ushakov, a senior foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin.

In part of the transcript, obtained by Bloomberg, Mr Witkoff seems to be coaching the Russians on how Putin should flatter Mr Trump, during an upcoming conversation, to make him more amenable.

"I would make the call and just reiterate that you congratulate the President on his achievement, that you supported it, that you supported it, that you respect that he is a man of peace and you're just, you're glad to have seen it happen," he tells Uskakov, alluding to the Israel-Hamas war.

"So I would say that. I think, from that, it's going to be a really good call. Because let me tell you what I told the President. I told the President that you, the Russian Federation, always wanted a peace deal. That is my belief. I told the President I believe that.

"I'm even thinking we that maybe we set out, like, a 20-point peace proposal, just like we did in Gaza. We put a 20-point Trump plan together."

At another point, Mr Witkoff says he knows "what it's going to take to get a peace deal done" before specifying "Donetsk, and maybe a land swap somewhere".

"But I'm saying instead of talking like that, let's talk more hopefully, because I think we're going to get to a deal here. And I think, Yuri, the President will give me a lot of space and discretion to get to the deal."

That call took place on October 14. Bloomberg also got the transcript from one on October 29, between Ushakov and Kirill Dimitriev, an economic advisor to Putin.

In it, the pair discuss creating a "paper" for Dimitriev to "pass along" to the Americans.

"I think we'll just make this paper from our position, and I'll informally pass it along, making it clear that it's all informal. And let them do, like, their own," Dimitriev says.

"But I don't think they'll take exactly our version. But at least it'll be as close to it as possible."

That conversation was a little under a month before the Trump administration offered up its 28-point plan for a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. The origins of that plan remain murky - officially, the Trump administration says America developed it with input from the Russians and Ukrainians, but reporting has suggested it blindsided the US State Department, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

#32

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by DGuller - November 25, 2025, 10:19:38 PM

I don't see how everything you wrote from the second sentence on is connected to your first sentence.  Yes, you accurately described how training and inference of any statistical or machine learning model works, but how is that description offering any insight as to why the bolded is impossible?

Because nothing in the mechanism I described has the capacity for self-evolution.

I didn't mean to imply self-evolution, or Darwinian evolution, or anything of the kind.    I meant evolved as in "developed".

#33

Off the Record / Re: The Anime Thread

Last post by jimmy olsen - November 25, 2025, 09:51:22 PM

The manga is great.

The producers of this anime should be blacklisted from the industry for ruining such an easy lay up.

#34

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by The Minsky Moment - November 25, 2025, 08:43:57 PM

I don't see how everything you wrote from the second sentence on is connected to your first sentence.  Yes, you accurately described how training and inference of any statistical or machine learning model works, but how is that description offering any insight as to why the bolded is impossible?

Because nothing in the mechanism I described has the capacity for self-evolution.

#35

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Admiral Yi - November 25, 2025, 07:37:26 PM

Yes. Google are "better". But that's no defence.
A monopoly isn't necessarily created by anyrhing devious. The fact that they've been in the game so long that they've established an unassailably deep and wide position is enough.

A quick search shows those in the know do indeed suggest googles monopoly is allowing them to get away with high pricing.

And no. Meta does not have the same share as Google at all. As said Google has around 90%. Meta cut their losses when they couldn't make enough to even break even.

Fair enough.  You're suggesting Google's dominance in ad exchange and publisher ad server are the result of first mover advantage, not the leveraging of their strong position in advertising sales.  That pretty much supports my point: if Google were broken up the now independent ad exchange and publisher ad server would still benefit from first mover advantage.

I've provided a link that says Google has 23.9% of online advertising sales, the same order of magnitude as Meta and Amazon.  What is this 90% you speak of?  90% of what?

#36

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Tonitrus - November 25, 2025, 07:27:10 PM

I think Weiss here provides a pretty good rundown/analysis of this whole clusterfluck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WU0AJDCx5U

#37

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by grumbler - November 25, 2025, 07:14:39 PM

Dangerous for the US and dangerous for the world.

That's not a bug, that's a feature. RFK Jr is an ambulance-chaser and knows the value of discrediting truth.

All of the Trump cabinet appointees were appointed to effectively destroy their respective departments.

#38

Gaming HQ / Re: Europa Universalis V confi...

Last post by Valmy - November 25, 2025, 07:01:12 PM

I am guetting frequent crashes with the beta.

I got my first crash to desktop after the patch 

Hopefully it will not continue.

#39

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Valmy - November 25, 2025, 06:59:51 PM

The world is catering to Trump's ego because he sits at the top of the world's most powerful military, and the world's biggest economy.

If there was any type of cosmic justice someone as morally repugnant as Trump would not be in that position, but the US finds itself in a situation where its levers of powers have been captured by the corrupt, the self-serving, and the straight up evil.

I am talking about the US doing this. I know why the rest of the world plays along. But we are actively allowing him to just fuck up our foreign policy for no other higher goal than satisfying his ego.

Even for a President that is ridiculous.

And we did because our country is full of evil people. Nobody should ever trust us again.

#40

Off the Record / Re: The Off Topic Topic

Last post by HVC - November 25, 2025, 06:59:10 PM

bioengineered 3d printed meat.

So is their meat vegan? 

Guess it's that reconstituted pink slime shit that was all over the news a few years ago until people moved on.