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Helicopter with 5 senior military officials from Guyana goes missing near border with Venezuela - AP News

A military helicopter carrying seven people vanished Wednesday near Guyana’s border with Venezuela, with authorities saying there was bad weather in the area and stressing there was no indication it may have been hit by hostile fire as tensions escalate between the countries.

Two crew members aboard the helicopter were taking five senior officers on an inspection of troops guarding a border area that Venezuela claims as its own, according to Army Chief Brig. Gen. Omar Khan.

Venezuelan troops with heavy equipment and machinery have been amassing on the border in recent weeks, leading to speculation of an imminent invasion.

Khan told reporters late Wednesday that Guyana’s Defense Force lost contact with the brand new Bell 412 EPI aircraft after it took off from Olive Creek settlement in western Guyana following a refueling stop.

Asked if the aircraft was shot out of the sky as it flew in a mountainous and heavily forested area, Khan said there are no indications that occurred.

“We do not have any information suggesting that there was any flight by Venezuelan aircraft in that area,” he said. “Speculation is not what I want to go into. Our priority is to save the lives of our officers and ranks.”

He said the U.S. government will help with the search when it resumes Thursday amid a forecast of better weather.

Among those helping with the search are private aircraft.

The aircraft’s disappearance about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the Venezuelan border comes amid heightened tensions between Guyana and Venezuela over the Essequibo region, which is rich with minerals and located near massive oil deposits. Venezuela claims the region as its own, insisting it has been part of the country since Spanish rule.

Guyana has maintained that the border defined by international arbitrators in 1899 is the correct one.

On Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro held a referendum in which Venezuelans approved his claim of sovereignty over Essequibo. Then on Tuesday, Maduro said he would immediately grant operating licenses for exploration and exploitation in Essequibo and ordered the creation of local subsidiaries of Venezuelan public companies.

Meanwhile, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali told The Associated Press on Wednesday morning that he was taking all necessary steps to defend his country from Venezuela.

Did the CIA kill these soldiers? Was it all an accident? Did the VZ military shoot them down?

Broke: Israel let Al-Aqsa Flood be successful on purpose in order to justify bombing Gaza.

Woke: Hamas purposely air the plans for Al-Aqsa Flood through a TV drama as an elaborate psyop in order to lull the Zionist entity into complacency.

https://nitter.net/revolutionaryem/status/1731680667681853797

Peru: Road Blockade Punishable by up to 15 Years in Prison

The amendment to the Penal Code establishes penalties for blockades of not less than 10 years imprisonment.

The Prime Minister, Alberto Otarola, announced on Tuesday that the Government issued a legislative decree ordering severe sanctions against those who participate in and organize road blockades.

The blocking of highways can be punished with up to 15 years of imprisonment, according to the norm that modifies the Penal Code.

In this regard, Otarola said that "Legislative Decree 1589 has been published, which adopts a series of measures agreed and discussed in the Council of Ministers."

In a press conference, the Prime Minister informed the modification of the Penal Code, with penalties for blockades of no less than 10 years of imprisonment.

The penalties aimed at "guaranteeing citizen security" will be severe and also effective, said Otarola. The prime minister noted that "it is time for those who seek to cut off, suspend or affect the rights of all Peruvians to answer for their actions."

In addition, Article 315-B of the Penal Code is modified, according to DL 1589, related to those who are involved in the crime of riot.

It is established that "those who voluntarily perform the following acts shall be punished with imprisonment of up to 6 years: Providing any furniture, object or instrument that facilitates the activities of the agent of the crime of riot. Providing financial or economic resources for the acquisition of furniture, object or instrument that facilitates the activities of the agent of the crime of riot."

The norm also modifies article 283 of the Penal Code, which refers to the hindering of public services. "Whose aggravating factors this time can be punished with up to 10 years of imprisonment."

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/894/text

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(1) strongly condemns and denounces all instances of antisemitism occurring in the United States and globally;

(2) reaffirms and reiterates its strong support for the Jewish community at home and abroad;

(3) calls on elected officials and world leaders to condemn and fight all forms of domestic and global antisemitism;

(4) clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism; and

(5) rejects all forms of terror, hate, discrimination, and harassment of members of the Jewish community.

Anyone think this Guyana shit is idiotic? I figured it was just posturing so Venezuela could get a cut of the oil money, and maybe that's what it is, but I feel like if OAS and the US intervene over Guyana and overthrow Maduro and privatize all the oil, it's his fault.

High intensity war to last up to two more months: Report

The war in Gaza, in its current high intensity mode, will last up to two more months, Israeli officials have told the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. There won’t be a ceasefire at the end of this period, the sources said, but spot activities by Israeli forces that will remain in the strip. Throughout this period there will be attempts to promote additional deals for the release of the remaining captives, they added.

- Al Jazeera

didn't think vuvuzela would become the 3rd front

advanced conspiracy studies:

usa said to maduro go for it during oil deal, but now they will renege on it. (we'll find out in 20 years, when usa will do jungle storm 2.0 invasion).

Iraq-kuwait 2.0, now in the jungle level

“Support Guyana sovereignty” 🤡

I feel like Palestine is going to be Bidens COVID. Like, I think Trump is going to run to left of him on it and Biden will have no retort because his actions have already proven what he'll do.

And the battle is going again And the heart is uneasy in the chest And Lenin is young once again And the young October is ahead

"we stripped them naked because the weather was hot"

https://nitter.cz/IsraelDefenseF/status/1733589490541682787

https://twitter.com/IsraelDefenseF/status/1733589490541682787

Finnish transport workers' union AKT has given formal notice of sympathy action in support of the Swedish Tesla strike. If Tesla doesn't recognise Swedish union IF Metall before december 20th and signs a union contract with them, Finnish transport workers will no longer habdle Tesla cars destined for Sweden.

The Finnish union is the third non-Swedish transport workers' union to give notice of sympathy actions, with unions in Denmark and Norway having already given notice.

Swedish Tesla workers are striking because Tesla has refused to sign a union contract, despite having negotiated since 2017. Virtually all industrial workers are covered by union contracts in Nordic countries and Tesla's refusal to play by the rules is seen as a potential threat against the Nordic model of labour relations.

There has been reports of unidentified mechanics showing up in taxis at Tesla workshops. For Swedish unions hiring scabs is an extreme move by Tesla as that practice has not been seen in Sweden since the 1920's or 1930's.

France taking yet another L in the Sahel: France Left Alone With G5 Sahel Alliance as Mauritania, Chad Follow Burkina, Niger, Mali

Straight up Looney Tunes

I shared the Rich Nephew story with my partner and they responded with Robin Mahfood, ex-CEO of the charity 'Food for the Poor'

By accident I turned Hamas into an adorable anime character who fights the worst monsters when I saved an html file and I misspelled their name as Hamasa.

So far Venezuela hasn't invaded yet, lots of people saying it might be a BLUFF and I'm seeing american so-called diplomats being strangely dove-like, saying this doesn't need to come to "Blows". Let's hope Nicolas doesn't blow IT!

The related thread that gave me the idea to use the pic - This is like a whole new theory of history - Hexbear

https://www.passblue.com/2023/11/28/is-the-icc-prosecutor-karim-khan-fit-for-purpose/

So icc won't do jack shit, quelle surprise

🚨 Mujahideen Brigades:

Our Anti-Air Defense Unit, at 12:50 PM, targeted a Zionist helicopter with a SAM-7 missile and hit it directly, and the operation was documented.

twitter | nitter

Guyana seems to also have a border dispute with Suriname...

The borders of Suriname consist of land borders with three countries: Guyana, Brazil, and France (via French Guiana). The borders with Guyana and France are in dispute, but the border with Brazil has been uncontroversial since 1906.

On 26 May 1966, the date of the independence of Guyana, the relation with the then Dutch colony of Suriname was normal, however it quickly deteriorated. In 1967, the Tigri Area conflict about a disputed area started.

There is an ongoing unresolved territorial dispute between Guyana and Suriname regarding the Tigri Area.

Your Friday Briefing

If the German election was held today, Scholz' party would receive only 14% of the vote - the lowest since June 2021. 17% of eligible voters say that they are satisfied with the SPD-led government, the lowest approval rating of a German chancellor since polls began in 1997 - though there have been worse German chancellors.

Slovakia's opposition is warning that Fico's government is working to gain absolute control of the arms industry, which... uh, yeah? That's how... war typically works...?

Armenia and Azerbaijan have reportedly had a breakthrough, and are exchanging prisoners and working towards normalization. Meanwhile, a US diplomat visited Azerbaijan and was received positively, although it doesn't seem like the hunt for US spies will be curtailed. And Aliyev warned that India and France arming Armenia will increase the chances of more war.

Putin has announced that he is indeed running for re-election in March 2024. Putin has also said that tech-sharing with China has no limits, not even military limits.

Burkina Faso's government has revised the constitution to ban French as an official language, demoting it to the role of "working language".

China is banning new steel plants in order to cut atmospheric pollution, and is working on converting factories creating blast furnace-produced steel into factories creating electric furnace-produced steel, which involves the import of scrap steel from abroad and has lower emissions (69% of US steel production uses this method). In Hebei, the top steel producing province, the number of iron and steel companies have been cut by 70% over the years to meet local targets, which has dramatically cut particulate emissions.

China has granted tariff-free access to Angola, Gambia, DRC, Madagascar, Mali, and Mauritania, in order to boost agricultural imports from Africa. They join 21 other African countries with similar tariff cuts. Xi says that he plans to import products worth $300 billion from Africa by 2024; in 2023 so far, total trade was $234 billion and imports to China a "mere" $91 billion. Meanwhile, Chinese global exports have edged up for the first time in seven months, increasing by 0.5% year-on-year to $291 billion, probably due to exporters cutting prices.

Thousands of protestors have rallied against the new far-right government of New Zealand, organized by the Maori Party, due to the anti-Maori policies that they are proposing. The co-leader of the Maori Party has said that the laws would take New Zealand "back to the 1800s."

Most Americans have depleted their excess savings accumulated during the pandemic, and 99% of Americans will be financially worse off than pre-pandemic by mid-2024. I'm still not entirely sure whether this whole "excess savings" thing is even an actual thing that has existed, because most Americans seem exceptionally unhappy about the economy and going into major debt to continue survival and have been for many months, which contradicts the idea that they had much savings at all.

Famous penis owner, Hunter Biden, has been indicted on new federal tax evasion charges, following previous charges of tax evasion and unlawfully owning a gun.

Zelensky is going to attend Milei's inauguration, which is so freaking epic. It's like that scene in Endgame where Captain America (more like Captain Ukraine!) is like, standing there, and then the dude comes flying out of the portal behind him, and they're like, about to fight Thanos's army, but Putin is Thanos and the army is worldwide communism. Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!

Israeli flag raised in symbolic Palestine Square in Gaza City, video shows

An Israeli flag has been raised in the middle of the symbolic Palestine Square in Gaza City, a video filmed by an Israeli photographer shows.

CNN has geolocated the video.

A journalist in northern Gaza, Khader Al Za’anoun, told CNN on Thursday that Israeli tanks were in the square.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asserted on November 14 that Hamas had lost control in northern Gaza, including in Gaza City.

But on November 30, during a temporary truce, Hamas militants were seen around Palestine Square handing over two Israeli hostages to the Red Cross.

- CNN

There's no video and there's no photo. I googled and I found an unsourced photo and I decided not to share it because it might be AI I don't want to share that crap.

Venezuelans in Near-Consensus on Essequibo Referendum

The full results are expected to be announced some time on Monday.

Venezuela's National Election Council President Elvis Amoroso appeared on television tonight to announce the preliminary results of today's referendum on the fate of the nation's long-standing territorial claim over Essequibo. Addressing the public shortly after 10 PM, he cited preliminary numbers, based on 10.5 million votes counted, demonstrating an overwhelming level of unity within the Venezuelan electorate.

97.83% of referendum participants counted voted yes to question 1: "Do you agree to reject, through all legal means, the fraudulent imposition of the Paris Arbitral Award of 1899 that seeks to deprive us of our Guayana Esequiba?"

98.11% voted yes to question 2: "Do you support the Geneva Agreement of 1966 as the only valid legal instrument to achieve a practical and satisfactory solution for Venezuela and Guyana regarding the controversy over the territory of Guayana Esequiba?"

95.4% voted yes to 3: "Do you agree with Venezuela's historical position of not recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Court of Territorial Justice to resolve the territorial dispute over Guayana Esequiba?"

95.94% voted yes to question 4: "Do you agree to oppose, through all legal means, Guyana's attempt to unilaterally assert control over the ocean pending delimitation, illegally and in violation of International Law?"

95.93% voted yes to question 5: "Do you agree with the creation of the state of Guayana Esequiba and the implementation of an accelerated plan for the comprehensive care of the current and future population of that territory, including, among other things, granting citizenship and Venezuelan identity cards, in accordance with the Geneva Agreement and International Law, thereby incorporating said state into the map of Venezuelan territory?"

According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), more than 20 million Venezuelans were eligible to cast their votes today in 15,857 polling centers in 23 states, 335 counties and 1,141 parishes in a process that started at 06:00 (10:00 GMT) and was initially scheduled to end at 18:00 local time (22:00 GMT), but was extended by two hours due to higher than expected turnout and long lines at the polling centers.

The full results are expected to be announced some time on Monday.

https://archive.is/3tfBD

Canadian miners seek to evade Ottawa’s crackdown on Chinese investment in critical minerals

If the SRG (SRG is the Canadian mining company) transaction with C-ONE (Chinese energy company) goes ahead, China’s position in graphite, an essential component in electric vehicle batteries, will become even stronger. SRG said the investment will put the company’s graphite project in West Africa on the fast track.

A Chinese company investing in a resource project in Africa - imagine the "isn't there someone you forgot to ask" meme here with

The irony of Canada's critical minerals strategy is that people throw fits about Chinese investment in domestic exploration (projects that are a long way off that may never come to fruition) but the only operating lithium mine in Canada was sold to a Chinese battery manufacturer 3.5 years ago

Here's a Financial Times article about how Israel is attacking the tunnels. I only read the last bit where the author finally got to the point. He's a ghoul: "thermobaric weapons... are controversial because of the broader impact of the explosions, especially in populated areas." He also ignores the fact that using sea water to flood the tunnels is literally salting the earth - Israel will probably literally salt the earth in Gaza. - Hexbear

archive.today • Military briefing: How Israel is attacking Hamas’s vast tunnel network

The next step is to destroy the tunnels. Localised explosions cause only limited fall-ins, which can be cleared away or bypassed by surviving fighters. To fully demolish a tunnel, engineers and military experts said, required explosives set down along long portions of the underground passageways.

Kfir said one method was to use liquid explosives that fill the tunnel space and then detonate. Another possibility, he said, was thermobaric weapons, which suck in oxygen to generate a high-temperature explosion that flows around obstacles. But these are controversial because of the broader impact of the explosions, especially in populated areas.

Pumping in seawater from the Mediterranean at high pressure is a third option, and one that Israel has reportedly already started to use. Richemond-Barak said this technique had the advantage of already being used in the oil and gas industry. But, she added, the problem with flooding is "that you don't know how much you have achieved".

The amount of water required depends on the size of the tunnels and ground absorption, she said: "In the past, using water has not produced a 'hard kill'."

Another possibility, which would pose less risk to the hostages than flooding or explosions, is for the IDF to dig tunnels that intercept Hamas's network and burst into its control nodes.

"Israel should... get to the heart of the Hamas system not from above, but from below," Kfir said. "You would need something like automated excavating machines . . . that would dig towards the target."

Such science fiction-like approaches highlight the difficulties and time needed to destroy Hamas's underground realm. They also explain why some officials regret that Israel did not complete the task years earlier.

"We should have destroyed it all when it [Hamas's tunnel network] was smaller. We had all the intelligence," said the former senior security official.