news

Big fires on the north side of LA. Looks like they might even take out Malibu altogether. This is some very expensive real estate going up in smoke.

Indonesia joins BRICS bloc as full member, says Brazil Brazil, which holds the bloc's presidency in 2025, said the member states approved Indonesia's entry by consensus as part of an expansion push initially approved at the bloc's 2023 summit in Johannesburg.

Sao Paulo: Brazil's government said in a statement on Monday that Indonesia is formally joining BRICS as a full member, further expanding the group of major emerging economies that also includes Russia, India, China and South Africa. Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous nation, had previously expressed its desire to join the group as a means of strengthening emerging countries and furthering the interests of the so-called Global South.

Brazil, which holds the bloc's presidency in 2025, said the member states approved Indonesia's entry by consensus as part of an expansion push initially approved at the bloc's 2023 summit in Johannesburg. The South American nation noted that Indonesia's bid got the green light from the bloc in 2023, but the Asian country asked to join following the presidential election held last year. President Prabowo Subianto took office in October.

"Indonesia shares with the other members of the group support for the reform of global governance institutions and contributes positively to the deepening of cooperation in the Global South," the Brazilian government said. The BRICS group also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Someone flew a drone into one of the planes fighting the fires in LA

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-sopfeu-plane-grounded-1.7427777

I got an old church community cookbook from my hometown to see if I could get any old regional heritage recipes from it, because all of my family's recipes were destroyed in a fire. Almost half the recipes had jello as a major ingredient, and some other ones were real bangers like "baked fish with ritz crackers on top". I could feel my skin turn a few shades whiter.

Mainstream media glosses over role of Ukrainian far-right in Wpg hate crimes - People's Voice

Mainstream media in Canada is glossing over the role of far-right Ukrainian groups in acts of hate. Specifically, coverage of the recent appearance of swastikas on a southwest Winnipeg community centre have failed to acknowledge the presence and significance of the spraypainted “M.K.Y.” next to the hate symbols. MKY (or MKU) is an extreme-right accelerationist Ukrainian group that recruits online and encourages acts of racist acts of violence.

I don’t quite understand the SC ruling on Tiktok ban.

The projected loss of revenues for vendors is about $1 billion, with another $300 million loss for content creators. Granted I’m not a fan of Tiktok/Douyin and never used it, but this is undeniably yet another class warfare waged by Biden and probably won’t even be the last before he leaves office.

Is Biden seriously doing this to take away Trump’s bargaining chip with China? Does he really want to stoke a war as his final act as the president?

I think Trump will still fight the court decision but the grounds for divestiture is thin.

https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1hyuruu/ua_pov_sbu_posted_a_video_with_north_korean_pow/

Ukraine is saying they captured two "North Korean soldiers". One's jaw is broken so he can't respond to the questions they ask, and they narrated over the other one.

Eaton Fire in Los Angeles now approaching Mount Wilson Observatory. Buncha science shit gonna get rekt.

Both the Eaton and Palisades fires are both around 0% contained

The Venezuelan government says it has arrested seven mercenaries who were planning 'terrorist acts' on the eve of Maduro's inauguration.

The operation was announced on the same day that opponents were arrested in the capital; the ceremony is scheduled for January 10. The Venezuelan government confirmed on Tuesday (7) the arrest of 7 more mercenaries who were part of a plan to destabilize the country. According to President Nicolás Maduro, two of those arrested were Americans, three Colombians and two Ukrainians. Their aim was to promote attacks against Venezuelan authorities.

According to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, the detainees were trained in paramilitarism and the attack plans were to be carried out as of Wednesday (8), on the eve of Maduro's inauguration, scheduled for January 10. The authorities, however, did not give details of how these actions would be carried out. The arrests of the seven agents are in addition to the arrests of another 125 mercenaries from 15 countries, who also had the aim of promoting “terrorist acts”.

At a press conference, Cabello said that María Corina Machado is linked to the attack plans, as well as former Colombian presidents Iván Duque and Álvaro Uribe. The mercenaries' countries include Colombia, the United States, Peru, Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Albania, the Netherlands, Israel, Argentina, Guyana and Yemen. Last Monday (6), Maduro himself denounced a new attempt to kill his vice-president, but this time orchestrated by the Argentine government. The action would be carried out by Argentine policeman Nahuel Gallo, who was arrested on December 8 trying to enter Venezuelan territory.

Here's how Bernie can still win:

2025: Trump threatens Denmark into handing over Greenland. As part of the deal to hand over the colony without making a fuss, Greenland's government gets a guarantee that it's universal healthcare system will remain unchanged and be funded by the federal government.

2026: The Territory of Greenland is a reality. American citizens begin emigrating to Greenland to get healthcare. Nuuk grows to five times it's current size, making the Inuit a minority.

2027: The US regime attempts to restrict access to Greenlandic healthcare but that is struck down as unconstitutional. Feeling the need to do something popular in the face of the rising threat from the Luigi movement the regime decides to expand Greenlandic healthcare to the entire nation.

2028: Having granted Americans access to healthcare, Trump goes down in history as one of the most popular presidents. JD Vance is elected in a landslide on promises of keeping Trump-care

While this isn’t “news” in that this event happened decades ago, but it’s worth noting that when Carter handed over the Panama Canal, it wasn’t an event that went largely unnoticed at the time. To the contrary, it was actually a huge deal. The American population didn’t like it (in the same way they didn’t like Biden pulling troops out of Afghanistan - only bad in that it’s a blow to “national pride”). Reagan and other Republicans criticized Carter for it on the campaign trail. And while I wouldn’t say it was a decisive factor in getting Reagan elected, it certainly played a significant part of it.

Trump's Invasion of Greenland Would Be 'World's Shortest War' - Politico. Denmark has only 17,000 soldiers, and most of the heavy equipment for the ground forces was donated to Ukraine.

Not exactly news but relevant for the news heads here: over the last few months Proles Pod has released a series of episodes called The Stalin Era from Episode 63-71 and going.

I haven’t listened to it and probably won’t have time to listen for quite a while, but I guess the comrades here might be interested to give it a go and let us know if they’re good or not!

It's like an addiction to nonsense. After having more than 24 hours to come up with a convincing explanation for her (non-existent) "kidnapping", Machado managed to make it even more ridiculous. Somehow, in an age where everything is livestreamed, there is no evidence, nor even a minimal description of who was involved. And also, according to Machado, she was detained by armed men who then released her in exchange for her recording a video saying she had not been detained. No further questions, your honor!

Honestly, Machado should have stayed offline for longer and then come up with a heroic escape tale, given how her supporters and the corporate press will just believe anything. But there is more nonsense. Machado said former candidate Edmundo González did not come because the government turned on air defense systems! When in the past it simply barred planes from taking off without authorization. It also would have been easier to just shut down airspace, or even arrest González once he landed

The bottom line is that the US-backed opposition once again created the illusion that it had plans and means to make something happen to stop Maduro from taking office today, when in fact (and all the evidence suggested it) they really had no cards to play

another scandal from nonce island, in which blairite and former minister of defence under blair during the iraq war, Ivor Caplin, was tagged for soliciting sex from a minor. the british chud press is going pretty wild on this but to avoid linking the daily mail, here's a story from the canary with details.

caplin was also the chair of the 'jewish labour movement' during 2018-2019 over the corbyn years. in 2023 the JLM bragged about having taken down corbyn

More terrible numbers out of Germany

https://archive.is/lU1j3

Demand fell 5.4% in November from the previous month, far worse than the 0.2% decline economists had predicted in a Bloomberg survey.

Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump speaks out in support of the Venezuelan opposition, and calls upon the 'regime' not to harm freedom fighters Maria Corina Machado & President-elect Gonzalez.

Maria Corina Machado, the face of the Venezuelan opposition, was arrested earlier today after a last ditch effort to prevent tomorrow's ratification of the Presidential Election results from July 2024, which resulted in a heavily controversial win for incumbent candidate Nicolas Maduro.

Bipartisan support for terrorism

Made the mistake of checking up on NATOpedia articles about Russia and Ukraine.

Using the Russian spelling for Russian legal entities? Nah, the LPR is definitely called Luhansk People's Republic.

An article about a classification of legal entity that exists solely within Russian law (Republics of Russia)? Umm, actually Crimea, Donetsk, and Lugansk don't count because there isn't international recognition of those legal entities' status in Russian law.

Ukraine's claim of North Korean troops? Treated as fact.

Russia blew up their own dam for some reason? Fact.

The images on the main page about the invasion are all Russian casualties or supposed Russian war crimes. Obviously Ukraine hasn't had any losses worth showing, and they definitely haven't committed war crimes.

After the meeting at US government headquarters, Edmundo González gave a statement to the press. He was not accompanied by Biden and spoke alone for two minutes. According to the opposition leader, the US government is committed to the “recovery of democracy in Venezuela”.

“This is a commitment that we will follow until President Biden's last day here in Washington. Biden's team is not going with us to Venezuela, but they are accompanying us wholeheartedly on our way back to Caracas,” said the opposition leader.

Biden's term, however, ends in less than two weeks and Republican Donald Trump will take over for the next four years. Also according to the former ambassador, the far-right Unity Platform coalition team has been in contact with Trump's team “for a long time” in order to maintain a close relationship when the Republican is in the White House.

Edmundo also mentioned that the intention is to return to a three-party policy in the country, “as we have maintained since the beginning”. He's referring to the 50-year maintenance of the Punto Fijo Pact, signed by Copei, Acción Democrática and the Democratic Republican Union after the fall of Marco Pérez Jiménez's dictatorship in 1958.

The trip to the United States followed a weekend in which Edmundo met with the presidents of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and Argentina, Javier Milei. In both meetings, the extreme right-wing Venezuelan opposition leader once again stressed his intention to be in Caracas on January 10th to take office: “By any means, I'll be there”.

The opposition leader will still have trips to the Dominican Republic and Panama before Maduro's inauguration. His group, led by the ultra-liberal María Corina Machado, questions the Chavista's victory on July 28 and claims, without providing proof, to have collected 85.18% of Venezuela's electoral records. According to the group's count, these results would give victory to Edmundo González with 67% of the valid votes.

Juan Guaido 2.0 Nalvany Arc?

Does anyone have any good sources for the NordStream bankruptcy case this month? The rumor is that U.S. investor Steven Lynch got a special sanctions permit from the US treasury that would allow him to buy the pipeline and then act as a middleman for reselling Russian gas into Europe, earning a nice markup for doing literally nothing. Is this true? If yes, this would mean that Europe has completely and totally capitulated to the US in every way, even at their own direct expense.

Cursed Timeline: Trump annex all of Canada, but grants independence to Quebec.

Maduro suggests using Brazilian troops to free Puerto Rico.

The Venezuelan president has said that the freedom of Puerto Rico, a US territory, is pending. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (United Socialist Party of Venezuela, left) suggested on Saturday using “Brazilian troops” to win the “freedom of Puerto Rico”, an island located in the Caribbean under the control of the United States.

“Just as in the north they have a colonization agenda, we have a liberation agenda. The agenda was written by Simón Bolívar. Puerto Rico's freedom is pending, and we're going to win it, Breno. With Brazilian troops. And Abreu de Lima at the front. Abreu de Lima Battalion to liberate Puerto Rico, what do you think?” said Maduro.

During his speech, Maduro mentions someone called Breno. He then suggests using “troops from Brazil”. It is possible to interpret that the mention of Brazilians was motivated by the relationship that the chavista has with this person called Breno and that it was all just a joke.

The Abreu e Lima Battalion, named after Pernambuco general José Inácio de Abreu e Lima, took an active part in Simón Bolívar's campaigns, including independence movements in countries such as Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. The current governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González-Colón, has already spoken out against Maduro. After the elections in the country, she said that “Edmundo González is the elected president of Venezuela” and that she supports “María Corina and the courageous Venezuelan people”.

The results of the election have been repeatedly contested by the European Union and several individual countries, such as the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. Brazilian president President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that he saw nothing unusual in the country's elections.

Human Rights Watch criticized Presidents Lula, Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Mexico) in August 2024. In a letter sent to the three presidents, they said it was necessary for them to reconsider their positions on Venezuela and criticized the leaders' proposals.

Video/Tweet

Don't think I saw it posted but a couple of days ago the DPRK claimed to have successfully tested a hypersonic missile

Argentine Judges Sentence Leftist Leader for Pro-Palestinian Messages - Telesur English

Nazi hunters: Countries enforcing the genocide convention against IDF vacationing abroad.

https://youtu.be/j-d2NGxh5Ak

I wonder what the realistic chances are on Trump’s proposed expansionism. Like for the most part I think they’d be very low, but part of me thinks he could get away with just landing troops in Greenland and saying “this is ours now” without a fight. Europe is totally cucked to America at this point anyway.

His idea for Canada seems to be economic warfare. How dependent is Canada on the US? How fucked would they be if Trump said “statehood or embargo”? (Although I very much doubt that one would happen.)

And we’ve invaded Central American countries before with no repercussions.

Again I think the likelihood is probably pretty damn low, but at the same time it does seem possible, if Trump really wants to push it and the Republicans in Congress obey him.

LA Wildfires Push California Insurance Market to Its Limit

Love how the lightest color on that scale is $500k

reposting that one debatebro who was going 'why didn't they get insurance?'

General who led 2009 coup d'état arrested in Honduras. The former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Honduras, General Romeo Vásquez, was arrested Sunday as allegedly responsible for the murder of a protester by military officers in 2009, days after leading the coup against former President Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009).

The Baltics bootlick the West so hard only to be placed in the same tier as Indonesia and the AES
https://xcancel.com/Gokul_Sahni/status/1877211735364374700

A very interesting proposed list – a lot of countries friendly to the US will not make the cut for the most permissive AI exports.

Trudeau says 'not a snowball's chance in hell' Canada will join US

Lmao I love how this is now international news

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzn4xx0q2o

such a chaotic moist-boy

Trump shares a video of Sachs where he talks shit about Netanyahu. Netanyahu will come groveling and Trump will give in and help with genocide. It's a tragic and horrific spectacle. The kayfabe is impressive.

The Eaton Fire has jumped the 210 highway and in the process burnt down a significant portion of Altadena.

KTLA Live Stream

the future is what we make it

EU's Von der Leyen has not received invite to Trump inauguration, spokesperson says.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has not yet received an invitation to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, a spokesperson said on Friday. "If she receives an invitation, then we will see but there are no plans (to attend the inauguration) at the moment", spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters during a daily briefing.

Trump has broken with precedent and invited several foreign leaders to the ceremony. Historically they have not attended due to security concerns and have sent diplomats instead. Chinese President Xi Jinping, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni among others have received invitations.

When will people learn Bolsonaro literally can't leave Brazil. At this point I think they are just fucking with him.

According to reports, Xi will not attend but will send a top-level envoy in his place.

Citizens and police jointly support earthquake relief in Xizang, China

Keep hearing a justification of invading greenland is that climate change makes it easier to access more oil....that will further contribute to climate change.

The Kingdom of Denmark changes its coat of arms for the first time in 500 years in response to Donald Trump's threats to invade Greenland and take the territory by force.

The measure taken by King Frederik removes the triple crown of the Kalmar Union (which united Denmark, Sweden and Norway) and places the bear of Greenland and the ram of the Faroe Islands. In his New Year's speech, the king reaffirmed the unity of the Kingdom of Denmark “all the way to Greenland”.

What is going to happen to Los Angeles?