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The US has demanded curbs to Beijing’s alleged influence over the country’s key waterway

Panama will not renew its participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, President Jose Raul Mulino said on Sunday.

The announcement comes on the heels of Mulino’s meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who demanded “immediate changes” to management of the Panama Canal, a key waterway built by the US in the early 20th century and handed over to Panama in 1999. Washington believes that China has too much influence over the waterway.

“The 2017 memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative will not be renewed by my government,” Mulino told reporters following the talks with Rubio, adding that his government will also study the possibility of terminating the deal earlier, as it is not due for renewal for a couple of years.

During the talks, Rubio warned Mulino that by allowing China’s involvement in the canal, Panama is violating the 1977 treaty with the US which guarantees the permanent neutrality of the waterway. Rubio said that unless the country reduces Chinese influence, which Washington views as “a threat to the canal,” it could face potential US retaliation.

Rubio’s warning followed threats made over the past few weeks by US President Donald Trump, who said Washington could retake control of the Panama Canal if China’s presence around the waterway is not reduced and Panama does not lower the “ridiculous fees” the US has to pay for using it.

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Under the [Belt and Road], Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings in 2021 won a 25-year contract for control over two ports at the canal’s entrances, and a consortium of Chinese companies has launched the construction of a $1.3 billion bridge over the waterway.

The US could join Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites, sources have told the newspaper

The transition team of US President-elect Donald Trump is considering options for targeting Iran, including a direct attack on its nuclear facilities, sources have told the Wall Street Journal on condition of anonymity.

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Trump is understood to have told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a recent phone call that he does not want Iran to go nuclear on his watch. Tehran denies that it wants to achieve nuclear capability [...]

”Trump aides and confidants supporting military options for his second term said the main idea would be to support Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities like Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan, and even potentially have the US participate in a joint operation,” the newspaper reported.

The Times of Israel reported this week that the Netanyahu government is preparing strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. The sites are highly fortified, so it’s not clear whether the Israeli military could inflict sufficient damage with the conventional weapons in its arsenal. The US could provide heavy bombers and bunker-buster bombs for such an operation.

Days earlier, the Pentagon reported another major breakthrough with interception of an intermediate-range ballistic missile

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has reported a successful test of the hypersonic weapon system dubbed the Dark Eagle, which is being developed jointly by the Army and the Navy.

The two military services intend to use the same hypersonic glider warhead, the C-HGB, whose booster rocket could be launched from either land or a vessel, including a Zumwalt-class destroyer and a Virginia-class submarine.

The recent test launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and which the Pentagon announced on Thursday, involved the Army’s version, officially named the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW).

The weapon has a reported range of 1,725 miles (2,775km), with the warhead travelling at speeds of over 3,800 miles per hour (6,115km/h), which corresponds to Mach 5 and defines the weapon as a hypersonic projectile.

The joint program faced delays, with the Army telling Bloomberg in September 2023 that it was missing its goal to field the system by the end of FY2023.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon heralded a major defense achievement, reporting that the US Missile Defense Agency has for the first time conducted a successful interception of an air-launched medium-range ballistic missile in Guam.

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The annual CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show) is set to take place in Las Vegas, the US. It is reported that around 4,000 exhibitors from around the world have registered to attend, with more than 30 percent of them coming from China. However, latest media reports indicated that many employees from Chinese technology companies were denied US visas despite holding invitations to attend. Some commentators have called this visa rejection "unprecedented." So far, there has been no official response from the US government on this matter. We urge the US Department of State to verify relevant reports as soon as possible, reduce visa and entry policy obstacles, facilitate normal people-to-people business and industrial exchanges between the two countries, and implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state.

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For this reason, the large-scale visa denials faced by Chinese companies have left even the American side, including the event organizers, stunned. Chris Pereira, the founder of iMpact, a New York-based consultancy, said exhibitions like CES were "wonderful opportunities for business exchanges between companies from China, the US, and the rest of the world, but now it is frustrating to see even events like this being impacted."

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In the past, some Chinese companies were unable to attend CES mainly due to the impact of unilateral sanctions imposed by the US, but this is the first time that large-scale visa issues have been the obstacle. Even people in the US immediately suspected that this was politically motivated, rather than being due to any "technical reasons."

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Plans are being made to freeze the conflict by sending 100,000 foreign troops to the country, according to the SVR

The West is secretly planning to occupy Ukraine and freeze the conflict with Russia by deploying tens of thousands of supposed peacekeepers to the country, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said.

In a statement on Friday, the spy agency cited intelligence sources as saying that NATO is increasingly in favor of halting the hostilities along the current front line, as the US-led military bloc and Ukraine have come to realize that they are failing to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia.

Freezing the conflict would allow the West to rebuild the shattered Ukrainian military and “prepare it for an attempt at revenge,” the SVR stated. It further claimed that NATO is already setting up training centers to process at least one million Ukrainian conscripts.

“To solve these tasks, the West will need to essentially occupy Ukraine. Naturally, this will be done under the guise of deploying a ‘peacekeeping contingent’ in the country… According to the plan, a total of 100,000 so-called peacekeepers will be deployed in Ukraine.”

According to the SVR, the plan would also involve Ukraine being partitioned into four large occupation zones. Romania would take the Black Sea coast, Poland would control Western Ukraine, and the UK would occupy the north, including Kiev. The central and eastern parts of the country would be taken by Germany, the agency claimed.

The SVR also alleged that Germany plans to revive practices implemented by the Nazi regime during World War II to “police” Ukraine. In particular, Berlin wants to create special “death squads” made up of Ukrainian nationalists to maintain order in the occupied territory, the statement read.

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The idea of direct Western participation in the conflict is reportedly back on the table, according to the newspaper

The UK and France have “reactivated” talks on sending troops to Ukraine, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Monday. The idea has already caused a rift among European NATO members.

Back in February, French President Emmanuel Macron caused controversy by declaring his willingness to send ground troops to Ukraine “to prevent Russia from winning this war.” The statement was quickly disavowed by NATO officials, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters that Ukraine’s Western backers were “unanimous” in their opposition to the idea.

The plan was seemingly shelved, Le Monde has reported, until British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Paris earlier this month. Citing anonymous sources, the French newspaper claimed that talks on a possible Franco-British deployment to Ukraine were “reactivated” by Starmer and Macron.

No further information was provided, and Le Monde speculated that this deployment could range from both nations sending private-sector technicians to repair military equipment (as Britain already does), to private military contractors (as Russia insists that France does), to flag-wearing personnel on the ground, either on the front line or to enforce an eventual ceasefire and peace deal.

The climate activist is supporting a push to overturn the national election by the country’s pro-Western opposition

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg joined thousands of demonstrators who marched on the Georgian parliament in Tbilisi on Monday as they protested against what they say was a rigged election last month.

The parliamentary elections in the former Soviet republic took place on October 26, with the ruling Georgian Dream party, which advocates pragmatic relations with Russia, winning around 54% of the vote.

Various opposition parties each garnered between 11% and 3%. The opposition has refused to recognize the results of the poll, insisting they were falsified. President Salome Zourabichvili has backed these claims, urging the people to protest and saying Georgia had become a “victim of a Russian special operation.”

In an interview with Reuters, however, she insisted that she was not directly accusing Moscow of meddling, saying only that the “methodology used in support of most probably Russian… types is shown in the election.”

“Of course, you cannot prove anything,” she admitted, while pointing to “clear links” between the ruling party and Russia.

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Democrats are reportedly coordinating activity on Reddit and abusing X Community Notes

Kamala Harris’ and Tim Walz’s campaign staff have organized “astroturf” operations on the social media platform Reddit and conspired to manipulate the Community Notes feature on X, according to an American researcher.

The Harris-Walz campaign “fraudulently games Community Notes with sock puppet accounts and astroturf tactics. And we have the screenshots and spreadsheets and campaign comms to prove it,” Sean Davis, founder of the outlet Federalist, posted on Wednesday.

Davis was citing a series of articles by a researcher going by the handle ‘Reddit Lies’, including screenshots taken from the Harris-Walz server on the messaging platform Discord, purporting to show how the Democrats conspired to swamp social media with their content, while suppressing criticism.

What a surprise. All that crying about Russia, Russia, Russia. Many of us have long known that there was coordination going on and that the teams and tactics date back to the Hillary campaign.

The researchers are of course Republican reactionary types. But it's nice they're paying attention and howling about this as it would be if they do something to harass or punish these people if they win power as they are ever so annoying.

For those a bit confused, this is the first time the US military has agreed with Ukrainian and occupied Korean claims that the DPRK has sent troops intended for Ukraine itself and marks an escalation in propaganda rhetoric.

I've archived the source to avoid giving the AP clicks for uncritically carried western propaganda.

US issued meaningless threat that they would be considered combatants and targeted by weapons the west gave them if they fought there alongside Russian troops (duh, very confusing and kinda telling statement).

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters. Rutte said the move represents “a significant escalation” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and marks “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to reshape global power dynamics. He sought to build a counterbalance to Western influence with a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week. He has sought direct help for the war from Iran, which has supplied drones, and North Korea, which has shipped large amounts of ammunition, according to Western governments.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Rutte’s comments and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June. He stopped short of confirming North Korean soldiers were in Russia.

The Ukraine regime is now claiming that these troops could be on the battlefield in days. A strange reversal from claims they were already on the battlefield and they'd captured some which happened a week ago. Time must be moving backwards there.

IMO this represents a pretext being invented to give Ukraine an excuse to use long-range weapons for deep strikes into Russia by saying it's fair game for the US to help as the DPRK is helping Russia (as if those two things are equal). In other words a desperate rush to nuclear war.

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Leaders of several opposition parties in Georgia have said they will not recognize the results of the weekend's national parliamentary vote. According to the official results, the ruling Georgian Dream party received almost 54% of the vote, while various opposition forces attracted between 11% and 3%.

Georgian Dream party chairman Mamuka Mdinaradze has claimed the party is likely to win at least 90 of the national chamber’s 150 seats, up from the 74 it won in the last election. The party will then be able to form the next government since a simple 76-strong majority is needed in Georgia to pick the next prime minister and cabinet.

Tina Bokuchava, who heads the pro-Western Unity-National Movement (UNM) party, has accused the nation’s central election committee of doing Georgian Dream’s bidding and of “stealing the European future” of Georgia.

"The European future" really giving the game away with that anti-Russian chauvinism.

Bokuchava also said on Sunday that she’d already met with Georgia’s Western-leaning president Salome Zourabichvili, describing the meeting as “very important.” According to media in Georgia, the president has met with representatives of several opposition groups on Sunday, including the UNM and ‘Strong Georgia.’

Not good.

Salome Zourabichvili has claimed that the vote was won by what she called “European Georgia,” and despite alleged “attempts to rig elections.”

Georgian Dream’s Mdinaradze responded to the president’s statements by calling her an “agent” of the opposition radicals. “Georgia no longer has a president. Georgia has an agent, a leader of the radical opposition… the main coordinator,” the politician stated on Sunday.

Georgian Dream seem to be whatever else they are as not comprador lap-dogs of the west, maybe not entirely pro-Russian but realistic, they're the ones who pushed through the law forcing outing of foreign funding for NGOs which resulted in an attempted color revolution that failed.

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The billionaire distributed the money to “fascists” through opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan leader has claimed

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused tech tycoon Elon Musk of “investing” at least $1 billion in inciting violence in the South American country after the presidential election earlier this year.

Maduro was declared the winner of the July 28 poll by the national election authorities, though the US claimed that victory had been stolen from opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.

During his weekly television program on Monday, Maduro alleged to have direct knowledge that Musk – with whom he has been engaged in a long-running public feud – had spent “no less than $1 billion” on “the coup d’etat, the fascist outbreak, the violence against the electoral process in Venezuela.”

The Venezuelan leader named his political opponent, businesswoman Maria Corina Machado, as the distributor of the alleged funding to “fascist” groups, claiming that the US government was ultimately behind attempts to oust him from power.

Following the vote in July, Musk accused Maduro of “major election fraud,” while the Venezuelan president declared the South African-born billionaire his “arch enemy” who “controls the virtual reality” created by social media. The two agreed to settle their differences in a fistfight, which never happened.

Musk has previously expressed support for removing foreign governments in pursuit of his corporate interests. In July 2020, he was challenged online with a claim that Washington had orchestrated a coup against Bolivian President Evo Morales so that his electric car company, Tesla, could secure access to the country’s rich lithium reserves. Musk responded with a post: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.”

Nicaragua has formally severed diplomatic relations with Israel, accusing it of “genocide” and military aggression in the Palestinian territories.

According to a resolution passed by the National Assembly on Friday, the break in relations is a response to the “brutal genocide that the fascist and war criminal government of Israel continues to commit against the Palestinian people.”

President Daniel Ortega has instructed the Foreign Ministry to “abide” by parliament’s request and cut diplomatic relations with Israel, according to Vice President Rosario Murillo.

“We respect the Israeli people who demand the cessation of this massacre, barbarism, and crimes committed by the nefarious Zionist government and army,” the Nicaraguan parliamentary resolution said, calling the Israeli government “an enemy of humanity, which intends to spread its barbarism throughout the Middle East, endangering world peace and security.”

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