Folks, good news - I think I've found the stupidest article I've read all year, so now you have to read it too.

Courtesy of the failing Rolling Stone magazine: All This News Is Making Horny Copypasta Writers Exhausted

What in the sweet beejesus even is this crap. I think I've twisted my head into the "wtf am I reading" meme at least 15 times going through the article.

Hope you enjoy that feeling now as well.

NEW SOVIET UNION LARPING COMM

https://hexbear.net/c/soviet

NEW SOVIET UNION LARPING COMM

President Nicolas Maduro has held conversations with President Luiz Inácio da Silva and with the Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. In these conversations, the proposal was received to hold a high-level meeting with Guyana, which will be announced in the coming days

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Lula advisor urges Venezuela to avoid force or threats against Guyana (Spanish Only)

Brazil rejects any use of force by Venezuela to occupy Guyana's Essequibo territory and will urge the Caracas government not to threaten its neighbor, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's top foreign policy adviser said on Wednesday.

Celso Amorim, who traveled to Venezuela as Lula's special envoy last month, told Reuters that Brazil opposes "the use of force or its threat."

"I conveyed our very serious concerns," he said of his visit to Caracas ahead of a public referendum on the Essequibo.

"Now there are new facts that are even more worrisome. We will not stop transmitting our concerns especially in relation to the policy of non-use of force," Amorim said.

Venezuelans voted on Sunday in favor of the annexation of the Essequibo in a referendum. The Venezuelan government celebrated the vote despite an International Court of Justice ruling that prohibits Venezuela from taking any action to modify the status quo in the disputed area.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, in declarations to Reuters in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, ruled out the risk of an armed confrontation between Brazil's two neighbors on the northern border.

However, the Brazilian army has reinforced the border region due to growing tensions between Venezuela and Guyana. The Brazilian army is moving armored vehicles and more troops to Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, according to the Ministry of Defense.

It is a region of 160,000 square kilometers, more than twice the size of Ireland, mostly dense jungle. Venezuela reactivated its claim to the Essequibo in recent years following the discovery of vast offshore oil and gas reserves.

The Essequibo has been in dispute since the 19th century, when Guyana was a British colony. A Paris-based international tribunal settled the issue in 1899, but Venezuela claims the decision was rigged.

What is the Hexbear position on the Venezuela-Guyana situation?

I need a high level briefing on the situation now!

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the IACHR, has asked the Peruvian state not to comply with the Constitutional Court's order to release the country's former president, Alberto Fujimori.

The Peruvian state is a signatory to the Court, so its decisions are binding in the country. The Court has already ruled on another occasion that the pardon given to Alberto Fujimori by former Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was illegal.

Gendering will be banned in Bavaria's schools and administration in the future.
"For Bavaria I can say: With us there will be no mandatory gendering. On the contrary: we will even prohibit gendering in schools and administration," said CSU Prime Minister Markus Söder

Mossad released some "fighting footage"

https://nitter.cz/MOSSADil/status/1733547538655936756?t=yFnZz9oLSqteyXJ0qfYxWw

https://twitter.com/MOSSADil/status/1733547538655936756?t=yFnZz9oLSqteyXJ0qfYxWw

The mad lads Vovan and Lexus did it again, this time pranking German vice chancellor Habeck by pretending to be an African politician.

Fuck settlers all my homies hate settlers

Lula Reluctantly Adopts Mediator Role in Venezuela-Guyana Crisis - Bloomberg

Brazilian leader spent hours discussing the conflict Wednesday. He plans to call presidents of both nations in next few days.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has long tried to positioned himself as an independent arbiter in global conflicts, now faces the uncomfortable possibility of having to mediate a crisis between Brazil’s northern neighbors Venezuela and Guyana.

Escalating tensions over Essequibo, an oil-rich region roughly the size of Florida that’s controlled by Guyana but claimed by Venezuela as part of its territory since the 19th century, have suddenly jumped to the top of Lula’s agenda, threatening to overshadow a summit of Mercosur leaders he’s hosting in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.

While the president dreads having to mediate in a regional conflict, he has already accepted the need for South America’s largest country to intervene to tone down the dispute, according to four government officials familiar with the situation.

The leftist Lula, a traditional ally of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and the late Hugo Chavez, spent hours in meetings with his top foreign advisers on Wednesday to discuss the conflict, considered highly sensitive by Brazil’s diplomacy, the officials said, asking for anonymity because the conversations aren’t public. The officials also said Lula is planning to call the presidents of both countries over the next few days.

Brasilia’s main concern: Lula will likely have to walk on a tightrope to moderate a diplomatic crisis between old ally Venezuela and Guyana, which has the backing of Washington — particularly after US giant Exxon Mobil Corp discovered massive oil reserves off the country’s coast.

Things could get even more complicated if Vladimir Putin — a close backer of Venezuela’s socialist regime — also steps amid a possible meeting with Maduro in Moscow this month, the officials said.

The delicate geopolitical game has left Lula uncomfortable as it poses a challenge for his multilateral diplomatic approach, which has so far allowed Brazil to keep good diplomatic relations with most countries, independently of their ideology. Lula’s calibrated reaction to the crisis brewing in Brazil’s northern border also contrasts with his efforts to have an active role to end conflicts far from home, including in the elusive resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war.

“One thing that South America doesn’t need right now is turmoil,” Lula said about the conflict over the weekend. “I expect good sense to prevail.”

No Automatic Alignment:

One of Lula’s main concerns now is to signal to Guyana and the world that his government isn’t automatically aligned with Caracas despite its political closeness. While Brazil understands Venezuela’s reasons to claim Essequibo as part of its territory, it doesn’t have an official position on which country has the right to occupy the region, the officials said.

More importantly, they added, Brazil doesn’t agree with the strategy employed by Caracas — calling a vote to ask the population, among other things, whether Essequibo should become a Venezuelan state — and much less with Maduro’s timing. His Dec. 3 referendum was widely seen by political analysts as a strategy to rally voters with a nationalistic rhetoric ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

In order to convey that message to Guyana, Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira spoke by telephone with President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday.

Lula is expected to push for a negotiated solution through diplomatic channels, trying to defuse tensions that have led Guyana to intensify security measures at the border and ask for the support of the US military. All that Brazil wants to avoid is a war near its border because, as one of the officials put it, things could get out of control very easily in a situation like that.

Still, some Brazilian officials remain confident that the dispute won’t escalate into an armed conflict because Venezuela — one of them said — wants to avoid US sanctions on its oil, gas and gold production. The punitive measures were lifted in October when Maduro agreed to allow the opposition to challenge him in fair elections next year, but could easily be reimposed if his actions in Guyana are considered illegal.

The update has links.

Israeli military responds to allegation it used white phosphorus in southern Lebanon

The Israeli military in the early hours of Friday local time responded to an allegation that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deployed white phosphorus in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

The Lebanon National News Agency (NNA) alleged Thursday that Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of the town of Rmeish, south Lebanon, with "phosphorus."

Video obtained by CNN shows columns of white smoke above the outskirts of the hilltop town. CNN is unable to confirm the use of phosphorous munitions.

In a statement to CNN, the IDF said that it “only legal weapons and ammunition.”

“The primary smoke-screen shells used by the IDF do not contain white phosphorus. Like many Western militaries, the IDF also possesses smoke-screen shells that include white phosphorous that are legal under international law. These shells are used by the IDF for creating smoke screens and not for targeting or causing fires and are not defined under law as incendiary weapons," the statement said. “IDF procedures require that such shells are not used in densely populated areas, subject to certain exceptions. This complies and goes beyond the requirements of international law.”

Is white phosphorus illegal? Under an international protocol ratified by Israel in 1995, the use of such incendiary weapons is allowed when "not specifically designed to cause burn injury to persons," CNN previously reported.

There is no prohibition, per se, against white phosphorus in conflict. But the timing and location of its use are restricted.

For example, it is illegal under the protocol to use white phosphorus against any personnel, civilian or military. It can be directed only against military targets. International law says incendiary weapons cannot be used where civilians are concentrated.

Israel's history with white phosphorus: Israel previously faced widespread criticism for firing white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas during a Gaza offensive that began in late 2008. HRW said in a 2009 report that Israel's white phosphorus munitions had killed and injured civilians and damaged civilian structures, including a school, a market, a humanitarian aid warehouse, and a hospital. HRW claimed that Israel's use of the weapons in crowded neighborhoods "violated international humanitarian law (the laws of war), which requires taking all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm and prohibits indiscriminate attacks."

In response, Israel pledged to limit the use of white phosphorus and make greater efforts to protect civilians during conflicts. Still, the government said that it had used white phosphorus lawfully.

Claim of recent use: In October, Human Rights Watch accused Israeli forces of using white phosphorus during military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

According to the HRW report, the rights group said it verified one video taken on October 10 in Lebanon and another video in Gaza on October 11 that it claimed shows "multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border."

Israel denied the claims by Human Rights Watch.

"Isweal is not doing genocide and ethnic cleansing. It is only annexation. I am twying. I pwomise. Or my name isn't Elmer Fudd Joe Biden. Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah..."

Putin says EAEU, Iran to sign agreement to create free trade zone

Putin Announces Plans to Run for President in 2024

"We have proven that we are capable of tackling some of the most complex challenges," the Russian president said.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his plans to run for reelection in 2024. The announcement was made during an informal conversation with participants of his country's special military operation

Previously, on Thusday, the Russian leader confirmed that his country supports the establishment of a new "truly democratic" model of global economic development.

"The entire global system of economic relations is undergoing fundamental irreversible changes. This is because the previous model of globalization is being replaced by a multipolar model," Putin said at the plenary session of the 14th VTB "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum.

"We want to create a new model, a truly democratic one, where fair competition between all economic actors prevails," he said, adding that such a change in the global economic landscape and the emergence of new powers would be a "natural" and "objective" process.

The Russian leader also said that current developments could potentially lead to a "revolution" that would ultimately challenge the monopoly of large Western banks.

He said the West has essentially destroyed the principles of market economy, and the financial infrastructure dominated by the U.S. dollar and the euro has been discredited.

"Russia's GDP grew by 3.2 percent this year over the course of 10 months," Putin said, adding that it is at a higher level than before the large-scale Western sanctions imposed against the country.

"We have proven that we are capable of tackling some of the most complex challenges," Putin said, adding that the 2023 Russian GDP growth rate is expected to reach 3.5 percent.

The 14th VTB "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum is being held on Dec. 7 and 8 in Moscow. The main theme of the event is "Making Deglobalization: Uniting Sovereign Economies."