Israel will oppose bringing forward the annual budget for the United Nations agency that carries out humanitarian work in Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has instructed the Israeli delegation to the UN “to oppose bringing forward the annual budget of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees,” according to the foreign ministry.

Cohen said bringing forward the budget from 2025 to 2024 would be precedent-setting and dangerous, “especially in light of the evidence of Hamas using the organization's facilities as terrorist infrastructure.”

Cohen said that "UNRWA is part of the problem, not part of the solution. The countries of the world must put an end to UNRWA's perpetuation of the conflict, and (its) turning a blind eye for years to incitement to terrorism and Hamas' cynical use of agency facilities and Gaza residents as human shields."

"Israel will oppose any move that continues to inject money into UNRWA," Cohen said.

Cohen instructed the Israeli delegation to the UN to oppose any move that would advance the agency's annual budget, claiming that transferring a budget to UNRWA “without substantially changing its objectives and functioning would send the wrong message of a return to the routine of before the October 7th.”

CNN is reaching out to UNRWA for a response to Cohen’s remarks.

- CNN

This article on NC regarding "what would Russia do with all of ukraine if they annex it or install a puppet government" is worth a look. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12/as-russia-signals-it-can-achieve-maximalist-aims-in-ukraine-how-would-russia-manage-kiev-and-western-ukraine.html

I don't know how real any of the above is but fun to read about a scenario where western sanctions and maximalism means that even more western funbux are flushed down the toilet in project ukraine.

I think this article is worth a look by our more financial vs industrial capital minded members

Venezuela Welcomes Release of Diplomat Alex Saab

"Alex Saab is a victim of retaliation by the United States government for his exceptional international efforts to protect the social rights of all Venezuelans."

The Venezuelan government celebrated on Wednesday the release of diplomat Alex Saab from an illegal kidnapping to which he was subjected for more than 3 years in the U.S. in violation of international law.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry welcomed in a statement the release and return to his homeland of the diplomat, who spent more than 1,280 days of unjust confinement in a U.S. detention center after being unjustly detained.

"The people welcome him with pride after having suffered three and a half years of illegal detention under cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, violating his human rights and the Vienna Convention that grants him diplomatic immunity," the text reads.

“Alex Saab is a victim of retaliation by the United States government for his exceptional international efforts to protect the social rights of all Venezuelans, in the face of the intensification of unilateral coercive measures,” says the statement.

Venezuela said that his freedom "is a symbol of victory of the Bolivarian diplomacy of peace and of the thousands of demonstrations of solidarity expressed from all corners of the world by social movements, intellectuals, artists and other fighters for justice."

Likewise, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry recognized "the courage and dignity of his wife, children and family, who accompanied him at all times in his denunciation and in the hope for his release."

It added that "today the link of this injustice is broken, which obliges us to reaffirm once again the unanimous demand of all of Venezuela for a definitive, immediate and unconditional end to the criminal blockade imposed by the Government of the United States against all the Venezuelan people."

Maduro and Saab

Ancap Update:

Javier Milei, President of Argentina, addresses the nation tonight at 9pm.

The message will focus on the deregulation that Milei wants to introduce into the country's economy, and he will also talk about today's protests.

Also, it seems that Patricia Bullrich has been posting videos on her Instagram that show the police force. Very strange Nazi-esque propaganda. Very cool libertarian.

The last couple John Helmer articles have a lot on the disposition of Russian, american/nato and Chinese naval assets around the red sea

https://johnhelmer.net/running-the-red-gauntlet-russia-is-negotiating-with-the-houthis-for-red-sea-passage-of-oil-cargoes-defying-us-eu-sanctions/

https://johnhelmer.org/breaking-news-chinese-iranian-and-indian-warships-are-now-in-the-red-sea-gulf-of-aden/

It's getting pretty crowded over there.

Interesting. An oil tanker that was attacked in the Red Sea was initially claimed to be India-flagged by the US before the Indian Navy had to say it was actually Gabon-flagged with Indian sailors. Honest mistake or something more sinister?

https://aljazeera.co.in/politics/houthi-attack-navy-denies-us-claim-says-mv-saibaba-tank-not-india-flagged-adds-all-25-indian-crew-members-safe/

Huawai confirms satellite mega-constellation

Looks like a Starlink competitor from Huawei (i.e., mostly for rural communities in peacetime and for military applications in wartime), but the article posits that, unlike Starlink, it might be accessible by phone without requiring a bulky satellite dish?

If you like military discussion then simplicius' latest is worth. Note there is transphobic content quoting from some Congressperson about 3/4th down, and simplicius is as the name suggests, a milblogger reactionary chud.

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/more-afu-downers-from-the-press-mill

Topics include

• ukraine being fucked, struggling to raise troops, pointless attacks on the left bank of the dnieper near kherson

• the US currently having less active military personnel than Russia

• red sea naval maneuvers, commentary on ansarallah including landmark use by them of an antiship ballistic missile

He is a chud and has no understanding of political economic issues but is worth reading for military analysis. this article stayed in his wheelhouse so it was worthwhile.

I’m attempting to parse what the news about “Pope allows priests to bless same sex unions” actually means, since the media always seems to read more into his proclamations than what is there.

I don’t see that the Catholic Church is changing their stance that engaging in homosexual acts is a sin. I think that’s the point that’s the most salient, because I think that’s how a lot of people are interpreting a “blessing” to mean. A blessing is more like “just give me some good vibes, bro”. Gays and lesbians still cannot have their marriages recognized as valid by the church and the Pope stated in this most recent proclamation that these blessings can’t even have a semblance of a wedding.

This just feels like the Catholic equivalent of what a lot of “seeker sensitive” conservative Protestant churches will say: “we welcome everyone”, and they will talk about welcoming LGBTQ people into the doors. But it literally just means “we want you to come to our church so you can hear the gospel but we’re still going to eventually tell you what you’re doing is a sin”.

Pope Francis authorizes blessings for same-sex couples

Pope Francis formally permitted Roman Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples on Monday, in a significant shift in Vatican doctrine.

The blessings may be carried out providing they are not part of regular Church rituals or liturgies, nor at the same time as a civil union, according to a Vatican document approved by the pope.

The latest ruling fleshes out the opening the pope made to blessing same-sex couples last October and marks a shift away from a 2021 ruling from the Vatican doctrine office which barred any blessings saying God “cannot bless sin.”

But since July 2023, the doctrine department has been led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, an Argentinian prelate and ally of Francis, who has stuck a different tone to his predecessors.

“When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it,” the declaration, authored by Cardinal Fernandez and another official, states. “The grace of God works in the lives of those who do not claim to be righteous but who acknowledge themselves humbly as sinners, like everyone else.”

The new ruling says it is opening “the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex” although says it is leaving decisions to “the prudent and fatherly discernment of ordained ministers.”

comrade climate change is making the Panama canal dry up rn

Milei Sues Argentine Protesters for 'Extortion and Fraud'

Fourten social organizations accused by the Security Ministry are expecte to pay US$74,557 for the costs of the police deployment.

On Friday, Manuel Adorni, spokesperson for President Javier Milei, announced that the social organizations involved in Wednesday's marches have been reported to the judges for extortion and defrauding the State.

"We filed the complaint in federal courts for the crimes of extortion and defrauding, which are related to the management of social welfare programs," he said.

This action aligns with the "Security Protocol" whereby the far-right President Milei threatened citizens and organizations with making them bear the costs of the protests.

His administration aims to have 14 social groups pay around US$75,000 for the costs of the security operation deployed on the protests against adjustment and privatization policies.

Adorni mentioned that authorities have identified 32 citizens who participated in the Wednesday march. They will have to respond in the trial proceeding in the Seventh Federal Criminal Court, overseen by Judge Sebastián Casanello and Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita.

The Milei administration claims that union leaders forced people to join the protests under the threat that they would not receive public assistance if they refused to march. This accusation is supposedly based on 1,100 calls made to a hotline set to receive such complaints.

On Wednesday, thousands of citizens self-organized through social media to protest in downtown Buenos Aires against Milei's proposed shock policies, which are aimed at facilitating the privatization of state assets, selling land to foreigners, and liberalizing prices of goods, services, and exchange rates.

The 14 social organizations accused by the Security Ministry will need to pay around US$74,557 for the costs of the police deployment, including the costs of fuel used by police vehicles and the average value of officers' work hours.

"This is the bill that we will deliver to social organizations. We will demand that they assume an expense that citizens should not pay," Adorni said, downplaying the possibility of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) calling for a national strike.

imo bidens got a good chance of keeping the US' hegemonic position if hes able to steal all of european industry to reindustrialize in a timely and effective manner. in this ukraine and nordstrram has been a resounding success. problem is that hes not appreciably ahead and while private capital has not proven itself to be great at playing from behind, state driven industrial policy's track record in the 20th century speaks for itself.

at this point its basically a competition of whos national/bureaucratic bourgeoisie can inflict the least damage with their neoclassical policies. multipolar axis dropped the ball this interest rate cycle imo because they got worked over by said economists (also were unprepared to capitalize on the actual amount of global antiamerikkkan sentiment), while the amerikkkans got their bluff called by putins intervention/covid and were forced to raise rates earlier than they would have liked.

now we get to sit and wait and see how everyone arranges their pieces in anticipation of the next cycle.

Day 93: Xi pls open third front in Taiwan

Posted on behalf of someone else, the translation is not my own:

Camera team of al-mayadeen (this news page) confirms the destructive attack which hit residential quarters especially in Bait Lahia, Northern Gaza dozens of dead bodies of martyrs are still in the streets of northern Gaza, a al-mayadeen correspondent adds, given the inability of ambulances to retrieve them. Our corresponds report that the occupation burned schools, bulldozed roads and turned them into wasteland Furthermore, the Israeli bombardment hits the coastal camp in the north of Gaza City, additionally to aerial bombardment of numerous sorties of houses close to the al-'umriy (?) mosque in the mountainous regions of the land in the northern Gaza Sector. Our reporters add that the violent Israeli Artillery bombardment is still concentrating on the eastern part of Khan Yunis, especially Abasan (town in Khan Yunis) Bani Sahila, in addition to violent mortar bombardment targeting the southern region of the central Gazan Governorates, and violent bombardment reaching the region of Eastern Bureij in the south of the strip. The mortal remains of 5 martyrs arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, owing to the attack of the occupation on the Bureij camp in the middle of the Strip Also, three citizens became martyrs after the bombardment of their houses in the region of Al-Mughraqa in the middle of Gaza, according to what our correspondent reported, who also pointed to the retrieval of the mortal remains of three martyrs who perished yesterday during the Israeli attack on central Khan Younis. The Israel Occupation continues the mortar barrage of Smoke and Phosphor (grenades, Translator's note) on the Salah ad-Din Street, close to the entrance of Nuseirat (?) in the entre of the Gaza Strip, according to our correspondent The children of Gaza are facing mortal danger of thirst and starvation, especially in the region of Gaza City and north of it. The chances of receiving a single meal to eat is denied daily to majority of families and they are forced to resort to unsafe and unsanitary mehtods to start a fire for cooking The Israeli Aggression hitting the Gaza Strip since the past 7th of Octobre/Tishrin al-auwal has resulted in 20 thousand deat civilians and counting, 70% of them women and children. https://www.almayadeen.net/news/politics/كاميرا-الميادين-توثق-حجم-الدمار-في-بيت-لاهيا-شمالي-قطاع-غزة

CNN guest right now: Linus codes Jewish.