news

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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?

The UK's "Chancellor of the Exchequer" Rachel Reeves is currently in China for the 11th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue:

Chinese VP meets with UK chancellor of exchequer; China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue convenes after a six-year hiatus - Global Times
Reeves defends China visit and hails £600m boost to UK - BBC
UK seeks to to rekindle 'pragmatic' economic China ties - DW
How to trigger Trump: Britain’s cozy China trip risks America’s anger - Politico

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

Egypt is literally doing the who must go meme

Some news and videos from Russia’s special military operation.

A Russian drone strike recently eliminated another British mercenary (and former British soldier) in Zaporozhye oblast: https://www.rt.com/russia/610601-british-mercenary-killed-ukraine/

Russian ‘hellish backpack’ destroys Kiev regime position (video): https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/09/965938.html

Recent Russian drone strikes in and near the partially Kiev-occupied DPR city of Dzerzhinsk, AKA “Toretsk” (videos): https://odysee.com/@Support4Z:b/%F0%9F%93%BD%EF%B8%8F-A-%F0%9F%87%AC%F0%9F%87%A7-%F0%9F%87%AB%F0%9F%87%B7,--Destruction-of-enemy-vehicles-by-drones-in-Toretsk!!:3

Plus, a special bonus video: Iran has released footage of its latest, impressive underground missile base: https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/01/10/968652.html

While Libs, Gusanos and Chuds cry about "Ebil Dictator Vuvuzela Maduro bad man", theres a literal coup happening in Ecuador

Austrian guy calling himself Volkskanzler gets to attempt to make a government, very cool Austria! :austria-cool:

CGTN - Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday tasked Freedom Party's leader Herbert Kickl with forming a new government, local media reported.

Reuters - Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen on Monday tasked Kickl, head of the eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO), with forming a coalition government after a centrist bid to assemble one without the FPO collapsed over the weekend.

[Kickl] then railed against a centrist attempt to form what he called a "coalition of losers" that sidelined the FPO. That collapsed at the weekend, leading Nehammer - who had described Kickl as a conspiracy theorist and security threat - to resign. The new leadership of Nehammer's centre-right People's Party (OVP) has signalled it will now enter coalition talks with the FPO, though there is no guarantee they will be able to form a coalition government and another election remains a possibility.

This guy is just a mask off Nazi, btw

In 2010, Kickl said he opposed branding Hitler's Waffen-SS as "collectively guilty" for war crimes. The FPO's first leader in 1955 had been a senior SS officer and a Nazi minister.

[...] Van der Bellen, a former leader of the left-wing Greens, said on Monday as he announced he had asked Kickl to form a government: "I did not take this step lightly."

Unrelated, did anyone make a news mega bingo for 2025 yet?

This is what I had for last year's bingo

Anyone have the dumbed down legalese for how the government banning TikTok is not a flagrant violation of freeze peach

Haven’t used tik tok in awhile, but like, huh?

Wish the free speech absolutists would always be this silent!

we have 1 in 10000 chance of the year of 4 presidents

President Nicolás Maduro is sworn in for his third term before the National Assembly of Venezuela. Nicolás Maduro receives the presidential sash, presented by President of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez. President Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua, was present and hugged President Nicolas Maduro.

Nicolás Maduro has entered the National Assembly for the swearing-in ceremony. Today he begins a new mandate for the period 2025-2031. Cheers outside of the National Assembly. President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in on Friday (10) in Caracas and said that his next six years in office will be “marked by peace”. Amid pressure from the opposition, which threatened to interfere in the ceremony, the president said that he “promised peace and delivered peace”.

“We had strength against a public and media articulation by the US, which turned Venezuela's election into a global dispute. It's not Maduro, it's a people growing into a man. If Maduro has meaning, it's because Chávez has meaning. They tried to turn the election into a peaceful country, but the oligarchy is defeated, the US is defeated,” he said.

Maduro will be the longest-serving president in Venezuelan history. If he finishes his term in 2031, he will have been in charge of the country for 18 years and will surpass the liberator Simón Bolívar, who headed the Venezuelan government for 15 years. He was elected on July 28, 2024 with 6.4 million votes (51.97%) against 5.3 million (43.18%) for his opponent Edmundo González Urrutia.

The Venezuelan once again said that Venezuela will develop in the coming years together with the BRICS. According to him, the country has been part of the bloc “for 200 years, because we are part of the world that is pushing for a new history”. The Brazilian government sent the Brazilian ambassador in Caracas, Glivânia Maria de Oliveira. Colombia is represented in Venezuelan territory by Milton Rengifo Hernández, while Mexico has Ambassador Leopoldo de Gyvés de la Cruz in the Venezuelan capital.

Maduro's third term inauguration has seen a number of foreign dignitaries and delegations arrive to participate in the official ceremonies. Seen were also the Bolivian Foreign Minister Celinda Sosa, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, St Vincent PM Ralph Gonsalves and the delegation from Nigeria. As well as Russian, Chinese, Honduran, Belarussian and Ugadan diplomats.

Holywood hills has caught fire now and it’s expanding rapidly and literally as I type this a small spot fire just popped up adjacent to it so… damn

A day after Trump spoke of the 'Gulf of America', Mexico's president defends calling the US 'Mexican America'.

Claudia Sheinbaum's ironic suggestion was a rejoinder to Trump, who suggested renaming the Gulf of Mexico the 'Gulf of America' during a press conference on Tuesday (7). The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, suggested on Wednesday (8) that the United States should be renamed “Mexican America”. Her comment was a rejoinder to President-elect Donald Trump's talk of renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America”, referring to the USA.

“Obviously the Gulf of Mexico is recognized by the United Nations. But why don't we call [the United States] 'Mexican America'? Nice name, right? Let's call it that, then,” said Sheinbaum, pointing to a map showing Mexico with territories that currently belong to the US, and with the US appearing in green under the name ‘Mexican America’.

Trump defended the name change of the Gulf of Mexico, the largest in the world, during a press conference on Tuesday (7), less than two weeks before returning to the US presidency. Trump also made other inflammatory statements, such as not ruling out the use of military force to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal, in addition to the intention to fix Canada's economic strangulation.

To explain the suggestion, made ironically, Sheinbaum cited a Constitution of Apatzingán, promulgated in 1814, but which was never broken. The text proposes the creation of a State throughout the territory of North America, which covers Mexico, the USA and Canada. The Mexican president also said that Trump is living in the past.

To quote Napoleon Bonaparte

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

The regional Jutland branch of DBU, Denmark's football association, has voted down a proposal for allowing amateur transgender, intersex and non-binary players to self-identity their gender. Out of 250 delegates only 34 voted in favour of the proposal. The Jutland branch is the largest regional branch of DBU and the first where such a proposal has been put up for a vote.

To judge from reporting on the vote, delegates voted against under the influence of the same transphobic moral panic against trans-female athletes that has plagued many other countries.

• Source: DR (state media), January 11th 2025

We should have presidential terms cut down to 6 months just so the probability of several former ones dying in the same time period increased and we had to shut down this hell hole of a country for a month straight doing funerals of State.

A native of Tajikistan, accused of terrorism in his homeland, received a high post in the new Syrian army

...

Source is Radio Freedom but it does appear to check out, they link the Tajik Central Bank site listing sanctioned individuals

https://rus.ozodi.org/a/urozhenets-tadzhikistana-obvinyaemyy-v-terrorizme-poluchil-vysokiy-post-v-novoy-siriyskoy-armii-/33264599.html

As (COTW) Canada starts with the ability to Farm tundra tiles , you first rush Animal Husbandary to unlook camps, then rush Temple of Artemis to get the amanities in you Tundra capital , as you nearly always have a camp. then its mostly empie building (dont forget to get the Kremlin) until you unlook the Mounties , Mounties are extremly Op ,they have 2 charges to create a National Park ( so worth 3000 Faith per unit basiclly) and Tundra tiles often have high appeal . So you can Bomb National Parks accross you Nation to get ridiculus amounts of Amenities. All While you advance with you Eco Fascist Horse Lord Mounties ,founding National Parks in the Pillaged Conquered Lands to keep the new citizens in Line.

Its a very strong Nation , with the Downsite of it beeing Canada. So you dont actually want to lead it to glory.

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.

New York Times rejects Quaker ad for calling Israel’s actions “genocide” | AFSC Press Release

here are some ads the @nytimes has seen fit to publish in recent years | New York Warcrimes

[not going to repost the hasbara ad images here, partly because of laziness and partly because it feels gross to repost]

His dad would be so disappointed, only stayed in power for 9 years.

North Korean Koksan M1989 170mm calibre Self Propelled Gun (SPG) on the frontlines of the Ukraine-Russia war in a camouflaged position, presumably in Kursk. Video here. These SPGs were seen earlier late last year on trains within Russia itself, once on it's own, and another time accompanied by a delivery of North Korean ballistic missiles.

Interesting note about this SPG. The actual gun is said to be based off of 17cm WW2 era Soviet naval guns or German guns, or a domestic North Korean design combining technology both both countries. The chassis is based off of the Soviet ATS tracked tractor chassis, which uses the same engine as the T-55 tank. Range is reported around 40km for normal shells and 60km for rocket assisted shells. This is likely why Russia would want to use these, their long range is rare on the battlefield and useful for counter battery operations, pushing Ukrainian artillery futher backwards in Kursk. Another fact: the reported DPRK name for this SPG literally translates to "Juche Cannon".

In more news about North Korea in the war, Zelensky decided to publish a propaganda interview with an alleged North Korean POW. Video here. While Ukrainian propaganda continues to get more unhinged, it does appear that the POW has a distinct accent (when compared to presumably the South Korean interpreter) and is just saying whatever the interpreter and Ukraine says he must say, meaning that the answers have no value, as with almost all POW videos. I don't speak Korean, so I have no idea or opinion on the accent or the dialect, if it's North Korean or South Korean, other than it sounds distinct/thick. Any possible Korean users with any opinion?