news

A couple months ago I hosted the mega thread and the intro was about the Giant mine in northern Canada, an abandoned mine with big arsenic contamination issues. Here's a story about a Canadian mining company doing the same thing in Namibia. The Chinese company Sinomine owns it now - I hope they do better.

https://archive.is/vHbur

confused whether more recent tweet talks same or been some developments in pisrael

The Greenland Crisis Continues: Danish Regime Scrambles to Reassure Business Leaders After Trump Call

Denmark’s Social Democrat-led government finds itself in crisis mode following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s demand to buy Greenland, accompanied by threats of economic warfare and even military action. This unprecedented situation marks the most serious threat to Denmark’s territorial integrity since World War II, thrusting one of Washington’s most loyal vassals into the unfamiliar position of being the target of American imperialist ambitions.

Yesterday Danish leader Mette Frederiksen had a 45 minutes long phone call with Trump, asserting that Greenland is not for sale and any future change in its status must be decided by the Greenlanders themselves. In statements to the press Frederiksen avoided confirming if Trump fully grasped her message, she only acknowledged his "very strong" interest in Greenland. Trump, however, did not back down from his threats of putting punitive tariffs on Danish goods, placing Denmark in a precarious position given its economic reliance on U.S. trade, with the U.S. being Denmark's largest export market, ahead of Germany.

In response, Frederiksen held a meeting with business leaders to inform them and help them prepare for potential tariffs. Minister of Business Morten Bødskov sought to project calm, stating that the government was "taking it easy". Criticism arose from the pro-democracy Red-Green opposition for excluding unions from these discussions, arguing that workers will suffer most from any economic fallout.

Despite Trump’s continued threats, Frederiksen extended an invitation for him to visit Denmark during their phone call, underscoring the regime’s steadfast Atlanticist loyalty. No concrete plans for a visit have been made. Since the end of WWII, Denmark has been a an extremely loyal vassal to the U.S., even among western European countries. Trump’s previous attempt to buy Greenland in 2019 was dismissed by Frederiksen as "absurd," led to him to throw a tantrum and labeling her "nasty." Now, Frederiksen walks a tightrope, trying to square the circle of rejecting of Trump’s outrageous and offensive demands while continuing Danish subservience to U.S. interests.

As Denmark’s political elite continues to recite the atlanticist mantra of the U.S. being "our most important ally," their desperation becomes increasingly apparent. With allies like these, Denmark may find that enemies are hardly necessary.

note to self: if you participate in bloody civil war - win it, so you don't be prosecuted.

https://www.mining.com/barrick-halts-operations-in-mali-after-245m-gold-seized/

The Mali government yoinked a bunch of gold from Barrick, Barrick in turn suspended the mining operation. That project has been a pretty big chunk of state revenue in the past, so with operations stopped that will dry up. The question now is whether Barrick will agree to new terms and restart it, if the state will seize it and do Malians Going Their Own Way, or if it will just languish in project limbo.

sorry if this has been covered previously but what did the removal of Cuba from the 'state sponsor or terrorism' list actually do? afaik that designation post-dates the blockade so why would that semantic change do anything?

There's gonna be a lot of CEOs and other really awful people all in one place on monday... Just making an observation

South Korean president arrested by anti-corruption investigators after weekslong showdown - CNN

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested for questioning, according to the country’s anti corruption agency, in the latest chapter of a weekslong political saga that began with the embattled president’s shock martial law decree last month. Yoon left his residential compound with investigators in a motorcade Wednesday morning and was taken into custody – the first time such an action has been taken against a sitting president in South Korea.

Yoon is wanted for questioning in multiple investigations related to his short-lived declaration, including over accusations of leading an insurrection – a crime punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty. The embattled president has been holed up in his fortified residence for weeks surrounded by his Presidential Security Service team, evading arrest as he faces several probes and an impeachment trial.

The Corruption Investigation Office (CIO), which is working with police and the defense ministry to investigate Yoon, first attempted to detain him earlier this month, but it failed after an hours-long showdown in which soldiers and members of the presidential security detail blocked some 80 police and investigators from approaching the presidential compound.

Following his arrest, Yoon released a pre-recorded video message Wednesday in which he again dismissed the investigations into him as “illegal” and said “the law is all broken in this country.” “As a president who must protect the constitution and legal system of the Republic of Korea, responding to these illegal and invalid procedures is not an acknowledgment of them, but in the hopes of preventing unsavory bloodshed,” he said.

The warrant allows investigators to hold Yoon for up to 48 hours. The CIO would need to apply for an arrest warrant within that period to detain him further. Groups of supporters and opponents of Yoon were both at the scene Wednesday, with videos from Reuters and CNN affiliate YTN showing demonstrators pulling up in buses and gathering in the streets around Yoon’s compound, despite sub-zero conditions.

Some demonstrators could be heard chanting “resign,” “your time is up” and “take responsibility,” while supporters of the embattled president chanted “invalid impeachment,” “free ROK, hurrah!” and “we won!” The crowds were accompanied by lines of uniformed police, and a combination of police buses and protester buses remained outside the residence, blockading the street.

A YTN video showed a large sign on the back of one bus that read “Insurrection Department – Yoon Suk Yeol” in Korean – a slogan typical of anti-Yoon protests since the president launched his martial law decree last month. A court approved a warrant to detain the president earlier this month after Yoon, a former prosecutor, refused to answer three summonses by investigators in recent weeks asking for his cooperation, according to the CIO.

Duma Boko became president of Botswana 2 months ago and he has very promptly demanded that the Americans halt operations in the Thebephatshwa Airbase. In 2019, the EFF also stated that the base presents a direct security threat to South Africa, being less than 400 kilometers away from Gauteng and that an attack would be casus belli for South Africa to engage in conflict with Botswana again. 20 million people live within this 400-kilometer radius with the bulk of them in Gauteng.

Of course, post-Apartheid South Africa and Botswana have maintained generally good relations apart from that one time they undermined the beginnings of academic boycotts against piSSrael. It would take a coup for the relations between the two to go sideways which would create an immediate parallel to the Euromaidan coup over a decade ago.

The Palestinian football team Burj al Luq-Luq has also landed in Cape Town last week and recently, the Palestine Solidarity Alliance scaled the Diamond Building in Johannesburg, hoisting a large Palestinian flag to the building's eastern side antenna.

Death to NATO, Death to AmeriKKKa, Death to piSSrael

SpaceX's Starship explodes in flight test, forcing airlines to divert

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A SpaceX Starship rocket broke up in space minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris and setting back Elon Musk's flagship rocket program.

SpaceX mission control lost contact with the newly upgraded Starship, carrying its first test payload of mock satellites but no crew, eight minutes after liftoff from its South Texas rocket facilities at 5:38 p.m. EST (2238 GMT).

Video shot by Reuters showed orange balls of light streaking across the sky over the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, leaving trails of smoke behind.

"We did lose all communications with the ship - that is essentially telling us we had an anomaly with the upper stage," SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot said, confirming minutes later that the ship was lost.

The last time a Starship upper stage failed was in March last year, as it was reentering Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, but rarely has a SpaceX mishap caused widespread disruptions to air traffic.

Dozens of commercial flights diverted to other airports or altered course to avoid potential debris, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24. Departures from airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, were also delayed by about 45 minutes, it added.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates private launch activities, said it had briefly slowed and diverted planes around the area where space debris was falling, but normal operations had since resumed.

The FAA regularly closes airspace for space launches and reentries, but it can create a "debris response area" to prevent aircraft from entering if the space vehicle experiences an anomaly outside the originally closed zone.

SpaceX CEO Musk posted a video on X showing the debris field and said: "Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!"

The failure came a day after Blue Origin, billionaire Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab founder Jeff Bezos' space company, successfully launched its giant New Glenn rocket into orbit for the first time.

TikTok ban is going through on Sunday.

The lack of desire to win in the dems is just staggering. Why would they let the ban take place after the election?

They are such loyal stooges of the empire it really beggars belief.

New — Asked Speaker Johnson about placing conditions on aid to California, and he tells us: “I think there should be conditions on that aid.” Said that’s his personal view before talking with the conference.

Also says “there’s some discussion” within the House GOP about tying the debt limit increase to the aid “but we will see how it goes.”

Aid to rebuild after natural disasters often is approved without any conditions and with significant bipartisan support. But there could be a big fight over the California aid in the coming weeks.

seeing the USA self-balkanizing itself over petty duopoly party conflicts is really funny

Trump, China's Xi hold call on TikTok, trade, Taiwan

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed issues including TikTok, trade and Taiwan in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump takes office again promising tariffs that could ratchet up tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

Both leaders were upbeat about the call, with Trump calling it "a very good one" and Xi saying he and Trump both hoped for a positive start to U.S.-China relations, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

It was the first known phone call between the pair after Trump's election in November.

The U.S. and China are embroiled in an array of diplomatic and economic disagreements, including an accelerating technological and military rivalry and bitter trade disputes. Marco Rubio, Trump's nominee to be his secretary of state, has defined China as the gravest threat facing the U.S. and warned about the risks of possible military conflict between the two countries.

The call came shortly before U.S. Supreme Court on Friday announced a ruling upholding a law that mandates TikTok owner ByteDance divest TikTok's U.S. assets by Sunday to a non-Chinese buyer, or be banned on national security concerns.

"The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A. It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects," Trump wrote on his social media platform.

"President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!"

Xi raised China's concerns about Taiwan, which Beijing maintains is part of its territory, and said he hoped the U.S. would treat the matter with great care.

"The Taiwan issue concerns China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and he hopes the U.S. side will handle it with caution," he said according to Chinese state television.

Xi said the United States and China can have their differences but must respect each other's core interests, and that trade relations can be mutually beneficial without confrontation and conflict, comments similar to those he made during Trump's first term.

The Chinese readout of the call said the two leaders agreed to set up a "channel of strategic communication to keep in regular touch on major issues of shared interest."

Trump offered strong support to Taiwan, including regularizing arms sales, in his first term. But during the campaign last year, he said Taiwan should pay the U.S. to be defended.

The Republican president-elect, who upended trade relations in his first term, is about to embark on an even more aggressive effort in his second term. He has pledged to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl, and he threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.

Trump said on Jan. 6 that he and Xi have been communicating through representatives, expressing optimism about their relationship.

Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said whether Trump in coming days would permit TikTok to operate without a qualified divestment and whether he applied tariffs on China quickly or first began negotiations with Beijing would be early indicators of how confrontational his stance toward China would be.

Trump posted online later that his decision on TikTok would be coming soon, and that "everyone must respect" the Supreme Court ruling.

Breaking with tradition, Trump had invited Xi and other foreign leaders to his Jan. 20 inauguration, but China is sending Vice President Han Zheng, a move signaling Beijing's desire to step up communication with the incoming administration.

Still, any "grand bargain" between the two sides over trade, Taiwan and other strategic issues would be difficult to reach, said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

"There's an immense amount of distance between what one can imagine and actually achieving such an outcome. The interests between the U.S. and China on many of these issues are different and the views of key advisors to both are quite hawkish," Kennedy said.

Folks, we’re gonna do so many great things, folks. lmao this guy.

But as I’ve said, there is a good chance of easing US-China tension with Biden gone.

Several Russian media outlets are reporting that two Brazilian mercenary groups were destroyed in Kursk. According to reports, the surviving mercenaries are trying to contact Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) by satellite for help evacuating the area.

The Russian government estimates that there are 241 Brazilian mercenaries fighting with Ukraine, most of whom are former Brazilian military or police officers. In 2016, Civil Police in the Southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul discovered that members of the fascist Azov militia were recruiting members of illegal Brazilian Neo-nazi groups in 11 cities to fight for right wing militias in Donbas.

Venezuelan Air Force Commander General Lenin Lorenzo Ramirez Villasmil: “We reject the new sanctions imposed by imperialism.”

China's economy beats forecasts in 2024, braces for trade war

BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) - China's economy ended 2024 on better footing than expected helped by a flurry of stimulus measures, although the threat of a new trade war with the United States and weak domestic demand could hurt confidence in a broader recovery this year.

Exports, one of the few bright spots, could lose steam as United States President-elect Donald Trump, who has proposed hefty tariffs on Chinese goods, is set to return to the White House next week.

For the full-year 2024, the world's second-largest economy grew 5.0%, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Friday, meeting the government's annual growth target of around 5%. Analysts had forecast 4.9% growth.

The economy grew 5.4% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, significantly beating analysts' expectations and marking the quickest since the second quarter of 2023.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) would expand 5.0% from a year earlier, quickening from the third-quarter's 4.6% pace as a flurry of support measures began to kick in.

"China's economy is showing signs of revival, led by industrial output and exports," said Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.

However, he added, the strong GDP print last quarter may already have been flattered by front-loading of shipments to the U.S. - something that will inevitably lead to a pay-back with production and exports turning down once tariffs begin to bite.

"As exports come under pressure in 2025, dragged lower by U.S. import restrictions, there will be an even bigger need to apply domestic stimulus."

Russia to Supply Gas to Transnistria on Humanitarian Grounds - Telesur English

korean dude running the cornerstore is convinced Yoon is gonna get executed. how accurate do newsheads think that assessment is?

NVIDIA Statement on the Biden Administration’s Misguided ‘AI Diffusion’ Rule

Wow. Did not expect such strong language in an official statement from a publicly traded company.

That global progress is now in jeopardy. The Biden Administration now seeks to restrict access to mainstream computing applications with its unprecedented and misguided “AI Diffusion” rule, which threatens to derail innovation and economic growth worldwide.

While cloaked in the guise of an “anti-China” measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America’s global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead.

I can't say that I disagree. This really is one of the most demented policies of the whole Biden administration. Even from the POV of an imperialist, restricting half of NATO from one of your top exports makes zero sense...

russia and iran signed their economic thingy (and it's apparently mainly economic, without mutual defense)

The United States removes Cuba from the list of countries that sponsor terrorism - White House

im a bit out of the loop but why is this ceasefire such a big deal? wont israel just immediately violate the ceasefire