The assessment is contained in a report from the Ministry of Science and Technology, released at TechFest Vietnam 2025, the largest event of its kind held to date, whose purpose is to attract technological talent and the global entrepreneurial community to this Indochinese nation.

According to the report, in just over 10 years, the Vietnamese entrepreneurial ecosystem has grown to include more than 4,000 startups, two unicorns (companies that, in their first decade of operation, exceed a valuation of one billion dollars without being publicly traded), and many companies close to achieving that status.

The 2025 report also shows a policy shift from a generalized support approach to one of in-depth development, and outlines the establishment of a National Venture Capital Fund with an initial capital of approximately $20 million and a goal of reaching at least $100 million.

It also highlights the momentum gained by open innovation, which has already identified eight areas of potential entrepreneurship, and emphasizes that, for the first time, social listening analysis has been applied. jdt/jav/dfm/mpm

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“Our retaliatory actions will not be delayed. Our response will be swift. On December 12, the Bank of Russia issued a detailed statement on the matter. Concrete measures are already being implemented,” reads Zakharova’s commentary, published on the Ministry’s website.

According to the diplomat, the decision to dispose of Russian assets through “indefinite freezing, seizure, or the attempt to present their de facto confiscation as a kind of reparative credit constitutes an absolutely illegal act that grossly violates the norms of international law.”

Zakharova added that, however much Brussels tries to justify such actions with pseudo-legal arguments, it amounts to blatant and crude theft.

She also stressed that the EU’s policy toward Russia “has long lacked any sound logic and resembles the theater of the absurd.”

The European course of harming Moscow at all costs, she continued, has already led to a very deplorable economic situation within the bloc itself.

jdt/jav/mem_gfa

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While some battlefields remain calm, others continue to experience intense fighting as Thai forces persist in aggressive attacks using artillery, tanks, F-16 fighter jets, toxic gas, and cluster bombs, stated Lieutenant General Maly Socheata.

According to the spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, some of the main affected areas include Preah Vihear and Khnar Temple in Preah Vihear province; the village of Ek Pheap (Pursat); and the village of Chouk Chey (Banteay Meanchey).

The Cambodian Ministry of Defense “once again urged Thai forces to immediately cease their indiscriminate armed attacks and the use of fighter jets on Cambodian territory,” actions which, it said, constitute a grave violation of Cambodia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as international law.

Socheata also remembered that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet welcomed the ceasefire proposal put forward by his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, which was to take effect at 10:00 p.m. (local time) on December 13, but this was rejected by the Thai side.

jdt/jav/mem/mpm

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The year-end show, held at the National Theater, celebrates the successes of the school and company, which will celebrate its 35th anniversary in 2026.

The group is proud to have performed on five continents and to be the only Cuban dance troupe to have performed at a Latin Grammy Awards ceremony.

The gala, titled “1, 2, 3… Everyone to the Stage!”, showcases the appeal of the Fusion style, cultivated elegantly at LADC and combining elements of flamenco, ballet, contemporary dance, folklore, and diverse Cuban, Afro-Cuban, and urban popular dances.

The performance also highlights the importance of balancing rigor, discipline, and enjoyment, from elementary school to the professional level.

Those who were unable to attend the first performance still have time, as the second show will take place this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. local time in the Avellaneda Hall.

The prestigious professional cast, members of the Vocational Workshops, and the Children’s and Youth Ballet share the stage to showcase the students’ progression to the highest level within the institution.

jdt/jav/mem/msm

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Chile runoff election underway with 15.7M voters choosing between progressive Jeannette Jara and ultraright José Antonio Kast for 2026-2030 presidency. Polls favor Kast at 58%; mandatory voting shapes tense Dec 14 battle.

Related: Chile’s Tense Runoff: Jara vs Kast Battles for Nation’s Soul on Dec 14

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15.7M Voters Decide Chile Runoff Election: Jara’s Bold Stand vs Kast’s Ruthless Surge

The Chile runoff election kicked off Sunday, December 14, 2025, at 8:00 AM local time (11:00 GMT), drawing over 15.7 million citizens to choose President Gabriel Boric’s successor for 2026-2030. Polling stations close at 6:00 PM local (9:00 PM GMT), or later if queues persist.

Mandatory voting in Chile—voluntary abroad—ensures high turnout, urged by Servel President Pamela Figueroa: “Review your polling place and fulfill your civic duty.”

This Chile runoff election pits progressive Jeannette Jara (26.8% in first round) against ultraright José Antonio Kast (23.9%), with Cadem polls showing Kast at 58% vs Jara’s 42%.

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Telesur English: Chile Runoff Election Begins

Key Facts in Chile Runoff Election Dynamics

15,779,102 eligible voters face compulsory participation, a shift boosting working-class voices. Foreign residents with 5+ years residency vote for the first time.

Jara, Communist Party leader from the ruling progressive coalition, seeks anti-Kast votes. Kast campaigns on xenophobic policies: maximum-security prisons, border shields, harsher penalties, and mass deportations echoing Trump.

Polls indicate a tight race, with undecideds pivotal.

EFE: Chile’s Mandatory Voting in Runoff

Candidates’ Final Push Amid Polarization

Jeannette Jara topped November 16 first round but needs broader appeal against Kast’s surge. Her platform emphasizes social rights continuity from Boric’s tenure.

José Antonio Kast, Republican Party candidate, leverages crime and migration fears. Pre-election surveys position him as frontrunner.

Electoral silence ended intense campaigns, heightening tension.

Al Jazeera: Polls Favor Kast in Chile Runoff

Geopolitical Context

The Chile runoff election reverberates across Latin America as a barometer for ideological battles. A Jara victory would energize progressives from Brazil’s Lula to Colombia’s Petro, strengthening CELAC and UNASUR against right-wing isolationism.

Kast’s win mirrors Argentina’s Milei and El Salvador’s Bukele, promoting neoliberal-authoritarianism that could fracture Mercosur trade with austerity clashes against welfare-focused neighbors. Andean tensions rise, encircling Bolivia’s socialists; migration strains Peru-Bolivia borders via deportation plans.

Regionally, Jara bolsters Amazon pacts; Kast aligns with U.S. free-trade, sidelining China deals. Globally, it sways U.S.-Latin America ties: progressives challenge IMF at OAS, while Kast eases Venezuela-Cuba sanctions coordination, risking pink tide backlash. Europe watches human rights—Jara appeals to EU, Kast draws Amnesty critiques.

This duel signals equity’s endurance or market fundamentalism’s resurgence.

Xinhua: Latin America Eyes Chile Vote

Sputnik: Geopolitical Stakes in Chile Election

Voter Turnout and Uncertain Outcome

Servel monitors smooth operations, with real-time updates via app. High stakes amplify scrutiny on irregularities.

The winner inherits Boric’s reforms amid economic pressures, shaping Chile’s path.

X (Twitter): Servel Chief Urges Voting

X (Twitter): Live Poll Updates Chile Runoff

Al Mayadeen: Chile Election Live Coverage

Cubadebate: Voter Mobilization in Chile

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The Honduran government denounces Honduras election interference by Donald Trump before the UN and CELAC, claiming fraud and external coercion in the November 30 vote.

Related: Honduras’ Libre Will Not Recognize the New Government of After Electoral Fraud

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Honduras Election Interference: 6 Official Complaints Expose Trump’s “Brazen” Involvement

The Honduras election interference scandal intensified as the government filed six official complaints before the United Nations, CELAC, and other international bodies, denouncing direct U.S. involvement in the contested November 30 presidential elections.

Vice Foreign Minister Gerardo Torres confirmed that on the instructions of President Xiomara Castro, formal diplomatic notes were sent condemning Donald Trump’s interference and the alleged manipulation of voter turnout and election systems.

Telesur English: Honduras Denounces U.S. Interference

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Official Protests Filed Against U.S. Involvement

According to Torres, official communications were directed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, OAS Secretary-General Albert Ramdin, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, among others.

The diplomatic letters denounced criminal intimidation of voters and the failure of the vote transmission system that undermined transparency. Additional copies were sent to CELAC and the Association of Caribbean States via the foreign ministries of Colombia and Panama.

“We have denounced the interference in our elections by U.S. President Donald Trump,” stated Torres on social media platform X.

EFE: Honduras Files Complaints Over U.S. Election Interference

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Xiomara Castro Condemns “Brazen” Interference

President Xiomara Castro described Trump’s behavior as “brazen interference,” after he publicly urged Hondurans to vote for Nasry Asfura, the right-wing National Party candidate.

The ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre) declared in an extraordinary assembly it would not recognize the new government, calling the results a “coup by fraud.”

Mass mobilizations are being planned to “defend democracy” and reject the electoral manipulation, signaling deepening unrest in Tegucigalpa.

Al Jazeera: Honduras Election Sparks Fraud Allegations

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Tight Results and Growing Tensions

According to the National Electoral Council (CNE), partial results show Asfura leading with 40.53%, followed by Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party with 39.1%, and Rixi Moncada of Libre with 19.3%.

Both Castro’s Libre movement and Nasralla’s Liberal Party have alleged massive irregularities, demanding a “vote-by-vote” recount. The CNE has until December 30 to declare the official winner.

Xinhua: Honduras Faces Post-Election Crisis

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Diplomatic and Geopolitical Context

The Honduras election interference claims have triggered a diplomatic storm across Latin America. CELAC member states, led by Colombia, are calling for urgent mediation to avert instability.

A Jara-style leftist concern echoes across the region: Central America faces renewed tension between progressive sovereigntists and U.S.-aligned conservatives. If proven, Trump’s interference could strain Washington’s relationships with regional partners, further isolating U.S. diplomacy amid shifting allegiances toward China and Russia.

Analysts warn that Honduras may become a flashpoint in renewed U.S.-Latin American ideological confrontation, potentially reshaping regional blocs such as CELAC, UNASUR, and the Organization of American States (OAS).

Sputnik: U.S. Role in Honduras Under Fire

Al Mayadeen: Latin America Rejects U.S. Electoral Pressure

The Honduras election interference dispute has become a crucial test case for Latin America’s political realignment amid mounting tensions between progressive governments and resurging conservative blocs. With the Honduran government directly accusing Donald Trump of manipulating electoral outcomes, the crisis echoes Cold War-era interventionist dynamics in the region — but now reframed through digital influence and diplomatic coercion.

Regional realignments and strategic pressure

The tension has reignited debates within CELAC, UNASUR, and the OAS, as member states assess whether Honduras faces an actual “electoral coup” backed by U.S. interests. For progressive governments — such as Colombia under Petro, Brazil under Lula da Silva, and Mexico under Claudia Sheinbaum — the controversy reinforces calls for regional sovereignty and the creation of independent electoral observation mechanisms free from U.S. influence.

In contrast, right-leaning administrations in Ecuador, Uruguay, and Paraguay have remained cautious, emphasizing that any denouncement must be proven with verifiable evidence before the Honduran National Electoral Council (CNE) concludes its final count. This divide mirrors the polarization across the continent, where questions of U.S. involvement often define diplomatic alignments more than economic or trade policy.

A diplomatic test for Washington

For Washington, the scandal complicates its relations with both Central America and its strategic allies in the hemisphere. U.S.-Honduras ties, initially strengthened under Xiomara Castro’s early presidency through cooperation on migration and drug enforcement, may face their deepest strain since the 2009 coup against Manuel Zelaya — Castro’s husband and predecessor.

Analysts from Georgetown University and the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) argue that, if proven, interference by a U.S. political leader — rather than the government per se — could blur lines between private influence and state responsibility under international law. The affair may therefore compel the U.N. Human Rights Council to consider setting new parameters for defining foreign interference in democratic processes.

Economic and strategic stakes

Beyond ideology, the Honduras election interference case carries tangible geopolitical consequences. Honduras is a critical logistics hub connecting Atlantic and Pacific trade routes through Puerto Cortés, one of Central America’s busiest ports. Trump’s alleged support for Asfura, aligned with privatization and pro-U.S. policies, endangers recent Chinese investment projects linked to telecommunications and renewable energy — sectors Beijing has targeted as part of its Belt and Road Initiative in Latin America.

A shift in political alignment could therefore tilt regional trade toward Washington and Panama, weakening Honduras’ commercial ties with China and the ALBA bloc. For CELAC observers, this would signify not only a domestic crisis but also a geoeconomic realignment affecting neighboring Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, each facing domestic debates over U.S. influence and national sovereignty.

Sputnik: U.S. Role in Honduras Under Fire

Al Mayadeen: Latin America Rejects U.S. Electoral Pressure

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Regional and Global Reactions

Latin American governments respond

The Honduras election interference allegations have triggered a wave of diplomatic responses across the region.

• Colombia called for an emergency CELAC consultation to examine “foreign influence in democratic sovereignty.”
• Mexico’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement supporting Honduras’ right to an autonomous electoral process, while stressing adherence to OAS mechanisms.
• Brazil signaled concern through its foreign minister, warning that U.S.-linked disruptions could erode trust in regional institutions.

Meanwhile, Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia expressed “unconditional solidarity” with Honduras, labeling events as part of an “imperialist attempt to subvert democracy in Central America.”

Cubadebate: Latin American Solidarity Grows with Honduras

U.N. and OAS positions

At the international level, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged receiving Honduras’ formal complaints and urged respect for “institutional transparency and non-interference.”
The OAS faces renewed scrutiny over its neutrality after past allegations of bias in Bolivia’s 2019 elections. A team of OAS legal experts is expected to meet with the Honduran mission in Washington, D.C. this week to review evidence of manipulation.

Xinhua: OAS Reviewing Evidence from Honduras Complaint

Media and public opinion

International media coverage has deepened regional divides. U.S. outlets emphasize the lack of concrete proof linking Trump directly to the alleged interference, while Latin American networks frame the case as one more chapter in a long history of external control over democratic transitions.

Protests in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula have drawn thousands demanding “transparency and respect for sovereignty.” Demonstrators wave both Honduran and CELAC flags, symbolizing continental defiance of U.S. involvement.

X (Twitter): Protest in Tegucigalpa Defends Democracy

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Social Response and Next Steps

Vice Minister Torres announced he will travel to OAS headquarters in Washington to present evidence of interference and fraud personally. Protests are spreading across Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula demanding electoral transparency.

X (Twitter): Gerardo Torres Announces OAS Trip

X (Twitter): Libre Party Calls for Mobilization

Cubadebate: Honduras Election Fraud Allegations Deepen

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Mexico and China have entered a trade dispute following the approval of the new General Import and Export Tax Law, proposed by the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

The tariff changes, which Mexico supports and China opposes, were approved this week by the Mexican Congress, capping a year marked by US President Donald Trump’s global trade war. Trump has repeatedly threatened both Mexico and China with tariffs and has acknowledged his interest in diminishing China’s influence in Latin America.

According to Sheinbaum, the reform represents the prelude to the renegotiation of the free trade agreement between Mexico, the US, and Canada (known as the USMCA) that will begin next year.

Is the Mexican tariff reform against China?
The new law imposes tariffs of between 5% and 50% on the import of products from countries with which Mexico does not have free trade agreements and that until now paid maximum tariffs of 25%.

This means that it not only impacts China but also Brazil, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Taiwan, Turkey, and Vietnam, among other countries.

However, China is the most affected because, according to a report prepared by Mexican parliamentarian Ricardo Monreal, in the last two decades China has become the second-largest exporter to Mexico, after the US.

Last year, 20.8% of Mexican imports came from China, a figure surpassed only by the US with 40.1%.

Many analysts raise suspicions about Mexico’s tariff initiative, as it came just after Mexico began negotiations with the US to ease the tariff hike imposed by President Trump on Mexican exports. Some consider it a concession Sheinbaum made to avoid more aggressive US commercial and economic policies against her country.

The parliamentary process of the reform
The initiative, presented by Sheinbaum in September as part of the 2026 Economic Package and allegedly aimed at protecting domestic industry, imposes tariffs of up to 50% on 1,463 products belonging to 17 strategic sectors, including automotive, textiles, apparel, plastics, appliances, and footwear. These represent $52 billion in imports.

The parliamentary process was swift, with the bill being approved in the Chamber of Deputies in the early hours of Wednesday, December 10, and in the Senate hours later. It will come into effect on January 1, 2026.

Trade relationship between Mexico and China
According to official data, the trade balance between Mexico and China is negative for Mexico, as it sells only 1.44% of its total exports to China. Conversely, China accounts for 20.8% of Mexico’s imports.

This means that last year Mexico bought $129.14 billion worth of Chinese products but sold only $8.84 billion worth to its Asian partner.

The main products that Mexico buys from China, and which will now suffer higher import tariffs due to the new law, are telephones, machine parts and accessories, automobiles and auto parts—precisely the Chinese items that have spread across international markets.

On the other hand, Mexico sells China mainly copper ores and concentrates, as well as vehicle parts and accessories.

Moeover, foreign direct investment from China in Mexico reached $710 million last year.

Venezuela & China Discuss Zero-Tariff Agreement at Shanghai Expo 2025

China’s protest
As soon as the law was passed, China’s Ministry of Commerce reiterated its long-standing opposition to “unilateral tariff increases” in all forms, urging Mexico to act prudently and rectify “incorrect practices” such as protectionism that imposes trade barriers.

“We will closely monitor the implementation of the Mexican measures and further evaluate their potential impact,” warned a spokesperson, who also noted that automotive exports from China to Mexico will be especially affected and will now have to pay higher tariffs.

Sheinbaum’s response
The Mexican president’s argument to justify the measure was that it was not taken solely against China but is part of a general trade policy to boost production in Mexico.

She also stated that there had been communication with the governments of South Korea and China to explain the initiative, which had undergone several changes from the original proposal. “We are fully prepared to continue working with the governments of China, Korea and other countries with which we do not have a trade agreement,” she said.

Sheinbaum referred in particular to the Mexican textile industry, which has been affected by imports since the COVID pandemic, and to the automotive industry, in which China plays a leading role.

“Our interest is not to create conflict with any country in the world. We have great respect for China and very good relations. The reason for these adjustments is to strengthen the national economy. So, the goal is to continue the dialogue,” she added.

(RT) with Orinoco Tribune content

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SC

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According to the military report published on its official Telegram channel, 53 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down over Bryansk region; 32 in the Crimean Peninsula; 22 in Krasnodar; 15 in Tula; 13 in Kaluga region; and seven in Kursk.

Four were also shot down in Ryazan; three in Belgorod; two in the Leningrad region; and one each in Smolensk, Pskov, Novgorod, and Moscow.

For its part, the national air transport agency, Rosaviatsia, reported temporary flight restrictions at the airports of Gelendzhik, Kaluga, Pskov, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, St. Petersburg (Pulkovo), Grozny, Krasnodar, and two of Moscow’s four airports (Domodedovo and Zhukovsky) on Saturday night into Sunday morning, for security reasons.

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, according to President Vladimir Putin, to protect the population from “genocide by the government in Kyiv” and to address the national security risks posed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s eastward expansion.

Drone attacks launched from Ukraine against military and industrial facilities in the Russian rear have since become commonplace.

jdt/jav/dfm/gfa

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Admiral Alvin Holsey has resigned as head of U.S. Southern Command after just one year, amid intense Congressional scrutiny and internal concerns over the legality of U.S. military strikes in the Caribbean.

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Alvin Holsey, a U.S. Navy admiral who oversaw military operations in Latin America, officially concluded his leadership responsibilities this Friday, December 12, in th U.S. Southern Command, marking his retirement, amid intense Congressional scrutiny of U.S. attacks in the Caribbean, though he did not provide a reason for his early departure.

The reasons behind his departure may involve U.S. Secretary of “War” (formerly “Defense”) Pete Hegseth. According to reports cited by Axios, Holsey was concerned about the legality of the strikes and, while not formally objecting—according to the Pentagon—he proceeded “more cautiously” than Hegseth desired.

RELATED: Intellectuals Network Denounces U.S. “Modern-Day Piracy” Off Venezuelan Coast

Washington’s strikes on Caribbean vessels in an alleged “war on drugs” have sparked criticism from Latin American governments—including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela—as well as from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Russia.

U.S. experts have described the attacks as violations of international law, while Human Rights Watch has stated that they amount to “extrajudicial killings.”

Message from #SOUTHCOM Commander Adm. Alvin Holsey. pic.twitter.com/k0TdV49O0z

— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) October 16, 2025

The admiral formally transferred command to Air Force Lieutenant General Evan Pettus during a ceremony on Friday morning. Pettus is now the acting head of U.S. Southern Command.

Holsey’s early departure is rare but not unprecedented. In 2008, Admiral William Fallon stepped down from his post as Central Command commander just a year into overseeing U.S. forces in the Middle East, following remarks about Iran and other matters that displeased the George W. Bush administration.

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A last-minute agreement over shared water rights has averted a 5% tariff on Mexican exports to the United States, with Mexico committing to release nearly 250 million cubic meters of water under the 1944 treaty.

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Mexico and the United States have reached an agreement that averts the imposition of a 5% tariff on Mexican goods, after both governments reaffirmed their commitment to the 1944 Water Treaty and agreed to the immediate release of nearly 250 million cubic meters of water, according to a joint statement issued Friday.

RELATED: Trump Sets a 5% Tariff on Mexico to Pressure for Water Transfers

Under the agreement, Mexico intends to release 249.163 million cubic meters of water, with deliveries scheduled to begin during the week of December 15. The volume meets a U.S. demand that Mexico deliver at least 246.6 million cubic meters before December 31, a condition set following Trump’s remarks earlier in the week.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said negotiations are ongoing and that both sides aim to finalize a broader implementation plan by January 31, 2026.

The agreement followed several days of intense negotiations after Trump accused Mexico of owing more than 986.4 million cubic meters of water accumulated over the past five years, alleging economic harm to U.S. farmers and ranchers.

Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister for North America Roberto Velasco said severe drought conditions in 2022 and 2023 restricted the country’s ability to meet delivery targets. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, however, acknowledged that Mexico delivered more water in a single year than in the previous four years combined, according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, as cited in the joint statement.

México actúa conforme a lo establecido en el Tratado binacional de Aguas de 1944.
Se llegará a un acuerdo con EU respetando el derecho humano al agua, considerando las limitaciones de infraestructura, así como la sequía extrema hidrológica en el ciclo 36, sobre todo en 2023 y 24. pic.twitter.com/QITQhwjMcw

— Jesús Ramírez Cuevas (@JesusRCuevas) December 9, 2025

Text reads: “Mexico acts in accordance with the Binational Water Treaty of 1944. An agreement will be reached with the EU respecting the human right to water, considering infrastructure constraints as well as extreme hydrological drought in cycle 36, especially in 2023 and 24.”

The 1944 Water Treaty

Under the 1944 deal, the United States is required to deliver 1.85 billion cubic meters of water annually from the Colorado River to Mexico, while Mexico must provide 2.185 billion cubic meters from the Rio Grande over five-year cycles.

Both governments stressed the importance of complying with the treaty, which for more than eight decades has governed the shared management of the Colorado, Rio Grande, and Conchos rivers.

The statement also noted that in the event of noncompliance, each country retains the right to act in accordance with its national interests, subject to its international obligations.

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The expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank has reached unprecedented levels, according to the latest report presented by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to the Security Council.

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The number of housing approvals issued by Tel Aviv’s regime has surpassed, highlighting an illegal policy of expropriating Palestinian land in violation of international law.

RELATED: Gaza Ramains Densely Mined with Unexploded Devices

In 2025 alone, the Tel Aviv regime approved approximately 47,390 housing units for settlers—nearly double the 26,170 units approved the previous year, marking an all-times record since the UN began systematic monitoring in 2017.

This sharp increase contrasts with the annual average of roughly 12,800 units between 2017 and 2022, which already reflected ongoing Israeli violations of Palestinian sovereignty and the right to self-determination.

Last night, Israeli settler militias attacked the Bedouin community of Ein El-Duyuk near Jericho, east of the occupied West Bank, terrifying the local residents, especially children and women. This footage was taken in the aftermath of the assault. pic.twitter.com/X4iHy16ogD

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 14, 2025

Guterres strongly condemned the rapid expansion of settlements, warning that it heightens regional tensions and restricts Palestinian access to their own land. He emphasized that these illegal constructions threaten the feasibility of establishing a sovereign and independent Palestinian state.

The Secretary-General also stressed that such measures consolidate Israel’s illegal occupation, representing a clear breach of international law and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. He called on Israeli authorities to immediately halt all settlement activity in the occupied territories.

A Dangerous Escalation

The report highlighted an “alarming increase” in violence by settlers, often carried out in the presence of, or with the tacit support of, Israeli security forces. Guterres also condemned military operations that have resulted in numerous deaths—including women and children—and the destruction of Palestinian homes and infrastructure.

Resistance group Hamas joined the international criticism on December 12, condemning the Israeli government’s approval of 19 new settlements in the West Bank, announced by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The movement described the move as a dangerous escalation of annexation and Judaization efforts, reflecting an extremist government that treats Palestinian land as “colonial spoils.”

After more than 10 months of forced displacement, over 55 Palestinians from Tulkarm and Nour Shams remain without shelter as Israeli aggression ravages the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/O3jaEdfEwe

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 13, 2025

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Hurricane Melissa damaged over 100,000 homes in eastern Cuba, an impact detailed in a Central Committee meeting of the Communist Party, which also highlighted progress in recovery efforts and the international solidarity received.

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Hurricane Melissa damaged 116,100 homes during its passage through eastern Cuba in late October, bringing strong winds and intense associated rains. This was reported on Saturday, December 13, during the XI Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, in Spanish), which addressed the impact and the progress of recovery in affected areas.

RELATED: Cuban President Diaz-Canel Visits Hard-Hit Holguin and Santiago Provinces After Hurricane Melissa

President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, First Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, highlighted that no lives were lost. He attributed this success to the timely declaration of alert and alarm phases, the effective functioning of management systems at all levels during the hurricane, and efficient evacuation and rescue operations, alongside “the achieved risk perception and the discipline of the people.”

Speaking via teleconference at the meeting, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, President of the Provincial Defense Council in Santiago de Cuba, reported 93,000 affected homes in her province. She noted that the bulk of debris and waste has been cleared, and the epidemiological situation is improving. Simultaneously, working groups are installing roofs, and land is being prepared and sowed following crop damage caused by the hurricane.

Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines, stated that electricity service restoration stands at 98.9% in the province of Santiago de Cuba. He explained that vital systems across the province have been restored to over 95%, with water supply reporting a 96% recovery rate in Santiago de Cuba.

Restoration and International Solidarity

The report presented at the meeting indicated significant progress in electricity restoration in other provinces hit by Hurricane Melissa. Granma province is at 100%; Guantanamo, 99.95%; and Holguin, 99.9%.

Likewise, 100% percent of basic and mobile telephone services have been recovered in these provinces and in neighboring province of Las Tunas. In Santiago de Cuba, basic telephone services have been restored to over 94%.

🗣️| Ahora tenemos que hacer también análisis para actualizar los planes de reducción de desastres.

— Presidencia Cuba 🇨🇺 (@PresidenciaCuba) December 13, 2025

Text reads: “I think we have also given a lesson to everyone. A very rare way of being a “Failed State”, a very rare “Failed State” that is able to mobilize people, all participating, and manage to recover in a solidarity way. Now we also need to do analysis to update disaster reduction plans.”

Following the hurricane’s impact on eastern Cuba, multilateral agencies, NGOs such as the Red Cross, and organizations like ALBA-TCP have mobilized aid. Additionally, countries including Venezuela, China, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and South Korea have dispatched food, humanitarian assistance, and collaboration for infrastructure recovery efforts.

Melissa traversed eastern Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds reaching 200 kilometers per hour. Rainfall exceeded 400 millimeters in some areas, causing severe flooding. These conditions damaged homes, infrastructure networks, and crops, leaving thousands of people displaced and in need of assistance.

Recovery efforts continue to focus on rebuilding and restoring essential services for the affected communities.

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Nationwide demonstrations are set to sweep Brazil as social movements mobilize against a controversial sentencing reform bill and a constitutional amendment that restricts Indigenous land rights, denouncing the measures as a right-wing offensive.

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Brazilian social and political movements will lead a nationwide demonstration on Sunday to oppose the draft Sentencing Dosage Bill -known as the “Dosimetry Law”- and a constitutional amendment establishing a “temporal framework” for the demarcation of Indigenous lands, measures they describe as part of a broader right-wing offensive in Congress.

RELATED: Brazilian Lower House Approves Reduction of Bolsonaro’s Sentence

The Workers’ Party (PT, in Portuguese), the Brazil Popular Front, People Without Fear, and trade unions will be among the participants.

“All of us will be in the streets, in defense of the Brazilian people,” said PT national president Edinho Silva.

The Dosimetry Law

The sentencing bill promoted by conservative lawmakers would change the rules for calculating penalties under the Criminal Code and the Criminal Enforcement Law.

Legal experts warn the proposal could create loopholes that allow reduced sentences for serious crimes, effectively functioning as a concealed amnesty that, according to the PT and social movements, would benefit those involved in the January 8, 2023, coup attempt led by convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro and undermine public rights.

In a statement, the Workers’ Party said the bill, which has passed the Chamber of Deputies and is now under Senate review, amounts to an amnesty for Bolsonaro, calling it a serious threat to democracy and the popular will.

The bill will now be considered by the Federal Senate, where it is expected to be debated in plenary session on December 17.

🚨 BOM DIA! É AMANHÃ!

Veja onde vai ter ato na sua cidade e bora pra rua neste domingo contra a anistia aos golpistas!

DIA 14 POVO NAS RUAS
SEM ANISTIA
SEM DOSIMETRIA pic.twitter.com/NPqDDKxN9j

— Lázaro Rosa 🇧🇷 (@lazarorosa25) December 13, 2025

Threat to Indigenous Communities

The proposed constitutional amendment known as the “Temporal Framework” would restrict the demarcation of Indigenous lands to areas occupied before the 1988 Constitution came into force. Indigenous organizations and human rights groups say the measure represents a historic setback and threatens communities whose lands were taken prior to that date.

The PT accused right-wing lawmakers of advancing a coordinated offensive in Congress that violates the Constitution and Indigenous rights. The party said the debate has been marked by scenes of intimidation, restrictions on journalists and disruptions to public broadcasting on TV Câmara.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has begun deliberating on the Temporal Framework, examining two constitutional challenges to the law passed by a conservative-majority Congress in 2023. The ruling could have major implications for Indigenous land rights and the protection of the Amazon.

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Una publicación compartida de PT – Partido dos Trabalhadores (@ptbrasil)

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

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The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA-TCP, in Spanish) on Friday condemned the detention of former Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora, warning that the case signals the onset of a politically motivated judicial campaign in Bolivia, as Arce appeared in court to deny allegations of corruption linked to his administration.

The regional bloc cautioned that a pattern already known to the region has been set in motion -one through which the judicial system has historically been instrumentalized “or purposes of “political persecution”.

RELATED:Venezuela Warns On Bolivia’s Judicial Apparatus US for Political Confrontation

ALBA-TCP further warned that these proceedings resemble classic lawfare tactics, designed to “delegitimize, neutralize, and persecute” progressive political figures.

Such actions are not driven by democratic will, but by the actions of lobbies and national oligarchies, as part of a strategy that, according to ALBA-TCP, aims to “reverse social achievements, dismantle sovereign projects, and undermine the will of the peoples through non-electoral mechanisms.”

The organization also accused far-right forces across the region of orchestrating a broader strategy intended to override the will of the electorate through judicial and administrative means rather than elections.

#COMMUNIQUÉ || ALBA EXPRESSES ITS DEEP CONCERN REGARDING THE EVENTS THAT OCCURRED AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT LUIS ARCE CATACORA pic.twitter.com/4PbZfshRtg

— ALBA (@ALBATCP) December 13, 2025

Arce Denies the Charges

Meanwhile, on Friday, Arce appeared before a Bolivian court, where he denied all wrongdoing and dismissed allegations that he misappropriated funds from a government program created to benefit Indigenous communities.

Days earlier, a judge had ordered him held in preventive custody for five months at a La Paz detention facility, as part of an inquiry into alleged irregularities tied to the fund during his tenure as a minister under former President Evo Morales.

Arce’s defense team reaffirmed his innocence, citing the presumption of innocence and protections outlined in Article 6 of Bolivia’s Criminal Procedure Code. They also pledged full cooperation with investigators and guaranteed Arce’s attendance at all required legal proceedings.

Prosecutors maintain that the accusations relate exclusively to actions taken before Arce became president.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Brazil’s Communist Party (PCdoB) declares unwavering solidarity with Venezuela’s government and condemns escalating U.S. military actions in the Caribbean as a direct threat to regional peace and sovereignty.

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The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) recently expressed its invariable solidarity with the Government of President Nicolas Maduro and the Venezuelan people.

During a pivotal meeting held on Saturday, December 13 in São Paulo, the Brazilian political force conveyed its strong rejection of United States military actions in the Caribbean region, which it described as a significant threat to regional stability and sovereignty.

RELATED: Intellectuals Network Denounces U.S. “Modern-Day Piracy” Off Venezuelan Coast

In São Paulo, Brazil, the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) Central Committee conveyed solidarity to Venezuelan Ambassador Manuel Vadell, rejecting recent United States military actions in the Caribbean as a direct threat to regional peace and sovereignty. The gathering also underscored the commitment to Latin America as a zone of peace, urging continental unity.

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Una publicación compartida de PCdoB São Paulo (@pcdobsaopaulo)

Condemnation of U.S. Military Presence

The PCdoB vehemently condemned the escalating military activities by the United States in the Caribbean. These actions, as highlighted by the leftist Party, include repeated summary executions and, more recently, the alleged theft of an oil tanker along with the kidnapping of its crew.

For Ana Prestes, the PCdoB’s Secretary of International Relations, this assertive military presence constitutes a grave danger to the entire region, signaling a worrying return to aggressive interventionist policies.

Prestes emphasized the necessity for heightened vigilance from the Brazilian government in response to these evolving threats. “The Brazilian Government needs to be more alert and better prepared for this challenge, which is something new in recent years: this type of militarization, this type of attack and direct threat, not only in our seas, but also through the threat and attempt of territorial invasion”, stated.

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Una publicación compartida por Ana Prestes (@anaprestesdf)

Her remarks underscored a deep concern that the aggressive posture adopted by Washington could destabilize the delicate geopolitical balance and compromise the peace across Latin America and the Caribbean. In this sense, she condemned the external military interference, in defense of the self-determination of the people.

Beyond the condemnation of foreign military maneuvers, the Communist Party of Brazil reaffirmed the profound bonds of solidarity existing between the Brazilian and Venezuelan peoples.

The Party leaders underscored that the peace enjoyed in Latin America and the Caribbean is a conquest achieved through immense sacrifice by its inhabitants. This perspective is central to the “South is our North” philosophy, advocating for the strengthening of South-South cooperation and unity against external pressures.

“A threat against Venezuela is a threat against ourselves”, Ana Prestes concluded, articulating the shared destiny and interconnectedness of regional nations. This sentiment reflects a long-standing commitment within the PCdoB to fostering a united front among progressive forces in the region.

El Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Brasil (PCdoB) invitó este sábado al embajador de Venezuela en Brasil, Manuel Vadell, para manifestar su solidaridad con el gobierno del presidente Nicolás Maduro y con el pueblo venezolano.

Durante la reunión, el partido rechazó las… pic.twitter.com/IRfHoRyowD

— André Vieira (@AndreteleSUR) December 14, 2025

Text reads: “Communist Party of Brazil strengthens solidarity with Venezuela during Central Committee meeting”.

The national meeting of the PCdoB was attended by several parliamentarians, party leaders, and Brazil’s Minister of Science and Technology, Luciana Santos. This gathering served as a powerful platform for political dialogue and strategic alignment.

Venezuelan Ambassador Manuel Vadell highlighted the significance of the meeting, calling it as “a space to reaffirm the region as a zone of peace and to call for the popular unity” of the continent.

“United, we will succeed in preserving the peace and sovereignty of our territories”, assured.

The Venezuelan diplomat also emphasized the opportunity to formally deliver a letter from President Maduro, which was initially sent on the occasion of the PCdoB’s 16th National Congress, held in October in Brasilia. This exchange further solidified diplomatic and political ties, reinforcing a shared vision for a peaceful and sovereign Latin America free from foreign military intervention and economic coercion.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

The ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre, left-wing) stated this Saturday that it “does not grant political or moral legitimacy” to the government that emerges from the general elections of November 30 in Honduras, after calling on its base to take to the streets.

RELATED:

Honduras: Libre Candidate Vows “We’ll Take to the Streets” Against Electoral Coup

“The Libre Party does not grant political or moral legitimacy to the government that emerges from this process of restoring the narco-state through the shameless interference of the United States government” and declares itself a “firm ethical and popular opposition that we will exercise in all instances,” according to a resolution.

Libre, which again denounced the alleged interference of the United States in the elections, released that resolution after concluding an extraordinary assembly in the city of Siguatepeque, in central Honduras, led by its candidate Rixi Moncada and the ousted former president Manuel Zelaya, coordinator of the party.

The electoral contest in Honduras is centered between Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura, of the National Party, who leads with 40.52% of the votes and has the support of Donald Trump, and Salvador Nasralla, of the Liberal Party, who obtains 39.20% and also questions the results of the National Electoral Council (CNE) after the scrutiny of 99.40%.

Unidad y organización: ese es el mandato del pueblo reunido en Asamblea Popular Extraordinaria de la Dignidad Nacional. LIBRE no reconoce el fraude y defiende la voluntad expresada en las actas.

Con el liderazgo de nuestro Coordinador General Manuel Zelaya junto a nuestra… pic.twitter.com/rzDFXmmISi

— Partido Libre (@PartidoLibre) December 14, 2025

Libre, whose candidate remains in third place with 19.29% of the votes, awaiting the special scrutiny of at least 2,773 records with inconsistencies, reiterated that it “does not recognize” the preliminary results of the elections because they “carry the seed of the intrusion and interference of the United States and the oligarchic class” and that the vote “was not exercised freely.”

It also denounced a “continental operation of ideological means, which used the specter of communism and the stigmatization of Cuba and Venezuela (…) to induce the vote by fear, there is evidence, already presented to the justice organizations of more than four million messages of threats directed at the families of Hondurans who receive remittances.”

It also rejected the “unprecedented media and psychological war financed by large tax-evading capital and beneficiary of concessions, exonerations and trusts,” as well as “the open intervention” of the United States and extreme right-wing governments in the electoral process.

“Faced with the failed state, the demand and promotion of justice is a historical and unavoidable necessity, where the people dictate a new Constitution of the Republic, which prioritizes the public and the benefits for large majorities and not the privileges of the political caste and the economic class,” the Libre resolution states.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

By Calla Mairead Walsh  –  Dec 11, 2025

I had the great honor of interviewing Sean “Shibby” Middlebrough, a humble professional revolutionary, one of the Filton 24 who escaped British custody and is now living underground. We had a rich discussion about his political background, his path into taking direct action with Palestine Action, and the future of anti-imperialist struggle within the imperial core.

For those who don’t know, Shibby was granted temporary bail to attend his brother’s wedding, and he (very logically) chose not to return to prison, where he and his comrades have been detained in horrific conditions without trial or bail, some for over a year.

You can follow Shibby on Instagram and check out his podcast, Diary Of A Political Prisoner.

Before you read the interview, please note that today, 11 December, marks Day 40 of the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike. 8 prisoners are on hunger strike and 5 have been hospitalized so far, some of them multiple times. Their lives are on the line. Take action to support their demands:

• US toolkit (made by Workshops4Gaza)
• UK toolkit
• Follow Free the Filton 24 on Substack (where they publish prisoners’ writings) and Instagram, and Prisoners for Palestine on Instagram and Twitter
• Donate to the fundraiser for the 37 political prisoners in Britain
• Continue taking direct action against the zionist-imperialist war machine!

There are also urgent calls to action to support Indigenous political prisoner Xinachtli (¡Tierra y Libertad!) who is facing extreme medical neglect in Texas prisons. Look at his support committee’s page for more info.

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How’s it feel to be free after being locked up for so long?

I wouldn’t know. I’m not free. You’re not free and nor are the readers. We’re not free until we’re all free from the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

Furthermore, I’m underground. Sure, I’ve gained me more “freedoms” such as the freedom to not listen to prison officers shouting and instigating fights and even better, I’ve gained the freedom to feel the elements on my skin and witness the sun rise and set, followed by the spectacular view of the Moon and stars which I didn’t see for over 11 months. Yet, being underground has also severely limited many more “freedoms” I did have even as a prisoner, such as being able to speak to friends & family. I may now witness the Sun rise, but I miss out on my own Son’s growth.

I am of course relieved to no longer be in a 9ftx5ft box 23 hours a day and to be in a more productive and vocal position.

It’s only honest for me to not give the impression that I’m sippin’ piña colada’s with my feet up. I’m still struggling for freedom.

In an article I recently published about the ongoing hunger strike, I characterized your escape as “a qualitative escalation and a massive embarrassment for the paper tiger that is the criminal justice system. It shows that the freedom of our prisoners is a tangible possibility, and demonstrates the range of different tactics by which they might resist conditions of captivity by any means necessary. Our duty on the outside is not just to engage in legal advocacy for the prisoners, but to build a popular cradle of resistance — an underground.”

Just like the hunger strike is a means to resist captivity, so was your liberation, when you found yourself in the unique circumstances that made it possible. And of course there is a long history of prison breaks in liberation movements, whether we’re talking about Assata or William Morales’s prison breaks, who were participating in armed national liberation struggles within amerika, the IRA’s iconic prison breaks at Long Kesh in the north and Mountjoy Prison in the south, or the Palestinian prisoners’ escape from Gilboa Prison through Operation Freedom Tunnel.

So how do you think your liberation could shift the balance of forces, even just by shattering the oppressors’ image of omnipotence? And do you have any message you want to share with international political prisoners who are also locked up for participating in the Palestinian liberation struggle and other connected movements?

Yeah, I read that publication and I love it. Your characterisation of the circumstances are correct.

Firstly, on the building of ‘a cradle of resistance — an underground’ and to tie in with your question, I think an important role of that underground is to do as you say, ‘shatter the view of omnipotence’ of our oppressors by way of giving interviews, writing and speaking truth to power from a position where they’re powerless to do anything about it!

It’s important that we expose the political policing, arrests and abuses of the legal (injustice) system that imprisoned us by a state that aims to protect the actual perpetrators of crime such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity – Israel may be the word that pops into people’s mind, but in reality Israel is merely a proxy-state for western (British-US) imperialism therefore blaming every crime against the Palestinians for example on Israel is literally the purpose of a proxy state, to have the crimes look autonomous, when really the blame is largely on Britain and the US who founded the terror-state to destabilise the middle-east and more easily overthrow anti-western regimes and extract their resources.

I say this not to give a lecture, but because shattering their omnipotence requires truly identifying the quality of the ‘oppressors’, as you put it. They are western imperialists.

Colonialism is merely a method of subduing a people, a qualitative definiteness of Imperialism and for imperialism via the proxy-state of Israel.

If you still doubt that the UK & US are pulling the strings of Israel, but rather that Israel is acting independently then I suggest to attempt to follow the strings. They will lead you to arms factories in the US, Britain & Europe. Once you’ve done that, you can in fact physically manipulate those strings from places like Elbit Systems, Rafael and Teledyne.

You can directly interfere with Israel’s military campaigns (genocide) so that drones are never deployed, tanks and other military hardware are left incomplete by deadlines they’re needed at the front, as Palestine Action have done for years.

If you still doubt that Israel is not merely a proxy state for western imperialism, then look at what happens when you interfere at the source of the monopoly of violence; As European and British Governments condemn Israel’s strategy of displacement and erasure, calling for an end, they simultaneously arrest those who are actually preventing the slaughter. Whats-more, the more of an impact you have, the more they will crack-down on you, as in my case of the Filton 24, they even went so far as arresting us with the Counter-Terrorism pigs for opposing terrorism. In the case of Palestine Action in general, I saw them become a proscribed terror group in my prison cell.

The main argument they had to justify this was what I got told in my 3-day stay at the Counter-Terrorism police station: that a terrorist can be somebody who “opposes British foreign policy”.

There it is.

Arming Israel, what it knows to be a terrorist ethno-state destabilising the middle east and colonising Palestine is literally British Foreign Policy. It has been since 1918.

If it were not, the Filton 24 trial would not be classed as ‘terror-related’. Palestine Action would not be proscribed. Israel would not be continued to be supported economically, militarily and diplomatically by the west, despite their public condemnation.

All they condemn is that Israel has been caught in the act so many times, that they should perhaps go back to a slow genocide. Everything was easier for them before social media around the time of The Nakba.

This is the role of those prisoners who are now underground, sharing what we’ve learned and experienced. There are many other duties that should be performed also as you can imagine.

Our oppressors are the same as they are in most of the world: western imperialists. They are closer to us than they are to the Palestinians.

“Israel is evil” simply isn’t going to shift the balance of forces. A comprehensive understanding of Imperialism and anti-imperialist action will.

Battles can be won without it, but there will always be battles to be fought as long as there is class war.

I implore everybody to study, to understand the enemy & it’s nature, to dedicate themselves to liberation. I see no more urgent and greater reason for people to begin to resist than the Palestinian cause. They are entirely victims of western Imperialism as we have already covered.

We are the source of their continued suffering as long as we the masses are complicit and do nothing. We don’t deserve freedom ourselves as long as we’re benefiting off the murder, misery and exploitation of others.

In regards to messages to International Political Prisoners for Palestine, err… Surely anything I say is completely insufficient as no words can describe my admiration for them and the fury I have for their oppressors?

I guess I’d say that “You know what you did. You know it was totally sick. You’re incredibly cool. Though there may still be many cowards and hypocrites who haven’t matched your conviction and sacrifice, there will be enough people who will be inspired to build on your work and the work of those before us to Free Palestine.

The international political landscape is changing daily on Palestine for Palestine. What has been an unconscionable history will be a better future. I know that for a fact because there are people like you, comrade.”

You have maintained that you did not “abscond” or go “on the run,” that you are a liberated prisoner of war — a prisoner of war of Israel in Britain. Can you elaborate on this term, “prisoner of war,” and why it’s important not to legitimize the state’s criminalization of liberation struggles?

So, Israel kept crying to the Home Office in London over many many years over their factories getting smashed up, having to close for the day and even being economically compelled to permanently shut down their factories so that eventually the UK Government, (I guess shut them up) decided to be harsher on Palestine Actionists.

We know that the Isaeli embassy has had meetings with UK officials and shortly after there’s been arrests and we know that the Home Office has told police to ‘focus not on the rights of the protesters, but on the business’ thereby mass arresting over 30 literal peaceful demonstrators – like, not even a fire extinguisher or sledge hammer anywhere, just banners – forgoing our legal rights to make their demon-baby Israel and Elbit Systems feel loved.

I know that the Home Office told Leicester police this because I was one of those arrested and this came out as disclosure in court. We all got acquitted.

So when it comes to my arrest and the arrest of most of the Filton 24 by Counter-Terrorism police, it had clearly got to a point where Elbit Systems (Israel) were so disturbed and upset by the supremely legendary action at their Filton site that this time they must have suggested the arrest of the 6 who went inside simply won’t pacify them, they need more arrests. It’s my belief that they suggested that we had effectively destroyed their cot when they were sleeping (as Britain’s baby) and this was akin to terrorism, therefore more arrests had to be made so nobody would attempt to destroy their factories again, once and for all.

It’s also my belief that Israel wanted to arrest as many people as they could even with circumstantial evidence but they didn’t have the authority, so they needed counter terrorism police to make arrests that the ordinary police would not make. They, being Britain’s favourite child got their wish.

I’m entirely convinced by knowing the political influence they’ve had on British police in the past, as evidenced in court and FOI documents that ‘Operation Re-comply’ is influenced by Israeli Officials.

Elbit is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer and it got absolutely wrote off yet again. Just why wouldn’t they demand harsher counter-terrorism policing?

Therefore, after a long history of incredible victories and unprecedented action, because of our politics and history, we were arrested at the behest of a foreign entity who’s genocide machine was at the risk of collapse in it’s parent Country. That being said, Israel doesn’t arrest Palestinians or resistance fighters with ordinary police, when Palestinians go to ‘trial’, Palestinians are in a Military Court. They are deemed prisoners of war.

I was imprisoned as a prisoner of war proxy because of Israeli interference with the Counter Terrorism Police. Court in the UK with the ‘Terrorism Connection’ as a possible aggravated factor at sentencing would be the closest they could accomplish to having me tried as a prisoner of war with a similar sentence (decades)

Regardless of who arrests us, we always say that we are not the guilty ones, Elbit Systems is. Court at least in the past was a place where we had the chance to put them on the stand, but that’s became harder as all of our legal defences are ruled out early in case-management. This again is akin to a military court.​​​​​​​ Despite this, we know these trials are purely political trials and history – the true trial – will absolve us all.

That is why I said ‘Peace out’ to HMP Wandsworth, because I want Elbit System’s upper management to fear that I am not in prison, that I am (it’s true) actually under their very beds every night ready to pull them by their ankles into the depths of hell where they belong.

While Claiming To Defend Freedom Around the World, the US Has Dozens of Political Prisoners—and the Majority Are People of Color

Before your illegitimate incarceration, you hosted a Communist radio show called Rev Lumpen Radio. Can you tell us more about your past political work, and what led you to seeing direct action as the only option? I feel like I had a somewhat similar journey, having been involved in socialist parties and NGOs, but ultimately seeing the Al-Aqsa Flood expose that Pal Action was the only formation meeting the moment in the West in terms of escalation to resist the genocide.

It’s cool you asked about this. Revolutionary Lumpen Radio is the sickest podcast to ever exist. I’m extremely, eternally grateful to all my guests and comrades I’ve had the privilege of hosting and learning from – who’ve been extremely open, honest and informative on all the subjects we engaged in! As well as my listeners and supporters. Thank you.

Honestly, RLR started off because I was extremely dissatisfied with the lack of organised, militant and sincere Marxist Revolutionaries in the imperial core – the belly of the beast – the luckiest place for a Revolutionary to be and effect internationalist change.

I think sporting a habit of smoking a lot of weed, sniffing ketamine and reading a lot of revolutionary theory really – despite the sedative nature of these things – encouraged my productivity in the agitation-propaganda front (I actually sold them as well as i was trying to radicalise the lumpen-drug dealers in my City, it was a crazy time).

But the podcast wasn’t directed at liberals, I did it directly aimed at Imperial Core Marxists, to criticise their methods (or lack of) and educate them in their actual duties as Marxists who aught to be synonymous with revolutionaries. The duty of every revolutionary is to make revolution. Not talk about it. Not just “educate” about it. To make it.

There were and still are a tremendous amount of grifters who make a living talking about Marxism and revolution but that’s all they do, so I let many shots fire in their direction too. In fact they obviously annoyed me more, especially when I started a Serve The People Programme in my community off the proceeds of Revolutionary Lumpen Radio, feeding families who were struggling in what I called “Turning peoples hunger from capitalism into a hunger for socialism”. That was the objective of my STP programme.

People (as I would say to local communist groups) can’t truly learn Marxism if they’re thinking about how to feed themselves.

We need to go into the communities and Serve The People! We need to build bases within the capitalist base and superstructure and from these revolutionary bases we’ll have a revolutionary superstructure that no longer depends on the capitalist one and has a socialist culture. The local communists said it was a waste of money and time. Then my Podcast’s funds couldn’t keep up and shrunk as I put less podcasts out because I was serving the people more. I grew furious and my habits with it.

This pained me because the people in our communities who needed the most help were the lumpen-proletariat, who I wanted to represent. The underclass. The class that’s won most revolutions. You can’t be a worker and engage in revolution – let’s be honest. Your profession must be a professional revolutionary, not a guerrilla fighter part-time and factory worker the rest – now who’s smoking what?

The imperial core Marxists deem the lumpen-proletariat as a “backwards” “counter-revolutionary” class, even though it’s these people who have to most to gain, least to lose and generally are oppressed by the working class by the same bourgeois morality that sees them as social scum. But I know there’s hope in them because I have a lumpen class-consciousness and my left toe is more revolutionary than most.

Don’t get me wrong, I was taught by a local communist group, FRFI and wouldn’t be who I am without them, they obviously are a good place to start and of course I love those comrades. Yet, I guess I was taught and/or self-taught too well because the words of George Jackson hit too hard “come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act.”

I tried to take action serving the people long-term, but I’m not an entertainer, I’m a revolutionary so I couldn’t afford it like the grifting communist podcasters and Youtubers could have if they cared about their community.

I can’t sell newspapers for an org, because I want to bash the ruling class to death with them instead.

Then I heard Palestine Action on a Twitter Space discuss their first major victory, permanently shutting down Elbit Systems Oldham site.

Well, shiver-me-timbers. This is real anti-imperialist work that I’m duty-bound to contribute to as a Marxist Revolutionary, an Internationalist. Serving The People locally is good, but Serving The People Internationally for a people who are oppressed because of your own Countries policies and Imperialist objectives is far more urgent. Also Palestinians are a lot nicer.

A month later (I think) I was taking bricks out of Elbit’s UAV Engines site and using those same bricks to destroy drone engines inside (brick by brick) with 5 other esteemed comrades whom I’ll forever love.

We absolutely dismantled the place. It was wrote off for over a month. It was marvellous. THAT is what freedom is. Freedom is fighting for freedom, it’s a self-replicating phenomenon.

On that action there was literally blood, sweat, tears & broken bones. Broken drones.

I went to work 2 days later with my left hand in ribbons after it got torn to shreds on the razor wire for the factory. A couple of inches of vein had been plucked out of my finger and was in the palm of my hand swimming in a growing pool of blood. My fingers were inside-out in some places, it was quite a sight.

Naturally, that whole experience and others like it redirected my podcasts platform to platforming Palestine Action and the importance of direct action. As I got more caught up, my podcast was on the back burner, as well as my ‘illicit’ habits.

The Patreon still exists (please don’t pay money to it as I can’t access the money) but one day I’d like to fire Revolutionary Lumpen Radio up again.

I have another podcast called “Diary Of A Political Prisoner” that was actually recorded in prison and the Patreon is accessible, which I’ll be updating soon. I’m still all about agitation propaganda of course.

Your political education and theoretical work appears to have been very grounded in the role of the lumpenproletariat in the revolution, and you reference a lot of important Black freedom fighters in amerika, such as George Jackson and Sanyika Shakur. You seem to follow a different tendency, rooted in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist national liberation struggles, than a lot of Western Marxists who emphasize the role of the working class of the imperialist countries in making revolution.

I think this contradiction directly translates to the Pal Action strategy as well — for example, in amerika, we received a lot of pushback on our direct action campaign by people who said our actions would alienate the weapons factory workers and that we just needed to organize them. Of course to this we responded that these workers, even if they experience degrees of exploitation from their employers, are deeply invested in and benefiting from imperialism and genocide, so we shouldn’t wait for them to gain a moral conscience for us to take action, and we shouldn’t see them as the base for revolution. Unions have certainly taken more action and gone on brief general strike in some European countries than they have in amerika, where they have just kept building and shipping the bombs, and endorsing genocidal candidates, but I would say the unions in Europe could and should be doing far, far more as well.

So, do you think there is revolutionary potential within the imperial core, and what does that look like? What strategies are worth taking up and which are futile or social imperialist? Historically, what groups do you look to as reference points and inspiration?

Calla, I love these questions and I’m so happy to answer these things to someone who’s as learned as yourself in these important concepts and phenomena.

As far as I’m concerned, Marxism, the theory of Revolution doesn’t end and is a constant project of practice > theory > practice > theory etc and the practitioners are the revolutionaries because of their understanding that’s came from studying the nature of anti-imperialism, decolonialism and resistance struggles which is to say: Marxist theory and practice. A lot of people use “Imperialism” without studying Marxism-Leninism when Lenin literally defined what it is.

“Decolonialism” is literally a practice that’s came from the revolutionaries who understood Marxism/historical materialism and applied it to their national liberation struggles, but most have never read the Marxist theory of it’s leaders.

Ideology is so important. If you think back, at one point you could not read. You would look at the text on this screen and see nothing but incoherent shapes and symbols. Then you learned to read. Ever since reading (and you can put this to the test) you physically cannot look at these letters/words without reading them! You can’t do it!

When you understand Marxism, your ideology changes, you will interpret the world completely differently; you will understand the mechanisms and forces of geopolitics, economies and culture as they are: a hegemony of the ruling class! You’ll be politically literate. Marxism is the tool we must wield to dismantle capitalism, colonialism and imperialism propped up by it’s libertarian ideology. It’s the only thing that has done so and we cannot hope to understand, much less defeat the forces of oppression without it.

Therefore, yes, you are right and this brings me back to my old Revolutionary Lumpen Radio Podcast a little, I have been vocal in criticism of what are “Eurocentric” Marxists in the imperial core and their lack of engagement with Black or other liberation movements and revolutionaries. Many seem to think that the scientific project of Marxism doesn’t include people like George Jackson, Fred Hampton, Huey Newton & Sanyika Shakur, even Frantz Fanon, Ghassan Kanafani. They’re what Malik Dacoure in my “BLACK Marxism & White Marxism” episode stated, these revolutionaries are seen as “DLC” — something extra, exotic even but not tied in with revolutionary theory in the imperial core. Maybe it’s because they’re not white due to a hangover from bourgeois morality but I think the contributions from these people are very important.

The Black Panthers for eg had a remarkable understanding of Marxism-Leninism. I daresay most white Marxists would get an ‘F’ on the Black Panthers 6-week educational programme.

What they did was come to understand their enemies quality as well as their own position within a class-structured racist system of oppression.

With the Vietnam war raging and black Americans being forced to fight poor non-white people in Vietnam while black people were killed with impunity, or even reward by US state forces, this gave rise to a contradiction and consciousness for extremely brave individuals like Huey Newton to form the Black Panther Party as a Marxist-Leninist party. Though the initial focus was on the ending of police brutality in Black neighbourhoods, it was through their educating the masses as to the white supremacist Country they lived in and how that supremacy is maintained by capitalism, imperialism.

The panthers Serve The People Programmes were an outstanding achievement and never-before practised method in the Imperial core, inspired by Chairman Mao who liberated China.

It worked. It got thousands (hundreds of thousands) of people to understand capitalism/imperialism through racism and it’s power structures. The Panthers forced more concessions by the US Government than any white communist party ever had or has since! That wasn’t even their intention, but by their militancy and education they lifted their communities out of ignorance and despair to give them power.

They united so many people and took back their streets from white capitalists. They literally gave FREE healthcare in the UNITED STATES for goodness sake. They taught their community that they deserved it and socialism will guarantee it.

Furthermore, I’ve actually had the honour and privilege of reading a Black Panther Newspaper IRL. It was in my hands. Within it, there was random artwork that said “Lumpen Power” and other pro-lumpen propaganda because of course most black people at the time were lumpen. They focused on the most oppressed, rather than those workers who just want to organise for a bigger piece of the imperialist pie, so I feel more in tune with the Panthers than white eurocentric Marxists tbh.

Eventually the FBI deemed the “Children’s Free Breakfast Programmes” the biggest threat to the United States. More than any other white, American exceptionalist communist party. Because the Panthers were literally building socialism in the US!! Not the white people. Free breakfast in schools was a concession the US Gov eventually made, as all revolutionary iconography is eventually neutralised.

The FBI sought to “prevent the rise of a Black Messiah” so they assassinated (effectively lynched) 21-year old Fred Hampton because he was just that fucking cool.

So when I study the history, the successes and failures of revolutionary activity, I study them all because they died or were imprisoned for us. I’m not dogmatic, I don’t limit myself to revolutionary theory and practice in the imperial core of the early 1900’s, I study recent revolutionaries such as the Panthers up to the 1980’s. If Marxists can’t address the contradictions of racism, colonialism and the eurocentric problems of Marxism then I think we have a serious yt problem.

On unions and arms-industry workers, well… As I’ve previously said, workers and their unions organise around getting a bigger piece of the imperialist pie, that’s what they’re best at. I can’t imagine them organising to stop working on a weapons factory that they consciously applied to work for and I know first-hand these places have framed photographs of the weapons they produce all around these sites, they’re proud of the work they do and are violent with protesters, even children. There’s no reasoning with these pigs.

I know you got push back around not “organising” the workforce rather than just taking action to shut the site down, I can remember when it happened. It was drama. The US is just a very reactionary stupid place i’m afraid.

Honestly, it’s all very idealistic hoping unions will strike, I think time and energy is better spent organising direct action campaigns to shut these places down ourselves and anybody that says otherwise are looking for excuses to justify their own cowardice and complicity.

I do think there’s revolutionary potential in the imperial core, because I know I exist and I know my comrades exist, including you, Calla.

There is a lot of work to be done. I think it’s important to focus on direct action against the military-industrial complex, tying in their connection with racist imperialist conquests as Palestine Action have done, informing millions of Britain’s & the West’s very contemporary role in oppression and crimes against humanity, removing the mask of what was apparently a group of perfectly civilised Countries, a force of good in the world.

It’s also important to Serve The People! Build programmes locally with the goal of turning peoples hunger from capitalism into a hunger for socialism — tackling alienation, hopelessness and suicide among our neighbours in favour of revolutionary suicide through political education and solidarity.

Increasing in our ranks, the professional revolutionary in favour of the professional wage slave.

We must make the organisation and support of political prisoners a priority just as the Palestinians make their prisoners the focus of their organising. These people are the tip of the spear when it comes to action and we must collectively thrust them and what they stand for into the consciousness of everybody else.

We should look at (in detail) organisations and the individuals who make up The Black Panther Party, Palestine Action and others in recent history that have influenced history in a revolutionary way to inspire us to build on their momentum.

What do you think the future holds in terms of direct action and resistance more broadly?

Yeah, I think the future of Direct Action is just warming up. I think direct action has stretched it’s legs and is ready for the long-run.

In terms of resistance, it’s up to the reader. Will they feel compelled to end the butchering of people, social murder, man-made-extinction or will they have a heart and be guided by great feelings of love?

Any message for your comrades on hunger strike, which just passed one month?

To my comrades on hunger strike, my heart is broken. I see lots of videos reporting/commenting on the events in Palestine and there are random comments about your hunger strike. It is widely known and a lot of people think about you. Of course this is nice but not particularly what will change things.

I am doing what I can to change things, to see that your demands are met just as you would be if you were in my position.

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You can follow Shibby on Instagram and check out his podcast, Diary Of A Political Prisoner.

Today, 11 December, marks Day 40 of the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike. 8 prisoners are on hunger strike and 5 have been hospitalized so far, some of them multiple times. Their lives are on the line. Take action to support their demands:

• US toolkit (made by Workshops4Gaza)
• UK toolkit
• Follow Free the Filton 24 on Substack (where they publish prisoners’ writings) and Instagram, and Prisoners for Palestine on Instagram and Twitter
• Donate to the fundraiser for the 37 political prisoners in Britain
• Continue taking direct action against the zionist-imperialist war machine!

There are also urgent calls to action to support Indigenous political prisoner Xinachtli (¡Tierra y Libertad!) who is facing extreme medical neglect in Texas prisons. Look at his support committee’s page for more info.

(Substack)

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From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

By Caitlin Johnstone  –  Dec 11, 2025

Reading by Tim Foley:

US forces have seized an oil tanker carrying some 1.8 million barrels of oil from Venezuela to Cuba as part of its ongoing series of warmongering escalations against the Maduro government.

When asked what would be done with the oil, President Trump told the press, “We keep it, I guess.”

Meanwhile Chuck Schumer is refusing to oppose Trump’s regime change interventionism against Venezuela, and CNN just had former US intelligence official Beth Sanner on to proclaim that the Trump administration’s act of piracy “is absolutely normal.” So Trump’s ostensible opposition in the political-media class are putting absolutely no inertia on this.

The US pirating a Cuba-bound oil tanker from Venezuela illustrates how the empire is hurrying to shore up control over Latin America in the same way the US and Israel are quickly shoring up control over the middle east. There’s a window of opportunity to shove through a bunch of pre-existing military agendas in both regions, and they’re aggressively seizing it before their attention has to turn to bigger geopolitical fish.

You often hear US imperialists saying that obtaining regime change in Venezuela will help achieve it in Cuba as well; Senator Rick Scott recently told 60 Minutes that if Maduro is successfully ousted “it’ll be the end of Cuba,” and that “America is gonna take care of the southern hemisphere and make sure there’s freedom and democracy.”

Stealing the oil hurts both Cuba and Venezuela, who are the two primary enemies of the US empire in the Americas because of their strongly socialist governments. They got a right wing government into Bolivia this year, and now they’re hurrying to push regime change in Caracas and Havana while they’ve got a right wing tyrant in office with a gusano secretary of state. The hope is to force the entirety of Latin America into full alignment with the empire before Trump leaves office. I have no idea if they’ll succeed.

The Hemispheric Turn in New US National Security Strategy

The US House and Senate have agreed to make registration for the draft “automatic”, which will simplify the drafting process if the empire decides to throw the youth of America into a horrific new military conflict. The US is making its biggest draft policy change in 45 years so it’s easier to force Americans to fight and die in a massive war, just as the New York Times editorial board launches a series explaining why the US must prepare for war with China.

The latest edition of the New York Times’ arguments for the need for more US militarism is titled “This Is The 21st Century Arms Race. Can America Keep Up?”, which argues that “Congress needs to expand funding for research and development into technologies with military applications.”

“To counter the growing threat, America must simultaneously win the race to build autonomous weapons and lead the world in controlling them,” the editorial board writes.

Fun times.

The BBC is reportedly training its staff that it is antisemitic for anyone to oppose Zionism, because most Jews identify as Zionists. You see this argument a lot, and it a textbook example of an ad populum fallacy, which is when someone claims that something is true or right just because a majority of people believe it.

Just as the Atlantic slave trade would have been wrong even if every white person in the world supported it, a genocidal apartheid state which cannot exist without nonstop violence, theft and abuse would still be wrong even if every Jewish person on earth supported it. The claim that a majority of Jews support the existence of the modern state of Israel has no bearing whatsoever on the question of whether such a state should exist, and does not invalidate any arguments that it should not.

Israel supporters rely on lies, manipulations and fallacious arguments because their position is not based on truth or morality. If their position was right they would simply be making normal arguments like normal adults. They can’t do this because they are wrong.

Whenever I catch myself wondering if I’ve been too hard on the Democrats I re-watch last year’s video of DNC attendees covering their ears and mocking activists reading the names of children who’d been murdered in Gaza.

When they’re not in power it’s easy to forget how evil these people are.

The Daily Mirror has a gross new propaganda piece out claiming that “Hamas plotters are spreading their tentacles of terror into Europe, with secret arms dumps and operatives planning attacks even as far as in the United Kingdom.”

As you might expect, The Mirror provides no evidence whatsoever for this claim, citing only “an intelligence report” of unspecified origin.

This is one of the dumbest narratives we’ve ever been asked to believe about Hamas, amid some very stiff competition. I don’t know about you, but am so sick of having my intelligence insulted like this.

(Caitlin Johnstone)

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From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

By Afro-Venezuelan Organizations Network  –  Dec 10, 2025

Drawing on a history of resistance, Afro-Venezuelan organizations are mobilizing their communities to meet the threat of military action by the Trump administration and calling on the people of the U.S. to act on behalf of human rights.

The Afro-Venezuelan Organizations Network (ROA) and the Regional Articulation of Afrodescendants of Latin America and the Caribbean (ARAAC), Afrodescendant organizations born from anti-imperialist social change processes and anti-neocolonial struggles at the dawn of the twenty-first century, carry the dignity and sovereignty that our African Ancestors entrusted to us as a living imprint of the self-determination of peoples.

Latin America and the Caribbean have suffered, throughout the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, invasions, territorial dispossession, and targeted assassinations of Latin American and Afrodescendant leaders. The historical record confirms this across nearly all the countries of Our America (Abya Yala), from the seizure of Puerto Rico, Panama, and several Caribbean islands, to the tragic invasions of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Grenada, among many others.

The current president of the United States, Donald Trump, attempted through multiple avenues to invade Venezuela. He relied on internal civilian and military enemies through Operation Gedeón, as well as mercenaries neutralized by the heroic Afrodescendant community of Chuao (Aragua State). With military and paramilitary support from Colombian-Venezuelan sectors and the backing of former presidents Duque and Uribe, he attempted to provoke an invasion. Trump sought to undermine the legitimacy of our government by imposing an illegitimate president, a puppet named Juan Guaidó. He attempted to delegitimize Venezuela internationally by creating in 2017 a group of countries led by delinquent presidents, known as the Lima Group (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru). They appointed parallel ambassadors, imposed more than a thousand coercive measures that remain in effect nearly a decade later, and even stole our embassies, including the one in Washington, D.C.

In the face of these covert, open, and shameless aggressions, our sovereign people have responded with dignity, just as our cimarrón ancestors did during the colonial period, the war of independence, and the contemporary struggles that followed. The majority of the Venezuelan population lives along the Caribbean coast, from Zulia State to our border with Trinidad and Tobago, whose president Kamla Persad-Bissessar openly defends pro-imperialist positions.

International Condemnation Against US Theft of Venezuelan Oil Tanker Grows

THE INVASION ATTEMPT BY MR. TRUMP AND HIS ALLIESThe resident of the White House, Mr. Trump, has launched a second campaign aimed at invading our country, obsessed with seizing our oil reserves, the largest in the world, along with our gas, gold, and rare earth minerals. His motivation stems from the imminent depletion of U.S. reserves within five years and the decline of rare earth minerals necessary to sustain emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.

The deployment of United States military forces only a few kilometers from our coastline, the killing of eighty fishermen under the pretext of drug trafficking, the violation of our airspace with threats against commercial flights, the illegal sale of the oil company CITGO, and more than 1,100 coercive measures reveal a multifaceted attack. This aggression could lead to the outbreak of a third world war, with the Caribbean and Latin America as its stage. At the center of this racist and white supremacist hatred stands Secretary of State Marco Rubio, an ultraright Cuban-American figure who has made it his mission to destroy the region’s progressive governments and act as a mercenary for ExxonMobil.

In light of this situation, we call upon the noble people of the United States to halt these aggressions. We also call on sovereign governments in the Caribbean and Latin America to stop the attacks led by Donald Trump and his mafia. We call on Afrodescendant peoples, communities, and social movements to mobilize in solidarity with our people, to denounce the false U.S. narrative of a war on drug trafficking, and to stop the march toward war.

We also call upon our Afro-Venezuelan people to defend our sovereignty and independence, and to uphold our right to self-determination as a nation. We urge our people to prepare for resistance and participate actively in a prolonged popular struggle for the defense of our homeland.

Caracas, December 4, 2025
Leadership of the Afro-Venezuelan Organizations Network
Coordination of the Regional Articulation of Afrodescendants of the Americas and the Caribbean

(Black Agenda Report)

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From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

By Gloria Guillo  –  Dec 9, 2025

Every voting tech hack that Washington claims was “invented in Venezuela” was discovered, demonstrated, and documented in the United States years — sometimes decades —before Smartmatic even existed. Full Stop.

With President Trump’s false narco-trafficking claim boomeranging back and re-exposing the U.S. governments longstanding involvement through its military and CIA in cocaine and heroin trade, its state department is running out of excuses that justify stealing Venezuela’s crude oil to prevent higher prices that could result in the dreaded 1973 event of “dropping trucks off the road.”

Consider that while the U.S. has plenty of oil, it’s short 1.5–2 million barrels per day of heavy crude. Heavy crude keeps diesel production (and thus trucking/freight costs) at optimum levels.

That’s exactly why Venezuelan heavy oil — when sanctions allow — is highly valued: every 200,000–300,000 b/d from Venezuela directly plugs part of that diesel-critical gap at the lowest cost.

Latest Tale to Justify War on VenezuelaSo, first, war on Venezuela was to promote “democracy”—when that narrative flopped along with Juan Guaido—it became drug trafficking, and now it’s using longstanding U.S. election woes to justify “taking” Venezuela’s crude oil, like Trump admitted to doing in Syria. This latest ruse is more pathetic than an unprepared sixth grader blaming the family dog for “eating his homework.”

The longstanding lack of U.S. voting equipment integrity is provable in court, reproducible in any high-school computer lab, and archived in publicly available files that have sat untouched on BlackBoxVoting.org since 2003.

The proof was produced by Bev Harris, a grandmother, from Renton, Washington, more than twenty years ago.

Below is the side-by-side timeline that no intelligence briefer, no Trump lawyer, and no prime-time host has ever dared put on screen—because once you see it, the Venezuelan election-theft myth collapses like a house of cards in a hurricane.

The Timeline: CIA Myth vs. Bev Harris Reality

Year

CIA / Berntsen / Powell / Lindell Claim (Venezuela did it)

Bev Harris / Black Box Voting Reality (USA did it first — with receipts)

2000
Hugo Chávez is still consolidating power

Florida punch-card crisis: 175,000 undervotes decide the presidency. ES&S machines already subtracting votes in real time (Allegheny County, PA)

2002
Chávez “beginning to plan fraud software”

Harris discovers “rob-georgia.zip” on Diebold servers — a patch that overwrites vote databases. Two years before the Venezuelan recall referendum

Jan 2003
Smartmatic doesn’t even have a Venezuelan contract yet

Harris downloads 40,000 unrestricted Diebold files, including full GEMS source code. Johns Hopkins & Rice confirm buffer overflows and remote access

Aug 2004
Chávez supposedly “steals” recall referendum → orders secret fraud code

Harris’s book Black Box Voting is published documenting 100+ U.S. miscounts using the exact same GEMS code Washington later blames on Caracas

Dec 2005
Venezuela “perfecting the memory-card hacks”

Harris films the Leon County, Florida hack for HBO: 7-1 vote flip in eight minutes using only a $20 memory card on a Diebold AccuVote-TS

2006
Smartmatic still running tiny pilots in Venezuela

HBO’s Hacking Democracy airs to 20 million Americans showing every trick the Washington later attributes to Chávez

2016
“Venezuelans invent Fraction Magic”

Harris releases 8-part Fraction Magic report + live video using only U.S.-made GEMS 1.18.19 — votes split to the thousandth and moved invisibly across precincts

2017
Venezuela drops Smartmatic after the company refuses to disable audits

Smartmatic publicly accuses the Maduro regime of manipulating results — the exact opposite of the CIA story

2020
“Venezuela flips Georgia, Arizona, Michigan”

Georgia hand-recounts 5 million paper ballots — machine tally within 0.1 %. No foreign code ever found

2023
“Venezuelan code still inside Dominion”

Delaware Superior Court rules the claim false on its face. Fox pays $787 million. Smartmatic lawsuits ongoing

2024–2025
Berntsen promises “source code proof” to DOJ

Zero lines of code produced. DOJ quietly shelves case after internal review

Unmasking Imperial Hypocrisy: Trump’s 2025 Venezuela Escalation Is a Sham for Oil

The Mechanisms Themselves — All Born in the USA

1 Fractional Vote Weighting CIA: “Invented in Caracas to steal elections invisibly.” Harris: Demonstrated in 2003 Diebold source code (publicly posted). GEMS field labeled “Weighted Race” lets one voter’s ballot count as 0.10, 1.00, or 10.00 depending on precinct. Feature existed since at least 1998.

2 Real-Time Database Overwriting CIA: “Venezuelan backdoor.” Harris: 2002 “rob-georgia.zip” patch and 2003 GEMS duplicate-database feature — both archived and downloadable since Harris’s leak.

3 Memory-Card Swaps CIA: “Venezuelan engineers perfected this.” Harris: Filmed in Leon County, Florida, December 2005 — eight-minute hack on live machine.

4 Central Tabulator Remote Access CIA: “Huawei and Serbian servers.” Harris: 2003 Diebold files show default modem passwords and open ports. No foreign hardware required.

The Companies — All American When the Flaws Were Created

• Diebold (now Premier) — Canton, Ohio

• ES&S — Omaha, Nebraska

• Sequoia — Oakland, California (sold to Smartmatic in 2005 after the vulnerabilities were already in the code)

• Dominion — founded in Canada in 2003, bought Sequoia in 2010 with no Smartmatic code transfer (confirmed in multiple lawsuits)

Smartmatic’s only U.S. appearance was a single 2006 Chicago pilot with 100 machines. It has never been used in a swing state.

The Paper Trail That Kills the MythThe single most devastating document is the 2016 Fraction Magic report by Bev Harris and Bennie Smith. It is 80 pages of screenshots, flowcharts, and live video using only software that was sold in the United States from 1998 to 2008.

No Venezuelan engineer is mentioned, because none was needed. The report was sent to every secretary of state, every major news outlet, and every member of Congress. None of them disputed the findings—because they were reproducible on American hardware in American counties.

The Fixes That Already Exist — and Are Being IgnoredWhile the CIA chases ghosts in Caracas, Harris handed America the solutions twenty years ago:

• Ballot Images (mandated by federal law since HAVA 2002) — release them publicly and any citizen can verify the count. Colorado and Rhode Island do it; no “Venezuelan interference” has ever been found.
• Risk-Limiting Audits — statistically prove the outcome matches the paper.
• Open-Source Code Review — let the public see what is running on the machines.

The Verdict from the Courts and the Auditors

• 2020–2023 hand recounts in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan: paper ballots matched machine totals within statistical norms.
• No forensic audit has ever found foreign code.
• Dominion and Smartmatic have collectively won or settled defamation cases for over $2.4 billion because the claim is provably false.

Conclusion: The Lie Was Never About Protecting ElectionsThe Venezuelan election-theft myth is not an intelligence failure.

It is a deliberate, sustained disinformation operation whose only purpose is to provide moral cover for economic strangulation of a country that nationalized its oil.

Bev Harris proved — with files, videos, and court victories — that every single trick blamed on Caracas was born in Ohio, Nebraska, and Florida.

The machines are vulnerable because American vendors wrote secret code and American

regulators looked the other way — not because Hugo Chávez had a secret lab in a basement in Miraflores.

Conclusion
Until the United States mandates the transparency Harris has been begging for since 2003, the real threat to American elections will remain exactly where she found it: inside the black boxes built and serviced by American corporations.

If former President George W. Bush’s comedy routine at the 2004 White House Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner about his inability to find weapons of mass destruction didn’t result in the death of millions of people and the obliteration of the cradle of civilization, it would be funny.

Let’s not have Trump recreating Bush’s war crime folly regarding his inability to find drugs and election stealing technology in Venezuela at our expense too.

No Blood for Oil!

(Popular Resistance.org)

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From Orinoco Tribune – News and opinion pieces about Venezuela and beyond via This RSS Feed.

Twenty million sea turtles have been born in the last three decades in the Mexican Caribbean, thanks to the Riviera Maya-Tulum Sea Turtle Conservation Program, which was implemented in 13 turtle camps, according to reports from civil organizations and environmental authorities.

RELATED:

National Botanical Garden of Havana: A Natural Treasure for Science and Conservation

The program, led by the organization Flora, Fauna y Cultura de México, with the participation of various public and private institutions, considers the conservation of sea turtles in one of the country’s most important tourist corridors a complete success.

The general director of the NGO, Guadalupe Quintana Pali, the initiative has not only managed to increase the number of hatchlings, but there are already records of adult turtles returning to nest on the beaches where they were born, a key indicator of population recovery.

🐢✨ Datos inéditos y grandes noticias para la conservación en #QuintanaRoo.

Hoy se presentaron los nuevos hallazgos y resultados acumulados del Programa de Conservación de Tortugas Marinas Riviera Maya–Tulum, uno de los proyectos ambientales más importantes de México pic.twitter.com/ibWIGfcVz0

— Playa Del Carmen 🌊 (@playaenmano) December 12, 2025

“About 30 years ago, these turtles began to be marked with a system of cutting a small piece of the plastron (lower part of the shell) and another from the carapace (upper part), and the tissues were exchanged. It is a living tissue that grew with the turtle and that now allows us to know in what year they were born,” she detailed.

She also highlighted that there is increasing awareness in society about the importance of preserving turtles.

According to program data, from 1996 to 2025, 303,586 nests were protected on 13 key nesting beaches, mainly of green turtles (Chelonia mydas), which represent 81% of the records, and loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), with 18%.

There are also isolated cases of hawksbill and leatherback turtles nesting in this area.

Javier Carballar, director of the Institute of Biodiversity and Natural Protected Areas of Quintana Roo, explained that Mexico is home to six of the seven species of sea turtles that exist in the world, three of which regularly arrive on the coasts of the state, mainly in the area that includes the Riviera Maya, Tulum, and the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

“We will never recognize elections built on trickery, sleight of hand and outright deception,” presidential hopeful Rixi Moncada told hundreds of Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) supporters Saturday, announcing a new phase of nationwide protests against what the party calls a U.S.-backed “electoral coup.”

RELATED:

Electoral Coup in Honduras: Former Foreign Minister Calls for Defense of Libre’s Progressive Project

Addressing an extraordinary party assembly in Siguatepeque, Comayagua, Moncada said Libre has already filed motions to annul the 30 November vote in its entirety and challenged all 19,000 polling station tallies, citing a hacked preliminary-results system, doctored tally sheets and a barrage of coercive messages that warned voters: “If you choose Rixi, your remittances will stop.”

“We stand with every Honduran—those who voted for us and those who were black-mailed, threatened and besieged into voting against us,” she declared. “With them, we will be in the streets. Soon, you’ll see us there.”

Flanked by party coordinator and former President Manuel Zelaya, Moncada vowed to exhaust every legal avenue “with dignity and heads held high,” while acknowledging the uphill battle inside a judiciary she described as “a snake that bites the barefoot, cowering in its chambers, terrified of imperial power.”

“If the people are strong outside, we can still hope for justice inside,” she added. “But if we are divided and disorganized, the courts will only grow more hostile.”

The candidate repeated accusations that Donald Trump openly intervened in the race, threatening “consequences” should Libre win, endorsing right-wing National Party hopeful Nasry Asfura and securing the release of convicted drug-trafficking ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández from a U.S. federal prison.

“Imperial mafia, national mafia and organized crime joined forces,” Moncada charged. “They didn’t just steal the election—they freed the capo. The people are judging that double standard.”

Chants of “Out with the traitors!” and “Out with the ‘raccoons’!”—slang for vote-buyers—punctuated her speech, as she closed with the battle cry that has echoed since the 2009 coup: “Unity and organization—no fear!”

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

The Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity issued a scathing statement on Saturday condemning recent U.S. naval operations near Venezuela’s Exclusive Economic Zone as “illegitimate, unfounded acts of modern piracy” that violate the United Nations Charter and international maritime law.

RELATED:

Non-Aligned Countries Reject Illegal Actions and Escalation by the US Against Venezuela

The collective rejection follows a series of incidents attributed to the Trump administration, including the destruction of civilian fishing vessels, the killing of unarmed crew members, and the seizure of an oil-laden tanker that President Donald Trump publicly hailed as “the largest confiscation ever.”

“No State has the right to interfere in Venezuela’s internal affairs, much less deploy military force in its waters or attack unarmed civilian boats,” the Network declared, stressing that such actions breach the 2014 CELAC proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a “Zone of Peace.”

🔴 La Red de Intelectuales y Artistas en Defensa de la Humanidad envía contundente carta al Comité del #NobelDeLaPaz.

Denuncian grave amenaza a la seguridad internacional y la flagrante violación de la Carta de la #ONU. pic.twitter.com/3hBZooLoiF

— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) December 9, 2025

Citing the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Rome Statute and the U.N. Charter, the group argues the blockade and ship interdictions lack any legal basis and constitute “crimes against humanity” by intentionally inflicting “great suffering” on the civilian population through shortages of food and fuel.

The statement also dismisses Washington’s claim that the deployments are part of an anti-drug mission. It notes that neither the European Union nor the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime list Venezuela as a major narcotics transit country, and that 87 % of the drugs entering the United States arrive via Pacific—not Caribbean—routes.

“The true objective is control of the planet’s largest proven oil reserves at a moment of global hydrocarbon scarcity,” the document asserts, framing the latest aggression as the newest chapter in a two-decade-long campaign that began with the 2002 coup against President Hugo Chávez and has since included sanctions, asset freezes and financial blockades.

Calling on governments, peoples and organizations worldwide to stand in solidarity with Venezuela, the Network concludes:

“The destiny of Humanity is being decided in Venezuela. We urge global mobilization in defense of peace, international law and the self-determination of peoples.”

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

Populist magnate Andrej Babis, designated Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, rejected this Saturday assuming guarantees to finance aid to Ukraine and aligned himself with the positions of Hungary and Slovakia, which are opposed to processing a loan backed by frozen Russian assets.

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On social media, Babis urged the European Commission (EC) to seek “another way” to finance Ukraine other than the two measures proposed so far: through an EU loan guaranteed by the community budget or with a loan backed by frozen Russian assets.

“The European Commission must find another way to finance Ukraine,” said the politician, who will assume his position this Monday, when the members of his Executive, a coalition of his ANO party with two Eurosceptic forces, are appointed by the country’s president.

🚨⚡The EU gets a new leader who does not support aid to Ukraine; Andrej Babis, the new Czech Prime Minister, pledges to cut support for Kiev and halt its ammunition program. pic.twitter.com/6UixEbKpQ4

— RussiaNews 🇷🇺 (@mog_russEN) December 9, 2025

This, referring to the financial needs of Kiev, “must be resolved by the European Union in another way, but we are not going to guarantee anything,” he added.

“We, the Czech Republic, need money for Czech citizens and we do not have money for other states,” added Babis, who will lead a government critical not only of financial aid to the country invaded by Russia, but also of other key measures proposed by Brussels, such as the European Green Deal or the Migration Pact.

Babis met last Friday in Brussels with the Belgian Prime Minister, Bart De Wever, and said that he agrees with his position of caution on the use of Russian assets, even after their freezing was approved indefinitely, with the vote in favor of the outgoing Government of the Czech Republic and against Hungary and Slovakia.

These are about 210,000 million euros in Russian assets frozen by the sanctions imposed on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine, which would supposedly allow them to be used to finance the reconstruction of that country if the Twenty-Seven manage to agree on that measure.

Belgium, where most of these Russian assets are concentrated, wants the rest of the community partners to assure coverage, with a pro-rata system based on national income, in the hypothetical case of losing an international arbitration initiated by Russia to recover those capitals.

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From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.

The Government of Venezuela warned this Saturday about the “selective” use of the Justice system in Bolivia as a “tool for political confrontation” following the detention of former President Luis Arce, (2006-2019).

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“Venezuela warns about the selective use of the judicial apparatus as a tool for political confrontation, a practice that has been repeated in Latin America under schemes of lawfare, and that seriously damages the credibility of Bolivian institutions, distorts democracy and deepens social polarization,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on Telegram.

The Bolivarian government expressed its “deep concern” for the detention of Arce and sent a message of accompaniment and “active” solidarity with the “brotherly Bolivian people.”

El Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela expresa su profunda y categórica preocupación por la detención arbitraria del expresidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Luis Arce Catacora.
Condenamos enérgicamente esta acción que atenta contra el Estado de Derecho y la voluntad… pic.twitter.com/B0UkSMJ8qW

— Perdomo.Juventud (@JuventudPe28841) December 13, 2025

On Friday, Arce was transferred to the San Pedro prison in La Paz, where he must serve five months of preventive detention for his alleged responsibilities within an investigation for mismanagement of a fund for indigenous projects when he was Minister of Economy in the Government of Evo Morales (2006-2019).

The Public Prosecutor’s Office charged Arce with “breach of duties and uneconomical conduct” because, according to that entity, when he was Minister of Economy he authorized disbursements of resources from the Indigenous Native Peasant and Agricultural Development Fund (Fondioc) for projects that were not executed or were carried out partially.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, there were “more than 3,500 projects” financed by the Ministry of Economy, of which “not even half have been completed” and it was also evidenced “that there were disbursements to private accounts of leaders” of indigenous and peasant organizations.

In this regard, Arce assured that, as minister, he did not participate in meetings of the Fondioc board, but that he designated a representative through resolutions of his portfolio and that this instance also had delegates from other ministries and institutions.

Since leaving the Presidency of Bolivia on November 8, Arce dedicated himself to teaching economics at the state-owned Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), a job he did not stop doing while he was in government.

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