BTC maxis gone crazy https://x.com/LeonidasNFT/status/1733731086817964388?t=r_EjzMbrq0xny6oG31oKxQ&s=09

BITCOIN

ONE YEAR AGO: $17,160

NOW: $43,789 ...

The threat of full scale war between Israel and Hezbollah is increasing day by day. Especially as Hamas weakens, at least ostensibly, Israel may seek to face North.

Tether freezes all OFAC-sanctioned wallets in 'proactive' security measure

https://www.theblock.co/post/266872/tether-freezes-all-ofac-sanctioned-wallets-in-proactive-security-measure

NEW - Ukraine's Zelensky surprisingly announces "peace talks" in Switzerland, likely on the sidelines of Klaus Schwab's World Economic Forum in Davos — 20Min

https://www.20min.ch/story/selenski-kuendigt-ukraine-friedensgespraeche-in-der-schweiz-an-716932660924

@disclosetv

🔥 🌍 🇺🇸 An authoritative new study finds there are 183 regional and local conflicts underway in 2023, the highest number in three decades.

⬛️ Opinion - It’s not just Ukraine and Gaza: war is on the rise everywhere - Max Hastings

🔶️ overwhelm Ukraine is only the most devastating. Azerbaijan has seized the Nagorno-Karabakh region, precipitating the flight of more than 100,000 of its Armenian inhabitants. Tensions persist between Russia and Georgia, and are worse than in ever in modern times between Algeria and Morocco. In Pakistan, domestic terrorism has escalated, and stresses in relations with India’s anti-Muslim government are running dangerously high.

🔶️ The intensity of conflict has risen year on year, with fatalities increasing by 14% and violent events by 28% in the latest survey. The authors describe a world “dominated by increasingly intractable conflicts and armed violence amid a proliferation of actors, complex and overlapping motives, global influences and accelerating climate change.”

🔶️ The International Committee of the Red Cross catalogues 459 armed groups whose activities provoke humanitarian concerns, with 195 million people living under their full or partial control. Four-fifths of these groups possess sufficient local or regional dominance to levy taxes and provide some measure of public services. The writ of recognized national governments does not extend over significant areas of the global landmass.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-10/it-s-not-just-ukraine-and-gaza-war-is-on-the-rise-everywhere

https://archive.ph/Qw586

🇪🇺 The latest GDP figures show that the eurozone contracted in the third quarter and looks like it will do the same in the last three months of the year falling into a continent-wide recession.

“Final figures confirmed eurozone GDP contracted 0.1% in the third quarter. What's more, the detailed breakdown showed the European economy has no engines of growth at the moment. Although private consumption posted a small gain over the previous quarter, the near-term outlook still looks dire, and with both investment and exports unlikely to provide much momentum, the economy looks set to slide into recession in the fourth quarter,”

The boomerang effect of sanctions on Russia and the ongoing polycrisis is now hurting Europe more than Russia. After Russia put in a surprisingly good year and managed to dodge most of the ill-effects of the extreme sanctions imposed on it following the invasion of Ukraine last year. Russia is now the biggest and fastest growing economy in Europe (in PPP) boasted Putin.

🇨🇳 China poised to break 5nm barrier — Huawei lists 5nm processor presumably built with SMIC tech, defying U.S. sanctions

🔶️ This year, SMIC shocked the world after it began mass production of Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 9000S processor using its second-gen 7nm process technology. But the company seems to have at least one more trick up its sleeve: a 5nm fabrication process that is either already in use for high-volume manufacturing (HVM) or is in the final stages of its development. In fact, Huawei now lists a chip made on a 5nm-class process node — an eight-core Arm-based HiSilicon Kirin 9000C processor with Arm Mali-G78 graphics for laptops — on its website.

🔶️ It isn't entirely surprising that SMIC could have broken through the 5nm barrier, as persistent industry chatter has indicated the foundry is close to further exceeding the limits imposed by US sanctions. "SMIC is preparing a 5nm process through DUV, and photomask usage is expected to increase further," an expert in the semiconductor industry recently told The Elec.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/china-poised-to-break-5nm-barrier-huawei-lists-5nm-processor-presumably-built-with-smic-tech-defying-us-sanctions

🇪🇺❌🇷🇺 EU nears deal on 12th Russia sanctions package, softens tanker sale ban - sources

European Union countries are close to agreeing a deal on a proposed 12th package of sanctions on Russia focused on a Russia-origin diamond ban and new measures to stem the flow of Russian oil, according to four people familiar with the matter.

While the biggest part of the new measures is the ban on non-industrial Russian diamonds, EU countries have also been looking to make it harder to circumvent existing sanctions, including the G7 oil price cap.

The text includes tougher measures on how to prove Russian oil is traded under the ceiling as compliance has waned in recent months.

However, one element aimed at preventing Russia from growing its so-called "shadow fleet" has been watered down.

The Commission initially wanted to ban the sale of old tankers to Russian entities or for their use in Russia as well as to entities that might may use the tankers to circumvent the G7 oil price cap but this clause has been dropped. One of the sources said Mediterranean countries with strong shipping companies were concerned the measures could put them at a competitive disadvantage.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/eu-nears-deal-12th-russia-sanctions-package-softens-tanker-sale-ban-sources-2023-12-11/

NEW - China's cyber army is invading critical U.S. services, including the power grid, ports, pipelines, water utilities.

https://www.disclose.tv/id/01hk00uk4h/

@disclosetv

US Embassy is not going to open in Venezuela any time soon

https://elpublicotv.com/desmienten-nuevamente-que-la-embajada-de-eeuu-vaya-a-abrir-en-venezuela/

ℹ️ Note: Streaming service Netflix is experiencing international outages; incident not related to country-level internet disruptions or filtering #NetflixDown

Wen volcano bond? 🥺

https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1734378704518750656

13 years ago today, Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto published his last public message on Bitcointalk forum stating that "there's more work to do on [denial-of-service] DoS."

https://twitter.com/coingecko/status/1734411939525345629