🇮🇷 🇮🇱 🇮🇱 Netanyahu dissolves war cabinet but plans to keep far right sidelined

🔶️ Ben Gvir and Smotrich’s continued influence, even from outside the war cabinet, was partly the reason for the resignation of war cabinet members Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot last week. The two centrists said they joined the cabinet to ensure the war was conducted responsibly, but have since concluded they couldn’t work with Netanyahu as long as he refused to commit to a day-after strategy for Gaza.

🔶️ The departure came after a string of military leaders made rare public statements airing their grievances with Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza, with many saying that Israel cannot afford to continue it indefinitely, especially with tensions escalating on the Lebanese border.

🔶️ Brig. Gen. Efraim Sneh, a former deputy minister of defense, said that Israel has achieved its military objectives of degrading the majority of Hamas capabilities and can afford to declare an end to the war in Gaza, get back the hostages, and redirect its focus to distancing Hezbollah forces from its northern border.

🔶️ “Israel is in an unacceptable situation, in which a big part of the country has been deserted,” he said. He added that, while “Israel’s forces are stretched thin between Gaza and the Lebanese border,” Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners are exacerbating the situation by blocking hundreds of thousands of Palestinian day laborers from entering Israel and enacting punitive measures against the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

🔶️ The IDF is moving closer to a larger war with Hezbollah, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a video message Sunday. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified in recent weeks at the Lebanese border. “Hezbollah’s increasing aggression is bringing us to the brink of what could be a wider escalation — one that could have devastating consequences for Lebanon and the entire region,” Hagari said. After an Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah commander last week, a Hezbollah official said the militant group would retaliate with increased operations “in intensity, strength, quantity and quality.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/06/17/israel-gaza-hamas-netanyahu-war-cabinet/

🇳🇮🤝🇨🇳 — Nicaragua expands mining concessions to China, marking a significant process of administrative, logistical, and financial invasion in Latin America's commercial affairs.

➡️ At the end of May, the newspaper Confidencial published a report revealing that in just six months, between October 2023 and April this year, three Chinese companies were awarded 13 mining concessions in the Central American country. These plots amount to nearly 12% of the total area allocated for this type of exploitation in Nicaraguan territory.

💰Zhong Fu Development took over a concession from the Nicaraguan company Compañía Minera Internacional (Comintsa) shortly before it became the target of U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions in May, which accused it of being "affiliated" with the Sandinista regime and involved in "corrupt operations."

🏴‍☠️ In the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, located in the southeast of the country and the second largest in Nicaragua, there are also mining sites, despite the extraction of metals being prohibited in both reserves. Consequently, 30% of Nicaraguan gold is extracted illegally.

📈 Between 2019 and 2023, Nicaragua's total gold exports grew by 226.5%, according to Central Bank data. Given China's appetite, the flow of money into Ortega's coffers is unlikely to stop anytime soon.

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🇹🇼🗯🇨🇳 — 🇬🇧 Reuters | China views Taiwan's 'elimination' as national cause, Taiwan president says | June 16, 2024:

"KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan, June 16 (Reuters) - China views the annexation and "elimination" of Taiwan as its great national cause, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Sunday, telling cadets at the military's premier academy they must know their enemy and not give in to defeatism."

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🇻🇪😡💬 — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado described the detention of three of her collaborators, who were arrested on Saturday by Nicolás Maduro's regime, as cruel and criminal, and renewed her call for their release.

"This is cruelty. They are Venezuelans who are giving everything to see their country with freedom and dignity. It is criminal, pure evil, and it shows that the regime has nothing left but violence against citizens.

But instead of paralyzing or intimidating a country, what I see in Venezuela every day is that these abuses give us more reasons to fight and organize for July 28. My solidarity goes out to Jean Carlos, Luis, Juan, and their families."

María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) on 𝕏 🖇

🇻🇪🤝🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 — Maduro announces agreements with BRICS countries to circumvent US sanctions

🌍 The Venezuelan regime announced the signing of contracts with BRICS countries to invest in the Venezuelan Guiana Corporation (CVG). CVG is a conglomerate of public mining, vegetal extraction, and electrical resources companies.

"I secured the investments, contracts were signed with the BRICS countries, the emerging world, and in the short term, we will have the capital, technology, and new markets for all our companies. I obtained sufficient investments to make the companies more powerful and consolidate them with more strength from now on!"

💬 Before dozens of workers from the state-owned group's companies, Maduro, who will seek re-election on July 28, asked for a "vote of confidence" to implement the investment plan. He promised to boost the development of the conglomerate, whose production and profitability have collapsed in the last decade.

❗️ Maduro explained that his government obtained these investments, without detailing the total amount, through the so-called Anti-Blockade Law. This law allows the regime to sign secret contracts, without accountability to Parliament, to circumvent international economic sanctions.

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💰🌕💥🚀ETHEREUM SURVIVES THE SEC.

Today we’re happy to announce a major win for Ethereum developers, technology providers, and industry participants: the Enforcement Division of the SEC has notified us that it is closing its investigation into Ethereum 2.0.

This means that the SEC will not bring charges alleging that sales of ETH are securities transactions.

https://x.com/Consensys/status/1803230653120659641