— So we have 3 countries refused into BRICS:

➡️ Venezuela, over Fraudulent elections, by Brazil

➡️ Nicaragua, over the Sandinista Regime's persecution of the Catholic Church, by Brazil

➡️ Turkey, over its ties with Pakistan, by India

🚦🇮🇷🇮🇱 Israel delays Iran retaliation after US intelligence leak

The leak revealed Israel’s well-advanced plans to respond to a salvo of nearly 200 Iranian ballistic missiles fired against it earlier this month, which was a retaliation by Tehran for Israel’s attacks on its Middle Eastern proxy groups.

https://www.thetimes.com/world/israel-hamas-war/article/israel-iran-us-intelligence-leak-hx5mcbmlr

https://archive.is/VyMvd

🇷🇺🇰🇵Russian lawmakers ratify pact with North Korea as US confirms that Pyongyang sent troops to Russia

The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, voted quickly to endorse the “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed with North Korean leader King Jong Un on a visit to Pyongyang in June. The upper house is expected to follow suit soon.

The pact obliges Russia and North Korea to immediately provide military assistance using “all means” if either is attacked. It marked the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.

The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be “fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine.

Asked in June whether North Korean troops could fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine under the pact, Putin said there was no need for that but he also announced for the first time that Russia could provide weapons to Pyongyang.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/10/24/russia-north-korea-troops-ukraine-treaty-ratification/2155cb10-91e9-11ef-b5b1-75167840d9f3_story.html

https://archive.ph/4hneS

🇺🇸🇰🇵US must weigh 'military action against' North Korean forces if invading Ukraine: House intel chair Turner

If North Korean troops invade Ukraine, America must "seriously consider" engaging in military action against them, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chair Rep. Mike Turner said in a statement issued Wednesday.

"If North Korean troops were to invade Ukraine's sovereign territory, the United States needs to seriously consider taking direct military action against the North Korean troops," the Ohio Republican asserted.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-must-weigh-military-action-against-north-korean-forces-invading-ukraine-house-intel-chair-turner

🐧❌🇷🇺 Several Russian Linux developers lost their kernel maintainership status, because of 'various compliance requirements':

'Given that the developers involved all appear to be of Russian origin, it is not too hard to imagine what sort of compliance is involved here.'

While Linux can be seen as 'international project', the Linux Foundation is based in the US, and therefore has to follow US laws..

https://x.com/cryptonator1337/status/1849043020378681684

@FelipeChannel

🇲🇦 — The Moroccan government has approved a historic defense budget of nearly $14 billion for 2025, the largest defense budget in the kingdom's history.

🇻🇪❌🇧🇷❗️ — Via an official statement, Nicolas Maduro's Regime accuses Brazilian Government of being hostile to it, claiming that Brazilian Government did an act of aggression against Venezuela for not letting it enter BRICS as a member

🇻🇪📝 In Statement, the Venezuelan Regime said:

The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela thanks the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, his government and the heroic Russian people for the invitation extended to President Nicolás Maduro Moros to participate in the BRICS+ Summit in Kazan.

Venezuela, which not only has the largest energy reserve in the world, but also represents the values, principles and vision of building a fair, multi-centred and multi-polar world, has had the backing and support of the countries participating in this summit to formalise its entry into this integration mechanism.

But through an action that contradicts the nature and postulate of the BRICS, the representation of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty), led by Ambassador Eduardo Paes Saboia, decided to maintain the veto that Bolsonaro applied to Venezuela for years, reproducing the hatred, exclusion and intolerance promoted by Western power centers to prevent, for now, the entry of the Homeland of Bolívar into this organization, in an action that constitutes an act of aggression against Venezuela and a hostile gesture that adds to the criminal policy of sanctions that have been imposed against Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Venezuela is adorning the global South and East with its firmness in defending self-determination and the sovereign equality of States. No trick or maneuver conceived against Venezuela will stop the course of history. A new world has been born! Venezuela is part of this free world without hegemony.

The Venezuelan people feel outrage and shame at this inexplicable and immoral aggression by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry (Itamaraty), maintaining the worst of Jair Bolsonaro's policies against the Bolivarian Revolution founded by Commander Hugo Chávez.

This historic summit for a new world of peace, justice and shared development has been a resounding success. We congratulate President Putin and his government for their extraordinary contributions, in the words of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, to universal balance.

Caracas, October 24, 2024.

https://news.1rj.ru/str/VenezuelaNetwork/13049

☢️🇹🇼🇺🇸 TSMC has achieved early production yields at its first plant in Arizona that surpass similar factories in Taiwan, a significant breakthrough for a US expansion project initially dogged by delays and worker strife

Mark Nelson on X: "TSMC's Arizona plant is nuclear-powered, from 3 giant reactors in the middle of the desert using Phoenix's treated waste water.

Meanwhile Taiwan is about to crash its electricity grid in an insane crusade to close all their nuclear plants and run on imported fossil fuels."

The share of chips manufactured at TSMC’s facility in Phoenix that are usable is about 4 percentage points higher than comparable facilities in Taiwan.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/tsmc-s-arizona-chip-production-yields-surpass-taiwan-s-a-win-for-us-push

https://archive.ph/MckxG

☢️ 🇺🇸🏗 Construction has started on a liquid sodium test facility for TerraPower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/10/22/construction-underway-on-testing-facility-at-terrapowers-wyoming-nuclear-plant-site/

📎 James Hopf

🇺🇸🇨🇳China-Based Chemical Manufacturing Companies and Employees Indicted for Alleged Fentanyl Manufacturing and Distribution

Today, the Justice Department announced the unsealing of indictments against eight China-based chemical companies and eight employees charging federal crimes, including attempted distribution of synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, and money laundering. The indictments were filed under seal in the Middle District of Florida over the past year.

“The global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies based in China. In order to break this critical link in the fentanyl supply chain, the Justice Department has aggressively investigated and prosecuted these companies. We will continue to target every organization and individual that fuels the deadly drug trade.”

As described in the unsealed indictments, the defendants openly advertised their ability to thwart border officials and deliver the synthetic opioids or the chemicals used to make fentanyl to the Middle District of Florida and elsewhere in the United States. The defendants deliberately engaged in evasive activities, such as mislabeling the contents of shipments to ensure the illicit chemicals and controlled substances went undetected. As a result, these companies were able to sell a stable supply of precursor chemicals to clients in Mexico and the United States for years. One of the companies even represented that every month it sends “more than 20 kilograms to the United States, Africa, Canada, and other countries.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/china-based-chemical-manufacturing-companies-and-employees-indicted-alleged-fentanyl

Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022, discussing personal topics, business, and geopolitics. Putin even asked him to avoid activating Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to Xi Jinping, according to several U.S, European, and Russian officials - WSJ

https://wsj.com/world/russia/musk-putin-secret-conversations-37e1c187

📎 Faytuks

🇨🇦 Justin Trudeau admits the unrestricted mass migration of Indians to Canada has created too many problems and promises to restrict immigration "for the next two years".

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇺 The European Parliament pretty narrowly endorsed the British Rwanda Plan/Italy-Albania scheme of deporting rejected migrants to 3rd countries while they await repatriation.

@CIG_telegram