🇷🇺🔫🔫📈💸— 🇩🇪 BILD:

"Last year, Russia increased its arms sales by 40%

In 2023, military-industrial complex enterprises recorded a significant increase in sales, according to the new annual Top 100 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

The total volume of arms sales by the world's largest defense companies increased by 4.2% and amounted to 632 billion US dollars last year. At the same time, arms sales increased the most in Russia — by 40%.

“The sharp increase in arms sales by Russian companies in 2023 is associated with an increase in the production of various types of weapons, including air defense systems, some types of missiles, fighters, unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare systems and weapons for ground forces”

— Sipri experts explained.

The rating also included four companies from Germany: their defense sales in 2023 amounted to 10 billion euros, which is 7.5% more than in the previous year. The largest growth was recorded by Diehl (83rd place, +30%), and Rheinmetall (26th place, +10%) also improved its position due to the growth in demand for weapons in Ukraine.

In 2023, the 41 U.S. companies in the Top 100 increased their defense sales by 2.5% to $314 billion, accounting for 31% of total sales.

At the same time, the two largest defense companies in the world — Lockheed Martin (-1.6%) and RTX (-1.3%) — recorded a decline.

“Many large defense companies producing complex weapons systems continued to struggle with rising costs and ongoing supply chain disruptions in 2023”

— the experts explain in their report."

🔗 Source:

🗣🆗🇺🇦🕊🇷🇺 — 🇩🇪 BILD:

"Former NATO chief backs idea of ​​Ukraine making temporary concessions to end war

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine's temporary territorial concessions could be a step toward ending the war with Russia. In his opinion, such a measure does not mean that Kyiv will give up these territories forever.

"It is important that Ukraine receives security guarantees in return. This could be NATO membership or other measures to arm and support Ukrainians"

— Stoltenberg said in an interview with Table.Briefings.

The former NATO chief supported Zelensky's demand not to cede any territory to Russia in the event of a ceasefire, but stressed that this would be difficult to implement in practice.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously stated that a ceasefire along the front line is possible if Ukraine receives guarantees of joining NATO within internationally recognized borders. According to Zelensky, the restoration of the country's full territorial integrity is possible in the future through diplomatic means."

🔗 Source:

🆕🪙📍🇨🇳 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | China Discovers World's Largest Gold Deposit Worth $83 Billion | November 29, 2024:

"Chinese scientists have uncovered a "supergiant" deposit of high-quality gold ore hidden near some of the country's existing gold mines. The vast reserve, which could be the largest single reservoir of the valuable metal left anywhere on Earth, could end up being the largest known deposit of the precious metal anywhere in the world, and is worth more than $80 billion.

As LiveScience reports, the new deposit was uncovered at the Wangu gold field in the northeast of Hunan province, representatives from the Geological Bureau of Hunan Province (GBHP) told Chinese state media on Nov. 20. Workers detected more than 40 gold veins, which contained around 330 tons (300 metric tons) of gold down to a depth of 6,600 feet (2,000 meters). However, using 3D computer models, mining experts have predicted that there could be up to 1,100 tons (1,000 metric tons) of gold — roughly eight times heavier than the Statute of Liberty — hidden at depths of up to 9,800 feet (3,000 m).

If true, the entire deposit is likely worth around 600 billion yuan ($83 billion), GBHP officials said."

#Geoeconomics

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🇻🇪🇻🇪❗️🇺🇸 — Nicolás Maduro stated that María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela and is currently "at the headquarters of the United States Embassy."

🇧🇪 Belgium found guilty of crimes against humanity in colonial Congo

The Belgian state has been found guilty of crimes against humanity for the forced removal of five mixed-race children from their mothers in colonial Congo.

“This is a victory and a historic judgment,” Michèle Hirsch, one of the lawyers for the women, told local media. “It is the first time in Belgium and probably in Europe that a court has condemned the Belgian colonial state for crimes against humanity.”

Reversing an earlier decision, the court of appeal said their forced removal was “an inhuman act” and “persecution constituting a crime against humanity” in accordance with the Nuremberg tribunal statute, recognised by the UN general assembly in 1946.

The court of appeal rejected these arguments, noting that Belgium had been a signatory of the Nuremberg tribunal statue set up to convict Nazi crimes, which introduced the concept of crimes against humanity. The court ordered the state to pay the women €50,000 in damages each for the suffering caused by breaking their ties to their mothers, home environments and loss of identity. It also said the government must pay “more than €1m” in legal costs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/02/belgium-found-guilty-of-crimes-against-humanity-in-colonial-congo

GE Vernova's plans and projections for its BWRX-300 reactor: The picture presents projected deployments (number of reactors) in the US, Canada, UK and EU by 2035 and by 2050.

📎 James Hopf

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/30/ge-vernova-plans-for-small-nuclear-plants-across-the-developed-world.html

🇺🇦🌐📝❗️ — Ukraine officially renounces a set of guarantees that are substitutes for membership in NATO, says a statement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"The only real guarantee of security and a deterrent to further Russian aggression is Ukraine's full membership in NATO. Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates or substitutes for it."

➡️ The statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes that it was made "on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum."

"The memorandum was to be a significant step in strengthening global nuclear disarmament and to set an example for other states in renouncing nuclear weapons... However, it failed to prevent the aggression of the Russian Federation as a nuclear-weapon state against Ukraine as a state that renounced its nuclear arsenal." ,

🇺🇦☢️❗️ — NATO will not protect. We need to spit on everything and make a NUCLEAR BOMB, says Ukrainian People's Deputy Goncharenko.

There are no better guarantees than nuclear weapons and a strong army. We will deal with the consequences later, he believes.

🇰🇷 President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, declares martial law and dissolves Parliament due to "North Korean sympathisers attempting to sabotage the government and carrying out other anti-state activities".

🔗 OSINT Defender

🇰🇷 The South Korean Parliament is controlled by the liberal opposition to Yoon Suk Yeol's government and has been trying to impeach 22 government officials before the South Korean president declared martial law.

Yoon Suk Yeol now has the powers to override the Parliament. Yoon, who has been president since 2022, has been struggling to complete his agenda due to the liberal opposition.

In his televised speech he vowed to protect "constitutional democracy" by getting rid of "pro-North Korean forces", these being the liberal opposition.

🔗 https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-martial-law-997c22ac93f6a9bece68454597e577c1

🇰🇷 Korean police blocked the entrance to the South Korean assembly.

People are clashing with cops trying to break into the premises of the South Korean Parliament.

Opposition politicians fear that the next step would be the South Korean military trying to arrest MPs.

Unclear how this coup will affect South Korean relations with Western countries.

@CIG_telegram

🇰🇷 Predictably, Yoon Suk Yeol used the coup to ban all forms of political activity and public protests against the ruling government and president.

Opposition lawmakers are being called to the Parliament to begin taking legal measures to lift the martial law.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung called Yoon's declaration of emergency martial law "unconstitutional," condemning it as a move that "goes against the people."

"President Yoon declared emergency martial law for no reason," Lee said. "Tanks, armored vehicles and soldiers with guns and swords will soon control the country."

🔗 https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20241203013500315?section=national/politics