🇮🇱❌🇺🇦 — Popular Israeli OSINT "Open Source Intel" on Twitter/X:

Ukraine is no friend of Israel.

Ukraine has not once this year voted against a single UN resolution targeting Israel.

And today they voted in favor to support UNRWA.

Prove me wrong.

🔗 Open Source Intel (@Osint613)

🇪🇹🇸🇴 Ethiopia, Somalia reach agreement in Ankara-mediated peace talks: Turkish president

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced late Wednesday that Ethiopia and Somalia reached an agreement to solve the conflict between the two nations in Ankara-mediated peace talks.

“We have taken the first step toward a new beginning based on peace, cooperation between Somalia, Ethiopia,” President Erdogan said at a joint news conference with his Somalian counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Erdogan expressed his satisfaction with hosting his guests and their delegations in Türkiye.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/ethiopia-somalia-reach-agreement-in-ankara-mediated-peace-talks-turkish-president/3422113

🇺🇸🇨🇳Trump invites China's Xi Jinping to inauguration

President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month, multiple sources told CBS News, and inauguration officials are making plans for additional foreign dignitaries to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Trump invited Xi in early November, shortly after the election, sources said, but it was not clear whether he has accepted the invitation. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-invites-china-xi-jinping-inauguration/

🇦🇹 The Austrian Parliament voted to lift Herbert Kickl's immunity and start a criminal investigation

Kickl is the president of the right-wing FPO party which won the latest Austrian Parliamentary elections, becoming the biggest political force in the country with 56 seats in the Parliament.

Prosecutors claim Kickl gave a false testimony for alleged misuse of public funds.

The greens, socialists and center-right conservatives voted to remove Kickl's immunity. Along with Kickl, three other FPO MPs had their immunity lifted for other alleged crimes.

The FPO, like in every European country, was sidelined and the center-right OVP formed a coalition with the socialists (SPO) and liberal-progressives (NEOS), creating a cordon sanitaire against the FPO.

🔗 https://uk.news.yahoo.com/austrian-parliament-lifts-far-leaders-213427897.html

🇪🇺 The European Central Bank cut interest rates by 0.25%

It revised economic growth projections for 2024, 2025 and 2026 and the inflation rate. However it remains moderately optimistic that the EU will overcome the phenomena of "stagflation" and things will start to improve beginning in 2025.

Meanwhile, Europe‘s largest economies:

Germany - decided to get rid of its industry, sick man of Europe

France - 6% fiscal deficit despite highest tax burden in Europe, political paralysis

Italy & Spain - heading into pensions and healthcare benefits crisis due to collapsing demographics

🔗 Michael Arouet

🇨🇦🇺🇸 Canadian official threatens to cut off energy to US if Trump imposes tariffs

After meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other top Canadian officials, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, threatened to cut off energy to parts of the United States if President-elect Donald Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on Canada.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/12/business/video/doug-ford-trump-tariffs-energy-digvid

🇨🇦🇺🇸 "No one is even talking about the fact

that on top of 5,000,000 barrels of oil per day

Canada exports electricity to the USA

This could get REAL UGLY, REAL QUICK"

📎 Tablesalt

🇨🇺🔌 Cuba's Energy Crisis Sparks Unrest

🔺Cuba's energy crisis, characterized by frequent blackouts and fuel shortages, is causing significant economic hardship and social unrest.

🔺The crisis is attributed to aging infrastructure, lack of investment, and the US embargo, which hinders fuel imports and economic development.

🔺While the Cuban government is promoting renewable energy as a long-term solution, immediate challenges persist, and the population continues to face daily struggles.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Cubas-Energy-Crisis-Sparks-Unrest.amp.html

🇷🇺🌐 Russia Tests Cutting Off Access to Global Web, and VPNs Can't Get Around It

Russia has reportedly cut some regions of the country off from the rest of the world's internet for a day, effectively siloing them, according to reports from European and Russian news outlets reshared by the US nonprofit Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and Western news outlets.

Russia's communications authority, Roskomnadzor, blocked residents in Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, which have majority-Muslim populations, ISW says. The three regions are in southwest Russia near its borders with Georgia and Azerbaijan. People in those areas couldn't access Google, YouTube, Telegram, WhatsApp, or other foreign websites or apps—even if they used VPNs, according to a local Russian news site.

Russian digital rights NGO Roskomsvoboda told TechRadar that most VPNs didn't work during the shutdown, but some apparently did. It's unclear which ones or how many actually worked, though. Russia has been increasingly blocking VPNs more broadly, and Apple has helped the country's censorship efforts by taking down VPN apps on its Russian App Store. At least 197 VPNs are currently blocked in Russia, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/russia-tests-cutting-off-access-to-global-web-and-vpns-cant-get-around