🇷🇴😀❌👨🏻‍🦳⚡️🇺🇸 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | Romania's Constitutional Coup Is Meant To Buy More Time For NATO In Ukraine | Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack | December 16, 2024:

"(...)

This is a disturbing precedent that can easily be exploited by the West the next time that a populist conservative-nationalist with “politically incorrect” foreign policy views wins an election. At the time of writing, a redo hasn’t yet been scheduled, but it’s expected after the new pro-Western parliament convenes on 20 December. About that, their elections were held after the first presidential round, but no accusations of foul play followed. This is obviously due to the West receiving its desired result.

It remains unclear who’ll serve as Commander-in-Chief until the next one is elected, but whoever it is, nobody should anticipate them implementing any radical policies like Georgescu’s. Accordingly, more time has been bought for NATO to organize its reportedly planned peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, even if it’s carried out under a non-NATO mandate. Had Georgescu won the second round and been inaugurated later this month, he could have ruled out his country’s participation in this possible plan.

Romania isn’t as indispensable for NATO’s military logistics to Ukraine as Poland is, but it still borders Ukraine’s western and southwestern regions that are of strategic importance for the bloc. Even if Romania wouldn’t directly participate in any such mission, regardless of whether it’s carried out under the peacekeeper pretext, it could still let the alliance’s troops and equipment transit through its territory to Odessa for example. Georgescu, however, could have cut that off and greatly complicated their plans."

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🇪🇺❌📱 EU Launches Probe Into TikTok Over Romania Vote 'Interference'

The EU said on Tuesday it had opened a formal investigation into TikTok following allegations the platform was used by Russia to sway the result of Romania's later annulled presidential election.

The EU said on Tuesday it had opened a formal investigation into TikTok following allegations the platform was used by Russia to sway the result of Romania's later annulled presidential election.

The probe, under a mammoth law known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), centres on concerns the short-video app failed to "assess and mitigate systemic risks" linked to election integrity, the European Commission said.

"We must protect our democracies from any kind of foreign interference. Whenever we suspect such interference, especially during elections, we have to act swiftly and firmly," said commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU said the decision to open the probe was in part based on declassified intelligence reports by the Romanian authorities.

The investigation would focus on the TikTok's "recommender systems" -- which uses data to suggest users content they might like -- and its policies on political advertisements and paid-for political content, commission said.

The European executive, which acts as the EU's digital watchdog under the DSA, stressed that the opening of formal proceedings does not prejudge its outcome and there is no deadline for the probe's completion.

🔗 https://www.barrons.com/news/eu-launches-probe-into-tiktok-over-romania-vote-interference-994b1285

🇷🇺🇱🇾 Lot of Russian navy movements to-from Mediterranean. Linked to or shaped by the situation in Syria (and Ukraine), but some may have been planned earlier.

Expecting major withdrawal of equipment from Tartus

🔗 H. Sutton

🇺🇸❗️🇧🇷🌎 — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says Brazil ‘taxes too much’ and promises reciprocity in imposing tariffs; the criticism extended to all BRICS countries

“We are going to treat people very fairly, but the word ‘reciprocal’ is important because if someone taxes us… If India taxes us 100% and we charge them nothing for the same thing. [...] They send us a bicycle, we send them a bicycle, and they charge us 100, 200. India charges a lot, Brazil charges a lot. If they want to tax us, fine, but we will tax the same amount!"

🇧🇷📈💰 — Despite intervention by Brazil's Central Bank and the sale of dollar reserves to lower the exchange rate, the measure proved insufficient, and the dollar surged to R$ 6.15, the highest level in history since the Real Plan

💸 The monetary authority held two auctions today: one for spot dollars — totaling US$ 1.6 billion — and one credit line auction (with a repurchase agreement) — amounting to US$ 3 billion. This type of auction acts as a "loan" of dollars to financial institutions but was not enough to reverse the upward pressure.

🇧🇷 On the domestic front, only five days remain before Congress begins its year-end recess, and the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is racing to approve the spending containment package before the year's end. However, the package faces criticism for being insufficient given the government's excessive spending, which already surpasses any proposed containment measures.

🇧🇷📈💰 — The dollar in Brazil is trading higher and reached the 6.20 reais mark for the first time. At its peak during the day, the U.S. currency hit 6.2065 reais. The appreciation comes as financial market expectations worsened regarding the spending cut package sent by the federal government to Congress. The plan aims to save 70 billion reais over the next two years, and a total of 375 billion reais by 2030, but lacks assurances of compliance or accountability for any specific administration.

🇺🇸🗯💥🇮🇷☢️ — 🇺🇸 The Wall Street Journal | Trump Team Weighs Options, Including Airstrikes, to Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program | Advisers to president-elect, concerned economic pressure isn’t enough to contain Tehran, consider military action | December 13, 2024:

"President-elect Donald Trump is weighing options for stopping Iran from being able to build a nuclear weapon, including the possibility of preventive airstrikes, a move that would break with the longstanding policy of containing Tehran with diplomacy and sanctions.

The military-strike option against nuclear facilities is now under more serious review by some members of his transition team, who are weighing the fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad—Tehran’s ally—in Syria, the future of U.S. troops in the region, and Israel’s decimation of regime proxy militias Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran’s weakened regional position and recent revelations of Tehran’s burgeoning nuclear work have turbocharged sensitive internal discussions, transition officials said. All deliberation on the issue, however, remains in the early stages.

Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent calls that he is concerned about an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch, two people familiar with their conversations said, signaling he is looking for proposals to prevent that outcome. The president-elect wants plans that stop short of igniting a new war, particularly one that could pull in the U.S. military, as strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities have the potential put the U.S. and Iran on a collision course."

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🇺🇸💬🇸🇾🇸🇾 — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | US in direct contact with Islamist rebels who took over Syria | Western and regional leaders seek to deal with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham despite designation as a terrorist group | December 14, 2024:

"US in direct contact with Islamist rebels who took over Syria
Western and regional leaders seek to deal with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham despite designation as a terrorist group

The US has been in direct contact with the Islamist movement that spearheaded the offensive to topple Bashar al-Assad despite its designation as a terrorist organisation, as western and regional powers push for a peaceful transition in Syria.

On Saturday US secretary of state Antony Blinken became the first American official to acknowledge that Washington had been in contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has taken control of Damascus."

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🇪🇺🤝🇸🇾 EU to discuss closure of Russian bases with Syrian rebels

Some European Union countries want the bloc to push the new leadership in Damascus to close Russian military bases in Syria, Kallas said Monday.

"Many foreign ministers took this up to say that, you know, it should be a condition for the new leadership that they also get rid of the Russian influence there because it is a base where they also conduct their activities toward Africa and southern neighbors," Kallas told journalists after a gathering of the EU's foreign ministers in Brussels. "So we will raise this issue with the leadership when we have the meetings."

The EU is reaching out to the rebel groups that ousted former dictator Bashar Assad and has laid out a number of conditions that need to be met before the bloc grants formal recognition to the incoming authorities or establishes formal diplomatic relations, Kallas said. The EU previously suspended all diplomatic relations with Assad's government.

Kallas said that the EU would raise the question of Russia's Tartus and Khmeimim bases in Syria during initial contacts with the rebel forces. Russia has drawn back some of its forces from those bases, but not fully withdrawn from Syria.

Earlier on Monday, the former Estonian prime minister said she was sending an EU diplomat to Syria to establish contact with rebel groups, which include Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The move comes after United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was in direct contact with the group.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/syria-rebels-russia-bases-brussels-kaja-kallas-bashar-assad/

📱☢️🔋🔌 Accelerating the Next Wave of Nuclear to Power AI Innovation

Today, Meta announced it will release a request for proposals (RFP) to identify nuclear energy developers to help us meet our AI innovation and sustainability objectives — targeting 1-4 gigawatts (GW) of new nuclear generation capacity in the U.S.; qualified developers can fill out the intake form to receive further guidance on the RFP process.

Advancing the technologies that will build the future of human connection — including the next wave of AI innovation — requires electric grids to expand and embrace new sources of reliable, clean and renewable energy. As new innovations bring impactful technological advancements across sectors and support economic growth, we believe that nuclear energy can help provide firm, baseload power to support the growth needs of the electric grids that power both our data centers (the physical infrastructure on which Meta’s platforms operate) as well as the communities around them.

Supporting the development of clean energy must continue to be a priority as electric grids expand to accommodate growing energy needs. At Meta, we believe nuclear energy will play a pivotal role in the transition to a cleaner, more reliable, and diversified electric grid. That is why today we announced that we will be releasing a request for proposals (RFP) to identify nuclear energy developers to help us meet our AI and sustainability objectives.

Our aim is to add 1-4 GW of new nuclear generation capacity in the U.S. to be delivered starting in the early 2030s. We are looking to identify developers that can help accelerate the availability of new nuclear generators and create sufficient scale to achieve material cost reductions by deploying multiple units, both to provide for Meta’s future energy needs and to advance broader industry decarbonization. We believe working with partners who will ultimately permit, design, engineer, finance, construct, and operate these power plants will ensure the long-term thinking necessary to accelerate nuclear technology.

https://sustainability.atmeta.com/blog/2024/12/03/accelerating-the-next-wave-of-nuclear-to-power-ai-innovation/

@FelipeChannel

🇨🇳❌🇺🇸 — US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said he believes some unidentified UAVs seen over New Jersey and New York are spy drones from Communist China and are being managed by Operatives & slepper cells of Chinese MSS

🇹🇹🇺🇸 - Trinidad and Tobago signs deal with America authorizing deployment of US forces in the island nations in case of conflict with Venezuela.

🇧🇷⁉️💰 — Brazil’s National Treasury announced, through an official statement, the postponement of its traditional public bond auction. This marks the first cancellation of a traditional bond auction since May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic

📝 “The purpose of this measure is to provide support to the public bond market, ensuring its proper functioning and that of related markets,” the Treasury stated.

⚠️ Previously, such cancellations occurred during events like the nationwide truck drivers’ strike in 2018 and the “Joesley Day” on May 17, 2017, when a recording revealed then-President Michel Temer (MDB) allegedly approving businessman Joesley Batista’s efforts to buy the silence of former House Speaker Eduardo Cunha (MDB-RJ).

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🇦🇷🏴❌🇻🇪🇻🇪 — The President of Argentina, Javier Milei, demanded the immediate release of the gendarme detained in Venezuela and stated that Nicolás Maduro "is a criminal dictator."

🇨🇺💥🇺🇸🇺🇸 — The communist regime in Cuba has expressed concern over the potential economic impacts of Donald Trump's return to the U.S. presidency

➡️ Speaking to the press, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Cuba's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that a stricter U.S. stance under Trump could "worsen" the island's already dire economic situation, further exacerbated by the failed policies of dictator Miguel Díaz-Canel.

💬 "Of course, we are concerned about the effects this could have on our economy and, particularly, about the impact that greater U.S. hostility—which has proven to be very powerful and highly destructive—could have on the population's standard of living," said the Cuban official.

⁉️ Cossío accused Cuban exiles in Florida, who fled the island's persecution and economic crisis, of being the main advocates for a "catastrophic scenario for Cuba" under Trump's new presidency. However, he downplayed potential political consequences, asserting that the socialist regime would withstand external pressures.

"We know we will endure. Four years from now, the Trump administration will be over, and Cuba, socialist Cuba, will still be here," he declared.

🇺🇸⛓🇻🇪🇻🇪 — The son-in-law of Antonio Ledezma, former mayor of Caracas, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in the U.S. for money laundering linked to a $1.2 billion corruption scheme at PDVSA.

➡️ Fernando Vuteff, 53, was arrested in 2022 in Switzerland under a U.S. arrest warrant during a visit to retrieve a valuable watch from a safety deposit box at a bank in Zurich.