"A recent New York Times report sheds light on a 1965 CIA-led operation that led to the loss of a nuclear-powered device on one of the tallest peaks in the Himalayas."

https://lavocedinewyork.com/en/news/2025/12/13/the-cia-lost-a-nuclear-generator-in-the-indian-himalayas-its-still-there-today/

🇺🇸 🇨🇺 🇻🇪 U.S. Oil Blockade of Venezuela Pushes Cuba Toward Collapse

The Communist-ruled island was already suffering from food shortages, blackouts and an exodus of people; now it faces the loss of cheap oil from Nicolás Maduro

The U.S. is ratcheting up pressure on Havana’s key benefactor, Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which has kept the Communist-ruled nation afloat with cheap oil. Now Venezuelan oil exports are at risk thanks to a partial blockade targeting sanctioned tankers—the kind that carry about 70% of the country’s crude.

🛢 Were Venezuela’s oil shipments to stop, or sharply decline, the Cubans know it would be devastating.

“It would be the collapse of the Cuban economy, no question about it,” said Jorge Piñón, a Cuban exile who tracks the island’s energy ties to Venezuela at the University of Texas at Austin.

Nearly 90% of people live in extreme poverty, and 70% go without at least a meal a day, said the Social Rights Observatory, a think tank that conducted a month of polling this past summer. For more than 70% of Cubans, their main concerns are the lack of food and the constant blackouts, which can go for 18 hours or more a day in some regions. The observatory found that 78% intend to flee the island.

⚡️ Cuba’s deep reliance on Venezuela means Cuba’s Communist government is doing all it can to prevent Maduro—who trained in Cuba as a young man—from being forced from office in his greatest challenge after nearly 13 years in office. That means ensuring he is always surrounded by security and loyal aides, with no one carrying cellphones or other electronic devices.

https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/u-s-oil-blockade-of-venezuela-pushes-cuba-toward-collapse-75289b5b

📎 WSJ

Types of Swiss Army knives based on the number of tools

Did you know? 🎓

Ladies Ice Skating in Central Park, 1892

Walter Granville-Smith

⚓️ 🇺🇸 President Trump announces he has approved a PLAN for the U.S. Navy to begin construction on two BRAND-NEW Navy Trump-Class Battleships. “These are the best in the world.”

“They will be the fastest, the biggest, and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built.”

📎 RedWave Press

"Junior leaders thrive when given real responsibility. A 25-year-old colonel just saved the Revolution because the Commander-in-Chief refused to micromanage him.

"We are still trying to re-learn that lesson 250 years later.

"Every time I teach Mission Command to a new class of officers, NCOs, cops or corporate America, I make them read Washington’s order to Knox. Then I ask: “If your boss gave you an order this short, would you feel liberated—or terrified?”

https://open.substack.com/pub/donvandergriff/p/one-of-the-greatest-military-missions

🇺🇸 🇬🇱 🇩🇰 Angering Denmark, Trump Appoints Special Envoy to Greenland

President Trump, who has long said he wants to “get” the semiautonomous Danish territory, tapped Louisiana’s governor for the new position. Officials in Greenland and Denmark expressed outrage.

Mr. Trump announced on social media on Sunday that he was appointing Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana, a political ally, to the position. Denmark’s foreign minister quickly criticized the move as “totally unacceptable” and said he would summon the American ambassador in Copenhagen for an explanation.

It appeared to be the first time the United States had appointed a special envoy to Greenland. That gives the territory — a gigantic frozen island inhabited by fewer than 60,000 people — something in common with the war in Ukraine, the conflicts in the Middle East, and a handful of other issues; Mr. Trump has tapped someone close to him to manage all of these as priorities.

Mr. Landry quickly made it clear that he understood what Mr. Trump wanted from him, writing on X: “It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump wrote that “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security.”

“You cannot annex other countries,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark and Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland said in a joint statement on Monday. “Not even by invoking international security. Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the United States must not take over Greenland.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/world/europe/trump-special-envoy-greenland-denmark-landry.html

🇬🇧 David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, 1907