There’s gonna be a lot of CEOs and other really awful people all in one place on monday… Just making an observation

Fire at the world’s largest battery plant in California forces evacuations

NEW: We reconstructed @samhusseini’s viral confrontation with Antony Blinken by combining footage from multiple sources, including @amrhsayed & @ryangrim. A must-see.

This was the culmination of months of State Dept stonewalling.

“Why aren’t you in The Hague??”

video at https://xcancel.com/decensorednews/status/1880230957070029141

Under Brazil’s presidency, BRICS announces the entry of Cuba, Bolivia and six other countries as partners. The countries join the bloc as partners, with a lower status than full members, but with the possibility of participating in summits and thematic meetings. According to Friday’s announcement, the following countries have joined the BRICS as partners:

• Belarus

• Bolivia

• Kazakhstan

• Cuba

• Malaysia

• Thailand

• Uganda

• Uzbekistan

seems fairly brazen from iran (if true/not old stuff), i would assume they would have suspended this part of the operations. kinda darkly funny how open hts is about its preferences

Trump, China’s Xi hold call on TikTok, trade, Taiwan

WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed issues including TikTok, trade and Taiwan in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump takes office again promising tariffs that could ratchet up tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

Both leaders were upbeat about the call, with Trump calling it “a very good one” and Xi saying he and Trump both hoped for a positive start to U.S.-China relations, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

It was the first known phone call between the pair after Trump’s election in November.

The U.S. and China are embroiled in an array of diplomatic and economic disagreements, including an accelerating technological and military rivalry and bitter trade disputes. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee to be his secretary of state, has defined China as the gravest threat facing the U.S. and warned about the risks of possible military conflict between the two countries.

The call came shortly before U.S. Supreme Court on Friday announced a ruling upholding a law that mandates TikTok owner ByteDance divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by Sunday to a non-Chinese buyer, or be banned on national security concerns.

“The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A. It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.

“President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!”

Xi raised China’s concerns about Taiwan, which Beijing maintains is part of its territory, and said he hoped the U.S. would treat the matter with great care.

“The Taiwan issue concerns China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and he hopes the U.S. side will handle it with caution,” he said according to Chinese state television.

Xi said the United States and China can have their differences but must respect each other’s core interests, and that trade relations can be mutually beneficial without confrontation and conflict, comments similar to those he made during Trump’s first term.

The Chinese readout of the call said the two leaders agreed to set up a “channel of strategic communication to keep in regular touch on major issues of shared interest.”

Trump offered strong support to Taiwan, including regularizing arms sales, in his first term. But during the campaign last year, he said Taiwan should pay the U.S. to be defended.

The Republican president-elect, who upended trade relations in his first term, is about to embark on an even more aggressive effort in his second term. He has pledged to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop trafficking of the highly addictive narcotic fentanyl, and he threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods while on the campaign trail.

Trump said on Jan. 6 that he and Xi have been communicating through representatives, expressing optimism about their relationship.

Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said whether Trump in coming days would permit TikTok to operate without a qualified divestment and whether he applied tariffs on China quickly or first began negotiations with Beijing would be early indicators of how confrontational his stance toward China would be.

Trump posted online later that his decision on TikTok would be coming soon, and that “everyone must respect” the Supreme Court ruling.

Breaking with tradition, Trump had invited Xi and other foreign leaders to his Jan. 20 inauguration, but China is sending Vice President Han Zheng, a move signaling Beijing’s desire to step up communication with the incoming administration.

Still, any “grand bargain” between the two sides over trade, Taiwan and other strategic issues would be difficult to reach, said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

“There’s an immense amount of distance between what one can imagine and actually achieving such an outcome. The interests between the U.S. and China on many of these issues are different and the views of key advisors to both are quite hawkish,” Kennedy said.

Folks, we’re gonna do so many great things, folks. lmao this guy.

But as I’ve said, there is a good chance of easing US-China tension with Biden gone.

Meeting coverage (SC/15968) from yesterdays 9839th meeting (“Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine”) of the United Nations Security Council (Verbatim recordings to be issued as S/PV.9839, Web TV recording), as quoted by me (see SC/15968 for full version):

Speakers in Security Council Raise Alarm Over Involvement of Pyongyang’s Troops in War against Ukraine

Turning to the humanitarian crisis, [Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs] noted that 12.7 million people will require assistance this year and urged the international community to fully support the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan. The attacks “have also made the situation increasingly dangerous for the diplomatic community and international organizations,” she pointed out, stressing that diplomatic and international personnel and assets must be protected.

The Council also heard from Ukraine’s delegate, who stressed the need to counteract the Russian Federation’s “aggressive, imperialistic policies”. Recalling that one of Russian Federation President Vladimir V. Putin’s closest accomplices recently expressed the hope that “Ukraine will cease to exist in 2025,” he said this destructive ambition has guided that country’s policy for decades. It is essential to strengthen Ukraine’s air defence capabilities and dry up the Russian Federation’s oil and gas revenue streams by strengthening sanctions. That country’s “war budget for 2025 is 25 per cent bigger than last year’s”, he said, adding: “If we want to stop the war, we should cut off Putin’s cash flow.”

However, the representative of the Russian Federation said that things are quickly unravelling for Kyiv. Many high-level officials are fleeing the country, he said, adding that those speaking out against Ukraine’s regime face torture. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are being pushed back, and losing thousands of soldiers. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is nervous about the danger of having fresh elections, and the fact that the United States Government could audit assistance to Ukraine and examine the scope of the corruption in his country, he said, adding that there are rumours in Kyiv that the regime is preparing a large-scale provocation for which Russian Federation will be blamed.

As for the “Washington puppeteers” of the Kyiv regime, he said, they are worried that their investment in the “anti-Russia project” is going to collapse, similar to what happened with the United States in 2021 in Afghanistan. The rhetoric of the United States and its satellites here has changed considerably, he went on to say. “Initially, they were talking about the need to ensure that Ukraine is victorious,” he said. Then they moved on to supporting the Kyiv regime as long as it takes for the Russian Federation not to be victorious. And today, the idea is to ensure that the “Ukrainian sinking ship” has a strong negotiating position, he said.

The representative of the United States countered this, stressing that “in more than 1,000 days of this reckless war of choice, Putin has failed to achieve any of his goals in Ukraine; instead, he has left Russia’s power and influence greatly diminished”. Some 700,000 Russian soldiers are dead or injured. Meanwhile, Ukraine remains “strong and defiant” as a free and sovereign democracy.

The Russian Federation’s forces have systematically attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, “weaponizing winter” by leaving thousands of households without power, she said. They have abducted Ukrainian children and tried to erase their identities. And yet China’s exports continue to directly fuel the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine and its attacks against civilian infrastructure. “This support makes China the decisive enabler of Russia’s war,” she added.

But, China’s delegate described this as “downright lies through and through” adding that, if his country had really provided military supplies to the Russian Federation, the situation would not be where it is now. His Government has repeatedly emphasized respect for the sovereignty of and territorial integrity of all countries. The United States has used the Ukraine situation to advance its own geopolitical strategy, wanting “nothing more than a weakened and defeated Russian Federation”, he said.

The representative of the Republic of Korea said the testimonies of two soldiers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, captured in the Kursk Oblast, clearly demonstrate that troops from that country “are engaged in combat and being dissipated as expendables”. The two soldiers were unaware of being deployed for the war against Ukraine, he said, adding that they were told they were participating in combat simulation drills. “As a native Korean speaker, I can definitively tell that those two soldiers spoke in Korean with North Korean accents,” he said. “Despite Pyongyang’s efforts to muzzle any rumors,” he said, soldiers’ families in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are fearful that their “sons and brothers are being used as slave soldiers and mere cannon fodder”.

Speakers also highlighted the humanitarian suffering, with the representative of Denmark noting that “Each passing day brings further death, destruction and hardship,” for Ukrainians. Millions struggle to secure heating, water and electricity in the cold winter months. “These are not just abstract words in a statement; these represent human lives,” she added. Somalia’s delegate stressed the need to ensure humanitarian aid, noting that 2 million children require “multisectoral assistance”, while Panama’s representative demanded that humanitarian personnel be protected. “They make herculean efforts to provide assistance to the thousands of civilians unjustly affected,” he added. Pakistan’s delegate stressed that “the solution lies in dialogue and negotiations and not on the battlefield”.

Yesterdays UN image (as chosen by the Hexbear UnitedNations acc.)

Joyful reactions of Palestinians in Deir el-Balah after news on ceasefire, Gaza Strip. © 2025 UNRWA Photo by Ashraf Amra

russia and iran signed their economic thingy (and it’s apparently mainly economic, without mutual defense)

SC has upheld the ban on Tiktok lmao

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/17/supreme-court-rules-to-uphold-tiktok-ban.html

Now its up to the executive to enforce it. Biden has decided to leave it up to trump, and trump has signaled he won’t enforce it either

note to self: if you participate in bloody civil war - win it, so you don’t be prosecuted.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro: “We must resist the anti-values of the western empire of the north.”

“The time of the absent country is over, let’s do whatever we have to do so that our identity prevails.”

President Nicolás Maduro pondered this Monday the struggle for values as the spearhead of the Venezuelan and Latin American identity against the colonialist and imperialist model of Western countries.

During the presentation of the National Culture Award 2023-2024, the South American leader stressed that “behind the collapse of the West and its anti-values, fascism is beginning to resurface. Venezuela, Latin America and the Caribbean need a powerful cultural revolution that vindicates the best of human values and opposes the anti-values of fascism”.

“A transculturated people is a dominated people, we must combine efforts. We must resist the anti-values, the cultural decadence of the Western empire of the North, and advance in the construction of the new, a new society,” he stressed.

Video

What if Donald Trump sues Donald Tusk over copyright infringement, there can only be one Donald T. inside NATO.

Here is an update on the story of the south African illegal miners stranded underground. Pretty grim, I can’t imagine what it must be like underground there. It’s a tomb.

https://www.business-standard.com/amp/world-news/at-least-78-dead-at-abandoned-south-africa-gold-mine-toll-expected-to-rise-125011501286_1.html

Trump’s inauguration portrait was shown. The Internet noticed a significant difference with the 2016 portrait. Trump has noticeably aged, no longer smiling, but frowning with a raised eyebrow.