Roberto Saviano: 'Venezuela is not a narco-state, but a state that uses drugs as an instrument for the survival of those in power'

Past geopolitical tensions related to the Captagon pills, once mass-produced by the Assad regime, are now being "mitigated" with the Syrian authorities’ commitment to dismantle illicit manufacturing, says UNODC.

The Oreshnik missile, which Russia used for the second time on the night of January 9 to strike Ukraine, was manufactured with outdated Soviet components.

Chinese criminals are recruiting Malawian orphans into the ivory trade.

MAGA social media users are encouraging "the diplomatic solution" - the president's son, Barron Trump, marrying Isabella, Princess of Denmark, and giving Greenland to the U.S. as a "dowry payment."

“The number of bodies was so large that there wasn't enough space in the morgue; the bodies were placed on top of one another.” "After the morgue became full, they stacked them on top of one another in the prayer room.”

Do you have a light?

At this rate, the Kremlin will need to have a separate neighborhood to house escaped dictators. The upside for the Russians is that, along with their dictator-friends, they also bring a lot of money. I bet the Iranians will bring hundreds of billions in stolen funds.

New footage sheds light on fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

The temperature at the front in Ukraine ranges from -2 to -10 degrees. Ukrainian soldiers are fighting tirelessly so that we don't have to.

In my career, the most terrible cold I have ever experienced was in Ukraine. I cannot imagine what it is like for Ukrainians who are subjected to daily attacks and are left without electricity and heat during the coldest nights of the year.

According to reports, phone lines across Iran have all been cut. Can anyone confirm?

Reuters: U.S. officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States.

Two soldiers from the Revolutionary Guard's forces were killed during clashes in the Iranian city of Kermanshah. According to information from the Iranian state news agency Tasnim, they died in clashes with "separatists."

Tonight saw some of the largest demonstrations in Iran. There are reports of protests in over 100 cities across the country, including Tehran, with clashes having been reported in major urban centers.

Gunfire has already been reported from several Iranian cities. The IRGC appears to have been given the green light to take all necessary measures against the unrest in the country.

Some lessons from the seizure of the oil tanker MARINERA/BELLA1: - The Russian flag does not provide protection - The Russian Navy has no orders to protect tankers belonging to the shadow fleet

Lately, I've been returning often to one of my favorite comic book series—Undiscovered Country by Snyder and Soule. Somehow, it seems very realistic to me these days. 👀

Wealth is power until people with guns demand the money to be redistributed.

On Greenland, Europe has no response to offer, so they’re hoping Trump forgets about this issue and moves on.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the private agency that has steered federal funding to PBS, NPR, and hundreds of public television and radio stations across the country, voted to dissolve the organization that was created in 1967.

“There is something particular about realizing that war is moving closer to you. The images, the emotions, the sounds, even the smells. […] The soundscape of war — another sound added to an already brutalized country, another terrifying entry in our glossary of violence.”

A number of texts have been published discussing the dilemmas facing Europe. Europe must stop wondering and pondering theories and dilemmas, and start working, building structures, and thinking for itself.

Nothing surprising here.

"Trump’s snatching of Maduro was spectacular and swift. The economic reward from it will be neither."

The Americans only wanted Venezuela's oil. Yes, because Russia and China are there for the cuisine.

I don't even know where to start with the cynicism and hypocrisy that this man has embodied for years—a political clown.

Trump: "Russia and other countries want to buy Venezuelan oil, and we are ready to sell it to them." Under Putin, Russia has invested over $17 billion in the Venezuelan oil industry, and now Trump is offering to sell Moscow the results of its own investments.

NATO's space ops face a climate double-whammy: satellites monitor disasters, but rising seas & extreme weather threaten ground stations and launches.

"The CIA team moved about Caracas, remaining undetected for months ...The intelligence gathered about [Maduro] daily movements — combined with a human source...& a fleet of stealth drones ...— enabled [CIA] to map out minute details about his routines."

👀

Footage of Venezuelan diaspora celebrating the US operation against Maduro versus footage of European communist groups burning American flags in “solidarity with the people of Venezuela.” What a world.

Stop making comparisons between different geopolitical, historical, and economic cases. This is a simplification that no one needs. It is particularly worrying when experts do this, as people who read their work trust them.

The operation and capture of Maduro signal a serious stress test for the EU’s core doctrines on international law, strategic autonomy, and crisis management in its neighborhood-plus.

I'm unsure why people are commenting on the aspect of democratization in the context of the attack in Venezuela. Trump is not thinking about a process of democratization; he has no such goal. It is pointless to discuss the actions against Maduro as linked to any political process of democratization.

US president Donald Trump claims in Truth Social that the Venezuela president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife have been “captured and flown out of the country”.

On the current escalation in Venezuela, beware disinformation campaigns and the use of videos from other conflicts. For example, videos from Tel Aviv are presented as US attacks on Caracas.

"Snowstorms are isolating displacement camps in northern and northwestern Syria from nearly everything. Tents packed tightly side by side, blanketed by a layer of snow, turn into cramped spaces that cannot keep families warm."

"The tactics behind protest policing are changing—from one of cooperation to intentional antagonism for political marketing purposes."

👇

The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else.

If by "many" you mean a few dozen people who participated in the protests against the euro, then yes, "many" are opposed to the euro.

House of Clowns. 🤡

This is - to put it mildly - simply not true. The main anti-Euro camp is the pro-Russian camp. I have read a dozen articles in the foreign press and am very unpleasantly surprised by the simplistic presentation of the situation in Bulgaria.

Across Iran, several local government buildings are under siege, and some of them have been stormed. Protesters clashed with security forces in several city centers, including Tehran.

🇱🇾 Libyans visit national museum reopened after 14 years In Libya's recently reopened national museum in central Tripoli, visitors wander past ancient statues and artefacts, rediscovering a heritage that transcends political divides.

🙌 @thebarentsobserver.com is one of my favorite sources for the Euro-Arctic region and northern Russia. Please consider supporting their efforts. www.thebarentsobserver.com/news/a-year-...

This month, Ukraine intensified its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, causing the most damage to assets and the widest range of targets since the start of the war. These attacks are putting further pressure on Russian exports, which are already struggling due to international sanctions.

The crew of the oil tanker, BELLA 1, fleeing U.S. forces in the Atlantic Ocean since December 21, recently painted a Russian flag on the side of the vessel, in an apparent attempt to claim Russian protection. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/u...