The vital Panama Canal shipping route has suffered its worst drought ever, threatening Christmas supplies in America.

The water levels have seen a significant drop, with ships struggling to pass through.

The Panama Canal Authority has slowly decreased the number of vessels allowed to pass since August from 36 to 32 per day to address the issue.

It plans to bring the number down further to 18 by February through monthly reductions.

Reports of growing military activity on Guyana's border have heightened concerns that Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro is planning to grab by force a huge chunk of his neighbor.

He claims a sham referendum at the weekend has given him an overwhelming mandate to do so. The saber-rattling rhetoric from Caracas is intensifying.

Indeed, on Tuesday, Maduro unveiled a frightening new map showing two thirds of Guyana 'reclaimed'.

Yet the world continues to shrug its shoulders and look the other way — if it knows anything about it at all.

There has been barely a trickle of coverage in the media. No ally has spoken up for Guyana, least of all the United States, the only friend with the military clout to deter any Venezuelan adventurism.

Webmaster addition: See below article about the US lifting sanctions on Venezuelan oil.

In response to Venezuela’s government and a faction of its opposition formally agreeing to work together to reach a series of basic conditions for the next presidential election, the U.S. agreed Wednesday to temporarily suspend some sanctions on the country’s oil, gas and gold sectors.

Tuesday’s agreement between President Nicolás Maduro’s administration and the Unitary Platform came just days before the opposition holds a primary to pick its candidate for the 2024 presidential election.

The U.S. Treasury issued a six-month general license that would temporarily authorize transactions involving Venezuela’s oil and gas sector, another that authorizes dealings with Minerven — the state-owned gold mining company — and it removed the secondary trading ban on certain Venezuelan sovereign bonds.

Pesticides are damaging human health and the environment in numerous ways, and now one commonly used insecticide has been singled out for its role in the rise in erectile dysfunction among young men.

This is according to a study that was published in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, which found that being exposed to chlorpyrifos as well as other pesticides in the organophosphate family was linked to the development of erectile dysfunction. This adds on to the significant body of scientific evidence demonstrating that exposure to pesticides leads to reduced fertility in men, including abnormal sperm development, a lower sperm count and reduced sperm quality.

COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber sent the alarmists scrambling for damage limitation this week when he said there was "no science" that says phasing out fossil fuels will limit global warming at 1.5°C.

Debbie Lerman sets out chapter and verse of how the Covid mRNA vaccines were developed in the U.S. under a military protocol for responding to biological weapons that imposed no safety oversight requirements.

 Cornwall is set to switch off more than half of its street lights - around 35,000 - within the next few months as part of a cost cutting exercise, leaving swathes of the county in darkness.

The campaign group Workers for a Free Palestine said it had targeted sites in Bournemouth, Glasgow , Brighton and Lancashire, some of which are operated by defence giant BAE Systems. The company's shipyard in Glasgow was targeted in the early morning protests, which the campaign group said demonstrated it was escalating its action after previous blockades. The demonstrators are urging BAE and other companies to end their ties with Israel and cease all weapons, defence and supplies trading with them.

Nobody gets fined for refusing to buy the Guardian newspaper, and a good thing too.

The Guardian is an estimable product, but plenty of us do not agree with its opinions or with its priorities. So we can choose not to buy it, or to buy something else.

Why then are we threatened with being dragged to court if we do not pay for the BBC, which is more or less the exact broadcast equivalent of the Guardian? And now the BBC wants us to pay even more to be hosed down with its incessant propaganda and unacknowledged bias.

There is a simple solution to the BBC's demand for another increase in its licence fee. If it won't even try to be impartial - and it is not trying very hard at the moment - freeze the fee which will then quickly dwindle thanks to inflation.

Unprecedented conditions have seen water levels in the vital 50-mile shipping route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans fall to their lowest since the mid-1900s.

Dozens of massive container ships carrying presents and festive items including Apple's new iPhones, TVs, exercise bikes, clothes and tree lights are experiencing delays of up to four weeks – and the crisis could yet last for several months.

Congestion in the canal could have a wider impact across the global supply chain - with experts warning that Christmas in the UK and Europe could be impacted.

The cost of food and energy prices could also rise because grains and fuels are among other major supplies transported through the canal now experiencing delays.

Experts have warned that the disruptions at the canal are likely to remain in place for 'some time to come', with some fearing the restrictions could continue into 2025.

After years of anticipation, the trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 finally emerged online yesterday.

Millions of eager gamers flocked to watch the trailer, which quickly set the record for the most YouTube views in 24 hours after racking up nearly 100 million hits.

Now, it seems cybercriminals have jumped on the bandwagon, and are targeting unsuspecting gamers with fake download links.

Worryingly, clicking on these links can flood your device with malware capable of tracking you or stealing your personal data.

Researchers estimate 8-inch Jorō spiders are likely to spread as far north as Canada. Jorō venom is as toxic as a bee sting, only posing a threat if the victim is allergic, experts advise. The jury is still out, however, on the impact that this gentle giant spider, which is believed to have first arrived in the US via shipping containers in Georgia in 2013, might have on local wildlife and ecosystems

New research shows that nanoplastics—microscopic particles broken down from everyday plastic items—bind to proteins associated with Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.

These stealthy nanoparticles have already infiltrated our soil, water, and food supply. Now, they may pose the next great toxin threat, fueling a wave of neurodegenerative disease.

Cash was used in 19% of transactions last year, according to retailers, up from 15% the previous year. Until 2015, notes and coins were used in more than half of transactions and, while card use now dominated, cash still had its benefits.

The consortium said consumers were budgeting carefully to try to cope with cost of living pressures, and there was also a "natural return" for cash after it slumped during the pandemic.

Its payments policy adviser, Hannah Regan, said: "We are now seeing a return to many of the pre-pandemic trends in payments, including smaller but more frequent purchases, and a slight return of cash payments.

"Unfortunately, what has not changed, is the ever-increasing scale of fees paid by retailers in order to accept card payments."

Senate Republicans have blocked a move to pass an aid bill for Ukraine after failing to secure border compromises they sought in exchange.

The $110bn (£87.3bn) package included $61bn for Ukraine, as well as funds for Israel and aid for Gaza.

The White House has warned that US funds for Ukraine could soon run out.

A Ukrainian official said that that failure to secure more US aid would mean a "very high possibility" that the war will be lost to Russia.

A few nights ago, the school in Khirbet Zanuta, a small Palestinian village in the hills south of Hebron, was destroyed along with most of the houses, by a bulldozer.

Its tracks lay fresh and undisturbed in the sand when we arrived. The village was empty as its population of about 200 Palestinians left around a month ago, after sustained pressure and threats from armed and aggressive Jewish settlers who live in nearby outposts that are illegal under both Israeli and international law.

A twisted metal sign lies in the rubble of the school in Khirbet Zanuta. In bold black letters it reads "Humanitarian Support to Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank". The sign records the donors who gave money to the project.

So she supports Lady Ballers. I would never have expected that. You go, AOC!

A Louisiana judge ruled Tuesday that a candidate’s one-vote win was void due to illegal votes and that a new election would have to be held.

In recent months, a number of high profile individuals have made headlines by deciding to give their lives to Christ.  So exactly what in the world is going on here?  Is this the beginning of a new trend?

See also:

Why Not Linux? A closer look at why Linux might just be the right choice for your desktop needshttps://www.bitchute.com/video/uHW2i4swKocF/

A years-old Bluetooth authentication bypass vulnerability allows miscreants to connect to Apple, Android and Linux devices and inject keystrokes to run arbitrary commands, according to a software engineer at drone technology firm SkySafe.

The bug, tracked as CVE-2023-45866, doesn't require any special hardware to exploit, and the attack can be pulled off from a Linux machine using a regular Bluetooth adapter, says Marc Newlin, who found the flaw and reported it to Apple, Google, Canonical, and Bluetooth SIG.

Newlin says he'll provide vulnerability details and proof-of-concept code at an upcoming conference but wants to hold off until everything is patched. The attack allows a nearby intruder to inject keystrokes and execute malicious actions on victims' devices, as long as they don't require a password or biometric authentication.

A set of 21 newly discovered vulnerabilities impact Sierra OT/IoT routers and threaten critical infrastructure with remote code execution, unauthorized access, cross-site scripting, authentication bypass, and denial of service attacks.

The flaws discovered by Forescout Vedere Labs affect Sierra Wireless AirLink cellular routers and open-source components like TinyXML and OpenNDS (open Network Demarcation Service).

Atlassian has published security advisories for four critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerabilities impacting Confluence, Jira, and Bitbucket servers, along with a companion app for macOS.

All security issues addressed received a critical-severity score of at least 9.0 out of 10, based on Atlassian's internal assessment. However, the company advises companies to evaluate applicability according to their IT environment.

The company marked none of the security issues as being exploited in the wild. However, due to the popularity of Atlassian products and their extensive deployment in corporate environments, system administrators should prioritize applying the available updates.