Venezuelans on Sunday approved a referendum called by the government of President Nicolás Maduro to claim sovereignty over an oil- and mineral-rich piece of neighboring Guyana, the country's electoral authority announced.

Few voters could be seen at voting centers throughout the voting period for the five-question referendum, but the National Electoral Council claimed to have counted more than 10.5 million votes. The council, however, did not explain whether the number of votes was equivalent to a voter or if it was the sum of each individual answer.

Venezuela has long argued the territory was stolen when the border was drawn more than a century ago. But Guyana considers the referendum a step toward annexation, and the vote has its residents on edge.

As the Army attempts to adjust its structure to a smaller size, some have bemoaned the service’s reported decision to reduce special operations force (SOF) units by three thousand soldiers. Shrinking is always hard, and it’s hard to argue the utility of SOF across the spectrum of conflict. But these critics are missing the forest for the trees: the reason the Army must reduce its force structure is because they are losing the existential fight to recruit new soldiers. In 2021 the Army was authorized 485,900 active-duty soldiers. Today that number is 452,000, a drop of 33,900 and in fiscal year 2023 the Army was unable to recruit the necessary number of volunteers to maintain even that reduced size. So, policymaker’s focus shouldn’t be on a relatively small cut to Army SOF, what they should be focusing on instead is helping the Army (and other military services) deal with a manpower crisis with no end in sight.

Anecdotally you hear reports that squads in the 82nd Airborne Division---the nation’s 911 response force---are zeroed out due to personnel shortages or that Infantrymen have been pressed into service to man tanks due to a lack of armor crewman, just a few of the signs the Army is making difficult choices within a force already strained by the operational needs to deter Russia, China and others.  Combine these shortages with the need for the Army to grow new units in order to react to emerging battlefield realities such as counter-drone warfare and the need to deliver longer range fires, and you have the ingredients of a looming readiness crisis.

Sam Altman has appeared to lead credence to the theory he was fired from OpenAI over his company's super powerful, secret new AI system he helped build. 

Multiple employees reportedly warned the company's board of directors that this project, named Q* (pronounced 'Q star'), was becoming so advanced it could already pass math exams and perform critical thinking tasks. 

And they felt Altman was not taking their warnings seriously. 

In an interview this week, Altman did not deny the existence of the secret program that some employees said was responsible for his firing. 

Instead, he called the revelation of Q* an 'unfortunate leak.' 

Webmaster addition:

A mother in North Carolina used a tracking app to catch a teacher having sex with her son inside a parked car, according to prosecutors.

Gabriela Cartaya-Neufeld, 26, was arrested for allegedly engaging in sexual activity with an 18-year-old student on Nov. 29, according to a statement released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Cartaya-Neufeld was charged with five counts of felony sexual activity with a student by a teacher. She was then taken to the Mecklenburg County Detention Center.

UPDATE: Igor Chudov has updated his post, having revised his initial “skeptical” opinion (scroll down).

Liz Gunn reports that the police descended on the homes of both the whistle-blower himself, and someone else involved with publicizing his testimony:

It could usher an era of limitless clean, safe and affordable energy to meet the world's demand. 

Now, the 'holy grail' of power production – nuclear fusion, which makes the sun and the stars shine – has come a step closer. 

Scientists have switched on JT-60SA, a £500 million fusion device measuring around 40 feet in diameter, located in Naka north of Tokyo, Japan.

JT-60SA contains swirling plasma heated up 200 million degrees Celsius (360 million degrees Fahrenheit). 

This is the threshold where hydrogen atoms can begin to fuse into helium, releasing sustainable energy in the process that could put an end to fossil fuels. 

A series of back-to-back atmospheric rivers are set to bring intense gusts and up to ten inches of rain to parts of the West Coast - with unrelenting storms expected until Wednesday. 

More than half a dozen states are under winter weather alerts, as the atmospheric river brings up to 12 inches of snow and rain to parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, northwestern California and Utah. 

The heaviest rainfall is likely to occur in western Washington State.

Another atmospheric river will add to the 40 inches of snow that has already blanketed mountains in the area - and in Wyoming, some areas are expected to be batting winds of up to 60mph. 

GOP Senator Lindsey Graham said he has 'lost all confidence' in US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after he warned Israel faces a 'strategic defeat' if it cannot contain civilian casualties in Gaza. 

During a Sunday morning appearance on CNN's State of the Union with Dana Bash, Graham countered that 'strategic failure' from Israel would be 'letting Hamas stand.'

He made the comment in response to a question about Secretary Austin's recent claim that Israel's continued killing of civilians in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate Hamas would yield a 'tactical victory' at the expense of a 'strategic' one.

'He's so naïve. I've just lost all confidence in this guy,' said Graham, slightly exasperated.

'Secretary Austin is telling Israel things that are impossible to achieve,' he said, asking what strategy the head of DoD would suggest implementing in order to eradicate Hamas.

The social media influencer stereotype is a scantily clad 20-something giving fitness tips, hunky wellness gurus or yummy mommy yoga instructors.

But a new wave of stars are hitting Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and sharing their wisdom — senior citizens, some of them in their 80s.

Known as 'grandfluencers', they have gained millions of followers by sharing posts about baking pies and life advice.

The most successful among them make as much as $150,000 per post, through sponsorships with brands and selling merchandise. 

Lynn Yamada Davis,79, earns a cozy six-figure salary from her 'Cooking With Lynja' channels, which shows her making food in unconventional ways - 17 million people watched one video of her building a 10-foot-long hotdog and making popcorn with a hair straightener. 

Most people would assume followers of these grandfluencers are older adults, but most of their fans are the younger generation who have welcomed them with open arms into the digital world. 

From the time Joe Biden hit the campaign trail before becoming president, he pledged that he would eliminate fossil fuels as much as possible as a source of energy for the nation. He boldly stated at one point that he would close coal plants across the country.

His plan is to replace fossil fuels with “green energy” such as solar and wind sources that liberals believe can power the world without fossil fuels which, ironically, are used in those energy sources. Biden has become known as a president who will work legal angles or bureaucratic processes to get his way.

Biden’s questionable methodology in government practices was recently exposed by a major news outlet. Biden’s administration knows how to work the “alphabet offices” to get what he wants. Fox News Digital uncovered within federal internal documents a bureaucratic lease scheme that affects taxpayers.

From Fox News:
The Biden administration quietly granted a request from an energy firm developing an offshore wind project off the coast of Massachusetts to waive development fees designed to safeguard taxpayers.

Republicans have repeatedly accused the Biden administration of neglecting the Southern border. Many have pointed out that the White House, despite spending resources on the border, is making the situation worse.

Border Patrol agents are reportedly not allowed to remove migrants from the country. Instead, the DHS is tasking them with processing illegal crossers and releasing them into the country.

This appears to have only encouraged migrants to try to cross the border. And now, a new report reveals that Biden is closing legal ports of entry, to make processing illegal entrants faster.

For months now, large cities have been struggling to deal with the migrant crisis. These so-called sanctuary cities quickly became overwhelmed after red states sent a few thousand migrants to them.

In one blue city, the situation is so bad that the mayor claimed it will “destroy” the city. Other cities have begged the federal government for funds to house the growing number of illegal border crossers.

Despite this serious situation, Democrats have refused to deport these migrants. And while this one city is crumbling, its leaders decided to prioritize this issue.

From The Post Millennial:
New York City just enacted a law banning discrimination against height or weight… This means that in addition to other protected characteristics like age, gender, race, or religion, a person’s weight and height will also be considered protected identifiers under the law.

The law will bring fat discrimination under the jurisdiction of New York’s Commission on Human Rights. This is the body that heads up discrimination issues for other identifiers and characteristics, such as LGBTQ, race, etc.

New York is suffering from rising crime, exploding homelessness, unchecked drug abuse, and an endless flood of illegal border crossers. Despite facing issues that could destroy it, the city has prioritized criminalizing “fat discrimination.”

Scientists have developed tiny robots using human cells that could one day patrol our bodies, searching for and healing diseased cells and tissue.

So-called 'anthrobots,' assembled from human cells can repair damage to brain cells in a dish, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Advanced Science.

Scientists at Tufts University in Massachusetts developed the microscopic robots to eventually heal diseases. There are multiple additional steps before that happens, but they foresee the technology repairing cell and tissue damage from conditions such as Alzheimer's. 

These bots - whose name means 'human robots' - were made from human airway cells. 

In the future if this technology advances to the point that it can be deployed in hospitals, the fact that the bots can be made from a person's own cells, with their own DNA, would help ensure that the body does not reject them, senior author Michael Levin told DailyMail.com.

The majority of the guns used by students in school shootings between 1990 and 2016 were lower- to moderate-powered firearms, a new study has found.

About 77 percent of the weapons used in 253 school shootings over this 26-year period were smaller-caliber handguns or shotguns, a finding that runs counter to the popular image of school shooters carrying high-powered assault-style weapons. 

While much of the public discussion about preventing firearm deaths centers on common-sense gun control laws or questions of technology, such as magazine capacity, this research points to a simple solution: safe storage. 

In about 61 percent of cases, teens seemed to have stolen these weapons. The vast majority of stolen weapons were taken from family members. 

The death toll from Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 15,500, while over 41,300 people have been injured, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said on Sunday.

"The number of victims of the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip since October 7 has grown to 15,523 people, 41,316 others sustained injuries of varying severity," Al-Qudra told a televised news conference.

Last week, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The truce was extended several times, but on Friday, the Israeli military resumed fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, saying the group had violated the humanitarian pause by opening fire on Israeli territory.

Israel’s victory over Hamas will become a “strategic defeat” if the country doesn’t prevent civilian casualties during its military operation in Gaza, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has said.

Washington “will continue to press Israel to protect civilians and to ensure the robust flow of humanitarian aid” into Gaza, Austin vowed on Saturday, in a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum at Simi Valley, California.

“The center of gravity is the civilian population and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” the Pentagon chief said, implying that indiscriminate attacks on Gaza by Israel could prompt even more Palestinians to join the ranks of the Hamas armed group.

“It would compound this tragedy if all that awaited Israelis and Palestinians at the end of this awful war was more insecurity, more rage and more despair,” Austin added.

Israeli warplanes have delivered more than 10,000 airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of its military operation in the enclave, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

Since the beginning of the war, approximately 10,000 airstrikes were carried out under the guidance of IDF soldiers on the ground in short time frames," it said. "The soldiers quickly completed missions and thwarted terrorist cells, terrorist infrastructure, command centers, tunnel shafts, weapons depots and more."

"Following Hamas’ violation of the operational pause agreement, the fighting in the Gaza Strip has resumed, and the IDF soldiers are continuing the ground operation in full cooperation with aircraft of the IAF. The cooperation between the ground forces and the IAF is one of the most prominent elements in the IDF’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip," the IDF said.

Patients lie on cold, bloodstained floors in hospitals filled to overflowing. Some scream in pain, but others lie silently, deathly white, too weak even to cry out.

Hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip have descended into chaos since the resumption of the war between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel.

After eight weeks of war, interrupted only by one seven-day pause that ended on Friday, the doctors are exhausted.

Fuel reserves have almost run dry because of Israel's blockade of the territory, so doctors are forced to choose when and where across their hospitals to run generators.

According to the United Nations, not a single hospital in the territory's north can currently operate on patients.

The most seriously wounded are transferred daily to the south by convoys organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But even there, the UN says, the 12 remaining hospitals are only "partially functional".

Six Palestinian detainees have been tortured to death by the Israeli occupation, according to the WAFA news agency, citing a statement by the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and ex-Detainees Affairs, while they were held in Israeli occupation prisons. This comes as part of the systematic campaign of assaults against Palestinian detainees and prisoners since October 7.

The six Palestinians who were martyred as a result of Israeli torture are Omar Daraghmeh from Tubas, Arafat Hamdan from Ramallah, Majed Zaqoul from Gaza, Abdel Rahman Marei from Salfit, Thaer Abu Assab from Qalqilya, and a martyr whose identity remains undisclosed.

The statement underscored that alongside severe torture, the occupation prison authorities have been cracking down on detained Palestinians by sending them to isolation and preventing them from any form of communication with the outside world, including their family members and lawyers.

The Government Media Office in Gaza highlighted on Saturday that Israeli bombing destroyed 80% of rescue vehicles and equipment, noting that there is no longer fuel to move the rest.

In a statement, the Office confirmed that "the equipment and mechanisms belonging to the relief, emergency, and civil defense teams cannot reach disaster and massacre areas."

The statement pointed out that some Gazans have remained "for days and weeks under the rubble without those crews being able to dig them up, due to the targeting and destruction."

It underlined that "the humanitarian situation has reached a catastrophic stage" in the Gaza Strip.

While "Israel" claims to be conducting a more "surgical" approach in southern Gaza as advised by the US to allegedly avoid mass civilian casualties, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder revealed on Sunday that the current bombardment of Gaza is the worst since the war began.

In an X post, Elder said the Israeli bombardment of southern Gaza is the “worst bombardment of the war right now.” 

He further detailed that he was seeing "massive casualties", warning that this was the "final warning to save children; and our collective conscience."

The US Navy carried out provocative military exercises off the Yemeni coast in the Gulf of Aden, near the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

Saudi “Al-Hadath” TV channel reported that the US Navy Central Command is conducting military exercises simulating the storming and seizure aboard the missile destroyer “USS Mason” in the Gulf of Aden.

The channel added that the military exercises were part of what it called “maritime security support operations in the Middle East.”

Iran has warned of "Israeli war expansion" in the region if its forces continue to commit war crimes against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian spoke by phone with European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about the latest developments on Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said late Saturday.

“If the war crimes committed by the Israeli regime in Gaza and the West Bank are not stopped, the scope of the war in the region is likely to deepen and expand,” Abdollahian warned.

Abdollahian stressed the need to "stop the military attacks launched by the Zionist regime against the residents of Gaza as soon as possible," the statement said, urging “the importance of providing the necessary ways to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.”

As usual, this is more “eat the rich” thinking than anything remotely helpful. The world is not fast on its journey to hell in a hand-basket because of private jets flying in and out of the UK. But then, the Greens love to ban things, blame the West for everything, and cry catastrophe, much more than they like to create, invent or solve things.