🇬🇮‼️🇪🇸 — The Olive: Spain sends warship to ‘deter’ Gibraltar from ‘invading Spanish sovereign waters’

➡️ The Spanish Defence Staff has announced that el Rayo, a 2860-tonne, 94m maritime patrol vessel, will conduct operations in the Strait and the Alboran Sea ‘to help ensure the security of national maritime areas.’

➡️ The deployment of el Rayo comes at a particularly sensitive moment as Spanish officials accuse Gibraltar of ‘invading their sovereign waters’ with a large land reclamation project on the Mediterranean side of the Rock.

➡️ It's important to note that territorial water disputes are not uncommon between Spain and Gibraltar, with Spain refusing to officially recognize Gibraltar's current maritime border, the two nations often encounter naval standoffs as Spain routinely violates Gibraltarian sovereignty by sending Spanish Navy gunboats into Gibraltar waters, usually to order commerical fishing vessels or merchant ships operating within Gibraltar's maritime border to ‘leave Spanish waters’.

➡️ The last Spanish naval incursion into Gibraltar waters took place on the 3rd of October, last year, in which a Spanish Navy patrol boat that sailed through British waters disrupted a Royal Navy live firing exercise through unsafe maneuvers.

➡️ The Spanish contend that, under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht which ceded Gibraltar to the United Kingdom, the waters were not included and thus remain Spanish.

➡️ However, this entails the proposition that someone even swimming in the sea at a Gibraltar beach would technically be violating sovereign Spanish territorial waters.

➡️ Nonetheless, the Spanish consider the issue serious enough to turn to gunboat diplomacy.

➡️ El Rayo will set sail on July 28 on an approximately 10-day mission before docking in Malaga between August 7 and 9.

➡️ Currently stationed in Gibraltar is HMS Medway (P223), a Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessel for the Royal Navy. Being stationed at HM Naval Base Gibraltar, she will be tasked with intercepting any serious intrusion or threat to Gibraltar.

🇭🇺🎙🇩🇪📰 — 🇩🇪 Berliner Zeitung | Peace policy, Nord Stream 2 and new world order: Orbán settles accounts with Germany | In a speech in the Romanian periphery, the Hungarian Prime Minister warns of the downfall of the EU. Asia, on the other hand, will become the "dominant center" of the world | July 30, 2024:

"The war in Ukraine, the presidential elections in the USA, open questions about Nord Stream and an impending new world order: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán launched a sweeping attack against the West in a speech in the small Romanian town of Baile Tusnad. Europe is “unconditionally following the US’s pro-democratic foreign policy” and has given up pursuing its own interests. Orbán went even further: the group of states on the European continent is facing “self-destruction”.

“We are facing a change that has not occurred in 500 years. What we have before us is indeed a change in the world order,” said the Hungarian Prime Minister during his speech on the sidelines of a so-called free summer university in central Romania. There, his Fidesz party organizes several events every year to promote “Romanian-Hungarian dialogue,” according to the official tenor from Budapest. Baile Tusnad is inhabited by a majority of Hungarians. Orbán likes to comment on the entire world situation in front of his supporters — similar to a state of the nation speech.

The 61-year-old sees a shift towards the East in geopolitical, economic and cultural aspects. “What we are facing is a change in the world order. China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia will become the dominant center of the world,” says Orbán."

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🔗 Full article in German:

🇻🇪🇻🇪❌🇻🇪 — Venezuelan Army Captains Javier and Juan Carlos Nieto Quintero send a message to all soldiers to rise up and revolt against the Criminal Chavista Regime:

“It’s time to make the right decisions at a historical moment (…) It’s evident we have a new president-elect"

➡️ Since 2017, there has been underground movements inside the Bolivarian Armed Forces that - despite having no support from Foreign powers as US or European Union countries, which whom prefer peaceful, democratic and moderate solutions - have been organizing a Resistance against the Chavista Regime inside the officers corps

🇻🇪❌🇻🇪 Another Chavez statue is demolished in Guarataro, a small town in the State of Bolivar.

🇻🇪‼️Jorge Rodríguez Gomez, President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, asks for jail for Edmundo González and María Corina Machado.

@FelipeChannel

🇻🇪❗️🗳 — New update on the electoral results in Venezuela, with 75% of the ballots counted:

🔵 Edmundo González: 68% (6,457,637 votes)
🔴 Nicolás Maduro: 28% (2,849,343 votes)

⌛ A new update with 85% of the ballots is expected in the coming hours.

🇧🇷📞🇺🇸 — Over the past minutes, US President Joe Biden and Brazilian President Lula da Silva called to discuss the situation in Venezuela

➡️ The conversation was scheduled at the request of the US government. Biden wants to hear from Lula the Brazilian government's position on the Venezuelan political crisis.

➡️ The lack of disclosure of the "records" has been one of the main points of distrust regarding the election results.

➡️ The "records" are bulletins that record the votes in each ballot box and that were not properly presented by the Venezuelan authorities.

➡️ For now, Brazil is cautiously demanding the release of the minutes. But other neighbors and partners have already contested the electoral result in Venezuela, such as Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.

🇻🇪⛓ — Diosdado Cabello, the number two in the Chavista regime, confirms the detention of "10 opposition leaders for acts of violence."

"And they will be detained, no matter their name, whether it's Machado, González, Superlano, Mendoza, whatever their surname is."

🇨🇴🇻🇪The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Colombian government urges Venezuela to "clear any doubts about the scrutiny" of the presidential elections.

"For the peace of Venezuela, it is necessary to know all the minutes of the final results and for them to be audited by the world"

@FelipeChannel

🇻🇪 Maduro addressing the Venezuelan nation live now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr-Ywk1UdPc

@FelipeChannel

🇻🇪🇻🇪💥 — A strong repression is reported on Av. Francisco de Miranda, heading towards Chacaíto. A large number of motorized units and armored vehicles from the National Guard are present in the area, dispersing the protesters using aggressive methods.

🇺🇸🇺🇸❗️🇻🇪🇻🇪 — The U.S. Congressman of Cuban origin and former mayor of Miami-Dade, Carlos Giménez, has issued a strong warning to Nicolás Maduro's regime, demanding that they do not harm opposition leader María Corina Machado:

"DO NOT TOUCH MARÍA CORINA MACHADO! NOT EVEN ATTEMPT IT!

AS A U.S. CONGRESSMAN, I DEMAND THAT THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION HOLD NICOLÁS MADURO DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO HER!

ENOUGH WITH THE IMPUNITY!

This is until the end."

Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) on 𝕏 🖇

🇪🇺❗️🇻🇪🇻🇪 — The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, has urged the National Electoral Council of Venezuela to provide immediate access to the records of all polling stations; see the full statement below:

"I follow with great concern the situation in Venezuela after the presidential elections last Sunday.

So far, the National Electoral Council (CNE) has only presented the result corresponding to 80% of the count, without providing any sources or systems for verification. With this partial, unverifiable result, the CNE has proceeded to declare Nicolás Maduro the winner. In a democracy, results must be complete and independently verifiable to be recognized.

On the other hand, the data made available to the public by the opposition presents a radically different result from that announced by the CNE.

I reiterate that Venezuelan authorities must ensure transparency and integrity in the process through independent verification of the records of the polling stations.

The European Union urges the National Electoral Council of Venezuela to facilitate immediate access to the voting records of all polling stations. Until the authorities publish and verify the records, the announced results cannot be recognized.

The people of Venezuela have suffered from an unprecedented economic, political, and social crisis for many years. The EU has always maintained that the way out of this crisis is through electoral means, and that remains the solution.

In these difficult times, it is important to call for peaceful demonstrations and protests. Security forces must ensure full respect for human rights, particularly the rights to demonstration and assembly."

Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) 🖇

🇻🇪🇻🇪❌🇻🇪 — On Twitter/X, Far-Left journalist & senior staff writer of MintPress Alan McLeod claims he is stuck in a hotel in Caracas, along with hundreds of international election observers and journalists due to "attacks from US-Backed far right mobs backed by opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez"

➡️ According to him, "they are blocking roads" and "attempting a violent coup" against Maduro.

➡️ According to him, also, "Far-Right mobs have blocked buses of international election observers" and "journalists from going to the airport and have rerouted them".

🔗 MintPress News (@MintPressNews)

‼️🇻🇪 Nicolás Maduro a couple minutes ago: "I hold you responsible, Mr. González Urrutia, for the criminal violence, for the injured, for the deceased, for the destruction, you and Mrs. Machado will be directly responsible. Justice has to come"

@FelipeChannel

🇻🇪🇻🇪❌👤❌ — In an emergency meeting with state advisors, Venezuelan regime leader Nicolás Maduro accused Elon Musk and global far-right groups of orchestrating an attempted coup in Venezuela:

"Behind this plan, I have denounced, is the U.S. empire, Colombian drug trafficking, Elon Musk, and the extremist fascist right of the world. They came against Venezuela because they thought they could take it based on social media campaigns.

All social networks are conspiring against Venezuela! What these people – the extremist opposition – have done reveals the terrible, decrepit face of fascism. These people intend to govern the country through violence, criminality, destruction, persecution, and death.

The battle of July 28 is the ultimate battle against fascism, against hatred, against intolerance, and against those who want to impose a civil war in Venezuela, a coup d'état, division, and confrontation among Venezuelans."

⁉️Maduro declared that these acts were carried out by direct "orders" from the "far-right leadership," particularly María Corina Machado and former candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.

🇨🇷🚫🇻🇪 — BREAKING: The Dominican Republic has decided to close its embassy and consulate general in Venezuela.