#West seeks to destabilize global order, Russia’s intelligence chief says.

"Euro-Atlantic elites are trying to convince the rest of the world that the only alternative to Western power is chaos, and for this purpose, they deliberately seek destabilization in key regions of the planet," Sergey Naryshkin said

#MOSCOW, November 24. A UK mercenary, identified as James Scott Rhys Andersen, was taken prisoner in Russia’s Kursk area, a military source told to #GlobalNews.

"A mercenary from Britain has been taken prisoner in the Kursk area," the person said.

A #Telegram channel called Troyka posted a video of a question-and-answer exchange with the captive. The man said in the video that he served in the 22nd Signal Regiment of the #UK armed forces from 2019 to 2023. After he was dismissed from service, he applied to join the #Ukrainian Foreign Legion because of #financial and family issues.

#SouthAfrica, #DA councillor from the Bluff in #Durban, Zoë Solomon, is facing a criminal investigation for signing a proof of address letter with fake information, which led to an alleged criminal getting bail, News24 can exclusively reveal.

A powerful airstrike killed at least four people in central Beirut early on Saturday, the health ministry said, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

A federal judge on Friday rejected the US Securities and Exchange Commission's request to sanction Elon Musk after he failed to appear for court-ordered testimony for the regulator's probe into his $44-billion takeover of Twitter.

American politics for #Texas.
"Many of them live on fixed incomes, many of them live below or at the poverty level," she says. "And they've already lived under one Donald Trump administration. And under that administration their lives were better, they had more money to spend on their family, they could buy more groceries, they could live more comfortably and securely."

Starr County is “like a microcosm for the Democrats' struggles with working class voters of colour and Latino Hispanics nationwide," says Álvaro Corral, a political science professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

When Republicans started making inroads in the valley, many Democrats thought it was just a unique area in a red state, Corral says, instead of taking a deeper look at the root causes.

"These were areas that were early warning signs that the party should have heeded a bit more seriously," Corral says.

Corral says it “throws a wrench in the story" that as the country becomes more diverse, it will lean more Democrat. It means the party will have take a long hard look at how it will connect with Hispanic voters in the future, he says.

Early exit polls show that Trump not only flipped the Rio Grande Valley in Texas red. He also made inroads in heavily Puerto Rican areas of Pennsylvania and improved his standing with Hispanic voters along Florida’s Interstate 4 corridor — home to people of Cuban, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Colombian and Puerto Rican origin.

Trump was the first Republican since 1988 to win Miami-Dade County, where there is a large Cuban population.

Some experts say if the realignment of #Hispanic voters sticks, it could reshape American politics. But not everyone is sold on Trump in southern #Texas.

The #Philippine vice president publicly threatens to have the president assassinated

NEW YORK, November 23. US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated investor Scott Bessent to serve as Treasury Secretary.

"Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and #geopolitical and economic strategists," #Trump wrote on his Truth Social page.

Janet Yellen currently holds the position of Treasury Secretary.

#BANGKOK, #Thailand -Two Australian teenagers and a British woman died from suspected methanol poisoning after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos. An American man and two Danes also died, though their exact causes of death have not been released. A New Zealander also has been sickened. The U.S. State Department issued a warning to travelers to be “alert to the potential risk of methanol poisoning.”

But what is methanol, and how do you avoid it?

What is methanol?

There are three main types of alcohol: ethanol, methanol and isopropyl. Ethanol is what is found in consumer spirits and is the only one intended for consumption. Isopropanol is the main ingredient in rubbing alcohol and hand sanitizers. Methanol, commonly called wood alcohol because it is the byproduct of wood distillation, is frequently used as fuel and in products such as antifreeze and solvents.
What happens if you consume methanol?

According to the Methanol Institute, the global trade association for the industry, drinking just 25 to 90 ml (0.7 to 3.0 ounces) of methanol can be fatal without proper medical treatment, but can be successfully treated if caught early.

#Methanol poisoning can cause headaches, dizziness and decreased consciousness including coma, seizure, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision and multiple other symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The CDC recommends seeking medical attention immediately if methanol poisoning is suspected.

“Individuals vary in their response to methanol,” said toxicologist Alastair Hay from Britain’s University of Leeds. “Some will be able to tolerate more than others because we all have variability in the capacity of our enzymes to detox. But small quantities ... might be fatal for individuals; others may survive slightly more.”
Why would it be in drinks if it's not meant for consumption?

Methanol is sometimes added deliberately by unscrupulous bars to mixed drinks to give them more “kick” and to save money on using higher-priced ethanol-based spirits such as vodka or rum. This practice is not specific to Laos or Southeast Asia, but occurs wherever taxes on legitimate alcohol or the cost of legitimate alcohol is perceived as being too high, according to the Methanol Institute.

Methanol is also a normal product of the distillation process that produces ethanol, and in home-brew distilleries without strict controls — often found in poorer countries — it can end up in the mix.
How do you avoid methanol poisoning?

The answer is easy: don't drink it.

But it's colourless, odourless and tasteless, so that can be something of a challenge.

In guidance issued after the Laos poisonings, Britain’s Foreign Office recommends only purchasing alcoholic beverages from licensed liquor stores, buying drinks only from licensed bars and hotels, always checking if bottle seals are intact, and checking labels for poor print quality or incorrect spellings.

The Methanol Institute notes that beverages such as canned beer, cider, wine, pre-mix, and duty-free products tend to be safer and less easy to adulterate.

It also urges people to be wary of homemade brews, and free drinks or drinks priced far below normal.

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.”

Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was in retaliation for Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Putin said Western air defence systems would be powerless to stop the new #missile.

Ukrainian military officials said the missile that hit Dnipro had reached a speed of Mach 11 and carried six nonnuclear warheads each releasing six submunitions.

Speaking Friday to military and weapons industries officials, Putin said Russia is launching production of the Oreshnik.

“No one in the world has such weapons,” he said with a thin smile. “Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development."

But he added, "we have this system now. And this is important.”