"I think if Maduro's smart he's gonna go ahead and move to Russia, China, some place like that. Because his days are numbered." - Repulican Senator Rick Scott

ℹ️Earlier today, the NYT reported that the Trump administration authorized covert CIA ops in Venezuela. 

BREAKING: The Trump administration has secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela, escalating its campaign to remove President Nicolás Maduro.

The new authorities, a presidential finding, allow the agency to carry out lethal operations in Venezuela and the Caribbean, either unilaterally or alongside potential U.S. military action.

This comes as the Pentagon draws up strike options and continues a large military buildup in the Caribbean, with 10,000 U.S. troops, eight warships, and a submarine already in place.

The authorization was developed under National Security Adviser Marco Rubio and C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe, who has vowed to make the agency “more aggressive.”

Privately, U.S. officials have been clear: the goal is regime change.

Adding: from CNN article today from Jake Tapper:

Donald Trump said that he would consider allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume military action in Gaza if Hamas refuses to uphold the ceasefire deal, telling CNN that Israeli forces could return to the streets “as soon as I say the word.”

When asked what would happen if Hamas refused to disarm, Trump replied, “I think about it. Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word. If Israel could go in and knock the crap out of them, they’d do that.”

“I had to hold them back,” Trump said of the Israel Defense Forces and Netanyahu’s government. “I had it out with Bibi.”

Adding:  

Ukrainian suspected of coordinating the Nord Stream attacks will not be handed over to the German authorities after Italy's top court on Wednesday upheld his appeal.

"Serhii K." was arrested in August near Rimini on a European warrant over the undersea explosions.

Italy's highest court supported the defence's argument that there had been "incorrect legal classification of the facts underlying the European Arrest Warrant,", and returned it back to the county court. 

🐻"Independent" Italian and Polish courts will do everything to not call out the insanely idiotic German "Five drunken Ukrainian men and a very open-minded Ukrainian girl on a Bavaria Cruiser" story and protect the human rights of the pasties, while not protecting the right of EU general population to not be exposed to such blatant insults of its intelligence. It's not the courts fault that politicians want to and obviously can get away with this.