NightOwl

“Their successful outcome is a triumph for the Venezuelan people,” Adely added, “especially considering the level of U.S. interference and attempted sabotage of the democratic process, particularly through sanctions and coercive economic measures aimed at producing ‘regime change’ in Venezuela.”

Speaking after CNE’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has “serious concerns” that the tallied result “does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people” — a response that drew swift backlash, given longstanding efforts by the United States to overthrow the Latin American nation’s elected government and crush its economy with sanctions.

As The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein and Federica Cocco reported last week, “Sanctions on Venezuela… contributed to an economic contraction roughly three times as large as that caused by the Great Depression in the United States.”

Tel Aviv has described the victims as Israeli civilians. Yet the residents of Majdal Shams are Syrian Druze living under occupation since the illegal occupation of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war.

Residents of the town have refused Israeli citizenship and continue to view themselves as Syrians. The Druze community in Majdal Shams called on Israel not to politicize the incident. However, Israeli officials have used it to reinforce calls for launching a broader war against Lebanon.

The vote has prompted increased scrutiny of links between the majority ABC party and the natural gas industry. In a Wednesday thread on X/Twitter, Mihai Cirstea, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia noted that Montague had a half-hour meeting in December with FortisBC lobbyist Gurpreet Vinning. Vinning is also listed as attending mayor Sim's inauguration, Cirstea noted.

"Montague does nothing – barely works, doesn't attend events, doesn't write motions, doesn't live in Vancouver – but suddenly found it a very high priority to make sure we can re-introduce gas heating in new builds," he wrote.

At least one of the councillors who voted for the amendments to reverse the city's ban, Mike Klassen, holds investments in Fortis, according to his financial disclosure records. ABC councillor Lisa Dominato also holds investments in gas utilities Fortis and Enbridge; however, she broke ranks with her party and voted against the amendments.

The Liberal government has promised to “solve” the country’s housing woes. But critics say it continues to offer major incentives to for-profit developers, including tax breaks and cheap financing, while steering clear of regulating the housing market.

Ricardo Tranjan, a political economist and senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said it “isn’t surprising” to see developers gain this level of access.

“It’s power politics, and the industry has more influence,” Tranjan said. “While the minister has never bothered to sit down with and listen to the many tenants on rent strikes, he is winning and dining with corporate landlords.”

In fact, a new bill introduced by the Liberal government will end the public disclosure of such events before they happen, and afterward will only name their city and province and not their venue name and postal code—thus ending media exposés of such “cash for access” fundraisers.