#Tocorón

[adribosch-fan]

Tocorón y El Tren de Aragua: productos de exportación del castrochavismo    

Puede que fuera en Venezuela donde el socialismo que Hugo Chávez rebautizó como del “Siglo XXI” percibiera, por primera vez, que las poblaciones carcelarias podían ser reeducadas, pero no para reincorporarlas a la sociedad burguesa de la cual procedían y en la que podían proyectar. un futuro exitoso y honesto, sino en la nueva, en la socialista, en la que estaban empeñados en construir los…

[angelsalcedo]

En #aragua se acreditaron los saberes de los privados de libertad del #CPA #Tocorón La intención es que una vez que hayan cumplido su pena y salgan nuevamente a las calles, tengan la oportunidad de incorporarse al campo laboral. #enterate https://www.instagram.com/p/ClngrmBuXUv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[space-morningstar]

URGENT: Maduro says he is sending detained protesters to the country's most violent prison, dominated by murderous gangs:

"We have captured 2000 people and we are sending them to Tocorón and Tocuyito. This time there will be no forgiveness.

[ivangzama]

21Sep|🇻🇪|📢¡ETIQUETA DEL DÍA! ▶️ #GuaicaipuroConManoDura Se acabó Tocorón ¡Pueblo en Paz!

@Mippcivzla 🇻🇪 ¡Juntos todo es posible! 🏘️🇻🇪 ¡Si se puede!🏘️

[hotnew-pt]

A Interpol não processa casos políticos. Eles fazem vigília perto de Tocorón. #ÚltimasNotícias #Venezuela

Hot News Estas são as 5 notícias mais marcantes da Venezuela nesta sexta-feira, 8 de novembro de 2024. 1. Quanto ao caso González Urrutia, a Interpol lembra que não utiliza seu sistema por motivos políticos A Interpol lembrou esta sexta-feira que as regras da agência policial internacional proíbem a utilização dos seus mecanismos para razões políticas e não quis comentar a exigência recebida da…

[espiganoticias]

En la cárcel de Tocorón efectúan audiencias de madrugada a los detenidos arbitrariamente 👉 https://espiganoticias.net/nacionales/en-la-carcel-de-tocoron-efectuan-audiencias-de-madrugada-a-los-detenidos-arbitrariamente/

[noticlip]

Denuncian extorsión a presos políticos en Apure para no trasladarlos a otro centro penitenciario (detalles)

 En el marco de las protestas electorales, no menos de 106 detenidos por causas políticas tiene el estado Apure desde el 28 de julio, día de las elecciones presidenciales; casi de inmediato trasladaron a 19 a las peligrosas cárceles de Tocuyito y Tocorón. En la cifra de detenidos hay 15 mujeres. Todos han sido víctimas de un círculo corrupto de la justicia en el que participan jueces de Control,…

[das-wissen-1]

Die jüngsten Entwicklungen in Venezuela werfen ein schockierendes Licht auf die dynamische Beziehung zwischen Regierung und sozialen Medien. Während Präsident Nicolás Maduro seine Machtposition strategisch festigt, befeuert ein Konflikt mit dem amerikanischen Unternehmer Elon Musk die Diskussion über die Meinungsfreiheit im Land und die Gefahren der digitalen Zensur. Elon Musks Unterstützung der Opposition Die Auseinandersetzung zwischen Maduro und Musk ist mehr als ein persönliches Duell; sie könnte die Meinungsfreiheit in Venezuela prägen. Musk hat in den sozialen Medien, insbesondere auf der Plattform X, die venezolanische Opposition unterstützt. Er erhebt Vorwürfe der Wahlmanipulation gegen Maduro und kritisiert dessen Rolle im wirtschaftlichen Niedergang des Landes, während gleichzeitig die Oppositionsführerin María Corina Machado und Präsidentschaftskandidat Edmundo González Urrutia Beifall erhalten. Diese Situation verdeutlicht, wie auch internationale Akteure in lokale politische Konflikte eingreifen können. Zensur als Instrument der Kontrolle Die Reaktion von Maduro auf Musks Aktivitäten ist alarmierend: Er bezeichnete Musk als "Erzfeind" und ordnete eine zehn tägige Sperrung von X in Venezuela an. In einem Post äußerte er: "Raus mit X aus Venezuela für zehn Tage!" Diese Maßnahmen sind Ausdruck einer umfassenden Zensurpolitik. Berichte belegen, dass in den letzten 20 Jahren Hunderte von Medien in Venezuela schließen mussten und zahlreiche Webseiten blockiert wurden. Laut der Organisation "Freedom House" sind mindestens 70 Websites seit 2022 von der Maduro-Regierung unzugänglich gemacht worden. Proteste und ihre digitalen Begleiter Trotz der Zensur blühen die Proteste gegen die Regierung. Tausende von Menschen protestieren sowohl im Inland als auch im Ausland auf den Straßen, um einen Rücktritt Maduras und die Anerkennung des Oppositionskandidaten zu fordern. So wird über soziale Medien ein großes Bewusstsein geschaffen, und der Hashtag #venezuela wurde auf Instagram über 97 Millionen Mal verwendet. Innovativ ist der Fall der Oppositionspolitikerin Maria Oropeza, die ihren eigenen Verhaftungsprozess in einem Live-Stream dokumentierte, was die Aufmerksamkeit auf die brisante politische Lage lenkt. Der düstere Schatten der Repression Die Lage für Dissidenten ist angespannt. Die Menschenrechtsorganisation "Foro Penal" dokumentiert, dass zwischen dem 29. Juli und 8. August mindestens 1229 Verhaftungen stattfanden, und diese Zahl könnte sogar darüber hinausgehen. Die gewalttätigen Interventionen der Sicherheitskräfte beispielsweise bei Protesten gegen die Wahl resultieren in einer Atmosphäre der Angst, in der Kritiker des Regimes systematisch eingeschüchtert werden. Das Gefängnis Tocorón – ein Symbol der Angst Der Name des Gefängnisses "Tocorón" ist inzwischen ein geflügeltes Wort für Angst und Bedrohung, unter dem die Regierung Massenverhaftungen durchführt. Maduro selbst drohte, dass Bürger, die sich gegen seine Maßnahmen wenden, nicht ungestraft bleiben werden. Seine Worte: "Tun tun, no seas llorón vas para Tocorón" sind sowohl ein kultureller Bezug als auch ein direkter Appell an die Unterdrückung von Dissens. Die Bedeutung der Meinungsfreiheit Der Konflikt zwischen Maduro und Musk ist ein Symptom für ein viel größeres Problem: die Erosion der Meinungsfreiheit in autoritären Regimes. Die Ereignisse in Venezuela könnten als Weckruf für andere Nationen dienen, die gegen ähnliche Tendenzen der Zensur und Repression kämpfen müssen. Indem sie die Aufmerksamkeit auf diese Probleme lenken, spielen internationale Akteure, soziale Medien und der Ruf nach Gerechtigkeit eine zentrale Rolle in der globalen politischen Landschaft.

[elsolnetworktv]

Maduro says "fascist outbreak" is "resolved" after 2,000 arrests

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has declared the “fascist outbreak” “resolved” in reference to the protests for alleged electoral fraud by the opposition and has announced that 2,000 people have been arrested in the last week. “We resolved the fascist outbreak with the constitution and in peace. We have 2,000 prisoners captured and from there they go to (the prisons of) Tocorón and…

[coinmystique]

Final week, the federal government of Venezuela despatched 11,000 cops and troopers into Tocorón jail, notoriously run by the Tren de Aragua gang, and seized buckets of bullets, piles of machine gun ammo belts, sniper rifles, explosives, rocket launchers, grenades, and a small military of bitcoin miners.Backed by tanks and armoured automobiles, the jail was efficiently stormed on Wednesday. As police and troops found, Venezuela’s strongest gang has been making an attempt to make additional money with rows upon rows of outdated Bitmain Antminers.It’s unclear how worthwhile the bitcoin mining operation was; outdated gear apart, Venezuela has quickly banned crypto mining. And whereas the nation enjoys low cost, subsidised electrical energy, vitality blackouts are frequent.#21Sep | Así quedó la cárcel de Tocorón tras la primera fase de la Operación Liberación Cacique Guaicaipuro, en el lugar hallaron hasta máquinas para minar criptomonedas.Video: RRSS pic.twitter.com/Nv26bsKhUo— Caraota Digital (@CaraotaDigital) September 21, 2023Bodycam footage reveals loads of outdated bitcoin miners within the jail.Learn extra: Drug gang used Coinbase to launder crypto from jailInside Tocorón: Lions, tigers, and pumas galoreWhat is obvious, nevertheless, is that Tren de Aragua members have been having an absolute riot earlier than troops confirmed up. Authorities discovered that the jail featured a restaurant, pool, youngsters’s playground, playing rooms, a disco named Tokio, a baseball subject, and a zoo — à la Escobar.In accordance with studies, the zoo housed tigers, lions, crocodiles, flamingos, ocelots, and pumas, to ‘threaten’ inmates and authorities officers.Bodycam footage by authorities reveal the jail additionally housed a small military of pigs, which seemingly fed the inmates and gang members.Ocelots?Membership Tokio.The seized bitcoin mining rigs.Photographs taken inside Tocoron following the raid (through Each day Mail).The jail has served because the gang’s headquarters for a while. From Tocorón, Tren de Aragua is alleged to have carried out its operations throughout South America, dwelling in shacks constructed exterior of the place the opposite prisoners have been housed. Tocorón allowed the gang freedom to do as they please, in addition to recruit and prepare new members.The gang is thought for kidnappings, robberies, drug trafficking, prostitution, extortion, and unlawful gold mining.Tren de Aragua chief and high members fledAuthorities stated that 1,600 inmates have been evacuated through the raid. Alongside the hoards of weaponry discovered, police and troopers found that some Tocorón inmates had been saved “in a kind of slavery,” Inside and Justice Minister Remigio Ceballos stated.4 jail guards have been arrested below suspicion of serving to the gang members take pleasure in their unusually candy facilities, and 60 Tren de Aragua members have been captured, Ceballos said.The small metropolis of Tocoron jail (through Each day Mail).Learn extra: Brazil gang caught laundering unlawful gold with cryptoNonetheless, some are reported to have escaped — based on native outlet El Nacional, between 400 to 500 prisoners are nonetheless lacking. This contains Tren de Aragua chief Héctor ‘Niño’ Guerrero, who was apparently tipped off concerning the raid and escaped with different high-ranking officers a number of days earlier than by means of a hidden tunnel that had a number of exits.Guerrero is assumed to have raked in over $3 million a yr by means of numerous operations ran from the jail, together with charging inmates for vaccinations.Now completely vacated, Tocorón will endure restoration.Bought a tip? Ship us an e mail or ProtonMail. For extra knowledgeable information, comply with us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google Information, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.Supply: https://protos.com/a-look-inside-tocoron-venezuelas-gang-run-prison-that-mined-bitcoin/

[paulacorinna]

Continúan las tensiones diplomáticas: 

CHILE EVALÚA LAS RELACIONES BILATERALES CON EL RÉGIMEN DE MADURO

La declaraciones del gobierno venezolano sobre la inexistencia del Tren de Aragua, el caso del exteniente Ronald Ojeda y del carabinero Emmanuel Sánchez acentúan el debate sobre la falta de cooperación en materia de seguridad con Chile. 

Por Paula Hernández.  

Han sido múltiples los sucesos que han marcado la agenda política que relaciona a Venezuela con Chile. Sin embargo, una de las declaraciones que generó mayor controversia fue la del ministro venezolano Yván Gil, sobre la inexistencia del Tren de Aragua. El presidente de Chile, Gabriel Boric, incluso afirmó que “constituyen un grave insulto a quienes han sido víctimas de esta organización”. El grupo criminal, según diversas investigaciones, nació en la cárcel de Tocorón, a 140 kilómetros al suroeste de Caracas y su ingreso se detectó hace dos años en Chile. 

Francis Espinoza, académica de la Universidad Católica del Norte y doctora en Relaciones Internacionales por la Universidad de Birmingham precisa que “la tendencia en las relaciones internacionales de América Latina es generar tensiones a través de la diplomacia del micrófono para desviar la atención de los problemas políticos internos, en este caso, una gobernanza deficiente internamente. En el que, generalmente, los gobernantes sacan una estrategia bluff, con problemáticas al exterior del país que afectan las relaciones bilaterales con los países cercanos”. 

Maduro afirmó además que los grupos organizados habrían llegado a Chile luego del apoyo que les habría ofrecido el ex presidente de Chile Sebastían Piñera, en Cúcuta en el 2019. Sin embargo, la académica afirma que “eso no significa que haya una relación directa entre que alguien diga algo y que exista un éxodo masivo de migración negativa con los carteles y la delincuencia”. 

Al debate se suma el  caso del ex teniente venezolano Ronald Ojeda, secuestrado y asesinado en Santiago. A Ojeda se le habrían impuesto cargos por traición a la patria en 2017 en Venezuela, por lo que residía en Chile en calidad de refugiado político desde el 2018. La Fiscalía chilena aún no descarta que el crimen se haya organizado desde Venezuela y exige el cumplimiento del tratado vigente de extradición frente a los autores materiales del crimen.  

Además, el asesinato del teniente chileno Emmanuel Sánchez, en el que los autores del crimen eran de nacionalidad venezolana y uno de ellos poseía orden de expulsión del 2020 acrecientan la preocupación, puesto que no se han podido concretar las expulsiones por la débil colaboración de Caracas, ya que para ello, se debe autorizar el ingreso de aviones a su espacio aéreo y corroborar las identidades de las personas expulsadas. Precisamente, según estadísticas del Servicio Nacional de Migraciones, en el 2023 se registraron un 12% menos de expulsiones que el año anterior, donde se reportaron 1.070 expulsiones en total.   

Sin embargo, Francis Espinoza afirma que “Chile posee un multilateralismo a partir de dos cuerdas paralelas: la diplomacia y las relaciones comerciales, por lo que es complejo pensar en romper las relaciones con Venezuela, dada la estrategia bilateral de información”. Por otra parte, Fernando San Román, comunicador social y político antofagastino afirma que “frente a la poca cooperación del gobierno venezolano en la problemática actual, el foco tendría que instalarse en perfeccionar las actuales normativas para hacer frente a la situación”.

[nucreatureministry]

Venezuela’s Gangsters in Dallas, Miami and Chicago

Venezuela’s gangsters and worst criminals have crossed the US border and are now causing chaos in major American cities, including Dallas, Miami and Chicago. Venezuela’s Gangsters: El Tren de Aragua When eleven thousand troops stormed Venezuela’s Tocorón prison in September, they didn’t find a lock-up but more like a corporate headquarters and theme park for the mafia known as “El Tren de…

[juicioalanoticia]

¿Qué ha sucedido con los pranes de las cárceles y el paradero del Niño Guerrero? El General Remigio Ceballos lo revela

Redacción (ALN) .- A dos meses de la intervención de la cárcel de Tocorón, ¿qué ha pasado con Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias Niño Guerrero? Ante esto, el ministerio de Interior, Justicia y Paz, Remigio Ceballos, aseguró que siguen los operativos de búsqueda. En una entrevista ofrecida al periodista Eligio Rojas en el diario Últimas Noticias, Ceballos apuntó que el operativo en…

[ailtrahq]

Reports claim electricity theft has increased by over 75% since 2012 in the United Kingdom. Crypto mining, cannabis farms, and high cost of living are believed to be the three primary reasons for electricity theft. While cryptocurrency mining is a rewarding business, it is energy-intensive with requirements of high electricity power. Hence, various bad actors have found loopholes to mine crypto by stealing electricity. Is Crypto Mining Causing a Surge in Electricity Theft? According to the BBC, there were over 3,500 cases of electricity theft in the UK during 2021-2022. The publication explained the electricity theft: “Electricity thefts are where meters are tampered with or bypassed to avoid paying for energy. “It can leave live wires exposed and will often involve bypassing fuse boxes, increasing the risk of appliances overheating or catching fire and death.” While cases have increased by 75% since 2012, there was a huge surge in electricity stealing activity after the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK. Electricity theft rises. Source: BBC Charlie Pugsley, the Assistant Commissioner at London Fire Brigade, believes that cannabis farming and crypto mining are behind the surge in the cases of electricity theft. In 2021, the West Midlands Police uncovered an illegal Bitcoin (BTC) mining operation where over 100 devices were connected to bypass the electricity supply. Read more: How To Build a Mining Rig: A Step-by-Step Guide Of course, crypto mining is an energy-intensive business that requires huge capital investment to carry out the business operations. With rising mining difficulty and hash rate, some legit crypto mining businesses are at the risk of becoming unprofitable. Electricity cost is one of the highest recurring expenses for mining businesses. But criminals are bypassing this cost by stealing electricity. Earlier this week, BeInCrypto reported that criminals were running Bitcoin mining rigs inside the Tocorón prison in Venezuela, using the prison’s electricity. Besides the UK, electricity theft by miners is proving a big issue for Malaysian authorities. In March 2022, BeInCrypto reported that crypto miners stole around $2 million worth of electricity in 2021. Read more: What Is Cloud Mining? Get Started With This Beginners Guide Do you have anything to say about electricity theft for crypto mining or anything else? Write to us or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on TikTok, Facebook, or X (Twitter). Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.

[hotnew-pt]

A vigília pela “plena liberdade” dos “presos políticos” termina na Venezuela #ÚltimasNotícias #Venezuela

Hot News Caracas, 8 de novembro (EFE).- Familiares de detidos na Venezuela concluíram nesta sexta-feira uma vigília de oração perto da prisão de Tocorón, no estado de Aragua (norte), onde exigiram a “plena liberdade” dos “presos políticos relatados”. a organização não governamental Comitê para a Liberdade dos Presos Políticos. Através da denúncia de “fraude” da oposição maioritária no resultado…

[newstfionline]

Friday, September 29, 2023

In El Paso, Migrants With Nowhere to Go Strain a Welcoming City (NYT) The city of El Paso, a West Texas way station long accustomed to migrants arriving from Mexico, has begun to buckle under the pressure of thousands upon thousands of people coming over the border, day after day. The usual shelters have been filled. So too have the hundreds of hotel rooms wrangled by the city to house migrants. A new city-run shelter opened over the weekend in a recreational center, and rapidly filled all of its roughly 400 beds. Another shelter is planned in a vacant middle school. Mayor Oscar Leeser said over the weekend that the city had reached a “breaking point” and was no longer able to help all the migrants on its own. He welcomed the buses, chartered by the administration of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, that once again began carrying hundreds of migrants out of the city to Denver, Chicago or New York. The mayor said he was seeking millions of dollars in additional aid from the Biden administration. The strain felt in El Paso, a traditionally welcoming border town, reflected a situation that has become increasingly untenable for communities up and down the U.S. border with Mexico. After months of relative calm, a new wave of migrant arrivals, mostly from Venezuela but also from other countries in South America, Africa and elsewhere, is taxing the available services in cities and small towns from Texas to California.

Two days left (NYT) Two basic facts are central to understanding why the federal government may shut down on Sunday morning: First, the House Republican caucus contains about 20 hard-right members who sometimes support radical measures to get what they want. Many of them refused to certify the 2020 presidential election, for example, and now favor impeaching President Biden. They also tend to support deep cuts to federal spending, and they’re willing to shut down the government as a negotiating tactic. “This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy—a fellow Republican—said last week. Second, the Republicans’ House majority is so slim that McCarthy needs the support of most of these roughly 20 members to remain speaker. If he passes a bill to fund the government and keep it open without support from the hard-right faction, it can retaliate by calling for a new vote on his speakership and potentially firing him. Nobody knows who would then become speaker. This combination has created a strange situation in Washington. Most House members—along with President Biden—want to avoid a shutdown. So does the Senate: A bipartisan group agreed this week on a spending bill that would keep the government open through mid-November. A similar bill could probably pass the House by a wide margin if it came to the floor. Yet the small Republican faction has enough sway over McCarthy that he has resisted allowing a vote on such a bill. As a result, much of the federal government may shut down this weekend.

Troops stormed a prison. They found inmates had built a luxury resort. (Washington Post) When 11,000 soldiers and police officers stormed Venezuela’s Tocorón prison this month, they discovered a professional baseball field, swimming pools, children’s play equipment—even a small zoo, with monkeys and flamingos. They also found concrete tunnels in and out, just like in the onetime Mexican prison home of the Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. And 200 women and children, living on the grounds. What they didn’t find was Tocorón’s most notorious inmate: Héctor “El Niño” Guerrero. Guerrero, 39, heads Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization spawned in the prison that has spread across Latin America with the Venezuelan diaspora—its principal victims. Now authorities not only in Venezuela, but also Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, are hunting for the fugitive. Interpol has issued a Red Notice seeking his capture. And critics are asking how his gang managed to turn the prison into a luxury resort. Renato Rivera, an analyst in Ecuador who focuses on organized crime, said the search for Guerrero “is revealing just how vulnerable and permeable our countries’ land borders are.”

Rising poverty grips Argentina as runaway inflation takes its toll (AP) With tired faces, residents of a homeless shelter in Argentina’s capital pass through the main entrance and line up to receive a hot drink and a slice of cake for an afternoon snack. Places like the Bepo Ghezzi Social Inclusion Center in the Parque Patricios neighborhood of Buenos Aires have seen demand soar as more people are struggling to make ends meet amid an annual inflation rate above 100%. The portion of Argentines living in poverty reached 40.1% in the first six months of the year, according to figures released Wednesday by the government’s INDEC statistics agency. That is up from 39.2% in the second half of 2022. For much of the 20th century, Argentina showed a social mobility dynamic that gave rise to a large middle class and made the country stand out in the region. But the good times derailed, and poverty has remained firmly above 25% the last two decades as the South American country stays mired in economic malaise. Prices soared 124.4% during the 12-month period through Aug. 31.

Deadly violence in Sweden (AP) Three people were killed overnight in separate incidents in Sweden as deadly violence linked to a feud between criminal gangs escalated. Late Wednesday, an 18-year-old man was shot dead in a Stockholm suburb. Hours later, a man was killed and another was wounded in a shooting in Jordbro, south of the Swedish capital. Early Thursday a woman in her 20s died in an explosion in Uppsala, west of Stockholm. Swedish broadcaster SVT noted that the two fatal shootings brings the death toll from gun violence in September to 11, making it the deadliest month for shootings since police started keeping statistics in 2016. Swedish media said at least two of the three events were somehow connected to a feud between criminal gangs, a growing problem in Sweden with drive-by shootings and bombings. Two gangs—one led by a Swedish-Turkish dual national who lives in Turkey, the other by his former lieutenant—are reportedly fighting over drugs and weapons.

Long a city that embraced cars, Paris is seeing bike-lane traffic jams (AP) It’s rush hour on Paris’ Sébastopol Boulevard, and the congestion is severe—not just gas-guzzling, pollution-spewing, horn-honking snarls but also quieter and greener bottlenecks of cyclists jockeying for space. Until four years ago, motorists largely had the Paris thoroughfare to themselves. Now, its bike-lane jams speak to a cycling revolution that is reshaping the capital of France—long a country of car-lovers, home to Renault, Citroen and Peugeot. This revolution, like others, is also proving choppy. A nearly decade-long drive by Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo to turn Paris from a city hostile for cyclists into one where they venture more safely and freely has become so transformative that bikes are steadily muscling aside motor vehicles and increasingly getting in each other’s way. Already, on some Paris boulevards, bikes outnumber cars at peak times.

Europeans are the world’s heaviest drinkers—is Gen Z breaking the habit? (Worldcrunch) From Irish whisky to French wine to German beer, Europe has long been known for alcohol consumption. But that may be starting to change, especially among Gen Z Europeans, who are increasingly drinking less or opting out entirely, out of concern for their health or problematic alcohol use. In Germany, which has the world’s seventh-highest consumption of beer per capita, non-alcoholic beer has exploded in popularity among those looking to live a healthier lifestyle. Though the land of Oktoberfest and Biergartens remains one of the highest consumers of alcohol worldwide, Germans’ average consumption of beer has drastically decreased. In 2022, Germans drank an average of 87.2 liters of beer per year, compared to nearly 100 liters 10 years earlier. Brewers have responded to the changing market, and are developing a wider variety of non-alcoholic beverages than ever before. Since 2007, the production of non-alcoholic beers, which can contain at most 0.5% alcohol, has doubled, according to Les Echos. In Germany, the beverages account for 7% of the beer market, and are expected to take off in the years to come.

Armenian exodus continues (Washington Post) The exodus continues. In a matter of days, roughly half of the ethnic Armenian population of the highland enclave Nagorno-Karabakh have now fled their homes to nearby Armenia. They lived for decades in isolation and de facto independence within the territory of Azerbaijan, but a surprise offensive last week by Azerbaijani forces swiftly overwhelmed the mismatched defenders of the unrecognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh, and triggered a new wave of displacement in a part of the world that has witnessed generations of ethnic strife and forced population transfers. My colleagues on the ground along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border reported Wednesday that some 47,000 people of Nagorno-Karabakh’s more than 100,000-strong population had already crossed into Armenia. They were crammed into trucks and cars, their possessions piled high. Many more are expected to follow them.

Bengaluru’s growth (Bloomberg) As recently as 30 years ago, Bengaluru was known as a sleepy place where well-heeled Indians chose to retire. Almost 200 lakes were linked by countless canals, low-rise cottages clustered in parklike neighborhoods, and it was easy to bike wherever you needed to go. Now, the heart of India’s tech boom is a metropolis. India’s $194 billion IT services industry has made it the the Silicon Valley of the subcontinent—the population has more than tripled since 1990 to 13 million. In the 1970s, the tree canopy covered about 70% of Bengaluru; today it’s less than 3%. And navigation software developer TomTom last year ranked the city as the most traffic-clogged place in India—and No. 5 worldwide.

Israelis can travel to U.S. without a visa by Nov. 30 (Washington Post) The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will allow Israeli travelers to come to the United States without a visa, a coveted status that was given in exchange for the Israeli government dropping long-standing travel restrictions on Palestinian Americans and other Americans of Arab and Muslim descent. Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program has been a top priority for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his predecessor, Naftali Bennett. The country had never been granted access because it refused entry to many Palestinian Americans at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, forcing them to fly to Jordan and then travel overland into the West Bank. In July, Israel agreed to open Ben Gurion Airport to all Americans regardless of their origin in a bid to prove it is committed to its side of the deal. Since then, tens of thousands of Palestinian Americans have flown to Israel successfully, U.S. officials say, been granted visas and access to move around Israeli territory in a way that they haven’t been able to do for decades.

Once Inconceivable, Officials’ Visits Highlight Warming Saudi-Israeli Ties (NYT) Parallel visits this week by an Israeli minister to Saudi Arabia and a Saudi envoy to the Israeli-occupied West Bank have highlighted the fast-warming ties between the Jewish state and the most powerful Arab country. In the first-ever public visit by an Israeli minister to the Arab kingdom, Haim Katz, the Israeli tourism minister, attended a multilateral tourism conference in Riyadh on Tuesday and Wednesday that was organized by the United Nations. Simultaneously, the Saudi ambassador to the Palestinians, Naif al-Sudairi, traveled through an Israeli border checkpoint to visit the West Bank, where he met with the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, the organization that administers just under 40 percent of the Israeli-controlled territory. Experts said the visit by Mr. Sudairi, who is based in neighboring Jordan, was the first known visit by a Saudi official to the region since Israel captured it from Jordan in the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Inconceivable for most of Israel’s history, the two visits symbolized how Israel and Saudi Arabia are gradually setting the stage for the formalization of their relationship, amid escalating efforts by the United States to broker a deal between the two countries.