The Wire - January 6, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z January 6, 2026//
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//BLUF: TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH IN VENEZUELA, FALSE-ALARM RESULTED IN MASS GUNFIRE LAST NIGHT IN CARACAS. POWER OUTAGE IN BERLIN CONTINUES.//

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-International Events-

Venezuela: Overnight significant gunfire was reported throughout Caracas as Venezuelan forces reacted to the detection of a drone near the Presidential Palace compound. After some time, the gunfire died down as it became clear that anti-aircraft units were spooked by one of their own drones.

Analyst Comment: Clearly the AAA gun batteries the Venezuelans have set up are a bit touchy at the moment, which is most clearly illustrated by them shooting enough rounds into the night sky to equal the GDP of Burundi. Nevertheless, now is a suboptimal time for both migratory birds and absconding Generals, as anything with wings is liable to be shot at over Caracas.

Germany: The power outages continue for roughly 45,000 customers throughout Berlin, following the terrorist attack conducted by the Vulkangruppe insurgent group on Saturday. Most customers are coming back online as repairs are being made, however it's been slow going due to the single-point-of-failure attack site causing issues further down the line.

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Analyst Comments: Due to the length of the power outage, combined with the extremely cold temperatures, many complications have come about. Sewage pumping stations being offline for this many days has resulted in waste backflowing downhill into many people's homes. Retirement centers and senior care facilities, both holding the elderly, have been trying to do their best to manage with the scale of the attack. Hospitals and other public services have been running on generator power for some time, however this has been challenging to maintain over such a long period of time. Attacks like this becoming more common (or at least continuing as they have in the past) is crucial to remember; insurgent groups will strike when maximum effectiveness can be achieved, which often times coincides with bad weather or other incidents.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
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