I’ve had a similar problem trying to install Debian 12 in the past…
Turned out it was the USB drive, I think. It didn’t have a problem booting and installing Mint, but with Debian it just wouldn’t boot. A different drive and it worked right away and flawlessly.
the joke is that all lines of longitude meet at the poles. So everything is north of the south pole. There doesn’t exist a east, west, or south of the south pole