[IsraelTimes] The Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency arrested four minors on suspicion of terrorism and filed indictments against them today, says a police spokesperson.
After joint investigations into two separate incidents over the past few weeks, the Central District Police’s intelligence and investigations unit reports arresting three of the minors, residents of the predominantly Arab Triangle region of Israel, for their alleged involvement in attacks against Israeli security forces in the West Bank. Police suspect that one of the minors was involved in arms dealing with a West Bank resident.
Police say the three suspects were affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group and had been in regular contact with “terrorist operatives active in the Nur Shams refugee camp.”
The second joint investigation led to the arrest of another minor, also a resident of the Triangle, on the suspicion that he intended to “carry out terrorist activity inspired by ISIS.”
The minor reportedly consumed ISIS-related content online, attempted to make contact with a member and swore allegiance to the group, but later regretted it. Police say the minor also purchased a gun illegally, and later sold it.
Regretted and got rid of the gun? Well done, lad!
The Central District Attorney’s Office filed indictments against the four minors today.
[IsraelTimes] Missile slams into yard of rabbi’s home, the third time the same property has been hit by projectiles fired from Palestinian enclave; woman, 68, injured running to bomb shelter
Gazooks fired three rockets into southern Israel Monday morning, lightly damaging the home of a local religious leader and marking the latest attack amid a return to near-daily launches terrorizing southern residents.
One of the three rockets shot from the northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip landed in the city of Sderot, the military said. A second projectile was intercepted, and a third apparently landed in an uninhabited area.
There were no casualties in the attack, though a 68-year-old woman required hospitalization for light injuries sustained while rushing to find shelter as air raid sirens sounded in the city and other communities bordering the Gaza Strip, the Magen David Adom emergency service reported.
Residents of the area have mere seconds to take cover when rocket warnings sound and injuries stemming from panic are not uncommon.
According to the Ynet news outlet, the rocket that hit Sderot slammed into the yard of the home of local Chabad emissaries Rabbi Hananel and Tzviah Pizam.
The rocket broke a fence and damaged a walkway, while sending debris flying. According to the report, shrapnel also hit a gas tank, causing a temporary leak but no explosion.
The Pizams said the attack was the third time the home had been a hit by a rocket from Gaza. The home had not yet been repaired from the last time it was damaged.
"It is terrible — not the first time, not the second," Tzviah Pizam told Ynet. "We thought that it was over, and it hit the gas canister."
Pinhas Cohen, who has an office in the street where the rocket landed, told the Kan public broadcaster that "we flew out of our seats from the shockwave; it was an especially large explosion."
The attack ended a short-lived period of calm on Sunday, which followed nine consecutive days of rocket attacks since December 27.
Over 20 rockets were launched in that time, mostly from the Strip’s far north town of Beit Hanoun, where the IDF is currently carrying out a major offensive against Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... Rocket attacks from Gaza had largely stopped since the spring of 2024, which was attributed to Israeli military gains against the Hamas terror group and its formerly massive arsenal in Gaza. Most of the rocket strikes in recent days have been launched from northern Gaza, where fighting has intensified since October amid Israeli attempts to keep Hamas from regrouping there.
The Paleostinian terror group has previously fired rockets from areas where the IDF is advancing, to prevent the military from capturing them.
The war has caused immense damage to Gaza’s infrastructure and some 1.9 million Paleostinians of the 2.3 million population are residing in the Israeli-designated "humanitarian zone," according to IDF assessments in July.
As winter sets in, the harsh weather is creating further problems for an already major humanitarian crisis in which aid deliveries are struggling to reach some areas of Gaza, particularly the north. Israel says that Hamas and other gangs are looting many of those that do arrive.
The Paleostinian Authority official news agency WAFA reported that an infant died Monday from the cold. Yusef Ahmed Anwar Kalloub had lived for just 35 days, according to the report. His death brought to eight the number of fatalities due to the weather, WAFA said, of whom seven were children. Similar to other statistics from Gaza, the figures could not be verified.
#5
Now for something completely different, from Ace of Spades yesterday-watch the video to the end-truly heartwarming display:
"The Hershey Bears have once again established a new hockey record, collecting 102,343 stuffed toys during Sunday’s annual Teddy Bear Toss.
This surpasses the club’s previous hockey world record of 74,599 collected in 2024.
***
As part of the club’s Hershey Bears Cares initiative, which showcases the philanthropic activities and volunteer efforts of Bears players and staff members throughout the community, teddy bears and stuffed animals are collected and donated to more than 35 local and regional organizations. Additionally, the Sweigart Family Foundation has pledged to donate a sum to the Children’s Miracle Network that will match the number of stuffed animals thrown on the ice.
Hershey’s annual Teddy Bear Toss has collected more than 566,000 stuffed toys since its inception in 2001."
Pacific Palisades under mandatory evacuation order but the roads are impassable so it's either shelter-in-place or walk out and the smoke is making it hard for people to breath. Big, expensive homes are burning. Life in southern California.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/07/2025 17:35
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#10
100 mph winds are nothing to smirk about. Embers catch miles away. Powerlines are shut down to stop fires. If you think that's funny you can fuck right off
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/07/2025 19:12
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#12
"On Broadway in your elite cityDiddie Wa Diddie,
The feets on the street are all pretty
With hardly a bunion,
The kids can quote Runyon,
And Steven and Jimmy are witty!"
#13
100 mph winds are nothing to smirk about. Embers catch miles away. Powerlines are shut down to stop fires. If you think that's funny you can fuck right off
No it isn't funny. We get 50mph with 80+gusts regularly, during the Summer especially. Whatever moisture is in the air disappears, downwind turns into a kiln, houses turn into billows, thermals throw burning branches into the air then get blown downwind behind any entrenchments, fire vortex 'tornadoes' throwing burning heavy objects way up in the air to be carried. I watched a cut wheat field catch so fast I couldn't see the flames, just the the discoloration like a demon shadow racing at open highway speeds...then our engine choked out. Another time one of our team got caught and had to drive the road using their phone map; that particular we lost 300 THOUSEND acres in 24 hours - the State of Delaware is like 160,000 acres. Cattle Country, very gross, smelling it as I type. People ducking into cow water tanks popping up for air and getting burned.
[WSJ via MSN] "Fact-checking" was always dubious lefty tactics
Meta Platforms is ending fact-checking and removing restrictions on speech across Facebook and Instagram, a move Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said was an attempt to restore free expression on its platforms.
“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said in a video Tuesday. “More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.”
The pivot comes as Zuckerberg has looked to build ties with the incoming Trump administration. The day before Thanksgiving, the billionaire CEO dined with the president-elect on a patio at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club. Meta has since donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
So much winning.
Last week the company installed a former aide to President George W. Bush, Joel Kaplan, as global policy chief executive, further boosting its Republican ties. Kaplan has been with Meta since 2011 and served as its conduit to Republicans in Washington and the broader conservative ecosystem.
How much staff will the company lose, between laying off the fact checking division and lefties leaving in disgust that their beloved company sold out to Nazi OrangeManBad?
The company on Monday said UFC President Dana White, a staunch supporter and ally of Trump, would be among three new members of its board of directors.
Other companies and tech leaders have been cozying up to the incoming administration. Amazon.com and Uber Technologies as well as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have announced similar donations to the president-elect’s inaugural fund.
Sooooooooooo much winning!
Speaking about Meta’s attempts to weed out damaging or dangerous content that violates its policies and puts users at risk, Zuckerberg said it had gone too far.
“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” he said. “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.”
Zuckerberg directly referenced Trump several times in the video, criticizing the legacy media for their coverage of his first term in office. He also said that fact-checkers had become “too politically biased.”
The company also announced it would be relocating what it calls the “trust and safety teams” responsible for writing policy and reviewing content from California to Texas and other U.S. locations.
*Snicker* Those poor darlings.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/07/2025
10:36 ||
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[11156 views]
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#5
Remember when Musk canned all the government folks in Twitter HQ? I guess those folks will just hang out and organize the March Madness pool at META.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/07/2025 13:37
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#6
Evil just going into hibernation until Trump leaves.
Mighty Morphin' Corporate Bankers
Watch their hands, mind your wallets, and there is no valet parking.
#7
The "Community Notes" concept seems to be a really good idea. The solution to having bad content is outsourced to crowdsourcing. Of course a few people have to manage it and some bad content is going to escape notice but I'll bet the company really saves money on this.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/07/2025 21:00
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#8
Fine.
Release the California Fire Update Blackout.
[FoxNews] 'It’s outrageous that this individual took advantage of our shelter system to engage in criminal activity,' Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said "That's what our State Capitol is for!"
A blue state governor who pledged to fight Trump administration deportation efforts expressed outrage Monday after a migrant was allegedly caught with nearly $1 million worth of drugs and an AR-15 rifle at a hotel that is being temporarily used as a shelter.
"It’s outrageous that this individual took advantage of our shelter system to engage in criminal activity," Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement.
Healey was responding to news of Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, a native of the Dominican Republic, facing firearm and drug trafficking charges while using the state's shelter system. The suspect, 28, was found at a Quality Inn in Revere, Massachusetts, which currently serves as a shelter.
Sanchez was allegedly caught possessing ammunition, large-capacity magazines, fentanyl, and cocaine with "an estimated street value of at least $750,000," Boston 25 News reported.
Sanchez is reportedly being held without bail due to a Chelsea District Court judge deeming the suspect dangerous. Another local outlet reported Sanchez entered the U.S. illegally last year and acquired an ID from the New York shelter system.
The Massachusetts governor ordered shelter inspections after the incident.
"I’ve ordered an inspection of all shelter units, beginning with the Revere site, and a full review of our intake processes to determine any additional steps that we can take to prevent criminal activity in shelters," Healey said. "This further underscores our broken federal immigration system and the urgent need for Congress and the White House to act on a border security bill to prevent criminals from entering our communities."
"The people of Massachusetts should not continue to have to deal with the impacts of federal inaction," she added.
In 2023, Healey said of her state, migrants are "drawn here because we are and proudly have been a beacon to those in need."
This one needs customers for his drugs, current and future, and a safe and comfortable home base. The honourable governor can be pleased that her state provides both.
#2
"It’s outrageous that this individual took advantage of our shelter system to engage in criminal activity,"
Entering the country without prior approval is criminal activity. Flaunting the 'law' is their very first act. The gov aiding and abetting the process.
#5
"Hey, suckers!" [José] "Can't you see
All us alien criminals, free,
Many bearing the prints
Of your Lazaran mints?"
[hand indelibly stamped with a "D"
shoots el dedo at Francis Scott Key]
[FoxNews] Dire warnings have been issued for the Los Angeles area after forecasters say there is the potential for the strongest wind event in more than a decade.
A "life-threatening, destructive, widespread windstorm" is expected Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning, Los Angeles forecasters at the National Weather Service said.
Damaging winds are expected across most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, leading to widespread power outages.
"Strong winds are coming," the NWS said. "This is a Particularly Dangerous Situation – in other words, this is about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather. Stay aware of your surroundings. Be ready to evacuate, especially if in a high fire risk area. Be careful with fire sources."
The strongest winds will blow through Southern California from Tuesday evening through Wednesday afternoon, with gusts peaking near 80 mph. Isolated areas in the mountains and foothills will see gusts of 80-100 mph.
Flights going in and out of Los Angles International Airport can expect delays as forecasters warn of "quite dangerous" mountain waves for pilots. Airlines and pilots are being urged not to fly near terrain during the windstorm.
The widespread damaging winds and low humidity are also leading to extreme fire concerns across most of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Best thing California can do, as we learned from our 2017 Starbuck Fire Kansas Fire is ease reinforcements/relief road transportation restrictions. Road crews pushing abandoned vehicles off the road is correct.
What is weird to me, is that my emergency action feeds don't seem to be sending updates since around noon CST. This tells me, looking at you Good Samaritans, don't load up your truck and head to the front - there is no front. If anything move towards a forward base like in Battle L.A. movie fallback position.
[FoxNews] President Joe Biden is spitting in the face of average Americans. By honoring billionaire George Soros, putting 625 million acres in federal waters off limits for oil and gas exploration and commuting the sentences of reviled murderers, Biden is insulting the majority of the country, who voted to elect Donald Trump.
Americans voted for "Drill, baby, drill," energy independence and a revival of investment in our mammoth oil and gas reserves. They voted for tougher law enforcement, a secure border, and deportations of (especially) criminals and others in the U.S. illegally. They voted out people like Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon who put criminals ahead of citizens.
Republicans must warn the president: continue to defy the wishes of U.S. voters and we will destroy the last remaining vestiges of your legacy. We are prepared to claim that you are not mentally fit, that you are not and have not been running the country and that your last-minute diktats should therefore be overturned.
GOP legislators must tell the president that after he leaves the Oval Office he will be called before Congress to testify about his lame-duck policies, to reassure the country that it is he who decided to block energy investment, to protect Social Security workers from having to go to the office and to shovel unspent money authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act out the door, despite our towering $36 trillion in debt.
Imagine the scene: Biden, described by Special Counsel Robert Hur as an "elderly man with a poor memory," unable to answer even the simplest questions about offshore drilling or getting flustered when asked why he would honor the controversial George Soros. Biden getting testy as legislators demand his reasoning behind guaranteeing that 42,000 Social Security workers can remain at home indefinitely, thwarting the Trump team’s effort to make our government more accountable. Truly, it would be delicious.
#1
Much of what Biden is doing can be reversed with legislation. It will have to be included in one of the budgetary bills that is subject to reconciliation. I’m not sure that the House and Senate can do something like that without a bunch of betrayals added to the sandwich.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/07/2025 13:09
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#4
Day One: New law banning wind farms with no sunset. Remove all California EPA crap so they live like the rest of us. Repeal the 1968 Gun Control act and 1986 FOPA.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump took credit for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigning on Monday.
The U.S. president-elect suggested that Trudeau stepped aside because he knows Canada cannot be successful without help from the U.S.
'The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned,' he wrote on Truth Social just hours after Trudeau's remarks.
It appears Trump is getting more serious about wanting to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and is feeling emboldened by Trudeau's resignation.
The PM dramatically resigned in remarks capping a spectacular fall from grace on the same day the U.S. Congress certified the 2024 presidential election results for a Trump victory.
What started as a joke during a meeting with Trudeau at the end of last year is now becoming a full-fledged and apparently serious proposal by Trump for the U.S. to envelop the neighbors to the north.
'Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State,' he said of the idea.
#3
Canada's GDP 15 years ago was ranked 6th among the US states. They would have made an OK state then. Now they are 47th behind Mississippi. Canada was destroyed by the libtards that are running it.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/07/2025 21:36
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is the top contender to become Canada's new prime minister following Justin Trudeau ...hereditary prime minister of the Great White North... 's resignation on Monday.
Poilievre, 45, has a 92 percent chance of becoming Canada's next prime minister in October's elections, according to Polymarket.
As expected, Trudeau, 53, resigned on Monday, raising questions about who would take over the ruling Liberal Party, or if power could switch to the Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October.
In Canada's political system, the prime minister is not elected directly, but chosen by the members of the majority party in parliament — currently the left-leaning Liberals.
But as the Liberal party struggles in the polls, that could change in October's parliamentary elections. If the Conservatives obtain parliamentary majority, they will place their leader Poilievre as prime minister.
Trudeau will remain in power until his party selects a new leader, which they will need to do before general elections in the fall that polls forecast Conservatives winning.
It comes as US president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, threatening huge tariffs on its northern neighbor and even offering suggesting that Canada could become America's 51st state.
Poilievre has previously said Canada needs an immediate election and requires a prime minister who can face Trump from a position of strength.
#1
Trudeau’s plan is to keep Parliament on ice until the summer so that his resignation is an evolution in slow motion. Justin’s plan only works if he doesn’t need legislation passed for any purpose. Unfortunately for Justin, Trump’s first 100 days are going to include a blitz of seismic changes that will definitely involve immigration and the borders of both our neighbors. Justin stands little chance of milking out his PM time in his living room paging through old copies of Teen Beat.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/07/2025 13:18
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#2
I don't think Trudeaukhen's idea of Teen Beat is a magazine..
[Global Delinquents] All In recent months, a remarkable development in the Empire’s decline has gone almost entirely unnoticed. The National Endowment for Democracy’s grant database has been removed from the web. Until recently, a searchable interface allowed visitors to view detailed records of Washington-funded NGOs, civil society groups, and media projects in particular countries - covering most of the world - the sums involved, and entities responsible for delivering these initiatives. This resource has now inexplicably vanished, and with it, enormous amounts of incontrovertible, self-incriminating evidence of destructive US skullduggery abroad.
Take for example NED grant records for Georgia, the site of recent repeated colour revolution efforts, at the forefront of which were Endowment-bankrolled organisations. While still accessible via internet archives, they were deleted during the summer. Today, visitors to associated URLs are redirected to a brief entry simply titled "Eurasia". The accompanying text describes in very broad terms the Endowment’s aims regionally and the total being spent, but the crucial questions of where and on what aren’t clarified. In a comic hypocrisy too, the blurb boldly states:
"The heart of NED’s work in the region is the need to maintain access to objective information for local populations. Across the region, government actors are attempting to limit the space for citizens to distribute information and communicate freely online."
Linked article is available only through a VPN
[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces defeated units of two territorial defence brigades close to Volchansk and Liptsy (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 70 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer. One ammunition depot was wiped out.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line, inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, one assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, two territorial defence brigades, and one national guard brigade close to Druzhelyubovka, Podoly, Glushkovka, Kovsharovka, Dvurechnaya, Zapadnoye, Ivanovka (Kharkov region), Yampolovka, and Torskoye (Donetsk People's Republic). Three counter-attacks launched by AFU assault detachments were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 550 troops, two U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carriers, one Italian-made Iveco armoured fighting vehicle, one Kozak armoured fighting vehicle, 12 motor vehicles, one UK-made 155mm Braveheart self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer, one 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, one 152mm Msta-B howitzer, two 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, and one U.S.-made 105mm M-101 gun. One Mirazh and one Kvertus electronic warfare stations and two counter-battery stations were eliminated.
The Yug Group of Forces' units have liberated Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic).
Strikes were delivered at formations of two mechanised brigades, two motorised infantry brigades, one mountain assault brigade of the AFU near Piskunovka, Alekseyevo-Druzkovka, Minkovka, Chasov Yar, Verolyubovka, and Yantarnoye (Donetsk People's Republic). Three counter-attacks launched by the enemy's assault detachments were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 265 troops, one German-made Leopard tank, two U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carriers, one Kozak armoured fighting vehicle, one pickup truck, one Polish-made 155mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer, three 152mm Msta-B howitzers, one 152mm D-20 gun, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and three 122mm D-30 howitzers.
As a result of decisive actions of the Tsentr Group of Forces' units, Dachenskoye (Donetsk People's Republic) was liberated.
Strikes were delivered at manpower and hardware of five mechanised brigades, one jaeger brigade, one air assault brigade, two airmobile brigades of the AFU, one naval infantry brigade, one territorial defence brigade, one assault brigade of the National Police of Ukraine near Dzerzhinsk, Shcherbinovka, Dimitrov, Sribnoye, Andreyevka, Novovasilevka, Ukrainka, Novoaleksandrovka, and Shevchenko (Donetsk People's Republic). Fourteen AFU counter-attacks were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 535 troops, four tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, one U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, one French-made VAB armoured personnel carrier, five armoured fighting vehicles, to include one U.S.-made HMMWV and one U.S.-made MaxxPro armoured fighting vehicles, ten motor vehicles, one 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS combat vehicle, one Polish-made 155mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, two 152mm Msta-B howitzer, and two 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces advanced into the depths of the enemy's defence, defeated formations of one mechanised brigade of the AFU and two territorial defence brigades near Bogatyr, Novy Komar, Neskuchnoye (Donetsk People's Republic), and Temirovka (Zaporozhye region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 170 troops, four motor vehicles, one 155mm Bogdana self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 155mm M-198 howitzer, one 152mm Giatsint-S gun, one 152mm D-20 gun, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer. One ammunition depot was wiped out.
The Dnepr Group of Forces' units have engaged manpower and hardware of one mechanised brigade, two coastal defence brigades of the AFU, one national guard brigade close to Orekhov, Novoandreyevka (Zaporozhye region), Ponyatovka, Sadovoye (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 80 troops, six motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer. Three ammunition depots have been wiped out.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged the infrastructure of military airfields, ammunition depots, workshops, and launch sites of UAVs, manpower clusters and military hardware of the enemy and foreign mercenaries in 153 areas.
Air defence systems shot down one French-made Hammer guided aerial bomb, 12 U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles, and 115 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 652 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 39,568 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,258 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,507 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,239 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,919 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The enemy committed another war crime in the Volnovakha district
Russian troops carried out an assault on the positions of the 141st Separate Brigade east of point 160.9. The soldiers surrendered, their hands were tied, they were taken out in front of the position and shot in the back of the head.
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets reported another war crime by Russia - the probable execution of three Ukrainian prisoners of war near the village of Neskuchnoye in the Volnovakha district of Donetsk Oblast. The ombudsman reported this on Telegram on Monday, January 6.
"We are once again witnessing atrocities that demonstrate the true face of the aggressor state. On January 3, Russian occupiers committed a terrible crime - they probably shot three Ukrainian prisoners of war," Lubinets noted.
According to DeepState, the Russians tied their hands and shot them in the back of the head.
"On January 3, the enemy carried out an assault on the positions of the 141st separate brigade east of point 160.9. The fighters surrendered, their hands were tied, they were taken out in front of the position and shot in the back of the head... Unfortunately, the UN baboons are trying to show that both sides are bad, ignoring the fact that the murders and abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war are systematic and supported by the military-political leadership of Muscovy," the analysts added.
The Ombudsman stressed that despite the fact that, according to the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war are under special protection and no country has the right to torture them, abuse them or take their lives, Russia demonstrates disregard for international norms.
The Commissioner once again immediately contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations, indicating that these organizations should condemn this crime and put pressure on the Russian side to stop such acts.
"Ukraine maintains its obligation to respect humanitarian law even during war, but we will not allow Russia to turn the world into a lawless territory. The guilty must be punished!" Lubinets said.
Let us recall that the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets reported that the Russians shot five Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered.
Let us add that in November it was reported that law enforcement officers were investigating 49 criminal cases on the facts of the murder of 124 prisoners of war on the battlefield. However, after this, new facts of the execution of Ukrainian fighters were discovered.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 21:45 During the operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, the Russian army lost more than 38 thousand soldiers. This was reported by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"During the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost more than 38 thousand of its soldiers - in this one direction alone, of which about 15 thousand were irretrievable," the head of state said.
21:15 President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and also heard a separate report from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky and the Chief of the General Staff Anatoliy Bargilevich.
"The first thing is to protect our front lines, Pokrovsk first of all. I am grateful to all the brigades, to each of our soldiers who are there now. We discussed issues of staffing the brigades, as well as rotation. The army needs more internal, systemic changes so that at all levels in the Defense Forces, human management becomes effective," he said.
20:56 In the village of Primorskoye near Mariupol, on the morning of January 6, an explosion thundered and a fire broke out at the base of Russian military personnel. This was reported by the mayor's adviser Petro Andryushenko.
According to him, the wounded occupiers were taken to a hospital in the Kalmius district. "They say that some were taken in parts. They are probably lying," he added.
20:15 The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, reported that there is a preliminary agreement with the Russian side that exchanges will be systematic in 2025.
"There is currently a preliminary agreement that exchanges in 2025 should become systematic, with priority given to the return of, first of all, the seriously ill and seriously wounded," the ombudsman said.
19:20 The Russian occupation authorities in the temporarily occupied Melitopol in the Zaporizhia region are calling on local residents to "Russify" their Ukrainian surnames when changing their passports to Russian ones.
19:00 Russian military shelled populated areas of the Kherson region using artillery, mortars and drones. Two people were killed and 11 others were injured.
18:03 Russian aggressors hit a minibus in Kherson with a drone. At least one person was killed, many were injured, said the head of the Kherson OVA Oleksandr Prokudin.
17:58 Heavy smoke is observed in the Russian city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in the Rostov region, where a chemical plant producing fuel for missiles and military warehouses are located, said Andrey Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council.
17.50 A pre-trial investigation has been launched into a criminal case on the fact of committing a war crime that resulted in the death of people. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General. It is noted that on January 3, 2024, during the assault on the positions of Ukrainian troops near the village of Vremovka, Volnovakha district, the occupiers captured two servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The prisoners were taken out of the dugout at gunpoint and shot point-blank in the head. To be sure of their death, the enemy fired several more shots.
17.07 Since the beginning of the current day, 108 combat clashes have occurred on the front, more than half of which were in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported the details in a report as of 16.00.
16.41 The second largest commercial port in Russia, Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region, was attacked by SBU drones. To do this, they flew more than 900 km , sources in the special service reported.
16.20 Ukrainian military personnel have destroyed two Russian S-300 medium-range anti-aircraft missile systems over the past 24 hours. This was reported by the Operational Command South.
16:07 Law enforcement officers detained a serviceman of the Vinnitsa RTCK and SP security platoon for a bribe of 16 thousand dollars. He gave out signed and unfilled summons forms to those wishing to avoid mobilization.
15:45 Belarus' formal leader Alexander Lukashenko did not apologize to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call that took place in the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, his press secretary Natalya Eismont said .
15.31 One of the heads of the Russian prison where Ukrainian prisoners of war are tortured has received a suspicion in absentia. We are talking about the deputy head of "correctional colony No. 7", which is located in the Vladimir region of Russia - Alexey Khavetsky.
15.16 In Nikopol, as a result of Russian artillery shelling , one person was killed and another was injured. The occupiers attacked populated areas of the region with barrel artillery, kamikaze drones and dropped ammunition from a drone.
13.47 At least eight visits by Russian Shahed-type kamikaze drones were recorded in Belarus on the night of January 5-6. The Belarusian Air Force did not take off during the night. This was reported by the Belaruski Gayun monitoring project.
13:25 The silent unmanned complex D-21 was approved for use in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It can transport food, ammunition, military equipment, and evacuate the wounded. It operates in two modes - manual and automatic.
12:59 GUR intercepted a conversation between occupiers about the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner. Intelligence notes that the Russian army does not hesitate to resort to the most vile and base crimes, conducting them against Ukraine.
12:42 Ukraine has ordered ammunition for Gepard systems from Rheinmetall. The production will be financed by the German government. We are talking about a double-digit number in millions of euros.
12:15 Russian special services planned to commit a bloody terrorist attack among the military in the Kiev region. The enemy's intentions were thwarted. The SBU reported the details .
10:59 Ukrainian military destroyed two Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile and gun systems in the Kherson region. This was reported by the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
9:21 Over the past 24 hours, there have been 184 combat clashes between units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and Russian troops on the front. The most active battles are taking place in the Pokrovsk and Kursk directions. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on January 6.
8:48 The Russian army is conducting assault operations in the urban area of Kurakhovo. Currently, activities to identify and destroy enemy assault groups are ongoing there. A similar situation is in the direction of Petrovpavlovka and Dachnoye. This was reported by the OSGV Khortytsya.
7:44 Over the past 24 hours, the Armed Forces have neutralized 1,550 Russian invaders, the total losses of the Russian invaders have reached 798,040 people.
7:28 Russian troops have intensified offensive operations to the east of Pokrovsk, with the aim of encircling the city from the northeast. This is evidenced by a report by analysts from the Institute for the Study of War.
[ToloNews] The Ministry of Defense has announced the activation of the Milan Konkursi (9M135) guided missile for the first time in Afghanistan.
According to the ministry, these missiles can target armored tanks, warships, and low-flying helicopters.
Enayatullah Khwarazmi, the ministry's spokesperson, stated that 13 personnel have completed training on operating these missiles.
He added: "Yesterday, 13 young personnel graduated after completing a one-month professional and practical training course on the Milan Konkursi guided missile under the Directorate of Artillery at the General Staff of the Ministry of National Defense. Notably, this guided missile, activated for the first time in the country, can target armored tanks and low-flying helicopters."
Yesterday, the Deputy Political Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a program in Kabul, emphasized the importance of equipping the Islamic Emirate's military with advanced weaponry.
Military experts in the country also consider the provision of advanced equipment vital for securing borders. Hamidullah Hotak, another military expert, said: "Defending Afghanistan's territorial integrity and illusory sovereignty, as our country has repeatedly faced invasions by foreign nations, requires more modern equipment and tools."
Previously, the Ministry of Defense had also stated that, in collaboration with the Directorate of Intelligence and the Ministry of Interior, it had finalized the security planning for the solar year 1404 and assured the nation of maintaining security across the country.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in the Kursk region
In the Kursk region, Ukrainian troops repelled 17 attacks by Russian troops. At the same time, 45 combat clashes are still ongoing.
Since the beginning of the current day, 108 combat clashes have occurred on the front, more than half of which were in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a report as of 16:00 on Monday, January 6.
Thus, in the Kharkov direction, our soldiers repelled two attacks in the Volchansk area.
In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy carried out three assaults near Sinkovka, Petropavlovka and Zagryzovoye. Two combat clashes have ended, another one is ongoing.
In the Liman direction, the invaders advanced seven times near Nadezhda, Pervomayskoye and Makeyevka. The fighting continues.
In the Seversky direction, the enemy once attacked our defenders in the Belogorovka area.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are repelling three attempts by the occupiers to advance forward in the areas of Chasovy Yar, Belaya Gora and in the direction of Stupochki.
In the Toretsk direction, the enemy attacked twice near Shcherbinovka.
In the Pokrovsk direction, since the beginning of the day, the occupiers have carried out 16 assaults in the areas of the settlements of Tarasovka, Elizavetovka, Lisovka, Zelenoe, Novy Trud and Pokrovsk. The defense forces repelled 12 attacks, four clashes are still ongoing.
In the Kurakhovsky direction, the enemy attacked seven times near Slavyanka, Petrovpavlovka, Kurakhovo and Dachnoye. Six battles have been completed, and another one is still ongoing.
In the Vremivsky direction, the occupiers attacked four times near Constantinople and Constantinople. One battle continues.
In the Orekhov direction, the enemy attacked our defenders once in the direction of Novodanilovka.
"In the Kursk region, Ukrainian defenders repelled 17 attacks by invaders, and another 45 clashes continue," the report says.
The day before it became known that the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked Russians in the Kursk region in several directions. A little later, the head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak confirmed the intensification of military actions in the Kursk region. Subsequently, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region.
[BenarNews] The waterway is expected to stay turbulent through the new year; we explore possible flashpoints.
The South China Sea has become one of the world’s most perilous geopolitical hot spots in recent years, with China stepping up the reinforcement of its expansive claims and countries from outside the region getting increasingly involved.
Here are four areas to watch in 2025:
TAIWAN STRAIT
The situation in the Taiwan Strait has been becoming notably more tense, with nearly 3,000 incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone between January and November 2024, as well as two major military exercises — Joint Sword A and B — coinciding with important political events on the self-ruled island.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated in his New Year message that the unification of Taiwan was "inevitable."
"China will continue to hold exercises in 2025 if senior Taiwanese officials visit the United States or top U.S. officials visit Taiwan," said Shen Ming-Shih, a research fellow at the top Taiwan government think-tank, the Institute for National Defense Security Research (INDSR).
Chinese military exercises such as joint fire strike, joint blockade, and joint anti-access and area denial will continue, but they will become less effective as Taiwan develops effective countermeasures, Shen said.
Another INDSR research fellow, Ou Si-Fu, director of the Division of Chinese Politics, Military and Warfighting Concepts, told Radio Free Asia that China was not ready for a full-on war with Taiwan.
"Xi is not confident with his army," Ou said, pointing to recent sackings in the top ranks of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
"The PLA has not fought a real war in a long time, so an imminent invasion of Taiwan is not expected," the analyst said. "They may be preparing their forces, but we are preparing, too."
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in his New Year message that his government would increase the defense budget and strengthen military capabilities.
SCARBOROUGH SHOAL
Latest developments at the chain of reefs in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone but under China’s de-facto control are worrisome. Just before the New Year, the PLA Southern Theater Command conducted large-scale combat readiness drills at the shoal that involved both naval and air force troops.
China’s coasties is maintaining a strong presence in the area, as is its maritime militia.
A month earlier, Beijing announced a set of baselines around the Scarborough Shoal to define its territorial waters and airspace — a step seen as illegal by many but used by China to justify its actions against the Philippines and its ally the United States.
The Chinese coastguard in early December fired a water cannon at a Philippine fisheries bureau boat taking supplies to fishermen in the shoal, saying it "dangerously approached" Beijing’s territorial waters.
"You cannot draw baselines if you don’t own the features," said former Philippine Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio. He suggested that the Philippines should challenge China’s announcement at an international tribunal.
Scarborough Shoal is unoccupied and there are no structures on it but that may change in 2025, given Beijing’s assertiveness. Philippine forces have been removing Chinese floating barriers around the reefs but access by Filipino fishermen to their traditional fishing ground remains restricted.
The Philippines is believed to be considering a new legal case against China for its violations of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea but since Beijing refused to take part and rejected the ruling of the 2016 U.N. arbitral tribunal, there is little chance it will participate.
SECOND THOMAS SHOAL
Throughout 2024, China and the Philippines were engaged in stand-offs at the Second Thomas Shoal, also inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, where Manila deliberately grounded an old warship in 1999 to serve as an outpost.
In the last few years, China’s coasties has been blocking and disrupting Philippine resupply missions to the ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, and the troops stationed there.
On June 17, 2024, in an unprecedented confrontation, China coasties personnel, armed with pikes and machetes, punctured Philippine boats and seized firearms during a Philippine rotate and resupply mission, wounding a Filipino sailor.
Both sides later called for de-escalation. On Dec. 12, China said it had granted permission to the Philippines to resupply the "illegally grounded" warship on Second Thomas Shoal on a humanitarian basis.
But the June 17 incident showed that the situation could easily escalate into conflict, especially given the proximity of Second Thomas Shoal to a Chinese naval base on Mischief Reef, an artificial island that China built and has fully militarized.
Manila and Washington signed a Mutual Defense Treaty in 1951 under which both parties are obliged to support each other in the event of an armed attack. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in November revealed that the U.S. military had set up a Task Force Ayungin, the Filipino name for the Second Thomas Shoal.
Chief of the Philippine armed forces, Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., told an RFA news hound in Manila that his country was pursuing a three-pronged strategy when it comes to maritime defense: to establish an effective presence; to create effective deterrence and modernize military equipment; and to leverage alliances and partnerships with like-minded nations.
Beijing, however, is not expected to give up its demand that Manila removes the BRP Sierra Madre and leave the disputed shoal.
For its part, the Philippines is determined to defend it.
"We’ll never abandon our territory at Ayungin," insisted Col. Xerxes Trinidad, the Philippine armed forces’ spokesperson.
VIETNAM’S ISLAND BUILDING
Vietnam’s island building in the South China Sea has reached a record, with the total area created in the first six months of 2024 equaling that of 2022 and 2023 combined, according to a study by the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).
Between November 2023 and June 2024, Hanoi created 692 new acres (280 ha) of land across a total of 10 features in the Spratly archipelago. Vietnam’s overall dredging and landfill totaled about 2,360 acres (955 ha), roughly half of China’s 4,650 acres (1,881.7 ha).
"Three years from when it first began, Vietnam is still surprising observers with the ever-increasing scope of its dredging and landfill in the Spratly Islands," AMTI said.
Vietnam occupies 27 features and has been carrying out large-scale reclamation works on some over the past year.
A new 3,000-meter airstrip is nearly finished on Barque Canada reef, where the total landfill area more than doubled in one year to nearly 2.5 square kilometers, or 617.7 acres, by October 2024.
Vietnam has had only one airstrip on an island called Spratly, measuring 1,300 meters, but besides Barque Canada, AMTI said that "it would be unsurprising" if Hanoi also considers runways on Pearson and Ladd reefs.
New bases and runways "would give Vietnam a position on the other side of China’s ’Big Three’ islands," said Tom Shugart, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.
He was referring to the China-developed Fiery Cross, Subi and Mischief reefs, which are the largest artificial islands in the South China Sea. The next four largest are all newly expanded Vietnamese reefs.
"Its progress in the last five months suggests that Hanoi is determined to maximize the strategic potential of the features it occupies," said AMTI, adding that "it remains difficult to say when the expansion will end — and what new capabilities Vietnam will have once it has."
[MSN] The Biden administration has released 11 additional detainees from the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, sending the men, all natives of Yemen, to neighboring Oman, the Pentagon said Monday.
The move ends their more than two decades of imprisonment without charges and leaves the detainee population at 15. Over the years, the notorious prison in southeast Cuba has held roughly 780 men, all of them swept up amid the frantic global “war on terror” that followed 9/11.
Monday’s announcement is part of President Joe Biden’s fervent effort during his final weeks in office to reduce the number of those held Guantánamo.
Last month, the Biden administration repatriated four men, including two Malaysians who pleaded guilty to involvement in a Southeast Asian terrorist plot and will now serve out their prison sentences in Malaysia, plus a Tunisian and a Kenyan who were never charged.
The administration also is seeking to repatriate — to an Iraqi prison — a severely disabled Iraqi detainee who pleaded guilty to terrorist involvement, the New York Times reported. Attorneys for the man, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, have sued the U.S. government to block his transfer, arguing he will not be safe or receive adequate medical care in Iraq.
-------------- fwiw, it costs a lot to house these terrorists at GITMO, probably at least double what supermax would cost.
It would probably cost somewhat less if the rules for the guards weren’t so absurd, but President George W. Bush took bad advice about that in the hope that the carpers wouldn’t.
[IsraelTimes] Cpt. Eitan Israel Shiknazi, 24, and another unnamed soldier killed in battle in Beit Hanoun; IDF says orders ‘sharpened’ after troops shoot at WFP aid convoy
Two IDF soldiers were killed and two others were seriously maimed in fighting in the northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip on Monday, the military announced.
One of the slain soldiers was named as Cpt. Eitan Israel Shiknazi, 24, a deputy company commander in the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion, from Eli.
The name of the second slain soldier was to be released later, the military said.
The IDF added that two other soldiers of the 932nd Battalion were seriously maimed in the same incident in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun.
The two deaths brings Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 397.
Two other soldiers with the Nahal Brigade’s reconnaissance unit were seriously maimed in fighting in northern Gaza earlier in the day. They were evacuated to Israel for treatment.
Also earlier Monday, the IDF said its instructions for soldiers have been "sharpened" after troops opened fire on a UN World Food Programme convoy in the central Gaza Strip Sunday.
The WFP said the convoy of three vehicles with eight staff members came under fire by Israeli soldiers "despite having received all of the necessary clearances from Israeli authorities.
"This unacceptable event is just the latest example of the complex and dangerous working environment that WFP and other agencies are operating in today," WFP said, calling for improvements in security conditions to allow aid to continue.
At least 16 bullets struck the convoy, and none of the staff were maimed, according to WFP.
The convoy was traveling from southern Gaza to the Strip’s north and returned south following the incident.
In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the IDF said that "the incident was investigated, instructions were sharpened, and lessons will be drawn from the investigation.
"The IDF continues to act in a targeted manner against terror organizations in the Gaza Strip and does everything in its power to prevent harm to uninvolved [civilians], and through COGAT will continue to work to enable and facilitate humanitarian assistance to residents of the Gaza Strip," the military added.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that 49 people were killed in the Paleostinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall corpse count of the war to 45,854. The number could not be verified and does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
[ShabelleMedia] In an ongoing effort to combat terrorism, Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... security forces are heavily engaged in operations against ISISfaceless myrmidons in the mountainous terrain of Somalia’s Bari region, particularly around the Barak Ise area near Dharjale.
The officials reported on Saturday that the military actions, including ground and air assaults, are aimed at flushing out ISIS fighters entrenched in the rugged landscape.
According to Puntland officials, the operations have led to significant casualties among the ISIS ranks, with several faceless myrmidons confirmed killed in recent days. The Puntland forces have also made strategic gains by dismantling key positions that ISIS had fortified in the region. This includes the destruction of makeshift camps and the seizure of weaponry that had been in the hands of the hard boys.
The intensity of the conflict escalated last week when ISIS launched an attack on a Puntland army camp located in the Dharjale area. This assault not only resulted in casualties on both sides but also marked a turning point, prompting a more aggressive counteroffensive from Puntland forces. The attack was noted for its use of both jacket wallahs and direct combat, showcasing ISIS’s attempt to reassert control or disrupt Puntland’s security operations.
The Bari region, with its complex and hilly topography, has long been a strategic area for terrorist groups due to its remoteness and the cover it provides. ISIS, which has been operating in Somalia since 2015, has found these mountains to be an advantageous hideout, complicating efforts by local forces to completely eradicate the group’s presence.
Puntland’s response to these threats has been multifaceted, involving not just military tactics but also intelligence operations to preempt attacks and disrupt ISIS’s logistical and recruitment networks. The regional government has pledged to continue its operations until ISIS is completely removed from its territory, highlighting the importance of this campaign for both local security and regional stability.
[IsraeliTimes] Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... n Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello says that 125 foreign citizens have been arrested, including one Israeli and at least one Argentinian, on suspicion of serving as mercenaries for the US with the aim of causing a coup in the country, according to local news agency Agencia AJN.
An interesting concept.
The Venezuelan minister is quoted as saying, "We will guarantee peace. Rest assured that this will be the case; we are committed to peace. And a healthy recommendation to those who think they can: They will crash very badly. We will be implacable in this matter. We will be very forceful and extremely severe."
Then-Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez broke off ties with Israel in 2009 after Operation Cast Lead in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... . Chavez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro ...Commie el presidente para toda la vida of Venezuela, successor to Hugo Chavez. Nick is his country's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy, except that even though his country's sitting on an enormous puddle of oil, he can't manage to get it out of the ground. Unlike Qadaffy and Hugo Chavez, he's not dead yet... , have both been strident critics of Israel, and some Jewish community leaders have expressed fears of the government stoking anti-Semitism.
[IsraelTimes] Two rebel groups from Syria’s Druze minority say they’re ready to join a national army after Islamist-led opposition fighters toppled president Bashar al-Assad last month.
The new Syrian authorities face the mammoth challenge of rebuilding state institutions shaped by the Assad family’s repressive five-decade rule, including the army and security apparatuses that have all but collapsed.
“We, the Men of Dignity movement and the Mountain Brigade, the two largest military factions in Sweida, announce our full readiness to merge into a military body… under the umbrella of a new national army whose goal is to protect Syria,” the groups from south Syria’s Sweida province say in a joint statement.
They add, however, that they will categorically reject “any factional or sectarian army used as a tool in the hands of the authorities to suppress the people, as was the case with Bashar al-Assad’s army.”
The new leadership last month unveiled a plan to dissolve the myriad of armed groups operating in Syria and integrate them into the military.
The Druze, who also live in Lebanon and Israel, make up about three percent of Syria’s population, around 700,000 people.
[Rudaw] A personnel from the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) was killed and two others were maimed during a recent operation against the group in Iraq, announced the US Central Command (CENTCOM) late Monday.
CENTCOM, which oversees US troops in the Middle East, said they and Iraqi forces from December 30 to Monday "conducted multiple strikes in the Hamrin mountains of Iraq, targeting known ISIS locations," adding that "the operations served to disrupt and degrade ISIS’ ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against civilians in the region, as well as U.S. citizens, allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond."
It also said that "ISIS fighters engaged Coalition forces on several occasions, resulting in the employment of Coalition air strikes, using F-16s, F-15s, and A-10s. The A-10s tasked to support ground forces in the area were successful in eliminating the ISIS fighters within a cave."
The festivities resulted in casualties among coalition forces.
"One Coalition member was killed and two were maimed from two different nations," CENTCOM said, adding that no US personnel was injured.
The US forces also provided support to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last week in anti-ISIS operations in eastern Syria, resulting in the arrest of an ISIS leader, according to CENTCOM.
[IsraelTimes] A senior US State Department official is in Israel this week to urge the government to wrap up ongoing investigations into Palestinian Americans killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank and improve treatment of Palestinian Americans at border crossings in order to maintain membership in the US Visa Waiver program.
“During her visit, Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter will meet with US Embassy staff in both cities to tour consular operations and meet with US citizens in Israel and the West Bank impacted by the Israel-Hamas conflict,” the State Department says.
“Bitter will also engage with Israeli officials to emphasize the need to complete investigations into the recent killings of US citizens in the West Bank, ensure fair and reciprocal treatment of US citizens traveling to and through Israel, and reinforce continued cooperation in providing consular assistance to US citizens,” the US readout adds.
The Visa Waiver Program (VWP), administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in consultation with the State Department, permits citizens of 42 countries to travel to the United States for business or tourism for stays of up to 90 days without a visa.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The babyface California man accused of helping a Wisconsin teenager plan a school shooting that took the lives of a student and a teacher has broken his silence.
Helping or grooming?
Alexander Paffendorf appeared by video in a collared shirt and tie in court on Friday to face the consequences of his actions, without detailing his role in the Abundant Life Christian School shooting on December 16.
He said he was ready for a hearing on whether a restraining order confiscating his guns and ammunition should remain in place, and expressed remorse for his actions.
Sorry he did it or sorry he got caught despite his care to avoid social media and even being photographed?
Police have said Paffendorf admitted to federal agents that he had been messaging school shooter 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives while she carried out the attack at the small Christian school.
It has been suggested that both Mr. Paffendorf and Ms Rupnow are Columbiners, inspired by the 1999 school massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado by two trench-coated social outcasts — she committed her crime wearing the same band t-shirt as one of the Columbine killers. Among others who claimed to want to copy the attack were Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, Sandy Hook gunman Adam Lanza, and Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz.
Shortly afterwards, neighbors told CBS 8 they saw more than a dozen police cars enter the apartment complex where Paffendorf lives on Tuesday night and saw officers coming out of the building carrying what was described as a 'black gun box.'
Paffendorf has not been charged with any wrongdoing, but an attorney for the city of Carlsbad told Judge Devon Lomayesva that he was under criminal investigation.
A detective also told the judge the FBI is expected to conclude its investigation within two to three months - prompting Lomayesva to delay consideration on the restraining order. He explained that it was in Paffendorf's best interest to delay the hearing, as he is under criminal investigation but did not have an attorney present.
The ruling keeps the order to confiscate Paffendorf's weapons in effect through April 4, as police continue their investigation into the school shooting and Paffendorf's role.
Authorities have previously said Rupnow entered Abundant Life Christian School with two handguns - but only used one to carry out the attack, which took the lives of 14-year-old student Rubi Patricia Vergara and 42-year-old teacher Erin Michelle West.
Police then received a call at 10.57am, and officers arrived just seconds later.
By 11.05, officers found Rupnow wounded as they recovered her weapon.
She was later pronounced dead on the way to the hospital as fire department workers cared for at least six other victims, whose injuries ranged from minor to life-threatening.
A motive for the shooting still remains unclear, with police saying they do not know whether anyone was specifically targeted in the attack as some have suggested.
Unlike so many lately, she apparently was not trans, but clearly was mentally unbalanced over something that drove her to kill at the Christian high school.
Police, along with the FBI, are now scouring online records and other resources, as well as speaking with the shooter's parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting.
Authorities were also seen raiding the Rupnows' Wisconsin home following the tragedy.
Investigators are trying to determine whether Rupnow's parents, Jeff and Melissa, had any involvement or contributed to Natalie's actions. Online court records show no criminal cases against her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mother, Mellissa Rupnow. They are divorced and shared custody of their daughter, but she primarily lived with her father, according to court documents. Divorce records indicate that Rupnow was in therapy in 2022, but don't say why.
[BenarNews] The dream of returning home to Myanmar remains uncertain for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh despite rebel control of the border, members of the ethnic group said Friday.
About 800,000 Rohingya fled from western Myanmar’s Rakhine state following a bloody crackdown against members of their stateless Moslem minority group in August 2017.
They joined other Rohingya who had settled in camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, bringing the total number of refugees in southeastern Bangladesh at the time to over 1 million.
Years of negotiations to repatriate Rohingyas to Rakhine state have yielded little progress, in part because members of the community say their safety cannot be guaranteed back home after the military that targeted them seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat.
On Dec. 8, rebels known as the Arakan Army (AA),
…the military wing of the United League of Arakan (ULA), the organized ethnic Theravada Buddhists of Rakhine state since 2009. The military government of Myanmar has of course designated them a terrorist organization…
which is battling the junta for self-determination in Rakhine state, captured Maungdaw township and took control of the region’s border with Bangladesh.
The takeover rekindled hope that the Rohingya might be offered safe transport across the border and feel comfortable enough with AA governance to resettle their communities in Rakhine.
On Wednesday, the AA — which controls about 80% of Rakhine state — announced that it would begin allowing people displaced by fighting to return home, after having fully secured the border.
However,
ars longa, vita brevis... Radio Free Asia Burmese, a news service affiliated with BenarNews, spoke with Rohingya in Bangladesh who said they remain uncertain about their return — in part because it’s unclear whether the AA might accommodate such a move and because ongoing fighting in Rakhine would leave them susceptible to military Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s.
"It is a time of war, so it is impossible for us to return home," said Mohammed, a Rohingya from Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. "Even if the AA takes over the entirety Rakhine state, our repatriation program remains far off because they are not a legitimate government."
Rohingya who earlier fled violence and persecution in Myanmar said they had been kidnapped and forced to fight in the country’s ongoing civil war for the Arakan Army as well as the junta.
Nearly 65,000 Rohingya have crossed into southeastern Bangladesh since late 2023 amid unrest and violence in Rakhine, according to Bangladeshi officials.
Even if the refugees are allowed to return home, they remain fearful of junta airstrikes, said Europe-based Rohingya activist Nay San Lwin.
"The repatriation program is directly related to the AA because they currently control the area [where the Rohingya communities are]," he said. "Even if the AA gives firm guarantees, the Rohingya people might suffer great losses if the junta carry out airstrikes when they return home. Their repatriation is largely concerned with their security."
DEMANDS FOR RECOGNITION
Rohingya have also demanded recognition of their identity as an ethnic minority of Myanmar, acknowledgment of their Myanmar citizenship and the opportunity to return home "with dignity."
On Dec. 25, more than 100,000 Rohingya in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps protested and called for assistance from the international community, including the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... , in meeting their demands ahead of a return to Myanmar.
"When people in the camps return home, they hope to go back to their original homes," said Mohammed of the Kutupalong refugee camp. "Moreover, we have also asked both Myanmar and international representatives to ensure our rights to freedom of movement, access to education, and all other basic rights. We will not change these demands."
The AA’s seizure of the border has, in some ways, complicated the issue even further.
On Dec. 22, during a meeting on the situation in Myanmar, held in Thailand last month, Bangladesh Foreign Ministry front man Mohammad Rafi Alam told news hounds that the Bangladesh government had urged Myanmar’s junta to "find a way" to settle the border dispute as it would "not engage" with the AA.
A week later, however, Bangladesh security analysts, former diplomats and scholars advised the Bangladesh government to engage with the AA directly and diplomatically. The status of the relationship remains uncertain.
A former district law officer who asked not to be named because of security concerns told RFA that the repatriation of the Rohingya will depend on the ruling administration in Rakhine state.
"Since there is currently no legal framework for the repatriation of the Rohingya, a bilateral agreement is essential for implementing this program," he said.
On Dec. 23, nearly 30 Rohingya organizations worldwide called on the AA to guarantee the rights and security of all communities in Rakhine state, including the Rohingya; establish an interim consultative committee; recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic minority of Myanmar; and adopt and enforce a public code of conduct for AA fighters.
Attempts by RFA to contact AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha for comment on the Rohingya return went unanswered by the time of publishing.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Saturday night said it continued thwarting attacks by Syrian National Army (SNA) turbans on the crucial Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River, with attacks in northern Syria threatening key Kurdish-held territories.
"Our forces thwarted all attacks by the Ottoman Turkish occupation and its mercenaries, supported by Ottoman Turkish warplanes and drones, on areas east and south of Manbij and north of Tishreen Dam, inflicting dozens of deaths and injuries," said SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami on X.
Kurdish forces in northern Syria are under intensified attacks by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... member, but not the most reliable... and Ottoman Turkish-backed SNA bully boys, who have taken the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Manbij since late November.
Clashes are ongoing, especially near Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge on the Euphrates River that leads to the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane on the Ottoman Turkish border. The SDF has claimed to have repelled dozens of SNA attacks, saying in a Friday statement that it killed over 70 turbans and injured numerous others.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor, said on Sunday that the ongoing "violent mostly peaceful" festivities have killed 15 SNA members.
Four SDF members were also killed in a Ottoman Turkishdronezap near the dam, according to the Observatory.
[IsraelTimes] Attackers open fire on two cars and bus on major road used by settlers and Palestinians, then flee, authorities say; army surrounds Nablus as leaders vow to capture killers
Two elderly women and an off-duty cop were killed and at least eight other Israelis were maimed when Paleostinian gunnies opened fire on vehicles in the northern West Bank on Monday morning, the military and medics said.
The shooting attack, which targeted a bus and two cars, occurred inside the Paleostinian village of al-Funduq, which straddles a major artery used by thousands of Israelis and Paleostinian drivers daily. The army said it launched a manhunt for the button men.
The fatalities were identified as Master Sgt. Elad Yaakov Winkelstein, a police officer, and Rachel Cohen and Aliza Raiz.
Three Paleostinian gunnies from the Jenin area in the northern West Bank opened fire on two Israeli cars and a bus traveling along the highway as they passed through the village, according to the military.
According to an initial Israel Defense Forces probe, the terrorists, armed with assault rifles, first shot up a civilian car from a close range, killing Cohen and Raiz. Their deaths were declared at the scene by Magen David Adom medics.
Then, the button men fired at a bus further away, injuring eight people, including the driver, 63, who MDA said was rushed to a hospital at death's door. Two women on the bus were in moderate condition, and at least five others were lightly hurt.
As the gunnies were shooting at the bus, the military said an armed civilian opened fire with a handgun at the button men, causing them to get back in their car and flee. The shots hit the car but apparently did not injure any of the terrorists, the military probe found.
While the gunnies were fleeing, they opened fire on another car around 150 meters (490 feet) away, killing Winkelstein, the police officer, according to the IDF’s investigation.
The military said two of the button men were known to the defense establishment and were already wanted for involvement in terror activity, while the third was still unidentified.
Winkelstein, 35, a father of two from the northern town of Ein HaNatziv, was an investigator at the Ariel cop shoppe. He was off-duty at the time of the attack. One of Winkelstein’s sons was in the car when he came under fire, but was unharmed physically, according to Hebrew-language media reports.
Cohen, 73, and Raiz, 70, educators from the settlement of Kdumim, were driving together when they came under attack.
The IDF said that it had dispatched a large number of troops, as well as an Israeli Air Force helicopter, to search for the terrorists.
The attack occurred along Route 55, an east-west highway traversing the West Bank and linking areas northwest of Tel Aviv to the outskirts of Nablus, passing near or through a number of Israeli settlements and Paleostinian towns.
Surveillance video published by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster showed a man emerge from the passenger side of a white sedan stopped on the road and aim a weapon at a passing bus. The man appears to continue shooting for several seconds before getting back in the car, which then peels away from the scene.
The army said it set up roadblocks near the attack site, and placed cordons around the city of Nablus and several other nearby villages.
Separately, the Paleostinian Health Ministry in the West Bank said a 17-year-old boy was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Askar refugee camp in Nablus. The military said individuals hurled explosives at soldiers operating in the area, who then opened fire and hit one of them.
There have been numerous attacks on Israelis using Route 55 over the years, including in al-Funduq. Most attacks have involved stone-throwing, though there have been shootings as well, including an April attack on a bus and another vehicle that injured two.
Plans to pave a bypass road around al-Funduq for Israelis were recently approved; construction is set to begin next month.
Violence in the West Bank has mounted since October 7, 2023, when Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... assaulted southern Israel, sparking war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and unrest across the region. Since then, 46 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in Paleostinian terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank, including some carried out by Israeli citizens.
Another six members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank. Much of the violence has been concentrated near Nablus, Jenin and other Paleostinian cities in the northern West Bank where PA control has steadily weakened over the years.
According to the PA health ministry, more than 835 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed since October 7, 2023. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or gunnies carrying out attacks.
During the same period, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
[IsraelTimes] Settlers rampaged through several Palestinian villages throughout the West Bank after a deadly shooting attack that killed three Israelis on Monday morning, the Yesh Din rights groups reports.
Targeted Palestinian towns included al-Funduq — where the suspects in the shooting attack were from — Hajja, Turmusaya and Immatain, Yesh Din says.
Footage from several of those towns shows cars doused by settlers going up in flames.
“Once again, the army is doing nothing to prevent settler violence. This time, too, the writing was on the wall, and notices calling for riots in the villages were distributed publicly among settlers. This is what the Wild West looks like,” says Yesh Din.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] When France's president Nicolas Sarkozy and his supermodel wife of two months, Carla Bruni, arrived in Britain for a state visit in March 2008 they were feted as Gallic royalty.
The newlyweds stayed at Windsor Castle and had a private lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip before Sarkozy travelled to Westminster to address both houses of Parliament.
That evening, at a grand banquet in St George's Hall, he raised a toast to 'the brotherhood of the French and British people', while Her Majesty did her own bit for the entente cordiale by bestowing him with an honorary knighthood.
Such a splendid occasion will today seem a very distant memory to the man universally known as 'Sarko'.
This afternoon, the 69-year-old will take his place in the dock at Paris's principal criminal court sporting an electronic tag on his right leg.
Sarkozy, who was convicted in December of trying to bribe a judge, now confronts his most serious charges to date: corruption, illegal campaign financing, benefiting from embezzled public funds and being party to a criminal conspiracy.
In a trial listed to last no less than three months, prosecutors will claim that he accepted money-laundered funds from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the late dictator of oil-rich Libya, totalling tens of millions of pounds.
The cash reportedly helped finance the 2007 election campaign which swept Sarkozy to power, meaning that his victory will be for ever tainted by the allegation that it was based on dirty money from North Africa.
If found guilty, the man who was nicknamed 'President Bling-Bling', thanks to his penchant for the high life, faces up to a decade in prison.
And his wife could suffer a similar fate. Carla, 57, is accused of being part of a £4 million campaign dubbed 'Operation Save Sarko', a complex and illegal plan to try to keep her husband out of jail.
She has been charged with a range of corruption offences, including 'witness tampering in an organised gang', and her trial is expected to get under way later this year.
This is all a far cry from the days when Sarko was billed as the poster boy of French conservatism and I used to interview him regularly as a journalist and author based in Paris.
He projected himself to me as a Margaret Thatcher-style reformer who would liberalise the French economy, just as the Iron Lady did in Britain in the 1980s.
The pace at which he worked to bring about change earned him the nickname 'Speedy Sarko' – and he didn't hang about when it came to his personal life either.
He became the first French president to divorce his wife while in office. A break-up with Cécilia was always on the cards, given that they were both known for their illicit affairs.
Indeed, Nicolas and Cécilia were both married to other people when they first got together. He was with his first wife, Marie-Dominique, and Cécilia's husband was a French TV chat-show host called Jacques Martin, a kind of French Bruce Forsyth 24 years her senior.
Sarkozy got to know them on their wedding day because, as the mayor of the chichi Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, he conducted the ceremony. Though 29 and married, Sarko later admitted that after laying eyes on the beautiful bride for the first time, he asked himself: 'Why am I marrying this woman to someone else? She is for me.'
The two couples often went on skiing holidays together, and Sarko was rumbled when Marie-Dominique spotted footprints in the snow under Cécilia's window.
Cécilia was briefly France's First Lady when Sarkozy entered the Élysée Palace in 2007, but her days were numbered from the outset as she was known to be seeing a French-Moroccan businessman, while her husband's conquests at the time included a political journalist on the centre-Right daily Le Figaro.
As a result, Sarkozy's five-year term took on the status of a wild soap opera, which reached its climax when he wooed Bruni, an Italian heiress and self-styled 'tamer of men', whose past lovers included multimillionaire celebrities such as Mick Jagger and – it was rumoured – Donald Trump.
Sarko himself revelled in the high life and thought nothing of borrowing super-yachts and private jets from billionaire industrialists, while treating them to lavish meals at Michelin- starred restaurants.
After becoming Sarko's third wife, Carla soon turned into his Marie Antoinette, with presidential accounts revealing that she spent £660 a day on fresh flowers for the Élysée Palace.
With so much energy being expended on luxury living, many suggested that sucking up to the super-wealthy had become Sarkozy's priority – an accusation that was given added credence when the hugely controversial Gaddafi rolled into Paris in December 2007.
Sarko had invited the so-called 'Brother Leader' for a red-carpet state visit and the Libyan despot was even given permission to pitch his tribal tent in ornate presidential gardens by the Champs-Élysées.
This sort of bromance was all the more inappropriate given that Gaddafi was linked to a range of atrocities, including the Lockerbie bombing, which saw 270 people die when a PanAm flight en route to New York went down over Scotland in 1988, and the shooting of Metropolitan police officer Yvonne Fletcher by a gunman inside Libya's London Embassy four years earlier.
Even Sarko's own Human Rights State Secretary, Rama Yade, said France 'was not a doormat' for Gaddafi to 'wipe off the blood of his crimes'. But Sarkozy just shrugged his shoulders, knowing that his presidential immunity would protect him from investigation.
This all changed in May 2012, when he lost his first attempt at re-election to François Hollande. Within a day, Sarkozy's Paris townhouse was raided by the fraud squad – and he and his wife's troubles began in earnest.
For Gaddafi was not the former president's only problem. Sarkozy first came under suspicion of engaging in corrupt dealings when he was accused of accepting envelopes full of cash from the late L'Oréal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.
While these claims did not stick – his lieutenants took the rap – Sarkozy was sentenced to three years for trying to get classified information about the case against him from a judge.
Telephone taps proved the prosecution case against Sarkozy, who was told he could serve a year with an electronic tag, while the other two were suspended.
He is currently appealing another prison sentence – this time of one year – for using false accounting to disguise illegal overspending in his failed re-election campaign of 2012.
Other ongoing cases include claims that he was involved in Qatargate – the successful but allegedly corrupt plan to stage the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
But it is the Libya affair which will now reignite interest in Sarkozy around the world. It is primarily based on allegations by a Franco-Lebanese businessman called Ziad Takieddine, who once told French media that in 2006-07 he had personally handed over suitcases stuffed with banknotes to Sarkozy and his chief of staff, Claude Guéant (something the latter later denied).
Takieddine said the equivalent of at least £42 million was illegally poured into Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign.
A document signed by Libya's former chief of intelligence, Moussa Koussa, apparently proves the payment. Unfortunately for Sarkozy, like many witnesses from the time, Koussa is alive and well.
So, too, is Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, who told me he was one of 'numerous Libyans prepared to offer conclusive proof' of massive amounts of cash being given to middle men working for Sarkozy.
There is no love lost between the two men as it was Sarkozy who ordered the French Air Force, supported by Nato allies, to start bombing targets in Libya in March 2011 as a means of protecting civilian lives during the Arab Spring revolt. But regime change was clearly the desired result.
By the time Sarkozy and Britain's then PM, David Cameron, paid a triumphant joint visit to Tripoli in September of that year, the fleeing Gaddafi was close to being beaten to death by a mob.
A key question to be considered by judges is whether Sarko wanted Gaddafi dead because of his potential to produce incriminating evidence. There are claims, admittedly hotly contested, that Gaddafi was killed by agents working directly for the Sarkozy administration.
Sarkozy and Bruni deny all the charges and are determined to prove their innocence. Yet moves are already underway to strip him of his Legion d'Honneur and Order of Merit – France's highest civilian decorations.
As the first French president to be convicted for crimes carried out while in office, he 'has next to no chance of hanging on to them', a senior judicial source in Paris told me.
#1
Evil, treacherous, slimy bastard took money from Gaddafi and then had him whacked. David Cameron and Baraq Obama had to know. They were all in on the "kinetic action" in support of Gadaffi's enemies in Lybia. Well, there's no sympathy for Gadaffi but it goes to show what kind of people Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama are and Lybia has been in chaos ever since. Oh, and don't forget all the African migrants invaders who have been using Lybia as a jumping off spot for their journey across the Mediterranean to Europe ever since Gaddafi's departure. I can't help thinking that was part of the plan.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/07/2025 12:19
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#2
But nothing like this ever happened with Ukrainian cash.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/07/2025 13:02
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#3
Given the track record, I'll go with yes it was.
#5
President Khadaffy had promised to flood Europe with African migrants unless they gave him whatever it was thqt he wanted at the time. So he worked hard to earn being overthrown and assassinated.
[FoxNews] A passel of feral hogs has been terrorizing the city of Irving, Texas, frustrating residents as their properties are destroyed by the invasive animals.
As many as 10 hogs have been tearing up yards and rooting through trash left for garbage collectors, according to WFAA.
Locals have become frustrated after they repair their yards dug up by the hogs, just for the animals to return to wreak havoc again.
"A couple of weeks back, I started seeing some diggings on the ground," homeowner Eric Mendez told WFAA, noting that he set up a camera on a tree to capture the culprit.
"To my surprise, a pig was on the camera," he said.
But there was more than one pig digging up the property. There were as many as 10, and some were quite large.
Others have reported destruction by the pigs as well, including Mendez's neighbor, whose landscape had been dug up, and Barbara Bush Middle School.
Garbage has also been scattered across several properties.
The City of Irving said it is aware of the issue and has hired a wildlife contractor to address the situation. Officials said they believe the hogs are coming from a wooded area near Grapevine Creek.
Feral hogs cause an estimated $400 million in damage per year in Texas, according to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, while national costs are estimated at about $1.5 billion annually.
Farmers and ranchers who often experience much of the pigs' destruction can hunt or hire someone to hunt the animals without a license on private land, with no limits to how many can be killed. But a standard hunting license is needed to hunt them on public land, WFAA reported.
Homeowners in Irving initially came up with the idea of shooting and killing the pigs, but then realized they should not be firing a gun at the animals in a suburban
neighborhood.
The hogs are known to attack pets and humans if they feel threatened. They also reproduce at a rapid rate, as a single sow can birth up to two litters of six to eight piglets each year.
#1
Ga has its own share of large, Fat, Ferals around here. According to GA DNR we have around 400K in the state.
Most GA Ferals around here run about 120 to 150 LBS.
Unless they have crossbred with larger farm stock. Then we get things like Georgia’s Famous “Hogzilla” that 800 pounder.
BTW: I have seen a 300+/- pounder hit with 357 Mag 158 grains HP rounds and still charging the shooter. Head shot is best Dead Shot
#5
Ga has its own share of large, Fat, Ferals around here.
I hear the wild hogs are a problem too.
Speaking as your Ecosystems Advisor, the solution to any invasive species problem is the same: somebody has to eat them.
Luckily in this case, the invaders are quite tasty
#8
I had a co-worker tell me he once pulled his semi-automatic from its holster to fire and somehow hit the mag release--he had to scramble atop a cage to get out of harm's way.
#10
Up in the Smokies it is not unusual to come across broad areas where it looks like it has been freshly plowed. It is the work of feral hogs rooting around.
#13
"In a world of autonomous Robbies
Where humans pursue only hobbies,
A few find a Seussful
New way to be useful!"
[cue million pigsticking Punjabis...
in AI Fleischer toon based on AI Mulberry Street plate]
[Garowe] The Tigray Islamic Affairs Supreme Council has threatened to take action against the recent ban on hijab in Axum town, arguing that it shall take "further peaceful measures in consultation with believers" over the predicament.
"We request that the law issued by the Federal Ministry of Education regarding Moslem students’ dress code be respected," the Council said in a statement released in Mekelle, the regional administrative capital of Tigray.
According to the council, the violation of constitutional and fundamental rights shall be opposed, adding that the Ministry of Education should respect fundamental human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... and regional laws.
"This hijab ban violates citizens’ human rights, the constitution, Ministry of Education guidelines, and our regional laws." It further emphasized, "School regulations should not contradict the constitution. Our hijab-wearing request should be addressed according to Ministry of Education regulation number 6.3."
Haji Mohammed Kahsay, Secretary of the Islamic Affairs Council in Tigray, previously told Addis Standard that the ban disproportionately affected grade 12 students, Addis Standard reports.
"Some students have been prevented from registering for the national exams because they were not allowed to enter the school premises."
"The political and environmental crisis in Tigray is enough; opening another door for a religion-based crisis would push the region from bad to worse." The Council also underscored the impact on students, stating, "Preventing them from attending school just for wearing a hijab that reflects their identity is illegal and unjust."
The Æthiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council previously stated that "no resolution has been reached" regarding the case of Moslem students in Axum, Tigray Regional State, who were barred from attending classes for wearing hijabs.
[Garowe] Somali National Army (SNA) units, bolstered by U.S. Air Force precision strikes, neutralized at least 10 al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... members in a coordinated offensive in the Berhani area, roughly 35 kilometers northwest of Kismayo ...a port city in the southern Lower Juba province of Somalia, at the extreme southern end of the country (always assuming Somalia can be called a country). It is the commercial capital of the autonomous Jubaland region.... , security sources said on Sunday.
The joint operation was aimed at preempting a planned attack by al-Shabaab, sources said. The strike targeted a known al-Shabaab outpost where intelligence suggested the forces of Evil were organizing their next move against Somali military targets.
"This operation was a clear message to al-Shabaab that their terror will not go unchecked," a senior Somali military official told Garowe Online, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The involvement of U.S. forces underscores the ongoing international cooperation aimed at dismantling al-Shabaab's networks. The United States has been actively supporting Somalia in its fight against al-Shabaab and ISIS, which has plagued the country for over three decades.
The latest military action is part of a wider strategy to weaken al-Shabaab's grip in southern Somalia, where the group has been launching attacks to oust the government. The Somali government, alongside its international partners, has intensified operations against the bully boys, focusing on both direct combat and initiatives to cut off their financial and logistical support.
[Rudaw] About half of the Lebanese refugees who fled to Iraq late last year have returned home, the spokesperson for Baghdad’s migration and displaced ministry said on Saturday.
"The number of Lebanese returning to their country is more than 11,000, according to information from the residency department," Ali Abbas told Rudaw, adding that about the same number are still in the country.
"Those who left under the Iraqi guests' return program at the expense of the Iraqi government included about seven flights we sent to Beirut, carrying more than 1,200 Lebanese," he said.
More than 20,000 Lebanese nationals sought refuge in Iraq after their towns and cities came under an Israeli offensive late last year.
Baghdad welcomed the refugees as "guests of Iraq." A large majority of them stayed in the holy Shiite cities of Karbala and Najaf, where they were being aided by religious authorities in addition to the Iraqi government.
A late November ceasefire brokered by the United States between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah has allowed thousands of refugees to return home.
[IsraelTimes] Several hundred rally to highlight ‘destruction’ of Gaza’s healthcare system; Israel supporter retorts: ‘You guys are protesting at a hospital. What the f**k is wrong with you?’ Pungent, succinct, and true. What’s not to like?
Pro-Hamas anarchist Nerdeen Kiswani from 'Within Our Lifetime' is calling on healthcare workers to participate in a sick-out, which would deny patients medical attention at NYU Langone. https://t.co/vDCkfd9dsdpic.twitter.com/ufoVz5ZEv8
Several hundred anti-Israel protesters demonstrated on Monday outside the NYU Langone Health Center in New York City.
The protest was organized by Within Our Lifetime, a hardline group that echoes Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... rhetoric, endorsed the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and calls for Israel’s destruction. Dozens of activist groups in the city endorsed the protest, including student, socialist and pro-Paleostinian organizations.
Organizers said they were targeting the hospital to "bring accountability for the destruction" of Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s healthcare system.
The protesters chanted "Say it loud say it clear, we don’t want no Zionists here" and "Resistance® is justified when people are colonized."
Banners in the crowd included Paleostinian, transgender, anarchist and Lebanese flags.
Idiots.
Protesters carried signs that said "Abolish Israel" and "Right of return." Some held flyers with photos of Gaza healthcare workers.
"There is only one solution — intifada, revolution," they chanted.
Two more weeks. After that it should get interesting
The crowd gathered in the frigid cold on the sidewalk across the street from the main entrance of the medical center’s Tisch Hospital. Dozens of police stood outside the hospital’s doors and patients exiting the building stopped to gawk at the protest. One protester scrawled "Gaza" alongside an inverted triangle, a pro-Hamas symbol, in snow plastered to a car windshield.
Around a dozen pro-Israel counter-protesters waved US flags. The two sides traded insults across a metal barricade, with the pro-Paleostinian activists calling the pro-Israel crowd "baby killers," "fascist ...anybody you disagree with, damn them... s" and "fucking Zionists." The pro-Israel group called the protesters "terrorists" and derided them for concealing their identities with face masks.
"You guys are protesting at a hospital. What the fuck is wrong with you?" one Israel supporter shouted.
Police officers were stationed between the two groups and hospital officials stood on the sidelines.
"Get your best insults in, just stand three feet apart. You can scream at each other all you want," a police officer said.
One protester wearing a Hamas headband mocked Israeli hostages held in Gaza, telling the counter-protesters, "Where are your hostages? Where are they? Go look for them."
The focus on healthcare comes after the IDF launched a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza late last month. The IDF said Hamas turbans had been operating out of the hospital and that Israeli forces sought to evacuate civilians and mitigate damage.
Hamas has fought from within hospitals throughout the war and periodically hid some of the Israeli hostages inside them. International law prohibits targeting hospitals during wartime, but hospitals can lose this protection if they are being used for military purposes.
Last year, Within Our Lifetime demonstrated outside the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on the Upper East Side.
It wasn’t clear why the protesters targeted the Tisch Hospital specifically, and Within Our Lifetime refuses to speak to "Zionist media." The hospital is one of several facilities affiliated with New York University’s Langone Health Center and is named for a prominent Jewish philanthropic family. Family member Jessica Tisch was appointed NYPD commissioner last month.
Other pro-Paleostinian advocates have sought to make the medical field a battleground. The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... special rapporteur for the Paleostinians, La Belle Francesca Albanese, called for healthcare professionals to sever ties with Israeli institutions last week. Albanese has a history of antisemitism and murderous Moslem rhetoric against Israel.
Jewish healthcare providers have reported widespread antisemitism in the field since October 7.
The American Jewish Medical Association called Monday’s protest "an outrage."
"The lies must stop. The politicization of healthcare must stop," Yael Halaas, the group’s founder and president, said in a statement. "It’s no coincidence that this outrageous event is being planned for NYU — a hospital frequented by Jewish patients. It is a fact: Antisemitism in healthcare affects everyone’s healthcare."
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, a Jewish democrat, called the protest "clear antisemitism."
Anti-Israel protests started in New York City the day after the October 7 attack and hundreds of rallies have been held since, targeting transportation hubs, museums, colleges and holiday events.
[IsraelTimes] Hochstein admits ceasefire not going as smoothly as hoped, but insists it’s still on track to succeed, with Lebanese army replacing IDF and ensuring Hezbollah can’t rebuild
US envoy Amos Hochstein, visiting Beirut on Monday, said Israeli forces began withdrawing from a south Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... border town more than halfway into a fragile ceasefire with Hezbollah.
It is the second such pullout since the ceasefire came into effect on November 27, coming after United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... peacekeepers and Lebanon’s prime minister late last month called on the Israeli army to speed up its withdrawal from Lebanon’s south.
"The Israeli military started its withdrawal from Naqura... and back into Israel proper today, south of the Blue Line," Hochstein told news hounds, referring to the UN-demarcated boundary between the two countries.
"These withdrawals will continue until all Israeli forces are out of Lebanon completely, and as the Lebanese army continues to deploy into the south and all the way to the Blue Line," he added after meeting with parliamentary speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... , an ally of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
"I have no reason not to expect that all parties — all parties — will remain committed to implementing the agreement that they agreed to," he said after meeting Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and following accusations from Israel and Hezbollah that each side was violating the deal.
’ON THE RIGHT TRACK’
Under the terms of the ceasefire that Hochstein helped to broker, the Lebanese army is to deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers in the south as the Israeli army withdraws over a 60-day period.
Hezbollah is to pull its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
The Lebanese military said Monday that "army units have stationed around the town of Naqura... and began deploying there in coordination with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon," referring to UNIFIL, whose headquarters is in Naqura.
The deployment came "in parallel with the Israeli enemy’s withdrawal," the statement said, and coincided "with a meeting of the five-member committee" overseeing the ceasefire that was also attended by Hochstein.
Specialized units will survey Naqura to help remove unwent kaboom! ordnance, the army statement added, urging people "not to approach the area."
A committee composed of Israeli, Lebanese, French and US delegates alongside a UNIFIL representative is tasked with ensuring any ceasefire violations are identified and dealt with.
Hochstein said he co-chaired the third meeting of the committee on Monday together with United States Major General Jasper Jeffers, adding that "the mechanism is working well."
He said that while the ceasefire implementation may not have proceeded "as quickly as some wanted... what I heard in Naqura today gives me hope that we’re on the right track."
IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani has said Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanese towns has been slower than anticipated because of a lack of Lebanese army troops ready to take over.
Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday accused Hezbollah of not withdrawing beyond the Litani River as stipulated, and of not meeting other terms of the ceasefire after Hezbollah accused Israel of violations.
On December 11, Lebanon’s army said it deployed around the border town of Khiam in coordination with UNIFIL, also following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area. The US military said it was the first such Israeli force withdrawal and subsequent Lebanese army deployment under the ceasefire.
#1
Jeffers, another non-Academy grad makes his way toward the top: BG Jasper Jeffers graduated from Virginia Poly in 1996 and was commissioned as an
Infantry officer. His first assignment was Rifle Platoon Leader and Operations Officer in 4-31 Infantry Regiment, Fort Drum,
NY. He then served as a Platoon Leader and Executive Officer in 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Airfield, GA. Etc.
Can they do that? This is treaty stuff, not discretionary, surely.
[IsraelTimes] US President Joe Biden’s administration will divert $95 million in military aid allocated for Egypt to Lebanon, which faces threats from Hezbollah and other non-state actors and is enforcing a ceasefire with Israel, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The State Department notification to Congress of the planned shift calls the Lebanese armed forces “a key partner” in upholding the Nov. 27, 2024, Israel-Lebanon agreement to cease hostilities and to prevent Hezbollah from threatening Israel.
The move comes after some of Biden’s fellow Democrats in Congress expressed deep concerns about Egypt’s human rights record, particularly the arrests of thousands of political prisoners.
The State Department and the Egyptian embassy in Washington do not immediately respond to requests for comment.
[NationalReview] New York City's controversial congestion toll came into effect Sunday at midnight, taxing Midtown Manhattan drivers as much as $9 to make their way around the busiest part of the city.
The congestion pricing system will charge drivers entering Manhattan below 60th street $9 during the peak hours of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m on weekends, according to New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority. The toll price is being phased in gradually with $3 increases planned for 2028 and 2031 as drivers adjust to the program. "Non-peak" is apparently 2:15AM - 3:06AM
Taxi cabs and other ride share drivers will pay a lower amount, $0.75 per trip, and high-volume for-hire vehicles will be charged $1.50 per ride. Small trucks and buses will be charged $14.40 during the peak hours and $3.60 overnight, and tour buses will have to pay a $21.60 congestion toll throughout the peak period and $5.40 overnight.
The MTA projects that the congestion tax will raise $15 billion of revenue for various projects while lowering traffic by 80,000 vehicles daily, reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality. Opponents of the plan expect the congestion tax to hurt ordinary residents’ pocketbooks by thousands of dollars annually, penalizing them simply for driving to work.
#2
^
yes, the revenue is an important factor behind congestion pricing especially given how much new infrastructure costs in NYCity (the 2nd Ave subway line in NYC will cost over $17B when completed)
another factor is that a lot of the people living in Manhattan just feel superior and enjoy costs being laid on NJ citizens
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/07/2025 9:47
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#3
Its always fun to play games with other people's money.
Nothing about this in yesterday’s Israel Times, so we’ll see.
[Rudaw] Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar gave "positive guarantees" to Syrian Kurds in northeast Syria (Rojava) during a phone call with a Rojava official, which media affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confirmed on Saturday.
Saar and Elham Ahmad, foreign relations co-chair for the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, discussed the situation in Syria and Ottoman Turkish-backed attacks on Rojava, according to SDF-affiliated Ronahi TV.
"Israel gave positive guarantees to the rights of Kurds and other components," Ronahi TV said, citing an informed source.
Both officials "discussed the situation in Syria, the developments in the region, preserving Syrian illusory sovereignty, and Ottoman Turkish attacks on north and east Syria," it added.
Saar and Ahmad also stressed the need for a "lasting ceasefire" in Syria.
In late December, Saar expressed "moral and diplomatic" support for Kurds in Syria and urged the international community to do the same. He noted the sacrifices that Kurds made in the fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) and warned against dismantling their autonomy.
During Syria’s 13-year civil war, Kurds carved out an autonomous region in the northeast, establishing their own governance system and an armed force, the SDF that is partnered with the global coalition against ISIS. The SDF lost an estimated 11,000 fighters in the war against the jihadists.
"The Kurds are a pro-Western and friendly group, and we must stand by them," Sa’ar said at the time, underscoring Israel’s moral and diplomatic support for the Kurds.
The Kurds now face an uncertain future in the new Syria.
Kurdish forces are currently trying to stop an offensive by Ottoman Turkish-backed militias who are attacking a key dam on the Euphrates River and threatening the town of Kobane.
Ankara considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the backbone of the SDF - as the Syrian front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a designated terrorist organization by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... .
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] Nothing new, but now we know what he looks like.
Jack Danaher Molloy, a total idiot from Pennsylvania, converted to Islam last year and then tried to join Hezbollah so that he could kill Jews. He got caught and is now facing up to 28 years in prison.https://t.co/DJJRwSja2z
[AreaOcho] NORTHCOM has just announced increased security at all CONUS military installations, effective Monday morning:
The Commander of U.S. Northern Command has directed all military installations to immediately implement heightened security measures. These include:
100% ID checks
Random inspections
Suspension of the Trusted Traveler Program. (The Trusted Traveler Program was a procedure that allowed DoD-affiliated sponsors to vouch for vehicle occupants to gain entry onto an installation. )
Drivers should expect delays and random inspections at entry gates as we enhance the security posture of our installation to ensure our ability to project combat power when and where required. This is a critical step in ensuring the security and readiness of our installations. Drivers should expect delays at entry gates due to increased inspections.
Note that this move is supposedly in response to the events in New Orleans and Las Vegas, but if it was that serious, why wait nearly a week? Why would this move begin on the very morning that the Electoral College votes are to be certified?
Good questions. I’d be kind of happy never to discover the answer…
#8
^ that's how the Germans got surprise in Dec '44 for the battle in the Ardennes. All communications for the operation were hand carried and never intercepted by allied intelligence.
[KhaamaPress] Some Afghan migrants colonists in Pakistain report that Islamabad has intensified its efforts to deport Afghan citizens after the New Year. They claim that the Pak police have begun house-to-house searches, detaining and deporting Afghans under various pretexts.
According to Afghan migrants colonists in Islamabad’s Bari Imam area, the police have started conducting home inspections, arresting Afghan nationals.
Witnesses note that most Afghan residents in Pakistain reapply for visa extensions once their visas expire. Upon registration, the Ministry of Interior’s visa system provides a one-month grace period during which a confirmation document is issued. This document signifies that the legal process for visa renewal is underway.
In the past, this confirmation document was recognized as a legal proof of residence, and the police treated holders of these documents as having valid legal status. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... in recent days, even those possessing these confirmation documents have been ignored by the police, with some holders being arrested.
Reports indicate that the Pak police, after arresting these individuals, deport them through the Torkham border.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) statistics reveal that from September 15, 2023, to December 15, 2024, nearly 800,000 Afghan citizens have returned to Afghanistan from Pakistain.
The intensified operations by the Pak police have created a dire situation for Afghan migrants colonists, who now live in constant fear and anxiety. These migrants colonists have appealed to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... and the international community for urgent attention to their plight in Pakistain.
[Rudaw] Iraq and Kurdish security forces have detained four suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) members, according to a government statement issued on Saturday.
"A joint security coordination between the Counter-Terrorism Cell of our agency and the General Directorate of Operations of the Asayish in the Kurdistan Region resulted in the arrest of four terrorists" who were wanted under the law, the Iraqi National Security Service stated on X.
One of those arrested is a "specialist in manufacturing ISIS weapons," the statement said.
Two of the suspects "worked in what is known as the ’Development and Military Manufacturing Authority’ affiliated with the ISIS terrorist gangs" in Anbar province, the statement said.
"As for the other two suspects, it was revealed that they belonged to what was formerly referred to as the Nineveh and Dijla provinces" and had directed attacks against security forces in the past, the security service added.
The investigation revealed that the suspects used forged identity documents to evade security and move around freely.
ISIS seized control of vast swathes of Iraqi territory in 2014. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017, but Kurdish and Iraqi security forces continue to carry out frequent operations against remnants of the group.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/07/2025
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[11156 views]
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The view from India, as published by an Afghan news site.
[KhaamaPress] Britannia’s moral foundation faces its gravest challenge as the nation confronts the systematic exploitation of vulnerable children by Pak rape gangs, exposing failures across law enforcement, social services, and the political establishment.[1] What emerged first in Rotherham has revealed itself as a national scandal, with authorities consistently prioritizing political correctness over protecting young British girls. The scale is horrifying. In Rotherham alone, an independent inquiry identified 1,400 victims between 1997 and 2013. Similar patterns emerged in Rochdale, Telford, and other cities across Britannia. The victims, predominantly young white girls from vulnerable backgrounds, were systematically targeted, groomed, and exploited while authorities deliberately looked the other way to avoid accusations of racism.
Professor Alexis Jay’s 2014 review revealed the institutional paralysis that enabled these crimes.[2] Despite repeated reports from victims, law enforcement and social services consistently failed to take appropriate action. Girls as young as 11 came forward only to be dismissed or ignored by those charged with their protection. The authorities’ response wasn’t mere negligence but it was a conscious choice to sacrifice children’s safety at the altar of political correctness. Local political dynamics played a crucial role in perpetuating this crisis. Authorities in multiple jurisdictions demonstrated a consistent pattern of prioritizing perceived community relations over victim protection. The fear of being labeled racist led to reduced scrutiny and intervention, effectively creating an environment where Pak gangs could operate with impunity. This political cowardice came at a devastating human cost.
The statistics are quite shocking. In Telford, studies showed that one in 126 Moslem men were prosecuted between 1997 and 2017, while in Rotherham, the figure was one in 73. These numbers reveal an uncomfortable truth about the disproportionate involvement of British Pak men in these organized rape gangs, a fact that authorities long tried to suppress.[3] Law enforcement’s failure has been particularly enraging. The 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found widespread failures by police to properly document cases and pursue investigations. Officers often dismissed victims as lacking credibility or making lifestyle choices, revealing a problematic culture that prioritized political convenience over child protection. The West Yorkshire Police, among others, faced particular criticism for their systematic failures.
The Crown Prosecution Service’s handling of cases during critical periods raises serious questions about institutional complicity. Between 2008 and 2013, numerous opportunities for intervention were missed. The case of a Rochdale victim encountering her convicted abuser in a local store, despite his having lost a deportation appeal two years earlier, exemplifies the system’s complete failure in both prevention and justice. Recent social media discussions led by influential figures like JK Rowling and Elon Musk have highlighted the ongoing nature of these crimes and the continued failure to achieve justice.[4] Rowling’s insistence on calling them "rape gangs" rather than "grooming gangs" reflects growing public anger at the sanitization of these crimes. As she pointed out, calling them grooming gangs minimizes the horror of their actions. These were organized rape gangs that systematically targeted and destroyed young lives.[5]
The political establishment’s response remains inadequate. Despite recent initiatives, including a government taskforce that has made hundreds of arrests, many perpetrators remain free. The reluctance to confront this issue head-on, coupled with concerns about electoral implications in areas with large Pak populations, has hampered effective action. This political calculation continues to prioritize votes over victims. Immigration policies have proven woefully inadequate. The failure to deport convicted foreign nationals, even after losing appeals, has led to situations where victims must face their abusers in their own communities. This represents a double failure of the system. The first in protection, then in justice. The British state’s inability to remove foreign criminals who have committed these heinous crimes against British children represents a fundamental failure of illusory sovereignty.
The UK currently requires radical reform across multiple institutions. The police and social services need complete overhauls of their child protection protocols. The Crown Prosecution Service must reform its case handling procedures. Immigration enforcement must be strengthened, particularly regarding convicted offenders. Most importantly, politicianship must prioritize justice and victim protection over perceived community sensitivities. As Britannia grapples with this crisis, the human cost continues to mount. The victims, many now adults, carry the scars of both the abuse and the institutional betrayal that followed. Their stories stand as a testament to the devastating consequences of political correctness and institutional cowardice. The systematic rape of British children by predominantly Pak gangs, and the establishment’s willful blindness to it, represents one of the darkest chapters in modern British history. The legacy of these systematic failures continues to impact communities across Britannia. Only through comprehensive reform of law enforcement, social services, and immigration enforcement, coupled with honest confrontation of cultural issues within the Pak community, can the UK begin to address this crisis. The time for tiptoeing around uncomfortable truths is over. Britannia’s children deserve protection, and Britannia’s authorities must finally put their safety above all other considerations.
The Telegraph came out with another damning summing up, and Twitchy collected tweeted responses:
Elon Musk has been absolutely pounding the U.K. authorities, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, over the 'grooming gang' scandal and cover up, and he should.
It is an egregious example of not only government negligence, but of the woke mind virus taken to its fetid, logical conclusion.
In short, the U.K. authorities who could have put a stop to the gangs of Muslim migrants who systematically abused, raped, and groomed thousands of British girls didn't, because they didn't want to be seen as 'racist' and 'Islamophobic.'
Now The Telegraph has a damning story about how the coverup worked, and how those girls were not only denied justice, but often harassed and arrested by authorities:
🔴 The child victims of rape were denied justice and protection from the state to preserve the image of a successful multicultural society.
In Telford, Lucy Lowe died at 16 alongside her mother and sister when her abuser set fire to her home in 2000. She had given birth to Azhar Ali Mahmood’s child when she was just 14, and was pregnant when she was killed.
Her death was subsequently used to threaten other children. The Telford Inquiry found particularly brutal threats. When one victim aged 12 told her mother, and the mother called the police, 'there was about six or seven Asian men who came to my house. They threatened my mum saying they’ll petrol bomb my house if we don’t drop the charges.'
Yet in a pattern that would repeat itself, Telford’s authorities looked the other way. When an independent review was finally published in 2022, it found police officers described parts of the town as a 'no-go area', while witnesses set out multiple allegations of police corruption and favouritism towards the Pakistani community. Regardless of the reason, the inquiry found that “there was a nervousness about race… bordering on a reluctance to investigate crimes committed by what was described as the ‘Asian’ community'.
Similar concerns applied at the council, where anxieties over appearing racist saw safeguarding officers waving away concerns simply because the perpetrators were Asian. It was felt that some suspects were not investigated because it would have been 'politically incorrect'.
Tommy Robinson jailed for 18 months for making a documentary and exposing Muslim grooming gangs in the UK.
Two Pakistanis assaulted and broke the nose of a female police officer, still free! pic.twitter.com/vAMjC66IM1
#5
The truth is that these Pakistanis aren't aberrant criminals, but normal people who are adhering to the legal and moral consensus of their community.
"At night, we can hear them screaming, but we're not allowed to do anything about it," the Marine's father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. "My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it's their culture."
#6
Britain has some interesting ideas about protecting kids. People caught with CP there don’t serve jail time because they “didn’t perpetrate the abuse.” That type of idea is being introduced into America via California liberalism.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/07/2025 13:23
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#7
Is this the part when security services threaten to arrest everyone at Khaama Press?
Here’s wishing all goes well for all involved. And if not, that the Filipino police quickly stomp down hard where and on whom it’s needed.
[KhaamaPress] A plane carrying 300 Afghan citizens arrived in the Philippines on Monday to have their U.S. immigration visa applications processed. Under an agreement between Washington and Manila, these individuals will temporarily reside in the Philippines until they receive their U.S. visas.
U.S. and Filipino officials announced at a presser in Manila that the eligible Afghans, who had previously worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan, were relocated to the Philippines. They are expected to receive special immigrant visas.
A Filipino official stated during the presser, "This agreement is for a 100-day period, after which the process will conclude."
Reports indicate that all applicants underwent various pre-screening procedures, including medical examinations, before receiving their Philippine visas.
The Afghan individuals can stay in the Philippines for a maximum of 59 days after their arrival. They will be housed in an undisclosed facility, where they will receive support, including social, educational, religious, and other services.
Officials did not disclose the exact location of the facility but emphasized that the applicants would have access to essential resources and services during their stay.
An official added, "The U.S. must complete the processing of each applicant’s visa request within this 59-day period."
Under the agreement, the U.S. government will bear all expenses related to the Afghan citizens’ stay, including housing, security, food, medical services, and transportation.
This program represents a vital effort to support Afghan allies who worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan. The relocation and visa process aim to ensure their safety and provide a pathway to a secure future in the United States.
the Afghan nationals had completed extensive security vetting and undergone full medical screenings before they arrived. She also said the U.S. government is covering the costs of their stay in the Philippines, including food, housing, security, medical and transportation expenses.
[BrenarNews] Ethnic rebel groups in Shan and Rakhine states dealt the military its biggest blows this year.
Myanmar’s junta forces now control less than half the country after suffering major battlefield setbacks in 2024 — including the loss of command headquarters in Shan and Rakhine states, several rebel groups said.
In June, the Three Brotherhood Alliance of ethnic armies resumed offensive operations in Shan state. Within weeks, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army had captured Lashio, a city of 130,000 that is the region’s commercial and administrative hub and a gateway to China.
Another member of the alliance, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, also seized the strategic Shan state townships of Nawnghkio and Kyaukme, as well as the gem mining town of Mogoke in the neighboring Mandalay region.
Those victories in July and August left the junta with almost no territory in Shan state, a key area for border trade with China.
"The junta’s administration has completely ended here," said a resident of Kutkai, a town in northern Shan state that has been the focus of junta Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in recent months.
"At present, the economy and education sectors cannot function," the resident told Radio Free Asia. "And the cost of living has skyrocketed."
RFA couldn’t independently confirm the exact area lost by the military regime as the situation on the ground remains fluid and hard to verify given the constant fighting.
Junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Htun didn’t immediately respond to RFA’s attempt for comment on Monday.
ELECTION PLANS FOR 2025
The setbacks came as the junta regime moved forward with plans to hold an election in 2025, four years after they seized power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’état.
But opponents say the election would be a farce and simply a way of legitimizing their rule.
For starters, the vote would be held in just 161 townships controlled by junta authorities out of 330 nationwide, Election Commission Chairman Ko Ko told political party representatives earlier this month.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The V. A. Degtyarev Machine Gun Plant has filed a lawsuit against the Russian Defense Ministry for more than 100 million rubles. TASS reported this on January 6, citing case materials.
"Judge N.P. Teveleva, having considered the issue of accepting for proceedings the claim of JSC "V.A. Degtyarev Plant" against the defendant - the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the recovery of 100,569,849 rubles 71 kopecks and the documents attached to the claim, decided to accept the claim filed with the court on November 2, 2024, and to initiate proceedings on the case," the agency quotes the court's decision to schedule a court hearing.
The reason for filing the lawsuit is not reported.
At the end of 2024, the Moscow Arbitration Court collected 146 million rubles of debt from the Ministry of Defense in favor of the V. A. Degtyarev Plant.
The Degtyarev Plant produces small arms, hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, and anti-tank missiles. The enterprise is a supplier of Kalashnikov machine guns, Vladimirov machine guns (KPVT), RPG-7, and Kalashnikov assault rifles.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Airports across Germany have been hit by a IT outage that has sparked huge delays for arrivals outside of the Schengen zone.
The outage has affected federal police systems used to check incoming passengers, Bild newspaper reported on Friday, citing the police.
'Our colleagues have to do a lot of things manually that the system used to do.
'We're still managing to get it done at the moment,' said a police spokesperson responsible for Frankfurt airport, Germany's busiest.
Federal police were not immediately available for comment and the cause of disruption is not yet known.
The report claimed police are carrying out security checks manually, increasing waiting times at the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf airports.
The German WDR broadcaster said Dusseldorf Airport passengers have been forced to wait for at least two hours at immigration while others were being kept on the plane.
'At present, entry and exit are only possible with long delays for non-Schengen region,' said a Dusseldorf Airport spokesperson.
According to the airport, both the main system and the backup systems have been affected and it is not known how long it will take to fix.
It is currently not possible to enter Germany from outside the Schengen area, the airport told the broadcaster.
EU destinations and destinations in the Schengen area are not affected.
[AceComments] Dozens of US government officials claim symptoms including vertigo, powerful headaches, and debilitating permanent injuries from what they claim must be a directed energy weapon, fired at them by a hostile foreign power, who everyone assumes is Russia.
The US government officially denies these "anomalous health incidents" (AHIs). Specifically, the Director of National Intelligence wrote a letter stating AHIs are all in the victims' heads.
#2
74 The US has developed a few sonic weapons , mainly for use in crowd control. They haven’t been deployed because they possibly can cause permanent injuries.
[FoxNews] 3 Louisiana residents were murdered in a homeless camp in 2024, when the US saw 18.1% increase in homelessness
A triple homicide at a Louisiana homeless camp, allegedly spurred by a stolen bicycle, emphasizes the inherent dangers of these encampments – not just for their inhabitants, but for those in surrounding communities, an expert told Fox News Digital. EVERY homeless camp has multiple stolen bikes. It's only a problem when they steal from each other?
On April 3, 44-year-old Mindy Ann Robert, 33-year-old Marcey Vincent and 53-year-old Warren Fairley were found dead, all shot multiple times, in a makeshift campsite, hidden from view by brush on a vacant lot in Jefferson Parish, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said.
Crime in these camps is a growing concern across the country, which has seen an 18.1% increase in homelessness in 2024, according to a December report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Federal officials cited a rising number of asylum seekers, lack of affordable housing and natural disasters as reasons for the increase in homelessness.
"These homeless encampments pose a health threat and a safety threat to the general public," Mark Powell, a former reserve police officer in San Diego who oversaw the city's Monarch School for Homeless Youth while on the city's school board, told Fox News Digital. "It's the duty, it's the obligation of our city leaders, our elected politicians, to do everything they can within the law to eradicate these camps and provide the people living in the camps with the dignity they deserve through some type of shelter program."
In the Louisiana case, Noel Marine, who was known to visit the victims at the campsite, was arrested and faces three counts of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice in their deaths. He is currently being held on $100,000 bail, according to court records.
Investigators believe Vincent and Robert were homeless and lived at the campsite, while Fairley lived in a home nearby. Robert's family assumed that she was living in the area because they recently saw her panhandling at a nearby street corner, NOLA.com reported.
"Periodically, other people would stay [at the campsite] and use narcotics," Det. Ryan Vaught testified during a Nov. 19 hearing in Jefferson Parish Magistrate Court.
A man who was dating one of the female victims allegedly dialed 911 around 9:40 a.m. when he found the three bodies.
Marine, 55, became the prime suspect after his fingerprint was also found on a metal folding chair at the site. His fingerprints were in the national Combined DNA Index System due to previous convictions, including four counts of possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute and other drug charges.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in April 2005, court records show. At the time of the shooting, he was wanted for missing court in a misdemeanor theft case after allegedly stealing from a Walmart in February of this year, according to court records.
Marine allegedly claimed that he was staying at a friend's house in Metairie at the time of the shooting, but his alibi was torn open after the friend told detectives that Marine was not there.
Although a gunshot was heard in the area around 1 or 2 a.m., according to Vaught, no one saw the killings take place. However, Marine's friend gave a statement to police after he allegedly confessed to the killings, Vaught testified.
After he was brought in for a second round of questioning, Marine claimed that another man shot the three victims. He said that he was talking to the man who confronted him at the encampment after Marine stole his bicycle. The other man brandished a gun, and Marine walked into the campsite to retrieve the stolen property, according to Marine, who said he then heard gunfire.
However, police have not named the man Marine accused, and no one else has been arrested in the homicides.
Powell said that the incident is the latest example of why the government has an obligation to regulate homeless encampments.
"In this instance, three people were murdered. That's not to say somebody jogging through the park or jogging near the homeless encampment could also become a victim just as easily as this," Powell told Fox News Digital.
"It's the duty of the city. If they're going to allow homeless camps like this, it's their duty to make sure that they're cleaned, that they're regulated, that there's some type of law enforcement presence that frequents that homeless camp on a regular basis," Powell said.
"Not once a month or when they get a call, but they have to have some type of security in there," he continued. "[Otherwise] you're going to end up with more of these incidences where there are rapes, murders, there's assault, there are batteries, there's a theft, there's rampant drug dealing – this is what you'll find in these homeless encampments."
"Many people don't even want to jog through the park because they know there's a homeless encampment in there, and they're scared – the people who are committing the crimes are the ones who are controlling the property," Powell said. "They're not paying taxes, they're not doing anything yet. [But] the people who do pay the taxes who do not commit crimes, they're the ones who are impacted."
#2
The Augusta, GA. since around the April 2024, has been having a number of Homeless murders, assaults, disappearances, and a few reported "Accidental deaths".
A few of us come in contact with a handful on a regular basis. While we are passing out food, bottled water, warm coats, cloths and donated used sleeping bags to the "really homeless" here on the overlooked South-Side.
Because we have a large VA here, we see a lot of homeless US VET's. And yes, even a few Vet widows living on the streets.
While we are handing things out, we are hearing from them, that police aren't looking too hard into the deaths, assaults and accidents. Many have taken to sleeping during the morning hours, and staying up at night for safety reasons.
May be things will change as Augusta/Richmond Co. just got a new Sheriff.
#3
A high percentage of mental illness and substance abuse in a community of folks living close together in shared poverty will always percolate with violence and theft. Three dead of gunshots seems strange unless they were all inebriated. Homeless folks usually sleep light and know when to book it. Marksmanship among tweakers is also not generally good.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/07/2025 13:55
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More random spending by the Biden administration, this time with a five year commitment to bind President Trump, too. Or President Trump could shut it down…
[Garowe] The United States is set to pump $28 million into Somalia, specifically targeting matters of security and food safety, with a long-term plan of alleviating families that have struggled with harsh economic and environmental challenges.
The programme will target over 80,000 households with more than 500,000 families said to benefit from the programme within the next five years. The project aims at improving financial capital and increasing savings and assets.
"This year, the United States will complement its already huge investment in emergency assistance in Somalia with another 28-million dollar contribution to support the first year of two new five-year resilience and food security-focused projects," read the statement from Ambassador Richard Riley.
"Over the next five years, these programs will help more than 80,000 Somali households—or approximately 500,000 people—build sustainable livelihoods, develop financial capital, and increase their savings and assets."
In 2024, 6.9 million people in Somalia will need humanitarian assistance due to severe weather, insecurity, and poverty. This funding will help support 80,000 vulnerable households through partners like World Vision and Save the Children.
Further, the partnership would help build sustainable livelihoods for displaced and marginalized communities. With this support, USAID continues its commitment to addressing hunger, food insecurity, and the devastating impacts of climate-related disasters, the US said.
Somalia is grappling with a host of challenges including violent mostly peaceful extremism but the recent adverse climatic challenges have caused mass displacement of people besides killing livestock. The government is also partnering with other countries to mitigate the challenges.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Around 1,700 Ukrainian troops equipped by the West have disappeared after being trained in France, leaving the remainder of their brigade to face Putin's wrath alone.
The 155th Mechanised Brigade, one of Ukraine's few units equipped with advanced Leopard 2 battle tanks, was supposed to bolster the country's defences.
Instead, at least 50 soldiers disappeared while the unit trained in France, and by the time it entered its first battle, 1,700 troops had gone absent without leave.
Even as late as November, 500 soldiers remained unaccounted for, sparking a crisis for the brigade, also known as Anne of Kyiv in honour of its historical ties with France.
This mass exodus occurred before the unit was deployed to Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region.
When the depleted brigade finally entered combat in recent days, it suffered heavy losses, including some of its prized Leopard tanks and other armoured vehicles.
The debacle has prompted an investigation by Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations into what critics are calling the 'shambolic' formation of the unit.
The brigade was intended to feature over 5,800 troops and state-of-the-art Western weaponry, including French Caesar 155mm howitzers.
It was the centrepiece of a high-profile £747 billion project jointly announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron last year.
Instead, the brigade's collapse has exposed glaring flaws in Ukraine's strategy to build new military units from scratch, with analysts questioning why resources weren't used to bolster battle-hardened brigades already engaged on the front lines.
The 155th Mechanised Brigade spent nine months training in Ukraine, Poland, and France, as part of an ambitious plan to form 14 new brigades equipped with advanced Western weapons.
But critics say the project has descended into chaos, leaving soldiers ill-prepared for the battlefield and Ukraine's war effort exposed.
Prominent war correspondent Yuriy Butusov delivered a scathing assessment of the brigade's collapse, calling it 'a crime' not of the soldiers but of Ukraine's military leadership.
The brigade's problems reportedly began from the outset.
Recruitment launched in June last year, but many of the 2,500 initial recruits were siphoned off to replenish other battle-worn units.
This left just 1,924 volunteers to undergo training in France, of whom only 51 had more than a year's military experience.
Shockingly, over 1,400 had joined the Ukrainian army just two months before being sent for overseas drills.
The unit also suffered an exodus during training, with over 700 troops deserting on Ukrainian soil between October and November.
By the time the brigade was finally deployed to Pokrovsk, it was already understrength and under-resourced.
Despite being equipped with some of the most advanced Western tanks and artillery, it was sent into battle without drones - the essential tool for modern reconnaissance- or electronic warfare jammers.
Analysts observing the conflict have questioned Kyiv's decision to invest in untested new brigades instead of reinforcing existing units battered by months of combat.
Critics warn that the fiasco not only risks undermining morale but could squander the vital Western support Ukraine depends on to repel Russian aggression.
Serhii Sternenko, a prominent Ukrainian social media influencer and military fundraiser, revealed he had been forced to send essential kit to the 155th Mechanised Brigade due to a concerning lack of government-provided supplies.
The brigade, deployed to Pokrovsk, reportedly received cash for reconnaissance drones only 10 days after entering the fight. By then, the damage was done.
[Breitbart] Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that President-elect Donald Trump’s violent rhetoric had not stopped and caused the hammer attack on her husband, Paul.
That’s toxic, child-molesting Canadian David DePape, 42, who in 2022 broke into the house and attacked the elderly Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull in an attempt to force Rep. Nancy Pelosi to come forward and admit on camera that Russiagate was a lie. There was to be a Spooktacular unicorn costume involved, and last spring he was sentenced to 30 years in the federal pen. But this is just a nasty attempt by Ms Pelosi to tar the incoming president.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, tomorrow morning at the Capitol you and other members of Congress will be there to certify the election win in 2024 of Donald Trump. There’s an unprecedented level of security, in part because of what happened four years ago with the violent attack by his supporters to change the outcome of the last election. Why do you think that so many members of the American public decided that was not disqualifying when it came to reelecting him president?
PELOSI: Well it- again, thank you for the opportunity to talk about this because the denial that they had about the election, which is what they were acting upon, and the denial they’ve had since then about what happened on Jan- January 6 is just appalling. They want to revise history. And they just- they just can’t. But I’m so glad that they have increased security and I’m hoping that this will be very peaceful because- the public knows it. Now to your question, I think- it isn’t, I- I wouldn’t say that the American people disregarded this. They just had a different view as to what was in their interest, economically and the rest. So I don’t- I don’t call this a disregard of January 6. I just call it something that they saw in their interest economically.
BRENNAN: Even just last night at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump was screening a documentary about the 2020 election, claiming his win and trying to talk about the legal challenges he had. There seems to be a continued effort to claim that he won in 2020.
PELOSI: It’s really sad. It really is sad. And I don’t know about the film that he had and the rest, but it’s- it’s almost sick that he would be thinking that in 2020. He’s won the election now, that will be clear- that will be clear, and tomorrow he will be clearly- we will be accepting the results of the Electoral College. So he should be triumphant about that. But to be still trying to fight a fight that he knows he lost is- is really sad.
BRENNAN: You know, the President-elect has said that in the first nine minutes of his new term, he will pardon many of those who participated in January 6. He said he’ll look at it on a case-by-case basis, but in looking back at what happened four years ago, there are recordings, there’s video evidence of what happened. This is personal for you, some of these rioters in your office. chanting your name. One of them, one of the defendants, ‘We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin brain, but we didn’t find her.’ For you, this is personal. So when you hear about pardons, do you think the non-violent attackers deserve to be pardoned?
PELOSI: The non-violent- I think that’s a violent attacker, with the intent–
BRENNAN: – the violence itself.
PELOSI: Yeah–
BRENNAN: –The violent language, you think.
PELOSI: The violent language- yes, the intention. And of course, the intention to attack the Vice President of the United States. Now it didn’t end that day. As you know, he called out to these people to continue their violence, my husband being a victim of all of that, and it still- he still has injuries from that attack. So it just goes on and on. It isn’t something that happens and then it’s over. No, once you are attacked, you have consequences that continue. So I don’t- it’s really a strange person who’s going to be President of the United States, who thinks that it’s okay to pardon people who are engaged in an attack. But let’s- you know, let’s do this. Let’s just say okay to the American people. This is what this is about. Do not be conned by the denial of the election of 2020 and- why would he be saying that? But he- but he is. And then on top of that, the denial of what happened on January 6.
BRENNAN: But some of the 1600 defendants here were really only charged with trespassing. And when you look at the profiles, University of Chicago did a study, half of those who broke into the Capitol were white collar workers. They were small business owners. Didn’t necessarily have a criminal record. When you look at that profile, you said intention. It- it was the intention itself, you think, that needs to be considered more so than the crime. You know that- that it casts the crime itself of trespassing in a different light for you.
PELOSI: Well the President said he would go on a case-by-case basis. So I assume that- that some of those people may not have engaged in the violent activities that some of the others did. Look at this beautiful Capitol, the dome built by Lincoln. Under Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War, they said, don’t build the dome. It takes too much steel and person power, manpower, they said, from the war effort. And he said, no, I have to show the resilience of America. And then under that dome you saw, you saw flags, the flags that, you know, just horrible flags under the dome of Lincoln. And so it was a tragedy, and we cannot be in denial about what it was. If the President is going to go on a case by case basis, I hope he does, and then maybe–
BRENNAN: –Trespassers, you would be comfortable with pardoning?
PELOSI: Well, just depends on how they define what that is. But the- but I know that some of that encouragement and then the follow up that- that so many people were threatened, including me and- and to my home, looking for me and finding my husband, and as I say, who still suffers from head injuries from- on that day. So these things don’t just happen and go away when you have a head injury. But anyway to- to- to see the threat to so many people in elective office, now going beyond me, but so many people in elective office, it shouldn’t be a threat to your family that you have chosen to do public service.
An OVERWHELMING majority of American doesn't believe a word you, or any of the O'Biden Democrat's/RINO's, utters.
Too many of you have been proven to be outright lairs for $$$$.
Even Judge Juan Merchan & DA Bragg can't save those that committed treason and sedition.
Because either Trump or Vance will be in the WH in just 13 days, and the DOJ will be flushed out of its subversive 5th column. And once it is returned to being a Law Enforcement focused agency, and not a Social-Political & $$$ making arm. There will likely be a number of Special Elections.
#3
I am not buying the mythology about Trump inspiring the hammer weirdo that bludgeoned Nancy’s husband. 9 out of 10 crazy attacks seem to be inspired by false characterizations of Trump’s policies by leftists. For example, many of the gay folks are currently frequenting the gun range polishing their skills in expectation of being sent to concentration camps. This is total baloney; the concentration camps will be for comedians and Hollywood celebrities.
With Nancy, though, it’s become hard to discern whether her outrageous fabrications are a sloppy attempt at a wrap up smear or whether the post-menopausal binge drinking has finally taken its toll and she is now hallucinating.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Brits must stay alert to the hidden symptoms of a potentially dangerous flu-like virus that has already caused chaos in China, experts warned today.
Cases of the infection human metapneumovirus (HMPV) have surged across northern Chinese provinces in recent days, mainly among children.
And MailOnline can reveal that the bug, which can prove fatal in the most vulnerable, is already on British shores - and rising in prevalence.
Latest UK data shows cases of the virus - responsible for packed hospital waiting rooms in China and eerily similar to the early days of Covid - have seen a 'marked increase' in recent weeks - slightly higher than at the same time last year.
UK cases of HMPV first emerged in 2001, with roughly just four cases per week detected by PCR tests in winter, on average.
But experts have today cautioned that a hidden rise may be underway, as the virus can lurk in the body for days before causing tell-tale symptoms, leaving people to spread it unknowingly.
However, they warned that the spike in cases 'should not cause undue concern'.
HMPV typically causes symptoms similar to the common cold, including a cough, runny nose or nasal congestion, a sore throat and fever that clear after around five days.
But more severe symptoms such as bronchitis, bronchiolitis and pneumonia can occur, with sufferers experiencing a shortness of breath, severe cough or wheezing.
Experts urged Brits to be cautious of flu-like symptoms over fears it could actually be HMPV.
Professor John Tregoning, an expert in vaccine immunology at Imperial College London, says that it has very similar symptoms - in children at least - to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms.
'It is part of the cocktail of winter viruses that we are exposed to and, like other viruses, it will transmit in coughs, sneezes and in droplets.
'Protecting yourself by being in well-ventilated spaces, covering your mouth when you cough and washing your hands will all help,' said Professor Tregoning
Similar to the advice related to Covid and RSV, those infected must 'rest, stay hydrated and try not to spread it to others', he added.
'If you do feel very unwell, go to your GP. As it is a virus, antibiotics won’t have any effect.'
Unlike Covid, there is no vaccine yet or specific antiviral treatment for HMPV and treatment primarily involves managing symptoms.
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] Like Hamas, they expected Iran, the Biden administration, or Allah to step in on their side. Despite the best efforts of the parties of the first and second parts, Allah was uninterested in supporting such a disappointment. President Trump will take over in two weeks, and then they’ll have the rare privilege of learning quickly to adjust to an entirely new situation. Congrats and enjoy your personal growth, guys.
🚨 Israel Defense Minister Katz in the Northern Command: "The first condition for the agreement to be implemented is Hezbollah's complete withdrawal beyond the Litani - something that has not yet happened. If this condition is not met - there will be no agreement." pic.twitter.com/fbBPiafvt3
Text taken from the V Kontakte account of Tatyana Vasilyeva
[VK] ‼⚡⚡⚡🇷🇺🇷🇺🇷🇺 Sudzhan borderland: Berdin farm and surrounding areas cleared by fighters of the 30th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment of the "Sever" group of forces.
During the cleanup carried out by the assault units of the 30th Motorized Rifle Regiment, the occupiers suffered losses of up to 30 people, 17 of which were KIAs, 23 Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers from the 82nd Separate Airborne Brigade surrendered.
In total, twenty-seven Ukrainian servicemen laid down their arms during the enemy counterattack that began yesterday.
Thus, the new "counteroffensive" that was hyped up in Ukraine began with another "meat assault" organized by Syrsky, on the orders of Zelensky, who is persistently trying to show his Western masters the ability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to continue to terrorize the Russian state.
It is worth noting separately that during yet another suicidal operation by Syrsky, mostly young Ukrainians aged around 30 were disposed of. The genocide of the Ukrainian people, carried out by Kyiv neo-Nazis, continues...
More on Russian combat operations in Kursk region.
▪"On the southern flank of the Sudzhansky direction, Russian troops are storming Makhnovka from the south. On the northern flank, clashes continue in the direction of Malaya Loknya," the enemy admitted in the morning.
▪By evening, most of the village is under the control of Russian troops.
Even more from the V Kontakte page of Tatyana Vasilyeva
Today, the Ukrainian units have not managed to achieve anything. Those who survived were lucky and ended up in captivity. The rest were liquidated.
Our troops entered Malaya Loknya on the northern flank of our advancing group. In addition, the Russian Armed Forces managed to advance in Makhnovka, a couple of kilometers from Sudzha. Malaya Loknya is itself a couple of kilometers south of Makhnovka.
Malaya Loknya has an extremely important geographical position at a height relative to Sudzha and its surroundings. With its support, it will be much easier to move south along the railway.
🔺The interrogation of captured Ukrainian soldiers showed that the command set them the task of occupying the village of Bolshoye Soldatskoye. The plan was thwarted by the Northerners with a powerful fire strike. More than 35 units of enemy equipment and over 200 occupiers were destroyed.
The prisoners also reported that more than 50% of the 225th separate battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were prisoners, including those serving sentences for the most serious crimes.
The Russian Armed Forces have gone on the offensive: The liberation of the village of Russkoye Porechnoye is being completed, we have made progress in capturing Makhnovka, all bridges across the Smerditsa River are under our control."
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
There is not a lot of information on this tragedy, either in Russian media or anti Russian/anti Soviet media, past or present. What I can piece together is that 53 children, the offspring of several unidentified dissidents, victims of Russian style vigilance, were either killed or exiled to Siberia during Stalin's reign and then died.
It appears that the tragedy was the result of stupid actions by the sanatorium's caretaker.
[ColonelCassad] Today I am reading the Christmas message of Metropolitan Konstantin of Petrozavodsk and Karelia, in which he lists all the achievements of the local diocese. And I came across this:
"And on the 70th anniversary of the fire that took the lives of 53 children of "enemies of the people", a church in honor of the infant martyrs of Bethlehem was founded at the site of the tragedy in the Ulmalakhti tract of the Pyatkyaranta district."
I wrote about this story a long time ago, here is my old post on Vkontakte. But I will repeat myself.
The propaganda "promotion" of this sad story began with a post from a Karelian liberal public page, which is run by Ms. Smirnova. She served in the governor's press service for many years, and then miraculously turned into a zealous oppositionist.
A post about a real tragedy. Moreover, all the publications repeat quotes from this short text, without any documentary evidence. So:
"In the town of Ulmalahti on the shore of Lake Yanisyarvi in the Pitkyaranta district in the post-war period there was an orphanage for young children of the repressed. They were from 3 to 7 years old...".
In fact, there is no information that this was a special home specifically for such children (near the Finnish border!!!). Moreover, after the war there were enough orphans, even especially gifted citizens should guess about this. Photos of this house from the 30s can easily be found on the Internet. It was built under the Finns, and at that time this building housed a Finnish sanatorium!
A sanatorium, you understand! So, this building was special, built in a good place, and not somewhere in a swamp. That is, in the difficult post-war time it was specially given over to the "children of enemies of the people"? If so, then this is a sign of the exceptional humanity of the Soviet government.
***
"The caretaker Sirotinin locked the boarding school building together with the children and teachers at night to prevent escape. And then one night there was a fire."
Can a 5-year-old child escape at night? Where and why? Most likely, the stupid caretaker hung a lock solely to prevent theft. Moreover, it turns out that two teachers were among the dead. Why would they run? On the contrary, they would have prevented any child from escaping. Are you, gentlemen, logical?
***
"The court sentenced the caretaker to 7 years in prison. Three years later, he was released and disappeared into the vast expanses of the Soviet Union."
That's right, he fell under the amnesty. The amnesty of 1956 is good, after all, these were innocent people imprisoned under Tirana who were freed. Or is it? Can anyone explain this logically?
***
"The children and two teachers were buried next to the burnt-down orphanage. Local residents erected a simple monument on the mass grave and planted flowers there..."
And where is the story that after this, those who planted flowers on the grave of the "children of the enemies of the people" were taken to the terrible MGB? Well, if you completely ignore logic and common sense and go all the way, you need to write something like that! They didn't do a good job...
Although the last episode is further proof that in this terrible tragedy, which happened because of the stupidity of one person, ordinary children died, without any political overtones. That's why there is a monument and flowers.
But there are people who really want to cynically use this terrible story for political and propaganda purposes. They have completely lost their conscience...
(c) A. Stepanov
Well, how can you not expose the "bloody tyrant Stalin"...
Hamas has released a list of 34 hostages presented by Israel to be exchanged in a possible ceasefire deal, according CBS News' partner, BBC. A senior Hamas official reiterated that any deal is contingent upon reaching an agreement on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a… pic.twitter.com/gRvpgo9Lvv
… withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. The ages of those on the list range from just one year old to 85 years old. It also includes children who Hamas previously said had been killed in an Israeli air strike.
@RamyInocencio reports.
PM Netanyahu has repeatedly said this is only the first step, not a permanent ceasefire, and that he will accept only living hostages in the first round, not bodies. In two weeks President Trump comes over the horizon, with the promise of horrible vengeance if Hamas doesn’t cough up all the American hostages. Iran can no longer help, and Allah clearly is uninterested, so the deus ex machina Hamas depended upon isn’t going to happen despite the Biden administration’s best efforts.
[IsraelTimes] US President-elect Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... reiterates his warning to Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... to release the hostages it is holding in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , in a radio interview with conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt.
Asked what he meant when he said previously that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages aren’t released before he takes office on January 20, Trump says: "Exactly what it says — if those hostages aren’t released by the time I get office there will be hell to pay."
"I don’t think I have to get into it... But it won’t be the word ’don’t,’ you know," he adds, referring to a warning made by US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing... on October 10, 2023, in a speech pledging support for Israel in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 atrocities.
"There will be hell to pay," he repeats, "Those hostages have to get out, they have to get out now."
Earlier in the interview Trump says, "I’m with Israel. I think that’s pretty obvious to everybody... I do have to add, I’m also for peace. It’s time. This fight’s been going on for a long time, longer than people would understand."
Remember the Jews of Nazi Germany, guys. Don’t do it.
[Regnum] The new Syrian authorities, during negotiations with representatives of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), demanded that they lay down their arms. This was reported on January 6 by the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, citing sources.
According to them, the new Syrian administration held two meetings with the PKK leadership, during which the Kurdish representatives demanded, in exchange for the surrender of weapons, that they be given a division or army corps in the Syrian army being created and that the oil fields in the north of the country, controlled jointly with the United States, be equally divided.
“The new authorities did not even discuss this issue, setting the PKK the condition to unconditionally lay down their arms,” the publication says.
“We have conquered. You are conquered and must submit,” is the entirety of their position, it seems. Possibly they mistake Kurds for Arabs.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on December 25, 2024, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that the PKK had no choice but to lay down their arms. He also promised to bury the Kurdish fighters along with these weapons if they did not.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK began in 1984. Ankara considers the group a threat to national security, regularly conducting raids against its supporters in the country and operations in northern Iraq and Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 19 that there is a possibility of Turkish military operations in Syria to push Kurdish forces back from the border. The head of state added that Ankara is trying to create conditions for the return of refugees from its territory to Syrian lands.
Unrelated from regnum.ru US Temporarily Eases Sanctions on Syria
The United States has temporarily allowed some financial transactions to be carried out with the new Syrian authorities, as well as transactions related to energy resources within the republic. This is evidenced by the license of the US Treasury Department published on January 6.
“Today, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Syria General License (GL) 24 to extend authorizations for activities and transactions in Syria beyond December 8, 2024. This action underscores the United States’ commitment to ensuring that U.S. sanctions do not interfere with activities that meet basic human needs, including the provision of government services or humanitarian assistance. This authorization is for a period of six months as the U.S. government continues to monitor the evolving situation on the ground,” the document, published on the Treasury Department’s website, says.
Thus, the US department lifted the ban on transactions with structures of the new Syrian authorities that were concluded after December 8, 2024. At the same time, sanctions were temporarily lifted with respect to operations on the supply of oil, gas and electricity within Syria. In addition, the US Treasury Department allowed operations to be carried out through the republic's central bank.
It is noted that the license expires on July 7, 2025. At the same time, the United States maintains a ban on operations that are carried out "in the interests of the authorities of Iran and Russia," including those transactions affecting the supply of goods, technologies, and services from these two countries. At the same time, previously introduced restrictions against oil imports from Syria to the United States remain in place, according to the license.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on December 30, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote that high inflation, Western sanctions and loss of control over oil fields are preventing the new Syrian authorities from restoring the country's economy.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier that former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had failed to cope with social problems in the country, including due to the destructive actions of the United States, which occupied the resource-rich northeast of Syria. The minister emphasized that it was the strangulation of the Syrian economy that contributed to social tension in the country, and Damascus had to resort to unpopular measures, including reducing subsidies for socially significant goods and services.
Russia has supported the Syrian government led by Assad in its fight against terrorist forces for several years. Moscow has pledged to provide support as long as the fighting is carried out by the Syrian state itself, President Vladimir Putin noted. Back in 2015, he emphasized that “we are not going to be more Syrian than the Syrians themselves.”
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Rebels from the Shiite movement Ansar Allah (Houthis) attacked the American aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman in the Red Sea with drones and missiles. This statement was made on January 6 by the representative of the Yemeni movement, Yahya Saria.
"The operation, carried out using two cruise missiles and four drones, disrupted the United States' preparations for a large-scale air strike on Yemen," Al Masirah TV quoted the movement's representative as saying.
In addition, the Houthis carried out two more drone strikes later in the evening, targeting a military facility in the Israeli port city of Jaffa and a “vital Israeli facility” in Ashkelon, Yahya Sari said. He added that the drones successfully reached their targets.
Betcha none of the weapons hit their targets this time, dear Reader, just like almost all Houthi attacks previously.
As reported by Regnum, the day before, Saria said that the Houthis had launched a rocket attack on the Orot Rabin power plant near the northern Israeli city of Haifa. The movement's military spokesman clarified that the strike was carried out in support of the Gaza Strip. He also added that the Houthis' military capabilities were "constantly evolving."
On January 3, the Ansar Allah movement also reported a missile strike on a power plant. The attack targeted a facility east of the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. In addition, the Houthis reported using drones to strike a "military target" located in the said settlement.
On January 1, the Ansar Allah movement reported the destruction of a US-made MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen. According to Yahya Sariyya, the drone was in the airspace of Marib province.
[IsraelTimes] The Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... claim to have launched four drones at Israel today.
In a statement, the Iran-backed terror group says it targeted a "military target" in the Tel Aviv area with two drones and a "vital target" near Ashkelon this afternoon, as well as another target near Tel Aviv this evening.
The IDF is unaware of any drones reaching Israel from Yemen today, and there have been no reports of impacts.
The Houthis also claim to have targeted the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman with several missiles in drones in the Red Sea.
You need rifles. One well aimed shot and your replacement for your rifle squad is little more than a scrap heap.
You need riflemen.
[Regnum] The Terminator tank support combat vehicle (BMPT), with the help of its weapons system, can replace an entire motorized rifle squad during an attack, which includes an infantry fighting vehicle (BMP-2M), riflemen, a machine gunner, and grenade launchers. This was reported on January 6 by the press service of the Rostec state corporation.
It is noted that the Terminator is a highly protected vehicle, the experience of using which in the special operation zone has shown that the BMPT is capable of withstanding multiple hits from enemy weapons without harm to the crew and its main systems.
The press service recalled that the Terminator is equipped with two 30 mm automatic cannons, guided missiles, machine guns and automatic grenade launchers, which gives the vehicle the ability to strike several targets at once. At the same time, in the special operation zone, the BMPT demonstrated high efficiency not only in covering tanks, but also as an independent assault combat unit capable of destroying enemy firing points and strongholds.
“In certain situations, the BMPT can replace a motorized rifle squad in an attack, which includes a BMP-2M infantry fighting vehicle, riflemen, a machine gunner, and grenade launchers,” the state corporation’s Telegram channel says.
Rostec added that the BMPT has no analogues in Western countries, just like the Russian heavy flamethrower system Solntsepёk.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on September 21, 2024, the Ministry of Defense spoke about the preparation of the Terminator crews before going into battle - they conduct training and improve their skills. It was noted that the BMPT crews practice high-speed driving and direct fire, as well as coordination with the crews of tank units.
In July 2023, the commander of the Terminator crew of the Southern Group of the Russian Armed Forces said that in one night his vehicle fired 400 shells at the positions of Ukrainian formations near Avdiivka. The strikes were carried out from a distance of 4 km using high-explosive fragmentation and armor-piercing tracer shells.
The BMPT Terminator is designed to operate as part of tank formations to destroy enemy anti-tank weapons. It is capable of destroying tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, long-term and tree-earth firing points, and other highly protected targets on the move and from a stationary position.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 19:12 Russianfighters spotted a T-72 in the Kursk region. Small but maneuverable drones literally surrounded the combat vehicle. The first, second, third hit - and the Ukrainian Armed Forces tank was left smoking on the road. 19:10 The Ministry of Defense published video of destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' manpower in the Khar'kov region.
19:04 Kadyrov reported destruction by the Akhmat special forces of the enemy T-64 tank.
18:02 Rosgvardia showed frames of destruction of Ukrainian Armed Forces equipment during one of the offensives on the Kursk region.
17:55 Key points from the Russian Defense Ministry briefing on Kursk Oblast:
- the actions of the "North" group of troops prevented the Ukrainian Armed Forces from breaking through. The enemy forces were destroyed on the approaches to the Berdin farm;
– The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 150 servicemen, four tanks, and two infantry fighting vehicles during an attempt to break through;
– The Russian Armed Forces defeated formations of five mechanized Ukrainian Armed Forces;
– over the course of a day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 485 servicemen, ten tanks and seven infantry fighting vehicles were destroyed;
– four Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen surrendered.
16:35 Air defense forces destroyed two Ukrainian aircraft-type drones over the Kursk and Belgorod regions, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
15:39 The Ukrainian Armed Forces' attempt to break through in the Kursk direction has been thwarted, the enemy's main forces have been destroyed near Berdino - Russian Defense Ministry.
15:38 Two children wounded in the attack by a Ukrainian drone in the Khar'kov region have been urgently transported to Moscow. The woman and two other children are undergoing treatment in Belgorod, said the head of the Ukrainian State Administration, Ganchev.
14:13 The main points from the new briefing of the Russian Ministry of Defense:
– On January 5, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to attack the Zaporizhzhya NPP using eight aircraft-type drones;
– losses in the area of ??responsibility of the “South” group, where the city of Kurakhovo was liberated, amounted to 265 soldiers and a Leopard tank per day;
– The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 550 soldiers in the area of ??responsibility of the West group of forces in one day;
– The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 150 soldiers in the area of ??responsibility of the “North” and “Dnepr” groups in one day;
– Russian air defense shot down a HAMMER bomb, 12 HIMARS rounds and 115 Ukrainian UAVs in one day;
– The Russian Armed Forces destroyed the infrastructure of military airfields and weapons depots of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
13:16 Russian military liberated the village of Dachenskoye in the DPR — Russian Defense Ministry.
12:24 A man was injured when a Ukrainian drone attacked a moving car in the Belgorod region, Governor Gladkov reported.
11:47 Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to attack the territory of the Belgorod region using about 40 UAVs - Governor Gladkov.
11:45 The main points from the Russian Defense Ministry’s statements on the liberation of Kurakhovo:
- the Ukrainian Armed Forces command turned Kurakhovo into a powerful fortified area. More than 15 thousand soldiers were concentrated for defense;
– the liberation of Kurakhovo deprived the Kiev regime of the opportunity to shell the civilian population of Donetsk with artillery systems;
– the establishment of control over Kurakhovo significantly complicated the rear and technical support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in the Donetsk direction;
- after the capture of Kurakhovo, Russian troops entered operational space, which will allow them to increase the pace of liberation of the DPR territory;
– the servicemen of the 5th and 110th motorized rifle brigades particularly distinguished themselves during the liberation of the city of Kurakhovo.
10:15 During the liberation of Kurakhovo, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost 80% of their personnel (more than 12,000 people), about 3,000 units of various weapons and military equipment, including 40 tanks, the Russian Defense Ministry reports.
10:13 As a result of the attack of a Ukrainian drone on the village of Rzhevaka in the Shebekinsky district, two civilians were wounded - Gladkov.
09:39 After 00:00, an attack by a UAV was recorded from the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the direction of: 03:20 – Gorlovka (Nikitovsky district): dropping of explosives from a UAV.
09:37 UAV crews of the Caspian naval infantrymen as part of the North group of forces reveal targets, adjust air strikes and artillery fire in the border area of the Kursk region.
During the next flight, the UAV operator detected a rotation of enemy personnel, the coordinates were immediately transmitted to the command post. The enemy was destroyed by fire from a tank of one of the motorized rifle units of the "North" group of forces.
08:19 Air defense forces destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
08:17 Air defense systems destroyed a Ukrainian missile over the territory of the Kursk region, the regional operational headquarters reported on its Telegram channel.
08:15 Our fighters finished off, an American armored vehicle International MaxxPro that was blown up by a mine, was captured with the help of FPV drones in the Kurakhovsky direction.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
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