[Garowe] A fishing vessel with links to China was released after two months in captivity, the Chinese embassy in Somalia confirmed, noting that 18 crew members were all recovered and are safe and sound after the worst ordeal in the deep waters.
In a statement published on X (formerly Twitter), the embassy said all crew members were rescued and are in 'good condition'. They were released following a close follow-up by the government of the People's Democratic Republic of China.
"The Chinese side strongly condemns this vicious action which threatened the safety of the crew and international navigation security, and will continue to firmly safeguard the lawful rights of Chinese citizens and enterprises overseas," the statement said.
Reports indicate the ship and its crew were hijacked in November 2024 and taken to Xaafuun district in the semi-autonomous state of 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... , a territory in Somalia’s northeast. The pirates who took the ship later demanded a ransom of $10 million, AP reports.
It was not immediately clear if the money was paid. But the pirates have often released such vessels after hefty payment is made to their close links to avoid possible trace by the international police and other investigation agencies.
The embassy statement said "the Chinese side maintained close consultation and coordination" with federal authorities in Somalia as well as the regional government of Puntland in efforts to rescue the ship and its crew.
Cases of piracy along Somalia’s coastline have often surged in recent months, with the groups soliciting huge amounts of money from their victims. But generally, the cases are not as significant as in the past when most piracy cases were reported along the Indian Ocean coastline.
Somalia has also been dealing with unregulated fishing along its 3,333 coastline, leading to the confiscation of some fishing vessels. The United States and other European nations have maintained a strong presence in Somalia waters solely to tackle the pirates.
Somalia has for years been blighted by piracy, which peaked in 2011 when the United Nations says more than 160 attacks were recorded off the Somali coast. Incidents have declined drastically since then, however, largely due to the presence of American and allied navies in international waters.
[ShabelleMedia] In an ambush assault on Kenyan security forces, a landmine explosion targeted a military convoy near the Kiyonga area in Kenya’s volatile northern region, killing at least five soldiers and wounding numerous others, local sources reported Saturday.
The attack, described as an ambush, struck one of the vehicles in the convoy, which was navigating through territory known for al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... activity.
The Somalia-based bully boy group al-Shabaab swiftly grabbed credit for the attack, underscoring their recent escalation of violence along the Kenyan-Somali border. This incident adds to a growing list of confrontations that have heightened security concerns in the region.
Despite the severe impact, the convoy managed to continue its journey, an indication of the military’s determination to maintain operational continuity in the face of such threats.
As of now, Kenyan security officials have not released an official statement confirming the details of the attack, including the exact casualty numbers. Local reports suggest that the number of injured personnel exceeds those killed, although specific figures remain unconfirmed pending a formal assessment by military authorities.
This attack comes at a time when al-Shabaab has been increasing its operations inside Kenya, particularly targeting security forces to undermine regional stability. The group has been known to use landmines and ambushes as part of their strategy to inflict maximum damage with minimal engagement.
The Kenyan government has long been engaged in counter-terrorism efforts against al-Shabaab, but the mostly non-existent border and the rugged terrain of the northern regions continue to pose significant challenges. Security experts have called for enhanced intelligence gathering and community engagement to curb the influence of such bully boy groups.
[IsraelTimes] The hostage-ceasefire deal could begin with the release of three hostages held by Hamas, following which the IDF will begin withdrawing from populated areas in Gaza, the BBC reports.
The report, citing a Palestinian official, says that after one week, Hamas will release another four hostages and Israel will begin allowing the return of displaced Gazans from the south to the north.
The report says they will be allowed to travel up the coastal road on foot only.
Cars, animal-drawn carts, and trucks will be allowed to cross through a passage adjacent to Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team, the report says.
The report also says that Israel will release 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including approximately 190 who have been serving sentences of 15 years or more.
The report says Hamas would free 34 hostages in the first phase. Israeli officials put the number at 33.
The Times of Israel has more here. But what odds, dear Reader, that Hamas blows the whole thing up before even the first hostage is returned? How much higher odds that it doesn’t last a week? A month?
Israeli officials: Deal will see 33 hostages freed in 1st stage, most of them alive. Negotiations to free remaining captives to begin on 16th day of potential ceasefire deal; talks advanced after ‘tense’ meeting between Netanyahu, Trump envoy, officials tell ToI.
“It will not happen. Period,” the statement reads.
Earlier today, the Saudi outlet Al-Hadath published an unconfirmed report that Hamas is demanding the body of Sinwar in the first stage of the hostage deal
Holding signs that read “You don’t have a mandate to surrender to Hamas,” the demonstrators urge the government not to sign a deal that will see Israel halt the fighting and free hundreds or even thousands of Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for hostages.
Others hold up pictures of their loved ones with the caption, “Their deaths command us to victory.”
Among those demonstrating are members of the hawkish Tikva forum, a group of hostage families who want Israel to use overwhelming force to bring down Hamas.
Good. Because this is only a small part of what they fund across the array of Black Bloc projects, all of which is actively evil.
[IsraelTimes] A New York nonprofit that facilitates funding for anti-Israel groups across the US says its survival is threatened by lawsuits.
WESPAC, a progressive nonprofit in Westchester County, serves as a financial clearinghouse for leading anti-Israel groups including National Students for Justice in Paleostine and Within Our Lifetime.
Since the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, Jewish groups and Congress have pressured WESPAC due to its anti-Israel activities. A lawsuit in New York court, for example, is suing WESPAC, NSJP and the leader of Within Our Lifetime for damages related to protests at Columbia University.
WESPAC sends out an "urgent request" to its supporters asking for funding to cover legal expenses, claiming the group is named in four lawsuits.
"WESPAC’s work has taken on enormous significance since October 7, 2023, as the injustice of apartheid has turned to genocide 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... ," the group says. "The well-funded forces of darkness are now waging legal warfare against us."
"The threat to WESPAC’s survival is real," the message says, asking for $90,000 from supporters to "protect WESPAC from the precipice."
In addition to private lawsuits, members of Congress have called for investigations into WESPAC’s nonprofit status, saying members of its network support Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... , a US-designated terror group.
WESPAC serves as a fiscal sponsor for anti-Israel groups that do not have nonprofit status themselves, an arrangement that allows WESPAC to receive and disperse tax-exempt donations for those groups. Fiscal sponsorships do not require financial disclosures from the recipients, allowing the anti-Israel groups to keep their finances out of public view.
WESPAC had nearly $2.4 million in revenue between September 2022 and August 2023, the most recent period for which tax filings are available.
At least that’s what they show in the account books they share with the IRS.
The group has served as a fiscal sponsor for more than a dozen anti-Israel groups across the US in recent years.
#1
Wouldn't it be neat if there was a Court Rule/Law.
If a person/group is proven to be abusing the court system for Politic agenda (LAWFARE) and not seeking actual for $$$ damages incurred, or Justice for a actual crime. Then that person or group, is automatically fined or sentenced 2x the amount they were seeking or demanded.
eg. Like Jack Smith, or Ms. Fanny, BLM, ANTI-FA etc. paying out
$$ Millions, and/ or having to serve say 10+ years in the accommodations they shalt to impose on others.
[IsraelTimes] Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim an overnight missile attack on Israel, saying they had launched a “hypersonic ballistic missile” into “occupied Jaffa,” a reference to the Israeli commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
The IDF said it had attempted an interception of the missile that set off sirens in a large swath of central Israel.
The launch came on the heels of a Monday night attack in which a projectile fired from Yemen was intercepted “prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” according to the military.
The Houthi rebels also claim they had launched four drones at Israel.
Israel reports all attempts failed completely. See here.
[IsraelTimes] Hind Rajab Foundation claims Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian guilty of genocide, war crimes for overseeing blockade on Gaza, citing ‘human animals’ comment made at start of war
An anti-Israel, pro-Paleostinian organization said it had asked Italian authorities to arrest a senior Israeli general allegedly visiting Rome, the latest in a string of attempts to target Israelis with criminal prosecution over the 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... The Hind Rajab Foundation,
…a project launched last October by the March 30 Movement, itself named in memory of the Palestinian general strike on that date in 1976 in the West Bank against the Israeli government, since referred to as Land Day. Both groups are lawfare boiler rooms generating endless laswsuits against Israelis and those who support Israel in Western Europe and elsewhere, and between times propagandizing against Israel using the currently fashionable far left shibboleths. March 30 is the hobby of lawyer Haroon Raza, appearing at the end of 2023, but at bottom it’s a Hezbollah front founded by Dyab Abou Jahjah (Dyab Abu Jahjah), a serial founder of Hezbollah fronts — his first, the Arab European League, was stirring up trouble between Moslem colonists and native Europeans since 2002……
which has sparked alarm in Israel by seeking the arrest of Israelis traveling abroad over alleged war crimes, claimed to have filed a case with unspecified "Italian authorities" against Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, a Defense Ministry body known by its acronym COGAT.
The foundation said it also filed a case with the International Criminal Court in the Hague against Alian, asking it to issue an international arrest warrant for "genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes."
There was no immediate comment from Italian judicial authorities or from The Hague on the request.
In a statement announcing the request, the foundation claimed that Alian played a key role in overseeing policies the ICC has previously deemed warrant the arrests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
"Following October 7, 2023, he supervised and enforced a total siege on Gaza, cutting off essential resources such as food, water, electricity and medical supplies," it said.
"Under Alian’s leadership, COGAT coordinated military actions that targeted civilian infrastructure and imposed collective punishment on Gaza’s population.".
COGAT is responsible for Israel’s day-to-day management of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the entry of humanitarian aid and other goods into the Strip.
The complaint also noted a statement made by Alian on October 10, 2023, in which he fumed at Gazooks celebrating the slaughter of Israelis days earlier and called the action of Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... bully boyz "not human."
"Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction," he said then. "You wanted hell, you will get hell."
[IsraelTimes] No injuries or damage reported after either launch; IDF says it succeeded in intercepting first missile and believes it thwarted second one too, but doesn’t say so with certainty
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... ’s Iran-backed 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... rebels launched ballistic missiles within hours of each other on Monday evening and early morning Tuesday, triggering sirens that forced hundreds of thousands of Israelis to rush into shelters
The IDF said it successfully intercepted the first missile around 6:30 p.m., which triggered sirens in numerous communities in the West Bank, Jordan Valley, Afula area and near Beit Shean due to fears of falling shrapnel.
The second missile was launched shortly after 3 a.m. on Tuesday, triggering sirens throughout the entirety of central Israel.
The IDF said it made several attempts to intercept the second missile and believes that it was successful, but it didn’t go as to say so with certainty.
There were no reports of injuries or damage from either launch.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said it did not receive reports of anyone directly injured by the night’s second Houthi missile launch or by falling fragments from Israeli interceptors. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... 11 people were maimed while running to shelters and four more were treated for panic attacks, MDA said.
Shortly after the first launch, the Iran-backed terror group issued a statement taking responsibility and claiming that it had aimed for a "vital target" in the Tel Aviv area. "The operation achieved its goal successfully," the Houthis falsely said.
According to the military, the Houthis have launched some 40 ballistic missiles at Israel since Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, starting the ongoing multifront war.
In the vast majority of the Houthis’ attacks, the missiles have been intercepted by Israeli air defenses, or have fallen short before reaching the country.
In one case, the military failed to shoot down a Houthi missile, and there were two incidents of partial interceptions, all of which resulted in damage and injuries in Israel.
Israel and Western allies have carried out several sorties against Houthi targets in Yemen, but they have failed to stem the attacks.
Most recently, on January 10, over 20 Israeli military aircraft — including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes — participated in strikes, dropping some 50 munitions on three main targets: the Hodeidah and Ras Isa ports on Yemen’s western coast, and the Hezyaz power plant near the capital Sanaa.
The Yemeni rebels have also been firing at ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden — destabilizing a vital shipping lane and prompting reprisal strikes by the United States and sometimes Britannia against Houthi targets. They have pledged to continue the attacks until there is a ceasefire 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...
[IsraelTimes] Initial probe finds troops were prepping for engineering activity when explosives detonated, collapsing building; Hamas-run agency claims at least 50 dead in strikes in Gaza City
Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed and 10 were maimed in a kaboom in 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... on Monday, the military said, raising Israel’s toll in over 15 months of fighting in the Strip to 407.
The announcement and reports in Gaza of scores killed in Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s underlined the fierce fighting still taking place in the enclave, even as negotiators in Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... were said to be nearing a deal that could end the war and free hostages held there since October 7, 2023.
The slain troops were all serving with the Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit.
They were named as Cpt. Yair Yakov Shushan, 23, from Ma’alot-Tarshiha; Staff Sgt. Yahav Hadar, 20, from Kfar Tavor; Staff Sgt. Guy Karmiel, 20, from Gedera; Staff Sgt. Yoav Feffer, 19, from Herzliya; and Staff Sgt. Aviel Wiseman, 20, from Poria.
On Monday evening, the IDF said it had presented the families of the five soldiers with an initial probe of the deadly incident, which found that the team of troops from the Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Unit had set out on Monday morning for a mission in the Beit Hanoun area.
They were inside a building and preparing to use explosives for engineering activity when the explosives detonated. As a result of the blast, the building the troops were in collapsed, killing the five soldiers.
The military said the cause of the earth-shattering kaboom was still under investigation.
Much of the heaviest fighting over the past several months has been in northern Gaza, where the IDF launched a fresh offensive in October to keep Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... faceless myrmidons from regrouping.
Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-controlled civil defense agency, said Israeli strikes pounded Gaza City throughout the day, hitting "schools, homes and even gatherings of people," killing at least 50.
The number could not be confirmed, and Hamas officials do not differentiate between civilians and combatants in their death tallies.
The civil defense agency claimed eleven people were killed and several others injured when an Israeli strike targeted a house in the city’s Shejaiya neighborhood, with the rest occurring in other strikes across Gaza City throughout the day.
There was no comment from the Israeli army.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israelis and Gazooks were hopeful Monday that the war could soon draw down, amid indications that mediators in Doha were nearing a deal to free 98 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and end the fighting in the Strip.
Among the key sticking points in the talks have been disagreements over a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the scale of humanitarian aid for the Paleostinian territory, the return of displaced Gazooks to their homes, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Paleostinian enclave and the reopening of border crossings.
[IsraelTimes] ‘There is broad support for a two-state solution, but the international community must do more,’ Norwegian FM says ahead of summit; new PA prime minister, UNRWA chief set to attend.
Oil prices will no doubt drop significantly under President Trump, and running the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an expensive hobby for the House of Saud.
[IsraelTimes] Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman announces plan to make concentrate used to prepare uranium fuel for nuclear reactors, after MBS said in 2018 that Riyadh would develop bomb if Iran does
Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... plans to monetize all minerals, including by selling uranium, Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Monday.
"We will enrich it and we will sell it and we will do a ’yellowcake,'" Prince Abdulaziz told a conference in Dhahran, referring to a powdered concentrate of the mineral used to prepare uranium fuel for nuclear reactors. It requires safe handling although it poses few radiation risks.
Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear program that it wants to expand to eventually include uranium enrichment, a sensitive area given its role in nuclear weapons. Riyadh has said it wants to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.
It is unclear where Saudi nuclear ambitions will end, since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... said in 2018 that the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if regional rival Iran did.
Fellow Gulf state the United Arab Emirates has the Arab world’s first multi-unit operating nuclear energy plant. The UAE has committed not to enrich uranium itself and not to reprocess spent fuel.
The kingdom said last year it planned to scrap light-touch oversight of its nuclear facilities by the UN atomic watchdog and switch to regular safeguards by the end of 2024.
Riyadh has yet to fire up its first nuclear reactor, which allows its program to still be monitored under the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an agreement with the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency that exempts less advanced states from many reporting obligations and inspections.
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NEW: The Colorado apartment complex that was taken over by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is set to close in about a month under an emergency court order
The city of Aurora had filed a lawsuit to declare the complex a criminal nuisance
[IsraelTimes] European Jewish Association head says 40K have already left Europe over antisemitism in recent years, with serious measures needed to ensure rest of community doesn’t follow.
The article unfortunately has none of the details that would interest us, like where they all went.
[IsraelTimes] Pezeshkian to sign accord during talks with Putin in Moscow days before Trump inauguration; similarly named pact with Pyongyang has seen North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... will host his Iranian counterpart this week for the signing of a "comprehensive strategic partnership" treaty between Moscow and Tehran, the Kremlin said Monday.
Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will discuss plans for expanding trade and cooperation in transport, logistics and humanitarian spheres along with "acute issues on the regional and international agenda," during a visit to Moscow Friday, Russia said.
Ukraine and the West have accused Tehran of providing Moscow with hundreds of exploding drones for use on the battlefield in Ukraine and helping launch their production in Russia. The Iranian drone deliveries, which Moscow and Tehran have denied, have allowed for a barrage of long-range dronezaps on Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Iran, in turn, wants sophisticated Russian weapons like long-range air defense systems and fighter jets to help fend off possible attacks by Israel. Both countries are heavily sanctioned by the US.
Tehran has long hoped to obtain advanced Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets from Russia to upgrade its aging fleet that’s been hobbled by international sanctions, but only received a few Yak-130 trainer jets in 2023.
Pezeshkian will visit Moscow three days before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... , who has pledged to broker a peace deal on Ukraine, but who is thought likely to take a harder line against Iran.
Tehran likely hopes to secure financial and defense promises from Moscow. Putin signed a similarly named treaty with North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... last year, further strengthening his alliance with Pyongyang.
Under that agreement, both sides committed to provide military assistance in case the other was invaded or attacked. North Korea has since sent thousands of soldiers to fight against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s western Kursk region, hundreds of whom have been killed or maimed, according to South Korean, Ukrainian and Western intelligence.
The West and Ukraine have also long accused North Korea of sending millions of artillery shells and missile components to Russia.
The trip comes with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... facing increasing pressure as Israeli military planners flirt with the possibility of taking action against the country’s nuclear program following previous strikes that knocked out many of its air defense batteries.
The last several months have also seen Iran’s so-called "axis of resistance" shattered after attempting to open up a multi-front war against Israel in support of the Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... terror group 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... Iran’s economy remains in tatters after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018, and also ordered the killing of an IRGC general in a dronezap in Iraq in early 2020.
At a summit of the BRICS group in Kazan last year, Putin told Pezeshkian he valued "truly friendly and constructive ties" between Russia and Iran.
However,
a clean conscience makes a soft pillow... there has been growing discontent over Russia within Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force answerable only to Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> Last week, an audio recording leaked into the Iranian media with a Guard general blaming Russia for many of the woes Iran had suffered in Syria.
On Friday, Iranian state TV showed the head of the Guards touring an underground missile plant in Iran and claiming that production had ramped up, denying claims that Israel’s strikes had harmed its ability to produce new weapons.
Iran was set to hold nuclear talks with La Belle France, Britannia and Germany in Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... on Monday. Since the US pulled out of the deal, Iran has enriched large stockpiles of uranium to 60 purity, a level with no civilian application, and only a short step away from weapons-grade levels.
In January, US news website Axios reported that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan had presented President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant.... with options for a potential US strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran moved toward developing an atomic weapon before January 20, when Trump takes office.
In his statement, Hegseth outlines three main priorities: bringing the "warrior ethos" back to the Pentagon, rebuilding the military, and reestablishing deterrence.
Below is a transcript of his remarks:
…As I've said to many of you in our private meetings, when President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was — to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense. He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That's it. That is my job.
To that end, if confirmed, I'm going to work with President Trump — and this committee — to:
Restore the Warrior Ethos to the Pentagon and throughout our fighting force; in doing so, we will reestablish trust in our military — and address the recruiting, retention and readiness crisis in our ranks. The strength of our military is our unity — our shared purpose — not our differences.
Rebuild our Military, always matching threats to capabilities; this includes reviving our defense industrial base, reforming the acquisition process (no more "Valley of Death" for new defense companies), modernizing our nuclear triad, ensuring the Pentagon can pass an audit, and rapidly fielding emerging technologies.
Reestablish Deterrence. First and foremost, we will defend our homeland — our borders and our skies. Second, we will work with our partners and allies to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific from the communist Chinese. Finally, we will responsibly end wars to ensure we can prioritize our resources — and reorient to larger threats. We can no longer count on "reputational deterrence" — we need real deterrence.
The Defense Department under Donald Trump will achieve Peace Through Strength. And in pursuing these America First national security goals, we will remain patriotically a-political and stridently Constitutional. Unlike the current administration, politics should play no part in military matters. We are not Republicans or Democrats — we are American warriors. Our standards will be high, and they will be equal (not equitable, that is a very different word).
We need to make sure every warrior is fully qualified on their assigned weapon system, every pilot is fully qualified and current on the aircraft they are flying, and every general or flag officer is selected for leadership based purely on performance, readiness, and merit.
Leaders — at all levels — will be held accountable. And warfighting and lethality — and the readiness of the troops and their families — will be our only focus.
That has been my focus ever since I first put on the uniform as a young Army ROTC cadet at Princeton University in 2001. I joined the military because I love my country and felt an obligation to defend it. I served with incredible Americans in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan and in the streets of Washington, D.C. — many of which are here today. This includes enlisted soldiers I helped become American citizens, and Muslim allies I helped immigrate from Iraq and Afghanistan. And when I took off the uniform, my mission never stopped.
It is true that I don't have a similar biography to Defense Secretaries of the last 30 years. But, as President Trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people atop the Pentagon with supposedly "the right credentials" — whether they are retired generals, academics, or defense contractor executives — and where has it gotten us? He believes, and I humbly agree, that it's time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm. A change agent. Someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives. …
4 hours ago
Katie Pavlich
Good morning and welcome to the first day of confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees. First up, U.S. Army veteran and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee at 9:30 a.m. eastern. We'll keep you up to speed with developments.
#3
The enemy doesn't care except to kill you. You must not allow anything to interfere with your ability to provide the enemy the same intent in return. Anything that degrades that ability works for the enemy.
#4
Many Sen Democrats complained he didn't meet personally with them. It would have changed heir mewling lies at NO point. They will vote against him even if he did. F*&k them
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/14/2025 18:37
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#5
He smokechecked the hearing. Great job by the first in the door!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/14/2025 19:05
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#6
Democrats complaining about him not wasting time meeting with them even though not one of them will vote to confirm him.
It's "The Resistance" all over again. The "Not My Presidnet" brigade is back.
Not that it will do them any good. President Trump crushed Harris in both the Electoral College and Popular Vote. He's more experienced this time and has a better machine in place.
#7
It is absolutely precious this comes on the heels, no pun intended, at the same time the LA Fire Diversity Hire Woman released a video clarifying her position about if you find yourself in a fire and can't self extract, you just found yourself in the wrong place and time, oopsies, she won't get you out of danger.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Staggering images appear to show around 100 fire trucks sitting idly in a Los Angeles repair lot as fires ravage the city.
The pictures, captured by a local activist, shows scores of essential firefighting vehicles sitting in the LA Fire Department's Bureau Of Supply and Maintenance lot on North Avenue 19 in the city's northeast.
LA fire chief Kristin Crowley said in an interview with CNN: 'We have over 100 fire apparatus out of service. Having these apparatus, and the proper amount of mechanics would have helped.'
The LAFD has a total of 183 trucks, meaning that more than half of the city's fire trucks are out of commission as the fires continue to burn through dense urban spaces, killing at least 24, displacing more than 200,000 and destroying over 12,000 buildings.
It comes just three months after the LAFD made a request to the city's council to replace the entire fleet at the cost of $96.5million.
The LAFD said in its request: 'Many vehicles have surpasses their expected service life, leading to increased maintenance costs, reduces parts availability and potential downtime.'
The fire service also requested more than $1.9million to restore 16 maintenance positions 'deleted' in last year's budget.
It said in its request: 'The positions support fleet maintenance, equipment engineering, purchasing and warehouse management and distribution.'
from footage aired on The Weather Channel, Jan. 8, 2024
"LA" may now stand for Legal Arson, approved by the authorities. and it may have to do with UN Agendas in ways previously unconsidered by most. Here’s why.
Over 45,000 square MILES have been burned, or 29% of the entire state of California
This is a land area which equals: >
100+% of each of entire states of IN, OH, VA, TN, ME, SC, WV, MD, VT, NH, MA, HI, CT, DE, AND R, as well as
92% of NORTH CAROLINA, and
91% of FLORIDA.
The destruction in this burn is over 2.5 times the size of Manhattan. As if that weren’t horror enough, we’re learning about what the Los Angeles and State officials are really up to.
The acting mayor of LA, MARQUEECE JOHNSON, waited 6 1/2 HOURS after Pacific Palisades had become an inferno, to issue a Local State of Emergency! Johnson is LA City Council President, an elected official. Marqueece must have been told to wait. Who would DO this, if they cared a fig about their fellow man — and electorate, nonetheless?? Johnson apparently understands that there will be no more elections in LA, so he is not at all worried about being voted out of office or sent to jail for his malfeasance.
Seems a lot of Angelinos have voted for their own demise, through their almost religious beliefs in myopic constructs of a fish, a DEI hire and other Green New Deal garbage. To the rest of the rational world, this is incredibly hard to comprehend.
The 3" fish, the snail darter, is really NOT so rare after all, and was removed from the "endangered species" list in 2022. The DEI movement has proven its own dangerous inefficacy. The utterly criminal leadership of Newsom, Bass and their gang, is shining bright, even to those formerly too blind to see. The evidence is now all around the residents of LA, much of it still smoldering. Delta Smelt
In addition to an elected public official waiting over 6 hours to declare an emergency, there’s more.
***Just before the Palisades fire erupted, residents caught an arsonist in the act. There have been reported to be many, but this one was caught and captured by people of the neighborhood he was torching. The nearest firefighting official was too busy doing his job to deal with the evidence, so asked them to turn him over to police. The citizens promptly did so. As I understand it, no one has yet been detained.
***Just before the Kenneth Fire erupted on Thursday, residents photographed a man on a bicycle dumping and lighting fuel with a blowtorch. When they yelled at him to STOP, he got stressed, the residents reported, and said he "had to" keep going. As he tried to pedal away, he kept yelling that. Furious citizens brought him down, tied him up and handed him over to police. This was as the fire was beginning to burn, Jan. 8.
***Authorities said there was not enough probable cause to arrest the man on suspicion of arson, but he has been charged with a felony probation violation. (Like Edgar Welch, the Pizzagate witness in NC?) The authorities said the suspect — whom residents who had brought, zip-tied, to the police, say he "lacked motive". The suspect was in his 20’s and spoke Spanish as a first language. Click on the article above.
Interesting. Might this kid, most probably an illegal working for a day’s pay, have been so stressed because he recognized the horror of what he was doing, but was (paid? forced?) to do so? One of the many millions of unanswered questions about this catastrophe which is sure to stay that way.
On Jan. 11, one neighborhood was reopened, and residents allowed in to see the smoldering ruins, and search for anything they might have left to save. This comes as burglars dressed as firefighters are among the thieves arrested as lawlessness in the city spirals during curfews and mandatory evacuation orders. I hear twenty or so have been arrested for looting.
WHY would authorities PLAN for such mass destruction? There are several horrid possibilities, all having to do with the UN AGENDAS. Oh, and, of course the 2028 Olympics.... The most evident reason of all seems to be a portion of the Globalist world control agenda called "C40", The UN C40 Cities Initiative. From their website:
Around the world, C40 mayors and the cities they lead are taking ambitious, collaborative and urgent climate action that aligns with science-backed targets. They work together across borders in order to protect people and communities everywhere, and build a more sustainable, resilient and equitable future.
This is happening in Florida as well. The "Live Local Act", recently passed in that state, supersedes local zoning restrictions. I’ve talked about it, though not by name, but by reference to development forces that have gone beyond citizen’s choices. Government, in a Constitutional Republic, must be OF and FOR the people. Not AT them.
C40 and the "Live Local" Act are good examples of the same type of "government vs citizens" game play. Hence, Fake Voter Guides and all the rest. Now, I hear that Tallahassee is shutting down groups of citizens who are members of no particular organization, if they want to come to a public meeting to hear about America First topics.
The Globalists have to use a different approach in Florida, as the population is too scattered to burn out or to destroy large numbers with hurricanes, so the taking away of Constitutional rights is done instead. Meetings are to be shut down, and votes, stolen by lies.
Los Angeles is easier pickings because of the density of its population — and its skulls, I’d add — and the natural conditions which have always been subject to a seasonal dryness and heavy winds. The Santa Anna Winds come every year. Once, there were a few fires when a BBQ grill got out of hand. Now, it’s a whole new world, thanks to that "soft treaty" (one not requiring Congressional approval) signed by Bush in 1992, which inserted the UN Agendas into every part of our lives.
"Pictured are 16 individuals arrested in Santa Monica for violating emergency orders - none of them are from the area, according to the Santa Monica Police Department. Six were found in possession of "burglary tools," according to the Santa Monica Police Department, while others were charged with violations ranging from drug possession to parole violations. Two were in possession of stolen handguns; others were in possession of stolen materials, according to the department. (Santa Monica Police Department)"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/14/2025 19:37
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#6
Help me with a rumor here:
CA passed a law if a structure burns down, if it isn't being rebuilt within 2 years, the property valuation is adjusted to today's valuation for tax purposes?
It doesn't make sense to me, as my property values and therefore tax valuation is done annually, but I am admittedly ignorant of such price fixing.
#7
"The police acted stupidly! Hate!"
A-- J--, captured crashing the gate
Of his coastal estate,
Blamed... the Jews. "Just you wait!
When I get outta jail... need a date?"
[Newsweek] U.S. Border Patrol apprehended a former mercenary on Saturday after he unlawfully crossed the Rio Grande near Roma in Texas.
According to Border Report, Timur Praliev, who previously served with Russia's notorious , crossed the Rio Grande on foot, carrying two passports, $4,000 and a drone.
Newsweek has contacted the for further comment via email outside of normal office hours.
Border security was a core component of President-elect Donald Trump's election campaign.
Trump has pledged to carry out the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history.
Praliev was a member of the Wagner Group, which has been a critical component in Russia's war against Ukraine, providing weapons and soldiers to the front, many of whom are former convicts pardoned in exchange for fighting in Ukraine.
The U.S. Treasury Department classifies the Wagner Group, which was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a criminal organization.
WHAT TO KNOW
When questioned by agents, Praliev claimed to be "a citizen and national of Kazakhstan," according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
Praliev was discovered with a Russian passport, a Kazakh passport, $4,000, and 60,000 pesos.
Border Patrol agents discovered a drone inside his backpack.
It remains unclear at this stage what Praliev specifically did for the Wagner Group or why he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border carrying a drone.
The Congressional Research Service reported that Wagner "has played a key role in Russia's war in Ukraine and operates in multiple countries, particularly across Africa."
Border Patrol charged Praliev with illegally entering the U.S., a federal misdemeanor, to which he pleaded guilty.
Praliev appeared before a judge at the federal courthouse in McAllen, Texas, on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutor McColgan requested a 15-day sentence, expressing concern for community safety upon the defendant's release because of his ties to a group linked to political violence.
U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker questioned whether Praliev's connection to the Wagner Group warranted the length of his sentence for illegally crossing the border. He also stated that, instead of being released, Praliev would remain in federal custody following the completion of his sentence.
[FoxNews] NATO responds to underwater cable threat in Baltic with ships, drones, AI under new joint security plan
Attacks on underwater cables running through strategically significant bodies of water in both the Baltic Sea and the South China Sea by Russia and China, respectively, in recent months has top officials concerned they are not "mere coincidence."
Maritime sabotage efforts in both regions of the world appear to have been on the rise over the last several years, with a notable spike in recent months after at least three separate attacks occurred in as many months, beginning in November, and the top suspects are Russia and China.
"The Kremlin has been running a hybrid campaign against Europe for years, ranging from spreading disinformation and cyberattacks to weaponizing energy supplies. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, these efforts have intensified dramatically," EU High Representative Kaja Kallas told Fox News Digital. "However, Russia is not the only challenge we face."
In November, two cables under the Baltic Sea were severed, and a Chinese-flagged commercial ship dubbed the Yi Peng 3 was stopped by Danish naval forces and made to anchor at sea while international authorities began investigating the incident.
The Chinese ship, which is reported to have left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15, was discovered to have dragged its anchor for over 100 miles along the Baltic seabed, cutting an undersea cable that connected Sweden and Lithuania on Nov. 17 as well as the only communication cable connecting Finland with Germany on the 18th.
The incident rang eerily similar to an October 2023 event in which a Chinese ship dubbed the NewNew Polar Bear, was found to have dragged anchor, again, over 100 miles in the Gulf of Finland and damaged the Balticconnector gas pipeline as well as two telecommunications cables between Sweden and Estonia.
While Beijing has denied any intentional wrongdoing in either incident, targeting international undersea cables is not a new tactic for China to employ.
Taiwan last week began investigating whether a China-linked ship was responsible for intentionally damaging one of its cables that connect the island with the internet, and Taipei has taken steps to increase its low-orbit satellite network in a move to circumvent future attempts by Beijing to cut it off from the international community by targeting its fiber-optic cables.
But the tactics China has long employed against Taiwan are now being optimized in the Baltic Sea. The U.S. Defense Department has been warning of China's plans to invade and annex the neighboring island nation by 2027.
That seems awfully targetted…
"Chinese vessels have now been implicated in the recent damage to Baltic Sea cables, something we have seen in [the] Taiwan strait for years," the EU’s top diplomat told Fox News Digital. "Considering China’s vast support for Russia in its war against Ukraine, it is difficult to view these incidents as mere coincidences.
"China is closely monitoring our response to Russia’s war. The U.S. must be strong on Russia to prevent trouble with China," Kallas warned. "Supporting Ukraine today helps keep American forces out of future conflicts."
But China isn’t the only country suspected of sabotaging international undersea cables.
A vessel accused of being tied to Russia has been seized by Finland, which is investigating a suspected attack that damaged four telecommunications and the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power cables on Christmas Day by, again, dragging its anchor across the seabed.
[FoxNews] Rep Anna Paulina Luna says President-elect Donald Trump backs her effort.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is unveiling a new set of bills that could have child sexual predators facing the death penalty.
"If you are raping someone, if you're molesting someone, you are essentially murdering their soul. Those people never actually fully recover. I've actually sat on a committee with a very prominent [female House Democrat] who actually talked about the fact that she was molested as a child. And so you can see that it impacts and really hurts people," Luna said.
Two of her three bills, all of which are being introduced in the 119th Congress on Tuesday, would require sentences of death or at least life imprisonment for those charged with a wide range of crimes related to children.
A third bill would require guilty verdicts of rape and sexual abuse against adults to carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years to life in prison.
Luna told Fox News Digital she broached the topic with President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend, who she suggested was enthusiastic about the idea.
"I got the impression that he absolutely is supportive of anything in this sector," Luna said.
The Florida congresswoman was among the members of the House Freedom Caucus who met with Trump over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
She said they also discussed Trump potentially signing an executive order levying the death penalty for pedophilia-related crimes but that it would likely be impossible to accomplish that way.
"He would be willing to sign an [executive order]. But the fact is, is that it has to go through Congress first. So it would have to come to his desk that way," she said.
Luna first introduced the bills in the last Congress when Democrats controlled half of Congress as well as the White House. They failed to get much traction, however, and ultimately never saw a House-wide vote.
She suggested that the death penalty aspect could have put some people off of an issue that otherwise could get wide bipartisan support, but she argued that child predators "cannot be rehabilitated."
"If you are going to continue to push forward in a moral society, [then] you need to ensure that people like this, that are predators, are taken off the streets permanently," Luna said.
#5
One of the arguments against people who rape children being given the death penalty, is that if they know they are going to get the death penalty, they no longer have a good reason to keep their victim alive.
WASHINGTON (7News); Inauguration Day in D.C. is on Monday, Jan. 20. Our first look at what to expect with your weather is hinting at a return of some very cold air.
----------- Probably in the 20sF for the parade this year. FWIW, Reagan in 1981 had temps in the 50sF and in 1985 temps in the 10sF. In 1961 there was a snowstorm the day before the inauguration.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/14/2025
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#1
OUT 2021: "We'll make it a cold day in hell before we let that man come back"
[DW] The University of Michigan, which has worked with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Communist China since 2005, suddenly announced it was ending the partnership.
Last October 31, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, wrote a letter to University of Michigan President Santa J. Ono, warning him of the risks of a partnership with the Chinese university. His letter came in the wake of five Chinese nationals from the Joint Institute studying at the University of Michigan being charged with deliberately concealing their unauthorized visit to Camp Grayling in northern Michigan. Those nationals came from China to Michigan as students through the joint institute partnership.
"Shanghai Jiao Tong plays a critical role in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military-civil fusion strategy," Moolenaar wrote. "Through its extensive military-aligned departments and laboratories, advanced dual-use research programs, and large-scale operational training platforms, Shanghai Jiao Tong drives the PRC’s military modernization and intelligence capabilities. For example, the university is currently home to several national-level laboratories, including three defense-related laboratories. This military-academic integration enables Shanghai Jiao Tong to make significant contributions to the PRC’s most sensitive defense programs, including nuclear weapons, carrier rockets, satellites, nuclear submarines, and fighter jets."
"Research performed at the Joint Institute advances the PRC’s defense and intelligence capabilities," he added. "For example, Institute researchers have helped the PRC achieve advancements in defense technologies from propellant combustion modeling and solid rocket fuel research to anti-corrosion technology for military aircraft developed with People’s Liberation Army (PLA) researchers. They have worked on projects to improve CT imaging technology for detecting flaws in advanced military equipment, which appears to have leveraged Department of Defense- funded research from University of Michigan faculty."
[Zero] While the FBI - the same FBI that participated in the Russiagage hoax, polarizing half of America into focusing on the Kremlin for a decade, the Chinese government - the same one that enriched the Biden family to the tune of millions, has apparently been 'lying in wait' all over America and is ready to attack critical infrastructure at a moment's notice.
According to outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray in a Sunday appearance on "60 Minutes," - "The Chinese government is prepositioning on American civilian critical infrastructure to lie in wait on those networks to be in a position to wreak havoc & inflict real world harm at a time & place of their choosing."
If I were the media, my next question back at him would be.
So, just what the hell have you done about it? Or, was there a matter of Hunters Art Work sells/bribes from them and others. Plus. Did his daddies blanket pardons for the criminal acts, get in the way?
Either way.
It is amazing what we are learning, as various DC Deep Swampers are being forced to leave their private little kingdoms.
#6
Exactly what so many here have suggested, and yet only NOW is this being revealed publicly. Every aspect of this regime has put protecting Biden et al above duty and honesty. Duty, Honor, Courage are alien concepts to him and those of his ilk!
[TIME] WASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith said his team "stood up for the rule of law" as it investigated President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, writing in a much-anticipated report released Tuesday that he stands fully behind his decision to bring criminal charges he believes would have resulted in a conviction had voters not returned Trump to the White House.
"The throughline of all of Mr. Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit—knowingly false claims of election fraud—and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States’ democratic process," the report states.
The report, arriving just days before Trump is to return to office on Jan. 20, focuses fresh attention on his frantic but failed effort to cling to power in 2020. With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump’s election victory, the document is expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of a dark chapter in American history that threatened to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, a bedrock of democracy for centuries, and complements already released indictments and reports.
Trump responded early Tuesday with a post on his Truth Social platform, claiming he was "totally innocent" and calling Smith "a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election." He added, "THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!"
[NY Post] A Muslim cleric who refused to call Hezbollah a terrorist organization and has a “significant history of extremism” has been tapped to deliver a benediction at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
Husham Al-Husainy, the imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center in Dearborn, Mich., is among four religious leaders listed in an Inauguration Day program, obtained by the Washington Reporter on Monday, who are scheduled to speak immediately after Trump’s Jan. 20 address.
The Middle East Forum, a conservative nonprofit focused on Islamic issues, has described Al-Husainy as “a radical anti-Semitic, pro-Hezbollah Shia imam” with “a significant history of extremism.”
The group claims that Al-Husainy hosted a 2015 rally at the Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center where he “wished death upon Saudi Arabia” for its military intervention in Yemen.
Al-Husainy also attended a 2006 “pro-Hezbollah rally” in Dearborn, during which he allegedly held a photo of then-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on stage, according to the Islam watchdog.
Nasrallah was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon last September.
A year later – after Al-Husainy delivered a controversial invocation at the Democratic National Committee’s 2007 winter meeting – Fox News host Sean Hannity blasted the imam for suggesting US forces were “oppressors and occupiers.”
Al-Husainy denied he was making a veiled reference to the United States or the Iraq War when he asked God to “help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation” at the DNC event.
When asked by Hannity to “admit that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization,” Al-Husainy refused.
“That is your explanation,” he responded during his 2007 “Hannity and Colmes” appearance.
“Hezbollah is a Lebanese organization. And I’ve got nothing to do with that,” Al-Husainy added.
“But there is a biblical meaning of Hezbollah. It is in Judaism and Christianity and Islam meaning people of God and that means yes,” he explained – dodging Hannity’s repeated attempts to pin him down on answering whether the group was a terrorist organization.
The US State Department designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in October 1997.
Al-Husainy, who is Iraqi American, voiced his support for Trump, 78, last October during a Republican media call, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“I am supporting Donald Trump because he opposes gay marriage and he is the most Christian person in the election,” Al-Husainy said of his support for the 45th president. “He will return us to conservative values, and I am a Muslim and I will stand with whoever opposes gay marriage.”
Trump has not called for a federal ban on gay marriage.
The Post attempted to reach out to Al-Husainy for comment.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
#1
Calling this Imam 'extremist' is incorrect IMHO.
He is an advocate of Islamic theocratic totalitarian despotism and an enemy of human rights and civil rights as defined by Western Civilization.
But this position is mainstream in the Islamic world. It is a position held by many Islamic states including those who are the leading forces in the OIC.
It is also a position as least tolerated by a majority in the UNGA.
[Townhall] Elon Musk's ambitious push to reshape America's financial landscape took a bold step forward this week. His first "DOGE Agents" arrived in Washington, D.C., with a clear target: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS ...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies... ). These agents are aiming squarely at the agency's grip on taxation and regulation of digital currencies. As Americans watch closely, many see this as a much-needed pushback against bureaucratic overreach. In contrast, others warn that Musk’s growing influence could open the door for unchecked corporate power over public policy.
According to reports, the newly established government agency already has 50 employees working for DOGE out of SpaceX’s Washington offices, configuring ways to lessen the government’s spending. The agents have reportedly been hard at work interviewing more than a dozen executive branch departments, including the U.S. Treasury, IRS, Departments Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services.
The "nongovernmental" body, directed by Musk and Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, aims to cut up to $2 trillion from the federal budget by eliminating redundancies, scaling back the workforce, and dissolving unnecessary agencies.
According to Vinay Hiremath’s blog post, the co-founder of tech company Loom, who worked for DOGE for four weeks, the group has gone "from 0 to 100 taking meetings and getting s*** done."
"Within 2 minutes of talking to the final interviewer for DOGE, he asked me if I wanted to join. I said 'yes'. Then he said 'cool,' and I was in multiple Signal groups," Hiremath wrote. "I was immediately acquainted with the software, HR, and legal teams. The next 4 weeks of my life consisted of 100s of calls recruiting the smartest people I’ve ever talked to, working on various projects I’m definitely not able to talk about, and learning how completely dysfunctional the government was. It was a blast."
DOGE hopes to reach at least 100 employees in the next several weeks. The DOGE X account wrote a post to the account seeking full-time salaried Software Engineers and InfoSec Engineers.
"'Recruiting for a very small number of full-time salaried HR, IT, and Finance positions," the DOGE X account posted. 'If interested, please DM us your resume and a few bullet points about why you are interested in DOGE."
[NAHARNET] Israel carried out air strikes in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... Sunday, targeting areas in the east and south according to Lebanese state media, with the Israeli military saying it hit Hezbollah targets including smuggling routes along the border with Syria.
The Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s placed further strain on a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed turban group, which came into effect on November 27.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said Israeli aircraft targeted the outskirts of Janta in the eastern Baalbek region as well as an area between Houmine al-Fawqa and Deir al-Zahrani in the south. It did not say whether there were casualties.
The Israeli military said it struck a number of targets it had presented to ceasefire monitors as threats.
"Among the targets struck were a rocket launcher site, a military site, and routes along the Syria-Lebanon border used to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah," it said.
The strikes come just two weeks before the January 26 deadline for implementing the November ceasefire, which both sides have accused the other of violating.
The Israeli military statement said it was operating "in accordance with the ceasefire understandings."
Under the terms of the deal, Hezbollah is to dismantle its remaining military infrastructure in the south and pull its forces back north of the Litani River, around 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon this month accused Israel of a "flagrant violation" of the Security Council resolution which forms the basis of the ceasefire.
Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed five people on Friday, according to the Lebanese health ministry, with the Israeli military saying it targeted a Hezbollah weapons truck.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2025
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#1
(a) No more one sides ceasefires. (b) Death to UN!
[NAHARNET] Syria's new ruler and Lebanon's prime minister have pledged to build lasting ties during the first visit by a Lebanese head of government to Damascus since the civil war started in 2011.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati's trip came after Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month, bringing an end to the rule of Bashar al-Assad.
Previous Lebanese governments refrained from visits to Syria amid tensions at home over militant group Hezbollah's support for Assad during the conflict.
Syria's new leader Ahmad al-Sharaa said he hoped to turn over a new leaf in relations, days after crisis-hit Lebanon finally elected a president this week following two years of deadlock.
"There will be long-term strategic relations between us and Lebanon. We and Lebanon have great shared interests," said Sharaa.
It was time to "give the Syrian and Lebanese people a chance to build a positive relationship," he said, adding he hoped Joseph Aoun's presidency would usher in an era of stability in Lebanon.
Sharaa said the new Syria would "stay at equal distance from all" in Lebanon, and "try to solve problems through negotiations and dialogue."
Mikati said ties should be based on "mutual respect, equality and national sovereignty."
The new authorities in Syria also said Sharaa had phoned Aoun to congratulate him Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2025
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#1
Arabs swearing eternal friendship - this should be interesting.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22.54 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky introduced new sanctions against Russia's financial sector on January 13, affecting 140 entities. This was stated in Zelensky's evening address and on the website of the President's Office.
22.34 Ukraine will have to address the issue of reducing the age of mobilization of citizens. This was stated in an interview with Bloomberg by the current US President's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who reported that he discussed this issue with representatives of Donald Trump's team.
22:13 A team of Deepstate analysts, in cooperation with a unit of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, identified a Russian commander who ordered his subordinates to behead a Ukrainian prisoner of war in June 2024. It is noted that the Russian military man has a pseudonym Sber and is the commander of the assault company of the Storm detachment of the 394th MRR of the 127th MSD of the 5th Army. The occupier's name is Dmitriy Anatolyevich Chikhabakh.
21:49 NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes that the future of global security depends on the outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In order to achieve sustainable peace, it is necessary to increase military aid to Ukraine. This is stated in his statement in the European Parliament.
18:49 Ukraine views the presidency of US President-elect Donald Trump, who will enter the White House next week, as an "additional opportunity." This was stated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha in an interview with ARD TV channel. The common goal of Ukraine and the US in achieving peace and their views on achieving it coincide, the minister noted.
18.46 Since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Ukraine has received 36 PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzers from international partners, 25 of which were provided by Germany. This was reported on the website of the German Defense Ministry.
18.15 In Vinnytsia, a conflict occurred involving a police officer, servicemen of the TCC and SP, and civilians during the detention of a 40-year-old man who escaped from the TCC. Law enforcement officers are currently conducting an investigation, the police press service reports .
16:54 Since the beginning of the day, Russian invaders have attacked the positions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces 94 times. The enemy is most active in the Pokrovsk direction, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in an operational report as of 16:00.
16:25 Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov arrived on a working visit to the United Kingdom and met with the country's Defense Minister John Healey. According to him, increased military, political and economic assistance to British allies is expected.
16:19 In December, Belarus redeployed units of its army to the border with Ukraine, which had been previously withdrawn from there. Currently, there are about 1,500 troops there, the monitoring group Belaruski Gayun reports.
15:29 Military engineering and fortification structures have been built in the Kiev region , they are already ready to perform defense tasks. This was reported on January 13 by the acting head of the Kiev regional military administration Mykola Kalashnik.
13:46 Up to 400 thousand people left Ukraine in 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Economy . The largest number of Ukrainians was recorded in countries such as Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and France.
13:35 A Russian agent involved in the drone attack on the government quarter has been exposed in Kiev. On December 31, the suspect recorded a checkpoint in the government quarter and passed a photo with precise GPS coordinates to her Russian handler, the SBU reported .
12:09 Ukrainian intelligence has exposed data on 79 Russian enterprises involved in cooperation in the production and supply of drones for the war against Ukraine. This was reported by the press service of the Main Intelligence Directorate on Monday, January 13.
10:52 Russian military allegedly repelled an attack by nine drones on the Russkaya compressor station in Gai-Kodzor (Krasnodar Krai, Russia), which supplies gas via the Turkish Stream pipeline. Moscow accused Kiev of attempting to allegedly stop natural gas supplies to European countries.
10:31 Ukrainian Special Operations Forces fighters repelled an assault by North Korean troops in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation and killed 18 enemy soldiers. One North Korean fighter tried to deceive the Special Operations Forces soldiers and blow himself up with them on a grenade.
9:56 On the night of January 13, the Russian Federation used 110 Shahed-type attack unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drone imitators against Ukraine. The Air Defense Forces managed to destroy 78 of them.
9:47 The Russian army continues to carry out offensive operations along almost the entire front line. In particular, assaults have been recorded in the Kharkiv direction. This was reported by the OSGV Khortytsya.
8:42 The enemy exerted the greatest pressure over the past 24 hours, January 12, in the Pokrovsk direction. In total, 140 combat clashes took place on the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
7:46 Over the past 24 hours, from January 12 to 13, the Russian Federation lost 1,510 of its soldiers on the front. This is evidenced by data from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
7:27 The losses of North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region continue to grow and already amount to 3,000 people. This was reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing a briefing by the country's intelligence service.
02:55 For the first time since the start of a full-scale war, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have come close to surpassing the Russians in the use of tanks. But this only applies to certain sections of the front, writes Forbes military observer David Ax. He cites the highly effective operation of Ukrainian FPV drones as the main reason for this: if the Russians try to send tanks to attack, Ukrainian drone operators usually burn them before they reach the line of fire.
01:28 A fire broke out in a children's health center in Sumy due to falling debris from a Russian UAV. The consequences of the enemy attack are still being clarified, but according to preliminary data, there are no casualties.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
Traditionally, the hottest part is in the Pokrovsky direction. There, Russians carried out 40 attacks in the areas of 21 settlements.
Since the beginning of the day, Russian invaders have attacked the positions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces 94 times. The enemy is most active in the Pokrovsk direction, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in an operational report as of 16:00 on Monday, January 13.
Thus, in the Kupyansk direction, the enemy twice advanced near Lozovaya and Dvurechnaya. Both clashes are still ongoing.
In the Liman direction, enemy units continued to attack in the areas of the settlements of Novosergeevka, Zeleny Gai, Pervomayskoye, Makeyevka, Zarechnoye and Terny. Our soldiers have already repelled nine attacks, and another clash is ongoing.
In the Seversky direction, three assaults near Belogorovka were repelled.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the enemy attacked 11 times in the area of Chasovy Yar and Stupochki. Five more clashes are still ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, there were 12 enemy attacks in the areas of Belaya Gora, Krymskoye and Toretsk. One combat clash continues.
Traditionally, the hottest part is in the Pokrovsk direction : the invaders have already carried out 40 attacks in the areas of the settlements of Baranovka, Zelenoe Pole, Elizavetovka, Tarasovka, Novaya Poltava, Novotoretske, Lisovka, Mirnograd, Zelenoe, Novy Trud, Pokrovsk, Shevchenko, Udachnoye, Novovasilovka, Novoandreyevka, Slavyanka, Serebryanoye, Kurakhovo and Yantarnoye. The defense forces repelled 26 enemy attacks, 14 clashes are ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the Russians launched five offensives near the settlements of Razliv, Vremovka and Neskuchnoye. Ten clashes are still ongoing.
In the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, 10 attacks by Russian troops were repelled.
Let us recall that on January 12, Russia lost more than 1,500 fighters . The Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed almost 300 units of military equipment, including air defense and police assets.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] Crimes against media and journalists committed by Russia, IMI experts recorded in 17 regions of Ukraine.
In particular, as a result of the Russian Federation's aggression against Ukraine in 2024, according to IMI, 24 media workers died, two of them while performing journalistic activities and 22 as participants in military operations.
The number of cases of violations of freedom of speech in Ukraine in 2024 increased to 268, of which 155 crimes were committed by the Russian Federation as a result of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This is evidenced by the annual results of the monitoring study of the Institute of Mass Information (IMI) "Barometer of Freedom of Speech".
In 2023, IMI recorded 150 violations of freedom of speech in Ukraine, 67 of which were committed by the Russian Federation as a result of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, 567 violations of freedom of speech were recorded in Ukraine, of which more than 80% (470 crimes) were committed by the Russian Federation.
At the same time, in 2024, IMI experts recorded 113 violations of freedom of speech for which the Ukrainian side is responsible. This number is more than in 2023, when IMI recorded 83 violations of freedom of speech. In 2022, there were 97 violations, in 2021 - 197, in 2020 - 229 cases.
The main categories of violations for which Ukrainian citizens are responsible in 2024 were: cyberattacks – 23 (in 2023 – 11 cases); obstruction of legitimate journalistic activity – 21 (in 2023 – 29 cases); indirect pressure – 19 (in 2023 – 3); restriction of access to public information – 18 (in 2023 – 20). In general, in 2024, the journalists’ right to practice their profession was most often violated by private individuals, local governments, law enforcement officers, central and executive authorities, the judiciary, etc.
Violations were recorded in 22 regions of Ukraine, with Kyiv leading the way with 39 cases recorded.
"The most high-profile cases of the year were, in particular: cases of persecution of investigative journalists - Bigus.Info, Slidstvo.Info ; censorship in Ukrinform ; attempts to throw Suspilne out of the single telethon," the IMI emphasized.
As a result of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2024, according to the organization, 24 media workers were killed (in 2023 - 27), two of them while performing journalistic activities and 22 as participants in military operations. In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, the occupiers have killed 95 media workers, 12 of them while performing professional journalistic activities.
In addition, in 2024, at least 15 journalists from foreign and Ukrainian media were injured as a result of Russian shelling, in 2023 there were at least 10 such cases. In 2024, Russian shelling destroyed or damaged eight media outlets. Five journalists were publicly known to have been kidnapped by Russians.
Other Russian crimes recorded on Ukrainian territory in 2024 include the kidnapping and wounding of journalists, threats and intimidation of journalists, damage to media outlets, attacks on TV towers, cybercrimes, shutdown of Ukrainian channels, and legal pressure. IMI also recorded three waves (in October, November, and December) of anonymous threats to mine a number of editorial offices and institutions in different regions of Ukraine in 2024. Russian hackers hacked Ukrainian TV channels and launched their propaganda on them, and attacked websites of both national and regional media.
Crimes against the media and journalists committed by Russia were recorded by IMI experts in 17 regions of Ukraine.
In addition, IMI added, Ukrainian media continue to close as a result of the financial crisis and staff shortages caused by full-scale Russian aggression.
Let us recall that the Bihus.Info publication stated that it had identified those who carried out the operation to install hidden cameras in hotel rooms where the publication's editorial office was located on December 27, 2023. This was done thanks to video from the security cameras of the recreation complex.
The SBU reported that they made certain personnel decisions in the department for the protection of the national state after the scandal with the surveillance of Bihus.Info journalists.
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 inflicted losses on formations of one motorised infantry brigade of the AFU and one territorial defence brigade near Liptsy and Volchansk (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 35 troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles, five field artillery guns, including one U.S.-made Paladin self-propelled artillery system.
Units of the Zapad Group of Forces improved the tactical situation along the front line and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of one tank brigade, three mechanised brigades, one assault brigade, one airmobile brigade of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades near Dvurechnaya, Zapadnoye, Boguslavka, Olgovka (Kharkov region), Novomikhaylovka, and Torskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 515 troops, four infantry fighting vehicles, 14 motor vehicles, and 12 artillery guns, including one UK-made 155mm Braveheart self-propelled artillery system. One ammunition depot was wiped out.
Units of the Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions and inflicted losses on formations of three mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, one assault brigade, and one air assault brigade of the AFU near Kramatorsk, Dachnoye, Kurdyumovka, Novomarkovo, Chasov Yar, Belaya Gora, and Konstantinovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 285 troops, five armoured fighting vehicles, 14 motor vehicles, two artillery guns, and one ammunition depot.
As a result of decisive actions, units of the Tsentr Group of Forces liberated Peschanoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
Losses were inflicted on manpower and hardware of eight mechanised brigades and two national guard brigades near Dzerzhinsk, Shcherbinovka, Dimitrov, Vozdvizhenka, Lysovka, Novovasilevka, Petropavlovka, and Novoyelizavetovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 615 troops, seven armoured fighting vehicles, including one U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, one French-made VAB armoured personnel carrier, and one U.S.-made MaxxPro armoured fighting vehicle. Nine field artillery guns, including one UK-made 155mm Braveheart self-propelled artillery system and one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer, were destroyed.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces continued advancing to the depth of the enemy's defences and inflicted losses on formations of four mechanised brigades of the AFU and three territorial defence brigades near Konstantinopol, Velikaya Novoselka, Neskuchnoye, and Bogatyr (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 210 troops, one tank, one U.S.-made HMMWV armoured fighting vehicle, five motor vehicles, and one UK-made 155mm Braveheart self-propelled artillery system.
Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of one mechanised brigade, one infantry brigade, and two coastal defence brigades of the AFU near Pridneprovskoye, Antonovka (Kherson region), Malaya Tokmachka, and Malye Shcherbaki (Zaporozhye region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 80 troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, four motor vehicles, four field artillery guns, including one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer. Two electronic warfare stations and one ammunition depot were wiped out.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, and Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces struck infrastructure of military airfields, as well as engaged manpower and hardware of the enemy in 157 areas.
Air defence units shot down two French-made Hammer guided aviation bombs, six U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles, and 83 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 652 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 40,215 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,512 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,508 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,545 field artillery guns and mortars, and 30,218 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise an enemy group, which broke into the territory of Kursk region.
Units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted losses on formations of one tank brigade, four mechanised brigades, three air assault brigades, one naval infantry brigade, and two territorial defence brigades of the AFU near Viktorovka, Goncharovka, Guyevo, Kositsa, Kubatkin, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Nikolayevka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Novaya Sorochina, Pogrebki, Sverdlikovo, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye. Five enemy counter-attacks were repelled.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the enemy near Bondarevka, Dmitryukov, Kruglenkoye, Pervy Knyazhy, Martynovka, Melovoy, Mikhaylovka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Yuzhny as well as Basovka, Belovody, Veselovka, Vodolagi, Zhuravka, Obody, and Yunakovka in Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, the AFU losses amounted to more than 230 troops, three tanks, one infantry fighting vehicle, six armoured fighting vehicles, seven motor vehicles, four self-propelled artillery systems, two mortars, one electronic warfare station, and one counter-battery radar.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 51,430 troops, 300 tanks, 229 infantry fighting vehicles, 166 armoured personnel carriers, 1,539 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,456 motor vehicles, 358 artillery guns, 44 MLRS launchers, including 13 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 16 anti-aircraft missile launchers, eight transport-loading vehicles, 93 EW stations, 14 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 30 units of engineering and other materiel, including 15 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, eight armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:58 Official summary of the Office for Documentation of War Crimes of Ukraine from 00:00 01/13/2025 to 00:00 01/14/2025.
Eight facts of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
There were reports of a civilian being injured.
DAMAGED:
One civilian infrastructure facility.
Eight armed attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 19 units of various ammunition were fired.
21:30 Investigators from the Russian Investigative Committee will investigate crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine against civilians of the Belgorod region and the Donetsk People's Republic
According to the executive authorities of the Belgorod Region, a woman and her one-year-old child were injured as a result of a drone attack on a car in the village of Zozuli, Borisovsky District. Also, a woman who was injured as a result of a drone attack on a private house in the village of Lozovoye, Belgorod District, independently sought help from the city hospital of the city of Belgorod.
20:33 In Kherson region announced aviation hazard. Emergency services have been put on high alert.
19:40 During battles with the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the settlement of Vishnevoe near Selidovo in the DPR are being clarified new cases of terrorist attacks and abuse of local residents by militants.
19:10 Ukrainian Armed Forces with the help of drones inflicted strikes on the Krasnoyarsk region.
As a result of the attacks, the power line was damaged - residents of the village of Grafovka and part of the village of Repyakhovka are temporarily without power.
18:35 The approach of the Russian Armed Forces to Krasnoarmeysk and Udachny is alreadyledto stop the mine in Krasnoarmeysk.
18:05 Three settlementswere subjected to attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to preliminary information, no one was hurt, Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.
17:30 Kurakhovo local residents are being evacuated by Russian military personnel
17:20 The Kherson region of Russia is ready to accept refugees from California if they did not finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine and did not support the current Kiev regime, reported Governor of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo.
16:40 Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to attack Belgorod Oblast. There are casualties.
In the village of Zozuli in the Borisov district, a suicide drone attacked a car wounded a woman and her one-year-old child. Emergency medical teams are transporting the victims to medical institutions in the city of Belgorod. All necessary assistance is being provided. The vehicle is damaged by shrapnel.
16:05 Seven people injured in Tambov region in UAV attack
Acting Governor of Tambov Region Evgeny Pervyshevreported, that seven people were injured as a result of a UAV strike on multi-story buildings in the Tambov region, three of them were injured by glass fragments.
Ukrainian Armed Forces drones attacked two apartment buildings in Kotovsk, all the wounded were given the necessary assistance, and the damage will be repaired, a working group under the city administration is working on this.
15:40 A criminal case against Ukrainian militants involved in a crime against the civilian population of the Belovsky district of the Kursk region
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has opened a criminal case against the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine involved in a terrorist act against the civilian population of the Kursk region (subparagraphs “a” and “b” of Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
It was established that on January 13, 2025, militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with an explosive device, attacked a civilian car in the Belovsky district of the Kursk region, in which there were two civilians. As a result of these criminal actions, two people were injured.
15:10 Russian Ministry of Defense:
A crew of the Lancet loitering munition from the North group of forces destroyed a Ukrainian Armed Forces tank in the Khar'kov region, –video.
14:40 Fighters on the Kurakhovo front are not only advancing rapidly, but are also carefully monitoring all supply routes for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and any attempts to move,video.
The footage shows our guys smoking out the enemy from the basements, as well as their latest prey - an enemy cargo carrier that supplies the Ukrainian Armed Forces; recently they managed to shoot down a similar robot - this time with a machine gun.
13:45 Fighters of the "Mad Dogs" brigade of the "Samurai" battalion report on the complete liberation of the village of Peschanoye, in the Pokrovsky direction.
13:00 Drone operator of the BARS-3 squad destroys armored vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Zaporizhia direction – video.
11:05 Telegram channel "Ostashka! Important"
Kyiv attacked station "Russkaya" in Kuban
On January 11, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Russkaya compressor station in Gai-Kodzor in Kuban with nine drones, the Defense Ministry reported. All UAVs were shot down, and the building and equipment were slightly damaged.
10:30 Investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee will investigate the crimes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces against civilians in the Belgorod region and the Donetsk People's Republic
According to information from executive authorities, two civilians were wounded as a result of an attack by a Ukrainian Armed Forces drone in the Graivoronsky District of the Belgorod Region.
As a result of Ukrainian armed aggression, a civilian resident of Gorlovka died in the village of Stalsbyt in the DPR.
9:30 Telegram channel "WarGonzo":
Frontline report for the morning of 13.01.2025:
Zaporizhzhya Front. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are activeare being fired uponrear areas, striking with drones and artillery. The fighting in this direction continues to be mostly positional.
Donetsk Front. Russian troops continue to advance in the Neskuchnoye area, which will allow them to reach Vremyevka in the future and continue to envelop Velyka Novosyolka from the southwest.
In the Kurakhovsky sector, Russian troops, after taking Yantarnoye, continue to build on their success, advancing westward. There is some progress towards Dachnoye from Kurakhovo.
To the north, in the Andreyevka area, fighting continues on the outskirts of the settlement. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are conducting counterattacks.
Chasov Yar direction. Fighting continues in Chasov Yar for one of the main centers of Ukrainian defense – the fireproof plant.
8:50 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Crew of the 220mm BM-27 Uragan MLRS of the Vostok group of forces destroyed a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the South Donetsk direction.
8:08 Operators of the 29th Army's strike UAVs of the "Vostok" group hit the enemy's air defense system in the South Donetsk direction, –video.
8:01 Russian Ministry of Defense.
During the past night, air defense systems on duty intercepted eight Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, which were destroyed.
Six UAVs were destroyed over the territory of the Voronezh region and one was shot down over the territories of the Bryansk and Belgorod regions.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] World oil prices rose by more than 2% at trades on January 13. This is evidenced by trade data.
The price of Brent crude oil futures for delivery in March 2025 on the London ICE exchange exceeded $81 per barrel for the first time since October 8, 2024. As of 8:10 Moscow time, it was $81.16 per barrel, which is $1.4 (1.76%) higher than at the close of the previous trades. By 10:40 Moscow time, the price of the futures rose by 2.019%, to $81.27 per barrel. On January 10, these contracts rose in price by $2.84 (3.7%), to $79.76 per barrel.
At the same time, the WTI crude oil futures for delivery in February 2025 rose by 2.01% to $78.11 per barrel. Following the results of the previous session, the cost of these contracts increased by $2.65 (3.6%) to the maximum since October 7, 2024 of $76.57 per barrel.
As reported by Bloomberg, global oil prices have reached a four-month high amid new US sanctions against the Russian energy sector.
Regnum reported that on January 10, the United States imposed sanctions against a number of Russian oil companies and individuals. The White House said that these were the largest restrictions against Russia's energy sector. They affected 183 tankers transporting Russian oil, dozens of traders, as well as oil service companies and industry officials. The blacklist included, in particular, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz.
The sanctions lists also included Novatek partners and Rosatom representatives. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the new American sanctions will not go unnoticed and will be taken into account when developing a foreign economic strategy.
The price of Brent crude oil futures for December delivery fell below $72 per barrel during exchange trading on October 28 last year for the first time since October 1.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A general strike against the reduction of pensions and social benefits by three billion euros began on the evening of January 12 in the capital of Belgium, the city of Brussels, and will last 24 hours. This was reported by the RTBF television channel.
The strikers intend to protest against plans to cut social security and pension contributions by three billion euros a year. Such plans were announced by the candidate for the post of prime minister, the leader of the far-right party "New Flemish Alliance" Bart De Wever.
Mr. De Wever wants to keep the government from bankrupcy. The strikers don’t care, as long as they get theirs first.
The protest action is being held with the permission of the Brussels authorities. Teachers, public transport workers, railway workers and airport workers, including security personnel and loaders, as well as prison and utility workers, postmen and firefighters have announced their participation in the strike. According to trade union estimates, between 50,000 and 100,000 people will take part in the strike.
During the protest action in Brussels, public transport will practically cease to operate, except for one of the three intercity buses, the number of trains has been reduced and about 70% of flights have been cancelled. The center of Brussels will be closed to protesters, and city residents are advised to refrain from traveling around the city in personal vehicles.
Earlier, Regnum reported that employees of the Volkswagen car concern began a strike on December 2 against job cuts and the closure of part of the production. Volkswagen's plans to close factories in Germany became known in early October. It was noted that one of the reasons for the crisis in the car concern was the decline in interest of local consumers in electric cars. In August, sales in the EU fell by almost 44%, in Germany alone - by almost 69%.
On December 19, German trade unions and Volkswagen almost reached an agreement on preserving the concern's enterprises in Germany. The parties are leaning towards a restructuring that implies the abolition of bonuses, but provides employment guarantees until 2030 and the preservation of the work of all plants.
Part I of the film. All in Russian. Not yet translated.
by Marina Akhmedova
[REGNUM] At the end of 2024, a four-part documentary film, "At the Edge of the Abyss. The Battle for Mariupol Through the Eyes of an Eyewitness," appeared in Russian online cinemas. The author of the idea and director was Donetsk native Maksim Fadeyev .
The film is a story about the liberation of Mariupol in the spring of 2022, the battles for the city "from the eyes" of the Donbass battalion "Somalia". This is the first documentary about the events in Donbass after the beginning of the SVO, which can be viewed in the largest online cinemas of the country. It is also expected that the film will soon be released in wide release.
Maxim Fadeev told the editor-in-chief of the Regnum news agency Marina Akhmedova what his main goal was, why society needs the harsh truth, which many still brush aside, and also why it is impossible to avoid war, but rather to prepare for it.
— Maxim, you have probably heard more than once in connection with your film that “this cannot be shown to a wide audience.” Do you think such truth about the war is necessary?
— Society really needs the truth about the war. The war came to us after we forgot about it. We say a lot that we remember our Great Victory (the Immortal Regiment, many monuments, lessons in schools…). In fact, we have forgotten what war is.
- Why did we need to remember the war if we had a peaceful sky above our heads for many years?
— The war has been going on for 11 years. For example, it became clear to me on December 1, 2013, that there would be a war. And I started preparing for it, buying tactical gear and video equipment. But I could not imagine that the war would start in my native Donbass.
I also think that one of the main reasons for the war is indifference. When I called my relatives, they asked: "What's going on there?" I said: "War." They said: "What war? Some terrorists are shooting at you." Maybe someone sympathized with us, but no one understood that there was a war. Even if you ask an ordinary person now when the war began, no one will say, because it was as if it did not exist.
— Do you want to say that the more indifferent society is to a war that is not going on somewhere, say, in Africa, but next to your people, the more we bring war upon ourselves?
— Yes. The film is called “On the Edge of the Abyss” because Ukraine was on the edge of the abyss for all eight years before the start of the Second World War, but did nothing to collapse this black hole. Ukraine fell into the abyss. And now Russia is on the edge of the abyss. The longer the war lasts, the greater the danger that the same thing will happen here as in Syria.
What happened in Syria is the enemy's goal. They need an internal explosion in Russia. Now it seems unthinkable, but they are waging an indefinite, unlimited, creative war. The key word is indefinite.
- They are comfortable. They sit there quietly, but here they can do whatever they want.
- Yes. The war in Ukraine is simply one of the tools for creating conditions for everything to collapse in an instant. And a very thin layer separates us from this madness. As long as the people consider the government legitimate, nothing will happen. And what will happen next - I saw that here in Ukraine.
- Why do you say "with us"? It hasn't been with you for a long time.
— When all this started, it was Ukraine. Nobody thought then that Donbass would be Russia. It seemed unthinkable then.
— So many terrible things are happening in Ukraine now, but the Kyiv regime is still not collapsing.
— The Kiev regime will not collapse because it is simply a puppet in their hands to destroy Russia. It will live as a zombie as long as they need it.
— How do you think an ordinary Ukrainian should have lived during these eight years that the war in Donbass was going on, so as not to come even closer to the edge of the abyss?
— In different ways. Let's take the same Mariupol residents. The front line was 20 kilometers from the city, people there were internally mobilized. They could assume that there would be a war. But when Mariupol residents asked why they were shooting at houses when there were urban battles, for me it was something wild.
Or, for example, the scene in the movie when a car with no identification marks and tinted closed windows drives straight into battle. Who do you have to be to bring your family into battle? No matter how scared you were, you had to think about how to mark your car with some signs that you are a civilian.
— People were under terrible stress, they couldn’t understand anything.
- But they lived for eight years near the war, 20 kilometers from the front line.
- She didn't reach them.
— That’s what I’m talking about. That’s why such films are needed. So that people know that during war, civilian lives are worth nothing. Nobody thinks about it. But we see what horror is happening to the people who remain in Syria. People know that there is a word “war”. But they don’t understand that it cancels out all other words: peace, mother, happiness, Motherland.
— In the first part of your film, the word “war” is often heard with the same intonation: “Why are you shooting at houses?” — “War. What did you expect?” This is not just an artistic device. This is something you yourself experienced. This word covers everything and explains everything.
— When the war in Donetsk began in April 2014, we called it a war, but no one called it a war. Ukraine called it "ATO". But for those who found themselves there, it was definitely a war. When a 152-mm self-propelled gun division is operating in your neighborhood, it cannot be called anything else.
This horror has been going on for 10 years. We see how cities are dying. Then it was all called "Operation Joint Forces". But in reality it is called war. It is a global trend. After World War II, peace came to Europe for the first time in many years. And it lasted for more than 70 years.
- This is the world I am talking about. How to live in this world, remembering the war?
— All these years, for the European civilization, war was something ordinary, like rain or snow. My grandmother lived through the First World War, the Civil War, and the Great Patriotic War. She had three wars. When she said, “If only there were no war,” for her these were concrete things, but for us these are just words.
When the nuclear triad appeared, it contained the conflict. But then our enemies came up with a new type of war: information-psychological, which later became cognitive. That is, the war is now waged in the minds of the entire enemy population, when the population itself becomes an instrument of war. Look at how terrorist attacks happen here. Those who committed them themselves do not really know who prompted them to do it.
— And yet: imagine that I am a person who had 70 years of peaceful skies above my head after a terrible war. How should I live?
— We had basic military training and civil defense at school. I knew where our class should evacuate to in case of a nuclear strike. We knew that we should have cotton-gauze bandages. We knew how to use a gas mask, how to apply a tourniquet, and how to fall into a hole during shelling, and not just on the asphalt. We had all that. And then for some reason we decided that we were all so peaceful and that there would never be a war, so we wouldn’t build bomb shelters.
How was it in Mariupol? All the old houses were adapted so that you could hide in them, but all the nine-story buildings were not. In the five-story buildings you could hide in the basement, but not in the nine-story building. There was just a one-and-a-half-meter basement.
— Let's get back to this word. In your film, the military themselves often pronounce war in a familiar way. "Why can't we drive through here? War." And the civilians don't seem to understand this explanation.
— Yes, there was such dissonance. At that time, we had lived in war mode for eight years, and for the people of Mariupol, who lived 20 kilometers from the front, it was something terrible and incomprehensible. I repeat: war cancels the most diverse relationships between people. People do not understand that now their lives are worth nothing.
- How can this be understood? And on what day can this be understood?
- I knew this at the start of the war, because I read a lot about the war. I was interested in it.
— You said that you knew this back in December 2013. Is it because of the Maidan?
— Because of everything. Why did I, a resident of a provincial town, know this, but my comrades from the Party of Regions in Kyiv did not understand this? This is some kind of absurdity. We all understood everything. I am not the only one. I met many militiamen who had already started preparing for war in December.
- This is a normal feature of the human psyche: to close one's eyes to bad things that may happen in the future. I think it's hard to demand that the average person prepare for war when everything around him is peaceful.
— It is not about getting ready to sit in the trenches. It is necessary to establish horizontal connections, look for like-minded people, and engage in physical training. Syria is a very good example: the army laid down its arms, and there were no Minins and Pozharskys in the country. No one took upon themselves the courage to resist. And everything collapsed.
— What did you do before the war that began in 2014?
— All the years before the war I worked in the glamour industry. We published a corporate magazine for one of the chains like Christian Dior. In fact, we served the Donetsk elite.
— Did you then feel any sense of protest about the fact that these things were unreasonably expensive?
— They had dresses for 120 and fur coats for 150 thousand euros. And I did all sorts of creative things for them. Advertising products, a magazine, photo shoots in Italy — we did all that.
— So you did some creative things to find buyers for fur coats for 150,000 euros?
— Yes. We organized all these spaces and parties from a design point of view.
— What did your inner voice say about this?
— I just lived and lived. But a year before the Maidan, I left because I felt contradictions. I then began filming my first documentary about the protests against shale gas extraction in Slavyansk and the surrounding area. We drove through seven districts and saw that the people had practically died and were not ready to resist any longer. People had resigned themselves to the fact that they had been given into slavery.
On the other hand, at that time there was an awareness of resistance. People began to study what was what. It was exactly a year before all the events with Strelkov. And then we encountered the fact that a Maidan was being prepared. When we began to study the technologies by which it was possible to defeat the international corporation Shell, we came to the conclusion that we needed to organize some kind of non-violent protest. We decided to copy-paste the Maidan technology, but only in the opposite direction.
— Did you want to raise a protest?
— We wanted to make a Maidan in reverse, a Maidan of vatniks. This is not the Anti-Maidan that the Party of Regions organized. We wanted to stop Shell with the technology of non-violent creative protest, because other methods would not have stopped them.
That is, at first, hotheads came up with the idea of blowing up the rigs and blocking them. But when we analyzed what happened at other fields in Australia and Iceland, it turned out that the people could do nothing. And then, as it turned out, almost the entire anti-shale movement, except for the Slavic cell, supported the Maidan. And only the Slavic cell sided with Strelkov.
— Why did they split up? They had a common problem before 2013?
— This is also a question of technology, which in Russia was able to partially win because all NGOs were closed. Look at all these organizations, like the “greens.” Sooner or later, they become an instrument of the Maidan. Let’s say you are engaged in protecting the rights of puppies and do not get involved in politics. And then they tell you: “All the problems of puppies in Ukraine are due to Yanukovych. But as soon as we come to Europe, everyone will be happy.” I observed all this from the inside. How it works, how they suppress protests. It is very easy for them to do. And this technology continues to work in Georgia. It is sad to see that people are falling for it once again.
— Maybe you hoped that your films would become a vaccination?
— Yes. I was naive at first. I filmed one of my first reports in Slavyansk, when artillery shelled a psychiatric hospital from which unfortunate patients were being evacuated. I left the shooting location hoping that my report would come out and the war would stop.
Before that, no one believed that artillery was working on us. And I thought: "Finally, I have recorded artillery working on us. That will be enough. Russia will do something, people will come out to protest in Kyiv." All this naivety has long since passed.
But when we were making "At the Edge of the Abyss," we had several ideas. First: to show what war is. Second: to show the boys who grew up in this war. How they fought and how they died.
— And now do you believe that it is within human power to stop the war?
— So far, no one has succeeded. After each war, different types of art emerge. Vereshchagin painted, Tolstoy wrote novels. Perhaps they were able to awaken something in people, but globally, it was just one of the attempts to show what war is.
- So you are no longer an idealist. You understand that if a war is going to happen, nothing can stop it?
- Yes, that's true. But people should at least understand what it is. They should somehow prepare for it. It's already very close. Global war has become a reality for the next 30-40 years.
- You've been at war for so many years that you should feel like a friend. Why did she come to us?
— In war, you constantly think about war. Since May 2014, there hasn’t been a single day that I haven’t thought about it. And the characters in my films think about it. You know, until the one who started it gets drunk, the war will continue. My characters talk about this in the fourth episode: “Money for some, pain for others.” That’s true. Nothing in the world has changed. Yes, I repeat, there was a restraining factor. But they found a tool to bypass this restraining factor. And everything flared up in a new way.
In addition, the state had a monopoly on war. But the example of Syria showed that a new dark Middle Ages was coming. Until we learn to live in this new world and return to God, everything will be like this.
— Do you really think so?
- Yes. Because the basis of the state, when we can live without God, was essentially invented 400 years ago. And now this world has entered an era of decline.
- You said that we need to return to God. So, war, to some extent, comes from God?
— I am not ready to philosophize on this topic. My task is simple — to show people and war. I hope that someone will see this and draw the right conclusions for themselves. Because even generals do not quite understand what is happening there. Sometimes even a battalion commander does not understand what is happening to his boys.
By the way, we have lost the experience of recording war. That is, during the Great Patriotic War, both we and the Nazis considered newsreels to be a priority propaganda tool. The maximum amount of resources and talents were poured into this business. For example, Leni Riefenstahl's cameramen later became military cameramen. And we had the same thing.
Moreover, three types of newsreels were filmed. The first: a newsreel as a film. These are "Battle for Berlin", "Battle for Stalingrad", "Battle for Moscow". "Battle for Moscow" was filmed by 19 best Soviet cameramen. The second: news reports for "Soyuzkinozhurnal". The third: a film chronicle. Simply filming and recording events. This does not exist now.
— And did you make a film chronicle?
— Sergei Belous and I filmed it together using public money. Some TV channels filmed it, but they didn’t film it as a movie. Some film crews, like the film “I’m Going Home,” seemed to film it as if it were for a movie. But these are, again, private initiatives. Previously, the state worked for this. For example, the battles in Budapest were filmed by two front-line film crews of 15-20 people each with a single director’s concept.
There was a battle for Kurakhovo. Before that there were Ugledar and Artemovsk. Then there will be Pokrovsk. How many film crews are there? None.
— Do you think this needs to be seen?
- Of course. Thousands of heroic deeds are performed every day, and we will never know the faces of these guys, nor what they did. Never.
— It just seems to me that such chronicles are terrible footage. Not many people will dare to watch them. Perhaps you already have professional deformation, you have lived in war for too long. And if you catch some Muscovite and show him this, he will fade away for a long time.
- That's the whole point of everything we do. We want to show that war is right around the corner.
- So you want to awaken the viewer? He might get scared and even bury his head in the sand.
— There is no such thing yet. On the contrary. We see people awakening, judging by their feedback and reactions.
- But those who are predisposed to watch it are the ones who watch it.
— Not only that. That’s exactly what we want, for as many people as possible to see it. And when the film came out on platforms, it came out of the Z-party bubble. Everyone started watching it. It now has the highest rating on Kion of all the films there.
They send us their feedback. For example: "You opened my brain, you reprogrammed me. All this time I treated it completely indifferently, tried to throw it out of my life. Didn't notice. And now I understand how wrong I was all these years."
— What in the film created this effect?
— Viewers see that the war lasted all these years. It’s not just the battles for Mariupol that are shown here. There are flashbacks in each episode. We see how the heroes who are fighting in Mariupol fought in 2017. People see this and understand that this is not propaganda. It’s simply impossible to film something like this in a propaganda manner. This is life.
Why is the film so long? Because no art form can tell what war is. You can at least let us feel it a little bit.
There is a scene in the film where our soldiers storm a hospital for four days using howitzers and tanks. Even a plane flew in once. And then it turned out that 120 civilians were sitting in the basement of this hospital, including a little boy. And they sat there for 40 days without light. There were candles in the lamp. I went in there, shone a flashlight, and the boy screamed. I can only imagine what he felt when he sat there for 40 days and then survived four days of assault.
Imagine a coal car crashing next to you. Just one tank shot makes about the same noise. And it lasted four days. And before that, the boy saw his house burn down and his neighbor die. These are the feelings of just one boy. What did the other 120 people feel? It wasn't even included in the film.
- What did you feel when you entered and the boy screamed?
— I wanted to cry. I stopped filming and started to calm him down. I had been through all of this before. I was able to find a common language with him. And I talked to him for 15-20 minutes. Perhaps it saved my life. Because the group I was moving with went ahead and disappeared for some time. They were rescued and found throughout the second episode. One guy died, another was seriously injured. And if I hadn’t stayed with that boy, I would have gone with the “Jaff” group.
— And you and the boy stayed out of humanism?
— I don’t know if it’s humanism or not. I just saw his condition and started telling him: “Calm down, it’s all over now.”
- How old is he?
— Seven or eight. There were different people there. I communicated a lot with the local population. And this is one of the problems of the army. We used to have an institute of political officers. Watch the films about Shchors or Kovpak. There was always an officer next to them who communicated with prisoners and civilians from the liberated areas. Now this is completely lost, there is no one to communicate.
— It seems to me that the DPR people can communicate with civilians.
- They can. And I myself, to some extent, performed the functions of a political officer. I communicated a lot with civilians.
— And what condition were the other 120 people in?
— The same as the boy. When a tank shoots at your house, every shot can be the last. These people survived. And in some other place, the same people, maybe, did not survive. War is such a thing, everything is a matter of chance. In war, there is no black and white. Everything is more dirty and gray.
— How did you film people who died on camera?
- I didn't take pictures of dying people. Most of the guys died later.
— And the civilians? There was an old man without a leg.
— I was just filming.
- And you didn't have the urge to run up to him? Or, when they're shooting, you have no time for that?
— We still look at a military situation from a peacetime perspective, without fully understanding what was happening there. Until the moment you point a camera at someone, everything happens in some unfolding event. Figuratively speaking, you understand whether you can help him or not. And you, too, can be in a state of shock. When they told me that he had been in this state for three days, all my knowledge of tactical medicine seemed to evaporate. I did not understand how it was possible to survive in such a state for three days and what to do with him.
The only thing I blame myself for is that I was in uniform, I could have yelled at the civilians and made them carry him with them. But I couldn't do anything else. I couldn't help him. I didn't have an extra tourniquet with me. So my thoughts were something like, "Sorry, man, but I could end up in your place."
— I guess that’s what everyone thinks in such circumstances?
- Probably. I repeat, I could organize civilians to try to carry him out. The only thing is, I told them where they should go and say: "Tell them that he is lying here, they will come for him."
— Do you know if he was taken?
— The next day he was no longer there. You see, this was not the first man without a leg in such a state. For me, it was not something extraordinary at that moment. After all, I was inside the city at that moment. The fighters were somewhere in the rear or in front. You cannot lag behind them. You were given a small period of time for this independent filming-hunt.
— How did you navigate, how did you find them later?
— I understand roughly where I came from. A Ukrainian tank fired at the house, the house caught fire, I saw civilians running out of the entrance, and I told the guys I was with: "Sanya, I'll go and see what's going on." He replied: "You have five minutes, then we'll leave." I came, filmed, and came back. That is, I showed the civilians the way, risking my own life. The Ukrainians didn't fire at the civilians, but they could have fired at me because I was in a military uniform.
- You say they didn't work on civilians. Is that true?
— They mostly didn't work. If the VSAS guys saw that civilians were running somewhere, what was the point of giving themselves away by opening fire on them? In the place where there was an open space that civilians run across in the film, not long before that the Ukrainians shot a guy from "Somalia", he died.
The most dangerous time for civilians is twilight. When you move somewhere in the dark, you can die. But civilians did not understand the rules of war, that it is better not to go out at twilight or that it is better not to move around Mariupol without documents.
“I think it was so terrible there that it was better not to go out at any time of the day.
— I agree that there were many terrible situations. It is clear that the family needs to be saved. But people made too many fatal mistakes before my eyes.
There is an assault on a building. A typical Khrushchev five-story building. There are VSSU guys in it, we are storming it. A guy comes out of there, goes to our guys and asks for a cigarette. And instead of going to the rear, he returns to the five-story building that is being stormed.
- He probably had someone there.
- There was no one, he was alone there. It looks like he died later. It was complete recklessness. If you are in a building that is being stormed, and you get out of it, why go back in?
- It's psychology. This place seemed safe to him. And he rushed into it.
- I don't know. It's a very stupid, reckless decision.
— There is also a moment in the film when a grandmother cries in the yard because she couldn’t get her friend out of a burning apartment. That is, she left herself, but left her 80-year-old friend behind. She then burned alive.
- They lived in neighboring apartments. The house caught fire, she had no chance to save her grandmother.
- Why didn’t the second grandmother leave?
— If you are limited in movement or paralyzed, you have no chance to escape. It is not shown in the film, but all these people came back. The house was burning. Everyone ran out of there. Then it began to burn less, they came back. And two hours later it was burning very strongly. And they had to save themselves again.
— Isn’t it human to rush to where your native walls are?
— But not to where the assault is going on. Believe me: when a house is being assaulted, a tank can start working on it at any moment. The only salvation is that the front line has passed through you and you can leave. That's the joke. Civilians, when the front line passed through their houses, could easily go to the rear. But they couldn't go in that direction, they weren't allowed through.
- And who told them where the rear was?
- That's obvious.
- Where?
— Ask the military.
— It’s scary to approach the military.
- That guy came and asked for a cigarette. They could have even shot him on the way back. He could have reconnoitred our positions and reported it to the enemy. How do you know if he was a disguised VSSU officer or a civilian? They only let him go because he was an old man.
- Why do you think people become so helpless? I have no doubt that most of the people around me would behave exactly the same way.
— Because they don’t understand what war is. I don’t know why I knew. My colleague and I were running, and his camera had a light on. The enemy was five hundred meters away. He had a white bag facing the enemy. And when D-30 mortars started shooting at us, I fell into a hole, and he fell right on the road.
— Did they hit him?
- No. They hit a girl, she was wounded in the back of the neck. It was my first day at the war.
— What happened to the girl?
— They took me away in an ambulance. I repeat: "Zarnitsa", NVP and the Soviet army gave me some ideas about how to behave in such a situation. And for some reason people decided that this situation would never arise.
You know, I once found myself inside the film "Battalions Ask for Fire", when the characters were defending a village. You are completely mobilized and feel completely normal in this situation.
- You are not a suitable example. You know it yourself, because in 2014 you came to Donetsk yourself, you could have gone to a place where there is no shooting, where you could have lived in peace for another eight years. And then in 2022 you yourself asked to go to "Somalia" and ended up in Mariupol.
— I was there all these years to understand.
- Yes, but it was your voluntary choice. And could you, if you wanted, live all these eight years without a war with expensive fur coats?
— I could, as my colleagues did. But the war came to my home. I had to pack my things and run away?
- Why not?
— This is my Motherland. As my hero says: “You can leave. And your mom and dad? Will you take them with you too?” The most important thing is the Motherland. I always say that the words “Motherland, mom, world” have not become empty words for most people. And when you lose all this and understand that you can no longer find a place like your Motherland, this is the hardest thing.
- And you can’t even find it in your soul?
— Yes. If you can’t go back there, you start dreaming about it. There’s a moment in the film where a fighter looks at enemy territory, and there, behind the waste heaps, is my grandfather’s homeland. I once showed it to a colleague of mine and just burst into tears. I cried for about 30 minutes, because there’s something behind every frame that’s felt stronger than just a picture. Every fighter I spent many years with became my friend.
— Is it difficult to express what is behind the picture in documentary films?
— It’s very difficult. Besides, it was our first film where we used a voiceover (voiceover in the background. — Ed.). Before that, we made all our films without a voiceover, so it’s very difficult to convey the story without a voiceover. And these things behind the picture are very important.
— What would be worse for you: to destroy your homeland on earth or in your soul?
- Both are hard. When she is not on earth, she is not in the soul. Sometimes I watch newsreels from cities where the war has already passed. I can't imagine what the people who lived there feel.
— Is it okay for you to look at the new Mariupol?
— It is morally much easier to be in Mariupol now than in Donetsk. Because life is being restored there. You see how the city is coming to life and how people are smiling.
— Can you forget everything you saw in Mariupol?
- Of course. In fact, it's all very easy. There's a lot of talk about post-traumatic syndrome now. But when you're on the right side and you understand why you did it, it's less pronounced.
— So if you understand that it’s not our fault, it’s easier to accept everything that was on the video?
— Yes. Although, maybe, I failed to explain it in the film. What is Ukraine doing now? It uses several fragments from the film. It cuts off the beginning and the end of the Russian officer’s phrase. Like, he said this and that. But I know what he said off-screen. This is war. If we hadn’t killed them, they would have killed us.
— Do you mean Ukrainian military personnel?
- Yes. The horror is that they changed into civilian clothes and used civilian cars. Because of this, many civilians suffered. Ordinary militiamen, especially mobilized ones, cannot quickly sort them out during a battle or while moving around the city.
— I was in Mariupol in March. It was a difficult experience. I think it is such a tragedy that it is impossible to photograph it. It is like the sky, and you are like a small grain of sand. How did you decide to start carving something out of this block?
— Yes, it is difficult. Hundreds of thousands of people experienced this in Mariupol. What I did was the first attempt to somehow tell about it. Only when I flew over the city in a drone for the first time did I realize the scale of what was happening. When a small assault group of seven people runs into a huge block, where there is complete uncertainty... And at the same time you see how a tank works there, how civilians run away from there and how a lion from the zoo roars. I will remember the sound of Mariupol for the rest of my life.
- Like a roaring lion?
— Not only. It is a cacophony of gunfire and silence. The most terrible thing in war is not the shelling, but the silence after the shelling. Modern directors cannot show this because they do not know it.
Imagine this silence, when everything is switched off. Cars don't drive, factories don't work, refrigerators don't hum, people are hiding. I saw this in Slavyansk and Mariupol. It's a very depressing and stunning thing.
- "War".
— Yes, yes. The lion roars. The pilot of a downed Russian plane descends by parachute, the enemy fires at him, he falls on enemy territory. And all this is beyond comprehension — in the 21st century, an entire city is burning.
- And for what? So that someone could wear these fur coats?
- No, for Mariupol to become Russian.
- It's for us. But it's unlikely that we would unleash such a tragedy just so that he would become Russian.
— We later filmed another movie about the restoration of Mariupol. There we had a main character: a photographer who lived through all of this in Mariupol itself. And he had these words: “We were ready to pay even greater sacrifices, if only Mariupol would become Russian.”
I can say the same about myself. Why did people take up arms? Why did I take up a camera? Because this is a war for the soul of the people and for the consciousness of the people. Some have come to terms with the fact that they are no longer Russian and now hate Russia. And some did not want to come to terms with the fact that Zhukov and Vatutin are not our heroes. And those who did not come to terms with it took up arms.
— But the people who did not accept this, took up arms and began to fight for the soul of the people, could not explain this by saying that they were fighting for the soul of the people. They hardly realized that the people even have a soul.
— No, many felt it. In 2014, it was easy for me to film in Slavyansk, because the majority of people who were there could explain it well in words.
— They are no more?
— Some quit in 2014–2016. But the majority, unfortunately, did not. They died.
— Do you believe that people have a soul?
- Of course. Otherwise there would be no states.
— It would probably be stupid to approach a documentary filmmaker with such questions. But could you describe in words the soul of the Russian people?
- Well, it's very hard. Words can't describe it.
- What would you show then as a picture if you absolutely had to show it?
— From 2014 to 2022, I showed the soul of the Donetsk people.
- Isn't this our common soul?
— It’s common, but different. Remember Pyotr Lopakhin from the film “They Fought for Their Country”? He was a miner from Donbass. He cooked crayfish and flirted with women. Dashing, reckless, cold-blooded. Such guys gave their lives without realizing it. I remember the first shock of Russian volunteers who met Donetsk boys — how easily they died. “They Fought for Their Country” is an excellent Russian film about WWII. — This has always amazed me too since 2014. It’s probably not easy after all. They just couldn’t put it into words.
— Yes. It’s not easy. But that’s who they are. And I remember many who have already died. For example, Shrek. He’s standing there in shorts, flip-flops, and with a machine gun: “Oh, if only they’d given us tanks, we’d have reached London.” I take a picture of him, and a year later, on May 9, I see a girl walking with four children and carrying his portrait.
- And what did you feel when you saw it?
- Pain, of course. These are ordinary bright guys who were called terrorists. This was the dehumanization of the residents of Donbass.
- You said that the Donetsk guys are bright. It's very difficult to explain.
— There are all sorts of types in war. But mostly they are ordinary Donetsk boys. They are very different from Muscovites and residents of other Russian regions, because production in Donbass is associated with large teams and risks to life. From childhood they know what death is. A child goes to his grandmother's cemetery and sees 120 identical graves, because people died on the same day. Maybe he knew someone personally. Or they were his friends' parents.
The film shows three friends - machine gunners from Lidievka (a settlement near a mine in Donetsk - editor's note): Babai, Lyova and Kozyr. This trio controlled their entire Lidievka. They could give anyone a good whack on the head. It's like Pyotr Lopakhin. Imagine that your entire unit consists of Pyotr Lopakhins with all their jokes and anecdotes.
— And they played a critical role in 2022, when the rest of the army was not ready.
— Despite the fact that they looked like homeless people (after 40 days of fighting, all their clothes burned, they put on what they found, and only then — something captured), they had eight years of war experience. And the Russian units were a peacetime army. Yes, they had equipment and tanks. But in Mariupol, it was Somalia that found itself half-encircled, because they always broke through the defense line, and then Russian units entered through them. They passed Mariupol four times.
There was a moment when three other units, including the Marines, couldn't get past them. But Roma Vorobyov's assault groups got past them on foot because they didn't care about death.
— And does it happen that it can lead to death anyway?
- Maybe. I also experienced this after 60 days of assault.
— Is it fatigue or pain?
— It is physical and psychological exhaustion. Imagine 60 days of hiking at zero degrees. And here are 60 days of assault. It is very hard to bear. There were cases when a fighter was so tired that he could not climb through a window or over a railing. He wanted it to end as quickly as possible.
— Even if it ends with his death?
- You just start acting recklessly.
— And in those days, did you ever say to yourself: “Why did I come here, I’m not even a military man?”
— I didn’t have that. I’m the same as them. I just walked behind them with a camera. I remember a sailor asked me the same question in the old terminal: “We’re going there, they can blow us up there.” I said: “You’re going too. Only you’re walking with a machine gun, and I’m doing more important things. I’m filming this. This is more important than killing some “cyborg.”
That's why I was the only one who was at the storming of the old and new terminals of Donetsk airport. The first one who was on the runway. And the only one who was in Maryinka in the summer of 2015, when it was stormed for the first time.
- Why are you the same as them?
— I have two best friends. One joined the militia, the other joined, then left. How are they different from me? Nothing. I am an ordinary Soviet person.
— Why Soviet?
— Donbass was the most Soviet region of the USSR. Multinational. I was recently asked: "Are you Russian or Ukrainian?" Nobody knew about it here. To my shame, I only learned about the nationality "Jew" when I was 13. I had never even heard this word before. It didn't matter there.
When I was filming the militias, I saw a Jew and an Azerbaijani running around with an RPG. In Donbass, all nationalities melted down. Donbass essentially arose in the Soviet Union. We were proud of the achievements of the USSR: Buran, the Kremlin stars, the Ostankino TV tower, steel mills. Factories where mercury or sulfuric acid was made, the Komsomolets Donbassa mine for 10,000 people. This is hard physical and intellectual labor.
- But you didn't work with all this. You worked with fur coats. Sorry for picking on them.
- No, I worked with all of that too. Fur coats are just part of my career. I was supposed to work at a nuclear power plant as assigned. My colleagues were building nuclear power plants all over the USSR. But I didn't go there after the army, because the Union had already collapsed.
— I latched onto fur coats because money is made in war. And in Mariupol I saw civilians who were lying every five meters, wrapped in sheets. But at the other end, those who earn money buy luxury items for themselves with this money and can’t get drunk. How can you reconcile this in one head?
- Maybe if one of them sees my film, they will think about something.
— Do you think they can think about it and give up something?
- No, of course not. A capitalist with 300% profit doesn't think about anything anymore. But maybe their children will see something. And war is war. We need to come to terms with it and understand how to live in war.
- You speak as if something worse awaits us.
— I wouldn’t like it, but it’s quite possible. Judging by the information I receive from open sources, war will become our reality. That’s why this film was made. It’s already our reality. The longer it lasts, the worse the situation we find ourselves in.
— So the viewer should understand that the war in Donbass did not start in 2022?
— That’s right: remember the war and know that it didn’t start in 2022. The viewer clearly sees this in the film and understands that this is the truth, not propaganda.
— Because you showed everything as it is?
— It is impossible to show everything as it is. There is some kind of internal censorship. What I am talking about in the film is a glamorous version of war. But even it shocks people who have no idea what war is. Reality is even more terrible and complicated.
I also want to say that Ukraine is mobilizing now, and we are sort of demobilizing ourselves. That's the horror. We say there is no war, and we are removing it.
We simply analyzed the enemy's activity in the information field due to our occupation. Let's take streaming platforms. Our film is the first war film on Russian streaming platforms. And Ukrainian streaming platforms are filming original content about the war.
— I watched this content — it is not uplifting. The devil is in this content.
- But it is packaged very beautifully.
— You said that your film is appreciated because it is not propaganda. There is really no valor there, that our brave soldiers go to defend and liberate the city. But you still have the feeling that you touched the light in the souls of the people about whom it was filmed. And in Ukrainian content, everything is prompt and beautiful. Even women fight there. It looks like an American action movie. But after watching it, you have the feeling that you opened the door to hell and saw the devils.
— I can’t watch them because they are of poor quality. But they exist. Netflix has four films about the war in Ukraine, while our platforms have none. What’s the difference? Why is it interesting for American viewers to watch films about the war in Ukraine? Even the film about Azov (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) “We Were Recruits” made it there.
— They understand it, it’s consumerism.
- This is a separate issue. And we don't have films, they are not being made. They are being made in Ukraine, they are sponsored by top IT companies, banks. Our banks do not sponsor our documentaries about our Russian soldiers. This is a minus for them.
- How can I remove it? If a person hasn't been through a war like you, he can vulgarize everything.
— I watched one report from Avdeevka, and I wanted to hit our war correspondent on the head so much. He asked such stupid questions... He doesn't understand at all what the people who stayed there went through. It's painful.
I could establish relationships with the locals who live in the frontline regions. But the correspondents who come from here are saturated with propaganda that is shown on our television, and do not always understand the situation in the liberated regions.
— Do you think that if our banks or other sponsors gave money, we would have decent films?
— I already said that it was filmed during the Great Patriotic War. Then television came along and killed the cohort of people who could tell stories with a picture without a war correspondent. That is, they used to show everything. A talking head didn’t come out and say “so many Tigers were shot down there.”
— Is it worth comparing the SVO with the Great Patriotic War? After all, everyone lived for the war then. I don’t believe that a director who doesn’t live for the war can make a worthwhile film about the war.
- I agree. This is the horror of what is happening, that in 1941 almost every citizen of the country knew who the enemy was and what needed to be done to win. Now the situation is worse than in 1941. The enemy has already captured Kharkov, Nikolaev, Odessa and part of the Kursk region, and we are all relaxed, as if nothing is happening. The enemy's goal is to destroy Russia.
— Am I right in coming to the conclusion that there will be worthy films and books about the war if people live in the reality we find ourselves in?
— Yes. When the Simonovs and VGIK cameramen go to Donbass. They will be able to convey this to other people. For now, we seem to be in control: “there is no war, it’s the SVO.” But you just have to go to streaming platforms and see what kind of films are being made. What does the state spend money on? All sorts of films about pimps and girls of easy virtue. Although if we’ve been making “Bastards” for 30 years, why are we surprised by this situation?
It's scary, really. On the other side, children are ready to kill. They are taught to assemble and control drones. And our children say: "This is not our war, our politicians started it, let them finish it, we are very peaceful people, we want to live in peace." That is, they do not understand that they are preparing to kill them and are doing everything for this, right?
I have seen situations where mobilized guys did not know how to cook their own food and arrange a place to sleep. You must defend your right to live in peace.
— Was there a particularly difficult moment in Mariupol when you, like that lion, wanted to scream?
— When grandmothers cry near a burning house. And especially children.
- I hope you didn't see the child's death or his dead body?
— I haven’t seen any. But I’ve seen a lot of men with one leg. And there was a terrible story in the hospital. There was an artillery barrage, and after it, someone was shouting, “Help, help,” but it was impossible to help. You’re inside a building and can’t get out.
— What did you feel?
— Pain. Since 2014, I have been in situations where you help one person, but cannot help the other. A woman is lying there. She has five penetrating wounds and multiple blast injuries. And three healthy men are walking around her and asking: “Maybe you should get some water?” I was actually the same in 2014. I don’t know what to do with her. Let her lie there, they’ll come soon…
— Have you changed since Mariupol?
— To some extent, yes. And the guys who were there. The same Roma Vorobey said: “Why were we so desperate? We thought that Mariupol would not let us out alive. We thought then that Mariupol was hell.” And then I saw him a year later, and he said: “Mariupol was an easy walk compared to what the war is like now.”
— Because of the drones?
— Not only that. It was 2023. Drones, shells, artillery. It seemed like fighting had become harder. And the best people, who were easier to command than the "mobiles," left.
— I will return to the topic of the soul of the country and the people. If you were given a lot of money from some bank and asked to make a film about the soul of the country, what would you show?
— There are a lot of heroes. We wanted to make a film about this even before the SVO, to figure it out. That’s why I don’t know the answer yet. Although I’ve already visited many regions of Russia. I would probably make a film about this.
— Why not about the war?
— It is precisely in war that this is best revealed. But there are many misconceptions here too. For example, in Mariupol, it was more interesting for me to film Donetsk boys than Russians, because the Russians had picked up propaganda on TV and spoke in memorized phrases, not understanding the full depth.
— Do they understand now?
— They understand. They have been fighting for three years now. But there are problems here too. One of the commanders recently wrote to me: “I conduct training with the personnel, showed your film. So many of them have not even heard of the battles in Mariupol.” They do not know anything about the Donetsk airport, Givi and Motorola. They just lived, and then suddenly decided to sign a contract. What can I say about them… I was amazed that even the Rostov security forces knew nothing about “Motor”, although they lived on the border with the DPR.
— It turns out that no matter how much you run away from war, it will come for you?
- Of course. If you are not interested in politics, politics will be interested in you. And in the modern world there will be more wars. In order to survive, they must seize our resources, including human ones. But victory will be ours in any case. We simply have no other choice.
[BBC] Millions of people have taken a holy bath at the Hindu festival of Kumbh Mela (also known as Mahakumbh) - described as humanity's biggest gathering - in northern India's Prayagraj city on Monday.
The event - held once every 12 years - starts on Monday and over the next six weeks, the devout will bathe at Sangam - the confluence of India's most sacred Ganges river with the Yamuna river and the mythical Saraswati.
Hindus believe that taking a dip in the sacred river will cleanse them of sins, purify their soul and liberate them from the cycle of birth and death - as the ultimate goal of Hinduism is salvation.
About 400 million pilgrims are expected to attend the 45-day spectacle, which is so large it can be seen from space.
In photos: World's biggest religious festival begins in India
WATCH: Sea of humanity at world's largest religious gathering
Authorities said that on Monday, until 4pm local time, 16 million people had taken a bath. On Tuesday, numbers are expected to exceed 20 million, and the spectacle will be special as it will see ash-smeared naked Hindu holy men with matted dreadlocks, known as Naga sadhus, take a dip at dawn.
But authorities are racing against time to get the city ready to host millions who will continue to pour in throughout the festival.
#BREAKING: Santa Ana winds up to 70 mph are set to roar back today, putting the entire Los Angeles population of 10 million people on high alert for potential evacuation.
The fires have already claimed 24 lives, destroyed 12,300 structures, and forced 100,000 people to flee. pic.twitter.com/AtQKtpey7j
LOS ANGELES: Police made 34 arrests in the Eaton fire and Palisades fire. They include looters, trespassers, arsonists, firefighter impersonators and more. pic.twitter.com/soDKNwyofB
BREAKING: The soft on crime era of Soros-funded LA DA George Gascon is over. Newly elected L.A. District Attorney Nathan Hochma praises police officers and announces 9 people charged with looting in Palisades & Eaton fires.
[FoxNews] Police and residents of Azusa, California, a small city in Los Angeles County, teamed up Friday to stop a suspected arsonist in his tracks as at least three large wildfires threaten the region and winds are expected to pick up again.
With increased officers on patrol amid the wildfire emergency, Azusa Police Department Capt. Robert Landeros said the first responding officer quickly arrived on the scene at Pioneer Park around 11:30 p.m. after neighbors confronted the homeless suspect, who was still there when the first officer arrived.
"This was intentional," Landeros told Fox News Digital on Monday. "Some of the neighbors confronted him, stopped him from setting an additional fire in the park."
Video shows an Azusa officer handcuffing a man just steps from a billowing brush fire, which authorities say county firefighters quickly extinguished.
Police have identified the suspect as 39-year-old Jose Carranza-Escobar, "a transient" whose last known address was also in Azusa. They said he admitted to starting the brush fire.
The arrest comes as firefighters continue to battle at least three active wildfires in Los Angeles County that have killed at least 24 and damaged thousands of homes and businesses.
Carranza-Escobar has been charged with three separate arson charges and is facing nine years in state prison if convicted.
Landeros said Azusa police and partner agencies, including Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman's Office, the county sheriff's office, arson investigators in neighboring departments and the California National Guard are taking a "zero-tolerance" approach to arson as high winds and the dry climate fuel raging wildfires across Southern California.
"Everybody’s out there," he said. "We’re watching. Even our citizens are."
As of Monday night, 10 people have been arrested for looting and arson, Hochman said at a press conference. Nine arrests have been tied to looting in both the Palisades and Eden fires, with one person being arrested for arson.
According to Hochman, Damari Bell and Martrell Peoples are charged with first-degree residential burglary, looting and grand theft after both men allegedly stole more than $200,000 worth of belongings. If convicted, Peoples, a convicted felon, could face a potential sentence of life in prison due to California’s Three Strikes Law.
Travon Coleman, who accompanied Bell and Peoples out of a Koreatown apartment, was allegedly driving a second vehicle and sped off while Bell and Peoples were stopped, running a red light and crashing into another vehicle. Coleman is charged with one count of felony hit-and-run causing great bodily injury and is also facing a maximum sentence of life in prison under the Three Strikes Law.
The foothills outside town are a high-risk fire area and also have homeless encampments, where fires have broken out before, he said.
"We're constantly conducting enforcement operations in that area," he said. "Residents are obviously on edge when there are major fires."
Last week, another group of Los Angeles residents stopped a homeless man seen carrying a blowtorch. He was taken into custody, but police said they didn't have enough evidence to charge him with arson. Video of that incident shows him holding a torch head and a yellow fuel tank before at least five residents surrounded him and tackled him to the ground.
Investigation of cause is underway. Sometimes it is just a lit cigarette thrown away that is the cause. We do know it wasn't lightening because there were no storms around.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/14/2025 13:42
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#6
I like the stand that sez CA needs more than change of leadership - it needs to change its ideology. It's now or never.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/14/2025 14:01
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#7
New fire in Riverside County just detected.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/14/2025 18:25
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If you take Wray at his word, despite it being long overdue, besides the Chinese, who else has crossed the borders with malice? Arson in SoCal right now merely adds to the massive disaster and further depletion of any resources Trump will need to start slowing the chaos Biden has left him.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Kamala Harris stunningly ended her 2024 presidential campaign leaving Democrats $20 million in debt. But her defeated campaign's joint fundraising committee is still charging supporters recurring donations that were set up during the vice president's bid for a promotion, according to a new report from Politico.And many feel seeing the continued charge on their credit cards adds salt to the wound of an already stinging loss.
The Harris Victory Fund did not seek donors' explicit approval to keep withdrawing cash after the 2024 election on November 5, 2024. Rather, an email claims they would continue seeing the charge 'until you contact us' to stop it.
A staffer who worked on former Sen. Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign says that the charges are 'super shady' and called it a sort of 'grift.' They disclosed how Romney's campaign immediately canceled all recurring donations a few days after his election loss to President Barack Obama.
'These people didn't sign up to be paying bills in January,' the former Romney staffer claimed.
The move is also seen as tone deaf and 'out of touch' considering Harris drove her party into massive debt and ran up a huge bill after taking over President Joe Biden's campaign.
There's usually an expectation that campaigns shut down recurring donations once their bid for office ends – whether in victory or defeat.
A Democratic National Committee official explained to Politico that the Harris Victory Fund is defunct.They claim that the contributions collected for Harris' campaign through recurring charges set up during the 2024 presidential race are now transferred to the DNC 'to help Democrats across the country as we rebuild the party.'
'It's silly, out of touch, and needlessly takes advantage of our most loyal supporters,' one Democrat told Politico when sharing screenshots of charges to their accounts continuing into the new year.
Donors spent $4.7 billion backing both the Democratic and Republican tickets in the 2024 presidential election.
Federal Election Commission data shows that Harris and her Democratic allied groups raised roughly $2.9 billion over the Republicans who brought in $1.8 billion to back Trump's third straight White House bid.
Mike Nellis, who runs Democratic online fundraising firm Authentic, said that among losing campaigns 'there's an expectation that they're going to shut down the recurring donations because there's no need.'
He admitted, however, that there is some 'comfort' in knowing that the committee is rolled into donating the funds to the DNC as long as they are transparents to their donors about where the money is going.
Recurring contributions are a common tactic in political campaigns to secure steady bankroll for the election. Many candidates and the groups backing them encourage supporters to sign up for low recurring donations rather than higher, one-time contributions.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2025
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#1
I guess GibberishPost was already taken.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/14/2025 17:54
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Romney staffer get a surprise credit card charge?
[Jpost] Despite claims of an agreement being reached, the shipment was reportedly delayed due to Turkey’s close monitoring of threats to drone shipments.
Iran has reportedly agreed to supply 1,500 suicide drones to the Kurdish YPG/PKK group in Syria to counter Turkey’s military operations, a journalist of conservative Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak, known for its support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), reported on Sunday.
I that likely, or is the Turkish press making stuff up agqin?
The PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) is a left-wing militia fighting for Kurdish independence in northeast Syria, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey, historically areas populated by ethnic Kurds.
The YPG (People's Defense Units) is a US-backed militia that controls areas of northeast Syria under the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Turkey's AKP views both groups as "terror" organizations.
An alleged meeting between Iranian representatives and the Kurdish organization reportedly took place in a market in Iraq, where the Kurds reportedly requested 2,000 drones. According to the unverified report, Iran clarified it could only provide 1,500 units.
Despite claims of an agreement being reached, the shipment was reportedly delayed due to Turkey’s close monitoring and its threat to intercept any drone transfers into Syria. Determined to block the deal, Turkey’s reported efforts have brought cooperation between Iran and the YPG/PKK to a standstill, as per the report.
The report further claimed that, under Turkish pressure, the YPG/PKK has shifted to an alternative strategy - transporting drones in separate parts to avoid detection. However, the success of this strategy remains in doubt due to Turkey’s continued operations along the border.
A RESURGENCE OF ISIS IN SYRIA?
Abdul Rahman, a Syrian news analyst, cautioned that Yeni Şafak's unverified report could mark the return of ISIS near Damascus for the first time since 2018, when the Assad regime regained control of the area. “The resurgence of ISIS in the capital’s vicinity signals a new threat under the current administration and intensifies Syria’s mounting security challenges,” he warned.
Rahman also noted that a stockpile of weapons from the Assad regime remains hidden and now poses a “ticking time bomb” that threatens Syria’s fragile transition. He further suggested that remnants of militias, once aligned with the regime, are suspected of operating terror cells and maintaining ties with external actors.
Let us all pause to be grateful that the IDF has already destroyed so much of the Syrian stockpile accumulated by the Assads, père et fil.
The situation on the ground is particularly troubling amid the growing spread of ISIS cells across various regions in Syria. There is mounting concern that the resulting security chaos could undermine the country’s stability during this sensitive period of political transition.
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[GEO.TV] Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman's workshop in rural China the US president-elect sits in divine contemplation.
Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of America's divisive ...politicians call things divisive when when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive, they're principled... leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi.
The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (about $140 to $2,700) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines.
And ahead of the real estate magnate's inauguration for a second term, they have become hot property again.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[FoxNews] 'As a well-educated lawyer and businessman, Mr. Biden consciously and willfully chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes,' Weiss wrote of Hunter Biden
Special Counsel David Weiss' final report on his years-long investigation into Hunter Biden determined the first son's drug abuse could not explain away not paying taxes on millions of dollars of income earned off of his "last name and connections."
Is this covered under President Biden’s pardon, or does this count as new business?
"As a well-educated lawyer and businessman, Mr. Biden consciously and willfully chose not to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes over a four-year period. From 2016 to 2020, Mr. Biden received more than $7 million in total gross income, including approximately $1.5 million in 2016, $2.3 million in 2017, $2.1 million in 2018, $1 million in 2019 and $188,000 from January through October 15, 2020," Weiss wrote in his final report, which was released Monday.
"Mr. Biden made this money by using his last name and connections to secure lucrative business opportunities, such as a board seat at a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate, Burisma Holdings Limited, and a joint venture with individuals associated with a Chinese energy conglomerate. He negotiated and executed contracts and agreements that paid him millions of dollars for limited work," Weiss continued.
Hunter Biden, 54, had a busy year in court last year, when he was convicted of two separate federal cases prosecuted by Weiss. He kicked off his first trial in Delaware in June, when he faced three felony firearm offenses involving his drug use, before pleading guilty in a separate felony tax case in September.
[Jpost] Israel Air Force fighter jets, under the direction of the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Navy, struck Houthi targets in the western coastal strip and deep inside Yemen on Friday.
The IDF stated that the attack was carried out in response to repeated attacks by the Houthis against the State of Israel, its citizens, and civilian infrastructure.
This was a joint operation with the United States Air Force and the UK's Royal Air Force.
The infrastructure at the Hezaz power station, which serves as the Houthis's central power source for military activities, was among the targets attacked.
Additionally, the IDF attacked infrastructure at the ports of Ras Issa and Hodeidah on the western coast of Yemen.
A HISTORIC SQUADRON
The IAF's 120th "Desert Giants" Squadron, previously known as "The International Squadron," has participated in several historic missions.
Its first major mission was to drop supplies to Yemen's Royalist forces during Yemen's civil war in the 1960s.
They also participated in both the Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars.
Planes from the 120th were also instrumental in the famous Operation Entebbe. They operated as flying hospitals to support the evacuation of civilians from Kenya after their initial evacuation from Uganda.
They were also involved in the evacuation of nearly 15,000 Ethiopian Jews during Operation Solomon.
The Desert Giants also dropped humanitarian and medical supplies into Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide, as well as provided aid to the Muslim communities in Bosnia during the Bosnian genocide.
They also provided refueling support during the IDF's previous major strikes in Yemen.
[Jpost] A thousand new drones were delivered to Iran’s army on Monday, the state-run Tasnim news agency reported, as the country braces for more friction with arch-enemy Israel and the United States under incoming US president Donald Trump.
A tiny fraction of what the IDF destroyed in this war that Iran caused to be started, but it is a beginning. And it gives the IDF a new target when they were perhaps starting to become.
The drones were delivered to various locations throughout Iran and are said to have high stealth and anti-fortification abilities, according to Tasnim.
“The drones’ unique features, including a range of over 2,000 km., high destructive power, the ability to pass through defense layers with a low radar cross-section, and autonomous flight, not only increase the depth of reconnaissance and border monitoring but also boost the combat capability of the army’s drone fleet in confronting distant targets,” the news agency added.
The drones were also manufactured within Iran by the Iranian military, scientists, and “innovators,” according to the news agency.
This comes after Iran’s defense industry revealed a new suicide drone – the Razvan – last week.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] New footage shows the corpses of more than a dozen North Korean soldiers sent to die as 'cannon fodder' in Putin's gruelling war on Ukraine.
Troops said to have been 'liquidated' by Ukraine are seen in footage shared with international intelligence community InformNapalm.
The Ukrainian OSINT group said that the video 'confirms that the Russian command continues to massively use Koreans as cannon fodder for infantry assaults on Ukrainian army positions'.
The North Koreans were sent in 'ahead of Russian units' to storm frontline positions' in Russia's Kursk region, contested amid a blistering Ukrainian offensive, it added.
Earlier reports say the faces of the corpses have been deliberately disfigured - including by burning - to stop them being identified.
Ukraine and South Korea reported late last year that North Korea had sent at least 10,000 troops to support Putin's war effort as Ukraine began to make gains inside Kursk.
As many as 300 North Korean soldiers are believed to have been killed, with a further 2,700 wounded, in clashes so far, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters today.
He added that Pyongyang's troops have been told to kill themselves before allowing themselves to be captured alive.
Joe Biden’s on a farewell tour and he’s ending his presidency the same way he started it: whispering and yelling. @JoeBiden drove the country into quicksand, but now he’s spending his last week in the Oval saying he nailed it. Trade, the border, Afghanistan, Russia, the Middle… pic.twitter.com/Vzp6jtVv91
The Biden administration throwing absolutely everything against the wall in these last days, in the hope that some of it will stick, unnoticed, after President Trump is sworn in next Monday.
[Jpost] NVIDIA, one of America's leading semiconductor companies, has strongly criticized the Biden Administration's new "AI Diffusion" rule, calling it an unprecedented overreach that threatens global innovation and US technological leadership.
In a statement released by Ned Finkle, NVIDIA's Vice President of Government Affairs, the company argues that the 200+ page regulation, which was reportedly drafted without proper legislative review, would impose bureaucratic control over the design and marketing of American semiconductors, computers, systems, and software globally.
The new rules aim to restrict access to mainstream computing applications, including technology currently available in gaming PCs and consumer hardware.
While presented as an anti-China measure, NVIDIA contends that these restrictions would affect technology deployment worldwide and ultimately weaken America's competitive position in the global market.
Finkle drew a contrast with the previous Trump Administration's approach, which he credited for establishing the foundation of America's current AI leadership by allowing US industry to compete freely while maintaining national security.
Under those policies, mainstream AI has become integral to applications across healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and education sectors.
UNDERMINES US INTERESTS?
Although the rule won't be enforceable for 120 days,
See?
NVIDIA claims it is already undermining US interests. The company argues that America's technological advantage is best maintained through innovation and competition, rather than government restrictions on technology sharing.
The statement reflects growing tension between the tech industry and the Biden Administration over the regulation of artificial intelligence technologies, particularly regarding international trade and competition with China.
The controversy comes at a time when AI technology has become increasingly central to global economic growth and technological advancement, with American companies playing a leading role in its development and deployment.
[IsraelTimes] Experts quoted saying framework, which tries to balance US national security concerns with economic interests, could prevent 120 countries, including Israel, from competing in AI.
[ZeroHedge] House investigations reveal that the Deep State and the Biden-Harris Administration are engaged in a massive repression of American freedoms...
Reports released by two House committees in December shine a harsh light on the deceptions and oppressive tactics utilized by numerous federal agencies, the Intelligence Community, and leaders of the Democratic Party. During the last year of the first Trump Administration, agencies within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), State Department, and Justice Department (DOJ) initiated improper contacts with media in an effort to censor conservative views. These agencies also took steps to interfere in the 2020 election to benefit Joe Biden.
The Biden-Harris Administration supercharged the weaponization of the federal government against the American people. With the active participation of the media, the administration followed a whole-of-government effort to collude with, and coerce, the media to suppress and censor conservatives and others who opposed progressive goals. It threatened parents with terrorist “threat tagging” and visits from the FBI for speaking their minds, stretched statutory authority beyond recognition to prosecute Donald Trump and his supporters, harassed and penalized whistleblowers, invaded bank privacy, sent heavily armed federal agents into private homes, and brought an unprecedented barrage of litigation against states to force them into compliance with the administration’s unconstitutional goals.
On December 17, 2024, the House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight (Administration Subcommittee) released its report on the events surrounding January 6, 2021 and the politicization of the Select Committee (January 6 Committee) established by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate those events. Three days later, the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government (Justice Subcommittee) released a 17,000-page final report detailing the administrative state’s and the Biden-Harris Administration’s repressive censorship enterprise and other abuses.
Based on the evidence described in these reports, there are two inescapable conclusions:
(1) regardless of the administration in office, the Deep State in DHS, DoD, DOJ, IRS, the Intelligence Community, and other agencies have arrogated to themselves unconstitutional and unlawful powers to infringe individual liberties, expand rules, and use force to suppress conservatives’ goals, religion, and free speech; and
(2) the Biden-Harris Administration, Pelosi, and leading Democrats endorsed, supported, facilitated, and led the expansion of these efforts.
These reports are products of extensive investigations and include copious evidence. Though the Administration Subcommittee’s report can be faulted for its angry tone, a vainglorious pandering to its chairman, Barry Loudermilk, and sometimes hyperbolic conclusions, it provides compelling evidence of wrongdoing. Broader in scope and more thoroughly researched, the Justice Subcommittee’s report is the product of a detailed inquiry into a broad betrayal of trust. Justice Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan is to be commended for uncovering problems and taking steps that have already ameliorated some of these practices.
The findings in these reports show why the Trump Administration must clean house. That is why Trump has nominated sometimes controversial individuals such as Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, John Ratcliffe, Russell Vought, and Rick Grenell. It explains Trump’s impulsive, properly withdrawn nomination of Matt Gaetz and the creation of DOGE as an advisor outside of government. It is why so many of Trump’s appointees have expressed concern about the agencies they have been selected to lead.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] The emergence of a large coronal hole on the Sun will lead to a significant acceleration of the solar wind near the Earth, but is unlikely to provoke strong magnetic storms. Sergei Bogachev, head of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences,told RIA Novosti on January 13.
According to him, coronal holes usually occur on a quiet Sun. This phenomenon is the opposite of solar activity.
“Now, after an active start to the year, the Sun has noticeably calmed down, and against this background such phenomena are occurring,” Bogachev explained.
The increase in the solar wind speed in the vicinity of the Earth is the main consequence of the formation of coronal holes. The speed is expected to increase to 400-600 kilometers per second today and remain at this level for the entire week. This is a significant, but not too dangerous increase, the scientist noted.
Due to the acceleration of the solar wind, he added, the situation in the Earth's magnetosphere will worsen, but there will probably be no magnetic storms. Coronal holes can cause strong storms - up to the third level, but there is not enough data for an accurate forecast.
Earlier, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences Anatoly Petrukovich warned in a conversation with the Regnum news agency that powerful solar flares would continue until 2025. The expert specified that the star is experiencing a period of high activity, which repeats approximately every 11 years.
The first high-class X- ray flare in 2025 was recorded on the Sun on January 3.
[ZeroHedge] Former French European Commissioner Thierry Breton has essentially openly confessed that the West stole the Romanian election and stands ready to do it again in Germany if deemed necessary.
"We did it in Romania, and we will do it in Germany if necessary," a translation from the French of Breton's recent appearance in European media said. Early last month a top Romanian court simply annulled the first round of the country's presidential election in order to create what amounted to a 'do over' election.
The publication Romania Journal highlighted Breton's words as follows: "If, on the other hand, the Tesla and X boss breaks the law, especially in Germany, by supporting the 'extremist' AfD party, the former European Commissioner believes that it will be necessary for the authorities to act as in Romania, where the presidential elections were canceled, writes the website of the French television BFMTV, which recalls Călin Georgescu’s TikTok campaign.
The court had decided "to annul the entire electoral process for the election of the President of Romania… to ensure the correctness and legality of the electoral process" - in the controversial ruling which was completely unprecedented.
The 'problem' was that Calin Georgescu, the widely dubbed 'far-right' contender, came out on top in a first round of voting in a 'shock' outcome which left political opponents claiming Russian election interference.
Apparently the 'smoking gun' is related to mere social media posts on platforms like TikTok. "The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision — which is final — came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia ran a sprawling campaign comprising thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms like TikTok and Telegram," The Associated Press noted.
Here's more from Breton's words:
Now we are equipped, and we have to enforce this law to protect our democracies in Europe.
For now, let’s keep calm and enforce our laws in Europe, when there is a risk that they will be bypassed and if they are not enforced, they can lead to interference.
We did it in Romania, and if necessary, we will have to do it in Germany as well.
Elon Musk responded by saying this is what a tyrant sounds like...
#3
IIRC they forced Denmark and Ireland to retake the vote to ratify the EU accord, even though the accord said if anyone didn't join it nullified the pack. We knew then it was all a Trojan horse to authoritarianism and totalitarianism.
[IsraelTimes] Women’s rights activist Nahid Taghavi, 70, returns to Germany after four years of detention; Olivier Grondeau, 34, identifies himself in recorded phone call broadcast on French TV
A German-Iranian woman held in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... for over four years has returned to Germany, her family said Monday, while a Frenchie detained by the Islamic Theocratic Republic since October 2022 revealed his identity in an audio message and said he was exhausted by his ordeal.
Western countries have for years accused Iran of detaining their nationals on trumped-up charges in a policy of state hostage-taking to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions.
Iran announced on Sunday that a national held in Italia on a US extradition warrant had returned home. Days earlier, an Italian journalist was released from a Tehran jail, following intense diplomatic efforts by Rome.
German-Iranian woman Nahid Taghavi, 70, returned to Germany on Sunday after four years of detention in Iran, her family said. Taghavi, a long-time activist who campaigned for women’s rights and freedom of expression, was arrested in Tehran in October 2020. In August 2021, she was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison for participating in an outlawed group.
"Words cannot describe our joy," her daughter Mariam Claren said. "At the same time, we mourn the four years that were stolen from us and the horror she had to endure in Evin prison," she added.
Her release comes months after the death of Iran-born German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd sparked a diplomatic dispute between Tehran and Berlin, with Germany recalling its ambassador and closing three consulates in the country.
Sharmahd, kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates in July 2020 by Iranian agents, according to the family and the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention, was executed on October 28 on the charge of "corruption on earth," according to the news site of the Iranian judiciary. But the judiciary later said while his execution was imminent that he had died before it could be carried out.
’RUNNING OUT’
French national Olivier Grondeau, 34, had previously only been identified by his first name and French authorities had not released details of his case.
In a recording aired on La Belle France Inter on Monday of a December 19, 2024 phone call, Grondeau fully identified himself and warned that he and the other two French detainees held in Iran were "exhausted."
The other two Frenchies are teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, who were detained in May 2022. They are accused of seeking to stir up labor protests, accusations their families have vehemently denied.
"You, who have the power to influence this matter, hear this truth," he said in the audio message, apparently addressing the French authorities.
"Cecile’s strength, Jacques’ strength, Olivier’s strength — it is all running out," he said. "Your responsibility is called upon to ensure the survival of three human beings," he said.
Grondeau was arrested in Shiraz, in southern Iran, in October 2022, and sentenced to five years in prison for "conspiracy against the Islamic Theocratic Republic," his mother Therese Grondeau told La Belle France Inter.
His family rejects the charges, describing Grondeau as a passionate fan of Persian poetry traveling to Iran on a tourist visa as part of a world tour.
What an idiotic thing to do. If he wanted to discuss Persian poetry, there are plenty of Iranians at the royal court, which alternates between Paris and Maryland, where there’s no risk of being held for ransom.
On Friday, La Belle France summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest Tehran’s holding of the trio, describing them as "state hostages."
This is a hugely sensitive moment in relations between Iran and the West, days before US President-elect Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... comes to power. Iran is set Monday to hold talks on its contested nuclear program in Geneva with European powers La Belle France, Britannia and Germany.
Iran maintains that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes and denies any intention to develop atomic weapons. However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... the country has in recent years increased its manufacturing of enriched uranium, and it is the only non-nuclear weapons state to possess uranium enriched to 60 percent, the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said. That level is well on the way to the 90% required for an atomic bomb and beyond anything needed for a civilian nuclear program.
[GEO.TV] Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is set to hold nuclear talks with La Belle France, Britannia and Germany on Monday, just a week before US President-elect Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... takes office.
They are the second round of talks over Iran's nuclear programme in less than two months, following a discreet meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , in November between Tehran and the three European powers, known as the E3.
"These are not negotiations," the German foreign ministry told AFP. Iran has similarly emphasised that the talks are merely "consultations".
The talks, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, will cover a "wide range of topics," Iran's foreign ministry front man Esmaeil Baqaei said during a weekly press briefing.
"The primary objective of these talks is to remove the sanctions" on Iran, he noted, adding that Iran was also "listening to the [...] topics that the opposite parties want to raise".
On Thursday, La Belle France's foreign ministry said the meeting was a sign that the E3 countries "are continuing to work toward a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme, the progress of which is extremely problematic".
The talks come as Iran's nuclear programme received renewed focus in light of Trump's imminent return to the White House on January 20.
During his first term, Trump had pursued a policy of "maximum pressure", withdrawing the US from a landmark nuclear deal which imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Tehran adhered to the deal until Washington's withdrawal, but then began rolling back its commitments.
Efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear pact have since faltered and European officials have repeatedly expressed frustrations over Tehran's non-compliance.
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#1
"We need to get our story straight. People have been selling sanctioned equipment, and we need to have the excuses ready."
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[GEO.TV] Security forces have eliminated as many as 27 Lions of Islam during an intelligence-based operation in remote district of Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , the military's media wing said on Monday.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that on January 12 security forces conducted the IBO in Kacchi district of Balochistan, on reported presence of Lions of Islam in the area.
During the conduct of operation, troops "stealthily surrounded & effectively engaged the terrosits' location, and after an intense fire exchange, twenty seven Lions of Islam were sent to hell".
Multiple hideouts, including caches of arms, ammunition and explosives, were also destroyed during the operation, the ISPR added.
The Lions of Islam were involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as innocent civilians and were highly wanted by the law enforcement agencies, as per the ISPR.
"Security forces of Pakistain, in step with the nation, remain determined to thwart attempts at sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Balochistan."
The nation has been reeling under rising violent mostly peaceful attacks since the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... rulers returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
The year 2024 turned out to be the deadliest for Pakistain's civil and military security forces in a decade with at least 685 fatalities and 444 terror attacks, according to ''CRSS Annual Security Report 2024'' issued by Centre for Security and Strategic Studies.
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] New suspects have emerged in the case of the murder of the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense troops (RCBZ) of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, and his assistant Ilya Polikarpov. According to Kommersant, they rented an apartment in the Moscow region for the suspected perpetrator of the terrorist attack, Akhmad Kurbanov.
The suspects, there are two of them, are natives of Ingushetia, who were engaged in small business in Moscow. According to the operational services, shortly before the explosion, one of the defendants in the case received a call from an acquaintance living abroad, who asked him to find housing for an "Asian".
He, in turn, asked his fellow countryman to find an apartment. The natives of Ingushetia rented an apartment in Elektrougli and transferred the money for it, registering the housing in their own documents. They handed the keys to the apartment to the suspected perpetrator of the terrorist attack in one of Moscow's shopping centers.
Having learned of the terrorist attack, the accomplices fled, but security forces identified them and detained them in Siberia. They were arrested for 15 days for disobeying police officers and petty hooliganism. After serving their sentences, they will be sent to Moscow.
The new suspects belong to the militant wing of a group of followers of the religious sect "Batal-Khadzhi"
…also Batalkhadzhins, among other variations, whom Ramzan Kadyrov declared his brothers, are an Ingush clan of about 5,000, who at the moment are fighting alongside Ukraine…
(an organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation and recognized as terrorist).
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the explosion that killed Kirillov and Ilya Polikarpov occurred early in the morning of December 17 in the south-east of Moscow. The bomb was planted in an electric scooter. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case on the fact of the explosion. The investigation is being conducted under three articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: murder, terrorist act, and illegal circulation of weapons and ammunition.
On December 18, a citizen of Uzbekistan suspected of committing the terrorist attack, Akhmad Kurbanov, was detained. He admitted his guilt and said that he was recruited by Ukrainian special services. The man said that he acted for a reward of $100,000 and a promise to ensure his exit to the EU.
In order to monitor the general's entrance, the suspect rented a car and equipped it with a surveillance camera, which was used to broadcast online for the organizers of the terrorist attack in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.
On December 19, Moscow's Basmanny Court sentenced the accused to two months of arrest.
The FSB and the special services of Uzbekistan are establishing possible accomplices in the murder of Kirillov and his assistant. The press service of the Federal Security Service emphasized that the employees of the Ukrainian special services who are behind the organization of the terrorist attack in Moscow will face a deserved punishment.
[ALJAZEERA] At least 40 farmers have been killed in an attack by gangs in Nigeria's northeastern Borno State, according to government officials.
Fighters from the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... group and ISIS (ISIS) affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP) were suspected of carrying out the attack, Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum and State Information Commissioner Usman Tar said on Monday.
Tar said the groups rounded up dozens of farmers in Dumba on the shores of Lake Chad and shot them dead late on Sunday.
''Initial report indicates about 40 farmers have been killed while the whereabouts of many who escaped the attack are being traced for reunion with their families,'' Tar said.
The state government has ordered soldiers battling rebel fighters in the region ''to track and obliterate the holy warrior elements'' operating around Dumba and their enclaves in the wider Lake Chad area, Tar added.
The farmers ''strayed off'' the safe limit set by the armed forces for farming and fishing in the area that is a sanctuary for fighters from ISWAP and Boko Haram and is dotted with landmines and ''prone to nocturnal attacks'', the commissioner said.
Governor Zulum warned civilians to stay within designated safe zones that have been cleared by the army of both fighters and munitions.
He also called for an investigation into the attack by the armed forces.
Lake Chad, which straddles Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... and Chad, serves as a hideout for Boko Haram and ISWAP, which use it as a base to launch attacks.
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[IsraelTimes] Funds will be used to pay off debt to Israel Electric Corporation; both sides declare victory after agreeing to mechanism that US hopes can be used for release of additional money
Israel and the Paleostinian Authority announced Sunday that they had struck a deal allowing for the release of roughly $500 million in Paleostinian tax revenues for use in electricity and fuel payments to Israel.
Both sides framed the agreement as a victory after months of negotiations, which 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... ’s administration helped mediate, according to a senior Western diplomat familiar with the matter, who said the goal was to use the deal as a framework for the release of additional funds that Israel has been withholding from the PA.
Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s Finance Ministry collects tax revenues on behalf of the PA and makes monthly transfers to Ramallah, but a dispute broke out over the payments in the wake of Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... ’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
The Israeli cabinet refused to transfer the portion of the funds that Ramallah uses to pay for services and employees 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... , arguing that the money could reach the Hamas terror group. The roughly $75 million in revenues amounts to about a quarter of the entire monthly transfer.
Protesting the move, the PA refused to accept any of the tax revenues, which make up the vast majority of the PA’s annual budget. Unable to pay its employees in full for months, the move has risked Ramallah’s complete financial collapse.
In January 2024, the cabinet approved a framework under which the Gaza portion of the funds would be transferred to Norway, which would then be required to hold onto the funds until Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed off on their release to the PA.
That mechanism worked for several months, and Smotrich signed off on the release of some of those funds from Norway to the PA.
But then in May, Norway joined Spain and Ireland in formally recognizing a Paleostinian state, infuriating Jerusalem. Smotrich in response announced the end of the agreement involving Norway.
Oslo still had roughly $420 million in Paleostinian tax revenues in its possession, but the Israeli Finance Ministry warned that if those funds were transferred to the PA, Israel would dock that money from subsequent monthly tax revenue transfers.
With the PA’s financial state particularly bleak in the year since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, significant efforts were made by the US to secure the release of those funds. Washington sought to recruit Morocco to replace Norway, but this idea was eventually shelved in favor of the current formula that has removed the middle-man, the Western diplomat said.
More recently, Israel proposed allowing the release of the funds if they were used to pay off the massive amounts of debt that the PA owes to Israeli electric and fuel companies that have accumulated over time due to various Paleostinian municipalities’ failure to make their payments.
Ramallah initially chafed at the idea, wanting more autonomy over how to spend the funds. Ultimately, though, it caved after Israel made clear it would not accept the release of the money held up in Norway under any other circumstances, the diplomat said.
Sweetening the deal for the PA, though, is the fact that the payment of the debt to the Israeli fuel and electricity companies improves Ramallah’s standing with Paleostinian banks who now see that it is capable of paying off such debts when adjudicating future loan requests.
The released funds, which have accumulated interest over time, will go toward paying off fuel and electricity debt in addition to covering such payments in the months ahead, the Israeli and PA finance ministries said in their respective announcements. Smotrich’s office said the deal resulted in the payoff of $544 million in debt to Israel. He updated the cabinet of the deal on Sunday.
"The PA’s debt to the [Israel Electric Corportation] resulted in high loans and interest rates, as well as damage to IEC’s credit, which was ultimately rolled over to the citizens of Israel," Smotrich told the cabinet, according to the statement from his office.
The agreement doesn’t release the Gaza portion of Paleostinian tax revenues that Israel has continued to withhold since the Norwegian agreement fell apart. However,
ars longa, vita brevis... the Western diplomat said the goal is to use the new framework so that those funds can be used for electricity and fuel payments in the future.
Smotrich has been opposed to sending funds to the PA, which uses the money to pay public sector wages. The withheld funds forced the PA to drastically cut public sector wages for months.
Israel also deducts funds equal to the total amount of so-called martyr payments, which the PA pays to families of Paleostinian holy warriors or the families of slain attackers.
The PA finance ministry said $570 million remains withheld by Israel, bringing the total withheld funds to over $980 million as of 2024.
"This has exacerbated the financial crisis, as the government continues to transfer these allocations directly to the accounts of public servants in Gaza," the ministry said, adding that it was working with international partners to secure the release of these funds as soon as possible.
NEW: Undercover video shows a public school administrator in Texas vowing to "go to jail" to make sure a biological male student can play girl's sports.pic.twitter.com/L6Kx3CiXTk
#9
The soft bigotry of low expectations — I once spent an interesting lunch discussing that to a very bright young Black engineer. There are plenty of serious Black women, and they’re even more frustrated by the current environment that causes so many to assume their incompetence than you are. This one, however, is not one of them.
[NAHARNET] Prominent Lebanese diplomat and judge Nawaf Salam was named PM-designate on Monday after he won sweeping support from legislators, as Hezbollah accused some parties of "staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion."
They noticed.
The Presidency, which issued a decree naming Salam as PM-designate, said the latter received 84 votes as caretaker PM Najib Mikati received only nine votes and 35 MPs refrained from naming anyone.
Salam is currently serving as the head of the International Court of Justice and his nomination was made by Western-backed groups as well as independents in the Lebanese parliament. Salam is backed by Saudi Arabia and western countries.
Monday's nomination of Salam during binding consultations with President Joseph Aoun is a major blow to Hezbollah, which is also a powerful political party, after its militant wing was weakened by a 14-month war with Israel.
Salam will have a difficult mission ahead of him, as Lebanon truce with Israel that ended the nearly Israel-Hezbollah war. Salam will also have to work on getting the small nation out of its historic five-year economic meltdown.
Salam's nomination and last week's selection of the country's army commander Aoun as president is likely to lead to flow of funds from Western and oil-rich Arab nations to Lebanon to help in the reconstruction process.
Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc meanwhile voiced regret over the manner in which Salam was nominated.
''Our meeting with the president was to express our regret over those who want to harm the presidential tenure's consensual start,'' the head of the bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, said after the bloc's meeting with Aoun.
According to media reports, the bloc asked for the postponement of its meeting with Aoun until Tuesday before eventually reversing its decision.
''Once again some are staging an ambush aimed at disintegration, partitioning, elimination and exclusion, in a deliberate and spiteful manner,'' Raad decried.
''We made a positive step upon the election of the president and we were hoping to meet the hand that had always boasted about being extended, but it suddenly was severed,'' the MP added.
''It is our right to demand a government to respect the National Pact, and any government that contradicts with coexistence has no legitimacy. We will monitor and carry on with all due calm and wisdom and we will watch their actions for removing the occupier from our land, returning the captives, reconstruction and the correct implementation of 1701 in a manner that preserves national unity,'' Raad went on to say.
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.
[Garowe] A fishing vessel with links to China was released after two months in captivity, the Chinese embassy in Somalia confirmed, noting that 18 crew members were all recovered and are safe and sound after the worst ordeal in the deep waters.
... the personification of Somali state failure...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
[IsraelTimes] Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim an overnight missile attack on Israel, saying they had launched a “hypersonic ballistic missile” into “occupied Jaffa,” a reference to the Israeli commercial hub of Tel Aviv.
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
[Townhall] Elon Musk's ambitious push to reshape America's financial landscape took a bold step forward this week. His first "DOGE Agents" arrived in Washington, D.C., with a clear target: the Internal Revenue Service (
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
"Among the targets struck were a rocket launcher site, a military site, and routes along the Syria-Lebanon border used to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah," it said.
...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania...
[Regnum] The emergence of a large coronal hole on the Sun will lead to a significant acceleration of the solar wind near the Earth, but is unlikely to provoke strong magnetic storms. Sergei Bogachev, head of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences,told RIA Novosti on January 13.
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
