[IsraelTimes] Russia says it is still undecided about what to do with its military bases in Syria following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
The Tartus naval base and Hmeimim air base are Russia’s only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union and have been key to the Kremlin’s activities in Africa and the Middle East.
“There are no final decisions on this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tells reporters. “We are in contact with representatives of the forces that now control the situation in the country,” he adds.
Russia said Sunday it had evacuated some of its diplomatic staff from the country.
[IsraelTimes] Diplomats urge inclusive new administration focused on nation-building and justice; envoys arrive for talks, embassies reopen as countries assess new regimet9
They berate and shun Israel, but cuddle up to the local branch of Al Qaeda. Though it will be interesting to see if HTS reconnects with the home office, now that the pressure is off, or if they concentrate on consolidating their local caliphate rather than rejoining the world jihad. Iran and Hamas both are working on the international syndicate, while Turkey is looking at expanding the neo-Ottoman sultanate, so Syria has examples of both approaches.
Governments worldwide are stepping up efforts to engage with Syria’s new interim rulers, just over a week after Islamist-led rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad, ending decades of brutal rule and civil war.
But the rapid ouster caught many governments by surprise, and has left them scrambling for a new policy.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the offensive, is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, and is still designated a terrorist group by several Western governments.
Diplomats, including UN envoy Geir Pedersen who was in Syria on Sunday, have urged an inclusive new administration focused on nation-building and justice.
Pedersen met with HTS chief Ahmed al-Sharaa — previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani — and called for “justice and accountability for crimes.”
“We need to make sure that that goes through a credible justice system and that we don’t see any revenge,” he said.
A Qatari delegation also landed in Syria on Sunday to meet transitional government officials and pledge “full commitment to supporting the Syrian people.”
Qatar’s embassy is set to resume operations Tuesday, 13 years after it closed in the early stages of an anti-government uprising that sparked years of civil war.
Unlike other Arab countries, Qatar never restored ties with Assad’s Syria.
AID AND DIPLOMACY
It comes after Turkey, a key backer of some of the rebel groups that ousted Assad, reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday.
Both Britain and the United States also confirmed they were in touch with HTS despite officially considering the organization a terrorist group.
“We can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact,” British Foreign Minister David Lammy said as he announced an aid package for Syrians.
A French diplomatic team is also due in Damascus on Tuesday to “retake possession of our real estate” and make “initial contact” with the new authorities, said acting Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.
They will also be “evaluating the urgent needs of the population,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile said his country was coordinating on providing aid to Syria, including wheat, flour and oil.
[Garowe] At least five people, including children, were injured in a series of landmine explosions in Galmudug village, Garasbaley district, over the past two nights as the number of the people killed in such attacks are increasing.
Witnesses said six explosives were strategically placed outside homes equipped with CCTV cameras. No official comment has been made by either the Garasbaley district administration or Mogadishu security officials on the attacks.
The blasts coincide with heightened fear and panic in Mogadishu sparked by a government initiative to install thousands of security cameras citywide aimed at monitoring al-Shabaab movements and enhancing public safety. The measure has, however, alarmed local business owners, who fear retaliation from the militant group.
Several traders have admitted to receiving threats from al-Shabaab, with warnings about destroying the cameras and threats of reprisals against those who comply with the government's directive. In contrast, officials have threatened legal action against anyone interfering with the cameras.
In response to the expanded surveillance, al-Shabaab has stepped up attacks on markets, businesses, and traders in Mogadishu, seen as a backlash to the increased monitoring. Despite the dangers, some residents back the CCTV project, considering it vital for the capital's security.
#1
Remember back in October 1993 the DC Swamp fixed Somalia 🤔?
Using the usual let's start a war to deflect attention from the DC criminal screw-ups. While claiming it's to "Save Africa" and feed the starving.
Given the results and $$B's in costs of Somalia, Iran, Lebanon, Jordon, Syria, and other area fixes. When will DC stop fixing other nation's problems and focus on our actual allies, MAGA & KAG?
But then I guess, physical war is at least focused to an area, unlike an "accidental" Scamdemic release.
[Rudaw] Iraq’s water resources ministry on Monday assured that the country has large capacities in three separate sites to absorb flood waves as fears mount over the collapse of Tishreen Dam in northern Syria due to fighting between Kurdish-led forces and turbans.
Fighting between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Ottoman Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) near the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates River has sparked fears over its potential collapse, especially for people living downstream which include Iraq.
"Iraq has a large storage capacity in the Haditha Dam and the Habbaniyah and Razzaza lakes on the Euphrates River, and in the event of large waves of water arriving, it is possible to absorb any flows," director general for dams and reservoirs in Iraq’s water resources ministry, told state media.
"In the event of water waves arriving in the Euphrates, the Ministry of Water Resources has taken all necessary measures to absorb this water," he affirmed.
On Saturday, the manager of Tishreen Dam told Rudaw English that the structure is out of service due to days of attacks by SNA turbans, warning that millions of people are at grave risk should the structure fall.
The attacks intensified after the SNA took control of Manbij city from the SDF as rebel fighters led by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) toppled Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... ’s regime in Damascus.
Ali Demir, the dam manager, shared voice records with Rudaw English of the staff desperately pleading for help.
The dam sits upstream from scores of towns and villages, as well as urban settlements like Raqqa, and provides electricity to most of northeast Syria (Rojava). It holds two million cubic meters of water.
[KhaamaPress] Pak authorities announced that all public and private colleges and schools in Islamabad and Punjab ...1. Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2. A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3. A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots
.... province will be closed on Monday, December 16, due to "security concerns."
The Pak newspaper Dawn reported, citing its sources, that the decision was made in response to the current security situation.
On Sunday, December 15, Dawn reported that this order was issued by security and education officials in several cities of Punjab, including Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad.
The newspaper mentioned that while no specific reasons were provided for the closures in Islamabad and Lahore, the Commissioner of Rawalpindi stated that schools in the area would be closed to mark the tenth anniversary of the attack on the Army Public School in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... in 2014.
On December 16, 2014, a group of faceless myrmidons attacked an army school in Peshawar, killing 147 people, mostly children.
Not just any militants, but that branch of Tehrik i-Taliban-Pakistan led by Mullah Fazlullah ...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much less bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullah's hubristic Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan. He was bombed to smithereens in 2018...
Educational and security officials in Pakistani cities are concerned about the possibility of similar attacks occurring on the anniversary of the Peshawar attack.
The closure of schools is seen as a precautionary measure to prevent any threats and ensure public safety during this sensitive time. The authorities continue to prioritize the protection of educational institutions and students across the country.
The archive search results of the term Army Public School for the period around the attack can be seen here.
[IsraelTimes] After three months of fighting in southern Lebanon, the IDF’s 98th Division is being redeployed to the Gaza Strip, the military says.
The elite formation of paratrooper and commando units completed its operations in Lebanon on Wednesday last week, and is now readying for future missions in Gaza.
[IsraelTimes] The EU says German and French diplomats were blocked from entering the West Bank city of Hebron.
The EU says the two diplomats were on their way to the city to present an award to prominent Palestinian rights activist Issa Amro, when they were stopped at a checkpoint.
“Such actions obstruct diplomatic efforts & violate established protocols,” the EU’s mission to the Palestinian Authority posts on X.
[IsraelTimes] National Association of Independent Schools expresses ‘profound remorse’ for event that called Israel racist and genocidal "Sorry you caught us"
A leading US private schools organization has apologized for antisemitic rhetoric at a conference it held in Colorado.
The National Association of Independent Schools event, called the "People of Color Conference," came under harsh criticism for anti-Israel rhetoric that Jewish groups said veered into antisemitism and made Jewish students feel unsafe.
"There is no place for antisemitism at NAIS events, in our member schools, or in society," the president of the association, Debra Wilson, wrote in a letter Thursday to Jewish leaders expressing "profound remorse" over the event.
Israel has nothing to do with the subject of a People of Colour conference, unless it is to note that Jews — and therefore Israelis — come in all colours, exactly as do Christians, Moslems, and even Hindus. Claiming otherwise is a mark of Jew-hate.
The apology was a response to criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Federations of North America, and Prizmah, an association of Jewish day schools.
Last week, the leaders of those groups wrote to Wilson expressing "deep concern" about the conference, saying some of the rhetoric "normalized antisemitism."
The event’s keynote speaker, Dr. Suzanne Barakat,
…the lady is a hijabi and former Executive Director of the Health and Human Rights Initiative, where she now is an advisor, leaving her more time to work among the refugees along the Syrian-Turkish border and fight Islamophobia…
a physician, called Israel a "racist" endeavor, accused Israel of genocide and downplayed the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... invasion, the letter said.
A Jewish student said he and his classmates felt "targeted" and "unsafe" at the conference, compelling them to conceal their Stars of David under their shirts and exit the event, the letter said.
…thus demonstrating that the good doctor had achieved her objective.
"That any student would feel the need to conceal their identity at our conference is antithetical to our mission and our values," Wilson said in her response.
She pledged to implement "meaningful changes" ahead of future events, such as requiring speakers to submit their presentations in advance.
The National Association of Independent Schools is a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, that provides services to more than 2,000 schools in the US and abroad. It had a budget of around $23 million last year.
The People of Color Conference was held in Denver, Colorado, from December 4 to 7. The event was advertised as part of the association’s "commitment to equity and justice in teaching, learning, and sustainability for independent schools."
David Bernstein, the founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values advocacy group and a critic of progressive antisemitism in schools, said the event’s anti-Israel rhetoric was an outgrowth of NAIS’s embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ideology. The progressive framework promulgates a binary worldview that often casts Israel as an oppressor, Bernstein told The Times of Israel.
"They’ve adopted a very specific worldview and we make a mistake to treat this as if it’s a one-off event, rather than emerging directly out of NAIS’s basic ideological framework," he said.
#1
Sure! But only after 100's of protests and physical attacks, have occurred.
Did MAGA winning the election, and faced with the fact that the (LSD's) no longer have unbridled control of DC, and the DOJ, have something to do with it?
I guess maybe the Schools & and Educational systems see they are facing Federal $$$$$ cuts, Staff Terminations/Arrests, and yes even
$$$M Civil Lawsuits again for the usual illegal National Socialist, antisemitic activities.
#3
I stopped giving money to my alma mater after they started following the guidelines of this group rather than their own traditions. Too many educators are completely nuts.
[IsraelTimes] Ramallah is bent on regaining control of the northern West Bank and thereby improving its credentials to govern in postwar Gaza. But its legitimacy among Palestinians remains low
In an ongoing operation against terror factions in Jenin, Paleostinian Authority security forces killed Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... commander Yazid Jaysa early Saturday morning, sparking festivities in the West Bank city, Paleostinian media reported.
This was the second killing at the hands of PA security forces in Jenin within a week. Five days earlier, they bumped off a reportedly unarmed 19-year-old, Rahbi Shalabi, during shootouts with local operatives.
The operations were part of a larger PA crackdown against armed militias in Jenin, which the PA says is aimed at restoring security and stability to the area and comes as Ramallah appears to be trying to signal that it could play a significant role in managing a postwar Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip.
On Sunday, the US reportedly asked Israel to approve the urgent delivery of military assistance to the PA as it attempts to restore order in Jenin.
The city has been a hotbed for terror groups in recent years, and the surrounding region in the northern section of the West Bank, which also includes the cities of Tubas, Tulkarem and Nablus, has progressively slipped out of the control of the PA and into the hands of local formations affiliated with Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... and the Islamic Jihad.
Two weeks ago, gunnies seized two official PA vehicles and paraded through the Jenin refugee camp waving flags of the Islamic Jihad group.
If the ongoing counter-terror campaign is successful and the PA manages to restore its control over the city, it is likely to attempt to repeat the feat in other parts of the West Bank, according to Michael Milshtein, head of the Forum for Paleostinian Studies at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.
If the PA can prove it can reassert its control over all the areas under its jurisdiction in the West Bank, it will be harder for Israel to oppose its return to rule the Gaza Strip — from which it was booted by Hamas in a bloody coup in 2007 — by claiming it is too weak to even govern the West Bank.
Milshtein said the timing of the PA’s operation in Jenin was not coincidental. While its security forces had been planning the crackdown for months, the recent fall of Syrian dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators... presumably played a role in determining when to launch it.
"There is no doubt that the drive to action was [caused by] events in Syria. People in the West Bank say that when one dictator [PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> ] saw what happened to the other [Bashir al-Assad], he decided he would not follow the same fate," Milshtein told The Times of Israel.
While support for Hamas in the West Bank is double that for Fatah (37% vs 18%, according to a September poll by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research), Fatah’s rule in Ramallah does not appear to be at risk, despite 14 months of a bloody war in Gaza and regional upheaval.
The main factor in the PA’s resilience is its security coordination with the IDF, experts told The Times of Israel.
"Despite the total political crisis, the security coordination with Israel is holding, not because the PA security forces are Zionists, but because they understand that without it, it may be the end of the PA — and Hamas will take advantage of their weakness. So it’s first of all in the PA’s interest," Milshtein said.
"The moment the PA halts the security coordination with Israel will be the moment its death certificate is issued," said Samer Sinijlawi, a Fatah member from East Jerusalem and a longtime opponent of Abbas’s rule.
IS THE PA BUILDING ITS CREDENTIALS TO RULE GAZA AFTER THE WAR?
While the Fatah-led government in Ramallah may make some progress in countering rival Paleostinian factions in the West Bank, this does not automatically equip it to play a significant role in managing a postwar Gaza Strip.
"Gaza is an entirely different challenge," said Milshtein.
Fourteen months into the conflict, there is no clear plan for governing the coastal enclave once the war ends. Earlier this month, representatives from Hamas and the Paleostinian Authority’s Fatah party met in Cairo and agreed to create a committee to jointly oversee the administration of postwar Gaza.
Under the plan, the committee would be composed of 10-15 nonpartisan figures with authority on matters related to the economy, education, health, humanitarian aid, and reconstruction, according to a draft of the proposal seen by AFP.
It is unclear if Israel would agree to the deal being formulated. Israel rejects any role for Hamas in Gaza after the war the terror group started last year with its massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel, and has also said it does not trust Abbas’s PA to run the enclave.
The two Paleostinian factions have held multiple reconciliation meetings over the past months to end the years-long rift between them, the last one in Beijing in July, but the latest sit-down in Cairo appeared to have achieved more concrete results than previous summits, which ended in mere declaratory statements of unity.
This time around, both factions appear to be under greater pressure to reach a reconciliation — Hamas, because of its frailty after its military and civilian capabilities in Gaza were decimated, and the PA, because it wants to profit from an advantageous negotiating position.
"There is no final agreement between the two parties, but the PA wants to reach at least a symbolic settlement in Gaza, so as to be considered the most prominent player there," said Milshtein. "Hamas aims for a cosmetic arrangement, which means that it wants the PA to occupy the positions of power in Gaza, but behind the scenes, it wants to remain the main player."
The Egyptian mediators are currently attempting to bridge those two competing visions for Gaza, Milshtein said.
Israel has long opposed either faction returning to power in the Strip, but the incoming US presidency may hold surprises.
"[President-elect Donald] Trump is really unpredictable — he may push for annexation [by Israel of parts of the West Bank], but he may also push for a two-state solution," said Sinijlawi, "especially if he is eyeing a Nobel Peace prize."
Milshtein said that Israel may agree to a joint committee to run Gaza if it includes third parties, such as representatives from Gaza family clans (an arrangement that Israel has long favored but does not appear to have much traction on the ground) or representatives from the UN or Arab countries.
FALLOUT FOR THE PA FROM THE JENIN OPERATIONS
Following the killing of the Islamic Jihad commander on Saturday, Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab of the PA’s security forces told the official Paleostinian news agency Wafa that his forces "thwarted a disaster in Jenin camp, by containing a booby-trapped vehicle prepared by outlaws."
Rajab said that the vehicle "was supposed to be detonated among citizens and security personnel, as part of a cowardly criminal act that reflects an ISIS approach alien to our Paleostinian values and morals and contradicts the course of our national struggle."
For its part, Hamas condemned the PA for the Jenin operation and its ally the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad called for a day of protests.
The two terror groups were not alone in viewing the crackdown critically. Fatah activist Sinijlawi said that as a Paleostinian, he was concerned by the fact that the PA opened fire on its citizens, instead of arresting them and taking them before a court of law.
"It frightens me. Now I am afraid Abbas is trying to be the Assad of Paleostine, showing that he can rule by firepower," said Sinijlawi.
"What happened in Syria should teach Abbas a lesson, that his regime could collapse in a fraction of a minute. And it has all the ingredients to collapse. This is a time of economic crisis, political uncertainty, Paleostinians are facing mass killings in Gaza and ’pogroms’ in the West Bank," Sinijlawi said, referencing frequent violent mostly peaceful assaults by Israeli settlers against West Bank Arabs.
Pinpoint operations against rebel factions in Jenin will not be enough to restore the PA’s rule in the area, due to the sheer amount of weapons in the hands of local factions, and the regime’s fading legitimacy in the eyes of many Paleostinians, the activist maintained.
"The PA has failed to meet the needs of Paleostinians and respects their rights. They are viewed as corrupt, as a dictatorship. Without the endorsement of society, they will not be able to govern," said Sinijlawi.
"The show of force in Jenin was mainly for the benefit of Israelis and Americans," he added.
"But it can backfire. Paleostinians have never gone through a civil war. But the continuous use of force by the PA against these groups will force them to respond with more force," said Sinijlawi. "The PA security forces will become the first target, before the Israelis."
Last week, a video was widely circulated on social media showing a Paleostinian security officer publicly announcing his resignation in Jenin over the killing of 19-year-old Rahbi Shalabi.
It is unclear whether Paleostinian security forces, underpaid like most of Ramallah’s public sector employees and under pressure by their social environment to spare the lives of fellow Paleostinians, will continue to support the PA indefinitely.
[err.ee] Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) said that the Estonian Academy of Arts should reconsider its decision to sever ties with Israeli higher education institutions.
"I believe the academy should reconsider this decision," Prime Minister Kristen Michal said at a press conference following the JEF summit, responding to an ERR question on the matter.
Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) also said EKA should reconsider the decision.
"Every educational institution makes its own decisions, but for me as a citizen, and also as a foreign minister, this decision is incomprehensible, because our relations with Israel are very good. And as the prime minister said, I would advise the EKA to reconsider these decisions, at least at the council level," Tsahkna told ERR.
"Now, as foreign minister, I see no reason why we should stop cooperation with Israel at this level. I can't comment on what the atmosphere is like in this educational institution, but as foreign minister, I can only say that this is definitely a step in the wrong direction," he added....
....Last week, the Estonian Academy of Arts' (EKA) director of studies informed students that the second part of a workshop led by Jonathan Ventura, an associate professor at Israel's Shenkar College, scheduled for February, had been canceled. The university has decided to terminate cooperation with all Israeli universities, Eesti Ekspress reported on Monday.
EKA Rector Mart Kalm told Ekspress that the university is not open to cooperation proposals from Israeli universities.
[MAIL] Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shocked the audience at Broadway's &Juliet this past weekend as she 'fulfilled a lifelong dream' to make her debut - but it has led to some less than stellar reviews.
Jackson appeared in three scenes on Saturday night - singing in harmony during the Backstreet Boys song 'Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely.'
By stepping into the limelight, Justice Jackson, the first black woman to sit on the court, also inadvertently invited criticism and skepticism about her dedication to maintaining the court’s revered image.
Jackson had previously told of her dream of 'becoming the first Black, female Supreme Court Justice to appear on a Broadway stage', but it has now led to some on social media to question if she is in the wrong role when it comes to her day job.
'She should have just been an actress,' stated one user on X.
'Tells you everything about this woman. Broadway is a bigger deal than the Supreme Court,' added another.
'If you needed proof Ketanji Brown Jackson does not belong on the Supreme Court, here it is. Absolutely disgraceful that she did this. Shame on her and on those who confirmed her,' stated conservative radio host Eric Metaxas.
Retired sheriff's deputy Penny Farrington agreed that Jackson performed better on stage than in court: 'She is far better suited in this role....instead of an Honorable Justice of the Supreme Court.
#11
The Ketanji Kourt! Where'd it begin?
In Times Square, in an era of sin,
You could sit at the bar
Right across from a star...
[flashing neon, red: "Death from within!"]
[JustTheNews] The email records, released by the National Archives after a Freedom of Information lawsuit, show that then-Vice President Biden regularly conducted foreign policy business on his pseudonymous email account, hidden from public scrutiny.
It wasn’t just Hillary Clinton — clearly they all did it.
New email records released by the National Archives show then-Vice President Joe Biden was briefed about sensitive foreign policy matters by then-advisor Antony Blinken on his private email account, including details about a failed North Korean missile launch.
Joe Biden, now president, first faced scrutiny about potential private accounts after emails contained on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop showed the then-vice president in the Obama administration was using an email address with a pseudonym to communicate about business and official matters with his son, other family members, and senior staff.
One new email, part of several batches released by the National Archives pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit shows that in the hours following a North Korean missile launch in April 2012, Blinken—who was then Biden’s national security advisor—sent a message to the vice president’s private email account "robinware456@gmail.com" with details about the sensitive national security matter.
“Just in case you missed it, the North Korean rocket failed somewhere between the first and second stages,” Blinken wrote. “Will take some time to determine why.” The future Secretary of State signed the email message, “tony.”
You can read the email below:
The launch marked a provocative escalation during a time of leadership transition in the communist dictatorship as Kim Jong Un was assuming powers from his father, who had died the preceding December. One day after the email, North Korea confirmed that the rocket launch had indeed failed.
Blinken followed up on his first email two days later, presumably with more updates, but the contents of that communication were redacted by the National Archives under the “P5” exemption, which excludes information from FOIA requests that “would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors,” under the Presidential Records Act.
The memos reviewed by Just the News are part of the several batches of communications released by the National Archives under pressure from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Southeastern Legal Foundation prompted by Just the News' reporting three years ago that revealed Biden used at least three different pseudonym private email accounts when he was Barack Obama’s vice president.
In a court filing last October, NARA disclosed that it had located 82,000 pages of emails Biden sent or received on three email accounts using fake names, dwarfing the number involved in the Hillary Clinton email scandal. The existence of the records suggests, however, that even though Biden was using private email addresses to conduct business, that they were preserved according to the mandates of federal law.
Yet, the sensitive nature of some of the contents, which included briefings on foreign policy issues by three consecutive national security advisors, raise concerns about the use of the more insecure private accounts.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.
These series of emails was not the first time that Blinken contacted the then-vice president on his private account. In December 2011, the advisor reached out to Biden to inform him of a Principals Committee meeting about Iraq.
“Main purpose is to discuss OSC way forward. Also update on political situation,” Blinken wrote, in an apparent reference to the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, which was formed earlier that month.
“Pls let me know whether you want to attend. I will be there regardless,” he continued.
“I’ll be there,” Biden replied.
Just the News previously identified another email from the release which Blinken sent to Biden about the geopolitical dynamics of Iraq.
“Mosul -- is due west of Erbil BUT in Iraq proper, NOT in the KRG. It's just west of the green line on the Iraq side,” Blinken wrote offering the vice president some geographic context.
A short while later, Blinken added some sensitive observations about possible violence.
“Further to this – there are parts of Nineveh Province that are disputed and a very small piece of Mosul itself, but the Kurds make no claim to the city as an entity. Lots of oil though, so could become a flash point,” Blinken wrote. After Blinken left Biden’s office and moved to the State Department in early 2013, his successor Jake Sullivan continued to use the private email account to brief the vice president, the records show.
For example, in one June 2013 email Sullivan appears to have briefed Biden on a situation regarding India, however, the contents of the communication were fully redacted by the Archives under the same P5 exemption.
The following month, Biden’s assistant Fran Person forwarded draft remarks from Sullivan that the vice president was set to deliver at the opening session of the US-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue, which took place in Washington, D.C., on July 10, 2013.
You can read those emails below:
The emails also show that Biden frequently used the email to communicate with his family members, sometimes about business. On some occasions, Joe Biden would send information to the government emails of his White House staff from his private email account and include his sons Hunter and Beau and his brother James Biden, Just the News previously reported. For his part, Biden has consistently denied having any knowledge or involvement with Hunter's business dealings.
For instance, on Oct. 19, 2010, the then-vice president sent an article from The New York Times about planned House GOP budget cuts to a half dozen of his top staff, including then-Chief of Staff Ron Klain and spokesman Jay Carney. He included both of his sons, Hunter Biden and the late Beau Biden, as well as his younger brother James. Neither his sons or his brother had any official capacity to act or advise upon those proposed budget cuts.
Any use of private email for official business by government officials is discouraged under the law and the Federal Records Act requires them to preserve all government-related communications conducted on private accounts.
The fact that NARA has such a large collection of Biden’s emails suggests the vice president complied. However, the scathing 2019 State Department review of Hillary Clinton's misuse of personal email found highlighted other security vulnerabilities in using a private account.
"The use of a private email system to conduct official business added an increased degree of risk of compromise as a private system lacks the network monitoring and intrusion detection capabilities of State Department networks," the final report noted.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] If Yang Tengbo’s mission was to penetrate the heart of the British establishment, then it must be said that he did an exceptional job.
Operating in plain sight as an Anglophile Chinese businessman keen to forge meaningful links between the two nations, he infiltrated top institutions with astonishing success.
Now that an order forbidding naming the alleged spy formerly known as H6 has been lifted at his own request, Yang’s incredible web of influence across British society can be disclosed for the first time.
A shadow gliding through the corridors of power, the diminutive businessman spent two decades quietly embedding himself in the fabric of UK politics, business, education, industry and royalty.
So close was the 50-year-old to the Duke of York that he referred to himself in interviews with Chinese media as the ‘special envoy of Prince Andrew’.
The duke invited him to his 60th birthday party in 2020 and appointed him head of the Chinese arm of his beloved Dragons’ Den-style project, Pitch@Palace, which used Buckingham Palace as the official address for the Hong Kong branch. Yang was also photographed with Prince Michael of Kent at a UK China Business Leader Summit in June 2016 at Windsor Castle.
But it wasn’t just members of the Royal Family who were successfully cultivated by the bespectacled businessman.
Framed photos of Yang with former prime ministers Theresa May and David Cameron adorned the desk in his London office.
And he rubbed shoulders with then-chancellor George Osborne at the first UK-China Business Leaders’ Summit in 2014, arranged by Yang himself.
This ability to charm top politicians and royals extended to those involved in Britain’s most prestigious educational establishments.
Yang played a pivotal role in developing campuses in China for the elite Gordonstoun boarding school attended by King Charles.
The £61,440-a-year establishment, also attended by Prince Andrew and Prince Philip, was the birthplace of the Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Round Square conference of schools, set up ‘to create opportunities for students and teachers to develop international understanding and self-confidence’.
Yang’s consultancy company, the Hampton Group, has been overseeing the expansion of Gordonstoun into China that was made public in 2019, much to the consternation of some of its illustrious alumni.
Among them was film director and author Justin Baldwin, who captained Gordonstoun’s hockey team before directing Cash In Hand, starring Richard E Grant.
When the move was announced, he said: ‘Why would we put a school in a country where they have camps to convert Muslims by feeding them pork? That’s everything that [Gordonstoun founder] Kurt Hahn was against.’
In addition to schooling, Yang has been heavily involved with the business elite, including in particular the late Lady (Barbara) Judge, described by Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour as ‘one of the best-connected women in Britain’.
Yang invested with Lady Judge, a former chairman of both the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Institute of Directors, in a fashion and soft furnishings company. It was with an uncanny sense of timing that he rode to the rescue during a rare moment of vulnerability in her life.
With his financial support – and in return for a 40 per cent share of her start-up company – she was able to launch B&H Enterprise after quitting the Institute of Directors amid allegations of bullying, racism and sexism in 2018.
The other company directors were Chinese entrepreneur Hua Xia, who appeared with Yang at Pitch@Palace Beijing in 2019, and Hampton Group chief executive Jean Jameson, who was also the UK secretary general for the Chinese arm of Pitch@Palace.
Lady Judge CBE, a high-flying lawyer, banker and entrepreneur who championed women’s rights in the workplace, had been accused of more than 40 episodes of unreasonable behaviour while chairman of the institute.
She was also a former chairman of the UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas, of the Pension Protection Fund, an ambassador on behalf of UK Trade & Investment, and trustee of several cultural and charitable institutions, including the Royal Academy of Arts and Dementia UK.
She was also a former chairman of the UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas, of the Pension Protection Fund, an ambassador on behalf of UK Trade & Investment, and trustee of several cultural and charitable institutions, including the Royal Academy of Arts and Dementia UK.
Ably straddling so many influential roles across some of Britain’s most important institutions, and unhindered by royal protocols, Lady Judge would have had the power and access that Prince Andrew could only dream of.
t is not known how she first crossed paths with Yang, who is also co-owner of fund management firm Coeus International with ex-McLaren chief executive Sir Ron Dennis, a former non- executive director at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Yang founded Hampton Group in 2005 and opened offices in the City of London.
On its website, the firm, which also has an office in Beijing, states that it ‘delivers strategic advisory, investment solutions and communications services to help leaders of international and Chinese companies solve business-critical challenges and seize unique opportunities’.
Yang has himself described how the company worked with some of Britain’s biggest international companies, including helping McLaren Automotive to introduce a luxury road car.
He claimed the firm, which recorded a healthy profit of £5.65 million in its latest accounts, helped guide GlaxoSmithKline through a whistleblowing investigation.
Yang was born in Yunnan, southern China, in 1974, and graduated from the local university with a history degree before working for seven years at a ‘national government agency’.
He moved to the UK in 2002 where, on his second attempt, he gained the minimum score in an English test to study for a degree, eventually winning a place on a master’s course in public administration at York University.
In a 2006 BBC profile on Chinese students in Britain, Yang was said to have ‘forced himself to change his past thinking mode in Chinese and think and express in English, which would achieve twice the result with half the effort’. And it appeared Yang quickly became enamoured with the British way of life.
He gained indefinite leave to remain in 2012 and, according to court documents, would spend one or two weeks in the UK every month, considering it to be his ‘second home’.
He spent two decades carefully integrating himself into Britain’s power structure before he was stopped from entering the country under counter-terrorism laws in November 2021.
Advisers close to the Duke of York continued to do business with Yang, however.
In November 2022, Andrew’s ‘senior adviser’, Dominic Hampshire, was one of five directors who set up the firm Eurasia Global Partners, reportedly to look at the prospect of importing oil into China.
Another director was Irish oil tycoon Aidan Heavey.
The firm partnered with Yang’s Hampton Group, and together they owned 30 per cent of the business, with Mr Heavey’s Albe Global owning 60 per cent and Mr Hampshire’s own consultancy owning 10 per cent.
Eurasia was also the name of the international finance initiative which Mr Hampshire said Yang could discuss with potential partners in China on behalf of the duke.
Mr Hampshire was integral to the duke’s relationship with the Chinese businessman.
Court documents show that in March 2020, he told Yang: ‘I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal [Andrew] and indeed his family.
‘You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship. Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.’
The scheme has been criticised because the regime can seize assets or exert influence in these countries in the event of a debt default.
In an interview with China Daily in 2022, Yang said he was encouraging the UK to get involved in the programme.
‘We will link China’s kinetic energy to Britain’s potential energy, give full play to the advantages of both sides, and jointly explore potential commercial value in third-party countries’ markets,’ he said.
In another interview, Yang said that following Brexit, the UK was ‘looking eastward, hoping to… strengthen co-operation with China’.
A possible interpretation of this quote is that it could be a crystallisation of Yang’s own modus operandi. His targets, Lady Judge and Prince Andrew included, were often once mighty figures suddenly beginning to feel weakened and isolated when he arrived with a lifeline.
Does China see Britain in the same way? If the allegations that Yang has indeed spied for the state prove to be true, then his brazen march through our corridors of power would certainly suggest so.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The youngest survivors of the Madison school shooting have described their terror and panic after watching a teacher get shot in front of them.
Natalie 'Samantha' Rupnow, 15, opened fire on kids and staff at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday - raining bullets in the study hall before turning the gun on herself.
Nora Gottsckalk, eight, was in the hallway before 11am getting ready for lunch when she saw a teacher she knew injured.
'She was screaming, "Ah my leg, help, help,"' the young girl told CNN affiliate WISC as she grasped a Spongebob ice cream, after being reunited with family.
One student and one teacher were pronounced dead, but horrified children as young as eight have recounted the bloody massacre that happened in front of their eyes.
Rupnow died in an ambulance on the way to hospital after being found on the scene with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Six people were injured, with five hospitalized for injuries taken during the rampage. Two were left in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
Police last night raided Rupnow's family home eight miles away from the school, with SWAT teams deploying stun grenades on the property.
Rupnow may have left behind a chilling manifesto, which investigators are now sifting through - but are yet to confirm its validity.
Sixth-grader Alder Jean-Charles also told how he was attending English class when at the small Christian school when he heard two gunshots ring out.
He recalled: 'Some people started crying and then we just waited until the police came and they escorted us out. I was scared. Why did they do that?'
Investigators believe she used a 9mm pistol, an official told the Associated Press. The school does not have metal detectors but uses other security measures, including cameras.
A motive for the shooting was not immediately known, nor was it clear if the victims were targeted, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.
Students who survived the shooting were taken to hospital to be reunited with their parents, and when Alder was reunited with his two brothers, they all cried and prayed together, his mother Mireille Jean-Charles said.
When asked whether she was okay, the mom shook her head and broke down into tears.
Mireille Jean-Charles said: 'It's sad, you know, to be home and when somebody calls you and says your kids' school is in lockdown and a shooting, and you don't know where they are.
'Thank God they were safe, but the trauma - it's a lot because I'm sure they lost friends and teachers, which is not okay.
'And I don't think they'll be okay for a long time.'
Barbara Wiers, director of elementary and school relations for Abundant Life Christian School, said students 'handled themselves magnificently'.
Police received a 911 call at 10:57am Monday morning, and within three minutes, county sheriff's deputies arrived at the school which educates about 420 students.
Local police arrived seconds later as fire department workers got to the scene and began to care for the victims.
Read More
Who is Natalie 'Samantha' Rupnow? Wisconsin shooter, 15, was 'dealing with problems' before rampage
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At 11:05am, they said that they'd found the shooter wounded and recovered the weapon. Rupnow was pronounced dead en route to the hospital.
Currently, two students are hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and are said to be in critical condition.
A teacher and three other students were also hospitalized with less serious wounds. Two of them were released Monday evening.
Victims have yet to be identified, pending family notification.
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said that a second-grade student was the one who called 911 to the school.
A law enforcement source told CNN that Rupnow 'had been dealing with problems and expressed some of those in writings, which they are now reviewing.'
A manifesto, that cops have not confirmed is linked to the teen, was published on social media.
Barnes said police were talking with the shooter’s father and other family members, who were cooperating, and searching the shooter’s home.
'He lost someone as well,' Barnes said of the shooter’s father. 'And so we’re not going to rush the information. We’ll take our time and make sure we do our due diligence.'
Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said the suspect’s home had been searched on Monday - and police are seeking additional search warrants.
Cops also confirmed that shooter Rupnow was not on their radar and had no prior interactions with her before Monday, though they said a probe would confirm that.
The shooter, who went by the name Samantha, opened fire on a room full of students from various grades, according to Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes.
It is not yet confirmed if Rupnow's family were gun owners.
Speaking about the alleged manifesto, Chief Barnes told the press conference on Monday night: 'A document about this shooting is circulating at this time on social media, but we have not verified its authenticity.'
The chief also waded into online speculation over the shooter's gender or possible status as a transgender person.
Barnes slammed speculation over Rupnow's gender on social media after he was asked about it.
'I don't know whether Natalie was transgender or not. And quite frankly, I don't think that's important at all,' he said.
'I don't think whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may want to identify.' He added that it didn't really matter for the time being and that it was 'just not helping.'
'For what we're doing right now, today, literally eight hours after a mass shooting in a school in Madison, it is of no consequence at this time (what gender the shooter was),' he said.
He also claimed that he had no knowledge of any previous interactions with Rupnow: 'I think if there were, we certainly would have had some type of intervention, but I'm not aware of that.'
[FoxNews] Police said Kirstin Lobato confessed to killing man who tried to rape her during methamphetamine binge.
Kirstin Lobato was arrested at age 18, wrongly convicted twice, and served nearly 16 years in a Nevada state prison for a 2001 killing she did not commit.
Lobato was awarded more than $34 million after a civil trial jury found Las Vegas police and two detectives, now retired, fabricated evidence during their investigation and intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Lobato.
Lobato was exonerated and freed from prison in 2017 after the Innocence Project and attorneys in Las Vegas again took her case to the state Supreme Court, showing evidence that Lobato was about 150 miles away from Las Vegas when the crime was committed.
Lobato said she didn't know if becoming a millionaire would make up for years in prison, adding that she had "no idea what the rest of my life is going to look like."
The civil trial jury found Las Vegas police and two detectives, now retired, fabricated evidence during their investigation and intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Lobato. The panel determined that Lobato should receive $34 million in compensatory damages from the department and $10,000 in punitive damages from each former detective.
The detectives, Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle, and their attorney, Craig Anderson, declined to comment outside court. Anderson told U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware he planned to file additional court documents following the verdict. Anderson said Friday an appeal was "likely."
The department previously agreed to pay damages if the jury ruled in Lobato’s favor.
Lobato was 18 when she was interviewed by police without an attorney, arrested and charged with killing Duran Bailey in Las Vegas in July 2001. Bailey, who had been homeless, was found dead near a trash bin with a slashed neck, cracked skull and missing genitals.
No physical evidence or witnesses connected Lobato to the killing, and she maintained she never met Bailey. But police maintained she confessed in jail that she had killed a man who tried to rape her during a three-day methamphetamine binge.
Lobato was 19 when she was convicted of murder in 2002. The Nevada Supreme Court threw out that verdict and Lobato’s prison sentence in 2004 because her lawyers weren’t able to cross-examine a prosecution witness who testified that Lobato made the jailhouse confession.
Lobato was tried again in 2006, convicted of manslaughter, mutilation and weapon charges, and sentenced to 13 to 45 years in prison.
She was exonerated and freed from prison in late 2017 after the Innocence Project and attorneys in Las Vegas again took her case to the state Supreme Court. Justices said evidence showed that Lobato was in her hometown of Panaca, Nevada, some 150 miles from Las Vegas when Bailey was killed.
Last October, a state court judge in Las Vegas issued a certificate declaring Lobato innocent of Bailey’s killing.
That action was challenged by Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson in a letter asking state Attorney General Aaron Ford to investigate how and why attorneys for Lobato acquired the certificate of innocence.
#3
Arrest the police involded.
Put them on trial. If convicted have them jailed for live. Because by setting an innocent person, they became co conspriators to murder by letting the innocent person walk free.
[FoxNews] Affluent pregnant Chinese women paid top dollar to stay in apartments in California so they could give birth before going back to China, prosecutors said.
A Southern California man was sentenced Monday to more than three years in prison for operating a "birth tourism" scheme where affluent pregnant Chinese women paid thousands of dollars to travel and give birth in the United States, so the infants could obtain American citizenship, authorities said Monday.
A federal judge sentenced Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, of Rancho Cucamonga, just east of Los Angeles, following a four-day trial, the Justice Department said.
Liu and Jing Dong, 47, also of Rancho Cucamonga, were each convicted of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering. Dong will be sentenced later.
From January 2012 to March 2015, Liu and Dong operated "USA Happy Babby Inc." which promoted the benefits of giving birth to a child in the U.S. rather than China, the Justice Department said. The supposed incentives included "better air," superior educational resources, food safety and political stability, according to court documents.
The pair charged between $20000 and $40,000 for each client. VIP clients paid upwards of $100,000, prosecutors said.
Liu and Dong would pay agents in China to recruit pregnant Chinese women and to coach them on how to pass U.S. consulate interviews in China, prosecutors said.
Their visa applications falsely stated the women would be staying in the U.S. for a period of days or weeks, not months, authorities said. They also misrepresented where they would be staying in the U.S., authorities said.
"Generally, defendant USA HAPPY BABY's customers' visa applications would falsely state that the purpose of the trip to the United States was for tourism, the length of the stay was eight to 14 days, and the customers would be staying in Hawaii, New York, or Los Angeles, when in truth and in fact, those customers were coming to the United States to give birth, the length of their stays was 3 months, and they would be staying in Rancho Cucamonga, California, or Irvine, California," court documents state.
The women were also advised to fly to certain ports of entry where it was believed they would come under less scrutiny from U.S. customs officials. Examples included flying to Hawaii before flying to Los Angeles.
The women were also told to wear loose-fitting clothing and to favor certain lines at customs that they perceived to be less strict, and on how to answer the customs officials’ questions.
To accommodate the women, Liu and Dong leased apartments in Orange and San Bernardino counties to the women under names of people who were not going to occupy the units, authorities said.
Over the course of the scheme, the pair made several million dollars, prosecutors said.
[FoxNews] Judge Juan Merchan on Monday rejected Trump attorneys' request to dismiss charges brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on the basis of presidential immunity.
The ruling comes after President-elect Trump and his team in July requested Merchan overturn his guilty verdict in New York v. Trump, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that presidents have immunity for official acts.
Merchan ruled that the evidence presented in the trial was related "entirely to unofficial conduct and thus, receive no immunity protections."
"Further, even if this Court were to deem all of the contested evidence, both preserved and unpreserved, as official conduct falling within the outer perimeter of Defendant’s Presidential authority, it would still find that the People’s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch, a conclusion amply supported by non-motive-related evidence," Merchan writes.
Not WOT related. Moved to Former Soviet Union/Russia [Fox] A Ukrainian official has taken credit for the assassination of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia’s chemical, biological and radiation defense forces, and his assistant, who were killed in an explosion in Moscow on Tuesday.
Russia's Investigative Committee said the explosive device was placed in a scooter near a residential apartment block on Ryazansky Avenue and triggered remotely, according to The Associated Press. The bombing came one day after Ukrainian Security Services charged Kirillov with crimes.
The bomb had the power of roughly 300 grams of TNT, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
The head of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical forces was blown up Tuesday by a bomb-rigged scooter — the highest-ranking Russian official killed in more than 2 1/2 years of war.
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, 54, was exiting a residential apartment building with an assistant early Tuesday when the bomb detonated in snowy streets, rocking the block and sending their bodies flying.
Harrowing images from the brazen attack show the scooter exploding just a few feet from the men, with their bloodied bodies sprawled across the black snow and charred street in the aftermath.
The blast was so powerful that it also destroyed the doors and nearby windows of the building Kirillov had come from.
Russia's Investigative Committee only said it has opened an investigation into the killings.
However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confirmed to several outlets that it had orchestrated the liquidation.
''The liquidation of the chief of the radiation and chemical protection troops of the Russian Federation is the work of the SBU,'' an SBU source told Rooters.
Kirillov was a ''war criminal and an entirely legitimate target,'' an SBU official also told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
The explosion was allegedly triggered remotely, according to Russian state news agency Tass, with the blast carrying the power of roughly 300 grams of TNT.
Kirillov is the highest-ranking Russian official to be killed in the war, which began with Russia's invasion in February 2022.
His death came just a day after the SBU charged Kirillov with the use of banned chemical weapons
...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented... during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The SBU said it had recorded more than 4,800 uses of chemical weapons on the battlefield since the war began, particularly K-1 combat grenades.
In May, the US State Department also said that it had recorded the use of chloropicrin, a chemical weapon first used in World War I, against Kyiv's troops.
Kirillov, who was named the head of Russia's nuclear defense forces in April 2017, was also under sanctions from several countries, including the UK and Canada, for his role in Ukraine.
Russian officials have denied the allegations. No, no! Certainly not! against Kirillov, claiming he worked ''fearlessly'' for the nation to uncover alleged war crimes committed by the US.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and current security bigshot, vowed to retaliate against Kyiv over the attack, warning Ukraine's military and politicians that they faced imminent danger.
🚨🇷🇺 BREAKING: RUSSIA'S CHIEF BIOLAB INVESTIGATOR WAS JUST ASSASSINATED IN A UKRAINIAN-STYLE BOMBING.
Previously Igor Kirillov EXPOSED that: "The Rosemont Seneca Investment Fund, headed by Hunter Biden, and the Soros Foundation are involved in financing biological laboratories… pic.twitter.com/f68wBiEsWt
[KhaamaPress] A court in New York has sentenced an Afghan man named Abdul Satar Barakzi, 59, to 30 years in prison for heroin trafficking.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated that Abdul Satar Barakzi used heroin trafficking as a form of "warfare" and had organized a kidnapping plot.
According to the announcement, Barakzi was linked to an international drug trafficking ring and attempted to smuggle heroin into the U.S. through this network.
His connections to drug trafficking organizations were uncovered in 2018, and he was first arrested in Estonia in 2019 before being extradited to the U.S.
Officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said that Barakzi was identified through an undercover agent who had befriended him as part of the drug trafficking network.
The DEA officials also stated that in a call from prison, Barakzi had instructed his family members to abduct witnesses in his case to prevent them from testifying.
The U.S. Department of Justice further stated that Barakzi had used drug trafficking "for the benefit of the Taliban ...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan... The report also stated that Barakzi "provided thousands of dollars to the Taliban to support their activities in Afghanistan and their war against coalition forces." The U.S. Department of Justice described the Haqqani Network as "one of the most violent mostly peaceful groups within the Taliban" and accused Barakzi of financing the network.
Barakzi’s conviction highlights the ongoing threat posed by the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism, particularly in regions where Death Eater groups benefit from illegal activities. This case exemplifies the international efforts needed to combat both organized crime and terrorism on a global scale.
The cooperation between U.S. law enforcement agencies and international counterparts is crucial in dismantling such networks. As more countries enforce strict anti-drug laws, the hope is that such cases will serve as a deterrent for others involved in similar illicit activities.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] With a growing constellation of lawmakers demanding answers from the feds about mysterious drone sightings over New Jersey, the White House is now blaming hobbyists, planes and even the stars for what it describes as misidentifications.
The latest answer, after days of mounting pressure from Congress, comes amid repeat sightings over populated areas and even U.S. military facilities.
The federal response to date has left figures in both parties demanding more transparency and a plan to confront any possible threat.
Donald Trump joined the chorus of fed up critics Monday after posting about it over the weekend, saying 'something strange is going on.'
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is also demanding answers about the mysterious phenomenon and wants to know 'what the heck is going on.'
With public pressure growing and concerned citizens filing a skein reports to authorities, White House national security spokesman John Kirby attempted to confront the fury.
He began his remarks to reporters Monday at a briefing by pointing to the proliferation of hobbyist drones over the sky.
'There are more than 1 million drones that are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States, and there are thousands of commercial hobbyists and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day,' Kirby told reporters.
He said the FBI had received tips on 5,000 drone sightings in recent weeks of which 100 they 'felt needed to be followed up on.'
Then Kirby pointed to the array of explanations over what U.S. officials believe to be in the skies, having looked at the various tips – even saying misidentified stars were part of the problem.
'We assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and even stars that were mistakenly reported as drones.'
'We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace In New Jersey, or other states in the Northeast. The work continues.'
'But I want to stress again, our assessment at this stage is that the activity represents commercial, hobbyist law enforcement drones, all operating legally and lawful and or civilian aviation aircraft,' he underlined.
He cited federal 'resources and personnel' as supporting the efforts, including additional 'advanced detection technology' and trained observers.
His comments were similar to a joint statement later released by the DHS, FBI, FAA, and the Defense Department. His words came hours after Trump blasted the federal response as he made a comment, perhaps joking, that he was holding off on visiting his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course because of the situation.
'Something strange is going on,' Trump told reporters in response to a question about the drone sightings. 'For some reason, they don't want to tell the people.'
'They're very close to Bedminster. I think maybe I won't spend the weekend in Bedminster. I've decided to cancel my trip,' he said.
Kirby's comments come days after New Jersey Republican state lawmakers blasted his prior response as 'idiotic' even as they were followed by new sightings at Naval Air Station Earle in New Jersey.
Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers about the mysterious New Jersey drones that federal authorities and President Joe Biden have yet to explain.
The bizarre unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) were first noticed hovering over New Jersey over a month ago, yet neither local or federal authorities have offered an explanation behind the lights that dash across the sky from dusk to dawn - notably disappearing during daylight.
Biden has since tasked his agencies with finding out what is occurring over the Garden State, White House spokesman John Kirby said last week on Fox News.
In the same interview Kirby, the White House National Security Communications Advisor, did not have an explanation to offer as to what was behind the UAPs, saying the president's men are still searching for answers.
#3
If there is no safety risk, why was Wright Patterson shut down?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/17/2024 8:45
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Anyone recall a similar incident being reported in the SW. Then there is this from 2022:
https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/u-s-army-to-test-its-biggest-ever-drone-swarm-over-utah
Would all seem to indicate homegrown, rural training is capped, purpose most likely is NJ is the cover for training in a dense urban area, nothing nefarious against Trump, just using it as cover, because Trump is that big anything mysterious around him is suspect/conspiratorial.
[IsraelTimes] Hezbollah ally Wiam Wahhab, who heads the minor Arab Unification Party, says ‘the nation does not want war’ and the only victor in the region is Netanyahu
Wiam Wahhab, a Druze Lebanese politician and former minister, said in an interview on Sunday that Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... should end its long-running fight against the State of Israel and pursue normalization.
Wahhab, the founder and head of the minor Tawhid Party, or Arab Unification Party, is considered an ally of the Hezbollah terrorist group, which holds considerable power in Lebanon, and of ousted Syrian president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... In an interview with the local al-Jadeed TV station, Wahhab said, "We must permanently abandon this mentality of war with Israel," according to translation from the L’Orient Today Lebanese news outlet.
Wahhab, who served as environment minister in Lebanon from 2004 to 2005, said he would be willing to strike a "deal with the devil," meaning Israel, in order to ensure the safety of his Druze community. The Druze population in Lebanon is thought to make up about three percent of the population. Wahhab’s party does not currently hold any seats in parliament.
"The Lebanese have sacrificed more than 75 years of their lives for the Paleostinian cause. This must come to an end," he said during the interview, adding that "the nation does not want war and no longer wishes to fight the Israeli state."
After decades of constant fighting against Israel, Lebanon "must stop following pipe dreams... the nation does not want to fight," said Wahhab. "We want to live comfortably," he added, suggesting that "the only victor in the region is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who continues to reshape the Middle East."
"The Lebanon front has paid a heavy price since Hezbollah opened a support front for 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... ," said Wahhab, referring to the more than year of attacks by the terror group on northern Israel, starting right after the Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... onslaught on the south on October 7, 2023.
Israel believes that around 3,500 Hezbollah operatives have been killed throughout the conflict. A tentative ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah entered into effect last month, though each side has accused the other of violating the terms of the deal.
Wahhab suggested that the Iranian Axis of Resistance® "ended after the deaths of [Iranian general] Qassem Soleimani [in 2020] and [Hezbollah leader] His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> " in an Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... earlier this year. The only path forward, he said, is normalization with the State of Israel.
The Lebanese politician is known for his outspoken statements, and has made comments suggesting Lebanon abandon its fight against Israel in the past.
In October 2022, after Israel and Lebanon reached an agreement over their maritime border, Wahhab said in an interview with al-Jadeed that, "in my opinion [by signing the deal], we went for sustainable peace. Let’s not kid around."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Yemeni Houthis (Ansar Allah movement) struck a military facility in the Tel Aviv area with a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile. This was stated by the representative of the armed forces formed by the rebels, Yahya Saria.
The spokesman was wrong. The IDF shot the missile out of the sky long before it reached Israel’s border.
The Houthis carried out a military operation, attacking an Israeli military facility in the occupied Jaffa region with a hypersonic missile.
‘"The operation achieved its objectives.
“Once the rocket goes up,
who cares where it comes down?
That’s not my department,”
said Wehrner von Braun.’
— Tom Lehrer
It is a response to the ongoing atrocities against the Palestinian people and a demonstration of Yemen's willingness to support their cause," Saria told the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel.
On the evening of December 16, air raid sirens were sounded in a number of central areas of Israel. The signal was issued after the military recorded a rocket launch from Yemen.
The IDF was concerned about shrapnel damage after the thing was broken up.
As reported by Regnum news agency, Syrian army facilities in the provinces of Latakia and Tartus, where Russian military bases are also located, were bombed by Israeli aircraft.
There are risks to co-locating on known targets.
The Israeli military carried out a strike on Syrian air defense systems in the province of Tartus, comparable in power to an earthquake.
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning that a drone launched from 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... had been successfully shot down over the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the IDF, the UAV was intercepted by a Navy missile boat before it reached Israeli territory. No sirens were activated in the incident and no injuries or damage were reported.
The attack came as an American official said Yemen’s 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 had launched multiple drones and a missile at three fat merchantmen being escorted in the Gulf of Aden by United States Navy ships.
The American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations, said US Navy destroyers, a Navy helicopter, and a French Air Force aircraft shot down four of the drones and the missile. The three US-affiliated flagged ships were sailing east toward Djibouti.
There were also no injuries or damage reported in that attack.
A Houthi military front man, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, said Tuesday that the rebels had targeted American supply ships and two US destroyers.
The incident came a week after a Houthi drone fired from Yemen hit a residential building in the central Israeli city of Yavne, causing damage but no injuries. At the time, the Israeli Air Force said sirens were not activated because the drone had not been classified as a clear threat.
The Houthi rebels, part of Iran’s "Axis of Resistance®" against Israel and the US, have fired hundreds of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones at Israel since the outbreak of the 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... war, one of which killed a man in Tel Aviv.
[AtlantaJournalConstitution] The suspect in a shooting that led to the lockdown of a U.S. Army base near Augusta on Saturday had nearly made it across the state before being arrested in Meriwether County, according to officials.
Fort Eisenhower was on lockdown for two hours after the shooting, which left one man dead, authorities said. The victim’s identity hasn’t been released.
Neither the victim nor the suspect were active-duty members of the Army, officials said in a statement.
Are the PR people handling the NJ Drone deflection stories handling this one also? Because we have, yet another update with different data.
Yesterday we were told he was arrested on I-20 headed East to SC by official sources.
Now we are told he was headed in the opposite direction, WEST, and arrested on the other side of GA.
[IsraelTimes] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met earlier today with the family of Aysenur Eygi,
… more fully Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, she was born in Turkey, died in the West Bank from a single bullet hole behind one ear 20 minutes after the shooting stopped — and in the meantime she lived in America long enough to gain citizenship and a new husband whom she left behind to protect rampaging Palestinians with her body and her blood from those eeeeevil Zionisters…
a Turkish-American activist shot dead by the IDF in the West Bank earlier this year, the State Department says.
Blinken expressed condolences to the family and reiterated his belief that the incident should never have happened, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says during a press briefing.
And it wouldn’t have, had she stayed at home, or at least spent her vacation touring around the harmless and picturesque.
Blinken also informed the family that Israel has told the US in recent days that the IDF is finalizing its investigation into Eygi’s killing, and that the State Department will keep the family in the loop on the matter.
In other words, nothing has changed, but he wants to posture in front of the cameras to demonstrate how much he cares for Israel’s avowed enemies one last time.
Asked whether he would back the Eygi family’s call for an independent investigation into her killing, Miller says that is a matter for the Justice Department to decide.
At least for the next few weeks. After that the decision will belong to President Trump and his team.
Eygi’s husband Hamad Ali told reporters after the meeting with Blinken that the secretary was “attentive,” but “repeated a lot of the same things we’ve been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie’s killing.”
Twenty years Ms. Eygi was six. How much attention was she paying to events far from Turkey?
Corrie, a 23-year-old American International Solidarity Movement activist, was killed in Gaza while attempting to block an Israeli army bulldozer that was engaged in a home demolition operation. An Israeli court absolved the driver.
Israel’s initial findings on the killing of Eygi do not exonerate Israeli security forces, Miller said in September, warning that Washington would consider other measures if it is not satisfied with the results of a full Israeli probe.
Israel acknowledged that its troops shot the 26-year-old on September 6, while she took part in a protest near Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, but said it was an unintentional act during a demonstration that turned violent.
Eygi was a human rights activist and volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement,
… a leftwing Palestinian “peace movement” founded shortly before 9/11 with funding from the Holy Land Trust that uses international activists as human shields to protect Palestinian terrorists and provide propaganda for the Palestinian cause. Cf. Rachel Corrie, a.k.a. St. Pancake...
which calls for resisting Israeli rule over Palestinians using non-violent methods.
#1
Despite all the Dept. of State do not travel warnings and the many vivid news articles, some people just have to pee on the electric fence to confirm. Maybe her spirit and that of the late Saint Pancake should form some kind of Dumb and Dead Protesters Club
Myanmar rebel group invades Bangladesh, taking territory in the Teknaf area in the southern-most part of Bangladesh
If the new regime in Dhaka spent less time on persecuting its Hindu minority, maybe they would be able to protect their country’s territorial integrity pic.twitter.com/5sX6yDVpSu
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#1
A powerful ethnic armed group in western Myanmar says that it is now in full control of the country’s border with Bangladesh, after overcoming the final Myanmar military base in the town of Maungdaw. The Arakan Army (AA), which is fighting to create an autonomous state for the Rakhine ethnic group in western Myanmar, seized the military stronghold known as Border Guard Post No. 5 near Maungdaw... “The Arakan Army successfully captured and neutralized the last remaining outpost… in the Maungdaw region,” it said in a statement quoted by Radio Free Asia.
The statement added that Myanmar army personnel members who were defending the base were trying to flee across the Naf River, which forms the border with Bangladesh, “using motorboats and canoes.” [The key point:] The AA claimed that the regime troops were accompanied by Muslim Rohingya fighters.
Posted by: Albert Pelosi3459 ||
12/17/2024 7:07
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#2
I added archive searches of Arakan Army and Maungdaw to the article, with my thanks. :-)
[FoxNews] Small business owners are increasingly reporting the US and their local economies are in better shape than this time last year
Small businesses are optimistic about revenue boosts in 2025, when President-elect Donald Trump will kick off his second administration, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report obtained by Fox News Digital shows.
The latest Small Business Index report by MetLife and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released Monday morning found that seven in 10 small businesses, at 72%, reported they anticipate their revenues to increase next year. Last year, only 65% of businesses reported they anticipated revenue to increase, the data show.
"The growing optimism among small business owners since the beginning of the year is a positive sign as we move into 2025 and potentially points to increasing opportunities in the new year," Bradd Chignoli, executive vice president and head of Regional Business & Workforce Engagement at MetLife, said in a press release provided to Fox Digital. "As more and more employers look to increase investment and staff size, it is important to take advantage of the resources available to them, such as voluntary benefits, which can help strengthen their company’s culture and help attract and retain new talent."
The Small Business Index is a collaboration between MetLife and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that measures small business owners’ and leaders’ expectations. The survey released Monday was conducted between Oct. 7 – 21, before the election's results, and included responses from 750 small business owners and operators.
The majority of business owners, at 70%, reported that holiday shopping is vital to their overall profit, which is slightly down from 2022’s Q4 report that found 79% of business owners reported the same.
The report found that inflation woes are small business owners’ top concern – as it has been for the last two years, according to the report. This year, however, an increase of business owners reported that both the U.S. economy and their local economies are healthier than they were this time last year.
Thirty-two percent of business owners reported the U.S. economy is in better shape than 2023, up from 25% last year, and 38% reported their local economies are healthier than last year, when 30% reported the same.
The survey also found that the majority of small business owners, at 51%, reported that red tape – including licensing, certification, and permit requirements – makes it harder for them to grow their operations. While 47% of respondents reported that they spend too much time and energy on complying with regulatory requirements.
"Too many regulations cause big headaches for small businesses, even if they feel confident in their ability to comply or have the means to outsource compliance tasks," said Tom Sullivan, Vice President of Small Business Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "This quarter’s survey shows these requirements are complex, time-consuming, and often prevent small business owners from focusing on running and growing their businesses."
About 39% of respondents reported that in the last six months alone, they have increased their time and resources on complying with regulations alone, which is up from 33% reporting the same in the last quarter. Compliance with taxes, bookkeeping, payroll and licensing ate up a "great deal or fair amount" of time for business owners, according to the report.
The overall index score for this quarter sits at 69.1, a slight dip from last quarter’s score of 71.2, which was attributed to business owners’ reporting an increase in time and resources on regulation compliance.
Small businesses have been on edge in recent years as inflation spiraled and choked spenders’ pocketbooks. Amid the highly-anticipated election cycle this year, Trump campaigned, in part, on lowering costs for Americans at check-out lines. Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris at the ballot box last month, securing 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226.
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 air assault brigade of the AFU, one territorial defence brigade, and one border detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine near Liptsy, Volchansk (Kharkov region), and Kharkov. One counter-attack launched by AFU units was repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 85 troops, one armoured personnel carrier, three motor vehicles, and one 152mm D-20 gun.
Units of the Zapad Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of one mechanised brigade, one assault brigade of the AFU, and one territorial defence brigade near Dvurechnaya, Zagryzovo, Lozovaya, Glushkovka, and Kupyansk (Kharkov region). Four counter-attacks launched by AFU units were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 500 troops, three armoured fighting vehicles, including one U.S.-made HMMWV armoured fighting vehicle, four motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm M-198 howitzer, and three 122mm D-30 howitzers. Two ammunition depots were destroyed.
As a result of decisive actions, units of the Yug Group of Forces liberated Elizavetovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
Losses were inflicted on formations of two mechanised brigades, one airmobile brigade, one air assault brigade of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades near Seversk, Belogorovka, Trudovoye, Ostrovskoye, Kurakhovo, and Dachnoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 345 troops, five motor vehicles, two U.S.-made MaxxPro armoured fighting vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, one 152mm D-20 gun, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer. One ammunition depot, one Anklav-N electronic warfare station, and one U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar were destroyed.
Units of the Tsentr Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of four mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, one assault brigade, two assault battalions of the AFU, and one naval infantry brigade near Shevchenko, Shcherbinovka, Novoolenovka, Novopustynka, Petrovka, and Dzerzhinsk (Donetsk People's Republic). Nine counter-attacks launched by AFU armed formations were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 440 troops, three armoured fighting vehicles, one 152mm Msta-B howitzer, three 152mm D-20 guns, three 122mm D-30 howitzers, and one Nota electronic warfare station.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces continued advancing to the depth of the enemy's defences and inflicted losses on formations of two mechanised brigades of the AFU and one territorial defence brigade near Razliv, Zelenoye Pole, and Vremevka (Donetsk People's Republic). Three counter-attacks launched by the enemy's assault detachments were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 185 troops, one German-made Leopard tank, one infantry fighting vehicle, two armoured fighting vehicles, four motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer, one 155mm Bogdana self-propelled artillery system, and one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system.
Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of one heavy mechanised brigade, one mechanised brigade of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades near Novoandreyevka (Zaporozhye region), Antonovka, Yantarnoye, and Nikolskoye (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 55 troops, two motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer, and two 152mm D-20 guns. Four AFU field ammunition depots were destroyed.
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 clusters of the enemy's manpower and military hardware in 133 areas.
Air defence units shot down nine fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 650 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 37,818 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 19,810 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,501 MLRS combat vehicles, 19,695 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,260 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.
In the course of offensive operations, units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted losses on formations of five mechanised brigades, one tank brigade, two air assault brigades, one naval infantry brigade, and two territorial defence brigades of the AFU near Guyevo, Lebedevka, Leonidovo, Malaya Loknya, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Novaya Sorochina, Pogrebki, Russkoye Porechnoye, and Sverdlikovo.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the AFU enemy near Kurilovka, Mirny as well as Basovka, Belovody, Zhuravka, Petrushovka, and Popovka in Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, the AFU losses amounted to up to 540 troops, one tank, two infantry fighting vehicles, one U.S.-made Stryker armoured personnel carrier, 20 armoured fighting vehicles, and seven motor vehicles.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 41,400 troops, 242 tanks, 182 infantry fighting vehicles, 126 armoured personnel carriers, 1,276 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,145 motor vehicles, 314 artillery guns, 40 MLRS launchers, including 11 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 74 EW stations, 13 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 27 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, five armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
#1
Here's some Russian perspective. I hope every Russian who has done any war crime dies like this and inside Russia. Putin is helpless to protect them.
#2
Another success story inside Russia. Hope this becomes a daily event, inside Russia.
Until Putin has to be scraped off the street outside the Kremlin.
[IsraelTimes] US President-elect Donald Trump characterizes the rebel ouster of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad by Ankara-backed rebels as an “unfriendly takeover” by US ally Turkey, as he addressed the conflict at a news conference.
“I think Turkey is very smart… Turkey did an unfriendly takeover, without a lot of lives being lost. I can say that Assad was a butcher, what he did to children,” Trump tells reporters at his residence in Florida.
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The theory I lean toward is the notion that “Joe Biden” (meaning the DC blob) is desperately seeking some way to obstruct or fend-off the January 20th inauguration of Mr. Trump. Because, well, to put it bluntly, a whole lot of blobistas are worried about going to jail when the likes of Kash Patel, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi-G, and Pam Bondi get their mitts on the levers of power and start opening up the files. They’ve got thirty-five days to. . . to do something! (Somebody, please do something!!!)
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The head of Chechnya voiced the idea of excluding the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* group, which seized power in Syria, from the list of terrorist organizations, and proposed sending Chechen security forces to that country.
As the "Caucasian Knot" reported, on December 1, militants from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* group forced Syrian government troops to leave Aleppo, which had been controlled by the army of President Bashar al-Assad since 2016. On the night of December 8, armed opposition militants entered Damascus. Assad left the presidential post and left the country. Sources reported that he and his family arrived in Moscow. By December 15, the situation in Aleppo had stabilized, and the city's residents had returned to peaceful life, representatives of the Armenian diaspora said.
The idea of cooperation with the "new authorities of Syria" in order to "prevent a humanitarian catastrophe" in Syria was outlined today by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, on his Telegram channel.
"To start positive processes, it is necessary to launch the procedure of excluding Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its representatives from the Russian list of terrorist organizations. It is important, without waiting for the beginning or end of this process, to immediately organize the work of a contact group of the two countries, which will be able to build the first connections and begin to solve problems. This is a global practice that allows us to get out of the crisis as quickly as possible and help the population," the head of the region said.
He stressed that the Chechen authorities "are ready to provide support in patrolling the streets" together with Syrian "law enforcement agencies." "In addition, we are ready to send instructors from the Russian Special Forces University named after V.V. Putin to transfer unique experience and knowledge to the Syrian police," Kadyrov wrote.
Kadyrov noted that Putin "has always pursued only one goal - to help the long-suffering Syrian people," to whom the Chechen people "have always been a loyal assistant and friend."
Let us recall that residents of Russia, including the North Caucasus and Southern Federal Districts, are subject to criminal prosecution and receive court sentences on charges of collaborating with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham*. Thus, in early November, the court found two residents of Dagestan guilty of assisting terrorist activity for transferring money to a member of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham*. Both were sentenced to long prison terms.
On February 14, it became known that the court sentenced a Sochi resident to 8.5 years in prison, finding him guilty of transferring money to the terrorist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
[X] Yesterday Poland was shooting them with hot lead. Clearly they deserved it. Separately, if anyone could translate the lyrics of the background music, that would be helpful.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The withdrawal of Russian military bases from Syria is a condition for the start of dialogue between the European Union and the new Syrian authorities, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said on December 16.
“We must set a condition for dialogue with the Syrian authorities that they must get rid of the Russian bases,” TASS quotes the diplomat as saying.
“Because Russians are icky,” she added. The problem with losing control of the edges of empire is that the former possessions rarely like their former masters, and often do their best to sabotage their prospects. In this particular case, Ms Kallas is the former prime minister of Estonia.
The head of European diplomacy reported that the EU representative had already visited Damascus to establish contacts with the new authorities. Speaking about the prospects for lifting sanctions on Syria, Kallas noted that this would become possible after Brussels sees positive steps from the country's authorities.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on December 8, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, amid an offensive by the armed opposition, decided to leave his post and left the country, giving instructions to peacefully transfer power.
Assad and his family arrived in Moscow, Russia granted them asylum. The armed Syrian opposition ordered its forces to withdraw from the captured cities so that internal security units and police could enter.
No final decisions have been made yet regarding Russian military bases in Syria, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on December 16. According to him, the Russian side is in contact with representatives of the forces that now control the situation in Syria. Everything will be determined in the course of dialogue, the official Kremlin spokesman concluded.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] One of the main tasks of the Russian Defense Ministry is to ensure the full readiness of the country's Armed Forces for a possible military conflict with NATO, which may take place in Europe in the next decade. This was stated on Monday, December 16, by Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.
The fact that such a conflict is possible is indicated by decisions made at the NATO summit in July, as well as doctrinal documents of the United States and other countries of the military bloc, Belousov said at a meeting of the Defense Ministry.
“Ensuring full readiness for any development of the situation in the medium term, including a possible military conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade,” Belousov named one of the tasks of the Ministry of Defense.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, during his speech at the Defense Ministry board, President Vladimir Putin stated that the military-political situation in the world remains unstable and difficult due to Washington's actions. The US authorities are driving Russia to the red line, and when Russia begins to respond, they frighten their population with it, the head of state explained.
The President noted that NATO countries are increasing military spending and building up strike groups near Russia's borders. Putin stressed that such actions by the military bloc will not go unanswered.
Putin also stated that there are no rules for the US leadership, and that American politicians wage hybrid wars against states they don't like, including Russia. Representatives of the West, not believing in God, consider themselves His representatives on Earth, the president said.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The mayor of Rutba district in al-Anbar province, Iraq, Imad Mishal al-Dulaimi, reported on Saturday evening that 2,100 former Syrian army personnel had entered Iraq since the fall of the previous regime, calling on humanitarian organizations to provide support for them.
Al-Dulaimi explained that these soldiers have been sheltered in tents at al-Murasant Air base, noting that their humanitarian conditions are difficult due to the lack of electricity and water in the desert area where they are being housed.
He added that most of these soldiers wish to return to Syria after the amnesty decision was issued, but the closure of borders and airports has delayed their return
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Dmitry Likhtarik
[REGNUM] The Kiev regime is looking to the coming 2025 with optimism, hoping to fight even without American injections. On December 10, in an interview with the Spanish El Pais, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said that if Donald Trump, who is taking office as president, stops aid to Ukraine, Kiev will have enough money to fight until at least mid-2025.
"I believe that we have sufficient means, sufficient weapons, missiles and artillery shells to resist at least for the first half of 2025. We will provide sufficient budgetary allocations to purchase the necessary ammunition and military equipment in 2025. We are currently receiving the necessary weapons from the United States. This means that at least in the first half of the year and beyond, we will be well prepared to resist this aggression," he noted.
And this message is addressed first and foremost to the Euro-Atlantic “war party”: stopping or threatening to stop US aid to Ukraine will not be an argument for Kyiv to sit down at the negotiating table.
The second message contained between the lines is a call for this “war party” to take up the baton of the last weeks of the outgoing Joe Biden administration, which, according to a statement by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, has promised to provide its protégés with hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, thousands of missiles and hundreds of armored vehicles before leaving, as well as to introduce new large-scale sanctions against Russia.
After November 5, the White House entered a sprint race to “master” the remaining approximately $9 billion in the budget for aid to Kyiv. So the “war to the last Ukrainian” strategy is receiving a very long-term boost.
But here, first of all, we should turn to the state budget of Ukraine for 2025, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada and signed by Volodymyr Zelensky. If we recalculate the main indicators at the average rate of 45 UAH per dollar, set for next year, then revenues are planned at 45 billion dollars, and expenses at as much as 80 billion dollars, including 49 billion dollars "for defense and security."
Thus, the budget deficit amounts to a significant $35 billion.
However, this is not a big problem, since the lion's share of military aid to Kyiv is provided free of charge or on credit, and therefore the "budget deficit" is, first of all, a question of financial aid, not military. Of the large "donations", $15 billion is expected from the IMF and part of the $50 billion loan allocated by the G7 for income from frozen Russian assets.
The last amount will be divided into three years, from 2025 to 2027, but it can be assumed that the first tranche will already be worth significantly more than a third, at least $25 billion.
So Kyiv will somehow make ends meet, including by devaluing the national currency by about 10%. And the situation with military aid from the West needs to be considered separately.
As for the volumes already allocated, the constantly updated statistics of the Ukraine Support Tracker of the Kiel Institute for World Economics can be used as a reference point. It shows that since February 2022 (although in reality it began in 2014), the contribution of various countries to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces is estimated in the following order. The United States has received 51.6 billion in euros and almost the same amount from European countries. Japan has allocated just over 9 billion euros and Canada 7.2 billion euros.
A total of 119.4 billion euros, or approximately 128 billion dollars, if taken at the average exchange rate for 2022–2024, an average of 43 billion dollars annually.
Indeed, it is impossible to imagine such or comparable assistance to Kyiv in the coming new year without the participation (or with minimal participation) of the United States. Moreover, in addition to the uncertainty of the US position, there are problems with other major sponsors of Kyiv.
Thus, in Germany, new aid runs up against restrictions on budget borrowing, which this summer the Federal Constitutional Court harshly confirmed with its decision, and in France, in the conditions of total austerity, such a question has simply become politically inappropriate. That is why the key European countries that are part of the G7 have decided that the allocation of a $50 billion loan to cover the income from the frozen assets of the Russian Federation is enough for them.
At the same time, the Western “war party” has a number of other options for providing weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces: a loan, a “circular exchange,” and an “alternative to disposal.”
Thus, Warsaw proposed Kiev to buy weapons from it on credit. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski reported on the Polsat TV channel that Donald Tusk's government had already formed a corresponding proposal and encouraged Kiev: "When you recover, you will pay."
The “preferential” or “enslaving” nature of the conditions for the provision of weapons from the point of view of the situation in the theater of military operations is irrelevant; the main thing is that lethal weapons can be obtained here and now.
In turn, Britain is providing Ukraine with a loan of almost $3 billion to purchase weapons. However, there is a nuance here - according to the press service of the British Cabinet of Ministers, the loan will also be secured by profits from frozen Russian assets - that is, this is part of the promised contribution to the G7 loan to Ukraine, and instead of "real money" London is offering its weapons.
Some other G7 countries may follow suit, strengthening the military component of the loan.
Croatia is demonstrating the circular exchange formula, which, according to the country's Defense Ministry, will purchase 50 Leopard 2A8 tanks from Germany and give 30 of its M-84 tanks and 30 M-80 infantry fighting vehicles, including spare parts and ammunition, to Ukraine. The defense ministers of the two countries have already signed a letter of intent.
M-84 - Yugoslav tanks, produced in 1983-91. BMP M-80 were produced in Yugoslavia in 1979-91. Yes, these are not new weapons, but older equipment is used quite successfully on the battlefields of the North Military District by both sides.
Australia is planning a similar exchange, promising to transfer 49 used M1A1 AIM Abrams tanks to Kyiv after the country began receiving upgraded American M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tanks to replace the base model.
The most outspoken speaker on this topic was the former commander of US Ground Forces in Europe and now NATO senior logistics adviser, General Ben Hodges, who stated that American weapons that are approaching their expiration date should be transferred to Ukraine instead of being disposed of.
A significant portion of British supplies, as follows from the reports of local auditors, are precisely “alternative to disposal.”
Thus, Kyiv does not have any particular questions about what to fight with throughout 2025, especially since next year Ukraine will receive some of the equipment financed this year, including F-16 aircraft. In the worst case, the Zelensky regime may well redistribute “social” money within the budget in favor of the “military”.
After all, the principle of “war to the last Ukrainian” presupposes the approach of “guns instead of butter.” And the change of figure in the White House, therefore, does not magically change anything – Ukraine has been led to this war for too long to just take and stop everything.
So whatever the political intentions, the situation will in any case be fundamentally decided on the battlefield. Where the only thing that the Western allies cannot supply is manpower, which the further we go, the more it refuses to simply die for the amusement of foreigners.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[LB] There are no enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups in Pokrovsk, and there are no battles on the outskirts of the city.
by Natalka Lototska
There are no enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups in Pokrovsk. The defense forces managed to push back Russian forces near Peshchane, and there is no fighting on the outskirts of the city.
This was stated on the air by the spokesman for the Khortytsia OTU Nazar Voloshyn, Ukrinform writes.
“I will emphasize right away that there are no enemy DRGs in Pokrovsk, there are no battles on the outskirts of the city. Of course, the enemy is trying to advance closer to the city, the attempt is through the left and right flanks of the Defense Forces to avoid a frontal assault. The enemy is also avoiding frontal attacks, trying to bypass the city. This city is important for us, there is a railway there, which the enemy will try to capture. So far, the Defense Forces have managed to push back Russian forces near Pishchane, not far from Pokrovsk,” Voloshyn said.
There are ongoing hostilities there, in the Pokrovsky direction, the enemy is fielding four against one brigade of the Defense Forces. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are opposed by three all-Russian armies: the 2nd, 41st, and 51st.
Near Uspenivka, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are conducting stabilization measures as part of a defensive operation.
“The Defense Forces units are conducting stabilization measures within the framework of a defensive operation along the line of combat contact there. The operation conducted by the Defense Forces units involves maximum exhaustion of the enemy, destruction of his resource, and preservation of our personnel. Therefore, in any case, first of all, it is necessary to stop the enemy there and stabilize the front line,” Voloshyn said, answering a question about the risk of encirclement of Ukrainian soldiers near Uspenivka.
Other information regarding this situation has not yet been disclosed.
Today, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that in the Pokrovsky direction, our defenders stopped 32 assault and offensive actions of the aggressor near the settlements of Myrolyubivka, Promin, Lysivka, Dachenske, Zelene, Pishchane, and Novoolenivka.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The situation in Aleppo has stabilized after the fighting, and the Armenian community has begun preparing for the New Year and Christmas holidays.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, there are no military actions in Aleppo, representatives of the Armenian community said on December 9. They expressed hope for stability after the transfer of power to the transitional government.
According to the Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs in Armenia, there are about 30,000 Armenians living in Syria, most of whom live in Aleppo. In early December, the staff of the Armenian embassy left Syria amid the fighting, where there were no longer any opportunities for the safe evacuation of Armenian citizens.
Life for Armenians in Syria is returning to normal, and the feeling of security in Aleppo is "increasing every day," Maria Gabrielyan, a spokesperson for the National Diocese of Berio who lives there, said today.
There are no problems with bread and food in Aleppo, she noted. "There is a problem with drinking water due to damage to the city's water supply system during the fighting. Restoration work is already underway, and there is hope that the water supply will be restored in the near future," Gabrielyan told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
Hospitals in the city are operating, and government institutions are also resuming work, she added. "Schools, universities, and kindergartens have opened. Armenian schools at the church will also begin functioning on Monday [December 16]. Canteens and cafes have also opened," the Aleppo resident said.
Gabrielyan also noted that the Christian community of Aleppo is preparing for the New Year and Christmas holidays. "Road communication between the states has been restored," she said.
The Armenian diplomatic mission, which was evacuated from Syria during the fighting, has resumed its work in Damascus.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, in early December, amid the fighting, the staff of the Armenian embassy in Damascus left Syria and continued working from Beirut. The evacuation of the remaining Armenians from Syria is impossible, the Armenian Foreign Ministry stated.
According to the Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs in Armenia, there are about 30,000 Armenians living in Syria, most of whom live in Aleppo. By December 15, the situation in Aleppo had stabilized, and the city's residents had returned to peaceful life, representatives of the Armenian diaspora said.
The Armenian diplomatic mission has resumed its work in Damascus, the embassy is operating in the normal mode, an employee of the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent today.
"The acceptance of documents for obtaining Armenian citizenship has resumed. The diplomatic mission's hotline is also operating. In the coming days, it is planned to resume the activities of the consulate general in Aleppo," he said.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Undersecretary of Mahrah province for Youth Affairs'' in the government loyal to the Saudi-led coalition, Badr Kalshat, confirmed that takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed... fatwas were used in Salafist-affiliated mosques to target Mahrah's population and figures.
Kalshat stated that local authorities made decisive decisions to retract those fatwas. He added that the Death Eater rhetoric of Salafist groups sparked widespread condemnation from all sectors of the province community.
The province's undersecretary highlighted the growing push for the formation of Death Eater Salafist factions, known as ''Dera al-Watan,'' in Mahrah, led by the same sheikhs who issued fatwas and supported by regional parties aiming to control the province.
Kalshat pointed out that foreign movements continue to attract and recruit secretly, despite the province's security committee's rejection of these practices.
In a post on ''X,'' Kalshat warned against Death Eater groups' attempts to drag Mahrah into chaos, as seen in some southern provinces controlled by those groups.
He called on all Mahrah residents to assume their historical responsibilities and unite against projects that threaten the security and stability of the province.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2024
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Hmmm.... Harry and Meg "We are better at being Royals than The Royals that is why they bullied us out of the Monarchy."🤡 Thomas Parker Bowles "I am The secret Weapon behind the Monarchy"🤭 Prince Andrew "I still deserve to be a royal, give me my Royal spotlight back"🤦🏽♀️ Now we… pic.twitter.com/bea6no8w0X
#3
They are handing South Park and the Babylon Bee finished material.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/17/2024 8:50
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#4
Pretty self-important for a woman whose sole claim to fame was she was 4th most attractive actress in "Suits" (OK, she tied for 3rd with Louis Litt).
[FoxBusiness] American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce says California has set up 'cartel' to push electric trucks.
A conservative pro-business group and Midwest trucking operators say California regulators have illegally sidestepped federal law to force a transition to electric trucks.
The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree) and trucking operators allege in a new lawsuit that California has created a cartel arrangement with the nation's largest heavy-duty truck companies to phase out internal-combustion engines by 2036. The alleged scheme involves the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and all major manufacturers of gas-powered heavy-duty trucks that entered into an agreement called the Clean Truck Partnership last year.
"The agreement bakes into it a number of rules that California has been trying to get in place that will mandate the complete electrification of the trucking sector in just over a decade," said Michael Buschbacher, lead attorney for AmFee.
While most states are prohibited from setting their own motor vehicle emissions standards, California has exclusive permission to do so under the Clean Air Act of 1967, so long as their rules are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. But AmFree alleges California has unlawfully attempted to enforce emissions standards without a green light from the EPA.
"If you don't have permission from EPA, you can't even attempt to enforce those [kinds] of standards. These are standards for emissions for new motor vehicles. And that's what this agreement is about. And our argument is that that's illegal, and it has to stop," said Buschbacher.
CARB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The complaint states that climate regulators in California have produced "a typhoon of coercive and disruptive regulations" intended to meet Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom's goal of having all heavy-duty vehicles in the Golden State be "zero-emission" by 2045.
But in July 2023, California offered major truck manufacturers temporary regulatory relief in exchange for commitments to adopt vehicle standards "that will require the sale and adoption of zero-emissions technology in the state, regardless of whether any other entity challenges California's authority to set more stringent emissions standards under the federal Clean Air Act," according to CARB.
This agreement, which gave truck manufacturers "reasonable lead time" to comply with California emissions standards, is known as the Clean Truck Partnership. Manufacturers that were party to the agreement and are named in the lawsuit include Cummins Inc., Daimler Truck North America, Ford, General Motors, Hino Motors Limited Inc., Isuzu Technical Center of America Inc., Navistar, Paccar, Stellantis N.V., Volvo Group North America and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group.
"In return for recognizing CARB’s suzerainty, however, manufacturers have obtained a cozy cartel arrangement that ensures them a steady stream of supra-competitive profits, subsidies, and tax credits," the lawsuit alleges.
"By acting in lockstep as an industry, this arrangement ensures that the costs will not be borne by the manufacturers but will be passed downstream to their customers and then to the rest of the country."
Two trucking companies, Meiborg Brothers Inc. and TanTara Transportation Corp., provided declarations for AmFree's lawsuit, claiming harm from California's actions.
The companies say some manufacturers are now requiring them to purchase one electric truck for every seven to eight diesel trucks they purchase or face higher prices. In court documents, the operators allege they will lose access to nearly a quarter of U.S. truck dealers once California and other states that adopt California standards phase out diesel trucks.
They also argue that electric trucks cost more upfront and have higher maintenance and resale costs, which cannot be fully passed on to consumers.
"The consequences here are they're going to drive up costs and reduce consumer choice," Buschbacher said.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/17/2024 8:34
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#2
California DOT has been really hard on OTR truckers historically, so I'm wondering if CARB and the DOT even spoke to each other about this little gem.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/17/2024 9:45
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#3
Here’s a crazy idea: what if the truck mfgrs just said no? Is CA that big of market? And owner operators should just keep their current rigs running, long enough to move out of state.
Already truckers are picking and choosing which runs to make; rejecting those which involve states they deem hostile.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The ''ISIS'' attacks have recently escalated in several areas in northern and eastern Syria, especially in the Syrian desert.
According to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, the number of ISIS terrorist attacks in the Syrian desert since the fall of the former regime on December 8 has reached six attacks, resulting in the deaths of 70 people, both civilians and soldiers.
The terrorist organization launched five attacks in Homs, killing 64 people, including 52 soldiers from the former Syrian army who were executed and 12 civilians, including nine livestock herders.
[IsraelTimes] American forces carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria on Monday, killing a dozen of its fighters, the US military says.
“The strikes against the ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade and defeat ISIS,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) says on social media, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.
The aim is to prevent “the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek opportunities to reconstitute in central Syria,” CENTCOM says.
“These recent strikes are in former regime and Russian-controlled areas, ensuring pressure is maintained on ISIS,” it adds.
Washington is seeking to prevent the jihadist group from taking advantage of the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, which was overthrown by an Islamist-led rebel alliance that took the capital Damascus on December 8.
[X] Courtesy of Fred:
U.S. Central Command Conducts Airstrikes Against ISIS Operatives
Tampa, Fla. – U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted precision airstrikes targeting known ISIS camps and operatives in Syria, Dec. 16, killing 12 ISIS terrorists.
…The strikes against the ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS, preventing the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek opportunities to reconstitute in central Syria.
These recent strikes are in former Regime and Russian controlled areas ensuring pressure is maintained on ISIS.
Battle damage assessments are underway, and there are no indications of civilian casualties.
“CENTCOM, working with allies and partners in the region, will not allow ISIS to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria,” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2024
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[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The US and UK aggression coalition forces launched on Monday a new attack on Hajjah governorate in the north-western part of 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... A security source told the Yemen Press Agency that the US-British aggression targeted the Baha's area in the Midi district of Hajjah with an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... On Sunday, the US-British aggression had previously launched an airstrike on the district of al-Tuhayta in Hodeidah province, western Yemen.
[IsraelTimes] The US military says it conducted an airstrike against a command and control facility operated by the Houthis in Yemen.
“The targeted facility was a hub for coordinating Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” the US military’s Central Command says in a post on X.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2024
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#1
From all the Yemeni launches today, perhaps not murderous enough.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President-elect Donald Trump touted a $100 billion investment from Japanese-based SoftBank Group alongside CEO Masayoshi Son at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
Trump made the announcement next to his Treasury Secretary pick Howard Lutnick in front of the press at Mar-a-Lago in his first media event as president-elect.
The tech CEO announced the creation of 100,000 U.S. jobs in artificial intelligence and related infrastructure that will boost the economy heading into Trump's second term.
'Today I'm thrilled to announce that SoftBank will be investing $100 billion in America, creating 100,000 American jobs at a minimum,' said the president-elect.
'And he's doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country since the election, and many of these people [are] also coming in with tremendous amounts of money.'
Trump then pressured Son during the Mar-a-Lago media frenzy, asking him to commit to doubling his commitment to $200 billion, which he signaled he was open to doing.
'I'm going to ask him right now, would you make it $200 billion?' asked Trump.
Son replied with laughter, saying Trump is clearly an excellent negotiator.
'With your leadership, my partnership with you, with your support, I will try to make it up to $200 billion,' he pledged.
The investment is expected to happen before the end of Trump's four-year term.
The announcement comes on the heels of Trump promising to cut regulatory red tape for companies and individuals who pledge to invest at least $1 billion in the American economy.
'Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,' Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday.
'GET READY TO ROCK!!!' he added.
Trump largely won reelection last month due to his hardline positions on illegal immigration and pledges to bolster the economy, with post-COVID inflation still problematic for the American consumer.
''I feel terrible about it, because Ukraine is a very important country, and i feel a personal stake, because i got them to agree, to give up their nuclear weapons, and non of them believe that Russian would have pulled this stunt, if Ukraine still had their Nuclear Weapons''
…- Former President Of The United States Bill Clinton
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2024
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#1
Theirs? UKR didnt have nukes. Those were Soviet bombs. UKR hosted nuclear weapons, they didnt operate them. RUS didnt give up their nuke codes. For all intents and purposes, those nukes were non-operable for the Ukrainians.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Israeli occupation warplanes launched on Monday Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s targeting several military points in the Syrian provinces of Latakia and Tartus, resulting in massive explosions.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the Israeli airstrikes targeted missile bases at Camp 107 in the Zama area, as well as arms depots in the countryside of Tartus.
A violent mostly peaceful explosion occurred in the village of Hiresun in Tartus following one of the airstrikes.
Since the collapse of the Baath regime, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria to target military infrastructure and capabilities.
[IsraelTimes] Residents of Syria’s coastal Tartus region say alleged Israeli airstrikes overnight, called the heaviest in the area in over a decade, went on until almost 6 a.m., shaking the ground and causing widespread damage.
“It was like an earthquake. All the windows in my house were blown out,” says 28-year-old Ibrahim Ahmed, an employee in a legal office.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources inside the country, 18 raids “targeted strategic locations on the Syrian coast,” including missile stockpiles and air defense assets.
In the village of Bmalkah in the hills above Tartus, roads are filled with shattered glass and shreds of roller doors and smoke can still be seen rising from nearby hillsides.
Clean-up crews trying to clear debris off roads have been sweeping up missile and shell parts, even as the valley echoes with fresh blasts from stockpiled munitions catching fire.
“The village did not sleep last night. The kids were crying,” says one middle-aged man in a blue sweatshirt who refused to give his name.
At a nearby military complex, smoke billows from arched concrete bunkers cut into the hillside, and secondary explosions launch shrapnel that then falls among the trees.
Broken parts of mortars, rockets and missile launch tubes litter the hillsides.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2024
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A key US Air Force Base has been forced to close after drones were spotted circling above, marking the latest sinister development in the mystery aircraft saga.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio shut down for around four hours late on Friday night into Saturday morning, officials told DailyMail.com.
The location is the latest military base targeted by the ominous flying objects. They have also been seen whirring over Picatinny Arsenal, home of the US Army's CCDC Armaments Center, and Naval Weapons Station Earle, both in New Jersey.
The Biden administration's dismissal of the drones as nothing to worry about - despite failing to provide any explanation about what's behind the flurry of activity - prompted speculation that the aircraft are being operated by the US military.
But this comparatively reassuring theory is somewhat undermined by the closure of Wright-Patterson - the first base to publicly announce a shutdown - potentially compromising US military readiness in the event of an enemy attack.
Bob Purtiman, chief of public affairs for the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson, said the 'small unmanned aerial systems' were monitored by officials during the shutdown on Friday night.
'To date, installation leadership has determined none of the incursions impacted base residents, facilities or assets,' Purtiman told DailyMail.com.
In a recording of the air traffic control tower at the base posted on YouTube by The War Zone, a controller tells pilots to 'use extreme caution' due to 'heavy UAS activity' above. UAS stands for 'unmanned aircraft system'.
Wright-Patterson is located around five miles outside the city of Dayton in west Ohio. It's home to critical US AIr Force commands, including the Air Force Research Lab.
It also hosts the Air Force Materiel Command, which 'conducts research, development, test and evaluation, and provides acquisition management services and logistics support necessary to keep Air Force weapon systems ready for war,' according to its website.
Wright-Patterson is located around five miles outside the city of Dayton in west Ohio. It's home to critical US AIr Force commands, including the Air Force Research Lab.
It also hosts the Air Force Materiel Command, which 'conducts research, development, test and evaluation, and provides acquisition management services and logistics support necessary to keep Air Force weapon systems ready for war,' according to its website.
Yet despite the startling volume of apparent sightings - which have prompted locals to shoot into the sky and even sparked the closure of an airport in neighboring New York - officials are yet to provide answers about who or what is behind the drones.
Former CIA operations officer Laura Ballman voiced the theory that the drones lighting up multi-state skies could be part of a 'classified exercise' by the US military.
She told Fox News Live last week that the sightings are 'extremely unsettling,' while sharing the idea that they may be part of a technology 'test' orchestrated by the federal government.
Ballman said: 'Now in terms of who is behind this, seeing the statements that have been made by John Kirby, who has said that these objects are not operating illegally.
'Coupled with the several op-eds that have been out there in the last 24 hours about the need to look at our detection systems, [it] makes me think perhaps this is actually a classified exercise to test either evasion technology or detection technology in urban areas.'
But the apparent targeting of US military facilities is now making way for alternative theories that the drones may have been sent by foreign powers.
Yet despite the startling volume of apparent sightings - which have prompted locals to shoot into the sky and even sparked the closure of an airport in neighboring New York - officials are yet to provide answers about who or what is behind the drones.
Former CIA operations officer Laura Ballman voiced the theory that the drones lighting up multi-state skies could be part of a 'classified exercise' by the US military.
She told Fox News Live last week that the sightings are 'extremely unsettling,' while sharing the idea that they may be part of a technology 'test' orchestrated by the federal government.
Ballman said: 'Now in terms of who is behind this, seeing the statements that have been made by John Kirby, who has said that these objects are not operating illegally.
'Coupled with the several op-eds that have been out there in the last 24 hours about the need to look at our detection systems, [it] makes me think perhaps this is actually a classified exercise to test either evasion technology or detection technology in urban areas.'
But the apparent targeting of US military facilities is now making way for alternative theories that the drones may have been sent by foreign powers.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] Bashar al-Assad spoke about what happened in Syria.
With the intensification of terrorism in Syria and the arrival of terrorists in the capital Damascus on the evening of Saturday, December 7, 2024, questions began to arise about the fate and whereabouts of the president amid a stream of confusion and stories that were far from the truth. They represented support for the process of establishing international terrorism disguised as the Syrian liberation revolution.
At a critical historical moment in the life of a nation, when the truth must take place, it is necessary to clarify some things through a brief statement. The circumstances and the subsequent complete cessation of communication for security reasons did not allow this to be done, and the brief provisions of the statement will not replace a detailed narration of everything that happened later, when such an opportunity arises.
First of all, contrary to what was rumored, I did not leave the country as planned or leave during the final hours of the fighting, but remained in Damascus, fulfilling my duties, until the early morning of Sunday, December 8, 2024. With the expansion of terrorism inside Damascus, I moved to Latakia to monitor the fighting from there. Upon arrival at the Khmeimim base in the morning, it became clear that the [government] forces had withdrawn from all battle lines and the last army positions had fallen, while the field situation in the area was deteriorating and the attack on the Russian military base itself by drones was intensifying. Due to the impossibility of leaving the base in any direction, Moscow asked the base leadership to consider the issue of an immediate evacuation to Russia on the evening of Sunday, December 8, the day after the fall of Damascus, the fall of the last military positions and the subsequent paralysis of the remaining state institutions.
During these events, neither I nor any other person or party raised the issue of asylum or resignation, and the only option considered was to continue the struggle in defense against a terrorist attack.
In this context, I emphasize that the one who, from the first day of the war, refused to exchange the salvation of his country for his own salvation or to bargain with his people with various offers and temptations; the one who was with the officers and soldiers of his army on the front lines, tens of meters from the terrorists in the hottest and most dangerous flashpoints of the conflict; the one who did not leave during the most difficult years of the war and remained with his family and people to confront terrorism under bombardment and in the face of the danger posed by the terrorists who stormed the capital more than once during the 14 years of war; the one who did not abandon the non-Syrian resistance in Palestine and Lebanon and did not betray the allies who stood with it - cannot be the same person who abandons his people to whom he belongs or betrays them and his army.
I have never been a person who seeks office, but I considered myself the owner of a national project, supported by a people who believed in it. I carried confidence in the will of this people and its ability to preserve its state and defend its institutions and choice until the last moment. With the fall of the state into the hands of terrorism and the loss of the ability to provide anything, the office becomes empty and meaningless, and there is no point in remaining responsible in it. This in no way means renouncing the true national belonging to Syria and its people - a fixed belonging that neither situation nor circumstances change; a belonging filled with the hope that Syria will return free and independent.
(c) Bashar al-Assad
P.S. Meanwhile, Kadyrov today called for the exclusion of HTS militants from the list of terrorist organizations. The trade for bases in Syria is in full swing.
[X]
Syrian Presidency’s Facebook and Telegram channels publish statement purported to be from Bashar al-Assad, dated Dec. 16.
Assad says that “at no time during the events that have taken place in Syria” has he ever considered resigning or fleeing the country. pic.twitter.com/6kreggNd2P
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Malek Dudakov
[REGNUM] American society has been plagued by unidentified flying objects for several years now. It's turning into a real "Groundhog Day." The ufologist movement has existed in the United States for many decades, but was considered a fringe movement. Now it's turning into the mainstream.
The traditional American search for mysterious saucers, balls and clots of light in the sky has been exacerbated by the drone revolution.
Since 2015, the Pentagon has been publishing photos and videos of various UFOs encountered by US Air Force military pilots. Several hearings in a row have already been held in Congress, at which retired US intelligence officials have testified, claiming that the US government allegedly has data on extraterrestrial activity.
Over the past decade, there has been a normalization of the discourse about UFOs, so it is not surprising that most Americans are now concerned about the appearance of mysterious objects in the sky.
In 2023, meteorological stratospheric balloons, dubbed "spy balloons" by tabloids and yellow press, caused a real panic in the United States. Several of them flew over states where Minuteman III intercontinental missile launch silos are located. Public hysteria forced the White House to raise fighter jets to destroy the balloons, and responsibility for their appearance was placed on China. This led to another bout of spy mania in American society.
A year and a half have passed, and the US is once again experiencing the same “Groundhog Day”. Only this time, the place of stratospheric balloons has been taken by mysterious drones, which have become very often noticed in the skies over the northeastern states of America.
First, they were spotted near the golf course of President-elect Donald Trump in New Jersey. Then - over the residences of the governors of New Jersey and neighboring Maryland. Then also over naval bases in the same states. It got to the point that airports and military airfields began to shut down because of the drones.
In just one month, from mid-November to mid-December, New Jersey recorded nearly a thousand sightings of mysterious drones, mostly at night.
Local authorities can do nothing about them and demand information and support from the federal government. Washington is up to its ears in the process of power transition, and the White House has no time for drones right now.
Residents of the "affected" states organize themselves and organize night safaris with weapons in their hands, trying to shoot down drones with guns and rifles. They are helped by concerned sheriffs. However, at the moment, not a single flying machine has been shot down or destroyed.
In the absence of reliable information, American society is panicking and coming up with new explanations for the appearance of drones, each one crazier than the last. Some conspiracy theorists even recalled the famous conspiracy theory from the 90s called “Project Blue Beam”.
Its supporters are convinced that the government is trying to stage an alien attack on the planet in order to establish martial law and a dictatorship with the abolition of the US Constitution.
There are other theories that may be closer to reality.
For example, the most popular American podcaster Joe Rogan, with an audience of 20 million people, promotes the point of view that drones can be secretly used by federal agencies to search for leaks of biologically hazardous substances or radiation. There is no information about this because the authorities are afraid of causing panic among the population.
Although panic is already growing in the absence of any verified information. Firefighters and emergency services personnel are advised to approach drones only in biohazard suits. New York authorities are rushing to install equipment to detect and suppress the flying machines.
However, the field of electronic warfare in the United States is not very developed, so the real fight against drones will clearly cause law enforcement a lot of problems.
And it may turn out that the swarms of drones that have flooded the skies over New Jersey and New York City are just a silly prank. It wouldn’t take much effort — these machines are now ubiquitous and easy to use. What’s happening shows how easily modern society can be thrown into chaos.
The hawks in Washington, as usual, are trying to find a foreign trace, blaming Iran and China for what is happening. There are no facts to support these theories, which is reluctantly confirmed by American intelligence agencies. However, their statements are of little satisfaction to anyone - after all, none of the officials can really explain where the drones came from and who is controlling them.
It cannot be ruled out that some criminal organizations with unclear goals are behind the "drone attack". After all, during the years of Joe Biden's presidency, America has faced a sharp rise in crime. The number of murders alone has jumped by as much as 40%.
In the US, Latin American cartels and syndicates have also become more active, their ranks swelled by an army of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. They are already terrifying traditional street crime and waging a war for control of the prostitution and drug trade markets.
There are concerns that the appearance of drones could be a harbinger of some force majeure events, such as new terrorist attacks. The FBI estimates the level of terrorist threat in the United States as being at its highest level since the events of September 11. Again, the reception of a large number of migrants from countries with high terrorist activity plays a role.
In the run-up to the election, the US federal government has already prevented several terrorist attacks. One of them could have happened in New York on the day of the election, November 5. And, unlike the events of twenty years ago, terrorists now don’t even need to hijack planes. They can simply stuff drones with explosives and cause chaos in the most densely populated metropolises on the US East Coast.
Moreover, the American military does not really have the tools to combat this threat. Military bases on US territory also become targets for drones. Shooting them down is often difficult, especially in the absence of effective developments in the field of electronic warfare.
There is talk of shutting off the GPS signal over a large area, but this would lead to a logistical collapse on a state-wide scale where telecommunications would cease to work.
Republicans are blaming Biden and the Democrats for squandering expensive air defense systems like the Patriot and NASAMS batteries in Ukraine. The United States itself could really use them now. However, these American systems were developed a long time ago and are also not really suitable for fighting drones, as the experience of the conflict in Ukraine has shown.
The Pentagon, although it was at the forefront of creating large military drones, completely missed the technological revolution with the advent of cheap small drones. Now it has to quickly make up for lost time.
The current situation has shown how vulnerable the US is to even a small number of drones in its skies. One can only imagine what the consequences could be if such an invasion were to be tens or hundreds of times larger next time.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] In the last weeks of the year, the Russian army has been building on the success achieved during the heavy fighting of the summer and autumn period. In 2024, the Russian Armed Forces liberated 189 settlements as part of a special operation, President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting of the expanded board of the Ministry of Defense. The head of state also noted that Russian troops have seized the initiative along the entire front line.
In the past two weeks alone, 12 settlements in Donbas have come under the control of the Russian army. In the eastern part of the region, Russian troops continue to storm the strategically important city of Kurakhovo. As a result of a series of successful offensive operations, the fighting has moved directly into the urban development.
Russian troops advanced to the main stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at School No. 1. Fierce fighting broke out for the school. As a result, Ukrainian troops retreated to the city council building and surrounding three-story buildings. On Saturday, the enemy retreated from this area as well — the Russian flag was raised over the city council building.
Russian troops also advanced along the Zaporizhzhya Highway in the northern part of the village, moving towards the fish farm. The Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted to organize a tank counterattack, but it failed.
The enemy's defense is being built in the area of the Kurakhovskaya Thermal Power Plant and a group of five-story buildings in the western part of the village. Also, some of its formations are still in the center of the settlement - in the area of Soborny Prospekt and Pushkin Street.
In total, no more than 20% of the territory of Kurakhovo remains under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Further south, Russian troops are advancing towards the Zaporizhia Highway, the last supply route for the enemy garrison in Kurakhovo, advancing from the area of the village of Sukhi Yaly. The offensive continued towards the village of Zelenovka. According to information from the field, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have abandoned the southern part of the village, and the Russian army is only two kilometers from the Zaporizhia Highway.
On the other side of the Kurakhovo Reservoir, the advancing formations of the Russian Armed Forces have occupied the settlement of Starye Terny. Control over this area allows the use of artillery to fire at enemy vehicles moving to/from Kurakhovo along Zaporizhzhya Avenue.
The current situation could lead to the fact that even if Ukrainian troops in Kurakhovo receive an order to withdraw right now, they will only be able to leave with heavy losses, notes a front-line source for the Regnum news agency.
"What happened is what we discussed a week ago. The Ukrainian Armed Forces command is holding them in the city until the very end, but now any retreat will turn into a massacre. They had a chance to leave normally. They can't hold out for long either, which means they will still leave, but with bloodshed and heavy losses. According to rumors, there are many wounded in the city, who will most likely, according to old tradition, either be abandoned or finished off so as not to interfere," the source said.
Western media also report on the critical situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the front in the DPR. According to the assessment of the observer of the German publication Bild, Christopher Buhl, the Ukrainian Armed Forces group in Kurakhovo is threatened with encirclement. In turn, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kiev reports on fierce battles in this area, but pretends that nothing special is happening.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces also still hold control over the village of Uspenovka south of Kurakhovo, which is in operational encirclement. If Ukrainian troops retreat north of Uspenovka and the surrounding settlements will find themselves in a full-fledged "cauldron".
ON THE APPROACHES TO POKROVSK
The situation in the Pokrovsk area, a key city for the entire defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is not the best for the enemy.
The Ukrainian military command acknowledged the loss of a number of settlements south of this settlement. In particular, this concerns the village of Shevchenko, one and a half kilometers south of Pokrovsk.
Russian troops are expanding their bridgehead for a new offensive in the direction of the M30 highway, which provides communication between Pokrovsk and the Dnepropetrovsk region. Russian troops have only ten kilometers left to cover to the border of the region.
The fall of Pokrovsk would be Kyiv's most serious defeat in the past year. Taking control of it would allow Russian troops to disrupt the enemy's supply lines and continue their offensive in several directions at once.
Kiev is aware of the full gravity of the imminent defeat and is trying to stop the collapse of the front by all available means, including personnel. The day before, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine dismissed the commander of the Donetsk group of forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Lutsenko, who was responsible for the defense in the area of Kurakhovo and Pokrovsk. Oleksandr Tarnavsky was appointed in his place. He is known as one of the organizers of the failed counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporizhia region in the summer of 2023.
Whether the change of commander will affect the situation at the front will be shown on the battlefield, but for now the Ukrainian defense continues to slowly crumble.
MASS DESERTION IN THE UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES
Fighting also continues in the north of Donbass, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces are losing their last positions in the area of the settlements of Toretsk and Chasov Yar.
After several weeks of fierce fighting, the enemy has abandoned the main defensive node in Chasovy Yar with losses - the territory of the local fireproof plant, local sources report. It is noted that this territory is on a dominant height, and taking control of this area allows the Russian army to control the situation in the city as a whole.
At the same time, local sources of the Regnum news agency report that heavy fighting continues in the industrial zone of Chasov Yar.
"The reports of the 'complete liberation of the plant' are premature. It is not even very clear what we are talking about. If we are talking about the third and fifth workshops, they are being cleaned up. There is also the fourth workshop in the area of the Chasov Yar railway station, the first and second workshops in the residential areas of Shevchenko and Levanevsky. So, yes, the industrial zone is being cleaned up, but it is too early to talk about 'complete liberation'," the source reports.
At the same time, the enemy has lost a number of positions in the city center and continues to retreat, slowly. Aviation and artillery are actively working on its defense nodes in the industrial zone.
The developing situation leads to the fact that Ukrainian military increasingly abandon their positions and retreat, and sometimes simply flee. In recent weeks alone, almost 1,000 mobilized servicemen from the 155th brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have deserted from their positions in the Pokrovsk area, reported Yuriy Butusov, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian publication Censor.net.
A similar situation has developed in other areas of the front, in particular, in the area of Chasov Yar. According to the information of the Regnum news agency, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command may soon begin withdrawing troops from the city in the direction of Konstantinovka. The retreat from Chasov Yar will also lead to the enemy abandoning the city of Toretsk, located to the south.
Russian troops are completing the offensive operations of 2024, pushing back the enemy everywhere and depriving it of the opportunity to counterattack. If this trend continues and the enemy soldiers continue to flee, the collapse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces front is a matter of time.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:59 Official summary of the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC from 00:00 12/15/2024 to 00:00 12/16/2024.
26 cases of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were recorded by the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC over the past 24 hours.
There were reports of one civilian being killed and four injured.
DAMAGED:
Five cars,
One residential building,
On bus,
Four civil infrastructure facilities,
A total of 26 artillery attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 75 units of various ammunition were fired.
21:21 Several mercenaries were liquidated in the SVO zone
– Byron Correa Cuellar, nicknamed Mensajero Elohim, was born on February 18, 1997 in Colombia.
-Jason Fernando Vanegas Avila was born on September 5, 1988 in Colombia.
20:08 Telegram channel "Colonelcassad"
Combat work of the assault aircraft of the 5th Separate Guards Tank Brigade of the "East" group of the RF Armed Forces from Buryatia in the Kurakhovsky direction, -video.
19:07 Ukraine became the fifth country in the world to have laser weapons in its arsenal.
"Ukraine has a laser weapon called "Trident". We can state that today Ukraine is, if I am not mistaken, the fifth country that can say that it has a laser. Today, we can already shoot down aircraft at an altitude of more than 2 km with this laser," said Vadym Sukharevsky, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Unmanned Systems Forces.
18:45 Russian Army locks the Ukrainian Armed Forces are in a cauldron near Makarovka and are taking Velikaya Novosyolka in pincers.
- From the north, marines from the Vostok group broke into and occupied most of the village of Novy Komar, through which the road to Velikaya Novosyolka passes.
- From the southwest, Russian troops are approaching the road leading from Velyka Novosyolovka in the direction of the Zaporizhia region.
In addition, Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft bombed the crossing over the Mokrye Yaly River.
17:35 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Military police servicemen of the "North" group rendered assistance to the Holy Trinity Church in the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region in eliminating the consequences of the strikes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
17:16 Russian army actively destroys Ukrainian Armed Forces' strongholds and artillery, supporting the assault on Kurakhovo
-Fighters of the 20th Motorized Rifle Division of the 8th Guards Army discovered and eliminated a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
-Also near Kurakhovo, artillery reconnaissance from the 238th brigade discovered a camouflaged American M119 howitzer along with its crew.
- Thanks to the skillful command of an officer with the call sign "Berkut", the gun and personnel were destroyed by a "Lancet" loitering munition.
-Coordinated actions will significantly facilitate the task of the 5th Tank Brigade and the 150th Motorized Rifle Division, facilitating further advancement and strengthening of the positions of Russian troops in Kurakhovo.
16:31 Russian Army raised flag, liberating Starye Terny and moving to the rear of Kurakhovo.
-The soldiers of the 114th Motorized Rifle Brigade of the 51st Army successfully completed the task of liberating the village of Starye Terny.
- In the process of carrying out the combat mission, the soldiers successfully eliminated pockets of enemy resistance, destroying their shelters and positions.
-Flags of the 114th Motorized Rifle Brigade were installed in the liberated settlement.
16:05 Armed Forces of Ukraine are being thrown over "Kraken" from Kursk region near Chasov Yar
The assault on Chasy Yar continues, and although our troops are not advancing on a broad front, we have had certain successes and advances recently. There are battles on the territory of the fireproof plant, where our paratroopers managed to enter, taking advantage of the bad weather, our positions on the flanks are gradually improving.
15:28 Moscow plans to achieve victory in the war and goals in 2025 – Belousov
-Russian Army has the goal of liberating the entire territory of the four regions by 2025.
-During the entire period of the SVO, the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amounted to almost 1 million people; in the Kursk adventure alone, the enemy lost more than 40,000 soldiers. In 2024, over 58,000 units of weapons and equipment of the Armed Forces were destroyed;
- The Armed Forces of Ukraine control less than 1% of the territory of the LPR and 25-30% of the territory of the DPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions;
- The Russian Armed Forces firmly hold the strategic initiative throughout the entire LBS and are advancing at a speed of about 30 square kilometers per day;
- Belousov also admitted the possibility of war with NATO in the next 10 years. He stated that the Ministry of Defense "must be prepared for any development of the situation, including a possible military conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade."
- Over 427,000 military personnel were recruited in Russia in 2024, with more than 1,200 people signing contracts every day.
-About 96% of military personnel who were discharged from medical institutions will be able to return to service.
- The Ministry of Defense plans to update the content of military registration specialties and modernize the system of military universities;
14:28 Destruction of the Starlink antenna and MON-90. Zaporizhia direction. North of the settlement Rabotino, –video.
13:30 Telegram channel "Vladimir Saldo"
The unmanned aerial vehicle crews of the Northern Fleet Marines, which are part of the Dnepr group of forces, successfully completed the task of detecting and destroying the takeoff point of enemy heavy UAVs in the Kherson region, –video.
The unmanned aerial vehicle crews of the Northern Fleet Marines, which are part of the Dnepr group of forces, successfully completed the task of detecting and destroying the take-off point of heavy enemy UAVs in the Kherson region.
12:00 Telegram channel "Vladimir Rogov"
Russian troops fought off a series of counterattacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces north of Velyka Novosilka in the area of the village of Novy Komar on the Vrem'ya direction of the Zaporizhzhya front line.
11:20 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Captured serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told about crimes committed against civilians in the Kursk region
Artur Plombirus was called up to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from prison, where he served his sentence. In his unit, most were convicted of serious crimes: murder, rape.
“The command said that if they came across civilians who did not speak Ukrainian, they would be dealt with on the spot,” the prisoner of war recalled.
9:50 Russian Army attacks on a broad front, driving the occupiers out of the Kursk region
- Russian troops continue to attack on a broad front in a number of areas at once. There are battles from Plekhovo in the direction of Kurilovka, near Cherkasskaya Konopelka, in the area of the ravines east of Kremyanoye, in the area of Novoivanovka and in the direction of Sverdlikovo.
- Large infantry units are attacking the Ukrainian Armed Forces positions west of Nechayev in the direction of Russkoye Porechny; the occupiers have lost their strongholds in the forest belt, and Russian troops have advanced up to 1.5 km.
9:20 Crew of the 203mm 2S7M Malka self-propelled gun of the Center group of force stopped rotation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces units in the Krasnoarmeysk direction, destroying armored vehicles and a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Having received the target coordinates, the combat vehicle crew moved to the combat area.
The servicemen fired a series of salvoes of 203mm high-explosive fragmentation rounds weighing 110 kilograms each, destroying armored vehicles and a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at a distance of more than 20 kilometers.
8:13 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Around 7:00 Moscow time stoppedan attempt by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to carry out a terrorist attack using an aircraft-type UAV against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed over the territory of the Bryansk region by air defense systems on duty.
8:02 Tankers of the "West" group of forces are catching up with the enemy, -video.
The crews of the T-90M Proryv tanks destroyed a tank, machine gun positions, an automatic grenade launcher, strong points, ammunition depots and Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22.35 Russia is likely trying to hide the losses of the DPRK military participating in the war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"Unfortunately, we have to defend ourselves from them (the Koreans, - ed.) Although there is no reason for Koreans to die in this war. The only reason is Putin's madness, which has engulfed Russia and is fueling this war," the head of state said.
21.57 Newly elected US President Donald Trump has not ruled out the possibility of revoking US permission for Ukraine to strike with Western weapons deep into Russia. Asked whether he might reconsider the strike decision after taking office, he said: "Maybe."
21:35 North Korean troops have fought alongside Russian forces for the first time in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation and suffered losses, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said.
"We have evidence that they are suffering casualties, both killed and wounded," he said.
20.57 The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called on Hungary to stop making statements about its ability to stop the war that are not true, and to refrain from unilateral contacts with Russia.
"We call on the Hungarian side to stop immoral manipulations on the topic of peace and the Nativity of Christ, to refrain from unilateral contacts with the aggressor state, which undermine joint efforts to restore a just peace. The only obstacle to peace is Russia and its war-obsessed dictator. Ukraine strives for peace on its soil like no one else in the world," the department said in a statement.
20.50 Russian troops attacked the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region. One civilian man was killed, another was hospitalized in a medical facility in serious condition.
The Russian army hit a residential area of the city, damaging residential buildings.
19:15 Russians shelled populated areas of the Kherson region with artillery and drones. In Berislav, a 53-year-old woman was killed as a result of explosives dropped from an enemy drone on a store. Another local resident received an explosion injury and concussion.
As a result of the attacks in the regional center, a man received a head injury. Three people were also injured in the Kherson suburb of Antonovka.
17.19 Ukraine has a laser weapon called Trizub. It can shoot down aircraft at an altitude of over 2 km, said Colonel Vadym Sukharevsky, commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' Unmanned Systems Forces.
16.56 Ukrainian military destroyed and damaged 181 Russian army vehicles on December 14. This is the maximum defeat of this type of equipment in one day since the beginning of the war.
16:10 In the Zaporizhzhya direction, servicemen of the Spartan operational brigade of the National Guard captured a 46-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan, who fought on the side of Russia.
The man signed the contract, hoping to avoid a criminal record and earn money. However, he never received the promised 2.3 million rubles in salary.
15.44 The Italian government on December 16 agreed to provide Ukraine with its tenth package of military aid amid a full-scale Russian invasion. This was reported by ANSA on Monday, December 16.
14.37 The SBU has announced in absentia suspicion of Russian Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, who gave orders regarding the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers. He is involved in more than 4.8 thousand cases of using toxic substances at the front. This was reported by the SBU press service on Monday, December 16.
14:03 This year, more than 1,000 people are allegedly signing contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry every day. This was stated by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the military department.
13:49 A Ukrainian drone filmed footage of a Russian soldier finishing off his wounded comrade-in-arms.
13:10 Before talking about sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, peace must first be achieved. This was stated by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas in Brussels.
12:33 The European Union adopted the 15th package of sanctions against Russia. The new restrictions are aimed at Vladimir Putin's "shadow fleet" and are intended to weaken the Russian military-industrial complex.
12:29 Russian troops killed a teenager in the village of Shevchenko near Pokrovsk - he died due to shelling on December 11. This was reported by the press service of the Pokrovsk city military administration.
11:51 The efficiency of using FPV drones in various units of the Defense Forces and the Russian military is 20-40%. This was stated by the commander of the separate regiment of strike unmanned aerial systems Ptahi Madyara Robert Brovdi.
11:46 Serial production of the new drone missile Peklo has begun in Ukraine. The developer company has manufactured about 100 units of such weapons and is now increasing its production capabilities.
10:54 North Korean assault units are being replenished with new personnel after losses in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, on December 14 and 15 alone, in the areas of the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba, and Martynovka, units of the DPRK army lost at least 30 soldiers killed and wounded.
Killed soldiers of the Russian and North Korean armies in Kurshchyna. Photo: Andrey Tsaplienko / Telegram
10:22 Ukrainian defenders used drones to destroy an enemy artillery and mortar ammunition depot near the village of Markino in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast.
9:57 Russian troops in the Kharkiv direction are actively using ammunition and manpower brought in from North Korea. However, the quality of North Korean weapons causes serious problems. This was stated by Volodymyr Chernyak, an officer of the Fourth Brigade of the Rubezh OP of the National Guard of Ukraine.
7:58 Atesh partisans reported that the invaders have set up numerous fortifications on the administrative border of the Kherson Oblast and Crimea, which is temporarily controlled by Russian occupiers. The aggressor is preparing to meet the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the event of their breakthrough to the peninsula from the north.
7:12 Ukrainian Defense Forces have restored positions near Kolesnikovka in the Kupyansk direction in the Kharkiv region. This is reported by DeepState.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[LB] The city of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region is under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
by Ivanna Kapustianska
Kurakhove is under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). The situation is complicated by the significant superiority of the Russians in manpower.
This was stated by the spokesman for the Khortytsia Regional Administrative District Nazar Voloshyn, RBC-Ukraine writes.
"In the Kurakhiv direction, this city (Kurakhove, - ed.) is under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, the enemy does not give up trying. Our military is conducting active combat operations to hold positions. The situation is, of course, complicated by the enemy's significant superiority in manpower," Voloshyn notes.
On the southeastern outskirts and in the urban area of the southern part of Kurakhovo, the Russians conducted active assault operations. The enemy is concentrating reserves of personnel in the entire direction and near the city. The Russians involved the 90th Tank Division, the 20th Motorized Rifle Division, and the 5th and 110th Motorized Rifle Brigades in the attacks.
"For the enemy, it is important to level the front line in this direction. After all, this will give him the opportunity to both regroup and withdraw some units for recovery, then concentrate them for a further offensive in this area," explained the spokesman for the Khortytsia Special Operations Command.
Today, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the Defense Forces repelled 32 attacks in the Kurakhiv direction. The occupiers tried to advance in the areas of Stary Terni, Sontsivka, Zory, Kurakhovo, and Uspenivka.
[IsraelTimes] Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Islamist group that toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, says that rebel factions in the war-torn country will be disbanded and their fighters will join regular army units.
“The factions will be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry, and all will be subject to the law,” Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, said on Telegram.
#2
will there be a long-lasting government based on civility and human rights?
They’re jihadis. This group is savvier and more overtly polite than ISIS, but their objective is the same, it seems to me.
Bashir al Assad and his father were Arab National Socialists. The party planned to rule the Arab world, including a conquered Israel, and at one point looked like they were on their way, with Iraq, Syria and Egypt.
#8
IF you follow Sara Adams, she stated about 10k afghan trained (by AL Q) fighters folded into the Syrian rebels. The whole thing is a colab with Al Q at the head hiding behind various groups like former ISIS, who "take the blame/credit", that's why it's hard to put a finger on who the rebels all are. The Caliphate is the goal, so a "stabilized" Syria will allow those Afghan trained fighters to + up their ranks and turn most likely towards Iraq. There will be massacres, as their are in Afghanistan now, unlikely it will be reported on.
[Rudaw] Syrian refugees in Iraq have begun heading home after they were stranded on the Iraq-Syria border, the mayor of a border district said on Sunday.
“The Syrians stranded in trucks have begun crossing to their country,” Turki Muhammad Khalaf, district mayor of al-Qaim on the Iraq-Syria border, told Rudaw. “Their identification papers are being checked for security reasons before they are allowed to cross to Syria.”
The 13-year uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime came to a quick end when a coalition of rebels led by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a lightning offensive against the Syrian army late last month, culminating their victory with the capture of Damascus as Assad fled to Russia and ending over five decades of Baathist rule.
The HTS-led groups established a transitional government led by caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir who has promised a future Syrian state that guarantees the rights of all its citizens.
On Sunday, the United Nations stressed the need for increased humanitarian assistance to Syria and to ensure the safe return of refugees to their homes.
“We need to make sure that Syria received increased humanitarian assistance to the people in Syria and to all the refugees who want to return,” UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen told reporters while visiting Damascus.
Also on Sunday, Turkey announced that over 7,500 Syrian refugees had returned to their homes in five days.
Syrian rebels have called on their compatriots outside of the country to return to their homeland and several European nations have suspended processing of Syrian refugee claims.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/17/2024
00:00 ||
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#1
France, Germany, Canada and Romania for now. England soon.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
12/17/2024 8:52
Comments ||
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#2
People waking up from being woke.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/17/2024 12:02
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#3
Ireland maybe?
Allegations true or not, when McGregor said he run to throw the bums out, it took all of five seconds for the grape charges to hit front pages.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Stavropol resident Vasily Antonov, convicted of participating in the Islamic State, stated that he confessed under torture.
According to the case materials, 50-year-old Vasily Antonov, a native of Lermontov, joined the ranks of the international terrorist organization Islamic State (IS), banned in Russia, in a penal colony where he was serving a sentence for illegal distribution of pornography, including child pornography.
For illegal distribution of pornography, Antonov was sentenced to 15 years in prison. For participation in ISIS, the Southern District Military Court sentenced him to 12 years in prison. Antonov appealed this sentence to the Supreme Court of Russia.
During the trial, Antonov stated that he confessed to the security forces under torture, and he also provided the court with medical documents confirming the presence of injuries. Antonov stated that part of the charges against him were based on the testimony of one of the prisoners, who suffers from drug addiction and is thus dependent on the administration of the correctional facility, according to the case file published on the website of the Supreme Court of Russia.
The court refused to admit medical documents provided by Antonov and rejected his appeal, stating that he testified in the presence of a lawyer. The court also declared Antonov's testimony that he was allegedly beaten by other prisonersmimmik to be untenable.
"The defense's arguments about the use of physical violence against Antonov by other convicts were correctly critically assessed in the verdict as not supported by the case materials and not affecting the circumstances of his commission of a deliberate terrorist crime," the court's decision states.
As a result, the Supreme Court left the verdict of the Southern District Military Court and the appellate ruling of the appellate military court regarding Antonov unchanged.
Posted by: badanov ||
12/17/2024
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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.
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
[MAIL] Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson shocked the audience at Broadway's &Juliet this past weekend as she 'fulfilled a lifelong dream' to make her debut - but it has led to some less than stellar reviews.
[Fox] A Ukrainian official has taken credit for the assassination of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia’s chemical, biological and radiation defense forces, and his assistant, who were killed in an explosion in Moscow on Tuesday.
...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the 
[AtlantaJournalConstitution] The suspect in a shooting that led to the lockdown of a U.S. Army base near Augusta on Saturday had nearly made it across the state before being arrested in Meriwether County, according to officials.
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who most be killed...
...
...
