[ShabelleMedia] In a coordinated effort to enhance security, the Somali Armed Forces, including the 64th Brigade of the 7th Division, the 60th Division, and the Wanlawain Police Force, executed an operation against Al-Shabaab in the Lower Shabelle region.
The operation spanned multiple villages and areas including Aybuley, Isgad, Hoo Hook, Fulaley, Garfale, Dibati, Qabibiyow, Tuhur Qaboobey, Warahley, Ali Boonad, Lugud Jiliwayne, and Baladul Amin, successfully ensuring their safety from the militant group.
Commander Ali Abdullahi Halac of the 64th Brigade and Dhamme Abdulle Issac, Commander of the Wanlawain District Police Station, issued a joint statement encouraging local residents to collaborate with the military to achieve lasting peace in the region.
[Garowe] The Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... Defence Forces have managed to neutralize over 10 ISIS holy warriors, including 8 foreigners during a morning attack at a main military base in the eastern Bari region on Tuesday morning, in what marks a major milestone in the fight against terrorism within Somalia's northeastern Federal State.
According to videos accessed by Garowe Online, among those killed were imported muscle of Arab and African origins, following early morning festivities in Dharjaale, Isku Shuban district, Bari region which lies on the Gulf of Aden.
The holy warriors, using explosives-laden vehicles, were eliminated during the fierce fighting, officials said. The government of Puntland had last week issued a strong warning against the snuffies who have been causing mayhem within northern Somalia.
Images from the scene confirm the identities of the attackers, as Puntland intensifies its military campaign against Death Eater hideouts in Dharjaale and surrounding areas. The operation has received strong support from the local population aiming to end the Death Eater threat.
Today's foiled attack comes amid ongoing military actions against both ISIS and al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... , with Puntland forces preparing for significant offensives aimed at rooting out snuffies from mountainous regions, indicating a continuous and evolving struggle against these groups.
The efforts are part of a broader context where Puntland positions itself as one of Somalia's more stable regions, yet it remains vigilant and active in countering the persistent threat of terrorism within its borders.
For some time, Puntland has been facing terror threats from ISIS Lions of Islam whose capabilities have increased in recent months according to the report published by the US which documents such abilities. Puntland relies on its troops to fight al-Shabaab and ISIS without AU troops' support.
The US State Department warned that if the IS Somalia Lions of Islam are not cautioned, the group might expand territories leading to massive damage within the state. Puntland is considered the safest state of Somalia given the capacity of its forces.
Besides the ISIS holy warriors, the al-Shabaab has also been trying to influence and foothold into the state but their presence remains minimal. This comes at a time when Somalia is experiencing a myriad of challenges, including the much-anticipated transition of foreign troops.
The mandate of the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) is set to expire by the end of this year (today) and will be replaced by the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) with minimal forces in the country.
Shabelle Media names the nationalities of the dead ISIS turbans as including Moroccans, Syrians, and Ethiopians.
[ShabelleMedia] In a coordinated effort to enhance security, the Somali Armed Forces, including the 64th Brigade of the 7th Division, the 60th Division, and the Wanlawain Police Force, executed an operation against Al-Shabaab in the Lower Shabelle region.
The operation spanned multiple villages and areas including Aybuley, Isgad, Hoo Hook, Fulaley, Garfale, Dibati, Qabibiyow, Tuhur Qaboobey, Warahley, Ali Boonad, Lugud Jiliwayne, and Baladul Amin, successfully ensuring their safety from the militant group.
Commander Ali Abdullahi Halac of the 64th Brigade and Dhamme Abdulle Issac, Commander of the Wanlawain District Police Station, issued a joint statement encouraging local residents to collaborate with the military to achieve lasting peace in the region.
[ToloNews] The year 2024 was marked by significant challenges for Afghan refugees in host countries. Key issues included the second wave of forced deportations from Pakistain, continued mistreatment in Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Pakistain, and the execution of Afghan citizens in Iran.
FORCED DEPORTATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE
Since the start of the second wave of deportations, 93,000 Afghan refugees have been forcibly returned from Pakistain. In response, the Islamic Emirate and international organizations, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and UNHCR, initiated efforts to support returnees.
Afghan refugees faced severe challenges in host countries, including executions, torture, bans on education and work, and even restrictions on bread sales in some Iranian cities. Mustafa, a refugee deported from Iran, said:
"They captured us last Saturday, and today we arrived here. We were severely mistreated, beaten, and treated worse than animals. If the Islamic Emirate creates job opportunities, we wouldn’t need to go to neighboring countries to work."
The Islamic Emirate and international organizations urged host countries, particularly Iran and Pakistain, to treat Afghan refugees with respect and refrain from forced deportations. Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the Deputy Prime Minister for Political Affairs, appealed:
"We request neighboring countries and the international community to allow Afghan refugees to live freely and not expel them forcibly. Let them return voluntarily to Afghanistan."
UNHCR’s Chief Representative for Afghanistan, Arafat Jamal, emphasized the importance of humane treatment:
"Our first message is to Pakistain and Iran, which is that you have been such generous hosts for 45 years. Please don’t stop right away; you must treat the Afghans with dignity and allow them to return safely and voluntarily."
DEADLY INCIDENTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
On October 16, Afghan refugees were attacked by Iranian border guards in Saravan, Sistan-title='Balochistan'>Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries. While Iran initially denied the incident, the Islamic Emirate launched an investigation, which later confirmed that two refugees were killed and 34 others injured. Hamdullah Fitrat, Deputy Spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, said:
"So far, two deaders and 34 eyewitnesses, some of whom were maimed, have been transferred by the delegation. Others remain in Iran and Pakistain."
According to reports from Iranian human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... organizations, at least 74 Afghan refugees were executed in Iran in 2024 for various alleged crimes. In response, the Islamic Emirate engaged with Iranian authorities to address these issues. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesperson, said:
"We are in contact with the Iranian government and have emphasized that their treatment of refugees must align with the law. Efforts are underway to transfer Afghan prisoners back to Afghanistan."
IMPRISONMENT AND PRISONER TRANSFERS
The imprisonment of Afghan refugees in Pakistain, title='Turkey'>The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... , Iran, Iraq, and the UAE remained a significant challenge. On November 17, an Iranian delegation visited Afghanistan to discuss the transfer of Afghan prisoners. Following discussions with Afghan officials, it was revealed that 8,000 Afghan refugees are currently imprisoned in Iran, and plans for transferring 1,000 prisoners were finalized.
Mohammad Yousuf Mistry, Head of the General Directorate of Prisons, said:
"They promised to transfer more prisoners in the future. By the set timeline, other prisoners will also be handed over to us."
HOUSING FOR RETURNEES
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation announced that it is waiting for the Islamic Emirate leader’s directive to begin distributing housing for returnees across 30 provinces in collaboration with the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing.
Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, said:
"Currently, we are clearing settlements and carrying out developmental work. Basic facilities like clinics and schools are being built, and once we receive orders, land distribution will begin."
According to the latest IOM report, over 1.2 million Afghan refugees returned to Afghanistan from Pakistain and Iran in 2024.
[KhaamaPress] The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) reported on Monday the arrest of "three Afghan men" for trafficking refugees through The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... , Iran, and the Balkans to Western Europe. The men face charges related to sexual crimes, including the rape of young refugee boys and blackmailing them.
The three men are part of a human trafficking ring that has been bringing thousands of refugees, mainly to La Belle France and Belgium, before smuggling them across the English Channel to the UK in small boats.
After a two-year joint investigation by Belgian police and the UK NCA, the traffickers were finally arrested in South London.
Ziyarmal Khan, 24, also known as "Boxer Bai," was the first member of the gang to be detained on December 6th at Stansted Airport in London.
On December 18th, Zeeshan Bangash, 20, was arrested in Kentish New Road, London, and the third suspect, Saifur Rahman Ahmadzai, 23, also known as "President Hamza," was arrested on December 30th in Hampstead, UK.
The UK NCA stated that the gang filmed their sexual abuse of young refugee boys and extorted money from them.
Last month, a Belgian court sentenced the three Afghan traffickers, along with 20 other gang members, to a combined 170 years in prison. Ahmadzai received 10 years, while Khan and Bangash each received three years in prison and a €3,000 fine. The men were convicted in absentia.
The plight of Afghan refugees, fleeing violence and persecution, remains dire, with many becoming victims of human trafficking along their perilous journeys. Despite international efforts, these vulnerable individuals often face exploitation, with traffickers taking advantage of their desperation for safety.
As the UK continues to be a primary destination for Afghan refugees, there has been an alarming rise in deportations and the tightening of borders. This, coupled with the ongoing instability in Afghanistan, leaves many refugees caught in a cycle of displacement, struggling for a sense of security and justice. The international community must do more to protect refugees and dismantle the trafficking networks exploiting their vulnerability.
[KhaamaPress] Amid increasing rumors about the presence of Pak military forces in Wakhan, Badakhshan province of Afghanistan, a spokesperson for the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... police command in Badakhshan addressed the issue.
Ihsanullah Kamgar told the Bakhtar News Agency that they are monitoring the borders and have not received any reports of Pak soldiers being present.
Following festivities between the Taliban and Pak military forces, some activists and users close to the Mighty Pak Army claimed that if the conflict between the Taliban border forces and Pakistain continues, Pak forces will capture Wakhan.
On Monday, the Taliban police spokesperson in Badakhshan told the Bakhtar Agency, "The country’s security forces are fully prepared to respond to any foreign threats at the borders, and border security is under strict supervision."
Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... Serajuddin Haqqani, acting Interior Minister of the Taliban, met with China’s Ambassador to Kabul, Zhao Xing, to discuss the strategic importance of the Wakhan Corridor amid rumors of Pak military presence in the region.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Matin Qani later confirmed the meeting, stating that Haqqani and Zhao discussed the strategic significance of the Wakhan Corridor in Badakhshan, as rumors about Pak troops in the area circulated.
After Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Paktika ...which coincidentally borders North Wazoo and Kurram Agency... by Pak fighter jets and border festivities, Pak users have criticized the Taliban. These users, who are supportive of the Pak military, have labeled the Taliban—once a strong ally of Pakistain—as an enemy and an accomplice of India. Meanwhile,
...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... critics of the Taliban view the group as a Pak puppet and remain suspicious of the growing tension between the Taliban and Pakistain.
The Wakhan Corridor is a strategically significant region in northeastern Afghanistan, sharing borders with China, Tajikistan, and Pakistain.
The situation in the Wakhan Corridor remains highly sensitive, with ongoing speculation about the interests of regional powers. While the Taliban maintains that it is vigilant and prepared to defend Afghanistan’s borders, the involvement of neighboring countries, particularly Pakistain, adds complexity to the region’s security dynamics.
As tensions rise, the strategic importance of Wakhan continues to attract international attention. The outcome of this issue could have significant implications for Afghanistan’s future relations with its neighbors, particularly Pakistain and Tajikistan, as well as for the region’s broader geopolitical landscape.
[KhaamaPress] A refugee rights organization in Spain has reported that more than 10,000 migrants colonists have bit the dust this year while attempting to reach the country by sea. Fish are well fed
The Spanish migration rights group Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) stated on Thursday, December 26, that the number of migrant deaths has increased by 58% compared to last year.
The report notes that tens of thousands of migrants colonists have left West Africa in 2024, heading toward the Canary Islands.
Camino Fronteras added that, on average, 30 migrants colonists die every day while attempting this dangerous journey.
The organization’s report further reveals that among the dear departed, 1,538 were children and 421 were women, with most of the drowning incidents occurring in April and May of this year.
Meanwhile,
...back at the barn, a little lightbulb figuratively appeared over Bossy's head... Spain’s Ministry of the Interior has stated that 57,700 migrants colonists arrived in Spain by sea by December 15, 2024, marking an increase of nearly 12% compared to the same period last year.
In April of the previous year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that over 400 migrants colonists had drowned in the first three months of the year in the Mediterranean Sea.
This staggering rise in migrant deaths underscores the perilous conditions people face as they attempt to escape dire circumstances in their home countries. Despite the risks, many migrants colonists continue to embark on these dangerous journeys, driven by the hope of a better life.
Poverty and war remain critical drivers of migration, forcing individuals to risk their lives in search of safety and better opportunities, highlighting the need for global efforts to address these root causes.
[KhaamaPress] The Ministry of Interior of the Taliban ...Arabic for students... -run government announced that around 300 people, including several women, have been arrested and punished for human trafficking.
Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, stated on Monday, December 30, that a four-year strategy has been developed to combat human trafficking.
He emphasized that most human traffickers are based outside Afghanistan, and their information has been shared with the governments of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Pakistain.
Last week, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a decree instructing government agencies to fight human trafficking in Afghanistan.
According to the decree, human traffickers will be identified, arrested, and sentenced to one to three years in prison.
He also instructed other ministries, such as the Ministry of Hajj and Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Culture, to raise public awareness about the dangers and consequences of human trafficking.
However,
a woman is only as old as she admits... the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) recently reported that human trafficking globally has increased by 14% in 2024. The organization cited poverty, war, and climate change as primary factors driving the rise in human trafficking worldwide.
Afghanistan, along with Syria, remains one of the largest sources of refugees, with many fleeing the dire humanitarian conditions exacerbated by conflict and economic collapse. Additionally, the forced deportation of Afghan refugees by neighboring countries like Iran and Pakistain continues, further straining the already vulnerable population.
[IsraelTimes] No injuries in attack on Netivot; New Year candle display in Tel Aviv urges hostage deal; Trump: Hamas ‘better let the hostages come back soon’
Israel and the world welcomed the new year early Wednesday with celebrations and well-wishes, though festivities in the southern city of Netivot and in surrounding communities were interrupted at midnight when the Hamas terror group fired rockets from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas took responsibility for the fire, and the Israel Defense Forces said two rockets were launched from the central Gaza Strip, with one intercepted and the second striking an open area.
There were no injuries in the attack.
It was the second year in a row in which the Palestinian terror group has fired rockets to coincide with the end of the year. Last year, it fired a large barrage at central Israel.
But this year, celebrations in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and much of the country went ahead as normally as could be, given the pains of almost 15 months of war prompted by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre.
Bars and pubs were packed, but at Tel Aviv’s Habima Square, activists for the 100 hostages Hamas is still holding in Gaza lit a Hanukkah-themed candle display using the new year to call once again for a ceasefire and hostage deal.
At a New Year’s Eve gala at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump was asked by a CNN reporter whether he had spoken recently to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a potential ceasefire and hostage deal, talks for which appear to have hit a snag.
“We’re gonna see what happens,” Trump replied, before adding: “I’ll put it this way: they better let the hostages come back soon.”
[IsraelTimes] The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichai Adraee, tweets a warning for residents of central Gaza’s al-Bureij to evacuate ahead of expected airstrikes, after rockets were fired from the area at midnight, as 2025 began.
“Terrorist organizations are once again firing rockets from this area,” says Adraee. “For your own safety, move immediately to the humanitarian zone.”
[IsraelTimes] An armed man is arrested for planning to attack an AIPAC office in Florida.
The American pro-Israel lobby thanks the FBI for thwarting the attack.
“We take these threats very seriously and we are working closely with law enforcement concerning this matter,” AIPAC tells The Times of Israel.
“We will not be deterred by extremists in pursuing our mission to strengthen the relationship with America’s valued ally, Israel. We are deeply appreciative of the FBI’s work to stop this individual,” AIPAC says.
[Rudaw] Two journalists jailed over a year ago for covering anti-government protests have asked to be released after expressing “remorse” for their actions, claimed Iran's judiciary on Tuesday.
“By writing a letter to the head of the Judiciary, Elaha Mohammadi and Nilufar Hamedi expressed regret for their actions in the years before their arrest and asked for forgiveness,” the state-owned IRNA cited a statement from the Judiciary Media Center.
Hamedi, 31, was handed a seven-year jail sentence for collaborating with the US while Mohammadi, 36, was given a six-year term, Iran's judiciary said in October 2023.
Both were also given five-year sentences for conspiring to commit crimes and propaganda against Iran, it added.
“The letter of regret and remorse … has been received for further investigation and judicial decision and is under investigation and judicial decision-making,” IRNA reported.
The two journalists covered the death in custody of Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini, which sparked countrywide protests more than two years ago.
Amini, 22, died on September 16, 2022 after being arrested for allegedly wearing a lax hijab. Her death sparked Iran’s largest protest movement in the past four decades, initially calling for greater freedoms for women before turning into a full-scale antigovernment revolution. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands arrested as authorities initiated a brutal crackdown on dissent.
Forced confession is a strategy often used by the Islamic republic, especially after the Jin Jiyan Azadi (Women, Life and Liberty) movement, to target detained protesters. The individuals were accused of being linked to “foreign intelligence services” and “spying for a foreign country.”
Executions also frequently follow convictions that are based on confessions condemned by rights groups as often extracted under duress.
In May last year, the US rejected any ties to Hamedi and Mohammadi as “obviously not true,” blasting Iran for repeated human rights violations and calling on the Islamic republic to end arbitrary detentions and sham trials.
They have both been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since September of last year.
According to the 2024 World Press Freedom Index issued by the Paris-based Reporters without Borders, a non-profit organization aiming to safeguard freedom of information, Iran is listed as 176 out of 180 in the world, making it one of the worst countries in the world for press freedom.
#2
Let's follow this drone down a well
Where an owned ayatollah can tell
Us what makes Tehran tick.
"Little Satan?"
"Saint Nick."
"Serving Santa, we're ruling in Hell!"
[IsraelTimes] US President-elect Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... reiterates his ultimatum to Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... to release the hostages it is holding in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... by the time he takes office.
At a New Year’s Eve gala at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump is asked by a CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... news hound whether he has spoken recently to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a potential ceasefire and hostage deal, talks for which appear to have hit a snag.
"We’re gonna see what happens," Trump replies, before adding: "I’ll put it this way: they better let the hostages come back soon."
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces says it carried out an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... yesterday on a Hezbollah cell in south Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... that was transferring weapons from a warehouse to a vehicle.
The military does not say how many operatives from the terror group were targeted, nor where the strike took place. It says both the vehicle and weapons depot were hit.
"The IDF continues to be committed to the understandings reached between Israel and Lebanon, is deployed in southern Lebanon and will work to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens," the military says.
[Rudaw] A US soldier died in Iraq last week due to a "non-combat related incident" while supporting the global coalition against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS), the Department of Defense said on Monday.
"Capt. Eric Richard Hart, 34, of Indianapolis, Indiana, died Dec. 28, 2024, in Iraq as a result of a non-combat related incident," the Department of Defense said in a blurb.
An investigation into the incident is underway.
He was in Iraq to support Operation Inherent Resolve, a US-led mission of around 2,500 troops in Iraq to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
In its latest report on anti-ISIS operations, the Pentagon said that the jihadists have "limited capabilities" in the country.
"ISIS displayed limited capabilities, conducting the lowest number of attacks observed since the onset of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq in 2003. The group also showed no significant improvement in attack sophistication," said the report from October 29.
[USA Today] At least 10 people were killed and as many as 30 injured after a vehicle drove into a large crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans' French Quarter early on Wednesday, according to the FBI and city leaders.
A truck crashed into the crowd at high speed and the driver then got out, firing a gun, New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at an early morning news conference. "It is unknown what his intentions were at this time"
"He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did . . . This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. It was not a DUI situation," Kirkpatrick said. Two police officers were shot but are in stable condition, she said.
The incident happened around 3:15 a.m., according to the city's emergency responders.
BREAKING:
At least 10 killed & 30 wounded after a man drove a pick-up truck into people celebrating New Year’s Eve on Bourbon Street, French Quarter in New Orleans.
According to witness statements, the attacker also opened fire on survivors.
UPDATE at 6:00 p.m. ET, to capture for future searches:
Based on updated information in comments, below, moved to Page 1: War on Terror, Home Front:WoT. Made today’s headline.
Summary of what is now known from sources listed in comments (great job, guys! Rantburg teamwork for the win!)
Zero Hedge is liveblogging here.
The NY Post is liveblogging here.
NOLA.com is liveblogging here.
Fox News is liveblogging here.
Ace of Spades post here. Like us, their commenters are bringing in updates.
SUMMARY:
10 dead, at least 35 injured after truck plowed through Bourbon Street, New Orleans
Barriers intended to block terror attacks on Bourbon Street were removed for overhaul in November
FBI confirmed investigating as a 'terror' attack
The white Ford F-150 Lightning (EV) truck used was rented
ISIS Flag posted on the vehicle
The suspect is confirmed as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42. Possible birth name, pre-possible conversion: Jacqueline Sweet. He is an American citizen who grew up and currently lived in Texas, 10 years US Army veteran, probable honourable discharge. Zero Hedge has a photo of what appears to be a dead Black man in fatigues labelled as the miscreant, the NY Post has a headshot photo here, as does Fox News.
The suspect drove two blocks through the crowd before crashing into a construction crane, then opened fire on police, injuring two, before they shot and killed him. A Glock handgun and .308 caliber rifle equipped with optics and a sensor were recovered from the crime scene.
Law enforcement is investigating at least two IEDs planted in French Quarter area, plus one in truck — remote-detonation pipe bombs filled with nails — looking for 3 men and a woman seen on video surveillance planting the things.
People also evacuated from an Airbnb in the St. Roch area as well. A fire broke out that law enforcement officials said was connected to the attack.
Sugar Bowl postponed until tomorrow
Louisiana Governor declares state of emergency
FBI examining an area in north Houston connected to the attack — Crescent Peak Drive and Hugh Road
According to NOLA.com, the miscreant is a former real estate agent (1019-2023) who worked for Deloitte. He lived in Fresno with his wife until divorced in 2022, then moved to Houston, where he rented a mobile home from Asia Maryam, paying promptly every month in cash, even though his ex-wife said he had money problems due to spending excessively on “paramours”. In a YouTube posted four years ago to promote his real estate business, he called himself a human resources and IT specialist for the US military.
When he lived in North Carolina, in 2012, he was registered as a Democrat.
Posted by: Besoeker ||
01/01/2025
08:35 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11186 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#2
Bourbon Street would have been a pedestrian mall last night, with steel bollards blocking the intersections, but probably so crowded he could hit that many running through on a cross street, and THAT 'could' have been something other than terrorist (psychosis, substance abuse) though the IEDs would say terrorism.
#12
New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell called the incident a “terrorist attack” during a press conference on Wednesday. Found on another web site.
A more useful headline would simply read: New Orleans terrorist attacks crowd with vehicles and gunfire to start 2025
After the truck — which was trailing a piece of black fabric — crashed into a crane blocking Bourbon Street, the killer engaged police in a firefight and was shot dead. Two officers were wounded in the shootout, but are in stable condition, officials said.
With Biden's wide open border, the only surprise is this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/01/2025 12:29
Comments ||
Top||
#14
The suspect accused of plowing a truck through a crowd on Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning has been identified by a law enforcement source as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar.
Police fatally shot him after the attack, which killed 10 people and injured 35.
The source said Jabbar was carrying an ISIS flag in the truck, and authorities have said he was dressed in military gear.
#17
From Besoeker's Zerohedge link is this picture of the pickup truck. If you look at it on the Zerohedge link, you can open the image into a new tab and you should be able to blow it up. Then you can clearly see that the so-called "black fabric" is indeed a black flag on a flag pole that had been very deliberately mounted on the truck's rear fender. The terrorist left no doubt about his motivation.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/01/2025 12:39
Comments ||
Top||
#18
New Orleans Sugar Bowl Between Georgia And Notre Dame Will Go On As Planned Despite Early Morning French Quarter Attack;
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
― H.L. Mencken, Prejudices First Series
#29
Seeing reports from Ace of Spades n Andy NGO that IDd terr is also US Army Reserve. IT n HR Specialist.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/01/2025 14:40
Comments ||
Top||
#30
'Andy Ngo'
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/01/2025 14:42
Comments ||
Top||
#31
Ongoing news conference much less than professional. Excuses being made for wooden
barricades and access via sidewalks. City officials almost giddy about re-opening of Bourbon St.
Terrorist Attack in New Orleans
Fox News: 4-5 Conspirators?
US Army Reserves IT Specialist??!!
—Ace
Boy does this rubbish the last post.
I'm counting this as part of 2024.
One of Biden's last gifts to us is another bloody round of Cultural Enrichment.
Last night, a man drove his truck into a crowd of people -- just like jihadi terrorists do in France and Germany. Then he got out of his truck and began shooting people.
He also had IEDs in the truck.
Update: Commenters say that 4-5 people might have been involved in this attack, per Fox News, but that is unconfirmed.
Update: He worked for... the US ARMY?!?!
Jacqueline Sweet @JSweetLI Shamsud-Din Jabbar's LinkedIn profile was deleted but here are its ghost remnants:
Current Job: Information Technology Team Chief at US Army Reserve
Previous Jobs: Information Technology Team Leader at US Army Reserve
Information Managment Officer at US Army
Senior Information Systems Specialist at US Army
Human Resources Supervisor at US Army
Human Resources Specialist at US Army
Data Entry Operator at US Army Corps of Engineers
Data Entry Clerk at US Army Corps of Engineers
Data Entry Clerk at United States Postal Service
Education: Central Senior High School
Bachelor's of Business Administration from Georgia State University
Graduate from Fort Gordon NCO Academy
Bachelor's Degree (Transferred) from Campbell University
Graduate from 25B Information Technology MOS Training
Graduate from US Army Alaska NCO Academy
Associates from Central Texas CollegeAssociate's Degree from Central Texas CollegeHonor
Graduate from 42A Human Resources Specialist Advanced Individual Training
Graduate from US Army Basic Combat Training
University of Houston
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"An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Weapons and a potential IED were located in the subject’s vehicle. Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter," the FBI said.
#35
2 points - Isis flag as shown is displayed incorrectly - it's upside down. Hydraulic barricade on Bourbon Street conveniently down for maintenance. Call me cynical but it's glowing a little bit there.
#45
Starting to look like the police were on to them but acted too late. They found the bombs, not from info gained by the dead guy. The video footage of the white truck was specifically following the white truck. Now we hear the Trump bombing was a rental from the same rental company. Its really smelling of coordinated events...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/01/2025 19:18
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#46
The rifle had been reported stolen in New Jersey.
Apparently it walked to Houston? No conspiracy here. Nothing to see
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/01/2025 19:44
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#49
I expect to see more of this. We invaded Afghanistan because part of the country was ruled by Islamic radicals who were allowing terrorists to setup training bases. After 20 years of fighting we left Afghanistan unified under Islamic radicals with more and better bases.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/01/2025 21:46
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#50
The bollards were being repaired. It was going to take 70 days, 7 days a week, with OT, of course.
[Field Ethos] Upon learning that a soldier had been shot in the face, head, stomach, groin, ankle, leg, hip, or ear, was blinded in one eye, survived two plane crashes, tunneled out of a POW camp, fought in three wars, or tore off their own fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them, you’d no doubt call that soldier lucky to be alive. To discover that all of the above happened to one specific soldier and that soldier lived, you’d call that man a badass.
Aside from calling him a badass, I’d suggest using his name: Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart.
Born in Brussels in 1880, he skipped out of boarding school, lied about his age, and joined the British in the Second Boer War in 1899. Looking back later in life, he opined, "At that moment, I knew once and for all that war was in my blood." It was the idea of war, and not service to the country, that he sought. In his memoirs, he remarked, "If the British didn’t fancy me, I would offer myself to the Boers."
Adrian received his first injuries in South Africa during the Second Boer War. He was shot twice: once in the stomach and once in the groin.
In 1914, while en-route to Somaliland to serve with their Camel Corps, Carton de Wiart took two bullets to the face and lost his left eye and part of his ear. A witness later recalled how cool, calm, and collected Adrian appeared: "He didn’t check his stride, but I think the bullet stung him up as his language was awful." Carton de Wiart received the Distinguished Service Order for this experience.
[Newsweek] Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday addressed four areas of "illegitimate activity" that he said threaten the independence of judges: violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy lawfully entered judgments.
The conservative justice expressed his concerns in the Supreme Court's annual report.
#1
Roberts expressed concern over the rising threats of violence against judges nationwide, calling such actions "wholly unacceptable" and adding that they could "undermine our Republic."
And the common man Judge Roberts, where is your concern for "rising threats of violence" against the common man ?
#2
So a truck with ISIS flag kills almost a dozen in New Orleans last night, lucky for all he was killed before detonating the IED inside. Someone blew up a Tesla outside Trump towers in Vegas today. This is going to be a very interesting new year. Buckle up, between the radicalized left and all the terrorists that came across Bidens border it will make for some good old third world actions...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/01/2025 13:12
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#3
So.....NJ drone flights, was law enforcement forewarned of an attack ?
#5
Ongoing news conference and 'pats on the back' may be premature. Glad to see sports event postponed 24 hours. Reporter say final death toll could be 15. Chief of police and officials would not confirm. Senator Kennedy alludes to law enforcement busy "attempting to capture remaining bad guys." (paraphrasing slightly)
#6
They had video surveillance of the truck from a couple blocks away. All the traffic and the cameras stayed on the white truck, zooming in and out. Law enforcement had prior knowledge...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/01/2025 17:23
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#7
/\ That's the piece Senator Kennedy is referring to but will not discuss.
How long has Fed LE had these SOB's under surveillance? Waiting for what, last week in Jan ?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 17:00 Telegram channel "Operation Z: War Correspondents of the Russian Spring"
Explosions and columns of smoke in the area of the postal Ilyichevsk (Chernomorsk).
16:10 An aviation hazard has been declared in the Kherson region, said the region’s governor, Volodymyr Saldo.
Emergency services have been put on high alert. The head of the region asks citizens to remain calm and vigilant.
15:15 A missile threat was declared in Skadovsk MO, reported Governor of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo.
Emergency services have been put on high alert.
14:10 Soldiers of the 15th Alexandria Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Samara Association showed and told how they liberated the village of Novotroitskoye (DPR), –video.
The guards continue to liberate the lands of Donbass from neo-Nazis.
13:35 Investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee will investigate crimes committed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces against civilians in the Belgorod, Kursk and Kherson regions, as well as the Donetsk People's Republic
According to information from executive authorities, as a result of the attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Borisovka in the Belgorod region, settlements in the Donetsk People's Republic and in the Kherson region, one person was killed and thirteen civilians were injured.
Also, as a result of the criminal actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during the drone attack on the building of the Aleshkinskaya Central District Hospital, the deputy chief physician for medical work was killed, and the chief physician was seriously wounded.
In Lisichansk, LPR, seven teenagers in the area of ??the Stekolny plant received mine and blast injuries as a result of Ukrainian armed aggression.
In Lgov, Kursk region, an 86-year-old woman was injured as a result of artillery attack by Ukrainian nationalists.
The Investigative Committee of Russia will establish all the circumstances of the incident and the circle of persons involved in committing the crimes.
12:13 Russian Army struck a military airfield infrastructure and a military-industrial complex enterprise producing propellant charges for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, - Defense Ministry
The morning group strike with high-precision weapons and strike UAVs hit the designated targets, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
In Ukraine, it was previously reported that objects were attacked in Vasilkov near Kiev, where the airfield is located, and in Shostka in the Sumy region, where infrastructure facilities were damaged.
11:20 Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who defected to Russia destroyed Foreign Legion mercenaries near Pokrovsk
Fighters from the Maksim Krivonos detachment tracked the movement of an enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group near Vozdvizhenka near Pokrovsk.
During the battle, a unit of the 1st separate detachment of the Foreign Legion was destroyed.
10:50 In Odessa, last night, a monument to Vysotsky, located near the film studio, was dismantled, –video.
10:11 Information on strikes carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Belgorod region over the past 24 hours:
In the Belgorod region, the settlement of Maysky, the villages of Krasnoe, Otradnoe, Cheremoshnoe and Shchetinovkawere subjected to artillery attacks, during which eight rounds were fired, and attacks by three drones, two of which were shot down by the air defense system. One passenger car was damaged.
Six enemy drones were shot down over the Valuysky municipal district. No consequences.
In the Volokonovsky district, the village of Tishanka and the farmstead of Gaevka were attacked by two UAVs. One passenger car was damaged.
In the Grayvoronsky municipal district, 10 rounds of ammunition were fired at the settlement of Gorkovsky, the villages of Bezymeno and Novostroyevka-Vtoraya during three artillery attacks. Also, one drone was shot down over the district by the air defense system. There were no consequences.
In Krasnoyarsk district, the village of Kolotilovka was attacked by one drone. There were no consequences.
An air defense system shot down a UAV over the Prokhorovsky district. No casualties or damage.
In the Shebekinsky municipal district, seven rounds were fired during three artillery attacks which included using three drones at the villages of Murom, Sereda, and the farms of Maryino, Mukhin and Pankov. There were no consequences.
9:40 Telegram channel «Colonelcassad»
Over Crimea, 17 drones were shot down at night. Of these, 4 were in the Sevastopol area.
It was also reported that two enemy BEKs were destroyed.
9:30 Telegram channel «Colonelcassad»
Captured Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier Roman Velichko said that the 32nd Brigade, in which he served for a month and a half, is being staffed with disabled people due to large losses and a shortage of people.
9:12 A curfew will be in effect in the Kherson region on New Year's Eve, reported Governor of Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo in Telegram channel
The curfew will be in effect from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. due to increased artillery attack and drone activity.
The curfew on New Year's Eve will not apply to vehicles moving in transit along the Azov Ring Road, including in the Kherson region - along the M-18 "Khar'kov - Simferopol - Yalta" highway from the border between the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions to the Dzhankoy checkpoint on the border with the Republic of Crimea.
8:09 ATGM crews of Sakhalin soldiers of the 68th Army Corps
in the area of the Sukhie Yaly River destroyed rench-made AMX-10 RC wheeled tank.
8:04 Russian Ministry of Defense:
During the past night, air defense systems on dutydestroyed68 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
A total of 25 UAVs were shot down over the territory of the Bryansk region, 17 over the territory of the Republic of Crimea, 11 over the territory of the Krasnodar region, 10 over the territory of the Smolensk region, two over the territory of the Tver region, and one each over the territories of the Rostov, Kursk and Kaluga regions.
Linked article is available only through a VPN
[EngMilRu] This morning, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a group strike by high-precision weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles against the infrastructure of a military airfield and the Ukrainian defence industry enterprises which manufacture gunpowder for the needs of the AFU. The goal of the strike has been achieved. All the targets have been engaged.
In Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces defeated units of two territorial defence brigades close to Volchansk and Liptsy (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses were up to 35 troops, one motor vehicle, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line,inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of one tank brigade, one mechanised brigade, three territorial defence brigades, and one national guard brigade close to Dvurechnaya, Zapadnoye, Kovsharovka (Kharkov region), Ivanovka, Torskoye, and Terny (Donetsk People's Republic).
One counter-attack launched by an AFU assault detachment was repelled.
The AFU losses were more than 440 troops, three U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carriers, six pickup trucks, one UK-made 155mm towed FH-70 howitzer, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 105mm M-119 gun, and two ammunition depots.
Units of the Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and inflicted losses on formations of three mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, and one airmobile brigade of the AFU near Dalneye, Chasov Yar, Kurakhovo, and Yantarnoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses were more than 290 troops, two infantry fighting vehicles, including one U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, one UK-made Saxon armoured personnel carrier, one Kozak armoured fighting vehicle, two pickup trucks, and one U.S.-made 105mm M119 MLRS gun.
The Tsentr Group of Forces' units continued advancing into the depths of enemy defences and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of two mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, one mountain assault brigade as well as one naval infantry brigade and one assault brigade of the National Police of Ukraine near Dzerzhinsk, Shcherbinovka, Shevchenko, Dachenskoye and Peschanoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
In addition, 12 counter-attacks launched by AFU formations were repelled.
The AFU losses were up to 505 troops, one German-made Leopard tank, one infantry fighting vehicle, two U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carriers, five motor vehicles, including three Turkish-made Kirpi, one UK-made Snatch, and one Kozak combat vehicles, five motor vehicles, one 152mm Msta-B howitzer, and two 122mm D-30 howitzers.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and defeated formations of one mechanised brigade, two territorial defence brigades close to Bogatyr, Razliv, and Ravnopol (Donetsk People's Republic).
Two counter-attacks launched by enemy assault detachments were repelled.
The AFU losses were more than 160 troops, one tank, three motor vehicles, one 155mm Bogdana self-propelled artillery system, one 122mm D-30 howitzer, and one 122mm Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system.
One electronic warfare station was eliminated.
Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces engaged manpower and hardware of two territorial defence brigades close to Antonovka and Ponyatovka (Kherson region).
The AFU losses were up to 65 troops, six motor vehicles, and two field ammunition depots.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces engaged a military enterprise that manufactured ammunition, storage depots for strike drones as well as clusters of AFU manpower and military hardware in 138 areas during the day.
Air defence facilities shot down two Hammer guided aerial bombs, seven U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles, and 103 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, 68 of them out of the special military operation area.
The Black Sea Fleet destroyed eight uncrewed surface vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 650 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 38,981 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,120 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,504 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,104 field artillery guns and mortars, and 29,667 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 one heavy mechanised brigade, six mechanised brigades, three air assault brigades, one naval infantry brigade, two territorial defence brigades, and one assault battalion of the AFU near Daryino, Kurilovka, Leonidovo, Loknya, Maryevka, Makhnovka, Nizhny Klin, Novaya Sorochina, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye. One counter-attack launched by an AFU assault detachment was repelled.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted losses on AFU manpower and hardware near Aleksandriya, Viktorovka, Guyevo, Kazachaya Loknya, Kruglenkoye, Lebedevka, Nikolsky, Rubanshchina, Russkoye Porechnoye, Sverdlikovo as well as Belovody, and Zhuravka in Sumy region.
Over the course of the day, the AFU losses were more than 445 troops, one armoured personnel carrier, 13 armoured fighting vehicles, and 22 motor vehicles.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 45,980 troops, 262 tanks, 204 infantry fighting vehicles, 143 armoured personnel carriers, 1,372 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,259 motor vehicles, 337 artillery guns, 42 MLRS launchers, including 11 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 83 EW stations, 13 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 28 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, seven armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
[NYPOST] Plea deals for three murderous Moslems behind the 9/11 attacks are back in play after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lost his bid to nix the disturbing agreements that would spare them the death penalty
A military appeals court on Monday night ruled against Austin's order this summer nullifying plea deals reached with Khalid Sheikh Mohammad ...Mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistain in 2002 and interned at Guantanamo... , Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi.
The terrorists' defense attorneys argued that the secretary did not have the authority to overturn the agreements after they were already approved by the top authority of the Guantanamo Bay courts in July.
They further claimed that Austin's order was unlawful interference in the case.
The move clears the way for Mohammad, the criminal mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and his co-conspirators to plead guilty in a hearing next week.
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... Austin retains the ability to appeal the decision. Reps for the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors offered the deal to bring about an end to the pretrial court proceedings that have dragged on for more than a decade.
The decision comes after a lower court in November ruled that Austin's order came too late — and that the act was beyond his scope of authority.
''We agree with the military judge that the secretary did not have authority to revoke respondents' existing PTAs because the respondents had started performance of the PTAs,'' the three-judge panel said.
The agreements were originally signed by Pentagon official Susan K. Escallier, whom Austin appointed to be in charge of military commissions.
While the initial blow of the plea deals shook many 9/11 victims' loved ones and survivors, some have told The Post that the on-off nature of their status has put them through an emotional roller coaster.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. According to the publication, on December 30, the military appeals court overturned the order of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who in August canceled a pre-trial deal between the prosecution and three terrorists - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi - to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.
The case of conspiracy with the hijackers has been in the pre-trial stage since 2012.
The defendants are suspected of helping the terrorists who carried out the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the two towers of the World Trade Center collapsed after terrorists flew two hijacked passenger planes into them. As a result, over 2.6 thousand people died.
A previously unknown video of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on September 11 has emerged. The footage was published by Japanese photographer Kei Sugimoto.
In September 2023, two more victims of the terrorist attacks were identified. The total number of identified victims of the terrorist attacks is 1,649 people. Another 1,104 victims remain unidentified. The names of the identified victims, a man and a woman, are kept secret at the request of their relatives. The victims were identified through DNA analysis of their remains.
[IsraelTimes] Head of HTS armed wing Murhaf Abu Qasra gets nod as new rulers look to transform insurgents, including foreign jihadi fighters, into army
Syria’s new authorities announced on Tuesday that the military chief of the Islamist group that spearheaded the offensive that toppled longtime ruler Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... had been appointed defense minister in the transitional government.
"The General Command announces the nomination of General Murhaf Abu Qasra as defense minister in the new government of the Syrian Arab Republic," said a statement carried by the official news agency SANA.
Abu Qasra, 41, a former agronomist, led the armed wing of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... for five years.
As commander of the Islamist rebel forces, he played a key role in the offensive that ousted Assad on December 8 after a lightning advance from north Syria to the capital Damascus.
On Sunday, Abu Qasra was given the rank of general in a decree from HTS chief Ahmed al-Sharaa, now Syria’s de facto leader.
Some other key positions in the transitional government, headed by Mohammad al-Bashir, have already been filled.
In remarks broadcast on Sunday, al-Sharaa said the new Syria "cannot be run by the mentality of groups and militias."
Bashir, who led the rebels’ self-proclaimed "Salvation Government" in their northwestern Idlib bastion, was made interim prime minister until March 1. That’s when Syria’s different factions are set to hold a political dialogue to determine the country’s political future and establish a transitional government that brings the divided country together.
Speaking to al-Arabiya Sunday, al-Sharaa said HTS would dissolve itself at the March 1 meeting after years of being the country’s most dominant rebel group.
In an interview with AFP on December 17, Abu Qasra said HTS would be "the first" to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the national forces, demanding that other groups do the same.
Abu Qasra also said that the new leadership would seek to extend its authority to semi-autonomous, Kurdish-held areas in Syria’s north and northwest.
Al-Sharaa said Sunday that talks were ongoing with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeastern Syria, whom he hoped to integrate with the Syrian security agencies.
In comments carried by state media Monday, Iranian security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian said that a new "resistance" would emerge in Syria to fight Israel, while insisting that the so-called axis of resistance set up to stage attacks on the Jewish state had not been weakened by Assad’s fall.
"With the occupation of Syrian territories by the Zionist regime, a new resistance has been born that will manifest itself in the years to come," said Ahmadian, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, IRNA news agency reported.
Tehran’s allies in the region, including Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and Hezbollah in Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... , have suffered severe blows in conflicts with Israel since war broke out in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and another 251 kidnapped into the Strip.
HTS #1 meets senior Christian clerics
[IsraelTimes] Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with high-level Christian clergymen, amid calls on the Islamist chief to guarantee minority rights after seizing power earlier this month.
“The leader of the new Syrian administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, meets a delegation from the Christian community in Damascus,” Syria’s General Command says in a statement on Telegram, which included pictures of the meeting with Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican clerics.
Syria’s foreign minister receives phone call from his Egyptian counterpart
[IsraelTimes] Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shiban, appointed by the new rulers, says on X that he had received a phone call from his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, where they discussed the importance of both countries in bringing peace to the region.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A polar vortex headed for the US could bring cold winds and low temperatures this week, making January the coldest month in over a decade.
According to the National Weather Service, the arctic blast will affect a large swathe of the country, arriving in the northern Rockies and expected to have spread to the East Coast by New Year's Day.
'A significant pattern change is expected across much of the country as an Arctic Outbreak is forecast to spread form the Northern Plains to the south and east, leading to exceptionally high probabilities of below-normal temperatures expected across much of the East', the NWS said.
The plunge will bring wind chills across the Midwest with temperatures dipping below zero in at least 30 states.
'The coldest air of the season to date and dangerous wind chills chills are likely across many areas of the Southeast', the NWS warned.
In some areas, temperatures are forecasted to reach an average of around 20 degrees, while freezing conditions in the Gulf coast and even Florida could be expected.
Snowfall is also possible across parts of the Southern Plains and the Southeast with the potential for heavy snowfall expected in the Appalachians, Ohio Valley, the Great Lakes and the Northeast.
A further drop in temperatures is expected next week, and below normal temperatures are predicted to affect central and eastern US during much of January.
Plunges like these occur when air currents that keep air frosty over the North Pole - the polar vortex - weaken, making freezing arctic air slip south and push the vortex down with it.
That means arctic air is blasted over the US, while pressure changes cause strong winds.
Some states will be experiencing their coldest winter in years.
The following list of years measured in single and low double digits fails to impress, I’m afraid. Give me centuries if you want me to be impressed.
In Washington DC, the temperature hasn't dropped below zero since January 31, 2019.
In Philadelphia, the same threshold has not been met since January 19, 1994.
Meanwhile, Atlanta's temperatures have only dipped below zero three times since 2000, and the last time Raleigh, North Carolina's temperatures fell below 10 degrees was in 2018.
January's freezing temperatures will come after an unusually warm end to the month of December across the country.
Freezing temperatures could increase demands for heat and electricity and put a strain on the US electrical grid.
#3
Could it have been caused by a sudden vacuum created by all the Liberals, Democrats and Hollywood motor mouths leaving the USA in their Private Jets, because Trump was elected?
[IsraelTimes] IDF troops with the 769th “Hiram” Regional Brigade located a large cache of Hezbollah weapons in the Wadi Saluki area of southern Lebanon, the military says.
The IDF says the forces found rocket launchers, missiles, explosives, and other weapons at the depot hidden in the Wadi Saluki area.
During another raid on nearby buildings, the soldiers found numerous other weapons, including assault rifles, grenades, missiles, mines, explosive devices, and other military gear, the military says.
The weapons were confiscated and the sites were demolished, the IDF adds.
The IDF is still deployed to southern Lebanon under a ceasefire agreement, and it has until late January to withdraw, in accordance with the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces to the area.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] The past year in the South Caucasus was marked by three trending events: Armenia’s further distancing from Russia, a crisis in relations between Baku and the West, and a decisive battle between the West and the opposition against the Georgian Dream.
AZERBAIJAN: MULTI-VECTOR CRISIS
In 2023, Ilham Aliyev achieved perhaps the most important goal since the creation of the modern Azerbaijan Republic: he completely regained control over Karabakh.
But everything has its price, and 2024 has become a test of strength for Azerbaijan’s carefully constructed multi-vector foreign policy.
The contours of the looming crisis were already visible at the end of 2023, when the US Assistant Secretary of State announced the end of high-level contacts. Antony Blinken criticized Aliyev for the lack of democracy and called for an end to repression. Washington had previously accused Azerbaijan of provocations on the border with Armenia, but Aliyev did not refuse American mediation. However, when the criticism began to concern him personally, trust was undermined completely.
In this direction, the US and the EU worked hand in hand.
Two events had a resonant impact: the early presidential elections in Azerbaijan in early February and the early parliamentary elections in September, which Aliyev and his New Azerbaijan Party confidently won.
On January 24, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) suspended the powers of the Azerbaijani delegates, accusing Baku of lack of democracy and fair elections, failure to respect human rights, and blocking the Lachin corridor and expelling Armenians from Karabakh.
In response, Aliyev threatened to withdraw from the Council of Europe and revise the jurisdiction of the ECHR. In October, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the need to revise relations with the South Caucasus republic and impose sanctions.
Aliyev did not mince words either, advising the EU to stay away from Azerbaijan and accusing Washington of black ingratitude.
The Azerbaijani leadership was very unhappy with the West's rapprochement with Armenia. Now, not only France, but also the EU as such began to support it. France supplied armored vehicles and self-propelled guns, and the EU allocated military aid to Armenia in the amount of 10 million euros.
The worse ties with the West became, the more incentives there were to strengthen strategic relations with Russia.
In April, when the Karabakh issue had already been exhausted, Aliyev and Putin removed perhaps the last obstacle to full cooperation: the Russian contingent was withdrawn from Karabakh. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov explained this by the new realities in the region after Armenia recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.
That same April, Aliyev visited Moscow. Putin praised the talks as a “good impetus for the development of bilateral relations.” Aliyev called Russia the “founding country” of the South Caucasus. Then, in August, Putin arrived in Baku on a return visit.
The statements following the meeting were nothing but compliments. Aliyev greeted Putin “with all his heart,” and the Russian leader called Baku a “Caucasian oasis.” On the day of Putin’s visit, Azerbaijan applied to join BRICS, and Aliyev soon took part in the Kazan summit.
However, at the end of the year, this trend was sharply called into question by the crash of the AZAL airliner in Aktau. Aliyev accused Russia of trying to cover up the fact that the plane was shot down by air defense systems in Chechnya. However, Putin’s apology and Aliyev’s words about the unintentional strike on the airliner leave hopes for maintaining pragmatic relations.
ARMENIA: AWAY FROM RUSSIA, CLOSER TO THE EU
Since 2020, Armenia's foreign policy has been based on grievances against Russia for its lack of assistance in the confrontation with Azerbaijan. In 2023, these grievances have already transformed into concrete actions: joint exercises with the United States, a visit by Pashinyan's wife to Kyiv, and Yerevan's accession to the Rome Statute of the ICC, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin.
In 2024, Pashinyan decided to go even further.
He began the process of severing military ties with Russia.
On February 23, Armenia officially announced the freezing of its participation in the CSTO. Within a year, Russian border guards completed their 32-year service in Armenia.
If Pashinyan's team finally said goodbye to the CSTO, they still attended CIS and EAEU meetings. But even here the Armenian prime minister began to show his teeth.
Pashinyan did not attend the last summit in St. Petersburg under the pretext of COVID and got into an online spat with Alexander Lukashenko. In early December, the Armenian prime minister refused to hold the EAEU summit in Yerevan, despite the fact that by right of presidency it was supposed to take place there.
He motivated his decision by the fact that “not all members of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council are welcome in Armenia.” Whether he meant Lukashenko, who supplies Baku with weapons, or Putin, who is subject to the ICC ruling, remains a mystery.
Symmetrically to the break with the Russian Federation and the CSTO, Pashinyan accelerated integration with the West.
The April 5 summit in Brussels with the heads of the European Commission and the State Department proved that alliances with the EU, the US and NATO go hand in hand. The EU and the US are ready to provide for Armenia, promising at that meeting to allocate €270 million and $65 million respectively.
The presence of European observers on the eastern borders is in fact a prototype of the EU (NATO) base. Military exercises with the US continued. On September 19-24, the Armenian military conducted maneuvers together with the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
The picture regarding European integration is becoming increasingly clear.
More than a year ago, Pashinyan said that “ Armenia is ready to be closer to the European Union, as far as the European Union considers it possible.” In 2024, contacts only intensified. The parties launched a dialogue on a visa-free regime. The European Parliament has already proposed giving Armenia the status of a candidate for membership. In Armenia itself, a referendum on joining the EU is being prepared.
Against the backdrop of problematic Georgia, a pro-Western and “democratic Armenia” is becoming a more priority direction for EU policy in the Caucasus.
ARMENIAN-AZERBAIJANI TRACK: SLOWLY BUT SURELY
Oddly enough, the orientation of Armenia and Azerbaijan in opposite directions of the political compass did not have a negative impact on their bilateral relations. The normalization process was quite optimistic during the year.
During his September visit to Georgia, Pashinyan spoke about the agreement being 80% agreed upon, while Aliyev allowed for the possibility of signing it by the end of the year. In April, they managed to reach an agreement on disputed villages on the border between the two countries.
The main obstacle was identified by the Azerbaijani side as the existence of territorial claims - Aliyev demanded the opening of the Zangezur corridor between the main territory of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan enclave and changes to the Armenian constitution, which contains references to the need to unite Karabakh with Armenia. However, progress was noted here too.
In August, Aliyev and Pashinyan decided to remove the clause on the Zangezur corridor from the conditions for signing the peace treaty, but Baku still insists on amending the basic law of the neighboring country.
At the moment, the main problematic points remain the preservation of European observers and Armenia’s claims against Azerbaijan related to the rights of Karabakh Armenians.
Pashinyan agreed not to deploy third-country forces on the border with Azerbaijan after its delimitation, but judging by how long the delimitation has been going on, resolving this obstacle could take years. Whether the Armenians will drop hundreds of lawsuits is also a big question.
The issue of mediation between Baku and Yerevan has also changed significantly this year. After the aggravation of relations between Azerbaijan and the US, the EU and especially France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz claimed the role of mediator, but he managed to achieve only limited success (Pashinyan and Aliyev were brought together at the Munich Security Conference), and Scholz’s own political prospects are unclear.
Kazakhstan has decided to try its hand at mediation. On May 10–11, Foreign Ministers Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan met in Almaty and announced the possibility of concluding a peace treaty by the end of the year. But Kazakhstan’s success so far appears to be tactical.
In October, both Aliyev and Pashinyan came to the CIS summit, but it was not possible to hold the Russia-Azerbaijan-Armenia format, since the idea, as Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said, “was not supported by some people.”
The BRICS summit was a real success. The whole world saw footage of Pashinyan and Aliyev, as if classmates in class, having a long dialogue, turning their chairs towards each other, right during the speeches of other speakers. Pashinyan was pleased, he managed to bring together Aliyev's positions on unblocking regional communications.
For its part, Armenia proposes to Azerbaijan to conclude a strategic agreement for 100 years, which in fact means a non-aggression pact.
GEORGIA: ONE FOOT IN THE MAIDAN
A real internal struggle with the participation of external forces has unfolded in Georgia this year. The opposition has attempted to carry out a "Maidan" at least four times.
The first serious attempt came in the summer, when the ruling Georgian Dream party was passing the law on foreign agents on its second attempt. If under the previous prime minister Irakli Garibashvili the authorities succumbed to pressure from the streets and temporarily withdrew the bill, then his successor Irakli Kobakhidze showed greater determination.
Under him, “Dream” not only adopted a law on foreign agents, making only cosmetic changes to it, but also a law against LGBT propaganda.
Mass protests on Rustaveli Avenue did not produce the desired effect, and the opposition, formed into four blocs, set its sights on the October parliamentary elections.
Although the Georgian Dream failed to obtain a constitutional majority in the elections, it still won: it has 89 of 150 mandates. The United National Movement of the serving Saakashvili gained three times less than in the previous elections, and together with the parties Coalition for Change, Strong Georgia, and For Georgia, they did not even get 40%.
Therefore, the only way out for the opposition was to declare the elections illegitimate and drive people to the barricades.
They failed to instill fear in either the security forces or the founder of the Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili. Kobakhidze and co. bravely resisted attempts at revolution.
They were so confident in their victory that at the end of November the Prime Minister froze European integration for four years, which led to hundreds of thousands of rallies. But here too the opposition failed.
The last line of defense for pro-Western forces was the post of President of Georgia, occupied by French citizen Solome Zurabishvili. She promised not to recognize the results of the new presidential elections and refused to leave the Orbeliani Palace.
On December 14, following a collegial vote in parliament, an ally and former member of the Dream, ex-footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, became president of Georgia.
Zurabishvili was forced to retreat and, in order not to lose face in the eyes of the opposition, when leaving the residence of the head of state, she announced that she was “taking legitimacy with her.”
Protest in Tbilisi against the results of the parliamentary elections
Throughout this year, the European Union and the United States have been trying their best to destabilize the situation in Georgia, willingly joining in comparisons of the Georgian government and the laws it adopts with Russian ones.
The West did not like the fact that Kobakhidze and Ivanishvili refused to open a “second front” against Russia and fought the pro-Western fifth column. The State Department and Brussels imposed various sanctions, from entry bans to refusal to continue the EU integration process. Dozens of Western diplomats came to Tbilisi after the elections to support the protesters.
But every Western attack only weakened its influence in Tbilisi. Georgian officials are no softer in their remarks about Western capitals than their counterparts in Moscow or Baku.
In their rhetoric, Kobakhidze and his colleagues even use conspiracy terms like “global war party,” meaning the “deep state” that is drawing Georgia into a war with Russia. So, for the Georgian Dream, victory in the parliamentary elections is not just a personal victory, but a victory of peace over war.
***
From the point of view of Russian interests, it can be stated that in 2024 the South Caucasus region was engulfed by contradictory trends. Armenia took another step away from Russia towards the West, but there was no final severance of ties.
In Georgia, the US and EU have loosened their grip and almost failed the “Maidan 2.0” mission, while the local government has confidently set a course for pragmatic, peaceful relations with Russia.
And only with regard to Azerbaijan, which confidently defended its sovereignty from the West, the question of the final vector remains open. Over the course of the year, we observed a rapprochement with Russia, which forced some experts to raise the question of an alliance. But the incident with the airliner has called this process into question.
[IsraelTimes] World Central Kitchen says an Israeli security check of its employees in Gaza has prompted the charity to make changes so that it can continue feeding people in the Strip.
The charity says it “felt this step was necessary to protect our team and operations” following a Nov. 30 Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza that killed five people, including a WCK worker. Israeli authorities said the WCK worker took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.
After the airstrike, Israel publicly demanded an investigation into WCK’s hiring practices in Gaza, including security checks through COGAT, the Israeli department in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
WCK says it made “changes in Gaza” after Israeli authorities handed over the results of their security check. WCK didn’t explicitly say if it has terminated any employee who Israeli authorities had flagged.
The charity says that prior to receiving the COGAT results, “we had no reason for concern regarding any of these individuals and, because Israel does not share intelligence with aid organizations, we do not know the basis for Israel’s decision to flag these individuals.”
[IsraelTimes] La Belle France carried out missile strikes in Syria, targeting Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... sites in the country, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu says.
"On Sunday, French air forces carried out targeted strikes against Islamic State sites based on Syrian territory," Lecornu writes on social media platform X.
The French Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... followed a similar military strike by the United States in Syria, which the US said had killed two Islamic State operatives.
The defense ministry told AFP that French fighter jets and US drones “dropped a total of seven bombs” on ISIS targets in central Syria.
The strike was the first carried out by French forces in Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8 to a coalition of rebels spearheaded by the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
“Our armies remain engaged in the fight against terrorism in the Levant,” Lecornu stressed.
France has been an integral part of the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve, which assists Iraqi, Kurdish, and local Syrian forces in the fight against ISIS.
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[IsraelTimes] UN report says Gaza healthcare nearing ‘total collapse’ due to Israeli strikes.
A United Nations report published today alleges that Israeli strikes on and near hospitals in the Gaza Strip had left healthcare in the Palestinian territory on the verge of collapse.
“Israel’s pattern of deadly attacks on and near hospitals in Gaza, and associated combat, pushed the healthcare system to the brink of total collapse, with catastrophic effect on Palestinians’ access to health and medical care,” the UN human rights office says in a statement.
Its 23-page report, entitled “Attacks on hospitals during the escalation of hostilities in Gaza,” looked at the period from October 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024.
It said that during this time, there were at least 136 strikes on 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities, claiming significant casualties among doctors, nurses, medics and other civilians and causing significant damage to, if not the complete destruction of, civilian infrastructure.
The report noted that medical personnel and hospitals are specifically protected under international humanitarian law, provided they do not commit, or are not used to commit, acts harmful to the enemy outside their humanitarian function.
Israel says that hospitals have been extensively used by terror groups who operate in and around the facilities, sometimes launching attacks from within.
Israel notes that hospitals lose their protected status under international law when used by armed operatives as military sites and to plan and launch attacks. It also says that it acts extensively to protect civilians in the hospitals and ensure their safe evacuation.
Israel has repeatedly published documentation of terrorists in hospitals and even shown hostages being hidden in medical facilities.
However, the UN report says it found that Israel’s repeated claims that Gaza hospitals were being improperly used for military purposes by Palestinian groups “vague.”
“Insufficient information has so far been made publicly available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information,” the report says.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Kazakhstan will not extend the previously introduced restrictions on the import of wheat from Russia and will resume imports from January 1. This was reported by the Eldala.kz portal with reference to data from the republic's Ministry of Agriculture.
The restrictions were introduced from August 21 until the end of 2024.
The import of Russian wheat will be carried out under strict control of the situation on the domestic market. If necessary, regulatory measures will be introduced, the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan noted. The resumption of restrictions may be influenced by grain reserves, the level of supply and demand on the market, the need to protect the interests of domestic producers and the fight against gray imports.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the ban on imports of wheat from Russia and other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union to Kazakhstan is dictated by the need to stabilize prices on the domestic market. This was stated on October 23 by Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in September that the country's projected grain harvest this year was 132 million tons, up from 148 million tons a year earlier. Domestic consumption is expected to be up to 90 million tons.
According to the head of the Ministry of Agriculture Oksana Lut, the country will be able to export up to 60 million tons of grain this year.
[NY Post] An elite Hamas commander who led one of the most horrific attacks on Israeli kibbutzim Oct. 7, 2023, was killed in a targeted strike in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Force announced Tuesday.
Abd al-Hadi Sabah, the head of the terror group’s Nukhba platoon in Hamas’s West Khan Younis Battalion, was wiped out during an intelligence-based attack in a Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, according to military officials.
Officials said measures were taken to minimize civilian harm during the operation, led by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency.
"The IDF and ISA will continue to operate against all of the terrorists who took part in the murderous October 7 massacre," The IDF posted on X on Tuesday, along with a photo of Sabah in Israel during the terrorist attack.
Sabah was responsible for leading the invasion of Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community located fewer than 2 miles from the Gaza border fence and where dozens of civilians were murdered and scores more taken hostage, according to the IDF.
Survivors were evacuated after the devastation and are now living in temporary housing about an hour away in Kiryat Gat.
The terrorist leader also led numerous attacks against Israeli troops in Gaza since the Jewish state was ambushed last year, the IDF stated.
Along with Sabah, the IDF also announced it killed Anas Muhammad Masri, commander of the northern sector of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s rocket unit, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Masri had been actively commanding rocket fire from northern Gaza into Israel, according to the IDF, which described him as a "significant figure responsible for executing numerous terrorist operations, managing and directing actions by the organization that targeted Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers."
Hamas murdered more than 1,200 people — mostly civilians, including women and children — and kidnapped another 251 in the 2023 terrorist attack.
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
The largest number of Russian assaults were recorded in the Pokrovsky direction. The enemy attacked in the areas of 12 populated areas.
Since the beginning of the current day, 117 combat clashes have occurred. Russian aggressors are attacking mostly in the Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk and Limansk directions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in a report as of 16:00 on Tuesday, December 31.
Thus, in the Kharkov direction, Russian troops organized one assault in the Volchansk area.
In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy actively advanced seven times in the areas of Lozovaya, Novaya Kruglyakovka and Zagryzovo. Six combat clashes are still ongoing.
In the Liman direction, Russians carried out 16 attacks near Nadezhda, Pervomayskoye, Zeleny Gai, Novoegorovka, Yampolovka, Terny, Dibrova and in the direction of Druzhelyubovka, Cherneshchyna and Novosergeevka. Five clashes continue.
In the Seversky direction, the occupiers tried to advance forward three times in the areas of Belogorovka and Grigorovka, but were rebuffed.
In the Kramatorsk direction, Russians carried out 22 assaults in the areas of the settlements of Chasov Yar, Stupochki, Belaya Gora and Predtechino. 13 clashes are still ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, the enemy attacked near Shcherbinovka and in Toretsk. Five attacks were repelled. Another four are still ongoing.
In the Pokrovsk direction, the enemy has already carried out 30 assaults in the areas of the settlements of Zelenoe Pole, Baranovka, Novotoretskoye, Promin, Lisovka, Mirnograd, Dachenskoye, Zelenoe, Novy Trud, Volkovo, Peschanoye and Novovasilovka. The defense forces repelled 23 enemy attacks.
In the Kurakhovo direction, nine assaults have been repelled near the settlements of Petrovpavlovka, Ukrainka, Shevchenko and Kurakhovo. Five more attacks are ongoing.
Four combat clashes continue in the Vremovsky direction . In total, the enemy attacked seven times near Konstantinopolskoye, Dachnoye, Razliv, Velikaya Novosyolka and Neskuchnoye.
In the Orekhov direction, the enemy tried three times to advance towards Novoandreyevka and was rebuffed.
In the Kursk region, our defenders are repelling four assaults.
Let us recall that over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have eliminated more than 1,600 occupiers . Since the beginning of the full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian army has lost almost 790 thousand soldiers.
[IsraelTimes] The head of the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees claims that since the war in Gaza began, at least 745 people were killed and more than 2,200 injured in its shelters where they had sought United Nations protection.
How many were drawing a second (or first!) salary from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, etc? How many were willing or unwilling human shields for the first group? How many were hostages? How few were actual innocent bystanders unaware of the other categories?
Philippe Lazzarini says in a post on X that nearly 650 incidents were recorded against buildings and facilities belonging to the agency, known as UNRWA, and over two-thirds of its buildings and schools have been damaged or destroyed.
Lazzarini says 258 UNRWA staff members have been killed and at least 20 are in Israeli detention centers since the outbreak of the Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre and mass abduction in southern Israel. Israel says it doesn’t target civilians, while Hamas hides and fights among them.
He says the agency continues to receive reports that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have used UNRWA facilities, and it has verified the takeover of its premises by the IDF on several occasions.
Israel has accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas supporters and it passed legislation on October 28 — which takes effect in 90 days — banning the UN agency from operating in the country.
#2
745 Palestinians been killed in its Gaza shelters
I can see some economies of scale here: Instead of driving all over town picking up random corpses, you just load up a dump truck at the site and cart them off to the protein banks. Super easy. Barely an inconvenience.
From an OSHA standpoint, it does not say much for the quality of UN shelters if nearly 3,000 people were killed/injured in them. However, the UN Special Committee on UnWarranted Assumptions cautions against extrapolating this conclusion to the UN as a whole.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Russians are trying to break through the village of Shcherbinovka and seize the fireproof plant, explained the OSUV Khortitsa.
Intense urban fighting continues in Toretsk, Donetsk Oblast. Russian invaders are trying to break through the village of Shcherbinovka and seize a refractory plant. This was reported by the spokesman of the OSUV Khortitsa Viktor Tregubov on the air of the telethon.
"Urban combat is a specific type of combat with very high intensity. In Toretsk, there are both urban combats and an attempt to break through Shcherbinovka. Recently, the 3rd assault repelled an enemy attack in Leonidovka and destroyed 9 enemy BMPs," the official said.
According to the speaker, there are constant urban battles in Chasovy Yar.
"The Russians are constantly trying to either break through and penetrate the Ukrainian positions behind the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal, or to break through to the architectural dominant of the city - the fireproof plant, but in the latter case they have never had any success, because it is physically difficult," the speaker added.
It was previously reported that the Russian army loses an average of 500 soldiers per week of urban fighting in Toretsk.
[IsraelTimes] Newly released UK government files reveal that a senior US official warned his British counterparts that US president George W. Bush thought he was "on a mission from God" during the second Iraq war.
Did he wink and say it in a Detroit accent? ‘Cause that’s an old movie joke for that generation
The declassified documents reported by The Telegraph involve a conversation between then US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and UK ambassador to Washington David Manning in April 2004 regarding the ongoing battle in Fallujah.
Armitage said that Bush initially "wanted to kick ass" with US Marines taking the entire city.
But after being warned that such a move could bring down the Iraqi government, ’Bush backed off," Manning wrote.
"Rich [Armitage] summed it all up by saying that Bush still thought he was on some sort of a mission from God, but that recent events had made him ’rather more sober,’" the report says.
Armitage reportedly asked Manning to have UK prime minister Tony Blair exert a moderating influence on Bush.
Palestinian health authorities say 45 patients and wounded people have been evacuated for treatment outside the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
They left the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis early this morning and traveled through the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Israel. They will receive treatment in the United Arab Emirates.
The patients are accompanied by over 100 of their relatives, according to the hospital.
Among them was a 10-year-old boy, Abdullah Abu Yousef, suffering from kidney failure. The child was accompanied by his sister after the Israeli authorities reportedly rejected his mother’s application to join him. Israel says it screens escorts for security.
“The boy is sick,” says his mother, Abeer Abu Yousef. “He requires hemodialysis three to four days a week.”
Enthusiastically joining the war against Israel by other means.
[IsraelTimes] A social media campaign has picked up around the globe over the past day calling for Israel to release Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
Israel detained Abu Safiya along with nearly 240 others during a raid on the hospital last week, alleging that Hamas was using the medical facility as a shelter from Israeli strikes.
The military said it suspects Abu Safiya of being a Hamas terrorist. When asked if he had been transferred to Israeli territory for further questioning, the military did not offer an immediate comment. He was detained by the IDF earlier in the war before being released, ostensibly due to a lack of evidence against him.
Doctors around the world have been posting photos of themselves holding signs calling for the Kamal Adwan director’s release, using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli players have been barred from next month’s World Indoor Bowls Championships in England after a campaign by pro-Palestinian groups.
The decision has been condemned by a local parliamentarian and Jewish representatives.
The World Bowls Tour says in a statement the involvement of Israeli bowlers at the Scottish International Open in August had produced “a significant escalation in related political concerns.
“As a result of the intensity of the situation, the WBT Board, in consultation with our event partners and other relevant stakeholders, has made the difficult decision to withdraw the invitation for Israel to participate in the forthcoming World Indoor Championships,” it adds.
“Bowls is, and always has been, a sport that unites people and this choice reflects our commitment to protecting the championships and ensuring they run smoothly for everyone involved.”
The decision removes Daniel Alomin from the singles draw and pairs players Amnon Amar and Itai Rigbi.
The Norfolk Palestine Solidarity Campaign says the move was the result of joint action with Scottish Sports for Palestine and Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card.
Rupert Lowe, member of parliament for the populist Reform party in the Great Yarmouth constituency that hosts the championships in Hopton-on-Sea, says on X he was “genuinely disgusted” and would fight it.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said there was no justification for an “overt act of discrimination against Israeli participants, who are excluded solely on the basis of their nationality.”
World Bowls, the Melbourne-based recognized international federation that organizes the rival World Bowls Indoor Championships, emphasizes that the WBT was not affiliated with them and had made the decision alone.
“World Bowls has 60 member countries from across the world including Israel and all of our members continue to be welcome and eligible to participate in all World Bowls-staged events,” it adds.
“As a result of the intensity of the situation, the WBT Board, in consultation with our event partners and other relevant stakeholders, has made the difficult decision to withdraw the invitation for Israel to participate in the forthcoming World Indoor Championships,” it added.
“Bowls is, and always has been, a sport that unites people and this choice reflects our commitment to protecting the championships and ensuring they run smoothly for everyone involved.”
The above was subsequently updated to include the denouement, the abject reversal reported in the blog post below:
In a letter to the team published by the network, WBT apologizes for the earlier decision.
“We would firstly wish to extend our sincere apologies to both you and to PBA Israel, for any upset or offense that we have caused by the withdrawal of the invitation to the three members of PBA Israel in advance of the January 2025 championships. This was absolutely not our intention.
Surely they don’t mean to say the withdrawn invite was accidental.
However, as we made clear, we had found ourselves in a very difficult position in relation to the security of the venue and to the competitors and other attendees,” WBT says.
“However, over the past 48 hours, we have been exploring practical ways in which our concerns could be overcome, so as to enable the invitation to PBA Israel to be reinstated. We are pleased to say that following discussions with various partner agencies, we have been able to confirm today an increase in the security presence at the event. The WBT Board is accordingly satisfied that this increased level of security which will be in place is sufficient to be able to welcome the PBA Israel Team to the event starting on 10 January 2025,” the letter continues.
“The sole consideration behind this [initial] difficult decision had been the safety and security of all participants, staff and attendees involved in the tournament. Following significant feedback and credible concerns regarding the potential risks posed to,” the WBT chief claims.
“We fully understand how upsetting our earlier decision would have been to the competitors from Israel, which is why we have sought to try and find a solution that would enable the invitation to be reinstated.”
The Norfolk Palestine Solidarity Campaign had said the earlier move to bar the Israeli team from participating was the result of joint action with Scottish Sports for Palestine and Show Israeli Genocide the Red Card.
[NYPOST] The so-called “sugar dating” website at the heart of the sex scandal that has engulfed former Rep. Matt Gaetz was a hotbed of trafficking, fraud and other malfeasance, a former public relations rep for the company has alleged.
SeekingArrangement.com, as it was known at the time, was used by Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) pal Joel Greenberg, who is serving out an 11-year prison sentence on charges related to sex trafficking, to introduce the Sunshine State pol to various women, per a House Committee on Ethics draft report released this week.
“The girls come to it with the assumption that they are going to find a man who is just going to simply give them money for existing,” she explained. “And then, lo and behold, it comes to fruition, but it’s a scammer.”
The House Committee on Ethics explained in its bombshell report that “platforms such as SeekingArrangement.com are known to ‘mak[e] it easier for traffickers to exploit victims and connect with buyers.'”
Since Gaetz’s admitted partying and womanizing days, SeekingArrangement has rebranded into Seeking.com and at least outwardly appeared to tone down some of its past excesses, Urick surmised. Still, she speculates that some of the toxic culture has continued.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Not to be confused with social and media websites soliciting underage girls and boys.
#2
Sugar Dating is a not-so-subtle acronym for transactional relationships offered for high-end male earners. Kind of like a very expensive virtual hotel bar in Dubai or Monaco, only without the clumsy opening!
[Daily Mail where America gets its news] German police have shot a man dead after he stole a digger and used it to rampage through a quiet town.
The man, who has not yet been identified, hijacked the digger from a construction company in the small southern German town of Grünsfeld at around 1:35pm local time before driving it to Tauberbischofsheim, about five miles away.
Video footage of the chaos showed the man crashing the yellow digger into a JET petrol station as police appear to fire shots at him.
He was hit by gunfire at a car dealership in Tauberbischofsheim and resuscitated, but later died from his injuries.
He reportedly damaged several police vehicles, and is said to have seriously injured an officer.
Local police later said that while she had been trapped during the rampage, she has since been able to leave the hospital.
On X, local police said that there was now no longer any danger to the public following the 'suspected rampage.'
Germany has been on high alert for weeks following the terror attack in the city of Magdeburg, in which Saudi doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, 50, smashed his rented SUV into a crowd at the Christmas market.
German man runs amok with a what?
"With a digger." [O'Toole: "Hut hut hut!"]
"But he acted alone--"
"And his reasons aren't known--"
"So of course he's..." [muezzin]
"A nut!"
[NYPOST] The US military made multiple strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen, the latest escalation against the Iran-backed terror group plaguing the Red Sea.
American Navy ships and aircraft targeted Houthi command posts and weapons depots Monday and Tuesday, destroying the facilities that have been attacking military and merchant vessels in the region, according to US Central Command.
The strikes were focused on the capital city of Sana'a and coastal locations around the Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, including ''advanced conventional weapon (ACW) production and storage facilities.''
''These facilities were used in Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,'' CENTCOM said in a statement.
US Navy and Air Force aircraft also destroyed a Houthi coastal radar site and seven cruise missiles, the statement added.
CENTCOM said the strikes were part of the US military's efforts to crack down on the Houthis' attacks in the region, which began last year in solidarity with Hamas following Israel's incursion in Gaza.
[X]
CENTCOM Forces Strike Multiple Houthi Targets in Yemen
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted multiple precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets in Sana’a and coastal locations within Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, Dec. 30 and 31.
…On Dec. 30 and 31, U.S. Navy ships and aircraft targeted a Houthi command and control facility and advanced conventional weapon (ACW) production and storage facilities that included missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV). These facilities were used in Houthi operations, such as attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. In addition, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force aircraft destroyed a Houthi coastal radar site and seven cruise missiles and one-way attack UAVs over the Red Sea.
There were no injuries or damage to U.S. personnel or equipment in either incident.
The strikes are a part of CENTCOM's effort to degrade Iran-backed Houthi efforts to threaten regional partners and military and merchant vessels in the region.
According to journalists, the attack was carried out on the Al-Arda complex, where the Ministry of Defense of the National Salvation Government is located. This government body was created by the Shiite movement Ansar Allah (Houthis), which rules northern Yemen.
According to some reports, responsibility for the attack was placed on Israel. There was also information about strikes on a complex in northwest Sana'a where military equipment is being repaired.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, earlier on December 31, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saria said that the Ansar Allah movement had attacked the US aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman using cruise missiles and drones. According to him, the group's fighters carried out the attack when the ship was preparing to strike Yemeni territory.
On December 26, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes during a speech by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. According to the Shiite movement, six people were killed and 40 were wounded.
At the time of the Israeli bombing of Sana'a airport, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was in one of the airport's waiting rooms. After the incident, he reported that he was not injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2025
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[11189 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
[NYPOST] A Connecticut man facing multiple charges in the deaths of a mother and her infant son allegedly killed them over money the woman owed him.
New details were released about the November arrest of Lance ''Macho'' Morales, 23, following his first appearance in a Hartford, Connecticut, courtroom on Monday.
Morales is accused of killing 20-year-old Jessiah Mercado and her 4-month-old son Messiah Diaz in a drive-by shooting on Nov. 19.
An arrest warrant alleged Morales opened fire on the car the two were in because Mercado owed him $400 for using his Mazda SUV, The Associated Press reported.
He was charging her $100 a day to rent the vehicle, and she reportedly fell behind on the payments.
Before the deadly shooting in broad daylight, an exchange took place between Morales and Mercado, in which she told him her infant son was inside the SUV.
A witness told police that Morales said he didn't care, The AP reported.
Two other people were inside the car during the brazen crime, but only one of them was wounded.
Morales' firearm was believed to be fully automatic, according to the arrest warrant.
Sounds like a gangster, and one or both adults is possibly illegal. Because otherwise the lady could have hied herself to a Hertz rental agency for considerably less.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2025
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#1
Obviously, he didn’t get indoctrinated into the American culture of endlessly suing other people.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/01/2025 14:41
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#2
If Michael J Fox had accidentally dropped these headlines in my house in 1980, I would have immediately hid them to prevent their discovery by my mother, who burnt everything naughty.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/01/2025 9:34
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The outgoing year 2024 was the warmest in the entire 245-year history of meteorological observations in Moscow. This was reported on Tuesday, December 31, by the press service of Moscow State University.
Only in January and May were temperatures below normal, while in the other ten months the figures were above average, the RIA Novosti press service reported.
“According to the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory, 2024 was the warmest year in the entire 245-year history of meteorological observations in Moscow: the average annual air temperature reached an absolute record of 8.2 degrees,” Moscow State University noted.
September was a particularly warm month, with an average temperature of +17.9 degrees, which is 5.7 degrees above normal. September saw the highest readings in the history of meteorological observations for this month. In addition, September 2024 was a record-breaking sunny month (the duration of sunshine reached 263 hours).
The phenomenon of abnormally cold weather was observed in the capital only once in 2024, from January 2 to 8. The dangerous phenomenon of severe frost (-30 degrees and below) has not been recorded in Moscow for 19 years. The highest air temperature in 2024 was recorded in Moscow on July 4 (+33.1 degrees), the lowest - on January 4 (-24.9 degrees), the report also says.
Earlier, in a conversation with IA Regnum, the chief specialist of the capital's meteorological bureau, meteorologist Tatyana Pozdnyakova, said that in Moscow on New Year's Eve the temperature is expected to drop to -5 degrees. During the day of December 31, it is expected to snow in the capital.
Scientific Director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia Roman Vilfand, in turn, said earlier that on January 2 and 3 in the Moscow region, the temperature at night will vary from -2 to -7 degrees, and during the day - from 0 to -5 degrees. In the capital, the temperature can reach a maximum of -5 degrees at night, and during the day - up to -3, the expert noted.
Decidedly chilly looking look-down photo at the link.
Roscosmos has published a space photo of the cyclone that brought snowfall to Moscow on December 31. The publication appeared on the state corporation’s Telegram channel.
“The capital was covered in snowfall for the holiday,” the caption to the publication states.
It is specified that the images were taken from the Elektro-L and Arktika-M satellites.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on December 29, leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Evgeny Tishkovets reported that snowfalls are expected in Moscow on December 31, and the air temperature may rise slightly above zero. According to him, snowfalls will resume on January 1, in the afternoon. On January 3, it will get colder to -6, and the next day the frosts will strengthen to -10 degrees. By Christmas, snowdrifts will increase to 22-27 cm, and the daytime temperature will be up to -8 degrees.
The chief specialist of the Moscow meteorological bureau, Tatyana Pozdnyakova, also warned that on December 31 and January 1, the atmospheric pressure in the capital region will be very low, 10-12 degrees below normal, which could have a negative impact on the well-being of weather-sensitive people. Wind gusts can reach 12-14 meters per second, so it will seem that frost has come.
Reeking of desperation, they try anything to get Israel to stop.
[IsraelTimes] Against the backdrop of its assertion that it cannot produce a list of the living Israeli hostages in its control amid the ongoing Gaza war, Hamas has reportedly proposed that Israel agree to a seven-day ceasefire that would allow the terror group to put together the names of hostages that it can release in a potential deal with Israel.
During the week-long ceasefire, no hostages would be released, but Israeli troops would be allowed to remain in Gaza and those displaced would remain barred from returning to the northern part of the Strip, the Kan public broadcaster reports, acknowledging that Israel is unlikely to accept the proposal.
[IsraelTimes] Discussions to secure a hostage-ceasefire deal have reached a dead end, Arab mediators tell the Wall Street Journal.
The impasse means that is unlikely an agreement will be secured before the end of the Biden administration, the report says.
According to the mediators, the sides were mulling a 60-day truce that would see up to 30 hostages released while Israel would set free Palestinian prisoners and increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The outlet says “both parties hardened their positions,” with Israel insisting that only living hostages be freed and refusing to approve some of the Palestinian prisoners named by Hamas, while the terror group for its part returned to insisting on a path toward the end of the war sparked by its October 7 onslaught.
The mediators tell the Journal they expect both sides to return to the negotiating table after US-president elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
#1
With each rejection of a hostage deal, it becomes clearer and clearer that Hamas is not in control of the issue. Is it higher up, like Iran running the show in the background?
We also know they are lying about the numbers of alive hostages in captivity. So I guess they have no intensions or permission, at this time, to deal. Only to play it to the hilt for MSM coverage.
So What Next?
Say, what if, there be any babies that were produced by the Hamas gang rapes over the last 14 months?
#5
I can see Trump telling Israel to withdraw from Gaza after his inauguration, then ARCLIGHTing the SH$$ out of the area. It would actually be the only thing that bunch of idiots would understand. Total destruction of Gaza and returning the territory to Israel would REALLY shake up the Muddled East.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/01/2025 16:04
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#7
Cue question for two-statist ostrich
In camp-produced Arabic cross-stitch:
"Is scion of rape
Whose mom failed to escape
Just a new refugee or Jew hostage?"
[NY Post] Two top Washington Post reporters have defected from the Jeff Bezos-owned paper as it continues to reel following the billionaire’s decision to kill an endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Political correspondents Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer were poached by The Atlantic — owned by Laurene Powell Jobs — and will join the left-leaning magazine ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Getting them all in one place — or fewer places — will make it easier to ignore their little temper tantrums…
Their departures comes on the heels of a report Monday by Puck News that White House correspondent Tyler Pager and investigative reporter Josh Dawsey have been "mulling a transfer or have already decided to exit."
The Beltway broadsheet has suffered an exodus of top talent — and a reported loss of more than 200,000 subscribers — since Bezos blocked the editorial board from endorsing the Democratic candidate just weeks before the election.
Three Opinions section members — David Hoffman, Molly Roberts and Robert Kagan — quit following the decision not to endorse any candidate for the first time in decades.
Bezos, the second-richest person in the world with a net worth valued by Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $241 billion, was a frequent target of Trump during his first term in office — mainly due to the Washington Post’s coverage of his administration.
He defended his decision shortly after the initial outcry from staff that it was based on him trying to toady up to Trump.
"Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ’I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None," he wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post.
The fury among staffers was brewing long before his decision, as editors clashed over a planned reorganization by the paper’s new CEO Will Lewis, who took the helm in January.
Sally Buzbee, WaPo’s first female executive editor, abruptly resigned in June — instead of accepting a new role as head of the social media division.
Others who have since jumped ship include managing editor Matea Gold, who was hired away by the Times, and staff writer Shane Harris, who left for The Atlantic.
The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The paper has made a few key hires from the Wall Street Journal this past month, adding Warren Strobel as an intelligence reporter and Karen Pensiero as standards editor.
Last week, tech reporter Kara Swisher was said to be working toward assembling a group of investors to purchase the paper from Bezos.
"The Post can do better ... it’s so maddening to see what’s happening. ... Why not me? Why not any of us?" Swisher told Axios.
#2
"Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ’I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None.
Sadly, not true. I know plenty of people who wait for the papers to tell them who to vote for.
Even in 2025.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/01/2025 7:05
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#3
...partially true, but those usually are old FDR type donks who are now literally dying off. The Marxist indoctrinated youngin's don't touch that kind of print.
[NYPOST] A Honduras gang member who was illegally in the US ''giggled'' as he admitted kidnapping a young Texas woman at gunpoint and threatening to pimp her out and sell her organs, according to cops.
Eduardo Javier Ordonez Godoy, 35, was busted after a 22-year-old woman was kidnapped by a masked man at 4:45 a.m. Christmas Eve and driven around for nearly an hour before being left tied to a tree, according to charging documents obtained by Fox 4 News.
Godoy had been arrested before for similar crimes — and deported back to Honduras, where he admits he is affiliated with a violent mostly peaceful gang, police told the outlet.
The undocumented Democrat then allegedly confessed to the abduction, showing no remorse for a crime that the unidentified victim said left her fearing for her life.
''He smirked a lot, he giggled, and, you know, was almost proud of what he did,'' Haltom City Police Sergeant Rick Alexander told FOX 4 News.
''He claims he's just a thief. He wants money,'' Alexander continued. ''But, you know, in this case, clearly he went beyond that and brought a firearm into it.''
Godoy allegedly kidnapped the woman at 4:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve, forcing her into the backseat of her car as she headed to work in Haltom City, just outside of Fort Worth, police said.
He then forced her to withdraw money — then drove her around for nearly an hour while threatening to ''sell her organs'' and ''hooker her,'' according to the charging documents.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/01/2025
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[11165 views]
Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
#1
"Godoy had been arrested before for similar crimes — and deported back to Honduras..."
DEPORTED?
How about slamming this POS in prison general population.
I am pretty sure, it would be a short, but satisfying stay for the US taxpayers.
Then deduct the court, prison and body transport costs from any US foreign aid sent to Honduras.
Big talk. As usual, the missile was shot down long before it reached Israel. No word about the aircraft carrier
[IsraelTimes] Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels say that they had fired two missiles at Israel, hours after the Israeli military said it had intercepted a projectile launched from the country.
“The first (attack) targeted Ben Gurion Airport” in Tel Aviv, and the second was fired at a power station south of Jerusalem, a Houthi military statement says.
The rebels also said they had attacked the American aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. There is no immediate comment from the US military.
Late last night, the Israeli military said it had shot down a missile launched from Yemen before it crossed into Israeli territory. There were no injuries.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, earlier on December 31, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saria said that the Ansar Allah movement had attacked the US aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman using cruise missiles and drones. According to him, the group's fighters carried out the attack when the ship was preparing to strike Yemeni territory.
On December 26, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes during a speech by Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. According to the Shiite movement, six people were killed and 40 were wounded.
At the time of the Israeli bombing of Sana'a airport, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was in one of the airport's waiting rooms. After the incident, he reported that he was not injured.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 21:56 Dozens of military facilities were hit in the Russian rear in 2024, which forced the Russian army to keep its reserves away from the front line. We are talking about airfields, weapons arsenals and oil depots. This was stated by the head of the SBU Vasyl Malyuk.
20:57 In December, fighters from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine destroyed nine units of rolling stock on Russian territory.
20.46 Russia continues to bring up infantry to conduct assaults on Ukrainian positions. The enemy's losses may reach 2,000 occupiers per day. This was reported by the representative of the National Guard of Ukraine Ruslan Muzychuk.
20.27 Slovakia is unlikely to stop exporting electricity to Ukraine due to the cessation of Russian gas transit through Ukrainian territory. This was reported by Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Galushchenko.
19:36 The US government announced sanctions against two organizations in Iran and Russia and one individual associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Russian GRU. The reason cited was interference in the 2024 US elections.
19.03 On December 31, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed bill No. 12104 on deferment and demobilization for relatives of those killed or missing in the war.
18.33 Next year will definitely be better for Ukraine, and there are objective factors for this. Ukrainians will see "many good events." This forecast was voiced by the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, Kirill Budanov.
18.05 The Ukrainian Air Force has published the results of combat operations for 2024. More than 11 thousand "shahids" alone were destroyed.
17:45 President Volodymyr Zelensky held the second meeting of the Technological Rate. Following its results, the head of state reported that "there are some systemic solutions for protection against Russian missiles and bombs."
17:27 Ukrainian military carried out an attack on the Yartsevsk oil depot in the Smolensk region of the Russian Federation. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, units of the Special Operations Forces (SOF), the Unmanned Systems Forces and other components of the Defense Forces were involved.
16.53 Since the beginning of the current day, 117 combat clashes have occurred. Russian aggressors are attacking mostly in the Pokrovsk, Kramatorsk and Limansk directions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in a report as of 16:00.
16:22 Russia is capable of continuing the war against Ukraine for some time on the scale it is currently on. At the same time, the aggressor country's economy will reach a dangerous level as early as 2025. This was stated by Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, on air during a telethon.
16.01 The State Emergency Service of Ukraine denied the information about the death of the dog Patron, which was spreading on the Internet.
15.39 The Cabinet of Ministers introduced changes to the rules for crossing the state border by men aged 18 to 25 years during martial law who were serving under contract. Details here.
15.08 In 2024, the capabilities of the Ukrainian defense industry complex increased sixfold. The corresponding data were announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at a government meeting.
14.41 As a result of the attack by Storm Shadow missiles on Monday on a military facility in the city of Lgov in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, 8 Russian servicemen were killed and wounded. This was reported by the Telegram channel ASTRA , citing its own sources, on Tuesday.
13:47 More than 32,000 Ukrainians have applied to the recruitment centers of the Ukrainian army since they began their work, of which 7,198 are already being considered as candidates for the Defense Forces. This was reported by the Ministry of Defense.
12:38 On Tuesday night, Russian aggressors launched dozens of missiles and drones at Ukraine. A significant portion of the enemy targets were intercepted by air defense, the Ukrainian Air Force reported .
11:59 Ukrainian troops have occupied a village in the Kursk region that was held by Russian and North Korean troops. This was reported by the Special Operations Forces.
10:56 Occupiers attacked two buses in Kherson from drones. The vehicles were damaged, passengers were not injured. One of the drivers received an explosive injury and concussion.
10:15 As a result of the morning missile strike on Kiev, debris fell in the Darnitsky district. Three private buildings and two cars were damaged.
9:35 For the first time in history, GUR fighters hit an air target using the Magura V5 attack naval drone equipped with missile weapons.
During the battle in the Black Sea near Cape Tarkhankut in the temporarily occupied Crimea, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed as a result of the use of R-73 SeeDragon missiles. Another similar enemy helicopter was damaged by fire and was able to reach its base airfield.
9:10 Russians launched a missile attack on Shostka in Sumy Oblast. As a result of the shelling, individual infrastructure facilities were destroyed. 12 multi-story residential buildings, two educational institutions, and other social facilities were damaged.
8:50 Russian troops launched a missile attack on the infrastructure of the Shostka community in Sumy Oblast. The consequences of the attack are being clarified.
8:35 On the morning of December 31, during the drone attack, the Russians also launched missiles at Ukraine. Air defense was active in Kiev, and explosions were heard. In the Darnitsky district, debris from a missile was recorded falling on the roof of a private building.
8:24 Over the past 24 hours, 168 combat clashes have been recorded at the front. In the Pokrovsk direction, defenders stopped 40 assault and offensive actions by Russian invaders.
7:55 The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defense allegedly destroyed 68 drones over the territory of the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied Crimea last night. Most drones were shot down over the Bryansk region - 25.
7:45 As of December 31, the total combat losses of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine were approximately 789,550 people (1,610 per day).
05:03 Drones attacked an oil depot in the Smolensk region of the Russian Federation, after which a fire broke out there. An attack was also carried out on Orel, where an oil depot has burned twice in the last two weeks, but nothing is yet known about the consequences of the attack from Orel .
03:42 Russia attacked Ukraine with ballistics. Explosions were heard in the Kiev, Chernihiv and Sumy regions. Monitoring channels write about at least six missiles. Air defense was operating in Kiev. The consequences of the attack are still unknown.
01:27 A series of loud explosions were heard in Sevastopol. The occupation authorities reported an attack by unmanned boats and drones.
[IsraelTimes] Israel’s solution to the Houthi threat from Yemen is based on working with an international coalition, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
“The Houthis should not be under-rated,” says the official. “They are more technologically advanced than perceived by many. They are ideologically toxic, and they have displayed the will to fight against the Saudis and others.”
“The Houthis pose a threat to international security and global trade,” the official continues. “Therefore, an international coalition should confront and eliminate this threat.”
The official adds that Israel has “exposed Iran’s vulnerabilities” and that there is an opportunity now for Israel to work with an international coalition “to put the Houthis in their box.”
Attempts to reach a hostage deal with Hamas remain stuck, the Israeli official adds, reiterating that a major obstacle is still Hamas’s refusal to provide Israel with a list of living hostages.
Given Hamas’s positions in negotiations, there is growing skepticism by some that a deal can be reached at all, let alone before Donald Trump returns to the White House, according to the official.
[IsraelTimes] The United States has imposed sanctions on entities in Iran and Russia, accusing them of attempting to interfere in the US election this year.
The US Treasury Department in a statement said the entities – a subsidiary of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and an organization affiliated with Russia’s military intelligence agency – aimed to “stoke socio-political tensions and influence the U.S. electorate during the 2024 U.S. election.”
The Cognitive Design Production Center planned influence operations since at least 2023, the Treasury said, while the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE) circulated disinformation about candidates in the election and directed and subsidized the creation of deepfakes.
The Treasury says CGE also manipulated a video to produce “baseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate.” It did not specify which candidate was targeted.
Republican Donald Trump was elected president in November, beating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and capping a remarkable comeback four years after he was voted out of the White House.
“The Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, says in the statement.
“The United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy.”
It added that the Cognitive Design Production Center had planned influence operations since at least 2023, to “incite socio-political tensions among the US electorate in the lead up to the 2024 US elections, on behalf of the IRGC.”
The Center for Geopolitical Expertise, meanwhile, was said to direct and subsidize the production of deepfakes — manipulations of genuine audio, photos or video of people to create false likenesses — while circulating disinformation about candidates in the 2024 US election, the Treasury added.
Besides the center, its director Valery Mikhaylovich Korovin was also hit by sanctions. The sanctions add to earlier ones imposed on the IRGC, GRU and other proxy groups.
Earlier this year, the US government charged that Iranian authorities sought to undermine confidence in US democratic institutions. They allegedly used “social engineering and other efforts to gain access to individuals with direct access to the presidential campaigns of both parties,” the Treasury said.
In a separate notice, the Treasury Department also announced sanctions Tuesday on Russian judge Olesya Mendeleeva over the detention of former Moscow city councillor Alexei Gorinov.
Gorinov had been convicted for speaking out against Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
“Russia’s manipulation of its legal system silences dissent and suffocates the truth about Russia’s indefensible war against Ukraine,” Smith of the Treasury added.
On Monday, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Russia called for the immediate and unconditional release of Gorinov.
It’s a good idea, regardless. Social media is for private citizens and business marketing. These people are about to become public officials and need to separate public and private communications — and especially shut down public display of private communications. Ditto for emails, as Hillary!, President Biden, et al demonstrated. Everything on the internet will eventually be read and deliberately misinterpreted.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump has ordered his Cabinet nominees not to post on social media without approval.
In a stunning move, Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles told those who will become his top lieutenants to get anything they put on X, or other networks, cleared first.
It came after a MAGA 'civil war' erupted this week over the issue of visas for skilled migrants.
'While this instruction has been delivered previously, I am reiterating that no member of the incoming administration or Transition speaks for the United States or the President-elect himself,' Wiles wrote in a memo reported by the New York Post.
'Accordingly, all intended nominees should refrain from any public social media posts without prior approval of the incoming White House counsel.'
It was unclear what sparked the crackdown but Senate confirmation hearings for Cabinet nominees are due to start in the new year.
Earlier this week, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who will head Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), threatened to 'go to war' with MAGA Republicans as he defended visas for skilled foreigners.
Trump sided with Musk after a fierce debate, including on social media, sent some of his supporters into a meltdown.
[AccordingToHoyt] I keep giggling when the media — even some on the right — refers to the lively… discussion last week about the appropriate use of H1B visas and when to import workers as “A MAGA civil war.”
Sure, there were the usual sh*theads babbling about how America is a “blood and soil” nation and all that nonsense. (The most amusing was the one arguing with me that America was created explicitly as a white nation. He failed to tell me which documents say so, and explain the divergence in what was considered “white” then, or even show me the set aside for free black people, which, yes, existed in the North.) But let’s be real and talk about the actual argument amid actual Americans. Not the (Mostly Russian. And they probably actually believe what they’re posting) paid trolls. I suggest we mostly ignore anyone screaming about the “white” race or set asides thereonto until they come up with better trolls.
This wasn’t a civil war. This was barely a family argument.
Here I should interject. Where I come from expression is loud and voluble, particularly if your mom is a bit deaf. I remember the first time Dan (the poor man is from a Connecticut patrician family!) found himself at the table with my family. I saw when his eyes got all panicky and he started looking at the steak knives, and wondering whether to dive under the table. At which point I told him we weren’t about to slit each other’s throats. We were discussing where to buy shoes the next day. It hadn’t even gotten impolite. We were all just enthusiastically shouting our opinions and disagreement.
But it was the kid next door, in the quiet house where no one ever raised their voices who tried to commit suicide by dropping from a roof. And it was in that quiet house that the father and mother divorced, in a long, bitter mostly silent process that took years and left them both broken.
I’m not saying loud is preferable (My Connecticut DIL still tries to dive under the table while her husband and BIL scream at each other at the top of their considerably powerful voices over…. who gets to sit next to whom at holiday meals. Or whether one of them set the trivets in the right place for me to place the turkey pan.)
I’m saying that some family arguments — granted not the ones about Spiderman retcons — need to be had, no matter the volume. And that there’s worse than having arguments out in the open where the world can see and hear.
Sometimes “not in front of the kids, dear” is justifiable. And sometimes all it does is tamp down the tensions till everything explodes.
Let me unpack it for you: Of course Musk and Trump had a prejudice pro H1B visas. The first came here with one, and he and the second see only the results after they’ve been normalized, tamped, cleared and made rational by their middle managers.
So, of course, Trump and Elon stepped in it, after Vivek really stepped in it by thinking America is how Hollywood portrays it.
But Elon and Trump have walked it back, and I really think they mean it. They truly were not aware of how bad it’s gotten. Yes, every new job created in a quarter going to foreign born people might have been a clue, but I think they didn’t connect it.
They didn’t realize how bad it was 20 years ago and how it has incrementally grown. Yes, sure, offshoring is bad but “inshoring” and laying off your entire department to bring in foreign labor who then perpetuates itself by despising Americans, in a purely xenophobic snit (Hi Vivek!) is just as bad. And creates massive resentment.
Which Elon and Trump got to see, up close and personal.
(Oh, and much as I stare at Vivek in horrified fascination, let me tell you as someone who acculturated, this is one of the phases. You’re trying to understand your new culture, and you go through a phase of believing the media, not realizing it has its own biases. “Oh, so things really are like Revenge of the Nerds. Or Pretty In Pink. Or whatever.” You have to work at moving out of that phase. So I have some limited sympathy for him. Acculturating is difficult and a hell of a lot of work. Which is reason #300000 why mass immigration is a bad idea and makes every country worse. As the world is finding out.)
#3
Supply and demand curves have feelings nor emotions. Every piece of imported labor (increased "supply") will reduce the price paid to labor already here.
Even communists understand supply and demand curves work--they let the mask slip once or twice a year when they tap the strategic reserve to manipulate the price of gasoline. 5 minutes later they're back to practicing the equivalent of voodoo economics and pretending that actions don't cause reactions.
#4
Interesting debate on a topic that is about number ten on a list of importance.
1. Limited government has been weaponized against all of us.
2. Government has facilitated an invasion of our country.
3. Fix our economy please.
4. Stop hosing down Ukraine with our money.
5. Tell us where the Ukraine money and FEMA money went.
6. Epstein was selling kids to adults, but only one person ever got charged. Now we have Diddy.
7. Did Fauci create a virus that killed a bunch of people? What about Bird Flu?
8. How come we have political prisoners that are confined pre trial and then railroaded? Was it a setup?
9. Why is our military ineffective again Iran and the Houthi?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/01/2025 14:55
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#5
Seriously, I have been against it from day one as it is a form of INDENTURED SERVITUDE
Just give them a green card ... And quit all that stupid lawyer and lottery shit for green cards.
Maybe make the first 3 or 4 years a provisional green card and if you don't screw up then just renew it. Cut the damned lawyers out of the game.
Oh and green card owners are fair job competition compared to an H1B that can be quickly kicked out of the country if they don't lick their employers boots right.
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that scores of terror operatives were killed overnight in ambushes led by the military's 162nd Division in Jabalia, amid days of heavy operations in northern Gaza....The operation came after the IDF said Saturday that it had wrapped up an extensive raid that began early Friday at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, just outside Jabalia, in which it arrested hundreds of terror operatives. ,,)
The head of the World Health Organization called on Monday for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan, who was being held by the IDF following its operation at the facility.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/01/2025
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The man accused of shoving a stranger in front of an oncoming subway train has been pictured for the first time as he's marched through a station in handcuffs.
Kamel Hawkins, 23, was charged with attempted murder and second-degree assault following the sickening random attack on Tuesday afternoon.
Surveillance video showed the unnamed victim, 45, standing by the edge of the platform as the train approached at 18th street in Chelsea, Manhattan about 1.30pm.
Hawkins, wearing a mask, paced behind the man for several seconds before pushing him onto the tracks as a train approached. The man miraculously survived.
Pictures show the moment Hawkins was captured by police and escorted through the subway into custody.
In the photographs, Hawkins is wearing a grey hooded sweatershirt and navy pants, having changed out of the clothes he was wearing at the time of the assault.
A law enforcement official told the New York Post the man survived because 'he fell perfectly in the trench,' describing the near miss as an act of God.
According to the publication, Hawkins has a pending assault cases going through the courts.
He was allegedly charged with assault in June 2019 after attacking a police officer, and was charged on October 12 for assault, harassment and possession of weapons.
Cops said the subway shover did not appear to know the victim, and described it as a random attack.
Two young men who jumped the turnstile to avoid paying for their ticket just seconds before then turned and fled after witnessing the shocking attack.
It is the latest in a string of concerning attacks on the New York City subway system, after a woman was tragically and fatally set alight by a stranger earlier this month.
Separate footage shared by stunned passengers later showed the moment the victim was rescued from under the train.
Around a dozen firefighters were worked to pull the man from the subway tracks. Authorities said the victim, who appeared to have blood on his face, was hospitalized in critical condition.
He is expected to survive the incident, but has suffered an injury to his head and has a broken rib, NBC reported.
A woman filming the encounter could be heard expressing her relief that the victim had survived as he was helped onto the platform.
The latest incident will put more pressure on officials to bring an end to horror subway attacks.
On Christmas Eve, two people were injured in Manhattan's Grand Central Station after a maniac went on a stabbing rampage.
Sources told DailyMail.com at the time that a 28-year-old man slashed two strangers with a knife in the seemingly random attack just after 10pm at the busy tourist hotspot.
And just days before, the Big Apple was stunned when a homeless woman was set on fire and burned to death while she slept on a subway car.
The victim was identified Tuesday by the NYPD as Debrina Kawam, a 61-year-old homeless woman from New Jersey.
Kawam's murder captured international headlines as people were left reeling by the response of the NYPD.
An officer was seen walking past the victim while she was still ablaze, while the man who allegedly set her on fire - illegal immigrant Sebastian Zepeta - stood by fanning the flames with his jacket.
Zepeta, 33, is facing murder and arson charges following the horror incident.
Officials used fingerprint data, dental records and DNA evidence to identify Kawam, and said she was believed to have been homeless. She was originally from Tom's River, New Jersey.
Kawam was reportedly sleeping on the subway car around 7:30am on December 22 at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn when she was set ablaze.
[IsraelTimes] A senior commander in the Paleostinian 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... terror group was killed in a dronezap earlier this month in 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... Strip, the IDF and Shin Bet say.
The target of the strike, Anas Muhammad Saadi Masri, served as the commander of the northern Gaza sector in Islamic Jihad’s rocket division, according to the military.
Masri was considered by the military to be a prominent commander in Islamic Jihad, responsible for numerous attacks on Israel and IDF troops.
On the October 7, 2023, onslaught and during the war, Masri was responsible for Islamic Jihad’s rocket fire from the northern Gaza Strip at Israeli border communities and for commanding the operatives who carried out the attacks, the army says.
The IDF says it took steps to mitigate civilian harm in the strike at the beginning of December.
[IsraelTimes] Security agency releases audio from rescue of hostage in Gaza as part of report summarizing its operations; also highlights involvement in killing dozens of terror commanders
In an annual report published Tuesday summarizing its activities over the past year, the Shin Bet said it interrogated more than 650 suspects from 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... Strip, thwarted 1,040 major terror attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, busted 20 terror cells among Arab Israeli citizens and foiled a record 13 Iranian espionage plots.
Since the Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... -led onslaught that sparked the war on October 7, 2023, the Shin Bet said it was involved in killing dozens of top officers in Hamas and other Paleostinian terror groups in both Gaza and Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... . The internal security agency also said it assisted in several missions to rescue hostages from Gaza and unveiled audio from the rescue of Cpl. Ori Megidish last October.
Additionally, the agency said it helped thwart hundreds of cyberattacks on Israel; secure hundreds of Israeli officials on trips to Gaza, Lebanon and Syria; and protect dozens of Israeli groups abroad — including Israeli participants in the Malmo Eurovision and Gay Paree Olympics — amid a worldwide rise in violence against Israelis and Jews.
During 2024, the agency said, Shin Bet agents assisted in detaining some 1,350 Paleostinians passing through IDF checkpoints, including 40 senior commanders, 165 people considered close to brass hats, 45 suspected of involvement in the October 7 onslaught and another 100 thought to have information about the hostages.
In all, the Shin Bet said it "handled" some 2,500 suspects from the Strip this past year, over 650 of whom were later interrogated. According to the agency, the interrogations yielded information that was "life-saving" for troops in Gaza and led to the targeting of hundreds of terror sites there.
The Shin Bet said it helped guide operations in Gaza to kill over 30 top Hamas officials, including Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who soldiers rubbed out in a chance encounter in Rafah in October, and military chief Muhammad Deif, who was targeted in an Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... on Khan Younis in July and confirmed dead a month later after numerous failed liquidation attempts.
Both were architects of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, devastating attack on southern Israel, when thousands of snuffies stormed the border to kill some 1,200 people and abduct 251, sparking the war in Gaza.
The Shin Bet said it assisted in the elimination of 25 Lebanon-based senior commanders in Paleostinian terror groups, including Hamas, al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine.
Among those killed by Israel in Lebanon was Hamas’s deputy political leader, Saleh al-Arouri.
’BRINGING YOU HOME’
The Shin Bet was also involved in three hostage rescue missions in Gaza since the beginning of the war, as well as several missions to recover the bodies of captives.
To date, Israel has rescued eight hostages alive and recovered the bodies of 38 people, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to flee their captors. It is believed that 96 of the hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza, including 34 confirmed dead.
Hamas released 105 hostages during the weeklong ceasefire last November, and four hostages before that.
The Shin Bet released a never-before-heard recording from the October 30, 2023, operation in which troops in north Gaza freed Megidish, a surveillance soldier kidnapped from the Nahal Oz army base.
In the recording, a Shin Bet says to Megidish over the radio: "Ori, Ori my dear, you are in good hands, the guys rescued you, they’re bringing you home. You are amazing and brave, well done. Are you okay?"
"Yes, yes, I’m okay," Megidish can be heard saying.
WEST BANK AND JERUSALEM
In the West Bank and Jerusalem, the Shin Bet said it had foiled 1,040 "significant" terror attacks, including 689 planned shootings, 326 involving bombs, 13 stabbings, nine car-rammings, two suicide kabooms and one kidnapping.
Relative to 2023, which saw a years-high surge in terror attacks, the Shin Bet reported a 40% drop in the West Bank and Jerusalem this year.
The agency said that, in cooperation with the IDF and police, it participated in dozens of special operations in the West Bank, including to detain suspects or eliminate threats, as well as several raids against button men operating in hospitals in Jenin and Nablus, in the northern West Bank.
Since the October 7 Hamas atrocities, Israel has largely blocked entry to Israel for Paleostinians from the West Bank, disrupting the livelihood of thousands, and carried out large-scale counterterrorism operations there. Troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas, according to the IDF.
During that span, more than 835 Paleostinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry. The military has said that the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or snuffies carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 43 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.
TERROR CELLS, ESPIONAGE AND CYBERATTACKS INSIDE ISRAEL
Within Israel, the Shin Bet said that during 2024 it carried out hundreds of operations, uncovering 20 terror cells made up of Arab citizens. Five of the cells had planned to carry out terror attacks with bombs or boom-mobiles, the agency said.
On 32 occasions, the Shin Bet said, it had dispatched the elite Tequila team to foil imminent terror attacks. The counterterrorism force is made of fighters from the Shin Bet and the police’s elite Yamam unit.
The Shin Bet also said it had detained a record number of suspects in espionage-related cases in 2024 — an increase of 400% compared to 2023. On Monday, the agency said it had arrested a resident of Petah Tikva for allegedly torching cars and surveilling the phone of former defense minister Benny Gantz on behalf of Iran.
According to the Shin Bet, 13 incidents of Israelis allegedly spying or carrying out other tasks for Iranian elements were foiled in 2024. The Shin Bet said 27 indictments had been filed in connection to the incidents.
Iran, which is openly committed to Israel’s destruction, supports Hamas and has smuggled arms to Paleostinian terror groups in the West Bank. The Islamic Theocratic Republic took a blow this past year as the Assad regime in Syria fell and Israel decimated Hezbollah, Tehran’s Lebanese proxy.
The Shin Bet said it also helped the IDF and National Cyber Directorate foil some 700 cyberattacks in 2024, out of thousands of cyberattacks by various adversaries amid the Gaza war — a five-fold increase relative to previous years, according to the Shin Bet.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Novikov
[REGNUM] The outgoing year was a successful one for relations between Russia and China. It marked the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. China also became the first country visited by Russian President Vladimir Putin after his election.
The Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui drew attention to the successful development of economic relations between our countries. Trade turnover increased by 2.1% compared to last year, Chinese companies successfully localize production in the territory of the Russian Federation. At the same time, agricultural products from our country are popular in the PRC.
It is difficult to disagree with the Chinese ambassador, since the joint opposition to Western countries has indeed brought Russia and China closer together both politically and economically.
Our country's role as China's leading energy partner is growing. On December 20, Gazprom announced a new record for daily gas supplies to China. The company's management believes that demand for gas there will grow, while Europe is gradually curtailing cooperation in this area.
According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, the implementation of the project for a new gas pipeline to China via Kazakhstan, which Regnum News Agency wrote about earlier, has begun.
However, the trade partnership has its own challenges. In November, China's exports fell by 10.5%, a similar situation was observed in March, when they fell by 16% for the first time since 2022. This negative dynamics is explained by two factors: a gradual slowdown in the Chinese economy and Western sanctions.
The negative impact of the latter was pointed out by Finance Minister Anatoly Siluanov. According to him, the threat of secondary sanctions for ties to Russian companies (at the end of 2023, US President Joe Biden signed a decree on sanctions against banks for cooperation with the Russian defense industry) repels investors from abroad.
Chinese banks are wary of entering the Russian market, and in the summer about 80% of payments in yuan returned back to Russia.
However, both countries are interested in cooperation today.
Russia and China challenge the global dominance of the United States and its allies to protect their own sovereignty. Both countries are now subject to sanctions by the West, which views them as revisionists undermining its power.
China is in for a tough time as the tariff war is set to flare up again in the coming year. US President-elect Donald Trump intends to impose a 60% tariff on all goods from the country and 100 to 200% on car imports from China.
Europe will gradually introduce similar restrictions, despite the fact that electric cars from China are in demand there: in 2023, they accounted for 7.9 % of the market, although in 2019 this figure was much more modest - 0.9%. However, it was on them that the EU authorities imposed duties of up to 35.3% for a period of 5 years.
The decision will hit the European economy hard, as it had planned to completely phase out internal combustion engines by 2035. Moreover, some European car companies had called for an end to the restrictive policy towards China, but America imposed its own position on its allies.
"We need the Europeans to be with us. I think we are starting to make progress, " U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said in September.
Russia, on the contrary, is becoming the leading importer of cars from China. Our country confidently occupies first place, being the main buyer of products of the Chinese auto industry. In November of the outgoing year, 103 thousand cars were imported to us (18% of the total volume), while Mexico, which is in second place, received 35.5 thousand.
China is organically occupying those segments of the Russian market that have become free after the departure of Western companies.
Russia and China also confidently support each other in the area of metals trade.
After the introduction of sanctions, the Shanghai Futures Exchange became the only major commodity exchange where aluminum, copper and nickel from the Russian Federation are listed. According to experts, importing metals from our country at a reduced price can support the Chinese economy in conditions when Washington imposed a duty on electric vehicles and batteries from China.
There is also a unity of political aspirations.
It was shown at the BRICS summit in Kazan, where the Chinese delegation was personally headed by the Chairman of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping. Together with Vladimir Putin, they held a bilateral meeting, where, in particular, they discussed the problem of settlements between our countries.
Details of these negotiations were not disclosed, but Donald Trump reacted very sharply to the activities of the summit in Kazan, threatening to introduce 100% tariffs against BRICS if this organization creates its own currency.
The US President's excitement is easy to explain: this year, Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia joined the organization, and Saudi Arabia is considering joining. The share of global GDP accounted for by the BRICS countries, taking into account the new members, was 28.1%, and the gap with Western countries is gradually narrowing.
The world has entered an era of new confrontation. The United States is losing its global hegemony, but is not ready to give up the advantages of a unipolar world. The desire of Russia, China and other countries to pursue their own policies is causing them to reject it.
Western countries, using tariff and sanctions pressure, want to prevent the formation of a full-fledged alternative to their own economic system. And this conflict will only escalate in the coming year.
In the current conditions, it is important for Russia and China to develop partnership relations, because the prospects for the formation of a new polycentric order, which will be based on the interaction of equal sovereign states, directly depend on this.
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.
... the personification of Somali state failure...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
...
...Arabic for 
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...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?...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
[MRC] 
...Mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. He was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistain in 2002 and interned at Guantanamo...
According to the publication, on December 30, the military appeals court overturned the order of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who in August canceled a pre-trial deal between the prosecution and three terrorists - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi - to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence.
A 
[NYPOST] A Connecticut man facing multiple charges in the deaths of a mother and her infant son allegedly killed them over money the woman owed him.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
