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Europe
Germany
27.12.2024 German President Steinmeier today announced his decision to dissolve the German parliament (Bundestag) and set Feb. 23 as the date for new general elections. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
27 December 2024 The mass exodus of companies from Germany has shown the country was now effectively 'bankrupt', Jandura, the head of the Federal Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) has said. “The large companies are relocating, the medium-sized companies are suffering or closing down. This is a declaration of bankruptcy for Germany as a business location' - he added. Jandura expected more firms to leave over high costs in 2025. He warned that the country’s deindustrialisation was structural in nature and that nothing would change if issues to do with high energy costs were not dealt with. Until then, manufacturers in the chemicals, metals and mechanical engineering sectors would continue to leave. That sentiment was echoed by Adrian, the president of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, who warned that the country was no longer competitive on the international stage. “Companies in this country have had to cope with many new burdens and too much government intervention in recent years,' he said. “Their confidence in the location is therefore at an all-time low.' Issues relating to industry and energy costs are high on the agenda heading into Germany’s snap election in February, as are questions surrounding Islamic extremism and mass migration. The various crises facing the country have so far benefited the political Right. (Source: Brussels Signal)
Asia
Afghanistan
(December 27, 2024) Intense clashes broke out between Taliban and Pakistani border troops in Dand-e-Patan district of Afghanistan’s Paktia province. The fighting, which reportedly began around 1 a.m. local time today, lasted for several hours, with both sides exchanging heavy fire. The clash comes just three days after Pakistani airstrikes targeted the Barmal district of neighboring Paktika province. The Taliban claimed the strikes were aimed at Waziristani refugees and resulted in the deaths of 46 people. (Source: Amu TV - U.S.)
China
(December 27, 2024) Today, at a dry dock at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard on Changxing Island in Shanghai, China has held a launch ceremony for its first super-sized Type 076 amphibious assault ship, now named Sichuan. The vessel does not look to have gone into the water yet. It has been under construction since at least October 2023. The best look of the ship to date is including its twin island configuration, its wide flight deck with a single electromagnetic catapult, its well deck, and its extensive array of close-in defenses. (Source: The War Zone - U.S.)
Gaza
December 27, 2024 Nearly 50 Palestinians were killed yesterday in an Israeli air strike on a building near Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last functioning hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, including five medical staff, the ministry of health said. Kamal Adwan was once the largest hospital in northern Gaza, catering to around 400,000 people. But since October 5, the hospital has come under attack, severely damaging facilities and reducing its operational capacity. Three hundred and fifty people are inside the hospital, including 75 injured and patients, and 180 medical staff and workers in the hospital's various departments. Last week, the Israeli military launched a violent raid on the hospital, demanding its evacuation, while 400 civilians were inside the hospital, according to the hospital director. (Source: The National - United Arab Emirates)
Kazakhstan
(27 December 2024) Thirty-eight people died when the Embraer jet came down at high speed, bursting into flames 3km short of the runway at Aktau airport. The plane had originally tried to land at Grozny airport in southern Russia, but witnesses have spoken of an explosion before it was diverted across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan. Flight attendant Asadov who was among 29 survivors on the crashed plane told local media that the plane was 'hit by some kind of external strike'. "The impact of it caused panic inside. We tried to calm them down, to get them seated. At that moment, there was another strike, and my arm was injured.' The head of Russia's civil aviation agency said today that the situation in the Chechen capital was very complicated and that a closed-skies protocol had been put in place. 'Ukrainian combat drones were launching terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the cities of Grozny and Vladikavkaz,' said Yadrov, head of Rosaviatsia, in a video statement posted on Russia's Tass news agency. "Because of this a 'Carpet plan' was introduced in the area of Grozny airport, providing for the immediate departure of all aircraft from the specified area," he said. "In addition, there was dense fog in the area of Grozny airport." Kazakh authorities have refused to give details of their crash investigation. Azerbaijan Airlines says the preliminary results of an investigation into the crash of its plane in Kazakhstan on 25 December have blamed physical and technical external interference. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
(Friday, 27 December 2024) Azerbaijan Airlines said today that preliminary findings from the investigation into Wednesday's crash of a Russia-bound passenger plane suggest 'physical and technical external interference.' The Embraer jet came down near Aktau airport in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, killing 38 people. Twenty-nine survived. /Map; Video/ (Source: DW - Germany)
Pakistan
Dec 27, 2024 12:34 IST 15 terrorists including commander killed in KP security operations. (Source: Asian News International - India)
North America
United States
Dec 27, 2024, 19:31 IST Musk fueld H-1B debate. Casey on X wrote: Tonight Musk agreed with a post calling Americans 'retarded.' Not only is this untrue - compare the average IQ in America to India - but it reveals a deep contempt for the American people. Methinks the immigrant billionaire should reconsider this path - it is anti-MAGA. 'Ramaswamy on X defended foreign talent': 'The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the Truth: Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts Young. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers. A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers. (Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates). More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.” Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve. Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest. “Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China. This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness. That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it'. (Source: Times of India)
Dec 27th, 2024, 9:05 am Free Speech. Loomer accused Musk of totalitarian behavior after she and other critics of the X owner was locked out of her X account and stripped of her verification badge (she has more than one million followers) after criticizing Musk’s comments on American workers and foreign H-1B visa holders. New York Young Republican Club president Wax, InfoWars host Shroyer, and the pro-Trump ConservativePAC were also stripped of their verification badges. [Musk] is now admitting it’s retaliation, Loomer wrote today in response to a message put out by Musk. According to Musk, accounts that are “found to be engaged in coordinated attacks to spam target accounts with mute/blocks will themselves be categorized – correctly – as spam.’ ’Live by the spam, die by the spam,’ he wrote. Translation: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, Nawfal wrote in response, to which Musk simply said, Yes. 'So calling out mass migration is ‘a stupid game?' she wrote. “So much for free speech. Quite totalitarian if you ask me.' In an earlier post, Loomer accused Musk of targeting her for questioning his ties to China and criticizing his support for H1B visas. Trump promised to remove the H1B visa program and I support his policy,” she wrote. Now, as one of Trump’s biggest supporters, I’m having my free speech silenced by a tech billionaire for simply questioning the tech oligarchy.’ Loomer argued salaries paid under work visas are not livable wages and Musk’s stance stands against Trump’s hardline immigration promises. Musk dismissed Loomer as simply “trolling for attention.” ’Ignore,’ he wrote in a yesterday post. Musk has found himself facing backlash from conservatives over his views on American workers. He endorsed a post that said the right is split into the ’tech right’ and “right right,” with the former believing Americans workers are too ’retarded’ to perform some tech jobs, meaning they need work visas to bring in foreign help. The post read: So basically the right split into two factions, tech right and right right, and the tech right is like ’hey we need h-1b visa people to do the jobs,’ and the right right was like “no you need to hire americans,” and the tech right is like ’but you guys are retarded,’ and the right right is like “well you don’t train us,” and the tech right is like ’you can’t outtrain being retarded,’ and while all this was going on we learned some people *really* don’t like Indians. That pretty much sums it up, Musk wrote in response. (Source: Mediaite – U.S.)
Dec 27th, 2024, 6:24 am Wax – one of the most vocal critics of Musk’s stance on H-1B visa immigration – was also stripped of his verification badge yesterday evening. “My verification badge is now under review. Weird! Didn’t change anything,” he announced. 'Insane that blue checks are being removed from accounts that have been vocal in their criticism of the H1B racket. Horrible look. I’ve supported Elon and X. Anyone who was at the @NYYRC gala can attest that I dedicated a large portion of my speech to praising Elon. Sad!” In another post, Wax joked, “Okay let me try this and see if I get my badge back: Americans are stupid and lazy and have created nothing. India is a superpower and has the smartest and best talent the world has ever seen. America needs 1 billion new migrants to bring us the fruits of civilization. We are stupid and must repent!” After being stripped of his own verification badge, Shroyer expressed concern. “It feels like early-stage censorship on X,' he warned. Several of the affected accounts appear to be affiliated with the pro-Trump ConservativePAC, which also expressed opposition to Musk’s remarks on immigration. "All of our influencers have now lost verification status, as well as our own page. Our brand did nothing,” the PAC protested. “We spoke out against HB1 visas and it appears that @elonmusk intentionally shut us down? Is this the new status quo from America’s ‘most free’ social media platform?' Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-chair Ramaswamy both received backlash yesterday for supporting the hiring of foreign workers on H-1B visas over local Americans. Musk then dug himself even deeper yesterday evening after he endorsed a post which suggested Americans were too 'retarded' to be hired for skilled jobs. (Source: Mediaite - U.S.)
12/27/2024 Overnight, Trump cheerleaders have used Musk’s platform to attack the world’s richest man - and many now claim Musk is using his social media omnipotence to shut them down. “Never insult the monarch,” MAGA chronicler Cernovic warned his 1.3 million followers. Musk replied: “I am constantly insulted on this platform.” That was the final straw for Loomer, a failed Republican congressional candidate who got so close to Trump during the campaign that she accompanied him on the plane to the presidential debate with Harris. “This is America. We don’t have a monarchy. This is outrageous,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after claiming that she was being censored on the platform by Musk. Loomer waded into the Boxing Day culture war sparked by Ramaswamy’s controversial post claiming that 'American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.' A debate over H1B visas has quickly descended into a bitter feud between those - led by the tech crowd - who believe importing highly skilled workers from abroad will boost the American economy and those - like Trump himself - who have long argued that the visas are being abused by companies seeking cheaper foreign labor to the detriment of American workers. The traditional white working-class bedrock of the MAGA movement, which sprang from the Tea Party, has always been intensely focused on reducing immigration, something Trump championed during his first term, symbolized by his promised wall along the border with Mexico. Musk tried to steer a path between the two sides, 'clarifying' his DOGE partner’s comments by saying that H1Bs should only be used for the very top talents, but the MAGA majority appeared not to be placated. Loomer claimed Musk and Ramaswamy infiltrated the movement for their own ends. “I have been more loyal to President Trump and his agenda than anyone. And I have only been punished for it. Pay attention MAGA. This is how you will all be treated now that Big Tech has infiltrated MAGA. 'President Musk' is starting to look real,” she said. She also posted a clip from a speech and a statement by Trump decrying the abuse of H1B visas. 'Tech bros have never seen this statement from @realDonaldTrump because they only decided to pretend being MAGA 4 months ago after Trump almost has his head blown off in Butler, PA. I am an original MAGA Trump supporter. I’m as die hard as they come. MAGA! America First!” Soon after her intervention, Loomer found that her X privileges had been curtailed. She said her checkmark had been removed, and her subscriptions had been canceled. “Breaking: @elonmusk also just canceled all of my subscriptions and sent a message to all of my subscribers saying, 'Loomer deactivated her subscriptions' as a way to demonetize me. That’s a lie. I didn’t do it. Why would I cancel my own subscriptions? This is @elonmusk retaliating against me for speaking truth. @elonmusk is a free speech fraud. Big Tech just doesn’t want to be held accountable. What am I guilty of? Supporting Trump’s own Policy of banning H1B visas and fighting for American tech workers. @realDonaldTrump Elon wants to attack your loyalists. This is unacceptable.” Dozens of other accounts criticizing Musk and Ramaswamy’s position also claimed that their checkmarks had been taken away. The executive director of Women for America First, Kremer, said hers had disappeared. The ConservativeOG group on X said the same had happened to them and their affiliated influencers. “Woah, @elonmusk just stripped our entire organization of badges and verified org status. I guess this is what you get when you hand the keys over to an autistic, power-hungry, self-aggrandizing traitor to his country,” wrote MAGA influencer Parra. Kassam, co-founder of Bannon’s War Room, posted: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” He posted a clip of Colorado’s Democratic governor Polis telling CNN that Musk was right to defend the H1B visas. 'When @jaredpolis is your ideological ally, @elonmusk, you know you done f***ed up,' he wrote. Disgraced former congressman Gaetz, Trump’s unlikely pick to head the Justice Department, suggested that Musk and his Silicon Valley allies stay in their lane. “We welcomed the tech bros when they came running our way to avoid the 3rd grade teacher picking their kid’s gender - and the obvious Biden/Harris economic decline. We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy.” (Source: MSN / The Daily Beast = U.S.)
"Opinion by Hines"
Dec 27, 2024 01:47 PM IST After days of posting anti-India content on X, starting with her potshots at the appointment of Krishnan as Trump’s AI advisor, the polarising 'far-right' activist Loomer claimed that Krishnan wants to take jobs away from Americans and outsource them to Indians, with her posts sparking a raging storm of racism against Indians. In separate posts, she also called for an end to the use of H1B visas, which allows highly skilled foreign employees to live and work in the United States. “Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third-world invaders from India,” she wrote in one post. (Source: Hindustan Times - India)
December 27, 2024 The West kept Ukraine in the fight. A U.S.-led international coalition comprised of over forty countries has provided over $100 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine. In terms of military aid, the United States is by far the single most important supporter of Ukraine with over $62 billion worth of security aid packages. The United States has provided Ukraine with M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), MGM-140 Army Tactical Ballistic Systems (ATACMS), MIM-104 Patriot air defense batteries, M1 Abrams main battle tanks, M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, M-777 155mm towed howitzers, M109 Paladin 155mm self-propelled howitzers, T-72B main battle tanks, National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), FIM-192 Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, over 4 million artillery munitions, and more than 500 million small arms bullets and grenades. ’These are just some’ of the weapon systems and capabilities provided to Ukraine. As the manufacturing country, the United States has also authorized other countries to provide Ukraine with F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets. In terms of transferring these weapon systems to Ukraine, the United States has been doing it in two different ways: Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) packages and Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) packages. PDA packages draw from the Pentagon’s existing stocks to provide immediate relief and capabilities to the Ukrainian forces. The U.S. military has been providing weapon systems from its reserves in order not to jeopardize its global deterrence posture. USAI packages provide the Pentagon with money to buy brand-new capabilities for the Ukrainian military. It can take years before they are delivered to the Ukrainian military. Alternatives methods of funding: Yesterday, the United States sent Kyiv the first tranche of loans generated solely from profits from seized frozen Russian assets. According to Kyiv, the first loan was worth $1 billion. Japan will also be sending $3 billion generated from seized frozen Russian assets. Earlier in December, the United States announced that it would be allocating approximately $20 billion from seized frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. The Group of Seven, under the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration Loans initiative, will provide approximately $50 billion to Ukraine in 2025 from the profits generated from seized frozen Russian assets; the funds will go toward helping the Ukrainian military, as well as providing important financial relief to the Ukrainian government. (Source: The National Interest – U.S.)
by Atlamazoglou, a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran.
Mexico
December 27, 2024 Mexico will launch a mobile application with an alert button for migrants facing imminent detention in the United States, the government said today. "If you find yourself facing imminent arrest, you press an alert button that sends a signal to the nearest consulate," Mexican Foreign Minister de la Fuente told. The app, which is expected to be ready in January, will also notify the person's family and the Mexican foreign ministry, he added. There were an estimated four million unauthorized Mexican immigrants in the United States in 2022, according to the US-based Pew Research Center. Mexico has dozens of consulates across the neighboring country. Trump has promised to declare a national emergency at the border with Mexico and expel millions who lack residency papers, calling the arrival of migrants an "invasion." (Source: Barron's - U.S. / Agence France Presse)
NATO
27/12/2024 - 11:38 NATO Secretary-General Rutte said today that NATO will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea as Estonia's navy began patrolling an undersea cable supplying energy from Finland. A different cable, the Estlink 2 submarine cable that carries electricity from Finland to Estonia was disconnected from the grid On Christmas Day, just over a month after two telecommunications cables were severed in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic. Finnish authorities yesterday said they were investigating the oil tanker Eagle S, that sailed from a Russian port, as part of a probe for aggravated sabotage. (Source: France 24 / AFP = France)
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