Egyik 19

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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)

4 12 27.19:47

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Europe

Hungary
26 December 2024  "Pole and Hungarian brothers be" is a well-known proverb in both countries. Hungary granted asylum to a wanted Polish ex-minister as a "political refugee." On December 19, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán granted asylum to the former Polish Deputy Justice Minister Romanowski, He has indicated he is open to further cases. In an interview with the conservative pro-government Hungarian news portal Mandiner, he also called the current Polish government a liberal rainbow coalition that 'uses the rule of law and legal means to get even with its political opponents.' Polish-Hungarian relations are at a low point 'because the liberal Polish rainbow coalition is unable to distinguish between party and state politics,' Orbán said. On December 20, Romanowski said he wanted to continue working from Budapest for a "sovereign, Christian and strong Poland." (Source: DW - Germany)

Lithuania
December 26, 2024  Earlier this month, the Lithuanian Defence Materiel Agency under the Ministry of National Defence (DMA) announced it signed a contract with KNDS Deutschland for forty-four Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks (MBTs) valued at €950 million ($988 million) to equip a Lithuanian Army armored unit. Lithuania passed its 2025 state budget, which will allocate 4 percent of its GDP (gross domestic product) to defense. Earlier this month, the German-based Rheinmetall announced it had begun construction of an artillery ammunition plant in the Lithuanian city of Baisogala, in the center of the country. The plant is on track to begin producing 155mm rounds - the NATO standard ordnance for weapons, including the M777 towed howitzer and numerous self-propelled artillery platforms - by the middle of 2026. During a recent visit to Germany Minister of National Defence Šakalien had further pledged that Vilnius would remain committed to hosting a Bundeswehr military brigade near the border of Belarus. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

Spain
26.12.2024  According to Spain’s Interior Ministry, 57,738 migrants reached Spain’s shores as of Dec. 15. At least 10,457 people perished while trying to reach Spain’s coasts irregularly in 2024, migration NGO Caminando Fronteras said today. The vast majority of the migrants -  9,757 - died on the Atlantic route from northwest Africa to the Canary Islands. The group also reported that 131 boats disappeared without a trace. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Azerbaijan
December 26, 2024  Confusion reigns over the causes for the crash of the Azal passenger plane on December 25 that killed 38 from a total of 72 people on board. Conflicting evidence suggests it was either a bird strike, or the plane was possibly shot down by Russian surface-to-air missile defences over the Chechen capital of Grozny. The passenger plane crashed near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan, during a flight from Baku to Grozny. It is possible that a missile exploded near the plane, but then it is likely the passengers would have seen the explosion through the windows. It is also possible the plane was hit by shrapnel from a missile that exploded much further away from the plane out of the line of site, but the concentration of shrapnel damage on the fuselage and in the tail strongly suggests the explosion was close to the plane that strongly supports the theory of an explosion in the engine caused by a bird strike. (Source: bne IntelliNews - Germany)

Bosnia and Herzegovina
26.12.2024  Helez, the defense minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina yesterday said the country is reconsidering mandatory military service due to new global developments. 'Our neighbors Serbia and Croatia announced they will begin introducing mandatory military service. However, it would be very difficult to implement in Bosnia and Herzegovina due to complex constitutional structure," Helez told. Conscription in the Balkan country ended in 2006. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Kazakhstan
Thursday 26 December 2024 18:12 GMT  Russia plays down speculation over cause of Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan. Kazakh officials said that those on board the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals. Five of the 67 were crew. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Russia
December 26, 2024 2:47pm  Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo - all four of Moscow’s airports were been temporarily closed without any reason given, according to Russia’s aviation watchdog. Kaluga airport located just outside of Moscow have also been affected by the ruling. It is believed to be part of a ‘carpet’ plan which has been implemented at Moscow airports in recent years due to threats posed by drone attack, according to Russian media. (Source: Metro - United Kingdom)

Thursday 26 December 2024 11:55 GMT  Zelensky said more than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 attack drones were used to strike Ukraine’s power sources. 'US President Biden denounced the attack' and said he asked the US Defense Department to push forward with a new surge of military aid to Kyiv. Washington has committed $175 billion in aid for Ukraine. Russia’s foreign minister Lavrov said Ukraine launched western-made missiles and drones in the attack today and vowed retaliation. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Asia

Afghanistan
Dec 26, 2024 15:27 IST  Since its inception in the mid-1990s, the Taliban, which was then reared to destabilise the Soviet-backed regime, received significant support and backing from Pakistan. The Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, played a crucial role in the formation and sustenance of the Taliban for decades. In 1996, Pakistan was one of only three countries that recognised the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as a legitimate government. Pakistan provided the Taliban with military advisers, experts, and even combat troops, including members of its Special Services Group commandos. Islamabad has repeatedly denied the claims. This support continued despite international pressure and UN Security Council resolutions calling for an end to aid due to the Taliban's hosting of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. Pakistan, for decades let the radical militants grow along its northwestern borders. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), although a separate terror group from the one in Kabul, is known to have a tacit understanding with the Afghan Taliban. What Pakistan once nurtured as a strategic asset is now a volatile force threatening its own stability. TTP attacked a checkpoint in the country’s northwest, resulting in the deaths of 16 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, specifically in the Paktika province provoked a strong response from Afghanistan's Taliban regime, that has condemned the attacks and vowed retaliation. Pakistan now faces a dual Taliban challenge: the TTP, which operates against Islamabad from areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border and the Taliban that is in power in Afghanistan. Following the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, Pakistan has witnessed a spike in terror attacks as the new regime has emboldened and strengthened the TTP. The TTP aims to establish an Islamic emirate in Pakistan, just like its brother-outfit did in Kabul. Over 1,500 were killed, including 500 security personnel in terror attacks in Pakistan in 2023. After Islamabad accused the Kabul regime of cross-border terrorism, it has imposed trade restrictions, expelled some 5,00,000* undocumented Afghan migrants, and put in a stricter visa policy. Military actions on the TTP have continued too. Around 15,000 Taliban fighters from Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat are marching towards the Pakistani Mir Ali border adjoining Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to reports. (Source: India Today)
* Five hundred thousand

Japan
26 December 2024 12:39 pm  Japan Airlines said it was hit by a cyberattack today, causing delays to more than 20 domestic flights but the carrier said there was no impact on flight safety. (Source: Outlook India)

Myanmar
2024.12.26  About 6.5% of Myanmar’s 57 million people are Christian, many of them members of ethnic minorities in hilly border areas of Chin, Kachin, Kayah and Kayin states. Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar has been engulfed in conflict since the military overthrew an elected government in 2021, with fighting particularly heavy in ethnic minority areas where many Christians live and where generations have battled for self-determination. The chief of the junta, Senior Gen. Min, attended a Christmas dinner on Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral in the main city of Yangon and reiterated a call for insurgents to make peace, saying his government was strengthening democracy. Anti-junta forces dismiss his calls as meaningless and say there is no basis for trusting the military, which imprisoned its leaders and has tried to crush all opposition. More than 300 religious buildings, including about 100 churches and numerous Buddhist temples, have been destroyed by the military in attacks since the 2021 coup, shadow government says. Junta forces badly damaged the church in the home village of Myanmar’s most prominent Christian, Cardinal Bo, in an air raid in October. In November, the air force bombed a church where displaced people were sheltering near northern Myanmar’s border with China killing nine of them including children. In northwestern Myanmar’s Chin state, people fear military retaliation for losses to insurgent forces there in recent days and so have cut back their Christmas festivities. Many members of Myanmar’s Christian minority celebrated Christmas in fear this year, worried that the military would unleash airstrikes on them. “Everyone going to church is worried that they’re going to get bombed,' a resident, who declined to be identified, told on Christmas Day. “The sermons are as short as possible, not only at Christmas but every Sunday too,” she said. In an area under the control of anti-junta insurgents in a rebel zone in Myanmar's Kayah state lately religious ceremonies have only been held in Mother’s Cave, which is free from the danger of air strikes. Several hundred people, most of them women and children, crowded into the cave on Christmas Eve. (Source: Radio Free Asia - U.S.)

Syria
Dec 26, 2024, 1:43 PM  Protests have erupted across Syria over militants’ desecration of an Alawite shrine in Aleppo, with armed groups belonging to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) opening fire on protesters. Tens of thousands took to the streets in Latakia, Tartus, Homs, Hama, and Qardaha yesterday, resulting in violent confrontations. (Source: MEHR News Agency - Iran)

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Europe

France
24 December 2024  Thousands of worshippers will gather inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris at midnight today for the Christmas mass - the first since a major fire nearly destroyed the iconic structure in April 2019. The Paris diocese warned that only 2,700 worshippers would be allowed in for the service - one of several on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The 12th-century monument reopened earlier this month after a five-year restoration program by France's government that cost some €700 million ($728 million). A Neopolitan nativity scene has been installed to help tell the story of Christmas. Since the Cathedral fully reopened on 16 December, some 270,000 people have toured the site. (Source: DW – Germany)

Germany
24 December 2024  In his Christmas mass, the Protestant Bishop of Germany's northwestern city of Oldenburg, Adomeit, said that the festive season is a protest against pessimism and hopelessness. Adomeit praised those who came together to light candles, pray and mourn for the victims of the Christmas market attack in Magdeburg, who he said had shown that the light of humanity is stronger than the darkness of violence. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those who are suffering from this terrible act of violence, he added. Despite everything that frightens us, we want and may dare to trust, Adomeit told the congregation at Oldenburg's St. Lambert's Church. "Christmas is not just an event that we celebrate. It is an invitation to let our lives be shaped by this message." (Source: DW – Germany)

24.12.2024  Christmas market attacker Abdulmohsen in the German city of Magdeburg left will in vehicle he used in rampage. He stated his intention to donate all his assets to the German Red Cross. A further investigation revealed that Abdulmohsen gave a video interview on Dec. 12 at a Magdeburg hotel to a US-based activist group called RAIR Foundation* USA. During the interview, he praised billionaire entrepreneur Musk and Jones, raising further questions about his motivations and ideological leanings. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
* Renamed: Rise Align Ignite Reclaim, or RAIR Foundation - previously known as the Resistance Against Islamic Radicals (RAIR) - organization founded by Mekelburg (born 1972 ?), aka Amy Mek, an American activist, critic of Islam, with accounts banned in France and in Germany due to her postings. (Source: Wikipedia).

Spain
24 December 2024  In his Christmas message, Spain's King Felipe VI urged the public to draw lessons from this year's catastrophic floods. The monarch said the disaster, which killed 231 people, was 'an event difficult to accept, but from which we must all be able to draw the necessary lessons that strengthen us as a society and make us grow." Thousands of people were made homeless in the October 29 floods. "We have realized - and understood - the frustration, the pain, the impatience, the demands for a greater and more efficient coordination by the administrations," Felipe said in a reference to the public anger at the mismanagement of the disaster. (Source: DW – Germany)

Russia
24 December 2024 14:56  The 15 years old Russian vessel Ursa Major left St. Petersburg on Dec. 11. It sinks in Mediterranean, reportedly while en route to withdraw military assets from Syria. (Source: The Insider, Headquartered Riga, Latvia)

24 December 2024  Russia’s full-scale war comes to the North Caucasus. Since July, multiple republics in the North Caucasus have been subjected to drone attacks. Ukraine has declined to claim responsibility.    The first republic in the North Caucasus to be targeted by a drone attack was North Ossetia, which was struck twice in July 2024. The attack caused minor destruction and fires at the Mozdok military airfield. The most recent drone attack in North Ossetia occurred on 12 December, the target again being the Mozdok military airfield. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, all three ‘Ukrainian drones’ were shot down.    The republic of Daghestan was first targeted in November, when a group of drones attacked the Caspian Sea port city of Kaspiysk two times, which is home to a base of Russia’s Caspian Flotilla. At the time, the head of Daghestan, Melikov, claimed there were no casualties or damage. Ukrainian intelligence, however, told that two missile ships, the Tatarstan and the Daghestan, as well as other small naval vessels, were damaged.    On the morning of 15 December, three drones attacked the Chechen capital, Grozny. According to Chechen head Kadyrov, two of the drones were shot down by the city’s air defense systems, the third fell on the territory of the Akhmat Grozny unit of the Russian National Guard. It was the fourth attack in Chechnya since October. Kadyrov has repeatedly promised revenge following drone attacks, including suggesting that Ukrainian POWs should be used as human shields at potential military targets in the republic and beyond. Belokiev, a Chechen political blogger and former spokesman for the Sheikh Mansur Ichkerian battalion fighting for Ukraine believes that specific targets in Chechnya were chosen because the most elite soldiers and commanders are concentrated there. Chechnya, Belokiev notes, constantly uses [these sites] as a PR tool, claiming soldiers are being trained at facilities in the republic. Much more important objects on the territory of Chechnya could be hit from the Ukrainian point of view, Belokiev argues: The Russian military bases that are in the mountains, the FSB building that is located in Grozny, not far from the railway station, and so on. ’Even the residence of Kadyrov!’ According to Belokiev, Ukraine is not taking responsibility for these attacks because ‘Ukraine sees Chechens as its allies rather than enemies’, noting that Ukraine has recognised Chechnya as an occupied territory. ‘The Kadyrovtsy are not afraid to shoot down drones over residential buildings. They don’t try to shoot them down over some fields, or something. This shows that they don’t care about ordinary people. And if these drones fall somewhere and hit the civilian sector and civilians get hurt, it will not be Ukraine’s fault, but the Russian leadership, including the regional leadership,’ Belokiev argues. Not everyone is convinced that Ukraine has been behind the attacks. ‘It makes one wonder why they flew over the whole of Russia, why nobody shot them down or tried to shoot them down. A huge number of different versions arise here, including that it’s the FSB guys themselves shelling Chechnya, that it's not Ukraine. There is a version that perhaps these are saboteurs who somewhere print drones on 3D printers, assemble them, and launch them already from the territory of Russia, and perhaps even from the territory of the North Caucasus’, Belokiev notes. Kutayev, president of the civil society organisation Assembly of Peoples of the Caucasus, is absolutely certain that the FSB is behind the attacks on the North Caucasus republics, referring to ‘precise data’. ‘These are “corn planes”, which have a speed of only 50-70 kilometres per hour at best. To cover 1,300 kilometres, this UAV has to fly for more than a day. This is unreasonable and unrealistic. That is why there is absolutely no doubt that the FSB is launching them in Chechnya, in Grozny, against the Kaydyrovtsy, for its own internal [reasons], not fully understood by us, but there is no doubt that they exist. These are not Ukrainian UAVs, they are Russian UAVs, and they have a registered address - it is the FSB,’ Kutayev tells. Kutayev believes that the attacks on Chechnya are an attempt by the FSB to pressure Kadyrov into sending more people to Ukraine. He cites the targets chosen - mainly police regiments - as an argument. In his opinion, if the drones were Ukrainian, they would have flown to the city of Khankala, where the military leadership is located and where there is an airbase. Another theory promoted by sources from Ukrainian intelligence links the drone attacks in Chechnya to the deadly shooting at the Moscow office of the online retailer Wildberries, centering around a conflict between Kadyrov and lawmakers from neighboring North Caucasian republics. Ukraine has not yet made an official statement about the attacks on Chechnya and North Ossetia. The only target confirmed by Ukrainian journalists, citing their sources, was the attack on the Caspian Flotilla ships in Daghestan. (Source: OC Media /Open Caucasus Media/, headquarters Tbilisi, Georgia)
by Chukharova, born and raised in Vladikavkaz. She now lives in Prague, completing her Master's degree in Russian Studies at Charles University, specialising in the study of military and inter-ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus. She has previously worked for RFE/RL.
Note: Semi-fake?

Ukraine
12/24/2024  Ukraine used to celebrate Christmas on January 7. According to reports, around 150,000 Ukrainian soldiers remain at the frontline, out of a total of 2.2 million strong military personnel. Millions of Ukrainian refugees are spending their third Christmas abroad, having been offered shelter in neighboring European countries when the war began. More than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed. Between them, Ukraine and Russia are estimated to have lost around half a million soldiers during the nearly three-year war. Ukraine is this year celebrating Christmas in December for the second time after the law was changed to move away from the traditional January date observed by the Russian Orthodox Church. President Zelenskyy signed the legislation in 2023 stating the country 'would abandon the Russian heritage'. (Source: DW – Germany)

Vatican
24 December 2024  Pope Francis has opened the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, marking the official beginning of the Catholic Church's Jubilee 2025 year. In a wheelchair due to a severe knee condition,  Francis knocked several times on the heavy bronze door, which helpers then opened from the inside. He was then wheeled across the threshold as bells tolled across Rome and the choir inside the basilica began Christmas Eve Mass. Every 25 years, the Catholic Church celebrates a special Holy Year known as a Jubilee. During the year, the Catholic faithful can receive forgiveness for their sins through prayer and penance, including through a ritual that involves passing through the Holy Door. Millions of people are expected to travel to Italy over the next 12 months for the pilgrimage. Pope Francis has dedicated the 2025 Jubilee to the theme of hope. (Source: DW – Germany)

24 December 2024  Pope Francis, the 88-year-old pontiff will appear in front of 30,000 people and a live TV audience worldwide today evening to kick off the occasion, to open the "Holy Door" of St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican and to launch Jubilee 2025, a year of events which is also known as Holy Year and takes place every 25 years. Catholics can be forgiven for their sins in a ritual that involves walking through the imposing bronze Holy Door, which is normally bricked up. Visitors to the Vatican are expected to draw millions of pilgrims to Rome over the next year. Much of Rome has also been given a facelift in preparation, with monuments such as the Trevi Fountain and the Ponte Sant'Angelo cleaned up and roads redesigned to improve the flow of traffic. Some 700 security officers are being deployed for the Jubilee celebrations, with measures further tightened following Friday's deadly car-ramming on a Christmas market in Germany. Later today, Pope Francis will preside over the traditional Christmas Eve mass at St Peter's Square. Tomorrow, he will deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world). On Thursday, Francis will open a Holy Door at a prison in Rome and preside over a mass in a show of support for the inmates. (Source: DW – Germany)

Asia

Iran
(Tuesday), Dec 24, 2024, 4:52 PM  Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Baghaei has rejected claims that the country is using children as proxy forces to attack targets in Europe. Bloomberg claimed in a report on Saturday that Iran-affiliated groups have been recruiting local criminals, including minors, to target Jewish and Israeli institutions in Europe this year. Baghaei said the claims showed that making "accusations against Iran had entered a new phase" which he described as preposterous and ridiculous. (Source: IRNA - Iran)

Iraq
Dec 24, 2024, 5:12 PM  Iran attaches great importance to ties with Iraqi Kurdistan. The head of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Barzani, received Asadi, the new Consul General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Erbil. (Source: MEHR News Agency - Iran)

Syria
24 December 2024  Hope and fears of Christians in Syria under the new Islamist leadership. The country's de facto ruler Sharaa has told visiting Western officials that his government won't seek revenge against Assad's followers or repress other minority groups. However, several recent incidents have targeted Christians, including the burning of a Christmas tree, vandalism and a shooting at a Greek Orthodox church in Hama last week and the blasting of jihadi songs from vehicles in a predominantly Christian neighborhood. Syrian Christians attend first Christmas mass since Assad's ouster. Christmas Eve church services were held in Syria's capital Damascus for the first since President Assad was overthrown. The pews of Lady of Damascus Church were filled with Christian followers, holding candles and singing hymns. The service was an early test of a pledge by Syria's new Islamist rulers to protect the rights of the country's religious minorities. /Video/ (Source: DW – Germany)
107 404 views

2:32 PM CET, December 24, 2024  The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said today they have launched a counter-offensive against the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army to take back areas near Syria’s northern border with Turkey. The SDF is Washington’s critical ally in Syria, targeting sleeper cells of the extremist islamic state (is) group scattered across the country’s east. Tens of thousands of children, family members, and supporters of is militants are still held in large detention centers in northeastern Syria, in areas under SDF control. (Source: AP - U.S.)

24 Dec 2024  A meeting between Sharaa and the heads of the groups ended in an agreement on the dissolution of all rebel factions and their integration under the supervision of the ministry of defence. The Kurdish-led and United States-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) group in northeastern Syria is not part of the deal just announced. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

North America

United States
(Tuesday), Dec 24, 2024 07:02 PM IST  American airlines requested that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implement a nationwide ground stop for all American flights and their subsidiary airlines as of 6:49 a.m. ET. ’On Monday’ it grounded all of its flights across the country due to what it described as an unspecified technical issue, drawing ire from the passengers with travel plans on Christmas eve. (Source: Hindustan Times - India)

24 December 2024  US Air Force General Guillot, whose agency traditionally "tracks" Santa on Christmas Eve, has insisted that the recent mystery drone sightings over the northeastern United States won't impact deliveries of gifts. The sightings, which US agencies say are either aircraft, stars or hobbyist drones, have sparked curiosity worldwide that they could be unidentified flying objects (UFOs) from another planet. „Of course, we are concerned about drones and anything else in the air," Guilliot, who is commander of the US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), told. "But I don't foresee any difficulty at all with drones for Santa this year." The Santa tracker began in 1955 and his movements can now be followed by voice assistants like Siri and Alexa. NORAD reported today that Santa and his reindeer were making stops in Russia and Iran after visiting countries in East Asia over the past few hours. (Source: DW – Germany)

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Europe

Germany
23.12.2024  Germany announces new arms package for Ukraine. Weapons deal includes 15 Leopard 1 A5 main battle tanks, 2 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, self-propelled howitzer 2000, 2 Iris-T anti-aircraft systems, and 2 Patriot missile launch bases. Furthermore, Germany is now supplying Ukraine with an additional 65,000 rounds of anti-aircraft tank ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft tanks as well as additional ammunition for the Iris-T system. Germany will also supply AIM-9L/I Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, which enable fighter aircraft to attack targets in the air. In addition to the heavy weapons, the German arms package features also trucks, drones, other radar systems and ammunition. Germany has now provided a total of around €28 billion (29.1 billion dollars) in military aid available to support Ukraine. Part of the money was used to finance arms deliveries to industry, while the rest (€5.2 billion) comes from direct deliveries from the German military’s stocks. ;) (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Greenland
22 December 2024  Greenland has once again said it is not for sale after US President-elect Trump said he wanted to take control of the territory. Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede said: "We are not for sale and we will not be for sale." (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Poland
12/23/24 AT 4:57 PM EST  Poland has introduced mandatory firearm and basic first aid training for schoolchildren. The lessons, conducted for one hour per week in school gymnasiums, also include topics on state security, survival techniques, and tactical rescue. The Education for Safety program targets students aged 14 to 16. It teaches theoretical and practical gun-handling skills using laser-based weapons for safety. Students learn how to assemble and disassemble firearms, improve shooting accuracy, and respond to warfare-related threats. Cybersecurity awareness is integral component of the curriculum. Poland's education ministry emphasized that the initiative addresses ’the increasing threat to state security from the 2022 war in Ukraine.’ The program, designed in collaboration with the national defense ministry, builds on earlier optional training offered in some schools since 2022. The government plans to implement the program across all 18,000 schools nationwide, signaling a significant shift in education policy. Gun ownership, while regulated, is accepted in Poland, with strict background checks and mandatory training required for firearm licenses. (Source: International Business Times – U.S.)

23 December 2024 ...The United States has emerged as a major partner in the Polish nuclear programme, the implementation of which could make a significant contribution to Poland's energy transition. Following a 2020 agreement of cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy, the Polish government selected Westinghouse Electric Company’s AP1000 technology for the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant, which will have the participation of Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe. In September 2023, US companies Westinghouse Electric Company and Bechtel signed agreements to form a consortium focused on the design and construction of this facility. According to a PWC report commissioned by Westinghouse, the construction of six AP1000 units in Poland would result in a 39% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to current emissions from power generation sources, while providing emission-free energy to more than 13 million households. The US is also being considered as a partner in plans to build a second large nuclear power plant in Poland. Moreover, US companies are seen as important partners in the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in Poland. Polish company Orlen has been included in the US Phoenix Initiative, a government programme supporting Europe's transition from fossil fuels to SMR reactors. In total, the US plans to allocate 2 million dollars from the Phoenix programme to projects in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. OSGE, a joint venture between the Polish companies Orlen and Synthos, is currently considering seven future SMR locations in Poland, with Canadian company Laurentis Energy Partners as a potential partner. On 14 November 2024, OSGE signed an agreement to collaborate with Laurentis Energy Partners on the creation of a PSAR, the initial safety report required to begin licensing SMR technology... (Source: European Council on Foreign Relations - Headquarters Berlin, Germany)
By Kardaś
Note: "This paper examines Poland’s key international partnerships in energy generation, covering fossil fuels and renewable energy sectors, such as wind, solar, hydrogen, and nuclear power plants. It also identifies areas with untapped potential for further cooperation".

Romania
Mon, 23 Dec, 2024 - 20:15  Politicians have voted in favour of a new pro-European coalition government led by incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, whose PSD party topped the polls in the parliamentary election. Parliament approved the new administration in a 240-143 vote in Romania’s 466-seat legislature. The new coalition is made up of the leftist Social Democratic Party (PSD) the centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL), the ethnic Hungarian UDMR party and national minorities. In 2021, the PSD and the PNL also formed an unlikely but increasingly strained coalition together with UDMR, which exited the Cabinet last year after a power-sharing dispute. Romania’s 16 ministerial positions will be shared among the parties, which will hold a slim majority in the legislature. It is widely seen as a tactical partnership to shut out far-right nationalists whose voices found fertile ground amid high living costs and a sluggish economy. Mr Ciolacu said that the new government would aim to quickly organise the rerun of the presidential election in which the new coalition has agreed to put forward an agreed common pro-European candidate. Romania was plunged into turmoil after Mr Georgescu’s surprise success in the presidential race. Days before the December 8 run-off, the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the presidential race. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland / AP - U.S.)

Kosovo
23.12.2024  Kosovo on Feb. 9 will hold its first parliamentary elections since declaring its independence from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo’s Central Election Commission today barred the main ethnic Serb party from competing in the parliamentary election. The commission declined to certify the Serbian List, citing nationalist remarks by its leader, Elek. The list had been expected to win all 10 reserved seats for Serb representatives. The commission certified 16 out of 17 political entities on the list and 674 candidates for MP. Kosovo has an ethnic Serb minority, particularly in northern Kosovo, near the border with Serbia. The area has seen ethnic unrest in recent years. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Russia
December 23, 2024  Trump told at Turning Point’s America Fest convention yesterday that Putin said he "wants to meet with me as soon as possible.” The Kremlin said there are currently no plans for President Putin to meet with U.S. President-elect Trump. Kremlin Spokesman Peskov told TASS today that so far, there have been no real impulses for a meeting with Trump before his inauguration in January. Last week Putin dangled the prospect of Russian concessions before audiences in Washington and the West, saying more than once during his annual question and answer conference that Russia was ready for compromise. But he attached numerous conditions to the idea of compromise, suggesting that Moscow’s goal of subjugating Ukraine and winning major security guarantees from NATO and the West remain in place, as well as saying he does not consider President Zelenskiy a legitimate leader. (Source: RFE/RL – U.S.)

4 12 23 .12:57

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Europe

Russia
(Monday), 23/12/2024 - 00:49  Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico held talks with Russian President Putin in Moscow on Sunday, discussing gas transit and the war in Ukraine, as Kyiv signals it will not renew a key gas deal with Slovakia. Fico arrived in Russia on a working visit and met with Putin one-on-one yesterday evening. According to Kremlin spokesman Peskov, the talks were expected to focus on the international situation and Russian natural gas deliveries. Russian natural gas still flows to some European countries, including Slovakia, through Ukraine. Fico said the talks in Moscow were a reaction to what Zelenskyy told him on Thursday in Brussels, that he is against any gas transit to Slovakia through Ukraine. There President Zelenskyy told EU leaders that Kyiv has no intention of renewing the five-year agreement signed before the war that is due to expire at the end of this year, something Fico insisted will harm his country's interests. Fico also said that Zelenskyy is in favor of sanctions against Russia’s nuclear program, which he said was unacceptable and against the interest of his country that relies on nuclear energy. Fico said Putin confirmed to him that Russia is still ready to deliver gas to the West. Slovakia last month signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan. Earlier this year, it struck a deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas through a pipeline from Poland. The country can also receive gas through Austrian, Hungarian and Czech networks, enabling imports from Germany among other potential suppliers. Fico said they also discussed the military situation in Ukraine, chances for a peaceful solution to the war and the bilateral relations between their two countries. Fico’s views on Russia’s war on Ukraine differ sharply from most other European leaders. In an interview with the Rossiya-1 channel in October, he contended the West has prolonged the war by supporting Ukraine, adding that sanctions against Russia were ineffective. He declared that he was ready to negotiate with Putin. Fico also vowed to attend a military parade in Moscow next May that will mark the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II. (Source: France 24 / AP – U.S.)

Ukraine
8:46 ET, Dec 23 2024  Ukraine has deployed an all-robot assault force operated remotely to the battlefield for the first time to attack Russian troops in Kharkiv assault on a small section of the front. It involved remote-controlled flying surveillance and minelaying drones, one-way explosive robots on the ground and in the air as well as gun-armed ground ’bots. The precise details of the weapons are not known. Another weapon in Ukraine's robot arsenal is the deadly dragon drone, spewing lethal thermite. Anyone caught underneath the hot molten iron oxide that burns at 2,500 degrees and aluminium combination would be burned to death. Previously Ukraine was set to unleash robotic dogs in the war to replace soldiers in dangerous missions on the frontline. The robots have a battery life of up to two hours. They can carry up to 7kg of ammunition or medical supplies. Earlier this month a senior government minister said Ukraine will need thousands of uncrewed robotic ground vehicles next year to shuttle ammunition and supplies to infantry in the trenches and evacuate wounded soldiers. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

Africa

Mozambique
23.12.2024  Cyclone Chido struck the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, one of the islands most vulnerable to climate change, on Dec. 14. The storm later impacted Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, causing widespread devastation. The death toll in Mozambique from Cyclone Chido has risen to 94. The cyclone struck the country’s Indian Ocean coastline on Dec. 15, reached wind speeds of up to 260 kilometers per hour and affected around 622,000 people, destroying or partially damaging around 140,000 homes. In Malawi the death toll from Chido has risen to 13. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

Iran
Mon, December 23, 2024 at 10:30 AM GMT+1  Threats build around ally Iran. When Beijing brokered a historic peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia last year, it was seen as a milestone for China's proactive engagement with the Middle East. With the downfall of Syria's Assad, and the loss of Hamas and Hezbollah during its war against Israel, Tehran faces mounting geopolitical threats. Iran has experienced economic hardship since Trump's first presidency. After withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal - a multipolar framework to negotiate Iran's nuclear issue - Trump imposed harsher economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic, a campaign Washington called ’maximum pressure" and whose impact has lasted until today. On the security front, the Trump administration coordinated the assassination of Soleimani in 2020, dragging US-Iran relations to one of their most dangerous points in decades. The harsh stance is likely to continue with Trump's Tehran-hawkish Middle East cabinet - including Boulos, the president's Middle East adviser, Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, and Huckabee, the ambassador to Israel. This month, Boulous told French media outlet Le Point that Trump would certainly pursue the ’maximum pressure" campaign against Iran in the clearest indication yet that the incoming administration would enforce Iran's economic and geopolitical isolation. In contrast to Washington's hostility, China's relations with Iran have grown economically and politically in the past few years, and it has been a major force trying to stop Iran being totally isolated. China is a crucial trading partner and oil buyer for the Islamic Republic, reportedly through trade transit to circumvent sanctions. Beijing has invited Tehran to join Brics and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) - two Beijing-led regional blocs - to avoid Tehran falling into further international isolation. Iran is one of China's Middle Eastern partners in the Belt and Road Initiative, yet it has seen significantly fewer investments over the past decade compared with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and neighbouring Pakistan. A landmark 25-year cooperation agreement signed in 2021 between the two countries has also seen little implementation. On the diplomatic front, Iran is still an important pillar for China's ambition as a mediator in the region. Experts said that with Trump's hawkish Middle East policy cabinet, China-Iran relations were likely to strengthen under the common pressure. But China's ability to remain a mediator could be at risk in the next four years, given the changing circumstances of Iran and its regional rivals. Wen, a Middle East specialist at Shanghai International Studies University, said Trump's unyielding support for Israel and harsh approach to Iran could shrink China's space as a regional mediator. He predicted that if Trump took a hardline attitude to support Israel, the Gaza war could be ended in a timely manner. Trump would continue to push his diplomatic legacy in the region, the Abraham Accords, which encourages Israel - Iran's biggest rival in the region - to establish diplomatic relations with Arab countries. "China has always insisted that the Palestinian-Israeli issue is the core issue in the Middle East and calls for the 'two-state solution'. The Abraham Accords, however, are trying to marginalise the Palestinian-Israeli problem. The conflict between China and the United States on this issue will become more distinct," Wen said. Marks, a non-resident fellow with the Stimson Centre's China programme and a former US defence adviser, said the growing conflicts in the Middle East - especially the recent regime change in Syria - risk further confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Syria has been one of the major battlegrounds for the Saudi-Iran decade-long confrontation. Tehran openly backed Assad's regime with force but Riyadh opposed the regime on the diplomatic front. The instability and escalation likely to follow in Syria will fuel disagreements and tensions across the region, Marks said. "Beijing will have to carefully navigate a politically explosive environment as many of its key partners find themselves on opposing sides over Syria's future." (Source: Yahoo  - U.S. / South China Morning Post)

Israel
December 23, 2024  Israel is getting ready to annex the occupied Palestinian West Bank in the coming weeks or months. (Source: Antiwar / The Palestine Chronicle)
by Dr. Baroud, a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle; a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) /Turkey/. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Pappé, is Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out. His other books include My Father was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s untold story and The Last Earth.

Syria
Dec 23, 2024, 8:23 AM  Reports suggest that Turkish drones have carried out 17 attacks against civilian targets in different areas of Syria, including the cities of Kobani and Manbij under the pretext of destroying the positions of Kurdish forces supported by the US. Local sources announced that at least 30 people lost their lives during Turkish drone attacks. (Source: MEHR News Agency - Iran)

North America

United States
Dec 23rd, 2024, 6:37 am  President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 federal death row inmates, converting them to life in prison without parole in a decision today, leaving three inmates convicted of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder untouched. (Source: Mediaite - U.S.)

December 23, 2024  President-elect Trump has reignited a proposal to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). Mexico strongly opposes the idea, viewing it as a violation of national sovereignty. In 2021, over 70,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses, mostly attributed to fentanyl from Mexico. While the U.S. focuses on supply-side interventions, Mexican officials argue that ’addressing drug demand in the U.S. should take priority’. The FTO designation would allow the use of anti-terrorism statutes against cartel members, potentially leading to steeper penalties and ban foreign citizens associated with these organizations from entering the U.S. (Source: The Rio Times, a Swiss-owned newspaper, based in Brazil)

Dec 23, 2024 12:06 IST  Trump's renewed interest in Greenland. 'For purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,' Trump wrote on Truth Social. The 78-year-old Republican leader made the statement while announcing PayPal co-founder Howery as the US's Ambassador to Denmark. While Greenland has autonomous self-rule, it is still a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. In 2019, Trump indicated that he wanted to purchase Greenland, close to the Arctic, as he was mostly drawn to the country's natural resources and geopolitical relevance. Greenland is a part of the North American continent, geopolitically, it has ties to Europe. It has received EU funding since it is classified as an overseas territory associated with the bloc via Denmark. The US has its own space force base, Pituffik Space Base (earlier known as Thule Air Base), on the northwest coast of Greenland. Trump's remarks on Greenland came after he threatened Panama to return control of the Panama Canal to the US if Latin American country continued to charge what he described as ridiculous passage fees for American vessels. Panama's President Mulino sharply rebuked Trump, saying his country's independence was non-negotiable and defended the passage rates Panama charged, asserting they were not set on a whim. (Source: India Today)

December 23, 2024  Unusual claim by a U.S. leader to reclaim sovereign territory. President-elect Trump has threatened to retake control of the Panama Canal strategic waterway, accusing Panama of charging exorbitant fees to American vessels. The Panama Canal, transferred to Panamanian control in 1999, handles about 6% of global maritime trade. Approximately 40% of U.S. container traffic relies on this crucial passage. Trump warned that if Panama doesn’t adhere to certain principles, the U.S. might demand the canal’s return 'in full, quickly and without question.' Panamanian President Mulino swiftly rebuffed Trump’s assertions. He emphasized that every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and that its sovereignty is non-negotiable. Mulino also defended the canal’s fee structure, stating that rates are set based on operational costs and market dynamics. Trump hinted at growing Chinese influence around the canal, stating it must not fall into the 'wrong hands.” While China doesn’t directly control the canal, a Hong Kong-based company operates two ports at its entrances, fueling strategic concerns. The future of this critical waterway hangs in the balance, potentially shaping regional dynamics for years to come. (Source: The Rio Times, a Swiss-owned newspaper, based in Brazil)

December 23, 2024  „Now the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear from these mass spying programs as long as we’ve done nothing wrong. Don’t believe it. The government’s definition of a “bad” guy is extraordinarily broad, and it results in the warrantless surveillance of innocent, law-abiding Americans on a staggering scale’. Every second of every day, the American people are being spied on by a vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and robotic snoops. „This creepy new era of government/corporate spying - in which we’re being listened to, watched, tracked, followed, mapped, bought, sold and targeted – has been made possible by a global army of techno-tyrants, fusion centers and Peeping Toms’. Geofencing dragnets. Fusion centers. Smart devices. Behavioral threat assessments. Terror watch lists. Facial recognition. Snitch tip lines. Biometric scanners. Pre-crime. DNA databases. Data mining. Precognitive technology. Drones. Contact tracing apps. License plate readers. Social media vetting. Surveillance towers. What these add up to is a world in which, on any given day, the average person is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears. Big Tech wedded to Big Government has become Big Brother.    Behavioral surveillance is not only making it possible for individuals to be monitored and tracked based on their patterns of movement or behavior, including gait recognition (the way one walks), but have given rise to whole industries that revolve around predicting one’s behavior based on data and surveillance patterns and are also shaping the behaviors of whole populations. One smart ’anti-riot” surveillance system purports to predict mass riots and unauthorized public events by using artificial intelligence to analyze social media, news sources, surveillance video feeds and public transportation data.    Tracking your social network: Not content to merely spy on individuals through their online activity, government agencies are now using surveillance technology to track one’s social network, the people you might connect with by phone, text message, email or through social message, in order to ferret out possible criminals. FBI agents are able to access address book data from Facebook’s WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage services from the accounts of targeted individuals and individuals not under investigation who might have a targeted individual within their network. This creates a ’guilt by association’ society in which we are all as guilty as the most culpable person in our address book.     Tracking you based on your spending and consumer activities: With every smartphone we buy, every GPS device we install, every X/Twitter, Facebook, and Google account we open, every frequent buyer card we use for purchases and every credit and debit card we use to pay for our transactions, we’re helping Corporate America build a dossier for its government counterparts on who we know, what we think, how we spend our money, and how we spend our time.     Consumer surveillance data tracked and shared with advertisers, has become big business, a $300 billion industry that routinely harvests your data for profit. Corporations such as the Target retailer has funded major surveillance in cities and developed behavioral surveillance algorithms that can determine whether someone’s mannerisms might fit the profile of a thief.     Cell phones have become de facto snitches, offering up digital location data on users’ movements and travels. Hacking software can be used to remotely activate cameras and microphones Federal agents can now employ a number of hacking methods in order to gain access to your computer activities. Police are also using mass surveillance of protests without the need for a warrant.    Facial recognition software create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded. Coupled with surveillance cameras that blanket the country, it allows the government and its corporate partners to identify and track someone’s movements in real-time. A software program created by Clearview AI has been used by police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to collect photos on social media sites for inclusion in a massive facial recognition database. Similarly, biometric software, which relies on one’s unique identifiers (fingerprints, irises, voice prints), is gaining access to phones, computers, office buildings, etc. Scientists are also developing lasers that can identify and surveil individuals based on their heartbeats, scent and microbiome.    On social media: Every move you make is monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line. The FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies are increasingly investing in and relying on corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on Facebook, X and Instagram to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior. This obsession with social media as a form of surveillance will have some frightening consequences in coming years. We may very well face a future where algorithms bust people en masse for referencing illegal game downloads, the new software targeting every social media user with a shameful confession or questionable sense of humor.”    Tracking you based on your public activities: Private corporations in conjunction with police agencies have created a web of surveillance that encompasses all major cities in order to monitor large groups of people seamlessly, as in the case of protests and rallies. Defense contractors have been at the forefront of this lucrative market. The extensive online surveillance is looking for any hints of large public events, social unrest, gang communications, and criminally predicated individuals. Fusion centers, $330 million-a-year, information-sharing hubs for federal, state and law enforcement agencies, monitor and report such ’suspicious’ behavior as people buying pallets of bottled water, photographing government buildings, and applying for a pilot’s license as suspicious activity.    Tracking you based on your car: License plate readers are mass surveillance tools that can photograph over 1,800 license tag numbers per minute, take a picture of every passing license tag number and store the tag number and the date, time, and location of the picture in a searchable database, then share the data with law enforcement, fusion centers and private companies to track the movements of persons in their cars. Tens of thousands of these license plate readers are now in operation throughout the country, allow police to track vehicles and run the plates through law enforcement databases for abducted children, stolen cars, missing people and wanted fugitives. There have been numerous incidents in which police have mistakenly relied on license plate data to capture out suspects only to end up detaining innocent people at gunpoint.    A DNA print reveals everything about who we are, where we come from, and who we will be.If you leave your DNA traces anywhere a crime has been committed, you’ve already got a file somewhere in some state or federal database – albeit it may be a file without a name. By accessing your DNA, the government will soon know your family chart, your ancestry, your health history,etc. It’s only a matter of time before the police state’s pursuit of criminals expands into genetic profiling and a preemptive hunt for criminals of the future.DNA technology completes our transition to a Surveillance State. Surveillance, digital stalking and the data mining of the American people – weapons of compliance and control in the government’s hands – haven’t made America any safer. And they certainly aren’t helping to preserve our freedoms.   Tracking you based on your mail: Just about every branch of the government – from the Postal Service to the Treasury Department and every agency in between – now has its own surveillance sector, authorized to spy on the American people. For instance, the U.S. Postal Service, which has been photographing the exterior of every piece of paper mail for the past 20 years, is also spying on Americans’ texts, emails and social media posts. Headed up by the Postal Service’s law enforcement division, the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) is reportedly using facial recognition technology, combined with fake online identities, to ferret out potential troublemakers with “inflammatory” posts. The agency claims the online surveillance, which falls outside its conventional job scope of processing and delivering paper mail, is necessary to help postal workers avoid potentially volatile situations. (Source: Antiwar - U.S.)
By Whitehead, a Constitutional attorney and author, founder and president of the Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are Battlefield America: The War on the American People; A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. His new book: The Freedom Wars, (TRI Press);
N. Whitehead, the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute.

4 12 24.00:28

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Europe

Germany
11:17AM · 2024. dec. 21  'Despite claims made by the German press, Abdulmohsen is not an ex-Muslim atheist, nor is he a fan of the AfD or Musk. While he may have spread this misinformation himself, it aligns with the practice of Taqqiye, an Islamic doctrine that permits lying and deception to advance Islamic objectives. In reality, he is a radical Shia Muslim, as evidenced by his name and numerous tweets and chat leaks circulating on Arabic-speaking platforms like X. Disturbingly, his plans to carry out mass killings of Germans were brought to the attention of German authorities by a Saudi woman. Tragically, the police ignored her warnings'. /Video/ (Source: X - U.S.)
by Salmassi
Note: 28 Million views

Greece
(Sunday ), December 22, 2024  Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed the importance of EU border security at the North-South Summit on European safety and defense that took place in Lapland, Finland today. The summit was attended by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kallas, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Mitsotakis highlighted the issue of border protection as a priority, saying: “The first is that border protection is an integral part of the migration strategy, as well as a common priority, regardless of whether we have land or water borders. Better management of these challenges should be a common European concern and this is also the issue we discussed at the European Council. And I would like to reiterate from here in Lapland how important and necessary it is to provide additional funding at European level, not only for border management, but also for the physical structures that allow us to manage our borders more effectively.” (Source: Greek Reporter - Greece)

Russia
(Sunday), 22 December 2024 10:23 pm  Russia's Defence Ministry said Sunday that its forces had intercepted 42 Ukrainian drones launched overnight at Russian territory. According to the ministry, 20 of those were over the Oryol region. Russian forces downed 20 drones targeting fuel and energy infrastructure in the province. A fire broke out at the Stalnoy Kon oil terminal in Russia's southern Oryol region, where the local governor said a blaze tore through the oil terminal. According to Ukraine's Air Force, Russia launched 103 Iranian-made Shahed drones at its neighbour overnight into Sunday. Ukrainian air defense shot down 52 of the drones while another 44 failed to reach their targets, the force said in a statement, in a likely reference to electronic jamming. On Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry reported that its troops had captured two northeastern settlements: Lozova in the Kharkiv region and Krasne in the Luhansk province. (Source: Outlook - India)

Serbia
22/12/2024 - 21:07  Tens of thousands of people gathered in Belgrade today to protest against President Vucic and his ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). The rally, organised by students and farmer unions, was part of a wider movement demanding accountability for the collapse of a railway station roof that killed 15 people last month. Smaller rallies were also held in the cities of Nis and Kragujevac. Many in Serbia blame the collapse on widespread corruption and sloppy work on the railway station building in the city of Novi Sad that was twice renovated in recent years as part of mega projects involving Chinese state companies. The Serbian president today inaugurated a section of a newly built highway in central Serbia. Vucic said he wouldn't budge to opposition demands for a transitional government and accused his opponents of using students to try to seize power. ’They (the opposition) don't know what to do but to use someone's children.’ Vucic has been advertising what he said are favorable loans for young people to purchase apartments as well as attracting tens of thousands of doctors and other skilled people who have left the country for a better life in the West in recent years. Serbia’s government has extended school winter holidays by starting them nearly a week earlier to grapple with widening student protests. Vucic initially accused the students of launching protests for money but later said he has fulfilled their demands, including publishing documentation relating to the renovation work at the Novi Sad station. (Source: France 24 / AP – U.S.)

United Kingdom
22 December 2024  Five years ago, Abdulmohsen sat down for an interview with the BBC where he discussed a website he designed to help ex-Muslims flee the Gulf region. Abdulmohsen had lived and worked in Saudi Arabia before claiming asylum in Germany. /Video/ (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Europe
22nd December 2024  Massacring concert-goers. Mowing down families at Christmas markets. Slashing at people’s necks as they gather together in their city centre. This is a barbarous war on our very way of life, waged by death cults and their sadistic fanboys. And yet Europe’s rulers have come to treat such attacks as akin to natural disasters – as awful, tragic, oh-so-sad things that just happen from time to time. They seem to have convinced themselves that confronting the Islamist threat too forcefully risks whipping up anti-Muslim hatred, as if the majority are a pogrom in waiting, or risks ‘alienating’ European Muslims, as if they are all terrorist sympathisers. In their supposed efforts to quell bigotry, the elites reveal their own. The horror in Magdeburg is a reminder that barbarism comes in many different packages. But as we head into 2025, we cannot lose sight of where the primary threat lies. We must refuse to be cowed by Islamist terror – and we must refuse to be condescended to by an establishment that would rather see us as the problem. (Source: Spiked - United Kingdom)
By Slater

Asia

Syria
2024-12-22 15:39  US redeployed dozens of troops stationed in Iraq to Syria, to bolster security at US bases and facilities in Syria. Currently, the US has approximately 900 troops distributed in nine US military bases in Syria, and 2,500 in Iraq. Earlier this week, the Head of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, Rahmano, reaffirmed the coalition's dedication to protecting the area from any potential military escalation, noting a proposal to make Kobani a demilitarized zone. The intensity of fighting in northern Syria has escalated since the overthrow of Syrian President Assad’s regime on December 8, as Turkiye’s firm opposition to Kurdish autonomy in the region has led to numerous military operations, against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), often in collaboration with the Syrian National Army (SNA). Turkiye views the SDF, especially the People’s Protection Units (YPG), as an offshoot of the PKK, a group it considers a terrorist organization. (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)

13:27-(Sunday)  22 December 2024 AD  Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group in Damascus on Sunday. Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa shaking hands, hugging, and smiling. On Friday, Turkish President Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date. Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall. Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria. Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization. Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast. Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters. The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara. (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat – Headquartered London, United Kingdom; owned by a member of the Saudi royal family)

North America

United States
December 22, 2024  President-elect Trump has pledged to carry out the deport of foreign nationals by using a 18th-century law called the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The act empowers presidents to apprehend and remove foreign nationals from countries that are at war with the United States. US presidents invoked this law three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II. All three instances followed Congress declaring war. The law lets presidents bypass immigration courts. Trump’s senior advisers say that the administration can justly claim that some Latin American governments, such as Mexico and Venezuela, are run by drug cartels that are attacking US security, these criminal organisations are launching state-sanctioned invasions of narcotics and unauthorised migrants. Drug cartels are not actual national governments running Latin American countries. The 1798 law is clear that an ’invasion or predatory incursion’ must be undertaken by a ’foreign nation or government’ in order for it to be invoked. Neither the letter of the law nor historical precedents support peacetime use of the Alien Enemies Act. None of textual and historical realities will matter, if the courts choose not to intervene on the grounds that a president simply saying that the country is being invaded by a foreign nation is sufficient and is not subject to judicial review. (Source: Scroll – India / The Conversation – website, Headquarters Australia)
By Tichenor, a Professor of Political Science, University of Oregon, U.S..

4 12 22 .23:43

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Europe

Germany
21 December 2024, 10:12  During the attack, the car, thought to have been a dark-coloured BMW, reportedly crashed through barriers protecting the market around 7:04pm and ploughed into shoppers in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. Abdulmohsen, the 50-year-old doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006, is being held on suspicion of the attack. Saudi officials told The Times that they had warned German officials about Abdulmohsen's views more than once. It is believed the perpetrator was acting alone and was not previously known to security forces. Abdulmohsen ’reportedly’ described himself as an ex-Muslim, was a vocal supporter of the German far-right AfD party and shared dozens of posts online criticising Islam. He also is reported to have accused the German authorities of failing to combat the ’Islamism of Europe. The car used in the attack was a rental vehicle registered to Munich. Police said the car was driven at least 400 meters across the Christmas market. Speaking today, the region's minister confirmed Abdulmohsen held Islamophobic views while some outlets have reported he tweeted about ’murdering Germans.’ At least 15 people were seriously injured and 37 have injuries of medium severity, and 16 are lightly injured. Far-right protests took place in Magdeburg today night with groups holding “Remigration now!” signs. (Source: LBC – United Kingdom)

SAT, 21 DEC, 2024 - 15:29  Death toll has risen to five after car driven into Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany a city of about 240,000 people on Friday evening. More than 200 people were injured, many seriously. The suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy has been living in Germany for nearly two decades and practising medicine there. He moved to Germany in 2006 and had been practising medicine in Bernburg, about 25 miles south of Magdeburg. Describing himself as a former Muslim, he shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticising the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith. He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the ’Islamism of Europe”. ’Some’ described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also ’voiced’ support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers. Prominent German terrorism expert Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile. “After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists - that really wasn’t on my radar,” Mr Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland)

Skandinavia
21 DEC 2024 AT 18:08  A 15-year-old boy gets into a taxi outside Stockholm hiding a loaded gun and asks to be taken to the Israeli embassy. A 13-year-old in Gothenburg is caught firing shots at Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems. At the same facility, a 16-year-old in May used two vacuum flasks packed with explosives to try to attack the Israeli defence company and was charged alongside a 23-year-old accomplice. ’The investigation was unable to uncover who gave them instructions or transferred money to the pair’. The prosecutor in the case said ’it seems clear’ they were acting on behalf of someone else. ’There are cases where the proxies aren’t aware or don’t realise that they are acting on behalf of a foreign power, the Swedish Security Service said in a statement earlier this year’ ’All three attacks this year are part of a new trend in which Iran-affiliated actors recruit local criminals, including minors', to strike at Jewish and Israel-linked targets in Europe. In Brussels in May, the security services found children as young as 14 orchestrating an attack on the Israeli embassy. Britain’s MI5 has also issued warnings of an increase 'in Iran-linked' attacks. The incidents show how the war between Israel and Iran’s proxies across the Middle East 'is also driving Tehran to escalate its covert operations in Europe' - and the conflict is stirring tension between communities divided over immigration. The Nordic countries are particularly vulnerable. Both Swedish and Norwegian security services have warned 'against Iranian-backed operations'. On Oct 1, Swedish police rushed to the Israeli embassy building after shots were reported, but they arrived too late to catch the perpetrator. Police reports put the suspect on a southbound train to Copenhagen, which later that night was rocked by two loud explosions close to Israel’s mission in the Danish capital. Security officials said ’they believe’ the man was also recruited by Iran. In October, Norway temporarily raised its terror alert to high from medium, armed its police and set up controls on the border with its Scandinavian neighbour. In these traditionally open societies with minimal policing and high trust, now international crime gangs have taken root among the poorer and often immigrant-dominated communities. "Anger among some groups at the number of civilians killed by Israel’s military in Gaza and Lebanon has made it easier to find recruits". 'People acting on behalf of the Iranian regime' reach out to potential mercenaries on platforms like Telegram, TikTok or Whatsapp, according to Nesser, a terrorism researcher at Norway’s defence research institute. Prices start from about €1,500 for a murder, Nesser says. A petrol bomb attack can cost as little as €120. Operatives use the apps to direct and advise recruits during their illegal operations. For years, Sweden has been struggling with the increasing presence of organised crime gangs that seek to recruit youngsters from its immigrant communities. Over 1.5 million people have moved to the country since 1980 and now around 20% of the population were born outside of the country. But many struggle to assimilate. In a recent survey, 40% of migrants said they do not feel integrated into Swedish society. The dwindling welfare state and "much higher poverty rates in immigrant neighbourhoods make recruitment easier for criminal gangs" and, increasingly, hostile actors like Iran. "While some of the young people are motivated by frustration at what they see as Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, others are simply driven by money and sometimes the young perpetrators have no idea what they are signing up for. If they are under 15, they can’t be prosecuted in either Sweden or Norway". Now there are concerns in Norway that those problems are spreading across the 1,600-kilometre open border that separates the two countries. Warnings about 'Swedish conditions' have become commonplace in the political debate in Oslo. Officials are starting to see the same patterns that have taken hold in Sweden and Denmark. In Sweden, the mounting alarm over immigration and public safety has helped fuel support for the far-right Sweden Democrats, the second largest party in parliament and key backer of conservative Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s minority government. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is making it a priority to deal with youth crime, particularly among immigrants. With the help of the far-right, Kristersson has introduced youth prisons for children under 15. Norway faces its own elections in less than a year and Social-Democratic Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store has made youth crime a priority, promising stricter handling of the most serious offences. The far-right opposition Progress Party is leading in the polls. It wants to go further and, following the Swedish approach, make it possible to lock up 15-year-olds. In the small, wealthy country Norway, the prospect of further attacks could play into the hands of the ’far-right’ in the lead up to September’s vote. That is making some officials nervous. (Source: Bangkok Post – Thailand / Bloomberg News – U.S.)

Russia
December 21, 2024  Drone attack hit Russian city Kazan, capital of the Tartarstan republic with a population of more than 1.3 million, 1,000km from Ukraine frontier. There were no victims, local officials said. (Source: Digital Journal – Canada / AFP – France)

Asia

Gaza
(Saturday), December 21, 2024  A devastating Israeli airstrike on Friday night killed 12 Palestinian civilians, including seven children and one woman, after it hit, completely destroying a family home in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jabalia an-Nazla. According to the Palestinian Civil Defence, the victims were all members of the Khilla family in Jabalia. 15 other people were injured in the attack. Health authorities in Gaza reported that at least 56 people had been killed in Israeli attacks since the dawn of Friday, with 42 of those fatalities occurring in northern Gaza. (Source: 'Days of Palestine Foundation' - ?)

Israel
2024-12-21 12:10  A hypersonic ballistic missile, launched from Yemen, struck central Israel. The missile, fired by the Houthi group, exploded in a public park in southern Tel Aviv after attempts to intercept it failed. Medics reported that 16 people were injured by glass shards, while 14 others sustained bruises during a rush to shelters. The missile triggered air raid sirens across central Israel, sending millions to safety. (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)

Syria
Dec 21, 2024, 3:01 PM  Following a meeting between a US representative and Jolani, the US stipulated that if the new Syrian government wishes to establish positive relations with the US, it should not involve Iran in any role, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Lebanon, Amani stated. He mentioned that similar advice was given to the Muslim Brotherhood between 2011 and 2013 and that the same condition was placed on former Egyptian President Morsi. (Source: MEHR News Agency - Iran)

21.12.2024  In Syria, the Bayirbucak Turkmens in the Latakia province are still trying to know the fate of over 150 of their relatives who were detained years ago by the regime forces. Vice president of the Syrian Turkmen Parliament, Komurcu, said that the regime forces detained over 150 Bayirbucak Turkmens between 2011 and 2014 in Latakia. Since the Baath regime collapsed on Dec. 8, only one of these detainees has been released. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Turkey
December 21, 2024  Turkish authorities have over the past week detained 85 individuals due to alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, Stockholm Center for Freedom reported, citing Turkish media. Interior Minister Yerlikaya said the detainees were identified through their use of ByLock, a mobile messaging application, which Turkish officials have said was a secret communication tool for Gülen supporters. In recent years, more than 705,172 people have been investigated on terrorism or coup-related charges due to their alleged links to the movement. There are at least 13,251 people in prison who are in pre-trial detention or convicted of terrorism charges in Gülen-linked trials. Scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown. Gülen passed away in exile in October. (Source: Turkish Minute - ?)

North America

United States
21 December, 2024  The United States government yesterday authorised the sale of more than $5 billion in military equipment to Egypt. The State Department informed Congress it had approved the sale of $4.69 billion in equipment for 555 US-made M1A1 Abrams tanks operated by Egypt, $630 million in 2,183 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and $30 million in precision-guided munitions. The US Congress can still block the sales, but such attempts are usually unsuccessful. Cairo is one of the largest recipients of US security ’aid’ since its peace treaty with Israel in 1979. In addition to the sales to Egypt, the State Department authorised $295 million in equipment for Taiwan, $170 million in bombs and missiles for Morocco, and $130 million in uncrewed aircraft systems and armoured vehicles to Greece. The Taiwan authorisations were announced shortly after US President Biden announced $571.3 million in new military aid to the self-ruled island, which China claims as part of its territory. (Source: The New Arab - based in London, United Kingdom, owned by a Qatari company)

.4 12 22 22:54

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Europe

Germany
20 December 2024  Two people have been killed, including a child, and dozens injured after a car drove into a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. Authorities said 68 people had been injured, 15 of whom seriously. The suspect - who has been arrested - was a 50-year-old Saudi citizen who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had worked as a doctor. A preliminary investigation suggested the ’alleged’ attack was acting as a lone wolf. More deaths are possible due to the number of injured. /Video/ (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

12/20/24 AT 11:06 AM EST  A post from Musk on his platform X claiming that only the far-right AfD party can save Germany sparked accusations today that he was seeking to interfere in the country's upcoming election. The billionaire posted the message over a video commentary about the leader of Germany's centre-right CDU party Merz. The video criticised Merz, on course to become the next chancellor after February elections according to polls, for his refusal to work with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), currently polling in second place. (Source: International Business Times - U.S.)

Italy
20/12/2024 - 20:12  A Sicilian court today acquitted Italian Deputy Prime Minister Salvini of illegally detaining 100 migrants aboard the Open Arms rescue ship in 2019, when he was interior minister. Salvini has always defended himself, saying he acted to protect Italy’s borders. (Source: France 24 / AP - U.S.)

European Commission
December 20, 2024  The European Commission has adopted a decision which finds that a Hungarian law notified to the Commission on 2 December 2024 'is not sufficient to address risks of conflicts of interests in the boards of so-called public interest trusts'. 'No Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) disbursement following a payment request is possible until Hungary addresses all rule of law concerns under the conditionality regime'. (Source: EU Reporter, headquartered Brussel, Belgium, owned by a company in Ireland)

European Council
20.12.2024 20:12  The EU is already engaging with actors on the ground, the new authorities, and other regional actors, and will increase its diplomatic presence in the capital Damascus, European Council head Costa told a yesterday news conference after an EU Council meeting in Brussels. In the conclusion declaration of the summit, the EU Council stressed the historic opportunity to reunite and rebuild the country, and underlined the importance of an inclusive and Syrian-led political process that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people. It highlighted the importance of respecting Syria’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity… in accordance with international law. The European Council also emphasises the importance of the fight against terrorism, of the prevention of re-emergence of terrorist groups, and of the destruction of Syria’s remaining chemical weapons stockpiles, the declaration read. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Union
December 20, 2024  'The Commission welcomes the Council’s adoption of the 15th sanctions package against Russia. The focus of this package is to keep cracking down on Russia’s shadow fleet, as well as combating sanctions’ circumvention. It also includes substantial individual and entity listings related to the Russian military-industrial complex and increases the legal protection of EU Central Securities Depositories (EU CSDs). With this package, the EU has, for the first time, imposed ‘fully-fledged’ sanctions (travel ban, asset freeze and prohibition to make economic resources available) on various Chinese actors'. (Source: EU Reporter, headquartered Brussel, Belgium, owned by a company in Ireland)

Russia
(Friday), 20.12.2024  Russia today said it conducted a retaliatory strike using high-precision, long-range weapons targeting facilities of Ukraine's Luch Design Bureau, which is involved in missile production and maintenance of US-supplied Patriot air defense systems. The Defense Ministry said the strike was in response to a Wednesday attack using six American-made ATACMS tactical missiles and four Storm Shadow cruise missiles on Russia's Kamensky plant in the Rostov region. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
December 20, 2024, 9:24 AM  A Russian ballistic missile attack on Kyiv killed one person and wounded nine others early today morning. Several high-rise buildings were damaged. Debris had fallen in at least four districts in the city, Kyiv Mayor Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. The strike damaged a heating main in the city's southwestern Holosiivskyi District, he said. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

Asia

Pakistan
December 20, 2024  Under Executive Order 13382, the US State Department announced a new round of sanctions related to Pakistan’s ballistic missile development programme, against the National Development Complex (NDC) and three Karachi-based companies - Akhtar and Sons Private Limited, Affiliates International, and Rockside Enterprise. A day after, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Deputy National Security Adviser Finer accused the country of developing long-range ballistic missile capabilities that could eventually allow it to strike targets outside of South Asia, including in the United States. Earlier yesterday, the Foreign Office denounced the US sanctions as discriminatory, warning they could exacerbate the regional power imbalance. Pakistan is concerned by the growing US defence partnership with India. The FO statement criticised what it termed the US’ double standards, citing past waivers of advanced military technology transfers to other countries - a reference to India. 'Insiders say that Pakistan’s position is quite clear in that it is primarily focused on threats from its eastern border, and has no designs to look westward'. (Source: Dawn - Pakistan)

Syria
2024-12-20 09:21 Senior US diplomats have arrived in Syria. The State Department's top Middle East diplomat Leaf, Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Carstens and newly appointed Senior Advisor Rubinstein - tasked with leading the Department's Syria engagement - will be the first American diplomats to travel to Damascus since the Syrian opposition ousted President Assad. During their meetings with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) representatives, the US officials will discuss principles such as inclusivity and minority rights, which Washington aims to integrate into Syria’s political transition. The delegation will also seek new information about American journalist Tice, who was abducted during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, and other US citizens missing under the Al-Assad regime. (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)

Dec. 20, 2024  Yesterday, U.S. Central Command Forces conducted a precision airstrike targeting isis leader Yusif aka Mahmud in the Dayr az Zawr Province, Syria resulting in two isis operatives killed, including Yusif. Isis has the intent to break out of detention the over 8,000 isis operatives currently being held in facilities in Syria. "We will aggressively target these leaders and operatives, including those trying to conduct operations external to Syria," said Gen. Kurilla, CENTCOM commander. (Source: U.S. Central Command)

Turkey
9:24 am, December 20, 2024  The U.S. has granted Turkey an exemption from sanctions imposed on Gazprombank, Bloomberg reported today, citing Turkish Energy Minister Bayraktar. The exemption allows Turkey to pay for Russian gas through the sanctioned bank. Yesterday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó also announced that the United States had granted Hungary an exemption from sanctions on Gazprombank for payments related to Russian gas. Since March 2022, Gazprombank had been the sole bank authorized to process such payments. However, after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the bank on November 21, Russian President Putin signed a decree allowing foreign buyers of Russian gas to use other Russian banks for payments until April 2025. Hungary and Turkey had both lobbied for exemptions from the sanctions on Gazprombank. Bloomberg reported that E.U. officials had also urged Washington to ease the restrictions. (Source: Meduza)

North America

United States
Friday 20 December 2024 19:21 GMT  The E.U. and U.S. have deep-rooted economic ties with more than $1 trillion in goods and services exchanged. In recent years, the U.S.’s trade deficit with Europe has increased as it imported more than it exported. The U.S. is the world’s largest oil producer, accounting for 22 percent of global supply. Europe is the largest importer of American gas, in part, due to Europe trying 'to phase out its energy imports from Russia'. After announcing a 25 percent tariff on the U.S. largest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, and threatening to increase tariffs on China, Trump has now targeted the E.U. 'I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is tariffs all the way!!!,' Trump wrote on Truth Social around today. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

December 20, 2024 14:13 IST  A report has detailed how the White House and Presidential aides hid President Biden's mental decline from the public by rearranging his schedule and cutting off public appearances. The walls around the President were so high that restrictions were placed on who he spoke to and what information reached him. This was revealed in an exclusive report published by The Wall Street Journal yesterday. Biden was shielded from his own cabinet secretaries, congressional committee chairs and other high-ranking officials to such an extent that the President held just nine full cabinet meetings - three in 2021, two in 2022, three in 2023 and one in 2024. Even his closest appointees including Defense Secretary Austin and Treasury Secretary Yellen grew increasingly distant, even during key events like the Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021. When one-on-one meetings were scheduled, they were typically virtual rather than in-person. Biden also had a close aide by his side during public events who repeated basic instructions to him such as where to enter or exit a stage. Biden’s team even tasked campaign co-chairman and Hollywood mogul Katzenberg to find a voice coach to improve his raspy whisper. The report also mentions the President’s sit-down with Hur, the special counsel investigating Mr Biden’s handling of classified documents. During the three-hour meetings in the week leading up to the interview, Biden couldn't recall lines his team had previously discussed with him. He also made multiple blunders and was unable to remember key dates, including when he served as Vice President or the year his son Beau died. (Source: The Week - India)

December 20, 2024  Between September and November 2024, over thirty-five experts and officials from the United States, EU, Western Europe, Central Europe, and frontline countries, including Ukraine, deliberated to identify post-war security concerns and discover commonalities and differences. The U.S. experts prioritized the following issues as concerns in the post-war environment: preventing nuclear war with Russia in the medium to long term; reducing Russian support for and relationships with North Korea, Iran, and China, and limiting hybrid attacks on U.S. infrastructure domestically and internationally. The concern over nuclear escalation explains the low tolerance for risk-taking demonstrated repeatedly the Biden administration. The U.S. concerns towards Russia post-war did not include any threats in Europe. They will shape the form and scale of any future American engagement in post-war security in Europe. For U.S. allies, the support for Ukraine so far has demonstrated what the United States is willing to do for a non-ally under attack, signaling a baseline for its future commitments to formal allies. Both American and European experts did not anticipate a full-scale Russian invasion of NATO territory, as such an action would be both costly and risky for Russia, which is expected to be cautious about repeating the failures experienced in Ukraine. Russia potentially assembling a small force to seize a limited area of the Baltics - such an event was deemed unlikely in the short term, but it was not dismissed as entirely implausible in the medium to long term. The Western and Central European groups expressed concerns about potential war fatigue undermining long-term commitments to credible deterrence and sustained support for Ukraine in the post-war period. The only overlapping concern toward Russia within the West was the continuation of hybrid attacks, such as sabotage and cyberwarfare - concern for both the United States and Europe. The nature and intensity of these attacks are likely to vary between Americans and Europeans. The United States and Europe can find common ground, cooperation on key issues such as preventing the collapse of Ukraine, protecting NATO’s front-line countries from future aggression, mitigating hybrid destabilization activities, and curbing Russian support for Iran and North Korea. at a time when gaps in values and institutional approaches are widening. Even if negotiations start, both the United States and Europe would be interested in preventing a Ukrainian military collapse Ukraine. ’Europe could propose plans urgently increasing Ukraine’s supplies from European stockpiles. While this carries political risks, it is less costly than the financial and political catastrophe of a Ukrainian collapse and the mass exodus of 6 million Ukrainians to Europe and other countries abroad'. Trump’s approach to the world is a reflection of genuine U.S. priorities, which do not always align with those of Europe and Ukraine. In post-war arrangements, ’Europe will bear a higher share of the burden’, ’for instance, increasing European defense spending to 2.5-3 percent of GDP’. ’Collaboration with U.S. military producers on replenishing stockpiles’ would ’align U.S. interests with long-term European security’. Given the current level of distrust, ’no agreement with Russia, regardless of the details, will secure Europe if its post-war deterrence is not credible’. Risk reduction measures and potential „arms control agreements with Russia could help stabilize the situation and communicate intentions clearly”. If Russia engages in good-faith discussions with the West, it could shape the future security framework. Europe should not be surprised if Washington pursues its own agenda with Moscow. This will require both managing expectations and preparing for times when U.S. interests diverge from Europe’s. The challenge for Europe is to compartmentalize the issues and establish new rules for the relationship to minimize damage. The inevitable will be for Europe to take care of its own business and become more independent. (Source: The National Interest – United States)
by Ibrahim, a Senior Researcher at the Centre on Conflict Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

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 Europe

European Commission
18.12.2024  At the doorstep of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Brussels, Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief told reporters today that Russia does not want peace, and that is a problem, so Europe must support Ukraine as much as it can. After more than a thousand days of the Russian war on Ukraine which started in February 2022, she said: 'We will also discuss Russia's hybrid activities and war in Ukraine, and what we can do more.' For his part, European Council President Costa stressed that the enlargement was "a priority," and "the most important geopolitical investment in peace, security and prosperity." (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Union
18 December 2024  Turkey was to receive an extra €1 billion from European Union funds to contribute to migration and border management, including voluntary returns of Syrian refugees, der Leyen said. (Source: Brussels Signal)

Russia
(December 18, 2024)  Russia detains Uzbek suspect in general's killing. The man was promised $100,000 to carry out the attack, as well as the possibility 'to settle in a European country', the Investigative Committee's statement said. The suspect told interrogators that he had come to Moscow to carry out the attack and that a camera mounted on the dashboard of a rented car parked outside the building had filmed the attack and streamed it live 'to the attack organisers, in the (Ukrainian) city of Dnipro'. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

9:25 am, December 18, 2024  Ukraine’s military cannot independently retake Crimea and Donbas, President Zelensky said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Parisien, published yesterday. (Source: Meduza - headquartered in Riga, Latvia / Le Parisien - France)

18 December 2024, 08:29  Russia’s Investigative Committee now claim a 29-year-old Uzebekistani suspect has been arrested over the killing of the 54-year-old Lieutenant General Kirillov of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC) and general's aide, Polikarpov. It reported that the individual had been recruited by Ukrainian special forces and paid $100,000 for the assassination. The hidden bomb contained an equivalent to 300g of high explosives. (Source: LBC - United Kingdom)

Ukraine
18 December 2024 3:26PM  Ukraine has unveiled a ‘Trident’ laser weapon after the UK said earlier this year it would be sharing its prototypes with Kyiv. The UK’s DragonFire laser could be used in Ukraine to counter Russian drones. The UK successfully tested a DragonFire laser weapon for the first time in April. In April, Shapps, former British Defence Minister, said the military was rushing to get it into service by 2027. Colonel Sukharevsky, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said at the Europe Defence Industry conference that the laser would be capable of downing aircraft at distances of more than 2km, adding that efforts are underway to scale up its capabilities. He mentioned Ukraine was only the fifth country to have a high-power laser weapon in its arsenal. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)

United Kingdom
18/12/2024 - 22:48  Parallel legal systems in Britain. 'Sharia law does not form any part of the law in England and Wales," a Government spokesman stated. Sharia as jurisprudence is based on Islamic scholars' opinions from the time of Mohammed in the 7th century until the 13th century. An estimated 100,000 Islamic marriages have been conducted in Britain, with many not officially registered with civil authorities. Britain becomes 'western capital' for sharia law courts as 85 open throughout the UK. (Source: GB News - United Kingdom)

Asia

Syria
(Wednesday), 18 December 2024  The fall of Assad has raised questions about Russia's future presence in Syria. Russia’s two key strategic bases - giving it easier access to the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea - are the port at Tartous, established by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and then expanded and modernised by Russia in 2012, and the airbase at Hmeimim, which has been operational since 2015 and was used to launch air strikes across Syria in support of Assad. Moscow is seeking to negotiate with the new regime. On Monday, Kremlin press secretary Peskov said there have been no final decisions and that Russia was in contact with representatives of the forces that now control the situation in Syria. BBC Verify has been monitoring Hmeimim air base activity by using Planet Labs satellite imagery. There are signs of sustained activity, involving sizeable military transport planes. Two large Antonov An-124 aircraft, which may be used to move assets out of Syria, were seen at the base on Friday. They had left by yesterday, but two large planes were again in the base by today morning. Further imagery taken by Maxar Technologies on Sunday shows dozens of military vehicles parked at the airfield near a Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane, which could be used for evacuations. Heathcote, intelligence manager at McKenzie Intelligence, said the rapid collapse of the Assad government meant it was unlikely Russia had a plan to evacuate resources. Ozberk, a former naval officer and defence analyst, agreed that the imagery indicated early stages of a Russian withdrawal from Syria, with clear signs of an air-based evacuation. Last week Russian warships had left the port at Tartous, with analysts suggesting they were being stationed in international waters for the time being. Those vessels have not returned - but more than 100 military vehicles have arrived at the base in recent days, satellite images show. Recent footage geolocated to 30km south of Homs also showed large columns of Russian vehicles on the move, indicating they've been redirected from other Russian outposts across the country. Another video showed a column of Russian vehicles on the same highway further south, 70km outside Damascus. Russia is now withdrawing units and military equipment that were deployed in nearly a hundred strongholds across the country before the fall of Damascus, said Mardasov, a non-resident scholar in the Middle East Institutes Syria programme. (Source: BBC – United Kingdom)

December 18, 2024 12:36  Conspiracy theories regarding the origins of HTS leader run rampant on social media and traditional media across the Middle East and beyond. Even before his announcement that Syria is not looking for a confrontation with Israel, the leader of HTS, Sharaa, faced harsh campaigns from Iran sympathizers and anti-Islamist actors. Sharaa, who took the nickname Julani, also faces attacks from anti-Islamist actors who reject Salafi ideologies and base their disdain on his roles in several al-Qaeda offshoots. An Iranian user named Dr. Shahla surfed on the trend, tweeting, 'It is very likely that he will turn out to be like Abu Hafs, the preacher of the Libyan mosque, who turned out to be a Jewish officer in the Israeli Mossad.' A user named 'Roaring of the Syrian Revolution' claimed to his tens of thousands of followers on X/Twitter and Telegram that Jolani is a 'creation of the Mossad,' also alleging that he is the son of Iraqi Shi’i cleric Sader, referring to some physical similarities between the two. Another leader claimed by conspiracists to be Julani’s doppelganger was no other than leader Zelensky. Ghamry, an anchor at the Cairo-based Tahrir Egyptian Network (TeN), pointed at the similarity between the two, adding, 'The terrorist Julani kept dressing, talking and taking pictures like the Jew Zelensky… And the media applauds him… Netanyahu is so happy with you.' In a different post, he added, 'This tells us that Mossad and CIA have a shortage of stylist jobs.' An Egyptian account opined that Julani, in fact, looks like Israeli spy Cohen. Another claimed that he resembles Zionism’s visionary Hertzel. A Houthi newspaper from Yemen published a caricature showing Julani being controlled as a puppet by Erdogan, which in turn was controlled by Israel and the US. Soubi, an Egyptian law scholar and lawyer, posted on X, 'Israeli Mossad: This is a spy we prepared well…' also pointing at what she deemed the USA’s 'double game' of both regarding Julani as a wanted terrorist and leading interviews with him on CNN. The Mossad theories went beyond the Middle Eastern sphere. Danish politician and former economic analyst Palsvig uploaded a viral post that accused Sharaa of being a Mossad mole. Palsvig insinuated that Julani was a Jew named David, who graduated from a non-existing institute named the 'School of Islamic Jurisprudence in Tel Aviv.' The post was viewed over two million views, received 14,000 likes, and was reposted 6,600 times on X. Another eccentric conspiracy theory had to do with Sharaa’s tactical attire, which was depicted as being made by Israeli footwear firm Source (‘Shoresh’). Viral posts circulated showing a pixelated screenshot of al-Sharaa with a logo on his back, even though, upon close inspection, it was the logo of a Chinese clothing company named Emersongear. Some understood that these were mere conspiracy theories, making fun of the extent of their ridiculousness. A user named Lateef wrote, ironically, 'Confirmed news about Julani from reliable sources: of Jewish origin, a graduate of Tel Aviv University, an extremist Islamist who maintains prayers in mosques, and a isis / Taliban / Muslim Brotherhood member. These are our reliable sources. Do you understand now why our people are suffering?' To this, a user named Ammar commented, 'And he will also turn out to be Iranian at the same time. Just like [the theories that] ‘Sisi's mother is Jewish’ and ‘Bashar is of Jewish origin,’ and the list goes on.' (Source: The Jerusalem Post - Israel)

11:01 ET, Dec 18 2024  Selvi, a well-established commentator from Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, said 'a reliable source told him' Assad handed over a list with the location of weapons depots, missile systems, and warplanes as a guarantee that Israel would not target him during his flight. Israel started dropping airstrikes on Syrian military strongholds soon after the fall of Assad's government. Syria’s new de facto leader, Sharaa, signalled a retreat from confrontation with Israel following the attacks. The Israelis have clearly crossed the disengagement line in Syria, which threatens a new unjustified escalation in the region, he declared. "The general exhaustion in Syria after years of war and conflict does not allow us to enter new conflicts", he added. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

2024-12-18 09:21  Since the beginning of 2024, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented 253 operations by isis, including armed attacks, executions, and explosions targeting military and security forces in areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration. These operations resulted in 115 fatalities, including 73 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Internal Security Forces (Asayish), and other military groups in those areas, 13 isis members, and 29 civilians. (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)

Tibet
December 18, 2024  As the Indian Parliament’s winter session is underway in Delhi, members of the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile on its second day of Tibet advocacy initiative in New Delhi reached out to several dignitaries. The parliamentarians were grouped into 6 committees. Their objective is to raise awareness about the serious challenges faced by the Tibetan people under the Chinese Communist regime, express gratitude to the government and people of India for their hospitality in hosting His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibetan refugees since 1959, and encourage Indian Parliamentarians to join the All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet (APIPFT). In an eight point appeal letter submitted to visited dignitaries, the Tibetan Parliamentarians appealed that Tibet should be recognised as an occupied nation with a distinct and sovereign past, supported by historical evidence. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) should engage in meaningful dialogue with representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama or elected Tibetan leaders to resolve the Tibet-China conflict, under the Middle Way Policy seeking genuine autonomy within China’s constitution. They also appealed that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) should initiate studies on the environmental impact of China’s exploitation of Tibet’s resources and its contribution to global climate change. Independent human rights organizations must be granted access to monitor the human rights situation in Tibet, UN Special Rapporteurs should be invited to visit. China must also release all Tibetan political prisoners, including Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama. The PRC should cease its policies aimed at eradicating Tibetan culture, language, and religion. A national legislative framework should be established to combat China’s authoritarianism and disinformation campaigns, The advocacy effort is being coordinated by the India Tibet Coordination Office (ITCO) with its Coordinator and staff alongside Tibetan Parliamentary staff members accompanying the committees during their meetings. (Source: „Report fielded by Tibetan Parliamentary Secretariat")

North America

United States  Dec 18, 2024 01:20 PM IST  Vocal leftist Doran, a USAF veteran, nurse and substitute teacher has claimed Trump will be arrested on December 20 under Executive Order 13848. He claimed that Trump will never make it to the White House because millions of Americans will storm Washington DC on January 20, 2025. Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the US is set to take place on January 20 next year on the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. He is expected to deliver an inaugural address. Biden has confirmed that he will be in attendance, and has ensured a peaceful transfer of power. (Source: Hindustan Times - India)

NATO

18.12.2024  NATO's new Ukraine command in Wiesbaden, Germany has started operations. The NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) command, staffed by 700 personnel from across the alliance, will oversee weapons deliveries and training programs for Ukrainian forces, taking over from a smaller US-led mission, the 300-person US-led Security Assistance Group-Ukraine (SAG-U). The command will coordinate the provision, transfer and repair of military equipment critical to Ukraine’s operations, as well as training in allied countries. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

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Europe

Russia
12.19.2024  It was reported last month that Russia's President Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump, but ruled out making any major territorial concessions and insisted Kiev abandon its ambitions to join NATO. He is ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with Trump on ending the war and that Russian forces were moving towards achieving their primary goals on the battlefield, Putin has said, fielding questions on state TV today during his annual question and answer session with Russians. We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises, Putin said after saying that Russian forces, advancing across the entire front, were moving towards achieving their primary goals in Ukraine. "Soon, those Ukrainians who want to fight will run out, in my opinion, soon there will be no one left who wants to fight. We are ready, but the other side needs to be ready for both negotiations and compromises." (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

Dec 19, 2024, 09:21 PM  Russian President Putin, addressing multiple questions on Syria at a marathon annual news conference, denied today that Russia's nine-year intervention in Syria had been a failure, saying its military intervention in Syria since 2015 had helped prevent the country from becoming a "terrorist enclave. He said Israel was the main beneficiary of the current situation. Putin expressed concern about Israel's military operations there since the toppling of his ally Assad. Russia condemns the seizure of any Syrian territories. This is obvious, he said. Israel had penetrated to a depth of 25 km and got as far as fortifications that were built for Syria by the former Soviet Union. "I have the impression that not only are they not going to leave, but they are going to reinforce there". He said Turkey was also intervening in pursuit of its own security interests with regard to Kurdish fighters in Syria whom Ankara regards as terrorists. But we are on the side of international law and for the sovereignty of all countries, while respecting their territorial integrity, meaning Syria, Putin said. Putin had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia's air and naval bases in the country. He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing. Russia had proposed using its Hmeimim air base to deliver humanitarian aid, and had also evacuated 4,000 Iranian fighters from Syria via that route, he said. In his first public comments on the subject, he said he had not yet met Assad since the former president fled to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so. In response to a question on the subject from a U.S. journalist, Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of U.S. reporter Tice, who is missing in Syria, and was ready to ask Syria's new rulers about Tice's whereabouts too. (Source: The Straits Times – Singapore / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Europe
December 19, 2024  President-elect Trump is reportedly advancing the idea that a large and heavily armed peacekeeping force from Europe (but including NATO members) could be introduced into Ukraine as part of a peace settlement there. According to the Wall Street Journal and Le Monde, this idea first emerged in private talks between French and British officials in November. It was discussed on Thursday by NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. Trump made the suggestion to French President Macron and President Zelensky at a meeting in Paris on December 7. Macron then traveled to Warsaw to discuss a plan for 40,000 heavily armed European 'peacekeepers' with the Polish government. 'At the moment we’re not planning such activities,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gave a cool public response. Merz of the German Christian Democrats, almost certain to be chancellor after the elections due in February, has also distanced himself from the idea. The appearance of this idea suggests that Trump and the European governments involved have received highly inaccurate information from their advisers about basic Russian positions. This suggests either extremely poor intelligence, or on the other hand that the advisers concerned are setting out deliberately to wreck a peace settlement. If so, then they are no friends to Ukraine; for every indication suggests that the longer this war goes on, the worse Ukraine’s position will become. The idea of Western troops in Ukraine is just as unacceptable to the Russian government and establishment as NATO membership for Ukraine itself. Indeed, the Russians see no essential difference between the two. Seen from Moscow, such a Western “peacekeeping force' would be simply a NATO advance guard that would provide cover for the gradual introduction of more and more NATO forces. If this proposal is put forward by General Kellogg, President-elect Trump’s choice as his Ukraine envoy, in negotiations, the Russian side will therefore reject it out of hand; and if it is insisted on, the talks will fail. Once European establishments - and populations - have had time to think about this idea, they will in fact let it drop. When Macron first suggested French troops for Ukraine earlier this year, opinion polls showed overwhelming majorities of French citizens opposing the idea. The dangers should indeed be obvious. On the one hand, Ukrainians determined to regain Ukraine’s lost territories by provoking a direct war between NATO and Russia would have every incentive to try to create armed clashes into which the Western “peacekeepers” would be drawn. If Moscow really wanted to test NATO and take advantage of future internal splits in the West, how better to do it than to threaten NATO “peacekeepers" in Ukraine rather than on NATO territory and thus not covered by NATO’s Article 5? In order for European governments and their military chiefs to agree to such a proposal even in principle, they would require ironclad and public guarantees from the Trump administration that the U.S. military would intervene with full force to rescue their “peacekeepers” if they did come under Russian attack. This would mean very much the kind of commitment to Ukraine and to potential war with Russia that Trump and leading members of his team are determined to avoid. It is important that this very ill-thought-out, horrible idea be shot down before it does serious damage to the prospects for an early peace and causes Ukraine still further human, economic and territorial loss. (Source: ZNetwork / Responsible Statecraft = U.S.)

Asia

Gaza
December 19, 2024, 12:23 PM   Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Israel's restriction of water supply in Gaza amounts to acts of genocide. In its statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it has continued the operation of four water pipelines as well as water pumping and desalination facilities, and allowed international aid groups to deliver water in tankers. HRW's report came two weeks after Amnesty International accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. (Source: ABC News / AP = U.S.)

Israel
024-12-19 20:00:15  A missile launched by Yemen's Houthi forces struck a school in central Israel today. The missile, identified by the Houthis as a hypersonic 'Palestine-2' missile, triggered air raid sirens across central Israel overnight and struck the school in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The missile attack from Yemen followed an Israeli air offensive targeting major ports in Yemen and the capital, Sanaa. Local media reported at least nine people were killed in the Israeli strikes. (Source: Xinhua - China)

19 December, 2024  In the Israeli-annexed Golan, the yellow gates of Trump Heights slowly open for cars, passing a golden-lettered sign honouring the US president-elect. Emblazoned with Israeli and US flags, the settlement is an homage to Trump who in 2019 recognised Israel's sovereignty over the strategic plateau, making the United States the first, and so far only, country to do so. Countries including Israel ally Germany say Israel's presence in the Golan is unlawful. Five years after its inauguration, the modest settlement is home to some 26 Jewish families - a mix of religious and secular Jews - living in a cluster of makeshift homes and caravans, though they have plans to substantially expand it. The community now has around 70 adults and more than 60 children under 13. Within the next year, Trump Heights, or Ramat Trump, will double its population, community leader Freimann told on Tuesday, and in three years he expects 99 families to move into new homes on spacious plots with new infrastructure to match. Freimann may soon have official support, with the Israeli government approving a plan on Sunday to spend 40 million shekels ($11 million) to double the Jewish population in the Golan. The plan followed the overthrow of president Assad in neighbouring Syria last week, and a subsequent decision to move Israeli troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Syrian-held area of the Golan. Israel conquered most of the Golan from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the two-thirds it controls in 1981. Selavan, deputy head of the Golan Heights Regional Council said that a strategic plan is already in motion to develop the area, whose Jewish population numbers around 30,000. They live alongside some 23,000 Druze, whose presence predates the occupation and who largely remain loyal to Syria. In addition to improving roads and other infrastructure and expanding existing settlements, the plan includes the creation of three new communities, one beside Trump Heights and another, potentially, on a controversial stretch of land disputed with Lebanon. "We actually just got the papers from the Israel Land Authority," Selavan said, pointing on a map to the area Israelis call Mount Dov and the Lebanese know as the Shebaa Farms. He said a team was already preparing to explore the possibility of building there. In Trump Heights, beyond the temporary structures, the earth has already been cleared to lay the foundations of around 50 new homes. (Source: The New Arab – based in London, United Kingdom, owned by a Qatari company)

Syria
12/19/2024, 16.57  Four incidents raise concern over the fate of Syria’s Christian minority, especially at a time of hope and uncertainty, in the wake of the ouster of the dictator, Assad, and the rise to power of the opposition led by the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, once affiliated with the al-Nusra front (formerly al-Qaeda). Yesterday, in an interview with the BBC the leader of the group, Sharaa, denied that he wants to turn Syria into a new Afghanistan, stressing that the two countries are different, with different traditions. Speaking about the situation, an anonymous government source told that the Greek Orthodox have been targeted, largely because they are the Christian group closest to Moscow, and have been linked to the Russian Orthodox Church since the 18th century.   The worst incident reported took place in a Greek Orthodox village, al-Jamasliyye, in Wadi al-Nasara, the so-called Valley of Christians, Homs Governorate. A Christian couple, Satme and Helena Khashouf, were brutally murdered on 13 December: the man was beheaded, while the woman was shot in cold blood. Some people remember similar murders in the past that were clearly motivated by religious bias. The funeral service was held at the Church of Saint Simeon Stylites in Haba.   On Tuesday, in Hama, HTS members vandalised a local Christian cemetery, looting, desecrating graves, destroying some crosses, and beheading a statue of Our Lady.   Earlier, a car with HTS members allegedly fired at the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Archbishopric in Hama, targeting the cross. Local sources note that the group then broke into the Church St George, destroying some crosses.   In Damascus, anti-Assad opponents were seen and threatening words against the Christian minority are spotted in a car with a sign on the dashboard that reads: ’Your time is near, O servants of the cross’.   Meanwhile, the Christian blog "Ora Pro Siria" relayed a message from the Trappist nuns of A'zer, in which they say they are "fine" and that, in their area, ’there is not too much violence and there is enough respect". By contrast, ’elsewhere the situation is more problematic’ and it is ’a miracle that there was no more chaos in the first few days, even if the situation is still very precarious. It is imperative that a police service be established as soon as possible everywhere, even in the suburbs.’ For the Trappist nuns, the new leaders made ’two mistakes: emptying all the prisons, releasing all sorts of criminals, and dissolving the local police. For now, no one is in full control.’ With respect to the future, they note that, everything will depend on whether the promises of a moderate state respectful of the various minorities are kept or not. (Photo) /Source: AsiaNews, an official press agency of the Catholic Church's Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME)/
by Salvi
Note: „Send to a friend”

Yemen
Thursday, December 19, 2024  Israeli bombers pound Yemen and Gaza. (Source: Morning Star - United Kingdom)

United States
12/19/2024  How the White House functioned with a diminished Biden in charge (Source: MSN / WSJ = U.S.)

December 19, 2024 12:41 PM  Since 2000, Congress has required the Department of Defense to submit an annual report - classified and unclassified - on the development of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). The latest document was released amid flaring tensions between the two powers over a range of issues and just weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Trump. The United States views China, which Defense Secretary Austin previously called the country's pacing challenge, as the only nation capable of competing with it in the military, economic, technological and geopolitical domains. A major focus of the report is China's expanding nuclear arsenal. The Pentagon estimates that China had over 600 operational warheads earlier this year - about 100 more than in 2023 - and is projected to surpass 1,000 by 2030. The 2024 edition of the Pentagon's China Military Power Report, released yesterday, has drawn fire from the Chinese embassy, with spokesperson Liu criticizing the 166-page report's Cold War and zero-sum thinking. China has always firmly adhered to a nuclear strategy of self-defense, following a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons and maintaining its nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security, Liu said. He noted that China is the only nuclear power to have made this commitment. He also pointed to China's participation in multilateral arms control initiatives. The report also highlighted China's increasing pressure on Taiwan, that Beijing claims as its territory. The U.S. has long acknowledged China's position without endorsing it while maintaining unofficial diplomatic relations with Taiwan and providing the island with arms. U.S. intelligence and defense officials believe President Xi has directed the PLA to be capable of moving against Taiwan by 2027. On Taiwan, Liu called the report a blatant violation of China's internal affairs. He added: The one-China principle is unwavering, the trend toward reunification is unstoppable, and 'Taiwan independence' is a dead end. The report examined China's ties with Russia, describing their relationship as a no-limits partnership. The document said that Beijing has echoed Kremlin narratives blaming the U.S. and NATO for Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine; bolstered Russia's economy with oil and natural gas purchases and record-high trade; and exported electronics, machine tools, and other dual-use goods that fuel Moscow's war machine. Regarding support for Russia, Liu said: China has always strictly controlled the export of dual-use items. He insisted that China's relationship with Russia is aboveboard, in line with World Trade Organization rules and market principles and not targeted at any third party. Liu accused the U.S. of hypocrisy for sanctioning Chinese companies over alleged support for Russia's military efforts. Liu's comments follow Xi's meeting with President Biden last month in Lima, Peru. During the meeting, Xi laid down clear red lines, widely interpreted as a message for the incoming administration of President-elect Trump. Xi urged the U.S. to unequivocally oppose Taiwan independence and to steer clear of human rights issues and China's territorial disputes in the South China Sea, such as those with U.S. defense treaty ally Philippines. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

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Europe

Hungary
December 17, 2024  Hungary has once again vetoed the European Union's (EU) allocation of €6.5bn to member states supplying weapons to Ukraine. Hungary torpedoed the release of the EPF funds, citing alleged discrimination against Hungarian companies in Ukraine and the risk to Hungary's energy supply after Ukraine extended a ban on the transit of oil by Lukoil. Hungary, together with Slovakia's government also blocked sanctions targeting Georgian police officials over violence against pro-Western demonstrators, claiming that Georgia was being targeted because a patriotic and conservative party, rather than liberal forces, had won the recent elections. Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party declared victory in an election in October.. The government’s announcement of suspending EU accession talks until 2028 sparked protests and a violent crackdown on protesters. Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán was the sole EU leader to congratulate the ruling party for its election victory. He travelled to Tbilisi a day after the vote to support the government in person. Hungary also removed Russia's UN ambassador, the Russian Olympic Committee and two Russian football teams from the latest sanctions list against Moscow, stating, "mixing sports with geopolitics is unacceptable". The EU Foreign Affairs Council approved the 15th sanctions package against Russia yesterday, which targets a total of 84 legal entities and individuals. The sanctions list also includes Chinese companies and North Korean officials. Hungary has become more obstructive to EU assistance to Kyiv and EU sanctions on Russia since Brussels froze part of Hungary's Cohesion Funds and Reconstruction Funds. EU foreign ministers at the meeting did agree to recommend to the Commission the suspension of visa-free travel for Georgian officials holding diplomatic passports following the crackdown in Georgia on pro-EU protests. This decision will only require a majority vote, which could take place next week. Speaking after the council meeting, Foreign Minister Szijjártó said Hungary was the only country to block the disbursement of funds from the EPF and reiterated Budapest's long-standing opposition to mandatory contributions for arms shipments. He stressed that while Hungary would not interfere with member states funding such initiatives voluntarily, it would not support making these contributions compulsory. Hungary also opposes the proposed relocation of an EU coordination unit to Kyiv and the deployment of advisors for security sector reforms, he added. The latest sanctions package against Russia extends the legal option for Hungarian oil and gas company MOL to continue exporting products derived from Russian-origin oil. (Source: bne IntelliNews – Germany)
By Csonka

France
12/17/2024  French farmers were back on the streets dumping manure a few days after European Commission President der Leyen inked a long-pending trade agreement with four Latin American nations. French farmers have resumed protests against the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement. This time they parked the tractors near the tunnel in Calais that goes through the English Channel. They have vowed to continue their resistance. A so-called Factsheet published by the EU Commission says under the new agreement the EU will import 99,000 tons of beef. Critics have said the deal will contribute to continued rainforest deforestation to produce beef and grow soy to feed cattle. The overall EU-Mercosur deal is far beyond beef and agriculture, extending to all industrial sectors, and services - from A to Z, meats to medicines, vehicles to chemicals, Hegadorn, adjunct professor of global food politics at Sciences Po, Paris said. At the heart of the farmers' protest is an increase in beef imports, as well as poultry and sugar. France's minister for trade, Primas, said the deal with the Mercosur bloc - that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — 'only commits the Commission, not the member states," indicating that France will oppose ratification of the agreement. (Source: DW - Germany)

Russia
17/12/2024 - 07:51  The commander of Russian armed forces' chemical, biological and radiation defence troops, Kirillov, was killed along with his deputy in southeastern Moscow early this morning. 'An explosive device planted in a scooter parked near the entrance of a residential building was activated on the morning of December 17 on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow,' said the Russian Investigative Committee, responsible for major investigations in the country. Kirillov, who had been in his post since 2017, was sanctioned in October by Britain over the alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. (Source: AFP - France)
Note: Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC)

Vatican
December 17, 2024  Pope Francis escaped two attempts on his life during his historic trip to Iraq in March 2021, according to excerpts from his forthcoming autobiography published today by Italian media. "Hope" goes on sale in over 80 countries in January. (Source: Barron's - U.S. / Agence France-Presse)

Asia

Syria
(17 December 2024)  Turkish rescuers begin combing infamous Syria’s Saydnaya prison. The search was being conducted in line with a request made by the Syrian authorities, Memis, the director of Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said. The 120-strong disaster relief agency team, which arrived with 43 vehicles, would use ground radar and acoustic listening devices to verify whether there were any as yet undiscovered locations underneath the facility. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people died in Syria’s jails and detention centres from 2011. The Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison (ADMSP), believes the rumours about as yet undiscovered underground cells are unfounded. (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates / Agence France-Presse)

Turkey
12/17/2024  Senior U.S. officials say Turkey and its militia allies are building up forces along the border with Syria. The forces include militia fighters, Turkish uniformed commandos and artillery in large numbers that are concentrated near Kobani, a Kurdish-majority city in Syria on the northern border with Turkey. U.S.-brokered cease-fire talks between the Syrian Kurds and Turkish-backed rebels in Kobani collapsed yesterday without an agreement. Ahmed, an official in the Syrian Kurds’ civilian administration, told President-elect Trump yesterday that a Turkish military operation appeared imminent, urging him to press Turkish President Erdogan not to send troops across the border. A Turkish invasion would displace more than 200,000 Kurdish civilians in Kobani alone along with many Christian communities, Ahmed warned Trump, Trump insinuated yesterday that Turkey orchestrated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s takeover of Syria. During his first term, Trump partially withdrew U.S. troops from northeast Syria, paving the way for a large-scale Turkish invasion that killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of Syrians. The Trump administration eventually helped broker a cease-fire in exchange for the Kurds ceding miles of border territory to the Turks. (Source: MSN / The Wall Street Journal = U.S.)

Yemen
(17 December 2024)  The US military said it conducted an airstrike yesterday against a command and control facility operated by the Houthis in Yemen. Al-Masirah TV, run by Yemen's Houthi movement, said early today that a strike carried out by the United States targeted al-Ardi complex in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates / Reuters - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
(17 December 2024)  North Korean troops killed fighting Ukraine, says US. The BBC has not independently verified the claims. Yesterday, President Zelensky posted drone footage on Telegram 'that showed a number of men taking cover behind trees, saying' they were North Korean troops who had just taken part in an assault on a Ukrainian position. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

December 17, 2024  In October 2024 CIA Director Burns said that “No, we do not see evidence today that the supreme leader has reversed the decision that he took at the end of 2003 to suspend the weaponization program… We don’t see evidence today that such a decision [to build a bomb] has been made. We watch it very carefully.” President-elect Trump has reportedly expressed concern that Iran could develop a nuclear bomb on his watch. In considering his options to prevent that, The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is considering the possibility of airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Military considerations are still in their “early stages” and could change as the transition team solidifies into a fixed cabinet, the Journal reports. The U.S. now consistently applies international law inconsistently, prioritizing their own foreign policy interests over universal application of international law. There is brazen hypocrisy in condemning Russia for violating Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity while defending America’s right to violate Iran’s by bombing it preemptively when there has been no Iranian attack or threat of attack on the United States. (Source: AntiWar - U.S.)
by Snider

December 17, 2024 6:52 AM  Trump yesterday lost a bid to overturn his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to a porn star in light of the US Supreme Court's July ruling recognising immunity from prosecution for a president's official acts. Justice Merchan's denial of Trump's motion to dismiss the New York state case forecloses one avenue for the Republican president-elect to enter the White House on Jan 20 for his second four-year term without the stain of a criminal conviction. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore)

Pacific Ocean

Vanuatu
2024.12.17  Buildings ‘pancaked’ in Vanuatu as 7.3 magnitude quake that lasted about 30 seconds hits off capital Port Vila. (Source: BenarNews, headquartered in Washington, D.C, - U.S.)

. 4 12 17 20:57

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Europe

Poland
December 10, 2024 Last year, in response to Moscow’s claim that Russia would move intermediate-range ballistic missiles, or non-strategic nuclear weapons, into nearby Belarus, Poland’s former right-wing government indicated its willingness to become a nuclear weapons-sharing country within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Warsaw said it was open to making their U.S.-made F-35 Lightning II warplane fleet capable of carrying American-made B-61 nuclear bombs. And it isn’t only NATO members, such as Poland, that are trying to get in on the nuclear escalation talk against Russia. The Ukrainians sound obsessed with the prospect of gaining (or, regaining, if you believe their propaganda) nuclear weapons from the West. For starters, the idea that the West would allow for nuclear weapons to be stationed in — or more frighteningly, handed over to — Ukraine, a non-NATO member, is essentially crazy. B-61s have been stationed in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey over the years. It can also be fired from the B-2 Spirit long-range nuclear stealth bomber, the F-15E, and, as mentioned above, the F-35. The B-61 has been referred to as 'dial-a-yield' because the severity of the explosion it creates can be adjusted from 0.3 kilotons to as high as 360 kilotons. America’s most recent mod, the B61-13 will be a “gravity bomb” variant of this potent and enduring weapon. It is designed to maximize civilian deaths, up to twenty-four times more powerful than the nukes America dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet, it must be stated that the Americans and their NATO allies have refused every chance to deescalate the conflict over Ukraine, leading to the point now where we are seriously considering the prospects of proliferating nuclear weapons to Poland or, possibly even, Ukraine. 'Poland, as a NATO member in good standing, has a right to participate in the alliance’s nuclear-weapons-sharing program. At this point, though, it will further destabilize the situation, making any chance of a peaceful settlement between the West and Russia over Ukraine unlikely'. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
By Weichert. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is available for purchase wherever books are sold.

10.12.2024  Poland seeks to play major role in ending war, says Donald Tusk. He said French President Macron would visit Warsaw on 12 December' to provide details on talks between US President-elect Trump and President Zelenskyy in Paris' last weekend. He said he has been in constant contact with Poland’s Scandinavian and Baltic allies on the issue, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer would visit Warsaw in the early days of Poland’s EU presidency. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

European Commission
December 10, 2024 10:47 pm CET  'Kallas, a former Estonian prime minister and Russia hawk, took up the post of the EU’s foreign policy chief on Dec. 1'. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Council of Europe
10/12/2024  In the wake of the developments in Syria and the fall of the Assad regime, several Council of Europe member states have suspended the processing of asylum claims of Syrians and announced plans to forcibly return Syrians currently under their protection. Before taking steps that could lead to returns, member states must carefully consider the rapidly changing and complex situation on the ground. For Syrians who wish to return to their country of origin, member states should ensure that they enable them to do so in a well-informed and truly voluntary manner. Assistance and freedom from any undue legal or material pressure to take this step are essential to that end. (Source: Commissioner for Human Rights)

Africa

Chad
Dec 10, 2024, 6:45 PM  France has started the withdrawal of its military from Chad with the departure of two warplanes that were based in the capital N’Djamena, two weeks after Chad said it was ending its defence cooperation pact with Paris. In a surprise move, the government of Chad – an ally of the West in the fight against terrorists in the region – ended the defence cooperation pact on Nov. 28. France has already pulled its soldiers out of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger following military coups in those West African countries and spreading anti-French sentiment. France still has about 1,000 troops in Chad. (Source: MEHR Nerws Agency - Iran)

Asia

Gaza
December 10, 2024  The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the death toll as more than 25 in air strikes on a house occupied by the Kahlout family in the northern area of Izbat Beit Hanoun yesterday evening. The Gaza civil defence said another seven people were killed in air strikes on a home in central Gaza today morning. The Palestinian death toll from Israel's devastating military offensive in Gaza has risen to 44,758, the local health ministry said today. Another 106,134 people have been injured, and thousands of dead are believed to be buried under rubble. If we end the war now, Hamas will return, recover, rebuild and attack us again – and that is what we do not want to go back to, Mr Netanyahu told a press conference in Jerusalem. Hamas had agreed in principle to Egypt's proposal for a truce of up to 30 days and the release of some of the hostages seized from Israel during the raids last year. As well as the exchange of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel on security charges, the truce plan includes the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and Israel's gradual withdrawal from a strip of land along the enclave's border with Egypt. The strip includes the Rafah crossing, the only land exit from Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, which was the main point of entry for humanitarian aid before Israeli forces seized it in May. (Source: The National - United Arab Emirates / The Middle East News Agency (MENA) - Egypt)

Israel
Tuesday, December 10, 2024  Even though Israeli forces drew within 15 miles of the Syrian capital Israel is denying that its forces are advancing toward Damascus. Israeli Defence Minister Katz did, however, boast of having destroyed the Syrian naval fleet as it was docked in port, as Israel takes advantage of chaos in Syria to smash the state’s military capacity. Heavy air strikes were heard in the capital overnight and into today on the city and its suburbs. Photographs circulating online showed destroyed missile launchers, helicopters and warplanes. There was no immediate comment from the insurgents - led by the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - that have taken control of Damascus. 'The state of Israel is establishing its position as a centre of power in our region, as it has not been for decades. Those who co-operate with us, benefit greatly. Whoever attacks us loses big,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Israel has said that it is striking suspected chemical weapons sites and heavy weapons to prevent them from falling into the hands of extremists. Israel had already seized a roughly 155-square-mile buffer zone inside Syria that had been established after the 1973 Middle East war. Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Shoshani said: 'Reports circulating in the media about the alleged advancement of Israeli tanks towards Damascus are false.” But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Beirut-based Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria, said Israeli troops are advancing up the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon. Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have all condemned Israel’s invasion, accusing it of exploiting the disarray in Syria and violating international law. 'The assaults carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, and the targeting of Syrian territory confirm Israel’s continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity,' the Saudi Foreign Ministry said yesterday. (Source: Morning Star - United Kingdom)

Lebanon
10 December, 2024  Senior officials from Assad's regime are reportedly hiding in Beirut under Hezbollah’s protection. Some of these figures were staying in luxury hotels in Beirut and Hezbollah strongholds in the city's southern suburb. Reports suggest that the escape of these officials to Lebanon was coordinated days before the fall of Damascus, facilitated by Hezbollah and a General Security officer at the Lebanese border. (Source: The New Arab - based in London, United Kingdom, owned by a Qatari copany)

Syria
10 December 2024  How Russia, Iran and Turkey, US - along with Israel -  have played a role in Syria and could continue to do so? (Source: BBC – United Kingdom)

Tue, 10 Dec, 2024  In a brief address on state television, Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a small pocket of the northwest controlled by rebels, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1. Behind him were two flags: the green, black and white flag flown by opponents of Assad throughout the civil war, and a white flag with the Islamic oath of faith in black writing, typically flown in Syria by Sunni Islamist fighters. There was a notable decrease in the number of armed men on the streets. Their command had ordered fighters to withdraw from cities, and for police and internal security forces affiliated with the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS) to deploy there. The steps towards normalisation came despite intense airstrikes from Israel targeting bases of the Syrian army, whose forces had melted away in the face of the lightning rebel advance that ousted Assad. Pedersen, the U.N. envoy to Syria told a briefing in Geneva he played down the designation as a terrorist organisation of HTS, the former al Qaeda affiliate that led the anti-Assad revolt and has lately emphasised its break with its jihadist roots. Israel's incursion in the southwest and its airstrikes on bases of the defeated army create an additional security problem for the new administration. The Israelis had advanced beyond the demilitarised zone. They had reached the town of Qatana, several km to the east of the buffer zone and a short drive from Damascus airport. Israel's navy had destroyed Syria's fleet, Israel's Defence Minister Katz said. Regional security sources and officers within the defunct Syrian army described today morning's Israeli air strikes as the heaviest yet, hitting military installations and air bases across Syria and destroying dozens of helicopters and jets. Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned the Israeli incursion. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland / Reuters - United Kingdom)

10 Dec 2024  Syrian fighters who toppled President Assad have appointed Bashir as the country’s caretaker prime minister. Bashir, who headed the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led de facto government in Idlib province, will lead a transitional Syrian government until March 1, 2025. He was trained as an electrical engineer, later received a degree in sharia and law, and has also held posts in education. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

(Tuesday), 2024. december 10.  Torture chambers are giving up their secrets. Families have been arriving at the gates of the Damascus security zone since Saturday, desperately seeking word on the fate of their missing loved ones. In the capital's Kafr Sousa district the feared security services had their headquarters alongside government offices. The myriad of different agencies which kept tabs on the lives of ordinary Syrians each operated their own underground prisons and interrogation chambers inside the walled defence ministry compound. All remaining prisoners were freed on Sunday after their captors fled as the rebels swept into Damascus. The Sunni Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood was anathema to the Assad clan who are members of Syria's Alawite minority, followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Brotherhood membership became punishable by death in 1980 two years before Assad's father and predecessor Hafez ordered the army to crush its insurgency with an assault on the central city of Hama ’which killed between 10,000 and 40,000 people’. Nothing was considered too trivial to escape the security services' attention, recording the activities of ordinary citizens as well as journalists and religious leaders. Not even government ministers were immune. On a list of members of Assad's government, a security service agent has carefully noted the confession of each minister –„ Sunni or Alawite, Christian or Druze”. The security services operated vast networks of paid informers, who provided the tiniest details of people's daily lives. In Saydnaya Prison, a vast detention complex on the outskirts of Damascus many of those who survived interrogation at security headquarters were taken for long-term incarceration. (Source: Times of Malta / AFP – France)

Turkey
12/10/2024  Erdogan is regarded as a hero by thousands of Syrian rebels who succeeded in overthrowing Assad with Turkey’s help - as well as by many among the millions of refugees who were given safe haven in Turkey when the Syrian war broke out in 2011. He’s been a rare voice standing up to Israel and championing the Palestinian cause. Turkey has urged disparate opposition forces to work for a reunified Syria, while Turkey-backed rebels wasted no time in pushing out Kurdish forces from two northern towns to the west of the Euphrates River. The latter move is in line with a cherished Turkish goal of creating a buffer zone inside Syria across the length of their 900-plus-kilometer shared border. Kurdish forces allied with the US played a critical role in defeating islamic state in Syria, yet Turkey regards them as terrorists and a threat to its unity because they are affiliated with the separatist Kurdish group, the PKK, which is waging a war for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast. Turkey has proposed that its army, the second-largest in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after the US, take over the fight against islamic state in Syria if the US pulls out its troops and ceases military support to the Kurds. 'Turkey was also prepared to take over the responsibility for tens of thousands of islamic state jihadists and their relatives detained by Kurdish forces.' The way Trump decides to handle the PKK presence in Syria will be decisive in how his administration’s relations with Ankara evolve. Erdogan’s vision moves closer to carving out an area under Turkish influence, free from jihadists and Kurdish groups, in what would be the largest foreign intervention since the Ottoman Empire. To achieve it, Turkey needs to stabilize and rebuild parts of Syria, especially the major northern city of Aleppo, in the hopes of sending back 3 million Syrians, the world’s largest refugee population. Turkey’s embrace of those in need started to go cold amid an economic decline. Ankara, which controls a major migration tap to the West, is now turning to Western allies, especially in Europe, to finance the reconstruction of Syria to enable the return of refugees. If successful, the plan may be a boon to Turkish contractors. While sectors like cement may see immediate benefits, an equally important potential lies in boosting trade ties. Erdogan has moved to repair strained ties with Arab heavyweights from Egypt and Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates. He needs to win their tacit approval to allow Ankara to establish itself as the key outside power in Syria. Arab states have historically opposed Islamist movements within their borders and might seek an alternative to Turkish dominance. (Source: MSN / Bloomberg = U.S.)

.North America

United States
(10 December 2024)  The US has given $20bn (£15bn) to Ukraine, funded by the profits of seized Russian assets. The economic support forms a significant part of a $50bn (£39bn) package agreed by G7 member nations announced in June. The US Treasury said today that it had transferred the $20bn to a World Bank fund, where it will be available for Ukraine to draw from. Money handled by the World Bank cannot be used for military purposes. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Tuesday, 10 December 2024 10:35 AM EST  President-elect Trump today mocked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Truth Social, calling him the "governor" of the "Great State of Canada." "It was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada," Trump wrote. "I look forward to seeing the Governor again soon so that we may continue our in depth talks on tariffs and trade, the results of which will be truly spectacular for all!" Trudeau this month visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, a meeting that both leaders said was "productive." At that meeting, according to reports, Trump told the prime minster that if Canada had problems with the tariffs, then it should become the 51st U.S. state and that Trudeau could be its governor. (Source: Newsmax - U.S.)

4 12 12.16:08

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Europe

Austria
09.12.2024  Austria has suspended all asylum procedures for Syrians, according to the country’s interior minister. Karner told today that the suspension was done at the direction of Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. The Interior Ministry clarified that all asylum applications that have already been granted will also undergo review. In this context, I have instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly repatriation and deportation program to Syria, Karner told ORF. Family reunification will also be suspended. He noted that 7,300 open asylum procedures are affected by the decision. From this January to November, 12,871 asylum applications were submitted by Syrian citizens, he added. According to the Statistik Austria, 95,180 Syrians were residing in Austria at the start of 2024. This makes them the largest group of people entitled to asylum in Austria. Its data shows that nearly 87,000 Syrians received a positive asylum decision in Austria from 2015 to 2024. The figures also indicate that 17,421 Syrians were granted subsidiary protection. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Belgium
09.12.2024  Belgium has suspended decisions on Syrian asylum applications due to potential challenges in accessing information on applicants, an official said today. Brasseur, the spokesman for the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS), told that the suspension does not affect cases already approved by another European Union member state. Since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, around 35,000 Syrians have been granted asylum in Belgium. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Germany
09.12.2024  Germany’s stance towards the Syrian group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) will depend on its actions in the coming days, Foreign Ministry spokesman Fischer said. “HTS has made efforts in recent months to distance itself from its jihadist roots and also tried to establish civilian governance structures. Whether these efforts can be taken seriously will become apparent, particularly in how the group deals with civilians and minorities in the areas it now controls,” he said. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Italy
09.12.2024  Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni chaired a meeting to discuss the situation in Syria. “It is decided to suspend the processing of asylum applications from Syria, in line with decisions taken by some other European partners,” her office said in a written statement. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
Monday 09 December 2024 21:03 GMT  Speaking alongside German opposition leader Merz in Kyiv, President Zelensky has said that he is open to the 'potential deployment of Western troops in Ukraine' to guarantee the country’s security as part of an effort to end the almost three-year war with Russia. In the same breath Mr Merz condemned chancellor Olaf Scholz’s refusal to send Kyiv long-range missiles. Mr Scholz has argued that deploying Germany’s Taurus missile could be seen as Germany joining the war. Military experts believe the Taurus cruise missile, with its bunker-busting warhead, could be instrumental in destroying targets like the Kersh bridge that links Crimea with Russia’s mainland. Mr Scholz, increasingly positioning himself as a peace candidate, has warned against what he calls Mr Merz’s willingness to escalate tensions with a nuclear-armed Russia. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

December 9, 2024  'The armor melted!" The Ukrainian government a year ago was begging the collective leadership of NATO to hand over to them advanced Main Battle Tanks, such as the German-made Leopard-2 and the American M1A1 Abrams MBT. Some problems associated with the American tanks revolve around the lack of adequate armor for those tanks against modern weaponry. The Abrams tanks were completely unprepared to withstand the twin threats of drones as well as anti-tank weapons that were firing missiles with dual warheads at those tanks. Not ready for showtime not only because they were poorly prepared for the kind of combat the Russians would subject them to. It’s also because the Ukrainians themselves never received the proper level of training to use these systems. Nevertheless, NATO persists in dumping its equipment into Ukraine where it is just getting trashed and abandoned by the desperate Ukrainians in the face of the Russian onslaught. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Weichert, a national security analyst, a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst, author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine.

Europe
09/12/2024 - 19:59  A growing number of European countries today announced they were suspending their processing of Syrian asylum applications after rebels seized the Syrian capital and President Assad fled to Russia following 13 years of civil war.    Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer instructed his interior minister to suspend all current Syrian asylum applications and family reunifications, and said that cases in which asylum had been granted would also be reviewed.    Denmark paused processing applications and said Syrians whose applications had already been rejected, and who had been given a deadline to leave, would be allowed to remain longer due to the current uncertainty.    France said it hoped to announce a similar decision shortly.    Germany is now home to nearly a million Syrians, the largest community in Europe. The Berlin interior ministry said yesterday it would not process asylum requests until there was more clarity on political developments in Syria. Syria was the top country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, with 72,420 applications submitted by the end of November. Some 47,270 remain undecided. ProAsyl, a German group providing legal and practical assistance to asylum seekers, said it might take many months for clarity to emerge on Syria’s security situation, potentially exceeding the six-month limit for a decision. An Infratest survey published on 6 December indicated that voters view migration as Germany’s second biggest problem after the economy.    Greece paused the asylum applications of about 9,000 Syrians. Officials have said the government will meet on 13 Dcember to finalise the move.    Norwegian immigration authorities said Syrians’ asylum applications would neither be denied nor approved for now.    Britain paused decisions on asylum claims as well, with the interior ministry saying it was assessing the situation. A total of 20,319 Syrian refugees had been resettled in the country between March 2014 and February 2021, according to the Refugee Council. Updating the British parliament on the situation in Syria, foreign minister Lammy warned that developments could potentially trigger more migration into European states. ’This flow into Syria could quickly become a flow back out and potentially increase the numbers using dangerous illegal migration routes to continental Europe and the United Kingdom.’ (Source: France 24 / Reuters)

(9 December 2024)  ’Since 2011, the UN says more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety’.    Thousands of Syrians exiled in Lebanon and Jordan have been returning home. But on the Lebanese border, the flow has been in both directions. An increasing number of Syrians were trying to get into Lebanon, prompting Lebanese military reinforcements. Some feared an increase in chaos or crime at home, though they also say they have received reassurances this will not happen. Lebanon hosts more than one million Syrian refugees but has been tightening up the rules for them to enter the country.    France, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom have all said they will halt asylum decisions for now.    Austria's caretaker government has stopped all asylum claims from Syrians and says it is making plans to repatriate or deport people back to their homeland, arguing that the situation in the country has changed fundamentally. Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer said that the government would support all Syrians who have found refuge in Austria and want to return to their home country. He added that the security situation in Syria must also be reassessed in order to make deportations possible again in the future. Around 95,000 Syrians live in Austria, many of whom arrived during the migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016.    France with a decision expected in the next few hours.    Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has put on hold all pending applications from Syrian asylum seekers. Officials say the political situation is so uncertain in Syria, that it is not possible to reach a proper decision about whether the country is safe or not. At the moment 47,270 Syrians in Germany are waiting for an answer to their asylum applications. Those who have already been granted asylum are not affected. Germany has the largest Syrian diaspora population outside of the Middle East, with about one million Syrians living in Germany. About 700,000 are classed as refugees.    British Home Secretary Cooper confirmed that the UK has paused asylum decisions on cases from Syria while the Home Office reviews and monitors the current situation, adding that some people are already returning to Syria. Between 2011 and 2021 more than 30,000 Syrians were granted asylum in the UK. Most of these were resettled under humanitarian schemes and came directly from other countries they had fled to, such as Turkey and Lebanon. In 2019, it was calculated that around 47,000 Syrians were living in the UK, but that number is thought to have since fallen to around 30,000. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Africa

Niger
09.12.2024  Armed men kill 21 civilians in Niger on Dec. 5 at border junction between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso during an attack on a goods transport convoy near Tera, in western Niger. The Nigerien army is carrying out several operations against jihadist groups in the Tillaberi region, where these attacks are regularly attributed to “terrorists.” (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Asia

Iran
Mon, 09 Dec, 2024 - 12:13  Trump is staffing his planned administration with hawks on Iran. Iran's clerical rulers spent billions of dollars propping up Assad during the civil war that erupted in Syria in 2011 and deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria to keep its ally in power and maintain Tehran's 'Axis of Resistance' to Israel and U.S. influence in the Middle East. Iran has opened a direct line of communication with rebels in Syria's new leadership since its ally Assad was ousted, a senior Iranian official said today, in an attempt to prevent a hostile trajectory between the countries. Hours after Assad's fall, Iran said it expected relations with Damascus to continue based on the two countries' "far-sighted and wise approach" and called for the establishment of an inclusive government representing all segments of Syrian society. Tehran seeks diplomatic avenues to establish contact with people whom one of the officials called those within Syria's new ruling groups whose views are closer to Iran's," a second Iranian officials said. Iran is keen to avoid the scenario that Assad's successor will push Syria away from Tehran's orbit. A hostile post-Assad Syria would deprive Lebanese armed group Hezbollah of its only land supply route and deny Iran its main access to the Mediterranean and the 'front line' with Israel. Iran's clerical rulers were open to engaging with Syria's new leaders. Tehran has established contacts with two groups inside the new leadership and the level of interaction will be assessed in the coming days after a meeting at Iran's Supreme National Security Council, a top security body. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland)

12/09/2024  Iran's leadership is struggling to come to terms with the loss of long-time ally Assad. Tehran may now shift its strategy to maintain influence by preventing the establishment of a new, stable order in Syria. Iran has previously supported destabilizing forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to counter US influence and project its own power. In 2020, Falahatpishe, a former chair of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, revealed in a newspaper interview that Iran had spent approximately $30 billion (ca. €28 billion) to keep Assad in power. This support from Iran, as well as from Russia, enabled Assad to gain the upper hand in Syria's civil war, during which he brutally suppressed opposition to his rule. Assad is accused of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilians. In a recent post on X, the former Iranian lawmaker Parsaei emphasized that Iran's expenditure had bypassed parliamentary approval, and asked who would repay the debts now that Assad is gone. Many Iranians question why their government prioritizes foreign expenditure over addressing domestic needs, such as building schools and hospitals in impoverished regions such as Sistan and Baluchistan. Syria has been a cornerstone of what Tehran describes as the "Shia Crescent," a geopolitical vision aimed at linking Iran to its allies in Lebanon and beyond. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, once described Syria as the pillar of the ’Axis of Resistance,’ a network of Iranian-backed groups that oppose Israel and US influence, in the Middle East. For years, Iranian propaganda has emphasized the success and unity of the "Axis of Resistance." Assad's fall undermines this narrative and could leave hardline supporters of the regime disillusioned. Claims from the opposition forces in Syria, such as that they will ensure inclusive governance and make efforts to prevent chaos, could serve as potential models for Iran's future if the Islamic Republic should one day collapse. Many analysts believe that Iran's approach is unlikely to change as long as Supreme Leader Khamenei remains in power. The recent waves of protests in Iran, including the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, have demonstrated a growing disconnect between the Iranian government and its people. Pragmatic factions within Iran's government are reportedly concerned that the loss of Syria could inspire uprisings at home. (Source: DW - Germany)
See also: Can Assad be charged with war crimes? /Video/

Japan
12/09/24 AT 11:48 AM EST  Japan's fertility rate plummeted to 1.2 in 2023. To address Japan's record-low fertility rate and support working mothers, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will implement a four-day workweek for its employees starting in April 2025, offering them three-day weekends and more family-friendly options. The success of this policy will depend on whether it leads to long-term cultural shifts in Japan's work environment. (Source: International Business Times - U.S.)

Syria
09:39 ET, Mon, Dec 9, 2024  While many in Syria feel a renewed sense of hope now that Assad is gone, others have warned the future remains uncertain. The UN’s special envoy for Syria, Pedersen, has warned Syria is in grave danger as further military escalation risks mass displacement and civilian casualties. As of 2024, an estimated 12million Syrians have been displaced from their country while 6.8million are internally displaced and 5million are registered refugees. (Source: Express – United Kingdom)

December 9, 2024, 1:22 PM  Syria post-Assad power vacuum poses unexpected problems for Middle East. 'More than a decade of civil war left at least 307,000 people dead by the end of 2022, per United Nations figures. The fighting forced around 12 million Syrians -- more than half of the country's 2011 population of around 22 million - from their homes, around 5.4 million of whom were still living abroad as of late 2022'. (Source: ABC News - U.S.)

Monday, 09 Dec 2024 8:55 AM MYT  Influential Russian war blogger Rybar, who is close to the Russian Defence Ministry and has over 1.3 million followers on his Telegram channel, said the situation around the bases was a serious cause for concern whatever Moscow’s official line. Russia’s military presence in the Middle East region hangs by a thread, Rybar said.'What anyone decided in high offices is absolutely irrelevant on the ground,' he added, suggesting Russian forces at the bases had not taken the initiative to defend their positions in the absence of orders from Moscow. Russian warships had left Tartous and taken up position off the coast for security reasons, the Hmeimim airbase had effectively been cut off after rebels took control of a nearby town, Kurdish forces had started to block Russian facilities beyond the Euphrates, and Russian positions at an oil facility in Homs had been blocked, Rybar said. Earlier yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two military facilities had been put on a state of high alert, but played down any immediate risk. (Source: Malay Mail - Malaysia)

North America

Cuba
December 9, 2024, 7:07 AM.  The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) analyzed nearly a dozen 'sites of interest' in Cuba and last week released a report highlighting the four locations - Bejucal, Wajay, Calabazar, El Salao - it deems most likely to be supporting China's intelligence operations. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Haiti
Mon 9 Dec 2024 14.08 CET  Almost 200 were massacred in Haiti capital's western coastal neighbourhood of Cité Soleil over the weekend as Vodou practitioners reportedly targeted. Killings were overseen by ‘powerful gang leader’ convinced his son’s illness was caused by followers of the 'religion, capable of sending a bad spell on his son'. Gangs control 80% of the city and despite a Kenyan-led police support mission, backed by the US and UN, violence has continued to soar. More than 700,000 people are internally displaced in Haiti, half of them children. Vodou was brought to Haiti by enslaved people from Africa, banned during French colonial rule and recognised as an official religion by the government in 2003. (Source: The Guardian - United Kingdom)

United States
Monday 09 December 2024 10:34 GMT  In an interview with NBC aired on Sunday, Mr Trump said he held “communication as recently as this week” with Mr XI and that he and the Chinese president got along very well. Asked if he was actively working to end the war in Ukraine, Mr Trump replied in the affirmative, but refused to disclose if he had spoken with Mr Putin since winning election in November. "I don’t want to say anything about that, because I don’t want to do anything that could impede the negotiation," Mr Trump said. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

NATO

09.12.2024  'This is a moment of joy but also uncertainty for millions. We hope for a peaceful transition, respect for the rule of law & protection of minorities:” NATO’s secretary general was writing on X today, following the fall of the Assad regime. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

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Europe
08.12.2024  “The Syrians have suffered too much. óAssad leaves a country drained of blood, emptied of a large part of its population who, if they were not forced into exile, were massacred, tortured, and bombed with chemical weapons by the regime and its allies.    France pays tribute to all the victims of this regime.” “We call for the silence of arms, the preservation of state institutions, and respect for Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the statement of the French Foreign Ministry said, advocating for a political transition that protects civilians, ensures minority rights, and upholds international law. It called on Syrians to reject extremism and work toward solidarity among all communities in the country. “We invite all our partners to do everything possible to help the Syrians find the path to reconciliation and reconstruction through an inclusive political solution, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the will of the Syrian people,” the statement concluded.   Chancellor Olaf Scholz today welcomed the fall of Assad, pointing out that his regime’s brutal oppression had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, forced millions to flee Syria, with many finding refuge in Germany. “What matters now is that law and order are quickly restored in Syria. All religious communities, all minorities must enjoy protection now and in the future,” he said. ”We will judge future rulers by their ability to ensure that all Syrians can live with dignity and exercise self-rule, defend Syria's sovereignty against malicious interference by third parties, and live in peace with their neighbors,” he said. Germany’s Foreign Minister Baerbock underlined that Assad must he held accountable for the crimes of the regime. “Several hundred thousand Syrians have been killed in the civil war, millions have fled. Assad has murdered, tortured, and used poison gas against his own population,’ she said. Germany hosts nearly one million Syrian refugees. Baerbock urged all actors to live up to their responsibility for all Syrians and ensuring balanced representation in the future administration. She was citing UN Security Council Resolution 2254 as the basis for the country’s transition process. Baerbock was noting that Germany is coordinating closely with the UN, Western partners, and key regional players such as Türkiye to ensure a stable and peaceful transition in Syria. Tens of thousands of Syrians flooded the streets of major German cities today in jubilant celebrations. Demonstrators waved Syrian flags emblazoned with “Free Syria” while filling the air with drumbeats and victory chants.   Italy is closely observing the rapid developments in Syria “with concerned attention.” Sharing the update on X, Italian Foreign Minister Tajani revealed he has been in regular contact with Italy’s Embassy in Damascus. He also stated that an emergency meeting at the ministry was convened before noon to address the situation.   The European Union is closely monitoring the fast-moving and volatile situation in Syria. With fighting between armed groups escalating throughout the country, we urge all parties to protect civilians and ensure the safety of humanitarian aid workers, Foreign Affairs spokesman Anoun said in a statement yesterday. “We reiterate our call for a political solution consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” it added.   Russia is interacting with all opposition forces in Syria, calling for respecting the views of all ethnic and religious forces in Syria, and supporting efforts to establish an inclusive political process under UN Security Council Resolution 2254. Russia's foreign minister yesterday reiterated Russia's commitment to Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty during a meeting with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts, hours before the collapse of Syria’s Baath rulers. "We strongly reiterated the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and unity of the Syrian Arab Republic. We called for an immediate end to hostile activities. We stated, all of us, that we want (UN Security Council) Resolution 2254 to be fully implemented and for this purpose called for dialogue between the government and legitimate opposition, as provided in that resolution," said Lavrov, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry statement. At the 22nd Doha Forum in Qatar, Lavrov criticized the actions of the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, saying it was unacceptable for the group to seize territories by violating existing agreements, especially Resolution 2254, which reaffirms Syria's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and unity. Early today, after Lavrov’s meeting with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts, the capital Damascus fell under the control of anti-regime forces. Referring to the Astana format, in which Türkiye, Russia, and Iran have worked together for a path forward for Syria, Lavrov said: "If we speak about HTS specifically, in 2018 and 2020 in the framework of the Astana format, two agreements were signed clearly solidifying the common resolve not to allow HTS to rule in Idlib ... And these agreements have not been implemented. And now they are being grossly violated.” Lavrov also held the US accountable for the ongoing events in the Middle East, accusing Washington of trying to strengthen its hand in the region. "We are absolutely convinced of the inadmissibility to use terrorists like HTS to achieve geopolitical purposes, as it is being done now with the organization of this offensive from the Idlib de-escalation area,’ he added, referring to a city in northwestern Syria, near the Turkish border. Lavrov highlighted that Russian Air Force units stationed at Russia’s Khmeimim Airbase in Syria’s coastal Latakia province continue to support the Syrian army. On claims of Russian ships leaving Syria’s port of Tartus, Lavrov said: "There is a naval exercise in the Mediterranean. Maybe your satellite images took this for something different.’ Stating that Moscow, Ankara, and Tehran all reaffirmed their commitment to Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty, Lavrov said that they call for an immediate halt to the conflict and the initiation of dialogue between the Syrian government and legitimate opposition forces. Stressing the need for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, they reiterated that Russia, Türkiye, and Iran will continue to take steps on the issues on Syria where they have reached agreement, he said. On Ankara’s role in Syria, Lavrov said: "They are a very influential actor in Syria. They are concerned with the security of their border with Syria. "We discussed it in the Astana format and in the context of Astana plus Syria discussions on normalizing relations between Türkiye and Damascus." Lavrov also called the improvement of relations between Türkiye and Syria necessary, adding that Russia is ready to do everything it can to support this process.   Speaking to Sky News, Britain’s deputy prime minister Rayner today said that the situation in Syria looks very serious. "What we need to see is a political resolution in line with the UN resolutions. We need to see civilians and infrastructure protected, far too many people have lost their lives, we need stability in that region," she added. Asked about British citizens in Syria, Rayner said that the government has had a plan to ensure that people were evacuated ahead of what happened this weekend, adding they will continue to support British nationals. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

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Asia

Syria
December 8, 2024 (23:02 PM)  The fall of Assad's government wiped out a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world. Moscow gave asylum to Assad and his family, Ulyanov, Russia's ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said on his Telegram channel. His sudden overthrow, at the hands of a revolt partly backed by Turkey and with roots in jihadist Sunni Islam, limits Iran's ability to spread weapons to its allies and could cost Russia its Mediterranean naval base. It could allow millions of refugees scattered for more than a decade in camps across Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan to finally return home. For Syrians, it brought a sudden unexpected end to a war in deep freeze for years, with hundreds of thousands dead, cities pounded to dust and an economy hollowed by global sanctions. ’How many people were displaced across the world? How many people lived in tents? How many drowned in the seas?’ the top rebel commander, Golani, told a huge crowd at the medieval Umayyad Mosque in central Damascus, referring to refugees who died trying to reach Europe. A new history is being written in the entire region after this victory, he said, adding that with hard work Syria would be ’a beacon for the Islamic nation.’ The Assad police state - known since his father seized power in the 1960s as one of the harshest in the Middle East with hundreds of thousands of political prisoners - melted away overnight. Inmates poured out of jails after rebels blasted open their cells. Reunited families wept in joy. Newly freed prisoners were filmed at dawn running through the Damascus streets holding up the fingers of both hands to show how many years they had been in prison. The White Helmets rescue organization said it had dispatched five emergency teams to the notorious Sedhaya prison to search for hidden underground cells believed to hold detainees. As the sun set in Damascus without Assad for the first time, roads leading into the city were mostly empty, apart from motorcycles carrying armed men and rebel vehicles caked with mud as camouflage. Some men could be seen looting a shopping centre on the road between the capital and the Lebanese border. The myriad checkpoints lining the road to Damascus were empty. Posters of Assad were torn at his eyes. A thick column of black smoke billowed from the Mazzeh neighbourhood, where Israeli strikes earlier had targeted Syrian state security branches. Intermittent gunfire rang out in apparent celebration. Shops and restaurants closed early in line with a curfew imposed by the rebels. Earlier, the rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments. Thousands of people in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting "Freedom." People were seen walking inside the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, with some leaving carrying furniture. The Syrian rebel coalition said it was working to complete the transfer of power to a transitional governing body with executive powers. Al-Jalali, prime minister under Assad, called for free elections and said he had been in contact with Golani to discuss the transitional period. Jubilant supporters of the revolt crowded Syrian embassies around the world, lowering red, white and black Assad-era flags and replacing them with the green, white and black flag flown by his opponents. The pace of events stunned Arab capitals and raised concerns about more instability on top of the Gaza war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Assad's fall was thanks to blows Israel had dealt to Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah, once the lynchpin of Assad's security forces. In recent years Turkey had backed some rebels in a small redoubt in the northwest and along its border. The biggest strategic losers were Russia and Iran, which intervened in the war's early years to rescue Assad, helping him recapture most territory and all major cities. The front lines were frozen four years ago under a deal Russia and Iran reached with Turkey. But Moscow's focus on its war in Ukraine and the blows to Iran's allies following the war in Gaza - particularly the decimation of Hezbollah by Israel over the past two months - left Assad with scant support. When the celebrations fade, Syria's new leaders face the daunting task of trying to deliver stability to a country that will need billions of dollars in aid. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

(8 December 2024)  Assad's last public appearance as president was last Sunday, when he met Iran's foreign minister in Damascus. That day, he vowed to "crush" the rebels seizing territory with dizzying speed. But it was unable to stop the collapse of his government in the face of a lightning rebel offensive. Early today morning, after their fighters entered the city without resistance, the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies declared that Assad has fled. The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, reported that a plane believed to be carrying Assad left Syria via Damascus international airport before the army security forces left the facility. Rahman said the plane was meant to take off at 22:00 (20:00 GMT) yesterday. Reuters news agency cited two unnamed senior Syrian army officers as saying that Assad had boarded a Syrian Air plane at Damascus airport early today. It noted that a Syrian Air Ilyushin Il-76T cargo plane took off from the airport at 03:59 local time (01:59 GMT) with an undisclosed destination. According to data from Flightradar24, the plane initially flew towards the Mediterranean coast, which is a stronghold of Assad's Alawite sect and is also home to two key Russian military bases - Hmeimim airbase and the naval base in Tartous. But after flying over Homs, the plane made a U-turn and started flying eastwards again while also losing altitude. The plane's signal was lost at around 04:39 (02:39 GMT), when it was about 13km west of Homs and flying at an altitude of only 495m. Flightradar24 said the aircraft "was old with an older transponder generation, so some data might be bad or missing", that it was "flying in an area of GPS jamming, so some data might be bad", and that the aircraft tracker was not aware of any airports in the area where the signal was lost. There were also no reports of any plane crashes. Data from Flightradar24 also showed that a Russian military plane took off today from Latakia's international airport, next to Hmeimim, and flew to Moscow. Once again, it was not known who was on board. Assad and his family have arrived in Moscow and been granted asylum out of humanitarian considerations, Russian news agencies are quoting a Kremlin source as saying. Russian state TV also reported the news, which put an end to speculation about the whereabouts of Syria's former president. Earlier, the Russian foreign ministry had announced that Assad "decided to resign the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power". As well as reporting the arrival of Assad in Moscow, Russian state TV said Russian officials were in contact with representatives of 'the Syrian armed opposition' and that they had guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic missions. Russia, which has two key military bases in Syria, is a staunch ally of Assad and had intervened in Syria's 13-year civil war in an effort to keep him in power. Russia insisted its air strikes only targeted 'terrorists' during its nine-year air campaign in support of Assad. The SOHR said in September that more than 21,000 people, including 8,700 civilians, had been killed in Russian military operations. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

20:00, Sun, Dec 8, 2024  Isis targets in Syria have been hit with a barrage of US airstrikes in an attempt to wipe the terror group from the earth. US Central Command (CENTCOM) posted on X this evening that over 75 targets were struck in the centre of the country using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s. 'Battle damage assessments are underway, and there are no indications of civilian casualties", the statement said. CENTCOM explained that the strikes against isis leaders, operatives, and camps were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat isis, to prevent the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that isis does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria. The CENTCOM statement added: "CENTCOM, together with allies and partners in the region, will continue to carry out operations to degrade isis operational capabilities even during this dynamic period in Syria. "There should be no doubt - we will not allow isis to reconstitute and take advantage of the current situation in Syria," said General Kurilla, "All organizations in Syria should know that we will hold them accountable if they partner with or support isis in any way." (Source: Express – United Kingdom)

December 8, 2024 at 12:39 pm ET  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today celebrated the overthrow of Syrian President Assad by al-Qaeda-linked militants and confirmed that Israel has seized a buffer zone inside Syria that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria’s territory. Israel also pounded Syria with airstrikes today, targeting dozens of military and government sites to prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of hostile forces. The buffer zone Israel has seized has been patrolled by a UN peacekeeping force, known as UNDOF, since 1974. Netanyahu declared that the agreement establishing the buffer zone and UNDOF has now collapsed. There are signs that Israel had been planning to make a move on the buffer zone before the Assad government collapsed. The Associated Press reported that Israel began construction along the buffer zone, citing satellite images. (Source: Antivar – U.S.)
by DeCamp, the news editor
See also: Map showing the buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the rest of Syria

08.12.2024  Anadolu's review of key developments in Syria in recent weeks that led to the collapse of the Assad regime (Nov. 27 - Dec 8, 2024). (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

8 December 2024  Who are the Syrian rebels and where is Assad? / Video/ (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
300 024 views

300 024 views08 December 2024 - 14:59  Iran's embassy in the Syrian capital was stormed by rebels today, Iranian state TV reported. 'It is said that the Iranian embassy was stormed alongside nearby stores by an armed group different from the group now controlling [most of] Syria,' Iranian state TV said, referring to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Footage from inside the embassy's premises was shared by Saudi Arabia's al-Arabiya channel, showing that assailants had rummaged through furniture and documents inside the building and damaged some windows. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Baghaei said today that Iranian diplomats had vacated the embassy in the early morning, before any assault. Iran's state TV said HTS had guaranteed there would be no disturbance to the Sayeda Zeinab and Sayeda Ruqqaya shrines in Damascus. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said today all Iranian servants of the shrines had returned to Iran before the capture of Damascus by rebels. Sayeda Zeinab - the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad - is venerated by Shi'ites and her shrine is a site of mass pilgrimage for Shi'ites from across the world. It has also been a magnet for Shiite militiamen in Syria. (Source: Times Live – South Africa / Reuters – United Kingdom)

December 8, 2024 8:07 AM EST  In his first interview in 2014, Golani kept his face covered, telling a reporter for Qatari network Al-Jazeera that he rejected political talks in Geneva to end the conflict. He said his goal was to see Syria ruled under Islamic law and made clear that there was no room for the country’s Alawite, Shiite, Druze and Christian minorities. With his power consolidated, Golani set in motion a transformation, he began calling for religious tolerance and pluralism. He appealed to the Druze community in Idlib, which the Nusra Front had previously targeted, and visited the families of Kurds who were killed by Turkish-backed militias. In 2021, he had his first interview with an American journalist on PBS. The now more soft-spoken HTS leader said that his group posed no threat to the West and that sanctions imposed against it were unjust. (Source: Time - U.S.)

December 08, 2024 7:52 AM   Syrians celebrate Assad's fall. /Photo/ (Source: Voice of America - U.S.)

08 December, 2024  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Assad had fled the country via Damascus International Airport, though it remains unclear where he is exactly. HTS leader Sharaa, known as Jolani, called on fighters not to enter state institutions and buildings in Damascus. Syrian Prime Minister al-Jalali is reported to be cooperating with HTS and agreeing to a transition of power. Hundreds of Syrians are believed to have been freed from regime prisons including the notorious Sednaya Prison in Damascus, which housed thousands involved in the anti-regime uprising in 2011 that spiralled into a civil war.    (12:13 PM): Assad's luxurious Damascus home was looted today, following the fall of the capital to rebel forces. Women, children and men could be seen inspecting the six-storey home and its large garden, with the rooms completely empty.    (11:39 AM) Suspected Israeli strikes hit Mazzeh district of Damascus, one Lebanese and one Syrian security source said today.    (11:16 AM) The Israeli military said today it had deployed forces to a demilitarised buffer zone in southwest Syria abutting the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Damascus fell to rebel forces, citing the possible entry of armed individuals into the buffer zone. ’Following the recent events in Syria... the IDF (army) has deployed forces in the buffer zone and in several other places necessary for its defence, to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel,’ a military statement said. Israeli forces will continue to operate as long as necessary, it added. The statement stressed that the Israeli military is not interfering with the internal events in Syria. Israel had already said the day before, as the Islamist-led rebels swiftly advanced across Syria, that its soldiers had entered the UN-patrolled buffer zone to assist peacekeepers in repelling an attack.    (1:00 PM) Jordan's King Abdullah II said today that his government "stands by its Syrian brothers and respects their will and choices". The king told his National Security Council that there was a "need to protect Syria's security, its citizens" and to work towards "stability and avoid any conflict that may lead to chaos".    (11:35 AM) The Lebanese army said today it was reinforcing its presence on the northern and eastern borders with neighbouring Syria. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Foreign Minister Habib called on need for Syria to "preserve the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria, as well as non-interference in its internal affairs."    (11:48 AM) Turkey-backed Syrian forces entered the northern Syrian city of Manbij after taking control of most of the surrounding area from U.S.-allied Kurdish forces there, a Turkish security source said today. ’The fight against the YPG/PKK is very close to victory. Both air and land interventions are ongoing to take Manbij from the hands of the YPG/PKK,’ the source said, referring to the Kurdish militia which has long been in control of Manbij. The source subsequently said the rebel forces were in the city of Manbij itself, some 30 km south of the Turkish border and to the west of the Euphrates river. Syrian rebels earlier said they had started an attack on Manbij, according to a statement posted today but dated Dec. 7 (Saturday) on X by the Ministry of Defense of the Syrian Interim Government. The YPG has been a central element of U.S.-allied forces in a coalition against islamic state militants. Ankara says the YPG is a terrorist group, closely tied to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years    (1:09 PM) Qatar, the Gulf emirate emphasised "the necessity of preserving national institutions and the unity of the state to prevent it from sliding into chaos".    12:21 PM) French President Macron today welcomed news of the fall of Syrian President Assad. ’The barbaric state has fallen. Finally. I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I wish them peace, freedom and unity," France will remain committed to the security of all in the Middle East," Macron said.    (11:53 AM) "As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign from the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power, the Russian Foreign Ministry said today. "Russia did not participate in these negotiations, the ministry said. "We urge all parties involved to refrain from the use of violence and to resolve all issues of governance through political means, the statement said. "In that regard, the Russian Federation is in contact with all groups of the Syrian opposition." It said Russia's military bases in Syria had been put on a state of high alert, but that there was no serious threat to them at the current time.    (11:01 AM) "We are fine," a Russian embassy in Syria staff member told TASS, without providing details on the diplomats' whereabouts. On Friday, the embassy had urged Russian nationals to leave the country. Russian war bloggers have raised fears about the fate of two strategically-important Russian military facilities in Syria.    (10:52 AM) The United States will maintain its presence in eastern Syria and will take measures necessary to prevent a resurgence of islamic state, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Shapiro said today, speaking hours after Syrian rebels announced they had toppled Assad's government. Shapiro called on all parties to protect civilians, particularly minorities, and to respect international norms. "We are aware that the chaotic and dynamic circumstances on the ground in Syria could give isis space to find the ability to become active, to plan external operations, and we're determined to work with those partners to continue to degrade their capabilities," he told the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain's capital. We're determined to ensure islamic state's enduring defeat, to ensure the secure detention of isis fighters and the repatriation of displaced persons, Shapiro added. (Source: The New Arab – based in London, United Kingdom, owned by a Qatari company / Reuters – United Kingdom)

Sun, 08 Dec, 2024 - 13:00  Celebratory gunfire was heard across Syria. Only 12 hours earlier the key external powers – Russia and Iran along with Turkey – had met in Doha five Arab states on the sidelines of a major dialogue forum to issue a joint statement appealing for an end to military operations, preservation of Syria’s territorial integrity and consultations on a political solution between Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the opposition. The diplomats also anxiously discussed the fate of Syrian president at the meeting, and whether there would be fighting on the streets of Damascus soon. Russian representatives reported to the meeting that Assad was inflexible, refusing to accept reality or the necessity of dialogue with Turkey, the country sponsoring the military forces threatening the capital. Iran’s foreign minister, Araghchi looked pained and distracted. Six hours after the weary diplomats left the meeting Assad had fallen. Earlier at the summit yesterday, the Russian foreign minister, Lavrov, had been questioned onstage about Syria’s future, asked to explain Russia’s role in the country over the past decade. At one point his interlocutor, Bays from Al Jazeera, was blurting out: ’If you want me to say, yes we lost in Syria, we are so desperate, if this is what you need, let’s continue’. But he continued to hold the line that jihadist groups could not take hold in Syria, and Assad was the bulwark to prevent this. “It’s inadmissible to allow the terrorist groups to take control of the lands in violation of agreements which exist,” he said, a reference to insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). He was referring to the need to implement UN security council resolution 2254 passed in December 2015, with a call for a democratic transition in Syria with which Assad had refused to engage. Russia 17 times had vetoed UN security council resolutions to protect Assad. He was asked about the future of Russia’s naval base at Tartus and it airbase at Hmeimim. All he knew was that Moscow was doing all it could to prevent terrorists from prevailing, adding that he was sorry for the Syrian people if they followed the fate of Libya and Iraq, two countries that suffered prolonged civil wars after strongmen were toppled by chaotic revolutions. Asked if he truly thought Assad would win free and fair elections called for in resolution 2254, Lavrov changed the subject to the US presence in eastern Syria “supporting Kurdish separatists, including on the lands which historically belonged to Arab tribes, exploiting oil and food resources, selling them in the world market and financing the quasi-state they are building there”. Araghchi had also been doing the rounds in Doha, insisting it was possible for Assad to survive and clinging to the point that all external powers had agreed that Syria’s territorial integrity must be protected. In previous days every effort to persuade Iraq, Tehran’s last bastion in the Arab world, to come to Assad’s rescue had failed. Iran’s 12-year engagement in Syria was coming to an end, marking the closure of its land corridor into Lebanon and Hezbollah. Iran’s whole security strategy of forward defence had collapsed, and now the government may need to rethink how it survives. By contrast the Turkish foreign minister, Fidan, a former head of Turkish intelligence, surrounded by a vast entourage, said little in public, sensing his country may be the biggest external beneficiary of Assad’s fall. Turkey has at its disposal the umbrella group of Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army and a relationship of sorts with HTS. But with power comes responsibility. More than any other country in the region it has the power to help Syrians form the independent consensus government their long struggle for liberation deserves. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland / The Guardian – United Kingdom)

December 08, 2024 12:43  Jolani’s 'transformation' from militant leader to aspiring politician reflects both pragmatism and ambition. As he seeks to consolidate power in Syria, his rebranding may win him local support but remains met with international scepticism. Despite his efforts to moderate his image, HTS’s history of extremism and human rights abuses continues to cast a long shadow. 'Whether Jolani can truly reinvent himself - or if his transformation is merely a calculated survival strategy - remains an open question in the ever-evolving dynamics of Syria’s civil war'. (Source: Gulf News - United Arab Emirates)

20:37, 08-Dec-2024  Today, opposition fighters in Syria seized control of the capital, Damascus. They appeared on state television channels. A man in military fatigues, flanked by armed fighters, read a statement on air, calling it "Statement No. 1." He said that rebel units had captured Damascus. The rebel fighters entered the city at dawn. Earlier yesterday, opposition fighters secured full control of Homs, a pivotal city and strategic crossroads, after a brief but intense battle. The victory severed connections between Damascus and the coastal strongholds of Assad's Alawite community. Thousands of prisoners in the city were freed as security forces fled, reportedly setting fire to government documents before departing. Hundreds of government soldiers were ordered to withdraw from Damascus International Airport and were seen removing their military uniforms and donning civilian clothing. Xinhua reporters in Damascus witnessed intense gunshots reverberating through the streets with heavy traffic caused by cars leaving the capital. Civilians took to the streets, waving the revolution flag, an older flag used in Syria before the rule of Hafez, the late father of Assad. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jallali called for free elections and announced his readiness to cooperate with any leadership chosen by the Syrian people. Opposition military leader Sharaa, also known as Julani, said that Al-Jallali would oversee public institutions until an official transfer of authority is completed. "We extend our hands to every Syrian citizen committed to safeguarding the country's resources," Al-Jallali said in a televised address. "Syria belongs to all Syrians, and I urge everyone to think rationally about the nation's best interests." Julani instructed opposition forces in Damascus to refrain from approaching public institutions and banned celebratory gunfire. These facilities will remain under the supervision of the former prime minister until they are handed over formally, he said in a statement. The opposition celebrated the release of prisoners from Sednaya Prison near Damascus. The prison was emptied as security forces withdrew. Flight data from the tracking platform FlightRadar24 showed a Syrian Air jet departing Damascus amid reports of opposition control of the capital. Initially heading toward the Alawite-dominated coastal region, the aircraft abruptly changed course before disappearing from radar, raising speculation about a possible evacuation of senior government figures. Multiple media outlets have reported that Assad has left the country, citing rebel forces. (Source: CGTN, „With input from Xinhua” = China)

(Sunday), 20:04 UTC+8, 2024-12-08  The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced today that its troops have entered the buffer zone between Israel and Syria ’and other areas deemed necessary for defense’, after the collapse of Assad's government. The military added that it aims to establish a defensive line in the Golan Heights and prevent movement from Syria toward the border. School studies in four Druze communities in the northern Golan Heights, including Buq'ata, Ein Qiniye, Mas'ade, and Majdal Shams, were canceled, and the students were called to carry on with educational activity online. Agricultural areas of Merom Golan-Ein Zivan and Buq'ata-Khirbet Ein Hura in the Golan Heights were declared a closed military zone, the IDF said. On Friday, the IDF announced that it was reinforcing its ground and air forces along the border and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. The buffer zone, a UN-monitored demilitarized area established under the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between Israel and Syria, is intended to remain free of military presence. (Source: Shine / Xinhua = China)

Turkey
08.12.2024 Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan held talks today on the latest developments in Syria with his counterparts.    He spoke by phone with Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Lipavsky;    Fidan spoke by phone with French Foreign Minister Barrot about the situation in Syria and Lebanon. The call emphasized the need for an orderly transition in Syria, urging the international community to assist the Syrian people in preventing further chaos and terrorist organizations from gaining power. The importance of not reflecting negatively on Syrian developments in Lebanon was emphasized;    During a phone call with Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tajani, the two highlighted the importance of Syria's territorial integrity and political unity, stressed the need to protect religious minorities during Syria's transition. "I reiterated my request that Türkiye do everything in its power to ensure the safety of Italian citizens and the protection of Christians and other minorities,” Tajani said. He also noted that Ankara is ready to cooperate diplomatically with Rome to ensure stability in the Middle East;    In another phone call, Fidan and Latvian Foreign Minister Braze addressed the recent developments in Syria and potential regional impact;    Fidan also held talks with Spanish Foreign Minister Albares on the need for efforts to establish peace and stability in Syria. It was underlined that stability and peace must be established within the framework of Syria's territorial integrity and political unity;    Fidan also held a phone call with his British counterpart Lammy on recent developments in Syria. The two also discussed steps to prevent the situation in the country from having negative consequences at the global and regional levels;    Fidan and EU foreign policy chief Kallas spoke by phone about Syria's future.    Fidan also held a phone call with Pakistani Foreign Minister Dar on Syria. The fight against terrorist organizations for a stable and prosperous Syria was underlined. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

North America

United States
December 8, 2024 (23:02 PM) U.S.  President Biden, in a televised address, cheered Assad's fall but acknowledged that it was also a moment of risk and uncertainty. ’As we all turn to the question of what comes next, the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risk,’ Biden said. The United States, which still has 900 soldiers on the ground, backed a Kurdish-led alliance that fought islamic state jihadists from 2014-2017. The U.S. Central Command said its forces conducted dozens of airstrikes targeting known Islamic State camps and operatives in central Syria today. Later in the day Secretary of Defense Austin said he spoke with Turkish Minister of National Defense Guler, emphasizing that the United States is watching closely. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

2024-12-08 14:11  Speaking at the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, Shapiro called on all parties to protect civilians, particularly minorities, and to respect international norms. We are aware that the chaotic and dynamic circumstances on the ground in Syria could give isis space to find the ability to become active, to plan external operations, and we're determined to work with partners to continue to degrade their capabilities, Shapiro said. He expressed the US's firm stance to ensure the secure detention of ISIS fighters and the repatriation of displaced persons. Opposition forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched a rapid offensive, ’capturing several key cities in Syria’, including Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus. HTS, originally known as the Nusra Front (Jabhat Al-Nusra) and once an al-Qaeda affiliate, remains a designated terrorist group. US top officials emphasized that Washington would not intervene militarily in Syria's civil war. "This is not our fight," President Trump wrote on X. Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, reiterated the US stance, stating, “The United States is not going to militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,” while underscoring the priority of containing isis. The US has about 900 troops stationed in northeastern Syria. (Source: Shafaq News – Iraq)

SUN, 08 DEC, 2024 - 12:29  Shortly after a meeting in Paris with French and Ukrainian leaders, US President-elect Trump on his Truth Social platform has called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, claiming Kyiv ’would like to make a deal”. ’Too many lives are being needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed.’ In a separate social media update today, Mr Zelenskyy asserted that Kyiv has so far lost 43,000 soldiers since Moscow’s all-out invasion on February 24, 2022, while a further 370,000 have been injured. Western officials have said the past few months of grinding positional warfare in eastern Ukraine have meant record losses for both sides, with tens of thousands killed and injured each month. (Source: Irish Examiner - Ireland / Associated Press - U.S.)

December 08, 2024 3:08 AM  Trump was in Paris yesterday for the reopening of the 861-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after it was badly damaged by a devastating fire. Before the ceremony, the president-elect met with Zelensky and French President Macron at the Élysée Palace, where he said it ’seems like the world is going a little crazy right now.’ In a lengthy social media post on his Truth Social website early on today morning, Trump has called for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, while referencing the apparent collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. Yesterday evening and today morning, Syrian rebels streamed into their country's capital Damascus. The armed uprising in Syria has lasted more than 13 years. Over this time, many of Syria's neighbors, including Turkey, Israel and Iran, were drawn into the conflict to varying degrees, along with outside powers such as Russia and the United States. The Syrian civil war has been one of the bloodiest of the 21st century, resulting in the deaths of more than 507,000 people, including 164,000 civilians, as of March 2024, according to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In his post Trump commented: ’Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, led by Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever. Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians.’ The president-elect concluded: "There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!" Shapiro, the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, said that a U.S. presence would remain in eastern Syria to ensure the enduring defeat of isis [islamic state]. The Syria conflict was also a factor in the rise of the so-called islamic state, a militant group that at its height controlled around 30 percent of Syria and 40 percent of Iraq after a string of military victories in 2014 and early 2015. Islamic state went on to claim responsibility for terrorist attacks across the West. Isis leader Baghdadi was killed by an American airstrike in October 2019, and by the end of that year the group had lost nearly all its territory to a combination of local forces that were backed by a U.S.-led international coalition. The former leader of Syria's Al-Qaeda branch the al-Nusra Front, Julani, who now leds a 'Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)' rebel force, insists he has moderated his views, and vowed to safeguard Syria's minority communities. (Source: The Bellingham Herald / Newsweek = U:S)

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Europe

France
06 December 24  "The steps taken by the authorities expose Georgia to external and internal instability,' The joint statement of Foreign Ministers of the Weimar Triangle - France, Germany and Poland - expresses regret considering the decision by the ruling Georgian Dream party not to pursue EU accession talks and to reject EU 'financial support' until 2028. (Source: Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs - France)

United Kingdom
93mph storm Darragh.  Brits have been urged to stay at home in a rare red warning - with flights and trains axed. /Video/ (Source: The Sun - United Kingdom)
773 997 views

Vatican
(Saturday, 07.12.2024)  Pope Francis has appointed 21 clergy from five continents to the Catholic Church's College of Cardinals. With the new additions, the pope will have created 110 of the 140 cardinals under the age of 80 permitted to choose his successor. Five bishops from Latin America, including from Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina, two from Africa's Ivory Coast and Algeria and the archbishop of Tehran are among those being elevated to cardinal. The Asia-Pacific region - where Catholicism is growing the fastest - has got several new cardinals with the elevation of the archbishop of Tokyo, the bishop of Kalookan, Philippines, and the bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Melbourne, Australia. Francis has also tapped Indian prelate Koovakad - who belongs to the southern Indian state of Kerala and has been organizing the pope's foreign travels - to become a cardinal. (Source: DW - Germany)

Asia

China
2024. december 7.  The Western press has long been used in propaganda wars by communist countries. In October 2022, right before the 20th National Congress, Chinese leader Xi held a secret meeting instructing top state officials - overseeing political, intelligence, and influence operations - on a new strategy to target the Falun Gong religious group internationally. It led to an escalation in the long-running operation against Falun Gong practitioners abroad - a campaign that has cast a shadow over the lives of those who’ve sought refuge in America and elsewhere. Xi believes using CCP state media is not effective overseas because it comes across as propaganda. He instructed officials to use lawfare and disinformation, deploying media with no traceable ties to the CCP, and social media to attack Falun Gong. /Source: New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) – United States/

South Korea
December 7, 20243:03 PM GMT+1  South Korean President Yoon survived an impeachment vote in the opposition-led parliament today after members of his party boycotted the session. Too few lawmakers participate - only 195 votes were cast, below the 200 needed for the vote to count. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Syria
18:56 ET, Dec 7 2024 Southern militants took the major southern city of Daraa yesterday evening and allowed government forces to retreat back to Damascus. Yesterday and today those rebels have continued to capture smaller villages and towns on the road to the capital as government forces withdraw. Some 2,000 of Assad's troops fled across the border to Iraq. Rebels now control Syria's border with Israel and almost the entire southwest of the country. The southern rebels claim to also hold a number of towns in the Damascus countryside. Earlier, the Syrian military said it was repositioning in the south, without acknowledging territorial losses, and denied it was withdrawing from areas near Damascus. A spokesperson labelled the claim 'a false media campaign… by armed terrorist organizations… with the aim of spreading panic and fear among civilians in the Damascus countryside.' Government defences are focused on Homs, with state television and Syrian military sources reporting massive air strikes on rebel positions and a wave of reinforcements arriving to dig in around the city. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

07 Dec 2024 - 09:28 am   More areas in Daraa province, including Daraa city was taken by local armed groups. They now control more than 90 percent of the province which borders Jordan. (Source: The Peninsula - Qatar)

07.12.2024  Forces of the regime of Syrian President Assad withdrew from the provincial center of the al-Hasakah province and Qamishli district in the country’s northeast, east of the Euphrates River. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

North America

United States
18:56 ET, Dec 7 2024  In a post to Truth Social, the incoming US president, who is in Paris today, said that the US should stay out of Syria. "In any event, Syria is a mess, but is not our friend, & the United States should have nothing to do with it. This is not our fight. Let it play out. Do not get involved!" (Source: The U.S. Sun)

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Romania
December 6, 2024 12:00pm EST  The Constitutional Court today annulled the first round of the country's presidential election, days after allegations that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round. In the intelligence release, the secret services alleged that one TikTok user paid more $381,000 to other users to promote Georgescu content. The intelligence files were from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Special Telecommunication Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. (Source: Fox News – U.S.)

6.12.2024  Romania's top court annuls presidential election. The move comes just days after authorities declassified documents that allege a coordinated online Russian campaign to promote the far-right candidate Georgescu, who won the first round of voting. An upcoming run-off vote has been cancelled and the court has ordered that the election be re-run. (Source: DW - Germany)

European Commission
December 6, 2024   In 2024, both the United States and the European Union are changing their leadership. What the priorities of the new European Commission mean for the future of the transatlantic relations? The Wilson Center’s Global Europe Program and The Friedrich Naumann Foundation present findings from a new joint report analyzing the priorities of the new European Commission, their implications for the next presidential administration  and what potential areas of cooperation and divergence lie ahead. /Video/ (Source: Youtube / WoodrowWilson Center – U.S.)
49 views

European Union
December 6, 2024  'The EU and South America's Mercosur bloc finalized a free trade agreement but the deal faces a tortuous battle for approval in Europe given French and Italian opposition". /Video/ (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
700 views

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Europe

European Union
December 6, 2024  After 25 years of negotiations, the European Union and the Southern Common Market, known as Mercosur and comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, signed a free trade and cooperation agreement in Montevideo. In 2019, the European Commission reached a preliminary agreement with Mercosur countries. The deal reduced tariffs on manufactured goods in Mercosur countries while liberalizing agricultural trade in the European Union - a sector long protected by European policies. France and other EU countries demanded environmental guarantees from Brazil and expressed concerns over the potential losses to European farmers. Many doubted the prospects of an EU–Mercosur partnership. Resistance from European farmers, especially in France, Poland, and Ireland, played a major role. These groups feared fierce competition from more competitive Latin American agricultural producers.’Spain, Portugal, Germany, and some Nordic countries’, struggled to counter this opposition. The rise of protectionism, exemplified by Trump's reelection, pushed the European Union and Mercosur to act. EU leaders were concerned about the rapid expansion of Chinese trade and investment in Latin America. The new European Commission wanted to start its mandate by delivering ’quick results’. The agrement eliminates tariffs on over 90 percent of bilateral trade, ’saving European exporters EUR 4 billion annually’ while ’granting South American products preferential access to European markets, particularly for agricultural goods where Mercosur holds a strong comparative advantage’. The agreement ensures the protection of 357 European geographical indicators, boosting exports of specialty agricultural products like wines and cheeses. European companies will gain better access to Mercosur’s public procurement markets, high-value service sectors, and critical raw materials like lithium. ’The European Union will reduce tariffs on agricultural products’. After the agreement is translated into all EU member state languages, it will go to the European Council for ratification, where EU countries are represented by their trade ministers. A minimum of four states representing at least 35 percent of the EU population could block the agreement. France, Austria, and Poland have stated that they oppose the agreement. Italy could join them. The agreement must be ratified by the European Parliament. Provisions involving aspects of jurisdiction and sovereignty, such as dispute settlement mechanisms or investment protection, must be unanimously approved by national parliaments to enter into force. (Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies – U.S.)
by Steinberg, a visiting fellow with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the CSIS

Asia

China
Friday, 06 Dec 2024 3:41 PM MYT  Hong Kong authorities have tightened health screening measures at the airport for all flights arriving from African transit hubs as they prepare for potential risks linked to an unidentified disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. According to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), the outbreak in Congo has resulted in at least 79 deaths and over 300 infections since late October. The SCMP noted that symptoms reported by Congolese health officials include fever, headache, runny nose, cough, breathing difficulties, and anaemia, primarily affecting individuals over the age of 15. The CHP said it had contacted the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and Congolese health authorities for more information about the outbreak, according to the SCMP. The CHP has immediately stepped up health screenings at the airport for passengers on all flights arriving in Hong Kong from the transit hubs. Travellers on these flights will undergo temperature checks, and those showing symptoms will be assessed by medical personnel and referred to hospitals for examination if necessary. The CHP advised travellers to seek immediate medical attention if they feel unwell after returning to Hong Kong. (Source: Malaymail- Malaysia)

Gaza
06.12.2024  At least 15 Palestinians were killed today when the Israeli army targeted homes in the northern and southern Gaza Strip. (Source: Anadolu Agency – Turkey)

December 6th, 2024  The Israeli military killed at least 39 Palestinians in strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight, medics said. (Source: Dawn - Pakistan)

Iran
December 6, 2024  Iran's Defence Ministry announced today a successful space launch that placed two satellites into low Earth orbit. The Simorgh carrier rocket successfully deployed the Saman-1 orbital transfer block, developed by the Iranian Space Agency, and the Fakhr-1 military satellite, built for the Islamic Republic's armed forces, into a 400-kilometre orbit, according to IRIB. The Simorgh launcher weighs approximately 80 tonnes. The launch vehicle, powered by liquid fuel in a two-stage configuration, reportedly carried a combined payload of 300 kilogrammes, which Iranian officials described as their heaviest successful orbital insertion. Earlier in September, Iran launched the Simorgh carrier rocket, following the successful deployment of the Chamran 1 research satellite. Iran had previously launched the Sorayya satellite using the same rocket in January. The UK, Germany and France condemned the launch and claimed that the space carrier utilises technology for developing long-range ballistic missile systems, Reuters reported on January 26. (Source: bne Intellinews - Germany)

Israel
2024-12-06 09:10  The Israeli military today had carried out airstrikes targeting Josiah and Al-Arida border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, allegedly used to transport weapons to Hezbollah. (Source: Shafaq News)

Syria
December 6, 2024  Yesterday, following intense fighting, anti-regime groups, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), captured the city center of Hama from regime control. Earlier this morning, they took control of Rastan and Talbiseh, districts located along the M5 highway, which connects Aleppo, Hama, and Homs to Damascus. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

North America

United States
December 6, 2024 17:05 JST  Trump’s return to the White House on January 20 could bring stability to oil markets. Trump has yet to outline a strategy for resolving the complex issues at the root of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and may initially focus on temporary solutions. But even a ceasefire would help ease supply crunch in oil markets and support prices. In particular, his promise to quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza could prove to have the biggest impact on global oil markets. The expected resumption of approval of export licenses for new liquefied natural gas projects, which the Biden administration suspended in January of this year, is good news for global markets, especially for Asian buyers who are ramping up gas consumption. (Source: Nikkei - Japan)
by Hari, founder of Vanda Insight,s a Singapore-based global energy market information provider

December 06, 2024  The Naval Transfer Act of 2008 legally required the United States to ensure that Israel maintains a qualitative military edge over its adversaries. It mandates that any sale of arms to Middle Eastern countries must undergo a rigorous review to confirm that it does not compromise Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME). The law defines QME as the capability to “counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat” with minimal damage to Israel’s forces and resources. The QME is a legal commitment from the U.S. to ensure that Israel is not only victorious in battle but will be able to win decisively. This law is reaffirmed by congressional vote year after year, with Congress passing various recent provisions that mandate the Department of Defense to report on Israel’s QME status periodically. The original basis of the Israeli QME was to use Israel to combat Soviet expansion into the Middle East, and this policy has not changed over the last 70-plus years. The QME agreement between the United States and Israel has cost U.S. taxpayers $310 billion since Israel was founded. (Source: Antiwar - U.S.)
by Thayer, a researcher who founded WEDA in 2014 to combat mainstream media narratives. He is also an antiwar activist.

6/12/2024  Trump’s plan for Ukraine is taking shape, but no official plan has been made public at present. Putin has demanded that Kyiv agree to accept the loss of four Ukrainian oblasts to Russia – which Russia occupies only parts of currently – and renounce its ambitions to join Nato, among other conditions, before he will even consider a ceasefire. There are three plans put forward by Trump’s advisers, which are reportedly being discussed by the incoming administration: by retired Army Lt-Gen Kellogg, former intelligence chief Grenell and vice president-elect Vance. They broadly share similar themes, namely for the conflict to be frozen along current front lines and for Ukraine to drop its Nato ambitions.- a key demand by Russian President Putin. Freezing the conflict would mean allowing Russia to maintain control of almost 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory, given Russian advantages in manpower and technological capabilities - a prospect that Zelensky has repeatedly refused to accept. Trump’s advisers may force Putin to cooperate by threatening ’to boost military aid to Ukraine’ if he refuses, Reuters reported. (Source: MSN - U.S. / The i - United Kingdom)

(Friday), 6 Dec 2024  US president-elect Trump taps hawkish ex-Georgia Senator Perdue as ambassador to China. Perdue was member of the Senate from 2015 to 2021. Perdue has lived in Singapore and Hong Kong, and worked in Asia and China for much of his career. Trump today also tapped tech investor Sacks as his “crypto czar” to oversee artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency policy. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

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