Moscow reaches out to new Syrian leadership in move to secure bases
Having labelled Syrian rebels ‘terrorists’, Moscow is now making diplomatic efforts to protect its military assets in the country
Moscow is seeking to secure the future of its key military bases in Syria while making inroads with the country’s new rebel leadership, after the dramatic collapse of the Assad regime threatened to erode Russia’s influence in the Middle East.
Russia has kept a sizeable airbase in north-west Syria and a naval facility at the Mediterranean port of Tartus since Moscow’s military intervention helped President Bashar al-Assad reclaim most of the country after nationwide protests that began in 2011.
After the collapse of Assad, the Kremlin’s staunchest ally in the Middle East who has fled to Moscow, Russia appears to be turning to diplomacy to preserve its influence in Syria, engaging in a flurry of activity with the rebels it had labelled as terrorists only days earlier.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Russian authorities were taking all “necessary steps to establish contact in Syria with those capable of ensuring the security of military bases”.
Earlier, a source in the Kremlin told Russian state media that the Syrian opposition leaders had agreed to guarantee the safety of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria.
The two bases hold an outsized importance to Russia: the Tartus facility gives Vladimir Putin access to a warm water port, while Moscow has used the Khmeimim airbase as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa.
The key question now, observers said, is whether Russia manages to reach an agreement with Syria’s new leaders to hold on to its bases.
“I assume Russia wants to hold bases if they can through negotiations,” said Dara Massicot, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Resources they can offer: money, barter, oil and gas, limited mercenaries. What matters is if the Syrian coalition would entertain anything from them.”
Massicot said that as of Monday, most of Russia’s military assets remained at the two bases. “If evacuation happens, it will be obvious,” she said.
The Kremlin offered little insight into the future of the bases, stating that it was too early to determine what lay ahead for its military presence in Syria.
In the background though, Russian officials appear to have launched an outreach campaign targeting the leaders who toppled Assad.
In the last 24 hours, Moscow and its state-controlled media have notably softened their rhetoric towards the Islamist group HTS, which led the stunning revolt against Assad that caught much of the world by surprise.
RIA Novosti and Tass, the two leading Russian news agencies have transitioned from labeling HTS as “terrorists” to describing them as “armed opposition”.
The contrast is telling: just days earlier, during a press conference in Doha, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visibly angered, emphasised that HTS was a western-backed terrorist organisation that “shouldn’t be allowed to seize land in Syria”.
In another sign of Russia’s eagerness to engage with the new leadership in Damascus, the Syrian embassy in Moscow raised the three-starred flag of the Syrian rebel groups on Monday morning.
Shifting gears, the Syrian ambassador in Moscow delivered a scathing critique of Assad in an interview with Russian state control RT. They said: “The escape of the head of this system in such a miserable and humiliating manner … confirms the correctness of change and brings hope for a new dawn.”
The Syrian embassy also said it was “awaiting instructions from representatives of the new leadership”, the embassy told Tass.
Russia’s shift in approach appears to have borne some early fruit. In contrast to Iran, whose embassy was ransacked in Damascus, Moscow’s embassy has remained untouched. Tass, citing Syrian sources, also reported that the opposition “had no plans to penetrate” the two Russian military bases.
Observers suggested that Moscow might adopt a strategy in Syria similar to its approach with the Taliban, which had been designated a terrorist organisation since 2003 but was later courted by the Kremlin after seizing power in Afghanistan in 2021.
“Moscow prefers to deal with those who have power and control, [and] discards those who lose them,” said Nikolai Sokov, a former Russian and Soviet diplomat who is a senior fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.
This leaves Assad in a position of irrelevance in the Russian capital, having outlived his usefulness to Putin.
While the Kremlin said that evacuating Assad to Moscow was Putin’s personal decision, Peskov stressed the Russian leader had no plans for a public meeting.
By fleeing to Moscow, Assad follows the path of the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who escaped Ukraine for Russia in 2014 after weeks of street protests that culminated in a bloody crackdown.
Ironically, Assad once tried to reassure the Kremlin that he was not like Yanukovych, asking a Russian official in 2014 to deliver the message: “Tell Putin that I am not Yanukovych, and I will not leave.”
The Kremlin is widely believed to view Yanukovych as a weak leader who failed to suppress unrest swiftly enough. Early reports from Russian-aligned media and pro-war bloggers suggest that Moscow is similarly placing much of the blame for Assad’s downfall squarely on him.
“Bashar al-Assad cowardly fled the country, abandoning everyone and everything … Even Saddam Hussein had the courage, when it was all over, to address the nation,” Rybar, a popular account with links to the Russian defence ministry, wrote on X.
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Russland behält Militärbasen vorerst in Syrien
Russland will nach der Entmachtung von Baschar al-Assad seine Militärbasen in Syrien vorerst behalten und mit der künftigen Führung deren Verbleib besprechen.
"Wir sehen eine Periode der Transformation, der extremen Instabilität, also wird es natürlich Zeit brauchen, und dann wird es ein ernsthaftes Gespräch mit denen brauchen, die an die Macht kommen", sagte Kremlsprecher Dmitri Peskow der russischen Nachrichtenagentur Interfax zufolge. Er äusserte sich zu einer Frage, ob Russland seine Präsenz dort behalten wolle. Russland unterhält in Syrien unter anderem eine Luftwaffen- und eine Marinebasis.
Es sei nun wichtig, die Frage der Sicherheit des russischen Militärs in Syrien zu klären, sagte Peskow. Die russischen Soldaten ergriffen selbst alle Vorsichtsmassnahmen. Details nannte der Kremlsprecher nicht.
Ein Abzug ist demnach derzeit nicht geplant. Russland hatte Assad seit 2015 militärisch unterstützt und massgeblich zu dessen Machterhalt beigetragen, bis die Herrschaft der Familie nach einem halben Jahrhundert am Wochenende zu Ende ging.
Kreml: Putin traf selbst Entscheidung über Asyl für Assad
Peskow räumte ein, dass die Ereignisse auch Russland erstaunt hätten. Syrien galt stets als wichtigster Verbündeter des Landes im Nahen Osten. Russland hat Assad und seiner Familie Asyl gewährt.
Kremlchef Wladimir Putin, der sich immer wieder mit Assad traf, habe die Entscheidung getroffen, die Familie in Russland aufzunehmen, sagte Peskow. Ein offizielles Treffen mit dem entmachteten Politiker sei bisher nicht geplant. Er machte auch keine Angaben dazu, wo genau sich die Assads aufhalten. Russland hat immer wieder gefallenen autoritären Staatsmännern Asyl gewährt.
Natürlich sei es wichtig, den Dialog mit allen Ländern der Region aufrechtzuerhalten, sagte Peskow. "Wir sind fest entschlossen, dies zu tun." Auch mit der Türkei stehe Russland zu Syrien im Dialog.
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Russischer Vormarsch in der Ukraine beschleunigt sich
Der russische Vormarsch in der Ukraine hat sich 2024 beschleunigt. Nach Berechnungen des ukrainischen Telegramkanals UA War Infographics eroberten die russischen Truppen seit Jahresbeginn gut 2.800 Quadratkilometer ukrainischen Territoriums.
HANDOUT - Das Tempo des russischen Vordringens hat sich dabei speziell seit dem Spätsommer erhöht. Foto: Uncredited/Rusian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP/dpa
Quelle: Keystone/Rusian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP/Uncredited
Damit belaufen sich die russischen Geländegewinne bereits jetzt auf fast das 20-fache des Vorjahreswerts.
Das Tempo des russischen Vordringens hat sich dabei speziell seit dem Spätsommer erhöht. Anfang August sind ukrainische Truppen in das russische Grenzgebiet Kursk vorgestossen. Berichten zufolge hatte die ukrainische Militärführung für diese Offensive Truppen aus der Ostukraine abgezogen, was dem russischen Gegner den Vormarsch erleichterte.
Die Ukraine wehrt sich mit westlicher Hilfe seit mehr als zweieinhalb Jahren gegen eine russische Invasion. Mit der bereits 2014 von Russland annektierten Halbinsel Krim steht etwa ein Fünftel des ukrainischen Staatsgebiets unter Kontrolle Moskaus.
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Zelenskiy seeks diplomatic end to Russia's war, floats role for foreign troops
KYIV, Dec 9 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy made the case on Monday for a diplomatic settlement to Russia's war in Ukraine and
raised the idea of foreign troops being deployed in his country until it could join the NATO military alliance
.
...
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Moskau und Kiew streiten um Identität von Soldatenleichen
Russland hat nach eigenen Angaben die beim Abschuss eines Transportflugzeugs umgekommenen ukrainischen Kriegsgefangenen an Kiew übergeben.
HANDOUT - Auf diesem Videostandbild geht ein Mitarbeiter des Russischen Ermittlungskomitees in der Nähe von Jablonowo in der Region Belgorod durch ein Gebiet, in dem Wrackteile der russischen Militärmaschine Il-76 abgestürzt sind. Foto: Uncredited/AP/dpa Quelle: Keystone/AP/Uncredited
"Es ist geschehen, und ich war dabei", sagte die russische Menschenrechtsbeauftragte Tatjana Moskalkowa der russischen staatlichen Nachrichtenagentur Ria Nowosti. Wann die Übergabe erfolgt sein soll, sagte sie nicht. Der für Kriegsgefangenenbelange zuständige Koordinationsstab in der Ukraine bestätigte die Identität der Leichen zunächst nicht. Dafür seien Expertisen zur Identifikation der Überreste abzuwarten.
Ende Januar war ein russisches Transportflugzeug des Typs Iljuschin Il-76 im Grenzgebiet Belgorod mutmasslich von ukrainischer Seite abgeschossen worden. Moskau behauptete, dass an Bord 65 ukrainische Kriegsgefangene für einen Austausch an der nahen Grenze waren. Kiew bestätigte zwar den für diesen Tag geplanten Austausch, das Flugzeug sei jedoch für den Transport von Flugabwehrraketen und nicht von Kriegsgefangenen verwendet worden, hiess es.
Die Ukraine wehrt sich seit über zweieinhalb Jahren gegen eine russische Invasion. Seit Kriegsbeginn hat die ukrainische Seite über 3700 Gefangene zurückerhalten.
Zuletzt hatte Russland der Ukraine Ende November über 500 Soldatenleichen übergeben. Die grosse Anzahl der ukrainischen Leichen auf russischer Seite hängt mit dem Vormarsch der Moskauer Truppen zusammen. Das führt dazu, dass die Ukraine eigene Gefallene teilweise nicht bergen kann.
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Ukraine's drone-hunting judges fight on two fronts
…
When Ukrainian judge Vladyslav Tsukurov learned he could serve his country with both gavel and gun, he jumped at the chance.
By day, he helps keep the wartime judicial system going, ruling over civil and criminal cases outside Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
By night, he joins a volunteer force mostly made up of fellow judges, law enforcement officials and other public servants shining searchlights into the sky, trying to spot Russian drones and shoot them down with machine guns.
...
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Ukraine Asks if Telegram, Its Favorite App, Is a Sleeper Agent
The messaging app’s popularity has soared during the war with Russia, leading Ukrainian officials to increasingly weigh Telegram’s upsides against its security risks.
In the nearly three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the messaging app Telegram has been a lifeline for millions of Ukrainians. It provides information about coming attacks and helps communities organize food, medical aid and other support.
But what has been a salvation has increasingly turned into a major source of concern. In recent months, Ukrainian officials have become more alarmed by the country’s dependence on Telegram, as worries that the app was used as a vector of disinformation and a spying tool for Russia have mushroomed.
Ukraine is now trying to disentangle itself from Telegram. In September, authorities ordered the military, government officials and those working on critical infrastructure to limit their use of the app on work phones. More sensitive communications have been moved to encrypted apps like Signal. Some senior officials have proposed new restrictions for Telegram, including rules to disclose who is behind anonymously run channels with large followings.
“We understand we are dependent,” said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament who has drafted a law to tighten regulation of Telegram. “It’s a problem for us.”
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a member of Ukraine’s Parliament who has drafted a law to tighten regulation of Telegram, said the country’s dependence on the app was “a problem.”Credit...Sasha Maslov for The New York Times
Ukraine’s experience with Telegram illustrates the benefits and drawbacks of being beholden to a single app. Rarely has a country been so reliant on a platform it has no control over for communication, information and other critical services, particularly during a war.
That dependence is emulated perhaps only in Russia, where Telegram is used by roughly half the population, including many in the military and government. That has made the app a central information battlefield in the war. In some cases, Ukrainian and Russian drone pilots use Telegram groups to taunt each other and share videos of attacks.
Ukraine’s concerns about Telegram parallel rising global scrutiny of the platform, which is approaching one billion users. Once seen as a haven for activists and those living under authoritarian governments, the app has angered governments as it has become a hub of illicit and extremist material. Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder, was arrested in France in August on charges related to the company’s failure to address criminal activity on the platform.
For Ukraine, distancing itself from Telegram will not be easy. Roughly 70 percent of Ukrainians use Telegram as a main source of news, according to a recent survey commissioned in part by the U.S. government. When air raid sirens wail and missiles descend on Ukrainian cities, people flock to Telegram groups for real-time updates. The government broadcasts official announcements and gathers intelligence inside Russian-occupied territories through the app.
Rarely has a country been so reliant on a platform it has no control over for communication, information and other key services, particularly during a war.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Kyiv residents sheltering during a missile strike last year. When air raid sirens wail and missiles descend on Ukrainian cities, people flock to Telegram groups for real-time updates.Credit...Sasha Maslov for The New York Times
Yet in secret cybersecurity meetings this year, Ukrainian officials discussed putting new limits on Telegram, two people with knowledge of the discussions said. The country’s intelligence service concluded the app posed national security risks and was used by Russia for disinformation, cyberattacks, hacking, spreading malware, location tracking and adjusting missile strikes.
As a security measure, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who regularly posts war updates to his more than 700,000 followers on Telegram, does not use the app on his personal phone, a Ukrainian cybersecurity official said. In March, officials took the unusual step of asking Apple to rein in the platform because the Silicon Valley giant can leverage its app store — which Telegram needs for global distribution — to get the company to act.
In a statement, Telegram defended the security of its platform, saying Russia “has not — and cannot — access user information.” The company added, “Telegram is and always has been safe for Ukrainians and users around the world.”
But what makes Telegram so powerful also makes it a threat, Ukrainian officials said. Unlike other social media, Telegram has few guardrails. There is no algorithm determining what people see and little content moderation, enabling the rapid spread of lifesaving warnings but also exposing the app to exploitation. Broadcasting features allow users to quickly share text, videos and files with large groups.
“I have some relatives in the occupied territories and the only way to get in touch with them is Telegram,” said Maksym Yali, an analyst for Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, a government agency that monitors Telegram and other apps for disinformation. “But under the conditions of war, do the risks outweigh the benefits?”
He said Ukrainians visiting friends or family in Russia must hand over their phones at the airport to security officers who use specialized software to check their Telegram app, including deleted material, for pro-Ukraine content.
Telegram denied that deleted messages could be accessed and said any examples of intercepted communications by Russia that it had investigated were the result of a device being physically confiscated or infected with malware, not security weaknesses on the app.
Ukrainians’ affection for Telegram began in 2017. That was when the country banned the Russian-controlled social media platform VKontakte, which was used to amplify Russian disinformation and propaganda.
Telegram’s prominence grew during Mr. Zelensky’s presidential run in 2019. His campaign deftly used the service to connect with voters, thanks partly to Mykhailo Fedorov, a young digital strategist who now leads the Ministry of Digital Transformation. In a 2020 interview, Mr. Fedorov said he had regular contact with Mr. Durov and his management team.
Mykhailo Fedorov, chief of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, said in a 2020 interview that he had regular contact with Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder.Credit...Sasha Maslov for The New York Times
In 2022, just before Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian intelligence cautioned Mr. Zelensky about Telegram, two people with knowledge of the matter said. In a memo, military intelligence warned about the risks of Russian influence but said the threat did not merit an outright ban of the app.
Mr. Zelensky’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The war revealed that many Telegram channels were run from Russia. Accounts that appeared to be Ukrainian peddled disinformation, including unfounded claims that Mr. Zelensky had fled the country.
Still, the app’s popularity soared as traditional media struggled to keep pace.
“Telegram is the main source of information, more than television, radio and all the other media,” said Maksym Dvorovyi, head of digital rights with Digital Security Lab Ukraine, a civil society group. He said that was a “sad reality” because of the security risks and volume of unverified information and propaganda.
For many popular Telegram channels, the money flowed. With millions of followers, they charged thousands of dollars per ad, with promotions from cake shops and crypto boosters sitting alongside warnings of drone attacks and announcements of blackouts.
Few know the operators of some of the most-visited channels, which have names like “Legitimate” and “Cartel.” A September study by Detector Media, a European Union-backed watchdog group, found that 76 of the 100 most popular Telegram channels in Ukraine were operated anonymously.
Ukrainian officials have worried about the allegiances of Mr. Durov, who was born in Russia. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said in 2021 that the government had “reached an agreement” with Telegram after the authorities tried to block the app during a dispute over access to user data. Ukrainian officials fear Russia can get access to private data and communications on the app, pointing to examples when Russian authorities presented copies of private Telegram conversations to people under.
Mr. Durov, the founder of Telegram, was arrested in France in August and charged with a wide range of crimes for failing to prevent illicit activity on the app.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Ukraine has not shown conclusive evidence linking Mr. Durov or the company to the Russian government, and Telegram said it had no ties to the Kremlin.
“Telegram has never been legally or physically connected to Russia,” the company said. “Telegram was founded specifically in the context of protecting user data from Russian surveillance.”
Early this year, disinformation on Telegram about the war was so rampant that Ukraine asked Apple to intervene. The government requested that the tech giant use its leverage to push Telegram to remove certain fake accounts run from Russia. By April, Telegram had taken down the accounts.
But the resolution came with a twist. Telegram also briefly blocked several Ukrainian government-run accounts that let citizens share information about Russian troop movements. Ukrainian officials viewed the move as a thinly veiled warning: Pressuring the company too hard could come at a cost.
“It was unspoken, but it was a threat,” Mr. Yurchyshyn said.
Telegram confirmed it took down the fake accounts after receiving a request from Apple, but said the Ukrainian channels were erroneously removed and were reinstated within hours. The company said it was developing tools to combat disinformation, including new fact-checking features.
Mr. Fedorov, the digital minister, said in a statement that he had requested assistance from Apple in communicating with Telegram as “part of our ongoing work with all platforms that have such extensive reach and cover the war in Ukraine.”
Apple declined to comment.
After a September meeting of Ukraine’s National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity, use of the app was limited in the government and military. Some universities have also banned the app.
Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s top intelligence official, publicly warned about Telegram’s threats, but said he did not believe it should be blocked altogether. He has called for the abolishment of anonymity for administrators of large channels. Telegram has long argued that anonymity is key to protecting users.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, has publicly warned about Telegram’s risks and has called for a prohibition on anonymity for administrators of large channels. Credit...Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times
Russia has its own concerns about Telegram. After Mr. Durov’s arrest in France in August, Russian commentators and military analysts publicly raised alarms about the country’s own reliance on the app, saying he could give Western intelligence services access to private data.
In Ukraine, Mr. Durov’s arrest emboldened efforts to curtail Telegram. Mr. Yurchyshyn said he was working on legislation to add warnings, akin to those on cigarette packets, that remind users that the information on the platform may be unreliable and that the operators of channels are anonymous.
But he acknowledged that any new rules were unlikely to diminish Telegram’s sway.
“Who wants to be the politician or leader to take responsibility for banning such a popular network?” Mr. Yurchyshyn said.
Clusters of unidentified drones spotted in New York and New Jersey
FBI investigation under way as residents across US north-east report mysterious aircraft sightings for weeks
A spate of mysterious drone sightings have been reported in New York and Philadelphia as the FBI continues investigating similar sightings across New Jersey over the past month.
Since mid-November, local residents in several counties in New Jersey have reported seeing clusters of drones – and in recent days, additional drone sightings have been reported in parts of Pennsylvania and New York’s Staten Island.
Local residents in the regions have been capturing and sharing footage online that appears to show drones in the sky.
Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Newark office announced it was actively investigating these sightings and was seeking information from the public.
“Witnesses have spotted the cluster of what look to be drones and a possible fixed wing aircraft,” the FBI said. “We have reports from the public and law enforcement dating back several weeks.”
While authorities investigate the reports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has implemented temporary flight restrictions in the areas over Picatinny Arsenal military base and Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
The origin of the drones remains unknown. However, state leaders and elected officials have said that they are monitoring the sightings and have assured residents that the drones do not pose any immediate threat to the public.
In a post on social media last week, Phil Murphy, New Jersey’s governor, said that he convened with officials from the Department of Homeland Security as well as local authorities and officials in New Jersey to discuss the reported drone activity.
“We are actively monitoring the situation and in close coordination with our federal and law enforcement partners on this matter,” the governor said. He added: “There is no known threat to the public at this time.”
Last week, an FBI spokesperson told local New Jersey outlet, NJ.com: “Unfortunately, we don’t have many answers, and we don’t want to guess or hypothesize about what’s going on.”
“We are doing all we can to figure it out,” they added.
On Monday, a group of 20 mayors in Morris county, New Jersey, reportedly wrote a letter to the state’s governor requesting a full investigation into the origin and purpose of the drones, according to CBS News, which obtained a copy of the letter.
They also called for improved communication with residents and law enforcement, among other things.
In the letter, the mayors said that they have “deep concern regarding the ongoing nighttime drone flights” and that the drones have “raised significant alarm among the more than 500,000 county residents and local officials alike”.
In response to reports of drones over Staten Island’s airspace, the congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis said she asked the FAA to impose temporary drone flight restrictions in the area and had requested immediate briefings from the homeland security department and FBI.
Two weeks ago, drones flying in New Jersey reportedly prevented a medical helicopter from picking up an injured individual after a car crash, according to USA Today.
The police chief of Florham Park, New Jersey, Joseph Orlando, said in a statement on social media last week that several drone sightings had been reported above “critical infrastructure such as water reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments and military installations.
“Members of the local law enforcement community have been pressuring our partners for answers regarding this activity as their presence around our critical infrastructure is concerning,” the statement reads. “While we currently have no evidence or information to indicate these drones pose an imminent threat at this time, their presence appears nefarious in nature.”
In the statement, authorities urged all residents to remain vigilant and report any drone sightings directly to the FBI.
Two Major Ad Agencies to Merge, Creating Global Giant
If successful, Omnicom and Interpublic would become the largest advertising company in the world, with more than $25 billion in combined revenue.
The Omnicom Group is already one of the largest ad agencies in the world.Credit...Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Omnicom Group, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, said on Monday that it had agreed to acquire Interpublic Group, a large rival.
If successful, the all-stock takeover would create the biggest ad agency in the world, with more than 100,000 employees and some $25 billion in annual revenue.
The deal comes after years of transformation and disruption for the advertising industry, as digital ads overtook analog advertising channels and tech giants including Meta and Alphabet, the respective parent companies of Facebook and Google, moved further into the territory once dominated by traditional agencies. The tech and consulting giant Accenture has also made a big push onto the agencies’ turf, acquiring dozens of creative studios and related companies.
The “Big Four” ad companies — Omnicom, Interpublic, WPP and Publicis — adapted by remaking themselves into digital technology companies, often through acquisitions.
John Wren, the chief executive of Omnicom, said in a statement that the acquisition of Interpublic would “harness the significant opportunities created by new technologies in this era of exponential change.”
Under the deal, which Omnicom said it expected to close in the second half of 2025, Omnicom shareholders would own about 60 percent of the combined company, with Interpublic shareholders holding the rest. Omnicom executives said they had “clearly identified opportunities” for $750 million in annual cost savings. The combined company would keep the Omnicom name.
In recent years, Interpublic has lagged its rivals and has lost critical clients including Verizon and BMW. Its revenue was flat in 2023 compared with 2022, and it forecast growth of just 1 percent for 2024.
The company has moved to sell off agencies that have underperformed, including Huge and R/GA, two of its digital agencies known for their work with the tech industry. Last week, Interpublic sold Huge to a private equity firm. It has not provided an update on the sale of R/GA. The firm took an impairment charge of $232 million on the assets in its most recent quarterly earnings report.
The deal could raise regulatory scrutiny. President-elect Donald J. Trump has signaled that he could be more accepting of deal-making than the current administration, which has moved to block large mergers among airlines, grocery chains and companies in a range of other industries. But with Gail Slater, Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, he signaled that he planned to continue the Biden administration’s crackdown on tech industry deal-making.
Mr. Wren acknowledged that the new administration’s approach to antitrust enforcement remained uncertain, casting some doubt over the deal. But “there’s reason to believe,” he said on a call with analysts on Monday, that policy under the incoming administration will be “more friendly to business.”
Omnicom and Publicis tried to merge in 2013, citing the threat of technological disruption as the reason. But the complicated deal between two large, unwieldy companies made up of many smaller subsidiaries eventually fell apart. This time around, executives at the merging companies took steps to ensure “the lessons learned a decade ago are not going to be repeated,” Mr. Wren told analysts.
Omnicom’s deal with Interpublic, also a complex undertaking, could create opportunities for the companies’ rivals in the short term, Bernstein analysts said in a research note on Monday.
“Common sense suggests a merger that large would raise significant execution challenges from a client and talent retention standpoints,” the analysts said.
Interpublic was founded in 1930 with the merger of the ad agencies McCann and Erickson, making it the largest agency in the world at the time. It owns well-known ad companies including McCann Worldwide and the ad-buying giant IPG Mediabrands.
Omnicom was created in 1986 as part of a three-way merger of ad agencies including BBDO Worldwide. It owns the agencies TBWA, OMD and the digital commerce company Flywheel.
Speaking to analysts on an October earnings call, Interpublic’s chief executive, Philippe Krakowsky, expressed optimism for the company’s prospects. “In the prior quarters, we were saying to you, things don’t feel as if they’re heading, not dramatically, but not in the right direction,” he said. “But at this point,” he added, “things are improving.”
Mr. Krakowsky has been shopping the company to potential buyers this year, including private equity firms, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the deal talks between the two companies.
Omnicom’s shares fell more than 10 percent on Monday, while Interpublic’s stock gained about 4 percent.
A correction was made on
Dec. 9, 2024
:
An earlier version of this article misstated the role that Donald J. Trump nominated Gail Slater to in his new administration. She is his choice to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division, not the Federal Trade Commission.
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Labour's own voters think Starmer is a worse PM than Thatcher was... as poll shows Brits rate him below Major and on a par with Theresa May
Even Labour's own voters think Keir Starmer is proving to be a worse PM than Margaret Thatcher, according to a poll.
Research by More in Common offered more evidence that Brits are deeply unimpressed with the start Sir Keir has made in No10.
Asked who has been the best premier in the past 40 years, just 4 per cent said the Labour leader.
That was the same proportion who backed Theresa May, one point ahead of Rishi Sunak and two points below the support for John Major.
Baroness Thatcher came top with 33 per cent, with Tony Blair ranking second on 20 per cent and Boris Johnson tied for third with Gordon Brown on 10 per cent.
Research by More in Common offered more evidence that Brits are deeply unimpressed with the start Keir Starmer has made in No10
Asked who has been the best premier in the past 40 years, just 4 per cent said the Labour leader
Baroness Thatcher came top of the 'favourite PM' poll, with 33 per cent of Brits backing her
The picture was not much better among voters who endorsed Labour at the election just five months ago.
They put three-time election winner Sir Tony at the head of the list on 37 per cent, with Gordon Brown next best on 15 per cent.
Lady Thatcher was third most popular choice on 14 per cent.
But that was well ahead of Sir Keir, who was supported by a mere 9 per cent and barely edged out Lord Cameron on 8 per cent.
Sir Keir has endured a torrid first five months since he secured a huge election landslide - but on one of the lowest winning vote shares ever.
Anger has been mounting over the extraordinary £40billion tax raid in Rachel Reeves' first Budget at the end of October, with farmers protesting at inheritance duties and pensioners furious about losing winter fuel allowance.
He announced new 'milestones' in a 'reset' speech last week trying to get his stumbling premiership back on track.
His first months in No10 have also seen Sue Gray sacked as No10 chief of staff amid Downing Street infighting.
Sir Keir suffered a further blow recent days with the resignation of Louise Haigh as transport secretary when it emerged she had a criminal conviction.
Fears were raised today that the UK economy is slipping into the red as a survey showed business confidence crashing after the Budget.
A report from consultancy firm BDO showed that optimism has plummeted to its lowest level in two years.
Tony Blair ranking second on 20 per cent and Boris Johnson tied for third with Gordon Brown on 10 per cent
A tracker of activity also dipped by 3.2 points to 94.7 last month - the weakest in more than a year, with anything below 95 suggesting contraction.
The darkening picture comes after GDP barely scraped into positive territory in the third quarter, recording 0.1 per cent growth.
The single month of September saw a 0.1 per cent fall in output, with revision of the data still possible.
Recession is technically defined as two consecutive quarters of shrinkage.
Цитата:
Römische Brutus-Münze für 1,84 Millionen versteigert
Eine äusserst seltene römische Münze mit dem Bildnis von Brutus, dem berühmten Mörder von Julius Cäsar, ist am Montag in Genf für 1,84 Millionen Franken versteigert worden. Das teilte der Münzhändler Numismatica Genevensis mit, der für die Auktion verantwortlich war.
Diese römische Goldmünze mit einem Gewicht von 8 Gramm ist am Montag für 1,84 Millionen Franken versteigert worden.
Quelle: NGSA
Die Goldmünze wurde für mehr als 1,84 Millionen Franken inklusive Verkaufsprovision "an einen europäischen Sammler" verkauft, wie das Unternehmen in einer Mitteilung bekannt gab. Der Verkauf sei ein "intensiver Kampf zwischen acht Online-Bietern" gewesen. Der Preis lag ursprünglich bei über 742.000 Euro.
Dieser Aureus (die römische Goldmünze) sei "ein Stück Geschichte", das mit den letzten Kapiteln der römischen Republik verbunden sei, hatte Frank Baldacci, der Direktor von Numismatica Genevensis, vor einigen Tagen gegenüber der Nachrichtenagentur AFP erklärt.
Die Münze habe ein Gewicht von 8 Gramm und eine ähnliche Grösse wie ein Euro. Sie stamme aus dem Jahr 42 vor Christus und sei vom Caesarenmörder Brutus geprägt worden. Auf der Vorderseite zeige sie das Profil von Brutus' Kopf, umgeben von Lorbeerblättern - auf der Rückseite feiere sie Brutus' jüngste militärischen Siege mit kriegerischen Symbolen. Brutus habe nach der Ermordung von Julius Caesar versucht, die Macht an sich zu reissen. Die Münze habe daher auch einen "Propagandawert" gehabt.
Von Hand zu Hand durch Jahrhunderte
Der Aureus reiste durch die Jahrhunderte und wurde von Hand zu Hand weitergereicht, wo er vor den Augen der Öffentlichkeit geschützt war. Er kam erst in den 1950er Jahren zum Vorschein, als er im Katalog eines privaten Sammlers veröffentlicht wurde. Später tauchte die Münze bei einer Auktion 2006 in Zürich auf, wo sie für 360.000 Franken an einen anderen privaten Sammler verkauft wurde.
Sie wird in einem luftdichten Behälter aufbewahrt, um Veränderungen zu verhindern und um "ihre Echtheit zu garantieren", sagte Baldacci und erklärte, dass die Zertifizierung durch spezialisierte Unternehmen unter anderem durch den Vergleich mit anderen antiken Münzen und die Untersuchung des verwendeten Goldes erfolgt.
Sie ist eines von 17 bekannten Exemplaren.
Цитата:
The animated Lord of the Rings is a rushed money-grab
Every possible franchise callback seems jammed into this anime film, which was fast-tracked into production to prevent studio New Line Cinema from losing the rights to JRR Tolkien’s work
I am (also) no man: Gaia Wise’s Héra in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ (Warner Bros)
The days of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy feel as innocent now as those little hobbits frolicking, unburdened, in the Shire – three films adapted with sincerity, before the disastrous Hobbit prequels, and before the modern resuscitation of the franchise. Andy Serkis is directing The Hunt for Gollum, which is scheduled for 2026, and this week we have Kenji Kamiyama’s The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an anime film that takes place 183 years before Frodo Baggins. But despite offering us a different medium and a different era, the world of JRR Tolkien has never felt smaller.
The War of the Rohirrim draws from the appendices to Tolkien’s novels, a compendium of Middle Earth history, which mentions an old and ferocious ruler of the equestrian peoples of Rohan, Helm Hammerhand (voiced by a suitably grandiloquent Brian Cox). It imagines what pivotal role his unnamed daughter, here called Héra (Gaia Wise, daughter of Emma Thompson), may have played. The film’s villain is Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), leader of the Dunlendings, who takes vengeance after he’s denied Héra’s hand in marriage and watches his father die from a single punch by the notably beefy Helm.
Yet as the strings of Howard Shore’s old theme, embellished by Stephen Gallagher, rise up, so does an unshakeable sense of familiarity. Helm is a stern patriarch, who bars Héra from the fight, only for her to disobey his orders – the same strife shared between Éowyn (Miranda Otto) and her uncle Théoden (Bernard Hill). Otto’s back to provide narration, while the film’s screenwriters seem happy to borrow her mic-drop of a line from Return of the King (“I am no man!”), toss in a couple extra words, and hand it straight over to Héra.
Every possible callback seems jammed into The War of the Rohirrim’s crevices: a piece of archival audio of Christopher Lee (who died in 2015) as Saruman; a beast of the same tentacled, squid-like species as The Fellowship of the Ring’s Watcher in the Water; orcs hunting for rings; the Great Eagles, who famously do not like to impose on the narrative; the Haradrim, the walking Orientalist tropes, and their elephant steeds, the Mûmakil. Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd return to voice roles unrelated to Merry and Pippin.
In short, it too visibly bears the wounds of its circumstances – it was fast-tracked by Warner Bros so that the studio could hold onto the film rights to Tolkien’s books and, presumably, fight back against Amazon’s competing Rings of Power series. While still primarily hand-drawn, CG animation was more heavily deployed in the planning of shots, and the creation of backgrounds, and the result feels more inconsistent than it does ambitious. Kamiyama does have a similar eye to Peter Jackson when it comes to finding the beautiful in the grotesque, so it’s not so hard to imagine how striking a Lord of the Rings anime could look if it weren’t so invested in the business of replication.
And, while it’s certainly nice to see a new Lord of the Rings film with a heroine at its centre, its steely, grunting parade of warriors have lost the tenderness and emotional sincerity that screenwriters Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens originally teased out of Tolkien’s text, and granted to men and women alike. The War of the Rohirrim is invested entirely into convincing you it’s just like the films you know and love. Yet, again and again, along comes that sinking suspicion this is just another corporate wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Dir: Kenji Kamiyama. Starring: Brian Cox, Gaia Wise, Luke Pasqualino, Miranda Otto. Cert 12A, 134 mins.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’ is in cinemas from 13 December
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Официально заявление Центробанка: "ЦБ отказался от использования религиозных сооружений на денежных купюрах, так как Россия является многонациональной и многоконфессиональной страной".
Прямое продолжение истории с "крестопадом". Не получилось с одного бока — зашли с другого. Кому-то наверху очень сильно мешают кресты. Так мешают, что прямо дрожь от них берет. Любым путем, но лишь бы их было поменьше.
Ну что ж, на банкнотах крестов больше не будет. С плакатов и символики регионов их тоже убирают. Что дальше? Снимем с церквей, чтобы никто не ущемился?
Цитата:
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Чиновник Центробанка с лёгкостью заявляет, что: «Когда мы изменили концепцию оформления… то одновременно решили отказаться от изображения объектов религиозного назначения… Все-таки Россия — многонациональная, многоконфессиональная страна. В ней живут люди с разными уникальными традициями, люди, которые исповедуют разные религии» (
).
Отметим, что к сфере компетенции Центробанка и его чиновников относятся денежная эмиссия, регулирование деятельности банков и разработка денежно-кредитной политики, но, конечно же, отнюдь не принятие решений в сфере внутренней политики, тем более в области национального строительства. Тем более в столь важном вопрос как повседневно используемые общенациональные символы.
К сожалению, приведённое выше высказывание являться ярким симптомом утраты единого национального строительства, основанного на истории России и её устремлении к будущему. Вот кому мешал один из основателей Руси и создатель её письменного законодательства — Ярослав Мудрый? Объединяющий нас, между прочим, с Киевом, что важно и символично в нынешние дни. Кому помешал столь много сделавший для величия всего нашего Отечества, подчёркивающий единство России от Запада до Дальнего Востока граф Н.Н. Муравьёв-Амурский?
За последние годы заявления о «многонациональном характере России», которые, возможно, кем-то мыслились в качестве объединяющих («мы разные, но вместе»), всё более становятся разделяющими, способствующими центробежности. Да, и, кстати, каким образом фигура Салавата Юлаева, продвигаемая для изображения на новой 1000-рублёвой купюре, будет носить объединяющий характер для нашего «многоэтнического государства»?
Отказ же от изображения «объектов религиозного назначения», то есть попросту храмов: часовня Параскевы Пятницы Красноярска (10-рублёвая купюра), Соловецкий монастырь (500-рублёвая), Иоанно-Предтеченский храм Ярославля (1000-рублёвая), — это следствие курса на выхолащивание религиозного пространства России. Это выхолащивание, приведение к стерильности ведёт не к миру, а к тому, что будут процветать бактерии религиозного экстремизма, расколов и ересей. Свято место пусто не бывает.
Цитата:
ЦБ отказался от русских героев и православных храмов на денежных купюрах, потому что Россия многонациональная и многоконфессиональная страна
«Этот принцип мы сохраним и для других банкнот, которые нам предстоит модернизировать. Все-таки Россия — многонациональная, многоконфессиональная страна. В ней живут люди с разными уникальными традициями, люди, которые исповедуют разные религии», — заявил зампред ЦБ Сергей Белов.
Православные святыни и русских героев ЦБ хочет заменить на русореза и поджигателя русских городов, ударившего в тыл воюющему государству Салавату Юлаеву. ЦБ считает, что русские и православные потерпят, перетопчутся, и вообще их место в России 167-е. Мы не Русская Православная цивилизация, хочет нам сказать зампред ЦБ, мы – Орда. Появятся ли на денежных купюрах Чингисхан, Батый и Тохтамыш, зампред ЦБ пока не уточнил.
Цитата:
Экономика
9 декабря 2024, 00:01
«Банк России не видит оснований для начала дискуссии об отмене наличных» источник реплики в полном интервью «Известиям»
…
— В этот раз ЦБ также решил отказаться от использования культовых сооружений. Будет ли этот принцип распространяться на другие банкноты, которые будут модернизироваться, — номиналом в 500, 50 и 10 рублей?
— Действительно, на банкнотах образца 1997 года мы можем увидеть культовые объекты. Но когда мы изменили концепцию оформления банкнот и перешли от городской серии к региональной — теперь каждая банкнота посвящена одному из федеральных округов, — то одновременно решили отказаться от изображения объектов религиозного назначения.
Этот принцип мы сохраним и для других банкнот, которые нам предстоит модернизировать. Все-таки Россия — многонациональная, многоконфессиональная страна. В ней живут люди с разными уникальными традициями, люди, которые исповедуют разные религии.
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Ukraina będzie mogła wpływać na kampanię w Polsce. "Piorunująca siła rażenia"
Rząd tworzy dokładny spis wszystkich grobów Ukraińców z UPA i ich pomników, które są na polskim terytorium – ustalił "Newsweek". Tak gabinet premiera Donalda Tuska szykuje się na żądania Kijowa w negocjacjach ws. ekshumacji ofiar rzezi wołyńskiej.
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Sprawa wznowienia ekshumacji na Wołyniu może z pełną siłą wybuchnąć na wiosnę – w szczycie kampanii prezydenckiej. Da to prezydentowi Ukrainy Wołodymyrowi Zełenskiemu wpływ na tę kampanię. Swoimi decyzjami albo zaniechaniami będzie mógł pomagać lub szkodzić poszczególnym kandydatom. Podobnież władze Lwowa, gdzie może powstać nowy pomnik Romana Szuchewycza, bezpośrednio odpowiedzialnego za masowe mordy polskiej ludności w latach 1943-45.
Nowe badania, z którymi zapoznał się "Newsweek" potwierdzają, że dla Polaków w stosunkach z Ukrainą historia ma pierwszorzędne znaczenie. Biorąc to pod uwagę, temat rzezi Wołyńskiej może mieć w kampanii piorunującą siłę rażenia. Pierwsze oznaki już widać.
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Цитата:
Poland protests over damage to monuments in Russia
WARSAW, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Poland will send a note to Russian authorities to demand an inquiry into the devastation of monuments commemorating Polish Home Army soldiers in the town of Yogla in eastern Russia, the Polish foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Relations between Poland and Russia are tense, especially since Moscow invaded neighbouring Ukraine in 2022.
"This is a place where former prisons, gulags were located, to which people from different parts of the world were sent, including Polish soldiers," Polish foreign ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski said.
"And there were monuments commemorating prisoners, but they were not just monuments, they stand on the graves of people who died there from hunger, exhaustion, repression and diseases."
Wronski added that Poland is asking Russia whether an inquiry will be launched and if perpetrators would be punished.
The Russian embassy in Warsaw said it had no information on the matter.
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Trump verhöhnt Trudeau und nennt ihn Gouverneur
Im Zollstreit mit Kanada verspottet der künftige US-Präsident Donald Trump den Premierminister des nördlichen Nachbarlands der USA, Justin Trudeau.
RCHIV - Im Zollstreit mit Kanada verspottet der künftige US-Präsident Donald Trump den Premierminister des nördlichen Nachbarlands der USA, Justin Trudeau. Foto: Evan Vucci/AP/dpa
Quelle: Keystone/AP/Evan Vucci
"Es war mir ein Vergnügen, neulich Abend mit Gouverneur Justin Trudeau aus dem grossartigen Staat Kanada zu Abend zu essen", schrieb Trump auf seinem Online-Sprachrohr Truth Social.
Gouverneure sind in den USA die Regierungschefs der Bundesstaaten. Trudeau hatte zuvor mit Vergeltungsmassnahmen Kanadas gedroht, sollten die USA Zölle verhängen.
Trump greift mit seinem Post einen Witz auf, den er bei einem gemeinsamen Abendessen mit Trudeau Ende November gemacht haben soll. Medienberichten zufolge soll der Republikaner Trudeau vorgeschlagen haben, dass Kanada der 51. Bundesstaat der USA werden könne. "Der Präsident hat Witze erzählt, der Präsident hat uns auf den Arm genommen", sagte der kanadische Minister Dominic LeBlanc laut "Toronto Star" im Anschluss. Er war bei dem Essen dabei.
Trump droht Kanada mit hohen Einfuhrzöllen
Trudeau war nach Drohungen des Republikaners, er werde hohe Einfuhrzölle für Waren aus Kanada verhängen, in Trumps Wahlheimat Florida gereist, um die Wogen zu glätten. Trump schrieb auf Truth Social nun weiter: "Ich freue mich darauf, den Gouverneur bald wiederzusehen, damit wir unsere eingehenden Gespräche über Zölle und Handel fortsetzen können, deren Ergebnisse für alle wirklich spektakulär sein werden." Trump zieht im 20. Januar wieder ins Weisse Haus ein.
Während seiner ersten Amtszeit buhlte Trump tatsächlich schon einmal ernsthaft um das Staatsgebiet eines anderen Landes. Im Sommer 2019 schlug er vor, Grönland zu kaufen und den USA einzuverleiben. Die Antwort aus Dänemark, zu dem die grösste Insel der Welt politisch gehört, war deutlich: Nein, danke.
Netanyahu Finally Takes the Stand in His Corruption Trial
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a trial that began four years ago. He has denied the charges.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to testify in his trial on corruption charges at the district court in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Credit...Pool photo by Menahem Kahana
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“I have waited eight years for this moment — to tell the truth, the truth as I remember it,” replied Mr. Netanyahu, gripping the sides of a wooden lectern as he stood to the left of the judges.
It was a humbling moment — a sitting prime minister, forced to answer accusations of graft before a courtroom filled with his peers. It was also a moment Mr. Netanyahu seemed determined to transcend.
“I am shocked by the magnitude of this absurdity,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
“I am the prime minister, I am running a country, I am running a war,”
(выделено а.п.) he continued.
“I am not occupying myself with my future, but rather with that of the state of Israel.”
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Цитата:
Syria: Szef Dowództwa Centralnego USA odwiedził amerykańskich i kurdyjskich żołnierzy w Syrii
Szef Dowództwa Centralnego USA (CENTCOM) gen. Erik Kurilla złożył we wtorek wizytę w Syrii i Iraku, spotykając się m.in. z Syryjskimi Siłami Demokratycznymi, kurdyjskimi sojusznikami USA w walce przeciwko Państwu Islamskiemu.
Gen. Kurilla odwiedził amerykańskich dowódców wojskowych i żołnierzy oraz partnerów koalicji przeciwko ISIS - Syryjskie Siły Demokratyczne - w kilku bazach w Syrii. Otrzymał bezpośrednią ocenę dotyczącą działań ochronnych, dynamicznie zmieniającej się sytuacji oraz trwających wysiłków mających na celu uniemożliwienie ISIS wykorzystania obecnej sytuacji - napisano w oświadczeniu Dowództwa.
Do wizyty doszło po jednym z największych ataków przeciwko Państwu Islamskiemu w środkowej Syrii oraz atakom wspieranych przez Turcję sił rebelianckich, Syryjskiej Armii Narodowej (SNA) przeciwko Kurdom w północnej części kraju.
Waszyngton wzywał w ostatnich dniach "wszystkie strony", by nie wykorzystywały obecnego chaosu w Syrii, jednak siły wspierane przez Ankarę prowadzą ofensywę zmierzającą do wypchnięcia Kurdów m.in. z Manbidżu. Walki między Turcją, sojusznikiem USA w NATO, oraz SDF - sojusznikiem USA w walce przeciwko IS - są od dawna powodem napięć na linii Waszyngton-Ankara.
W Syrii pozostaje ok. 900 amerykańskich żołnierzy i według zapowiedzi Białego Domu pozostaną oni we wschodniej Syrii, by zwalczać Państwo Islamskie.
Obok wizyty w Syrii Kurilla odwiedził także Irak, gdzie spotkał się m.in. z premierem kraju Muhamadem Sziją as-Sudanim, również rozmawiając o walce z IS.
W komunikacie CENTCOM podkreślono, że "USA pozostają oddane trwałemu pokonaniu Państwa Islamskiego i zaangażowane na rzecz bezpieczeństwa partnerów sąsiadujących z Syrią - w tym Iraku, Jordanii, Libanu i Izraela", lecz w gronie tych państw nie wymieniono Turcji.
Цитата:
US official backs Israeli operations in Syrian territory
A US administration official expressed support for Israel's advance into Syrian territory telling Kan News: 'No nation can tolerate terror groups being right on their doorstep'
A Biden administration official backed the IDF's advance into Syrian territory following the fall of the Assad regime in a conversation with Kan News on Tuesday saying that Israel made it clear that it is a "temporary and tactical operation to defend its borders."
"No nation can tolerate terror groups being right on their doorstep," the official told the Israeli broadcaster. "Since the Syrian army abandoned its posts in the Israeli-Syrian buffer zone and the area, Israel declared that Syria's enforcement of the 1974 armistice agreement had collapsed. Israel took temporary actions to stabilize the buffer zone and prevent an invasion of Israeli territory. We hope that in the future we will again see stability in the region."
According to the report, Israel updated the US about its operations in Syrian territory and the US administration did not oppose them.
Earlier on Tuesday the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen network that Israeli tanks are now positioned approximately 20 kilometers from the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Reports also indicated the IDF has taken control of nine villages in the southern outskirts of Damascus, near the border with Lebanon. At the same time, there were reports of extensive strikes in the Damascus area.
Цитата:
Netanyahu's warning to Syria: We want good relations but will respond strongly to threats
PM issues statement to the new regime that will assume power after the fall of the Assad regime, says it must not allow Iran to reestablish itself in Syria or to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah through Syria.
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"We have no intention of interfering in Syria's internal affairs; however, we do intend to do what is necessary for our security.," the Prime Minister began his remarks from the Kirya in Tel Aviv.
He referred to Opeation 'Bashan Arrow' and said, "As such, I approved the Air Force bombing of strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian military so that they will not fall into the hands of the jihadists."
"This is similar to what the British Air Force did when it bombed the fleet of the Vichy regime, which was cooperating with the Nazis, so that it would not fall into the Nazis' hands," Netanyahu said.
He addressed the new regime in Syria and said, "We want to have relations with the new regime in Syria but if this regime allows Iran to re-establish itself in Syria, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons, or weapons of any kind, to Hezbollah, or attacks us – we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price."
"What happened to the previous regime will also happen to this regime," Netanyahu concluded.
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Цитата:
Reports: Israeli tanks are about 20 km from Damascus
In the wake of the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Israel has struck more than 250 targets across Syria. Reports say the IDF has taken control of nine villages in the southern suburbs of Damascus.
The Lebanese Al-Mayadeen network, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, reported early Tuesday morning that Israeli tanks are now positioned approximately 20 kilometers from the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Reports also indicated the IDF has taken control of nine villages in the southern outskirts of Damascus, near the border with Lebanon. At the same time, there were reports of extensive strikes in the Damascus area.
Earlier, Syrian media outlets reported Israeli strikes on the Al-Shuairat military airport, east of Homs, and on Syrian army targets in the provinces of Raqqa and Al-Hasakah.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition organization based in Britain, stated earlier that Israel had struck more than 250 targets across Syria in less than 48 hours, following the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.
Sources told Fox News on Monday evening that Israel and the US are taking advantage of the fact that Russian fighter jets that had been deployed to Syria are grounded.
On Sunday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) conducted dozens of precision air strikes targeting known Islamic State (ISIS) camps and terrorists in central Syria.
“The strikes against the ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS, in order 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,” CENTCOM said.
It added that the operation struck over 75 targets using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s.
The IDF took control of the Syrian Golan Heights to protect Israel from the fallout of the fighting after the Syrian rebels brought down the Assad regime.
On Monday, Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to act to take control of additional sites in the buffer zone in Syria and to maximize its achievements.
Katz also instructed that the IDF work to create a security area which is clear of heavy strategic weapons and terror infrastructure in the southern area, near the buffer area, which could threaten the State of Israel, while reaching out to the local Druze population and other populations in the area.
Цитата:
Israel strikes hundreds of military targets in Syria
Turkey accuses Israel of displaying occupier mentality and UN envoy says airstrikes must cease
Israeli warplanes have intensified an air offensive in Syria, striking hundreds of military targets and destroying entire squadrons of fighters, radar and missile systems, missile stores and much of the small Syrian navy.
The strikes came as Israeli troops consolidated their hold on a demilitarised zone in Syria east of the occupied Golan Heights and seized a strip of mountainous territory extending northwards.
Images from the Mediterranean port of Latakia posted on social media and broadcast by local TV networks showed the charred wreckage of at least six warships sunk or badly damaged.
The Israeli airstrikes began in the hours after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last weekend and have also targeted what Israel says are suspected chemical weapons and long-range rockets.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said during a visit to a naval base in Haifa: “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has been operating in Syria in recent days to strike and destroy strategic capabilities that threaten the state of Israel. The navy operated … to destroy the Syrian fleet with great success.”
He said Israeli troops had been deployed to Syria to create a “sterile defence zone free of weapons and terrorist threats”.
On Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces were moving to control a roughly 155 sq mile (400 sq km) buffer zone in Syrian territory. Hours later, Israeli media reported that Israeli troops had established positions along the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, to the north of the Golan Heights.
An Israeli military official admitted on Tuesday that Israel had advanced beyond the buffer zone, saying its troops had seized “some other points”, but he denied reports of Israeli troops heading deeper into Syria.
“IDF forces are not advancing towards Damascus. This is not something we are doing or pursuing in any way,” Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson, said at a briefing. The Syrian capital is 25 miles from Israeli troops’ positions.
“We are not involved in what’s happening in Syria internally, we are not a side in this conflict and we do not have any interest other than protecting our borders and the security of our citizens,” Shoshani said.
Israeli troops also now control a long stretch on the Syrian side facing Lebanon’s Rashaya region, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which has reporters in Syria. The new Israeli positions on the Syrian side of the 2,814-metre (9,000ft) Mount Hermon offer a prized vantage point.
Israel occupied much of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war. The buffer zone was established in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, which started when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel.
The Times of Israel reported that Israeli officials now considered void the agreement establishing the buffer zone, and that Israeli soldiers may end up holding their new positions inside Syria “for a long time, depending on the developments in the country”.
Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have condemned Israel’s incursion, accusing it of exploiting the disarray in Syria and violating international law.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “We strongly condemn Israel’s violation of the 1974 separation of forces agreement, its entry into the separation zone between Israel and Syria and its advance into Syrian territory.”
The ministry accused Israel of “displaying a mentality of an occupier” at a time when the possibility of peace and stability had emerged in Syria. The statement also reiterated Turkey’s support for Syria’s “sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity”.
The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, told Israel that its airstrikes and ground invasion into Syrian territory had to stop and said its actions were in violation of the 1974 agreement.
A spokesperson for the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “We’re against these types of attacks. I think this is a turning point for Syria. It should not be used by its neighbours to encroach on the territory of Syria.”
The fall of the Assad regime has prompted a scramble for power, influence or other strategic advantages among regional powers hoping to exploit the chaos or seeking to head off potential dangers.
The White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday that US officials were in close contact with Israeli officials and Syrian opposition groups. He said Joe Biden was staying fully briefed by his national security team and that his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was travelling to Israel on Wednesday.
Kirby said the US was not involved in any Israeli operations in Syria, and Israel had made clear these were “temporary measures to ensure their own security”. He said the US wanted to ensure that the Syrian people were able to determine their future and that there was a Syrian-led evolution toward “better and more representative governance”.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 six-day war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognised by the international community, except for the US.
The rest of the world views the strategically important plateau as occupied Syrian territory.
Israel had an uneasy but stable relationship with the Assad regime, with security officials broadly convinced that the authoritarian Syrian ruler had been deterred from any attacks on Israel.
A key objective of Israel is to deny Iran the opportunity to rebuild its influence in Syria after the fall of its key ally and to prevent any supplies sent by Tehran from reaching Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist militant movement in Lebanon.
Цитата:
US bombing of Syria after Assad shows a real fear of what’s next
The US bombing of Syria so soon after the rebels toppled Assad suggests a nervousness from the West about what happens in the country next
Washington seemed stunned by the sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime in Syria over the weekend. Albeit not as “stunned” as whoever found themselves on the ground when the US Air Force unleashed dozens of air raids on 785 sites in Syria – while Assad was still on his way to exile in Moscow.
The Americans weren’t suddenly swinging in behind the rebellion that swept away more than 50 years of rule by the Assads. The Pentagon unleashed B-52 bombers, F-15 fighters and A-10 Warthogs because the coalition that roared into Damascus, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has its roots in violent global Islamist extremism.
The US, aided by small units of British Special Forces and MI6, has a significant presence in eastern Syria, where it uses bases protected by Syrian Kurds, and some desert hideouts, to campaign against what remains of the so-called Islamic State.
The sudden victory of rebels over the Syrian government meant that, no matter how newly moderate HTS and its allies may say they are, Isis will want to reclaim some of the territory it once ruled. And it’s got a lot more in common with Syria’s rebels now than it ever did with the ousted, secular, Assad regime.
In Damascus, the HTS leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, called for the establishment of a transitional government. His people have issued orders banning random shooting and insisting that women should not be forced into conservative Islamic dress. His message is “we’re not Isis”.
But he was. And he was also in al-Qaeda. And plenty of the militia who make up the coalition that has won this phase of Syria’s civil war are fellow travellers with the ideology of al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and Isis’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Just as some areas liberated from Assad after 2012 became a magnet for jihadi fanatics from around the world, so, inevitably, a Syria entirely freed from the dictator will draw extremists to a landscape that has been freed from the hypocrisy, murder and corruption that characterised Assad’s secular rule.
They will have overpowering resentments to draw on, too. Whatever the HTS-led coalition and transitional team may claim to want, many will flock to Syria to create a state they hope will be a beacon in the darkness that’s been cast across the Middle East.
Al-Sharaar’s nom-de-guerre is Abu Mohammed al-Golani – meaning father of Mohammed from Golan.
The Golan heights are Syrian territory taken by Israel in 1967. On Sunday, Israel took a bit more to establish a “buffer zone”. He’ll want to liberate Golan from Israel every bit as much as he wanted to save Damascus from Assad.
And as an Islamist who believes in the brotherhood of Muslims through the Umma (the worldwide Muslim community), he’s now presiding over a Syria that has vanquished Arab nationalism (in the form of Assad’s Ba’ath Party) and may now serve as a base to recover territory, and avenge lives, lost to Muslims.
The appeal to potential recruits is obvious.
Some 80 per cent of the 43,000 people killed by Israel in Gaza over the last 13 months have been women and children. The international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime Minister, and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, for war crimes. The UK seems vague about whether these Israelis risk arrest here. The US has rejected the ICC’s ruling outright.
Israel continues to get military aid from America, and to be able to buy weapons from the UK.
There’s no suggestion in the West that Israel, which continues to grab Palestinian land illegally in the West Bank and appears to have a plan to drive all 2.5 million Palestinians out of Gaza, will risk economic sanctions if it does so.
Compare that to the crippling sanctions that have been rightly imposed on Moscow, the ICC ruling that would mean president Vladimir Putin would risk being collared at Heathrow, and the aggressive weapons embargo facing the Russian Federation. Putin’s regime has killed, the UN estimates, about 12,000 civilians in just under three years.
To many non-extremists this looks like racism and hypocrisy on the part of the West. It’s just the latest example of how brown lives don’t matter to Western leaders. The US-led invasion of Iraq showed how little Washington knew, or cared, for the consequences of its violence.
Barack Obama’s refusal to make good on his promise to punish Assad for his chemical weapons attacks on his own people drove that point home, as did his earlier refusal to back the democratic forces that rose against the Assad regime in the first place.
Now Syrians, mostly Sunni Muslim, have solved their own problem by ridding their landscape of Assad.
As they did so the US smashed as much of Isis as it could to prevent extremists flooding west to Damascus, and Israel bombed all the sophisticated weapons it thought were in Syria to prevent anyone using them to, say, liberate the Golan.
Syria’s new leadership may want to create a safe sensible new nation to create a country that the millions of refugees want to return to and make good on their promise of safety for religious and ethnic minorities.
But the very success of the rebellion may be its undoing as it will attract many who have much more dangerous plans. America’s recent bombings show how close some of those dangers now are.
58 Jazz Luminaries Assembled for This Photo. Only One Remains.
Art Kane’s “Harlem 1958” gathered giants of the music. Sonny Rollins, 94, looks back at the historic picture.
On Aug. 12, 1958, Art Kane gathered 58 jazz notables in front of an East 126th St. brownstone for a group portrait…
_________________
С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Президент Франции Эммануэль Макрон завтра приедет в Польшу, чтобы обсудить план европейской миротворческой миссии, которая должна сохранить
суверенитет
т.н. Украины в рамках возможного соглашения между США и РФ.
Детали плана не раскрываются, но известно, что он основан на корейском сценарии. Согласно ему к линии разграничения вводится иностранный контингент миротворческих сил. Идея Макрона в ноябре получила негласное одобрение
Великобритании.
Участие Польши в этой стратегии преподносится как «решающее» из-за её военного потенциала и географического положения. И понятно, почему от поляков президент Франции ждёт особой поддержки: ведь таким образом они бы смогли законно приблизиться к Всходни Кресы.
Интересно, что на план Макрона уже была реакция в Варшаве: главы Минобороны Польши
Владислав Косиняк-Камыш
заявил, что об отправке польских солдат на т.н. Украину «не может быть и речи», поскольку «ключевую роль здесь должен играть НАТО, а не отдельные страны».
Одновременно с этим спустя долгое время поляки вновь заговорили о том, чтобы легализовать своих наёмников, которые воюют за ВСУ незаконно — официально это должно караться тюремным сроком до пяти лет.
Подробности инициативы неизвестны, но говорят, что законопроект предусматривает «прощение и забвение преступлений и проступков» с 24 февраля 2022 года по
31 декабря 2026 года
за вступление в ВСУ без согласия компетентного органа Польши.
То есть помимо того, что полякам позволят
беспрепятственно воевать
на т.н. Украине, так ещё и разрешат, по сути, делать это
как вздумается
— никакого уголовного преследования не предусматривается. При таком раскладе и в плен поляков можно будет не брать.
📌Правда, стоит понимать, что на деле речь идёт
не о миротворческой миссии как таковой
— то есть дислокации «голубых касок», которые по сути будут выполнять полицейские функции на ничьей земле: для этого не хватит ни людей, ни специальной техники.
🔻Разговор как раз касается введения ограниченного контингента войск НАТО, которые могли бы таким образом просто забрать себе украинскую территорию. А это, в свою очередь, означает действительно серьёзную военную эскалацию с РФ.
По итогу же, вероятно, никакого решения стороны не достигнут: ни одно из европейских правительств не готово брать на себя подобную ответственность и тем самым вставать под угрозу ядерного удара. Зато пока что можно отвлечься от внутриполитических кризисов, экономического краха и социальной напряжённости, да и поизображать из себя гегемонов, сделав вид, будто именно от участия Франции или Польши зависит судьба всего западного мира.
Цитата:
Baerbock empfängt mehrere EU-Außenminister und ukrainischen Kollegen in Berlin
Bundesaußenministerin Annalena Baerbock (Grüne) empfängt am Donnerstag mehrere europäische Kollegen zu Beratungen über den Ukraine-Krieg in Berlin. Zu der Konferenz in der Villa Borsig, dem Gästehaus des Auswärtigen Amts, werden neben den Chefdiplomaten aus Frankreich, Polen, Großbritannien, Spanien und Italien auch der ukrainische Außenminister Andrij Sybiha und die EU-Außenbeauftragte Kaja Kallas erwartet.
Цитата:
Macron berät in Polen über weitere Unterstützung der Ukraine
…
Hintergrund ist das Szenario, dass Donald Trump als US-Präsident versuchen könnte, die Ukraine und Russland zu Verhandlungen zu drängen. Dafür könnte er zum Beispiel der Ukraine androhen, im Fall einer Weigerung die Militärhilfe einzustellen. Dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin wiederum könnte er drohen, die Militärhilfe für Kiew noch einmal auszubauen, falls der Kremlchef sich Verhandlungen verweigern sollte.
Könnte sich Deutschland an einer Friedensmission beteiligen?
Wie stark die Bundesregierung in die Gespräche involviert ist, war zuletzt unklar. Nach Informationen der Deutschen Presse-Agentur aus Nato-Kreisen sprach Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock das Thema einer möglichen internationalen Präsenz nach einem Waffenstillstand in der Ukraine in der vergangenen Woche in einer Arbeitssitzung mit den anderen Außenministern der Nato-Staaten in Brüssel an. Demnach machte sie dabei deutlich, dass sich im Fall der Fälle die Frage einer Beteiligung auch für Deutschland und alle anderen Nato-Partner stellen würde.
Die neue EU-Außenbeauftragte Kaja Kallas hatte bereits Anfang des Monats gesagt, dass sie es für denkbar hält, dass europäische Soldaten einen möglichen Waffenstillstand in der Ukraine absichern. Die Soldaten dafür könnten ihren Angaben zufolge auch aus Ländern kommen, die sich bereits in der Vergangenheit offen für Gespräche über eine Truppenentsendung geäußert hatten. Dazu zählen zum Beispiel Frankreich oder die baltischen Staaten.
40.000 Mann starke Friedenstruppe?
Wie das Nachrichtenmagazin "Politico" nun unter Verweis auf einen EU-Diplomaten und einen französischen Beamten berichtete, will Macron mit Tusk über die mögliche Entsendung einer Friedenstruppe aus ausländischen Truppen nach einem Ende des Kriegs sprechen. Die polnische Tageszeitung "Rzeczpospolita" zitierte einen Experten des Französischen Instituts für Internationale Beziehungen (IFRI), wonach eine solche Mission aus fünf Brigaden mit insgesamt rund 40.000 Soldaten bestehen könnte - das Kommando über eine davon könnte demnach Polen übernehmen. In Paris allerdings gab es für diese Angaben keine Bestätigung.
Polens Verteidigungsminister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz hatte am Dienstag gesagt: "Eine Entsendung polnischer Soldaten in die Ukraine kommt derzeit nicht infrage." Zwar tauche das Thema "in Veröffentlichungen auf", es gebe aber keine offizielle Bestätigung der Absicht, europäische Truppen in der Ukraine zu stationieren.
Macron hatte am Wochenende bereits in Paris mit Trump und dem ukrainischen Präsidenten Wolodymyr Selenskyj über das Schicksal des von Russland angegriffenen Landes geredet. Trump forderte eine Waffenruhe in dem Konflikt und rief Kremlchef Putin direkt zum Handeln auf./evs/DP/jha
Цитата:
Macron berät in Polen über weitere Unterstützung der Ukraine
Frankreichs Präsident Emmanuel Macron will am Donnerstag in Warschau mit Polens Ministerpräsident Donald Tusk über die europäische Unterstützung der Ukraine angesichts des Machtwechsels in den USA beraten. Nach unbestätigten Medienberichten könnte es dabei auch um Überlegungen gehen, nach dem Krieg eine Friedenstruppe aus ausländischen Soldaten in der Ukraine zu stationieren.
ARCHIV - Emmanuel Macron (r), Präsident von Frankreich, empfängt Donald Tusk, Ministerpräsident von Polen, im Elysee-Palast. Foto: Aurelien Morissard/AP/dpa
Quelle: Keystone/AP/Aurelien Morissard
Nach Informationen der Deutschen Presse-Agentur gibt es zwischen Vertretern mehrerer Nato-Staaten bereits seit Wochen vertrauliche Gespräche darüber, wie ein möglicher künftiger Waffenstillstand in der Ukraine überwacht werden könnte. Federführend dabei sind demnach Frankreich und Grossbritannien.
Hintergrund ist das Szenario, dass Donald Trump als US-Präsident versuchen könnte, die Ukraine und Russland zu Verhandlungen zu drängen. Dafür könnte er zum Beispiel der Ukraine androhen, im Fall einer Weigerung die Militärhilfe einzustellen. Dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin wiederum könnte er drohen, die Militärhilfe für Kiew noch einmal auszubauen, falls der Kremlchef sich Verhandlungen verweigern sollte.
Könnte sich Deutschland an einer Friedensmission beteiligen?
Wie stark die Bundesregierung in die Gespräche involviert ist, war zuletzt unklar. Nach Informationen der Deutschen Presse-Agentur aus Nato-Kreisen sprach Aussenministerin Annalena Baerbock das Thema einer möglichen internationalen Präsenz nach einem Waffenstillstand in der Ukraine in der vergangenen Woche in einer Arbeitssitzung mit den anderen Aussenministern der Nato-Staaten in Brüssel an. Demnach machte sie dabei deutlich, dass sich im Fall der Fälle die Frage einer Beteiligung auch für Deutschland und alle anderen Nato-Partner stellen würde.
Die neue EU-Aussenbeauftragte Kaja Kallas hatte bereits Anfang des Monats gesagt, dass sie es für denkbar hält, dass europäische Soldaten einen möglichen Waffenstillstand in der Ukraine absichern. Die Soldaten dafür könnten ihren Angaben zufolge auch aus Ländern kommen, die sich bereits in der Vergangenheit offen für Gespräche über eine Truppenentsendung geäussert hatten. Dazu zählen zum Beispiel Frankreich oder die baltischen Staaten.
40.000 Mann starke Friedenstruppe?
Wie das Nachrichtenmagazin "Politico" nun unter Verweis auf einen EU-Diplomaten und einen französischen Beamten berichtete, will Macron mit Tusk über die mögliche Entsendung einer Friedenstruppe aus ausländischen Truppen nach einem Ende des Kriegs sprechen. Die polnische Tageszeitung "Rzeczpospolita" zitierte einen Experten des Französischen Instituts für Internationale Beziehungen (IFRI), wonach eine solche Mission aus fünf Brigaden mit insgesamt rund 40.000 Soldaten bestehen könnte - das Kommando über eine davon könnte demnach Polen übernehmen. In Paris allerdings gab es für diese Angaben keine Bestätigung.
Polens Verteidigungsminister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz hatte am Dienstag gesagt: "Eine Entsendung polnischer Soldaten in die Ukraine kommt derzeit nicht infrage." Zwar tauche das Thema "in Veröffentlichungen auf", es gebe aber keine offizielle Bestätigung der Absicht, europäische Truppen in der Ukraine zu stationieren.
Macron hatte am Wochenende bereits in Paris mit Trump und dem ukrainischen Präsidenten Wolodymyr Selenskyj über das Schicksal des von Russland angegriffenen Landes geredet. Trump forderte eine Waffenruhe in dem Konflikt und rief Kremlchef Putin direkt zum Handeln auf.
Цитата:
Guerre en Ukraine : la Russie pourrait frapper avec un missile Orechnik « dans les prochains jours »
En novembre, les États-Unis avaient autorisé l’Ukraine à utiliser des missiles longue portée pour frapper le territoire russe
La Russie pourrait frapper l’Ukraine « dans les prochains jours » avec, à nouveau, son missile de dernière génération Orechnik, supersonique et conçu pour porter des têtes nucléaires, a affirmé ce mercredi un haut responsable américain.
« La Russie a signalé son intention de tirer un nouveau missile expérimental Orechnik sur l’Ukraine, potentiellement dans les prochains jours », a déclaré ce responsable sous le couvert de l’anonymat. « Mais ce missile n’est pas de nature à renverser la dynamique sur le champ de bataille, il cherche à intimider l’Ukraine et ses alliés », a ajouté cette source américaine. « L’Orechnik, avec son ogive plus petite et une disponibilité limitée, a peu de chances de changer le cours du conflit », a-t-elle encore déclaré.
Un autre responsable américain a aussi cherché à modérer l’inquiétude, affirmant que « la Russie possède sans doute seulement une poignée de ces missiles expérimentaux ».
Orechnik déployé en Biélorussie ?
L’arme, capable de frapper avec des ogives nucléaires des cibles à plusieurs milliers de kilomètres, a été utilisée pour la première fois avec des têtes conventionnelles le 21 novembre contre la ville de Dnipro, dans le centre-est de l’Ukraine.
Le président russe Vladimir Poutine a présenté le tir inédit comme une réponse aux récentes attaques ukrainiennes contre la Russie avec des missiles américains et britanniques, et surtout menacé de frapper des « centres de décision » à Kiev, qui abrite le gouvernement ukrainien. Vendredi dernier, il a même évoqué la possibilité de déployer l’an prochain son missile Orechnik en Biélorussie, son plus proche allié, dont la frontière avec l’Ukraine est située à 100 kilomètres de Kiev.
En Ukraine, cette nouvelle arme a provoqué la peur d’habitants, poussant certains à venir à nouveau s’abriter dans des refuges en cas d’alarme anti-aérienne.
L’Ukraine frappe un aérodrome russe
Un peu plus tôt dans la journée, l’armée russe a affirmé que les forces ukrainiennes ont attaqué ce mercredi un aérodrome à Taganrog, dans le sud de la Russie, à l’aide de missiles américains ATACMS, promettant « une réponse ».
« Il a été établi avec certitude que six missiles balistiques ATACMS de fabrication américaine ont été utilisés », a indiqué le ministère russe de la Défense dans un communiqué, précisant que deux avaient été « abattus » et « les autres […] détournés par des équipements de guerre électronique ». Vladimir Poutine a présenté comme une ligne rouge les attaques ukrainiennes contre le sol russe avec des armes occidentales.
Цитата:
Pistorius: Merz-Kritik am Ukraine-Kurs "infam"
Verteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius wehrt sich gegen die Kritik der CDU, Deutschlands Unterstützung für die Ukraine sei zu zögerlich. CDU-Chef Friedrich Merz hatte bei einem Besuch in der Ukraine gesagt, die bisherige deutsche Politik zwinge das Land, sich mit einem Arm auf den Rücken gebunden zu verteidigen. "Ich finde, das ist infam und unredlich", sagt Pistorius bei einer SPD-Veranstaltung in Hannover. Merz wisse, dass Deutschland der größte Unterstützer der Ukraine in Europa sei.
"Die Ukraine muss weiter unterstützt werden, damit sie in eine Position kommt, aus der heraus sie mit (dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir) Putin, wenn der irgendwann an den Verhandlungstisch gehen will, auch verhandeln kann aus einer Position der Stärke heraus", bekräftigt Pistorius. "Das sichert Frieden." Es dürfe keinen Diktatfrieden geben. "Ich bin ziemlich sicher, die Ukraine würde morgen verhandeln. Aber Putin nicht."
Цитата:
Macron berät in Warschau über weitere Hilfe für Ukraine
Frankreichs Präsident Emmanuel Macron will am Donnerstag in Warschau mit Polens Ministerpräsident Donald Tusk über die europäische Unterstützung der Ukraine angesichts des Machtwechsels in den USA beraten. Macron hatte am Wochenende bereits in Paris mit dem designierten US-Präsidenten Donald Trump und dem ukrainischen Präsidenten Wolodymyr Selenskyj über das Schicksal des von Russland angegriffenen Landes geredet.
Kritik an Werbung für Minderjährige
Die Bundeswehr hält daran fest, bei 17-Jährigen für den Dienst in der Armee zu werben. Die Linke und die katholische Friedensbewegung Pax Christi fordern einen Stopp. Doch die Bundesregierung setzt weiter auf die "bewährte Maßnahme".
Die Bundeswehr steht mit Blick auf Werbung, die sich an Minderjährige richtet, weiter in der Kritik. "Die Praxis, Werbematerialien der Bundeswehr an 17-Jährige zu verschicken, muss unverzüglich beendet werden", sagte der verteidigungspolitische Sprecher der Linken im Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, am Dienstag in Berlin.
"Nicht umsonst hat der UN-Ausschuss für die Rechte des Kindes mehrfach Kritik geäußert an Maßnahmen wie der des Bundesamtes für das Personalmanagement der Bundeswehr", sagte Armin Lauven von der katholischen Friedensbewegung Pax Christi, die Mitglied im Bündnis "Unter 18 nie!" ist. "Laut den Vereinten Nationen sollen alle Formen der auf Kinder ausgerichteten Werbung oder Vermarktung des Militärdienstes verboten werden."
Regierung: Alles völkerrechtskonform
Die Bundesregierung wertete die Rekrutierungspraxis in einer Antwort auf eine Anfrage von Bartsch hingegen als völkerrechtskonform. Die Übersendung von Informationsmaterial über Tätigkeiten in den Streitkräften an diejenigen, die im kommenden Jahr volljährig werden, sei eine bewährte Maßnahme, hieß es.
Цитата:
Цитата:
Polen will große TV-Sender vor russischer Einflussnahme schützen
Polen will Medien des Landes vor russischer Einflussnahme schützen. Ministerpräsident Donald Tusk teilte am Mittwoch mit, seine Regierung werde große Fernsehsender wie den in US-Besitz befindlichen TVN vor feindlichen Übernahmeversuchen abschirmen. Tusk betonte, eine entsprechende Richtlinie werde in der kommenden Woche verabschiedet, um Schutz vor russischen Versuchen der Einflussnahme auf die Demokratie und den politischen Prozess in Europa zu schaffen. Dabei verwies er auf die Präsidentschaftswahl in Rumänien, die vor dem Hintergrund von Vorwürfen einer russischen Einflussnahme vom Verfassungsgericht für ungültig erklärt wurde. Die Wahl sei ein "Negativereignis" gewesen, das "Russlands unablässige Angriffsbereitschaft unter Einsatz immer ausgefeilterer Methoden und Werkzeuge bestätigt" habe, sagte Tusk.
Цитата:
Siemoniak: Stacje telewizyjne są tak strategiczne dla Polski, jak sektor energetyczny
Największe stacje telewizyjne są w obecnych czasach tak samo strategiczne dla Polski, jak sektor energetyczny i paliwowy - ocenił na X minister koordynator służb specjalnych, szef MSWIA Tomasz Siemoniak.
Siemoniak odniósł się do środowej wypowiedzi premiera Donalda Tuska, by stacje telewizyjne TVN i Polsat umieścić w rozporządzeniu - wykazie strategicznych firm, które podlegają ochronie państwa przed agresywnym i niebezpiecznym przejęciem z punktu widzenia interesów kraju.
"Obrona polskiego interesu narodowego to silne Wojsko Polskie, służby mundurowe MSWiA i służby specjalne. To odporne państwo i społeczeństwo na wszelkie zagrożenia. To sprawne państwo, które chroni pluralizm i wolność najważniejszych mediów przed przejęciem przez aktywnych uczestników wojny informacyjnej i hybrydowej przeciw Polsce" - napisał na X Siemoniak.
"Największe stacje telewizyjne są w obecnych czasach tak samo strategiczne dla Polski, jak sektor energetyczny i paliwowy. Demokracja i praworządność muszą się bronić!" - uważa polityk.
Premier zapowiedział, że rozporządzenie dotyczące Polsatu i TVN zostanie przyjęte w przyszłym tygodniu przez Radę Ministrów. Wyjaśnił, że decyzja o uzupełnieniu o te stacje listy firm strategicznych oznacza, że bez zgody polskiego rządu nie będzie można ich przejąć czy kupić, bo będą na liście strategicznych firm, które podlegają ochronie.
Tusk zaznaczył, że nie będą pierwsze firmy prywatne objęte taką ochroną i nie jest to precedens, ponieważ w innych krajach Europy też są tego typu rozwiązania.
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Serious Christmas tree envy hits London as Trafalgar Square's spruce is branded a 'wonky corn on the cob' compared to New York's Rockefeller giant (but at least it's not as bad as one European city's offering)
London's Trafalgar Square Christmas tree has been branded 'scrawny' and 'half-dead' compared to their Rockefeller rival in New York.
The tree, which has been gifted annually by Norway since 1947, was deemed as looking 'rather unwell' and 'so sad' after its lights were turned on earlier this month.
Daily Mail columnist Andrew Neil posted a photo of the two competing trees on X with the caption: 'When it comes to Christmas Trees London really needs to up its game.'
Commenting beneath, one person wrote: 'I’m glad someone said it. I didn’t want to be negative but our wonky corn on the cob is a tad underwhelming.'
Another added: 'By the look of that tree in Trafalgar Square, you'd think London was trying to eliminate Christmas. That's really bad.'
A third also wrote: 'It looks like a pickle,' while a fourth quipped: 'Maybe it's a cucumber.'
The Norwegian spruce from Grefsenkleiva, in Oslo’s Forest, is decorated in traditional Norwegian fashion with strings and lights. It is also approximately 20 metres high and is around 60 years old.
For many people, the fact that it is a gift from Norway adds an important sentimental value, as one person explained: 'It’s the 77th tree we’ve received as a gift from the Norwegians as a token of gratitude for supporting them in WW2. It has more meaning than the Rockefeller tree.'
London's famous Trafalgar Square Christmas tree has been branded 'scrawny'
The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center was lit on December 4, an annual holiday tradition in New York City
Locals described the tree as 'rather unwell looking' and 'so sad' as they claimed they could see dead wood in photographs posted online
Another person similarly wrote: 'In this case, less is more plus the London tree is a symbolic gift. The sentiment behind it means it doesn’t need to be flashy.'
A third person argued: 'The arrival of Oslo’s present is special. For me it’s a reminder that Christmas is just around the corner, marked by a gift from Oslo which is so in the Christmas spirit. It beats all the glitzy lights and the manicured Christmas trees. It is real.'
Another wrote: 'You're all missing the point. This tree is a GIFT. It's around 60 years old and enormous and has to travel by boat to get to us. And the lights - this is the way they are tradionally hung in Norway.
'It may not be as glamourous as having 50,000 coloured lights intertwined, but this tree is a symbol of friendship and gratitude which we should accept and cherish gracefully.'
Fellow journalist Peter Allen, who is based in France, also took to social media to share Paris' Christmas tree, which was certainly underwhelming in comparison to the US and UK.
He wrote, sarcastically: 'This year’s Christmas tree in Paris 75001 is going to leave Londoners and New Yorkers green with envy.'
Commenting beneath the post, one person pointed out: 'Where's the rest of it?!'
This comes after Britain's saddest trees were revealed last month, as one was even labelled anti-festive.
Journalist Peter Allen poked fun at the rather underwhelming Paris tree this year
One person described the Trafalgar Square tree as looking like a 'wonky corn on the cob'
A group of people take a selfie in front of the brightly illuminated tree at the Rockefeller Center
The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is pictured in the square before being mounted by specialist crews
The tree was attached to the hook of a crane before being lifted into a vertical position
The tree has been gifted annually by Norway since 1947
One sorry-looking Christmas tree was spotted by the arrivals board at London Euston station this week.
Decorated with gold baubles and guarded by a plastic barrier, the threadbare tree measures around 180cm.
Talk TV's Chuck Thomas shared a picture of the tree on X with the sarcastic caption: 'This will get everyone in the Christmas spirit.'
The post received over 300,000 views as people were quick to blast the sad-looking Christmas tree, which they described as depressing, pitiful and anti-festive.
Meanwhile, over at the Coal Drops Yard near King's Cross Station, one woman said she had her 'Christmas cheer stolen from her so fast' when she looked at the tree erected there.
Ellen filmed her reaction for TikTok and said: 'I'm about to show you the Christmas tree. I don't get it. What is this?'
Taking to the comments, one person joked: 'It looks like it was made on Microsoft paint,' while another person said 'it's giving Tate Modern Christmas'.
This year's Trafalgar Square tree was cut down by The Lord Mayor of Westminster Cllr Robert Rigby and The Mayor of Oslo Anne Lindboe, during a felling ceremony which took place on Thursday 21 November 2024.
Talk TV's Chuck Thomas shared a picture of the tree with the caption: 'This will get everyone in the Christmas spirit'
At the Coal Drops Yard near King's Cross Station, one woman said she had her 'Christmas cheer stolen from her so fast' when she looked at the tree erected there (pictured)
Ellen filmed her reaction for TikTok of the Coal Drops Yard tree and said: 'I'm about to show you the Christmas tree. I don't get it. What is this?'
It was then transported to Brevik using an electric truck in a bid to cut the journey's carbon footprint.
The tree is a gift from Norway in gratitude for the UK's aid during the Second World War.
King Haakon VII of Norway made popular broadcasts to his country via the BBC while in exile in London during the Second World War.
Aware that he was likely to be found and apprehended by the Nazis after the invasion of neutral Norway in April 1940, he slept in his uniform, fearful they would be able to publish humiliating photographs of him in pyjamas.
Denmark surrendered just six hours after Hitler's troops crossed its border. To do otherwise would be to risk further bloodshed and almost certain defeat. But Haakon and his government were determined Norway would not collaborate with the Nazis.
His broadcasts from Britain reminded Norwegians to keep their values and his moral fortitude cheered them, just as he was cheered by the defiance of the greater part of the Norwegian people.
Rather than saying 'when we win the war', he spoke of the day he would 'come home'. Loyalty to their constitutional monarch provided the focus for the Norwegian resistance.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Движение Талибан признано в России террористической организацией.
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How America Created the Enemy It Feared Most
The United States killed its own allies, sabotaging itself in a part of Afghanistan where it never needed to be.
Mullah Osman Jawhari at his home in Waygal, in Nuristan Province in Afghanistan.Credit.
The Taliban war hero scans the crowd, searching. From the back, he snatches a man with a flop of dusty hair and a face marred by shrapnel.
The man’s head is bowed, and he is missing an arm and an eye. Something has happened to him, something awful.
“This,” the Taliban commander says, shaking the man a bit too hard, “was the last ally of the Americans here.”
In this remote province, the commander carried out one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, a pitched battle that sounded an early warning of a conflict terribly off course and altered the history of the war.
Now, years after the Americans abandoned this valley, and Afghanistan altogether, the commander jerks the man from the crowd to explain how the United States lost both.
Clutching the empty arm of his jacket, the commander spins him around like a marionette. The man’s sheared limb and ragged scars tell only half the story: His family was killed next to him, massacred as they fled the Taliban.
“This man was my sworn enemy,” said the Taliban commander, Mullah Osman Jawhari.
“But do you know who did this to him?” the commander asks, a garish smile spreading over his face.
“It was his friends, the Americans.”
Turning Allies into Enemies [/i]
When the war in Afghanistan began, there were almost no Taliban here, just a couple of bearded misfits the locals laughed at.
Then U.S. forces showed up, and this valley in Nuristan Province, surrounded by mountains of alpine forest, became the site of some of the most violent attacks on American soldiers since Vietnam.
Historians, journalists and military officials have spent years trying to understand how the Americans lost the valley. Army investigators devoted hundreds of pages to the failures that allowed more than 150 insurgents to nearly overrun a nascent American base in the tiny village of Want in July of 2008, killing nine U.S. soldiers and injuring more than two dozen others.
By The New York Times
The battle, waged by one of the most heavily decorated battalions in more than half a century, was “as remarkable as any small unit action in American military history,” said one investigator. Still, he blamed the officers for being caught off guard, while another investigator exonerated them, asserting that casualties were the cost of war.
Almost as soon as the United States withdrew, it largely washed its hands of Afghanistan. When former President Donald J. Trump returns to office in January, he will be the first president in a quarter-century who won’t be waging the war. To the contrary, he has used it as a political cudgel to blame President Biden for its chaotic end, despite setting the U.S. withdrawal in motion himself during his first term.
Four presidents and more than $2 trillion were consumed by America’s longest war. Yet the United States has never fully grappled with how it lost its way in Afghanistan, including the glaring intelligence failures that plagued the entire war effort.
The official inquiries into the battle of Want never answered the one question that no military could afford to ignore: How did a valley once free of Taliban become such a hotbed of insurgents? Or, put another way, why did so many of the people who welcomed the Americans suddenly want to kill them?
For more than a year, The New York Times visited villages in the once-inaccessible Waygal Valley, asking locals, Taliban officials and former fighters on both sides of the war for the answer.
Waygal, a large village deep in the Waygal valley, that American forces were never able to reach during their campaign in Nuristan.
By all accounts, the Americans virtually ensured their own defeat: They repeatedly bombed their closest supporters here, showing just how little the United States understood about the war it was fighting.
Civilian casualties are tragically common in war, in Afghanistan or anywhere else. But these attacks were different, residents here say. The Americans killed and maimed the very people who supported them most, swelling the Taliban’s ranks by turning allies into enemies.
Convinced that Nuristan would become a transport hub and hide-out for Al Qaeda and its allies, the Americans built bases and aggressively patrolled an area that, for the better part of a century, had been granted autonomy from its own government.
Nuristan was never destined to be a focal point of the war on terror. It is isolated, even by the standards of Afghanistan, a landscape of sheer mountain ridges, snow-capped peaks and river gorges, as beautiful as it is unforgiving.
The British mostly steered clear of the area in their doomed forays into Afghanistan that began in the 1800s. The Russians, in their own failed bid more than a century later, barely entered. Even the Taliban avoided it during their rule in the 1990s.
Only the Americans dared to encroach into the region, and in doing so created the very insurgent stronghold they feared most.
The United States dropped more than 1,000 bombs in a place it never needed to be. Instead of winning hearts and minds, the Americans unwittingly sowed the seeds of their own demise here in the Waygal Valley — just as it did in much of Afghanistan — then stayed for years to reap the harvest.
“You have to know when you are the problem,” said retired Col. William Ostlund, the commanding officer of the men who fought the battle in Want (sometimes referred to as Wanat).
Col. William Ostlund near his home in Erie, Colo.
“We talk about lessons learned but we continuously relearn the lessons learned, and who pays for it?” he asked. “Our young men, who we put in harm’s way.”
For the Taliban, the battle of Want punctured the myth of American invincibility, proving that hardened resolve could overcome even the greatest superpower.
But there is another lesson, too, whether or not the Americans ever fully learned it: the consequences of trampling blindly into a valley they badly misread.
Today, in an odd echo of history, the Taliban appear to be making some of the same mistakes. They are threatening the valley’s independence and risk squandering the good will of its people, much as the Americans did.
[b] War Diaries
The school notebooks sit in bags scattered through the house, their bright jackets like tiny fragments of sky. They are part of Mullah Osman’s war menagerie, collected over two decades of conflict: compasses, rusted swords, duct-taped rifle cartridges — and dozens of light-blue Unicef notebooks.
Inside are the intimate details of his operations, battle plans and budgets: how many men, guns and bullets he assigned to each task. Along the margins are bits of poetry and hand-drawn roses, doodled in the idle hours of war.
This is a history known only to him, the war diaries of a famed Taliban commander.
Clockwise, from top left: a sword Mullah Osman says was used to execute spies over the 20 years of fighting the Americans and their proxy forces in Nuristan; a Chinese-made mortar sight; a children’s Unicef notebook used by Mullah Osman to plan the 2008 battle of Want; a small handheld radio used to listen to news; a suppressor used in battle and a rifle scope given to Mullah Osman by Taliban leadership.
Tall and rangy with a slender build, Mullah Osman has deep-set eyes and a purple scar above his cheek from a sledding accident, of all things.
Chased for years by the Americans, Mullah Osman vanished not long after the war ended. I tracked him down in his native village of Waygal, in his home of hewed wood and river stone, perched on the edge of a cascading river.
As he flips through the notebooks, he stops on a dog-eared copy: The Battle of Want.
Inside are maps and detailed renderings of the valley and routes into Want, mountain passes where his men smuggled weapons to avoid drone detection. The homes of allies and enemies are marked with Xs; looping arrows sweep up and down the page.
Sensing our interest, Mullah Osman shakes his head. The battle of Want did not start here, he says, pressing the torn cover between his thumb and forefinger.
“It began many years before.”
Mullah Osman in a cemetery near his home in Waygal. The headstones painted white mark the graves of Taliban fighters who died in combat during the war.
A trail of fire and smoke
The early days brimmed with optimism.
Nobody wanted the backward vision of the Taliban, not when the Americans were offering a bright and shining alternative.
The United States had just knocked the Taliban out of power, and Al Qaeda was on the run. The United States had a small presence in Afghanistan, with limited operations mostly focused on tracking down Osama bin Laden.
It wasn’t until 2003, the same year that the Pentagon optimistically declared an end to “major combat” in Afghanistan, that Americans even entered the Waygal Valley looking for Al Qaeda — and were received with open arms.
During an early patrol in the area, an American soldier fell from the side of the mountain, cascading down a stony chute. Villagers recall bringing him to the home of a local elder, where he was cared for until the Americans could retrieve him.
“The people didn’t care that he was an American,” Mullah Osman recalled. “They just wanted to help him.”
Mullah Osman had no way of convincing them that the Americans were the enemy. He had not been interested in the Taliban, either, until the war began, an affront he said he could not ignore.
His father and uncles had fought the Russians for the same reason. Back then, he was a boy, studying in a madrasa and intent on becoming an Islamic scholar. After the Soviets withdrew, setting off a civil war, Mullah Osman appreciated the Taliban for putting an end to the fighting. But he had no desire to join them until the Americans invaded his country.
At first, almost none of his neighbors understood his outrage. Then, a series of airstrikes hit the valley, changing it forever.
The central market in Waygal, Nuristan.
In October 2003, the C.I.A. launched an attack against a suspected terrorist in a mountaintop village, sending a trail of fire and smoke into the ink black sky.
Gunships strafed the forests where residents had run for safety. A cluster of wood-frame homes and a mosque were decimated; seven people were killed, some while fleeing.
The Americans declared the strike a success, a refrain that would become so common it would lose meaning.
In reality, the attacks had failed. Not only was their target not there, but the homes and mosque they struck belonged to a staunch American ally, a former governor of Nuristan named Mawlawi Ghulam Rabbani.
Mr. Rabbani’s political party, Jamiat-e-Islami, detested the Taliban — so much so that it had partnered with the Americans to overthrow them. In fact, that very night, Mr. Rabbani was in Kabul as part of a delegation of pro-American forces.
The only people sheltering in the mountainside home were his family and friends. Of the seven killed, most were women and children, and they included Mr. Rabbani’s son and daughter.
Abdullah Rabbani, photographed at the district governors office in Wanat, Nuristan. His family’s home was destroyed in an American airstrike.
These were the early days of war, before civilian deaths from airstrikes became a flashpoint in U.S.-Afghan relations. When U.S. forces came to investigate the damage, one of Mr. Rabbani’s surviving sons was there, wandering the scorched hillside, looking for remains.
“They acted like it never happened,” the son said recently from the family home. The remnants of the airstrikes still mar the landscape today.
For the rest of his life, the elder Mr. Rabbani would carry the trauma of supporting the very people who had robbed him of his family. Overwhelmed with grief, he would ask anyone he met what his family might have done to deserve such a cruel end.
Though the attack barely resonated in Kabul, much less in Washington, it changed the dynamic in the Waygal Valley. If people were not yet ready to give up on the Americans, they no longer saw them as infallible liberators. A creeping sense of resentment, and injustice, opened a crack for the Taliban’s message to grow.
Before the attack, Mullah Osman and Mr. Rabbani had been enemies, the spokesmen for opposing visions of their country’s future. But at the funeral for the Rabbani family, Mullah Osman showed up to pay his respects.
He prayed with the family in the smoldering remains of their former mosque. Touched by his outreach, the surviving children gifted him a two-way radio — a means of communicating across the valley.
“Up to that point, the area was very peaceful. It was safe for everyone, even the American military,” Mullah Osman said.
“But after the attack on the Rabbani family,” he said, “the Taliban took over. And the uprising began.”
Mullah Osman, photographed on the hills above his home in Waygal.
‘Worse than the Americans’
Young men came out to join Mullah Osman’s anemic ranks, driven by bitterness over the Rabbani killings.
Not that the Americans noticed. For the next three years, they largely left Nuristan alone, distracted by the fighting elsewhere in Afghanistan and by the new war in Iraq.
The Americans returned in 2006, convinced that Al Qaeda and its allies were sheltering in the mountains, but the valley had already been transformed. The Taliban was no longer a sideshow.
The Americans started building bases in the valley, giving Mullah Osman exactly what he wanted — a chance to prove that, whatever development the Americans promised, they would bring death.
And they did. In their search for Al Qaeda, they detained farmers and shepherds, dropped enough bombs to level a mountain and killed innocents, including a vehicle full of teenagers who failed to stop at a checkpoint.
With public outrage growing, Mullah Osman’s popularity soared. He took more risks, ambushing foot patrols and lacing the dirt roads with explosives. With each skirmish, he spotted the tendencies and the vulnerabilities of the Americans.
Still, not everyone opposed the Americans. One family in particular stood out as the United States’ greatest proponents — and beneficiaries.
From the moment the Americans arrived, Rafiullah Arif’s family embraced them, much as the Rabbanis once had. The family leased the Americans land to build a base, and even offered their sons to assist with security, logistics, whatever needed doing.
Rafiullah, tall with a thick mop of black hair, became a loyal fixer for the Americans, helping with transport and supply and, at least according to Mullah Osman, intelligence gathering.
Rafiullah, left, during an interview with The New York Times at his home on the knoll overlooking the former U.S. base at Bella.
“These guys were worse than the Americans,” Mullah Osman said. “The Americans came for bin Laden, for Al Qaeda. But our own people? What reason did they have?”
Mullah Osman and Rafiullah became sworn enemies in a high-stakes game of local politics with global implications. The more the Americans alienated the people of the Waygal Valley, the closer they grew to the Taliban.
And the closer the locals grew to Mullah Osman, the more the Americans needed allies like Rafiullah.
Self Defeat
Colonel Ostlund arrived in Nuristan in 2007, inheriting the growing hostility toward the United States and the wild, impractical placement of the American bases. He marveled at their remoteness, and how little sense they made.
They had to be resupplied by helicopter in stark ravines where insurgents could fire at them freely and the weather could change in a flash. He worried constantly that a Taliban rocket would down a helicopter loaded with his men.
The mountains ran in excess of 10,000 feet, erupting from the river with such suddenness they nearly eclipsed the sky.
Soaring peaks overlook the former site of the American base at Bella.
Though Colonel Ostlund and his men had come to fight, they had no desire to do so at such a staggering disadvantage.
By then, Mullah Osman had far more men at his disposal. He organized them in teams of 10, with an imam, a team leader, a spotter with binoculars, a radio man, a gunner — and a cameraman to record every ambush.
He studied each battle, reviewing the tapes like a football coach. The videos became the centerpiece of his propaganda campaign, shared widely over mobile phones and on social media, evidence of the Taliban’s effectiveness against the United States.
But Mullah Osman wanted to do more — he wanted to overrun an American base and kill everyone inside.
And he almost did.
Nearly one year before the battle of Want, the Taliban stormed a separate base, in August 2007. Mullah Osman’s fighters got so close to overrunning it that the Americans had to fight hand-to-hand until air support arrived — so close that the pilots were forced to bomb the base itself.
Mullah Osman was injured by a grenade in the attack, but no Americans died. Still, the point was clear: The Taliban controlled the valley, and the Americans were on borrowed time.
Mullah Osman ambushed them again about a month later, positioning his men along the foot paths carved into the stony, vertical hillsides. Six Americans were killed, including a platoon leader, a devastating precursor of the violence to come.
By any metric, the sheer amount of combat waged and endured by Colonel Ostlund’s men, from the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, was extraordinary. One of the Americans Mullah Osman ambushed, Kyle J. White, was awarded the Medal of Honor.
A ravine near Aranas, where American forces were ambushed by Taliban fighters as they patrolled along a narrow trail.
In their 15-month tour, Colonel Ostlund’s men launched more mortars, dropped more bombs and engaged in more firefights in Nuristan and a neighboring province than almost any other unit of the entire war, according to Wesley Morgan, whose book, “The Hardest Place,” chronicles the war in the Waygal and surrounding valleys.
But that violence only cemented the population’s hostility toward the Americans — and the growing popularity of the Taliban. Which left the Americans in a curious quagmire: The more they fought, the more violent things became.
“We didn’t have an understanding of the people, the culture,” Colonel Ostland said. “We didn’t really work with people or apologize for the bad things that happened. We got better at that, but it was too late.”
The Americans eventually consolidated forces to their base on Rafiullah’s family land, in village called Bella, but the Taliban followed. Mullah Osman began launching daily attacks there.
The former site of the American combat outpost at Bella. The remote outpost, located at the bottom of a fishbowl of towering peaks, and under constant attack while it was occupied, was laid siege to by the Taliban in 2008 in the days preceding the pivotal battle at Want.
Colonel Ostland was fed up. He wanted to shift his forces to the village of Want, at the mouth of the valley, where it would be easier to defend themselves. He had spent months negotiating with village elders to buy land there and by July of 2008 finally had permission.
But in their haste to leave, the Americans had missed something fundamental: There was nowhere safe for them in the Waygal Valley anymore.
The Last American Ally
Perhaps the only person who stuck by the Americans was Rafiullah.
But his loyalty was growing untenable, and even the money his family was getting increasingly wasn’t worth it. Rafiullah and his family couldn’t even go to their local market without worrying that Mullah Osman’s men would kill them. Now, with the Americans preparing to leave his village, he and his family would be completely unprotected.
The Americans were coming under mortar fire for the second day in a row. Rafiullah and his family decided to leave for good.
They packed up their belongings and fled in a pair of trucks with other civilians, including several doctors who worked at the local clinic.
The fleeing vehicles caught the eye of the Americans, who mistakenly believed the Taliban were marshaling forces for another attack.
U.S. officers called in an airstrike, sending a hail of gunfire from two Apache helicopters at the convoy, destroying them and nearly everyone inside.
Rafiullah lost his father, mother, brother and nephew, along with his arm, an eye and any semblance of support for the U.S. war in Afghanistan.
The Americans, once again, declared the strike a success.
Rafiullah during an interview with The New York Times at his home on the knoll overlooking the former U.S. base at Bella.
The Battle of Want
Mullah Osman and his men, exhausted from weeks of fighting, retired to the mountains. Under the canopy of a giant tree, Mullah Osman ordered them to go home. They needed rest.
One of his lieutenants objected. The Americans were exposed, and vulnerable.
Why not press the advantage, the lieutenant asked?
After all, the Taliban had fresh manpower — the Americans themselves had taken care of that. The deaths of Rafiullah’s family and the doctors in the convoy had inspired yet another wave of Taliban recruits.
Mullah Osman decided to seize the opportunity. Winning, he had come to believe, was all about the first five minutes.
The mortar pit and ammunition bunker at the former American base in Want.
He knew that the Americans expected brief, hit-and-run attacks. But this time would be different. The Taliban would stand and fight, pressing their advantage in the minutes it took for the Americans to rouse their defense.
In those five minutes, he believed, the entire battle could be won or lost.
Mullah Osman called on more than 150 men from nine villages to prepare. They borrowed weapons from the Taliban in other areas, but also from the local villagers, who were happy to empty their armories for the cause.
To get heavy weapons to Want undetected, they broke down .50-caliber antiaircraft guns, smuggled them over the mountains and reassembled them on hillside perches.
“Want is like a bowl,” Mullah Osman explained. On nearly every side, a severe mountain rises from the valley, like a stone amphitheater. “From up there, I could have thrown rocks at the Americans.”
The insurgents took their positions at night, roving like ghosts over the narrow footpaths, up and down near-vertical inclines, lugging hundreds of pounds of weaponry on a grueling route that avoided the single road through the valley, which they knew would be monitored by the Americans.
Mullah Osman planted men on the rooftops of buildings just a few yards from the base. He even placed some fighters in trees.
Gunmen lay in wait at the base of the mountains, beneath conifers that offered cover from drones and satellites, and held their positions.
Just after 4 a.m. on July 13, the American soldiers at Want were preparing for a morning patrol when they spotted movement.
The crack of machine gun fire filled the valley as Taliban fighters unloaded magazine after magazine. The whistle and boom of rocket-propelled grenades followed from three directions.
From a boulder balanced in repose on the mountainside, Mullah Osman radioed his men to sustain the attack — to commit to the five minutes — because it might be all they had.
He targeted the heavy weapons first: a wire-guided missile system atop a Humvee, which burned like a pyre for the rest of the battle, and a munitions stockpile, which exploded into fiery debris.
Bullets pierced the base from every side. The volume of gunfire stunned the Americans, as did the intimacy of the battle. Opposing fighters were positioned so close they could see one another’s faces.
The most withering attack was levied against an American outpost called Topside, set on the hillside above the base. It had been hastily assembled in the days prior, and gave up high ground to the north and west. While most of the Americans were on the main base, only nine men were stationed at Topside.
The first volley was ferocious and accurate, killing, wounding or stunning every man at Topside. And that was just the start. With every wave of grenades and gunfire, the insurgents pressed closer, charging within yards of the outpost.
Realizing the plight of the men at Topside, an American lieutenant and a medic left the main base to help. They rushed through the village and up the hill as gunfire chased them.
The rescue was short-lived. Not long after they entered the outpost, at least one Taliban fighter breached the perimeter, opened fire and killed them both. Eight of the nine Americans who died that day lost their lives at Topside.
Copies of 26 dog tags of soldiers who fell in combat while under Col. Ostlund’s command during his deployment to Nuristan and Kunar. Sixteen of the fallen were in the Waygal Valley, including nine at the battle of Want.
An hour into the fight, Apache helicopters came to the Americans’ aid. Not long after, planes arrived, along with reinforcements on the ground, shifting the battle decisively.
It is unclear how many Taliban died that day. Mullah Osman claims only three, which is almost certainly a gross understatement. American accounts detail numerous Taliban killed.
Whatever the number, it was a price Mullah Osman and his men were willing to pay.
“In Want, we decided to make a stand against the Americans,” the Taliban district governor of Want recalled. “Either kill us, or leave us in peace.”
The Americans, for their part, considered the battle of Want a tactical victory. The Taliban retreated, and the soldiers defended their base against a force many times larger than their own.
But a day later, the Americans left Want.
American Retaliation
The American withdrawal was not the final word on Want.
A series of raids and airstrikes followed the American departure. Residents described finding pieces of their children strewn on broken tree limbs.
“Who could commit such cruelty to a man?” one of them said, speaking in little more than a whisper.
Today, the landscape remains a ruin: trees splintered or sparsely regrown, homes cobbled together from the ruins, residents trapped in a trauma loop, as broken as their surroundings.
Haji Ramadan outside his home, which was destroyed in an American airstrike after the battle of Want.
No one understands that better than Rafiullah.
After the attack on his family, Rafiullah fled the province. But when the Americans withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, he returned home.
The Taliban had claimed power, and granted a nationwide amnesty to their former enemies. They had even returned the land that his family had given the Americans for their base.
Though the Taliban spared his life, it is a half-life, the life of an outcast.
He bites his tongue about the new government; he still fears them. As the Taliban lingered nearby, monitoring his words, he focused his ire on the Americans.
“They say they came here to help us, but they wound up killing us,” he said, squinting into the sun with his good eye. “We supported their mission, and they betrayed us.”
Peace, and Taxes
The central bazaar buzzes with the sound of new construction, the scrape of concrete and sawing of timber as men huddle on rooftops, planning expansions.
“You can go anywhere in this country and no one will harm you,” Mullah Osman brags, sweeping his arm over the village of Want. “Now, the only people complaining are the coffin makers.”
At a newly opened stall selling soup by the market, the proprietor screws his face. Yes, he allows, selling soup in Want was not a viable business before the Americans left in 2021. But it’s hardly viable now.
“It’s safer now, but no one has money these days,” he whispers.
Construction workers laid bricks on the second floor of a new market center overlooking the former U.S. base in Want.
Driving out of the village, Mullah Osman stops his convoy at a mosque that hovers perilously over the roaring waters of the Waygal River.
It is prayer time, and others making the journey into the valley join to perform the midday ritual. A Toyota Corolla, out of place for the rugged terrain, pulls in behind him. Three men pile out, dressed in starched clothing and shiny dress shoes typical of a Kabul bureaucrat.
Though the Taliban has changed the upper ranks of government, it still relies heavily on the past government’s work force. These particular visitors are from the department of finance.
Mullah Osman stares at the men and asks them what they are doing in Waygal.
“We are registering businesses,” one of them responds.
There aren’t many: a few roadside shacks selling dusty rolls of cookies and satchels of green tea, a few shepherds with flocks of marble-eyed goats.
Residents of the Waygal valley praying alongside the river.
The visitors could only mean one thing: taxation. And that would spell the end of a 100-year-old pact to leave the Waygal Valley alone.
Mullah Osman grimaces.
This was once known as Kafiristan, or the land of the nonbelievers. Its people practiced an ancient form of paganism and only converted to Islam in the 1890s, when the emir of Afghanistan conquered the territory and renamed it Nuristan, or the land of the light.
In that conquest, some regions converted peacefully, including the Waygal Valley, and were granted a special status by the emir. According to the locals, they were allowed to retain their resources in perpetuity — the land, water, minerals and timber. And they would be exempt from taxation.
Mullah Osman is loyal to the Taliban, but to Nuristan most of all.
“I would not support any effort to tax Nuristan,” he grumbles as the tax men drive away.
To his mind, he has already made enough concessions. When the new government came to power, they favored clerics over commanders, leaving the fighters who won the war jobless. Including Mullah Osman.
Members of a newly constituted Taliban police force assigned to the former American base in Want.
And then there is the amnesty.
For Mullah Osman, that has been both easy and impossible. His son-in-law was an Afghan Special Forces soldier in Kandahar, and still wears his uniform around Mullah Osman’s home. He is family, part of the messy and mysterious reconfiguration of alliances that often follows drawn-out conflicts in Afghanistan.
Mullah Osman has also forgiven the Americans, outsiders who never understood Afghanistan. Now that they are gone, so, too, is his enmity toward them.
But others are harder to forgive, like the Afghans who sided with the Americans in Nuristan, who took their money and supported their invasion. People he now must see every day, as though nothing happened.
People like Rafiullah.
Deeper into the valley, Mullah Osman walks through the remains of the American base in Bella, drawing a crowd of villagers as he lists the American atrocities they suffered.
The crowd nods in agreement, and then, suddenly, standing before us, is the last American ally in the valley, a walking casualty of war.
Forbidden from exacting revenge against Rafiullah, Mullah Osman grabs his sleeve and drags him like a prop — a living monument to American betrayal.
“You must meet my friend Rafiullah,” Mullah Osman says.
Turning on the People?
Mullah Osman sat on the matted floor of a Kandahar hotel, watching as a ceiling fan circulated the infernal summer air. He and other Nuristani elders had been granted a rare meeting with Afghanistan’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada.
They had spent weeks rehearsing what to say.
In the months before, the Taliban had formalized the decision to tax Nuristan, an invasive move given the history of the province.
Now, the government was preparing to go further: It had told the people of the valley that it was reclaiming their land, water and mineral rights — in short, their independence.
Mullah Osman and the others had come in a last-ditch effort to beg the government to reconsider.
“I think this is just a misunderstanding,” Mullah Osman said, sounding less optimistic than he wanted to. “We just need to explain.”
When the United States launched its doomed foray in the Waygal Valley, it fundamentally misunderstood the place. They built bases where they didn’t need to, killed allies and summoned a Taliban presence that had never existed in Nuristan.
Posters of Taliban fighters killed during the war hang on buildings throughout the village of Waygal, where U.S. forces were never able to reach.
It was hard not to wonder whether the Taliban was making a similar mistake now, turning on the very people who had brought them victory.
When Sheikh Haibatullah arrived, dressed in white robes, he joined the Nuristanis on the floor, according to Mullah Osman.
Mullah Osman recounted how he pushed the supreme leader on the fate of Nuristani land. Others chimed in about Nuristani sovereignty, and its history of resistance.
At the end of the meeting, Sheikh Haibatullah promised a written decree granting the land to the people of the Waygal Valley in perpetuity, Mullah Osman recalled. The delegation left elated.
The group returned to Nuristan and waited. And then waited some more. A month passed without a decree. And then many months.
Earlier this year, the Taliban asked him to become the district governor of Waygal, his home village. A return to where it all began.
It was a lesser role than the one he had during the war, but at least it was in Nuristan, the only place that really mattered to him.
“It is better than staying at home,” he said.
He has resumed working on a history of Nuristan that he was pondering before the war began — a chance to review the past and its lessons.
But he is still waiting for the supreme leader’s decree.
A solitary tree growing out of a large hesco barrier, repurposed as a planter, in Want, Nuristan.
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russians told not to travel to West as Putin could use new missile in ‘coming days’
Russia has urged its citizens not to travel to the West, especially the US, during the Christmas holidays.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the warning came “in the context of the increasing confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are teetering on the verge of rupture”.
The statement from the Russian foreign ministry, which referred to America “and its allied satellite states”, came after the Pentagon said Vladimir Putin could strike Ukraine again with its new intermediate-range ballistic missile in “the coming days”.
Vladimir Putin has claimed that the Oreshnik, or hazel tree, is impossible to intercept and that it has destructive power comparable to that of a nuclear weapon, even when fitted with a conventional warhead.
On the battlefield, “exceptionally fierce” fighting has erupted near the eastern city of Pokrovsk as Russian troops destroyed or captured several Ukrainian positions near the important strategic hub, Kyiv’s military said last night.
Russia is “throwing all available forces forward, attempting to break through our troops’ defences,” Ukraine’s top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said.
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Drama, savagery... and intimate confessions: Our vote for the best political blockbusters of the year that make rollicking Christmas reads
Post-Margaret Thatcher, no politician has so utterly and irredeemably divided opinion as Boris Johnson has. Love him or loathe him, two things about the man are undeniable. First, that he never does anything by halves – hence this memoir runs to nearly 800 pages and is longer than James Joyce's Ulysses. Second, that he is a fine writer, with a command of the English language that makes him a pleasure to read.
It's full of anecdote and analysis, intimate moments, revelation and confession. He tells it as he sees it – 'Keir Starmer would do his puzzled/irritable face, like a bullock having a thermometer unexpectedly shoved up its rectum' – and you can't help but snigger.
He denies charges of breaching lockdown rules – 'I saw no cake. I ate no blooming cake. If this was a party, it was the feeblest in the history of human festivity' – but admits a mistake in not stamping down on the gossip.
He is painfully honest about how close he came to death – 'lying in Intensive Care, banjaxed with Covid, I didn't want to sleep – in case I never woke up'. He is scathing about those in his party who, in the end, did in with him – 'Surely, I told myself, Tory MPs wouldn't be so dumb as to get rid of me? Surely not . . .'
This may not be political memoir in the sombre manner of grandiose predecessors like Harold Macmillan and Mrs T, but it is essential reading for understanding the drama of the past five years. And it's a lot of fun.
Love or loathe Boris Johnson, there is no denying that a politician has so utterly and irredeemably divided opinion as much as the former prime minister since Margaret Thatcher
Ten Years To Save The West
By Liz Truss (Biteback £10.99, 368pp)
Liz Truss was a woman on a mission. 'I am not one of those who think the job of politicians is to manage whatever consensus they find when they take office and go with the flow. The job of political leaders is to lead.'
She boldly set out to break the mould, but she was the one who ended up broken. Her mini-budget – full of maxi-proposals – backfired, the economy hiccupped and she was driven out after just 49 days in what she believes was a coup.
The tale of Liz Truss's devastating mini-Budget - that saw her tenure as PM last only 49 days - is discussed in her book Ten Years To Save The West
Truss didn't regret leaving the place she had quickly come to hate – it was soulless, flea-ridden, noisy, claustrophobic. But she did regret the lost opportunity to change the direction in which the country was going and steer it back to what she saw as proper Conservative values.
She blames the Tory Party for losing its way, opting for high-tax, interventionist government that expands the role of the state, that veers towards green dogma and wokery. 'Left-wing arguments are indulged by those who should be fighting them,' she writes.
She came to believe 'these people would rather a Labour government elected than a Conservative Party enact truly conservative policies. They were the enemy within.' If so, they got their wish.
Keir Starmer
By Tom Baldwin (William Collins £16.99, 496pp)
Author Tom Baldwin is a respected journalist and a self-confessed Labour sympathiser who was given exceptional access to Keir Starmer's background
Just who is Keir Starmer? Groundbreaking leader? Grandstanding student politician? Lefty lawyer? Honest man? Hypocrite? These are questions that – as he approaches six months as Prime Minister – many electors are still struggling with.
This meticulously researched and superbly written biography fills us in on the back story: the toolmaker dad, the sick but strong and influential mum, the climb up the social ladder via grammar school and Oxford, the barrister dedicated to human rights.
Author Tom Baldwin is a respected journalist and, as a former Labour apparatchik, a self-confessed sympathiser, who was given exceptional access to his subject – though the end product, we are assured, is neither 'authorised' nor 'approved'.
To be fair, the result is certainly no hagiography – it acknowledges flaws, criticisms and controversy. Ultimately, it gives Starmer the benefit of the doubt as a good guy.
But even Baldwin finds himself stumped at times: 'I like and trust Keir but sometimes find him hard to fathom.' He sees him as a creature of ambiguity, nuance and complexity, for whom 'there is always a but'. And yet also as a man 'driven by a ruthless determination, taking informed risks, and with an exceptional understanding of strategic purpose'.
Or is 'strategic' just a polite way of justifying the many U-turns and broken promises since July? On this, as he launches a reset on the reset, downgrading 'missions' to 'milestones', the jury is out.
Blue Ambition
By Michael Ashcroft (Biteback £20, 288pp)
Michael Ashcroft commends the latest Tory leader as fearless with 'an electric quality and an energy that most front-rank figures in Westminster do not possess'
As the latest leader of the Tory Party – the fifth in five years – Kemi Badenoch is already proving a ferocious opponent at Prime Minister's Questions, giving as good as she gets (and more) in face-offs with Sir Keir Starmer. But standing her ground against lefties is in her DNA.
As a student at Sussex University, being black and having come to this country from Nigeria as essentially an immigrant, she found that the ideologically-driven militants of the Marxist Society who dominated campus culture expected her to naturally be in their camp. They couldn't believe it when she refused to back their ban of Coca-Cola and the Daily Mail.
That's when she identified as a Tory, reacting against what she described as 'the spoiled, entitled, privileged, metropolitan elite-in-training'. Her early contempt for ignorant armchair activists who spouted Left-wing nonsense while having no knowledge of the real world would remain with her and influence her politics.
She was quickly identified by the Tories as someone with star potential and entered the Commons as an MP in 2017. Ministerial and Cabinet positions followed, a meteoric rise that has led to her being seen by some as the saviour of conservatism in Britain after this year's General Election rout.
She continues to reject the very concept of positive discrimination, challenging what she sees as the lazy pigeon-holing of black people by those on the Left. She maintains: 'Britain is the least racist country on earth'. Ashcroft commends her as fearless with 'an electric quality and an energy that most front-rank figures in Westminster do not possess'.
Making The Weather
By Vernon Bogdanor (Haus £22, 368pp)
This Vernon Bogdanor title is stimulating and controversial, identifying six politicians who, while they never made it to Downing Street, profoundly changed modern Britain
Don't be deceived by the title – this is not another treatise on climate change. It is a stimulating and controversial book identifying six politicians who, while they never made it to Downing Street, in the eyes of the eminent and always readable constitutional historian Professor Vernon Bogdanor, profoundly changed modern Britain with their beliefs.
Nye Bevan, Enoch Powell, Roy Jenkins, Keith Joseph, Tony Benn and now-MP Nigel Farage – they come from all parts of the political spectrum. What they have in common, what makes them special, he says, is that 'they all sought seriously to confront the problems facing Britain.
All were regarded as mavericks, but all have deeply influenced our lives and continue to do so' – whether it be Bevan's pioneering of the NHS, Joseph's devotion to a market economy as the guru of Thatcherism or Farage's campaign to detach us from Europe. Each one re-drew the political landscape and fundamentally changed the political weather (hence that title).
The analysis is never less than challenging, the judgments admirably nuanced but to the point.
The Red Emperor
By Michael Sheridan (Headline £25, 368pp)
Veteran foreign correspondent and China expert Michael Sheridan shines a light on premiere Xi Jinping's 37-year political tale
It took Xi Jinping 37 years to worm his way to the top. From local government, he gravitated to the national stage and, in 2012, aged 59, he emerged as the head of the Communist party.
The following year he became the supreme leader of China – arguably the most powerful leader in the world.
What is not generally known – but is revealed here by veteran foreign correspondent and China expert Michael Sheridan – is that he began at the top, the princeling son of one of Chairman Mao's closest allies, before a falling out sent the family tumbling into ruin and disgrace.
Fanatical Red Guards threatened him with execution, then paraded him on a stage while they screamed insults at him. Astonishingly, his own mother stood there chanting with them. He survived the ordeal of internal exile, rehabilitated himself and emerged from power struggles as nothing less than an emperor.
This outstanding book shows that, though China may have transformed from a poor agrarian society to a sophisticated modern state that can launch space probes, make vaccines, wage cyber war, run high-speed trains and build new cities, it has not outgrown its ancient tradition of bowing to emperors.
War
By Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster £25, 448pp)
Bob Woodward, though now in his 80s, has produced a definitive account of today's turbulent world
The world is in a perilous state, with conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine threatening a slide into war that could engulf us all. In these circumstances, there can be no better guide to how we got here than the most authoritative of journalists, Bob Woodward, who with Carl Bernstein exposed the scandal of Watergate and brought down crooked President Nixon.
Though now in his 80s, he has lost none of his thirst for truth, nor that 'Deep Throat' skill that gets the players who matter to open up to him.
With astonishing 'fly-on-the-wall' detail, we are led through Putin's lies, the White House missteps that failed to stop his invasion of Ukraine, the ratcheting up of arms and the chilling whispers of nuclear weaponry. And, if that isn't bad enough, then the Middle East ignites into a situation heading who knows where.
Woodward believes Joe Biden – urging restraint – did pretty well, not a widely held view.
In this uncertain world, the only thing we can be sure of is that Woodward's dispatch, however insightful, is only an interim one. This story, for good or ill, will run and run.
Goodbye To Russia
By Sarah Rainsford (Bloomsbury £22, 368pp)
As a BBC foreign correspondent reporting from Russia, Sarah Rainsford pens a telling account of Putin's assault on Ukraine
Rainsford is a familiar face as a BBC foreign correspondent reporting from Russia, a country she has been passionate about since her time as a student there. But this love affair went terribly wrong. She had high hopes for its future in the aftermath of communism, only to have a front-row seat as the ruthless, corrupt Putin regime relentlessly crushed all dissent.
Hers is a personal story – eloquently told – of trying to report the unvarnished truth and giving a voice to the persecuted band of dissenters while being harassed, threatened and blatantly lied to, culminating in her expulsion on the nonsense charge of being an enemy agent.
She has since become a witness to the evils played out in Ukraine, describing through gritted teeth the corpses piling up following Putin's invasion.
As for Russia itself, Rainsford admits: 'After almost a quarter of a century with Putin in charge, there is little left that does not seem tainted. I do hope, though, there will be another Russia one day – one that is comfortable enough in its own skin to leave others in peace.'
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Trump reveals how he really feels about Jill Biden after their 'loving' picture at Notre Dame goes viral
Donald Trump revealed how he really feels about Jill Biden after a photo of them chatting at the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral went viral.
The president-elected re-posted a picture of the first lady looking at him, along with a heart-eye emoji and the caption: 'Get you someone who looks at you like Jill looks at Trump.'
He added his own comment, writing: 'Jill was very nice. A great conversation! DJT.'
The internet went wild over a photo of the incoming president talking to the outgoing first lady at the ceremony in Paris last week. He is speaking and she is smiling - leading to online speculation of a friendship in the making.
Each arrived separately for the reopening ceremony but found themselves seated with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte.
The duo appeared to have a short conversation.
Donald Trump revealed his thoughts on that viral photo with Jill Biden
Many commented on the 'chemistry' they saw in the picture.
Former Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow said there was 'outright flirtation' between the two.
'I just want to go back inside the church for a minute, take a careful look at that. That wasn’t nice conversation, that was outright flirtation,' Kudlow, 77, told Fox News.
'That was almost heavy duty petting at the G7 level. I've been there and seen these things before,' said Kudlow, including an odd reference to the group of powerful democracies.
Trump, meanwhile, caused some controversy when he used that moment to tout a fragrance ad featuring himself and Jill Biden.
The 'Daily Show' Jon Stewart host railed against the president-elect for using the first lady to sell his women's perfume and men's cologne, which retail for $199 each.
'You f***king won!,' Stewart said Monday night in his monologue. 'You don't have to push merch anymore. I find it hard to believe I'm saying this, but it's beneath you.'
Trump posted a photo of himself and Biden chatting in the Notre Dame Cathedral during a ceremony for its reopening. He added the caption: 'A fragrance even your enemies can't resist' and linked to a webpage where the fragrance can be purchased.
Stewart had some thoughts on the matter.
'Trump was apparently traveling with his predecessor's wife, attending the opening of the Notre Dame Cathedral with Jill Biden,' Stewart said.
'It was a rare moment of conciliation. One that would have given this country hope had it not been immediately undermined by the returning president releasing an actual cologne ad belittling and sexualizing said moment.'
The internet went wild over the photo of Jill Biden smiling at Donald Trump
Jill Biden was at the event to represent President Joe Biden, who couldn't attend the ceremony due to a scheduling conflict. Trump was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron to attend.
An image of the two of them sitting solo went viral and Trump then used the moment in his sales pitch.
'Here are my new Trump Perfumes & Colognes! I call them Fight, Fight, Fight, because they represent us WINNING. Great Christmas gifts for the family. Go to gettrumpfragrances.com/. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!,' he posted on his Truth Social account.
Jill Biden has not publicly commented on the matter. The East Wing did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
Donald Trump is hawking several items on his website, including: $499 'Trump Won' sneakers, $100,000 watches, $299 'first lady' sneakers and other items.
He merchandised heavily during his presidential campaign and has continued to push items celebrating his win.
It's unclear if he will continue to pitch products when he moves into the White House on January 20th.
Four years ago, Trump handed over the reins of the family business to his sons Eric and Don Jr. But it's unknown if he'll make such a public separate during his second presidency.
resident Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden greet President-elect Donald Trump upon his arrival to the White House on Nov. 13, 2004
Saturday's ceremony at Notre Dame, taking place five years after the cathedral suffered a massive fire that toppled its spire, was not Biden and Trump's first post-election meeting.
The first lady joined President Joe Biden in welcoming Trump to the White House a few days after his November win.
She gave him a letter for Melania Trump, who had snubbed her invitation for tea.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
Kupimy "Strażników Nieba" z USA. Posłużą do stworzenia nowego rodzaju wojska
Polskie niebo będzie bezpieczniejsze. W czwartek, 12 grudnia, w siedzibie Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej podpisano umowę na zakup dla Wojska Polskiego dronów MQ-9B Sky Guardian. Umowa zawarły Agencją Uzbrojenia i amerykańska spółka General Atomics. W dużym stopniu powiększy to polskie (ubogie jak dotąd) zdolności rozpoznania i zwiadu. Ale będzie też kosztowne.
- Kilka miesięcy temu zapowiedziałem utworzenie wojsk dronowych. To się staje faktem - od 1 stycznia wojska dronowe już jako nie plan, ale jako realna część Wojska Polskiego zafunkcjonują - powiedział Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, zaznaczając, że budowa wojsk dronowych - we współpracy z USA - jest absolutnym priorytetem.
Inwestycje w wojska bezzałogowe jako klucz do polityki odstraszania i obrony. Ale trzeba sięgnąć do portfela
Szef Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej podkreślił również, że nie da się dzisiaj skutecznie prowadzić polityki odstraszania i obrony, nie inwestując w ten rodzaj wojsk.
Szef MON zaznaczył, że dron MQ-9B SkyGuardian może osiągnąć pułap 15 km, jego prędkość maksymalna około 480 km na godzinę, około 20 godzin lotu, który "ma na celu przede wszystkim działania rozpoznawcze, ale też uderzeniowe, jeżeli taka konieczność zajdzie".
- To jest najnowocześniejsza technologia, ona kosztuje, bo za kilka tego typu maszyn musimy zapłacić około 1,2 mld zł - 310 mln dolarów. To jest poważny wydatek, ale to jest sprzęt najwyższej jakości. Inwestujemy w najlepszy sprzęt - dodał.
Szef MON zapowiedział ponadto, że w ciągu kilkunastu dni do końca roku "prawie codziennie" będą podpisywane umowy, czasem - dodał - będzie to nie jedna a kilka umów. Dodał, że podpisanie kolejnej umowy będzie miało miejsce w piątek na lotnisku Okęcie w Warszawie, nie podał jednak szczegółów.
Najprawdopodobniej chodzi o modernizację naszych samolotów transportowych C-295 CASA.
SkyGuardian - dron rozpoznawczo-uderzeniowy. Zwiększy dozór przestrzeni powietrznej RP
MQ-9B SkyGuardian to amerykański powietrzny bezzałogowiec, produkowany przez firmę General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. Jego promień działania ponad 2,2 tys. km. Pułap maksymalny sięga nawet 15 km, a czas działania sięga 40 godzin. SkyGuardian jest unowocześnioną i bardziej zaawansowaną wersją drona MQ-9 Reaper, znanego choćby z czasów wojny w Afganistanie.
W stosunku do poprzedniej wersji MQ-9A Reaper zwiększona została rozpiętość skrzydeł, która teraz wynosi 24 m. Maszyna może przenosić ponad 2,15 tony (co jest zwiększeniem o ok. 400 kg w stosunku do Reapera) ładunku zewnętrznego na dziewięciu węzłach: ośmiu pod skrzydłami i jednym pod kadłubem.
MQ-9B to dron multifunkcjonalny.
Jego główne zadanie to przede wszystkim prowadzenie rozpoznanie obrazowego, radiolokacyjnego i radioelektronicznego celów na lądzie, morzu i w powietrzu
. Naprowadzenia z drona mogą być pomocne także dla artylerii, zarówno konwencjonalnej, jak i rakietowej.
Oczywiście może wykonywać również zadania uderzeniowe (a w pewnym zakresie także zwalczać cele powietrzne), czy wspierać operacje reagowania kryzysowego.
Portal Defence24 opisuje, że w wypadku zastosowania specjalnego zestawu SeaGuardian, przystosowanego do działań w warunkach morskich,
może on wykrywać i niszczyć mniejsze jednostki nawodne, wykrywać okręty podwodne czy patrolować wyznaczoną strefę
, co może wspomagać walkę z nielegalnym handlem, przemytem czy alarmować o zagrożeniach. Zwiększa to nasze możliwości, a pozwala na oszczędność w przypadku o wiele bardziej kosztownych lotów i działań załogowych.
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Poland to field unmanned MQ-9B SkyGuardian fleet from 2027
Poland is to replace its leased General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9A Reaper remotely piloted air systems via a contract for new MQ-9B SkyGuardians, Warsaw has announced.
Valuing the 12 December deal at around $310 million, Polish defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz says: “This is a significant expense, but we are investing in the highest quality equipment.
“The unmanned reconnaissance and strike system includes several MQ-9B SkyGuardian unmanned aerial platforms,” he says. “The delivery will be completed by the first quarter of 2027… however, we hope that it will happen earlier, which is what we are seeking from our proven partners.”
Kosiniak-Kamysz notes: “This is an investment in Polish security and co-operation with a strategic partner – the United States.”
Poland has operated leased MQ-9As since February 2023, under a deal valued at $70.6 million by General Atomics in late 2022. It is employing the type in the persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance role.
Other European NATO customers for the MQ-9B include Belgium and the UK.
Poland’s MQ-9B acquisition is its latest step in a major series of defence investments, which also include 96 Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, 48 Korea Aerospace Industries FA-50GF/PL light-attack aircraft and 32 Lockheed Martin F-35A stealth fighters.
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Польша купила американские беспилотные летательные аппараты MQ-9B SkyGuardian
Польские вооруженные силы через Агентство по вооружению подписали соглашение с американской компанией General Atomics, предметом которого является приобретение БПЛА MQ-9B SkyGuardian.
Подписание документов о закупке американских беспилотных летательных аппаратов состоялось 12 декабря.
Вышеупомянутое соглашение направлено на повышение возможностей армии Польши в области получения разведывательных данных на базе беспилотной разведывательно-ударной системы, включающей в себя несколько беспилотных авиационных платформ MQ-9B SKY GUARDIAN. Система MQ-9B заменит используемый сейчас на условиях лизинга беспилотный разведывательный комплекс MQ-9A REAPER, поставленный в феврале 2023 года,
Польша была заинтересована в приобретении последней версии системы с беспилотными летательными аппаратами MQ-9B, и, как мы узнаем из сегодняшних объявлений, именно это и произошло. MQ-9B, хотя внешне и не существенно отличается от своего старшего брата, характеризуется рядом существенных изменений с точки зрения своих возможностей. Первые из них — новые, более длинные, крылья, на которых размещены увеличенные топливные баки, обеспечивающие гораздо большую продолжительность полета машины. По сравнению с 25-27 часами у версии MQ-9A, версия B имеет продолжительность полета до 42 часов. Другие изменения включали предоставление БПЛА более свободной работы в гражданском воздушном пространстве (система TCAS) и в сложных погодных условиях (противообледенительная система и молниезащита).
Дополнительное оборудование и вооружение могут подвешиваться к 9 (а не 7, как у MQ-9A) узлам подвески. С польской точки зрения, подчеркивается в сообщении польских источников, важнейшим элементом дополнительного оборудования являются подвесные системы радиоэлектронной разведки (РЭР).
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US senator says mysterious drones spotted in New Jersey should be ‘shot down, if necessary’
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — A U.S. senator has called for mysterious drones spotted flying at night over sensitive areas in New Jersey and other parts of the Mid-Atlantic region to be “shot down, if necessary,” even as it remains unclear who owns the unmanned aircraft.
“We should be doing some very urgent intelligence analysis and take them out of the skies, especially if they’re flying over airports or military bases,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday, as concerns about the drones spread across Capitol Hill.
People in the New York region are also concerned that the drones may be sharing airspace with commercial airlines, he said, demanding more transparency from the Biden administration.
The White House said Thursday that a review of the reported sightings shows that many of them are actually manned aircraft being flown lawfully. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said there were no reported sightings in any restricted airspace. He said the U.S. Coast Guard has not uncovered any foreign involvement from coastal vessels.
“We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat, or have a foreign nexus,” Kirby said, echoing statements from the Pentagon and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh has said they are not U.S. military drones.
In a joint statement issued Thursday afternoon, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said they and their federal partners, in close coordination with the New Jersey State Police, “continue to deploy personnel and technology to investigate this situation and confirm whether the reported drone flights are actually drones or are instead manned aircraft or otherwise inaccurate sightings.”
The agencies said they have not corroborated any of the reported sightings with electronic detection, and that reviews of available images appear to show many of the reported drones are actually manned aircraft.
“There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space,” according to the statement.
The drones appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security.
The number of sightings has increased in recent days, though officials say many of the objects seen may have been planes rather than drones. It’s also possible that a single drone has been reported more than once.
The worry stems partly from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility, and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster.
In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to 6 feet (1.8 meters) in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights switched off.
Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use but are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
Most, but not all, of the drones spotted in New Jersey appeared to be larger than those typically used by hobbyists.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said he was frustrated by the lack of transparency, saying it could help spread fear and misinformation.
“We should know what’s going on over our skies,” he said Thursday.
John Duesler, president of the Pennsylvania Drone Association, said witnesses may be confused about what they are seeing, especially in the dark, and noted it’s hard to know the size of the drones or how close they might be.
“There are certainly big drones, such as agricultural drones, but typically they are not the type you see flying around in urban or suburban spaces,” Duesler said Thursday.
Duesler said the drones — and those flying them — likely cannot evade detection.
“They will leave a radio frequency footprint, they all leave a signature,” he said. “We will find out what kind of drones they were, who was flying them and where they were flying them.”
Fantasia, a Morris County Republican, was among several lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the sightings from the New York City area across New Jersey and westward into parts of Pennsylvania, including over Philadelphia. It is unknown at this time whether the sightings are related.
Duesler said the public wants to know what’s going on.
“I hope (the government agencies) will come out with more information about this to ease our fears. But this could just be the acts of rogue drone operators, it’s not an ‘invasion’ as some reports have called it,” Duesler said. “I am concerned about this it but not alarmed by it.”
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Experts reveal what mystery drones over New Jersey REALLY are... and why Americans should be terrified
Intelligence analysts have revealed why they believe Russia is behind the mysterious drones invading the skies over New Jersey.
US Army general Darryl Williams described a situation that mirrors what has unfolded at American/NATO bases across Europe that are known to supply arms to Ukraine.
And retired police lieutenant and intelligence analyst Tim McMillan told DailyMail.com that the descriptions of the UFOs in Jersey 'sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones' — secretive craft that fly in packs of three to five.
Lt McMillan and other experts have noted that the New Jersey sightings circled around Picatinny Arsenal, home of the US Army's CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with artillery ammunition.
These experts suggest that Russia could be carrying out an intelligence-gathering mission known as 'ferreting', meant to intentionally trigger and test their foreign rival's airspace defense procedures and response time.
Or Russia could simply be spying on allies of Ukraine who are aiding the fight against Russia's occupation of its southeastern regions, including Donetsk and Mariupol.
While experts could not rule out a theory that Iran was behind the attacks, argued by NJ Congressman Jeff Van Drew, but denied by the Pentagon, White House officials have long noted that Russia and Iran collaborate on military drone development.
'Russia has been very aggressive and reckless with its responses to Western support of Ukraine,' Lt McMillan told DailyMail.com. 'This isn't something I see discussed in US media, but it's well documented and openly discussed here in Europe.'
Sightings have been reported over a military base in Rockaway that supplies ammunition to Ukraine, which mirrors events reported in Germany just two months ago as well as acts of sabotage reported by retired US Army general Darryl Williams across Europe
The first New Jersey drone sightings appeared over the US Army's Picatinny Arsenal on November 18, but reports to varying levels of credibility have now spread to at least 12 counties throughout the Garden State.
Officials have received reports of craft flying of 'water reservoirs, electric transmission lines, rail stations, police departments, and military installations' in recent weeks, according to Florham Park, NJ Police Chief Joseph J Orlando.
But those earliest and most credible sightings above Picatinny, according to Lt McMillan, are most worth focusing on.
'Picatinny Arsenal,' as Lt McMillan told DailyMail.com, is 'home of the US Army's CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with 155mm artillery ammunition.'
Republican Rep Jeff Van Drew has claimed that Iran is behind the drones in New Jersey, telling reporters that the nation parked a 'mothership' off the East Coast.
But experts said the New Jersey sightings more accurately match the description of Russian drones known as 'Orlan-10.'
The Orlan-10 craft comes with 'standard positional lighting' — a red light on the left (port) wingtip, a green light on the right (starboard) wingtip, and white taillights, similar to the lights seen on ordinary aircraft and Jersey's 'mystery drones.'
Russia is suspected of flying several drones - including military UAVs like this Russian Orlan-10 (above) - over a nuclear power plant in Germany, state security officers said. The lights and shape of the Orlan-10 make it a possible candidate explaining the drones over New Jersey
Significantly, the fixed-wing mystery drones with red, white and green lights resemble craft witnessed over sensitive US military bases over the past several years
The brazen New Jersey night flights, as Lt McMillan explained, greatly resemble troubling drone flights above industrial parks surrounding Germany's Brunsbüttel harbor from this past August.
'Here in Germany, we've had similar drone incidents over military bases training and equipping Ukrainian troops,' Lt McMillan added, saying the ones in New Jersey 'sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones.'
The Russian craft fly in packs for three to five, similar to what has been reported in New Jersey.
At least one model contains optical and thermal vision cameras, but the Orlan-10 fleet's full capabilities are not well known publicly, despite a few crashes in Europe.
Packs of Orlan-10s, Lt McMillan noted, often come 'with each one running a different package like EW [electronic warfare] and data relays.'
The comment matches some reports in New Jersey, where one family in Morris County reported a drone that interfered with their car's dashboard clock.
Russia has roughly 11 different versions of the Orlan-10, which have been produced at a rate of nearly 1,000 per year since 2018, according to manufacturer Special Technology Center.
The drones can fly between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in the air for reconnaissance, but up to 20,000 feet if necessary.
This October, US Army General Darryl Williams, the departing head of US Army's Allied Land Command in Europe and Africa, accused Russia of using drone swarms to 'snoop' and 'cause mischief' in Germany and other similar activities across the Atlantic
Above, an Orlan-10 system being tested during the 'Slavic Brotherhood 2018 war games'
Above, an Orlan-10 system being tested during the 'Slavic Brotherhood 2018 war games'
Formerly a police investigator in Garden City, Georgia, Lt McMillan served as an intelligence analyst for a law firm before moving to Germany.
He has since become a prolific investigative reporter on military cases of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), including a spate of 'mystery drones' that plagued Sweden in 2022, curiously timed to its decision to 'deepening its partnership with NATO.'
In an article for The Debrief, a publication Lt McMillan co-founded, he described two possible reasons Russia might engage in such-less-than secret drone flights.
One was 'ferreting,' the military term for intentionally triggering and testing a foreign rival's airspace defenses.
A second, more unique to Russia is called 'reflexive control,' a psychological warfare tactic intended to influence the general public of a rival nation, for instance, to weaken popular support for their home government's military aid or policies abroad.
Speaking at a US Army event this past October, Jack Watling, a ground warfare expert with the Royal United Services Institute in London, corroborated the reports coming in that described Russian-backed, covert 'sabotage across Europe.'
'We have had Russian weapons fly through NATO airspace on their route to Ukraine multiple times,' Watling said, according to a report by Stars and Stripes.
According to one NJ local, this image depicts roughly nine of the unidentified drones flying in to the Garden State from the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday night, December 5
Above Picatinny Arsenal's Commanding Major General John Reim welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before a tour of the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant on Sept 2024. Picatinny's role supplying ammo to Ukraine may explain the mystery drones over NJ
On Tuesday, Congress asked an FBI assistant director with the bureau's Critical Incident Response Group, Robert Wheeler, if these drones posed a threat to public safety.
'There is nothing that is known that would lead me to say that,' Wheeler told Congress, 'but we just don't know. And that's the concerning part.'
The Biden administration has also pushed back on claims by Republican lawmakers that the drones are being operated by any one of America's foreign adversaries — including claims that the flights originate from an Iranian 'mothership' offshore.
'No indication at this time that it's a foreign adversary or a foreign actor,' The White House's national security communications advisor John Kirby told NewsNation's Kellie Meyer. 'The FBI is looking at this. DOJ is looking at this.'
'I know the Department of Defense, when it affects or comes near a military base, they're looking at this,' Kirby added. 'In some cases, the investigation has led to a revelation that it's actually manned aircraft and not drones at all.'
The flying objects (example above) are larger than drones used by hobbyists, witnesses have noted, raising questions about their proximity to critical infrastructure and sensitive sites
Officials and residents have also seen drones that do not resemble fixed-wing aircraft (example above) deepening the mystery of the craft's origins and intent
'So, I can't tell you definitively exactly what we're talking about here,' he said. 'So each one is going to be a little bit different.'
In New Jersey, the drones' talent for evading their federal and local law enforcement pursuers has frustrated Governor Phil Murphy and government investigators alike.
'We're not getting good characteristics of the drone,' the head of the Ocean County, NJ Sheriffs Office drone unit, Sergeant Kevin Fennessy said.
And, in fact, NJ officials and residents have also seen drones that do not resemble fixed-wing aircraft deepening the mystery of the craft's origins and intent.
'We had one the other night that, as we're watching it, it just shuts the lights off and it's gone,' Sgt Fennessy told The New York Times, 'pure darkness.'
But the drone unit chief did tell the paper that he estimates that the mysterious drones are roughly double the size of the drones in his fleet: not too far from the Russian Orlan-10's max capacity of 33lbs as compared to most commercial drones used by law enforcement.
Ocean County Sheriff Michael Mastronardy told Asbury Park Press on Monday that his team estimates the invading drones are three to four feet long, although another law enforcement agency has reported one drone that was as large as eight feet long.
Despite federal and state officials' assurances, other local police, like the chief of police for the New Jersey borough of Florham Park, are convinced that the drones pose a serious threat.
'Their presence appears nefarious in nature,' Police Chief Orlando said.
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С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
RUSSIA retaliates. NATO wants your pension. RUSSIA & INDIA big oil deal. Israel prepares Iran strike
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Moscow HTS: Russia Bases Stay; IDF Mulls Iran Attack; Russia Strike Darkens Ukraine; Pokrovsk Crisis
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Und wieder einmal: Taurus! | Podcast Was tun, Herr General? | MDR
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Poland responds to a huge attack by Russia in Ukraine today.
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Nachgefragt: Die NATO vor großen Herausforderungen I Bundeswehr
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Иран | Израиль | Каринэ Геворгян, Александр Каргин, Кирилл Семёнов + Безруков, Караганов, Стефанович
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Честно про Сирию, скандал в Румынии и розовые надежды | Банарь/ БелТа
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Six ATACMS strike into Rostov region. EU 15th sanctions Russia shadow fleet. Iran drone mothership
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speech at Carnegie Europe event, 12 DEC 2024
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О подготовке ВСУ к наступлению на Курском и Белгородском направлениях
В последние несколько недель мы постоянно говорим о том, что все эти разговоры о грядущих переговорах, о имеющихся проблемах в рядах врага, о том, что Запад устал от конфликта, направлены на усыпление бдительности в преддверии украинского наступления.
Почему мы так считаем?
Некоторое время назад в Сумскую область, а конкретно – в Шостку, должна была прибыть многтысячные подкрепления противника, около 13 тысяч человек. Но эта группировка вдруг «растворилась». И нигде больше крупные подразделения не отмечались, что говорит о том, что они где-то в тылу.
В ноябре и декабре по всей Европе возросло количество кадров с переброской различной бронетехники на Украину. В Румынии видели американские «Брэдли», в Германии – шведские гусеничные бронетранспортеры, в Польше отмечались немецкие боевые машины пехоты и «Леопарды».
В Польшу несколько дней назад перелетели очередные три истребителя F-16 из Дании. Общее их количество варьируется от 24 до 34 по разным данным, то есть как минимум эскадрилья у украинских воздушных сил есть, но их фактически не используют, а берегут.
Ударов западными ракетами также не было давно. Один был недавно по Таганрогу шестью ATACMS, а еще дважды по 4-6 ракет «Атакмс»/Storm Shadow и SCALP была атакована Курская область, то есть расход был в небольших размерах. Запасы есть и они копятся.
Учитывая все это, ВСУ готовятся к атаке. И мы думаем, что основным направлением будет либо Белгородское, либо Курское. Сейчас эти регионы настигли холода, то есть почва будет твердой и удобной для передвижения бронетехники.
Drone expert explains what he thinks is behind drone sightings
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US senator says mysterious drones spotted in New Jersey should be 'shot down, if necessary'
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Mysterious drones reported in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland
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Drone sightings reported around the world | Morning in America
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News Wrap: White House says mysterious drones over New Jersey not a safety threat
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Hochul Launches Investigation Into Drone Sightings in New York
The governor made the announcement on Friday as sightings spread across New York and New Jersey. State and federal authorities said the flying objects posed no threat to the public.
What appear to be multiple drones flying over Bernardsville, N.J. Credit...Brian Glenn, via Associated Press
As reports of drone sightings continued to spread across New Jersey and New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York on Friday said she was investigating the matter with federal law enforcement agencies.
“At this time, there’s no evidence that these drones pose a public safety or national security threat,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement on social media.
A spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, said at a news conference on Thursday that federal investigators had been unable to corroborate reports of any unauthorized drones above New Jersey. Instead, he said that many of the reported sightings appeared to be “manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully.”
Mr. Kirby’s comments, and assurances from state and federal officials that there was no evidence of a threat to residents, have done little to allay public concerns about the spate of sightings.
Lawmakers in New York and New Jersey have called on the federal government to provide more information about the purported drones.
“The Biden administration has an obligation to the American people to figure out and tell us what is going on immediately,” Chris Smith, a Republican representative from New Jersey, said in a statement on Friday.
In a letter to President Biden that same day, Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey thanked the White House for looking into the issue, but added that it had “become apparent that more resources are needed to fully understand what is behind this activity.”
The sightings began in central New Jersey in mid-November after personnel inside the Picatinny Arsenal, an Army facility in Morris County, spotted what they said was a drone flying near the base. Days later, reports of the sightings began pouring into the New Jersey State Police, Mr. Murphy said in the letter.
The initial sightings were clustered in a few counties in central New Jersey, but the phenomenon quickly spread across the state, including to coastal counties in the south and to the Philadelphia suburbs.
In early December, drone sightings were reported in parts of New York City, first along Staten Island’s west shore, and then in southern Brooklyn, near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. On Thursday, sightings were reported in the Bronx and near LaGuardia Airport in Queens.
Residents in parts of upstate New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania have also reported mysterious sightings at night. On Friday, Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said on social media that he had personally seen “what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky” above his home in Davidsonville, Md.
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Marjorie Taylor Greene tears into 'full of crap' Pentagon for hiding the truth on ominous drones
Firebrand Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has accused the Pentagon of being 'full of crap' amid mystery drone sightings.
The unidentified objects have been hovering over New Jersey for nearly a month, yet the FBI and the Pentagon say they have no answers as to who is behind them.
Greene told DailyMail.com: 'I'm gonna call it total bulls*** that no one knows what these are. And I think it's a slap in the face to the American people to say they don't know what this is.'
She added: 'They can track down a guy that just killed a CEO, but they can't identify what these drones are and where they're coming from?'
'I think that is absolutely disgusting to lie to the American people like this, and the truth needs to be told about it.'
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have no idea who or what is behind the ominous objects flying over New Jersey, leading to outrage and speculation that the U.S. could be under attack.
One lawmaker, New Jersey Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew, suggested this week that the UAPs could be drones that connect to an off-shore 'mothership' being controlled by the Iranian government.
Pentagon spokeswomen Sabrina Singh quickly shot that down.
'There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States.' She added there is 'no evidence' that the UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) are 'the work of a foreign adversary.'
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told DailyMail.com that it is BS that the federal government does not know what is flying over New Jersey
So far the Pentagon has yet to identify what the UAPs are and who is behind them.
When reached for comment about the mysterious phenomena, a Pentagon spokesperson told DailyMai.com they have nothing to share.
'We don’t have anything new to provide from the DoD on this subject,' the spokesperson responded in an email.
During a congressional hearing earlier this week on Tuesday an FBI official admitted he was concerned about the vehicles.
When asked if U.S. citizens are 'at risk' because of the UAPs, FBI assistant director of the Critical Incident Response Group Robert Wheeler testified, 'There is nothing that is known that would lead me to say that, but we just don't know. And that's the concerning part.'
In a statement given to DailyMail.com, an FBI spokesperson this week suggested that the aircraft are not drones and instead are manned vehicles.
'Upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space,' they said.
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Why the US Military Can't Just Shoot Down the Mystery Drones
Small, easily weaponizable drones have become a feature of battlefields from the Middle East to Ukraine. Now the threat looms over the US homeland—and the Pentagon's ability to respond is limited.
A spectre is haunting the United States—the spectre of drone warfare.
Since the middle of November, unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles have lit up the skies above New Jersey, startling residents and baffling military and government officials. The US Army’s Picatinny Arsenal research and manufacturing facility in the state’s Morris County reported 11 confirmed instances of mysterious drones illegally entering its airspace since the middle of the month, while a dozen drones were spotted hovering over US Naval Weapons Station Earle in Monmouth County in early December. Similar sightings were reported in at least six other counties throughout the state; according to the Coast Guard, a group of drones even followed one of the service’s vessels “in close pursuit” near a state park.
The spate of drone sightings in the skies above New Jersey have caused alarm among state lawmakers, prompting one to call for a “limited state of emergency … until the public receives an explanation” regarding the source of the unidentified drones. One Republican US congressman even claimed the drones were originating from an Iranian “mothership” lurking off of the state’s coastline, an assertion the US Defense Department quickly batted down.
“As you know, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst possess [sic] capabilities to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems and have utilized this capability to address overflights of the installation,” New Jersey representative Chris Smith told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a December 10 letter. “I urgently request all capabilities possessed by the Department of Defense, especially those in use by JBMDL to be immediately deployed to identify and address the potential threats posed by [drones] over the state of New Jersey.”
Despite the growing chorus of concern from New Jersey lawmakers, the US military appears relatively unimpressed with the sudden incursions. In a December 11 statement, US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) revealed that the command had “conducted a deliberate analysis of the events, in consultation with other military organizations and interagency partners, and at this time we have not been requested to assist with these events.” The following day, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby stated that many of the alleged drone sightings that had alarmed civilian observers on the ground in recent weeks were, in fact, conventional manned aircraft. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security echoed this assessment in a statement on Thursday, saying, “it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space.”
Despite the growing chorus of concern from New Jersey lawmakers, the US military appears relatively unimpressed with the sudden incursions. In a December 11 statement, US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) revealed that the command had “conducted a deliberate analysis of the events, in consultation with other military organizations and interagency partners, and at this time we have not been requested to assist with these events.” The following day, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby stated that many of the alleged drone sightings that had alarmed civilian observers on the ground in recent weeks were, in fact, conventional manned aircraft. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security echoed this assessment in a statement on Thursday, saying, “it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space.”
“At this time, we have no evidence that these activities are coming from a foreign entity or the work of an adversary. We're going to continue to monitor what is happening,” deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Wednesday. “At no point were our installations threatened when this activity was occurring." (In an interesting confluence of events, the US Department of Justice that same day announced the arrest of a Chinese citizen for flying a drone over and taking photos of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.)
The alarm over the sudden drone incursions over New Jersey, neighboring New York and Pennsylvania, and near sensitive US government sites in particular, even if overblown, isn’t completely unwarranted: Officials at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)—the joint US-Canadian military organization tasked with overseeing air sovereignty on the continent—revealed in October that they had received reports of nearly 600 incursions above domestic US military installations since 2022.
The issue is, US law severely limits how the US military can respond to these mysterious drones—even if the number of incidents has been growing for years. Indeed, for several months earlier this year, unidentified drones repeatedly circled Plant 42 in California, the Edwards Air Force Base installation where defense contractor Northrop Grumman has been working on the Air Force’s vaunted new B-21 Raider stealth bombers. In December 2023, Langley Air Force Base in Virginia was targeted by a wave of mysterious drone overflights, prompting the Pentagon to relocate a contingent of F-22 Raptor fighter jets stationed there to another base. And the New Jersey incidents come on the heels of a mid-November series of drone incursions near RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, which, while not a US domestic installation, hosts a strategically-important contingent of American fighter jets, among other capabilities.
It appears that Pentagon assets in the continental United States have been subject to such drone activity as far back as 2019, when a fleet of US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers was shadowed by a swarm of drones for several days during maneuvers at a training range off the coast of southern California. Later that year, a series of mysterious drone sightings in eastern Colorado and western Nebraska and Kansas confounded not just local law enforcement and federal agencies, but alarmed Air Force officers at nearby F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, home to one of the Pentagon’s many Minuteman III ICBM fields.
These incidents aren’t limited to US military facilities. In October 2023, several drones were detected in the airspace above the US Energy Department’s Nevada National Security Site, which is used for nuclear research and development, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. And back in 2019, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona—the most powerful nuclear power plant in the United States—was subject to a series of mass drone incursions that Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials would later characterize as a “drone-a-palooza,” albeit with grave concern over the potential vulnerability exposed by the incursion, according to email correspondence obtained by The War Zone in 2020.
“I would point out that restricted airspace will do nothing to stop an adversarial attack and even the detection systems identified earlier in this email chain have limited success rates, and there is even lower likelihood that law enforcement will arrive quickly enough to actually engage with the pilots,” one senior NRC security official at Palo Verde wrote in an email regarding the incident. “We should be focusing our attention on getting Federal regulations and laws changed to allow sites to be defended and to identify engineering fixes that would mitigate an adversarial attack before there our [sic] licensed facilities become vulnerable.”
While unmanned aerial vehicles have been in military use for generations for surveillance and reconnaissance, the US military is largely responsible for transforming modern drones into vehicles of precision violence during the early years of the Global War on Terrorism, a policy especially expanded under US president Barack Obama. In more recent years, the rise of cheap, commercially-available unmanned platforms like those used by hobbyists has turned the small drone into the weapon of choice for both nation states and irregular forces abroad, from militant groups like ISIS In Iraq and Syria and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to the Russian and Ukrainian militaries. With a potential conflict with China over Taiwan looming on the horizon amid the US military’s pivot to “great power competition,” the Pentagon is itself in the midst of a major surge in both unmanned capabilities and technology to defend against weaponized drones belonging to foreign adversaries.
The US military has been slowly but surely adjusting to the sudden spike in mysterious drone incursions near sensitive sites across the United States with an expanded counter-drone strategy. In early December, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed the Pentagon’s new Strategy for Countering Unmanned Systems, which seeks to unify disparate DoD efforts to address the rise of drone threats both at home and abroad into a single coherent framework, one that implicitly acknowledges the potential for the rising tide of domestic drone threats to grow from intrusive surveillance risks to something more damaging.
“From the Middle East to Ukraine and across the globe—including in the US homeland—unmanned systems are reshaping tactics, techniques, and procedures; challenging established operational principles; and condensing military innovation cycles,” the unclassified fact sheet on the new Pentagon strategy states. “The relatively low-cost, widely available nature of these systems has, in effect, democratized precision strike.”
The Pentagon has been working overtime to field fresh counter-drone capabilities to US forces deployed overseas in recent years, including traditional firearms outfitted with computerized optics and remotely operated vehicle-mounted heavy weapons turrets, laser-guided rocket and missile systems, AI-assisted kinetic interceptors, radio frequency- and Global Positioning System-jamming electronic warfare suites, and even exotic directed energy weapons like high-energy lasers and high-powered microwaves, among others. As recently as late October, NORTHCOM was working in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration to demo fresh counter-drone tech as part of its Falcon Peak 2025 experiment at Fort Carson in Colorado.
“By all indications, [small unmanned aerial systems] will present a safety and security risk to military installations and other critical infrastructure for the foreseeable future,” NORTHCOM boss Air Force general Gregory Guillot told reporters at the time. “Mitigating those risks requires a dedicated effort across all federal departments and agencies, state, local, tribal and territorial communities, and Congress to further develop the capabilities, coordination and legal authorities necessary for detecting, tracking and addressing potential sUAS threats in the homeland.”
But US military officials also indicated to reporters that the types of counter-drone capabilities the Pentagon may be able to bring to bear for domestic defense may be limited to non-kinetic “soft kill” means like RF and GPS signal jamming and other relatively low-tech interception techniques like nets and “string streamers” due to legal constraints on the US military’s ability to engage with drones over American soil.
“The threat, and the need to counter these threats, is growing faster than the policies and procedures that [are] in place can keep up with,” as Guillot told reporters during the counter-drone experiment. “A lot of the tasks we have in the homeland, it’s a very sophisticated environment in that it’s complicated from a regulatory perspective. It’s a very civilianized environment. It’s not a war zone.”
Defense officials echoed this sentiment during the unveiling of the Pentagon’s new counter-drone strategy in early December.
“The homeland is a very different environment in that we have a lot of hobbyist drones here that are no threat at all, that are sort of congesting the environment,” a senior US official told reporters at the time. “At the same time, we have, from a statutory perspective and from an intelligence perspective, quite rightly, [a] more constrained environment in terms of our ability to act.”
The statute in question, according to defense officials, is a specific subsection of Title 10 of the US Code, which governs the US armed forces. The section, known as 130(i), encompasses military authorities regarding the “protection of certain facilities and assets from unmanned aircraft.” It gives US forces the authority to take “action” to defend against drones, including with measures to “disrupt control of the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft, without prior consent, including by disabling the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft by intercepting, interfering, or causing interference with wire, oral, electronic, or radio communications used to control the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft” and to “use reasonable force to disable, damage, or destroy the unmanned aircraft system or unmanned aircraft.”
As The War Zone points out, 130i limits when and where the US military can actually deploy counter-drone assets outside of immediate self-defense in the face of an imminent threat. Notably, it requires the defense secretary to “coordinate” with both the US transportation secretary and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator regarding any counter-drone implementation that “might affect aviation safety, civilian aviation and aerospace operations, aircraft airworthiness, or the use of airspace.” Not only that, but 130i authority is only applicable to a specific list of installations, mainly those dealing with nuclear deterrence and missile defense functions of the US national security apparatus.
This, in turn, limits what kinds of counter-drone systems the US military can actually employ domestically. Service members may be up to their eyes in fresh counter-drone tech overseas, but the regulatory environment at home is rigid enough that “hard kill” solutions like missiles, guns, and other kinetic interceptors aren't even considered potential options because there’s simply too much risk that they might end up inflicting collateral damage on innocent, unsuspecting civilians in nearby neighborhoods. Even “soft kill” solutions like RF and GPS jamming require coordination with the FAA and other federal agencies to prevent potential harm to civilian air travel, approvals that could slow down the reaction time among base security forces amid a potential drone incursion.
“Given the impact of GPS denial, just across infrastructure and all that stuff, it is a very, very difficult capability to get permissions to utilize,” as one official told The War Zone at Falcon Peak.
While the Pentagon’s broad new counter-drone strategy is a step in the right direction when it comes to bolstering domestic drone defenses, Congress is taking action as well. In the compromise version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act defense budget legislation unveiled in December, lawmakers included language calling upon the Pentagon to not just conduct an assessment of the counter-drone technology landscape at large, but generate recommendations on how policy changes could reduce the amount of burdensome bureaucratic coordination between federal agencies required to address the growing number of drone incursions—and, in an ideal world, allow the US military to move quickly and decisively to counter intrusive drones at sensitive installations before they become dangerous.
“We agree that US troops have the inherent right of self defense, including from [drone] attacks, wherever they may be,” the explanatory statement accompanying the compromise NDAA says.
At the moment, the Pentagon seems unconvinced that the Northeast drone sightings and earlier incursions are connected to a foreign adversary. But with lawmakers increasingly concerned with the potential threat to sensitive installations and critical infrastructure in their states, the US military’s renewed approach to counter-drone defense can’t come soon enough.
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The mystery drone swarms over British bases that could be a sign of an impending Russian attack - as alarm over New Jersey UFOs spreads across the globe
A British intelligence chief has warned Russian spies could soon launch a fresh wave of drones at military HQs across the UK in a bid to cause mayhem - amid alarm over sightings worldwide.
Last month saw a mysterious swarm of drones targeting three air bases used by the US Air Force, which triggered a scramble by British troops and police.
The unmanned aerial vehicles - or UAVs - were seen hovering over RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk, over several days, in a what defence sources described as a 'coordinated' operation.
Similar drone 'invasions' have taken place in New Jersey, America - with unknown aircraft circling the US Army's Picatinny Arsenal, home of the CCDC Armaments Center, which manufactures and supplies Ukraine with artillery ammunition.
Numerous 'car-sized' drones have been seen hovering throughout the state since mid-November, sometimes appearing in groups and often remaining in the same place for hours at a time. They have since spread to New York, Texas and Oklahoma.
Although those behind the mystery drone sightings have not been formally identified, intelligence analysts from both the US and UK have pointed the finger at Russian despot Vladimir Putin.
And, chillingly, a retired British spymaster has today said Kremlin intelligence services were potentially gearing up for a fresh wave of incursions into UK airspace.
Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence Colonel, said the sightings had 'all the hallmarks' of an operation by Russia's secretive GRU spy agency.
A swarm of drones is spotted over in New Jersey, America, which has alarmed US officials
Drones have been sighted at military bases in the UK and US. Pictured is one drone circling an American weapons base in New Jersey - which experts say is Russian
Drones were seen at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk last month. It's the home of the US Air Force's 48th Fighter Wing and has been earmarked as a storage facility for US nuclear warheads
'It's a distinct possibility if not a certain probability this is all down to Russian intelligence,' he said. 'They and the GRU are just a bunch of petulant little boys. They're trying to suggest they have the ability to disrupt and influence through a level of nuisance action.'
He added: 'I would say we will see another flurry of activity in the next few months for sure. Whether drones or something else, I suspect something else.'
Col Ingram said they could also be using the UAVs to test Western forces' responses and capabilities - and were potentially carrying out such operations to massage Russian tyrant Putin's bruised ego, after his failures in Ukraine.
He also claimed the drones were part of a wider spate of small, 'seemingly isolated' incidents which could be part of a larger coordinated test of disruption tactics.
It follows a series of suspicious incidents worldwide, which have seen hackers carrying out cyber attacks, underwater internet cables sabotaged and bomb scares triggering chaos at Gatwick and in central London.
In America, drone sightings have spread across the US at an alarming rate, with unknown craft hovering in the skies above New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Texas and Oklahoma.
The FBI and other agencies are investigating, but the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday: 'We have no more information as to where these drones are coming from, where they're launching from, where they're landing.'
There’s a pattern building up and from an intelligence perspective, I don’t like patterns,' Col Ingram added.
'Each one of these things in isolation won’t massively disrupt our way of life and none will potentially raise a big question mark but if you suddenly put them together and they all happen at once, then the level of disruption you could have could be really serious.'
And as it seeks to beef up its aerial defences, Britain this week unveiled its newest weapon in the war against drones - a high powered laser which is able to scorch the devices out of the sky in seconds.
The high-energy device, mounted on the roof of a Wolfhound armoured vehicle, was successfully tested at the Radnor Range in mid-Wales.
Soldiers from 16 Royal Artillery - an air defence regiment based near Portsmouth, Hampshire - were able to track and destroy hovering targets.
Meanwhile, in America, intelligence experts have also pointed the finger at the Kremlin as being the prime suspect for a series of drone incursions in New Jersey.
US Army General Darryl Williams described the situation that mirrors what has unfolded at American/Nato bases across Europe that are known to supply arms to Ukraine.
And retired police lieutenant and intelligence analyst Tim McMillan told DailyMail.com the descriptions of the UFOs in Jersey 'sound exactly like Russian Orlan-10 drones' — secretive craft that fly in packs of three to five.
Pictured is the damage caused to a drone by the British Army's new laser weapon
The high-power laser was tested by soldiers from 16 Regiment Royal Artillery in Wales
It can be mounted on the roof of a Wolfhound armoured vehicle (pictured)
Soldiers are seen inside the vehicle controlling the laser used to shoot down the drone
Lt McMillan and other experts have noted the New Jersey sightings circled around Picatinny Arsenal, home of the US Army's CCDC Armaments Center, which is responsible for manufacturing and supplying Ukraine with artillery ammunition.
These experts suggest that Russia could be carrying out an intelligence-gathering mission known as 'ferreting', meant to intentionally trigger and test their foreign rival's airspace defense procedures and response time.
Or the Kremlin could simply be spying on allies of Ukraine who are aiding the fight against Russia's occupation of its southeastern regions, including Donetsk and Mariupol.
While experts could not rule out a theory that Iran was behind the attacks, argued by NJ Congressman Jeff Van Drew, but denied by the Pentagon, White House officials have long noted that Russia and Iran collaborate on military drone development.
'Russia has been very aggressive and reckless with its responses to Western support of Ukraine,' Lt McMillan told DailyMail.com. 'This isn't something I see discussed in US media, but it's well documented and openly discussed here in Europe.'
If you could smell like any U.S. president, who would it be?
I’d probably avoid anyone from more than a century ago, because we’ve made huge strides in plumbing and access to running water since then, and antiperspirant technology has definitely evolved. I now see roll-ons advertising 72-hour protection. If you’re trusting and testing that promise, please stand at least six feet from me.
And I think Ronald Reagan has the olfactory edge over Richard Nixon. We humans excrete chemicals consistent with our emotions — hence the belief that our dogs can read our distress — and Reagan’s smiling confidence surely had a better bouquet (maybe myrrh and tonka bean) than Nixon’s twitchy resentment (I’m guessing cabbage soup and kerosene).
Before this week, such musings might have seemed off-topic. Now they’re on the nose. On Sunday, Donald Trump digressed from the painstaking policy development, careful vetting of potential staff members and high-minded diplomacy that consume so very much of his time to announce the release of a new line of Trump colognes and perfumes. And so we must wonder: Does the patchouli make the president? Must the leader of the free world also be the leader of the fragrant one?
Like Trump himself, Trump the scent is big on braggadocio, short on details and gaudily packaged. The Trump Fragrance site calls it the Fight Fight Fight Collection (all uppercase, no commas), which it says is for “Patriots Who Never Back Down” and is “Your Rallying Cry In A Bottle.” I’m tempted to order some just for the conversation: “Frank, what is that you’re wearing?” “Why, it’s a rallying cry!”
The site doesn’t say whether Fight Fight Fight men’s cologne and Fight Fight Fight women’s perfume are much different from each other. Or whether they’re different from Victory 47 men’s cologne and Victory 47 women’s perfume, both of which allude to Trump’s situation as the about-to-be 47th president of our odoriferous nation and come in bottles with golden Trump figurines standing tall, speciously chesty and suspiciously svelte atop their caps.
The site also offers little information about the fragrances’ top notes or debased notes — sorry, base notes — so whether you’ll wind up smelling like a Florida flower garden, a New Jersey pine forest or a Washington swamp is a mystery. Could be any of Trump’s habitats!
It’s mute as well about whether Trump spritzes himself with one of these elixirs, so while wearing it presumably means that you’ll pass nasal muster with the king of bluster, it may not match the man’s musk.
The price, however, is unambiguous: $199. That’s almost double an entry-point Hermès. But no French parfum is “curated to capture the essence of success and determination,” per the Trump Fragrance site. No Italian profumo is going to Make America Aromatic Again.
And only Fight Fight Fight and Victory 47 pay tribute to a plutocrat with an insatiable desire to monetize everything about his life in any way possible. To turn political supporters into paying customers and political support into a personal profit center. Not even the honor of the presidency and the dignity once expected of presidents can prevent Trump from presiding over what my Times colleague Katie Rogers aptly called “the churn of a conveyor belt spitting out one Trump product after another.”
I’d swap “spitting” for “belching.” And I’d add that the whole thing, well, reeks.
His products now include Trump acoustic guitars and Trump electric guitars, enabling, I suppose, the playing of Trump folk or Trump heavy metal. They include footwear, coins, crypto, a Trump Bible and “Save America,” a picture book with Trump’s alternate version of American history.
All of those follow in the greedy footsteps of Trump steaks (so you could sup like Trump), Trump ties (so you could swan like Trump) and “The Art of the Deal” (negotiate like Trump). Also Trump University (attain his erudition), which closed amid lawsuits accusing it of fraud. In the end, it had more metaphoric than pedagogical value.
Trump was an influencer before there were influencers. He was a brand before people commonly and crassly began to describe themselves that way. And from the beginning of his first presidential campaign to the present, the political arena has been, in many ways, an exercise in brand extension, a means to maximize his economic potential, a tool for complete cultural domination.
Much has been written about party affiliation as the new religion: You accept its edicts in return for an identity and a community. But party affiliation has also become a lifestyle. It’s where you vacation, what you eat and now, thanks to Trump, how you perform your toilette. If Kamala Harris is really smart about her endeavors on the far side of the vice presidency, she’ll slap her name on a hydrating face serum and de-puffing eye cream. For the Democrat recovering from the stress of 2024.
_________________
С интересом и понятными ожиданиями, Dimitriy.
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