Not really news but still pretty funny and I just heard about it for the first time.
A different kind of blowback:

Dust from the Sahara is being blown over to France, bringing with it radiation left over from French nuclear weapons tests from the 1960s.

Afghanistan: Taliban negotiate with USA

The Taliban, who rule Afghanistan, have negotiated with the USA about a prisoner exchange, as Taliban spokesman Sabihullah Mujahid told journalists in Kabul on Wednesday. Two US citizens are in custody in the country. They are to be exchanged for Afghans who are interned in the US prison camp at Guantanamo in Cuba. The talks took place on the sidelines of a recent summit with UN representatives and Afghanistan envoys from various countries in Qatar. Nothing is known about the results so far.

Balloons from North Korea disrupt air traffic

The balloons full of garbage that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been sending to South Korea for weeks are having an impact on air traffic. More than 110 flights have been disrupted by the balloon launches that have been going on since the end of March, said South Korean MP Jeong Jun Ho on Wednesday, citing the Ministry of Transport. More than 10,000 passengers were affected. The DPRK is using the balloons to respond to previous actions from South Korea in which propaganda material was also sent north in balloons.

I'd rather just shave it all off instead of having to know I look like this

But that won't do anything to the size of their voter base, it will only legitimise their ideas even more and will draw in more people dissatisfied with the old established parties who will vote for new or other parties that share those same ideas.
For example the former chief of the Verfassungschutz, Maaßen, is currently in the process of starting up his own right wing party.

So, imo this can only backfire at this point, this should've been done a long time ago.

Unfortunately I don't have any good ideas how to stop Germany going full fash, maybe Sahra Wagenknecht is successful with her culturally "conservative", yet somewhat leftist and anti-imperialist politics in making people vote for her instead of the AfD or whoever takes their place.

To add onto this, because I've been looking at Israeli opinion polls today, the Israeli public widely supports this stance:

source 1 - warning PDF

source 2 - warning PDF

The first day of strikes Friday hit 28 locations and struck more than 60 targets.

early Saturday struck another Houthi-controlled site in Yemen that it had determined was putting commercial vessels in the Red Sea at risk

Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday’s U.S. strikes were largely in low-populated areas, and the number of those killed would not be high. He said the strikes hit weapons, radar and targeting sites, including in remote mountain areas.

The strikes involved more than 150 precision-guided munitions and Tomahawk missiles.

As an aside, there's also a recently released Chinese TV show adaptation of the books, which IMO is actually pretty good.

The ghost of Wolfgang Schäuble still haunting Europe.

B-1 bomber crashes at South Dakota Air Force base, crew ejects safely

Their wunderwaffen sure crash a lot, curious.

Went to have a look at telegram after reading your comment, first video I see on Intel Slava and this looks like some pretty intense fighting happening.

According to the post this was towards the kupyansk direction.

That was hilarious! Thanks for digging it up.

Israel investigates death of detainee

Israeli police have questioned 19 prison guards over the death of a Palestinian prisoner and released them "under strict conditions." According to reports from the WAFA press agency, the detainee from the West Bank died in November after being beaten by guards. According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Association, around 7,800 Palestinian prisoners were in Israeli custody as of early December.

We have investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing.

Annual review 2023. Today: Cuba. Slight recovery from previous crises despite tightened blockade

Despite further tightened US sanctions, the country was able to recover somewhat from the consequences of the pandemic and the effects of the global crises. The gross domestic product, which after a decline of almost eleven percent in 2020, grew again by 1.3 percent in 2021 and by a further 1.8 percent in 2022, is expected to increase in the current year, according to an estimate by the London economic institute Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). of 2.5 percent and increase to around four percent annually in 2024. Gross fixed capital formation and private consumption also came out of negative territory again this year.

“The economy is still in a difficult situation,” admitted Economy Minister Alejandro Gil at a plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (PCC) in mid-December. The government and citizens are rightly dissatisfied with the development, said President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who was confirmed in office in April by the newly elected parliament the previous month, at the meeting. A year ago, economists had forecast growth of three percent for 2023 at constant prices. Gil has now confirmed that the expected values will not be achieved. Among the main factors that had a negative impact were the tightening of the blockade, the multidimensional economic crisis, the increase in international prices, the insufficient generation of foreign exchange and the macroeconomic imbalances of the Cuban economy, he said.

::: spoiler rest of article:

Throughout the year, national production for both domestic consumption and export was affected due to the fuel deficit and lack of productive inputs. Gil cited other causes as rural labor shortages, low agricultural yields, budget deficits, a decline in supply in the state sector and speculation, as well as the ineffectiveness of measures to curb them.

After there were restrictions on state-subsidized food rations via the ration book called "Libretta" in the fall, the standard food basket for families, which "costs us $1.6 billion," will be one of the country's basic priorities next year, Gil assured . Other priorities include improving electricity generation and fuel availability. In 2023, it was already possible to reduce power outages by 32 percent compared to 2022. Price increases also eased. The number of state-owned companies with losses has also declined, Gil said. However, some of the total of almost 1,950 state-owned companies apparently still often operate inefficiently and at a loss.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz added to Gil's statements that the "war economy scenario" must be expected to continue in 2024 due to the US blockade and the international crisis. And further: "We must understand that the resources we can count on in 2024 are those that we produce ourselves." The head of government explained that "in addition to objective difficulties, there are also our own shortcomings" that need to be overcome. Among other things, he pointed out that the decline in foreign exchange income is currently not being offset by a sufficient reduction in expenditure and criticized the failure to effectively integrate non-state activities into the economy. The priority measures for the coming year, according to Marrero Cruz, are aimed at increasing foreign exchange earnings and increasing national production and foreign investment - with a particular focus on food production - in order to achieve a stable supply of goods.

Helpers all over the world

The increase in the number of tourists after the pandemic contributed primarily to the slight recovery in the economy. According to the National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI), 1.81 million visitors came to the country between January and September in 2023, 68.8 percent more than in the same period last year. However, the number in 2019 was almost twice as high. The largest groups came from Canada and the USA (Cubans visiting family), followed by guests from the Russian Federation. After tens of thousands of Russian citizens were forced to cancel trips to Cuba that had already been booked in 2022 as a result of the sanctions imposed against Russia, 120,000 Russian vacationers were able to visit the island again by September of this year, an increase of 77 percent.

In addition to expanding the tourist infrastructure and economic relations with Brazil, Russia, China and Vietnam, Cuba strengthened its contacts with other countries. In June, Díaz-Canel was able to agree new trade agreements with Serbia and Italy during a trip to Europe. He then took part in discussions in Paris on a new global financial pact for the “Group of 77 plus,” which Cuba had been given the chairmanship of in January. In this role, Díaz-Canel also represented the countries of the Global South at a three-day summit of BRICS countries in Johannesburg in August. He had previously signed bilateral cooperation agreements in Angola, Namibia and Mozambique. But the socialist island republic not only looked for trading partners in the world, but also provided internationalist help to other countries - despite its own problems caused by the US blockade. After the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, for example, helpers from the Cuban medical brigade “Henry Reeve” traveled to the affected areas in February.

While Cuba's positive role in the world was highlighted by nearly all speakers at the annual UN debate on the US blockade in November, Washington continues to ignore the global community's almost unanimous call for an end to all sanctions. In doing so, the USA is violating international law, according to an international tribunal that met on November 16 and 17, 2023 at the headquarters of the EU Parliament in Brussels. But despite the worldwide condemnation of their blockade, Washington is trying to achieve its stated goal of overthrowing the Cuban government by force. Unhindered by the US police, an assassin used Molotov cocktails to attack the Cuban embassy in the US capital at the end of September, just a few hours after President Díaz-Canel spoke in the UN General Assembly as a representative of the "G77 plus". In December, Cuban Interior Ministry units arrested several suspects who, in conjunction with terrorist groups in Florida, had planned attacks and other "destabilizing actions" in Cuba at the turn of the year. Foreign Minister Rodríguez accused the US government of “protection and tolerance for those sponsoring acts of terrorism against Cuba in the USA” as “tantamount to complicity”.

:::

Bundeswehr: Suspected fascist cases reported
Last year, 216 suspected fascist, racist and anti-Semitic cases were reported to the Bundeswehr. This was reported by Die Welt (Thursday), citing a response from the federal government to a request from the left-wing faction that still existed at the time. 46 soldiers were dismissed from service in 2022 due to “right-wing extremist” efforts. 97 applicants were rejected because of doubts about their “constitutional loyalty”. According to the report, 47 percent of suspected cases were confirmed, 28 percent are still open, 25 percent were not confirmed.

Angola announces withdrawal from OPEC
Angola has announced its withdrawal from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Membership is not in the national interest, said Oil Minister Diamantino Azevedo in a televised speech on Thursday. You don't play a relevant role in the energy cartel, but sooner or later you could be forced to cut production. This would contradict the country's goals. Angola joined OPEC in 2007. When the organization set Angola's output target in November at current levels, about 1.11 million barrels per day (bpd), Azevedo sent a note of protest. OPEC members produce about 28 million bpd.

Crazy, yeah let's not talk to people from the region, but let's ask some dumbass geriatric us senator, he sure will have the answers.

You piqued my interest, literally active in 14 missions at the moment.

Al Jazeera has even more

Here are the main finding from its preliminary investigation:

Three topless figures were spotted holding a long stick with a white cloth attached by a soldier
The soldier felt threatened and opened fire
Two were hit and fell. The third managed to escape to a nearby building
The soldier reported this to his commanding officer
The commander arrived at the scene, while an army squad followed the third captive in the building
As the soldiers approached the building, they heard a plea for help in Hebrew
The Israeli captive hiding inside the building came out before running inside again
The soldiers said they believed that it was a Hamas member trying to pull them into a trap. They entered the building and killed the captive.

Holy crap what a bunch of cowards

Hostages killed by mistake were waving white flags
An initial investigation into the incident in which three hostages were mistakenly killed by the Israeli army in Gaza were holding up a white flag, a military official said on Saturday. The incident occurred in an area of intense fighting where Hamas militants operated in civilian clothing and used deception tactics, the official said. The hostages were shot at in violation of Israeli rules of engagement, the official added.

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