— 🇮🇷 🇮🇷 The IRGC's Ballistic Missiles targeted the following sites:

- 🏴 ISIS gatherings & command points in Syria.

- 🇺🇸 U.S. Consulate in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan.

- 🇮🇱 A Mossad spy-headquarters / fortified safehouse near Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.

👤🗣🇨🇭🕊 — 🏴 ZeroHedge on 𝕏:

"ZELENSKY HAS ASKED SWITZERLAND TO ORGANISE A HIGH LEVEL PEACE CONFERENCE

It's over"

#QVINTAÆTASArchive

🗄 Archive

🔗 ZeroHedge (@zerohedge)

🇪🇨🚓☄️ — Rises to Over 1,500 the Number of Criminals Arrested in Ecuador

👮‍♀️ According to a report released by the Armed Forces of Ecuador, approximately 15,400 operations have been carried out by the country, resulting, so far, in the arrest of 1,534 individuals, of whom 158 are being accused of terrorism.

➡️ The Ecuadorian government has identified over 20 criminal groups as terrorists and stated that they are responsible for "acts of violence, sabotage, and extortion." The Armed Forces reported conducting 41 operations against these groups, resulting in the death of five criminals.

📊 Additionally, the Armed Forces reported that, up to now, 27 prisoners who escaped from the prisons where they were serving their sentences have been recaptured, and 201 prison guards and administrative staff have been freed.

➡️ Among the materials seized during the operations by Ecuadorian security forces are hundreds of firearms, bladed weapons, explosives, ammunition, drugs, money, fuel, and mobile phones. Stolen vehicles and motorcycles have also been recovered.

‼️ According to information from the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo, the country's Armed Forces stated that they will continue their operations INDEFINITELY, resembling the practice of a State of Emergency in El Salvador.

Source 🔗

🇪🇺🏦💰EU Banking Watchdog Extends Anti-Money Laundering Measures to Cover Crypto Firms.

The European Banking Authority's new guidance for crypto firms will take effect on Dec. 30.

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/01/16/eu-banking-watchdog-extends-anti-money-laundering-measures-to-cover-crypto-firms/

📖 🇰🇵 🇰🇵 Is Kim Jong Un Preparing for War?

🔶️ The situation on the Korean Peninsula is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950. That may sound overly dramatic, but we believe that, like his grandfather in 1950, Kim Jong Un has made a strategic decision to go to war. We do not know when or how Kim plans to pull the trigger, but the danger is already far beyond the routine warnings in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo about Pyongyang’s “provocations.” In other words, we do not see the war preparation themes in North Korean media appearing since the beginning of last year as typical bluster from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea).

🔶️ The first obvious signs that a decision had been made and a decisive break with the past was underway came in the summer and autumn of 2021, apparently the result of a reevaluation in Pyongyang of shifts in the international landscape and signs—at least to the North Koreans—that the United States was in global retreat. This shift in perspective provided the foundation for a grand realignment in the North’s approach, a strategic reorientation toward China and Russia that was already well underway by the time of the Putin–Xi summit of February 2022 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There are few signs that relations with China have moved very far, and, in fact, signs of real cooling in China-DPRK relations. However, ties with Russia developed steadily, especially in the military area, as underscored by the visit of the Russian Defense Minister in July and the Putin–Kim summit in the Russian Far East last September.

🔶️ The North’s view that the global tides were running in its favor probably fed into decisions in Pyongyang about both the need and opportunity—and perhaps the timing—toward a military solution to the Korean question. At the start of 2023, the war preparations theme started appearing regularly in high-level North Korean pronouncements for domestic consumption. At one point, Kim Jong Un even resurrected language calling for “preparations for a revolutionary war for accomplishing…reunification.” Along with that, in March, authoritative articles in the party daily signaled a fundamentally and dangerously new approach to the Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea), introducing formulations putting South Korea beyond the pale, outside what could be considered the true Korea, and thus, as a legitimate target for the North’s military might. At the plenum last month, Kim made that shift crystal clear, declaring that “north-south relations have been completely fixed into the relations between two states hostile to each other and the relations between two belligerent states, not the consanguineous or homogenous ones any more.”

https://www.38north.org/2024/01/is-kim-jong-un-preparing-for-war/

🇪🇺👮‍♀️🐙👮❌🇺🇦Cryptojacker arrested in Ukraine over EUR 1.8 million mining scheme.

The National Police of Ukraine (Національна поліція України), with the support of Europol, has arrested an individual believed to be the mastermind behind a sophisticated cryptojacking scheme.

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cryptojacker-arrested-in-ukraine-over-eur-1.8-million-mining-scheme

🇪🇺❌🇾🇪 — 📰 Al Arabiya correspondent: Initial agreement in the European Union to launch a Pan-European naval mission to protect navigation in the Red Sea.

https://fxtwitter.com/AlArabiya_Brk/status/1747265387342049306