🇷🇺🚀❌💡🇺🇦 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | Russia Launches Christmas Assault On Ukraine, Targeting Power Grid | December 25, 2024:

"Russia unleashed a massive aerial attack using missiles and drones on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the Christmas Day assault "inhuman."

"Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones," the Ukrainian president wrote on Telegram.

Bloomberg cited Ukraine's power grid operator, Ukrenergo, as saying the attack left 500,000 customers in the Kharkiv region without heating, while blackouts were triggered in parts of Kyiv and elsewhere."

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🇧🇷❌💰❌🌐 JUST IN: Brazil’s central bank has proposed banning stablecoin transfers to self-custodial wallets like MetaMask and Trezor.

https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/1872319077487681908?t=vGgShwg8QT05tJkokFVWMg&s=19

@FelipeChannel

📈 Nearly $15 Billion Distributed Through Airdrops in 2024

👉 https://dropstab.com/activities

🇨🇳🆕✈️ — 🏴 ZeroHedge | China's 6th-Gen Fighter "White Emperor" Takes To Skies Ahead Of Trump's Second Term | December 26, 2024:

"Footage circulating on social media appears to show the maiden flight of China's next-generation tactical fighter-bomber, which is expected to replace the Xi'an JH-7, according to Defense Blog.

Footage first appeared on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on Thursday of a new stealth bomber with a "diamond-shaped wing design" flying at low altitude in an unspecified region of China.

"The new design signals a shift in China's emphasis toward a more stealth, precision-strike capability," a military analyst told the Defense Blog, adding, "Its low-observability features align with the need for platforms capable of operating in contested environments."

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📹 Video from Insider Paper

🇨🇳⚠️✈️❌🇺🇸🚀 — 🇺🇸 The Epoch Times | China Drone Swarms and US Lasers: The Coming Revolutions in Warfare | December 21, 2024:

"(...)

China’s “loyal wingman” fighter drones get a lot of attention these days. The wingman is a force multiplier, meant to fly in numbers alongside its crewed jet fighters or to lead a fleet of smaller drones. If deployed in a swarm, the wingmen and smaller drones could quickly overwhelm a fleet of manned fighter jets and air defenses. They are jet-powered but far less expensive than a regular fighter jet to fly, in part because they do not require a trained pilot. Some simulated dogfights between human pilots and artificial intelligence (AI) pilots who learn on the fly have resulted in AI wins as far back as 2020.

(...)

One promising defense against Chinese drones is laser-based weapons; for example, the HELIOS system deployed on a U.S. naval destroyer in 2022 and the DragonFire system tested by the United Kingdom in January.

The DragonFire laser can destroy targets with pinpoint accuracy in its line of sight with shots that would cut through the drone’s mechanics or explode its warheads. Each shot costs less than £10 ($12.61) to fire for 10 seconds, suggesting they could be used to cheaply slice into an enemy system with repeated passes. Compare that to the cost of a missile interceptor at a million dollars or more, which can be a waste of money against some of the cheapest Iranian military drones, for example, that cost at most $2,000 each. The British system is planned for deployment on the country’s naval ships by 2027, with the British army also considering a deployment. Scientists in China are also developing laser weapons, including for use from space."

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🇨🇳🆕⚠️ — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | China’s ‘loyal wingman’ drones open new front in military competition with US | Aircraft designed to accompany crewed stealth jets could help Beijing challenge American air superiority | December 15, 2024:

"China’s development of stealth fighter jets has drawn global attention, but just as significant, analysts say, is the unveiling of its attack drones — a fast-emerging area of defence competition with the US.

The updated Feihong FH-97A, a so-called loyal wingman drone, of which a prototype was on static display last month at the biennial Zhuhai air show in southern China, boasts an enhanced weapons bay, allowing it to conduct both ground and air strikes. The drone, designed to accompany crewed aircraft, also has the ability to catapult launch from aircraft carriers.

The mass adoption of drones on both sides of Russia’s war against Ukraine has shaken up the global defence industry in recent years, with militaries around the world seeking to integrate the latest unmanned technologies into their arsenals.

Analysts say wingman drones are now at the centre of the technological race between China and the US for air superiority, a competition that has only become more pressing as tensions escalate over Taiwan, which Beijing views as its territory and has threatened to claim by force if necessary.

“In the future, [the FH-97A] will be extremely important,” said Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military analyst. “The future of war will be competition between drone and anti-drone technology.”

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🇺🇸💲❌🇨🇳⚡️ — 🇺🇸 The Epoch Times | US Launches New Trade Probe Into Chinese Legacy Chips | The new investigation could pave the way for the incoming Trump administration to add more tariffs | December 23, 2024:

"The Biden administration announced an 11th-hour probe on Monday into China’s trade practice regarding “legacy” chips that power everything from smart appliances and phones to the electric grid and weapons systems.

The administration has already imposed 50 percent tariffs on semiconductors from China, which are set to take effect on Jan. 1. The new Section 301 probe could pave the way for the incoming Trump administration to add more tariffs on legacy chips or take other measures.

The probe was launched because evidence indicates that the Chinese regime’s attempts to dominate domestic and global chip markets “appear to have and to threaten detrimental impacts on the United States and other economies, undermining the competitiveness of American industry and workers, critical U.S. supply chains, and U.S. economic security,” the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement."

#Sanctions

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Several prominent X accounts are reporting that their verification badge and monetization has been revoked after criticizing Musk’s pro-mass immigration bent.

📎 AF Post

Singleton: With all due respect to Mr. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, they should focus on saving federal dollars for the taxpayers and not immigration policy… I think folks in the Maga world have every right to be angry with Vivek and Elon Musk.

📎 Acyn

Ashley St. Clair on X:

"Please consider what is happening

There was immense backlash against the most influential on this platform for their positions on immigration

48 hours later, the algorithm is updated to deboost those who are blocked by “far more credible” verified users."

📎 stclairashley

🇩🇪 German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier dissolved the Bundestag and set snap elections on February 23rd.

🔗 Deutsche Presse Agentur

🇰🇵💀📝 — United States' Pentagon says that North Korean troops are committing suicide rather than being captured by Ukrainian troops in Kursk region

🇸🇰❌🇺🇦 — Slovakia will consider halting electricity supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv stops the transit of Russian gas to the country