🇬🇧 Britain's armed forces are ready to launch a round of air strikes against the Yemen causing havoc in the Red Sea, increasing the risk of a dramatic increase in regional tensions.

According to the proposals, the UK would team up with the US and possibly one other European country to launch a barrage of missiles at Yemeni armed forces, either at sea or on the Arab country’s sovereign territory.

According to a Whitehall source, the coordinated strikes might include RAF jets for the first time or HMS Diamond, a Type 45 destroyer that successfully destroyed an attack drone with a Sea Viper missile earlier this month in the Red Sea.

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🇮🇱🇸🇾 Two Israeli F-16 fighter jets, without entering Syrian airspace while operating from the Mediterranean Sea, have struck targets in the area of the Syrian city of Aleppo with six cruise missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria said on Sunday.

"On December 30, from 17:14 to 17:27, two F-16 tactical fighters of the Israeli air force, operating from the Mediterranean Sea without entering the Syrian airspace, launched an air strike with six cruise missiles on targets in the area of the city of Aleppo," Vadim Kulit, deputy head of the center, told a briefing.

There were no casualties as a result of the attack, Kulit added.

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🇷🇺 Putin outlines Russia’s main accomplishment in 2023

As the clock struck 12 am Moscow time and Russians bade farewell to 2023, President Putin appeared on television to offer citizens his traditional New Year’s greetings, this time for the year 2024.

Putin characterized the outgoing year as one in which Russia “remained firm” in the defense of its national interests, freedom, security and values, and outlined what will need to be done in the coming years to make the country “even stronger.”

The New Year is about “bright hopes” and a “sincere desire to please one’s loved ones,” Putin said. “In the coming year, I would like to wish all Russian families the very best. After all, the history of each family forms the history of our huge, beautiful and beloved Motherland. Its destiny is determined and created by all of us – the multinational people of Russia. We are one country, one big family.”

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🇪🇬 Negotiations on the creation of a free trade zone between Egypt and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are at the final stage, Russian Trade Representative to Egypt Alexey Tevanyan told Sputnik.

"The signing of a free trade agreement between Egypt and the EAEU will facilitate the access of our goods to the Egyptian market. Negotiations on the free trade zone are at the final stage," Tevanyan said.

Russian engineering products are respected in Egypt because of their price-quality ratio advantage, Tevanyan added.

"Egyptians have purchased a large batch of our passenger cars and are well acquainted with Lada cars, which have long been assembled at local facilities," Tevanyan said.

The contract to supply the Egyptian National Railways with 1,350 passenger cars worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) was signed in 2018. Production was carried out in Russia and Hungary.

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Two US bases in the Al-Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria have been attacked by rockets and a drone, a local source told Sputnik on Sunday.

"Several rockets have fallen down near residential buildings at the Al-Jabsa oil field in [the town of] Ash Shaddadi, which is occupied by American troops as their military base," the source said.

The source added that the US base at Kharab al-Jir airfield in Al-Hasakah has been attacked by a drone.

The number of attacks on the bases of the US-led international coalition in Iraq, as well as US troops in Syria, has significantly grown over the past months since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict escalated on October 7. Shia armed groups operating in Iraq have claimed responsibility for attacks. Washington, for its part, believes that the attacks are carried out by pro-Iranian groups.

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❗️ Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk kills 3 people, leaves 7 wounded on New Year's Eve

Three people were killed in the shelling of the city of Donetsk in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) by Ukrainian troops on New Year's night, DPR head Denis Pushilin stated Monday.

Earlier in the day, Pushilin said on Telegram that seven people were injured in the shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces.

The DPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination reported earlier that the Ukrainian military fired 15 rockets from multiple launch rocket systems shortly after midnight.

"Unfortunately, there are fatalities - preliminary, three people," Pushilin said in a message on Telegram.

He added that medical assistance was being provided to the wounded people.

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❗️ The death toll from Ukraine’s strike on Donetsk rises to 4 people, 13 others injured, head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin said.

Footage from Russia's Donetsk following the Ukrainian attack on New Year's Eve

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🇹🇷 Turkish National Defense Minister Yasar Guler stated Sunday that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK, banned in Turkiye as a terrorist organization) is "losing mobility" after "intensive and effective activities" against it.

"Our glorious army has achieved tremendous successes, especially in the fight against terrorism. The Turkish armed forces have carried out the most comprehensive, most intensive and most effective activities. This has put an end to the mobility of the terrorist organization," Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu quoted Guler as saying.

The armed conflict between the PKK and Turkiye began in 1984 and reignited in 2015. The organization, which seeks the creation of an independent Kurdish state, including on the Turkish territory, has established bases in Iraqi and Syrian territories close to the Turkish border, where the Turkish military has been targeting them in land and air strikes.

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🇷🇺 Almost 90% of residents of Russia's new regions received Russian passports in 2023, and to speed up the process, special migration units have been created, Russian Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said.

She added that issuing documents to new citizens was one of the main tasks of the interior ministry.

"For this purpose, nine document printing facilities have been opened in the new regions, as well as in Crimea and the Rostov Region. More than 100 migration units were opened in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions," she said.

For those who cannot get to the units, organized mobile groups, points and offices have been set up, the spokeswoman added.

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63% of Ukrainian capital's energy infrastructure was damaged or destroyed in 2023, the head of Kiev City Military Administration, Serhiy Popko said on Sunday.

"[A total of] 63% of the city's energy facilities were damaged. Throughout the warm period of the year, thousands of specialists worked 24/7 to prepare the destroyed power system for the current heating season," the city's administration quoted Popko as saying.

On Friday, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko signed a guarantee agreement with German bank KfW for a loan of 24 million euros ($26.57 million), which would be spent to reconstruct Ukraine's energy sector.

Strikes against Ukrainian critical infrastructure have been carried out by Russia since October 10, 2022, two days after the first attack on the Crimean Bridge committed by the Kiev regime.

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Hundreds of court documents surrounding the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public on Monday.

More than 150 names of those close to the child predator—including the British monarchy’s Prince Andrew and former US President Bill Clinton—will be revealed in the documents, according to reports.

Earlier this month, US District Judge Loretta Preska ruled that there was no longer any legal justification for continuing to conceal the names of those who were mentioned in the legal filings. According to Preska’s order, the unsealing should begin after January 1st. She first issued her ruling on December 18, giving those in the unsealed document just two weeks to appeal.

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🇰🇵 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has instructed the country's military to destroy the United States and South Korea with "a blow" and "without hesitation" if they choose a confrontation path and provoke a conflict in the Korean Peninsula, the state-run KCNA news agency reported on Sunday.

The North Korean leader added that Washington's "inveterate hostile acts" against Pyongyang "have evidently evolved into a stage of execution which can lead to actual military actions and thus trigger a conflict between the armed forces of both sides."

Kim has reiterated the need to "steadily step up the work for getting the overwhelming war response capability and the full and perfect military combat readiness to deter any form of provocation and action at a blow since the enemies' desperate efforts get more serious."

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🇹🇷 Several earthquakes with a maximum magnitude of 4.5 hit the Turkish southeastern province of Hakkari on New Year's Eve, leaving people in panic, Turkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said Sunday.

AFAD said in a post on X that magnitude 4.4 underground tremors were recorded around 7:37 p.m. local time (16:37 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in the area of the city of Yuksekova.

In the follow-up posts, the authority said another magnitude 3.5 earthquake hit at 7:52 p.m. local time and was followed by a magnitude 4.5 earthquake at 8:06 p.m. local time, adding that there have been no reports of negative consequences after the earthquakes.

In the meantime, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported that panicked residents of Hakkari Province lined up in dense queues outside gas stations and were planning to spend New Year's Eve there.

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Tal Mitnick, an 18-year-Israeli activist was sentenced to 30 days in military prison after he refused to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in the face of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Friends of Mitnick have sworn to follow suit in solidarity with the conscientious objector. The objectors are part of a group called “Mesavrot”, or “We Refuse”, one of several networks of “activists and former military objectors” whose goal is to “support political refuseniks and to promote discourse on refusal among the Israeli public”, according to their social media.

"But the current war is a revenge war against the whole of Gaza, not only Hamas," one member explained."One massacre does not justify another one."

On Sunday, a Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson said that the death toll from Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip has now reached 21,822.

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🇰🇵🛰 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the country intends to launch three more spy satellites in 2024, after the successful deployment of the first one earlier this year, the state-run news agency reported.

The announcement was made at the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, which was held from December 26–30.

"In the field of space exploration, the target of launching three more reconnaissance satellites in 2024 was announced, building on the successful experience of launching and operating the first reconnaissance satellite in 2023. Comprehensive national measures have also been elaborated to vigorously advance the development of space science and technology," Kim was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Pyongyang needs to be able to respond quickly to a "possible nuclear crisis," he added.

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🇺🇸💸 Word of Kaine: US Senator demands answers on $147.5M weapons deal with Israel

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine has raised concerns over the recent US State Department decision to greenlight a $147.5 million arms deal with Israel. Kaine insists on transparency, calling for a public explanation on why the Biden administration bypassed congressional review.

The approved deal includes the sale of M107 artillery shells and related equipment to Israel, deemed "immediately" necessary by Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to the extraordinary situation of the latest military operation in the Palestinian Gaza Stirp.

Kaine argues that Congress should have full information on weapons provided to other countries, stressing that bypassing its oversight leaves the American people in the dark. The situation adds a new layer to the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict, a complex and longstanding issue in the Middle East.

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The United Kingdom and the United States are preparing a "direct action" against Yemen's Ansar Allah rebel movement, also known as the Houthis, against the background of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, UK newspaper The Telegraph reported Sunday, citing UK Secretary of Defense Grant Shapps and source in the Pentagon.

The newspaper cited sources as saying that London and Washington are preparing an unprecedented joint statement in the form of a "verbal final warning" to the Houthis that could be issued as early as Monday, adding that talks were underway on Sunday evening on the participation of at least two other actions in action against the movement. But the joint statement is not expected to set out any specific military action, the report said.

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📈 Gold's glittering forecast for 2024!

As geopolitical tensions continue to simmer and nations pivot to gold due to the weakening of the US dollar, the precious metal shines brighter than ever.

Priced at $2,060/ounce and bolstered by a 13 percent surge in 2023, experts predict even grander heights for 2024. J.P. Morgan eyes a potential peak at $2,300, while the World Gold Council emphasizes the metal's allure amidst a shifting global currency landscape. But gold is not alone; silver, platinum, and palladium also carve unique paths in the year ahead.

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