❗️Russian Defense Ministry briefing on the weekly progress of the special military operation in Ukraine

🔸 The Russian Armed Forces launched a massive series of 12 strikes using precision-guided weapons and attack drones, targeting energy infrastructure that supported Ukraine's defense industry, a plant producing artillery powder charges, military airfield infrastructure, ammunition depots, drone assembly workshops and mercenary deployment locations.

🔸 Ukraine lost up to 12,455 militants. Seventeen Ukrainian tanks were destroyed, including three German-made Leopard tanks. 46 Ukrainian militants were captured at the front line. 559 drones were shot down, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed 11 unmanned boats.

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Former CIA vet on Vegas Cybertruck blast: ‘What contacts did he have with Ukrainian intelligence?’

The suspect blown up outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day was an active-duty Green Beret officer with an apparent penchant for Ukraine. That’s an angle worth exploring instead of being swept under the rug by the media and the FBI, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson says.

“It appears there have been social media pictures identifying him in [a] Slava Ukraini* [T-shirt]. So he was a big pro-Ukrainian guy,” Johnson told Sputnik.

“I’d want to find out what if the individual driving that Cybertruck was ever in Ukraine? What contacts did he have with Ukrainian intelligence services?”

The incident definitely could have a Ukrainian intel trace, Johnson emphasized. With the symbolism of the Trump Tower meaning “they recognize Donald Trump is going to potentially bring an end to this war.”

* ‘Glory to Ukraine’ – a slogan associated with Ukraine’s WWII-era Nazi collaborators and modern-day Ukrainian nationalists.

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The FBI and US Department of Homeland Security have warned of the potential threat of new attacks in the country by "copycats" of the attack in New Orleans, where a car drove into a crowd, ABC News reports, citing sources.

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🇰🇿 Kazakhstan needs a nuclear power plant (NPP), and it is possible the country will also build a second and third station, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in an interview with the local newspaper Ana Tili

▪️Tokayev is convinced that Kazakhstan needs a high-power NPP. He did not rule out that in the near future Kazakhstan would begin building a second, and possibly third nuclear power plant;

▪️The nuclear industry will give a powerful impetus to the development of Kazakhstan, which is experiencing an energy deficit. Tokayev believes Kazakhstan should become a country with developed nuclear energy, adding that it has a great future;

▪️ Kazakhstan’s president noted that the issue was discussed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during his visit to Astana. The leaders agreed that the Kazakh side as the customer in the project would act as a general operator in the consortium. The discussion was about the possible participation of Russia’s Rosatom State Corporation, which has high competence and extensive experience in building nuclear power plants abroad;

▪️Tokayev said negotiations are also underway with a Chinese company, given China's great success in building civilian nuclear facilities. There is also interest from other foreign corporations, including Western ones.

A national referendum on the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant was held in Kazakhstan on October 6. According to the country’s Central Election Commission, 71.12% of voters supported the project.

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Hundreds of soldiers from French-trained Ukrainian brigade went AWOL before firing a single shot

Over 1,700 soldiers from Ukraine’s newly formed 155th Mechanized Brigade, trained and outfitted with great fanfare in France, deserted before reaching the battlefront, according to Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov.

▪️French President Emmanuel Macron proudly announced the “elite” project alongside Volodymyr Zelensky last June. The brigade was meant to have more than 5,800 troops and be equipped with Leopard tanks and French CAESAR 155 mm howitzers. However, at least 50 members of the unit, also known as “Anne of Kiev,” went AWOL already during drills in France, Butusov wrote on social media.

▪️When the brigade was finally packed off to the front line near Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), it did not even have any drones.

“As a result, the brand-new Leopard 2A4 tanks and VAB armored vehicles suffered losses during the first attempts to use them,” according to Butusov, who added:

“The brigade’s servicemen became hostages of Zelensky’s PR project, which the authorities made no effort to actually implement competently.”

▪️Remnants of the brigade have reportedly been reassigned to other units, with Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) confirming to a French news agency that it had opened a criminal case on the circumstances of the formation of the 155th Mechanized Brigade. The case is being investigated under “articles on abuse of authority and desertion,” Communications Adviser to the SBI Tаtiana Sapyan said.

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What’s in store for Syria in 2025?

The US and its regional allies “masterminded” the Syrian rebel offensive, which began November 27 and quickly turned into a route, taking “advantage of the fact that Syria was a weak state,” veteran Middle East politics expert Ali Rizk told Sputnik in a detailed breakdown of arguably the most consequential event of 2024 for the region – the collapse of the Assad government in Syria.

Syria became a “weak and fragile state” in the course of a long civil war, and was “further weakened” amid recent “Israeli wars in the region, particularly against Hezbollah,” which forced the Lebanese militia to withdraw its fighters, Rizk explained.

Cacophony of interests

All foreign actors involved in the Syrian crisis “agreed when it came to getting rid of former President Bashar Assad,” but beyond that, “when it comes to what comes next I think that they don’t agree,” the observer said, warning that this could provoke strife in the months and years to come.

🔸 Israel’s aims are “about cutting off the logistical supply line linking Iran to Hezbollah and diminishing Iran’s influence” in Syria in general.

🔸 Turkiye sees the situation “as a way to retain or return to the glory days of the Ottoman Empire” and advance its goal of blocking greater autonomy for the Kurds, Rizk said.

The US, besides its long-running efforts to turn Syria into a failed state by occupying key energy and food-producing areas, seeks, at least officially, to prevent ISIS’s* resurgence, while walking lockstep with Israel on Iran.

What’s in store for 2025?

1️⃣Syria shatters on ethnic and religious grounds, with ISIS taking advantage of the chaos, Israel grabbing additional territories for itself, and Turkiye aiding allies in a conflict with the Kurds.

2️⃣“A Taliban**-like regime in Syria, i.e. a Salafi jihadi takeover” – possible if hardline elements in HTS get their way.

3️⃣A unified Syria aligned to Turkiye, at peace with Israel and anti-Iran.

* Terrorist group outlawed in Russia.
** An organization under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

#2024Overview

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📹 Russian drone operators destroyed a Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle that, under cover of a tank, was trying to deliver assault group personnel to counterattack lost positions.

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British government makes sick and disabled wait three more years before finding out their fate

Ministers will launch an independent commission to reform adult social care – but the final report will not be released until 2028.

"The government has told elderly & disabled people to wait until 2028 to hear its plan for social care," former Labour leader and now independent MP Jeremy Corbyn posted on X.

“What about those who are suffering here and now? We don’t need a commission to know what to do: end austerity, reverse privatisation and build a National Care Service for all."

The newly-elected Labour government abolished £1.5 billion-worth ($1.9 billion) of winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners in England and Wales in September as part of its austerity drive.

A 2017 study by Labour claimed that scrapping the payments could "kill" as many as 4,000 pensioners. British charity Age UK said a whopping 2 million elderly Britons could be affected by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's cuts.

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Bitcoin: How did it go from quirky novelty to geopolitical tool?

January 3 marks the 16th anniversary of the creation of Bitcoin Block #0 – the ‘Genesis Block’ mined by pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto forming the very first link of the cryptocurrency’s chronological blockchain.

With that, the Bitcoin network was launched, and the decentralized, finite and semi-anonymous electronic cash system outlined by Nakamoto in his October 2008 white paper was born.

▪️Block #0 featured an embedded Times headline: “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks,” defining Bitcoin’s ideology as a means of exchange free from banker and state control.

▪️Bitcoin’s rise began modestly, trading for $0.00099 per coin in 2009, hitting $1 in 2011, $100 in 2013, $1,000 in 2014, $10,000 in 2017 and $100k in late 2024. Each peak has been accompanied by massive plunges (up to 80%) before continuing the upward march.

For many years, Bitcoin’s extreme volatility undermined its sheen as a means of exchange and store of value. Government crackdowns, environmental concerns (mining accounts for 2% of global electricity use), and media portrayals as a haven for criminals helped put off institutional investors.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?

▪️2024 became a major turning point for Bitcoin, with banks and hedge funds like JP Morgan and Blackrock entering the market in a big way, amassing 5% or more of all coins, as states’ holdings reached 2%+.

▪️Its market capitalization hit $2+ trillion. Bitcoin has now joined the top ten most popular assets along with gold and Big Tech.

▪️Trump’s election victory, promises to make the US the “crypto capital” of the world, and appointment of venture capitalist David Sacks as his “crypto czar” have sent Bitcoin soaring, signaling a bright financial future for the cryptocurrency, although one far removed from its anti-establishment roots.

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📹 German FM Baerbock has faced a challenging task: How to greet Syria’s new leader without shaking hands with him.

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📹 2024 marked a turning point in Russia’s favor in its special operation in Ukraine - Russian philosopher Dugin

“It implies movement towards the West, towards the DNR [Donetsk People's Republic]. The most visible trend is the almost-complete liberation of the LNR [Lugansk People's Republic], there is only a couple of per cent left, and our advance in the Kharkov region is quite obvious,” he noted.

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US President Joe Biden will travel to New Orleans on January 6 in the wake of the truck-ramming attack that caused multiple casualties, the White House said.

Too slow a reaction even for Sleepy Joe, isn't it?

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📹 Trump may change geopolitical priorities, but US values have nothing similar to Russia’s worldview - Dugin

Donald Trump’s election for a second term signals serious talk about the end of wokeism, liberalism and globalism in America, Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin told Sputnik.

However, it is unrealistic to believe that Trump represents a worldview similar to Russia’s, he noted, adding:

“American values, as he understands them, even traditional values, they have no direct relation to us.”

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📹 Georgia elections show Europe no longer eager to kowtow to West’s outgoing liberal elites - Dugin

The leaders of Georgia, Hungary and Slovakia “are the future,” noted the Russian philosopher, while European globalists “are still living in the past,” said Alexander Dugin.

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