🇮🇱 IDF kills two in southern Gaza 'to remove the threat' — statement

The Israel Defense Forces reported that troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip identified two people it described as “terrorists” who crossed the “yellow line” and approached their position, which the military said posed an immediate threat.

The IDF said the troops killed the two “in order to remove the threat,” adding that forces in the Southern Command remain deployed in line with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to act to remove any immediate threat.

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🇻🇪🤝🇷🇺 Venezuela thanks Russia for support in 'defending sovereignty'

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said Caracas is grateful for Russia’s backing after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova strongly condemned the buildup of the US military presence in the Caribbean.

💬 “On behalf of President Nicolás Maduro, we want to express our sincere gratitude to the Government of the Russian Federation for its valuable support for President Maduro’s efforts in defending the sovereignty and the interests of the Venezuelan people in the face of threats and illegal, warmongering actions by the US Administration in the Caribbean,” the message said.

Gil also emphasized Russia’s “unwavering support” for preserving the Caribbean as a zone of peace and for promoting economic, political and social stability in the region.

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🚨 US carried out 'deadly strike' on ISIS targets in northwest Nigeria — Trump

US President Donald Trump said the United States launched a “powerful and deadly strike” against what he described as “ISIS*” targets in northwest Nigeria.

💬 “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump said the US military carried out “numerous” strikes and suggested more could follow if the violence continues.

*A terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

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🚨 ‘More to come’ — Hegseth on US strike in Nigeria

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the US action in northwest Nigeria followed President Donald Trump’s warning that "the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.”

In a post on X, Hegseth said the Department of War was “always ready,” adding that “ISIS* found out tonight — on Christmas.” He also thanked Nigerian authorities for their “support & cooperation,” and said “more” operations could follow.

*A terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

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🗣 Trump comments on Epstein files, denies links and blames political opponents

US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had distanced himself from Jeffrey Epstein “long before it became fashionable,” and rejected any suggestion of ties to the late financier.

Trump said that people who associated with Epstein later “falsely claimed they had nothing to do with him,” and argued that ongoing scrutiny around the Epstein files is part of what he described as a “Radical Left Witch Hunt.”

💬 "Now the same losers are at it again, only this time so many of their friends, mostly innocent, will be badly hurt and reputationally tarnished," he warned.

💬 "Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas!" Trump concluded.

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🚀🇷🇺 Russian Soyuz-2.1a launches from Plesetsk — Defense Ministry

Russia’s Aerospace Forces launched a Soyuz-2.1a medium-class carrier rocket with a Defense Ministry spacecraft from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s Arkhangelsk region on December 25, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The MoD said the launch and delivery into the planned orbit “were carried out in normal mode.” The spacecraft was placed into its target orbit on schedule, remains in stable contact with ground systems, and its onboard equipment is “functioning normally.”

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📹 US Department of War shares video of strike in northwest Nigeria

The official account of the US Department of War published a video showing missiles being launched from a US warship, alongside a quote from President Donald Trump about what he described as ISIS* targets in northwest Nigeria.

In the post, Trump said the strike was carried out “at my direction as Commander in Chief” and described it as a “powerful and deadly” operation.

*A terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other countries.

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🇻🇪 Venezuela warns US Caribbean deployment is a 'direct threat' — Foreign Minister

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said the US-led “Operation Spear of the South” constitutes a threat involving the use of force, according to a video statement shared by TeleSUR.

Gil said Washington ordered its largest Caribbean deployment in a decade, including a nuclear submarine near Venezuela’s coast, arguing that the move is “forbidden by the United Nations Charter” under Article 2 and violates the region’s status as a zone of peace and nuclear-weapon-free zone.

💬 “Venezuela has done nothing that justifies this military operation,” he said.

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🔥🇩🇿 Algeria brands French colonisation a crime, demands apology and reparations — reports

📄 Algeria’s parliament has unanimously passed a law declaring French colonisation a crime, demanding an official apology and reparations for decades of abuses under French rule, according to The Guardian.

💬 Lawmakers hailed the vote as a matter of national memory, with parliament speaker Ibrahim Boughali saying it sends “a clear message, both internally and externally, that Algeria’s national memory is neither erasable nor negotiable.”

✍️ The legislation lists the “crimes of French colonisation,” including nuclear tests, extrajudicial killings, “physical and psychological torture,” mass deportations, and the systematic plundering of resources. It states that “full and fair compensation for all material and moral damages caused by French colonisation is an inalienable right of the Algerian state and people.”

🩸 France ruled Algeria from 1830 to 1962, a period marked by mass killings and large-scale deportations that culminated in a brutal war of independence. Algeria estimates the death toll at 1.5 million, while French historians cite around 500,000, most of them Algerian.

🇫🇷 Paris reacted coolly. While President Emmanuel Macron has previously called aspects of colonisation a “crime against humanity,” French officials declined to comment on the vote, with the foreign ministry dismissing it as a domestic political matter, The Guardian reported.

📌 For Algiers, the message is blunt: colonial crimes don’t fade with time — and France’s past isn’t something to be quietly archived away.

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👀 Europe’s ‘coalition of the willing’ for Ukraine a mere ‘paper tiger’ built on Ifs – historian

The European alliance formed by PM Keir Starmer shows a “blithe indifference to reality,” believes Eliot Wilson, a writer, historian, and Senior Fellow for National Security at the British nonprofit Coalition for Global Prosperity.

👉 Discussions around the “coalition” are mired in vague talk of “implementation,” “reassurance,” and “deterrent,” he writes in an article for The Hill.

But those are all issues that can only be meaningfully addressed after a peace settlement has been agreed, he argues.

💬 “How can its leaders possibly know what activities the coalition will have to undertake or what its objectives will be in the absence of a peace deal? It is like choosing the cutlery for a meal with no notion of what food is being served,” he notes.

A joint statement by the coalition speaks of a “European-led multinational force” tasked with securing Ukraine. However, reminds Wilson, Russia has repeatedly emphasized that the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine is unacceptable.

The statement also describes this force as “supported by the US”, but President Trump has ruled out the provision of military support to the coalition.

🙅 To become anything other than simply a “paper tiger,” this coalition would require comprehensive support from the US, suggests the writer.

Currently, the coalition amounts to little more than an exercise in “if,” says Wilson.

If there were a peace settlement; if Russia were willing to tolerate NATO ground troops in Ukraine; if the US planned to offer its military backing…

Absent all of that, the concept is but an “imaginary”scenario” of Europe’s influence.

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🇨🇳 China smashes world maglev speed record: 0 to 700 km/h in 2 seconds

Chinese scientists have achieved a stunning breakthrough in maglev technology, setting a new global speed record.

A test vehicle from the National University of Defense Technology accelerated to an astonishing 700 km/h in just two seconds using superconducting electromagnetic maglev, before coming to a safe stop.

The next goal: moving from the lab to real-world application in high-speed transport and aerospace.

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⚔️ Zelensky’s election talk is a bluff to secure ceasefire, not peace – Italian expert

Zelensky and his European backers may be scheming to trick US President Donald Trump with talk of Ukrainian elections to secure a frontline truce, Alessandro Orsini, a sociology professor at Rome’s Luiss University, told Il Fatto Quotidiano.

💬 “In my view, it’s all a bluff. Zelensky and his EU patrons want Trump to swallow this plan that supposedly gives Ukraine a ceasefire for elections—but it’s a ploy,” Orsini explained.

Ukraine is not genuinely seeking a peaceful settlement, he speculated, and is willing to do whatever it takes to drag out negotiations - which is why it seeks a temporary truce.

Earlier in December, following a statement by Trump urging presidential elections in Ukraine, Zelensky said he was ready to amend the law to allow them, adding that he had instructed parliament to draft legislation enabling elections within 60 to 90 days.

👉 A working group to explore the possibility of holding a presidential election is being formed in the Ukrainian parliament, David Arakhamia, head of Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, said on Dec. 22.

Ukraine canceled its 2024 election, citing martial law.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that after Zelensky’s presidential term had expired, he is no longer the legitimate leader of Ukraine.

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🔸 US carried out 'deadly strike' on ISIS targets in northwest Nigeria — Trump

🔸 US Department of War shares video of strike in northwest Nigeria

🔸 Algeria brands French colonisation a crime, demands apology and reparations — reports

🔸 Russian Soyuz-2.1a launches from Plesetsk — Defense Ministry

🔸 Hunter Biden brands Ukraine ‘vipers’ den’ mired in corruption

🔸 Danish MP proposes buying US states as Washington eyes Greenland

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🤡 Zelensky’s unhinged Christmas rant stoked by Ukraine’s looming concessions – Finnish expert

Zelensky’s violent Christmas rant will fail to “blow up” the ongoing efforts to achieve a Ukraine peace process, Henri Vanhanen, a security policy expert who previously worked at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, speculated in an interview with Iltalehti.

👉 Bitterness over the painful compromises in Russia’s favor that Ukraine should prepare for may have spilled into Zelensky’s speech, he noted.

On Wednesday, Volodymyr Zelensky released a Christmas video where he expressed a wish that may be interpreted as wanting an unnamed someone to “disappear” (or “drop dead”), saying that this would be the wish of all Ukrainians at Christmas.

🗣 Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Zelensky’s Christmas address uncivilized and hardly resembling that of a sane person.

Peskov added that after the address by the leader of the Ukraine regime, one can’t help but wonder whether he is capable of making sound decisions on resolving the crisis through political and diplomatic means.

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🔥 On guard: Tor-M2 & Osa-AKM systems thwart Ukrainian drone attacks

Russian air defense crews within the "Tsentr" Group of Forces remain on constant alert, using sophisticated systems to shield ground units from Ukrainian aerial threats.

🔸 00:00 A Tor-M2 air defense missile system crew maintains combat duty, providing continuous cover for units in the special military operation zone.

🔸 01:10 An Osa-AKМ missile system crew successfully intercepted and destroyed attack drones of the Ukrainian forces in the Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) region.

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⚔️ From arms to armies: EU politician demands German troops for direct involvement in Ukraine

The Bundeswehr must actively participate in "securing peace" in Ukraine as part of a European force, the European People’s Party head Manfred Weber stated, reports European media.

💬 "I want soldiers donning the European flag on their uniforms to secure peace together with our Ukrainian friends," he said, adding in such a case Germany "cannot stay aside".

Despite a shrinking German economy — marked by key industries shutting down nationwide — and strong public disapproval (with two-thirds of Germans opposed to a government that advocates for aid to Ukraine and mulls connoscription), European politicians persist in beating the war drums.

Russia has repeatedly stated that any foreign armed forces in Ukraine would be viewed as legitimate targets, and their deployment would elicit an appropriate response.

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🔥 Russian security forces thwart car bombing attempt in Stavropol

Ukrainian intelligence operatives, posing as scammers, contacted an 18-year-old Russian woman and convinced her to attempt to plant an explosive device under the car of a Russian serviceman.

The woman was apprehended by security forces at the scene, after she had already obtained the explosives but before she could attach them to the targeted vehicle.

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🚨🇷🇺💥 RUSSIAN MOD WEEKLY UPDATE: HUGE RUSSIAN GAINS AND DEVASTATING UKRAINIAN LOSSES

⚡️ KOSOVTSEVO IN ZAPOROZHYE REGION LIBERATED

📍 The liberation of Kosovtsevo expands the zone of control of Russian troops on the western bank of the Gaichur towards Gulyaypole, the next major bastion on the offensive route

▫️ Russia's army liberated 8 settlements in a week

▫️ Russian forces continued to destroy the encircled Ukrainian Armed Forces group in Dimitrov, as well as clear the settlements of Rodinskoye and Grishino in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)

▫️ Air defense superiority: 7 Storm Shadow missiles, 21 guided bombs and 1,350 drones were shot down

▫️ Ukrainian losses: 6,910 troops killed or wounded

Read about origins of Russia's special military op HERE

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📈 Gold and silver hit record highs

Gold prices surged to a new all-time high during Friday’s trading, reaching $4,561.40 per ounce.

February gold futures gained 0.86%, climbing to $4,541.

Meanwhile, silver saw a 4.83% jump, setting a new record of $75.145 per ounce.

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