[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump's beloved top military advisor, who he claims donned a MAGA hat to earn the president's affection, has overseen two successful, death-defying missions this year that have stunned the White House's harshest critics.
Four-star Gen. Dan 'Raizin' Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, an F-16 pilot turned venture capitalist who was tapped by Trump to return to the Pentagon from retirement earlier this year, made a high-profile cameo when describing the incredible mission this weekend in which US forces captured ex-Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
'This particular mission required every component of our joint force, with soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and guardians working in unison with our intelligence agency partners and law enforcement teammates in an unprecedented operation,' Caine said Saturday at the Mar-a-Lago press conference detailing 'Operation Absolute Resolve.'
During the press conference, Caine, who worked for the CIA from 2021 - 2024, detailed how America had a mole inside Venezuela, and a spy team had been on the ground for months.
Carrying himself with an air of professionalism, the by-the-book operator gave a play-by-play of the mission as Trump and his top Cabinet officials stood behind and the nation tuned-in to hear every scintillating detail.
That dogged military-like integrity was on full display during Caine's March Senate confirmation hearing, where he contradicted Trump's famous story about him putting on a MAGA hat and telling the president, 'I love you, sir, I think you're great, sir, I'll kill for you, sir,' while the commander-in-chief visited Iraq during his first term in 2018.
'I think the president was actually talking about somebody else, and I've never worn any political merchandise or said anything to that effect,' the general told concerned senators when pressed on Trump's story.
Pictures taken at Mar-a-Lago during the height of the weekend's high-stakes operation show Caine coolly looking at monitors displaying feeds of the mission as the president, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and top Trump lieutenant Stephen Miller watch with nervous looks.
During the press conference, Caine, who worked for the CIA from 2021 - 2024, detailed how America had a mole inside Venezuela, and a spy team had been on the ground for months.
That’ll lead to sleepless nights in certain quarters, possibly with overlap where there have been worried about not noticing Mossad about.
They knew where Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were living, when and where they traveled, what clothes they wore, what food they ate, even what pets they had, 'Raizin' revealed.
After months of planning and weeks of monitoring weather conditions for the perfect time to strike, the president authorized the operation at 10:46 pm ET, and thus a chain of events began that would hours later prove that American military might is still the engine for the world's greatest superpower.
And not a peep leaked out. Good opsec, guys.
Over 150 aircraft at 20 US bases across the western hemisphere were tasked and ready. After receiving the greenlight, the aircraft were fitted with ordinance, special operators and pilots loaded in, rotors began whirring and jet engines screamed to life.
Maduro, the strongman socialist dictator who had an iron grip on the oil-rich nation, would soon come face-to-face with all the president's most deadly men.
The massive operation was to include F-22 Raptors, F-35s, F/A-18 Hornets, EA-18 electronic warfare aircraft, E-2 command and control planes, B-1 bombers, helicopters, refueling aircraft and numerous remotely piloted drones.
The youngest crew member on board was 20, the oldest 49.
Helicopters took off with the extraction force that would capture Maduro, including members of Delta Force, the Army's elite direct action unit, and law enforcement officers who would serve the warrant for his arrest on drug charges.
What’s Spanish for “You have been served”?
The helicopters flew in across the water at just 100 feet while Space Command and Cyber Command took up the baton.
It is believed that they were involved in taking out lights on the ground in Venezuela, while aircraft disabled air defense systems to allow the helicopters into the target area.
Before reaching the target, the extraction force - the exact size of which remains unclear -
…I believe the technical term is large…
flew behind one last area of high terrain, and it was only when they emerged that they were finally spotted, according to Caine.
They had successfully maintained the element of surprise.
Despite his futile attempt to flee into a steel safe room in his compound, Maduro was captured. Though he made it inside, American forces were able to apprehend the dictator and his wife before they could close the door.
Within hours, after a short helicopter ride with the Delta Force, Maduro was aboard the USS Iwo Jima, where he was pictured handcuffed and blindfolded. After a few additional hours, he was in New York, still handcuffed, and being perp walked for the nation to see the outcome of the death-defying raid.
Despite videos of widespread bombing and gunfire, not a single American was injured. Not a single aircraft was lost. Just one helicopter was hit by some ground fire, though it was still operational.
It would prove to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs' second spectacular attack on a primary US rival in about six months.
'Operation Midnight Hammer,' the shock-and-awe bombing of Iran's most sophisticated nuclear facilities, was Caine's debut on the world stage, letting America's enemies know that the US, under Trump, is back in the bad-guy breaking business.
During that dangerous mission, Caine and Hegseth coordinated the largest stealth bombing run ever in history. The June 21 - 22 surprise attack utilized seven B-2 stealth bombers that dropped 14 30,000-pound 'bunker buster' bombs on Iran's primary nuclear enrichment facility at Fordow. Over 125 US aircraft participated in the mission, including bombers, fighters, and refueling tankers, Caine said at the time. Approximately 75 precision-guided weapons were employed in the attacks, including Tomahawk missiles fired from submarines.
Caine's plan included misdirection and multiple refueling stops.
'As part of a plan to maintain tactical surprise, part of the package proceeded to the west and into the Pacific as a decoy. This deception effort was known only to an extremely small number of planners and key leaders here in Washington DC and in Tampa [the headquarters of US Central Command],' Caine detailed at a press conference after his first successful strike, when he was just over two months into the job.
'The main strike package proceeded quietly to the east with minimal communications,' he added. 'Throughout the 18-hour flight into the target area, the aircraft completed multiple in-flight refuelings.'
That mission, Trump said, was a 'spectacular military success' that 'completely and totally obliterated' Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Serving in the military since being commissioned in 1990 after graduating from the Virginia Military Institute, Caine's military career has sent him careening - and soaring - across the globe. Potentially his most important military success to date: securing the complete trust of the president who has long been skeptical of his top military brass.
'Caine, he's a fantastic man,' Trump said on Saturday.
'I've worked with a lot of generals, I worked with some I didn't like, I worked with some I didn't respect, I worked with some that just weren't good, but this guy is fantastic.'
#1
They knew where Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were living, when and where they traveled, what clothes they wore, what food they ate, even what pets they had, 'Raizin' revealed.
"...And finally, don't whack the chihuaua - he's one of ours."
Posted by: Matt ||
01/05/2026 9:17 Comments ||
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#5
I have no idea what happens in Venezuela today, tomorrow, or next week, but between the Iran strike and the Venezuela strike, there is now a considerable body of evidence for the proposition that, no matter who you are or where you are, this iteration of the US military can put a JDAM up your butt. Which seems to me to be a useful negotiating tool.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/05/2026 9:25 Comments ||
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#6
Too many people patting themselves on the back, talking big stuff about JSOC, .10 cent media assessments, etc. Will we soon see former SEAL and UBL shooter Rob O'Neill penning a new book?
There's more to it than oil. Thanks for the pithy comments above.
#13
If you were the wife, would you prefer to be protected by the Americans or by the very frustrated narco-communists who were left behind, after they had completely failed to protect your husband?
Since she was never going to step up and take over, this is very much a Whither thou goest situation.
Flores met Maduro in the early 1990s, when - as a young up-and-coming lawyer - she took on the defence of the plotters of the failed 1992 coup attempt.
Chief among them: Hugo Chávez, the man who would later become president.
It was during those years that she met Maduro, who at the time was working for Chávez as a security guard.
[AyPee] The Cuban military and police officers were on a mission the Caribbean country’s military was carrying out at the request of Venezuela’s government, according to a statement read on Cuban state TV on Sunday night.
What the Cubans were working on in the South American nation was unclear, but Cuba is a close ally of Venezuela’s government and has sent military and police forces to assist in operations for years. Rumors of the deaths circulated on the island over the weekend.
Cuba’s government announced two days of mourning for the Cuban officers who were killed, and former president and revolutionary leader Raúl Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel sent condolences to their families. The names of the dead and the positions they held were not immediately disclosed by Cuban authorities.
“Faithful to their responsibilities for security and defense, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell after fierce resistance in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of the bombings of the facilities,” the official statement said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also pointed to Cuban involvement in Venezuela over the weekend, saying that Maduro’s internal security apparatus was headed by Cubans and that they were “propping up Maduro.”
“All the guards that help protect Maduro — this is well known — their whole spy agency, all that were full of Cubans,” Rubio said.
#3
I'm sure those cubans were doing God's work, helping save Venezuela from the implementation of Gay Marriage by the Zionist threat.
(I don't have the knowledge or energy to put up the video right now, but you can see an excerpt at Ace's: https://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=417991). I'm putting this here for amusement purposes only. For lack of a better phrase.
My real concern: Maduro is, uh, was a figurehead. Delcy, who is the stepchild of Carlos the Jackal, is probably also another figurehead. Who's really running the country, and is Trump going to screw up by doing this on the cheap? I don't know.
#8
I'm on the phone at the washateria so don't ask me to post the link, but on X visegrad is posting that there's AA gunfire going off in Caracas right now.
[DM] China today urged Donald Trump to stay away from Venezuela's oil after the US said it would run the country following an operation to capture president Nicolas Maduro.
Its call came as the captured Venezuelan leader was driven to a court in New York this morning after being indicted alongside his wife on charges of 'narco-terrorism'.
The US president revealed American oil firms will 'go in and rebuild this system' as he signalled a plan to take control of huge and largely untapped reserves in Venezuela.
But China, which has invested billions in Venezuela's oil industry, claimed agreements it has with Caracas over oil exports from the country would be 'protected by law'.
China, an ally of Venezuela, also called for Mr Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores to be 'immediately released' in a strong condemnation of the operation over the weekend.
China's foreign ministry said the move was a 'clear violation of international law, basic norms in international relations, and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter'.
Officials in Beijing also called on Washington to 'cease efforts to subvert the Venezuelan government and resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation'.
Just last Friday, Mr Maduro was at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas meeting Qiu Xiaoqi, special representative of the Chinese government on Latin American affairs.
Meanwhile more than a dozen oil tankers loaded with Venezuelan crude and fuel were revealed to have fled the country in an attempt to evade American forces.
Hadn’t Venezuela illegally contracted to sell oil to China that was already under contracts made by the American oil companies that were producing it before Hugo Chavez kicked them out?
Full colour satellite photos the the link dated 12/22/2025 and 1/3/2026. Article posted Saturday evening, so some of the discussion is already superseded, but that does not change the usefulness of the images. About half the photos originally published in the article are now marked no longer available, which is interesting.
[TWZ] Destruction Seen At Caracas Base That Was A Focus Of The U.S. Military Operation: The sprawling facility is reported by some as the site where Maduro was plucked away by Delta Force operators.
Details are still emerging about the U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, an effort known as Absolute Resolve. We now have access to satellite imagery that provides an intriguing look at some of the key targets that were struck by the U.S. military during the operation, which are also indicative of the precision of the weapons employed.
You can catch up with our previous rolling coverage of the operation here.
At this point, we do not know for sure where Maduro and his wife were taken from. One very strong possibility is the major military complex at Fuerte Tiuna, in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. This is widely reported to accommodate a Maduro compound, and Venezuelan ruling party leader Nahum Fernández told The Associated Press that Maduro and his wife were there when they were captured. U.S. President Trump said the couple was in “a house that was more like a fortress,” which would also fit the description. Certainly, there were U.S. airstrikes concentrated at Fuerte Tiuna, as seen in the satellite imagery that follows in this article.
In terms of the platforms that carried out airstrikes, the Pentagon has confirmed that assets involved included F-22s, F-35s, F/A-18s, EA-18s, and B-1 bombers, as well as numerous drones, any of which could have been delivering munitions. Meanwhile, helicopters of the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment spearheaded the operation to capture Maduro. It appears that a Night Stalker MH-60 and possibly more rotorcraft may have touched down at or near Fuerte Tiuna.
In our early reporting, we looked at just some of the peculiar fortified locations on the base grounds at Fuerte Tiuna.
This military installation is a known center of gravity for the Venezuelan military, and it has some unique features, including bunkers/tunnels built into the side of the mountain it butts up against. Three examples of the unusual constructions at Fuerte Tiuna are seen in the images immediately below that were taken over the years, long before the operation:
Before former president Hugo Chávez began distancing Venezuela from Washington and aligning with US and Israeli adversaries such as Iran, Venezuela maintained a defense relationship with Israel. It had been a customer of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and other Israeli defense firms.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The radical left-wing anarchist group "Vulkan" claimed involvement in the fire that caused a massive power outage in southwest Berlin, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported. And now we have a name for this story from yesterday. The vicious idiots are probably proud of themselves.
In a letter sent to the police, anarchists claimed responsibility for setting fire to cables at a gas-fired power plant in the Lichterfelde district. They called the sabotage a success, claiming they acted in the public interest. The alleged perpetrators of the arson claim the action was not aimed at shutting off the power supply per se, but rather at opposing the use of fossil fuels. They characterized the attack as an act of international solidarity with defenders of nature and life.
The State Security Department considers the letter to be genuine.
The publication noted that the Vulkan group has repeatedly claimed responsibility for arson attacks in Berlin and the state of Brandenburg. Specifically, the newspaper noted, anarchists twice attacked the power supply facilities of the Tesla plant in Grünheide.
On January 3, the operator Stromnetz Berlin reported that a fire on a cable bridge had left nearly 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses in the southwest of the German capital without power and some without heating. By the following morning, power had been restored to approximately 7,000 households and 150 businesses.
Grid company Stromnetz Berlin said on Saturday that the suspected arson attack could leave up to 45,000 households without power until January 8.
The fire broke out on Saturday morning on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal, near the Lichterfelde power plant, according to local authorities. Initially, over 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses in four districts were without electricity. Heating and internet services were also affected.
On Sunday, Stromnetz Berlin said efforts to restore power were ongoing, with around 35,000 households and 1,900 commercial entities still affected.
Snowy weather and freezing temperatures have slowed down efforts to restore electricity and made life extra difficult for those affected.
[IsraelTimes] The Chabad House in Kathmandu, Nepal, which hosts thousands of Israeli backpackers every year, says it is being forced to abruptly relocate amid growing pressure from its landlord.
In a Facebook post, Chani Lifshitz says that she and her husband, Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz, were “told explicitly: Leave. Now,” after months of “another request from the landlord, another demand, another restriction, another decree.”
At first, she writes, “we were asked to remove all the Hebrew signs — so it wouldn’t be seen that there was a Jewish presence here, so [the landlord] wouldn’t be suspected by Iran of being a spy.” Iran?
At the same time, says Lifshitz, the landlord raised the rent repeatedly until it reached a point that was “impossible to meet.” It was becoming clear, she says, that “they don’t want this place to be a home for Jews,” and that their presence was “unnecessary and disruptive.”
The entire experience, she says, came with “a clear feeling of antisemitism, one that could no longer be ignored.”
Once they were kicked out, she says, they packed everything into a large storage space and are now looking for new locations where they can reopen.
Despite being in “a crisis,” Lifshitz writes, “we are not abandoning the mission. We are here. And we’re staying here in Kathmandu.”
Since they opened the Chabad of Nepal some 25 years ago, the couple and their six kids have hosted countless travelers for Jewish holidays, including more than 2,000 people at what has been called the largest Passover Seder in the world. Their experiences have served as inspiration for the Israeli show “Kathmandu,” which can be seen on Netflix in Israel.
In September, when Nepal was engulfed by deadly protests, the Chabad house provided shelter to hundreds of visiting Israelis and Jews.
Chabad outposts around the world — often a country’s most visible Jewish target — have repeatedly been subjected to antisemitic attacks, including last month in Sydney, Australia, when 15 people were gunned down at a Chabad Hanukkah celebration.
And so long as no border guards take a bribe to let miscreants through, they’re golden.
[Rudaw] Iraq uses drones and advanced surveillance systems as part of efforts to tighten security along its borders, particularly with Syria, as authorities move to expand aerial monitoring capabilities.
The Iraqi Border Guard Command told Rudaw on Sunday that unmanned aerial vehicles are playing a growing role in border control, as 15 drones are constantly used for surveillance.
"We have a contract with the defense industries commission to manufacture and purchase more drones," the command said, adding that the drones currently in use "can fly for over six hours and cover a monitoring range of 80 kilometers."
The command added that border security has reached unprecedented levels with extensive use of technology to monitor movement along frontier areas. "We have installed nearly 1,000 surveillance cameras along Iraq's borders that transmit footage to the national center, specifically along the sections bordering Syria. Therefore, border protection is now tighter than ever before," the command said.
In addition to surveillance technology, Iraq has continued constructing physical barriers along the Syria frontier. The Border Guard Command said "So far, approximately 350 kilometers of concrete wall have been constructed along the Syrian border, and the process is ongoing."
Iraq shares a 618-kilometer border with Syria, much of which has been fortified over the past two years with three-meter-high concrete walls, deep trenches, and watchtowers. Construction began amid ongoing security concerns and intensified following the collapse of Syria’s longtime dictator Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... in December 2024, raising fears of instability How could you tell? and possible infiltration by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) murderous Moslems and sleeper cells.
In November, Brigadier General Haider al-Karkhi, media director of Iraq’s Border Guard Command, told Rudaw, that in coordination with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), they were continuing "to erect a wall from the Rabia border [in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province] to Peshkhabur [in the Kurdistan Region’s northern Duhok province]." He added that the objective is "to control the entire border of the Region."
Large sections of the wall, including the stretch from Rabia in Nineveh province to near al-Qaim in western Anbar, have already been completed. Iraqi authorities have stated they intend to continue construction until the entire Syrian border is secured. The 40-kilometer segment between Peshkhabur and Rabia, starting from the Ottoman Turkish border, forms a key part of this effort.
Following Assad’s collapse, Iraq closed several border crossings with Syria. al-Karkhi said authorities also opened a new control centre in Baghdad, from where the borders are monitored via 975 thermal cameras and drones.
As of mid-September, the Border Guard Command reported that nearly 99 percent of Iraq’s borders were under camera surveillance, with drones conducting daily patrols, particularly in fortified areas. These measures also aim to curb cross-border smuggling, including narcotics such as Captagon.
Beyond Syria, Iraq shares extensive borders with neighboring countries: approximately 1,420 kilometers with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and 335 kilometers with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund... , all of which are included in the country’s broader border security strategy.
[IsraelTimes] Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men enlisted in the IDF today despite Haredi protests aiming to obstruct them, and most will serve in combat roles, a senior military officer tells lawmakers.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Brig. Gen. Shay Tayeb, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate’s Planning and Personnel Management Division, says that as of this afternoon, “there were over 210 fighters and over 140 combat support troops and it is likely that in 10 days this will end with the largest enlistment in recent times.”
The new troops are slated to serve in the ultra-Orthodox Netzach Yehuda battalion, Hasmonean brigade and other Haredi-oriented tracks.
Ultra-Orthodox protesters attempted to stop the recruits at the Jerusalem enlistment office and the Bakum military induction base in central Israel, leading to clashes with police, who used water cannons to disperse them.
According to the Ynet news site, demonstrators yelled that the recruits would become secular in the army, and called them “sinners” and “murderers.”
[IsraelTimes] Thousands of Israelis receive threatening text messages containing their personal information, in what appears to be the latest attempt at psychological warfare by Iranian agents.
“This is your last chance to save yourself and your family. Our shagriruyot [embassies] are open to you. We know you,” the English-language message reads. Some recipients received a link to a page containing their personal information, including their national ID number.
The National Cyber Directorate calls the texts an “attempt at intimidation and social engineering with the goal of creating psychological pressure,” in a statement quoted by Hebrew outlets.
Yesterday, an Iran-linked hacking group claimed to have broken into former minister Ayelet Shaked’s mobile phone, sharing about 60 pictures and videos supposedly stolen from her device.
The group, called Handala, also claimed last month that it hacked the phones of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief of staff Tzachi Braverman and of former prime minister Naftali Bennett.
Iran has long been trying, in various ways, to recruit Israelis as spies by offering payment.
[IsraelTimes] The Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza is expected to reopen this month and be staffed by the Palestinian Authority, says an unnamed Palestinian source cited by Sky News Arabia.
Israel, which has accused Hamas of using the Rafah crossing to smuggle arms, publicly rejects any postwar role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza’s post-war governance. US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, however, envisions the PA taking part in governing the Strip after it undergoes reform.
Which pushes it out to some nebulous future that most likely will never happen. So much for pronouncements and leaks at that end.
According to the source cited by Sky News, PA Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh and intelligence chief Majed Faraj arrived in Gaza today for talks on the PA’s role in operating the crossing, which is expected to reopen in mid-January.
At the beginning of the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, “the Palestinian Authority’s role will be limited to the administration of the Rafah crossing,” says the source.
The crossing will be manned by about 200 civilian technicians, PA presidential guard soldiers and intelligence officers, with European and Israeli forces monitoring the crossing “from afar,” the source says.
The source adds that the PA forces will operate according to a deal that Israel and the PA agreed to in November 2005, before Hamas ousted the PA from Gaza in 2007.
Under that agreement, the PA staffed the Rafah crossing, but had to consult regularly with Israel and submit to oversight by a third party. A civilian EU mission to help monitor the crossing began work there in 2005, but was suspended after Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007.
Israel has publicly refused to open the Rafah crossing in both directions until the last hostage, slain police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is returned. However, Channel 12 reported Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to order the crossing be reopened, with an Israeli “inspection site” on the IDF-controlled Gazan side, among other concessions he made to Trump during their meeting in Florida late last month.
[AnNahar] Israel is considering launching an operation in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... instead of settling for the current routine of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation has reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... "discussed in their meeting the expansion of Israeli strikes in Lebanon" and "according to two sources familiar with the details, and from what can be said from a censorship perspective, Israel is considering an operation in Lebanon, in order to eradicate the threat from Hezbollah," the report said.
"The IDF (Israeli army) has so far been content with airstrikes" but "under the cover of the ceasefire, Hezbollah has managed to recover to some extent, and in Israel they say that the Lebanese government stands helpless" against the Iran-backed group, the report added.
The report also said that the Trump administration is not against this possibility, but "Netanyahu was asked to wait with the decision in order to allow further dialogue with the Lebanese government."
[TurkiyeToday] That’s nice. Figure in ten years they’ll be slightly less behind however much more advanced Israeli and American offensive and defensive tech have become.
[TurkiyeToday] Baykar has produced five Kizilelma unmanned combat aircraft prototypes and two serial production aircraft, with the first delivery to the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) expected in the first quarter of 2026, Baykar Flight Training and Test Center Unit Leader Halil Akar said.
"We have produced 5 Kizilelma prototypes and two serial production aircraft. We have delivered 110 Akinci aircraft both domestically and internationally. Allah willing, this number will reach 120 more by the end of the year," Akar told Ihlas News Agency (IHA) at Baykar's Flight Training and Test Center in Tekirdag's Corlu district on Monday.
The Baykar Flight Training and Test Center, which began operations in 2019, conducts flight tests for Kizilelma and Akinci around the clock with approximately 200 personnel.
"Our main activities here are the test activities of the Bayraktar Akinci and Bayraktar Kizilelma aircraft, training for pilots and technicians of end users, and delivery of aircraft to end users," Akar said.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
01/05/2026 09:40 ||
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Link ||
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[Rudaw] Over 200,000 displaced people and foreign nationals are currently living in camps in northeast Syria (Rojava), an official from the Kurdish-led administration governing the enclave told Rudaw on Sunday, stating that the interim government in Damascus provides no assistance to the camps.
They’re happy to let the costs hobble the Kurdish government they wish to see collapse, and have no intention of hobbling themselves by taking on the costs and the work themselves.
Sheikhmous Ahmed, who oversees all camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees in Rojava, said the enclave has 10 official displacement and refugee camps.
"More than 100,000 people live in these official camps, while around 100,000 others reside in temporary centers and unofficial camps," he explained, emphasizing that "the camps receive absolutely no assistance from the Syrian government."
Ahmed further noted that only five official camps - al-Hol, Arisha, Mahmoudli, Newroz, and Roj - receive support from the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... , while "the other camps rely primarily on assistance from certain international and local organizations to meet their needs."
Among these, al-Hol is the largest camp in the Rojava-administered area. Notorious for its squalid conditions and often described as a breeding ground for extremism, al-Hol currently houses over 24,000 people with suspected ties to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS), down from more than 60,000 following the group’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.
Another camp, Roj, accommodates families considered less dangerous than those at Hol.
The two camps are primarily composed of Syrian and Iraqi nationals, though thousands of people from other countries who joined ISIS or lived under its rule also remain there.
On the return of Syrian families from Hol and Roj, Ahmed reported a lack of coordination between the Syrian government and the Rojava administration in "facilitating the return of these families to their areas."
In November, the Rojava official had also reported that the interim authorities in Damascus were not cooperating with Rojava officials to remove families with alleged ISIS links from Hol.
Ahmed also noted that the repatriation of foreign nationals from the camps is slow and "entirely dependent on the willingness and cooperation of their home countries."
For its part, Iraq in December repatriated 240 Iraqi families - a total of 858 people - from Hol, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Baghdad has pledged to ensure that no Iraqi families remain in al-Hol by 2027, with all expected to be repatriated in stages.
Earlier, in September, Iraq held a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York to advance plans to empty and dismantle Hol. The meeting led to the creation of a US-led joint task force aimed at accelerating the repatriation of foreign nationals.
Despite international pressure, several governments continue to refuse the return of their citizens, citing security concerns.
[IsraelTimes] Iran executed at least 1,500 people last year, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group says, in what it calls an “unprecedented” hike in the use of capital punishment.
“It is unprecedented in the last 35 years. As long as Iran Human Rights has existed, we have never had such numbers,” its director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam says.
Over the course of the protests, the officials told The New York Times, senior officials had admitted that Islamic Republic was in 'survival mode', a sentiment echoed by President Masoud Pezeshkian repeatedly over the last few weeks in public statements, including on Thursday, when he said, "If we do not solve the problem of people's livelihood, we will end up in hell."
Kidney transplantation stood out as the most common procedure in 2025. Of the 3,299 kidney transplants, 2,821 were carried out using organs from living donors, while 478 came from deceased donors (often referred to internationally as “cadaveric donation,” meaning donation after death).
Liver transplants followed with 1,728 procedures. Of these, 1,463 were performed from living donors and 265 from deceased donors.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
