[Breitbart] U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said on Tuesday that a small number of American military officers have been deployed to Nigeria to assist with counter-terrorism efforts.
Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson, the commander of AFRICOM, said during a press briefing hosted by the State Department on Tuesday that the deployment was made after he met with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu at a summit in Rome in October.
The summit was part of the Aqaba Process, a counter-terrorism initiative launched by King Abdullah II of Jordan in 2015. The 2025 meeting in Rome was focused on terrorist threats in West Africa.
"At that meeting, I was able to meet President Tinubu. We were able to share some thoughts and agree that we needed to work together on a way forward in the region," Gen. Anderson said on Tuesday.
"That has led to increased collaboration between our nations, to include a small U.S. team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States in order to augment what Nigeria has been doing for several years," he said.
Anderson did not say exactly how large the U.S. team was, what missions it has undertaken, or when it arrived in Nigeria. He was pleased with the outcome, saying, "We’ve had some really good, positive movement there."
Posted by: Besoeker ||
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#1
Afri solutions for Afri problems. Stay the fok out of it please.
[IsraelTimes] With Rafah Crossing’s limited opening, Gazans stuck outside of Strip during war express longing to return home, though some are reluctant due to dire conditions in territory
As Israel begins to allow a trickle of Paleostinians through the Rafah Crossing, Gazooks stranded in Egypt are torn between staying in exile without formal status or returning to a land in ruins.
"Return to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... for what? To live in a tent?" demanded Mohammed, a 78-year-old poet from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.
"We have not turned our backs on Gaza; we will return. But right now, we cannot go back under these conditions," he told AFP, asking to be identified only by his first name.
Some 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... While food security in Gaza has improved since the ceasefire came into place in October, the humanitarian situation in the Strip remains dire, and there are not yet detailed reconstruction plans.
Mohammed is among an estimated 80,000-100,000 Paleostinians who came to Egypt through the Rafah Crossing, before it was captured by Israeli forces and shut by Egypt in May 2024 amid the war in Gaza, which was sparked by the Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... -led October 7, 2023, massacre of some 1,200 people in southern Israel.
Returns are tightly controlled, and by Wednesday, only a few dozen Paleostinians had been allowed back, describing to AFP a humiliating journey through Israeli checkpoints.
Asked about the alleged mistreatment on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, "No incidents of inappropriate conduct, mistreatment, apprehensions, or confiscation of property by the Israeli security establishment are known."
NOTHING TO RETURN TO
Two years after their son, who lives in La Belle France, drained his savings to get them out, Mohammed’s wife, Sawsan, 72, said she could not imagine returning.
"The situation that pushed us out hasn’t changed. We lost our homes, our children, our livelihood," she told AFP, heartbroken over her family still in Gaza: a daughter, a son-in-law, and three grandchildren aged three, seven, and nine.
Across town, Nadra, 37, is focused only on her son, Hakim.
She brought him to Egypt in January 2024, seeking medical treatment after he suffered burns in an Israeli strike early in the war, at eight years old.
"There is no future in Gaza now. No clean water, no safety, no school for Hakim, nowhere for us to stay," she said.
Two years on, she lives off monthly transfers from her sister abroad that barely cover rent for her studio apartment.
Skyrocketing rent prices and a state of limbo are among the many struggles of Gazooks in Egypt, which has repeatedly warned against any mass displacement of Paleostinians into its territory.
Egypt offers a measure of safety, but Gazooks who arrived in recent years lack legal status, cannot work formally, and are often denied access to public hospitals, schools, and banking.
On the eastern outskirts of Cairo, Mahmoud Abdelrahman Rabie counts the days until he can return to Gaza.
He knows he may not be able to even find the remains of his former home and chicken farm in Jabalia, much of which has been bombed to the ground. The IDF operated in Jabalia several times throughout the war in order to dismantle Hamas capabilities in the area
"I know what life is like in a tent. I lived like that for a year. But I still want to return to Gaza," the 65-year-old told AFP from his cramped studio, a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders.
Rabie tried to make a living as a driver, but couldn’t get a license without a residence permit, and has since survived on help from friends and relatives.
"Here I am alive only in name. My heart and soul are in Gaza," he said.
But he has little hope, with only a handful of Paleostinians allowed through the crossing.
At the current rate, "my turn will come in two years," Rabie said. "I don’t even know how I’m paying next month’s rent."
A year after he was medically evacuated by the UN, Rabie longs for his family, which includes 52 grandchildren scattered around Gaza.
"I cry myself to sleep every night... I just want to go back to my land."
A TENT OVER A PALACE
Yaela el-Beltagy, a 36-year-old former restaurant owner, has registered himself, his wife, son, and four siblings to return to Gaza.
"I want to go back, see my father and mother, even if there is nothing there but tents," he told AFP by phone.
"We’re a people deeply connected to our land; we cannot stay away from it," he said.
Paleostinians have repeatedly warned of mass displacement from Gaza, and that those leaving will not be allowed to return.
"I would pick a tent in Gaza over a palace anywhere in the world," Beltagy said. Well, there you go.
But though they long for home, many are unprepared to risk their family’s health and safety.
Hala, a 40-year-old teacher’s assistant, left Gaza a few weeks before the Rafah Crossing shut.
She now lives with her parents, both of whom are in need of regular healthcare — impossible for most in Gaza.
"I can’t go back there, not with my parents, and not without them. They’re getting old; they deserve to live out their days in peace.
Al Qaeda is now on the path of gaining its 3rd area where it controls territory.
After recent Al Qaeda successes in Somalia (Al-Shabaab) and Mali (JNIM) there are now reports about AQ gaining a foothold in Yemen after receiving arms from the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Al-Islah… pic.twitter.com/EP7mmib0Lq
Al Qaeda is now on the path of gaining its 3rd area where it controls territory.
After recent Al Qaeda successes in Somalia (Al-Shabaab) and Mali (JNIM) there are now reports about AQ gaining a foothold in Yemen after receiving arms from the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Al-Islah party.
New reports show that Al Islah has started smuggling automatic rifles, explosives and ammunition to fighters of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the Shabwa governorate of Yemen.
Even if the weapon smuggling is new, the two groups have cooperated in the past.
U.S. terror designations targeted Islah figures like Sheikh Abd al-Majid al-Zindani (linked to Osama bin Laden) and others for AQAP support, while Anwar al-Awlaki once sheltered with senior Islah officials.
These links stem from shared ideological roots between the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda as both organizations emerged from Islamist revivalism.
[IsraelTimes] Palestine Action members acquitted of aggravated burglary, with one also found not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm despite being filmed striking policewoman with sledgehammer
Six British pro-Paleostinian activists were acquitted of aggravated burglary over a 2024 raid on Israeli defense firm Elbit’s factory on Wednesday, with a jury returning no guilty verdicts at all in a blow for prosecutors.
The six were members of the now-banned group Paleostine Action, which organized a meticulously planned assault on the Elbit Systems UK facility in Bristol, southwest England, in the early hours of August 6, 2024.
The raid, which prosecutors said caused about 1 million pounds ($1.4 million) of damage, took place around 10 months into the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war triggered by the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... -led holy warriors who invaded Israel in October 2023.
Prosecutors had told a jury at London’s Woolwich Crown Court at the start of the trial in November that the six were part of a larger group that used a white former prison van to ram their way into the factory and then smash equipment.
The defendants said they were simply motivated to destroy weapons to stop what they described as Israel’s "genocide" in Gaza and disavowed violence against people, though police bodycam footage broadcast during the trial showed one of them striking an officer with a sledgehammer, resulting in a fractured spine.
NOT GUILTY VERDICTS AND HUNG JURY
Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were all acquitted of aggravated burglary by the jury after more than 36 hours of deliberation.
Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin were found not guilty of violent mostly peaceful disorder, while the jury could not reach verdicts on the same charge against Head, Corner and Kamio.
The jury could also not reach verdicts on an additional charge of criminal damage.
Corner had also denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent for hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer. The jury was unable to agree a verdict on that count.
The defendants hugged in the dock and waved to supporters in the public gallery, who cheered loudly after the judge had left the court.
Prosecutors said they wanted time to consider whether to seek a retrial on the counts on which the jury could not reach verdicts.
PALESTINE ACTION BAN FACES COURT CHALLENGE Britannia proscribed Paleostine Action as a terrorist organization last July, almost a year after the Elbit incident took place, making it a crime to be a member. The ban has separately come under challenge at London’s High Court.
Judge Jeremy Johnson had told the jury the ban was irrelevant to the criminal trial and they must consider the case "on the evidence, not on the basis of what you or anyone else thinks about Paleostine Action or the war in Gaza."
Prosecutor Deanna Heer said the defendants intended to "cause serious damage to property and to use or threaten unlawful violence against anyone who stood in their way, if necessary with the use of weapons."
Defend Our Juries, a campaign group organising protests calling for the ban on Paleostine Action to be lifted, celebrated Wednesday’s verdicts.
"These verdicts put to bed the deceitful accusations from ministers that these brave activists are ’violent mostly peaceful criminals,'" said Defend Our Juries.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish organization in the United Kingdom, said in a statement that it was "concerned by the troubling verdicts acquitting members of Paleostine Action." Alleging that the group had targeted "businesses linked to the Jewish community in London and Manchester," the group called for a retrial on the charges in which the jury did not reach a verdict.
"While it is important to respect the integrity of the judicial process, there is a serious danger of perverse justifications being used as a shield for criminality," the statement continued. "It cannot be the case that those who commit serious criminal acts, including violent mostly peaceful assaults, are able to evade the consequences of their actions."
In an op-ed published in The Telegraph titled "The Paleostine Action acquittals are telling British Jews they have no future here," former Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard argued that "the message of the case is this: you can smash the spine of a police officer and so long as you are doing it because of ’Paleostine’, you can walk home free."
"That decision, I believe, may come to be seen as the single most significant case in the history of Anglo-Jewry since 1945," continued Pollard. "It shows that the game is up. We can no longer rely on the criminal justice system. And when the law is no longer there to protect us, who or what will?"
Parliamentary inquiries into England’s Pakistani rape gang problem is a bit of a hobbyhorse for the honourable MP from Yarmouth, wherever that is. Still, it keeps the issue front of mind and in the papers, rather than once again dying from lack of attention as important people tell om3-.
One of many lessons from our hearings today.
In many cases, the police were complicit in these rapes. I do not say that lightly.
The lack of any desire to investigate these men is criminal. It happened again and again and again.
Parents pleaded and begged. The police all too often did nothing. Staggeringly, they even suggested the parents work with the rapists, as we heard today. This went on for years, years and years and years. We will be releasing further evidence on this over the coming days.
These children were torn away from their families, through alcohol, drugs, fear or blackmail. They were then raped and abused, on an industrial scale. These rapists knew exactly what they were doing. It’s evil. Pure evil. Turning these children against their families. It is psychological torture.
Honestly I feel sick going over it.
To have that happen to your child must be the most unimaginable pain.
To those parents who have been campaigned so that others don’t go through that same pain? They have my greatest respect.
This was an important topic to start our hearings with, because it’s not just the survivors who have their lives ruined.
It’s entire families. The impact is more brutal than most of us could ever imagine.
We had three parents tell us their unique stories - there are thousands and thousands and thousands of others. It is almost endless, and it absolutely does continue today.
But today was a small step in the right direction.
Great Yarmouth independent MP Rupert Lowe raised more than £600,000 to launch the 'Rape Gang Inquiry', which began its hearings in London on Monday.
Mr Lowe said the inquiry will last for two weeks, with evidence-gathering, testimony and scrutiny focused on grooming gangs across the county and what he described as "the repeated failures by public authorities to act on warnings".
Mr Lowe said: "This inquiry is about action. We have gathered evidence, we will listen carefully over the coming two weeks, and we will then act.
"Our ultimate objective is justice - including the pursuit of private prosecutions where appropriate. Justice for the girls who were abused. Justice for the families who were ignored.
"And justice for a country that was repeatedly misled about what was happening in its towns and cities."
Mr Lowe's fundraising for his inquiry started before prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
Baroness Anne Longfield will lead that inquiry over three years with a budget of £65m.
Zoe Billingham, chairman of Norfolk and Suffolk's NHS Foundation Trust, is one of three panellists on the national inquiry.
A major inquiry led by British MP Rupert Lowe has claimed that Pak rape gangs have been operating across at least 85 local authorities in the UK, with some cases dating back to the 1960s. The inquiry, based on thousands of Freedom of Information requests and survivor testimonies, warns that the scandal is far more widespread than previously believed. Lowe criticised the government’s inaction, urged swift intervention, and called for deportations of foreign nationals complicit in child sexual exploitation.
Lowe, who chaired the Rape Gang Inquiry, announced that gang-based child sexual exploitation has been identified in at least 85 local authorities, reigniting concerns about grooming gangs.
In a post on X, Lowe wrote, "Our inquiry has shown that this rotting scandal is more widespread than thought — hundreds of thousands of lives have been ruined at the hands of predominantly Pak rape gangs."
The findings come just months after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he would accept a recommendation for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. For years, campaigners had pressed for an official investigation into how authorities failed to protect vulnerable children.
Lowe criticised the government for inaction, saying, "It is over two months since Labour promised nationwide action, yet the government has been seemingly idle since. The new Prime Minister should not wait to act. There have been too many broken promises, too many missed opportunities and too many children failed over the years in power."
He added that the inquiry gathered information through thousands of Freedom of Information requests as well as testimonies from survivors, families and whistleblowers.
CALL FOR ACTION IN PARLIAMENT
Lowe confirmed that a full submission would be made in Parliament. "Ongoing cases have been referred to relevant authorities, and the Rape Gang Inquiry will shortly be making a submission before Parliament highlighting the current extent of the child sexual exploitation scandal," he said.
He added that this would include "a recommended framework of oversight and support, with transparency and accountability safeguards to ensure government intervention is effective, and has a tangible impact on victims."
DEPORTATION DEBATE:
The politician has also taken a strong stance on the deportation of foreign nationals involved in or complicit with the gangs. In one post, he said, "If a foreign national knew and did nothing, they must be deported. Complicit is the word. If a Brit knew and did nothing, prosecute. From the evidence that we are seeing, it’s abundantly clear that huge numbers of people must have been aware but turned the other way."
He went further, saying, "If a Pak woman stood by and allowed her husband to rape a vulnerable young white girl, then she should be forcibly removed from our country. And NEVER allowed back. Any foreigner involved must be deported."
Lowe acknowledged that he faced criticism, including from Reform UK politician Nigel Farage, but insisted that public opinion supported his position. Citing a Restore Britannia poll with Find Out Now, he said "78 per cent support deporting foreign rapists, with only 2.6 per cent opposed, while 71.5 per cent back stripping citizenship from dual nationals convicted of such crimes and deporting them to Pakistain."
On Thursday he reiterated, "Restore Britannia polling has shown that 71.5% of Brits support stripping dual British/Pak nationals convicted of child rape/exploitation of their British citizenship and deporting them to Pakistain. Only 6.1% disagree. Overwhelming support for deportations."
The scandal of grooming gangs, often described as involving mostly Pak men targeting vulnerable white girls, came to national attention over a decade ago. It has returned to the political agenda in 2025 after public debate and high-profile interventions, including criticism from billionaire Elon Musk earlier this year.
In January this year, Musk accused Starmer of inaction during his time as DPP, suggesting that the CPS failed to adequately prosecute members of grooming gangs. Musk’s comments followed a post on X that linked Starmer’s tenure to alleged institutional neglect of the victims.
Notably, Starmer served as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and head of the CPS from 2008 to 2013, a period when awareness and prosecution of grooming gangs gained momentum.
Back then, Starmer introduced new prosecution guidelines emphasizing victim support and recognizing patterns of grooming. Under his leadership, several grooming gang prosecutions were pursued, including the Rochdale case, where nine men were convicted in 2012.
However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... critics argue that these measures were not implemented quickly enough and that significant gaps in addressing abuse persisted during his tenure.
[Breitbart] Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma Barragan, is again denying reporting from #1 New York Times bestselling investigative journalist and Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer’s new book, The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon, which accuses Mexican officials of using its consular offices in the United States to sway American elections.
This week, Moctezuma appeared on CBS News’s The Takeout with Major Garrett, denying Schweizer’s reporting that Mexico has used its consulates in the U.S. to swing American elections in Mexico’s favor.
“It’s completely false because as you know, we follow the Vienna Convention, that has very clear… laws for every country,” Moctezuma said in response to Schweizer’s reporting. “What we do in the United States is what the U.S. does in Mexico. You have nine consulates for 1.6 million Americans that live in Mexico.”
“He says that there is an opposition to President Trump. If you look at the numbers in 2016, President Trump had about 28 percent of the Latino vote,” Moctezuma said. “And in 2024, 48 percent — almost doubled. But also, if you look at Mexican migration… has dropped sharply since the year 2000.”
“Another thing that you can analyze, the number of Mexicans that have become Americans in the U.S. is about 34 percent of the ones that have the right to become citizens. So if there was this idea of getting involved in internal politics, that number should be bigger,” Moctezuma said.
Over the weekend, Moctezuma appeared on Fox News Channel to deny the claims just after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum similarly denied Schweizer’s reporting.
“Consulates have a role determined by international laws, and what our consulates essentially do is provide protection and assistance to Mexicans in the United States,” Sheinbaum said.
“That is their job; it is fundamental and that is what they are dedicated to do,” she continued. “We categorically deny that they are doing anything related to U.S. politics. We are very respectful. If we demand non-intervention from other countries, we obviously comply with that constitutional principle ourselves.”
With more than 50 consulates in the U.S. today, Schweizer writes, the Mexican government “is blatantly interfering in our domestic politics, working with American political advisors to turn legal and illegal migrants inside the US into a political force to wield for their benefit.”
Schweizer notes that former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) toured American cities in February 2017 with the purpose of rallying Mexican migrants in the U.S. against President Donald Trump’s border policies, which crippled drug cartel profits through strict immigration enforcement.
AMLO, in his attempts to upend Trump’s border policies, went as far as to suggest turning Mexico’s consulates into migrant defense offices, Schweizer writes — an unprecedented level of lobbying by a neighboring nation’s leader against a sitting American president.
“AMLO was not simply aiding migrants in their legal battles in the United States; he was calling for and working toward an electoral change inside the U.S.,” Schweizer writes. “A foreign leader so brazenly interfering in American politics was unprecedented, at least from a country with which the United States was not at war.”
[Breitbart] A number of highly organized and heavily funded groups are pushing anti-ICE protesters into wild confrontations with federal agents, so the groups can use the incidents for propaganda purposes and to secure greater power and even more funding.
One such organization calls itself Defend the 612 (the numbers represent a Minneapolis zip code), according to City Journal.
“This cycle reveals the core strategy of Defend the 612’s leadership,” City Journal reports, “using casualties as a catalyst for further escalation. Organizers continue to push volunteers into unpredictable scenes, ensuring continued confrontations between residents and federal agents, while the professional architects of the chaos remain shielded from the consequences.”
The pro-illegal alien group claims its goal is to “protect” Minneapolis neighborhoods, and characterizes its support for migrant murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and gang members as an “act of love and caring.”
“Minneapolis will not accept federal occupation and we will not accept the violent invasion by immoral storm-troopers who have been given orders to terrorize our community and riot in our streets. Masked agents try to kidnap our babies and tear families apart again and again, but the 612 is completely clear and united: We want ICE OUT of our home and there is nothing that will ever stop us from boldly and openly taking care of each other,” the extremist, left-wing group exclaims.
The form this “taking care of each other” takes, though, is to train their so-called “ICE watchers” to get into increasingly risky and dangerous confrontations with police and federal law enforcement officers, according to City Journal.
As Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow reported in October, these groups are heavily funded by foreign billionaires such as George Soros and Neville Roy Singham.
Seamus Bruner, the Director of Research at the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), and GAI President Peter Schweizer recently revealed that Singham is among dozens of radical left-wing organizations and funders of left-wing domestic terrorism in the U.S.
Training for Defend the 612 (and many other such groups in other states) teaches leftist anti-ICE activists to get physically involved in hampering law enforcement.
The training materials instruct their insurrectionary followers that their tactics are “about interfering with [immigration enforcement], confusing them, slowing them down so they can’t take more people, and doing it so well that they never want to come back” and to make immigration enforcement “uncomfortable and inefficient.”
The organizations train their followers to refuse to comply with orders from law enforcement, further placing them in harm’s way.
Field troops are even encouraged to insert themselves into the paths of law enforcement and to get arrested to divert officers and resources from being used for their proper purpose of arresting criminal illegal aliens. This also puts followers in danger of being injured by law enforcement.
These dangerous and unhinged tactics placed two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, directly into harm’s way, resulting in their deaths.
But the casualties do not bother the trainers. These groups hope for members to be harmed in the field during protests so that they can use the incidents for further fundraising and to justify increasing the level of violence.
[Rudaw] US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... ’s policy for cooperation with Baghdad calls for an Iraqi government that can work "effectively and respectfully" with Washington, a US State Department official told Rudaw on Wednesday, asserting the US’s readiness to "use a full range of tools" to implement this policy and reiterating Trump’s warning against former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki (2006-2014) returning to premiership.
In a statement to Rudaw, the US official said the administration’s "policy towards Iraq requires an Iraqi government that is capable of working effectively and respectfully with the United States," underling, "We are prepared to use the full range of tools to implement the President’s policy and have communicated this to Iraqi politicianship."
The State Department official further reiterated President Trump’s previous remarks, stating, "Last time Maliki was in power, the country descended into poverty and total chaos. That should not be allowed to happen again. Because of his extreme policies and ideologies, if elected, the United States of America will no longer help Iraq and, if we are not there to help, Iraq has ZERO chance of Success, Prosperity, or Freedom."
President Trump made the latter statement in a post on his Truth Social platform last week, seemingly vetoing Maliki’s nomination by Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework just days earlier.
Iraq held early legislative elections in mid-November. Shortly after, the Coordination Framework announced that it had formed the largest parliamentary bloc - a key step in nominating the country’s next prime minister - after its parties secured a combined 179 of the 329 seats in the legislature.
Since then, parties have been maneuvering to elect the country’s next president, who will then appoint a prime minister nominee selected by the largest bloc, in line with Iraq’s post-2003 informal power-sharing system, which allocates the parliament’s speakership to Sunni Arabs, the premiership to Shiite parties, and the presidency to Kurds.
Despite Trump’s remarks, the Coordination Framework on Saturday reaffirmed its support for Maliki, stressing that "choosing the prime minister is a purely Iraqi constitutional matter, conducted according to political process mechanisms that take national interest into account, away from external dictates."
Nonetheless, in an interview with the local al-Sharqiya News channel, the former premier, who also leads the State of Law coalition that won 29 seats in Iraq’s legislature in the November election, stated that he would respect any decision made within the Coordination Framework to withdraw his nomination.
"I respect differing viewpoints. If two-thirds of the parties [within the Coordination Framework] decide to replace me, I will accept the decision," he said.
#1
"Good morning, Mr Former Prime Minister. President Trump would like to invite you to lunch at Mar-a-Lago. Don't worry about transportation. We'll send a helicopter to pick you up."
[Rudaw] Preparations have intensified among military forces and residents in the Yazidi heartland, Shingal (Sinjar) district, after the Syrian Arab Army reached the border area, raising fears of renewed instability nearly a decade after 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) genocide against the religious minority.
The development has prompted heightened readiness among local gangs, including the all-Yazidi unit of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi), amid concerns over potential spillover from Syria.
"The people of the area are all ready to cooperate with the security forces," Khal Ali, commander of the Lalish Brigade of the PMF, told Rudaw. "The Yazidis know very well what happened to them 10 years ago, so today they are fully prepared, with all their strength and capabilities, to defend their area."
In its assault on Shingal in 2014, ISIS gunnies kidnapped 6,417 Yazidi women and kiddies, many of whom were subjected to sexual slavery and forced labor. A large number of them remain unaccounted for.
Ali did not hide his unease over the changing dynamics along the border. "They have become a state. Even though we did not want them to become our neighbors, they have become our neighbors against our will," he said, referring to Syria's Islamist rulers who overthrew Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... ’s regime in December 2024.
Hadi Elias, media spokesperson for the Yazidi-led Shingal Resistance® Units (YBS), said his forces are on alert to prevent a repeat of the 2014 atrocities. "Our forces in Shingal are ready to prevent any genocide," he told Rudaw. "So far there is no immediate threat and they have not taken any step toward us, but one must always remain prepared and vigilant."
Anxiety has also spread among civilians in the district. Dakhil Mcho, a Shingal resident, said the security situation remains calm for now, but warned against complacency. "At the security level, there is nothing so far, but we ask our people to remain alert," he said.
Shingal activist Saad Hamo cautioned that the risks extend beyond the district itself. "All countries neighboring Syria are at risk," he said. "If they finish in Rojava [northeast Syria] today, tomorrow they will come to Iraq and the day after to other countries."
Shingal district shares nearly 80 kilometers of border with Syria and the Kurdistan Region. After the defeat of ISIS in the district 2015, the border area from the Syrian side came under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), making it a sensitive flashpoint amid shifting regional dynamics.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas says 54 bodies and 66 other boxes of human remains taken by Red Cross to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital for identification; Israel does not comment
Israel returned the bodies of of 54 slain Paleostinians and 66 other boxes of human remains to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... on Wednesday, transferring the remains to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital via the Red Thingy, the Strip’s Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... -run health ministry said.
Medical staff will work to identify the bodies and remains, and to return them to their families, the ministry said.
Israel did not comment on the reported transfer of the remains.
According to a Sunday court filing by the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Paleostinian group that has petitioned the High Court for the release of Paleostinians’ bodies, Israel holds the bodies of over 700 Paleostinians.
The legal group said that the bodies come from both Gaza and the West Bank, and they include hundreds of unidentified people killed by Israel in the Strip during the war since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Last week, in accordance with the October 9 Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, Israel handed over the bodies of 15 Gazooks, following the retrieval of the body of Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza.
Before Wednesday, Israel had only handed over the remains of Paleostinians it was holding during the current ceasefire in exchange for slain hostages, at a ratio of 15:1.
According to reports in Paleostinian media, Israel has returned the remains of 360 Gazooks to the Strip since the ceasefire took effect in October.
Of the 360 bodies and remains returned, medical authorities have only confirmed the identities of some 100 Paleostinians, according to Gaza health ministry data, with the rest buried as unidentified.
According to the health ministry, the corpse count from the war in the Gaza Strip is over 71,800, including more than 500 people killed during the current ceasefire.
While Israel has largely rejected corpse counts claimed by Hamas’s health ministry during the war, a senior Israeli military official acknowledged to news hounds last week that the IDF believes the Hamas toll has been largely accurate, estimating that around 70,000 Gazooks have been killed.
According to the military official, the toll does not include bodies believed to be buried under the rubble in Gaza, which Hamas estimates at around 10,000.
The bigwig said the actual breakdown of the Gaza corpse count is still under review, and it is unknown exactly how many of the dead are members of terror groups and how many people died directly as a result of the fighting.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] A new scandal—and this time, a rather unusual one—has erupted within the Israeli security services. A security official has emerged who enjoys gambling on political issues on the Polymarket platform and exploiting his official position to improve his chances of winning.
Israelis do have reason to be concerned: many of the factors that ensured the success of their risky bets were known only to a select few. This means there's a clear threat to national security. However, the problem may not be where they're looking.
THE NAMELESS DISPUTANT
The commotion was sparked by the activities of an unknown player. Having registered on the platform under the nickname RicoSauve666 in June 2025, he placed three large bets on Iranian issues—the most popular and controversial at the time.
The first was that the Iran-Israel war would begin in June (although most players in the game assumed the diplomatic squabbles would last until at least August); the second was that it would happen on Friday (and not on any other day); and the third was that the conflict would not last long.
In the latter case, the stakes were practically unique: the disputants unanimously believed in a protracted conflict, surpassing the war with Hamas in scale and duration.
Two weeks later, RicoSauve666 hit the jackpot: his predictions netted him over $154,000, setting a platform record. Although the mysterious bettor retreated into the shadows after the June events, news of him quickly leaked to forums and from there to the press.
The success story attracted the attention of competent authorities.
A STRANGER AMONG HIS OWN
For several months, the investigation proceeded behind closed doors—each of Israel's intelligence agencies (AMAN military intelligence, Shin Bet counterintelligence, and Mossad) combed through the personnel files of its employees, searching for anyone who might have been prone to gambling, but apparently without success. At least, they never found RicoSauve666's trail.
However, several other bets on less-discussed events (for example, on Israeli ultra-Orthodox protest activity, relations with Palestinian factions, and the prospect of criminal prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Qatargate case) were discovered, presumably made using internal information. The players who made the most accurate predictions were preliminarily "marked."
Once the internal investigations had run their course, the intelligence agencies began to look at each other with distrust. Most of the criticism was directed at the Mossad: given the overall secrecy of Israeli foreign intelligence and its unofficial status as the "elite of the elite," its officers were quite likely to test the system's resilience. This was especially true since outgoing Director David Barnea had largely let go of the reins in recent months, leaving the investigations to his successor, Roman Gofman.
Mossad supporters, however, retort sarcastically: they say that the structure's personnel remain more resilient in the face of challenges than other Israeli intelligence agencies, and while the Shin Bet and Aman were rocked by numerous scandals involving the infiltration of Iranian spies, mafia elements, and other marginal elements into their ranks, the Mossad remained virtually impregnable.
Identifying the "gambling mole" is hampered not only by interdepartmental disagreements but also by the specifics of the platform itself. It operates on blockchain technology and has a high level of personal data protection. All payments are processed exclusively in cryptocurrency, and the administrator only knows the clients' wallet numbers.
Even if the company's founder, Shane Coplan, had agreed to share the data with Israeli investigators, it would have made little progress in the leak investigation.
Then the investigators decided to take a risky step: taking the case public. The news was published by all major Israeli media outlets and widely circulated by bloggers. Apparently, the security forces hoped to intimidate the mysterious player and discourage him from using classified information for his own enrichment.
However, he interpreted the signal in his own way.
BREAKING THE PATTERN
A few days ago, RicoSauve666 returned to the platform, renaming himself Rundeep. He once again began making risky bets on upcoming events in the region.
Specifically, a war between Iran and the United States would begin on January 31, 2026. Due to Donald Trump's abrupt shift in position, this bet backfired; Tehran and Washington agreed to a technical meeting in Ankara (tentatively scheduled for February 6). However, Rundeep didn't despair and pushed back the forecast to early March. Supposedly, by then, the United States and Iran would exhaust diplomatic avenues and resort to arms.
An unexpected forecast error further confused the investigation. If the mysterious player was unaware of the intermediaries' plans, then they certainly weren't Mossad agents, as Israeli intelligence officials were involved in consultations with the Americans and were aware of the plans' changes long before they were leaked to the press. Therefore, Rundeep's identities lie elsewhere.
But there's also no guarantee he didn't deliberately commit forgery to mislead investigators. While the case lacks leads, the player's identity remains in dispute.
Against this backdrop, some observers are timidly hinting that Israel shouldn't focus solely on its own structures. Especially since there was a similar case before: someone named "Freddie 9999" bet nearly $3 million on Joe Biden not running for a second term in favor of Kamala Harris, winning over $80 million. At the time, it was claimed that the man behind the bet was a career CIA officer, but this was never proven.
Given the close interaction between American and Israeli entities, it's possible that the Israelis' partners simply used secondary information to improve their personal financial situation.
And although in this case the "mole-gambler" in Israeli structures is a figment of the imagination of competing agencies, this does not remove the threat of premature disclosure of sensitive data.
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.
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!...
...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 
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
