Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 14, 2024

Unidentified Drones Spotted Over German Military, Industrial Sites

Israeli Airstrikes Hit Former Assad Regime’s Military Sites, Including Deep Underground Missile Depots
US government officials said last week that major telecom companies have been unable to fully evict the Chinese state-sponsored hackers from their networks.

Scientists Turn Their Focus to WA’s Mount Adams After Volcano Begins Rumbling

Hochul Weighs Warehouse Safety Bill as Injuries Continue to Climb

OpenAI whistleblower found dead at 26 in San Francisco apartment

ABC, Stephanopoulos Must Apologize to Trump, Pay $15 Million to Settle Defamation Suit

The Emerging Breast-Cancer Treatment: No Surgery Required

An “AI” generated short story. It kind of highlights how bad human writers don’t really understand the themes they are touching on.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 13, 2024

Russian Forces Appear To Be Pulling Out Of Prized Syrian Air Base

Syrian Druze call to be annexed to Israel

DOJ IG: Dozens of FBI Confidential Sources at Capitol on January 6

The sun may spit out giant solar flares more often than we thought

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 12, 2024

Engineer behind Russian Kh-69 cruise missile reportedly killed in Moscow region as part of Ukrainian intelligence operation

Britain, France, Germany Urge Iran to Halt ‘Nuclear Escalation’

Russia urged Assad to leave after determining he’d lost the war. Assad fled Damascus without telling any advisors out of fear that they would betray him.

Alois Brunner: The Nazi who helped the Assads torture Syrians

Not only did wholesale inflation for Nov come in red hot, but the last 3 months were also revised higher; headline exploded 0.4% M/M, pushing Y/Y to 3.0% while core (pictured here) jumped to 3.4% Y/Y and continues rising much faster than the pre-Jan ’21 average:

This is bad: after just two months into fiscal 2025, the US has already raked in a $624BN budget deficit.

Insurance companies aren’t the main villain of the U.S. health system

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 11, 2024

Satellite Imagery Shows Russian Navy Ships Anchored Off Syrian Coast

A good rule of thumb is that if it has flashing lights it is not something scary and secret. Though the concern about drones flying over military installations and other sensitive locations is legitimate, nearly all of the videos and imagery TWZ has reviewed are of private and commercial aircraft.

Educators Sound Alarm as College Enrollment Drops by ‘Very Large and Very Discouraging’ Amount

New York State Cancels Critical Transmission Project for “Clean Energy.” New York City could face energy shortfalls as early as the summer of 2026 if an additional transmission line is not built bringing hydroelectric power from Canada.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 9, 2024

Syria’s Suddenly Permissive Airspace Prompts Flurry Of Foreign Airstrikes

Syrian rescue teams were still trying desperately to reach prisoners trapped in the underground labyrinth of jails deep inside the city of Sednaya on Monday.

Descend Into The Depths Of The Assad Regime’s Massive Bunker

The Assad Family’s Darkest Moment

Fate Of Russia’s Prized Syria Bases: What We Know

Daniel Penny: NOT GUILTY

No, the bank cannot explain why SARs triggered a debanking, because disclosing the existence of a SAR is illegal. 12 CFR 21.11(k) Yes, it is the law in the United States that a private non-court, in possession of a memo written by a non-intelligence analyst, cannot describe the nature of the non-accusation the memo makes. Nor can it confirm or deny the existence of the memo. This is not a James Bond film. This is not a farce about the security state. This is not a right-wing conspiracy. This is very much the law.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 8, 2024

For what it is worth Russia says he is safe and sound in Russia. The Assad Regime Has Fallen, Claims Swirl Around Possible Crash Of His Escape Jet

From other sources I have read that they are still trying get some of them out because the guards ran away with the codes and they are struggling with the electronic locks in cells deep underground. Bewildered, elated prisoners pour out as Assad’s jails flung open

You can skip over the part about the Cathedral to get to overview of defense spending of America’s allies. The west is losing all interest or ability in maintaining military power.

New York’s Court of Appeals — Who’s on It and What Do They Do?

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 7, 2024

War, Deficits, and the Russian Economy: An Uphill Battle to Nowhere

What really happened in Krynky. The untold story of the marines’ landing on the left bank of the Dnipro River

How fast it happened and how little effort Iran made to save Syria was surprising. Syria’s armed opposition says they have captured the capital, Damascus, and that President Bashar al-Assad has fled the country.

Mysterious, Flu-Like Illness Claims 143 Lives in Democratic Republic of Congo. The illness is of unknown origin and has already claimed the lives of 143 people (the majority of who were in their teens).

A Closer Look At The Murder Of Brian Thompson

How We Got the Lithium-ion Battery

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 6, 2024

The Bashar al Assad regime faces an existential threat given the widespread collapse of regime forces and lack of sufficient external backing to bolster these forces.

Syrian Rebels Closing In On Homs, Cutting Off Damascus From Coast An Imminent Possibility

Syrian rebel commander urges Israel to support uprising, strike Iran-backed forces

So this “Iran sent into space on Friday its heaviest-ever payload using the Simorgh carrier rocket including an advanced module for transferring satellites to higher-altitude orbits, state television reported. The Samān-1 transfer module, along with a CubeSat and a research payload “were successfully placed in an elliptical orbit with a high point of 410 km (255 miles) and a low point of 300 km,” said the broadcast.” made me think of this “The geographic area exposed to varying levels of E1 EMP fields can be quite large, as the area of coverage is characterized by the line of sight from where the weapon is exploded to the horizon. For example, a detonation at 200 km can affect a circular area of on the order of 3 million square miles.” I don’t really think they are planning on doing this but they are never going to be able to build a Russian style arsenal. So if they ever wanted to hurt all of the US this would be the only possible way. However, it carries a lot of risks (the science is far from settled and the results are not certain) and not a lot of rewards (sure you take out the US economy but that does not prevent them from turning you to glass). But I can’t help thinking that the last few years have shown that rationality does not have a lot predictive value for what people will actually do.

Related to the above. Iran has ‘dramatically’ increased enrichment to near bomb grade -IAEA

The body responsible for keeping the lights on in Australia’s biggest electricity grids wants emergency powers to switch off or throttle rooftop solar in every state to help cope with the daily flood of output from millions of systems. And it warned that unless it had the power to reduce — or curtail — the amount of rooftop solar times, more drastic and damaging measures would need to be taken. These could include increasing the voltage levels in parts of the poles-and-wires network to “deliberately” trip or curtail small-scale solar in some areas.

Breakthrough in Spinal Cord Injury Recovery: New Brain Stimulation Restores Movement

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 5, 2024

North Korean Troops in Ukraine Struggling With Food Shortages

Anti-Assad Forces’ Capture Of Strategic Hama A Critical Stop On Road To Damascus

Who is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of the Syria rebels?

Iraqi Armed Group Urges Government to Deploy Troops to Syria

The most popular boys’ name in England and Wales in 2023 is ‘Muhammad.’

Preemptive Pardons of Fauci, Cheney, and Others Under Serious Consideration by Biden White House

U.S. math scores show ‘devastating’ decline

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, December 4, 2024

Russia Massing For Possible Cross-River Offensive In South Ukraine

Cuba’s electrical grid suffers another complete collapse, plunges entire nation into darkness

Calls to Boycott Dairy Products From Cows Given Anti-Methane Supplement Grow in UK

Early this morning United Healthcare insurance company CEO Brian Thompson was walking on a New York street headed for the Hilton Hotel in midtown. As security video makes clear, a man in a hoodie then walked up behind him and opened fire. What’s is unusual — and something most corporate media accounts have missed — is the fact that the shooter used a suppressed pistol in the attack. Watch the video in the tweet embedded above. The killer racks the slide of the handgun after each round is fired. At one point the killer has to knock the slide back into battery with the heel of his support hand. That seems to be the result of the use of either a home-made (3D printed?) silencer or something like a “solvent trap” like the kind sold through sketchy outlets like wish.com.

The Navy’s Amphibious Fleet Is In Really Bad Shape