President-elect Trump considering Ron DeSantis for Secretary of Defense as allegations against current pick Pete Hegseth garner increasing attention.

📎 AF Post

🇸🇾❌🇸🇾 — HTS captured a 48Y6-K1 Podlet radar from the Russian army on the Hama front.

🇸🇾❌🇸🇾 — HTS militants captured Syrian-Russian joint Armored Vehicles School Base near Hama.

HTS captured fifth T-90A tank and two Russian-made Tigr-M IMVs in the SAA 25th Special Forces Division & Russian joint base at the Armored Vehicles School, Hama.

🇸🇾❌🇸🇾 — HTS militants captured Army Brigade 87, Rasim al-Bagi, Awja, and Al-Uwayr from the SAA east of Hama city center

NEW: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot and killed in Manhattan by a man in a black mask.

The 50-year-old CEO was outside of the Hilton hotel when a man came up to him and shot him in the chest.

The masked man, who had a grey backpack on, then fled into a nearby alley.

Thompson was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced d*ad.

“UnitedHealthGroup was scheduled to start its annual Investor Conference at 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to the company,” News 8 reported.

📎 Collin Rugg

🇸🇾❌🇸🇾 Wikipedia's latest map on the Syrian Civil War

@CIG_telegram

China could approve another 100 nuclear reactors in the next decade, says industry lobby 🇨🇳 ☢️

After greenlighting a record 11 reactors so far in 2024, Beijing could commit to a “realistic target” of 10 approvals per year to 2035, said an official at the Chinese Nuclear Society

⚡️ Such a rate of expansion would see China’s nuclear power capacity almost quadrupling to 200GW by 2035, enough to meet 10% of electricity demand, said Tian Jiashu, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Nuclear Society

(Yes, must recognize the lobby is talking their book)

📎SStapczynski

https://archive.is/7r23n

🧵🇨🇦 The “Far Right” has been vindicated so many times in the past 5 years and I’m tired of pretending that they’re not always ahead of the curve on everything.

https://fxtwitter.com/gddub/status/1864127735632642314

🇷🇺🇸🇾 First Signs Russia Is Evacuating Navy Ships From Syria

The Russian Navy base at Tartus in Syria appears under imminent threat as the civil war turns against the Assad regime. As the front lines draw closer, Russia is already taking precautions. Russia currently has five naval ships and a submarine based in Tartus. These comprise of two Gorskhov class frigates, one Grigorovich class frigate, two axillaries and an Improved-Kilo class submarine.

One of these vessels, the auxiliary Yelnya, was noted departing Tartus on the morning of December 2 2024, with information suggesting that some or all of the other vessels also left. This unexpected move comes several days into a sudden change in the situation in Syria’s ongoing civil war

The naval base at Tartus on Syria’s Mediterranean coast is a strategic asset for Russia. The Russian Navy has maintained the naval base there since 1971 but it had fallen in use after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2012 usage has increased again and it became Russia’s main overseas naval base. And since the start of the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine it has taken on further significance. Russia boosted its military presence in the Tartus ahead of the invasion in order to counter and deter direct NATO involvement, particularly by aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean.

Tartus also acted as a staging base for major warships intending to join the fight in the Black Sea. As it transpired most of these, including two additional Slava class cruisers, were blocked by Türkiye from entering the Black Sea after the invasion started. They remained in the Mediterranean to offer support. Since then Russia has struggled to maintain that level of naval presence in the Mediterranean but the warships and submarine in Tartus remain key.

🔗 https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2024/12/first-sign-russian-navy-evacuating-naval-vessels-from-tartus-syria/

🇸🇾🤝🇸🇾 Syrian rebels aligned with HTS invite Alawite community to join the revolution.

HTS had been carefully managing its public appearance in handling of minorities since the Aleppo offensive

📝: This means that the HTS will likely attempt an offensive to the west into the governorates of Latakia and Tartus which will put Russian assets in Khmeimim and the Tartus naval base at risk of coming under fire.

🔗 Ragip Soylu

🇬🇧 Major war could destroy the British army in six months - minister

Alistair Carns said a rate of casualties similar to that prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being "expended" within six to 12 months.

He said it illustrated the need to "generate mass rapidly in the event of a crisis".

Official figures show the army had 109,245 personnel on 1 October, including 25,814 volunteer reservists.

Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel who is also a reservist, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers, killed or wounded, a day.

"In a war of scale - not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine - our army for example on the current casualty rates would be expended, as part of a broader multinational coalition, in six months to a year," he added.

"That doesn't mean to say we need a bigger army, but it does mean we must be able to generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis.

"The reserves are critical, absolutely central, to that process.

"Without them we cannot generate mass, we cannot meet the plethora of defence tasks and challenges that we require, and we cannot seamlessly integrate the very best experts into the heart of our armed forces.”

Army reservists serve in their spare time, getting paid to train outside their main jobs.

Carns said the reality of wars such as the one being fought in Ukraine was that they were "attritional in nature".

He also said the UK needed to "catch up with Nato allies" by placing a greater emphasis on its reserves.

🔗 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rqlelypgxo

🇷🇺❌🇺🇦 The Russian Armed Forces are preparing for a large-scale offensive on Kherson

300 boats have already been prepared to cross the Dnipro River, - the head of Kherson OVA Prokudin in an interview with FT

🔗 Asgard Intel

🇸🇾❌🇸🇾 The HTS has cut the Hama-Salamiyah road as well as the Hama-Masyaf road.

The only entry and exit out of Hama still in the hands of the SAA is the M5 motorway towards Homs.

By cutting the Hama-Salamiyah road, it puts the HTS rebels only 15km away from yet another big city in Syria.

@CIG_telegram

🏢📈 Multifamily home loan defaults are skyrocketing

📎 Bravos Research