Philip Pilkington on X:

"Yellen saying that the Trump administration is going to have to bring the deficit down after she blew it out. These people are so brazen. It still seems likely that there will be an attempt to force Trump into austerity and if he doesn't play along he'll get Trussed."

📎 Philip Pilkington

🇹🇷🤝🇮🇷 Iran, Turkiye sign trade cooperation agreement, set $30 billion target

The agreement was signed in the presence of Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development and Turkiye's Minister of Trade during the 29th Joint Economic Cooperation Commission meeting held in Tehran on Wednesday.

Currently, trade between the two nations stands at $11.7 billion, with plans to increase this figure to $30 billion over the next five years,

🔗 https://en.irna.ir/news/85687275/Iran-Turkiye-sign-trade-cooperation-agreement-set-30-billion

🇺🇦🤝🇸🇾 WaPo's David Ignatius reports that Ukrainian intelligence sent 20 experienced drone operators and 150 FPV drones to Idlib to aid the Syrian rebels last month.

📝Anon: For reference, 150 FPVs is what 5 or less FPV operators in Ukraine may use in a day. To topple a regime, this was a stupidly cheap investment.

🔗 https://archive.ph/YLBNo

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 The battle of Pokrovsk became the biggest battle of this war. But it also became one of the largest battles in history in terms of the number of armored vehicles lost.

In the battles near Pokrovsk, Ru losses are close to the number of the entire Western Military District of the Ru Fed as of 2022, which was being prepared for war with NATO. And this is about 60% of the forces with which Russia planned to seize Ukraine in three days in 2022.

In October 2023, Ru defined the offensive on Pokrovsk as the main axis of its offensive campaign. Obviously, Putin is focused on the goal of completely capturing the Donetsk region as the highest priority goal in the coming years. But this offensive led to colossal losses.

During the first few weeks of the offensive, Russian losses were estimated at 13,000 soldiers. In February 2024, Russian losses were estimated at 47,000 soldiers killed and wounded. In the future, the dynamics of battles in this direction did not decrease.

Under this dynamic, Russia's total losses for 13 months of fighting in the Pokrovsky direction amount to about 150,000 soldiers killed and wounded. This is more than Russia's losses in the battles for Bakhmut (100,000).

Only the visually confirmed losses of the Russian army during the 13 months of fighting in the Pokrov region amount to 1,800 units of armor. The real losses are even greater.

Russia lost more tanks at Pokrovsk than any country in Europe has in its army. Or more soldiers than the entire Armed Forces of the United Kingdom.

🔗 Volodymyr Dacenko

🇺🇸 FBI Director Chris Wray has resigned — making way for President Trump's nominee, Kash Patel.

🔗 Trump War Room

🇸🇾 Syria after Assad's rule - December 11th

- SNA and SFA entered into Manbij, Deir ez-Zor and Abu Kamal
- IDF are expanding the "buffer zone" towards Damascus

📎 NewsMap

🇪🇹🇸🇴 Ethiopia, Somalia reach agreement in Ankara-mediated peace talks: Turkish president

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced late Wednesday that Ethiopia and Somalia reached an agreement to solve the conflict between the two nations in Ankara-mediated peace talks.

“We have taken the first step toward a new beginning based on peace, cooperation between Somalia, Ethiopia,” President Erdogan said at a joint news conference with his Somalian counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Erdogan expressed his satisfaction with hosting his guests and their delegations in Türkiye.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/ethiopia-somalia-reach-agreement-in-ankara-mediated-peace-talks-turkish-president/3422113

🇰🇷The Blue Roof on X:

"National Assembly's Defense Committee met to question the generals who participated in Yoon Suk-yeol's self coup attempt, which is revealing some truly shocking stuff:

To arrest key liberal leaders including Lee Jae-myung, the military dispatched the HID unit, the special forces whose main task is to assassinate major North Korean leaders in case of a war. They are normally near the DMZ, but were just outside of Seoul on Dec 3.

The HID unit were not dressed in the ROK military uniform. Instead, they were given a false North Korean uniform. The plan was to have the HID unit either assassinate Lee and others, and if that failed, have the "rescuing" South Korean soldiers to kill both Lee and the HID unit.

The Defense Minister's original plan was to provoke an attack from North Korea, then use that as an excuse to declare martial law. To that end, South Korean military flew several drones over the Pyongyang sky, spraying propaganda fliers. North Korea did not attack, however.

The drone incursion happened in early October. Dem lawmakers say the South Korean military collected the drones that were not shot down, and burned them down to destroy evidence.

Yoon Suk-yeol directly commanded the military at the scene of the National Assembly to arrest the lawmakers. The president personally called Cdr. Gwak Jong-geun and told him: "They don't have quorum yet. Get in there and drag them all out."

During the coup, helicopters carrying special forces headed to the Assembly were held up at the capital no-fly zone, because the Air Force was not aware of the coup plan. In the end, the Air Force never approved the flight; the Army forged the approval order.

Initial preparation for the coup began as far back as July 2023, as the military compiled the reference materials for operations under a martial law situation and produced a manual around that time.

https://news.jtbc.co.kr/article/NB12226755

A reminder on how close we were. The martial law command was planning to have two more special forces located outside of Seoul to march to the capital on the second day of martial law. If the Assembly did not vote that night to lift the martial law, many more soldiers would have been in Seoul, with a potential massacre on our hands."

🔗 BluRoofPolitics

🇺🇸🇨🇳Trump invites China's Xi Jinping to inauguration

President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend his inauguration next month, multiple sources told CBS News, and inauguration officials are making plans for additional foreign dignitaries to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Trump invited Xi in early November, shortly after the election, sources said, but it was not clear whether he has accepted the invitation. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-invites-china-xi-jinping-inauguration/

🇸🇾🤝🇸🇾 Mazloum Abdi: SDF is ready to communicate with new authority in Damascus

The commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Mazloum Abdi, expressed his readiness to communicate with the new authority in Damascus, emphasizing the importance of representing all regions and components through dialogue.

He added that there is ongoing communication with Turkey through the Americans aimed at reducing escalation, noting that there is also communication with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) through the Americans.

Abdi pointed out that there had been no relationships or consensus between the faction based in northeastern Syria and the previous Syrian regime, noting that his forces were “the most confrontational” with the previous regime.

He expressed their readiness to communicate with the new authority in Damascus and to participate with new forces in the political process in Syria.

Previously, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (the political umbrella of the SDF) had expressed its willingness to engage in discussions with the Syrian regime and “liberate the occupied areas alongside the Syrian army.”

🔗 https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2024/12/mazloum-abdi-sdf-is-ready-to-communicate-with-new-authority-in-damascus/

🇸🇾 Syrian Navy losses to Israeli Navy, estimated Dec 12

9 x OSA class missile boats in Latakia
5 x Tir class missile boats in Minet el-Beida

6 OSA and 1 Tir remain in Tartus, possibly untouched due to proximity to Russian Navy targets

🔗 H. Sutton

🇦🇹 The Austrian Parliament voted to lift Herbert Kickl's immunity and start a criminal investigation

Kickl is the president of the right-wing FPO party which won the latest Austrian Parliamentary elections, becoming the biggest political force in the country with 56 seats in the Parliament.

Prosecutors claim Kickl gave a false testimony for alleged misuse of public funds.

The greens, socialists and center-right conservatives voted to remove Kickl's immunity. Along with Kickl, three other FPO MPs had their immunity lifted for other alleged crimes.

The FPO, like in every European country, was sidelined and the center-right OVP formed a coalition with the socialists (SPO) and liberal-progressives (NEOS), creating a cordon sanitaire against the FPO.

🔗 https://uk.news.yahoo.com/austrian-parliament-lifts-far-leaders-213427897.html

🇪🇺 The European Central Bank cut interest rates by 0.25%

It revised economic growth projections for 2024, 2025 and 2026 and the inflation rate. However it remains moderately optimistic that the EU will overcome the phenomena of "stagflation" and things will start to improve beginning in 2025.

Meanwhile, Europe‘s largest economies:

Germany - decided to get rid of its industry, sick man of Europe

France - 6% fiscal deficit despite highest tax burden in Europe, political paralysis

Italy & Spain - heading into pensions and healthcare benefits crisis due to collapsing demographics

🔗 Michael Arouet