Those currently celebrating the US and Israel’s decisive military victories against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and possibly the defeat of Ansar Allah in Yemen may soon discover the pyrrhic nature of “reshaping the Middle East” in the interests of Western civilization.

Military actions enabled by Washington have left Israel more strategically dominant than it has ever been, but it is also now more politically isolated: in significant regions of the world including Europe and East Asia, it is now a pariah state.

Biden blocks $14.9 billion US-Japan steel deal over national security concerns
AMERICASUS President Joe Biden on Friday blocked the sale of US Steel to Japan's Nippon Steel, citing concerns that the deal could threaten national security and industrial supply chains. The companies said that the move was a "clear violation of due process and the law" in a joint statement.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250103-biden-blocks-us-japan-steel-deal

MEANWHILE:

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - The US State Department has approved a possible sale of advanced AIM-120D-3 and AIM-120C-8 air-to-air missiles and related equipment to Japan for $3.64 billion, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock were in the Syrian capital for talks on behalf of the European Union, in the highest-level visit by major Western powers since Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad

Twin violent incidents rocked the US on New Year's Day, with an ex-US Army vet plowing a pickup into a crowd in New Orleans and going down guns blazing in a firefight with police, and an active-duty Green Beret blowing up in a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Sputnik asked renowned former CIA analyst Larry Johnson to weigh in.

“Right now, the FBI is trying to present this as what they call a ‘lone wolf individual’, acting on his own by himself. I know that’s the story. I don’t find it to be particularly credible,” Johnson said, commenting on the terror attack that rocked New Orleans and claimed scores of lives January 1.

Blue chip business lobby the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce is associated with funding illegal settlements in Israel and sponsorships by notorious Elbit Systems whose weapons are deployed in war crimes. Yaakov Aharon reports.

Israel’s “innovation ecosystem will be supercharged” by the war, Dave Sharma said. Indeed, the bloody rubble of Gaza has been a human testing ground for drones and all manner of new military technologies.

Sharma, the Liberal Party senator and former ambassador to Israel, was addressing corporate moguls at the 2024 summit of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC). 

Russia has officially ceased gas transit through Ukraine to the EU as of 8am Moscow time on January 1. Russian energy giant Gazprom announced the halt after negotiations to extend the transit agreements with Ukrainian companies Naftogaz and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, which have been in place since 2019, fell through.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, Gazprom said, “Due to the repeated and clear refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal opportunity to supply gas for transit through Ukraine starting from January 1, 2025.” As a result, gas supplies to Europe via this route are now completely suspended.

The Israeli occupation continues the genocide in Gaza in a frenzied manner, with the pace of assaults increasing daily. For 450 days, the occupation has persisted in killing civilians, displacing them, and attacking hospitals and civilian institutions protected by all international laws and regulations. Every new day in this genocide brings with it pain and brutality equal to all the previous days combined. Every moment in this inferno in Gaza is a stain on the false humanity that never acts when Israel is the aggressor.

On this New Year’s Eve, billions of people will gather with friends to ring in 2025 with the hope of a better year to come.  For the first time in many years, free-speech advocates have a reason to celebrate.

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, has sparked speculation after changing his name on his social media platform X to "Kekius Maximus". 

The tech mogul - and close confidant of US President-Elect Donald Trump - offered no immediate explanation for the name or his new profile image which depicts the character Pepe the Frog - a meme that has been used by far-right groups [In the fall of 2016, the ADL teamed with Pepe creator Matt Furie to form a #SavePepe campaign to reclaim the symbol from those who use it with hateful intentions.]. 

It is some years now since a lot of people began imagining the specter of World War III in the near or middle distance. This kind of thinking has been especially common since the U.S., with determination and purpose, provoked Russia to intervene in Ukraine three years ago this coming February. A few weeks later President Biden defended his decision to block the transfer of fighter jets to the Kiev regime by famously remarking, “That’s called World War III.”

White House aides covered up President Biden’s apparent mental decline from Day 1 of his presidency, shielding the aging commander-in-chief from the public and even rearranging his schedule after scatterbrained performances, an explosive report revealed Thursday.

The lack of access to the nation’s oldest-ever president has been well known in Washington — with Biden hosting the fewest large press conferences in modern history and frequently descending into gaffes at the podium when he appeared — but how much the White House made up for the haziness had until now been hidden, according to aides, Democratic lawmakers and donors who spoke with the Wall Street Journal.

King Charles III has delivered his annual Christmas Day message by thanking medical staff who have cared for him and his daughter-in-law Princess Kate, after they both underwent treatment for cancer this year.

The monarch's broadcast is a tradition that dates back to a radio speech by George V in 1932. This year's message was King Charles' third since being crowned and touched on global conflicts and riots that broke out in the United Kingdom in August.

The holiday message is watched by millions of people in the United Kingdom and across the Commonwealth, with many households timing Christmas lunch around it.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has referred to Vladimir Zelensky as an “all-time champ” in a post on social platform X following US President Joe Biden’s announcement on Monday of a $2.5 billion US arms package for Kiev.

Musk’s remark came in response to another X user’s comment saying that the Ukrainian leader “has genuinely pulled off one of the greatest money heists of all time.”

President Biden’s latest military aid package for Ukraine includes advanced weaponry, ammunition, and armored vehicles, with a total value of $2.5 billion. Biden emphasized the need to support Ukraine in his final weeks in office, specifying that $1.25 billion of the package would be drawn from US stockpiles under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA).

US President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed Representative Mike Johnson to continue on in the role of House Speaker, just days before lawmakers are set to decide on who will hold the position. 

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a Speaker on Friday, during the first day of the 119th congressional session. 

Johnson faces some opposition from within his own party after working with Democrats on a bipartisan funding plan earlier this month. 

Republicans have a slim majority in the House, giving Johnson little room for defectors if he is to remain in the role, which he has held since October 2023.

They don’t make world leaders like they used to, as far as Vladimir Putin is concerned. Talking to a Kremlin-friendly gathering of journalists at his traditional end-of-year press conference on Friday, the Russian president spoke with fond nostalgia of the old gang, saying he’d like to spend more time with “people close to me”, such as the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, the former French president Jacques Chirac and Silvio Berlusconi, late prime minister of Italy.

There’s little chance of peace on earth with leaders like these

[GUSNOTE: LEADERS LIKE WHOM? JOE BIDEN? SCHOLZ? MACRON? URSULA VONTHINGSTERS? OH I SEE! THE IMAGE ON OFFER IS THAT OF PUTIN WITH A MISSILE IN THE BACKGROUND...]

BY Jonathan Este