One-time or recurring donations can be made through Ko-Fi:

In a shock offensive, insurgents breach Syria’s largest city for the first time since 2016

BEIRUT (AP) — Insurgents breached Syria’s largest city Friday and clashed with government forces for the first time since 2016, according to a war monitor and fighters, in a surprise attack that sent residents fleeing and added fresh uncertainty to a region reeling from multiple wars.

The advance on Aleppo followed a shock offensive launched by insurgents Wednesday, as thousands of fighters swept through villages and towns in Syria’s northwestern countryside. Residents fled neighborhoods on the city’s edge because of missiles and gunfire, according to witnesses in Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the country’s unresolved civil war, said dozens of fighters from both sides were killed.

Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport and canceled all flights, military source says

Syrian authorities closed Aleppo airport and canceled all flights, a military source told Reuters early on Saturday as Syrian rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad said on Friday they had reached the heart of the northern city of Aleppo.

The Syrian army closed main roads in and out of the city of Aleppo as troops were told to follow “safe withdrawal” orders from neighborhoods which insurgents speedily overran, three Syrian army sources told Reuters. The move effectively sealed the city as the army gave instructions at checkpoints outside the city to only allow passage and entry to army troops, the sources told Reuters.

A Syrian rebel fighter in the palace of the governor of Aleppo

Iran vows continued support for Syria after rebel advances in Aleppo

Iran conveyed its continued support for the Syrian government on Friday as rebel fighters entered Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo for the first time since it was recaptured by government forces in 2016.

A fresh ceasefire in neighboring Lebanon between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel could make Syria, Tehran’s main ally in the Arab world, a more important theater in the Islamic Republic’s long confrontation with the Jewish state. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a phone call with his Syrian counterpart Bassam Sabbagh, reaffirmed Tehran’s backing for the Syrian government, saying it stands by the country in combating what he called terrorism, according to a statement from Iran’s foreign ministry on Friday.

Syrian regime may lose Aleppo due to Iran’s failures – analysis

Up until several days ago, the Syrian regime believed its backers in Moscow and Tehran could keep it safe.

Syria’s regime is on the verge of losing its northern city of Aleppo to Syrian opposition groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The regime could lose this key city because of its weakness and because Iran’s backing has also weakened due to the blows that Iran and its axis of proxies have suffered at the hands of Israel. This is an important crossroads in the region, as HTS could deal the Bashar al-Assad regime its largest blow in years. Up until several days ago, the regime believed its backers in Moscow and Tehran could keep it safe. It watched as Israel eliminated thousands of Hezbollah fighters, but it assumed this wouldn’t spillover to Damascus.

Netanyahu to hold rare Friday night security consultation to discuss Syria

The discussion comes after Syrian rebels entered the city of Aleppo, three days after launching a surprise offensive against Assad’s troops.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will on Friday evening hold a rare security consultation by phone with senior defense officials, according to reports in Israeli media outlets. Such consultations rarely take place during Shabbat, except when circumstances require it. The reports indicated that the discussion will focus on the latest dramatic developments in Syria, where fighting continues between rebel forces and the army of President Bashar Al-Assad. Additionally, the discussion will address the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, which came into effect on Wednesday.

US appoints Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers to oversee Lebanon ceasefire mechanism

The US military’s CENTCOM announces that Major General Jasper Jeffers, Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT), arrived in Beirut in recent days to oversee the implementation and monitoring mechanism of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

Jeffers will do so alongside his co-chair, US Mideast envoy Amos Hochstein, who will fill the role until a permanent civilian US official is named. The announcement notes that the oversight mechanism will be led by the US and include the Lebanese and Israeli militaries, UN peacekeepers and France.

Lebanon ceasefire ‘could be short,’ Gaza war will not end until goals achieved, Netanyahu says in rare Hebrew interview

PM: No more weapon delays under Trump, beeper explosions were Israeli operation

Days after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was declared, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his first Hebrew-language interview to the right-leaning Channel 14 news channel, explaining his reasoning for the ceasefire – a decision that was unpopular even among those within his voter base. Netanyahu told Channel 14 journalist Yaakov Bardugo that he didn’t view the ceasefire as a permanent solution and cautioned that it would have to prove itself. The ceasefire “could be short,” the prime minister said, noting that the IDF had already “enforced [the ceasefire] on its first day,” referencing the numerous incidents of Hezbollah operatives and civilians trying to return south.

Hezbollah Believes It Lost Up To 4000 Fighters Killed, Far Surpassing 2006 War

Reuters cites unpublished internal estimate

Reuters has cited Hezbollah and Lebanese sources to say that Hezbollah believes the number of its fighters killed by Israel over the last year of fighting could be as high as 4,000. A fragile ceasefire has held for the last three days, and the Shia group backed by Iran has been burying its dead this week. Ground fighting has been most intense in the last two months before the ceasefire was agreed to. “The sources’ estimate far outstrips tallies published by the group, but skews close to Israel’s announced figure and could provide a window into the extent to which Israel was able to damage the powerful Iranian proxy, which saw its leadership largely decapitated and its rocket arsenal significantly depleted, according to authorities,” Reuters says.

US Senator Lindsey Graham: ‘President-elect Trump wants hostage release deal before inauguration’

“I want people in Israel and in the region to know that Trump is focused on the hostages issue. He wants the killing to stop and the fighting to end.”

US Senator of South Carolina Lindsey Graham said on Friday that President-elect Donald Trump wants a hostage release-ceasefire deal before his inauguration on January 20. Graham made these statements in an exclusive interview conducted by Axios after the senator returned from visiting Israel, where he was quoted saying that “Trump is more determined than ever to release the hostages and supports a ceasefire that includes a hostage deal. He wants to see it happening now.

US Firms Compete For ‘Huge Contracts’ To Control North Gaza Security

One firm describes itself as “Uber for warzones”…

Israel is examining the launch of a “pilot program” that could see US private security firms replace the army in northern Gaza to “accompany food and medicine convoys” for Palestinians who remain in the devastated region, according to a report by Israeli daily Globes. Among the top competitors for the multi-million dollar contract are Constellis, the direct successor to infamous mercenary company Blackwater, and Orbis, a little-known South Carolina company run by former generals that has worked with the Pentagon for 20 years.

Zelenskyy Offers To End ‘Hot Phase’ Of War In Exchange For NATO Membership

To end the war, Zelenskyy wants the thing that started the war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he’s willing to end the “hot phase of the war” with Russia – including ceding captured territory – in exchange for NATO membership that includes Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. “If we want to stop the hot phase of the war, we need to take under the Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” he told Sky News, adding “We need to do it fast. And then, on the occupied territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way.” Zelenskyy said that a ceasefire was needed to “guarantee that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will not come back” to take more Ukrainian territory,” or that “he [Putin] will come back.”

Power to 1 million homes cut in Ukraine after latest ‘massive’ Russian aerial attack

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia conducted a “massive” attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday, firing nearly 200 missiles and drones and leaving more than a million households without power, Ukrainian officials said.

Russia’s second major aerial attack on Ukraine’s power grid in less than two weeks amplified fears that the Kremlin aims to cripple the country’s power generation capacity before winter. “Attacks on energy facilities are happening all over Ukraine,” Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said in a post on Facebook. He added that emergency power outages were implemented nationwide.

DECAPITATION STRIKES? Putin Warns Russia May Use Its New Hypersonic ‘Hazel’ Missile To Attack Ukrainian ‘Decision-Making Centers’ in Kiev (VIDEOS)

In the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Israeli ambassador met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and got from him a guarantee that Moscow would not kill his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Now, 3 years later, Israel got into two wars of its own and implemented a jaw-dropping program of decapitation strikes that took out the complete leaderships of Hamas and Hezbollah. But now, Russia, after having Western-made long-range missile strikes into its territory, has unveiled a new hypersonic weapon Oreshnik (Hazel), and after a first strike in a defense compound in Dnipropetrovsk, is warning that it may now use it against high-value political targets.

Ukraine ‘will lose the war’ – former foreign minister

Dmitry Kuleba has said that Kiev was “lucky” to get the support it did, but now lacks the ability to defeat Russia

Ukraine lacks the means to gain the upper hand against Russia and will “lose the war” if the situation continues as it is, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has told the Financial Times, adding that US President Joe Biden was too fearful of nuclear war to give Kiev the weapons it would need to win. ”Do we today have the means and tools to turn the tables and change the trajectory of how things are happening? No, we don’t,” Kuleba told the British newspaper in an interview published on Friday, adding: “And if it continues like this, we will lose the war.”

Here’s why Donald Trump won’t be able to quickly end the Ukraine conflict

The underlying issue is clear: neither Russia or the US is willing to accept Ukraine as part of the other’s sphere of influence.

It’s clear that US President-elect Donald Trump is opposed to military conflict and seems genuinely interested in ending the Russia-Ukraine war. However, the reality of the situation is far more complex. The geopolitical tensions between Moscow and the West — intensified by globalist pressures — are too deeply entrenched to be resolved simply by someone wanting them to end. A soap opera with a nuclear twist. At its core, we are witnessing two nuclear superpowers waging war by proxy, each trying to avoid direct atomic confrontation.

UK spy chief says Russia behind ‘staggeringly reckless’ sabotage in Europe

PARIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) – Britain’s foreign spy chief accused Russia on Friday of waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe while also stepping up its nuclear sabre-rattling to scare other countries off from backing Ukraine.

Richard Moore, head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6, said that any softening in support for Ukraine against Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putinand his allies. In what appeared a message to incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and some European allies that have questioned continued support for Ukraine in the grinding war, Moore argued that Europe and its transatlantic partners must hold firm in the face of what he said was growing aggression.

Playing Nuclear Chicken

We continue to climb steadily up the World War III escalation ladder…

Last week, Biden foolishly gave Ukraine the green light to strike deep into Russian territory using U.S. missiles. Now Russia has responded, as Putin promised they would. On November 21st Russia launched a new hypersonic missile known as the Oreshnik. It is a unique weapon designed to send a clear message. The Oreshnik utilizes a system similar to MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle) technology common on nuclear ICBMs. This new missile has 6 warheads which each have 6 submunitions. That’s 36 projectiles per missile in total. Here is a still shot of one of the sets of 6 submunitions just before reaching its target.

Police use water cannon against pro-EU protesters in Georgia (VIDEOS)

The clashes took place outside the parliament building in Tbilisi

Clashes between protesters and riot police continued for the second night in a row in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, where opposition parties denounced the government’s decision to freeze the negotiations on joining the EU. Just like the day before, a large crowd of protesters descended on the central Rustaveli Avenue on Friday evening, in order to hold a rally outside the parliament building. While some attendees were peaceful, others launched fireworks and threw objects at police officers. The rioters also erected small makeshift barricades and set dumpsters on fire.

French Govt Collapse Imminent As Le Pen Piles On Pressure Over Budget Vote

The situation is critical for the future of not only the government but the entire French economy

While French bond spreads have compressed modestly overnight (as French Finance Minister Antoine Armand announced that he is ready to amend the 2025 budget proposal to avoid a government collapse), they remain extremely elevated (at their highest since the European financial crisis in 2012) as rising tensions threaten the country’s economic stability. As Remix News reports, Armand, warned before the upcoming budget debate that the government must make compromises regarding the 2025 budget proposal. The political situation is constantly deteriorating, because the opposition parties in the National Assembly, led by Marine Le Pen of the National Rally, have called for a no-confidence vote if the government does not accept amendments that make a tangible difference to the proposed tax increases.

Bending the Knee? Justin Trudeau Arrives in Florida for Surprise Meeting with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago as Leftist Canadian PM Panics Over Tariff Threat (VIDEO)

Is far-left Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about to bend the knee to President-elect Trump even before he takes office?

Trudeau arrived in West Palm Beach a short time ago to meet President Trump for dinner at Mar-A-Lago for dinner. The visit comes as Trump has vowed to impose 25% tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico until the illegal alien invasion. As The TGP previously reported, more than 15 million illegal aliens – poured over the border since Joe Biden assumed power in January 2021.

4.9M foreigners are supposed to leave Canada by Dec 2025 — will they?

Ezra Levant looks at the recent revelation that 4.9 million foreigners in Canada are supposed to leave by December 31, 2025, and wonders whether this is something the Trudeau government is willing — or able — to enforce.

‘I won’t claim that Milan is a safe city,’ admits left-wing mayor after damning stats show disproportionate levels of migrant crime

After Italy’s interior minister revealed that 65% of crimes in Milan are committed by the 20% foreign population, the left-wing mayor was forced to admit, “I won’t claim Milan is a safe city, but it is making an effort to address challenges faced by all international cities”

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has announced the deployment of 600 additional police officers to Milan, citing concerns over integration challenges and rising crime rates, particularly in areas with significant immigrant populations. The announcement follows recent unrest in the Corvetto district, where a 19-year-old Egyptian resident, Ramy Elgaml, died in a road accident after a police chase, sparking mass protests by the considerable immigrant population. During a meeting on security with Milan’s prefect Claudio Sgaraglia and Police Chief Vittorio Pisani, Piantedosi confirmed that the reinforcements, planned before the Corvetto unrest, will enhance territorial control and improve public safety.

Victim of Islamic Terror Convicted on Speech Charge: Germany’s War on Michael Stürzenberger

Despite surviving a brutal knife attack by an Afghan jihadist, Islam critic Michael Stürzenberger has been convicted of ‘incitement to hatred,’ exposing a German justice system that shields Islam and failed immigration policies over its own citizens’ safety.

Michael Stürzenberger, a fearless critic of Islam and defender of Western values, is once again the victim—not just of Islamic violence but of his own left-wing government’s relentless persecution. After surviving a brutal jihadist attack in Mannheim this May—where an Afghan migrant stabbed him and killed a police officer—Stürzenberger has now been convicted of “incitement to hatred” for his criticism of Islam. This grotesque miscarriage of justice reveals the German state’s twisted priorities: protecting the very ideology that threatens its citizens while silencing those who dare to speak out.

Meanwhile in England

FACT CHECK: UK Mass Migration Exploded to Over 900,000 Last Year

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has slammed the Conservatives (Tories) who governed Britain from 2010 until July this year over revised Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showing net immigration hit an astonishing 906,000 in the year to June 2023.

Previous, provisional ONS numbers showed net immigration had fallen compared to the year to June 2022, but, as in previous years, the government statistician has since found many tens of thousands of additional migrants it missed in its initial estimate. “A failure on this scale isn’t just bad luck, it isn’t a global trend or taking your eye off the ball—no, this is a different order of failure,” said Starmer, of the far-left Labour Party, arguing: “Brexit was used… to turn Britain into a One Nation experiment in open borders. ‘Global Britain’—remember that slogan? That is what they meant. A policy with no support and which they then pretended wasn’t happening,” he added.

UK Parliament Votes in Favor of State-Sanctioned ‘Assisted Dying,’ With One Major Opponent…

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom took a major step towards permitting the euphemistically named “assisted dying,” also known as state-sanctioned suicide or euthanasia, for terminally ill patients in England and Wales.

The proposal passed in the House of Commons with a vote tally of 330 in favor and 275 against after extensive deliberations lasting five hours. The proposed legislation has been the topic of much public debate in the UK and allows doctors to aid patients who are over the age of 18, diagnosed with a terminal illness, and estimated to have six months or less to live in ending their own lives. The decision would require approval from two doctors as well as a judge, with patients required to self-administer the drugs.

“They Want You Dead” is Not a Metaphor. Here’s How Canada (and the UK and…) are Turning “Health” “Care” Professionals into Executioners. Just Like the Nazis.

Not Canadian? Not British? No Worries! This is either already in your country or coming soon to a medical office near you. This is long. Please take the time to read and share it.

Tucker Carlson: Pfizer needs to be SUED for what they’ve done to humanity

The next bankers’ heist: Swap US government-owned land and minerals for Bitcoin

The US government may be planning to use taxpayers’ money to buy Bitcoin and hold it on government balance sheets. Why? To benefit Bitcoin billionaires.

This move would allow the billionaires to exit their Bitcoin holdings at a high price and use the funds to acquire real assets such as land and minerals. It should be taken in the context of discussions about land and minerals owned by the US government. Howard Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, a leading financial services firm, and Chairman and CEO of BGC Partners Inc., a global brokerage company, has been nominated to be President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of Commerce. Bloomberg noted on Wednesday that the knot of his conflicts of business interests when in a government position is unlikely to loosen easily. In a recent interview, Lutnick discussed how to take advantage of “$500 trillion of land and minerals owned by the US government.”

Meta Pushes for a Digital ID Revolution

Meta is coming out as a supporter of age verification, and the proposal the giant is putting forward exposes and sums up many of the points critics have been consistently making.

A blog post by Meta VP and Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis proposes to implement age verification at the operating system/app stores level. Although the narrative around child safety and difficulties of parenting “in the digital age” dominates the article, “the meat of it” are the implications that this approach brings with it: namely, it creates a situation where, down the line, people would be forced to link real-world identity to their phone’s operating system (OS).

Apple’s patent to use body parts to identify people when their face is not visible to a camera is granted

Apple has been granted a patent for “identity recognition utilising face-associated body characteristics,” which combines facial recognition technology with other body characteristics to identify people even when their faces are not visible to the camera.

Apple’s patent, filed in May 2022 and granted on 26 November 2024, describes a system that associates facial recognition with other body characteristics such as clothing, gait or gesture to recognise certain people. The system works by linking a gallery of “body croppings” such as torso, arms or legs with their face biometrics, then comparing the data with a live video feed, and proceeds in a stepped approach to identify face, body parts and physical characteristics, which include body shape, skin colour, or the texture or colour of clothing. The resulting data constitutes a cluster of “bodyprints” which can be assigned a confidence score against a person’s faceprint and other characteristics, with storage periods as brief as 24 hours for certain identifiers like clothing.

Your private call and text data was just stolen by China because it hacked US government’s illegal surveillance tool that spies on us all

The political establishment is in an uproar over a recent telecommunications industry security breach that was supposedly caused by a hacking group tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, claims a hacking group called “Salt Typhoon” is responsible for unleashing the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history.” The stolen data was intended for U.S. law enforcement agencies to use, but instead ended up in the hands of officials in Beijing, we are told. Salt Typhoon reportedly obtained access to cables that allowed them to listen live to audio calls, some of which were routed through multiple telecom networks via “trust” connections that were exploited.

No more military help for storm-ravaged North Carolina amid reports of people living in tents

The Army, Air Force, and National Guard have pulled most personnel from Western North Carolina. The temporary shelter need is ‘extremely urgent’ as winter looms.

The National Guard and the U.S. Army XVIII Airborne Corps have pulled all service members out of storm-ravaged Western North Carolina at a time when advocates for Hurricane Helene victims say some residents are living in tents while hundreds await word on temporary housing. Joint Task Force North Carolina — a blend of National Guard and active-duty Army and Air Force troops — had 4,000 members working in North Carolina as of Oct. 29, but two sources told Blaze News there are no service members working on storm relief in the region. The National Guard pulled out within the past week.

The future of AI will result in smaller brains and fewer friends

What will humans be like generations from now in a world transformed by artificial intelligence (AI)? Plenty of thinkers have addressed this question, considering how AI will alter lives—often for better, sometimes for worse.

They have conjured dramatic scenarios, like the AI-driven extinction of humans (and many other species) or our assimilation into human-AI cyborgs. The predictions are generally grim, pitting the fate of all humans against a unitary (or unified) AI opponent. What if the AI future doesn’t stretch to these sci-fi dystopias? For an evolutionary biologist, seeing AI technologies diversify into all applications is like seeing microbes, plants, and animals multiply in an ecological landscape.

Arctic cold blast sweeping across the northern Plains and Midwest, U.S.

An Arctic cold front is descending from the northern Plains into the Midwest on Friday, November 29, 2024, bringing the coldest temperatures since mid-February and significant snowfall across the Great Lakes region.

An Arctic cold air outbreak is sweeping south and east from the northern Plains into the Midwest on Friday, November 29. This Arctic blast is expected to persist into the following week, bringing the coldest temperatures since mid to late February, according to the NWS Weather Prediction Center (WPC). Minimum wind chills between Friday and Saturday morning, the peak of outbreak, are predicted to drop below freezing across much of the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest. In the Dakotas and Minnesota, wind chills are expected to plummet below -26 °C (-15 °F), with parts of North Dakota potentially reaching between -38 and -40 °C (-34 and -40 °F ).

Almost 4,400 years old – Archaeologists say oldest alphabet may have been discovered in Syria

Findings date to 500 years before previous evidence of alphabetic writing

Archaeologists may have discovered in a tomb in Syria the oldest alphabetic writing ever found. The ancient script was found engraved on clay cylinders during excavations of a tomb at Tell Umm el-Marra near Aleppo, Syria in 2004. The cylinders were found by Dr. Glenn Schwartz, a professor of Archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, who led a research team on the dig, along with colleagues from the University of Amsterdam. It is generally accepted that alphabetic writing began around 1800 B.C. among Semitic peoples living in Egypt, who adopted portions of the hieroglyphic script to write their own language.

A TERRIBLE GAME: You Are Going To Lose EVERYTHING. (All That You Have, THEY WANT)