1000mH
joined 4 years ago
its kinda funny 
I've gotta admit, I do love a good "this you?"
Simply never stop posting
kill ur heroes
US and Britain prepare to launch strikes against Houthi rebels | Financial Times
The US and the UK are preparing strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea.
The US is expected to lead the military response against the Houthis after the Yemen-based militant group began targeting vessels following Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
UK prime minister Rishi Sunak was preparing on Thursday night to authorise strikes, with Britain acting as part of a US-led military coalition.
Sunak convened a call of his cabinet ministers at 7.45pm following a meeting of the National Security Council, Whitehall insiders said.
The Pentagon has drawn up options for targeted strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, including missile launch sites and weapons depots, according to US officials.
Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said on Thursday he would not speculate on any future operations.
The Houthis have carried out more than two dozen attacks on merchant ships in the past two months in the Red Sea, causing acute disruption along a critical maritime trade route.
The Islamist rebels have become one of the most active factions in Iran’s so-called axis of resistance since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7.
UK defence secretary Grant Shapps said on Wednesday he was in regular contact with allies in the Middle East.
“We are all agreed and in one voice that this cannot continue,” he said of the Houthi rebels’ activities, adding: “We won’t allow it to continue.”
For Sunak this is potentially the most serious military crisis involving British forces since he became prime minister in October 2022, even if the UK is expected to play a junior role in a US-led operation.
Lord Kim Darroch, a former UK national security adviser, said: “Generally we contribute about 10 per cent of any joint operation. The French would normally be asked if they want to get involved.
“The important thing is that we are part of any operation, rather than how much hardware we deliver.”
The UK has two warships in the region, one of them HMS Diamond, which shot down seven of the 18 drones and missiles that the Houthis fired on Tuesday from areas that the group controls in Yemen.
Should the US-led military operation go ahead, deploying British fighter jets to hit Houthi bases is thought to be one option. Firing Tomahawk cruise missiles from UK submarines is believed to be another option.
Pentagon failed to track Ukraine arms worth more than $1bn, says watchdog | Financial Times
The Pentagon failed to properly track more than $1bn worth of weapons the US provided to Ukraine, according to a watchdog’s report that could fuel concerns about whether the arms had been diverted from Kyiv at a time when Congress is weighing whether to send more military aid.
The report from the defence department’s inspector-general did not offer an assessment on whether the weapons had been diverted but found that the US did not appropriately monitor at least $1bn of $1.7bn in weapons sent to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour nearly two years ago.
The exports covered by the report include shoulder-fired missiles such as Javelins and Stingers, switchblade or “kamikaze” drones and night vision goggles.
The equipment that was designated for so-called enhanced end-use monitoring covers only a small part of the more than $44bn in lethal aid the US has provided since Russia’s invasion.
“It was beyond the scope of our evaluation to determine whether there has been diversion of such assistance,” said the report, which was published on Thursday. It added that the high rates of missing or unaccounted for weapons “may increase the risk of theft of diversion”.
A defence department official said: “There is no credible evidence of illicit diversion of US-provided advanced conventional weapons from Ukraine.”
The inspector-general’s report shows that the practices employed by US diplomats and military officials to track weapons fell short of the stringent monitoring processes the Biden administration has cited as part of its argument for additional assistance. That is likely to intensify concerns in Congress and the American public about how taxpayer funds are being spent.
The report found that US diplomats and military officials experienced logistical and personnel issues that contributed to their shortfalls in tracking aid inside Ukraine as well as neighbouring Poland, where the US maintains a logistics hub.
It also assessed that even if the Pentagon improves its monitoring methods, tracking changes to the inventory will continue to be challenging.
The debate on approving more assistance for Ukraine has grown increasingly fractious in Congress, especially among Republicans. House and Senate Republicans have demanded that President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats agree to a border security and immigration package in order to pass tens of billions in additional assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Republicans have demanded that the White House provide more accountability for the aid as well as lay out a strategy for US support for Ukraine and a pathway to resolving the conflict.
hell yeah brother 
Tunnel Snakes rule? Has anyone said that yet?
US Supreme Court to hear Donald Trump ballot ban appeal | Financial Times
The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether Colorado can ban Donald Trump from the presidential ballot, setting the stage for a potentially landmark legal decision and political firestorm that will have major implications for the 2024 US presidential election.
The Supreme Court confirmed late on Friday that it would hear the case, with arguments set for February 8. That puts any decision on a collision course with the presidential primary process, which will start on January 15 with the Iowa caucuses, followed by the New Hampshire primary on January 23.
Trump remains the undisputed frontrunner in the shrinking field of Republicans vying for the party’s nomination for president. His standing in opinion polls has only improved in recent months, as his legal troubles compound.
The move by the highest US court comes just two days after Trump petitioned the court to overturn a decision by Colorado’s state supreme court to ban him from the presidential primary ballot there.
The court in Colorado issued its ruling last month, saying he was not fit to be president under the 14th amendment to the constitution, which bans individuals who have engaged in insurrection or rebellion from holding office.
Trump’s critics have labelled him an insurrectionist for his actions surrounding January 6 2021, when mobs of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The former president continues to allege the US election was “rigged” against him.
On January 4 White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the U.S. intelligence believed Russia was using North Korean ballistic missiles in its ongoing war effort in Ukraine. While not elaborating on the exact missile class used, confirmation that the missile had a 900km range strongly indicated that it was the KN-23B - an asset which it was speculated since mid-2022 that Russia could seek to acquire for its own forces. The only other North Korean missile with such a range, the Hwasong-9, is an advanced Scud derivative from the mid-2000s which is thought to have been developed primarily for export to Syria and built in limited numbers, and was long since considered to have seen production ended despite its many unique and innovative features. The KN-23B is a serious contender for the title of the world’s most capable class of surface-launched short range ballistic missile - a category which includes all surface-to-surface ballistic missiles with ranges under 1000km.
Following the service entry of the original KN-23 in 2019, the KN-23B was developed as a larger variant with an extended range and enlarged warhead. It was first test fired on March 25, 2021 under supervision of the Academy of Defence Science. The state run Korean Central News Agency reported that the academy had concluded after the test: “the reliability of the improved version of the solid fuel engine was confirmed through several engine ground jet tests and their test firing processes, an that the irregular orbit features of low-altitude gliding leap type flight mode already applied two other guide projectiles were also re-confirmed.” Due to its larger size the new missile system uses a ten-wheel transporter erector launcher where the original KN-23 and the Iskander both used eight-wheel launchers. While the original KN-23 was widely compared to the Russian Iskander-M short range ballistic missile system, the former had significant advantages most notably its 700km engagement range - where the Iskander’s 9K720 missiles could only engage targets 500km away. Notable differences included the Korean missile’s approximately 20 percent larger size than its Russian counterpart, its smooth base, and its much larger cable raceway indicating a far greater fuel capacity. These advantages are significantly greater for the even larger KN-23B.
A central similarity between the KN-23 and the Iskander-M is that both use missiles with semi ballistic depressed trajectories with apogees of around 50 km and with the ability to conduct extensive in flight manoeuvres throughout their entire flight paths. This not only makes their missiles extremely difficult to detect or track, but also allows them to use their fins to manoeuvre much better than missiles on standard ballistic trajectories. These capabilities proved sufficient that the American AEGIS anti missile system proved unable to even detect KN-23 missile launches – which was confirmed by South Korean sources after a test launch in October 2019. The KN-23B retained these features, but provided an extended range of 900km and was reported to deploy a 2500kg warhead, compared to the Iskander-M 9K720 missile’s warhead weight of up to 700kg. This means each missile will be capable of doing considerably more damage to targets ranging from infantry formations to fortifications.
Acquiring the KN-23B not only provides Russia with a significant increase to its capacity for launching highly precise and reliable missile strikes on Ukrainian targets, adding much of the capacity of North Korea’s very large missile industry to its own, but it also provides a missile capable of engaging targets an area 324 percent as large as the Iskander can from the launch point. The KN-23B will thus allow Russian units to strike targets far further behind Ukrainian lines than the Iskander-M could, as demonstrated on December 30 and again on January 2, and provides options for engaging a much wider range of targets from each launch site. Furthermore, while Russian units have taken to launching multiple 9K720 missiles from Iskander systems at Ukrainian frontline units to maximise casualties, the KN-23B’s much larger warhead could allow comparable amounts of damage to be achieved much more efficiently. The KN-23B can thus be considered the most capable asset of its kind in the Russian arsenal by a significant margin, and one which the Russian Armed Forces could conceivably be seeking to acquire as fast as North Korean industry is able to supply them.
China ‘actively involved’ in Iraq’s reconstruction | The Cradle
Beijing is fully committed to “friendly” ties with Baghdad and “actively participates” in Iraq’s reconstruction, a Chinese official told Kurdish news outlet Rudaw on 3 January.
“China and Iraq share friendly relations; as a sincere friend China actively participates in Iraq and the reconstruction of the country,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told Rudaw at a press briefing in Beijing.
He added that the Chinese presence in Iraq has been “well received by the government and the people.” “We are ready to work with Iraq for further progress,” the spokesman said.
Trade between China and Iraq reached around $50 billion last year. China is the largest importer of Iraqi oil.
Ties between Baghdad and Beijing have developed significantly recently, and Chinese firms have increased their presence there.
In 2019, Iraq signed a 20-year contract, agreeing to supply Chinese firms with 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, with the revenue earmarked for funding various development projects in Iraq undertaken by Chinese firms.
Following the deal, Chinese firms built 1,000 schools, developed the Nasiriya city airport, erected power plants, and completed several other infrastructure projects.
China has accelerated its investment in Iraq and other West Asian nations as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced in 2013.
Last month, Iraq began work on 30,000 housing units near Baghdad as part of a $2 billion project in partnership with Chinese firms to build five new cities across Iraq.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani seeks to build 250,000 to 300,000 housing units for poor and middle-class families. A new city on the outskirts of Baghdad will include universities, commercial centers, schools, and health centers and should be completed in four to five years.
Iraqi infrastructure suffered significantly during the US invasion of the country in 2003 and the several-year war that ensued.
This latest step in Chinese-Iraqi cooperation comes as Iraq continues to fall under attack by the US army.
In October, Iraqi resistance factions banded together under a single coalition to confront US bases in Iraq and Syria. The attacks – which have been ongoing – are a show of solidarity with the resistance in Gaza and a rejection of US support for Israel’s assault on the strip.
They also aim to hasten the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. The US has responded with several violent attacks on Iraq and its sovereignty.
The latest took place on Thursday and resulted in the death of Mushtaq Talib al-Saidi, the leader of the 12th brigade of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known as the Al-Nujaba Movement.