Yemen deserves to be the leader of the Resistance. They are not corrupt and consequently their nation is more united than any other country in the Resistance. They also do not suffer from ‘self-overthrowing policies’ syndrome that Iran suffers from. I hope Hezbullah recovers from the damages that it received for supporting Palestine. And I hope my country, Iran, do fix itself before its too late. So many talented smart people leave this country because of what Zionists call “our assets in Iran”, that is extremists, especially the ones acting like one to get seats and ruin this country.

Merry Christmas. Wish you a happy year.

https://xcancel.com/MenchOsint/status/1871946832601084300

Brave ansar allah drone exploded a transformer

Removed by mod

Further protests by Christians outraged at the burning of a shrine to Abu Abdullah bin Hamdan Al-Khasibi in Aleppo. At least 2 have been murdered by the militants. Turns out treading the middle ground between Al-Nusra and everybody else doesn’t “protect minorities,” it just gives official cover to vigilante sectarian violence.

https://t.me/DarEQuds/5052

Personally I’d save my anti-Christian action for after December, just to be safe, but I guess that’s why I don’t run Syria

Baking hope in Gaza: Making Christmas cookies in a displacement tent

Khan Younis, Gaza – From a makeshift kitchen with a sand floor and a nylon roof, and lacking the most basic equipment, Mayess Hamid prepared Christmas cookies this year.

Hamid, 31, has been making cakes and cookies for about 10 years, working at one of Gaza’s largest cake shops before it was destroyed in Israel’s continuing war on the besieged enclave.

Like many in Gaza, she lost her job when the bakery she worked at was bombed.

“I wanted to start the year with optimism and make Christmas cookies to distribute to the children around me in the camp,” she says as she kneads.

“The war turned our lives upside down. I lost my income, and my home was destroyed,” says Hamid, who has been displaced nine times since her family left Zeitoun, east of Gaza City, and has now settled in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

“My children are excited, waiting eagerly and trying to help, especially with decorations,” she adds, arranging the cookies in a baking tray.

Making cookies was challenging because of basic food shortages that are so severe that some parts of Gaza are in famine.

Israel has largely blocked the entry of aid and commercial shipments since the beginning of the war.

Drawing from her experience, she substitutes unavailable materials with things she can find.

“Before the war, I decorated cakes with ready-made sugar paste. Now, I use a mix of liquid cheese and powdered sugar, and it works,” she says.

Lacking Christmas cookie cutters, Hamid drew stencils on paper using her phone, cut them out, and shaped the dough by hand using a knife.

“Even simple tasks like baking cookies have become challenges during the war,” she says, arranging the cookies and preparing to bake in a nearby clay oven the whole camp relies on.

“From gathering materials to shaping dough and baking, each step feels unfamiliar and complicated.”

As the second batch of cookies bakes, Hamid begins to decorate the first inside her small tent.

“The war may have taken my home and life as I knew it, but not my passion for decorating and attention to detail,” she says, glancing around her tidy tent.

While trying to bring a festive feel to the displacement camp, Hamid cannot hide her sorrow that the world celebrates Christmas as usual, while Gaza endures a second year of war and devastation.

“We try to smile, but our wounds run deep, and there is little we can do. We feel forgotten.”

At the same time, she still clings to hope that this Christmas will bring peace. Her sole Christmas wish is for the war to end.

“Just let the war stop. Let the killing and destruction end so we can live in peace with our children,” she says.

this is a few days old but nobody posted it i think

Human Rights Watch determines israel is committing acts of genocide

Israel’s Crime of Extermination, Acts of Genocide in Gaza Authorities’ Widespread Deprivation of Water Threatens Survival

• Israeli authorities have deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the population in Gaza by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.
• In doing so, Israeli authorities are responsible for the crime against humanity of extermination and for acts of genocide. The pattern of conduct, coupled with statements suggesting that some Israeli officials wished to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, may amount to the crime of genocide.
• Governments and international organizations should take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, including discontinuing military assistance, reviewing bilateral agreements and diplomatic relations, and supporting the International Criminal Court and other accountability efforts.

this is following the previous amnesty international report that determined that israel is committing acts of genocide in gaza

Felt the urge to dust off some research on family friends and rediscovered that I’m 4 degrees of separation from Assad. Solid ones, too. Guess that’s less signficant now

Daily reminder that the astronauts that capitalism stranded on the ISS are still stuck up there.

https://nypost.com/2024/12/24/us-news/how-astronauts-stranded-on-the-international-space-station-got-santa-hats/

Some recent combat footage from the Donbass and Kursk oblast.

A video collection showing Russian forces in action in the Donbass: https://southfront.press/chronicle-of-the-fighting-in-ukraine-in-videos-22-23-december-2024/

This news article has another video collection, from Kursk oblast: https://southfront.press/ukraine-is-losing-kursk-battle/

A Russian drone strike video collection from near the Kiev-occupied western DPR city of Krasnoarmeysk (AKA “Pokrovsk”): https://news-pravda.com/world/2024/12/24/938992.html

Why does nobody get called out for being a in the news megathread when they don’t link their source 😤

Merry christmas to all bloomers and doomers

Biden has had a hard time being president since the 2020 election race due to his age and the health problems that came with it, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources.

From the very beginning, his entourage adjusted the presidential schedule, noting that Biden gets tired if meetings drag on, makes mistakes and has various “limitations.” He was distanced from ministers, Congress and other high-ranking officials, isolated from the scrutiny of the public and the press.

His closest aides and advisers, such as Sullivan, Richetti and Brainard, often acted as intermediaries, and even Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had a hard time getting face-to-face meetings with Biden, including at key moments like the “disastrous” withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. And when they met with Biden, his interlocutors were asked to be clear and concise.

One lawmaker who did speak one-on-one with Biden noted that the president lacks stamina and relies heavily on his staff. Biden was especially bad in the mornings, so they tried to schedule meetings later. And sometimes they cancelled them altogether if the president was having a “bad day.”

The president was literally led by the hand by his aides, especially during trips or public appearances. The White House, however, denies that the president’s schedule was changed due to his health.

GOAT is washed 💔💔💔

Seems like russian cargo ship “just did that” in mediterranean (sunk). All according to masterplan

I just don’t see what the fuck they are thinking they are doing

https://archive.is/WjBbA(from FT)

Defaults on leveraged loans soar to highest in 4 years

US companies are defaulting on junk loans at the fastest rate in four years, as they struggle to refinance a wave of cheap borrowing that followed the Covid pandemic. Defaults in the global leveraged loan market — the bulk of which is in the US — picked up to 7.2 per cent in the 12 months to October, as high interest rates took their toll on heavily indebted businesses, according to a report from Moody’s. That is the highest rate since the end of 2020.

The rise in companies struggling to repay loans contrasts with a much more modest rise in defaults in the high-yield bond market, highlighting how many of the riskier borrowers in corporate America have gravitated towards the fast-growing loan market.

Because leveraged loans — high yield bank loans that have been sold on to other investors — have floating interest rates, many of those companies that took on debt when rates were ultra low during the pandemic have struggled under high borrowing costs in recent years. Many are now showing signs of pain even as the Federal Reserve brings rates back down. “There was a lot of issuance in the low interest rate environment and the high rate stress needed time to surface,” said David Mechlin, credit portfolio manager at UBS Asset Management. “This [default trend] could continue into 2025.”

Punitive borrowing costs, together with lighter covenants, are leading borrowers to seek other ways to extend this debt. In the US, default rates on junk loans have soared to decade highs, according to Moody’s data. The prospect of rates staying higher for longer — the Federal Reserve last week signalled a slower pace of easing next year — could keep upward pressure on default rates, say analysts.

Many of these defaults have involved so-called distressed loan exchanges. In such deals, loan terms are changed and maturities extended as a way of enabling a borrower to avoid bankruptcy, but investors are paid back less.

Such deals account for more than half of defaults this year, a historical high, according to Ruth Yang, head of private market analytics at S&P Global Ratings. “When [a debt exchange] impairs the lender it really counts as a default,” she said.

“A number of the lower rated loan-only companies that could not tap public or private markets had to restructure their debt in 2024, resulting in higher loan default rates than those of high-yield bonds,” Moody’s wrote in its report. Portfolio managers worry that these higher default rates are the result of changes in the leveraged loan market in recent years. “We’ve had a decade of uncapped growth in the leveraged loan market,” said Mike Scott, a senior high yield fund manager at Man Group. Many of the new borrowers in sectors such as healthcare and software were relatively light on assets, meaning that investors were likely to recover a smaller slice of their outlay in the event of a default, he added.

“[There has been] a wicked combination of a lack of growth and a lack of assets to recover,” thinks Justin McGowan, corporate credit partner at Cheyne Capital. Despite the rise in defaults, spreads in the high-yield bond market are historically tight, the least since 2007 according to Ice BofA data, in a sign of investors’ appetite for yield. “Where the market is now, we are pricing in exuberance,” said Scott.

Still, some fund managers think the spike in default rates will be shortlived, given that Fed rates are now falling. The US central bank cut its benchmark rate this month for the third meeting in a row. Brian Barnhurst, global head of credit research at PGIM, said lower borrowing costs should bring relief to companies that had borrowed in the loan or high-yield bond markets.

Jay Powell speaks at a press conference “We don’t see a pick-up in defaults across either asset class,” he said. “To be honest, that relationship [between leveraged loans and high-yield bond default rates] diverged probably in late 2023.”

But others worry that distressed exchanges hint at underlying stresses and only put off problems until a later date. “[It’s] all well and good kicking the can down the road when that road goes downhill,” noted Duncan Sankey, head of credit research at Cheyne, referring to when conditions were more favourable for borrowers. Some analysts blame loosening credit restrictions in loan documentation in recent years for allowing an increase in distressed exchanges that hurt lenders. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Weakened [documentation] quality has really changed the landscape, in favour of the borrower,” said S&P’s Yang.