Andrew Torba on X:

"Trump shared another pro-H-1B article on Truth Social and is getting ripped apart in the comments again."

📎 BasedTorba

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🇨🇳 The claim that countries needs to import migrant labor is a neoliberal lie.

China actually has a factory worker shortage, because no young Chinese wants to work in factories.
Our solution is not to import migrant labors, but to automate and fill the gap with robots.

Another aspect of the solution is to reform our vocational education systems to train more skilled factory workers who collaborate with robots.

This retains the jobs with the Chinese people, it also raises the wage in general.

📎 Zhao DaShuai

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🇮🇳 A study conducted by the Indian government found that 53% of a sample of 12,447 children reported having been sexual abused. Horrifying.

X 🔗

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🇲🇩🔌⚡️ National electric energy provider, Energocom, estimates that, in January, 62% of Moldova's electric energy consumption will be imported from Romania.

The rest will be produced locally.

OPCOM (Operatorul Pieței de Energie Electrică și Gaze Naturale) is a subsidiary of the Romanian national company, Transelectrica, through which the national company sells electric energy and natural gas to customers in and outside of Romania.

Nuclearelectrica is the national company managing the Cernavodă nuclear power plant.

The remainder 6.7% is covered by bilateral contracts between Chișinău and other companies like OMV-Petrom, Hidroelectrica etc.

@Wallachian_Gazette

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🇲🇩🇲🇩🔌 The Moldavian State District Power Plant (MGRES/Cuciurgan PPT) switched to coal as of today. Its reserves will last for 50-52 days. During this time, Transnistria will definitely have electricity.

The contract between the Moldavian State District Power Plant and Moldova has expired: due to the lack of gas, the power plant no longer supplies inexpensive electricity to the neighboring country.

Moldova now relies exclusively on imports from Romania to keep the lights on.

@Wallachian_Gazette

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🇲🇩🚨🔌 The Moldovan government is buying large quantities of electric energy from the Romanian market in preparation for the shutdown of the Druzhba pipeline which Gazprom uses to deliver gas to the country.

Chișinău expects a demand with a peak of 850 MW while Moldova itself, without the MGRES plant in Transnistria, can produce barely over 200 MW.

Chișinău has signed emergency contracts with Petrom to buy 100 MW from the Brazi Power Plant near Ploiești, another contract with Nuclearelectrica for 100 MW supplied by the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant and hopes to buy 200 MW more from OPCOM.

In terms of renewables, Moldovan authorities hope they will be enough to cover the missing 200 MW of energy needed. They will come from the hydropower plants on the Pruth river with Romania and from Moldova's own wind and solar farms which, depending on the weather, can produce anywhere between 50 to 150 MW.

Chișinău is preparing to cut power to households if the situation arises. Top priority for electric energy are public institutions, meaning hospitals, schools and central/local administration buildings.

🔗 https://hotnews.ro/criza-energetica-peste-prut-nuclearelectrica-si-omv-petrom-vor-exporta-electricitate-in-republica-moldova-consumatorii-casnici-vor-fi-primii-afectati-de-deconectari-1868508

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📝👶 A thread by Ælþemplær on how the East Germans managed to increase their TFR from 1.2 to 2.0 in 1980:

🧵https://fxtwitter.com/Aelthemplaer/status/1874628880356835571

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🇬🇧 Lord Pearson in the House of Lords: 250,000 white British girls have been raped in the last 25 years largely by Muslim men

📎 Don Keith

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🇨🇳/🇺🇸 Arnaud Bertrand on X:

"This will undoubtedly be one of the most interesting stories of 2025: the great LLM war between the US and China.

The war of course started a while ago already with the US restricting high-end semiconductors to China. Leading to the extremely ironical situation where we find ourselves today whereby China developed models like Deepseek 3 that - in large parts due to the constraints imposed by the US - are orders of magnitude more efficient and cheaper than US models.

Which leads us to the next battle: how do US companies - with their now comparatively inefficient and expensive models - compete? They thought winning AI would be all about deploying the most resources but that's now been completely turned on its head: it is their very abundance of resources that's allowed the emergence of cheaper resource-constrained competitors.

They can go the EV route and straight up ban Chinese tech. But whilst physically banning a car from entering the US is easy, banning internet-accessible technology is an entirely different matter... Or they can do it the hard way and transform their existing approach.

I don't have the answer but in any case it'll be interesting to watch"

https://fxtwitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1874637795538727403

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"Washington Consensus saw offshoring the US defense industrial base to China as a boost to US efficiency.

The long-term folly of that view becomes obvious if we reclassify the below as a strategy to reduce US govt deficits under "DOGE" by offshoring US govt functions to China."

📎 Luke Gromen

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🌎 Ideological Affiliation of National Governments

📎 America Elects

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Trump is getting dragged on Truth Social over H-1B

📎 Andrew Torba

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🇷🇺🇱🇾Satellite images appear to show the construction of a major Russian military base in southern Libya.

The base is located at a strategic point near the border of Sudan and Chad and close to the gold mines of the Kuri-Bugudi region.

According to several Sudanese military journalists, the base will belong to the Russian Defense Ministry's "Africa Corps."

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So far this is Unverified, but a LinkedIn Profile has been discovered for a Matthew Livelsberger, who is believed to be the Suspect that was killed in today’s Cybertruck Bombing outside of Trump Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. The Profile states he is from the Greater Colorado Springs Area, and that that he was Active Duty in the U.S. Army, serving as a Special Forces Communication & Intelligence Specialist “Green Beret” and working on Small Unmanned-Aircraft Systems (sUAS).

📎 OSINTdefender

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⚡🇺🇸 A surveillance video that appeared on social media shows the moment the Tesla CyberTruck exploded near Trump Tower in Las Vegas.

One person was killed and seven others were injured when the Cybertruck caught fire , the FBI said.


@medmannews

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🇫🇷🇩🇪🤝🇸🇾 The French and German foreign ministers are going to Damascus to meet with Mohammed al-Jolani

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/french-german-foreign-ministers-head-syria-meet-new-leader-jean-noel-barrot-annalena-baerbock/

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🇺🇸🇮🇱 Alex Jones and Stew Peters on Israel: "We need to stop funding them."

@CIG_telegram

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🇷🇺🇲🇩🇲🇩 Let’s talk about Moldova’s alleged debts to Gazprom:

The story presented by Gazprom is simple: Moldovagaz, a joint stock company, who’s shares are majority owned by Gazprom but it is also under the control and supervision of the Moldovan government, collected debts worth 700 million USD from 1991 until 2021 for gas deliveries to Moldova (Transnistria excluded). This unpaid debt made Gazprom terminate its contract with Chișinău.

In October 2021 the then deputy prime minister of Moldova, Andrei Spînu, went to Saint Petersburg to talk with Gazprom CEO, Alexei Miller, to find out how much did Chișinău owe to Moldova. The audit was supposed to be finished by May 2022 but the war in Ukraine delayed that. In October 2022 Gazprom made the first threat to cut gas supply to Moldova if the audit wasn’t finished soon. The threat was not followed through but Gazprom did raise the prices per m3 of gas.

Moldova contracted two audit firms, one from Norway and one from the UK and the audit was finished by autumn of 2023. At the time Gazprom was claiming that Moldovagaz owed 709 million USD but the audit said 276 million USD of the debt could not be proved by Gazprom, meanwhile a debt of 400 million USD was recognised but the auditors said the debt could not be repaid because it was very old and Gazprom didn’t bother to bring it up over the years which the auditors considered that Gazprom forgave its subsidiary. (In law, if a party fails to take to court its contracting partner over missed payments, after a certain amount of time, usually no more than a year, the law considers the debt to be expired, acting as a sanction for the careless creditor who wasn’t diligent enough with his money)

The remaining 33 million USD are money which the auditors noted that the company spent without prior approval from the Moldovan government. One such notable expense was Moldovagaz’s new headquarters in Chișinău’s Center on Pushkin street.

In the end, the audit found that Moldova owed a sum of just 8,6 million USD which Chișinău was more than happy to pay but Gazprom rejected the conclusion of the audit and talks broke down.

Moldovagaz’s contract with Gazprom expires in 2026. Although Gazprom’s contract with Ukrainian authorities expired on January 1st 2025, this doesn’t make Gazprom’s contract with Chișinău impossible to fulfill as Gazprom can still deliver natural gas through the TurkStream and BlueStream pipelines which pass through Turkey.

Gazprom’s refusal to comply with the audit is a form of bullying and extortion. However, unlike previous times, Moldova is ruled by a pro-Western administration that is determined to break away from Russia’s grip for good and tactics like this will not work. Gazprom might’ve cut the supply of natural gas but Moldova wasn’t planning on renewing the contract with Gazprom after 2026 anyways. The fact that it came now doesn’t change much.

The only losers in this fight are the Transnistrians who are more vulnerable than ever and more dependent on Chișinău than ever. In a matter of days, Russia overturned the power balance in Moldova and condemned its Transnistrian subjects to stay at the mercy of Moldovan authorities who now control all entry and exit points of goods and resources.

The one thing Transnistria could blackmail Chișinău with was cheap electric energy thanks to natural gas that was being delivered for free by Russia. That is gone. Now Transnistria barely has resources for itself to survive and sooner or later will have to come to the negotiating table or face uprisings.

Maia Sandu, Action & Solidarity (PAS) and Moldova have won the Transnistrian War thanks to a bad gamble made by Russia. It is only a matter of time until Transnistria crumbles.

@Wallachian_Gazette

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🇲🇩❌🇲🇩🇺🇦 Transnistrian medias accuse Maia Sandu and Vladimir Zelensky of "genocide" because Gazprom decided to stop delivering gas to the enclave.

I remind my viewers that Transnistria IS NOT cutoff from Russian gas as Turkey has not shut down its pipelines (TurkStream) and gas can continue to flow from Russia, through Turkey, to Moldova.

Moscow wants to topple the PAS government and the presidency of Maia Sandu. It also has the potential to backfire and collapse the separatist regime in Tiraspol.

🔗 https://tirasteplo.org/index.php/informatsiya/novosti/item/5789-uvazhaemye-potrebiteli-tepla-i-goryachej-vody

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🇲🇩🚨🇲🇩🇷🇺 Transnistria is in an even bigger trouble than Moldova who can cover missing energy with imports from neighbouring countries.

Deputy-PM of Moldova, Oleg Serebrian, tells that Chișinău has been preparing for this energy crisis since early 2024 when Ukraine first announced it will not renew contracts with Gazprom for the transit of natural gas through its country.

Serebrian says that Chișinău has taken active steps to reduce dependence on Russia but this does not apply to Transnistria.

Serebrian puts the blame on the crisis on Russia and Gazprom themselves, arguing that they have the capacity to continue to deliver natural gas to Transnistria and power the enclave through BalkanStream and other pipelines under the Black Sea but refuses to do so.

Gazprom on its part invokes a “historic debt” from Moldova of 700 million USD as the reason for the cessation of deliveries. Moldova rejects the debt but admits it owes 8.6 million USD to the company following an audit carried out by Norwegian and British experts, which Gazprom rejects.

Serebrian says that Moldova never attempted to block the transit of natural gas from Russia towards Transnistria and, on the contrary, encourages the company to continue to supply the separatists but refuses to pay for the transportation costs. Serebrian invokes a national duty to the people living in Transnistria as more than 90% of its inhabitants hold Moldovan citizenship.

Serebrian is preparing for the worst case scenario though: a refugee crisis from Transnistria. However he says there crisis will be limited in size and the refugees will be few, no more than a couple thousand.

“Chișinău is ready to welcome patients in intensive care units and orphaned children from Transnistria”said Serebrian.

Serebrian added that Transnistria has the resources to make it through this winter, mentioning the coal reserves at the Cuciurgan (MGRES) Power Plant which can replace natural gas, reserves which will last for 50 days, the fact that most people live in villages and have stoves and there is plenty of firewood available and the Dubăsari hydroelectric plant.

In terms of additional security measures, Oleg Serebrian said that Moldova has asked Western partners for humanitarian aid on behalf of Transnistria to prevent a crisis and minimise damages.

🔗 https://hotnews.ro/cum-se-pregateste-republica-moldova-pentru-criza-gazelor-din-transnistria-estimam-ca-vor-fi-cateva-mii-de-persoane-stramutate-interviu-cu-vicepremierul-de-la-chisinau-1868506

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🇮🇱🇸🇾 The Israeli Air Force reveals details and footage from one of its most daring and complex commando operations ever, in which 120 members of special forces units raided and destroyed an underground Iranian missile manufacturing plant deep in Syria in September.

The raid — dubbed internally by the Israel Defense Forces “Operation Many Ways” — was aimed at destroying an underground facility used by Iranian forces to manufacture precision missiles for Hezbollah in Lebanon and for the Assad regime in Syria.

The facility, codenamed by the military “Deep Layer,” was dug into a mountain at the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS or SSRC, in the Masyaf area of Syria, west of Hama. The site lies more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the Israeli border, and some 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Syria’s western coastline.

The military says the raid was carried out successfully by the IAF’s elite Shaldag unit, along with the search and rescue Unit 669.

The troops spent just over 2.5 hours on the ground, and none were injured during the entire operation.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-confirms-commandos-raided-iran-missile-factory-deep-in-syria-4-months-ago/

📎 Emanuel Fabian

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“We could fix every problem tomorrow if we didn't have foreign occupation"

📎 Ether-Wave

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🇸🇴❌🏴 — Somali newspaper Puntland Mirror claims the UN estimates of IS-Somalia manpower of 600-700 fighters is an undercount, and the real number stands at around 1,800 fighters including 750 foreign.

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🇨🇳🚘 Orikron on X: 'China set itself the goal of reaching 50% New Energy Vehicle sales by 2035.

It surpassed that before even 2025 rolled around.

"They want to electrify everything." "No other country comes close to China."'

https://www.ft.com/content/0ebdd69f-68ea-40f2-981b-c583fb1478ef

https://archive.ph/Pdalk

📎 orikron

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🇺🇦🇫🇷 The cannibalization of the French brigade

Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov wrote a detailed post about issues with the new 155th Mechanized Brigade. He reports that more than 1,700 soldiers went AWOL before deployment to the front line, including over 50 during training in France. Among the challenges, over 2,500 soldiers were reassigned to other units as combat replacements during the brigade's formation, and it deployed to the front with insufficient equipment.

The reality is that Ukraine lacked the personnel and equipment for a new brigade and attempted to use the formation of a new unit as propaganda. Except for the 2A4 tanks, this brigade lacked vehicles capable of withstanding shell splinters. Some news labeled it as one of the most heavily-armed Ukrainian brigades, yet it was missing crucial equipment. Initially, 31 Leopard 2A4 tanks were promised, later revised to just 10, but the exact number deployed remains unclear.

The brigade also had an anti-aircraft defense battalion, but with what equipment? Similarly, there was an absence of Electronic Warfare units.

Realistically speaking, 50 troops went AWOL during training in France—where it was well-known that none were contract soldiers, but forcibly mobilized. Who decided that forcibly mobilized men would remain loyal during training in a foreign country? Everybody prefer to eat croissants in some cafe in Paris.

Moreover, several officers left the brigade after deployment due to a lack of organization and equipment. The brigade was essentially cannibalized, reflecting total disrespect for its members. After deployment, the brigade suffered heavy losses, resulting in further desertions.

Additionally, Ukraine recently lost two of its newly delivered F-16s, one in Ivano-Frankivsk and another in Zaporizhzhia.

These F-16s, equipped with stealth missiles, have the potential to significantly slow the Russian advance on the eastern front if operated with more caution.

Ukraine need to solve the manpower question with financial incentives and less brute force.

📎 Patricia Marins

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🏴 According to a report by Jihadology+, an Islamic Terrorism Watchdog, ISIS-affiliated arrests in the USA were up by 50% in 2024.

14 members of ISIS were arrested by federal agencies. 5 of the arrested were actively planning terrorist attacks with a range of targets including churches, synagogues, voting locations, and LGTBQ+/Pride establishments.

📎 Jihadology+

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⚡️🇫🇷🇩🇪 France and Germany: Electricity Compared in 2024

This chart shows all 8784 hours in the year.

Germany averaged 349 grams of CO2 per kWh with wind, coal, solar, gas, and biogas.

France averaged 19 grams with nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, and gas.

France was 18 times cleaner.

📎 Mark Nelson

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📹 Trump, Elon Musk, and X (Elon's son) partying together on New Year's Eve

📝 Imperator Philippus Arabus: "It's worth noting that Musk has fathered two children with the woman standing next to him at this event.

The woman is of Punjabi ancestry.

He may feel personally insulted by criticism of South Asians, as his family now includes South Asians."

📎 PhilippusArabus

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🇵🇸🇹🇷🇮🇱 Tens of thousands attend anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protest in Istanbul

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/tens-of-thousands-attend-anti-israel-pro-palestinian-protest-in-istanbul/

📎 AbujomaaGaza

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🇮🇹 Terror attack in Italy!

Villa Verucchio near Rimini. At around 10.30pm on New Year's Eve, a 23-year-old Egyptian stabbed five passers-by with a 22cm kitchen knife, including an 18-year-old who was buying cigarettes from a vending machine, an elderly couple and a young woman.

When the carabinieri arrived, he tried to stab one of them and was shot dead. He had a Koran and a Muslim rosary in his pocket, and psychotropic drugs at home.

@CIG_telegram

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