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[ti-amie]

Adam Schwarz
‪@adamjschwarz.bsky.social‬

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Lee Jae-myung, Leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, live-streamed himself scaling the walls of the National Assembly to bypass military barricades so that he could vote to overturn the President's martial law.

https://bsky.app/profile/adamjschwarz.b ... g46lagl22d

[mmmm8]

Thanks for posting. That is a wildly delusional attempt at a coup.

[ponchi101]

The rise of the lunatic strong man.
It is becoming so boring. Unless they succeed, of course.

[ti-amie]

Jack Greenberg (그린버그 잭)
‪@jackwgreenberg.bsky.social‬
Just after 4 a.m. here in Seoul. Some updates:
- 190 oppo lawmakers submitted a proposal for impeachment. A vote can proceed on Friday, as early as 12:49 a.m. KST.
- Yoon’s removal from ruling PPP, acceptance of entire Cabinet’s resignation, and dismissal of Defense Minister floated by Han Dong-hoon

- PPP has decided as a party to oppose the impeachment motion but some individual members have still expressed support for Yoon’s swift resignation or expulsion from the party. Impeachment would need at least 8 ruling party members to vote with the opposition.

- One prominent conservative who has called for Yoon to take responsibility and resign is Ahn Cheol-soo. As a third party candidate, Ahn had played kingmaker towards the end of the presidential campaign and helped Yoon get elected. He made his call via his Facebook page.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Anonymous
‪@youranoncentral.bsky.social‬
At least 66,000 fake accounts and 10 million fake followers were removed on just TikTok alone, the operation was targeting Romania’s election in favour far-right candidate Călin Georgescu .

Also, an account with 299,000 followers linked to the far-right AUR party was taken down.




https://bsky.app/profile/youranoncentra ... ksipogls2e

[Owendonovan]

Probably too late.

[ti-amie]

Jon Cooper
‪@joncooper-us.bsky.social‬

FANTASTIC NEWS! Romania’s Constitutional Court has just annulled the first round of the presidential election due to heavy Russian interference. The second round will not take place on Sunday and the first round will be re-run. The electoral authorities will have to validate all candidates again.

[ti-amie]

Anonymous‬ ‪@youranoncentral.bsky.social‬
·
1h
Assad has fled Syria after returning from Russia, the Kremlin denied further assistance to the regime citing "their own issues", the collapse of the Assad regime may be hours away. Reportedly he is meeting with Iranian officials in Tehran. Likely to form a government in exile.

The US is now the butt of these kinds of jokes.

Onionwars‬ ‪@t-rimble.bsky.social‬
·
now
That should free him up for a cabinet position.

[skatingfan]

Iran Begins to Evacuate Military Officials and Personnel From Syria
The withdrawals by one of President Bashar al-Assad’s key backers come amid a resurgent rebel offensive.

Iran began to evacuate its military commanders and personnel from Syria on Friday, according to regional officials and three Iranian officials, in a sign of Iran’s inability to help keep President Bashar al-Assad in power as he faces a resurgent rebel offensive.

Among those evacuated to neighboring Iraq and Lebanon were top commanders of Iran’s powerful Quds Forces, the external branch of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the officials said.

Guards personnel, some Iranian diplomatic staff, their families, and Iranian civilians were also being evacuated, according to the Iranian officials, two of them members of the Guards, and regional officials. Iranians began to leave Syria on Friday morning, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.

Evacuations were ordered at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, and at bases of the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian and regional officials said. At least some of the embassy staff has departed.

Part of the evacuation is being carried out by planes to Tehran, while others are leaving via land routes to Lebanon, Iraq and the Syrian port of Latakia, the officials said.

“Iran is starting to evacuate its forces and military personnel because we cannot fight as an advisory and support force if Syria’s army itself does not want to fight,” Mehdi Rahmati, a prominent Iranian analyst who advises officials on regional strategy, said in a telephone interview.

“The bottom line,” he added, “is that Iran has realized that it cannot manage the situation in Syria right now with any military operation and this option is off the table.”

The orders to evacuate signaled a remarkable turn for Mr. al-Assad, whose government Iran has backed throughout Syria’s 13-year civil war, and for Iran, which has used Syria as a key route to supply weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Alongside Russia, Iran has been the Syrian government’s most powerful supporter, sending advisers and commanders to bases and the front lines and backing militias.

It also deployed tens of thousands of volunteer fighters, including Iranians, Afghans and Pakistani Shias, to defend the government and to retake territory from the Islamic State terrorist group at the height of Syria’s civil war. Some of Iran’s forces, like the Afghan Fatemiyoun brigade, had remained in Syria at military bases operated by Iran; on Friday, they were also being transferred to Damascus and Latakia, an Assad government stronghold, the Iranian officials said. A video posted on accounts affiliated with the Guards showed the Fatemiyoun in uniform taking refuge at the shrine of Seyed Zainab near Damascus.

The surprise offensive by a rebel coalition has dramatically changed the landscape of the civil war, which Mr. al-Assad had fought to a standstill, and Iran’s control over some of Syria’s territory. In a little over a week, the rebels have swept through major cities like Aleppo and Hama, captured swaths of territory across four provinces, and moved toward Syria’s capital, Damascus.

The Iranian officials said that two top generals of Iran’s Quds forces, deployed to advise the Syrian army, had fled to Iraq as various rebel groups took over Homs and Deir al-Zour on Friday.

“Syria is at the verge of collapse and we are watching calmly,” said Ahmad Naderi, an Iranian Parliament member, in a post on social media on Friday. He added that if Damascus fell, Iran would also lose its sway in Iraq and Lebanon, saying, “I don’t understand the reason for this inaction but whatever it is, it’s not good for our country.”

The rebel offensive came at a moment of relative weakness for three of Syria’s most important supporters. Iran’s ability to help has been curtailed by its conflict with Israel; Russia's military has been sapped by its invasion of Ukraine; and Hezbollah, which had previously supplied fighters to aid the Assad government’s fight against the Islamic State, has been battered badly by its own war with Israel.

The fall of more territory to rebel forces, which are led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, could also threaten Iran’s ability to supply either Mr. al-Assad’s regime or Hezbollah with weapons and advisers.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had traveled to Damascus this week, meeting with Mr. al-Assad and pledging Iran’s full support.

But in Baghdad on Friday, he appeared to make a more ambiguous statement. “We are not fortune tellers,” he said in an interview on Iraqi television. “Whatever is God’s will shall happen, but the resistance will fulfill its duty.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/worl ... ation.html

[ti-amie]

Anonymous‬ ‪@youranoncentral.bsky.social‬
·
1h
Assad has fled Syria after returning from Russia, the Kremlin denied further assistance to the regime citing "their own issues", the collapse of the Assad regime may be hours away. Reportedly he is meeting with Iranian officials in Tehran. Likely to form a government in exile.

The US is now the butt of these kinds of jokes.

Onionwars‬ ‪@t-rimble.bsky.social‬
·
now
That should free him up for a cabinet position.

Whoever, or whatever this is, seems to have jumped the gun. There are no other outlets reporting this story.

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

The war on drugs has to end. It has been one of most devastating policies for the continent, and the world, ever.

[ti-amie]

The war on drugs has to end. It has been one of most devastating policies for the continent, and the world, ever.

It's a soapbox issue when you have nothing else to rant about. There's a lot of money being used to "sponsor" things like football clubs around the world to use the example given here.

[ti-amie]

Assad has left Damascus, senior army officers say; Syria rebels say they are in capital
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Timour Azhari
December 7, 202410:11 PM ESTUpdated 15 min ago

Summary
Assad boards plane, leaves Damascus, say senior army officers
Assad's destination unknown, officers say
Syrian rebels say they have entered the capital
After years of little movement, rebels mount lightening advance
Insurgent leader urges no reprisals

AMMAN/BEIRUT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments.

Thousands in cars and on foot congregated at a main square in Damascus waving and chanting "Freedom", witnesses said.

"We celebrate with the Syrian people the news of freeing our prisoners and releasing their chains and announcing the end of the era of injustice in Sednaya prison," said the rebels.
Sednaya is a large military prison on the outskirts Damascus where the Syrian government detained thousands.

A Syrian Air plane took off from Damascus airport around the time the capital was reported to have been taken by rebels, according to data from the Flightradar website.

The aircraft initially flew towards Syria's coastal region, a stronghold of Assad's Alawite sect, but then made an abrupt U-turn and flew in the opposite direction for a few minutes before disappearing off the map.

Reuters could not immediately ascertain who was on board.

Just hours earlier, rebels announced they had gained full control of the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting, leaving Assad's 24-year rule dangling by a thread.

Intense sounds of shooting were heard in the centre of the Damascus, two residents said on Sunday, although it was not immediately clear what the source of the shooting was.

In rural areas southwest of the capital, local youths and former rebels took advantage of the loss of authority to come to the streets in acts of defiance against the Assad family's authoritarian rule.
Thousands of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the army withdrew from the central city, dancing and chanting "Assad is gone, Homs is free" and "Long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad".
Rebels fired into the air in celebration, and youths tore down posters of the Syrian president, whose territorial control has collapsed in a dizzying week-long retreat by the military.

The fall of Homs gives the insurgents control over Syria's strategic heartland and a key highway crossroads, severing Damascus from the coastal region that is the stronghold of Assad's Alawite sect and where his Russian allies have a naval base and air base.

Homs' capture is also a powerful symbol of the rebel movement's dramatic comeback in the 13-year-old conflict. Swathes of Homs were destroyed by gruelling siege warfare between the rebels and the army years ago. The fighting ground down the insurgents, who were forced out.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the main rebel leader, called the capture of Homs a historic moment and urged fighters not to harm "those who drop their arms".
Rebels freed thousands of detainees from the city prison. Security forces left in haste after burning their documents.

Residents of numerous Damascus districts turned out to protest Assad on Saturday evening, and security forces were either unwilling or unable to clamp down.

Syrian rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani said in a statement early Sunday that operations were ongoing to "completely liberate" the countryside around Damascus and rebel forces were looking toward the capital.

In one suburb, a statue of Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, was toppled and torn apart.

The Syrian army said it was reinforcing around Damascus, and state television reported on Saturday that Assad remained in the city.

Outside the city, rebels swept across the entire southwest over 24 hours and established control.

EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO ASSAD RULE

The fall of Homs and threat to the capital pose an immediate existential danger to the Assad dynasty's five-decade reign over Syria and the continued influence there of its main regional backer, Iran.
The pace of events has stunned Arab capitals and raised fears of a new wave of regional instability.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Russia issued a joint statement saying the crisis was a dangerous development and calling for a political solution.

But there was no indication they agreed on any concrete steps, with the situation inside Syria changing by the hour.

Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad's rule, dragged in big outside powers, created space for jihadist militants to plot attacks around the world and sent millions of refugees into neighbouring states.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the strongest rebel group, is the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the U.S. and others as a terrorist organisation, and many Syrians remain fearful it will impose draconian Islamist rule.

Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.

When asked on Saturday whether he believed Golani, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov replied, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating".

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group withdrew from the Syrian city of Qusayr on the border with Lebanon before rebel forces seized it, Syrian army sources said on Sunday.

At least 150 armoured vehicles carrying hundreds of Hezbollah fighters left the city, long a point on the route for arms transfers and fighters moving in and out of Syria, the sources said. Israel hit one of the convoys as it was departing, one source said.

ALLIES' ROLE IN SUPPORTING ASSAD

Assad long relied on allies to subdue the rebels. Russian warplanes conducted bombing while Iran sent allied forces including Hezbollah and Iraqi militia to reinforce the Syrian military and storm insurgent strongholds.

But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah has suffered big losses in its own gruelling war with Israel, significantly limiting its ability or that of Iran to bolster Assad.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said the U.S. should not be involved in the conflict and should "let it play out".

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Reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Damascus, Timour Azhari in Beirut, Jaidaa Taha in Cairo, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; Writing by Angus McDowall, Matt Spetalnick and Michael Perry; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and William Mallard

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-ea ... 024-12-07/