World News Random, Random

[ti-amie]

A different view. Also graphic

[ti-amie]

‘It was a matter of conscience’: Ahmed al-Ahmed’s family reveal why he risked his life to disarm alleged Bondi shooter
Family say Ahmed ‘doesn’t discriminate’ and would have done anything to save lives during the attack
Caitlin Cassidy
Mon 15 Dec 2025 03.09 EST

NSW premier Chris Minns visits Ahmed al-Ahmed in hospital.
Photograph: Instagram

When Ahmed al-Ahmed tackled and wrested a gun from an alleged shooter at Bondi Beach, he was simply thinking he “couldn’t bear to see people dying”, his cousin says.

Less than a day later, Ahmed remains in a critical but stable condition at St George hospital in Sydney. Since the attack, the 43-year-old father of two young girls has catapulted to international fame with a GoFundMe page already raising more than $A1.3m (£645,000; $864,000) in less than 24 hours.

He has also been hailed as a hero by the Australian prime minister, the New South Wales premier and the *US president.

Anthony Albanese singled out Ahmed at a press conference on Monday, paying tribute to his actions as an example of “Australians coming together”.

“Ahmed al-Ahmed … took the gun off that perpetrator at great risk to himself and suffered serious injury as a result of that, and is currently going through operations today in hospital,” Albanese said.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, visited Ahmed in hospital and posted on Instagram praising the “real-life hero”.

“Last night, his incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk,” Minns wrote. “There is no doubt that more lives would have been lost if not for [Ahmed’s] selfless courage.”

At least 16 people, including one of the alleged gunmen, were killed in the mass shooting during a Hanukah celebration on Sunday evening.

Extraordinary footage of the scene shows Ahmed rushing towards one of the shooters, leaping on to him and wrestling the gun from his hands.

Jozay, a cousin of Ahmed, said he was recovering from his first surgery and had two more to come. “He took a lot of medication, he can’t speak well,” Jozay said after leaving the hospital on Monday evening.

Another cousin, Mustafa al-Asaad, told the Al Araby television network that Ahmed intervened as a “humanitarian act”.

“When he saw people dying and their families being shot, he couldn’t bear to see people dying,” he said.

“It was a humanitarian act, more than anything else. It was a matter of conscience … He’s very proud that he saved even one life.

“When he saw this scene, people dying of gunfire, he told me, ‘I couldn’t bear this. God gave me strength. I believe I’m going to stop this person killing people’.”

Asaad said his cousin was an Australian citizen of Syrian origin, from the city of Idlib. After spending an hour with him on Monday morning, he said his cousin told him “God gave me courage” and that he didn’t regret his actions.

Ahmed’s parents, Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmed and Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmed, told ABC news their son was shot four to five times in his shoulder during the altercation.

“My son is a hero. He served in the police, he has the passion to defend people,” his father told ABC.

The couple had only arrived in Sydney from Syria months prior, and had been separated from their son since he came to Australia in 2006.

Ahmed’s mother told the ABC she kept “beating myself up and crying” when she received the call her son had been shot.

“He saw they were dying, and people were losing their lives, and when that guy [the shooter] ran out of ammo, he took it from him, but he was hit,” she said. “We pray that God saves him.”

According to his parents, Ahmed had been having a coffee with a friend in Bondi when he heard the shots ring out. They said he would have done anything to protect anyone.

“When he did what he did, he wasn’t thinking about the background of the people he’s saving, the people dying in the street,” his father said.

“He doesn’t discriminate between one nationality and another. Especially here in Australia, there’s no difference between one citizen and another.”
‘He really is a superhero’

Lubaba Alhmidi AlKahil, the media director for the Australians for Syria Association, visited Ahmed on Monday afternoon to deliver a tray of food and a bouquet of flowers. She said he had undergone successful surgery and was recovering, but was still in pain.

“What he did, he really is a superhero,” she said. AlKahil hadn’t met Ahmed prior to the tragedy but said the community was “very proud” of him.

“You might not believe it, but while we were watching the news, a lot of us had the feeling that he looks Syrian, he looks really Syrian,” she said. “Then we found, he is Syrian.”

She said Ahmed came from a “lovely family” that was surrounding him with care and prayers.

“This is not strange for a Syrian individual, the community is lovely, supportive, with strong bonds. We’ve refused injustice and persecution [in Syria] and it’s not strange that one of us had the feeling: ‘No, I will not watch, I will die to help.’”

For AlKahil, the profound tragedy also brought a sense of fear.

“As Muslims, every time there’s an attack we say to ourselves, oh no, people will say it’s Muslims that are bad,” she said. “We are scared to leave our houses if we’ll be accused.

“But our religion is a religion of peace and we are very peaceful people. This proves that.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... ays-ntwnfb

*No quote from Tiny is included in the article.

[ponchi101]

In other less enlightening news.
The elected president of Chile, who is LITERALLY the son of a Nazi Wehrmacht officer, gave his acceptance speech. He immediately singled out illegal immigrants and stated that he invited them to leave the country before he takes over the presidency.
As I said, this is the son of a German nazi who migrated to Chile.

[ti-amie]

In other less enlightening news.
The elected president of Chile, who is LITERALLY the son of a Nazi Wehrmacht officer, gave his acceptance speech. He immediately singled out illegal immigrants and stated that he invited them to leave the country before he takes over the presidency.
As I said, this is the son of a German nazi who migrated to Chile.

[ti-amie]

‪

‪Aaron Rupar‬
‪@atrupar.com‬
· 1h
Trump: "Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled ... It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the USA all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us."


‪28,000 Popehat Victims Per Year‬
‪@kenwhite.bsky.social‬
· 48m
Also do we really know any of this is happening? I mean what if someone just mentioned to him that someone named Amanda was visiting Venezuela and he riffed on it?

[ti-amie]

Broadwaybabyto 1d
The Disabled Ginger

Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese went to visit Ahmed Al Almed in the hospital.

He shook his hand and thanked him on behalf of all Australians.

I hope the world never forgets the courage this one man showed in the face of unspeakable horror.

How he stepped up and risked his own life to save countless others, and how he showed the killer mercy.

He’s a hero.

[ponchi101]

How are we completely surrounded? We have borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. Does the USA have marines there too?

[dryrunguy]

How are we completely surrounded? We have borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. Does the USA have marines there too?

Isn't roughly 70-80% of Venezuela's border jungle or at least heavily forested? My percentage may be off but not by too much...

[ponchi101]

The Venezuelan border with Brazil and Guyana is that. The impenetrable Amazon.
A portion of the Colombian border too, but there are other areas that are not jungle, and that border is heavily transited. Several legal crossings and thousands of illegal ones.
Our entire coast is with the Caribbean.

The thing is ridiculous, and it keeps showing that Trump does not even know where we are. The stolen oil and the stolen lands. Which land we could steal from a country that is a couple of thousand kilometers away means he perhaps think we are next to Mexico. And about us stealing oil from the USA...
What a dangerous combination. Vennies are caught between a mad, stupid dictator and a mad, idiotic, senile wanna be tyrant. Doesn't look good for us.

[ponchi101]

On with the war with Venezuela saga.
We all know about last night's Tiny's address. But here in Venelandia there was a rumor that part of the speech was to announce immediate war with Venezuela. The people are very nervous; everybody wants the Marines to come and snatch our buffoon, but everybody also knows that that would mean certain level of destruction. Which is not good for a country with such a fragile infrastructure.
So, total schizophrenic mood.
More rumors: Maria Corina Machado is trying to convince Trump to really go ahead and invade. I ask: how can this woman call this monkey? People look at me strange.
I had forgotten a little bit about our arrangement regarding the airport in Caracas, which doubles as a military base. We have a hill right in between it and our apartment, so I gather that the shock waves will go over our head, if the tomahawks fall.
In the meantime, people are going around minding their own business. We are so strange.

[dryrunguy]

Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People
By Peter S. Goodman, Will Fitzgibbon and Samuel Granados Visuals by Finbarr O’Reilly and Carmen Abd Ali Nov. 18, 2025
FULL ARTICLE (link shared with permission as a subscriber): https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... =url-share

UPDATE: Nigeria Closes Factories Linked to U.S. Auto Industry Amid Poisoning Inquiry
Carmakers have known for decades that battery recycling was poisoning people abroad. Nigeria’s crackdown is an effort to catalog the damage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/worl ... =url-share

[dryrunguy]

This was an incredibly refreshing--and also sobering--read. It's an interview with Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh. While it's on the surface about the conflict in Gaza, it is really a conversation about complexity and our willingness, or lack thereof, to embrace it. His explanation of how criticism of Zionism is not antisemitism--and how the fervent effort to connect the two is intellectually lazy and logically fallacious--is the best I've seen, especially given how concisely he made the point.

Linked shared via my subscription. I hope you will take the time to read it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/maga ... =url-share

[ponchi101]

I was able to finish the piece today.
Lots of thoughts. Obviously, well written, but I can't say I agree or disagree with this man. But this entire piece fails to mention any connection with the religious layer that is at the bottom of this conflict.
I think that part is missing.

[ti-amie]

U.S. strikes ISIS in Nigeria after Trump warnings on Christian killings

The U.S. military said it attacked ISIS militants at the request of Nigerian authorities. The number of casualties is unknown.
December 25, 2025 at 6:53 p.m. EST29 minutes ago

By Isaac Arnsdorf
and
Tara Copp

U.S. forces struck Islamic State targets in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas evening, following up on threats to the country over killings of Christians, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Trump described the strikes as deadly but he did not elaborate. “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” he wrote.

The military’s Africa Command said the strike came at the request of Nigerian authorities and killed multiple ISIS militants. The Pentagon said the Nigerian government approved the strikes and worked with the U.S. to carry them out. No further details were immediately available.

For months Trump and Republican Reps. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Riley Moore of West Virginia have raised alarms about killings of Christians in Nigeria amid larger ethnic and religious bloodshed. Trump had previously directed the Pentagon to plan potential military action in Nigeria, and earlier this month the State Department restricted visas for Nigerians involved in the violence.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... eria-isis/

[ti-amie]

US carries out airstrikes against Islamic State ‘terrorist scum’ in Nigeria, Trump says
President claims strikes targeted militants in country’s north-west, accusing group of attacking Christian communities

Guardian staff
Thu 25 Dec 2025 18.41 EST

Donald Trump said the US has carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria on Thursday, claiming the militant group had been targeting Christians in the region.

The president said in a post on Truth Social: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!

“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”

No other details of the strikes were immediately available.

Trump has previously said that he would launch a “guns-a-blazing” US military intervention in Nigeria, claiming that the country’s government has been inadequate in its efforts to prevent attacks on Christians by Islamist groups who have kidnapped and killed Christians there repeatedly.

Nigeria is officially a secular country but its population is almost evenly divided between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%). Violence against Christians has drawn significant international attention, especially among the religious right in America, and it has been often framed as religious persecution.

However, most analysts argue the situation is more complex and has long roots in the region’s history. In some parts of the country clashes between itinerant Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farming communities are rooted in competition over land and water.

Priests and pastors have increasingly been kidnapped for ransom, but some analysts say this may be a trend driven by criminal incentives rather than religious discrimination.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... trump-says