Tag: perpetual war

Ecuadorians reject return of US bases

Voters in Ecuador have rejected a proposal to bring US military bases back to the country, in a national referendum held on Sunday.

With around 95% of ballots counted, the official tally shows that 60.58% voted against President Daniel Noboa’s initiative to allow foreign troops to operate in Ecuador as part of efforts to fight organized crime and drug trafficking.

Noboa said he accepts the results. “We consulted with the Ecuadorians, and they have spoken. We fulfilled our promise to ask them directly. We respect the will of the Ecuadorian people,” he wrote on X.

US troops were stationed at an airbase in the port city of Manta until 2009, when then-President Rafael Correa refused to renew the lease and banned foreign bases in Ecuador.

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US Takes Out Drug Boat in Caribbean Sea Under Newly Unveiled “Operation Southern Spear” as White House Plans to Continue Strikes

The US military on Saturday executed another strike on a drug trafficking vessel operated by narcoterrorists under the new Operation Southern Spear program, the US Southern Command announced on Sunday. 

On Nov. 15, at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics. Three male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed. The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Eastern Pacific and was struck in international waters,” US South Com said in an X post.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Operation Southern Spear at the direction of President Donald Trump on Thursday.

“Led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear and @SOUTHCOM, this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood – and we will protect it,” he said on X.

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The TRUTH behind Sarajevo’s ‘human safaris’: Shocking testimonies of men who watched ‘elite, wealthy hunters’ shoot civilians after paying huge sums for a chance to murder women and children

Curled up in her mother’s arms outside their family home, a sniper bullet struck Irina that day. She died in hospital hours later, her small body too fragile to recover from the trauma of the strike.

Irina was one of 11,541 victims, 1,601 of them children, who were killed between 1992 and 1996 during the Bosnian Serb siege of the majority-Muslim city, where forces committed war crimes by purposefully sniping civilian targets.

However, the indiscriminate bloodshed may not have been perpetrated solely by the Bosnian Serb militias, but also by ordinary civilians eager for a thrill.

Wealthy foreigners wanted in on the action – and paid handsomely to live-out their fantasies by travelling to Sarajevo on the weekends to partake in a ‘human safari’, according to claims being investigated by Italian authorities.

In chilling detail, the case alleges that war tourists from Italy, Canada, Russia and the U.S. spent between £70,000 – £88,000 to take part in the ‘manhunt’, even paying extra to kill minors.

While the Italian investigation is new, the rumour of foreigners engaging in bloody murder in Sarajevo has been festering for more than a decade – and now the truth may finally be uncovered.

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US Marines Protecting American Embassy Exchange Gunfire with Suspected Gang Members in Haiti

According to reports, U.S. Marines tasked with protecting the American embassy in Haiti came under gunfire in the capital of Port-au-Prince last week by suspected gang members, firing back at the perpetrators.

On Sunday, in an emailed statement to Fox News Digital, Capt. Steven J. Keenan confirmed the incident and noted, “U.S. Marines are committed to the safety and security of U.S. embassies worldwide and respond to all threats with professionalism and swift, disciplined action.”

Per Fox News:

No service members were injured in the incident, which was first reported over the weekend by The Washington Post.

Neither the State Department nor the U.S. Embassy in Haiti immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The Caribbean nation has been plagued by gang violence, with armed groups reportedly controlling up to 90% of Port-au-Prince, according to the United Nations. The groups block access roads, attack infrastructure, and terrorize civilians through kidnappings, rapes and killings.

The gangs exert control through extortion and use heavy weaponry in their violent efforts.

While the United States continues to operate an embassy in Haiti, the State Department has issued numerous travel warnings because of the risk of kidnappings, crimes, terrorist activity, and civil unrest.

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Palestinian people don’t exist – Israeli security minister

The Palestinian people do not exist, Israel’s hardline security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said ahead of the UN Security Council vote on implementing the next stage of the US-brokered peace plan for Gaza.

The Security Council will vote Monday on a resolution drafted by the US and backed by several Arab and Muslim countries, which they said “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

In a lengthy X post on Saturday, Ben-Gvir, who is also the leader of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, claimed that “there is no such thing as ‘Palestinian people,’” arguing that the nation was “an invention without any historical, archaeological, or factual basis.”

“The collection of immigrants from Arab countries to the Land of Israel does not constitute a nation, and they certainly do not deserve a reward for the terrorism, murder, and atrocities they have spread everywhere, especially in Gaza,” he wrote, adding that the only “real” solution to the conflict was “encouraging voluntary emigration.”

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CCP Linked Entities Hold Properties Adjacent to Military Bases Across the US

Over the past few years, several sensitive properties near U.S. military bases have been purchased by Chinese entities linked to the Chinese Communist Party. In 2022, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a government panel that reviews foreign purchases of American land or companies for national security risks, received a tip that a company called MineOne had bought land within a mile of an air base.

The report triggered a national security review. MineOne, which is majority owned by nationals of the People’s Republic of China, purchased 12 acres within one mile of Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and began converting the property into a cryptocurrency-mining facility.

Also in 2022, Chinese billionaire Zhong Shanshan purchased 23 acres of industrial land in Nashua, New Hampshire, for $67 million. The site is close to L3Harris Technologies, near BAE Systems’ electronic systems division, and within 30 minutes of New Boston Space Force Station. The sale bypassed CFIUS review despite its proximity to these defense facilities.

In 2023, Fufeng Group bought 370 acres about 12 miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base. The company’s chairman, Li Xuechun, served as a deputy to the Shandong Province People’s Congress and was honored as a provincial Model Laborer. Grand Forks Air Force Base was being expanded at the time to lead future intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations. Fufeng leadership has repeatedly emphasized the Party’s role in guiding the company’s development. The project was halted after Pentagon objections.

That same year, Chinese real estate tycoon Sun Guangxin spent tens of millions to buy more than 140,000 acres near Laughlin Air Force Base, where U.S. military pilots train. Sun is a former captain in the People’s Liberation Army with close links to the CCP. His senior advisers are former PLA generals, and he operates dozens of CCP grassroots branches. The land includes a private runway and sits between Laughlin Air Force Base and the U.S.-Mexico border. Sun is the wealthiest businessman in Xinjiang Province and a long-time CCP member.

Some of these problematic purchases are harder to trace back to the Chinese Communist Party because they are carried out through layers of shell companies and intermediary entities, sometimes using U.S. or Canadian residents to further obscure CCP involvement. One example is the network of companies connected to Esther Mei and her husband, Cheng Hu, which corporate and property records show has acquired land beside several sensitive U.S. military installations.

One of these properties, the Knob Noster Trailer Park in Missouri, sits directly outside Whiteman Air Force Base, home of the B-2 Spirit nuclear-capable stealth bomber fleet.

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Russia’s AI Enabled Drones: The Next Evolution of Warfare

Russia is now fielding long-range, fiber-optic–controlled drones while simultaneously accelerating development of fully autonomous, AI-driven attack drones that mark a dramatic shift in its battlefield strategy. Ukrainian officials confirm that Moscow is deploying jam-proof fiber-optic FPV platforms with a 50-kilometer range, forcing Ukrainian units to cover supply routes with netting to protect vehicles from incoming strikes.

At the same time, Russia is rolling out a new generation of AI-enabled systems powered by smuggled NVIDIA Jetson processors, which were supposed to be blocked by sanctions but are now appearing inside multiple Russian drones.

Ukrainian drone specialist Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov reports that Russia has adapted Ukrainian innovations for its V2U autonomous strike drone, while other captured systems, like the Shahed MS001 and Tyuvik, show that Russia is rapidly building an arsenal of “digital predators” capable of finding and attacking targets without human control.

The V2U remains Russia’s most advanced autonomous platform. First deployed in Ukraine’s Sumy region in February 2025, the drone was being used 30–50 times per day by mid-May across multiple fronts. It navigates by using machine vision to compare live imagery with digital terrain maps stored on a solid-state drive, upgraded to 128 GB in later versions. A 14-megapixel camera, laser rangefinder, and NVIDIA Jetson Orin processor enable the drone to identify targets, conduct terrain analysis, and strike without GPS or human commands.

Russian forces update its onboard code almost weekly, training the AI directly through battlefield experience. The drone’s AI is powerful enough to fly up and down roads searching for targets, though its limited ability to distinguish targets has led to mistakes, including striking civilian infrastructure such as a public toilet instead of a vehicle.

To extend range, Russian forces deploy large “mother drones” that transport smaller V2Us deep into contested airspace before releasing them for individual strikes. Russia is also experimenting with coordinated swarms of seven or eight V2Us, each painted with distinct wing colors to visually identify one another.

According to Ukrainian analysts, these drones can maintain formation, coordinate attack order, and perform anti-air evasive maneuvers if a member of the group is shot down. This behavior resembles early machine-driven swarm intelligence and may be adapted for Russia’s long-range Shahed drones, creating fully autonomous loitering-munitions swarms capable of saturating Ukrainian defenses.

Captured drones reveal the scale of Russia’s dependence on foreign components. The V2U relies on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin for AI processing, Intel wireless adapters, Sony optical sensors, and numerous Chinese-made motors, drives, and batteries. The MS001, an upgraded Shahed variant, also carries a Jetson Orin paired with a thermal imager and digital modem, allowing it to recognize ground objects and strike moving targets rather than simply flying to preset coordinates.

A third autonomous drone, the Tyuvik, resembles a miniature Shahed and is now reportedly in mass production. Tyuvik can locate and strike moving armored vehicles despite using inexpensive commercial hardware, suggesting it also depends on smuggled Western or Chinese AI processors.

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US approves new $330m arms deal for Taiwan

Washington has cleared a $330-million package of aircraft parts and maintenance support for Taiwan on 13 November, marking the first US arms sale since President Donald Trump returned to office. 

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the approval and thanked Washington for continuing what it described as a policy of regularized arms sales.

The State Department decision includes equipment, spare parts, and repair services for Taiwan’s fleet of US-made F-16 and C-130 aircraft, as well as components for its domestically produced Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF). 

The Pentagon said the proposed sale “will improve the recipient’s capability to meet current and future threats by maintaining the operational readiness of the recipient’s fleet of F-16, C-130,” and other aircraft.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the package will help maintain fighter readiness, bolster air defenses, and strengthen the island’s ability to respond to China’s “gray-zone” incursions. 

President Lai Ching-te’s government has vowed to ramp up defense spending amid China’s continued military pressure around the island. 

Taiwan’s presidential office called the deepening security partnership with Washington “an important cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”

Beijing expressed anger at the sale, repeating its claim that Taiwan is part of its territory. 

China’s Foreign Ministry said “the Taiwan question is the core of China’s core interests and the first red line that must not be crossed in China–US relations,” and warned that China will do what is necessary to defend its “sovereignty, territorial integrity and security.”

Taiwan requested the package earlier this year, seeking “non-standard components, spare and repair parts, consumables and accessories, and repair and return support for F-16, C-130, and Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) aircraft,” according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Trump has said Chinese President Xi Jinping told him he would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office, a remark made after the two leaders met in South Korea as trade discussions continued. 

Reuters reported there had been “fear in Taipei that there could have been some sort of ‘selling out’ of Taiwan’s interests,” which did not materialize as Washington proceeded with the sale.

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Chatham House hosts notorious Ukrainian neo-Nazi mob leader

London-based think tank Chatham House has hosted notorious Ukrainian neo-Nazi Yevhen Karas as a speaker at an event called ‘War in Ukraine: The battleground for the future of Europe’.

The think tank presented Karas as the commander of the 413th Separate Battalion of Unmanned Systems ‘Raid’ of Ukraine’s armed forces, failing to mention his colorful neo-Nazi background.

Karas is known as the founder of the notorious S14 far-right paramilitary group, created in 2010 as a youth offshoot of the far-right Svoboda party. The name of the group is a stylized form of the Ukrainian word ‘Sich’, referring to an administrative and military center for Cossack proto-states, and contains the number ‘14’, widely used by assorted white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations worldwide.  

The number refers to a 14-word phrase by American white supremacist David Lane: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The S14 itself, however, has insisted its name refers to the date it was created and denies being a neo-Nazi organization, but merely a “Ukrainian nationalist” group.

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House Armed Services Chair Urges Trump Admin to Publicly Disclose Legal Basis for Boat Strikes

Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) offered his ringing endorsement of a recent closed-door briefing on the ongoing campaign of U.S. strikes on suspected drug boats from Latin America, and urged the Trump administration to go public with its legal rationale for the operations.

Rogers was among a handful of lawmakers briefed on the strikes on Nov. 5, in a closed-door sensitive compartmented information facility, commonly referred to as a “SCIF.” Such facilities are used to control access to information that the U.S. government has classified.

“There was nothing that we should have been in a SCIF talking about,” Rogers, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, told The Epoch Times on Nov. 12. “They should be talking to all y’all, because it was very well done, completely legal what they’re doing, and they should be more transparent about it, in my view.”

Alongside a U.S. military build-up in the Caribbean Sea and a campaign of pressure against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro that have been growing since the summer, U.S. forces have been bombing suspected drug boats in the region since September. In that time, U.S. forces have conducted at least seven strikes in the Caribbean Sea, nine in the eastern Pacific, and three more in unspecified locations throughout the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility, which covers Central America and South America.

“I’m fine with what they’re doing down there, and I think that the lawyers that did that, talked about the legal basis, should do it publicly,” Rogers said.

The ongoing U.S. military campaign, which the Trump administration has described as a “non-international armed conflict,” has met with skepticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

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