Legitimate authorities regain control of situation in Benin

The legally formed government of #Benin is regaining control of the situation in the country after a group of servicemen announced a coup this morning, AFP reported, citing sources close to President Patrice Talon. "This is a small group of rebels who had access to television," the news agency quoted a source as saying. "The regular army is regaining control of the situation," the source pointed out.

According to AFP, rebels attacked the presidential palace in Porto-Novo, the capital, in the morning, but Talon is safe.

Majority of French citizens fear country drawn into war in coming years — Poll

More than half of French residents surveyed by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) believe their country could be drawn into a military confrontation with another major power in the coming years, the poll results reported by the LCI news channel show.

The survey was conducted among 1,000 French adults on December 3-4.

Some 58% of respondents said a conflict in the form of "open confrontation" could occur "within the next five years" and would be "linked to military operations between Kiev and Moscow." Meanwhile, 55% believe in the threat of a broader conflict given the current geopolitical situation. Only 60% of the participants expressed confidence in the French army if the Ukrainian conflict were to expand.

Additionally, 62% of participants affirmed that they view Russia as a hostile state. This view is held by over half of supporters across all political parties, with the highest agreement among Socialist Party supporters (88%), while supporters of right-and left-wing opposition parties, such as the National Rally and La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, were more skeptical with 51% and 54% of those surveyed, respectively.

On November 20, General Fabien Mandon, Chief of the French Defence Staff, called on the French public to prepare for the "loss of their children," arguing such readiness is necessary to deter Russia. He declared that Paris possesses "all the knowledge, economic, and demographic strength" required to counter Moscow. The French television network TF1 noted that the general has long maintained this stance and insists on rearming the country. Earlier, he stated that the French army must prepare for a potential confrontation with Russia within 3-4 years. On November 25, French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed speculation that a proposed reform of the national military service could lead to French youth being sent to the Ukrainian conflict zone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously dismissed as nonsense what he called the "mantra" of European politicians regarding a potential war with Russia. Speaking at the General Debate of the 80th UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Russia has never had, nor does it have, any intention to attack NATO or the EU.

Xi Jinping and Macron held talks in Beijing: the main points

#Xi Jinping called on the French leader to show responsibility and determination at a time when the world is "experiencing unprecedented changes over a century."

#Macron believes that Paris and Beijing should bring their positions closer: "Sometimes there are disagreements, but we bear responsibility for overcoming them for the common good."

The French president hinted that China has "decisive capabilities" to influence the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.

Macron proposed establishing a moratorium on attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for the upcoming winter period. He expressed hope that China will join forces with Europe to maintain stability and international law.

The French leader called for creating conditions for direct Chinese investments in the European Union's economy, which would help create new production facilities and jobs.

: Macron came to Beijing begging the Chinese president to restrain his Russian ally from finishing off Ukraine this winter by bombing the Ukrainian electrical grid

The Economist foresees war, pestilence and economic collapse in 2026

The British news magazine known for its enigmatic and terrifying ‘The World Ahead’ covers has released its predictions for the coming year.

Its 2026-themed cover features tanks firing, missiles launching and drones attacking, trade wars, a US arms buildup, and a Zelensky caricature with binoculars standing beside what look like Vikings with vases in a boat sailing on top of a big fish.

Around them are syringes and pills, a brain connected to a videogame controller, humanoid robots, melting ice cubes, trade war ‘shots across the bow’ and crossed swords against the backdrop of a chart indicating an economic collapse.

The cover may be significant. Past ‘World Ahead’ issues predicted things like the coronavirus (2019 cover featuring a pangolin, initially cited as an intermediary host of COVID-19), Trump’s lost Presidential Election (2020), mass vaccinations and massive global wildfires (2021), and the US-China battle for critical minerals (2024).

Cloudflare down latest: Websites such as Twitter not working amid technical problems with the internet

Outage comes around a month after Amazon Web Services outage also took much of the internet offline...

Parts of the web appear to have stopped working amid a technical problem at Cloudflare.
Visitors to websites such as X, formerly known as Twitter, and film reviewing site Letterboxd saw an error message that indicated that Cloudflare problems meant that the page could not show.
Cloudflare is an internet infrastructure that offers many of the core technologies that power today’s online experiences. That includes tools that protect websites from cyber attacks and ensure that they stay online amid heavy traffic, for instance.

“Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers,” the company said in a new update. “Further detail will be provided as more information becomes available.”
Tracking website Down Detector, which monitors outage, was also hit by the technical problems itself. But when it loaded it showed a dramatic spike in problems.

Affected users saw a message indicating there was an “internal server error on Cloudflare’s network”. It asked users to “please try again in a few minutes”.

WW3 WATCH: Poland declared it is in a "pre-war state", prepares for attack

The Chief of the General Staff of #Poland announced preparations for an attack on the country. The Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army, General Wiesław Kukuła, declared that the country is in a "pre-war state" and warned of preparations for a possible attack.

According to him, sabotage and cyberattacks documented by intelligence agencies are intended to undermine public trust in state institutions and create favorable conditions for potential aggression. "The enemy is creating an environment that should be conducive to aggression on Polish territory," he stated, comparing the current situation to the events of 1939.

Kukuła also referred to an incident in which damage was caused to railway tracks that occurred the previous day. The general noted that the event resembles hybrid warfare. "Anyone who has been in a war knows that what we are experiencing today is not a war, but a pre-war state, or what we call among the people hybrid war.
Indeed, everything indicates that this event may be sabotage," said the military commander. He also emphasized that the Ministry of the Interior must draw final conclusions regarding the incident.

US military strikes drug boats in Pacific, 14 killed

US forces carried out three separate strikes in the Pacific Ocean yesterday, targeting four boats involved in drug trafficking, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 14 people aboard the vessels.

According to Hegseth, one person survived the operation and was rescued by Mexican authorities. The Pentagon described the strikes as part of an ongoing campaign to disrupt transnational criminal networks operating across maritime routes in the region.

[BREAKING-Oct. 12] HEAVY FIGHTING ON PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN BORDER

#Taliban forces just launched a massive attack on Pakistani military posts after Islamabad reportedly carried out airstrikes inside Kabul.

#Pakistan says it "won’t tolerate any aggression." Taliban says "sovereignty was violated."

#NATO invokes Article 4 of North Atlantic Treaty over #drone incursion in #Poland

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, at Warsaw’s request, has invoked the use of Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty and launched consultations over the violation of Polish airspace by unmanned aerial vehicles, government spokesman Adam Szlapka told the Polsat TV channel. "NATO has invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty," he said. Later, the spokesman wrote on the X social network that, at Poland’s request, consultations were held within the framework of Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

Articles 4 and 5 of the treaty outline response measures by NATO countries in the event that one of them is threatened as well as the steps of the bloc’s collective defense. According to their provisions, a threat to one NATO country is perceived as an attack on all the alliance’s members. That said, the document does not indicate what exactly NATO may perceive as an attack or a threat, hence the consultation mechanism to talk over how to respond.

Early on September 10, Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command reported the destruction of several objects identified as drones that had violated the country’s airspace.

The search for the downed objects is underway. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reported that overnight from September 9 to September 10, 19 violations of the country’s airspace were recorded, with all drones entering from Belarusian territory. So far, three drones have been shot down. In response to the incident, the Polish authorities decided to temporarily close airspace over part of the country, including Warsaw Chopin Airport.

The six victims of today’s attack in Jerusalem:

Levi Yitzhak Pash, 57
Yaakov Pinto, 25
Yisrael Matzner, 28
Rabbi Yosef David, 43
Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, 79
Sarah Mendelson, 60