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On today’s Watchman Newscast Livestream, host Erick Stakelbeck breaks down yet another Houthi ballistic missile attack on Israel (11 in the past month alone) and why Israel will now target the Iran-backed terror group’s Yemen leadership. Plus, is 2025 the year or reckoning for Iran’s nuclear program: either Israel strikes or Iran breaks out for the Bomb, all as Donald Trump returns to office? Erick also breaks down new details about a major Israeli operation against a secret underground Iranian missile factory in Syria. Watch now!

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the U.S. Treasury Department's computer security guardrails this month and stole documents in what Treasury called a "major incident," according to a letter to lawmakers, opens new tab that Treasury officials provided to Reuters on Monday. The hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said. According to the letter, hackers "gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users. With access to the stolen...

An evolutionary biologist has challenged the long-held theory that suggests the first humans emerged from African. Dr Huan Shi, from China, proposed evolution began in East Asia where fossils predating the Africa timeline have been found. Evidence of genetic diversity is at the heart of his 'out of East Asia' theory, based on a concept called 'maximum genetic diversity' (MGD) that states complex species are more likely to have less genetic diversity.

The US Treasury says Chinese hackers stole major documents in a computer breach. The hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said.

A political war on the Hudson erupted Monday over New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the MTA’s controversial $9 congestion toll. The MTA can now begin collecting the first-in-the-nation congestion fee on Sunday, Jan. 5, to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street — following a federal judge’s ruling in Newark. While Judge Leo Gordon said environmental mitigation concerns on the Jersey side of the Hudson have to be addressed, he chose not to issue a preliminary injunction to block implementation of the toll in his 72-page ruling. “The decision does not interfere with the program’s scheduled implementation this coming Sunday,...

Watch the historic moment the sea drone takes down an aerial target. DRAMATIC footage shows the moment Ukraine claimed the historic downing of a Russian M-8 military helicopter off the coast of occupied Crimea by a missile-firing sea drone. Kyiv's military intelligence announced the strike in the Black Sea with a Magura V5 and included a clip of the historic moment. In the black-and-white footage taken from the sea drone, bursts of water can be seen around the drone launching into the air as Vladimir Putin's chopper attacked. Viewers can quickly spot the Russian aircraft in the top right-hand corner...

There's a persistent truism out there that while Jimmy Carter was an execrable president, he was nevertheless a great ex-president. It's balderdash. He may have done some worthy deeds around the eradication of disease and the building of homes for the homeless. But he was every bit as bad an ex-president as he was a sitting president. It wasn't just his nasty, irritable personality, as described by newsman and AT contributor Peter Chowka here, and former U.S. diplomat Lewis Amselem from firsthand experience as bystanders in random events. It was in his meddling political involvement abroad. Amselem described in his...

January is shaping up to be the coldest in a decade as the polar vortex dips south across the eastern half of the United States — shocking a nation that has enjoyed an unusually balmy end of the year. “It’s going to get cold, and then very cold,” a Fox Weather meteorologist told The Post Monday. “Based on the latest long-range data, this January has the potential to be the coldest since 2014,” they added. Temperatures are expected to begin dropping from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast around Thursday, but the real plunge will set in sometime between...

Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar introduces a solution against Hinduphobia amid racist attacks over immigration support. Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar, a Democrat from Michigan, has spoken out against “all Hinduphobia” and racism in the United States after becoming the target of a wave of hateful rhetoric over the weekend. The backlash came after Thanedar, born in Karnataka, India, voiced his support for the H-1B visa program and advocated for increasing legal immigration to maintain America’s competitive edge in innovation. “Unfortunately, the H1-B visa discourse has been hijacked by MAGA racism and xenophobia,” he said. “By increasing H1-B visas and streamlining the...

To the guys in the back.seat To Captain Dale R Garrels To Dale R Garrels II To Donald Sparks To Thomas Yukio Kushida To Frances D Ross To Jim Oneill To Alfred Wright Having flown since 1978 These are the guys that I can remember who had an effect on my flying life and are flying in heaven now. I always hope that when I am making that final approach between the trees on a bad day that at least one of these fellows is sitting there in the back seat of the taildragger keeping me from doing something stupid....

The United States has raised concerns with Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, the new foreign minister in Syria’s transitional administration, over recent reports of violent attacks carried out by militant groups across the country, US officials told Axios on Monday. According to the report, US officials fear that reprisals by militants aligned with the rebels who ousted the Assad regime earlier this month, especially those targeting minority communities or individuals associated with the ousted regime, could jeopardize stabilization efforts in the war-torn nation. Al-Shibani serves as the chief aide to Ahmed al-Sharaa, the de facto leader of Syria and head of Hayat...

... Burchett’s GOP colleague, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), has explicitly said he will not be voting for Johnson to remain Speaker. He publicly disagreed with Trump and criticized Johnson as a “potato” who has blown the budget. If Massie votes against Johnson, he can only afford one more vote against him if all House members are present and choose to vote on the matter. Several Republicans, like Burchett, haven’t committed to voting for Johnson ahead of Friday’s vote.

A former Russian football star has died fighting for Putin in Ukraine, 20 years after playing against Cristiano Ronaldo at the European Championship. Russian media said Alexei Bugayev, who was 43, was killed on Sunday after joining the army in September to avoid serving a 10-year prison sentence for drug trafficking. “Unfortunately, the news of Alexei’s death is true. How did it happen? And how do they kill during military operations? It happened today,” Ivan Bugayev, his father, was quoted as saying. Bugayev’s body could not be retrieved due to the intensity of the fighting, his agent said, although the...

Marine archaeologist Alexandre Monteiro has said that the coast of Portugal between the Azores and Madeira islands holds golden treasure-laden shipwrecks. This region is said to contain close to 8,620 ships, and 250 of them are said to hold a significant amount of gold treasure. Monteiro is an investigator who works with Nova University in Lisbon and has built a database that records shipwrecks dating back to the XVI century when historical records become more easily accessible. In an interview with a local outlet, Lusa, Monteiro claims to have documented more than 7,500 shipwrecks off Portugal’s continental coast, 1000 near...

The carpenter pleaded guilty to khalwat with a 52-year-old woman. It was his third time being caught for the offence. The rare punishment has stoked vigorous debate in Malaysia.A 42-year-old Malaysian man was publicly caned in Terengganu on Friday (Dec 27) for the Islamic crime of khalwat, or close proximity between a man and a woman not related by family ties. The rare punishment, which has stoked vigorous debate, took place at the Al-Muktafi Billah Shah Mosque in Kuala Terengganu after Friday prayers. Carpenter Mohd Affendi Awang, a father of five, is the first person to be caned for repeated...

The government of Brazil stopped issuing work visas for Chinese electric carmaker BYD after local authorities rescued 163 Chinese nationals working in conditions “analogous to slavery” at a BYD factory under construction in the city of Camaçari, Bahia, Reuters reported Friday. BYD, a company with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party, is building the plant at a location once occupied by American carmaker Ford, which sold the location to the local Bahia government in 2023 after Ford ceased all operations in Brazil in 2021. Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on December 23 that construction work on BYD’s factory in...

On Monday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves announced his resignation. In a statement, Graves outlined that he will step down from his position at the Justice Department on January 16, just days before President-elect Trump takes office, and is expected to issue pardons for many January 6 defendants. For many conservatives, this decision couldn’t have come soon enough. Graves, a key figure in the DOJ's aggressive prosecutions of the January 6 defendants, leaves behind a controversial legacy that many conservatives argue epitomizes the weaponization of the DOJ against political dissent.

CANTON – Ken Berkowitz, who served as Canton police chief until his retirement in 2022, has died. The Canton Town Administrator confirmed that Berkowitz died on December 28. They did not release a cause of death. Berkowitz was in charge of the Canton Police Department at the time of John O'Keefe's death in 2022. Karen Read, O'Keefe's girlfriend at the time, was accused of hitting him with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow after a night of heavy drinking. Read denies the allegations and has claimed she is being framed by several people, including members of...

For the first time in 15 years, Hanukkah and Christmas coincide in 2024: The Jewish holiday begins with the first candle lighting at sundown on Christmas Day. These holidays are an important affirmation of our religious heritage. America was established on a biblical worldview, and it can’t survive without it. President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Our form of government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don’t care what it is.” Ike was not saying that religious differences are unimportant, but that faith itself is what matters. George Washington — another soldier...

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates, officials said Monday. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 150 Russian soldiers were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people.