Author: dmitriy.vasyura@gmail.com

China has deployed about 90 Navy and Coast Guard ships near Taiwan, two – thirds of which are military vessels. In response, Taiwan stepped up training and established emergency centers.

China has deployed nearly 90 Navy and Coast Guard ships, two-thirds of which are warships. This is reported by Reuters on its website with reference to a high-ranking official of the Taiwanese security service, reports UNN.

There are about 90 ships of the Chinese navy and Coast Guard in the waters off Taiwan, the southern Japanese islands, the East China and South China Seas, about two-thirds of which are military vessels.

In response, the Taiwanese military set up emergency centers, as well as stepped up "combat readiness exercises" at strategic points. Taiwanese naval forces and Coast Guard boats will monitor Chinese ships.

Any unilateral, irrational and provocative actions can seriously affect peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and are not welcomed by the international community

– said the Ministry of defense of Taiwan.

Recall

Taiwan's Defense Ministry has reported 16 Chinese warships near the island and expects new maneuvers. China reacted sharply to the visit of the Taiwanese president to the United States and American support for the island.

Russia has established a supply chain of American microchips and chips used for the production of weapons from the online store of Texas Instruments, or TI store.

Source: Bloomberg

Details: It is worth noting that Russian distributors replicate information from the TI store online marketplace to their trading platforms, allowing clients to view semiconductor availability and costs before placing an order.

Getchips.ru and altchips.ru are two Russian sites that sell TI products for a 40% markup.

US officials have established that Russian portals get entire product information via the Texas Instruments API (an application programming interface that allows companies to exchange data).

TI provides its partners with an API that allows them to view prices, product availability, order details, and so on. In some circumstances, authorised users of this API, such as price comparison websites, combine this data with additional sources to create a new API.

TI asserts that it does not provide its API to any Russian company, and that any companies that have access to it must go through a verification process.

According to Bloomberg, Russian distributors replicate product information from a Western company's website without direct access to the Texas Instruments API. However, it was not possible to determine the name of this company.

Reports say that the Russian government must first approve the acquisition before ordering and supplying the essential equipment to at least one intermediate country.

Records reviewed by Bloomberg show that Hong Kong-based intermediaries include Sure Technology, Chipower Electronics, and Horsway Tech.

Goods are mostly delivered from Hong Kong and Russia by Sea Global SCM and the Russian aircraft Aeroflot.

By August 2024, one of the largest Russian distributors had handled over 4,000 orders for hundreds of thousands of TI store goods totalling over US$6 million. Orders of over US$4 million were planned for Russian military businesses.

Previously, the US authorities accused the TI store of lax oversight over online sales. At the same time, the online store claims to regularly review and cancel thousands of orders that seem suspicious.

TI chips, in particular, were discovered in Russian Kinzhal missiles and Lancet-3 attack drones. Since the outbreak of the full-scale war, Ukrainian investigators have discovered over 4,000 Western components in Russian weapons, with Texas Instruments accounting for 14% of the total.

Background:

• India plays a vital role in supplying Russia with powerful Nvidia AI chips, while Malaysia has emerged as the primary provider of technology.
• Russia manages to circumvent sanctions by purchasing electronic components from Western businesses for its missiles, twice overpaying for them.

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The Jerome family from Rinteln decorated their home with 605 Christmas trees, using 120 thousand decorations and 50 thousand light bulbs. This is the seventh family record since 2017, surpassing last year's figure of 555 Christmas trees.

A German family has set a world record for the number of decorated Christmas trees. Their home in Rinteln now has 605 Christmas trees decorated with more than 120,000 ornaments, 50,000 light bulbs, and thousands of Christmas figures. This was reported by UNN with reference to Reuters.

Details

"It's just unbelievable!"- said Thomas Eromin, who together with his family set a record.

He noted that the process of decorating Christmas trees is very soothing for him.

Christmas trees occupy almost the entire house, even the toilet, but there are also rooms that can not be entered — the bedroom and their daughter's room.

"There's always a place — or a room, or a corner, or a ceiling, or walls," explains Suzanne Eromin, explaining how they managed to fit so many Christmas trees in their home.

This is not the first time the family has set a record. They broke their own achievement six times, including from 2017 to 2021 and again in 2023. Last year there were 555 Christmas trees in their house, but this year they decided to surpass themselves.

One person was killed, and two others were injured in Russian strikes on Kherson on the morning of 9 December.

Source: Roman Mrochko, Head of Kherson City Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Mrochko: "The enemy used a drone to attack a vehicle in the Dniprovskyi district of the city at around 11:30. An unidentified man sustained fatal injuries."

Details: Another man was injured when explosives were dropped from a drone in the suburbs of Kherson. The local resident, 61, sustained shrapnel wounds.

Russian forces attacked the central part of Kherson from the temporarily occupied left bank of Dnipro river, injuring a woman, 44, who was outside at the time, at around 10:30. She was taken to hospital with blast trauma and shrapnel wounds.

Additionally, the Russians targeted a vehicle belonging to one of Kherson’s municipal enterprises, using a drone.

"The workers were in the suburbs at the time. They were lucky to survive. Three municipal employees are experiencing acute stress reactions. The photo shows the municipal vehicle after the enemy drone strike," Mrochko wrote.

Update: Later, local authorities reported that Russian forces again attacked Kherson with a UAV at around 12:30. A man, 61, who was walking home, was injured when explosives were dropped from the drone. He was taken to hospital with blast injuries and a leg wound.

Background: Earlier, the Financial Times reported that Russia is using civilians in Ukrainian cities to hone in its kamikaze drone attacks and improve drone operators’ skills.

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