Ukraine steps up sabotage, concentrating on trains

As Russia and Ukraine every fail to make substantial advances on the entrance of their warfare, Ukraine has been turning to guerrilla ways, together with sabotage, assassinations and the targeting of Russian trains and train tunnels.

On Nov. 29, Ukrainian saboteurs positioned explosives on a Russian freight practice roughly 3,000 miles from the Ukrainian border, in an try to break an essential tunnel by the Severomuysky mountains. After an explosion rocked the tunnel, Russian officers mentioned the blast had been attributable to “the detonation of an unidentified explosive device.” Ukrainian partisans additionally mentioned that that they had blown up a freight practice final month because it was transporting ammunition and gas from Russian-occupied Crimea.

Russia is utilizing related ways. Last month, the Polish authorities convicted 14 individuals on prices of sabotage below the course of Russian intelligence, Polish officers mentioned. Their most important targets had been trains transporting army and humanitarian support to Ukraine, officers mentioned.

Elsewhere within the warfare:

Russia pummeled Kharkiv, an japanese Ukrainian metropolis, with missiles and drones main as much as New Year’s Eve.

Just days after invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, signed a sweeping censorship regulation to silence wartime dissent. The regulation has led to greater than 6,500 instances of individuals being arrested or fined, according to a Times analysis through last August.

U.S. sinks three Houthi boats within the Red Sea

U.S. army helicopters yesterday got here below hearth from Iranian-backed Houthi fighters within the Red Sea and shot again, sinking three Houthi boats and killing these aboard, U.S. Central Command mentioned.

The episode was a big escalation within the Houthis’ assaults within the Red Sea, the place they’ve launched dozens of missile and drone assaults towards business ships in response to Israel’s warfare towards Hamas. It was the primary time for the reason that Israel-Hamas warfare started that the Yemen-based Houthis were known to directly target U.S. forces, which had been deployed to the area to guard vessels within the waterway.

The colonial roots of Philippine poverty

Decades after the Philippines gained its independence from the U.S., tens of thousands and thousands of landless Filipinos are dealing with desperation that stems partly from insurance policies imposed by the powers that managed the archipelago for hundreds of years.

Policies engineered to make the nation depending on American manufacturing unit items have left the Philippines and not using a sturdy industrial base or the type of manufacturing unit economic system that has lifted up different Asian nations. Instead, the U.S. left in place programs that favor rich households who management the plantations and political sphere, leaving landless people at their mercy.

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In Chile’s oldest and most overcrowded jail, the lads stay in cages, however lots of of cats roam free. To jail officers, the cats had been a peculiarity of kinds, and largely ignored. Then they realized one thing: The feline residents weren’t solely good for the rat drawback. They were also good for the inmates.

Lives lived: Tom Wilkinson, identified for his performances in films together with “Michael Clayton” and “The Full Monty,” has died at 75.

When pop stars mess with the previous

Musicians preserve being tempted to revisit recordings they made way back, and in 2023, flashbacks from the Beatles and Taylor Swift drew worldwide consideration. New instruments permit artists to place a shiny new spin on previous or beforehand unreleased tracks, and its simpler to market one thing acquainted.

But an replace isn’t essentially an enchancment, our music critic Jon Pareles writes, and most efforts from 2023 delivered diminished returns.

Of course, there’s an outlier and counterexample to leaving the previous alone. This yr, the Replacements launched a full-length remix of the band’s 1985 album “Tim.” Jon argues that it’s the uncommon case the place second ideas can change issues for the higher.

That’s it for at this time’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Justin

P.S. After The Times introduced that Tracy Bennett would turn into Wordle’s first editor, her life took a public turn.

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