The BBC is facing an internal revolt over its reporting on Israel's war on Gaza.

Their primary battlefield has become the online news operation. Drop Site News spoke to 13 current and former staffers who mapped out the extensive bias in the BBC's coverage and how their demands for change have been largely met with silence from management. At times, these journalists point out, the coverage has been more credulous about Israeli claims than the UK's own Conservative leaders and the Israeli media, while devaluing Palestinian life, ignoring atrocities, and creating a false equivalence in an entirely unbalanced conflict.

The BBC journalists who spoke to Drop Site News believe the imbalance is structural, and has been enforced by the top brass for many years; all of them requested anonymity for fear of professional retribution. The journalists also overwhelmingly point to the role of one person in particular: Raffi Berg, BBC News online's Middle East editor. Berg sets the tone for the BBC's digital output on Israel and Palestine, they say. They also allege that internal complaints about how the BBC covers Gaza have been repeatedly brushed aside. "This guy's entire job is to water down everything that's too critical of Israel," one former BBC journalist said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has described French President Emmanuel Macron as a "dictator" for clamping down on the rights of people living in France's overseas territories and former colonies. He also criticized France for arming Azerbaijan's regional rival, Armenia.

France has 12 overseas territories, which are home to a total of 2.6 million people.

In May, clashes erupted in the Pacific territory of New Caledonia after the French government proposed granting voting rights to new settlers. Indigenous Kanak people feared the measure would leave them in a permanent minority, putting independence hopes out of reach.

France deployed hundreds of riot police officers and troops to quell the unrest. Nine people were killed in the disturbances and the damage was estimated at more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion).

Then-French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin stated at the time that "some of the Caledonian separatists made a deal with Azerbaijan."

The Joe Biden White House wants Americans to believe John Kirby over their own lying eyes.

Americans looking for answers about a flurry of continuous, unexplained aerial activity over New Jersey didn't get a lot of help from the White House National Security communications adviser on Thursday, when Kirby used a news briefing to downplay concerns about potential danger in the strange, nighttime sightings.

In fact, Kirby — a man with his own credibility problems — ended up infuriating local officials and residents who've actually witnessed the phenomena.

Since late November, the objects have been spotted regularly over northern New Jersey, appearing and disappearing without explanation.

On Wednesday, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, went public with the charge — based on what he called "very qualified sources" — that the objects were actually drones being launched from an Iranian "mothership" off the East Coast.

The US government is facing a partial shutdown after a stopgap spending bill pitched by lawmakers earlier this week was scrapped under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The current funding expires on Friday, and unless a bill is passed before that deadline, millions of US federal workers will be left without paychecks.

The text of the new spending plan, known as a continuing resolution (CR), was released on Tuesday just days before the deadline. The package largely provides for the government to continue to spend at current levels for the next three months, giving the newly elected Congress time to work on more permanent federal funding. The 1,547-page bill includes a pay raise for lawmakers, $100 billion for disaster relief funding and $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, numerous provisions including foreign investment restrictions and new health care policies, among other authorizations.

US Republicans balked at the proposed package right after its release, slamming it as being too bloated and full of Democratic policy priorities. Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk - pitched by Trump as the head of his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a panel charged with finding ways to slash federal spending - launched an entire campaign against the package on X.

The French president "is done," and the country is likely heading for an early election, the right-wing politician has said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has "angered everyone" and is likely to leave his post early, right-wing leader Marine Le Pen has predicted, stating she has been already preparing for early elections "out of precaution."

Speaking with Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday, the long-time leader of the right-wing populist National Rally (RN) party, who currently heads its parliamentary group, said Macron had lost all authority both at home and abroad.

"He has angered everyone. He has no more influence in the European Union," Le Pen said.

Le Pen stated that she has already been preparing to run for office. She has run for the highest office before, facing off against Macron in 2017 and 2020, when she managed to show better results yet still lost to the incumbent.

"Emmanuel Macron is done or almost done. I am preparing for an early presidential election, out of precaution, taking into account Emmanuel Macron's fragility and what little institutional levers he has left."

The billionaire ally of US President-elect Donald Trump has reacted to claims that the news agency was pushed to investigate him.

US billionaire Elon Musk has expressed support for an online theory that links the Reuters international news agency with investigations into his businesses by the current administration of US President Joe Biden.

Musk, a close ally of US president-elect Donald Trump, has called the purported connection "insane" and claimed it "explains a lot." Reuters is "paid propaganda" that should be ashamed, he added.

The connection was suggested by Mike Benz, who heads the self-described pro-free speech website Foundation For Freedom Online. On Tuesday, he alleged in a post on X that the outgoing Biden administration "paid Reuters over $300 million in government contracts" while simultaneously 11 US government agencies "targeted Elon's businesses."

Israel will close its embassy in Dublin in light of "the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said in a statement.

"It should be noted that in the past, Israel's ambassador to Dublin was recalled following Ireland's unilateral decision to recognise a 'Palestinian state'. Last week, Ireland announced its support for South Africa's legal action against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of 'genocide'."

Taoiseach Simon Harris has described the move as a "deeply regrettable decision" from the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a statement on X, Mr Harris said that he utterly rejected the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel.

"Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-International law."

Speaking later, Mr Harris said:

"What we're seeing unfolding in Gaza and in the West Bank is absolutely appalling, extraordinarily concerning and Ireland has consistently spoken up in favour of peace and a ceasefire and we've always called for the release of hostages and we've always supported the work of international courts.

"And while we will continue our diplomatic relations with Israel, we believe diplomatic relations are important, even when you vehemently disagree with the government of the country.

"We will not be in any way distracted by this development from continuing to speak out."

The reveling by the British news media over the assassination of a top Russian general in Moscow is revealing in several ways.

First of all, it is a sickening display of wretched so-called journalism. The celebratory tone in British media outlets at the sight of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov's bloodied corpse lying in the snow speaks volumes of a despicable lack of respect. It says something about the depraved depth of British culture.

By comparison, the reporting of the assassination by American media outlets was relatively mundane and matter-of-fact.

Not so in Britain. The British media were almost euphoric in their reaction.

The Pentagon's response was significant. Spokesman Patrick Ryder denied any U.S. involvement in the killing. He said the Americans were not forewarned about the assassination and he added that the United States did not support such action.

Of course, such denials should always be treated with skepticism.

However, while the Americans had the decency to remain reserved, the British were giddy in their ghoulishness.

The London Times editorial board declared that Lt Gen. Kirillov was a "legitimate target" for assassination.

The Daily Telegraph ran an oped piece by Hamish de Bretton-Gordon with the headline: "Putin's chemical weapons henchman Kirillov was a truly evil man. He deserved to die."

Meanwhile, the BBC blithely used the Foreign Office's description of Kirillov as a "notorious mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation" to convey an implicit justification for murder.

Over at the Guardian, their Russophobic reporter, Luke Harding, abandoned all pretense of journalistic standards by glorifying Ukraine's military intelligence service (SBU) for its "success," adding: "The agency has cemented its reputation as an outfit that administers its own form of brutal extrajudicial justice. It is an abrupt and swift form of vengeance, delivered as if from the heavens."

As the embers of 2024 spit out their dying sparks and tendrils of smoke corkscrew into 2025, I want to ask: what were the important news stories of this year?

Most people will say something international. The war in Ukraine, the atrocities in Gaza, the fall of Assad.

Maybe some will cite elections, it was a big year for voting after all. A global shift-change in the corridors of power saw a dozen governments swapped out for new faces, with 2 weeks of the year left it's still possible Trudeau, Macron or Scholz may join the procession.

The tech minded might talk about advancements in Artificial Intelligence.

Those are the big stories of 2024. The banner headlines. Sound and fury and all that signifies. But were they the most important?

No, the important story of 2024 was The Great Reset.

Remember that? It was this pan-global supranational plan to tear down and then rebuild society in a "sustainable", "inclusive", "fair" and "secure" way that would - totally accidentally - eradicate civil liberties and individual freedom for every single person on the planet.

It was all the rage a few years ago, you might remember. But when it didn't go over too well with a lot of people, the powers that be dropped the subject and there's been very little talk about it since 2022.

Does that mean it's gone away?

We need to have "object permanence" in politics as in all things. Something doesn't cease to exist just because you can't see it anymore. The world doesn't vanish when you close your eyes.

The Great Reset is still the plan.

Syria as we knew it is being eviscerated in real time - in geographic, cultural, economic and military terms - by an appalling confluence of mercenary Rent-a-Jihadi mobs and psychopathological genocidals praying at the altar of Eretz Israel.

All of that is fully supported by rabid NATOstan hyenas - masters of narrative control - and fully intertwined with the eradication of Palestine.

Across the avowedly dejected Global Majority, there's a feeling that the momentarily exhausted Axis of Resistance will need to go turbo-Sisyphus to rearrange, resupply and recalibrate the defense of Palestine.

Predictably, there's not a peep across the NATOstan sphere about Tel Aviv's feral, indiscriminate bombing and snatching of sovereign Syrian territory. That represents a glaring illustration of the "rules-based international order" in action.

Collective West Think Tankland is in rapture. Chatham House preaches a Syrian rebuilding in this "watershed moment" led by the U.S., EU, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, capable of "forging a consensus around Syria" that "could serve as the foundation for a new regional order."

The rabidly anti-BRICS Center for a New American Security (CNAS) demands "expelling Russia's military presence" from Syria and "to close the country as an avenue for Iran's power projection."

The Axis of Resistance is being mourned across the spectrum. Not so fast. The deeper meaning of the "ceasefire" between Israel and Hezbollah is that the psycho-pathologicals, for all practical purposes, were defeated, even if they wreaked horrendous havoc on southern Lebanon and Beirut's suburbs.

Changing the narrative - and the focus - to the Greater Idlibistan offensive allowed an avowedly massive tactical victory not only for Eretz Israel goons but for the assembled NATOstan/Turkiye combo. Yet the real nitty-gritty starts now, even as the partition of Syria is already in effect.

The Rent-a-Jihadi mob, in theory under the control of the aspiring Caliph of Al-Sham, the Saudi al-Jolani, real name Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sha'a, sooner or later may turn against the Eretz Israel project, considering they entertain cozy relations with Hamas in Gaza.

At least for the moment, everything is swell for the Oded Yinon and/or Bernard Lewis plan to subdue West Asia via time-tested Divide and Rule. This harks back not only to Sykes-Picot in 1917, but even earlier, to 1906, when British PM Henry Campbell-Bannerman asserted that,

"There are people [Arabs] who control spacious territories teeming with manifest and hidden resources. They dominate the intersections of world routes. Their lands were the cradles of human civilizations and religions."

So if these "people" united, they would then "take the fate of the world into its hands and would separate Europe from the rest of the world."

Ergo, the necessity of "a foreign body" [later constituted as Israel] to be "planted in the heart of this nation to prevent the convergence of its wings in such a way that it could exhaust its powers in never-ending wars. It could also serve as a springboard for the West to gain its coveted objects."