Israel Attacks Lebanon, Trump Threatens Iran and Other Updates

Good morning to you all, I sincerely hope you had a great first day of 2026, and I hope you continue to do so. Dominick, owner of Crust News, will be back with you tomorrow, following a short trip to the hospital, after which updates will be split between us, either of us covering the morning or evening updates.

Yesterday saw a busy news day to the year, as Zohran Mamdani took charge in New York, Ireland began the New Year without any gun deaths in the country, fires cause death and destruction elsewhere in Europe and more updates got us started in 2026.

We have a busy enough morning update for you today, so we should get right into it, and thank you for being here.

Trump threatens Iran as protests grow

Donald Trump has issued a direct threat toward Iran as protests continue to spread across the country, declaring the United States “locked and loaded” should Iranian authorities kill demonstrators. The threat is not hollow, since the USA has already attacked Iran in 2025, alongside their genocidal ally in the Middle East.

Trump’s posted threat on his Truth Social app this morning

It’s unclear if this includes killings that may have already happened, in which case an attack would be imminent. Reporting inside Iran confirms that several people have been killed during the current wave of protests, which erupted over deepening economic collapse, inflation, and a collapsing currency.

Casualties have been reported in multiple provinces as security forces moved to suppress demonstrations. If these attacks already count to Trump’s threat, then there is an imminent attack on the way, however, it’s more likely that this is not the case. Trump has already shown he is consistently willing to ignore Congress, who theoretically should be behind any military action.

The Iranian Secretary of National Security has already used the threat to frame the protests as one created by foreign powers. As we noted in yesterday’s update, the protesters are indeed angry about a collapsing economy, and there is certainly some level of foreign interference.

Israel strikes Lebanon again

Israel carried out fresh strikes on southern Lebanon today, reports confirm air raids and drone attacks across multiple areas near the border, in attacks that the IDF claim targeted Hezbollah. No evidence has been provided by the genocidal army, who have a track record of attacking countries in this manner, consistently avoiding the task of providing evidence.

These strikes become just the latest of thousands of documented Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement signed in November 2024, an agreement Israel has repeatedly ignored with near-total impunity. The sheer volume and consistency of ceasefire breaches make clear that Israel simply has a free pass when it comes to international laws and agreements, habitually underscored by the USA’s attack on the legal system when it attempts to hold Israel accountable.

Russia continues to frame false flag on putin’s house

Russia has presented what it claims is recovered flight data and a controller from a Ukrainian drone allegedly used in an attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence. The claim is already being treated with skepticism, including by pro-Russia Telegram channels such as TabZ, which continue to talk about the attack with the presumption that it did not happen.

The CIA have already concluded that the story is untrue, and residents of the area where the attack was said to have occurred have confirmed that no drone was heard on the night in question. With no independent verification and even Kremlin-aligned voices questioning the story, the alleged attack is all but certainly a false flag operation to justify attacking Ukrainian government residences.

Massive data leak of Venezualan state industries

A large OSINT project has exposed extensive data linked to Venezuelan state institutions, including state media outlets, after researchers identified dozens of unsecured government systems. The project, known as Crystal Vault – Venezuela, documents roughly 9.3 GB of accessible data, including media files, internal posts, metadata, and location information tied to state-run broadcasters.

The data was not obtained through a single hack, but through misconfigured or openly accessible APIs, pointing to systemic failures in basic cybersecurity. Venezuelan authorities have not yet publicly addressed the exposure, and it is uncertain whether the USA played any part in the link.

Trump’s gold phone is nowhere to be seen

Trump’s much-promoted gold phone has once again failed to appear, turning into the scam that almost everyone presumed it was. The device, first announced last year with claims of U.S. production and a 2025 release, has quietly missed its launch window, with no confirmed shipping date now in place as January 2026 begins.

Trump Mobile has blamed vague “logistical issues” for the delay, while all of the claims that the phone would be manufactured in the USA have been dropped by the company. In place of the much touted Trump Phone, the shady company are now offering refurbished phones from other brands instead.