Quote:National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan refused on Tuesday to commit to freezing the $6 billion of Iranian funds that the United States unfroze before Hamas attacked Israel.

“You just laid out all the ways that Iran is complicit and facilitated it … is that reason enough to re-freeze the $6 billion that the U.S. helped unlock for them?” a reporter asked Sullivan during a press conference.

“We have not yet had a dollar of that $6 billion spent, and I will leave it at that,” he replied.

Iranian security officials reportedly played a key role in planning Hamas’s surprise strike over the weekend. Iran helped plan the attack and “gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday,” senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah told the Wall Street Journal.

The Washington Post confirmed the Journal’s report. Hamas planned the attack “with key support from Iranian allies who provided military training and logistical help as well as tens of millions of dollars for weapons,” current and former Western and Middle Eastern intelligence officials told the Post.

It remains unclear what precise role Iran played in terror.

President Joe Biden’s Tuesday speech about the attack notably ended without mentioning Iran. He did mention that Hamas took American hostages.

“We now know that American citizens are among those being held by Hamas,” the president said.

“I’ve directed my team to share intelligence and deploy additional experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts,” he added. “Because as president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world.”

The Biden administration’s mild handing of Iran comes as Senate Republicans demanded the Biden administration freeze the funds after Hamas attacked Israel.

“We write today to affirm our unwavering support for Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, and call on the U.S. Department of State to freeze the accounts in Qatar containing $6 billion in Iranian funds that were released from South Korean accounts in September,” 18 Senate Republicans wrote President Joe Biden.

Quote:Israeli soldiers discovered dead babies after the Palestinian Hamas invasion of the nation that began Saturday, i24news correspondent Nicole Zedeck recounted.

“I’m talking to some of the soldiers and they say what they’ve witnessed as they’ve been walking through these different houses, these different communities,” Zedeck reported in the town of Kfar Aza, Israel, which is located near the border of the Gaza Strip. Kfar Aza is a small town located in southern Israel between Netivot and Sderot.

“Babies, their heads cut off. That’s what they said,” she recalled. “Gunned down families — completely gunned down in their beds.”

CNN reported the gruesome nature of the mutilated bodies found (via Mediaite):

CNN correspondent Nic Robertson went into horrifying detail as he described the carnage Hamas militants left behind at the Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel.
…
Israeli forces were able to liberate the town after two days of fighting Hamas gunmen, but in a video Robertson posted to CNN’s Instagram account, he explained there were “bodies everywhere,” some of which were decapitated.

“There were so many murdered members of this Kibbutz,” he said. “Men, women, children, hands bound, shot, executed, heads cut.”

Quote:The administration of President Joe Biden and the socialist regime of Venezuela are in talks that could lead to Washington lifting more oil sanctions, according to a report published by Reuters on Monday.

If granted, the prospective oil sanctions relief would come at a time when Venezuela is moving ahead with a joint plan alongside the violent, anti-American regimes of Iran and Syria to build an oil refinery in the Syrian town of Homs, yielding profits for all three regimes.

The planned oil refinery in Homs and its prospective profits may potentially fund international terrorism. Despite being a Shiite regime, Iran has maintained deep ties with the Sunni Hamas terrorist organization, providing financial and military backing.
...
The Maduro regime itself maintains longstanding ties with both Iran and Palestinian groups. The socialist regime, which broke diplomatic ties with Israel in 2009, justified Hamas’ heinous actions against Israel by blaming them on the alleged “impossibility of the Palestinian people to find in the multilateral international law a space to assert their historical rights.”

Iran has provided significant aid to the Maduro regime in the past year, particularly in restoring its rundown oil refineries after more than two decades of socialist mismanagement left Venezuela’s oil industry in a near-ruined state. Since last year, Iran has also begun refining its own oil in Venezuela’s repaired refineries.

The Maduro regime is long suspected of having close ties to the Iran-backed Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, going as far as to reportedly provide Venezuelan regular and diplomatic passports to members of the terrorist organization that grant them greater freedom of movement around the world.

The Reuters report, which cites five unidentified sources, stated that the sanctions relief being negotiated would allow at least one additional oil company to extract Venezuelan oil to be used in repaying debts if socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro agrees to resume negotiations with representatives of the Venezuelan establishment “opposition” in Mexico. Those negotiations have remained frozen since November.

Quote:White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that the Biden administration has been enforcing sanctions on Iranian oil, but “Iranian oil is still on the market, and it is a global market. Supply and demand have to be balanced.”

Co-host Bret Baier said, “[M]oney is fungible. You get $6 billion over here for humanitarian and food, so then you can move money someplace else, and then you have the not enforcing sanctions that allows Iran to cash in on its oil around the world.”

Kirby responded, “Bret, with all due respect, I’ve just got to push back on you there. It’s not that we’re not enforcing sanctions. We have been enforcing them. As a matter of fact, we’ve added sanctions. We’ve sanctioned 400 entities in Iran, just in the beginning of this administration, let alone the sanctions that came before us. And as for the fungibility, again, that money was never going to be tapped by the Iranian regime. They were never going to see it themselves. It was always going to go to vendors that we approved, to go to buy humanitarian assistance, medical, and food, to get directly to the Iranian people. The regime was never going to see that or feel that, and they haven’t asked for it. And the other thing I’ll say, Bret, just before we get off this topic –.”

Baier then cut in to say, “I want to push back on one thing. You said that the sanctions are being enforced. The Iranian exports of oil to China, 2020, 6.6 billion. 2021, 23.1 billion. 2022, $30 billion. So, how is that enforcing the sanctions on Iran?”

Kirby responded, “We’re mindful that Iranian oil is still on the market, and it is a global market. Supply and demand have to be balanced. But I’m telling you that we are enforcing the sanctions and we’re adding sanctions to the regime.”

Quote:National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed during a White House press conference Tuesday that at least 20 Americans are unaccounted for in Israel, after attacks on Saturday by Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas that left over 1,000 dead.

“We believe that there are 20 or more Americans who at this point are missing,” Sullivan said at the press conference. He said he did not know about their condition, and could not confirm a “precise number” of those missing.

“That does not mean necessarily that there are 20 or more hostages. Just that is the number who are currently unaccounted for,” he added.

“We do not know the number of hostages at this time,” he said.

He also confirmed that the number of Americans killed has risen to 14.

Quote:Black Lives Matter Grassroots, which represents 26 local BLM chapters across the country, issued a lengthy statement “in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel from Gaza over the weekend on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, the final day of the annual High Holy Day cycle. The attack has resulted in over 900 deaths and at least 2,500 wounded, according to the latest reports. At least 11 Americans were also killed during the violent terror attacks.

The statement references the violent attacks on Israel as an understandable “desperate act of self-defense.”

“As the world is faced with deep questions about self-determination, as well all desire and pray for a world of peace, we must stand unwaveringly on the side of the oppressed,” the statement read. “When a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.”
...
Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently resisting 57 years of settler colonialism and apartheid. As Black people continue the fight to end militarism and mass incarcerations in our own communities, let us understand the resistance in Palestine as an attempt to tear down the gates of the world’s biggest open air prison.

The organization also recognized what it claims are “clear parallels between Black and Palestinian people.”

The statement also seemed to call on the United States to stop funding Israel.

Quote:Afghanistan was struck by its deadliest earthquake in years on Sunday, with more than 2,400 casualties reported at last count from the northwestern city of Herat and its surrounding province.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) rated the quake at magnitude 6.3 and said its epicenter was in the rural district of Zindajan, about 20 miles northwest of Herat.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said “one hundred percent of homes are estimated to have been completely destroyed” in Zindajan. Herat itself suffered relatively minor damage to its ancient minarets. Eyewitnesses said one reason the disaster response was slow for rural communities was that Herat was left largely intact and, since cellphone service was out, rescuers in Herat did not immediately realize how badly damaged the surrounding villages were.

The Taliban regime struggled to produce solid estimates of how many people were killed, or even how many people live in Zindajan, since its population includes a large number of displaced persons.

Reuters explained on Monday that houses in earthquake-prone Afghanistan, which straddles at least two active fault lines, are not really built to handle tremors:

Structures are either made of burnt bricks with cement mortar or are sun-dried brick masonry buildings with load bearing walls. The thickness of the walls ranges from 20 to 30 cm for the burnt bricks and about 40 cm to 80 cm for the sun-dried brick structures. These homes can be covered by large and often heavy roofs that can cave into the structure, making them extremely vulnerable to seismic activity, according to the report.

Quote:China’s state propaganda outlet, the Global Times, declared America the “enemy of world peace” in its Monday coverage of the ongoing Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, downplaying the jihadists’ responsibility for the mass murder, abduction, torture, and rape of civilians.
...
The Palestinian terror attack happened on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, the final day of the annual High Holy Day cycle.

The Communist Party of China, which is currently engaging in acts of genocide against the Muslim indigenous populations of occupied East Turkistan, initially responded to the wave of atrocities by parroting Hamas’s demand for carving a Palestinian state out of Israel. Beijing declared itself a “friend to both Israel and Palestine” but discouraged Israel from defending itself against further Hamas attacks.

“To end the cycle of conflict between Palestine and Israel, it is essential to restart the peace talks, implement the two-state solution,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning asserted on Monday, “and settle the Palestine question fully and properly through political means at an early date so as to take care of each party’s legitimate concerns.”

On Monday, the Global Times, a Chinese government mouthpiece, held the United States responsible for the outbreak of radical Islamic terrorism, claiming Washington’s “inflammatory, reckless, and crazy talks [sic]” drove Hamas to pillage the homes of random Israeli nationals. Beijing also condemned military support for Israel in the face of its neighbor Iran and its terrorist proxies routinely holding events chanting “death to Israel” and vowing the genocide of Israelis and Jews. The Times condemned Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley by name for supporting Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu in any operation in pursuit of the eradication of Hamas.

“In [the] case of Israeli-Palestinian puzzle, what is genuinely needed is far from a few politicians making a show, or the so-called humanitarian concern which comes along with a childlike narrative in which all virtue is on one side and all evil on the other,” the state outlet claimed. “Neither providing weapons nor sending an aircraft carrier group can bring peace to the region, not to mention manipulating public opinion.”
...
In a separate editorial on Monday, the Global Times bashed America’s history of condemning radical Muslim pro-Palestinian groups as “extremely cruel.”

“All acts of violence and attacks targeting civilians are unacceptable in any civilized society and must be strongly condemned by the international community, regardless of the perpetrators,” the Global Times, which is owned by a regime that imprisoned as many as three million Muslims in concentration camps between 2017 and 2020, asserted.

Quote:The State Department said on Wednesday that the number of U.S. citizens killed in the current fighting in Israel and Gaza has reached 22.

The new figure comes as President Joe Biden talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, the fourth time since Israel’s war with Hamas started.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected,” a State Department spokesperson said. The day before, Biden put the American death toll at 14.

The White House said Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took part in the conversation with Netanyahu.

“There is no justification for terrorism, no excuse,” Biden said. “And the type of terrorism that was exhibited here was just beyond the pale. My commitment to Israel’s security and the safety of Jewish people is unshakable.”

The lone power plant in the Gaza Strip shut down on Wednesday after it ran out of fuel, as Israel followed through with its threat to no longer send supply to the facility as fighting between the country and Hamas militants continued to rage on.

The closure of the plant, which provided power to some 2 million inhabitants on the strip, is coming before an expected ground assault by the Israel Defense Forces. It marked another escalation after Hamas launched a surprise attack.

Quote:Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced a new bill Wednesday to immediately freeze $6 billion in Iranian funds.

The funds currently are being held in South Korea and are due to be released to Iran following a prisoner swap with the United States.

The two-page bill reinstates certain sanctions on Iran and prohibits the “Waiver of Sanctions with Respect to the Transfer of Funds from the Republic of Korea to Qatar,” which was transmitted to Congress on Sept. 11.

“The path of resources, training, and lethal weapons from Tehran to terrorists throughout the Middle East is crystal clear. On Saturday, it enabled cold-blooded killers like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to perpetrate the deadliest day of violence against Jews in decades,” McConnell wrote in a statement Wednesday.

The bill, which is now getting strong bipartisan support, comes two days after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called on President Joe Biden to refreeze the funds, saying “Biden’s policy on appeasement, including money for hostage deals, must come to an end.”

McConnell and Cotton said they will seek unanimous consent to pass the bill with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, among the Democrats supporting it.

Quote:President Joe Biden’s decision to restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an organization for decades facing accusations of fueling radical Islam and antisemitism in Gaza, attracted renewed condemnations in the aftermath of Hamas’s unprecedented massacre of Israeli civilians this weekend.

...a spokesman for Hamas told the BBC on Saturday night that Tehran directly supported the atrocities committed this weekend. In addition to failing to enforce sanctions on Iran, seeking closer ties to genocidal China, and lifting sanctions on Iran’s oil industry partner Venezuela, Biden faces questions regarding his support for the widely condemned UNRWA.

The New York Post observed on Tuesday, citing remarks from a State Department spokesman in February, that Biden administration officials boasted of committing over $730 million in American taxpayers’ dollars to the UNRWA – $680 million between 2021, when Biden became president, and early 2023, followed by a promise from Secretary of State Antony Blinken of another forthcoming $50 million this year.

“Since April of 2021, we have demonstrated in very real and significant terms our commitment to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in February. “We’ve provided over $890 million for Palestinians, including over $680 in humanitarian assistance for refugees in the region through UNRWA … When Secretary Blinken was in Ramallah, he announced another $50 million in funding for UNRWA.”

The State Department signed a new agreement with UNRWA in May setting the conditions in which Washington would continue to fund the program.

“The Framework includes multiple specific commitments to advance the Agency’s ability to deliver effective and efficient aid to Palestinian refugees,” the State Department announced at the time, “through strengthened accountability, transparency, and consistency with UN principles, including neutrality.”

Quote:Former NFL player Sergio Brown has been arrested in California on first-degree murder charges in the death of his mother and will be extradited to Illinois to face the charges, according to reports.

Brown was arrested in San Diego on Tuesday on a warrant from Illinois and is being held in a San Diego jail awaiting extradition, TMZ reported.

The arrest in Southern California came on the heels of quick action by Mexican authorities who deported the ex-player almost immediately once police in Maywood, Illinois, presented an official warrant for his arrest on murder charges.

Brown had posted to his social media a bizarre video recorded at a resort in Mexico in which he accused the Maywood Police Department and the FBI of kidnapping him, not once, but twice.
...
Brown disappeared from the U.S. early in Sept. before officials found his mother, Myrtle Brown, 73, lying dead in a creek behind her house in the Chicago suburb.

Quote:The report, authored by the committee’s Republican members and led by Chairman Mark Green (R-TN), details the extent to which criminals from around the world are arriving at the nation’s southern border in the hopes of getting past federal immigration officials.

From the beginning of Fiscal Year 2021 through September 15, 2023, about 35,450 illegal aliens with criminal records were arrested at the border by Border Patrol agents — a foreign criminal population larger than that of Beverly Hills, California.

According to the report, this is 14,000 more arrests of criminal illegal aliens at the border than the prior four fiscal years combined.
...
It is important to note that these are just CBP [Customs and Border Protection] statistics. They do not include data from states like Texas, which, through Operation Lone Star, has apprehended hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens and recorded more than 27,000 criminal arrests itself between March 2021 to April 2023.

Whether it is got-aways or those being apprehended and released, illegal aliens represent a new, serious public safety concern. Some sheriff’s departments have recorded unprecedented levels of crime in their communities attributable to this influx.

Since Biden took office and appointed Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), more than six million border crossers and illegal aliens have been encountered at the border.

Quote:The Times of Israel earlier reported, citing Israel’s Channel 12, that “some 15-20 drones were identified flying into the country from Lebanon.”

Incoming drone alerts are continuing to sound in northern Israel.

The sirens are sounding in every town and city in the north, including the Golan Heights.
...
The head of the Galil Elyon Regional Council, Giora Zaltz, tells Channel 12 news some of the aircraft that infiltrated from Lebanon are carrying people, and residents need to seek shelter.

Israel’s Army Radio reported that rockets had landed near the northern coastal city of Haifa, and that there had been a suspected terrorist infiltration.

It also advised residents in the region to stay in their homes, to take shelter in reinforced “safe rooms,” and to keep their doors and windows locked.

Unconfirmed reports circulating on social media reported areas where warnings of possible drone attacks had been issued.
...
There have already been small but deadly clashes along the border this week, with Iranian-controlled Hezbollah threatening to open a second front as Israel fights back in response to the mass terror attack by Palestinian Hamas earlier this week.

Quote:Hamas terrorists are said to have their knives inside of some Israeli children, and to have murdered some in front of their parents, as part of the radical Islamic group’s terror attack on Israel, which has has left at least 1,200 people dead and roughly 3,000 wounded.
...
There is evidence in Kibbutz Be’eri that children were slain in front of their parents, Maj. Doron Spielman says. Knives were found left in some of the children.

Bodies are still being taken out of the kibbutz, which Spielman says will be remembered as a symbol of Hamas’s massacre, like Auschwitz is the symbol of the Holocaust.

The gruesome report comes after a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed to CNN on Wenseday that babies and toddlers were discovered with their “heads decapitated” in Kfar Aza in southern Israel in the wake of Hamas’s attack.

CNN correspondent Nic Robertson spoke of similar horrors with host Anderson Cooper on Tuesday evening, telling his colleague about what he saw on Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

“What I saw, hundreds of terrorists in full armor, full gear, with all the equipment and all the ability make a massacre. Go from apartment to apartment, from room to room and kill babies, mothers, fathers in their bedrooms,’ Robertson explained, according to Mediate. “They locked themselves in the protection rooms of their houses and people were out with their children and they killed them. They killed babies in front of their parents, and then killed the parents. They killed parents and we found babies between the dogs and the family killed before him. They cut heads of the people.”

In a social media post, Robertson also said there were “bodies everywhere.”

“Men, women, children, hands bound, shot, executed, heads cut,” he added.

Quote:The British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited Israel on Wednesday, but his walkabout was interrupted by a siren warning of a Hamas rocket attack, and the politician was rushed to a shelter.

James Cleverly toured Ofakim on Wednesday, a show of solidarity with Jerusalem after it was subjected to an enormous terrorist attack on Saturday that is said to have killed at least 1,200 people. As revealed in footage published by the Israeli government, Cleverly was rushed to a bomb shelter in the southern town as sirens sounded, warning of a Hams rocket attack.

“This is the reality Israelis live with every day”, Israel said of the footage. Cleverly said in his own remarks that: “Today I’ve seen a glimpse of what millions experience every day. The threat of Hamas rockets lingers over every Israeli man, woman and child. This is why we are standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel.”
...
The British Government said on Wednesday that the purpose of Cleverly’s visit was to meet with victims and to express its support for Israel’s right to self-defence, and that he toured the village of Ofakim with his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen. Cleverly said: “I’m in Israel today to show the UK’s unwavering support for Israel.

Terrible News for US and Israel

Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah Vows to Target U.S. Bases If Washington Aids Israel

Quote:“Our missiles, drones, and special forces are ready to … strike the American enemy in its bases and disrupt its interests if it intervenes in this battle,” said Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, who styles himself as “Hezbollah Brigades Secretary-General,” according to Iran’s PressTV.

Hamidawi said Iraqi Hezbollah, which is distinct from the Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hezbollah, has a “duty to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians” under Islamic law. He praised the murderers of Hamas for their bloody assault on Israeli civilians.

PressTV quoted another Iraqi militant leader, Akram al-Kaabi of Harakat Hezbollah Nujaba, echoing Hamidawi’s warning and promising a “military response” (i.e. terrorist attack) against any country that intervenes on Israel’s behalf.

“If (the Americans) intervene, we would intervene,” said a third militant boss, Hadi al-Amiri of the Badr Organization. “We will consider all American targets legitimate.”
...
Iraqi government spokesman Basim al-Awadi was on the same wavelength, excusing the depravity of Hamas as a justified response to “longstanding oppression by the Zionist occupation.”
...
Iraq’s influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded “large-scale demonstrations and jihad against Israel,” while Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid stated his unquestioning support for the Palestinians, without a word of criticism for the unspeakable actions of Hamas.

How long did they suffer because of Saddam Hussein's reign of terror? But now they barefacedly complain about Israel's policies.  This means they're obviously under the influence of Tehran. And they dared to protest against the Trump administration for getting rid of Soleimani in Iraq!

Yemen’s Iran-Backed Houthi Terrorists Threaten Drone Strikes on U.S. Troops in Support of Hamas

Quote:Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen joined other Tehran proxies in the region on Tuesday to threaten attacks against American interests if the United States supports Israel against the Hamas terrorists.

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, leader of the Houthi movement — known officially as Ansar Allah (“Allah Is the Greatest”) — supported the bloodthirsty child-killers and rapists of Hamas on Tuesday without reservation, praising their “Al-Aqsa Flood Operation” as a “Palestinian decision that has full legitimacy, and the enemy and its allies were surprised by it.”

“The Yemeni people are thus ready to do everything they can to perform the sacred duty of standing with the Palestinian people,” he declared. “Our people are ready to move in the hundreds of thousands to join the Palestinian people and confront the enemy.”

Houthi represents only a small portion of the “Yemeni people,” and after years of the grueling civil war he unleashed in 2015 — which led to one of the worst humanitarian crises on Earth — millions of Yemenis have been left with no meaningful access to food or medicine and enduring a massive cholera outbreak.

“If the Americans directly intervened militarily, we would be ready to participate (against Israel), with missile and drone strikes and other military options,” Houthi said, drawing his “red line” for Ansar Allah’s involvement.

Houthi envisioned an Iran-led “Axis of Resistance,” including Iranian proxy forces in Iraq and Lebanon, coming together to fight Israel. The Houthi regime has financially supported Lebanese Hezbollah in the past.

And what does Saudi Arabia do during this Middle Eastern Crisis?

Saudi Arabia Announces Joint Military Exercises with China

Quote:The government of Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that the Saudi and Chinese navies have commenced a three-week joint exercise known as “Blue Sword.”

The first Blue Sword drill was held in 2019, near Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port city of Jeddah. This year’s exercise was launched from the southern Chinese city of Zhanjiang, with a ceremony attended by hundreds of troops.

“The goal of the exercise is to boost the mutual trust and friendly relations between the Chinese and the Saudi Arabian navies, enhance the participants’ capabilities in naval combat and comprehensively improve the joint operational capabilities of overseas armed rescue units,” said China’s state-run Global Times.

“The three-week joint exercise will be split into a basic training phase, a professional training phase and a comprehensive drill phase that features more than 20 training subjects, including live-fire shooting, fast roping from helicopters, cabins searches, underwater reconnaissance, sniping-on-command, and underwater explosives disarming,” the Global Times said, quoting press releases from the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).

“The joint training between the special warfare units of the two navies is of great significance to deepening the pragmatic and friendly cooperation between the two militaries and improving the actual combat training level of the troops,” said the PLAN commander in charge of the exercise.

The Blue Sword drill is reportedly built around the simulated hijacking of a commercial ship, which must be rescued by Chinese and Saudi naval special operations forces.

When the Saudi-Chinese exercise was announced in September, the Jerusalem Post saw it as part of China’s effort to “play an increased role” in the Middle East and burnish its credentials as a naval power, particularly in the field of anti-piracy.

Egypt Fortifies Border Against Possible Exodus of Palestinians

Quote:Egypt, the other country besides Israel that borders Gaza, moved quickly this week to fortify its border and prevent a flood of Palestinians from entering Egyptian territory during Israel’s counteroffensive against Hamas.

The Israeli military suggested on Tuesday that Palestinians who do not wish to be used as human shields by the Hamas terrorists should flee across the Egyptian border. Israeli Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht rescinded that advice later on Tuesday.

“Clarification: The Rafah crossing was open yesterday, but now it’s closed,” Hecht said.
...
“In recent days, the IDF has been instructing the population inside of the Gaza Strip to distance themselves from designated areas. We emphasize that there is no official call by Israel for residents of the Gaza Strip to exit into Egypt,” the IDF said on Tuesday.

Egyptian officials were reportedly miffed that the Israeli military told Palestinians to flee into Egypt, while Gaza residents were angry at Egypt for cutting off a means of escape.

“Interior Ministry, this is not the time to put someone in danger who survived a bombing and miraculously reached the crossing. We cannot return to death,” one resident wrote on the Facebook page of the Rafah crossing.

 How do they explain the fact that not even one neighboring country like Egypt that shares the same social background as the Palestinians offers any way to leave the region safely? Where did all those words claiming that the Palestinians in Gaza are innocent victims of Hamas go now?

Quote:According to the New York Police Department, a woman beat an Israeli student with a stick outside Columbia University’s main library on Wednesday, amid heightened tensions on the Ivy League campus over the Palestinian terrorist attack against Israel.

A 19-year-old female suspect allegedly assaulted a 24-year-old Israeli School of General Studies student with a stick in front of Columbia University Library on Wednesday, a New York Police Department spokesperson told the Columbia Daily Spectator.

The suspect was taken into custody and charged with one count of assault, while the Israeli student suffered minor injuries, including a laceration to his hand, the NYPD spokesperson added.

A friend of the Israeli student who was assaulted — also an Israeli General Studies student and spoke to Spectator on the condition of anonymity, citing fears for his safety — said the suspect had approached them earlier in the day when he and other students were in putting up posters with the names and photos of Israelis that Hamas took as hostages.

The friend said that the suspect asked to join them, and told the students she was Jewish. The suspect then stayed with the Israeli students throughout the morning, only to be seen later that evening clad in a bandana covering her face, tearing the flyers off the wall.

The Israeli students approached the suspect, who responded by screaming obscenities and attacking one of them with a stick.

Quote:Europe is subject to internal pressure by groups of people “of totally different culture and religion” because of the “grave mistake” of admitting too many foreigners, Henry Kissinger said of the phenomenon of demonstrations across Europe in support of Hamas terrorists this week.

Speaking to Politico in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on Saturday, longtime kingpin of the globalist movement Henry Kissinger walked back his previous position on the importance of keeping Western nations open to refugee flows and said the events of recent days showed nations had gone too far. He told the publication observing celebrations in German cities in support of Hamas is “painful” to watch.

Kissinger said: “It was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts, because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that”.

Europe should give “unconditional political support for Israeli action” now the terrorist attack has happened, Kissinger continued, and not least because in his view European states have a vested interest in making sure no precedent is set for raids and mass taking of hostages from Western nations is set. He concluded: “Israel must vindicate its sovereignty in that area, and that it cannot permit Gaza to return to a state where it could emerge, take thousands or a large number hostage, kill thousands, and then live in that condition side-by-side with Israel.

“I would say every European nation has the same interest because the same attitude might erupt in the direction of Europe.”

While hostage-taking raids on Europe may seem far-fetched, they are not without ample historical precedent and match other warnings about the very high-consequence risk of the tactic coming to Europe’s shores.

Quote:Friday on FNC’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed his concern about how the Biden administration was handling a threat potentially triggered by the Israel-Hamas war.

Pompeo suggested the solution to pursue involved going at the “source of the problem,” which he said was the Iranians.

“Are you concerned with this blowing up into some global pro-Palestinian — we’ve already seen attacks around the world,” host Jesse Watters said. “Do you think that the Biden administration has a handle on how big this could blow?”

“You know, I’m worried that they don’t. I must say, I worry that they are actually worrying about that too much,” Pompeo replied. “They’ve already started to try and limit the capacity of Israelis to do what they need to do. If you want to stop the carnage of what took place on October 7, if you want to stop the carnage, the answer is to eliminate Hamas, to go at the Iranian regime in a way that it can no longer do this, whether it’s the Shia militias in Iraq or the Houthis in Yemen, or the Hezbollah folks in Lebanon.”

“You have to go at the source of the problem, which is the Iranians,” he continued. “And, you know, I am convinced that if we do that, and we do that with seriousness, we can convince large parts of the Muslim world that is in their best interest, too.

Quote:France will mobilize up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded in a school attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization, the president’s office said Saturday.

Some schoolchildren, parents and personnel returned to the Gambetta-Carnot school in the northern city of Arras as it reopened Saturday morning to reconnect and seek support, after the attack Friday that rattled France in a context of global tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

Counterterrorism authorities are investigating the stabbing, and the suspected assailant and several others are in custody, prosecutors said. The suspect had been under recent surveillance by intelligence services for radicalization. Court documents viewed by The Associated Press show he is from the Ingushetia region in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains, which neighbors Chechnya. Authorities had initially identified him as Chechen.

The French government heightened the national threat alert, and President Emmanuel Macron ordered up to 7,000 soldiers deployed by Monday night and until further notice to bolster security and vigilance around France, his office said. The “attack emergency” threat posture allows the government to temporarily mobilize the military to protect public places among other measures.

The attacker’s exact motive remains unclear, and he is reportedly refusing to speak to investigators.

Quote:Following the evacuation and closure of the Louvre Museum in Paris on Saturday, the Palace of Versailles — the former residence of the French Royal Family — was also evacuated after reportedly receiving a bomb threat of its own, Le Parisien reports. The Palace said it will remain closed for the rest of the day.

In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter), the Louvre Museum in Paris wrote on Saturday: “Dear visitors, For security reasons, the Musée du Louvre is closing its doors today, Saturday, October 14. Those who have booked a visit during the day will be reimbursed. Thank you for your understanding.”

The decision to shut down the world’s largest museum came as around 3,000 people were inside the building, forcing an evacuation.

According to the Le Parisien newspaper, citing a Paris police source, the evacuation and decision to shut down the museum was prompted by a written message threatening to bomb the Louvre.
...
The alleged [Chechen] attacker, identified as Mohamed Mogouchkov, alongside his family was reportedly subject to a deportation order in 2014. However, pro-migrant groups successfully blocked their removal, allowing him to remain in the country.
...
The suspected Islamist assassination came on the same day that the Palestinian terror group Hamas called for a global “Day of Jihad” and an “Al-Aqsa Flood”, referring to the series of terror attacks that killed at least 1,300 people in Israel after Hamas launched an invasion last Saturday.

Quote:Ukrainian officials reported intense combat as Russian forces relentlessly assaulted the eastern Ukrainian city of Avdiivka for a fifth consecutive day Saturday.

City leader Vitalii Barabash reported that Moscow was deploying additional forces to encircle the strategically important city in the eastern Donetsk region, situated just north of the Russian-held regional capital, also called Donetsk.

“The enemy hasn’t stopped either assaulting or shelling positions” around Avdiivka, Barabash said on Ukrainian television.

Around 1,600 civilians remain within the city, a stark contrast to its prewar population of about 31,000. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war against Ukraine in February 2022.

Barabash’s comments came after Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday that the intensified attacks in the east amounted to a new stage in Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine.

“Russian troops have, for several days now, switched over to active combat action practically throughout the entire front line. … The so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive can therefore be considered finished,” he said.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Ukrainian forces were keeping Russian troops at bay and “holding our ground.”

Quote:Israel has reportedly conducted “localized raids” in Gaza against Palestinian terrorists and launched strikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon as part of the Jewish state’s ongoing response to Hamas’s terror attack that claimed the lives of 1,300 people and wounded 3,000 more.

“We’re just learning this right now, breaking. The IDF tells Fox News that Israeli forces entered the Gaza Strip today, both infantry forces and tanks, to conduct localized raids,” Fox News’s foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported. “This was not the full-scale invasion that everyone is still anticipating, but it was an effort, according to the Israeli military, to eliminate militants along the border and also to gather information on those held hostage inside the Gaza Strip.”

“It appears those raids were successful,” he added.

Additionally, Israeli forces are said to be conducting fresh drone strikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, according to the Times of Israel. There are very few details about the development that are known at this time.

On Thursday, the IDF urged one million residents of northern Gaza to leave their homes and evacuate southward within 24 hours for the remainder of the war as forces prepare for a mass ground invasion to destroy Hamas.

Egypt is refusing to allow a large number of Gaza residents to depart. The Rafah border crossing is the sole corridor between Egypt and Gaza.

Quote:Israel Defense Forces killed Ali Qadi, the Hamas commander behind the Palestinian terror group’s attack on Israel, which left at least 1,300 dead and more than 3,000 wounded.

IDF aircraft, with the intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet and AMAN (Military Intelligence Directorate), targeted the terrorist. In 2005, Qadi was arrested following the kidnapping and murder of Israelis and was later released as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange deal.

The Shalit prisoner exchange occurred in 2011. Israel exchanged 1,027 terrorists for the Israeli soldier.

“In addition, the IDF assassinated Merad Abu Merad, who was the head of the Hamas aerial system, it said Saturday morning. He was primarily responsible for directing terrorists during the massacre,” the Jerusalem Post added.

“Ali Qadi led the inhumane, barbaric October 7 massacre of civilians in Israel. We just eliminated him. All Hamas terrorists will meet the same fate,” the IDF wrote on social media after killing Qadi.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to destory Hamas in Gaza and has told residents to evacuate to the southern area of the strip ahead of a possible ground invasion.

Quote:A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claims the Palestinian terror group Hamas is engaged in an “active effort” to prevent Gaza’s population from evacuating to the southern area of the strip.

“We see an active effort by Hamas to block and prevent the population from going south. Hamas wants to show the world that it has casualties and dead,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said, the Times of Israel reported.

“We continue to urge the residents of Gaza City, go south… Hamas wants you as human shields… This is for your personal safety,” the spokesperson added, according to the outlet. “We are going to attack very widely in Gaza City in the near future.”
...
Israel estimates that 150 people are being held hostage in Gaza.
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The IDF is said to have deemed the raids successful and is in the process of finalizing plans for a “significant ground operation” in Gaza, which it said will include a “joint and coordinated attack from the air, sea and land.”

Quote:In a Friday interview with the Abu-Dhabi-based National, Lebanon’s caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam expressed grave concerns about the potential implications for Lebanon in light of the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas, insisting that even a minimal escalation with Israel would “plunge [Lebanon] into the dark ages.”

Salam appeared to be referencing the heavy toll from past conflicts as well as the country’s ongoing severe economic crisis.
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While noting that Lebanon’s government, which includes Hezbollah members, agrees on avoiding war, Salam stressed that the country will defend its borders against any full-scale Israeli attack.
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However, he reiterated that Lebanon is “already very vulnerable,” and the country “cannot afford a war.”

“We have bad infrastructure, no national reserves of food and medication,” he explained, noting, “We will pay a very heavy price, even with a small escalation in the south of the country.”

Salam pointed to today’s geopolitical climate, noting that the current situation is “very different from 2006, with different challenges and stakes.”

In July 2006, the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah attacked Israel in what launched the Second Lebanon War, which resulted in hundreds of casualties, infrastructural damages, and further economic troubles for the Levantine country.
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“The country is at an existential intersection,” he said. “We don’t want, as a small state, to be a bargaining chip in a larger geopolitical game. The only way forward is to stand up and declare that we will not be a weak link.”

On the actions of Hamas, an ally of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, the minister declined to comment.

2 Articles

Australian Voters Reject Referendum to Enshrine ‘Indigenous Voice’ in Constitution

Quote:Australians voted in a referendum Saturday against enshrining in the nation’s constitution a mechanism for Indigenous people to advise Parliament on policies that affect their lives.

Proponents said creating an Indigenous Voice via the constitution would recognize the special place that Indigenous people have in Australian history while giving them input in government policies.

Opponents argued it would divide Australians along racial lines without reducing Indigenous disadvantages.

Bipartisan support regarded as essential in Australia for successfully changing the constitution never emerged, and Indigenous leaders were divided on the idea.

The Aboriginal people of Australia’s mainland are culturally distinct from Torres Strait Islanders who come from an archipelago off the northeast coast. So Australia’s Indigenous population is known collectively as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

They accounted for 3.8% of Australia´s population in 2021, a 23.2% increase in five years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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If the “yes” vote had won, the constitution would have been rewritten to say the Voice “may make representations” to Parliament and government “on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.” Parliament would “have power to make laws with respect to the composition, functions, powers and procedures” of the Voice.

It’s not clear who would have been part of the Voice and how they would have get there. Proponents said the Voice would have included Indigenous Australians from all eight states and mainland territories, the Torres Strait Islands and remote and regional communities. Members would have been chosen by local Indigenous people and serve for a fixed period.

You know, it's always been a good decision to NEVER approve a blank-paper-type of law where you don't know what the actual conditions and requirements will be.  It could have included clauses like letting that "voice" members become dictators for life.

Conservatives Sweep to Victory in New Zealand, Ousting Lockdown Queen Ardern’s Party

Quote:New Zealanders resoundingly elected a new conservative government Saturday, with incumbent Prime Minister Chris Hipkins conceding his centre-left Labour party’s six years in power were over.

Hipkins, who replaced charismatic two-term leader Jacinda Ardern in January, said he was “not in a position to form a government” and had already congratulated premier-in-waiting Christopher Luxon.

“The result tonight is not one that any of us wanted, but I want you to be proud of what we achieved over the last six years,” Hipkins told Labour supporters in Wellington.

The National Party and its coalition partner ACT were projected to win 62 seats with 85 percent of the vote tallied — enough to secure a majority in New Zealand’s 120-seat parliament.

Luxon, a former airline executive, said New Zealanders had “reached for hope and voted for change”.

The election campaign had been dominated by an increasingly difficult economic situation and a spike in the cost of living that had hit New Zealanders hard.

Quote:[Meet the Press's Anchor Kristen] Welker continued, “Have you had discussions with the Biden administration about this?”

Graham said, “A bit. I want to applaud President Biden for his strong statement in support of Israel. I just got off the phone with the Israelis. Their goal is to destroy Hamas in the south and try to save as many innocent Palestinians as possible to prevent escalation north from Hezbollah. Here’s my message: if Hezbollah, which is a proxy of Iran, launches a massive attack on Israel, I would consider that a threat to the state of Israel existential in nature. I’ll introduce a resolution in the United States Senate to allow military action by the United States in conjunction with Israel to knock Iran out of the oil business. Iran, if you escalate this war, we are coming for you.”

Welker asked, “Are you effectively poised to declare war on Iran? That’s very strong language.”

Graham said, “I am poised to use military force to destroy the source of funding for Hamas and Hezbollah. The idea that Iran read about this operation in the paper or on television is laughable. 93% of Hezbollah and Hamas’ money comes from Iran. They’re the source of the problem. They’re the great evil. So if Hezbollah escalates against Israel, it would be because Iran told them to.”

Quote:This week, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, along with 26 fellow Republican attorneys general, filed a Petition for Rulemaking to DHS, asking the agency to end its catch and release network that includes a parole pipeline where border crossers and illegal aliens arrive at the southern border in the hopes of being released into American communities.

“DHS’s mass release policies have been ‘akin to posting a flashing ‘Come In, We’re Open’ sign on the southern border,'” the filing reads:

In August 2023, Border Patrol released 100,585 aliens under § 1226(a). Florida anticipates that the numbers in September will be even higher, especially given DHS’s decision to set release quotas for Border Patrol to meet. Even if the numbers merely remain the same, DHS is releasing aliens at a rate of over one million per year, and that does not include the aliens being released on parole under § 1182(d)(5).
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The purpose of this Petition to Initiate Rulemaking … is to demand that you fix the problem you created. Specifically, you should promulgate changes to your regulations to close the catch-and-release loophole that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is currently exploiting to implement its mass release policy at the Southwest Border.

“Given the massive flood of unvetted migrants into the interior of our country, there is no way to know who is in the U.S. or if they plan to enact terror on Americans,” Moody said in a statement.

“Given the risks illustrated by what happened this weekend in Israel, I am leading a coalition of 27 attorneys general taking action to force the Biden administration to enact responsible rulemaking to ensure our nation’s security at our southern border,” she continued.

Quote:The Washington Post plans to offer buyouts to employees to reduce its workforce by 240 people, interim CEO Patty Stonesifer told employees in a memo Tuesday. Calling it “difficult news,” Stonesifer said that in consultation with senior leadership, the brass have decided that “prior projections for traffic, subscriptions, and advertising growth for the past two years — and into 2024 — have been overly optimistic and we are working to find ways to return our business to a healthier place in the coming year.”

Two hundred and forty employees represents about 10 percent of the company’s staff, the Washington Post Guild wrote in a statement Tuesday. “We are infuriated about this decision and concerned for our dedicated, brilliant colleagues,” the union wrote. “Today’s announcement comes after at least 38 people were laid off over the last year.” (The Post killed its magazine in November 2022 and announced 20 layoffs this past January.) The union says it found out about the planned buyouts at the same time as the rest of the staff.
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Never forget that this is the Washington Post:

• Russia Collusion Hoax
  
• Hands Up, Don’t Shoot Hoax
  
• Jussie Smollett Hoax
  
• Covington KKKids Hoax
  
• Very Fine People Hoax
  
• Seven-Hour Gap Hoax
  
• Russian Bounties Hoax
  
• Trump Trashes Troops Hoax
  
• Policemen Killed at Mostly Peaceful January 6 Protest Hoax
  
• Rittenhouse Hoax
  

...

Quote:Five Canadians have been killed in Israel following attacks by Hamas terrorists, according to Global Affairs Canada. Three other Canadians are still missing who were in Israel during the Oct. 7 incursion by Gaza's terrorist Hamas group into the southern region of the Jewish nation.

Julie Sunday, assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs responsible for consular, security, and emergency management, provided the update in a news conference in Ottawa on Oct. 15.
“Sadly, one Canadian who was missing has now been confirmed as deceased. And we have had confirmation of another death. As a result, Global Affairs Canada is aware of the deaths of five Canadians. We also continue to follow up on the cases of three other missing Canadians,” said Ms. Sunday, adding that she was unable to provide more specifics due to “privacy reasons.”

“It has always been a possibility that missing persons would be confirmed deceased,” said Ms. Sunday. “It is an extremely tragic outcome. Our thoughts are with the families in all of these cases.”

The deputy minister said there are more than 6,800 Canadians registered as being in Israel and more than 450 Canadians registered in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Canadian officials are assisting over 3,300 Canadians, permanent residents, and their families, said Ms. Sunday.

“We are very focused on addressing the cases of the three missing persons, who we continue to try to locate and bring back to safety in Canada,” she added.

Quote:France on Saturday urged the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia to stay out of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, expressing concern at the situation on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Paris also called for reporters covering the Israel-Hamas war to be protected after one journalist was killed and six others wounded in firing along the Lebanese border on Friday.

Hezbollah and Lebanon must “exercise restraint to avoid opening a second front in the region”, of which “the first victim will be Lebanon”, the French presidency said in a statement Saturday.

“No pretext should be given for Lebanon to slide once again into war”, it was insisted, “especially since Lebanon is extremely weakened by the absence of functional authorities” at its head for many months.

Hezbollah and other Palestinian factions in Lebanon have exchanged cross-border fire with Israel since Hamas’s surprise October 7 attack on Israel ignited a war that has killed more than 1,300 people in Israel.

Palestinian gunmen also seized an estimated 150 hostages while Israel’s retaliatory air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 2,200 people in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
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A Hezbollah fighter was also killed Saturday by Israeli fire, the group said.

Earlier, Hezbollah said it had targeted Israeli positions in the disputed border area.

Quote:In the wake of another suspected Islamist assassination of a teacher in France on Friday, Hassen Chalghoumi, the Imam of the Parisien suburb of Drancy has called Emmanuel Macron’s government to “go further” in its efforts to combat terrorism. Chalghoumi argued that any foreigner who is on the government’s extremist watch list, known as having an “S file”, for radical Islamism should be removed from the country.

The killing of Dominique Bernard on Friday was allegedly carried out by Mohamed Mogouchkov, who reportedly not only was on the extremist watch list but had also been set for deportation in 2014 alongside his entire family before pro-migrant groups successfully blocked their removal.

Speaking to the Le Figaro newspaper on Saturday, Imam Chalghoumi said: “I support President Emmanuel Macron and his government in the fight against terrorism. But we must go further.

“I solemnly call on [Minister of the Interior] Gérald Darmanin to expel all S files who are not French. All, without pity. They don’t have any for us, let’s not have any for them. Are we going to wait until they kill half our teachers? Our future is unclear. We must show that the Republic is firm.”

Quote:Iran has warned Israel that it would respond to an anticipated Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to remove the Hamas terrorist group.

“If the Zionist regime’s crimes against the Palestinian people and citizens continue, no one can guarantee that the situation in the region will remain the same,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a statement on Oct. 14, according to Iranian state media. The warning came as Mr. Amir-Abdollahian met with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend.

Mr. Amir-Abdollahian also told The Associated Press that Israel’s operations could cause fighting to expand across the Middle East, triggering a "huge earthquake." He didn't elaborate.

“I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place,” he stated, referring to the Shia Lebanese political party and State Department-designated terrorist group backed by Iran. “Any step the resistance [Hezbollah] will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity.”

Amir-Abdollahian continued, “I want to warn the war criminals and those who support this entity before it’s too late to stop the crimes against civilians in Gaza because it might be too late in a few hours.”

Reports citing a United Nations official also indicated that Iran's foreign minister said that Iran wouldn't intervene in the conflict—for now. An Axios report, citing unnamed sources, said that Tehran warned the Israeli government via the U.N. that it would respond if the ground offensive commenced.

Quote:Israel said on Friday that it has expressed "deep disappointment" to a Chinese foreign ministry official over the regime's response to the Hamas attack last weekend.

The statement was issued before a male employee at the Israeli Embassy in Beijing was stabbed, prompting the United States to urge its citizens in China to “maintain vigilance with regard to personal security.”

Israeli foreign ministry official Rafi Harpaz had a phone call with Zhai Jun, China's special envoy to the Middle East, on Thursday.

"The ambassador expressed Israel's deep disappointment with Chinese announcements and statements about the recent events in the south, where there was no clear and unequivocal condemnation of the terrible massacre committed by the terrorist organization Hamas against innocent civilians and the abduction of dozens of them to Gaza," Israel's foreign ministry said in the statement, according to translation.

According to the summary of the phone call issued by Beijing's foreign ministry, Mr. Zhai repeated the regime's stance in the Isreal–Hamas war, saying that Beijing is "deeply concerned" about the “escalation of tensions and violence between Palestine and Israel.” While Mr. Zhai said he was “saddened by civilian casualties caused by the conflict,” he still didn't name Hamas.

MSN Wrote:Proud Democrat and Palestinian Hamas sympathizer Ilhan Omar is promoting anti-Semitism and war propaganda.

Omar falsely portrayed children as having died from Israeli military operations. A fact check shows the image was taken a decade ago in an entirely different country — Syria.

“CHILD GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE,” the post reads, including a photo of dead children. “614 Palestinian children murdered by the Israeli IOF Forces.”

Ilhan Omar Promotes Photo Falsely Showing Dead Palestinian Children© Provided by America Insider

via X

We have excluded the image of the deceased children.

Omar’s lies and misinformation are intended to motivated and incentivize people to take action against Israel.

Omar has roughly 3 million followers on X.

via X

Human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky said, “Where Ilhan Omar is now literally RT’ing fake news!”

“This is a horrific picture of kids murdered by chemical weapons in Syria. She is claiming this is Gaza. She is just so ravaged with Jew hatred,” the lawyer added.

NBC News deputy tech editor Ben Goggin responded, “Ilhan Omar reposting recycled imagery passed off as from Gaza. Sulaiman has repeatedly posted misinformation throughout this entire conflict.”

NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck said, “Sulaiman Ahmed is a notorious peddler of not only disinformation and anti-Semitism, but lies about Jews and Israel writ large.”

“This is a truly despicable guy during a week where many, many people illustrated hate and repugnant behavior,” he added.

Elon Musk’s “Community Notes,’ which functions as helpful fact-check, placed a label on Omar’s false post about Israel:

Quote:“I think he’s going to be confirmed sometime soon,” Trump said from a New York City courthouse. “As you know, many people have now supported him. Twenty-four hours ago, he was supporting somebody else. There seems to be great unification.”

Public support for Jordan surged among House Republicans in the hours before a vote, eclipsing the conference vote held Friday.

Breitbart News reported Monday evening that public support behind Jordan from Monday afternoon quickly increased by 14 members to 146. That number increased Tuesday morning by more than 16 members to the mid-160s.

“I think Jim Jordan will be a great speaker,” Trump reiterated. “And I think he will have the votes soon, if not today, in the next day or two. I think he’ll be a great speaker.”

Quote:U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sided with prosecutors on Monday to place a gag order on former President Donald Trump in the case related to January 6.

The gag order blocks Trump from comments “publicly targeting” the judge, special counsel Jack Smith, and “any other court personnel.” Trump is “absolutely prohibited as well” from issuing statements about their families, the Washington Post reported:

Even before the order was issued, Trump’s lawyer John Lauro said they would appeal any such order, as it would affect important free speech principles, particularly for a leading candidate for president.

Trump “can argue that this prosecution is politically motivated,” the judge said, but he cannot disparage the prosecutor by calling him a thug or “vilify and implicitly encourage violence against public servants who are simply doing their jobs.”

She is also barring Trump and all parties from making statements about witnesses in the case.

Quote:“We are not attempting to decouple from China,” Yellen told Sky News on Monday. “We have a deep economic relationship and that kind of competition, trade, and investment is beneficial to both sides and we want an environment in which it can continue.”

“We are deepening our relationship [with China],” Yellen continued, and said the Biden administration is not looking to “harm progress in China.”

Yellen’s comments come as a growing number of Republican lawmakers are backing a plan that would end U.S. free trade with China, which helped eliminate nearly five million American manufacturing jobs and 91,000 American manufacturing plants from 1997 to 2018.

In July, for example, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced the “Ending Normal Trade Relations with China Act” which would effectively end U.S. free trade with China, thus imposing high tariffs on Chinese imports.

The bill was filed in the Senate by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) in March.

Likewise, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Budd (R-NC), Rick Scott (R-FL), and J.D. Vance (R-OH) have filed similar legislation, called the “China Trade Relations Act,” to end China’s normal trade relations status. Instead, presidential administrations would choose whether or not to authorize China’s free trade status with the U.S.

Quote:On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that Hamas isn’t just blocking Americans from leaving northern Gaza, but is “literally throwing up roadblocks” to stop people of other nationalities and Palestinians who want to flee the fighting.

Kirby said the White House wants to get Americans out of Gaza, but “the only way to really do that is through the Rafah gate in the south, which is another reason why Secretary Blinken has been working on this very, very hard. I don’t know that we have a very specific fingertip feel of exactly what the number is, but it’s clearly in the hundreds at least. And again, we’re working at this. And it’s not just the Americans, Katty. It’s also so many other people that live there, of foreign nationality, but also Palestinians, who want to get away from the fighting. And Hamas is literally — and I heard your guest previously — they are literally throwing up roadblocks. It’s — so, it’s, Egypt, certainly, we’ve got to work with Egypt to get that gate open, but Hamas is actually making that travel to the south much, much harder.”

Quote:Tara Strong has been fired from the lead role in the upcoming Boxtown cartoon series after she irked social media users with her strong support of Israel and her explicit condemnation of Hamas.

Strong, who has been featured in a long list of animated projects including an animated part in Loki, as well as series The New Batman Adventures, Teen Titans, Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, The Fairly OddParents, and many more, says that she was unaware that she had been fired until she saw the recasting notice posted by the cartoon series on X.

“Hello all! Just wanted to offer a quick update on Boxtown,” the notice on the official Boxtown X page reads. “We will be recasting the role of Bill (previously played by Tara Strong). We’ll have more info soon on open auditions.”
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Strong, 50, told her more than 430,000 followers that she found out about being fired when she saw the Boxtown post, adding “This is what happens when you help fans get shows made, I guess. Fired for being Jewish. Glad I helped you get your kickstarter money. Please lose my email address & pray for my family in Israel and in Gaza.”

Quote:Sam Neill, who played Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park with a storied career spanning several decades, including a turn in the Academy Award-winning The Piano (1993) and the horror cult hit Possession (1981), announced he has no fear of death as he battles stage 3 blood cancer.

The Northern Ireland-born actor revealed earlier this year he has been battling cancer since March 2022, calling it “ferocious.”

Speaking with Australian Story, Neill said he has been in a fight for his life after going through months of “brutal” chemotherapy, which stripped him of “any kind of dignity.”

According to his doctor, the cancer became more aggressive after the treatment and Neill decided to keep up the fight. She then prescribed him a “novel” drug that appears to have been working.

“That was a year ago now, and I have been in remission ever since then, and I’m immensely grateful for that,” Sam Neill said, as reported by Fox News. “It’s not something I can finish, I will be on this for the rest of my life. Every two weeks I go in and get beaten up again. It’s like going 10 rounds with a boxer, but it’s keeping me alive. And being alive is infinitely preferable to the alternative.”

The treatment even allotted the New Zealand-based actor some strength to do some acting work.

Security Crisis in Europe

Alleged France School Attacker Pledged Allegiance to the Islamic State

Quote:France´s anti-terror prosecutor said Tuesday that a suspected Islamic extremist declared allegiance to the Islamic State group before fatally stabbing a teacher in a school attack last week.

The prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, said an audio recording in the suspect´s phone. In it, the alleged attacker declared allegiance to the Islamic State and expressed “his hatred for France, for the French, for democracy and the education he benefitted from in our country.”

The alleged attacker was a former pupil of the school in the northern town of Arras. A teacher was fatally stabbed in the neck and three other people injured in the assault that prompted France to raise its terror alert level and deploy extra security.

The prosecutor spoke at a press conference and took no questions.

Ricard said that shortly before the stabbing, the alleged attacker also recorded a 30-second video of himself in front of a war memorial.

France’s Palace of Versailles Evacuated Again After Receiving Another Bomb Threat

Quote:The Palace of Versailles in France has been evacuated for the second time since Saturday after receiving another reported bomb threat amid increasing threats of terrorism across Europe.

The former residence of the French Royal Family has been evacuated and will remain closed for the rest of the day after receiving another bomb threat on Tuesday, Le Figaro reported.

“For security reasons, the Palace of Versailles is evacuating visitors and closing its doors today,” the palace wrote on social media.

On Saturday, both the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre Museum in Paris were evacuated and shut down after receiving bomb threats. The threats came just one day after a French teacher was stabbed to death in the city of Arras by a suspected Islamist who allegedly yelled the Muslim war cry “Allah hu Akbar” during the attack.

Macron Calls for ‘Ruthless’ Deportation of All Migrants with Ties to Islamic Extremism from France

Quote:President Macron has tasked Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to carry out a “ruthless” examination of the files of those who “carry hatred and terrorist ideologies” over the next 48 hours in order to remove foreign-born Islamists from France, Le Figaro reports.
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Darmanin has said out of the over 20,000 S files — not all of which remain active — there are at least 489 extremist foreigners who are considered to be a danger to the country residing in France. A further 300 radical foreigners are currently in prison or under house arrest. The minister said that the government will seek to “systematically deport” them following the end of their prison sentence.

Darmanin is set to meet with officials on Tuesday “to re-examine the administrative situation of all foreign nationals followed by the intelligence services under radical Islamism, by systematically initiating procedures of removal and expulsion.” This will not only include illegal migrants but those who are legally in the country as well by the removal of residence permits and asylum protections.

Local governments will also be tasked with examining foreign family units, in particular, those from the Caucasus region, to “review the situation of reported minor aliens” suspected of holding radical Islamist beliefs. Both the alleged killers of Dominque Bernard and Samuel Paty — another French teacher who was beheaded three years ago in an Islamist attack — were said to be young men of Chechnian heritage.

Two Dead in Shooting in Brussels, Alleged Shooter Claims Affiliation with ISIS

Quote:According to the local De Standaard newspaper, Brussels police have confirmed at least two fatalities as a result of a shooting in the Saincteletteplein area of Brussels at around 7:15 pm local time Monday evening.

The two victims are believed to be Swedish nationals given that they were wearing soccer jerseys for the Swedish national team, which was playing the Belgium Red Devils on Monday evening in Brussels.
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The European Championship qualifier soccer match between Belgium and Sweden has been postponed after a suspected Islamist shooting that left two Swedish nationals dead in Brussels on Monday evening. Following the shooting, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced a tightening of immigration controls on the border with Belgium, Het Laatste Nieuws reported.
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Following a suspected Islamist shooting earlier on Monday evening, Belgium’s OCAD anti-terror centre has raised the terror threat level in the Brussels metropolitan area to the highest level of four, meaning that the threat is “very serious and imminent”. According to the Associated Press, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo suggested that the shooting was linked to “terrorism”.

 And here's the follow-up...

Belgian Police Shoot Dead Tunisian ‘Radical’ After Terror Killings in Brussels

Quote:The alleged Islamist perpetrator of Monday night’s terror attack who boasted of sacrificing “souls and blood” was shot dead Tuesday morning by Belgian police at a Cafe in Schaarbeek.

45-year-old Abdesalem Lassoued, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with a serious criminal history and known to be radicalised was shot dead in the frequently terror-linked Brussels neighbourhood of Schaarbeek on Tuesday morning. Lassoued is the main suspect in what police say was a terrorist attack in central Brussels on Monday night where three Swedish citizens visiting the city for a football game were gunned down.

As reported, two people were killed and a third injured critically in the attack, in which a man riding on a scooter fired at pedestrians with a Kalashnikov-type rifle...

Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports of the slain suspect that he applied for asylum in the country in 2019 but was rejected the following year. Yet he was never deported. Lassoued posted videos to social media after the attack in which he stated he believed himself to be a “warrior” ... who had lived and would die in “the way of our faith” before proclaiming: “I killed three Swedes..."

Quote:Hundreds of people descended upon the BBC’s headquarters in London on Monday evening to protest the British publicly-funded broadcaster’s continued insistence on refusing to refer to Hamas terrorists as “terrorists”.

The left-liberal BBC, which is funded by a licence fee on anyone who watches live television in the UK on pain of prosecution and potential jail time, has come under increasing scrutiny for its editorial decision to label Hamas terrorists in Palestine as merely “militants”, “fighters”, or “gunmen” in the wake of the largest terror attack against the Jewish people in Israel.

According to the Daily Mail, hundreds of protesters gathered outside of the broadcaster’s HQ in central London on Monday evening, waving Israeli flags and banners blasting the BBC including one which read: “If the King can call Hamas terrorists, so can you.”

Addressing the crowd, chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism Gideon Falter asked: “How many dead Israelis does it take before the BBC can find the courage to call terror by its name?”

Quote:Ukraine has used U.S.-made cluster-bomb-tipped rockets from the ATACMS system for the first time, it is claimed, with the weapon said to have taken out nine Russian helicopters while they were still on the ground.

Ukraine claims to have taken out nine helicopters and associated support equipment on the ground in a series of coordinated strikes against Russian-occupied airfields overnight. Per a statement from the Ukrainian government the strikes in the early hours of Tuesday morning were against airfields in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine including Berdiansk and Luhansk and as well as the nine military helicopters Ukraine says ammunition stores and an “air defence” system were also destroyed.

The report stated the runways on the airfields were also hit and damaged, and the ammunition cooking off in the supply dump hit caused a blast that lasted for some several hours until mid-Tuesday morning.

Quote:U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was forced to take cover in a bomb shelter during a visit to Israel on Monday when Hamas launched a barrage of rockets toward the country’s major cities.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were forced to seek shelter in a bunker after rocket sirens went off in Tel Aviv on Monday, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
...
Miller said Blinken, Netanyahu and other officials have since relocated to an Israel Defense Forces command center to continue their discussions.

Blinken came to Israel last week to offer U.S. support in the wake of a devastating terror attack by the Palestinian terror group Hamas on Oct. 7, which killed 1,400 Israelis and wounded over 4,100.

He also toured several Arab capitals in the region to urge opposition to terror, and to discuss humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians.

Hamas rocket attacks also forced Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, to descend into a bomb shelter briefly before resuming deliberations. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were both present.

Quote:President Joe Biden delivered unequivocal US backing for Israel in person on Wednesday, supporting his ally’s stance that Palestinian militants were behind a deadly rocket strike on a Gaza hospital that has inflamed anger across the Middle East and beyond.

Arab countries blamed Israel, which has rained bombs on Gaza since the bloody October 7 attack by Hamas fighters, with protests in Muslim countries from Egypt to Pakistan after Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah vowed a “day of rage”.

But Biden, on a solidarity visit to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voiced support for Israel’s position that a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket caused the deadly carnage at Gaza’s Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital.

“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,” Biden said about the strike that killed 471 people according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

“And, based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” said the US president, referring to the armed movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which Washington and other Western governments deem “terrorist” groups.

“But there’s a lot of people out there not sure, so we have to overcome a lot of things,” Biden added, as protests also erupted against Israel and the United States in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Asked later by reporters what made him sure Israel was not responsible for the strike, Biden replied: “The data I was shown by my defence department.”

At a news conference later, Biden said: “Based on the information we have seen today it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”

Quote:After days of negotiations with Egypt, the U.S. and others to create a safe zone for fleeing Gazans, the Times of Israel reports the IDF decided to act.

The IDF says Palestinians should go to a humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area, close to Khan Younis, where “international humanitarian aid will be provided as needed.”

It also renewed its calls on Palestinians in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to evacuate south, as the military has warned it will soon heavily target the area, the Times report sets out.

The military has published a map on social media of the safe zone.

Quote:The Palace of Versailles was evacuated for security reasons on Wednesday for the third time since the weekend, the former royal chateau said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. It was among a spate of evacuations in the past five days around France, including three airports that were also forced to close for security checks.

The Chateau of Versailles apologized to visitors on X for being forced to clear out visitors from the sumptuous 17th-century palace “for security reasons.”

Three French airports in the cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Lille were also evacuated Wednesday following security alerts, police said, following emailed threats, without elaborating on the nature of the threats.

The evacuations were the latest in a series around France that included another popular tourist attraction, the Louvre Museum, following the killing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras on Friday. All the threats up to Wednesday proved false.

The Louvre Museum and the Chateau of Versailles were both evacuated Saturday, and the former royal palace was again evacuated Tuesday.

The prefecture for the Lyon region said Wednesday that the threat at the airport was a false alarm and reminded the public that communicating false information can lead to prison and a heavy fine.

Meanwhile, an abandoned piece of luggage briefly disrupted operations at the airport in the Riviera city of Nice, the airport said.

A high school in Arras, in northern France, was evacuated on Monday ahead of a moment of silence in schools around France, three days after the murder of a teacher at the Arras school allegedly carried out by a former student and suspected Islamist extremist.

Quote:Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Swedish premier Ulf Kristersson paid tribute to the two Swedes by placing wreaths and a Swedish football scarf and shirt at the site where they were killed.

Kristersson thanked De Croo for his support, while the Belgian premier vowed Sweden “can always count on us” during a press conference in front of the building where the attack happened.

The two leaders also urged coordinated migrant return policies in the European Union, as the bloc is currently working on an overhaul of Europe’s migration rules.

The attack brought greater urgency to the issue after it came to light that the gunman had applied for asylum in Belgium in 2019, but had been refused in 2020.

Authorities tried to track him down to issue him with a demand to leave but he could not be located.

“The European migration pact should stand for better border controls, but also for a coordinated European return policy,” De Croo said.

“We need to be able to protect our borders. We need to know who is in Sweden. Are they here legally or illegally? If they are not here in a legal way, they are obliged to leave the country. We need to protect our European borders,” Kristersson said.

The two men were joined by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who said Brussels wanted to bring in tougher rules on returns.

Quote:Assailants threw two Molotov cocktails early Wednesday at the synagogue in the center of the German capital, police said, as antisemitic incidents in the country have been rising following the violent escalation in the Middle East.

“Unknown persons threw two Molotov cocktails from the street,” the Kahal Adass Jisroel community wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Dozens of police officers were investigating in front of the synagogue in the city´s Mitte neighborhood, and the entire street next to the building was cordoned off and blocked for traffic.

Police said they were investigating “an attempted serious arson” in which two people approached the synagogue by foot at 3:45 a.m. and threw two Molotov cocktails, which burst on the sidewalk next to the building. The two people, their faces covered, ran away.

A couple of hours later, when police were already investigating the incident, a 30-year-old man approached the synagogue on a scooter, threw it aside and tried running toward the building. When police officers detained him, he resisted and shouted anti-Israeli slogans.

“We are all shocked by this terrorist attack,” Germany’s leading Jewish group, the Central Council of Jews said in a statement. “Above all, the families from the neighborhood around the synagogue are shocked and unsettled. Words become deeds. Hamas´ ideology of extermination against everything Jewish is also having an effect in Germany.”

The building complex of the Kahal Adass Jisroel community in the center of Berlin houses a synagogue, a kindergarten, a yeshiva school and a community center.

Police also said there were riots overnight between Muslim immigrants and police in the city’s Neukoelln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods and at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate in which several officers were injured.

Scholz, who was speaking to reporters during a trip to Egypt on Wednesday, said that Germany would not accept violent and antisemitic protests and that the protection of Jewish institutions would be further increased.

UK Section

Scottish Leader Humza Yousaf Promises ‘Sanctuary’ for Palestinians Fleeing From ‘Terrible Attacks’ in Gaza

Quote:Humza Yousaf, the leader of the locally devolved government in Scotland, said on Tuesday that his government would open the doors to Palestinians seeking asylum and demanded that the international community open their countries up to millions of Palestinians amid the war in Gaza that was sparked by the murderous terror attacks against Israel by the radical Islamist terror group Hamas.

In a video published on social media on Tuesday evening, Yousaf said: “There are currently one million displaced people in Gaza. Therefore, I am calling on the international community to commit to a worldwide refugee programme for the people of Gaza.”

Yousaf went on to demand that the UK government in Westminster “immediately begin work on the creation of a refugee resettlement scheme for those in Gaza who want to, and are able to, leave,” adding: “We are absolutely clear that the life of a Palestinian is equal to the life of an Israeli.”

The leftist politician said that his government would be willing to be the first country in the United Kingdom to “offer safety and sanctuary to those caught up in these terrible attacks.”

“Let me be clear,” Yousaf said. “Scotland is ready to play her part and our hospitals will treat the injured men, women and children of Gaza where we can.”

I guess this guy never read the declarations made by Kissinger not long ago.

Greta Thunberg Arrested… Again

Quote:Greta Thunberg was detained in London on Tuesday alongside several others under the Public Order Act as they attempted to blockade a top hotel where oil executives were holding discussions. Police ordered the protesters to move out of the road and onto the pavement to maintain access, but the orders were not obeyed, reports the BBC.

In all, 21 people were arrested, including one for criminal damage. Police said they only arrested those who refused to clear the road.

The broadcaster reports Thunberg said at the rally prior to her arrest: “Behind these closed doors at the Oil and Money conference, spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries – the fossil fuel industry…. That is why we have to take direct action to stop this and to kick oily money out of politics.”

The arrest is Thunberg’s second this year. As reported in July, the now-veteran — at 20 years of age — activist refused to leave the road outside an oil terminal in southern Sweden during a protest and had to be physically carried away by officers.

While Thunberg has been detained or otherwise removed at several protests in her career, the southern Sweden terminal protest was the first time she was prosecuted. Although she faced up to six years, the Swedish court in fact ordered her to pay a small fine.

Quote:There has been a marked rise in antisemitism in Canada following Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented Tuesday.

“Since this conflict broke out, there has been a very scary rise of antisemitism here at home,” far-left Trudeau said at a conference on fighting antisemitism, Reuters reports.

Even prior to the ongoing conflict, he said, there had been a “steady rise” in antisemitism.

Trudeau spoke just hours before an antisemitism conference in Ottawa was besieged by protesters.

Trudeau listed reports of a possible hate crime at a Jewish high school in Toronto last week, fears among some of visiting synagogues due to a possibility of being attacked, and heated online rhetoric, as examples of the rising antisemitism in Canada, the Reuters report sets out.

Police in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, said they arrested three men last Thursday after they made threats at the Community Hebrew Academy.

The Toronto Sun reports a man and two teenage boys face charges for allegedly threatening students at a private Jewish high school in North York around midday.

Police have increased patrols in Jewish cultural centers and synagogues as well as other places of worship.

Quote:China’s state-run Global Times on Monday took note of American universities supporting the terrorists of Hamas and insisted they should be even more supportive, which might be the most extravagant demand to come from the Chinese Communist Party since it drew a map that said the entire South China Sea, plus a good deal of India, belongs to Beijing.

The Global Times pushed Beijing’s phony moral equivalence line whereby the Chinese government pretends to be “neutral” and deplore all violence but actually supports the killers of Hamas and seeks to protect them from any Israeli military response.
...
“Taking sides will not solve the puzzle. The top priority is to achieve a ceasefire, stop the conflict as soon as possible, abide by international humanitarian law, and fully guarantee the safety of civilians, before working toward a just and lasting settlement that shall respect the rights of both sides,” the Global Times huffed, in a piece that briefly mentioned the “Hamas attack” only to frown at the “intense backlash” against American university students and faculty who supported it.

The Chinese Communist newspaper frowned at a few prominent university donors and alumni speaking out against campus statements of support for Hamas, linking them to an alleged “concerning trend” where “expressing support for Israel is safe while being pro-Palestine has become a taboo.”

The communists were especially “concerned” about “billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman and several other business leaders” calling on Harvard to release the names of students who signed a letter “holding Israel responsible for the unfolding violence.”

“Showing sympathy to the Palestinian people or voicing that they have the right to resist can be labeled as supporting ‘terrorism’ and must face consequences. Take Ackman’s wording, he was basically saying – If you are anti-Israel, you can have freedom of speech, but at the cost of your future career on Wall Street,” the Global Times railed.

Quote:In the wake of escalating global tensions, the US State Department has raised the alarm, issuing a ‘Worldwide Caution’ travel alert. This cautionary advisory is a reflection of the heightened potential for terrorist attacks, protests, or violent actions against US citizens and interests abroad. American travelers are urged to exercise increased vigilance, particularly in hotspots frequented by tourists.

While the advisory’s reach is global, the recent violence in Israel and Gaza has prompted a specific Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory for Lebanon. The unpredictable security situation is closely tied to the ongoing rocket, missile, and artillery exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, among other militant factions. The advisory underscores the potential risks of terrorism, civil unrest, armed conflict, crime, and kidnapping in Lebanon, a country once known for its rich history of cultural tourism and breathtaking landscapes. Some other countries that have asked have issued travel warnings to Lebanon for their citizens include Germany, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Hotspots such as the border with Syria, the border with Israel, and refugee settlements within the country pose significant risks. Travelers ignoring this advice face possible deadly terror attacks, rocket exchanges, and outbreaks of violence. Moreover, the assistance US Embassy consular officers can offer is limited.

Quote:George Soros-backed Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams says he is just glad to be alive after he and his 78-year-old mother were reportedly carjacked Monday night around 10 p.m.

WWLTV reported that Williams got out of the car when the suspects converged on it, and he urged his mother to get out as well.

A surveillance camera captured audio of Williams speaking during the carjacking, saying, “Get out the car, mama. Let me get my mama out of the car.”

Williams later told reporters, “This tells you that this can happen to anybody. Nobody is immune from crime. Nobody is immune from all sorts of crime.”

He added, “Right now, I’m just glad to still be in the land of the living. I’m glad that nobody squeezed the trigger last night. I’m glad that my mother was able to get out of that car and that she’s okay.”

FOX News noted that George Soros donated $220,000 “to the Louisiana Justice and Public Safety PAC” when Williams was running for office in 2020. The PAC, in turn, ran ads against Williams’ political opponent.

Quote:Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) confirmed Thursday he will not seek a third vote to become Speaker of the House and will back a plan to grant Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) more powers.

Jordan had lost two votes for Speaker after facing swift opposition from New York Republican moderates and many members of the House Appropriations Committee.

Breitbart News has documented how 22 House Republicans have denied Jordan the ability to serve as Speaker of the House despite overwhelming grassroots support for the Ohio Republican.

Quote:If something happens to both the president and vice president, then federal law at 3 U.S.C. § 19 says that the Speaker of the House becomes Acting President “until the expiration of the then current Presidential term.” After the Speaker, it goes to the president pro tempore of the Senate, then Cabinet secretaries in the order that Congress created their departments, starting with the secretary of state and ending with the secretary of homeland security.

But it can only be a person with the true title of Speaker, not Speaker Pro Tempore or Acting Speaker.

Quote:House Republican lawmakers said they received credible death threats after voting against Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) bid for Speaker of the House.

Twenty-two House Republicans on Wednesday declined to vote to make Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, the next Speaker of the House.

After the vote, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), who was one of the 22 House Republicans to vote against Jordan, said she received death threats. She explained in a written statement on Wednesday:

Today, it became abundantly clear early in the roll call vote, that Jim Jordan still did not have the votes necessary to become Speaker. Given the concerns I had before any vote and the ability of the speaker designee to unify the conference, I voted in support of Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger to serve as Speaker of the House. I voted for Chairwoman Granger because she has demonstrated great leadership this year by bringing forth, and passing, fiscally responsible, single-subject appropriations bills and is a staunch conservative.

However, since my vote in support of Chairwoman Granger, I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls. The proper authorities have been notified and my office is cooperating fully.

Quote:Governor Abbott posted on X stating the State of Texas is installing additional fencing “along New Mexico border.” The governor added that the existing barriers built on the Texas/Mexico border in El Paso move the migrants to cross into New Mexico.

The migrants then move from New Mexico into El Paso, Abbott stated. “To end that, we are building a barrier on the New Mexico border,” he stated.

The barriers will be built along the Rio Grande where it makes a sharp turn to the north and separates El Paso from Dona Anna County in New Mexico (highlighted in red circle below).

The action ordered by the Texas governor falls under the State’s Operation Lone Star.

Quote:The pro-Palestinian protesters who staged an “insurrection” on Wednesday by illegally occupying a Capitol office building were led, in part, by a group that calls itself “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP) but has a history of supporting Palestinian terrorists.
...
Pro-Palestinian protesters, who want a ceasefire that would benefit the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday and staged a protest inside the Cannon Rotunda that one observer likened to an “insurrection.”
...
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who falsely accused Israel of bombing a Gaza hospital Tuesday, addressed the protesters.

As The Hill reported, three protesters were arrested for assaulting police officers.

The demonstration, it noted, was “organized jointly by the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow” — both radical left-wing organizations that oppose the State of Israel.

IfNotNow supports radical anti-Israel Reps. Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
...
Recently, JVP spoke at a “Free Palestine” rally in Dearborn, Michigan, that defended Hamas. The JVP representative did not criticize the terror attack against Israelis — but did, ironically, criticize peace agreements between Israel and Arab states.

JVP, as Breitbart News has noted, also invited convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh — responsible for the murders of two Israelis in 1969 — to address its conference in Chicago in 2017 before she was deported for lying to U.S. immigration authorities.

Odeh remains an inspirational figure to the radical left in Chicago.

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Chicago chapter took to X to defend Odeh in the aftermath of Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel, which left over 1,400 dead and well over 4,000 wounded, with more than 200 taken hostage.

Quote:Chaos erupted in Berlin, leaving dozens of police officers injured, as pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of the German capital in defiance of the local ban on such demonstrations over concerns of antisemitism.

On Wednesday evening, protests were held throughout Germany following the explosion at a hospital in Gaza, which international media initially blamed on Israel without evidence. In the Berlin borough of Neukölln, hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists gathered despite the city’s ban on anti-Israel protests. The demonstration devolved into violence and rioting, with local police reporting that the demonstrators attacked officers with stones, bottles, and makeshift pyrotechnic missiles.

According to the Berlin Police, 174 people were arrested at the banned protest and 65 police officers were injured during the rioting that lasted until the early hours of Thursday morning. The protest was organised by the “Youth against Racism” activist group, German broadcaster NTV reports.

The police also reported that several cars, a truck, and a tree were set on fire during the chaos. The police, in turn, used pepper spray on some of the violent rioters and used water cannons to put out garbage cans and tires that were set on fire in the streets.

According to the German tabloid newspaper Bild, protesters in Berlin chanted slogans such as “Free Palestine"...

Pro-Palestinian protests were also held in other German cities, including in Frankfurt where police deployed water cannons against the banned demonstration, as well as in Hamburg and in Nuremberg.

Quote:Kosovo’s prime minister on Wednesday asked NATO-led peacekeepers to increase their presence on the northern border with Serbia, saying the area was the entry point for illegal weapons and threats to stability.

“Such an increased presence should be focused in guarding the border between Kosovo and Serbia where all Serbia’s weaponry has arrived from and the threat to Kosovo comes,” Prime Minister Albin Kurti told Maj. Gen. Ozgan Ulutas, the new commander of the Kosovo Force mission, or KFOR.

Kurti has repeatedly said Kosovo police cannot fully guard the 350-kilometer (220 mile) long border with Serbia and its many illegal crossings used by criminals.

On Sept. 24, around 30 Serb gunmen crossed into northern Kosovo, killing a police officer and setting up barricades, before launching an hours-long gun battle with Kosovo police. Three gunmen were killed.

The incident sent tensions soaring in the region.

Kosovo has a limited number of law enforcement officials in its four northern municipalities where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives, after Kosovo Serb police walked out of their jobs last year.

Fearing an escalation, NATO has reinforced KFOR, which normally has a troop strength of 4,500, with an additional 200 troops from the U.K. and more than 100 from Romania. It also sent heavier armaments to beef up the peacekeepers’ combat power.

Quote:President Joe Biden had a rather tone-deaf response to the news Hamas terrorists mistakenly bombed a hospital in the Gaza Strip with a misfired rocket by saying they should “learn how to shoot straight.”

As Breitbart News reported, the mainstream media initially said Israel bombed a hospital in the Gaza Strip only to later have it be confirmed Hamas terrorists bombed the hospital with a misfired rocket.

Breitbart noted, “The IDF have since released audio they say shows the terrorists reacting once they realize their mistake. Hamas and critics of Israel rushed to blame an Israeli airstrike. News wires, like the Getty photo service, published unproven claims Israel had “attack[ed]” the hospital, citing the ‘Gaza Health Ministry,’ which is run by Hamas. The BBC’s early reporting pointed a finger at Israel for the disaster.”

Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Biden said the terrorists “gotta learn how to shoot straight.”

“I’m not suggesting that Hamas deliberately did it,” the president said at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.  “It’s that old thing: Gotta learn how to shoot straight. It’s not the first time that Hamas has launched something that didn’t function very well.”

Since Hamas targets Israeli civilians, them “shooting straight” would mean killing Israeli civilians.

Quote:Barcelona accountant Oriol Calvo ran afoul of the law when he was arrested in 2019 during a mass protest by supporters of Catalonia’s independence from Spain that turned violent. A court found him guilty of public disorder and of aggressive behavior toward a police officer – offenses he denies.

The 25-year-old is among several thousand ordinary citizens who faced legal trouble for their often tiny part in Catalonia’s illegal secession bid that brought Spain to the brink of rupture six years ago.

Now Calvo hopes his conviction and those of many others will be wiped clean if Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, issues a sweeping amnesty for the separatists in exchange for their movement’s political parties helping him form a new government in Madrid.

Calvo’s sentence of 18 months was suspended since it was his first offense, but it is still a stain on his record and has affected his willingness to participate in politics. He has stopped going to rallies for independence for fears that it could complicate his legal situation. He also felt betrayed.

Quote:Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday for a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to condemn Israel for its response to the Hamas atrocities.

The Iranian representative urged the OIC to take stronger action against Israel, including an economic boycott.

“The foreign minister calls for an immediate and complete embargo on Israel by Islamic countries, including oil sanctions, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors if relations with the Zionist regime have been established,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry stated on Amir-Abdollahian’s behalf.

Amir-Abdollahian also called for an OIC team of Muslim lawyers to pursue Israel for “war crimes,” such as the false Hamas propaganda about Israel bombing a hospital, which the OIC apparently still treated as factual as of Wednesday morning.
...
“In today’s meeting in Jeddah, the issue of the legal pursuit of Zionist war criminals and their supporters should be given serious attention and follow-up by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,” he demanded.

Amir-Abdollahian said the OIC must “seriously pursue the immediate cessation of the Zionist regime’s criminal attacks against Gaza, the immediate sending of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and tackle the forced displacement of the people of Gaza.” The displacement he referred to was Israel’s extraordinary effort to evacuate Palestinian civilians before attacking the Hamas terrorist organization.

Quote:California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a surprise trip to Israel on Thursday ahead of a previously announced trip the Democratic governor is taking to China.

“The governor adjusted his planned international trip and will briefly visit Israel ahead of going to China,” spokesperson Erin Mellon said in a statement Thursday. “While in Israel, the governor will meet with those impacted by the violence.”

Newsom will arrive in Israel on Friday and depart later that day, Mellon said. California is also sending some medical supplies to the region, she said.

Newsom had previously shown his support for Israel in the wake of the attack.

There were Californians who were affected by the attack, both as victims and survivors.

Quote:The Times of Israel reported that the Health Ministry is asking gun license holders to volunteer for security, both at hospitals “and healthcare facilities.”

Hospitals and healthcare locations in Israel could face a shortfall in security because some guards serve in the military and have been called up for service against Hamas. Consequently, the longer the war with Hamas lasts, the greater the need will be for civilian volunteers to serve as security.

Civilian gun ownership in Israel is low, compared to a country like the United States, but Israeli leaders are working to broaden gun ownership by expediting the licensing process.

This expedition has contributed to a run on guns in areas like Samaria, where, on October 11, 2023, Breitbart News noted unarmed residents were flooding into offices to fill out the paperwork necessary to secure a gun license.

The Jewish News Syndicate noted, “The local Maccabi health clinic was teeming with crowds scrambling for health applications for gun permits. It was tense but congenial as doctors scrambled to fill out forms.” There was also a line at the Town Hall, as those seeking gun licenses went through the process to show proof of residency.

On October 10, 2023, Breitbart News pointed out Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced 10,000 assault rifles were being purchased and distributed to civilian security teams in communities along the country’s borders.

Quote:British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak landed in Tel Aviv late Wednesday night to begin a 48-hour diplomatic foray to the Middle East.

The previously unannounced mission will caution leaders against any “dangerous escalation” in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorist forces and their backers while telling the Jewish state he is with them.

“I am in Israel, a nation in grief,” Sunak wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, soon after his arrival “I grieve with you and stand with you against the evil that is terrorism. Today, and always.”

Sunak left as back at home hundreds of anti-Israel protesters descended on Downing Street in Central London outside his official state residence to hold a “vigil” for those killed in an explosion at a hospital in Gaza.

An “emergency protest” was organised on Whitehall by the Stop the War Coalition to oppose Israel and pray for the people who died at the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday evening, as Breitbart News reported.

Sunak will hold a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog before setting off to other regional capitals in a diplomatic bid to prevent fighting from spiralling.

Quote:President Joe Biden’s deputies are asking Congress for $14 billion extra to help bus illegal migrants up to the U.S. border and onward into hotels in many cities and towns around the nation.

The request is being touted as “border security” even though very few funds would be used to exclude economic migrants. For example, Biden’s deputies have ushered more than 300,000 economic migrants through the U.S. border in September alone. The 2023 inflow has added up to roughly 2.5 million, not counting legal migrants and temporary workers.

Instead, much of the requested money would be used to help more job-seeking migrants reach the U.S. border, register and release them, and then bus them to hotels, job training, and American workplaces around the United States.

The massive request — buried in a larger $106 billion request — may be intended to cover planned migrant aid by Democrat-run cities through the 2024 presidential campaign. That cash flow would help pro-migration groups minimize voters’ recognition of the huge costs to cities, taxpayers, and Americans.

The government’s flood of illegal migrants is already displacing many lower-income Americans from decent jobs and housing as well as granting a huge windfall to employers, real estate investors, and government agencies.

Quote:Ocasio-Cortez was asked whether Arab countries in the Middle East ought to open their borders to Palestinians rather than the United States.

In response, Ocasio-Cortez suggested she would support such Arab countries taking in Palestinians, but  Americans would also need to be open to refugee resettlement.

The exchange went as follows:

CNN ANCHOR: Should Arab countries be taking on the lion’s share of the burden to absorb what could be over a million, if not more, refugees from Gaza?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: I think there’s something to be said about the region’s partners being able to support and step up for Palestinians. However, that does not abdicate the United States from our historic role that we’ve played in the world of accepting refugees and allowing people to restart their lives here.

Ocasio-Cortez is one of just two Democrat lawmakers who have suggested the U.S. must resettle Palestinians in American communities. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) told the New York Post last week that the U.S. ought to “welcome” Palestinians.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s administration and other Democrats have been silent on the issue.

Quote:Evidence exists of a $200,000 payment to now-President Joe Biden — in 2018, before his election to the White House — from his brother, James Biden, and James’ wife, Sara Biden, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) revealed Friday.

The revelation shows Joe Biden personally accepting money from his family’s overseas business ventures, despite denying his involvement in the business at least nine times. “Where is the money? Joe Biden asked reporters in September. Comer believes he found some.

“A document that we’re releasing today raises new questions about how President Biden personally benefited from his family’s shady influence peddling of his name and their access to him,” Comer said in a video released on X. “Bank records obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability have revealed a $200,000 direct payment from James and Sara Biden to Joe Biden in the form of a personal check.”

Quote:A group of cartel gunmen killed the police chief of Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon, who had just begun his second day on the job in a Mexican border state that continues to experience a dramatic spike in drug shootouts and killings.

The targeted killing took place on Thursday afternoon in the city of Hidalgo located in the northeastern part of the border state of Nuevo Leon, northeast of Monterrey. Lucio Juarez Trujillo, the police chief of the municipality of Hidalgo was driving his personal SUV when a group of gunmen ambushed him. The gunmen shot him several times.

Law enforcement sources revealed to Breitbart Texas that at least three SUVs with gunmen took part in the attack. By the time police forces responded to the scene, Juarez Trujillo had died from his injuries. Despite a search and a manhunt, authorities did not find the shooters.

Juarez Trujillo became the Public Security Secretary (police chief) for Hidalgo just two days before his murder. Before that, he had been an officer with Tamaulipas State Police.

The killing comes at a time when several drug cartels are engaged in fierce turf wars for control of main drug trafficking and distribution areas in Nuevo Leon. Those turf wars have led to numerous targeted killings, as well as several large-scale attacks on police forces in various parts of the state.

Quote:Nestle, the world’s largest food company, announced on Wednesday that it will shutter or sell the Wyeth Nutrition baby formula factory in Askeaton, Ireland, no later than the first quarter of 2026.

The major reason given for this decision was that China’s birth rate has collapsed so much that the plant’s output, which was exported to Asia, is no longer needed.

“The number of newborn babies in China has declined sharply from some 18 million per year in 2016 to fewer than 9 million projected in 2023. The market, which had previously been reliant on imported infant formula products, is also seeing rapid growth in locally produced products,” Nestle stated.

The company said it would shutter a research and development center at the Askeaton plant by 2025, putting a total of 542 local jobs on the line.

Quote:This week, the Campaign Against Antisemitism group has been driving a convoy of vans with electronic billboards displaying kidnapped children throughout London in order to raise awareness about the barbaric acts of the Palestinian Hamas terror organisation during the October 7th terror attacks in Israel.

On Thursday, the campaign group shared footage on social media purporting to show the Metropolitan Police Force ordering the group to switch off their billboards or face “breach of peace” charges after they were confronted by pro-Palestine protesters. The group claimed that they were also ordered by police to leave central London.

Campaign Against Antisemitism chief executive Gideon Falter said: “How on earth could police stop people in central London, in our capital, from showing the pictures of children kidnapped by a terrorist organised banned by our government?”
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The CAA said that it is considering legal actions against the London police force for its “abysmal failure to uphold our rights and protect British Jews.”

Quote:United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the closed-down Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Friday, demanding Egypt allow trucks full of humanitarian aid into the Hamas-controlled territory but failing to urge Cairo to accept Palestinian refugees.
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In preparation to respond to Hamas, the Israeli government has urged Palestinian civilians to leave north Gaza and Gaza City, where Hamas is believed to keep much of its weapons arsenal and logistics bases. Hamas has responded to Israel’s attempts to protect civilians by erecting roadblocks in Gaza and killing Palestinian civilians to prevent them from leaving. Egypt, the only other country bordering Gaza, has repeatedly insisted it would not accept any Palestinian refugees.

Guterres did not address allowing Palestinian refugees to leave Gaza while visiting the Rafah crossing, the only exit for Gazans seeking to flee. Instead, he urged the governments of Israel, Egypt, and the Hamas terrorist organization to let trucks full of humanitarian aid through Rafah.
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Guterres bizarrely concluded his remarks thanking the Egyptian government, which is responsible for keeping the border closed.

“I want to end by expressing my deep gratitude to the people and the Government of Egypt. Egypt is today the fundamental pillar that allows hope to exist on that side of the border,” the U.N. chief asserted. “Hope that these trucks will move to support them.”

Egyptian authorities reportedly agreed to open the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday, though no trucks appeared to be passing at the time of Guterres’s visit on Friday. Cairo had repeatedly claimed prior to nominally agreeing to open the border that the border was open already, although the government was allowing no transit in or out of Gaza.

Quote:The photo shows 59-year-old Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, being escorted by Israeli soldiers on Friday, following their release by Hamas, which continues to hold an estimated 200 men, women, and children hostage, including ten Americans. Gal Hirsch, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special coordinator for returning the hostages, is seen in the photo holding the hands of the freed Americans.

Judith, a aesthetician from Evanston, Illinois, and Natalie, a recent graduate of Deerfield High School, were in Israel to visit their family members at Kibbutz Nahal Oz for the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, when they were kidnapped by Hamas during the surprise attack on October 7.

During his Friday press briefing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the release of the two Americans, saying that he “shares in the relief that their families, friends, and loved ones are feeling.”

However, Blinken also noted that “there are still 10 additional Americans who remain unaccounted for in this conflict,” among the estimated 200 still held by Hamas.

Quote:Rocket and drone attacks on Thursday targeted military bases in Iraq that host U.S. and coalition forces.

The attacks were an apparent effort by Iran-controlled Shiite militias to make good on their threats to attack American interests if the U.S. continues to support Israel against the terrorists of Hamas.

Reports documented multiple explosions at the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq’s western Anbar province, including detonations inside the perimeter of the base. At least two rockets were also fired at a base housing U.S. forces near Baghdad’s international airport.

There was no immediate report of casualties from Ain al-Asad. An American official told Reuters one of the rockets fired at the Baghdad airport base was intercepted, and the other struck an empty storage facility, so there were no casualties from that attack.

Wednesday also saw two attacks against Iraqi bases hosting U.S. forces, both involving drones. Pentagon officials said the force stationed at al-Asad was able to intercept two suicide drones launched against the airbase on Wednesday. The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said a third drone launched against a position in northern Iraq was “engaged and destroyed” without “injuries or damage.”

Quote:Kernen said, “[T]he Department of Energy says it wants to buy six million barrels of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s hoping to get a price of $79 or less. The department is working to refill the Petroleum Reserve after President Biden ordered a historic release to try to stem high gas prices. Buy low, sell high. I’m not sure that’s what we’re doing here. There was a time.”

Quick responded, “Very briefly, yeah, where we could have filled it at lower rates.”

Kernen then said, “[I]t does get a little scary with — no one was expecting the Middle East to totally be a different place than what we saw or what we thought it was six months ago.”

Quick stated, “No. And if you looked at oil prices three weeks ago, we were talking about how energy prices had come down 10% in ten days, WTI. And that was something we were watching really closely. It was on concerns that there wasn’t going to be as much demand around the globe with a potential recession. … So, it turned very quickly.”

Quote:CVS said on Thursday that it is voluntarily removing certain common oral cough and cold products after a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel determined last month that its active ingredient doesn’t work. 

“We are voluntarily removing certain oral cough and cold products that contain phenylephrine as the only active ingredient from CVS Pharmacy stores,” a CVS spokesperson said. “Other oral cough and cold products will continue to be offered to meet consumer needs.”

“We are aware of the FDA Advisory Committee’s position on oral phenylephrine (PE) and will follow direction from the FDA to ensure products we sell comply with all laws and regulations,” the spokesperson continued.

The move comes just a month after all 16 members of the FDA’s Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee (NDAC) agreed that oral phenylephrine, found in common versions of Sudafed, Mucinex, Vicks, Allegra and Dayquil, isn’t effective in offering relief from nasal congestion.

Quote:Jordan lost a secret ballot vote in a Friday afternoon Republican Conference meeting to remain Speaker-designate. Breitbart News is told the vote was 88 votes to keep Jordan and 112 to eject him.

House Republicans will now go home for the weekend without a nominee for Speaker despite repeated calls from Jordan’s holdouts for the House to get back to work. They will reconvene on Monday evening for a candidate forum.

With Jordan out, Breitbart News is told to expect numerous candidates to throw their hats in the ring.

Quote:In Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown in central Ukraine, a 60-year-old man died on Friday evening when a Russian missile slammed into an industrial facility, according to Telegram posts by Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul. Vilkul added that the man’s wife was hospitalized with serious shrapnel wounds.

Early on Saturday, Vilkul reported that Russian missiles and drones overnight hit the same site again, causing unspecified damage and sparking a fire that was put out by morning. Vilkul did not elaborate on the site’s nature or whether it was linked to Ukraine’s war effort. He said nobody was hurt in the second strike.

Hours later, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters that Russian forces destroyed the Ukrainian military’s fuel and ammunition depots near Kryvyi Rih’s local airport.

There was no immediate response from Ukrainian officials to Konashenkov’s claim.

In Ukraine’s front-line Kherson region in the south, one civilian was killed and another suffered wounds as Russian forces launched “mass shelling” attacks, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Saturday. In a Telegram post, Prokudin said that Russian troops used mortars, artillery, tanks, drones, and multiple-rocket launchers to target the province, striking some residential areas.

Quote:A man who arrived as an asylum seeker in the United Kingdom in 2020 has reportedly been arrested for an alleged terror attack. He is said to have told police that he was motivated to carry out the attack “for Palestine” and to avenge Palestinians killed in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attacks on Israel that left over 1,400 dead. The man is currently in police custody.

Further information on the alleged terror attack, which came amid concerns of violence stemming from anti-Israel protests being held throughout Britain, has been withheld from the public, London’s Daily Telegraph reports.

Some of the details of the alleged attack are being withheld for legal reasons, however, a security source speaking to the paper suggested that authorities “may be downplaying it so that they don’t have repeat attacks or copycat attacks.”

British lawmakers have called for the public to be informed about the alleged attack, with former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith saying: “I think the public does have a right to know that something has happened. If they are worried about reaction, people need to know whether their streets are safe."

Quote:Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said that he and his services had been searching for details to understand how Abdesalem Lassoued had disappeared off the map two years ago after being denied asylum and ordered by Belgian authorities to be deported to Tunisia.

On Monday night, Lassoued gunned down two Swedish men and wounded a third with a semiautomatic rifle. The attack forced the lockdown of more than 35,000 people in a soccer stadium where they had gathered to watch Belgium play Sweden.
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“This morning at nine o’clock, I remarked the following elements: On Aug. 15, 2022, there was an extradition demand by Tunisia for this man,” Van Quickenborne told reporters on Friday evening.

“This demand was transmitted on Sept. 1, as it should have been, by the justice expert at the Brussels prosecutor’s office. The magistrate in charge did not follow up on this extradition demand and the dossier was not acted upon,” he said.”It’s an individual error. A monumental error. An unacceptable error. An error with dramatic consequences,” Van Quickenborne said in announcing that he had submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

“Even though it’s about the work of an individual and independent magistrate, I must, despite this, assume all the political responsibility for this unacceptable error,” the minister said.

Quote:Media outlets reported, falsely, that Israel had bombed a historic church in Gaza on Thursday — though it did target a nearby building in which it said Hamas had a command center, and the blast caused a building on the church center to collapse.

There were several casualties, including relatives of former Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who were sheltering at the site.

The Greek foreign ministry commented on the damage to the church, which is part of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate:

The Greek Foreign Ministry expressed sorrow over the fatal strike on Gaza’s oldest active church, the 12th-century Greek Orthodox church of St Porphyrius, which was hit late on Thursday night, emphasizing the importance of the protection of civilians.
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A statement from the Israeli military on Friday said that the church was not the intended target of the airstrike. The fighter jets that carried out the attack were trying to destroy a Hamas command center near the church that the military believes has been involved in launching rockets and mortars toward Israel, the statement said.

“As a result of the I.D.F. strike, a wall of a church in the area of the center was damaged,” the statement said, using the initials of the Israel Defense Forces. “We are aware of reports on casualties. The incident is under review. The I.D.F. can unequivocally state that the church was not the target of the strike.”

Palestinian terrorists frequently place their weapons and personnel in religious buildings, including churches. In 2002, there was a tense standoff between terrorists and Israeli soldiers at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Quote:A pair of US military bases in Syria were attacked by drones this week, raising concerns that Iran-backed proxies are using the Israel-Hamas war to strike at American forces.

In one attack, drones struck the al-Tanf garrison located near Syria’s borders with Iraq and Jordan on Thursday.

One was destroyed by US forces but another caused minor injuries, two US officials speaking on condition of anonymity told the Associated Press.

The al-Tanf base is located in an area frequently used by Iran-backed militants to shuttle weapons to Hezbollah.

The terror group has exchanged fire with Israel across the Lebanon border several times since the start of the conflict.

A second drone attack targeted the Conoco gas field in the Deir al-Zor region in eastern Syria that houses American troops, according to Syrian opposition activists.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, confirmed that five explosions were heard at the Conoco gas field.

Omar Abu Layla, a Syrian refugee and activist based in Germany who helms the Deir Ezzor 24 news outlet, said three drones loaded with explosives targeted the facility.

Quote:Foreign citizens are not being allowed to leave the Gaza Strip even though the Rafah crossing with Egypt is now open, the Times of Israel reported Saturday.

Palestinian Americans and other dual citizens crowded the southern border Saturday when 20 humanitarian aid trucks entered Gaza as the crossing opened for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war started two weeks ago, the outlet noted.

But the crowds were left lingering with no way to finally get out of the war-torn Strip. It was not immediately clear who was preventing them from leaving.

Meanwhile, the US’ effort to free the remaining hostages in the area is speeding up ahead of Israel’s ground invasion of the area, the Washington Post reported.

Judith and Natalie Raanan, both of Illinois, were freed Friday, but 10 Americans are still unaccounted for – though not all of them are assumed to be hostages, the outlet noted.
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When asked on Friday if the IDF should delay its ground invasion in order for more hostages to be freed, President Biden said “yes,” according to the Post.

Quote:Police in Cyprus said Saturday they arrested four Syrians on suspicion of setting off a small explosive device that caused no damage not far from Israeli Embassy in the capital Nicosia.

Police said the four, ranging in ages between 17 and 21, face charges of attempted destruction of property using explosives, possession and use of explosives and possession of a knife.

Police did not say whether the bombing some 30 meters (98 feet) from the Israeli Embassy was connected to the war in Gaza. Security has been stepped up across the European Union following Hamas’ attack on Israel Oct. 7 and the ensuing hostilities.

A Nicosia court ordered that the suspects remain in police detention for six days until investigators can formally bring charges against them or release them.