Quote:Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin placed additional U.S. troops on prepare-to-deploy orders to the Middle East Sunday after speaking with President Joe Biden.
“I have placed an additional number of forces on prepare to deploy orders as part of prudent contingency planning, to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required,” he said in a statement.
The number of forces put on prepare-to-deploy orders was not specified, but the Pentagon has previously confirmed the number was roughly 2,000. Some troops would come from the U.S. and some from within Europe or other areas of operation.
Austin said he has also activated the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as well as additional Patriot battalions to locations throughout the region to increase protection for U.S. forces.
Iranian proxy forces have recently launched attacks against U.S. facilities in Iraq, Syria, and fired rockets from Yemen, which were shot down by a U.S. guided missile destroyer.
Austin also said in his statement the decision came after detailed discussions with Biden on “recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces across the Middle East Region.”
He said the steps were to “bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for U.S. forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel.”
Quote:In an interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, Gerhard Schröder, who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005, claimed that hundreds of thousands of lives could potentially have been saved if not for pressure exerted on Kyiv by Washington to reject peace negotiations with Moscow.
Schröder, who has faced criticism over his friendship with Vladimir Putin and his business ties in Russia, including as a broad member of the Nord Stream 2 AG, revealed that last year he was asked by Ukraine to act as a mediator with Moscow to seek a peaceful end to the conflict after the Russian military invaded the former Soviet state.
“The only people who could settle the war against Ukraine are the Americans,” the former chancellor said. “At the peace negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul with [now-Ukrainian Defence Minister] Rustem Umerov, the Ukrainians did not agree to peace because they were not allowed to. They first had to ask the Americans about everything they discussed.”
“The war could be ended if geopolitical interests were not at play,” he added.
Schröder said that he had two conversations with Umerov, as well as a private discussion with Vladimir Putin and then with the Russian president’s envoy. He said that Umerov expressed willingness to agree to terms that would give safety guarantees to Kyiv while addressing several key concerns of the Kremlin, such as Ukraine committing not to join NATO and introducing reforms to grant more autonomy to the heavily ethnic Russian Donbas region.
He makes me ask myself if those are his actual words or Putin's.
Quote:An estimated 100,000 anti-Israel protesters took to the streets of London on Saturday. Ahead of the demonstration, the Met police warned activists that they may face arrest if they were seen to be supporting proscribed terror groups like Hamas.
However, while several people were arrested and some investigations continue, the police force drew considerable backlash for appearing to excuse calls for jihad.
Responding to footage of a speaker calling for jihad while standing in front of a placard calling on the “Muslim armies” of the world to attack Israel, the Met said on X: “The word jihad has a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism.
“We have specialist counter-terrorism officers here in the operations room who have particular knowledge in this area. They have assessed this video, filmed at the Hizb ut-Tahrir protest in central London today, and have not identified any offences arising from the specific clip.
“However, recognising the way language like this will be interpreted by the public and the divisive impact it will have, officers have identified the man involved and will be speaking to him shortly to discourage any repeat of similar chanting.”
This sounds like a sad joke for any Jew or anybody else with beliefs that are contrary to those proclaimed by such protesters. Or should we call them pro-terrorists?
Quote:Australia’s prime minister will visit China in early November to meet President Xi Jinping, Canberra confirmed Sunday, as the two trading partners work to repair a once-frosty relationship.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese locked in the trip — from November 4 to November 7 — after China agreed to review hefty tariffs on Australian wine which had sparked a festering World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute.
It also follows the release of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, deported from China earlier this month after being detained for three years on espionage charges widely seen as politically motivated.
“I look forward to visiting China, an important step towards ensuring a stable and productive relationship,” Albanese said in a statement.
“I welcome the progress we have made to return Australian products, including Australian wine, to the Chinese market.”
Quote:Israel’s ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, told Britain’s Sky News on Sunday that Hamas terrorists were found with USB drives that included instructions on how to manufacture cyanide gas for use against Israelis.
...
“It’s official Al Qaeda material. We’re dealing with ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Hamas,” Herzog told Sky News, holding a printout of a file obtained from a USB found on one of the dead terrorists killed during the attack on Oct. 7.
“In this material, there were instructions how to produce chemical weapons. This is — it speaks about arson and it speaks about various chemicals that come out and produce chemical weapons.”
Cyanide was used as a chemical weapon during the First World War, though questions remain about its lethality in battlefield conditions outdoors. It may have been intended for indoor use — and perhaps could be used against Israeli soldiers fighting in tunnels in Gaza.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:The damage to a telecommunications cable running under the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Estonia was “purposeful,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Tuesday but declined to be drawn on the details.
“We will not be more precise than that as of today,” Kristersson said at a press conference, after Swedish divers had investigated the seabed.
A spokesman for the Swedish Navy, Jimmie Adamsson, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that “we see seabed tracks nearby, but we don’t know if it’s deliberate or an accident.”
On Oct. 17, Sweden reported damage to an undersea telecommunications cable that authorities believe occurred at the same time as damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecom cable between Finland and Estonia. Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said at the time that the cause of the damage was unclear, adding that it was “not a total cable break” but “a partial damage.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the press conference Tuesday with Kristersson that member countries have “tens of thousands of kilometers of internet cables, of gas pipelines over power cables, all the oil pipelines crossing the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and of course, these types of undersea critical infrastructure is vulnerable.”
The military alliance was working “closely with the private sector,” Stoltenberg said, because “most of this critical infrastructure is owned by private companies, operated by private companies.”
Quote:Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has submitted a protocol for Sweden’s admission into NATO to Turkey’s parliament for ratification, his office said Monday.
Erdogan had been delaying ratification of Sweden’s membership, accusing Stockholm of being too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups he considers to be security threats. Turkey also was angered by a series of Quran-burning protests in Sweden.
All 31 NATO allies must endorse Sweden’s membership. Turkey and Hungary are the only two allies that have yet to ratify it.
A brief statement from the presidential communications directorate said Erdogan had signed the protocol on Sweden’s NATO accession, which was then submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
It was not immediately known when Sweden’s membership would come to the floor.
Quote:French President Emmanuel Macron travelled to Jerusalem on Tuesday to reaffirm his country’s support for Israel and called for an international “coalition” of nations to combat the scourge of Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas.
Appearing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Macron said in a speech that the world must remember that Israel has a “legitimate right to defend itself,” adding: “This cause is just, period.”
The French leader, who expressed solidarity with Israel as the leader of a country that has also faced deadly Islamist attacks, said that the priority of Western democracies should be to defeat terrorism, saying per Le Figaro: “I propose to our international partners that we can build a regional and international coalition to fight against these terrorist groups which threaten us all.”
It is not precisely clear what form of a “coalition” Macron envisages for the future, however, with the French military largely retreating from its presence in Africa, the French leader could be eying the Middle East as another venue to exert military power.
While there are growing calls from within the European Union to pressure Jerusalem into a ceasefire — before the expected ground invasion of Gaza has even begun — Macron seemed to reject such notions, saying that Israel’s fight against Hamas should be “merciless”.
He did caveat, however, that the war should still be fought along the rules of combat and that humanitarian aid should be allowed to reach civilians in Gaza.
Quote:Kosovo’s prime minister on Monday claimed that a criminal gang from northern Serbia was behind a September attack in Kosovo that killed a police officer and involved a daylong gunbattle with Kosovo police that left three gunmen dead.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti also alleged that Serbia’s Defense Minister Milos Vucevic heads the gang known as the “Novi Sad Clan,” named after the Serbian city of Novi Sad, and further claimed that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had links to the gang.
Kurti offered no evidence to back his claims and did not elaborate. He described the gang as a “paramilitary terrorist group.”
Belgrade swiftly dismissed the claims. Serbia’s Defense Ministry said it “absolutely rejects the heinous and blatant lies told today by Kurti” and appealed to the international community to act to stop the “incendiary and dirty” campaign by Kosovo’s leadership.
Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew on Sept. 24 when some 30 heavily armed Serbs barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery in northern Kosovo, setting off the fighting.
Quote:The service said one boat carrying 229 migrants was escorted to El Hierro island while another with 85 was taken to Tenerife .
Of the boats that arrived over the weekend, one on Saturday was carrying 320 migrants. The state news agency EFE said it was the largest number in a single boat since human traffickers began to regularly use the Canary Island route in 1994. The previous record of 280 was recorded earlier this month.
Most of the boats arrived at El Hierro, which has received several thousand migrants in recent weeks. The Canary Islands are located off the northwest coast of Africa.
Most of the migrants come from sub-Saharan African countries and most of the boats depart from Senegal.
Migrants arriving by boat in Spain spend up to 72 hours in police custody, for identification, then are moved into various reception or detention centers depending on their cases. Although some are deported, most apply for asylum and are taken to mainland Spain for their petitions to be studied.
In the end, many are freed and ordered to leave Spain if they don´t get asylum.
Quote:The British general cargo ship Verity is reported to have been lost off the coast of Helgoland, an island off Germany and Denmark in the North Sea, following a collision with the Bahamas-flagged Polesie. According to the German newspaper Bild, citing sources in the national accident command reports six people are presently thought missing.
One person has been pulled from the water, but rescue efforts are being hampered by the weather conditions locally, which is experiencing high wind and waves.
Publicly available data from the Verity’s Automatic Information System, a legally mandated safety and navigation device fitted to all large seagoing ships, the vessel last was able to report its position around 0300 local time. According to its filed plan, it was eight hours out of the port of Bremen in Germany and headed to the British port of Immingham.
It is said to have collided with the bulk carrier Polesie, a considerably larger ship, overnight. The Polesie is still afloat and, again according to AIS data, has remained in the area and may be assisting with the search.
Other ships that have come to the aid of the lost Verity include two coastguard vessels and an ocean liner, which are being assisted by a helicopter.
Quote:The government of Spain announced on Monday that it is planning to urge the European Union to lift sanctions on socialist Venezuela during the next EU ministerial meeting, a response to leftist American President Joe Biden doing the same.
The Biden administration announced last week it would lift all oil and gas sanctions on the repressive dictatorship of socialist Nicolás Maduro, allowing Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil company, to openly trade on the global market. The move will give Maduro the opportunity to pour Venezuelan oil into American markets, competing with domestic producers, and create a potential revenue stream for Maduro’s Islamist allies, including the Iranian terrorist regime and proxies such as the genocidal group Hamas.
Iran recently signed an agreement with Maduro’s regime and mutual ally Bashar Assad, the dictator of Syria, to build a new oil refinery in the Syrian city of Homs; Iran has also signed agreements to help PDVSA rehabilitate its derelict oil refineries, likely profiting both Iran and Venezuela.
Iran is the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism, funding groups such as Hamas, the Shiite groups Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthi movement, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and similar outfits for decades. The U.S. State Department estimated in 2020 that Iran provides Hamas, which controls the Gaza territory, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad $100 million a year.
...
“I have addressed my colleagues to raise the necessity of studying the revision of EU sanctions on Venezuela,” the Spanish news agency EFE quoted [Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel] Albares as saying, “in line with the recent decisions by the United States and the positive evolution in the dialogue among Venezuelans.”
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:New York County Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered former President Donald Trump to take the witness stand on Wednesday for questioning about an alleged gag order violation, which resulted in a $10,000 fine for the 45th president.
As CNBC noted, Engoron asked Trump who he was referencing when he spoke of a “very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”
Engoron, who is judging the non-jury civil case brought against Trump and his two eldest sons by New York Attorney General Letitia James, reportedly suspected he was referring to Clerk Allison Greenfield.
Trump said he was talking about his former attorney, Michael Cohen, who is testifying against him in the case, as well as Engoron.
“Are you sure that you didn’t mean the person on the other side, my principal law clerk?” Engoron asked, the Hill reported.
“Yes, I’m sure,” the 45th president responded. However, Engoron did not believe Trump and fined him $10,000 after he returned to his seat, remarking the punishment was “on the liberal side.”
This follows a $5,000 fine Engoron imposed Friday after finding Trump in violation of his gag order.
“Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions,” Engoron said in a court filing at the time, as the Associated Press (AP) noted.
Quote:Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has been criminally charged with a misdemeanor for pulling a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, allegedly to prevent a vote on the House floor.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail. NBC News’s Frank Thorp first reported the story.
“We finished our investigation,” reads a statement from the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP). “Our agents gathered all the evidence, packaged it up, and sent the entire case with charges to prosecutors for their consideration.”
USCP presented a probable cause arrest warrant for 22DC1319A – False Fire Alarm – to the D.C. Attorney General, who is charging Bowman.
Bowman has been ordered to appear in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m, EDT for his arraignment.
The former middle school principal insisted that he pulled the fire alarm in order to open the door to make a government funding vote.
Breitbart News first broke exclusively that Bowman threw emergency warning signs to the floor before pulling the alarm and running down a set of stairs before exiting the building from another floor, contradicting his claims.
Republicans have drafted a resolution to expel Bowman from Congress.
Quote:According to an emailed statement posted to X by Punch Bowl News founder Jake Sherman, President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign strongly condemned the election of Johnson, despite Biden’s congratulations in an official statement from the White House.
“MAGA Mike Johnson’s ascension to the speakership cements the extreme MAGA takeover of the House Republican Conference,” Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement.
This came in contrast to Biden offering his and first lady Jill Biden’s “congratulations” to Johnson and their commitment to try to work “in good faith.”
Democrats in Congress expressed their deep displeasure with Johnson securing the Speaker’s gavel on the first ballot, after three weeks of chaos since Speaker Emeritus Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) ouster, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) called Johnson an “insurrectionist.”
“Insurrectionist Mike Johnson is now second in line to the presidency. The American people deserve better,” she said.
Quote:In May 2021, the illegal alien crossed the U.S.-Mexico border after traveling from Brazil. He was initially apprehended near San Luis, Arizona. The following month, the illegal alien was released from DHS custody on his own recognizance.
After his release into the U.S. interior, the illegal alien was asked to report to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to schedule an immigration hearing but failed to report.
In July 2021, two months after having first arrived at the border, the illegal alien was wanted by a criminal court in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for a felony criminal charge of aggravated homicide for allegedly murdering a child younger than 14 years old.
This month, the illegal alien was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Boston, Massachusetts. He will remain in ICE custody pending his deportation to Brazil.
Quote:Venezuelan illegal aliens Abel Barrios-Estava, 20 years old, and Rafael Mata-Torres, 25 years old, were arrested and charged this week with burglary and retail theft after allegedly stealing some $1,700 worth of clothing merchandise from Macy’s in Oak Brook, Illinois.
According to police, officers responded to a retail theft at Macy’s on Monday where they identified Barrios-Estava as having allegedly stolen six pieces of clothing worth over $300.
While officers initially took Barrios-Estava into custody, he broke free and fled on foot. Following the pursuit on foot, officers took Barrios-Estava into custody.
Meanwhile, officers also arrested Mata-Torres, accusing him of stealing from the Macy’s 13 pieces of clothing worth more than $1,400.
Since being charged, both illegal aliens — who had been living in Chicago — have been released on bail with electronic ankle monitoring.
The state of Illinois is a sanctuary state that prohibits local law enforcement from turning criminal illegal alien suspects over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for deportation.
Quote:The United Auto Workers (UAW) has announced a tentative agreement with Ford Motor Company to end its strike, securing massive wage hikes for auto workers and a right to strike whenever the automaker closes a plant.
Late Wednesday evening, UAW officials Shawn Fain and Chuck Browning announced the agreement, which will see auto workers return to their jobs at Ford while the deal makes its way through the ratification process.
According to the UAW-Ford agreement, auto workers will see more in base wage increases than they have seen in the last 22 years at the auto company. Specifically, the agreement authorizes 25 percent in base wage increases through April 2028 and will raise top wages by more than 30 percent to more than $40 an hour.
Starting wages will be raised by 68 percent to more than $28 an hour, the agreement states. Fain and Browning said Ford’s lowest-paid workers will have their wages raised by more than 150 percent over the tenure of the four-year agreement.
How can they be sure that they won't change their minds and start firing them after opening a plant elsewhere like in Mexico?
Quote:Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders ® announced Thursday that she signed an executive order banning the usage of woke terms like “pregnant people” and “birth giver” in all state documents.
“We’ve had enough,” Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing announcing her decision. “Enough trying to erase women and girls, enough denying our biological differences from men, and enough of the craziness that is taking over our country.”
Huckabee Sanders said the political left is “using nonsense words to erase women and girls, and more importantly, to erase our voices and our experiences.”
“Today, we’re taking a stand against woke nonsense,” she said. “What, frankly, started as a fad among a few grad students has seeped down into corporations, the health care industry, and increasingly, state government. It’s demeaning to women, and it needs to stop.”
The Arkansas governor went on to announce that she is signing “an executive order banning a number of all sorts of ridiculous words from state government documents. Those include words like ‘pregnant people,’ ‘laboring person,’ ‘birth giver,’ and several other nonsense terms.”
Quote:The FBI ran the confidential human sources from multiple FBI field offices across the nation, including the FBI Seattle Field Office, FBI Baltimore Field Office, and FBI HQ holdings, Grassley stated.
“Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers, there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family,” [Senator Chuck] Grassley wrote.
“Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director but also line agents and prosecutors,” he added.
Grassley noted that Justice Department whistleblowers say one of the investigations into the Bidens entailed an FBI informant FD-1023 file that alleged Hunter and Joe Biden were each bribed $5 million.
Grassley released the FD-1023 file in July that alleged Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, bribed Joe and Hunter Biden after then-Vice President Biden withheld aid to Ukraine until then-President Petro Poroshenko fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Reps. Andy Ogles (R-TN) and Tom Tiffany (R-WI) are introducing legislation that would have the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immediately deport illegal aliens from the United States if they arrived from Palestinian-controlled regions such as Gaza.
The “Evicting Violent Islamic Criminals That Entered Deviously Act” or “Evict Act,” exclusively shared with Breitbart News, would use the Immigration and Nationality Act to have DHS deport illegal aliens in the U.S. who arrived from Palestinian-controlled regions.
“No one can escape the countless videos of Palestinian terrorists barbarically murdering Jewish families in Israel,” Ogles told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement.
“Those same terrorists want Americans to die. President Biden has refused to secure our nation. We need to deport migrants who came from countries with ill will for the United States … make no mistake that what is happening in Israel could happen in the U.S. if we don’t take action and evict the Palestinian jihadists that have invaded our nation,” he continued.
Since Biden took office in late January 2021, nearly 300 illegal aliens on the federal government’s “Terrorist Watch List” have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. During this same period, nearly two million illegal aliens are known to have successfully crossed the border, undeterred by Biden.
Quote:After a number of Republicans urged Biden’s State Department to revoke the visas of pro-Hamas foreign students who hold F-1 visas, National Security Council (NSC) spokesman John Kirby said the administration will not do so.
Reporter Wrote:There’s been an uptick on the right among some Republicans who have called for students or foreign nationals who are demonstrating in some of these pro-Palestine demonstrations or, you know, allegedly pro-Hamas demonstrations to have their student visas pulled or to face deportation. What is the administration’s remark — response to those kinds of remarks and that kind of rhetoric? Is that an overreaction?
Kirby Wrote:That … I would just tell you that you don’t have to agree with every sentiment that is expressed in a free country like this to stand by … the idea [of] the First Amendment and the idea of peaceful protest. I’ll leave it at that.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are leading a resolution urging the Biden administration to revoke the visas of foreign nationals in the U.S. who are involved in pro-Hamas demonstrations — especially those on F-1 student visas.
“To put the security of American citizens first, President Biden must immediately revoke the visas of those who support Hamas and other terrorist groups,” Blackburn said.
Quote:Former Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brady told the House Judiciary Committee on Monday the FD-1023 file that alleges Hunter and President Joe Biden each received a five-million-dollar bribe was credible and ripe for investigation in 2020, but the FBI was reluctant to investigate...
The federal prosecutor, who investigated Hunter Biden’s deals with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, said that his team corroborated the FBI informant’s allegations of the Biden bribes and that they warranted further investigation by three U.S. Attorney’s offices in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Delaware.
Brady’s testimony broadly confirms Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) Wednesday speculation the FBI maintained more than 40 confidential sources with “criminal information” on Hunter, James, and President Joe Biden before political pressure might have caused an FBI investigation into the Bidens to be shut down “subject to foreign disinformation.” Grassley released the FD-1023 file in July that alleged Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, paid Joe and Hunter Biden after then-Vice President Biden withheld aid to Ukraine until then-President Petro Poroshenko fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma.
The testimony directly contradicts House Oversight Ranking Member Jamie Raskin’s claims the FD-1023 form was not credible and therefore the U.S. Attorney’s office in Pittsburgh terminated the probe. “My understanding of Mr. Raskin’s public statements is that, based on the determination that I, and my team, found the allegations in the 1023 not credible or other information not credible, we did not escalate the assessment to a limited or full investigation,” Brady told House investigators. “That’s not true.”
Quote:At least 22 people were reportedly killed Wednesday in separate alleged shootings in Lewiston, Maine.
Update: The Sun Journal and CNN are now reporting that there were only two shooting locations: Sparetime Recreation and Schemengees Bar & Grille.
The Sun Journal reported that the first shooting occurred at Sparetime Recreation shortly after 7 p.m. and the second at Schemengees Bar & Grille Restaurant.
A third shooting reportedly occurred at a Walmart Distribution Center about one hour after the Sparetime Recreation shooting.
NBC News listed the fatalities at 22, with “dozens wounded.”
Police are looking for a “suspect for identification,” allegedly armed with a rifle.
The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office posted photos of the suspect being sought.
Quote:Police took Robert Card, the person of interest police are seeking in connection with Wednesday’s shootings in Maine, for an evaluation in July 2023 after he acted “erratically,” according to reports.
Card, an Army Reservist, had caught the attention of military officials after “acting erratically in mid-July” while taking part in training at West Point, the Associated Press reported. Police in New York were called and Card was taken to West Point’s Keller Army Community Hospital for evaluation.
Card “recently reported mental health issues, including hearing voices,” according to the Sun Journal.
CNN reported that Card “recently made threats to carry out a shooting at a National Guard facility in Saco, Maine.”
...
Breitbart News noted that Maine has a yellow flag law that allows police to petition for temporary confiscation of a person’s firearms.
Maine Public Radio (MPR) explained that the state’s yellow flag law had been used 22 times to take away guns during the timeframe of 2020 thru June of 2022. MPR suggested the yellow flag law “could be a model for gun control.”
Quote:German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has admitted that “too many people are coming” into the country illegally and vowed to begin deportations on a “large scale” as Germany is on pace to see more illegal migrants enter the country than during the European Migrant Crisis of 2016.
Amid growing calls throughout Europe to crack down on illegal immigration in the wake of Islamist terror attacks and rising incidents of antisemitic crimes, leftist German leader Olaf Scholz has joined the chorus of leaders finally acknowledging that unfettered waves of illegals breaking into Europe must stop.
“Too many people are coming,” the chancellor told Der Spiegel magazine. “We must finally deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay in Germany.”
His comments come as data revealed by the German Federal Police on Saturday showed that the country is on pace to exceed the record levels of illegal migration set during the 2016 European Migrant Crisis, which came after Scholz’s predecessor Angela Merkel “opened the gates” of Europe to millions of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
According to police data reported by public broadcaster Deutsche Welles, 21,366 illegals broke into Germany in September, alone, the highest monthly figure since February of 2016. In total, 92,119 illegally entered the country between the beginning of the year and September, meaning that this year is on pace to surpass the record of 112,000 illegals who came in 2016.
Chancellor Scholz, whose leftist Social Democrat Party (SPD) and government coalition partner the Greens have long opposed measures to clamp down on illegal migration, claimed that his government will stand together on increasing deportations.
Quote:German police arrested a known Islamist on Tuesday following intelligence he was planning to attack a pro-Israel rally to “kill as many people as possible”, reports claim.
A convicted Islamic fundamentalist who was previously jailed for traveling to Syria to fight for the Islamic State was arrested in a police raid Tuesday, as counter-terror police believed he presented an urgent risk to the public. According to German newspaper Bild, police received a tip-off from a foreign secret service that revealed a man identified as Tarik S., who has access to a truck, had researched pro-Israel rallies in his city.
They said the Egyptian-heritage German citizen wanted to “drive a truck into such a demonstration and injure and kill as many people as possible”.
The arrest took place in Duisburg in North Rhine-Westphalia and underlines, Welt reports, the nervousness of the German state security apparatus about the increased risk of terror attacks in the wake of the massive assault on Israel this month.
Quote:Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian arrived in New York on Thursday to attend a session of the U.N. General Assembly.
Amirabdollahian praised the terrorists of Hamas as a lawful and legitimate “resistance group” to reporters and delivered a belligerent speech to the U.N., threatening dire consequences for the United States and Israel if the Israelis continue their assault on Hamas in Gaza.
Before leaving for New York, Amirabdollahian saluted the Hamas terrorists and proclaimed, “Resistance in the region is a reality.”
Amirabdollahian accused Israel of “retreating from the battlefield and targeting civilians,” as if Hamas had challenged the Israelis to a joust rather than launching a horrific surprise attack against innocent women and children.
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Amirabdollahian told reporters outside U.N. headquarters that Hamas has the right under “international law” to perpetrate whatever atrocities it desires because it is a “liberation movement” whose territory has been “occupied” by Israel.
Quote:Another attempt by the United Nations Security Council to address the October 7 Hamas massacre of over 1,400 people in Israel failed on Wednesday as permanent members China and Russia vetoed an American-drafted resolution, supported by most Council members, that would have condemned the jihadist terrorist group.
The American draft resolution’s failure preceded a vote on a draft resolution by Russia – the second introduced by the Hamas-friendly government of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin – calling for a “ceasefire” preventing Israel from taking measures to protect its citizens from another Hamas slaughter. That resolution failed decisively, garnering only four votes.
The Security Council has not addressed the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups since 2016 and has done nothing to act in the face of the Hamas mass murder nearly 20 days ago, remaining in a state that Brazil’s representative to the body lamented as “paralysis” following the first few failed votes on prospective resolutions. Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on that day for a terrorist onslaught it named the “al-Aqsa flood,” in which terrorists went door-to-door killing, raping, torturing, and abducting entire families.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Robert Card, the shooting suspect in Wednesday’s attacks that left 18 dead in Lewiston, Maine, was found dead of a reported self-inflicted gunshot Friday night.
During a Friday night press conference, officials in Maine revealed the body of Robert Card was discovered in a recycling yard in Lisbon, Maine. His body was still in the same clothing that Card was pictured wearing in the photographs police released Wednesday night.
Gov. Janet Mills (D) spoke at the press conference, saying, “The Maine State Police located the body of Robert Card, he is dead.”
She added, “I’m breathing a sigh of relief knowing that Card is no longer a threat to anyone.”
Details on Card’s death are scant, but WCVB indicated the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office announced, “The suspect in Wednesday night’s shootings has been located and is deceased.”
A manhunt for Card has been underway since late Wednesday night. The manhunt involved various police departments from Maine, departments from other states, the FBI, and other federal agencies.
Breitbart News noted that Card used a .308 sniper rifle that was “legally” purchased.
Quote:On Thursday, in response to the Maine shootings, President Joe Biden pushed for a repeal of protections that protect gun makers from frivolous lawsuits, universal background checks, and other gun controls.
WhiteHouse.gov published Biden’s statement, which opened with him saying, “Today, Jill and I are praying for the Americans who’ve lost their lives, for those still in critical care, and for the families, survivors, and community members enduring shock and grief.”
He then urged residents in Maine’s Lewiston area to heed all law enforcement’s warnings, including alerts to shelter-in-place.
Biden eventually transitioned to the summer 2022 passage of the gun control he passed with Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-TX) help, noting, as always, that gun control is not enough.
...
For example, on March 1, 2022, Breitbart News noted Biden was claiming gun manufacturers are shielded from “liability” and cannot be sued.
In reality, gun manufacturers are not shielded from liability. Rather, they are protected from frivolous lawsuits over the criminal use of guns that are legally made and legally sold.
Quote:The man suspected of fatally shooting Maryland Judge Andrew Wilkinson over a child custody decision was found dead Thursday morning following a weeklong manhunt.
Pedro Argote, 49, had been sought after by law enforcement since the October 19 slaying of Washington county circuit court Judge Wilkinson, who had ruled in favor of Argote’s estranged wife in a child custody dispute just hours earlier. Police believe that Wilkinson’s decision to give the mother full custody of their four children and to ban Argote from any contact besides a $1,120 monthly child support payment motivated Argote to go to his home and shoot him dead, NBC News reported.
Wilkinson, 52, was found dead in his driveway. Argote was on the run until he was found at 11 a.m. Thursday, when a search in Williamsport led to the discovery of his body.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said Argote was found deceased in a heavily wooded area about one mile away from where his vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz SUV, was found Saturday.
Quote:During an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that the rise in Treasury yields that increases the cost of the U.S. government borrowing money isn’t largely connected to the deficit...
Yellen responded, “I don’t think much of it is connected to that. This is a global phenomenon in advanced countries. We are seeing yields go up in most advanced countries of the world. And, largely, I think it’s a reflection of the resilience that people are seeing in the U.S. economy that we’re not having a recession, that consumer spending and demand continue to be strong, the economy is continuing to show tremendous robustness. And that suggests that interest rates are likely to stay higher for longer. And so, part of the increase in yields, I think, is simply a reflection of the strength of the economy, the notion that interest rates will be higher for longer. Now, whether or not that’s really true if we look out five or ten years what are interest rates likely to do, honestly, for a very long time we have felt that interest rates over decades had been coming down — real interest rates — and that there were deep structural reasons for that, in part relating to demographics. And those underlying trends, they’re still there, they’re still in force. So, I think it’s perfectly possible that we will see longer-term yields come down, but nobody really knows for sure. But I see the higher yields as, certainly, importantly, a reflection of a stronger economy.”
Quote:Fox News on Friday quoted some grumblings that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is undermining President Joe Biden’s China policy, and perhaps even running his own “shadow campaign” for the presidency, by meeting with dictator Xi Jinping and other Chinese Communist officials during his trip to Beijing.
“The track record is not good for him to be gallivanting around the world doing basically a shadow campaign for president, just waiting for the moment when they finally decide to throw Biden under the bus,” said Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA).
LaMalfa compared Newsom to the “backup quarterback” at a football game and suggested the governor would better serve his constituents by attending to the many problems in his state.
LaMalfa was especially critical of Newsom for spending time talking about “climate change” with the mandarins of China — the world’s worst polluter — instead of addressing issues of immediate concern to Californians, such as soaring taxes, business flight, and deteriorating infrastructure.
Quote:Kirby answered, “Good, constructive conversation today between our national security adviser and Director Wang, and lots on the agenda. Absolutely, the situation in the Middle East was on the agenda. I don’t want to get into revealing the diplomacy here. But we know that China also can have a dialogue with certain actors in the region that we may not be able to or may not be able to do as effectively as, perhaps, they can. They’re going to be president at the U.N. Security Council next month, and, certainly, we’ll look to see what kind of actions and what kind of leadership they try to show in trying to help the international community continue to support Israel. We’ll see where it goes. And, as for the meeting with President Xi, nothing to announce today, but, as you know, President Biden has made it clear that he wants to meet with President Xi. He fully expects to meet with President Xi in the future. We’re working towards that goal. We’re working towards that goal as aggressively as we can.”
Quote:Didier Rykner, French historian and journalist who is editor of La Tribune de l’art and whose report on the near total loss of the cathedral of Notre Dame in 2019 was published this month has spoken out on the continuing danger to such world-class heritage buildings. Leveling his criticism at the French government this week, he warns governments are more dedicated to imposing new ecological standards on ancient structures than protecting them from being consumed by fire during renovation work.
Speaking to Le Journal du Dimanche about his concerns and what he discovered in the course of writing his report, Rykner said the devastating Notre Dame fire could have been avoided, and the government had already been warned about insufficient fire protection at the site shortly before the blaze. These warnings, he claims, were ignored.
He told Le Journal that France’s former culture minister Audrey Azoulay — who is now the Director-General of U.N. heritage protection body UNESCO — “closed down” a study warning how vulnerable Notre Dame was to fire in 2016. No further action was taken at the time despite the fire warning, he said.
Rykner said of the lack of preparedness that even now nobody knows how or where the fire started because observation of the great cathedral during a time of heightened danger — while reconstruction work was underway — was so lacking. He told the paper: “we do not know where the fire started, because there are not enough personnel to monitor the cathedral. I actually think that we have not given ourselves the means to avoid it”.
First their target was the Brandenburger Tor and now it is the Glass Pyramid of the Louvre!
Quote:Internet and phone services collapsed in the Gaza Strip under intensified bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from the outside world and each other, as Israel’s military said it was “expanding” its ground operations in the besieged territory.
The military’s announcement signaled it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza, where it has vowed to crush the ruling Hamas group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago
Frequent explosions from airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City after nightfall Friday, when the black-out in internet, cellular and landline services hit. The Red Crescent said it lost all contact with its operations room and medical teams. It said it feared people would no longer be able to contact ambulance services. Other aid groups said they were unable to reach staff on the ground.
The Palestine Telecommunications Company, Paltel, announced “a complete disruption of all communication and internet services” due to bombardment.
Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said ground forces were “expanding their activity” in Gaza and that it “is acting with great force … to achieve the objectives of the war.”
You might think it's barbaric in modern times, but the truth is that they had no choice. Thanks to news media like the New York Times publishing the location of Israeli forces, they can't let them gather any intel from liberal media and all kind of spies around the world.
Quote:Iran-controlled Shiite militias in Iraq on Thursday claimed responsibility for rocket and drone attacks on two bases housing U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq.
The militias claimed their strikes on bases in Rojava and Erbil hit their intended targets “directly.” The Pentagon confirmed the attack on Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, but said it caused “no casualties” and only “some minor damage to infrastructure.”
The claims of responsibility were made on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram by the umbrella group for Iran’s Shiite militia proxies, the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” (IRI).
IRI claimed it hit the Abu Hajar airport, located near the city of Rmelan in Syria’s Rojava province, with a “barrage of rockets.”
Rmelan is located near Syria’s border with Iraq. The Pentagon did not immediately confirm the attack, but a Lebanese news network affiliated with the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization reported rockets hitting the airport on Wednesday night.
Quote:Li Keqiang, the former premier of China, is reported to have died “suddenly” on Thursday less than a year after stepping down from his post as the country’s second-highest-ranking leader. He was 68.
A heart attack has been blamed for the death of the English-speaking economist who had once been considered a contender for the country’s top job, but was passed over in favour of Xi Jinping and then sidelined.
He was the only incumbent top official who didn’t belong to Xi’s loyalists group, the BBC reports.
State media said he died at 10 minutes past midnight on Friday despite “all-out” efforts to revive him.
His death is reportedly being widely mourned on Chinese social media, with many expressing shock and grief – though comments on many posts appear to have been restricted.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Comedic actor Matthew Perry, forever immortalized as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s sitcom Friends, has died at the age of 54.
According to TMZ, Los Angeles authorities say Perry “was found in a jacuzzi” inside “an L.A.-area home” — without specifying whether it was Perry’s home or someone else’s. The outlet’s anonymous sources say the actor appears to have drowned.
“Our sources say first-responders rushed over on a call for cardiac arrest,” the report continues. “We’re told there were no drugs found at the scene. We’re also told there is no foul play involved.”
Perry’s 10 seasons on “Friends” made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York.
As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. During the show’s hijinks, he could be counted on to chime in with a line like “Could this BE any more awkward?” or another well-timed quip.
Quote:The Texas House of Representatives passed House Bill 4 early Thursday morning by a vote of 84-60. The bill creates a criminal offense of “illegal entry into or illegal presence in this state by a person who is an alien.”
The bill, if passed by the Texas Senate and signed by Governor Greg Abbott would make the act of attempting to enter the state from a foreign country at a place other than a legal port of entry a Class B misdemeanor. The offense would be punishable by up to six months in jail. A subsequent offense would be classified as a State Jail Felony.
The bill provides a law enforcement officer with an alternative to arrest. The officer may transport the migrant to a port of entry and order the migrant to “return to the foreign nation.” Failure to comply with the officer’s order would constitute a separate offense. This offense is classified as a 2nd Degree Felony.
House Bill 4 will be passed on to the Texas Senate for consideration.
Quote:Adeyemo responded, “The most important thing we can do is to work closely with the financial institutions who are transacting money that goes to many of these charities, to make sure that they are allowing for legitimate transactions that allow humanitarian assistance to flow to Gaza and to flow to the Palestinian people, while making sure that the organization that Hamas has set up to try and divert those flows [does] not get access to that financing. That’s why I’m here in the U.K. today, because we want to make sure that countries around the world, including in Europe, take similar actions to help ensure that Hamas doesn’t get access to funding, but that the Palestinian people get access to the humanitarian aid they need, as well as humanitarian financing.”
Quote:Adeyemo answered, “It’s important to recognize that, over the course of this year, we’ve put in place more than 300 sanctions against Iran, including petrochemical sanctions. We’re going to continue to use our sanctions authorities to go after Iran’s destabilizing activity in the region, including the actions that we took today.”
...
Adeyemo responded, “So, we’re going to continue to take the actions that we’ve taken over the course of this year to hold Iran accountable for the actions they’re taking to destabilize the region. I’m not going to preview sanction actions. But what you’ve seen to date is that we’ve been willing to go after the actions that Iran is taking to destabilize the region, and today’s actions against Hamas include connections to Iran. And what I can tell you, Phil, is that we’re going to continue to take actions to make sure that Hamas no longer has access to the financing it needs to pay its fighters and to destabilize the region and to take the actions that it’s taken in Israel.”
Quote:Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian threatened further attacks against the United States and its interests at the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York on Thursday.
Iran is already launching rocket and drone attacks against bases housing American personnel in Iraq and Syria, using Shiite militia groups controlled by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). U.S. forces have been able to intercept most of these attacks, but dozens of minor injuries have been reported.
“I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire,” Amirabdollahian told the U.N. General Assembly.
The Iranian foreign minister was referring to Israel’s carefully targeted bombing campaign against Hamas terrorists hiding behind human shields in Gaza, an operation that does not meet any legal or common-sense definition of “genocide.”
...
Amirabdollahian nevertheless insisted on accusing Israel of “war crimes and genocide” at the United Nations, and he referred to Israel as an “occupying regime” even though it withdrew from Gaza in 2005, leaving it entirely at the mercy of the murderous government Iran supports.
The Iranian foreign minister turned reality on its head by claiming Hamas is a lawful “liberation” movement, even after it raped, murdered, tortured, and kidnapped more than 1,400 Israeli civilians in a hideous surprise attack on October 7.
Quote:On Wednesday, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office announced the sentences against Christian Josué Galván Hernández and Santiago Betancourt Mora. Both men are currently being held in a high-security federal facility in Durango. A federal judge based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, handed down the sentences against the two cartel members.
In the case of Galvan Hernandez, he had been tied to 66 kidnappings and several weapons charges. In comparison, Betancourt Mora was directly tied to 9 kidnappings, as well as various weapons and drug charges.
According to federal prosecutors, Mexican federal police officers arrested the two men in September 2013 while patrolling the city. The officers spotted the two gunmen going into a house. Authorities raided the house and found several kidnapping victims inside. Inside the house, authorities also found several weapons and packages of marijuana.
As Breitbart Texas reported, Reynosa is considered the bastion of the Metros faction of the Gulf Cartel. Historically, the criminal organization has been able to operate with much impunity. The cartel focuses on drug and human smuggling and the widespread use of extortion and kidnappings to diversify their income.
Since late April, the Metros have been at war with a rival faction from Matamoros called Escorpiones.
Quote:El Salvador imposed a $1,000 airport tariff fee on travelers from India and Africa this week in an effort to curb the use of the Central American nation as a bridge destination for nationals from those areas seeking to illegally migrate to the United States.
The number of cases of U.S.-bound migrants landing in El Salvador’s airports to eventually arrive in Nicaragua and travel to America has increased significantly in the past year, Manuel Orozco, the director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, said. The communist Daniel Ortega regime in Nicaragua is not only profiting from the United States’ migrant crisis, but reportedly trying to use migrants as a “weapon” against the United States and leverage for potential sanctions relief.
Proceeds from the new fee, which went into effect on Monday, will be used to improve and modernize the nation’s main international airport, according to the The Autonomous Port Executive Committee (CEPA), the nation’s port, airport, and railroad authority.
CEPA informed on its website that it has registered an increase in the number of inbound, outbound, and connecting Indian and African passengers at the airport compared to previous years.
“El Salvador, due to its strategic position, is a HUB for one of the most important airlines in the region, with direct connections to more than 30 destinations in 14 countries,” CEPA’s statement reads.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said on this week’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday” that President Joe Biden’s administration needed to enforce the sanctions on Iranian oil.
McCaul said, “This is really started by Iran, really by their proxies. Hamas is a proxy of Iran. Hezbollah has a 100,000 rockets that can fire in and overload the Iron Dome. Meanwhile, they’ve been also the militia groups in Iraq and Syria, heavy hitting our troops in Iraq and Syria. Finally, the administration is responding to this. Also they put aircraft carrier strike groups in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf for deterrence, to ensure that this does not escalate but that’s our biggest concern.”
He continued, “I think you know the sanctions. We have not enforce sanctions on Iranian oil and so we’ve had about 30 to 60 billion dollars they made money off of by invading our sanctions. That goes straight into funding of terrorist organizations like Hamas like Hezbollah.”
Quote:Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 150,000 migrants who illegally crossed between ports of entry during the past three months. This includes more than 47,000 who crossed during the first four weeks of the new fiscal year.
Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin tweeted a report on October 27 detaining activities for his sector during the fourth week of the new fiscal year. During that week, his agents apprehended approximately 11,000 migrants. In addition, the agents carried out 66 migrant rescues and seized more than 50 pounds of drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine.
One week earlier, Modlin reported the apprehension of approximately 10,000 migrants and carried out 50 rescues.
During the first two weeks of October, Tucson Sector agents averaged about 13,000 migrants per week.
This brings the total number of migrant apprehensions so far in August to approximately 47,000.
Quote:A senior advisor to Los Angeles City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez (D), has resigned after cracking Holocaust-themed jokes about comedian Amy Schumer on social media.
Josh Androsky — who is not only a Democrat but also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America — targeted Amy Schumer for mockery on social media for her pro-Israel, anti-Hamas comments in recent days.
In his X posts, Androsky replied to an anonymous commenter who joked that the comedian was distraught over Hamas’ slaughter of Israelis “due to her experience in the Holocaust,” adding that the Nazis named a concentration camp after her –“Da Cow,” a pun on Dachau.
Androsky replied that “it was actually Cowschwitz,” later adding: “either way, they all (and Amy) smelled the same.”
These remarks elicited condemnation from his employer Soto-Martinez, who is also a DSA member, as well as L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (D).
“The social media posts made by my staffer (earlier) were disturbing and reprehensible. With antisemitism on the rise in recent years, and especially in recent weeks, cracking jokes about the Holocaust isn’t just disgusting, it’s dangerous,” Soto-Martinez said in statement obtained by multiple news outlets.
Quote:The bodies of five men were recovered on Saturday morning on the beach of Marinella di Selinunte, near Trapani, while 35 other men survived the shipwreck and were identified after reaching small towns nearby, the Coast Guard said.
“According to survivors’ accounts the boat departed from Tunisia on Thursday night with about 60 people onboard,” said Captain Daniele Governale, of the Palermo Coast Guard team that is coordinating search and rescue activities.
“That would leave about 20 people missing. But considering that wide searches at sea, also conducted by divers, for now gave no results, we have good hopes that some of them have survived and landed,” Governale added.
The flux of people arriving on Italy’s shores on small unseaworthy boats departing from North African countries has surged in recent months.
Quote:Police in North Macedonia said Saturday they found 77 migrants in the country’s south and arrested seven Pakistanis suspected of human trafficking.
Police said in a statement the arrests took place late Thursday near the southern town of Negorci when they responded to reports of a large group of people on the move.
The 77 included 52 Syrians, 13 Pakistanis, five Iraqis, five Turks and two Indians.
Seven of the Pakistanis, believed to be the organizers of the group’s illegal entry into North Macedonia from neighboring Greece, were arrested and criminal charges were filed against them.
It was the first large group of migrants crossing into North Macedonia in recent months.
The migrants were being sheltered in a reception center in the border town of Gevgelija pending deportation back to Greece.
According to the police, a total of 5,280 attempts at illegal crossing were prevented in the first six months of 2023, the vast majority of them at the southern border with Greece.
Quote:An airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan was stormed on Sunday by an angry mob waving Palestinian flags in search of “Jewish refugees” amid rumours of a plane arriving from Israel.
Hoards of young men ... waving Palestinian flags rampaged through the airport in Makhachkala, the capital city of the heavily Muslim Dagestan.
The Islamic locals reportedly sought to hunt down Jews arriving in the Russian-controlled republic after rumours emerged online of refugees from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv landing at the airport, Russian state media RT reported.
According to the Times of Israel, a flight from Israel was diverted due to the riots and landed at a different airport, but still faced some riots there as well.
Footage on social media and reported on by the Russian media outlet Lenta purportedly showed the mob even breaking onto the runway where they went plane by plane, checking passports and asking if passengers were Jewish.
In one incident, a young man was surrounded by Dagestanis who took his passport and shouted at him: “You are a Jew!”. The man explained, however, that he was not Jewish but rather a traveller from Uzbekistan.
Quote:Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of damaging a nuclear waste storage facility in a drone strike on the Kursk nuclear power plant while fighting raged on for the control of the key eastern city of Avdiivika, where Russians apparently suffered heavy losses.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that three drones armed with explosives targeted the power plant on Thursday evening. 26, hitting both the station’s administration building and a warehouse storing nuclear waste.
The press service for the Kursk nuclear power plant confirmed the strike on Friday, but told journalists that there had been no significant damage or casualties and that operations were continuing as normal.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that the country’s air defences shot down six Ukrainian drones in the early hours of Saturday, including four in the western Oryol region, and two more over the Tula region, south of Moscow.
Ukraine’s air force reported four Iskander cruise missiles over the country’s Dnipropetrovsk region Saturday night, three of which were destroyed.
Quote:Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová has called for her country to leave the United Nations in response to the international body’s failure to condemn Hamas terrorists for the slaughter of civilians in Israel on the October 7th attacks.
This week, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to demand a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas as Jerusalem was preparing for its invasion of Gaza to root out the Islamist terror organisation responsible for the brutal butchering of over 1,400 people in Israel earlier this month.
Just 14 nations opposed the measure, including Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tonga and the United States.
Meanwhile, multiple attempts from the United States and others to pass a resolution to condemn the Hamas attacks were thwarted at the U.N. by China and Russia, who used their veto power as permanent members of the Security Council to block the condemnation of the terrorist group.
Responding to the apparent anti-Israel bias at the U.N. on Saturday, Czech Defence Minister Jana Černochová said: “In my opinion, the Czech Republic has no place in an organisation that cheers on terrorists and does not respect the fundamental right to self-defence,” declaring: “Let’s get out.”
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:According to a source within CBP, the influx of Special Interest Migrants across the U.S./Mexico border continues early in the NEW fiscal year as nearly 100 Syrian and 50 Iranian nationals have been apprehended by the Border Patrol since the beginning of October. The source says the influx of Syrian and Iranian Special Interest Migrants is concerning, considering the turmoil unfolding in the Middle East.
The Syrian and Iranian migrants were apprehended in multiple sectors across the southwest border during October. The latest arrest of an Iranian national by the Border Patrol occurred near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Saturday. The Iranian national was discovered within a single group of more than 300 that crossed into the small border city. A debrief of the Iranian migrant is pending as of press time, according to the source.
The source says the continued encounter of Syrian and Iranian nationals is more concerning considering the recent U.S. air strikes against Iran-linked sites in Syria in response to drone and missile attacks on U.S. military bases in the region. According to the source, the arrivals of Special Interest Migrants at the southwest border are appearing with little to no advance intelligence warning.
“We are receiving no advance warning of the arrival of Special Interest Migrants from the region with any specificity,” the source explained. “We are left to sort through the grab-bag of migrants in small and large groups to figure out who is in the group and why they are coming.”
Eleven Special Interest Migrants from Middle Eastern countries were apprehended in just one sector of the border patrol in one week alone.
Quote:Thousands of “special interest aliens,” classified as such due to the national security risks they pose because of their ties to terrorism-linked countries, have been released into American communities after scheduling appointments at the United States-Mexico border, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data revealed.
Since the start of the year, Biden’s DHS has used the “CBP One” mobile app to allow tens of thousands of foreign nationals in Mexico to schedule appointments at the southern border for release into the U.S. interior every month.
...
“New records released to the Center for Immigration Studies last week as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit reveal that the Biden administration has been authorizing thousands of [special interest aliens] for escorted entries through land ports along the border since at least May 2021, using ‘CBP One’ online interfaces such as a mobile phone app,” CIS’s Todd Bensman reported:
Using this program, the administration has authorized the paroles into the country of some 7,332 [special interest aliens] from 24 of the roughly 35-40 U.S.-designated countries, including smatterings from Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but the largest numbers coming from Muslim-majority former Soviet republics in Central Asia such as the Kyrgyz Republic, also known as Kyrgyzstan, (3,852) and Uzbekistan (1,843).
These government-sanctioned [special interest alien] entries are very different from the surprise illegal border crossings of [special interest aliens] with which homeland security officials traditionally have had to contend in that these ones are pre-approved before their escorted port of entry crossings, their names and biometrics ostensibly having been run through criminal database checks (though such checks have been panned as grossly inadequate).
Quote:15 people were shot during one incident alone, Sunday morning around 1 a.m. The shooting occurred after a fight broke out at a Halloween celebration and a man who was denied entry went to his car, retrieved a gun, and opened fire.
ABC 7 noted the wounded consisted of six women and nine men. The Chicago Sun-Times pointed out two of the victims–a 26-year-old woman and a 48-year-old man–are in critical condition.
The other 13 victims are in good condition.
ABC 7 / Chicago Sun-Times pointed out the total number of shooting victims for the weekend reached at least 34 by time Sunday was over, and three of those shooting victims died.
Here's a very moronic followup on what happened previously on a Russian airport this past weekend. Don't ever say I didn't warn you about it.
Quote:In deeply embarrassing events for Moscow which unfolded at the Makhachkala airport in the Russian-controlled republic of Dagestan on Sunday evening, hoards of mostly young men chanting “Allahu Akbar” ransacked the airport in a desperate search to prevent Jewish people from entering the country. Not only did the mob clash with Russian riot police and damage the infrastructure of the building, but also broke onto the tarmac and went plane by plane demanding passengers present their passports to prove they were not from Israel.
Moscow has sought to lay the blame on Ukraine, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said according to Russian state-owned press agency RIA Novosti: “It is well known and obvious that yesterday’s event around the Makhachkala airport is largely the result of outside interference, including information influence from outside.”
State-owned media outlet RT went on to claim that the Muslim mob was provoked by “online rumours” spread by Ukraine. A report from the Russian government broadcaster claimed that a Telegram channel “Dagestan Morning”, was instrumental in organising the action at the airport while alleging that the channel was tied to Kyiv.
Quote:Russian shells struck residential areas of Ukraine´s southern Kherson region, killing a 91-year-old woman in what a local official described Monday as a “terrifying night” in the 20-month war that shows no signs of ending.
The overnight shelling set fire to a high-rise apartment building, blew out windows and reduced some apartments to rubble, according to video footage posted by Kherson Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.
The woman died when an apartment wall fell on her, according to her daughter, who lived with her on the ninth floor.
The victim was one of three Ukrainian civilians killed in the east and south of the country over the previous 24 hours, with at least five people injured, Ukraine´s presidential office reported Monday.
Apart from reportedly fierce fighting at some points along the front line, which Ukrainian officials say stretches for more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), the conflict appears largely deadlocked and focused on long-range fire.
Quote:The Chinese Communist Party, through its state media arms and Foreign Ministry, is demanding leftist President Joe Biden abandon support for the nation of Taiwan and lift restrictions on Chinese technology imports as a precursor to an expected meeting between Biden and dictator Xi Jinping in November.
Biden met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday to discuss, according to the White House, the “need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly” and “work[ing] together to address global challenges.” Multiple reports indicate that Biden used the opportunity to extend an invitation to Xi Jinping to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November, scheduled to take place in San Francisco, California.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry told reporters on Monday that Wang discussed an “upcoming meeting in San Francisco” between Xi and Biden, but emphasized that there was no guarantee that Xi would show up.
“I want to stress that it won’t be plain sailing to San Francisco, nor can we leave it to autopilot to get us there,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said. “Both sides need to earnestly return to what was agreed in Bali, act on the common understandings of the two Presidents, rise above disruptions, overcome obstacles, expand common understandings and accumulate outcomes.”
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:CENTCOM was not forthcoming in its press release or in response to questions from the Washington Examiner about which aspects of Vargas-Andrews’s description of events at Abbey Gate it is looking to corroborate. Vargas-Andrews’s written testimony offers multiple new points of information for CENTCOM to pursue.
First was Vargas-Andrews’s allegation that, from his sniper team’s tower, he saw a man in the crowd who “fit the description exactly” of the Islamic State suicide bomber that intelligence assets said would be in the vicinity of Abbey Gate. Though he says people from psychological operations “confirmed the subject met the suicide bomber description,” there was confusion in his chain of command as to whether Marines could engage the target.
In a shorter but no less important observation, Vargas-Andrews also said that U.S. forces “immediately ... started taking fire from the neighborhood” in the aftermath of the suicide bombing. This is in direct contradiction to the previous assessment that the bombing emanated from “a single person-borne explosive device with no associated enemy small arms fire.”
CENTCOM did tell the Washington Examiner that interviewees include 16 U.S. Marines, two U.S. Army personnel, and one member of the U.S. Navy who were medically evacuated in the aftermath of the Abbey Gate bombing. Given that all of these people could not have fit in the tower from which Vargas-Andrews witnessed the suicide bomber, it is likely that CENTCOM is looking to corroborate details about the possibility that the bombing was part of a complex attack involving multiple ISIS fighters.
The Washington Examiner spoke with people who witnessed the bombing but whose insights have not been sought by CENTCOM. Their reports are based upon the specific sound and appearance of 7.62-millimeter ballistic rounds used in AK-47 rifles often wielded by Taliban or ISIS fighters compared with the appearance of and sound made by 5.56-millimeter ammunition used in American weapons.
Hospital corpsman first class Kyle Tillman told the Washington Examiner that he treated an Afghan woman during the mass casualty event who “had a 7.62 round lodged in her left forearm.”
Joe Laude, who served with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in Kabul, told the Washington Examiner that he “heard rounds go off immediately after” the bombing. Laude believes “it was a case of AK-47 [fire],” adding that it “sounded like 7.62 coming in.” Laude said the incident “resembled a complex attack.”
Well, I guess it would be reasonable to conclude that some Taliban or some other Middle Eastern rebel was firing his AK-47 in that area the very same day that bomb exploded in the Afghan airport.
Now the question here is why didn't CENTCOM ask their personnel about these secondary events apparently related to the suicide bombing? Are they truly searching for the truth? Or is it possible that they have political motives not to pursue a full fledged investigation of all the testimonies and evidence found there?
Quote:Dr. Henrilynn Ibezim has been charged with telling campaign workers to complete hundreds of fake voter registration applications and mail them to election officials in Union County and allegedly bringing a large white garbage bag stuffed with almost 954 voter registration forms to the post office.
Ibezim was challenging Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp in the 2021 Democratic primary.
“Attempting to tamper with an election result through fraud impairs the ability of legitimate voters to choose their representatives, a cornerstone of American democracy,” said Attorney General Matt Platkin. “It also undermines the legitimacy of government and the public’s confidence in their elected officials and in elections generally. My office will vigorously pursue these crimes to protect New Jersey’s electorate from being defrauded and to safeguard the integrity of our institutions.”
Prosecutors claim Ibezim showed up at the Elizabeth Post Office with voter registration forms that had the same handwriting.
He is charged with election fraud, criminal attempt to commit false registration or transfer, tampering with public records, falsifying public records, forgery, and hindering apprehension or prosecution.
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Ibezim finished fourth in the primary with just 103 votes. Mapp defeated Richard Wyatt, Jr. by 269 votes, a five-point margin.
Now we know why he badly needed those fake voter registration forms.
By the way, don't even think this is some sort of political persecution for the Attorney General Platkin is a Democrat, as you can read it here.
Quote:The Department of Education said one of its student loan servicing companies in Missouri had failed to send out timely repayment notices to 2.5 million borrowers, leading hundreds of thousands of borrowers to miss their payment deadline.
Education officials said on Monday that the errors were made by the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, which had only given some borrowers a one-week notice ahead of the deadline. Servicers are generally required to send out the payment notices at least 21 days before the payments are due.
As a result of the error, nearly 800,000 borrowers became "delinquent" on their student loans.
The administration said it had withheld $7.2 million in payment to MOHELA for October and directed the loan servicer to place all affected borrowers in forbearance until the problem is resolved.
"The Biden-Harris Administration is looking out for borrowers at every step throughout their return to repayment. Our oversight efforts have uncovered errors from loan servicers that will not be tolerated," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
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The department said it has also identified a small number of borrowers who received incorrect payment amounts on their billing statements from several loan servicers and other borrowers who have pending Borrower Defense claims that were incorrectly placed back in repayment status. These borrowers were also placed in forbearance.
The errors come after the department announced just over 300,000 borrowers had been billed an incorrect amount earlier this month after they applied for President Joe Biden’s new income-driven repayment plan.
Quote:Two groups in the largest Democratic-tied dark money network in the United States are parting ways with a "progressive" charity in Arizona revealed through a Washington Examiner investigation to share Palestinian terror ties.
New Venture Fund and Windward Fund, two charities managed by the liberal consultancy Arabella Advisors, steered $473,000 between 2020 and 2021 to Alliance for Global Justice, according to tax forms. However, the funds are announcing they will not be handing grants anymore to the Arizona nonprofit group, which four payment processors have dropped this year over its links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group.
"We condemn terrorism and violence against civilians in all forms and do not support any projects or provide any grants to organizations that fund terrorism," New Venture Fund President Lee Bodner told the Washington Examiner. "New Venture Fund is discontinuing grants to any projects hosted by Alliance for Global Justice."
Windward Fund President Lynn McNair told the New York Post the charity "is no longer providing grants to organizations that are sponsored by Alliance for Global Justice."
"Our organization does not support terrorism in any form and strongly denounce any violence against civilians," McNair said.
Quote:The Biden administration was ordered to stop cutting state-installed razor wire at Texas's border with Mexico.
Judge Alia Moses of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas ordered the Department of Homeland Security to cease "disassembling, degrading, [or] tampering" a razor wire barrier erected by the state of Texas along its border with Mexico. The lawsuit was brought forward last week by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who asked for an immediate injunction after DHS destroyed much of the barrier with a variety of means in order to allow illegal immigrants through.
Abbott contended the destruction of the wire had accelerated since Sept. 20, as shown by "pictures, video, and declarations from various officials associated with the Plaintiff" that "detail specific instances when the federal government allegedly damaged the Plaintiff’s property and consequently allowed migrants to enter."
"The Plaintiff raises numerous claims against the Defendants, including common law conversion, common law trespass to chattels, and Administrative Procedure Act violations," the judge's ruling read.
Quote:The Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued a warning to consumers to not purchase or immediately discontinue use of 26 over-the-counter eye drops due to possible risk of eye infections, potentially leading to partial vision loss or blindness.
FDA investigators found unsanitary conditions at the manufacturing plant shared by the various generic eye drop brands, including bacteria in "critical drug production areas in the facility."
The products under emergency recall are marketed as CVS, Rite Aid, Target Up&Up generic products, as well as those under the Leader, Rugby, and Velocity Pharma brands.
Agency regulators said in their advisory that they urged the brands to remove their products as early as Wednesday, and that CVS, Rite Aid, and Target had already begun complying.
Eye drops and other ophthalmic products "pose a potential heightened risk of harm to users because drugs applied to the eyes bypass some of the body's natural defenses," according to the FDA statement.
Quote:Chinese Premier Li Qiang touted the “comprehensive strategic partnership” between China and Iran on the sidelines of a diplomatic summit, despite Iran’s patronage of the Hamas terrorists who sparked a devastating conflict with Israel.
“China is ready to work with Iran to … enrich the connotation of the China-Iran comprehensive strategic partnership and bring more benefits to the two peoples,” Li told Iranian Vice President Mohammad Mokhber during a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan.
Li offered that salute in the first known public meeting between senior officials of the two regimes, according to the South China Morning Post. Their encounter, which ran parallel to Russia’s decision to host Hamas and a different senior Iranian official for meetings in Moscow, demonstrated Beijing’s apparent attempt to use Israel’s war with Hamas as an opportunity to expand ties with Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East — from Iran to U.S. allies such as the Gulf Arab states.
“The catastrophic fallout of the abrupt escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli situation recently is heart-wrenching,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Thursday, after a meeting of the China-Arab Civilization Dialogue in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday. “China’s policy and position on the Palestinian question was highly recognized by the Arab delegates at the dialogue. Exchanges between civilizations are an important means enabling human beings to rise above differences and achieve harmonious coexistence.”
Achieving harmonious coexistence they say!? Then why don't they ask Hamas to stop launching rockets at Israeli locations packed with civilians?
Usually, a large portion of those rockets misfire and fall down right on top of their fellow Palestinians or Arabs, just as it happened that terrible day where people in the local hospital's parking lot lost their lives due to a relatively small explosion. Thus, it makes me wonder how can they treat Hamas and anybody tied to it as friends or even as serious business partners at all.
Quote:Japan's State Minister of Justice has resigned after taking responsibility for proposing the use of paid online ads for campaigning by a mayoral candidate in Tokyo.
Kakizawa Mito tendered his resignation on Tuesday morning. The use of paid Internet ads for campaigning violates the public offices election law.
Tokyo prosecutors have searched the office of Koto Ward Mayor Kimura Yayoi in connection with the case. Her camp had posted the paid ad on a video-sharing site, calling on viewers to vote for her in the mayoral election held in April.
Justice Minister Koizumi Ryuji told reporters that he talked with Kakizawa by phone.
He quoted Kakizawa as saying that he had not been aware of the illegality of his proposal but is deeply remorseful. Koizumi said he told Kakizawa to hold himself fully accountable as a politician.
Kakizawa is a Lower House member elected from a district in Tokyo that covers Koto Ward. The 52-year-old was appointed State Minister of Justice in a Cabinet reshuffle in September.
Quote:The Japanese government has decided to impose sanctions on members of the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas.
It approved the sanctions at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Japan has condemned the group's assaults and its abduction of civilians in Israel as terrorist attacks that can never be tolerated.
The sanctions are intended to make Japan's position clear. They are also aimed at cutting off the group's revenue sources.
Assets of nine Hamas individuals involved in managing the group's finances, as well as a Gaza-based cryptocurrency exchange used for money transfers, will be frozen.
The United States has already announced that it is imposing similar sanctions.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
Quote:the Yemeni Shiite jihadist terror organization known more commonly as the Houthis, took responsibility on Monday for a “large number of ballistic and cruise missiles” as well as drone attacks against the nation of Israel.
The Iranian state outlet Mehr News reported that a spokesman for the Houthis formally “declare[d] war” on the nation of Israel in support of the Sunni genocidal terrorist organization Hamas.
The Houthis are an Iran-backed terrorist organization that seized control of the capital of Yemen, Sana’a, in 2014 and ousted legitimate President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, triggering a civil war that remains ongoing, albeit in a ceasefire state, at press time ... death to the United States, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory for Islam.” Despite Ansar Allah’s direct ties to the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, Iran, and its stated goal of destroying America, the administration of leftist President Joe Biden removed the Houthis from the official U.S. government list of foreign terrorist organizations as one of his first acts in office in February 2021.
The formal declaration from the Houthis that they had begun a terror assault targeting Israel followed a report published in Bloomberg revealing that the Houthis had also started attacking Saudi Arabia directly again despite the ongoing truce, reportedly killing four Saudi soldiers.
Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Muslim state — a longtime rival of Houthi patrons Iran —and granted Hadi refuge when the Yemeni civil war began, making the country a prime target for Houthi terrorism. Prior to the current alleged truce, the Houthis repeatedly used drones and missiles to bomb Saudi targets across the border, preferring to attack oil facilities in an attempt to limit Saudi oil profits. In early 2022, Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia were so numerous that Riyadh warned the world it could not guarantee a steady supply of oil if the bombings continued.
In addition to delisting the Houthis, Biden also halted American offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, reportedly in response to the country’s killing of Islamist Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. Riyadh has reportedly entered talks with South Korea for military purchases.
Houthi spokesman General Yahya Saree issued the formal announcement of an attack on Israel from Yemen on Monday, stating that it was intended as a gesture of support for the “oppressed brothers in Palestine,” referring to the Sunni terrorist organization Hamas.
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“We launched a large number of ballistic and cruise missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Zionist enemy in the Palestine Occupied Territories,” Saree said, according to Iran’s Mehr News. “We emphasize that this operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine.”
“The position of our Yemeni people towards the cause of Palestine is fixed and principled, and the Palestinian people have the full right to defend themselves and use their full rights,” he claimed. “Our forces performed their duty in supporting Gaza and fired ballistic and cruise missiles at enemy targets in the Occupied Territories.”
Saree’s statement followed a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirming that it had intercepted a missile apparently fired from the southeast and prompting missile alert sirens to go off in the city of Eilat.
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The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement:
The two sides discussed the dangerous developments in the situation in Gaza and its surroundings and the importance of the international community in playing its role in achieving a ceasefire and protecting civilians in light of the escalating pace of military operations.
Against all hopes a mother of one of the hostages taken by Hamas during the attack that took place in early October, news seemed to have confirmed that her daughter is no longer with us.
Quote:Louk, 22, a tattoo artist and peace campaigner was attending a Re’im music festival in the Negev Desert when Hamas terrorists stormed the festival, brutally killing over 260 civilians and kidnapping an unconfirmed number of others during the massacre.
The world was shocked by footage that emerged showing Louk’s seemingly lifeless, half-naked, and unnaturally contorted body paraded in the back of a Hamas pick-up truck. She was surrounded by several men who shouted “Allahu Akbar” while spitting on her back.
While it was initially assumed by many that the young German woman was dead, her mother, Ricarda Louk, later claimed to have received information that her daughter was badly injured, but still alive in a hospital in Gaza.
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Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog has claimed that Shani Louk’s “skull has been found”, telling the German newspaper Welt: “It means that these barbaric, sadistic animals simply chopped off her head while they were attacking, torturing and killing Israelis.”
“What we saw on the border between Gaza and Israel goes far beyond a pogrom. We saw a slaughterhouse. We saw the blood flowing in the streets. We saw the most terrible tragedies imaginable,” Herzog added.
Quote:The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an eliminated Hamas terrorist was in possession of a manual containing instructions on how to construct what is being described as chemical weapons, according to the New York Post.
The seven-page manual was found in the memory card of a GoPro camera recovered from the body of the terrorist, who was killed at Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, the day Hamas launched its attack on Israel, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said.
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Among the ingredients cited are potassium permanganate, pure acetone, hydrogen peroxide, concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid — with the manual providing a step-by-step list of instructions on how to create the diabolical weapon.
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The instructions then go on to detail how adding an ingrediant creates a deadly gas...
The manual suggests the chemical weapons be used at hospitals, shopping malls, and schools.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog recently told Sky News that the IDF had recovered USB drives from a Hamas terrorist that possessed instructions on how to create cyanide agents to deploy against Israeli citizens.
“It’s official Al Qaeda material. We’re dealing with ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Hamas,” Herzog said as he held up a printed copy of the manual. “In this material, there were instructions how to produce chemical weapons. This is — it speaks about arson and it speaks about various chemicals that come out and produce chemical weapons.”
The manual viewed by the [New York] Post is said to be different and more detailed than the documents highlighted by Herzog.
Quote:The “blood” of Gaza’s women, children, and elderly is needed to “awaken” Palestinian resolve, according to the Hamas terror organization’s senior leader who continues making calls for Palestinian sacrifice from the comfort of his luxury home in distant Qatar.
Hamas terror chief Ismail Haniyeh issued his latest appeal in an address aired Thursday on various TV networks, including Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen news channel.
In addressing future repercussions of a major geopolitical shift, Haniyeh urged for intellectual discourse and strategic planning.
“I call upon all the intellectuals and strategic experts to discuss the post-occupation phase, because [Israel’s] demise is inevitable,” he said. “This occupier will not be able to recover, because of the strategic blow and resounding defeat that befell it.”
Amidst Israel’s ground offensive in response to Hamas’ bloody October 7 massacre, the senior terrorist leader urged the global community to “exert all the necessary pressure, in all directions and in all forums, in order to end the aggression against Gaza, to stop this war against our children, women, and elderly, our mosques, our universities, and our homes.”
However, he insisted on the need for the “blood of the women, children, and elderly” of Gaza’s Palestinians in order to “awaken within us the revolutionary spirit, so it awakens within us resolve, so it awakens within us the spirit of challenge, and [pushes us] to move forward.”
Quote:The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Chinese Communist Party announced on Sunday that 405,000 officials at all levels were punished during the first nine months of 2023.
Of those targeted, 34 were “senior officials at provincial or ministerial levels,” according to the state-run Global Times.
As Chinese state media publications are prone to do when touting the achievements of Communist Party agencies, the Global Times rattled off some huge numbers for the latest purge of allegedly corrupt officials:
China dealt with more than 36,000 corruption-related cases impacting the public interest in the first half of 2023, with more than 52,000 individuals receiving criticism, education, assistance or punishment, China’s highest supervisory and anti-corruption authority announced.
From January to September 2023, discipline inspection and supervision authorities across the country received 2.617 million reports, of which 819,000 were tip-offs or accusations.
Of the 470,000 filed, 133,534 officials at all levels were involved.
CCDI said it received over 20,000 “tip-offs” this year. Authorities processed 12,000 bribery cases and a vast herd of Communist officials were marched into “education and rectification” programs.
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A remarkable 3.7 million Communist Party members were punished by anti-graft agencies over the ensuing decade, comprising almost one percent of the total Chinese Communist Party leadership. Xi is constantly praised for battling corruption, but never criticized for government figures that would suggest it gets worse with every passing year.
Quote:Police in India’s southern state of Kerala announced on Sunday that three women were killed and more than 50 people were injured by homemade bombs detonated at a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention.
A man claiming to be a former member of the religion quickly took responsibility for the bombing in a Facebook post and surrendered to the police.
The police said two women were killed on Sunday, and a 12-year-old girl who suffered burns on more than 95 percent of her body died from her injuries on Monday morning. Seventeen of the other injuries were described as serious. Four victims are reportedly in critical condition with burns on more than half of their bodies.
Police said the suspect, Dominic Martin, was “in custody” and “being questioned” in the city of Kochi, about six miles from Kalamassery, the town where the Jehovah’s Witnesses convention was held.
“We are still trying to ascertain the veracity of his statement; it will take some time. We are not in a position to confirm his involvement in the case right now; investigation is ongoing,” a police spokesman said.
In his six-minute video statement on Facebook, Martin said he took “full responsibility” for bombing the Zamra International Convention Center, where hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses were gathered for a convention.
This one was published over a week ago but it's so outrageous that it should not be ignored.
Quote:The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Monday issued a report on its effort to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct against its staffers around the world.
The report grimly acknowledged that the number of allegations is still increasing, although W.H.O. officials were cautiously optimistic that the numbers are going up because victims feel more comfortable with reporting abuses.
“For the past two years, W.H.O. has intensified our work to prevent and respond to any form of sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment,” said the organization’s director of Prevention and Response to Sexual misconduct (PRS), Gaya Gamhewage.
“However, the numbers are still going up for the simple reason, I believe, that all the cases have not surfaced yet,” she continued. “So, the numbers will keep going up for some time. But this does not mean that what we are doing is not having any effect. In fact, what we are doing is surfacing this issue, as well.”
“W.H.O. is working on preventing and responding to sexual misconduct related to its own workforce — our staff, our contractors, our implementing partners,” she added.
The crackdown on abuse Gamhewage described was launched in May 2021, when W.H.O. was rocked by allegations of widespread sexual abuse by the personnel it deployed to combat the 2018-2020 Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Quote:The Russian Foreign Ministry welcomed a delegation representing the genocidal jihadist terror group Hamas on Thursday, three days before a Muslim mob stormed Dagestan’s Makhachkala airport looking for Jewish people to kill.
In addition to welcoming Hamas terrorists to Russia, the regime led by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin has used its veto powers at the United Nations Security Council to prevent that body from responding productively to the massacre of over 1,400 people – including babies, the disabled, and the elderly – in Israel by Hamas on October 7.
Russia has presented two widely rejected draft resolutions to the Security Council on the issue demanding Israel not take protective measures in response to the terrorist onslaught and refusing to condemn, or even name, Hamas for prompting the current wave of violence in the region with the October 7 “al-Aqsa flood.”
Chaos erupted at the airport in Makhachkala, the regional capital of Dagestan, on Sunday night as hundreds of people stormed the airport and rushed towards gates seeking passengers arriving from Israel.
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The attackers ran from plane to plane attempting to find Jews to kill, grabbing passengers’ passports and looking for evidence of Jewish identity. At least one flight had to be diverted away from the airport to protect passengers scheduled to arrive from Israel.
The mob also attacked a nearby airport, demanding employees identify Jewish hotel guests for them to attack.
The government of Israel condemned the lynch mob, demanding the Russian government “safeguard the well-being of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they are and to take strong action against the rioters and against the wild incitement being directed against Jews and Israelis.”
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The leader of Dagestan, Sergey Melikov, claimed that a Telegram channel urging locals to kill Jews in the territory was an alleged Ukrainian intelligence operation.
“Today we have received absolutely reliable information that the Utro Dagestan (‘Dagestan Morning’) [Telegram] channel is administered and controlled from Ukrainian territory, by traitors,” Melikov alleged.
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Putin himself has emphasized support for jihadist causes and local Muslim populations in Russia. Shortly after the suspicious death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin appeared in Dagestan, taking selfies with local girls and receiving a “rock star” welcome, according to Russian state media. Putin used the occasion to condemn ongoing Quran burnings in Europe and the right to free speech and religious disagreement present in the West.
Quote:A woman is in critical condition after police opened fire at an individual allegedly threatening people on public transport ... making statements advocating terrorism.
Police responded to an alert at a central Paris metro station on Tuesday morning as a woman who was threatening to trigger an explosion. The heavily clothed woman — described as “fully veiled” in an abaya by French newspaper Le Figaro — refused to show her hands when commanded by police, and was shot eight times by two police officers after several warnings were ignored.
The suspect is in hospital receiving care under police custody and is described as being in critical condition.
Le Parisien reports the individual threatened to set off an explosion, stated an attack was going to take place, and made death threats against fellow passengers ... The newspaper notes the suspect is now known to have already made threats against French soldiers deployed to guard French streets, schools, and places of worship s part of the government’s Operation Sentinel in the past.
No explosives were discovered at the scene.
Back on October 27th, this terrible event happened in Hungary.
Quote:Police rushed to the village of Horgos in northern Serbia in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning after locals reported a raging gun battle in the nearby Selevenjske nature reserve on the Hungarian border. Per reports, the intensity of the battle decreased after officers with long rifles descended on the area, but nevertheless, the battle lasted several hours.
Police rounded up a vanload of illegal migrants and took them away, and discovered the mortal remains of three people who had been killed in the shootout. A fourth migrant was discovered with a gunshot wound and underwent surgery in a local hospital on Friday, and is described as being in stable condition. More migrants are believed to have escaped the police through the woods in which they camp before trying to head north by forcing the Hungarian border.
While the nationality of the migrants killed and arrested has not yet been released, previous smuggler gunbattles in the area have been attributed to Afghan and Pakistani trafficking gangs vying for custom on the so-called Balkan route for migrants heading to the more lucrative northern European states.
Witnesses cited by Hungarian and Serbian newspapers said of the fight that “the crackling of machine guns can be heard constantly”, while another said “They’ve been shooting continuously since 3 a.m., it’s scary!”. Per these reports, during a 30-minute surge in violence in the several-hour-long battle, there were simultaneous shots from handguns and constant burst fire from automatic weapons.
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Perhaps most shocking for the residents of this rural border community between Serbia and Hungary is that such gun battles are no longer that unusual, as migrant smuggling gangs fight to secure business and territory. Horgos is part of a small piece of frontier land with the villages of Palić and Hajdukovo which, as previously reported, have seen several migrant gang gun battles in villages just minutes’ car ride from each other.
Breitbart London reported in August that one migrant had died after another hours-long gun battle in the village of Hajdukovo, with locals waking up to “pools of blood” in the streets and orchards of their village the following morning. One local told local media that day migrant smuggler gangs were “shooting indiscriminately at everything and everyone between the houses and in the gardens”.
The events reported on the next article took place last Saturday.
Quote:An estimated 100,000 anti-Israel protesters flooded onto the streets of London on Saturday, with some being filmed calling for an “Intifada” against the Jewish state.
The British capital was once again mobbed with pro-Palestine protesters, with numbers matching demonstrations held in London last week during which activists were filmed calling for “Jihad“.
On Saturday, protesters flying a flag saying “fight for revolution”, were filmed chanting: “From London to Gaza, we’ll have an Intifada”.
The term Intifada, which literally translates to “Stone Uprising”, refers to years of violent Palestinian riots against Israel starting in 1987 on the 20th anniversary of Israel’s war against Egypt and Jordan. A so-called “second Intifada” was launched in 2000 and lasted for around five years during which time over 1,000 Israelis and over 3,000 Palestinians were killed.
Outbursts of violence were recorded during the protest, including a conflict between pro-Palestinian activists and groups of British nationalist counter-protesters.
Iranian-heritage political commentator Mayhar Tousi claimed to have been attacked by a “few pro-Palestinians,” saying on social media that a police officer was injured during the clash and one man was arrested.
The Metropolitan Police also reported that an officer was hospitalised after being assaulted by a protester.
Quote:Putin presided over a top-level government meeting to address the Makhachkala riot, which left at least 20 injured and, Russian officials claim, resulted in over 80 arrests. The mob storming the airport reportedly targeted gates where they believed flights were arriving from Israel, then less directly began demanding passengers and others at the airport show their passports and other identification to prove they were not Jewish. The mob reportedly assaulted alleged Jewish people at random before Russian police managed to subdue it.
Putin categorically condemned the mob attack, but attempted to put Russia’s Muslim population at ease about the nation’s anti-Israel status by claiming that the “special operation” to colonize Ukraine “can help Palestine.” Putin began the “special operation” in February 2022 with the goal of ousting democratically elected President Volodymyr Zelensky and destroying Ukraine’s armed forces. Putin routinely refers to Zelensky, who is Jewish, and his government as a “Nazi” regime.
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“At a recent meeting with leaders of religious associations, I pointed to the attempts to use the dramatic situation in the Middle East, other regional conflicts against our country, against Russia,” he claimed, “to destabilize and split our multiethnic and multi-religious society. We see that various tools are used for that, lies, provocations, sophisticated technologies of psychological and information aggression.”
Putin claimed that it was “obvious for all” that the United States, and not his ally Hamas, was responsible for “the tragedy of the Palestinians, the Middle East massacre, the conflict in Ukraine and many other conflicts across the globe – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and so on,” and that Russia’s various nefarious activities around the globe aid the Hamas cause more than attempting to kill suspected Jews at a Russian airport, scolding the Dagestan mob for directing their efforts poorly.
“How one can help Palestine [sic] by attacking the Tats (Caucasian Persians) and their families? By the way, the Tats are a titular ethnic group in Dagestan,” Tass quoted Putin as saying.
“One can help Palestine only by fighting against those who are behind this tragedy. We, Russia, are fighting against them during our special military operation,” he claimed. “Against them and for ourselves and for those who want real freedom.”
The Russian propaganda outlet RT noted that Putin went on to claim that “the American-run world … is falling to pieces” and is “becoming a thing of the past,” using the violence by Hamas as an example of this decline.
Quote:Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will not commit to revoking visas and deporting those foreign students participating in pro-Hamas rallies on college campuses across the United States.
Since Hamas terrorists carried out attacks on Israel on October 7, rallies and protests in support of the foreign terrorist organization and Palestinians have broken out across U.S. college and university campuses.
Many of those participating in the pro-Hamas rallies are in the U.S. on F-1 student visas, which has prompted a number of Senators to urge DHS to use its statutory authority to revoke their visas and have them quickly deported from the country.
During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked Mayorkas if he would commit to revoking F-1 visas for those pro-Hamas foreign students in the U.S.
Mayorkas, though, said the issue is “a matter of legal interpretation of the statute” and that he is currently “not in a position to provide that legal interpretation.”
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Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are leading a resolution urging the Biden administration to revoke the visas of foreign nationals in the U.S. who are involved in pro-Hamas demonstrations.
Similarly, Rubio and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) have each written to top Biden officials at the State Department and the DHS pressing them to swiftly revoke visas and deport pro-Hamas foreign students.
Quote:The Pentagon on Tuesday announced it was deploying an additional 300 troops to the Middle East region, amid an increasing number of attacks against U.S. bases and the beginning of a new war between Israel and Hamas.
“I can announce the decision to deploy an additional 300 troops to the U.S. Central Command region from home stations in the continental United States,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing.
Ryder said the troops will not be deployed to Israel and are intended to support “regional deterrence efforts” and “further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities.”
“These additional troops will provide capabilities and explosive ordinance disposal, communications and other support enablers for forces already in the region,” he said, referring to U.S. troops already deployed to the Middle East.
The 300 new troops adds to the 900 the Pentagon announced would deploy last Thursday.
Those 900 forces included a terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) battery from Fort Bliss, Texas; Patriot batteries from Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Patriot and Avenger batteries from Fort Liberty, North Carolina; and associated air defense headquarters elements from Fort Bliss and Fort Cavazos, Texas.
Ryder said those forces were not deploying to Israel, either, and also intended to “support regional deterrence efforts and further bolster U.S. force protection capabilities.”
There have been a total of 27 attacks against U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since October 17 by Iranian-backed proxy forces. At least 21 U.S. troops sustained minor injuries in those attacks.
Quote:Three Finnish men who embraced neo-Nazi ideology were found guilty Tuesday of committing crimes with terrorist intent including plotting attacks against migrants, critical infrastructure, and their perceived political opponents.
The Paijat-Hame District Court sentenced the main suspect, Viljam Lauri Antero Nyman, to three years and four months in prison on charges of aggravated firearms offences committed with terrorist intent as well as training to commit a terrorist act.
Nyman, 29, was also convicted of a narcotics charge.
His two accomplices received a sentence of one year and nine months in prison and a suspended prison sentence of seven months, respectively. They were charged with terrorism-related crimes of manufacture of firearms and training to use them, among other things.
Public broadcaster YLE said the case marked the first terrorism conviction in Finland that is linked to far-right ideology.
The crimes took place between 2021 and 2023.
Finnish prosecutors told the court that the men had produced semi-automatic weapons using a 3D printer in preparation for a “race war” against their opponents.
Quote:The people of Germany need to be prepared to fight a war in Europe, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has warned.
After decades of neglect, with Germany largely outsourcing its defence to the United States, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is currently overseeing a major overhaul of the Bundeswehr forces.
However, modernising the military will not be enough to protect the country, alone, the commander-in-chief said, warning that the entire population of the country must once again ready itself for war.
“We have to get used to the idea that there could be a threat of war in Europe. And that means: We have to become ready for war. We have to be defensive. And prepare the Bundeswehr and society for it,” Pistorius said in comments reported by German broadcaster NTV.
The defence chief rejected assertions that the process of improving the German military was going too slowly, claiming “it doesn’t get much faster”.
He said that so far, two-thirds of the 100 billion euro special fund for the military announced last year by Chancellor Olaf Scholz following the Russian invasion of Ukraine has already been committed, but noted that production and acquisition of weapons and other military assets take time.
“Everything that has been messed up in 30 years, sorry to say that, and has been run down cannot be recovered in 19 months,” he admitted.
Pistorius has previously admitted that the German military is incapable of defending the nation if needed to fight a country such as Russia.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
News of the World
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spies around the world.
to conclude that some Taliban or some other Middle Eastern rebel was firing his AK-47 in that area the very same day that bomb exploded in the Afghan airport.
Are they truly searching for the truth? 
Now we know why he badly needed those fake voter registration forms. 
don't even think this is some sort of political persecution for the Attorney General Platkin is a Democrat, as you can read it 
Then why don't they ask Hamas to stop launching rockets at Israeli locations packed with civilians?
Bloodshed Edition
